"You threw it out the window."

"I was panicking!"

"You managed to somehow fumble with the window and open it with one hand, and then you threw the pot out the window."

"There were more pressing things going on at the time, Logan!"

"This supposed cloud snake monster creature no one but you saw was not the most pressing thing at the moment?"

"Virgil was having a panic attack!"

"And you... panicked."

Roman groaned into his hands and covered his face. He rubbed his hands down and looked up at Logan from his spot on the couch. "Look, I was trying to focus on one issue at a time and I just wanted to get rid of it, okay?"

Logan rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked around the living room. "Well, I'll give you credit for accomplishing that. However, I believe it is in our best interests to go and retrieve the creature?" Logan walked towards his room and spoke over his shoulder. "If we bring it back we can toss it from once it came. No harm was done."

Logan returned with a warm pullover sweater on while Roman had a jacket unzipped. His attention was down the hall passed Logan with a frown.

"I'm sure Virgil is fine alone with Patton while we look."

Roman shuffled towards the door without a word.

Patton was able to eventually slip away and into the kitchen, making himself a cup of hot cocoa in the process, not worried about how the sugar would only keep him awake longer. He sat in the living room tucked underneath a blanket when the two came back. He sat up, holding his warm mug close and gave a smile. "So, how did it go?"

"Good news, we found your pot!"

Patton perked up at the news and smiled. "Wonderful!"

"Bad news." Logan held up the pot and removed the lid. Lifting it towards his face, Patton could still see in the dim lighting that it was damaged with bends and dings, but the entire bottom was missing as if something melted and clawed its way out of the bottom. "Looks like our little friend escaped."

Logan walked over and handed Patton his deformed cookware. He held it up and looked through it with a sigh. "You don't think it'll buy me a new one, will it?"

"I'm so sorry, Patton." Roman walked up and reached out for the pot. "I'll buy you a new one."

"It's the end of the month if you can't afford it don't push yourself. Besides!" Patton carefully poked at a part of the metal that was loose and threatening to break off. "We can all 'chip' in for a new one!" Patton let out a yawn and looked over at the clock. "It's still early, I'm gonna try and get a bit more sleep."

"That would be wise for all of us, I suppose. No use in worrying about anything right now. Exhaustion will only hinder us on our days ahead. We also will have to tell Virgil what happened in the morning, if he is feeling up to it."

"Great. You know, sound even more boring when tired." Roman shuffled passed Logan. "Good night."

Patton allowed himself to sleep in a bit, given the night before. Calming down Virgil in the middle of the night and trying not to worry about what Roman had seen was enough to make him want to lay in bed even longer, but that wasn't something he could do. He'd grow restless in the hour and would have wasted all that time.

When he rolled out of bed, he was not surprised to see Virgil's door still shut tight and not a sound from the other, he had a bit of a rough night. A small creak drew Patton's attention down the hall, where Logan emerged from his room with an empty coffee mug.

"Ah, I'm glad to see you awake. I hope the extra bit of sleep helped."

"Yeah, it did wonders, I feel great!" Patton stretched a bit, still shaking the sleep from his bones. "I'm worried about Virgil though."

"Ah, you have work today?"

"I do, but maybe I should leave Two here to check on him?"

"Patton, while your concern is admirable, you're going to leave Two here to... what? Sit around and wait to see if Virgil comes out of his room today?"

"You're right." Patton crossed his arms and stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. Logan moved to the coffee machine to refill his mug. "Aha! That's it!" Logan looked over at Patton who smiled as he had an idea. "I can leave Three to wait and watch over Virgil!"

Logan placed the pot back in its place under the machine. "How is that any different? What would Two do as Three waited for Virgil?"

"He would keep him company, of course!"

Logan turned and looked at Patton, enjoying the smell of the fresh cup he made. "Perhaps a simpler solution? I could watch over Virgil." Logan looked up and watched Patton try and hide his disappointed look. "He has to trust me again eventually, and avoiding me isn't going to help. Perhaps this will help solidify our friendship once more."

"Maybe you're right." Patton muffled a yawn into his hand. "I really should get ready, that extra sleep didn't leave me with much time."

"Don't stretch yourself too thin, I am more than willing to help."

