Mouse in Another Life (G/t and Animal Shifter AU)

Understanding Along with Secrets

Thomas and Virgil sat in the hallway together for the longest time, at least they thought so. Neither of them spoke or moved from that spot for what felt like an eternity. In reality it was only about ten minutes. Virgil remained on Thomas' s shoulder for half of that time, just trying to process the whole scene that just played out between them. Thomas did all he could to make sure he wasn't staring at his friend while he processed the whole situation. He looked at his hands, he looked up at the ceiling trying to count the lines from cracks or just missed plater. He even started to plan out his next video, until he was brought out of his thoughts by Virgil moving his head from his shoulder. He waited patiently for anything to come from Virgil. A sigh. Anger. Even rambling would have been better than this awkward silence. After looking down at the ground for a time, Thomas decided enough was enough. Virgil had to talk.

" Sooo you can transform too?" Thomas wanted to hit himself in the head because of the stupid yet obvious question that just emanated from his lips. " Your and animal too?" how dumb could he be, but it seemed to do the trick.
" In all honesty it only started recently. At the beginning I was human, like the...others. Then one day it just happened."

Thomas remained sitting down on the ground, but looked over to the dark ego beside him. " What were you doing?"

" Well, I was frustrated after talking to Deceit."

" Yeah that will do it...but you never answered my question."

Virgil looked over in confusion, trying to think back to Thomas finding him in his animal form.

" I asked you why you didn't tell us."

In all honesty, he didn't want to seem stupid in front of his creator. He knew deep down that Thomas would never look down on him, but there was always that fear in the back of his mind. He could only think of replying with a few select and simple words. " I'm not ready."

Thomas stood up, using his legs mostly, and the wall to stabilize his body. Once his feet were firmly on the ground he looked behind him, extending a hand.
Virgil has always felt the most accepted by Thomas, ( Close behind is Patton), but at this moment all he could do was smile. Thomas found out the one secret he didn't want anyone to find out because of fear and anxiety ( Big surprise), and when he gave an answer such as " I'm not ready." Thomas was still accepting. Thomas understood better than anyone that fear can prevent the obvious and cloud judgment, so he was not going to make it worse by pressuring.
He was literally offering a hand to help Virgil along his path and not judge. Virgil grabbed Thomas' s hand and felt his body being pulled up from his sitting position off the ground. " Well, if you're not ready, you're not ready. Just no more secrets from me. Alright?"

Virgil looked intently into Thomas's face to see if there was any ill intent or Deception. But there was none. He genuinely and honestly just wanted to help Virgil out. " Alright."
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The days that followed this event were...complicated...well, more messy, then complicated.

Virgil decided after this day he would have to make sure he was not put in this situation ever again. This was easier, but only in some aspects. Unlike Thomas, the other sides could call upon each other, but they were not forced to appear. For example, if Patton called upon Virgil, Virgil would hear the call in his head as if being played by echo, but it was his choice if he showed up. The problem was, to the other light sides, if you ignored a summon something was either wrong or you were being rude, and in Virgil's situation it usually meant he was being rude. Then there was the fact of if Thomas called upon him again. He could never ignore Thomas, even if he was an animal.

Thomas promised to lay off on summoning him, but he couldn't ignore is Anxiety, even if he wanted to. So there was only one solution. He had to work on his transformations.