Author's Note: HOOOOOOOO. Hello everyone! Ok. Moxiety yay! And the crowd goes wild! XD This by far was the longest I have spent on a tickle fic in one sitting! I was writing and rewriting this thing for nine hours straight!!! AAAAAGH! But it's done, and believe me when I tell you this is the darkest tickle fic I've ever written. Holy crap it's so dark. Let me know if I forget a couple triggers. This is a huge fic, and I'm glad I'm done with it. Please enjoy this and let me know if anything explained is not clear to you. Love you guys!

A Teddy-ous Caretaker

Ships: Moxiety

Words ~ 3960 ~

Warnings: Crying, angst, mention of death, witchcraft, mention of torture, emotional turmoil, yelling, screaming, just general dark stuff, touch starvation (Kind of)

~~~~~

     It was just another day for Patton. He had been venturing with Roman into the imagination to help with a quest he had deemed simple. The only problem was Patton got kidnapped along the way. A large crow plucked Patton from the ground and flew him, screaming to the top of a tower in the distance. He could still hear Roman's panicked yells in the distance, ringing in his ears as he also yelled for help.

     The crow laid him in front of a group of what looked like masked witches. He curled up, tears streaming from his eyes when the first witch approached him. The witch brought a hand down upon his shoulder and turned the moral aspect on his back. He cried out again and sprawled out in fear.

     "Relax. You are not here to be killed." The witch with the hand on his shoulder comforted.

     "Or tortured." A second witch in the background added. Patton glanced to the voices and did his best to not hyperventilate with fear.

    "Then take me back to Prince Roman!" He shouted at them.

     "We will..." The third witch approached the first witch and knelt next to Patton. "But...you need to learn an important lesson first." Patton scooted away, still fearful of them.

     "Wh-what lesson?" The second witch then approached with careful footsteps.

     "Confused, he is with assumptions a plenty." They began, circling his body on the ground.

     "A side who considers himself nothing but funny." They waved their hands in odd ways.

     "Friends he has, who give him such care." They brought their hands together and clapped twice.

     "But unworthy he thinks, too much to bear." Patton instantly felt something tug on his heart strings. He gasped and felt his mind fall down into a deep sleep. He had lost consciousness.

     Patton stirred awake. The sound of frantic talking brought his mind back to the real world. He had no idea how long he was unconscious for, but something told him not much time had passed. His ears were able to decipher the talking as Roman's voice, frantic as if something was horribly wrong.

     He tried to open his eyes, or at least be a little bit worried. He just felt too sleepy to be jostled by anything that was going on around him. Patton moved his arms languidly after yawning loudly, and stretched to feel around himself. That's when he heard Roman call his name.

     "Patton.....Patton! Patton please wake up padre! Patton! Can you hear me!?" Patton blinked into the sunlight. It was still daytime in Roman's kingdom, so that was a plus. His eyes batted aimlessly until finally Roman's blurry face came into view. But, something seemed off. His face was massive, but strangely enough he didn't feel worried about it.

     "R-Roman?" Patton stuttered, and continued stretching out his limbs, becoming fully aware of the warmth wrapped around his body. It was as if Roman was cuddling him. It felt so safe and secure, to Patton. So much so he decided he never wanted to move from that spot.

     "Patton! Oh thank god you're okay. Please! You have to be more coherent!!!" Patton shifted a little bit and felt around himself.

     "But...I'm sleepy..." The memories were flooding back one by one and he could faintly recall what had happened to him. He was just too tired to care. That is, until he slowly shifted to the side and looked at his hand. Or lack there of. "Wh-what?" Patton sat up and moved the brown stump with no hand attached to it in his field of vision, shocked to find out that it belonged to him.

     He became more aware of the situation with each piece of himself he laid eyes on. Instead of hands and feet, the brown stumps came to a rounded edge with a tan color that seemed to be filled with-

     "Beans." Patton finished his thought out loud and faced Roman, who had stopped running to tenderly hold one of Patton's brown stumps close to his chest.

     "Patton. You're a teddy bear!" Patton looked at his body again. His clothes were the same, but his dimensions were much different than when he was a human. Roman was already worried, and Patton didn't want to contribute to that worry. He might as well make light of the situation.

     "Teddy where?" He held up his stuffed arms, finding them to be so much heavier than his other human pair. He gave the prince what he thought was a smile, and widened it when Roman returned the facial gesture.

     The creative aspect sighed in relief, thankful to know that none of Patton's personality had changed with his form. He was still his laughing, joking self. "Teddy here." He responded with a smile, poking at Patton's chest. Teddy bear Pat caught the finger in between his stubby arms and giggled when the finger wiggled under his chin, then tapped the little nose on his muzzle.

     "Well," Roman began again, continuing his trek back to the door of the mind palace. "At least...it's temporary." Patton wiggled in Roman's hold, feeling so safe and secure in his arms.

     "It is?" He asked, looking up at the prince thoughtfully.

     "Well...temporary as in there's a way to break the spell cast over you. At least that's what the witches said who brought you back to me. But, I'm not sure what they meant at all by that. What can you remember?"

     Patton scratched his head, akin to Whinnie the Pooh. "Hmm...think think think. I remember the three witches. They said that I needed to learn a lesson, then they said a four line poem. But, I can't remember what the words were." Roman frowned. "By the time they uttered the first word, I was...feeling...fuzzy."

   Roman tried to ignore the pun. "Well...at least it's something to go off of. Do you have an idea of what lesson you need to learn?"

     "I...I don't know." But Patton had feeling that he already knew which lesson it was. And he wasn't looking forward to it one bit.

     Roman groaned in frustration. "Virgil and Logan are going to kill me."

