#and logan conflicting w patton

[intrulogical]

Hi! I was looking through your various meta posts and I noticed a small thing you posted about possibly writing a meta on Patton's perception of mortality through his catholic lens, and it made me think about how I've noticed a lot of people(myself included) who are more fond of sides like Remus, Logan and Janus, tend to sympathize less with characters like Patton, while also understanding the purpose he serves(I'm not sure if my point makes sense but I am REALLY excited to explain this stuff). I've always, in particular, found the way the other sides(ESPECIALLY Remus) might view Patton due to this strict moral compass Patton took on, even if he's actively trying to remedy it now due to Janus' intervention. It's especially interester me since Roman valued Patton's opinion of him so highly(considering Roman's views up until this point were, at least to a degree, reliant on Patton's perceptions of selflessness), and I always wondered if it would make sense for Remus to have an opinion(or two... or five... or a million-) on that.

this is actually a good talking point! thank you for sending this in :D

dark sides + logan fans being critical of patton is honestly such a phenomenon. i definitely want to preface i don't wanna generalize fans' stances, but i've literally witnessed this thing happened in Real Time. i think it has something to do with lntao? because logan was incredibly villainized by the fandom during that time. the fandom's doing better now, but it really did struggle with the concept of Nuanced Characters back in 2019-2020, which i think brought upon the "logan + dark sides fans hates patton" schtick.

but like you said, i and a lot of other fans do understand why patton is the way that he is. he's such an interesting character because he has such a Grasp on thomas that no other sides have. i want to emphasize i do NOT intend of villainizing patton by saying he has a lot of power, moreso it's quite evident that this season's conflict focuses on how thomas' decision-making is more emotion-centric than it is thought-centric.

even the fact that patton represents morality is big on its own, because black-and-white thinking literally shapes how the sides are visualized. i don't mean it like, his sides are created vis-a-vis black-and-white thinking, moreso the reason why the sides are separated is because thomas upholds this type of thinking. virgil, roman, and thomas look up to patton as a guiding figure, which gives him a lot of power/influence. @orbmanson7 can probs explain it better than i do lol

but if you're asking me if remus would have something to say? YES. of course he would. the entirety of dwit confirms he has a gripe with how thomas is being so "demure" and "safe". remus and janus have always wanted to override thomas' black-and-white thinking, so they obviously have something to say to patton. hell, the reason they are suppressed is because of patton. i'm too dumb to explain it now but always return back to how patton is seen to be the final decider in a dark sides' "acceptance". him w janus is apparent enough, but in dwit we literally see him have to "give permission" to thomas to think icky thoughts.

i'm not saying patton is conceited btw. this shit always boils down to, think of sasi as a metaphor for how our brains work and it makes sense why the moral side is still iffy about accepting things he once pushed away and labeled as evil. and also istg pls no one accuse me of villainizing patton bc i acknowledge he's literally doing all this unintentionally. his arc is definitely gonna end w him being more open to changing his moral views, but yeah patton is a fascinating character to me and one of the best encapsulations of catholic-influenced morality

#asks #my analysis

[transformationloveb]

Time For Another Sanders Sides Analysis!!!

Oh, you thought I was done talking about my analyses of this series for a while? HA! YOU THOUGHT WRONG! I have more things to say!!

So! I talk about Roman and all the angst that's been building up for him a lot on this blog, but sometimes when I do so I get responses both agreeing with what I'm saying but also mentioning that all the other sides deserve to go a little berserk as well.

So today I'm gonna be talking about why I mainly focus on Roman in these posts other than just the fact that he's my favorite character!! And believe me, we have a lot to go over. So let's get started!!

First let's talk about Roman's arc in comparison to Logan's, since they seem to be the ones who're the closest to snapping right now.

Logan's main source of conflict is that he's being ignored. By Thomas, by the other sides, you get the jist of it. He, like all the other sides, absolutely deserves to have his issues addressed. But here's where the big difference between his issues and Roman's issues comes into play.

Logan, has already had a few moments where his anger has gotten to shine through. Obviously it's never been to enough of an extent that it could be considered, what I like to call, a "berserk moment", where he gets his chance to yell and truly crack a little bit, but it's definitely something!

Meanwhile Roman, has been sticking all of his emotions in a box and hiding it under the bed. He's been so desperate to be seen as good by Thomas that he's been willing to put up with pretty much anything to stay that way.

In Selfishness vs. Selflessness, he thought what he needed to do was befriend the dark side! Just like Patton did with Virgil! So that's the direction he went in.

His getting along with Janus in that episode can be found in this scene:

As well as in a couple others that I didn't have enough time to go grab screenshots from.

When that plan didn't end up working out, he started going against Janus! Just like Patton was doing!

And now that's not working either.

Even now, when he thinks that (almost) everyone hates him, he's still hiding most of his emotions away from everyone just for the chance that things'll go back to the way they were before.

That's why in the past few episodes he's shown up in he's been supposedly doing so much better than he was at the end of POF. Although you can definitely see a small bit of it peeking through the cracks during his section of the plushie video.

Logan's gotten the chance to yell. In Learning New Things About Ourselves,

In WTIT,

And it while it hasn't been much, it certainly seems to be more than what Roman's gotten.

"Oh but Elizabeth! Roman's been all angry at Janus recently! Doesn't that count for something?"

Honestly Hypothetical Reader, I don't think it does! Roman's dislike of Janus didn't really start showing up until after the trial in SVS, which makes me believe that that dislike initially was only there because he was following Patton and the others and didn't want to be siding with the person who everyone else saw as the villain.

The reason he was still siding against Janus after the little fight sequence with Lilypadton feels like something that might've been caused by extra confusion. Something like "Wait, why is now any different than before?! This doesn't make any sense to me!!" instead of genuine dislike. And then of course Janus said that he was just like Remus, and that dislike became very, very genuine.

All in all, Logan's already gotten a few small chances to show his anger, and Roman's gotten pretty much none.

Obviously they both need to have their issues resolved, and this post is not intended to say that Roman's issues are much more important than the others's are. But this is mainly why I'm so excited to see Roman's "berserk moment" over the other characters's. He most definitely needs it.

If y'all have any thoughts you'd like to add onto this they'd be greatly appreciated! I'd love to hear your opinions on all this.

But other than that, I think that's where I'm gonna end today's analysis.

Thanks for reading! Ta ta for now!! 👋

#sanders sides #roman sanders #logan sanders #sanders sides analysis #ts sanders sides #sanders sides season finale #roman angst #roman sanders angst #i say stuff sometimes #ts roman #ts logan #ts roman sanders #ts logan sanders #thomas sanders #please feel free to rebut what i'm saying if you think i'm wrong #i'd be more than happy to engage in a friendly debate with any of you on this subject if you believe what i'm saying is wrong in any way #but yeah! thanks for reading my ramblings! i hope you have a pleasant day! :D #❤

[transfemlogan]

i dont think janus would necessarily take the role of logic but with the trajectory sanders sides is now i am. afraid thomas will turn to him for logical expertise and it makes me so 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️ and i'd feel bad for logan and janus bc i feel like janus wouldn't intentionally do so 😭😭

but i def think something will happen during the finale that establishes some new sort of... dynamic w the sides? because i expect logan to break down but not have his shit resolved so uhhhh 😬😬😬😬 - @intrulogicalz

HONESTLY. I GET THAT YEA YEA :(

I read a fic once where in it Patton was trying 2 help Thomas figure out what shirt to wear & he was so conflicted as to whether or not he should trust Patton (about a shirt), that he called Janus & Janus was like "PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. JUST LISTEN 2 PATTON" (THE FIC IS MORE SAD BUT IM LAUGHING NOW BCUZ THE CONCEPT IS FUNNY)

& it reminds me of this situation!! Like how Thomas feels about Roman v Janus now; I don't think Janus meant for any of that to happen, he was trying to help Thomas. I think the same would happen w/ Logan & Janus! How Thomas views Logan might be affected based on how Janus helped Thomas in POF. Thomas is like unsure about Logan & Janus feels like... a light in the dark (weird similie).

ALSO I DO . SOMEWHAT. AGREE W/ THE DYNAMIC CHANGING. Though, I don't think it'll be a new one just... adding on to the one we have now. Which is why I don't really think Logan would be "replaced" by Janus (however, I am also extremely biased because I don't want that to happen). I hope the finale is filled with really awkward parts bcuz no one knows how 2 interact w/ each other. Like thomas is really struggling w/ himself internally, I think it'd b interesting 2 c how that plays out in a setting that... i don't know the word. Like, we've had conflict after conflict (& we r going 2 get more conflict in the finale), but right now it kind of feels like the "wedding v (I CANT REMEMBER THE WORD)" conflict is """'over."""

I want 2 see the sides interact when it is not driven by that specific conflic, because we have yet 2 see it.

#I HOPE. ANY OF THIS MAKES SENSE #i was somewhat able w put my thoughts in2 words #also sorry 4 the fanfic comparisons JSHWJDND i use them all the time but its the only good way 2 transfer my thoughts in2 words #if i use examples #ask #ALSO OFF TOPIC I ACTUALLY DONT THINK THE FINALE WILL HAVE ANYTHING 2 DO W/ LOGAN #or. well HOPING it soesnt actually. #i hope it involves roman (& the. orange side. SIGHSl #& logan has his arc next szn (like episode 3 or 4) #bcuz if this was a normal show. i would want that but. it isnt a normal show & its been 3 yrs

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

It it okay to request for reader (platonic or romantic) to comfort logan after last episode's events?

Yes lord knows he needs it-

(WTIT spoilers ahead)

.........

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"STOP IGNORING ME!!!"

That single phrase was still fresh in your mind as you approached the logical Side's room.

After seeing the recent video, you were obviously concerned with how Logan was doing now. Even though he reassured you he lost his cool in the spur of the moment, it seemed to be a lot more than just a simple temper flare.

But for his eyes to glow orange as he screamed? You had no idea why that happened, or if it was the influence of another unseen Side that made him lash out.

Regardless, those three words were fueled with such raw anger that you've never seen before. Coupled with Remus' comment of "who do you want to really scream that at", it was clear Logan's frustration over being ignored constantly was sending him over the edge.

While the other Sides were clueless as to what happened, you didn't bother explaining it to them.

You would rather help Logan yourself, but more importantly you wanted to understand why he felt the need to repress that side of him.

After knocking, Logan opened the door almost immediately. His eyes were fixated on a book regarding anger management, though when he realized it was you and not a Side, he was swift to close it.

"Ah, hello darling." He smiled politely, though you noticed he seemed a bit more exhausted than usual.

Between his desperation to keep Thomas on schedule, dealing with Remus' traps, and everything else...it was easy to see it was wearing him down.

"Hey..are you sure you're alright?"

"..pardon?" Now he was confused, furrowing his eyebrows as he wondered why you were suddenly upset.

"You know what I'm talking about. You can't pretend around me, especially not after-"

"Oh..that again?" Once more he tried to dismiss your concerns, shaking his head. "Listen, I can assure you I'm in a much better state of mind now. I've realized I was being too harsh on Thomas, and a fool to think Remus would listen to anything I had to say. I'm sorry again if my outburst frightened you. I'll take steps to ensure that never-"

"You didn't frighten me, Lo." Your voice became softer as you set a hand on the door.

"....I didn't?" He uttered those words with slight disbelief. And it broke your heart to realize that he assumed you were afraid of him.

"Of course not, I wouldn't be here if I was frightened." As you entered, Logan did nothing to stop you, only shutting the door once you were inside. "But it's troubling that you kept your emotions bottled up for this long and..it got to that point. What if you didn't explode on Remus? What if it was Patton or Thomas?"

"Well..if something like that were to happen-"

"It's hypothetical."

"...hm."

"You're not understanding what I'm saying." You huffed. "Repressing your emotions and letting them explode like a volcano isn't healthy for you."

"So I should just let them dictate my every thought and action?" Logan frowned slightly. "That would compromise the very essence of logic: being able to make rational decisions. It's still my duty as a core part of Thomas. You know I can't afford-"

"And you know you're more than just a part of Thomas. After that video you could've stayed with me longer..and I would've helped you find outlets for your anger. But you hid away here, going back to making stupidly strict schedules like nothing ever happened. When are you gonna realize you're hurting him, too? That you're hurting me?"

For a moment he was stunned by your words. He never considered how this would've hurt you, but...what could he say?

What could he do to remedy this?

"I think you could let out some more of that anger."

"Huh?" He blinked, surprised that you read his thoughts. "What do you suggest?"

"Well, maybe..we can go out into an open field and you can just shout your frustrations to the world and hope nobody hears?"

"........."

"I-It's stupid, I know but-"

"No, no..I understand." He cut in gently, sighing. "While screaming in an open field is usually reserved for dramatic films and is inappropriate in real life, it may serve as a good catharsis for unconscious conflicts. Granted you are somewhere open and completely undisturbed."

"Yeah! Though..it may take us a while to drive out somewhere and-"

"That won't be an issue. You do know you're in the Mindscape, right?"

"..ah, yeah..I forgot." You awkwardly chuckled, falling silent as Logan took your hands into his.

"Hold on."

In the blink of an eye, you two were teleported to another realm of the Mindscape: a wide open field at night. Countless stars and galaxies were in the sky, with the occasional comet soaring past. You noticed the observation tower in the distance and remembered this is where Logan studies astronomy.

All the Sides could make their own personal landscape if they desired to. But you were always impressed by how he made something like this, rather than a simple room like Patton and Virgil had.

Logan let your hands go and adjusted his glasses. "Now then, we'll see how this helps. The exercise of shouting into the..erm..." He seemed lost on the phrase, not having his flashcards on-hand.

"Shouting into the void?"

"Thank you." He smiled a bit before walking away, putting a great deal of distance between himself and you.

When he stopped, he stared up at the sky for some time. Then he gazed down at his hands, which trembled slightly as he began overthinking that video...and every frustration he's ever had.

All the things he tried to get Thomas to do or say..but were always ignored or mocked by the others.

He hated it..

Absolutely hated it.

It wasn't fair.

Meanwhile, you were just checking your phone, though you noticed that Logan hasn't done anything for a good minute or two. It made you worried that he was gonna back out of this and think it was a ridiculous idea.

'Maybe this wasn't a good-'

"AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

You nearly jumped out of your skin as Logan suddenly screamed, louder than ever before. It was truly raw and heartbreaking. But even afterwards he continued shout at nothing:

"I'M ALLOWED TO HAVE A VOICE TOO!! I JUST WANT TO BE HEARD AND FULFILL MY PURPOSE!! IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK FOR?!!!"

Then he collapsed to his knees, clutching his head for a few moments before bringing both arms around himself. His heavy breathing eventually slowed by the time you approached him.

"Lo?"

You cautiously sat beside him in the grass, stunned by what you saw when he gazed over at you.

His eyes were glowing orange, tears brimming in the corners of them. Now that you could actually see them, they seemed animalistic in a way. But as he began calming down, the glow disappeared although the tears didn't as they streaked his face.

"W-Well..I..wow..." His voice was a bit hoarse as he took his glasses off, sniffling.

" Yeah..I know, love." You smiled sadly, setting a gentle hand on his back. "It's very cathartic, isn't it?"

#clanask #anonymous #sanders sides x reader #sanders sides imagine #logan sanders x reader #ts logan x reader #angst #hurt/comfort #wtit spoilers #logan sanders

[melanie-adia-of-the-multiverse]

Everything Could Use More Ducks

Summary: The want for perfection is a universal inclination to possess, but Logan and Patton are going to find that sometimes the unexpected makes for the most beautiful memories and experiences.

A.K.A. An overly-long fic about Logicality’s first date and kiss.

Part 2 of Light and Tenderness Verse

Pairing: Logicality

Word Count: 23,585

Genre: Fluff with some Angst (it was supposed to be mostly fluff with the barest traces of angst but that’s the direction writing took me in as I was going along)

Warnings: Self-doubt, self-worth issues, self-esteem issues, some lingering tension from past canon conflicts (POF), food, kissing, swearing, crude language, explicit language, sexual humour, gross/disturbing facts and imagery (those last five are all Remus alone), Remus being Remus (I mean, he really goes to town in this one; also unplanned but it’s how it unfolded)

AO3 Link

Part 1: AO3 Tumblr

Author’s Note: Hello, all. It’s been a while but I’ve returned with another story. It also just occurred to me that I’m posting this story a week later from when I posted it on AO3 much like the first one (this time for Logan’s ‘birthday’/appreciation day). A funny coincidence, though I hope this doesn’t turn into a pattern. I admit to having more difficulty writing this new installment. With LaT, I knew exactly how it was going to pan out and planned it out to a tee with some room for freestyling. Here, I had less of a clear vision beyond the premise (Logicality going on their first date and having their first kiss) so I ended up doing a lot of freestyling, which I’m not accustomed to. Although there was a thrill in letting myself see where my writing would take me with little boundaries, I often found myself getting stuck more often than I’m comfortable with. So, my confidence in this final product is more shaky. But it’s finished and I hope it still provides some level of entertainment, and I know how to better approach the process for the next story. My waffling probably wasn’t necessary but I felt a need to explain myself. With that said, thank you for your time, take care, be safe, and enjoy.

Roman prided himself as a Side who rose to any challenge, but even he could (privately) admit when such a challenge that stumped him came along. Though, this time, it wasn’t the request that threw him off. It was the requester.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that again?”

Logan huffed irritably. “Did I not articulate about my request adequately, Roman?”

“Oh, no, no! I heard you crystal clear, Specs! I just wanted to hear it again for clarification!” Roman smirked at the logical trait, his eyes glittering with amusement and intrigue. “After all, it isn’t everyday that you, Logan, comes to me, the remarkable, ravishing Roman, for romantic advice!”

Logan sighed and turned around to head back to his room, muttering under his breath: “If you’re not going to take this seriously, I’ll just try to figure it out on my own. Or seek someone else’s guidance –”

Roman shot out a hand and grabbed the crook of Logan’s elbow, preventing him from leaving. “Hey, hey. I was playin’ around, Lo. I’ll hear you out, okay?”

Logan looked back at the romantic figment. Roman at least had the decency to look contrite, and he seemed sincere enough. Logan stared at him a moment longer before motioning towards Roman’s room with an incline of his head.

Roman grinned wide and all but yanked Logan inside before locking the door for good measure to ensure privacy. He turned around and jogged towards his bed, spinning around and jumping backwards to land on it with a graceful – in his opinion – wump. Logan elected to sit down on Roman’s desk chair, keeping his perfect posture and legs pressed together, feet flat on the floor. When they’d both gotten comfortable, Roman crossed one of his legs over the other, rested interlocked hands over his knees and leaned forward with eager expression and eyes.

“All right, Teach. Spill.”

Logan blinked in confusion. “Spill what? I didn’t bring any liquids with me.”

Roman rolled his eyes and waved an exasperated hand. “No, no! Tell me what is troubling you romantically!”

“Oh. Right. Apologies.”

Logan fiddled with his tie for a moment before folding his hands primly in his lap, eyes fixed on the ground.

“I…wish to treat Patton to a…romantic excursion,” he mumbled, the apples of his cheeks turning rosy.

Roman blinked for a moment before his head clicked what Logan had meant. He trilled and clapped his hands excitedly, eyes shining. “That is fantastic! Your very first date! Oh, what a joyous occasion for you lens-wearing lovebirds!”

Logan rolled his eyes at Roman’s enthusiasm, but the deepening colour of his cheeks and his lips twitching upwards belied his aloofness.

“It’s about gosh darn time, too!” Roman continued. “The two of you have been together long enough!”

Logan arched an eyebrow. “ ‘Long enough’? We’ve been a couple for ten days, fourteen hours, twenty-seven minutes and counting.”

“Like I said: long enough!”

Roman leapt to his feet and started pacing around his room, his eyes already alight with inspiration.

“Now then, we hafta decide on what you’re actually gonna do on the date. Of course, we gotta make sure it’s something both of you like. Now, what would that be…”

“Well, actually, I did have an idea –”

“Wait! I’ve got it!” Roman gasped. “Ducks!”

Simultaneously, Logan’s face went blank and he hunched his shoulders slightly as though anticipating rainfall or some heavy object to fall on his head.

“…What?”

“Ducks!” Roman repeated, the ruby ribbons laced throughout his cinnamon eyes glittering like the last trails of colour and light after a fireworks finale. “You two should go to a pond and feed ducks! It’s got the cute, fuzzy animal factor for our puffball, and you can infodump about any duck-related facts you’ve got rattling around in that big dome of yours! There’s this secluded yet quaint lil’ pond in my side of the Imagination that would be just perfect!”

“Well, yes, but – ”

“But I think it’s empty right now, so I would just hafta conjure up some ducks! How many should I put in? Five? Mmm, no. Too little. Fifteen? Maybe. Though, the pond’s pretty big soooo you know what? Better make it fifty.”

“Wait, hold on –”

“No, wait! You know what? We should make it a parade of ducks! Yes! I’ll conjure up fifty ducks and make sure they put on a show for you that neither of you will ever forget!”

“But, I –”

But Roman kept on going, too caught up in his excitement to listen to Logan.

“So! Here’s what we’ll do…I’ll give you directions to the pond so you both don’t get lost on the way, and before you enter the Imagination, I’ll conjure them up and make sure they’re all sorts of different species! That way we get a nice variety and be able to have colour-coordinated sections!”

“Roman –”

“Ooh! Ooh! You know what else we should have? Kazoos! YES! I’ll teach them to play kazoos and when you two arrive at the pond, they’ll serenade Patton with a rendition of ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ while spelling out the phrase ‘LOGAN HEART PATTON’! But, if you don’t want too much attention on you, we can just use ‘I’ instead of your name.”

“Roman…”

“And then they’ll all leap into the pond and conclude with a synchronized swimming routine! Bam! Perfect evening! Although, it’d be a lil’ much for me to train fifty ducks on my own. Not that I couldn’t or wouldn’t do it! Maybe I should probably conjure up a choreographer…actually, you know what, maybe an animal trainer, too –”

“ROMAN!”

Roman stopped dead in his tracks and turned to stare at his sensible counterpart, equally put out by the interruption and bemused by Logan’s outburst.

Logan took a cleansing breath to quell his exasperation and pushed his glasses up his nose. “As much as I appreciate your…enthusiasm, I had something less exuberant in mind for the date.”

Roman made a face. “Lemme guess. Something uber doober boring like doing a jigsaw puzzle? Or reading one of your murder mystery books out loud?”

Logan glowered at the princely trait. “Actually, I was thinking along the lines of taking Patton for an afternoon walk through the Imagination, and ending it with a picnic around sunset.”

Roman opened his mouth to make a retort, then stopped and closed it again, blinking at Logan. “Huh. That is…actually quite romantic,” he said, a little impressed.

Logan preened a little, looking pleased with himself. Of course it was a good idea. He thought of it.

Roman made his way back to his bed and sat back down. He needed to catch his breath and rest his feet after all the pacing and talking he’d been doing not even a minute before. “Is it safe for me to assume that this is why you came to me?” he asked.

Logan nodded. “Indeed. Since you are in charge of one half of the Imagination, it seemed only logical to approach you in order to gain access to it. At least for an hour or so. I certainly wasn’t going to go to Remus for his half.”

Roman winced. “Yeeeaaah, probably a good idea. That wouldn’t fly well with Patton.”

Logan nodded in agreement, his eyes softening just a touch at the mention of Patton. Roman noticed but said nothing about it.

“So, did you have something in mind for how you want the Imagination to look like on your date?”

“I do, actually.”

“All right, then. Spit it out.”

Logan reared back slightly at that, face twisted with alarm and disgust. Then he shrugged and started working his jaw.

Quickly recognizing his mistake, Roman waved his hands hurriedly. “NO, not like that! Just tell me what you want!”

“Oh. Okay.”

Roman breathed an internal sigh of relief at his close call.

Logan reached into his pocket and took out a piece of folded paper, which he proceeded to unfold, smooth out and hold out to Roman. “I’ve done some research, and I’ve compiled a list of conditions and factors that, if adjusted just so, will ensure the ideal environment and setting for the date.”

Roman took the paper from Logan and read through its contents. His eyes slowly widened as he went down the list. Logan had taken into account every single factor he could think of and researched ways to ‘ensure the most optimal chance of dating success’ (Logan’s words, not Roman’s). The list ranged from things that were actually rather important and that Roman could easily accomplish like the ideal temperature (‘somewhere between 70 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, or 21 to 25 degrees Celsius’), to absurd stuff like the softness of grass (‘to prevent, or at least reduce, the likelihood of irritation or ticklishness, as Patton has sensitive skin’). He also noted that the date was to take place a week from today. Well, that was good. At least Logan was giving him ample time to tweak and mold the Imagination into the requested dimensions until it was just right.

When he was done, Roman looked back up at Logan. “You really put a lot of thought into this, didn’t you?”

Logan lowered his head a bit as though shy, but he nodded. “Well…yes. It’s only natural. I want Patton to be happy. And for him to have an enjoyable time.”

As he said this, a soft look came over Logan’s face, and his lips curled up into a rare tiny smile. Roman took advantage of the ensuing quiet that followed to observe the change in Logan’s demeanour. Falling in love with Patton had really had a positive effect on Logan. He was still his serious, stick-in-the-mud self, but his sharp edges had been softened. He clearly wanted his date with Patton to go well, considering the amount of effort he had gone through to compose the list. It was very in line with Logan’s sensibilities, which made Roman chuckle inwardly. He was a nerd, but he was their nerd.

Then Roman thought of something and he furrowed his brow. “Hold on…don’t you hate picnics? I think I kinda remember one time we all went for a picnic in the Imagination and you spent the whole time complaining about eating on the ground and getting eaten alive by bugs!”

Logan flushed at this and looked away, fidgeting uncomfortably.

“Specs?”

“…Again, ‘hate’ is a strong word to use…but…you aren’t incorrect in that assessment.”

“Then why are you going for this? Why make yourself uncomfortable doing something you don’t like? Why not something more along the lines of what you like? Like stargazing or something?”

Logan’s demeanor changed instantly at these words. His dreaminess – which had dimmed slightly at Roman’s first query – fell away completely to reveal a timider interior that the others were very rarely privy to. It honestly caught Roman off guard. The teacher’s self-confidence seemed to dissipate and was replaced by uncertainty and meekness. He looked down at his hands clasped in his lap and avoided eye contact. He stayed quiet for a moment, and Roman waited patiently, giving Logan the space he needed to speak freely and without judgment on his own time.

“This is my chance to really make Patton happy,” Logan finally said, quietly and morosely. “After everything that’s gone on, he deserves something special…to feel special. In a way, I feel like I have a lot to make up for the way I regarded and treated him in the past, even though it seems that he doesn’t hold me in contempt or bear any grudge for it. But…I guess I still feel some level of guilt that I’m not able to assuage. So, I feel compelled to make a great effort to really make this date special for him and make sure nothing goes wrong.”

