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Virgil didn’t exactly have ‘friends’. He didn’t care particularly about it, didn’t really think he needed them to be happy when he had his ten year old brother and his dad. That being said, he had definitely been planning on watching horror movies the whole night and into the next morning in honor of the best holiday ever: Halloween. He even had his favorites already set up ( Nightmare Before Christmas , The Corpse Bride , and Coraline among others.) Besides all that, he was sixteen and didn’t feel like being the kid who got yelled at by the neighbors because he was ‘too old’ to go trick-or-treating. So he had planned to watch movies until he passed out and probably be scared to go in the bathroom for a month after.
But plans change, and often with very little warning.
Dad had been so sick that morning that he hadn’t even gone to work. So sick, in fact, that he had asked Virgil to take Roman to school for him because he didn’t think he should be driving with the migraine he had. And of course Virgil had done it, hadn’t even questioned it. He had picked up other chores once he got home, too, so that Dad wouldn’t have to worry about anything. Though he played the part of the uncaring, leather-jacket-and-dark-sunglasses badass to the outside world, things were different in their little bubble. Virgil knew his Dad was just as prone to over-thinking and incessant worry as he was. (It had to come from somewhere, right?)
But he hadn’t even thought about trick-or-treating. Their Dad loved taking them, loved getting dressed up and taking an obnoxious amount of pictures just as much as Roman loved showing off his costumes and Virgil had loved getting candy. So when Dad asked him to do it last minute, practically begging, voice hoarse and eyes barely open, Virgil had just shoved a cup of tea into his hands, kissed his movies goodbye, and got dressed.
And that’s how now, at five fifty-nine p.m., one minute before Halloween was officially underway, Virgil was standing in front of the house in a Jack Skellington costume he’d outgrown two years ago next to Roman, dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. They both smiled as Dad took pictures, and Virgil tried not to wince in sympathy when Dad started to look too unsteady on his feet.
“Alright, boys. Have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t let you do.” He ruffled Roman’s hair and pulled Virgil into a hug. “Thank you for taking him out, Virge. It means a lot,” Dad whispered, voice devoid of his regular smart-ass tone both of his sons had inherited. “And you did really good on Roman’s make-up.”
“Course,” Virgil said. He pulled away and snagged Roman’s hand. “What time do we have to be back by?”
“It ends at eight, so no later than eight thirty.” He pushed his sunglasses up on his head and gave them both a piercing, undoubtedly painful stare. Virgil nodded and Roman pouted. “Good. I love you two. Now get out of here.” Roman darted in for one last hug and then took off down the street. Virgil trailed him, holding both their pillowcases. Dad had said Virgil should do it too and to hell with anyone who complained about it, but was it really worth ruining Roman’s Halloween to cause a scene with some cranky old lady? Virgil figured it wasn’t.
There was already a stream of kids heading up to the first house, and it was looking like some of them had started early. Some other chaperones stood on the sidewalk by Virgil as he passed Roman his bag and let him head up to the door. Roman blended seamlessly into the hoard and Virgil sighed. It made him anxious that he couldn’t see Roman when he was supposed to be watching him, though he knew Roman wouldn’t run off without him. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t worry about it.
Some of the other parents held spare bags in their hands, and Virgil looked contemplatively at them. Why did they have extra bags? What was the point of that?
“Virge! Look! I got a bunch of Hershey kisses!” Roman didn’t even pause long enough to let Virgil see, just grabbed his hand and went for the next house. He babbled about the other kids costumes and how cool some of them were and must have waved at a minimum of twelve other kids by the time he waltzed up to the next house.
Virgil tried not to look like he was moping, but he must have been doing a pretty bad job because someone came up and tapped him on the shoulder. He spun around, an apology on his lips, and stopped dead. Standing behind him was the one person at school that Virgil actively regretted that he didn’t talk to: Logan Abbott. He was brash and loud and always fought back against unfair rules and had pretty much every quality Virgil valued in a person. He also managed to make a tie look hot, and it was entirely possible that Virgil wanted to do more than talk to Logan. Though he was always wearing professional clothing at school, he was currently wearing a white lab coat and had all sorts of medical props hanging off it. He was about three inches shorter than Virgil normally, but he must have been wearing platform shoes of some kind because right now Virgil was definitely looking up to see his eyes.
“Salutations, Virgil,” he said. Virgil nodded mutely, just staring. How was he supposed to talk to a person he liked as a person ? “Are you trick-or-treating or have you come out on the request of your parents?”
