Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Coming home to find Virgil on the floor was a normal occurrence. Coming home to find Patton giggling excitedly about something was also a normal occurrence. Even his brother being there for Thursday night's dinner was a normal occurrence now. 

What wasn’t a normal occurrence was the fuzzy black ball moving around on Virgil’s back.

“Is that a cat?” Logan nearly shrieked. How did a cat get in? Why weren’t Dee and Patton doing anything? Why was it on top of Virgil?

“No it’s a kitten!” Patton exclaimed and wrapped Logan into a tight hug as he buzzed with excitement. The small kitten continued to pad around Virgil’s back looking for a comfortable spot to curl up in. It seemed oblivious to everyone else except for Virgil. 

“How did it get in here? What is it doing on Purple?” Logan did his best to wiggle himself out of Patton’s hold while not letting go of the groceries. Patton just hugged him tighter and started spinning the pair around.

“Patton. Please.” A mix of desperation, annoyance, and fear filled Logan’s voice. Patton immediately let go and attempted to compose himself. The kitten found its way into the hood of Virgil’s sweatshirt and curled up in it. Its tail swished back and forth gently tickling the back of the boy’s neck. He had frozen at the unexpected sensation but quickly started to giggle.

“Dandylion brought the kitten with him as a gift for Purple.” Patton said calmly. Despite the facade, Logan could still sense all the excited energy buzzing just below his boyfriend’s skin.

“You bought my son a cat?” Logan exclaimed and gently shook the grocery bags, wanting to show his frustration but didn’t want to harm the food.

“Yeah.” Dee nodded before stopping himself. “Well no, not technically. I didn’t buy it.”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t steal it…. did you?” 

Dee frowned and crossed his arms, tension immediately filling the once excited room.

“No. I don’t steal things. And I didn’t back then either.” Dee hissed. 

Patton glance between the brothers. His normally soft gaze was suddenly stern. “Why don’t you two put away the food and start on dinner?”

It may have been phrased as a question but it most certainly was not.

“And while you two do that,” Patton added as Dee grabbed a couple bags out of Logan’s hands, “Purp and I will be taking care of this little cutie!” 

Patton motioned to the kitten letting out a plethora of ‘ooo’s’, kissing noises, and baby babble. Logan rolled his eyes and let out a quiet groan. He’d let his boyfriend play with the cat for now. It’s not like they were going to keep it.

“So this kitten?” Logan asked wasting no time as they walked through the kitchen door frame.

“There’s this nice old woman, lives next to me. She ended up with a litter of cats.” Dee started to pile the fruit and vegetables on the counter. “Real nice lady. She couldn't take care of them. Too many with her own ones.”

“You took one of them.” Logan finished.

Dee shrugged. “But I can’t keep animals. It’s extra for my apartment. I just don’t have the free time too. And I couldn’t give it back to her.” 

Logan sighed and grabbed the bridge of his nose. “Patton is allergic.”

Dee froze. “Like bad allergic?”

Logan laughed lightly. “No no, he just…” Logan glanced back into the living room. He couldn’t quite see Virgil or the kitten with the couch in the way but Patton was hunched over excited as ever. 

“Patton… please make sure you take some Benadryl or something.” Logan called.

“Sure sure honey.” Patton waved a hand dismissively toward the kitchen and scooted closer to Virgil.

The brothers fell into a stretch of silence as unpacking turned into cooking. They were making honey chicken with a side of a everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style salad, a yellow-ish dish sided with an overly colorful one. Logan stood next to the oven breading and rolling the chicken cutlets. Dee stood near the sink washing and cutting all the various fruits and vegetables for the salad. It was the farthest he could be from the oven.

“It wasn’t just that I needed some place to dump the cat.” Dee glanced over his shoulder at his brother. Logan hummed to let Dee know that he was listening but didn’t turn from his work. “They have service animals for autism.”

That got Logan to turn around. Dee dried his hands and quickly flipped through his notepad looking for his notes.

“They can be trained to help with preventing self-harming stims, navigating the person to a safe spot if they get overwhelmed, or provide pressure.” Dee looked up from his notes. “I know Purple likes that one.”

Dee stuck his thumb toward the living room. Virgil was laying down getting that pressure on his chest. And the kitten was on top of him, too small to be adding much but there none the less. Dee clicked his tongue a few times finding his spot in his notes.

“Pets in general can help with socialization. They also help teach responsibility.” Dee rambled through his bulleted list. 

“How dare you come at me with facts.” Logan grumbled but there was no real bite behind it. Dee smirked and folded the notepad back into his pocket.

They fell back into silence, but Dee knew from experience it was just Logan working out his counter-argument. He hoped it was for the spirit of the debate and not an actual rebuttal. Logan was a sucker for his kid and both Patton and Virgil seemed to really be enjoying the fluff ball.

“There is still a large lasting financial burden with having a pet. It is not trained specifically as a service animal. Cats are entirely different than dogs, who are the majority of service animals. I will reiterate again that Patton is allergic.”

