Bad Guy

EIghT

"It was my fault."

The room was deathly silent after Anxiety had spoken, not even the ragged breathing of the previously panicking man could be heard, and no one knew what to do. What was he talking about? What was his fault?

"What do you believe to be at fault for?" Logan asked, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Missy... Pranks... Oh god, it was all my fault," Anxiety sobbed into Romans chest before suddenly finding himself unattached to Romans stupid suit. He would never admit how scared that made him feel. Logan and Patton slowly left the room, knowing that this was something for Roman and Anxiety to work out alone - although it might have had something to do with the conflicting emotions that ran across Patton's face.

Roman looked a mess. His eyes wide as he thought over what Anxiety had just said, before finally managing to draw in a shaky breath and form a semi-coherent sentence. "M-missy an' Pran-nks?"

Anxiety nodded, "Peter and Michael and I.... me, Peter and Michael? They where the only other two there and I... lov- oh god...I killed them."

Romans world crumbled, this broken man just answered all of his questions about his old best friends. This ex-villain, who he had been fighting for years, just told him something that Thomas - his own fucking twin brother - had died trying to find, and had made their entire fight (and oh god, the fight, and Thomas was injured, why did he let him look for answers alone?) pointless. His world was crumbling but so many pieces of the age-old puzzles where being fitted into placed where the others dropped. 

"What do you mean? Where you forced to do it? Why did you kill my best friends?" Roman asked, or rather pleaded, desperate to know that he hadn't been harbouring his best friends (and in his mind, his brothers) murderer under his roof. 

"I.. it was.. only one of us could live. Depr-He made us fight and I didn't mean to but I had a knife and I moved to quickly. There was so much blood, I'm sorry," Anxiety stumbled out, sobs breaking his sentences apart to the point that it would've been impossible for most people to understand what he said; but Prince wasn't most people.

"Anxiety-"

"Don't call me that, please. I'm not... I don't want to be a bad guy."

"Then what shall I call you?"

"My name.. my name is Virgil."

"Okay, Virgil... that wasn't your fault. You where forced to do it by Depressi-" Virgil flinched backwards at the start of His name and Roman corrected his mistake, "Him. You did what you had to do to survive."

"You... you don't hate me?" Virgil whispered, and if Romans heart hadn't already been shattered then the broken pieces would litter the floor around him. 

"Never." He replied, with such certainty that Virgil managed to believe him for a moment.

"And... yo-you wont make me... make me go back?" And Romans already-broken-beyond-repair-heart crumbled into even smaller pieces. The way his voice was soft, as if he had already resigned himself to being taken back to that monster, tore Roman to pieces and left him even more of a mess.

"Never, oh god Virgil I could never do such a thing. But can I ask you something?"

"Yea, I owe you that for..." He trailed off, unsure hoe to saw 'killing your friends and then living in your house'.

"You don't need to answer but... what where they to you?" The question was asked shyly, but Virgil's eyes lit up at the chance to talk about them when they where still alive.

"I guess we dated, though none of us knew there was a word for it. I, uh, I really liked them... maybe even loved them," a sob tore through his fragile body, "I miss them."

"So do I, Virge," Roman murmured and Virgil cried even harder; Peter used to call him that when they where both kids. When the world was slightly brighter and Depression slightly less demanding.... when he was still alive.

"I-"

"Don't you fucking dare apologize. It wasn't your damn fault, it was His!" Prince yelled as he saw the self-loathing creep slowly back into the others mind. His previously boiling blood - thick with anger and hatred - had calmed into a gentle simmering of understanding, Virgil had been through so much more that he ever had. Roman felt selfish (and disgusting) with how he (dared to) feel bad when someone else was being put through greater suffering and pain.

"I'm sorr-" he saw the look that Roman was giving him, "- Okay," Virgil sighed, picking at his nails anxiously. His head still hurt from the force of all of his memories violently flowing around inside it, crashing against his skull and pulling at his mind. He just wanted to sleep, but knew that it would only be filled with nightmares if he tried.

"Do you remember anything else?" Roman asked, taking Virgil's hands into his own and soothingly rubbing circles into. Virgil felt his heart flutter with the gesture, and fought to keep the blush from his face; his pale skin would accentuate the pink even more.

The room fell back into that somewhat uneasy silence and they both found themselves wishing that one of the others - or both of them - was there. Logan would always offer comforting logical conclusions after conversations like these - he did his best to help despite the emotional charge of the subject and knowing that emotions aren't what he's good at. Patton would know when something was wrong and he would know how to fix it, even if that meant slightly manipulation peoples emotions to achieve his end goal.

But Patton and Logan weren't there, and they had to deal with this alone; it was their issues after all.

"No." Virgil finally declared after five minutes of crushing silence.