Roman mostly fumed for the drive home, and Patton let him do so without a fuss. He also let him take a nap. Roman was certain he ended up falling asleep at some point. He was awake when they got home, but the music changed to classical and he didn't remember that happening. It also happened much faster than it should have in theory, not that Roman had any understanding of time. He was thankful for the space to process. He was mad about having to leave Remus again, but the ride home helped him get through that so he wasn't as bitter anymore. Stupid anger issues. Stupid being resentful about being angry. Emotions were dumb.
He accepted Patton's assistance to the couch, and with as much as his feet hurt, he didn't bother complaining. Patton looked a little shell-shocked himself as he sat down near the corner of the couch, honestly. Roman wasn't entirely sure what about, but the whole experience was both shitty and amazing, so he couldn't blame him. Roman was somewhere between happy, sad, angry, and just straight vibing.
Patton examined Roman for a moment as he settled down on the couch. "So, kiddo… I can't say I followed all of that. Because somehow you two broke some kind of weird time barrier along with using fake words, jumping subjects like hopscotch and cursing as if you were sailors. But I think there are lots to unpack there," Patton intoned, being careful with his enunciation.
"Let's throw out the whole garbage bag," Roman shrugged, kicking out of his shoes to put his aching feet up on the couch. He didn't feel like discussing it. He only just calmed down and wasn't sure he could work down from being pissed off again.
"I'd ground you for that language, but you are sort of already stuck at home and that feels uncharitable to take away video games or something," Patton said off-handedly, looking a bit defeated as he leaned forward on his thighs.
"See, too nice for your own good," Roman chuckled, motioning with his arms towards Patton. Patton just blinked at him for an awkward moment.
"I have literally never seen you so alive and animated. Ever. Even when you were sprinting with Lita," Patton said, looking somewhat baffled. He scrunched up his lip to the side and kept staring unnervingly at Roman. "Also, I had no idea anybody could talk that fast," Patton added, sounding a little impressed.
"Remus and were always 'if you stop moving you die'-type individuals," Roman replied, fiddling with his jacket sleeves. He didn't understand why he was being watched so closely. Did he do something? Was he supposed to do something? Roman chewed on the inside of his lip apprehensively.
"I've just never seen you be that… high-energy. I mean, I knew you were energetic, but that was a whole other level. It was kind of overwhelming," Patton stated, leaning back into the couch with a sigh.
"Sorry," Roman muttered, looking down at his lap.
"No, no! I think I get why you were having so much trouble with following your homework yesterday if it's always like that in your head. And why you act restless so often," Patton held up his hands and shook his head. "You don't have to say sorry," He added gently.
"I don't follow what you're saying, either," Roman looked at Patton in confusion. "Am I in trouble for cussing?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows in concern and still chewing his inner lip nervously.
"Yes, but I don't think it'd be right to punish you over it. Just try not to do it next time," Patton said considerately with a small shrug.
"I was 100% not thinking before speaking at JDC. I barely have that capacity in the first place," Roman rolled his eyes and leaned back against the couch arm. He didn't want to make promises he couldn't keep.
"Well, that explains how you can talk so fast," Patton chuckled and shook his head. "Seriously, you boys cussed more this afternoon then I've heard all year," Patton said weakly, sounding kind of disappointed in Roman. The tone almost hurt, and Roman winced a little and played with his jacket zipper.
"Sorry, I don't have much of a filter," Roman apologized dourly, tugging his zipper up and down.
"It's something we can work on, I guess. That kind of language doesn't fly in the real world," Patton said firmly, holding up his finger.
"We were at Juvie. If there's anywhere to cuss like prison inmates, it's with the prison inmates," Roman said and signed 'inside prison,' while he rolled his eyes.
"That doesn't mean you should do it," Patton frowned at Roman. "Oh, hi Virgil," Patton smiled towards the staircase. Roman signed hello as well.
'Chips,' Virgil signed, passing by. Roman blinked twice at Virgil actually explaining what he was up to, which didn't happen that much. It was strange to see Virgil do non-cryptid of insults-like things. Unless maybe he was just powered by salt. What does a sodium-powered insult cryptid look like? Probably some kind of gangly demon. Virgil needs red eyes or something. He has bright hazel, but he deserves to be more of a cryptid in real life.
