-- Co-written with regal_nerd --

TW// Competition, panic attack.

『••✎••』

By 11:00, Patton had been awake for a few hours. In that time, he'd made breakfast and run into exactly zero people. It was kind of lonely, but that was fine for today. He'd been planning to do something, and it would work out much better if he didn't run into anyone just yet. So for once, Patton didn't mind the quiet in the house.

After he ate, Patton went back to his room, keeping his excited jumping to a minimum so as not to wake the rest of the house. It was time to do some reading! This particular book was taking a while to read, and he'd had to keep a dictionary open next to him for multiple chapters of it. The moral side didn't mind though, in fact, he enjoyed everything he learned in this book. Roman teased Logan for having his nose buried in a book all day, but to be honest, Patton understood. He was almost sad to have to finish and return his book by the end of the day.

Giving a sigh, Patton flopped back into his pillows and picked up his book. He did a quick check of how many pages he had left now, pouting when he saw that he only had five more. Some books needed to last forever, and this was certainly one of them. Patton had been absolutely awestruck by every word, and in the meantime, he'd somehow fallen even deeper in love with Logan. Understanding why the logical side loved space had caused him to love space too. Throughout the book, it was almost as though he'd become even closer to Logan himself as well. That's why he'd decided to leave a little surprise within the margins of the books he read. He hoped that Logan would see how much he cared, and he hoped that these books could really bring them closer together. Maybe it was a bit of wishful thinking, but Patton was excited to see Logan's reaction nonetheless.

A few minutes and a few vocabulary words later, Patton finished the space book. He picked up a pen from his bedside table to write one more note for Logan in the back of the book, then snapped it shut with a contented smile. He really hoped Logan would appreciate the messages.

Patton swung out of bed, a little hop in his step as he made his way down to the library. Once he made it past the other side's rooms though, the excited moral side couldn't help but skip the rest of the way. The amount of energy he had at that moment just couldn't be contained.

His stop in the library was quick. He didn't want to accidentally run into Logan and risk having him figure out his master plan, so Patton put the book back quickly, resolving to find another one when he came back later. Finding him in the library so early in the morning might make someone else suspicious, and Patton wanted to keep Logan's surprise just that, a surprise. So as soon as he found the right shelf for the book, Patton hurried out of the library and back to his room, falling onto his bed in a fit of silent, joyous giggles. He simply couldn't wait to see Logan's reaction.

『••✎••』

Ah, the library. Besides his room, Logan believed that this was his safe space. The library always smelled like beautiful freshly printed paper... ah. Logan could absolutely spend most of his time in the library. It brought him a great amount of joy, more than most things ever could.

Today, for example, Logan came down very early in the morning to select a new book. Space was the theme at this particular moment. Logan was in the mood for it, what could he say? Ever since he regained his capacity for emotion... it was like a passionate flame lit under him. He was ready to study the stars and dream of traveling to them, even though he knew that was not a realistic future event.

Logan slid a particularly interesting looking book on black holes out of the shelf and smiled just a tiny bit. This would be a good piece of literature for the day, and if Logan's estimations were correct, he could finish this before dinner. The logical trait tucked the book neatly under his arm and headed back up to his room with light, quick strides.

His door opened smoothly and silently, allowing Logan to slip quietly into his room and back into his bed for a comfortable day of relaxing. This was perfect, he couldn't have hoped for a better day.

The first few pages flew by at a light, brisk pace. Most of them speculated about the symbolic spiritualism of black holes, which Logan wasn't the most interested in, because spiritualism? Really?

Ah, finally the book was delving into theory. That was something Logan could certainly grasp. He devoured the book quickly, information whirling into his mind at light speed-

What?

There was a tiny bit of scrawled writing in the left margin of the paper? How curious. Logan was a little upset for a moment, because someone really just graffitied one of his books! He wouldn't stand for that. Just out of interest, Logan skimmed over the little note, curious as to what could be so important that it was scribbled into his perfectly smooth margin.

Well if E=mc2 then P♡=VRL^2 because I loooooooove them the most in the whole world!

Logan blinked. He set the book face down on the table and whirled away to another shelf. Quickly, he pulled another book down and flipped through the pages, skimming the margins- There was another one!

I may not know much about the history of eskimos, but I'm sure I'll melt the igloo around someone's heart soon enough!

There was no way... how? Why? When? Books flew off the shelves from all directions at his command, and Logan snatched each one from the air, letting them fall open to certain pages.

I would climb the mountains if I could do it with Logan!

What if Deceit is actually a lizard and not a snake (mind blown)

Hahaha Roman would totally love to be in rome! Maybe we should all go there sometime! Logan would know everywhere to go-

Oh yeah, Deceit could be one of those mythical serpents like in Harry Potter!

Logan probably looks like that prince when he wields a sword!

