"This is barely a step up from a broom closet." Virgil hissed to Richie, who rolled his eyes.
"It was this or the ladies' room. Pretty sure you'd prefer this one." Richie said, glancing around the men's room stalls and checking for feet as Virgil tried to lock the door.
"Lock's broken." Virgil said.
"Backpack's on his way," Richie said, then "I'll make sure he comes through the window. It's the only place in or out they haven't sealed up, but we shouldn't count on that." Virgil looked at the window on the far wall and figured it was just barely large enough to fit a person through.
"You got your gear?"
"Gear, ha. But no, this was supposed to be a birthday dinner and I didn't want to carry my backpack into your dad's birthday dinner."
"You're just jealous that yours can't be hidden so easily."
"And you," Richie said, "have to carry your cape in your back pocket like a weirdo." Virgil heard noise outside the door.
"Shhh! Someone's coming this way."
"Backpack's ETA is 6 minutes!" Richie whispered back.
"I'll check the bathrooms." They heard a voice say faintly from the other side of the door. Richie's eyes moved frantically about the room as he thought before he grabbed Virgil and shoved him into one of the stalls.
"Do not punch me for this!" Richie said, shoving Virgil against a wall and locking the bathroom stall door before falling to his knees. As they heard the door open, Richie threw a hand against the wall and gave a fake moan. Virgil looked down incredulously at his friend as Richie gave him an irritated but clear "play along" look.
It only took a second for Virgil's mind to click.
"Ohhh." Virgil said, trying to change it to a moan at the last second.
"Yeah baby, like that." He said, shrugging at Richie's judgmental look. Richie stuck a finger in his mouth and popped it out loudly with a groan, pretending to pant.
Virgil really didn't know what to do now. He mostly felt weird, hiding like this and pretending, but he also had to admit that Richie was on his knees real close to his junk.
"God baby, don't stop." Virgil said and they heard the door close.
"Just a couple of f*gs" the person said. "Don't even know we're here."
"Three minutes on Backpack," Richie whispered still on the ground. "He was looking at his jeans in disgust, probably afraid to wonder how often the floor got cleaned in there.
"Oh just get up, Rich." Virgil said. He began pulling off his shirt and pants to reveal the more form-fitting static outfit underneath with the cape, as Richie said, coming from his back pocket. Richie too began stripping with his Gear outfit underneath but had to wait on Backpack to bring his large helmet; that was the next thing he would need to invent—a retractible helmet so he could carry it with him. Virgil put a finger to his lips as he opened the bathroom stall to approach the window. It took only a quick shock to move the rusty hinge enough to open the window, and just in time for Backpack.
"Phew!" Richie sighed, grabbing the helmet held out for him from Backpack.
"Ideas?" Static said.
"I got a few!" Gear said. "Backpack, code Blackout, Passcode 07211-RGF." Backpack blinked a small green light to indicate the protocol was in-progress.
"What do they even want with a restaurant anyway?" Static wondered aloud.
"No clue, but if they monologue like they usually do, we'll find out soon enough. Backpack says about 20 seconds on blackout. When the lights go out, we can go inside and no one will know how we got in."
"What about outside?"
"Code Blackout has a one square block radius." Gear smirked; they'll have no clue, but they won't be able to see a thing either. Even the street lights'll go out for a few seconds."
"Smart."
"Uh, genius," Gear said, tapping his head. Suddenly, the lights went out.
"In we go."
In the end, it was only Shiv craving a snack and some cash and using Ebon's more gullible men to go with him while Ebon was in jail, so he was pretty easy to take care of. Soon enough, they had them zip tied or Zap cap'd up for the police before heading out the front door to catch any strays who may have been lurking outside still. Thankfully, no one was around, so they flew back in the bathroom window and walked back out to join Mr. Hawkins and Shannon for dinner. Life in Dakota was already so weird, so everyone pretty quickly went back to eating their food.
—
That night though, Virgil couldn't stop thinking about it. Richie really did look so wonderful with those lips parted to pant, breathing hot air so close to—
'Stop it!' Virgil thought, but he also knew that trying to will away a boner was a much harder—heh—process than just taking care of it right away. But he coudn't think of anything else. Whenever he tried to think of some random girl on her knees, his mind would always circle back to Richie and how he looked. He wondered how he would have looked if he had actually been there to do what that guy thought they were.