“I came out years ago,” Virgil said, and yeah it was true but why say it . Oh, god, Virgil was absolutely too gay to deal with this. He couldn’t have his first one-on-one interaction with Logan him just being gay, oh god, what if Logan was weirded out by that? Virgil really just needed to quit while he was behind.
“I as well,” Logan said, smirking slightly and why couldn’t he just say ‘me too’ like a normal person? What was with this ‘I as well’ bullshit like he was smart, he needed to stop being smart because Virgil definitely might do something stupid if he kept doing it. “Though I meant to ask if you are watching a sibling.”
Wait. ‘I as well’ meant Logan was gay-er, well, probably meant Logan was gay and Virgil was gay as fuck so maybe-
“Uh, yeah. My brother’s only ten, can’t go by himself yet.” If Virgil could hold onto his language processing skills, maybe this wouldn’t be a total disaster. And stop thinking about being gay with Logan, though that was another matter altogether.
“My brother’s ten, too,” Logan said. “I have to take him because our parents tend to work through dinner.” They lapsed into silence, and Virgil really had to wonder what was taking Roman so long. If he hurried up, there was a slight possibility that Virgil could make it out of this without being too weird.
“Virgil!” Roman cried right on que, barreling into Virgil’s legs. “I found Patton!” Indeed, there was another ten year old trailing Roman across the yard.
“Lolo!” the other child, presumably Patton, yelled. He grabbed Logan’s hand and began swinging it back and forth. “It’s Roro!” He giggled and mock-whispered to Roman, “You rhyme.”
“I’m very glad you found one of your friends, Patton,” Logan said. He smiled kindly at Roman and Virgil wanted to sink into the ground with how nice that was. “Hello. I am Logan, Patton’s older brother.”
“I’m Roman! Patton’s my best friend in the whole world.” Roman pointed at Virgil. “This is my brother Virgil. Are you dating him? You’re standing really close.”
“Roman,” Virgil hissed, and he was suddenly glad he’d decided to paint his face. Logan couldn’t see the blush underneath that thick layer of applied death.
“No, I am not currently dating your brother. We know each other from school.” Currently? What the fuck was currently about? Were they going to dating? Where was that distinction coming from? Why did he say that? CURRENTLY?
“You’re not supposed to just stay stuff like that,” Virgil said.
Roman shrugged. “Dad doesn’t care.”
“That’s because Dad doesn’t have a filter either,” he muttered. Logan snorted next to him and Virgil really couldn’t help staring with how cute that noise had been. How was one person allowed to be so adorable?
“Which way are you heading?” Logan asked. Virgil motioned up the street. “Us too,” he said and turned so they could walk together. Virgil’s eyes widened. Oh, gods above, they were walking together now. What was he supposed to do with that? Was he supposed to do anything? Were they going to be doing this all night?
“C’mon, Ro, this way,” Virgil said as Roman started lagging behind to talk to Patton. He galloped to catch up, and then passed Virgil and Logan yelling, “That’s Captain Jack Sparrow to you!” Patton started to run up the yard after him, but then paused.
“Lo, weren’t we already at this house?” Patton asked.
“No, Patton, we weren’t. Go catch up with Roman,” Logan urged him and shoved Patton’s shoulder a little. Patton took off running, but Logan turned red and didn’t look at Virgil. If they had come from this way, why would Logan tell Virgil he was coming this way? Unless, he wanted to come with Virgil , but that was ridiculous because they had never really spoken in class and he didn’t know anything about him. It was actually much more likely that he was coming so Patton could stay with Roman, but then why hadn’t he told Patton when he made that decision? Unless he didn’t want Patton to know, but why wouldn’t he? Nothing was making sense anymore.
“Your costume looks nice. What are you dressed up as?” Logan asked, blush still faintly on his cheeks as they waited on the sidewalk.
“Jack Skellington,” Virgil said. “ Nightmare Before Christmas .”
“I know all of those words, but not in that order,” Logan said. Virgil stared, open-mouthed.
“You’ve never seen Nightmare Before Christmas ?” he asked. Logan shook his head curiously. “It’s-it’s amazing, you have to watch. I can’t be seen associating with someone who’s never seen Nightmare Before Christmas before.”
“Then you’ll have to show it to me. I certainly wouldn’t want to tarnish your reputation,” Logan quipped. Virgil laughed.
“What about you, glasses? What are you dressed up as?”
