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naminethewriter · 3 years

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Vacation

This is my entry for the @sandersidesbigbang! I had a lot of fun participating 🥰 Thanks to all the mods for organizing this! Also huge thanks to @just-a-pintrovert & @5-falsehoods-phonated for beta reading 💙 There is also some artwork also from @just-a-pintrovert here! They did a fantastic job and I highly recommend you check out her blog! And now, enjoy!

Here on Ao3

Characters: Patton, Virgil, Roman, Janus, Logan, Remus

Relationships: platonic Intrulogical, platonic Prinmoxiety, platonic Moceit

Rating: T

Words: 12,502

Summary: Logan doesn't show up for breakfast one morning, leaving behind a letter declaring he's going on vacation. Unsure of its authenticity, Roman, Patton and Virgil go to look for him on Remus' side of the Imagination with a certain snake as their guide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It started out like any other day. Patton entered the kitchen around 7 in the morning to prepare breakfast. Logan should join him soon, then Roman around an hour later and Virgil after that. When exactly was hard to say, the anxious side’s sleep schedule was the most inconsistent, but most of the time he was up last. Today Patton wanted to make an extra special breakfast since their discussion the day before had gotten a bit out of hand and nobody walked away from it happy. He just hoped all his kiddos would show up. 

Half an hour later that fear proves to be warranted. Logan still hasn’t come down. Patton had even checked the coffee machine to make sure he hadn’t missed him. But it was still as clean as he had left it yesterday. Nervously his eyes flicker from the stove to the clock and over to the stairs before he focuses on making breakfast again, but his eyes would stray every few seconds. 

Five minutes later he finally hears movement upstairs. Logan probably had been exhausted yesterday and stayed in bed a bit longer than usual. Someone was coming down the stairs now and Patton turns around with a big smile, expecting Logan but coming across Virgil instead. 

“Oh,” Patton says, his smile slipping. But he immediately catches the insecure look on Virgil’s face at his reaction. “Sorry, kiddo,” he laughs, trying his best to seem cheerful. “I thought you were Logan, but I’m happy to see you, too! It’s quite early for you though. Did you not sleep well?” Now that he takes a closer look, Patton can see the tiredness on Virgil’s face, who gives him a weak smile. 

“Morning, popstar. I just woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep so I figured might as well get up, y’know?” He moves over to the coffee machine, looking at it confused for a few seconds before he seems to realize what else Patton had said. “Logan wasn’t here yet?” 

“I don’t think so,” Patton shakes his head, his eyes now fixed on the stove so that Virgil doesn’t see the concern across his face. “I’m sorry there’s no coffee, you know I’m no good at making some.” He tries to play it off as a joke with a laugh but even he knows it’s not convincing. Virgil hovers at the coffee machine, unsure of what to do, how to comfort Patton. Instead, he moves to make the coffee himself and trying to cheer the other up with words. 

“It’s fine, Pat. I can do it and I’m sure Lo’s gonna come down soon. We all had a lot to think about yesterday… Maybe he just needs some more time to think it through again this morning. But you know how he is, he’ll come down and act like it was nothing later. You’ll see.” At the end of his little ramble, the machine is in the process of brewing and Virgil gives Patton a short hug before moving to set the table. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Patton mumbles, more to himself than to Virgil and continues to work on breakfast. 

Around 20 minutes later, Roman arrives, a lot more energized than Virgil had been. “What a wondrous morrow! ‘Tis a day to sing and dance, I say!” Both Patton and Virgil chuckle at his boasting. 

“Good morning to you too, Roman,” Patton greets as he pulls him into a loose hug before going back to distribute their breakfast onto the plates Virgil had sat out. 

“I’m surprised to see you arrive before me, Doom-and-Gloom,” Roman says to Virgil while preparing his own mug of coffee. The other had taken seat on the counter after finishing his part of breakfast preparations and watched Patton work the rest of the time while slowly nursing his coffee (I say slowly but he is already working on his second mug). Virgil just shrugs. 

“Couldn’t get back to sleep.” Roman hums in acknowledgment and then silence falls over the kitchen, only Patton scurrying around is heard. Not long however before Patton cheerfully announces: “Breakfast is ready!” 

“Wonderful!” Roman exclaims loudly. “What a marvelous feast you prepared for us, padre!” Patton giggles. 

“Thank you for the compliment, my prince.” 

“My, of course! What kind of ruler would I be if I couldn’t appreciate my subjects!” 

“A pretty standard one,” Virgil adds with a small smile. Roman huffs. 

“Only more proof that I am exceptional.” 

“That you are, Roman,” Patton laughs, but he sobers up suddenly, now looking worried again. 

“What’s wrong, padre? Tell me your worries and I shall strike them down with my sword!” Roman proclaims loudly in hopes of banning that expression from Patton’s face. The other gives him a small smile before looking over to the stairs. 

“Logan still hasn’t come down. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I’m worried,” he explains. Roman quickly looks towards the stairs as well, this is the first he’s heard of their nerd not arriving this morning. It wasn’t unusual for Logan to go back upstairs after having his first cup of coffee, opting to get a bit more work done before the rest of them get up. But not coming down at all was rare. A glance towards Virgil shows him that the anxious side is worrying his bottom lip, eyeshadow a bit darker than normal. Roman places both his hands on Patton’s shoulders in a reaffirming grip and smiles at him. 

“I’m sure our nerd just got lost in a book or something. I shall go fetch him at once.” 

“Thank you,” Patton says with a small smile that Roman returns before he heads back up the stairs. Logan’s room was the one furthest away from the common area. He’d always reasoned that he didn’t want any of the noise to travel to his door and Roman could see his point. Logan was the only one of them that stuck to a regulated sleep schedule and was often the first one to retire back upstairs. And sometimes Patton, Virgil and himself could forget to be quiet afterwards so choosing the longer distance was reasonable. Roman finally arrives at the door to the logical side’s room and was about to knock when something catches his eye. Rather it is hard to overlook. Taped to the door is a thin, dark blue folder that stands out against the light brown wood of the door. On the front ‘To Patton, Roman and Virgil’ is written. With furrowed brows, Roman pulls the folder off the door and opens it, scanning the first page before hurrying back downstairs. 

“Guys!” he calls out, halfway down the stairs, apparently interrupting a conversation between the left-behind sides. They don’t look bothered by it however but rather concerned at his sudden re-entrance without the side he was supposed to get. 

“What’s wrong?” Patton asks, voice rising in concern. Roman just hands them the folder. Virgil takes it since Patton seems to be shaking from the nerves and flips it open. The first page was a simple, printed letter that read: 

Good morning fellow sides. 

After the conclusion of yesterday’s discussion, I have decided to finally 

follow through with something I had planned for a while now: 

I am going on vacation. 

In the last few months, following Janus’ acceptance and further involvement 

in our daily lives, the tension in our group has been rising and I must say, 

it figuratively suffocates me. Any attempts to resolve said tension has been 

disapproved of and you continue to disregard my contributions to various 

problems. I cannot work in this environment any longer. I have finished  

Thomas’ schedule for the next two weeks. I did my best to consider your 

and Janus’ previously given advice to ensure that it covers selfcare and  

productivity. If you want to make changes, go ahead but do not complain 

to me if it does not work out as you hoped. I have done my part now. I am 

not sure when I will return but I should not be gone longer than those two 

weeks. Do not summon me unless it is a life-or-death situation. I have  

prepared a place to stay and I am being provided for. I will continue to keep

an eye on Thomas regardless but I do not see any need to appear in person. 

I wish you a pleasant time, 

Logan Logic Sanders 

Silence hung over the three for a few moments. 

“You think he’s pranking us?” Patton finally askes. Roman hums in consideration but Virgil scoffs. 

“Since when is Logan a prankster?” He pulls out the other sheets of paper from the folder. “These are definitely from him; I doubt even Deceit could fake them so accurately.” Truly, the schedule was color-coded and formatted in a manner that was very familiar. Roman pulls the papers out of Virgil’s grasp. He quickly scans it and whistles appreciatively. 

“This really is his best one yet, I must say.” 

“Where do you think he went?” Patton askes, his gaze fixed on the stairs. “He wrote he’s being provided for but what does that even mean?” The other two could immediately tell how worried he was. They exchange a quick glance and Roman puts a hand on Pat’s shoulder. 

“Well, there aren’t many places he could be... Him staying here in the mindscape would defeat the purpose of going on vacation. He could have gone to the dark side but I doubt that, it felt like he’s avoiding Deceit as well and if he’s in the imagination, I should be able to tell but I can’t feel him there...”  

“Where did you find this anyway?” Virgil askes and holds up the folder. 

“It was taped to his door.” 

“So you didn’t actually check his room, right?” Roman brightens. 

“I did not! Great idea, Hot Topic. Let’s go!” He runs back upstairs. 

“How does he have so much energy in the morning?” Virgil groans but he follows after him, Patton in tow. When they arrive upstairs, Logan’s door is wide open and Roman could be heard humming inside. Virgil immediately pales. 

“Princey, what the fu-” He glances at Patton. “-frick are you doing?” he hisses, not crossing the threshold. Roman, who was currently going through the papers on Logan’s desk, shoots him a look. 

“Searching for clues, like you suggested.” 

“I never said that!” 

“You said to check his room!” 

“I meant knock to see if he’s in here, not waltz in and go through his stuff!” 

“Why are you whisper-hissing? Logan’s not here, I already checked his bathroom, closet and under the bed.” 

“Why would you-? Ugh, never mind,” Virgil groans and does cautiously enter the room, followed by Patton who looks around curiously. 

“I haven’t really been in here for ages!” he gasps. Virgil furrows his brows. 

“You go to his room all the time though?” 

“Yeah, sure, to check on him. He doesn’t really invite me in though and I don’t wanna pry...” He takes another look around, this time more apprehensively. “It feels kinda wrong to be in here. Without his permission, I mean.” 

“That’s what I’m saying!” Virgil exclaims, biting at a nail nervously. “C’mon, we verified he’s not here, let’s go.” 

“Verified? Boy, the nerd’s room’s already getting to you, huh?” Roman scoffs and lays back a few papers he doesn’t find interesting. “And we haven’t found any clues yet, leaving would be a waste.” 

“Roman, we are not here to snoop through Logan’s stuff. We just wanted to confirm that he is not here.” Patton scolds, both he and Virgil are already back by the door. Roman rolls his eyes. 

“Hold on, I’m almost done. How is it that I’m the one who’s been in here the longest but I’m the least affected by the room?” he mumbles a bit loudly to not be intentional while checking around the desk. 

“No, Sherlock Homeinvader, we’re leaving,” Virgil insists, presses the folder he was still holding on to in Patton’s hands and goes over to him to drag him back himself as Roman dramatically gasps. 

“What do we have here?” he asks even more dramatically and bends down, grabbing something out of what appears to be Logan’s trash can. Virgil nose wrinkles. 

“Disgusting, dude.” 