He would be gorgeous, Virgil knew. Intellectually, he knew his friend was hot. He had nice blond hair and pale skin with abs and other muscles hidden behind baggy clothes. Beyond his looks, he was incredibly smart, a literal genius even, and his fellow superhero, his partner.
'I shouldn't be imagining this,' a small part of his brain thought guiltily, but he didn't stop his hand delving lower to brush along his balls.
He'd seen Richie in all states of dress over the years; superheroing really did away with a lot of modesty, especially since their lair was an abandoned gas station surrounded by a junkyard and with only a small, improvised shower stall. But seeing him naked after getting slimed by the monster of the week was very different than what he was imagining now.
He pictured Richie on his knees again, this time with just a plain t-shirt on instead of his baggy sweatshirt. His lips were parted in genuine pants, and he was looking up over his glasses at Virgil as he leaned forward to suck Virgil off.
"Mmmm" Virgil moaned lowly. He began to brush lightly at his dick before settling on a loose grip, pumping up and down slowly.
His lips would be red and puffy but also shiny. His glasses may even be fogged up from his harsh breath. Virgil would plant a hand in his hair, not forcing, only guiding, and his head would be thrown back against the wall in pleasure. He would tug lightly at Richie's hair once—a warning—but Richie would only moan more, liking the sensation. Virgil would have to tug harder, forcing Richie to stop and look at him, and Virgil would lean down and kiss—
He released his dick and clutched the sheets hard, hoping the slight pain in his hands would ground him. He breathed forcefully through his nose, in and out, until he felt his heartbeat come under control again. It was one thing to think about his friend that way and another to think about kissing him too, making it serious…
Virgil opened his eyes and squinted in the moonlight in the abandoned gas station lair. There were signs of Richie everywhere, the computer whose rainbow lights showed that it was on standby, the empty coffee mugs all around cause Richie insisted it helped with his ADHD but Virgil thought he was really just addicted to the taste after all this time, the bits and pieces of Zap Caps around to be modified and improved, and Richie himself in the opposite couch, snoring lightly as though nothing were amiss.
Virgil sighed, closed his eyes, and tried to will himself to sleep.
—
The next morning, they fought over the last of the microwavable breakfast rolls in the fridge. The milk had already expired, and neither wanted to eat dry cereal, but they were due to get some groceries for the lair today. Still, it was a hard-fought battle.
"No, I did the heavy lifting last night! I'm the one who got us an alibi and it was my quick thinking that kept up from getting caught!"
"Uh, did you forget the part where I had to get the one coming up behind you?" "Pssh, I knew you could take him while I dealt with the two trying to team up to hit you from the side."
"You're making that up!"
"No, I'm not! You can check Backpack's footage! That breakfast roll should be mine!" Richie said, plucking it, still frozen, from the box to microwave.
"Why you little…!" Virgil said, tackling his friend to the couch. Richie, never one to back down from a challenge, rolled with the hit as much as he could to try to get the upper hand. When he couldn't roll on top of Virgil to steal back the breakfast roll, he kicked a leg out and pushed off the back of the couch, forcing both boys to the ground where they were more even.
"Oof!" Virgil said even as Richie rolled on top of him and tried to pin his hands while he pinned the rest of his body where he sat on Virgil's stomach.
Virgil hiked up a knee and grabbed Richie's elbow, pushing and pulling at the same time to reverse their positions. Richie narrowed his eyes and pulled on Virgil's right arm while at the same time using his right arm to put at Virgil's neck so he'd fall to the side. From there, both boys lost any sense of strategy and fought only to win though their prize had skittered somewhere around under the couch. They were both panting heavily now but with determined gleans in their eyes. Eventually, Richie pinned Virgil to the ground, learning from his previous mistake and sitting on the boy's sternum rather than his stomach. He was still panting as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked down at Virgil, holding his forearm loosely against Virgil's throat.
"Admit that I win." Richie said, but Virgil looked stunned.
"V? You okay, man?" Richie asked. Virgil licked his lips before blinking for a second.
"Aw man, where did it even go?"
"Nuh-uh, admit that I won first!"
"Fine, fine, you win!" Richie smirked down at Virgil with smugness written all over his face. Virgil suddenly became aware of the fact that he was hard and had been for a long time. He tensed before forcing himself to relax and let Richie stand up to search for the missing breakfast roll.
