Fander Fic Awards

  Virgil was many things, and a fool wasn’t one of them. Even if he was in the forest alone, walking along the winding path as the sky darkened.

  The wind had been strong enough to knock off his hood, whipping through his hair. It was still now.

  He was no fool.

  When the last thing he’d seen was a pair of blue smiling lips and freshly falling snow swirling around him, there was only one thought he could muster before the darkness set in,

  “Thank gods it was me-”

~•~•~

  The villagers were quick to forget about his presence. It was easier to turn a blind eye in the winter, easier to pretend that the people who disappeared and didn’t return each year, did of their own free will.

  Easier for most. Not for all.

  When Logan, Roman, and Patton asked searched, travelling from house to house, the villagers were quick to anger as well.

  “It’s the icy season boys, go home if you know what’s good for you.”

  That’s what Virgil had been doing.

  “Stop nosing your way around the village so close to nightfall, you know how dangerous it is.”

  Virgil knew the dangers.

  “If you really want to find that man, you’ll have to go to the woods. You know you might not return if you do… I hope he’s worth it.”

  Virgil was.

~•~•~

  Roman was the first off of his horse, patting it’s flank to send it back home. The trees were far to dense for anything but traveling on foot.

  The other two quickly followed suit, coming forward to stand beside him, torches in hand. The path was dark. The falling night would only make it darker.

  “I shouldn’t have left him alone.”

  Patton sighed, moving to pull Roman closer, “I could say the same thing you know…”, he gives a weak smile when Logan joins the hug (it wasn’t complete- it would never be until a fourth set of arms could encircle them).

“He wouldn’t blame us, and when we find him, we’ll never make the same mistake again.”

~•~•~

  Scanning through the trees, Roman tenses in surprise at the distinct feeling of a snowball hitting him on the back of the neck.

  It was so foggy all of a sudden.

  Another snowball, and suddenly it doesn’t matter because a familiar laugh guides him through the forest.

  “Virgil?”

  A relieved smile and a burst of speed sends him off the path. The world grows hazy, even the light of his torch growing fuzzy, but everything was alright. They’d found him.

  Freshly falling snow began to swirl around him.

  “Virgil!”

~•~•~

  Patton trudged forward, slowly swinging his torch back and forth and back and forth and-

  The distinct taste of something sweet settles on his tongue, giving him pause. Was that… ice cream?

  He shakes his head, squinting at a familiar shape in the woods. A person.

  It was so foggy all of a sudden.

  It waves around what he recognises to be the frozen dessert, but none of that matters half so much as the figure holding it.

  Tears sprang to his eyes as he beamed, stepping closer and closer, following where he lead him, straying from the path. He always seemed just a step away.

  “Virgil?”

  The answering laugh made him rush to get closer, joy filling his heart. He’s dropped his torch, the hazy light of the stars his only guide in the dark, fresh snow beginning to swirl around him.

  He can hardly bring himself to care about any of that, he was so close.

  “Virgil!”

~•~•~

  Suddenly aware of the singular sound of his footsteps along the path, Logan casts a weary glance around.

  The howling wind only serving to heighten his awareness of the heavy beating of his heart.

  “Roman? Patton?”

He takes a step forward.

  “…Virgil?”

  It’s his final call when he realises he’s not truly alone, three separate figures heading away from him, all in the same direction.

  Three.

  It was so foggy all of a sudden.

  At the edge of the path, he pauses. He shouldn’t do this. Looking up again, (impossibly) he can still see them jogging in the same direction. If he squints, perhaps he imagined one of them turning back to beckon him along.

  “Virgil?”

  Without them, he was alone.

  He jumps from the path, running after them. No more thought left for the fading light of the torch in his hand, or the freshly falling snow beginning to swirl around him.

  Running after them, he could allow himself to believe that they’d done it, they’d found him.

  “Virgil!”

~•~•~

  Her marks run out onto the frozen water, each caught in whatever dream had fallen over them.

