Deceit's Hunger

Part 9

They stayed that way for a while, with Deceit's face buried into Virgil's shoulder and Virgil, in turn, gripping the other side tight supporting his full body weight as he continued to run a soothing hand up and down the other's back.

The movie was well over by the time that Deceit had stopped crying, just the emotional upheave from all of it making him slump bonelessly against Virgil, then again it wasn't like Deceit was all that heavy. He'd lost a lot of weight in the weeks that he had been fearfully huddled up in his room, he was, of course, getting better with Logan there to instruct him on how to do so and Virgil there to enforce it. Truthfully, Virgil was relieved at the progress that Deceit had made, he had worried himself sick in the days that Deceit had been unconscious. It wasn't like any of them could truly die, at least not from his knowledge, but it had still been a tense couple of days where they had been forced to make Deceit steadily drink down a watered down mixture of sweet milk so that he could start to get at least some nutrients back into his body.

He remembered waiting there by the deceitful side's bed, just watching him waiting for some sign that he would wake up and in the end, be alright. Those had been the scariest days, calling on Logan any time that Deceit's breathing had gotten abnormal, moving Deceit around on his bed so that he wasn't just laying in one spot for too long, and just waiting.

The waiting was always the hardest part.

The baited breath as he walked into Deceit's room, being afraid to make a loud noise for some reason, and finally when he had started to just talk to the other's unconscious body.

It hadn't been much talking at first, Virgil had let him know what he was doing and why he was doing it as if Deceit could hear him when he had been unconscious. Then after a while, he supposed that he had just gotten used to it, until the day he had snagged a storybook from Roman's room. It helped the time go by much faster, the stories weren't exactly something that he'd read in his spare time, considering that they were far too cheerful and no matter what, they always had a happy ending to them no matter how bad the situation had become. But then again, perhaps the happy endings were a good thing back then, perhaps, in the days when he had read to him, Deceit needed those happy endings. Just like he needed them right now.

Speaking of right now though, Virgil listened to the occasional sniffle that Deceit gave as if he still had plenty more tears to shed but for Virgil's sake he was trying to rein them all in. Listening to the other's breathing, he noted his breathes.

In for four seconds, holding it for seven, and and out for eight.

Again and again, the cycle of Deceit's breathing continued and continued, almost like the other had thought that he wouldn't recognize his own calming technique. Regardless of that, he felt more than a little proud of Deceit as the other started to calm himself down, although he did happen to wonder if he had taught himself that little trick because no one had been there for him before. The dark sides certainly weren't this touchy touchy, and when they were it was usually a tense pat on the back or a nudge from them. It had certainly taken him a while to learn how to even get this far, and it was mostly thanks to Patton he even knew how to properly comfort someone.

He felt Deceit move now, as the other raised his hand up presumably to brush away the tear tracks on his face, and it was almost interesting in a way to see the other putting himself back together after completely breaking down no more than an hour ago. Nevertheless, a lonely almost crushing feeling panged in his chest, as soon as Deceit started to pull away. It was completely illogical, but in the oddest way, he wanted to...hold on just a little bit longer.

It had felt nice when it was just the two of them in their little bubble together, it had felt nice to have Deceit trust him enough to even let go like that. But for now he just watched the other draw away, and almost immediately a frown curved on Virgil's lips, a mask was sliding into place on Deceit's face.

"Don't do that." It surprised even himself how rough his voice sounded, "I know what you're doing, and you don't have to hide your emotions away to save face."

Deceit's own expression shifted somewhere between surprise and shame now that Virgil had picked up on the subtle cues that he himself had used way back when, back when he hadn't been apart of the family and back when he too had constantly felt hurt by their jibes towards him.

"I..I don't know how NOT to..." It was a small confession, but surprisingly truthful one from Deceit, and seeing the pure exhaustion on his face Virgil knew that normally, Deceit would have lied, but right now this was another facade that he just couldn't keep up.

So Virgil smiled what he hoped was a friendly smile as he grasped Deceit's hand once more, "I said that you would be safe with me right? I said that I would protect you, so just...trust me. Trust, that I'll see you and nothing more."

His warm hand gave a gentle squeeze to Deceit's cold one, and he watched as Deceit's adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously at the touch and the implications that came with those words. Trust, really had never been one of his strong suits, trust was something that he had all but abandoned when he had locked himself inside of his room terrified to even come out or to tell anyone what had happened. Trust...was something that he had never dabbled in before, but he could at least try. For Virgil's sake, for him...

Wordlessly he nodded his head, and watched as Virgil's expression shifted into relief as he clambered up from the couch. Tugging him up along with him, Deceit followed Virgil's every movement as they both sank down.

Much to his surprise, they weren't back in his own room, looking around he noted the wide bed with Halloween-esk sheets and covers, that were a deep purple and black that seemed to entirely make up Virgil's wardrobe. The walls all had a deep purple wallpaper to go with it but with slanted and messy thin white vertical lines that trailed from the ceiling to the floor. On Virgil's nightstand, there was a jack o'lantern nightlight that glowed a bright orange as soon as Virgil pressed a button on the stem of the pumpkin.

Needless to say, he felt pretty awkward standing there in the middle of Virgil's room, it had become almost second nature to have the anxious side in his room. However, he had never in all of his life thought that he would be allowed inside of here, this was something special, this was...Virgil putting a lot of trust into him.

Once again he felt a great ball of something lodging in his throat, was he nervous? Was this what nervousness felt like to everyday people? It was unbearable, how was he supposed to even say anything, if he constantly felt that weight in his throat?

It took a good minute before he found the initiative to move his legs let alone to swallow that lump in his throat, and when he did he made his way over to where Virgil was sitting on the edge of the bed. The anxious side was messing around with what looked like a big ball of tangled up wires that were giving him quite a lot of trouble, so peering over his shoulder Deceit felt a low and rumbling chuckle leave him at the sight of the tangled up headphones that Virgil was trying to wrangle into a half decent fashion.

"Here." He interrupted the other plucking the wires from his hands, and in an odd way, he found the process of moving his fingers and untangling the mess a lot more calming than his breathing exercises.

Once he was done, Deceit passed it on over to Virgil watching him plug the headphones up into his phone before selecting something and holding out one of the earbuds for him. Deceit hesitated for just a second before he took it, slipping it into place, found himself laying on his back right next to Virgil as the soft droning voice of an audiobook played in his ear.

Really he didn't know what at all the book was or what it was even talking about, but the voice worked well enough to calm him down as his eyes started to drift shut and he felt Virgil moving something warm over the both of them as he started to descend into the abyss of sleep.

Only faintly feeling the arm curling around his middle, and just barely feeling the warm chest pressing against his side.