A/N: Chapter 3 revised.
The next morning Virgil woke up with a bitter feeling in the pit of his stomach. When he had gotten home that night he told his father what had transpired, but he omitted the parts that his father would clearly disapprove of, such as the fact that the agreement was basically only temporary (or if he could have his way it would be.)
He now regretted it though. Since his feelings had been awakened and he was fully aware of them he did not believe it would be possible for them to go back to being "just friends," and there's no way that Richie, knowing of Virgil's affections, could still see him the same way he did before. Not to mention his father probably would not let Richie spend the night for a long time.
It was already 11 am, several hours after Virgil was used to waking up on a Saturday even, and he was just now barely managing to drag himself away from the comfort of his warm blankets. Not that it was particularly cold in the house, but the blankets were soft and inviting and loving, as to where the outside world was hard and cold and unaccepting. It was actually rather warm outside, though, being mid-spring. The flowers were starting to bloom and most people in his grade in high school were looking forward to finishing their junior year and embarking on their last year in high school.
Yet, Virgil was laying there, legs and arms half dangling off the side of the bed, miserable. It was like waking up from a beautiful dream only to come crashing down in to reality
The dark skinned teen slowly pulled himself out from under his soft, blue blankets so sloppily that they fell in a heap on the floor, piled high next to the bed, leaving the room in a state of disarray.
Virgil tiredly ran a hand through his dread locks trying to fix them in place even though no one, not even him, could tell a difference. His hair was still as messy as if he had never fixed it.
Today was a Saturday, and like almost every other Saturday of his life, it would be filled with mindless nothingness except the occasional act of super heroics, but because of the cure that was currently permeating throughout the city on a continuous basis, the bang baby attacks were few and far between. He and Richie had created and taken a counter cure and a few others had found a way to avoid it, so they were still needed. It was not that he couldn't help with normal criminals, there were always gangs around creating some sort of trouble, but since the diminishment of bang babies, who encompassed most the cities gang population, the number of gangs and thus crime in general had decreased so significantly that the city hardly needed a full time police force much less superheroes.
Because of this, now days when Virgil dragged himself out of bed on Saturday mornings, he would lazily mosey down the stairs and plop down on the couch or if he was in the mood the kitchen to wait for someone to make him breakfast. The rest of the day was usually spent on his couch watching television with Richie or at the gas station with Richie or out to a movie or to eat with Daisy…and Richie.
Basically, Virgil's Saturday's, and every day for that matter, had centered entirely around Richie and what Richie would be doing. It was not that they ever planned to do anything, but somehow they always knew what they would be doing each Saturday and, of course, it was always a given that they would be doing it together.
He was afraid this Saturday would be different though. Things couldn't stay the same after the events of the previous night and Richie may not even want to see him. He didn't want to do anything today; not watch T.V., not eat breakfast, not go to a movie, and certainly not do anything with Daisy. All he wanted to do today was see Richie and be reassured that everything would be alright.
After the seventeen year old electric superhero left the bathroom, he sat down at the top of the stairs, unwilling to make the trip down just for fear of having to interact with his father. Not that his father was angry, or even upset anymore. It was just that, if Virgil had had his way his father certainly would have been disappointed in him, and if Robert Hawkins knew what his son was thinking he would have had to have another serious talk with him about the birds and the bees (although Virgil always thought it weird that a bird and a bee could be together but not two humans of the same sex.)
Virgil leaned his head against the railing, blue bath robe sprawled inelegantly against his body very barely covering all the right spots. He sighed as he looked at the small black and yellow box in his hand. It was not his only way to get in touch with the guy he loved, but it was by far the quickest and the safest. He was afraid to call him though, that he might not answer, but that wasn't the only problem. Virgil was unwilling to resist the temptations that come along with love, especially love as a teenager when hormones have more control then the heart. He knew the agreement was so long as both of them could resist, but it didn't seem fair to Richie for him to give in so soon.
