The first breath Daniel ever took, the air was frigid cold. It was the kind of night air that you can feel travel into your lungs, cooling you from within. Immediately, Daniel shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. He glanced down; his cardigan was covered by his suit jacket, and his tie had been loosened around his neck. He grabbed at the tie with his hands. Frowning, he counted; one, two, three, four-

No no no that wasn't right. Normal humans didn't have four arms. He turned to ask Patton- and kept turning, turning on the porch. Where is Patton? He looked for De-stiny, but he was missing too.

"Oh my god, oh my god," He said, "What happened?!"

Startled, he backed up into Patton's front door. Feeling the doorknob press into his back, he squeaked and scrambled away, down the steps, to the sidewalk. Catching his breath, he was bent over; two hands on his knees, while two more ran through his hair frantically.

"I-I think we fused." He said, the words fumbling from his lips. He once more inspected his four hands, then he gently felt his three eyes. There was no Denying it. He was a fusion.

Instantly, he felt a burst of excitement and wonder from deep within in chest. The elation that lifted him did a great job at squashing the little voice in his head that told him something didn't feel right.

"Destiny! This is amazing!" Daniel started walking, chattering to himself as he did so. The world looked so different as a fusion. He didn't know where his feet were leading him. The wind cut at his cheeks, and he mumbled to himself, pulling his jacket closer, "'M not cold."

He turned down a street and found himself in the middle of a bustling nightlife street. He knew this street, and yet, this was the first time he was seeing it. Patton's favorite ice cream shop was three blocks from here, and if he went left…

Daniel stopped outside a neon sign. He opened the door and stepped inside. He immediately smelled cigarette smoke in a non-smoking building. One hand held his nose, another waving the smoke off; while another his other two arms simply crossed over his chest.

Through his lips, a familiar voice drawled, "Oh Addiction, testing the rules another night, I see?"

"Every night til they kick me out." Addiction said, slowly turning around. She dropped her cigarette in surprise at seeing him. "Well, I'll be damned."

"We already knew that." Daniel said, still feeling two-thirds-in-the-dark about where his words were coming from. His voice lowered, and he asked, "Where's Mister?"

"He's on bar tonight." Addiction said, looking Daniel up and down. She shook her head and said, "Lucky bastard. You diagnosed yet?"

Daniel blinked, suddenly feeling like he stepped out of a trance. He rubbed his head, feeling a pinching feeling behind his eyes. Awardly, he told the stranger, "Uh, no, I just fused. I-I haven't had time to figure anything out yet."

"How's it feel?" She asked.

Daniel hesitated. He felt… weird. It wasn't like how he thought it would be. He felt like he wanted different things, and he was confused half the time. It felt like he was spacing out, and then he'd only vaguely remember what happened. It kind of gave him a head ache.

"It's wonderful." He said finally, wrapping his arms around himself. He closed two of his eyes, and said sweetly, "I always have another person to talk to, to sort things out with. I'm never alone."

The woman hummed and stamped out the cigarette bud on the ground. Daniel watched as she turned and grabbed her drink. She held it up in salute, "Good luck, kid. What's you're name, then?"

"Dan-" He said, two of his hands clasped together nervously. "Daniel."

That only made the Side laugh, a scratchy laugh from decades of smoking. "Good luck, D."

Two hands took one of Addiction's in a small goodbye. Daniel kept moving through the bar, forcing a yawn down as he walked. It wasn't that late.

A handsome Side on his left made eye contact with him. He must have taken this as a good sign to step in front of Daniel and say over the music, "You look good tonight."

Daniel took a small step back, glancing around for an escape route. He wrung his four hands together. "Um, thank you."

"How long have you had these?" The Side asked as he felt up two of Daniel's arms.

"M-my arms?" He took another step back, but the Side stepped with him, keeping them the same too-close distance. "I only just fused for the first time, like, twenty minutes ago, um, so…"

"Oh, so this is your first night? Wanna make it a fun one?" The Side said, his smile pulling across his face into a creepy grin.

Daniel shook his head, backing up again. He said, frustratedly, "No, no! I'm straight!"

The Side looked surprised. He finally gave Daniel some space, pointedly looking into his one golden eye and asked, "You sure about that?"

