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lefaystrent · 6 years ago

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So help me, I’m not moving from this spot

Fandom: Thomas Sanders, Sanders Sides

Pairings: queer platonic LAMP

Summary: Virgil has the day off from work and chooses to spend it in true Virgil style.

Notes: I just wanted to write some qpr/qpp stuff. If you don't know, qpr stands for queer platonic relationship, qpp is queer platonic partner. While sharing some qualities, it's not a romantic relationship, but it's more than just being defined as friends.

AO3 Link

Roman came home to find Virgil lying on a pallet in the living room. As far as pallets go, this one was rather excessive. In place of where their coffee table usually sat in front of their couch, it seemed as though Virgil had taken all of the blankets and pillows in the house and made a nest for himself.

“You’re left to your own devices for a few hours and this is what I come home to?” Roman asked, brow raised comically high.

Virgil didn’t show an ounce of embarrassment, remaining in his relaxed position leaned back against a pile of pillows. He was dressed casually in his favorite hoodie and sweatpants. A bag of potato chips laid on his stomach. He lazily pulled a chip out while scrolling on his phone.

“It’s my day off,” Virgil explained.

“Have you been here since we left this morning?” Roman asked, referring to their two other partners they lived with.

“Yuh, and I don’t plan on moving from this spot for the rest of the day.”

Roman stood by the side of the pallet, surveying the pile of snacks Virgil had set nearby. “My, my, you certainly have quite the set up. But whatever will you do when nature comes calling?”

In answer, Virgil picked up and waved an empty water bottle.

“Eugh! What the hell is wrong with you, Virgil?!”

He laughed and tossed the bottle at Roman to thunk harmlessly against his chest. “Relax, Princey, I’m joking. I’ll go to the bathroom like a civilized human being.”

“Your jokes are disgusting. And here I was thinking of joining you in splendid relaxation,” Roman scoffed, stepping over Virgil to go to the kitchen. Virgil immediately abandoned his chips and phone and held up his hands in a plea.

“Wait, no, come back. I’m sorry, come lay with me, babe.”

“I don’t cuddle with heathens.” Roman turned his nose up at him and stayed his course. He could still see Virgil’s top half from the open archway that connected the two rooms. They both knew that Roman would join him in ten minutes tops, but for the moment it was enjoyable to peek at him and see the unabashed longing in those dark eyes.

“Babe,” Virgil tried imploringly. Roman ignored him in favor of making a sandwich. He listened as Virgil continued. “Babe. You just here for your lunch break?”

“No, I suffered valiantly to finish up my work early today.”

“Or you called it quits early and decided to put off the rest until tomorrow, you mean?”

Roman put a hand over his heart, gasping in offense. “Excuse you, Amy Lee-ave me alone. I work hard you know. Procrastination is more your territory.”

“Tell that to all your wips.”

The offended gasping intensified.

The next to arrive home was Patton. It’d only been a couple hours since Roman had gotten home.

“It’s not even four,” Virgil commented. Was everyone getting off work early today? So not fair; Virgil’s job never let him off early. He demanded justice.

But you know, it was kind of worth it, seeing the way Patton’s face brightened at Virgil’s set up.

“Oh my gosh,” he squealed and tossed the plastic store bags he’d been holding onto the nearest armchair so that he could dive onto the pallet, landing horizontally across Virgil.

“Pat!” Virgil grunted. Had it been Roman, he’d just be annoyed, but Patton’s giggle took all the fight in him right out. He wiggled his arms out from under Patton to lay them over his back, patting at him. “Happy to see you too, but give a dude a warning next time.”

“Sorry,” Patton replied, sounding too cheery to be taken seriously. “Oh hey, what’s Roman’s katana doing here?”

Virgil glanced over at the sword casually laying by the pallet. “Oh that? Apparently I said ‘fighting words’, so Roman had to wave that around to make himself feel better or something.”

“So he is home!” he exclaimed. “I saw his car outside, but I didn’t expect anyone else except you to be home yet.”

“Yeah, he got off early.”

“Where is he?”

“In the bathroom, probably taking a massive dump because he’s so full of shit.”

“Virgil!” Patton chided, sitting up enough to throw a disapproving look at him. “Now is that any way to talk about someone you love?”

“Who said I loved him?”

Patton frowned and just stared at him in determination.

Virgil averted his gaze to the side. “I’m a pit of darkness. I don’t feel love.”

“Say you love him.”

“Uh-uh.”

“Say you love him!”

“He’s not even in the room; why does it matter?”

Patton just stared harder into his soul. Virgil rolled his eyes. “I thought this was like, an understood thing or whatever.”

“It still makes me happy to hear you say it,” Patton said and a helpless warmth seeped into his gaze, making his stern face melt into a smile.

Virgil covered his own face with his hands. “God, you’re too powerful. Fine. I love Roman, even if he is a huge dork. I love all my QPPs.”

Satisfied, Patton booped him on the nose.

By the time Logan arrived home, Roman had begun working on dinner. Patton must have been busy upstairs, seeing as Logan didn’t spot him. Virgil on the other hand was sprawled out clear as day on a pallet in the living room floor, earbuds on and listening to music from his phone.

“No one informed me of a slumber party,” Logan commented to Roman. He looked up from his place at the stove and grinned.

“Reminds you of the old days, right?” Roman laughed in memory of their shared childhood. All of them had been inseparable even then, staying over at each other’s houses all the time. “But no, this is just how Virgil chose to spend his off day.”

“Is this because we’ve banned him from sitting on top of the fridge?”

“Heh, perhaps, but all the same he’s refused to move from that spot all day.”

“. . . not even to relieve himself?”

Roman’s eyes took on a deadly serious glint. “I made sure he went to an actual bathroom even if I had to carry him myself.”

“Good man,” Logan pat his shoulder approvingly. Roman caught his hand and brought it to his lips, the affection making the usually stoic man temporarily short circuit. Roman said something, but Logan had to blink and ask for him to repeat himself.

Roman smiled knowingly. “I’ll give you a dollar if you can get Gloom ‘n Doom to move from his sacred spot.”

“Amazing, a whole dollar? Wherever would I spend that much money?”

“Anywhere your heart desires. Possibly a vending machine.”

Logan smiled a little despite himself. “Is dinner almost ready?”

Roman absently brushed his thumb across the hand he still held. “Yes. Patton brought home stuff for pasta. Should only be a few minutes.”

“Very well.” Logan slipped away to go to the living room. He returned to the kitchen not even a minute later, expression pinched.

“Logan?”

“Hm, my first attempt proved unrewarding. I tried to tempt him with dinner, but he asked for his plate to be brought to him.”

“We could deny him, leave him to have to come join us at the table,” Roman suggested.

“Hm,” Logan hummed again, rubbing his chin. Patton popped into the kitchen. Seeing Logan there, he scuttled over and hugged him from behind.

