petrichor and stardust - an analogical AU fic

six

Virgil woke up the next morning, and, after taking his pills, he decided to take a shower. He didn't take very long and attempted to towel dry his wet hair, leaving it only slightly damp, but also made it puff up in every direction. He took a minute to flatten it back down before leaving his room.

Don't get him wrong, his room was nice, but it was also boring to sit in it and do nothing. So, his plan for what to do today was to fetch his stuff.

He didn't run away with it since it would slow him down, so he left it in a bag in a tree. He was good at climbing trees, and the rogues definitely weren't, so it was the best place for him to hide it. The bag contained his painting supplies, some spare clothes, a very small amount of money, and a book titled Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was a gift to him from a friend, so he wanted to keep it with him.

He was in the courtyard, explaining his plan to Patton, who told him, "That sounds fun and all, but don't you think someone should go with you?" Virgil quirked an eyebrow. "...Do you have anyone in mind?" He inquired. "Well, Roman and I would be distracted and get carried away, so why not Logan?" Patton responded, a smirk on his face. He paused and mulled it over for a moment. "I guess if he's okay with it," Virgil replied, still trying to figure out why Patton was smiling so brightly about it.

"I don't think I'd mind," came a voice from behind Virgil, which made him flinch. He turned around to see none other than Logan standing behind him, and he was intently staring at Patton. He seemed to notice that Virgil winced, and quietly apologized. Virgil fully turned to him, after regaining his unbothered appearance, and said, "Great. Let's go."

-✦-

"This does not seem safe," Logan stated from the base of the tree. "It's fine, I've climbed this tree a bunch of times, I know what I'm doing," Virgil replied. His comment did not absolve Logan's worries. However, he was already ten feet in the air, climbing up the branches. Eventually, Virgil disappeared into the leaves, but Logan could hear him moving around. The tree was very tall, probably stretching sixty feet into the air, but it hardly topped the surrounding trees. After a while of leaves rustling and a few grunts of effort from Virgil, he eventually exclaimed, "Got it!"

The hard part was getting back down.

Virgil almost lost his footing multiple times, and it seemed that there were less stable branches than he thought. However, Virgil was getting close to the bottom, to where he was in Logan's line of sight. He had to take a moment to find a branch close enough and strong enough for him to jump on to. Logan took the opportunity to ask, "Are you sure you can get down from there?"

Virgil laughed and called back, "Of course! It's not hard. You just have to know what you're doing. Watch this." He stepped off the branch he was currently on, quickly grasping the branch beneath it, swung himself forward, did a small flip in the air, and stuck the landing. When he stood up, his face was hardly half a foot away from Logan's. "See? Easy," he whispered while smirking, then turned around and began walking back to the castle. Logan had frozen when Virgil landed in front of him, and he took a few seconds to recover before he could catch up. If you asked him why he froze, he wouldn't be able to tell you, as he wasn't sure himself. His cheeks felt warmer than usual.

When they reached the castle, Virgil thanked Logan for coming with him, and they parted ways.

Once he reached his room, he took his things out of his bag. Virgil found his old black eyeshadow, which he normally applied under his eyes with his thumb if his eyebags weren't cutting it. He set it aside on the table for now. He kept his gifted title separate from the books he had yet to return to the library, and he started sifting through his spare clothes. He came across an old black jacket, which was soft to the touch and patched with purple plaid. His mom had given it to him ages ago before she died, as it used to belong to her husband, Virgil's father. Virgil patched the jacket up himself. He had grown into it quite a lot, but it was still big on him. Despite this, it was a source of comfort for him, and he missed it dearly. Normally he slept in it, but he occasionally wore it around if it wasn't too hot outside.