Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

March 2018

Virgil shifted how the bag sat on his shoulder, looking up at the coach bus he was about to board. Other students milled about him, chattering in excitement for the week ahead. Virgil, too, was excited, but he couldn’t help the hum of anxiety within his gut. Not about the trip itself- no, going to a series of museums wasn’t exactly a terrifying prospect, but about… well, about something that was frankly stupid.
He sighed quietly to himself as the door to the bus opened and the first students began to board. He was probably about sixteenth in line, so many seats were already filled up, but he still pretty much had his choice. He saw a group of his closest friends- Patton, Logan, and Roman- already sitting together. Of course, there was an open seat he could take; the seats were in pairs, and at the moment no one sat beside Logan, but what if they didn’t want him to sit there? What if they were hoping their friend Joan would sit there? Or Talyn? Or… literally anyone but him? Virgil knew that his friends wouldn’t try to stop him if he sat there, but the (perhaps irrational) idea of quiet, subtle resentment was too much.
No, this trip was to be much too long to force anyone to sit beside him. They were going all the way to Chicago, after all.
And so Virgil pretended not to see his friends- and they hadn’t, in fact, noticed him yet, and sat in an empty row, beside the window, and slipped his bag under the seat. Sure, someone would still have to sit beside him, but it would be their choice.
In the end, he was sitting beside someone he knew. Valerie. She wasn’t his closest friend, but they talked sometimes, and Virgil was quietly extremely grateful that he hadn’t been left to sit beside one of their professors for the next day and a half. Valerie was nice, even to him, and Virgil felt very happy that she’d sat beside him. Even if she had had limited choices, as one of the last few students to get on the coach bus.
In any case, they passed some of the time chatting about the trip, and whatever else came to mind, before Valerie retreated into one of her novels, and Virgil took out his headphones to listen to some music.
After a considerable length of the trip, the bus stopped, and everyone disembarked to get some food while they refilled the gas tank. For some reason Virgil didn’t really understand, they weren’t allowed on the bus at all during this time, but it was nice to stretch his legs.
All too soon, the group of students was expected to re-board the coach bus, and Virgil settled himself back beside the bus window, next to Valerie. They wouldn’t be stopping again that day- or that was the plan, at least, and would be driving through until the next morning.
This was the part of the trip- well, a part of the trip- that made Virgil nervous.
He never slept in front of other people. The thought made him extremely anxious, and while, of course, he had slept in front of other people multiple times in his eighteen-year-long existence, he hadn’t been able to do so for years.
And now he was expected to spend a week with all of these other students and professors, many of whom he barely knew, and was expected to sleep where other people could see him. He was supposed to sleep on this bus, tonight, for instance. Next to Valerie. In plain view.
Virgil had known this would happen going in, but he hadn’t wanted to let something so dumb, so impossible to explain, stop him from going on this trip.
The sky darkened as the bus carried them northwards. Lights came on for people who needed them to read by, then slowly flickered off as the evening turned to night.
Virgil snuck a look at his phone. Just past 11 at night.
He glanced around the bus. Many students were already asleep, tucked in with blankets and pillows they’d brought with them. Virgil felt stupid for not thinking to bring his own pillow, his own blanket, but it was a little late now.
More time passed. He had talked a bit more with Valerie, but she was asleep now. Most everyone was, except him and a handful of others who were still trying to get comfortable, or just liked to stay up way too late.
Virgil yawned, watching the lights of other vehicles passing by, heading in the other direction. He was tired, he wanted to sleep, but anxiety gripped him.
Could he do this?
It may have been dark on the bus, but he could still see, which meant other people could see him. They may have all been sleeping for now, but what if they woke up? What if Virgil’s mouth was open while he slept? What if they laughed at him? What if they took pictures? What if-?
He couldn’t do this.
Oh, god.
It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Text

Virgil rested his head against the window, watching the road. Occasionally a set of headlights would flash past, but at this hour they were few and far between. Idly he wondered where they were going. Perhaps they were heading back the way Virgil’s class had come, perhaps to one of the theme parks in Orlando. There had to be some reason these people were on the road at three in the morning. Maybe they were on spring break, too.

It wasn’t even three thirty when Virgil’s phone died. No more music, then, he supposed, repressing a groan of annoyance. What else was he supposed to do for the rest of the night? He’d long since realized he wasn’t getting any sleep that night, but he had no one to talk to, no light to read by or the capability to do anything but continue staring out the window.

Which is what he did.

All night.

At what must have been around six in the morning, Virgil watched the sun rise. It was beautiful if he was perfectly honest, but he’d rather have been asleep for it. Suppressing a yawn, Virgil leaned forward and pulled his bag out from under his seat. Now that there was sufficient light to see by, he could actually do something besides slowly go insane from boredom. Virgil managed to tug his sketchbook and a pencil free, careful not to wake Valerie as he did so, and started to draw. The bus was a little bouncy and his pencil occasionally skittered across the page, but Virgil didn’t care all that much. He just kept doodling whatever came to mind.

A couple of hours later, other students began to wake up, and the bus began to fill with voices again. Laughter bubbled up here and there. Someone in the back was playing a familiar tune that he couldn’t quite place from their phone. Everyone seemed cheerful.

Virgil couldn’t help but envy their continued excitement for the trip, but he still smiled when talking to Valerie, and only had to pinch himself back into full awareness a couple of times. Anyway, it wasn’t the first time Virgil had had a sleepless night, and it wouldn’t be the last.

Around nine, the bus stopped to let them off for breakfast. It was nothing fancy, of course: just McDonald’s. Virgil got off the bus with the rest of the group and went to find his friends- they were at the counter, waiting to order something from the cashiers, who looked a little alarmed at the size of the group they had just been confronted with. Virgil smirked a little in amusement.

“Hey, guys,” Virgil said as he came up to the others, attempting to hide his tiredness.

“Hey, kiddo!” Patton, always chipper, was the first to greet him. Virgil rolled his eyes at the nickname- Patton wasn’t that much older than him. But it was more out of amusement than any actual annoyance.

“Why didn’t you sit with us?” Roman asked, putting on a pouty face.

Virgil was surprised. They had wanted him to sit with them? Silently berating himself for potentially having hurt their feelings, he replied, “Oh, uh…. Sorry. I didn’t see you guys, and there were a lot of people…”

Roman didn’t look too convinced by the lie, but Patton was nodding in understanding, and no one pushed the subject. Virgil was quietly grateful.

Virgil was saved from further awkwardness when Logan reappeared, holding a plastic tray laden with paper bags and cups. “Good morning, Virgil,” he said formally, balancing the tray on one hand so he could adjust his glasses.

“Morning,” Virgil replied, though the others were already heading towards one of the few unclaimed tables in the restaurant. Virgil followed after them, and after some hesitation and an encouraging smile from Patton, hopped up onto the stool beside his friend.

“I have purchased some breakfast for all of us,” Logan said, starting to divide up what was on the tray. “I had hoped you were joining us, Virgil. Is this… ah… sandwich, acceptable to you?”

Virgil paused, but took the proffered egg and cheese breakfast sandwich, which Logan had been regarding suspiciously. He heard Roman stifle a laugh, and felt the corner of his own mouth quirk up. “Yeah, Logan, it’s fine. Thanks. You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Breakfast is important to maintaining overall health,” Logan responded. “Even if it is from this establishment.”

“Oh, come on, Logan, it’s McDonald’s!” Patton said, barely comprehensible through a mouthful of pancakes. He swallowed and continued, “Who doesn’t like McDonald’s?”

Virgil, meanwhile, was pinching his arm again in an attempt to wake himself up more. He was so tired. “Is there coffee?” Virgil asked, interrupting the others’ debate on whether McDonald’s food was a delicious treat or a greasy nightmare.

“Oh- yes, here.” Logan plucked a cheap coffee cup off of the tray and held it out to his tired friend, who took it with a small groan of gratitude.

“Didn’t you get any sleep last night?” Roman asked, looking Virgil up and down as the latter gulped down the caffeinated nectar of the gods, not caring that he burned his tongue in the process.

Virgil swallowed. “Oh, um…” He decided to more or less tell the truth. “Well, not really,” he admitted. “It’s hard to get too comfortable on a bus.”

Patton hummed in sympathy. “I’m sorry, kiddo. Maybe you’ll have better luck tonight?”

Virgil set down his coffee cup and yawned before replying. “Yeah. Probably.”

Probably not, he corrected himself, falling silent as the others began talking about other things.

Chapter Text

Late that night, the coach bus arrived in Chicago. The novelty of the trip had by then worn off for most of Virgil’s classmates, but he could tell that the excitement was setting in again now that they had actually arrived.

Virgil, however, mostly just wanted to sleep.

It wasn’t until everyone was divided up into hotel rooms that the realization truly hit Virgil, although in retrospect he had to admit he had suspected this would happen.

