(actual title is: selfcare is unfortunately important even during stressful weeks) (fuk u wattpad stop bullying me and my long-ass titles)

Warnings: overworking, stress, sleep deprevation, non-sexual nudity (bath), not eating enough due to stress, but liek its fluff as always

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A hand on Logan's shoulder made him jump in his chair, and he quickly looked back to see who was touching him as he had not noticed anyone entering his room.

Behind him stood Janus, and behind him stood Patton, giving him an apologetic smile, which was really not surprising at all. Logan sighed, knowing exactly what was coming, and he turned back to his work, bringing a hand up to rub at his stinging eyes as he fixed it on his bright laptop screen.

He was not tired, he was not.

Not too tired to keep working, anyway, and the thought of leaving all of this for later made a sting of panic make itself known in his chest.

"You've been working hard for days now, sweetheart, you know you need a break." Patton said, coming up on his other side and tangling his hand in Logan's hair.

It made him wrinkle his nose, the gentle touch reminding him of how greasy his hair was after not showering for a few days. As if he knew his discomfort Patton removed his hand, instead resting it on his shoulder, Just like Janus was on his other side.

"I have been taking breaks. And eating." He pointed out, refraining from mentioning the length of said breaks and how often he had been eating. It was still an improvement to before, when extra stressful weeks such as the one they were currently experiencing meant he would practically not sleep or eat at all.

"Yes, you have," Janus agreed, his hand slipping from Logan's shoulder, and a moment later his chair was being spun around until he was facing them both, and Janus' hand returned to cup his cheek, "however, we all know you can't eat nor sleep well when you're this stressed."

"It is fine, I'm not hungry." He said, stubbornly meeting Janus' gaze as he tilted his head up.

"Is that so? I think you might be forgetting who you're talking to, darling." He said, and Logan's traitor of a stomach growled, reminded of the fact that he had barely eaten all day.

"Let us take care of you, Lo, just an hour's break." Patton coaxed, and Logan knew there was no way for him to refuse that would not cause unnecessary hurt to his boyfriends, but still he glanced back at his laptop, stress over all his deadlines nagging at him.

Another hand on his cheek, a smooth scaled one, and Janus was cradling his face in his hands, pressing a kiss to his forehead, and it was so, so hard not to melt into the touch. "An hour, that's all we ask of you."

An hour shouldn't be a disaster, even if that hour turned into several. He had accounted for getting six to eight hours of sleep every night when making something of a schedule for the week, which he had definitely not gotten since he struggled to sleep when things were as hectic as this week, and so, logically, he should have many hours to spare.

Except for the fact that his lack of sleep, and other things, made him work slower, made him make more mistakes. But the solution to that problem was unfortunately to cave to his boyfriends pleading eyes and take care of himself.

"Fine, alright." He said, earning another kiss to his forehead, which somehow felt as if it dulled his slight headache somewhat.

"Here, let's start with this." Patton said, revealing a glass of water he must have had in his other hand the entire time, and as Logan took it Patton conjured up a box of ibuprofen, correctly guessing that his lack of sleep and lack of proper hydration for the past few days was punishing him.

"What do you want to eat?" Janus asked, removing his hands from Logan, and he immediately missed the warmth. It was not often Janus was warmer than Logan, what with his boyfriend being cold blooded.

He hesitated, then shrugged, not able to come up with anything that sounded appetizing. Patton handed him a pill, and he swallowed it with the wonderfully cold water. He had not realized how dry his mouth had really been.

"Alright then, how about chicken noodle soup? Pat has been teaching me." Janus said, which he decided was a rather nice suggestion. Soup felt like it would be easier to eat than anything he could come up with.

"That sounds nice. Thank you." Logan said, feeling a stab of hunger at the mention of the food, a reminder that even if he felt like he couldn't eat he still needed to.

Janus gave him a little nod, then turned around and disappeared, leaving Logan with Patton. The moral side smiled at him, offering him both his hands. He drank the last of his water, putting the empty glass on his desk before taking Patton's hands.