  She never did bother to check and see what they could, but that didn’t matter these days. What mattered was that they kept her alive and warm in the cold.

  Virgil was it? He went wrong. Something in him wouldn’t let her steal his soul. Inconsequential. She’d left him to simmer in her magic. He would make a good puppet one day. It was just her luck that his spirit had unwittingly called out to these three individuals. Imagine what he could do with her guiding hand.

  He lay, drifting in the air, just above the middle of the lake. She circles them all. There was nothing to do but wait, and watch patiently as they scrambled their way closer.

  Freshly falling snow began swirling around them, the wind pushing the snowflakes through her hair. She frowns at the white strands, the snowflakes soft and unfamiliar. She didn’t cause this.

  Still, an unbidden smile tugs at her lips when she hears the first crack. It was too late. Their souls were hers.

  “You’re on thin ice gentlemen,” she coos, voice caught in the wind.

  And suddenly they can see clearly, the magic faded from their eyes. There is only Virgil, left floating in front of them, and a towering woman in white, beautiful in every way except for the look in her eyes and the knowing smile she held on her blue lips.

  The ice creaks and cracks further under their feet.

~•~•~

  Three times.

  They call his name three times, and even under this darkness, he will answer them.

  Suddenly, it is she who looks afraid.

  He is drifting in something powerful. If he took control now, he would be changed forever.

  “Virgil! Can you hear me?”

  The ice had stopped crumbling beneath them.

  “Virgil, sweetheart could you open your eyes?”

  The snow still fell.

   “Virgil!”

  Three calls. He would answer them.

  The wind howls louder than ever, the ice groaning under an immense pressure.

  But the three are safe.

  They watch the witch, there in one moment, closing her eyes. And then she is gone.

  The world falls silent and still. Patton turns, gasping as Virgil settles his feet on the ground, solid ice forming.

  His eyes glow bright, his hair a pure white, and his lips an icy blue.

  When he grants them a hesitant smile, the spell is broken and they rush forward. Four sets of arms around each other.

  They are complete once more.

Roman came running down the stairs on a wintry day in his sweater, finding Logan reading at the kitchen table, Patton making hot cocoa, and Virgil sitting on top of the fridge. This didn’t phase Roman, who was used to seeing this every morning. 

Roman slid to a stop, a feet made more difficult by his socks (I’m sorry I couldn’t help it). As he was about to greet the others, a black and purple blur leapt onto his back. Roman swung around Virgil, who had jumped off the fridge, and set him down in front of him.

“Good morning, Hot Topic!” Roman said, giving Virgil a quick peck before grabbing his red and gold mug, containing cocoa. He took a sip.

“This cocoa is delightful, Patton!” Roman exclaimed, smiling at the fatherly side, who shrugged and smiled.

“I know how to please my kiddos, of course!” Patton bubbled, carrying dark blue and light blue mugs to the table. He flicked the book Logan was reading.

“Lo, the others are here!” Patton informed the intelligent side.

Logan looked up from his book. “Oh. Terribly sorry. Salutations, Roman.”

“Morning, nerd,” Roman quipped.

“Please tell me you aren’t going to drag me somewhere else in public today. We’ve been out every day this week,” Virgil asked. “Sorry,” he tacked on, “I haven’t had coffee, so I’m whiny. And have no filter.”

Patton laughed. “We actually are staying in today, my dark strange son! You aren’t the only one who’s tired.”

“I am quite grateful as well. We don’t have to shapeshift today,” Logan added on.

“Good news! I have an idea of what we could do today!” Roman exclaimed.

“Oh no,” Virgil said, “Roman, the last time you said that, I ended up with a broken arm and a new scar.”

Roman chuckled nervously. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t thinking anything like last time. I was thinking we could stay in and play board games, or watch movies.”

Patton smiled excitedly. “Ooh, can we watch The Princess Bride?”