It was going to be a long day.
—
Richie could admit to himself, if no one else, that he was gay. It's not like he was trying to hide it—well except for from his dad—but really, it just… never came up. Sure, his earring could mean that, but there were a bunch of people in the city who had a pierced ear without it meaning anything, and even Mr. Hawkins didn't seem to pick up on the meaning. Besides, it really hadn't come up so far at school since V and him were pretty much chronically dateless anyway, so there was no reason for anyone to really know. It's not that Richie was ashamed, but he knew how kids could be cruel, and heavens knows his dad was a whole 'nother thing to worry about. But he could admit it to himself.
Virgil though… he really didn't want to tell Virgil for one simple reason: once V learned Richie was gay, whether he wanted it to or not, things would change, especially if Virgil realized that he had been Richie's longest-lasting crush. They needed to get along for superheroing, so it was easy to just keep putting it off, to keep saying that now wasn't the time, and there wasn't any rush was there?
He and V were comfortable with their bromance. Virgil wasn't really raised on that "patriarchal hypermasculine nonsense" as Freida put it, and Richie just didn't care about that stuff to begin with, so they were comfortable wrestling, putting their arms around the other's shoulder, and stuff like that. It didn't mean anything beyond friendship, but it was still a level of physical closeness Richie was afraid could disappear or become strained if he told Virgil. And while he did have a superbrain that functioned a million miles an hour that told him repeatedly that the odds of V having any interest in guys let alone Richie was something like 3%… some small part of his brain still held hope. After all, with all the stuff he heard about the Justice League doing in the news, it sounded like just about anything was possible, even probable.
So yeah, he had… moments of weakness. Moments where he liked to think "what if" in the cover of darkness where he could pretend for just a moment.
The bit in the bathroom with the fake blowjob didn't really mean anything to Richie. He didn't really find it, like, sexy or anything so much as mostly annoying and a little amusing. It did work for sure, but there wasn't anything really arousing to slamming your hand on a wall and making some fake moaning noises. The fight over the bacon, egg, and cheese burrito that morning? He had to admit, if only to himself, that that was pretty freakin' hot. It's not that Richie always feels like a damsel in distress, okay? He's run the numbers and he gets knocked down for the count only 11% more often than Static does which can be accounted for by the fact that Static can just zap his opponents and get right back up in ways Richie can't. Plus, even though the media liked to portray it that Gear was Static's sidekick, everyone on the streets of Dakota knew that that they were partners, were equals.
But there's still something extra thrilling in getting one over on V without relying on powers. In an even, no-powers fight, it isn't really clear who would win, but Richie knows how others tend to perceive him. He's not the one with flashy powers. He's not the big, strong hero; he relies on his smarts more than his muscles (well, the brain is a muscle), but he knows people tend to see him and think that Static's the bigger threat.
But when it's just them, messing around? It's always a thrill to get the upper hand, and Richie definitely won their play-fight earlier. He doesn't have a ton of hand-to-hand experience, but he has a basic understanding of how the body works, even though putting into practice what one knows logically is easier said than done; point is, he didn't even really need to think about it when he pulls out the BJJ move to trap Virgil and declare himself the winner. He just suddenly looked down and saw V breathing hard, half from exertion and half from uncontained laughter, and he thought "I want this happiness for the rest of my life." He realized then that he was breathless too, though in a different way than Virgil, so he got up to fetch the breakfast roll. Even though he won fair and square, he still offered Virgil a bite after microwaving the food.
Everything, he felt, was the way it should be.
—
Virgil had never had a sexuality crisis before. It's not like they happen everyday, and he'd known he liked girls since kindergarten. He knew gay people too, and it's not like he thought it was weird, but he never felt the need to do any kind of introspection cause he knew he liked girls. Moot point right? Well, wrong apparently.
Virgil would like to say he was handling it well, but… "Little brother, would you listen to me already?!" Sharon yelled. Virgil jumped and turned to face his sister, not realizing she was in the room.
"I've called your name five times now! What has gotten into you?" Virgil just shrugged his shoulders.
"Daddy wants to know if Richie's coming over or not so he knows how much food to buy and if he should use the lactose-free milk for supper." Virgil nodded.
"Uh yeah, I'll double-check with him, but he should be coming over around 4, but I don't know if he's planning to stay or not." Sharon rolled her eyes.
