Locketless

A Snake and Emo Hide in a Bathroom

A/N: It's around 11 PM because I got distracted by a book, but it's technically still Monday, soo... I managed to keep to schedule? XD Anyway, some cute shit with Janus and Virgil because I love them. The plan is to kinda have him 'bothered' by all of them individually for a while before all together, kind of trying to make it a semi-slow burn, but we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, for warnings there is a panic attack in here, but it isn't from their perspective? Virgil is having it, and since this is in Janus's POV you won't be reading the racing thoughts of our anxious boy, just see what Janus does and how he calms him down. As always, there is swearing throughout. Also some reluctant pining (so what our snek boy does everytime he's around the others).

I think that's all the warnings needed, but if there's anything you want me to add just tell me :)

Update a few days later: JK, that isn't all, hi. Okay, so I realized that some people might actually continue with this book and just skip this chapter due to triggers, so I thought a summary for the chapter would be a good idea. Also, I wanted to ask if people would rather I put a warning right before and right after things happen so they can read everything BUT that part, but until there's feedback on that I'll use a summary at the end of the chapter so no one misses much.

Wednesday and Thursday passed, and with the two at my college, Friday started out how Monday had; with me successfully avoiding Logan as I ran to English. What was different was English... I didn't know what, but something was wrong with Virgil. Something about the way he was moving was weird, how he entered the room, how the moment he sat down he was curling in on himself. It was wrong. This was confirmed when not even ten minutes into the class he was gone, bolting out of the room. I instantly followed, giving the professor a nod as I picked up both of our bags. She didn't seem surprised by him leaving, so I assumed he also had something similar that allowed him to leave class when he needed to, and she was always understanding when I needed to run.

I jogged to where I suspected he would be going from the room; the bathroom. The bathrooms here were good for having panic attacks, especially this one. Most people didn't use the one closest to the English rooms. I don't think anyone knew why we didn't, we just didn't, though the lights being dimmer than every other one might have been a cause for it being abandoned.

Slowly pushing open the door, I could already hear the sound of quiet sobbing, making something in my chest hurt. Quickly dropping our bags in the middle of the room, I crouched in the corner where he was huddled, beginning with what I knew how to do - talk.

"Can you hear me, Virgil? If you can, can you tap your fingers twice for me, nod, anything?"

He tapped his fingers on his leg, not looking up.

"Okay, that's good, I'm going to try and walk you through this okay? You can trust me, it's Janus. Am I allowed to touch your hands?"

Virgil tapped again, letting me slowly take his wrist and place his palm over my chest. He didn't tense - at least not any more than he already was - and I took that as a good sign, slowly moving my hand fully over his.

"I-I- I can't- I-"

"I know, breathing is going to be hard right now, but I'll get you through it, okay?"

His fingers tapped as well as they could against my chest, and I took a deep breath, counting in my head as I did so. Virgil easily took the hint, trying to match me, and failing. He shook his head as a sob broke through his inhale, but I kept his hand where it was, making sure he didn't give up.