Chapter Text
It started when Thomas realized he’d need to get a small medical procedure done. He wouldn’t need anesthetic, but he was nervous enough that the doctors prescribed him with some anxiety medication to help him relax.
He talked to his sides, who were all supportive and down for whatever he needed to do. The procedure was needed, and taking something to ease his fears was perfectly fine.
Expect for Virgil. He’s literally Anxiety, can you blame him? He agreed with the others, and genuinely meant it when he told Thomas to go ahead with it. But he can’t help but be nervous, it’s his entire function! What if something went wrong. Nico is taking Thomas so he can drive him home, what if Thomas is so out of it he says something that offends Nico? or worse, Thomas embarrasses himself and Nico leaves him.
There were many ways this could go wrong, but he knew logically (thanks Logan) that this was a good thing. But when did Virgil ever listen to Logic?
“All I’m saying is, we need to be prepared to keep Thomas is check!” Virgil said, moving his arms around for emphasis. They were all sitting in the mind palace living room, trying to help Virgil relax.
Logan placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “I assure you, he will be fine. I have researched the medication and it won’t be anything too strong. Just enough to relax him.”
Virgil leaned back onto the couch, covering his face with his hands. “I know,” he said with a groan, “but listen. If he’s not 100% alert, something could go wrong!”
“That’s why the ever fair Nico is coming to help him!” Roman added. He sighed dreamily. “He’s like a knight in shining armor!”
“But thats exactly my point!” Virgil was standing now. “Nico is like, highest on the list of people we don’t want Thomas to embarrass himself in front of!”
Now it was Patton’s turn to provide some comfort. He gently helped the anxious side sit back down. “That’s a valid point, but not fair to Nico. He’s a good guy, and wouldn’t be mean to Thomas.”
“Exactly,” Logan added. “We have yet to see any behavior indicating him to have malicious intent. So far he has been kind to Thomas in every situation. Even when Thomas got drunk, which is similar to this situation in a way.” Virgil still sighed, so Logan continued. “Your anxiety is valid, and I appreciate you looking out for Thomas in a time of lowered defenses. But I assure you, he has someone with him who loves him and wants the best for him, just like you do. Like we all do.”
Virgil gave a tired smile. “Ok fine, I get it. Thanks guys.”
Roman clasped his shoulders from behind. “Of course you knight-mare in emo armor! Now, let’s do something fun and distracting!” He pulled out a clue board game from thin air. “Professor Plum is calling your name!” He said enticingly.
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They played for around an hour, popping in to help Thomas every now and then when called. The appointment wasn’t for another hour, so they played a game to keep Virgil from ruminating. Waiting was one of the hardest parts.
Finally, Nico arrived at Thomas’ house. Taking that as his cue, Thomas swallowed the anxiety medication. They left the house, and all that was left to do was wait for it to kick in.
30 minutes into their next round of Clue, Virgil started to feel…..off. He always felt off, but this was different. His usual “off” feeling was one of impending doom. Right now he felt ok. Which was not normal for him. But, he needed to find a way to accuse Roman of killing Mr. Boddy, so he shook it off.
10 minutes later, the feeling continued to grow.
“Hey Virge…you ok buddy?” Patton asked, concerned at Virgil’s dazed look and lack of sarcastic comments.
Virgil’s head popped up at the mention of his name. He looked at Patton, but didn’t really register who he was looking at. “Hm? Oh, yah im chill”, he said sluggishly.
Patton turned to look at the others, who just shrugged. “Alrighty, if you say so. It's your turn!”
Virgil stared at the board. Had the rooms always looked so…funny? Besides, how could you kill a guy with a pipe and hide it. This game was weird.
“Virgil..?” Roman asked, nudging the anxious side.
Virgil jumped in his seat. “Im up!” he said, louder than necessary.
“Are you sure you’re ok? You’re not usually this, how should I put this, relaxed? You’re usually...” Roman swept his hair over his eyes and hunched his shoulders, “ ‘oh everything is wrong and the world is out to get us! Hide!’”
Virgil stared at him with wide eyes before laughing. He covered his mouth with a sleeved hand, but it did little to muffle the giggles coming from him.
Romans eyebrows shot up in surprise, as well as Patton’s. Logan continued to stare at Virgil, like he was an experiment he just couldn’t figure out.
“Ok there is definitely something wrong with him.” Roman deadpanned. Virgil continued his laughter, quieter now but still filling the room. At some point, Patton started giggling alongside him.
“I don’t know, I think this is fun!” Patton said through laughs. Virgil nodded and lazily leaned against Patton’s side.
“Yea, what ‘e said.” Virgil slurred.