Roman’s frown deepened as he watched the rational figment before him wilt and falter. He mashed his lips together. Even though he could be a little self-absorbed, Roman still cared for his loved ones, and it was unnerving to see Logan so unsure of himself and vulnerable.

If he was honest…Roman admired how far Logan had come. They were both similar in how opinionated and arrogant they could be, as much as that was difficult for him to admit to himself sometimes. So, to see how Logan had grown more thoughtful of others – like how he’d taken Patton’s own wants and needs into account to do an activity on their date that Patton liked – and how he tried to be better than how he was before…it was more than Roman could ever hope to achieve. Logan had been the first to reach out and try to repair the discord that had taken place after ‘The Incident’, whilst Roman had hidden himself away in his room, smarting and spiteful. It made sense; Logan had always possessed a maturity Roman himself could never duplicate.

Then Roman shook himself internally. No time for self-pity now. Someone else’s spirits needed lifting up.

Roman got up from the bed and slowly made his way to Logan, kneeling down in front of him. He paused for a moment before raising his hands and resting them on Logan’s knees.

Logan started a bit and looked up at Roman with surprised eyes. Roman smiled kindly at Logan and gave his knees a gentle squeeze.

“Listen…I know we haven’t always been buddy-buddy in the past, but it’ll all be fine. You and Patton are made for each other. And I’ve seen how he’s been since you started dating. He’s doing better than ever. And that’s just you being you. So, you’re doing something right. You’re good.”

Logan looked at Roman, parsing his words. Then his face broke into a small, grateful smile and he placed his hands on top of Roman’s, giving them a squeeze back. “Thank you, Roman,” he murmured. Roman grinned back at him, glad to see some cheer coming back to their beloved nerd.

Right at that moment, an enthusiastic knock sounded on Roman’s door, making Roman and Logan jump and breaking the moment.

“Hey, Roman! You in there, kiddo?” a cheerful voice called out.

It was Patton.

Logan froze like a deer caught in headlights and Roman shook himself out of his surprise to give an answer.

“Yes, I am, Padre! You need something?”

“Oh, no! I just came over to let you know that dinner’ll be ready in a few minutes!”

Dinner? 

Both Roman and Logan looked over at the gold-plated, sunburst-shaped clock on the wall, and their eyes widened. They hadn’t realized how much time had passed since Logan stopped by.

“Oh! Okay! Sorry, Patton! I didn’t realize the time!”

“No worries, kiddo! I know how you can get preoccupied with your projects!”

The two Sides watched the shadow under Roman’s door start to recede as Patton turned away – presumably to continue his mission of letting everyone know about dinner – when it stopped abruptly.

“Oh! Roman! By the way, do you happen to know where Logan is? I stopped by his room before yours and he wasn’t there.”

Logan paled slightly and Roman racked his brains quickly for something to say in his defense. He just hoped that the verbal fabrication wouldn’t be too extreme. He didn’t want a certain snake to sneak his way into his ‘Sanctuary of Solitude’ right this moment.

“I – I don’t, actually. Sorry! Um...did you check his study? Or his lab? You know how hyper-focused he can get.” Roman heard a thoughtful hum in response.

“I did think about that, but I didn’t wanna go in without permission. I know how protective he can be of his personal space.”

Logan’s face softened and he opened his mouth to say that Patton was always welcome to check in on him no matter where he was and what he was doing, forgetting where he was for a second. Roman waved a hand frantically for Logan to keep quiet, and Logan snapped his mouth shut, remembering.

“Roman?”

“Yes, yes! I’m still here! Sorry! Y’know, I’m sure he won’t mind if you go in. You are lovers now!”

“Yeah, we are…but I still wanna make sure I don’t cross any boundaries where I shouldn’t. I don’t wanna make him mad or anything.”

Patton’s voice sounded quiet and uncertain. Logan’s face fell at that. He never wanted Patton to feel like he couldn’t ever go into his room for any reason. He supposed that it didn’t help how impatient and short he had been in the past whenever anyone ever came into his room without permission or invitation. Roman looked at him in sympathy and squeezed his knee.

“Well, I’m sure he can’t be gone simply like that! He probably just went to the bathroom or something! Or maybe he’s with Virgil? You know how the emo often goes to him when he’s having one of his attacks.”

The shadow didn’t move but Roman had a feeling that Patton was nodding in agreement. “Yeah, maybe. I’m actually on my way to Virgil’s room right now, so we’ll see. See ya in a bit, kiddo!”

“Will do! Thanks again, Pat!”

Once the shadow was gone, Logan let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding and ran a hand through his hair. “That was close. Thank you, Roman,” he said shakily.

Roman smiled and patted Logan’s hand. “No prob, Bob.”

Logan blinked. “I’m Logan.”

Roman rolled his eyes. “Of course, Steven Universe would fly over your head. You really need to be more up-to-date with pop culture references, Teach.”

Logan stuck his nose in the air. “At least I’m not always stuck in Never Never Land like you.”

“Rude. And also, I think you mean La La Land.”

“Isn’t it the same thing?”

“No! Both are completely different places!”

“But they’re both rife with unrealistic, fantastical elements, so my point still stands!”

“Oh, for the love of Dionysus! – ”

Roman and Logan glared at each other for a moment. Then their mouths started twitching, and before long they were laughing.

When their chuckles died down. Logan stood up and smoothed his tie out. “I should get going. I don’t want Patton to get any more worried than he is now.”

Roman nodded, wincing at the creaks in his knees as he stood back up. “Yeah. Maybe if you move fast enough, you can get back to your room before he comes back to check on you again.”

“That is my plan, yes.”

Logan got himself in position and was just about to sink out when Roman called out to him. He stopped and turned back towards Roman.

Roman chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. “I, uh…sorry about earlier. With the whole duck thing. And not listening to you. I guess I got a little over-excited. So, sorry about that.”

Logan’s face softened and he shook his head. “It’s all right, Roman. Really.” Roman’s idea had been a little much, but that was how Roman was. He was Creativity, after all. There was nothing wrong with allowing inspiration to flow freely when it was present in the moment. But Logan did appreciate Roman’s acknowledgement of and apology for the indirect disregard. “Also, thank you again for helping me out,” he continued. “Both for the date and making sure Patton didn’t know I was here. I really appreciate it.”

Roman waved an airy hand. “No trouble at all, Lo. See you at dinner.”

Logan nodded once with a small smile and adjusted his glasses before sinking out. After waving Logan out, Roman picked up Logan’s list and started reading through it again. Logan’s specifications were really…specific. Roman was a little unsure if he would be able to get everything just right, but he was going to try. Patton and Logan were going to have the best first date of all first dates!

But first, dinner.

Roman folded the paper back up, slipped it into his pocket and primped himself up a bit in his mirror before heading downstairs for dinner. As he did, he thought to himself that Patton and Logan’s date could still use more ducks.

 *******

Three days later, Roman was in the common room, writing in his trusty notebook. A while back he’d started a new story when something Thomas had said inspired him, and then it got left on the back burner when another busy video-editing session came around, so he was trying to get back into it. Normally, Roman would write in his room since it enhanced his creative ability, but sometimes it got a little stifling and then Roman wasn’t able to get anything done. So, he’d read online that sometimes a change of scenery was a good way of clearing a writer’s head and allowing them to get some work done, hence why he’d moved to the common room for that mid-morning.

Roman let out a groan and ran a hand through his hair. This stupid short story was stumping him big time. He’d been working on it for a couple hours now and he was still stuck on this one particular part. What was the point of him being Creativity if he couldn’t come up with stuff?

Immediately after that thought floated by, Roman shook his head vigorously. No. None of that. No more bad self-talk. It wasn’t good for him as Thomas’ Ego, especially when it could lead down a slippery slope to a ‘creative block’ – he shuddered violently at the thought. Plus, he didn’t want to revisit the bad feelings he’d felt after ‘you know what’. That was in the past. Everyone was friends again (well, most of them; some of them were still on precarious ground but had promised (through gritted teeth) to try their best to get along for Thomas’ sake), and it would be nice to keep it that way.

After a few more minutes, Roman gave up and put down his notebook and pen. He was clearly getting nowhere. Maybe he should take a quick break before giving it another go.

He took Logan’s list out of his pocket and looked through it again. Whenever he completed a requirement, he made sure to tick it off. At this point he’d ticked off almost half of the requirements, which was good. A few were proving to be a little tricky but Roman figured he’d be able to find a work-around for them. He still had a few more days to get everything done.

Roman sighed. He really, really, REALLY wanted Logan to be pleased with his work, and to get it just right for him and Patton, seeing how much this meant to Logan. Roman was a perfectionist so anything creative he worked on couldn’t be half-assed. He was still learning to not be too hard on himself or hold himself to high impossible standards, but that was easier said than done.

“Hey, Roman!”

Roman jumped and let out an “Eep!”. He looked up to see Patton standing on the raised landing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Oh! Sorry, kiddo! Didn’t mean to make ya jump!”

Roman hurriedly shoved the paper back into his pocket. “N-No worries, Padre!”

If Patton noticed Roman acting strangely, he said nothing. He figured that if it was something private, he wasn’t going to stick his nose in Roman’s business. He wasn’t going to do that anymore. That’s how things went wrong.

Getting a handle on his composure and putting on a charming smile, Roman looked up at Patton. “How are you doing on this fine morning?”

Patton smiled back. “I’m doin’ good! Thanks for askin’! How ‘bout you?”

Roman shrugged. “As peachy as I can be. Just trying to work on this story here.”

“Oh! I’m sorry! I’d no idea. I can talk to you later if you want – ”

“No, no, no!” Roman waved his hands reassuringly. “It’s fine, Pat! I’m on a break, anyway.”

Patton looked at him uncertainly. “You sure?”

“Positive, Padre.”

A look of relief swept over Patton’s face before he made his way over and settled himself down next to Roman on the couch, slipping off his sneakers and pulling his legs up so he could sit cross-legged. Roman took a moment to take in Patton’s body language: his posture was better than normal, and his shoulders were more relaxed. Clearly dating wasn’t only doing wonders for just Logan.

“So, you wanted to talk to me about something?”

Patton, at this point, looked back towards the stairs as though anticipating that someone was going to come down at any moment. Roman had a hunch the ‘someone’ Patton was looking out for was Logan. But Logan worked in the mornings so luckily there was no fear of any eavesdropping or walking in.

When he was sure that the coast was clear, Patton turned back to Roman. “Yeah, I did. I actually need your help for something.”

Roman leaned forward, interest piqued. “On what?”

“My date with Logan.”

Upon saying Logan’s name, Patton’s cheeks turned rosy and a dreamy expression came over his face. Being the Side of romance, Roman could recognize even the subtlest of love signs, and here was a Side who was a smitten kitten over his sweetheart.

Roman smiled at the paternal trait. “Looks like things are going well with you and Teach!”

Patton nodded, his smile widening and the colour of his cheeks deepening. He ducked his head momentarily in mixed embarrassment and fondness. “Yeah,” he mumbled eloquently.

Roman grinned and chuckled. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. What did you need?”

After getting himself back under control, Patton straightened up and took a breath. “So, my date with Logan is coming up in four days…”

Roman nodded, outwardly showing that he was paying attention, but inwardly he was concentrating hard on thinking his words through before he spoke. Logan had explicitly stated that his whole picnic thing was to be a surprise for Patton, and Roman didn’t want to mess it up for either of them if he misspoke, so he had to be extra careful. “Go on.”

Patton played with his fingers. “I…want to do something special for Logan.”

Roman cocked his head. “In terms of what?”

“Like, how I want the date to go.”

Roman furrowed his brows, feeling a tinge of not necessarily panic but a sense that things were about to get complicated. For him, at least.

“I see. What did you wanna do?”

Patton clasped his hands in his lap. For a moment, a vision of Logan doing the exact same thing flitted through Roman’s mind. Geez, these two were already similar enough in appearance since they looked like Thomas (okay, they ALL looked like Thomas) and wore the same glasses, but they were already starting to adopt each other’s mannerisms. What a difference almost two weeks of dating can make.

“I wanna take Logan on a walk through the Imagination during the evening, and end it with a night of stargazing. Would you be able to set up the Imagination like that for me?”

Roman’s anxiety ratcheted up. Patton wanted an evening date. At the exact same time as the daytime date that Logan wanted. When he was halfway done with setting up the Imagination for Logan’s daytime date that he asked for help with three days ago. Oh, this was getting more than just complicated. This was getting borderline impossible.

Unfortunately, he was taking too long to reply, and Patton took Roman’s silence as disapproval. He bit the side of his lip, his mouth going a little lopsided as he did so. “I’m sorry. If it’s too much for you, or not possible, or not enough time, it’s totally fine, Roman. I don’t wanna push something on you that you don’t wanna do – ”

“No!”

Patton jumped and blinked at the princely trait. Roman gave himself an inward shake at his outburst and smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile at the fatherly figure figment. “It’s all fine. I’ll do it.”

Patton’s eyes brightened. “Really?”

Roman nodded. “Really.”

Patton squealed and threw his arms around Roman to give him a big hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Despite the rising anxiety within him at his predicament, Roman easily returned the hug. “It’s no trouble, Padre.”

When Patton pulled away from his hug attack, Roman leaned back into the couch, summoning a notepad and pen as he did so. “All right, I’m all ears.”

Patton grinned. “Well, I hope I don’t talk your ears off!”

That got a chuckle out of Roman, and Patton giggled along with him. Roman thought how if he’d said that idiom to Logan, the intellectual Side would have likely taken the phrase literally (as usual) and countered that Roman was not made up of ears and was a fully humanoid form. Don’t get him wrong, he was fond of the nerd, but it was nice to be able to make jokes and puns without causing confusion or alarm. That’s why he and Patton got along so well.

At any rate, once they’d sobered up, Roman dutifully listened and jotted down notes as Patton told him how he wanted the Imagination to look for his date idea, giving off the appearance of a calm, collected Side, though inwardly he still worried about how he was going to pull this off along with Logan’s request. He noticed how Patton was just as attentive as Logan had been about little details he wanted to get right, and just as eager to make sure that Logan would have a good time. Most of all, he realized that Patton had chosen an activity that Logan liked. He, also, was being thoughtful of his partner’s needs and wants and trying to make him happy. Thankfully, he wasn’t as intensive as Logan had been, but he was no less determined to make sure that everything would be just right.

“ – And, like, I wanna make sure the sky is as accurate as possible, with lots of constellations so we can look at them and Logan can talk to me about them. There’s one he’s mentioned before that he seems to really like a lot…I think it’s called – what was it? The Pilates Cluster? The Play-Doh Cluster?”

Roman froze in the middle of the sentence he was writing and looked up and blinked at Patton for a moment. Seconds later, he burst into peals of laughter.

Patton did a small double-take of surprise at Roman’s reaction. “Did I say something wrong?”

Roman’s only response was to laugh harder. Patton’s confusion grew.

Soon, Roman was able to come down from his laughing fit, trying to take deep breaths while wiping tears off of his face.

“I – I think you mean the Pleiades Cluster!”

Patton’s eyes widened before his cheeks turned strawberry-pink. “Oh…oops. I guess they sound pretty similar, huh?’ he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Taking pity on him, Roman tried very hard to curb another laughing fit bubbling in his chest. He coughed a few times to get the urge out of his system so he was able to speak normally again.

“A-Anyway, yeah, sure, Pat. I’ll make sure to put that in the sky for you.”

Patton smiled through his flush. “Great, thanks.”

Another minute or so of talking later, Roman wrote down the last few notes and huffed out a breath. “All right. I think I got everything.”

Patton beamed at him. “Thanks, kiddo! I really appreciate this.”

Roman waved a hand. “Of course, Padre! It’s what I’m here for.”

A strange look came over Patton’s face then, one that Roman couldn’t decipher. Then Patton reached out and took one of Roman’s hands in both of his, his eyes heavy with an emotion that made Roman wonder if he’d said something wrong.

“Um, Patton?”

“I mean it, Roman,” Patton said earnestly. “I really do appreciate you helping me out. I have full trust in you. I know you’re gonna come up with something amazing.”

Roman’s mouth opened slightly at this, and his eyes felt a bit teary, touched as he was by Patton’s words. After what he did, how he’d treated Patton after ‘the thing we don’t talk about’, he almost felt unworthy of such genuine trust and faith. But Patton, blessed Patton, was looking so contrite and earnest that Roman couldn’t help but feel compelled to make his date idea come true, as tricky as it was going to be. He supposed, in a way, he also felt like he had to make amends, and this was a good way of doing so. And the most important thing was, he wanted to.

“I…thanks, Pat,” he whispered.

Patton’s smile turned softer and he squeezed Roman’s hand.

Roman took a moment to compose himself and he patted Patton’s knee with his other hand, managing to give him a smile.

“Just you wait and see, Padre, when I’m done, Specs won’t know what hit ‘im!”

“What’s that about me?”

Patton and Roman yelped in surprise and whipped their heads towards the stairs.

There was Logan, standing on the landing with a curious, amused expression on his face.

“H-Hi, honey!” Patton stammered out, face pink.

Logan’s face softened and he smiled softly. “Hello, love.” Then he turned towards Roman. “What was that about me you were just discussing?”

Roman panicked, scrambling to come up with something. “Oh! Um – we weren’t talkin’ about you! We were just discussing about…um, that is – “

“Ducks!”

Logan and Roman blinked at Patton. “What?” they chorused.

“Ducks!” Patton chirped again, his smile a little too wide to be comfortable. “We were talking about ducks! They’re just so cute, aren’t they? With the waddling and the quacking and that thing they do where they ruffle their feathers when they’re taking a bath! They’re just great! I love ducks! Don’t you love ducks?”

Patton said that last sentence to Roman, who immediately jumped in as if that had been the plan all along. Thank goodness for Thomas’ love of acting and knack for improv (most of the time). “Oh! Yes, of course! Ducks are truly splendid creatures! Aren’t they, Logan?”

Logan did a mini-double take of surprise at being asked this question by Roman, and he cleared his throat before answering. “I…yes, they are a rather fascinating species, though I don’t possess the same emotional attachment as either of you.” But he was distracted from what they’d actually been talking about, which greatly relieved the right-brained Sides.

“So, Logan, why’re you down here? Taking a break from working?”

Logan adjusted his glasses. “Yes. Actually, I’ve come down because Patton and I made plans to cook lunch together.”

Patton blinked and he looked at his watch. His eyes widened.

“Oh my gosh! Is it time, already? Man, time really does fly by when you’re talking! About ducks!”

Roman winced and subtly nudged Patton’s foot with his own. No need to keep beating a dead horse when there wasn’t even a horse to beat in the first place. (Ew. Why was he thinking like Remus?) Thankfully, Patton got the hint and Logan was none the wiser (or, if he did notice their strange behaviour, he said nothing).

Patton slipped his shoes back on and stood up, brushing his clothes off. “Well, I should get goin’. Thanks again, Roman!”

Roman gave Patton a warm smile. “Anytime, Padre! See you at lunch!”

Patton grinned at him and bent over for one last quick hug. Then he skipped over to Logan – who had a tender expression on his face – and they took each other’s hand before walking into the kitchen together.

Roman allowed himself a moment to watch this tender display, a small smile on his face before he gathered up his things and sank out to his room. He was truly happy for his friends. They looked so happy together. He was so glad things worked out for them, and seeing their love and care for one another made him more determined to make sure that their date went off without a hitch.

Speaking of which…

Once he was back in his room, Roman’s smile vanished and he let out a loud groan. He padded over to his bed and – after throwing his things haphazardly onto the bedspread – turned and collapsed on top of it, staring at the ceiling in a starfish position. He rubbed his face with his hands, the anxiety over his predicament back with a vengeance.

“Sweet Stephen King, what am I going to do?”

“Maybe not keel over and die from a heart attack, for starters?”

Roman let out a startled shriek and quickly sat up, hands clutching the front of his shirt and his heart hammering in his chest. He frantically looked around until his eyes fell on the source of the voice.

“Heavens above, Jack Scare-ington! Don’t do that!”

Virgil, standing with his arms crossed, lifted an unimpressed eyebrow. “Geez, Princey. Could you be any more on edge?”

Roman groaned again and sat up fully with his legs over the edge of his bed, bracing his elbows on his knees and burying his face in his hands. “You would be if you were in the position I’m in right now,” he mumbled into his hands. As startled as he had been, Roman was not too surprised at Virgil’s presence. He’d forgotten that, as the embodiment of Thomas’ anxiety, Virgil could feel when the other Sides were anxious. The little panic session he’d been having earlier must have been palpable enough to catch Virgil’s attention.

Virgil – who had risen up to chastise Roman for the erratic roller coaster ride he’d ridden for the last hour – surveyed the prince for a moment before coming over to sit on the floor next to Roman, lying on his back and resting his legs against the bed in a ‘L’ shape and his arms on his stomach.

“All right, Roman. Spit it out. What happened?”

“Logan AND Patton both came to me separately to tell me to design the Imagination in different ways for their date!”

Virgil grimaced. “Yikes. Now I understand why your anxiety levels were through the roof. But why didn’t you tell either of them you couldn’t or something?”

Roman exhaled heavily. “Because they both want it to be a surprise for each other.”

“Ah.”

A beat of silence followed, then Virgil exhaled.

“So, you wanna discuss a solution, or do you just want someone to listen?”

“Listen?”

“Sure.”

Roman started ranting about his problem, and Virgil kept quiet and listened, just allowing Roman to get it out of his system. He could see how worked up he was and he figured that yelling at him would’ve exacerbated it. Even though he didn’t give the impression with how broody and moody he appeared, Virgil was actually a good listener. He was skilled at sitting back and just letting the others talk out their problems. Part of it had to do with how he didn’t like to talk about himself, but it was also because of how he’d been suppressed and not listened to for so long that he just kind of learned how to listen. It was a little alarming how well he slipped into the role, and how often too. But he was fine with it. Mostly.

“ – And like, just, I dunno how I’m gonna be able to pull this off! Logan wants a bright blue sky with fluffy clouds so that there’s shade cover during their picnic, but that would interfere with Patton’s wish for a clear night sky for stargazing! It’s all just – UGH!”

Roman drew in a big breath after his rant and then flopped back onto his back, finally having run out of steam. He did feel a bit better, but it still didn’t solve the fact that he was still going to have to figure out how to make both of Logan’s and Patton’s requests come true. What to do, what to do?

Virgil shifted a bit and rested his hands behind his head. Then he reached up one hand as best as he could and patted Roman’s knee in what he hoped was a comforting manner, since it didn’t come easy to him.

“Yeah. It’s a really sticky situation. And the date’s four days away, too. Is there even a way to fulfill both of their requests at the same time before then?”

Wait. Hold on.

Roman sat up suddenly with a gasp. Virgil had to steady himself from falling head over heels in surprise.

“What the hell, Roman?!”

“That’s IT!”

Virgil looked up with a furrowed brow. “What’s ‘it’?”

Roman, bright light bulbs in his eyes, just pulled Virgil up so he was standing up and threw his arms around the emo in a hug.

“Virge! You’re a genius!”

Virgil, while trying to extricate himself from Roman’s hold, froze at the praise, blinking blankly. “I am?”

“Yes! I know what to do now! Thanks!”

Roman squeezed Virgil a final time before jumping up and bounding away to his desk. He sat down, grabbed a spare piece of paper lying around and a pencil and started furiously scribbling (or sketching? Virgil couldn’t really tell) something down, inspiration having struck him. Virgil stood there gaping in bewilderment and wondering what epiphany Roman had had and how what he had said had gotten the prince so fired up. He’d just been saying whatever had popped into his head without thinking too much. But then he shrugged. Roman seemed less tense now, and if he had an idea, he had an idea, so he wasn’t going to interrupt his creative process. He knew how hyper-focused Roman could be when he was in that state.

“ ‘kay, cool. Guess I’ll see you around, Princey.”

Roman waved a distracted hand back, still scribbling (or sketching, again, Virgil still couldn’t tell) like there was no tomorrow. Virgil rolled his eyes but it wasn’t with any true contempt, and he sank back to his room.

Roman felt a bit bad for ending his time with Virgil so abruptly. He’d have to make it up to him somehow later. But right now, he had a plan to…well, plan. He now knew what he could do to fulfill both of Patton’s and Logan’s requests with little time left.

It was going to be tricky. But he had a feeling that he might just be able to pull it off.

 *******

The day of the date finally arrived, and Patton was alight with equal parts excitement and nervousness. He was currently sitting on Roman’s bed, looking up at Roman. “Thanks again for helping me out, kiddo,” he said earnestly.

Roman beamed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I’m honoured that you came to me, Padre! A momentous occasion such as this should not be taken lightly!”

Patton fiddled with his hoodie sleeves. “Yeah. I thought I’d know what to wear or how to look when the time came, but I honestly really don’t know how to go about it.”

"No need to fret, my frantic father figure friend!"

Patton beamed in appreciation at the quadruple alliteration and pointed double finger guns at Roman. "Nice."

Roman bowed with a flourish. "Thank you! Now then, what to do for you...”

Roman tapped his chin with a finger, brow furrowed in deep thought. Patton had told him that he wanted to wear a dress for the date, but he didn’t know what, and he didn’t really own dresses in his own closet. Luckily, Roman did, and since they were physical copies of Thomas, they were the same dress size, so at least Roman didn’t have to worry about fitting issues. It was just a matter of finding a dress that Patton would like, but which one?

Then his face lit up.

“Aha! I've got it!"

"What?"

Roman turned around without answering and jogged to his walk-in closet, the door opening by itself as the prince approached. Patton watched as Roman started looking through his collection, murmuring under his breath. After a moment or so, he grinned suddenly and pulled something out.

“There you are! You would look great in this!” Roman exclaimed, showing it to Patton. Upon closer inspection, Patton recognized it as the Grand Duchess gown from Anastasia.

“It’s pretty, but…maybe a little too formal?” he said, trying to go for a diplomatic tone.

Roman pouted a little but acquiesced and put the gown back. “Okay, something less formal…oh! Maybe this one?”

This next one was a simple pale green shift dress. Nothing more, nothing less.

“That’s nice…but maybe something with a pattern?”

Roman pouted again but dutifully turned back to the closet.

For the next minute or so, Roman took out a different dress every time. And every time there was always something that wasn’t right for Patton. Too busy. Not colourful enough. Too colourful. Etcetera, etcetera. Before long, a small pile of discarded dresses sat on the floor, and they still hadn’t found anything for Patton. The emotional Side hunched his shoulders slightly, feeling a bit guilty for shooting down Roman’s offerings. It seemed that history just couldn’t stop repeating itself.

“I’m sorry, Roman,” he said morosely. “They were all really pretty, I swear!”