Logan spent the rest of his morning in the living room in his chair. He had read and sipped on his coffee before turning on the news quietly. He would steal brief glances down the hall as the clock ticked closer to noon, but not a sound was heard. Eventually, Logan got up from his seat and retreated to his room to get dressed for the day, still in his sleep clothes. He didn't usually laze around but the night before had left him worried about the possibilities, despite how he managed the other two to not worry about it.

He entered the kitchen again and saw Virgil sitting at the table with a mug, the rest of the coffee that remained left over from the pot sitting inside. He looked up and smiled at Logan, raising his mug and taking a sip. "Mornin'." He mumbled softly.

Logan turned to the clock and frowned. "Hardly, it is near noon at this point. Also, that coffee is probably cold."

Virgil shrugged and took another gulp, not bothering to respond. Logan paused and turned his attention back to the living room, wondering if he should give him more space.

"So, everyone at work then?"

Virgil was gazing down at the dark liquid, Logan always wondered why he either took it overly sweetened or just plain black. "Yes, Patton and Roman left a while ago. It will just be the two of us in the meantime."

"I'm surprised he didn't have Two stay."

Logan cleared his throat and glanced away. "I may have told him it was not necessary."

Virgil scoffed and picked his mug back up, not bothering to look at Logan. "Right."

"I had merely suggested he-"

"It's fine, Logan. I get it."

The awkward silence that fell was enough to make Logan uncomfortable. Virgil still hadn't bothered to look over at him since the greeting he received and Logan shut his eyes. He took in a slow breath and pulled out his phone, headed for the living room. "Of course."

Logan paused in the center of the room and unlocked his phone as he dialed a familiar number. He put it up to his ear and crossed his other arm as it rang. He heard the sound of the chair in the kitchen and glanced over, seeing Virgil standing in the doorway confused. "Who are you calling?"

"Patton. He should be able to sneak away and send Two on his break."

Virgil hunched over and glared over at Logan. "I don't need a babysitter."

"I never said you did. It was simply foolish to think I alone could help you-hello?" Logan spun back around facing away from Virgil. "I'm terribly sorry to have called you at work, Patton."

The phone slipped away from Logan's ear and he turned to see Virgil smiling, holding it up to his own. "Hey, Pat! Nah, I'm fine. Slept pretty okay." Logan reached out for his phone and Virgil smirked back, backing away and holding out a hand. "No, he just wanted to call to let you know I'm up and doing fine. Yeah, I told him he didn't need to call but he was worried or whatever."

"Virgil, please unhand my phone immediately."

"You want to talk to him? Sure."

Virgil tossed the phone to him without warning. Logan held out a hand and his eyes lit up as the phone froze in midair. He reached out carefully and grabbed it, his eyes melting back to normal as he glared over at Virgil. "I apologize for that, Patton."

"Are you guys okay?" He heard Patton ask back. "He seems okay, but I know you wouldn't have just called me for that."

Logan looked over at Virgil who gave a teasing smirk back. He stood there, silently challenging Logan to make a move. "No, sorry Patton. Virgil wanted to call you himself and I had simply offered. We're doing fine."

"Oh, I'm so happy to hear that! I knew you'd get along okay!"

"Of course, naturally. We're both adults who can maintain a mature conversation with one another."

"Come on, Logan, no need to lie to him."

He ignored Virgil's comment and turned away. "I'll let you return to work, see you later." As soon as Logan had ended the call, he turned and glared at Virgil. "Was that necessary?"

"I told you, I don't need a babysitter." Virgil walked by and headed back into the kitchen, Logan following close behind. "I've had attacks before, this is just the first one you guys know about."

Logan froze, looking over at Virgil as he reached for his mug. It suddenly flew away and into the air, completely out of reach. Virgil looked over to say something but froze. Logan's eyes were lit up once more, but his face held a frown as he stared up at the mug. "Virgil, I'm afraid there is something we need to discuss."

The mug slowly lowered and headed for the sink, dumping itself out before settling carefully. "So, I'm not allowed to have coffee for this?"

"You say the caffeine can raise your anxiety and this topic may be a bit..."

As Logan looked for the appropriate word, Virgil walked forward, carefully eying him down. Logan's eyes returned to normal once more as Virgil stopped a foot away. "Logan, what's going on?"

