Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue

Far before Virgil was born his mother had been, experimented on. The people who ran this operation hid it from her parents and tried to make her into some sort of sea monster or one of the first ‘mermaids’ as Virgil’s mom used to phrase it. To this day their true intentions are still unclear, but due to these experiments Virgil was born with some type of birth defect . It’s not like he had an extra finger or had any misshaped organs. He had something that no one had truly seen of before.

When Virgil was born you couldn’t tell that he was different from the other infants, but as he grew older it became more and more noticeable. At the age of 1 all of his baby teeth had grown in which is abnormal for babies and infants. At the age of 8 all of his baby teeth came out around the same time, which was also quite strange. Virgil’s mom sought out help from a doctor to find a shocking discovery. The new teeth Virgil was growing in looked almost as if they were all canines (later on it became prominent that Virgil’s teeth where more shark like). Virgil’s mom kept seeing the same doctor and discretely told the doctor to never say a word about what’s going on with her son to anyone. With some encouragement and bribery the doctor agreed to not say a word about anything that was going on.

During elementary school, Virgil’s mom decided to homeschool him. This continued all the way throughout middle school and highschool. Virgil’s mom was afraid of what would happen if she sent him to a school. Afraid that Virgil would get bullied. Afraid of what the other parents and teachers would have to say. And most of all, afraid that Virgil would blame her for why people think he’s a freak.

Virgil never asked about why he couldn’t go to any school. He assumed it was because when his father passed away, his mother inherited all of his savings and that they could live comfortably. With her not working what would she do at home anyways? As Virgil got older the truth about why he was really homeschooled kept nagging at him which led Virgil to have more and more anxiety for the rest of his life about what people thought of him. Even though as he got older never asked his mother about why he had been homeschooled he would repeatedly tell himself that ‘it’s because I am a freak. No one would ever talk to a kid who had shark teeth’.

During Virgil’s 8th Grade year his mother decided to have him shadow a school that was very close to their house (maybe about 10 minutes walking tops) that most of the kids on the street either went to or are thinking about going to (everyone on Virgil’s street was incredibly wealthy or had wealthing parents). When Virgil shadowed he tried to hide his teeth as much as possible, but sooner or later people found out about. Gossip and rumors started spreading about him even after he was done shadowing that school. He told his mom about what had happened and decided it would be best if he continued to be home-schooled.

After Virgil finished 12th Grade, his mother decided that Virgil should go to college and move out so he could experience the world. Virgil hated the idea of going to college and having to live in a dorm.  Virgil’s mom eventually came up with a compromise. She proposed that Virgil could take all of his lessons online, but he would have to live in an apartment near the school. Right after they agreed on this compromise she also added that he would have to turn all of his assignments and projects in the classroom, would have to pay for half of his own rent, and somehow forgot to mention that he would have 4 other roommates.

In Virgil’s household (and in most of the world) once you agree to something there is no going back.

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Packing

‘Mom why do you hate me so much?’ Virgil thinks while packing everything he will need for his apartment. ‘Why do I even have to go to college and have to pay for rent? We’re already loaded aren’t we” Virgil’s mom would always tell Virgil when he was younger that no matter who you are you will always have to work all the way throughout your life. He was never sure if she meant it literally or figuratively, but it doesn’t really matter because he would have to work in both ways.

‘Will I really have to get a job’ Virgil thinks as he finishes packing his toiletries and is now packing away some of his smaller knick knacks to help him deal with his anxiety. ‘What if everybody there hates me?’ Virgil starts fiddling around with a small fidget cube trying to find the side with the joystick.Once he finally finds it he continues to think.’What if the people I work with find out about my teeth? What if my roommates find out about my teeth? What if they’re horrified? What if-’

“Sweety, are you almost done packing?” Virgil’s mom says as she walks in the room.

“Uh-”

Virgil looks down in a slight panic realizing that he had barely packed anything.

“Sure”

“Okay. Tell me if you need any help and don’t stress about college. Just remember to focus on your studies, have fun, and-”

“Mom that is one of the most helpful things you have ever-”

“and don’t forget to bring home a girl”

“Mom!”

“Sorry! Don’t forget to bring home a, boy!”

And with that Virgil’s mom quickly exited the room. Virgil had only recently come out to his mom about his sexuality and like the loving mother she is she accepted him just the way he was. It was like nothing had changed, but in a good way.

