Work Text:
Virgil was called into his manager’s office right as his shift began. He’d been working at the large art supply shop stocking shelves for about two years now. It was better than most of his previous jobs because he didn’t really have to talk to customers. It still kind of sucked, but he knew well that it could be a lot worse.
“Uh, hey,” he said, hovering awkwardly in the office door. “Carla said you wanted to see me.”
“Have a seat, Virgil,” the man said, his voice firm. That wasn’t good. Mark was a manager and could be a dick when stressed as managers often were, but he wasn’t a horrible guy and was usually fair. He didn’t typically get that tone unless someone had really screwed up. Virgil sat. “Virgil,” he said again. “You’re a great worker.” Oh… really not good. “But, if your boyfriend comes in here and disturbs customers one more time, I’m going to have to fire you.”
It took Virgil a few seconds to puzzle out who he was referring to, and he almost groaned. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Despite the many, many different ways Virgil had tried to explain that he really did not know anything about where Logan could have gone and that he, in fact, didn’t even know if Logan was the man’s real name at this point (he’d… he’d thought he’d known Logan, but apparently he was quite mistaken), the police still seemed to not believe him. Or, well, one police officer in particular seemed to not believe him. Most of the cops who had interviewed him seemed to eventually believe him when he’d said he knew nothing about the apparent digital criminal empire his ex-roommate had been running out of their house. However, there was one officer who wouldn’t leave Virgil alone even two months later.
Remus Royal was like a dog with a bone and Virgil was starting to feel like he was the bone. He was determined to track Logan down and Virgil was the only lead he had. So, he kept loitering about, not so subtlety trying to bleed Virgil of all the imagined information he contained.
Apparently, he’d been dogging Virgil’s heels enough that other people had begun taking notice. Though, they seemed to be wildly misinterpreting the situation. Fair. Most of the time, Remus’s interrogation techniques seemed to consist solely of blatant flirting and innuendo.
“Then who is he?” Mark asked.
Oh, just a police officer who keeps coming to question me because he still thinks I’m somehow involved in my ex-roommate’s cybercrime ring or whatever it was.
“He’s… just a guy,” Virgil said, figuring that telling his boss the police were after him wasn’t the best move.
“Well, tell this ‘just a guy’ that you can’t have personal conversations on company time.”
He already had. “It’s not a personal conversation,” he protested.
“He’s been in here every day this week and only talks to you without buying anything. What else would it be?”
“Fine,” Virgil agreed, even though he didn’t know how he was going to get Remus on board with not getting Virgil fired.
“Good,” he said. “Now, get to work.”
Virgil nodded and got to his feet before heading out of the back room. Carla smiled at him from the cash register with a questioning look in her eyes, but Virgil chose to ignore her. He got to work inventorying.
He was left in peace for about 35 minutes. Then, the bell above the door announced a customer, or more accurately it announced not a customer. Virgil ducked behind a display case before Remus could see him. He watched as Remus looked around for a few minutes, decidedly not at any of the products on display. Virgil eyed the door that said, “Employees Only”. If he could make it back there, he could pretend to be organizing the back room and avoid Remus altogether.
As Remus wandered away towards the cash registers, Virgil made a break for the next aisle, and hid behind a stack of boxes waiting to be unloaded. He peaked out just as Remus turned to look back into the store and crouched back down before he could see him. He waited there for a while, not daring to peek out again.
“Your boyfriend’s here,” Carla said, making him jump. She’d come to peer at him from the other side of the boxes.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Virgil hissed.
“Well, he asked for you personally,” she said. “Refuses to leave until he sees you.”
Virgil groaned and peaked around the boxes. Remus was looking in their direction and waved when he caught site of Virgil. “Ugh, fine. I’ll ask him to leave. Don’t tell the boss I was talking to him. I’m in enough trouble as it is.”
Carla saluted and promptly abandoned him to his fate to go back and man the cash register.
Remus was already sauntering over to him. “Hello, Virgil,” he said cheerfully. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“I work here, and you know that. You’re just here to interrogate me again.”
“Nah,” he said with a toothy smile. “I’m just here for a,” he glanced at the nearest display. “decorative matboard. …What is that?”
“It’s for framing paintings,” Virgil said, his voice clipped.
“Well, I do like pinning things to walls…”
“Can we please do this some other time.”
