#i finally sewed a button onto these pants to make the waist a little smaller so they stop falling down with a belt on LMAO

[bunnyboy-juice]

its the birthday bunny!

[snowdice]

Things You’ll Never Do (Part 4 of the Series “Is There Anything Left of Patton?”)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Virgil & Logan, Logan/Patton(?), Virgil & Patton (?)

Characters: Logan, Virgil, Patton(?)

Summary: Season change. Life changes. Patton doesn’t.

Notes: Zombie Apocalypse AU, Past major character death(?), Look it’s a zombie AU so you can probably guess why there’s a question mark after everything involving Patton. Angst. 

The fourth part of a series of one-shots called Is There Anything Left of Patton?

Previous parts:

“Something Left”

“Someone You’ll Never Meet”

Food You’ll Never Eat 

Logan glanced up as Virgil shifted on the couch next to him to pull the blanket he was wearing more securely around his shoulders. He was working on patching his hoody once more and seemed even more anxious without its normal weight around his shoulders than he had been in the past week. Logan tried to ignore him but couldn’t help but grit his teeth just a bit as he squirmed around a bit more, jostling Logan with the movement.

“It’s getting colder,” Virgil commented.

“It is,” Logan agreed, hoping that would be the end of it.

“Yeah…” The other man started to tap his foot and stopped sewing altogether in lieu of fiddling with the fabric in his hands.

Logan closed his eyes and took a breath. “We will be fine, Virgil,” he assured. He knew, of course, why Virgil’s anxiety rose as the temperature dropped. He hadn’t gone into detail, but Logan had pieced together from what he had said that his last winter had not gone well. There had been a reason why he’d been alone when Logan had found him last spring, and it was not anything like the reason Logan himself had been “alone.”

“I know,” Virgil replied.

Logan nodded and went back to his book.

“But what if…”

Logan snapped his book closed. “Virgil,” he said, and it was a good thing Patton was currently tied to the rocking chair out of reaching distance because the sharpness of his tone drew the man’s attention instantly. “As I have explained multiple times before, we have plenty of supplies for the winter.”

“But what if there’s a big snowstorm and the solar panels break, and we freeze?”

“We have stored battery power as well as gasoline for the backup generator. If all else fails, we have a fireplace and wood.”

“But then we wouldn’t be able to cool the food and we’d starve…”

“If it is cold enough that we could freeze to death, we can simply put the food in the freezers outside in the snow instead. Besides, all of the canning you insisted on doing this fall would easily get us through the winter twice over.”

“What if…?”

“Then we die Virgil,” he snapped. “What do you want from me?!” The other man slammed his jaw shut. Logan sighed. “I will go on one more hunting trip for the season if that will assuage your anxiety. You can make jerky out of whatever I bring back. However, you will need to find some activity to amuse yourself during the winter months other than overpreparing supplies else we will surely drive each other mad.”

“…Fine.”

“Very well. I will go tomorrow,” Logan said and then paused. “Do you want me to put Patton downstairs while I’m gone?” Recently Logan had simply… stopped putting Patton downstairs during the night and Virgil had yet to protest. It was likely not a rational decision, but he… didn’t like putting Patton downstairs. Logan knew logically that the distress he expressed when he realized he was being put in the cage was not true human suffering, but it still always left a bad taste in Logan’s mouth.

“Nah,” Virgil said glancing at the mentioned man still pulling at his leash. “It’s cool. Patton and I’ll just hang out.”

Logan tried not to show his relief on his face. “Very well.” Hopefully by the time he got back, Virgil will have calmed down some, or at very least, Logan would have more patience to deal with him.

  Virgil glanced through the inventory Logan had carefully written out and marked off the one can of peaches that he’d eaten for breakfast. There were still enough cans for four cans of those per week until next April, but the numbers only partially calmed his anxiety over the situation. He sighed and tried to forget it, walking into the living room and hoping to find something productive to do.

He paused in the doorframe. “Patton? What are you doing buddy?” Virgil asked. Patton was standing in the corner of the living room trapped between a potted plant and the wall like a video game character clipping. He stared at the plant blankly. “Pat,” Virgil said a little more sharply to attract his attention. He turned at the sound to start toward Virgil and promptly walked right into the potted plant, tumbling it and himself over. “Patton!” he exclaimed, rushing over to him.

He realized his mistake a moment too late. He must have moved in the wrong way or spoke with just a bit too high of a pitch because Patton suddenly went from his must-investigate-weird-object mode to attack mode. Virgil tried to hop out of range of the leash, but felt a hand grab his ankle with surprising strength considering how the zombie was usually easily pushed and pulled with the lightest of touches. Virgil’s leg was pulled out from under him and he fell. “No!” Virgil said as he was yanked backwards. He tried to find purchase on something, but all he could do was dig his fingers into the carpet. They often forgot with how docile Patton was 95% of the time, that Patton had all the strength of an adult man and perhaps a bit extra from the turning. “Patton please! I hate it when you do this!” Virgil groaned. He was pulled inexorably back by the hold on his ankles, his fingernails scrapping against the ground uselessly like a scene in an old horror movie.

