Chapter Ten

Wake-up Call

His eyes slowly cracked open and he found himself lying on a soft, warm bed. Logan was sitting at his side, reading a book titled "Love and Lies, a Guide to Human Emotions", a look of concentration on his face. There was a note-book beside him with notes scrawled in his neat but cramped, looping handwriting. He held a pen behind his ear, a capped highlighter in one hand, and a pencil between his teeth. He clearly hadn't noticed that Patton was awake yet. Patton looked to his left, and there was Virgil, a sad look on his face, his head-phones on and his eyes closed. Next to him was Roman, back in full color looking troubled. He had his sword out and was cleaning it, polishing the blade even though it was sparkling and Patton could see Roman's reflection in it from all the way across the room like he was.

"Patton!" Roman had looked up and noticed that he was awake. Logan's book was down in seconds, and Virgil's headphones were off.

"Pat you scared the hell out of us! We thought you were going to die!" Virgil growled, leaning over and giving him a huge hug. Patton returned the embrace tightly. Roman was next to wrap his arms around him. Patton never refused a hug… even if he was very confused. After Roman pulled back, even Logan gave him a hug, albeit a bit awkward and unsure.

"What happened?" Patton asked, confused.

"The resulting shockwave of the clash between the powers of Lucius and Caesar caused you to lose consciousness." Logan replied, matter-of-factly. "You've been in a coma for a few weeks."

"And the whole time, Logan only left this room to use the bathroom and change." Roman said in a mischievous, teasing voice. "We had to bring food in here for him or he wouldn't eat." Logan cleared his throat.

"Yes, well… I'm the only one with any sort of medical training. I had to be here. Incase anything happened." He said awkwardly.

"Uh-huh, sure." Virgil said sarcastically, with a small half-smile. "It's not because you're in love with him or anything." Patton's heart skipped a beat. Logan was in love with him? That would be the most wonderful thing ever! But something still wasn't right.

"When did Lucius and Caesar fight? Last time anyone saw Caesar was forever ago." Virgil immediately looked concerned. Logan's brow furrowed slightly in confusion. Roman, however, chuckled slightly.

"Looks like Remy came through for you huh?" He said.

"What?" Patton tilted his head to one side, but Logan nodded and Virgil made a little 'oh!' sound. "Remy told us he would try to make sure you had an exciting dream while you were out of it so it wouldn't just be like vast empty nothingness." Roman explained.

"Oh!" Patton said brightly. That explained quite a lot of what had happened. Ghosts? Of course there were no such thing as ghosts. Gray sides? Thomas didn't have any. Logan getting kidnapped? He was way too clever for that. Virgil almost killing someone? He'd never. He was a precious little stormy angel. There was a quiet knock on the door. Virgil stood to open it, and on the other side was Judas(Who for some reason only had his yellow eye and a few patches of scales instead of half of his entire face), Remus, Nate, and Tom. Judas took his hat off and stepped into the large, high ceilinged room as Virgil stepped aside to let them in, inclining his head in greeting. Nate had a grey bandana tied over his mouth and nose, which he removed upon crossing the threshold. Tom removed his helmet, revealing a face much different than what Patton would've expected. He still looked like Thomas, but with lots of scars. Remus, upon crossing the threshold of the room, took a crown off of his head. One exactly like the one Patton remembered Lucius wearing. Remus stepped forward.

"Hi Patton!" He said with his usual explosive bubbly cheeriness. "I brought you flowers!" And he had indeed. Not normal flowers of course, but flowers nonetheless. They had long, thin greyish stems, and large, full, round black petals. In the center instead of some sort of pollen, each had a single blue eyeball. Patton fought the urge to cringe back away from them. It became especially hard when one of them blinked.

"Thank you Remus, that's kind of you." Patton smiled at him. Which was true. It was kind that Remus had thought of him, especially since Remus probably adored flowers like that. Remus beamed, and Roman took them from his hands. Patton watched in amazement as Roman drew the shape of a vase in the air with his finger and a real vase started to take form right where he had drawn it. It gently dropped onto the table beside Patton. Roman then made a motion as if he were pouring something into the vase. Water streamed from the inside of his softly closed fist in a wide, long arc into the vase. Patton gasped and clapped while as Roman set the flowers into the water. "That was amazing!" Patton squealed, beaming at his prince-like son.