“I can help with food and litter. I do have a job now and have been saving up. It’s still young so you can try to train it.” Dee countered. “I mean look at them Lo, you don’t really want to get rid of it do you?” 

Logan smiled and Dee let his head fall back in a groan. “That was not an appeal to logic.”

Dee grumbled to himself as he ripped apart the lettuce. He never won these debates. But even with Logan’s caution, he knew that the kitten was staying.

Getting everyone to the table for dinner turned out to be harder than expected. Patton would lose track of time a lot, but once he got a reminder he was quick to finish up and sit at the table. Virgil was even easier, schedules and his own internal clock had him there at the same time every night.

But the kitten….

Patton was surprisingly less sniffly and itchy than Logan was expecting. Animals were Patton’s kryptonite but he was sitting all giddy off to the side of Virgil giving the boy and cat some space. 

“She’s such a sweet little fuzz button.” Patton swooned when he noticed his boyfriend had come back.

“Dinner is ready.” Logan helped Patton to his feet. The kindergarten teacher protested slightly but leaned lovingly into Logan’s shoulder once he was up. A content sigh escaped Patton’s lips

“I never got to have a cat.” Patton rested his head onto Logan’s shoulder.

“It’s probably because you’re allergic,” Logan added lightly. 

“There was a stray in the neighborhood. I’d leave out some scraps from the table and a Tupperware of water. We didn’t have any real food for it, but it would always come by the back door every night.” 

“Let’s get some medicine in you so you’ll be able to properly taste this devilish dish we’ve made.”

Patton was about to protest but a huge sneeze came out first. Sniffling, he continued to ramble about this stray cat from his childhood as he followed Logan toward the bathroom.

They hadn’t exactly planned to divide and conquer but now Dee was left alone to get Virgil to the table.

Virgil was laying on his back his arms pulled up so his fists balled up underneath his chin. His eyes were squeezed shut but the smile on his face was blinding. The kitten stood with its hind paws on Virgil’s chest while its front were on top of Virgil’s own hands. The small thin black tail swished back and forth as its sandpaper tongue licked Virgil’s face. 

Dee smiled to himself. He knew Virgil would love it and the Logan would cave. Patton was the wild card but he had heard the other talk fondly of cats whenever they saw any. By the way the kitten was purring, it loved Virgil too.

“Okay Purple, it’s time for dinner.” Dee whispered.

In response, the purring got louder and neither kitten nor Virgil moved.

“I know you’re excited about the kitten, but it’s dinner time. You don’t want to miss dinner. There’s so many colors.” Dee said slightly louder. It felt so wrong to disrupt them but he was pretty sure the change of schedule wouldn’t be great for Virgil.

Both seemed unfazed by Dee’s attempts as the kitten moved down and curled up on Virgil’s stomach. Dee’s fingers tapped against his pocket but quickly stilled when they didn’t feel the familiar poker chip. Right, he hadn’t hit his next milestone yet to replace the one he gave to his nephew. He took a calming breath and moved his hand instead toward his breast pocket where the yellow handkerchief stayed hidden. 

“Purple.” Dee said as sternly as he could to get the boy’s attention.

The purring grew a bit louder and he could see Virgil’s hands twitching a bit still tucked under his chin. The confused uncle looked between Virgil and the kitten. The kitten may have been purring before but now it most definitely was his nephew. 

“You really like the kitten, don’t you?” Dee’s voice softened to nearly a whisper. He suddenly found himself sitting on the floor gently petting the kitten.

“You know, I’m sure your mom would’ve wanted you to have a pet.” Dee chuckled. “We were still getting used to having you in the house but she had a big heart. Definitely something fluffy, even if I would prefer something more scaly.”

Before Dee could get sucked into his memories, a couple thumps from upstairs reminded him that he was supposed to be getting Virgil to the table for dinner. He shook away the tendrils of times long ago as he stood. He’d have time to reminisce later. Keeping Virgil on his schedule was the priority… and dinner for himself he added as his stomach let out a large growl. 

“Time for dinner. For real this time.” Dee said with as much authority he could muster.

Virgil’s happy face scrunched and his eyebrows furrowed. The kitten hissed at Dee who flinched away. 

Then Virgil exploded.

Chapter Text

Dee wasn’t sure if everything was happening in slow-motion or super fast. He wasn’t even sure what was happening; he just knew that something was happening.

The kitten perched itself on Logan’s armchair, watching everything unfold from a safe distance. Virgil on the other hand was flailing around on the floor. Dee wasn’t sure he had ever seen the small boy so animated. Virgil was always fidgeting and he would happily chase around after Roman on the playground, but this was so much more than that.

Dee slowly blinked trying to process the information he was seeing, but it was such a surprise that he couldn’t pull anything out of his head of what he was supposed to do. Virgil’s face was turning bright red and Dee realized his ears were ringing. 

He’s screaming.

The screams pierced through the fog in his brain but did little to tell him what to do. The Virgil on the floor wasn’t anything like the Virgil he had been getting to know these past couple of months. 

He took a cautious step forward and crouched down. He could do this. 

