Saving Prince Charming

When Hell Freezes Over.

Logic looked back to the book in his hand, distracting himself with signing. It was the easiest thing to focus on right now, what with that conversation coming on as fast and dreaded as a hurricane. Morality went out the door, the one trait willing, at that moment, to face the winds and the rain that Logic and Anxiety had been battered with for days [(all their lives, really).]

"Princey, they're really not in the mood to see you right now, and frankly I understand why." He was as gentle as he could be, but…

"Well, they let you in." He retorted. "And they said we would talk today, about what happened last night." His words were alive with bravado, but his eyes portrayed his worry. And… guilt? Good. He needed to realize his actions were wrong, that in this case, he was wrong.

Morality paused, hesitating— how to go about this? "…And we will, later, but right now, they're still upset at how you handled last night. You knew Anxiety was upset, having an attack, and still you yelled at him. I'm pretty sure they both had an attack last night, actually..."

"…An attack?" Prince finally replied, confused. He had heard Logic reference something like that before, when Anxiety had fallen to the ground after touching his hand, but he wasn't exactly sure what they were talking about.

"What…?"

"An anxiety attack. He doesn't just represent Thomas' fear and anxiety, he has that, and you pushed him into that. Don't you think they were terrified by Logic's voice being taken? Of course they were upset. And yelling at them only made it worse."

…And while this talk happened as if the two were not even there (that was always always how conversations went around here), Logic and Anxiety could hear them quite clearly.
Anxiety froze, looked up from what he had been doing— which, he’d been learning how to make a joke in ASL (Logic, I am your father)— and held his breath. This was so not a conversation for this early in the morning. Or ever, really— he was fine without Prince knowing—

"He… What?" And okay, now Prince was feeling it, the guilt, a horrid beast clawing at his heart. "So like… those anxiety attacks that Thomas has? He… has those too?"

Both of the ‘colder’ traits had become as like ice on the floor, still, fragile, feeling as if little drips of themselves were melting onto the unforgiving and uncaring ground. They couldn’t do anything but listen, but… Logic did not want to think about that. He did not want to think about how terrible last night had felt, what he'd had to feel to find Anx's room.

How much he’d had to hate himself—

The frown on his face became more pronounced than before.
"Yes," Morality said, trying to speak softer. He could feel the waves of almost overwhelming discomfort coming from the two in the room. "Where did you think Thomas’s came from?" he spoke in a far more serious tone than Prince was used to, than he felt comfortable hearing. Dad was supposed to be the happy one, telling stupid jokes and puns to make them laugh at the idiocy of it all, to take their minds off whatever was bothering them. That was even why he'd brought over sign language books. He knew they needed something to make them feel productive, better.

So no, the Prince was not used to this tone of discipline and— and was that disappointment?

"Um... um… I don't know. God."

…He seemed to suddenly realize something, and his hand flew to his forehead.

"And you said Logic had one last night? God. God, I…" What have I done?

“I'm pretty sure. I couldn’t find them after you'd yelled at Anxiety; they were just gone, who knows where. But I can't imagine that they were too good after… that."

Anxiety stiffened a little at the mention of who knows where, because he knew, and because Logic knew, and because he was reminded of the… implications of that. But he said nothing. Instead, he decides to practice his signing with Logic— that was what they were meant to be doing, besides, and he had just found the word for asshole.

He was sure he could put that one to use right away.

"…Yeah..." Prince trailed off. Dad had given him much to think about, indeed. "Just... just tell me when they're ready to talk to me, please?" He worded it like a question. He was beginning to realize that he didn't deserve to speak with either of them.

"Yeah, see you when hell freezes over." came a muffled shout from Logic’s room, and then a sharp "-ow!"

"…I've been asked to inform you that we'll be ready in a few hours."

Logic managed to jokingly smile at Anxiety when he jabbed Anxiety in the ribs at his comment. And his mood lifted a little more when they heard Prince walking away, like heavy rain lightening into a playful pitter-patter, and it felt almost… hopeful. He was able to go back to signing, even if it was a little more intense. Now, he had something to focus on, something to make the situation a little better for the time being. And they didn’t have the immediate threat of Prince’s… colorful screams over their head.

When Morality came back in he was greeted by both Logic and Anxiety signing Thank you, grateful expressions glued to their faces. He smiled at the two, glad that he could be of any help [horrified that he had ever let himself and the Prince treat them like this—] and situated himself back on the floor. Soon, he too was swept up into the book, and his mood lifted and brightened to its usual sunny state, and he entertained the two ‘darker’ traits with puns in ASL for hours to come.