Deceit's Hunger

Part 8

Warmth was something that Deceit could un-honestly say that he, of course, had a lot of experience in, and that he, of course, did not love the warmth that came with leaning against Virgil as they watched their movie. The couch was practically full of piles of blankets, pillows, and snacks. Although, Deceit mainly kept to the jello as per Logan's orders on his diet, since the last incident involving solid foods.

His cheek remained smooshed against Virgil's shoulder his eyes lazily watching the screen, even if he was still much to focused on the way that Virgil's lungs inhaled and exhaled all too easily. A part of him was fearful that he was crushing the other, and that soon Virgil would instruct him to move or to get up off of him. However, that never really came. He and Virgil just continued to watch the movie like there wasn't an issue at all.

The anxious side was surprisingly warm all things considered, he didn't know why, but Deceit had figured that Virgil would be cold to the touch given that he almost always saw the other in his heavy sweater and long sleeve shirts. But no, curling up next to Virgil was like curling up close to a mini space heater, and he couldn't help but to love it even more.

Once again he felt something in his chest doing a weird flip-flopping thing, as he glanced over once again from the tv and over to Virgil who was chewing on one of the Twizzlers in a bag. His jaw was mechanically moving up and down as the red rope got smaller and smaller as it did.

'What is wrong with me? No normal person watches people eat like this.' Deceit mentally hissed to himself, his scales were once again tinged with a rosy-green color as he mentally berated himself. He was acting delusional!

"Do you want one?"

Virgil's voice in its suddenness made Deceit's attention snap back up to the other's face and most certainly away from the red candy and his lips. As Virgil had plucked a red rope from the bag holding one out for Deceit to take if he so chose to.

'Stupid stupid.' Were the two words he thought to himself as he took the candy with near shaking fingers. Logan had specifically said not to eat anything solid, but he was in far too deep now, Virgil had seen him staring and if he declined it would make him look like a weirdo. So it was either take it and suffer later, or not take it and suffer embarrassment and wounding his pride.

Needless to say, it was obvious which one he was going to do.

The candy though, felt foreign in his fingers, he hadn't eaten something like this in a pretty long while, maybe even years if he recalled correctly. The taste of it felt even weirder to him, it was cherry, but was it cherry? How long had it been since he had tasted an actual cherry? Did the others even have cherries in the mind space? Could they be summoned if they didn't have any there?

The movie faded to a low rumble in the background of his thoughts.

No, they had cherries. There had been cherries in the fridge when P-

A feeling akin to an elastic rubber band snapping stung in his chest, it burned and his ears felt like someone had stuffed them full of cotton. Deceit felt colder now, too cold and his hands felt uneven, where had the candy gone? It had been there just a few seconds ago. Why couldn't he hear the movie anymore, had Virgil turned it off?

God his chest hurt, why was it hurting so much? Why? Why? Why?

Why did everything have to hurt so much?

Deceit felt his face turn wet, as faintly just faintly he could hear someone calling his name, he could hear the voice but he just couldn't focus on it. All he could see was the red cherry flavored candy that had fallen on his lap. There had been cherries, there had been cherries in the fridge when Patton had...when he had been dragged back and cornered like a scared and wild animal.

"Deceit! Deceit!" Virgil felt a wave of muted terror rolling over him at the sight of the tears rolling down Deceit's carefully blank face. He had no idea as to what could have even started this to begin with, but seeing as Deceit's hand still remained outstretched form where he had been holding the candy that Virgil had given him. He had a pretty good idea on how to stop it.

Reaching forward he grasped the outstretched hand, it was surprisingly freezing cold despite the bundles of blankets and pillows they had now. How could one person be that cold?

Nevertheless, Virgil shook the thought away as he gripped the hand a little tighter pulling the deceitful side so close that he could rest his chin on his shoulder. He felt the raspy intake of breath from the other, and he felt his own arms curling around the other.

"Dee, hey Dee...it's alright, just breathe," Virgil instructed, his hands automatically moved up and down as he rubbed Deceit's back. "Can you do that for me? Just breathe and focus on me, I'm right here. I've got you, so just breathe." He felt another shudder roll through Deceit, and with it came a harsh sound.

Fingers clenched his sweater, so hard that he was almost worried that it would rip. Even so, Virgil didn't let the other go. Even as Deceit buried his head into his shoulder releasing the sound that this time he knew was a sob. Deceit's body shuddered and shook, as if he were trying to keep all of the pent-up sadness and tears inside of him. It felt painful for him to even see the other like this, let alone to feel it every time Deceit tried to hold onto every whimper.

The only thing that Virgil honestly felt like he was doing right was just holding the other, aside from that and just rubbing his back for the other he wasn't certain that there was much that Virgil could do. He hated that feeling, he hated like feeling that he wasn't doing enough, that he couldn't help Deceit when he was obviously hurting enough to cry like this.

"W..Why?" The word was rasped out and yet it had still caught Virgil off guard.

His hands once again combed over Deceit's hair and all the way down his back, "Why what, Dee?" Was the only thing he could really ask in that moment, and in reply, he felt the fingers grasping his sweater clench all the more tighter than before.

"W..Why did h..he...why? Why did he have to scare me? I..I wasn't being mean..I was just hungry! So..So why did he have to..to hurt me?!"

This was bad, this was really bad.

Another strangled whimper left Deceit, and this time Virgil held him closer, so that Deceit was practically pressed flush against his chest. He felt the other's hands mechanically releasing his sweater, instead allowing his arms to slowly encircle him as he accepted the comfort now.

"Who Dee? Who hurt you..?" He wanted to know, Virgil wanted to know who had caused such a mess and who had caused the tears. Logan had refused to answer him, and honestly, Virgil hadn't wanted to ask Deceit for fear of creating the scene that he was now partaking in right now.

He couldn't stand not knowing, and it hurt even more as he felt Deceit's forehead that was resting against his shoulder rubbing back and forth in a seemingly exhausted shake of his head. There had been no words, but the answer was very clear.

No.

"You..you wouldn't believe me if I told you, nobody would..." Once again Virgil felt his hand automatically moving upward to smooth Deceit's hair back down, and in the process from the corner of his eye the faint color of baby blue distracted him as it hastily ducked out into the hallway.

Out of sight, and out of mind.