“Relax, it’s just a bunch of paper. Well, paper and this!” He holds up a container. A very familiar container. Pickled Poo Logs, Remus’ favored snack. Easily recognizable by his face at the top, though there are dicks doodled over the rest of the label. Virgil immediately snatches it out of his hand. 

“Remus was here?” Patton hesitantly comes over to take a look himself. “Maybe Logan was just curious about it? He gets like that sometimes, you know?” His nervous tone sabotages his attempt at lightening the mood, especially since he doesn’t sound convincing, even to himself. 

“With dicks drawn all over it? No, Nerdy Wolverine would have asked for a clean one,” Roman comments and turns the case over in his hands, inspecting it. 

“You think Remus kidnapped him?” Virgil asks, panicked. 

“Considering the folder, unlikely. Oh, there’s the room’s effect!” Roman hums, pleased. “No, it is unlikely that Logan left involuntarily but he may have been tricked. Remus is an idiot but he’s not totally stupid. And he kind of fixated on our braincell after his introductory video.”  

“What has Remus done now?” calls an exasperated voice from the door. All three of them spin around to see Janus leaning against the doorframe, inspecting his gloved fingers with a small smirk on his lips. Virgil growls at him immediately and Janus rolls his eyes in response. “Oh, yes, please do keep acting like a guard dog, Virgil, it is so becoming of you.” Before he could snap back, Patton lays a hand on Virgil’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him. He continues glaring but falls silent.

“Hello Janus, what brings you here?” Patton asks, trying to sound cheerful but even to Roman and Virgil it sounds forced. It doesn’t fool Janus for even a second.

“I went to the kitchen to make my morning cup of tea and no one else was there as usual so I decided to come up here for no reason at all.” His smirk stays however he seems to eye Patton very carefully who laughs nervously in response.

“Oh, sorry about that. We didn’t mean to worry you.”

“Oh, I wasn’t worried, merely… curious. You lot seldomly break your morning routine, especially Logan, so seeing him in particular absent from this group despite us being all gathered here in his room, I do wonder what is going on. Care to enlighten me?”

“We don’t care to. This is none of your business, leave Deceit!” Virgil practically spits. Janus tuts and shakes his head.

“On the contrary, dear Virgil, if this does indeed involve Remus, it is entirely my business. He has been acknowledged by Thomas, not accepted. It is still a part of my duty to reign him in from time to time. To make sure he does not hurt Thomas’ mental health excessively.”

“Oh yeah, you did a great job of that before the wedding,” Roman scoffs. Janus glares at him.

“In that instance I let him looser than normal precisely to protect Thomas’ mental health in the long run. He was pushing himself too much, acknowledging Remus’ presence was supposed to help him clear his head a little,” he hisses and Virgil snorts.

“That worked out so well.”

“Sssssshhut up!”

“Kiddos! Please, let’s not fight, we have more pressing things to deal with right now!” Virgil and Roman grumble but don’t interject. Janus looks defensive, still glaring at the two of them. “Logan is missing,” Patton continues. “He left us this note but it’s so unlike him, we aren’t sure if we should trust it. While we checked his room, Roman found one of Remus’ deodorants, so we suspect he might be involved somehow.” Apparently deciding to abandon his staring match with Virgil, Janus walks over to Patton and lays a hand on his shoulder.

“I understand the situation. Could I look at the note and the deodorant, please?”

“Oh, sure,” Patton says with a light blush and hands over the folder. Janus quietly thanks him before thumbing through the pages. The letter he looks at last.

“Ah, yes. I did indeed warn him about his habit to overwork himself a few times recently. If he is taking a break, then I am more inclined to let him do so.”

“We don’t want to stop him from taking a break!” Patton hastily clarifies. “We’re just worried about the how. We don’t know where he is or what he’s doing. And if Remus is involved, I don’t know how much of a break he is really getting…” He trails off at the end, staring at his feet. Janus hums and quickly walks over to Roman to pluck the deodorant out of his hands.

“Hey!” The prince protests, but Janus doesn’t pay him any mind. Instead, he looks over the case in his hand. Once he was finished, he drops it back into Roman’s hands who squawks at him offendedly.

“From recent conversations, it did seem like Remus was getting rather attached to Logan and I don’t think they have a bad relationship. It might very well be that Logan asked the Duke for his help in this matter.”

“As if,” Virgil pouts, though he doesn’t sound entirely convinced of that himself. Janus ignores him.

“But if you feel like you need to check then I do have an idea where to look.” Patton beams at him.

“Really? Could you take us? Right now??”

“No way am I going anywhere with that snake!” Roman yells. “He might just be leading us into a trap!” Janus gives him an unimpressed look.

“And why would I do that? My job is to make sure Thomas’ mental health is in good shape. Getting all of you injured, or whatever you imagine I would want to do to you, would be nothing but counterproductive.”

“Like I believe that!”

“Regardless,” Janus says to brush off Roman’s protest who in turn only seems to get angrier, “I am afraid you do not have much of a choice. If the two are where I think they are, then you have no chance of getting there without a guide.”

“I can navigate Remus’ side of the Imagination just as well as my own, I do not need your help, Jack the Fibber!”

“I do not doubt that my prince. However, that place in particular is designed to keep unwanted visitors out. I doubt you would even find it, not to mention getting inside.”

“And what place would that be?” Virgil hisses before Roman can start yelling again.

“The library.”

“Remus… has a library?” Patton asks, doubt clear in his voice.

“No, he doesn’t. The fact that you do not know about it just proves my point. It is one of the most fortified buildings Remus has ever created. The layout constantly changes, there are traps and monsters roaming the halls.”

“If the layout changes, then why do you think you could take us there?” Patton interjects.

“Because there is one path that leads to the actual library within, and I mean only one path. Make one wrong turn or otherwise go off course and you will not find your way out easily. I got lost only once and I do not recommend it.”

“And why should we believe you?” Roman challenges, head raised high. Janus seems amused by his stubborn antagonism.

“I do not care if you believe me or not. You are the ones that want to check on Logan. I am only offering to take you since I had planned to go there soon anyway. And I need to see what Remus is doing from time to time. You can come along or not, it is totally. Up. To. You.” Janus emphasizes the last words by poking Roman lightly in the chest after each syllable, all the while smirking up at him. Roman continues to glare but he couldn’t quite repress the slight flush of his cheeks at Janus’ proximity. The snakelike side laughs lightly before making his way back to the door.

“I will leave after breakfast. You do what you think is right,” he calls over his shoulder before disappearing back down the hallway, leaving the others in silence.

“He has got to be tricking us, right?” Virgil growls after a few seconds. Roman nods in agreement but Patton looks thoughtful.

“I don’t think so. He has no reason to.”

“He’s Deceit, Patton. It’s all he knows.”

“Look, I know you both had your differences with him and I’m still adjusting too, but Janus is an integral part of Thomas, we cannot deny that anymore. I am sure he does not want anything truly bad to happen to any of us, so if this is a trick then it is probably only a small prank.” Virgil and Roman share a look of disbelief but Patton doesn’t stop there. “And besides, what other options do we have? Sit around and hope that Logan is truly okay? Or comb through Remus’ side on our own? Your powers barely work over there Roman, and the place is not small, right?”

“Right,” Roman admits with a sigh after a few seconds of silence. “And I am worried about Nerdy Wolverine, if we don’t do anything about this, I will go stir crazy, so I guess I can try and trust that snake for a bit.”

“Thank you, Ro!” Patton pulls him into a hug, beaming. Roman chuckles and pats his back.

“Yeah, yeah, anything for you, padre.” He turns to Virgil. “Are you going to come along?”

“…Fine,” Virgil grumbles, still clearly unhappy about the situation. “But if it turns out that he’s up to something, I am totally going to tell you ‘I told you so’.” Roman rolls his eyes.

“Sure, whatever makes you happy, Emo Nightmare.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The track through Remus’ side of the Imagination hadn’t been pleasant. The atmosphere was tense and Patton’s attempts to lighten the mood didn’t cheer anyone up. Roman and Virgil did their best to ignore Janus and the deceitful side himself accepted their stubbornness quietly. Only Patton really talked, though even he gave up after a while. Thankfully, they didn’t come across any of Remus’ monsters but the landscape they had to track through was nightmarish enough and won’t be discussed here. Now they stood before their apparent goal.

“This… is it?” Roman asks, doubtfully. The building in front of them is a rather cliché-looking mansion from horror games. It is a wide, stone structure with two floors that seems to have high ceilings. It’s dark and intimidating looking though on closer inspection, the construction style seems to change randomly. A different kind of stone here, another window frame there. Apparently, Remus stitched together different buildings and haphazardly added details wherever it pleased him. For example, the house of Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas is sticking out of the roof, completely intact but just… there.

What stands out most though, is the glass dome further back on the building. Not because it is the most impressive but because it’s the only thing that is illuminated, emitting a soft yellow glow. All the other windows are pitch black.

“Not satisfied, Roman?” Janus smirks.

“Well, yes. I expected more from my brother’s so-called masterpiece!”

“I definitely called it his masterpiece,” Janus says as he rolls his eyes. “And the interior is the more impressive part. The exterior Remus changes every so often when he gets new inspiration. I think the last remodeling came after Thomas researched that giant lady and the game she’s in.”

“You mean the one you stole your skirt look from?” Virgil smiles, mischievously.

“Yes, because my look wasn’t almost finished by the time Thomas found out about her!” Janus hisses at him with a glare. Virgil shows him his tongue.

“Kiddos, please stop. We’re here for Logan, let’s concentrate!” Patton tries to encourage teamwork but again is not really successful.

“Ugh, fine,” Virgil scoffs and glares at Janus one last time before turning back to the building in front of them.

“Let’s just get this over with. Remus’ side always gives me chills,” Roman complains.

“Very well.” Janus adjusts his gloves before clearing his throat. “Once we enter, as I haven’t told you before, there is one path we need to follow, so I need you to listen to my instructions carefully and let me take the lead. I know it’s very hard for you to go along with other people’s plan but trust me on this one, Roman.” He grins over at the prince whose face is turning red in anger. Before he can explode, Patton steps in.

“No provocation from you either, Janus! If we have to rely on you as you say, then make an effort to be reliable in return!” He leans close to Janus and pouts, giving him his best I’m-disappointed-in-you-and-I-know-you-can-do-better look.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop as well.” Janus waves him off. “The instructions can be stupidly specific sometimes, at one point we will have to stick to one side of a corridor, for example, but there will also be traps, distractions and monsters. Though – and make sure to remember that – nothing truly dangerous can access the path. So even if something comes charging at us, I need you to stay calm and not run around like headless chickens. I will not save you from your own stupid decisions.”

“Oh yes, so trustworthy. Thank you greatly for your generosity.” Roman rolls his eyes and Patton shots him a slight glare, making him huff but refrain from further comments. Janus ignores him completely.

“Our goal is the dome and usually it should take not over half an hour to arrive there.” Now Roman looks sceptic for a different reason.

“If we just need to get to the dome then can’t we just climb the building and get in from the roof?”