Weight flopped down on top of him, a knee digging into his back. Cool breath brushed against the back of his neck and too cold fingers grabbed at one of his ears. A chill went up his spine.

Virgil flopped his forehead onto the floor in defeat. “You know,” he grumbled. “If you’re not going to eat me then WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS?” Patton’s fingers tried to find the source of the sound, but Virgil was luckily on his stomach and could easily press his mouth against the floor. That didn’t stop the fingers from scraping against his neck though. “I fucking hate you sometimes Patton,” Virgil hissed. Patton just patted at his cheeks. “Logan!” he called. “You didn’t possibly get back from your hunting trip and just not tell me, did you?!” There was no answer. Figured. Virgil pushed against Patton’s hold and was shoved firmly back down, fingers digging into his hair with renewed vigor.

Unfortunately, when Patton got like this, there wasn’t much you could do without help besides waiting and hoping. He had to lose interest in you before you could get away from him. The problem was that even if he did get bored, when you tried to wiggle away, there was every likelihood he’d just get more intrigued by you and the cycle would repeat again and again.

They went through the process a couple of times before Virgil was finally able to get away from the weird forced cuddling. He shoved back suddenly, and Patton toppled off him. Virgil scrambled away and out of the leash’s reach before he could get grabbed again. Patton rolled, confused at the sudden exodus of his pillow and got caught up in the leash. He promptly started fighting with it.

“Ugh,” Virgil said flopping on his back on the floor. After a few more moments, he stood up and surveyed the damage. The poor plant was likely unsalvageable, the pot it had been in now broken into three big pieces and a few smaller ones (he’s glad they didn’t roll onto that), and wet dirt was everywhere.

Virgil sighed. “We both have mud all over us now Patton.” He was careful to pitch his voice low. Patton barely even spared him a glance. Instead he just continued to claw at the leash.

Well, Virgil couldn’t just leave him there no matter how much he wanted to after that trauma. He edged carefully around the writhing mass on the floor and grabbed the edge of the leash, quickly untying it from the armchair he’d been attached to. Next came the game of untangling Patton from the leash while said zombie did everything he could to resist Virgil’s efforts.

Eventually, Virgil managed to get him untangled and gave a non-so-gentle tug on the handle. He stumbled forward, made a hissing noise, and tried to pull himself back the other way. Virgil dug in his heels and tugged, whistling a couple of times to get his attention.

It took probably 20 minutes to drag him upstairs to Logan’s bedroom. He tied him to the headboard of the bed. “Stay,” Virgil commanded, uselessly he knew. He dashed into his bedroom and quickly changed into a different outfit before returning.

Patton had sat on the floor while Virgil had been gone. “You got mud all over the rug,” he moaned. Well, that would be a problem for later. First… he ran down to the kitchen where the water supply was and wetted a washrag.

He did his best to wipe the mud off of Patton’s face and arms despite the way he fought back like Virgil was pouring acid onto his skin. “It’s just water, you asshole,” Virgil hissed, throwing down the rag once he’d gotten the worst of it off.

He turned toward the dresser and started rooting through the drawers a bit roughly, trying to find something in them that would be easy to wrestle Patton into. He dug through the clothing, growing more and more frustrated by the moment. He pulled out something that looked promising: a pair of sweats with some university logo on them, but as soon as he held them up, he could tell they were too small for Patton’s waist. He tossed them over his shoulder.

They made a clanking noise when they hit the floor. He paused, blinking over at the pants. There weren’t any buttons or metal on them to make that noise. Now that he was paying attention, he noticed when he reached over to pick them up that they had an unusual weight to them. He dug his hand into the pocket and pulled out an engagement ring.

Oh.

It was easy to forget sometimes that Patton wasn’t in fact some really stupid dog he had to deal with. He’d been a full person once who liked to cook and garden; in fact, the peaches he’d eaten this morning were grown and canned by his hand. He’d kept a closet full of stuffed animals despite being a fully-grown adult, and, by what Logan had said, had no shame about that fact. The truly horrendous 100-pound armchair they tied Patton to in the living room was picked out and somehow dragged into Logan’s home without his knowledge or consent by that man.

Patton had been someone who was loved so much that Logan couldn’t let him go even now, still looked at him with all of that love even now. He was a man who’d bought a ring and made plans for a future that would never come.

All of Virgil’s agitation at Patton drained from him in a moment.

“I…” Virgil said, drawing Patton’s attention to him, though he could never reach him from where he was tied up. “This is a really nice ring Pat. Nice and simple. He would have loved it.” He would have loved anything Patton gave to him. “Would you want him to have it, I wonder.” He looked over at the man, searching for an answer on his vacant face. “I think…” Virgil concluded. “I think that would be cruel, and I think that you didn’t like to do cruel things.” Virgil nodded to himself and carefully placed the ring back into the old sweats’ pocket, folded them up, and put them back where they had been in the drawer.

He much more calmly picked out a pair of pants and a shirt. “Okay Patton,” Virgil said and turned to him. “Let’s get you into something clean.”

Thanks for reading!

Ah and we finally have foreshadowing for the plot. Gee this AU moves slowly...

...

What plot you ask? Well.

Want to read more? The next part of this series is...

There are Things You Have Lost