Work Text:
“Honey! I’m home!” Emile punctuated his exclamation by shutting and locking the door to his and Virgil’s apartment behind him. Chuckling at his own reference, Emile deposited his briefcase by the door and dropped his keys into the bowl by the coatrack, already listening for his fiancé’s response.
His ears were met with silence, pulling Emile from his amusement. Virgil was nearly always home when he got off work. Seeing as the anxious man worked from home, he was in the apartment the majority of his time. Emile knew that he would have called or texted if he was going out with one of his friends.
Worry mounting, Emile stepped further into the apartment. “Schweetheart?” Despite his nagging concern, Emile couldn’t keep himself from adopting the silly accent that never failed to make his sweetpea laugh, or at least smile on his worst days.
“In here.” The voice was quiet. If Emile weren’t so used to listening for soft confessions from his clients, he wouldn’t have heard it at all.
Toeing off his loafers and stepping out of the entryway, Emile followed Virgil’s voice to their living room. As he got closer, he recognized the theme song of the 2003 Teen Titans.
Emile was just about to gush about how great it was that Virgil was finally picking up on cartoons when he finally caught sight of his fiancé.
Virgil was curled up on one end of the couch, as if he were afraid of taking up any room at all, despite the fact that he was the only one sitting there. Emile felt a frown creeping onto his face as he took in Virgil’s hunched posture and the hood pulled up over his head, hiding his face from view.
“V…?”
Virgil barely even looked up. Luckily, Emile could just hear him humming along with the television under his breath. That meant that he wasn’t too far gone. Holding back a sigh of relief, Emile walked around the couch and sat carefully on the center cushion, making sure not to touch Virgil yet. He noticed one of his old cardigans peeking out from under Virgil’s hoodie.
“You finally trying out that Raven cosplay, schnookums?” Emile felt the knot in his tummy loosen as he saw a bit of the tension seep from Virgil’s shoulders.
“Nah, I’m just naturally demonic and edgy.” Virgil peeked up from under his hood, meeting Emile’s eyes.
Emile suppressed a giggle. “You can say that all you want, but to me you’re sugar!” He punched his fist in the air, assuming his narrator voice. “Spice! And everything nice!”
Virgil huffed and rolled his eyes, but Emile could see his favorite shade of soft pink rising under that white foundation.
“You’re a dork.”
Emile opened his arms in an offered hug. “In the words of the infamous Snow White, ‘you’re never too old to be young’!”
That pulled a chuckle from his dark star, who wasted no time in moving into his embrace. When Virgil didn’t make to continue the conversation, Emile let the silence take over as they both focused on the five cartoon superheroes in front of them.
They sat in companionable silence for the next few episodes. Slowly but surely Virgil relaxed into Emile’s arms. After the third episode, when Virgil was fully limp and his breathing had evened, Emile decided to speak up.
“Do you want to talk about it?” His voice was quiet. He found that soft voices and less cartoon references were better for serious conversations.
In his arms, Virgil shrugged. “It’s nothing.”
“I bet that’s what Raven said about a lot of her feelings before her father came back. If she had shared some of her past or her feelings with her friends, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad.”
Okay, maybe some references.
Virgil sat up, fixing Emile with a pointed look. “You’re not my therapist, Emmy.”
Emile shrugged sheepishly. “No. But I am your fiancé.” He held up his hand, showing off the simple silver band on his finger. “And I love you. So what’s up?”
Virgil’s expression softened and Emile was glad to see that his defensive attitude was dropping.
“It really is nothing. I… I honestly don’t know. Anxiety’s just been acting up today, and you were at work, so I was alone and-”
Emile interrupted, already knowing where this spiral was going to end. “What about your friends? I’m sure Patton, Roman, or Logan wouldn’t mind coming over or going out somewhere with you.”
Virgil shook his head quickly, causing Emile to frown. “They were all- they were busy. I couldn’t bother them with this.”
Emile’s frown deepened. The therapist inside of him wanted to explore Virgil’s emotions again, but he knew that acting as his fiancé’s therapist wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Virgil needed to brink this up to his own therapist, and in the meantime, Emile had to be there as the man that he loved, not a psychological professional.
“V, sweetpea…” Emile lifted Virgil’s hand, linking their fingers together, listening for the soft click of their matching rings touching. “You can always call me when I’m at work. My clients understand and can reschedule. And you’re friends are- well, they’re basically the super friends! Not my strongest reference, but it’s true. They care about you and wouldn’t mind popping over for a little visit when you’re feeling down.”
Virgil sighed. “I know… I just… worry.”
Emile leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Virgil’s brow. “I know you do, schweetheart.”
Pride welled in the off duty therapist when the silly accent finally managed to get his fiancé to chuckle.
“Thank you.” Virgil snuggled close to the doctor again. “Now I know you’re dying for me to start the season over for you, so, marathon night?”
“Yes! I’ll make the popcorn!”