Rather than sharing a hotel room with just Patton, Logan, and Roman, a fifth person would be joining them. Some guy whom he barely knew. Virgil was pretty sure his name began with a ‘D’. He only recognized the guy because for some unknown reason, he constantly wore yellow gloves. Like the kind people used to wash dishes. It was weird.

Virgil couldn’t seem to sleep around other people. This he had already known. But he had at least hoped he would be able to maybe get some sleep that night, since he knew Patton, Roman, and Logan very well, and he was already tired from staying awake the previous night. But he barely knew their other roommate at all, as evidenced by the fact that Virgil couldn’t seem to remember his name.

Virgil was in for another sleepless night; he just knew it.

He would still try to sleep, of course, but Virgil had a bad feeling.

Virgil leaned against the wall of the hallway as Roman struggled to get the hotel room door to open.

“This stupid key card won’t—”

“Let me try, Roman.”

“I’ve got it, Logan! Just let me…” A sigh of relief came as the lock clicked, and Roman swung the door open.

Virgil pushed himself fully upright as his friends- and D- surged into the hotel room. Virgil entered last, glancing around the space. It was a pretty nice hotel room, he had to admit, noting with amusement that Patton was literally bouncing up and down as he took it in.

“It is just a hotel, Patton; there is no need for such antics.”

“Oh, come on, Microsoft Nerd, let him be excited!” Roman cut in, setting his bag on one of the beds to claim it. Virgil noted that there were only two. There was a couch, however, and Virgil strode quickly over to and set his stuff down there. He was not sharing a bed. No.

“Are you excited, Roman?” Patton asked, still bouncing a little.

“Yes, of course, fine fellow!”

Virgil zoned out a bit as the two started chattering about what museums they were most excited to go to and what they hoped to see while they were there. He sat down on the couch beside his stuff and leaned back against it with a sigh. He scrolled through tumblr for a while, pausing to dismiss a warning that his phone’s battery was at 10%.

Meanwhile, Logan and D, or whatever that guy’s name was, were getting ready for bed. Logan, in fact, was already sitting in bed with the bedside light on, reading a book. Virgil was pretty sure it was an astronomy textbook. What a nerd.

Noting that his battery was now at 4%, Virgil got up to plug in his phone. He was relieved to see that one of the outlets was close enough to the couch that he could lay down on it and still have his phone with him while it charged.

Virgil checked the time as he sat back down on the couch. Almost midnight. No wonder the others were all getting ready to go to sleep. He looked up to see that Patton was tucking himself into bed, hugging a large stuffed animal to his chest. A dog, Virgil thought it was?

Logan reached over and set his book on the bedside table, turning off the lamp out of consideration for the others.

Virgil eventually got up and went into the bathroom to remove his makeup and brush his teeth, and then returned to lay down on the couch.

Virgil frowned; the room may look nice, but he was pretty sure that this was the most uncomfortable couch he had ever encountered.

“Are you excited for tomorrow, Virgil?” Patton asked in a whisper, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, Pat,” Virgil replied just as softly, glancing over in his direction. “The aquarium’s pretty chill. They’ve got sharks.”

Patton didn’t respond, and eventually Virgil realized it was because his friend had fallen asleep. He rolled over to face the back of the couch, his head pillowed on his arm.

Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep.

Why was this thing so uncomfortable? Why was he so anxious about this?

At least close your eyes. No one can see you.

He did, although somehow this made him more anxious. After a while, he checked his phone for the time. 2:57 AM.

Virgil shifted, trying to get comfortable, as he opened up the tumblr app.

At least his tiredness was making it easier to ignore how lumpy this couch was. 

…

Virgil jumped awake as his phone slid out of his hand, thumping onto the couch at his side. He’d fallen asleep. Oh god.

Breathe, just breathe.

He scrambled to check the time, trying to get his breathing under control. It was still almost pitch-black in the room, and no one else had moved. No one had seen him sleep. But they could have, and that was what freaked Virgil out.

The clock read 3:06.

Virgil rolled onto his back.

In for four. Hold for seven. Out for eight.

Again.

Again.

Virgil managed to calm himself down, but now he was wide awake, and he knew it wasn’t worth trying to get back to sleep. Even if he managed it, Virgil knew he’d only freak out again. And so he got up as quietly as he could, and went into the bathroom to splash some water in his face.

Virgil reemerged, grabbed a key card off of the table, and slipped out of the hotel room. At this point, Virgil planned to just wander around the rest of the hotel until morning came.

Chapter Text

Virgil was sitting on the window sill at the end of the hallway, looking outside. The sky was rapidly lightening, but he wasn’t sure what time it was. His phone was still charging in the hotel room. He should go back. The others would be waking up soon, probably.

He sat perched on the window sill for a few minutes more before hopping down to the floor, walking past the unoccupied chair that sat nearby.

What floor was he even on? He hadn’t paid attention. The next hotel room he came upon was numbered 417. So he was on the fourth floor. Virgil’s classmates all had rooms on the second floor.

Virgil turned a corner and followed a hall that he thought would take him towards the elevator. He came upon it eventually, and pushed the silver button labelled “1”. Once it arrived, he got in and waited for the contraption to take him down. Virgil hated elevators, but the staircase was out of the way enough that it was worth it to tolerate this one. And he had been in much less trustworthy elevators.

Since an excuse for why he was up so early would be nice, Virgil went to the first floor and stopped by the hotel’s complimentary breakfast bar. He grabbed an apple and a cup of orange juice, which he sipped as he made his way back up to the hotel room. He struggled with the key card for a moment, trying to be quiet despite the lock’s stubbornness.

Finally, the little light turned green, and Virgil reentered the hotel room.

He had been hoping that no one else would be up yet, but upon turning around from closing the door, Virgil saw that Logan was already awake. He was straightening his trademark blue tie in front of the mirror.

“Ah, Virgil,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I wondered where you had gone.”

“Breakfast,” Virgil said, holding up the half-empty cup of orange juice.

“I hadn’t pegged you as an early bird,” Logan commented with a frown.

Virgil just shrugged. “What are you doing up this early?”

“I plan to attend to some homework this morning. The aquarium doesn’t open until 9, so I should have plenty of time to finish my reading.”

“You need a tie to read?”

“What else would I wear to read? A unicorn onesie?” Logan scoffed at the idea.

“Fair enough,” Virgil commented, gathering his things and going to take a shower.

…

This place was huge.

The edifice of the aquarium was done in a Greek-inspired style, white marble columns many times Virgil’s size soaring into the sky. The staircase alone was massive. And in between the impossibly large marble columns, long blue banners hung, displaying colorful photos of the exhibits. Virgil could feel Patton practically vibrating with excitement beside him as they walked up to the building.

Since it wasn’t one of the aquarium’s admission-free days, the line to get in was pretty short. Virgil wasn’t sure what an aquarium had to do with the American history class that he was a part of, but he did appreciate that their college’s history department was paying for their admission.

Granted, the history department’s budget came from the students’ tuition, so in a way he had in fact paid for this, but Patton and Roman would want Virgil to ignore that.

He was just glad that the others didn’t seem to realize how long it had been since he slept. He wasn’t really all that much more tired than he had been yesterday, but he noticed that he was finding Patton’s endless dad jokes a lot funnier than he usually did.

…

They got into the building more quickly than Virgil had expected, and were told that they could go to whatever exhibits they wished. Everyone just had to be at the gift shop by five-fifty, since the aquarium closed at six.

Virgil stepped out into the exhibit area, and immediately forgot how tired he was.

“Woahhh,” said Roman. “That’s a lot of fish.”

Yes. Yes it was.

“Which exhibit would all of you like to peruse first?” Logan asked, straightening his glasses and looking around.

There was a bit of a debate, during which Virgil mostly didn’t pay attention. He mostly just wanted to see the sharks and the sting rays. He didn’t care about when.

In the end they decided to wander around in no particular order, which was just fine with Virgil. They started at the river fish, and made their way around. There was an exhibit called “Carribean Reef” that claimed to have some sharks in it, but they were very small. Virgil wanted to see the big ones that he knew the aquarium housed.

Right now, they were peering into a tank of very colorful sea horses. Patton practically had his nose pressed to the glass, his eyes wide with wonder. Logan almost seemed more interested in the information on the placards than in the actual specimens themselves, and Roman kept taking selfies with colorful fish in the background.

Virgil heard a loud tapping sound, and turned to see What’s-his-name, D, knocking on one the glass of one of the nearby tanks with his finger. 
“Dude,” Virgil said with a frown, but before he could do anything else, one of the aquarium workers appeared to berate D, lecturing him about how the water amplified the sound and how he was terrifying the fish.

“Honestly,” they said, “usually I only have to tell five-year-olds this!”

Virgil snorted and turned back to his friends.

…

Logan really loved jellyfish.

