I got busy, so this is a bit late but such is life! Enjoy Virgil suffering a little! @anaroceitweek
Masterpost | Anaroceit Week 2026 Masterpost | Ao3
Summary: Virgil kind of regrets dating royalty…
Content Warnings: None
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"Wait, which knife do I use again?" Virgil asked, his voice high from stress.
"You always take the outmost one and work inwards," Janus replied calmly, taking a bite of his steak with perfect poise.
"Take a deep breath, my darling knight, it's alright," Roman then reassured Virgil as the man buried his head in his hands.
"I can't do this! I'm not cut out for court, I can fight, I can protect you guys, but this manners thing? Not happening!"
"Did you hear that, love?" Janus gasped in overplayed delight. "He called us 'guys', we're getting somewhere!" Virgil groaned in response, pressing the palms of his hands harder into his face. Roman pat him on the back in support.
"Don't tease him about it, dear. You're making him self-conscious again," he scolded Janus. "I can understand that the difference of our statuses is pressure to him and I fully support him taking his time to get comfortable with us!"
"As am I! I was simply acknowledging the progress he's made!"
"In a mocking manner, of course he wouldn't take it seriously!"
"I was perfectly serious about it!"
"Would you stop talking like I'm not here!" Virgil complained which got both Janus and Roman to shut up. "Look, I'm thankful that you want to support me and have me join you in court and all that but I really don't like this whole thing."
"We understand that, darling, but we're not going to hide you away like some shameful thing! You're our lover and you will be treated with the respect you should receive," Janus argued.
"Exactly. We really want to stand by you, Virgil," Roman promised, kneeling down next to Virgil and grasping his hand in his. "May we?"
Virgil and Roman begin their travels together, learning more about each other and facing the dangers of the apocalypse together.
Near death experiences only bring people closer.
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| <- Previous | Ao3 | Next -> |
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Warnings: A semi graphic description of Virgil eating two people takes place after 'As soon as Roman was completely unarmed', and there are more related descriptions of blood and gore beyond that point
Notes:
Hiii! I think originally I was going to make these more of a series of oneshots, and then I wrote this chapter and realised it probably flowed better as a multichapter fic, so here we are. I think this fic will encompass Virgil and Roman's journey, and then I'll have a sequel for the rest of my plans <3
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Getting used to travelling with a zombie was pretty high up on Roman's 'top ten most difficult things to get used to' list, It was beaten out by getting used to surviving in the apocalypse, and also easier than getting used to sleeping on the floor and being quiet.
It was hard, but it wasn't impossible. It had been about a week, and at first Roman had thought he would never figure this out. He'd thought at first that the zombie would just follow him and they could be on their way, and then he'd realised it was a lot less simple than that.
His new friend couldn't move very fast, which was number one. Roman would have to stop every so often to let him catch up - especially so if they were travelling over something less level, or going up hill. The going had been so much slower than Roman had been used to, and finding places to camp out and sleep every night when they weren't covering very much ground at all was so much more difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. He was incredibly lucky that the city was practically deserted for the first few days of travel.
Then there was the fact that his zombie friend wasn't quiet.
It's not like he talked or yelled or screamed. It wasn't anything like that, but he made noises like he didn't know he was doing it - and Roman could guess he didn't, since he'd asked him to stop at least seven times by now. Roman didn't think zombies would be attracted to noises made by one of their own, even the brain-dead ones were smarter than that, the problem was just how paranoid it made him.
He'd hear a zombie sound, and his hand would go to his gun or knife before he realised it was just his friend. He feared that if it kept happening, he'd get too complacent and ignore sounds from more threatening zombies.
And then there was the wandering.
Every so often, Roman would realise how quiet it had gotten without his friend’s shuffling feet and turn around to find him gone. He'd spent five minutes to half an hour retracing his steps to look for him, and most of the time he'd be eating some poor animal in an alleyway or just standing around, spaced out until Roman said something.
Starting out, he'd thought that worrying about being eaten in his sleep would be the biggest issue. In actuality, that was one of the easiest things to deal with. After two nights of avoiding such a fate, Roman had found himself much more comfortable to sleep in the presence of his zombie friend. Sometimes he would wake up and he wouldn't be there, and from what Roman had been able to figure out, it seemed zombies didn't need to sleep, so he'd go out and use the time to hunt for small things to eat and sustain himself so he wouldn't feel the urge to attack Roman so strongly. It honestly inspired more confidence in him that his zombie friend wouldn't eventually be using Roman as a snack, if he could hunt small animals instead.
