Chapter Text
Usually, mornings were times of peace. They were the times where hardly anyone was awake and anyone who did happen to be awake would be able to enjoy some minutes of silence before the chaos of the day stirred the entire mindscape awake. But this morning, Virgil was awakened by some particularly loud arguing from downstairs. He wrapped his pillow around his head to try to muffle the sound but that only seemed to make it worse.
Virgil trudged out of bed, throwing his pillow down to the floor, and walked out of his room. The bickering only worsened once he stepped out and he regretted not bringing the pillow with him. He covered his ears and as he heard someone start shouting, a loud whistle stopped them. A muffled voice sounded out and the bickering picked up again, quieter this time. Virgil let out a sigh of relief and uncovered his ears.
Virgil couldn’t hear much from where he stood but he managed to hear the phrase “He’s your brother, Roman” slip out of Janus’ mouth and he immediately made a mental note to stay out of Roman’s way for the entire rest of the week. It was obvious that Virgil had not been the only one to struggle with accepting the dark sides but Virgil could at least say that he was acting more civilized about it than Roman was, what with Roman constantly berating his brother over every little annoyance he did. He wasn’t sure what had gotten into Roman, since he usually just ignored his brother’s antics, so he could only assume that he had finally gotten fed up and was prone to losing it at any moment now.
“Whatcha doing?”
Virgil jumped and punched the side who stood directly behind him. It was Remus, and he fell back and landed with a loud thud on the ground. Virgil groaned and ran a hand over his face as Remus laughed.
“I hate when you do that!”
Remus giggled and stood up.
Virgil couldn’t say he was comfortable with Remus and Janus’ constant presence around the mindscape but he also couldn’t say that he completely hated them being around. Okay, maybe a part of him could say that, but that was irrelevant. What was relevant was getting onto friendly terms with the other two dark sides since Thomas seemed to be fully accepting of Janus, which meant Remus was just brought along for the ride. Getting back to that point was easier said than done, however, since it had been so long since he’d considered either of them friends, if he had even considered them that at all to begin with.
“You know, you have just as good a punch as Logan does! Maybe even better, or, should I say, harder-”
“Stop, don’t...don’t finish that sentence.”
Remus giggled again and suddenly held his hands behind his back.
“I have something for you, Virgil.”
Virgil frowned. He knew what was coming. He knew that this was some sort of set up for Remus to prank him like he always does every week, he knew that Remus was going to pull something out from behind him and try to creep Virgil out, he just knew. Yet, there was nothing he could do to stop it, he had already fallen into the trap, and getting out of it would be deadlier than just dealing with it. So, he braced himself for the worst.
“...What is it, Remus?”
Remus grinned and pulled his empty hands out from behind his back. Virgil raised an eyebrow and glanced between Remus’ hands and his face in an attempt to figure out what prank Remus was trying to pull when Remus suddenly reached a hand into his chest, black blood squirting out from it, and ripped out his black, beating heart. He held it out to Virgil, black blood pooling onto the floor below him, and Virgil watched as it beat and pumped out more black blood.
Admittedly, Virgil had seen far worse from Remus, so all he was able to muster was a quiet, “Oh.”
Remus stopped grinning and tilted his head in confusion.
“Oh? That’s it? No “Ah, what the fuck, Remus?” this time?”
Virgil shrugged. “I mean...the tentacle thing you did last week to Logan was worse.”
“Oh yeah! I should do that again, that was fun! Oh, but-” Remus suddenly pouted, “it’s so hard pulling pranks on Logan. He’s not phased by anything, that dastardly bastard, and it’s only fun when you guys get scared.”
“...I mean, I’m sure Roman-”
“But Roman’s too easy to scare! And, besides, his insecurities scare him just as much as I do.”
Virgil didn’t say anything. He glanced between the heart and the blood that had gained sentience and started pooling down the hall.
“You should clean that up before Logan comes up here and makes you do it.”
Remus looked down and laughed.
“Oh, sure, but you have to promise to keep my heart safe first!”
Virgil opened his mouth to object but then stopped himself. What was the harm in going along with one of his pranks? Especially one that was as harmless as this?
“Alright, fine, but if you really want me to keep it safe-” Virgil suddenly pulled a purple box from his pocket and opened it up, “-then put it in here.”
Remus didn’t say anything as he stared at the box. Virgil wasn’t sure what he had done wrong, if anything, and was about to put the box away when he saw the heart slowly lose its black color and fade into a deep crimson.
Woah, that’s new.
“Do-”
Remus stopped himself. His expression was...well, unreadable to Virgil. It seemed to be changing every second from surprise to confusion to happiness to some emotion Virgil couldn’t quite place a word to. He waved a hand in front of Remus’ face and Remus cupped his heart and looked at Virgil.
“Will you really keep it safe?”
Virgil nodded.
“Yeah, just put it in the box. I’ll leave it in my room for safekeeping and then give it back whenever you need it or whatever.”
Remus’ eyes lit up and he murmured, “Safekeeping,” before he gingerly placed his heart into the box. Virgil gently squished any of the dangling bits of the heart into the box and slowly closed it to make sure it didn’t close on the heart. He then pulled out a black key from his pocket and, after making a keyhole on the box, locked it. He held it up to Remus, whose lips were slightly parted and eyes were watching Virgil’s every move with the same unnamed emotion from earlier.
“Okay, it’s safe. Now could you please clean up before Logan-”
Remus snapped his finger and the blood quickly retreated back into Remus’ body. Virgil felt the heart hit the side of the box and his eyes widened as he frantically searched for any part that might have escaped out of some gap he hadn’t seen. There were none. He looked back at Remus to see that the gaping hole that he had ripped into his chest was now sewn back together. Yes, sewn, with stitches. Virgil wasn’t sure why Remus hadn’t just patched himself normally but then he realized that normal wasn’t part of Remus’ aesthetic.
Remus smiled softly at Virgil and he was a little taken aback by the expression since he’d only ever seen his wicked grin and pouts. Before Virgil could say anything more, though, Remus was swallowed whole through the floor, and in his place, he left behind a large, black puddle of black ooze.
What the-
“Virgil?”
Virgil jumped and nearly dropped the box. He managed to catch it and shove it, and the key, into his pocket before turning around to face the side who had addressed him. It was Logan, and he stood at the bottom of the stairs with a concerned look on his face.
“Is something the matter? We thought we heard Remus’ voice-”
“No, nothing’s, uh, nothing’s wrong. Remus was just trying to prank me and, uh, you know how that usually goes.”
Janus suddenly popped his head into view and smirked.
“Oh yes, that usually ends with you screaming off the top of your lungs from being frightened by them.”
Virgil frowned.
“I don’t scream at the top of my lungs-”
“Oh, that’s right, you don’t, do you? No, because you’re brave and you’re not afraid of anything, isn’t that right?”
Virgil stared at Janus, trying to come up with a witty remark but found nothing worth saying, so instead, he asked, “What is your problem?”
Janus’ smirk disappeared. Virgil waited for him to say something else, some quip that he had probably been waiting to say to him for who knows how long, but Janus said nothing. Virgil turned away from them and walked back to his room, deciding it best to leave the conversation at that. He heard some murmur from downstairs but didn’t stop to catch any of it as he walked into his room and shut the door. He ran a hand through his hair and heaved a sigh before setting the box down on the beanbag that sat in the corner of his room.
“I guess this is where the gift pile is gonna go now...although, I don’t think I can actually call Remus’ heart a gift.”
Virgil picked his pillow up off of the floor and flopped onto his bed. He hugged the pillow and stared up at his ceiling, taking deep breaths to calm himself.
It’s gonna be a long day today...