He kept spouting useless facts about them, like “They are not fish at all; in fact, many scientists are pushing to change the name to simply ‘jellies’ or ‘sea jellies’,”

“Wow, Logan, I’m sure shocked about that!” Patton said, eliciting a slightly uncharacteristic giggle from Virgil. Patton beamed at him.

“Sea jellies don’t actually shock people,” Logan responded, clearly excited at the prospect of dropping more knowledge. “Their anatomy includes stinging cells, known as ‘cnidocytes’, which are essentially tiny, venomous harpoons.”

“We get it, you’re basically Wikipedia,” Roman said, rolling his eyes.

Logan made a noise, looking affronted, but he softened at Patton’s and Virgil’s laughter.

Chapter Text

Virgil’s friends decided to get lunch before heading to Wild Reef, the exhibit that housed the largest sharks and the sting rays.

“This stuff is all so expensive,” Virgil said, picking up a salad that was priced at $7. He put it back down, hiding a yawn with the other hand. “Is there anything we can actually afford here?”

“Oh, come on, Virgil. It’s not that bad,” Roman said, having already picked out a sandwich, chips, and a drink. Beside him, Patton was trying to decide which cookie to get.

In the end, Virgil just grabbed a basket of fries ($4?!) and a water bottle.

When he got to the table his friends were at, Virgil saw that Joan and Talyn were there too. For an anxious person like Virgil, it was a bit of a relief to see that only one seat at the table was left open. He didn’t have to choose whom to sit beside, or to worry about whether anyone resented his choice.

“Hey,” he greeted them as he sat down, not addressing anyone in particular.

“Hello,” said Joan. They were sitting across from him, next to Talyn, who smiled at him as a greeting.

A kid walked past them carrying a stuffed octopus that they’d probably picked up at the gift shop. Patton glanced over, and as he moved Virgil noted that he had in fact decided to get a second cookie rather than settling on one.

“Hey, kiddos,” said Patton, trying to hide a grin. “How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?”

Logan sighed. “Patton, an octopus is not capable of-”

“Tentacles!” Patton said, earning a chorus of laughter (mostly Virgil’s) and exasperated groans.

…

Virgil stared around himself in wonder.

Wild Reef was set up to give a “diver’s perspective” of a reef environment, and so…. There were sharks swimming above Virgil’s head. And to his left. And his right. He was surrounded.

Were Virgil less tired, he might have been anxious about how safe this was, but at the moment he was just awed. He could hear Logan explaining some more random tidbits of information somewhere behind him, where he, Roman, Patton, Talyn, and Joan were.

“…skeletons are completely cartilaginous.”

“What?” That was Patton.

“Sharks don’t have bones,” Roman supplied.

Virgil leaned back and looked up at a shark as it lazily made its way from one side of the tunnel-like aquarium to the other, zoning out for a minute.

The others were coming up beside him now. “… in fact, many species of sharks don’t sleep at all.”

Virgil winced, reminded of how tired he was himself.

“That’s so weird!” Patton again.

“They also-”

“Come on, guys,” Virgil sighed, turning around. “Can we just look at some fish?”

“Sharks aren’t fish,” Roman said.

“Well, actually…” Logan began.

“Shut it, Calculator Watch,” Roman huffed, crossing his arms.

…

The stingrays were in the floor. There was a clear sheet of glass separating them from the visitors, and they were expected to walk over them.

Virgil stayed at the edge, refusing to do such a thing. He crouched where the glass met the rest of the floor and watched the stingrays swim around. His eyelids felt heavy, but this place was interesting enough for him to stay awake.

Patton came over and sat next to him. “Hey, Virgil, how’s it going?”

Virgil turned, perhaps a little too sharply. “Fine.” Did he know?

“You doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Just don’t want to walk on the glass?” Patton checked. Virgil realized how it might look, him kneeling on the floor. Patton might’ve worried that he was sick.

“Yeah, Patton, I’m good. Really, I’m just looking at some stingrays.”

Patton smiled. “Okay, kiddo! We can look at them together.”

…

Virgil waited in line to board the coach bus, half-listening to Patton prattle on about how great the aquarium had been.

“And the sea otters, do you guys remember the sea otters?”

“Yes, Patton, we do,” Roman said, sounding amused.

“They were so cute!” Patton cried, hugging his new plushie to his chest. Virgil was pretty sure it was a beluga whale.

“I found the artificial tide pool to be particularly fascinating,” Logan put in.

“Well I liked the tropical fish,” Roman said. “They were quite colorful, and they even had some clownfish! Like in Finding Nemo!”

“What about you, Virgil?” Patton asked, tugging on his hoodie sleeve as finally, finally, it was his time to board.

“Stingrays,” he grunted over his shoulder before climbing the stairs.

The others clambered up after him, and all sat together. Virgil made to move to an empty row, still insecure about the others wanting him to sit with them, but Roman grabbed his wrist and pulled him down into the seat beside him.

“Where do you think you’re going, Hot Topic?” Roman asked in a good-natured tone.

“Awh, you think I’m hot,” was all Virgil said.

…

They were supposed to get dinner on their own for the next few days, so Virgil’s friends had dragged him along to Subway (he’d tried to sneak away to try and get an hour of sleep while they were gone).

“You don’t have to get anything, but you’re not travelling in a big city by yourself,” Patton scolded him as they stood in line.  

Virgil groaned in reply, but he did end up ordering a sandwich when his turn came. He paid and went to sit with his friends. He ate in silence, not really listening to his friends’ conversations. A baby started crying at a nearby table. The sound seemed to grate on his eardrums.

…

“Virgil? Why are you laying on the floor?” Roman peered down at him from where he sat on the edge of one of the beds, removing his shoes.

“That couch is horrible,” Virgil admitted. He had dragged a blanket onto the floor with him, balled up his hoodie for a pillow, and laid down without even removing his eyeshadow.

“Well, kiddo,” Patton said, sounding a bit heartbroken, “You can come share the bed with us!”

“There’s not room,” Virgil pointed out, sounding more bitter than he intended. There was no way he’d do that even if there had been room.

“At least take my pillow?” Patton pouted, holding it out until Virgil relented. He didn’t want to make the guy cry, even if he did insist on calling Virgil ‘kiddo’ all the time.

He tossed his hoodie onto the couch and replaced it with the pillow, and gradually the room fell quiet. Virgil could hear the shower running- D liked to shower at night, apparently- and occasional murmurs from the others, but they seemed to sense he wanted silence. Virgil was glad for that.

Virgil set an alarm for the next morning, but knew he wouldn’t need it. He spent the night very much awake, curled up on the hotel room floor and staring into the dark.

Chapter Text

Virgil stumbled to the bathroom first the next morning- at around 5:30 AM. No one else was awake yet; not even Logan. Virgil stepped into the shower and turned it on, the warm water hitting him. It woke him up a bit, but then the warmth just made him feel sleepier again. He turned the knob to change the temperature to lukewarm, and when that wasn’t much better, down to as cold as it would go without turning off. That woke him up.

He didn’t stay under the water for long, just long enough to wash his hair and scrub off what remained of his eyeshadow. Only a few minutes had passed when Virgil turned off the water, then stepped out and wrapped himself in a towel, shivering.

Virgil caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror and stopped, turning to look at himself. His hair was still soaked, and there were impressively dark bags under his eyes. Virgil was glad that he wore so much eyeshadow under his eyes; hopefully, the others wouldn’t notice a difference.

He finished drying himself off and got dressed. He wore all-black clothing, as per usual, save for his hoodie.

The tired student picked up his eyeshadow and began to liberally apply it, pausing to make sure he kept it even. He may have been tired, but he wasn’t tired enough for sloppy makeup. Once he was finished, he drew back and regarded himself in the mirror again. He could no longer make out the bags under his eyes, and his makeup wasn’t noticeably darker than usual. Good.

…

It was Virgil’s third day with no sleep, and he was having a little trouble walking in a straight line. He was on his way down to the lobby with his friends (and D), and he just… couldn’t seem to do it. It didn’t help that his joints were aching, and a dull pain throbbed in his skull. He stayed at the back of the group, and tried to make it look like he was just being lazy in the way he walked. Virgil hoped the others wouldn’t notice, or worse, confront him about it.

“Alright, kiddos-,” began Patton. Roman and Logan each interrupted at the same time.

“I’m older than you!” said Roman.

“We’re the same age,” said Logan.

“-do you want to stop for breakfast first, or just wait on the bus?” Patton finished, his expression just as bright as before.

“Food,” Virgil voted dully, holding up a hand.

“Yes, breakfast is very important,” Logan agreed, glancing at the darker friend before continuing on. He reached the elevator first and pressed the button to call it. They only waited a few seconds before it arrived. Valerie and a friend of hers were already inside, but there was still room for the rest of the group. Virgil made sure to peer at the sign that listed the elevator’s weight capacity before he let the doors close.