Remus gave him a pout that was laced with steel. “But I want to do this now,” he said.
“I’m working,” Virgil hissed.
“You seemed to be hiding behind a stack of boxes before I came over,” he said with a faux innocent head tilt. “Is that part of your job?”
“I swear Remus, I really don’t know anything about Logan. Just leave me alone.”
The games ended when that name came out. Remus’s face went cold. “You lived with him for years. How could you not know anything about him?”
“He’s a good liar,” Virgil shot back, and it stung how true that statement was. “Obviously, or are you forgetting the poison tea you slammed back like tequila shots after final exam week?”
“For your information, I’m pretty sure only the last one was drugged because he drank some of the first one himself.”
“And yet the results were the same: I got to sit there handcuffed to a table watching your dumb unconscious ass hoping you kept breathing so you’d uncuff me before I starved to death.”
Remus rolled his eyes. “It was four hours.”
“Four hours is plenty of time to think up hundreds of ways that could have ended badly for me.” Virgil pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Look, just, please. I will talk to you any other time. Can you not interrogate me while I’m working? You’re going to get me fired.”
“Fired for talking to a customer?” he asked.
“You’re not a customer! You’ve been in here 10 times in the last two weeks and harass actual customers when I don’t talk to you. People are starting to notice and it’s coming down on me.”
Remus either didn’t believe him or didn’t care, because he didn’t even seem to even contemplate leaving Virgil alone. Their argument grew more intense as Remus continued to hound him for information that he simply did not have. Virgil could feel himself get more and more heated as Remus simply wouldn’t drop it. “Look just-!”
“Virgil!”
Virgil flinched at the sound of Mark’s voice. “I wasn’t…” he said.
“I literally just told you not to have personal conversations when working.”
“But I-”
“No, Virgil,” Mark said. “You’re fired.”
“Right,” Virgil said. He could see Carla at the register looking resolutely down at the counter instead of at him. A couple of customers had stopped shopping to watch the show with varying degrees of glee. Virgil felt frustrated and humiliated tears build up in his eyes. He didn’t look at Remus or at Mark. He just turned on his heels and walked out of the front door with what little dignity he had left before he ruined even that by starting to cry.
Of course, of course, he heard footsteps follow him out. He didn’t turn. He determinedly walked across the parking lot before sitting down in the grass next to the bus stop. Then, he hid his face in his knees.
“I…” Remus said hesitantly. “I didn’t realize you’d actually get fired.”
“Fuck. Off.”
“… Are you crying?”
Virgil tightened his hold on his legs. “Some of us like to have enough money to eat, Officer Royal.”
There was a moment of awkward silence before Virgil felt a hand pat him on the shoulder.
He shrugged it off and finally looked up at him. “Could you just leave me alone now? Or is there something more you want from me?”
“I am sorry for what it’s worth,” Remus offered. He at least seemed genuine about that. He kind of had the look about him of a kicked puppy, but Virgil couldn’t muster any pity for him.
“Whatever.”
There was a beat of silence. “So… you’re just going to sit on the edge of the street now?” Remus asked.
“Yes,” Virgil snapped, “because the bus doesn’t come for another 45 minutes.”
“Oh.” Remus said and then more hesitantly. “I can drive you home.”
“Why?” Virgil asked. “So, you can continue to question and accuse me?”
“Nah,” Remus replied. “I just think I might owe you a ride at this point.”
“You think?” Virgil asked.
“I’ll even buy you dinner first,” Remus offered.
“Are you really hitting on me right now?” Virgil asked, exhausted.
Remus shot him a wry smile. “Not this time,” he chuckled. “I’m literally just talking about a sandwich.”
“Fine,” Virgil agreed. “But I’m ordering double meat and all of the condiments.”
“Like your foot longs thick, huh? … Sorry.”
Virgil glared at him for a second more before rolling his eyes. “Can you ever go more than 5 seconds without saying something vile?”
“Actually yes,” Remus said. “I tested it once. I was able to get to a whole 23 seconds, but it almost killed me instantly.”
Virgil couldn’t help it, he snorted, and Remus gave him a dopey grin. “Let’s just go get some food,” he said while standing up.
“Great!” Remus said, snatching his hand in his to guide him to the car parked in front of the store. Virgil tried not to blush. Well, if everyone in the shop didn’t already think they were dating, the certainly did now.