~~~

     "You did WHAT!?" Roman stood in front of an angry Virgil, cradling the teddy bear Patton in his arms. He jumped to Roman's rescue.

     "It wasn't Roman's fault, Virge!" Patton flailed his teddy bear arms, not quite sure how his fine-motor skills worked in his new body yet. "I was carried off by a giant bird! Roman couldn't do anything." Patton and Roman both frowned, and looked away from Virgil who crossed his arms and sighed in annoyance.

     "Fine. But we better get this...spell or whatever off him soon."

     "Don't worry Virgil. I'm on it. For now though, I think Patton might need to get used to being a teddy bear. Do you think you can walk?" Patton moved his stuffed feet a little in Roman's arms.

     "I can try..." Something about being put down irked him, however.

     "Okay. Let's get you on the table." The instant Patton felt himself leave the comfort of Roman's chest, he knew something was wrong. He saw the table as an empty void, a place where comfort and love didn't exist. The moral aspect had never seen the hard surface he used to place food on as something devoid of anything warm or happy before. Something deep within his stuffed tummy began to hurt.

     "WAIT!" He cried out in anguish. "I..." He started, but couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. He couldn't be a burden to them. He had to be okay not being held, but the thought of not being in one of his famILY member's arms drove him to tears. He wondered if he could still cry, now that he was a teddy bear. "I...I think I'll be okay..." He finished, swallowing his own comfort for the sake of the situation, just as he always did. Roman couldn't hold him forever, and Virgil wasn't one for physical touch. He had to be okay, for their sakes.

     Roman's brows furrowed in concern. "Are you sure Patton?" The teddy bear frantically nodded, before his emotions could get the best of him.

     "Yeah." I can do it, was left unsaid as he wasn't sure if he even could. Roman nodded and gently lowered him to the dining room table. The instant his legs made contact with the surface was the moment Patton's small world came crashing down around him. The black pit in his tummy grew, and engulfed his whole body in an overwhelming sorrow Patton had never experienced before.

     Patton felt Roman's fingers slip from the fabric of his shirt, and before Patton could stop himself he cried out in vain. "NO!!" He fell facedown from his upright position right into the table, the stuffed Patton now shaking with sobs. Roman screamed himself and shot his hands to comfort the crying bear, but Virgil slapped his hands away.

     "Wait!!! I don't think that's what he needs!" Virgil. The one always overwhelmed by touch, thinking that his experiences would help in this scenario. He could not have been more wrong.

     IT IS! IT IS WHAT I NEED!!! But the words wouldn't speak themselves now. HUG ME! HOLD ME! PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU! All cries for help completely unspoken, by the one who thought he was a burden on his family, just because he needed more attention than what they all thought.

