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It's the small things that lead to catastrophe. Patton had just wanted to bake some cookies, a normal activity, one that shouldn't have led to such an event. He’d measured out the dry and wet ingredients, mixed the two together, added the chocolate chips, and then popped them in the oven and waited.
Then Roman came in and asked if Patton could run lines with him for Thomas’s upcoming audition, so Patton had moved with Roman into the living room and the two had sat there for a while, running through lines, changing the blocking and intonation, another normal task, but they'd sat there for too long, because once Roman left, Patton smelt something burning and jumped up.
“My cookies!” He ran into the kitchen and yanked the oven open, coughing when smoke billowed out. “Oh no,” he muttered, poking at the burned lumps with a spatula checking to see if anything was salvageable. He didn’t notice the sleeves of his cat hoodie, the one Logan had given him, dropping off his shoulder and into the oven until they caught fire. This was the third ingredient to the event, wearing the cat hoodie, such a small thing that he did daily, became another small step towards the mess of the day.
“No!” He yanked back, awkwardly tugged the hoodie off him, and tossed it onto the counter in a panic. Instead of burning out, as would’ve been ideal, the paper towels on the counter, their placement being the fourth small thing, caught fire, then the walls behind the counter, and soon the entire kitchen was burning as Patton stared.
“What’s going on?” Virgil yelled his hands over his ears in an attempt to block out the piercing alarm.
“That is the fire alarm, it would be a plausible guess- oh my god.” Logan stopped as the two sides reached the lower floor to see the kitchen engulfed in flames.
Roman dramatically fell down the stairs, sword in hand. “Where is the villain?” He spotted the fire and sheathed his sword. “Well, this won’t come in handy.”
“We should leave the vicinity, quickly," Logan said.
"Where’s Patton?” Virgil asked.
Roman paled. “He was making cookies.”
“Shit.”
Without responding to Virgil, Roman turned and ran into the kitchen, which was still on fire.
“Shit,” Virgil repeated, staring where Roman had disappeared. He was starting to hyperventilate, which was not helpful considering the smoke.
“Virgil.” Logan hesitantly placed a hand on the side’s shoulder and added a bit of pressure, when Virgil didn’t shake him off, forcing Virgil to look away from the fire. “We’re all going to be safe, now, why don’t you go outside?”
“But, Pat-“
“We currently cannot do anything to aide Patton. Roman will take care of it, but for now, please go outside and focus on your breathing. I will come to find you when Roman and Patton return.”
Virgil swallowed and nodded, before heading out. Logically, Logan should’ve gone with him, but here he was, standing in a burning building waiting for his friends.
He didn’t have to wait long, soon Roman emerged with an unconscious Patton. Patton had Roman’s red sash tied around his face, while Roman buried his nose in his collar.
Despite the mindscape still being on fire, Logan relaxed, when he saw them. The mindscape could be replaced, his friends couldn't be. They were both covered in smoke, but Patton was visibly breathing, they would be okay.
Logan led the way out to where Virgil was waiting, running his hands through his hair and muttering the numbers four, seven, and eight, to himself, in an attempt to keep his breathing under control.
Roman laid Patton on the ground as Logan nudged Virgil back, crowding Patton would do no good.
“Will he be okay?” Roman asked.
Logan nodded. “I have full faith he will be.”
Roman grinned, it was an oddly chilling sight since he was covered in grime.
The sides watched the mindscape burn, only for lack of something better to do, they were in Thomas’ mind, after all, they could rebuild. It wouldn’t be the same, but it would be fine. Really, they were all just watching while waiting for Patton to wake up.
Eventually, he did. “What’s going on?” he asked. Then he noticed the burned building and put it together. “Oh, sorry.”
“No need to apologize,” Logan said, “We’re just glad you’ll be able to make a full recovery.”
“Of course I will!” Patton said, pleased with himself. “Though, I really should’ve known better. If two cookies mean I’m feeling dangerous, we should’ve predicted that a whole batch meant trouble.”
“That does make sense,” Roman agreed.
Virgil let out a laugh as Logan shook his head. “No,” Logan said, ”It does not.”
Thomas rubbed his head.
“Hey, you okay?” Joan asked.
Thomas looked up at them. “Yeah, just a weird heat flash for a moment, it’s gone now.”
“Okay, you good to keep working?”
“Yeah.”