Freeze Your Brain
TW: Hypothermia, Talk of death, Logan angst, All sympathetic sides
Relationships: Loginceit/Roloceit, Platonic DLAMPTR
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Logan hated the cold.
It was just fact. As sure as he was Logic or that Thomas was his host.
Everyone in the mind palace knew he hated the cold, but nobody knew why. Deceit had a real reason; he was only half-snake, yet fully cold-blooded. Virgil and Patton enjoyed the cold simply because it was a reason for hoodies. Roman always said he liked the cold since it gave a chance for his “hotness to stand out” (but everyone knew he just liked the excuse for cuddles). And Remus… nobody knew for-sure what Remus preferred. He didn’t talk about it much, but he often shoved ice down his pants. So.
But Logan… Logan hated the cold. He didn’t have a legitimate reason, but it always gave him a bad feeling. A really bad feeling.
But a nervous feeling was hardly a reason to forbid Thomas from doing anything that involved the cold. So when Thomas was invited to go out with friends for ice cream, who was Logan to deny him such a simple pleasure?
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All the sides were sitting together in the living room of the mind palace.
Patton and Virgil sat by each other, Patton on a chair with Virgil on the carpet in front of him. Patton was carefully rubbing the knots from his shoulders while they exchanged jokes, giggles occasionally causing a pause in the onslaught of pun-related humor.
Across the room, Remus sat alone in an armchair, criss-cross, tablet on his lap and his hair in a bun. He had reading glasses on and his tongue stuck out slightly as he focused on his work.
Deceit and Roman were laying together. Dee’s head was on Roman’s chest while the latter dramatically recounted stories from the Imagination. Logan was sitting close enough that his shoulders occasionally brushed Roman’s, but far enough away that he could easily flip pages of the book he was reading, The CandyMakers by Wendy Mass (a bit of a childish read, but one of Logan’s favorites nevertheless.)
Everyone in the quiet room jumped as a small bell rung out from outside the mindscape, except for Remus, who simply pressed a button on the remote to turn on the television.
The screen showed Thomas as he walked into the ice cream shop with some of his friends, a few more inside. Thomas, along with two others, walked up to get their food first.
Meanwhile, Logan couldn’t seem to rid himself of the discomfort sitting in his stomach. He rested his head on Roman’s shoulder, hoping that nothing bad happened.
Then Joan proposed a competition. They and Thomas would see who could finish their ice cream first, and the loser would pay for the other’s ticket to the movie they were planning to see later.
Logan immediately opened his mouth to object, but looking around, everyone else seemed at peace with the idea. Even the literal embodiment of Thomas’s anxiety didn’t seem to have a problem. So when Thomas laughed and accepted the challenge, Logan stayed quiet.
It was fine. Everything was fine.
Talyn rolled their eyes, counting down from ten before enjoying their own ice cream like a sensible person.
Logan stiffened suddenly as a sound was ripped from his lips before everything went dark.
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Deceit never saw what happened. He just remembered feeling Logan’s head suddenly remove itself from its resting place on his shoulder. He remembered hearing a strangled sound, halfway between a gasp and a scream. And then nothing.
The air turned with a bitter chill and frost crept onto the television. Everyone jumped into a standing position, looking around for their missing side.
Roman inhaled quickly before pushing the couch aside and diving through the newly formed hole in the floor. Patton brought his hands to his mouth. He ran into the kitchen, putting water on the stove and grabbing a pile of towels from a cupboard. He then dashed up the stairs, coming back down seconds later, arms full of blankets. He put all the blankets and towels into a pile, before running toward the bathroom.
Deceit shook out of his daze, reaching out to stop Patton.
“Pat, what’s going on?” Patton looked up to his eyes frantically before shaking his head and pushing Deceit away.
“No time to explain,” Patton called behind him. “But hurry!”
Deceit ran after him, following his instructions to grab the box labeled Emergency from under the sink. He was about to ask why, what was happening, when Virgil and Remus shouted their names from the living room.
