The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though, if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was squirreled away in Logan’s bedroom either still asleep or avoiding them both was debatable.

“…Look,” Roman said.

“We aren’t talking about it.”

“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?!” Roman said, talking about it. “Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”

“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn the ‘common courtesy’ of knocking.” He pointed a spoon at his roommate threateningly.

Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth once more. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.

“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.

“I’ve got it,” Roman said, jumping into motion and sprinting towards the bathroom. Logan meanwhile, stood and headed towards the living room.

“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. His very, very soaked roommate. He was dripping water like he’d just crawled out of a pond.

“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton replied, seeming unconcerned by the fact that he was getting their carpet wet.

“What?” Logan asked.

Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than the ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism seemed to be a small switch. “Be careful with that. It’s unstable, and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece from his wrist. “Actually, speaking of that… this might need a checkup too.”

“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked, reaching for both devices.

“…No,” Patton said, looking a bit sheepish. “We may have… had to turn off all of the safety protocols.”

“You what?!” Logan asked, snatching away the timepiece and clutching it to his chest. “Patton, I just made this for you!”

“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t want to drown in a church.”

“It was a completely new design!”

“And it’s really good,” Patton said with a smile, “and clearly reliable. We didn’t blow up!”

Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged.”

“Thanks Lo!”

Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he proclaimed.

“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh. He took the towel and used it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.

“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.

Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft,” he said. “Though I think he might have cheated on that suggestion.” He paused then as he finished running the towel through his hair, face growing slightly more serious. “I saw Remus,” he told them.

Roman froze instantly. “You did?”

“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus, but I figured I shouldn’t say anything about you to him since that trip was way out of sync. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, no, of course,” Roman said. “That makes sense. That’s fine. How was he?”

“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed Roman a smile. “Happy. Not exactly what I expected though. He’s quite the character. I can tell he and Janus are good friends.”

“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”

Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”

“He what?!” Roman screeched.

“It wasn’t particularly innocent flirting either,” Patton said with a grimace.

Roman took a moment to process this information before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross and wrong!”

“It was… it was weird,” Patton confirmed.

“What did he even say?” Roman asked.

“Mostly it was comments about my…” he made a motion with his head that Roman apparently was able to decipher.

“He talked about your butt?!”

“Well,” Patton said, “he didn’t exactly use that word.”

“That sounds about right for Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the living room.

“Oh, so you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked, turning to him.

“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.

Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-Pat, speaking of posteriors…”

“One more word out of you and I will murder you,” Virgil threatened. Roman did not look afraid, quite the opposite.

“Uh,” Patton said, looking between them. “What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you latter,” Roman promised with a wink.

“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”

“Well, wait,” Patton said with a pout. “Now I want to know.”

“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.

Patton and Roman shared a look that was already giving Logan a migraine. He had no doubts Patton would have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by dinner.

“Yes boss,” Patton said with a cheeky grin.

Logan rolled his eyes as his roommate turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping everywhere anymore, and he made sure to slip off his waterlogged shoes and socks so as to not track water to the bathroom.

“Put everything in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.

“I know!” he called back.

“And you,” Logan said, tuning to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”

“Why me?” Roman whined.

“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”

“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.

Virgil glanced over at Logan once Roman had gone, his expression the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Logan said.

“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.

Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this moment.”

“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”

“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.

“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands,” Virgil said, throwing a suspicious look towards the devices.

“That’s not what I meant,” Logan said.

“I know,” Virgil sighed.

“We are two mutually consenting adults,” Logan pointed out. “There isn’t any shame to it.”

“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”

“Very well,” Logan agreed. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.

“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.

“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he placed the two devices into it and activated it. It lit up yellow. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. Once they’re more stable, it will be less dangerous to work with them.”

“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.

“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back? Patton will clean himself up and probably take a nap immediately after, so we have time. We could get coffee in peace.”

Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”

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The museum ended up being interesting to Virgil. Though, this was not because any of the exhibits taught him anything more about the events they displayed. No, it was interesting to learn what history people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events. It was an angle he’d never really thought about studying, but he might put a pin in the idea of going to different museums from this time period to study how the 21st century viewed history.

His and Logan’s conversation quickly became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but of hypothesizing why those mistakes had been made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed. Logan’s contributions were a whole lot less technical than the theories Virgil threw out, however he seemed to keep up well.

They spent a few hours in the museum before deciding it was time to head back to Logan’s apartment. However, not before stopping at a small hole-in-the-wall bar inhabited only by day drinkers.

“I have to bring home a peace offering after running off this morning,” he explained to Virgil when questioned. “Patton will forgive me easier if I do and will be more likely to agree to a time travel mission for me.”

“…And Patton likes… vodka?” Virgil asked with an eyebrow raise.

“No,” Logan replied, seemingly amused at the thought. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ It is the only thing they cook. They don’t even serve fries.”

Virgil gave the location a dubious look but didn’t question it. Sometimes good food was found in the weirdest of places. The best tacos he’d ever eaten had been bought out of a window on the side of a laundry mat in the late 1900s.

When Logan handed him one of the unlabeled brown paper bags that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just its contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow.

“Ah yes,” said Virgil dryly as they left the restaurant, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”

“You once ate only bagged pepperoni slices meant for pizzas as your breakfast for an entire week,” Logan pointed out.