Roman, who had started feeling a little frustrated, immediately softened at the sad tone in Patton’s voice, and he gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, Pat. You’re just being choosy about what you wanna wear. And that’s a good thing! It means that when we do find the right dress, you’ll feel extra good about yourself! How about you think about what you’re really looking for? Maybe this way we’ll be able to narrow it down without going on a wild goose chase.”

“Honk.”

Both Roman and Patton snorted at that, which helped to lighten up the mood in the room.

Patton scrunched up his face, trying to really think about what he wanted to wear. He still wasn’t used to thinking for himself or his wants.

“Hmm…well, I do want it to still be a dress. Maybe something that’s…cute? Like, with a pattern or something that I like, like dogs or cats? And comfortable? ‘Cause we’re gonna be walking around for a bit so I wanna be able to move around freely.”

Roman nodded. Cute and comfortable. He could work with that.

Then he thought of something. “What about your skirt outfit from the photoshoot? It’s cute, and it seems comfortable enough.”

Patton looked up at an indiscriminate point, pursing his mouth in thought, trying to remember what he looked like when he was wearing it. “Well, yeah…but everyone’s already seen me in it.”

“Ah. You wanna wear something new?”

Patton nodded.

Roman returned the nod and turned back to his closet. His brow furrowed further and he bit his upper lip as he looked through his wardrobe one last time. Then he stopped, grinned and pulled out one more dress.

“How about this?”

Patton looked up, and he paused, mouth falling slightly open. Roman was holding up a pretty apple-red sleeveless dress covered in a white butterfly print. It had a boat neckline and a knee-length skirt that was perfect for swishing around.

“It’s so pretty!” Patton breathed. Then he faltered. “Just, it’s a little…bright, for me. Otherwise, it’d be – ”

Roman snapped his fingers.

“ …Perfect.”

Roman’s grin widened. Date outfit: check.

After laying the dress down carefully on his bed for later, Roman snapped the dresses off the floor and back into his closet, made his way to his vanity and picked up his makeup kit. Then he bounded back to where Patton was sitting and sat down beside him, already emptying the contents of his kit onto the bedspread.

“Do you have a makeup look in mind?” he asked, fingers skittering past blush compacts and mascara tubes.

Patton gave a small start. “Oh! Um…I actually didn’t really think about doing anything like that.”

Roman stopped and looked up. “Do you not want to?”

“Oh, no, no! I do! I was just caught off guard!”

Roman’s brow furrowed and he shook his head. “Patton, I will only do it if you really want to.”

Patton mashed his lips together and looked down for a moment, conflicted.

“…I do. Just…nothing too over-the-top, if that’s okay. Not that I think that you’d do that! Just – well – you know – ”

Roman placed a hand on Patton’s arm, making the dad trait stop. “It’s okay, Padre.”

Patton deflated a bit before nodding and looking down. Roman’s face twisted a bit at that, but he said nothing and gave Patton a comforting pat before retracting his hand and going back to rummaging through his makeup collection.

“Don’t you worry, Pat! I already have the perfect makeup look in mind for you!”

Patton nodded, though a teeny tiny part of him couldn’t help but be a bit apprehensive at what Roman had planned. Roman’s style was more extravagant than the other Sides, but…he was still better at makeup than Patton. So, Patton decided to keep trusting him.

Silence fell over them as Roman continued to look through his makeup collection and set aside those which he thought would work well for Patton’s makeup look, the only sound in the room being that of Roman’s clock ticking. 

Soon, Roman found everything he’d wanted. Pleased, he turned back to Patton, and he stopped, smile faltering. Patton was looking off into space with an unsmiling, unfocused look in his eyes. Roman waved his hand in front of Patton’s face.

“Patton? Patton!”

Patton jumped and looked up, startled out of his thoughts. Roman looked at him with mixed concern and confusion.

“Everything okay, Padre?”

Patton pasted on a smile and nodded. “Yeah! All hunky-dory, kiddo! Nothin’ to worry about!”

Roman’s brow furrowed. “You know…if something’s bothering you, you know you can always come talk to one of us, right?”

Patton’s smile vanished, and he broke eye contact and heaved a small sigh. “Yeah…I know.”

Roman paused for a moment before reaching out and placing his hand on Patton’s arm, not saying anything, waiting for Patton to come forth.

Patton looked down at the hand on his arm. “I…honestly thought I’d never have this again.”

Roman cocked his head to one side. “Have what?”

Patton looked up at him, and Roman saw a sliver of sadness slide over the paternal Side’s face.

“Like…how we’re talking again and hanging out together like we used to. Before everything that happened. Before…everything I did. Or said. And…everything I didn’t do.”

Roman’s heart pricked and his face winced. He knew what Patton was alluding to. He put on what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, Patton. Really. I mean, yeah, things were icky before, but we’re in a better place now.”

Patton nodded, but he didn’t look any more reassured by Roman’s words. He only looked more guilty and ashamed. Roman’s smile fell away and he heaved a small sigh before moving closer and wrapping an arm around Patton’s shoulders. Patton let out a breath himself and laid his head on Roman’s shoulder, and Roman rested his head on top of Patton’s. They stayed in that close position for a moment, just taking in the quietness of the moment and each other’s company.

“I still can’t help feeling guilty, sometimes.”

“I know.”

“I mean, like, I don’t purposefully remember, but every so often something will remind me of ‘that time’ and then it all comes back to me and just…I end up feeling bad all over again.”

Roman rubbed Patton’s shoulder comfortingly. “We worked through that, though. We all did. And Logan did say that there’s no problem remembering the past, so long as we keep moving forward and let go of regret.”

Patton let out a weak chuckle. “Yeah. Logan really is smart.”

Roman chuckled back. “He sure is.”

A small smile lingered on Patton’s face at the thought of Logan, which relieved Roman a little. That relief was short-lived, however, when that same smile disappeared as fast as it appeared.

“I still wonder if I’m good enough for him. Or just…enough, period.”

Roman’s heart sank at these words and he removed his arm around Patton to take Patton’s hands in his and make him look him in the eye. “You are.”

Patton blinked and opened his mouth to say something, but the look on Roman’s face told him that he wasn’t done talking, so he closed it again and waited, letting Roman have his turn.

Roman rubbed gentle circles into the back of Patton’s hands, feeling a sense of déjà vu of what he was about to do. “You are enough. And you don’t need to change yourself for anything. Logan adores you. For all that you are. I’ve seen how he’s like around you, and he’s never been better. And I’ve seen it in you, too. So, you have nothing to worry about. You’re doing fine.”

Patton’s heart wobbled in his chest at this. It was just so much: how they were talking it out, talking about ‘it’, and Roman was being so reassuring and calm. He wasn’t sure if he knew or not, but Patton felt like he and Logan weren’t the only ones who’d come a long way. It had been a long road for Roman, but he’d come out the other side even stronger than before. The growth he’d gone through, and the maturity he’d developed and now displayed like a silent badge of courage, even if Roman wasn’t aware of it himself, it was a proud moment for Patton, and awe-inspiring, too.

Fortunately, Patton was able to stop himself from breaking down. He nodded his head quietly, looking down at his lap. “That’s why I want to make this date extra-special for Logan. Because he’s wonderful and has done so much for me, and it’s my chance to do something back for him.”

Roman's eyes softened a touch, and he squeezed Patton’s hands comfortingly. "It’s gonna go great, Padre. You’ll see."

Patton lifted shiny eyes at that, and he looked at the creative trait for a moment before giving him a watery smile. "Thank you," he whispered gratefully.

Roman beamed and he pulled the moral Side in for an extra-long hug for added reassurance, Patton clinging back. They lingered in the hug for a while before breaking apart.

"Now, then! Let's get cracking! You've a date to get ready for!"

 *******

Meanwhile, a hop and a skip to the other side of the Mindscape, Virgil was sitting on Logan’s bed looking up at the logical trait with an uncertain expression.

“Remind me why I’m here again?” he asked.

Logan pushed his glasses up his nose and brought his hands behind his back. “I have a date with Patton.”

Virgil raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I know that. But why do you need me here?”

Logan shifted slightly on his feet, suddenly a little sheepish, which caught Virgil off guard a bit since Logan was never one to be unconfident or at a loss for words.

“I…require some help on my attire,” Logan finally admitted quietly. “I want to make sure that I look acceptable for Patton, and out of all of us I’ve always considered you as possessing the highest level of competency with wardrobe.”

It was true. When Virgil had revealed his new outfit following his acceptance, Logan had been honestly impressed with the level of thought and care Virgil had put into its design and his chosen colour scheme.

Virgil blinked briefly before turning away slightly and coughing, cheeks reddening a little. He was unused to praise, even though he’d been with the Light Sides for ages now.

Seeing Virgil’s reaction, Logan furrowed his brow. “Did I make you uncomfortable? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so forward like that.”

“No, no. You’re good, Lo. Just…y’know, I’m not used to hearing that kinda stuff.”

Logan cocked his head. “Hearing what?”

Virgil flapped a hand haphazardly, avoiding eye contact. “Just, like, hearing…I dunno…compliments? I guess? Like, from any of you. I’m not used to it.”

Logan’s eyes widened slightly at this before softening. He swallowed before speaking again. “I see. I take it that it wasn’t really commonplace on the ‘Other Side’?”

Virgil gave a non-committal shrug, but the tightening of his lips and furrowing of his brow spoke otherwise.

At this, Logan’s face creased slightly and he said, in a soft, reassuring voice: “I did mean what I said, Virgil. You know very well that I wouldn’t say anything just for the sake of saying it.”

This was true. Logan said what he meant, and meant what he said. So, he wouldn’t say what he’d just said just to be nice. Virgil nodded then changed the subject so that they weren’t focused on him anymore.

“Anyways, you wanted me to help you pick out an outfit?”

Rolling with the subject change, Logan nodded. “Yes. I’ve already devised an outfit, but I wanted your honest, keen opinion on it.”

Virgil looked at Logan with uncertainty. “You sure, Lo?”

Logan nodded.

Virgil let out a breath and waved a hand towards the rational Side. “All right. Show me.”

Logan nodded again before taking a brief, deep breath. Then he snapped his fingers.

A beat of silence followed.

Then Virgil raised an incredulous eyebrow at Logan.

“Really? This is what you were planning on wearing for your date?” he deadpanned.

Logan furrowed his brow. “It’s different from what I usually wear, is it not?”

“Logan, you’re wearing the exact same thing. Except your tie’s colours are now inverted.”

“Yes…and?”

Virgil let out an exasperated sigh and pinched his nasal bridge. “Listen, buddy, it’s a date. Ya gotta put in more effort. Otherwise, Pat’s gonna think you don’t really care.”

Logan’s eyes widened slightly. “But – I do care. That’s why I thought to switch the tie’s colours around so they differed slightly from the norm.”

“Wait. Hold on. That’s not – ugh!”

After groaning, Virgil jumped up from the bed and strode towards Logan, taking him by the shoulders and steering him around and pushing him downwards so that he was the one sitting on the bed now. “Let’s see what else you’ve got in here.” He turned back to the chest of drawers and opened a drawer.

The anxious trait blinked. All he saw was neatly folded piles of black shirts and jeans. He opened another drawer. The same sight greeted him. Upon opening the rest of the drawers and getting the same result, Virgil turned back towards Logan, bewildered.

“You really don’t have a lotta variety, do ya?”

Logan fiddled with his glasses uncomfortably. “Thomas based all of us on figures in his life that left an impact on him in some way. With me, it was his teachers at school who cultivated his drive for knowledge. It just so happened that the clothes I wear were the clothes they wore, so as I grew into my role, I ended up taking on the appearance as such. It’s all I’ve known since Thomas’ school days.”

That…Virgil could actually understand, a bit. Since he was based off of Thomas’ ‘emo’ phase during his adolescence, anything that wasn’t comfortable nor shape-concealing was deemed out of his comfort zone. It was all he’d ever known. So, he couldn’t fault Logan too much for sticking with something that worked once he’d found it.

Still…

“But, like, didn’t you have other outfits when Thomas was little?”

Logan made a face, but nodded all the same. “We all did. But our conjuring abilities weren’t as developed during Thomas’ childhood, so we all drew inspiration from wherever we could. Though, for me, it came from books and television that Thomas consumed. And back then they generally portrayed characters who were academically inclined in an…exaggerated manner.”

“So, nerd stuff like suspenders, big glasses and bow ties?”

Logan’s grimace deepened. “Yes.”

Virgil made a face back at that. “Yeah, probably shouldn’t go with that. Roman looked like a Young Sheldon reject in that get-up he wore for the jam commercial.”

Logan let out a snicker at that and Virgil joined in with a brief chuckle before sobering up and refocusing on the task at hand. He looked around Logan’s room before his eyes fell on Logan’s closet. He walked towards it and opened it.

Inside was a mish-mosh of clothes that were more varied than those in Logan’s chest of drawers, from the Sherlock cosplay to his holiday winter sweaters. Virgil’s eyes roamed over the eclectic selection before something caught his eye. He reached out and pulled it out. It was Logan’s skirt outfit from the ‘Sanders Sides Skirt Series’ from months ago. He turned back towards Logan, gesturing to it with his head.

“What about this? You haven’t worn it since your photoshoot with Thomas, right? It’s probably nice enough for something like a date.”

Logan pursed his lips slightly.

“Not too keen on it?”

“It’s not that. It’s just…“ Logan let out a breath. “It is nice, I’ll grant you that, especially considering that I picked it out myself while scouring the Internet with Thomas. And I haven’t had another opportunity to wear it again since the photoshoot so it could work. Just…the pencil skirt wouldn’t be conducive to my plan of walking through the Imagination with Patton. Neither would the shoes I wore, too.”

Again, Virgil could get that. He could see how much thought Logan had put into every aspect of the upcoming date. He clearly really wanted everything to go well. Which was sweet…so long as he was aware that there was always the potential for something to go awry. But Virgil knew better than to voice that at the moment when Logan was being open and vulnerable with him.

He took in the outfit then turned back towards Logan, burnt umber eyes raking over the teacher with a thoughtful look. The jagged bolts of amethyst in his irises seemed to burn like the dying embers of a mystical, fantastical campfire.

Logan shifted slightly, a little uncomfortable under the scrutiny. “What?”

Virgil stayed quiet for a moment before speaking. “You said that you think I have a good handle on fashion, right?”

Logan blinked at him but nodded. “Yes, I did. It wasn’t an empty statement.”

Virgil nodded, cheeks flushing mildly again before getting a hold of himself by taking a breath. “I have an idea. But…before I do anything, I wanna make sure you actually trust me, okay?”

Logan looked at Virgil for a moment before nodding firmly. “I do.”

Virgil nodded a final time before motioning for Logan to stand up. Logan complied, nerves taut with anticipation of what Virgil had in mind. The vigilant Side approached his calm counterpart until they were face to face but with a respectable distance between them so that Logan was at ease.

“Okay. First, I want you to close your eyes.”

Logan did a mild double-take at that. “What? Why?”

Virgil huffed. “You said you trust me, right?”

“I do, but…why do you want me to close my eyes?”

Virgil rolled his own but replied: “So that it’ll be a surprise.”

Logan wasn’t one for surprises, but he was still willing to place his trust in Virgil’s fashion expertise, and he didn’t want to hurt his feelings by being distrustful. Their amiable companionship had come a long way since the early days of Virgil’s appearance in the Light Side of the Mindscape, and he didn’t want to do anything to make it go sour. So, Logan closed his eyes and kept still, waiting for Virgil to enact his plan.

Virgil mashed his lips together and swallowed as he gathered his concentration. Then, once he was ready, he snapped his fingers.

Logan started a little as he felt his whole form shift from his head to his toes, but kept still so as not to throw anything off. Then he heard Virgil say: “I’m gonna guide you to your mirror. Keep your eyes closed.” Once Logan nodded his affirmation and consent, he felt Virgil’s hands settle around his upper arms and himself be moved in some direction. He disliked the brief loss of control, but he knew still to keep trusting Virgil.

He felt himself come to a stop, and heard Virgil say: “Okay. You can open your eyes, now”

He heard the waver in Virgil’s voice, and the tension in his muscles prickled. Was something wrong? Why did Virgil sound unsure?

Then Logan opened his eyes, and he gaped at his reflection.

He was dressed in an interesting combination of clothes from different outfits he had worn, plus others he’d never seen before. His standard shirt and tie were gone; in their place was the matching dark blue brocade vest-and-tie ensemble from his skirt debut over the black long-sleeved button-down shirt he wore during the Sides’ court showdown with Janus with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His jeans had stayed, though now they were black like Virgil’s. The biggest, most stark change was his shoes; his dress shoes had been replaced with galaxy-printed Converse sneakers. The cat-eye glasses from his photoshoot completed the look.

He didn’t look like himself. It was different.

But…he looked good.

Virgil – who was already tense when he’d changed Logan’s clothes and maneuvered him to the mirror – hunched his shoulders even more self-consciously with Logan’s continued silence.

“If you hate it, I’m really sorry. I’ll change it to something different. I thought it would work ‘cause it’s, like, formal, like you like it, but it also makes you look good. Was that weird? Is it the shoes? It’s the shoes, isn’t it? God, I’m sorry! I really don’t know what I’m doing. I should just – ”

Virgil’s ramble came to a halt when Logan placed a calming hand on his upper arm. The anxious trait took a couple of breaths before looking at Logan.

The logical Side had a rare smile on his face, and he gave Virgil’s arm a couple of comforting pats.

“This is just right, Virgil. Thank you.”

Virgil flushed a bit from the praise and he turned his head away for a moment before looking back up at Logan with a lopsided smile. Logan smiled back at him.

“Well, isn’t this just sweet?”

Both Virgil and Logan jumped and looked around them for the source of the voice.

“Yep. It’s almost sweet enough to make me wanna puke my guts out.”

Both left-brained Sides looked in time to see Remus – sitting on top of Logan’s chest of drawers, when he hadn’t been before – throw his head over the side and start puking his guts out.

Literally.

In graphic, overly exaggerated fashion.

Virgil flinched and looked away, trying to block out the horrific sounds of squelching and retching. Logan watched Remus’ spew fest with unflappable disinterest.

The vomiting continued for a minute.

Then two.

Then three.

Then –

“Are you done yet?” Logan deadpanned, his tone etched with the slightest trace of irritation.

Remus, while still throwing up, held up a finger to indicate ‘not yet’. After coughing up both kidneys and his gallbladder, Remus sat up, shifted himself so that he was sitting as though on a chaise longue and propped his head on a hand. “All done!”

Virgil went through a full-body shiver then – while pointedly ignoring the sizable pile of internal organs sitting placidly next to the chest of drawers – leveled the intrusive Side with a glare. “What do you want, trash rat?”

Remus pressed a hand to his chest as though offended, a faux offended look on his face. “Why, emo! Is that any way to say hello to a friend?”

“More like constant annoyance,” Virgil retorted. But Remus, as always, didn’t take offense to that. He thrived on chaos and dissonance, after all.

Logan lightly placed a hand on Virgil’s arm as a silent form of communication to not take it too far. He looked up at Remus coolly. “Is there a particular reason for your presence, or did you show up just to be a nuisance?”

“Oh, you know me! I like showin’ up when I’m not wanted!”

Then Remus peered down to look at Logan more closely.

“My, you clean up nicely, Logan! A lil’ predictable considering what you like, but damn!”

A faint flush peeked out of Logan’s cheeks but he kept a straight face. “I don’t know if that’s your form of a compliment, Remus, but…thank you, I guess.”

“Of course, it’s a compliment, you dork! I could just eat you out right now!”

Logan’s brow furrowed in puzzlement. “I thought the expression was ‘eat you up’?”

“Nope!” Remus chirped, popping the ‘p’ sharply. “I meant, eat you out! As in eating as-“

“OKAY!” Virgil shouted, now crimson. “No need to finish that sentence!”

Remus tutted and slipped a hand into his pocket. He pulled out a white round container, screwed the top off and dipped his fingers into the contents inside before smearing it all over his face like a face cream.

“You are way too tense, Virgin! You should relax! Like what I’m doing right now!” He held out the container. “Facial?”

Even from their respectable distance away, both Virgil and Logan could see that the white substance inside the container was way too thick and viscous to be a face mask, not to mention the sharp, pungent scent accompanying it. They wrinkled their noses and chorused their refusal in perfect unison. “No thanks.” Remus shrugged and continued his impromptu self-care routine.

Virgil let out an annoyed growl. “Would you mind shoving off? We’re in the middle of something.”

Remus looked back at them. “Oh? Would that ‘something’ happen to involve Nerdy Wolverine’s date with Sugar Daddy?”

Logan and Virgil stopped and stared up at Remus, their irritation evaporating on the spot.

“You…know about my date with Patton?” said Logan.

Remus rolled his eyes. “Who doesn’t? It’s all Patty-Cakes has been talking about for a week! At least, that’s what Janny told me, since he talks to him more than I do.”

Virgil’s lips tightened at the mention of Janus, but he bit his tongue this time. He was still tense around the snake, and he still had a tendency to lash out in small, passive-aggressive ways. But after the ‘big talk’ all of them had from ages ago, he really was trying better to at least tolerate Janus’ presence even at his discomfort. Mostly for Thomas, but also a bit for Patton, seeing as he still felt a bit bad for the way he’d treated him after the wedding. If Patton really didn’t have a problem with Janus, then he would try himself too, though old habits die hard.

Logan’s flush deepened at the mention of Patton, and his eyes softened a smidge, but his neutral expression remained uncracked. He adjusted his glasses and said: “Anyways, as Virgil said, I’m in the middle of preparing for my excursion, so your presence would be greatly appreciated if it turned scarce.”

Remus hummed at this and licked some of the white stuff off of his fingers, relishing in the looks of disgust he got out of the left-brained Sides. It was clear that he wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon. Virgil growled again.

“Let’s just ignore him, Logan. We still need to finish up.”

“Indeed.”

But they didn’t move very far before Remus spoke up again.

“Oh! I’d be worried if I were you!”

Logan turned back at this, intrigued and a little concerned. “About what?”

“Your date with Patty!”

Logan frowned slightly. “Why should I be worried?”

“Oh, you know, anything could go wrong! You two could get lost in the forest! Or you could get eaten by a bear! Or he could get eaten by a bear! Or –”

“HEY! LEAVE OFF. That’s MY thing,” Virgil snapped, his Tempest Tongue tempering down in a serrated decrescendo towards the end.

Remus tilted his head to the side, fluttering his eyelashes at the vigilant trait. “Oh? Really? You don’t say?” he said in what was supposed to be a sweet tone but was actually not that sweet. Virgil clenched his teeth and fists in unison. Sensing the tension, Logan swooped in once more to diffuse it, resting his hand again on Virgil’s arm. Virgil was still tense and pissed but kept himself in check.

Logan looked once more at Remus, a hard, stern look in his eyes. “Try as you might, Remus, you can’t get to me. I have full confidence in my outdoor excursion with Patton, and nothing you say can convince me otherwise.”

Remus perked up at this, beaming all of a sudden. “Perfect! Then I guess the only one who needs to be worried is Patty himself!”

Logan frowned. “Patton? Why Patton?”

Remus grinned, sharp teeth on display. “ ‘Cause he’s standing in front of the door to the Imagination with Ro-Bro right now! And he’s been waiting for almost fifteen minutes!”

Logan froze at these words, and whipped his head around to look at his clock.

The colour from his face drained instantaneously.

Then – faster than an inexperienced student who’d managed to light themselves on fire with a Bunsen burner – he bolted from his room without another word.

Virgil gaped after him, then turned back to Remus. The chaotic figment smiled sweetly at him and winked at him saucily while sucking on his fingers obscenely. Virgil blushed and rushed out after Logan, flipping Remus off as he left. Remus shrugged and continued his spa routine.

 *******

Logan rushed down the corridor to the door to the Imagination, heart pounding with panic. How did he lose track of the time? He was usually so conscientious. Oh God, he hoped Patton wouldn’t be mad at him, though he wouldn’t blame him if he did. He also inwardly cursed Remus for distracting him. That was probably the main reason why he popped up in his room. Just causing his usual chaos. Only this could potentially sour his relationship with Patton, a thought which pricked Logan’s chest uncomfortably but was immediately pushed away by the main thought of ‘MOVE YOUR ASS’.

Soon the door came into sight, along with two amorphous blobs of red and light blue whom Logan knew to be Patton and Roman. He skidded to a halt and bent over to catch his breath, lamenting how his brief burst of physical activity must have affected his appearance.

“Patton – I’m sorry – I wasn’t – I didn’t –”

But then, in his out-of-breath state, Logan looked up, and he stopped, gobsmacked.

Standing before him was his sweetheart, and all he could think was…’Wow’.

Patton was a wonder in frost and winter-cloud, with cheeks glowing like the rising sun. He was wearing a pale blue dress covered with a white butterfly print. The skirt cut just above his knees, allowing him to show off his calves. A grey cashmere sweater was tied around his waist in place of his cat hoodie, and nude ballet flats replaced his usual sneakers. He had gone with a simple jewelry set consisting of a light blue rhinestone butterfly necklace and matching dangling earrings. The butterfly motif ended with a papery-thin, decorative butterfly clip clipping back his bangs.

The full look was completed with what Virgil – who’d shown up behind Logan and was also admiring Patton’s look – could define as ‘throwback 90’s’, which was: white eyeshadow, black eyeliner on the bottom eyelid only, black mascara on top lashes only, a sheer pink lip tint and glitter all over his cheeks. But…it was done tastefully, and, somehow, they managed to make Patton’s eyes look even more voluminous and bright, able to see the light within. Best of all, the glitter made the freckles on Patton’s face stand out even more. It all came together really well and was the most striking aspect of Patton’s appearance.

In short, Patton looked – objectively – adorable. And, in a word, Logan was enchanted.

Meanwhile, Patton felt faint at the sight before him. Logan was a vision in sapphire and ebony, steady and certain as the dusk that followed the twilight. His brocade vest and the black button-down really helped to set off his broad shoulders, while the rolled-up sleeves did a good job of showing off Logan’s forearms. The cat-eyes both contrasted well with his sharp features and face shape and made them less severe. The galaxy sneakers took him a little by surprise but he felt like they actually went well with what Logan was wearing. And his brief sprint had fluffed up his hair, brightened his eyes and left a dewy flush in his cheeks. There was no question: Patton’s heart was almost about to fly out of his chest.

Logan was still panting slightly and gaping at the sight before him before being shaken out of his lovestruck stupor by Roman clicking his tongue and raising an eyebrow at him. “Got caught up with work stuff or something, Teach?”

Logan shook his composure back into place and managed to say somewhat evenly to Patton:

“I…you look wonderful.”

Patton beamed. “Thanks! So do you!” Then his eyes widened as he remembered something. “Oh! And you know what’s even better?”

“What?”

Patton’s grin widened, and he slipped his hands into two slits in the sides of his dress. Then he leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial-like whisper:

“It has pockets!”

