Ship: None

TW: Mentions/implication of death

Wings (?) and Soulmates AU

No, I'm not several months late, what are you talking about.

Also I've never ordered a specific coffee, so I'm sorry if I made up some weird-ass drink in here. I just slapped a bunch of terms together. Please don't hurt me.

♤

Virgil woke up at 12 AM expecting death.

No, that is not metaphorical.

It was strange. Now, it was like his body wanted to comply with everything he wanted to do. Virgil managed to sleep at eight PM last night, a feat he hadn't managed to accomplish since... high school? Whatever the case, he had managed to get more than five hours of sleep. A milestone. Too bad it was going to be for nothing.

Virgil felt the ruffles of feathers on his back and couldn't help a tinge of bitterness pass through. He was one of the ill-fated; the pitied ones. And there was nothing Virgil hated more in the universe than pity. You'd think that, having experienced it pretty much all his life, he would have gotten used to it by now. But nope. Virgil just had a cauldron of simmering hate for what people have handed him on a silver platter over the past ten years or so. And the wings were the cause of all of it.

Virgil looked up at the ceiling, then lifted his torso to try and look out the window. There was nothing but darkness and the yellow glow of the lamp posts standing there, slowly draining away energy and contributing to global warming. Kind of like humans.

Virgil suddenly saw a man around his age speeding by the building on his bike. His silver-and-black-lined wings, barely reaching down to his waist, fluttered behind him, and soon he was out of sight. Virgil sighed and lay back down, his chest feeling a lot heavier.

Virgil traced a purple-lined feather at the edge of his wings. The wings that grew too fast just because fate decreed it. If Virgil was just an average kid not destined to die prematurely, his wings would just be the right length: somewhere around his waist, like the guy on the street. His wings wouldn't grow to his height until he was 60-90. Unfortunately, Virgil, at age 21, already had his wings reaching down to his heels.

But that wasn't all that Virgil was bitter about. Oh no; the universe had something else to screw him around with - soulmates. Or, more specifically, the fact that Virgil hasn't found his. Which is bad if he wanted to stay with them in the afterlife, or reincarnation, whichever you pick.

Soulmate Rule #1: Touching your soulmate will immediately bind your souls together and guarantee you will find them in the next life.

Rule #2: If you're in the afterlife, and you didn't do the soul-bind with your soulmate, then too bad, you're never gonna know who they are. You'll just stumble around for eternity without someone to feel connected to, getting drunk at the heaven bars or whatever they have up there.

And that prospect, plus the idea he would leave his would-be s.o. with the same fate, terrified him.

Virgil had hoped he would find his soulmate before the day the wings grew to their full length. But today was that day, and Virgil had no luck.

He was going to die without ever meeting his soulmate.

Screw this, he thought as he, surprisingly, drifted back off to sleep for a second time.

♤

Ding!

Virgil woke up, bleary-eyed, and groggily reached for his phone.

New Notification
Patton🐶: Hey kiddo!

Virgil blinked away the bleariness from his eyes and swiped on the notification. He could use the cheeriness right about now.

Virgil🌩: hey dad

Patton🐶: Good morning buddy chum pal friend!

Patton🐶: Sat how about you and I hang out today?

Patton🐶: *say

Virgil🌩: eh

Patton🐶: Aw cmon son!

Virgil🌩: im gonna die today

Patton🐶: :-(

Virgil🌩: what's the point if im gonna die

Patton🐶: :-(((((

Patton🐶: I mean, kiddo...

Patton🐶: If theres no point

Patton🐶: What does it matter?

Virgil🌩: ...

Virgil🌩: goddammit pat

Patton🐶: >:-0 Language!

Virgil🌩: sorry

Patton🐶: It's ok :-)

Patton🐶: So have I convinced you? :-)

Virgil🌩: ...yeah i guess

Virgil🌩: itll probably make it less painful anyway

Virgil🌩: and faster

Patton🐶: Ok I'll meet you at the coffee shop!

Patton🐶: As your best friend, I swear I will make this the best death day ever!

Virgil🌩: i feel better already

Virgil let the corners of his mouth quirk up before getting up and sitting on the edge of the bed. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing his bangs away from his face before letting them fall back.

