I sure do suck at updating don't I.
Well, I'll try to update again soon, I'm sorry for the long wait.

-The next morning-

Roman hummed softly as he shifted, slowly beginning to wake up due to something wet dripping on his face that stirred him from his slumber.

He sluggishly blinked his eyes open, quickly shutting them with a small grunt as the the bright shining sun burned his eyes.

After a few seconds he opened his eyes again, squinting in the sunlight this time.
He felt something shift against his chest, prompting him to look down, ignoring what had originally woke him up.

His face flushed bright red at what he saw. He even blinked a few times just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

There was Virgil, his back pressed to Roman's chest with Roman's arms wrapped around his waist and hips, with his face pressed up against Patton's neck, tucked under the other teen's chin.
both of them still sleeping soundly, and they looked so cute that Roman could have been happy to just lay there and look at them for the rest of the day if that wasn't slightly creepy.

His eyes caught onto a pair of pale arms wrapped around Patton's waist from behind the small male, and he smiled, knowing it was Logan, the taller teen most likely having wrapped his arms around him in his sleep like Roman probably had to Virgil.

He felt another drip of water fall on his face, followed by a huff that prompted him to look upwards.

He turned his head, only to meet the snout of a dripping wet horse, who was huffing and puffing at him angrily, the trickle of water from his snout dripping onto his cheek every few seconds or so.

Roman -his better judgment nonexistent in his sleepy and content state- stared up at the horse for another few seconds before snuggling closer to Virgil.

"Well I hope you're here to apologize." He mumbled softly as he closed his eyes and held the still sleeping Virgil tighter, burring his face into the younger boy's soft hair.

.
.
.

Patton was startled awake by a, unfortunately, familiar shriek cutting through the crisp morning air.

He jerked up into a sitting position and looked towards the source, his eyes widening as he saw Roman shrieking and being dragged away by the horse that had been chasing them the day before, his boot gripped firmly in the horses mouth.

Both the shriek and all the moving had woken Logan and Virgil, who also quickly sat up and watching as Patton scrambled forwards, grabbing onto Romans arms, prompting the the other two to quickly move forward try to help as well.

"Let go of him!" Patton said as he pulled Roman with the help of Logan and Virgil, grabbing his forearms while both Virgil and Logan each grabbed one of his hands.

The horse didn't budge though, only pulling harder until Romans boot popped off, causing him to jerk forward and knock both Logan and Patton down as he crashed into them.

The horse spat out the boot and reared up with the horses equivalent of a battle cry.

But suddenly Virgil was there, standing in front of the horse with his hands out, trying to block him from getting to the others while also trying to calm the horse down.
"Woah woah woah woah woah woah," he said with wide eyes as he moved around jerkily so that he was always in front of the horse, despite it trying its best to get around him to the other three.

He hadn't been thinking, and just sort of jumped out and in the way. He only realized after how stupidly lucky he was that the horse didn't slam down and practically crush him.

"Easy, easy," he muttered softly as the horse finally calmed down somewhat.
"That's it." He said quietly as he slowly lower his hands.

He glanced back and saw the three standing a few yards behind him, Roman standing in front of Logan and Patton in a protective manner, despite the, although well hidden, fear on his face.

Virgil turned to look back at the horse, who was glaring over Virgil's shoulder at the three thieves.

"Okay..." Virgil glanced down at the name printed across the horses harness.
"Okay, Thomas," he said slowly."you seem to be a very smart horse, so I'm going to offer you a deal." He said slowly, not taking his eyes off the horse as the much larger creature turned to look at him.

"Today is, well, it's really important to me," he began."and I kinda need these guys to help me, so I sorta need you to not get them arrested." He said, trying to sound as sweet as he could, although he'd never been good at that, or at least father had been good as not succumbing to Virgil's pleading and desires when he tried to sound overly sweet and used puppy-dog eyes as a child.