Communication - another issue Roman had expected to be a massive hurdle for them - really hadn't been all that bad. Sure, long, detailed conversations were off the table, but once Roman had figured out the range of movement his friend truly had, they'd been able to come up with some simple signs they could do. Things like yes and no (he could shake and nod his head pretty easily, so those were fine), stay and run (incase of danger) and things like 'quiet', 'come here', 'stay away', and a sign for when there were other zombies nearby. Roman figured they could expand the signed vocabulary later on, or maybe his friend could learn to talk. At the very least, he could understand everything Roman said, so if something more elaborate came up he could usually find a way to convey it for Roman to guess anyway. Call it extreme charades.
So, really, with a few small issues they needed to iron out, it was working. A week into travel, Roman was starting to adjust.
----
"So," Roman said, after Virgil had polished off the emergency can of meat Roman had given him, catching his attention, "You excited to head out of the city?"
Virgil made a noise, acknowledgement, just so Roman knew he'd been heard as he thought about his answer. They'd been travelling for a week, and honestly, Roman wasn't bad company. He'd never admit it out loud though, and not only because he physically couldn't. Roman already seemed to have an ego about him all on his own.
The past week hadn't exactly been without it's bumps. Most of them Virgil's fault, he knew. It had been so long since he'd had to focus on where he was going, rather than wander aimlessly, that it was difficult to stay on track. Sometimes something caught his attention and he'd run off to chase it with little warning. Sometimes Roman would draw a weapon at a noise he'd made and startle him. He'd always put the weapon away afterwards, but Virgil still tensed for a fight every time. He didn't want to kill his only friend in the entire world, but if said friend was actually attacking him, Virgil was going to fight.
He really, really, hoped it didn't come to that.
The worst part of all of this, though, was that Roman had taken to calling him 'Zombie' like that was his name. Virgil would've preferred literally anything else. Even if Roman had picked the name 'Janus' for him it would've been better. But Roman had never asked for his name, and Virgil knew he would struggle to give it.
So he practiced.
He did so whenever he could - usually whenever Roman slept. It not only helped, but it served as a good distraction from Roman's living-human-flesh smell.
"Zombie?"
Back to the topic at hand, Virgil supposed as Roman caught his attention. He hated that the title worked when it so clearly wasn't his name. But was Virgil excited to get out of this city?
He wasn't really attached to it. He'd died here, but not here. Somewhere in the city much farther away from here. Going further than the city limits had always scared Virgil even back when he had been alive.
As for Roman's question... he wasn't really excited. New places meant new dangers, possibly people and even more zombies. But Roman was on a mission, and Virgil couldn't stop him.
The response he decided on was just an odd attempt at a shrug and a little grunt that he'd tried to make sound as much like a 'meh' as he possibly could.
"You don't really care?" Roman asked, tilting his head. Virgil shrugged again, "Oh well - I'm quite excited, it's just one step closer to finding my brother. Now - this is the path out marked on my map. Can you hear anything weird?"
Virgil tilted his head a little, listening for any sounds around here. He couldn't hear anything that indicated zombies or...anything else, really. This whole area was... suspiciously quiet, but Virgil had no way of communicating that, so he just shook his head as best he can and gestured Roman forward.
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"You know, I really don't know much about you," Roman said, leaning back against the wall of the apartment they had ended up camping out in for the night. Virgil made an affirmative noise in response, before shrugging. It was true, Roman knew almost nothing about him, but that was mostly because of Virgil's current inability to communicate. "I would love to have something to call you other than 'zombie' - I mean, that might get quite confusing if I have to yell a warning about other zombies."
Virgil grumbled something in agreement, though he didn't think Roman should be yelling anything when the zombies were mostly attracted to noise.
"So, what I'm asking I guess is whether you have something I can call you?" Roman said, "I don't know if you have a name, or if that would be too hard for you to say?"