Logan smiled in appreciation. Pockets were always a good thing to have. 

Then it occurred to him that he didn’t have a gift to give to Patton, and his smile fell a little.

Just then, the teacher felt something materialize in the hand that he was holding behind his back, and he just managed to stop himself from flinching in surprise. He surreptitiously looked out the corner of his eye to see that it was a bouquet of flowers. He looked back in time to catch Roman smirking at him from behind Patton, his fingers fluttering amidst a fading mist of red and gold sparks.

Logan swallowed and revealed the flowers from behind him, holding them out to Patton almost shyly. “F-For you,” he said, a little stiltedly.

Patton let out a small gasp and clasped his hands close to his chest. He looked up at Logan, and Logan was alarmed to see tears in Patton’s eyes. Did he do something wrong? Were the flowers not the right kind of gift to give?

Then he looked down and took a better look at the flowers.

White carnations and blue forget-me-nots.

His eyes widened in realization.

A pure and true love. May it remain everlasting and faithful.

Logan remembered the flower language associated with both plants from the time he’d studied the topic all those months ago when he was first trying to repair ties with Patton. It was hard to believe that all of that had brought him to this point. Suffice to say that they were very apt descriptors for his relationship with Patton. Now he understood that Patton’s tears were not because he was sad or hurt, but because he understood and was touched by the message.

Logan looked up microscopically to make eye contact with Roman. The princely figment had a gentle smile on his face and gave a tiny nod. Logan then thought that the choice in flowers was also an unspoken message of well wishes on Roman’s part, not just a display of his own knowledge on flower language like he and Patton. He felt a rush of warm affection for the creative trait and hoped that his silent look of gratitude was communicated fluently.

He felt the flowers leave his hands and Logan looked back down in time to see Patton taking the bouquet from him. Patton cradled the bouquet against his chest, gazing down on it like it was the most precious thing in the world. Then he looked back up at Logan, and his face held an expression of such intense yet tender adoration that Logan felt pinned in place like a butterfly from Patton’s dress on a corkboard.

The sweet moment between them was broken when Roman clapped his hands and cheered:

“All right! No more standin’ around! It’s date time!”

Logan and Patton looked back at Roman with equal parts fondness and exasperation (but only a little for that last one; they couldn’t bring themselves to be too annoyed at Roman, not with how excited and nervous they were).

Then Patton looked down at his bouquet and held out to Roman. “Do you think you could – ” he started saying, before the bouquet disappeared into thin air.

He jumped in surprise and looked at his empty hands before looking back at Roman, who was smiling at him. “Already in your room and in a vase, waiting for your return,” Roman reassured him.

Patton smiled at Roman in gratitude, then he turned back towards Logan, his eyes sparkling. “You ready?”

Logan gave a smile. “Always.”

Patton beamed and held out a hand, which Logan gladly took.

Roman beamed and unlocked the door to the Imagination with a wave of his hand. “Have fun!”

Virgil, leaning against a wall and watching them, waved them off. “Be safe.”

Logan and Patton smiled in gratitude and reassurance to the anxious Side and started making their way into the Imagination.

Once they’d fully entered and the door started closing behind them, Roman called out: “Make sure to look for the red rose bush at the entrance to the woods when you wanna come back! Enjoy!”

And with that, the door clicked shut behind them.

Virgil let out a breath and slipped his hands into his pockets.

“Well, that’s that. Hope things’ll go fine for them,” he said quietly.

Roman rolled his eyes and slung an arm around Virgil’s shoulders. “They’ll be fine, emo. I’m certain they’ll have a date they’ll never forget.”

Virgil nodded in agreement, then looked at Roman. “By the way, did you manage to solve your problem?”

Roman furrowed his brow. “Problem?”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Y’know, the whole thing with Logan and Patton?”

Roman’s eyes widened. “Ah! That! Yeah, yeah, I did!”

Virgil waited. But Roman didn’t say anything after that. He raised an eyebrow.

“Well? How did you do it?”

Roman shrugged half a shoulder airily. “Oh, you know. A lil’ of this, a lil’ of that...”

Virgil side-eyed the romantic trait warily. He didn’t like how cryptic that sounded.

“Roman…what did you do?”

Roman just smiled. Boy, were Patton and Logan in for a real surprise.

 *******

On the other side, after watching the door dematerialize behind them, Patton and Logan turned to look at each other before smiling, both giddy with excitement about the date and enamoured with the sight of each other.

Then they turned around and –

They stopped dead in their tracks.

They blinked.

Then they looked at each other.

Then they turned around again and blinked once more.

What they saw before them was…not what either of them had been expecting.

They were standing at the entrance of a large wood, with tall trees looming over them on either side. The red rose bush Roman had mentioned was sitting on their left, as expected. This whole set-up wasn’t unusual.

What was, was…well, it was a bit difficult for them to put into words.

Logan had anticipated a picture-perfect summer’s day: blue sky, white cumulus clouds, a lush wood filled with friendly fauna which would lead to bucolic rolling hills of green and flora, with a perfect temperature in the 70s range (or, again, in the 20s since he had no preference for one system over the system and had studied both Metric and Imperial enough to be well-versed). The ideal setting for a picnic.

Patton had expected a peaceful summer evening: just a simple forest for them to walk through while it was still light out, with the sky all painted with pretty colours like orange and pink to start with. Then once they reached a wide, open clearing at the end, the warm colours would fade to cool ones like blue and purple in time to welcome the expanse of stars dotting the sky above, with a breeze that was cool but not too cool. The perfect way to enjoy stargazing.

What they got…was an amalgamation of both.

It was as if the whole world around them had been divided, split evenly at its center, into two different lands: one bathed in sunlight, and the other shrouded in moonlight. A split screen between day and night come to life. For Patton, it reminded him of that Pixar short with the two humanoid blobs – one personifying Day and the other personifying Night. Somehow – unbeknownst to each other – Roman had managed to literally fulfill both of their requests at the same time. It was both jarring and strangely beautiful at the same time.

Both Sides were beyond confused. What had happened? Why was it like this? Did something go wrong when Roman tried to fulfill their request? Should they go back or try to contact Roman in some way to inquire about the layout? Was it safe?

But the door was already gone, and it wouldn’t pop up again until they were ready to leave. They’d barely started the date! They figured that it was no use worrying about it, for now. It was the Imagination, after all; even though Roman and Remus could control it, it could still be unpredictable and flighty at times. It was in its nature. So, they decided to roll with it.

Patton looked around again. “So…which direction should we go?”

Logan looked around himself, then bit his lower lip. “I…admittedly do not know.”

Just then, something flickered in their peripheral vision and they turned around in time to see twin rows of white bioluminescent mushrooms light up along a long pathway they hadn’t noticed before.

“What the?” Patton commented.

“I suppose this is Roman’s way of making sure we don’t get lost on our way to…well, wherever we’re going, I guess,” Logan replied.

Patton nodded, nibbling on his lip a bit. He hoped that the clearing was actually going to be there. He didn’t know what he would do if it wasn’t.

“What mushrooms are these?” he said to distract himself from that worry for the time being. “I don’t think I recognize them from anything in real life.”

Logan hummed in thought and walked closer to them, gently tugging Patton along. He bent down slightly and peered at one of them, trying to get a better look. After a moment or so, he sighed and shook his head.

“I cannot identify them, unfortunately. Knowing Roman, they’re probably an amalgamation of any mushroom Thomas has seen in his life, or maybe they’re a whole new creation altogether.”

Patton nodded at this. “True. We are in the Imagination.”

Logan nodded at this and looked back down the pathway. The end of it was too far off for him to see what was there, but he hoped the hill where their picnic was supposed to take place would be there. Otherwise, his surprise for Patton would be all for naught. Well, there was no use worrying about it for the time being. They would cross that bridge when they came to it (although, from his peripheral vision, he was pretty certain there was no actual bridge for them to traverse).

Logan turned back to his loved one and gave him a smile, then nodded his head in the direction of the path ahead of them. “Shall we?”

Patton smiled back at his sweetie and nodded, giving his hand a squeeze. Logan felt his heart skip a beat at that.

The two lovers started following the path towards whatever destination they were going in, illuminated by the mushrooms lining the pathway. They took their time – after all, there was no hurry when it was just the two of them – and they took in their surroundings, never breaking the link between them. Even though it was a little unnerving to be traversing the Imagination in such a juxtaposed state, both had to admit that seeing how different the Imagination looked in both settings was oddly beautiful, in a way. To observe how the trees began by being lit up in shades of shiny gold and chartreuse before turning into deep greys and silvers. To have sunlight filtering through the canopy on one side and moonlight peeking through on the other. To hear birds singing in one ear and crickets chirping in the other. It really was something to experience.

And, as an added bonus, it allowed them to admire each other in secret.

As though by natural design, Logan found himself walking in the shaded section of the Imagination, which left Patton walking in the lit side. They’d done it without even thinking about it; it’d just felt right to do so. And as Patton looked all around him and cooed at all the fauna and flora to his heart’s content, Logan admired his darling in all his effervescent glory. 

The sunlight fell softly on Patton, leaving him framed in a golden aura reminiscent of the holy figures Thomas read about in his early Catholic upbringing. His butterfly jewelry left speckles of light briefly on nearby objects. The butterfly clip in his waves seemed to dance with merriment. And the glitter on his cheeks shimmered even more, like traces of fairy dust, even Logan wasn’t really in the habit of using such fantastical, flowery language and metaphors. 

In truth, Patton was wondrously, gloriously, inebriatingly magnified, and Logan felt like he would never get enough of just looking at him. 

Granted, Patton’s beauty – both outer and inner – made Logan feel a bit inadequate, even if he never admitted it out loud. How could he ever keep up with him? 

Then Logan shook his head firmly. No. None of that. Patton had told him: you are enough. And though he wasn’t Janus, he could tell that Patton was telling the truth. So, he pushed the thoughts away and allowed himself to sink into the belief that he was enough for Patton, and that was okay.

Then something caught his eye and Logan turned to see bats flitting about on his side, starting their evening search for food. He watched them with a slight smile, facts that he’d memorized about these nocturnal creatures flitting through his head as he observed.

At this point, Patton turned his head and took in the sight of Logan, the moonlight falling on him like a gossamer curtain. Logan came across like an ethereal woodland ruler, the epitome of calm and steadiness. Which was ironic considering his penchant for disliking anything not rooted in reality, which was why he still clashed with Roman on occasion. Just…the way the glow of the moon highlighted his cheekbones and shoulders even more. How the vest defined his waist. The galaxy sneakers seeming to twinkle like their real-life counterpart as he walked. And his forearms…oh boy. Logan just looked and was perfect to Patton.

Okay, well, maybe not perfect. Yes, Logan had his moments of temper and stubbornness, and he still tended to get so focused on his work that his self-care suffered (and Patton or Janus had to step in), but in general the logical Side was unflappable, able to get through anything with steely nerve and steadfast standing. Patton wished that he could be more like him. Less energetic, less extroverted, more collected, more careful. 

But he knew that Logan wouldn’t want that of him. He loved Patton as is, and would be devastated if he changed any part of him. Patton could take a few lessons from Logan, yes; allow himself to be influenced, but never lose the core of who he was as a Side. He could do that.

Soon the path started narrowing, and Patton and Logan came to a curtain of leaves that clearly led somewhere. They looked at each other for a moment, then each pulled a curtain back. They gaped at the sight before them.

A large, wide clearing stretched out as far as they could see, with the woods framing its sides all around, and in the middle of the clearing was a medium-sized hill with a somewhat flattened top. Above them, the sky expanded out into infinity, and its appearance was most awe-inspiring to behold. It was still evenly divided by the dichotomic light filters, but without the canopy in the way, Logan and Patton could experience the full scope of its beauty. On the light side, the sky was still bright and gay with the golden rays of the sun, Disney-esque blobs of fluffiness and its rich azure hue. On the dark side, the moon was the only source of light amongst the inky blackness of night. And right in the middle, uniting the two opposites, shades of fiery vermilion and rosy gold, royal blues and soft violets, all blended seamlessly into each other, with no muddiness or mismatches.

After taking in this lovely sight, Logan and Patton noticed something at the top of the hill. Looking at each other again, they started climbing the hill together. Fortunately, it wasn’t too steep, so at least neither of them would get too tired by the end. Once they got closer, they saw that the ‘something’ was a brown wicker basket sitting on top of a large black-and-white checked blanket.

Logan smiled. It was his picnic. Thank goodness Roman pulled through for him in the end. He gently tugged Patton towards it. Once they reached it, Logan let go of Patton and slowly sat down on the blanket. He looked up at Patton and smiled, patting the empty space beside him.

Patton complied, though he was still a little confused. “Where’d this picnic come from?”

Logan flushed. “This is…a surprise. For you.”

Patton blinked. “Me?”

Logan nodded and reached out to take Patton’s hand in his again. “I wanted to do something special for you, and I know you love picnics so…here you go.”

Patton blinked. A picnic. Logan set up a picnic. Logan didn’t like picnics very much. And yet he set one up. For him.

Logan’s confidence started to waver the longer Patton was silent. “Is it not acceptable? Maybe I could have gone with something else like –”

But Logan didn’t get to finish his sentence because Patton suddenly tackled him in a hug, nearly knocking both of them over. Logan just barely managed to keep them upright. He was also barely breathing due to how tight Patton was hugging him. Did this mean Patton liked it?

Then he felt Patton press a long, fervent kiss into his cheek before the moral Side sat back, his arms around Logan’s neck. His eyes were watery but he was grinning, and the light in his eyes was shining bright.

“I love this,” he breathed.

Logan nearly sagged with relief. Patton liked it. Patton was happy. That was all he had wanted.

“I – I’m glad to hear that,” he said shakily.

Patton grinned wider and he kissed Logan’s cheek again before letting go of him and crawling his way to the basket. Logan allowed himself a moment to get back his composure before crawling over himself to assist Patton.

They spread out their meal on the blanket. There were sandwiches (Logan was pleased to find that Roman had followed his instructions on making sure they were an equal balance of protein, carbohydrates and vitamins to ensure good nutrition and energy upkeep, though this was negated by the fact that they were cut into various shapes of both geometric and animal types for some reason, but he let it slide upon seeing the delighted look on Patton’s face), a simple salad for Logan and potato chips for Patton, lemonade and – the pièce de résistance, if Logan thought so himself – buttery thumbprint cookies with Crofter’s in the middle.

Patton immediately dove for the Tupperware containing the cookies, yanking the lid off of the container and taking one out.

“Patton, you’ll spoil your appetite if you eat dessert before the main meal.”

Patton paused and looked back at Logan, keeping steady eye contact. He brought the cookie closer to his mouth at a slow but steady pace.

“Patton…”

Patton slowly opened his mouth, cookie an inch away from consumption, still never taking his eyes off of Logan.

Logan looked back, poker face in place, unmoving and unreadable.

Patton started lowering the cookie onto his tongue.

Suddenly, Logan whipped out a hand lightning-quick and grabbed Patton’s wrist. Patton tried to pull his arm away and bring it closer to his mouth so he could still eat the cookie, but Logan kept a firm grip. Soon he and Logan were in a weird tug-of-war, impulse versus self-control. But there was no heat behind their struggles; both Sides were smirking, the ‘fight’ turning into a playful scuffle. Soon, Patton found himself on his back with Logan straddling him on top and pinning his arms down by his head, cookie still in hand but out of reach of his mouth.

Logan smirked down at his partner, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Looks like I have the upper hand.”

Patton pouted up at him. “No fair. You cheated!”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “Oh? How so?”

“You tickled me! That’s, like, the dirtiest trick in the book!”

Logan let out a laugh at that. Then he bent down low and whispered into Patton’s ear: “All’s fair in war and love, darling.”

Patton shivered at the close proximity of Logan’s mouth to his ear, his low, deep voice sending his heart aquiver.

Then inspiration hit him, and he quickly turned his head and licked Logan’s cheek.

Logan let out a squawk and sat up slightly to wipe at his cheek with mild disgust. As Patton had hoped, Logan used the hand which had been holding down the one holding the cookie. He immediately popped the cookie into his mouth, grinning triumphantly.

Logan froze and looked down, blinking in confusion at what had happened. Then it clicked in his head what Patton had done. He glowered down at the moral Side, who just smiled back up at him innocently while still chewing the cookie. But Patton wasn’t worried. He could tell that Logan was fighting a smile by the corners of his mouth twitching so he knew he wasn’t really in trouble.

It wasn’t long before Logan gave up faux-frowning and he rolled his eyes fondly. Then he lowered himself further so he was lying on top of Patton, faces inches away from one another. He reached a hand up to cradle Patton’s face and stroked his cheek with his thumb. Patton leaned into his touch.

“You are very lucky that you’re objectively adorable,” Logan murmured.

Patton scrunched up his nose. “I know you are, but what am I?”

“Adorable.”

Patton’s flush deepened and Logan felt his heart stutter in his chest. Patton craned his neck to boop his nose against Logan’s and gave it a little nuzzle. The minute skin-to-skin contact was still enough to send sparks shooting through both of them, and their muscles went taut. Their chests were flush against each other, and Patton wondered if Logan could feel the warmth in his chest radiating out. The sweet, fruity scent of the jam on Patton’s breath wafted near Logan’s nostrils, and a surge tingled through him, much like the one he’d felt the night when he and Patton first held one another in each other’s arms. He felt the magnetic pull from before push his face closer to Patton’s, but he let it this time. Patton felt the same, and he didn’t stop it either. They were alone in the Imagination, they were on a date, and they were in a very intimate position. Why not let it happen now?

Soon their lips were scant inches away from each other, and their anticipation was palpable. Almost there –

A chittering sound jolted them out of their dream-like state. They turned their heads around in the direction of the picnic basket, just in time to lock eyes with a grey squirrel poking his head out of the basket, a cookie in its mouth.

“Hey – hey! What are you – ” Logan exclaimed, immediately clambering off Patton to chase after the squirrel, only to fall flat on his front. But the squirrel was too quick for him, scurrying out of the basket at top speed and scrambling down the hill, leaving Logan lying on the ground looking very put-out by the cookie theft.

Patton, however, was giggling up a storm; he was too amused by the situation to lament the loss of warmth, nor the squandered opportunity.

“Let ‘im go, Logan. He just wanted a little snack!”

Logan couldn’t help but pout an infinitesimal amount. “But they’re our cookies,” he grumbled.

Patton snickered again and he crawled closer to Logan and kneeled next to him. He placed a hand on Logan’s cheek, and that action made Logan look up at him. Patton smoothed out the creases at the corners of Logan’s mouth with his thumb.

“I can always bake more, honey,” he said softly.

The sour look on Logan’s face dissolved away at Patton’s gentle tone and tender gesture, and he nodded. “Alright, love.”

The look on Patton’s face then turned mischievous. “Besides, you could say the little guy is –”

“Wait, Patton, don’t –”

“– nuts for Crofter’s, too!”

Logan let out a groan that could probably raise the dead from their eternal slumber. Patton broke into peals of laughter over Logan’s reaction.

“Why are we dating again?” Logan said wryły.

Patton let the last of his giggles fade away and he bent down to place a peck on Logan’s forehead. “Because you love me.”

Logan gave him an unamused side-eye, which lasted for a fraction of a second before his face softened and he let out a sigh. “I do,” he acquiesced quietly.

A thrill rushed through Patton at this, and he just barely stopped himself from just kissing Logan point-blank right then and there. Another opportunity would come up. Besides, he was starting to get hungry.

Patton helped Logan up into a sitting position. “C’mon, let’s eat the rest of the food before the little guy decides to bring some friends over!”

Logan agreed, and they helped themselves to the rest of their picnic with no further mishaps or interruptions. Roman – as asked – had manipulated the temperature to keep it staying at 74 degrees Fahrenheit/23 degrees Celsius, so, this way, they were comfortable. The sun was still warm, though, so they were grateful for both the occasional cloud cover on the sunny side and the cool breeze they could feel wafting from the moonlit side. All in all, it was a delicious meal.

After they were done and had put away the remnants of their picnic back inside the basket, Patton sat back on his hands and gave a satisfied sigh.

“So…whatcha wanna do now?”

Logan was about to reply when something flickered in his peripheral vision overhead. He looked up in curiosity, and his eyes widened.

At this, Patton looked up just in time to see the first stars of the night sky popping into view. He grinned with delight and relief. It looked like Roman actually did come through with his promise to make Patton’s wish come true. He could get the stargazing underway.

He turned to Logan to say something, then stopped and stared at the sight he saw.

Logan’s face was aglow with awe and wonder, his mouth slightly open and the stars reflected in his eyes. For a moment, Patton saw a glimpse of the little Side once known as Curiosity. Who used to be fascinated with the world around him and everything in it. Who could study and spout facts and information about anything that interested him without pretense or self-consciousness. Who never failed to be overjoyed whenever he learned something new. Before he grew up. Before he turned serious. Before he became Logic. It wasn’t completely gone, just buried deep beneath the stress, jadedness and stringent foundation of the adult ‘Logic’ mentality. It came out every so often, especially when Logan got started on a topic he liked, but Patton wished it would come out more. Maybe it could, with a little more time and coaxing, and doing stuff like this. Just seeing Logan like this was more rewarding than he could ever know.

Patton let the moment linger for a bit longer before sliding closer to Logan and slipping his hand back into Logan’s. This seemed to jolt Logan out of his trance and looked at Patton, his face still possessing that same wonder. Patton gave him a big smile and, with a nod of his head towards the sky, whispered:

“Surprise.”

The wonder turned to confusion, and Logan looked from Patton to the sky and back again a couple times. Then the realization hit him between the eyes, and he looked back at Patton with a completely open face. He pointed a trembling finger upwards.

“That…you mean…did you…” he said hoarsely, trailing off.

Patton’s cheeks flushed and he nodded shyly. “Yeah…I had a surprise for you, too. I know how much you love stars, and how you like to talk about them, so I figured that stargazing would be a good idea and I made sure the sky was as accurate as the one in real life so…yeah.”

Logan stared. Patton had also had a surprise. He had had a surprise for him. Out of everything Patton could have chosen to do, the empathetic trait had thought about what Logan liked. And he chose stargazing. He went through all that effort. For him.

It was Patton’s turn to grow anxious as Logan’s silence stretched on. Was this the right thing? Oh, he hoped it was. He didn’t know what he would do with himself if this was a mistake. Why wasn’t Logan saying anything? Was he mad? Disappointed? What? Patton had to fight hard to keep the thoughts from snowballing, though he still found himself opening to say something – what? An apology? To explain himself? Who knew?

“Logan? Are yo–”

But this time it was Patton’s turn to be cut off as Logan wrapped an arm around his waist and raised a hand to cradle his cheek. Then Logan leaned forward and pressed a kiss into his other cheek before gently pressing their foreheads together.

“Thank you,” Patton heard a wobbly whisper. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Patton felt like he could almost faint. Logan wasn’t angry. He wasn’t disappointed. He was happy. He loved the surprise. That was all Patton had wanted and hoped for, and he got it. He copied Logan by raising a hand to cradle Logan’s own cheek, and closed his eyes.

As they lingered in that tender moment, it slowly dawned on the two lovers why the Imagination was the way it was when they first entered. Both had gone to Roman and pitched their ideas to him separately, without any knowledge of each other’s plans. And, somehow, Roman was able to mash the two ideas together. That’s why the sky was showing a steady progression from day to night. That’s why there was a hilly clearing for picnicking and stargazing. That’s why both of them could do the things they wanted to do.

Patton made a mental note to make sure to bake a batch of extra-special cookies for Roman later.

Soon, they pulled back from the tender embrace and smiled at each other, and Patton figured that it was time to get the stargazing underway. He looked up and scanned the sky briefly, before spotting what he’d been looking for and grinning.

“Hey, Logan, can you tell me more about that constellation?” he asked, pointing at some indiscriminate point above him.

Logan looked up at where Patton was pointing. “Which one?”

“The…uh, the Pila- no. The Play-Doh – no. The – ugh!” Patton flushed with embarrassment. Why couldn’t he pronounce things right?

Sensing Patton’s consternation, Logan reached out to take one of Patton’s hands and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “No need to rush, darling,” he said patiently. “Can you describe it for me?”

Cheeks still flushed, Patton gave a minute nod. “Um…there’s, like, six or seven of ‘em, and they’re kinda in a clump.”

Logan’s eyes widened in realization. “Ah, the Pleiades Star Cluster?”

“Yeah! That! I, uh…don’t really know how to pronounce it. Heh, heh.”

Logan chuckled and squeezed Patton’s hand again. “No worries, love. I’d be more than happy to tell you all about it. It’s actually one of my favourite constellations.”

Patton cocked his head. “Really? How come?” He already knew that it was one of Logan’s favourite constellations, but he actually didn’t really know the reason why.

Logan’s smile turned tender, and he reached out a finger to lightly trace the faint freckles speckled across Patton’s nose. “Because they remind me of someone very dear to me.”

Patton’s eyes went wide – both from Logan’s smile and the implication of that statement – and his face went through a full flush. “Oh,” he squeaked.

Logan smiled at him fondly before sliding an arm around his waist. Patton wrapped both of his arms around Logan’s own waist and snuggled into Logan’s side. They positioned themselves so their backs were to the lit side and they were facing the night sky of the dark side. That way, they had warm sunshine caressing their backs and a cool breeze on their faces.

“So, the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, got its name from Greek mythology, specifically from the seven daughters of the Titan, Atlas, and their mother, the Oceanid Pleione…”

Before long, Logan was prattling enthusiastically about every constellation he could identify in the night sky, telling stories and facts and everything in-between. And Patton absorbed everything Logan had to tell. How could he not, when Logan looked so excited to share something that was meaningful to him and made him happy? And Patton found it all interesting, anyway, so it was a win-win.

Just then, something caught Patton’s eye and he craned his neck to look at it better.

“Hey, Logan? What’s that star? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that one before.”

Logan looked in the direction of where Patton was pointing and squinted a little, trying to see better. The star that Patton had pointed out was a pale yellow, and its glow was pulsing in regular intervals. What was unusual about it, though, was the fact that it seemed to bob up and down not unlike a toy boat in a bathtub. Logan’s brow furrowed.

“I’m…actually not sure. It doesn’t fit any description of any of the stars I’ve memorized. It certainly can’t be a Yellow Dwarf like our Sun, considering how small it is. Maybe it cou-”

Suddenly, the light winked out of existence.

Patton sat up, stunned. “Huh? Where’d it go?”

Logan was also stunned, but intrigued as well. “I…I don’t know.”

Then, it winked back on again.

Patton and Logan exchanged confused looks with each other.

Then, another yellow star flitted up from the ground, winking on and off like the first.

Then another.

And another.

And –

Logan and Patton gaped as a cloud of millions of these yellow stars floated up out of the grass and into the air. It was like a star-patterned theater curtain being pulled up into the rafters, and they were all blinking on and off in a silent symphony.

