Chapter Text
“–I'm sorry!” Patton blurts out, interrupting Virgil and startling everyone around him.
Everyone is silent for a moment, before Roman asks, “What are you sorry for?”
“I’ve been in my room for so long now that I’ve blocked off contact with even Thomas, I've shunned any attempt at reaching out to you all, I haven't eaten in who knows how long, I’ve- I’ve- I-” Patton’s lament ends in him stammering and hiding his face with his hands again.
They all sit there, shell-shocked, mouths hanging open at what Patton just said.
Then Thomas breaks the silence, “You haven’t eaten in… days? ”
Patton shakes his head, not uncovering his face. He’s shaking and they can hear muffled sobs.
Logan just stares again. He has that tight feeling in his chest that he gets when one of the other sides is distressed. He still doesn’t know what the feeling is, he thinks back to how Roman explained his feelings for the others to him, (Janus isn’t the only one who’s good at keeping secrets) and how Logan’s feelings feel very similar.
Love.
That’s what he’s been experiencing all this time! He loves them, and not platonically.
No, this is burning, fiery, passionate, love.
I’m gonna make Patton a sandwich.
He stands up abruptly, startling everyone else in the room. All eyes are on him, and he’s starting to get nervous.
Maybe this was a bad idea
No! He desperately needs something to eat.
So Logan says the smoothest thing he could muster, “SANDWICH!!” And runs into the kitchen.
The remaining sides just watch him leave, confused. Even Patton looks up.
Logan comes back a few minutes later with a PB&J -made with Crofter’s, of course- and hands it to Patton. He leans over while he’s handing Patton his sandwich to quietly say in his ear, “It’s made with love.”
“I love you…” Patton says, even before he can process what Logan said, then looks up at Logan and blushes.
They stare intently at each other. Patton’s light blue and brown mismatched eyes boring into Logan’s dark blue ones. Then, Logan made either the stupidest decision–or the best decision he’s ever made. He leaned down, leaving about an inch of space between Patton’s lips and his, waiting for Patton to close the gap.
Patton doesn’t hesitate.
Their lips connected, skin on warm skin, their teeth clinking awkwardly but passionately, tasting jam on each other’s tongues. And that’s when Logan’s brain shut down.
They stayed like that for a good 10 seconds before they heard a voice say, “No fair! I wanted to be first!”
They broke apart to see Remus pouting with his arms crossed like a toddler.
Roman shoved Remus, “Don’t ruin their romantic moment!”
“But I want a romantic mooomenttt!” Remus whined.
Patton chuckled at that, licking his lips with the taste of Logan still on them, ”You’ll get your chance, don't worry.” Patton spoke before he could think, then covered his mouth with both hands like he said a bad word.
Remus lights up with a mischievous grin on his face, “Ooooo, Daddy…”
“Oh come on, Remus…” Virgil sounds disgusted, but he can’t exactly oppose the idea…
“Oh, you’re just jealous 'cause it’s my turn next, Virgy,” Remus waggles his eyebrows at Virgil.
“I- Wh- No!” Virgil stammers, his face turning slightly pink, “L- Let’s- Thomas! We need to sort out Thomas’ depression!”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that…” Remus looks down, his smile snuffed out.
Thomas, who was watching all of this open-mouthed and wide-eyed, looked at all his sides, everyone still looking like shit.
Thomas sighs, “Yeah. I’ve been getting some pretty disturbing thoughts. I’m guessing you two?” He points to Roman and Remus.
Roman just nods, and Remus says, “Yeah. I’ve been subconsciously feeding off of Virgil’s energy, making your thoughts way worse.”
Roman looks down at the floor, not making eye contact with anybody, “And I’ve been having some… suicidal thoughts…”
“What?” Logan says, finally snapping out of his daze.
Janus, who was sitting the farthest from Patton on the couch, finally spoke, “I’ve been keeping track of you all, stopping anything from actually happening.”
Everyone looks at Janus, surprised.
“You were doing all of that… for us?” Roman asks.
“Aww, and I thought you said you didn’t like us!” Remus cackles.
“Just because I’m Deceit, doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings. And besides, I need to keep Thomas alive. I’m his self-preservation.” Janus’ cheeks turn slightly pink at the first statement, and he glances very briefly at Virgil, but he quickly diverts the subject.
“So,” Logan starts, “You have been working harder than me. I knew something was wrong when you came to me in the kitchen. You looked absolutely exhausted. Worse than I felt.”