“Oh yes, what a great plan, I can’t believe I have never thought of that before!” Janus exclaims, hand on his heart but quickly drops the act. “The interior and exterior aren’t connected like that. Since Remus shifts the inside around as much, no window or door – other than the main entrance – connect to a specific room. It will just drop you randomly somewhere in the mansion. And as I’ve stated before, that is not something you want to happen. So no, we can’t do this like a heist movie.” Roman looks angry again but doesn’t comment. Patton pats him on the shoulder (which only seems to sour his mood more) before addressing Janus.

“Alright, we will follow your lead.” he says with a smile. Janus nods at him stiffly before moving towards the front door without another word, the others following behind him with tense expressions (though Patton tries, and fails, to hide his).

The door to the mansion is made of a heavy, red wood that Janus pushes open without hesitation. Behind it lies… a rather normal looking entrance hall. There is a long carpet that leads to the grand staircase in the middle of the room. A chandelier hangs from the ceiling and the decoration is tasteful. Or rather, it used to be. As impressive as the hall is, it is rotting away. There’s dust everywhere, as well as spiderwebs and the air is thick and unpleasant.

“This place has so much potential if my brother bothered to take care of it,” Roman huffs as he looks around. Janus doesn’t respond but instead gives more instructions.

“Follow behind me in a line. And please do walk next to each other, that wouldn’t be risky at all.” After saying that, he moves toward the back of the hall, left of the staircase where a door is situated. “Behind here is where the dangerous path starts. Be. Very. Careful,” Janus stresses, looking back at the others who had followed him.

“Will do!” Patton responds, with faux cheerfulness. Roman and Virgil sigh but they do line up. Their marching order is Janus, Patton, Virgil and Roman in the back. The first few hallways and rooms they pass aren’t all that bad. They have a few disgusting gimmicks – bleeding walls, gooey carpets, a mirror that insults you when you stand before it – but nothing too severe. The first truly shocking room (though it really should have been expected, in hindsight) they come across is…

“Is this the playroom from Fifty Shades of Grey?” Virgil asks after they all simply stared at the contents of the room for a few moments.

“Thomas hasn’t even seen that movie!” Roman exclaims, very red in the face. He is also holding Patton’s glasses to protect his purity while Virgil holds his hand while he is effectively blind. Janus shrugs his shoulders.

“The scene has been referenced in enough videos and interviews that we have a basic understanding of what happened in it. And that might have been where Remus got the idea from, but he definitely modified it to be more to his taste. It is a room for BDSM though.”

“How… How do you know that?” Roman asks, still very much embarrassed.

“… Just be grateful that there are no people in here today,” is all Janus is willing to admit before heading towards the door that allows them to continue. The corridor behind it is dimly lit and a few lights even flicker. Janus leads them on confidently, the others follow him back in line and with Patton’s glasses returned to their owner. However, the creepy feeling of the hallway has Patton continue to cling onto Virgil’s hand, who is the side of the group most comfortable with horror. Roman has one hand on his sheathed sword – that he had strapped to his side before they entered Remus’ side of the imagination – and the other has a tight grip on Virgil’s hoodie. The anxious side isn’t very happy about how the two clinging to him limits his movement, but he can understand their worries, so he lets it slide.

“Did you hear that?” Patton squeaks out and for a moment Virgil doesn’t know what he means before a thump echoes down the hallway. They freeze, bringing Roman to a stop behind them.

“What’s wro- “

“Shhhhhh!” The rumbling becomes louder and now Janus notices that they had stopped following. He, unlike Roman can guess as to why so he just waits ahead in slight annoyance. He had warned them before entering, he won’t tell them again. By now Roman had caught on and he grips the sword tightly, ready to draw.

Ahead of them, a monster comes around the corner. It has the body of a gorilla and walks on all fours, but its head is that of a snake and a pair of wings grow from its back. That would have been enough to scare Patton, maybe even Roman, but the most noticeable and gruesome attribute of the monster were its injuries. Maybe it was supposed to be a kind of zombie, since there are large chunks of flesh missing from its gorilla body, other patches lacked fur and again others ooze a liquid that may have been blood if it wasn’t so obviously sticky.

The snake head isn’t fairing much better. It misses some scales and there are a few black spots that might have been burn marks. One of the wings seems undamaged though its partner looks all the worse for it. There are hardly any feathers left and the bones that are now left exposed seem broken in a few places and hang limply in a way that looks very, very wrong.

The monster spots them easily, makes a noise that sounds vaguely like a mix of a hiss and a roar and charges at them. Roman curses quietly and quickly pushes Virgil and Patton behind him. Janus looks unbothered, he is leaning against the wall and waits for it to be over. The monster gains more and more speed (considering the length of the corridor, it doesn’t make sense how long the charge takes), sprinting at them, until – oh so suddenly – it collides with something and crashes to the ground. Roman, Virgil and Patton stare at it with open mouths.

“I told you: as long as we stick to the path, nothing can hurt us,” Janus explains nonchalantly before resuming his way down the corridor, towards the beast that twitches on the ground. The others stare at it a moment longer before they hurry after Janus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next few corridors and rooms were not all that difficult. One hallway was filled with spike traps that they had to avoid, and they passed three different torture rooms, all with different equipment. Janus explained that Remus liked to separate them by era and country, so he had, for example, one room filled with torture instruments used in the witch hunts in Germany from 1550 to 1650. And while they weren’t nice to look at, the rooms were empty and so it was left to their own imaginations as to how the instruments might have been used.

The next impactful incident happens in a corridor with a ceiling that falls down and crushes everyone beneath it. To avoid it, Janus told them to stick as close to the right wall of the hallway as possible. Their pace is significantly slower this way but none of them wanted to be squished so they carefully set one foot in front of the other.

“We’re almost there,” Janus calls to the others. The passage isn’t all that long but with the literally looming threat, it sure feels like it.

“Pat, you’re not stepping right,” Virgil hisses and pulls him more to the side.

“Sorry!” the moral side squeaked. “I think my glasses are smudged a bit. It makes it hard to see.”

“Oh, sorry, padre. That might have been me when I held them for you,” Roman apologizes.

“It’s alright, kiddo. I do it myself all the time.”

“Well, better clean them before one of your feet get crushed. Everyone stop!” Virgil commands and though he seems annoyed, Janus complies. Patton gives them an apologetic smile before taking his glasses off to wipe them clean with his shirt as best as he can.

Unable to hold still, Roman shuffles a bit on the ground and that’s when he makes a mistake. One of his feet lands too far away and a click comes from the ceiling. With a whoosh and a bang, part of the ceiling comes down. Virgil startles so bad that he lunges forward a bit, upsetting Patton’s balance and sending him to the floor, taking Janus with him. Thankfully, they don’t trigger another trap, but Patton’s glasses fall to the ground and skitter down the hallway.

“Are you alright?” Virgil asks, frantically, moving to help Patton up.

“I’m fine, but my glasses…”

“Do not worry, I will get them back for you!” Roman proclaims before starting to climb over Virgil and Patton still on the floor to get to the front.

“Watch it, Prince Douche!”

“I am, Emo Bitch!”

“Language!”

Roman manages to get past both of them and Janus before the latter grips his arm to stop him.

“Don’t!” he hisses. Roman eyes him skeptically.

“And why not, oh Great Deceiver?” he mocks.

“Because we need to make a right here! The glasses are off the path!” Understanding blooms on Roman’s face and he looks back towards the glasses, a few feet away from the crossing they need to take.

“I can’t just grab them real quick and come back?”

“No. Once you’re off the path you can’t just turn around. I doubt you’ll even be able to still see us then.”

“It’s okay,” Patton calls from the back. He and Virgil are back on their feet. “I have a spare pair in my room, if you guide me, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Again, I’m so sorry, Padre.”

“Please stop apologizing, it’s really fine, promise!” Patton smiles but his eyes are obviously not focusing on Roman and it’s apparent just how little he can see like this.

“Well, if you’re sure,” Virgil mumbles and leads him forward and into the crossing where they are safe from more falling ceilings.

“It’s not fine,” Janus suddenly speaks up. All eyes turn to him (or where Patton thinks he is). “We’re almost at the library but Remus, as charming as he is, of course made the last stretch the most annoying. Most of the time it’s a ladder we will need to climb with traps all over them to try and get you to fall over and over and over again. I can warn you about the ones I spot but if Patton can’t see them himself, he won’t be able to avoid them properly. We need to get his glasses somehow…”

The three with working eyes pondered for a bit before Roman speaks up.

“I think Virgil might be able to reach if he lays on the ground…”

“Why me?!”

“You’re the tallest.”

“By a few inches at best!”

“Well, those few inches might just be what we need here,” Janus chimes in and Virgil glares at him.

“C’mon, Beetlejuice, you want to get out of here, right? And we can’t leave Patton behind.”

“Really, kiddos, it’s fine! I’ll manage… somehow.”

“Yes, keep saying that, it’s sooo helpful!”

“Don’t take it out on him!”

“Just stop it!” Roman yells over the chaos. “Virgil please. I’ll hold on to your foot, it’ll be fine!” Virgil eyes him for a moment before he sighs.

“Fine but you use that,” he taps against Roman’s sash, “to secure my foot. I don’t trust your milky hands.”

“Milky?!”

“Ugh, just do it!” Janus groans and is met with two glares for his effort but both Roman and Virgil get to work. With the red band firmly bound around Virgil’s shoe and Roman’s hand, the former carefully lies on the floor. Just as he is about to start robbing over to the glasses, a door down the hallway opens and a figure emerges. Virgil stares at it in disbelief.

“Why Pyramid Head?!” Indeed, the creature now slowly making its way toward them, knife dragging across the floor, was the iconic monster from Silent Hill 2. Janus is the first to regain his composure.

“At least he’s slow! Quickly grab the glasses before he gets over there!”

“Easy for you to say- “

“Stop arguing, please,” Patton begs from his position against the wall of the next corridor they would traverse. Virgil grumbles under his breath but makes his way forward. And so does Pyramid Head.

It’s like watching a (very slow) head-to-head race toward the finish line. Robbing forward on his stomach, Virgil is about as fast as Pyramid Head’s walking speed. Inch by inch, Virgil gets closer to the reach of the gigantic knife still dragging along the floor. The creature doesn’t even need to get to him, just close enough to swing its weapon.

Virgil’s ankle leaves the path as he gets close enough to try and reach the glasses. And if Pyramid Head used its blade right now, it might have a chance to hit but still it moves forward, into a position where it is more likely to strike true.

Virgil’s fingertips hit the frame. Just a little bit more. Half of his foot is still within the barrier. Roman has a firm grip on the sash. Virgil’s hand closes around the glasses and Pyramid Head raises his knife to swing down.

“Got them!”

“Janus! Help me pull him back!” Roman calls as he holds Virgil’s shoe with his tied-up hand and places the other on his ankle. Immediately, the other is beside him, grabs onto his arms and pulls. And not a second too late. The knife lands where Virgil’s head had been moments before, and Roman and Janus fall onto their asses while Virgil is trying to catch his breath and to not go into a full-blown anxiety attack.

“What happened?? Are you okay?” Patton calls over, worriedly.

