10:53pm

If this publishes it means I ended up doing a part two and yesterday was just a blip

Au
—

"Hey, Pat?" Virgil spoke up to his friend, not stopping his work in order to try and keep his anxiety at bay, focusing mostly on something else rather than what he was about to admit. Patton, who sat beside him in this certain class, glanced over with a smile, putting down his pen to focus entirely on his friend. "What's up, Virgie?" He spoke in a way that helped calm Virgil down immeasurably. Something about his soft voice made him relax. Something Roman's voice was void off.

"I think" he began shakily, trying to keep on writing, but his letters were becoming harder and harder to read. "I think I like someone" he finally admitted, voice low as a whisper, shaking like a leaf. Patton's eyes widened and he sat up in excitement, holding it back to prevent making a scene for the poor boy who was already anxious enough. "Aw, Virgie" Patton cooed, eyes round and lovey-dovey, "that's adorable! Who is it?" Virgil sighed and shrugged meekly, staring at Patton for a few silent moments before he leaned over and whispered their name in his ear.

Patton sat shocked for a few moments, then a soft smile rested on his lips. "And I don't know what to do..." Virgil mumbled, fidgeting with his pen. Patton lifted his hand and rubbed Virgil's back reassuringly. "It'll work out in the end, Virgie, just wait and see" Virgil lifted his eyes to meet his and, albeit weakly, returned his smile, the two comfortably going back to work, all the while Patton having a mostly one-sided conversation to try and keep himself doing the work. Virgil didn't mind; the sound of his voice was soothing.

A few classrooms over, Logan had just completed the work with half an hour to spare. He was about to pull out his book and read when he looked over to his right and saw Roman - sitting a few tables over - his face contorted with confusion and annoyance. Logan watched as he stared at his book, looked up at the board to read the instructions, then back down at the book only to angrily slap his pen onto the table and grip his hair, stressed.

Logan felt for the boy and sighed, looking over at the teacher to see their back turned to him, helping someone else. With the class distracted by the work and chatter, Logan scooped up his stuff and placed it beside Roman, thankful his desk partner was absent. Roman looked up in surprise, about to ask Logan what he was doing when he answered for him by gesturing to his book. "I am here to help. You look like you were struggling" Roman chuckled breathily, smiling. "I suppose I am - but, you are quite the nerd, I have no doubt in my mind you can't help me" the blank stare Logan gave him was enough to make him laugh brightly, lighting up his face and crinkling the corner of his eyes.

Logan watched his face change instantly into light happiness, and he felt better by it.

Using his pen, he re-wrote a question from the board and led Roman through it in a different way to the teacher, showing him other ways to work out the answer while not directly giving it to him, making him work out the numbers and such, like an actual teacher. By the end, Roman was beaming ear to ear, able to complete the next question (mostly) on his own - again and again the two went through the same technique until Roman had nailed the question on his own.

The teacher had noticed Logan swapped seats and was about to send him back but stopped when she realised why he had moved. To help Roman. Seeing him complete a question he has been stuck on in a few lessons before this was such a great sight; along with the absolute euphoria spread across his face as he cheered and threw his arms up into the air. Beside him, Logan watched on with his own gentle smile, tensing when Roman pulled him into a tight hug, but he hugged back anyway, feeling Roman's happiness and excitement radiate onto him. The teacher thought it was too cute to split up; so she left the friends there.

"I couldn't be more thankful, Logan!" Roman declared, packing up his stuff once the bell rang. Logan completed the same tasks, sending him a short-lived smile before returning his face to it's neutral look. "It really was no problem on my part. Maybe, if you need anymore help with other things, we can shorten our time at the library to three hours, and spend the other three learning? Only it you want to, of course" Logan suggested, a little worried Roman would scoff and find it absurd to work outside of school.

But instead, Roman's face lit up. "Logan! I would love to! We can both be nerds!"

The two paused briefly.

Then both shook their heads. "You will never be a nerd" Logan commented, adjusting his glasses. "It's not meant to be" Roman smiled in amusement, the two walking out of class once dismissed. "You know what you are, though?" Roman awaited a silly insult like 'dumb' or 'stupid' which has come at him in the past from different people.

"A prep"

Roman paused, then a flicker of a genuine smile could be seen.

They broke off to go to different lessons, once Logan ended up in his, he felt himself stand taller and straighten out his clothes and hair when he spotted Patton sitting in his seat, tongue poking out in concentration as he wrote down on a piece of paper. Logan walked over with poise and sat on his seat, not expecting Patton to lean over and peck his cheek.