“You’ve got your thinking face on,” Patton noted.

Roman threw an answer over his shoulder while he stirred the noodles. “He’s brainstorming ways to get Virgil to leave his pallet.”

“Yes, Roman bet me a whole dollar as compensation.”

“Just one dollar?” Patton asked. “Well that doesn’t make a lot of cents.”

Logan groaned to cover up the urge to grin. Patton just nuzzled into his neck, tickling him enough to get him to laugh.

“So why are you guys trying to get Virgil to get up?”

“Because he presented us with a challenge,” Roman said. “Plus, I go to the trouble of preparing dinner and he doesn’t even have the decency to want to join us? Rude.”

“He’s not joining us?”

“He requested for his plate to be brought to him,” Logan told him.

“Oh, well we could just all eat in the living room.”

“Seeing as we are eating spaghetti tonight, that would be ill advised. The sauce could make a mess on all of those blankets or the carpet. It would be better to eat at the table.”

“So we bring the table to him!” Patton suggested with a broad grin.

Roman snorted. “Do you think our little emo would get up then, if we set the table over him?”

“If anything, he might bite our ankles in retaliation,” Logan pointed out.

“This is too hilarious. Yes, we’re doing this. Patton, darling, the table.”

“On it!” Patton saluted and hurried over to the table.

“Patton.”

Patton froze, hands on either side of the wooden tabletop. He looked up from behind his glasses at Logan’s strict posture.

“Come on, Specs,” Roman groaned, turning off the stove and moving the noodles to a colander in the sink.

“Patton should not be moving the table like this,” Logan stated before moving over to the other side of the table to place his hands in a ready position. “It’s rather heavy and could cause strain to his back were he to move it alone. I shall assist.”

Patton beamed at him.

Virgil tensed up when a large thing moved over him. He flinched, dropping his phone and ripping out his earbuds.

“What the fuck, you guys?” he demanded as Logan and Patton moved their dining table over his spot on the floor.

“Sorry, not sorry,” Logan said. He made sure the table legs didn’t knock into Virgil as they sat it down with him directly under it. “If you insist on remaining in this particular spot, then we have no choice but to resort to drastic measures.”

“Okay, who’s idea was this?” Virgil asked. He sent an accusing glare at Patton who merely smiled at him.

“Dinner time is family time,” Patton said cheekily and bent down to kiss the top of Virgil’s head.

“I’m running away,” Virgil threatened, voice monotone.

“Falsehood,” Logan denied, bending down as well to place a kiss on his temple. “After all, you’ve sworn to not move from this spot for the rest of today.”

Virgil hated the smirk he wore when he said that.

Roman brought the food in, and Patton and Logan went back for the chairs. They began to eat while Virgil bemoaned their presence. Once he realized they weren’t going to hand him his plate, he gave up and crawled out just enough to sit up on his knees and eat at the table.

Joke was on them though, ‘cause he still didn’t have to move from his pallet.

Tag list: @spectralheartt @a-pastel-pan @notalwaysthevillian @rose-gold-roman @ijustrealizedhowdumbmynamewas @katie-the-noble-fangirl @yourroyalydramaticanxiousness @aroundofapplesauce @merlybird500 @beach-fan @jemthebookworm @whats-going-on-kiddos (let me know if you want to be added or removed from my general tag list)

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thepenguinclub · 3 years ago

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The Junior Lit. and Lang. Class of Mr. Sanders and what Happens in It

part of series, this is the first part, with the second part here and the third part here. here is the masterpost.

romantic lamp, pre-relationship, first meetings, virgil and a butt-ton of ocs, soulmate au, genius virgil

Wordcount: 8370

Summary:

“Everyone’s here,” he said, and he put the attendance on his desk to enter into the database later. He picked up his coffee and took a sip, then came around and sat on the edge of his desk, so he was directly in front of Marcy and Jill’s desks. Jill smiled at him, and he smiled back warmly.

“So?” James asked with thinly veiled curiosity. Steph didn’t even try to hide her curiosity when they followed up with “What happened?”

Virgil took another sip of his coffee, before putting it next to him on the desk and crossing his legs.

“Okay, so,” he started, and everyone leaned forwards slightly, “I might be meeting my soulmates today.”

———

Virgil is nineteen years old, out of college and teaching a class of High School juniors, which is a fancy way of saying he has access to a room full of teenagers who are happy to give him advice.

Good. He needs it. Because he had no idea what to do with this whole soulmate thing.

------------

Hello.

I am in pain and bored and not having a great day, so I finished this WIP up and am posting it during my fifth period.

Literally I have whole-ass backstories for these ocs okay I Love Them. Many or based on people I know in real life.

If the quality takes a sudden dive off a cliff, I’m blaming it on the fact that twenty minutes ago when I started to finish this was the first time I opened this doc in months.

Also, this oneshot references a song that plays. It’s called the Sound of the Underground, specifically the cover by Ortopilot. I link the song in the fic when you should listen to it if you would like to do that, but obviously you don’t have to. It’s a good song, though, I recommend it.

Any corrections would be appreciated. Thanks to @rozhanelle for betaing and listening to me rant about my ocs, I love you. <3

Enjoy.

WARNINGS: Swearing, mentions of prejudice (homophobia but for soulmates essentially), mentions of loss, grief, descriptions of food, eating and drinking (not alcohol)

Let me know if I missed anything.

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The door of the classroom banged against the wall as Virgil shoved it open with more force than necessary. All of the students looked up from whatever they were doing, except for Jill, whose hearing aids were broken and the new ones weren’t going to arrive until Friday. Marcy, Jill’s QPP, nudged her.

Virgil stumbled on his way to his desk, and a few papers from the seemingly hundreds that he was holding fluttered to the floor. He cursed quietly, then cursed loudly when he tripped on his untied boot laces and the papers went everywhere.

“Sanders!” Liam yelled alarmed, at the same time that Jay and Harri both asked if he was okay. All three of the juniors got up from their desks to help him up, and Benny and Lacey helped to pick up the papers on the floor, stopping to trade a whisper between them that made Benny blush through his ears, which caused Lacey to smirk proudly, braces flashing.

Virgil sighed as he accepted Liam’s hand up, and yelped when the football quarterback and wrestler practically threw him across the room. Liam frowned.

“You’re lighter than my sibling is,” he said, and Jay lifted their head up to stick their tongue out, the piercing in it catching the light.

“No one cares, Rock,” they said, and Virgil smiled slightly at the term of endearment. The twins were always entertaining.

He accepted the papers from Harri gratefully, and ze smiled at him.

“Rough morning?” ze asked, and Dylan barked out a laugh.

“He can’t be hungover, he’s 19,” he said, and Kane, his best friend, fist-bumped him.

