Analogical week day 4: AU
+
Day 5: rain/library
(+ also day 3: jam and day 2: crushes)

5+1 fics my beloved lmao

Soulmate au, names on wrists, college au

Warnings: lots of anxiety, anxiety attacks, tears, virgil has a dead parent, past toxic friends, but like this is mostly fluff as always i swear

--

[1]

Virgil always sat alone in all his classes, he had worked hard to achieve that solitude for the entire first year of college, using his emo-ish style, his constant headphones, his unusual makeup, and his resting bitch face to discourage anyone from as much as thinking of seating themselves in the corner of the back of the classroom where Virgil always sat. It had always worked wonderfully well.

So why the fuck was someone seating themselves next to him? There were at least four other empty seats to choose from.

He glanced to the side to see which of the other students that was taking soulmate studies it was that had chosen to ruin his day, seeing a guy his age (probably). Virgil actually didn't recognize him.

Well, there were a lot of people from all his classes that he wouldn't have recognized, but this guy was wearing a button up and a tie, and how many college students wore ties? That he would have noticed before, just as he recognized the other people that had dyed hair and the guy who always wore a frog hat and the person that always slept in every class.

Except for the fact that he was wearing a dark blue tie he looked fairly average, short brown hair, black thick-rimmed glasses, a little less pale than Virgil was.

His seat neighbor looked up from the backpack he had been digging through, putting the class' textbook, a notebook, and a pen in front of himself. Then he looked to the side, right at Virgil, and Virgil quickly looked away and stared straight ahead at their professor who was trying and failing to show a powerpoint.

"Hello, my name is Logan Crofters, I just transferred to this college. Is the professor of this class any good?" He said despite Virgil's obvious attempt to be left alone.

Virgil tensed in his seat, not only because some random stranger decided to talk to him, but mostly because of the name, the full name, he had used to introduce himself with.

Virgil kept his eyes fixed on the first slide of the powerpoint that the professor had finally managed to get to work, pretending as if he hadn't heard the guy, Logan, say anything at all, and luckily his stubborn silence seemed to deter the other as after a few moments of absolute silence between them Logan sighed and opened his textbook.

Logan Crofters.

Had Virgil really heard him right? He hoped he hadn't because how many people had that exact name and what were the chances of Virgil meeting one of them that weren't his soulmate? Was it more probable than meeting the one that was the soulmate?

Of course there were more people with the same name that were not his soulmate, but people always stumbled upon their soulmate somehow and there was no guarantee for Virgil to meet any other Logan Crofters'. Soulmates were interesting like that, they always popped up in their soulmates lives one way or another.

Virgil dared another glance at the guy next to him who was following along to the powerpoint with obvious interest, taking notes of everything. The long sleeves of his button-up covered his wrists and Virgil couldn't see what Logan's soulmate's name was.

He buried his face in his arms, resting against the table, and tried to not make it obvious that he was sort of panicking a little, going through a breathing exercise in his head and trying to find where he kept his common sense.

What did people do when they found someone who could be their soulmate? Ask them to show their wrists so they could compare names?

Virgil would rather miss out on his soulmate than ask that, how incredibly embarrassing wouldn't it be if he did and this Logan Crofters had someone else's name on his wrist? Just the thought made Virgil want to crawl out of his skin and find a hole to die in.

He ignored his seat neighbour for the rest of the class, adamantly telling himself that this was just someone with the same name as his soulmate, because what were the chances of him meeting his soulmate in the stupid and obligatory soulmates studies class?

Hell, what were the chances of him meeting, and actually realizing that he had met, his soulmate at all? The average age for soulmates to meet was twenty five to thirty five, which he knew from taking this class for a year already, and honestly, Virgil would absolutely have the luck to meet his soulmate at the age of sixty or something.

There had always been something calming about thinking that he wouldn't meet his soulmate until in lots and lots of years, because as anxious as Virgil was he obviously found the whole soulmate thing pretty scary.

Having a soulmate and not screwing that relationship up was a lot of responsibility that Virgil wasn't sure if he found worth it.

Virgil peeked up from his hiding place in his arms, then sitting up a bit straighter and digging his phone out of his pocket, hunching over it as he googled how many people in Florida had his soulmate's name.

He leaned his forehead against the edge of the table, sighing. Ten people? Ten. That was simultaneously so many and so few people, somehow. And that didn't count the rest of the country or the rest of the world, his soulmate didn't need to be in the same state as him.

It was only a little bit comforting that people tried their best to give their children unique names to make it easier to find their soulmate, but his soulmate could be anywhere.

...Including right next to him.

It was irresistible not to glance up at maybe-his-soulmate again although he immediately disregarded it as a bad choice when Logan looked at him and they had some accidental eye contact for about a second. At least he was scowling and had to have come off as unfriendly.

It felt as if that class lasted for hours and hours and as they were finally dismissed Virgil was the first one out of the classroom, urged on to flee at the sight of Logan opening his mouth to attempt to socialize with him again as they were packing their bags.

Maybe he could just skip that class for the next few days. His general anxiety about everything, and college stress, was enough, he didn't need the stress of having a Logan Crofters in his life. He would deal with the whole possibly soulmates thing sometimes later.

He didn't know what the chances of them not being soulmates were, but he feared that it was smaller than the chance of them being soulmates.

--

[2]

Virgil did exactly what he had wanted to and skipped his soulmate studies classes for over a week, but then his anxiety over failing a class won over his anxiety to find out if that guy had been his soulmate or not, which was really inconvenient because on Fridays that class was at nine thirty in the morning and Virgil had really enjoyed sleeping instead.

He managed to show up late, though, because he had forgotten to turn his alarm back on. He was only ten minutes late because his unconscious mind had apparently sounded the alarm bells at the suspicious amount of sleep that he was getting and he hadn't woken up much later than he was supposed to.

When he had finally forced himself to enter the classroom despite the anxiety-inducing fact that people were going to look at him he had walked right towards his usual spot only to notice that that Logan guy was still sitting in the seat next to his.

He contemplated sitting somewhere else, but that was his seat and no one should be able to take that from him. He marched right up to his spot and sat down without sparing Logan as much as a glance.

Having had a week to freak out over possibly finding his soulmate he had decided that, soulmate or not, he wasn't Virgil's problem. He was certainly not going to do any kind of detective work to find out if they were soulmates or not, that would be stupid and embarrassing and he was too anxious for that shit.

"Alright class," his professor said tiredly, walking around and giving everyone a paper describing their next assignment, "your new assignment is a group project about what we have been learning for the past few weeks since the semester started."

That was enough to have Virgil's insides go cold. Group projects were his worst enemy, he hated working with other people. Group projects should have been left behind in high school.

Either he had to work with someone who did nothing and made them both get a terrible grade, or he was the person making them get a terrible grade on their project because his contributions sucked or he was too anxious to be helpful.

The professor walked past them, leaving two papers on the table as he continued towards the front of the classroom again. Logan gave him one of the papers.

"You're all sitting next to someone so that's the person you will work with. If you're sitting next to several people then your group can be three or four people but you have to be working with at least one other person. In four weeks you will perform an oral presentation together. Feel free to ask questions if there's anything you're confused about." He continued monotonously, sitting down by his desk again and looking out over the classroom.

Virgil's insides turned to ice instead, finding that a better reaction to the information he had just had to take in. An oral presentation. With the person he was sitting next to.

Virgil shakily raised his hand in the air despite how much he hated bringing attention to himself, cursing himself for having turned up for class. He should have just skipped class for a few more days to spare himself the overwhelming anxiety that he already felt despite not even having looked closer to the assignment yet.

The professor looked up, clearly seeing his hand being raised, and ignored it, instead turning to address the entire class again.

"And before anyone asks, no, you cannot do the project alone or write an essay instead. Oral presentations and group projects are part of the curriculum. If you don't do this I will have to fail you this semester." He asid, crushing the little hope that Virgil had had.

Last year the professor had been cool enough to let him write essays instead of having oral presentations as they made Virgil anxious enough to feel sick. Clearly the professor they had this year wasn't as considerate.

Virgil lowered his hand and tried to breathe through the painfully tight feeling in his chest. Logan turning towards him to catch his attention did not help and Virgil wondered how hard he could clutch at his phone before it broke and a million tiny shards of glass from his screen would embed themselves into his hands.

"Seems like we are going to be working together." He said. "I can show you what we have been reading about during the past week so you know what our project will be about, since you haven't been in class."

"I- I'll be right back." Virgil managed, slipping from his chair and hurrying out of the classroom. It wasn't much of a win that the professor at least didn't ask where he was going.

He found a nearby bathroom that almost no one ever used, which he knew from all the times he had had to excuse himself from class to find somewhere private to fend off an anxiety attack.

Despite the past ten years of practice he wasn't that good at that and spent half an hour hyperventilating and clutching a bathroom sink, trying to remember how his breathing exercises went and doing a shitty job at it.

Eventually he calmed down slightly, repeating a chant about things not being as horrible as he thought in his head even if it didn't do much to help because at the moment everything did feel absolutely awful and terrible and maybe he should just drop this class.

Except this class was obligatory and maybe he should just drop out altogether and get a job at some coffee shop or grocery store and live on minimum wage because a college education probably wouldn't keep him from a minimum wage job anyway and everything was pointless.

He wiped his eyes and nose on the sleeve of his hoodie, splashing his face with some cold water in an attempt to make himself look and feel less gross. It didn't do much, he was sure anyone who looked at him could tell that he had run off to panic and cry.

The thought of going back to class again was terrible, not only did he look like a mess and couldn't trust that he wouldn't burst out crying when he read the summary of the assignment, he had also fucked right off and left Logan to deal with the assignment alone for over half an hour and how could he just sit down and ask where they should start now?

