#dragonwithproblems

Once that miscommunication was dealt with, Virgil tried to verbalize what he was doing a lot more even though it wasn’t always easy for him so that Logan wouldn’t get the wrong idea, and Logan loved that he did that. He loved that Virgil would just tell him things, and he loved the little smirk he wore when he knew he didn’t need to tell Logan but did anyway just so he’d know. He just-

Logan loved him. And it made perfect sense.

The problem was not that Logan did not want to tell Virgil. It was that Logan did. He just wasn’t well-versed in the appropriate timing for such things, and especially not in a romantic sense. He didn’t know how long they had to be together before it was acceptable for Logan to say I love you and he didn’t want to mess this up. He knew he didn’t always do things the right way, but this had to be perfect.

There were only two people that he could ask: Virgil, which was out of the question, and Patton. Patton, as his best friend, gave Logan advice on anything he needed, but he also dropped I love you’s at the drop of a hat so Logan did not think he’d have a very accurate idea of the correct timeline for it either.

But they’d been dating for a few months now, and while Logan had loved Virgil for most of that time, he’d only just recently realized it—he wasn’t great with identifying his feelings, either—and now burned with the desire to tell him.

They were curled on the couch, watching a movie Logan had seen enough times to have memorised the script accidentally—Fellowship of the Ring—but he wasn’t really paying attention. He was alternating between idly scratching his nails lightly over Virgil’s arm and tapping the buttons on his shirt and thinking about how he could say it.

(He thinks it’s been long enough that it wouldn’t be weird. It takes approximately two hundred hours to become close friends with someone, and he’s been dating Virgil for six whole months. If he assumed he’d spent even one full month of that time with Virgil, that was almost four times the time needed for friendship. Surely he would not be getting ahead of himself.

Right?)

He kept rolling it over and over in his head while Frodo did inarguably stupid—brave— things on screen and tried to figure out how to not sound awkward or insincere. It wasn’t like he could just blurt it out, unrelated to any topic of conversation at hand. He had to have some kind of lead-in, otherwise he would sound a little bit crazy.

“Virgil,” Logan said once the movie ended. “I wanted,” he hesitated and rolled the words over again. He didn’t want it to have to be some big declaration but—he also didn’t want to say it casually, like he hadn’t put any thought behind it or hadn’t meant it. “I wanted to say…”

Logan groaned and dropped his face into his hands. Virgil rubbed at his back.

“It’s okay, L,” he softly. “Take your time. You don’t have to rush anything.” Logan peered out of his hands to see Virgil’s face. He only looked a little anxious, and Logan wished he had scripted this conversation first so that he hadn’t caused Virgil any undo anxiety.

“I wanted to tell you but it’s hard,” he said. “I don’t know why emotions have to be so difficult.”

“Will it help if I tell you that I won’t be mad, whatever it is?” Virgil asked.

“I know you won’t be mad,” Logan said. “It’s just-I’m-” he groaned again, and, with his eyes still shut, asked, “Kiss me?”

Virgil kissed Logan, soft but not too quick, and Logan immediately felt the tension leak out of his shoulders. Maybe it didn’t have to be a declaration. Maybe he could just make sure Virgil knew that Logan was in love with him. That sounded...better.

“You know I love you, right?” he said quietly. He opened his eyes when Virgil leaned back to watch him. It didn’t cause him any stress; Virgil often needed less contact to take in new and process new information.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Virgil’s face split into the widest grin Logan had ever seen.

“I love you, too,” he said, and Logan felt the bubble of energy burn through him. He started flapping his hands, squealing a little, and Virgil laughed, looking every bit as giddy and ecstatic as Logan felt.

“Sorry,” Logan gasped, trying to still his hands.

“No, it’s okay,” Virgil said, still breathless with laughter. “I love it, I-fuck, I love you and I love everything you do.” That sent another burst of dizzying energy through Logan, but he managed to keep his hands still long enough to lean in and kiss Virgil. As soon as he pulled away, he was rocking slightly, giggling.

It took half an hour for both of them to calm down enough, and for neither of them to set the other one off on another tangent of I love you’s and more laughing and rocking and flapping and kissing.

Finally, though, they both settled, exhausted. “I’ve wanted to tell you for a couple weeks,” Logan admitted. “But I wasn’t sure if it was too soon or if I was going to mess it up or if it would be weird.”

“Same hat,” Virgil said, and Logan gave him a confused look. “I mean, me too. I don’t have any more of a clue what’s supposed to happen than you do.” He flushed slightly. “I’ve never really done this before, but I’ve loved you since our third date. I just didn’t want to freak you out.”

“Huh,” Logan said quietly. “Well, if neither of us have prior experience to base this off of, and we both have no idea when these...romantic things are meant to be done, maybe we shouldn’t try to follow some arbitrary schedule conceived by others. Perhaps it would be best if we simply told each other things and did them whenever we felt it appropriate.”

“That...that sounds like a much better system,” Virgil agreed. “God, I love you. I love you so much.”

“I love you just the same,” Logan said. “Do you want to finish Lord of the Rings?”