That’s when it hit Patton.

These ‘stars’ weren’t stars at all.

They were –

“Fireflies!”

Logan looked at Patton. “What?”

Patton flapped an excited hand. “They’re fireflies! Not stars!”

Logan looked back at the shimmering sight before him. Patton was right.

“Of course, Lampyridae. How did I miss it? That would explain their intermittent bioluminescence.”

“Well, they certainly know how to light up the night!”

Logan sighed at that, but he was smiling.

As they took in the iridescent beauty circling around them, an idea lit up in Patton’s head. With a wide grin, he jumped up from the picnic blanket and held his hands out towards Logan.

“Dance with me.”

Logan blinked up at Patton. “What?

Patton made grabby hands at him. “Come dance with me.”

“But…there’s no music, a-and I don’t really –” Logan started saying before he stopped. Patton was looking down at him with a pretty pronounced pout. Logan caved then. How could he possibly say no to his other half? So, he extended his own hands and allowed Patton to enthusiastically grab ahold of them and pull him to his feet.

Patton maneuvered them both into a basic starting position: he placed one of Logan’s hands on his waist, then he rested one of his own hands on Logan’s shoulder, and finally their remaining hands grasped each other, almost like they were about to start a waltz. Once they were in position, Patton led them into a simple slow dance, just swaying them back and forth, left and right.

Logan was rather stiff at first; he wasn’t much for dancing. Or, at least, he wasn’t much for dancing in public. He didn’t like having attention on himself, not like Patton. And also, even if he did do a little bit of dancing in his own free time – which he didn’t! – he always thought that music was a necessary accompaniment to physical activity to ensure movement and whatnot. So, them just dancing to nothing was a little jarring for Logan.

But as they continued, Logan took in his surroundings. The light and dark modes of the Imagination allowed them to see something different as they turned around. He had to admit that there was something special about being able to see the world in both ways at once, and how the sounds of nature acted as their accompaniment. Also, the fact that it was just him and Patton, no one else around – well, except for the cookie thief – meant that no one was watching them. They could enjoy each other’s company in peace. Lastly, he looked down at the Side in front of him. Patton was glowing with enthusiasm, enjoying himself. Patton had always been better at celebrating the little moments in life than Logan. Dating the lively figment had shown him how to slow down and just breathe, even for a few minutes. That there was more to life than just being a Side and performing their function as a part of someone’s personality.

So, Logan slowly began to relax and allow himself to just be in the moment, be with Patton, nothing more, nothing less. He relished in the warmth and closeness between him and his love, and how it was just the two of them. Patton could feel Logan loosening up, and that in turn both turned up his joy and made him let go of his own trepidation, too (he’d been a little worried about stepping on Logan’s feet due to his clumsiness). As they kept swaying and turning, the proper dancing positions they’d started in slowly fell away as the space between them became non-existent. Patton wrapped his arms around Logan’s neck, and Logan wrapped his arms around Patton’s waist. They touched their foreheads together and they just held each other tenderly, still continuing to sway.

This lasted a little while longer, then Patton looked up and took in the moment. Something about being just the two of them, surrounded by all this beauty and magic, filled Patton with a euphoria he hadn’t felt in a long time. Just a bubbly joy popping and bursting inside of him, making his limbs tingle and his feet itch. He loved it. He loved this setting they were in. And he loved Logan.

With a laugh, Patton started swinging and spinning them around enthusiastically. Logan was caught off guard by the sudden change in the comfortable dance routine they’d fallen into, nearly tripping over his feet in the process. But Patton’s joy and enthusiasm was infectious, so Logan couldn’t help but go along with it. He let out a startled laugh himself, but, again, knowing they weren’t being watched, he let it happen. Soon, their laughter was the only sound ringing through the air, besting the birds and overshadowing the crickets. After a while, they stopped so as not to make themselves too dizzy.

Catching their breath from the increase in physical activity, Logan and Patton took in the new sight they were bearing witness to.

Patton was now standing in the moonlight, and Logan was standing in the sunlight.

If seeing one another in the light gradient that suited them most had further endeared them to one another, it was nothing compared to when they each stood in its opposite.

In the moonlight, Patton seemed like a watercolour sketch, his edges blurred and softened by Mother Nature’s night filter, the glitter on his cheeks now twinkling like stardust.

In the sunlight, Logan came across like a supernova, exploding in an ineffable burst of sound and light, his normally immaculate hair now all wild and flaring out like a solar flare.

Unable to look away, Logan and Patton stared at one another.

Then, in a bold display of courage, Logan gathered Patton into his arms, sliding his arms fully around the moral Side’s waist and pulling him close.

Patton let out a squeak and braced himself by resting his forearms against Logan’s chest, his fingertips just resting over the slope of Logan’s shoulders. He looked up, face bright with awe and love. The light in his eyes increased in intensity. It seemed impossible that it could burn any brighter, but it did.

As they stood in that loving embrace, the two Sides felt everything that made up the world around them fall into place and settle. Safety and comfort made tangible and all-encompassing. The world around them crawled to a tranquil quiet, still and hushed, as though holding its breath in anticipatory observance of what the two Sides would do next.

To Patton and Logan, they knew what was going to happen.

This was it. The moment they’d been waiting for, not just all day, but ever since they’d realized how much the other meant to them. How they’d wanted to share everything that made each of them endearing to the other, and all that set them apart, too. This time, this place, this opportunity, was right where they should be, and it just felt so right.

Caught once more in that magnetic pull, slowly but surely, Patton and Logan’s faces drew closer to each other, much like what happened all those weeks ago when Patton had nearly fallen down the stairs and Logan had saved him. But this time, for Logan, there was no hesitation. No self-consciousness. No balking. And for Patton, there was no uncertainty. No nerves. No second-guessing.

And right then and there, the world fell away as the heart and mind united as one. Every opposite half seamlessly slotted into place like the last prodigal puzzle pieces.

Cool water cascaded over Patton’s head, akin to jumping into a refreshing pool on a hot summer’s day. An airy breeze wafted into his face, helping to bring down the warmth in his face a bit to prevent him from overheating. With Logan in his arms, the ground felt sturdier beneath his feet, and not just in the literal sense. Patton felt steady when he was with Logan: less unsure, more apt to listen than react, less impulsive, more calm, more likely to think his actions and arguments through. Logan tempered his energy enough so that it didn’t get out of control, but not completely so that he wasn’t his usual happy pappy self.

Warmth rushed from the top of Logan’s head all the way down to his toes, as though he’d laid down to soak in the full brunt of the sun’s rays fully. And the only thing he could feel was…comfort. Loving and unconditional. When he was with Patton, Logan laughed more, smiled more. He was less quick to temper and more willing to listen through other people’s arguments that were pathos-leaning. Patton helped him to be less judgmental, less calculating, more open to new ideas and approaches that he’d otherwise dismiss completely or sneer at for not being within the realm of reason he was used to.

Patton’s hands reached up to cradle the underside of Logan’s face as he smiled into the kiss. Logan smiled back as he drew his arms tighter around Patton’s waist, pressing him further against his person. The contrasting sensations and temperatures danced around each other much like when they’d actually been dancing before: weaving and skimming but never clashing. And throughout their shared intimacy, the fireflies rose up around them like a protective barrier, as though shielding them from any unwanted attention or intruders in the vicinity.

Soon, they had to come up for air, and Logan and Patton pulled back from the kiss. They both heaved tiny sighs and then looked up at each other. Both had flushed cheeks and bright eyes, and both were feeling fuller and more complete than they ever did before.

Logan felt something bubbling up in his chest, and he started to chuckle, which turned into a giggle, which ended in full-on laughter. Then – in a rare act of exuberance – Logan lifted Patton into his arms and spun him around in a circle, laughing loud and joyfully. Patton squealed in surprise but also delight, wrapping his arms around Logan’s neck and holding on tight. His skirt flared out with the momentum, and it seemed like he became an extension of the day sky, the butterflies coming to life and flitting gayly on their canvas.

Once he’d completed a full turn or two, Logan carefully lowered Patton back onto the ground but kept his hold on him. Patton beamed up at him then cuddled in close, resting his head against Logan’s chest and sighing in contentment. Logan’s own smile widened and he drew Patton closer again, arms wrapped fully around him, with one holding on his upper back and the other cradling his waist, then laid his head against Patton’s.

Holding each other tenderly, they looked back up at the sky. They once more noted the contrast of the day and night modes the Imagination was in. But, this time, the differences felt less divisive and more unifying. They saw the opposites coexisting in harmony alongside each other: the sun and moon, the stars and fireflies, the warmth and cold – all of it. How they complemented one another and propped each other up. Fortifying strengths and buffering weaknesses. Never clashing, taking turns, giving each one their time in the transient state of nature. If that wasn’t a metaphor for something, neither knew what was.

Taking his eyes off of the wide expanse stretching above him for a moment, Logan lowered his head down to place a kiss on Patton’s forehead. Patton shivered at the action and looked back up at Logan, a lopsided smile on his face. Logan grinned back at him. The date hadn’t been what either of them had expected, but…if they were being honest, this was better than what they had planned for.

Just then, a strange noise that sounded like a ‘peep’ broke through the quiet. Logan and Patton startled and looked around them, confused.

“What was that?’ asked Patton.

“I don’t know,” Logan replied.

Then they heard the peeping sound again, but this time, it sounded like it was right in front of them.

Logan and Patton looked down, and they blinked at what they saw.

Right in front of them, looking up at them with tiny, beady black eyes, was a tiny yellow duckling.

Logan’s mouth opened slightly in surprise, which immediately clicked shut again as Logan winced at Patton’s high-pitched squeal. The moral Side’s eyes were wide with excitement, and he flapped his hands hard enough that they were a blur for a few seconds before covering his mouth with them. He looked back at Logan with an expression that Logan (privately) called Patton’s ‘enamoured by cute, baby animals’ face.

“Oh my gosh, Logan! A baby duck! Where did it –”

The tail end of Patton’s sentence broke off when he looked back, due to his excitement morphing back into confusion.

There were now three ducklings standing in front of them, looking blithely back up at them. Patton and Logan exchanged bewildered looks.

“Wait. Where’d the other two come from?”

“I’m…not sure. But there’s probably –”

This time, Logan was the one who trailed off when he looked back down, his bemusement growing.

Five ducklings now looked up at them.

His own confusion increasing, Patton looked around them. “Hold on. Where’re their parents? Are they all alone out here?”

“Wait, Patton –”

Seven ducklings.

The pattern continued a few more times, with one Side or the other inadvertently looking away for even a millisecond, whether to look at each other or their surroundings, and before they knew it, there were twenty-one ducklings surrounding them, peeping and cheeping and waddling about. Some were pure yellow, others were dark brown, and others still were a mottled mixture between the two colours.

Logan ran a hand through his hair, his bewilderment at an apex. “I – what – how –”

But Patton, while no less befuddled, soon fell swiftly under the spell of the adorableness of the ducklings. He stepped forward and knelt down on the ground, his skirt spreading out around him like a Disney Princess. Immediately the ducklings took to him like such, swarming around him, settling on his skirt and trying to climb up into his lap. Patton was beyond delighted, and he cooed and chatted with the little creatures to his heart’s content.

Logan stayed standing up, feeling awkward and unsure of what to do. Then he heard a series of deep quacks a little off to his right, and he turned his head to look.

Sitting a little off from where they were, keeping a safe distance but still in full view of the ducklings, were two adult Mallard ducks. A quick look-over told Logan that they were two males. A brief staring contest took place between the humanoid figment and the Anas platyrhynchos, with nothing said between them. Logan wondered very briefly where the mothers were.

Then it hit him. He remembered that homophobia doesn’t exist in the animal kingdom, so these mallards were likely partners.

As though to prove his point, one of the mallards let out a quack and pressed its bill into the other’s neck. The other, in turn, turned its head to nuzzle their beak against the other’s head.

At this sight, Logan smiled. Nature truly was a wonder.

Then he looked back down at the other wonder in front of him. Patton was still basking in the adoring attention of the ducklings. Thankfully, no more had spawned since they’d reached the current number they were at, so this way they wouldn’t be overrun with them. As it was, Patton’s lap had no less than ten ducklings, his shoulders were occupied by one occupant each, and two somehow managed to make it to the top of his head.

Logan chuckled at the sight, then he lowered himself onto the ground as slowly and carefully as he could, so as not to spook the ducklings nor his sweetheart.

At hearing the shuffling next to him, Patton turned his head as best he could so as not to jostle his passengers. His face was aglow with joy and wonder, and the light in his eyes was as bright as the sun itself. Logan’s smile widened at Patton’s happiness, and he leaned forward to carefully kiss Patton’s cheek.

As he did, he thought to himself that, maybe, Roman had been right. The date had needed more ducks.

 *******

The door to the Imagination creaked open and Logan and Patton stepped out into the corridor, holding hands and with lazy, blithe smiles on their faces. Once they were through, Logan turned around and pulled Patton into another embrace, Patton letting out a giggle as he did so. Without looking, Logan waved his hand and shut the door to the Imagination, and then he brought Patton in for another kiss. Patton sighed contentedly and stroked Logan’s cheek lovingly with a thumb. Logan cradled the back of Patton’s head tenderly, chest warm and full.

“So…I take it the date went well?”

Patton and Logan broke apart at the voice, looking around to see Roman and Virgil standing a few feet away from them, amused yet fond looks on their faces. Logan cleared his throat and adjusted his tie.

“Yes, it was…satisfactory. In more ways than one.”

“Everything was perfect!” Patton cheered, the grin on his face almost splitting his face open.

Roman squeeed, shaking excited fists, then he came forward and pulled Patton into a hug. As the right-brained Sides chittered and chattered about what happened, Virgil slunk over to where Logan was and gently nudged his shoulder with his own, smirking slightly.

“That good, huh?” he quipped.

Logan blushed slightly and looked away, but he couldn’t keep a smile from coming over his face.

“Quite.”

After Roman and Patton broke apart, Patton skipped over to Virgil to give him a hug as well. Virgil – though not one for frequent physical affection – allowed it, smiling slightly as he did. He was glad to see Patton so happy, and he listened as Patton babbled happily about the date, interjecting with a comment every so often.

While this was happening, Logan made his way over to Roman and held out his hand. Roman looked at it in surprise before taking it. Logan gave him a firm handshake and smiled. “Immaculate job, Roman. That was some splendid work.”

Roman blushed and cleared his throat. “O-Of course! Nothing but the best from yours truly!”

Logan’s eyes softened and he said, in a quieter tone: “You really did do a good job, Roman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Imagination as beautiful as it was today.”

Roman squeaked and looked down, flustered. He really wasn’t too good with genuine compliments, and especially if they were coming from Logan of all Sides. Logan saw this and took pity on him, so he switched topics.

“Did Patton also come to you about the date?” he asked under his breath.

Grateful for the change in topic, Roman nodded and grunted: “Yeah.”

Logan snickered at that and shook his head.

“I hope it didn’t mess it up too much. I know that –”

Logan stopped him with a hand on his arm, his eyes understanding. “It’s fine, Roman. It all worked out in the end. I haven’t seen Patton this happy in a while.”

Roman looked over at the Dynamic Duo – Patton was still chattering a mile a minute and Virgil was still listening and nodding though Roman could tell that his social spoons were starting to run low – and smiled. “Yeah, me neither.”

Then Logan looked back at the prince with a smirk. “More ducks, huh?”

Roman squirmed and shifted on his feet slightly. “Um, well –”

Logan chuckled and patted his arm. “You were right. It did need it.”

Roman looked back up at Logan, face still red and with surprised yet delighted eyes. Logan smiled back at him.

When Patton ran out of steam, Virgil let out a breath and said: “All right, well, good to see you two had a great time. I think I’m gonna head back to my –”

A peep cut through Virgil’s sentence, seeming to echo throughout the corridor.

Everyone froze, blinking at each other in surprise.

“What was –”

Then three pairs of eyes looked at the last remaining pair, who was shifting slightly on his ballet-flatted feet as though he was hiding something.

Logan lifted an eyebrow. “Patton…did you take one of the ducklings from the Imagination?”

Patton squirmed a bit then looked up with an unconvincing smile.

“Um…no?”

Another peep squeaked out, this time louder and coming from the general vicinity of where Patton was.

A woosh was heard, followed by a tsk.

“Really, lying to your beloved? I never thought you’d do such a shameful thing, Patton.”

Virgil and Roman stiffened slightly as Janus popped into view but held their tongues, not wanting to break the present happy atmosphere.

Patton blushed scarlet but – under Janus’ steely gaze – slipped a hand into one of his pockets and pulled out a yellow-and-dark-brown ball of fuzz. The fuzzball untwisted itself till its head was free before looking around at the company surrounding it and peeped.

Logan sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You couldn’t help yourself, could you?” he said wearily. But there was no true anger or even irritation in his tone, which helped Patton relax a little.

“I mean, how could I not?” He lifted up the duckling to eye-level, eyes sparkling. “He’s just so cute!”

Roman and Virgil rolled their eyes fondly. That was their Patton. Then they turned to look at Janus with less fond expressions.

“Is there a reason why you’re up here, snake?’

Janus pressed a hand to his chest as though hurt. “Am I not allowed to share in the joy of our fellow comrades?”

Virgil sneered. “I never thought you cared much in the way of being a team player.”

“Boys…”

Virgil and Roman winced. Patton had put on his ‘Dad’ voice. Recognizing a need for civility when it was necessary, they cut their confrontation short, though it didn’t stop them from throwing hard looks at Janus’ own smug one.

“At least there’s only one of them here,” Roman muttered under his breath quietly.

“Think again, Ro-Bro!”

Everyone jumped at that, including Janus, and immediately looked up. Remus was sitting upside-down on the ceiling, grinning that Cheshire-cat grin of his. The chaotic trait twisted himself once, twice, then fell towards the ground. Everyone turned their heads away just in time to avoid watching the impact, though they couldn’t block out the sickening CRUNCH that accompanied it.

Janus sighed, muttering “Oh, Remus…” under his breath with his eyes closed.

After snapping his limbs back in place, Remus twisted his neck this way and that to get out every last crack he could possibly get, relishing in the cringes he got from everyone. Then he turned towards the two lovebirds, with Logan looking down on him coolly and Patton looking a little nauseated. Remus immediately noticed the duckling in Patton’s hands.

“Aww, a duckie! How cute! Hey, didja know that male ducks have corkscrew penises that can reach up to almost ten inches? That’s more than half their body length! And if there’re as many as three or more male ducks and one female duck, they’ll actually conduct a fucking gang bang! Sometimes injuring or even killing the female! But hey, that’s why the females evolved to have vaginas that’re like fucking mazes –”

“OKAY, Remus! Thank you very much for that commentary! Very helpful of you!”

Janus’ sarcasm was not lost on anyone, not even Remus, who simply didn’t care. Grinning wildly, he blipped out of existence and back right behind Logan and Patton, throwing his arms around their shoulders and catching them off guard.

“So, anyways! It looks like the date went well, considering the sappy looks on your faces!”

The expressions on their faces were very much not of the sappy kind at that moment; Logan had his stoic mask in place and Patton was trying very hard not to cringe at the duke’s close proximity. Luckily, Logan took up the initiative to continue the conversation.

“Yes, Remus. Thankfully, very little went wrong, so, all in all, it was a successful excursion.”

“Y-Yeah, it was!” Patton managed to stammer out. Remus still unnerved him, but he was truly trying his best to be nice around him.

Remus grinned wider and he gave their shoulders a strangely comforting squeeze. “Glad to hear that! If you two’re happy, then that’s good enough for me!”

Everyone stopped at that. Remus, giving a nice compliment? Was this real life or some sick twisted reality the Mindscape had thrown them into? But the look now on Remus’ face was softer than usual, more genuine. So…it seemed that he wasn’t bullshitting with them. Virgil and Roman were at a loss, Janus’ face was unreadable, though his eyes seemed a smidge softer as he looked back at the intrusive Side, and Patton and Logan were truly gobsmacked. This was so unlike Remus: being sincere and contained in his chaos. Maybe that was why it made it all the more meaningful. So, they returned tiny half-smiles, not quite fully trusting but willing to extend an olive branch.

Of course, it didn’t last long.

“So! You two gonna fuck now?”

“REMUS!”

“What? They went on a date, they’re hot for each other, now’s a good time for a juicy session of stuffing the meat locker!”

“Oh – my – fucking – GOD –”

Shouts of disgust and shock rang throughout the hallway at Remus’ words. Remus simply shrugged and took out a nail file to smooth out his acrylics.

Virgil sighed noisily. “Okay, well, that’s my cue. I’m out. See you guys tomorrow.”

Roman waved. “Have a good evening, Emo! Hopefully no nightmares befall you in your sleep!”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “I think after having to stare at your face all night, Princey, I think I can handle a nightmare or two.”

Roman gasped in indignation, and Virgil smirked back at him.

“Oh, please! As if the two of you weren’t cozying up to each other all night!”

The look of indignation and smirk were swiftly wiped off the faces of their respective owners who whipped around at the intrusive Side and chorused in strangled voices: “WHAT?”

Logan blinked. Janus’ eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch. And Patton squealed: “You guys were cuddling?! Oh my gosh!! I can’t believe I missed that!”

“How – how did you – where –” Roman could barely get the words out. Virgil’s face was as pale as his foundation.

Janus looked at Remus with a calculating slit-eye. “Did you hide behind the couch again?”

Remus tilted his head innocently. “Mmm, maybe! I may have been in the middle of planning another Rube Goldberg machine so I may have been testing things out behind there and then, when they came and sat down, I may have peeked in on them from time to time!”

Janus hummed thoughtfully at this. Then he said: “So, what happened next?”

“Janus –”

“Wait! I wanna know –”

“We don’t –”

“Let’s not –”

But Remus, looking for all the world like Halloween had come early and delighted to have a captive audience, ignored Roman and Virgil’s protests and plowed on.

“So, while I was behind the couch, they came into the common room after seeing Nerdy Wolverine and Pattycakes off on their date to watch some movies! They started arguing ‘bout what movie to watch – Ro-Bro wanted to watch Disney as usual, and Emo wanted to watch something horror-related! Finally, they decided to compromise and watch Nightmare Before Christmas since it’s both scary AND it’s owned by Disney! At first, they just watched it quietly and sang along to the songs so I ignored them and carried on with my thing. But THEN Emo started crying during ‘Sally’s Song’ and Ro-Ro immediately went to comfort him, and from that moment on they continued cuddling through the rest of the film!”

Both Roman and Virgil looked like they wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow them whole. Logan and Janus both had mild expressions of surprise. But Patton was beaming and would have pressed his hands into his cheeks if he wasn’t still holding the duckling.

“OH, that is ADORABLE!” he squealed, and Virgil hid his face in his hands.

Janus smiled crookedly. “Who would’ve thought that big, bad, Anxiety was actually a softie?”

“Nooooooo,” Virgil moaned, trying to disappear into thin air. Roman was also trying to make himself as small as possible.

Remus cackled. “Yeah! I guess I was wrong about which Sides should be fucking!”

Roman started sputtering, face as crimson as his sash, and Virgil hid inside his hoodie, pulling the hood strings tight. Remus roared with laughter on the floor while holding his stomach and Janus smirked, shoulders shaking in silent laughter.

Logan rolled his eyes at the ridiculousness happening in front of him before he looked down to his side. Patton was leaning against him, giggling at the others’ antics and having recovered from Remus’ usual discord. His face was open with laughter and happiness. Logan’s face softened and he smiled down at his sweetheart, wrapping an arm around Patton’s waist and pulling him in closer against him. Patton looked up at him and beamed, the light in his eyes bright and effervescent. He slowly lifted up his hands so that the duckling was closer to Logan’s face. The duckling blinked up at Logan and gave a tiny peep. Logan chuckled and – understanding the silent cue Patton was communicating to him – put out a finger to scritch the top of its head.

Yes, things went a little more differently than what he’d expected or wanted. But he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

#sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides #ts sanders sides #logicality #romantic logicality #ts logicality #patton sanders #logan sanders #ts patton sanders #ts logan sanders #ts patton #ts logan #tss patton #tss logan #patton morality sanders #logan logic sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #janus sanders #remus sanders #fluff and angst #fluff #angst #light and tenderness au #melanie's writings #p.s. happy birthday logan #happy belated birthday logan #happy logan appreciation day

[dark-strangeson-virgil]

Sanders Sides/Thomas Sanders Asks!

I'm sure this has been done before but I figured I'd make my own because I'm bored and why not?

Roman - What is your biggest insecurity/what would you say is your biggest flaw?

Virgil - What's one thing that always calms you down when you're scared/anxious?

Patton - Name 3 people you love on this app, tag them and tell them why they make you happy!

Logan - What helps motivate you to be productive?

Janus - What's your favorite method of self care? (Face masks, calming tv, etc.)

Remus - What's the most crackhead energy thing you've ever said?

Thomas - Name something you love about yourself!

Remy - What do you usually turn on to fall asleep?

Emile - What was your favorite cartoon as a child?

My True Identity - Who's your favorite side(s)?

Way too Adult - What do you want to do after high school/college?

Taking on Anxiety - What's been causing you stress lately?

A New Year of Lying to Myself - Set one goal for yourself for the future!

The Dark Side of Disney - What's your favorite Disney movie and song?

I'm in a Disney Show! - Did you prefer Disney Channel or Nickelodeon growing up?

The Mind vs. The Heart - Do you make decisions based more on logic or feelings?

Alone on Valentine's Day - Are you currently in love?

Losing my Motivation - Do you like mysteries?

Sanders Sides Q&A! - Name a fun fact about yourself!

Am I Original - What's your preferred method of creativity? (Singing, playing an instrument, writing, drawing, dancing, etc.)

My NEGATIVE Thinking - What's one regret you have?

Growing Up - How do you feel about growing older?

Making Some Changes - What's one positive change you've made in your life recently?

Becoming a CARTOON! - Who's your favorite fictional villain?

Accepting Anxiety - How stressed are you currently from 1-10?

Fitting In - What's your hogwarts house?

Moving On - What's your favorite childhood memory?

12 Days of Chirstmas! - What's your favorite holiday song?

Can Lying be Good? - Are you in theater, either as part of tech or an actor?

Crofters - The Musical! - What's your favorite snack food?

Learning New Things About Ourselves - Are you happy with where you're currently at in life?

Embarrassing Phases - What "phases" did you go through in your middle school years?

Selfishness vs. Selflessness - Do you want to get married one day?

Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts - How's your mental health doing right now?

Are There Healthy Distractions? - Do you try to ignore conflict or face it head-on?

Putting Others First - How many times did you cry during this episode?

Sir Sing-A-Lot - What's your favorite nickname you've ever been given by your friends?

Emo Nightmare - Did you go through an emo phase? If so, when was it at its peak?

