It all began with a simple brush of the hand. An outcome of Patton handing Logan a pen he had borrowed some time ago.

To Patton, it was a minor fumble on Logan's part, but he couldn't help the blossom of red that colored his face as cold skin brushed against his own.

The logical facet flinched at the foreign yet intriguing caress, he was always so closed off and distant that he himself did not acknowledge how touch starved he really was. The way his hand ached to be held, or how his skin prickled uncomfortably as soon as he drew back was...

Unsettling.

Patton despised the way Logan recoiled from him as though he had been scorched, the unreadable expression that took over his features was discouraging, it made his heart throb with misery and remorse. His throat constricted with anguish, it was as if all the bad thinkings materialized in front of him and wrapped its hands around his neck.

Logan was the first to shatter the sheet glass of silence that had settled between them, his lips quivered scantily. "I'm sorry." His voice was soft and delicate, easy to break. Patton blinked, his heart sputtering and jerking in his chest. The hands withdrew from his throat, and he took a breath, a breath so deep and steady yet so desperate and crucial he relished the feeling of his lungs filling up with rich oxygen. "Patton?" The gentle voice of the intelligent trait snapped him back to normalcy.

He rested his gaze upon Logan, not realizing that he had dropped his head in the first place. "Yes, Logan?"

Logan internally grimaced. Since when did Patton start using his first name to address him?

It was always Logi or Logibear, sometimes even LoLo or just Lo.

But this time it was Logan.

Just Logan?

It was his name of course, but he did not like the way it rolled off Patton's lips, like a curse word. It didn't fit with that voice. It just didn't belong in general.

"Are you okay?" Logan spoke, unfazed, unbothered despite the severe blizzard thrashing around in his chest. He could feel particles of ice slicing his innards, burning his heart.

"Yeah! Course I am silly." Patton chirped and pulled on a rehearsed smile, Logan felt sick. Was he sick? Could he even get sick? He looked down at his hand, his pen clasped around his trembling fingers, the prickling beneath his skin exacerbated. "Patton..." this time his voice was unsteady and feeble, he was standing on thin ice, and he was going to plunge.

He was going to fall.

Patton felt his heart plummet at the scene unfolding in front of him.

Logan desperately stared into his eyes, grasping for something, anything to keep him from collapsing.

"I don't-"

"Logan, it's okay-"

"I'm broken-"

"You're okay-"

"I'm defective-"

"Logan-"

"I'm going to fall-"

"Lo-"

"I'm going to-"

A pair of arms encircled themselves around Logan's waist, a face was buried in his chest, glasses uncomfortably digging into his ribs.

Then, there was silence, accompanied by the occasional muffled sniffle. It took a while for Logan to finally process what was occurring, the tingling ceased, the ache diminished, and the blizzard passed.

Patton clung to him as though his entire existence counted on it. And maybe...just maybe, it did.

Logan almost instantly wrapped his own arms around Patton when he let out a small sob, a cry so heartwrenching and the suffering so agonizing, it made hell seem like a decent place. The small bubbly trait was invariably excessively sensitive, but that's what Logan adored about him. Patton often knew from the heart how to handle things without provoking any dilemmas, and he always carried a smile on his face as he did so.

Their grip on each other was strong, Patton clutched onto the back of Logan's shirt, fingers digging into his spine, and Logan held Patton with a secure embrace, guarding him against the unpleasant things that could harm him, protecting him from anything and everything that dared to go against Patton. Logan whispered solemn apologies to Patton who nuzzled closer to him, his pen lay by their feet forgotten. Gentle hands ran through Patton's hair, and the utterances of apologies morphed into murmurs of praise and fondness.

And thus, it ended like that.

It all ended with an embrace.