Sanders sides oneshots (request closed)

Rainbow after the storm

this'll be part 2 of "The Rain" as requested by my dear friend Eden (@Theeverseeingeye)

The sleepover passed by without more inconviniences, something that Logan still found surprising. Roman had just broke down crying, and now, he kept on as if nothing had happened. The few times that Logan had seen something similar happen where when he had been studying with Virgil for specially difficult subjects, in which Virgil had had anxiety induced attacks. After the first one whore off, Logan had learned how to help his friend go through them, and he mentally prepared himself before study nights in case something similar would happen again. Every time it ended, Virgil would stay touched up and he would act weird for the next of the day.

This time it had been different. There had been no warnings, and Logan just didn't know how to react. He didn't have any close relationships with Roman, so he didn't know if he even was allowed to help. In some ocasions, Virgil had mentioned how too much insistance could become perjudical, so that's why Logan hadn't done anything. 

During the night, Logan woke up. It happened to him often, he'd wake up un-prompted in the middle of the night, without any apparent reason, but he'll fall asleep minutes later as if nothing had happened. The thing is that, when he opened his eyes, he saw something weird. Well, the weird thing is what he didn't see. Roman was no where to be seen. 

Logan picked up his glasses and put them on. Roman definetevely wasn't in the room. Where would he be?

The place was dark, but Logan could still see things thanks for the rays of moonlight that came in through the window. It was still raining outside, the storm had never stopped, but at least now it wasn't falling as heavely as before, you could easily block the sound off. 

It didn't take Logan long to find Roman. He was on the living room, sitting on the couch, looking out the window. He was still wearing his pajamas, but now he also had red headphones on. Logan walked close to him, Roman didn't notice his precence until he sat down next to him.

Roman jumped a bit on his seat, startled by Logan. Once he recogniced that there was nothing bad going on, he looked down, almost in guilt, as he took his headphones off.

"What do you want?" he asked. 

"Couldn't sleep?" 

"No," Roman looked at the rain, "There was too much noise."

"Too much noise?" Logan questioned, looking outside as well, "It's just rain..."

"No. It's not "just rain"," Roman huffed.

"What do you mean...?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Please Roman," Logan asked, looking at the other boy in the eyes, "I know we aren't exactly friends, but I'm trying to care for you here."

"Hm. Alright," Roman groaned, "The thing is- well, um... I- well, I have this thing called ADHD, ya know?"

"ADHD?" Logan repeated, "That was... Attention- attention disorder for hyperactivity and-"

"Attention deficit hyperactivity dissorder," Roman corrected, "It's actually much more that just attention deficit and hyperactivity, the name doesn't exactly cover it all."

"So what does this all have to do with-"

"I'm onto it,"

"Sorry."

"What it does- well, for me, at least, I have trouble concentrating, organicing thoughts, i'm too impulsive sometimes, on occasion I am too blunt, and in this case, the issue comes when I have to proces sound. My brain- well, my brain is just fucked up, you see," Roman laughed, "It- it doesn't work correctly! The sound thing is specually shitty, I hate it. My brain has a very complicated relationship with sound, you see? There's good sound and bad sound, and it proccess them both differently, if that makes sense. Sometimes my brain is just thinking shit and it doesn't process it fast enough, so i end up looking stupid, sometimes my brain processes too much sound and i get overwhelmed and end up having a sensory overload. When that happens, everything goes to hell."

"I asume that's what happened earlier," Logan said.

"Basically. The rain in particular is bad. I can't block it out, as you say. I just- I just focus too much on it, i guess, and the worst part is that I- I have no control over it, ya know? I start focusing and trying to recolect every single raindrop that falls and it's imposible becuase there are houndred of them and then also the lights where going on and off and that made the electricity sound louder than it normally does and then the tv was going on and off and the sounds from the Tv came in and the the lights and the thunderstomes also started going weird and-" Roman had started again to scratch his arms, and his voice cracked. This time, Logan did intervene.

"Hey, hey, hey Roman," He placed his hands on Roman's, "Don't worry, it's alright, i'm here."

"I- I'm sorry Logan, I'm sorry, it's just something I can't control and-"

"And that's why there's no need to apologice," Logan smiled, trying to calm his newly adquired friend down, "How do you cope with his then? Virgil has chewlery he usses when he panics, but everyone has a different copying mechanism."

Roman looked down at Logan's hands before looking at him back in the eye, "Virgil also has...?"

"He has anxiety. Used to be depressed as well, but he's got better. In occasions, when it becomes too much, he gets a necklace and starts chewing on it. Before he chewed on his hand, and after having it bleed a few times, I conviced him to try something healthier. Do you have anything similar?"

"Kinda," Roman looked away and moved his arms away from Logan's grip, "Altho I'm not confortable sharing."

"That's alright Roman," Logan replied. He couldn't stop himself from looking at Roman's arms, specially after he had moved them so suddently after saying that. The boy noticed how they where red. He decided not to mention anything.

After a bit in silence, Roman picked his headphones.

"Mind if I-? The rain is still a bit-"

"No, go ahead, put them on," Logan nodded.

"Thanks. The noise is overwhelming, but the droplets are beautiful," Once Roman put them on again, he leaned foward to examine the rain.

At least now, Logan understood what had happened before. ADHD... it kinda made sense. The reason that Logan disliked Roman was because he didn't know how to shut up, he had too much energy in his body, he used nicknames half of the time, he was loud, etc. But it just wasn't in his control. It was time to reconsider his view on Roman.

Now the question left was how Roman managed to pretend he was ok. If the sound thing was just as he had descrived it, it must be almost like torture, right? Logan never thought of it, but in dayly life there where loads of sounds, specially in school. Logan had seen Roman wear those headphones before, be he always thought that it was because he was listening to music. Obviously, he had been wrong.

But masking it all... Logan simply couldn't imagine. One thing was for sure, and it was that, from now on, he'd try to be more comprehensive with him.

Haha this was random but i hope y'all enjoyed and all

sorry i haven't updated in some time but brain go no creative mode so-

remember if ya want me to write 'bout anything in particular (aka, got a prompt) or want me to do a part 2 'bout some oneshot or something similar, just say so, i'll do my best (altho that's not much... sorry)