Sketchbooks lay open as a man sat, hunched over them with an intense look of concentration on his face. He slowly, and carefully, moved his pencil in controlled movements and he nodded to himself, seemingly satisfied with whatever it was he had created. He grabbed a small piece of card before copying his creation onto it. When he finished he repeated the process twice, each with a different coloured card, before gathering all of the card and moving away from his desk whilst picking up a small spray-bottle full of water.
He sprayed each card individually before gathering them all again and leaving his room, he needed to placed each piece of card in its intended room.
The violet card went into Patton's room, the yellow one into Romans room and the blue card into Logan's.
He hid the pieces of card somewhere where he knew they wouldn't be found before leaving with a slight sigh of relief.
---
He left his room with a pocket full of crystals; he returned with only his usual Lapis Lazuli and Rose Quartz.
The other crystals, after being charged in the moonlight, had been left in the others rooms (without their knowledge) so that they would absorb negative energy and emit a calming aura for whatever side stayed there.
---
Herbs slowly started disappearing from the kitchen, leaving Patton baffled.
"We're out of basil!" He yelled once, in the middle of cooking something.
Roman had just started to say something (which seemed like it would be "well what do you want us to do about it?") when Virgil blurted out "I have some in my room."
He ignored the questioning glances as he went into his room and retrieved his basil, he had never regretted saying anything more in his life.
(It happened again, a few weeks later but with cinnamon and Anxiety hoped that the world would strike him dead so he wouldn't have to face the confusion on the others faces.)
---
The others got used to seeing weird doodles across Virgil's wrists, most directly over his pulse or veins, that they no longer questioned it when he turned up with ink across his arms. That didn't mean they weren't still curious about them, so they gathered around a laptop and searched for any clues as to what the doodles could be.
They didn't find anything significant.
---
They soon started finding crystals around the Mindscape (and in their pockets) with no knowledge of how they got there, and decided to research exactly what the crystals meant, because they knew crystals had meanings. Their meanings surprised them, every crystal seemed to be chosen for a specific Side, to amplify their positive emotions and repel the negative ones.
---
The found a lot of Lapis Lazuli (along with various other crystals) in Virgil's room a few days after researching crystal meanings, which meant that he either really liked Steven Universe or he was hiding something.
After a quick google search - and the only results being stuff about Witches - they came to the conclusion that he was hiding something.
---
Virgil was panicking. No, panicking was an understatement, he was... well he was more than panicking anyway. His breathing came in short gasps and the world around him seemed to shake as the other three side confronted him about his use of Crystals. He hadn't wanted them to find out, they weren't supposed to know! He was meant to keep them safe and happy without them knowing who - and what - was doing so.
But of course that wasn't how it went and now they where accusing him of practicing witchcraft - which he wasn't ashamed to admit that he did - and he was having a panic attack right in front of them.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Patton asked before noticing the state the youngest Side was in, "Okay, kiddo, breath with us. In for four, hold for seven, out for eight."
They breathed together until Virgil could clearly see them and his vision was no longer blurred by tears. Prince had taken his hand at some point during the breathing exercises, although neither of them truly minded.
"Okay, name four things you can see for us," Logan said as Virgil started to calm down more - he had read somewhere that 'grounding' was a good way to help someone through a panic attack.
"Lapis Lazuli, protection sigil, you and my bed," Virgil said, his voice hardly shaking.
"Good, three things you can feel," Logan said, noting the way the anxious Sides hands still trembled.
"Uh... Prince's hands, my hoodie and my socks," Virgil said before wiggling his (blue) sock clad feet.
"Okay, you're doing really well Virgil. Two things you can smell?"
"Flowers and slightly different flowers," Virgil answered, his hands had stopped trembling and his voice was steady. He had slumped against Patton, exhausted from his panic attack.
"Why didn't you tell us, Virge? We don't care if you practice Witchcraft," Roman said softly, speaking for the first time since Anxiety's panic attack had begun.
"I, uh, thought you would.. make me out to be even more of a villain because it's stereotypically something 'evil' people practice," he softly admitted, burying his head into Romans shoulder so he wouldn't have to see the others faces.
"Oh, no, Kiddo! We wouldn't, I'm sorry that we made you feel like you gad to lie to us about a part of yourself," Patton murmured sadly into Virgil's hair.
"'S okay," Virgil said sleepily as he struggled to stay awake. Soon his breathing evened out and he fell asleep on Roman.
(Roman fell asleep shortly after moving them both to Virgil's bed and clinged to the anxious Sides hoodie.)
