#the math section specifically it was like bookkeeping types of questions which i have no business tryna do. def not as basic as i thought

[alexsyndrome]

in other news, the circus was sooo inspiring and amazing!! i can't wait to start clowning and introduce the world to my persona. <3333 what is NOT so amazing, is that my local newbury comics no longer stocks sonny angels :( no new angel baby for me this weekend. wah

[mimssides]

One Spade for five Hearts: Chapter 3

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Short heads up: The dates that are written down follow the format day.month.year. Also the months all are 30 days long and have different names.

Now have fun!

___

With a sigh Logan walked up to the front door of his home and opened it. It was almost 18:30, he couldn’t dillydally any longer.

“Mother! I’m home!” Logan called and walked inside, taking his satchel off and setting it to the floor as he took off his shoes.

He heard harsh steps coming his way and looked to see his mother walking up to him with a stern look in her eyes. When Logan straightened up and, he noticed a little tremble in her look and watched her furrow her eyes.

“What on earth happened?” she asked and Logan felt his shoulders sink.

Maybe he should tell her. Maybe he should just straight out say that he had met his soulmates and get over with it. But should she know before them? And what even explain now?

“I am sorry for being late,” Logan said instead with a little waver in his voice. “I had to help Remus, who was in a predicament. It won’t happen again.”

His mother didn’t say anything for a minute. Then she stepped closer, looking at the grass and dirt stains on his shirt and looking him in the eyes with a deep frown.

“What happened Logan? Did you get hurt? Why are you so dirty?” she asked again in a tone that left no option to leave her questions unanswered.

Logan gulped and felt very small, despite being a few inches taller than his mother. Which wasn’t that unusual considering her steely gaze and the general air of authority she had about herself.

So, Logan tried to not gulp too obviously and answered: “We – I’m not hurt. No one is. I fell in the park in front of the K building. I helped kæm with some exercises we had in fencing class and we forgot the time. I should have paid more attention to the time passing. It won’t happen again, mother.”

Logan wasn’t a good liar by any means, which was mostly because he rather told the truth and had all the facts on the table just as they were instead of morphing them into something they were not. It never had made a lot of sense to him, why people insisted on lying until this very moment and he hoped that he had been convincing enough for his mother to believe him. As she continued looking at him with a frown, though, he got the impression that he had most likely failed to sound convincing enough, and mentally prepared himself to be scolded for lying to his mother.

“I hope it won’t happen again. If it happens nevertheless, please inform me as early as you notice that you will be late. Now, will you be able to do your homework for tomorrow in time?” his mother said sternly.

Logan nodded, inwardly relieved that this had somehow worked out: “Yes, I have finished everything for tomorrow. It won’t be a problem.”

“Very well.”

“May I take a shower before I join you at the table? I didn’t have the chance to-” Logan asked gingerly and his mother interrupted abruptly.

“Of course. We’ll wait for you. Just go and say hello to your father first. He was getting worried.”

“Understood,” Logan said and walked to the kitchen to greet his father.

As he stepped into the dining room, he saw him sitting at the top of the table, Avery to his left and Alessia on their left. Grey glimpsed towards him from the living room on the other side of the room and Logan felt his heart sink. His father looked over to him and his three siblings did so as well, badly masking the surprise from his unruly appearance. Naturally, he had chosen the worst day to come late. Everyone was here and now they would have to wait for him even longer.

“Good evening, father. I apologize for being late. I’ll be right back after showering,” Logan said and barely waited for his father to respond.

In a rush Logan got up to the second floor, got fresh clothes from his room and then went on to the bathroom to take his shower. He wished he could have taken a long one, one where he could just stare at the blurry tiles at the wall and musing over the sounds he had heard from the others. Maybe analyse his feelings for each one of them.

Instead, he made it quick, hastily got out of the shower, put on his clothes and went back down. He eyed the time on his watch and it had only been ten minutes. Of course, his hair was still wet, not terribly so, but at least he hadn’t made then wait much longer. With a bowed head he sat down at his usual place, on the right of his mother and thanked them all for waiting for him.

“It is alright, Logan. Now let’s eat,” him mother said and started filling all their plates with the goulash she had prepared.

They began eating and his father asked Grey how the training exam had turned out and Grey recounted how it had gone. Logan wasn’t surprised to hear that Grey had done outstandingly, even though he claimed he should have done better. Even so, Grey was a great apprentice in the protection section of the City Guard. Just like Avery was stellar doing the last year of their apprenticeship in the administrative section and Alessia was ingenious in her apprenticeship in the bookkeeping section of the City Guard.

Yes, his siblings were great at what they were doing and Logan was once more reminded of how high the standards were, he had to live up to.

“Logan?”

Logan looked up from his plate over to his father, who had called on him. With a short nod he showed that he was listening and his father continued: “Your mother said that you were helping out Remus after school. I can’t quite place him. Would you please elaborate?”

