Bird Skein: Red on Carpet
I think i’ve never put TW, i’ll fix that later on! For now:
TW: Blood, Injury (described, but the way it happens isnt’s mentioned)
If you think of any others please let me know!
Tags! I know i’m missing a lot of people! I actually just copied the tags from the last fic i tagged, i’m not even sure if they’ll all get to you, but don’t worry, proper tags are coming, just not yet! To all those who have asked me i will be updating these so you can be tagged, but i said in my previous post, that won’t be until i’m fully back on track with writing and posting!
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“Do you know how birds fly in a ‘v’ formation…?”
Patton is the first to wake up. He sits up, dizzy and confused, before glancing around. Everything is still and silent, and even in his not-really-awake-yet state of mind, a sense of wrong settles over his shoulders. He looks down to where his hands hold him in place. He had been lying on his belly, but there’re no blankets or pillows around. The wrong steadily grows, now heavy inside his chest. He looks up again, only this time with a sense of urgency. He’s in the living room only it looks kind of bleak, the familiar colors somehow dulled. The TV is off and lying in front of it is-
It all comes back to him like a bucketful of freezing water.
His head turns around with enough force to cause whiplash, the image of Roman falling down fresh in his mind. Just as he remembers, Roman is lying head down on the floor a few feet behind him, unconscious still. Logan, behind him as well but closer than Roman, is lying on his right side and beginning to stir, which lifts a little of the worry churning inside him. Logan would know what to do. Logan always knew what to do.
“Virgil” he mutters as he turns his head back around and sees him in front of the TV. His kiddo is lying on his belly, quiet and unmoving. And he has to go check on him before he wakes up frantic and scared and he can hear Logan moving behind him and he has to check on him as well, but they also have to check on Roman, and Thomas, they gotta find out what happened, is he okay? Where are they? Did someone fou-
“…Patton?” he distantly hears Logan’s hesitant call and realizes he’s stood up. It doesn’t really matter.
There’s red on the carpet beneath and next to the anxious side, some sort of puddle under him. Except that doesn’t make sense. There shouldn’t be any red. They don’t have any strawberry juice left, and they were all drinking hot chocolate during the movie, and those stains are already fading.
Without taking his eyes away from their kiddo and not really aware of his own movements, he rushes forward in an awkward dance of stumbling and falling and crawling until he makes it to Virgil’s side, kneeling right over the red.
“Virgil?” he asks with fear, hoping more than anything that he’ll receive an answer.
The latter is lying on his stomach, head to his right facing Patton, his right arm almost hiding his face.
Patton can’t help it. He looks down, and with a trembling hand places his fingers on the stain. A broken sigh escapes his mouth along with a whine. What he’s touching isn’t wet, but it still taints his fingers, and the metallic smell is impossible to ignore up close.
It’s a lot of blood. A whole puddle of it.
There shouldn’t, in any way, be blood on the floor. Let alone a puddle of it. And he wants to believe that’s not what it is, it’s just juice, just some strawberry juice, that’s all this is, but he knows it isn’t and-
“Logan!” he shrieks, cause Logan will know, Logan must know, and he’ll come over here and explain to him why there’s red on the carpet, and it’ll make perfect sense, and Virgil will be A-Okay, and they’ll find out what happened and Thomas will be fi-
“Patton!” the other is kneeling next to him, a hand placed on his shoulder, eyebrows furrowed.
“Logan” his voice breaks and maybe he’s crying, he can’t really tell “L-Logan there’s- there’s” and his eyes moving downwards is all the other needs. Logan follows his line of sight, just about to interrupt Patton, and his mouth snaps shut, eyes wide open.
The logical side doesn’t say a word as he hurriedly starts turning Virgil over. Patton goes to help only to stop at Roman’s gasp. He’s now sitting up and glancing at them with terrified eyes.
“Oh my god!! Thomas!!” he yells before looking at them “What happened?!”
The oldest doesn’t really know how to explain nor does he have the voice to do so, letting his eyes show the other just like they did Logan. Roman hurries over to them just as the logical side gets their youngest on his back and starts pulling up the red soaked end of his t-shirt.
All three of them choke a gasp at the same time.
“Oh my god!!” the recently awoken side cries from Virgil’s other side “That’s blood!!”
“What the hell happened?!”
“Why the hell is he bleeding?!”
“Thomas was bleeding too!” Logan manages to say before being interrupted again.
“So?! You know he shouldn’t be bleeding! We aren’t bleeding!!” he motions to them and while Patton knows that’s true, he can’t help but glance at his middle to make sure. And no, no blood stains there.
“We know, Roman!!” Logan screams, making Roman stop his tirade and Patton jump next to him. He doesn’t think he’s ever heard Logan this… frustrated doesn’t even come close “And that’s all we’ll know until we gather more information, starting by locating the injury, which isn’t possible with all the blood covering his abdomen, so would you please shut up, and go get some towels and water!!”
Roman’s face is unreadable, a combination of maybe-indignation, maybe-surprise and maybe-anger, his mouth tightly shut. But after a couple of seconds he stands up and hurries to do as told.