Harri rolled zir eyes. “Just because you and your idiot parade drink and drive every night doesn’t mean he has to.” Ze turned to look at Virgil, who was glaring at his desk. “He could have just had a rough night’s sleep.”

Virgil looked at zir and smiled. “Sit down, I’ll tell you about it.”

Harri, Jay, Liam, Lacey and Benny all went back to their desks, and Virgil finally made his way to his own. He set his papers down on the corner, plugged his laptop, and leaned back on the wall, sipping his coffee.

“Well, Mr. Sanders?” Grace asked, slipping her phone into her pocket. Steph and Kitty followed her example, both sitting up straight and looking at Virgil curiously. The fourth of their group, Bee, looked up from his fidget toy, but didn’t stop pressing the buttons on the sides.

Most of the class was ready to listen, their attention having been grabbed by the loud entrance.

“Let me take attendance first,” he said, and he placed his coffee on the desk in exchange for his attendance clipboard, which he kept in the top drawer. He clicked his purple gel pen a few times experimentally.

“Today let’s do… favorite way to eat potatoes,” Virgil said, and he glanced up to see everyone with their thinking faces on. After being their teacher for a few months now, Virgil was well acquainted with these faces.

He set his pen on the first box. “Bail, Danni.”

“Tater tots,” Danni said, and Virgil placed a check mark next to their name.

“Barns, Kane.”

“Fries, obviously,” he scoffed, and Dylan nodded in approval. Virgil checked the box.

“Berry, Bee.”

Bee took a second, before saying “baked potato.”

Virgil glanced up. “Toppings?”

Bee smiled. “Sour cream, cheese, butter, onion.”

Virgil nodded at him, and smiled back. “Good choice. And I love the hair.”

Bee subconsciously tugged at his newly cut and dyed blue hair. “Thanks.”

Virgil checked the box.

“Carlyle, Benny.”

“Whipped potatoes.”

“Charles, Sarah.”

“Mashed.”

“Connor, Dylan.”

“Fries, duh.”

Dominguez, Grace and Farrah, Kitty both said mashed, and Garner, James said baked, just butter.

Virgil ‘tsked’ as he shook his head. “You’re missing out, James.”

He checked the box anyway.

“Harris, Vivienne.”

“Tater tots.”

“Jana, Jill.”

Jill smiled when Virgil looked at them, and she signed to Marcy, who translated easily.

“They said ‘fries.’”

Virgil nodded, and checked the box.

James, Lacey, Jefferson, Miley and Laghari, Abhi all agreed on fries, and Marcus, Danny surprised the room when he said “none.”

Danni Bail turned to their boyfriend with a betrayed look on their face. “Excuse me?”

Danny smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, DB, I’m just not a huge fan of potatoes in general.”

Danni stared at Danny for a few seconds before shaking their head. “I’m breaking up with you.”

“Babe, come on-“

Virgil checked the box.

Reddy, Mahika preferred candied potato skins, Shima, Stephanie liked potato wedges, and Smith, Jay liked tater tots.

“Really?” Liam said, looking at his sibling surprised. “You used to love fries.”

“Too much,” Jay grumbled. “I’ll never forgive myself for making myself hate fries by eating them all the time.”

“Well, I still love fries.”

“I know , Rock, you beg mom for McDonald’s after every football practice.”

“Okay, but you ask for Taco Bell after every track practice, so-“

Virgil checked both of their boxes.

Thorn, Harri preferred potato wedges, Urano, Patrick liked fries, and Washington, Kayla agreed with him.

“White, Marcy?”

“I like tater tots,” she said, pushing up her purple glasses and signing quickly with one hand to Jill.

Virgil checked the last box, then looked up and smiled brightly.

“So?” James asked with thinly veiled curiosity. Steph didn’t even try to hide her curiosity when they followed up with “What happened?”

Virgil took another sip of his coffee, before putting it next to him on the desk and crossing his legs.

“Okay, so,” he started, and everyone leaned forwards slightly, “I might be meeting my soulmates today.”

Sarah and Miley squealed loudly from their seats in the back of the room, their hands flapping. Everyone had grins on their faces, smiling widely. Liam laughed a little.

“Congrats, man,” he said.

“Well?” Kitty asked, wiggling in her chair. “How did it happen?”

Virgil chuckled a little. He loved his students.

“Have I mentioned that I teach GED classes?” he asked, and a few students nodded as a few others shook their heads. “Okay, well, I teach English classes to people getting their GEDs, y’know, adults trying to get their high school diploma,” Virgil explained. “The classes are at a college about 45 minutes away, in one of the lecture halls, from 7:00-8:30 and 8:45-10:15. Usually, in between classes I go and get a coffee from the Starbucks across the street, but it was closed last night, so I walked a few blocks to another small coffee shop-cafe thingy.”

Everyone in the class was listening attentively, and Virgil smiled.

“So the barista takes my order, whatever, and when they go to hand me the drink they see my soulmarks.” Virgil lifted his right hand up to show his palm. There was a light blue heart and a dark blue brain stamped neatly in the middle, to show exactly where he and his soulmates would first touch. There was also a third, a red crown on the inside of his fingers on his left hand.

“And they say “are those your soulmarks?” And I’m like, well, shit, they're a purist.” Virgil brought his hand down to his lap. Multiple students flinched at the thought of soulmate purists, the people who thought that you had one soulmate who you had to marry. The more radical ones had been abusing and harassing platonic soulmates, those who were markless, and those with multiple marks since forever, although, thankfully, the purist numbers were thinning out, progressive thinking taking charge.

“Of course, I’ve had to deal with purists my whole life,” Virgil continued, and he saw a few people frown. Liam reached out and grabbed Jay’s hand, and Virgil winced. Liam was markless, and Jay and their soulmate Kian were platonic, so the siblings had first hand experience, just like Virgil did.

“So I was ready, and I kind of went “yeah, what about it,” but then this person made this face like they had just realized what they said, and they went “oh, shit, that sounded super purist-y, huh? No, I said that ‘cause I know your soulmates, they’re regulars here.”” Virgil smiled widely at his student’s reactions. They ranged from Kayla and Mahika high fiving excitedly, to Danny and Liam both wolf-whistling.

“I was a little skeptical, ‘cause, like, what are the chances? But they said that if I gave them their number they’d give it to my soulmates when they came in this morning, so I did and now I’m just waiting for them to text me,” Virgil finished.

“And let me guess,” Danny said. “You stayed up all night freaking out about it and forgot to set your alarm, and you only woke up when your mom dropped Thomas off for you to take to school.”

Virgil scowled at him, and the entire class erupted into giggles.

Thomas was Virgil’s little brother, who was seven. Because Virgil’s mom started her shift at the hospital at 7:30 and Thomas didn’t start school until 8:00, she dropped him off at Virgil’s apartment every day so he could drop Thomas off on his way to the high school. Thomas still ended up being early, as Virgil had to get to his own school around the same time, but it all worked as well as it could.

