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Aug 11

an unbeating heart

Chapter 4

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Logan stepped off the terminal, his suitcase dragging behind him and his headphones slung around his neck. He was exhausting, his limbs weighed down like lead and his eyes gritty as he looked around for his partner.

His eyes landed first on Patton, who was jumping up and down and beaming. He frowned slightly — wasn’t he supposed to be in Europe currently? Then slid across to Roman, who laughed at Patton and walked closer. The tension in Logan’s neck and shoulders melted as he smiled back, and he released his suitcase so that he could obediently wrap his arms around Roman’s shoulders. Roman, ever the dramatist, lifted Logan by his waist and spun in a circle, the plastic wrapping of the bouquet of flowers he’d brought with him crinkling against Logan’s shirt. The fact that it was just the one twirl showed how restrained he was being. Or, perhaps, how tired he was. It was very late, and they still needed to drive an hour home.

“Hello, dearest,” Logan said, and Roman set him down so he could cradle his face.

“Hi, star-spun light of my life. You look radiant as ever. Your sunkissed skin is… a very similar colour to usual. SPF 50?”

“Of course,” Logan answered, purposefully haughty, and the slight embarrassment was worth the way Roman and Patton both laughed.

“How was your flight, my beauty?”

Logan let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. Long. Good evening, Patton. I thought you were supposed to be in… Budapest, right now.”

“Oh! I came home early. Got homesick. I’ve been back a week. Sorry, forgot to text.”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “I’m more surprised you didn’t inform me, Roman. We have been in contact.”

“Ah, I know. Sorry. I just… Well, a lot’s been going on. Here, give me your bag. I’ll tell you about it in the car.”

Frowning, Logan allowed Roman to pull the satchel off his shoulder. He took the flowers, and protested for just a moment as Patton whizzed in to take his suitcase before he realised it was pointless.

“Which of you drove?” he asked, as Patton walked ahead. “And why is Patton wearing a scarf? It’s almost July.”

“Pat drove. And the scarf is… um… Part of what’s been going on.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“I’ll tell you in the car, darling, I promise. Please?”

Sighing again, Logan acquiesced. They walked to the car in quiet, Roman’s arm draped around Logan’s shoulders, and Logan raised his hand to intertwine his fingers with the ones resting at his collarbone.

He loved his family, and he loved their yearly trip, but he had missed Roman horribly. He was not one for public displays of affection, nor was he particularly fond of embarrassing, saccharine nicknames being belted throughout the airport at past midnight, but he found himself excited enough to be back in his partner’s arms that, this time, he didn’t actually mind much at all.

He was, however, distracted.

The mystery of Patton’s scarf and sudden return felt like they had to be linked. Had something happened to him on his trip? Logan desperately hoped not. He’d been worried enough about the concept of Patton solo-travelling at all, especially on another continent, but the fact that he, too, would be on that continent for the majority of it brought him comfort. It may have taken a few days, but he could have gotten to Patton in an emergency. If he learned that something bad had happened and both Patton and Roman decided he just didn’t need to know? That would actually hurt, he thought.

As soon as they entered the car park, Patton went bounding off to the left, and Logan caught sight of Timmy.

Timmy, lovingly named such by Patton, after the man he’d purchased the car from just after he moved in with Logan and Roman, was a small, three-door sphere of a thing in a bright shade of sunshine yellow. Logan hated this car. It was ancient, and it always had some problem, and the engine always sounded four kilometres from giving out and the glove box didn’t open and the AC didn’t work. Sometimes the speedometer just stopped moving on exactly 26 km/h and would just fix itself a week later and other times it didn’t move at all.

He sighed through his nose, and Roman laughed, squeezing his hand. “I’ll sit in the back,” he murmured into Logan’s hair.

“You better, you’re the one who allowed him to drive.”

“He insisted!” Roman laughed, and Patton, having thrown Logan’s suitcase into the pitiful trunk, turned around with a grin.

“Your chariot awaits! Timmy’s missed you, Lo!”

Logan scowled. “I have not missed Timmy. Furthermore, Timmy is a car, and is incapable of missing anything.”

