#patton sander

“You’d swear we were transporting nuclear weaponry,” Virgil muttered out of the side of his mouth.

“He gets nervous,” Patton said, looking at Logan with an expression so fond it was gross. “It’s his way to show love.”

Logan was currently running through his list one last time while peering into the back of the SUV. He had a clipboard and everything.

“We should get him a little hat,” Virgil suggested.

“A hat?” Patton asked.

“An orange one that looks official except it says something silly like ‘Bullshit inspector.’”

Patton giggled, bumping their shoulder together where they sat on the front step. Despite being willing to lightly make fun of Logan with him, he was also showing his distress about Virgil moving out via being clingy. He’d sidled up to Virgil to watch the organizational circus and was currently gripping both of his hands.

Virgil glanced at his watch. “At least he has a time limit,” he said. They were set to leave at exactly 7:05am according to the schedule Logan had handed out the other day.

“Mhmm,” Patton agreed, hugging him. Patton was already a bit teary eyed. This was going to be a long day.

Finally, after a few more minutes, Logan closed the trunk of the car for the last time.

“Alright,” he said. “Ready to go?”

“We’ve been ready for an hour, Dad,” Virgil said.

“Good,” Logan said without a blink. “It’s best to be prepared on important days.”

Virgil just rolled his eyes and got in the car.

It wasn’t that long of a drive, though it was a bit longer than it usually would be considering there were a lot more cars due to it being the freshman move in day. They pulled into the line of cars already forming outside the dorm.

Virgil was surprised by the efficiency of what was going on outside. He’d always thought move-in would be a clusterfuck, but he half wondered if someone had asked Logan to organize the move-in days years ago. People in bright yellow shirts, directed them to pull the car into a spot close to the door and already had a cart waiting to load his bags onto. Patton and Virgil unloaded the car quickly and then one of the yellow shirt’s instructed Logan to park in a designated area while Patton and Virgil headed inside. Logan’s car was almost instantly replaced once he pulled away.

A girl with the same yellow shirt and a clipboard told him to get his keys from his RAs who would be waiting on his floor. Then, they were ushered straight to the elevators with another family. They were going to the 12th floor while Virgil and Patton were going to the 7th.

Once on the correct floor, Virgil found his RA in the student lounge. He was a junior boy a couple of inches taller than Logan named Matt. By the time he’d been given his key, a little postcard of first week activities that mostly started that evening, and a spiel about making sure to attend the floor activity that night once everyone was moved in where they’d sign ‘contracts’ with their roommates, Logan was already back from parking the car.

Things went… surprisingly quickly after that. Well, maybe it shouldn’t have felt surprising since Logan had basically invented the most efficient algorithm for this day, but… They’d pretty much gotten everything unpacked and put up how Virgil wanted it within a couple of hours. Patton had insisted on making Virgil’s bed for him (despite this being difficult as Virgil had decided to loft his bed) and had topped it with the quilt he’d made him.

His new roommate, Jeremy, had arrived only about 15 minutes after Virgil, but his family seemed a whole lot less efficient, so it’d probably take them a lot longer to get everything put away.

“So…” Virgil eventually said when it was clear there really wasn’t anything more for them to do in the room but get in the way. “Er…um.”

“Why don’t we go grab lunch,” Logan suggested, and Virgil felt something loosen in his chest at that.

“Nachos?” Virgil asked.

Logan sighed. “McElroy's is going to be so busy today,” he bemoaned, “but fine. We can walk to the union.”

Logan was right, of course. The line in the restaurant was almost outside its doors, and it had just opened. However, it was only going to get worse according to Logan. They were lucky to get a table even then.

Virgil must have made some sort of expression when the food was set down in front of him, because Patton fondly said, “You and your nachos.”

“They’re the only reason I’m going to university,” Virgil declared, pointing one of said cheese and beef covered chips at him before popping it in his mouth.

Patton laughed and Logan rolled his eyes, and for the rest of the meal it just felt like they were having a normal family meal at a restaurant. (Well, other than the line that was growing larger and larger a few feet away until it eventually spilled out into the student union.)

They managed to escape the student union just as it started to get busier and busier with people desperately trying to snag lunch, get their student IDs last minute, and pick up their textbooks from the giftshop.

“You know where my office is from here?” Logan asked when they were standing outside the door to the dorm once again.

Virgil rolled his eyes with a smile. “Yes, Logan. I’ve spent 3 entire summers on this campus.”

“Right,” Logan said, “Yes, of course, I…” He trailed off for a moment and Virgil’s eyes widened.

“Are you crying?” he asked, horrified. “You can’t! If you cry, I’ll definitely cry, and I have a roommate and a bunch of other freshmen to empress with my emo image.”

Logan just shook his head at him, lips pursed and tears on his cheeks and pulled him into a tight hug. Virgil saw Patton over Logan’s shoulder who was not crying for once; he seemed too amused to cry at the moment. Patton smiled at Virgil and Virgil shoved his face into Logan’s chest, trying to wipe off his own tears before they fucked up his face.

He felt Patton’s arms wrap around the both of them. A kiss was pressed to the side of Virgil’s head and then to Logan’s.

“You’re both ruining my image on my first day,” Virgil said through tears and hugging Logan tighter.

“I’m ruining my own image too,” Logan said into his hair. “I can see a group of sophomores that were my students last year looking at us.”

Virgil laughed and reluctantly pulled himself away. “Thank you,” he said softly. He wasn’t just talking about helping him move in today.

“We’ll be right across town anytime you need anything,” Patton promised, gently pulling Logan away. “Now go have fun. I hear they’re having a cookout on the quad tonight for new students. Make sure to snag yourself a hamburger.”

“I will,” Virgil said. “I love you both.”

“We love you too,” said Patton and Logan nodded because he was still too busy crying.

And with that, Virgil managed to make himself turn away and walk into his new home.

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Labeled Master Post.