Warnings: idk virgil is kinda panicking as always tho lol

Prompt 5: drawing on skin 

yall ok virgil being an artist and like doing art on his skin for his soulmates is just *chefs kiss*

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It had been a few days since Virgil had woken up and noticed writing on his skin. He had just crawled out of bed around noon as usual and headed to the shower, and as he had pulled his hoodie off (yes, sometimes he slept in his hoodie, what about it) he had seen words scrawled across his arm with a brightly blue pen.

Good morning soulmate! Have a wonderful day <3

Virgil had stood in the bathroom and stared at the words for about twenty minutes before tearing his eyes away from them and actually taking his, mildly panicked, shower.

Of course Virgil had wished that he had a soulmate, he had always been terrified that somehow he would end up with no soulmate at all, but now that there was finally evidence that there was someone out there who would somehow be Virgil’s perfect match he realized that this was just as terrifying.

What was he supposed to write back? 

Yep. Days had passed and Virgil still hadn’t written anything to his soulmate. Any time he picked a pen up to reply he just ended up sitting there, frozen, panicking about what to say. What if he managed to make a bad first impression even through writing on his arm?

Virgil wouldn’t put it past himself, and he really didn’t want to fuck up or make things awkward between them already and despite the small sweet messages the other sent every day Virgil just couldn’t make himself respond. 

Which in turn made him feel panicked every time he remembered that that was a thing he would eventually have to do. Just ignoring his soulmate forever wasn’t an option either, that would be an even worse first impression than Virgil could ever manage no matter what he wrote. 

He didn’t want his soulmate to think they weren’t wanted, because they were, so much! But Virgil never even managed to make friends, how was he supposed not to scare away a soulmate? 

Sure, they were supposed to be perfect for each other, but Virgil couldn’t fathom anyone thinking he was perfect. That just didn’t make sense. And he really didn’t want to be a disappointment.

Despite Virgil’s continued awkward silence his soulmate (thankfully) persisted, writing cute goodmorning and goodnight messages, writing down countless stupidly funny puns that made Virgil smile, almost always adding a small doodle of an animal or a flower or a smiley face or a sun, sharing small facts about himself like his name (Patton), his favorite animal (dogs), his favorite color (the same bright blue he was writing with), etc.

Once after one of Virgil’s art classes a message saying that Patton had noticed he enjoyed painting from how often he got paint stains on himself appeared, which only had Virgil panicking a little because that meant Patton was aware of his existence and knew that Virgil was literally just ignoring him.

He got really close to writing something then, but the problem with his overthinking was that the longer he waited to write something back the more awkward it became. What was he supposed to write? ‘Hi, sorry I never responded, I was feeling too awkward’? Or just pretend like the ignoring part never happened?

From the little Virgil could gather about Patton from his daily messages it seemed like he was about as sweet as anyone could be, which should really assure him that his soulmate wouldn’t be mad or annoyed if Virgil said he had felt too nervous to write anything, but anxiety didn’t really work that way, unfortunately, and he was just panicking more every time he got a message, because he really, really needed to respond soon.

But he just kept putting it off and soon a few days turned into a few weeks, which Virgil of course felt really shitty about, especially as Patton’s messages just continued to be so incredibly sweet and supportive.

I really like seeing paint smudges on me, it makes me happy to know you exist and that you see the things I write for you! And then a small smiley face and a flower which had petals in the shape of hearts.

I’ve seen so many dogs today!!! Hope you have too!! With several badly doodled dogs.

Just one big heart in the colors of a rainbow.

A small good night surrounded by tiny hearts and stars.

The messages and doodles kept appearing at least once a day, and except for how nervous and awkward he felt about them it was always such a relief to see that his soulmate hadn’t given up on him and decided there was no use in talking to a soulmate that never responded.

Then one day when Virgil was painting he felt that strange sensation of writing appearing on his arm and he watched the words get written, wondering what had been on his soulmate’s mind now. 

I hope you’re having a better day than I am ): <3, and then a slightly shaky drawing of a flower, which made Virgil completely stop what he had been doing.

The thought of his soulmate, who just seemed to be the most positive and sunshine-y person ever, being sad was barely something he could stand. And then when Virgil wondered why his soulmate might be having a shitty day he realized it might be his fault.

He really didn’t know if it was, of course, but if Virgil’s soulmate obviously existed but never ever responded to anything he wrote then Virgil would be feeling like absolute shit, for sure. Which was a horrible thought, because his anxiety hurting himself was one thing, but his anxiety hurting his soulmate? 

He couldn’t stand that and he just had to get over himself, no matter how terrifying that was. 

He grasped a pen, uncapping it and pausing before letting it touch his skin, remembering that he actually had to think of something to write before writing it. He cursed under his breath, ransacking his brain for something not awkward and not stupid and not an essay long apology for not writing sooner.

He came up empty and spent a few minutes absolutely loathing himself before looking at his desk and seeing his paints. If words weren't something he could manage… maybe he could paint something?

He spent another few minutes contemplating that idea, reading his soulmate’s message several more times to convince himself before finding a clean paint brush and pushing the sleeve of his hoodie up even more.

At first he stared at his blank skin and didn’t know what to do, but then he realized he did know what his soulmate liked, dogs and cats and flowers and cookies and rainy days and sunrises… He could work with that.

He chose the paints he needed, choosing to try and paint a sunrise since that was something he was fairly confident in not screwing up too much (although painting on himself was not something he had tried before).

He wasn’t sure how long he spent painting on himself, sometimes when painting he just completely forgot about time, but soon enough a row of brightly blue exclamation marks appeared nearby his art, and then a slightly incomprehensible message that was just incredibly positive and loving and made Virgil feel as if he shouldn’t have worried this much at all.

Once he was done, feeling brave from all the nice words and praise his soulmate had written, he bit his lip and reached for his pens, carefully choosing one that had purple ink.

He was definitely (once again) panicking too much about such a small thing, but that didn’t stop his hand from trembling as he, in tiny letters, wrote ‘my name is Virgil’ below the drying paint. 

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Written: 21st August 2021
Published: 31st August 2021
Words: 1292