“Hi, Valerie,” he said, trying not to yawn.

“Hi, Virgil.”

Virgil pinched his arm as the elevator brought them down to the first floor. His vision blurred as they arrived and the doors began to open, but cleared again before he moved to get out.

…

“Two cups of coffee, Virge?” Roman commented, sitting down at his side with a plate of bacon and eggs.

Virgil made a sound of affirmation, picking up one of said cups of coffee and gulping it down. As he set the mostly-empty cup back onto the table, he vaguely noticed a shared glance between some of the others.

“You know, kiddo, you don’t have to sleep on the floor,” Patton said, squirming a little in his seat. “One of us could switch rooms, and then there’d be more room for you.”

“I’m not making you switch rooms,” Virgil said flatly, raising his gaze to meet Patton’s. “I’m fine. I don’t mind.”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be one of us,” Roman said. “We barely know that other guy, and I don’t trust him anyway. I’m pretty sure he stole some stuff from the gift shop yesterday.”

“Really?” Patton looked stunned. Roman just shrugged.

“His pockets looked pretty full to me.”

Virgil wasn’t really interested in this conversation. He finished his second cup of coffee and stood to get another, pausing when his vision blurred again. “I’ll be right back,” he said, mostly just to keep that pause from being too conspicuous.

Once his vision came back into focus, Virgil made his way back to the breakfast bar, bumping into another table along the way, and poured another cup of coffee. He didn’t fill it all the way. With the way he was stumbling around today, he was liable to spill half of it on himself if he did.

…

Virgil’s heart was racing, and his hands were trembling a little, both of which he attributed to how much caffeine he had chugged that morning. At least the coffee had helped him wake up, if not pushed him halfway to an anxiety attack.

They were back on the coach bus, and today they were headed to the Field Museum. Virgil had been told to expect dinosaurs, mummies, and an assortment of other historical artifacts. It should be an interesting day, Virgil reflected with a sigh.

Chapter Text

Virgil stared out the window as the coach bus carried them to the Field Museum. They were taking the same route as the day before- the Shedd Aquarium was in the same area as this museum. He was pretty sure that the museum they were going to tomorrow was as well, but he was blanking on the name. Some kind of art museum, he was pretty sure. 

The bus had to stop at a red light, and Virgil watched a group of young men using buckets as drums to earn tips. They weren’t bad.

Oh, shoot. Someone was talking to him.

“What’d you say?” he asked, coming out of his fog for a moment and turning away from the window.

“I was simply ascertaining that you wanted to join us as we explore the museum,” Logan said from the seat in front of him. “I recognize that some of our interests may not be the same, but I feel that we all want to see as many exhibits as possible.”

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” Virgil turned back to the window, wishing his headache would go away. “That’d be great.” The light turned green, and they left the drummers behind.

…

More marble. More impossibly tall Greek-inspired columns. More colossal staircases. This place looked a lot like the aquarium.

Okay, it was far from identical, but they were still pretty similar.

Virgil was caught in the middle of the swarm of students as they entered the museum, so it was a few moments before got a good look at anything. Once the crowd thinned, though, his eyes went straight to the dinosaur. They’d been told about it beforehand.

Sue, a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Virgil had never seen a T-Rex skeleton in real life. It was huge.

Virgil’s friends were already making their way up to the skeleton, where a museum worker was already giving a talk on the dinosaur. He hurried to catch up. His joints and head complained, but he didn’t want to be left behind.

When he reached the railing that separated the tourists from the attraction, the others were listening to the worker give his talk. Logan was clearly absorbing every word, and Virgil almost laughed when he saw that his friend was rapidly scribbling down notes in a pocket-sized notebook, using some kind of shorthand. Virgil listened too, but not with as rapt attention.

“… she was about twenty-eight years old when she died, which is quite old for her species. You can see some bone growths on her tail and her ribs, which indicate that she had arthritis. Sue also suffered several injuries and illnesses in her life which we can observe in her bones, such as an infection in the back leg, and several broken ribs.”

Patton looked very sad about this. “Poor Sue!” he whispered.

“Sue was discovered during a paleontological dig in South Dakota in 1990, and to this date she remains the best-preserved and most complete t-rex skeleton. The Field museum has held possession of her since 1997. Most of her skeleton is here, but her original skull can be viewed on the floor above us.

“As I’m sure many of you already know, Sue is being moved soon. She’s going into a new exhibit on the second floor, and another, larger dinosaur is going to take her place. Once we move her, though, we are going to be able to fix some things about her display based on new information we have about her species. We’ll be adding belly ribs, widening her shoulders, and fixing some other mistakes.”

The worker paused and pointed up at the skeleton. “Now, do all of you see this bone up here, between her front arms? It’s comparable to a wishbone on a turkey. Well, we’ve realized since putting Sue on display that the bone we used here is in all likelihood one of her belly ribs, and so we will be replacing it with the actual collarbone, which is also in our collection. The real bone is very asymmetrical, which is what led to the mistake.”

Logan scribbled this down so frantically that Virgil couldn’t quite hold back his laugh this time. Thankfully the worker didn’t notice, since Virgil was certain that he definitely would have taken that the wrong way.

…

The first exhibit the group went to was called “Evolving Earth”. It was full of fossils, ranging from plants, to marine invertebrates, to dinosaurs and mammals.

Patton really disliked the trilobites. They reminded him too much of bugs, which he hated. Logan was awed at the delicate features that had been preserved in some of the specimens.

“Trilobites are Arthropods,” Logan had commented in response to Patton’s reaction, bent to examine one of the fossils. “So the resemblance is to be expected. Modern Arthropods do include insects, lobsters, crabs, and spiders, among other organisms.”

“Spiders?!”

“Logan, you’re not helping,” Roman had interjected.

They kept walking, taking a long time in the area dedicated to dinosaurs.

“’Life went on after the age of dinosaurs’” Virgil read off one of the signs when they finally moved on. “And here I thought we were all robots.”

Roman snorted, looking back at him.

…

Exhibits, crowds, conversations, stairs. At one point they stopped for lunch at a café whose prices, Virgil was unsurprised to see, were just as high as those at the nearby aquarium.

Virgil barely paid attention to most of it.

…

“How did they even get this thing up here?” Roman asked, looking at the huge boulder before them. It was almost as heavy as a car, and made entirely of jade. A corner of it was cut away and polished to show off the dark green mineral.

They were in the Hall of Jades. China really liked jade, Virgil noted.

Logan started to speak up, something about elevators and doorframe widths and cranes or something, but Virgil shushed him with a hand. “He’s being rhetorical, Logan.”

“Oh.” The former fell silent, straightened his tie, and turned to look at another case of artifacts.

Virgil had probably offended him, but at the moment he was just too tired to care.

…

Virgil gripped the banister tightly as he made his way back to the first floor. His joints and head complained with every step, and since his body still wasn’t completely cooperating with him, he was a bit worried about falling down the stairs. Virgil really needed some sleep.

“Where are we going?” he asked as they reached the end of the staircase.

“The Egypt exhibit,” Roman said with an air of someone who had already explained something three times. Maybe he had.

“Oh, right.”

The group made their way over to said exhibit, which was set up as a walkthrough of an Egyptian pyramid. Some of the stone used in the exhibit was real, but mostly, it was a concrete approximation. They could tell which stone was real because these were covered in a thick sheet of clear plastic for protection.

Virgil ducked into the structure, once again falling to the back of the group.

Chapter Text

“Hey Logan, you’re a nerd,” Roman was saying. “Can you read any of these hieroglyphics for us?”

“No, Roman, I cannot read Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs,” Logan sighed. “However, if you are interested, I do know some fascinating information on the subject.” Logan glanced at Virgil as he spoke, probably worried about being shushed again. Now that Virgil thought about it, Logan hadn’t been sharing nearly as many facts about the exhibits after what had happened with the jade.

Roman was nodding, and Virgil summoned the energy needed to reply. “Yeah, Logan, go ahead.”

“Well, for one thing, Egyptian hieroglyphs fell out of use in the fourth century, and their use completely came to an end after the beginning of the fifth,” Logan began as they continued to walk through the exhibit, stopping to read signs and inspect artifacts. “This is believed to have happened because of Greek influence at the time, as they had all non-Christian temples torn down.”

“How rude,” Patton huffed.

“Indeed. In fact, these hieroglyphs remained undecipherable to archaeologists until the Rosetta stone was discovered.”

“We all know that, Logan,” Roman pointed out.

“Well, something that I find particularly fascinating about this alphabet is that, in most instances, it contains no vowels.”

“So all those Egyptian words people have figured out- the vowels are just guesses?”

“Educated guesses, but essentially, yes,” Logan replied.

Virgil tuned out the rest of what Logan was saying as they reached the end of the artificial pyramid, and came to a large room filled with an assortment of artifacts. Mummies, sarcophagi, jewelry, a copy of part of the Book of the Dead… There was a lot here.