The horse, Thomas, huffed at him and returned to glaring over his shoulder at the other three.

"But," Virgil quickly added, regaining the horses attention."If you don't arrest them, then we'll get you, um, apples and carrots? A-and, um, anything else that you might want." He said with a weak shrug.

Thomas seemed to be slightly tempted by the offer, but wasn't near convinced enough.

"And, it's uh kinda my birthday and all, so I'd, um, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't you know, ruin the most, um, the most important day of my life." He added, looking at him hopefully.

Thomas stared at him as he weighed the pros and cons in his head, before closing his eyes and sighing as he sat down like a dog, nodding his head in agreement.

Virgil relaxed and sighed in relief and muttered a small thank you to Thomas before turning to look at the other three behind him.

"It's okay now, he's not going to do anything for at least the rest of the day." He said as he gave them a small smile, which Patton returned, although his was bigger.

"Oh good," Patton said. "that makes getting to the kingdom easier." He said.

"Agreed," Logan said. "Now that we are no longer behind chased by, erm, Thomas, we will have a much easier and quicker time getting to the kingdom." He said, nodding in agreement.

"Um, not that I'm not happy with the whole 'no longer being chased thing', but could I get my boot back?" Roman asked as he looked at the boot that was behind Thomas.

Said horse huffed and moved out of the way so Roman could get by.

They eventually began to continue walking to the king dorm, after Roman had gotten his boot, after they'd all eaten a small breakfast of black berries, and repacked all of their stuff.

They walked in silence for the most part, chatting a bit every now and then, and also pointing out new things to Virgil just like they had the day before.

Eventually, after making it out of the woods, they came up to a very large and sturdy stone bridge, across from which towered the beautiful kingdom of Corona.

Virgil's eyes lit up as soon as he saw the glittering city in front of them, both excitement and anxiety coursing through him as he and the others stepped on to the bridge and began to cross over.

The other three followed him, each smiling fondly at his excitement, although they were also sticking close to one another and keeping their eyes out for any guards, still worried about the threat of being arrested.

They followed Virgil into the bustling streets, the air filled with excitement for the day of festivities before them.

Patton, as the group walked, spotted a group of girls braiding each other's hair, and then looked back at Virgil before looking at them again, before a large grin split across his face as he noticed Virgil looking at them as well.

Virgil startled slightly as he felt Paton wrap both his arms around Virgil's left arm, pulling him to a stop. He looked at Patton curiously with a small frown. "Is something wrong?" He asked.

Patton beamed at him and shook his head. "No no, nothings wrong, but I was just wondering if I could braid your hair?" He asked turning to glance back over at the little girls braiding each others hair.

"Um, s-sure I guess?" Virgil said as he also glanced back over at the girls, blushing a little bit.

Patton's grin somehow managed to grow bigger, and he turned to Roman and Logan.
"Can you guys go find some ribbons and some flowers please?" He asked. "Maybe some purple or yellow colors?" He added.

The other two agreed to go look for some flowers and ribbons for Patton to use as decorations for Virgil's hair, while Patton lead Virgil over to a small stone wall to sit on.

The two sat down, Virgil crossing his legs while Patton sat on it the same way you'd sit on a horse.

Patton began to fiddle a bit with Virgil's hair, smoothening out any tangles that had formed with his fingers, while also picking out a few bits of moss or twigs that had gotten caught there with all the excitement from yesterday.

Virgil seemed to relax a bit as Patton messed with his hair. He kept his eyes open, and didn't lean back against Patton this time, but he seemed to relax, his previously stiff shoulders dropping down as he snagged forward slightly while still tipping his head back for Patton.

They waited a few minutes, quietly chatting, before Roman and Logan came back.

They hadn't managed to find any ribbons, but they'd found some purple, white, and yellow crocus flowers, the two of them blushing and wearing flower crowns as well, Roman also had a few more looped around his arm.

