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It had been a fairly quiet day for Patton so far, all things considered. Breakfast and lunch went by without a hitch, with the rest of the sides either getting along or at least pretending they did. It was far too easy for simple conversations to turn into heated arguments lately, so it was nice for today to pass as peacefully as this.
As relaxed as things had gone today, Patton still couldn’t help but notice something that he couldn’t quite shake. Despite the lack of any real crisis or conflict today, Virgil had been awfully stressed ever since he came downstairs this morning for breakfast. Well, more stressed than he usually was. He was weirdly high strung all day, always tensely circling the apartment like he was keeping an eye out for something. Virgil didn’t say what was wrong, only really responding with a muttered “don’t worry about it” anytime Patton asked.
It was… concerning to say the least, but what could he do? It was clear that whatever the problem was, Virgil wasn’t going to bring it up.
Patton couldn’t just let it be, though. Not if it was bothering his kiddo.
Virgil was at the kitchen table when Patton approached him, sitting as still as a statue. His eyes were darting frantically around the room, almost not even realizing that Patton was there at first and jumping when he finally noticed him.
“Hey there kiddo,” Patton started, one of his hands outstretched to sooth him before awkwardly falling back to his side. “Sorry to spook ya there, I was just wondering if I could do anything to help you feel better. I mean, I know you’re probably not feeling too good right now and everything.”
Virgil sighed and sat back in his chair. “It’s nothing, really. Just dealing with something right now.”
“Well, can I do anything to help?”
Virgil chuckled at that, like Patton had just made a joke without realizing it. “No, not really.”
“Oh.”
Patton fidgeted with the sleeves of his cat hoodie for a moment before brightening up again. “Well, can I get you something to eat at least? I know a cookie fixes everything!”
“Sure, I guess so.” Virgil replied, offering a barely noticeable grin.
Patton beamed back at him before dutifully heading to the counter in search of the offered snack.
“How about some milk to go with it?” Patton suggested. “I’m sure it’ll help to sweeten the deal!”
He heard Virgil let out a slight chuckle again behind him, and Patton couldn’t help but turn slightly to hopefully catch a glimpse of one of his rarely-seen genuine smiles.
Virgil’s face froze in an instant when he turned to look back at Patton. The smile vanished as quickly as it came, and was replaced with an intensely focused stare directed entirely on him.
“Uh, what’s the matter, Virge? You alright?”
“Don’t move.”
“What was that?”
Virgil got up from his seat, steadily stalking towards Patton without even blinking. “Don’t. Move.”
Patton obediently froze, mostly because he was too confused to do anything else. What was going on? Was Virgil upset? Why was he making that face?
“Um, I don’t-”
“Shut up and hold still.”
There were only a few inches of space between them now, with Virgil all but trapping Patton against the counter and leering way closer than he usually preferred to get to anyone. He slowly reached for Patton’s shoulder, and Patton could only close his eyes in anticipation for whatever this was.
What was this anyway? A hug, maybe? Virgil never really gave hugs before, but what else would he-
“Gotcha.”
Patton opened his eyes at that, still expecting to see Virgil looming over him and was surprised with how quickly he had backed away in the few seconds that Patton wasn’t looking. He was standing back at the table now and looking much more relaxed as he muttered something under his breath. For a moment Patton thought Virgil was still talking to him, until he noticed that his focus was on something he held in his hands instead.
“Hey Virgil? What uh, what was that just now?”
Virgil looked back up at him for a moment, awkwardly clutching whatever he was holding closer to his chest. “Look, I know that was weird, but just forget about it, alright?”
“Whatcha got there?”
“You really don’t wanna know.”
“Yes I do! You’ve been acting weird all day and it’s been getting me all kinds of worried about you! If whatever you’ve got there is the reason you were so stressed out earlier, I wanna know about it.”
Virgil looked away for a moment, nervously chewing his lip. “Alright, fine. Whatever. But don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he sighed, before finally opening his hands and letting Patton see.
It was a spider.
A huge, hairy, terrifying spider. A spider that was very real and very alive, currently twitching around in Virgil’s hands and flooding Patton’s nerves with electric fear from each tiny and unpredictable movement it made. It could jump on him, it could bite him and hurt him, it could even get away and hide in Patton’s room to haunt him, which only made sense since spiders really were the stuff of nightmares as far as he was concerned.