Roman lets out a breathless, unbelieving laugh and collapses onto his back, the adrenaline rushing through him. Which turned out to be good because as soon as his head hits the ground, a click comes from the ceiling once again.

“Shit-!” Quickly Roman rolls to the side before his head is flattened by the trap. He must’ve moved within its range by an inch. Janus stares at him in disbelief.

“How are you alive?”

“I’m too fabulous to die.” The ridiculous response got Virgil to laugh and forget his panic for long enough to calm down.

“Guys?” Again, Patton tries to get their attention.

“We’re all fine, Pat. And I’ve got your glasses, hold on.” Virgil climbs to his feet, wipes the lenses on his hoodie to clean them as best he could before heading over to Patton and pushing them onto his nose. “How’s that?” Patton doesn’t answer, just pulls him into a hug.

“Thanks, kiddo.”

“Um… Sure. No problem,” Virgil mumbles nervously. Patton gives him a smile before looking over to the other two that are in the process of standing up. On the other side of the barrier, Pyramid Head has lost interest and was now moving away again. The sides pay him no mind.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad, right?” Roman comes over to Virgil and Patton with a grin, Janus on his heels.

“Speak for yourself, princey. I’m so ready to get out of here.”

“I’m having so much fun with this. Let’s go, sadly, we’re almost there.” Janus takes the lead once again and the others follow. They pass through one more room, a laboratory of sorts with lots of blood on most of the surfaces (thankfully, the floor is mostly clean), before they enter what seems to be an elevator shaft. And indeed, the only way forward is a ladder.

“How surprising,” Janus mutters under his breath before turning back toward the others. “As I’ve said before, this part is not really dangerous, but pretty annoying. There will be traps to try and get you to fall but even if you do, you will fall slowly. Remus implemented this more as a prank than anything else. I’ll tell you about what I spot but we may need several tries.”

“Okay, we’ll trust you to not let us down,” Patton says with a wink. Janus stares at him with a blank look.

“That was terrible.” Then he starts to climb, Patton after him, then Virgil and Roman is in the back again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They do indeed need more than five tries to get to the top. It was especially annoying that Patton fell for the same trap twice, requiring the rest to wait where they were until he climbed up again. Their arms are gonna be sore tomorrow for sure. But they had finally made it.

The ladder ended in another corridor but this one was clean and wonderfully decorated in greens and silver. Portraits line the walls, most of them of Remus himself, but there is one of Janus and one of both together. Most peculiar are two others however. One shows Remus grinning, arm out to the side, probably hugging someone but the other half of the painting is missing. The second is simply an empty frame.

“Self-centered much?” Roman scoffs.

“Oh yeah, like you don’t have at least a dozen different self-portraits in your castle, Prince of Narcissists,” Virgil retorts. Janus doesn’t pay any attention to the banter or the pictures for that matter. He strides ahead with purpose. Patton watches him in concern, but he feels like this isn’t a moment to pry.

At the end of the corridor is an enormous double door, also in green and silver. The handles, however, are made of gold.

“Does he have some sort of obsession with Slytherin or something?” Again, it’s Roman commenting. Janus hisses at him in disdain.

“For your information, he is a Gryffindor, same as you. And his second choice would be Ravenclaw. No, green and silver just happen to be his favorite colors.”

“Jeez, sorry.” Roman holds up his hands in surrender. “What made you so cranky?”

“Please, keep talking.” Janus rolls his eyes. “Let’s just get it over with.” He grabs the handle on one side and pushes, Patton quickly helps him with the other. Slowly the heavy material gives away and swings open. And suddenly their vision is filled with green.

In front of them is a jungle and as they take the first steps in, the humid air hits them. Birds can be heard singing somewhere but none of them are able to spot them. They stand in a clearing, although the tree line that surrounds them is only about ten feet from them. The trees themselves tower over them, their leaves lush and green, vines hanging between them. The ground is littered with bushes and plants and only one way seems to lead further inward, its stones wide and beautiful. As they look up into the sky, they can see the glass of the dome incasing them, the sun beaming down outside. Which was weird since when they had been in front of the building the weather had been quite dreary.

“Are we… really in the right place?” Patton asks, his voice hushed as if he was afraid of breaking the serenity of their surroundings by being too loud.

“Yes, we are. If you look closely, you can see a few shelves on the far side of the dome.” Janus points upward and the others follow his line of sight. Indeed, quite a ways away, they could see some brown structures following the curve of the dome.

“How are the books not falling?” Virgil questions, his eyes squinted to make out anything in the first place. Roman snorts.

“This is the imagination, Doubtful Central. Remus doesn’t want them to fall, so they don’t fall.” Virgil sticks out his tongue at the prince’s condescending tone. Patton lightly scolds them to stop fighting. Janus clears his throat.

“We need to track along the path for a bit until we reach a river. Behind it is the library.”

“And hopefully Logan,” Patton sighs. “I hope he’s okay.”

“I’m sure he is, padre. You know our nerd, he isn’t easy to beat,” Roman jokes, his hand squeezing Patton’s shoulder in support. Patton smiles at him.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“I’m always right!”

“You wish, princey.”

“Kiddos…” Patton almost sounds defeated and Janus pats him on the shoulder in sympathy.

“He used to be like that with Remus, too. It’ll be fine.” Patton nods and gives Janus a grateful smile. He, in turn, gives a nod in acknowledgment back and turns to back to the bickering two. “I hate to interrupt you but one more warning. Watch your feet in there. There are some books that have gone… wild.” The others stare at him a moment.

“He stole the Monster Book of Monsters, didn’t he?”

“… He created something similar at least.”

With a groan from Virgil, the group sets out and follows the path. Even though it is made of stone, there are still quite a few branches and vines to dodge. The jungle isn’t quiet either, various sounds resounding in the air. Rustling in the bushes, noises that might belong to a kind of monkey, the birds’ continuous songs. A collage of different sounds that is almost overwhelming.

Roman keeps one hand on the hilt of his sword in case one of the animals decide to come their way, his eyes scanning the trees continuously. Patton clutches one of Virgil’s hands in his own, both also checking their surroundings nervously. Meanwhile, Janus’ eyes are fixated on the ground.

After they had walked for a few minutes, the tension drops a bit. Most of the jungle’s inhabitants seem to go out of their way on their own without hostility. In that moment, a bush on the right side rustles suddenly, then one to the left and unbelievably quickly, two books shoot out of the greenery and try attacking the groups feet. Patton screams and jumps into Virgil’s arms whose eyeshadow turned a very deep black.

“Just give them a good kick, that usually scares them off!” Janus calls over the ruckus Patton is making, mostly directed at Roman who had unsheathed his sword. He is trying to stab the books, but their binding is quite resistant, and he can’t really get a good hit in. As he hears the call however, he shoots a quick look over to Janus, who has taken a few steps away to protect himself, before swinging his leg with all his might, hitting one book directly into the spine and sending it flying into the canopy.

The second one snarls and turns its attention from Virgil, whose shoe it had been trying to chew through, to Roman, and (again quicker than you would expect from a thing with no legs) darts toward him, in a zig-zag pattern so it wouldn’t suffer the same fate as its companion.

“Shit,” Roman curses, earning a weak ‘Language!’ from Patton who was calming down now that the book wasn’t focused on him and Virgil anymore. Roman tries to land another hit but the book is too fast and lunges forward, most likely to bite him in the leg.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Virgil’s heel digs into the cover, throwing the book back down to the ground. It whimpers and quickly disappears back into the bushes. With heavy breaths does Virgil set his foot back down, Patton still in his arms. Roman whistles.

“Damn, Hot Topic! You’re stronger than I thought.”

“Well,” Virgil shrugs while Patton climbs down, “fight-or-flight, remember?” Roman laughs and pats him on the shoulder.

“Right, right.” They smile at each other for a moment before Patton speaks up.

“Where’s Janus?” Surprised, the three quickly take a look around. The deceitful side was nowhere in sight.

“I knew that slimy snake could not be trusted!” Roman yells angrily. Virgil has a similarly dark look. Patton doesn’t look convinced.

“Maybe he just went ahead? It’s not like there are any other paths we can follow, so he could have just gone ahead to scout for more bad books?”

“You really are too trusting, padre,” Roman scoffs. “But you are right, there is only one path to follow, might as well take it. Turning around now would be pointless anyway.” He and Virgil start walking forward. Patton nervously gnaws at his lip, not liking how this is turning out at all.

They do find Janus not all that far up ahead. He is crouching down in front of a bush, apparently muttering to himself. The path had winded at bit and with the branches in the way they hadn’t been able to spot him earlier. Still, Roman continues to be mad and stomps over to him.

“So now is the point where you try to abandon us?? Just what is your game, snake?!” Janus looks over his shoulder, as calmly as ever.

“Abandoning you was definitely my intention,” he scoffs before turning back around, reaching for something, and standing back up after. When he then turns to face them fully, he is holding a long, yellow snake in his arms that is winding itself around his torso. “This is Jake, I used to keep him in my room, but he took a liking to the jungle, so I let him live here, most of the time at least.” Jake stops his climbing and watches them for a moment, his tongue flickering out.

“Aww!” Patton coos before stepping a bit closer. “Can I pet him?”

“Sure, he doesn’t bite. Most of the time.” But the moral side has already stopped listening, instead stroking the snake’s head which he doesn’t seem to mind at all. Roman, who had been a bit stunned at the sudden animal in Janus’ hands, regains his composure.

“So why did you disappear then?” he demands. Janus shrugs.

“I figured you could handle two books with no actual teeth and Jake called out to me, so I went ahead to find him. There is only one path after all, I doubted you could manage to get lost.” Roman is practically fuming but Patton interjects before he can blow up.

“You can speak with him??”

“Yes. You really think Thomas modeled me after a snake and didn’t give me the ability to speak Parseltongue?”

“Cool!” Patton whispers, staring at Janus with wide eyes, who looks a bit uncomfortable with the sudden attention. He clears his throat.

“Anyway. Jake tells me that Remus is indeed here. And he’s not alone.” Immediately, Virgil’s gaze snaps to him.

“Logan?”

“Most likely. Jake has never met him before, but the description fits.”

“You don’t sound all that sure.” Janus shrugs.

“He’s just a snake. He doesn’t lie to me, but he could be wrong.”

“We should hurry,” Patton says with determination, pulling his hand back. Jake hisses in displeasure from losing the scritches he was receiving. Janus rolls his eyes.

“Come back with me today and I’ll scratch you wherever you like.” That seems to please the snake since he gives another, smaller hiss and continues his winding around Janus until he finds a comfortable position.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They continue along the path for another few minutes without incident. Some bushes rustled but no more books tried to attack them. Finally, they could hear the sound of rushing water. The river must be near. Unconsciously, they increase their pace until they end up before a cliff, the path just suddenly ending there. The cliff isn’t all that high, only a few feet away from the rushing stream. Some type of fish jumping out of its waters every now and again. The jungle continued to the left and right of them, no bridge in sight.

“Um… How do we get across?” Patton asks, eyeing the drop. Janus takes a second to answer, not focused on the below but the beyond.