“I told you that in confidence!” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.

“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”

“You’re making fun of me. That’s a part of the agreement too,” Virgil said.

“I don’t remember there being any clauses like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, better than eating nothing.”

“Oh,” Virgil said. “Well, good.”

“I am simply citing another example where not perfectly healthy food can be good in the short term,” Logan said.

“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery?” Virgil asked.

“Precisely,” Logan said with a smile. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”

“Alright, fair enough,” Virgil conceded. “It’s still horrible nutrition wise.”

“You don’t have to have any if you don’t want it,” Logan promised.

“Oh, no, I’m going to,” Virgil said instantly.

Logan paused and turned to look at him. “Then why are you complaining?”

“I just thought you should know your time has much too greasy food.”

“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. “I’m sure it will be very useful going forward.”

They’d made it to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.

“And where have the two of you been all morning?” Patton’s voice called as soon as the two of them walked through the door.

“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered, following his roommate’s voice towards the kitchen. Virgil followed in his wake.

Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop, but he paused to peak into the bag. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he tried to convince them.

“I will take your word on that,” Logan said.

Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for one of the cheeseburgers. Logan kept looking down at Patton, and obviously that meant something that Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked, suspiciously.

“Virgil and I went back to the location he arrived at,” Logan told him. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions caused the crash and is still active in this time.”

“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out with a frown.

“It seems to be a more advanced version of the devices we’ve seen so far,” Logan explained. “Which will make it much more difficult to trace.”

“Okay,” Patton said. There was still a good amount of distrust in his tone. “Then what are we going to do about it?”

“Well,” Logan said, “if we could gain access to an older version of the device, we could likely study it and reverse engineer a way to track the current one’s location.”

“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.

“I do understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week,” Logan said quickly. Patton was already frowning, “and that your last trip through time was a challenging one, but,” he nodded at Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one of these devices exists and I have it on good authority that you have a good chance of finding it, deactivating it, and bringing it home if you travel to Camaguey Cuba 1755.”

Patton groaned. “And judging by the obvious source of this information, I’d be stealing it off of the TPI.”

“Well, yes,” Logan admitted.

“Excellent.”

“At least, in this particular circumstance, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”

…

Should Virgil… say something? It’d be rude to not mention the whole time shredding almost full party drowning experience, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream and he was going into an already messy time disturbance.

Virgil debated with himself on whether general social courtesy should trump the possible destruction of all of space and time.

…

Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they weren’t already planning to pack him one. Just in case.

“Fine,” Patton said with a sigh, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and my survival pack before I make any jumps. I am not making the same mistakes again.”

Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Give me a list of what you want in your survival pack by tomorrow.”

“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “It’s in the Google Drive.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things to pull up a google document. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”

Logan looked over his shoulder at the list. “…Do you really need all of this?”

“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.

“I will do my best,” Logan said.

“You will do it,” Patton returned.

“Right.”

Patton sighed and turned back to his laptop. “And I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700s,” he said.

Virgil watched him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier, in particular, all of that museum’s inaccuracies.

“Do… you want help?” he offered.

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Virgil was, indeed, able to find the location he’d crashed landed at quite easily. It was impressive honestly. Logan knew how different the location looked during the farmers market compared to every other day of the week. The main road had been opened and the stage where musical performances took place had been removed. However, Virgil was able to retrace his steps without issue.

“I ended up under the stage,” Virgil informed Logan. “It’s been taken down now, but you can see where it was based on the grass.” He pointed to where the grass had been flattened and then walked around the indent a bit. “I was in the back,” he said, looking towards where the sidewalk was with a contemplative look, “so it would have been almost exactly here.” He tapped his foot on the spot.

Anticipating this part of their excursion, Logan had packed some of his tools before leaving this morning. He pulled out one of his modified iPads.

“You hide your time travel tech as an iPad?” Virgil asked, curiously.

Logan spared him a glance but said nothing.

“…You made your time travel tech out of an iPad?!”

“It is one of the most easily accessible technologies of this time that is also portable,” Logan said with a shrug, booting it up. “I use what I can get.”

“How on Earth did you manage to invent time travel with 21st century technology?” Virgil asked, peeking over his shoulder.

“Well, it took me a couple of decades,” Logan replied.

“It took everyone else literal centuries,” Virgil said dryly.

“Well, I knew time travel was possible already, so I simply made it happen.”

“You’re terrifying,” Virgil stated.

Logan just hummed and set the iPad scrolling through his diagnostic programs. In a few moments, it would come back with any readings time travel related.

Virgil watched the device intently, though Logan doubted he had any understanding about what the different things scrolling past meant.

It gave a soft beep when it was done.

“Well,” Logan said, studying his screen. The readings were not what he was expecting “There is definitely an anomaly, but we of course already knew that. These readings are strange, however.”

“What do you mean?”

Logan pointed to the iPad. “See this graph?” he asked.

Virgil nodded.

“It’s mapping out any timeline irregularities. When everything is normal, it looks like it does here at the beginning.” Logan pointed at the part of the graph from the beginning of Saturday. “It will oscillate between a value of .02 and .08. Things above 1 indicate something is amiss.”

Logan drew his finger across the graph to later in the day.

