The Purple Basket

Between 1 and 4 am

TW: Divorce, Arguing, Kicking Out, Unsympathetic Patton, Abandoning a Child

The twins were two now. Virgil was a couple of months old. Everything was just as hectic as before.

The twins had learned to speak, and had begun to form personalities. Roman's sense of right and wrong was a little more formed than his brothers. The two were practically inseparable, which made sense given the circumstances of their birth. Twins do, what twins do.  It was rare to  see one alone. They sat together at every meal, insisted on keeping their beds right next to each other, and played every game as a team. 

Virgil was basically the picture perfect child, other than the fact that he couldn't sleep through the night. That was the only time he ever cried. Deceit and Patton both worried that their son might be having nightmares. Despite that, they were glad that Virgil was so much quieter than his older siblings. Roman and Remus had been very vocal children. 

The biggest issue in the house was the growing tension between the men of the household. Patton was slowly growing more and more fed up with his husband, he couldn't trust a word out of the man's mouth. His name was Deceit for crying out loud. He represented Deception in Thomas. How had Patton ever fallen for such a monster. Deceit was oblivious. He was still just as hopelessly in love with Patton as the day they had gotten married. 

Patton began to lash out slowly. Snide comments would be thrown. Deceit would just ignore it and make sure to cuddle his husband extra that night. When similar comments were thrown towards Remus however, Deceit was forced to step in. 

"Deceit, can you control your son please" Patton called out, after witnessing Remus threaten to rip a dragon's intestines out.

"Our son dear." Deceit gently reminded. 

He could hear Patton's sigh from the other room. This kind of behavior was unfortunately becoming a routine. Patton had a strong dislike for Remus' darker whims. Remus was too young to know any better. Things escalated, until one day after work Patton couldn't take it anymore,

"Get out of my house!"

Deceit froze, he felt the tears on his face as he attempted to stammer out a reply

"B-babe I-I-"

Patton took his wedding ring and placed it in Deceit's hand. He then called for Remus. 

"Get out and take your bastard son with you!"

Deceit couldn't do anything other than nod. His whole world, gone. The tears streamed down his face slowly and it took everything in him not to sob loudly. He moved sluggishly, wiping his eyes and doing his best to settle himself. He took Remus out to his car. It was smaller than Patton's minivan, but it had a carseat for one twin (it couldn't fit both of them) and Virgil's baby seat. He helped Remus get buckled. Remus was confused but knew better than to ask questions. Deceit called Remy. 

"Rem, I-" His voice shook.

"Babes, what's wrong?"

"He kicked me out. I- I have Remus, we need to stay somewhere."

Remy hooked them up with an apartment in the same complex as him, right down the hall. It had three bedrooms, each bedroom had its own bathroom. Deceit was impressed, he knew he shouldn't be able to afford this place, but it was a bad neighborhood, and the place was cheap. Deceit would rather live in a nice neighborhood, like the one he and Pat-, he and his ex-husband, had lived in. He wanted Remus to be safe, and it would be hard to do that now, but Deceit was sure he'd manage, somehow.  

It had been three days. 

Roman and Remus had both been devastated. They cried for hours on end, neither really understood why they had been split up. It was devastating and both fathers realized that they wouldn't be able to keep the twins separated permanently. It would hurt too much. In a similar fashion, Virgil cried. Patton had been shocked, Virgil was not a crier, so to hear the near constant crying was soul taking. Deceit had gotten his last tattoo. The date he lost the love of his life. 

It was 1:06 am when Virgil woke Patton. This was a nightly occurrence, likely another nightmare.

 It was 1:08 am when Patton discovered Virgils assignment. Under his right eye, Anxiety and under his left, Thomas Sanders. It was scrawled there in a scratchy cursive font, a stark contradiction to Patton's wide bubbly letters. 

It was 2:19 am when Deceit heard a knock at the door. He ignored it. It was late, he was stressed and depressed, they could wait till morning. 

 It was 3:56 am when he heard the familiar screams of a baby. He opened the door gently to find his beautiful baby boy, sitting out in the cold, in a purple basket.