Pairing(s): Platonic Logince, platonic Analogical, background platonic Moxiety, and Roman has an implied crush on Virgil (it's not extremely focused on)
Warnings: Strong language, sink holes, road accidents, mention of blood and injury, mention of death, and panicking (?)
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"Damn, there's gonna be one hell of a storm tonight."
Logan rolls his eyes and chuckles at the worry in his friend's voice, flipping the page of his book as he takes another sip of his coffee. "Don't worry, Virgil. It'll be fine. And if you get too scared- Wait, is Patton there with you?"
The familiar gruff voice of his friend confirming that Patton, his roommate, was there with him reaches his ears and Logan smiles in relief. He cares for his friends deeply, but it's very late, and Logan doesn't know how much he can deal with visitors at 2AM. "Good. Well, if you get too scared, Patton will be there to comfort you, correct?"
"I think you're forgetting that Patton isn't too good with storms either, Pocket Protector."
"Yes," Logan agrees slowly, flipping another page of his book, "but he's a lot better with them than you are. I apologise if that sounds like a bad thing, I don't mean it to."
A huff of laughter reassures him that Virgil understands what he's trying to say. "Yeah... If anything happens I'll let you know."
"You'll be fine." He checks his watch and sighs regrettably, seeing that it is almost 11PM when he usually goes to bed at around 10-10:30PM. "We should both be heading to bed now. Tell Patton to do so, as well."
Virgil snorts. "That's cute. You think I sleep."
Closing his book, Logan glances over at the paperwork sitting on his desk and ignores the dread-filled clench of his heart as he realises that huge pile of work is due in for next week. He laughs weakly at Virgil's claim and shakes his head fondly. "You'd better get some sleep tonight at least. Your thesis is due in a couple of weeks and you need to get it finished."
The twenty-two year old on the other side of the phone fakes a sob and Logan hears a thump, immediately knowing that it was caused by his friend throwing himself on his bed, as they had had this conversation many times before. Virgil's muffled voice groans something about Logan being the worst friend ever, and when Logan asks him why, he is merely given an angry muffled grunt as a response.
After a few more seconds of quiet conversation, Logan hangs up the phone and curls up in his blankets, closing his eyes and letting sleep pull him under.
He doesn't dream of anything, not really having much to dream about, considering he hadn't done much that day other than nap and do work. And despite doing work all day, he still has so much left to complete. Usually, he wouldn't take naps during the day unless he had struggled to sleep the night before or unless he was unwell, but he simply... couldn't be bothered to do anything else. What was the point?
Later in the night, at around 3AM, he hears an almost deafening crash outside of his apartment complex. Unfortunately, this wakes him up and he feels his heart thudding frantically in his chest as his brain tries to come up with causes of the sound. And although there is still the heavy 'pitter patter' of rain hitting his bedroom window, he doubts that the storm outside would cause such a crash; it was a typical heavy storm, nothing too chaotic.
Instead of pondering over it any longer, he slips out of bed and listens carefully for any other sounds that could explain it, not too willing to move from his bed completely. After a few seconds of near silence, he hears a car horn beep in almost panicked state.
He slowly climbs out of bed, cautious as he makes his way to his bedroom window and opens the curtains. Through the rain blurring his view, he can see a car, but it isn't... horizontal? The road outside isn't curved, hilly, and has no speed bumps, and yet, this car is pointing downwards at the ground. How can that be possible?
Reluctantly, he opens his window slightly so he can attempt to see through the heavy rain pouring down from the sky and spots a crack in the road? Is it a crack? He looks harder and feels his heart drop.
Someone has driven into a sink hole.
No longer thinking, he rushes to his front door, grabbing his coat from the hanger stood next to it and hurriedly unlocking the door so he can run down the stairs, deciding that the elevator will take too long. How can he help? Calling the emergency services would probably help, but what if the man falls further into the sink hole before the police can get to him?!
As he makes it outside, he flips up his hood and sees nobody else around. How the hell did no one hear the crash?! He rubs the lenses of his glasses and tries to spot the driver through his car window.
Eventually, he does and feels his heart stop when he sees the fear etched into the man's expression. He's desperately trying to open the car door, but for whatever reason, he can't. Logan isn't really thinking about reasons for why this is happening, he's too busy freaking out because what the fuck, this is actually happening!
He takes out his phone and dials the emergency services, trying to also figure out a way of getting the driver out of the car. "911, what's your emergency?"
Stuttering and breathing heavily, Logan explains the situation and, something he never typically does, begs the operator to hurry. He's heard horror stories about people getting buried alive in sinkholes, or people falling to their deaths since sinkholes can be so deep, and he just can't let it happen to this man. He just can't.
The operator, after asking him other details about where they are and whatnot, promises that the emergency services are on their way and tells Logan to stay on the phone until they arrive. He does, but jogs around to the driver's side of the vehicle, seeing that the car door is jammed between two pieces of rubble. He wants to get it open. He needs to get it open. But what if those pieces of rubble are the only things keeping the car from falling further into the sinkhole?