His students knew about Thomas because Virgil had talked about him on more than one occasion, and because he had brought Thomas in to sit in the back of the classroom when his school day was canceled at the last minute and they couldn’t find a sitter. All of his students had loved him, and they frequently asked how he was doing.

The downside of his students knowing all about him was that they always saw through his bullshit, which was kind of annoying.

“Okay, okay, everyone,” Virgil said, and he raised his hands to quiet the room. It did quiet, although there were a few scattered sounds of muffled giggling. He got up and walked to the white board, then turned to address the class.

“Hopefully no one needs this reminder,” he said, “but here it is anyway. We have a unit test in two classes.” Virgil turned and wrote the date of the test in purple marker across the whiteboard, both so people could copy it and to give the students time to silently panic about forgetting. He turned around again. “That means it’s not the next class, but the class after that. The test will be on paper and has 25 questions, 15 of which are multiple choice and 10 of which are short answers.”

Virgil pointed his marker sternly. “This means that for those of you who had the surprised pikachu face on when I reminded you of the test,” a few students grinned at him, “I recommend studying. The test date has been on the board for the whole unit, but I suppose I can write it bigger on the board.” Virgil copied the test information under the date, which included which material they were going over.

When he turned around, Vivienne was raising her hand. He pointed at her with the marker. “Madam Harris?”

Vivienne smiled at him and tucked a piece of her brown hair behind her ear. “Are we doing a class review?”

“Yes!” Virgil gestured with the marker at Vivienne. “You, Miss Harris, just earned yourself a candy after providing the perfect segue into what we’re doing today.” He jogged over to his desk and opened the bottom drawer, which had a large bowl full of candy in it. He walked down to where Vivienne sat, and reached over Patrick in order to let her pick her piece.

One of his student’s favorite things that Virgil did was give candy rewards for the most random things, like giving a cool answer for the attendance or even wearing nice shoes. Virgil liked it because it always made whoever earned the candy happy, because who didn’t like random candy?

“So!” he said, after Vivienne had picked out a pink starburst. He walked back to the front of the classroom, put the candy away, and faced everyone again. Virgil tried to only talk when Jill could see him, that way she could read his lips. “As the lovely Vivienne asked, this class and next class will both be review classes. The first half will be a group review, and the second will be an individual/partner review.”

Virgil leaned back on the whiteboard. “As for group review activities, we have two options. We can either do a Ka-”

He was cut off by the ding of a phone. More specifically, he was cut off by the ding of his phone.

Everyone’s gazes were brought to the innocent looking iPhone with the Nightmare Before Christmas case. It dinged again.

They stared at it. It dinged again, and then one more time, before falling silent.

They all continued to stare at it.

Fifteen seconds later, Dylan groaned. “Are you gonna answer it or what?”

Virgil hesitantly walked towards it, and stuck his hand out to pick it up, still face down.

“Go on!” Lacey said loudly, and Steph backed her up.

“It’s not gonna bite!” she said, and there were a few scattered laughs. Virgil glared at them without any heat behind it.

“You don’t know that,” he grumbled, and Liam snorted.

Virgil turned the phone over and it showed his notifications when it recognized his face. Four text notifications, from three unknown numbers, all in a group chat.

Virgil sucked in breath and opened the group chat. He looked up, eyes wide. He didn’t bother to blow his purple-tinted bangs out of his eyes.

“It’s them,” he said, and the room erupted into noise. Juniors in high school competed to yell over each other, some offering words of encouragement and some just squealing.

“Shut up!” Jay yelled, and the room fell silent. They turned to Virgil. “Well?” they said impatiently. “What does it say?”

Virgil looked at the messages. He read the first one out loud.

““Salutations,”” he started, and Dylan snorted, ““my name is Logan Croft. My pronouns are he/him. Remy, the barista at ‘Bean Factory,’ gave us your number. We confirmed that my partners and I are in fact your soulmate with the picture of your soulmark, as we all have it. The other two numbers in this chat are our other soulmates. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”” Virgil looked up at the class. “That’s the first message.”

Danny shook his head in disbelief. “Only you could get a soulmate that talks like that.”

Kane nodded his agreement. “Who is he, Shakespeare?”

Grace shook her head. “If he was Shakespeare it would have sounded more like ‘dearest soulmate of mine, thou ist a lovely individual whom I have become enraptured with at the mere mention of thou’s existence-’”

Harri cut her off with a roll of zir eyes and a clearing of ze’s throat. “You were saying?” ze asked, turning to Virgil.

Virgil nodded, then read the second message.

““Good morning! It is wonderful to meet you! My name is Roman Royal, he/him. We’re all ecstatic to get to know you, as we have been waiting for you for quite a while. I’m sure you are beautiful and lovely, just as our other partners are. Again, it is truly amazing to meet you.””

Miley giggled. “With a last name like Royal, he’s the one who should be Shakespeare.”

“I can’t believe two of your soulmates talk like cartoon characters,” Patrick added quietly.

“Well?” Marcy prompted. “Are you three-for-three?”

Virgil looked down at the last two messages. ““Hi! I’m Patton Hart, he/him! It’s super super cool to meet you, and, like the other two said, we’re all really excited!”” Virgil looked up. “Then it’s just a message full of emojis ranging from a heart to a cat.”

Jill laughed when Marcy finished translating, and a few students joined her. Virgil scowled playfully at them.

“Hey, those are my soulmates you’re laughing at,” he said, although, truthfully, he kind of wanted to laugh too. They all seemed to have interesting personalities, and Virgil was a little shocked that he was meeting them at all. He’d been waiting nineteen years for this.

Virgil was raised by his mom and dad.

Money was tight. Both his mom and dad worked, but they both had debt from school, and Virgil’s dad’s parents were in the hospital a lot when Virgil was a kid, so the hospital bills just added to the strain.

Virgil was always a smart kid. IQ of 179, certified genius, he knew that the sooner he graduated school the sooner he was less of a financial burden. So when his teachers started offering to bump him up in the classes, he convinced his parents to let him. He took summer classes, night classes, and took tests to skip some classes altogether. For lack of a better term, he worked his fucking ass off. His mom was always worried he was pushing himself, but his dad was always so proud. Sometimes Virgil wondered if he was actually giving off rays of sunlight with the force of his smiles. He was more excited for Virgil to meet his soulmates than Virgil was, even though parents tended to tell him he should be ashamed to have a kid with multiple marks. His dad just glared at them and said that they should be ashamed, and then he would hug Virgil and tell him that he loved Virgil just as he was, and that he would always be proud of Virgil.

His dad died in a car accident when Virgil was eleven. His mom was pregnant with Thomas, and over the agony of overwhelming grief, Virgil promised his father’s grave that he would continue to make him proud.

