#witepie

"In all my years looking after Thomas I never expected to end up doing this," Patton said with a kind smile, holding out the freshly brewed mug of tea. Logan had migrated to Deceit's side and was guiding him through a breathing exercise after the side had got a little overwhelmed by the crying and found himself unable to stop. Virgil too, was doing his part; tucking a blanket around Deceit's shoulders and rubbing his back as he not-so-subtly also followed along with the calming pattern Logan was evenly calling out. "But things often change for the better."

He was determined to put a good spin on things, on all of it if he could. Thomas deserved to live a life of sunshine and rainbows and wonder and Patton would do his best to give him that on the inside. If it meant crouching in front of Deceit and patting his knee gently while Deceit cupped his hands around the warm mug, face messier than it might ever have been; then so be it. Morality was grey, and the world was not what he knew, and that would be okay.

When Deceit peered curiously at him through watery eyes he wondered if he was lying to himself. But instead of accusation those eyes were soft, his lips parted slightly but not to taunt or scold. Deceit looked slightly stunned, actually, and Patton tilted his head and tried not to gulp as he awaited judgement.

"Can I-" Virgil passed the tissue box over before Deceit had to do much more than wave vaguely in that direction, and they all waited patiently to finish blowing his nose and dabbing his face dry, vanishing the tissue with a small twitch of his lips. "I didn't think we'd be here either. Sorry, for... that."

Three voices rose to protest, but he raised a hand. "No I am sorry. I'm sorry it got this far along before anything happened, I guess? I should've- seen there was a problem earlier. I am self-preservation, no matter what you may think, but I think the denial sort of... got the better of me." He sighed, taking a long sip of the tea and closing his eyes in satisfaction. It was calming chamomile, of course it was, and he opened his eyes to look at Patton again. "You're more settled again now, what changed?"

Patton frowned, confused by the insight. How could he know if it apparently wasn't a lie? "You can- I'm not lying? But how can you tell if I'm not lying?" Logan also leaned forwards, looking Deceit over quickly, cataloguing something quickly in his head. "Are you feeling my feelings?!"

"No!" Deceit quickly assured them, in case anyone was going to panic again. "No but I feel the conflict. Um, when it rises to Thomas. I sort of started working as a... final fail-safe? Against extreme outbursts, from any of us, once we became more independent as sides. All that internal emotional conflict today nearly broke through but I stopped it." His chest puffed out a bit and Patton smiled, before the implications sunk in.

There was a soft clearing of a throat and Logan carefully interrupted. "You mean to say you've been holding back all of our negativity for the past however many hours?" Logic checked. When Deceit nodded he made an odd face, not one that Patton could label, and sat back, lips pursed tightly.

"But that's my job. I mean it hurt but I managed, I managed through all of that-"

"That's very good, very good indeed!" Patton quickly reassured him, still patting his knee. Deceit gave him a twitch of a smile, but it counted and when Patton's chest swelled he thought he saw Deceit's eyelids flutter slightly. Huh, extreme emotions. Who knew?

They were quiet for a while, letting Deceit calm down and finish his tea. The door where Roman and Remus had vanished let through no sound so they couldn't be sure when the twins would reappear. Virgil slowly but surely drew closer and closer, legs tucked under himself on the bed, until Deceit rolled his still slightly red eyes and pulled him under his arm, close against his side. It was warm there, and Deceit still remembered how to stroke through his hair and rub his scalp in the best way, so he migrated down to put his head in his lap and relax while they all waited.

Only moments past before the door opened. It didn't burst wide like they had all expected, but neither did it ease open carefully. Remus stepped through with Roman behind him, small, quiet smiles on both faces. Until Patton shrieked, because Remus was of course still covered in blood stains, and proud of it.

The peace shattered, but unlike the arguments before it was a healthier, tentatively fond kind of chaos. Patton was fussing over Remus without a care in the world, no hesitation in his movements as he sat the twin down and scolded him for not vanishing the injury or at least changing his shirt. Roman snickered from behind until Patton spotted a single drop of red on his pants that he'd missed in his cleanup and insisted on checking him over thoroughly because he didn't believe either twin when they promised Roman wasn't actually hurt.

It was nice. Virgil snorted and burrowed into Deceit's lap, and Logan rose with a long-suffering sigh to be Patton's assistant and add his usual witty commentary onto the ends of Morality's pun-ishing (and boy were there puns a-plenty) lecture.

Over Patton's shoulder Remus made eye contact with Deceit, nervously holding his gaze and mouthing his apology. Deceit didn't immediately turn away, and his expression softened after pinning watching Remus squirm for a moment, nodding once. They would talk, later, but they would be okay.

They might in fact, all; be okay.