He may have been practicing, but that didn't mean he was confident that he really could say it. So far, all he'd managed to get out was a rough 'uur-gll'. It might be shocking, but Virgil didn't really want to be stuck being called uurgll by someone with a full range of sounds.
Would it be better than being called 'Zombie', though? Eventually, Virgil decided that he did want to at least try to communicate some kind of name.
"Uurgll," Virgil said eventually. Roman tilted his head,
"...Uurgll?" Roman asked, Virgil just grunted, waving a hand. "Something like 'uurgll?'"
Virgil nodded.
"Hmm, okay," Roman said, brows furrowing as he tilted his head back in thought, "Does it start with a 'u'?"
Virgil shook his his head, before repeating 'Uurgll'.
"Something harder to say than a u?" Roman asked, Virgil nodded.
By the time Roman actually got it, about an hour had passed and it was way later than he'd intended to sleep. Virgil, at least, felt somewhat satisfied. Now at least he wouldn't have to put up with being called 'zombie' all the time, and Roman got to know something about him.
----
"Okay, so, before I came across you I was working on heading north," Roman explained, trying to keep his voice down as he clambered over some rubble. Once he got to the other side, he turned back to wait for his zombie friend - Virgil - who took significantly longer to climb with a significantly larger amount of difficulty. Once he'd made it, Roman started walking again, "My brother was in Denver for college when the apocalypse started - I mean, I was in college too, but that was down in L.A, I’ve been travelling for quite a while - I stole a moterbike for the first leg of the journey, it was great for the country roads where there weren’t any zombies before it ran out of fuel, then I drove an abandoned RV for a while- but anyway, that's where I've been trying to go this whole time to see if I can find him, you know? No luck yet, obviously, but the country is huge, so-"
Virgil hissed sharply, and Roman stopped talking immediately as his new friend stalked closer, standing in front of Roman like he was guarding and staring off in the direction of... something he must've heard.
He was looking back the way they'd came as they left the city. Here, the buildings weren't as tightly packed, there weren't as many places to hide out here in the suburbs, but that didn't mean something couldn't jump out at them just the same. His zombie friend going on the defensive had Roman pulling out his knives just in case.
Moment's later, Roman found himself being shoved in the opposite direction, by a zombie who was clearly stronger than him.
"Hey- I got it, I got it-" Roman whispered, hurrying along in the direction he'd been prompted until they reached a building, "Here?"
Virgil nodded, shoving him through the mostly in tact but clearly rotting door and down so that he was hidden in the entryway.
Roman moved just enough that he could see through the cracked entryway window just enough to see the gang of humans walk down the street. He looked over at Virgil, who was crouching a little further into the hallway.
"You heard them?" Roman whispered. The zombie gave that jerky nod that Roman knew meant yes.
The group of survivors were clearly well armed and well taken care of, if they were just casually walking down the middle of the street as they were. Roman could see they weren't worried about zombies, and with the six of them and their guns, Roman didn't really blame them. They could probably take down a small group easily. They could definitely take out Roman, by himself with his small pistol.
Roman watched as they swept the area, outside, before regrouping. The person who must be the group's leader gestured to three of the houses, barking orders Roman couldn't hear, and the group split up.
One of the houses just so happened to be the one they were hiding in.
"Shit," Roman muttered, before turning and glancing around. "Back door?"
But Virgil was pushing him towards the stairs before he could head for the dining room, and Roman didn't think he had time to protest, so he'd just have to hope that the zombie had a plan.
Just as the two of them reached the top of the stairs, there was a crash as what must've been the back door to this house was broken down. Roman was immediately grateful that they hadn't gone for the back door after all as he was pushed down the hall towards the back bedroom - the spare that housed a single bed and a rotted through closet full of moth-eaten clothes that looked like they might have belonged to a teenage girl once.
Downstairs, Roman could hear the pair sent to this house rummaging through the kitchen. They weren't taking care to be quiet, and that in of itself made Roman cringed.
Virgil shuffled until he was hidden behind the open door of the room and crouched, making a vague gesture for Roman to do the same. Glancing quickly around the room, Roman made for the large gap between the closet and the wall. There was really nothing worth anything in here, and Roman could only really hope that they chose not to bother with the upstairs after raiding the kitchen.