Logan groaned. “Dr. Frankenstein, though I have come to see the error in my ways. Nobody knows who he is; they all think Frankenstein is the monster.”
Virgil nodded sagely. “You definitely can’t just expect average people to know things about the classics. They’re not all monsterfuckers.” Logan’s laugh boomed out unexpectedly and Virgil startled, then stared. If he got any gayer tonight, he wasn’t going to make it. Roman would have to venture home without him. Dad would have come out of the house, fever-ridden and all, and look for his body because Logan kept being cuter than was physically possible or acceptable and it was going to kill him.
“Well, I suppose you’re right,” Logan wheezed. They followed Roman and Patton to the next house down, and Virgil allowed Logan to catch his breath. It really hadn’t been that funny, but he’d like to cause whatever just happened to happen again regardless.
“Do you not go to the houses with your brother?” Logan asked.
“Nah,” Virgil said. “I prefer not to get yelled at by strangers because I’m too old for Halloween.”
“Fair enough,” Logan ceded, “but most people in this neighborhood are not so judgemental that you have to worry about it. Also,” he added, voice low and conspiratorial, “I have figured out the algorithm for obtaining the optimal amount of candy.”
“Oh, really?” Virgil asked, intrigued despite himself. “You managed to apply math to Halloween?”
Logan nodded confidently. “I also go up to the doors for the first half of the night. After that, I allow Patton to dump his candy into my bag every few houses so that his bag is empty. It makes him more likely to get more candy from the following houses. The adults are inclined to believe that he was late getting out because of a tardy parent or uncooperative older sibling. They feel bad for him.”
“Isn’t that a lot like stealing? Or lying?” Virgil asked.
“They give it over willingly enough, though I prefer to think of it as a creative solution to not being able to afford candy other times of the year anyway,” Logan said, and Virgil couldn’t fault him there. His family wasn’t quite well-off enough to buy a lot of sweets outside special occasions either, so Halloween held them through to Christmas when extended family started sending in cards and money.
“Smart,” Virgil said. Logan preened and smiled, near blinding and yeah, Virgil was so, so gay. He was going to die if Logan kept being this cute.
“I know, but thank you nonetheless.” Virgil choked on a laugh, and they tracked Roman and Patton to the next house.
“Shall we?” Logan asked, motioning up the driveway. Virgil nodded.
“We shall.” They went up to doors with their siblings for the next half hour, and somehow, nobody called them out. Virgil got a few stink-eyes, but he also got candy so it was really sort of like being paid to piss people off. By enjoying himself. It was awesome . He definitely owed Logan for introducing him to the wonders of Halloween as a teenager.
Logan caught his arm as they came up to the next house. “Have Roman dump his candy into your bag and let him go up alone.” Logan had Patton do the same. Logan didn’t let go of Virgil’s arm, and Virgil tried to have coherent thoughts past that, but it really wasn’t happening. Logan was right here , talking to him, touching him, voluntarily spending time with him.
When the Roman and Patton came back, they both reported that they had been given extra candy by the sympathetic woman manning the candy bowl.
“See?” Logan said, smirking down at Virgil. “Pretty effective.” Virgil grinned back and shrugged.
“Pretty genius,” he agreed.
“Very pretty,” Logan said, and his face began glowing red. “Y-you, I mean. Not me.”
“You are, too,” Virgil said.
“I-oh.” Logan seemed at a loss for words.
“Thank you, though,” Virgil continued. “It’s not everyday someone as cute as you wants to compliment me.” Where this other Virgil was coming from, Virgil didn’t know. He had never used words to do something like this before, it was crazy-talk. He wasn’t a confident, flirty person!
“Well, I, uhm.” Logan stopped and took a breath. “They should. You are a very attractive person, Virgil.” It was Virgil’s turn to blush wildly.
“C’mon, nerd,” he said. “They’re getting away from us.” Virgil didn’t say anything else, and he also didn’t pull away when Logan’s hand dropped from his arm to his own hand and held it. Virgil squeezed once, a barely there pressure on Logan’s skin, and then they both released.
Virgil was, completely and totally, without question, going to lose it.
They kept talking and walking through the neighborhood, but as they approached the last few houses Virgil couldn’t help but feel like something was slipping away from him. So as soon as there was a lull in conversation, he blurted, “Where do you live?”
Logan raised an eyebrow. Virgil refused to admit defeat and drop eye-contact even if it felt physically painful at this point. “Right down there, on Sycamore.” Logan jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “Why do you ask?”
