Work Text:
Roman was sat in his room, at his desk, planning out new ideas for a Sander side’s video when his phone buzzed. He frowned a little and threw his pencil down “I can never get any quiet when brainstorming!” he huffed dramatically before picking up his phone and unlocking it.
Panic at the Everywhere | “Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit”
Roman’s frown intensified upon reading this message; Virgil never text him, not unless he text the Emo kid first… and that was a lot of ‘out of context’ cursing… “The hell?” he muttered before replying.
Princey | “Virgil? What is it?!”
Panic at the Everywhere | “Fuck-Roman… I… I did something stupid…”
Princey | Calm down Virgil, What did you do?”
Panic at the Everywhere | “Well I- Please don’t get mad… But I need you to come to my room ASAP”
Roman looked at his phone unsure ‘this could be a trap to one of Virgil’s pranks again…’ he thought to himself.
Princey | “Virgil, what happened?”
It was a while before he received a reply.
Panic at the Everywhere | “Roman I tried to- and now the bleeding wont- I don’t think I can…”
Roman’s eyes widened, it was as if Virgil had used the speech mechanic to type out the message! ‘Shit! He cut himself?! But why!? Wait no! I have to get to him!’ Roman quickly wrote a reply before running out of his room.
Princey | “I’m coming!”
Roman dashed down the hallway, pushing past Logan on his way there, Logan had said something but Roman wasn’t paying attention. He tried to open the door but it was locked “Crap! Virgil! Can you hear me?! Open the door!” he shouted banging on the door but to no avail.
There was only one option; he’d have to sink out and into Virgil’s room. Not being invited in through the door can have adverse effects in intruders but he had to risk it! He sunk out and then back up into Virgil’s room, looking around “Virgil?!.
“R-Roman…” He heard a weak voice coming from the bathroom; he didn’t waste a second running in and widening his eyes at what he saw.
Virgil was sat on the tiled floor, leaning up against the bathtub weakly, his head hung to the side a bit as if it were too heavy for his shoulder to take. On the floor was a large puddle of blood, and the red liquid still continued to run from the deep cut on his inner wrist.
“VIRGIL! Damn it, Virgil!” Roman knelt down beside him and lifted the wounded arm up above Virgil’s head height to try and slow the bleeding “Don’t black out Virgil okay?! stay with me!” Roman called out, trying to have Virgil keep his eyes open.
“I-I… I’m s-sorry… It was a… an accident…” Virgil’s voice was weak and slurred slightly; he wouldn’t last much longer.
“Shhh, don’t talk, I’ll lecture you later, but for now we have to stop the bleeding!”
Roman looked around before grabbing a towel and wrapping it around Virgil’s wrist, he then sunk both himself and Virgil out of his room and into the main commons. He laid Virgil on the couch gently, still holding his arm up “Virgil? Can you hear me?” panic rose in Roman’s chest when he got no response “Virgil! Hey!” He shook Virgil’s chest violently to shock the other awake, which seemed to work for now.
“Hey! Stay with me alright!?” to this Virgil simply nodded a tad, his eyes still closed though “Crap… PATTON! LOGAN!” Roman summoned.
Both appeared and gasped in unison “VIRGIL!!” Patton screamed and ran over, Logan not too far behind “What happened?!”
“Virgil cut his wrist too deeply and now he’s losing too much blood!” Roman updated, clearly freaking out, Patton covered his mouth as tears formed “N-No… why Virgil…” Patton sobbed.
Logan pushed passed and took the towel-covered arm before opening it to see the damage “Okay, I need stiches, needle, pads, clean water and a shot of adrenaline!” Logan reeled off as if he were a doctor. The others didn’t question it though, knowing that he was logic and probably knew about these kinds of injuries.
After conjuring all the required things Logan began his work, cleaning the deep wound, letting the artery clot before stitching up the deep cut. He then placed a thick cotton pad over it before bandaging it up, finally giving Virgil a shot of adrenaline to keep his heart beating just enough to reform the missing blood cells. He then laid a blanket over Virgil and dissolved all the medical remains.
