#infinimay

“Patton.”

This time, Patton both recognized the voice and was able to tell the direction from which it had come. He looked down to spot his smallest friend standing on the coffee table in front of the couch. “Hi, Logan,” Patton greeted happily, setting his book down on the cushion beside him. 

“Greetings.” Logan shuffled his feet, looking away for a moment.

“Do you need something?” Patton prompted gently.

“Indeed,” Logan admitted. “I— With the change in the seasons, the ambient temperature has lowered drastically, and I do not have enough body mass to independently retain a healthy core temperature. Given that you are so much larger than I am, it is reasonable to assume that you would have less difficulty creating and retaining body heat, and I wished to request that you share some of it with me so that I do not contract hypothermia.”

Patton perked up. “You want to cuddle for warmth?”

Logan looked hesitant, but he nodded. “That would be one solution to my problem,” he said, eyeing Patton’s hands warily. Patton kept them to himself for now, knowing just how intimidating Logan found him, even though they were friends now.

“How would you like to warm up?” Patton asked instead.

Logan was silent for another few seconds, looking embarrassed. Patton waited patiently, not wanting to risk scaring Logan back into the walls where he might freeze to death.

“Direct skin-to-skin contact would be ideal,” Logan said at last, not meeting Patton’s gaze. “The heat transfer would likely be most efficient were you to hold me against your chest under your sweater, but I am not entirely comfortable with… with the level of…” He paused again, clearly searching for words, and his eyes darted up to Patton’s face for a moment. “It is not that I do not believe you to be trustworthy,” Logan assured, “but I still feel a certain amount of trepidation at the mere idea of permitting you to hold me in such a way, where I am vulnerable and entirely dependant on your goodwill and mercy in order to depart.” He looked down at his feet again. “I… I apologize. Perhaps I ought not to have made this request when I am not capable of carrying through with the necessary actions to optimally complete it.”

“It’s okay, Logan!” Patton whispered. “You’re allowed to be scared of me. I know I’m huge compared to you.”

Logan didn’t say anything, only hugged himself and nodded slightly.

Patton thought, trying to come up with another solution. “What if you climbed inside my sweater sleeve?” he offered at last. “That way I’m not actually holding you at all, and I’ll stay on the couch so if it becomes too much, you can get out and away on your own.”

Logan’s gaze snapped again to Patton’s hands. After a few seconds, he mused aloud, “The heat transfer would be less than optimal. However, I would be far more comfortable.” He nodded. “Yes. I agree to those terms, so long as you will promise not to handle me directly.”

“I promise.” Patton smiled. “May I set my arm beside you?”

Though he looked nervous, Logan nodded again. Patton leaned forward, placing his forearm on the coffee table beside the tiny man. Logan approached it slowly, hesitating once more at Patton’s wrist. With another glance up at Patton’s face, Logan reached out and grasped the cuff. Cautiously, as though worried that something bad might happen at any second, Logan lifted the fabric. Patton held carefully still as Logan crawled onto his inner wrist and under his sleeve. It tickled, and Logan was certainly cold, but Patton managed not to twitch. Finally, Logan poked his head back out through the cuff, looking over his shoulder up at Patton.

“You- you may resume your previous position now,” he called.

Moving slowly, Patton lifted his arm from the coffee table, sitting back on the couch again. He didn’t quite go back to how he had been sitting before, instead turning sideways and letting his arm rest across his lap. “How’s this?” he asked when he was settled.

Logan was quiet for a moment, glancing around him. “It is— it is acceptable.”

“Good. Feeling any warmer yet?”

“Indeed,” Logan answered, and Patton could hear the relief in his tiny friend’s voice. “The air within your sleeve is considerably warmer than the air outside it.”

“I’m glad. Stay as long as you like.”

“Thank you.”

Patton grinned. “Of course. Can’t have my little buddy freezing.” Suddenly, he thought of a pun, and his eyes lit up. “Hey, Logan?”

“What?”

“Nobody ever said that ‘having an ace up my sleeve’ should be literal, but here we are.”

There was silence, but Patton could swear that he could hear Logan’s confused frown.

“I get the distinct impression that you are making a play on words,” the tiny man said at last. He did not ask Patton for the explanation, probably embarrassed to directly admit that he didn’t understand. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Patton almost shrugged, but thought better of it at the last second. It might jostle Logan. “Having an ace up your sleeve is an idiom,” he said. “It usually means having a secret plan that you wait to reveal. I think it came from cheating at cards by hiding the ace card in your sleeve for later. But an ‘ace’ can refer to other things as well. For example, someone who does not experience sexual attraction. You said you’re like that, right?”

