Chapter Text
Virgil was frowning into his whiskey, sitting alone at a quiet table in this smallish but reasonably classy bar that he was oh so familiar with. It had been a long week and Patton, Logan and Roman were all running late for their night out. He knew it wasn’t their fault but he reserved the right to feel bitter about it anyway. At least spring was round the corner which usually meant a quieter couple of months at the bar so he had that to look forward to. He went to take another sip of his whiskey to find it empty. He frowned again before glancing up to the bar and catching Gina’s eye, waving the empty glass at her. She smiled and winked before making her way over to him and pouring him another.
“How’s your first shift as Assistant Manager going?” Virgil asked her in a low voice, winking at her as she scoffed.
“Doesn’t feel any different, to be honest, ‘cause for some reason my boss is still here drinking alone in his own bar,” she drawled. Virgil laughed at that and they chatted for a bit before she returned to the bar. She had now been working for him for just over a year and a half, and at her insistence that she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, Virgil had decided to promote her to Assistant Manager, partly so he could pay her more for the work she did, and partly so he could do less work and take more days off per week. His anxiety, however, had not quite been kind enough to let him leave her entirely alone on her first shift in this new position, even though he knew she was more than capable, he still wanted to be around to help if necessary. Which was why he had insisted they have their night out here and the others had all been more than happy to comply so really it was a win-win scenario.
Only five minutes later he felt a slight breeze as the glass door was pushed open. He looked up to see his two best friends and his boyfriend of a year and a half piling into the bar and looking around until they spotted him. He couldn’t, nor did he want to, resist the huge smile that spread across his lips when he saw them while his chest simultaneously filled with warmth and comfort. Patton spotted him first, waving enthusiastically and pulling the others over to join him in the small booth. Virgil stood briefly to accept a hug from Patton and a kiss from Roman before he went to collect drinks from the bar, leaving Virgil sitting opposite Patton and Logan. They exchanged greetings and caught up on one another’s days, chatting until Roman re-joined them with beers for him and Logan, a cocktail for Patton and another whiskey for Virgil, despite the fact he was yet to finish the glass he currently had.
“Guys, I have a really great idea,” Patton announced after taking a sip from his cocktail. Everyone immediately looked concerned and apprehensive as three faces turned to Patton to see what he had come up with this time.
“Okaaaay, feel like sharing it with us, Padre?” Roman asked somewhat tentatively. Patton positively beamed at them.
“Now I know what you’re going to say BUT, just hear me out! What if we played…charades?” Virgil was pleased to note that both Roman and Logan groaned with him at the revelation. Patton’s grin only widened at the response.
“My dearest, we have been over this, it’s not practical to play charades in a booth,” Logan told him a little sternly. Patton merely smiled sweetly.
“Okay then,” he conceded. Virgil blinked twice.
“What, that’s it?” he asked, feeling his eyebrows draw together in confusion.
“Yep!” Patton’s voice was cheery and entirely too innocent for Virgil’s liking.
“You’re not going to try and convince us to play?” Roman asked suspiciously, eyeing Patton as he took a sip of his beer.
“Now what would be the point of that?” Patton replied condescendingly. A slightly uneasy silence settled over them as the other three tried desperately to figure out Patton’s plan. “Anyway, next round is on me and we’re doing shots!” he added brightly.
Ah. Of course.
“Pfft, if you think getting us all drunk will work you’ll be sorely disappointed,” Logan grumbled, drinking from his own bottle now. Patton’s grin turned slightly wicked.
“We’ll see,”
“Okay, okay, four words!” Virgil was vaguely aware somewhere in his slightly hazy mind that he was shouting but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He needed Patton to know that he understood that it was four words they were looking for. Four words.
“A song!” Roman bellowed as Patton made an exaggerated gesture of singing. Virgil grinned. His boyfriend was so smart. He was absolutely right, it was a song; Patton was miming singing! But wait, he was shaking his head now. Not a song? How could Roman have been so utterly wrong! He wracked his brain, trying desperately to figure out why Patton would mime singing if it wasn’t a song when he heard Logan speak up.
“It’s a piece of music,” he offered calmly, the red tint to his cheeks the only indication of his current intoxication. A piece of music. My god, he was a genius. Patton was nodding this time and giving them the thumbs up. Excellent. They were making good progress now. Four words and a piece of music. This was easy and Patton had been right all along, playing charades in his bar was an excellent idea. Oh but Patton was miming again now and he was missing it! Which word were they on? Had they guessed any right yet? He made an effort to concentrate as he watched Patton spread his arms and sway slightly, scrunching up his nose as he concentrated and, wow, that was really adorable to watch.
“Airplane!” Virgil shouted suddenly, causing Roman to jump in surprise at his outburst. Patton gave him an encouraging look to show that he was indeed close, but not exactly right.