Virgil didn't care that his backpack was left behind in the classroom, he gave up and decided the entire day wasn't worth it, going back home to his dorm. It wasn't even ten thirty yet and Virgil was exhausted and still felt like dropping out or crying or both.

He settled on going back to bed, kicking his pants and socks off and crawling in under his covers. Screw his other classes, today was already shit and he had no energy left to deal with anything.

He curled into a ball and tried not to feel stupid, knowing that something like an oral presentation didn't warrant a reaction like this, but his anxiety disorder rarely agreed.

(He should start seeing a therapist again, he really should.)

Apparently he managed to fall asleep because he woke up later, experiencing a few seconds of sleepy calmness before he remembered his morning. He rolled over and groaned into his pillow before finding his phone that had fallen out of his hoodie pocket. Luckily it hadn't broken from him sleeping on it and he could check the time, seeing that he had been sleeping for three hours.

That meant he still had two classes left that he had not missed yet, but he allowed himself to make the bad choice of remaining in bed.

He didn't have his textbooks anyway, those were left behind with his backpack in the soulmate studies classroom. Virgil made another frustrated noise that was dampened by his pillow, reminded by the fact that his bad choices were indeed bad and made him feel worse in the long run.

He scooted over to the edge of his bed, contemplating getting up and getting something to eat because it was past lunchtime and he hadn't had any breakfast before his morning class, but hunger just wasn't as effective of a motivation to get out of bed as it should be.

The sudden knock on his door was, though, Virgil being startled enough to fall out of bed. He untangled himself from his covers, reaching for a pair of sweatpants that were lying on his floor and hastily pulling them on, wondering who the hell could be knocking on his door.

He hadn't made any friends, was always too anxious to bother talking to anyone, and his dad never visited (especially not unannounced). It was probably someone knocking on the wrong door, or had they even knocked on his door or did it just sound like it even if they knocked on a neighbors door?

He opened the door to his dorm anyway just in case, coming face to face with no one other than Logan Crofters.

"How the fuck do you know where I live?" He blurted before thinking, the other man taking a small step back.

"Ah, hello, well, you left your things behind and in a textbook you had written down your dorm hall and room." Logan said, which Virgil remembered doing because he hated the idea of having to buy a new textbook just because he forgot it somewhere.

"Yeah that shit was expensive." Virgil muttered quietly, taking his backpack from his classmate and putting it down behind his door.

"Right, uh, thanks. And... sorry for just disappearing." He said, thinking that he shouldn't be too unfriendly and rude towards someone he would need to make a school project with for the next few weeks. He didn't want to make any friends but he wasn't trying to actively make enemies either, he was already his own enemy and that was work enough.

"I assume you had your reasons." Logan said, though he didn't sound entirely convinced. Virgil didn't care, he wasn't going to tell him he had left to have an anxiety attack and then wallow in his own misery in bed.

"Would you like to work on our project? I assume not, based on how you have been acting so far, but I really need to keep my grades up and this grade is fairly dependent on how we do on this oral presentation." Logan said matter-of-factly, and Virgil already felt bad about how he was surely going to drag Logan's grade down.

"Um, sure." He said hesitantly but not daring to decline the invitation.

"Good. Would you like to study here or at the library or somewhere else?" He asked, which was awfully considerate of him when Virgil had been such a jerk so far.

"Um," Virgil said, trying to think of what would work best, his stomach helping by growling loudly, "maybe somewhere with food? I haven't eaten."

He felt bad and like an inconvenience to ask, but Logan didn't seem annoyed, at least not outwardly.

"We can go to the Subway on the way to the library." Logan suggested, stepping back to make room for Virgil to step outside too.

"Just give me a minute to change. Promise not to climb out the window." Virgil said and closed the door, immediately berating himself for trying to make a joke. Shutting up was much less dangerous, he was pretty sure he wasn't funny.

He changed as quickly as he could, dressing in his ripped jeans instead of the sweatpants that he was pretty sure he remembered spilling ramen noodles on a few days ago, and rolling on a bit more deodorant in case he had been sweating the previous layer off during his bout of anxiety.

He really didn't want to make a worse impression than his previous two.

Before stepping outside he tried making his hair less of a mess, using his phone camera as a mirror but giving up pretty quickly. He opened the door, grabbing his backpack before joining Logan.

He locked his door and checked that it was really locked, then putting his hand in his pocket about ten times during the time it took them to get to the Subway, having to remind himself he had not left the keys at home or dropped them anywhere.

Virgil got his late lunch, devouring it during the walk to the college campus. He let Logan be the one to get them their own study room since he was already experiencing enough anxiety today, and soon they were both seated in a small room with a table and a couple of chairs and a whiteboard.

"Alright, you missed last week's classes and I missed the first four weeks since I did not go to this college yet, so I propose that we trade information. Then we can look over the assignment instructions and decide what our presentation should focus on. Does that sound like a plan?" Logan wondered, pulling up his textbook from his backpack.

"Yeah, sounds good." Virgil said even if he absolutely hated the thought of practically relearning everything that they had been doing in class for the entirety of the semester so far. He didn't feel that he was allowed to complain.

He got his own textbook out of his backpack, finding his notebook too. Though looking through his notebook only confirmed that he had taken no notes and only doodled for the first four weeks of classes.

Great. Fantastic. He was going to be so helpful.

"Okay, um, I'm gonna have to refresh my memory." He said, opening his textbook to the first chapter.

"Maybe we can start with both reading the first five chapters." Logan said, seeming to understand that Virgil didn't have much information to share. The silence that followed as they both read their textbooks felt incredibly embarrassing and Virgil was really close to apologizing for being his partner in this group project.

But, he reminded himself, that was Logan's own fault as he had been so overly adamant to sit next to someone so unfriendly as Virgil.

He put his headphones on and forced himself to focus on the text that was sadly just as boring and difficult to focus on as in any other textbook. His music and the fear to only be a liability spurred him on, at least.

It took him an hour to get through the text despite the fact that reading was one of his few talents, because he wasn't good at reading when it was boring. He leaned back in his chair with a sigh as he finally got to the end of chapter five, taking a moment to quietly watch Logan who had finished reading and was now going through the chapters and taking notes.

"Is there anything I can call you? I've introduced myself but you haven't. If we are going to be working together for four weeks I would like to have a name to use for you." Logan asked, not looking up from whatever he was writing down, apparently not fooled by Virgil acting as if he hadn't heard him the first time they met.

"You can call me Verge." He said, refusing to give up his real name. His teachers didn't even know his real name, he didn't tell anyone his real name. Anyone he had to introduce himself to got the nickname Verge.

"Verge, alright." Logan said, seemingly testing the name out. Virgil was thankful he didn't demand to know his actual name.

No one had to give their full name unless they were at the bank or in court or signing a contract or something else important, in case people didn't want others to be able to identify who their soulmate was or try to impersonate them by covering the name they actually had on their wrist and writing down another.

Though there were people who thought that was rude and information they deserved and they could be really unpleasant to run into. Virgil had had to listen to three people lecture him about his choices when only giving them a nickname and not elaborating when they asked him to.

"Let's take a look at the assignment." Logan said, pulling out the two papers their professor had given them from his backpack and handing Virgil one of them.

There were six prompts to choose between and according to the instructions they had to choose at least two prompts to make their presentation about and at most all six. Virgil had the feeling that Logan wouldn't want to do bare minimum.

"Do you have any favorites between the prompts?" Logan wondered, already adding notes by some of the points on his paper.

"Not really, but I really don't wanna do the fifth one if that's alright." He said, grimacing at it. Logan immediately looked down to check which prompt that was.

"Explain how you would feel and what you would do if you met your soulmate, or how you felt and what you did when meeting your soulmate." He read.

"Mhm." Virgil said, confirming that that was the one he didn't want to bring up in front of the rest of the class.

"That's a rather personal one, I can understand not wanting to share that. I do not think I could even give an accurate idea of how I would react to meeting my soulmate. It would likely depend on how we met and when and if it's a stranger or someone I know. Something like that could not be decided before it happens." Logan said, absentmindedly touching his right wrist.

The soulmark that Virgil knew was there was hidden by the sleeve of the jacket Logan was wearing.

"I'm pretty sure if I met my soulmate I would freak out." Virgil said with a snort, avoiding mentioning that he already had been freaking out over the mere possibility when first meeting the man in front of him. Logan leaned his head to the side slightly, furrowing his brows in what Virgil was pretty sure was confusion.

"Why?" He asked, just as Virgil had thought he would. To be fair, most people were overjoyed to meet their soulmates and longed their entire lives until they would find their 'destined one'.

"I dunno, it just seems kind of stressful to suddenly be faced with someone who is supposed to be perfect for you. Feels like something you don't wanna mess up, right? I'm stressed enough by my classes, I don't need the responsibility of a soulmate. Besides, I don't know who could put up with me for the rest of our lives." He said, shrugging and pretending that he wasn't terrified that his soulmate, no matter who it was, would decide that him and his accompanying anxiety disorder was too much to deal with.

He wouldn't blame them, but it would still hurt.

"That makes sense, it is a lot of responsibility. I am a firm believer that being soulmates does not just make you automatically perfect for each other, that is, for a lack of a better word, bullshit and exactly why there are soulmates who do not work out together. It just means that if you are willing to put in the work that any relationship requires then you could be perfect for each other. You are not automatically perfect for anyone, but you have the potential to be." Logan said, flipping through his soulmate studies textbook.

"The fact that 'soulmates are always perfect for each other' is a rhetoric that a lot of cults adopt should tell people all they need to know, if I am being honest." Logan added.

Comforted by the fact that Logan was not a total idiot, and that he was not looking directly at him, he dared a little smile.

" I agree." He said. "Can't understand the people that think your soulmates will just automatically find you perfect. Those are probably the same people that think you have to marry your soulmates."

