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English
Series:
Part 56 of Labeled , Part 39 of Sometimes Labels Shift
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Published:
2020-12-29
Completed:
2020-12-31
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2,308
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2/2
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2am Texts

Summary:

Virgil gets a text from Roman at 2am asking to be picked up from a party.

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Virgil had the thought that he should probably go to sleep. Patton and Logan had gone to bed four hours ago, and Virgil was currently on his phone in his own bed. The part of his mind telling him to put the phone down and go to bed sounded a lot like Logan and it was currently lecturing him about his circadian rhythm. The other part of him was telling him it was Friday night anyway and really he needed to finish at least one more level on the mobile game he’d downloaded earlier if he wanted to get any restful sleep.

He was just about to click to the next level when he got a text.

‘You can drive now, right?’ the text from Chicken Butt 1000 (Remus had gotten ahold of his phone last time he’d seen him, and Virgil hadn’t gotten around to changing all of his contacts back yet) read.

‘…Yeah?’ he texted back.

‘Can you come pick me up and not tell your dads?’

That was… weird. Scary weird. ‘Why?’ he asked.

‘At a party. Need to leave. Moms can’t know.’

Virgil stared at his phone, biting his lip in indecision. This… felt like something he should tell his dads about… but also that felt wrong.

On one hand… he got it. He really, really did. Probably a lot more than even Roman did. People had reasons why they didn’t want their parents or guardians to know about things from silly ones to deadly serious ones. Betraying Roman like that made Virgil feel a bit sick to his stomach.

On the other hand, he knew his dads weren’t like that. They’d understand whatever was going on, probably a lot better than Virgil did, and could fix it. Plus, Virgil didn’t want to just disappear from the house on them. Again. It really freaked them out when he did that.

Virgil didn’t know what to do, and in the end, that is what decided it for him, because he knew what to do when he didn’t know what to do.

Virgil got out of bed and walked down the hall. He winced slightly when he remembered that his dads were asleep and he’d have to wake them up, but he still raised his hand to knock on the ajar door.

He heard the bed shift a bit. “Logan,” he called softly. There was more movement behind the door and then it opened. A tired Logan was standing in front of him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Uh, I got a text from Roman and…” He shoved the phone at Logan.

Logan took it and squinted at the screen, his eyes clearly not adjusted to the lighting. After a moment, he nodded. “Ask him his location and get dressed.”

“Okay,” Virgil agreed. He sent off the text and raced back to his room to throw jeans and a hoodie on over his nightclothes.

By the time he got back into the hall, Logan was already dressed as well. Patton had been roused too, though he was in his pajamas and still looked half asleep.

“Did he respond?” Logan asked.

Virgil looked at his phone and saw that an address had been sent along with a ‘Thanks,’ Virgil winced, wondering if Roman would still be thanking him when he realized Virgil hadn’t obeyed all of his instructions. He showed the address to Logan.

“I know where that is. It’s right off campus,” Logan said. “Let’s go.” He led Virgil downstairs and to his car.

“Sorry for waking you up,” Virgil spoke a few minutes into the car ride.

“It is not a problem, Virgil. In fact, I am glad you chose to wake me up. That was the correct decision to make in this situation.”

Virgil played with his hoodie string. “I don’t know if Roman will agree. He’ll be mad.”

“He might be,” Logan agreed, “but getting a trusted adult involved was still the more responsible choice for both you and him. I am sure you can get him to understand once he’s calmed down. He is likely not thinking rationally at the moment, but perspective will hopefully give him clarity.”

Virgil nodded, but he could still feel guilt eating at him. They drove for probably about 10 minutes before pulling up in front of some house that clearly had a raging party going on inside of it.

Roman was already waiting for them on the front step of the house. Virgil could see him wince even from the car when he realized Virgil was not the one driving.

“Go get him,” Logan urged.

Virgil obeyed, getting out of the car and walking over to him. “Sorry,” was the first thing he said.

