Family Reunion (A Virgil Afton Story)

3- That Didn't Go Very Well...

   Virgil had a lot to think about, that much was certain. He was making his way back to his room after his talk with Logan and Patton, which just left him more confused and indecisive than ever.

   He came to his bedroom door, painted a midnight black per his request with a purple sign hanging from a hook embedded into it. Taking a moment to glance at said sign, Virgil smiled at his name painted beautifully onto the lilac background in Roman's signature cursive handwriting. The day he moved to the light side was one of his best, and he reminisced about it fondly.

   He glanced at the colorful handprints his friends had left on the door before shaking his head and turning the handle. Slipping into his room, he quickly shut and locked the door, sliding down its sturdy wooden frame and curling in on himself.

   Hugging his knees, he thought about his conversation with Logan.

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   Logan and Patton blinked in surprise. They knew it was something serious, but they didn't think he'd ask about THAT. Virgil, in the meantime, had returned to looking down at his fiddling hands to find his anxiety building. "I-it's okay if you don't wanna answer..." He spoke.

   Logan took a moment longer to think before making up his mind. "It is not about how you die," Virgil looked up again, slightly confused when he saw the nostalgic looks on Patton and Logan's faces. Then Logan did something Virgil never thought he'd live to see. He wheeled his chair over to Patton and gently grabbed his hand, "it is about how you live."

   Virgil watched the recognition flash across Patton's eyes. Then he watched Patton jump up to hug Logan, resulting in both of them on the floor, laughing. Naturally, being the most out of the loop when it came to the sides' past lives, he was confused. Apparently they knew each other?? From when they were alive??

   "Okayyy..." He felt so awkward and out of it, he didn't really know what to say. The other two calmed their giggles and sat up, still staring at each other. Logan was being the most expressive that Virgil had ever seen him, and Patton was smiling as brightly as the sun. Virgil smiled at this. They really are meant for each other.

   In all honesty, he didn't know much about the others' past lives. The only thing he knew for certain was familial relationships among the sides... er- how the sides were related to each other. It's become evident that he'd spent way too much time with Logan. He knew that the creativitwins were actually related, no surprise there. What really shocked the sides was the day that Janus ran into Logan's room and hugged him, sobbing hysterically. Amazingly, the well read side hugged back, and that was how the mind palace found out they were brothers in their past lives.

   Speaking of...

   "How...did you live though?" Logan's gaze broke from Patton's and his usual stoic manner returned. His stare turned to Virgil, who's confidence quickly diminished under those cold, calm irises. "I-I'm sorry! I just wanted to know how the whole remembering thing worked, and then I noticed how you and Patton were acting, like you knew each other before, er- this, and I just-"

   "Virgil, I understand what you are trying to ask." With those nine words, the purple and anxious mess visibly relaxed, his shoulders returning from their uptight rigidness to their usual careless slouch. However, said rigidness soon returned as Logan adjusted his glasses, a habit all the sides knew was always followed by a question. "What I am struggling to comprehend is why you ask now. It has been months since Janus decided to open his memory box, and he was the most recent to do so. If you truly are curious, why not ask then rather than now?"

   There it was. Those words were exactly what he was dreading. He knew Logan was going to ask, he had seen it coming, he knew it was going to happen. The real problem was... he wasn't sure what the answer was.

   Did he really want his memories back? Did he really want to regain the pain of an entire lifetime? What if he didn't have any friends when he was alive? Or family? What if he didn't have a good life? How did he know he even had a past life at all? Remy didn't, Emile didn't. Then again, they were imaginary, created by Roman and Thomas for videos. They weren't even real. Was he real? Did he deserve to be called a side when he didn't even know whether or not he was actually there?

   "Virgil!"

   His head snapped up to meet Patton's worried fatherly gaze. He realized he was panting, as though recovering from...

   "I did it again didn't I..."

   Patton glanced behind him, biting his lip like Virgil knew he did when he didn't want to say something hurtful, but also didn't want to lie. Virgil looked around him to lock eyes with Logan, whose eyes, while unreadable to most, gave him the answer he already knew to be right.

   He sighed, standing up to leave. "Oh well... thanks anyway..."

   The educated side nodded, while his emotional counterpart only stared, concerned as his dark strange son, with his head down, walked out the door.

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   Yeah, that didn't go very well.

   Once again sighing, Virgil stood up and stalked over to his bed. Dramatically flopping onto it face first, he stared at his nightstand. Specifically at the small drawer hidden in the side.

   The drawer that contained his memory box.

A/N- Congratulations! You made it through another chapter! Thank you so much for reading this, it means so much to me. I'm really sorry that I haven't posted in a while... Virgil kidnapped me for a bit, if you get what I'm saying. (Don't rope me into your shit.) You're lucky Pat isn't here. Anywho, thanks again for reading this. I hope you enjoyed reading this my geeks, gays, and nonbinary strays. See you soon! (Or whenever the hell you post again.) That's it, I'm getting Patton. (Wait! I'm sorry!)