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Virgil and Logan had been friends since forever.
Okay, that was a bit of a stretch, but Virgil felt like it was pretty close to the truth, which was that they had met at recess in the first grade, and thanks to Virgil being afraid to speak to other kids, and Logan not wanting to get his polo shirt dirty, they sat together on the bench.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Throughout school, they never left each other’s sides. They became the best of friends and stuck by each other through countless issues during their schooling experience. When Logan’s parents got divorced and he attempted to push Virgil away, Virgil showed up at his dad’s house with Logan’s favorite snacks and hit his window with rocks till the other boy let him in. When Virgil came out to his parents freshman year and subsequently got kicked out, Logan hid Virgil in his house for a week before his father found out. And then Patton had just smiled and asked if he needed laundry done.
Virgil totally hadn’t cried about it later.
Together they had been through divorces, and coming out, and bullies and emo phases and every single one of Logan’s hyper fixations. And when Logan got on the swim team freshman year (“What, Virgil? It is a calming sport, and countless studies show it is good for both your physical and mental health-” “L, we both know you just like the way people don’t mess with you when you’re in the pool.”), Virgil attended every meet. As Logan rose through the ranks on the team, and slowly gained more popularity, he brought Virgil with him.
Virgil looked out of place around Logan’s friends, all brightly dressed and smiling, but Logan never seemed to mind.
Maybe that was why Virgil had developed such a huge fucking crush on his resident nerd. Or maybe it was the fact that Logan always listened to him, whether the things he was saying mattered or not. The way Logan helped him define real fears vs. anxiety-fears, between things that could happen and things that were “statistically speaking, highly unlikely”. Maybe it was how Logan pushed his glasses up when he finished a closing statement, a glasses-push that was so different from the way he pushed them when he’s speaking quickly, explaining the new, bright, shiny thing he’s discovered to Virgil.
Maybe it was just that he was hot.
Okay, you know that’s a lie. Yes, Logan was totally hot. Virgil wasn’t blind. But Virgil also knew that he had been in denial of his crush on his best friend for literal years. Virgil had been crushing on Logan at least a little since before he even started questioning his sexuality. Virgil hadn’t ever been good at sharing his feelings, so he did what he does best: deny, deny, deny.
So what if half the student body thought they were dating? So what if Virgil’s heart fluttered every time Logan got that far-away grin on his face? So what if Virgil maybe-kinda-sorta checked Logan out when he wore his swim gear for his meets? Virgil wasn’t about to fuck up his relationship with his best friend (and only friend, no matter what Roman says).
Besides, Logan was going to college in the next state over on a full-ride swim-scholarship, and Virgil would be going to a state university a few hours outside their home town to study for his business degree, and they’d probably drift apart and-
“Virgil, your face appears to be showing the expression you have when you are experiencing heightened anxiety due to troubling thoughts. Are you alright?” It took Virgil a moment to pull himself out of his head and look at his best friend instead of through him.
“Yeah, I’m fine Lo. Just thinking about college,” he mumbled.
“Ah, what about college?” Maybe Virgil was in lov- crushing! crushing- on Logan because he always seemed to know when something was wrong, even if Virgil didn’t tell him.
“Just … what if we drift apart? We’ll both get busy, and even though we promise to try and visit each other, you’ll be doing school and hardcore practice and I’ll be doing classes and art commissions and before you know it monthly visits become weekly phone calls become half-assed text conversations and then-”
“Virgil,” Logan broke through his train of thought gently, like always, reaching across the table and offering his hand. Virgil took it.
“Everything is alright, Virgil. I can assure you that I will not forget about you. If we become busy, it’s true, monthly visits might not be as easy-” Virgil tensed, “-but we will strive to make it happen. And if we really can’t, then we can video chat every week- every day, even, as long as you don’t get sick of me. Our relationship has gone through much tougher times than distance, Virgil.”
“I could never get sick of you, L,” the purple-haired boy said with a small smile, squeezing his friend’s hand.
“Nor I of you, Virgil.”
Virgil could live with just friends. Logan’s friendship was not a consolation prize. It was the most valuable thing Virgil had.
*****
Honestly, Virgil couldn’t stand Logan’s swim meets. Don’t get him wrong, he loved supporting his friend, even brought hand-made posters to every competition. But it was always so loud, and people were always cheering right in his ears. He had learned to bring noise-canceling headphones eventually, but he wanted to be listening today.
Logan was trying to break a high school record. Not just for their high school, but every high school across the nation. And Virgil knew he could do it.
