we tried, we failed, lets go to sleep

Patton was back.

He stood in the kitchen, quietly cooking up some eggs. His demeanor held none of his usual boundless energy, but at least he wasn't on the floor sobbing this time.

Logan stepped briskly out of the dark, looking like he was trying very hard to be patient. "Patton, please, Virgil has already talked to you about this. You cannot keep coming in here, what if Deceit finds you?"

Patton cast him a halfhearted grin, and Logan noted with some relief that he had not yet sprouted scales. However, even in the low light it was clear the skin on his face was starting to turn blue and waxy. "Well then he'll get to enjoy a nice breakfast with us!"

"I seriously doubt that would be enjoyable for anyone involved. Besides, given his different anatomy we have no idea if he even eats the same--"

"Way ahead of you, teach," Patton said, flipping the pan in his hand--and stumbling back as he abruptly remembered that you can't actually do that if the pan has something in it. Half-cooked splattered across the stove, the counter, the floor...

"...well that, didn't go eggactly how I planned."

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh. He snapped his fingers and the mess was gone.

"Patton," he said. Patton shrunk back a bit, still managing to hold a sheepish grin. "What are you doing here. There's nothing to be gained here, you know this."

"Well," he shrugged. "Maybe there, is something to be gained."

"Oh really. Like what."

"Like-- I don't know, I just think that maybe some good could come from it! ..Virgil told me last time that I have to try to actually make things happen instead of just lying to myself, but-- sometimes its hard! And sometimes its nice to just.. come back and.. believe those things again."

"No, I will not have you coming here, by yourself, so you can live some, fantasy." He punctuated the word "fantasy" with a flip of the wrist, as though such a frivilous idea requires visible dismissal. "Besides, didn't you say lying is wrong? You made your stance quite clear on that."

"With some exceptions!" Patton corrected with a grin as he put the pan back on the stove, fresh, raw eggs already in it to replaced the ones he'd flung. His left eye started to catch the light oddly. "And y'know I really do think we can get Deceit to come around!"

Logan sighed as the other Side resumed cooking. Or trying to, at least. He did not seem to notice that the stove had been turned off when Logan disappeared the mess earlier. "You're lying to yourself, Patton. No one else even wants him around; its doubtful even he wants to be around. Why would you bother?"

Patton clicked his tongue and waved a disapproving spatula at him. "That's where you're wrong, kiddo. I want him around, and I know he does too."

Logan's patience was starting to wear thin. "Oh, really," he huffed. "Well what makes you think that then?"

"Because if he didn't, he wouldn't go through all this trouble for me."

Logan stopped short, staring at Patton. The moral side grinned cheekily back at him.

"Wh-what trouble, what do you mean, what trouble is he going through?"

Patton flicked his head with a grimace of mock-secondhand embarrassment. "Y'know... for someone who's whole thing is lying, you're not very good at it."

Logan quite strongly resembled a deer caught in headlights as the color drained from his face. "I-- I don't know what you mean."

"Oh come on. I'm not just a pretty face. I can see what you've been doing." Patton's left cheek had completely parted into scales by this point. Great. Apparently Deceit's influence either turned him into an absolute wreck or made him confident and cheeky. Logan wasn't sure which was worse.

"I talked to Virgil about it the next day and he had no idea what I was talking about. So it was a little weird to find all my knitting supplies in my room, since he wouldn't've known to come back and get them.

"Also--" He held up a finger at Logan, who was beginning to sweat. "Don't think I didn't notice that one of those friendship bracelets were missing."

He snapped his fingers at Logan, who automatically held his wrist in his other hand to hide his watch as he felt it change back into a knitted strip of green and yellow.

Patton laughed with delight. "See, I knew you'd come around!"

"No, no, I definitely don't like you coming here. Youre becoming entirely too confident, it needs to stop."

Patton seemed too caught up in his excitement and triumph over being right to form words, and instead only grinned and made, some, odd gesture that was probably meant to be air punches or fingerguns but ended up being an awkward combination of the two.

"Seriously though, you do need to leave, this much exposure to this part of the mind palace is not healthy."

"Oh well all right," Patton pouted. "But onl--oh, whoops." He interrupted himself by accidentally smacking the pan handle. He took a second to make sure it was fine and that he actually had room this time before continuing. "But only if you come by for breakfast sometime!" he said, pointing at the other Side as though to ensure he understood the seriousness of the request.

Logan sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Yes, fine, just, please leave, I cannot handle you like this."

Patton laughed as he started to sink. "Alright kiddo, seeya tomorrow!"

"Wh-- tomorrow? No I didn't agree to--"

He spluttered to a halt and stared in exasperation at the now-empty spot on the floor.

apparently people wanted to be tagged in this?? :o

@strickenwithclairvoyancy