#part of the History | Matchr universe

[edupunkn00b]

When The Bad Guys Win, Ch. 2: Little Brother

When The Bad Guys Win - Big Brother - Little Brother - [ AO3 ]

Part of the History | Matchr Universe

Rated T: WC: 4588

CW: referenced past assault, referenced past assault on child, hospitals, references capital punishment, assault, swearing, minor character death, blue+orange make grey

Logan Sanders knows what to do when the bad guys win.

---

Logan removed his faux eyeglasses as soon as he was out of Patton's sight.

Once downstairs, he slipped through the back entrance of their lobby, holding down the handle as he slowly let the door close, releasing the latch only once the door was fully in place. The muffled click was barely audible to his own ears and would have been imperceptible to anyone else in the building.

If anyone had happened to be awake and wandering the lobby at two o'clock in the morning, that is.

Logan scooped up a few pebbles from the greenscape just outside the exit, depositing them in his pocket for later. He jogged the four block distance to the D train and bought a Metrocard from the bodega with a C- health department rating closest to the station. He paid with cash.

Before climbing the steps up to the station, Logan stopped as though to tie his laces, slipping half the pebbles into his right shoe. The tiny stones rolled around inside as he walked, rubbing against his toes, his heel, the ball of his foot… not sufficiently painful to prevent him from running, but uncomfortable enough to give him a noticeable limp, changing his natural gait. He sprinted up the steps, swiped his card at the turnstile, and waited for the train. There was one other person already sitting on a bench, slouched back, muttering under their breath. Logan turned his head toward them but flicked his eyes up, checking the lights on the cameras trained on the platform. One was out, but the other two appeared to be functional.

Logan tugged at the red cap on his head and paced the length of the platform, hands in his pockets, whistling loudly. He'd made two laps up and down the platform, catching the eye of the other waiting rider, smiling and giving them a quick wave. He leaned over the platform, looking down the tracks in the wrong direction, checking his watch.

"The train comes from the other direction, dude," the other rider finally said. Logan turned with a bright smile, tilting his head and waving his hands vaguely toward his mouth. They stared at him for a moment before they shook their head and pointed the other way down the track. Sucking their teeth, they said, "That way, man. That way." They muttered under their breath, "Fucking tourists."

Looking in the other direction, Logan broadened his smile, giving them a thumbs up. He paced the platform again, only getting halfway back to where the other rider waited before the train finally arrived. He entered the mostly empty train car, the only other passenger a homeless woman sitting in the corner. She eyed him as he entered, relaxing somewhat when he kept his distance. Logan sat, counting the stops until 50th Street.

He quickly pulled out his drugstore Tracphone and booted up his TwoFace VPN™. One the icon turned green, he opened an incognito window on his TOR browser and logged onto Facebook with his Dr. Francis Stine account. He scrolled through until he found the heart surgeon who hadn't even blinked at his user name, instead quickly accepting his friend request over a year ago, shortly after he'd viewed Logan's, rather, Dr. Stine's impressive LinkedIn profile.

Scrolling through Dr. Roberts' wall, he found a selfie the doctor had taken with Al Pacino the time he'd come in for surgery. Logan shook his head with a smile. He always did like it when a fan's love overcame their logical thinking. HIPAA privacy rules aren't just there for the color-coded trash cans, Doctor...

He tapped on the picture, waiting impatiently for the large file to download over the pokey 3G connection, its speed made even more sluggish by his VPN's admittedly vital IP hopping. He looked up as the train approached a station. Three more stops. I still have time. The phone buzzed happily when it finished downloading the image and he quickly tapped it, checking the properties and pulling up the GPS coordinates embedded within.

Dumping the full coordinates into a Heroku app he maintained under its generic auto-generated name, he was able to narrow down the relative elevation—approximately 115 feet—where Dr. Roberts had taken the picture. Calculating quickly, assuming a standard 14-foot height for each floor, including, of course, crawlspaces and conduits for HVAC, communications and security equipment, as well as the fire suppression systems... that would put Mr. Pacino's fancy post-surgical suite somewhere on the eighth floor. Logan closed his browser, automatically removing his internet history from the device.

He stood as the train entered the 50th Street station, quickly putting away his phone and swapping it for two twenties. He walked toward the door closest to the homeless woman and her mouth tightened as she watched him. Just as he limped off the train, he folded the money to hide the denomination and pressed the bills into her hand. He bowed his head slightly, murmuring, "Goodnight, Ma'am."