My dark strange sonnnnnnnnnnnnn he's playing MCR and I can hear it through the wall and I love him :D

Roman would squeal if he read this-

Virgil's favorite food-

Logan-

Deceit-

Virgil-

I love them all so much-

Logan couldn't stop reading Patton's little notes. There were so many. He had to read more... more... more more more moremoremore-

『••✎••』

All day Patton spent waiting for Logan to come down from his room and at least have something to eat. But all day, there was no sign of him. Virgil and Roman had their usually dining table banter during dinner, but Patton was far away, staring at the empty chair next to him.

"Right Patton?" Roman asked from the other side of the table. Patton startled, knocking his chair out from the table a little bit and causing the cutlery to rattle. Virgil's eyes widened and then he squinted.

"Patton? Are you okay, dad?" the emo trait asked, tilting his head a little. Two concerned sets of eyes rested on the father figure, waiting for some kind of response.

Patton blinked a little and smiled his brilliant Dad smile. "I'm fine, I promise! Logan's been working pretty hard, I think I'll bring some food up to him!" Patton jumped from the table and raced over to the kitchen. At least this would be an excuse to see Logan! He missed the knowing looks Roman and Virgil exchanged.

With a warm, heavenly-smelling plate in hand, Patton knocked on Logan's door and smiled. "Heya Lo! I brought you some dinner!" There was no answer from inside. Patton's brow furrowed and he tried the door knob out of curiosity. Locked... Logan never locked his door unless he wasn't in his room...

Patton spent the better part of an hour searching the house up and down, looking for any sign of Logan's presence before it finally dawned on him and he descended the stairs to the library. "Lolo?" He asked? His voice echoes off the walls, but no response answered back. Patton was very confused, but not perturbed, so he ventured through the library slowly until he came past a certain isle.

What he saw made his heart swell a million times bigger than normal. He smiled and leaned against the bookcase.

Logan was lying on the floor, surrounded by a mass of open books, filled with Patton's margin notes, and completely asleep. His chest rose and fell slowly, and his lips moved every once in a while with tiny whispered words that Patton couldn't discern. It looked like the logical trait spent the entire day reading over Patton's tiny notes. "Aww Lo..." this was just beyond adorable.

『••✎••』

Someone woke up in his bed in the morning, and he was very confused. He was well rested, surrounded by fluffy sheets and puffy blankets. How... did he get here? Wasn't he just in the library... reading Patton's notes?

Curious.

『••✎••』

━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━

It all started out innocently enough, with Roman and Logan again at odds with each other over... What were they arguing over again? Roman couldn't even remember, he just wanted to win. So, in an effort to prove his superiority, he marched right over to Logan, swiping the book he was reading out of his hands just to ensure the logical trait was paying attention. "Logan! To prove once and for all who the better side is, I challenge you, to an arm wrestling competition!"

This was absolute lunacy. No way. Logan wouldn't stand for this whatsoever. He sat down on the couch and glared at Roman. "No. Only if we make it fair: We choose one event each and decide one event together. Whoever wins the most will be declared superior." Who said Roman was the only one with an ego?

Roman smirked, knowing full well that Logan wouldn't be able to resist his challenge. They're both too competitive for that. And petty. "Fine, then just to make it beyond fair, we'll have Pat and V judge each event and declare the winner. Which will be me." Oh boy, the mindscape was going to be a total mess by the end of this.

"Fine." Logan certainly couldn't argue with that. "I choose Chess as my sport of battle. I know you are good, but you cannot be better than me." Probably not. Logan doubted it. Very much. Whatever. "And the sport we choose together?"

Both of them eyes each other for several seconds, ideas running through each of their minds-

"Running!" They cried in unison.

With that decided on, Roman waved his hand, summoning both Patton and Virgil into the living room to act as their judges. He didn't trust Logan to summon them without hurting them in the process. "Alright then! On to our first competition!" Virgil opened his mouth to say something, but Roman shushed him before he had the chance. No raining on his soon to be victory parade.

Patton was the one to get the pair set up for the arm wrestling event, having either side of a small table occupied by them. Roman flashed yet another grin at Logan, confident as ever. "You can always give in now Lo, I won't judge. Get it? Cause Patton is the jud-" From his spot on the couch, Virgil threw a pillow at Roman's head.

"Could you two get on with this? I want to go back to my room sometime today." Virgil's annoyance seemed to spur things on luckily, and both the creative and logical traits locked their hands together, elbows resting on the table. Patton took it upon himself to hold onto them both, just to be sure no one would begin early.

"Alright you two, ready... Set... Go!"

With that, Patton let go of their hands, and the match was underway. Both sides tensed up instantly, putting in as much effort as possible to sway their opponent's hand to hit the table first. Probably inevitable, but Roman soon slammed Logan's hand down, before letting go of him altogether. He didn't train so heavily in the Imagination for nothing. "Ha! That's one to nothing Specs!"

