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Patton felt the wind slide through his wings, the cool morning air feeling wonderful as it caressed every crack and crevice of his wings. His smile was blissful, his eyes half-lidded as he relished what he was feeling. It had been so long since he had been out this early especially-
“Patton, wait up! We have to stick together, it’s dangerous to stray too far!”
-with his partners as well.
Patton turned in the air, his wings pumping much more than they had been a few seconds before to compensate. His blissful expression giving way to a mild and fond exasperation, allowing his voice to slip into a little bit of his dad voice.
“Virgil, I’m okay. I’m not going to run off, that’s usually Remus’s job” Patton reassured, the dad tone hint of sternness melting into a clearly teasing tone.
“Hey! That’s... fair” Remus yelled, his voice sharp and incredulous, his eyes bugging out before his expression dropped, cut off his eye contact with Patton, his hands that were splayed out in the burst of emotion dropping back to his sides.
Patton felt someone grab his hand, looking to his right to see Janus lightly holding his hand. He felt almost as if he was looking in a mirror as he saw his own soft and exasperated, but stern expression reflecting back at him.
“The point Virgil’s making isn’t that you wanted to, it’s that you were simply too far for his liking, and to be perfectly honest, which you don’t see every day, you were a little far for my liking as well.” Janus covered Patton’s hand with his other hand, maintaining purposeful eye contact for a long moment before Remy spoke up, Patton’s attention pulling away from Janus.
“Yeah, babes. You don’t have to say sorry though hun, you know every one of us would never do something to make you or everyone else worry, so don’t you dare apologize for not knowing.” Remy’s eyes were frustratingly hidden behind his sunglasses, which were finally more appropriate given the blinding sun that was casting long shadows across all of them. Patton couldn’t see his eyes to see what he was feeling and his mostly blank expression was no help either, but Patton could tell just from his voice, voice lowered and words slightly emphasized, that Remy was just as stern as Janus, if not more.
“Sorry.” The word slipped out of Patton’s mouth without his permission, and he inwardly cringed at the word. He quickly opened his mouth to correct himself, but he realized just as he was about to speak that he was about to say sorry yet again with what he was about to say.
Before he could speak the words, Patton snapped his mouth shut, ready for whatever exasperated or frustrated lecture he was about to get.
Instead he felt another gentle hand on his other hand, feeling Logan’s signature bigger and softer wings tickle against Patton’s arm.
“Patton, it’s ok, we’re almost there, let’s just move on. Ok?” Logan glared lightly at the other sides, the other sides looking vaguely sheepish.
Patton nodded, letting Logan and Janus collectively steer him for a short while, as if Patton would fly off at any moment before they both let go at about the same time, both of them only nodding when Patton shot them both a confused and questioning look.
Patton, freed from his handheld prison, immediately flew up to Virgil, hovering at Virgil’s level, head downcast and eyes glancing at Virgil. In response, Virgil beat his wings powerfully, nearly slamming into Patton with the force of it.
“Oof.” Patton almost wheezed, having the wind nearly taken out of him at Virgil’s whole body weight slamming into him and latching onto him.
“Please... just don’t do it again. Let’s just... get there.” Virgil pleaded, his eyes searching Patton’s a single tear in both of his eyes. Patton and Virgil’s foreheads were touching, the proximity of both their faces would’ve been somewhat romantic if Patton wasn’t aromantic and they weren’t in a queer platonic relationship together. Patton’s heart melted at the sight of Virgil’s tears and he whispered.
“Of course Virgil, I would do anything for you. You know that.”
Virgil slowly let go, dwelling on their contact for along moment before he finally let Patton free for good.
Patton didn’t whoop or holler, he didn’t gloat or tempt the boundaries, he simply let himself enjoy the feeling of his wings in the cool air again. He made sure this time to glance at his friends every so often as to not lag behind or stray too far without intentionally meaning to.
Unfortunately, even though he was careful, he wasn’t ready for himself to be knocked off balance by a sudden and incredibly strong gust of wind, nearly sending him sideways. He shook himself off, gazing around at the clouds still around and above him to see where the air current was coming from.
Finding nothing, he turned his back to the direction the wind was coming from, seeing his friends farther away from him than before.
But as he opened his mouth to call out for them, going to tell them there was a rogue but very strong gust of wind that knocked him off balance that made him lag behind, another gust of wind pummeled him, disorienting him once again.
And then another.
And then another.
And then another.
Patton couldn’t get his bearings as now gust after gust pushed him around. He watched the flashes of his friends get further and further away as he felt short of breath, the wind taking his oxygen. Or it might’ve been because the wind felt like it was a vortex.
Patton remembered reading something about a inescapable vortex around where they were. He slowly started to lose consciousness as he realized he hadn’t been careful like he promised Virgil. He was caught in the inescapable vortex he read about, and there was no escape for him.
Patton just hoped Virgil would forgive him.
He really didn’t mean to.