Of course not, you’re barely at home so I can’t tell you about my friends, Logan thought but didn’t say any of it.

Instead, he answered dutifully: “Kæ is a Club and due to kæs grades, kæ goes into some of the advanced classes I go to. Kæ’s in my Math course, Chemistry, PE and Fencing Training. And while kæ has still yet to beat me in a fencing match, kæ has managed to outdo me in the other classes.”

Remus was brilliant. In the most unusual way, sure, but it was intriguing and innovative. And apparently also attractive to Logan.

Logan shifted his look from his father over to Alessia, who sat vis-à-vis of him, and asked her: “You had Smith too in Math, right?”

As Alessia nodded with a curious look and Logan continued, after taking a little bite: “He scored a 100 in the last calculus exam in his class.”

“No!” Alessia exclaimed with her mouth wide open as Logan taking another spoon full of goulash. “No one ever gets a 100 in his classes. Like – How? You are lying!”

“I’m not. Kæ’s just that brilliant,” Logan answered with not a single ounce of sarcasm in his voice.

Alessia kept insisting that he was wrong until he got out his phone to and showed her a picture of the test together with Remus holding it up smugly. With that he had ended the debate easily and continued with his dinner. His father asked a few more questions about Remus, this time also using the correct pronouns, and Logan answered obediently.

He had almost finished his meal and was about to get up and put his plate and cutlery into the dishwasher, when his father asked one more question: “So, kæ has been a friend of yours for some time now, correct? I don’t recall you ever inviting kæm over. Kæ is welcome to visit.”

Logan felt his cheeks flush. The thought of Remus here in his house, making jokes and teasing Grey just because he could, was weird and – made him feel warm and excited and somehow embarrassed.

“Y-Yeah, I’ll tell him,” Logan stammered and put his cutlery into his plate before he stood up. “The goulash was delicious, mother. If you excuse me, I’ll go up and finish some homework for Friday.”

He already stood but waited for his mother to excuse him and rushed out of the room as soon as he had her allowance. Hurriedly, Logan picked up his satchel which he had forgotten to take up to his room before and went upstairs. Quietly, he got into his room and sat down on his bed, where he unpacked his homework. Bitterly, he looked at the notes he had taken form the text he had read for his and Virgil’s history project.

Their study session was supposed to be tomorrow after lunch. He could never just sit down next to Virgil while the Phu was humming next to him. There was no way that he could concentrate like that.

Logan sighed and put his head in his hands. This could not be happening to him. Maybe it was a mistake? Maybe he had misheard in the adrenaline rush from before?

Quickly he grabbed his phone and looked for the music app on his phone. He had never bothered uninstalling it, as it didn’t take much space on his memory card and didn’t clutter on his home screen. At once he saw the app symbol and opened it quickly.

And then he blanked. He didn’t know any song titles. He swallowed and tried to remember about which song Virgil had talked about yesterday at lunch. He had mentioned the title, Logan was sure of it.

Victorious.

Rapidly, Logan typed the word and a few results popped up. He looked over the covers and decided to go for a black one with a blue spot in the middle with a red car sinking into it. And then it started playing. A beat started playing and a choir of women started chanting. Logan stopped the music.

So, it wasn’t a mistake. He definitely was able to hear music now and his five friends, his only real friends, were his soulmates.

He gulped. Maybe they weren’t romantic soulmates but platonic? Yet, as far as he was aware of the family curse was specifically for romantic soulmates. Even though it has been generations since someone had fulfilled the curse, it had been said to be romantic.

And still, it didn’t make sense to Logan that he would be in lo- have romantic feelings for all of them. It couldn’t be the case, Logan thought and got up from his bed and sat down at his desk. Quickly, he started his computer and opened his note app. Quickly, he listed his friends, one after the other in order of how long he knew them from shortest to longest. And then he listed points of what he liked about them, so he could see for himself that he was in fact not romantically attracted to them.

 N Lucas Date of first meeting: 09.03.2432 – Study session with Patton ● Smart, charismatic, pragmatic ● Very eloquent way of speaking (rather enthralling) ● Able to stop Roman or Remus from doing dangerous activities ● Great discussions about history ● (endearing laugh, sounds “cute”) ● Confident in their abilities ● Doesn’t use sarcasm with me as often since they learnt that I don’t understand it well ● Immediately takes over the talking when they notice something is uncomfortable to talk ● Caring in a very weird way

 Roman Butkus Date of first meeting: 09.03.2432 – Study session with Patton (27.09.2431 – unofficial meeting when he brought Remus his backpack they had accidentally swapped at home) ● Brave, energetic, adaptive ● Incredibly creative ● Never backs away from a challenge (sometimes even to a fault) ● (Gives nice hugs) ● Strong and quick ● Strong sense of justice ● Unconventional reasoning lines ● Sees matters far more practical and thus is able to give new perspectives ● (The way he looks at N every time when he thinks they aren’t looking)