He pressed his thumb lightly over the button, unwilling to press hard enough that the box would make a connection to its partner several blocks away. The older teen stared distantly down the stairs and towards the door hoping that in some way Richie would just receive a telepathic message to come over to his house today. It was not too far out of the realm of possibility; he had electric powers and Richie was a mutant super brain. In spite of his wishful thinking, the door remained firmly closed.
Moments of silence passed. Perhaps Virgil's father was not at home. This was something that seemed to happen more frequently since Sharon married Adam. Robert would often leave on Saturdays to go visit them even if they only lived a few blocks away, he had trouble being separated from his little girl who had been living at home for over twenty years (and cooking for him for at least half those.)
Virgil pressed the button harder and the all too familiar sound of static began to buzz from the small device held in the dark teens now shaking hand. "Hey, Rich?" He managed to stumble out failing at keeping his voice steady.
"Yeah, V, what's up?" The cheery, somewhat high pitched, voice sounded from the other side. It was obvious from the tone of Richie's voice that he was not feeling the same emotional turmoil, bordering on depression, as Virgil was, in fact he sounded quite the opposite.
"I-I was just wondering if you wanted to hang today." Virgil awkwardly stumbled out picking at a stray fiber hanging from his bath robe.
"That's kind of an unspoken. We always hang out on Saturday." Richie replied a little bothered that Virgil would even feel that he had to ask. "Did you have anything specific in mind?"
"No…I just thought we could do something." Virgil half mumbled starting to feel a little embarrassed after he realized that he sounded like he was asking Richie on a date. There was a short pause in which Richie didn't know what to say and Virgil was afraid that if he spoke he would say something else that would end up embarrassing him.
It didn't take long for awkward silence to become unbearable, so Virgil opened his mouth to speak, but Richie beat him to it.
"How 'bout I just come over and we can decide to do something from there…or just watch T.V….or something…" Richie trailed off as the conversation became one sided but when Virgil still did not speak the blond asked. "That alright with you, V?"
"Yeah, that's great. I'll see you in a little while then." Virgil said snapping out of his embarrassment and trying to rid himself of the image of being an awkward 13 year old boy trying to ask out his first crush.
"Alright. See ya then." Richie said back, shortly followed by the sound of the shock box clicking off.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid." Virgil chanted several times over as he softly hit his head on the railing. When he was sure that he had created a small bruise near the top of his head, he gingerly placed his hand over the spot and slowly stood up as not to disturb his newly forming headache. One by one the older teen walked down the steps, trying to get his thoughts in order. His emotions were swirling inside of him like a tempestuous sea: nervousness, this was the first time he was seeing Richie since their talk last night; excitement, he couldn't help but be excited to see his crush; confusion, he didn't know what he was supposed to do or how to act.
Before he knew it, Virgil was at the bottom of the stairs. He stared blankly at his feet for a few minutes wondering where he was going and what he was supposed to be doing. Walking down the stairs had been such a mundane action that it had become mechanical, and now that he had reached the bottom he wasn't sure why he went down stairs when his clothes and a shower were both upstairs and those were the only two things that he needed at the moment. He sighed and turned around. This was going to be a long day.
Virgil let the water run down his back for only a minute before bathing and quickly shutting the faucet off. The steam dissipated as the memories of the previous night flowed back in to his mind's eye, and as the human memory often does, these images had been refurbished in to something more desirable. Every feature on Richie had been enhanced; his hair more golden and soft, his eyes rounder and brighter, his nose a little shorter, his lips more lush, and his skin smoother. The words that he spoke though, those were still painful.
Virgil squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sigh that was somewhere between exacerbated and longing. He leaned his head forward on to his fore arm that was resting on the shower wall. The cool tile against his currently warm skin felt good. The feeling reminded him of being on top of a mountain, so free of everything where he could look down and see all. This sensation made everything seem so clear. Even if he didn't know what he was going to do or what he was supposed to do, he felt a sense of relief. He could face anything and there was no obstacle that he was going to allow to get in his way of living a happy life, whether that life included Richie as a lover, or simply as a good friend.
Virgil was broken out of his thoughts by the doorbell ringing followed by the door creaking open. A shout came from down stairs. "Hey, V. Hope you don't mind. I let myself in!"