Patton stared down at him, laughter abruptly stopped. “Ok now I’m worried.”
Logan clapped his hands together, scaring the others. Expect Virgil, who slowly clapped his hands as well, then rested back on Patton’s side. “Ive got it. Virgil is perfectly fine!” Logan concluded.
Patton and Roman stared at him like he had three heads.
“This”, Roman said, waving his hands at the strange sight, “is not perfectly fine. The man has gone insane, he hasn’t mentioned anything anxiety inducing in the past half hour!”
“Precisely,” Logan said. “We were so focused on how Thomas would react to the medication, we forgot to think about how his literal anxiety would react. Of course Virgil would be affected, I cant believe I didn’t think of that.” He lightly hit his forehead. “I assure you, Virgil is fine. He is just calming down due to the effects of the medication, and will be back to normal within a few hours.”
The others nodded, glancing at the aforementioned side.
Virgil gave a lazy grin and thumbs up. “Wicked.” He said.
Roman let out a laugh. “OK, so we basically just have to trip-sit him? This is hilarious.”
Patton wrapped an arm around Virgil, who leaned into the touch. “This is not hilarious Roman,” he said sternly. He turned his head to Virgil and smiled wide. “This is the best day of my life!”
Logan sighed. As usual, he would have to be the level-headed one here. Probably why Virgil calls him ‘the mom friend’ so much. Speaking of Virgil, he was now laying on Patton’s lap and playing with the sleeves of his cardigan.
“Have these always been so soft,” Virgil asked.
Patton laughed and turned to Logan. “Logan, I am begging you to go get my camera,” he said through chuckles. Logan rolled his eyes but obliged.
When he came back, the scene changed. Apparently, Patton offered to make some cookies and Virgil insisted on helping. His dazed version of helping included sitting on the counter throwing chocolate chips at Roman, who in turn tried to catch them in his mouth.
Roman finally caught one after what seemed to be a large number of attempts based on the wasted chips on the ground. “Score!” He cheered loudly as he caught one.
Virgil laughed and cheered as well, while Patton smiled. Logan took a picture with Patton’s camera, knowing the fatherly side would appreciate it.
After a few more chocolate chips fell to the floor, Patton decided that was enough. “Virgil, could you stir this for me? I need to start making some icing!” Patton asked. Virgil nodded his head and flexed his fingers in the direction of the bowl.
“Dude, ive so got this. Im like….the best at this.” Virgil slurred. Roman gasped.
“Excuse you, but I’ll have you know that Patton said I am the best at helping in the kitchen!” He argued playfully.
Virgil stuck out his tongue and stirred the dough while Roman pouted. Logan made his way to the kitchen table so he could keep an eye on Virgil from a distance.
After a while, Virgil started to laugh again.
“What’s so funny, you jack-o-lantern?” Roman asked. Logan gave a confused look at the nickname. “It’s because jack-o-lanterns smile and are for halloween, it matches!” he said defensively.
Virgil continued to laugh, not answering his question. After a few more annoyed princey sounds, Virgil shrugged his shaking shoulders. “Dude, I have no idea,” he said still smiling.
Roman looked from him to Logan, who shrugged his shoulders. Apparently, loopy Virgil thought everything was funny. Which was strange, but not an unwelcome change. They continued to all move around the kitchen, stirring and piping icing.
After a while, a strange smell hit their noses.
Logan sniffed the air, furrowing his brows. Was that…
“SMOKE!” Patton screeched, running to the oven. Roman summoned a fire extinguisher to put out the small flame inside it. Logan stood up so fast he knocked his chair over.
Foam went everywhere, but did its job as the fire died out. Finally, Patton pulled out a tray with withered cookies, black and crisp. The only icing they’d wear would be the fire extinguishers foam.
After the chaos subsided, everyone was huffing and tense. Except Virgil. He had stayed off to the side. He was sitting on the table, icing some of the cookies already baked. He looked up at the commotion, and just shrugged. He stuck his tongue out and continued icing.
The others stared at him in shock. It was like he barely registered what was happening.
“Patton, please explain to me why that happened?” Logan asked, more shaken than angry.
Patton raised his hands in defense. “I don’t know! Ive never left cookies in the oven! Virgil always-“ He started, but paused. The other motioned for him to continue, but Patton stared at Virgil. “I guess I didn’t realize it, but Virgil always made sure I was safe in the kitchen. He’d remind me about my timers and what was in the oven, because I’d always get a bit lost after baking for a while.”
Logan sighed, but nodded. “That makes sense. Being anxiety, he’s always hyper vigilant. Even when we don’t think there’s a threat.”