 Patton Gygax Date of first meeting: 24.02.2432 – First lunch after Remus got together with them ● Empathetic, tactful, responsible ● Optimistic outlook without dismissing real problems ● Is able to distract and support Virgil when he is spiralling into anxiety ● Great at magical theory and philosophy ● (They make Remus very happy) ● (How they explain their puns to people when they don’t laugh at them) ● Quick learner ● How they try to cheer everyone up

 Remus Butkus Date of first meeting: 02.01.2431 – First fencing lesson with Remus ● Brilliant, bold, unyielding ● A little crazy ● Curious about everything and unafraid to talk about taboo topics ● Likes murder mysteries ● Fencing with kæm is always a challenge and fun ● Always explains the jokes to me I don’t get ● Has never been condescending to anyone ● (Attractive back) ● Strong ● Surprisingly gentle when is with Patton ● Very caring of kæs twin

 Virgil Caron Date of first meeting: 03.01.2421 – First day of kindergarten ● Best friend ● Witty, snarky, night owl, grouchy in the mornings ● Quick ● Bobs his head when he listens to music ● Knows everything about me (sometimes annoying) ● (Knows how to console me best) ● The way he dresses now and how happy it makes him ● Was wary of our new friend because he was afraid, they were only hanging around us because they wanted to use me in a way (which was irrational) ● His birthday gifts ● Always tries to explain music to me ● Always stands behind me (figuratively and literally) ● Feels like home

Logan stopped typing. He didn’t need to reread what he had written down. Just thinking about the last point, he had jotted down, made him realize that had been in love with Virgil for a solid decade.

He felt like he had been slapped in the face. His chest hurt and his eyes burnt. They were all so dear to him and he didn’t know what to do. It had never been in his plans that his curse would be activated. That he would have to deal with all those feelings and the difficulties that committed relationships could bring with them.

Did he even want to be in a committed relationship? He didn’t have to. A soulmate curse didn’t require for him to be with his soulmates. He could let them know and not be in a relationship with them.

That thought somehow made Logan’s stomach turn even more.

A single knock on the door made him jump in his seat. Frantically, he looked up towards the door and said: “Yeah?”

“Can I come in for a sec, Starfish?”

Logan sighed at the nickname but told Avery: “Sure.”

With that Avery came inside, as Logan minimalized the note app on his screen. They didn’t need to see that. Quietly, Avery closed the door behind them and walked towards the bed where they sat down. Logan turned himself around in his swivel chair and looked towards his oldest sibling with a weird knot in his tummy.

“So,” Avery said and gave him this look that said I-just-want-the-best-for-you and Logan had to supress a groan, “Starfish, tonight’s dinner was a little tense, wasn’t it?”

“You can just say that you think I behaved weird, you know,” Logan pouted and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Avery sighed and gave him a come-on look.

“That is not what I would have said, but I got the impression that something was bothering you. Is it about father? I know you would like him to be home more-”

“It’s fine! He’s the head of the City Guard. He has responsibilities outside of the family and I understand that that is time consuming. I’m not a child anymore.”

That was always a good thing to say to make him look more mature; interrupting those who were speaking and insisting that he was not a child. A great move Logan, really.

“No, you’re not,” Avery agreed softly and Logan gave them a guilty look. “And I am sure you understand. You are smart after all. But I want you to know that it is okay if you miss him sometimes. It’s okay.”

Logan nodded slightly rolled back and forth on the chair. Avery remained sitting still on the bed and watched him closely for a few more moments.

“Aaand if you’re worried about Remus, I’m always there for advice,” they said and wiggled their eyebrows suggestively.

That was quite enough for Logan and he jumped up from his chair and decidedly pointed towards the door demanding: “Leave. Now.”

Avery snickered and got up from his bed. At least they when it was enough teasing, Logan thought to himself and watched as they closed the door and left him on his own. Tensely, he turned back to his computer and opened the list again. For a few minutes he looked over it and then decided that he couldn’t change anything tonight. He was emotionally compromised as much as he hated to admit it and would deal with it tomorrow.

So, he closed the list and looked over the homework he had. For an hour he managed to distract himself with his work and then got ready for bed. He also answered to a text from Virgil, reassuring his panicked friend that he was alright and that his mother hadn’t been too upset with him for being late for dinner.

And so, Logan went to bed. He hoped to get some sleep and being able to clear all of this up in the morning.

He did not expect his dreams to be about his friends. About Roman holding his hand, Patton kissing his cheek. N smiling at him as they smiled at Roman. Roman complimenting his fighting style. Virgil just holding him.

The rushing beat of his heart woke him up and at five in the morning Logan got up to write a plan on how to avoid the others for the next few days, so he could get himself under control.

That would surely work out well.

___

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