#mage roman

“Shh! Don’t wake him up! He’s been stressed and could use the rest,” Virgil whisper-shouted. Hestia shot him a glare that seemed to say: “And you don’t?” Virgil frowned.

“Just get out of my hair,” Virgil huffed. Hestia hissed and stubbornly clung tighter to Virgil’s hair, causing the vampire to let out a hiss of his own.

“Fine! Stay. Just don’t tug at it like that,” Virgil whispered. The phoenix dragon purred in delight, and loosened her grip on Virgil’s hair. With a sigh, Virgil quickly changed into a black cardigan, purple button up shirt, black dress pants, and black dress shoes.

“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a teacher. Then I wouldn’t have to dress up all the time,” Virgil muttered. Hestia cooed, her tone disinterested with a hint of impatience.

“What are you whining about?” Virgil asked, walking out of his room and down the stairs. Virgil heard a rumbling sound, which he soon realized was coming from Hestia’s stomach.

“Oh, so you’re only clingy because you’re hungry?” Virgil chuckled, heading towards the kitchen. However,  he paused when he came to the dining room, seeing that someone was seated at the table. It was Nova, whose warm brown eyes flew wide when she saw Virgil. An awkward silence settled between the two. What did one say to their boyfriend’s sister who had tried to murder them the day before?

“You have a dragon in your hair,” Nova blurted. Well, that answered that question.

“Not by choice,” Virgil replied coldly. With that, he walked into the kitchen, and opened the fridge. He grabbed a container of blueberries, and set them on the counter. Hestia immediately flew from his hair, and dove headfirst into the container.

“Well, I guess no one else is getting blueberries. Are you happy with yourself?” Virgil mock-scolded. Hestia gave him a smug look, and burrowed herself further into the blueberry container. Despite what one would think, dragons really liked fruit. Or at least, Hestia did. She loved any and every kind of fruit, in any form. Virgil just hoped she wouldn’t get into Logan’s not-so-secret jam stash anytime soon.

“She… really likes blueberries,” a voice piped up from behind Virgil. He jumped and whirled around to see Nova standing behind him. Zephyr was perched on her shoulder, his nose twitching with curiosity.

“Geez kid, didn’t hear you come in,” Virgil chuckled nervously. Nova blushed slightly, and nervously twirled the end of one of her pigtails.

“Sorry! Wind mages are light on their feet, I guess,” she replied, shrugging. A thin smile came to Virgil’s face, and he glanced back at Hestia. She had made her way through about half of the blueberry container, and was looking pretty pleased with herself.

“Uh… is your familiar hungry? I’m not sure if we have any carrots… do winged rabbits eat carrots?” Virgil asked, rambling slightly. Nova laughed, though it sounded a little forced.

“Zephyr will eat just about anything, trust me. Most fruits and veggies are his favorite,” she said.

“Well, I would offer blueberries… but I’m not sure if Hestia would be willing to share,” Virgil said, sending a half-hearted glare towards the phoenix dragon, who was still burrowed inside the container, snacking on blueberries. She poked her head out, and glanced between Virgil and Zephyr. After a moment of consideration, she gave an inviting squawk.

“Huh. Guess she’s cool with sharing,” Virgil said, blinking in surprise. Zephyr perked up, spreading his wings and leaping off of Nova’s shoulder. His wings were gorgeous, a snowy white that shifted to an ashen gray at the tips. Virgil noticed that unlike a typical rabbit, Zephyr had a long white tail that had a fluffy gray tip.

He landed gracefully, his claws clacking on the counter. Zephyr’s wings folded to his sides, and he shyly crept closer to Hestia and her blueberries. She picked up a blueberry with her claw, and tossed it at Zephyr. It landed at his paws, and he sniffed at it curiously before eating it. Hestia tossed more blueberries at him, and Zephyr gobbled them up.

“Aww! I was planning to use those blueberries for pancakes this week, but this is much cuter!” a voice squealed from behind them.

“Good morning, Patton,” Virgil chuckled, smirking at Nova’s surprised expression.

“Morning! How’d you kiddos sleep?” he asked, stepping past Nova to the coffee machine.

“Fine,” Virgil replied.

“Pretty good, I guess,” Nova shrugged.

“Good!” Patton chirped, starting the coffee. A somewhat awkward silence settled in the kitchen, until Logan walked in. He chose to dress a bit more casually today, wearing a navy blue sweater vest over a black button up shirt, along with khakis and black dress shoes.

“Good morning, everyone,” Logan said, walking over to the cupboard and getting out a mug.