“I’d assumed whatever had caused you to end up here had dragged you here, but that doesn’t match these readings. Your arrival was not the main disturbance. There was a smaller disturbance about an hour before your crash.” He drew his finger along the almost straight line that stayed at 1.5 before there was a sudden spike. “Then there was the first spike.” The graph went up to 4.5 suddenly and then leveled off staying at 4.5 for a few minutes. He tapped at a spike to 4.9 that came next. “This is your arrival.”

“So…?” Virgil said.

“So, I think your presence here was a byproduct of something else being amiss. I don’t know everything about the time travel technology from your time, but I have noted that your devices tend to briefly ping off of times near to your destination before landing. It’s a form of recalibration. I think your device did a brief landing here at the wrong time and was deactivated much like Janus’s time piece has deactivated in the past in similar circumstances.”

“What does that mean for me?”

“Well, it means your device likely isn’t broken,” Logan said.

“Then why isn’t it working?” Virgil asked.

“Because,” Logan said, scrolling forward in time on the graph. The line had gone back down slightly but had remained at about 3.5 for the last few hours. “Whatever disabled your time piece is still here.”

Virgil looked at his feet as though expecting to see the device sitting on the ground somewhere.

“Not here here,” Logan clarified, “but it is active somewhere in this time and is nearby. They have a limited range from what I understand, though by limited, I mean it could be anywhere in the city. Though it is strange…”

“What’s strange?”

Logan tapped through different readings on his iPad to make sure he wasn’t missing anything. “It’s not causing any other problems,” he said. “We’ve only ran into these things once or twice before and we’ve never managed to actually get our hands on one to study it further. However, each time we’ve seen them, they’ve created some sort of major environmental issue. However, this time there are no obvious indications of time instability or weather problems. In fact, if I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Okay, that is weird,” Virgil said, “but can’t we just find it and shut it off? That’s what Janus said he did when he ran into them.”

“It is,” Logan confirmed. “The only issue is without the obvious environmental clues, I have no idea where it actually is to turn it off. It definitely was here when it switched on, but considering the dip in the graph at this location, it isn’t here anymore.” He looked around. “Perhaps it was attached to the stage or put in one of the musicians’ instrument cases. Then again, by that logic, it could have been put in anyone’s bags or in a since emptied trashcan.”

“So, it could basically be anywhere?”

“Basically,” Logan agreed. “We will check the most likely places for now and if that produces no results, I’ll… figure out something.”

Virgil grimaced. “That sounds promising.”

“I will do my best,” Logan promised. “I just wish I knew more about these devices.”

Virgil seemed to hesitate for a long moment. “How would you go about learning more about them?”

“Well,” Logan said, “if I could get ahold of a similar device to experiment on, I could probably find a way to track this one.”

“You already have,” Virgil said.

“Have what?” Logan asked, confused.

“You already have gotten ahold of one,” Virgil said.

Logan frowned at him. “I assure you, I have not.”

“But you do,” Virgil said. “Eventually.”

“…Oh, I see,” Logan replied, catching on. “Do you perhaps know where we do eventually find such a thing?”

Virgil pressed his lips together. “I think I might already be saying too much,” he said. “It’s stuff you shouldn’t know about yet in your personal timeline. People aren’t supposed to…”

“Time is not nearly as sensitive as the TPI seems to believe,” Logan said with an eyeroll. “In fact, most of Janus and Patton’s interactions so far involve accidently giving more information than necessary.”

“I don’t know…”

“I’m a time traveler from the 21st century who lives with a French man from the 1800s,” Logan said. “I’m not asking for a rundown of every part of the event, just a time and place to point us in the correct direction.”

Virgil still didn’t seem convinced.

“It would really only be a time saver,” Logan argued. “I could just blindly look for time distortions and send Patton after them, but it’d take a while…”

“Fine,” Virgil said after a moment. “This is probably entirely stupid, but fine. Give me a moment to think about what exactly I can tell you, so I don’t mess everything up.”

Logan smiled slightly at his overly cautious behavior but waited patiently.

“Janus met Pat once in Cuba. There was a time distortion during the Camaguey Carnival of 1755. Pat took the device that had been causing the disturbance and left before Janus could catch him.”

“Camaguey 1755,” Logan repeated. “An interesting time. I’ll look into it, and we will see what we can do. A trip will still take a few days to prep, however.”

Logan would need to find exact coordinates and he’d have to talk to Patton considering he’d just recently gotten back from an unwillingly long trip to pre-history. He’d probably be willing to go, but he’d mentioned forcing Logan to make him a “time survival pack” before he’d be willing to go back into the timestream. They’d need to talk about what exactly that entailed and get the supplies for it. His mind was already making plans about what he needed to do.

Virgil nodded. “Should we head back to the apartment, then?” he asked, interrupting Logan’s thoughts. Logan glanced at him. He had actually planned to show the man around a bit today instead of spending all of their time thinking about time travel.

“I cannot be sure that my roommates will have cleaned up their French toast nonsense by now,” he said. “We should likely wait to return until at least the lunch hour. It is not as though we could do anything about it today. We will need to plan.”

“Okay,” said Virgil, “then what are we going to do for the next 3-4 hours?”

“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps I can show you around the town a bit more so as to not make more of a liar of myself than I already have.”

“Sure,” Virgil agreed with a smile. “What will you be showing me.”

“I was thinking we could visit the local museum. We can compare notes about how wildly inaccurate the exhibits present history.”

