Archive of Our Own

But Virgil would not take of his black hoodie, it was his baby and he never took it off. Even if he had to suffer, he would never take it off unless he absolutely had to. Emile and Patton had already expressed concern on the drive over, asking Virgil if he was going to take his hoodie of, to which Virgil simply shrugged, putting on some music to drown out any other questions.

He didn’t need to focus on them, that would only make him hotter, his cursed blush. 

Virgil kept diligently working, brushing off what they had been sent here to dig up. 

Everyone always gushed to Virgil when they discovered he was in archeology, how cool it was to find dinosaur bones. Virgil always smile through the excitement, said the right thing and then left as soon as possible. He loved his job, but he had grown tired of people constantly assuming that archeologists were constantly going out on digs and finding whole dinosaurs. Like, how many dinosaur skeletons do you think there are that an archeologist would be able to excavate something new one more than once a month, if that?

Virgil huffed at the thought. Virgil was lucky that this was something new, for the past six months he had been with these guys on a different dig, alternating between paperwork on what they were finding and the grunt work of painstakingly removing the ground layer by layer, but still preserving it for study.

Rarely was an archeologist on a new dig like this, and while it was pretty dang exciting compared to the other digs, it was just too damn hot! 

Swiping another time across his brow, he caught sight of Janus nearby, his hair draped over the left side of his face. He was so focused, and Virgil saw his sleeves were pulled up, his chocolate colored arm glistening with sweat. Virgil could see the rippling of Janus’s muscles as he dusted off the remains in front of him. His expression was focused, but when Janus was focused like this, it was the only time Virgil got to see Janus’s natural expression, not the one he tailored for social interactions, just his... Janus face.

Virgil realized he was staring when Janus’s face broke concentration, eyes almost immediately flickering over to Virgil’s. Janus’s expression slipped back into his measured facade, glaring at Virgil, as if challengingVirgil to why he had been staring. Virgil quickly busied himself him with his area again, trying to act like he had just glanced up as well, kicking himself for getting distracted. He couldn’t let Janus know he felt that way about him. He just... couldn’t

But it wasn’t long before he had rotated, slowly becoming aware of Emile nearby. Chancing a glance, Virgil saw Emile with only a short sleeved shirt on, which was a first for the long-sleeved fiend just like himself. Perhaps that’s why Emile was so insistent, if Emile knew he couldn’t handle the heat, Emile was sure to think that Virgil couldn’t either.

Virgil knew they were wrong, he could stand it. The alternative was feeling unsafe and vulnerable without the soft protection and Virgil wouldn’t chance it for a second if he didn’t have to.

Emile was so fucking nice to him, Patton too, but they both had different kinds of niceness. While Patton was a shoulder to cry on, the sweetest little puffball of the group dare Virgil say it, a comforting presence, to Virgil Emile looked like he had all the answers. They both exercised a bit more empathy than the others at the dig, but with Emile Virgil always felt like he could understand himself a little more every time they spoke. The guy felt like a natural therapist and yet he was working a job like this with it. It would pay more than archeology at least.

Virgil again caught himself staring again when Emile quickly looked up, shooting Virgil his signature warm smile that just melted Virgil inside. Not that Virgil would ever admit that to anyone. He was in this too deep to throw away his dark and edgy persona, he didn’t want to lie to them, but he also didn’t want them to possibly fire him after he’s pretend to be someone else for so long.

At first it had been a defense mechanism, he... hadn’t had the best home life, so his instinct was insult and hit or get insulted and get hit. He knew hitting someone would get him fired, but he was so ingrained the mentality still that when he started this job, he couldn’t stop himself from pushing everyone out of arms reach of him. 

And boy did he regret it.

Maybe he could-

“Hey guys?” Thomas called from above them, standing above them on ground level. 

Virgil looked up to see Thomas, looking shocked and excited.

“Yes, Thomas?” Patton answered, Virgil hearing the exhaustion in his voice in the heat. Again, Virgil ignored his own exhaustion due to the heat, it was fine. 

“Y’all need to see this come- come up here.” Thomas said, still wide-eyed and staring down at what they’re digging up, not at anyone in particular.

Something in Virgil voice told him he was serious, as Thomas could be quite the jokester, but something just told Virgil to climb up as fast as he could.

In fact, Virgil was the first one to climb up beside Thomas, barely suppressing the urge to link hands, looking out at the dig. At first Virgil didn’t understand, but as he traced the outline, it was then that he realized.

“When was this dated again?”

“Um, around 5000BC, the mammoths were almost gone then, why?”

Virgil understood now why Thomas was so stunned, as they had been expecting a whale skeleton as the crust was definitely oceanic around the remains. But as Virgil traced the massive skeleton, he stead saw the large outline of a quadrupedal animal, but what caught everyone’s attention was the large bony wings stemming from the skeleton. They also noticed something that did not belong, the remains of a charred smaller creature, the bones were scorched, but not enough to significantly decrease their stability as they were still here now. Of course, since the crust was oceanic, there was only one option any of them could conjure to mind

They had just unearthed a real life, motherfucking dragon skeleton!