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Bottling up your emotions.
To anyone else that was simply a phrase. A phrase to explain someone pushing any unwanted emotions down. A metaphor of keeping those repressed feelings in a bottle and putting it on a high shelf.
But for Patton? That was life.
Since Patton was Thomas’ emotions–all of his emotions–whenever Thomas felt the need to push down any sadness or anger, Patton was the one who felt the effects. He was quite literally put into a bottle and locked away for several hours until Thomas subconsciously released him. Of course, he couldn’t exactly fit into a bottle, which was why the mind would shrink him down whenever this occurred.
Thankfully, he had a little warning whenever it was about to happen and was always able to make it to his room before being bottled up. Because of this, the others didn’t know this happened, not even Thomas knew. And Patton very much wanted to keep it that way.
Patton and the others were out in the living room, eating dinner while Moana played in the background. Ever since the last few videos, everyone had gained a clearer understanding of each other and were getting along like a real family. Patton had to contain his squeals of excitement whenever he thought about how close they had become.
Right now he was listening to a very interesting debate between Virgil and Logan. Apparently the two did this on a semi-regular basis. It had sounded a lot like arguing to Patton at first, but Logan had been quick to explain to him that it was more logical than that. And it helped out Virgil, so Patton was all aboard for it.
Virgil had also gotten better at debating, by the sounds of it. No longer hissing whenever Logan made a point he didn’t like. Patton thinks that may have been due to Virgil spending some time in Logan’s room. Since they usually did their debates there. Whatever the case, Patton was proud of his (self-proclaimed) son.
He went to take another bite of his food, when a sharp flash shot through his head. It caught him off guard, so much so he gasped and dropped his fork. The utensil clanging harshly against his plate. The others stopped what they were doing, Roman turning away from the TV and Logan and Virgil stopping mid-sentence in their debate. They all looked at him in slight confusion, along with a hint of concern.
“Patton? Are you alright?” Logan asked, eyebrows furrowed. Patton put on his signature smile and picked his fork back up.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just thought I saw a…” He shudders, “spider.” He whispers the word with fear before smiling again. “Turns out it was just a speck of food.” The others nod along, taking what he says as truth as they focus their attention away from him. Patton let out a little sigh of relief, glad Thomas’ acting skills extended to all of them.
He had to get back to his room, the sharp flash had meant he only had a little more time before he’d be bottled. He was already wasting precious seconds by sitting here. So, he took a few more bites to not seem suspicious and then stood, walking to the kitchen to put his dish in the sink. With that done, he made a beeline for the stairs leading up to his room, but Roman stopped him.
“Hey Padre, where you going! The party’s just getting started, we’re even putting in your favorite movie.” Roman motions over to the TV, where Logan is setting up Winnie the Pooh. In any other case, Patton would have been ecstatic to sit and watch movies with his family, his favorite movie or not. But he really needed to get to his room.
“Oh, um, well…I think I might be coming down with something. I thought I would go rest up in my room.” Patton tried to push past Roman, but Roman stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
“Wait, really?” The creative trait placed a hand on his forehead, eyebrows furrowed. He hummed as Patton shifted nervously.
“You don’t feel hot…” Roman took his forehead away and scanned Patton’s face. He looked over to Logan.
“Hey Logan! Does Patton look sick to you?” Roman turned Patton around and Logan stepped closer. At this point Patton was bouncing in place, ready to get out of here.
“Not particularly, no. Although he does seem a little pale…” Logan hummed as Virgil came up next to him. The others were now surrounding him by all sides. Great.
“He seems nervous too. Are you okay Pat?” Patton tried to put on a smile, but it didn’t exactly work this time as he felt the effects start to take over.
“I’m fine, look, I just really need to go to my room–!” Patton stiffened before hunching over, clutching his stomach as he groaned. The others reacted in a panic.
“Patton!”
“Whoa, Dad!” At this point, Patton knew it was too late. He fell to his knees as he felt himself being pushed down. It didn’t exactly hurt per say, but it was extremely uncomfortable in every area of his body. Before the others had a chance to do something, either help him up or what, a sudden puff of smoke surrounded him. The others coughed as the smoke came up.