“He sneaked out of my room this morning,” Virgil explained. “I’ve been looking for him all day, I was getting kind of worried that Roman or Remus might have killed it.” Virgil’s eyes flicked up to Patton’s for a moment, but Patton barely registered it past the fear-induced haze he was under. “He uh… he was on your shoulder. Just now. That’s where I found him.”
Patton took a step back until he was fully pressed against the kitchen counter. It had been on his shoulder? That thing was on him and he didn’t even know about it? It could have killed him, it could have-
“Hey, it’s not like he bites or anything,” Virgil hurriedly added. “He’s actually pretty friendly, I think he just thought you guys were buddies or something.”
Patton tried his best to calm down. Okay, so Virgil said it was friendly. It wouldn’t hurt him or anything if it was friendly to him, right? Right???
Virgil gently set the spider on his own shoulder, letting it wander up into his hair where it settled back down like a bird in its nest. Patton could only watch in equal parts terror and awe. How was Virgil so relaxed right now? A spider just crawled all over him and into his hair, Patton usually has nightmares about that sort of thing happening! Then again, Virgil probably doesn’t. He had always really liked spiders, for whatever reason, and if he had been that concerned about his (apparently pet) spider, then there must be something about them that Patton wasn’t seeing.
“This is exactly why I didn’t wanna say anything,” Virgil groaned, hunching in on himself. “I knew you’d freak out if I told you there was an escaped spider on the loose somewhere, that’s why I tried to find him before anyone else did.”
“That’s uh, that’s nice of you, kiddo.” Patton managed to choke out, trying his best not to focus on the spider still in Virgil’s hair. “Sorry if I kinda overreacted there. I’m sure that it wouldn’t really hurt me on purpose or anything, but I just can’t help but get a little nervous around them.”
“Honestly, I’m kind of impressed you didn’t faint or anything,” Virgil joked. “Last I remember you went catatonic over some patterned curtains, so I was sure you’d lose it over the real thing.”
Patton shrugged, not able to really defend himself from that one. Spiders were just so scary to him; he couldn’t help but freeze up or flinch when he was around them. He really needed to get over this fear of his, spiders weren’t actually as dangerous as his mind convinced him they were.
“Maybe I could… “ Patton started, ignoring the lurch of panic in his chest that was screaming at him to run run run. “Maybe I could try to hold him? If that’s okay with you, I mean. Just so I can get used to him and everything. You said he doesn’t bite, right? That he’s friendly and all that?”
Virgil blinked at him for a moment before responding. “Uh, yeah. He’s really chill, he just likes napping with people. You know you don’t really have to hold him if you don’t want to.”
“No, I know, I just wanna see if that can make it less scary for me.”
“Promise you won’t drop him or throw him or anything?”
Patton let out a nervous chuckle. “I’ll try my best as long as he doesn’t scare me too much.”
“…Alright, then. If you’re sure.”
Virgil reached a hand up into his hair with a sigh, where he easily grabbed the spider and delicately placed it in Patton’s trembling hands.
The spider was so much bigger now that he was holding it. This thing was hiding on his shoulder earlier and he didn’t notice it? It was nearly the size of his palm, how could it be so sneaky?
The spider didn’t look like it minded that Patton was holding it one bit. It nestled in and lay still in his trembling hands, like it was getting ready to go to sleep.
“Oh yeah, he definitely likes you,” Virgil said. “You’re doing really great, by the way.”
Patton let out a shaky laugh at that. If someone had told him that he would be voluntarily holding a gigantic spider like this without completely panicking, he’d probably have laughed in that person’s face. It just wasn’t something he thought was possible yet here he was, letting a spider make itself comfortable with him while he tried his darndest to do the same.
Up close like this, it was weirdly almost even cute, in a nightmare inducing way. It stared up at him with giant eyes that looked like they could belong on a stuffed animal, and its fluffy skin brushed against his palm like it were the soft fur of a tiny dog. It could probably still bite him if it wanted to, but then again, so could a dog, and right now it wasn’t moving all over the place faster than his eyes could follow, so he could maybe even convince himself it was just a fake decoration.
Not like that would have made it any better. He still tenses up at the thought of Virgil’s curtains.
But hey, Patton was able to get used to Remus, surely a fluffy little spider like this one couldn’t be that much tougher for him to learn to deal with.
“Does he have a name?” he asked.
“Marcus.”
Patton nervously smiled down at his hopefully soon-to-be new buddy, cautiously petting it with his thumb while Virgil watched.
“Hi there, Marcus. You know, I don't think I'm as scared of you as I thought I’d be.”
Marcus gave him a lazy wave with one of its many limbs before finally dozing off.