“And yet he managed,” Patton sighed, patting the car lovingly. “Isn’t he just amazing? Exceeds all expectations.”

Roman snorted. He put Logan’s satchel beside the suitcase, wedging it into the meagre gap between the edge of the trunk and the case itself, which was pressed against the other edge. Truly a pathetically small car. Then, Roman moved around and slid the driver’s seat forward to climb into the back.

Logan got into the passenger seat as Patton set his chair back into place, and they were pulling out of the space a few minutes later.

“How was your trip? Is your family doing okay?” Patton asked, turning the volume knob on his stereo down.

Logan nodded. “They’re well. Nonna is still in perfect health. She was terribly disappointed she didn’t get to see Roman, but understood. She says she wants us to get married soon, so that she can be there before she grows too elderly to fly.”

“She’s been too elderly to fly for decades,” Roman laughed. “That’s never stopped her.”

Logan smiled at him and shook his head. “I suppose it hasn’t.”

“But far be it for me to deny her her final-travelling wish,” Roman sang, reaching forward and cupping Logan’s chin lovingly. “We can wed as soon as the spring flowers bloom, my darling.”

Logan snorted. “As soon as the spring flowers bloom? So in approximately ten months. You would need at least twelve to plan your wedding,” he teased, and Patton giggled beside him. Roman let out a shocked, offended gasp.

“I would be happy to marry you in a courthouse in Vegas if that was what you asked for!”

“No, you wouldn’t,” said Logan, at the same time as Patton whispered a little, barely-audible, “Liar.”

“Fiend! My only friend turning against me!” Roman cried, reaching past Patton’s headrest to tug gently at his hair. Patton laughed again, full and chesty, and Roman matched it, and the car was full of the laughter of the two people Logan was closest to in the world along with Patton’s crackly, tinny music, and he turned to watch the dark world whizz past as his chest unfurled.

He was home.

“Hey, Pat,” Roman said softly. They’d fallen into a peaceful, gentle quiet in the car, all three tired. They were forty-two minutes into the sixty-four minute drive home, and Logan turned to look at his partner.

“Mhm?” Patton asked.

“Pull into that rest stop, could you? The one coming up.”

“Um— Sure,” Patton said, indicating right before he’d even properly spotted the exit. “Why?”

“I just— I think we should, um… give Lo a heads up. Before we get home.”

Logan frowned, and Patton’s face slackened into a very carefully-crafted neutrality that did nothing to hide his discomfort.

“A heads up for what?” Logan asked.

“We’re gonna tell you everything, my love, but it— It shouldn’t be in the car. We should be sat properly. Face-to-face.”

Logan’s frown deepened, but he knew he wouldn’t get any more information out of Roman while he was feeling mysterious and dramatic, and the nervous tension in Patton’s bit lip kept Logan from turning his questions in that direction.

“Is everything alright?” he asked, immediately contradicting his own decision. “Are you okay?”

“Who?” Roman asked distractedly.

“What? You. Both of you. Is everything okay?”

Patton shifted anxiously as he pulled into a space near the diner, right underneath the flickering red 24-hour sign.

“Everything’s fine, Lo,” Roman assured him gently. He reached out to squeeze Logan’s hand. “Don’t worry. There’s just— some stuff happened that we need to tell you about. It’s nothing to worry about.”

“Reassuring, yes,” spat Logan. Roman sighed as Patton winced. Logan got out of the car and closed the door. He shot Patton an apologetic look as they met eyes over the car, and Patton smiled warmly at him, pulling his seat forward to let Roman out. In the neon red light, he looked like he had been bathed in blood, and Logan looked away. He allowed Roman to take his hand in the walk up to the door and a little bed jingled cheerfully as they entered.

“Hi,” Patton said softly, and the woman behind the counter raised an eyebrow. The diner was almost empty. On one end, a pair of men sat at the counter, nursing beers. In the middle, there were three people in a booth. Patton glanced around the room and then turned and walked to the other end, sliding into the farthest booth at the end.

Roman slid in beside Patton, leaving Logan to sit opposite them by himself.

