Chapter Text
It had been two days since the hug, and Logan was still freaking out.
He didn't know much about feelings, but he was plenty sure that a simple gesture of affection wasn't meant to have this kind of affect on normal people. Feelings. The bane of his existence.
Precisely 49 hours, 37 minutes, and 6 seconds ago, a hug between him and Patton had been shared, but something was... off. It was a lingering hug, one that had taken more moments of embracing than that which Patton had given the others, one that ensured safety and warmth over anyone else.
Maybe it had been the hush that fell over the family when they realized the hug had been prolonged that caused Logan's reddening cheeks, or maybe it had been the fact Patton still hadn't let go. All Logan knew was after a prolonged two minutes and twenty seven seconds, the hug split apart, and while Logan would never admit to missing the warmth, he did.
And now, here he was. The brains of the group, unable to focus on anything but that moment roughly forty nine hours ago. Logan wasn't supposed to keep going back to that! He was supposed to be writing notes and making graphs and reading pages and pages on something rational.
But all he could write were small doodles on the margins of his paper and Patton's name in cursive, over and over again, and the only things he was reading were Wikipedia articles of how to stop thinking of hugs.
Giving up on the idea of cramming in extra information, Logan produced a sound which somehow was the cross between a heavy sigh and an annoyed groan. He lowered his head, resting it on the dark oak desk, and closed his round eyes, hoping for some peace in the darkness closing his eyes offered.
Peace was far from what he got. Just as soon as his eyelashes met, the memory came back vividly, splashing his mind and somehow making his normally pale face grow hot and turn red.
Logan was reduced to a mess because of... of what? Maybe this was... love? Getting red hot because of a hug? Being unable to think about anything else? Was he... feeling love?
"Nope," Logan denied. "That's absolutely preposterous. Unimaginable! Impossible! Unbel—"
"Are we talking about your mom again?"
Logan jumped, turning to the source of the noise. Virgil, leaning on his doorway with a small smirk resting on his make-up covered face.
Virgil, although usually being too anxious to speak to most people in general, was one who conversed with the analytical side way too many times, claiming he only looked for conversations with the Crofters Appreciation Club president because Logan was the most relatable side.
The face of a broken man caught the sight of Virgil. Logan looked like literal hell. Virgil scrunched up his nose in what seemed to be a concerned but slightly disgusted face. Logan frowned.
"Do you need assistance on anything, Virgil?"
The sentence sounded harsh in Logan's ears the moment he muttered it, but Virgil just continued to stare at Logan's messy appearance.
"No, but looks like you need assistance, Lo," Virgil replied. "You honestly look like shit, Logan. What's up?"
Logan eyes were halfway closed in exhaustion, but the focused iris in Logan's warm brown eyes suggested he was not ignoring Virgil. Logan's throat suddenly got dry, looking away and muttering a quiet, "Nothing."
The darkly clad man leaning on the door frame rolled his eyes, suggesting that he did not buy what Logan was selling at all. Logan didn't care about that. Virgil would think what he wanted to think, he was Virgil. He didn't care about whether or not Virgil believed him. He didn't care about what Virgil's opinion was about the hug.
"Not to sound weird, Virgil, but what did you think about the hug Patton and I shared forty nine hours ago?" Aaaand, there it was. Logan mentally slapped himself, watching the smirk curl up on Virgil's lips, like a cat watching it's prey squirm.
Virgil's eyes narrowed. "Really?" He laughed, making Logan blush in embarrassment. "That's what this is about?"
Logan averted eye contact and huffed out a breath. "You don't have to be such a caveman about it," he muttered under his breath, eyes glaring at the floor.
"Actually," Anxiety drawled, walking up to Logan's bed and sitting on it casually, "I do."
Logan frowned. He'd have to straighten those bedsheets up later. But for now, Logan crossed his arms and put on an expectant expression, as if telling Virgil to go on. Virgil took the gesture and grinned. "First off, you are a dork."
"Okay, yeah, hello, get out of my room."
For what seemed like the millionth time in their exchange, Virgil rolled his eyes once more. "Let me finish, L." Still stubbornly glaring at Anxiety, Logan closed his mouth to a thin line and sighed defeatedly. "Let me get this absolutely straight—"
"Something about being gay?" A new voice from the doorway interrupted. Logan knew who it was before he even looked. The spectacled side groaned as Creativity walked into his room, uninvited. He made a point to mentally note to lock his door. "What is happening here, left brains? Party that I'm not invited to?"
Virgil saluted in greeting. "Hey, Ro—"
Logan groaned. "Oh, please don't tell him—"
"Tell me what? And, Logan, you look like a mop."
"Thanks."
"Any time. Now what are we talking about over here?"
"Logan's still caught up about the hug Patton gave him two days ago."
Logan groaned in exhasperation.
"Oh my gods and goddesses, Logan, you are a nerd."
Rubbing his temple, Logan glared at the two sides who seemed to have had teamed up against him to terrorize him about his feelings. Logan pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and glared. "Okay, both of you, out. Out of my room."
