TW: Brief mention of suicide

Virgil's POV

I sat on the grass with my back against the wall of the station and my knees pulled tightly to my chest. My breaths were coming faster and faster as I squeezed my eyes closed and hid my face in my hands.

I was so stupid! How could I ever think for a second that Roman would take my feelings seriously, let alone love me back? My chest throbbed in pain as if my body knew the wound Roman had just given me.

He was like a totally different Roman than the demigod I danced with in Pandemonium, or the boy that told me he still cared about me when I locked myself in the Hades cabin. He actually started to scare me. When he trapped me against that tree I was convinced that he was going to pull a Sebastian.

Sebastian. 500 miles away and he still manages to destroy every shred of happiness I have. At least Logan came to my rescue.

I wiped the tears off of my face in vain as another wave of tears came flooding from my eyes and I choked back a sob. I really had thought that even if every other demigod shunned me, I'd still have Patton, Logan and Roman. But Patton's gone and Roman might as well be.

"All I did is do what you would've done before Patton taught you otherwise!" Roman's angry voice floated from around the corner. I pulled the sides of my hood down even further like I could disappear. "You know that it's logical for us to find out what it is! It's not like you to make emotions more important than logic!"

"And it's not like you to ignore someones feelings! Especially Virgil's!" I heard Logan retort sternly.

They both went quiet and I clamped a shaking hand over my mouth to make sure I didn't make any noise. Roman mumbled something I couldn't make out, walked up the stairs, and closed the door behind him as he went inside. I let my arm fall to the side as I dropped my face into my knees.

It was silent for a second, except for distant animal noises from the forest and my heavy breathing. It was broken when footsteps on the grass grew closer and Logan appeared from around the corner.

"Virgil?" He said cautiously. "Are you alright?"

When I didn't answer, he sighed and sat next to me. Not too far, but still giving me space. I still had my head hidden in my knees but I knew he was going to stay silent until I decided to say something.

"Honestly, not really." I finally answered. "But what did you expect when the man I love decided to go all 'interrogation mode' on me, basically told me my feelings for him don't matter, and called me-"

I broke off and lifted my head. I could see Logan looking at me out of the corner of my eye, but I stared at the ground.

"...Called me Virgil Morgenstern." I winced as the name fell out of my mouth. My eyes burned but I really didn't want to break down in front of Logan.

"I really do not intend to pry, but can I assume that this 'secret' Roman seems obsessed with has something to do with your mortal foster family?" Logan asked softly after a moment. "A simple nod would suffice."

I hesitated for a second. The last thing I wanted to talk about now or ever was Sebastian and his assholery, but I knew Logan had issues with his mortal family so maybe he could understand a small part of what was running through my head. So I nodded slowly.

"I see." Was all Logan said right then. He was about to say something else, but his eyes were drawn to my hands. "Virgil, you're bleeding."

I looked down and examined my palms. Fat droplets of blood were still seeping through the crescent-shaped cuts on my skin from my fingernails.

"It be like that sometimes." I shrugged absentmindedly.

"No, Virgil." Logan said, shaking his head as he opened his backpack that was sat on the grass next to him. "It really shouldn't 'be like that' sometimes. Here."

He brought out a roll of bandages and held out his hand. I shoved my hands in his direction and he held one of them lightly by the wrist.

"These wounds are a bit too minor to require use of Nectar or Ambrosia, so I'm afraid mortal medicine will have to suffice." He told me as he wrapped both of my palms in the white bandages.

"It's cool." I said when he finished. I held my hands up to look at them. "Now I look like Cisco Ramon in all of season five."

Logan ignored my reference as he closed his bag once again. Neither of us said anything for a bit, until Logan spoke up.

"I won't pretend to know your situation, but perhaps my experiences could make a slight difference in your emotional state?" He looked to me for a reaction.

"Only if you want to." Is how I replied. My attention was focused on the son of Athena.