Virgil rolled his eyes at Logan, but there was something warm underneath his expression. “Fine,” he said, “but I bet I know more than you.”

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It took a little over two weeks for Logan to get everything in order. He’d already been in the process of updating all of their equipment for quite some time, and their current situation spurned him to complete these improvements even sooner. That was easy.

What was more difficult was trying to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long when Logan had started, but Patton had continued to add to it. It seemed like the list would be endless for a short while as Patton had been adding things as fast or faster than Logan could address them.

He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at one point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey was nowhere near the sea.

Virgil, thankfully, didn’t seem to mind the delays too much. In fact, he may have had a hand in causing some of them. His natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton who had already been stressed given his last trip through time. Patton’s request for the boat had come after one of their brainstorming sessions.

Virgil and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually, as Logan worked on supplies. Virgil had offered to help Patton with researching. While Patton was fairly good at doing his own research for time travel destinations at this point, Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering his profession and his involvement with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.

Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not appreciate Virgil’s input on things. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing days ago. They were currently refusing to speak to each other after a discussion about the fabric composition of Ancient Greek clothing over dinner the night before.

Logan honestly… could not tell if these fights were friendly debates or not. There seemed to be a lot of anger around the topics, but they also seemed to enjoy their arguments to an odd degree.

Logan had inquired after Patton’s opinion on the matter, but he’d shrugged and claimed he also could not tell.

Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship was helpful either, but Logan had noticed Roman slightly change the design of the outfit he’d made for Patton’s trip to Cuba.

Virgil was helpful in preparing for the mission, taking some of the stress of research off of Patton and Roman which was nice. He was not much help to Logan’s endeavors unless you counted the original intel. He had a basic understanding of mathematics and physics, but not enough to help in that regard.

He was, however, very good for company. It helped that his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks unlike the other occupants of the apartment. Typically, Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than Logan did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room. However, with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while Logan worked. If it was less volatile company than he was used to working with, that was just a bonus.

Virgil fit into their little group in a way that Logan had not anticipated. (Well, socially he fit. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for over two weeks now.)

Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton was supplied with three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to step into, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive in an apocalypse if needed.

Patton planned to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would dictate Janus be sent in. That way, he would have more than adequate time to get set up and acclimated before the TPI sent in their agents.

For now, however, he was busy examining his new and improved timepiece.

“This is cool,” Patton breathed, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.

“The controls are the same configuration as on your previous device. The only thing new is the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the button to access the survival kit features.

“It looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still flexing his fingers to get used to it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many options for the device’s form yet, but more could be designed and added in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a simple wristwatch.

“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before your trip.

Patton nodded, flicking his fingers. He disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did a few other simple mini trips before predictably growing bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and “accidently” jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice.

Eventually, Logan confiscated the device for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.

Patton went to bed early after dinner, planning on leaving the next morning. Roman also retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.

Despite knowing his calculations were perfect, Logan still found himself sitting on the couch and checking over them one last time, just to be sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.

He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.

Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks, by the way,” he said. “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”

“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.

“Sure,” Virgil said, “but you still all have been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”

Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he replied.

“Maybe,” Virgil said, “but this time you’re doing it for me, so yeah, thanks.”

“You’re welcome then,” Logan replied. “Any time.”

Virgil titled his head and grinned at him. “Was that a time travel pun?” he asked.

Logan scowled instantly. “No.”

“It sounded like a time travel pun…”

“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun,” Logan said.

“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make any puns?” Virgil asked.

“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.

Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am?”

“Not so loud!” Logan hissed instantly. He leaned forward to put his hand over Virgil’s mouth while glancing back towards the hallways to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with yet another intervention.

Logan’s hand was bit.

“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, tearing the hand away.

Despite his childish violence (or perhaps because of it), Virgil’s eyes were shining.

“How do you know?” Logan asked in a whisper. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years as neither of them liked orange juice.

Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”

“It’s worked on everyone else,” Logan said.

“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid bastard with a doctorate degree in human bullshittery. You cannot fool me.”

Logan couldn’t help but smile. “I suppose I have met my match then,” he said.

Virgil titled his head back all the way, so his skull rested on the couch cushion, and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said with a grin.

Logan was not much for sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows softening the edges of the rooms and the almost golden glint in Virgil’s eyes from the reflection of the lit lamp that suddenly made it more difficult to breathe.

Virgil was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning. His eyes were softened with sleepiness as he looked up at Logan with a smile on his face.

He fit here, Logan thought. He slotted into Logan’s life with an ease Logan could never have anticipated. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak over the telephone. He’d found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one-sided video chats. Yet it was different with him right here in front of Logan.

Logan could reach down right now and touch him with ease if he chose to. He could brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes. Logan wondered what Virgil would do. Would his eyes shine the same way they had after biting Logan earlier. Would he grin wider than he was now? Would he get embarrassed like he did the first day in the coffee shop after oversharing?

“You… good man?” Virgil asked, pulling Logan from his musings.

“I am perfectly well,” Logan replied, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”

“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.

“I find myself a bit disconcerted at the moment.”

“Well, maybe a carton full of iced coffee at 3am is not the best choice,” Virgil said in good humor. “You aren’t a college kid anymore.”

Logan glanced down at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled.

Virgil gave him an odd look but didn’t comment.

