Inspired by this post. Also, check out this version of events by tinysidestrashcaptain. Sincerest thanks to romananalogicality for the idea, it’s a lot of fun, even if it did grow beyond what I thought it would be.
Author’s Note: So, I know some readers have expressed distress over cliff-hangers, so I tried to be nicer this chapter (spoiler, it didn’t work too well)
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Roman rose back into the living room of the mind-scape 45 minutes later. It had taken a while to relay everything that had happened in the last 22 hours or so to Thomas. And of course, Thomas had questions and concerns, with Roman not always able to give an answer. Would the fact that Virgil had aged faster give him a more power of Thomas's emotions? Why were they aging at different rates? What the heck did that sorcerer mean? Given the power of the potion on Thomas's state of mind, was the morally-ambiguous sorcerer a side of Thomas?
Roman had been thrown by that question, and honestly, he wasn't sure of the answer. They weren't a side the way Logan, Virgil, Patton, and he were. For one, they didn't seem to have their own room, but they could and did manipulate Roman's room to some extent. For another thing, they didn't look like Thomas and didn't identify as male like the rest of the sides did. They also hadn't introduced them self as an aspect of Thomas's personality, actually, they hadn't introduced them self at all.
Roman was drawn back to the present and away from that troubling question by a crash and a cry from the kitchen. Imagining the worst possible scenarios, Roman rushed into the kitchen and was caught completely off-guard by the sight that met him.
Logan was sitting at a child-sized table with a plate of eggs, pancakes, and tangerine slices in front of him and a plastic cup of milk. Virgil was next to the stove, holding Patton on his hip with one arm and sucking on the fingers of his other hand. There was a pan on the floor in front of the stove, surprisingly upright and containing what little of the scrambled eggs hadn't sprayed everywhere upon impact.
Roman froze, it was... not what he'd been expecting at all. There were no broken dishes, no blood, no crying. Virgil had cooked. Virgil was looking out for them. Virgil was burned. He figuratively shook himself from his stupor and moved forward, carefully avoiding the eggy mess on the floor and reaching for Patton.
“I'll hold him, go run your fingers under cold water.”
Patton, who had his little arms latched around Virgil's neck, looked between them, making no move to let go.
“It's fine,” Virgil took his fingers out of his mouth and moved past Roman towards the sink, still holding Patton, “sorry I made a mess. I'll clean it up in a sec.”
Roman felt a little twinge of something heavy and disconcerting. “No, don't worry about it. I'll clean this up and finish breakfast.”
Roman carefully picked up the pan by the coolest part of the handle and set it back on the stove. He grabbed some paper towels off the counter and moved back to the floor to clean up the spilled egg. A glance towards the sink showed Virgil tensing up and Patton rubbing the back of his neck with a tiny hand. A peek at the small table (Virgil must have made that), saw Logan glancing back and forth between Roman and Virgil, a forgotten bit of pancake on a fork half-way to his mouth.
“Thank you, Verge,” Roman thought the nickname suited the teenager better than Virgil, “for making breakfast.” He paused, knowing he needed to say something else but unsure how to word it. “You did good.”
Roman saw the tension drain out of Virgil out of the corner of his eye.
“No problem,” it sounded a little choked, but when Virgil turned off the faucet and turned around his face was set in its customary little scowl again.
Roman nodded and finished cleaning up the egg-mess, dropping the paper towels in the trash.
“Have you and Patton eaten yet?”
Virgil nodded and Patton piped up, “Yeah! Vigil made me Mickey pancake, and Vigil had box shapes.” Patton pointed to a box of Lucky Charms with a piece of paper with the letters U N in front of the name on the counter.
Roman stifled a chuckle, “What about you, Logan? You still hungry?”
Logan put down his fork on his mostly clean plate and wiped his mouth with a little napkin. “I'm full, thank you.”
Roman raised a questioning eyebrow at Virgil. Virgil didn't even like eggs.
The teen shrugged. “That was for you.”
Roman had to restrain himself from launching forward and hugging Virgil like a grown-up Patton, satisfying himself instead with a wide grin and resting his hand on Virgil's shoulder. “Thanks, kiddo.”
Rolling his eyes, Verge brushed off the hand and walked out of the kitchen, not quite hiding the smile creeping over his lips.
Tiny Side Adventures is taking longer than anticipated. Sorry folks. To those who have asked to be tagged, your request has been noted and I will add you to the next installment. If you have asked to be tagged and do not get tagged in the next installment, please remind me and I will fix it.
Thank you so much for following me and for being patient with delays. Things off of tumblr are getting a bit... intense. I will do my best to get more original content, including more Tiny Side Adventures up soon.
