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Saturday mornings in Patton and Logan’s house were so nice. They usually let him sleep in as long as he wanted, though he’d found himself setting his alarm for at the latest 9am, because he didn’t want to miss breakfast. Patton pulled out all of the stops on Saturday mornings. He didn’t at all slack off the other days of the week, but there was always something special on Saturdays. It would be fancy French toast, homemade pancakes, or omelets. He’d even gotten a wild hare one day and make jianbing. Honestly, Virgil didn’t think they’d had the same meal twice for Saturday breakfast the whole time he’d been living with them.
Today, Logan had actually done a large part of the cooking. He’d made omelets (his only cooking specialty according to him) while Patton made the toast and prepped any fillings he’d need. They’d even let Virgil pick what he put in his omelet, with the condition that he had a least one serving a vegetables either in the omelet or on the side. He’d ended up with a spinach, onion, and sausage omelet, and it had been delicious.
They then always ended up in the living room. Logan usually made a pot of coffee or tea, and all three of them took a cup into the living room with them. Patton always made sure to remind Virgil that he could get another cup right when he was starting to want one but was getting anxious about getting one. Patton liked to put on Saturday-morning cartoons and would usually sew or read a book, and Logan would almost always read either the newspaper or a book. Virgil had begun the habit of either watching the cartoons or being on his phone. The one time he’d tried to do some homework, it had been gently taken away from him. Apparently doing work before noon on Saturdays (at least unless there was some outside activity like Patton had to work in the office or Logan had a conference) was heresy in their house. Not that Virgil was complaining.
Currently, Patton had taken residence on the floor, working on what Virgil guessed was a quilt or something. He had a lot of fabric pieces spread across the living room, a square frame, and a sheet of paper with a pattern drawn on it. Logan had taken up residence in one of the armchairs to read a novel. He’d pick up his coffee every few seconds and take a sip without looking. That left the entire couch to Virgil which he’d slowly moved to stretch out on since no one else seemed interested in using it anyway. He was listening idly to the cartoons while scrolling through Tumblr on his phone. He was actually scrolling through posts on the ‘quilting’ and ‘sewing’ tags because he was trying to figure out a little more about what Patton was doing. He was about to google what the hell ‘appliquéd’ means when he suddenly felt something squeeze him out of nowhere.
It was a brief thing, just a soft squeeze around his middle and shoulders that was there and gone within a moment, but it was still noticeable and he had no idea what it was. So, he did what any sensible being would do and shrieked while launching himself up so he was standing on the couch.
Patton and Logan startled, looking over at him with perplexed expressions.
“I…” he said, breathing heavy. “Something just touched me.”
Logan still looked confused, but after a moment, Patton’s confusion melted into amusement. He turned to Logan. “Logan, honey, did you squeeze Virgil too?”
Did… Logan squeeze Virgil? That was Logan? He guessed it was a thing he could do, but why? He’d apparently squeezed Patton too? Why? He looked at Logan for an answer.
“I…” Logan stuttered. He might have even been blushing a bit. “May have.”
“Aw!” said Patton. Virgil was not quite sure why this was considered a cute thing. Virgil had almost just had a heart attack!
“W-why?” Virgil asked.
“I-it’s a mostly unconscious thing I sometimes do to Patton,” Logan said. “I can sense familiar people with my powers and will sometimes... do that.”
“He’s just checking up on you,” Patton explained. “Subconsciously making sure you’re there and okay. I think of it as a nice hello-I-love-you hug!”
“I…” Logan said, awkwardly. “Yes, that would be… accurate.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. His heart rate was just starting to return to normal. “Um, okay.”
“I apologize for frightening you,” Logan said.
“It’s fine,” Virgil said. “I just was not at all expecting it.”
“I understand why that may be startling when done unexpectedly. Is there anything I can do to help calm you?”
Virgil realized then that he was still standing on their couch. He slowly stepped off of it and sat down. “I think I’m good. Just give me a minute.”
Logan nodded and studied him for a long moment. He stood and grabbed the soft purple blanket from the hall closet that Virgil had fallen in love with over the past few weeks. “Perhaps this will help,” he said, offering it to him.
Virgil took it with a smile and wrapped it around himself. “Yeah, thanks,” he said. It really did help. It was silly, but it always felt like nothing bad could happen to him in this blanket.
He glanced up at Logan who looked truly uncomfortable and guilty. Virgil felt a flash of guilt himself at that. Patton said whatever it was Logan did with his powers, it was basically a ‘I love you’ hug thing and, while Virgil wasn’t sure if he meant it in exactly the same way as he did with Patton, it obviously was some sort of affectionate thing. And… Virgil had freaked out and basically rejected it.
“You can do it again,” Virgil blurted. Logan hesitated, seeming unsure, and the fact that he cared enough to hesitate, more than anything, made Virgil push on. “It wasn’t, like, bad or anything. I just wasn’t expecting it. I wouldn’t mind if you did it again.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Plus, I’d like to actually register what it feels like in case you accidently do it again.”
Logan nodded, and in the next moment, Virgil felt the light squeeze again around his middle and shoulders, even soften than before. Knowing what it was now, Virgil found it was a pretty nice sensation. He understood why Patton called it a hug. It wasn’t exactly the same feeling, but it came with that same gentle pressure as Logan’s other hugs, something that had never failed to make him feel safe.
“Not bad, huh?” asked Patton as the power hug released.
Virgil shook his head.
Patton smiled and carefully put aside the needle he’d been working with. “Great, because now I want more of all of the types of hugs!”
Virgil couldn’t help but grin as Patton hopped up to sit next to him on the couch and wrapped his arms around him. The man turned and pouted up at Logan who shook his head but sat on Virgil’s other side. Logan opened himself up for a hug but left it up to Virgil whether or not he’d lean in to get it.
Well… Virgil did like hugs.