He graduated high school at 14. He made national news when he was accepted into one of the best colleges in the country on a full-ride scholarship, which they made special adjustments to so he could take the classes online. He needed to raise Thomas, afterall, considering that his mom was working almost 24/7.

Virgil graduated college when most kids were being enrolled, at 18. He got his teaching license, and was hired, and now he was here. In the November before his 20th birthday, with a full time teaching job, as well as a part-time job teaching people as old as triple his age.

He hoped his dad was proud of him.

“Mr. Sanders?” Bee’s soft voice snapped Virgil from his thoughts, and he sent a reassuring smile to the blue-haired boy.

“Sorry,” he said, “I spaced for a second.”

“It’s okay,” Kayla called.

Mahika nodded at her friend. “We’ve all been there.”

Danni smiled at Virgil. “You decided what you're gonna say to your soulmates?”

Virgil’s own smile dropped. “Oh, shit.”

“You totally forgot,” James laughed, and a few students joined in. Virgil stuck his tongue out.

“What do I say?” he asked, and Jay sighed.

“Why don’t you start with ‘hi, I’m Virgil?’” they suggested dryly, but Virgil missed the sarcasm, instead going back to the groupchat to start typing, nodding as he did so.

“Yeah, okay, that makes sense,” he said, and Liam cackled.

“Your name’s Virgil?” Dylan asked. Virgil glanced up from his phone.

“Yeah.”

Dylan smirked. “Weird name, where’d you get it? Mordor?”

Virgil smirked back. “Dante’s Inferno, which you will be reading in the spring.”

The majority of the class dissolved into muffled giggles and laugh-turned-coughs.

Dylan dropped his smirk. He stared at Virgil for a second. “I don’t like you,” he finally announced, and Virgil frowned.

“Aw, I’m sorry, honey. Should we go to the court? Make it official?”

Jill smacked a hand over her mouth when Marcy finished her signing, and Danny didn’t even try and hide his amusement.

“Dylan, how does it feel to be owned by a teacher?” he asked, and Danni smacked him lightly.

Dylan scowled. “He’s nineteen, he barely even counts.”

Liam raised an eyebrow, grinning. “He could be seven and still count as a teacher if he was, y’know, teaching us Lit. & Lang. as a job. Which he is now.” He frowned. “Teaching us, that is. He’s not seven.”

Jay snickered, and Liam flipped them off.

Dylan’s scowl deepened. “I hate this class.”

Virgil bit on his smile. At the beginning of the year he would have believed that and felt bad, but ever since he learned that both Dylan and Kane skipped practically every class other than his, he stopped believing Dylan’s remarks.

This was further proved by the conversation he had heard a few weeks prior. Dylan, Kane and a few of their friends had been vaping outside when Virgil had dropped his stuff just out of their view and had the incredibly good fortune to overhear them.

Their friend had asked if they could skip and go to the shopping center during first, and Kane had declined. When their friend asked why, Dylan replied with “we don’t skip first, that’s Lit. & Lang.”

“What teacher could you possibly have that makes Lit. & Lang. a good class?” their friend had asked, disbelieving.

“Sanders,” Dylan answered simply, and a voice Virgil had recognized as Jacob Harper from his sixth period spoke next.

“Oh, hell yeah. He’s why I don’t skip sixth.”

“No joke?” There was a silence, and Virgil had assumed they were nodding. “Isn’t he the teenager that wears a leather jacket and hoodie and gives out candy for no reason?”

There had been a crinkling of a wrapper.

“Got this for answering ‘therizinosaurus’ when he asked what my favorite dinosaur was,” Kane said, and was met with silence. “What? I had a dinosaur phase as a kid. Don’t judge me.”

“Damn,” their friend finally had said. “Can I transfer?”

Virgil would be the first to admit that hearing his students like him made him do a little happy dance internally. And sometimes externally, if he was alone.

“Have you sent it?” Marcy asked at Jill’s prompting, and Virgil finished typing before hitting the send button quickly, afraid that if he waited he would talk himself out of it.

““Hi, it’s cool to meet you, I’m Virgil. He/him,”” Virgil read the text he had sent out loud.

“How original,” Dylan muttered, and Danny reached in front of him to snatch Dylan’s red beanie off his head. Dylan’s blonde hair stood up in multiple directions, and he scowled, turned around, and ripped it out of Danny’s hand, who was laughing.

“Boys,” Virgil warned, and they both sighed. Virgil had probably made a mistake sitting the two so close to each other, with Dylan directly in front of Danny, but he hadn’t found enough cause to move everyone around, so they were stuck with each other.

Danni set a hand on their boyfriend’s shoulder, and Kane sent Dylan a look, and both boys calmed down slightly.

Virgil set his phone on his desk. No use wasting class time waiting for them to respond.

“Okay,” Virgil said, clapping his hands together to get everyone’s attention. He stood still for a second. “What was I talking about?”

“Group review activities?” Sarah called from the back, tying off the braid she had been doing and moving to grab another part of her bleach-and-brown hair.

“Thank you, Miss Charles!” Virgil called. She smiled at him, and smiled more when he pulled the candy bowl out. Sarah didn’t like candy much, but Virgil had made sure to stock up on gum too, which she did like. He grabbed a piece and walked down to hand it to her.

“Thanks,” she said sweetly, and he nodded.

When he was back at the board and turned towards the class, he continued.

“So, for the group activity we can either do Jeopardy or Kahoot.” Virgil did jazz hands, and a few students laughed. “Hands raised for Jeopardy?” Ten hands. “And for Kahoot?” Twelve. Virgil nodded. He knew that Grace had trouble deciding things, so when she didn’t raise her hand for either he ignored it. They had a clear winner either way.

“Kahoot it is!” he exclaimed, and there was a smattering of claps and cheers.

Virgil walked over to sit down at his computer and brought up the game on the projected screen over the whiteboard. The awful Kahoot music started, and Virgil quickly muted it. He brought up YouTube.

“Any requests for today?” he called.

“Oh, oh!” Lacey said, waving her hand. “Primadonna by Marina and the Diamonds!”

“Teenager, MCR!” Kitty yelled.

Danni joined in. “Rio by Duran Duran?”

“This Is How We Do, Katy Perry” from Miley, and “Killer Queen by Queen” from Abhi (which earned him a Hershey kiss) were also added to the queau.

“Baby Shark,” Kane said.

“No!” everyone yelled, and Kane put his hands up in surrender.

“And I think that’s enough to start off with, yeah?’ Virgil said quickly, before Danny could reach forward and punch Kane, who sat next to Dylan.

Virgil set up the music, and the Kahoot, and a few seconds later the students started to take their phones out to put in the game pin as Primadonna started to play through the speakers in the ceiling.