Patton giggled softly as they both came up to them. "Where'd you get the crowns?" He asked as he accepted the ribbons and flowers from Logan.

"The man who gave us the flowers also gave us a couple of crowns for much less than the others he was selling, saying that they were from the day before and that he'd just throw them out if we didn't want them, since they're gunna start wilting soon." Logan explained as he and Roman sat down on the ground. "We brought you each one as well, although Virgil might not need it, since I'm assuming the flowers are for his hair." He added.

The flower crown Logan was wearing was rather simple, only having a few daisies woven through a couple twisted rings of sticks, along with a few stems of forget-me-nots strung through them as well.

The one Roman was wearing has a couple of orange roses with some small-sized sunflowers and some yellow, red, and orange marigolds, along with long twisted yellow grass wrapped around the frame of the crown.

The other two crowns, which now sat in Romans lap, were purple and blue. The blue one had forget-me-nots like Logan's, along with a few blue irises, white daffodils, and a few bits of caraway here and there.

The purple one had mostly large patches of lilacs on it, with a few stems of lavender, some white colored hyacinths and grape-style hyacinths, along with caraway flowers like the previous one.

Patton smiled as he turned back to face Virgil's back, running his fingers through his hair again.

"That was very kind of him." Patton said. "and I'll make sure to only add a few of the crocuses so that Virgil's hair won't look to cluttered with both them and the crown." He added as he began to get to work on Virgil's hair, separating it into chunks and using the bits of string Virgil had brought to tie each braid instead of the ribbon since they didn't have any.

The end result was of four braids, two on each side coming backward and joining together to form two buns on the back of his head, along with a smaller third bun above those two made up of some not-braided hair. It looked very pretty, especially after Patton carefully placed the multicolored crocuses in his hair, tucking the delicate flowers into the braids.

Virgil had sat still while Patton worked, quietly chatting with the rest of them as he let Patton braid his hair. They talked about some of the other things that they'd do while they were at the festival, and where they'd go to watch the lanterns later that evening.

Roman, as soon as Patton finished, stood up with a flourish and crowned the two for them with their flower crown once they'd finished, the blue one for Patton and the purple one for Virgil. The two blush and each smiled, Patton practically beaming as bright as the sun while Virgil on smiled shyly.

"Two crowns for two beautiful princes." Roman joked as he smiled at them.

"You're the real beautiful prince here Roman." Patton said."I remember when we were kids and you'd always beg to play the part of the heroic prince." He said with a laugh.

Roman only blushed a tiny bit at that, as he admitted that that was in fact true, before brushing it off and ushering the group of them to go and look at the rest of the festival.

It was later that evening when they came Up to a nice while open area, people bustling around the edges of the space as they looked at carts or bought stuff in stores.
A group of musicians were playing off to the side, and Patton squealed excitedly before latching onto Logan's hand and dragging him out into the open space to dance with him, much to the taller males surprise.

Roman laughed softly before turning to Virgil and offering out his hand.

"Might I have this dance?" He asked as he bowed slightly, being the theatrical man Virgil had grown used to him being.

Virgil blushed brightly and smiled a small bit as he nodded and accepted his hand.

"It would be my pleasure." He said, making Roman bean at him before excitedly pulling him in to join the dancing, a decent amount of other people joining in now as well.

Virgil, although very nervous at first, picked up the dance rather quickly, and was soon laughing and smiling widely as he danced around, switching partners every now and then as the dance called for it.

He eventually got partnered with Patton, who beamed at him as they began to dance together, Patton taking the lead with a small nod from Virgil.

As he danced with Patton he began to remember earlier that day as they had been exploring the festival.

___
At one point they had all gotten separated and Virgil and freaked out a bit, trying to spot at least one of the other three men as he began to panic, thinking he would never be able to get back home again.

Then he stumbled into Patton, literally.

He hadn't been paying attention to where he was as walking in his increasingly panicked state and accidentally ran right into him, rocking them both back a step and throwing him off balance, only for Patton to quickly grab his arm and pull him back up before he could fall over.

