#mentioned logan

For @sanders-sides-a-spec-week free day

Summary: Life is a performance to Janus as he tries to be successful in his career, but pretending that sex or romance interests him gets to be too much sometimes. On one of the days he takes to avoid all flirting, he finds himself new friends who understand.

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It was all a performance and Janus knew people never understood that. He didn't want them to understand it either, but that didn't make it any less exhausting.

Occasionally someone would almost get it, almost understand just how much was a performance, but never quite. They always believed that he was being genuine to them, or revealing who he really was to them because they were special, not because they were the type to be convinced by feeling they were different to other people. Honestly, Janus could do without people pointing out his treatment of others was all an act and ignoring the biggest act he'd ever had to perform: The romancing, the wooing, and especially the flirting to convince people to do or think how best to benefit him.

Another one set in the Fantastic Family (Urban fantasy) universe because it’s such a good source of platonic Virgil vibes. 

First | Previous | AO3

***

Virgil loves his disaster family, he truly does. He’d never had one of his own, growing up and he’d missed all of the things that he tries to give every one of his strange children, and boy does it feel good to know he’s achieving that goal day by tough, long, rewarding day. 

One of the things he encourages most is play, even with Logan and D.C., because there’s nothing better than being in your own home, surrounded by the sound of happiness and joy and fun. 

Take right now for instance, he’s been napping on the couch for about an hour and is just starting to rouse when he hears giggling from nearby. What he doesn’t so much like the sound of is the hushing and scamper of mischievous little feet, before a small hand taps his shoulder lightly and a matching voice calls, “Daddy Vee? You ‘wake?” 

“Hey Pat,” Virgil mumbles, yawning. Patton giggles again, and Roman must be nearby because he hears him start to say something before Patton hushes him, whispering way too loudly for him to go away and wait for the signal. Uh oh. “Patton.”

“Yes Devee?” Patton chirps, angelic cherub looking demon child that he is. He knows using his baby name for Virgil will weaken him to his schemes. 

“If I open my eyes, what am I going to see?” Patton smothers his giggles again and Roman and Remus do the same. There’s a creak that signifies that Logan is probably also in on this, somewhere else in the room. 

Patton manages to wrestle control from his own amusement enough to reply. “Nothing weird! Nothing weird at all!” He does that terrifying demonic gurgle of joy that Virgil has discovered kids sometimes do when they’re just finding themselves so funny they can’t contain it. It’s a big old red flag. 

“Nothing weird, huh?” Virgil asks, resigning himself to an abrupt loss of the nice peacefulness that had sent him into the doze in the first place. “Alright. I’m opening my eyes now…”

Patton tells the others to get ready, and Logan is definitely there because he hears a tiny ‘affirmative’ from the corner. Virgil makes sure to count down from three- because he’s not a monster, he’s a dad now- and then he opens his eyes. 

From his position on his back he can see the ‘nothing weird’ right away. Somehow the kids have strung up every single pair of his underpants and socks like cotton garlands over the ceiling, the lines criss-crossing and hanging in a surprisingly garland-like looking way. He’s a little impressed. Except that it’s his underwear. 

“Oh, you guys are in so much trouble!” He jumps up to scoop up a shrieking Patton from by the arm of the couch, but Patton shouts “now!” and then suddenly all of the garlands start to fall, catching him and tangling him where stands, bringing him to the floor when he trips. Logan and the twins get away, but unfortunately for Patton he gets a foot snagged on a line and tumbles down. 

Virgil catches him like a pro-baseball player- yeah he’s proud of it too, it’s pretty awesome- tickling the boy mercilessly until they both run out of steam and Patton goes dramatically limp in his arms, still grinning at him. Virgil snorts and boops his nose. “Yeah, yeah. You’re cute. Just stop smiling at me like that. You got caught, little dude, that means you get to help me tidy it all up.”

Patton’s grin turns to an open-mouthed scowl of outrage, and Virgil settles in for the battle. 

Dad’s gotta dad, after all. 

–

Chelsea: It’s a bunch of marshmallow people! Patton came up with the idea. :) Look, that’s me, that’s Logan, that’s Princey…

Chelsea: And that’s you! You’re crossing your arms because you’re annoyed by marshmello Princey. Do you like it?

Logan: why won't you tell me what's wrong? You seem afraid but I know not of what. Please, just, talk to me, i'm begging you. Isn't that what you wanted? For me to beg? Here I am, on my knees, begging for you to tell me what's troubling you so.

Virgil: You.

Logan: What?

Vigil: you!

Logan: you're scared of...me? But, why?

Virgil: What?! What's wrong?

Patton: Logan replaced all the junk food in the house with celery! I can't live without sugar! I can't live on RABBIT FOOD!

Virgil: Well actually-

Roman, interrupting from his room, yelling: Sending reinforcements now, maintain your position and open a communication line stat!

I have no life and no sleep so here we are! This is for @figurative-falsehood

Warning!!! Major Character death!!!

It wasn't supposed to be like this. This wasn't supposed to happen. But one little mistake, one little misjudgment changed my life forever. And it's all my fault. But I didn't meanfor it to happen. It was an accident, but the others will hate me when they find out. But they wouldn't understand I had toldPatton to be careful! I had told him that my sword wasn't for playing around. But he had insisted. And who could possibly say no to his puppy eyes?! So yes of course I agreed to give him a lesson in sword fighting. It went well in the beginning. I taught him the basic stance and handling of the sword. He seemed to get it easily. I continued to mentor him for a month after that. His swordsman ship improving everyday. Though he kept wanting me to push him further and further. I should've stopped when he made the request.

" Roman, I was wondering, you can conjure anything you want in the imagination right?"

"Of course Padre! What did you have in mind?"

" I was just thinking... maybe you could make a copy or a hologram of yourself for me to spar with. So that way you won't have to work yourself out as much and you can watch my footing and technique!"

I didn't trust it from the beginning. But he continued to ask and ask even when I continually said no. That is until he bested me. I had no choice then. He grew angry and aggressive. It was a lot to handle on my own. So I finally agreed. The match was held in the imagination of course and it was supposed to be a practice round before we showed the others what he had learned. I had given Patton my sword as a gift, a token from knight to knight. Then it began. Patton was amazing. The last month and a half of training looked like he'd been doing it for a couple of years. That was until my copy got smart. It began to analyze his movements and look for openings. Patton, still being a beginner, it wasn't long before I saw the other sword go straight through my best friend. The only thing I heard was the clattering of my sword as it hits the ground.

"PATTON!"

I ran towards him, deleting the copy and falling to my knees. Tears in my eyes I beagn to think. Come on Roman, do something or he's going to die. My mind kept drawing a blank. I began to panic, quickly spiraling down a dark hole. No no no no no no no nO NO NO! Not him. PLEASE NOT HIM. TAKE ME INSTEAD LET HIM LIVE PLEASE. I felt a wet hand touch my face bringing me back to reality.

"Shhhh, Roman it's ok. It's going to be fine. I'll be ok and I'll make us dinner tonight. We'll laugh with Logan and Virgil and we'll make more videos with Thomas. We'll teach him more things about himself and the fans. They're all going to be ok. We're all going to be ok, ok?".

I couldn't do anything but nod my head as tears silently rolled down my face.  

"Roman, promise me we'll go to your garden again? It's so beautiful. I absolutely love the orchids. And we'll have a picnic there too! I just want to spend some time with all of you guys, I lov-"

Hes beginning to cough up blood. It's not stopping him though.

"I love you guys so much. You're all my family. I just wish Virgil had come a lot sooner, that way I'd get to know him more. "