That declaration led him here, frowning at the computer screen he was sat in front of and just hoping that Virgil hadn't realised he'd found something from where he was sat looking through the newspapers. There was a family of deaths that he'd just uncovered at the house and looking down the search page probably more were waiting for him to read about them.

His view of the screen was blocked the next moment by a page from one of the newspapers. “Well you were pretty wrong about that. This certainly isn't any Disney story, My Prince.” Virgil gloated a little, only glancing towards the screen as Roman moved the pages so he could actually read through them all. “Wait, that's not about the family I found an article about.”

“Yep, looks like I was completely wrong regarding the suspicious deaths comment, but I still don't think that there's anything supernatural going on.” Roman scoffed, but could already predict what the next thing his boyfriend would say.

“So we actually visit the house. It's been for sale for ages. I'm sure we can arrange a viewing.” Roman wished that he had someone who could curb Virgil's paranoia when Logan had gone out of town for a family get together.

He gave in rolling his eyes and slumping a little for a moment. “Fine. I'll call them tomorrow and see if we can view the house. Quick question, what are you planning on doing if it is actually haunted?”

“Maybe take 2 days before calling to arrange a viewing.” Through their talk Virgil had been tidying away all the newspapers again. “But let's go home for now. I've got more books to research what ghosts can be dealt with by there.”

<3<3

If Roman could think of how to delay Virgil's wish to go ghost hunting for another week, he and Logan could possibly have calmed the curiosity or at least brought Virgil's usually hyperactive self preservation processes into play again. Instead he had to call the sales agency the next day while Virgil listened in and gathered a lot of seemingly random supplies from their kitchen.

“Okay, we've got a visit tomorrow at 5, are we going to be able to look normal with all this stuff your gathering? We're viewing a house, not opening a fish and chip shop.” He had plenty of reasons to be curious, gathered on their kitchen table was a variety of herbs and seasonings. There was sage and salt in fairly high amounts as well as a bottle of vinegar and a few other things. Virgil had also brought out their largest steel knives.

Virgil just grinned. “Ghosts aren't good with steel or iron, and can be kept away at least with salt. Sage is said to purify them so they can move on too.”

“I think I'd have preferred you to say you wanted to make the house a takeaway place.” Roman sighed.

“Good idea. That's what we can say if they ask why we want such a big house. It makes way more sense than telling them we're ghost hunting and getting kicked out as lunatics.” Virgil's smile was uncharacteristically wide now. Sometimes indulging in his love of conspiracy theories and ghost stories was the best way to get him this level of cheerfulness.

<3<3

Roman still wasn't clear over what he was going to do as they walked into the house. He was surprised that Patton hadn't asked more questions but the cheerful man had always been more focused on making people have the life they desired, even when they were in school together.

“Oh and don't mind the pictures. I've tried securing them to the wall a hundred times, but they do fall off sometimes. It seems this is one of those houses that keeps moving.” Patton decided to start explaining since a picture fell as they walked through the hallway. “Perhaps you should use posters or something if you're looking to make this place a shop or something.”

Virgil was eyeing the picture which had fallen suspiciously before following them through the house. “There were a lot of news reports about this place when I was looking into it.” He brought up. At least since he knew Patton and he felt some comfort in being able to ask questions that weren't entirely normal.

“Are you still interested in ghost stories then Virgil?” Patton asked, before shrugging. “Yeah, this isn't a house with the cheeriest of stories, but I've never had any issues while looking after it. If there are any ghosts I think it's just a case of showing you mean no harm. It's a historic house too, you know. Dates right back to the 1700's and it's only in the last hundred that anything has been thought to happen here.”

Roman held more interest than Virgil when it came to history without ghosts being involved and he had to frown at the age of the house. “It must have been renovated a lot since then. This doesn't look very old fashioned at all. Is it a house that changed family a lot to keep it so modern?”

“Not at all, well the first deaths were actually over the youngest generation of that family decided they wanted to update the family home. When I was given the file it was said that the last survivor had decided to sell it since they weren't having enough success changing the house from the traditions which had controlled them.” Patton explained, voice dropping as they passed the library. “Let's go in here for a while so you can see what else it could be. I've left the shelves in from when it was a library but now it could be anything from another bedroom to a wonderful office space.”

Virgil had been glancing at the amounts of furniture around while also listening to the history being shared. “Does it come fully furnished or is this just place holding furniture or something?” He asked, knowing most homes didn't come with or get shown around with furniture unless there was already someone living there.

“Last family thought the furniture was haunted so decided to leave it for me to sell with the home. Plus I think it's nicer to have a home ready furnished, don't you?” They all nodded, smiling at Patton's wonderfully cheery approach to talks of ghosts. “Virgil, tell me honestly, are you looking around because you think the house is haunted and want to be aware of ghosts in your area?”

Roman turned to face Virgil too at the question, unsure how he'd react to being challenged so openly over his suspicion.

Virgil just blinked, turning to them from where he had apparently been inspecting the bookshelves. “Maybe. It always creeps me out when we walk past and I'm meant to be the creepiest thing in this town. Like everyone I meet calls me that.”

“You ever seen a real ghost, Virgil?” Patton asked, ducking easily as a book came flying from his bag. “And Roman would you be able to pass that back to me? I don't think they want us to talk about that in here, so lets carry on walking while you answer.”

“No, this is the first time I've been brave enough to visit anywhere actually called haunted.” Virgil blinked at the sappy look he was suddenly being given by Roman. Sometimes it really was anything he claimed to be doing for the first time that made Roman feel blessed to do it with him.

Patton hummed, he knew actually talking about ghosts was inviting them to make their presence known when normally that would wait until  he wasn't around, but he also remembered the boy who hid in his hoodie and would almost panic if he was even called upon in class. For that he'd actually let him know when his suspicions were real. “The secret to getting along with any ghost or spirit is learning what made them so annoyed to stick around in the first place and either not doing it, or at least not letting them know if you do.”

“Is that why you mentioned the traditions and family trying to update the home being the start of the deaths?” Virgil asked, no longer even focusing on the house, riveted by Patton's words. “What were their family traditions?”

He pulled out one of the folders he kept on hand but very rarely looked through. “Progression mainly. Chasing dreams and what they enjoyed or liked regardless of whatever trends or societal ideals there were in the world. Possibly not the nicest or most trustworthy family to those outside of it, but they definitely knew how to succeed in their goals.” He explained.

“Like the Adams family? They had pretty unusual values.” Virgil asked, tilting his head to one side.

“No. The Adams family could always be trusted, even if they refused to conform. This family would as soon stab you in the back as conform in their own home, but out in the world, if conformity would help them, nobody could tell what they were actually aiming for or whether they liked the trends but they'd fill them perfectly.”

Virgil thought for a while, stopping at one of the few pictures that had survived the houses turbulent history. “Wow, that's like the opposite of anything I'd be able to do.”

“Guess we shouldn't think about getting you your own haunted house then. Wouldn't want the spirits here to kill you for being to anxious to be ambitious, would we?” Roman pointed out, half wondering if Virgil was about to get any of his seasoning out.

The pair with him both shrugged, “Do you want to see the rest of the house before making that decision or was this enough of a ghost hunt for you?” Patton offered.

Virgil took one last look at the painting. “I think this was enough of a hunt for me. Do you know if this is one of the ghosts or are their identities unknown?”

The painting held a solemn gentleman in a cape-let and bowler hat, staring straight ahead in just such a way that he'd be looking at you almost wherever you stood in the room with no need for moving eyes.