Eyeshadow - What's your favorite band?

Blue Tie - What's your favorite school subject?

Cardigan - Do you have a mentor other than a family member in your personal life? If so, describe them!

Scales - Have any pets?

Red Sash - Describe the last dream you remember having.

Green Sash - Describe the last nightmare you remember having.

Please ask me questions!

#pls as me questions I'm so bored #thomas sanders #sanders sides #ts #ts patton #ts logan #ts remus #ts roman #ts janus #ts virgil #patton sanders #virgil sanders #roman sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #ts emile #ts remy #remy sanders #emile picani #send me asks #asks open #asks #ask game

[melissa-s23]

Private lesson

Sumarry: Janus try to decieve himself into a timeline where he can save his friends. He does not expect reality to offer him an opportunity to prove himself.

Word count: 3127

Characters: Janus Sanders, King creativity Sanders

Warnings: Sword fighting?? Idk please tell me if you think something else should be added here.

Author’s note: MY FIRST ONESHOT EVER COMPLETED! Yes! And the honor goes to @rondoel ‘s King!AU! ( @kingcreativityau ) :D Now: are the characters OOC in this? Most probably. Do I really care about it? Only a tiny bit. I only started to post Sanders Sides content here recently, but I’ve been a fan of the series for a few months now so I had time to read a lot of fic... however I’m still not sure on what I got wrong so if you have any criticism, positive or negative, please let me know! Lastly, this was at first supposed to be an animatic (on the song called ‘This is war’) but I have NO TIME to draw and lot of time to write so enjoy! When I do get time, I might try to animate a certain part of it that I don’t think I nailed that well in the fic. Anyway, I’ve been rambling for long enough. ENJOY!!!

-----------------------------------

Janus stood there, in the empty training room. Since King's return, he felt very conflicted, and he hated himself for it.

The king was merciless, he cursed Patton to make him look like a toddler, he removed Logan's vocal cords, he cursed Virgil into torturing himself into deadly downward spirals, and...

And he was very spiteful, he was angry... because he'd betrayed him.

Janus clenged his fist. He couldn't help but remember the look of betray and rage that his King gave him when he discovered his team-up with Logan. Those orange eyes that could burn him down on the spot. Those oh so intense eyes... Damn it, he was back at it again. This is over now. His king was gone. Now it was the King. The tyrant. The side who hurt his friends.

He was standing in the empty room, looking at his reflection by the mural mirror. His now half-half face looked so tired. Was he really this tired ? He was probably very very tired... but he'll rest later, as the memory of his most recent wound was still fresh in his head, replaying this utter humiliation, he just couldn’t sleep. Anger soon filled him up.

He could have tried to stop him. He could have tried to save his friends, and instead he just... froze. He just let it happen like he couldn't do anything. And he knew how to fight ! He knew how to defent himself for crying out loud ! He could've done something, and instead... Nothing ! He recalled the scene, bit by bit. How Logan stood at his left, how virgil was just behind, how the king was looming over them, despite being 10 feet away from them. He remembered every movement, every word, and every second of that moment like it was written in his metaphysical blood.

And in a second, it was like he was dragged back to this hell again.

And he would not let it happen a second time.

He summoned his cane and raised it up at the memory of King. His mind wandered off now. He had to imagine how he would've react. Would he summon his sword or take full creative control to just trap him ? He wanted to think he had a chance, so he chose the sword scenario.

And just like that, the imaginary fight was on. Step forward. Left. Right. Dodge. Go protect them. Put up a fight. He would have rushed toward the tyrant and aimed for the head, the sword would've get in the way and he could uses the top of his cane to project himself back to the group. Go. Dodge. Pare. Block and Dodge and Move fast and Dodge again and Block and pare and send it back. The world was spinning around him and the fight got more and more intense. He may have his eyes closed, but he knew perfectly where he was in the room, and he was completely in his daydream. Left and Right and Block again and Forward and Left and Block and backward and spin and swing the cane for it to stop only an inch away from the face of his enemy. He would have been a threat, and he would have been able to save his friends from the King.

He didn't expect, however, to be met with the actual King in front of him when he opened his eyes.

Janus' eyes widened and he immediately cursed himself for backing up. Great. He was all about putting up a fight and a second later, he was cowering. ‘Talk about blowing smokes.’ He at the very least kept his glare from fading away. He couldn't be scared of him. He couldn't show it. He was simply surprised... He had to make that a challenge for him, Deceit was not a side you could see right through, after all.

« You seem to have a quite... Interesting dancing style » King spoke, an almost mocking grin showing as he looked down at Janus. Crap. Did he knew ? Was he there the whole time ?

As the tyrant lift his hand, Janus snaps back into reality, setting his guard up and putting a stronger grasp on his cane. Only for the object to sudenly float in the air, shining with bright light and transforms into a sword that Janus grabbed back before it falls on the floor. This left only more confusion in the half-snake, confusion which turns into alert when he lifts his gaze back at the King only to be met with another blade. He jumps back.

« W... What ? » Janus was lost.

« Wouldn't you try and learn an acutal fighting technique ... » King's voice was composed, but also slightly amused at Deceit's confusion.

«... instead of the poor travesty I just witnessed ? » until it all vanished in favor of annoyance.

Janus tried to process the words as King switched his position for a dueling one. His sword in front of him, his torso on the side and his feet dug on the ground. Was he.... what ? What was happening ?? One thing sure was that he invited Janus to mirror his behaviour. And so he did, taking a deep breath, and standing still while carrying his sword to cross the others. And before he figured out what to do next, King took three blows and sent Janus' sword flying through the air and crashing on the ground.

« Whoa wHoa WHOA ! Hold on ! » Janus lifted his hands in defense and gulped as the blade of his enemy got dangerously close to his throat.

He then heard a chuckle, and the blade finally got away from his neck. « It was just too tempting. » He snapped his finger and the sword flew right back to Janus' hand, who was still confused.

« Alright, for real this time, I let you give the first blow. »

Janus hesitated, still not sure if the scene before him was really happening, but quickly composed himself. He came back to mirroring King's posture and came with a serious expression. He quickly analysed how he could start and how he could win the fastest. When he assumed to find a way to win quickly, he lifts his sword up and went for it.

Boy, was his assumption wrong.

He thought he'd move faster, but the moment the sword swingged on the left, King's weapon caught him off guard, and it only took two quick slays for Janus' to fly in the air again. He felt baffled and humiliated. And the amused smile from his opponent didn't boost his ego at the moment.

« How ? » He didn't understand. Even his instincts weren't nearly as fast as the King, and the tyrant didn't get the chance to train in years !

He only got an arrogant giggle in response before the sword flew back to Deceit's hand. Janus frowned deeper and dug his feet in the ground, ready to jump. King did not miss, nor cared for deceit's threat.

« Again. » He simply ordered. He only had to move his arm to be back to his initial position. Was there a point to it ? Or did his tyrant just liked to put him through this childish show of superiority ?

For some reason, Janus obeyed.

And lost.

Again.

« Try again. » the King ordered.

The other obliged.

After the 4th time the sword flew back into the yellow side, he had to face it : This was happening. King was training him to sword fight. And he just... accepted it ??? What ?? How was this happening ? Usually, he would try to bite back, make some remark, try to hurt him, but here he just... went along with it. And King seemed pleased with that. He looked...content. He looked satisfied with giving Janus private lesson. This moment...  against all odds... felt... not as bad as he expected.

The more they fought, the less cold the tyrant was, and the less tense they both get. King stopped trying to bring him to his knees and instead looked like he a professor, excited to give his student something to work on.

Of course, he would never admit it, but in this instant, in this moment of intimacy and challenge devoted from any animosity... It was calming, it was like a fresh wind coming after a heat wave of chaos, and the adrenaline that came from the fight was giving him enough energy to savour every second of it.

Wait.

No.

No no no no no.

He wasn't enjoying it. He wasn't enjoying it at all. He could not appreciate what was happening : the sadistic bastard was bellitling him and humiliating him right now ! And worst part is ? He couldn't even do anything about it ! Because King is so freacking good at sword fighting and Janus' main weapon has been turnd into a sword for crying out loud. There was no time to lust over past relationship !

And another game lost.

« I told you to pay attention to what was happening high up. Looking at my chest is not going to do much if you want to predict where or when I'm going to hit next. I thought you'd know that. »

« I was simply lost in another train of thought, I hope you could forg- »

DON'T.

FINISH

THIS WORD.

'You be submissive, god dammnit.' He thought to himself before clearing his throat and returning to his cunning voice. He had to keep his distance.

« I don't need you to tell me that. I was simply lost in thought. Do you really I am this much of an idiot ? »

« Well, you didn't prove me otherwise yet so. » He chuckled low and got ready for yet another one. « En garde. »

Even though he couldn't hide the joy he was feeling at the moment, he could mask it behind his usual calm appearance.

« And how many times are we going to do this ? » He asked, his tone playing between teasing and bored

«Until you get some actual fighting skills. » King answered, playing along.

« Ouch. I think I prefer the wounds caused by your sword. »

« Well then hurry up and grab your weapon. » Damn it. Why did they seem to get along of all sudden ?

« As you wish. This was merely a warm up. » he lied

« I do not doubt it any second. »

And just like that, the conversation became non-verbal again.

…

Truth be told, neither knew how long they've been fighting. Was it an hour ? Three hours ? 20 minutes ?

Truth be told, neither cared.

All janus knew is that he was getting better and better, almost becoming a challenge to the King , and the other side seemed glad to step up and fight with more intensity.

And both completely forgot to hide their excitement.

Janus started to tease king, even when he was clearly losing, and the other responded with as much sarcasm and complicity. The two glared at each other with malice and playfulness the whole time. And both couldn't help but smile.

And just like that, it felt as if they never left each other.

When he was younger, Janus and his king would play around with wooden swords, roleplaying like two ennemy seeking vengence in the most childish way. Janus sometimes would fake losing so he could see his king's proud smile which was worth losing 10 times again. His king would sometimes lose and janus would feel a feeling of acomplishment that was very strange to him, in a pleasant way. And at the end, they would most of the time lay down on the green grass and just talk about everything and anything.

And right now, he felt like he was playing with his king. Only the swords weren't made of wood anymore, and it was more professional. But still, it felt the same.

And it felt ...pleasant.

He could hear himself laugh just like when he was younger, and if he listened closely, he could feel king chuckle just like his king.

And it felt … nice.

From the talk, to the movement, both were on edge, calculating every move and waiting for an opportinity to strike. It was an amazing strategy game combined with pure raw strenght. And King's fighting style was both very classical and yet creative. He was very crafty and Janus only had to rival with his own tricks. They were in the moment, living fully the present.

And it felt...

And dear lord, it felt so, so good.

He could feel himself fly as he dodged, he could feel fire in his vein when he was about to strike down, he felt his head spinning, yet everything around him was so crystal clear, it was like a dance. A disturbing, aggressive, cold and passionate dance.

A dance...

They used to dance before.

His king and himself.

Most of the time, when they were done fighting, they would lay down on the grass. Most of the time.

Sometimes, he could have the biggest honor of all.

'Now, my dear, would you enjoy a waltz with me ?' his king offered his hand

-'I don't want to step on your foot again'

-'I told you you didn't hurt me ! Come now, it's not your job to be scared.'

despite his defensive approach, he adored those dances.

-'Alright, I'll dance with you. '

How did it go again ?

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3.

Left, right, right, wait no, was it left again ?

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

step up, forward, step back, and one turn and another. His king would have his hand on Janus' shoulder and Janus would have his hand on his king's waist. And they would dance, and the music filled the air, and his king would have made a room just for them to dance.

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

Turn around, then left then back up.

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

Then caught in their trance

1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

They would just spin around, and turn and spin and spin again and everything was  spinning around them and they could only see each other and the whole world was spinning and it was just them. Just the two of them.

And they would smile and they would laugh and everything was still spinning around them and it was blissfull, passionate, affectionnate and in they would join their hands once more and their finger would interlace and once their hands was only one thing, they would lift it in the air with bravery as a victory for their hapiness.

And he would lift his hand in the air, with his king.

And they would lift their hands, hold together, in the air.

And they would yell a victory choir.

King's sword fell on the ground.

And he had his hand on King's chest.

Oh lord, he was too close to King.

Their faces were only two inches apart.

And Janus visibly forgot how to breath.

King was staring with wide eyes, clearly not expecting Janus to send his sword flying nor getting this close. None of them dared move an inch, and none of them could breath.

What... what just happened ?

How could Janus get so caught up in his dreams that he erased whatever was happening in front of him ? And how did this stupid dance from years ago helped him beat the King to his game ? And how could he, despite everything,  try to search for his king's eyes in the tyrant that stood in front of him ?

Right now, the King's red and green eyes were  flickering into orange glimps and his look was just tearing Janus up from the inside. He looked ready to cut his throat open if he had his sword in hand.

And yet …

For only a moment, only for a single instant, did Janus find his King shining through the side in front of him.

Sadly, this bloom inside of Janus' heart got cut fast as thorns grapped him and pulled him far away from his The King, and before he realized what was happening, the thons just gripped tighter and tighter, making Janus unable to hide the jolt of pain.

He struggled, trying to get away from the grasp, but they only tightened and eventually, he stopped, gasping for air. He tried to look back at the tyrant, who was simply observing with a serious expression, the joy of the past moments seemingly dissapeared the moment Janus got too close. And now, he was back to being a threat. Without looking away, he move forward, with slow steps. Janus tried to manage a sentence but the pain was too high for him to form anthing coherent. Eventually, The King was in front of Janus, and the yellow side swore he was about to get killed right on the spot, but instead he just kneeled down, grapping back the sword that flew away.

Oh.

He got up and, with the other hand, brushed over the blade. Without looking away from it, he spoke : « You fought well. » He lift his eyes to meet Janus, struggling not to faint, and determined to look at him with rage. The corner of his lips twiched into the smallest of smirk and he turned back, opening the gap between the two.

And as the King took his steps, Janus' eyes widened, realizing what King was about to do.

'No.'

'No. Not again.'

'Don't leave. '

'Please'

'Don't leave me again. '

He turned into a snake to got away from the thorns and rushed towards him, ready to grip his cape. Anything. Anything but that. He was so close...

But the thorns got Janus back before he could make it.

He couldn't even hear his own grunts of pain. All he could listen to was the sound of footsteps, and a windblow that made King dissapear. Janus froze in place.

And the silence that grew in the room was deafening.

After what felt like an enernity, the thorns let go of Janus, who simply fell on his knees shaking. He hugged himself as hard as he could, and curled on himself.

He tried to fight back tears that wouldn't stop to threaten to fall.

And none of them ever left his eyes. Just like no wound ever left his heart.

------------------------- WHOOOOOO What a ride! This was really fun to write and the challenge of putting words on the visuals your head come up with is certainly something. Now, I hope you didn’t expect things for them to get better just like that, huh? ;) There is too much they need to discuss before being close to make peace, so that’ll have to wait! I have other ideas for those two so I’ll see if I get motivated to write it out. Hope you liked it!! :D

#Sanders sides #fanfic #janus sanders #king creativity #Kingceit #fanfiction #King!AU #rondoel #swordfight #The begining of Janus being a pinning disaster with a lot of emotional bagage #probably OOC #not a happy ending #Janus being a nostalgic little man #and King being conflicting as always #most probably screaming internally at the dramatic disaster in front of him #It's not easy being the king of a himbo's brain

[cotncandyboifics]

1989 [High School AU]: Chapter 3

AO3 Link

Masterpost

Chapter 1 ~ Chapter 2 ~ Chapter 4 ~ Chapter 5 ~ Chapter 6 ~ Chapter 7 ~ Chapter 8 ~ Chapter 9 ~

Pairings: slight Logince, eventual Prinxiety & Logicality

Word count: 1,983

Story summary: Roman Prince is your stereotypical Jock, with everyone swooning after him. Every day a crowd of people follow him around, only to disperse at his personal whim. In reality, he's lucky to have such good acting skills that help him cover up the disdain he has for his life. He only wishes he could use his skills properly.

Patton Whitelock's always there to lend a helping hand, no matter who you are. If you need a favor or just need someone to talk to, go to him. In reality, he's been taught from a young age that kindness should be held above all else. No one suspects that he took it the wrong way.

Logan Montgomery is the smartest boy in the Senior class. He's stern, and most people are too intimidated to speak to him. In reality, he despises most all of his fellow students. He sticks to his studies and doesn't stray, for fear of being stuck in his father's shadow his whole life.

Virgil Black is the most emo kid in school, let alone 12th grade; everyone knows to leave him be. In reality, he's very fortunate. He has two parents who love him dearly. But everything beyond his life, everything within his mind, is utter chaos and turmoil.

what will happen when they're assigned a biology project together?

General CW: food, swearing, implied s-lf h-rm, non-graphic descriptions of s-lf h-rm scars, graphic and non-graphic descriptions of anxiety attacks and panic attacks, drug abuse, minor character intoxicated on heroin, non-graphic drug overdose description, sickness/description of sickness, blood, non-graphic descriptions of needles, (will be added to as I write more)

Chapter CW: implied anxiety attack, (let me know if i missed anything please!)

Author notes: <none>

...

The four boys were in Roman's room; Virgil sprawled across the bed lazily, Patton and Logan observing Roman's pet turtle, and Roman taking out the Cress plants and setting them on the window sill by his desk.

"soooooooo adorable!!" Patton yelped. he was naturally very enthusiastic, but seemed to be putting a little extra umph into it now.

Logan smiled over at him. "Quite. This is a Trachemys Scripta Elegans, also known as the red-eared pond slider. These are among the most common species of pet turtles. Although, despite their prevalence, they are indeed 'adorable.'" Upon finishing his analysis, Logan looked back to Patton, who had been watching intently as Logan explained. Patton felt a light blush rise to his cheeks, looking away from Logan.

"H-how do you know so much about turtles?" Patton said quietly.

"Well, when I was young, I really wanted a pet turtle. My mother, well, she supported it, but my dad... well, they came to a compromise, that if I did my research and took care of it on my own, that I could have a pet turtle."

"...And? Did you end up getting one?" Patton asked, his face showing plainly how emotionally invested in this story he'd become.

"Yes. His name was Star, I had him for a total of two years and three months." Logan said shortly.

"Why only two years? What happened?" Patton said. "I thought turtles lived for a long time?"

"They do, but Star was already 46. I got him from a rescue center; he had been left in an aquarium on the side of the road. I knew before committing to keeping him that he wouldn't last too much longer." Logan reminisced, but only for a moment. "Anyway, that was years ago." He said shortly, turning away from Patton.

Just at that moment, Roman turned around and cleared his throat. "If I could have everyone's undivided attention," he side-eyed Virgil aggressively, who just smirked and seemed to relax more into Roman's bed. "ugh, typical. will you please come and join the conversation, Hot Topic?" he pressed.

"Aww, you think I'm hot." Virgil teased back as he sat up. Roman's eyes went wide, his cheeks darkening. But before Virgil could notice, Patton diverted the conversation.

"What's the plan, Roman? Logan?" Patton looked between the two of them, and they looked at each other. They both went to speak at the same time, interrupting each other. While Roman chuckled at the situation, Logan took the opportunity to speak first.

"Well, I assume that you don't have any fertilizer Roman, so we'll-"

"Actually, I had my dad pick some up on his way home from work! He bought two very different brands- one mainstream and one... liberal. I'll go grab those, and some plant pots." Roman interjected, and then pranced off out of his room to collect said items, leaving the three others alone in the room.

Immediately, Virgil got up from the bed, and bent down to check under the bed, rummaging around.

"What are you doing, Virgil?" Logan asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose again.

"Yeah, isn't that including on Roman's privacy?" Patton said, sounding a bit concerned.

"I believe the word you mean to use is 'intruding,' Patton, and the correct wording would be 'intruding upon,'" Logan corrected.

"Oh, sorry, 'intruding upon.' Thanks, Lo!" Patton said, smiling brightly. Logan felt his cheeks heat up, and smiled softly back to him.

"Well, if you must know," Virgil grunted, getting up from his crouching position on the floor and moving to examine Roman's bedside table, "I'm looking for his stash."

Logan and Patton shared a confused look. "what do you mean 'his stash?'" Patton asked, somehow looking more confused.

Virgil was now making his way into Roman's closet. "Whatever that means for Roman, I guess. the stuff he hides from his parents. Drugs, porn, you know. something juicy." Virgil clarified. Patton winced at the p word.

"Virgil! Not only is that - intruding upon - his privacy, but that's downright disrespectful! you stop that right now!" As Patton finished speaking, Virgil emerged from the closet empty handed.

"Well, either way, I just checked all the classic spots. nothing to write home about. Guess I'll have to up my searching game for next week." He teased Patton, who whimpered. Virgil plopped back onto the bed, and Logan was about to ask why Virgil would need to write a letter to his parents when he'd be returning home far before a letter would arrive. But, his opening mouth was cut off, as Roman returned with two small flat pots, both already consisting of two different looking types of fertilizer.

"It's amazing, the differences between these," Roman said, presenting the pots to his teammates. Patton leaned in, and Roman made a good point. One pot had grayer dirt, and much fewer flecks of minerals and nutrients, and the other looked rich with life - Patton half expected a worm to emerge from it.

Logan walked over to the sill where Roman had put the plants, setting them down on the empty section of the desk. Roman brought over the pots, and Logan pulled the Garden Cress plants out of their temporary plastic pots, placing them gently in their respective pots. While he did this, Roman stepped behind him and put his arms around Logan's waist, and growled lightly into his ear. Virgil scowled in their general direction, and Patton's face fell.

Through his blush, Logan cleared his throat. "Roman, that is inappropriate behavior, and frankly I'm not comfortable with it. Our relationship is currently strictly professional." His voice was a little unsteady and cracked once, but he kept himself composed for the most part.

Roman considered continuing to tease him, but decided to take a nobler, grander route. "Fine," He began, releasing Logan from their intimate embrace, "I'll leave you be today, but on one condition. Logan Montgomery, will you go on a date with me?"

Everyone in the room was shocked into silence, even Roman. He was surprised at his own confidence, but he just rolled with it, as he usually did. Virgil's scowl just worsened, and he quietly said he had to use the restroom, leaving with hardly a sound. Patton just looked horrified, all the color having drained from his face. But no one was looking at him.

Logan turned around slowly, looking Roman in the eyes, half expecting him to have some silly grin on his face and say "haha, just kidding! Man, I really had you there!" or something of the like. But Roman just returned his gaze confidently, a small smile tracing his face.

"...You're serious?" Logan said after a long moment. Patton was praying that he wasn't.

"deadly," Said Roman, his smile widening slightly.

Logan thought for a long moment. "...w-well, I'm not sure that's appropriate, consid-"

"Come on, just one date. That's all." Roman pleaded.

"And what of your reputation? Won't people be jealous? What if someone does someth-"

"I promise, I'll keep my... fans... from messing with you, if that's your biggest worry. Please, please please?" Roman pressed.

"...A-and I'm not sure my parents would approve. They've never allowed me to be involved with anyone romantically before, so-"

"I'm sure they'll be more understanding this time around! Or, better yet, just don't tell them!" Roman countered. He had a glint of determination in his eyes, and Logan knew he wasn't going to back down. He spent a long moment trying to think of some conflicting factor, but he couldn't come up with a thing. He also considered simply telling him he wasn't interested, but that would be a lie. Despite his better nature, Roman did capture his attention.

And so, with a somewhat defeated tone, Logan sighed and pushed his glasses up again. "Fine. One date. But that is all. I wouldn't plan on-" Logan tried to be stern, but Roman was pumping his fists in the air excitedly.

"yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!! Be prepared for the most romantic and fantastical evening of your life, my Iron Giant Nerd!! How's Thursday sound?"

"That is... adequate," Logan responded, not knowing what else to say.

"Excellent! Just give me one moment." Roman pulled out his phone, and from what Logan could see, he was looking something up. "...Okay! Perfect. I'll pick you up at from your house at, say, 7?"

"okay. I'll text you the address beforehand." Logan said shortly. He then set the pots on the windowsill, assuring that they were receiving equal amounts of light. "Alright, I'm going to go wash my hands in the kitchen and get some water for our specimens. Roman, the kitchen is the first left down the hall, correct?" Roman nodded, and Logan left swiftly. Roman just punched the air a few more times, and then fell back on his bed with a plop.

Patton was sitting on the edge of the bed, fiddling with the ring on his right middle finger. Don't let it show.

He turned to address Roman, a smile gracing his face that few people would know was forced. "Congratulations on your first date, Roman! You guys make an adorable couple. I wish you a successful relationship!" He said.

Roman sat up and eyed him. "Really? I mean, from the way you and Logan were talking, I would've guessed you have a crush on-"

"Nope!" Patton said shortly, smiling more intensely. "I like Logan a lot as a friend, but I'm so glad he has you now! Well, hopefully. We'll see after your first date! What do you think, will he want to go on another one?" Patton waggled his eyebrows.

Roman delved back into his self-centered world once again, considering Patton's query. "Well, I certainly hope so. I'm quite... attracted to Logan, so hopefully we connect on an emotional and mental level as well. If I play my cards right, I think he'll fall for me." Roman idly speculated, smiling at Patton.

"I'm sure! I mean, you are such a charmer, from what I've seen. I-I mean no disrespect! I don't mean like that. I mean you have an inmate skill for attracting people! I think you have a shot." As Patton finished, Logan returned with clean hands and a spray bottle, walking over to the plants in the sill.

"Once again Patton, the word you mean to use is 'innate.' Don't worry, you'll get there." Logan assured, spritzing each plant exactly five times. "Roman, since you'll be the primary parent of these plants, i beg you, please don't falter in consistently watering them. five spritzes each, every day, preferably when you get home from school. If you don't have confidence in your commitment to this, as I don't, I suggest setting a reminder on your phone." Logan turned to Roman, watching expectantly for him to pull out his phone.

"Oh calm down, calculator watch. I have complete 'confidence in my commitment,' thank you very much," Roman said, earning a grimace from Logan, who then turned away and pulled out his own phone. Once Logan's attention was diverted, Roman did in fact pull out his phone and set a reminder for watering the cress.

Just as he was slipping his phone back into his pocket, Roman felt it buzz. "There's my address. Now, I'm going to call my parental units. I must be getting home, as I have work to do. For now, none of you should worry about the report itself, I'll be writing up a draft tonight and sharing it with each of you. Excuse me." And with that, Logan left the room once again to call his father, leaving Roman and Patton in silence.

Suddenly, Roman thought of something. "Hey, where's Virgil? Count Woe-laf may not be the best company, but it seems he's been absent for an excessive amount of time."

Patton didn't say anything as he listened to Roman, his thoughts quickly beginning to race. He's right. When did Virgil leave? Oh, when Roman first asked Logan. Oh, no... he wouldn't have been gone this long, unless-

Patton stood abruptly. "Wait here. I'll be right back." He said quickly, rushing out the door, leaving Roman to speculate.