Whistling again, Logan walked toward the exit, staying a few yards behind a man in plain slacks and a button down shirt who must have been in a different car on the same train. A Maimonides hospital badge dangled off his belt and his black Dansko nursing shoes were polished but well-worn. Logan grinned to himself, Going my way?

He kept a steady pace as he followed the man, being careful not to overtake him, still whistling loudly. After looking over his shoulder twice, with Logan grinning dumbly and waving the second time, the man appeared to relax. Muggers don't whistle when they follow you and killers don't draw attention to themselves.

Logan followed him all the way to the staff entrance of the main hospital building, still lagging a few yards behind. He didn't break his stride when the man stopped and tapped his ID against the reader affixed to the wall. Logan passed the man just as he'd opened the door.

That's when Logan tripped, falling on his hands and knees, his right thumb catching the edge of the door and keeping it open.

"Oh, shit, you all right?" the man bent down, offering Logan his hand to help him up. Logan bit his lip hard as he could, triggering involuntary tears at the sudden pain. His voice cracked when he answered.

"Um, yeah, I think...."

The man leaned closer and Logan reached for his offered hand, squeezing tightly and groaning as he leaned heavily into his grip as he pulled himself up. Logan's other hand brushed against the man's belt, disconnecting and palming his ID.

As he stood, Logan winced, still holding tightly to the man's hand. He shifted his foot so it was now keeping the door open behind the man. "Yeah, I'm fine. That was... that was embarrassing." He brought the hand with the ID to rub at his back, slipping the badge into his back pocket. He let go of the man's hand, bending down to brush the dirt away from his knees. "Yeah, I just gotta walk it off."

"Hey, if you're gonna get hurt, outside a hospital's the right place to do it, huh?" The man eyed him carefully, looking into his eyes and watching their movement. Logan hid a smile. Very nice. Get a good look at my brown contacts as you check my pupil reaction. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine. Thanks, I appreciate it. Hey, who says there are no more Good Samaritans?"

The man chuckled, then walked through the door and Logan moved his foot, allowing the door to close behind him with a loud clunk.

Logan counted to one hundred, then used the man's badge to unlock the door again. It opened onto the middle landing in a small, windowless stairwell. Keeping his head in a neutral position, he flicked his eyes around the space, locating the cameras. He found what was likely to be a dead spot between them and wiped the badge clean on his t-shirt before dropping it and kicking it down the stairs as he went up.

He climbed the stairs until he smelled the lingering odor of cigarette smoke and smiled. There is always one. He followed the smell and on the next landing, in the corner behind a heating pipe, spotted a small soda can with cigarette ashes around the open mouth. Logan tugged at the door, covering his hand with the hem of his t-shirt and it popped open, the latch kept down by several layers of masking tape. Bingo.

Modern hospitals were getting serious about security, and that included not just the physical security of their buildings, using things like timed locks, cameras, and RFID identification badges that could be activated or deactivated remotely. You never have to change the keys or codes when someone quits because everyone's access is personalized.

They also used technology in their attempts to ensure the security and safety of their people, leveraging those same RFID badges to track the comings and goings of their staff. Such systems have a happy side effect—from HR's perspective, at least—in that most systems will also trigger warnings that some staff are leaving the ward floor too many times throughout the day, taking too many breaks, badging in and out at the exits at unauthorized times.

So, what can staffers looking for a quick hit of nicotine do? Tape up the door on the stairwell so it won't lock. Then they can take their smoke breaks out in the stairwell and the supervisors won't ever know just how many times they've stepped away. Besides, who could possibly get in all the way up here? The entire building is secured. Someone would have to already own a badge just to get into the building. Then they'd have to be pretty fucking motivated to climb up twenty flights of stairs to get in. It's fine.

Logan chuckled. Yes. Yes, it is just fine.

He walked purposefully through the open door. He was at the far end of a ward. No-one was in sight. The halls were quiet and the nurse's station dark at this pre-dawn hour. Logan mused that this was likely just the secondary station. It appeared to be a standard post-surgical floor, without critical patients who might require more constant vigilance. Besides, the networked monitors in every room would allow a single nurse to watch over a large number of patients at one time. Modern hospital work policies simply didn't require as many staff minding the halls as they used to.

Taking a moment to look around, Logan spotted a door marked 'Staff'. He bumped against the door with his shoulder as he walked past and it opened freely. He glanced at the door frame and saw it was similarly taped over with masking tape. Pivoting, he darted inside, sending a silent thank you to the nicotine addict on the floor with a lazy disposition.