“Flying?” Roman asked, enthusiastically smacking his hand on the table as the idea hit him. Again Patton looked pleased but indicated it was still not right.
“Fly?” Virgil asked, furrowing his brow as he tried desperately to focus. Patton shook his head once more.
“Flight!” Logan shouted and Patton beamed as him as he nodded excitedly. Virgil nodded his head sagely without speaking. Four words, music, flight. He could do this, he could figure it out! Patton was now doing some very elaborate miming, flapping his arms very quickly and wobbling an awful lot for someone who was sitting down. Virgil watched as his flailing hand nearly smacked into the table and he felt a spike of anxiety for his friend’s safety. The stakes were even higher now! He had to figure it out before Patton inadvertently hurt himself! He was thinking so hard that he wasn’t really listening to all of the things his friends were guessing while Patton continued to mime furiously waving his hands around, his cheeks turning red from the effort.
“OH I’VE GOT IT!” Roman suddenly yelled, particularly loudly. Virgil turned to him with wide eyes, excited to hear what his dear partner had to say. “Flight of the Bumblebee!” Roman exclaimed, staring at Patton intently who grinned widely.
“Spot on, kiddo!” he replied, grinning brightly. Roman whooped with joy and Virgil felt himself smiling happily. He glanced over to see Logan gazing at Patton with so much love in his eyes and he felt something warm spread in his chest at the sight. The sudden appearance of a woman at their table drew their collective attention as Gina stood over them, her expression firm but her eyes soft was fondness.
“Guys, I think it’s high time you all went home,” she said shortly, her tone clipped.
“Awwww!” Patton and Roman whined in unison, causing Virgil to chuckle a little. Logan was nodding in that wise and all-knowing way of his.
“Indeed, it is late and we are all highly intoxicated. We would all benefit from drinking large amounts of water and going to bed,” he instructed. Gina made a low noise of agreement.
“Ugh, spoil sport,” Roman muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” Logan asked sharply.
“Nothing!” Roman yelled at once. Virgil huffed a laugh while Patton giggled.
Eventually they managed to drag themselves out of the bar, Patton and Logan to return to their apartment and Roman and Virgil to return to his. They walked hand in hand through the chilly early-spring air in companionable silence all the way back to Virgil’s apartment. After returning and going through the familiar motions of getting ready for sleep they fell into bed together, laughing and kissing as they went. Virgil glanced around the room at the piles of boxes and felt a pang of excitement.
“Can you believe it’s only two days to go?” he whispered excitedly. He felt more than heard Roman’s response rumble through his chest as Virgil lay his head there, idly tracing one finger over soft, tan skin. “You got the day off work, right?” he asked, just to be sure.
“Yeah, so did Remy and Patton told me he did too, so we should be fine,” Roman replied, his voice soft and low with approaching unconsciousness.
“I can’t wait,” Virgil confessed quietly.
“Me neither,” came Roman’s gentle voice, his arms squeezing Virgil and pulling him closer. Virgil felt him press a soft kiss to his hair and that was the last thing he was conscious of before he felt sleep overcome him completely.
“Goodness gracious Patton that box is far too heavy!” Virgil glanced up from the box he was currently wrestling with to watch Roman take a huge box of books from Patton’s tiny arms. Patton made a whiney sort of sound and bounced in place.
“Noooo, I want to help!” he complained in that adorable, child-like way of his.
“Why don’t you grab one of the other boxes, Pat?” Virgil called, pointing to a huge box in the corner he knew to contain a bunch of pillows. Patton grinned and practically bounced over to the box in question. Virgil caught Roman’s eye in time to see him mouth a thank you. He winked in response and turned back to his own box, trying to figure out the best way to lift it without destroying his spine. He had just managed to wrestle it into his arms when Logan appeared in the doorway.
“That’s the last of them from the living room, Virge,” he reported. Virgil nodded as he stumbled out of his old bedroom, carrying the box to add to the collection waiting by the elevator. At that precise moment there was a soft ding and the doors opened to reveal Gina in the lift, long curly hair tied back in a huge bun and face red with exertion. She scowled at Virgil as she stepped out of the lift taking in the remaining boxes.
“Why did I agree to this?” she huffed.
“Beats me,” Virgil quipped, nudging her playfully as she glowered relentlessly.
“You owe me big time,” she muttered, but he could see the glint of mirth in her eye and he knew she was only teasing him. Together they worked to move the boxes into the elevator, soon joined by Roman and Logan until finally everything had been piled into the van Logan had rented, leaving Virgil and Patton to go back upstairs and do one final sweep of the apartment while Logan, Roman and Gina drove ahead to the new place and Patton and Virgil would follow in a cab. As he stepped into his old apartment for what would be the final time he took in the familiar surroundings of the place that had been his home for over five years now.