“Can I get you guys anything?” a voice asked, and Logan startled as the waitress from before appeared at his side.

“Um— Could I get a chocolate milkshake?” Patton asked. “Please?”

“Are we really staying long enough for that?” Logan asked. “I’m tired, I want to go home and sleep in my own bed. Is any of this necessary?”

“Yes, it’s necessary,” answered Roman, his voice soft. “Let him have a milkshake. We’ll just get two waters,” he added to the waitress. Logan sighed, and the waitress turned away with an eyeroll.

“Sorry. I just— Habit. To order milkshakes in places like this.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t mean to snap at you,” Logan apologised.

Patton nodded quickly. The end of his scarf shifted under the movement, and one end dropped, revealing a dark purple mark on the side of his neck. Logan’s eyes narrowed.

“What is on your neck?” he asked, leaning forwards to see it better.

Patton startled, his hand flying to his neck to readjust the scarf and hide the mark.

“Nothing,” he said fast, glancing at Roman in panic.

Logan turned to frown heavily at Roman. Something was churning in his gut. “Roman? What is going on, why have we stopped?”

“Okay, so, here’s the thing.”

For a brief, heart-stopping second, Logan believed that Roman was going to break up with him. That he and Patton had discovered some secret love they shared while Logan was gone, and Patton had hickeys on his neck.

It was a brief thought. Logan knew it wasn’t true. But something had clearly happened when Logan was gone and Patton wasn’t, something big enough that it felt like it was, in fact, changing their dynamic somehow.

“My brother’s back,” Roman said.

Oh. That would… That would certainly change things.

“I was under the impression that your brother was dead.”

“He was assumed dead,” Roman corrected. “They never found a body.”

“And you know what they say about assuming!” Patton said, his voice loud and sharp with false cheer. He flinched from the volume, and slouched slightly, his plastic grin fading. “Makes an… ass… Yeah, y’know how the… saying goes…”

Logan looked at him for a second longer before turning back to Roman, whose face was pinched. “Is he okay? Is he… back, or was… was he found?”

“He’s back. He’s alive. He was… taken. But he got away.”

“That— Have the police been informed?”

“Not… yet. It’s a closed case, we’re hardly wasting resources.”

Logan frowned at him. “How long has he been back for?”

“About a month,” Roman croaked.

“A month?” cried Logan, and the few eyes in the restaurant turned to look at him. Patton slouched even more, race red. Logan leaned forward and lowered his voice to a hiss. “You’ve kept this from me for a month, Roman?”

“I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you!”

“We have been texting daily!” Logan snipped. “You haven’t even given the impression—” How could he not notice something like this? He should have known something was going on, he was Roman’s partner. He planned to marry him one day, and he wasn’t even capable to discerning his emotional state through texts?

“It isn’t something I could tell you over the phone, Logan,” Roman said.

“Why? I would have come home!”

“Exactly, darling. I didn’t need you doing that, you only get to see them once a year.”

“Is that why Patton came home early? Did you tell him and not me?”

“No!” Roman defended. “He came home all by himself!”

Patton nodded faithfully. “That’s why he didn’t know I was gonna climb through his bedroom window.”

“His bedroom window?” Logan asked. “Where is he staying?”

“I insisted he take my room, at least for the time being. It was his and Ro’s room when they were kids, he remembers it as his.”

“Where have you been sleeping?”

“Couch,” Patton said, shrugging dismissively. “It’s pretty comfy. I thought we could maybe convert the attic into another bedroom. Me or Re— mus… could… Um, one of us could go up there.”

“You pay rent—” Logan said.

“It’s not rent, it’s just the bills—”

“That still counts! You contribute financially! You shouldn’t be sleeping on the couch of a house you pay to live in.”

“Lo,” Patton cut in, his voice firm, but his face was kind and earnest. “The bedroom thing really isn’t serious. I’m fine. Remus has been through a lot, he needs his own space more than I do right now.”

Logan sighed. “Fine. Okay, you’re an adult. If you want to make that decision, you can. So, tell me more about… Remus.”