“You know,” he said instead. “I think your calculations are probably fine anyway,” He reached up to gently taking the papers out of Logan’s grip. “Why don’t you put the coffee away and we do something else?”

“Like sleep?” Logan asked.

“Do you think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with an eyebrow raised.

“Fair point,” Logan replied ruefully.

Virgil grabbed the television remote from the coffee table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”

“Sure,” Logan agreed. He glanced down at Virgil who was already turning on the television. “You can come onto the couch if you like.”

“Nah,” said Virgil without looking at him. “You can come to the floor.

Logan sighed. “Very well,” he agreed and slid to the floor.

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Folds in Time Universe Master Post

Patton was a fan of the summer months which was why he was a little unhappy that he’d be missing a good chunk of them. Though, he guessed, he didn’t so much miss them as misplace them. He had stopped by to tell Roman and Logan what had happened with getting trapped in pre-history with Janus and why he’d be missing for a good chunk of time over the next few months to make up for it. He was staying with his now technically younger roommates for a week or two to recuperate before hopping forward a bit. He’d duck in for his mom’s birthday and his grandpa’s yearly fishing trip (Though Patton was of the opinion that he did not really want to eat fresh fish for a least a little while yet.) but would mostly be skipping forward a whole two months.

He’d land in early August which was still summer, but he’d miss most of June and July, and that was sad, but at least apples would be fresh around that time. Plus, fall was his second favorite season anyway.

Yet, for now, he got to relax a little bit back in late May. Logan had finished poking and prodding him to make sure he wasn’t sick with any really bad ancient disease yesterday, so he was officially allowed to leave the apartment. Since it was Saturday, he and Roman had decided to go grab some stuff from the recently opened Farmers Market.

Roman had gotten bored with the vegetable shopping and had split off to go look at the arts and crafts (and, knowing him, probably pastries) that the market had to offer, leaving Patton to finish up getting fresh ingredients for the week. He may have also been grabbing a little bit extra so he could make frozen meals at some point this week. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Roman and Logan to feed themselves in his absence, (Okay, well, he did not trust Logan and Roman often got distracted.) but he did want to leave something nice for them while he was away. He knew he’d missed them while he’d been gone.

He wandered down the main path through the market. Most days this was a side street off Main, but on Saturdays in the summer, it was blocked off to cars and hosted a large number of stands selling different things, mostly produce. In a small park off to one side, there was a live band set up and down the way a bit there were food trucks selling prepared food to people who got peckish while wandering the stands. He mostly tried to stay away from those because they almost exclusively sold unhealthy and overpriced food.

But gosh was it good food.

And Logan wasn’t here to stop him…

Well, it wouldn’t hurt to go have a look at what they had this morning. He turned away from the vegetable stands he was supposed to be shopping at and walked towards the parking lot lined with food trucks. It was, as predicted, mostly food that was horribly bad for you. Most of the things there were sweets, though some had actual meal food such as walking tacos and grilled cheeses. One was even serving pancakes with fresh berries with a sign telling you where you could buy the same berries elsewhere in the market. Patton’s eyes though, went straight past anything most people would consider actual food and landed on small stand with the words “Fresh Donuts and Fried Oreos for Sale.”

Now, he knew for a fact that he could only eat one, maybe two if he stretched it, fried Oreos at a time before he got sick to his stomach. They were just so sweet and greasy, but they sold them in packs of three. Hmm…

He looked around. “Would you like one?” he asked an older man with hair just starting to grey who’d been walking between the stands.

The man stopped, seemingly surprised at being addressed. He blinked at him in surprise. “What?” he asked.

“A fried Oreo,” Patton explained. “I love them but eating more than two makes me sick to my stomach.”

“Just… don’t eat the last one,” the man suggested. He was shifting back and forth on his feet.

“You obviously don’t know me,” Patton said. “Anyway. Free fried Oreo?”

“I…uh… yeah, sure whatever.”

“Great!” Patton said, turning back to the employee waiting. “3 please!” They had already been dunked in hot oil while the employee had been waiting for Patton, so they were out within seconds, hot and fresh. Patton thanked her and turned towards the man. He grabbed a napkin to pick one of the Oreos out of the packet and handed it to him. “Here you go!”

“Thanks,” he said with an awkward half smile.

“No problem!” Patton replied.

“Well anyway, I’m really in the middle of something, so I ought to be going now.”

“Oh, okay, bye!” Patton said, but he was already gone. Patton shrugged and reached into his bag of fried Oreos as he started walking in the opposite direction from the one the man took towards the park and the live music there. He’d go take a quick walk around the little park listening to the music to maybe work off the Oreos he was eating and then go back to his shopping.

He was about halfway between the food trucks and the makeshift stage when there was a loud screeching sound which he at first attributed to mic feedback, until he felt a kind of swoopy feeling in his gut like after eating two corndogs before going on a rollercoaster even though Logan had told him not to. Someone was time traveling and not your gentle popping here or there safe time travel. No, something was wrong.

There were popping sounds like those little mini popping firecrackers that kids threw at each other’s feet on the Fourth of July. People near the stage jerked away with little startled shrieks, attributing the sounds to something going wrong with the equipment, but it wasn’t actually coming from the stage, not exactly.