     "S-sorry..." Roman stuttered and pulled his hands away, his heart breaking at the scene. If there was anything worse than a sad Patton. It was a sad teddy bear Patton. To Patton, the feeling overwhelmed all happy memories he ever had, making them seem like pointless moments of fleeting joy. Was this how Virgil saw the world? If so, it was the worst thing imaginable to Patton.

     "What should we do?!" Roman flailed his hands, trying to find something, anything that would make Patton stop crying. Virgil was doing no better.

     "I don't know! It's your stupid realm! You figure something out!"

     "Well EXCUSE me-" The banter between the creative and anxious aspects only added more tears to Patton's little button eyes.

     Please. Please stop. He begged on the inside. Stop fighting. It was all his fault this was happening. Those stupid witches. What did they do to him to make him feel like this?! He remembered the poem...not fully, but enough to understand what it meant. The realization hit him in the face like a frisbee to a non suspecting athlete. "To much to bear." He almost laughed through his tears at the pun he forgot to get.

     A teddy bear: an object so commonly used to provide for the comfort and love of others. Something that never asks for love back, but is always there when someone feels alone or needs cuddles. How fitting. Patton, through his emotional turmoil and pain, swore he could hear Logan's voice through the black crevices of the void his thoughts swirled in. The parallelism made the solution to Patton's troubles as clear as day. Let them know what you need. The voice echoed again.

     Patton blinked into the table, the climbing argument of the two aspects befell upon his ears again. He hiccuped one last sob and dried his eyes, relieved to find the sorrow he felt had died down to a numbing drone that he felt in his belly. The muzzle wrinkled as if to simulate a sniff. He took a deep breath and outputted those traitorous words that he once believed would cause everyone to hate him.

     "Help...me..." He began and to his relief, the arguing ceased. "Hold me...please." He uttered with a little more confidence. Virgil and Roman ran to his sides.

     "Patton!" They yelled simultaneously.

     "Please!" Patton tried to match their volume. "Hug me! Hold me! Squeeze me! Do something! Don't let me sit here all alone any longer! PLEASE!" He yelled even louder, shutting his eyes for fear of the outcome. "I CAN'T TAKE THIS!" In an instant he felt himself be swooped off the table by a pair of arms. He gasped, all of the emotional turmoil ceased at once and left him limp with exhaustion.

     "Thank you...thank you...thank you..." He repeated breathlessly. The worry about being a burden, now replaced with the worry of losing this sense of peace and tranquility he had retained. He babbled out thank you after thank you, so grateful to be out of whatever emotional funk that was.

     He opened his treacherous eyes, to see Roman standing a foot away with his shoulders slumped over in relief. But, if Roman wasn't the one holding him...

     Virgil had his face pressed against Patton's side, cradling him tightly. A string of I'm sorry's coming out at the same pace as Patton's thank you's. The teddy bear looked at his dark strange son and wiped a tear away with his stuffed arm that seemed to be collecting on his eyelashes.

     "It's okay..." Patton began. "You didn't know." Virgil wiped his nose with his hoodie sleeve and cradled Patton even tighter.

     "But I should've..." Patton heard him swallow a lump in his throat.

     "Hey..." Patton began softly, turning Virgil's face towards his. "Just as I'm not a burden...neither are you." And it was at that moment that both showed signs of beginning to believe it.

     "I'm sorry..." Virgil said again, and Patton caressed his face with his stubby arms.

     "Shhhh...it's ok...just...hold me...and never let me go." Virgil nodded into the fur, walked over to the couch, and sat down with him. Roman joined them soon after and set a hand on his back. They could both feel Patton completely relaxing underneath the reassuring touches.

     "I know why I'm a teddy bear, Roman." The prince perked up to look at Patton. "For many years now, I've been there for other people, but not letting them be there for me. I wasn't voicing what I wanted, because what I thought I wanted was something no one would be willing to give me."

     "Physical affection..." Virgil commented quietly.

     "Or just anything in general! I never voice my wants and I stopped voicing my needs. Because I didn't want to be a burden. And that was the lesson the witches told me I need to learn. That I'm not a burden to anyone."

     "You aren't Patton." Virgil rubbed his fluffy head with his thumb gently.

     "So...that's why they turned you into a teddy bear?" Roman didn't dare take his hand off of him.