“Yes, that is accurate,” Logan said after a few moments. “I recall having a conversation about… attractions, or- or the lack thereof, during which you said that the word ‘asexual’ could be applied to me.”

“Yeah, so ‘ace’ is short for that.”

“I see.” Logan seemed to be processing that, and after a bit he said, “The phrase came from people hiding an ‘ace’ card in their sleeves?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Logan hummed. “So it was literal, at least in the original usage.”

“Hm?”

“You said, ‘Nobody ever said that “having an ace up my sleeve” should be literal,’” Logan quoted. “And yet, by your own admission, the phrase was originally meant to be literal.”

Patton blinked. “I guess you’re right,” he said. “I got distracted by the pun I was about to make. Point to Logan.”

“Why are you instructing me to indicate myself?” Logan asked, clear puzzlement in his voice. “You and I both know where I am.”

“Not that kind of point,” Patton said. “A point like… like on a scoreboard in a game. I’m conceding victory to you, because you were correct.”

“Ah.” Logan was silent for a moment before asking, “Is there any significance to this point I have received?”

“Not really. It’s just another idiom. Like saying touché when someone makes a good counter-argument.”

“I see.”

After a few moments more of silence, Logan pulled Patton’s cuff over his head again. He shifted about under Patton’s sleeve for a few moments, which was a very odd feeling but Patton refused to let himself so much as twitch, and then settled down again.

Patton smiled fondly down at where he knew his friend was, though he barely even made a visible lump under the cloth, feeling incredibly touched that Logan had trusted him this much.

“Hey, Lo?”

“Yes, Patton?”

“Okay if I go back to my book?”

“Certainly,” Logan replied promptly. “However… please do not forget that I am here. I would not like to be accidentally crushed or flung out of your sleeve.”

Well, at any rate, he was still out of ideas. And this little (heh) theoretical session hadn't helped any. Maybe he'd have to start from scratch after all. The curtains fluttered in the windless atmosphere, and a bright light flickered from beyond them. Lime squinted. What in the heck? 

"...and since he doesn't know about the others living in his house, he doesn't get them out from the flooding!" Mandy concluded her dreary thought. She looked up and blinked. "Hey, what's that-" She cut herself off with a soundless noise that might have very well been a curse, as a fire bird flew in out of nowhere, and landed lightly on Lime's other shoulder. 

He flinched, but it turned out to not be hot, just pleasantly warm. 

"Um, hi?" He greeted, bewildered. 

"I know I'm not exactly one to talk," the phoenix began, definitely actually talking, "but I think you can do a little better than Miss Not-So-Infinitesimally Angsty." Mandy gasped. 

"How dare?!" The phoenix, who Lime now realized was Phoenix, rolled their eyes. 

"I'm just saying, there's maybe an imbalance there on hurt/comfort you know?" They had a point. 

"Hey, I know how to do comfort!" Mandy huffed. "I get plenty of comfort from readers screaming in the comments." Lime groaned. Phoenix, being one of her screaming readers, slapped their face with their hand- er, wing. 

"Alright, I think I need some backup," they said, muffled through their feathers. They dropped their wing and sent out a fire symbol. Lime couldn't quite see what it was, or if they used their mouth like a dragon, or if it was a feather or something. Pretty awesome, though. 

And suddenly there was a purple butterfly hovering in front of him. At least this newcomer wasn't too hard to figure out. 

"Nyn?"

"I hear you're having trouble with some plot ideas?" She seemed excited and willing to help, something Lime was very grateful for. 

"Yes, thank you so much, I can't seem to get away from the really awful permanent death ones." Lime stared obviously at Mandy, who just shrugged nonchalantly, spinning her magic pen around. 

"Ah. Yes. Well, I've got the perfect solution!" Her voice was so sweet-sounding, it was like music to his ears. Phoenix nodded their head. 

"Yes?" Lime listened raptly. 

"Kill 'em anyways." He froze. Surely, he must have misheard. 

"Wh-" he floundered for coherent English. "What?" 

"If you wanna kill them, kill them!" There was a snort from his shoulder.

"But your stories are usually so cute! And fluffy!"

"Usually,” she emphasized. "Unless Mandy picks the wrong number." Lime turned to Mandy, horrified. 