It was coming from somewhere behind the stage. Patton made note of the fact that it was so close to the musical equipment almost as though whatever was happening was intentionally set up to make people think it was an electrical problem. He picked up his pace a bit, but not too much as he didn’t want anyone to notice him doing so.

By the time he made it there, the noises had stopped, and the feeling of wrong time travel had settled into an annoying hum. The people around and on the stage were starting to settle, though clearly the musicians were confused.

Patton was confused too. What was that? Was it over? Why did something still feel off? He couldn’t scan the area to check what was wrong. He hadn’t brought the timepiece to walk to the local farmer’s market. He usually didn’t wear it about his own time for fear carrying it around frivolously may lead to disaster. Pickpockets snatching time travel devices off of the unaware had caused enough undue trauma, thank you very much.

So, he had only his own eyes and ears to work with. Yet, despite his experience, he didn’t see anything particularly amiss. He kept his eyes out for an object that might have caused the disturbance or clothing that didn’t quite match the times, but he saw nothing.

After a few minutes of slipping his way through the crowds, he finally decided to give up for now. He’d go back to the apartment and tell Logan something had happened. He should be able to figure out something. He weaved his way out of the crowd of people and back onto the sidewalk that surrounded the little concert area. Yet, as he was about to turn away, he heard an unfamiliar voice call out to him.

“Pat!” it called, and Patton turned to look at a man speed walking towards him in an inconspicuous black hoody and blue jeans. “You’re Pat,” he said when he was closer, his tone somewhere between a statement and a question.

Patton tilted his head at the stranger with a frown. “Do you know me?”  he asked.

“Not really,” he replied, “but I remembered your face.”

“What?” Patton asked.

He raised an arm and let the hoody sleeve slip down just a touch. Patton could detect a bit of panic in his eyes, and he figured out why when a timepiece much like Janus’s but not quite as fancy was revealed. “It’s broken. Please help.”

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Part 2

Folds in Time Universe Master Post

Patton left in the morning and almost immediately sent a confirmation text to Logan saying that he’d made it to the correct time and place with no issue. From there it was just a waiting game for Patton and for those left in the apartment.

That was Virgil’s least favorite type of game.

Even with Patton checking in every so often, Virgil couldn’t help but be nervous. This was why he was a professor and not an employee of the TPI. So many things could go wrong with trips like these!

Virgil did his best to keep his anxiety on the down low. It was, after all, Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century at the location of a time distortion. They were both obviously nervous since Patton’s last trip had ended in disaster.

…

This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, Virgil knew, but for his sanity, he was going to ignore that fact.

The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was reportedly not normal behavior, and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were far too late to correct even if Patton hadn’t already confirmed they were perfect by arriving when he should have.

Yet, despite being an anxious wreck, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away. Roman was out once again when he finally shoved it in a drawer to get it away from himself.

Virgil looked up from doom scrolling on his phone.

“We should go out to dinner,” he suggested suddenly.

Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. They hadn’t left the apartment in days. “Sure,” he agreed.

They got changed and exited the apartment with no plans in mind. Logan asked him if he wanted anything in particular but Virgil didn’t know many places in this time, so he decided to trust Logan to pick something.

He should not have trusted him.

He glared at Logan from where they stood awkwardly in the middle of a mall. Logan appeared to only be entertained by his ire.

“Really?” Virgil asked.

“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks,” he said with a grin.

“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “The anxiety had gotten to me. I resent this experiment.”

Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. In fact, Virgil couldn’t help but feel a fond squeeze in his chest. It was almost an inside joke, just between the two of them.

“It is actually decent sushi,” Logan said.

“Ah yes, 21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for the authenticity we are about to enjoy.”

“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago-Cheese-Bread-For-French-Toast and Mr.-Went-Along-With-Cooking-Asiago-Cheese-Bread-French-Toast’s endorsement would inspire any confidence in Virgil. Patton may have Japanese blood, but he’d grown up in the Appalachians. Don’t even get Virgil started on Roman.

“It’s in. A. Mall.”

“So?” Logan asked.

“It’s a sushi stand in a mall,” Virgil said. “There isn’t even seating.”

“There’s seating,” Logan argued, nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter.

The seating was completely empty, which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were trying to eat dinner at 3pm, but more likely had to do with everyone else having more sense than the man standing in front of Virgil.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist? Do you not wish to experience the culture of the time first-hand.”

Virgil glared at him.

“Please try it,” Logan said, still amused. “It really is good.”

“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” Virgil warned.

“Noted,” Logan replied with a nod. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed himself to be led over to the sushi stand.

The man behind the sushi stand greeted them jovially as they approached. He obviously knew Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat.

Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of the man’s set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit on the small size.

They’d sat down in front of a glass case filled with chilled fish, and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man and a normal refrigerator for non-fish ingredients.

Laminated menus were handed to them. It was only one page and didn’t even have a back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If this place served a bunch of complicated or fancy dishes, Virgil would have been worried.

…

Well, he was still worried (it was mall sushi), but he wasn’t running screaming. The place looked like it wouldn’t give him food poisoning at the very least.

Logan suggested they get a “rainbow” and “snake” roll to split as well as a few different types of nigiri and Virgil didn’t argue.

The chef was kind, and he assembled all of the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a lot less leery about the meal. The man seemed to know what he was doing. The fish wouldn’t be as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he finished making their order, he handed it to them all on one big plate.

