A Lie of Omission

Virgil sometimes wished his room would apply the eyeshadow to his face the same way it did for the other sides.

When the other sides spent too long in his corner of the mind, they became corrupted, and the room itself would darken the shadows under their eyes the longer they were there, as a way to visualise the heightened anxiety it made them feel. Virgil suspected it was the room's way of warning them that it wasn't good for their health to stay, and to persuade them to leave. The anxious side was jealous. No matter how long he spent in the room, he still had to apply the eyeshadow manually.

He sighed as he applied the black eyeshadow under his eyes, curving it around the lower eyelid to form a semi-circle of black edginess. He stopped for a moment and frowned. It wasn't enough. Grumbling in frustration, he sponged the makeup onto his face even thicker. He needed it to be as black as it could be.

He needed it to hide the scales.

He absolutely loathed the half-moon shaped scales under his eyes that marked him as a 'Dark Side', as Roman liked to refer to them. Though he supposed it could have been worse; he could have had scales like Deceit, which covered half his face –in fact, he was probably lucky that they were only under his eyes– but that didn't mean he hated them any less.

He had been so thankful when he'd found the eyeshadow after he ducked out (before the others came to retrieve him and he revealed his name). He'd been in his room, feeling like shit even as he told himself it was for the best, when he'd passed his mirror and thought he saw a scale underneath the eyeliner he'd smudged onto his in an instant he was overcome with self-loathing for who he was and where he'd come from. Caught in a mania, he'd rifled through his small makeup bag for the pencil and his hand had come out with the eyeshadow instead.

He was so glad it had. The eyeshadow hid the scales much better.

It also added to his edgy aesthetic.

A knock on the door yanked him out of his reverie, and he narrowly missed streaking the eyeshadow across his nose when he started in surprise. His accelerated heart rate slowed relatively back to normal when he heard Patton's voice from the other side of his door.

"Hey kiddo, it's me." The fatherly side called. "Are you coming down for movie night? No pressure though if you don't want to!"

"Yeah I, I'm coming!" He responded. "Just give me a minute."

"Okay kiddo." Patton's footsteps faded from earshot as he walked to the end of the corridor and descended the staircase into the commons. Virgil drew in a deliberately slow breath as he turned back to the mirror, examining the eyeshadow under his left eye. He spent a few seconds touching it up before deciding it was done and moving on to the other. When he had covered up both sets of scales to his satisfaction, he put the makeup away and left his room, making his way downstairs.

Roman and Logan were both on the couch, Logan with his nose in an astronomy book and Roman practically vibrating with anticipation as he waited for the movie to play. He turned his head to see Patton coming out of the kitchen, a plate full of cookies in his hands. Based on the smell, they were fresh out of the oven. Virgil smiled. He loved Patton's cookies. They were delicious.

"Hey there kiddo." Patton grinned at him, holding the plate out. "Want a cookie? They're fresh."

"Well I'm definitely not saying no." He smirked as he grabbed two cookies, immediately stuffing one halfway into his mouth. "Thnks Pattn" He said through the cookie. Patton gave him a light slap on the shoulder.

"Don't talk with food in your mouth." He said sternly, but he was smiling, and Virgil could see his shoulders shaking with laughter. He awkwardly swallowed what was in his mouth, apologised for his bad manners, and plonked himself down onto the couch next to Logan.