After confirming that everyone was in the game, he started it, and sat back to watch his students race to answer the questions. Abhi, James and Patrick were always the most intense about it, which was entertaining. James was in the lead, and Patrick and Abhi were furiously waiting for the next question. Mahika and Kayla had seemed to have teamed up, which had resulted in Sarah and Miley teaming up against them, as they were seating partners respectively, with the aisle in between them. Neither were winning in their group, though, because Vivienne was destroying them. Virgil assumed that she had studied with her soulmate, as Patrick had always been good about studying.

Bee, Kitty, Grace and Steph were all much more calm about it, helping each other if one didn’t know the answer. Lacey and Benny were similar, and Virgil got the idea that they had probably studied with each other too. Danny and Danni were the opposite, each attempting to annihilate the other. With the looks they were giving each other, Virgil would have been concerned for their relationship if he didn’t know that for this exact reason they both agreed to temporarily break up and get back together before and after all Kahoot games.

Dylan and Kane were nonchalant about it, almost seemingly not answering at all, although Virigl could tell that they were by the fact that the number of people answering the questions never went down. Marcy and Jill were as sweet as they always were, signing to each other and giggling lightly after every question.

And lastly, Jay, Liam and Harri, the first two who were trying to one up the other extremely aggressively and the third who was casually winning over every other student.

Virgil grinned into his coffee cup. He would never admit it outloud, but first period was always his favorite. All of his students had great personalities, and it was always a good way to open the day.

His phone buzzed on his desk, and his stomach swooped. He reached over to grab it and opened the groupchat with his soulmates, to see that all three had responded.

Logan

Your name is very interesting. Like the poet?

Patton

It’s wonderful to meet you! Gosh I’m so excited! How old are you? Do you have any pets? 💖💖💖

Roman

Lovely to meet you Virgil! Would you like to get to know each other online or meet in person?

Virgil blew out a breath.

Virgil

kinda. mostly from the character from dante’s inferno

Virgil

i’m 19, and i have a fish. his name is fish. it’s super original ;)

Virgil

as long as you aren’t, like. serial killers, i’d be down to meet in person. i’m assuming y’all go to the college that the cafe was at

Logan

We do. That’s very interesting, is your parent a fan of older literature?

Patton

I would die for Fish 🐟🐟

Roman

We do! You do as well?

Virgil bit his lip. He didn’t wanna come off as the gifted kid that waved it in people’s faces, he hated when people assumed he was like that.

At one question, about half the class got it wrong, and Virgil made a quick note to go over that point. When he went to the scoreboard, multiple names dropped and rose, and there was a chorus of groans and cheers, with the occasional swear word thrown in. Virgil smiled and clicked to the next question.

Virgil

yeah, my dad loved it a lot. runs in the family i guess

Virgil

please dont die before i can meet u, that would kinda suck

Virgil

no, i dont go there

Logan

You are also a fan of literature?

Patton

As long as Fish does not require my life, I wont! 😁😺😸

Roman

Only visiting?

Virgil

yeah old books and english is kinda my thing

Virgil

no i live about 45 minutes away

Patton

When would be a good time to meet?🥰🥰💕

Virgil

ill be on the campus for an appointment around 7

Virgil

maybe we could get coffee or smth at like 615??

Roman

That sounds amazing!

Patton

Works for us! 😻😻💗💕

Logan

I look forward to meeting you.

Virgil set his phone on his desk after the conversation closed with Patton sending a dog gif, and tuned back into the Kahoot game. Harri was still in the lead, followed by Patrick, Abhi, James and Vivienne.

Virgil added more music to the YouTube queau and sat back in his chair, watching his students be incredibly intense about a review game. He sipped his coffee.

The song switched to a new one , one that all of his students recognized immediately. Some had no reaction, as they were too focused on the Kahoot game, but others started grinning, and Mahika and Kayla got out of their seats in the back of the class to dance as they continued to answer the questions, even though there were only a few left.

They got to the last question, and the scoreboard showed, with Harri in first, James in second, Patrick in third, Abhi in fourth and Vivienne in fifth. Sarah, Miley and Vivienne joined their friends in dancing, and Harri did a little victory boogie as well. Virgil got up and grabbed the candy bowl, shimmying down the aisle. The song ended and started again, and he saw Danny roll his eyes at his partner as they danced in their seat. But he was smiling, as was almost every other student, and Virgil smiled too.

Virgil had discovered the song by accident, but it was so fun to dance to that he had obviously had to introduce it to his students. So now it was tradition to dance to it after every Kahoot match. It was a great way to get rid of the tension that Kahoot brought, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Lacey pulled Benny into a waltz hold and led him into a calm sway back and forth, which had Benny as red as his sweater. Jay jumped up and down aggressively in the front of the room with Liam as he did all of the classic dance moves, including, but not limited to, the cabbage patch, the sprinkler, and an interesting attempt at the moonwalk. Those who didn’t want to dance tapped to the beat and mouthed the words along with the song, all with bright grins on their faces,

Steph convinced Grace to dance with them, and they twisted their hips uncoordinated while Bee and Kitty laughed at them. Virgil made his way around the room, handing out the candy to the winners and pausing to dance dorkily with anyone who asked it of him.

The song looped again, and he started to make his way back to his desk. He saw Dylan and Kane talking with each other, both nodding absentmindedly to the beat, and he grinned when Dylan did a little hand movement to the song without even noticing.

Virgil made it so the music would end when the song did, and he danced with Jill and Marcy for the rest of the song. Typically, with Jill’s hearing aids in, they were able to hear the song, but because of their current predicament they couldn’t, and Virgil’s heart squeezed with sympathy when she just smiled and nodded to the song, only slightly off beat. He slipped her a piece of candy (green apple Jolly Rancher, her favorite), and their smile became more genuine. Marcy mouthed a quick ‘thank you’ at him while Jill was looking away, and he winked at her.

As the song wound down, Virgil went to the front of the room to observe his students.

Vivienne had convinced Patrick to dance with her, despite his many complaints of ‘Viv, c’mon, really,’ and she was dancing gracefully (as actual dancers, she, Mahika, Kayla, Sarah and Miley had the natural upperhand during these dance parties) as Patrick awkwardly bobbed along to the song. Abhi and James laughed at him, and high fived when Abhi got a picture.

Miley, Sarah, Kayla and Mahika were dancing cleanly in the back, switching partners and giggling when one of them did a complicated move, no doubt from a performance they had done together.

Kitty and Bee were holding hands on the table, something Virgil had noticed the QPPs did a lot (which always made him smile, because they were best friends okay-), as Steph and Grace shimmied back and forth.

Lacey and Benny were still slow dancing, and Danny and Danni had graduated to Danni obnoxiously dancing right in front of Danny, who had his head in his hands as his partner did an absolutely offensive rendition of what could only be the dance from the end of High School Musical.