That actually kind of hurt his hand, but clearly he was going to get no apology from Roman. Figures, he was far too enthused about their wager to notice much of anything else around him. Logan rolled his eyes, then adjusted his glasses which had slipped a little out of place during the match. "That's one out of three Roman. Winning one does not mean you've won the whole thing. Now then, we shall move on to the second event."

A trip into the Imagination was in order for their second contest, which they'd agreed upon together. Roman created a quick strip of land, with both a starting and finishing line that he believed entirely would be crossed by him way before Logan. Like the tortoise and the hare, except the tortoise loses like he should have originally.

Their judges were to stand at either end of the track, in order to announce the start and the end of the race. But... Well, Patton got distracted by a butterfly, and wondered after it instead of staying by the finish line. Oh well, they still had Virgil, right? Roman was sure he would win this thing even without a judge there to announce who crossed the line first.

Alright, ready... Set... "Logan wins."

Roman jumped slightly, looking over at Virgil, and the smirking Logan. "Wha- But we didn't even run yet!" He gestured wildly to the track he spent not all that much time on. The track that they were still on the starting side of.

Virgil shrugged, shoving his hands in his hoodie pockets while giving Roman one of those signature grins of his. "Logan is better at running from his problems than you are. And as Anxiety, and your judge, I say he wins. So there."

The logical trait wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not, but he supposed it didn't matter in this case. He'd won the event, without any actual running even being involved. "That is now one to one, Roman. Whoever wins my chosen event shall procure the title of best side."

"You. Are. On!"

There wasn't a whole lot to judge when it came to a chess match, so Virgil and Patton were both on a bit of a break, other than checking in every so often to be sure neither side was cheating. Not that it was much of a concern, as both Roman and Logan were adamantly against cheating of any sort.

The air was tense, giving the usually serene living room a far more aggressive feeling. There were no words exchanged between the dueling duo, just the soft tap tap tap of each chess piece against the wooden board. Those taps were progressively getting louder as the game went on, the glares shot between the two players more irritated and aggressive. Roman was visualizing the game as a real war scenario, so to Logan's surprise, he was actually pretty good at it.

While there were no words spoken, Roman and Logan were still communicating, through their eyes, body language, the way they moved their pieces each turn. Somehow this was winding up to be just as intense as their verbal arguments.

"Ooookay that's enough! You guys are starting to freak us out a bit!" Patton laughed awkwardly, swooping in to pick up the chess board regardless of the other two protesting the action.One of the few times Roman and Logan agree on something, it was the desire to keep on competing.

"Paaat! Now how will we know who the best side is?" Roman seemed quite distressed over this, considering it was his idea to begin with. Logan was more reserved, but he also had a moment of trying to take the board back from Patton before the moral trait waved his hand to get rid of it entirely.

"It was a tie! So as your official judge, I declare you both to be the best! Yaaaay!"

There was a lot of pouting from the two winners. Mostly Roman, because he was bitter over how Virgil had judged the running event, which led to this tie scenario.

Dang it all.

━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━

╰☆╮

There was just so much to do. Logan was so busy. There wasn't a single second to even think about a break. His life had devolved into simply coffee and computer screens. He took another long sip, using valuable energy to refill his cup. There was no time to get up and go to the kitchen right now. He still had another week of memories to catalog. How had he managed to fall so far behind? He was the personification of logic, why hadn't his schedule worked properly? He picked up his cup, taking another sip before forcing himself back to the computer and willing his eyes to stay open. He had to finish this today.

The next few hours fell into a monotonous haze of blurry memories and exhaustion. It was only due to his years of practice in overworking himself that he managed to get the memories organized properly.

He let out a long sigh. Four days done. Time for more coffee, if he wasn't mistaken. It took him seconds to down his completely full cup of coffee. He frowned down at the cup. There was no way it was that deep. He hadn't seriously just chugged all that coffee, had he? Hm, that was unusual. If he had less work to do, he would have thought about this more thoroughly. As it was though, he still had to make sure that Thomas was properly taking care of himself and make sure that he was still on schedule and make sure the rest of the mindscape was functioning properly, and make sure that the other sides were doing alright- just the thought of all there was still left to do made Logan's head spin. Clearly, now was not the time for thinking. Thinking was just making it worse.

Logan pulled himself closer to his desk and got back to work. This he could trash... but that memory was probably important. He filed it away with a yawn. He desperately needed more coffee, but he couldn't possibly fathom the energy to summon more of the bitter drink. Groggily, Logan came to a compromise with himself; finish filing Thomas' memories for one more day, then get up and get more coffee from the kitchen. That should work, right? Right.

Another yawn, then Logan went back to staring at his computer screen. Put that there... That over there... This goes in the other folder... And... over there... that one... could...

