Sanders Sides One-Shots(hooray)

A Midnight Picnic (Logicality)

'Logan?' Patton stifled a yawn. 'Can't this wait till morning?'

Logan wrapped his hand around his boyfriend's wrist, carefully leading the tired Side to the mindspace's kitchen. 'I'm sorry, Patton. But this really can't wait'.

The time was somewhere a little after midnight, and shadows cast themselves over the mindspace like a blanket. The time in Thomas' brain mimicked the time in the world around him, so as soon as the sun went down outside, so did the light leave in his mind.

Logan hated this time of day. It was always so difficult to figure out if it was morning or night, and reality always felt so.. altered. The later it gets, the earlier it gets, he thought. It makes no sense whatsoever.

But, as it so happened, one of Logan's favourite things to learn about was tied to this specific time only.

Astronomy. Stargazing. Learning about planets, galaxies, solar systems, all of it! Anything related to outer space, and Logic was willing to learn.

And as he stood at the door leading to the Imagination, his boyfriend clumsily rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Logan was more than ready to take part in that learning.

'Patton? Patt, wake up love. Come on', he quietly urged the father figure out of his stupor. 'I'm taking you into the imagination. Is that alright?'

Patton made a noise that was half groan, half yawn and nodded his head clumsily.

Taking that as agreement, Logan opened the door and lead Patton outside.

After a long walk – made seem significantly longer from the amount of times Patton would walk into a tree, or trip over a rock – the two Sides arrived at a small hill framed with trees. Logan snapped his fingers and a blanket appeared on the ground, along with two flasks of tea.

'Logan, what –?' Patton asked.

'I wanted to show you some of my favourite constellations', Logan explained sheepishly. 'If you'll allow it'.

Patton nodded, and the two Sides made their way to the hill and sat down on one blanket while wrapping another around their shoulders.

Logan summoned his telescope, and added an extra eyepiece for simplicity's sake.

He gestured to the sky, which was littered with constellations and stars scattered like a heavy dusting of sugar over a pastry. 'You see those stars there?' he asked, pointing at a small cluster of stars above them. 'That is called Orion. It contains a number of different nebulae – clouds of gas and dust – and two of the ten brightest stars in the sky, Alpha Orionus and Beta Orionus. Of course, neither of them is the brightest star, that's Sirius, but anyway – can you guess how many stars it has with known planets?' Logan turned his head towards the father figure, who was trying to keep up with all his counterpart was saying.

'Uuuhh, I don't know.... Like, ten?' he guessed. Logan smiled, shrugging.

'Not bad. That was a very close guess. The answer is seven, but you were very close. Well done, dear'. Patton flushed a little, but it was hardly noticed in the darkness. Logan waited for permission to continue explaining, and started speaking again as soon as he could.

And that's how they continued on into the early hours of the morning – Logan pointing at certain stars and constellations and explaining all about them while Patton listened attentively the whole time. Even when his boyfriend began to gush about a particular star so much, and spoke so fast that he needed to catch his breath after, Patton tried his best to keep up.

'Okay, so, something quite interesting about this one is that –' Logan was cut off by the sound of soft snoring next to him, and a sudden weight on his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw the father figure was sound asleep, loosley holding a flask in his hands.

Logan smiled softly at the sight, and slowly and carefully untangled himself from the blanket as best he could without exposing Patton to the cold air. He wrapped the blanket around the father figure again, and placed the flasks on the ground as he scooped his boyfriend up into his arms, bridal-style.

With a sharp nod off his head, the flasks and telescope disappeared, and Logan made his way back to the mind palace. They arrived at the door just as the sun was on its way into the sky, Logan placing Patton on the ground carefully as he opened the door.

Picking him back up, Logan made his way into the kitchen and down the hall to Patton's room. The door was still ajar, making it easier for Logan to enter. He dropped Patton  unceremoniously onto his bed, the weight getting to be too much for him. Luckily, Patton  was a heavy sleeper, and didn't notice the fall or that his limbs were now at almost painful angles. Oops. Logan quickly rearranged him into a more comfortable position, pulling the duvet up to his chin 

Once he was satisfied with his work, Logic turned to leave the room. Stopping at the door for a moment, he turned around and headed back to the head of Patton's bed, where his boyfriend was sleeping with a wistful smile on his face.

Knowing it would take several police sirens and an army tank to crash through the bedroom wall before Patton woke up – and even then it might take him a few minutes – , the intellectual Side placed a quick kiss to the sleeping Side's forehead, ruffling his hair slightly.

'Goodnight, Patt', he said softly, before hesitating, and adding, 'I love you', making sure to be quiet enough so the heavy sleeper wouldn't hear him. Logan wanted him to know, of course – but had never been able to actually tell him. Patton was unbelievably good at expressing emotions, especially those of affection, but his boyfriend, unfortunately, was truly incompetent  at the act. So, said boyfriend had made a habit of telling him as he slept, knowing how unlikely it was for Patton to hear and make a scene of it.

Logan once again made his way to the door, this time making it to the other side. Closing the door, he looked around at the mind palace as the sunlight filtered softly through the curtains and allowed the corners of his mouth to twitch upwards. He stifled a yawn, deciding he ought to get some sleep himself.

Who could tell, maybe – hopefully – he would be able to say it properly one day.

Maybe.