Neither side made a move to leave. Roman looked at him with a deadpan expression. "Okay, well, moving on! Logan, you're a gay mess."
Logan sputtered in disbelief. "Wh-What?"
Virgil crossed his arms, fixing Logan with a stern stare. He shook his head and laughed, almost to himself. "Oh my god," Virgil gasped, a wide smile creeping up on his lips and his eyes sparkling almost mischeivously. "Ro, I don't think he knows."
Logan's eyebrows scrunched up on confusion. "Falsehood," He interrupted. "I can not not know something you morons do! It is my job to know. And you are both idiots."
Roman doubled over laughing as Virgil glared at him. "Oh, Logan," Roman sighed, resting his hand on his cheek. "It's okay to not know. You aren't exactly the most feelings-aware person in the mindscape. And you're trash, so."
"Very helpful," Logan sarcastically deadpanned, voice monotone.
Roman put a hand over his heart and smiled. "I know, I try," he accepted the compliment. "But enough about how amazing I am, it's time for you to realize what exactly you're feeling!"
Logan pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and straightened his tie, almost arrogantly. "What could you possibly know that I don't al—"
"You have a crush on Patton," Virgil interrupted impatiently.
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"I'm sorry— WHAT!" Logan screeched, an inhuman screech that rivaled Roman's scream itself. Imagine if a teen going through puberty were to inhale helium and have a voice crack while screaming bloody murder. And also, Satan's in the room, for some reason. Accurate description of Logan's screech.
Virgil snorted at the over reaction while Roman laughed, rolling his light brown eyes as if you would to a child. Logan wasn't a child, and he certainly didn't want to be treated as such.
"I do not have a crush on Patton," he insisted, crinkling his nose at the thought of him having feelings, and for his polar opposite no less.
Roman sighed and stood up, making his way to the bookshelf next to Logan's desk, perhaps searching for a book.
"Does your heart flip whenever he laughs at one of your jokes or compliments you?" Roman quizzed.
Logan's eyebrows furrowed. "I can assure you, my heart is in the same place as it always is. How would that even work? Do you know basic human anatomy?"
"Metaphorical, Logan," called Virgil from Logan's bed.
"Oh." He felt dumb. "Well, I guess I am filled with... ah, a sense of accomplishment whenever I make him smile, but that's normal with friends, right?"
Roman gave him a knowing look before turning to Virgil. The two rolled their eyes. "If I were to say 'I love how you look today,' would you treasure my compliment more than if Patton were to say it?"
Logan pursed his lips. Roman nodded. "Exactly. Moving on, do you care more about how you look when you're in the same room as him?"
"I care about how I look when I'm in the same room as anybody," Logan answered swiftly. "Presentability is a factor for being treated professionally."
Virgil gave him a once over. "Lo, you are literally a mess right now. I can assure you that you won't even think about looking like this in front of Patton."
Logan glared at the anxious side. "Okay, so I do not want him looking at me like I'm some piece of annoyingly sticky gum that got stuck on his shoe, big deal! That doesn't prove anything."
"Do you think more about how you act around him than with other people?"
"Yes, but I always have to be aware of how I act around everyb—"
"Do you find yourself drawn to him like a moth to a lamp?"
"Sure, but—!"
"Do you go to greater lengths to make sure he's happy or to check if you're doing something that makes him sad than you do with other people?"
"I mean, yes—"
"Do you find yourself making up fantasies in your mind in which you're both spending time together and such?"
"Yes, but—!"
"Do you want to be in a relationship with him?"
"Yes—!"
Silence gave the room an eerie noise. It was quiet for a while before an intake of breath moved the still air, accompanied by the creaking of a mattress. Virgil chuckled. "I'd hate to break it to you, L, but that sounds like a pretty prominent crush there."
Roman dropped a thick red book in front of the nerd. Logan scanned the title. Signs That Thomas Has A Crush On A Boy, by Patton "Morality" Sanders.
"Your crush made a book about this," Roman smirked.
Logan's mouth felt dry and his head felt empty.
He was factual. He was unbiased. He was... he was.... If he couldn't even stay as how he was manufactured, how dare he call himself Logic?
"I'm...." Logan paused, unsure of what to do or say. "I...."
"Careful there, don't want your head exploding."
"I have a crush on Patton...?"
"No, really?" Virgil's sarcastic tone almost made Logan roll his eyes. "I didn't realize."
Logan looked back and forth between the two sides occupying the room with him. He couldn't have an infatuation with anyone.... He was supposed to be Logic! Cold, hard, and unbiased Logic. Schoolgirl crushes weren't— They weren't allowed! They were against his coding!
No. No way. He did not like Patton. Roman simply... rushed to conclusions! Yes, that was it! He didn't— No, he couldn't like Patton. At least not romantically. No way.
"Stage one of infatuation," Roman monologued, giggling at the thought of little Logan having a schoolgirl crush. "Denial.