Warnings: Implication of Deceit's presence, implied self-deprecation, implied injury/sickness, incapacitation, and arguing (?)
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"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do." - Confucius

"Patton, I implore you to stop-"

"But you were simply jam packed with puns today, Logan!" Patton exclaims joyfully, leaning over the back of the sofa so he can see what Logan is typing into his laptop. Apparently he is just working on Thomas's schedule, despite him having finished a video. "Thomas is doing great right now, why're you trying to fix a good schedule?"

Logan pauses for a moment before glancing at the moral facet's barely visible reflection in the screen of his laptop and sighing. "His work schedule may be of good standards, but his sleeping schedule is slowly worsening, so we must work on that before it's too late."

With a kind smile and a gentle nod, Patton places his hands on his counterpart's shoulders and squeezes lightly in a sort of hug before standing up properly and leaving the room to find Virgil. Logan hears a quick gust of wind and assumes that it's Patton sinking out, so it doesn't faze him. However, when a very loud-mouthed prince appears in front of him and greets him in such a bubbly manner that Logan fears he may actually pop, he jumps ten feet in the air and almost knocks his laptop onto the floor.

A sigh slips past his lips and immediately signifies to Roman that he's gotten a bit too excited. "My apologies, Logan. Now, how has your day been?"

"Stressful at times, but overall, pleasant. What about yours?"

Roman grins widely and places his hands on his hips. "I'm glad to hear that! My day has been spectacular, thank you. Our teamwork today was wonderful, don't you think?"

Nodding in agreement, the logical Side types more of his schedule plan into his laptop. "Yes, as Thomas pointed out, we make a good team. I'm glad we could both come to some sort of conclusion, even if it was with Thomas's help." He pauses for a moment and ponders an idea for a moment. "Are you busy right now? If not, I'd appreciate your help with Thomas's schedule... If you don't mind, of course."

Usually, Logan just creates and organises Thomas's schedule himself, so being asked for help with it startles Roman slightly. When he manages to overcome this surprise, his lips stretch into a beaming grin and he nods eagerly, and before Logan can shuffle along on the couch to make room for him, Roman has already thrown himself beside the logical persona and is looking at the screen of his laptop of his shoulder. At such abrupt close proximity and partial physical contact, Logan would normally flinch away and perhaps voice his discomfort in a less-than kind manner, but for some reason, Roman's typical 'too-close-for-comfort' antics aren't bothering him. Huh.

Even without being asked, Roman does shift along to give Logan some space, which the younger Side is grateful for because despite not being irritated by the close proximity, he does prefer having a comfortable distance between him and the others. He points out the very specific sleeping schedule he has made and Roman, out of pure politeness, waits a few seconds before suggesting that they give Thomas some slack. Furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, Logan turns to look at his companion. "How would we do that?"

"Like," Roman starts, leaning over his friend to point at the section of his screen that displays the time of Thomas's current sleeping schedule, "instead of saying he must be in bed by 10PM, how about we leave a little wiggle room by saying he must be in bed by at least 10PM or 11PM?"

Logan's eyes widen and he immediately shakes his head. "11PM is much too late for Thomas to be going to bed!"

Flinching at the sudden raised volume of Logan's voice, the creative facet's confident expression falters for a second before he sighs heavily and points at the screen again, getting closer to Logan than the logical Side would like. "Yes, but insisting that he must be in bed by 10PM will only limit his creativity! And if he happens to miss that specific deadline, then he will become frustrated, which will lower his chances of being productive the next day!"

"So will staying up so late!"

"Goodness! Must you be so strict?"

As Roman spits those words at him angrily, Logan crosses his arms and shoves the Side slightly to make some room between them. "I'm only 'strict' because nobody else seems to care about his health as well as what hobbies and unnecessary skills he has! Why must you have an ego the size of Canis Majoris?!"

Despite not quite understanding what he meant when he referenced Canis Majoris, Roman still tenses up at the light shove and only stiffens more when the younger Side mentions his 'big ego'. "Why do you have to pick out such..."

He pauses and Logan swallows, there's a small lump of regret forming in his throat at the way Roman's voice has suddenly quietened and gotten weaker. They're both silent for a moment and don't move a single muscle. When Logan finally musters up the courage to speak and try to fix the situation their arguing has thrown them into, he sighs. "Allow me to make my case-"

"Do what you want with the schedule, Logan. I don't care."

