Bears Aren't Green! ...Or Are They?
Summary: Logan doesn't understand why Patton is colouring his bear green. In point of fact, bears aren't green! But what if it's an imaginary bear? Can they be green?
Warnings: A meltdown scene, not super graphic, but it is a meltdown
A/N: Agere Logan, Roman and Patton angst-turned-fluff with a slice of tween!agere Remus because yes :3
Logan, Roman and Patton were all colouring together. Logan was colouring a picture of a spaceship, Roman was colouring in a little prince, and Patton's picture was a bear. Logan was colouring his picture the same colours as his toy spaceship, blue and red, because it made sense. Roman was colouring the prince's cape red, and the crown yellow. That made sense too. What didn't make sense, however, was that Patton was colouring his bear green.
"In point of fact, bears aren't green," Logan stated. Patton looked up from his paper.
"They're usually brown or black. Or white. But never green," Logan continued. Patton turned to Roman, unsure what to do.
"You can colour your bear green if you want to, Patton," Roman assured the youngest one.
"But they're not green!" Logan argued. He was getting frustrated, not understanding how a bear could possibly be green.
"Imaginary bears can be green, Logan," Roman explained. Logan frowned.
"But... It's wrong! He's colouring it wrong!" Logan pointed to Patton. At this point, the youngest one had stopped colouring the bear. He didn't want to make Logan upset by doing it wrong. He hugged his frog plushie close to his chest, silent tears dwelling in his eyes.
"You're making Patton upset, Logan," Roman reprimanded, moving closer to Patton so that he could give him a hug.
"But bears aren't green!" Logan crossed his arms stubbornly.
"Patton can colour his bear whatever colour he wants to, Logan!" Roman jumped to the youngest one's defense.
"But... Bears aren't green! He's doing it wrong!" Logan repeated his previous argument, too frustrated and confused to be able to come up with a new one.
"You can't do it wrong, there's no rules to colouring!" Roman argued. Logan didn't know how to put his thoughts into words anymore. Instead, he huffed, frustrated tears dwelling into his eyes. Roman sighed. It was his duty, as the oldest, to settle this. Only...he didn't know how.
"Logan, why do you care so much about what colour the bear is?" he asked. He wanted to understand the middle one's point of view.
"Not green," Logan muttered, his frustration and confusion limiting his vocabulary.
"Not! Green!" Logan yelled, grabbing the green crayon and chucking it with all his might. It went flying to the wall, and split in half.
"Logan! You know we don't throw stuff!" Roman reprimanded, as Patton hid behind the oldest Little.
"What's going on here, what's all this ruckus?" Janus asked from the doorway, having been alerted by the noise.
"Not! Green! Not! Green! Not! Green!" Logan kept repeating like a broken record, banging his temples with his fists.
"We were colouring, and then Logan got upset because bears aren't green, and then Patton got upset that Logan got upset, and now I don't know what to do!" Roman explained, the pressure getting him to tear up now as well.
"I'm sure you did your best, my little prince. Let the grown-ups handle it now," Janus gently pet Roman's head. The snake summoned Virgil for help, and with that, the caregivers set to help the Littles. Virgil took Logan to his designated Quiet Room to calm down, meanwhile Janus stayed in the nursery with Roman and Patton.
"Think you could tell me what got you so upset?" Virgil asked the now calmed down Logan. They were both sitting on bean bags, and fidgeting with Tangles. Virgil's was black and purple, whereas Logan's was metallic indigo. Logan also had a weighted lap pad on his lap.
"Not green," Logan muttered.
"Bears aren't green?" Virgil confirmed, having been filled in on what had happened by Janus. Logan nodded.
"Did it confuse you that Patton was colouring his bear green?" Virgil asked.
"Alright, I hear you. And you're right, real bears aren't green," Virgil spoke gently. Logan nodded again, keeping his eyes to his Tangle. He was glad someone was understanding him.
"But you know, the cool thing about imaginary bears is that they can be whatever colour you want! Even green," the emo continued.