“Yes, that’s how I work, Logi- Logan.” Janus finally addresses the other by his name.
Logan’s face lights up and turns noticeably red, “What did I do to earn it?”
“You found Patton. Like I told you to.” Janus smiled at Logan.
“Okay, enough swooning over the nerd, let's focus on the main problem here.” Virgil interrupts the two, turning back to Thomas, “Please, let's keep this going.”
Thomas clears his throat, “Yes, as much as I love to watch the aspects of my personality flirt with each other, I am still depressed.”
Logan adjusts his tie and fixes his crooked glasses, “Apologies, I may have gotten a little carried away there.” He finishes adjusting everything and turns to Thomas, “Who do you think is influencing you the most in your depressive state?”
Thomas thinks for a moment, “Well, Virgil’s definitely affecting me. I’m really anxious, like, all the time, and I’ve just been getting a lot of negative feelings.”
“Yeah, that checks out…” Virgil sighs, accepting the explanation.
Logan nods, writing that down on his notepad.
“I’ve also been getting a lot of effects from Patton,” Thomas continues, “Sadness, sometimes no emotions, I have no motivation to get out of bed some mornings, and my heart literally hurts sometimes.”
Patton doesn’t speak, he just nods solemnly, fidgeting with his hands in his lap.
Logan glances at Patton looking guilty on the couch. He writes that down in his notepad.
“Okay… Do you have a reason for these feelings Patton? You don’t have to,” Logan asks gently.
“I…” Patton thinks for a moment, “I think it’s partially because I haven't had as much contact recently… I don't know why else though…”
“Wait,” Remus cuts in, “If you don’t get physical contact you get depressed?”
“Yeah, essentially…” Patton confirms Remus’ theory, “It can get complicated, but that’s the basic explanation…”
“Then why didn’t you just say you needed Touch? We would have happily helped! At least I would have,” Roman says.
“I don’t know, I guess I didn’t want to bother you all…” Patton wiped away the tears that bordered his eyes.
“Patton, you wouldn’t have bothered us, especially if it’s something you need to stay healthy and well,” Logan puts a hand on his shoulder.
Patton sniffed, then muttered something that sounded like ‘I love you all...’ and started to sob again.
Everyone stared at him again, not sure what to do. How did they let it get this bad?
Remus gets up, walks over to Patton, and lays down in his lap.
Patton is so startled at the gesture that he completely forgets what they were talking about before, staring down at Remus in his lap.
Remus looked up at him, grabbed his face, and kissed him. After they pulled away, Remus said, “You said I would get a turn.”
Patton was speechless. He didn’t expect that, but he wasn’t mad…
Thomas looked at them again, “Maybe I should go, I don’t want to intrude on anything. This is also kinda freaking me out.”
“NO! No-” Patton stopped Thomas, “We need you here.”
Everyone nodded their heads vigorously. Logan adjusts his tie again, it seems to be a nervous tick for him, “Sorry, we might be… getting carried away,” He says his face turning red once again.
“Carried away??” Remus stops kissing Patton’s neck to look at Logan, “You think this is getting carried away? Ha! I can show you carried away…”
“No, he’s right,” Patton said, ignoring Remus' comment, “We need to stop getting distracted.”
“Awww…” Remus pouts, rolling off the couch and onto the floor.
Patton flinches at the thud from Remus, but doesn’t mention it.
“Thomas,” Logan also ignores Remus and gets straight to the point, “To help with your depression I would suggest talking about it with your friends and family so they can help you. And if that doesn’t help, I would suggest seeing a therapist.”
Thomas nods, impressed by Logan.
“Patton,” He continues, “You need to tell us when you need help. Whatever it is you need, we will provide.”
“Thank you…” Patton smiles at Logan, and then towards the rest of the crowd.
Logan smiles back, blushing slightly. God, he’s pretty. Then he turns to look at Virgil, “And Virgil, when you are feeling extra anxious, come to any of us. We will help you through it. We love you.”
Virgil smiles too, some pink lining his cheeks. “I’ll try. No promises though…”
Logan sighs, but doesn’t argue. He turns to look at everyone, “I think we’ve all had a long day, and we should get some rest,” He then turns to Thomas, his eyebrows pinched conveying his worry, “Are you going to be okay Thomas?”
Thomas looked at all his sides, watching them whispering, dotting soft kisses on each other's faces. Quiet giggling coming from Patton; a small giddy smile from Virgil, and he knew they would be okay.
He smiled, “Yeah. I think we’ll be just fine.”