WARNING: Insomnia

"Do you have dreams, Logan?"

Logan looked up in slight surprise. "Uh, that's an odd question. In what sense?"

Patton rested his chin in his hands. "I just wondered cause you don't get much sleep and..." Patton trailed off into a shrug.

"Ah." Logan nodded. "In all honesty, mermaid's don't often have dreams. Being soulless doesn't leave you with much imagination."

"What's it like? Being soulless, I mean." Patton asked, leaning back against the brig walls.

"As you can probably imagine, not very nice. But when it's the only thing you've ever felt..." Logan shrugged. "What I'm saying is that I'm not the best person for that question. I haven't lived any life other than that without a soul. It's really all I know."

Patton laughed a little. Logan tilted his head in confusion.

"Have I said something of hilarity?"

Patton shook his head. "No, just a silly thought." He laughed again. "It's so stupid. I was about to ask if you could play hide-and-seek and you're locked in a glass tank so," Patton giggled, "obviously not." Patton's giggles subsided as he noticed Logan's face. "Kiddo? Sorry, have I said something?"

Logan took a deep breath. "No. No, it's nothing."

"It's definitely something. What's wrong?" Patton asked, moving closer to the tank.

"Nothing's wrong." Logan insisted.

"Hiding your problems doesn't make them go away, Kiddo." Patton said gently. Logan let out a little sigh.

"I don't want you to get hurt and if I tell you, you could get hurt."

Patton blew a breath up through his fringe. "I've been at sea for, what, ten years? I think I can take getting hurt."

Logan shook his head.

"C'mon, Kiddo, just tell me. Please?"

"Constantly insisting on information isn't going to make me want to tell you anything any more." Logan snapped. Patton shrank back a little.

"Sorry Kiddo."

"It's fine." Logan muttered.

"You hide and I'll seek, okay?" Patton asked excitedly.

"And when you find me, we swap over?" They checked. Patton nodded. "Sounds fun. Count fair, okay? I need time to hide."

"When have I ever not counted fair?" Patton asked, giggling. He turned around and put his hands over his eyes.

"One, two, three, four, seven, eight, nine, twelve, thirteen... sixteen, seventeen... eighteen nineteen twenty!" Patton turned around quickly. "Ready or not, here I come!"

Patton ran all up and down the beach, looking everywhere. "Kiddo? Kiddo, where are you?" He called. "You're very good at hiding!" His next words died in his throat.

On the shore, by the lapping waves, was a little brown shoe. A little brown shoe that his friend always wore.

"Kiddo?!" Patton yelled, louder and more panicked. "Kiddo?! Kiddo, where are you?! Kiddo?!"

Logan looked down at his markings. He couldn't sleep again so he kept himself busy with musings, as he often did.

"What's going on with me?" Logan wondered. "I've never even told Remus what happened to me and suddenly I'm thinking of telling a pirate? A pirate's who kidnapped me? That's stupid. If you can't share something with your soulmate, you can't share it with anyone."

"He's not your soulmate, though." A small voice at the back of his head whispered. "You've never glowed around him. But this Patton-"

"Shut up." Logan thought, cutting the voice off curtly. "Patton's a human. You can't have a human soulmate. That's preposterous."

Yes, this is written with terrible Writer's Block. How could you tell?
Bye,
Blaize