"Heya, Lo" Patton greeted with a grin. "Salutations, Patton. May I ask what that is?" Patton hummed, cocking his head at him to silently ask what he meant, then realised he was gesturing to the paper. "Oh!" He chirped and held it up, "I stayed up for awhile last night searching up calming songs to help people with anxiety! I only chose the ones with good reviews in the comments" Patton explained, holding it up and pointing to the titles. "It's for Virgil! I hope it helps him" Patton explained. Logan put down his stuff and stared at Patton in admiration. "You are a good friend, Patton, I am sure he will find good use with those songs"

Patton chuckled and leaned against him lightly, "I hope so. Anyway!" He sat up again, all bouncy. "How are you?" And the two fell into a steady conversation while Logan did the work and Patton barely managed to complete it in the hour lesson due to him being distracted so easily. While the two conversed, Virgil had both his earphones in, finding it easier to relax while blocking out the other students. What he didn't suspect was someone to tap his shoulder, and what he least expected was it to be Roman. He wore a nervous smile and held up a hand in a wave gesture.

He took out an earphone and paused the music. "Yeah..?" He questioned awkwardly.

"I was merely wondering if you would be okay to be my seat neighbour? Alice asked to move back and there isn't another seat..." Roman bit his lip in question. "Oh, uh, yeah, sure" Virgil gestured to the seat as an invitation. Roman thanked him and sat down with a happy sigh, taking out his work while starting up small talk. While Virgil would much rather listen to music, he didn't want to be rude so he talked back with Roman. The conversations weren't boring and actually did bring him entertainment, but even still his music was calling to him.

As it was the last lesson, afterwards Virgil and Roman walked down the hallway while making conversation that flowed easily between the two. It has for awhile now, since the two have been friends for a few months and gotten over their awkward first meetings, they were fine. But agreed to never, ever, kiss again. Once they put their books in their lockers and sat outside, they each wondered who the other was waiting for.

"Unfortunately my car needs repairing, but Logan agreed to take me home!" Roman explained, asking it back at Virgil. "Oh, Patton wanted to hang after school" Roman smiled at the thought of the bubbly student, "he is rather adorable" Roman murmured thoughtfully, resting his arm across the back of the bench, behind Virgil's shoulders. The two fell into comfortable silence while gazing out across the car park. They instantly spotted Logan and Patton coming over hand in hand, but when close enough Patton parted and rushed to Virgil who smiled and stood up.

"Virgie! Virgie! I have a gift!" Patton giggled and handed over the paper. "It's calming music to help your anxiety!" He clarified, eyes glittering. "Pat...this...thank you" Virgil stumbled over his words, unable to say anything more, slightly overwhelmed but immensely grateful, anyway. "Don't worry, Virgie!" He giggled, grinning brightly. "C'mon! Let's go home and listen to them! Bye you two!" Patton waved to Logan and Roman, dragging Virgil away.

"He's like an eager rabbit; never unable to stop bouncing" Roman commented with a chuckle. Logan nodded in agreement, watching him go. "I do concur. Although, I wish he would stop bouncing so much. Figuratively" he then tilted his head thoughtfully, "and literally" he added as an afterthought, shaking his head quickly. "Anyhow; let us go home, shall we?" Roman nodded and walked beside Logan to his car.

In the car, Roman connected his phone to the Bluetooth and chose what song to listen to while Logan drove down the street to his home. "Oo!" Roman gushed, picking a song. "I love this one!" He grinned and placed his phone in his lap, sending a grin at Logan who rolled his eyes and glanced at the song title - 'Human' by Dodie. He didn't know this one, although he suspected he wouldn't know any song Roman enjoyed.

"I wanna pick you up and scoop you out. I want the secrets your secrets haven't found. Paint me in trust, I'll be your best friend, call me the one, this night just can't end...oh oh" Logan rose his eyebrow, glancing at Roman when he gently sung the lyrics floating through the speakers. Logan found himself focusing more on Roman's voice than the actual singer, relaxing in his car seat with a looser grip on the wheel.

"Will you share your soul with me? Unzip your skin and let me have a see. Paint me in trust, I'll be your best friend, call me the one, this night just can't end...oh oh...oh, I'm so human...we're just human" Logan noticed Roman glancing at him at the 'best friend' part and rolled his eyes fondly, looking over at his friend with a grin. Roman grinned back and nudged Logan's shoulder with his own, leaning back in his seat afterwards and carrying on singing throughout the entire song. Logan found - although loving silence - he loved Roman's voice just that bit more.