"Yes, my older sibling has had to face people like that just because they do not wish to marry their soulmate that they have a queerplatonic relationship with. I do not understand why that would be necessary. Being soulmates is about being happy together, not showing off your relationship." Logan said, shaking his head before looking up at Virgil. He was pretty sure that Logan was almost smiling.

"You know, everything we just said fits into prompt one and two, I'm going to go ahead and write it down as a first draft kind of thing." Logan said and pulled a laptop out of his backpack.

"Go ahead. I think that we can maybe use the fifth prompt too, actually, if we talk about the stuff you said, because it's definitely true that predicting your reaction to meeting our soulmate is pretty difficult and can absolutely depend on a lot of things, and that way we can answer it without having to say anything personal." He suggested.

"Smart thinking, Verge." Logan said and Virgil felt far too excited about the fact that he had been able to be helpful in the least.

They discussed the other prompts for their presentation, deciding to go with all of them as Logan seemed adamant to get an A, and after working on the assignment for four hours with Logan Virgil had to admit to himself that he was much, much, less stressed and anxious about it.

Which did make him feel even more stupid about his anxiety attack, but he tried to ignore that.

Actually reminding himself that the finished product was going to be an oral presentation that they both had to participate in did spike his anxiety each time, but he would have to deal with that later. There were weeks left until he had to actually present it and there was no point in freaking out about it constantly until it was over.

Not that that would stop him...

Logan shut his laptop and his textbook, the movements getting Virgil's attention and returning him from the anxiety spiral he had been nearing.

"You know, Verge, I think we have done a lot of important work today and despite your earlier reluctance I have to say that you have been incredibly helpful and I think we will work well together." He said, putting his things back into his backpack.

"Oh, um, good." Virgil said, having no idea how to respond to something like that and fearing that his face had gone a bit red.

"May I have your phone number? It would be ideal to be able to reach you." He said and Virgil fumbled for his phone, almost dropping it.

"Type your number in." He said, finding his contacts and where to add a new one before giving his phone to Logan. Then, when Logan had done that, he texted him a quick 'hey'.

"Thank you. Maybe we can meet up to work some more this weekend, or we will see each other on Tuesday for our next soulmate studies class." Logan said, getting up from his chair and Virgil scrambled to collect his own things, following him out of the study room.

"Yeah, sure. I've got no plans for the weekend." Virgil said despite the fact that meeting with Logan to study would very much interfere with his plans to lie in bed and watch Netflix and live off of microwave popcorn while boldly ignoring the schoolwork that he needed to do.

"Then I might text you." Logan said as they walked through the library and outside. The sun was shining brightly outside, all the clouds from earlier that day gone. It was a lot warmer and Virgil contemplated taking his hoodie off before remembering that he absolutely would not.

Logan, however, did not seem to share Virgil's worries and set his backpack down to be able to take his jacket off, then folding it up and putting it in his backpack.

"Right, see you later then, Verge." Logan said, turning towards him and extending a hand. A handshake seemed awfully formal but Virgil took his hand anyway and couldn't help but to glance down, the deep purple of the soulmark catching his eye so easily.

There was no ignoring that Virgil Crowell-Storm was the name that was written on Logan's wrist.

"See you." He said, hoping that his voice didn't sound as strangled to Logan as it had to himself.

The two of them continued in different directions and Virgil wasn't sure he actually remembered to breathe for the entire time it took him to get back to his dorm.

His name was on Logan's wrist, there was absolutely no denying that it was his name and it was rare enough that it had to be impossible for the two of them to have soulmates other than each other.

It was needless to say that he had not finished panicking yet that day.

--

[3]

Actually, Virgil thought as the two of them were walking the last few steps towards the soulmate studies classroom, having to perform a presentation in front of the entire class was way worse than realizing that Logan was really, definitely, no doubts about it, his soulmate.

Sure, the two of them being soulmates had made him so anxious that he had actually been feeling too sick to attend his classes on Monday, although the nausea-level of anxiety had subsided pretty quickly once the soulmate studies class that he shared with his soulmate had passed.

But, they had spent a lot of time working on their project together since then and Virgil had had to face the fact that Logan was pretty cool and nice and not all that scary even if he was supposed to be his soulmate.

And their oral presentation was something that he had to face pretty much now and it hadn't really hit him properly until Logan had shown up outside his dorm to accompany him to class that it was really happening.

Okay, there was an hour left until class started, but his entire body and mind was dead set on him panicking that entire time because time passed so quickly when he was dreading something and any moment now he would have to walk up in front of the entire fifty person class and they were going to hold their presentation and Logan was going to be brilliant and he was going to choke on his words and maybe throw up and they would get an F and then Logan would hate him and-

"Verge, are you feeling alright? You don't look very good." Logan said and Virgil looked over at him to find him observing him with a worried expression instead of mouthing along to the text that they would soon present.

"Fine." He managed, shoving his hands into his pockets to hide how bad they were shaking, but based on how he felt as if his entire body was trembling it didn't hide much. He felt sick and he genuinely worried that he was actually going to throw up. It was not as if it hadn't happened before.

"Be right back." He said, voice coming out a bit choked and raspy, but that was the least of his worries as he cut off the insistent walking back and forth that he had been doing for the past eternity that they had been standing outside the classroom, hurrying away towards the toilets.

In the empty bathroom he resumed his mindless wandering back and forth, biting his nails despite there not being much left to bite and the stinging in his fingers from where he had bitten down his nails too much was going to make him uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

He could not do this, he could drop out instead, except he couldn't do that either because that would screw over Logan and Logan would hate him if their presentation didn't go perfect after all the work they had put into perfecting it during the past four weeks.

They had spent about three days a week, not counting their two weekly soulmate studies classes that they shared, sitting in the library and reading boring textbooks and research papers and written drafts of their presentations and held the presentation for each other dozens of times until Virgil could have recited it in his sleep.

And yet he felt as if he was going to walk into the classroom entirely unprepared, as if he hadn't spent hours and hours rehearsing with Logan and making the powerpoint that would accompany the presentation. He had never studied and practiced so much for anything else in his entire life.

His chest had been hurting for days, maybe weeks, it was hard to tell, never too noticeable at first, and he had been shaky for so long, and he was so tired of the constant anxiety that the events in his life brought him. He just wanted to sob for a while and then lie right down on the bathroom floor and sleep.

He did not do any of that though, but he allowed himself to lean against the wall and slowly slide down onto the floor where he hugged his knees to his chest and ducked his face, trying to remember how normal people breathed and what it was he was supposed to do to help himself when his anxiety got this bad.

He knew that crying and throwing up was not the right answer, even if it really felt like it should be.

Someone knocked on the door to the bathroom, which Virgil normally would have found weird as it was the door to the several toilet stalls and not to the actual toilet, but he had other things to focus on at the moment.

"Verge, are you in there?" Logan's voice called but Virgil didn't respond, too busy trying to breathe and find a way to ease the pain in his chest and not fall apart completely.

Why was he like this? No one else was having an anxiety attack in the gross college bathroom because of this presentation. All week groups had presented their work and none of the others had looked like they would throw up or pass out.

He hated it so much, why couldn't he function like a normal human being too? He didn't believe in being reborn when dying, but if that was how it worked then he must have been a really awful person in his past life to deserve this shit.

The door opened and Logan stepped inside, eyes immediately falling on the sorry sight that Virgil was, and he immediately ducked his face into his knees to avoid eye contact.

"Oh, Verge." Logan exclaimed, but in a way that didn't sound pitying, thankfully, because then Virgil would feel even more like crawling up and dying.

"Go away." He said between small, quick breaths, but Logan walked up to him and crouched in front of him, not seeming like he was going to leave him alone at all.

"Verge, have you heard about this exercise where you tell me five things you can see and four things you can feel, etcetera?" He asked him and Virgil wasn't sure at first but it did sound familiar and-

"I- yes, but-" He said, almost immediately being interrupted by Logan.

"Perfect, then please tell me five things you can see." Logan told him firmly and despite feeling awfully sure that the grounding exercise wouldn't do shit against his raging anxiety he complied, not having the energy to argue against him.

"I see, um, you, my shoes," he sniffled loudly in the quiet bathroom and wiped his face on his sleeve (he had to stop doing that), "your... glasses? The floor, hair on the floor, gross."

He reached his hands out, not wanting to stay down on the floor for another moment, and Logan took his hands and somehow managed to pull him up, seeming to understand what he wanted.

"Four things you can feel?" Logan urged once they were both on their feet, still holding onto him, as if he was worrying that if he let go Virgil wouldn't be able to keep himself up. He wouldn't put it past himself to pass out on the bathroom floor, to be fair.

"Your hands." He said, flexing his fingers slightly in Logan's grip, then struggling to think of anything else.

"Hoodie," he said, feeling the soft material of his ever so constant hoodie cling to his sweaty body, "dry mouth. My heartbeat."

"Good, three things you can hear?" Logan continued and Virgil closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.

"My breathing. Your breathing. Uh, door slamming far away." He mumbled.

"Two things you can smell?"

"Laundry detergent. And, um, sweat." He said, aware that he would have to wash his hoodie again soon and not very happy with it.

"And one thing you can taste?" Logan said.

"Whatever mouth tastes like." He said, leaning into Logan, just wanting to borrow his strength and calm for a moment. His soulmate didn't seem to care, though, and actually let go of Virgil's hands to be able to wrap his arms around Virgil.

"Are you feeling any better?" Logan wondered and while Virgil still felt like absolute crap and wanted nothing else than to lie down anywhere to sleep for a week he no longer felt like he was about to throw up and his chest wasn't as heavy and achy.