After that little conversation Virgil decided that he shouldn’t think about living in the apartment until he lives in the apartment. It might not have been the best idea at the time but at least he isn’t stressed out while packing. He is also packing everything efficiently and quickly.

Around an hour later Virgil is finally done packing, double checking, and triple checking all of the belongings he needs to bring with him. He heads down the stairs and carries a large duffle bag and a backpack.

“Virgil, does all of your stuff really fit in those 2 bags?!”

“Yes”

“Wow. I wish I had your packing skills” She mutters under her breath.

“Are you sure there is nothing else you need? Do you remember your phone number? Remember to take your medications and don’t forg-”

“Calm down Mom I’ll be fine” Virgil said even though he was clearly lying to himself.

“I am just worried, okay” Virgil’s mom said sincerely.

“My little boy is growing up so fast!” She says as she pulls Virgil into a tight hug.

“I’ll call you once I am done unpacking everything there, okay?”

“Okay. Bye, I love you sweetie!”

“Love you too Mom!” Virgil says as he walks out the front door to be greeted by his taxi driver.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: A New Friendly Face

The taxi driver already knows where to take Virgil thanks to his mom. Virgil’s mom almost always seems control his whole life, but in a good way. Virgil doesn’t mind even though now he is almost an adult now. When Virgil’s mom was homeschooling him she was able to speed up some of the lesson and teach him at a faster rate. Virgil is technically supposed to start college next year when he is 18, but his mother worked some things out for him so he can start now. This originally made him a little nervous about having to live with other people because he would be the only teenager there at the time. Before his classes began he would have the weekend to set-up, but for people in athletics, scholar students, and theater they would have to be there a week earlier.

Virgil was the one who picked his classes and kept wondering if he had made the right decisions. He wanted to do art classes for sure, but he didn’t know what else he wanted to do until he decided on Natural of Physical Science, Social Science, Physiology, and English (more specifically creative writing and storytelling). He wasn’t exactly sure why, but all of these things stood out to him and he also didn’t really care too much about what he picked as long as it wasn’t math, some sort of foreign language, or something like a teacher.

Virgil continued to quietly think to himself as the radio in the taxi continued to play some popular songs that most teens and young adults liked. Virgil hummed along to whatever good songs where on the radio and tried to ignore the songs that weren’t really his taste. Before he knew it, he could see the university and a couple minutes later the apartment building.

Virgil a little hesitant as he exited the car and just stood there as he watched it drive away.

Before he entered the building he put on one of those masks a doctor would wear except it was black (rather than a white or light blue).

He started to go up the stairs to avoid anyone who would want to use the elevator and walked all the way up to floor 4. Once he got out of the stairs, he walked all the way to the end of the hallway to door D08. Before he went in he tried to calm himself down and did a couple of breathing exercises. Finally he reached for the door handle and turned it only to realize that he is an idiot and that the door is locked.

Virgil sat down with his bags and starts looking for his keys in his backpack. As he is looking for his keys a young man walks out of the elevator. Virgil is so focused trying to find his keys that he doesn’t even realize that this man is walking towards him. The man is now standing right next to Virgil and looks down at Virgil.

“Excuse me, do you live in this apartment room?” Virgil jumped up a little in shock and turns to see the young man. Virgil nods and looks away.

“Hi my is Patton Foster and I am one of your new roomies!” Patton exclaimed sounding incredibly excited and all full of joy. Virgil continues looking through his bag desperately trying to look for his keys.

“Do you want me to open the door? It seems like you are having a bit of trouble” Patton say still smiling brightly. Virgil nods, slightly embarrassed.

“Welcome to the apartment!”

The apartment was simple and comfy looking with an attached kitchen and living room. It had four rooms that break off from the living room. It was much smaller than Virgil’s house, but it was considered fairly big for someone studying at college.

“I believe that your room is the room second over from the front door” Patton says as he points to a door in between two other doors. All of the doors except his had the names (or nicknames) of the person who was using the room. The room closest to the front door read Patton and the one on the other side of Virgil’s door read Roman Prince in some sort of fancy calligraphy. Across from those rooms was a bathroom and another door that said Lo. The door seemed to be decorated and written similarly to the one on Patton’s door which led Virgil to believe that Patton made it himself for Lo.

“If you want, you can add on of those neat signs to your door too or if you want, I could do it for you!” Virgil once again nodded, avoiding eye contact, and started to walk into his room.