“Dad! What the heck is happening!?” Virgil directed the question to Logan, who looked just as confused as he felt. Virgil turned to Roman, but he didn’t seem to understand any better. And then the smoke cleared just as it had come and they were shocked to see that Patton had disappeared.
“W-What?” Virgil whispered in shock. Roman pulled at his hair.
“What in the great name of Walt Disney happened?!” Again the question was directed at Logan, but the logical side seemed at a complete loss.
“I..I don’t know. Nothing like this has happened before to my knowledge…” Virgil could feel their panic well up, only helping to fuel his own panic. He rubbed his face as he looked down, trying to calm himself. He froze.
“Um…guys?” Thankfully, it was easy to get their attention and they turned toward him. All Virgil could do was point down towards the floor. In the same spot Patton had just been in. The others followed his gaze.
“A bottle?”
Patton could feel dread start to pool in him as he watched Logan’s legs bend. His sudden small size had never really bothered him before. The only thing he had ever thought to worry about were spiders, but even then he was trapped behind glass, somewhere the little death crawlers couldn’t reach him.
But this was different. As Logan’s hand wrapped around the glass, Patton couldn’t help but feel fear. Compared to his body, the hand was giant. Almost twice his length. And, not for the first time but definitely the most overwhelming, he felt helpless.
As the bottle was lifted into the air, Patton was forced to grip the sides of the bottle in order to keep himself upright. The feeling of flying stopped and Patton hesitantly looked up into the shocked eyes of Logan.
“P-P-Patton?” Patton was suddenly grateful Logan had been the one to pick him up, he was shocked, yeah, but he still managed to keep his composure and not drop him. He swallowed and gave a little wave. Logan only continued to stare at him in shock.
“Patton! How on earth…?” Roman exclaimed, him and Virgil having crowded around Logan to look in the bottle. Something in Virgil’s mind clicked.
“This was why you wanted to go to your room. This has happened before, hasn’t it?” Patton flinched and looked down before nodding slowly. Roman gasped dramatically.
“This has happened before? And we never knew?!” Virgil shook his head.
“I don’t think he wanted us to know.” Patton slumped down lower as Logan’s concerned eyes focused back on him.
“Patton? Is this true?” Patton simply nodded, eyes cast downwards. Logan bit his lip before moving over to the couch. Roman and Virgil shared a glance with each other before following close behind. Logan sat on the couch, Virgil and Roman sitting on either side of him as Logan placed the bottle on the coffee table.
“Patton?” Logan’s unusually soft tone caused Patton to look up at all of them. “Would you mind telling us what this is?” Patton tensed slightly before allowing his shoulders to fall as he sighed.
“Have you ever heard of bottling your emotions?” Everyone’s eyes widened at that.
“Are you saying the phrase is literal for you? That whenever Thomas pushes down an emotion this happens?” Logan asks, making sure he understood correctly. When Patton nods, Virgil speaks up.
“And you never told us.” Patton looks guilty at that.
“I-I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. I didn’t want you guys to be worried about me.” Patton answers honestly. It wasn’t like it happened that often either. It was just something he lived with and it wasn’t like it hurt him. He really didn’t feel like he was worth worrying about in that regard.
“Dad…” Virgil trailed off. He couldn’t exactly say anything at that. He was much the same way.
“This isn’t good. Not for Thomas or you. Bottling up emotions is not at all healthy. In fact, there are several research studies showing that many physical and mental diseases can occur.” Logan says and Patton flinches back. He knew it wasn’t exactly healthy, but he didn’t know it was that bad for Thomas.
“We need to bring this up to Thomas. Get him to stop and understand that he can’t keep doing this. Not only for his sake, but for Patton’s.” The others nod in agreement, even Patton, though he was hesitant for Thomas to see him like this. No doubt he would blame himself for it and Patton didn’t want that.
“Before we do though, we need to get Patton out of there!” Roman suddenly exclaimed rather loudly. Patton let out a yelp as he was suddenly picked up again, this time by Roman and at a much quicker pace than Logan.
Roman placed his hand on the cork and started to pull. Patton fell over on his side.
“Wait! Roman!” Patton tried, but Roman continued to try and pull the cork off. ‘Try’ being the word, since the cork didn’t so much as budge.