"A bit, yeah." He said, taking a somewhat deep breath and leaning his forehead against Logan's shoulder. Logan was a bit taller than him, huh, he had never really thought about it. It made Logan a really good hugger, actually, which Virgil wouldn't have thought because Logan often looked all stiff and not very huggable at all.

"Good, I'm glad. Would you like to talk about it? It could help." Logan said, which didn't seem very tempting at all.

"No, there's nothing to say, I'm just gonna fuck this presentation up and we're gonna get an F and everyone will think I'm an idiot and you'll hate me." He said, then immediately feeling embarrassed to have said anything at all.

"To start off I would like to remind you that we are both very prepared for this, every time you have held your half of the presentation for me you have done a great job and not even needed your note cards, and after a week of these presentations no one except the professor is interested in listening anymore. Everyone, including you, has been sitting with their phones or staring off into the distance." Logan said, which was a fair point.

No one except the professor, and Logan, cared in the least. Listening to everyone's presentations for a week was terribly boring and Virgil had spent each class doodling in his notebook and watching Netflix.

"And I sincerely doubt I would hate you. You have been trying your best this entire time we have worked together and I admire that. And I have found myself rather enjoying your company." Logan said, sounding sincere but Virgil still laughed, although it kind of sounded closer to another sob.

"Yeah, I'm real good company." He said sarcastically. He was just made up of one mess after another, and the whole soulmate thing felt so hopeless because he could barely stand himself sometimes and it was a lot to ask of a soulmate to stand by him and his anxiety for the rest of their lives.

"So, I gather that oral presentations are not your favorite." Logan said, changing the subject, and Virgil huffed.

"No one likes oral presentations. They should be classified as psychological torture." He muttered. Actually, he thought that school in general should be seen as psychological torture, because it only ever made him stressed and anxious and feel as if he was a complete idiot and waste of space.

(Okay, he really should make an appointment with a psychologist sometime soon.)

"Is there anything I could do to make this presentation easier for you?" He wondered, which was nice but kind of pointless because what could Logan do?

"Physically injure me to the point that the professor will excuse me from class?" He suggested. If he showed up with a broken rib or something he had to be allowed to skip class, right? Though it was possible that they would just get to do their presentation next week instead.

"How about, instead of that, after we have performed our presentation we go and get something nice to eat? Or if you have a better idea for a bribe I am open for suggestions." He said, which made Virgil chuckle just a little.

Bribery didn't do much for his anxiety, but the fact that Logan was being so nice made him feel even more guilty about screwing this up for the both of them and he realized he would have to do this, even if it made him throw up in front of everyone.

At least if he threw up right on the floor of the classroom his professor wouldn't want him to do any more oral presentations, right?

"Okay, after this I'm gonna eat an entire box of ice cream sandwiches. And then I'm gonna skip the rest of my classes because fuck this." He said, because having something to look forward to did help a tiny bit and Virgil had wanted ice cream sandwiches for weeks now but they were a luxury he didn't usually allow himself, and maybe Logan was onto something with briberies.

"Whatever helps." He said, his hand slowly stroking Virgil's back, which was awfully comforting but also reminded Virgil of how long they had been hugging and he felt a bit awkward.

"If I throw up in front of everyone I'm not ever coming back to this class, though." He said, carefully untangling himself from Logan and stepping back, turning towards the sinks to wash his face and his hands.

"In how long does class start?" He wondered, taking a paper towel and blowing his nose.

"Four minutes ago." Logan said and Virgil had a lovely little chorus of 'fuck, fuck, fuck' repeating in his head.

"Let's go then." He said, maybe not sounding as calm as he had hoped.

Armed with the intense fear to disappoint Logan and make him dislike him even before finding out they're soulmates, he followed Logan to the classroom to get that whole thing over with.

Afterwards Virgil had no idea how they had done, they had walked in and been called up to do their twenty minute presentation and then the class had been over and Virgil wasn't sure he had actually been fully present for any of it.

But they had done it and he had not thrown up and Logan seemed happy with their performance so they must have done pretty well.

True to his word Logan had taken Virgil to a nearby store to buy a box of ice cream sandwiches and then they went to a coffee shop, Logan getting a cup of coffee with an ungodly amount of sugar and cream and insisting to pay for Virgil's hot chocolate too.

Virgil unwrapped his third ice cream sandwich, taking a bite and thinking that this was a pretty good brunch that he should grant himself more often. The huge amount of sugar he was ingesting made some of his energy return to him and he was feeling a lot better now than he had during the whole past week.

Anxiety was interesting, sometimes it snuck up on him and he didn't realize how long ago it was he had been able to take full breaths and not have a physical ache in his chest until it went away.

"Glad this is over. Now I can go back to worrying about other stuff, yay." Virgil said, putting his snack on the wrapper to warm his hands against his cup of hot chocolate, looking up at his next worry that was sitting in front of him.

"You did very well, I'm proud of you." Logan said and Virgil shrugged, Logan's words making him feel a bit sheepish.

Logan shouldn't have to feel proud of him, or help him calm down from an anxiety attack. It was embarrassing to react like this to everything. Once Virgil had cried three times in one week before finally forcing himself to call his dentist to reschedule the appointment.

He rarely felt that there was much in his life to feel proud of.

"I'm serious. My older sibling had a period where they suffered from anxiety attacks rather frequently. Doing something despite anxiety takes a lot of strength." Logan said, which explained why Logan seemed so well versed in how to deal with anxiety.

"In fact, I think I still have a gif somewhere in my phone that might help you." Logan said, grabbing his phone from where it was lying on the table, and a minute later Virgil's phone vibrated with two messages from Logan.

He had sent him two gifs, one of a cartoon cat that was slowly swaying back and forth, and one of a shape that grew into other shapes and then back down into a little line over and over. Virgil thought he had seen those before, probably on tumblr, but that was years ago and he had never actually tried to breathe along to them when anxious.

"Thanks." He said, hoping that Logan knew that he was thanking him for much more than the gifs.

"It's no problem. I'm glad I could help." He said, and then they were both quiet for a while, sipping their drinks and Virgil wordlessly offered Logan a second ice cream sandwich. There weren't many people Virgil could share a comfortable silence with.

With joint effort they emptied the box of ten ice cream sandwiches that was only slightly melted towards the last few of them. Once the ice cream was gone and their cups were empty neither of them made any attempt to get up from their seats to leave, which was a bit surprising as Virgil was pretty sure that Logan was currently missing one of his classes.

"Verge?" Logan said, breaking the silence and making Virgil look up from his phone.

"Yeah?" He said, putting his phone in his hoodie pocket. "If you need to go to class that's fine."

"I should do that, yes, but that was not what I wanted to say. I just wanted to tell you, again, that I have enjoyed these past four weeks of working with you, and I know we have no reason to spend time together now that this project is over, but I would not mind. To spend more time with you, I mean." Logan said, sounding just a little rambly, and his face was a bit pinker than usual.

"I think I would like that." Virgil said and the corner of Logan's mouth quirked upwards in a tiny smile that was difficult not to return.

He didn't know how, after showing exactly the kind of anxious mess that he was, he had managed to not scare Logan away, but he found himself thinking that maybe whatever had made the two of them soulmates had known what it was doing.

--

[4]

Virgil was pretty sure that he could call Logan his friend, which was a bit weird because he hadn't had a friend since high school and those friends had never been that great and a major reason as to why Virgil had avoided making new friends in college.

But Logan never called him stupid or weird for having to rehearse how to order his food twenty times before actually doing it, and he didn't joke about how shaky his hands were sometimes, and Virgil was realizing that his past friend had never been friends at all, which was pretty depressing.

But, yes, Logan was his friend. They had been spending time together for over a month and a half since their presentation and Logan didn't seem to have grown tired of him, often being the one to ask if Virgil wanted to join him at the library to study or go get coffee with him or spend time at either of their dorm rooms.

It was... pretty damn great to have someone to spend time with, actually.

Logan was generally pretty damn great. He could be pretty blunt but he was always kind, and he respected Virgil and seemed to genuinely like him. That was pretty much all that Virgil could ask for.

Virgil hadn't even realized how starved of human interaction he had been, it made him feel better in general to actually talk to someone now and then, and Logan's company eased his anxiety instead of worsening it.

Most times, at least.

Sometimes it just reminded him that the two of them were supposed to be soulmates and that it was probably really shitty of him not to tell Logan about that. It made him feel guilty, but not guilty enough to actually bring it up and ease his conscience.

If he did, what was he supposed to say? 'Hey, by the way you're my soulmate and I have known for months and didn't tell you'? Yeah, as if that would make anyone happy. How trustworthy did he seem if he could keep something like that a secret for months?

Virgil leaned his head against the bus window with a sigh, immediately regretting it as the surface tried to scramble his brain with how much it was vibrating. Maybe shaking his brain around a bit would fix it, but he didn't want to risk messing it up even more.

The bus was uncomfortably full of other people and Virgil would have loved to walk instead as that meant not dealing with people and would have checked off the 'go outside' homework that his new therapist had given him, but the rain was pouring down and had been going at it for two days now.

Even with an umbrella he had been chanceless, he had been covering under his umbrella the entire time when waiting for the bus and that had not kept him dry. The wind had been incredibly unhelpful.

He had gone to all his classes and then gone to his therapy appointment, being very adult and facing his responsibilities, and now he was rewarding himself by going straight to Logan's dorm where the two of them were going to sit on his bed and make it through the next few episodes of season three of Doctor Who.

One thing Virgil had quickly learnt about Logan even before they started to hang out as friends was that he was a huge nerd for Doctor Who and Sherlock.

Virgil had seen BBC Sherlock, but he had never watched Doctor Who, always discouraged by how many seasons and episodes there were and a bit confused about where to start.