Virgil began spilling out apologies as he took large deep breaths, Patton quickly leading him to a bit more secluded and quiet area, tucking them into a small corner.

"Hey, it's alright, I wasn't looking where I was going." Patton said as he sat down and carefully sat Virgil down in front of him, frowning softly as Virgil took another shuddering breath, finally having stopped with his apologies.

"N-no, I wasn't paying attention, I'm sorry, I almost made you fall over." He said as his breath hitches again.

"I already said it was alright Virgil, I'm not upset or anything, I'm just glad you didn't get hurt." He said, before gently curling one of Virgil's cheeks. "You've been crying," he said softly as he wiped away some of the tears with his thumb."I didn't hurt you did I?" He asked worriedly.

Virgil closed his eyes and shook his head before leaning into the touch slightly.
"N-no," He said with a sniff."I'm fine, I was just...just panicking a bit," he admitted as his cheeks turned red with embarrassment."I-I couldn't find any of you guys, and it was just getting to be to much." He said as a few more years slipped out.

Patton cooed softly and lifted up his other hand to cup Virgil's other cheek, using his thumbs to brush away the newest set of tears.

"Hey, it's okay." He said."there's nothing to be embarrassed about." He said.
"To be honest, I was also freaking out a bit, wondering if one of the others had gotten caught, or if you had gotten hurt or lost." He said.
"But we're both okay and I'm sure Logan and Roman are alright as well." He added as he smiled at him reassuringly, his smile widening a bit as Virgil peaked his eyes open to look at him.

The smaller male took another deep breath before nodding slightly."Yeah, yeah you're right." Virgil said softly as he slowly leaned forward and pressed his face against Patton's shoulder, relaxing as the other male wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his back with one hand, holding him securely around the waist with the other.

They sat there quietly for a while, feeling content enough to just sit with one another, relaxing in each other's presence.

But, they did have to eventually move.

"Here, you stay right here and I'll be right back with something that'll make you feel better," Patton said as he slowly stood up."I'll also keep an eye out for Logan and Roman." He added.

Virgil bit his lip and nodded hesitantly.
"You'll be back right?" He asked.

Patton smiled and knelt down in front of him.
"Of course I will." He said as he gently cupped the back of Virgil's head, pulling him closer.
"Nothing can keep me away," he added as he gently pressed a kiss to Virgil's forehead, before slowly standing up again, blushing a bit.

Virgil blushed bright red and nodded before watching Patton walk away, lifting a hand to his forehead as his blush darkened.

Patton came back a few minutes later, his hands behind his back.

"I didn't see them," he said with an apologetic smile as he sat down in front of him again. " but I bring treats." He said as he beamed at him and held his hands out, two small cupcakes being presented. They both had simple white frosting, but looked good.

Patton held one out to Virgil, who smiled shaking and thanked him as he looked down at the small cupcake, a warm feeling swelling up inside him as his stomach fluttered.

Patton grinned and gently tapped their cupcakes together, making a pretend 'clink' sound as if they'd just tapped two glasses together.

"Happy birthday." He said softly before both he and Virgil ate the delicious treated, his words making Virgil blush all over again.
___

Virgil was brought back to the present as the dance called for them to switch partners again, him and Patton splitting apart in order to continue the dance.

After a couple of rounds Virgil found himself partnered with Logan, who had grown out of his awkward stiffness and was now smiling as well.

He and Virgil danced for a bit, moving around one another and linking arms and clapping in sync with the rest of the people dancing.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Roman and Patton dancing together, the pair smiling brightly.

He turned back to looked at Logan, who was still smiling as he danced with Virgil, and Virgil began to think back to earlier that day when he and Logan had split off from the group for a bit.

___
After Patton and Virgil had found the other two, Much to Virgil's relief, they began to wander throughout the festival yet again, doing their best to stick together this time.

