a concept : sandals tickles w/ one of the sides (logan?) 👀 where the others stick feathers between his feet and the shoes and under his toes
swim day
Pairings: Platonic LAMP
Word Count: 1,833 words
and THIS one was a wip from september 14, 2020! for a request from August 20, 2020 lmaooo. it’s a cute one imo
“Logan!” Roman called for the hundredth time. “Get in the water!”
He raised a hand to shield his eyes from the sun, but he still had to squint to make out Logan’s less-than-amused expression from where the other man sat on the edge of the dock.
“I will not,” he said with finality, turning another page in his book. “Unlike you, I don’t wish to get hypothermia.”
Roman scoffed, pushing his wet bangs out of his face. “It’s literally September, Specs, it’s not like we’re ice fishing over here.”
“Then I’d rather not risk getting sick from ingesting lake water.”
“Just keep your mouth shut, it’s not that hard! Well, it might be for you--”
Logan opened his mouth for another scathing retort, but he cut himself off with a gasp as two towel-covered arms wrapped around his shoulders.
“Ro, stop teasing Lo,” Patton said cheerfully. “And Lo, he’s right! The water feels so good today, are you sure you don’t wanna get in just a little?”
Logan huffed, but there was no heat in his voice as he replied, “I’m quite sure, Patton, but thank you. And please get off of me, your hair is dripping onto my shirt.”
Patton giggled, moving to the side and plopping down on the edge of the dock next to Logan.
“No, Patton,” Roman whined from below them, flopping onto his back and crossing his arms. “Come back in the water.”
“I’ll be back in a few minutes, Ro!” Patton assured him, fluffing his hair with the large beach towel still wrapped around his body. “Just need a breather, but then we can play more Marco Polo!”
Logan leaned forward looked closely at his red cheeks. “Are you getting too much sun?”
“I can’t have too much sun-- I’m a dad!”
Roman and Logan both groaned at the awful pun, and after a beat Roman ducked back beneath the slightly murky water. He kicked his legs, paddling back and forth with no real goal in mind. When he finally emerged, he was acually underneath the wooden dock, the tiny gaps in the planks casting specks of light on the dark water.
He shivered, both from the sudden darkness and from the lack of sun warming his skin, and turned to swim back out into the open--
Only to bump directly into a firm body floating in the water behind him.
Roman made a noise that was dangerously close to a shriek, shooting backwards and raising his hands appeasingly. It took less than a second for his brain to process the laughter, and he splashed the other figure in frustration.
“Not funny, Virgil!” he hissed. The other man continued to laugh, one hand coming up to grip the edge of the dock so that he could merely bob in place.
“Very funny, Roman,” he replied. “Where’s Pat?”
Roman jerked his head toward the other end of the dock. “Taking a break with the nutty professor. He’s still refusing to even get in the water!”
Virgil hummed. “Lame.”
“Right?” Roman huffed again, splashing the water just to watch it ripple.
“You know, I was gonna save these in case of an emergency--” Virgil started casually. Roman’s interest was immediately piqued.
“Whatever you’re planning, I am one hundred percent in,” he finished. Virgil grinned, and his hand move up to grab something on top of the dock.
“I found these on the beach earlier,” he explained. Roman swam closer just as Virgil pulled his hand back down. In his grip, he held two grey feathers, long and stiff.
The two made eye contact, and immediately broke into cheeky smiles as Virgil passed one of the feathers to Roman. They swam back to the other side of the dock, careful not to get the feathers wet as they moved through the water.
When they reached the edge of the dock, they could hear Logan and Patton lighting chatting above them. Patton was sitting criss-cross applesauce, leaving only Logan’s sandal-wearing feet dangling in the air above the water.
Roman opened his mouth, but Virgil shot a hand out to shush him before he could speak. He looked at Virgil, but the other man just smirked while raising his feather and spining it right next to Logan’s heel.
Then he fluttered it very lightly against the exposed part of his heel, and Logan’s leg twitched.
Virgil and Roman looked at each other with barely stifled laughter. Then Roman shot forward to swipe his feather along the outer side of Logan’s other foot.
Above them, they heard Logan’s voice stutter with a small gasp, and the two silently swam backwards from the edge of the dock in order to stay hidden. Sure enough, Logan’s hand came down to rub at the edge of his foot, but he didn’t catch sight of the two troublemakers lurking below.
By now, Roman and Virgil were both seriously struggling not to laugh, covering their mouths with one hand and gingerly holding the feathers with the other. They could’ve kept this going for quite some time, but honestly, it was only a matter of time before they broke their own cover, so the quickly swam back to the edge of the dock, just behind Logan’s feet.
And then they each grabbed one of Logan’s ankles in sync, and before he could even react, shoved each of their feathers in between his foot and the sole of his sandal.