Logan had been appalled when learning that Virgil had never seen as much as a single episode and since a few weeks back they would dedicate at least one evening a week for watching Doctor Who. He really liked the show, it was great, but part of why it was so great was Logan's tendency to constantly share the behind the scenes facts and the likes that he knew.

Logan knew a lot of things about Doctor Who.

Virgil nearly missed his stop, rushing up from his seat and out into the rain, shuddering as rain dripped from his hair down his neck and quickly opened his umbrella. There was a five minute walk from the bus stop by the college campus to Logan's dorm hall and Virgil was in a hurry to get out of the rain, winning a minute but still feeling pretty damp by the time he reached Logan's dorm hall.

He found his phone and his notes app where he had written down what number Logan's dorm had and he followed along the corridor, stopping outside Logan's dorm room and double checking the number twice before knocking hesitantly.

It didn't matter that he had been there a bunch of other times, he was still nervous that he would somehow knock on the wrong door and have to have an awkward conversation with a stranger.

The door opened in only a second to reveal Logan who smiled and stepped aside to let him in. Virgil shook his umbrella off before folding it up and putting it in his backpack, hoping that it wouldn't make the rest of his stuff too wet and ignoring how much he liked to see Logan smile because he was not going to face the occasional thought such as that one yet.

"Hey." He said, stepping inside and closing the door, taking his miraculously dry shoes off and grimacing at the feeling of his pants.

"Greetings. Would you like to borrow a dry pair of pants?" He said and Virgil nodded.

"Yeah, please."

Logan's dorm room looked just as it always did, strangely clean (unlike Virgil's room that he always cleaned in a panic before Logan got there), a shelf with books, a few NASA, Doctor Who, and Sherlock posters on his walls.

His bed was made and his laptop was already resting on top of the covers, the screen showing off the episode they were going to watch. The window had been opened as much as possible (so, about a whole three inches) and the sound and the smell of the rain filled the room.

Logan handed him a pair of black sweatpants and turned his back to him to let him change in peace. It was kind of weird that Logan owned a pair of sweatpants, because he had never actually seen him wear them. Logan always wore jeans or something closer to slacks together with his obligatory button-up and tie, he seemed against the idea of comfortable clothing.

They were a little too big but warm and comfortable and, best of all, completely dry. His hoodie being a bit damp he would have to stand, he wasn't taking it off.

"Um, I kind of got you something." Virgil said, digging through his backpack until his hand grasped the cold glass of a jar and he pulled out a jar of Crofters jam. Logan's eyes widened and he was quick to take it, looking absolutely delighted.

The fact that Logan Crofters, who had no relation at all with the jam that shared his name, adored the jam so much was kind of hilarious and now and then when Virgil had the chance to stop by the store, like after his therapy appointments, he got Logan a jar.

"Thank you!" Logan said and Virgil wondered how much self restraint it took his soulmate not to immediately open the jar and eat the jam as it was. He had seen Logan do it before, once when they were studying together. He had brought a jar of jam for lunch and it was how he had found out how much he liked this specific brand.

"You're welcome. Wanted to show that I just, like, appreciate having you in my life. I guess." He said awkwardly, as soon as he had said it deciding that it would have been much less embarrassing to just not say anything at all.

"You do not have to thank me for being your friend, I'm glad to be. Though I'll never say no to a jar of Crofters." He said, putting the jar down gingerly. Virgil held a small celebration in his head at the fact that Logan had actually referred to him as a friend.

"I'm glad to be too. It's pretty nice to have a friend." He said, which he also immediately regretted because it sounded so depressing.

"It is weird to me that you do not have more friends. You are a lot nicer than you think you are." Logan mused, staring lovingly at the jam. Virgil wondered briefly if he should check Logan's wrist to see that it was still his name there or if that jam was not his actual soulmate.

"L, think back to the first two times you met me and the impression I gave you." Virgil said, watching Logan's expression turn thoughtful.

"Ah, I see what you mean." He said a moment later and Virgil snorted.

"Mhm, yeah, I do a pretty good job at scaring people away. Except you who for whatever reason seemed adamant to sit next to me despite my glares and general hostility." Virgil said, receiving a shrug from Logan that wasn't as much of an explanation of Logan's thought process as he had hoped for.

"Why don't you want people to sit next to you?" Logan asked, sitting down on his bed and lifting his laptop into his lap. Virgil joined him, stealing one of Logan's two pillows and putting it between the wall and his back.

"Didn't want to have to talk to anyone or make any friends, it's stressful and being your friend has made me realize that I've had some pretty shitty friends in the past, and I didn't want to find myself in a situation like that again. It's easier to be alone." He said, shrugging to show that it wasn't a big deal and he shouldn't take Virgil too seriously because if he acknowledged all that too much then he would feel awkward.

"I'm sorry to hear that. However, I'm going to keep sitting next to you. I like that seat." He said and Virgil couldn't help but to grin a little.

"I suppose that's fine. Too late anyway, you've already managed to befriend me and you're not getting rid of me now." He said, and the reminder made Logan smile though he turned towards his laptop to hide it, poking at the touchpad to wake the screen up.

"Would you like to watch the next episode?" He wondered and Virgil nodded, scooting a bit closer to Logan to let him put the laptop half in Virgil's and half in his own lap.

"This episode is named Blink and is one of the most popular episodes, which is a bit ironic as the Doctor is barely in it. It is also one of the scariest episodes in the show." Logan said.

"Cool, bring it on, I love horror." He said and Logan pressed play on the episode.

They watched the episode, and then three more, and Virgil convinced Logan to some day let him show him his favorite horror movies which he looked forward to more than he should, but he had never had anyone to share his favorite movies with, his dad hated horror and his past 'friends' hadn't exactly indulged themselves in Virgil's interests.

Logan didn't seem like he was thrilled about watching horror, having flinched a few times watching the episode with the weeping angels despite the fact that he definitely had to have watched it a couple of times before, which somehow made Virgil feel even happier to show him the movies because if he didn't care about the movies it had to be Virgil that he cared about.

"Do we want to watch another episode?" Logan wondered, as if he expected Virgil to be capable of making a choice for the both of them.

"I dunno, what time is it?" He said, unsure if the answer would actually matter as it was Saturday the next day and he was going to stay up until two in the morning anyway.

"Fifteen minutes past eight." Logan said and Virgil looked over at him, seeing him blink and his eyes widen just slightly.

"What?" He wondered.

"Nothing really, I simply realized I never ate dinner." Logan said, shaking his head.

"Oh. Yeah I forgot about dinner too. Had a cinnamon bun after therapy, though. Uh, but I'm pretty sure I can afford pizza." He said, thinking out loud. It really sucked that his summer job hadn't been something he could have continued when classes had started again, but he had a job interview in a week thanks to Logan urging him on to apply even if he didn't think he would get it.

"Why are you buying me jam if you are not sure you can afford dinner?" Logan said, giving him a rather stern look and probably readying some kind of rant about self care.

"You wanna get pizza with me? It's still raining pretty heavily." Virgil got up from Logan's bed, ignoring his question and walking over to Logan's desk instead, leaning over it and reaching a hand out through the open window to see if he could feel any rain.

He couldn't but that was probably just because the roof of the building was blocking it so close to the wall because he could see and hear how it poured down outside.

"Pizza does sound nice." Logan said and Virgil pulled his hand back and looked back at him, watching as Logan put his laptop aside and stood up, stretching.

"I do not own an umbrella." He then said, looking more uncertain. "I doubt it will be very enjoyable to sit in a pizza restaurant when soaking wet."

"We can share mine. It doesn't sound like it's as windy anymore." Virgil said with a shrug, putting his shoes on and digging his umbrella out of his backpack.

"Alright then. Thank you." Logan said and soon they were outside, walking closely together beneath Virgil's umbrella and trying to keep themselves and the other from getting wet.

Virgil was tasked with finding the closest pizza place and the directions there while Logan engaged himself in a lengthy explanation why the fourth Doctor was his favorite, which was not fully comprehensible to Virgil as they had started with the ninth Doctor and the renewed part of the series.

He didn't doubt that Logan would make him watch the old episodes from 1963 and onwards sometime. They were friends, and they were soulmates, so Logan was likely going to be a pretty constant part of his life, which was something that had felt less and less scary during the past month.

Actually, it felt pretty comforting to know that Logan was supposed to be a part of his life, then maybe it wouldn't be as easy to somehow screw that relationship up.

Or it didn't matter because he had to be a decent person to deserve his soulmate too. Was he? He wasn't sure, but listening to Logan ramble about TARDIS shades of blue and robot dog companions he really hoped he was, and he wanted to deserve him.

He really wondered what Logan's reaction to finding out he was his soulmate would be, if he had told Virgil that he had a set in stone reaction back when they were discussing soulmates then it maybe wouldn't be as scary to imagine him finding out.

Virgil still had no plans to let Logan know they were soulmates, the past month and a half had not helped him figure out how to break news like that.

Would he be pissed that Virgil had known and kept it from him? Would he be disappointed that it was Virgil? Would he be relieved to have found his soulmate?

And, ignoring the scary part that was Logan's reaction, that still left them with the other scary part of figuring out what kind of soulmate relationship it was they wanted with each other because things could get unnecessarily complicated if they got that wrong.

Given how happy he was to listen to Logan talk about fictional characters he didn't even know anything about simply because he looked cute when he was excited... well, Virgil didn't like to think about it a lot, because that felt like it would make it real.

But it was pretty hard to ignore that he felt some kind of way about Logan's smile and touch and... ugh, Logan was just pretty sometimes and it was inconvenient because for once he was very happy with having a friend.

Somehow they found their way to the pizza place despite relying on Virgil's ability to understand a map and directions, and Virgil luckily had enough money for pizza.