"Up we go." Patton said, pulling him up from his chair and then pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"You wanna take a bath while Jay cooks?" Patton suggested. Logan considered the option, or at least tried to, but he had barely slept for the past something-days and even if being clean sounded lovely he was not sure if he actually had the energy.

Taking baths with his boyfriends was nice, though. It was a calming activity that they all enjoyed, and they had easily made sure their bathrooms had big enough tubs for the three of them to relax in together.

"I'll wash your hair for you." Patton offered, smiling sweetly, already tugging him towards the bathroom and Logan found himself following him.

"Is that not a bit..." He trailed off, wrinkling his nose, not sure how to articulate himself. It felt a bit like they were treating him as a child who couldn't take care of himself (...not that he did a particularly good job doing just that). Patton must have been able to understand his doubt, looking back at him with an awfully soft expression.

"It's not that we think you're incapable, Lo. We just wanna show you that it's alright if you lean on us. We love you, we want to help when we can. And, anyway, washing your lover's hair is supposed to be a cute couple thing. Romantic, you know?" Patton said, letting go of his hands.

"And I wanna do cute loving things to you." He opened the door to Logan's bathroom, holding it open for him.

Logan reconsidered, deciding that it actually sounded somewhat nice, even if he did not understand why it was a couples thing and, also, if he let Patton wash his hair then it meant he would not have to touch his greasy hair himself. That was a very appealing thought.

"Well... alright, then. But I would like to go to the toilet, by myself, first." He said, his body making him aware that he had not left his chair in a few hours and that he had had coffee not all too long ago.

"Of course." Patton said, a smile tugging at his lips, and he moved away to put the plug in the bathtub and turn the water on, then pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

"Yuck, coffee breath." He said before leaving the room to let Logan do his business and undress. He felt the temperature of the water, adjusting it slightly, then called for Patton to come back.

Soon enough, once there was enough water, they were both sitting in the tub, Logan with his head leaned back as Patton, who was sitting behind him, soaked his hair with the showerhead.

It was rather nice, Logan thought as Patton was massaging the shampoo into his hair, careful not to have the foam running down his face. Logan sat there with his eyes closed anyway, enjoying the hot water and the scalp massage that Patton was practically giving him.

It was definitely nice. Very, very nice.

"Don't fall asleep on me, sweetheart, I gotta rinse out the shampoo." Patton's voice made his eyes flutter open, somewhat realizing that he had been slowly leaning back against Patton's chest.

"Mm, fine." He mumbled, sitting back up.

"You can nap on me after you've eaten." His boyfriend promised, a promise that sounded especially lovely at the moment, minus the part that he had to wait until he had eaten.

The idea of actually getting some proper rest had never sounded better. He sat still as Patton rinsed his hair, forcing his eyes to stay open in an attempt not to fall asleep sitting up.

"There," Patton said, running a hand through his wet hair and leaning forward to leave a little kiss below his ear, "clean hair, at least."

"Thank you." Logan said, making no move to get out of the bath. The water was still pleasantly hot, and if he wasn't mistaking himself Patton was reaching for Janus' body wash, the one that made him smell so nice. He must have left it there last time the three of them were taking a relaxing bath together.

The soap was cold against his skin after the warmth of the water and Patton's body, but it warmed up quickly as Patton lathered up his upper body, the part of him that wasn't submerged in water.

"You are trying to make me fall asleep." Logan accused as Patton's hands began to massage his shoulders. How was he supposed to stay awake when he was so warm and comfortable?

"I'm not." Patton protested.

"I just want to make you feel good. You're terribly tense." He added.

"Always am." Logan said. That was definitely no lie.

"I know. Which is why you should let us take care of you more often. Janus really gives amazing massages, actually. You'd need one."

"Another day. Maybe once this week is over and all my work is done." He said, looking forward to that immensely. He liked his work, normally, during weeks that were not like this one.