“Feels weird, doesn’t it?” Patton offered quietly, looking around at the now bare walls, several large pieces of furniture missing and all the personal knick-knacks that were gone.
“Very symbolic and shit,” Virgil agreed looking around at the skeleton of his old life.
“It’s going to be a great adventure,” Patton almost whispered, his voice reminiscent of that excited feeling of being up past midnight with a friend when you’re a child, speaking only in hushed tones so as not to let the world know what you’ve been up to. He smiled as he pulled his friend into a one-armed hug.
“I know,” he murmured.
Once they had finished sweeping the entire place for anything that could possibly have been left behind and were sure that they had everything (Virgil insisted on checking at least three times) he fished the keys out of his pocket and left them on the kitchen counter as instructed. As he closed the door the click of the lock seemed to echo through the corridor much louder than usual and with an air of finality as he left the apartment behind for good.
By the time Virgil and Patton made it to the new apartment everyone else had already arrived and was working hard to unload as many boxes as possible.
“Oh look who finally decided to show up!” Remy teased as he carried a lamp in one hand and a plastic Starbucks cup in the other.
“You gonna actually carry anything bigger than your own ego at some point today?” Virgil fired back at him, nodding to the lamp as everyone else struggled with heavy boxes or large furniture. Remy’s jaw dropped and Virgil almost cackled at the expression, a smug smile pulling at his lips as he moved to join the others in the moving process.
“I’m going to let that slide because it’s your moving day, but you’re on thin fucking ice babe,” Remy finally retorted, sauntering into the building still only carrying the lamp and his drink. Virgil shook his head fondly.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a whirlwind of moving boxes from room to room, shifting furniture and trying to decide what should go where, small arguments and tiffs breaking out every so often until at last, long after the sun had set Roman walked into the apartment and placed the final box on the floor turning to close the door resolutely behind him and turning to grin at everyone. Virgil looked round his new living room, packed at the moment with boxes and whatnot, but also full of his dearest friends, Patton, Logan, Remy, Gina and Max, all of whom had set aside this day to help him and Roman move into this new place together. He felt his heart swell with emotion.
“I’m soooooo hungry!” Gina complained loudly from where she was lying flat on the floor staring up at the ceiling.
“Hey, kiddos! We should order pizza!” Patton exclaimed, jostling Logan as he did so, whose lap he was currently sitting atop.
“Ooooh, good call, doll. I’ll have a ham and pineapple,” Remy piped up from the armchair he was draped over, tapping on his phone as usual.
“Ugh, you heathen. That is a disgrace to the name of pizza,” Logan levelled Remy with a contemptible stare. This started a heated debate amongst the group on the pros and cons of various pizza toppings. Feeling tired and drained but overwhelmingly happy Virgil slunk quietly over to Roman, wrapping his arms round his waist and fitting his chin nicely onto his shoulder.
“Hey Storm Cloud,” Roman murmured, pressing a soft kiss to Virgil’s hair.
“This is our place,” Virgil almost whispered in response, smiling happily as Remy actually grabbed a cushion and threw it at Logan.
“I know,” Roman’s reply was quiet but so full of joy, and Virgil felt something lovely and bright squeeze in his chest at the sound.
Later that night, once the pizza had arrived and been eaten, stories shared and memories made finally all of their friends piled out of their new home, all with promises of returning soon, leaving Roman and Virgil to collapse on the mattress on the floor in their bedroom where their new bed would soon be. Virgil was exhausted, the kind of tired that was so completely deep set that it burrowed into your bones. He could feel sleep tugging at his brain as he lay down in the soft sheets. He felt strong arms wrap around him and draw him close and he hummed contentedly surrounded by the warmth and smell and comfort of Roman.
“I’m thinking lots of sappy things,” Roman mumbled into Virgil’s hair, pressing a soft kiss there as he did so. Virgil snorted.
“You’re always thinking sappy things,” he commented vaguely.
“More sappy than usual,” Roman clarified, squeezing Virgil a little tighter for a moment. He lifted his head and pressed a sweet, chaste kiss to those incredibly soft and familiar lips.
“You could just say that you love me, dork,” Virgil teased. Roman huffed indignantly before pressing their lips together once more, a longer, gentle glide this time.
“I love you, Virge,” he murmured it against his lips, like it was the most tender and precious thing, a gift only for Virgil. And in a way it was. He felt himself smile as his cheeks warmed even in the dark of their new room.
“I love you too, Ro,” he whispered back, feeling the depth of it fill him with a gentle happiness that he had been missing for a long time. He fell asleep happy and safe in Roman’s arms, the first night of the rest of their nights to be spent together, and that thought alone was enough to bring him so much joy he could hardly contain it. And for the first time in his life, he didn’t feel like he had to. His future was bright and his present was happy and he was ready to face it all with Roman by his side.
And in the end that was all that really mattered.
Fin.