And Then He Smiled (Logicality)

Chapter 72 - A Friend Like You

Trigger warning: suicide, discussion of the deceased.

"That's a beautiful name," Roman complimented quietly under his breath, but Logan could still hear his voice as he sighed the words gently. Looking back to Logan, Roman spoke again, "What was he like?" He asked a slight glimmer of hope in his eye.

Sorrowfully, Logan mournfully smiled, at this point, he had finally managed to find his voice again, or at enough of it. "He was....kind, but never nice. He had a nack for old videogames like pacman and monster tale, even got a tattoo of a pacman starwberry on his ankle," This was the most Logan had ever talked about Virgil in around a decade, the last time he was able to talk like this was when Virgil was alive, yet he felt like he could never stop now. "Most of the time he'd be sarcastic...but there were moments where he'd be serious and you'd never guess he was like that. However he wasn't much of a talker, at least with other people, not with me though," He rambled on, gushing about his deceased friend, "Because he was my best friend....my only friend, other than Emile of course,"

Roman couldn't help but beam in happiness, to be perfectly honest that's the most he'd ever heard Logan talk before. It was nice. "Did...anything happen to him?" Roman asked, this question was bound to come up, they both knew this.

"He happened to himself," Logan stated.

Raising an eyebrow, Roman leaned on his hand, intrigued, ready to listen to whatever Logan was going to say.

Logan's eyes fell to the marks upon Roman's neck before back to his own hands. Shakily sighing, Logan tried to prepare himself for the sentence he had never said out loud. "He hung himself.....and I....I was too late," Logan muttered his voice breaking as he scolded himself internally.

"Too late?" Roman questioned, encourging Logan to continue speaking whilst also attempting to match the calming tone of Remus' therapist.

Logan nodded, "I was too late to help him," he stated, "I knew he was going to do it, I knew he had the will to do it, I knew he had the means to do it! BUT I DIDN'T STOP HIM!" He spat exasperated, regaining his breath. His hands shook as he tried to hold them still.

"You mean you couldn't stop him?" Roman tried to correct him.

Shaking his head, Logan couldn't even find the words to disagree with Roman.

Relaxing, Roman decided to shift the subject slightly, "Do you want to tell me more about him instead?" Roman asked, holding his arm gently, the dips giving him some kind of comfort.

Breathing in sharply, Logan nodded, humming with affinity. "After I moved in with Emile and my foster mother: Mia, we basically took over the garden with various plants," Logan began, "Even mine and Emile's room was full of them, luckily he didn't have hayfever at least. Finding anything was like trying to find a neddle in a haystack though. But everyday, after school, we'd go into that garden and tend to the plants. It took a few hours but it was nice, relaxing even," Logan told him, "We even named them all," he chuckled at the thought, Roman joining in for moment. "There was a day when he wanted to plant a tree, so we took some seeds out of an apple and burried it into the ground. He'd dubbed the tree: Thalia, after Thalia from Percy Jackson. The tree only managed to be a sapling before...." his voice trailed off to a dark place.

"It's alright if you don't want to talk about him anymore," Roman comforted with a kind smile.

"You two would have gotten along well," Logan commented, scoffing at himself with a gentle smile. Lifting his head up momentarily, Roman gazed at him with a meloncholy stare as his heart dropped ever so slightly, a small gasp escaping his mouth, "I've told you so much about him, tell me something about you," Logan pushed Roman away weakly and awkwardly with his nerd arms.

Dramatically, Roman fell backwards, hand on chest, moaning: "I'VE BEEN WOUNDED, TELL REMUS HE'S A DICK," Roman stuck his tounge out as he made a 'bbbblerrrg' noise as if dying.

After a few moments, Roman sat up again, "Not even going to mourn over my deceased body? That's low, even for you," Roman fake pouted.

Rolling his eyes, Logan pushed him down again, "Come on," he encourged, chuckling momentarily before Roman went along with his little death routine again like before.

"Fine fine," Roman got up again, shuffling into a more comfortable sitting position.

The two were still sitting on the floor from earlier, neither of them had moved from there, and neither of them wanted to at this point. It was about 1am by now yet neither felt tired whatsoever. I suppose that was a given though.

Sighing, Roman thought about what he could say that was on par to what Logan had said because if it's not meanful enough, Logan would probably feel bad about telling him everything that he in fact did even though Roman was the one who made Logan talk about it. Well it was out of necessity. Either way, he needed to think of something, anything.

"What do you want to know?" Roman asked, barely knowing what to tell him or what he wouldn't want to tell him.

Humming in thought, Logan held his chin up with his hand as he looked at Roman thinking about what he didn't know and what he'd like to know about his friend. It's not like there was nothing, it was more like there's too much to ask. "What would you want to share?" Logan asked in response, it's best if he doesn't ask and just gets told.

Sighing, Roman leaned on his knees as he brought them up to his chest. Looking straight at Logan, Roman took a deep breath in, "Would you like to know who my soulmate was?"

"Do you really want to share?" Logan was quieter, slower, than before when he was rambling about his friend, more careful, more caring. Yet his eyes fell locked on a single thing branded onto Roman's neck like a collar.

Reluctantly, Roman made himself nod. "Yes, I do," He told Logan. "Well this isn't exactly something I haven't told someone before- I have told someone before who they- he was, well who the person he showed me he was," Roman felt a weight on his shoulder as Logan leaned comfortably with his hand on his shoulder. "I'm rambling aren't I?"

"You don't have to tell me," Logan smiled half-heartly with full genuinity towards his friend, "I probably preasured you earlier, and I'm sorry if that made you uncomfortable,"

Nodding in acknowledgement, Roman continued brushing off Logan's statement, "His name was, heh, ironically also the name of your deceased friend: Virgil," He rubbed his wrist gently as their poked irritably on his skin, technically not his skin though. "If you've probably guessed, he's also, probably, dead as well,"

"May I?" Logan leaned closer as his eyes locked on the bruised collar around Roman's neck.

Humming in affirmation, Roman sat up more comfortably as Logan moved closer as his fingers stroked along the bumps and creaves of Roman's scarred neck. Pulling back slightly, Roman squirmed. "Sorry-" Logan apologised.

"It's ticklish," Roman chuckled as he helped himself back onto his feet. Holding out a hand, he helped Logan get up. "It's getting late, you have work in the morning Logan," Roman told his friend.

"Thank you for the talk," Logan said as he made his way back to the sofa. "I appreciated it,"

Gently scoffing humorously, Roman held a hand on his bedroom door knob, "Any day Logan, we're friends,"

"Yeah, we are," Logan contently smiled back.

"Goodnight,"

"Night Roman,"

End Of Chapter. 1322 Words.