And they were doing a pretty good job at it, that is until Virgil and Logan spotted a bookshop, the two of them becoming curios and even a tiny bit excited. Virgil had been re-reading the same books over and over and over again for almost his whole life, so the thought of there being so many more books he could read excited him.

He and Logan told the told the other two what their plans were, and the four of them agreed to meet int the market place when they were done.

Then they split up, with Logan and Virgil heading into the bookshop, and with Roman and Patton heading off to go continue exploring.

The two stepped inside and Virgil couldn't believe the vast number of books he saw, his eyes filling with wonder and curiosity as he saw books as think as his pinkie, to as thick as some of the cakes he'd made.

"Anything in particular that you'd like to look at?" Logan asked as he turned to look at him, smiling at his wonderstruck expression.

"I don't even know where to begin," he said. "There are so many books..." he said softly.

"Just wait until you see a library." Logan said before leading Virgil forward into the tall shelves of books.

"What's a library?" He asked as he followed Logan.

"Its a large building filled with hundreds upon hundreds of books, ranging from fiction to historic or mathematic or scientific, any genre you can think of." Logan said. "But you can't buy these books, they're only for borrowing or reading in the library." He said."maybe we can take you to one tomorrow morning before we bring you back home." He added softly.

"I'd...I'd really like that." Virgil said softly as he blushed a tiny bit and smiled at him. "It sounds wonderful." He added.

The two of them continued to comb through the shelves, looking for anything that peaked their interest.

They eventually found a book about flora and fauna, that Virgil began to flip through, curious about all the plants and animals in the world and around them hat he had never seen or heard of before.

Logan, with his own book of astronomy in hand, lead Virgil to a comfortable place to sit, where the two of them began to read through their books, sitting in comfortable silence, except for when Virgil would ask Logan a question.

"Who does a spider walk up walls?" Virgil asked as he looked through a section dedicated to spiders.

"Well a spider has more than half a million of these little setules, all of which end in a triangular tip on the spiders 'foot'. These are flexible hairs though, not pickaxes, so spiders don't actually dig into the wall as they climb. Rather, their setules trigger a reaction that helps them adhere to a flat surface, allowing them to climb." Logan explained, closing his book as he moved to look at Virgil's book.

"That particular spider is a wolf spider, they are incredibly common and live almost anywhere in the world." He said. "They are hunter spiders, where they'll either ambush or freely hunt their prey instead of catching it in a net. They are appropriately named because they powerfully pounce on their victims, like a wolf." He said as he pointed to the little drawn picture of a wolf spider.
"Another fact about wolf spiders is that they do not live in the classic style of web, and instead reside within burrows which have a thick carpet of web covering the walls." He added.

Virgil listened to him intently, soaking up the information like a sponge as Logan continued to talk about spiders, nodding along when needed.

They eventually continued to go on through the book together, going through the pages and discussing the new creatures as they came up in the book. Virgil knew some of them, but there were a whole lot he didn't know, and Logan happily told him about them, giving him little bits of information the book didn't include.

Thirty minutes turned into an hour, which then turned into two hours, of the two just sitting there and talking.

Eventually they needed to leave though, not wanting Patton and Roman to worry about them, and began putting the books away from where they'd gotten them, albeit a bit reluctantly, seeing as they had both been enjoying their time together.

Logan told him to wait outside for a second, saying he was going to ask the shopkeeper a question, and Virgil agreed to wait outside for him, if only a little reluctantly.

Logan joined him outside a few minutes later, holding his hands behind his back.

Virgil smiled at him, looking relieved to no longer be alone.
"What did you ask the shopkeeper?" He asked.

"Well, I was curious to see if he had any blank journals, and he did." Logan said as he brought his hands out and showed a thick leather-bound book with a beautiful sun design imprinted into the front of it.