“Patton-” Logan started, but Patton used such effective puppy eyes, Logan stopped and sighed, smiling. “Of coure we can watch that.”

Virgil and Roman quietly cooed in the background as Patton squealed and Logan smiled, almost somewhat foolishly.

“Hey Logan, cat-lover got your tongue?”

Logan flushed bright red at Virgil’s comment.

“Virgil, you know better than making puns in front of Patton! He will react at high frequencies!”

“Sure thing, mom,” Virgil said with a smirk.

Logan froze. Patton was issuing a high-pitched noise that quickly turned into all out squealing. 

“Oh my goodness, Virgil made a mom joke! Or, a dad joke… about moms!”

Roman glanced at Virgil with a knowing look. “This is why I love you, you know.”

Virgil grinned chaotically. “I know.”

Logan regained his composure. He turned to Virgil.

“You’re grounded.”

Virgil and Roman doubled over laughing.

Patton grinned cluelessly. “Kinda funny. I’m Dad and Logan is Mom!” Patton continued smiling for a moment before his expression shifted to realization. “Wait-”

Logan looked defeated. “I give up. Virgil wins.”

Patton looked at Logan hopefully. “Was Virgil implying what I think he was implying?”

Logan covered his face with his hands, but you could still see his red blush. “Yes, I suppose he was.”

Patton smiled excitedly. “Is he correct?”

Logan sighed. “Yes.”

Patton squealed yet again, and Logan risked a glance. Logan turned his head to be met with a kiss from Patton. Logan turned an even deeper red, though he didn’t pull away.

Patton pulled away a moment later when Roman and Virgil started whistling, a goofy grin on his face.

“Good thing too, ‘cause I’ve wanted to do that for a while now.”

At that Logan smiled, before putting an arm around Patton and steering him towards the living room.

“I think it’s time for a movie.”

‘You make me want to die…of laughter. –Best friend.’

Best friend. It was amazing how much could change in a single year. Last Christmas, he and Virgil were as close as could be, but now nothing was the same.

Patton slumped down in his desk chair and held the card out in front of him. He stared it up and down, examining every detail until his vision blurred and tears fell down his cheeks. He put the card back down and spun around to stare out his open door.

The Mind Palace was mostly quiet, with the exception of Roman watching Elf alone in the living room; he had invited Patton to join him earlier, but Patton just wasn’t up to it.

Virgil’s room was right across the hall, but his own door was closed. From his position in the chair, Patton could see the deep purple paint and the clutter of MCR and Tim Burton posters. Patton thought it was fantastic–so different from all the other doors, but still so special in Virgil’s own unique–

Wait. No, no. Virgil didn’t want that. Things may not have been what they once were, but if Patton was going to have any chance of keeping him around, he was going to have to get out of this whole ‘special angel’ mindset. He winced in self-deprecation and got up to close the door.

He started pacing his room, his breathing growing heavier. His relationship with Virgil was on thin ice and there seemed to be nothing he could do to slow its deterioration.

But it wasn’t all bad..right? After all, Virgil was the one who had told Logan to give his puppet idea a chance. And he offered up that high five just twenty minutes later. And he did seem satisfied earlier that day when Patton had managed to immediately come up with a better nickname. This was something they could figure out.

…Maybe.

Maybe it was something they could work out if Patton was smart enough to. But was he, really? He was the one who messed up Logan and Roman’s matching costume idea, after all, and even though he didn’t let it show it was horribly awkward. Somehow he was managing to be a bumbling, clueless father and an immature kid all at the same time.

He just didn’t understand. His talk with Thomas lifted his spirits a tad, but it didn’t make Virgil’s needs any easier to understand. And if he couldn’t understand, then what was the point in trying?

Patton slowed down his pacing as he gave that concept a little more thought. A wave of anguish washed over him as it sunk in that no matter how hard he tried, things would never be as good as they once were. It was like what they said about trust–you could try to fix it all you wanted but it was always going to be cracked.

