Work Text:
Logan stood outside a local cafe and checked his wrist watch. 12:30 pm on the dot. Right on time. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to a group chat titled ‘The Golden Trio’:
I am outside the cafe. Please don’t
be too long.
Patton:
Almost there Logan! Mind getting us seats??? :3
Sure.
He shoved his phone back into his pocket and headed inside. Upon entering he was immediately hit with the smell of fresh coffee beans and the sound of light chatter. After a quick scan of the room he found a table for four in the corner and deemed it a worthy spot. He walked up to it and chose the chair facing the door, hanging his satchel on the back of it. He was only sitting alone for about 3 minutes when his friends, Patton and Roman, walked through the door.
“Logan!” Patton said loud enough for the entire cafe to hear. Roman placed his hand on Patton's shoulder, signaling him to quiet down a tad. Patton sat next to Logan and Roman sat across from the two.
“I’m glad we are able to keep up these meetings, it’s nice to see you Logan” Roman said, throwing his arm to rest on the back of the chair.
The three of them tried to get together at least once a month, more if possible, just to catch up on things. They have all been friends since 8th grade and have been through a lot together. Puberty, breakups and all sorts of drama. As they grew older life got in the way and they weren’t able to hang as often as they used to or would like to.
Patton offered to go up and order everyone's drinks. He quickly typed everyone's order into his notes app and headed for the counter. Roman yapped about some local theatre drama while Logan listened attentively. Logan didn’t care for theatre or for drama, but he cared for Roman. An unlikely duo those two were, but they worked somehow.
A little less than 10 minutes later, Patton returned with the drinks and passed them out. Once the three of them were adjusted and happily sipping away at their drinks, Roman figured it was the best time to speak.
“Alright guys, so I’ve been thinking-”
“Shocking for you” Logan interrupted with a small chuckle
“Shut it,” Roman continued “I have been thinking about what I wanted to do for my 28th birthday, and I decided I want the three of us to go to my mothers beach house for the week!”
When he finished, he looked at them both waiting for their input. Patton immediately agreed.
“Ooooh! That sounds so fun!” He chirped. He has always been a fan of traveling, even if it wasn't far.
Logan set down his coffee and thought about it for a moment. He personally didn’t see birthdays as a big deal, but he knew it was important for his friend. That was all he truly needed to make his decision.
“Sure. When would we leave?” Logan finally answered. Roman beamed and threw his fists in the air triumphantly. Patton cheered with him.
“OKAY! So my birthday is still like a month away, so make sure to take June 14th to the 22nd off of work!” Roman said, waving his hands around in pure excitement. “I want to have enough time for maximum birthday activities!”
Logan grabbed his planner from his satchel and wrote those dates down, making a mental note to take those days off.
The rest of their meetup was filled with bringing up old stories, talk of their stressful lives and Romans birthday. After all the goodbyes, Logan got back into his car and took a deep breath. He didn’t love the idea of taking a whole week off from work. He worked at a history museum in the next town over, and with school ending the museum has been picking up traffic wise, so the idea of just a nice week with his friends was quite appealing. He called his boss on the drive home. Logan has a perfect attendance record at his job so his boss, reluctantly, gave him the week off without any real issue.
- One Week Until Romans Birthday -
The days leading up to the trip came and went fast. Logan was packing up some last minute things into a small backpack. He set all of his things by the door when he felt his phone buzz. It was a text from Patton.
Patton:
Gonna be there in a minute! You'll be in the back seat behind me =D
Logan shut his phone off, put his shoes on, grabbed all his things and headed out. As he approached the car Patton rolled his window down.
“Need help at all?”
“I’m alright, could you have Roman open up the trunk though?” Logan made his way towards the back of the car as the trunk opened. He set his stuff down nicely bringing only his phone, a book and his water bottle to his seat. As he sat in his seat Roman turned to face him.
“Are you ready for the best week of your life!?”
“Let's not get ahead of ourselves now.” Logan retorted. Roman pouted dramatically and faced forward again to drive.
The drive was almost two hours long. The first hour or so was energetic. The two boys up front gushed on about all the fun things they will get to do. The second half of the drive was not so energetic. With theater tunes playing from the radio the drive was comfortably silent.
Up until they pulled into the driveway of the beach house.
As they started up the unnecessarily long driveway, Roman started trying to hype the car up. Talking about how beautiful the house was, how they’ll each get their own rooms, just anything to bring the vibes up. Roman’s loud voice became dead silent once the house came into view. Patton noticed his silence.
“Everything okay? He asked, after a second of silence Roman finally spoke.
“Oh you have got to be kidding.” Roman said, raising his voice.
“What is it?” Patton asked, now really getting worried.
“My stupid brother is here” The silence in the car suddenly felt very loud. Logan and Patton looked at each other, both looked uneasy.
