Chapter Text
Adrian, efficient as always, had his laundry put away in quick time. With the basket empty, he sat down on his bed wearily. "I guess I'd be pretty sad at first," he finally admitted. Colfax zeroed in on his friend's face, finally seeing his truer emotions there. So Adrian was conflicted, too. Suddenly Colfax didn't feel so out of place, especially when the blond human added, "I mean, I don't want them to just disappear completely and never see them again."
Colfax nodded, averting his gaze. Adrian had already made his decision, it was clear. And, though parts of him argued that this definitely couldn't be over, Colfax had made his decision, too. "I suppose it would be for the best. Their continued association with us could be very dangerous to other viri."
Adrian sighed. "I wish I'd never set that stupid trap," he muttered. "If I hadn't done that, Charlie never would have gotten hurt. I mean, ever since he met me it seems like they've gone through some of the scariest things. That's... that's my fault, Colfax."
Colfax glanced back at Adrian and saw the guilt written all over his pale face. He couldn't look at it for long without becoming unsettled. He was never very good at summoning up comforting words, and with Adrian, Colfax couldn't even go with a lame pat on the back. He thought carefully about the last several weeks. "Perhaps Charlie would not have gotten hurt, but I don't think we should jump to conclusions," Colfax finally said.
"What do you mean?" Adrian searched his friend's face, wearing a perplexed expression.
Colfax hummed thoughtfully before answering. "Imagine, if you will, what things would be like if Felicia had alerted me to the existence of the viri before you did." Adrian's blue eyes widened, the implications of Colfax's simple statement running wild in his mind. Colfax could practically see his imagination running full tilt. "I see you understand my point. Things could have been much, much worse." While it was tough to admit it about himself, Colfax would have been a colossal nightmare without Adrian's kinder tendencies to buffer his scientific side.
"Y-yeah. When you put it that way... I guess I'm really glad," Adrian admitted. He sighed, and then glanced out to the hallway. "Think we should go and see what they're up to soon, or should we wait?" A part of him wondered if the viri would even still be there when he went back to the other room.
Colfax glanced behind him, barely seeing the edge of the couch from his angle. "Let's go," he muttered, the simple answer coming easily to him. He was curious about what they would find. It was entirely possible that Charlie and Sawyer would have left while the humans were conveniently absent from the room. As Adrian stood, Colfax let him lead the way out of the room.
Adrian came back to the living room, easily shifting his face into an easygoing smile when he saw Charlie and Sawyer sitting on the shelf. "Hey, guys. Got my laundry put away and everything is in its place once more," he quipped with a quiet chuckle. "How are you feeling after all that fun?" He wasn't sure if his casual conversation was out of place. But, Adrian wasn't sure he'd be able to start the more serious matters with them.
While Adrian sat in front of the shelf, Colfax took the end of the couch with one arm propped up on the back. He lightly drummed his fingers and silently thanked the world for Adrian's ability to jump into a conversation so easily. With such a delicate conversation ahead of them, the last thing anyone needed was an awkward silence.
“A bit sore, but other than that pretty good,” Sawyer said with an easy laugh, stretching his shoulder exaggeratedly. Charlie said nothing, in his own turn grateful to have a more social friend to rely on. If it was left to him, the silence might have progressed awkwardly until he all but confessed what they had thought through. Sawyer was still going. “I’m bummed that I lost though. Charlie hadn’t even been practicing lately.” He grinned at that, but the look turned more serious in a few moments. Might as well get this over with- no use dragging out the small talk when they all knew something had to be said. “So, uh, as you guys probably guessed we’ve been talking things over.” He glanced at Charlie, who nodded at him. “We’ve come to a decision, and you both have the right to know.”
He looked over at Charlie, and his friend took a deep breath to ready himself. “We’re going to stay,” Charlie announced, his voice steady despite hands trembling slightly with lingering nerves. “We both wanted to, and so if you don’t mind, Adrian, we’ll keep living here. On the condition of course that if somebody else finds out about us, or another viri is somehow put in danger by us being here, we will leave.” He looked up at the two humans with an anxious expression, waiting for their reactions. “If… if that’s okay.”
Adrian's eyes widened a little and he froze in place. Blue eyes glanced at Colfax, but the taller human's face betrayed nothing. Adrian looked back at Charlie, and his surprise slowly shifted into a smile. "Of course that's okay, Charlie," Adrian answered quietly, almost sounding sheepish. "I mean, if you really want to be technical, you lived here first anyway..." He chuckled, and there was relief in the sound. So we don’t have to do some big sad goodbye after all, he thought.
Things just kept getting better and better.
Colfax's relief finally dared show itself on his face when his mouth turned up in a faint smile. "It sounds like a sensible plan," he remarked. Ever the planner, Colfax couldn't help but think about how this way, they could live in comfort and keep the humans in check. And, though he'd never admit it out loud, Colfax was glad to know that his friends wouldn't be disappearing to who-knows-where. He cleared his throat quietly. "Glad to hear it," he muttered.
Adrian laughed. "Jeez, rein it in a little, would you, Colfax? Your enthusiasm is a little overboard." In return, he got Colfax to roll his eyes and chuckle.
Sawyer laughed outright at that, and even Charlie couldn’t help but laugh a little as well, a small, relieved sound. Not that he had been expecting the two humans to react negatively to their decision, but still; every bit of positivity helped assure him that they had made the right choice in staying. It would seem that, despite everything, they had managed to find themselves in a good place after all. Amazingly, the four of them could be… happy together.
There was just one thing left to do before Charlie could consider his personal turmoil officially at an end. Turning to Sawyer he said quietly, “I still have to write to my parents. I think it would be better to do that sooner rather than later.” If he didn’t do it now, he might not have the courage to- not to mention it was the final hurdle before he could get back to normal life, whatever that was for them now.