But he does. And although his voice sounds defeated and almost empty, Logan can still hear hints of disappointment and hurt peeking through that thick layer of emotional exhaustion. He wonders why Roman is so upset; they've argued before, why would this time be any different? "Roman, wait."

He doesn't.

A couple of seconds after Roman has sunk down, probably to his room, Logan sighs heavily, removes his glasses, and lies back against the sofa cushions. They're soft and comforting, but a cold brief waft of cold air on the side of his neck keeps him from relaxing. Along with the guilt from his and Roman's argument beginning to settle in his stomach, of course. He wants to stand up. To apologise and ask Roman if he's okay. But that cold air is forcing him in his seat, sinking into his skin and sending ludicrous, stomach sinking messages to his brain.

'What would be the point? Roman would probably just wave him off. He's fine, just acting like a child because things aren't going his way. There's nothing else that's wrong. Definitely not.'

But that's wrong. Very wrong, indeed.

Though he is terrible with interpreting emotions and feelings, Logan believes wholeheartedly that he knows the Sides pretty well. What, with his and Virgil's silent conversations, and that special lie detecting skill he and Patton seem to have for one another. With Roman, the logical aspect can usually tell if he is upset. And not his typical juvenile, 'stomping his feet', temper tantrum kind of sadness. The sadness he refuses to show because he's a 'prince'.

Something is wrong. And even if Roman doesn't want to admit it or talk about it, Logan would like to be there for him as moral support. Roman's his friend and he cares about him a lot. No matter how much they fight and argue.

Fighting against the cold breaths air keeping him on the couch, Logan sinks down to Roman's room and finds him sniffling brokenly on his bed, just staring up at the ceiling and acting as if he isn't crying. This sight unnerves Logan, but he tries his best to ignore that feeling for now, simply focusing on helping his friend and apologising for his insult. "Roman, I'd like to apologise."

"Mhm, sure."

Ordinarily, Logan would become frustrated with such curt and petty replies, but... this reply, though short, doesn't sound as if he's trying to be petty. It's spoken as if Roman barely has enough breath or energy to even say it. Gripping the leg of his trousers in his hand, Logan frowns deeply and sits down on the edge of Roman's King sized bed. "You don't believe me?"

This time, he only gets a shrug. But even that seems like it takes all the energy out of him. Strange. Concerning.

"I know that I was rather... harsh and I promise you that I regret that, but for us, arguing is quite a common occurrence, so is there any particular reason that you are reacting so strongly this time?"

Instead of any sort of reply, Roman slowly moves his arm and stretches his fingers to indicate that he wants Logan to take it. Logan hesitates for a moment, once again furrowing his eyebrows in confusion and concern, but eventually decides to gently take the older Side's hand in his own. Instantly, the creative man's grip tightens and Logan jumps in surprise. It feels almost as if he is in pain. "Roman? Can you speak? Squeeze once for yes, or squeeze twice for no."

There was a ten second pause before Logan felt Roman squeeze his hand. Once.

Looking back up at his companion, Logan adjusts his glasses shakily with his free hand and thinks of something else to say. "Are you feeling weaker because of our argument?"

Twice.

"Are you feeling weaker because... because you're upset?"

Twice.

Logan resists the urge to pull at his hair in frustration. "Are you feeling weaker because... because..." he can't think of anything else that could have caused this! He needs to think. Think. Think! Wait. Maybe... "Is the reason for you feeling so weak a more specific part of our argument?"

Once.

Finally, he's getting somewhere. He nods and closes his eyes, thinking of another question to ask. Right now, all he can feel is the cool air around him, the smoothness of Roman's hand in his, and the worried thumping of his heart shattering his rib-cage. After a moment, he opens his eyes and stares down at the still figure of his friend, but his gaze slowly trails over to a mirror standing beside Roman's bed. He can see the creative Side's face and... it is haunting. Not just because of the silent tears rolling down his cheeks and over his nose, and not just because of the blank voids that have replaced his eyes, but because of the fact that he has been staring at Logan's reflection in the mirror this entire time.

He swallows nervously and brushes the pad of his thumb softly against Roman's knuckles. During the silence, he's ran through the events of their argument and come up with a theory. Though he shouldn't really call it a theory because he's absolutely certain that it's correct. "Is this happening because of the comment I made about your ego?