“Oh by the way what is your-” Before Patton could finish his sentence the door to Virgil’s room had already closed,”name...”

Chapter Text

The Call

When Virgil entered his new room he put down his bag and started to look around. The first thing that he had noticed when he walked was a surprising small door (about 4 feet tall) that was connected to what he assumed was a closet. He didn’t mind having a closet (even though there was nothing he would want to put in there).

After looking at everything that was in his room he took off his mask and started to unpack and organize everything he got so he would know (and not forget) where anything is. Virgil has a tendency to ‘overdo it’ with these types of things. Before Virgil even realizes it, it was already 7 pm and he had 2 unread messages and 4 miss calls from his mother.

‘Man I must have been completely zoned out if it’s already 7 o’clock’ Virgil looks through the messages he received on his phone. ‘Geez that women’s going to kill me!’

Virgil, bravely, picks up his phone and dials his mother’s number.

“Hi Mom”

“Oh sweetie is that you?”

“Yes Mom. Who else would it be?”

“Why haven’t you called me! You said that you would call after you where done
unpacking everything!”

“Jesus Mom stop yelling into the freaking phone”

“I’m just worried okay. And answer my question!”

“Okay, okay! I just took a while to unpack and couldn’t find my keys, but
thankfully one of my roommates was able to open the door for me” Virgil’s mother briefly paused before saying her next sentence.

“Where they cute?”

Right after she said that Virgil heard knocking on that door.

“Hey, it’s Patton! Me and the other boys ordered pizza and it should be here soon. Feel free to join us!”

“So are you going to say anything back to him?” In a lower voice Virgil then says, “What do you mean”

“I mean you should join the for dinner!”

“But I-”

“No buts! This is the end of this discussion. Bye, I love you!” She said quickly as she hangs up the phone.

‘Well I guess it wouldn’t be that bad of an idea to join them’ Virgil thinks as he goes through one of the draws in his dresser to grab one of his favorite hoodies to wear. It is just a simple purple hoodie with two white stripes on each on of the sleeves. As soon as he is done changing he tries to think if there is anything else he needs to get from his room before he goes and meets his other two roommates. He double checks his room to see if he can find what he is looking for and he unfortunately doesn’t, but as soon as he leaves his room he suddenly realizes what he is looking for, but it is already too late to go back and get it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: Don’t speak

Virgil panics and tries to reach back for the door when he sees Patton trying to wave him over to the couch. Virgil walks over to hesitantly sit on the couch next to Patton.

“Hey kiddo! I’m glad you decided to join us” Patton says somehow sounding even more joyful then his

Virgil nods as he is still avoiding eye contact with Patton.

“Your not much of a talker are ya’?” Virgil makes no comment.

“Well Roman and Logan are going to be here soon. With the pizza”

Patton in Virgil just sit in awkward silence for about two minutes tops. No one talked and Virgil didn’t even move.

“I have been wondering… uh…” Patton pauses and thinks about how he is going phrase what he is going to say.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but can you talk?”Virgil turns completely away from Patton.

‘Oh geez! What do I do? Should I stay silent or should I answer and say yes or-’

The apartment door swings open to reveal two, other, young men who Virgil assumes are Logan and Roman.

“Patton we have gotten the goods!” Said one of the men. The other man shut the door behind them and looked over at Paton and Virgil sitting on the couch.

“This is Roman and Logan!” Patton says as he looks over at the two of them.

As he turns around to look over the couch he a man with glasses and another without glasses. The one with glasses steps forward to greet Virgil and extends his hand.

“My name is Logan and it is nice to meet you.”Virgil hesitantly shakes Logan’s hand and turns back around on the couch.

‘Come on Virgil think! What can help you now? You could say that you left something in your room and go get. No, I would be doing the one thing I wouldn’t want to do by talking! I could cut myself with my nail! That… would work, but I don’t know if I would want to do that.’

Logan and Patton exchange words as Roman sits on the couch next to Virgil. Virgil doesn’t even notice that he is there due to him being deep in thought. Roman notices that Virgil is just looking blankly into space and just looks at Virgil or a bit.

He notices that Virgil has violet-like eyes and dark brown hair with the tips dyed purple. Roman notices that Virgil looks a lot younger than most college students.

“How old are you?” Roman says with instant regret.

‘I’ve got it’ Virgil thinks as he has been stuck by brilliance.

