Request. (Please read authors note at the end, it's too long to put here but I don't want it to be entirely ignored lol)

The storm was entirely unexpected when it came that day. Not a single one of them had heard that there was going to be a thunderstorm, and for most of the day it seemed to be nice outside. There were clouds overhead but none seemed too dark, so if there was going to be rain the four of them would have assumed it would just be a short sprinkle. This only made it more startling for Virgil when the sudden downpour did begin.

He was alone in his bedroom, scrolling through his phone thoughtlessly when the rain crashed down violently on the roof, making him jump a little and nearly drop his phone. He shut it off and set it on the bed beside of him, sitting up to peer out of his window to find that the sky had grown much darker than it had been before. Virgil drew in a shaky breath, cheeks red from how startled he had gotten at just a little rain.

It was then that the thunder and lightning started. He could see the light flashing outside, lighting up the darkened sky briefly. Immediately afterwards was a rumble of thunder loud enough to shake the building. Virgil yelped at that, jumping again and managing to slip off of his bed and into the floor, hugging his knees to his chest and whimpering in fear.

Patton was the first to make it to his room, being the first to realize what was going on and that Virgil would likely be scared. The sudden slamming open of the door made Virgil jump yet again and clamp his hands over his ears, eyes darting in that direction and falling on his clearly worried boyfriend. He rushed over to Virgil quickly, Logan and Roman appearing in the doorway moments after.

"Virgil, hey," Patton spoke softly as Virgil pulled his hands away from his ears. "It's alright, we're right here. Everything's okay."

"Can we touch you?" Roman questioned him as he and Logan sat down beside of him. Once receiving a nod he was quick to pull Virgil into a hug. The embrace was tight and reassuring, but not quite tight enough to be suffocating. Virgil appreciated it, knowing his breathing was already sporadic enough.

Virgil felt a hand brush against his where Logan was at his side and quickly took the hand into his own. He felt a reassuring squeeze and weakly returned the gesture, trying hard to focus on his boyfriends and not the storm just outside his window. Another flash of light filled his dimly lit room followed quickly by another loud crash of thunder. Virgil whimpered and pressed himself closer to Roman.

"Breathe, Virgil." He heard Patton speak from his left side. Another hand found his, weaving their fingers together and brushing his thumb against the back of Virgil's reassuringly. "Next time we see a flash of lighting count with me, okay? We'll stop when we hear the thunder, and it'll tell us how many miles away the storm is. Can you do that with me?"

Virgil nodded his head. They all waited patiently, watching for the first sign of lightning and reminding Virgil to breathe. He didn't jump this time at the flash of light, feeling ready for it this time. Patton was the first to start counting, voice soft, and Virgil's broken voice joined in right after.

"One-one thousand, two-one thousand," was as far as they got before the loud rumbling cut them off. Virgil felt a surge of panic jolting through him, two seconds wasn't long enough, it wasn't far enough, but he was brought from his panicked thoughts quickly by a kiss pressed to his forehead by Roman. He had felt how Virgil tensed up, and whispered reassurances to him.

"It'll get further away soon," he promised with lips still pressed to his skin, presence once again helping to make Virgil feel safer.

"Keep counting, Virgil." Logan advised, hand tightening around Virgil's once more. "You seemed less scared when you were waiting for the lightning."

Virgil nodded, hoping all of them could tell just how grateful he was that they were there to help him through this. He managed to not jump at the lightning again this time, counting along with Patton once more. They counted to three this time, and although he still felt this was too close he felt better knowing that it had gotten just a little further. He didn't tense up this time, and they kept waiting.

Eventually the time between the lightning and thunder grew far enough apart that Virgil didn't feel concerned at all anymore. He managed to smile at the three of his boyfriends, pulling his hands from the two at his sides and placing them on Roman's shoulders. He leaned forward to kiss him, then turned to Patton and Logan to do the same, quietly thanking them all for being there for him.

"I assume you're feeling a little better then?" Roman smiled, his cheeks and the others each a light pink.