“We don’t,” he finally answers.

“What’s that supposed to mean??” Virgil demands, yet again glaring at him. Janus shrugs while he pats Jake’s head, eyes still focused ahead of them.

“This place is one of Remus’ most treasured places and there are times when even he wants to be left alone. If he doesn’t want anyone to come here, he simply removes the bridge. There is nothing we can do.”

“So we made this entire trip for nothing?!”

“I wouldn’t say that. Look.” Janus points ahead. The others reluctantly follow his gaze. None of them have really focused on the other side yet, too preoccupied with trying to go further.

A few more trees stand along the cliff but way less dense than on their side. The path continues for a few more feet before it ends at the steps of a lightly raised wooden platform, the true start of the library. Behind a reading area, rows and rows of bookcases tower, each row bigger than the one before it until the ones merging with the wall that reach way, way higher, following the curve of the dome and still somehow letting the natural light from outside shine through.

What Janus was referring to, however, is the aforementioned seating area. Among the few tables and chairs, are some sofas, beanbags, stools, and various other seating opportunities, all in different styles and colors. Because of course Remus would never settle on one theme alone. Only one of those seats was currently occupied though.

Lying on a chaise longue, turned towards them, with a book in his hand and a steaming cup on a small table beside him, is Logan. Seemingly without a worry, their nerd is relaxed and reading. Without looking away from the pages, he reaches over, takes the cup and sips whatever drink it contains before placing it back down without a second though. It seems like their worrying had been unnecessary.

“He looks fine, right?” Virgil says, though he sounds rather nervous, and he raises his thumb to bite at the nail. Patton instinctively stops him.

“That’s good, right?” he adds, also not sounding quite convinced. Janus watches their reactions without commenting. He hadn’t been worried about the logical side, he just wanted to avoid the others working themselves up over the next few days with their wild theories.

“It is too early to say yet!” Roman proclaims. “That could just be an illusion to fool us. To let our guard down! I will not leave until I spoke with him in person.”

“Nobody said anything about leaving though?” Virgil mutters. Roman ignores him.

“But we can’t reach him,” Patton objects. “How do you wanna do that?”

“Hmm…” Roman hums and takes another look at the raging water below them. “It’s not that far across. If I jump far enough, I’m sure I could make it. And I’m an excellent climber and swimmer!”

“I would advise against that,” Janus speaks up, Roman immediately eyeing him suspiciously.

“And why is that? Huh?”

“Oh, my mistake. I assumed you would be able to recognize piranhas when you see them.” Quickly, Roman’s eyes flickered back to the river and the fish still jumping out of it occasionally. “I’m also pretty sure Remus put some sharks in there just because he could. And I mean the bloodthirsty kind.” Patton’s face is now white as chalk and Virgil had a firm grip on Roman’s sleeve.

“Fine, fine!” the prince exclaims. “No swimming, I get it!” He gestures widely and Virgil lets go of him, turning away, his ears pink in embarrassment. “Then I guess we have no other choice!”

“And what choice would that be?” Janus asks, eyebrow raised. Roman grins at him before cupping his hands over his mouth and yelling at the top of his lungs:

“LOGAN! OVER HERE! HEY! ACROSS THE RIVER!” The other three slap their hands over their ears, glaring at the prince. Roman doesn’t quiet down however, until Logan obviously takes note of them. Then he switches to waving widely. Janus rubs his temples; he has had about enough for today. Patton joins in on the waving though less enthusiastically. Virgil buries his hands in his pockets and shrinks back.

Logan does not look happy to see them. Not that they could make out much from the distance in terms of facial expressions, but he had gone stiff once he realized what was happening. He bookmarks his page before setting the book down and stands up. He turns away for a moment and Janus thinks he can hear him calling out to Remus, but the rushing of the water makes it hard to be sure. Afterwards, Logan makes his way over to them, down the steps and toward the edge of the cliff where he stops. Now they could make out the frown on his face more clearly.

“What are you doing here?” he calls over, sounding displeased. Roman hesitates to answer because of his tone, so Patton speaks up instead.

“We were worried about you, kiddo! You just up and vanished and we didn’t know where to!”

“I am aware, that was intentional. Did you not find the folder?”

“We did, but we weren’t really sure if we could trust it,” Virgil explains. Having to yell over the sound of rushing water quickly became annoying.

“What do you mean, you weren’t sure if you could trust it?” Logan frown deepens but before one of them could answer, Remus appears behind him suddenly.

“Boo!” he yells, grinning all the while. Logan rolls his eyes but doesn’t react further. Roman stiffens, Patton bites his lips and Virgil buries deeper into his hoodie in displeasure. Janus is standing to the side, petting Jake, and acting like this situation doesn’t involve him.

Remus cackles at their reactions before saying something to Logan and summoning what appears to be a soundboard. He lowers a few regulators and immediately their surroundings quiet down. The river now sounds distant, like the cliff just became a few miles deeper than before, the rustling of the leaves falls quiet, as do the birds. The surreal situation stuns all of them for a moment.

“There! That’s better, right?”

“Thank you, Remus,” Logan says before turning back to the others, not having to yell anymore. “Now please continue your explanation of why you did not heed my instructions?”

“Well, um…” Patton tries to find the right words, but before he can, Janus speaks up.

“Remus, please unmute your brother.” Everyone turns to look at Roman whose face is red and seemingly trying to yell but no sound comes out. Quickly all eyes turn back to Remus who is pouting.

“Do I have to?”

“If you don’t want them to continue assuming that you kidnapped our dear Logan over there, than you might want to consider not annoying them, yes,” Janus shrugs, apparently not really caring whether Roman gets his voice back or not. Logan raises an eyebrow and shifts his focus back toward his fellow light sides.

“You assume I was kidnapped?”

“It all happened so suddenly; we didn’t know what to think!” Patton tries to explain, eyes jumping between Logan, Roman and Remus. “Please give him his voice back,” he begs after a moment of Logan glaring at them, obviously not happy with the answer.

“But-!” Remus starts to whine before Logan puts a hand on his arm and in a low tone says: “It will only make this take even longer. Please just do it so we can get this over with?”

“Ugh, fine!” Remus groans before flicking one regulator back up but not to full volume.

“You stinking rat, I’ll run you through with my sword!” Roman yells, or at least tries to, only managing to raise his voice a little louder than his normal speaking tone. He glares at his brother when he realizes this, who flips him off in return.

“Stop fighting, kiddos, please.”

“He started it!” Roman protests but Patton just shrugs.

“And we came here without permission. Plus, we’re here to talk to Logan, not to antagonize Remus.” The prince clicks his tongue but doesn’t say any more. Remus laughs.

“Yes, listen to your Daddy, Ro-bro! Or you might get spanked later!” Logan squeezes his arm that he was still holding on to and frowns at him.

“You stop starting fights as well, Rem. I just want them to leave.”

“You know how to shut me up,” Remus grins and wiggles his eyebrows. Logan simply gives him an unimpressed stare. After a few seconds, he drops the grin and sighs. “Fine, fine. You deal with them, and I’ll go play with Bruce.” He summons his tentacles before diving into the river below. Patton gasps.

“Is he okay?!”

“He’s fine. It’s his realm so nothing he creates here will do him harm unless he wants it to,” Roman reassures, almost too quiet. Regulating his volume is going to be hard for a bit and he already looks annoyed by it. Patton nods at his reassurance before turning back to Logan.

“Where were we, kiddo?” The logical side, who had also followed Remus’ decent with his eyes, looks back up and returns to frowning.

“You were attempting to explain why you assumed I was kidnapped despite me leaving clear instructions to prove the contrary.”

“It was just very unlike you, Lo,” Virgil chimes in, still deeply buried into his hoodie. “You didn’t say anything beforehand, and we thought Deceit or the Duke might have forged the folder.”

“Exactly! And then we found my brother’s atrocious deodorant case in your trash and…” Roman trails off as he realizes what he just said.

“You… went through my trash?” Logan is now undoubtedly seething, glaring at them with cold eyes.

“Well, you see…” Roman tries to explain with a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head. Patton looks just as likely to come up with an excuse, so Virgil speaks up again.

“I asked Princey over there to check if you were in your room or not. He took that as an invitation to go snooping.”

“Very helpful, Doom and Gloom!”

“Well, it was your fault!”

“And you didn’t have to tell him that!”

“So,” Logan interrupts, voice calm but so icy that the others shiver, “let me make sure I understood this right. You found my notes and instead of trusting me and my ability to decide for myself, your first thought was that I was some damsel in distress that needed rescuing? And in your attempt to be the heroes once again you invaded my privacy as well?!” He continually got louder and louder, clearly very much angry.

“Logan, calm down, we just-“ Patton tries to interject but Logan continues, probably not even noticing that the other had spoken.

“You trust me so little, that you cannot even consider that I make decisions for my own well-being without consulting you? After pushing me aside again and again, you concluded that I cannot take care of myself? I have listed reasons for my decision in the letter I left you. Did you even consider those? Or did you assume that I would continue to let you figuratively walk all over me?” Logan takes a few deep breaths, the others stunned into silence. Once he feels like he is back in control of himself, the logical side continues, in his normal speaking voice.

“To me it is obvious that our current co-existence is neither beneficial to Thomas nor ourselves. We continue to figuratively turn in circles and no issues are truly being resolved. We all are stressed out, which makes finding a compromise even more unlikely. I had discussions on this topic with both Janus and Remus, as well as smaller conversations with all of you, if you cared to remember. And the conclusion I reached in the end was that we needed to take a step back and reevaluate. So, in order to do that, I asked Remus to help me arrange a place to stay for a few days to give us all time to reflect. He ended up inviting me here, to his library and I decided to extend my original idea into a vacation. I assure you, this all happened through my own volition.” With his arms crossed, he stares at the others, apparently awaiting an answer. Patton was the first to find his voice.

“We’re so sorry, kiddo. To us it was just a very sudden turn of events and we panicked. We should have trusted you more.”

“I trust him!” Roman huffs. “It’s Deceit and my brother that I don’t trust!” He points a finger accusingly towards Janus, who had continued to silently watch from the side and now raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment. Roman addresses Logan directly. “You said you talked with them about your plan but how do you know that it wasn’t part of theirs all along?!”

“Their plan to do what exactly?”

“To drive us apart, obviously! Ever since that snake showed up, we keep fighting! It must be his fault; he wants us to not trust each other so that he can influence Thomas!” Roman’s rant was undermined by his inability to truly raise his voice and none of the others seem convinced. Not even Virgil. Logan sighs.

“I understand that Janus’ past action have hurt you, Roman, but you need to accept that he is not the villain you make him out to be. He is doing his best to protect Thomas, as we all do. And he is not always in the right, none of us are. As much as I hate admitting it, my plans and wishes for Thomas are not always the answer either, which is why I try to incorporate your suggestions into my planning. But since you all seem to refuse to acknowledge my contributions in the same way, Thomas ends up neglecting his responsibilities. I would not let Janus make all the decisions, but he deserves to voice his opinions as much as the rest of us.”