"That whole event has me very confused. But first thing's first, why didn't you mention you had an identical twin?" Patton asked and shook Roman from imagining the various ways Virgil could look if he was skulking through the woods as a supernatural entity. Roman blinked and sat up straighter, his eyes shooting to Patton.
"I didn't realize the state hadn't told you! You said you knew I had a brother. I didn't realize you didn't know we were born 17 minutes apart," Roman threw up his arms. "I figured you'd find out soon and really wanted to see the face you made," Roman explained sheepishly. Patton sounded upset at him about it, and it put Roman on edge a bit.
"That's kind of dishonest, Roman," Patton chided, frowning at Roman. Roman scratched at his finger for a moment, feeling bad.
"Letting the situation speak for itself isn't dishonest. It's shady at worst," Roman shrugged slightly, trying to excuse himself. He didn't understand why it would be a big deal. Virgil walked back into the living room munching on a bag of chips, looking interested. He placed the bag on the top of the couch.
'Damn. Photo?' Virgil signed while he stood behind the couch.
'No phones allowed,' Roman signed back the reason he couldn't get one. He wanted a photo, too.
'Shit,' Virgil signed and snapped, looking disappointed. He came around to sit on the opposite couch arm while eating salt and vinegar chips by the handful.
"There're lots of things that I think I heard that just make me more thankful you're already going to be talking to someone. I have to admit I feel awful that Remus has no support system in there knowing what I do now," Patton said a little shakily. Roman stared at him incredulously for a moment. He was not entirely sure what Patton was going on about still until his brain caught up.
"Oh! Well, he's probably got friends if he's teaching them our made-up twin language," Roman replied with a slight shrug. "I don't think anybody who doesn't like him would put up with it. It's a hard one," Roman signed 'impossible'. It was nearly a bitch to learn because of all the contextual words, so anyone putting up with that probably liked him. Patton hummed, not sounding that satisfied.
"Do you know why he wants boxers?" Patton asked carefully after another pause of Roman fiddling with his zipper and the crunch of chips from Virgil.
"Yeah, I heard about that," Roman drawled in distaste. "They have communal underwear. The state doesn't buy them any separate clothes," Roman explained. Patton shivered in disgust. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but he had a visceral reaction to the idea no matter how he looked at it. He has known some revolting dudes in his life and would rather go commando than share cleaned underwear with them.
'Fucking gross,' Virgil signed and shook his head. Virgil must have agreed with the sentiment because he also stuck out his tongue and grimaced.
"And, um," Patton shot a glance to Virgil. "I think he said you were bi?" Patton asked quietly.
"I mean, we can't all get assigned gay by J. K. Rowling. Some of us have to settle on our twins maybe being the less repressed ones. I said I'd consider it, don't go throwing me a pride parade," Roman said dismissively. He didn't wish to speculate about it, he didn't want to deal with it, he wouldn't prefer to hear a single slur from his dad's mouth in his head again, so he'd just rather… not. Maybe later. Maybe. Is hermit a choice? Hermit sounds nice.
'I got assigned gay by Nintendo , loser,' Virgil fingerspelled with a teasing expression.
'Lucky,' Roman signed back, shooting Virgil a sarcastic grin after he scrunched up his lips. Well, there's his confirmation. Virgil just ate his chips smugly.
"I'm still very confused," Patton creased his eyebrows and looked at Roman.
"I'm saying I don't know," Roman motioned widely with his open palms as if motioning to all the shit he didn't comprehend.
"Okay, that I understand. I support you no matter what," Patton said with a small reassuring smile. He appreciated the acceptance and all but considering Patton married a man, it was kind of a given.
'Barf,' Virgil signed with a grimace and his tongue out again. Roman couldn't help but chortle at Virgil's ridiculousness.
"What if I come out as an asshole? Would you support me then?" Roman asked an absurd hypothetical just to make Virgil laugh.
"What? No!" Patton objected and put his face in his hands, shaking his head slowly. Roman chuckled at Patton's over-the-top reaction.
'Owned,' Virgil signed and snickered silently before shoving another handful of chips in his mouth.
"I think I need to go process this with Thomas. Would you mind slipping your gloves back on?" Patton asked, sounding weary. Roman sighed dramatically and pulled them out of his pocket, making a big show about putting them on. "Thanks, kiddo," Patton got up from the couch and went to Thomas's office and closed the door.
'How was the slammer?' Virgil signed curiously.