Virgil forgot his headache for the time being, striding forward to the first display case.

…

The Field Museum even had an impressive gift shop.

Virgil wandered through it, not really planning to buy anything. He stopped at the section on Ancient Egypt, looking through some of the merchandise, before turning to look at something else.

And he caught sight of his group’s fifth roommate, clearly in the middle of slipping an expensive-looking statue, about eight inches tall, into his pocket. So Roman had been right. D liked to shoplift.

No one else had noticed, and Virgil was pretty sure that the guy wouldn’t want to cause a scene in the middle of the museum gift shop, so he felt pretty safe to intervene. Normally, Virgil probably would have just rolled his eyes and kept moving, but lack of sleep has a weird effect on people.

“Whatcha got there?” he asked casually, walking up behind the guy. D’s yellow-gloved hands froze, one still in his pocket. Then, he relaxed, and turned to face Virgil in a fluid motion. It was graceful, but… more like a snake than anything else.

“Why, uh…” D paused, frowned. “Whatever you name is. I don’t have anything. Why do you ask?”

“So there’s nothing in your pocket then?”

“My wallet, you mean?”

“No, I meant the statue.”

The façade slid off D’s face. “You should just keep walking, freak.”

“I will when you put it back and walk out of here.” Virgil raised an eyebrow.

D sighed, and made as if to take his loot out of his pocket, but instead shoved Virgil backwards with one hand.

It wasn’t a hard shove, probably meant to just come off as threatening, but Virgil wasn’t exactly steady on his feet that day. Even D looked surprised when Virgil tipped right over and fell on his butt, almost hitting a rack of merchandise in the process. The thief was instantly on his knees beside him.

“Oh, goodness, are you okay? I’m so sorry. You really must look where you’re going.”

Virgil glared up at him. Now half the shop’s eyes were on them. “I’m fine,” he muttered, struggling to his feet and stalking away.

…

They were on their way back to the hotel.

After the incident in the gift shop, Virgil had gone to wait for the rest of his class in front of the museum, sitting on one of the steps. The others had joined him eventually, Patton hugging a dinosaur plushie, and Roman and Logan with gift bags as well. It hadn’t been much longer until they got back on the bus and left the museum behind.

Patton, at Virgil’s side, silently passed something over to him. It was wrapped in white tissue paper. Virgil took it, then turned to look at his friend in confusion. Patton nodded eagerly, urging him to unwrap it.

Virgil peeled back the paper, revealing a snow globe. 

“Is that-”

“Sue! The T-Rex!” Patton affirmed.

“Oh.”

“I saw what happened in the gift shop, and you didn’t get to buy anything… so I thought I’d get you this. Is it okay? Do you like it?”

Oh, man. Virgil was too sleep deprived to deal with this. His eyes threatened to fill with tears. He blinked hard to get rid of them.

“Uh… yeah, it’s uh… it’s alright, I guess,” Virgil managed to get out, keeping his eyes fixed on the snow globe.

Chapter Text

The students were dropped off at the hotel after dinner. Virgil, wanting to avoid D for as long as possible, went back up to the windowsill he had spent the night on a couple of days previously. He actually sat in the chair beside it this time, deciding he didn’t have the energy to get up on the sill. He almost fell asleep several times, but he jerked awake each time.

After a few hours, Virgil decided he should probably at least drop off his snow globe in the hotel room. He made his way back downstairs, reluctance in his every step. He got to the room and realized he didn’t have a key.

Virgil reached up, knocked, and waited. After a few seconds, Roman opened the door. “There you are!”

“Yep. Here I am,” Virgil affirmed, walking past his friend and into the room. He glanced around, noticing someone was missing. Roman must have noticed something in his face.

“He switched rooms. I’m not sure why. Or who would agree to that.” Roman shrugged. “Good riddance, if you ask me.”

Virgil just nodded, not saying anything. He silently went to set his snow globe down on a table, and plugged in his phone. He didn’t immediately realize what D’s departure meant.

It wasn’t until everyone was getting ready for bed that he realized it. Logan looked confused when Virgil went to lay down on the floor for another night.

“Virgil, there is room on the bed. You don’t have to sleep on the floor tonight.”

Virgil froze.

Logan sighed. “If you think I’m mad at you, I want you to know that I am not. I know that I speak too much sometimes, and I am not always the best at reading social cues. I am sorry if I bothered you earlier. I am not mad at you. Please, come lay down on the bed."

Well, shoot. Now Virgil had to. The couch and the floor were both really uncomfortable, but Virgil really hated the idea of sharing a bed. And he couldn’t refuse now, not without sounding like a jerk.

Reluctantly, Virgil picked up the pillow from the floor and tossed it back to Patton. He got up on the bed, not looking at Logan, and lay down as close to the edge as possible. He stayed on top of the covers, facing away from his friend.

Logan sighed. “Good night,” he said before reaching over to turn off the light.

…

Virgil had once again set an alarm for the next morning, but he would not let himself sleep. Not only was he in the same room with other people, but he was in the same freaking bed as somebody else.

No. No, he could not sleep.

No matter how ridiculously tired he was.

No matter how long a night seemed when you forced yourself to stay up through it.

Time passed. He spent most of it in a half-awake, hellish existence. At one point Virgil got up to check the time on his phone. It was almost sunrise. He got back into the bed, careful not to jostle it and wake Logan.

The night was almost over, but he still could not sleep.

No matter how comfortable this bed was.

No matter how much he wanted to.

No matter how...

No matter how...

Virgil’s eyes drifted shut.

…

The alarm woke him. Virgil’s entire body went rigid for a moment as the realization hit him, but he still managed to silence the alarm.

Virgil was well on his way to an anxiety attack. He quickly sat up, and saw that no one else had moved. The alarm hadn’t been very loud; it hadn’t even woken Logan, who was right beside him. He mumbled a bit now that Virgil moved, opening his eyes slowly. He turned over onto his back and looked up at Virgil sleepily. Virgil knew Logan’s vision was pretty poor. He must’ve just looked like a pale smudge to the other student.

Logan looked a little confused, but Virgil got up before he could say anything.

Virgil barely paused to grab a key card before leaving the room, sitting with his back against the wall in the hallway.

Deep breaths. Nobody saw. You were asleep for what, an hour? You’re okay.

“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” he whispered to himself, barely audible to his own ears.

Now that he was calmed down a little, Virgil really became aware of just how much everything hurt. He felt like he’d fallen down the stairs. Several times. His vision kept coming in and out of focus- at first, he’d blamed that on his panic, but he still couldn’t seem to keep his eyes focused.

“Damn it,” he muttered, rubbing his eyes with his fists.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there, just sitting in the hall, but eventually he pulled himself to his feet. This was a lot more difficult than it should have been, but he managed it. It took him three tries to get the key card into the lock, and considerably longer to get the door open.

The others were awake by now, and starting to get ready for the day. Nobody asked where Virgil had been, but this might have just been because he didn’t give them a chance. He grabbed his stuff and went straight to the bathroom for another icy shower, not looking anyone in the eye.

Chapter Text

Virgil had never felt so tired in his life. This, of course, was not a surprise. Ignoring that hour or so of sleep the previous night, Virgil had been awake for 96 hours. He couldn’t think straight. They were sitting at one of the tables by the hotel’s complimentary breakfast bar. Virgil just had a cup of coffee, which was already almost empty. He was trying to scroll through tumblr, but he couldn’t seem to understand any of what he was reading. He could have sworn that the words were dancing around on the screen, mocking him.

After a while, he sighed, put his phone away, and got up to get another cup of coffee. He didn’t remember walking there, but he was suddenly at the coffee pot, pouring a new cup for himself. That was weird, but Virgil just went with it. He finished pouring the new cup of coffee and turned to take it back to the table where his friends were sitting. As he did so, Virgil’s vision blurred. He blinked hard, trying to get it to go back to normal.

The coffee cup slipped out of Virgil’s hand. His eyes opened in surprise. He watched the cup fall as if in slow motion, watched it hit the floor, watched the hot liquid inside go flying.

Virgil swore under his breath. He stared at the mess spreading across the tile floor.

“-get somebody, come sit down.”

When did Roman get here?

Virgil found himself nodding, and being led back to the table where the others were sitting.

Everything snapped back into focus. Logan and Roman were staring at him in concern. “Are you okay, Virgil?” Logan said. Virgil got the feeling that this wasn’t the first time either of them had asked him this.

Virgil swallowed. “Yeah, I’m okay. I’m sorry. I feel a little sick.”

Logan frowned at him, searching his friend’s face, then slowly nodded. “Okay. Patton went to get someone to clean up the coffee. Are you sure you’re okay to go to the art museum today? I could talk to the professor.”