“But he lured you away!”

“As I’ve already said, the decision was mine alone. Janus was the one who brought the idea of a vacation up to me first, that is true, but I was the one to decide to ask Remus for help and not discuss it with you beforehand.”

“And why didn’t you?” Virgil chimes in. Logan glances at him before turning his eyes toward the sky.

“I was trying to avoid this exact conversation. I am tired of justifying myself to you all. I needed a break, somewhere you cannot easily get to. As I’m sure you have noticed on your way here, this library is exactly what I was looking for. I am frustrated, maybe even angry with you. I raised my voice against you earlier, which I did not want to do but I just cannot hold back anymore. I need this distance from you for a while. I need to sort out my” – he stops and bites his lips for a moment before continuing – “feelings and I do not have the room or time to do so properly while in the mindscape with you all. I had hoped that I would be able to explain this to you when I came back but you couldn’t wait, apparently.”

“And you expect us to trust them in the meantime?” Roman growls, again pointing towards Janus and then down towards the river where Remus disappeared to. Logan glares at him.

“No, Roman. I expect you to trust me for once. I can take care of myself, I can defend myself against your brother and I can do so better than you, as we all have seen before.” Roman goes red in the face and tries to retort, but Patton holds him back.

“Enough. Logan’s right, we’re in the wrong here.”

“But padre-!”

“No buts, mister.” A giggle is heard from down below. “We jumped to conclusions and came here without permission. Logan is allowed to make his own choices and while I’m not happy about it either, we should trust him.” He pats Roman on the shoulder before turning back to Logan. “Then I hope you have fun, and we’ll see you soon, okay?” He said it with a smile, but Logan frown deepens.

“Stop patronizing me, Patton. I am the same age as you and it’s demeaning. I do not need your permission to stay here.”

“I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry, I- “ Patton stutters, embarrassed and not able to meet Logan’s eyes. Virgil sighs.

“Let’s just get out of here. We all have a lot to think about, apparently.” Roman clicks his tongue but doesn’t argue. Patton nods and stares at the ground. “Hope you have a nice break, Lo. See ya.”

“That is the plan. Please leave now,” is all Logan says before turning away and going back to his book. Janus claps his hands together, gathering the attention of the others.

“Follow me, there is a shortcut out of here.”

“Let me guess, it only works one way?” Roman huffs, his voice still quieter than he’d like. The effect would likely only disappear once he’s out of Remus’ territory.

“Very clever, my prince,” Janus says and claps his hands again, this time in mock applause. “100 points for Gryffindor.” Roman glares at him but even he has lost the will to continue their arguments.

The group makes their way back in silence, through the jungle, down a hidden elevator off to the right of the gallery, out a side door of the building and back towards the mindscape. Patton is the only one who glances back towards Logan before he is obscured by the foliage of the jungle, but the logical side is already back on the chaise longue, drinking his still hot beverage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Due to the sounds still being muted, Logan could clearly hear the ‘ding’ of the elevator, signaling the departure of the others. With a sigh he puts the book down that he had only pretended to read. He takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes tiredly. What an ordeal this has been. After setting his glasses back in place, he takes another sip of his tea – which never cools thanks to Remus’ powers. Speaking off, wet slapping sounds reverberate through the air as the Duke makes his way over to Logan, dripping wet from his impromptu bathing session.

“So, how is Bruce?”

“Fine! He tried to bite my leg off, but he only got a few scraps of flesh!”

“Are you going to heal it or do you want me to bandage it?” Remus grins and with a snap he removes his damaged pants, at least from mid-thigh down. He knows Logan’s comfort zones and nudity wasn’t one of them. At least not yet. The logical side sighs as he summons a first aid kit. “Why am I not surprised?”

“’Cause you know I like it when you bondage me!”

“You mean ‘bandage me’, correct?”

“I know what I said.” Logan rolls his eyes and starts examining and dressing Remus’ wounds which, while bleeding, were all pretty superficial. For a few moments, he worked in silence, but as usual with Remus around, that didn’t last long.

“Felt good, right?”

“I do not know what you are referring to.”

“Pff, don’t bullshit me, Lolo. You know exactly what I mean.”

“Fine, but I do not wish to comment on whether I found it satisfactory or not.”

“You can be such a prude.”

“That may very well be, but I do not see how that relates to our topic.”

“Do you wanna talk about it or not?”

“I am… unsure.” Logan finishes dressing the last wound, cleans the kit up before vanishing it away. Then he sits next to Remus with a sigh. “I do feel a bit better, having said what needed to be said but I also feel like I was too harsh with them.” Remus hums a moment before answering.

“Nah, I think they needed to hear it, ‘specially Daddy-o. He’s been treating not only you but Virgin as well like kids and he needs to stop or you’ll never get anywhere. Breaking out of your mold is exactly what you need, and they need to accept that.” Logan nods along but doesn’t look all that convinced.

“I am aware, but it still feels” – he grimaces at the word – “weird. I don’t know how to describe it.”

“And that’s fine, Specs! You only just accepted that you have feelings, it’s gonna take a bit to figure them out. And dear Tomathy is in a weird place at the moment anyway, so it’s double confusing.”

“I am exhausted.”

“No wonder. Wanna take a nap?”

“Are you going to dry off first?”

“Ugh, fine. But only for you, Nerdy Wolverine!”

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readbeneaththelines · 5 years

Text

Captured Moments Pt. 5

A/N: You are an artist given the chance to work with BigHit Ent. as their Creative Art Director. Getting to spend time with BTS, you form a friendship with them. But With Namjoon, could it grow into something more?

Characters: Namjoon x Artist!Reader

Warnings: soft Namjoon, soft and fluffy OT7

Word Count: 3471

HE”S SO DAMN ADORABLE!! cr, to gif owner

The radio event was fun to watch. The seven of them were animated, funny and shared the plans for their next album. You focused in on Namjoon, listening to what he shared. You had learned so much about their hearts while they talked about their passions. You pulled your small sketch pad from your bag, quickly drawing them at the studios microphones. After wrapping the show up, everybody entered the van.

"I'm starving!" Jin exclaimed from the back seat.

"You're always starving Jin." He had to agree, but nonetheless told the driver to take them to dinner. It was a quaint restaurant, a place in the back reserved for them. While the others ate, Namjoon leaned over to you, whispering in your ear. His warm breath tickled as you couldn’t help the small shudder at the sensation.

"Are you going to tell me anything about my scene?" You told him no, that it was going to be a surprise and he needed to be patient. He sighed, then returned to eating. The eight of you closed the place down, leaving when the owner walked out with you.

"Thank you so much for a great day. Unfortunately I have to get changed and head back to the studio. Things aren’t going to finish themselves." Pleas for you to hang out some more went rejected, and you waved goodbyes as they let you out at the building. In a daze, you headed for your studio. You grabbed your comfy clothes and went back your laptop, pulling up your emails in between changing. You entered one from the antique shop confirming the hold on the antique philosophy book they had. Another email contained confirmation of extra security for the park where you would be filming the tree scene for Namjoon. The final email you answered was from a local modeling agency letting you know that they had available children and young teens that you could use for shooting your scenes.

Taking a seat on the floor, you grab colored pencils and your sketch pad, laying them out in front of you. Recalling your time with all of them, you set about finishing the drawings from the night. Sometime during the wee hours of early morning you had fallen asleep, curled up with a finished piece beside you.

Loud chatter from the hallway woke you up. Rubbing tired eyes You rolled up the drawing, fixed your hair best you could, and headed for the BTS studios.

They were already hard at work, working on choreography from one of their newest songs. Carefully opening the door so not to disturb them, you leaned against the back wall and watched them. Each person had their own style that separately was great already, but when you combined them together way an awesome sight to behold. They worked in synchronicity, each one giving way to the other in harmony. When they finished, you greeted them and called them to you. They grabbed their towels, wiping the sweat from themselves as they came to you. You handed Namjoon the drawing, excited anticipation making your hands tremble slightly. You had never given a drawing to someone as a gift, outside of your parents. When he unraveled the roll of paper, they all crowded around to look at what you had drawn. “This is perfect, Y/N. Thank you. We will put this up in the dorm after we get it framed. This means a lot to us. They all agreed, giving you a group bear hug as thanks. “Okay, so they basic framework is done for each scene. I got word last night in my emails, that my staff will be finished with their designs in tatality, by end of this week. This means, after your approvals, we can start set design, and hopefully start shooting in two weeks. I would need your schedules so I can plan a good time for each of you.”

“You tell us the time you need, and we will rearrange.” Namjoon replied, rolling the drawing up carefully and placing it by his bag. “So, you say mine is almost ready too? Can I see it yet?” You hated keeping his a surprise, but you wanted it to be special. He put so much of himself into others, you wanted this to be all about him. He deserved something special and you didn’t want to ruin it.

“Not quite, Joon. But soon, I promise.” He looked almost defeated, but perked up when you gave him a clue. “Your scene is serene and peaceful, that’s all I’m going to say. Now back to the drawing board, you guys have a great day.” you had a little skip to your step as you left, happy that something you did made them smile a little more today.

NAmjoon was in a haze the remainder of the afternoon. “Joon-hyung, everything good?” Jimin asked, coming up beside him. “Hmm? Oh, yeah everything is good. I was just thinking.” Hoseok spoke out loudly. “Thinking about Y/N!” he laughed hysterically as Namjoon shat him a death glare. “Well, am I right?”

“Shut up Hobi.”

Exhaustion took over halfway through the day. You emailed the staff telling them you were leaving for the day. Walking to your apartment, you reminded yourself that you had to pick up the book from the antique shop on the way. You turned the corner, spotting it across the street. Making a mad dash across the intersection, you nearly slid through the opened door. You told the owner who you were and she brought the book out of the storage room.

It was bound in old, worn leather. The title was burned into the cover, the drawings delicate and detailed. The pages were thick and well loved by the past readers who held it in their hands. There was an aroma of oiled leather, musk, and age on each page. THere were noted fro past readers in te margin of some pages. It felt heavy in your hands, but the sentimental value was worth it. You were sure he would love it at first sight. You asked her to wrap it, then paid for the purchase. Finally you were home. Your couch called out to you, tempting you to rest in its snuggly comfort. Taking a blanket from the stand, you wrapped yourself in a cacoon, them popped down for a nap.

By the end of the evening, the choreography was mostly set, and they were finished. Fatigued and sore, they made their way back to the dorm quietly. “Hoseok, can you hang back a minute?” Namjoon asked as he tugged at Hoseok’s sleeve. “Sure, what’s up?”

“What you said earlier, about me thinking about Y/N. Maybe you are a little bit right. Don’t make a big deal out of it, but yesterday, she was.” Hoseok cut in “Beautiful? Hot? Stunning? Yeah, she was. And did you see how she looked at you Mr. Dapper? She could not take her eyes off you in the mirror. We all noticed it. But really, Joon, she is pretty, and I think you two have a special bond forming.”

