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“Logan!” Virgil shouted without warning. The pair were sitting maybe a foot apart.
“Virgil!” Logan responded in kind, assuming that’s just what one did when one’s name was shouted for no apparent reason. “Am I doing this correctly?”
“What?” Came Virgil’s eloquent reply. “No, I— we’re alone.” He set down his controller, pausing Luigi’s Mansion ( what ? It’s a good game with an underrated protagonist!) to angle himself facing his companion.
Logan mirrored him, making sure the GameCube controller was safely out of harm’s way. “Alone?”
Virgil raised a single eyebrow. “ Alone .” He was right. They were in Logan’s apartment, but his two roommates were currently out and not expected to return until later.
“Yes, we were sitting in this exact spot when Patton left for his scheduled evening shift around— ah, you were implying something with the statement. Understood.” Logan nodded, blocky glasses glinting off the light from the screen in front of them. Virgil rolled his eyes fondly.
A moment of silence passed over the pair as they really digested this. Just one. Then hands flew to each other, cupping cheeks and curling around waists and clenching in hoodies as if magnetised there.
“May I kiss you?” Logan asked in a much gentler tone of voice. Virgil was still getting used to that. It made his heart squeeze in the best way possible. He nodded, ducking down to seal their lips together once, twice. Logan sighed contentedly, scooting closer on the couch until their legs were joined up. Rudely enough, leaning up to reach Virgil still left his head tilted at an awkward angle. An idea took hold of the beanpole in question.
Unceremoniously scooping the nerd’s legs up (and ignoring the way Logan flailed), he dumped him across his lap, memorising the way blush warmed his tawny cheeks. Logan, for his part, put on a very good show of being unimpressed before resettling his arms over Virgil’s shoulders. “I suppose this adequately addresses the height issue,” he murmured before ehem , resuming their activities.
It was wonderful. Logan’s fingers threading through Virgil’s partially dyed hair, Virgil nosing at Logan’s collar bone as he wrapped him in an extended hug. All until the moment when the tell-tale sign of a key turning it’s lock struck like lightning from the hallway.
Virgil panicked. It’s just what he does, okay?
This time, it meant dumping Logan wholesale, ass first onto the floor before diving to snatch up his forgotten GameCube controller and sit on the other end of the couch before the doorknob could finish it’s rotation. The undignified yelp his friend slash secret boyfriend made was more shock than pain, and Virgil resolved to apologise for the next ten thousand years. Later.
“Fear not, your hero has returned to the castle!” Roman announced as he locked the door with a flourish. “What’s hip-happening, smart ‘n scary?” He asked, toeing sneakers off and dumping his bag at the dining table.
“Nothing! Video games! Wanna play, Princey?” Virgil ground out in a perfectly normal, everyday tone of voice as Logan gingerly righted himself. Every time he was sure Roman’s back was turned, he mouthed another ‘sorry’ to the bespectacled man.
“Only if you’re ready to lose, Three Days Ungraceful!” If he noticed anything off, Roman wasn’t saying anything about it. That was good enough. Reluctantly, and more slowly than necessary, Logan planted himself on the far end of the couch so Roman could sit between the two of them. He could almost feel the groan of frustration bubbling up from the other end of the couch.
Perhaps withholding this information would require more effort than previously anticipated.
“So…” Virgil began with only a hint of awkwardness, dog earring a page in his course reader. “Is this the only place we get to hang out as a couple, now?” They were in a secluded nook of their campus library, Logan sat primly on one end of the loveseat reading, while Virgil used him as a backrest, long legs draped over the remainder of the seat.
“Affirmative, unless we wished to reevaluate informing our friends of this new relationship development. While we would likely receive no judgement or criticism on their parts, I must admit it’s nice to simply enjoy each other’s company unimpeded for the time being.” Logan concluded, deciding to put aside his novel for now. Virgil merely snorted, leaning their heads together fondly.
“I like you too, you giant nerd.” He replied, responding more to the form of Logan’s words than the letter. “Plus, it’s nice to hold off on the ‘I told you so’s’ for now. Just wish we could get a moment to ourselves without someone butting in.” Virgil lamented, voice deadpan if not for the soft edge to it. He reached back to twine their fingers together, warm and unhurried.
Now, the floor of the library they were on was not a “quiet” floor. It wasn’t out of place to hear the buzz of students talking and collaborating on projects all around them. This time of evening on a Sunday, it wasn’t especially busy. Which is why, when Logan heard a laugh light and soothing as a spring shower, he knew exactly who it belonged to. He made a calculated move, which was entirely well-reasoned, one might even say premeditated.
That’s what it was intended to be, but really, all Logan did was dive behind the couch.
Without a backrest, Virgil flopped harmlessly onto the couch with a soft “oof”, just in time for Patton’s head full of curls to pop into view from around the corner.