"Oh please, you two are attached at the hip. The week that boy doesn't come over for free food, I'll eat my own sock." She sassed, walking over to the phone.
"… Yes, Daddy, Richie's gonna be here. I'm about to start on those carrots…" Seeing that Sharon was gonna be there for a minute, Virgil decided to retreat to his room for privacy. It's not like Sharon was wrong; Virgil and Richie really had been best buds since the end of elementary with Richie moved to Dakota, but it's not like he was around all the time, right? They would hang out for video games or comic books, plus superheroing obviously, and Richie did spend a lot of time at the Hawkins house, but that's cause his dad was such a piece of work to begin with. Thinking about it though, Virgil really didn't spend much time away from Richie, and it never felt like a bad thing. They never really got too much in each other's space or run out of things to say. Any silences between them were pretty amiable or short-lived, like when Richie accidentally tore a page in one of Virgil's comics when they were twelve. They'd had a couple of fights, but nothing enough to really separate them, and they both knew they could turn to one another when something was wrong. That said, this was one of those things Virgil felt he needed to do on his own.
Again, he'd never felt any interest in guys. Maybe it wasn't guys in general, just Richie? But it's not like Richie looked like a girl. He was all muscle where a girl was curves, snarky jokes when a girl would have a flirty laugh.
Did it even mean anything to have a naughty daydream about your friend? Sure, it was really hot, but no other guys had ever featured in Virgil's dreams. Did you count as bi if you were only into one guy? Was he even really into Richie?
He had to think about that one. Objectively, he knew Richie was attractive, but that had never really mattered before. He'd been looking at it from a girl's perspective, so now he needed to think a different way. Obviously, he was at least somewhat physically attracted to Richie to have had that daydream, and he did like spending time with his friend, hanging out, going to concerts or events at the Center together, and getting food together. Could he picture himself going on a date with Richie?
Well, not really. At least, not the way he would with Freida or Daisy. With them, he was all macho, buying them food and chatting them up, flirting and paying compliments. He couldn't see himself doing that with Richie. It wouldn't be genuine and it would just feel wrong. What about other guys?
He tried to imagine a generic, decent-looking dude to go on a theoretical date with. What would he do on a date with the faceless male blob in his mind? Definitely not the same sappy stuff he told girls; plus, he'd want to go on different dates. Romantic stuff like Valentine's Day never really caught his interest, and he and Rich had made whispered jokes about how crazy girls were for being so obsessed with silly stuff like that. So maybe it wasn't that he didn't want to date Richie, only that he would date Richie differently than girls, if that even made sense?
Would the stuff they already did count as dates? Going to the arcade, getting lunch, hanging out all day; he could definitely see someone thinking those were dates without context.
So, he knew that he was attracted physically to Richie, whether that made him bi or not, and that dates with Richie—or any guy for that matter—would not be the same as dates with girls. Where did that leave him? If only his superpower had given him insight into his own mind—
He was interrupted by the doorbell and Virgil looked at the old digital clock in his room to see it was already 4 o'clock. He'd been sitting there thinking for two whole hours! He hadn't even touched his homework yet. Pops would kill him if he didn't keep his grades up.
—
Richie could tell V had something on his mind but wasn't ready to talk about it yet, so he didn't push. Patrols were going as usual even as the heat waved into Dakota like a slow furnace. They'd been spending more and more time at the abandoned gas station where Richie had rigged up an air conditioning system that essentially ran on batteries; he was thinking of submitting the designs to Wayne Tech for some extra cash to fall back on.
In the meantime, he needed to finish that crime database he was working on as well as miniaturizing the tracers he made while still keeping the battery life, not to mention that project he had going for Nightwing about miniaturizing the batarangs for storage or that English paper he had to write for Literature—
A small electric shock sparked his earring and made him jolt up.
"Guh!" Richie said, startling out of 'the zone.'
"Rich, I been trying to get your attention for ages man." Richie calmed his racing heart.
"You scared me, V-man. What's up?"
"What's up is that you've been so busy we've barely seen each other outside of patrol the past week. Everything okay?"
"Yeah, V, just focusing on a lot of projects here. I think I just need a break." "You and me both! C'mon, I bet D's ice cream shop is still open this late." Richie shrugged and put on his sweatshirt.
