Wednesday October 21st, 2020: 3:17 PM

"Did you get my text?" Virgil asked quietly

Roman blinked, looking up from the TV over to Virgil and Remy, "Hello, Stormcloud, I didn't hear you come in. I didn't see your text,"

"Can Remy sleep here?"

Roman's smile fell a little as he looked between the two of them. Virgil wasn't an idiot; they knew Remy and they looked absolutely terrible after the shit day they had, and Virgil was sure they both seemed ready to fall asleep on their feet. Roman seemed to notice this too, relaxing a little, "Sure," he said evenly, "Door open, please,"

Virgil nodded, not having it in them to be bothered about it, "Thank you," they said.

"Of course, my prince," Roman said softly, "I love you,"

Virgil pointed to themself, then crossed both of their arms over their chest in a way that resembled an X, then finally pointed to Roman, repeating his message in ASL. Sometimes, signing what Virgil meant instead of speaking it out loud was the most they could do, which Roman understood.

Virgil turned away and grabbed Remy's hand to lead him upstairs. Quickly dropping their bag onto the floor, Virgil walked to their closet, grabbing pajamas for them and Remy. When they returned, Remy had taken a seat on their bed, shoes abandoned by the door that was cracked open. Despite the fact that it was barely three in the afternoon, Virgil shoved the pair of pajamas into Remy's hands, leaving him the bedroom to get changed in as they moved to the bathroom.

"We gonna talk, babe?" Remy asked after Virgil returned.

Virgil collapsed onto the bed next to Remy, "Figured we should wait until we've both had more than three hours of sleep," they murmured.

Remy snorted, "Okay. Yeah. That's fair,"

"Mhm," Virgil said sleepily.

Remy smiled, pushing Virgil's hair away from their face, "Nap time?" Remy asked, amused.

"Nap time." Virgil confirmed.

———

Thursday October 22nd, 2020: 12:32 PM

"So, we gonna talk about why you've been acting so weird, babe?" Remy said as he put the car in park. Virgil remained silent, digging around the bag to pull out their food. Remy allowed the obvious stalling to continue for a while, taking the bag from Virgil to get his own food. After a few moments of silence, Remy sighed, "I don't understand why you won't just let me help you, Virgil."

"It's not that easy," Virgil muttered, stabbing their food nugget with a fork more aggressively than necessary.

Remy scoffed, "Yeah well, maybe if you just told me what was going on–"

"You're not my therapist, Remy,"

Remy threw one hand up, aggravated, "I fucking know that, Virgil. I'm not trying to be your therapist, what I am trying to be is your boyfriend,"

Virgil abandoned stabbing their chicken nugget, turning to face Remy, "Then stop trying to fix all my issues,"

"That's part of being in a relationship with someone, Virgil. I want to help you!"

"Well, you shouldn't have to!" The silence that followed was deafening. Virgil looked away, staring out the window, "I'm fucking broken, Remy," Virgil whispered, trying not to cry, "I'll always be broken, no matter how good things are and you don't deserve to deal with that,"

"Baby," Remy said sadly, leaning over to cup Virgil's face in his hands, turning them to face him, "I'm not expecting you to be perfect. I'm not perfect. So, yeah maybe I have an ego the size of New York," Virgil laughed a little, surprised by the comment, "but I still make mistakes, and I still struggle, and I still have problems. I'm not... any better than you. We're both human, pumpkin,"

"But," Virgil's voice cracked, and their eyes darted to meet Remy's for a second before moving down again, "you take care of me all the time. And I can't always do that for you,"

Remy furrowed his brow, "You do take care of me, V. How about a few weeks ago when we were gonna go on a date, but you could tell I was exhausted so you made me stay home and cuddle so I could nap, huh?"

"But that wasn't... that wasn't just–it's not... it's different!" Virgil stammered, growing frustrated.

"Okay, hun," Remy said softly, rubbing Virgil's cheek with his thumb, "I feel like this is confusing so imma start over; I love you, and one way I show that love is by taking care of you. Sometimes that means the small things like driving you to school, or getting you food, but sometimes that also means helping you when you have a panic attack, or being nearby so you feel safe. I like doing that shit for you, V. It's not an inconvenience or a nuisance and neither are you,"

"I feel bad," Virgil whispered, leaning into Remy's hand, "I don't like being... annoying or clingy but I can't stop,"

"You aren't annoying, V," Remy reassured, "If anything, I'm the annoying one. And you're allowed to be clingy all you want, I am your boyfriend you know,"

Virgil huffed, "Yeah, I know," they said, sounding sad.

Remy leaned over to place a kiss on their forehead, brushing their hair away from their face, "I hope ya know that I signed up for all of you; the good, the bad, all of it. And I know my own boundaries, Pumpkin, and you're just gonna have to trust me on that,"

Virgil frowned, "Fine, but I don't have to stop being emo about it,"

Remy snorted, "God no, I would never make you promise that,"

I already have the next few chapters (where shit actually gets insane) half written so hopefully one day I will update this again lol.

Thanks for reading!!!
-Apollo