"I thought that you could, well, that you could make you're own little book." Logan said as he looked away."about all the new things you've seen and learned, and anything else you see and learn in the future." He said as he held the book out to Virgil, blushing slightly. "Happy birthday." He added softly.

Virgil blinked at him in surprise for a few seconds before blushing and shyly accepting the book.

"T-thank you," He said softly as he hugged it to his chest."you didn't need to get me anything, and how did you know it was my birthday?" He asked curiously.

"Well, earlier this morning when you were talking to the- talking to Thomas gave me a pretty good idea," he began. "and Patton told Roman and I on our way back from, ahem, collecting firewood." He said, and he's cheeks darkened even more, which confused Virgil a little bit, but he brushed it off due to his own embarrassment.

"A-ah," He said as he nodded slightly,"Well, thank you for the book, and for sitting and talking with me." He said.

"It wasn't a problem at all, I enjoyed my time with you." Logan said. "We should probably go find the other two before they get into trouble." He added, before leading Virgil down the street.
___

Virgil switched dance partners again, spinning around Logan and to his next dance partner, a young lady with brown braided hair that went down to her waist.

He danced with her for a round before switching partners again, and then again,
Before ending up with Roman again.

He saw Roman smirk, and found himself smirking back as the two of them danced, now moving much smoother than their first dance had gone, due to them no longer being nervous and actually knowing the dance now.

As he danced with him, still clapping every now and then with everyone else and twirling around when need, he began to think about a few hours ago, when Roman had excitedly dragged Virgil away from the group.

___
Virgil reluctantly let Roman drag him away.

"What do you think you're doing princey." He asked as Roman dragged him, nick naming him in reference to the story Patton had told earlier.

"Princey?" Roman asked."giving me a nick name now huh." He said with grin, making Virgil flush slightly.

"S-shut up," he muttered as he continued to let Roman drag him away, until they wound up in an semi-packed space, kids and adults all scattered about with colored chalks, shrieking and laughing as they drew on the ground and rubbed the colored dust on one another.

"I know, or well I assumed, that you liked to paints and stuff," Roman began. "So I thought that you'd like to draw with some chalk." He said.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." He quickly added.

"No, I'd like to." Virgil said as he smiled at him. "It'd be fun." He added as he walked over to one of the many buckets of chalk, and grabbed several shades of purple, pink, and yellow, before heading over to a large open spot, Roman following and making himself comfortable on a barrel off to the side from where Virgil was, planning on watching him draw.

Virgil immediately got into it, letting his hands move without any real idea as to what he was doing. He grabbed colors at random, and smudged them on the ground to make it look more blended, getting chalk all over his hands, pants, and even his face.

His drawing just kept getting bigger and bigger, and a few people began to watch, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the large and beautiful drawing.

It took a while before Virgil decided he was done, the sun sinking lower in the sky but not quiet sunset yet.

He stood up and rubbed his face a little, getting even more chalk there, as he looked down at his drawing, smiling brightly.

Roman walked over and smiled.

"Looks pretty good Verge." Roman said.

"Verge?" Virgil asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, if I get a nickname, you get a nickname." Roman said with a grin.

Virgil scoffed and reached forward to smear purple chalk on Romans face, gaining a small shriek in response that made him laugh.

"How dare you," Roman said as he reached into a bucket and covered his hands in red chalk dust.

"This means war." He said, before teaching out for Virgil, who quickly ducked away and out of reach, a game of chase ensuing.

Patton and Logan eventually found them, both covered in chalk and panting softly, grins splitting across their faces.

Then they all began to wander around again, Roman and Virgil occasionally smearing the remaining chalk dust on either one another, or the other two.
___

Virgil looked up at Roman as the dance picked up speed, his eyes tracing over his face and the remains of purple and red chalk smudged on his cheeks and chin.

He smiled, and continued dancing, spinning around and clapping when needed as he felt the final of the song coming up, finishing with a slight flourish a before being pulled against Romans chest, one of the other males arms wrapped around his waist and the other still holding his hand, while Virgil's other hand was on his shoulder.