Since it was the last high school swim meet Logan would ever participate in, Virgil’s confidence in his friend didn’t stop his anxiety.
Still, Virgil sat in the front row of the stands, holding his poster (it had the words ‘Go Logan!’ in dark blue, splashing up out of a pool where a diver had just landed. It was Virgil’s favorite he had pulled off so far), fingers crossed as his friend got in the line up. As always, Logan looked over at Virgil before adjusting his goggles, who gave his customary thumbs-up and was rewarded with that giant smile that Logan saved for special occasions.
Virgil’s stomach filled with butterflies.
The swimmers got into position, time was called, and as soon as the race began, Logan was at the other end and back, and Virgil looked frantically between the timer and his friend, holding his breath.
When Logan tossed himself out of the pool and onto the ground, tearing off his goggles to stare at the ceiling, Virgil dropped his poster and rushed over.
“Logan, it’s okay, it’s not the end of the world, you’ll have time to break records in college and-”
“I did it,” Logan’s eyes finally moved from the ceiling to meet Virgil’s.
“What?” Virgil said, like a genius.
“I did it, Virgil I- I set the record, I-” Logan was sitting up, causing Virgil to rear back to avoid their heads colliding. Then Logan was standing and tugging Virgil up so they could spin around, and Logan was grinning and Virgil was mostly distracted from his friend’s (gorgeous, very hot) mostly naked body by the fact that Logan was laughing, open and loud and-
And Logan was kissing him.
Logan was kissing him?
Logan was kissing him.
LOGAN WAS KISSING HIM.
Virgil.exe has crashed.
Rebooting …
Rebooting …
K I S S H I M B A C K
Virgil finally started to move but Logan was pulling away.
“Virgil, I’m so sorry, I know we’ve been dating for a while and you haven’t wanted to be very physical and oh god I just kissed you in front of all these people you probably hated that, shit-”
Logan was rambling and Virgil was frozen again.
Logan thought they had been dating?
Had they been dating?
Had Virgil really had Logan as his boyfriend this whole time, and he was just- what? Unaware?
“What the fuck.” Virgil didn’t mean for that to be his first reaction, but it was a pretty valid response, all things considered.
“I know, I know, that was terrible, I should have asked first I just got carried away with everything and I was really excited-”
“Logan, shut up.”
Logan’s mouth closed with a snap.
Virgil took a deep breath.
“Logan, why do you think we’re dating?” Virgil watched as confusion grew on Logan’s face.
“Because- because we are?” At Virgil’s scathing look, Logan started to go a bit white. “I mean- aren’t we? I know we haven’t assigned a specific title to it yet, but we started going out to dinner after meets after that conversation last year, and the hand-holding and- when I asked Roman about it, he said you were just- just ‘keeping it on the DL’ and-”
“Logan. Logan. What conversation last year?”
“September 25th, exactly seven months and one week ago, we were at Remus’ house party. I said, quote ‘Virgil, you’re so pretty and smart, go out with me.’, end quote, and you responded, quote, ‘Sure, L.’, end quote. I thought that was-”
“Logan you were drunk off your ass when you asked me that! I didn’t know you were serious!” Virgil knew exactly what conversation Logan was referencing because he held the compliment close to his heart. He hadn’t thought his friend (boyfriend?) remembered it at all. Logan was starting to flush red, and Virgil could feel his own embarrassment creeping up his neck.
“I mean- Virgil, I know I was slightly intoxicated when I asked you, but I- I meant it. I thought that was why we had started doing, ah- date-typical things.”
“Date-typical things? What kind of date-typical things have we been doing?” Virgil really shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but he had been pining after this idiot for multiple years, how had he not noticed when they had started dating for Christ’s sake?
“Well, dinners, for one thing. Also ice skating, and we drove the lights display at Christmas time, you spent Christmas with my family instead of just Christmas Eve, the hand-holding, the cuddling, the-” Logan swallowed and looked away, “the terms of endearment and- uhm, watching me. Smiling and … ‘checking me out’ is the correct term, I believe. I noticed these things after we had - I thought - agreed to begin our courtship, so I- I thought those two things were connected. I’m terribly sorry, Virgil, I never meant to assume or make you uncomfortable, and this is absolutely on me but I really hope you can forgive me-”
“Logan, shut up,” Virgil said again, a serious look on his face. Logan closed his mouth a second time, looking almost sick to his stomach.
“Kiss me and then go get your medal, you record-breaking idiot,” Virgil said next, and Logan froze before a huge grin spread across his face, and he did exactly as his boyfriend told him.