Misinformation Can Be Deadly

Chapter 43: Playing With Knives

CW: sexual innuendos

Virgil winced, hating that his face was flushed and covered in sweat. He tried to keep his breath steady, but it felt strained. He felt sore and overheated, closing his eyes as he held himself up, his arms shaking from the effort of it all.

"You're doing amazing, you got this," Roman purred.

"It's... hard," Virgil gasped, finding it hard to breathe.

"You're doing great, we can't stop now. Just a little longer."

Virgil nodded, squinting his eyes open as he let out a small groan. He kept his eyes trained beneath him, his fingers curling up slightly.

"You know, this would be easier if you weren't wearing your hoodie," Roman suggested.

"I'm not gonna-" Virgil cut himself off, finding it hard to speak.

"Just a few more- wait Buttercup!" Roman tried to catch the kitten as she ran under Virgil's arm, grabbing onto his hoodie string.

Virgil panicked and sat up, pulling the hoodie string out of her grip. He moved his wrists around and sighed, "I think she wants me to stop doing pushups."

"Hey, you're the one that wanted to get stronger," Roman reminded him, folding his arms and sitting against the side of Virgil's bed. "You only did fifteen proper pushups."

Virgil gave Buttercup some scratches. "I did more than that."

"I said proper."

The human groaned dramatically and laid down, using one of his arms as a cushion as he played with Buttercup. He wiggled his fingers against the ground and the kitten jumped on top of his hand.

Roman sighed, "Honestly, I would also feel better if you learned to properly fight. I don't want to be incapacitated, and you be forced to defend for yourself unprepared."

"I think if you end up incapacitated in a fight, even without your magic, I wouldn't stand a chance."

"You could, you never know. If they were already injured, or if we had to face a mob of some kind and most were already down. Getting stronger would increase your chances of survival, especially if we fight side by side."

Virgil sighed, "You're right. I just hate working out."

"I can understand that. Then how about this?" Roman summoned a knife, running his finger against the sharp part of the blade, making it dull. "Pull out your knife, we'll spar."

"There's no way I'll win." Virgil sat up anyway and pulled out his switchblade from his jacket.

Roman took his hand and pulled him up. "Not the first few times, no. But you'll eventually get better. Besides, I'll go easy on you." He bent down and picked up Buttercup before placing her on the bed. "Plus, your dads aren't here so they won't hear us. Logan said his class is two hours long, and Patton said he'll be gone until dinner."

"This can still hurt you, are you sure you want me to fight with this?"

"Yup, we'll fight until one of your dads come home, or until you can make me bleed. It'll probably be the first one, which will give us at most an hour."

Virgil groaned, "Do I have to?"

"No, it's completely your choice. If you say stop, we'll stop, however this will train you the fastest."

"Fine." Virgil bent his knees and pointed the blade at Roman, his right hand in a fist held closer to his body.

Roman looked over his stance for a moment. He stepped forward and took his right hand, carefully opening his fingers. "Keep your hand open, and move your right foot so it's pointing at me." The demon tapped Virgil's foot with his own.

Virgil tried to fight down a blush on his face over Roman being so close. He nodded as he adjusted his stance, Roman looking over him again to make sure he had a strong stance.

"Okay, now let's try this out," Roman hummed. "I want you to come at me, and I'll defend. Then after ten minutes, we'll switch and I'll have you defend as I attack. I'll be careful as to not hurt you, don't worry, and I'll heal any bruises. Is that okay?"

"Yeah," Virgil agreed as he nodded.

Roman got in a similar fighting stance as Virgil. "Then let's begin."

~~~

"What's wrong with him?" Remus asked as he sat down at the table at the library. He was referring to Virgil, who had his arms wrapped around his head as he laid halfway on the table.

Roman rubbed the human's back. "He's a bit grumpy about last night. We started training with knives, and he didn't win a single sparring session," Roman explained. Virgil didn't say anything but instead just groaned. "I had healed his bruises, other than that the only thing wounded was his pride."

"Not like I had much to begin with," Virgil mumbled.

"That's probably for the best, before Roman was cursed he was super prideful and arrogant," Remus said.

"I wasn't that bad," Roman argued, folding his arms.

"Don't you remember why you were cursed? You didn't know how to keep your big mouth shut."

"Oh like you're any better."

"Don't worry about it, Virgil," Janus said, ignoring the twins. "Roman is a master fighter, he's a prince of Hell for a reason. It would take decades, maybe even centuries to get to his level, much less put a scratch on him."

"Ooh, hey, actually I wanted to know if we could all go somewhere this weekend?" Remus asked randomly. "Y'know, just hang out. 'Cause it's boring only using this form for school, maybe we can go on a double date?"

"Double date?" Roman asked skeptically.

"We're not dating," Virgil growled, looking up from his arms. "The only couple here is you and Janus." Roman blushed red when he finally realized what Remus meant.

"Could have fooled me. Anyway, we can just go to a restaurant, maybe do a bit of shopping, what do ya say? Please?" Remus begged.

"It does sound fun," Janus agreed.

"Going as friends sounds nice, maybe I can ask Logan and Patton to drive us somewhere and pick us up later," Virgil said.

"Friends with benefits?" Remus shimmied his shoulders.

"Nevermind, we're not going."

"Please? It's been so boring! I mean, Kayden is really fun and I love the kid, but you were always more interesting, Virgie. Plus you were fun to mess with before you could see demons, you always got so upset when something went missing, quietly sulking."

"That was you?! Where the fuck-"

"Oh I ate it. Your pencils, make up, even that one set of earbuds."

Virgil glared at Remus in disbelief, looking as if he was moments away from attacking the demon. Remus just smiled widely and hummed, tilting his head from side to side as Janus chuckled.

"I... will kill you."

"I would like to see you try."

"Moving past that," Janus interrupted. "What restaurant do you want to go to?"