"Whoops," she deadpanned. 

"I wrote a fic about the werewolf getting a kitten," Phoenix said reproachfully.

Then he got distracted by a voice at his feet. 

"Heya!"

"Aah!"

"Woah!"

"Geez, now I know how Virgil felt," the voice joked. Lime looked down. It looked like...a box? With little cat features? That was adorable, but admittedly very confusing. He had to contain himself from petting. His talons twitched. 

No! Big, scary dragon! Rawr! He wouldn't cave to some weird kitty box! 

… Who was he kidding? He'd be cuddling it within the hour. 

Mandy squinted, staring down at the creature. She steadied herself on Lime's shoulder before sliding down his arm. He grumbled something about safety that went unheeded. 

"Kat?" She asked, tilting her head. "Is that you?" The box- Kat, apparently- nodded. 

"Yep. I'm here to help out!" Mandy squinted. 

"Why the heck do you look like that?"

"Well, like my username. You know," she sighed, Callboxkat? Box Kat? Box cat? Yeah."

"Wait, isn't it supposed to be a callbox? As in a telephone booth?"

"Yeah, but the author doesn't watch Doctor Who." Kat watched Nyn fluttering back and forth, repressing her newfound cat urges. 

"Wait. I thought we were the authors?" Phoenix furrowed their eyebrows. 

"Listen, this is already so meta, does it really matter?" Kat raised an eyebrow. 

"Fair point." Mandy jerked her thumb back in Lime's direction over her shoulder. "So, do you have any suggestions?"

"Do I?!"

"Do you?" Lime echoed back at her.

"So I was thinking," she box-stepped over to one of the lower-set universe basins, "you take some of your tiny characters,"

"Yeah…" He considered the few universes where he had borrowers.

"Then you slap a tail on them, and have them almost drown!" She concluded triumphantly, lithely swaying her own tail at the mention of them. 

"Almost drown them?" Lime asked warily.

“Almost drown them?" Mandy asked with a gleam in her eye. 

"Okay, that's it." A new voice called out. Lime thought he recognized it, turning his head to confirm. Yep, there Allison was, dressed in her own witch outfit of purple and teal. "You," she pointed at Mandy with her magic quill "have had enough angst for the day. You're being cut off."

"No!" Mandy pouted, readying her puppy dog eyes. 

"Yes," Allison crossed her arms triumphantly. 

"Um, not to encourage her," Phoenix spoke up, turning to face her, "but haven't you been just as guilty of angst recently?" 

"What do you mean?" Allison frowned, confused. 

"Yeah!" Kat turned to her, "all those Perspectives lately have been pretty heavy and angst-laden."

"Wh- hey, first of all, recently is subjective, we wrote those a while ago. And we've had a lot of fluff in there, too!" Lime considered this. 

"Vampire Perspective, Pet Perspective…" he listed off. 

"Mandy's been choosing the wrong numbers," Nyn nodded. 

"And! And Lilliputian, Freezing, those were also recent-ish!"

"Face it," Mandy suddenly appeared next to Allison, leaning her arm on her friend, "we're in the same boat now." She flopped over dramatically into her arms. "I've corrupted you."

"Noooo…"

"Hey, Allison, what's that building on your hat, by the way?" Phoenix asked. She sighed, and threw a photo version their way. 

"Arc."

"Oh my god." There were snickers around. Mandy was still draped over Allison, shaking her head at the truly awful pun. 

"PSSSST!" Everyone turned around. There, as if summoned by the bad humor, was a stick figure, looking shifty-eyed, and unmistakably Lefay. She was wearing a trenchcoat, and hat. Of course, the hat wasn't the typical hat associated with a trenchcoat. It was, instead, an umbrella-hat.

"Um," a new voice came in before they could address that. They turned back, seeing a small snail with a dorsal fin on his back. Fin. Lime was starting to see a terrible, terrible pattern here. "I was also invited, but, I don't know, maybe I should leave? You guys are all so cool, I think I probably don't belong here."

"Fin, please!" Everyone chorused together. 

"Alright, alright!" He acquiesced, really taking in the room. "Hey, I guess not everyone's cool, you're looking pretty hot, Phoenix!" He made finger guns at them somehow, and they laughed at his antics. Lime smiled, before remembering the previous interruption. 

"Hey, Lefay," Lime started, slowly, turning back to her, "why's there an umbrella on your head?"

"The costume store was out of trench hats-"

"There's no way that's what they're called," Allison balked. 