'Bullshit. There go our diabolical plans,' Roman fingerspelled with a small eye roll.
'Curses. Plan B, then. Attract vampires. Gay ones,' Virgil signed back with a smirk and bounced his eyebrow once.
'Perfect. Plan C is metal limbs. Now is Minecraft time,' Roman signed, getting up to grab the laptop.
'I'll join you. BRB,' Virgil signed and got up from the couch and headed upstairs. Roman sat back down and laid across the couch with the family laptop, elevating one foot against the arm of the couch. Virgil came back down with his laptop and sat on the top of the couch with his laptop in his lap. Like, join him in the living room or playing Minecraft? Did Virgil play Minecraft? Did he want to spend time with Roman of his own free will?
'Make a world to join,' Virgil signed. Roman shrugged and created a new world with a random seed and opened it to LAN. So Virgil played Minecraft. He didn't strike Virgil as the sandbox type. And he wanted to play with Roman. That was unexpected. It wasn't like he hadn't played with foster siblings before, but he just hadn't expected Virgil to want to do anything with him that didn't involve watching TV and insults.
Virgil's demon avatar popped up a few moments later and immediately started punching trees. Roman joined him in the massacre of the local flora right away. He had set up a small house for them to wait out the night by the time the sun finished setting. However, Virgil was perhaps too feral and ran into the night with a wooden sword. Roman built the house close to the spawn point, so there wasn't much harm in crafting up some wooden swords and joining him. Virgil played much differently from Roman. He just ran off and murdered until he ran out of supplies and then came back to the base Roman was building up with materials. He messaged for help sometimes, but just seemed content running headway into hoards of spiders in caves. He was clearly terrified of creepers, but who wasn't? Everything else he wanted to murder without exception. Keeping up with Virgil's need for torches was an event in itself.
It was nice playing with someone that wasn't a little kid, though. Roman got to focus more on the building when he preferred to and had someone to back him up in the caves when he would rather explore. They also insulted each other incessantly. Roman had been called a 'ball-brained hamster', a 'sock full of hot go-gurt ', and 'hysterical trilling inanity' in the last few minutes alone. He called Virgil a dark void where dreams go to die when Roman suggested a new addition to the base Virgil didn't like. Virgil created a sign for the chest Roman kept filling with mining and murdering materials with that very name he liked it so much.
"Boys, it's past noon. I made lunch for everyone since you were playing games together. Get to a stopping point and come eat," Patton called from the kitchen while Roman was harvesting a vein of gold. His inventory was nearly full, so he may as well turn around and head back to base. Roman retraced the trail of torches back, where he joined Virgil in setting stuff to smelt while they were eating. Virgil got up and Roman followed him into the kitchen.
"The food smells good, Patton. Thanks for cooking for us when you didn't have to," Roman said, sitting down at the table and joyfully serving himself some broccoli-chicken mac-and-cheese at the plates already set. It smelled marvelous, and Patton hadn't seasoned it oddly like that food last night.
"I didn't want to bother you. Plus, it's an excuse for a bonus eat-together time!" Patton smiled, though he still looked exhausted. Virgil grabbed the salt and vinegar chips he was eating earlier and crumpled them up on the top of his serving of mac-and-cheese. He held the bag over for Roman and raised an eyebrow. Roman shrugged and took a small handful of chips to do the same. The crunch and bite were pretty good on the creamy mac-and-cheese when he tentatively tried it.
"Oh, that's awesome," Roman nodded and Virgil smirked, putting the bag down on the dinner table between the two of them. It wasn't like Virgil to share his salty potato products, so the gesture weirdly flattered Roman. His standards for flattery had gotten low, it seemed. Thomas came into the kitchen and smiled at Roman.
"Comfort food, Pat?" Thomas asked, arching an eyebrow at the food on the table.
" Roman is fine, but I'm not," Patton said somberly as he served himself some mac-and-cheese.
"Hm?" Roman looked up with his mouth full of mac-and-cheese when he heard his name and swallowed. "I'm sorry?" Roman apologized, but he did not understand what was happening.
"No, Roman, you didn't do anything wrong. You don't have to apologize," Patton held up his hands and shook his head.
"I heard my name and the fact that you're not okay, so I think I kinda do ?" Roman said carefully, furrowing his brow nervously.
"Do you remember what you talked to Remus about?" Thomas asked mildly, sitting down at the table in the remaining spot.