With his ears strained to catch any sound he could, Roman ended up hearing the very last thing he wanted to hear. Heavy footsteps on the stairs. Roman did his best to stay hidden as they searched room after room before finally getting to the one he was hidden in. Both of them were holding up guns as they looked around the room, and Roman's heart leapt to his throat. If they saw his friend, they'd shoot him instantly. Roman knew that look - the hardened fear crazed look of the apocalypse, registering every movement as danger. They would shoot a zombie the moment they saw him, but maybe he, a human, might have better luck.
"Hey!" Roman said quickly, stepping out from his hiding spot just as they were about to check behind the door, "I mean no harm, I swear, I was only staying here before you all came - I'm alone."
Both of them immediately had their guns trained on him, and he raised his hands quickly to show he wasn't holding a weapon.
"What supplies you got?" One of them asked. His voice was gruff and left no room for argument.
"Um- just this bag," Roman said, gesturing to the pack he was wearing, "Some spare clothes, a little food, my knives and a pistol as well as a bit of medical and sewing stuff, that's it."
"Hand it over," He said, stepping a little closer and lowering his gun to immediately hold out a hand instead.
"What?" Roman squeaked, hand going to the strap of his backpack.
"He said hand it over," The other said, keeping her gun locked on his chest. One shot and he was dead, Roman was struggling to breathe, "Or we'll kill you and take it anyway."
Roman tried not to look over at Virgil as he slowly started to pull his bag strap off of his shoulder. He wouldn't survive without this stuff. There was no question about it. It had taken so much time and effort to even gather this much. But he'd rather be alive with no stuff than dead.
He pulled off his backpack and held it out to the stranger by the strap. He immediately set it on the floor and began rummaging through it.
"Belt, too," Said his companion, "I can see you've got a knife there."
"I won't survive without it," Roman tried to protest, but she only re-aimed her gun and adjusted her finger on the trigger, so Roman sighed and went to unbuckle the utility belt he'd found a long time ago from around his waist too.
As soon as Roman was completely unarmed, she put down her gun and joined her partner in going through Roman's stuff. He watched as his things were dug through, the careful organisation completely ruined in an instant, before a dark shape came out of nowhere and whacked one of their attackers over the head with what looked like a door handle before jumping on the other and sinking teeth straight into his neck.
Roman cried out in surprise and scurried backwards, barely thinking to grab his backpack and use it to cover himself as blood splattered everywhere from the poor guy's ripped open artery. It took Roman's mind a whole five seconds to catch up on what had just happened as he watched the gruesome scene unfold in front of him with wide eyes.
As soon as the two assholes had been distracted, Virgil had jumped them. One of them knocked out, the other being torn apart in front of Roman's eyes.
He'd seen someone get bitten by a zombie before. He was sure practically everyone in the Apocalypse had. But usually it was hoards, and usually he didn't stick around to watch jagged nails crack a skull and scoop handfuls of brain matter into a gaping mouth. Virgil was making noises Roman had never heard from him before as he ate and ate and ate until there was hardly anything left of the guy, and then just kept going with the other. Roman knew, theoretically, that a zombie's hunger was never truly satiated, but he'd never thought he would watch one consume two whole people in the span of five minutes. Roman was as astounded as he was petrified as he watched Virgil stand slowly, blood and something else dripping from his chin and his hands.
Blood coated the ratty old carpet, mixed with the bones and scraps from the two people. Their clothing had been ripped away and tossed aside, and now Virgil was turning to him.
Without his gun or knife in easy reach, Roman was pretty sure he was dead meat if Virgil attacked him - in a frenzy from feeding or just because he'd decided protecting Roman wasn't worth it anymore. He watched the zombie take a step forward, his shoe making a sickening squelching sound in the gory mess on the floor. He watched Virgil's eyes flick towards the mess before fixing back on him. The room was small, it only took Virgil two shaky steps to reach him. Roman practically held his breath as Virgil fell to his knees and shuffled closer, clumsily pushing Roman's bag out of the way and then flinging his arm around him.
Roman froze, his mind trying to compute the fact that he wasn't currently being torn apart. It took him far too long to realise he was being hugged, and it took him even longer to wrap his arms around Virgil and arrange them into a proper hug. Virgil made a guttural noise deep in his throat and buried his face in Roman's shoulder, nails scrabbling at Roman's back as he whined.
