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Valentine's Day

TW cursing, self-deprecation

Sun Feb 14

Virgil yawned as he grabbed his coffee. As much as he wanted to sleep in, he didn't get any of his homework done yesterday and he needed to catch up. He sat down at the table and opened his textbook. It was weird sitting at the table alone on a weekend, but he was sure they were at breakfast. He was fine with his coffee.

He wasn't sure how long he had been reading before the others sat down around him.

"Virgil! You're up early!" Patton said excitedly.

"Couldn't go back to sleep," he said as he flipped a page.

"You should have joined us for breakfast!" Roman said.

Virgil held up his coffee and took a sip.

"I'm still waking up," he muttered.

"You can join us for lunch then," Janus said.

"I mean if you want to. It is Valentine's Day, after all. If he wants to spend his time else where he could," Thomas said.

Was that today? Virgil looked at his phone. Shit. He has never paid attention to this day before. He didn't even know it was happening. Why didn't anyone say anything earlier when there was still time? He was such a bad boyfriend.

"Is that today?" Logan asked as he looked at his own phone.

Virgil guessed he wasn't the only one.

"I thought you were always on top of the days," Roman said.

Logan shrugged.

"I know midterms are in a few weeks. I was a little more focused on that."

"I didn't think you'd want to do anything anyway, which is why I didn't bring it up," Patton said. "I don't really like making a big deal about it. Valentine's Day kind of already puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on people. I didn't want to overwhelm you."

"That's the same reason I didn't mention it," Roman said. "Besides, it's just one day. I prefer all the little things over time."

Virgil relaxed a little. Roman didn't care. He wasn't a bad boyfriend. Roman knew and wanted him to relax. Roman was too good for him sometimes.

"Well, I do appreciate your sentiments, Patton. I've never actually participated in Valentine's Day. What have you done in the past?"

Patton shrugged.

"Just dinner and gifts. That's what people usually do."

"Oh... how is that different from a normal date, other than the gifts?"

"Social expectation," Janus said. "Valentine's Day is basically set up by companies to get you to buy their products to promote 'romance.' It's just to create pressure on people to make them believe they aren't good enough unless they're participating. Either they make you feel alone on a big 'romantic' day or they make you shell out $30 just to say 'I love you' in the cheesiest way possible. Not to mention everyone tries to go out to eat so restaurants get a huge boost in business which is great if you work at one, but when it comes to actually eating in one, good fucking luck. It's all bullshit set up by the consumer market. And if your relationship ends up lasting longer than a year you have to do something more special the next year than the previous year."

Everyone stared at Janus who hadn't even looked up from his laptop. After a second of silence, Janus looked up and noticed all eyes on him.

"What? Go ahead and try to tell me I'm wrong!"

"How long have you been single?" Joan asked earning a glare from Janus.

"My love life is none of your business," Janus snapped.

"I will never understand people," Logan muttered as he went back to his work.

Virgil decided to just get back to his own work instead of worrying about everything else going on. He could hear Joan and Janus arguing but decided to ignore it. He focused on his reading and eventually everyone else went to their own work. It was a pretty normal day of just homework for the most part. Eventually, they all went to lunch and back to work.

After an hour or so later, Virgil had managed to get quite a bit of work done. He decided to go to his room and get started on his painting homework for next week. It wasn't too long that he heard a knock on the door. He sighed as he stood up and opened it. Roman gave him a sheepish smile as the door opened.

"Oh, hey," Virgil said.

"Hi... um... I was wondering if you wanted to watch a movie with me? You weren't at the movie night last night and I missed you."

Virgil looked back at his painting and bit his lip. He had already started painting and he didn't want to clean up now, but that seemed kind of selfish. He did like spending time with Roman and he did spend a lot of his time either doing homework or his job. And he did spend his free time with Grace yesterday.

"I- um... I mean... it..."

"I can set it up in here so you can keep painting if you want," Roman said.

"Oh," Virgil relaxed and smiled. "Thanks."

Roman smiled and went to his room. Virgil looked back at the paints on his desk. He wasn't sure what Roman had in mind so he didn't want to move his paints until Roman set everything up. Roman came back with his laptop. He dragged the chairs from Logan and Virgil's desks and placed them by Virgil's bed. He then removed the blanket from Virgil's bed and flung it over the chairs to create a tent.

"You don't have to go through all this trouble, Roman. I don't mind just sitting on the floor."

Roman paused to look up at him before giving him a sad smile and setting down his laptop.

"I know, but... this is my favorite way to watch movies. Remus and I used to do it all the time when our parents were arguing late at night before the divorce. We couldn't go outside to get away so we'd build our little fort and watch a movie together. It's just... I love watching movies like this. It's like my safe space and... I want to share it with you."

Virgil thought back to their first date. Roman had set up the whole blanket fort then too. Was that what he was doing? He didn't even realize it. Roman had been trying to make him feel safe on their first date. Virgil gave Roman a smile.

"Thank you," Virgil said. "If this is how you want to watch the movie, then I'm happy with it. I just didn't want you to feel like you had to."

"No, I want to."

They both smiled and grabbed a couple of pillows. Roman left it open for Virgil to grab his paints and set them up in the fort. Roman set up the movie while Virgil got himself situated. He was pleasantly surprised when he recognized the beginning of the movie.

"Treasure Planet?" Virgil asked as Roman got himself situated.

"You said you liked it. I don't remember your favorite, but I remember we watched this one in the hospital with Patton and Logan."

"My favorite movie?" Roman nodded. "Well, my favorite Disney movie is actually Black Cauldron."

"Really? It doesn't even have any songs."

"I know. It's perfect!"

"If you say so."

Virgil laughed as he grabbed his brush and continued his work. Roman wrapped an arm around him as he watched the movie. They didn't say much. They were too busy just enjoying each other's company.

He didn't need anything fancy. Some people might want gifts and whole vacations, but this right here, just a simple movie in a blanket fort, this was all he needed to make him happy.

A/N So, I had this idea to start writing a little side thing on this series... I'm going to create another book in which I'd include things like scenes in this story from other character's perspectives and memories from their past and such. If you follow me you've probably already seen it uploaded. So, if there's a scene from this book you'd like to read in another perspective let me know! You can comment or send me a DM. The first chapters are going to be a scene from Logan's past and the car crash from Patton's POV. Enjoy!