“Patton” Logan turns his attention to him now and he can’t help but flinch “Go get the first aid kit, and bring some warm water”
Patton doesn’t need to be told twice. He does both tasks as fast as possible and soon he’s back on his spot. Roman is already there and Logan is wiping his hands with a little towel, before taking a different one and dipping it in the warm water he’s just brought.
With held breaths Roman and Patton- who has now gripped Virgil’s hoodie-, watch Logan slowly and carefully clean away the blood, leaving red streaks along the way and brownish spots on the white towel. Patton is sure he’ll have to rush away to puke any moment now.
As Logan nears the center of it all, the oldest keeps a close eye on the injured side, ready to act at any signs of pain. It turns out to be unnecessary, tho. The logical facet makes it to the source of the blood and Virgil doesn’t so much as meep. He can’t believe it, and he looks at the others to convey how wrong this is, only Logan is focused on Virgil, his eyes wide, and Roman is too busy gaping downwards. Patton follows their gaze and sees the wound.
As they knew it would, it’s placed on the youngest’s right side. Only it isn’t just a mark or some line like their injuries usually are. No, instead there’s an actual fresh looking cut pulled closed by black stitches.
Patton’s mind goes blank. He can’t process what he’s seeing. There’s a knot inside his throat and pressure on his eyes, he feels so cold, yet he can’t really move to try and fix any of it.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees something move and he’s barely able to move his head enough to get a clear view of Roman standing up, or giving it his best with wobbling legs; his hands are shaking at his sides and he looks like he’s seen a ghost.
“…Logan?” the oldest finally, alas shakily, finds his voice. The latter is staring at the injury with a shocked expression, seemingly frozen.
“W-we” the Side manages after a few gulps “We need to…” and the other two are waiting anxiously- Patton feels tears fall at the thought- for his words until he is suddenly back to his problem-solving-chop-chop-everyone self, facing them to give them instructions.
“Roman, get me a pair of scissors and a spare t-shirt for Virgil. Patton” he starts, Roman already gone “go get blankets, we’ll lay him on the couch to keep an eye on him”
Patton does so, and soon enough Logan is cutting Virgil’s shirt open with Roman’s help.
“Patton, I need you to try and see if you can get him to respond” he tells him and it’s like snapping out of a trance. Patton hadn’t even thought of that. He hadn’t even bothered to look at his kiddo, to try to wake him up, to make sure he was okay, too focused on the red, more worried about a color than his kiddo. So he looks at Virgil, really looks at him, and realizes that the red shouldn’t have been his first worry.
Virgil’s face is slack, peaceful, not unlike the little amount of times they can catch him nightmare-less-ly sleeping of the little amount of times the youngest manages to fall asleep in the first place. But he looks terrible. While the gloomy side has always had a paler complexion than the rest of them, his skin looks like he’s just been on a fight with a flour sack. His skin looks almost gray and somehow dulled, not even his lips colorful enough to show any sort of contrast. And his eyeshadow. Oh, his eyeshadow.
Patton doesn’t realize it at first, certain that something’s terribly wrong, but unable to quite place it. For some reason, Virgil looks younger, more vulnerable, more childlike, and also more like… He looks more like Thomas. And he now sees it. The eyeshadow. There’s barely any eyeshadow. He has dark bags under his eyes, yes, which make him look exhausted and sick, but other than that he looks as if he had spent hours doing his best to get the makeup off his face, the faintest fuzzy smudges left under his eyes.
Something inside his chest goes tight and it feels like an elephant is standing on his heart and lungs.
(He knows how to phrase it because he’s heard those exact same words from Virgil before. Is this truly how Anxiety has always felt like?)
Eyeshadow is Virgil’s trait. He can touch it up, play with it as with any kind of makeup; it can vary extent and intensity. But it can never be gotten rid of. It’s a part of what he is. And yet now is almost gone.
He puts a hand against the pale cheek and all he feels is cold skin.
“L-logan?” he tries, looking at the latter, because if there’s anyone who can fix this, that’s their Logic. Said side has cut Virgil’s shirt off, leaving only the sleeves hidden by his hoodie, and is now cleaning the cut and putting some cream on it, Roman getting bandages ready next to him. Logan looks at him, then at Virgil, then gulps.
“Try to wake him up” is all he says, looking at Patton right in the eyes, voice tight.
He holds Virgil’s face in both hands, thumbs caressing his skin.
“…Kiddo?” he asks, aware of the waver and fear on his voice. No change “Virgil? Hey, Kiddo, can you open your eyes for me?” he whimpers “Please, Sweetie, I just need you to answer me okay? You can even pout if you want, just anything is fine” he barely makes out “If you really don’t wanna say anything that’s fine, just- just show me you can hear me, okay?” he sobs, aware of the fact that he can’t really afford to rely on expressions alone with how blurry everything looks right now. He clears the tears away with one hand and looks again, hoping for a change.
There’s none. And he doesn’t really know how to deal with that. It’s all too much.
The sobs escape him like water from a broken dam, pain on his chest making him double over, fear for his kiddo guiding his forehead towards Virgil’s.
