(COMPLETE) Out Of Mind, By Your Side - Thomas Sanders Fanfiction

Crofters and Videos

Thomas walked into Whole Foods quickly. All he needed was the Crofters and a few other items, and he didn't want to spend too long away from home just in case someone came to the door or looked through the window while Joan was working on the script upstairs. He trusted that Logan would know not to answer the door or peer through the window, Virgil will sit on the landing and refuse to get up for anything and Roman will sit on the sofa and complain until either the script was finished or Thomas returned with Crofters. Patton, however, was like an excited dog and would gladly open the door for anyone, with Joan being none the wiser thinking Patton was just being hyper and chatty with the rest of the Sides.

Then there was the possibility a Dark Side came. The walk to Whole Foods was almost torturous, he felt as though there was a spider climbing up his back every time he stopped, even for a moment. He kept his head down, eye contact with anyone could be disastrous if they were Remus or Deceit. The grandma picking up cabbages from her basket and sniffing them to check their quality - Deceit. The toddler crying about the refusal of their favourite chocolate treat and annoying everyone else in the store - Remus. And there was no escape.

Thomas' only salvation was the jam aisle. It was mostly empty save for a few pensioners on their weekly shop, but they weren't safe. Thomas kept to himself even more than he usually would, watching his shopping basket closely just in case Remus or Deceit had figured out how to change into different animals and had become flies that could rest on his shoulder and hide between the other things he needed to buy. He walked across the different jam brands, wondering if he could branch out and allow Logan and Roman to enjoy a different, cheaper jam. Alas, he finally made it to Crofters, grabbing an Organic Strawberry and a Concord Grape.

He still kept his eyes guarded against everyone all the way home. Luckily, it seemed as though his neighbours were still at home, most likely asleep, and didn't want to give a surprise visit. When he opened the door he was surprised to see that Joan had left their cocoon of their bedroom desk to get the Sides as free slave labour to help with scriptwriting. Patton sat excitedly on the sofa next to him, offering many fantastical ideas like summoning unicorns which he soon realised wasn't possible. Logan sat reading his book correcting Patton's ideas but giving minimal ideas himself. Virgil sat away from everyone else on the landing shouting for them all to quieten down when an argument was about to start. Roman offered the most ideas but they all revolved around him having the centre part. "I need a bigger part in this. Why don't I have a bigger part?" Roman exclaimed before turning and realising Thomas had Crofters. As if Thomas was a father returning from a day of work and Roman and Logan were his excited children, he was surrounded. They grabbed the Crofters they wanted before Joan called them back.

The video was soon scripted, then recorded. It definitely felt wrong for Thomas to be talking to someone when referring to his Sides rather than just talking to an empty wall or hallway. The Sides ad-libbed, mostly Virgil and Patton, and strayed from the script a few times. Most of this was edited out, but some bits were kept in if they didn't talk about or reveal the Sides being real. Joan was bursting with new ideas, ranging from musical numbers to a Q&A. The video did as good as the Sanders Sides videos usually did, even without the Dark Sides. Patton had managed to access the comments section with Thomas' account and spent all day replying to comments, eventually reaching to fans' Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr pages.

After a few weeks, the humanised Sides hadn't disappeared, and Thomas' anxiety about the Dark Sides had diminished slightly. The views on the Sanders Sides videos only went up, people really liked the more relaxed style and higher quantity of videos. Although Thomas' friends knew the secret, the fans didn't. The Sides were happy to stay inside all day and keep themselves occupied, with several novel purchases from Amazon and emo music blaring across the house. Thomas found his friends visited more often to help Joan and Roman with scripts or Patton bake sweet treats.

On this particular Friday night, Thomas and his friends were relaxing and watching a movie. Most of them managed to fit on the sofa. All apart from Virgil, he had turned his music down specifically for this movie night and was on the landing and Patton sat on the floor like the child of the family. Talyn and Joan sat together on their phones, it was the boring part of the movie according to them. Talyn put their hand to their mouth, staring at their phone screen. Joan peered to the screen, expecting a celebrity death or some YouTube drama, only to perform a similar expression. "Guys... Some news..."

Logan paused the movie and turned. People close to Joan and Talyn looked over to the phone screen. Patton and Thomas smiled, possibly expecting some good news even though the tone was grim. "There's been a murder of a policeman in Tallahassee. There was graffiti on the wall beside it." There was silence for a little bit, Virgil became uncomfortable in his position on the landing, retreating slowly up the stairs. "The Duke will win." Talyn read, looking up at everyone's shocked faces. Virgil sprinted up the stairs before anyone could say a word to him. As if it was automatic, Patton got up from the floor to chase after him.

A/N - Here's a little bit of a longer chapter, hope you enjoy! Again tell me if I got any pronouns wrong, I don't mean for it to be offensive.