"Mhm, we can have a self care week after this one, all of us, and Thomas too. And then Janus can give you an actual massage." Patton said, his hands rubbing his shoulders, fingers kneading his tense muscles.

"Do I hear someone offering my services?" They both looked towards the half open door to see Janus standing there, holding a bowl in gloved hands.

"Oh, Jan! Sorry, we were just talking about massages, and you're so good at giving them." He said.

"I'm glad you think so, love. And I will definitely be giving you a massage once this week is over, Logan, it might make you relax for once." Janus said, then holding the bowl a little higher, making Logan look at it. Then he disappeared back into Logan's room.

Right, food.

Patton washed the soap from him, then got up from the bath and grabbed towels, kissing him on the nose when he had helped him up and given him one of them. It made Logan blink and hide his face in his towel, pretending to be wiping it.

Soon enough they were dried and dressed, Logan having snapped himself into sweatpants, a t-shirt he had once stolen from Patton, and a warm pair of socks. As soon as he stepped back into his bedroom Janus pressed the bowl of soup, which smelled incredible, into his hands.

He sat down by his desk again, which Janus had cleaned from his laptop and anything else related to his work.

"You know," Janus began, sitting on Logan's couch a few meters away, "you could let us help you with your work."

Logan did not say anything, instead sticking a spoonful of the soup in his mouth as Patton hoisted himself up to sit on his desk.

"He's right, baby. You take on too much work, let us lessen your burden. This should all be split more evenly." He said, and it was true that Logan always ended up working more than the others, not that that stopped them from also having a very stressful week, but...

It was not that he did not trust them to do the work well, but he needed to know it was all done perfectly, and how could he without doing it all himself? He swallowed another spoonful of the soup, which admittedly was just as fantastic as when Patton would make it.

"I will... think about it." He said, because that was all he could promise.

They had had similar conversations before, it was unavoidable as weeks such as this one kept happening now and then, and the two of them, and the other sides too for that matter, knew that he had rather complicated feelings surrounding his work and the... somewhat impossibly high standard he kept it to.

"Good, you should. Now, how's the soup? Am I worthy of following Patton's recipes?" Janus asked, making Patton scoff and look down at his hands with a smile.

"You have done very well. Perhaps I should let Patton teach me too." He said, which was actually a rather good idea as Patton always loved cooking with someone else.

"Oh, definitely! It's a date." Patton said brightly and Logan smiled.

He only ate half the bowl, no matter how tasty it was his stomach was still fussy about food. His boyfriends seem satisfied anyway when he puts the bowl down.

"Twenty minutes left of our hour with you. So, wanna cuddle?" Patton wondered, slipping down from the desk and reaching one hand towards Logan and one towards Janus where he was still sitting on the couch.

Logan doubted he could have said no, no matter how pressing he felt that his work was and no matter if twenty minutes might turn into a few hours, and they both stood to take Patton's hand and he let himself be led to his bed, unmade since days back. Patton didn't seem to care, climbing onto it and pulling them both with him.

Within moments Logan had ended up with a boyfriend on either side of him, tucked in under his covers and already feeling sleep tugging at him as he listened to Patton and Janus quietly discuss what movie the two of them should watch while Logan slept.

He felt a hand carefully running through his hair, almost quieting the part of him that still felt that he was wasting very precious time. Eating and resting and spending time with his partners were just as important as his work (even more important, his boyfriends would argue), even if it was hard to remember at times.

He was working on it, though, and hopefully, with his boyfriends by his sides, he would manage to get some very needed rest.

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Written: 11th, 12th & 13th November 2022
Published: 15th November 2022
Words: 2443

Im sorry i keep forgetting about wattpad😭 honestly read my stuff on ao3 lol.

I post a lot more things there cause tbh im not gonna bother posting every fic event and stuf fon jere too cause i dont really get any reads anyway, and using ao3 made me realize i prefer ao3 a lot nowadays so oh welp

Hope yall have had a good day <3