Virgil shook his head. He would love to stay at the hotel and sleep, but he didn’t want to miss going to the museum. And their attendance was part of their grade for their class. Virgil was pretty sure that if he didn’t go, their professor would assign him a large essay in its place. “No- no, that’s okay. I can go. I want to go. I feel a bit better already. I don’t know what that was, but I’m good.”

Logan and Roman glanced at each other doubtfully. “Only if you’re sure...” Roman said slowly.

Virgil nodded, ignoring how the room rippled around him as he did so. “I’m sure.”

Patton reappeared. “Hey, kiddo! That nice lady’s going to clean up the spill. No harm done.” He sat down at Virgil’s side, and Virgil found himself being pulled into a hug. Virgil sputtered a bit in surprise. Patton let go immediately.

“No- no.... Thanks, Patton.” Virgil said quickly. “Sorry you had to deal with that. I got lightheaded for a second.”

“You need to eat something,” Patton said sternly. “Not just drink all that coffee.” Virgil’s most dad-like friend got up, stalked away, and returned a moment later with a blueberry muffin. “Now, we’re not going anywhere until you finish this.”

Virgil sighed, but he did as Patton asked.

…

The bus rumbled along the busy Chicago streets. They were on their way to the Art Institute.

Virgil had a window seat again, and he was vaguely aware that this trip was taking a lot longer than it had the previous two days. The traffic must have been worse that day. Virgil didn’t know, or really care, why.

At one point, they were stopped in an area where Virgil could actually see a significant portion of the sky. Most of the time, buildings blocked the view from the bus windows.

Virgil looked up.

What beautiful clouds. They were tinted grayish, with golden rays of light filtering through here and there.

Were those just clouds?

No, they couldn’t just be clouds. No simple cloud could look so ethereal. So… magical.

That had to be a… not an angel, no, that was too simple. Maybe something like… a dragon… a witch. A dragon witch. That was it.

Virgil wanted to touch it. It was so beautiful. He reached out-

And his hand hit the window. Virgil drew his hand back and frowned. Wait a second. What was he doing?  

It was a cloud. A cloud. There was no such thing as a ‘dragon witch’.

Thankfully, Patton, who was seated beside him once again, hadn’t noticed this instance of Virgil’s strange behavior. He was in a conversation with Roman, Logan, and (Virgil was pretty sure) some other people. Patton was grinning as the others groaned at what must have been a pretty bad dad joke.

Virgil sank back in his seat and waited for them to arrive at the museum. God, he needed sleep.

…

They arrived at the museum, and everyone began filtering their way off of the bus. Virgil waited for his turn, and used the back of the seat in front of him to pull himself upright. Virgil’s feet, every joint in his body, every muscle, all cried out in protest. Virgil ignored them.

The seatbacks seemed to jump around and ripple as if seen underwater as Virgil passed them, trying to get to the front of the bus. Somehow, he made it, and slowly maneuvered his way down the steps and into the parking lot.

The Art Institute wasn’t made of marble. Limestone, maybe? Logan would know. It did have two lion statues, pale green in color. Virgil guessed they were oxidized, like the Statue of Liberty. Or maybe they were designed to look that way. He didn’t know, nor particularly care.

Their professor was saying something. Oops. Virgil turned to listen.

“The three exhibits I’m requiring you to visit are Arts of the Americas, American Art before 1900, and Modern American Art. You should be able to find them on a map. Other than that… you can all do as you like.”

Okay. Another day of walking around a museum, and then they’d be on their way home. Virgil could do this.

He was only a little suspicious that one of the lion statues was watching him as he walked past and entered the building.

Chapter Text

They’d been walking for hours. Virgil had completely lost track of where they were in the museum, but his friends seemed to know exactly where they were, so he didn’t worry too much about it. A lot of the paintings here were pretty cool, he supposed. Not everything here was colorful landscapes and soft, Renaissance portraits. There were some works with darker themes, too.

Virgil was willing to admit that he was a little surprised by how many statues were in the museum. Maybe it was just his sleep-deprived brain, but he had only expected there to be paintings in the Art Institute. The fact that there would be other types of art in the museum had completely slipped his mind. And there was a lot of art in this museum. There was a whole gallery of miniature rooms, whose intricate detail had fascinated all three of Virgil’s friends to no end.

Another gallery was dedicated to glass paper weights. Paper weights.  A lot of them had complex and striking designs, but still. They were paper weights.

…

At lunch, they sat with Joan, Talyn, and Valerie. Virgil let himself zone out for most of it, just messing around on his phone. He wasn’t paying attention to anything he came across, instead only going through the motions of it. He felt that it at least gave him an excuse to not talk to anyone. He almost forgot that they were there to have lunch. Had Patton not been so…well, Patton, Virgil probably would have forgotten to eat or drink anything at all.

Their lunch break was a short affair, and the students split up again once they went back out to see more exhibits. It took Virgil longer than he’d have liked to admit to notice that it was just the four of them again.

…

This was getting to be a bit much. Virgil was, understandably, having trouble walking in a straight line, and while sticking to the back of his group kept his friends from noticing, he was getting strange looks from other museum-goers, including other students from his college that they encountered. Each of the works of art had a sensor in front of it which beeped when someone got too close, and he had accidentally set off several of these alarms. It wasn’t because he leaned in too close to look at a painting’s details, but because he couldn’t seem to stop listing to one side or the other. And each time this happened, Virgil’s anxiety spiked. It wasn’t a good situation.

Virgil waited until the next time they came across a part of the gallery with somewhere to sit. “My feet hurt,” Virgil announced. This was not a lie- a part of him was starting to think that the bones in his feet had been replaced with broken glass. “I’m going to sit down for a while. I’ll catch up to you all later.”

“Oh. Okay, kiddo. Do you want me to stay with you?”

“No, I’m good. You go on.”

Patton stuck out his lower lip at him in a pout, but with a little more insistence, he and the others continued on without Virgil.

Virgil sat down heavily on the large black… ottoman? That probably wasn’t what it was called, but it was the closest thing he could think of. It was large enough for several people, and it didn’t have a back. Virgil wished it did, although he suspected that if he had collapsed in a chair with a back, he wouldn’t have been able to get up again.

After a while, Virgil wasn’t sure how long, he raised his eyes to the painting directly across from where he was sitting. It was mostly monochromatic: blue and white and black, with a little bit of orange-tinged brown in the corner. Eventually Virgil’s sluggish brain registered that he was looking at a painting of a musician sitting with his guitar. He looked as tired as Virgil felt.

He could have sworn the old man in the painting slowly strummed a tune on the guitar, although the part of Virgil’s mind that remained rational reminded him that this was impossible. But he could almost hear it, could almost hear the melancholic, slightly out-of-tune melody. He closed his eyes to listen.

No, there were too many people whispering in the gallery; he couldn’t hear the music. Virgil forced his eyes to reopen, which was an oddly difficult task. He regarded the painting again in silence.  

“Virgil?” Logan’s voice cut through the fog in his head.

Virgil turned his head towards the sound, his gaze not quite focused on the boy in front of him. “Hmmm.”

“Have you been here this whole time?”

Virgil didn’t offer a response, so with a sigh, Logan sat down at his side.

“I suppose that if one decides to stare at a piece of art for nearly an hour, this painting is not a poor choice,” Logan commented. “It’s called the Old Guitarist, by Pablo Picasso. Personally, I find pieces from his Blue Period preferable to many of his other works. I believe this particular painting was completed in 1904.”

Again, Virgil didn’t respond.

“I know something’s wrong, Virgil. Please let me help. Has something upset you?”

Virgil shook his head.

“Are you ill? Like this morning?”

Virgil shrugged.

“Would you like me to get someone?”

Virgil shook his head. After a few seconds of somewhat uncomfortable silence, Virgil cleared his throat. “I’m just tired. We’ve been walking a lot these past few days. I’m okay.”

Logan frowned, clearly not believing the casualness that his friend tried to convey, but to Virgil’s immense relief, he just stood and offered him a hand. “I’ll respect your wishes to not inform an authority figure, but you should know that I’m not leaving you by yourself.”

Virgil took the proffered hand, allowing Logan to pull him to his feet. He ignored the jolt of pain that this caused. “Where’s Patton and Roman?”

A less tired Virgil would have noticed how much effort Logan put into not correcting his grammar. “They’re in the next gallery; I told them that I would come to fetch you. Come on- we’ll go join them.”

Logan kept Virgil’s hand in his and more or less tugged him along- perhaps realizing that Virgil would not have followed had he let go- into another room. They rounded a corner, and there were Roman and Patton, admiring a painting that Virgil’s eyes refused to focus on.

…

Virgil was vaguely aware that the others were whispering to each other every time he strayed more than a few feet from the group. Were they making fun of him? If they were making fun of him they could at least tell him to his face.