"Perhaps if you would get more comfortable for this, I'm afraid you will not like what you hear."

Virgil sat on the table, ignoring Logan's protests of the proper use of furniture. Not able to avoid the topic for much further, he pulled his glasses off of his face as to avoid looking at Virgil as be told the tale Roman had spun the night before. After he was finished, he replaced his glasses, looking up at the other.

To his credit, Virgil didn't look panicked. He stared at Logan with a stoic expression, taking everything in. After he was finished and silence fell, Virgil slowly nodded, glancing down at the floor. "So, some monster came out and got away? We have no idea what it is or what it can do?"

"It may help to recall what you were thinking about when you froze time, is that not how your portals work?"

Virgil hopped off the table and walked passed him and entered the living room. Virgil practically fell back onto the couch and pulled his legs up close. He stared at the nearly silent tv and glared at it a bit. Logan took his seat in his recliner and sat in silence. He directed his attention to the still silent tv, giving Virgil a bit of peace.

"Roman woke up and found me out here, I felt one coming and I knew I should have gone to my room, but..." Logan drew his attention away from the news and back to Virgil silently. Virgil looked away, staring down at the carpet. "I dunno, having someone there helped a bit, I thought I would be okay. We both fell asleep and I woke up and I was worse than before. I felt trapped and I couldn't breathe and it just got worse and worse. T-then, I tried breaking free but stupid Roman wouldn't let go so..."

Logan listened quietly as Virgil recalled his story, trying to put the pieces together. "You broke free of time in hopes to not wake him?" Virgil nodded but did not continue his story. "So, what were you thinking about at that time?"

Virgil laughed to himself a bit. "The same thing I usually do. I wasn't sure how, but I knew for a fact I was going to die." Logan was surprised at the words coming from Virgil but made no further comment. "Whatever that thing is, Logan, we need to find it and get rid of it."

"Perhaps another day we can-"

"No." Virgil unfurled and stood up. "Look, I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing when I released who-knows-what out into the city!" Virgil's arm gestured widely to the window as his voice rose. "I didn't talk about this stuff because this is exactly what I wanted to avoid, I'm not just going to fall over and break because of one stupid attack!"

Virgil huffed and stared out the window. "That is not what I had meant. I simply was stating that perhaps Roman or Patton could be of use in tracking it down as well, we should not separate since we are unsure of what the creature is capable of."

Virgil spared a glance back over at Logan, who was staring at the tv with interest. He looked over and was shocked, watching Logan grab the remote and turn the volume up a bit.

"-have reported numerous sightings of a masked vigilante who appears to be walking the streets at night. There have been multiple reports to local law enforcement about a man in costume taking down muggers and potential burglars and fleeing before police can make it to the scene."

"They're talking about Roman." Virgil turned and took a step closer to the tv. "Must be a slow news day."

"They did a report on him a few days ago if I recall. Roman talked about it at length, this must be exciting for him. Perhaps..."

"What?" Virgil spoke with intrigue. "Go on."

"Perhaps he can track down the creature in costume? I hear he had learned a new ability but I'm ashamed to admit I had tuned him out at a point and missed a few details about it."

Virgil chuckled and smirked a bit. "Yeah, that sounds right, but I don't like the idea of any of us going out alone after that thing."

"This is true. Perhaps one of us could join him? You are adept in creative arts and upgraded his costume, could you not join him?"

"No, no freaking way." Virgil shook his head and tucked his hands into his hoodie. "He's bad enough with all of that. Besides, you won't catch me dead out there."

"It was merely a suggestion, I understand your uneasiness about it all."

"Good. Discussion over."

Patton was delighted to receive the phone call from Logan, though by the nature of the call he was sure it was for a different reason than Virgil had stated. Still, knowing that they had started to get along better put him over the moon, he had a bit of pep in his step for the rest of the day, not that many people noticed. Patton was a cheerful person and it was easy to tell.

His day flew by faster than normal, which he had been happy about. Last night had been tiring and all he wanted was to relax and get some proper sleep, not that he had blamed Virgil at all of course. He tucked a few things away in their proper places as he organized his work area before leaving. Someone approached him at his desk and he looked up, smiling.

"Roman, what a pleasant surprise! What are you doing here?"