"Why thank you Patton." Roman said taking a stage bow.

"Where did you learn to do that kiddo?" Patton asked, tilting his head to one side in interest.

"Oh right, you were already asleep." Virgil said. "Roman ended up getting his brothers powers when he dueled him."

"They dueled again?" Patton asked.

"Yeah! It was amazing! Roman was super impressive! After he won the duel, he broke the curse Caesar put on me." Deceit said, his voice ringing with the sound of hero worship.

"Oh wow! You don't have to always speak in lies anymore?" Patton asked him.

"Yes. He set me free." He turned toward Roman, eyes sparkling with adoration. Virgil made a strange noise in the back of his throat, leaning against Roman and laying his head on his shoulder.

"He set me free from my curse too." Nate admitted, drawing Patton's attention. "I have way more control over myself."

"He set us all free of Lucius." Tom pointed out, shifting his helmet. It looked really heavy.

"Hey kiddo, how about you put that helmet down for a minute? It looks heavy." Patton offered.

"It is heavy, but I'm fine thank you." Tom said, with a slight, sheepish smile.

"So Remus, where'd you get that crown from?" Patton asked curiously.

"Well, brother dearest here overthrew Lucius with all his new magic that left us with no King. The king of the dark sides is always the scariest and craziest, so here we are!" He said brightly. "I didn't even used to be allowed in or around the palace before, I'm going up in the world!" Patton smiled, this time with no difficulty.

"That's great kiddo!" He said sweetly, with a big smile.

"You ready to get out of bed there compadre?" Roman asked, holding out his hand.

"Not yet." Logan cut across sharply. "He has not finished healing, if he gets up now he risks reinjuring himself."

"Really? I don't feel bad." Patton said, looking to Logan. Logan looked down at him, smiling a small reserved smile that made Patton blush.

"Maybe so, Patton, but I'd rather keep you here for the time being so I can monitor you." He said gently. "One does not simply get up to get a drink of water after being in a two week coma, and there are reasons for this. Besides being strenuous on the body, being unconscious for that long is always a sign of a greater problem. As of now, we believe that problem has been solved, but we don't know for certain, therefore you will remain here until we have confirmed that there is no longer an issue."

"Awwe." Roman and Virgil teased, earning a cold but half-hearted glare from Logan. Patton smiled around at everyone, overjoyed that the rift between the sides had closed. This was even better than his dream where he and Logan were going to build a house together. Instead of his family just growing closer, they had doubled its size and drew closer together, and everything was normal and made sense. Except for one thing. Looking around the room, he realized he didn't know where he was. The walls were done in deep blue with a silvery grey edging. Within the edging were ornate carvings of eagles. On the wall that housed the door, there were shelves and shelves of books covering every square inch that wouldn't block the door from opening. On the wall directly in front of him there was a large billboard with newspaper clippings, and pictures, and push pins with different colored thread tied to them. Beneath that was a desk covered in papers, pencils, pens, highlighters, empty jam jars, and empty mugs. On the wall to the left of him was a gorgeous mural of an owl, flying out of the pages of a large, open book that was laying in a patch of flowers with many, long, almost triangular petals done in bronze, silver, and gold. Looking up, Patton noticed a few things. There was a shelf above his head that had some sort of stuffed animal on it- its tail was hanging off. The ceiling was even more beautiful than the left wall. It was a deep, deep blue that was practically black with little flecks of white, bright yellow, light orange, and red that almost seemed to glow. They were stars, and some of them had light blue lines tracing over them and connecting them together to form what Patton knew to be the constellations of Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo. The moon was even painted off slightly in the corner, large and silver and bright. It was like something straight out of Hogwarts it looked so real. As you looked higher up the walls they seemed to become more rounded and smoothed over, making it look like a tower, and what Patton originally thought was an artistic bookshelf design was actually a set of stairs leading up to a sturdy-looking and polished hardwood catwalk that edged the wall.

"About that." Patton said slowly. "Where is here?" Logan faltered for a second, seeming to freeze up slightly. Patton could practically hear the Microsoft error noise sounding off.

"My room." He said after a second, an almost invisible blush coloring his cheeks. Patton, too, blushed slightly, realizing that for the last two weeks he'd been sleeping in Logan's bed while Logan slept in a chair next to him, however Patton smiled at him.

