Archive of Our Own ^beta

i think because virgil is always vigilant (har har) of his surroundings and he grew up around janus he knows how to eavesdrop really well. well, what if he overhears remus comforting roman and all the conversations regarding roman's insecurities and thus resolves to do small things to show roman he's loved and that his opinion is valued. – anon

Look, okay, if you grew up with the embodiment of Deceit as the closest thing you had to a parental figure, you would also be very good at listening for hidden secrets whispered in the middle of the night. Let alone have your psuedo-brother trying to put bear traps where he thinks you'll step into them.

The point is that Virgil knows how to listen, okay? He knows how to fold himself in the shadows just enough that most people's eyes will just glaze over him and he can listen to whatever they don't want him to hear. Came in handy when he was younger, trying to avoid the traps Remus would set up in the bathroom or the way Janus didn't want him to know exactly what it was they were having for dinner tonight. Came in even more handy when he was trying to pull pranks on them to get them back for all the shit they put him through and he just needed to know when they'd be out of this corner of the hall specifically and, well, to hear the screams and yelps of shock when oops, did something happen?

It's a very useful talent, one he hasn't ever wanted to give up, even when he started hanging around the Light Sides a bit more. It was easy, at first, to place himself just so in order to startle Patton when he came down into the kitchen, or to catch the worst of Logan's mutterings just to point out a very obvious flaw in his reasoning and scare the crap out of him at the same time. And very few things were as satisfying as getting the MIndscape's oh-so-perfect prince to leap out of his skin when Virgil's grinning face would loom out of the darkness.

(Later, he'd reflect on how much that must have reminded Roman of Remus and think it was doubly cruel, to scare him and remind him of the brother he'd lost.)

But then everything started to settle down a little bit more and he didn't have to use it so often anymore. He didn't have to secretly listen to find out if they hated him, he didn't have to haunt the halls just waiting for someone to drop an interesting conversation he couldn't be a part of, he could just…be there. He could sit on the couch next to Logan and listen to him ramble. He could be in the kitchen when Patton got there and get playfully scolded for whether or not he actually got any real sleep last night. He could—well, it was still fun to startle Roman every once in a while, but he swears he wasn't doing it on purpose.

Then Remus and Janus started to come around more often too and then he was in trouble, because they knew how to read the silence in the room and figure out there was another set of ears and eyes paying attention. He's never going to forget the time that Janus, without so much as taking a breath in his conversation with Logan, reached behind the couch and pulled out Virgil by the scruff of his neck like a raccoon that crawled in through the window. Or Patton's face when he caught Remus stalking about with a net and asked him just what he thought he was doing—which was Patton for you knock that shit off right now—and Remus just cackled and swung the net and dragged Virgil out from the shadows. It wasn't even like he was doing it on purpose the entire time either, he just…did it!

Which is why he says he really didn't mean to when he overheard Roman and Remus that night.

He'd just been walking to the kitchen for a snack, he swears. But then he heard someone sniffle and he'd stopped on instinct, tucking himself into the shadows of the upper halls.

"That's not true, Roro, you know it's not true," Remus's voice drifts up from the living room, "I know you do."

"I know that, somewhere," and Virgil's chest clenches at how young Roman sounds, "b-but I—"

"Oh, come here, Roro." Fabric shuffles. "Shh, shh, it's okay, it's okay, I'm not mad at you."

"This is so fucking stupid."

It always hurts to hear Roman swear when he gets upset. That never changes.

"It's not stupid, Roro, I swear. You've been taught to think things over the course of your time with them and it's not your fault that sometimes they don't remember or realize how cruel they've been to you."

"They need me, Re, they can't just get rid of me."

"No one's trying to get rid of you, Ro, I swear. They just—they just don't realize that they're being so mean to you."

"But they have to know it hurts when they treat me like that, but they don't care. I've tried to tell them that it hurts but L-Logan said—"

"What did Logan say?"

"He s-said that any artist should expect cri-cri-criticism and that I was just—was just not used to it yet but that's not true and I don't know how to tell them that—"

"Shh, shh-shh, it's okay, Roro, I believe you. Hey, hey, you're right and Logan's wrong about this, okay? There's helpful criticism and unhelpful criticism and it's up to you to decide which is which. No, no, don't shake your head, you know the others keep forgetting that whatever we make is for us, right?" A sniffle as Roman must nod. "Then you know it's up to us to decide what we want out of it, yeah?"

"But they don't care what I want, they never care about what I want. I'm their stupid little dancing monkey that churns out—"

"Now I'm gonna stop you right there. You're not anyone's dancing monkey, you're my goddamn brother. You are Creativity, you are Hopes and Dreams, you are Passion and you are just as much a Side as anyone else here. You are fucking incredible at what you do and if they're too stupid to realize it, then that is their fault and not yours."

A pause. A longer pause. Then another sniffle.

"I love you, Re."

"I love you too, Roro, so much."

Virgil had slunk away that night and clutched a pillow to try and calm himself.

Roman…oh, Roman. What had they done to him?

So maybe Virgil starts paying attention to Roman a little bit more in the meetings. Maybe he starts asking Roman what he thinks about the thing he made because that's literally his job, L, he probably knows what he's doing, right? Maybe he starts kicking Janus in the shin when Janus is being a jerk to Roman for no reason because it wasn't fun when you did it to me, I know it's not fun for Roman either. Maybe he starts asking Roman to talk though what his thought process was behind certain things and decisions he made because hey, he knows better than anyone that there's a madness to the method sometimes.

Maybe Remus corners him after he makes a point to have Logan ask what sort of feedback Roman is looking for before just launching whole hog into his criticism. Maybe Virgil stammers out that he didn't mean to overhear them but he couldn't help himself because Roman was crying and he just wanted to help, Remus, I swear. Maybe Remus crushes him in a tight hug and drags him into the Imagination to see what he was talking about when he said Roman was damn good at his job. Maybe Remus starts helping him in the meetings too, grinning a little too wide when someone tries to talk over Roman and looming between both of them lest someone try something on his watch.

Maybe Roman comes up to him and shyly—shyly, like a blushing maid instead of the prince he is, like Virgil is anything special to talk to—asks to sit next to him at movie night. Maybe Virgil grins and says he'd like nothing more.

And maybe Virgil doesn't hear any of the whispered conversations that happen during that movie night because he's too focused on the feeling of Roman's shoulder pressed against his.