Well, he thought, standing up, time for the last shower of my life.

With that encouraging thought, Virgil walked to the bathroom, where he proceeded to sit on the toilet for fifteen minutes before actually taking a shower.

♤

Virgil strolled into the coffee shop that will remain nameless for the sake of the author's sanity. His eyes landed on a guy his age with rectangular shaped eyeglass frames, a cat onesie tied around his shoulders and a handful of freckles on the bridge of his nose. Virgil smirked. It was always easy for the cheery man-child to stick out, regardless of the place and situation, glowing with joy and surveying the scene with big bright eyes. And that's not taking the onesie in account. Patton didn't really care about what he was wearing, and wouldn't notice if anybody looked at him funny, a characteristic Virgil admired. They were such complete opposites, how they became the closest of friends is anyone's guess.  

A pair of dark green eyes swiveled in Virgil's direction and instantly brightened. A grin spread across Patton's face as he frantically waved at the dark persona standing in the doorway. Virgil's smirk widened by a small bit, turning into a genuine smile. He strode over to where Patton sat on fixed seating on the side of the wall. Upon arriving he noticed two coffees, a caramel cappuccino with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, Patton's favorite, a dark roast macchiato with sugar, and two blueberry cupcakes. Patton would jokingly say the macchiato matched Virgil's soul perfectly. Virgil would disagree, but he wouldn't argue.

"Good morning Virgey!" Patton chirped, taking a sip from his cappuccino. Virgil took a seat in the plush chair across him and appreciated the scene: the sorta free food, the half-empty café, the morning light streaming in through the big windows.

"Good morning Pat," Virgil greeted back, sipping from his cup. He picked up a cupcake and bit into it, savoring the taste and the creaminess of the frosting. Death day or not, the cupcakes never seems to lose its great taste. Which is why he loved this coffee shop above all others. It actually gave enough of a crap to make decent pastries that matched the quality of the coffee.

Patton took a big bite out of his cupcake. "What do you wanna do today?" he said, voice muffled. Virgil sighed. No matter how nice or caring Patton was, he could never keep his bad manners in check. It was probably part of his hyperactivity. Too jacked up with energy to care about anything else but his friends. Virgil pointed to his cheeks to indicate how full Patton's were. The bright persona immediately tried to correct his mistake, gulping down the mouthful so fast Virgil was worried he would choke.

"Sorry." Patton continued, "Anyway, you have any specific activity in mind?"

Virgil shook his head, reclining in his chair. "No, the whole 'dying today' thing has been getting in the way of my thinking process."

Patton frowned and tilted his head slightly. "Have you been thinking about it that much?"

Virgil didn't respond and drank his coffee.

Patton sighed inwardly and picked up the cupcake again. "Well, if you don't have any plans, then you should know, I was thinking that maybe we could go to the places you haven't been to yet! In the city, of course." He took another bite from the pastry. "I don't believe we have enough time to book a flight to... maybe Europe? Or Spain?"

"Spain is in Europe, Pat."

"Yeah, exactly. We have to go somewhere before you... y'know." Patton took another bite out of the cupcake. "So perhaps we could go to the mall downtown? You haven't been to that one yet right? Or the park... wait have you ever been to the park?"

Virgil was silent for a bit before answering, "No, actually."

Patton grinned. "Great! I heard there's also an art gallery happenin' there, so we can check that out! You like art, right?"

Virgil did happen to like art. He was an art major, after all. 

"Okeeday! We'll just finish up here and afterwards we'll head to the park." Patton happily stuffed his face with cupcake.

"If I don't get hit by a truck first," Virgil smugly replied. We are handling this remarkably well, he thought.

"I don't want another reference to that, okay kiddo?" Patton gently asked. He tried to sound as cheery as possible, but Virgil recognized the growing melancholy behind the mask.

"Alright Dad, I won't," Virgil assured him, smiling softly. Patton returned it.

As they walked out of the coffee shop, Virgil felt hot rubber wheels collide into his side.

There's going to be a part 2, I promise, so look out for that and don't kill me. Sorry about the cliffhanger, and for being inactive for a long time. Thanks for reading!