Again, a voice that was Daniel's but wasn't Daniel, said, "Fuck off, Horny, my fusion said no."

"Alright, D." The Side said, slowly stepping away. He held up his hands in surrender, "Whatever you say."

Daniel quickly walked on, ignoring how two of his hands were flipping the Side off. Finally, he arrived at an empty bar stood. He sat down and tapped at the counter anxiously. He avoided making eye contact, and reminded himself that he was having a good time.

"Deceit? Is that you?" A voice said from behind the bar.

Daniel almost got whiplash from how quickly he looked up at the bartender. Upon seeing Daniel's right eye, the Side laughed and shook his head.

"Man, look who finally got some ass!" The Side, Mister, said. Mister leaned across the bar and asked with a raised eyebrow, "So, who's in there with you?"
Daniel leaned forward and said, "His name is Patton. And he's a Moral Compass. So do what we do best, Misdirection, and lie to the pretty face."
Mister snorted, "Who said your face was pretty?"

"C'mon, what's it worth?" Daniel heard himself say. Then, one of his right hands held up a shiny watch, "Maybe Addiction's watch?"

Mister reached for the watch, growling, "She'll never stop bitchin' if you take that again."

His hand jerked up, and he said, "Do we have a deal?"

"Fine, deal." They shook hands and he dropped the watch into awaiting hands. Mister inspected the watch, then slipped it into his apron. Then, he asked, "Alright, then, what's the name now?"

Another headache wracked through Daniel's mind as he blinked into reality again. He said, "Daniel. I'm Daniel Fusion."

"Well, Daniel. I'll need to see your Sides' IDs." Mister said.
"Dude!" Daniel heard himself hiss, even as he looked for the IDs in his pockets. He pulled each pocket open, and could only find Patton's wallet. Destiny had left his wallet in the car, in Patton's drive way. Daniel looked back up at the bar tender and said, "It's alright, I can just have water."

"Alright, but I'm watching you." Mister said as he walked off to fetch a glass of water.

Daniel frowned at his retreating back. Resting his chin on a hand, he mumbled, "Watching me do what?"
He then glanced down at his second pair of hands and found another watch. He didn't know where he got it from. Maybe the pushy side from earlier? Or while they were walking through? It wasn't Addictions watch and that almost felt worse.

"When did we get this?" Daniel mumbled to himself; his voice so quiet no one else could hear. "Where did we get this?"

"Don't worry, it was just in my suit pocket." Daniel responded, putting on the watch with three hands.

Daniel felt his shoulders relax slightly, allowing himself to believe it. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Daniel glanced up in time to see Mister bring him back the water.

Mister watched as Daniel took a sip of the drink. He didn't walk away, instead he said, "Please tell me whoever you got in there is at least 18."

While one of his hands reached for Patton's wallet, another gripped his glass tighter. Daniel said, "Your Sides are always the same age as you, everyone knows that."

"Uh-huh." Mister said, apparently amused by the answer. He was quiet for a second, then, he shook his head again and said, "I just can't believe he found a son of a bitch dumb enough to agree to fusing with him."

Rage turned his vision red, in one swift move, Daniel had grabbed Mister by his shirt, pulled him closer - BAM! BAM! - two quick punches to the face. He slammed Mister's nose down into the bar as he jumped up and sprinted through the crowd.

Addiction cackled as he dashed out the door. The last thing he heard was Mister shouting, "Never come back, you little snake!"

He ran and he kept running until he lost himself in the rhythmic pounding of his footsteps. All he could think in his head was, 'Oh my god, oh my god!'

Finally, when he couldn't run any longer, he stumbled to a halt. His lungs were expanding, compressing, expanding- so quickly he wasn't even sure he was breathing.

There was screaming; something was screaming inside his head. His Sides were at war, each arguing too loudly to be heard. And all Daniel could do was try to drown out the voices with his own quiet mantra.

"It's fine, it's fine, it's fine!"

What was that!?

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine!"

We hit someone!

"We're okay, this is fun, this is-" Daniel gasped before he could finish his sentence, his headache grew too strong to ignore. He gripped his head like he was holding himself together, his nails digging into his scalp and skin. Frustrated, he shouted, "FINE!"

He felt nails rip at his cheek, even as his two Sides were thrown apart from one another. And then, he was no more.