Don’t touch! Dee fell back at the sudden warning from his brain. Touching Virgil, especially right now, would only make things worse. 

Logan was suddenly in front of Dee trying to get his attention. 

“Dee what happened?” Logan asked. Dee was sure that he had repeated it a few times before Dee understood. The normally put-together brother looked oddly frazzled and disheveled.

“I… It’s time for dinner?” Dee replied. Motion in the corner of his eye had Dee whipping his head to see Patton carefully catching the kitten and returning it to its carrying case. Patton made a few kissing noises and wiggled his fingers between the bars at the kitten. 

Logan glanced between his brother, his son, and his boyfriend as he assessed the situation. 

Patton had the kitten contained. It looked like he was playing with it which was hopefully more good than bad; good for keeping both Patton and the animal out of his way but bad for Patton’s allergies even if he had taken a fair amount of pills for it.

Dee was rather dazed. More prodding from Logan didn’t get any more information on what had happened. As far as he knew, Dee wasn’t diagnosed with PTSD but Virgil’s screaming could have been a trigger for a flashback to the night of the fire. Given the limited information, Logan decided it was best to leave Dee alone. He knew about autism and his son not PTSD or his brother. Besides, if Virgil was the one triggering Dee Logan knew he could help his son and that would in turn help his brother.

So Logan turned his attention to his flailing son. It angered Logan that he couldn’t count the number of times he had found his son like this. People were ignorant and didn’t want to take the time to learn. But this was Dee. It was possible for him to make mistakes, like all humans, but Logan doubted it would turn into something like this. So the other variable was the kitten. The pair had seemed to be bonding smoothly but it was a young animal. 

Logan sighed as he did his best to look over Purple for any sign of scratches from the cat without actually touching him. Finding nothing, Logan stood up and brushed his pants. Honestly, he probably should have figured it out sooner.

He reached out a hand toward Dee who was with it enough to accept and pulled himself up to his own two feet. 

“I just said it was dinner time.” Confusion slowly breaking through his blank face.

“It’s okay.” Logan gently patted Dee’s shirt pocket and turned the other to help him toward the table for dinner. Dee frowned and shook his head. “Purple is a kid, and kid’s throw tantrums sometimes.”

“A tantrum.” 

“Purple wanted to stay and play with the kitten. He was mad about having to eat dinner.” Once Dee was in a chair, Logan headed toward Patton to collect him for dinner as well.

“But his schedule?” Dee asked as he ran his hands lightly over the grooves of the wooden table.

“Sometimes things can break that schedule.” Logan shrugged as Patton dashed past to wash his hands before eating. “He has a tendency to get hyper fixated on something. Today it happened to be the cat. He could have been so focused on the cat that his own internal clock got messed up. To him it wasn’t dinner time. Or maybe he simply just wasn’t hungry.” 

“So we still are keeping the little princess right?” Patton chimed in as he took his seat next to Logan.

Logan groaned slightly and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes. I guess we are.”

Eventually Virgil tired himself out or realized everyone had left and took his own seat at the dinner table. He only ate a handful of fruit slices out of the salad but Logan happy was anything at this point. 

Sometimes it was a meltdown, but sometimes it was just a young kid getting mad that they didn’t get what they wanted. Logan was glad it was just a temper tantrum. Dee would’ve beaten himself up over it if it had been something he had done. And Patton would have been heartbroken if they had to give back the kitten. Logan supposed that Virgil would’ve been too, that was probably Patton’s influence if Logan had to take a guess. 

Dinner itself ended up being rather uneventful-

“Were you and Patton making out in the bathroom?” Dee blurted out and by the way the Blues kept their eyes on their food and Logan’s quickly reddening face, that would be a yes. Virgil even giggled, hopefully from their reactions and not the actual question.

Virgil was back to lying on the floor. The kitten though was playing with Patton. The man had pulled a cat toy from out of seemingly nowhere. So the kitten was happily leaping around trying to catch a feather attached to a stick. Logan wasn’t sure if he was glad or suspicious. How many cat toys was Patton hiding in their house? Dee kept shooting glances toward his brother and Logan felt like they should talk about what had happened. Dee wasn’t making any further moves so Logan would wait until Dee was ready.

“You know, Purple, in order to keep this beautiful wittle kitty we have to give her a name.” Patton smiled and quickly kissed the kitten’s nose before Logan had a chance to stop him.

Virgil hummed and turned his head to watch the black fuzz ball stalk the toy. Everyone assumed it would be named Black but Virgil did find “Dandelion” for Dee so it could be some odd color like Charcoal or Midnight. 

The small boy rolled onto his back and let his fingers drum against his stomach. It was an important decision, of course he had to think about it.

“Squoosh.” 

“Squ…. Squoosh?” Logan asked raising an eyebrow. Patton let the kitten catch the toy. With nothing to chase anymore the kitten instead hopped onto Virgil’s chest.

“Squoosh.” Virgil giggled and gently pet Squoosh as she curled up purring.

”Squoosh is a wonderful name.” Patton smiled and playfully bumped his shoulder against Logan’s. Squoosh gave a small meow of approval