“Really? I guess. We are both passionate about what we do. We get caught up in the moment. And yeah, she was beautiful last night. Just please don’t say anything to anyone. I mean, it’s just a little crush, honestly.” Namjoon and Hoseok arrived at the dorm, the others already showered and in bed. “Night Hoseok, and remember what we talked about.” Hoseok nodded then entered his room.

The remainder of the week flew by. You ate lunch almost everyday with them, only missing out when you had to meet with a few people about the upcoming scene shoots. Friday night, you met with them to finalize the set designs and get their approvals. You kept Namjoon’s in a separate hidden file, making the excuse that his wasn’t quite ready to see. Once ecstatic approvals were made, you closed the lap top. “Joon, I need you to meet with me tomorrow, to finalize your set. Can you all meet with me, say around noon? I already cleared it with Hitman Bang and he said you all could take the day to help out.”

“Sure, where do you want us to meet you?”

“I will give your driver the address, all you need to do is show up. Dress casually, and comfortably, it will be warm where we will be going.”

Saturday morning you were buzzing with excitement. You arrived at the park early, meeting with the young boy who would be part of Namjoon’s themed scene. The space was perfect. A river flowed quickly beside the tree. The tree was magnificent. Its branches were sturdy and long, the leaves giving a ample shade beneath. The grass was soft under your bared feet, almost like you were walking on carpet. You explained the the young boy what he was going to be doing. He was more than happy to get the chance to climb the huge old tree, and sitting on the lowest branch, he smiled down at you.

“That place right there is perfect! Are you about ready to start filming?” You nodded enthusiastically. The crew ate a quick bite, clearing everything just in time for the van to arrive. They stepped out of the van, looking around in awe. “Nice. Y/N/ THis place is so peaceful.” Jin told you as they took in the river and vast stretch of grass. “This place is ours all day” you told them. Namjoon came out last. He eyes scanned the scenery and then settled on you. Picking the wrapped book from your bag, you walked over to him. “This is your theme Joon. And this, this is a present for you. It’s part of your theme, but I got it especially for you to keep. I hope you like it.”

The staff and everyone backed away, leaving you and Namjoon your own personal bubble. Slowly, his long thin fingers untied the string bow. He careful unwrapped the parchment paper until the book lay visible in his hand. You watched closely as his eyes began to mist, the beginning of tears forming behind his lids. He gingerly opened the worn cover, inhaling the scent deeply. Shaky fingers turned page after page. Your heart swelled when you saw a single tear trace a path down his cheek. “This is for me? It’s gorgeous, Y/N. I- I can’t think of any words that would describe how special this is to me.” When he finally looked up from the book, his eyes were rimmed with unshed tears. Without a second thought, you stepped to him, wrapping your arms around his neck. A trembling arm slowly wrapped around your waist, hugging you close. “Thank you,Y/N. I will cherish this forever.” You leaned back, wiping the tears from his eyes with your thumb. “Now, now, its just a book. Also, we can’t have you crying during your shoot. So wipe those tears away, and lets get you in place.

Namjoon met with the young boy that would be representing his younger self. They got along splendidly as they talked about a mutual love of reading. Finally it was time to begin. The boy was helped to his spot on the limb above Namjoon. He leaned against the trunk,book open and laid on his chest. The young boy closed his eyes and relaxed. Then you placed Namjoon just below him, his new book in hand. He pulled his knees up and immediately started reading. You stepped back, camera in hand, and began snapping pictures. Ever photo was surreal. Namjoon lost in his imagination and thoughts, the young boy lazily resting as his dangling foot swayed back and forth. When you had finished, you thanked everyone in a hushed voice and excused them. The boy climbed down and you thanked him for his help. You offered him the book which he was using as a prop and sent them on their way. All that was left were you and the six remaining members.

“You all can leave if you want. This is Namjoon’s day. I will stay nearby and wait for him. You driver will take you all back. Thank you for coming and sharing in this together. I hope you all like the final outcome.”

“You really are an amazing kind person, Y/N. I know he will remember this day for a very long time. He hasn’t had time like this since we debuted. Thank you for giving it to him” Yoongi, in his awkward way, pulled you into a hug, releasing you just as quickly as it had happened. “You’re welcome Yoongi. I’ll talk to you all later. I will get him home safely.”

When everyone was gone, you walked several yards away, leaving Namjoon in his own little world. You watched as he turned each page over with such tender care, making sure not to bend the pages. His long legs stretched out in the grass, crossing at the ankles as he leaned back against the strong trunk of the tree. The sunlight that shone through basked him in a soft glow, creating a near angelic image. YOu snapped a few more pictures before you settled down and let the sun bathe you in its warmth. You closed your eyes as the rushing river played out a song of its birth. I told you of its time and travels. It sang of those who drank its cool waters and swam in its shallow banks.

“Y/N, hey. Time to wake up. The sun’s almost setting.” Namjoon, knelt down beside you, gently shaking you awake. He had watched you sleeping for several minutes, silently wondering what he had done in his past life to deserve such a special gift as what you had given him today. His soul felt renewed, his heart full and peaceful. This is why she kept it a secret from him, she didn’t want to spoil the moment, didn’t want to ruin the serene atmosphere that engulfed him. He silently thank you for everything. For the precious book he held in his hand, and for the time to listen to the river’s song and the wind’s melody. He had never met a kindred soul like his, but he was beginning to think he had found it in you.

“What time is it?” your voice was groggy from sleep and you weren’t aware that you had drifted off. “It’s almost six. We need to get back for dinner or else they will think we’ve been kidnapped.” He offered you his hand to help you sit up. Straightening out the long sundress, you rose to your feet. Namjoon held your waist until you were steady. You felt your heart racing at the innocent touch, your face blushing.

“I want to thank you for today. For all of it. I have never had anyone give me something so, kind, and thoughtful.” He looked down into your still sleep-laden eyes, a tugging at his heart to lean down and kiss you. Throwing caution to the wind, he bent his head down. His hand came up to cup your cheek before slowly pressing his lips to yours. It was a tentative kiss, barely even there, but he felt it through to his core. Your fingers wrapped around his arm, holding yourself upright, grounding yourself to him. It was the softest of kisses, like stepping into an ocean as a child for the first time. He didn’t try to deepen it, made no move to ask for more. It was over just as it had begun. Your eyes opened to find him looking at you with apprehension.

“I’m sorry. I just felt like-” you placed a finger to his lips, shushing him kindly. “It was perfectly fine, Joon. It was perfect.” You could still feel his touch on your cheek. Placing your hand over his, you pressed it to you. Your head leaned into the caress, and all thought process left you. “Would you mind if I kissed you again?” He replied by snaking his arm around your waist and bring you closer to him. You could feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest as you lifted yourself upon your toes. The second kiss held more feeling, the connection more intense. He let you guide the kiss to where you wanted it to go. Your lips parted, his tongue slipping past them with ease. He tasted sweet, like cotton candy, and warm. It felt like home in his arms. The way you two melded together, tongues exploring the warmth of the other. You felt yourself becoming dizzy from a simple kiss. But this one was different from any other kiss.The electricity reached down into your inner being, took it by the hand and led it on a journey. It was mind blowing, soul wrenching and it was wonderful.

Breaking apart only after your lungs were begging for air, you felt yourself becoming light headed. He instinctively held you tightly against him as you leaned into his embrace. Your heart was racing and so was your mind. You had just kissed Kim Namjoon, and he had kissed you. What about the complications? What if someone saw? As if reading your mind, Namjoon rubbed your back in a soothing manner, relaxing you from any worry.

“We could be in big trouble if anyone saw that.” you whispered against his chest.

“Yeah, we could, but I would do it all over again.” His voice was low and caring.

“Yeah, I would too.” and you meant it.

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable, but I’m not sorry that I kissed you. If you want, it will never happen again.” He pushed you back to look you in the eyes. “But if you do, I would be happy to kiss you a thousand times over.”

“I would like for that, but I have to think about you first. You are the leader of the biggest male Kpop group in the world. Everything you do has an effect on them too. I don’t want to be the one that brings you or the others grief, in any way. If this was another time, another place, I would love to get to know the real you, and see where this would go. But you are who you are to the public, and I can’t ruin that for any of you.”

He hugged you tightly, his head nodding but his heart denying what you were saying. His heart won this round. “Let’s try something. Let’s see where this goes, just like we have been doing. No one will be the wiser. If we see that we are growing closer, we will cross that bridge. If not, then nothing is different.”

“So you’re telling me, you may be willing to risk everything you have, if what he have blossoms into something more?” He nodded. “Okay, we’ll give it a try.” Taking both sides of your face in his hands, he tilted your head up, ghosting his lips over yours before claiming you in a heated kiss. Time and space disappeared in that moment, no sounds except that of both hearts beating in synch. You could feel the earth moving beneath you, all one thousand thirty seven miles per hour, your head spinning at the rate the world was. If you could capture this moment, draw it as you see it, you would. It would outshine any priceless painting.

Breathless and dizzy, he finally pulled his lips from yours, smiling against them before parting. “Let’s get you home.” He took your hand in his, interlacing his fingers with yours as you walked to the edge of the park. Dusk was settling overhead and the park was now empty. He had the freedom to hold your hand without repercussions until your ride arrived. It was dark when the car came both of you climbing in the back seat. Your head rested on his shoulder, the sound of him humming a tune, lulling you into a half-sleep daze. Once you arrived at your apartment, he kissed your cheek and said goodbye. “I’ll make sure to see you tomorrow.” he whispered in your ear. You gave a quick peck to his forehead and exited. Your fingers ran over your lips as you recalled his kisses. They were a heady aphrodisiac to your senses.

You phone chirped before you even entered your apartment.

Joon: thank you for today. I will hold it close to my heart forever.

Your couldn't help the smile they spread on your face. Seeing him happy made all your recent hard work with every minute. You set the letter on the stove and prepared to make yourself a mug of hot tea.

@min-shookga-yoongi @beautifulseoulliar @agustd-suga-yoongii @astronomyturtle @aspaceformyself @dreamyoongi @holy-yoong i@trashkazuya @maxinaptak @micky1518 @rosiemilas @karri570 @xjamlessparkx

#thekimlinenet #bts namjoon #namjooning #namjoon x reader #namjoon fluff #namjoon

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limitededitionsanderssidesblog · 6 years

Text

Speech Impediment - Chapter 5

Ships: Logicality, platonic dlamp

Summary: With November now here, his project turned in, and Logan’s birthday in less than 24 hours; Dexter decides to ask Patton about how he met Logan in an attempt to learn more about him, and hopefully buy an appropriate birthday present. However the story is much more complex than Dexter ever could have imagined.

AO3 - Here

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Trigger Warning: Past alcohol addiction, drug abuse, peer pressure

It was a Tuesday morning, the time was fifteen to nine, and he couldn’t sleep. Dexter had crashed early last night while working on his stupid College Calculus homework. Whilst in high school, he had stupidly made the choice to take accounting over calculus because he had been to lazy to put in any effort into his final year. Little did he know that those credits would mean nothing to his University and he’d be forced to take calculus anyway. Work was piling up on him and Dexter was finding that he was didn’t understand more of the material than he understood, and his solution was just to put it off. In fact he had forsaken his homework assigned last Thursday in favor of his writing project, leaving him to finish the five page assignment in just under nineteen hours, taking away sleep, class, and other distractions.

