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Language:
English
Series:
Part 73 of Labeled , Part 45 of Sometimes Labels Shift
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Published:
2023-02-08
Completed:
2024-03-24
Words:
2,204
Chapters:
4/4
Comments:
142
Kudos:
365
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2,354

Tales From Logan's Office

Summary:

Virgil invades Logan's office. (Multiple times.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Thunk.

Logan sighed, rubbing his forehead as he clicked on the next email he had to deal with.

Thunk.

For alleged adults, there were many students who could not figure out how to acquire a simple math textbook despite there being two bookstores on campus and written instructions in Logan’s syllabus.

Thunk.

Even fewer knew how to reach out to the campus’s technical support and for some reason were under the impression that Logan would know how to fix their issues with getting their laptops to connect to the campus wi-fi. Of course, he probably could fix it, but that was very much not his job.

Thunk.

He redirected two student emails to the IT department and told the other to check out one of the bookstores.

Thunk.

“You know,” Logan said. “I thought I would miss you much more when you moved out.”

He glanced down and to the side of his desk and immediately met the eyes of his son. Virgil was staring at him with a blank expression even as the rubber ball he’d just thrown at Logan’s office wall again returned to his hand.

“You should tell your colleagues not to assign homework during the first week of classes,” Virgil told him. He tossed the ball again and it smacked the wall between his own feet because, of course, Virgil couldn’t sit normally. No. He was laying on the floor with his shoes leaving scuff marks on Logan’s wall.

“It’s 5 questions on set theory,” Logan said. “You know set theory.”

“That’s not the point,” Virgil said. “It’s syllabus week.”

“It’s Friday,” Logan said, turning back to his computer. “And I’m sure Dr. Ferguson simply assigned it to give you a chance to acclimate to the online homework system before assigning more difficult work.”

“A likely story,” Virgil said. “I’m certain math teachers are just evil as a rule.”

Logan side eyed him only to see him smirking, proud of his cheek.

“I made a mistake telling you my office hours,” Logan said, shaking his head.

“There is no escape for you,” Virgil agreed gravely. He threw the ball once again.

“You know I will eventually have students in here.”

Virgil shrugged. “I’m a student.”

“You’re not my student.”

Virgil shrugged again.

“If you were my student I wouldn’t tolerate this behavior,” Logan grumbled. Unfortunately, he was Logan’s son and was very aware of his privileges.

Virgil hummed and threw the ball once more. “Having anything good for lunch?” he asked.

Logan sighed. “Don’t you have a meal plan?”

Virgil tilted his head back to look at Logan with huge pleading eyes.

“Am I buying you nachos or are we going to the Hideout?”

“When’s Patton’s lunch break?” Virgil asked. “If Patton can go, the Hideout. Otherwise, nachos.”

“I’ll text him,” Logan said.

“Cool.”

Logan pulled out his phone.

Thunk.

Logan pursed his lips and tilted his phone so he could snap a picture of the miscreant on his floor. He attached the picture with the message “It’s forcing me to buy it lunch. Are you going to be free at 11:30?”

Chapter 2

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“My office hours start in 10 minutes,” Logan reminded. He’d been answering emails for the past half hour or so while Virgil chilled (his posture very purposefully incorrect with his legs resting on the wall) on one of his office chairs.

Virgil hummed, flicking through his notes for his next class. “So?”

“You,” Logan said, “are being exiled from this room during office hours.”

“Why?” Virgil asked with a frown.

“Because last time you and my TA got into an argument about which of the dining halls was the most haunted, terrifying two of my freshman calculus students.”

Virgil stifled a grin at that. Cas was a senior who had been Logan’s TA a few semesters now. He and Virgil got along pretty well… to Logan’s chagrin.

“It doesn’t matter that they were freshmen,” Virgil argued. “I’m a freshman too! I knew it was just a joke.”

“You are a freshman who has half lived on this campus for the last couple of summers,” Logan pointed out dryly, looking over his glasses at Virgil. “You don’t count.” He returned his eyes to his computer. “Now out.”

Virgil frowned at him, but that was fair enough. “Fine,” he groused, moving to pick up his notes and stuff them in his backpack. “I want coffee anyway.” He slung the backpack over his shoulder and stretched before moving to hover at Logan’s side.

Logan glanced at him. “Yes?”

“Can I have money for coffee?”

“The dining hall has coffee.”

“Haven’t you heard?” Virgil asked with a grin. “Dining hall’s haunted.”

Logan scoffed.

“We both know you have a department meeting at 3 today,” Virgil reminded him, “and you won’t have time to get your normal cup of coffee. Do you really want me to get you dining hall coffee?”

Logan sighed and reached for his wallet. He pulled out a 20-dollar bill.

“You want change back?” Virgil asked, taking it.

“No,” Logan replied. “Use it to buy a snack.”

“Cool,” Virgil said with a grin. He leaned forward to give Logan a quick side hug. “I’ll bring it by at the end of your office hour before your meeting. Iced latte with no sugar and extra whipped cream, yeah?” Virgil asked, his hand already on the door.

“Do not,” Logan said firmly. Virgil pretended to ignore him and closed the door with a snap behind him. He grinned at the couple of students waiting outside Logan’s office for his office hours to begin. Then, he began making his way down the familiar path to the Hideout.

Notes:

And yes, for the OG fans, we do have a Cas Porter cannon appearance.

Also there will be a slightly more serious entry to the Sometimes Labels Shift Series later today so watch out for that.

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Logan couldn’t help but smile slightly to himself at the framed picture he’d just put on his desk. Logan didn’t have too many personal artifacts on his desk in his on-campus office. He had a few photos and exactly one trinket (a little tiny snow globe with a klein bottle, or at least a 3-D representation of one, in it). All of these were courtesy of Patton. The new photo he’d just put up had been courtesy of Patton as well. His husband had forwarded him the picture this morning after finding it on the university’s social media.