“Morning Lo!” Patton sang, green eyes sparkling. He practically skipped over to Logan, leaning up and pressing a light kiss to his lips. Logan smiled softly at Patton, then walked over to the coffee machine.

The morning continued amicably, with idle conversation while waiting for the coffee to brew. Patton made sure that Logan and Virgil ate something before leaving for work, and made sure that Nova ate breakfast as well. Virgil was a little uneasy with how easily Nova just seemed to fit in their life, but brushed the thoughts aside as he and Logan left for Ekeisdale High School.

The morning was thankfully uneventful, but today’s lunch period was going to be different. While Virgil wanted to do their regular routine of meeting in Logan’s room, and eating lunch with Thomas and the others, Logan insisted that it would be a kind gesture if they instead met the school’s new counselor for lunch. And yes, while it was the right thing to do, there was just something… off… about Dr. Emile Picani.

“Virgil, you are being paranoid,” Logan reprimanded gently. The two of them were walking to the counseling office, and Virgil’s nervousness was practically tangible.

“There’s just something weird about him, okay?” Virgil huffed.

“You could say there’s ‘something weird’ about yourself, Virgil,” Logan pointed out. Virgil frowned, glaring at Logan. The science teacher merely shrugged in response. Virgil sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Okay fine, maybe you have a point,” Virgil grumbled.

“Point about what?” a cheery voice from behind them piped up. Virgil jumped, whirling around to see Dr. Picani standing behind them.

“I- uh…” Virgil trailed off.

“Virgil and I were debating on where to go for lunch. I suggested that it may be the best course of action to let you choose, Doctor,” Logan replied smoothly. Virgil internally sighed in relief. Thank goodness for Logan’s quick thinking.

“Aw, well that’s sweet of you guys! And you can just call me Emile!” he said, smiling brightly.

“Oh. Cool. So Emile, did you have anywhere in mind?” Virgil asked. Emile frowned in thought for a moment, then smiled and spoke up again.

“Well, I saw this cute little cafe called Jack’s Magic Beans on the way to work this morning!” he suggested. The place sounded vaguely familiar to Virgil, he had overheard students and probably Roman chattering about it. It was a fairly new cafe in town, known for its coffee and freshly baked bread, which supposedly was made with beans in it.

“Sounds good to me,” Virgil shrugged.

The cafe was fairly busy when Logan, Virgil, and Emile arrived there. However, they did manage to snag a table. Virgil offered to stay at the table while Logan and Emile ordered, and although Logan looked reluctant to leave Virgil alone, Virgil more or less forced Logan to get in line, saying that he’d be fine by himself. So Virgil sat alone at the table, idly toying with the ends of his sleeves when someone suddenly plopped themselves into the seat beside Virgil.

“Uh, this seat is taken,” Virgil said, turning to glare at the person beside him. However, when he saw who it was, his heart leapt into his throat.

“Girl, I’ll only be a minute. We need to chat,” the man said, sipping at what appeared to be coffee, but Virgil knew better from the smell.

“Remy, you’re drinking blood from a coffee cup?” Virgil hissed. The winged vampire shrugged, taking another sip.

“I’m just trying to blend in!” Remy protested.

“Blend in?! You have wings!” Virgil whisper-shouted.

“As long as I keep them folded in, most people assume it’s part of my jacket. Humans are suuuper gullible. But I didn’t come to talk blending in tactics,” Remy replied.

“You found something out about what Dorian is up to?” Virgil asked.

“No. But he’s in Ekeisdale,” Remy said. Virgil’s stomach dropped.

“What?” he gasped.

“Yeah. Virgil, you need to leave this place behind. I know you have people, or whatever, but…” Remy trailed off, nervously adjusting his sunglasses.

“I can’t just up and leave! Especially now. Some stuff came up with Roman’s family… I can’t abandon him,” Virgil replied softly.

“Have you told him yet? That you think he’s your-”

“No,” Virgil interrupted firmly.

“Girl,” Remy drawled.

“Shut up. You really don’t have any idea what he’s up to?” Virgil asked.

“No. But Virgil… just be careful. Dorian’s had decades to plan his revenge. If I were you, I’d get as far away from here as possible. Start over again,” Remy said, taking a sip of his “coffee”.

“But-”

“I know, you found a family and life here. But what’s the point of it if Dorian just snatches it away?” Remy cut him off. Virgil opened his mouth to reply, but Remy got up and left before he could think of anything to say. He shut his mouth, staring numbly at the table. Remy was right. What was the point of his life is Dorian just took it away? At least if he left, it would be by his choice. But how could Virgil leave his family behind?