"It's okay," Roman said softly, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at all the mess, "You're alright - I've got you. Thank you for protecting me."
"Mmmh?" Virgil said, squeezing Roman with a little too much strength. Roman took a deep breath once he let go.
"Yeah, Vee," Roman said, squeezing him back, "If you hadn't jumped them they would've taken everything I had and then probably shot you, if not both of us, I really appreciate it."
Virgil made a noise of agreement, before pulling away slowly and standing up, using Roman's hands to pull him up too.
"Right, yeah- we gotta go," Roman said, grabbing his belt and trying his best to put it back on quickly before pulling his backpack back onto his shoulders. Virgil toed through the pile of gore until he found one of the guns the pair had been holding and pushing it in Roman's direction.
"Uhh," Roman said, frowning, "I'm not great with guns, Virge."
Virgil pushed it towards him more insistently, before scrabbling through the mess to find the multiple packs of ammo the guy had had and stuffing them into his own pockets.
"I'm not picking it up covered in guck like that," Roman said. Virgil huffed and rolled his eyes, fumbling to pick up the gun himself and wiping it off with his hoodie before thrusting the gun at him, "Thanks."
Roman took a deep breath, looking between Virgil and the floor and then chancing a glance out of the window.
"Okay," Roman said, "There weren't any gunshots, so hopefully the others don't know this happened yet and we can sneak out of the back and get away, right?"
Virgil nodded, once again squelching his way through the grossness on the ground. Roman made a disgusted face, before carefully stepping over it.
"Also," Roman said, "Next chance we get we're getting you a bath."
With a huff, Virgil turned and pointed at him. Roman laughed.
"I'll get one too," Roman said, "I probably need to clean my clothes."
Virgil nodded, before leading the way out of the house and back down through the next street. Roman only properly let himself breath when they were a full two streets away and Virgil could no longer hear the group that had been raiding the houses.
Hiding once again in a different bedroom, Roman pulled out the map he'd snagged from a mostly raided estate agent and looked at their route. The detour had set them a little off course, but if they kept going in the same direction and got back on track further up the route, they should avoid that road entirely.
"It should only be another day until we're out of the city, then we’ll be travelling down a back road through some forested area until we reach the next town along for supplies again - we should be able to find some fresh water and catch some food for us both out there if I can remember any of my wilderness training," Roman said, taking a deep breath, "And we find some string - I'm a little scared to leave the built up area, though."
Virgil nudged him gently with his knuckles and Roman smiled. Virgil seemed so much less scared to touch him after that whole fiasco - Roman wondered if it was just because he was full right now, or if he’d gotten more confident about controlling his instincts.
"Yeah," He said softly, "At least we'll have each other, and hey, it'll only get us closer to where my brother might be."
Virgil pointed at the map where Roman had marked the road that would take them towards Denver with an ‘X’ in red pen and Roman nodded.
“Right, we’re almost there,” He said with a grin.
They were going to find Roman’s brother, and they were going to do it together.
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I’ve known that for a long time my love. I wouldn’t have been so confident you wouldn’t hurt me even with the curse otherwise. And for the record, I could never kill you either. Even if I was starved and instinct takes over, I’d gnaw my own arm before laying a claw in you.
-🕷️
"Aww. That's sweet."
Virgil smiles, leaning over to kiss you gently. "... mm. The kids are asleep... are you hungry?"
Oh absolutely not. If I had tried to live in an area like this I would have been found out immediately. Not worth the risk.
I never could have imagined settling down with a human of all things and having two children either, let alone doing so with you. I was so sure you would just kill me after I was no longer of use to you. For a while I was trying to figure out how I could kill you before you killed me.
-🕷️
Virgil laughs quietly. "... that makes sense. But I'd never be able to kill you, Kaori... I guess now's the time to tell you. Your charm did work on me."
They serve dinner here? I’ve never been to a temple before but I don’t think most of them are like this. Although the hot tubs definitely sound nice so I’m not going to complain. What about you virgil? Do you feel any different?
-🕷️
"Not yet. But we did only just get here."
Virgil walks with you to the window of your room, looking out quietly. He smiles. "... heh. Back when I found you in your little village, did you ever think you could end up in a place like this?"