"A lot better, thanks to you three." Virgil answered. Another sudden flash caught him off guard, but he managed to only wince instead of jumping into the air this time. "Maybe not 100%, but... better."

"Why don't we go sit in the living room and play some board games?" Patton suggested. "We could play your favorite movie in the background. It'll help keep your mind off of it, and maybe block out the noise a bit."

The idea didn't sound too bad, and so before long the four of them were sat on the floor of their living room. Uno cards were stacked in front of them, a few other games sat off to the side for later. Various snacks sat around them as well, Logan for once not mentioning the health hazards of the junk food as they all enjoyed themselves. Laughter rang loudly throughout the house, Virgil's mind completely off of the storm as he started to feel competitive.

"What game is next?" Roman asked eventually, and Patton looked around at all of the games covering the living room floor. "I think we've played them all."

"Really? But it's only been-" he cut himself off when he looked towards the clock to see the time, stunned to see that it was a lot later than they had expected. Hours had passed by, and when they paused to listen they realized that the storm outside had come to a stop. It had probably passed hours ago without them noticing. "Wow. It's a lot later than I expected."

Almost as if to prove that it really was that late, Virgil yawned loudly, bringing their attention back to him.

"Sleepy?" Patton asked with a warm smile. He received a nod in return, and then a pair of arms wrapping around his shoulder as Virgil draped himself over Patton. Roman, realizing his tiredness too did the same to Logan, receiving both an eye roll and a pair of arms pulling him closer. "We should probably all head to bed then," Patton giggled, murmuring something to Virgil before the pair started to stand.

"Logan," Roman grinned, clutching him tighter as he drew out his name. "Carry me?"

"Even if I were strong enough carry you all the way to our room, no." Logan shook his head, tiny smile tugging at his own lips as he stood, taking Roman's hand to at least help pull him up. Roman pouted jokingly, accepting the hand and following him and their other boyfriends to Patton's room(most commonly referred to as  their room, because it was the closest to the living room and one that they shared more often than not).

The four of them piled onto the giant bed, Patton at the far end with Virgil curling up beside of him. Patton's arms wrapped around Virgil's waist, hands resting on his stomach and face already pressed to the back of his neck, leaving a small kiss there. Logan joined them on the bed next, facing Virgil and wrapping an arm around him as well, laying across both him and Patton. Roman joined in last, laying with Logan just as Patton was with Virgil.

It was quiet for a moment, each of them settling down and ready to get some sleep for the night. Before any of them managed to start saying goodnight Virgil was speaking up, lifting his head from the pillows to look at each of them.

"Thanks for helping to distract me," he mumbled, smiling thankfully at them. "After I calmed down a bit I had a lot of fun spending time with you. You guys are amazing. I love you."

Each of his three boyfriends felt a squeeze in their chest, breath catching slightly. They all wore soft smiles, Patton and Logan tightening their hold on Virgil and Roman reaching to take one of Virgil's hands. They responded with their own 'I love yous', assuring him that they would do anything for him if it would make him happy.

Virgil fell asleep that night surrounded by warmth and love, feeling safe.

I'm really sorry for being entirely inactive on here. I'm having some trouble with motivating myself to write but I'm trying really hard to work on it, I promise. I have a lot of really cool oneshot ideas that I want to get out to you guys as soon as possible, it's just really hard to actually sit down and work on any of them. I really really hate that I'm not able to put out oneshots everyday anymore like I used to, and I want to get back into updating more frequently again.

If you have any ideas for like, super short scenes that I could write (something I could keep between 500-1000 words), please feel free to leave them. Just like, not super long oneshot requests lol, those definitely won't get done (and I can't promise anything else that gets suggested will get done, but I do wanna try writing some short things to help get me back into writing daily and it would really help to have some short things to work on!).

Anyways, that's all I really wanted to say. Thanks so much for continuing to read, vote, and comment on this story even while I'm taking so long to get things out for you to read. Remember to take good care of yourselves! Love you guys! *

* (I don't think this has been used yet and I really hope not, fuck it's been way too long I feel so bad) Bye!-Bob