Probable Theorem

Old Habits Die Hard

With his hands steeped in front of him, Virgil sat on the armrest of the couch with his feet on the cushions, facing Thomas who stared back silently. Virgil would randomly tap his fingers together as he was lost in his thoughts he kept to himself. Thomas looked over to Patton who was sat on the floor in front of the couch and looking in between the two periodically. He shrugged and Thomas silently huffed before turning back to Virgil. "Maybe-"

"Shhh," Virgil laced his fingers together and leaned on his knees, squinting at Thomas a bit. Thomas wrinkled his nose and leaned away, unsure how to take Virgil's strange behavior. Eventually, Virgil nodded to himself and slid down onto the cushions and crossed his legs on the couch. Patton was the empath but it didn't take one to be able to see how unsure Thomas was. He was putting up a front, obviously. The nervous energy rolled off of him so much, Virgil was almost unsure of how own plan. "Okay," holding out his hand, Virgil smirked a bit to himself. "Shake my hand."

"What? No!" Thomas pulled away and stared at Virgil's hand as if it would lash out at any moment. "We've been over this when we met, Virgil! I'm not just gonna shake your hand like that!"

"Oh come on!" Virgil didn't actually seem upset as he let his hand fall into his lap. "This is completely different and you know it."

"How is this any different?"

"Because you're not going to hurt me this time." Thomas made no attempt to move as he stared skeptically at Virgil's hand. "You won't. You know what your powers do now, Thomas. You don't want to hurt me, so you won't."

Thomas reached up slowly and kept his eyes locked onto Virgil's. "I dunno..." With a nod of encouragement, Thomas finally grabbed his hand firmly and slowly started to shake it. He tried to pull away and Virgil whispered a soft encouragement to him, holding onto his hand tighter.

"You got this, Thomas," Patton whispered from his spot on the floor. "We believe in you!"

Looking back to Virgil, Thomas seemed a bit unsure of himself, squeezing his grip tighter. "I just... I don't want to hurt you."

Their hands suddenly felt warm, too warm, too hot, and both pulled back, the familiar feeling of Thomas taking energy recognizable to both of them at this point. "You had it, what happened?"

Thomas was sure Virgil was going to be upset with him for failing when he did have control, but Virgil seemed concerned as he rubbed his hand. "I... I dunno. I'm not used to this! I've never had to use my powers, I don't know what I'm doing."

"Yes, you do. Are you really that dense?" Virgil leaned back into the couch and sighed.

"Come on, Thomas!" Patton perked up from his spot on the floor. "We believe in you! You said you were ready, right? You got this!"

"Well, maybe I..."

Virgil groaned and leaned forward and rested his arms on his legs as he spoke. "Thomas, you've had these powers your whole life. It was just never apparent until now. That means you've been using them the whole time! My portals weren't always so wobbly. They probably weren't even portals at first, but that's what they grew to be. The same thing goes for you, you just need to be open to the idea."

"Yeah!" Patton perked up and leaned onto the couch, smiling up at him. "I wasn't an empath at first, it just grew like that!"

"So... Do you think I didn't just take energy at first? That's kinda what Logan thought, but..." Thomas looked from Patton who nodded before staring down at the palms of his hands. "I don't think that's how mine worked. I mean, how can I use them if you were the first superpowered people I met?"