“It’s…” Roman said, swallowing. He’d wrapped one arm around his middle and wouldn’t look at Virgil. “Whatever.”

Virgil felt horrible, but at least Roman didn’t fight him on getting into Logan’s car. Virgil chose to get into the backseat with him.

“Are you alright?” Logan asked, once they were settled.

“I’m fine,” Roman said, his voice hollow. He clearly was not fine. His usually immaculate hair was messy and a bit wet. His shoulders were curled in and his arms were still wrapped around his stomach. He also smelled heavily of booze. Logan, however, did not press. He just put the car into drive.

The ride was awkwardly silent for the first few minutes. Roman wouldn’t look at Virgil, and that made a lump grow in Virgil’s throat. He looked at the ground himself.

“I wasn’t drinking,” Roman suddenly broke the silence unprompted. “Someone spilled one on me.”

Virgil saw Logan’s eyes glance back at them in the rearview mirror. “Okay,” he said simply. He was using his gentle voice, but Virgil didn’t know if Roman knew him well enough to realize that.

Roman’s shoulder hunched miserably, and Virgil didn’t know what to do. He chewed on his bottom lip, thinking about what Patton might do, and then reached over with his foot to tap his. Roman glanced over at him, and Virgil sent him a half smile. Roman shot him a quick smile back, and it made the pit of anxiety in Virgil’s stomach ease up a bit. Maybe Roman wouldn’t actually hate him forever. That was good.

When they pulled up to the house, the kitchen light was on, indicating that Patton had not gone straight back to bed and was waiting up for them.

When they walked into the house, Patton came out to meet them. He took one look at Roman and seemed to pick up the something was wrong vibe that was pouring off of him. Of course, Logan had also seemed to pick up on that vibe and he was Logan so it wasn’t really a surprise that Patton did too.

“Hi Roman,” Patton said, infusing his tone with softness.

“Hello Dr. Patton,” Roman replied. He seemed to make an attempt at his normal enthusiasm and missed the mark by a lot.

“I’m going to go make us all a bit of tea,” Patton said, turning to stride back into the kitchen.

“Virgil,” Logan said. “Why don’t you go find something for Roman to change into? If you can’t find anything you think will fit, feel free to search through my closet as well.”

Virgil nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be right back,” he said. He turned to go upstairs, leaving Roman and Logan alone in the front hall together.

Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Logan looked over at the boy standing nervously in his living room. He did not look like his usual jovial (and honestly slightly annoying) self. He looked… downtrodden. “Are you alright?” Logan asked once again.

Roman glanced up at him. “I’m fine,” he bit out even though from context and his body language, Logan could guess he was not ‘fine’ at all.

Logan tilted his head to scrutinize him. “Did something happen to you?”

Tears built up in his eyes but didn’t fall, and Logan internally cursed, wondering if he should get Patton. “No,” he said. “I’m just… stupid.”

That triggered an automatic response. “That isn’t true,” Logan said. He’d forgotten for a moment that this wasn’t his child self-deprecating. Still, it was no less factual in this case.

“Sure,” Roman said, his lip twisted up into a smile that edged more on a sneer.

Logan paused. “Well,” he said, “whatever happened, and obviously something happened Roman, I would say that asking for help to get out of the situation is not something a ‘stupid’ person would do. Though,” he said, “I would appreciate if you didn’t try to get my 16-year-old son to sneak out in the middle of the night next time.”

“Yeah,” Roman said with a cringe. “Sorry.”

Logan waved him off. “While admittedly a bit ill advised, a bit of foolhardiness is acceptable when under duress.”

Roman looked at him, seemingly taken aback. “I would have assumed you’d be yelling at me by now,” he commented. Then quieter. “I’d deserve it.”

“What did happen, Roman?”

He looked at his feet, and instead of answering, he asked, “Are you going to tell my moms?”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want your parents to know about tonight?”