He wasn’t so sure he wanted to deal with that pain. To be reminded every single day that his love for Virgil had pushed the latter too far, and that now Virgil’s appreciation of him was merely…begrudging. He’d rather just be hated.

He stopped short. Maybe…maybe that was the solution. To drive Virgil away at all costs and just have a clean break. It would take a lot of resolve, and he might reach out to Deceit to get a little training. But in the end, it would be easier for everyone.

He went to the desk and picked up the card again. With trembling hands, he brought it up to eye level and held it from the top between both of his thumbs and forefingers.

He had to do this, at least. It was the first step. The past was done and it was time to move on.

Whimpering, he looked off to the side. Then, after taking a few deep breaths, he pulled his right arm closer to his chest and shot his left arm straight at the wall–all while keeping a tight grip on the card.

Rip.

He turned back to look at the shreds of paper in his hands, and with gritted teeth crumpled them both up and chucked them into the trash can. Then he wiped his eyes and changed into a green and red sweater.

Maybe watching Elf would help take his mind off things.

Roman heard the metaphorical ice creak beneath his feet the second he walked into the living room.  Patton and Virgil and Logan were already in there, cuddling on the couch sipping hot chocolate while Patton played some video game and the other two offered encouragement and advice.  Clearly they were having couple- well, triad bonding time.  Clearly, Roman should stay out of their way and go right back to his room.  Just like he’d been doing every other time he saw the three of them together in the past few weeks.  The warning signs in his head couldn’t have been any clearer: danger, thin ice! Stay away!

It wasn’t fair, he thought, as he hovered at the edge of the warm aura they always seemed to give off.  It wasn’t fair that they’d all somehow managed to get together during the few days Roman had been away last month.  It wasn’t fair that they kept trying to get him to do things with them anyway, as if they didn’t think it would be unbearably awkward, as if they didn’t realize his avoiding them was for the best.  It wasn’t fair that he found himself moving so carefully in his own home to keep them from noticing how completely, hopelessly in love with all of them he was, and had been for ages.

Yes, he should definitely go back upstairs.  Standing here admiring his crushes from the other side of the room wasn’t going to help anything.  Maybe he would be able to get over them eventually if he stayed away, although his romantic soul said he would more likely keep pining forever and leave a beautiful handwritten letter for them to find after his death, in which he would finally confess his true feelings, and it would all be extremely tragic because they would realize they’d loved him all along now that it was too late, but also if they didn’t feel the same way he wouldn’t be alive to get rejected.  (That last bit was the only reason he hadn’t decided to try writing them a letter before dying.)  He may have gotten slightly lost in the fantasy, which was why he didn’t realize they had noticed him leaning in the doorway until someone called his name.

“Uh… Earth to Roman?”

He jumped and looked up, feeling even less stable than before.

“Are you… feeling alright?”

“You were just staring into space, we got kinda worried!”

Oh, lovely, now he had all of them looking concerned.  He couldn’t very well tell them what he’d been thinking about.  “No need to worry, my dear friends,” he assured.  “Just daydreaming again, you know me!  Struck by inspiration on my way to the kitchen, and I couldn’t very well ignore it, could I?”  He turned in that direction.  It would be safer in the kitchen, less chance of the ground collapsing under him at any moment.  “I’ll just grab a snack and be on my way now.”

“Aw, Ro, why don’t you take a break and join us?”

Oh, come on, not now!  Not when he was already emotional over them… although, to be fair, that was most of the time.  “I can’t,” he pleaded without turning around, hoping Patton wouldn’t push it any further.  He could feel the cracks beginning to grow under his feet; he needed to get out of here.  “I’m- simply too busy at the moment.”

“At the moment?”  Out of the corner of his eye, Roman could see that Virgil was standing now.  “How about every time we’ve tried to do anything with you for the past month?  Did you think we weren’t gonna notice?”

“I didn’t- it’s not on purpose,” he protested weakly.