The result was instantaneous: Logan shrieked, first at the shock of multiple things touching him, and then at the feeling of the soft feathers brushing haphazardly over his soles. He slammed his hands down on the deck loud enough to shake the boards above Virgil and Roman’s heads.
“Whahahat-- whahahahat?” he asked desperately through his laughter. His feet tried to swing away, but Roman tightened his grip on his ankle in order to keep his foot in place. Virgil, however, accidentally let his other ankle go, and the leg quickly disappeared back on top of the deck.
Roman scoffed. “Dude!”
“Oh, chill out,” Virgil retorted, his voice too bright to have any real malice. “I’ll get it.”
He swam out from underneath the dock to bob in the water in front of Logan, who was still snickering drastically as he rubbed the tingles away from the one foot he’d saved. Next to him, Patton was looking more than a bit amused at Logan’s seemingly random giggle fit.
“Hey, Virge,” he chirped, smiling down at the man in the water. “Whatcha got there?”
Virgil fluttered the feather between his fingers. “Just a souvenir.” He lowered the feather to graze delicately over Logan’s exposed toes, causing his laughter to heighten abruptly as he yanked the foot back even further.
“Nohoho!” he squealed, covering his toes with his hand. “No!”
Virgil narrowed his eyes. “You want me and Roman to tag team on the other one, then?”
He let the feather drift close to the foot Roman was still tickling, but Logan’s kicking suddenly got even more frantic.
“Do nohohot!” he insisted, clearly going for intimidating and failing adorably. “I’m going tohoho kihihill-- no!”
Roman looked at Virgil with confusion as Logan’s laughter suddenly spiked for seemingly no reason. Virgil looked back up, and his face quickly morphed into amused satisfaction.
“Thanks, Pat,” he said breezily. “Just make sure neither of you fall in while you’re tickling him.”
Immediately Roman brightened. “Oh, my God, I gotta see this.”
He slowly pulled the feather out from Logan’s sandal-- causing many more giggles as he did so-- and kept a grip on Logan’s ankle as he, too, swam out from under the dock. There, he could see Patton had enveloped Logan in a side hug, using his towel to trap him, and was now focusing on squeezing Logan’s sides and skittering his fingers all over his ribs.
Roman laughed loudly as he began tickling Logan’s foot again, sliding the long feather back into his shoe and flossing it back and forth. “You should’ve just gotten in the water, man!”
“It would’ve saved you a lot of trouble,” Virgil agreed. He let his feather trace from Logan’s toes, over the top of his foot, and up his ankle, even swirling around to wiggle at the back of his calf.
Patton clicked his tongue. “No way! This is way more fun than swimming, right, Lo?” He cocked his head as Logan only resond with squealing giggles. “Hm, I couldn’t quite hear you, but I bet you’re agreeing with me!”
Logan was in stiches, face upturned toward the sky as his laughter bellowed out of him. He was rocking back and forth, weakly trying to jerk his leg away from Roman and Virgil’s grips while also rocking away from Patton’s tickles to his upper body.
Until one particular gasping laugh made him lurch forward, too far to correct his balance, and his laughter turned into a scream of shock as he began to fall forward toward the water--
Immediately Virgil and Roman dropped the feathers, raising their hands and shoving against Logan’s chest with their palms to keep him from falling face first into the murky lake. Patton was ready, wrapping his arms around Logan’s shoulders and yanking him back until he was laying flat on the dock.
For a few seconds, the only noise was Logan’s panicked breathing. Then:
“Oh, my god, Logan, I’m so sorry--”
“Fuck, Jesus, fuck, that was way too close, we didn’t mean to--”
“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Are you okay?”
“I’m-- I’m fine, I’m fine,” Logan insisted, waving his hand to get his friends’ attention. “I’m-- okay. Nothing bad happened, I’m not hurt, and you-- you all. Saved me.”
His cheeks flushed a bit at his comment, but of course none of his friends even thought to tease him for it. Patton rubbed his upper arms soothingly as they sat up again; Virgil and Roman hoisted themselves back onto the dock until the four were sitting together.
“So whose idea was that?” he asked, trying to hide the small, involuntary smile at the memory of the tickle attack.
Roman immediately pointed to Virgil. “He found the feathers!”
“Dude!” Virgil said with faux indignation. “You sold me out!”
“Well, am I wrong?”
“Although, honestly, Lo,” Patton added, “you really thought we’d let you walk around like this and not take advantage of it?”
His fingers darted over to scribble at the tops of Logan’s toes. He made a nois between a gasp and a squeak, yanking his foot back again and covering them both with his hands.
“Enough,” he scolded, but everyone knew the blush on his cheeks wasn’t just sunburn. “Can we please go back to the cabin? You all smell like lake water.”
The snarky comment earned him several more ticklish pokes on his ribs and his toes, but there was a smile on his face that told them all the truth: he was more than okay with their silly games. And he’d most definitely be getting revenge later.