"If you want to colour your pictures accurate to the real world, that's totally cool. But if Patton wants to colour his pictures differently, that's okay too. Right?" Virgil concluded. Logan nodded hesitantly. The caregiver didn't fail to catch that.
"Tell me what's going on in that little head of yours," he said. Logan stayed quiet, tensing slightly.
"Is it hard to put it into words?" Virgil sympathised. Logan nodded, relaxing again.
"How about this?" Virgil pulled out his phone, opening it to an AAC app that he had installed. He offered it to Logan, but to his surprise, the boy shook his head.
"No?" the caregiver asked. Logan shook his head again. Virgil pocketed his phone, not quite sure how to go from here. For a moment, they both sat in silence, fidgeting with their respective Tangles.
"Why green?" Logan suddenly broke the silence.
"Oh, why did Patton colour his bear green?" Virgil confirmed Logan's question again, receiving a nod in response.
"Hm, well, I don't know. Do you think he needs a reason?" the emo gently encouraged Logan to think. The child thought for a moment, before shrugging uncertainly.
"Could he have wanted to colour his bear like Clover?" Virgil helped out. Logan processed for a moment before nodding slightly. It did make sense that Patton would want to colour the bear like his plushie. The small Logic's eyebrows furrowed as his shoulders slumped, his gaze fixating somewhere between his lap and the Tangle between his fingers. Virgil took note of this.
"What's wrong?" he gently asked. Logan didn't answer right away, needing some time to collect his swarming thoughts.
"M I... M I bad?" he mumbled, looking up in the caregiver's eyes for just a moment before averting his gaze again, eye contact still being too uncomfortable.
"No, of course you're not bad, bud! You just got confused is all, mistakes happen," Virgil assured the little boy.
"Don't like making mistakes..."
"Aw, I know. But you know, you could fix it by apologising to Patton." Logan perked up slightly at Virgil's suggestion.
"I might have an idea," Virgil smiled surreptitiously.
Some time passed before Virgil and Logan returned to the nursery room. Patton and Roman were contently building a castle out of some blocks, Patton mainly cuddling with Clover and occasionally handing Roman a block. The youngest one was surrounded by plushies, amongst them the frog from earlier. Janus was watching over the two with Remus by his side, the latter having regressed to a tween and now entertaining himself with his iPad.
"Patton? Logan has something he'd like to say to you," Virgil gently announced their entrance. Patton tentatively looked up as everyone else was snapped out of their bubbles too.
"Um," Logan started, cluthing a piece of paper and a green crayon behind his back.
"Go on, it's okay," the caregiver encouraged softly.
Logan took a careful step forward, taking a deep breath.
"I'm– I'm sorry!" he blurted out, taking another breath before continuing; "I'm not as good as Ro-Ro, but... here," he held out the card from behind his back. Patton reached for the card, curiously looking it over. When he noticed that there was text, he held it out to Roman.
"Ead?" he mumbled behind his pacifier.
"Of course I'll read it for you!" the prince said, taking the card in his own hands and holding it so that the both of them could see.
"It says: 'I'm sorry I made you upset. I didn't mean to. I didn't understand you wanted to colour Clover.' signed, Logan," Roman read outloud.
"And look! It's you and Clover!" the six-year-old pointed to the picture Logan had drawn, receiving a happy noise and a few hand flaps from the two-year-old.
"And... I'm sorry I broke the crayon. Vee helped me get you a new one. It's the exact same colour as Clover, so you can colour a new picture of her," Logan spoke nervously, holding out the new green crayon. Patton carefully took the crayon, carefully looking it over.
"What do we say?" Roman prompted softly.
"Ankoo!" Patton squeaked, before carefully standing up and toddling to Logan, holding out his arms. The four-year-old opened his arms, letting the toddler collide into him.
"Wuvoo!" the two-year-old declared, squeezing Logan tightly. Logan had to process for a moment before realising to answer the hug. He smiled in relief, his eyes glistening slightly.
