Do you think Logan ever talks to the others about emotions?
I know he’s very reluctant to discuss them, or really admit that he even feels them sometimes, but maybe he gets curious one day and goes up to them separately- quietly - under the guise of an experiment, asking very simply, “What do you feel?”
Roman answers the easiest. “I feel brave,” he smiles, then frowns when he sees Logan’s unimpressed eyebrow raise. “What? Bravery can be a feeling, too!” Logan doesn’t answer, just scribbles in a notebook, until the prince sighs. “Confident. I feel confident.”
Virgil takes a little bit longer, chewing on his lip for a second before starting slowly, “…Panicky? Sometimes, I mean. Just- when your heart speeds up, and you’re shaky, and everything’s too fast, y’know? Or annoyed.” And Logan doesn’t need an explanation for that one, having just come from Roman’s room and all, but he does make a mental note to research relaxation techniques later.
When Logan asks Patton, he takes the longest to answer by far - something Logan didn’t quite expect; the moral side sits for a minute and blinks at him, his mouth scrunched to the side.
And Logan definitely didn’t expect that.
“Not all the time,” Patton continues idly, “but sometimes I’m overwhelmed, like when nothing goes right and I just feel like crying. Sometimes I feel… kinda empty? Sometimes I’m tired and frustrated with everything and a lot of other stuff- but all together, it just bundles up to ‘sad’.”
Logan can only stare at him with a tight frown, notebook abandoned in his lap, because he hasn’t heard something like that from the Patton since their argument in his room, and he didn’t quite realize the moral side still had those moments - but what worries him even more is that he understands. He’s spent countless nights in front of his desk, the only light drifting from his fading lamp, eyes tired and brain too slow to be useful, and he’s felt hollow in every sense of the word.
Patton glances over and smiles; it’s soft, and wan, and Logan gets the feeling that Patton knows what the logical side really meant when he asked his original question: Why?
“But sad isn’t forever,” he hums, glancing out the window, staring at the rising moon and all its stars, “even if it it feels like it is, because every time I go outside is another time I get to see the sunshine or feel rain - I get to watch the leaves change colors, and then I get to wait for them to come back when they fall, and I get to smile when they bring flowers with them. Every day, I get to hear a new song, or I learn something funny I haven’t seen before, something I get to tell my family and see their smiles again, and every night, I get to see the stars - I get to watch them shine and make their shapes and I get to learn their stories, one by one. Every time I wake up and open my eyes is another day of things I’ve never experienced and things I have, things I love and things I might.”
His eyes twinkle when he meets Logan’s gaze again, but this time, his smile is bright, the shining beam Logan recognizes so immediately.
“Every moment I exist feels hopeful, and that’s a lot more permanent than being sad.”