“Heya, kiddo!” He chimed, giving the gloomy man a conspiratorial smile.
Virgil, still reeling from the sudden change in orientation, did his best to return the greeting with a two-fingered salute. Hey, at least he was used to dying on the inside. “Hey, Pat.”
Patton gave him a quick once-over. “Didn’t know that you’d be using this place as a lie-brary , Virge. ” Chuckling at Virgil’s answering groan, Patton moved in to plant himself at the foot of the couch. This wasn’t distressing to certain hidden parties whatsoever, of course.
It wasn’t until Patton pulled out a textbook that Virgil realised his friend meant to settle in. Shit. Any further plans were interrupted by his phone vibrating in his pocket. It was from Logan, who was in serious danger of losing his ‘makes good choices’ title.
“My B”. I reasoned we wouldn’t have a need for flimsy excuses if Patton spied only one of us.
Virgil sighed, sending off a quick reply before stowing the phone. He froze rock solid when a text tone went off from what was recognisably behind the couch. Patton’s head perked up. Shit . “Virgil, was that—”
To his credit, the sudden, violent coughing fit Virgil started absolutely did distract Patton for long enough that Logan could slip away.
“Table for— oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me. This isn’t real!” Virgil burst out, barely over the restaurant’s threshold. Logan was similarly wide-eyed.
“Hmm, I’m sorry sir , we don’t seem to have a reservation under that name. How many people are in your party?” Declan, Virgil’s only roommate and the only person on planet fucking Earth they didn’t account for tonight, was standing at front of house, idly pretending to look through their system. Definitely not pretending to hide a knowing smile. They wouldn’t be able to bullshit the King of Bullshit with total dominion over Bullshit Mountain, there was no point. This was the nightmare scenario. They might as well start making out in front of the podium, it was over. They tried, they failed, time to go to sleep.
Wait a minute.
Virgil glanced over at Logan. He was already looking at him, eyes wide for an entirely different reason now. Maybe they had the same plan? He quirked an eyebrow. Will it work?
Logan just nodded minutely. It’s our best option. Stepping forward, he cleared his throat to grab Declan’s attention (he needn’t have bothered, this was far too good to miss). “We have a party of four. However, our other friends seem to be late, should we wait here or at the table?” He asked politely, steepling his fingers as he talked.
Oh. That was probably a better plan, yeah. Virgil was just going to make a break for it.
Declan remained unimpressed, but pecked at his touchscreen and pulled a small stack of menus nonetheless, swiftly gesturing to follow him deeper inside. “Right this way. I’m very confident your completely non-improvised friends will be here shortly, after all.” He said, tone light for what was basically an accusation. Arriving at an empty table for four (a dimly lit corner table, the bastard), he deposited their menus, gesturing for them to take their seats.
Virgil froze. Was it more gay to sit next to each other, or across from each other? Was sitting diagonal when no one else was here too much of an admission? Ugh, he just wanted to go home… but, he also wanted to treat Logan to a nice night out. He deserved the time off from school work and work-work.
His boyfriend (!!!) had already chosen a seat, and seemed to be watching the internal debate. Taking a deep breath, Virgil chose the seat next to him. “Since when do you work here anyway, Dee?” He piped up before his roommate could leave.
Declan very professionally stuck out his tongue. “Oh, for a while now. I don’t pick up an occasional shift when the manager needs extra help, or anything.” Virgil hummed, deflating slightly. Maybe it really was just a coincidence.
“Have fun, you crazy kids,” Declan called as he walked off.
“We’re older than you!” Virgil shot back, forgetting to contradict him.
Logan was only half paying attention, already sorting through his phone contacts. The restaurant wasn’t upscale, but it wasn’t quite casual either, so there was plenty of chatter around them as he put the phone up to his ear. “Emile? Yes, good evening. I have a favour to ask of you…”
As it turned out, Emile and Remy were free and willing to help them out. Remy was sold as soon as Virgil piped up that he had an unused Starbucks gift card on him, so that was that. They hadn’t technically lied, just, done things in a different order!
Now they were exactly where they started, with the company of friends instead of solely each other. Virgil heaved an almighty sigh.
“They could all be working together. Maybe not Patton, but this can’t be a coincidence, Lo.” He lamented, gripping Logan’s hand under the table. “I smell a conspiracy.”
Logan looked passively through the menu options, brow creased and not processing anything. Was it wrong to be frustrated, as well? He didn’t want Virgil to worry even more. “It may be. Sharing living space with them would facilitate seeing them regularly, and even frequenting the same places at times.” He replied coolly, going for soothing. “... I am also annoyed, however. Perhaps we should tell them?”
Virgil pursed his lips, thinking. “Kind of wanna keep it up, out of spite.” He grumbled. Logan laughed and risked exposing their poorly kept secret, kissing him on the forehead.