Sawyer gave him a small smile and nodded definitively. “Sure thing, bud,” he said to Charlie. Turning to face Adrian he grinned and spoke in a louder voice, “Adrian, we’re going to need to use your computer.”
Adrian couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Sure, things were so incredibly different from how he'd expected his life to end up, but he couldn't have asked for a better turnout. He tilted his head upon hearing Sawyer's request, but nodded and stood anyway. "Sure thing, guys," he answered absently as he walked to his desk to retrieve the device.
As Adrian booted up the machine and set it on the floor next to the shelf, Colfax shifted where he sat. He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and peering at the viri thoughtfully. "I can't help but wonder, Sawyer... how often have you used my computer without me knowing?" Knowing what he knew about them now, he had no doubts in his mind that Sawyer would have taken the opportunity whenever it came up.
Adrian smirked as he typed in the password and left the computer alone for the viri to operate. But, he couldn't resist such a golden opportunity, and looked at Colfax with a straight face. "Every time you dozed off, he added a random letter somewhere in your thesis." Colfax's arched eyebrow destroyed Adrian's straight face, and he laughed.
“Aw, now that’s a great idea!” Sawyer said, looking aghast at the missed opportunity. “Why didn’t I think of that?” Next to him Charlie was turning red from giggling, thinking that it was certainly something Sawyer would have done given the idea and the chance. “But to answer your question, Colfax, not all that often. Computers aren’t the easiest for viri to use.” He looked up at Colfax and gave him a Cheshire-cat grin. “Your phone is much more convenient.”
"It's for the best," Colfax answered, smirking at Sawyer's dramatic face. "I would have noticed right away," he challenged further. Though, with how closely he'd paid attention to his work all this time, it was a distinct probability. Colfax chuckled faintly at the thought. He wouldn't have suspected “tiny people” as the culprits, though the phenomenon would certainly have him endlessly curious.
As for his phone... he knew it sometimes moved from where he left it. It had simply never been a mystery worthy of pursuit.
“Speaking of convenience,” said Charlie, looking up at Adrian hopefully. He was sitting cross-legged in front of the computer, Sawyer standing next to him. “Adrian, would you mind being our scribe? It will go so much faster if you’re typing rather than me.” If it were left up to Charlie to type, it would take them the rest of the day to get a paragraph in. There were many reasons why viri only dared to use technology at night when humans were asleep, but the sheer amount of time it took to work the devices was certainly one of them.
Adrian reached overhead and adjusted the laptop so he could see the screen better. "Sure thing." He was careful not to bump into either viri as he used the trackpad to open up the browser and quickly open up a new email message in Charlie’s account. His hands hovered over the keys, and Adrian realized that he was kind of leaning over the two of them. He smiled softly to notice that neither of them seemed unnerved by this. "Alright, I'm ready to type," he announced.
“Okay,” said Charlie, glancing up at Adrian. With faint surprise he realized that the human was all but looming over them, but he didn’t feel an ounce of fear at it. There was no reason to- he trusted Adrian wholeheartedly. He wasn’t going to be afraid of a good friend. Charlie then thought about explaining that to his parents and paled slightly, still unsure if this was a good idea or not. They might not understand… anything about it, really. He knew he probably wouldn’t if he hadn’t lived through the situation. “Um,” he mumbled, glancing over at Sawyer nervously. “How should I even start this?”
Sawyer sat down next to him, looking up at the blank message thoughtfully. After a bit of discussion together, Charlie managed to get most of an email written out, with Adrian typing whatever he called up to him. They used standard viri code, of course- even in email they were wary of somebody figuring out something they shouldn’t. Humans were referred to as “roommates”, and they were careful not to say anything that sounded too out of the ordinary as far as humans were concerned. Any viri reading it, however, would know exactly what Charlie was talking about. By the end they had a letter that explained to his parents how he had broken his leg and been helped by his “roommates”, and that now they were getting along pretty well- an innocuous message to an outsider, but Charlie knew it would create quite a stir in his family. “Alright,” he said with a sigh at the end of it, knowing that it was the best (and at this point, only) thing to do. “Send it off.”
Adrian typed the message out carefully, smiling softly as Charlie told him some of the code messages. He didn't really need to ask what anything meant, having been there for most of it. He was impressed with it all the same. It was simple, hardly encrypted in the usual sense. But, it seemed that hiding the message in plain sight would be the best way; anyone looking at the message would just think they were reading a mundane letter home.
"Done and done," Adrian muttered as he clicked on the SEND button. The screen flashed to a confirmation that the email was sent. Adrian leaned back again to give Charlie and Sawyer more space and to avoid inadvertently brushing them thanks to the close proximity. "Well, I feel kinda like a spy now," he quipped with a chuckle.
Colfax shook his head faintly, but there was a smirk on his face. "Now that you've told them, what next?" he asked Charlie, though the question could easily be directed at everyone in the room.
Charlie and Sawyer glanced at each other, and with a shrug Charlie said, “I don’t know. Go on with our lives, I guess.” He smiled up at them, thinking about how wonderful that sounded. Going on with their lives, together, with nothing holding them back from creating a new idea of normal. For the first time in a long time, he truly felt like he was home.
Adrian shrugged as well. "I don't know about you guys, but I feel like we should have some kind of fancy dinner tonight to celebrate. What say we head into the kitchen to decide what we'll have?"
Sawyer grinned and all but popped to his feet. He reached down a hand to help Charlie up, but his friend was already standing on his own. With a wide smile at him, which was quickly aimed at Adrian, he said, “Race you to the kitchen!” The two viri took off running towards the wall, laughing as they jostled each other to get to the door first. Charlie was beaming from ear to ear.
This was the best day of his life.