Chapter Text
Thomas was five when he got his first alter. Patton sat in the back of his mind, confused and scared of being dragged out to the horrific world outside of his den. When Patton was seven and Thomas was six, another alter showed up, his name was Logan. Logan’s job was to keep Thomas and Patton okay. When Thomas was 10 he got taken out of his abusive home and put up for adoption.
Thomas’ father had sworn that he’d be back and make him pay, Virgil kept himself hidden from them all.Thomas fronted the most since he was the host, Patton fronted the second most, taking the some of abuse in Thomas’ place, Logan fronted a little as he could, but sometimes he had to take up the job as the host when Thomas and Patton needed a break. Sometimes after a really bad beating from a nun, one of them would front and find a batch of cuts on their body but no one could figure out why.
The den turned into a small cottage for them to stay in. When Thomas was 11, Patton 13, Logan 14, and Virgil 10, another alter showed up. 12 year old Roman stood up for them when the other kids bullied Thomas for having alters. The cuts started popping up more and more as time went on and Thomas started to get scared of switching for fear of coming back to more pain. Logan decided it was time to put a stop to this and find out who was doing this. Thomas, Patton, Logan, and Roman sat in the living room of their small cottage, trying to figure out where these cuts were coming from.
“It can’t be one of the other children because they don’t have access to our legs and stomach,” Logan reasoned. Patton nodded and twisted his fingers.
“None of us did it, right? I mean, I know none of us want to hurt our body but what other explanation is there…?” Tears welled up in Thomas’ eyes at the thought of this never stopping.
Roman, never looking up from his phone, replied “Are we sure every alter is in here?” Logan looked at him in confusion. Patton scrunched up his face and asked “What do you mean?” Roman finally looked up and set his phone down. Sitting up he looked around at the rest of them with a raised eyebrow. “Have none of you noticed? Not even Logan?” He asked in disbelief. All of them stared back him in confusion. Roman sighed and got up. “You don’t think it’s possible for someone to hide in this big ass forest ? I was here for a week before I moved into the house.” Logan interjected with a “It’s actually a cottage.” Roman rolled his eyes and sat back down.
Thomas was reeling from this new perspective, he looked up at Roman and asked “But why would they wanna hide from us…?” Roman shrugged and picked up his phone. Logan huffed and straightened his tie. “Do you even have any proof for this claim, Roman?” Logan asked with a glare. Roman smirked and pulled up a picture of his phone “Yeah, I do.” he let out in the smuggest voice he could muster. The three other boys leaned in and stared at the photo. It was a picture of a tree branch with a small lump of what seemed like black cloth. “You call this proof?” Logan asked in annoyance. Roman zoomed in on the lump and pointed at two spots “That’s hair! And that’s a hood! They’re wearing a hoodie and you can tell there’s an arm right here!” Logan glared at him and hissed out another question “How come you never told us this before, hm?” Logan had raised his voice without realizing and Patton let out a whimper. “GUYS!” Thomas cut through their argument and hugged Patton. “Why don’t we just go look around tomorrow ?” He asked looking between the two.
Logan didn’t say anything as he got up and stomped off to his room. Roman rolled his eyes and hugged Patton and Thomas before leaving.