Hi! Welcome to the first chapter of the Sanders Sides swapped au story! I am beyond excited to be a part of this lovely Wattpad community. I hope you all have a fantastic day and happy reading!

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     "Pocket Protector, do tell why you seem to believe that your job is so much harder than mine."

     "Never did I say that my job in Thomas' mind takes any more or less effort than anyone else's, Roman. As you have just shown, you are simply incapable of listening to anyone else's inputs during a conversation."

     "Oh, so all of a sudden I'm the closed-minded one of the group?"

     "That is not quite where I was going with that statement, but it seems that you are in fact becoming increasingly more difficult to reason with on issues, so yes."

     "Either way, closed-minded or not, my tasks are much more strenuous than the tasks of anyone else in the mindscape. I'm basically the Regina George among you nerds-"

     It was at this point Virgil decided to roll his eyes, put both of his headphones back on, and crank up the My Chemical Romance he already had playing. He began bopping his head to the beat of whatever song he had on, doing his best to ignore Logan and Roman's bickering on the couch. After many failed attempts to tune them out, he decided to visit Patton in the kitchen while he was baking cookies.
Quite the normal day if I do say so myself, Virgil thought.
     Virgil made his way to the moral side and plopped himself on the counter top near him. He pressed the large pause button on his phone and took off his headphones.
     "You know Pat," Virgil started, "whenever you make cookies for us, Thomas always ends up craving them and finding a way to get some. He will be extremely overweight by the end of the month if you keep making cookies every day."
     Patton chuckled. "Don't worry Virge," Patton said as he took the cookie sheet out of the oven. "As long as you and Lo are here to give him reasons as to why he should not succumb to his cravings, Thomas probably isn't going to get overweight from eating too many second cookies". Patton took off his oven mitts and made his way to Virgil to ruffle his hair, just as a father would do to his son. "Now come on, help me decorate these cookies before they get too cold. Would you like to see if Logan or Roman want to help us?

     As Virgil opened his mouth to respond, a loud "FALSEHOOD" echoed through the mind palace and Patton giggled. "...It's possible that now might not be the best time," Virgil commented after a chuckle left his lips. Morality was quick to agree and grabbed for the different colored frostings he had laid out. He handed his dark strange son the purple and got himself the sky blue color. 

     Patton worked hard on the cookie he was icing. His tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration, he slowly formed an (almost) impeccable blue heart on the face of the desert. In the time that the father figure decorated one cookie, Virgil had finished about five. His were filled with purple stars and lightning bolts. One even had his trademark storm cloud on it. He put down his piping bag for a few moments to watch Pat at work. He smirked when Patton smiled and said a loud "done!" after putting down his icing-filled bag. 

     He looked over at Virge's decorating skills and bashfully rubbed the back of his neck. "I, uh, got a bit carried away again didn't I?" he inquired. "Either way, your cookies always look the best Virge! My favorite is this one". He pointed to the one with the singular lightning bolt. Virgil nodded and smiled in response and decided to keep on icing more desserts, and Patton decided to do the same.

-

     Roman and Logan's argument lasted well into the night. They jumped around on many subjects such as what Thomas should be doing in his free time, when Thomas should get work done, and of course who's job is more difficult. By the time the sun went down, it had gotten to a point when Roman brought up Virgil and Patton's purposes in Thomas' mind. They were all on the couches now, Virgil with his headphones on and Patton reading a nonfiction book about cats (he was mainly only looking at the pictures, but no one had to know that). 

     "For Shakespeare's sake Logan! When will you ever admit that your position as logic will never be as complicated as my position as creativity? It's blatantly obvious," Roman quipped.

     "Once again, you've uttered another falsehood," Logan responded calmly. "I thought we reached an agreement hours ago. No single side's job is harder than any other. They are all complicated and difficult in their own ways."

     "That is nowhere near what I gathered from that 15 minute monologue you completely bored me half to death with."

     As Roman said this, Deceit walked into the room for the first time since the two had begun their argument. He walked to the fridge to grab a glass of expired milk as Remus had requested, speaking to the arguing sides in the process. "Here's an idea," he began, "why not just agree that some sides have it harder than others but we each handle the burden differently? Oh wait, I presume Roman would never be able to get it through his thick skull unless he physically switched with one of you. Also, Remus told me to tell you both to shut up, because we can hear every bit of your conversation from the other room." No one responded, but Deceit didn't even notice, because he had vanished back to another part of the mindscape, most likely to wherever the duke was.

     Patton finally looked up from his book, hating having to witness Logan and Roman fight for so long to the point where even Deceit had something to say about it. It had in fact been a few hours since they began, and he wasn't entirely sure they had taken a break at any point. "Maybe you both should take a break, rest up, and I'm sure this will all be solved by the morning," Patton lightly suggested with a kind smile.

     Logan looked at Pat for a bit and then sighed. "Patton is correct. Sleep would give sufficient time to ponder over this entire discussion and hopefully enlighten you to the truth." He then looked at each of the other sides in turn. "I am heading off to my room now, I hope you each have a good night," he stated as he stood up and walked out of the room, first grabbing a book he left on the table. 

     Roman looked over at Patton, desperately wanting to be told he was right, and all the moral side could do was give a sad grin and tell him he was also going to retire to his room for the night. After he left, only Virgil and Roman were in the sitting room, Virge having taken off his headphones as soon as Deceit walked into the room a minute or two prior. He stared at the floor, avoiding the Prince's pleading eyes. "Virgil, you know I'm correct, don't you?" Roman inquired. 

     Anxiety looked up at him and responded in a way that shocked both him and the other side. "Actually," he began, "as much as I hate to say it, I'm going to have to agree with Deceit on this one. He actually made a valid point for once." After a bit of silence, Virge finally said "I'm going to go to my room. Don't stay up too late, at least not as late as I normally do," and left him to go upstairs. 

     As usual, Virgil made sure to check on Logan and Patton before he went to his room to sit on Tumblr for a few hours. He spoke to Logan for a bit, making both of them feel a bit happier than they were previously. It was often that the two of them would find comfort in one another, and this time was nothing special. Virge hugged Logan on his way out, shocking them both but not feeling at all out of place or inappropriate. After leaving Lo's room, V went to Patton's room where he was caught off-guard in one of Patton's warm hugs before saying goodnight and leaving for the night.

     Eventually, Roman also made his way to his respective room, and the mindscape was peaceful. That is, until the morning struck and was met with a screaming Roman, a calm yet concerned Virgil, an emotion-filled Logan, and a worried Patton in full dad-mode.

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Author's note: Well that was the first chapter! Be prepared for, uhhh, lots of angst. Also I forgot what I wanted to write here. 

OH YEAH. Okay well I'm sure I said this in the intro chapter but in this story there isn't much separation between "light" and "dark" sides. They all kinda just chill together in the mindscape. This chapter was also a way to establish the dynamic of the sides when they are not around Thomas.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful day!