Roman nodded. “He’s— He’s scared. He isn’t hurt, physically, so that’s one thing, but… He’s seriously messed up. He’s great with me— practically back to normal. But… Well, with Pat…”

Roman trailed off, and Logan’s eyes slid across to Patton, who pressed his lips together. “He’s a little… um… prickly,” he forced out.

Logan’s eyebrows raised. He adored Patton, he truly did. He had never felt such fondness for someone he wasn’t romantically or familially attached to in his life. But, sometimes, he could be… truly infuriated by Patton indirectness in discussing confrontational issues. ‘A little prickly’, in Patton’s terms, was on par with ‘huge insurmountable asshole’ in anyone else’s. Patton never admitted anyone’s flaws. He did anything he could to see the best in them no matter what, and he’d never admit out loud that they were anything other than ‘interesting’ if they’d purposefully poured soup in his lap and then punched him in the face.

“Yeah,” Roman croaked. “He’s been really awful to Pat.”

Patton bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at the table. “He hasn’t been that bad,” he whispered non-commitally.

“Patton,” Roman said flatly. “Yes, he has. He’s horrible to you. I think— I think I had a bit of a breakthrough with him the other night. He’s been better, right?”

The other man didn’t raise his head for a second, before he nodded, shooting a tense smile at Roman. “Mhm!”

“Right,” Roman said brightly, and Logan shot him an unimpressed look.

“Anyway,” Patton interrupted hastily. “So, he’s been struggling a bit with the addition of, um, me.”

“Right, yeah. So we just— We thought we should warn you that he might not love you, either?”

Logan nodded slowly. “Is he actively antagonistic?”

“He… has been. With Pat.”

He nodded again. “Okay. Patton, are you alright?”

“What? Yeah! He hasn’t done anything. He just doesn’t like me much. I can handle a bit of… prickliness.”

“You shouldn’t have to.”

“And I won’t have to. Not forever. He’s getting better, really. It’s getting easier.”

Logan studied him closely, searching for any sign he was lying. Patton stared back, his lips twisting into a weak, desperate smile. While he didn’t necessarily believe it was as calm as he was presenting, Logan decided to take mercy on him anyway. He nodded, and looked across at Roman.

“And, are you alright?”

“What? Of course I am. What do you mean?”

“It must have been a shock. Having the brother you mourned and then healed from mourning reappearing, alive and well.”

Roman stared at him, something tight in his jaw and surprised in his eyes. Beside him, Patton turned to watch him, too.

“I mean. Sure. But, like, it’s a good shock.”

“Of course it is,” Patton said. “But Lo’s right. It can be good and still hard.”

Roman shrugged. “I guess. But it’s fine. I’m good.”

For a few seconds, nobody spoke. Logan frowned at his partner, studying his face for several seconds before nodding. He didn’t believe him, but he’d let it go for now. They could discuss the issue further when they were alone. For now, he had other matters to address.

“Can I ask what… happened to him?” Logan asked slowly, studying Roman for any sort of reaction.

He didn’t need to study. His partner gave a full-body wince, turning to Patton. They seemed to have a silent conversation for a minute, which basically entailed Patton shrugging helplessly at Roman’s questioning looks.

“Is it… some sort of… trafficking ordeal?” Logan asked.

Roman let out a laugh, surprised, and Patton shot him a startled look. Logan felt himself mirroring it when the wet tone of the laugh registered.

“Roman? I— I’m sorry, you— I didn’t mean to… was it?”

“No! God, Lo, he… He wasn’t… Well, I mean, he… He was… Pat?”

Patton swallowed thickly, eyes huge and slightly panicked. “Um— I don’t— You want me to—”

“Yup!” Roman said, forcefully bright, and Patton stared at him for several more seconds, before Roman buried his face in his hands to take a few slow, forcefully deep breaths.

Logan watched him, desperate to do something to soothe away the sudden tremble in Roman’s shoulders, but he couldn’t think what to say. He instead reached out and held Roman’s wrist loosely, rubbing his thumb back and forth. He turned his gaze to Patton, whose mouth twitched into an almost frightened smile before falling away like sand.

“So, um… You know, um… like… folklore?”

“What?” Logan asked, immediately fighting not to bristle.