Deceit ran, freezing in front of the doorway in fear, seeing a hand reaching through the hole in the floor. He gasped before running forward to help Virgil and Remus pull Roman out of the water, who in turn, pulled out another body. Patton ran in, instantly grabbing the towels and giving some to Roman who helped him dry off an unconscious Logan.
Remus grabbed a towel left on the stack, gently wrapping it around his brother’s shoulders. Roman thanked him, but there was no smile on his face. Not in a time like this.
Roman snapped, transferring Logan into softer, warmer clothing.
“Can’t you just snap him dry?” Deceit asked, slightly panicked. But Roman just shook his head sadly.
“Not from something like this. Believe me, I would if I could.”
“Wait a minute, you mean this has happened before?” Virgil asked. He looked at the two sides currently exchanging sad looks.
As Patton went off to take care of the hot water, Roman picked up his still-unconscious boyfriend, sitting down on the couch after Remus had moved it back to its original position. He gently combed Logan’s hair with his fingers, kissing his forehead softly. Roman looked at the others, guilt obvious in his eyes.
“A few years ago, before we knew any of you, it was just Patton, Logan and me in the mindscape. It was Thomas’s 15th birthday, and some friends took him out for ice cream. There was another thing that they were going to do afterward, so everyone had to eat quickly. Logan had tried to warn Thomas to be careful but,” he cut himself off to take a steadying breath. “It was too late.
“Logan suddenly froze. He couldn’t move. He tried to tell us something, but he-,” Roman cleared his throat, blinking away the tears in his eyes. “The floor gave way. We didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t coming up so we… I jumped through the floor. It was so cold. But I kept swimming down. Luckily cold water is really clear, but Lo was so far down. Eventually, I found him. He didn’t move and his eyes were frozen shut. I grabbed his waist and I swam as hard as I could. But I thought I was going to make it. I-I thought he was going to die. For some reason, the water wasn’t affecting me. I could breathe, and while it was cold, it wasn’t unbearably so. But Lo…” Roman clutched him tighter to his chest. “Maybe it’s because he’s Logic and I’m creativity. I can imagine a world where I could breathe underwater, but it wouldn’t be logical.”
Everyone was quiet for a second, simply processing his words, before Remus tentatively asked, “What happened next?” Deceit was almost surprised by his tone, but he shouldn’t have been. Everyone loved Logan, more than they would probably ever admit.
Roman sighed, readjusting the side in his arms before settling again to continue.
“I managed to get him through the hole in the floor in time before it sealed shut, but he didn’t wake up right away. Neither Patton nor I knew anything about hypothermia, so we did all we could to get him warm. Eventually he woke up, but… it wasn’t pretty. He was panicking. He became terrified of the ocean and the cold. In the end, we decided, Logan included, to wipe his memory of that. He’s still afraid of the ocean and fairly uneasy about the cold. But we were foolish. We didn’t tell him why. We didn’t tell Thomas either. But we always remembered. And today… we… I failed.”
“Y-you did-didn’t fail.” Everyone rushed over to the couch. And there was Logan. Stuttering, freezing cold, and clearly terrified, but Logan nevertheless. Patton ran in with a portable mug, smudged tear tracks clear on his cheeks. He grabbed a few of the blankets from the pile, along with the emergency kit. Deceit helped Roman gently sit Logan on the couch, wrapping more blankets around him and holding him tightly to help him preserve body heat.
Patton opened the box, taking out a few warm compresses, placing one on the back of Logan’s neck, another on his chest. He gave Logan two more for the spaces between his abdomen and each leg. He offered Logan the mug, smiling gently.
Maybe it was the gentle treatment Patton was giving him, maybe it was the pain of the cold, or maybe it was just the stress of it all. But whatever it was, it just became too much for the poor Logical side.
He curled suddenly into Deceit, hiding his face in his capelet. Deceit smiled sadly, picking up his small boyfriend and scooting next to Roman, who in turn wrapped his arms around the both of them. Remus and Patton surrounded the trio while Virgil walked over to the television to put on Big Hero 6. Logan was asleep in seconds.
Maybe Logan will be a bit more fragile for the next few weeks. And maybe the nightmares will keep Thomas awake a bit more often. But maybe… maybe that’s okay.
Maybe they’ll be okay.
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