The next thing he knew, Logan was being shaken and yelled at by a voice that sounded both annoyed an worried. A delirious smile spread across his face. How could one person feel both of those emotions at once? Impressive, really. He let out a drunk-sounding giggle. He might be just a bit tired. With a great deal of effort, Logan lifted his head off of his desk, spinning around in his chair to see Virgil. Ohhhhh that explained all the weird emotions. Virgil was an odd person human side thing. What were they again? Facets of Thomas' personality? Yeah, sure. That sounded professional and normal enough. He gave the anxious-looking side a lopsided grin and a wave. "Hi, facet of Thomas' personality!"

Virgil frowned. He looked even more concerned now. That wasn't good, was it? No, probably not. "What's wrong, fellow facet?" Logan asked. Gosh, he was absolutely loopy.

"You, you absolute idiot. Do you realize what your sleep deprivation and stubborn refusal to take a break are doing to the rest of us?"

"Mmm nope. Oh, is it interesting though? I should see what's going on, yeah? Okay, I'll take a break. And get coffee."

Completely ignoring Virgil's unintelligible protests, Logan stood up from his desk chair. WhOa, everything was kind of going dark and his head felt, like, not a normal head. His vision was clouded with dark spots, and he couldn't keep his balance properly. He stumbled forward. That probably wasn't normal. Patton was supposed to be the clumsy one, right? Logan was the logic one. The logic one wasn't supposed to fall over. Because he was the logic one. That was logic.

"Heeeeey Virgil, I'm gonna faaaaall." Logan did, in fact, look as though he were about to fall over. He stumbled into Virgil, who yelped in surprise, putting his arms out to stop the sleep deprived side from collapsing to the ground.

"Lo, this isn't healthy. You need to get some rest."

At that, Logan stood up straight and looked at his left-brained counterpart with a frown. "No. I can't rest. There's too much for me to do, Virgil. I'll juuuuuuuust get s'more coffee then I can do my work and then I'll... do like other work and stuff and then maybe I'll sleep but only if there's like. Someone else to make sure that Thomas doesn't fall apart at the seams."

"You're not doing a very good job of that yourself, you know. Thomas has been unusually stressed this entire week because you haven't slept, and we've all been trying to keep him sane. You working yourself to death isn't helping anyone."

"But Vergeee there's so much woooork-"

"No buts." Virgil put his hands on Logan's shoulders, stopping him from slumping over. "The amount of work you have is no excuse at all to stop taking care of yourself. I mean, you're the one who keeps trying to convince Thomas to get to bed at a reasonable hour, aren't you?"

"Well yeah, but-"

Virgil rolled his eyes, guiding Logan's noodle-like form over to his bed. "What did I say about buts?"

Logan giggled. "Butts..."

Firmly sitting Logan down on his bed, Virgil shook his head. "You're being a hypocrite. You can't tell us all to take care of ourselves and then go and completely disregard your own health. You're making us all more stressed, and you're also making me do actual work. Keeping Thomas from becoming super anxious when you get like this takes so much energy, and I really don't appreciate it."

By this point, Logan had flopped onto his back, a dopey smile back on his face. "That was a big word, V. Hypocrite. I taught you well, yeah?"

With a sigh, Virgil got to work straightening Logan out on his bed, putting his head on his pillow and pulling his sheets over him. "Yeah, you did teach me well. You're the teacher, after all." Carefully, he took Logan's glasses off his face and put them on the bedside table. In a few strides, he made it over to his desk. "Really, you're supposed to be the organized one here," he muttered, shuffling Logan's papers into a proper stack.

He gave another sigh. "Seriously, though. You can't keep overworking yourself like this. It isn't healthy or productive, and it messes up Thomas' mind and honestly, I could go on and on about why you should just..." Virgil trailed off, looking back in Logan's direction. He sighed. "Sleep." While he'd been talking, he hadn't noticed Logan pass out cold. He gave a small smile. It seemed even the logical side couldn't resist his comfortable bed. Virgil sighed again, resigned to berating Logan when he woke up. In the meantime, the least he could do was get him some coffee so he didn't freak out after he'd had his rest.

He gave up trying to straighten out all the papers on Logan's desk. None of them were straight, why should the stacks of papers be? He grabbed the cup and left the room, shutting the door behind him. Virgil decided he'd get a cup of coffee for himself. He deserved it.

╰☆╮

The next morning, Logan woke to the sound of a thunderous crack through the air. His entire body tensed, and he squeezed his eyes shut, quivering with strain and anxiety.

No. Please no. Don't let that be-

Light filled the room and Logan's eyes widened a split second before the sky split with a deafening blast. Someone was screaming. Was it him? He couldn't tell. Why was he inside his closet all of a sudden?

Oh God please. Somebody save him.

To be continued...