Patton and Logan knew about the twins and their rocky relationship. The two used to be very close until their dad passed away when they were 11. Remus was very close with their dad, and when he died Remus didn’t fully understand where his dad went. How could he just die? He turned into someone Roman didn’t recognize. Sneaking out, getting angry at everything, isolating himself. Roman didn’t like this new Remus, and would ultimately ice him out for the remainder of their childhood.
He parked next to his twin's car and headed for the door, mumbling curses as he stomped towards the front door.
The other two, being forgotten in the car, decided to follow Roman inside the house. Patton took the lead and opened the door hesitantly. As they walked in the two boys came into view. The twins were standing in the kitchen arguing with one another. Logan noticed two of Remus’ friends sitting on the couch, looking as uncomfortable as they were. He pointed them out to Patton and the two walked over to them, hoping to make some light of the situation.
Remus’s friends noticed them walking over and made room for the other two on the couch. Patton sat down next to the purple-haired boy he remembered from high school. Logan decided to stay standing by the couch. Patton whispered to his old classmate.
“It was Virgil right?” His question seemed to surprise the boy.
“Uhh yeah...I’m surprised you remember me,” He whispered back. The two chatted back and forth for maybe a minute before Remus left Roman alone and walked up the group.
“What’s up dweebs?” He stood next to Logan with his arms crossed. His friend dressed in yellow spoke up first.
“So we’re just gonna act like that didn’t happen?” he gestured to the twins.
“Oh that?” Remus pointed to his brother “That’s just nothing, just a small nuisance. We can just ignore him,” Roman did not like that. He stormed up to his brother.
“Don’t act all high and mighty. You aren’t even supposed to be here. I cleared it with mom and she said I had permission to use the beach house!” He huffed in his twin's face.
“Tough,” Remus said, enunciating the last syllable. “My friends and I got here first, and we aren’t going anywhere,” Roman's face was getting redder and redder by the minute. Patton decided to step in.
“Can we all just calm down? Maybe we could come up with a compromise?” Patton said nervously, hands up peacefully. Remus looked down at him, smirked, then walked over to his brother. Nudging him in the arm.
“Uh oh, we're making your little friend nervous” he pouted sarcastically, “we better get our act together or he might cry.” Roman really didn’t like that.
“Leave my friends out of this fucker” Roman said coldly. His brother almost looked shocked. Remus’ friends both stood and walked up to Remus.
“Dude let’s not cause a scene, we barely know these people” Virgil whispered at him, clearly very uncomfortable.
“Yeah man you need to cool it, we can work something out, kay?” his other friend chimed in. Remus huffed and looked towards his brother. Who was talking to Patton. Logan, who had been silently observing the whole time, decided to finally speak up.
“The compromise is obvious isn’t it?” He said. All eyes turned to him. “There is enough space for everyone here. We split the rooms up and we all just mind our business and co-exist. That way no one has to go home, and everyone is happy.” He finished up with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Roman rushed up to him and whispered to him.
“Do you really wanna stay here with these guys?”
“Not particularly. But I know that both of you are incredibly stubborn and neither of you will give this place up, so it’s either give up and give the place to him or suck it up and deal with it.” he replied. Roman looked like he had more to say, like he wanted to respond and defend himself, but he knew Logan was right. Roman turned to everyone else.
“Does that work for everyone else?” He asked. Everyone shook their heads quickly. Ready for this debacle to be over. Remus muttered under his breath. “Whatever”.
From that moment on the trip went from a casual getaway for three friends, to a group-bonding trip with double the amount of people.
The first order of business was to discuss the rooming situation. With there being six people and three bedrooms they were going to have to partner up. Roman and Remus refused to sleep in the same room, so that meant one person from each group would have to share a room together. Logan commented about how he knew Virgil decently well as they were familiar with one another in high school, and still checked in with each other frequently. Virgil hummed in agreement. So the group decided that Roman and Patton would be in the master bedroom on the first floor. Remus and his friend, Janus, would be in the guest bedroom. Leaving Logan and Virgil in the ‘kids room’, AKA the room with two twin beds. Which they were both more than okay with.
“Okay” Janus grumbled, “now that that’s over, I am starving” He stood up and Remus stood up after him. He walked over to the Kitchen island and grabbed his keys. He spun them around his finger as he called out to Virgil. Remus walked to the door and let his friends out first. Before he shut the door behind him he yelled out.
“Well we’re gonna go get dinner. Later losers!” He slammed the door. After a good 20 seconds of dead silence, Roman groaned and put his face into his hands.
“God, what are the chances!? What are the odds he’s here at the same time as us!?” He whined. Patton was rubbing his back. Logan sat down on the loveseat across from the couch.
“Maybe you guys are more alike than you realize,” he said.
“Don’t insult me like that ever again or I promise you I’ll hit you.”
“Exactly something your brother would say,” Logan teased.
“SHUT UP!”