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #thomas sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #ts patton #ts roman #ts logan #ts virgil #prinxiety #logicality #logan x patton #roman x virgil #high school au #slow burn

[logical-little-lies]

The Secret Surprise Playdate- Little Vlogs (Chapter Seven)

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated this in almost a month! The chapters in this fic are longer compared to the ones in my agere au, and even my oneshots are usually shorter! I love this series and I like surprising you guys with 3000+ word chapters! Hope you enjoy it, please leave comments (wattpad)/send asks w/reactions to my inbox (tumblr)!!

Chapter Summary: The four go on another "date", this time it's a picnic at the park. It's quickly revealed that its a surprise playdate, set up by Logan. Let's see how this turns out.

--

Okay, Logan was willing to admit that he may have specifically picked this spot for their "date" so that the littles could regress if they wanted to. And maybe, just maybe, he packed a bag of new little stuff in the car just in case that did happen. Maybe he planned to softly push them into littlespace with said items.

And he may have possibly chosen a nice, but tucked away playground so that they all felt comfortable being vulnerable if they did just so happen to regress. . But of course, none of the others knew of this plan.

Roman and Virgil stayed at Patton's house the night prior, just like every other weekend.

"Where are you taking us? Like, why can't you tell us?" Roman complained, brushing his teeth in the hallway bathroom. Logan came by the bathroom, pausing in front of the door.

"It's a surprise, princey. I suggest you don't dress up a ton, though. Just wear something cute." Logan spoke from the doorway.

"Trick question, I'm cute in everything." Roman set his toothbrush in a cup with the rest of theirs, kissing Logan quickly.

"That wasn't a question, but yes, that statement is true." Logan chuckled.

"I'm gonna go pick something out though. Do you mind if I steal your clothes?" Roman didn't actually let Logan reply before he spoke again. "No? Thank you, you're the best." he kissed Logan's cheek and ran off before the freckle-faced man could get a word in.

Roman laughed as he shut Logan's bedroom door behind him. Logan rolled his eyes, leaving him to it and going into Patton's little room, checking if Patton was in there. He found Virgil and Patton, sitting on the bed and talking.

"Hi Lo! I was letting Virgil borrow some of my jewelry, and I keep most of it in here." he explained. Virgil was dressed in a loose black tank top, and some grayish high-waisted shorts. He also wore a black belt, accessorizing it with his own chains, and some of Patton's bracelets.

"How do you manage to stay emo, even in the heat?" Logan teased the boy, who blushed a bit. Virgil glanced down, smiling shyly. Virgil wasn't soft, ever. But when one of the other three in his house teased him, or was flirty in any way, suddenly there were a few exceptions to that rule.

Logan came over to him, lifting his face by his chin before kissing him. "You look cute, don't worry."

Virgil smiled wider. "Thank you,Mr. Freckles.  Can we know where you're taking us now?" he asked, shifting the subject.

"Nope, you simply can't." Logan gave a shrug, leaving Virgil to give a playful glare. He looked at Patton, who wore a pastel blue t-shirt, paired with black shorts similar to Virgil's. He had a colorful belt, and he wore some kandi bracelets. He also wore his round glasses instead of his usual ones.

"You look adorable too. The pastel shirt goes well with your hair," Logan complimented. Patton smiled immediately.

"Thank you!" Patton thanked him as he walked out of the room.

It was a little while after that that the four headed out in the car. "Okay so we are going on some sort of picnic, we know that much. But where?" Roman asked. It was Roman's turn to sit next to Logan in the passenger seat.  He had spotted Logan putting food into a picnic basket in the kitchen as they were getting ready to leave.

"You'll see where, darling. Just be patient," Logan instructed, making sure to focus on the road.

"But I wanna know nowww," Roman whined, crossing his arms.

"You sound suspiciously like a child right now. Do you want me to put you in timeout when we get there, Roman?" Logan came to a stop at a stop sign on a corner of a street. Logan looked at him, raising his eyebrow. Logan was mostly teasing, but he really had picked up on the childish undertone in Roman's voice.  Patton and Virgil watched from the backseat as if this was a teen drama show, Roman giving a slight pout.

"Um,no timeout please. Sorry," he went quiet, uncrossing his arms. Virgil was the only person to see Roman regress and he knew that's what was happening. He was a mixture of excited for what was planned, and also upset that Logan wouldn't tell him. It was two conflicting emotions, and mostly excitement was taking over. It was a positive trigger for his headspace and Logan had obviously been prepared for it.

"It's alright, Ro. You're aloud to be excited, but you don't need to whine when I don't ruin the surprise just because you want me too." Logan turned onto another street. Roman nodded a bit, looking out the window.

"I've never seen Roman little," Patton whispered to Virgil in the backseat.

"He doesn't regress a ton. He's almost completely involuntary when it comes to his headspace, he had negative and positive triggers. Being excited is a positive one," Virgil explained. Patton nodded.

"Logan is good at caring for me if I regress while we are out and about. If he know's it's a bad situation, or not the right place, he will guide me out of my headspace for the time being. It we are on a walk, or somewhere where I don't need to interact with other people, he  might baby me a bit and let me act discreetly little. I'm sure he can do the same for Roman," Patton assured. Virgil agreed, and they continued talking for a bit.

Eventually, Logan turned onto a car path that led into a forest. It was a community park, with lakes, different playgrounds, and even running paths.

"You've taken me here before!" Patton looked out the window, glancing around. "We go on runs together sometimes, you can see some really pretty plants on the paths here." he told Virgil.

Logan used signs to navigate, confusing everyone when he drove away from where everyone else was. "I'm going to an area farther out, no one really goes there but it's nice, I promise."

Patton's eyes widened when they finally parked, looking at the playground. It was completely empty, and there were some lunch-table benches scattered about. It was sunny, and there were some flowers in the grass. "This is the playground we found when we were looking for a quiet spot to eat! I completely forgot about it," Patton seemed shocked with himself, but also happy he recalled it in the first place.

"I've been planning to bring you back here at some point, but it's a little farther out and there's been a lot going on. Then we met Roman and Virgil and I thought it'd be the perfect place to spend the day." Logan unbuckled himself, smiling at the boy in the back seat.

"It is kinda cute..." Virgil seemed to be eyeing the swingset, shrugging before unbuckling himself and climbing out of the car. Logan opened Patton's door, moving to help him unbuckle.

"I can do that myself! I was just distracted!" Patton whined, trying to push his hands away.

"Oh shush, let me help you." Logan instructed, finishing the job before Patton could say no. Roman was out of the car by the time Patton shut the door behind him.

"You two go pick out a table for us to eat at," Logan instructed to Virgil and Patton, looking to Roman, "You help me get the stuff out of the car."

They did as they were told, splitting up. "Why are you being so quiet, Roman?" Logan questioned as he opened the trunk of the car. Logan felt a little bad for immediately threatening timeout the moment Roman started whining about something in the car, but he knew he probably wasn't actually gonna punish the boy no matter what.

"I feel like a kid and I don't wanna embarrass myself," he admitted, biting at his lip.

"You shouldn't repress your headspace if it's avoidable. I don't see anyone here, do you?" Logan asked,pulling the picnic basket out of the car and handing it to him. Roman shook his head.

"Just us."

"Which means..." Logan trailed off, looking at him. Roman tilted his head.

"You can regress if you want. There just so happens to be a playground right here for you to play in...." Logan gave him a look, and Roman smiled. "I'll even push you on the swings, if you'd like. And if you don't feel comfortable regressing in public, even when no one is around, I respect and understand that. We can always eat and play some question games if you'd rather do that."

"If it's okay, playing on the playground sounds kinda fun." Roman looked at Logan hopefully as he pulled a small cooler from the car.

"Of course it's okay, darling. Now, let's go take these to the picnic table, hmm?"

--

Logan had gone back to grab the super-secret bag on little gear, closing the trunk of the car after he was done. While we was doing that, the others dug into the food.

"So, I have a second surprise for all of you." Logan announced as he sat back down.

"You're just spoiling us today, aren't you?"Virgil chuckled, popping a blueberry in his mouth.

"You guys deserve it. You two work shifts at the mall on weekdays, and Patton is constantly filming and working to improve his channel. You guys work a lot, and I decided to give you guys some rewards for working so hard, that's all."

The three of them waited for him to begin. "Now,before I start, I wanna say that basically all this stuff is meant for when you're little."

Roman seemed even more excited to see said items now, taking a bite from a strawberry as he waited for Logan to keep going. "Roman, we will start with you, buddy. Okay?" He started pulling things out of the bag, and Roman nodded.

"Here's a few sticker sheets. Some of them are disney princesses, and just disney-themed in general. Others are hearts, and cute stuff like that." Roman seemed content, going through the different sheets.

"Virgil, you got mostly Halloween themed stickers. Bats, pumpkins, stuff like that." He hand ed Virgil the stack of sticker sheets.

"Thank you. You didn't have to get me anything, though." He commented.

"It'd be a bit unfair if I only got Roman and Patton stuff, though. Wouldn't it?" he raised his eyebrow, and Virgil shrugged.

"Yo! You got me a Nightmare Before Christmas pack!" He was immediately distracted and occupied while Logan got Patton's stickers out.

"Yours is mostly pastel-colors. Hearts, and other cutesy things you like," Logan knew for a fact that pushing Patton into little space was one of the easiest things ever. He was pretty sure that by the time he got through the gifts, Patton would surely be referring to him as "Daddy" and asking him to play on the playground with him.

"Roman and Patton, you two got these." He gave them each those kiddy lipglosses, the ones that didn't do much but the containers were cute and kidish so littles tend to love them anyways. Virgil pouted a bit.

"Don't worry, baby. I got you something else I thought you'd like," Logan dug through the bag, pulling out some nail polishes. They were only a few, in shades of purple mostly. "We can combine those with the stuff we have at home, I figured we could have a nail-painting day. Doesn't that sound fun?"

Virgil nodded, setting them carefully back on the table. Logan continued to go through the bag,gifting them things. The stuff was small items that you could find easily in the toy section of any store, cheap items that he knew would appeal to each boy. He gave each of them bubbles, and boxes of crayons too.

"I didn't know how old you regressed to, so I got you a kid's water bottle and a sippy cup," He gave Roman two cups. Both of them were disney princess themed, and Roman immediately loved them.

"They're pink! Thank you Lo!" he cheered. He didn't quite know much about his regression yet either, so chances were,he'd try both and decide what he liked.

Logan gave Virgil a sippy cup with a skull on it, and Patton a carebears themed one. "One last thing for each of you, and then we are done with the gifts." All three of them waited in anticipation, already happy with what they got.

"Close your eyes and clear off a spot in front of you," he instructed. They did so, closing their eyes. A few seconds later, Logan spoke again. "Open!"

Patton immediately hugged the stuffed kitten in front of him. Roman looked at the little stuffed puppy in front of him, hugging it after a few seconds. It had dark brown fur, and it was the same size as Patton's black kitten. Virgil got a gray elephant stuffie, with really soft fur.

They all said their thank you's, hugging the stuffed animals. "None of them have names yet, we can come up with those later. Now, let's eat some food, and then we can go play."

At this point, they were all at least somewhat regressed, just on different levels. Logan put the majority of the stuff back in the bag, including the stuffed animals so that that didn't get dirty. The only thing he left out was the sippy cups.

He opened the cooler, taking Patton's cup and pouring apple juice into it. "Thank you, Daddy." he replied, swinging his legs under the table.

"Would you like me to put this in the sippy cup for you?" he spoke to Virgil softly, holding up a bottle of grape juice. "If you don't want to go into littlespace here, I understand that Vee."

"Wanna but m' scared," he mumbled, hugging himself because he didn't have the stuffed animal anymore.

"No one is here, it's just us. I won't force you, but if you're okay with it, I can take care of you?" he offered. Virgil sighed, biting his lip. He nodded, pushing the sippy cup across the table. Logan filled it up quickly, giving it back to him and looking to Roman.

Roman handed him the children's water bottle without another word, and Logan put orange juice in it. He knew Roman liked orange juice, he drank a glass almost every morning when he woke up at their house. He took the sippy cup and put it back in the back. All three of the boys were little, and they had a whole park to play on.

The rest of this day was gonna be really fun.

--

After the boys ate, the immediately wanted to go play on the playground. Logan had made them sandwiches, and let them each more of the fruit as they pleased. Once they all ate, he sent them to play while he packed up the food. They all drank up their sippy cups, so he threw them back in the bag, leaving the stuff neatly on the table.

Roman climbed every climbable contraption on the playground. The little rock wall, the metal dome, the rope webbed-bridge. He also liked the monkey bars. Patton went down the slides, and also talked to Virgil through the "telephones", giggling every two seconds.

Virgil stayed on the swings at first. "Baby boy, do you wanna go on the roundabout?" Logan asked as his swing slowed down. He pointed to the playground's simplified carousal, and Virgil hummed.

"Will you spin me on it?" he asked. Logan nodded. Virgil got off the swing, hesitantly moving offer to the spinny contraption. He climbed onto it.

"I'll spin you slow at first, okay?" Virgil nodded. Virgil was scared at first, but he realized that it was fun quickly. He didn't like being dizzy when he got off though.

"Daddy? Can I do the monkey bars?" Patton called out after going down a slide.

"Sure thing, go ahead." Logan nodded, helping Virgil off the roundabout. Patton went on the monkey bars, no problem. One thing about them not acutally being kids, is that there was no issue with them being to small physically to do things. They did look a bit big on the playground though.

They continued their games and shenanigans for a while before they got tired. They played hide and seek, tag, and they also went to the highest spot of the playground (that you could get to without climbing something that wasn't meant to be climbed.) It was the little tower that stood above everything else, with a yellow slide coming off of it.

Logan learned that Virgil gets nervous to do things a lot when little. He needs pushed to go down a slide, or even ask for help.

Roman likes to talk a lot, all about everything. He likes doing the "adventurous" things, while still finding a way to keep it kidish. Logan knew they weren't completely regressed because they were in a public space, but he did get to learn a bit about two littles he hoped he'd be allowed to call his own soon.

"You can go down the slides a few more times while I put the stuff in the car, okay babies?" he asked. Roman pouted a bit about leaving, but they all agreed. Logan smiled to himself a bit as he closed the trunk, happy with the outcome of today. They all had tons of fun.

He helped all three of them get buckled into the car. Virgil sat in the front seat this time.

They all seemed to slowly come out of their headspace as they drove home. "You evil genius, you planned a secret playdate, basically!" Roman huffed, figuring it out within a few moments of managing to pull himself out of his headspace.

"I wanted to give you guys the chance to regress around me for the first time in a fun, childish setting. I gave you all the option of not regressing if you didn't feel comfortable, but I'm glad you guys did, it was fun." Logan smiled.

"I've regressed around you before though," Virgil said.

"But that was when Patton was big, and he kinda took over. Today was the chance for me to learn more about Little Virgil, and Little Roman. And how you guys do when it comes to interacting with Little Patton." Logan explained.

"Today was fun, Logan. Thank you," Roman spoke from his place behind Virgil.

The other two thanked him as well, "You're welcome. We can go back to that park soon, okay?"

"yay! I can climb the metal dome again!" Roman cheered. Virgil rubbed at his eyes, yawning.

"Are you sleepy? You guys did play a lot." Virgil nodded a bit to Logan's statement.

"How does a movie night sound? You can take a nap, and do whatever you'd like while I make dinner, and then we can watch movies until we get tired again." Patton offered.

Once agreeing to this plan, their plan for the night was set. That day was an amazing one they'd all remember. The time Logan tricked them into turning what they thought was a date, into a littlespace playdate.

Logan did all that just to learn more about Roman and Virgil, and they appreciated it so much.

They could almost say they loved him for it.  

--

Taglist: @stimmingsides @smollilsanderssides @novacloudcat @analogical-agere @fairyhuman2000 @aphandgflover@softastarlight @littlesapphygem @softflowerinmyheart @virgietheprincess @babeyalstar @b3an-spr0ut @babeyvoid @because-were-fam-ily @lonelysoul43-0 @lgbtqiaemo

please let me know if you’d like to be added/I forgot to add you!

#The Agere Channel Lamp AU #The Agere Channel AU #LAMP/CALM #ts agere #sanderssidesagere #sanders sides agere #little patton #little virgil #little roman #roman agere #virgil agere #patton agere #cglogan #cg logan #littlevirgil #littleroman #littlepatton

[nommy-thoughts]

Danger Noodles

This is a story co-written with @that-prey-lounge​! We’re pretty proud of it, and we hope you enjoy. (Note: I’m posting it on this account because there is vore in this story, but it's safe and soft when it occurs, and there are alternate, non-vore chapters for each of the chapters which contain vore!) 

Summary: 

Florida Man somehow befriends even the most dangerous of predators. 

“I can’t eat him. He’s too cute to be food!”

Or: The time Patton’s sheer adorableness not only saved him from becoming a meal to twin giant nagas, but netted Logan a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that any scientist would envy.

[masterpost]

Chapter 1: The Fateful Hunt

Word Count: 1.3 K

Summary: Patton manages to win himself a pair of very large, very hungry friends.

~~~~~

Cool air rushed through the deep forest, one of the first cold snaps of fall. The trees had recently exploded into bright reds, oranges, and yellows. Leaves swirled on the breeze, and the sun shone brightly.

The peace was only broken by two large creatures stalking prey through the shadows. One naga had deep green scales, covered in mud, and bright red eyes. The other had vibrant red scales and dazzling green eyes.

Both sets of eyes were locked on a human, crouched over a pretty rock. Under the sweater he wore against the cool weather, they could see that he had a good, full figure. He would be quite filling. And he was alone, no packmates to save him.

The two nagas made eye contact, exchanging a silent message, and moving as one, they pounced.

The human shrieked in surprise as Remus swiped at him, sending him stumbling into Roman, who immediately coiled his tail tightly around the struggling creature.

“And that,” Roman said, patting his red tail, “looks like my dinner. Thank you for the help, Remus.”

“Your dinner!?” Remus repeated indignantly.

“Yes, my dinner.” Roman tightened his coils slightly, beginning to constrict his prey. The human continued to squirm, but his strength was beginning to give out. “I caught it, I get to eat it.”

“Puh-leeze, you just grabbed it, I had to shove it at you.”

While the twins argued, the human continued to squirm, managing to pull a hand free as Roman shifted his coil once more. “H-hey!”

They froze and glanced down at the human, who was still wrapped up in Roman’s coils.

“I don’t want to interrupt, but, uh, is there any chance that you possibly… don’t eat me?”

Remus had to stifle a laugh. He lowered himself down to grin in the human’s face. “D’aaawww, the widdle human thinks it can get out. How cuute.” He glanced up at Roman. “Playing with our food is my thing, gimmee.”

Roman scoffed. “No! I’m going to eat it!”

“Then do it already so we can find my dinner! I’m starving!”

Roman used his hands to pull the human out of his coiled tail, lifting him toward his mouth. “Fine,” he muttered. “I never rush your meals, but go ahead and make me stuff it down before I get to kill it properly.”

The human squeaked, not unlike a mouse, and started to squirm more vigorously. “W-wait! Don’t eat me yet! I— I don’t want you to choke on my glasses!”

Roman paused and inspected the human. He did have something on his face, something made of glass and thin metal. That could leave a mark going down. After a moment’s consideration, he set the human on the ground, but kept a firm grip on him. “Take them off… and that bag.”

The human nodded. He slung the bag down from his shoulder, opening it. Roman worried for a moment that he was going to pull out a weapon of some sort, even though he was sure he could quickly disarm him. But instead, the human just pulled out a small box. He took the ‘glasses’ from his face, folded them up, and put them in the box, which he returned to the bag.

The little human squinted up at Roman and sighed quietly. “I guess I’m ready.”

Roman felt extremely conflicted as he took the human up in his hands again. He’d never had any prey actually care if anything they did would injure Roman.

They mostly just screamed and tried to either run or hurt the two nagas.

“Uh…” Roman trailed off, glancing down at the little human. “Thanks… for being so cooperative.”

“You’re welcome.” The human smiled and Roman just couldn’t. He couldn’t eat this precious little creature.

“What is the holdup , Roman!?” Remus hissed impatiently.

“I can’t eat him!” Roman held the human out, one hand under each arm. “Look at his face ! I - I just can’t let myself be responsible for eating this adorable creature!”

The human tilted his head and made a soft noise. It took everything Roman had to not drop him.

“What could possibly be so - oh.” Remus had almost circled Roman to see the human’s face and he stopped when he saw it. “Oh… that is really adorable.”

“I can’t eat him.” Roman set the human down, completely letting him go. “He’s too cute to be food!”

Remus opened his mouth, but shut it after a second. He loved to devour small, helpless creatures, but even he was having second thoughts about turning this little one into mush.

“Well… if… if he’s not going to be eaten… we can’t just leave him here. Those bears don’t have a heart like we do. They’d tear his sweet little flesh up to make winter fat without another thought.”

Roman nodded and scooped the human quickly up into his arms. “Then let’s get him somewhere safe.”

“Agreed.” Remus roughly grabbed the bag up, not noticing the glasses case fall out as the two brothers started up towards their cave.

The human wiggled a little, but didn’t struggle much. Just seemed to be getting comfortable in Roman’s arms. After a second, he piped up. “What are your names? I’m Patton. Patton Hart.”

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Patton.” Roman flashed his dazzling smile, remembering a minute too late that his sharp teeth could frighten Patton. Humans usually screamed louder when they saw his teeth. “My name is Roman, this is my twin brother, Remus.”

Remus lifted himself a little higher at the sound of his name. “Nice to meet you, sorry for wanting to eat you, we’re both just a little peckish.”

Roman glared, but Patton didn’t seem perturbed at all. They continued up towards the mountain.

It wasn’t too long until the three of them arrived at the mouth of the cave. Roman carried Patton in, setting the human down and allowing him to walk now.

“Welcome to our humble abode.” Roman gently squeezed one of Patton’s shoulders before heading deeper into where they slept.

“None of our other prey has ever seen it,” Remus snickered before herding Patton in.

“O-oh,” Patton said. “Well, then I’m honored to be the first.” He peered around him, looking oddly like he was trying to see through a thick fog. “What I can see of it, anyway.”

When Remus and Patton got to the sleeping portion of the cave, Roman was tossing things around in an attempt to try and tidy up the place. After a moment of gathering up discarded bones, he shoved them behind a rock, hoping Patton wouldn’t notice. Other scattered things were also shoved into piles, and he really tried to shove the assorted backpacks into the bottoms to hide them.

Remus flopped in the shallow indent they slept in, pulling and piling his long tail in. “Before we get dinner for real, I think I could use a nap.” He felt a thin bone under an arm and quickly threw it behind a rock.

Patton shuffled forward, squinting harder, and tripped over part of Remus’s tail. “Oh! Sorry! It’s dark, and I don’t have my glasses on.”

Roman sighed quietly and slithered into the indent, pulling Patton up between them. After a second, the twins snuggled closer, each of their tails trying to wrap around Patton.

He was warm. Deliciously so.

“You two are cuddlers, huh?” Patton squirmed a little as Remus managed to get a grip on him. “Not too tight, please. You’re both very big.”

Roman sighed, pulling Patton out from the loop of tail starting to coil around him. Remus whined slightly, but Roman pointed out, “Wouldn’t want to constrict him in our sleep,” and he had to concede. Instead, Roman held Patton in his hand as the two brothers coiled around each other, and when they were settled, he draped the human over their entwined tails.

It wasn’t hard for the brothers to drift off. They were exhausted from a long, unsuccessful hunt, and they had a lovely soft and warm heat source right in their bed. Patton, recently over a fright, found himself more tired than he ordinarily would be at this time of day, and he was not long in joining them in slumber.

~~~~~

Chapter 2: The Other Hikers

#mine #that prey lounge #nommy thoughts #sanders sides #writing #my writing #I... do not have tags for collabs yet sorry #collab #collaborative writing #tangentially nommy related

[random-writes-blog]

What you are chapter 3 part 1

Remus felt something pull at his collar. Like an invisible string was attached to it and pulling against him. He adjusted his t-shirt slightly with annoyance. Stupid parts of it getting stuck on things- but no, there it was again, harder. His stomach churned, he didn’t dare wish, but of course his mind went wild with ideas of why Tommathy could be summoning him. Oh he hadn’t been summoned since... He thought and thought. Oh. He’d never been summoned before.

Well there was always time for a first, he thought as he let himself be pulled up by the string into the common room. He was surprised to find it relatively empty, Thomas stood in the center of the room and seemed confused and conflicted as usual, Virgil glared at him and played with the strings of his hoodie which was pulled up over his head Remus would bet money he was chewing on the inside of his lip, and Patton stood by the steps and gave him a cheery wave. It only now occurred to Remus that there wasn’t a script planned for the day either, so this must genuinely be a problem Thomas is going through in the moment and he was asked to help.

Virgil was the first to speak, “This was a mistake.”

Patton shook his head, “Aw come on kiddo, we have to at least give him a chance!”

Remus looked from one side to the other, “Guess who has no fingers and no clue what’s going on?” He held up the bloodied stumps he’d made his hands in the last two seconds, “THIS GUY!”

Virgil groaned and put his face in his hands, “Great, terrific, what I always wanted to see.” Remus looked him dead in the eyes and s l o w l y licked the bloodied stump, waggling his tongue when he reached the knuckle.

“Like licking a jam covered, hard di-”

“SAY kiddo,” Patton interrupted, “I’d be glad to tell you what’s going on as soon as you stop being disgusting.”

Remus lowered his stump, popping the fingers back on and wiping off the remaining blood. Virgil squinted at him suspiciously, but Patton looked at him with a glittering smile.

“Great! Okay well, Thomas’s friends are having a horror movie marathon this weekend and you know horror movies tend to make Thomas extremely, ah, anxious.” Virgil pulled his hoodie’s strings tighter, “BUT Rico’s going to be there, and we really haven’t talked to him since the whole, ‘yelling at him for being a former homophobe’... Thing. This would be a great time to talk to him in person and apologize!”

“As we all know, the best time to apologize is when you’re in front of all of your friend group and already anxious because you’re about to watch a series of horror movies sure to give you nightmares for the next week.” Virgil huffed.

Patton bit his lip, “And that’s why I called you!” He pointed at Remus, “You know Thomas isn’t trying to do anything bad, so if you could... Maybe just... Not give him nightmares after the movie night?”

Virgil and Remus blinked in unison. That-That wasn’t how this worked. This wasn’t how any of this worked.

Virgil sighed, “Patton he can’t just-”

“I’ll do it!” Remus blurted out without really thinking. He mentally cursed himself, he couldn’t do that! He couldn’t just... Stop, it was like asking Logan to think positive or Virgil to not make Thomas anxious- why did he say he would? He looked at Virgil’s face, the disbelief, it was almost worth it for the pure shock value.