Thanks to the rain there weren't many other people who decided to visit that pizza place and they enjoyed their pizza in peace and quiet without the company of others in the corner that they had chosen. The pizza was delicious and they had a nice time talking about the episodes they had watched and what the superior pizza toppings were.

Neither of them were tempted to leave the warm restaurant to face the rain again, but eventually they did, not wanting to sit there all night because the people who worked there deserved to be able to close early if they wanted.

They walked together in silence, Logan seeming confident that he knew the way back without using his phone and Virgil's thoughts drifting to when he was younger and had been near obsessed with rainy days, always out jumping in puddles and playing with mud and when he was finally lured back inside his mom would have hot chocolate waiting for him.

Sometimes she had joined him in the garden and played with him, and his kid self had always been so delighted.

He really missed his mom sometimes.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Logan wondered, pulling Virgil out of his thoughts and for a moment he debated how sincere he should be. He had mentioned to Logan that his mom had died pretty long ago, but it was nothing he wanted to discuss very closely.

"About being too old to jump in puddles." He admitted and Logan turned his head towards the huge puddle they were walking by.

"Who says you're too old?" He said and Virgil shook his head.

"Come on, L, we're almost twenty. Can't picture you jumping in any puddles like some five year old." He said, and he could practically see a little glint of something light in his eyes.

"You should know me well enough by now to know that my favorite pastime is proving people wrong." Logan said, which was pretty accurate, Virgil had seen him absolutely wreck his opponents in the debate club he was a part of. It was fun to watch, no one could win an argument against Logan.

But he still thought that Logan's actual favorite pastime would be to eat his favorite jam right out of the jar.

Logan stepped backwards into a puddle, not breaking eye contact or blinking, then jumping once, keeping his expression entirely neutral. No one could blame Virgil for bursting out laughing, pressing a hand over his mouth to stifle himself.

It was just really weird to see Logan, of all people, jumping in a puddle, and his deadpan expression made it a lot funnier.

"Come join me, or are you scared?" Logan teased, and Virgil scoffed and put the umbrella down on the ground.

"Generally, yeah." He said, stepping into the puddle with Logan.

"Oh, ew, my shoes are not waterproof." He said, grimacing and shivering as water seeped into his shoes and made his socks wet.

"Neither are mine." Logan said with a shrug. "But you only live a few minutes away and your shoes should have the time to dry until Monday."

"They better, or I'm skipping class, I'm not walking in wet shoes all day." Virgil said, promising himself, and also thinking that this was a lot worse for Logan who had a longer walk home.

"You would use any reason to skip class." Logan said, shaking his head just slightly in a way that wasn't exactly disappointed but neither approving. Logan was pretty stiff when it came to skipping class. As far as Virgil knew he had only done it once, after their presentation when they had been celebrating getting through it.

They had actually gotten an A on it, which Virgil was still shocked about.

"True." He said, then jumped, making the muddy rainwater splash around them, a lot of it helping to drench the lower parts of Logan's pants.

"Rude." Logan said, eyes glittering with amusement in the orange-y light from the streetlights, and Virgil knew he was trying hard not to smile. He wished Logan wouldn't try to stifle it.

Then Logan kicked into the puddle to get revenge and Virgil made a grossed out noise and tried to avoid it, only resulting in stumbling over his own feet and almost falling over. Logan reached out for him to steady him, a startled laugh escaping him.

"I wouldn't recommend going for a swim." He said, loosening his grip to Virgil's arms but not letting go, hands instead slipping down to grasp Virgil's.

"As if the rain doesn't have the same effect as rolling around in a puddle." Virgil said, looking Logan up and down, his button-up soaked and clinging to his skin. His own hoodie felt about twice as heavy as usual and rainwater was dripping from their hair.

"That's a fair point." Logan said, trying to wipe his glasses with his sleeve but only seeming to make it worse.

"This is the stupidest thing I've done in a long time. But like, fun-stupid, not fuck-me-I'm-ruining-my-entire-future-stupid, which is a nice change, y' know?" Virgil said, weirdly unbothered by the clothes clinging to him and the feeling of wet socks in wet shoes which were normally one of the worst sensations.

"Yes, I suppose I do. However, I don't think any mistakes or bad choices you make really have as much of an impact on the rest of your life as you fear." He said. Virgil shrugged, not about to get into that discussion now, instead focusing on how Logan was definitely shivering despite that it wasn't very cold outside.

"We should get back home before we get a cold or something." He said. Logan was not even wearing a button-up that had long sleeves, which nearly constantly tested Virgil's self restraint to stare at his own name.

He couldn't quite understand how Logan could be so comfortable wearing short sleeves and letting anyone see his soulmark, but then again maybe he hadn't had friends who had made him show his soulmark and then tricked him into believing they had found his soulmate and made him wait in a coffee shop for two hours to meet him before being told that they had just been joking and he was stupid for believeing it.

The memory still made him want to die from embarrassment.

"You won't get sick from being out in the rain. Being cold for a prolonged while will worsen your immune system as your body has other things to focus on, but without the bacteria and viruses making you sick it won't harm you." Logan said, scrunching his nose in distaste as if the myth personally offended him.

"Oh yeah. But still, you're cold." Virgil pointed out, tugging slightly at his hands.

They jumped together in the puddle three times before realizing that a gust of wind was making Virgil's umbrella escape and they both rushed after it, Virgil feeling as if laughter was near bursting from his chest the entire time.

He wheezed a little once they caught up to the umbrella, out of breath from something as small as that. There was no point in using the umbrella at this point, they were both practically drenched in rain either way.

"Good night, Verge." Logan said, wiping his wet hair from his forehead.

"Night, Logan." He said and they exchanged a quick and very wet hug before parting ways and Virgil couldn't stop smiling.

He felt all light inside despite how his wet clothes were weighing him down, and he realized he was happier lately than he had been in a long time and it was all Logan's fault.

He wiped rain from his face and sighed, unable to keep from thinking about the whole soulmate thing and feeling unusually thrilled, because the more time they spent together the more it felt as if they really were meant to be soulmates.

Somehow Logan's willingness to be stupid with him in the rain felt like proof that they really were soulmates.

--

[5]

Virgil was eternally glad to reach the library and find Logan who was already sitting in a study room surrounded by his math textbook and weird tools to help him with his calculations.

He set the drinks down quickly, flapping his hands in the air to cool them down as the shitty paper mugs had done nothing to keep him from burning his hands and having to change the grip constantly not to drop them.

"Hello, Verge." Logan said, not having looked up from what he was doing.

"Hey." He closed the door to the small room then put his backpack on the table and looked across it at what Logan was doing. He saw an awful lot of numbers and letters mixed together and was very interested in never having to learn whatever it was Logan was studying.

Thank god he had chosen an art major instead of something that took a lot of math and chemistry and physics to graduate with. He would have dropped out of college one week into the first year if he was studying the stuff Logan was.

"Got you your coffee, just as disgustingly sweet as you like it." Virgil said, pushing the mug towards him, past a couple of ballpoint pens that were neatly lined up in color order.

You're a lifesaver." Logan said, dropping his pen and looking up, immediately reaching for the coffee and taking a sip. He sighed, the coffee seeming to offer instant relief.

"Perfect, thank you." He said, smiling up at him.

"It's nothing." Virgil pulled a chair out and sat down, ducking his head to hide the smile that was impossible to suppress and his face that might have gone a little bit pink.

His more than friendly feelings towards his soulmate had not gone away but instead intensified since that rainy evening a few weeks back which had been just around the time when Virgil had had to face that he was kind of crushing a little on Logan.

At first he had been really awkward about it, Logan had even asked him once if he shouldn't take his hoodie off because he seemed a bit red in the face and was he feeling overheated? And then he had to lie and agree with Logan's assumption because he wasn't going to tell him that actually, no, he was just flustered because Logan had looked really pretty in the light of the setting sun.

He sipped his hot chocolate, burning his tongue a little. He wished he could have gotten an iced coffee or an energy drink, but he practically never allowed himself something with a lot of caffeine in it because it just didn't work great with his anxiety.

Or, well, actually caffeine worked too well with his anxiety, which was the problem. He didn't need any external help to be shaky and have heart palpitations.

"What are you going to work on?" Logan asked, which he knew was a kinder way of telling Virgil to get started on the studying that he needed to get done.

"Have this art homework to do. And of course we both got that stupid essay for soulmate studies." He pulled a face. Their professor for soulmate studies really liked giving them homework and assignments. He supposed he should be thankful that there were no more oral presentations, but still.

"Oh, I finished that days ago." Logan said and Virgil squinted at him.

"What?" Logan constantly had a million things to do, how the hell he had the time for all his studying Virgil would never figure out.

"Verge, it's supposed to be turned in tomorrow." Logan looked up at him and Virgil blinked a few times and tried to look as if that hadn't been news to him.

"Oh. Ha ha, yeah." He didn't look directly at Logan, suddenly finding his own hands terribly interesting.

"'I'd be glad to assist you if you need help finishing it." Logan grabbed his eraser, erasing half a page worth of calculations that apparently tied together and then started over.

"Uh huh, yeah, thanks, but I kind of haven't started it yet." He admitted.

"Verge..." Logan looked up at him, sounding as if it physically pained him just to hear about possibly late assignments even if they weren't his own.

"I know," he whined, dragging the 'o' out, "reading about people who have done soulmate research and writing about it is just so boring I think it might actually make my brain rot. I open the pdf files the professor sent us and feel myself taking damage as I try to get through the text. I could see those little negative numbers popping up above my head every second, I swear."

"You are being rather dramatic." Logan told him, which was interesting to hear coming out of the mouth of someone who had teared up when going to the store and seeing that they were out of that Crofters jam.

"No I'm not, I'm being entirely rational. I wish I could drop this class. It's just lots of philosophy about how the soulmate thing works and why and it's so boring. Who cares why it is a thing, we know it's a thing because of the soulmarks and that's enough for me." He pulled a face, having absolutely no intentions to start that essay.