Dylan and Kane were playing rock paper scissors and bobbing along to the music, Marcy and Jill were having what must have been a hilarious conversation in sign language (if Jill and Marcy’s giggles were any indicator), and Harri was politely dancing in zir seat.

Jay was still seemingly performing at their own rock concert, and Liam was vogueing aggressively, and Virgil was absolutely floored with the amount of love he had for his first period Literature and Language class of juniors in High School.

Virgil bit on his smile as he went to his computer and looped the song one more time, because he was meeting his soulmates today, damn it. He was allowed to have an extra bit of dance party.

And Virgil was absolutely not ashamed to admit that the looks of absolute delight on almost every single face in the room when the song came on another time had everything to do with it.

***************************

The door of the cafe opened gingerly as Virgil hesitantly pushed at it, and a little bell dinged half-heartedly above his head. He glanced around nervously, looking for a group of three, and it didn’t take long to find them. They had taken a table in the back, next to a window and a plant. A pale man wearing a black dress shirt and a navy tie with glasses reading a book, a man with a deep tan, curly red hair and a baby blue cardigan animatedly talking to a dark skinned man with a winning smile and an expensive looking jacket.

His soulmates.

Virgil entered the cafe fully, checking his appearance subtly in the mirrored counter as he walked up. He had worn both his hoodie and his dad’s leather jacket, because it was cold, and the black skinny jeans that his students said made his legs look good. Adding the secondhand black lace-up boots he had found and taken care of like they were his babies and the multitude of accessories (his good rings, and he even put in the nice silver dangly earrings his mom had gotten him!) and he had thought he looked good, but, looking at his slightly warped reflection with the feeling of eyes on him, Virgil felt like maybe he actually looked horrible and that this was a bad idea.

“Hey babe, what can I getcha?” Remy, the barista, asked, glancing up from their phone. They then straightened, and grinned. “Yo, soulmate dude!” they said, not loud enough for Virgil to be uncomfortable, but definitely loud enough for his soulmates to hear them. Virgil cringed.

“That’s me,” he responded quietly, giving Remy a small smile. Their grin widened.

“Large black coffee plain, right?” they confirmed, already punching in the order. Virgil nodded anyway, and paid when Remy stuck their hand out for the card. Virgil also placed a five in the tip jar, and when Remy noticed they held their hand up for a high five. Virgil's smile became wider and more genuine as he high fived them.

“You can either wait here or head over,” Remy said, gesturing with their head over to the corner Virgil knew his soulmates were in. Virgil nodded gratefully, debating if he should wait or not. Remy went to make the coffee, and by the time Virgil had decided he should just wait, Remy was calling him over to receive the coffee. Virgil walked over and took the coffee, sipping at it gratefully and appreciating the way the bitterness danced across his tongue. He took another sip, just because he liked the taste and not at all because he was stalling.

Remy must have noticed his not-stalling, because their grin softened.

“It’s gonna be great,” they said. “Lo, Pat and Ro are awesome, don’t worry about it.”

“Easier said than done,” Virgil muttered into his cup, and Remy shrugged.

“Maybe,” they said. “But it’s worth it, isn’t it?”

Virgil took another sip of his coffee, then steeled himself.

“I’m about to find out,” he responded, turning towards the table. All three men looked away quickly, pretending they hadn’t been watching him. Virgil smiled a little.

“Good luck,” Remy called, and Virgil lifted a hand in thanks before he walked over to the table, stopping at the open seat.

The dark skinned man jumped out of his seat, smiling widely.

“You must be Virgil,” he said, and Virgil nodded on autopilot. “I’m Roman,” the man continued, and he stuck his hand out.

Virgil stuck his left one out, as his right one was holding his coffee, then realized Roman was probably asking for a handshake and needed his right one. Before he could do anything about that, though, Roman casually grabbed his fingers and bowed, lifting his hand to plant a light kiss on Virgil’s hand. Virgil blinked, then made a noise which might have qualified as one of those ringtones adults couldn’t hear. Roman‘s smile widened and he released Virgil’s hand, which meant it was free for Virgil to press against his cheeks in an attempt to cool them off and bring them down from the obnoxious red he was sure they were.

“Don’t fluster him, Roman,” the tie-wearing man said, setting his book down and standing up. His tone was admonishing, but he was wearing a grin of his own, which meant Roman just ignored him.

He waited for Virgil to set his coffee down on the table before reaching his own hand out, and Virgil didn’t have time to eye it suspiciously before his own hand was lifting without consent from his brain.

“I’m Logan,” the man said, and he firmly shook Virgil’s hand. Virgil gave him a small smile, and, when his hand was released, turned to his last soulmate. Or the lack of soulmate, because the last one was no longer seated across from where he was standing, but was standing right next to him, smile still on full display.

“I’m Patton!” he exclaimed happily, and he too held his hand out. Virgil shook it, and Patton responded enthusiastically. He bounced on the balls of his feet, curls bouncing with him, and Virgil was abruptly reminded of an excited puppy.

After Virgil had pulled his hand away, as it seemed Patton was happy to have the handshake last as long as possible, Roman steered Patton into his seat, then pulled Virgil’s out for him. Virgil’s face, he knew, was on fire at this point, but he accepted Roman’s offer politely, and settled into the cheap cafe seating.

When everyone was settled, all three soulmates staring at him expectantly, Virgil cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Uh, hi,” he said, and he waved a little. “I’m Virgil.”

Patton pointed to the hand he had used to wave.

“That’s me!” he said excitedly, and Virgil didn’t need to know he was pointing to the blue heart stamped in the palm.

He pulled the sleeve of his cardigan back to show the identical mark he had, and Logan then did the same to show his own dark blue brain. Roman finished by showing his red crown, and Virgil lifted his left hand to show the same red crown on the inside of his left fingers. He then showed his purple stormcloud printed on his wrist, and the other three showed the same stormcloud, all on their hands.

“It’s wonderful to meet you, Virgil,” Roman said softly, and Virgil couldn’t have stopped the smile that stretched his lips if he wanted to. The rest of them smiled back.

“So, tell us about yourself?” Logan said after a moment, and the other two nodded. Virgil shrugged a little, smile fading enough for him to feel like he should take another sip of his coffee.

“Not much to tell,” Virgil said, because he was pathetic and didn’t want his soulmates to think he was some spoiled smart kid.

“We want to hear everything,” Patton said kindly. “Do you have any siblings? Favorite food, color, animal?”

“You said you liked literature,” Logan added. “Is that your major?”

“He said he didn’t go here, Lo,” Roman reminded gently. He turned to Virgil. “You mentioned you live 45 minutes away, are you in online school, or not in school?”

Virgil blinked and took another sip of his coffee to stall for time. When he had swallowed and set his coffee down, he answered.