Virgil puts one of his hands slightly in front of himself. He pulls his ring finger down and puts his thumb over it. After that he flicks his hand outwards twice.

At this point Roman and Patton are both very confused. Logan looks at Virgil slightly impressed.

“So you prefer the first version of 17 better?”

Virgil slightly smiles toward Logan (without showing his teeth) and makes a motion similarly to knocking.

‘Thank you mom for making me learn sign language’ Virgil thinks as Patton and Roman are still incredibly confused.

“He is using sign language” Logan says. Roman and Patton both “oh”-ed in realization.

“Don’t worry I can translate for you two”

“Thanks a lot Lo!” Patton says as he smiles brightly at Logan as a slight blush goes over Logan’s face. Logan gives a slightly awkward smile.

‘Heh… That’s gay’ Virgil thinks while being so grateful that he didn’t say that out loud.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: Only a Dream

After an hour or so slowly everyone started to go back into their own rooms. First Patton, then Roman, then there was just Logan and Virgil.

Virgil left the room before Logan and decided to just go straight to bed. Virgil was able to fall asleep surprisingly fast.

“You can talk now.” Logan said in a very calm and collected voice. Virgil was confused. He felt stuck and filled with worry, the exact opposite of calm and collected at that moment and it showed.

“I know that you can talk I just don’t know why you are hiding it.”

Virgil looked at Logan with complete fear in his eyes. This can’t be real.

“You don’t have to be scared I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

Virgil remained silent. I must be dreaming!

“Tell me the truth. Why won’t you speak to me!” Logan practically yells as everything starts to fade. Everything continues to fade until Virgil opens his eyes. Waking up in a cold sweat.

Virgil eventually calms himself down and tries to go back to sleep.

It was only a dream...

Chapter Text

Hello readers!

I know it might be early to do a Q and A, but this week and next week are going to be pretty busy so I won't have much time. I also got braces today and I am in pain and not in a particularly good mood.

I will respond to these at least by Friday if not sooner. If there is a way to import pictures into onto this websites inside chapters please tell me because I have been wanting to draw out certain scene's or draw diary, sketches, notes, ect.

Thank you for reading my story and I will try to get a Q and A out by Friday!

(If you have more than one question feel free to ask it because to be honest I might only get like 2 comments)

Chapter Text

Question 1: Are there any other fandoms that you are into?
I really like Voltron, My Hero Academia (plus a lot of other anime), She Ra, Dragon Prince, Avatar The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra, and Camp Camp. (There are probably a lot more, but this list would be to long)

Question 2: Do you ship Deceit, Remy, and Remus with anyone?
I don't really ship Deceit and Remus with anyone, but apparently a popular ship that I kind of like is Remy x Dr. Picani. (Remy x Picani will most likely be in this story)

Question 3: Are you anywhere else online?
I only have an Instagram account (mystic_gardinz). This is pretty much the only real online platform that I have used.

Question 4: Which one of the sides is you favorite and least favorite? (left to right, favorite to least favorite)
Virgil, Patton, Roman, Logan, Deceit, Remus

Question 5: Do you have any other AU's that you want to write about?
Yes, I actually do have a couple ideas for what I want to do either after this series is done or when I am at a point that I can handle doing two series at once. What that AU is going to be is a secret though.

Chapter Text

Okay Virgil today is the day you get a job! Hopefully… Virgil thinks as he begins to look for job options on his phone for people in his age group. Fortunately for him there a couple of job opportunities near him. Unfortunately, most of them are either on-campus or require social interaction, which are both things he would like to avoid.

After hours and hours of searching, he finally decided that he would work at one of the on-campus Starbucks. The school campus already had over five Starbucks and the one he was going to work at should barely have any business. There was also a negative and positive to this. The positive is that he will be making the drinks and won’t have to work at the cashier stand, but the negative is that he will have to work with someone else. 

Virgil applied for the job online and quickly submitted it before he would convince himself that this was a terrible idea. His application was accepted and from this day forward Virgil was officially a barista!

Chapter Text

I sat in my room alone on this one eerie night looking at the empty wall. It was much more bare than the last time I remember and I swear something must have been there before. Now that I think of it… Never mind. Well it is October 31 I might as well go get a costume or something like that. Even if I don’t wear it out my mom probably would be happy to see me try.

I walk into the living room wearing one of my masks over my mouth to see everyone sitting on the couch talking about something. I was about to leave when Patton called out my name and practically begged me to come and sit down. I hesitantly at down next to Roman.