Almost.

Because he had no idea he was going to pull this off. Something that didn’t help at all was how Patton decided to respond. He did that weird stretchy arm thing to give him a high five, he was in such an intense mood that he bit Patton’s hand. His hands were slightly sticky, he licked it to do a taste test before letting go.

There was a silence in the room as everyone stared at him, he hated it.

“You had peanut butter and strawberry jam for lunch.” He stated and the tension did seem to ease a bit.

“Anywhos,” Patton said, wiping off the spit with a summoned hankercheif. “I’m glad you’re working with us now! This is going to be great of Thomas’s social life, if... Uh Virge, are you comfier with the idea of going to the party now?”

Virgil looked like he was still in shock about what Remus said, “I-I’m still not really sure.” He put his fingers to his temple, “This- This is wrong, this feels wrong.”

Patton looked at him sympathetically, “Kiddo... I know- Logan said that thing about needing to ease the transition. I understand Remus can make you uncomfortable heck he used to make me uncomfy! He’s an uncomfy person.” Remus made a squaking bird-like noise to remind them that he was, in fact, still in the room. Patton made a throat clearing noise and continued, “But right now he’s saying he’ll be helpful to Thomas! Just... Give him a chance? A single chance is all I’m asking.”

Virgil held himself and for a few seconds thought about the scenario, weighing the worst scenario and best in his head. Remus could practically see the gears turning in his head before he wrapped his arms around himself and said, “Okay. One chance.” His eyes were fire as he turned to Remus, “If Thomas has ONE nightmare I will personally come to the Dark Side and steal your toes.”

Remus shrugged, the most Virgil would do was yell at him next time he rose up but he could go off he guessed. “Sounds fair.”

Patton smiled as he sunk out, “Oh I love a happy ending!” Virgil followed soon after, giving an ‘I’m watching you’ gesture to Remus who responded with a finger wave. His shoulders sagged a bit and unfortunately Thomas noticed.

“Hey, are you like, okay?” He asked squinting at the side.

Remus forced himself to perk up, something he didn’t think he’d ever be doing.

“Perfect as Matthew McConaughey’s ass!” He shouted, creating a perfect model in Thomas’s head, though Thomas seemed far too okay with that so he added the image of the ass with explosive diarrhea.

Thomas took a deep breath, “Okaaaaay, well I’m going to go call Lee and tell him I’ll be able to make it. Uh, thanks Remus? I’m sure this is a good idea now-”

Remus waved his hand, “No problem, just doing my job as a side.” And with that he sunk his way back into the Dark Side.

------

#What you are #what you are chapter 3

[andy-andromedus]

OK SO LIKE

You know how a lot of ppl have been operating on the theory that the core four have sides that in some way conflict w them?

I dont think thats right in one way! Its probably bullshit but like.. janus, the roman god, has no greek equivalent- which is a wee bit odd considering most of the Roman gods were based off of greek ones, because when the romans invated the greeks, they "stole" their gods and renamed them!

Like:

Zeus -> Jupiter

Hera -> Juno

Aphrodite -> Venus

But the only kind of... similar greek God (that i know off, and feel free to correct me) is Hecate, the godess of magic and crossroads. Hecate does have a Roman equivalent, Hekate, who was the goddess of magic and dark arts, and the crossroad duties were given to Trivia in rome, although neither were exactly well known

Ok back on track, i dont think janus is supposed to oppose or in some way be the opposite of one side, as its shown that he in some way, has a quarrel with all the sides (although his relationship with remus is fairly unknown) especially virgil, and i think hes more there to help patton than oppose him, considering Pat doesnt represent truth, but rather truth is part of his character under morality, which is why him and janus seem to get on okay- sometimes telling the truth all the time isnt good for anyone, but i digress-

Janus not having an equivalent in Rome, where a lot of their gods have a greek god that came before them, means that our Janus might be something separate from the rest, like virgils name not fitting within any spelling patterns with both the dark and light sides, but, he, like virgil, roman and remus, all seem to fit under roman mythology, while logan and patton fit under the greek logos and pathos, and we expected janus to fall under ethos, but he instead fell under the roman pattern along with the others

Edit: so maybe orange will fit into the greek pattern, completing the logos/pathos/ethos?

Either way, i just think its neat that janus probably doesnt directly oppose any of the sides, hes just vibing and doing his own thing

#sanders sides #sanders sides theory #ts theory #janus sanders #remus sanders #Patton sanders #Roman sanders #logan sanders #ts janus #ts remus #ts Patton #ts romN #ts logan #THIS WAS AN EXCUSE TO RANT ABOUT GREEK/ROMAN MYTHOLOGY AT 1AM OK #logans theories #sorry b spelling #it was written at 1-3am

[blissicle]

Ok so this stems from ‘what if the sides could fuse and what would their fusions be like’ sort of thing just to give you context

Moceit fusion idea (James)

name: James (but it’s not absolute this is just what I’m using right now) ((but I do like the name))

State of fusion: they started to get really close to one another the months post putting others first. And accidentally fused (but that’s a story for another time). They started fusing at the beginning a lot to be able to experience the fusion they’ve created and also to take comfort in each other. So James uses this time to make sure he at least develops some sort of a relationship with each side

- the absolute dad

- Will make puns, some are obvious, some are very obscure and layered

- Love anything jazzy or oldies

- “deep in the meadow” lullaby sounds so much like him

- Access to Thomas’s memories (the nostalgic ones as well as sadder ones)

- Just, really feeling melonchony sometimes

- Has a soft spot for Virgil

- Cares and loves for the twins

- Very good friends with Logan

- Loves to playfully tease the others

- Occasionally starts singing along to a Disney song when in a good mood

- Good intentioned, but can be a bit too harsh at times

- Tries to push the others to be better which sometimes leads to putting too much pressure on them

- Usually very calm and graceful

- drinks “soup” in the evenings or coffee in the mornings

- He does like the sarcastic types of dad jokes

- he has a weekly spa day (self care)

- He loves his little cape thing because during the winter it’s w a r m t h.

- He absolutely loves just sitting by the fire with his cape around him in a bundle with several other blankets with some hot chocolate (me too honestly)

- His way of mischief is just annoying/embarrassing his sons constantly or just confusing them

- like the sides could be talking to Thomas about his responsibilities and James says something like:

James: “Adultry is not easy to master dear, never has been”

Virgil, questioning if James, even with Janus being a part of him, is aware of what it actually means “By adultry, you mean the process of becoming an adult... right?”

James, fully aware of what it means: “Yes of course, what else would I mean?”

- Usually good at comforting the others

- On the very rare occasions in which he loses his patience, he goes to full on feral wine aunt

- When dealing with conflict, he always tries his best, even if he has no clue what he’s supposed to do

- He says friendo instead of kiddo just because I think it’s funny

- (Get it? Because that’s what janus said when pretending to be Patton)

Now for relationships. (This is just kinda how each side reacted to james because it’s a big change for Janus and Patton to suddenly go from opposing sides to being friends, or not to mention even at the level of being close enough to fuse)

Virgil: he adores Virgil with every fiber of his being and I’m not even exaggerating. He’s just like “LOOK AT MY SON, PRIDE IS NOT THE WORD IM LOOKING FOR” 24/7 though he tries his best to hide it. He just really wants guide him and just do everything he can to help him so badly. In this essay I will-

As for Virgil, he’s sceptical. He doesn’t show pure hatred, but he doesn’t let James touch him in any way. Because as much as he loves Patton he just reminds himself that ‘Janus is still in there no matter how nice he may be to me, he’s still not to be trusted’ so there’s a potential arc about Virgil thinking all the love James gives him is just from Patton, then realise that in reality it’s both.

Roman: James is not entirely sure on how to deal with roman. On one hand, he cares for him and he feels extremely guilty for patton and janus’s actions, and the other, roman to him is just a lost and confused chess piece that needs guidance, no matter if a little part of him feels it’s justified not to. he’s still responsible for his actions, and any son of Patton’s is a son for James too.

And like virgil, roman is skeptical too at times. For a while, roman barely even spoke a word to him, with the whole Janus evil comment and Patton not defending him, he thought that’s what they saw in him and that he was a disappointment to him. It isn’t until (Oliver/James) starts complimenting his work that he starts to warm up, but this is quickly shut down once he thinks of how Janus did the same thing to him, so the compliments don’t work. Till one time he says “I’m really proud of you kiddo!” (James knew if he said friendo like normal roman wouldn’t believe him) and that’s the one that is able to reach roman. Janus might be in there, but so is Patton, and it just sounds so much like him to roman, that it just has to be patton who is the one talking. And over time he feels the compliments get more and more genuine, and so he starts to warm up to James. Not completely, but progress is still progress to James.

Remus: James can handle Remus more than Remus gives him credit for “you’re just too soft and pure to be like Janus” only when it bothers the others is when he says no. He knows dealing with him is no easy task, just as any other side. But he knows he’s gonna have to switch up his game in order to appeal to Remus.

So one day james just goes up to remus and whispers something ungodly cursed and Remus is just “oh sh*t i didn’t know you were even capable of that” and so remus has just been cool with James ever since

Logan: this probably won’t be as long as the others, but except for the puns and James’s occasional mischief that drives him insane, Logan gets along pretty well with James. Even rarely complimenting James about the historical or cytological references in one of James’s layered puns. And also james somewhat is able to keep the others from chaos, so it takes some of the weight off of Logan to make sure things don’t go absolutely insane.

That’s it for James! I may post more of my fusion ideas if this does well, so we’ll see.

Let me know if you have some suggestions or criticisms! (And especially with these rants, reblogs are always appreciated)

#rant #fusion au #janus sanders #patton sanders #moceit

[captainpufferfish]

ok meet the fuckers who now own my entire soul:

Roman Quinn- Captian of the Right Brains, Twin brother of Remus Quinn, Cis Pan. Born in America, lived in Ireland until he was 15 and then moved back to America. Fine Arts major because paint pretty (this is his actual reasoning) A Very Good Jammer (link to what the fuck im talking abt) kinda shitty at being a pivot because he gets very excited and takes the star before it’s necessary sometimes. Good blocker but he skates v fast so he gotta go slow to keep up with everyone else. Commissions art for money.

Janus Cooper- Captian of the Left Brains, Greek American, Demiboy (he/they) and Gay. Majoring in Engineering because he wants to carry on his moms’ mechanic shop. Equal to Roman as a Jammer, far better as a Pivot. Shitty, shitty blocker. Might as well not be on the track bcz of how bad of a blocker he is. Has a job at Hot Topic because everyone comes in to get the cool alt tights for winter games so he makes more money.

everyone else under the cut!!

Remus Quinn- Plays for the Right Brains, Cis Gay. Born in America, lived in Ireland until he was 15 and then moved back to America. Forensics Major ‘because fuck you’. V good Pivot. Likes to Jam but he’s a little reckless and has skated directly into people and into railings before so the others try and keep him to being a Pivot. Decent Blocker but he can get a little violent with passing Jammers. Can somehow get into locked rooms and shit so people pay him to do morally questionable things (he does it unless he disagrees with it, then he just fucking decks them.)

Logan Ali- Plays for the Left Brains, Egyptian, Moon/Moons, AroAce.  Majoring in Science Education because moon wants to Prove Some People Wrong. Virgil is moon’s QPP. Moon’s a pretty bad Jammer + Pivot because Moon’s pretty slow, but moon’s also the best Blocker on the Left Brains so it balances out. Pretty short but is stronk so moon doesn’t fall over easily. Moon’s Nana pays moon’s college fee but moon still tutors people for extra cash bcz she’s very old and moon also doesn’t feel like he deserves her money.

Patton Samuels- Plays for the Right Brains, Algerian American, Non Binary and Bi. Likes to make puns about how Bi he is- Biracial, Bilingual, Bisexual, Non Binary. Majoring in Peace & Conflict Studies because it’s fun. Good Blocker. Shitty everything else but no one really cares because their games aren’t formal (as much as Ro and Jan think they are) and they can stay in the same positions all the time if they want to. Vibes w/ Lo, Virge and Re as they watch their disaster captains from the Pack.

Virgil Valentine- Plays for the Left Brains, American, Biromantic Asexual and I already mentioned that his QPP is Logan but i’m luring the analogical stans here so i’ll do it again. His anxious brain told him that he couldn’t be a dancer but he ignored it so guess who’s majoring in dance? He’s almost better than Janus at being a Pivot (haha nyooom) but he’s a pretty bad Jammer. Also kind of a bad blocker bcz he’s very tall and gangly but also easy to topple over, but he vibes w/ Logan so it’s cool.

Emile Khan- Plays for the Right Brains. Filipino, Trans Man, Pan. Remy is his boyfriend, they vibe. Majoring in Creative Writing. Good Jammer, pretty average Blocker but he has fun playing any part! Chills with Logan a lot because he thinks moon’s cool. Also helps out in the school gardens bcz he thinks it’s neat!

Remy Flynn- Plays for the Left Brains. American, Cis Gay. Emile is his boyfriend and because they got together before Emile joined the Right Brains Ro and Jan can’t tell them to break up (they wouldn’t anyway. Probably. They were very big into the rivalry thing) Second best Left Brain Jammer other than Janus. Average blocker, bad Pivot. Majoring in Engineering too so he fucks w/ Janus a lot.

Andy Valentine- Plays for the Right Brains. American, Virgil’s younger brother but only by 2 months. Demiromantic Gay, Majoring in Genetics cuz it’s cool and he gets to scientifically throw love at everyone in his team through validating them with science. Hangs out with Pryce, a kid from his Genetics class a lot. Good Blocker, v good vibes. Bad at Pivoting and Jamming but it’s cool.

Nico Flores- Plays for the Left Brains. Italian American, Cis Gay. Majoring in Music Theory & Composition. Great at Blocking, the one guy that everyone likes no matter what team. He’s just that chill. Has been seen with Thomas Sanders, a kid from his music class who’s majoring in Film and Theatre. Likes carrots for reasons that only Thomas and him know, but that’s enough.

#jaz writes #team for two au #sanders sides au #rociet #this is to introduce characters because i cant be bothered to write intro fics for each of them #im gonna make a masterlist so you can find everything from this au in a while hold on #roman sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #remus sanders #remy sanders #emile sanders #andy sanders #nico flores #me projecting half of my identity onto logan sanders? #more likely that you would think

[middlingthebest]

For fic prompts-The other sides(or one, or just a few) trying to entertain /some/ of Remus’ less-extreme ideas to make him feel heard?

Hi! Thank you so much for sending this. I just focused in on mainly Patton trying to bond with Remus with a little bit of Logan if that’s ok? Purely because it already got so long xxx

Warnings: mentions of skinning someone and cannibalism, nothing bad actually happened

No Pairings, W/C: 1230

“With Janus busy has anyone else spoken to Remus recently?”

It was a simple question from Logan that had hit much harder than Patton knew how to process. The answer had been a definitive “no.” An incredulous, bored, and guilty no that didn’t go on to be addressed. As Virgil and Roman devolved into arguing, Patton was thinking. Thinking about the things he’d said about Remus, thinking about how little of it was positive, and how long the silences had been between the few stilted conversations they had had. He was thinking… how on earth he could even start to fix something he hadn’t thought of as a problem.

The next day, Patton caught Logan returning from the dark sides’ own common area, the ends of his hair singed and lightly smoking. He returned Logan’s casual nod with a confused one of his own and made his decision. As soon as Logan was out of sight he began making his way to the foreign commons and had knocked on the door before he even knew what he would do if it opened. He had never been inside before, not even as he and Janus slowly grew closer. It had never explicitly been to avoid Remus but it was a hard excuse to deny point blank.

The door opened and Patton was met first by smiling, gnashing teeth set in a mouth that swiftly shrunk down to a normal size, allowing him to focus on the face behind it. Remus was still grinning but there was no humour in his eyes as he took in the spooked side in front of him.

“Janus is busy, so unless you want to lose your entire outer layer of skin I’d not bother him and just come back later. I’d offer it myself but I’m busy too.”

Remus knew he was something of a fiasco amongst the light sides. He loved reactions. He loved that moment when an idea got caught in someone’s chest like a fish hook and pulled in every conceivable direction before they decided how they felt about it. And Remus was far from stupid, he knew that invoking those reactions didn’t make him particularly appealing to any of the sides. They thought some of his suggestions should stay where they were meant to be, unvoiced and unheard with him. Knowing it didn’t make it easier though. As such, he had no qualms about slamming the door shut.

Patton’s arm didn’t seem to agree. Jammed in the doorway, both sides stared at the invading limb, Remus watching it spasm from the inside and Patton despairing as it disappeared on the outside. The door bounced quietly open as Patton spoke.

“Wait! Ow, oh-m-geemanie.” He cradled his arm to his chest, rubbing where the door had hit, Remus stunned to silence just long enough for Patton to recover. “Sorry, you’ve said you’re busy and I’ll go if you want me to, I just wanted to ask-” And that was the start to a very good question. What on earth was he going to ask?

“I didn’t think you’d be interested in being skinned but I can arrange it if you like.” Remus thankfully interrupted though he didn’t look too excited about the prospect. If anything, Patton got the feeling he was trying to get rid of him and he tried really hard to not let it work.

“N-no, no thank you. I wanted… to ask…” Oh he was very not good at this and Remus looked ready to close the door again and he really didn’t think his arm would stop him this time. “If I can help?” He eventually asked, peeking up at Remus to gauge his reaction.

“Help with what, daddy stork?” He was justifiably confused but now that he’d said it, Patton wasn’t turning around. He dug his heels in with conviction and straightened up with a happier smile.

“With whatever you’re busy with.” He offered, thinking of Logan’s smoky hair and again trying not to let it put him off.

“Dooo you know what I’m busy with?” For such a testing question, Patton couldn’t help but think that maybe Remus was getting curious, that maybe he would let him in.

“I will when you tell me.”

Remus looked him over carefully, his head and body frozen in place as his eyes raked over the person in front of him. Two visits in the one day. He’d feel special if he wasn’t feeling so obviously placated. Still, at least it was Patton, who was fun to tease even when he had that ridiculously sincere smile on his face. He was very aware that he had two obvious choices here: traumatise the kid-friendly father figure or let him play for the day. One sounded vastly more entertaining than the other.

“Janus is busy.” He mused aloud, watching Patton’s brow furrow in confusion. If Patton was telling the truth, fine. He could stay. But if he was just trying to get in his good books… “I suppose I could use a test subject.”

“How about a partner, partner?” Patton squeaked back, joy and trepidation sing-songing around the campfire in his chest.

…he was succeeding. “Sounds wonderful!” With a grandiose scoop of his arm, Remus had Patton by the elbow and frogmarched him through the commons and into his own room, face sharp with a carnivorous grin. “I’m writing a story about kid who wants to eat his father.”

When Patton left pale-faced and trembling, he didn’t expect him back and he wasn’t surprised when he didn’t show again the next day.

He was surprised, however, the day after when Patton came back, still pale but armed with one of Logan’s notebooks. Stickers dotted every spare inch of it, hugging close to alarming and gruesome anecdotes from their brainstorming session the day before. Glittery ink spilled across sheets of ideas, of facts and fictions ran past Logan’s critical and graphic checks, and he presented it to Remus.

“I think the kid should have a backstory.”

Remus looked down at the notebook then back to Patton. “I’m writing a different story.” He told him and Patton faltered for a second, defeated and almost heartbroken before he pulled on a smile.

“Can I help?”

Staring at each other through the doorway, each side hopeful in such conflicting ways, it was a relief to both when Remus stepped back and Patton stepped through. Remus turned and bounced his way back to his room, rambling loudly as he filled Patton in on his newest creation and Patton nodded along, following close after as he chimed in with his own ideas.

He took his notebook home at the end of the day, opening it to write down a few of the ideas he had which were ridiculously tame compared to Remus’s but, in the duke’s own words, gave “a fun jumping point for the characters to suffer from!” Opening the book, he found his first few pages missing, torn messily from the seam but with not a sticker or splash of glitter left behind. He grinned and started writing, decorating as he went.

He never mentioned it but by the time he had to ask Logan for a new notebook, there wasn’t a page left in his old one. He kept the cover though, and let it mark a brand new pile in his room simply labelled “Remus.”

#Anonymous #thank you again! so much #sanders sides #ts remus #ts patton #middlingthebest #Long post #Answered

[lunar-lair]

So uh,,,,,,,some more important notes on Thomas for this AU

He's an excellent swimmer-big duh, I know, but I thought I'd mention it. He's also able to hold his breath Super Duper Long and that makes his singing better sometimes too. (On the whole, since mermaids can breath underwater (AND above water air!) they breathe Super Well, but to do some of their Powery Shit, sometimes they need a bit more breath than a human would even be *capable* of, so they can sing for super duper long and it's basically Super unlikely for a mermaid to have breathing problems unless their species is predisposed to it. And of course, all of this extends to Sirens, bc Of Course babey.) I'm debating on maybe having him be able to hold it long enough to visit the sides' grotto or smth? Like idk if I wanna keep him a Mostly Normal Human or curve him a *liiittle* more towards Weirdness. Idk, maybe

He gets certain concentrated spots of dryness on his skin, specifically his legs and shit. They're basically old scale genes trying to find their way back in and Failing yknow? His whole family deals with it and they just called it dry skin for the most part. His hair is also Super Thick. This is also A Thing.

His family *knows* they're descendant to a siren-it's about 5 or so generations up I guess. Whoever Fucked The Fish got the tail-end of basic sirens...basically. So not SUPER distant but distant enough that it's like. 8% of their DNA at this rate yknow. And they don't exactly keep it...a *secret?* Like it's not like some Shameful Family Secret or some shit, some of them have actually *talked* to mermaids or sirens at some point in their lives, but they don't just...*tell it* to new members, yknow? They...let them find out themselves, if they ever do-just like Thomas did-and *then* lift the veil.

So basically Thomas went to his parents like 'ok so I KNOW you guys are gonna think I'm INSANE but um,,,,,,,I met some mermaids-'

'Oh yeah mermaids! Yeah we know those exist'

',,,,,,w. Well. They told me I was probably a descendant of a siren-'

'Ah yeah, your great-great-great grandma was a siren. Tail end of the basic ones, they just started having males show up. We have some old documents and stuff, you wanna see?'

',,,,,,,,,,,su re???'

Wild interaction for Thomas, at the very least

Starting the *day* he was able to talk, that boy has been *singing.* Most of his family have excellent voices, but due to his power, people were drawn to it even *more.* And even though most of them had their own little powers, some of them didn't even like singing, and so they maybe never even learned they had anything close to a power in the first place. Thomas though...he *loved* it.

He definitely had some conflict at first like 'wait are any of my friendships real? Have I just kept them here with my singing????? hhhHHHHHH,,,'

Thomas will sometimes bring his phone to the edge of the beach and play some music and sing along. Eventually, if any of the sides get close enough, they feel his signature Pull (when anyone's close enough to Thomas' voice, they can feel the Pull of his power kinda; esp mermaids, as they're *used* to sensing pulls like that.) and call the others. They all gather around the beach and listen to human music, which Thomas will sometimes translate to Mer Speak. Sometimes they'll just listen to it. Often, they'll sing songs that they already all know together, either in mer or human. (Specifically English, but they don't understand Any of it At All, so.) Sometimes Thomas will come out to the beach and just start singing, and the sides will eventually come out to sing with him, if they have the time. They'll just adlib together, all of them somehow knowing the song they're singing, Patton broadcasting happiness and soft feelings and making sure everyone seems ok, maybe the twins doing a little dance or even Janus joining in, dancing in their own little mermaid way. Virgil makes sure they're left alone (in every situation) and Logan softly sings where he usually hums; it's rare to hear him sing so softly, if he does. They all treasure it. The twins, even, soften up, singing softer and leaving their vibrato at the door.

Ever since he was Tiney, he's loved the ocean. It's always called to him, and he's always stayed close to beaches and lakes and the like. The more ocean he's close to, the calmer he is babey. He went for ocean biology in college (he probably actually works in the field) and I've *just* decided that after the sides told them their powers and shit he asked abt their species and after they told him he BARRAGED them w questions about their behavior

He promised *immediately* not to record them or ever *expose* them or whatever wild shit a random evil scientist in a movie with a crazy rare wild animal would do. Learning about them, though, was *amazing,* and he never even wrote anything down.

One day, Thomas' parents insisted on meeting his Mermaid Friends and he was like 'sure ok'. So he brought them to the beach and introduced them. Janus was like '!!!! Oh shit I've seen them before!' and so were the twins.

Janus recognized them from his Loner Days, when he used to lie to humans to make them do stupid shit. They just said hi though-in a language he understood. Just two nice humans he ran across on a pier.

The twins don't *really* remember them, just barely, but the couple ran into them when they were around 11, a little after they were abandoned, with a young Thomas. They talked just a small bit, and Thomas doesn't really remember them; it seemed a little insignificant, since they just seemed like swimmers. He said hi to them, not realizing he was speaking oddly, and they were on their way. The couple didn't get a chance to talk to the seemingly *very young* couple of mermaids again, but they never really forgot about them.

The parents are like '!!!!' at all three of them like 'oh yeah you!!!' Janus is like 'oh Thomas, you didn't tell me your parents were that couple I met who knew our tongue that one time.'

The two ask the twins about why they were on their own. They've worked through a lot of that shit, but it still stings a bit.

Remus took his old place behind Roman, like he used to, and they both looked down, Roman rubbing his hand against his neck and laughing nervously. "Uh...we were. Abandoned. At about 10 years old."

"We were all we had," Remus muttered from behind him. Patton moved over and rested a hand on both of their shoulders with a sad frown.

Thomas' mother gave a similarly sad frown and gave a small pet to both boys' heads before brushing their hair back. "I'm...terribly sorry. It's never right for a parent to abandon their kin."

Roman and Remus simply stare and blush a bit, moving away and taking a place at the back of the group where they can simply sit and think,

'*we haven't felt a motherly touch like that in so, so long.*'

Thomas' father spread plenty of dad jokes that Patton had fun with and they talked (and maybe sang) some more before leaving.

They kept visiting after that, usually with Thomas and rarely without.

Needless to say that they basically became the local adoptive parents, *especially* to the twins.

At least Janus finally gets some help in keeping these dumbasses healthy and in line.

#anyways just some more stuff for the au!! yeye #some thomas shit this time babey #idk what ill use for his parents names. probably just random ones ig idk #anyways ye!! weve got more Ideas(tm) #and thats that for today #sanders sides #trash talks #mersiren sides au #creativitwins #v slight but still;;Publicity man #character thomas #ts roman #ts remus #ts janus #ts patton #ts deceit #extra for jan Just In Case #theyre the only ones mentioned by name #the others are just mentioned Casually yknow #and then #thomathy #my tag for character thomas just cause