How can he tell if it is?!
As he shouts through the phone to operator above the rain, the road crumbling, the thunder clapping, and the car horn blaring, he breathes heavily and knocks on the window. He eventually gets the driver's attention and signals to him to open his window slightly.
When the window does open a few centimetres, he yells in to him that he's trying to figure out whether the rubble is keeping his car up, and the stranger on the inside shakes his head. "Don't get too close! You could get hurt!"
Logan is almost touched that the man is worried for his safety, but brushes it off when he notices that the front and back bumpers of the vehicle are caught on bits of rock sticking out of the ground. That's what is holding most of the car's weight! He almost cheers in victory, but realises that he still has to get the door free before he can open it.
Ignoring the stranger's panicked yells for him to stop and get away, Logan cracks his knuckles and desperately pulls at the rocks holding the door closed. He barely hears the 911 operator calling out to him as he successfully removes one of the big pieces of rubble from in front of the door. When he pulls at the door, he feels it getting a little looser and reaches down to grab the other one.
Without warning, the sinkhole opens wider and the car slowly lowers a little bit more in response. Unfortunately, his hand becomes temporarily stuck between the car and the rubble, making him cry out in pain and tug his hand away. He sees a few drops of blood slide down his hand, but encourages himself to keep going. He's nearly got the driver out! The driver is almost safe!
So, he reaches down with both his injured and uninjured hands, and just goes for it. It takes a few seconds, but the rock eventually comes loose and he throws it behind him, immediately pulling the door open to let the driver out. He holds out his hand to the stranger, feeling a cold and sweaty hand grab his in an iron tight grip, before dragging him out and onto the pavement as far away from the sinkhole as possible.
About five minutes later, the authorities arrive and Logan sighs in relief, taking a proper look at the stranger sitting on the soaked pavement in front of him. His hair is wet and messily flopping in all directions; it looks dark, but that's possibly just because it's wet. The driver's skin is a little more tanned than his, clear of acne, but he can see a beauty mark poking out from under his hands on his cheek. He's wearing a red and white jersey style shirt, dark blue skinny jeans, and white trainers that are now stained an unpleasant muddy brown.
Logan frowns and sits beside him, sympathy rising in his chest as he glances over at the man, who has his hands covering his face. "Are you going to be alright for tonight? Do you have somewhere to stay?"
The man breathes in shakily and shrugs. "I'm moving closer in a few days, but right now, I live pretty far away. And I'm guessing my car is pretty much fucked."
Deciding not to reply, Logan simply hums and brushes his fingers through his hair. He thinks of the work he has to get done and how difficult it will be to do so if he has a stranger stay in his apartment, but then he looks back over at the driver and realises that he can't just send him to stay on the street. "I know we don't know each other, but would you like to stay the night at my apartment? You can leave whenever you'd like, but I'd prefer not to leave you in the rain after such an awful experience."
"You'd really let me do that?" The driver's tone is so hopeful and weak that Logan's heart starts to ache at the sound.
With a nod, Logan stands up and holds out a hand to help him up. The stranger takes it and after talking to the authorities for a little while, they enter the apartment building. Logan unlocks his door and drags himself inside, waiting for the driver to enter before shutting and locking the door behind him. The driver. He doesn't even know this guy's name yet. "What's your name, by the way?"
"Oh," the man mumbles in slight surprise, smiling weakly, "Roman King." He hangs up his varsity jacket and follows Logan's lead of sitting down on the couch, sighing softly before smiling a little wider and looking back over at the shorter man. "So, what's the name of my hero, then?"
Logan smirks lightly and leans back. "I'm Logan Sanders, it's a pleasure to meet you. Though I do wish it was under different circumstances."
With a chuckle, Roman nods in agreement and suddenly frowns to himself, catching Logan off guard slightly. "I just realised that I never even thanked you for saving my life. He pauses and turns to face Logan properly, taking one of his hands gently and squeezing. His walnut eyes are full of gratitude and deep respect as they stare back into his. "Thank you so much, Logan. You're absolutely incredible and I'm so lucky you were the one that heard the sinkhole open up."
Not expecting how dramatic the mood was getting, Logan tenses up, but soon smiles back at him, squeezing his hand back. "There's no need to thank me, I wasn't just going to let you fall. I doubt anyone would."
Roman gasps, feigning shock. "Are you flirting with me?!"
"Oh, be quiet, you know what I meant."
He receives a bright chuckle in response and suddenly notices how well they're getting along. Despite how they met and meeting only about half an hour ago, it almost feels like they've known each other for a while, and Logan is rarely like this with anybody. "You can stay in my bed and I'll take the sofa."
Tired eyes widening in surprise, Roman shakes his head and insists that his 'nerd in shining armor' should take the bed. Logan smiles gratefully. "Thank you, Roman, but I'll be fine. You've had a rough night. The least I can do is give you a good night's sleep by letting you sleep in an actual bed."