“Okay. Sorry. Wrong— Um— Remus was kidnapped by vampires,” Patton blurted.

This time, Logan did bristle, his eyes flicking between his partner and their best friend. He drew his hand away from Roman’s arm. He still wasn’t showing his face — was he hiding a smirk? Were they serious? He’d just gotten off a fourteen-hour flight and they decided to pull into some diner in the middle of the night to have a milkshake and pull a prank on him? And such a childish one!

His reaction must have been perfectly clear, because Patton winced hard, sucking in a deep breath. “Okay, now, I know how that sounds—”

“It sounds like you’re wasting my time when all I want is to go to sleep. I’m exhausted. If you wanted a milkshake so badly you could have just gotten one in the airport—”

“Still on the milkshake,” Roman muttered, muffled into his hands.

“Yeah, okay, the milkshake was tasteless. Well, no, it was lovely, tasted great, get it? Okay, no, sorry— I’m sorry, I shoulda read the room better, but this isn’t—”

“And, come on. Using his missing brother as the punchline for your little windup?”

“Logan!” Patton hissed. “That’s the point, of course we wouldn’t do that. Just hear me out—”

“Are you going to force me to spell out the fact that vampires aren’t real?” Logan spat. “Why would you bother with this? What’s the point?”

“It isn’t a joke,” Patton said softly. He was staring at Logan hard, his face a filled with as much earnestness as any human being could possibly show, and Logan’s irritation faltered.

Was he actually serious? Patton had never managed to hold his ground like this for this long — whenever he told any sort of joke, his immediate fit of giggles usually revealed it before he even got into the punchline. This seemed… Well, it seemed genuine. Patton, for whatever reason, appeared entirely sincere. Logan turned his gaze to Roman.

Okay. So this was worse than a prank. They were having some sort of shared medical event.

Were their carbon monoxide alarms up to date? Had there been a gas leak?

Or, was there really a man in his house, sleeping in Patton’s bed, convincing them both that he was Roman’s undead twin? What if they were being pranked?

Those were the only options. They were both hallucinating, which was unfortunately the unlikeliest option. Unfortunate, because the other two would be far harder for Logan to solve: either whoever was in there house was not, in fact, Remus, but a stranger playing some horrifically cruel prank on the love of Logan’s life, or, potentially worse, it was Remus, and he was so traumatised by whatever happened that he had convinced himself, Patton and Roman of his fantastical coping mechanism.

He had to be very careful now. He nodded slowly, but Patton wilted anyway. “You don’t believe us.”

“I don’t think you’re lying.”

“You… You don’t?”

“I believe that— I believe that you believe what you’re saying. That doesn’t mean I believe that Roman’s twin brother came back as a vampire.”

Patton frowned, tilting his head, and Roman lowered his hands to stare in shock.

“You think we’re crazy?” Roman asked in horror. “Are you serious?”

Logan shook his head, reaching towards Roman. “I didn’t say that,” he began, but Roman shot to his feet.

“First, you think we’re pranking you, as though we could ever be that fucking evil, and then you think we’re making it up?”

“I didn’t say that!” Logan repeated, sharper, rushing to follow Roman out of the diner. He heard Patton yelp some sort of protest before the doors slammed shut behind him.

“Roman!” he called, but his partner was already halfway across the parking lot. “I’m not trying to accuse you of lying, Roman!”

“No, you just think we’re stupid,” Roman spat over his shoulder, and Logan finally caught him, grabbing his hand and turning him around.

“Of course I don’t think that,” Logan said. He held Roman’s hand between his own, saw how tears were lining his partner’s eyes, and wondered how he could possibly make this better. “Roman, I don’t think you’re stupid. I just… I am… worried.”

“About what?”

“You!” Logan cried. “Both of you! Roman, surely you can see this from my perspective. You suddenly believe in the existence of vampires.”

“Because I’ve seen it, Lo!” Roman implored. “Surely you don’t believe I’m stupid enough to fall for something like that without being given some really strong evidence.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Logan said again. He knew this was something Roman was particularly sensitive about — it was why he’d wanted so badly to tread the issue lightly, rather than implying that they were being tricked. He knew Roman would be hurt. “I just— Can you explain what this evidence is?”