Roman bounded over to the anxious side, checking on him. But he seemed fine. Usually after an event like this, he’d be jittery and wide eyed. Even snappish to Roman. But this version of Virgil just stared up at him with a dazed look and lopsided smile. While it was funny at first, now it was just strange. Roman took a cookie and bit into it. “Hey, these turned out good!”
Patton gave a half-hearted smile. “Thanks kiddo, I think those’ll be the last ones we make today.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Aw come on, it was just a lil fire. Cavemen loved that stuff!” Virgil said, still focused on icing the treats. He licked some of the icing off of his fingers.
Ok, now Roman was seriously weirded out. He thought he’d like Virgil to be more laid back, but this was uncanny valley levels of weird. It was like if Virgil suddenly disappeared, and his doppelgänger was a grooved out hippie. Roman shook his head. “Hows’about we watch a movie! We haven’t watched ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ in a good while!”
Virgil immediately perked up, eyes shining. “Aw yusss I love that movie!”
“I know you do Jack Smellington, thats why I suggested it!” Roman said, lightly tapping Virgil’s nose. The other scrunched his face up like a cat at the touch. Ok, maybe this had some perks.
As Patton and Logan cleaned up the kitchen, Roman led Virgil to the couch. He sat in his usual seat, expecting Virgil to do the same and climb onto the back of the couch. Instead, Virgil plopped himself right next to the prince, and rested his head on his shoulder. Roman stiffened at the touch, but slowly relaxed. He lifted his arm to lay over Virgil’s shoulder, trying to get more comfortable. The anxious side hummed in response, leaning closer into the warmth.
“You’re surprisingly clingy when you’re sick.” Roman said.
Virgil lightly hit Roman’s face. “Nah, you’re jus’ warm.”
Roman huffed out a laugh. “Alright, but I’m definitely using this for blackmail.” He took out his phone and took a selfie with the sleepy side. Virgil put up a peace sign and lopsided smile.
“Whutevr,” Virgil slurred.
Patton and Logan finally entered the living room, the latter working on setting up the movie. When Virgil saw Patton, he immediately raised his arms to reach for the man. Patton laughed and obliged, sitting on Virgil’s free side.
Patton whispered over his head to Roman, “This is the greatest moment of my life,” he quietly squealed. Logan turned and smiled, taking another photo.
After finishing setting everything up, Logan moved to sit on the far side of the couch. Virgil, having none of that, sat up to pull him into the pile.
Logan landed on Pattons opposite side with a grunt. He stared at the anxious side, who just smiled and turned back to the movie. Logan felt a smile tugging at his lips as well, and proceeded to get comfortable.
After a while into the movie, Patton turned to look around at his family. Roman was quietly singing along with the songs, Logan was tapping his foot to the beat, and Virgil…
His eyeshadow was a light purple.
Patton had to use every ounce of willpower to not scream. Logan noticed him biting his lip, and turned to see what was wrong. But it was just Virgil, calmly watching the movie, purple dusting his cheeks. He smiled as well, and took another photo.
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Logan woke up from his short nap, and realized the credits had begun to roll. He turned and was met with two sleeping sides, leaning on each other for support. Patton’s glasses were askew, and Roman’’s hair was a mess, but he decided not to wake them. He leaned back, thinking of falling back asleep, before he realized something. It was only Patton and Roman.
Where did Virgil go?
Logan immediately shot up, waking the other two.
“Cool it specs, what’s so wrong with us napping..?” Roman slurred, rubbing his eyes.
Patton yawned and his hand went to shake Virgil awake, but his hand only met air. “WHERE IS MY CHILD.” Paton shot up, cartoonishly looking around the room.
Roman was fully awake now, his eyes darting around the room. Patton was frantically looking in every hiding spot he could think of, while Logan was staring off into the distance, probably using his brain to deduce where Virgil would go. Roman on the other hand preferred a different method.
“VIRGIL!” He yelled, making the other two jump. They glared at him, and he shrugged. “What? We’re working on the clock people! A ditzy anxiety who cant even comprehend fire is dangerous is not one to be left alone!”
Patton’s face fell even more. “Oh gosh, how long has he been gone?”
Logan set a hand on his shoulder. “Do not fret, Patton. We’ll find him.” He tried to assure his friend, but it fell on deaf ears.
While they spoke, Roman looked around seriously now. He smelled something too. Something….weird. Was that…..
Oh crap.
“Guys. I think I know where Virgil is.” Roman said gravely. The others turned to him, and followed his gaze.
Their eyes met a small object on the floor. Deodorant. One with a bite taken out of it.