"I think it's rather interesting to compare the theories, and I rather like the thought experiment of how the world would look if there were no soulmates, or if soulmates were marked or found in other ways than the names we are born with on our wrists." Logan glanced down at the soulmark that spelled Virgil's full name as boldly as always, and he really couldn't read Logan's expression.

"I guess." He said, sticking a hand into the sleeve of his hoodie and tracing along the strip of skin that bore Logan's name, sighing.

He should tell him. He should really tell him. He should have told him months ago. Really, it shouldn't be feeling so impossible to just pull his sleeve down and show Logan his arm, or just open his mouth and say 'hey, by the way, my name is Virgil' and then just let Logan figure the rest out.

But he didn't do any of that, because he was a coward and he didn't know if there was anything that could make him tell Logan.

Even if he kind of really wished he could take Logan on a date. He hadn't intentionally been thinking about it, but sometimes his mind just strayed that way, and he had found out there was a planetarium not too far away and that would probably be a pretty good place for a date with Logan, they could hold hands and Logan could get to tell him all about space and planets and stars and stuff.

He couldn't deny that they fit well together, even if they weren't really very similar when it came to goals and ambitions and a bunch of other things there was still a lot they had in common, like the tv shows they watched and how they liked to spend their free time and what they wanted out of a friendship.

And he was comfortable around Logan, which he had rarely been with anyone since his mom had died and it still amazed him that having Logan around would have him feeling more relaxed than when he was alone.

Yeah, they fit well together, for a bunch of reasons that Virgil wasn't self aware enough to articulate, but all he needed to know was that Logan made him feel happy and comfortable and safe. That was probably all that the whole soulmate thing really was about, in Virgil's opinion.

Virgil then told himself to shut up about Logan and drank some more of his hot chocolate which really didn't have the energizing effect that he wished it would.

"Do you think a lot about your soulmate?" Virgil asked, hands clasped around his drink and he spared Logan a quick glance, seeing him furrowing his brows just slightly in that way when he was trying to piece his thoughts together into something that made sense.

"I didn't use to, soulmates turn up when they're supposed to and there is not much use daydreaming about it when there's college to focus on, but lately... the topic pops into my head fairly often." Logan admitted, staring off at nothing for a moment before focusing his eyes on Virgil. "How about you?"

"Pretty constantly." He said and it took a beat of silence before he realized he had been staring at Logan for a while. He looked down at his cup of hot chocolate, tapping his fingers against the paper of the mug.

"You're worrying, aren't you?" Logan said, which pounded much more like a statement than a question, and of course he was right.

"Well, what if my soulmate doesn't like me?" He said, which he was fully aware was a childish and stupid worry to have, especially as he knew who his soulmate was and had a pretty good relationship with him.

A more accurate question would be 'what if he stops liking me when he finds out we're soulmates', but that question would give Logan a little too many clues.

"They are your soulmate, Verge, the chances of them getting to know you and deciding that they do not want you in their life are astronomically small. Besides, who couldn't like you?" Logan said and Virgil rolled his eyes.

"We've been over this. Most people. You're the weird one." He said, shaking his head and grinning.

"Most people are stupid. I am very intelligent. Clearly my opinion is the one that you should care about." Logan said, tilting his head up just a little in playful pride.

"I do care a lot about your opinion." Virgil said with a sigh. Obviously Logan's opinion was the only one that mattered.

He looked through his backpack and pulled out his sketchbook and a set of nice pencils that his dad had sent him, conveniently having arrived a few days after they had had a stressful and irritating phone call where his dad had tried to ask about his plans for the future and other things that Virgil wasn't very interested in discussing.

He didn't need anyone else worrying about his choices and his future, he was worrying enough himself.

They worked quietly together, the only sounds being the occasional sip of drinks and pencils rasping against their notebooks. Unfortunately Virgil's art homework didn't take that long to finish, all he needed to do was to sketch a bunch of hands and that was something Virgil had spent years perfecting.

He stole inspiration by staring at Logan's hands while he worked, almost wanting to ask him to sit completely still for him, but he didn't think Logan would appreciate that when he had to study for his math test.

When he deemed himself done he rewarded himself with watching two youtube videos, using his headphones not to bother Logan.

"Nails, Verge." Logan said, loudly enough for Virgil to hear him and realize he was biting his nails down again.

"Oh, yeah." He rested his phone against a very thick book that Logan seemed to have borrowed from the library, searching his backpack to find the purple nail polish that he had bought a few days ago and then forgotten about until now.

He carefully painted his nails, getting a bunch of the polish on his fingers. He had figured it out a while ago that nail polish worked pretty well to keep him from biting his nails, but his last bottle he had forgotten opened for a few days and it turned way too viscous.

It was actually Logan who had suggested nail polish, having done some quick research on what could help him stop biting his nails as much. He drummed his fingers against the table, trying to keep himself from doing something that would smudge the polish, until Logan glanced up at him, bothered by the noise.

"Hey, I actually got blue too." He said, fishing the blue nail polish out of his backpack. He had also gotten black and glittery nail polish now that he knew he liked painting his nails. Nail polish was way more expensive than it should be.

"That's a very nice shade of blue." Logan said, inspecting the nail polish that Virgil was showing him. Virgil had known he would like it, he had made an effort to find a color as close to the color of his soulmark as possible.

"I'll let you paint my nails if you write a hundred words for your soulmate studies essay." Logan said and Virgil groaned.

"You're the worst." He complained as he started his laptop and spent the next half an hour actually managing to write four hundred words for his essay. Sometimes getting started was the worst part.

He showed Logan his progress and reached for his hands to claim his reward and Logan let him paint his nails for the next few minutes and he took extra care not to get too much of the polish on his skin, which didn't make much difference since his hands were always a bit shaky.

Then he allowed Logan to continue with his unnecessarily difficult math stuff, spending a while forcing himself to read what he had written for the essay and deeming it good enough to be finished.

"I need more coffee." Logan pushed his glasses up to rub the bridge of his nose, sighing.

"No wonder, I get a headache just from looking at whatever you're doing." He grimaced sympathetically. "Where do you wanna go? It's almost four."

"I have been visiting a few different coffee shops lately and I found one that's very calm even during the hours which the others are very busy, and I thought you would prefer that. They have your favorite pastry for a reasonable price and their hot chocolate was very tasty." Logan said, collecting his things and standing up.

"Oh, you tried the hot chocolate?"

"Well, I saw it on the menu and it made me think of you and also reminded me of the fact that you would be unhappy if I had an eight cup of coffee." Logan said, putting his backpack on and opening the door for the both of them.

"Aw, I make you do self care even when I'm not around?" Virgil nudged Logan, grinning and feeling weirdly proud of both himself and Logan.

"Oh, be quiet, as if you haven't started brushing your teeth more often because of my reminders." Logan retaliated.

"No comment." He said and Logan smiled smugly as they left the library and started their walk towards the coffee shop that Logan seemed to have found specifically for Virgil's sake.

Yeah, they really were soulmates, weren't they.

--

[+1]

The two of them were sitting curled up on Virgil's bed, laptop in their laps, playing Doctor Who since hours back. Logan's head was resting on his shoulder and Virgil reached out to pause the episode because the amount of time without Logan speaking up to share facts or why he found a specific scene very important was getting suspicious.

He didn't want Logan to sit up, the way they were sitting together was awfully comfortable for him, but he didn't want Logan to miss the episode in case he was asleep and he didn't want Logan to wake up with neck pains from resting his head in a weird angle.

He reached out to poke at Logan's hand, receiving no response whatsoever.

"L, Logan? You awake?" He murmured, not wanting to disturb the calm that was surrounding them. He received a low hum from Logan, which didn't do much to assure Virgil that he was actually awake.

"Logan, come on." He said, slightly louder, and Logan groaned quietly.

"Mh, 'm up." He mumbled, huffing as he pushed himself up from where he had been leaning against Virgil's shoulder and Virgil internally booed at the loss of the warmth that Logan had been sharing with him.

"Shit, L, you look exhausted." Virgil chuckled, shaking his head at him. "How much did you sleep last night?"

"Not enough." Logan brushed his hair from his forehead, leaning back against the wall and rolling his head to the side to smile reassuringly at Virgil, maybe in an attempt to keep him from complaining about him studying instead of sleeping.

"You know, you can go back to your dorm and go to bed if you want." Virgil pointed out despite not wanting Logan to leave. It was more important for Logan to get the rest he needed than to spend time with Virgil, even if Virgil didn't like it.

"But we haven't finished the episode."

"You're not even watching it. Tell me what happened after the old people attacked them?" Virgil said, crossing his arms over his chest and then immediately regretting his choice of question when Logan, of course, gave him an incredibly accurate description of what had happened afterwards.

"Wait, that doesn't count, you know these episodes by heart." He said, pouting a little, which only made Logan look rather prideful.

"Yes I do. Let's finish the episode. It's Sunday tomorrow, I can sleep in." Logan said, reaching out for Virigl's laptop to unpause the episode.

"As if you're going to stay awake that long." Virgil taunted, trying to get a rise out of him, but Logan only shrugged.

"I don't want to go back to my dorm yet. I'd much rather spend time with you." He said, which made Virgil feel so stupidly happy even if it wasn't the first time Logan had said something like that.

"I mean... you don't have to leave later either unless you want to." He said quietly, fixing his eyes on the episode where the Doctor was being hunted down by a bunch of old people while nearly falling asleep standing up.

"Hm?"

"Like... you could sleep here. If you want to. Your dorm really isn't that far away, but I wouldn't mind?" He said, ending up sounding a lot less sure than he had wanted to. He really wouldn't mind, he had been considering asking Logan to stay over for a while. He was pretty sure his bed was wide enough for them to both be pretty comfortable.