“What the…it won’t come off!” Roman tugged on it one last time before letting his hand fall away from it. As Roman righted the bottle, Patton was able to stand once again.
“I tried to tell you, it won’t open.” Patton had tried in the past. The first few times it had happened, Patton had been desperate for a way out. He had spent countless hours pushing and ramming against the cork. But it just didn’t want to move. Roman hummed and glared at the bottle in deep thought.
He snapped his fingers suddenly, causing Patton to flinch as he put the bottle back down. Virgil and Logan watched Roman in confusion, wondering what he was planning.
And then Roman took out his sword, causing Patton to yelp in fear and the others flinch back with wide eyes. Before Roman could bring it down, Virgil grabbed his arms.
“What the hell Roman!”
“Yes, I must agree with Virgil’s outburst. Do you wish to hurt Patton?” Roman blinked before looking from his sword to the cowering Patton inside the bottle. He looked sheepish as he willed his sword away.
“Alright, so maybe not my best idea.” Virgil face-palmed as Logan sighed and picked up the bottle again.
“It looks like Thomas is the only one who can get you out of there. I say we go to him now, to get this sorted.” Logan turned to the others, who nodded in agreement. Logan then focused back on Patton.
“Is that alright Patton?” Patton nodded. With Patton’s agreement, they all stood and sunk out of the mindscape. They appeared a second later in the real world, right in time for Thomas to walk through the door to his apartment.
“Thomas, we have to talk.” Virgil said, putting on his ‘anxiety’ voice. Thomas yelped in surprise, not having expected his sides to show up. He quickly composed himself though and smiled at them.
“Hey guys. What’s up?” He seemed to notice there was someone missing from the group and he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
“Where’s Patton.” Logan stepped forward and placed a bottle in his hand.
“See for yourself.” Confused, Thomas looked in the bottle. Patton stared at him with wide eyes as Thomas’ mouth dropped open.
“Holy-what!? Patton?” Thomas put a fingertip up against the glass and Patton answered by doing the same, placing his hand next to his finger.
“How-why…?” Logan cleared his throat and Thomas looked up at him.
“This is what happens whenever you push down or bottle your emotions. Patton is shrunk down and literally placed in a bottle.” Thomas’ eyes widened and he looked down at Patton with guilt.
“Wait, really? Every time?” Patton hesitated before nodding. He hated seeing Thomas feel bad.
“Don’t feel bad Thomas. I know you didn’t mean too.” Patton comforted. Thomas bit his lip and brought Patton closer to his face.
“I know, but that doesn’t get rid of the fact that I kept pushing down my emotions, pushing you down, essentially. I’m sorry.” Logan fixed his glasses.
“I’m glad you see the error of your ways. It is incredibly unhealthy to bottle emotions and even if this didn’t happen, it’s a habit you need to break.” Thomas nodded in agreement and looked back at Patton.
“I’ll try to stop bottling you up from now on, I promise.” Patton’s lips form a proud smile.
“Thanks kiddo.” Patton whispers softly. He was looking forward to not having to deal with this as much anymore. He knows there will still be times when Thomas pushes him down, but he know has his family to turn to in case he does.
“Alright, this is all great and everything,” Roman starts after a few moments. “But we still have yet to get Patton out of the bottle.” They all looked to Roman, before settling their gazes back on Patton.
“Right. Thomas, whatever emotion you’re pushing down, you need to let it out. It’s the only way for Patton to get back to normal.” Thomas bit his lip, but nodded. However, before he could, Virgil came up to him.
“Wait.” Virgil took the bottle from Thomas’ hands and placed it on the coffee table. Thomas and the others looked at him in confusion. Virgil rolled his eyes.
“Something tells me you don’t want an arm full of Patton when he gets back to normal size.” They all nod in agreement and Thomas takes a breath. Suddenly, tears are falling down his face and in the same instance there is another puff of smoke. Patton is sitting on the coffee table, out of the bottle and normal sized.
Before anything else can be said or done, Patton gets up and goes over to hug Thomas. Thomas hugs back and thankfully the tears don’t fall for long. The others join in and they just hug for several moments before pulling away. Logan lets his lips curve into a small smile.
“If something like this happens again, please, come talk to any of us. Both of you.” Thomas and Patton look at each other and smile.
“You got it.”