Chapter Text
Virgil had the thought that he should probably go to sleep. Patton and Logan had gone to bed four hours ago, and Virgil was currently on his phone in his own bed. The part of his mind telling him to put the phone down and go to bed sounded a lot like Logan and it was currently lecturing him about his circadian rhythm. The other part of him was telling him it was Friday night anyway and really he needed to finish at least one more level on the mobile game he’d downloaded earlier if he wanted to get any restful sleep.
He was just about to click to the next level when he got a text.
‘You can drive now, right?’ the text from Chicken Butt 1000 (Remus had gotten ahold of his phone last time he’d seen him, and Virgil hadn’t gotten around to changing all of his contacts back yet) read.
‘…Yeah?’ he texted back.
‘Can you come pick me up and not tell your dads?’
That was… weird. Scary weird. ‘Why?’ he asked.
‘At a party. Need to leave. Moms can’t know.’
Virgil stared at his phone, biting his lip in indecision. This… felt like something he should tell his dads about… but also that felt wrong.
On one hand… he got it. He really, really did. Probably a lot more than even Roman did. People had reasons why they didn’t want their parents or guardians to know about things from silly ones to deadly serious ones. Betraying Roman like that made Virgil feel a bit sick to his stomach.
On the other hand, he knew his dads weren’t like that. They’d understand whatever was going on, probably a lot better than Virgil did, and could fix it. Plus, Virgil didn’t want to just disappear from the house on them. Again. It really freaked them out when he did that.
Virgil didn’t know what to do, and in the end, that is what decided it for him, because he knew what to do when he didn’t know what to do.
Virgil got out of bed and walked down the hall. He winced slightly when he remembered that his dads were asleep and he’d have to wake them up, but he still raised his hand to knock on the ajar door.
He heard the bed shift a bit. “Logan,” he called softly. There was more movement behind the door and then it opened. A tired Logan was standing in front of him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Uh, I got a text from Roman and…” He shoved the phone at Logan.
Logan took it and squinted at the screen, his eyes clearly not adjusted to the lighting. After a moment, he nodded. “Ask him his location and get dressed.”
“Okay,” Virgil agreed. He sent off the text and raced back to his room to throw jeans and a hoodie on over his nightclothes.
By the time he got back into the hall, Logan was already dressed as well. Patton had been roused too, though he was in his pajamas and still looked half asleep.
“Did he respond?” Logan asked.
Virgil looked at his phone and saw that an address had been sent along with a ‘Thanks,’ Virgil winced, wondering if Roman would still be thanking him when he realized Virgil hadn’t obeyed all of his instructions. He showed the address to Logan.
“I know where that is. It’s right off campus,” Logan said. “Let’s go.” He led Virgil downstairs and to his car.
“Sorry for waking you up,” Virgil spoke a few minutes into the car ride.
“It is not a problem, Virgil. In fact, I am glad you chose to wake me up. That was the correct decision to make in this situation.”
Virgil played with his hoodie string. “I don’t know if Roman will agree. He’ll be mad.”
“He might be,” Logan agreed, “but getting a trusted adult involved was still the more responsible choice for both you and him. I am sure you can get him to understand once he’s calmed down. He is likely not thinking rationally at the moment, but perspective will hopefully give him clarity.”
Virgil nodded, but he could still feel guilt eating at him. They drove for probably about 10 minutes before pulling up in front of some house that clearly had a raging party going on inside of it.
Roman was already waiting for them on the front step of the house. Virgil could see him wince even from the car when he realized Virgil was not the one driving.
“Go get him,” Logan urged.
Virgil obeyed, getting out of the car and walking over to him. “Sorry,” was the first thing he said.
“It’s…” Roman said, swallowing. He’d wrapped one arm around his middle and wouldn’t look at Virgil. “Whatever.”
Virgil felt horrible, but at least Roman didn’t fight him on getting into Logan’s car. Virgil chose to get into the backseat with him.
“Are you alright?” Logan asked, once they were settled.
“I’m fine,” Roman said, his voice hollow. He clearly was not fine. His usually immaculate hair was messy and a bit wet. His shoulders were curled in and his arms were still wrapped around his stomach. He also smelled heavily of booze. Logan, however, did not press. He just put the car into drive.
The ride was awkwardly silent for the first few minutes. Roman wouldn’t look at Virgil, and that made a lump grow in Virgil’s throat. He looked at the ground himself.
“I wasn’t drinking,” Roman suddenly broke the silence unprompted. “Someone spilled one on me.”
Virgil saw Logan’s eyes glance back at them in the rearview mirror. “Okay,” he said simply. He was using his gentle voice, but Virgil didn’t know if Roman knew him well enough to realize that.
Roman’s shoulder hunched miserably, and Virgil didn’t know what to do. He chewed on his bottom lip, thinking about what Patton might do, and then reached over with his foot to tap his. Roman glanced over at him, and Virgil sent him a half smile. Roman shot him a quick smile back, and it made the pit of anxiety in Virgil’s stomach ease up a bit. Maybe Roman wouldn’t actually hate him forever. That was good.
When they pulled up to the house, the kitchen light was on, indicating that Patton had not gone straight back to bed and was waiting up for them.
When they walked into the house, Patton came out to meet them. He took one look at Roman and seemed to pick up the something was wrong vibe that was pouring off of him. Of course, Logan had also seemed to pick up on that vibe and he was Logan so it wasn’t really a surprise that Patton did too.
“Hi Roman,” Patton said, infusing his tone with softness.
“Hello Dr. Patton,” Roman replied. He seemed to make an attempt at his normal enthusiasm and missed the mark by a lot.
“I’m going to go make us all a bit of tea,” Patton said, turning to stride back into the kitchen.
“Virgil,” Logan said. “Why don’t you go find something for Roman to change into? If you can’t find anything you think will fit, feel free to search through my closet as well.”
Virgil nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be right back,” he said. He turned to go upstairs, leaving Roman and Logan alone in the front hall together.