Virgil rushed out of the shower to the bathroom door to pop his head out and yell back, "I was in the shower. I'll be down in a minute!" He slipped on his bath robe and made his way to his room to find something relatively clean to wear.
"Hey Rich, how's it going?" Virgil asked as he plopped down on the couch next to his blond friend.
"It's fine." Richie responded. "Not much has happened in the last..."he looked at his watch, "fourteen hours."
"Oh right." Virgil replied feeling a little dejected. A part of him hoped Richie had changed his mind. Richie had wanted things to go back to normal, but of course he had to be feeling a little bit awkward as well. It may have been too much for Virgil to expect complete normalcy just fourteen hours later, plus it was hard to act normal when you knew your best friend was in love with you.
"So, do you want to go to the center and shoot some hoops?" Richie asked thinking a little exercise would do them some good.
"Yeah, sure." Virgil hopped off the couch and darted towards the door. Basketball was just what they needed to dispel the awkwardness that was abounding.
Basketball was definitely not what they needed. Virgil couldn't help but stare because of course there would be other kids at the center, and of course they would decide to play a game of shirts and skins, and of course Richie would be on the skins team.
It was too much for Virgil to see a sweaty, shirtless Richie running around, coming inches from his face, guarding and blocking. It took everything in the teen to not tackle his friend there. In fact, the only thing that kept him from doing that was the presence of the other kids.
Richie wasn't unaware of Virgil's leering gazes and spent the latter half of the game avoiding the darker teen. He would allow others to block and would place himself in positions where it would be nonsense for Virgil to block much to his team's confusion.
After a few games of this dance, the other kids decided to call it quits.
"Hey man. What was that about?" Virgil asked Richie walking up to him.
"What was what about?" Richie said putting his shirt back on.
"You know. You trying to stay on the opposite end of the court as me."
"I was only doing that because you kept staring at me. It was awkward." Richie said flushing.
"What did you expect me to do? You have a nice body." Virgil replied embarrassed and little annoyed.
"No, V. You're not supposed to think that." Richie started walking towards the showers. "I don't have a nice body. Daisy has a nice body. I have a man body."
"She has a nice woman body and you have a nice man body." Virgil shrugged. He then started to undress.
"Hold up, V. I'm not showering with you if you're going to ogle me like that again."
"I'm not going to ogle you, Rich." Virgil said turning his back to his friend.
"You did when I was shirtless, why wouldn't you when I'm buck necked?" Richie responded with a little bit of discomfort.
"Fine, you don't have to shower, but I'm going to. I reek." Virgil said slipping his shirt off.
"Alright. Well, I'll meet you at the diner later." Richie walked out of the locker room.
"Dang it!" Virgil shouted punching the wall as soon as he heard the door close. "Why do I have to be so stupid?"
The teen turned the water to high heat and let it beat on his back. 'Richie wants things to be normal,' he thought, 'but how can things be normal between us? I can't just stop finding him attractive, but I can't keep driving him away like this either.' Suddenly, Virgil felt a cold hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry, V." The familiar voice spoke. "I shouldn't have left. I said I wanted things to be normal, so I'll just pretend you weren't checking me out and you can pretend you weren't and it'll all be fine, right?" Richie asked forcing a smile.
Virgil turned back to look at his friend with astonishment. "So you really just want things to be back to the way they were?"
Richie looked Virgil dead in the eyes, "I don't want to be any more than friends."
Virgil looked highly disappointed, but gave a weak nod of something between acceptance and agreement.
It's better this way, Virg." Richie said taking a step closer. "Everything's going to be okay."
"Yeah. I know." Virgil said closing in the space in a quick hug.
A/N: Sorry it's been forever since I updated. I've been busy, but now I have a four hour break between classes, so what better way to spend it then write fanfic ^_^. Anyway, I know this chapter is mostly just angsty Virgil and pretty much no action, but I'm trying to get back introduced to the world of Static Shock and writing that isn't essays. The next chapter will have more in it. I did have another chapter 3 already written, but it lead me to a dead end, so I've ended up with this. Hope you enjoy.