“Okay kiddos what are you guys going to do for Halloween?” Patton say happily as per usual.

Me, Logan, and Roman kind of just stare at each other expecting at least one of us to answer Patton’s question.

“Nothing. Really? Well, I guess we can all do something together.” Patton puts his finger on his chin right under his lip and tries to think of something, but before Patton could think of something Roman intervenes.

“I heard they are doing this huge haunted house on campus in the Visual Arts building.”

Me and Logan both remain silent as Patton begins to talk to Roman about the haunted house.

As they talk my eyes linger to Logan, who is now biting his nails nervously with his eyes looking at the black TV screen. That’s weird I wonder why he’s acting so strange today.

“Well if you two don’t mind, I think we should all go to the haunted house together!”

I nodded my head in agreement and Logan after a few seconds does the same. I am still very curious about what’s going on with Logan but decide not to ask.

After both me and Logan agreed to go with Patton and Roman to the haunted house we all decided that we would leave around 8 so we would get there sometime before 8:30. Apparently the haunted house opens at 9 but one of Romans friends helped put it together and told Roman that him and some other people could enter the haunted early. I guess that is one of the many perks of actually having friends.

It was almost 8 o’clock and I ended up texting her about the whole situation. She was really happy that I decided to go and made sure that I knew how to stay safe. It was a fairly normal conversation and I decided not to wear my mask because if I showed my teeth I could just say it’s a Halloween costume or something. I just hope everything goes well for just once. Just for today.

When I walked out of the room everyone was already out in the living room. Thankfully, the others weren’t wearing costumes either. We all stayed in the living room for a couple of minutes talking about how we should all stick together, don’t get lost, and stuff along those lines. After all that we finally decided to start walking.

As we were walking I noticed Logan glancing at Patton every once and a while and sometimes even staring at him. Geez. I l know he has a crush on him but seriously what’s going on with him today.

We arrived at the Visual Arts building and were greeted by on of Roman’s friends. I didn’t catch his name but he seemed cool. Next to him was someone I did know the name of, Remy. He came up to me and immediately tried to hug me. Luckily, I was able to dodge.

“Hey Virgey!” Remy said teasing me in front of all of my roommates.

I gave him a smile and waved at him. He looked back at me and then to all three of my roommates.

“Hey Virgil” Remy whispered to me, “Who are they?”

I, quietly, responded to him so the others couldn’t hear me talking to Remy and explained that they where my roommates.

“Oh… That makes sense!” Remy said turning back to Logan, Patton, and Roman.

He started to introduce himself and then we proceeded to go into the haunted house together. At first it didn’t seem scary, but things got interesting.

Chapter Text

Okay now for the hard part Virgil thinks while getting dressed. Okay Virgil this is simply! Just wear your mask and tell them that you want to figure out your hours. Easy.

After Virgil finished changing he put on his mask and started to head out. On his way out he saw Roman and Patton sitting on the couch talking. It was unclear about what they were talking about. When Virgil was walking out of the apartment he heard Patton say bye, so Virgil looked back and waved at both of them before exiting the apartment.

When Virgil was walking down to the university he looked around at some of the stores around the apartment. He saw, yet again, another coffee shop, what seemed to be a grocery store, a liquor store, and a couple of bakeries. As Virgil continued to walk he saw a few familiar faces which concerned him, but it’s not like he was going to lose sleep over it (he loses sleep over it). He decided to put his hood up so that no one would recognize him and continued to walk.

He was able to look around the campus while he was walking around campus he was really able to take in the scenery and he was able to look at the buildings that he would have “classes” in. Overall the campus was really pretty. All of the pavement and pathways looked fairly new. There where vines covering some walls of certain building and the fountains where running water. The campus even had cherry blossom and Japanese maple trees, too. It was just a beautiful place.

After about 8 minutes or so Virgil was standing right in front of the coffee shop he would be working at. With all of his courage he opened the door to be greeted by a familiar voice.

“Hey Virge!”

Virgil was shocked to hear the voice of one of his childhood friends, well his only friend. Virgil closes the door behind him and takes off his mask. “Hey Remy…” he says quite dryly. Remy basically pouts back a Virgil. “We haven’t seen each other in years and that is how you treat me!” he says with a bit of sass.

“Yeah, yeah, I missed you and all that”