"When I was a child in Nevada I lived alone with just my father and stepfather. I rather excelled in academics, so naturally I was further in grades than others my age." He began. "I was also ahead in maturity, resulting in my fellow students not exactly liking me at school. I didn't have a single friend, but I attempted to bury myself in books and knowledge to avoid any complicated feelings of any sort. As I was much smarter than even some adults, my mortal parents took this as an excuse to use my intelligence for their benefit."

I sat up a bit straighter, knowing that that this wasn't going to be a typical teenager rant of 'my parents don't let me do hard drugs and go to parties alone, ugh they're the worst.' that I always heard at my old high school.

"I was younger than ten years old, but they had managed to acquire multiple jobs for me once they had demonstrated to the employers my aptitude. My mortal parents would take all the money I had earned from these numerous jobs, and bring it to the casinos in Las Vegas. Them, being rather dull, would never win anything they had bet on." Logan continued. "So they would bring me along with them on their casino excursions. I would calculate algorithms for the largest chances of victory and tell them other people's tells to get them to win. If I ever made one miscalculation while helping them they would lock me in the basement for the night. Children of Athena are all terrified of spiders, so when they had found that out they would use it to their advantage."

Logan's face had lost his default robot expression as he dived deeper into memory.

"The basement was riddled with spiders. Although most were harmless, I would never get any sleep during those nights. No lights, no air conditioning, no where to sleep except the concrete floor." Logan said, his voice slowly getting quieter. "So I learned the consequences of not being smart enough. Be incorrect, be punished. Be correct, your prize is not being punished. They would collect the money I'd win for them and spend it all on alcohol and expensive clothes for themselves. When I turned ten in November, I finally had saved enough money for a bus to anywhere I wanted to go. The night I ran away, I met Joan at the train station and they told me about a place on the Long Island Sound where I could be safe. They escorted me there, and-"

He broke out of his trance and pushed up his glasses.

"Well, it took a little while but eventually my circumstances and mental state improved substantially." He looked at me from the corner as if gauging my reaction.

I offered a sad smile. Sure, Logan's family life may not've been as grim as mine but I felt nothing but sympathy for him. I was just so happy that the son of Athena had gotten out of that situation as fast as he could. Joan to the rescue once again.

"Here," Logan opened out one of his arms like he was asking for a hug. I looked at him, a bit confused. Then he clarified: "Patton taught me that physical affection can improve an individual's emotional state."

I smiled and gave a quiet laugh. Then I leaned into the side of my friend, resting my head on his shoulder.

Life was so messed up. The man Logan loved was kidnapped and apparently hidden in Florida somewhere, and the man I loved was being a complete dickhead. At least we still had each other, the depressed emo and the know-it-all genius, to lean on. I took a deep breath.

"One time I had a dream. A dream where I had everything I wanted." I started. Logan hummed in acknowledgement. "But it wasn't what you'd expect. It wasn't money, superpowers, famous celebrities, or fictional characters. All I wanted was to escape. Escape my life."

I ran my thumb over the rough fabric of the bandage wrapped around my hand.

"So I dreamed that I jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge." I said simply. Logan leaned his head on mine in comfort. "I wasn't even in high school yet and the thing I wanted most in the world was to die. Some people, people like Sebastian and Martin- they made an eleven year old kid fantasize, fucking FANTASIZE, about dying."

A tear slipped down my cheek.

"Sometimes I have that same dream." I whispered.

Logan didn't say anything, but we both knew he didn't have to. In the raging hurricane that made up both of our lives, the only thing we had in that moment was each other.

So we sat there. We sat there until I stopped shaking and my tears stopped coming.

******

Eventually we knew that we'd have to get up and continue on our quest. 

Logan stood up, and after I wiped off the last remnants of tears off my face, I followed him.

A big part of my brain was dragging me for being way too overdramatic and being a burden on Logan, but there was a tiny drowned out part that tried to tell me that it would all be fine. Still, I had to face that infuriating and stunning son of Aphrodite.

