"Do you think I'd look better in a blue tie or a black tie, love?"

Patton sighed, staring at his husband from their bed. "I think you look good in either, but it really doesn't matter that much. Why ya stressing so much over this, anyway?"

Patton got up from bed and walked over to Logan, starting to gently massage his shoulders as they both stared at their reflections in the mirror in front of them.

"I'm just trying to pick out a nice outfit. We have dinner with an important government official," Logan responded, letting the black tie fall to the ground in front of him and wrapping the blue one around his neck, starting to tie it.

"We're having dinner with a very friendly detective, not a government official," Patton corrected. "I really don't see why it matters so much. And it's not even tonight, it's tomorrow."

"I prefer to plan things early so I have time to look at all my options."

Patton giggled. "Yeah, your two options of tie colors."

Patton really wasn't sure why his husband was stressing so much. It really was just a random friendly detective. Or... well, a random friendly detective working for Remy, but Logan obviously didn't realize that. Unless he did. Is that why he was stressing?

"The dinner really isn't a big deal, honey," Patton commented, leaning his head on his husband's shoulder from behind. Logan sighed, reaching behind him to grab both of Patton's hands.

"I know. I just... it's not the dinner that is making me nervous, it's more what might happen. What we might talk about. What kind of new information I may learn, about... you know who."

Patton frowned slightly, letting out a huff of air. "Oh... right."

Yeah... Logan was definitely clueless. Patton wished he could lift the stress of the dinner off Logan's shoulders...

...

Well... he did have the guy's address. He could go over tonight and kill him. He had been planning to do that soon, anyway. Better sooner than too late, right?

He felt a jolt of nervousness coarse through his veins, but he ignored it. He had no choice, he had to kill him. He had to, because if he didn't, Logan would die.

And he's done it before, so... maybe it will be a little easier this time.

"What time is it?" Patton suddenly asked, taking his head off of Logan's shoulder.

"Around noon, why?"

"No reason. Just wondering."

Patton definitely needed to do it tonight, then. He didn't really have an excuse for leaving the house, though. They still had about a dozen Crofter's jars, so he definitely couldn't use that as an excuse.

He'd probably just have to... sneak out.

Patton gulped silently. That sounds scary. Maybe if he just spends the day tiring out his husband, then he can sneak out when he's asleep. Yeah, okay.

"Hey, Lo?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we play Just Dance?"

"...What?" Logan almost laughed. He forgot that they even owned that game.

Patton shrugged, smiling. "I dunno. I'm just kinda in the mood to play it, for some reason."

"Well, we have nothing else better to do... we could load up our Wii."

"Yay!"

The day was wasted away with the two digging out their old gaming consoles, which really only included their Wii and the Nintendo Switch that they had owned since they were in high school, and playing games on them. Patton made sure to try to play all of the more tiring and exciting games with his husband, like Just Dance, Wii Sports, and- of course- Smash Bros. Not only was it one of their favorite games to play when they were teenagers, but it required a lot of focus, and focus often tired Logan.

By the time they needed to eat dinner, Logan had a grin on his face, but he was exhausted.

"How do you hold up so well, doing all of this?" Logan asked his husband as they started to put everything away. Patton giggled, shrugging.

"I dunno. I just do. Now come on, let's go eat and then maybe go to bed."

"Alright."

Dinner passed quickly. Patton silently tapped his foot on the ground as he ate, trying to remember everything he needed to do before going to bed tonight. Or... "going to bed".

He needed his phone, for starters. He'd have to stop by the bathroom to grab those gloves and knife from last time. Maybe a change of clothes would be good, too. Or he could just wear something over his bed clothes. Like a hoodie or something. That should be it, right? Oh, and his undying love for his husband that was driving him to do this, of course. Can't forget that.

When they finished eating, the two cleaned up and walked upstairs, starting to get ready for bed. Patton snuck his phone and a change of clothing into the bathroom, deciding he could just sneak over there before he snuck out of the house.

They climbed into bed, sharing a quick kiss, and Logan was out almost immediately. Patton had snuggled up close enough to him to make it seem like a normal night without making it too hard for him to climb out of bed.

And then, he waited. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes.

A half an hour passed of Patton, laying completely still in bed. He told himself, as every minute passed, that he was just doing this to make sure Logan was asleep, but in reality he was just terrified.

After forty-five minutes Patton finally decided he had had enough and slipped out of bed. He tip-toed out of the room and into their bathroom, quickly slipping on a long black hoodie that covered his T-shirt and shorts, along with the gardening gloves. He sat the knife in the hoodie pocket along with his phone, and made his way downstairs.

And after a glance to the left and to the right, he was out of the house. He silently hoped that Logan hadn't woken up as he climbed into their car and started it up, sighing as he pressed his foot gently on the gas petal to leave the drive-way.

He quickly pulled up the detective's, or Richard's, address and put it into his GPS. His fingers tapped anxiously on the steering wheel as he started to drive, closer and closer to Richard's doom.

At least he'd be asleep this time, right? And from the pictures Patton had seen, it didn't look like he had any cameras or alarms or anything like that, which was good.

When he pulled up to the house, he took a deep breath. He's done this before, he can do it again. He'll probably be asleep, too. So he can just slip in, stab him, and maybe just leave before he can really react. Yeah. So he doesn't have to look at the body much.

At least it's only one person this time, too.

...

Alright, now or never.

Patton climbed out of his car and walked up to the house, standing back to inspect it briefly. It was ten at night, so he assumed Richard would be asleep, and it did seem like that. It was a one-story house and it looked like all the lights were off. And- oh god, camera.

