#if you cant tell by now yall im a sucker for platonic duke/anxiety/deceit

[donttellthemangosiwashere]

if I may rub my little shipping hands on your adorable au: logan is patton’s school teacher, roman seems a rainbow flag in his classroom and is torn between “good, kids need more gay role models like him” and “hhhhhh guy hot must f l i r t”

I love this!! Gave me some ideas

Roman and Patton have recently moved into the area, after some coaxing from Remus to move farther away from the rest of their family. It’s a decent part of town with a good school system, so Roman agrees. 

He takes Pat to school, and immediately gay panics over his hot Elementary School teacher. His first thought is “be smooth, go ask him out” but as he approaches him he realizes not only is this very inappropriate for the setting (asking someone out, like a teacher or a waitress, who is currently doing their job and required to be nice to you, is a little rude,) but he’s also stupid flustered and has no idea what to say. 

He panics when he reaches Logan, introduces himself as Patton’s father, and pretends he was coming to talk about said small boy. He tells Logan he’s worried -- and, honestly, he was -- that Pat would have trouble making friends, since they just moved here. Logan, after watching Patton run around for about three seconds, doesn’t see where this worry is coming from, but he proposes a plan nonetheless.

Another kid in the class has been having trouble making friends. He’s not a bad kid, but he’s a chronic liar, and the other kids avoid him a lot. Logan points him out to Roman, and Roman sees a young boy with vitiligo patches on the left side of his face, sitting backwards in a chair and smirking at the table of kids in front of his. He doesn’t look particularly shy or lonely, but Roman knows all too well how looks can be deceiving, and trusts Logan’s judgement.Logan explains he is personal friends with Eden and his father, and bubbly little Patton could be a good influence on Eden, and Logan trusts Eden to make sure Patton is treated kindly. Roman is honestly relieved, and calls Patton over. He gives him a big bear hug, and hints to his little puffball that ‘that kid over there looks a little lonely sitting by himself, why don’t you go talk to him?’At first, Roman is confident in his decision. He can be sure Pat will be fine under Logan’s supervision, he’s already made a friend, and now Roman has an excuse to talk to Logan more regularly, to discuss the kids. Patton and Eden quickly become best friends, and them and two other kids that share their table -- Remy and Emile -- become a very adorable little group of troublemakers.Eden isn’t too bad either -- Eden’s father is busy a lot of the time, which Roman understands, as a fellow single dad, and Logan does a daycare after school, so when Roman comes to pick up Pat, he spares a few minutes to hang out with the two and let them tell him about their days. Eden is surprisingly snarky for a kid their age, but he really seems to respect Patton. As far as Logan tells him, Eden used to casually curse like an adult, but Patton got him to stop, which is a good first step (he got plenty of practice with his uncle Remus, after all).

Of course, Eden’s snark started rubbing off on Pat, too. They and their friend Remy started playing pranks on the other students every so often -- its always harmless, and Patton and Emile smooth everything over afterword with their friendliness, but that didn’t stop Remus from insisting Patton was going to ‘join the dark side with him.’ 

Sometimes, Eden will whisper something to Pat, and they’ll both laugh and chance glances at Logan or Roman. They are kids, so it must be harmless, but man, Roman wish he knew what those little schemers are thinking.

“At first,” of course, is the key phrase. It was a very nice little setup, though Roman couldn’t help but be curious about Eden’s father. Eden clearly adored his dad, but Roman had to admit, he was uneasy at the idea of a man who would let his eleven-year-old cuss like a sailor, sass his teachers, and kick his feet up on tables. Still, Roman held off judgement, since he had yet to meet him. Sometimes, when Roman would come home late, Patton would talk about how nice Mr. Blake was -- he would sit with them for a few minutes so Eden could show him the work they did together in class, and Patton insisted he was very polite and kind. He let that sooth his worries, remembering also that Logan said they were best friends. How could Logan’s best friend be a bad person? Logan was smart and handsome and amazing, of course he only knew the best people.And then, one day, Roman and his brother came to pick up his little happy patty, and Roman saw a familiar face sitting in one of those tiny chairs next to him and Eden. He realized, with horror, why the last name Blake had sounded so familiar.Virgil Blake. His old schoolmate, from middle-through-high school. The outcast, anxious, very nerdy, very gay Virgil Blake that Roman used to relentlessly bully over those same characteristics. He immediately got flashes of younger memories, Roman’s older brothers egging him on as he shoved the purple-haired, stunted teen into the lockers, walking away laughing as another nerd -- a boy with slicked back black hair and sharp blue eyes -- picked Virgil up and helped him gather his things.Virgil Blake was no longer small and frail, and he was glaring at Roman Castillo with a vengeance. Logan Berry, with his slicked back hair and sharp blue eyes, continued working absentmindedly at his deck, either ridiculously unaware, or smirking at his own genius. Roman was terrified to find out which was which, as Remus laughed through the hand over his mouth. Remus leaned towards his younger brother’s ear, putting their mutual realization into words for him,“Oooohohohooo! You fucked up, Ro~!”