“Um, maybe his fangs?”

“People can alter their teeth.”

“So you think he’s lying? You think my brother came back after being missing for nine whole years, just to trick me?”

“No. I would never accuse him of that with no real basis. But… I am… concerned that this is some sort of… mental episode he is going through.”

“You think he’s crazy,” Roman said, voice cold. He ripped his arm free. “He’s my brother.”

“I know. I’m not trying to insult him.”

Before Roman could retort, his eyes shifted to just over Logan’s shoulder, where Patton appeared. He placed a hand on Logan’s arm as he passed, reaching for Roman.

“Ro, come on,” he said soothingly. “He doesn’t mean anything by it. We knew he might not believe us.”

“I don’t think you’re lying,” Logan added, his voice smaller than he would have liked, and Patton shot him a smile.

“Let’s just go home then. He can decide if we’re stupid or crazy when he meets him.”

“Ro—” Patton began, but Roman cut him off with a demand to unlock the car. Patton sighed, but obeyed, before turning back to Logan.

“Patton, truly, I wasn’t trying to accuse you of anything,” he said. “Well— I was. But then I realised you were being honest.”

Patton smiled at him weakly. “I know. And I’m glad you don’t think we’re, like, liars. Or nasty enough to pull this sort of trick. But we… I mean, Logan, it really is just… true. What do you think is going on if he isn’t a vampire?”

“My main concern is that he has had a psychotic break and has convinced himself he is a vampire to cope with the traumatic event of being kidnapped and, presumably, trafficked in some manner,” Logan said bluntly, his voice low enough that Roman wouldn’t hear him, even though he was already in the car, and Logan could see that perfectly clearly.

A soft, understanding noise came from Patton’s throat. “That… That is a pretty good theory,” he croaked.

“Do you think it could be true?”

“I mean. Like. I definitely think what happened would have been awful for him. Yeah, he’s probably super traumatised, and probably has some pretty… nifty… coping strategies. But I don’t think that means the vampire thing is one of them. He really is just… a vampire. Honest.”

“You aren’t pretending to believe it to protect Roman’s feelings?” Logan asked hopefully.

“Nope. Sorry, Loges. I am fully convinced on the vampire of it all.”

Logan sighed and nodded. “Okay.”

Patton shot him a smile and squeezed his arm again. “You can see for yourself when we get home. Make your own judgement. And if that means staging some kind of one-to-three intervention, well, so be it.”

A soft laugh huffed from between Logan’s lips. “I am sorry. For the record. I shouldn’t have snapped at you about the milkshake.”

“It’s okay. I know you’re tired. We’ll get you home so you can get some sleep.”

Logan wanted to protest that — he wasn’t a child — but he knew it was true. He likely wouldn’t have been so irritable if the exhaustion wasn’t tugging at him. Instead, he just nodded, accepting Patton’s forgiveness. They walked back to the car, where Roman was already sitting in the back seat with his head in his hands.

“Roman, dear,” Logan began softly, once he’d buckled his seatbelt. Patton’s door closed behind him, and he reversed out of the spot.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Roman said. His voice was thick, but muffled by his hands.

“You hardly yelled at me,” Logan replied, twisting around to place a hand on Roman’s knee. “And I understand how you might be sensitive about this particular subject.”

“I just— I don’t want you to be shocked when you meet him. He’s jumpy, and if you freak out, he’s gonna freak out.”

“When have you ever known me to freak out?” Logan asked incredulously.

“When have I ever known you to meet a vampire, L? How should I know how you’ll react?”

Logan didn’t respond immediately. He smiled stiffly at his partner. “True enough.”

Roman mirrored his stiff expression, and Logan heard Patton release a breath as he merged back onto the highway.

By the time Patton parked in their driveway, Logan had already been nodding into sleep. He awakened suddenly when the car jerked and juddered to a stop, and Patton apologised softly. Logan cleared his throat and smiled at him, shaking his head.

“It isn’t a problem.”