It was a photo Logan had never seen of his son before, one that must have been taken by some student group during one of the welcome week activities this past August. He was wearing the T-shirt incoming freshman had gotten as a gift for being one of the first 500 students at one of the welcoming activities this year. (Virgil had been very proud of himself for getting it.) Logan could tell it had just been given to him as the shirt he’d originally been wearing was poking out from under it at the neck. He must have just pulled it on over what he'd been wearing.

Virgil had gone to every one of those welcome week activities, mostly for the “free shit.”

In the photo, Virgil’s hair was soaking wet from a water balloon that had at some point been tossed at him. (Logan had been sure to stay far away from the quad that day). There was still a bit of bright orange rubber in his hair.

He looked happy, like any normal freshman. The people around him in the photo, his classmates, his roommate, his professors would have no idea looking at that photo what he’d gone through in his earlier teenage years. It no longer showed on his face.

Well, at least, it did not show all the time.

The new photo sat next to a photo of the entire wedding party from Logan and Patton’s wedding. Three of the seven people in the wedding photo were dead. Logan had put that photo away for years and hadn’t taken it back out until, well, around when he’d adopted Virgil.

The last photo was one of just Patton and Virgil from only a few months after Virgil had come to live with them. Logan had taken the photo himself. Patton was asleep in an armchair and Virgil was looking at the camera curiously. Patton had framed that photo and brought it to Logan’s office himself. It had been the only one on his desk for a while; Logan had never touched it.

The boy in that picture was very different than the one in the photo Logan had just had printed off and framed that morning. Yet, they were the same. And it would be the same boy who would blast his way into Logan’s office 15 minutes from now. He had a 30-minute break between classes, and he apparently considered Logan’s personal space his own personal space.

He was right.

Chapter 4

Chapter Text

Virgil hesitated outside of Logan’s office door in a way he hadn’t done since the first summer he spent with him and Patton. He knew Logan was in there and probably just busy grading unless he’d already finished all of it. Logan was predictable like that.

Logan was… Logan was very predictable. So predictable that Virgil knew exactly what would happen if he knocked on that door and said what he’d come here to say.

And yet he hesitated.

It was like there were two Virgil’s in his head, at odds with one another. One Virgil knew everything was alright and was going to be alright and that Logan would help it feel alright much quicker. The other Virgil wanted to drop out of college, find a small space somewhere, and curl up into a ball while waiting to die. These two Virgil’s existed completely separate from one another, unable to affect each other or inspire Virgil to action, and left him rooted to the spot outside his dad’s office.

He was finally unfrozen when the door to Logan’s office swung open revealing Logan’s TA, Cas. “Oh, hi Virgil,” Cas said as though there wasn’t anything unusual about this, though for him there probably wasn’t.

Virgil swallowed down the go-cry-in-a-corner Virgil for a moment and said “Hey.”

Cas smiled and held the door open for him.

Well, Virgil supposed he didn’t have a choice now. (It was probably for the best.)

He walked through the door into Logan’s office, doing his best to not let Cas see his anxiety. The door closed behind him.

Logan glanced up at him briefly and seemed unconcerned when he saw it was him. “Hello, Virgil,” he said, turning back to his computer. “This isn’t the usual time you invade my office. Do you need something?”

Even if Virgil could think of words to say right now, they would probably have died in his throat. There were 3 seconds of silence, 4. After a 5 second pause, Logan looked back up at him.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

Virgil tugged at the sleeves of his hoodie and nodded. He had Logan’s full attention now and that was a relief for the rational part of him that had brought him here even while it made the anxious side of him squirm.

Logan stood up from his chair and rounded his desk. “Sit,” he told Virgil. Virgil sat.

He could feel Logan studying him but couldn’t bring himself to meet his eyes.

“Physical?” Logan asked. It was always the first thing Logan checked even though physical injury rarely put Virgil in this state. Virgil shook his head. “Social?” Virgil shook his head again. “Academic?” Virgil hesitated but then nodded.

“I see,” Logan said. “It is Thursday afternoon. Is anything past due, due tonight, or due tomorrow.”

Virgil shook his head.

“Okay. Then I will take you home tonight for the weekend.”

“I have class tomorrow,” Virgil managed to say, wringing his hands.

“You have class with Dr. Simmons,” Logan said. “She has mental health days in her syllabus for a reason. This is the reason.”

“I can go,” Virgil said quietly. “I’ll be fine.”

“You certainly could,” Logan agreed. “You do not need to.”

Virgil felt a bit of the vice grip that had been squeezing his chest loosen. “I need to…” he tried tentatively.

“You need to pack an overnight bag while I teach my last class of the day,” Logan said,
“and then sit on your bed watching whatever silly Youtube things you do while waiting for me to pick you up. We will discuss what needs to be done with your schoolwork tomorrow afternoon after you have had time to rest. You will have the entire weekend to complete whatever task is worrying you.”

“I shouldn’t skip class.”

Logan waved him off. “Do you know how many classes I skipped for worse reasons as a student?” he asked. “And now I’m a professor dealing with students skipping my courses for even worse reasons than that.”

“…Okay.”

“Good,” Logan said. “Now would you like a hug?” Despite everything, he couldn’t help but smile slightly at the business-like tone Logan took to ask. Maybe at one point he would have felt uncomfortable about it, but now he knew it was just Logan making sure he was comfortable with it before touching him.

Virgil nodded.

“Thank you,” Virgil said once Logan had reached forward to hug him.

“Anytime,” Logan said back. “My office is always open for you.”