Roman shook his head.

“Why not?”

“I was stupid,” he replied.

“That seems more emotionally charged than factual,” Logan commented. “What did you do?”

“I…” Roman seemed to think for a moment, seeming lost. “Nothing really. I was just there, but it would look bad, and I knew I shouldn’t have gone. It was…” He trailed off.

“Is that why you texted Virgil instead of a family member?”

“Yeah.”

“They wouldn’t have been mad if you’d called them. Even if you did drink or do something ill-advised, not that drinking the cheap beer at a party like that would have done much to you considering your increased metabolism due to your superstrength.”

“I know they wouldn’t be mad,” Roman said, but there was something else too. Logan waited and Roman rubbed at a spot on his jeans nervously. “They shouldn’t have to deal with me.”

“Roman,” Logan said, hurt on his parent’s behalf. Roman winced at his tone and Logan considered it for a long moment. “I won’t tell them,” Logan finally said.

Roman’s head jerked up in surprise. “I… really?”

“You are an adult now, Roman. You can make your own decisions and, in this case, your choices didn’t seem to do you any lasting harm.”

Roman blinked at him. “But I thought you were like… lame.”

Logan couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Oh, I certainly am,” he said. “But even lame people can surprise you.”

Roman squinted at him. “You’re really not going to tattle on me?”

“No,” Logan said, “though I would very much suggest you talk to them about it yourself.”

“I… maybe.”

“What did happen, Roman?” Logan asked.

“I… it was stupid.”

Logan raised an eyebrow.

“No, seriously. I have superstrength for goodness sake, I would have been fine.” Logan crossed his arms and Roman’s lips twitched. “Are you dadding me?”

“Perhaps, I understand I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”

Roman laughed slightly, but it faded rather quickly. “I… I just… I was asked to go to the party by a couple of people. I didn’t really want to, but they’re in a production with me and we’ve been hanging out a bit outside of practice. They invited me and I didn’t want to ruin it by not going, but then I lost them at the party and couldn’t find them. I don’t know if they left or what, but… I ended up alone. I didn’t know where it was or how to get home and they were my ride. The party was so loud, and someone dumped a drink on me to top it all off. I just… couldn’t handle it all of a sudden. I should have just walked. I mean… I have superstrength after all. It would have been fine. I just was being…” He looked at Logan and corrected himself. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“The city can be dangerous even for those who have superpowers. Asking to be picked up was a rational decision, and I would suggest you do it again if a similar situation arises. Though perhaps without trying to hide it from all adults.”

“Yeah, okay,” Roman agreed.

“I can even give you my phone number so you can call me directly, just in case.”

“Oh, okay,” Roman said, seeming surprised by the offer.

“Now, is there anything you have to be back on campus for early in the morning?”

“Uh, no. I don’t have anything tomorrow.”

“Good. I will make you a bed on the couch. When Virgil gets back with a change of clothing, you can take a quick shower.”

“Tea first,” Patton said, coming back into the room with a mug for each of them. “Sit,” he said to Roman, nodding at one of the chairs. Roman sat and accepted the tea.

“Thank you,” Roman said, looking at it.

Patton patted him on the head. “You’re okay,” Patton said soothingly when Roman leaned into the touch just a bit.

Virgil came back down the steps then with a bundle of fabric in his arms. “I think these will work. I’m also letting you borrow my hoodie, but it’s my favorite so you better give it back tomorrow,” Virgil said setting the bundle next to him. It was, in fact, Virgil’s favorite hoodie. It was the one Patton had given him when he first moved in. Logan was surprised he was willing to lend it to anyone.

Roman looked at him, his eyes saying ‘thank you,’ but his mouth said. “Do you own anything with color?”

“The pants aren’t mine,” Virgil said poking him in the chest. “And no.”

Roman laughed, the tension finally fully leaking from him. “Please let me take you shopping.”

“Hell. No.”