"-so I decided to go with the rain theme. And I got this instead!" She patted the umbrella headband happily before tensing, and crouching inward, voice lowering to what was definitely not how she spoke a second ago. "Pssst. Hey, hey kid. C'mere. I hears ya need some help with your woiks."

Lime took a moment to mentally translate this. He was uncertain, but he did need help with his works. He twisted his long, scaly neck over to where she stood. 

"Yeah, alright."

She opened her trench coat wide, causing a flinch or two throughout the group, to reveal what was lined on the inside. Lime could identify a turnip, a rutabaga, celeriac, a parsnip, a yam, taro, a daikon, and jicama. "Um…" Lime was confused. "What-"

"Oh my god" Kat put her paws over her face. 

"Did youse need help wit' some titles?" Lefay waggled her eyebrows. There was absolute silence, aside from some traitorous snickering from some of the others. 

"..............No," Lime decided on as his response. "Titles I can figure out later, but I just need some story ideas to title in the first place." 

"Oh, why didn't you say so!" She responded in her normal voice. "I can totally help with that!" Lime brightened. Lefay smiled back, and then promptly fell to the floor, pillow under her head, asleep. 

Lime flinched back, and turned back to the rest of the room, slumping his head in his hands. 

"This is never going to work," he lamented. "I'll never get a new idea like this!"

"Well," Nyn cut in, "maybe that's your answer." Lime slowly lifted his head, squinting in confusion. "I mean, if you're not coming up with ideas this way, maybe this way isn't the way to go about it?"

"Right," Allison agreed, as Mandy un-flopped from her. "Just because this works for some people, or even if it's worked for you before, doesn't mean you have to use this method."

"Inspiration comes differently for everyone." Kat piped in, tail swishing in excitement. "You shouldn't feel pressured to choose one specific way and stick to it." 

"And if you're forcing yourself to come up with ideas, doesn't that negate why you're writing in the first place?" Phoenix added. 

"Heck yeah!" Fin shouted. "Writing fanfic is supposed to be fun!" Mandy gently put a hand on his arm. 

"You shouldn't feel pressured at all. If you can't think of something to write, you don't have to." Lime looked up at her, she smiled gently down at him. "You're allowed to not write. You're allowed to take a break. You're allowed to put yourself first." Lime sniffed out a laugh, before looking at all the smiling, encouraging faces of his friends and fellow fanders. 

"Okay, I give. You guys are right." He stood up on all fours, nails clacking against the wood floor. "Now let's get out of this…" he looked around again, frowning. "Wait, where are we?"

"Looks like a stage of some sort?" Kat voiced, uncertainly. A voice sounded from all around them. 

"I'm a theater, sweetheart." Brook responded. There was a rimshot.

"You know, it's things like this that make me really glad that I picked my authorsona myself." Lime deadpanned. Allison and Mandy nodded. 

Over in the corner, a shovel fell over onto a sketchpad in agreement. 

"Yeah, I don't know who's doing this," Mandy spoke a little too nonchalantly, "but these are really, really bad. Like, objectively terrible. I mean just completely awful. As if whoever did it started with zero sense of humor, and then got worse." Hey, watch it, witchy, I’m in control of this story. "And I'm in control of a lot more stories, I can make angst like you wouldn't believe," she cheerfully stated, appropriate of nothing, according to the others' perspectives. 

…I surrender. 

Mandy smirked, satisfied, before bounding over to Lime's back. "So, wanna give us a ride back?"

"Sure," Lime offered his hands out, palms flat for everyone (except for those with wings) to climb on. When everyone had settled, he spread his wings, and took flight. As he faded into the horizon, he mumbled to himself, "Maybe I'll write something with Virgil…"

About a minute after he left, Lefay jolted awake. 

"Alright! I've got like six more plausible ideas for AUs, there's this one where-" Lefay paused, looking around. She seemed distressed for a moment, before continuing. "-but I never figured out what happened with the incident with the noodles. TIME FOR MORE RESEARCH!" She pointed dramatically up to the sky, before immediately flopping back into sleep. 

BONUS!

There was a ringing sound. Every set of eyes snapped to the source. 

"Are you ringing from your body?” Allison asked Kat incredulously. 

"I've got a phone in the box," Kat blushed, fishing it out.

"Getting a call, box-Kat?" Mandy grinned wickedly. Kat barked at her. Mandy frowned. 

"Why-"

"I love dogs," she shrugged.