Once.

Guilt twists in his chest, leaving him feeling suffocated and cold. He leans forward and rests his forehead on Roman's chest. "Are you in pain?"

Roman doesn't do anything in response, but that still says so much. Too much for him to handle, maybe.

He bites back shameful tears and suddenly wonders why he is becoming so emotional. Roman has clearly gone through this experience before, so he will almost certainly be okay in the end. But there's just something about the lost look on his face, the obvious desperation to move, that just makes Logan hate himself. Why couldn't he just keep his damn mouth shut? If he had, then he and Roman would still be arguing about the schedule in the Common Room.

Around ten minutes pass and Logan has refused to move from his spot beside Roman, who has only moved his legs once and his arms once in that time. That fact absolutely kills him inside. He's managed to hold the tears back, but even though they haven't fallen yet, he can feel them in his eyes, reminding him of how awful he was for causing this. No matter how obnoxious he seems sometimes, Roman doesn't deserve to have his own creativity and function frozen because of... something Logan still doesn't quite understand.

No. If it were Logan, then maybe he'd understand since he was the only one to really pick out something specific to use against his friend. Roman deserves to have the ability to use his imagination to benefit not only Thomas, but also Thomas's supporters. They are truly wonderful and deserve to witness Roman's incredible mind.

If he dug deep inside his thoughts and rummaged around, he's sure that he could find some sort of explanation. But he doesn't have the strength to. All he can think to do is reminisce over everything Roman has expressed love for and come up with ways to bring them up. Although he doesn't think he'll be very good at it, he wants to try and cheer him up. To try and shed a tiny bit of light through the dark.

"You and Virgil both enjoy Disney, correct?" When his hand is squeezed twice, he smiles sadly. "Even back then, it's amusing how much you had in common despite being constantly at war with one another. How did it take you both so long to finally find a way to coexist?"

He tries to make a... Well, not a joke. Maybe he's just trying to make Roman smile because that empty expression is definitely going to haunt him at night. He doesn't think he's very good at making people laugh, but that doesn't bother him much unless hes in situations like this. His main goal is to educate Thomas and maybe even his supporters about how to live a healthy lifestyle, whilst still finding reasons to find the world they live in fascinating. It kind of works. Roman's hand squeezes his, but Logan, for some reason, feels like it's different. Not quite as shaky. Not quite as shaky.

"To be fair, we all took our time to completely accept him as he was." He chuckles weakly and leans against the wooden post of Roman's bed. "I'm glad we have, though."

It takes a while, but Logan eventually begins to ask himself why he is being so... noble? Chivalrous? Nostalgic? Driven by emotion? Though he can guess that it's the effects of Roman's room taking effect, he knows that he needs to pull himself together and find a way to help Roman! In fact, that's likely what the prince has been waiting for. "If insulting your ego incapacitates you, would boosting your ego... help?"

Roman's hand twitches, but doesn't squeeze. It seems that he doesn't know what will fix him. At this point, Logan is willing to try anything. He can't stand those dead eyes staring at him through the mirror anymore. "Well, if you're concerned about your creations being inefficient or failing to meet our standards, I can easily tell you that you have an... intriguing mind. No, not every idea of yours is flawless, but not just some, almost every single one of them has made my respect for you and what you do increase. I'm glad that I have the chance to work with you. We really do make a great team."

Without warning, fresh tears fill Roman's eyes and he tenses up, eyes scrunching shut in pain as his entire body stretches out for a few seconds before going limp again. It goes quiet for a moment before Roman hesitantly lifts his arm. The movement is so shaky it looks as if its being pulled up by broken strings. But he's moving. He's moving.

"Thank you." Those are the first words to come out of Roman's mouth and Logan is too relieved to be surprised. He simply smiles softly and nods, letting them remain in silence for a few seconds before speaking. "I think you may have had a point before. So, I shall make a few improvements... but only if you allow me to lower the second time deadline to thirty minutes past ten."

A watery chuckle shakes Roman's shoulders as he nods and allows Logan to help him up. "See? I think we do come up with better ideas together! What, with your brains and both my looks and brains, we could take over the world! In fact, why don't we?"

Logan rolls his eyes and smiles, making a mental note to inform Virgil, Patton, and Thomas about what just happened later. "Sure. Let's get planning our method of world domination."