I probably looked like a homeless drug dealer with my bloodshot eyes, smudged as hell eyeshadow, and messy hair due to my full on breakdown mode, but nevertheless I trailed behind Logan wordlessly as he strode around the corner.

I hesitated for a second at the bottom of the stairs. Through the window I could see Roman sitting on one of the seats watching the TV as if he didn't have a care in the world. Gods, even the way he sat felt out of character for him. I blinked hard, sighed, then climbed the rest of the steps.

Logan was already inside and had let the door close behind him so I reached for the doorknob. Suddenly, I tensed and straightened up.

I could feel something lurking in the forest behind me. The best way I could describe it is as if I felt a displacement in the shadows.

At least seven, armed, Is what my brain told me.

I rested my hand on the pommel of my sword, which was sheathed on my waist, and turned slowly. I couldn't see anybody but I knew they were there.

"I know you're there." I called out. I felt like the main character in a movie. "Show yourself!"

Silence.

I narrowed my eyes and focused on where my instincts were telling me something was hiding: in the shadows of a big tree. Keeping my other hand on my sword, I lifted my palm in that direction like I was Iron Man and flicked it to the side.

The darkness that was hiding the creature was whisked away to reveal.....a teenager?

"Goddammit." I muttered. I was about to turn back around to go inside before I took a closer look at the guy. He was built like a less attractive Dwayne Johnson and every inch of his skin was covered in tattoos.

Eight other "teenagers" appeared from behind different tree trunks. It looked like they were all holding metal baseball bats by their sides.

"What are you? What do you want?" I asked, my hands itching to pull out my sword. But while I was sure I could take them on, I didn't want to go looking for a fight whether I felt like a raging dumpster fire or not.

The one that I had revealed from his hiding spot spoke up.

"We are Laistrygonian Giants." he answered. Were his teeth sharp as glass or was it just really bad lighting? "As for what we want, we want your head on a spike."

Giants? I thought giants were supposed to be, well, giant. Like something off the set of Thor. These guys were hardly taller than Roman or Logan.

"Yikes. Well, hate to break it to you but I kinda like my head where it is." I said as I wrapped my hand around my sword's handle tighter. "Are you sure you guys are giants? I mean, I've only been a demigod for like two months but I'm pretty sure I could battle all of you and win."

The Laistrygonian that had talked before growled, then began to grow along with the others.

They grew until they were over eight feet tall. Their teeth sharpened to a point and their mortal clothes tore off, revealing leather armour. Their baseball bats had morphed into heavy iron clubs.

I swallowed nervously as all nine Giants surrounded me and glared down at me with red eyes.

"On second thought, maybe I should get Roman and Logan's help." I considered to myself. 

One of them crashed its club down on top of me just as I unsheathed my Stygian Iron blade. I jumped to avoid it and landed in a roll at the bottom of the stairs. I jumped to my feet and sliced at one of the Giant's ankles, causing him to stumble and almost fall over as a large gash opened in his skin.

The Laistrygonian that attacked me on the stairs ran at me from behind with what I guessed was supposed to be a war cry.

"Hey genius," I said as I turned and started to run towards him. "Sneak attacks don't work when you yell out like that!"

I leaped up and planted both of my feet in the Giant's stomach. Using that momentum, I sprung off him and towards another Laistrygonian with my sword outstretched.

Just as I was about to reach the monster, another on caught me around the middle midair. 

"Come on man!" I complained. "That would've been so badass!"

Clutched in his fist, he brought way too close to his hideous face.

"Survive this, Hades spawn." The Giant growled, sunlight glinting off his pointed teeth. Then, with what had to be close to all his strength,

He yeeted me at the window of the ranger's station.

AN- All comments are read and appreciated <3

Ain't that a fun note to end on?

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Fun fact: Patton first used his healing abilities to heal Logan when he got a bunch of paper cuts from his book collection

Peace out!

Hope you enjoyed :)