While Logan had been doing this, Roman cleaned the blood from his skin and had changed clothes; he then comforted Patton towards the end.
“W-Why would he do this?” Patton sniffled.
Roman sighed, “I don’t know why he was cutting himself initially but I think the depth of the cut was accidental”
Logan turned once his work was done “What makes you say it was accidental?” Logan asked curiously. Roman sighed again, lowering his head. Patton took Roman’s hand in comfort “How do you know Ro?”
Roman looked at Logan before looking at Patton “He text me and I ran to his room… He said that he wasn’t meant to cut that deep… that he was bleeding and he couldn’t stop it… I believe him but…”
“But?” Logan crossed his arms over his chest.
“But why would he do this… even just small cuts… I thought we were getting along… earlier when trying to stop the bleeding I saw his bare arms… they’re covered in scars…” Roman sighed ‘maybe he still thinks we hate him… or maybe he doesn’t like being here…’
“Roman… I think there is probably a deeper reason behind this… As scared as I was, I know Virgil will be fine, I trust Logan’s medical knowledge” Patton told him.
“Oh, well, thank you Patton” Logan felt pride run through him as Patton complimented and trusted his knowledge.
“We can ask him when he wakes up” Patton finished.
Roman sighed and nodded his head “Yeah… I guess…”
A few hours later Virgil weakly opened his eyes, adjusting his vision and deducing he was in the main mindscape.
His eyes moved to the others; Roman was perched next to him on the sofa, Patton sat cross-legged on the floor, and Logan sat in the recliner, all eyes on Virgil with a mixture of emotions Virgil didn’t feel like indulging in right now. He weakly turned his head away and closed his eyes.
“Virgil… You’ll be okay” Roman spoke, but got nothing in response.
“Kiddo… why… why did you do that… you really scared me… I though we were going to lose you” Virgil could hear Patton sniffle and this made his gut sink with guilt.
“I-I… I just…” he didn’t know how to explain it “I wasn’t trying to k-… kill…. Myself…” he muttered but loud enough for them to hear.
“I know, I told them it was an accident…” Roman intervened “But… That doesn’t explain why you were harming yourself in the first place…”
A tense silence filled the room; so much so, you could cut it with a knife.
After a moment Virgil plucked up the courage to let them in on his little secret.
“I just… whenever I… I feel down… or scared… or… anything… I cut… It… It calms me down…” He explained, his face still turned away, too ashamed to face his friends. “I know… It’s a bad habit but… It helps me…”
Romans eyes widened, along with Patton’s. “But kiddo… If you ever feel anything like this you can just come to us, we will help you any time, any place, and with any problem, you know that” Patton spoke taking Virgil’s good hand in his.
Virgil sighed and turned to face the father figure “I-I know… I’m sorry…”
“Just promise me- Us… That you’ll never do this again…” Roman spoke, Virgil could see Roman had been crying, bring even more guilt to his gut. “You scared the crap out of me… I though I- We were going to lose you…” Roman continued, “Thanks to Logan you were able to pull through… but still… please… I know I tease you and call you names but… I’m here, I care for you Virge… as does Patton and Logan… so don’t feel like you have to revert to self-harm to calm yourself from negative emotions… please promise me you’ll come to one of us if you ever have the… the craving to do this again”
Virgil looked at Roman, then Patton and then Logan, he bit his lip as tears welled up in his eyes, his voice now scratchy and clogged with a sob he was holding back “I-I’m s-sorry… S-So sorry… I… I promise… I’ll try”
Patton squeezed Virgil’s good hand and Roman nodded his head, brushing Virgil’s fringe from his face. Logan stood up and placed his fingers on Virgil’s good wrist “Your pulse seems to have strengthened, you should be alright now, you just need some rest, we will talk more in depth about this later” to this Virgil nodded weakly and whispered a small thank you to Logan before loosing consciousness again.
He had a family that loved him; he didn’t need to do this. Self-harm was wrongly named as it also hurts those around that person… As calming as he thought it was, Roman was right, he could put his faith in them, and find a healthier habit to remove the negative feelings, it may take time but he knew he’d be able to do it.
For his family.