Sitting up in his too soft bed, Dexter looked over at the incomplete work that sat mockingly on his desk. With a groan he fell back onto his bed, then, after a thought, pushed himself back up and got out of bed. His work would be due at one O’clock when his first class of the day started, so this had to get done before then.

Stepping quietly over to the closet, as Patton was still resting, Dexter pulled out a dark grey button-up shirt and a black, long coat since winter was closing in and the days were becoming colder. Pulling open the very bottom drawer of his dresser, he chose a simple pair of black jeans. After he dressed and prepared in the bathroom, Dexter began to gather his papers and books off of his desk, placing them into his Letterman bag. He was half way out the door when a sleepy voice called out behind him.

“Dee?” Patton yawned, “Where are you going, what time is it?”

Dexter glanced down at his wrist watch to provide the correct time, he wasn’t one for rounding. “It’s not 8:58, and I’m not heading to the coffee shop to start last night’s homework.” He replied.

“Oh! Wait for me, I’ll join you!” Patton said as he hurriedly jumped out of his bed and ran to his, smaller that Dexter’s, dresser. Pulling on a pair of light blue jeans and a pastel pink t-shirt, he then sprinted to his side of the closet and pulled out a cat-hoodie. Grabbing his floral backpack, he jumped over to join Dexter out the door. His total time under four minutes, not even bothering to brush his teeth or comb his hair.

The conversation between the two of them had been light as they made their way to what had become their favorite cafe, Sugar & Spice. They sat down at what had also become their usual booth, and waited to be served. A sleepy looking waitress came to them after a minute, the only occupants of the shop, and asked for their orders in a dead, monotone voice, clearly too tired to bother putting on a fake smile. Dexter ordered a Chai tea, and Patton a Green tea latte, after being told it was too late for pumpkin spice and too early for peppermint. Taking their orders, the lady left them alone.

Dexter grabbed his notebook, textbook, and worksheet, and began the last two pages he needed to finish of the five-page section of the packet. His professor handed out a new homework packet each unit, and assigned page numbers after each class. The amount was unholy, but at least it was well organized.

At the same time Patton pulled out a drawing pad, and a packet of specialized artist pencils.

Before Dexter could even start his first problem, Patton called his name in question for the second time that morning, bringing his attention up and away from his work.

“Hey Dee? Would you mind if I drew you for my weekly art homework?”

“Yes, don’t.”

“Oh, thank you!” He cheered gratefully, “Just keep doing what you’re doing, I’ll draw you like that.”

Dexter nodded and craned his head back down to the packet before him. It wasn’t easy, in fact he probably was getting more of them wrong than he was getting right. Dexter would consult his textbook every time he got confused, which was becoming about every two minutes. Almost everything seemed foreign to him. Right when he thought he was doing it right, the answer sheet told him he failing at every step. He seriously had to resist throwing the book out the window and repeatedly slamming his head into the table. He’d rather not be banned from his favorite cafe, plus he had to keep still for Patton. So, putting on a calm facade, Dexter continued to work, not even noticing when his tea arrived.

Exactly forty-two minutes passed when he finally allowed himself to crumple over and groan in frustrated defeat.

“You okay, kiddo?” Patton asked him, peering up from his drawing.

“I’m not okay,” He answered back, “Just completeing my work. I understand everything!”

Patton looked at him questioningly as he processed what he had just said, still not the best at comprehending his impediment at times. It made sense thought, Dexter didn’t blame him for not understanding him all the time.

“Well, what are you working on?” He asked once it all clicked together in his head.

“Not calculus.”

“Oh! You should ask Logan for help then, he’s taking that class as well. He’s really good at it too!” Pat told him, suggesting seeking help.

Dexter looked up, keeping his head on the table, and saw Patton smiling down at him with his signature bright grin. The same grin he had worn when he woke up with a bleeding headache Sunday morning. Everyone had been worried for their friend, and even more so when he had bolted away from them to throw up in the toilet. Yet, Patton simply smiled at them, made a joke, and began the day like nothing had happened.

Dexter payed close attention to everyone during that time, and while they all looked concerned, none of them looked surprise by how he acted. Logan, especially, looked sad. This brought the question to his head of how exactly the two of them met, and their past that could have caused this between them.

Within the short few months that Dexter had known these people, Logan was probably the biggest mystery of them all. He could be so emotionless at times, acting like nothing but an android at work to accomplish a set task. But then there were those moments where he would act like the most compassionate man on the face of the earth. And nearly each one of those times was when he was talking with Patton.

The fact that Logan’s birthday was tomorrow jumped back into his head; yet he had no idea what he’d like as a gift. It seemed that if Dexter wanted to understand Logan and what type of person he is, he’d half to first understand Patton, and their relationship.

“How’d you and Logan start dating?” Dexter asked suddenly, sitting back up.

Patton, who had previously been pleasantly relaxed, had then gone stiff as an ironing board. His trademark grin that made him look so kind sank away into a look of shock, and discomfort.

“That- that’s a long story,” He said hushedly, his voice saddened, “and not the happiest either.”

“That’s bad, I don’t have time to listen.”

Patton sighed, and twiddled his fingers around, looking down intently at his lap. His awkwardness was as clear as the sun, and so unlike him. Dexter was about to tell him he didn’t have to say anything when he finally spoke, his voice lightly shaking.

“It was my freshman year of college, I had come here from two states over and didn’t know anyone. I was eager to make friends and willing to do whatever people wanted to be liked. I had gotten into a crowd of rather... mean guys who always wanted to party, skip class, and do bad things. To me they were my only chance at making friends, other people were put off by my energetic behavior, but they seemed to like it; encouraged it even.

Subsequently I started adopting their bad ways and my grades began to drop, but I was too worried about being alone to care or doing anything about it. After a while they began to pressure me in more than just skipping class. I gained a drinking habit from them that changed me, and even though I could never hold more that a bottle or two, I would drink almost every day.

When I went home for winter break my parents became concerned over my change in behavior, and I promised them I would fix myself. But when I came back, I couldn’t help myself. These guys were my only friends, how could I leave them? Yet I had made a promise to my parents to bring up my grades, so I sought out a peer tutor.

Logan was- well, Logan when we first met. Cold and collected, simply focused on the material whenever we met. The time I spent with him was helpful and my grades went up a bit, but that’s all that changed. I remained with the guys and my experience with them was becoming much more judgmental and manipulating, but I ignored it, believing that if I did what they said I’d finally belong as part of a group.

They had always pressured me into trying new things that I never would’ve done, but they never forced me to, they’d simply laugh and call names, but... this one time was different. I had skipped a chemistry class to hang out off campus. They tried to talk me into drugs before, but I had always said no. That’s not how it went this time however. They threatened to stop being friends with me, and I- I got scared. Without them I was alone, and I couldn’t stand that thought. I said yes.”

Tears were falling down his face, and snot was dripping from his nose. Patton’s breath became heavy as he reached this part in his story. Dexter had never seen him so vulnerable before, he was kinda regretting asking in the first place.

“They left anyways.” He gave a soft, deprecating chuckle, “Logan had found me that day, apparently he didn’t have class at that time and was going to grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant. He could immediately tell I was under the influence, so, helping me into his car, he drove me back to the dorms and took me to his room, where he helped me clean up and rest. When I woke up he was there, a glass of water and toast with his favorite jam in his hands. And when I looked up at him, I felt myself lose it for the first time in a while. He listened while I cried, and after I told him about the past five months, he said something I’ll never forget.

““While your want in human companionship is understandable, it is inconceivable as to why you thought you had no one else. I’m here am I not?”””

Patton smiled as he said that, a true smile, pure and happy.

“After that Logan would rarely leave my side. He helped me from my alcoholic addiction, kept me from the risk of a drug or smoking addiction, and changed my life around.

One year later, on the same day that he had found me there in the park, he asked me out. Little did I know that It had been Valentine’s day, so that was a funny addition to the meaning of that day.”

Dexter had no words at the end of that huge dump of unexpected feels and angst. He never would’ve guessed that someone so kind and trusting and welcoming as Patton would ever have been a partying alcoholic, even if he was under pressure. It brought a whole new light to Saturday night’s situation.

He had asked in the hopes of understanding Logan and Patton’s relationship better, but this just raised more questions. Questions that would have to wait. Dexter could tell that Patton was rather emotionally spent at the moment, he wanted to say something to ease his pain, anything to help.

“Well that was what I was expecting.” Fuck! Why did he suck at talking?!

“Ha, I guess.” Patton said gently, with a sad smile. “Man, this is getting depressing, how about we get back to work?” Patton asked, returning to his drawing pad.

“Patton?”

“Hm?”

“You’re lonely now, right?”

Patton smiled. “Of course I am, I have you guys.”

The pale sun shone lightly on Dexter as he walked through the small shops of downtown by himself. He and Patton had went their separate ways hours ago, both of their work being completed before they went to their afternoon classes, which had been let out thirty minutes ago.

Dexter drove his old, yellow Volkswagen bug around in search of a birthday present for Logan. He was still very much a puzzle to him, but in the very least he had gotten an idea of what to get him. Dexter only hoped he’d like it.

The party they were throwing was simple. They all wet out to Mongolian Barbecue, Logan’s favorite, to celebrate after class and had brought presents and a red velvet cake, also his favorite. Thee restaurant owners had been nice enough to allow them to keep it in their refrigerator until they finished their meal.

Once their meals were done, their bowls emptied, the cake was brought out and lighted with candles. Each of them, even the staff, sang the traditional birthday song to Logan, and even though it sounded like death being hit by a car, it was fun. Once each of them was given a slice of cake, they all brought out their presents and gave them to the now twenty-one year old mom- I mean man.

Patton had gone first, giving him a hand-knitted scarf and a necklace locket with a picture of the two of them in it. Roman went next, giving him a book on the Broadway Musicals of the 1940s. Just the right amount of boring to keep Logan entertained. Virgil then gave him a gift-card for an audible book along with a hand-drawn card. That left Dexter as the last to give him his present.

“Here.” Dexter said simply, shoving the small box into Logan’s hands. Logan opened it without hesitance, revealing a digital watch.

“How useful, much appreciated Dexter.” Logan thanked him.

“That’s all. There isn’t a special feature so you can’t link up your watch to make emergency calls. You can’t input numbers that won’t allow you to contact people if you’re away from your phone. There isn’t even a GPS tracker.” Dexter explained, giving a small glance to Patton before pulling out a second one. “I didn’t get one for Patton as well.”

Logan’s eyes light up as he looked back to his watch with new found interest, taking the second watch into his hands as well. One was dark blue, and the other was light blue, their two favorite colors.

“This way you can never be closer to each other.”

Logan looked to Patton, Patton looked to Logan. Their faces full of love and happiness. This had been a good present.

I loved writing this chapter! It gave me the feels, and I’m the one who wrote it. Please comment if you got some feels too.

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