Logan, after reading over what Virgil sent them, was willing to give the Ghost Box thing a try. The theories on ghosts were fascinating and he was childishly excited over the idea of being able to talk to their invisible stalker, even if it seemed to not like him when they first moved in. If this ghost really was this Remus kid, then the dislike made sense. Remus lived with his unnamed twin and abusive father, the fact a teen not much older than he was when he disappeared and a single father moving in may have been what made the ghost more active than he was in the past. Logan is in no way like Remus’s father, he’d rather die than harm Dee like that, but the situation may have been enough to give the ghost more situational awareness.
“Dad” Dee snaps Logan out of his thoughts, “Can we make popcorn? Virgil set up the ghost radio and is now picking out a movie in case the ghost doesn’t want to talk. They seem to think if the ghost is too shy to talk about themselves, maybe we could ask what it thought of the movie instead.”
“There is logic behind that idea, I suppose.” Logan hums in amusement before frowning as there’s a knock on the front door. No one in the house was particularly social and Virgil’s parents are borderline abusive from what Logan’s seen (Social Services would be called in an instant when they finally cross the line, but for now, Logan contents himself with the fact Virgil knows this is a safe place to escape when they need it) so Logan has no idea who might be at the door.
‘ Only one way to find out’ Logan gets up with a disgruntled sigh, only to realize Dee beat him to the punch and was already opening the door.
“Oh!” Came a semi-startled androgynous voice before it warms, which is much better than most who see Dee’s scarred face for the first time “Hello, sorry to bother you. Is one of your parents home?”
Dee just looks at Logan before stepping out of the way with a lazy, “Yeah.”
Logan rolls his eyes fondly before stepping into the doorway, only to have his brain short circuit at the sight of the Very pretty man standing nervously on the doorstep. Much to Logan’s relief, the man seems to be just think Logan is one of those tall, dark, and silent type and isn’t having gay panic. when Logan takes too long to speak and startles rambling out why he’s there.
“I’m sorry to bother you and your family. I have a weird request. Could I possibly walk about your house? Wait! That sounds weird! I-um, How do I put this? I used to live here with my brother and father and a lot of bad stuff happened and my therapist thinks visiting the place everything happened would help me heal from some of the traum-” He’s abruptly cut off by Virgil shoving Logan out of the way and shouting in excitement.
“Virgil.” Logan gives the teen a chastising look as he straighten, but catches their guest’s shocked wide eyes.
“Wha-what?” Shock fades to aggression, “ How Do You Know That Name?”
Logan takes control of the situation, watching the man, “They were looking into the history of the house and came across the police report about your missing brother and abusive father.”
Aggression turns to grief in a flash, “What an odd thing to be interested in, but I guess you know a good deal about what happened then. I honestly never wanted to see this house again, but the good Doctor said it’d help to see it again and see it in a different light.”
“I can see how that could hold some merit. I agree to let you walk through the house, but only with one of us with you, as you are a stranger.” Logan fights to not blush at the smile of pure sunshine that gets aimed at him in response before the stranger gets flustered again.
“Oh, gosh, I never introduced myself. Where are my manners today?” The man straightens and somehow gives off a Disney prince vibe as he extends his hand while smiling, “I’m Roman Sanders.”
“Logan Love, the two teens are my son, Dee and his friend Virgil. Dee and I use he/him pronouns while Virgil uses they/them.” Logan says and takes Roman’s hand for a hand shake, only for Roman to, instead, kiss the back of his hand. Logan can hear the teens snickering at his bright red face.
“Pleasure to meet you all” Roman beams, “I use he/him pronouns!”
Dee instantly decides he likes this guy and lightly grabs his wrist and pulls him in, “I’ll show you around while dad reboots his brain, I wanna know how the house was when you lived here.”
Roman blinks, but rolls with it, appreciating that the way Dee is holding his wrist makes it easy to escape if he feels the need. Especially as he realizes he’s the shortest one there, being at least half a foot shorter than the next shortest person, Virgil, and a near foot and a half shorter than Logan. He tells them some of the happier tales he has to tell about each room, they all mostly involve the two brothers being home alone and goofing off. The teens share some of their own goofy stories with Logan adding something here or there. They also get off topic, talking about jobs and hobbies, which reveals Roman to be from out of town. The oddly prince-like man bonds with the small family pretty easily and is invited to dinner by the time they go upstairs, which took longer than it should have.