"Like a sleepover?" He wondered.

"Yeah, I guess." Virgil said. Yes, that was exactly what he had meant, but it felt silly to ask outright to have a sleepover together.

"I'd like that." Logan said and Virgil felt that same slightly giddy happiness as he always felt when he got to do standard best friend things with Logan because ignoring his less platonic feelings for Logan and ignoring that they were soulmates he was still thrilled to have an actual best friend.

"Cool. I'm pretty sure I have something you can borrow to sleep in." Virgil said. He owned a bunch of oversized t-shirts and hoodies that he was sure Logan could wear, and he silently told himself to shut up as his brain pointed out that seeing Logan wearing his clothes sounded awfully nice.

"That would be nice." Logan said and then they both fell quiet, focusing on the episode.

The episode ended and Logan had somehow managed to stay awake, which was impressive and also good because it meant Virgil didn't have to spend twenty minutes debating if he should wake him up to make him change out of his jeans and button-up.

He pushed the laptop completely into Logan's lap and climbed over him to dig through his clothes to find something for Logan to borrow. It didn't take him long to manage to find the washed out Sherlock t-shirt that he had owned for years.

He threw it at Logan who's eyes lit up slightly when he looked at it, reacting just as Virgil had thought.

"Dunno if I have any pajama pants or shorts to sleep in." Virgil said. He didn't like sleeping wearing any kinds of pants and it wasn't as if he had ever expected to be sleeping in the same bed as anyone else during his three years at college, so he hadn't thought to bring any.

"I don't mind." Logan said, unbuttoning his shirt and taking it off. Virgil busied himself with checking the time on his phone and giving his youtube notifications unusual attention. Then he found himself a pretty oversized black hoodie that would be more comfortable than his usual hoodie to sleep in, mainly because that one had no zippers and other uncomfortable things.

He changed quickly, then got back into bed, claiming his place closest to the wall where he always slept.

"Do you wanna fall asleep watching something or?" He wondered, reaching for the laptop that Logan had moved closer to the foot of the bed when he had changed out of his clothes.

"That sounds nice. You can choose something." Logan said and Virgil grinned at the power he had been given.

"Great, conspiracy theory youtube videos it is." He said, reaching for the laptop and pulling it into his lap.

"Oh god," Logan said regretfully, "what kind of conspiracy theories?"

"Gotta hear more about why the earth is flat, of course." Virgil said, simply to make Logan groan. He wasn't a huge fan of conspiracy theories while Virgil found them very funny, and it just made it more fun that he could simultaneously annoy Logan a bit.

"I'm not sure I want to have to see that. I fear that exposing my eyes to such dumbassery will injure my brain cells." Logan complained.

"Aw, not your poor precious brain cells. I'll take your glasses off then so you won't have to see it." Virgil said, reaching out as if he was going to actually pluck Logan's glasses from his face.

Logan grumbled and swatted at his hand but given how obviously he was trying not to let himself smile or laugh Virgil found it safe to keep annoying him, especially if it meant he might make Logan laugh. Logan grabbed his wrist to protect his glasses, pouting at him which only made Virgil grin and in turn had Logan scoffing and averting his eyes.

"You're so-"

His breath hitched noticeably and it only took Virgil a moment to realize what it was that Logan had laid eyes on. The sleeve of his hoodie had slipped down a bit and was entirely exposing his soulmark that boldly announced Logan as his soulmate. It didn't take much intelligence to figure out what it was that had had Logan so surprised.

Immediately he yanked his hand from Logan's grip, the laptop slipping from his lap when he hastily moved backwards until his back was pressed to the wall.

"Um." He said, voice shaky, which really didn't help, and he was currently contemplating if he should just run away or not. The idea to fuck off and disappear was always more tempting than it should be when anything inconvenient happened.

For a moment they just stared at each other, Logan's eyes wide and he could practically see how it hit him that the two of them were really soulmates. Virgil wasn't sure what to make of Logan's expression and he wasn't sure if he wanted to find out how Logan felt about this new revelation anyway.

"Your actual name is Virgil, Virgil Crowell-Storm, isn't it?" He said with something absolutely unidentifiable in his voice and Virgil tried to swallow down his nerves.

"I- yeah. Yeah it is. But I think I'm gonna change my last name though so I only share my mom's last name." He rambled, which were completely unnecessary facts for Logan to know and also not something he had even made up his mind about.

"I had hoped it was you." Logan said, and Virgil blinked, pausing his worrying and wondering for a moment if he had heard him correctly because out of all people, why would he choose Virgil?

"What?" He said, staring at him, and Logan's face and the tips of his ears went slightly red.

"I wanted it to be you. I thought- well, Verge is very close to Virgil, is it not? But you never brought up us being soulmates despite knowing my name, and I did not want to get my hopes up in case I was wrong, but I wanted you to be my soulmate." Logan said and Virgil struggled to fathom that Logan had genuinely wished that they were soulmates.

It was one thing to be soulmates and be happy about it, but to meet someone and wish that that was the person that was meant to be their soulmate... that felt like an honor that he shouldn't deserve.

Virgil wondered how he would have felt if he didn't know Logan's name and had had no idea they were soulmates this entire time and realized that, with how much he had come to care for Logan, he would have been really unhappy to find out they weren't soulmates. Because he couldn't imagine caring more about anyone than he did Logan.

"Are you mad that I didn't tell you? I wasn't absolutely sure at first but then I saw your soulmark and I didn't know how to tell you and then we got to know each other and somehow that made it even harder to tell you because it had been months and I'm sorry I just didn't-"

"Verge- Virgil," Logan interrupted him, pronouncing his name with a whole lot more care and awe than Virgil thought it warranted, "I'm not angry with you."

"I feel like you kind of should be? I mean, I've known we're soulmates for months and I kept it from you. That's not exactly fair is it?" Virgil crossed his arms over his chest, wondering briefly why he was trying to argue for Logan being upset when he didn't want him to be.

"I... sympathize with the difficulty of your situation, Virgil." Logan said carefully, then hesitating for just a moment. "Though maybe less if you kept it from me because you are unhappy that I am your soulmate, I would find that hurtful."

"No! I- it freaked me out that you were my soulmate at first, I mean, what else could you expect from me? But that was months ago and a lot has changed since then." He reached out to grasp Logan's warm and steady hands, fingers lacing together carefully.

"I like you so much, Logan. Honestly, there's no one else I could want as my soulmate. You make me feel happier and safer than anyone else." He said, absolutely sure that his face was red but he would rather stand the embarrassment of showing sincere emotion than let Logan think he didn't want him as a soulmate.

"Oh. Good. I'm glad." Logan said softly, squeezing Virgil's hands and smiling at him in a way that made Virgil feel as if his heart was melting into a puddle of happy goo in his chest.

"I'm so happy it's you." He said with a soft little sigh and oh god Virgil was feeling a whole lot of things and didn't quite know what to do with himself.

"I don't get why but I'm happy about it." Virgil said and shrugged, looking down at their hands.

"How could I not be?" Logan said with an expression as if it was insane not to want an anxious wreck for a soulmate and Virgil was awfully tempted to point out how he would hardly be a lot of people's first choice.

Logan seemed to sense that, and Virgil wasn't surprised when he opened his mouth to argue against it.

"My very first impression of you was when I saw you across the classroom when looking for a seat and my first thought was that I found you pretty. Admittedly your next impressions weren't that great, but all you've done since is prove that you're hard working when it matters and a lot more intelligent than you would ever admit to being, and you're kind and good company and I have liked you a lot since almost the whole time I've known you." Logan said.

Virgil sat there trying to process that little speech for longer than he should but, really, how was he supposed to just function after Logan had said all that about him? Logan thought he was smart, and he thought he was pretty.

"But it doesn't matter what kind of soulmate bond we turn out to have, I am unbelievably happy being your best friend." Logan added, which made it hard to mistake what he had said as something that was meant to be a totally platonic confession.

"I- yeah, me too, but also I really want to kiss you." He somehow dared to say and Logan took a rather shaky breath before leaning in and letting their lips carefully press together.

It wasn't much, but it was probably the most exhilarating thing that Virgil had experienced and when they parted he didn't waste much time before kissing Logan again, letting go of his hands in favor of cupping his face and deepening the kiss, feeling Logan's hands tentatively grip to his waist.

They parted soon again, foreheads resting together and Logan wrapped his arms around him, pulling him a bit closer.

"I think we should do this more often from now on." Logan said and Virgil quietly laughed because of how surreal it was that he got to kiss Logan and would get to kiss him again.

"I've got no objections." He said, letting his thumb trace along Logan's jaw before he wrapped his arms around Logan's neck, feeling his soulmate rest his head on his shoulder.

They sat there clinging to each other for a long while and fathoming that they were really soulmates and that he was really wanted, until they both seemed to be close to nodding off in each other's arms.

Logan pulled him down with him as he laid down, yawning into Virgil's shoulder.

"We will have to talk more about this tomorrow." He murmured, shifting slightly and placing a little kiss to Virgil's throat.

"Mhm, yeah." Virgil said, reaching for the covers and trying to find them without having to make either of them move.

Normally any hint to having to talk about something serious later would have made him worried and stressed, but as he pulled his covers over the both of them, Logan's arm around him, it was really difficult to feel that way.

Having a conversation about what being soulmates really meant to them could hardly end badly, judging from the reaction so far, and Virgil was currently feeling very excited about what being soulmates with Logan would bring.

--

Written: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th April 2022
Published: 10th April 2022
Words: 17720

I have a lot to say such as i really wanted to make them kiss in the rain also fucking finally this is done lmao its SO long and also logans unnamed sibling is Roman and their queerplatonic soulmate is Patton :)