They ate and talked with each other and the chef. Virgil was ribbed gently about his chopstick anxiety and the chef apparently decided to be on Virgil’s side of the conflict because as soon as he heard Logan talking about it, he pipped in with a story about Logan mistaking wasabi for avocado once.

By the end of their dinner, Virgil had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than what he’d expected.

Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was as they thanked the chef and paid, because he looked overly smug about it.

“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said as they left the mall. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”

“I’m sure you are also when you’re in a more familiar location,” Logan said, still smiling smugly.

“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I consistently panic choose the worst option every time.”

“Well, I’m usually the opposite,” Logan said. “So, I guess we balance each other out in that regard.”

“Yeah,” Virgil said with a grin. He shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get back to the apartment?” he asked. “Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we’ve been for the last few days isn’t the best for my mental health.”

“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “Did you have anything in mind that you wanted to do?”

“Hmm,” Virgil said. “You guys still have Blockbuster?”

“No,” Logan said, “but we do still have a Family Video store nearby.”

“Is it close enough to walk there?” Virgil asked.

“It is,” Logan said, “though if you wish to watch a movie, we could use a streaming service or my… library of movies.” Virgil doubted the legality of that ‘library’ both with the current authorities and the TPI.

Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.

“The charm of going to a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?” Logan asked.

“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.

“Very well,” Logan said, turning to head in a slightly different direction. “If that’s what you want, we can go there.”

They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes.

The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often they might as well be walking on the linoleum underneath. A sign asked patrons to close the door behind them when entering as the spring that was supposed to make it close on its own had long since worn down to nothing. Virgil doubted anyone planned to replace it.

There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly before returning to looking at his phone. Ah yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.

“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with VHS tapes.

“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the exciting part? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.

“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This is nowhere near exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites have taken over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me nerd.”

“I don’t ‘panic choose’ anything,” Logan said. “I-”

“You do today,” Virgil interrupted.

“But…”

“Choose a letter, Logan.”

“…S?”