Roman smiled and shrugged. "I had to run some errands for work and I was in the area. I knew you got off about now, I figured we could take the bus home together."

"Oh yay, bus buddies! Let me just finish organizing my paperwork and we can get going!"

Patton flitted around his space back and forth taking care of odds and ends before walking around his desk. "Ready?" Roman motioned in the direction of the door as Patton led the way. As he walked by, Patton had said goodbye to a few co-workers and even quite a few customers. It wasn't a surprise to Roman that Patton was the guy who knew everyone who came into his job, he was the friendly guy who was easy to talk to after all.

They started down the street and Patton continued to lead the way. "Yeah, I saw it on the news they had playing in one shop, they did another report on me!" Roman couldn't smile any brighter if he had tried. "Of course, I'm awesome, it comes to no surprise."

"You're a hero, Roman. Of course, they did!"

"Yes, well." Roman glanced away. "I wasn't one last night."

Patton quickly spun around and poked Roman angrily in his chest. "Now, none of that! You are wonderful and if you continue talking like that I'll have to make you see how wonderful you are!" Patton bit out angrily, only causing a roar of laughter to erupt from Roman.

"No, thank you, Pat. That will be enough. Still, I could have handled it better."

"You got Virgil out and got rid of the possible threat, doesn't seem like a failure to me. Sure, maybe you made a mistake but you're human! We all do!"

"Oh? When was the last time you made a mistake?"

"I made my boss a coffee today, but I gave him mine instead of his. He's diabetic."

"Oh, ouch." Roman patted him on the shoulder. "You drink liquid sugar. Was he okay?"

"Yeah, he spat it out pretty quickly and was fine. I still feel bad, but he told me that it's okay to make mistakes! Also, he joked and said I was secretly trying to poison him so I could have his job, but that's nothing new coming from him. He's a big jokester!"

"Sounds like work could be fun, who knew? I always thought Logan would work best in a library and it didn't fit you, but you seem to make it work for you so well."

"Of course I do! I'm sure Logan could do my job once he knew how, but I make it fun and relaxing. If you don't like what you do, what's the point?"

"I'm sure you'd love to work with Logan."

"Well, of course, I'd love to work with any of you! As I'm sure you'd love to work with Virgil. He did such a nice job on your costume after all!"

"Oh gosh, you should have seen the sketch he did of it first, it was magnificent! Did you know he can draw? He had a few ideas and even let me help decide some things on it-"

Patton smiled as he sat down on the bench at the bus stop, listening to Roman who had lit up at the mention of his new costume.

"What are you asking me? I'm afraid I do not understand."

"I'm just saying if Pat had left Two here or something, wouldn't you have had a better time hanging with him than me?" Virgil was laying upside down on the couch, his feet on the back and his head and hair almost brushing the ground.

"Preposterous, I do rather enjoy your company." Virgil snorted out a laugh. "What? It is true. While I enjoy the others company, you have a more realistic and down to Earth view that is rather enjoyable compared to their fanciful talks of grandeur."

"Come on, Logan, that's not the same thing. You like talking to me, but if you had to choose randomly, who would you rather spend the most time with?" Logan looked baffled at the statement and Virgil swung his legs down, pulling himself up into a sitting position. "Come on, brainiac, stop thinking with your head and think with your heart. What do you feel?"

"Confused."

"Come on! You wanted to try and figure out this stuff, right? Said it would help with better control of your powers or whatever. Just... okay. Imagine spending a full day with each and every one of us. The perfect day doing whatever you wanted. Start with me."

"This is silly."

"Shut it and close your eyes."

Patton smiled as he cheerfully walked down the street next to Roman.

"He said we could do make-overs but after doing his nails he wouldn't even let me do his make-up! Which is so not fair because I have this nice plum palette I wanted to use and..."

Patton stopped walking and turned and looked at Roman. "You okay?"

Roman looked down at Patton innocently before slowly looking around. "I hadn't noticed how close to home we were."

"Time flies when you're having fun, huh?"

Roman stood up taller at the statement. "F-fun? I was just talking!"

"You got really into it though!" Patton smiled and bounced on his heels a bit. "I love listening to people get passionate about things!"

"Passionate?! No, no! Patton, I am not passionate about-" Roman waved his arms back and forth. "You're misreading this!"