His eyes widened and he took a step back, sharply inhaling. He froze and stared at it for a good few seconds before he realized that it wasn't on.

...It wasn't on? Why wouldn't it be on?

He cautiously approached the porch camera, and after examining it for a few moments, he realized it definitely wasn't on, because someone had cut the power cord. Literally, like, just cut it in half.

That's... oddly helpful.

Patton sighed briefly and walked to the back of the house, also looking around for cameras and finding none. He reached the back door and tinkered with the door knob for a moment before opening it. No alarm went off, and Patton slipped in.

Now... just to find the bedroom.

He cautiously walked through the dark house, feeling with his feet for any creeky floorboards. He reached a long hallway, and started listening to the doors to try and hear any sound of noise. When he got to one, he heard loud snoring. Richard.

And after opening the door, he saw his target. Already asleep.

Okay... this won't be too hard. Just walk up, stab him two or three times, and leave. Easy, right?

...Right.

With flashbacks of Christopher and Bill's death racing through his mind, Patton edged closer to the sleeping man. He gulped as he reached his bedside, and he slowly grabbed his knife from his pocket and held it over him.

Just... lower it. Really fast. Stab stab stab. Like it's a delicious cake that needs to be cut so people can eat it, right? Ew, wait, no, that's a horrible visual.

Okay...

Now or never.

Now or never.

Now or never.

Now.

Patton brought the knife higher in the air and then swiftly lowered it, stabbing Richard right underneath his heart, in his left lung. As Richard's eyes opened Patton closed his, lifting up the knife and quickly stabbing him again, a little higher this time, hitting the bottom of his heart. Richard coughed up blood, clearly trying to form a coherent sentence, and failing miserably. His arms moved as he tried to stop Patton from stabbing him a third time, but his heart was already stopping and he was already going into shock, so before his arms could get very far, they stopped mid-air and fell limp onto the bed.

Patton opened his eyes. He slowly pulled the knife out of Richard's body, realizing he hadn't done that yet after he had stabbed him a third time. Richard let out one final cough, blood pooling in his mouth, and then he was silent.

A single tear rolled down Patton's cheek, but he sniffled it away, telling himself not to think. He had to leave, and he had to leave now.

So, that's what he did. He made sure there was no blood on him that he could possibly drip, shoved the knife back into his pocket, and started walking out. A few more tears started to fall down his cheeks as he walked out the back door, but he wiped them away.

Richard was dead, he couldn't do anything about that. He couldn't have done anything to prevent it, either- it just had to happen, and he had to accept that.

About twenty minutes later, and Patton was finally back home. He sighed as he pulled into the familiar driveway, quickly turning off the car and getting out. He gulped as he walked up to the door, and crossed his fingers, hoping Logan wouldn't be awake.

He opened the front door... and all was silent.

He walked upstairs... and all was silent.

He hid the knife and gloves in the bathroom... and all was silent.

He opened his bedroom door...

...and all was silent.

Patton had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop his relieved sigh from being so loud. He quickly took off the hoodie and threw it somewhere in the room before he quickly climbed into bed again. Logan stirred as Patton threw an arm and a leg around him, but Logan stayed asleep, just shuffling closer to his husband.

Patton's body count was now four.

If he thought more about that he'd probably start to cry again. But he needed to think about something to fall asleep. It's really hard to just completely clear your mind.

Oh- he could daydream. Or... night-dream. Just mind-dream. Until he fell asleep.

And, so that's what Patton did. It surprisingly worked, and it calmed him down a lot. By the time he got close to the end of whatever he was thinking about, he was fast asleep.

•~~~~•

"Uh... Logan? Might- might have to cancel those dinner arrangements for tonight..."

"Wait- What? Why?"

Logan speed-walked into the living room from where he was in the kitchen to find Patton watching the news. Patton, who had had the TV paused, quickly hit play as Logan sat down next to him.

"The station got a call by someone under the name of Rami that they had seen a mysterious figure at Detective Richard Meyer's house last night, cutting the cords of Meyer's surveillance cameras. Upon further inspection of the house, Meyer himself was discovered dead in his bedroom with three stab wounds to his upper chest. It is believed that the infamous Remy Cafe has committed this murder, as Meyer was currently in the process of-"

Patton quickly paused the TV, honestly not wanting to hear any more. Logan blinked a few times before he groaned loudly, burying his head in his hands.

"My god, what is that man even doing? Do I just have to stop talking to people completely for him to leave us alone?" Logan mumbled, leaning back on the couch.

Patton thought for a moment.

...Yes, actually. That's exactly what Logan needed to do.

Patton tried to act as sad as he possibly could without bringing up too many real negative emotions. He sighed himself, curling his knees into his chest.

"I... I don't understand..." Patton mumbled, trying to remember what it had felt like the first time he saw news about someone he had killed on TV.

Wait...

Could be not remember? Oh no. Oh no. Patton was becoming heartless, wasn't he? He was a psychopath. He was an actual psychopath who couldn't feel anything.

Logan threw an arm around Patton after a brief moment of silence from both of them, and Patton leaned into the touch, legitimately starting to feel scared now.

"I- Okay... you know what? I'm just gonna not make any form of social contact with anyone but you for the next week, and we'll see what happens. That seems like the best thing to do, right?" Logan asked his husband, not really sure whether he was talking to himself or to Patton more.

Patton blinked, slowly processing what his husband had just said. His terror about becoming a heartless psychopath completely left his body.

"...Yeah. That sounds like a good idea."

...

And after killing four people, it looked like Patton was finally going to get his way.

•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•
When Patton and Logan now have the same body count but not a single character in the story knows that

wellokaymaybeRemydoes-

See ya in the next chapter!3️⃣