“Patton…” he hears Roman, hands pulling him away.
“He’s not waking up” he wails “I don’t know what’s wrong and he won’t wake up!”
“Patton, you have to let go of him, Roman needs to help me wrap the bandages” Logan orders. And he’s, of course, right. He can’t get in the way of taking care of his kiddo, so he lets go and lets the creative facet pull his sobbing body away.
He sits there, crying and worrying and fearing, while the other two wrap bandages around Virgil’s middle, Logan doing the wrapping while instructing Roman on how to carefully lift the unconscious side’s middle to get the gauze under his back. Their youngest doesn’t flinch, whine nor frown during that whole time. It makes Patton want to scream.
Once they’re done, the other two move Virgil to the couch, hoodie zipped close and blanket covering him. The oldest grabs and doesn’t let go of the latter’s hand from the moment they start moving him.
Then there’s silence. The most important thing -seeing to Virgil’s injury – has been taken care of, so now they’re painfully free to deal with the next issue.
“What the fuck happened” Roman asks with a frustrated tone, probably lacking bite due to how tired they all clearly feel. He’s sitting by Virgil’s feet, arms supporting him by his sides as if being in a constant state of about-to-get-up-and-pace-but-holding-myself-down. Patton doesn’t really have it in him to scold him.
Logan sighs from where he’s sitting on a chair he took from the dining room so he could watch Virgil, hands on his face, elbows on his knees. He pinches his nose with one hand after taking off his glasses with the other. He looks exhausted.
“We all know what happene-”
“You know what I mean” the fanciful side interrupts, serious and angry “Why is Virgil like this? What happened after I fainted?” he demands, looking to each of them. Patton himself is sitting on the floor by Virgil’s head, one hand grapping the other’s cold one. He averts his eyes, not knowing what to say. He’s just as confused, just as clueless as Princey feels.
“I lost consciousness not long after you did. And I’m guessing it was the same for Patton” he says, glancing at him, to which he nods miserably.
“So Virge was the last one standing?” Prince asks with a touch of surprise and confusion. Patton nods again.
“He was still standing before I went night-night” he tries to lighten up with a smile, clearly failing.
Logan opens his mouth to say something but closes it before he can make any sound, only this time it seems to Patton that it isn’t because of being out of words, the other looks almost shy, as if ready to say something but choosing not to, which only makes Patton’s bad feeling grow.
“…I have a theory” Logan says after a while, and Patton finally feels something good appear between all the yucky things currently inside him, the latter’s sudden uncertainty to voice his thoughts gone in favor of any kind of explanation-equals-plan idea to hold on to; because of course Logan does, and if he does then it’s probably correct and he’ll have a way to fix it! “But I can’t truly confirm it until Thomas wakes up”
“You think he’s okay?” Patton asks with hope too strong to contain, both Roman and he looking at the logical side expectantly. The latter sighs again, before looking down. The oldest can feel worry and fear and uncertainty radiating from him in waves and the hope shrinks back down as if hurt.
“The fact that we’re having this conversation entails that Thomas is alive, otherwise we would be dead with him” and they both shudder at the thought, unable to understand how Logan can mention something like that so casually “The fact that we lost consciousness means he did so as well, and not only that, but he lost it due to something life threatening, most likely blood loss”
“Then how-?” Roman starts only to be cut off.
“The fact that we’re awake means he’s alive, which means someone treated him, so we were most likely found by someone who managed to get Thomas to a hospital. That would explain why we just woke up” Logan explains “If he was treated then he was sedated, which would keep us dormant”
“So he’s in a hospital now?” Patton asks, a huge weight lifting from his shoulders.
“He must be. Be we can’t be sure until he wakes up”
“Can’t we wake him? We’re awake so the drugs must be gone!” Roman asks as he stands up and stars pacing.
“You know we can’t” the older one sighs in frustration, standing up as well “Us awake doesn’t mean he’s no longer drugged, it means the sedation is wearing off. And not all of us are awake! He isn’t just sleeping, Roman, and even if he was, we both know the only one who maybe would be able to rouse him is Virgil, and he isn’t exactly available!”
“Is it the anesthesia?” Patton hurries to ask before Princey’s open mouth can start moving “Is that why he’s like this?” he pleads brokenly.
“… Maybe” Logan mutters, looking away from the other sides.
“What do you mean ‘maybe’?!” the younger demands “We’re awake! And that wouldn’t explain the blood!”
“I mean…” he huffs “I mean that maybe he’s unresponsive due to the sedatives. But no, he wouldn’t bleed because of them, nor would he be as… weak as he is right now.”
“Then why?!” Roman cries, heaving and trembling. Logan looks right back at him, unfazed and just as tense. The oldest looks between them with fearful eyes, scared by the all the negative emotions yet just as desperate for an answer Logan clearly suspects.
Tags will be done later on (explanation in a note i just posted, i will link it later aswell!) Hope you guys like it! Don’t know when next part will be here, already have part of it ready, but it definitely won’t be before the holidays!
Also post tags will also be fixed and properly done later on!
