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

Remus

When Remus first saw the bruises on Virgil's collarbones one day, when he was wearing a looser shirt to deal with the heat and had unknowingly sweated away his concealer, he assumed they were hickeys from Patton and teased him about it until he was told that Patton doesn't do that kind of thing. His affections don't go much further than sweet kisses, warm cuddles and pun-infused compliments. So who else could've done them? Virgil had playfully told him that it's a secret, then a few nights later, as Remus pressed ice onto a blossoming of new bruises, he tearily admitted that they're self-inflicted.

It's not the habit that Virgil's most proud of, in fact it took him a while after that night to allow Remus to tell everyone else. Of course, he was met with a mix of shock and sympathy from everybody and has tried not to do it since, but sometimes the frustration over his work just gets to him and he always directs any tension or anger back towards himself. Most of the time it's with his art - sharp pencils and digital drawing styluses are unsurprisingly easy to bruise with - he'll be doing his warm up sketches and keep failing to draw a near-perfect circle, or he'll be already halfway through a drawing and keep making the same mistake over and over on his drawing tablet, or maybe he'll even be doing it on paper and make a mistake that can't be taken back with the undo button on his keyboard.

It's a good thing Remus is stronger than him.

"Virgil!" He catches Virgil's arm just before he can attack his own shoulder again, firmly pulling it back and taking his pencil from him. "Don't do that, stormcloud. What's wrong?"

They're in an empty art room that they were given permission to use. With both of them being rather socially anxious and preferring to be alone while they work, combined with the easy access to acrylic paints and good-quality scissors, it's the ideal atmosphere for them to be working on their art pieces together. If only Virgil could regain his focus.

"Sorry, Re." He exhales slowly to calm his suddenly racing heart. "My art just isn't going how I'd like it to." Scanning the canvas for invisible mistakes, he brings his free hand up and presses at the bruises, wincing at the revived ache.

Remus takes his other hand as well, now holding them both. "Take a couple of deep breaths. It's going to be okay, you're doing really good!" While Virgil breathes in, Remus looks over at the canvas and smiles. "I love the colours you've chosen! And your paintbrush strokes and pencil sketches are just perfect. See? Your art is amazing, nothing to beat yourself up over."

Virgil can't help but smile at all the compliments Remus is sending his way; he feels better already, the urge to bruise completely gone. But even so, there's still the tiny mistakes that Virgil can never ignore when he looks at his art for long enough. While Remus calls his pencil sketches perfect, Virgil can see the infinitesimal wavers in the straight lines due to his shaky hands. Logan or Janus would explain that it's to do with how the more you look at your art while you make it, the more details you notice and commit to memory, and while it's useful to know, Virgil doesn't exactly like that it's true.

"Virgil?" Remus' voice quickly brings him back out of his train of thought. "You still there, cobweb?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry." He smiles sadly and looks back at his own canvas. "I was thinking about the art. I wish I could look at mine as positively as I do with other people's art."

Remus observes the expression on Virgil's face; a little solemn, perhaps because he had narrowly avoided attacking the already sensitive skin that thinly stretches around his shoulders. Though, Remus can't forget that he's also had a rough week, as has been explained to him. He softly squeezes Virgil's hands at regular intervals, suddenly coming up with an idea. "Want me to tell you about the time I filled a high school teacher's desk drawer with fake mechanical spiders to take your mind off things a little bit?"

An amused snort makes its way out of Virgil. "Oh my gosh, what did the teacher do to you?" Noticing the use of a distraction, his face brightens a little and he picks up a pencil to divide the attention between Remus' story and his art piece.

"You can probably ask Roman and he'll remember too." Remus then goes on to dramatically reenact the tale, making grander and grander hand gestures that has Virgil focussing more on the story than his work, and somehow it allows him to still work over that area that previously had him frustrated and then carry on with the sketch in that corner of the canvas. He has to pause to let his laughter fully subside when Remus gets to the part where he hides behind the classroom door with Roman to see the teacher's reaction, and then Remus goes right into a different story detailing his and Roman's shenanigans, how they adopted and raised a cat until it had kittens without their parents ever knowing, or the backstory of why neither of them are technically allowed into Hot Topic anymore.

Virgil makes a mental reminder to ask Roman about these stories later, surprised that he hasn't been told by him already.

There's so many stories Remus seemingly has stored up in his brain, just waiting for the opportunity to tell them, that the successful distraction plan takes them well past the time they were planning on leaving. That's okay, though, because Virgil's feeling surprisingly satisfied at how his work looks now. Any bad feelings or urge to take it out on himself feel like distant, forgotten whims and all that's left is the amusement in his eyes as his friend talks and talks about these crazy high school stories that he wishes he was there to witness too.