“It’s fairly obvious that you have been avoiding us ever since…”  Logan’s eyes narrowed as he looked over his shoulder at Roman, and the cracks spread.  “Ever since the three of us entered into a relationship.”

Virgil stepped forward as if to defend the other two from him, and oh, Roman was not prepared for how much that hurt.  “Do you have a problem with-“

“No!  No, I, of course not!”  He finally turned at that, hands up in a placating gesture.

“Then why?”  Patton sounded quite upset, and he felt horrible for causing it.  “We miss you, Roman, please just tell us what’s wrong so we can fix it!”

“It’s nothing!” he insisted.  “Really!  It’s just that- you’re all together,” he made a pushing-together motion with both hands to illustrate their current position, “and I don’t see anything wrong with it, I swear, it’s fine, but you- you don’t really want me in that, do you, we all know I would just get in the way of all your relationshippy stuff and it would be weird, so I don’t understand why you insist on constantly asking me to fourth-wheel you and making this so much harder than it needs to be!”  His voice broke, but he wasn’t going to cry, the conversation was going badly enough as it was.  He didn’t dare look any of them in the face.  Would that be enough to convince them, that burst of unplanned honesty?  Would they see, now, why they needed to let him stay away?

“…Oh, Roman.”

He opened his eyes- when had he closed his eyes?  And since when were they standing right in front of him?  Could he even move at this point without setting off a chain reaction that would ruin everything, or was he already doomed?  …Was he breathing right now?

Patton made an aborted move to touch his face.  Roman, feeling a bit dazed, made an equally aborted move to lean toward him, to let it happen.  Patton hesitated a moment and then closed the gap, brushing a tear away with his thumb before it could fall.  “Oh, Roman,” he said again, softly.  “You love us, don’t you?”

Crack.

The sound may not have been real, but to Roman it was like a gunshot.  It was the sound of the world finally, inevitably, shattering around him.  He squeezed his eyes shut again as he fell, bracing himself.  They flew open again in shock when rather than the freezing waters of rejection, he landed in the arms of three warm, non-metaphorical people.

“Wh…?”

“You’re an idiot,” Virgil muttered from his right side, hugging him tightly.

“Certainly not very observant,” agreed Logan from his left.

“We love you too, silly,” sighed a fondly exasperated Patton, who now had Roman’s face cradled in both hands.  “We’ve been trying to get a chance to talk to you about it and you just wouldn’t let us!”

“I- I thought…”  He blinked, shaking his head, and then laughed.  “I really am an idiot.”

“Yup.  But at least you’re our idiot.”

“Indeed.”

“We love you,” Patton said again, bumping their foreheads together for emphasis.  A bit late he added, “Be nice, you two.”

Roman thought- although he knew better than to say it out loud- that he could get used to being called an idiot, as long as it came with a side of being theirs.

Virgil’s POV

Roman had wanted to take them to the imagination all week, saying there was something he wanted to show them. Virgil was nervous about going, but went downstairs nonetheless, and they headed to the door to the imagination.

Once they were inside, Logan, Patton and Virgil all gasped in shock and awe. It was beautiful. The snow was glittering as if it was made of crystals, and it covered everything. There was a little path with less snow on it, and you could see prints of animals that had come through on it. There were woods on either side of it with tall trees and shrubbery all around that was covered in the snow so it looked almost like a blanket.

As Roman led them, they could see a little cabin up ahead with a frozen lake next to it. The cabin was made of a beautiful wood with gold accents added to it. From the window, you could see a beautiful fireplace with black brick and a royal blue mantel piece.

“This is amazing, Ro!” Patton said, mesmerized by the house and snow. They didn’t get much (if any) snow in Florida, so this was amazing to see this much snow in one place.

“I do have to say, you really outdid yourself.” Logan said, admiring the detail that Roman had put into this. Everything from the wood, to the lake, to their surroundings like the woods and path had the little quirks that everything had in the real world.

