Work Text:
“Ugh!” Virgil groaned, flopping his head down on his desk with a bit too much force. Virgil had to blink for a long moment to get the flitting lights out of his eyes as he picked his head back up. Rubbing his head where his head had met the desk, Virgil grumbled under his breath about nothing in particular.
In front of Virgil was a beautifully decorated flower pot, but instead of an equally beautiful flower residing in the flower pot, there was instead a mass of dull, gnarled thorns spiraling out of it. They almost looked like they were reaching to the sky, reaching out for something to hold onto but were frozen in time before getting even halfway there.
Virgil continued to grumble as he got up from his desk, flopping over onto his bed in a huff. As he less than gracefully fell, Virgil pulled on his hoodie strings, hiding the world behind the thin piece of fabric. And yet, that one piece of fabric over his face always helped him feel safe even when he was panicking.
Virgil just wanted to be normal. Was that too much to ask?
Well apparently it was, because no matter how hard Virgil tried, all Virgil got when he tried to make something was thorns.
Want to create a daffodil to look at? Thorns
Want to help a tree regenerate? Thorns on the branch.
Want to help anything at all? Thorns. Thorns. Thorns.
Virgil had seen enough thorns to last a lifetime, and he was just tired. No one likes thorns, thorns are just there to ward you away, not invite you closer like a flower does.
Virgil wants to invite people, not push them away, but… how can he when he’s such a disgrace of a fae?
“Why?” Virgil whispered to the open air of the room through that thin barrier of fabric. There would never be an answer, Virgil knew, but it never hurt anyone to try. So far, there had never been an answer.
Until now, perhaps.
Knock. Knock.
Virgil jumped at the sudden sound at the door. He fumbled a bit trying to open the hood of his hoodie, but eventually his fingers were able to pry it open.
Breath catching, Virgil’s eyes instantly went to the pot of thorns that sat incriminatingly on the desk. He quickly grabbed the thorns by the pot and stuffed it under his earthy bed. His bed frame was molded from the wall, which to humans might be impressive and cool, but to Virgil it was just a bed.
Case in point.
Virgil straightened up casually, stuffing his hands in his pockets, as the door knob of his door turned and opened to reveal Remus with his constant mustache on his top lip peeking from behind the door, beaming at Virgil.
“Hey shadow of the night, are you just going to mope all day? Also man I can not get over how cool your bed is! It’s made of plants for fucks sake.”
Virgil made sure he didn’t look too bothered as he shrugged in response, face carefully neutral.
“Don’t let Pat hear you talking like that. Maybe I am, so what? Also Remus, it’s just my bed, there’s nothing special about it.”
“I beg to disagree.” Remus said as he dashed past him and began to jump on Virgil’s bed, ignoring Virgil’s death glare.
Virgil smirked. “Then beg.”
Opening his mouth to say something, Remus turned his head back to Virgil before he clutched his leg and fell off the bed as a consequence. “I- Ow!”
“Remus? Are you okay?” Virgil panicked, running over to the other side of the bed to see Remus no longer clutching his leg and laying on his side, staring at something under Virgil’s-
Oh.
Oh no.
Virgil attempted to play it off, playing the part of the concerned friend. “Remus? Are you hurt? Did you hit your throat on the way down? Why are you so quiet all of a sudden? Come on Remu-”
Virgil was cut off as Remus shot up into a standing position with an inhuman speed, which was impressive as he was the only actual human in the room. Virgil went to try to distract him, but Remus was too fast for him. He was already wrapping around the bed past Virgil to crouch on the other side of the bed.
Right where the plant was.
Virgil’s heart sank to his feet, he was going to know. They were going to find out. He didn’t want them to. He was a disgrace.
Disgrace. Disgrace. Disgrace. Disgrace. Disgrace.
The word rocketed around his brain at the speed of light. It eventually became the only thing Virgil could hear over the sudden roaring in his ears.
Virgil wished he had found a better hiding place, but it was too late to change it now as Remus uncovered his well kept secret. He grimaced as the pot of thorns was revealed to him, a stark reminder of his failure and disgrace in Remus’s grip.
But as Virgil looked up to see Remus’s eyes light up, he paused. Remus wasn’t disgusted with the plant. He wasn’t sneering at it or even holding it away from his body like it was a dangerous beast or something.
Remus was smiling. Remus was happy about Virgil’s disgusting thorn plant.
And despite Virgil’s better judgement, he let an inkling of a tingling, pleasant hope spread in his chest.