Virgil would have confronted them about it, but he was reluctant to do such a thing. He just thought of what had happened the last time he had confronted something, with the yellow-gloved thief at the Field Museum.

…

When they were finally done at the art museum, the students were dropped back at the hotel. Virgil’s friends were discussing which restaurant they would go to for dinner, but Virgil was determined to sit this one out. This was his last opportunity to actually get some freaking sleep before they got back to school, since he knew there was no way he would be able to sleep in the room that night, let alone on the bus the next day.

He was a little surprised that his friends didn’t fight him this time. They let him stay in the hotel room alone, leaving with gentle hugs and a promise to bring him back something from the restaurant.

Virgil thought that this might be the most wonderful thing to have ever happened to him.

…

They were gone. Virgil couldn’t believe how much he was anticipating this. He quickly kicked off his shoes and took off his hoodie. After a second or two of hesitation, he double-checked that the blinds on the windows were completely shut, double-checked that the door was locked, and walked to stand in front of one of the beds.

Virgil should plug in his phone. He should brush his teeth. He should-

Okay, now he was just thinking of reasons not to go to sleep. He had to admit that he was a little apprehensive about it. What if he still couldn’t sleep, even if he tried?

But he was so tired, and Virgil’s exhaustion was much stronger than his anxiety.

He picked a bed at random and crawled into it, curling up on top of the covers. But luck was not on his side this week, was it?

Virgil had only just laid down when he heard a very loud knock at the door. With a groan of frustration, and an extraordinary amount of effort, Virgil got back on his feet. He flicked on the light, and opened the door.

Patton stood there, seemingly cheery as ever. “Sorry to interrupt, but I forgot to grab a key! I’m so silly. Logan and Roman were telling me-,”

“Patton,” Virgil interrupted, his tone harsher than he’d intended. “Just get your key and go.”

Patton’s smile faltered.

God, why wouldn’t he leave already? Virgil rubbed his eyes. “Please go,” he said softly.

“Virgil…”

“Patton,” Virgil said, taking a shaking breath. “I am too tired for this. Please.” He let his hands fall to his sides.

Patton was still just staring at him.

He was going to have to admit it, wasn’t he? Well, fine. “Patton, I have not slept since we left Florida.”

“You haven’t slept since we left Florida?!” Patton echoed. He sounded absolutely horrified. Virgil didn’t blame him.

“Well, I got like an hour of sleep last night, but other than that…” Virgil’s voice was barely a whisper. His head throbbed, and all he could think about was the bed less than ten feet away.

“Can I help? What do you need? Should I get Dr. Grant? I can make you some tea, or I can give you a back rub-,” Patton began to offer, but Virgil cut him off.

“I need you to leave!” he cried, his voice breaking. He was distantly aware of tears running down his cheeks.

Patton stared back at him, hurt plain on his face, and- oh, god, were those tears? Patton was crying. They were both crying.

I am not equipped to handle this, Virgil thought. And so for a moment, the two of them just stared at each other in a tense silence. Eventually, Virgil saw understanding bloom in his friend’s eyes.

“Okay, Virgil,” Patton said in a surprisingly gentle voice, rubbing away his tears with the back of one hand. When he took his hand away, his glasses were slightly crooked. “I’ll go. Just give me a second, okay? I’ll be out of here in a jiffy.”

Virgil deflated, letting Patton pass him. He watched as his friend grabbed a few items, distantly registering that he was grabbing some of Roman’s and Logan’s things as well. That was weird.

Patton was suddenly back in front of him again. Virgil blinked, a little surprised that he had somehow missed his approach. “…be back later tonight,” He was saying. “I’ll knock, I promise. You can do the chain so you know we won’t come in while you’re sleeping.”

Virgil stared at him.

“Virgil?”

Oh. Right. Virgil nodded to show that he had heard, feeling numb.

Patton smiled, but was unable to hide how heartbroken he felt even from someone as out of it as Virgil. “Alright. Sweet dreams.”

And he was gone, shutting the door with a click. Virgil slid the chain lock into place, staring at the pattern in the wooden door.

Was this really happening? Did he really get to sleep? Virgil felt like crying again, but all he did was flick off the light, shuffle over to the closest bed, and collapse onto it.

Virgil slept.

Chapter Text

Someone was knocking. Virgil groaned, curling up into a ball, not wanting to wake up yet. “Go away,” he said sleepily, not opening his eyes.

The knocking got louder, more insistent. Virgil could hear somebody saying something, asking to be let in. He opened his eyes, blinking groggily. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was and what was going on.

That was probably Patton knocking. And Virgil was pretty sure that he could hear Roman talking. He should let them in.

The alarm clock on the nightstand told him that it was nearly midnight. Why had they been gone so long? It hadn’t even been six thirty when they left. Virgil frowned, a little confused, before finally forcing himself to get out of bed, turn on the light, and open up the door.

“Jeez, Sleeping Beauty, we were only knocking for about ten minutes,” Roman was saying as he opened the door.

“We were not waiting for nearly that long,” Logan said, frowning. When the door opened wide enough for them to see Virgil, they all fell silent.

“Are you coming in or not?” Virgil asked, annoyed. He knew he probably looked like a mess, but they didn’t have to stare at him like that.

“Hi, kiddo! Are you feeling any better?” Patton asked brightly. He was the first to come in the door, and Virgil watched as he set his things down.

“Yeah, uh, thanks, Patton,” Virgil replied. “Much better.” The others had come in just behind Patton, and Logan closed the door. “Where’ve you guys been?”

“Oh, we just went to grab something to eat, and then we hung out with Joan and Talyn! Don’t worry, we brought you something from the restaurant.”

“You- you’ve been gone for like five hours,” Virgil pointed out.

“Patton insisted that we give you ample time to rest. It was clear that you have not been feeling well lately, especially today.”

Virgil felt himself flush red. That must’ve been why they were whispering to each other in the art museum. In fact, now that he could think more clearly, a lot of what he’d been doing recently struck him as rather embarrassing.

Patton, possibly wanting to distract Virgil from his embarrassment, handed Virgil a restaurant takeout container. “It’s okay! We just watched some Disney movies. There was a marathon on TV. Joan and Talyn didn’t mind.”

Virgil mumbled a “thanks”, not really sure what to do now.

Roman yawned. “Well, I’m going to go to bed. A prince has got to get his beauty sleep.”

…

Most of the lights in the room were off. Roman was asleep, but Patton, Virgil, and Logan were all still awake, sitting around a small table in the corner of the room. Virgil had just finished eating the sandwich that they’d brought back for him. Obviously, Patton had had to give the others a reason why Virgil should be left alone for so long, and since Patton hated lying, Virgil couldn’t bring himself to be all that surprised that he’d told Roman and Logan the truth. He wished he hadn’t, but it didn’t matter at this point. Roman might not have wanted to confront Virgil about this, but it seemed the others did.

“You could have told me sooner,” Patton was saying. He was clearly trying to be stern, but was impeded by how upset he was. Virgil was a little anxious that his friend would start crying again, but thankfully, Patton had spared him that so far.

“I can’t imagine why someone would go so long without rest. Sleep is very important to your well-being,” Logan was saying. His tone was less emotional, but Virgil could tell that he was upset too. Logan took a breath, probably about to launch into a speech about the effects of sleep deprivation, but Virgil held up a hand.

“I’m really not in the mood for a lecture, guys,” he said flatly. He rubbed his eyes. He could imagine what a mess he looked like right now- dark bags under his eyes, messy hair, eyeshadow smudged from crying and from the pillow.  

“Are you sure you can’t get any more sleep tonight, kiddo?” Patton asked finally, his voice quiet.

Virgil let out a dry laugh. “What do you think I’ve been doing all week, Patton? You think I haven’t tried?”

“No, it’s just…” Patton broke off, his voice failing him.

“Anyway,” Virgil sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s almost one in the morning. You two should get to bed.”

Logan frowned at the irony of that statement. “You do, too, Virgil. You don’t have to sleep, but you should at least lay down and rest your eyes.”

“I will,” Virgil sighed, watching as his two friends started to get ready for bed.

Once they were both in bed, Virgil started to get himself ready to at least lie back down. He went to grab his toothbrush and pajamas, and paused in confusion. There was a shopping bag from the Art Institute with his stuff. He opened it up as quietly as possible and pulled out an art print that he definitely didn’t remember buying. It was of Picasso’s Old Guitarist, the painting that he had believed to be serenading him in the gallery. Now that he thought about it, Virgil vaguely remembered being in a gift shop, but not much else about it. At least the print wasn’t all that expensive.

Shaking his head at himself, he put it away, and went to brush his teeth.

…

Virgil was right. He looked like a mess.

His hair looked like something had been living in it, his eyes were red, and his eyeshadow had been smeared everywhere. But hey. At least the others had been nice enough not to mention it.