“Not bad, Princey.” Virgil said, still feeling anxious about the whole thing, but a tiny bit calmer now.

I’m glad you all like it. There are a couple things we could do. I think, though, that we should go ice skating. I think all of you would enjoy it.

“I’m cool with that,” Patton said, hearing Logan groan.

“That would be adequate.” Logan replied, seeming undeterred by the whole thing, though you could see a small smile forming on his lips.

“If you’re sure it’s safe.” Virgil replied, more nervous about this than anything else they could have done. Him? On ice? With sharp blades? In the middle of nowhere? There were so many things that could go wrong. Someone could fall and cut themselves badly. They could fall through the ice. Knowing Roman and knowing he wouldn’t do anything halfway, there would be freezing cold water under there. What would they do then? How would they get whoever fell through out? There were so many what ifs, but he trusted Roman. He just hoped that hope would be enough for everything to be fine.

A Time-skip Is Used..

Virgil’s POV

It turns out that ice skating was fine. At first he was a little nervous, but with the encouragement of the others, he was actually having fun.

Roman, of course, was amazing at skating. He had amazing footwork, and could do amazing tricks. Virgil had been worrying over almost all of them thinking about how he might fall and hurt himself. Stil, itl was pretty good.

Patton was having fun just making figure eights, but had gone in the cabin, saying that he was going to make some cookies and hot chocolate.

Logan, too, eventually got off the ice, and went into the cabin, coming out a little bit later with a book.

Virgil, howerer, decided to stay on the ice. With all the tricks Roman had been doing, Virgil was worried that the ice might crack underneath him (and maybe he liked skating, too, but not like he was going to tell the other sides that).

Turns out that Virgil’s fears were correct, though, when he noticed a tiny crack in the ice under Roman. It was small enough that if you weren’t paying attention to it, you wouldn’t see it, but large enough to break if someone went over it.

And that’s exactly what Roman was about to do. He was skating fast enough that he knew Roman wouldn’t be able to stop in time if Virgil told him, so, making a quick decision, he skated toward Roman, and pushed him back as the ice fell through under him, and he went under the ice.

The first thing Virgil felt, was that it was freezing. Then, there were hands on him, and he could feel them pulling, but their fingers slipped, and he sunk deeper into the water.

Virgil started becoming warmer, which confused him because he could have sworn he was cold a couple minutes ago. Then there were hands grabbing onto him.

He felt himself getting pulled upwards, but could barely feel the hands on him with how numb his skin felt. He started falling asleep, but felt strong arms give his body a strong shake, and his eyes fluttered open, not remembering when he closed them.

Virgil felt himself getting picked up, and the others moving him gently. He felt someone trying to take off his hoodie, and he grabbed onto it the best he could, though his fingers felt numb.

“Let go, Virge. It will only make you colder,” someone said, using a soft voice. Knowing it was one of his boyfriends, he let go. He wondered why taking it off would make him cold, but he let them take his clothes off and put him in some fuzzy pajamas. They then took him to the couch in front of the fireplace, putting blankets around him.

He felt one of them get under the blankets next to him, and put him on their lap, which Virgil didn’t protest to because of the warmth the other person was giving off.

After a couple of minutes, the Logan and Patton came in.Patton held a mug out to Virgil and Virgil tried to reach for it, but Roman (whose lap he was sitting in) gently pushed his hands down with one of his own, and took the cup with the other. Roman then gently moved, and put the cup up to his lips. Virgil tried to reach for it again, but Roman just put his hands down again and held the cup to his mouth. Roman tilt the cup up a bit and let Virgil drink from it, who was enjoying the slight burn in his throat.

After a while, the mug was empty, and Virgil was a good bit warmer. He snuggled up into Roman’s chest, and felt an arm on his back. Logan, after making sure that Virgil was warm enough to rest, started reading the book in his hand, brushing his fingers through Virgil’s hair. Virgil’s eyes slowly started to slip shut, and, he let unconsciousness drag him under.