Archive of Our Own

Patton heard someone yell as he was taking an afternoon walk. He hadn’t done this in years, having done it when he was younger, but for the first time in years, Patton had stepped back into his old routine. 

He looked up, but saw nothing, however a bush around the corner of the street was shaking a lot in the direction of that voice. Patton wondered for what felt like an eternity, until he finally turned, immediately bumping into someone, causing them to let goo of what was in their hands.

Suddenly, Patton was on the ground, something on top of him. He didn’t realize he had closed his eyes until he opened them, turning red because he was sure whoever he had bumped into was on top of him-

But instead of seeing someone, the exact moment Patton opened his eyes he got a slobbery tongue to the face, immediately recoiling on instinct, closing his eyes again immediately. Patton’s brain screamed at him that whoever he just bumped into had licked his face for some god forsaken reason.

“Wha-?”

BArk! Patton froze as he heard a bark above him, wiping his face of as he sat up and opening his eyes, seeing in fact that a dog was laying on him, not whoever had been shouting at ‘Pierre’

Patton went from ‘this person is at the very least slightly disturbing to lick someone, a stranger,’ to ‘AWWW!!! Puppies!’ in no seconds flat, squealing due to how cute the dogs were, going to immediately pet the dog. 

But Patton didn’t have time to enjoy petting the dog for long as he heard someone panickingly yell out, “Pierre! Come back!”

Patton looked around the dog that was on him to see a guy in a collared polo shirt walking 2 other dogs while running after a third one which was running across the road, and Patton realized the dog on top of him was one of those dogs, and immediately grabbed at the dog’s leash.

The man glanced back at Patton, pointing at the dog across the road, “Could you get the dog on top of you?  I gotta go get Pierre, stay right here, please, he’s in danger and I can’t hesitate.” 

Patton nodded, knowing he couldn’t hesitate for this man either. Without missing a beat, the man, who Patton fleetingly saw on his chest a name tag with the name ‘Logan’ on it, bolted across the road towards the beagle on the other side. Patton hears a screech of a car’s brakes and a curse from Logan, looking up from the dog he has to see a car stopped in the middle of the road, with Logan profusely apologizing before running over to the other side of the street, ignoring the car’s horn.

Patton thinks for a long moment and realizes that he would be able to help Logan if he came as well, as two people could cover more ground and have more hands to grab the rogue leash.

Patton bounds up, causing the dog that was on him to bark in excitement at Patton’s excitement. Carefully, looking both ways before he proceeded, Patton crossed the street going the same way Logan and the dog went. At first Patton was sure they both had somehow managed to vanish into thin air as suddenly neither of them were anywhere to be found, but a distant bark stopped Patton in his tracks. 

Down a narrow alley to his left, he saw the tail end of a sneakered foot, likely Logan’s and a wagging tail of one of the dogs he had with him. Patton immediately turned and tugged the dog with him down the alley, but for a long moment, the dog with him resisted, looking almost scared of the alley, but after a swift tug, followed down the alley, tail nearly tucked between their legs.

Patton knew the dog knew something that he didn’t, he was never one to ignore a dog’s intuition, but he needed to help Logan get Pierre, so he ignored the feeling in his own stomach that he shouldn’t go down it, keeping the dog by his side close, both for his sake and the dog’s.

The alley was strangely silent the further Patton went along, the sounds of the city more or less gone, and the sounds of... running water? growing louder ahead.

The sound perplexed Patton until he finally turned the corner of the alley, seeing a huge concrete drainage ditch that he had never seen before. Logan was a few feet from the edge, while Pierre was hovering at the edge, looking like at any moment they were going to fall into it. Patton knew if that happened, little Pierre would most definitely not survive.

Carefully, Patton crept up behind Logan, placing a very gentle hand on Logan’s back to signal he was there, causing Logan to start and nearly cry out in surprise, but a gentle finger from Patton on his mouth silenced the sound. 

Silently Patton held out the leash of the dog he had and then pointed to Pierre on the edge, signaling he was going to try and get Pierre from the edge and he needed both hands available. Logan looked as he were going to protest, but glancing down at the dogs leashes in his hands, he accepted Patton’s single leash. 

Now leash-less, Patton slowly approached Pierre, who every second looked more and more like he was going to jump. Every second felt like an eternity, trying not to move fast enough to spook or excite Pierre into jumping into the ditch. 

Patton’s hope soared as his hand got closer and closer to the end of Pierre’s leash, just an inch away before something about Patton’s movements must’ve excited him as suddenly Pierre was crouching into a jump, launching himself into the ditch.

Without thinking Patton dove for Pierre going over the side of the ditch with him, grabbing Pierre in midair and curling up around Pierre with Pierre on top of him, hearing Logan- Logan’s such a nice name. -yelling something before the moment of falling was gone and Patton’s world ground to a halt.

It took Patton a long moment to feel anything after that, his mind filled with the endless sky above him until he saw Pierre’s snout out of the corner of his eye, sniffing Patton. Patton giggled, feeling something a little off about his chest, but gratefully felt his hand gripping Pierre’s leash.

You won’t be going anywhere any time soon.

Went back to looking at the sky, it was so pretty! It was as blue as Logan’s eyes, what little he got to see of them. 

Wait, no, now Patton was looking into Logan’s eyes above him. They were definitely as blue as the sky. Patton could tell Logan was saying something to him, his lips rapidly moving giving that away, but Patton for the life of him couldn’t hear what he was saying. 

That was probably something that should worry Patton, but Patton was to focused on Logan’s eyes and how pretty they were to worry about anything. Logan looked worried, which sparked something in Patton.

Patton felt like he had to say it, had to vocalize how he felt to those eyes.

“You- the- the- your eyes are so- so blue- bluetiful!” Patton giggled at his own little pun, accidentally breathing something in that made him start to cough, but it was probably just some saliva. 

Above him, Logan- Again, such a pretty name -looked even more worried, which didn’t fit those eyes. Usually Patton’s puns made others happy, but did this one make Logan upset? 

He felt one of the dogs licking his hand, which made him giggle again, but he slowly realized he heard one of the dogs whining. Was it Pierre, was Pierre hurt? He had to help Pierre-

Something was holding him down, Patton realized that he had been getting up, which was odd because he didn’t remember actively trying to get up. That made him giggle harder, laughing at the fact that his body was being silly and doing things without him meaning to.

In the next moment, he realized there was someone else, multiple other people, all of which he couldn’t hear, they were now around him. 

Patton realized then he couldn’t find Logan’s blue eyes, and saw his hand reaching out, feeling himself call out for Logan, in response thankfully seeing the baby blues again, Logan looking both very concerned and very confused. Probably because he forgot about the name tag on his chest.

Patton helpfully poked Logan’s name tag to signal where he knew Logan’s name from and then cupped Logan’s face, trying to keep those blue eyes there for as long he could.

“Blue, so blue... so bluetiful... I love you...” Patton didn’t know why exactly he said the last part, just knowing that it was true.

Suddenly, Patton felt really, really heavy and really, really tired. He appreciated that he got to see those blue, blue eyes as his own closed, comforting darkness surrounding him.

The last thing he heard before completely drifting away putting a smile on his face.

“I- I- I love you too, stranger... I love-”

And just like that Patton drifted away.