“I’m hesitant to go up there.” Roman admits when they get halfway up the staircase, sorrow suddenly heavy in his voice, “The last I saw my brother was in his room and we had had some stupid fight. Something dumb that I can’t quite remember, but I stormed off and then he was gone when I got back...”
“You can take your time. If you need to come back at a later date, then we can do that. Let me give you my number before you leave.” Logan says patiently, ignoring the snickering teens mumbling about that being the “only reason” for the number exchange. Logan just takes it as their way to distract themselves from the terribleness of the situation.
“Thanks... I appreciate it. I’d like to try to at least visit Remus’s old room, even if I do end up ugly crying.” Roman lightly smiles at Logan, but is too in thought to notice the teens are near silently making fun of Logan’s obvious interest and his own obviousness.
“Alright...” Roman gives a few more funny stories when they enter his old room , now Dee’s room, and just kind of shrugs when they enter his father’s old room, now Logan’s room, explaining he’s never really been in there, Remus was the one who’d sneak in if they needed something in there. The guest room is where thing got interesting, it used to be Remus’s room and when Roman finally started crying in the middle of explaining the mess Remus kept his room in , a light bulb exploded. Startling them all, as there’s no reason why it should have exploded like that, but it seems their ghost was done being quiet because the guest bed’s blanket then wrapped around Roman and other stuff got thrown around. No one got hurt, just freaked out and once everything stopped moving, both Virgil and Roman looked faint, neither having experienced a haunting before.
“I may have neglected the reason Virgil looked into the history of the house is because we appear to have a ghost.” Logan says calmly, still a little pale from the shock.
“A What!?” Roman looks terrified as he removes the blanket, finding no reason for the blanket to have attacked him.
“Why don’t we go to the kitchen? It’s about time I started dinner and I think a hot comfort drink is in order. Do you prefer hot chocolate, tea, or coffee?” Logan just sounds tired, which has Roman sputtering. The sputtering turns into an indignant squeak as the ghost ruffles his hair and the static electricity makes his golden hair stand up.
“He likes you.” Dee muses before demanding hot chocolate and dragging a shell shocked Virgil out of the room with him. Logan just rolls his eyes before focusing on the tiny man flattening his hair and grumbling.
“I’ll explain more in the kitchen when we have our drinks.” Roman gives up on flattening his hair to eye Logan, slightly intimidated to be in the room alone with the tall man, but refusing to be meek like he once was.
“We should.” Logan hums and leads the way to the kitchen, where he see one of the teens turned on the kettle and so he just starts pulling of ingredients, “Any food allergies?”
“Shellfish.” Roman says, fidgeting because he doesn’t know what to do with himself before ultimately just taking a seat at the table nearby.
“Noted.” Logan starts preparing things for a mild curry and chicken with rice, “Now, I’ll tell you about some of the things that have happened since Dee and I moved in.”
Logan talks about the strange things that were small at first and slightly more malicious where he’s involved before they toned down, only for the ghost to take out a burglar one night and become active again. He only paused one moment to make and hand out the different drinks, hot chocolate for Dee, sweetened earl grey for Roman, sugary coffee with cream for Virgil, and a cup of coffee with a little cream for Logan himself and note that the weather turned at some point and it was now raining.
“That was one of the biggest out bursts we’ve seen so far. Makes our theory seem even more plausible.” Logan says sipping his coffee while pausing for the curry to thicken and chicken to finish baking.
“Theory?” Roman asks mentally chewing on everything he’s heard and fiddling with his empty cup.
“We have reason to believe our ghost may be your brother. I let the kids get a spirit box to try to talk to him, they were planning to do that when you showed up.” Logan eyed Roman a moment, “You can stay for that after dinner if you want.”
“If it’s alright with you, I think I need to think about everything first, if that alright with you” Was all Roman said before his face met the table.
“Of course, I’ll tell you if the kids get him to say anything”
“Thanks... I appreciate it.”
“Not a problem. Now dinner is almost ready, eat as much as you like.”