They both panted softly as they looked at one another, neither of them moving for a few seconds, before letting one another go, both of them beginning to blush.

They met up with Patton and Logan, who where both red in the face as well, and heard a man call for everyone to head to the boats cause the lanterns would be set off soon, seeing as the sun was now setting behind the trees and it was growing darker.

The four of them, plus Thomas and Remy who had been following them around throughout the day, made their way down to the docks, and got into a small yet sturdy boat, leaving Thomas behind with a bag of apples and carrots, as promised.

Virgil, while the others were distracted, slipped the satchel into the boat, tucking it under one of the seats.

Logan and Roman rowed then out to the middle of the lake, farther out than the rest of the boats were, before settling them to a stop on the still water.

The talked softly as they watched the sun continue to set, the sky growing darker and the stars coming out, both Logan and Virgil pointing out the constellations as they appeared.

Remy made himself a perch on the edge of the boat, huddling in on himself as he watched the four of them contently.

It soon became night time, the sun now gone and the world dark around them, a little chilly but none of them really minded, but Patton and Virgil did scoot a little bit closer two Roman and Logan, who had already pressed a little closer to one another as well.

"All those days watching from the windows
All those years outside looking in
All that time never even knowing
Just how blind I've been" Virgil sang softly.

The waited another few minutes, before they noticed a small light begin to move across the sky, and then watched with wonderstruck eyes as thousands of lanterns began filling the skies, slowly floating through the air and around them.

"Now I'm here blinking in the starlight
Now I'm here suddenly I see
Standing here it's all so clear
I'm where I'm meant to be." He continued to sing, looking up at the sky.

Virgil was the most amazed out of the four of them, his eyes wide and mouth slightly opened as he looked around them at all the swirling and beautiful lights.

"And at last I see the light
And it's like the fog has lifted
And at last I see the light
And it's like the sky is new
And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted."

He watched one sink towards the water, and jerked out across the boats edge in order to left it back up, not rely caring anymore about the cold or that he got a little bit wet in the process.

He turned back to look at the other three, and watched as Logan pulled out several bits of folded paper.

"All at once everything looks different
Now that I see you."

He seemed to barely touch them before they puffed up into large lanterns like the one in the sky, passing them out to the other two before lighting them so that they'd float.

Patton held out one of the lanterns to him, but he didn't take it yet.

"I have something for you too." He said, before reaching under the seat and pulling out the satchel.

"I-I should have given it to you before, but...but I was scared." He admitted. "scared you'd leave me all alone or hurt me." He said.

"But, well, I guess I'm not scared anymore." He said softly as he smiled at them.
He passed the satchel to Roman, who held it for a second before, setting it on the ground and smiling at him.

"All those days chasing down a daydream
All those years living in a blur
All that time never truly seeing
Things, the way they were." Roman sang softly as Patton gave Virgil his lantern.

The four of them carefully sent the lanterns up into the sky, watching them until they couldn't tell them apart from the rest of the lanterns in the sky.

"Now he's here shining in the starlight
Now he's here suddenly I know." Patton sang as he looked at Virgil, before glancing over at the other two, who nodded at him.

"If he's here it's crystal clear
I'm where I'm meant to go." Roman sang, getting a bit louder as he did.

"And at last I see the light." The four sang together.

"And it's like the fog has lifted." Logan sang softly.

"And at last I see the light." they sang together again, smiling at one another.

"And it's like the sky is new." Virgil sang, blushing the smallest bit as he leaned closer to Roman.

"And it's warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted." They sang softly, Roman and Virgil slowly meeting one another's eyes.

"All at once everything is different
Now that I see you
Now that I see you..." they finished singing, Virgil even closer to Roman now than he was before, his face flushed red.

They stared at one another for a few seconds.

"Can I kiss you?" Roman asked softly.