“It’s not too far out of our way, and we don’t have to be home immediately. We can walk you. I mean, I’m sure Roman wants some more time with Patton, and it wouldn’t be a big deal or anything and-” Virgil forced himself to shut up. He steadied his brain before he opened his mouth again. “I don’t really want to quit talking to you quite so soon. If you want.”
A smile bloomed over Logan’s face, slowly at first and then so large he was practically radiating happiness. “I do want,” he said softly and Virgil almost melted. “I really, really do.”
“I’m glad,” Virgil said. “It would have been awkward if you didn’t.” Logan laughed.
“Yes,” he agreed, “and that would be the absolute worst outcome.”
“Virgil!” Roman screamed and ran face-first into an unprepared Virgil, sending them both sprawling to the ground. Logan coughed over a laugh and caught Patton when he attempted the same maneuver.
“Ro, kid,” Virgil groaned, “you really have to give me some warning when you do things like that.”
“I yelled your name! What more warning do you need?” Roman demanded petulantly, laying on Virgil’s legs.
“He has a point,” Logan added, face alight with mischief. Patton wriggled in his arms gleefully. “He did warn you.”
“You,” Virgil said, pointing, “are going to pay for that.” Logan scoffed and shook his head. Virgil shoved himself up to a sitting position and let Roman roll of his legs. “You’re going to get grass stains on your costume if you keep doing that.” Roman immediately popped up off the ground and took a few steps back.
“Logan!” he yelled, and then launched himself through the air like some sort of projectile. Virgil watched in slow-motion as Logan, already unbalanced from holding Patton, got his legs taken out from under him and crashed to the ground. Virgil was happy to note the first sound he heard following the tragedy was twin giggling, and then Logan’s groaning. Nobody had died.
“Are you alright?” he asked, doing his best not to laugh.
“Yeah,” Logan muttered, flat on his back.
“Ten year olds,” Virgil said, standing to scoop Roman off of Logan’s legs. He monkey-ed around Virgil until he was firmly attached to his back.
“Ten year olds,” Logan agreed, sounding equally aggrieved. Virgil offered him a hand and pulled him up. “I believe I will have bruises to remember this night by.”
“At least you won’t forget it,” Virgil said. Logan huffed a laugh. Together they set off for Logan’s house. Mercifully, Patton didn’t feel the need to sabotage the walk, and Roman was too set on singing as many Disney songs as he could, so they made it all the way back without another incident. Roman jumped down at the gate to give Patton a hug, and Virgil looked to Logan.
“So, I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” Logan suggested. Virgil got the visceral feeling he was about to lose something important again, so instead of words he reached out and grabbed Logan’s coat and yanked him into a kiss. There was a moment of terrifying inaction, in which Virgil thought he had majorly fucked up, but then Logan moved closer and it was fine and it was good and Virgil could not have fucked this up if he’d tried.
They finally parted, Virgil too dazed to really think past what had just happened and Logan looking at Virgil with an expression he’d never seen before, and Roman said, “I thought you weren’t dating.”
“We-we aren’t,” Logan said, eyes stuck on Virgil. Then he dug through his pockets and pulled out a paper and pen and jotted something down. “But if you text me tomorrow, we can work on fixing that?” He extended the paper and it took Virgil approximately three seconds to comprehend what was happening. Then he was nodding vigorously and holding the paper like it was a check for a billion dollars.
“Yes, yeah. Yeah. I will. Text you. Text you so we can do-something. Something.” He knew he was bright red under the make up, and there was a smear of face paint on Logan’s lips, and he suddenly felt a lot like a supernova in the best way possible and not at all like he was losing anything.
“See you tomorrow,” Logan said again.
“Tomorrow,” Virgil echoed, smiling. Logan smiled back, and Virgil waited by the gate until Logan and Patton got into their house. He waved one last time before the door shut, and then he took Roman’s hand and started home.
“You like him,” Roman said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed.
“I’m telling Dad on you,” Roman said. “You kissed him. That’s nasty.”
“ You’re nasty,” Virgil shot back.
“Nuh-uh,” Roman said. “I only hugged Patton. I didn’t kiss him. You’re nasty.”
“You’re nasty,” Virgil said again.
“No I’m not.”
“Are too.”
“Are not.”
“Are too.”
“Are not.”
“Are too,” Virgil said. He smiled as Roman kept it going, and really, if the price he paid to be with Logan, to talk with Logan, to know Logan was annoying his brother, well that wasn’t much of an ask at all.