Virgil carefully wiped off what remained of his makeup, and wrestled his hair into something resembling neatness. He still looked like a tired raccoon, but there was only so much he could do. He was no miracle worker.

Virgil brushed his teeth, changed into his pajamas, and crawled into bed. He stayed on the edge again; and while he did allow himself to close his eyes, this time, he did not sleep.

…

“So, ‘Sleeping Beauty’?” Virgil asked Roman as they waited to get on the bus.

“What? It was a clever nickname. I’m allowed to find my friends objectively handsome.”

Virgil snorted.

“You’re really okay, though?” Roman’s tone was almost shy.

“Yeah, I’ll be good. I’ll just sleep when we get home.”

Roman sighed, but like the others, he seemed to realize that there was no point in arguing. It was almost their turn to board, anyway, and other people’s conversations were making it a little hard to hear each other.

…

Patton absolutely demanded that Virgil sit next to him on the way home, and when Patton got like this, there was no arguing. Besides, Virgil was pretty happy to know that someone wanted to sit by him, even if he couldn’t keep a part of himself from believing that it was only out of guilt.

“Who sat here on the way up?” Virgil asked as he pushed his bag under the seat, a little timid about potentially taking someone’s spot.

“Joan,” Patton admitted. “But they wanted to sit with Talyn on the way back.”

Virgil paused to yawn, then nodded in relief.

“Do you have your snow globe?” Patton asked.

“Yeah, of course.” Virgil said, the corner of his mouth turning up in a smile. “I wouldn’t leave that behind.”

Patton ducked his head, a bit of a blush coloring his cheeks.

Chapter Text

Virgil may have been feeling better than he had the previous day, but the fact remained that he had only slept six hours in the past week. He was still very tired, and his feet and joints were still voicing their complaints quite loudly.

So each time the coach bus stopped, whether it was for a meal or to refuel, and Virgil was forced to get up and walk, he was not exactly happy about it.

It was currently one such occasion. They were refueling, and for reasons Virgil still didn’t understand, everyone had to get off the bus until this was finished. Virgil waited until all of the students ahead of his friends got off the bus, then pulled himself to his feet.

Patton glanced sharply over at Virgil at the latter’s involuntary hiss of pain. “You okay, kiddo?”

“I’m great,” Virgil muttered. “Let’s just go.”

There were some benches by the gas station’s store, but they were all filled, so Virgil and his friends sat down on the curb. Virgil tried not to wince as he did so, aware that the others were watching him closely.

“So, do you gents have any homework left to do for next week?” Roman asked, seemingly just to break the silence.

“I have finished all of my readings, and I completed my astronomy project before we departed on this trip,” Logan said. Virgil felt that that was way too many words to say what could have been said with one: ‘No.’

“What about you, Virgil?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t think so,” Virgil shrugged. “I might have some Spanish, but I’ll have to check.”

“You’re taking Spanish?” Roman said, looking delighted. “How did I not know this?” He started speaking excitedly in rapid Spanish, but Virgil quickly cut him off.

“Roman, Roman. I’m in Spanish 102. I have no clue what you’re saying.”

“Oh, right, of course. Well, if you ever need any help, you can ask me!”

“Will do, Romano.”

…

The sun had set, and Virgil was using one of the overhead lights to see as he doodled in his sketchbook. He had learned his lesson from the drive to Chicago, and was determined to save his phone battery so that he could listen to music that night.

“What are you drawing?” Patton asked, looking over.

Virgil’s pen froze over the page. “It’s… a dragon witch,” he admitted.

“A dragon witch?” echoed a voice from the seat in front of him. Roman turned around. “That sounds fantastic! Surely a beast worthy of being vanquished by yours truly. May I see?”

Virgil silently passed him the sketchbook, feeling the tips of his ears burn.

“I don’t know how you managed to draw this on a bus, in pen,” Roman said, sounding awed. “It’s great!”

“Yeah?”

“Of course! A prince never lies.”

…

The night wore on, and by now all of the overhead lights had been turned off. Virgil had put away his sketchbook, and he was now listening to music with his headphones.

Patton was apparently trying to stay awake with him as some sort of solidarity, but by two in the morning, Virgil’s friend had started to doze off. At first, he would jerk back awake whenever this happened, but he gradually listed to the side until finally his head came to rest on Virgil’s shoulder.

Virgil didn’t mind, even if Patton’s hair did tickle a little against his neck. It was kind of sweet. Determined not to move too much and wake his friend, Virgil put his head back against the headrest and listened to the playlist he had queued up.

Virgil almost laughed when he realized what song was playing. It was kind of ironic.

Wake me up

Wake me up inside

Can’t wake up

Save me

Call my name and save me from the dark

…

When Patton woke up the next morning, he was rather embarrassed to find that he’d fallen asleep on Virgil’s shoulder, but Virgil reassured him that it was okay.

“I would have woken you up if it bothered me,” he said.

“Okay…” Patton said, his cheeks still a little pink. He looked up at Virgil. “Did you-?”

“No,” Virgil sighed. “No, I didn’t get any sleep.”

…

They were finally home.

Everyone was very impatient to leave, so rather than deal with the crowd of students shoving their way to the parking lot, Virgil just sat and waited for things to calm down.

When it was just the stragglers left, Virgil finally started to get up. He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, moving his headphones to hand around his neck. A few moments of awkward shuffling later, and they were at the front of the bus. Virgil followed Patton down the steps and into the sunshine.

He waved a quick good-bye to his friends and started walking, only to be cut off by Patton. His friend had jogged after him and was now physically blocking him from getting in his car.

“Virgil, if you really think I’m letting you drive in that state, I don’t even know what to say to you.”

“I wasn’t going to drive,” Virgil groaned, shifting on his painful feet. He’d planned to try to sleep in the back seat. He wasn’t stupid.

“Come back with me,” Patton offered. “You can get some sleep at my place, and then we can come back for your car. Okay?”

Virgil knew he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, so he just sighed, nodded, and followed his friend to his own car.

…

The sky was streaked with pinks and oranges as the sun began to set. Virgil and Patton had just arrived at Patton’s apartment building, which was only a few minutes’ drive from campus. It was a nice building; much nicer than Virgil’s.

Patton’s apartment was no less welcoming. It was a cozy space with pale yellow walls and fairy lights strung across the ceilings, which cast a comforting glow over everything. Carefully framed photos and art hung on the walls. The place had a very cheerful, bright atmosphere. Virgil probably looked rather out of place.

Patton had Virgil leave his shoes by the door, then turned to him and put his hands together. “Do you want some dinner first, or…?”

“No, I’m just going to sleep, if that’s alright.”

“Of course, kiddo, whatever you need.”

“Where should I…?”

“Come on, you can take my room.” Patton started down the hall, ignoring Virgil’s protests. He opened the first door on their left. “Here you go!”

“Patton…”

“Don’t you argue with me. I know you’re exhausted. Go to sleep.”

“Fine,” Virgil groaned. “Wake me up at ten, okay? I just need a few hours, and then I’ll be good.”

“Just go to sleep, Virge,” Patton replied, patting him once on the shoulder before going back out into the living room.

Virgil locked the door, and went over to the bed. It was covered in stuffed animals, which did not surprise him. He cleared a space for himself and lay down without taking off his hoodie, pulling a fluffy blue blanket over himself. He glanced at the clock on the wall, which he was amused to see had a design of little cats running around the edges. It was barely 6:30.

Virgil pulled the blanket up to his neck and let his eyes drift shut.

…

Virgil woke slowly. He was so warm, so comfortable. He didn’t want to get up.

But Virgil didn’t have a blanket this fluffy. His blankets were thick and heavy, meant to help with his anxiety. Slightly confused, Virgil opened his eyes.

Light streamed in through soft yellow curtains, dancing across the opposite wall. He was in Patton’s room, he remembered. Of course.

But… it was daytime. How long had he been asleep?

“Patton?” Virgil pushed the blanket off of himself and got up, blinking sleep from his eyes. He went to the door and unlocked it, looking out into the hall.

Patton looked up from his spot on the sofa. He was scribbling in a coloring book with crayons. “Oh, hi, Virgil! Did you sleep okay?”

“Patton… it’s morning. I told you to wake me at ten. As in PM.”

“Well, you just looked so tired,” Patton replied, setting down his crayons and the coloring book. “I did try to wake you earlier to see if you wanted breakfast, but you didn’t answer.”

“What time is it?”

“About 11:30.”

Virgil’s mouth fell open. “I was asleep for- for seventeen hours?!”

Patton shrugged. “You needed it, kiddo.”

Virgil rubbed his eyes, exasperated, but he had to admit Patton had a point. He did feel a lot better.

“So, Virgil, how about I make us some lunch, and then we can go pick up your car? What do you say?”

Virgil looked over at his friend. He wanted to be annoyed, but he couldn’t help but crack a smile. “…Yeah, okay.”