5 Times Someone Stopped Virgil From Self-Harming and 1 Time He Stopped Himself

Logan

Their Spanish professor is late again.

It doesn't matter too much, since most of the students just turn up to class and continue to work on what they'd started yesterday, quietly talking to each other in Spanish for fluency practice, but Logan had wanted to ask the professor about extra credit work. Oh well, he can always email her later.

He selects a galaxy-print pen out of the many, many items of stationery that can barely fit in his pencil case and glances over at Virgil as he sits in the seat next to him with a very brief smile of greeting. It's so brief that Logan barely notices, his gaze lingering a little longer as he tries to decipher if something's wrong. There's an ever-so-slight tremor to Virgil's hands and he flips through his Spanish folder with a series of papery sounds in his rush to get started as soon as possible, but apart from that, he seems fairly okay.

Logan doesn't get much time to think about it before a familiar face approaches him.

"Hey, Logan, you know about the subjunctive tense, right?" She speaks smoothly through dark purple lips and gently sets a notebook on the corner of the table, tapping her pencil against the lined page.

Logan smiles just a little. While the ebony-haired girl often needs these things explaining to her more than a couple of times, she always listens and takes pride in herself when she finally understands. She has a nice attitude to learning.

"Greetings, Daphne. What is it that you want to know?"

Meanwhile, Virgil's still thinking about the small scare he'd received earlier as he fishes a pencil sharpener out of one of his pockets to sharpen a dull pencil. He was thinking of telling Logan about it, but a small part of his brain insists, what if Logan thinks it's dumb? Of course, he's never reacted that way before and has always been supportive of him through his spikes of anxiety, but the idea of a different emotional relief springs to mind as he watches the sharpener blade cut away at the rotating pencil.

There's a coin in one of his other pockets, a tiny five pence piece from Britain that he'd found in town somewhere despite being in Florida. When he showed it to Patton, he was told to keep it, that it might be lucky! The excited words bounce around inside his skull, making him hesitate, but the urge only grows stronger the more he thinks about it, like an itch. It's almost second nature to give into it.

There's a few tiny sounds of scraping metal as he fidgets with fitting the coin into one of the screw's grooves - it is rather tiny, which is understandable for such a small device, but Virgil can't help but ask himself why it's so difficult to dismantle it. This goes on for some time, and just when he thinks he has a good hold on his plan, he feels a light tapping on his shoulder.

"¿Puedo usar tu sacapuntas, por favor?" Logan's now turned to face him; it seems Daphne has gone to sit in her regular seat again with her little group of friends. Virgil looks down at his sharpener, pauses for a second, then sighs pensively.

"Sí." He hands it over and pockets the silver coin. "¿No tienes el tuyo?"

It starts to occur to Virgil that Logan was looking for an excuse to take the pencil sharpener from him, now seemingly looking through his mountainous collection of pencils for one that looks a little dull. "No, lo perdí. Pienso que Roman lo robó." He says fluently, a smirk playing at his lips, though it's a little softened around the edges. After Logan finishes with the item in question, Virgil tries to reach for it, but it's quickly moved to the hand furthest from the shorter man, out of his grasp. "I saw what you were trying to do with it, Virgil."

Virgil groans. "Give it back, Logan."

"Not until you tell me what's wrong."

Another sigh, some more hesitation, then Virgil folds his arms onto the table with defeat. "It's kinda dumb. I was walking here after getting something to eat downtown and some sports car owning dumbass sped past down the road and the sound scared me real bad, and then I noticed he just ran the red light where I was about to cross the street. I managed to calm down for the most part, but..." He grimaces and starts to fidget as he recalls the event.

Logan frowns. "Would you like a hug?" He sets the sharpener down on his side of the table and quickly catches Virgil in a shaky embrace. "Feeling anxious after such an event is completely understandable. I'm surprised you still came to class after that." At least the sound of Virgil's nervous, hummed laugh brings ease to the immediate upset and concern that had filled Logan upon hearing the story. "It's all okay now. You're safe." He strokes Virgil's hair, feeling his friend relax against him. "Wanna walk back to the dorms after this?"

"Definitivamente." Virgil pulls away, looking a little teary eyed but with his smile reaching his eyes this time. "Necesito dormir."

They would then leave a little earlier than everyone else, having not done much of the work at all, but the professor still hasn't shown up, so Logan's not too bothered about putting off some conjugation practice until later.

~

Spanish translations in case you don't know what they mean:

"¿Puedo usar tu sacapuntas, por favor?" - "Can I use your sharpener, please?"

"Sí. ¿No tienes el tuyo?" - "Yes. You don't have yours?"

"No, lo perdí. Pienso que Roman lo robó." - "No, I lost it. I think Roman stole it."

"Definitivamente. Necesito dormir." - "Definitely. I need to sleep."

(updated thanks to a kind commenter on ao3!!)