"Thank you, Logan."
Just as they're both getting ready to head off to sleep, there's a frantic knock at Logan's door. He has a feeling he already knows who it is, but can't help being surprised at nearly being knocked off his feet by Patton and Virgil throwing themselves at him.
Patton is babbling and squeezing him tightly, leaving Virgil space to hug around Logan's torso, digging his face into his shoulder. "We saw police and firefighters rushing to your area, and we didn't know what was happening, and we had heard a huge crash from there before, and we didn't know if you were hurt, and-"
Shaking his head fondly, Logan chuckles and wraps an arm around the both of them. "I'm alright. A sinkhole opened up outside and Roman was trapped, I just went outside to try and help."
"And he did help," Roman cuts in with a gentle smile, "a whole lot."
Virgil pulls back and looks up at him, wondering who Logan possibly risked his life to help. The stranger freezes up for a split second before smiling at him, seeming a little breathless as he does so. "My name is Roman and uh," he pauses, feeling the awkwardness of not knowing Logan or his friends finally set in, "hi...?"
Snorting lightly, Virgil gives the stranger his usual two finger salute. "Sup. You're not hurt or anything, right? Y'know, considering your car took a nose dive into a sinkhole."
Roman laughs lightly and nods. "Possibly a few bruises, but nothing serious. Wait," he pauses and rushes to Logan's side, lifting his left hand up and gasping at the dried blood staining it, "your hand is still injured! We need to bandage it and clean it, get into the bathroom."
Immediately, Patton springs into action, taking Logan's uninjured hand and dragging him to the bathroom. Roman can already tell that Patton is a typical protective dad type friend. That, or he has a major crush on Logan, but Roman barely knows them so he can't really say anything.
When they get to the bathroom, Patton sits Logan on the closed toilet and begins cleaning his hand with a disinfectant wipe and water. Virgil stands on his tippy toes and grabs the first aid box from on top of a small cupboard above the sink, opening it and passing the bandages to Patton. For a few seconds, it's quiet, only the clink of plastic against tempered glass as Patton places the first aid box on the edge of the sink to tend to Logan's injured hand.
Virgil begins to ask them about the incident, getting only the details they had gotten from the authorities in response. The four of them talk about anything to distract them from the exhaustion that is slowly setting in. Logan notices that Roman is continuously stealing glances of Virgil. Interesting.
After his hand has been bandaged up, Logan thanks his friend and offers for them to stay the night. They all agree to sleep in the living room, grabbing Logan's blanket, pillows, and spare blankets, and making themselves comfortable on his couch. Patton snuggles into Logan's side, falling asleep in mere minutes (which always makes Virgil jealous), whilst Virgil lies on his back and talks to the other two until he eventually passes out too.
Logan sighs heavily, yawning and closing his eyes, slumping against the back of the couch. Suddenly, the silence is cut into pieces. "Thank you for saving me and letting me stay here, Logan."
"You're welcome, I'm just sorry if my friends have made you at all overwhelmed or uncomfortable."
Shaking his head, Roman grins. "Not at all, they're wonderful. And, uh, this might be a little... odd to say, but Virgil is really cute."
A smile of amusement tugs at Logan's lips. "I fucking knew it."
Roman smothers a laugh behind his hand, covering his face and sighing afterwards. "Oh God, was I really that obvious?
"Yes."
"God dammit."
Logan chuckles, glancing down at the younger man laying between him and Roman, and then brushing his fringe back out of his face. "Well, he's gay and single, if you're interested. But if you hurt him, I will kill you."
A fond smile crosses Roman's face and he nods. "I don't doubt it."
They're quiet for a minute before Virgil murmurs something in his sleep and shifts slightly, his head tilting and resting on Roman's shoulder. Logan smiles at this, once again brushing his friend's fringe out of his face. "What are you doing tomorrow?"
Logan's question catches him off guard, but Roman shrugs lightly and smiles. "Probably just a little more packing, why?"
"I was just going to ask if you'd like to meet for coffee somewhere. Maybe around half past twelve?" Logan doesn't know why, but he wants to get to know this man more. He seems nice enough and Patton always hounds him to meet new people since he always stays inside to work.
Roman beams over at him and nods. "I would love to. Besides, buying you a coffee is the least I can do for saving me."
They both laugh lightly and close their eyes, waiting for sleep to take over.
Despite the awful event that occurred, and the consequences Roman will face from losing his car, Logan can't help but feel happy. Happy that he'd met Roman. No, they don't know each other too well just yet, but this is the first time in a long while that Logan has actually wanted to get to know someone.
And Logan is kind of excited to get coffee with him tomorrow.
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Note: Do not take this story's advice if you ever encounter a sinkhole. It's fiction. It's a story. The actions of Logan were dangerous and you probably shouldn't attempt to do the same thing. But here is a list of things to do if you do encounter a sinkhole that I found on www.gov.uk. Stay cute and stay safe!