:October 3rd, XX46; Thursday.

:NEW FRIENDS.

•~~~~•

The sound that woke Logan up every weekday morning was always the same- it was the beeping of his 6:00 AM alarm, set to the default Radar noise that was customary on an iPhone. It was normally unpleasant, because it was early and Logan never wanted to leave the comfort and warmth of his bed just yet, but he preferred to say his day began with a sound that came only a few moments later.

"Mmh... morning, honey."

And that sound was his husband, of course.

Logan reached over to his nightstand and grabbed his phone, turning off the alarm as Patton scooted himself closer into the arms of his husband. With a chuckle, Logan carded a hand carefully through his hair.

"Good morning, beautiful. We should get up."

"But I'm still tired, I don't wan- ...ow."

Logan blinked as his husband suddenly sat up, rubbing at his left eye. "Ow?" Logan echoed, "what do you mean? Are you alright?"

"My eye is throbbing and I can't really open it."

"Move your hand, let me see."

Logan took Patton's hand into his own and used his other to hold the latter's face still, and he leaned in closer to him, seeing how his eye was crusted shut. Logan sighed.

"Well, it is either pink eye or allergies, I won't be able to tell until you can open the eye so I will go get you a warm washcloth to put over it for a minute to help it open. Is your head alright? Stomach? Does your bad shoulder hurt at all?"

"My stomach does kind of hurt but right now I can't tell if I'm just hungry or not."

"Okay. Stay here, I'll be back in a moment."

Logan got up and went into the hallway, to the closest bathroom and quickly warmed up a washcloth. He brought it back to Patton- along with an empty Tupperware container, since his stomach was hurting, and some eye drops just in case- and carefully pressed it against his left eye, rubbing his back as Patton leaned against him.

After about a minute of silence, Logan removed the rag and Patton opened his eye. Logan scrunched up his face a small bit and then sighed.

"It does look like pink eye. Does it still hurt?"

"Yeah... and now food sounds very gross to me so I think I've got a stomach issue as well."

Logan frowned at him, wrapping his arms around him and hugging him, Patton leaning into his embrace. It was always so worrying when Patton got sick, Logan never wanted him to be sick. He hated seeing Patton in any sort of pain, no matter what it was and how it had been caused.

"Do you think one of your students could have given it to you?" Logan asked him, grabbing his phone and checking the time, to see that only seven minutes had passed since they woke up.

"Maybe... should I call in sick to work, then? You think they can get a sub for my class that easily?"

"I'm calling in sick for you and I'm staying home as well to take care of you, love," Logan spoke as he was dialing the number of his boss. "The college has a decent amount of substitutes on stand-by and I believe they just hired a new girl last week so I'm sure it will be fine."

"Are you sure you wanna stay home too? I probably won't be better by tomorrow..."

"You won't be, that is certain. I'll call our doctor and we can go see him either tomorrow or today as well to get you antibiotics for the pink eye, perhaps a flu test as well. You know very well I would be anxious being so far away from you for that long."

Patton sighed quietly, a small smile on his face, though one hand was gently clutching his stomach. "Okay, honey."

"I'll call the doctors and the principal and then we'll get dressed and I'll help you decide if you're feeling well enough to eat anything at the moment."

•~~~~•

Logan placed a plastic plate with buttered toast on his husband's lap, placing his own plate on his own lap as he sat down as well. Logan squeezed Patton's hand very gently and reached for the remote, at least happy that he got to spend the day wearing a hoodie and holding his husband rather than grading papers.

The two soon looked up as they heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and their son entered the living room, walking at his usual, homosexual pace towards the front door.

"I'm off to school, bye father, bye- ...dad?"

He looked over at them in that moment and his eyes brushed over their clothes and breakfast and the fact that they weren't packing lunches for themselves in the kitchen like they usually were at that time.

"I'm a little sick so we're staying home today," Patton explained with a soft smile. "You run off to school now, don't get too close to me later on, I don't want you getting sick either."

"But father is literally right next to-... I'm not gonna question it. Love you guys."

"Love you too," both the parents replied in unison as Joe left the house. With a sigh, Patton leaned into his husband a bit more, and Logan shifted their position to allow for them both to sit up while still being in a good cuddling position.

"How is your toast?" Logan asked.

"It's okay, I can eat it. I might only want toast the rest of today and fruit or something tomorrow, though."

"That is expected, once you start to feel better you'll be craving comfort foods so we can order something Saturday perhaps."

"That sounds good," Patton smiled.

Logan held the remote and turned on Schitt's Creek, a show their child had recently been enjoying and they decided to watch through as well since it had good gay representation. They ate their breakfast mostly in silence, Patton soon growing tired after some time even though it was very early in the morning. After Logan put away their dishes Patton laid his head on Logan's lap with a small huff.

"You should be sitting up," Logan said, once again moving his hand through Patton's hair.

"I know, I know... I'm tired, though. I'm gonna take a nap."

"...It is seven-thirty in the morning, Pat."

Patton whined, "Don't judge me, I'm sick."

"Alright, alright."

Logan leaned back into the couch a bit, a hand still resting in the curly haired-head that laid in his lap. Logan grabbed the remote and lowered the volume on the TV a bit as well, just to allow for less noise so his husband could get some more sleep. They sat for a good while, saying nothing, Logan allowing himself to relax a bit as he assumed his husband had fallen asleep.

He was proven wrong a few minutes after he closed his eyes to try and get some rest himself, though.

"Uh, Logan?"

"Huh- oh, I thought you were asleep, darling. Yes?"

Patton was silent for a moment and then he turned his body a bit, making himself able to see Logan's face better. The latter raised an eyebrow, recognizing Patton's expression to read I'm having anxiety-driven thoughts and I'm scared to say them outloud.

"Uhm, I just..."

"What are you thinking?"

Patton sighed.

"Just... just, what if he is the reason I'm sick right now? I mean I'm not even that sick but... I-I just don't feel like we can find out you have him as a half-brother of all people and then just... have it never come up in our lives as an issue. That's not how our life works... I hate to say it, but it's true."

"That monster will never truly be related to me, Pat, I can guarantee that. And you are right, we do seem to have a bit of bad luck in those regards following us around, but with no true evidence out there that ghosts exist or that dead beings can contact and interfere with the living... we have nothing to worry about."

Patton sighed, a small smile appearing on his lips. "You always know what to say, Lo-Bear."

"Perhaps it's because I've known you for thirty-one years and been romantically with you for almost twenty-eight."

Patton giggled a bit, and then turned back to the position he had before after finding Logan's hand and pecking a kiss into his palm. And he did fall asleep soon after that, but even with what Logan had said to calm his husband, it wasn't doing a very good job calming himself.

...It was his mother's fault any of this was happening, wasn't it? Of course it was. All Logan wanted to do was protect his family from stress and pain and she just had to cheat on her husband all those years ago and give Logan a half-brother who he would never accept to truly be related to him. Remy had never done any good for Logan and if he never existed, perhaps Logan could have asked Patton out in a usual way and their life could be normal.

Soft snores escaped the mouth of Patton as he rested, but Logan was no longer relaxed enough to sleep. Half of his entire world was laying in his lap, and the other half was off at school not even in his sight. They were both in so much danger, it seemed like...

And what was he to do but try his best to protect them?

"...My husband doesn't deserve this. He doesn't deserve any of the pain that's ever been put upon his shoulders. But that foul man does... of course he does."

•~~~~•
sure do love causing pain and suffering:)

see ya in the next chapter!😀
    ~Maxx(SanderShipper)