“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S.’

~~~

“This is just… gross,” Virgil declared a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.

“It’s a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”

“Yeah, but on one hand there’s weird sex jokes and actors that might as well be from mars for all they know about human behavior… then on the other there’s actual on-screen physical abuse between the leads in a romance.

“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind you that this could have been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting.”

“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Virgil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”

Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t have an actual DVD player connected to their TV, so he and Virgil had chosen to use the desktop computer in the bedroom Virgil had been using during his stay.

Virgil was currently laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to hover over him, interrupting his staring contest with the ceiling.

“Thank you for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still worry about sending Patton through time. His last trip did not improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”

“Well, I’m glad I could help,” Virgil said. “At least a little.”

“You helped a lot,” Logan replied. His hand reached down to pat Virgil’s shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.

Virgil found himself sitting up suddenly. Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”

Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.

Virgil glanced at their now entwined hands. “I, uh, I’m an anthropologist.”

“I am aware,” Logan said.

“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically, I’m studying you…”

“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said, sounding amused. “I doubt I’m a pure specimen for any studies you may wish to run.”

“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a, uh, good point. You’re right.”

Virgil paused and Logan waited for a long moment.

“So, then,” Virgil said slowly. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”

“It was a bad one,” Logan said.

“It really, really was,” Virgil agreed with a laugh, and then Logan was leaning forward towards him, and Virgil was putting his hand on his shoulder.

The door flung open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, hitting his head on the headboard in his haste to put distance between himself and Logan.

“Fuck,” Virgil hissed, the sharp pain almost distracting him from his mortification. Almost.

“Roman! You need to knock!” Logan yelled.

“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.

“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as possible.

“You were both in here. It’s not like one of you was going to be naked,” Roman said flippantly.

Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life.

There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on the other two’s faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”

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Folds in Time Universe Master Post

They arrived at the coffee shop after a short walk. It was a cute little location with very early 21st century décor. There were falling apart board games on a bookshelf and a few magazines left on the table in front of an older looking couch. The lights were slightly dimmer than most places would have them, making how close one sat to the window important to getting the lighting one wanted. There were also fairy lights and little signs with inspirational quotes sitting on every free shelf.

Logan ordered a coffee from the barista with a few extra expresso shots. It was… probably more caffeine than a man who was banned from caffeine should have, but honestly, who was Virgil to judge? Virgil ended up ordering the same thing (minus the expresso shots). Then, they ordered a couple of pastries to eat, which Virgil could already tell were way too sweet for breakfast. Oh, 21st century America, Virgil thought to himself with a smile.

Logan seemed to catch the smile. He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head. Virgil shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he said. Just casually judging your entire time and country.

Logan didn’t question him more, getting distracted as his phone chimed with a text. He probably didn’t notice the fond smile on his own face that he sent the phone as he typed and answer. “I told them I’m showing you the town a bit,” he informed Virgil. “Which is not technically a lie.”

“Not, technically, no,” Virgil replied, as Logan led him over to one of the tables to sit while they waited for their drinks. Virgil reached forward and grabbed a cinnamon roll. He took a dubious bite and grimaced slightly. It was about what he’d expected.

“What?” Logan asked.

“Oh,” Virgil said. “It’s just that your time has a thing for artificial sweeteners.” He kept his voice down despite being in a far back corner with no one near them.

“My apologies, would you like something else?” Logan asked.

Virgil waved him off. “I’ll acclimate. If I could get used to the 1950s, post war, society-is-getting-used-to-instant-gelatin recipes during my post-doc, I can figure out how to stomach an overly sweet pastry or two.

“You spent time in the 1950s?” Logan asked, doing that thing where he cocked his head slightly to the left again.

“Mmm, not my favorite, but the direct results of World War II are important to study.”

“You spent your time in the United States?” he asked.

“For a bit, but I hopped around a lot and also went to the 60s and 70s. I was basically tracing the evolution of different social issues in the wake of World War II for both the Axis and Allied Powers.”

“An interesting topic,” Logan replied. “I imagine even in the 21st century, I would not have a fully unbiased perspective, especially when it comes to different countries.”

“Oh, you definitely don’t,” Virgil confirmed.

“Perhaps I’ll take a look at your work from then sometime,” he suggested.

“Oh, uh,” Virgil said, and he really shouldn’t be flustered about that. He’s gone to conferences and presented his work before. “Yeah, if you want. It’s a bit older and from when I was less experienced, but I mean…”

“I’m sure it’s still exceptional.”

Virgil was saved from the mortifying ordeal of responding to that by the barista calling their names to say their drinks were done. Logan got up to grab them. Get it together, Virgil, he begged himself while shoving another too sweet piece of pastry into his mouth.

Logan set the coffees down on the table in front of them and Virgil took his with a closed mouth smile of thanks, while still chewing on his cinnamon roll.

“So,” Logan began. “More than just escaping the disaster breakfast my roommates had in mind, I would like to perhaps return to the location you arrived at and see if there is anything there that wasn’t picked up on my devices from home. Would you be able to find the location if I get you in the general vicinity of where the farmer’s market was?”

“I don’t always have the best memory,” Virgil said, “but I’ve had a deep-seated fear of being kidnapped since I was a small child, so I could probably lead you there blindfolded.”

“Ah.”

“My mom let me watch a horror movie when I was too young,” Virgil tried to explain the odd statement he’d just made, but even as he spoke he was certain he was making it worse. “It was about a boy my age being kidnapped and taken to the middle of a desert to be hunted like an animal. He had no idea what direction home was and didn’t know where to go. After watching it, I used to spend any ride in any vehicle trying to memorize the path we took with my eyes closed.”

“I see.”

“And, I’m really oversharing for having met you in person less than 24 hours ago, aren’t I?”

Logan’s eyebrows crinkled. “Are you?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah, I think so.” Virgil said. “Traumatic childhood memories might be a bit much for the first… friendly coffee… get together.”

“I have never been the best at being aware of social norms,” Logan said. “Would you like me to share an uncomfortable childhood memory with you in return?”

“I,” Virgil said. “Can’t tell if you’re joking.”

“I am a bit,” Logan said with a small smile, “but if it would make you feel more comfortable, I am willing to do so. We might not have known each other in person for very long, but we aren’t exactly strangers.”

And that was true. Lo had been emailing him for months at this point. They’d argued about the correct order to watch a television show in, they’d watched videos together with Lo logging onto Virgil’s desktop (promising not to dive into his search history and private files), and Lo had somehow attended all of his publicly streamed lectures without getting caught by the university’s firewall. He’d even managed to make Virgil feel better when he’d had one of his bad days by ranting for hours about airplanes.

He hadn’t known Logan’s face for very long, but they still did know each other.

“I got distracted on a fieldtrip once,” Logan said, and, oops, Virgil had taken too long to say, ‘you don’t have to be emotionally vulnerable in a coffee shop to make me feel better’ and now it was too late.

“Somehow, despite the fact that my teacher really should have been taking attendance before allowing the bus to leave the orchard we were visiting, they managed to overlook my absence. I had no friends in the class, and I was so quiet at that age no one noticed me not being there. I couldn’t find my way back to the entrance or find any workers. No one was aware I was gone until my parents came to pick me up and no one could find me. My parents were very unhappy with the teacher even after managing to find me. That experience, along with others in my formative years gave me a dislike of being ignored, which combined with my innate desire to have time alone has made friendships difficult to sustain.”

“Oh,” Virgil said, unsure how to respond. “Er, well, that sucks.” He winced at his own awkwardness.

“Luckily, Patton is hyperempathetic and Roman cannot be removed from a person he deems his friend with a crowbar,” he said, “which helped me as a child once I met them. As an adult, I am aware of my shortcomings in that regard and am able to work through any issues I’m having with logic most of the time.”

“What do you think about someone who is so anxious he can’t ignore anything, especially a person?”

“I think that would be someone worth knowing,” Logan said. He paused. “Though I would not wish social anxiety onto a person, to be clear.”

“Thanks for the clarification,” said Virgil, amused.

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes then. It was still a bit awkward but not completely uncomfortable.

Logan took a bite of his pastry and spoke once he’d swallowed it. “Tell me more about what your plans were with your research before they were disrupted,” he requested, breaking the silence. “Why 2005 in particular? What had you planned to do? How long were you going to stay?”

Virgil smiled and drank his coffee as he did a short rundown of what his plans had been before they were interrupted by time travel shenanigans.

Logan listened careful and even though it sucked that Virgil had been stranded in a time he hadn’t even meant to visit, he wasn’t all too upset about it for a moment.

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Folds in Time Universe Master Post