Patton was, just, so many different kinds of frustrated. He paced back and forth on the sidewalk, furious and hurt. He held his hands close to his chest, like he was protecting his wounded heart, even as he whipped around to give Deceit the LIAR a stern talking to.

"How could you!?" Patton shouted, tears blurring his vision.

Deceit was curled up on himself, his hands holding his face. He lifted his face and Patton immediately drew back. During their fission, Patton had- Deceit's face was bleeding.

Patton frantically realized that Daniel had taken them back to Patton's neighborhood before fission had set off. Patton gestured towards his home and said to the ground, "C'mon, kiddo. Let's get you cleaned up."

Deceit took a step back, wary and inherently suspicious. He examined what he could see of Patton's expression, then reached up and felt the sticky blood dripping down his cheek. Regrettably, he had to agree. "His" car was parked at Patton's place.

They walked in dead silence. Deceit expected more of a fight; he was preparing his rebuttals as they walked. And yet Patton never said more than a quiet, "Watch your step.", upon helping Deceit into his apartment. Patton led him to the bathroom, sat him on the toilet and pulled out the first aid.

He made sure to really rub in the alcohol to make sure the cute was clean. Deceit hissed and tried to push him away. Huffing, Patton finished patching up Deceit's wound with the biggest band-aid he had.

"Are you gonna be okay?" He asked, his voice soft.

Deceit gently touched the band-aid, blinked his eye a few times, winced, but nodded. He said, "Yes. It barely hurt."

"Great." Patton said, his tone flattening, his expression dark. "Get out."

"What?" Deceit asked, frowning at Patton.

"Out!" Patton pulled Deceit up to a standing position, then pushed until the other Side was backing out of the room. Patton couldn't stop himself from crying, "I don't want to be with you anymore! You're mean!"

"Wha- not to you!" Deceit said, genuinely confused. He tried to remember if he had, directly, insulted Patton in any way recently. He reached for him, saying, "Patton, honey-"

"Noooo!" Patton swiftly moved out of Deceit's grasp, shaking his head. He moved into the livingroom, Deceit following behind him. "I don't care that we're Sides, I don't want to fuse with you anymore."

Deceit tried to get Patton to look at him, but the other wouldn't. "What do you mean? We were great! We had so many hands and-"

"And I only ever saw half the picture!" Patton interrupted, "And we stole! And we lied! And we were completely in Denial!"

Quietly, bitterly, Deceit muttered, "Well, I liked Denial."

"Get out." Patton repeated, pointing towards the door. He grabbed his phone and threatened, "I'm calling Expression, if you're not gone by the time they get here-"

"Patton, please, rethink this. I don't want to fight you." Deceit tried to smoothly take the phone from his grasp, but Patton refused. Deceit relented, knowing when to admit defeat. He would rather retreat with half a chance than make things worse. He stepped away from Morality, giving the other Side a chance to breathe.

Then he said, "I wasn't trying to scare you."

"I don't want to talk about it." Patton hissed, frantically thumbing through his phone to find Expression's number. "I-I can't trust you anymore."

"He had insulted us!" Deceit said, self-righteous anger growing within him, "He called you-"

"Big boys solve problems with their words, not their hands!" Patton angrily recited to him. Deceit didn't know if he was supposed to laugh or not, but he did anyway. Patton glared at him, his phone pressed to his ear. "Never come back."

Deceit sighed and left, being reasonable enough to not slam the door, although he slammed his own car door. Patton still heard that through the window, he watched until Deceit drove off in his dumb ol' car.

"Ugh, … 'ello?" Expression's exhausted voice said in his ear.

Patton didn't know what to say. Where did he start? How could he begin to explain everything he had just been through? He couldn't. Instead, he just started crying.

"Patton?!" Expression said, suddenly sounding far more awake. He could hear them scrambling to get up. "Are you home? Are you hurt?"
Patton took a second to breathe enough to clearly say, "Home. Fused. You were right."

"I'll be right there." Expression said.

"Drive safe." Patton whispered before he heard Expression sigh in confirmation and hang up. He sat in silence, just below the window, in the dark. Even knowing that friendship and support was on the way, Patton couldn't help but crumble into another round of sobs. Coldly, he wondered if he had just ruined his only chance with happily ever after.

Tell me what you think!