Eventually, they gave in. Their secret (generously called, everyone probably knew something was up) was more effort than their actual relationship, and it’s not like they were getting any privacy anyway. Better to tell them outright.
It was Virgil’s idea to keep the reveal casual. He, Roman, Patton and Declan were already huddled around the dining table finishing off an extra large pizza and idly talking when Logan came home and plopped into the seat next to him.
“Hey,” Virgil greeted, pushing a plate with slices he’d saved closer to the tired nerd. A fork and knife already sat waiting for him.
Logan’s eyes softened at the gesture, and he leaned forward to kiss him. Just once, just briefly. “Thank you,” and then he diverted his attention to the pizza.
There was a beat of silence before everyone was shouting over each other.
“Called it! Totally called it—“
“Oh my gosh!! Oh my gosh that’s great news fellas, how—“
“It really wasn’t glaringly obvious at the restaurant,”
“— because I’m the master of Romance, as you know, I could sense—“
“Didn’t trust your closest friends to keep it a secret?”
“—so happy for you both! I feel bad for snooping that time at the library, but I didn’t know what I’d find, and then suddenly Logan ducked for cover! I’m sorry for not saying anything then! I just…” Patton looked around quizzically. Everyone had stopped and were all just kind of staring at him expectantly, now. “What’s up, buttercups?” He asked uneasily.
“You knew?” Virgil asked.
“You snooped too?! I thought I was the only one!” Roman blurted at the same time. He was used to all eyes being on him, of course, but not like this. Virgil was distinctly unhappy about this confession.
Declan actually clapped. “Well! I’m impressed, I didn’t think either of you would prefer snooping to asking outright. I, on the other hand…”
“Were you aware we were going to be at that restaurant ahead of time?” Logan sat up straighter in his chair.
“You better not have gotten a restaurant job just to spy on us you fool,” Virgil chimed in right after. Declan merely shrugged placidly.
“I told you the truth, I pick up shifts when I want to. Not aided by Logan doing research on restaurants in the area during our law class last week, of course.” He explained, flipping a packet of chili flakes between his gloved fingers.
Virgil sputtered out a bunch of syllables that each failed to become anything coherent. He got up to pace the length of the room, and all his friends (and boyfriend) just watched with varying levels of guilt. Stopping facing the wall, he tilted his head forward with a soft thud before turning to face the rest. “You mean to tell me… that none of you planned a coordinated invasion of our privacy… because no one actually bothered to talk to each other… because we’re all clueless morons.” He summarised, voice flat.
“Pretty much? I’m sorry, Virgil,” Roman offered sheepishly. Virgil barked out a laugh, half stressed and half amused.
“Cool. Coolcoolcool.” He announced. Patton frowned. Logan looked concerned, but comfort wasn’t exactly his forte. He piped up anyway.
“While I’m not sure of my own… feelings, regarding this, we all responded rather clumsily in our own right. Virgil and I did not inform you initially, not out of mistrust, but because we wished to have our initial experiences to ourselves. You would have respected this, I now realise.” Logan stated with a twinge of regret. “Perhaps we should center direct communication from now on?”
Virgil nodded along, suddenly exhausted. “Sounds like a plan, yeah. This was really messy,” He said, dropping back into his chair. The others gave quiet agreements.
No one said a thing.
Eventually, Roman gave a small snort, turning to Logan. “You hid under furniture? To avoid Patton ?” Logan just blanched.
“ Behind furniture, thank you.” He corrected. Roman burst into booming laughter, and Virgil was quick to follow. Everyone did, their surprised chuckles bubbling through the evening air like champagne.
Declan stood up, clasping Roman and Patton on the shoulder. “I just remembered you two were going to come to my apartment right now! For a very important, pre-discussed thing. Logan, Virgil, you’re not invited. It’s because I hate you, and I’m not sorry.” He explained, trying very hard to come off as casual and unaffected. “I’m sure you’ll be bored to tears alone, with each other’s dreadful company.”
Patton jumped up. “Huh? Oh ! Oh yeah, a thing. Wink wink.” He was bustling around for his keys and jacket the next moment.
Pushing away from the table, Roman gave them a smile before doing the same. Declan was bustling them out the door in minutes while Logan quickly ate, left with not much else to do.
They said their goodbyes (“Be safe, make good choices!” “Fuck off!”), then Virgil and Logan were alone. Finally.
“Well, what would you like to do, Virgil?” Logan leaned forward. Virgil met him halfway, sealing their lips in an insistent kiss. The night stretched out before them like their own questionable decision making skills, but they only had the energy to focus on one of those things at the moment.
Virgil tilted his head. “Can we just, I dunno, cuddle in your room?”
Logan kissed the corner of his smile. “Of course.”