Chapter Text
“Hey, are you okay?”
Roman stood near a table in the library, where a boy was sitting, surrounded by crumpled papers and cans of Redbull, hunched over a laptop. Though he couldn't see much of his skin due to the hood of the black and purple patched jacket covering his face, what he could see of his skin looked deathly pale.
He looked up and Roman was faced with a tired face with eye bags that could carry groceries.
“Holy shit, when was the last time you slept?”
The boy sighed.
“Like three days.”
Roman gaped. “And do you wanna tell me why?”
The boy glared. “Who are you, my mother? And you’re not doing the best with sleep yourself, seeing as you’re also in the library at three am. What’s your excuse?”
Roman rolled his eyes. “For your information, I’ve been here for hours, though I wasn't exactly working. I fell asleep at least...” he checked his phone. “Four or five hours ago. I just woke up and was on my way out when I saw you, Mister Emo Nightmare, looking like his soul had just left his body. I was trying to get a picture for Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Library Goth, woooo."
He wiggled his fingers for effect and Virgil scoffed.
“Haha, very funny, Princey,” the boy retorted, referring to Roman’s red and gold attire.
“And goths and emos are totally different things,”
“Excuse me, I love that name, and from now on I refuse to be referred to as anything else.”
“Oh God, what have I done?” the boy laughed a little and pushed off his hood. “Do you have an actual name?”
“Indeed! Roman, at your service.” He bowed, jokingly. “And you?”
“Virgil,” he replied.
“Well, Virgil, are you gonna tell me what you’re doing here during the witching hour?”
“First off, it’s the devil’s hour.”
Roman crumpled his forehead in confusion. “What, no it’s not, the witching hour is three am, the devil’s hour is midnight.”
“Uh, no, it’s the other way around.”
“No, it’s not!”
Virgil raised his eyebrows. “Look, as the self-proclaimed emo here, I think I know when the Devil’s Hour is.”
“Sure you do.”
Whatever.” He sighed. “I don’t know why I’m still here seeing as it’s three in the fucking morning, I have not slept in three days. I’ve lost my grip on reality, and I think I just saw a ghost but alas, midterms are a bitch, and if I don’t study, I will fail, so...” He shrugged his shoulders.
“Jesus Christ Superstar, that must suck.” Roman sat down next in the chair across from him.
He scoffed. “Wow, musical references in the first five minutes of meeting me, you’re definitely a drama kid.”
He smirked. “I mean you would have to know the show to get the reference sooo...”
“Touche.” He grinned, then frowned a bit. “Not like this whole conversation hasn’t been great or anything but could you leave me to my misery?” He gestured to his cluttered workspace. “I gotta finish working on this end-of-semester project for McCoy or my grade is gonna tank.”
“Ugh, one of my friends has McCoy, he hasn’t stopped complaining about him since September.”
“Well, the rumors are true, he’s an enormous jackass. So can I finish my work now?”
“Absolutely not, Jack Smellington!” Virgil snorted at the nickname and glanced over at the Jack and Sally pin on his backpack. “You need to eat something and go to bed before you die of exhaustion. It would be dishonorable to let you get even closer to the clutches of death, though you look like you’re already halfway there.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Well, consider yourself dishonored because if don’t finish this, I’m gonna flunk and if I flunk, I’ll get kicked out of school and if I get kicked out of school, I won’t be able to get a good job, and if I don’t get a good job, I’ll end up on the streets, and if I end up of the streets, I would most certainly die within a week. Do you want me to die out on the streets, Romano?”
“You’re gonna end up dead no matter what if you don’t take a break. Go outside, see the sun, you still know what that is right?” He paused. “Also, that nickname is awful please say it isn’t going to stick.”
“Shush Romano, I’m trying to work.” He turned back to his laptop and Roman looked at his face from over the top of the screen.
“Is what you have now saved?”
Virgil looked up at him“Uh, yeah, why?”
Before Virgil could react, Roman had shut his laptop, and shoved it into his bag, along with the balled-up papers and pens.
“Hey, what the hell?!” He reached for his bag but Roman held it out of arm's reach.
“Forcing you to take a break, you’re working yourself into the ground. Now, there’s a Starbucks a few blocks away, I’m gonna buy you one of those bistro box things, you’re gonna eat it and you’re gonna go home and you’re gonna sleep or so help me gods I will fuckin’… challenge you to duel… or something. Got it, Brad Pitiful?”
“You’re really going with that Princey thing, huh?”
Roman nodded, and the pale boy sighed in defeat.
“Fine,” he said as he slung his bag over his shoulder. “And don’t think I didn’t catch that “gods”, Mr. White Knight. A Percy Jackson nerd, Disney fanatic, and theatre kid all rolled into one. How did I ever get so lucky?” His voice dripped with sarcasm.
“Shut up.” Roman shoved his shoulder and laughed. He grabbed his bag from off the floor. "Alright, let's go."