"Here we are" Logan gestured up to the house after he parked outside of it. Roman smiled and unbuckled his seat belt. "Why, thank you, my favourite nerd" Roman grinned then paused, opening the car door and hovering there for a moment. "Would you like to come in, by chance? We can have one of our reading sessions" Roman suggested to Logan who seemed to light up at the idea, agreeing almost instantly. Roman smiled and the two walked up to his house, calling a few greetings to Roman's parents before hurrying up to his room.

Roman picked up his reading book from his bag, allowing Logan to choose while he laid down on bed. A few minutes later, Roman turned to see what the hold up was, nearly laughing when he saw Logan trying and failing to grab a book from a the highest shelf. "Here, nerd" Roman offered to help, walking over and grabbing it for him. Logan blushed, a tad embarrassed, sending Roman a slight glare but thanking him anyway.

Roman flopped back onto his bed, giving Logan room for the boy to lay beside him. He relaxed into the mattress, not finding it in him to act all proper and professional around Roman like he needed to around Patton. It was odd. He didn't question it. The two had a wonderfully peaceful session; in fact it ended with the two falling into a restful slumber.

While they read, over at Virgil's house he was sitting on his bed, shyly watching as Patton connected his phone to his speakers and began playing one of the songs he had found. He created a whole playlist full of them so they'd play one after another automatically. Virgil still couldn't believe anyone would do something like this for him. When the music began to float around the room, instantly Virgil felt his slightly tensed posture ease out, happy to be in his safe space with his friend and calming music.

"Nice, huh?" Patton commented, sitting beside him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "I actually found it helped me, too! Helped me focus on things" Patton clarified. "Maybe we could..." Virgil drifted, clearing his throat. "Do what we usually do?" He offered, looking at patton who grinned. "Put on a movie only to scroll through social media on your phone?" Virgil snorted and nodded, "Yeah but without the movie..." he shrugged, reaching to grab his phone. Patton's grin fell into a gentle smile.

"Sounds perfect" he commented and Virgil blushed lightly. Laying down, Patton rested his head comfortably on his chest, staring at his phone as he began to open up his tumblr. The two shared bouts of laughter at different posts, and cooed at others showing adorable animals Patton couldn't get enough of. The two stayed like that for awhile, eventually Patton's arm ended up laid loosely over Virgil's waist as he slept, Virgil's head rolled to the side, eyes closed, his own arm placed around Patton's body.

The four boys slept comfortably with their close friends.

And as months went by, there wasn't a day where the four boys didn't hang out with their friends. Roman and Logan found themselves hanging out more and more, not just on Saturdays but on Sundays, after school, and during holidays. The more Logan tutored Roman, the better he became in class, and Logan honestly couldn't be more proud. For Patton and Virgil it was the same, they spent as much free time together as they possibly could, Patton had done so much for Virgil to help with his anxiety, and Virgil was grateful for everything Patton had done. He felt like he didn't deserve it, but that doesn't mean he was losing Patton because of that.

Roman found Logan...different. Different from Virgil. Easier to spend a lot of time with, almost. He could start singing whenever he wanted and it never, ever bothered Logan - not once. In fact, Roman slowly began to realise how much Logan seemed to enjoy it, which only made him do it more. Their reading sessions had become so frequent, they felt like they couldn't go through a week without them. Logan felt the same; he found spending time with Roman to be more bearable than Patton, he wasn't as noisy and jumpy - even if he could be boisterous at times, he didn't have such a short attention span, and actually enjoyed a lot more things Logan did. Like stargazing, for instance. Whenever the two had the chance to lay outside together, just staring up for what seemed like hours...the two felt like they were in heaven.

Patton and Virgil were similar. Virgil could easily spend hours on end with Patton, listening to his rambles while just watching and relaxing, a hazy smile on his face. He found Patton's childlike energy to be uplifting, and definitely rose his moods on days he felt down. Plus, he could sing around Patton without Roman trying to sing over him, it never turned into a battle, he loved seeing the doe-eyed look Patton would give whenever he heard Virgil sing, dropping everything he was doing to centre his entire attention on Virgil, finding it easy when all he needed to do was focus on his voice. With Virgil being into more similar things, Patton found him easier to spend time with than Logan - he really liked Logan, but the man liked to have moments of silence and patton couldn't bare them, plus he felt terrible whenever Logan wanted to do work and Patton couldn't just sit still.

Which was why, in the end, the two broke up, and after a few weeks the four began dating their close friends.

Logan with Roman, Patton with Virgil.

And even if it wasn't cliché, they didn't need to bump into each other in the hallways, or kiss in the rain for their love to be any less strong.

—

Looks like I could do a part two haha I hate myself sorry

12:55am