TW: Very, very brief mention of attempted suicide, lots of tears, insecurities in relationships

Previous chapter:

|Sitting there, being held by Roman, I suddenly realized how exhausted I was. That was my first panic attack since my attempt, and I had forgotten how draining they were.

Letting out a sigh, I let myself fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. |

Roman POV:

After dinner, I helped Patton clear the table, and I noticed that something was off about his behavior. He looked like he was trying not to cry, and his actions were rather sluggish.

"Hey, Patton," I asked after observing him for a while. "Are you okay? You seem sad."

Patton turned around, a grin plastered on his face, but it didn't seem sincere.

"I'm doing great kiddo!!" he replied, but the cheeriness seemed forced.

Sighing, I walked over to Patton and gently grabbed his wrists. I lightly tugged him over to the table and sat him down in his chair. Sitting down in the chair across from him, I could see just how surprised he was that I had done this.

"Roman, I'm fine," he assured, voice desperate, but I wasn't buying it.

"Patton, please," I begged. "I recognize the forced cheeriness from the Moving On video. You promised you wouldn't hide your sad emotions as much, but you're doing it now."

Patton looked down at the table with a look of guilt on his face. I saw a single tear slide down his cheek, and I felt so bad that I had made Patton cry.

A second tear quickly followed the first, and a third came soon after. Patton soon had tears streaming down his face. He covered his face with his hands and sobbed into them, his entire body shaking.

"Oh, Pat," I murmured, moving so that I was in the chair next to him. "C'mere."

I scooted my chair closer and wrapped the usually cheery side in a hug. He removed his hands from his face and wrapped them around my torso, crying into my shoulder.

Neither of us spoke for a few minutes. I let Patton get all his tears out, rubbing his back to try and comfort him.

After what must have been 10 minutes, Patton let out a deep breath and pulled away. He reached up and wiped away the last tears on his cheeks, a sad smile on his face.

"Sorry 'bout that," he mumbled quietly.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Patton," I said gently. "Everyone gets sad. Plus, it's good to cry. It's a natural way to release pent-up emotions."

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts," I said sternly. "It's good to cry. That's that."

I looked over at Patton, who looked to be deep in thought about something.

"What'cha thinking 'bout?" I asked.

Patton sighed. "I'm just thinking about what's been making me upset."

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I offered. Patton looked hesitant, so I quickly added, "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, no, no, I want to," Patton explained. "It's just that I don't know how to explain it."

"Ahhh, that's understandable."

I stayed quiet for a few minutes, allowing Patton some time to think about what he was going to say. Eventually, Patton nodded and started speaking.

"I guess it started when I first found out that Virgil's got Hanahaki. It's just... I don't want him to die, but I don't want him to not be able to love. Why can't he just tell the person he's in love with that he loves them, and then they can be happy and fall in love and no one has to die?!?!?!"

I could tell that talking about this was upsetting Patton, and it pained me to see him so upset. Before I could say or do anything, Patton continued.

"I've also been stressed out because of stuff that's going on between Logan and me."

I wanted to scream. Here I am, the creative romantic one and everyone around me's relationships are falling apart. I felt so useless. I kept all this inside, though, and let Patton continue.

"Ever since Virgil's attempt, Logan and I haven't had the chance to talk or spend time together. I'm either busy cleaning, cooking, or taking care of Virgil, and he's either working or making sure that we all stick to Virgil's schedule. Honestly, sometimes it feels like he's talking to Virgil more than he's ever talked to me."

Patton paused to catch his breath and wipe away a few tears that had leaked out.

"I'm scared, Roman," he said quietly. "I'm scared that Logan and I are growing apart and will eventually just decide to break up. I don't want that to happen.

"I love him so much, and I don't know what I'll do if we end things. But I feel like we are going to end things because I have no clue how to fix what's going on. I don't want to interrupt him while he's working, and I just-"

A sob interrupted Patton, and he quickly covered his mouth as a stream of tears cascaded down his cheeks.

I pulled him in for another hug, and we stayed like that until Patton had calmed down.

Pulling away, I got a good look at Patton, and my heart nearly shattered. He looked so helpless and broken. I was determined to help Patton get through this rough patch of his relationship with Logan.

Suddenly, I knew what Patton needed to do.

"Hey, Pat?" I said quietly.

"Yeah?" he said, sniffling a little.

"I think I know how you might be able to fix things with Logan."

When he heard that, Patton perked up a little, which made me happy.

"You do?"

"Yeah," I said and then explained my idea.

"The first thing you gotta do is tell Logan how you're feeling. You're not going to get anywhere if you leave him trying to guess. Tell him that you feel like you're growing apart and that you don't want things to end. If he agrees with that, you can suggest that the two of you go out to the village in the Imagination for the day."

"Bu-" Patton started, but I stopped him before he could get far.

"Don't worry about Virgil. Deceit and I can take care of him for a day."

"Are you sure?" Patton asked, clearly hesitant to accept my proposition.

"100%," I replied.

"OK," Patton said, sighing a little. "I'll go talk to Logan right now. Thanks, Roman."

With that, Patton stood up and walked out of the kitchen to go talk to Logan, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

A/N:

Hey y'all. I understand if you hate me for making Patton sad. I get it, I hate myself. Like, it physically hurt me to make Patton sad, but I swear it's gonna help the plot a lot!!!!

So, I finished this chapter on Tuesday, and it took all of my self-control to not publish this right away, but I did it!!!! I made it to the weekend!!!

I was really in the writing mood this week, so I was able to write, like, 3 chapters. Yay!!! 

It also helped that I got a lot of ideas for chapters all at the same time, so as soon as I finished one chapter I'd move right in on the next one.

Until next time,

Take it easy guys, gals, and non-binary pals!

~death_by_fanfic