They climbed out of the car, and Roman immediately began up the steps to the porch. Patton grabbed Logan’s wrist before he could follow.

“Just— Hang on a sec,” he muttered, and Logan obediently nodded despite the anxious doubt still swirling in his chest. He moved around the car to the trunk.

“I’ll grab my bags,” he muttered. Patton nodded, rushing to his side to help, and by the time the car was locked, Roman had reappeared in the doorway. He closed it behind him and descended the stairs once more.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Um— How would you feel about meeting him tomorrow? In the morning?”

Logan frowned. “Why?”

“You’ve had a long day. And I feel like this is going to be a long conversation.”

Logan frowned at him, but nodded. Roman’s shoulders dropped in relief, and he smiled, nodding back. He took the bags from Patton and Logan, pressed a kiss to Logan’s cheek, and began to walk back up the steps to the porch. Logan shot Patton a look, and his friend smiled weakly at him before they each moved to follow.

The goodnights they exchanged were brief. Patton tucked himself into the living room, mumbling something about brushing his teeth in the morning, and Logan and Roman began to travel upstairs. Roman led the way, and turned the corner to walk to their bedroom, but Logan faltered at the top of the stairs. His eyes were drawn away, towards the other end of the hall, where Patton’s bedroom door was hanging slightly ajar. Logan squinted into the inky, almost unnatural darkness, curiosity keeping him still.

Then, he was frozen for an entirely different reason. His eyes landed on something in the dark of the room, a shadow looming in the dark, and his blood ran cold. A pair of eyes seemed to glow against the shadow, wide, pupils pinpricks against what looked like red irises. Something washed over Logan, a strange sort of terror that he’d never experienced before. He wondered if this was how deer felt when they heard a snap in the distant forest.

“Lo?” Roman asked from behind him. The door closed fully, and Logan jumped, spinning to look at his partner. “You okay? I know it’s been a while, but I didn’t expect you to get lost.”

“Sorry. I’m fine.” He swallowed thickly, clenching his clammy hands into fists and rushing into his own bedroom. He made sure the door was closed properly, and he pretended not to check the shadows of the room for glowing red eyes as he lay in bed.

The next morning, Logan woke infuriatingly promptly. He was laying half atop Roman, two muscular arms weighing down his shoulders, and he wished more than anything that he could go back to sleep, but he wasn’t that sort of person. Logan was cursed with an inability to relax, or so he’d heard, so he only managed to lie in his partner’s arms for ten or so minutes before he was extracting himself and walking across to their ensuite to shower and brush his teeth. Then, he left the room, barely glancing at Patton’s door as he reached the stairs.

The hairs on the back on his neck were standing up, but he ignored them stalwartly and entered the kitchen to begin brewing coffee.

His mind didn’t leave Remus for long. Really, he wanted to discuss the issue with Patton, alone, before meeting the returned, allegedly undead, twin. He needed to hear the reasoning he would give for believing in such a tale without the presence Roman, who was obviously far more emotionally invested in the issue. Maybe their friend was just pretending? And he just didn’t want to admit it when Roman was near enough to hear?

Logan could only hope.

He poured two coffees — tipping Patton’s usual near-violent amount of cream and sugar into one of them. Then, he walked out of the kitchen.

His knock on Patton’s door was louder than it was supposed to be, since he was actually just kicking it with his toe, due to his full hands. He heard a soft, sleepy groan, and couldn’t help but smile.

“I made you coffee.”

“Wh— Logan? Hold on!”

There was a thump, and shuffling, and then the door swung open and Patton stood in the gap, eyes wide and a little bit upset.

“Oh, Lo, I’m sorry! You got up even earlier than I expected, I was gonna make a big breakfast for your first day back! I have an alarm set for eight and everything!”

Logan smiled at him, shrugging. “You still can, if you want to,” he began, but his voice cut off as his eyes left Patton’s for a second.