"Sure thing, man." He turned away. "Backpack, sentinel mode." Richie stuffed Backpack in his raggedy green backpack and they were off.
"So how'd you do on Mrs. Freedman's test? I liked the question about marine life, but I think she made the question about the digestive system too hard."
"Bro, that woman can kill a man's spirit with a test. I thought I was ready, but that question about the digestive stuff threw me for a loop. I thought for sure she'd ask about the nervous system." Richie shrugged.
"I think she wanted to test on something we hadn't gone over in class as much to make sure we were doing the homework."
"Yeah, rushed in between eating, sleeping, patrol, school…"
"You know I'd help you get it done faster if you needed, V!"
"Hey, I'm still swinging As and Bs, so cool your jets. If I ever start falling below that, I'll ask for your help." Richie rolled his eyes with a chuckle.
"What about the Lit paper?" Virgil asked after a few silent minutes.
"Hmm? Oh, I was thinking about writing about Beowulf for this one. You decide on your topic yet?"
"Topic and thesis! I'm just gonna go with Hamlet since we did that one more recently and the language makes more sense. Plus, I get an excuse to rewatch Lion King cause of it, which doesn't hurt."
They saw the dim lights of D's Ice Cream in front of them. It had once said Dale's Ice Cream, but the "ale" had long ago gone out and Dale had never bothered to fix it. The bell chimed as they walked in and Dale himself looked up from wiping the counter while the rest of the small restaurant was empty.
"What'll it be boys?" After paying and collecting their ice creams—pistachio for Virgil and dairy-free cherry for Richie—they sat at a booth to discretely talk patrol schedules for the next week.
"I'm telling you, crime goes up in the summer even with the heat. With the heat wave approaching and only a couple weeks left of the semester, I wouldn't be surprised if crime spikes soon. Plus, you know Hotstreak loves it when it's hot out."
"He's still in jail for that stunt he pulled a couple months ago downtown."
"And when have we ever known jail to hold Francis for any length of time?" Virgil pointed his quickly-melting cone at Richie and said "Point" before frantically trying to save the ice cream trying to slide down the side. Richie laughed and handed Virgil some napkins.
"I think we can afford to start taking later shifts so it's a little cooler. Spandex and heat don't mix so well, and there's nothing I can really do about a cooling system in the suit. Besides, our finals aren't supposed to be that hard and we're almost done anyway."
Virgil shrugged. "Whatever you say, man. We'll test if for a few days and if the sleeplessness gets to us, we'll pull back." Richie nodded and then laughed.
—
"You got a little pistachio in your hair. How'd you even manage that?"
"Aw, man. That's gonna be a pain to clean." Richie kept giggling at his friend's misfortune, and Virgil realized that this is what he'd want a date with a guy to be like. Wait.
Was this a date?
He really needed to get a hold of this stuff. No, he decided. It was not a date if it was not planned as a date and agreed upon to be a date. But it was still fun, and he definitely wanted to do it again soon.
"Hey, Rich." Virgil said.
"Yeah?" Richie responded.
"When does something count as a date?"
"Uh. Hmm. I guess when the people on the date agree that it's a date?" Virgil furrowed his brow.
"Come to think of it, I don't remember you ever going on a date." Richie shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Guess it's not really my thing." He muttered.
Was Richie even interested in men at all? He'd never shown particular interest in girls, but it's not like he'd been professing his love for guys either.
"Why not? We hang out all the time doing date-like stuff. You don't hate going to the movies or getting junk food. What's different when it's a date?" Richie shrugged again.
"How would I know, V?" That… was a good point actually.
"Would you be interested in going on a date?" Richie huffed.
"Maybe if someone were actually interested in me, but I don't exactly have 'em lined around the block."
"Cmon, man, don't sell yourself short. You're a good-looking guy with brains and brawn, plus you love comic books, old scifi movies, and you know everything public knowledge about the League."
"That last one's not exactly out of pure curiosity as you know, and besides, those aren't exactly qualities people usually look for in a date." It was Virgil's turn to furrow his brow.
"I would." He said, trying to sound casual and mostly, he hoped, succeeding, but Richie didn't take the bait.
"Aw, love you too." Richie said in a fake, gushy voice. Virgil winced. This was gonna be harder than he thought.