     "A Teddy bear is thought of as a vessel for love. Something that gives without any thought of taking. They turned me into one, so that they could let me experience what it's truly like to have your only purpose taken away from you. It hurt. It hurt to not feel loved when I wasnt touching someone. So...long story short. I need to learn to ask for things...I dont want to...but please say no if-"

     "Patton no." Virgil brought a finger to his muzzle. "You come to any one of us with anything you might need. You hear me? And if Logan refuses you I'll kick his ass!"

     "Ass kicking won't be necessary Virgil." Logan himself walked into the room, his voice interlaced with amusement.

      "Logan!" Patton dried the last of his tears and reached up with his stubby arms to Logan.

     "Alright. Your turn to hold him." Virgil thrust him into Logan's arms. The logical aspect caught Patton and cuddled him, glaring at Roman who couldn't stop grinning at the adorable scene.

     "I was visited by the witches earlier...they didn't want me to intervene until Patton had figured out himself. Which, I'm glad he did. It seems as if he's on the path to recovery already."

     "But didn't You help-" Logan shushed the teddy bear and gave him a subtle wink. "All that matters now is how we proceed."

     "Alright." Virgil stood up and shoved his hands back in his pockets. "So we give Patton everything he asks for. Simple."

     "Umm...maybe within reason?" Roman offered, the image of Patton asking for a million cookies circling through his brain.

     "Anything that enables Patton's mental and emotional stability, is fair game for him. I'm not sure how long he's going to be a teddy bear for, but the witches said it wear off within the next week, if Patton continues to learn his lesson." Virgil and Roman nodded.

     "Don't worry. You'll be human again in no time." And Patton smiled at the news.

     Patton still had a long way to go, but it was the start of a self-healing process that allowed him to be okay being a teddy bear for the next few days. He was no longer afraid of being overbearing, as Virgil put it later that afternoon when they had explained the rest of the story to Logan, much to his dismay. Over the course of the next few days, Patton learned how to ask and even tell the other sides when he needed love or attention. And not once was he denied.

     Three days later and Virgil consistently took Patton into his room with him, so he could have some company and also just watching teddy bear Patton try to get around the obstacles of a bedroom was a show in itself. Virgil currently had headphones and was scrolling through tumblr, watching absentmindedly out of the corner of his eye as Patton thrust himself on top of his bed with great effort. He then waddled over to where Virgil was and started using him as a climbing toy.

     Virgil only chuckled and let the stuffed bear find the best ways to grapple onto his hoodie. This continued for the next couple minutes before Patton climbed to the top of Virgil's head and pulled back his hood to ruffle his hair. The darker aspect rolled his eyes fondly and removed his headphones.

     "Ya need something Patton?" He asked inquisitively.

     "Not really. I'm just messing with you." He continued to mess up Virgil's hair which the owner of it couldn't help but laugh at.

     "Ya sure, Pat? Cuz you can ask for anything." He heard Patton giggle from the top of his head.

     "I know..." Virgil hummed.

     "Mmm...something tells me you might be asking for something indirectly."

     "I don't know, Virgil. I feel fine."

"Sure you don't need anything?"

     "Well..." Patton began and laid down on top of Virgil's head, his teddy bear feet hanging into his field of vision. "I...actually kind of want to laugh. I miss the feeling of just being immersed in laughter...ya know? These last few days have been such a roller coaster for me, and I'd kind of like to just laugh at something so much so that I forget I'm a teddy bear." Virgil smirked, silently thanking Patton couldn't see the evil look on his face.

     "Any specific ideas?" Virgil asked nonchalantly, as if he wasn't pulling his headphone jack out of his phone carefully to use as a tickle weapon.

     "Hmmm...maybe a funny movie? But we watched tons of those last night. We could always get Roman and Logan to do more arm wrestling matches! Those are always a hoot. I just want something that will make me laugh so much that I'm on the floor and giggling my little bear heart out!" Virgil smiled and held the jack up close to his bearfoot.

     "I think I might have something, if you don't."

     "And what's that-AH!" Virgil poked the jack gently up into beans of Patton's feet.

     "Wouldja look at that? You actually have toe beans." Virgil clicked and ran the jack along the soft padding, exploring the different pathways that were made by them.

