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A comforting silence hung around in the common room of the Mindscape. Roman changed the batteries in the remote and proceeded to channel surf. Either to check if they work, or just out of boredom. Logan sat in his armchair solving crosswords. Patton, on the other hand, sat on the couch grinning widely at the funny and/or adorable animal videos he was watching on the laptop, situated on his lap. Virgil sat comfortably on the floor leaning against Patton’s legs. He sat with headphones on his head, typing on his phone, every once in a while being called by Morality who wanted to show him ANOTHER video of a cat falling into the bathtub. Logan glanced at them over his crossword book, thinking about how close those two have gotten lately. Not that that’s something abnormal, Patton is known for breaking down the walls people have put around themselves. He, himself, was one of those instances where the moral side had to break him out of his metaphorical shell, although it didn’t take as long as it did with Anxiety. So technically this sight wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. They just sat really close to each other, so close they could physically touch. Normal occurrence, but nonetheless Logan couldn’t stop thinking about how it was HIM Patton usually came to with ‘adorable puppies & kitties’. He considered moving to the couch and leaning against Patton, or, at least, sitting close enough to bump knees every once in a while. He stopped those thoughts immediately.
He grimaced from irritation and tried to concentrate on his crossword. The same thoughts haunted him for the rest of the day. At first, for the longest time, he tried to convince himself that his interest in Morality was the result of an ordinary fondness, the healthy requirement for human contact and the need to correct his absurdly inaccurate statements. Which, for some reason, the others found amusing. Lately though, he finally came to the conclusion that there’s no use in lying to yourself. He was educated in psychology well enough to come to a conclusion himself. He was simply crushing on Morality. His awareness of this fact however, didn’t improve his mood. In fact, it frustrated him to no ends. He never asked for any feelings, especially romantic ones, and yet here he was; a merry and warm man was enough to disrupt his peace. His only solace was the crossword book which managed to, for the time being, take his mind off of the whole feeling shenanigans. The crossword, for example, did a great job distracting him from the jealousy he suddenly discovered in himself.
A while later, Roman turned off the tv and dramatically threw the remote after finding ads on every.single.channel.
“I’M SO BORED!”, he shouted out hysterically.
“How can you call yourself ‘Creativity’ when you can’t even find yourself an occupation, Princey?”, Virgil teased without lifting his eyes up from his phone.
“I have millions of ideas! There’s just so many of them that none
actually sound good enough, you dark bonbon!”
“Now calm down, Roman. We could all play a game together, right? What do you think, Logan?” Patton turned his attention to Logan, who in turn put down his book.
“I’ll gladly play something. Do you have any opposition to Scrabble?” Logan offered, standing up. Patton clapped his hands, while Virgil mumbled some unintelligible reply. Roman decided that that was adequate and started clearing up the table for the board game and set up the seats.
Logan headed to his room, only to return instantly with the Scrabble box. He sat down on the couch beside Patton deliberately forcing Virgil to move.
They quickly set up the game, Roman volunteered himself to count the points. Short words like “Shawl”, “Love”, “Cat” and “Car” quickly appeared on the board as a warm-up.
Logan stared at his letters thoughtfully.
“You turn, Teach”, Patton nudged him lightly. Logan glanced over at him and after considering it carefully, sent a crooked smile at Patton and formed the word, “heart”.
“Awww, Logan! That’s so sweet!” Morality commented grabbing his arm. Logan turned red and calmly took Patton’s hand off his arm, but he didn’t let it go. He held their intertwined hands under the table, away from the wandering eyes. Morality seemed startled but he didn’t speak up or take away his hand, only throwing Logan a curious glance. He decided to use his round to exchange his letters, giggling to himself and sighing loudly with glee at what he got.
Virgil lazily placed down 1 letter to form “in”.
“They’re supposed to be full words, you Dark Prince” Roman protested, jabbing him in the chest with his finger.
“I thought you were the prince. You giving up that title to me?” Anxiety replied, pushing away Roman’s hand.
“Actually the utilization of prepositions is sanctioned. The rules of the game have no remonstrations against it.” Logic explained, slowly caressing Morality’s knuckles with his finger, moving closer. He saw Patton blush out of the corner of his eye. Virgil threw Roman a victorious stare, while Roman reluctantly gave him the point. He himself formed the word “tunnel”, which immediately caught Logan’s attention. He leisurely placed down the letters to form “infatuated” and glanced at Morality, who brightened up with glee. This caused Logic a great amount of pride, satisfaction and hope…. He was brutally interrupted at the sight of “winfatuated”, as Patton added in 1 letter.
“You know very well that that word doesn’t exist!” Logan exclaimed louder than he intended.
“But it’s funny! “Win”, you understand? You have the most points and you WIN. Earlier you formed “heart”, and before that “love”. You must really LOVE this game, Logan!”
“That’s a good one, Patton!” Prince laughed out, giving him a point.
“You can’t possibly count that! Erase that, Prince!” Virgil decided, reaching out for the notebook.
“I don’t intend to. You got your point for laziness! Patton has the right to a point for creativity!” Roman lifted the notebook out of Anxiety’s reach.
“At least my word actually exists, you heard Logan. Give it to me! There is no such word, it can’t count!”
“Well of course it can! I’m the one giving the points! Stop it or we-!”
Virgil leaned out too far while trying to grab the notebook, they both landed on the floor. This, however, didn’t stop their tussle.
Logan, frustrated, snorted and leaned back against the backrest of the couch. He tried to loosen the grip on his hand but an amused Patton wouldn’t let him. Roman and Virgil were still occupied so, using this opportunity, Patton leaned over and pecked Logan on the lips.
“You won” he stated and giggled when he saw the blissfulness in Logan’s eyes, masked by a lack of understanding.
Patton gently placed his hand on Logan’s cheek and leaned in again. He pecked his lips and held them there, prompting Logan to kiss him back. Slowly their lips moved against each other, soft lips against chapped ones. They held on until the need for oxygen forced them to lean back. They stared into each other’s eyes, Logan’s filled with wonder and Patton’s full of adoration and… love. And Logan finally understood.