—
Richie was tired. Ebon had landed a lucky hit before getting away and that was on top of only getting two hours of sleep a night for the past couple of days due to patrol, family obligations, school, studying with Virgil, and working on various projects. He was running on empty, but he wasn't the only one. Ebon had only gotten in that hit cause V was just about as exhausted as he was.
"That's it." Richie said, making an executive decision.
"No patrol tomorrow. We're gonna sleep all day and then play video games and watch B-list horror movies tomorrow." Virgil groaned.
"Ah, sleep, how I miss it." He said, yawning. Richie steered him to the shower.
"Clean up, and we'll go back to yours. I feel like I could sleep for a week." He said, stretching his arms above his head until his shoulders popped.
He caught Virgil staring at his biceps, so he looked himself to see if there was a stain on the suit or something, and when he looked back, Virgil was walking away. Richie shrugged and watched as Virgil walked away. He blinked to himself, realizing that he'd been staring at nothing for a while now. When Virgil finished cleaning up, he let Richie go next, and then they were off to the Hawkins residence for some much needed sleep though it was too late for them to pull out the (rarely used) couch bed without waking Sharon and Mr. H, so Richie simply followed V upstairs to his room and flopped on the bed.
"You brush your teeth first. I'm gonna lay here and die." Virgil chuckled and left for the bathroom.
Richie knew other people would think it was weird, them sharing a bed after all this time. Richie knew that most people would see it as weird, but he wasn't about to point that out to Virgil. Despite it being a twin bed, they'd slept in that same bed for years now and knew how not to kick each other or wake each other in the night. Virgil tended to snore a little, which Richie had gotten used to and now found very comforting. Due to the size of the bed, the ended up cuddled together more often than not by necessity.
"I call big spoon." Richie said when Virgil returned from the bathroom, and Virgil just shrugged.
"Whatever, bathroom's yours." When Richie got back, Virgil was already under the covers and fast asleep, so Richie cut off the lights, put away his glasses, and got in bed, arm slipping around Virgil's waist and holding him close even as he felt sleep tugging him to dreamland. He never wanted these moments of quiet comfort to end.
—
Virgil knew he liked Richie, knew he wouldn't mind going on dates with Richie, even knew he loved him. He'd daydreamed sometimes of what he would say if he were to tell Richie. It'd be one of two scenarios: either they'd be in the midst of battle and one of them would be hurt and he'd just blurt it out or he'd take him time and have an honest conversation one day in private with his best friend. He hadn't expected it to just slip out from some dumb joke!
Okay, rewind. Here's how it went down:
Virgil and Richie were in Virgil's room studying for their chem test and Virgil was procrastinating by giving any chemistry pun he could think of.
"I'm just saying man, don't trust atoms; they make up everything!"
"Oh come on, that one's too cliché."
"Fine try this one on for size: I told a chemistry joke once; there was no reaction." Gear paused for a spit second and busted out laughing.
"Man, where do you even come up with these?" and because Virgil had been on a roll, he said—
"Guess it's just in my bi-ology." But Richie just blinked and cocked his head.
"You know that joke only really works if you're bi, right?" Richie said hesitantly.
"Well, I am. I think. It's… complicated. But I definitely like girls and I think I like guys too."
"That's… wow, V. I'm really proud of you for saying that." Richie said, still looking shocked.
"You beat me to it, that's for sure." He said, hesitantly.
"Wait, what?" Virgil asked.
"I'm… I'm gay." Richie said. Virgil stood from his swivel chair and grabbed his best bro in a hug.
"Now it's my turn to be proud of you." He said and paused. "Are gay confessions enough to get us out of homework?" Richie chuckled.
"I don't think that one would hold up in a court of law, no." A pause. "You're okay with it though?"
"Yeah, Rich. Nothing's gonna change." A longer pause.
"Hey, V… How'd you find out you were bi?" Virgil froze.
"Uh… well, it's a funny story…" And haltingly, Virgil explained.
"I was your bi awakening?" Richie said, the sound of wonder in his voice.
"Does that mean you like… like me?" Richie said, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Well, I guess that depends." Virgil said, equally as hesitant.
"On what?"
"If you'd like me back." Virgil said, breaking eye contact to look away.
"Hey, V. Yes. I like you back." Richie said, causing Virgil to look back at him. He started chuckling to himself.
"It's almost like we've got chemistry."