     "AH! Ahahahah! Oh goodness, Virgil! I...I'm still ticklish!" Virgil reached his other hand up and held the wiggling foot in place while he traced ticklish patterns all over Patton's foot.

     "Well, I'd hope so. Otherwise, I wouldn't know why you were laughing." Patton gently kicked at the hand Virgil held the headphone jack in, hoping to deter him from using it. Virgil chuckled and dropped the jack to catch the other foot. With one foot now in each hand, he scratched along the bottom of Patton's feet using his thumbs.

     Patton went ballistic. "Eheheheheheheheheheh! Virgil!!!" He pounded with his arms at Virgils neck, trying and failing to get him to stop.

     "You said you wanted to laugh." Virgil smiled and pulled him off the top of his head by his legs. Once Patton's smiling bear face came into view, he turned him upright and held his arms above his head. Now Patton was dangling in the air, unable to do anything but wiggle. "You still want to laugh, Patton?" Virgil asked, wiggling a finger toward Patton, but judging his expressions before doing anything.

     The patch of fur next to Patton's muzzle that resembled cheeks grew red. "Maybe...just a little?"

     Virgil smiled gently. "So you want some light tickles then?" Virgil wiggled the finger to each one of Patton's exposed armpits, the sound of giggling great contrasting in tone to the crying he was doing three days before.

     "Yeeehehehehehsss..." Patton responded, gently wiggling his legs, but not attempting to stop Virgil.

     The anxious aspect traced his finger down where his ribs would be and gently tweaked each pudgy side. It earned multiple squeaks from Patton each time he squeezed.

     "Goodness Patton. Is this the laughter you were wanting?" He scribbled from side to side across his clothed, fluffy stomach, watching fondly as the teddy bear continuously nodded up and down.

     He gave him a short break by lifting up his shirt, examining his cute bear belly. It was a white patch of fluff with a tiny x for a belly button near the top of his pants. Virgil poked it once, eliciting happy giggles from Patton. "Ahh! Stop being cute."

     "You're the one whose tickling me!" Virgil smiled, knowing it was true.

     "Maybe, but you could purposefully make your giggles less cute." He started gently tickling his tummy again.

     "Nohohow why would I dohoho that!? I lohohove it when you blush!" Virgil slowed his tickling to a stop and pulled his shirt down after he was finished.

     "Well that makes one of us." He brought Patton down to the bed and held him close. "You good now Patton?" The moral aspect tapped his now free hands together as if he was thinking about asking for something. Virgil caught on.

     "It's okay. I'll say yes. Whatever it is." Patton flailed his teddy bear arms.

     "Are you sure?"

     "Yeah..."

     "Can...I have a kiss? Like a forehead kiss." Virgil didn't need anymore prompting. He picked up Patton once more and pressed a kiss to his forehead. The instant Virgil's lips met Patton's forehead, he was pushed against the bed by a great weight that suddenly engulfed his whole body. It registered in his mind that he was no longer kissing teddy bear!Patton, but human!Patton. Patton gasped, excitedly examining his old body! He squealed and gathered Virgil into a hug.

     "You did it Virgil! You broke the spell!" Virgil chuckled and grasped Patton's shoulders lovingly.

     "No. You broke the spell, Patton! It was your doing, not mine. I just provided you what you asked for!" Patton nuzzled his neck.

     "But you helped!" Virgil rolled his eyes.

     "Fine I helped, but I could care less what I did! You're back! And you've learned your lesson!" The moral aspect glomped him back down to the bed.

     "Yeah!" Patton returned the kiss on Virgil's forehead and cuddled into him, so thankful to be a human again. "I'm back."

~~~

     A sound knock resounded on the door to a certain side's room. The side in question rose to open it and peeked behind to see who was on the other side.

     "You are next...Logan."

~~~~~

Author's Note Part 2: EEEEEE. Leave a vote on the story if you want a sequel to this! Please let me know if you enjoyed, or if nothing made sense. Lol. This is the tickle fic for the weekend! Next weekend I'm extremely excited for. I've recently found love for a certain ship I thought I would hate called Intrulogical. So the next tickle fic I will write (I might post something else in the middle of the week we will see) will be an intrulogical tickle fic! Heeeeeheee! Yes! Alright! Take it easy guys, gals, and nonbinary pals. Ceffy out! <3