“Rem-”
“Oh, it’s so pretty! Why… why was this under your bed? It needs sunlight and ample water! Otherwise it’ll never flourish!”
Remus almost down right ignored Virgil as he went over to the window where Virgil had closed the curtain in fear of someone seeing his shameful creation whenever he tried to make something other than thorns.
“And here I thought you loved plants.” Remus said absently as he dramatically opened the curtains, blinking in the light that began to filter into the room.
Virgil cringed, his hands balling into fists at his sides as he blinked the tears gathering in his eyes away and not because of the sudden light.
Remus delicately placed Virgil’s shame on the ledge where Patton and Thomas’s creations rested, flowering easily and stunningly.
Patton’s flower was a daffodil that always seemed to lean towards you, as if the flower was trying to give you a hug. A classic Patton flower.
Thomas's flower, on the other hand, was a beautiful rainbow poppy that he gave to Virgil after an excessively insomnia-filled week. Thomas promised if Virgil kept it for a night at his bedside when he could tell he was going to have trouble sleeping, the poppy’s scent would help lull him to sleep no matter how fast his mind was racing.
And the last item that wasn’t Virgil’s creation was a glass bottle with a single portion of a petal of the corpse flower given to him by Remus. The petal was sealed away because it lived up to its name, smelling of rotten flesh constantly. In the bottle was only a portion of a petal because the flower was naturally 3 feet wide and Remus wasn’t about to torture him by preserving the whole flower by proxy. He wasn’t that mean.
But Virgil’s creation didn’t belong up there with the (mostly) magnificent plants, it marred the beautiful windowsill with it’s ugliness.
That didn’t stop Remus, though.
Remus finally turned to Virgil, not commenting if he saw anything in Virgil’s face, but eyebrows quirked curiously.
“Where’s your watering can or whatever you use to water these?”
Virgil numbly pointed to the container a few feet away in the corner of the window sill. Remus followed Virgil’s finger and smiled when he laid eyes on the watering can.
“If you won’t water it, I will. Hm… actually, I’m gonna name you Roman.” Remus snickered, and Virgil would have as well, but he was still… preoccupied.
“Get it, Virgil?” Remus said as he looked at Virgil again as he began to pour the water on the plant.
“Yeah, Remus cause your brother… is....” Virgil’s voice trailed off as he caught sight of the thorns. Remus looked just as surprised based on his own expression.
The thorns began to twitch, shuddering before beginning to stretch towards the sky again. More and more thorns emerged from the dirt before the plant suddenly stopped.
Then slowly, as the plant stopped, the top of the thorns furled out where they had become bunched together.
Virgil’s breath caught as the thorns gave way to reveal instead of more thorns, a single, beautiful purple flower.
He- he-
“Patton! Thomas!” Remus suddenly screeched from beside Virgil, causing Virgil to jump nearly three feet in the air in fright.
Virgil had barely any time to process anything that was happening when he already heard two sets of feet roaring down the hallway and nearly jumped again as the door burst open.
“Where’s the danger? We heard Remus’s screaming. Are you guys…” Thomas began, but just like Virgil his words died on his lips when he saw the flowering thorn plant on the windowsill.
But before Thomas could continue, Patton let out the most ear piercing squeal of excitement any of them had ever heard. All three of them immediately covered their ears before Patton slammed his hand over his mouth, sending everyone an apologetic look before his gaze latched onto Virgil.
“Virgie! You finally made a plant! I’m so proud of you!” Patton was nearly bursting at the seams with happiness.
“I’m happy for you Virgil, you never had to and didn’t care, but you made something and it’s so you. I love it.”
Remus was the last to go and the only one not completely ecstatic. Instead, his gaze was focused on Virgil with a surprisingly concerned expression.
“Virgil, why… why were you hiding this?” Remus asked quietly, and suddenly everyone’s eyes turned to him directly.
It was right then that everything was just too much and Virgil finally broke.
Tears finally rolled down Virgil’s face as sobs took over his body. Distantly, hands grabbed him to keep him from falling to the ground and there were concerned voices speaking above him but he couldn’t focus on that.
They didn’t hate it. He wasn’t a disgrace. Wasn’t a disgrace.
“Oh… honey you could never be a disgrace.” A gentle voice cut through his tears.
Virgil had apparently been speaking aloud, but that didn’t really bother him too much as the gentle hands held him and he wasn’t going to get rejected and he wasn’t a disgrace.
All that mattered now was that they had seen his secret.
And they still loved him.
That was all that mattered.