"Did you do the paintings then?" He asked. Logan's face turned nearly entirely red and his eyes widened a fraction.

"I- uhm- yea- I mean, uh yes." He sputtered. "It was years ago… we were sixteen…"

"You've been painting like this since we were sixteen?" Patton asked, awed. Virgil whistled.

"Wow." Roman said, sounding awe-struck.

"You're really skilled Logan." Judas said in the same tone as Roman.

"Falsehood." Logan mumbled, but then he cleared his throat. "Patton is going to be needing quite a lot of rest for the next few days, so if you would be so kind…"

"What do you mean he's going to need rest? He just slept for two weeks." Nate pointed out.

"Not restful sleep." Logan said, gently directing everyone toward the door. "Sleeping is one of the most important things he can do right now."

"We'll be back later, Pat!" Virgil called as Logan shut the door.

"That was kind of rude, Logan." Patton reprimanded him gently. Logan sunk into one of the black armchairs by his bed, and picked up Patton's hand in both of his.

"I know," Logan replied softly. "But sometimes things like that must be done in order to do your job. You need your rest, and the more people here, the harder that will be for you." Patton beamed at his little half-smile.

"Thanks for taking care of me kiddo." He said.

"Of course Patton." Logan said, suddenly looking at him with a very intense and serious expression. "You've always taken care of me, it's the very least I could do for you." Patton felt his face heating up once again.

"You shouldn't have to take care of me kiddo, and besides, I love taking care of you guys. Even when you don't want to ask." Something like amazement flashed in Logan's eyes as they looked at each other, and the little smile started to take over his expression again. Logan slowly started to lean forward, but then jerked like something had shocked him and blinked dazedly. He cleared his throat awkwardly and turned away, letting go of Patton's hands. Something cold filled Patton's chest when Logan turned away from him. Had Logan just been about to kiss him? If so, why didn't he? Was he scared Patton would reject him? He wanted Logan to know that everything was okay, that he loved him more than anything, that he would never reject him. He sat up all the way, and started to reach toward him, ready to stand up and give Logan a hug, but everything in the room seemed to lurch and spin horribly, and all sound was suddenly taken over by a dull ringing. The edges of his vision went blurry and began to darken. Before he knew what was happening, Logan's arms were around him, laying him back down in the bed. Patton blinked.

"What happened?"

"You're going to be very dizzy and light-headed for awhile Patton." Logan said gently, brushing his bangs out of his face. Patton smiled weakly.

"Oh, okay." He said, embarrassed.

"I know it seems like you shouldn't have to sleep yet, but being unconscious isn't usually a very restful sleep, so if you start to feel tired at all, please don't fight it." Logan said, pulling the blanket up to cover Patton's chest and arms, and it was then that Patton realized he was only wearing pajama pants and blushed furiously. Someone had, had to have changed his clothes while he was unconscious, and he'd bet that it was Logan.

"Logan… kiddo… thank you, so much. For everything." Patton whispered to him. Logan looked back at him, the tiny smile still ghosting over his face. Suddenly, nearly inexplicably, Patton felt tears begin to well up in his eyes. Confusion and concern slowly made its way onto Logan's face.

"Are you in pain?" He asked immediately.

"Yes." Patton choked. "But not the kind you can fix with medicine." The tears began to drip down his cheeks. "It's silly I know, but there were things from my dream that- well- they scared me." He took a deep, broken breath, trying to regain control of himself. "I don't want any of you to get hurt. I don't want you to go away, I don't want Roman to die, I don't want Virgil to cry."

"It's alright Patton, it was just a dream." Logan straightened up, his expression slightly annoyed.

"I-I know." Patton whimpered. "I'm sorry. I really don't mean to cause a problem, Logan."

"It's fine." But Logan still seemed annoyed. Oh well, that was fine. He could be mad at him all he wanted, so long as everyone was okay. The flowers Remus had brought to him all blinked simultaneously, and shivered as though they were sentient. Patton shivered too.

"Would you like me to get rid of these for you?" Logan asked, disgust coloring his tone as he curled his lip at the flowers.

"No thank you, it's okay. The thought behind them is really sweet." He said honestly.

"I suppose so." Logan sighed. "Get some sleep, Patton." He switched off the light, but Patton knew he had settled back into the armchair beside him. He turned over and cuddled into the blankets around him, snuggling into them and closed his eyes.