Patton had always worn oversized, baggy pyjamas. He’d shown up at Roman’s house — before the two of them had been together for long enough to constitute moving in together but when Roman desperately needed someone else to pay some of the bills — with a trash bag of maybe three shirts and a pair of jeans. His loose, threadbare pyjamas were one of the only things that remained despite the six years in between. He said no other fabric was as soft as these pyjamas, and that was why he couldn’t replace them. Logan tried to explain that other fabrics would become the same level of comfort with time, but he remained unsuccessful.

The bagginess of Patton’s pyjamas, of course, meant that his neck was fully, properly visible. the neck of the shirt fell down around his collarbone, hanging partially off his left shoulder. Logan had forgotten about the scarf that Patton kept adjusting the night before. Now, he understood wat it had been for. Right across Patton’s throat, was a huge, dark handprint.

The bruise was dark and splotchy, but had turned a yellow-brown colour at its edges. It was in a clear, sickening shape, one palm and five fingers. Worse, at the end of each finger was a large, dark raised mark, partially healed but clearly, at one time, immensely deep and painful for what clearly received no medical attention.

Logan barely had the presence of mind to place the mugs on the floor before he reached out to hold Patton’s chin and tilt it to get a better look.

“Logan—” Patton began, voice tight and breathing just a little bit too quick.

“What is this?” Logan asked sharply, his fingers ghosting over the scabs. He felt dizzy.

“It— Look, it— I—”

“Don’t try to lie to me right now. Did this happen on your trip? Or was it—”

His voice faltered as Patton’s hands shot up to cover his own mouth, eyes wide with panic and teeth bared like he was bracing for something. His gaze flicked to the stairs behind Logan, and something cold and hard slammed across Logan’s ribcage with a fury. He let go of Patton and turned on his heel.

He loved Roman. Of course he did. He and Roman had been together for five months before Patton moved into this house, and they’d known each other another six before that. Logan was sure that Roman was the love of his life. The nearest thing to a soulmate a human being to possibly achieve. It had only taken six months for them to get together because Logan was oblivious to his own feelings, and because Roman couldn’t work out if he was gay.

Six years had passed since then. Six beautiful, perfect years. Logan adored Roman. But he loved Patton, too.

Not in the same way. Patton was… sort of like a younger brother to him. He was his best friend, certainly, the closest and longest-lasting platonic relationship he had ever managed to hold onto. And, while Logan didn’t live in this house when Patton moved in, he was round often enough to see his recovery.

Logan was never, ever going to allow an expression like that cross Patton’s face again. Never. He was willing to accept any penalty Remus or, as much as he was pained to admit it, Roman, would throw at him.

That man could not live under the same roof as Logan’s best friend.

“Logan!” Patton hissed, and he grabbed Logan’s wrist as he began to march away, holding tightly and keeping him still. “Wait, just— Hold on, it isn’t what it looks like—”

“Oh, really?” Logan snapped, whirling back to glare at the man. “Because it looks like you were choked out.”

Patton winced, shooting another panicked glance at the stairs. “Technically, yes—”

“You’re terrified of him!”

“I am not. I’m worried he can hear us. I don’t want you to upset him.”

Logan scoffed. “Why? Will he do this again?”

“No!”

“Does Roman know?”

“Of course he does. He sorted it all out when it happened. It only happened the one time, when he thought I was breaking in. I promise.”

“Roman knew? And he did nothing?”

“He didn’t do nothing. He cleaned me up and he told Remus off and he made sure we were all okay. He sat with me for ages. It was fine.”

“You should have been taken to a hospital!” Logan ground out. “He could have crushed your trachea, or pierced your jugular or your carotid or— or any number of other catastrophic injuries!”

Patton’s breath hitched, and he pushed it out in a shaky exhale. “But he didn’t,” he said slowly. “I was okay. See? I’m fine.”

“But you could have not been. Roman had no way of knowing the extent of these injuries. He should have taken you to get checked out.”

“I coulda taken myself, you know,” Patton chided softly. “Just— Please, Lo. Stay calm. Okay? Don’t blow up on anyone.”

“I’m not going to blow up. But you, Roman and I need to have a very serious conversation about the future of this house and if that means I have to tell Remus to leave then so be it.”

“That— Logan, that is clearly blowing up!” Patton protested, but Logan was already storming back up the stairs to his own bedroom.