"What? I thought you were passionate about your friendships." Patton tilted his head. "Is that not what you were talking about?"

"Friendships!" Roman pointed at Patton and smiled. "That's exactly it!" He quickly began walking and passed Patton without another word. "Just friendships, nothing more!"

Patton watched Roman march on proudly with a bewildered look on his face.

Roman marched up the stairs and opened the door to the apartment, freezing at the view before him. He moved out of the way after hearing Patton walking up behind him and pointing over.

Logan was sitting in his chair, eyes closed and either asleep or meditating, Roman wasn't sure. Virgil sat on the couch facing him and staring him down.

"Now, what do you feel?"

Roman looked down at Patton who looked up and shrugged. He looked over and stared down the two. His eye flickered back and forth before falling on Logan, breath caught in his throat. He took a step into the room, drawing Virgil's attention.

"Oh, hey Patton!" Logan jumped and opened his eyes, looking towards the door. "Hey Roman."

"Hey." Roman closed the door, his greeting sounding apprehensive. "What's going on here?"

Logan rubbed his eyes and adjusted his glasses. "Virgil was trying to give me a lesson on emotions. Utter nonsense if you ask me, it proved nothing."

"I dunno." Patton smiled and crossed his arms with a knowing smile. "You seemed to be pretty happy when we came in."

"Utter nonsense." Logan got up from his chair and quickly retreated to his room, muttering to himself.

Virgil looked over and shrugged a bit before falling back into the couch. "How was work?"

"Oh, it was okay. Much better after you called, I'm so happy you two are getting along!"

Roman shifted uncomfortably in his spot. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah, fine." Virgil reached for the remote and fell back on the couch. "Hey, did you see they did another report about you? Must be a slow news day if they consider that important." After a moment of silence, Virgil looked up at Patton and Roman. "What?"

Patton looked up at Roman and folded his hands together. "Hey, I don't know if Logan talked to you about last night yet, but..."

"Oh, you mean that evil cloud thing." He leaned forward in his seat and shrugged. "I dunno. Logan said we probably shouldn't go out alone after it."

Patton nodded and smiled a bit. "Good idea, but are you sure you're doing okay?"

Virgil stared the two down with a neutral expression for a moment, letting the calm turn awkward. "Let me say this once. I am fine, I am going to be fine, and the sooner we can get rid of whatever showed up last night, the sooner I can stop worrying about it. I'm not gonna break, okay?"

"Oh, no! Of course not!" Patton held up his hands in defense. "I was just worried about you, you seem to be handling this all just fine."

Roman nodded in agreement. "Strange as that is, I figured you would be freaking out."

"Oh, it's all internal." Virgil leaned back and turned his attention back on the tv. "Besides, Logan helped keep me distracted after he told me so I'm okay for now."

Patton gave Virgil an encouraging smile and a few motivating words before walking into his room. Roman went to approach his and stopped next to the couch. After a few moments of staring down the other, Virgil glanced over and looked up. "You're going to freak out over this later, aren't you."

"I dunno, am I?"

Roman shook his head and suppressed a sigh. "If you need someone to be there, please don't hesitate to come to me, okay?"

Virgil went to bite back a snarky remark before seeing how serious Roman was about it. He huffed and turned back to the tv without a word. Roman took his silence as a defeated 'sure' and retreated to his room.

Eventually, Roman got dressed in his princely attire and get ready for a night out. He was unsure if the others would stop him, but made it safely out the front door without interruption.

He knew the others wouldn't want him to go out alone, but he closed his eyes and focused on imagining the creature he saw the night before. It was his mess that caused the monster to escape and it was going to be him to capture the creature and bring an end to it. Learning if he could find it was the first step, he would talk to the others about capturing it and make sure he didn't have to apprehend it alone.

After a few moments, nothing came to him. His feet stayed firmly planted on the sidewalk and he huffed out in annoyance. Of course, things couldn't be quite that simple, but he wasn't going to stop there. He started his trek into the city, not worrying about where he was going quite yet. He may not find the monster tonight, but he would eventually if it was the last thing he did.

A few hours down the way, Roman let out a loud yawn. He had started taking short naps before his nightly excursions, but sleep was still vital, especially is all important beauty sleep. Roman turned and decided to head home before he stayed out much longer.