"Uh-" Roman thought for a moment, trying to remember. "Um. Frozen, gayness, juvie, killing each other through a mirror universe… my family, I think," Roman listed off. "Probably some other stuff, we were there for an hour," Roman shrugged and took another bite of mac-and-cheese. It was a weird question to ask, but it's not like he and Remus were talking about bad things, so he had no reason to hide it.
'Can twins kill each other through a mirror universe? Metal,' Virgil signed, looking darkly excited at the concept.
'Only if they're perfectly identical,' Roman put down his fork and signed back while he chewed.
"Agreed, he's probably fine. Comfort food is excellent, though. Thanks for cooking, love," Thomas rubbed Patton's shoulder appreciatively.
"It helps me process things, but there's never a bad time for mac-and-cheese," Patton said sagely, nodding and rubbing his chin wisdom.
"Maybe not so much if you're lactose intolerant. Unless it was your last meal, then it's the perfect time for mac-and-cheese," Roman provided with a small shrug. Virgil looked considerate and also nodded after a moment, chewing his food.
'Poisoned mac-and-cheese would be a good method to die,' Virgil signed. Roman raised his eyebrows and considered it, then tilted his head and nodded enthusiastically.
'Only with bacon and serranos,' Roman added. Virgil nodded in agreement, looking satisfied.
"I really hope that's table appropriate talk," Patton narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"We're just talking about variants of mac-and-cheese," Roman provided dismissively. It wasn't wrong, but he assumed Patton didn't want to know that one of those variants was poison.
"Pre-digested, right?" Patton asked carefully, pointing with his fork.
"Gross!" Roman shot and Virgil stuck his tongue out. They both grimaced at Patton. "We're not animals, geez," Roman muttered bitterly and shook his head.
"We discussed lactose intolerance. I had to be sure," Patton said seriously as he looked between the two of them.
"Well, you brought that part of the issues up, not us," Roman rolled his eyes and slumped back in his chair dramatically.
"Are your feet okay after having to be on them today?" Thomas asked, clearly in an attempt to change the subject. Roman could respect that since he'd rather be able to eat his food without feeling disgusted.
"They're not bleeding, I don't think? They just hurt," Roman replied, sounding just as unsure as he felt. He didn't exactly check them when he got back. Bending down to do that hurt like a bitch and they didn't feel weirdly hot or anything like that.
"I'm not sure about you walking to school still on Monday," Thomas deliberated, sounding concerned again. Thomas and safety, geez.
"A proposed compromise: I call you if they start bleeding again," Roman offered. Thomas seemed to like compromises, and it was reasonable in Roman's opinion.
"How about we check if your feet are okay in the morning and then make that the agreement if they're healed enough?" Thomas suggested back an alteration to the compromise, and Roman narrowed his eyes and chewed his cheek for a moment.
"You know I'll be too out of it to argue with you in the morning," Roman objected, stabbing at his mac-and-cheese.
"I'm counting on it," Thomas smiled knowingly and Virgil silently snickered at Roman.
" Hey ," Roman glowered mildly at Thomas, pulling his lip to the side.
"If they keep opening up and bleeding, it'll just take longer to get back to your regular life, Roman. They need to heal fully," Thomas reminded him, tapping the table with his finger to punctuate his point.
"It's just that one on my right foot that doesn't like staying closed. What if I hop there?" Roman asked facetiously, rolling his eyes dramatically.
"I'd love to see you try while not hurting your broken rib," Thomas said glibly.
"Okay, you know what?" Roman replied faux-angrily. "That's fair," Roman finished blithely and snickered. He reached in the chip bag and crumpled up one more chip on the remaining mac-and-cheese.
"You had me going there, kiddo, not gonna lie," Patton chuckled nervously after a second.
"Sorry," Roman apologized. "I was just having some fun," Roman said sheepishly, curling in his shoulders.
"I thought it was funny," Thomas laughed lightly. Roman relaxed a little and continued eating, glad he wasn't upset. Patton settled down too, though he was still eating much slower than his usual vacuum pace.
'Want to continue playing after food?' Roman put down his fork and signed at Virgil. Virgil scooped some more mac-and-cheese out before signing.
'Father, I crave violence,' Virgil signed back with an evil smile, and Roman laughed, not anticipating that response in any sense, and got a smaller portion of seconds for himself.