“I have a little brother, he’s seven,” he started, and Patton smiled at him encouragingly. “Favorite food would be coffee, or my mom’s mac and cheese. Favorite color is black or purple, if you couldn’t tell.” He gestured to his outfit, which was made up of those two colors plus a few white accents, and all three laughed. “My favorite animal is a spider. I do like literature, and I…” he paused, turning the words over in his head.

“It’s okay if you aren’t in school,” Roman said after a second. “We aren’t judgy.”

Virgil smiled at him. “That’s nice of you,” he said. “I am… currently not in school, no.”

Logan tilted his head.

“I, of course, am not judging, and I respect your decision to not attend a college,” he said simply, “but I am curious why not?” Patton shot him a look, and Logan hurried to continue. “If you are uncomfortable sharing you don’t have to, obviously, I am just curious.”

Both Patton and Roman tensed and looked at him worriedly, as if Logan’s question was going to make him angry.

“You don’t have to answer that, sweetie,” Patton said, and Logan’s slight jump told Virgil Patton had done something under the table.

“Oh, it’s okay,” Virgil said. “Don’t worry, I’m not offended or anything. I get it.”

Patton and Roman relaxed, and Logan smirked at them smugly.

“I, uh-” Virgil stopped.

When Virgil had talked to his mom about his worries, she had assured him that his soulmates wouldn’t care, and that they’d be proud of him, like she was. And if they did care, they weren’t worth his time anyways. She made sure he knew that he could be perfectly happy without soulmates, like she was now.

That had then caused a much more tearful conversation about Virgil’s dad, but he didn’t need to think about that.

“I’m not in school,” he repeated, “because I already graduated.”

His soulmate's faces were unchanging for a few seconds before they all donned expressions of surprise.

“Graduated, as in, graduated college?” Logan asked. Virgil nodded.

“And you said you’re nineteen?” Roman followed, eyebrows raised. Virgil nodded again, then took a sip of his coffee. It was almost gone, and he made a mental note to drink slower if he was going to be using it as a momentary escape from every awkward moment of this interaction.

“So you’re a genius?” Patton asked excitedly, smiling widely.

Virgil made a so-so gesture with his hand.

“Technically I was when I was, like, 12,” he said slowly. “But those tests were a while ago and a lot of people outgrow that category, and I wouldn’t consider myself a genius anyway-“

“Even though you already graduated college at age 19,” Logan interrupted, voice dry but eyes sparkling interestedly. Virgil felt himself flush, and he ducked his head a little.

“You mentioned literature,” Roman said, blessedly changing the subject. “Is that what you studied?”

Virgil nodded.

“Yeah, classics, English and education,” he listed. “I’m a teacher now.”

“What age do you teach?” Patton asked, leaning forward slightly, voice excited. “I’m studying to be a Kindergarten teacher!”

“That’s really cool,” Virgil smiled, “I have a lot of respect for people who teach little kids, they’re such a handful. I teach eleventh grade, and GED classes in the evenings. That’s why I come to the university, I teach in one of the lecture halls.”

Logan raised his eyebrows, and Virgil had just enough warning from Patton’s fond smile and Roman’s affectionate eye roll before he launched into a paragraph of questions.

The rest of their meeting went well. Virgil tried not to talk about himself too much, and instead managed to learn that Logan was majoring in astronautical engineering, as well as a minor in physics, and Roman was a fine arts major with a minor in dance. All three had known each other in high school and were in a closed relationship, but they made sure Virgil knew he was more than welcome if he decided he wanted to join them.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but it made his ribs feel all warm, so he told them he’d get back to them on that point.

All too soon his phone alarm was going off, telling him he needed to leave for his class.

“Sorry,” he apologized with a grimace. “I wish I could stay longer.”

“It’s no biggie!” Patton responded cheerfully, bouncing up out of his seat as Virgil rose from his. “Maybe we can plan another meet up?”

Virgil bobbed his head, grinning a little.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

Roman beamed at him, and swept him into a fast hug that left Virgil’s head spinning, which was ridiculous because it was just a hug.

“Until we meet again, My Dark and Stormy Night,” he proclaimed, and Virgil giggled a little hysterically at the nickname, face flushed bright red.

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat, “yeah, right.”

Logan snorted, amused, and reached his hand out for Virgil to shake, which he did with a small smile. Logan matched it.

Which left Patton, who rounded the table and also squeezed his arms around Virgil’s middle, before backing up and holding up a fist, which Virgil bumped with his own with a little laugh.

“See you later, gator!” Patton said, and that was so cute, wow Virgil was gay.

“Oh, uh,” Virgil stuttered, wondering how to ask for something his students had demanded. Like a bandaid, fast, just rip it off-

“Would it be okay if we maybe got a selfie?” he asked, cringing out how stupid that sounded. “Uh, my students were asking for one to see what you looked like.”

Roman’s smile widened until it looked almost painful.

“You told your students about us?” he asked teasingly. Virgil shrugged, blushing a little.

“I tell my students everything,” he said honestly, and Patton cooed.

“That is, objectively, adorable of you,” Logan said, and Virgil sputtered, bush ratcheting up a notch.

“Of course we can get a selfie for your students, sweetie!” Patton exclaimed, and Virgil tried to hide his ridiculously red face by ducking his head with the excuse of getting his phone out.

It didn’t really work, he was still red by the time he had the camera ready, but a man could dream.

Patton crowded against his chest, hair tickling Virgil’s chin, and Logan stood behind Virgil’s shoulder so Virgil had to lift his arm at an angle to get his face clearly. Roman wrapped all three in his arms, pressing the side of his head against Virgil’s, and Logan huffed as he was pulled to his toes in order to set his chin on Virgil’s shoulder.

“Say cheese!” Patton said, smiling widely, and Roman parroted him with a grin. Logan gave a fond closed-lipped smile, and Virgil finished it up with a close-lipped smile of his own, the corners of his mouth ticking up.

He snapped the picture, and they backed up, waiting as Virigl checked it to make sure it wasn’t blurry. It wasn’t, and they said their goodbyes, and before long Virgil was walking out into the November air, leaving his soulmates back in the cafe.

He ducked his head as he walked, staring at the picture. He sent it to his mom, and the groupchat with his soulmates, before favoriting it for easy access.

Afterall, his students did ask for it, and he was sure they would love it when he showed them tomorrow.

Virgil couldn’t blame them. He kind of loved it too.

------------

Hopefully you enjoyed.

Read my other works on ao3 here. (thepenguinclub)

Comments, kudos, reblogs and notes always make my day, and I appreciate them all.

Have a good day, you are loved, drink water and go to bed at a reasonable time. <3

#ts roman #ts logan #ts patton #ts virgil #ts sleep #sander sides #sanders sides fanfic #penguin writes #penguin writes teacher verse

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