Chapter Text
Virgil sat on the edge of the console, trying to stay out of Logan’s way as the engineer typed away on the foreign device. Instead the human gazed out the window, watching various planets and stars seem to float by. Even though it had been years since he had accidentally joined this astral crew, Virgil still found the vast emptiness of space to be terrifying. It didn’t help that so many of the alien members were vastly larger than himself, Logan included. It just helped to drive home that feeling of being inferior.
“Uh oh.” Logan grimaced as he looked at the screen before him.
“What is it?” Virgil quickly turned away from the window to look up at the screen, but Logan was frantically closing out of the notification already.
“Oh, ah nothing.” Logan waved him off, clearly lying. “Just a glitch in the system.”
“You’re a horrible liar.” Virgil noted, getting anxious. “I’ve known you for far too long to be able to tell.”
“...alright.” Logan admitted, sighing. “I know you humanoids are easily stressed, so let me begin with stating that everything is relatively fine.”
“What. is. It.” Virgil repeated, his unease increasing slightly.
“You don’t need to worry about any of the engines malfunctioning or a lack of fuel-”
“Well I wasn’t worried about those until you mentioned it!” Virgil interrupted.
“My apologies.” Logan winced. “I just received notice that there’s another ship in our vicinity and they’ve requested access to board.”
“Well who is it?” Virgil’s mind began racing with possibilities. “Is it, like, space pirates? Or-”
“It’s not ‘space pirates’, don’t be ridiculous Virgil.” Logan sighed. “It’s… my ex.”
Virgil paused. “Your ex.”
“My ex rival.” Logan said, as though that cleared things up.
“Your… Logan, that just raises so many questions.” Virgil couldn’t help but feel frustrated that Logan had made him get all stressed over Logan’s personal drama. “You had a rival?” Was that just an alien thing?
“Yes, although we’ve since grown to be on more civil terms.” Logan explained. Another notification popped up on the screen, which Logan promptly closed.
“Well, then what’s the problem?” Virgil asked. “I mean, I thought we were supposed to trade with other ships.”
“I’d rather not interact with this particular vessel.” Logan said, giving the screen a dirty look. “This man is far too extravagant for me to deal with when our caffeine supplies are still so dangerously low.”
“Oh come on.” Virgil groaned. “You’re always forcing me to interact with random aliens I don’t want to see. And it’s, like, a thousand times harder for me because you’re all so huge and intimidating to begin with.”
“I’m not sure your calculation is correct.” Logan pointed out, but Virgil refused to let him sidetrack this conversation.
“Plus, you already know him.” Virgil pointed out. “ And he might have something we need. How hard could it be? Just let him on, do the trade, and then reevaluate your conversation late into the night as you wonder why you said something awkward again.”
There was a third ping on the screen as a more insistent notification arrived. Logan moved to close out of it, but he paused. He looked down at Virgil before moving over to accept the notification.
“Fine.” Logan conceded. “But I did warn you.”