The lights had been out and they automatically clicked on with his movement. The walls were lined with lockers, and there were a couple of vending machines in the back and a small, crooked table surrounded by five chairs tightly packed around it. In one corner near the door was a small sink, the kind typical for hospital rooms, with a foot-powered faucet and a small rack of PPE mounted next to it. He grinned when he saw the box containing clear, anti-allergen gloves. Logan took a pair, quickly gloving up and pocketing another few sets. He walked down the first line of lockers, pulling up on each until he'd found one that was unlocked. Inside was a dusty thermal lunch bag and malodorous Nikes. Shaking his head slightly, Logan continued his search.

He was able to open three more lockers on that side, mostly finding only useless detritus left behind by someone who didn't care enough about the contents to even bother locking it up. The third locker did have a metal clipboard and he snatched that up before beginning his search of the lockers on the other side.

Half-way down the line, he hit the metaphorical jackpot.

Hanging inside the second locker he'd tried on that side was a long, white lab coat, along with a stethoscope. Logan stripped off his red shirt and cap, then wet them both under the sink before shoving them into the covered medical waste trashcan in the corner. Removing his shoe, he tapped out the pebbles into the regular trash can next to it and laced them back up. Next, he donned the lab coat, buttoning it up all the way to obscure as much as possible of the plain grey sleep shirt he'd been wearing under the red tee. He draped the stethoscope around his neck and picked up the clipboard. Thinking for a moment, he went to the back of the break room and found a large mug. Dropping in a tea bag from the box on the counter, he filled the mug to the brim.

Tucking the clipboard under his arm, he balanced the mug in his non-dominant hand, the heavy cup tipping precipitously. He pulled open the door and made his way down the hall and toward the elevators. As he passed another empty nurses' station, he snagged a couple of pens and a small stack of formal-looking papers from the counter, securing them in the clipboard.

Standing in front of the elevators, he flipped through the papers, humming. He'd tucked one pen behind his ear, another shoved in his pocket, open, with the nub facing down and rapidly leaking dark black ink in the pocket. The third was gripped tightly in his hand and he made notations in the margins on the second page in his clipboard. He only had to wait about ten minutes before someone came along, nodding at him and murmuring, "Doctor."

"Hm? What was that?" he asked, looking up with his very best impression of a distracted deer in headlights.

The nurse laughed, "I was saying hello, Doctor."

Logan blinked a few times before smiling, forcing himself to recall that time Patton had caught him and his boyfriend making out in his bedroom, triggering an instinctive flush on his cheeks. "Oh, um, hello, sorry, I am little preoccupied today." He let his eyes linger on hers for a moment, bouncing down quickly to her lips and her breasts, then returned his attention to the clipboard he held close to his chest.

"Um, Doctor, are you taking the elevator?" she asked, stepping closer, an amused grin forcing its way across her face even as she pressed her lips tightly together.

"Mm-hm, it's slow today." He didn't look up but heard her small laugh.

"Let's try pressing the button, then."

He looked up at her words, eyebrows closely knit together as he watched her approach the elevator call buttons. She smiled at him, a barely suppressed laugh adding a lilt to her voice. "Going down?"

"Oh... I suppose I am a little too distracted, then." Logan smiled at her again, taking a sip of his 'tea' and letting some dribble on his lab coat. He scoffed, "I could probably use some sleep. I guess I'm pretty lucky you came along, huh?"

She giggled and turned toward the elevator when it dinged, the doors whispering open. He followed, dropping his pen on the way, then his clipboard. She shook her head, holding the elevator door open for him. "Thank you, um, thank you," he mumbled, hiding his face behind the clipboard as though embarrassed. He spilled a bit more tea on the floor as he moved to the back of the elevator, attempting to get re-situated, holding onto one pen in his teeth, juggling the pages threatening to slip through the loosened crimp of the top of the clipboard.

"Can I press a floor for you?" She asked, watching him struggle.

"Oh…" he pulled out the pen, tucking the now saliva—and DNA—imprinted pen in his pants pocket while he surreptitiously wiped his still-gloved hands on the side of his jeans. "Eight, please… thank you!"

"It's my pleasure, Doctor. It looks like you can use all the help you could get tonight." She smiled, scanning her badge on the RFID reader embedded in the panel. She waited for it to turn green, then pressed 17. She repeated the process for 8.

Logan huffed out a small laugh, face still buried in the clipboard. "Yes. But I've found that 'the Lord will provide.'"

---

When the elevator doors opened on the eighth floor, Logan poked his head out, looking from side to side, noting the softer lighting, thick carpet and dark wood paneling along the bump rails in the halls before stepping off the elevator completely. The rooms on this floor were spaced further apart, with only two on either side of the hallway closest to him. He strode quickly down the hall, turning right, intending to explore the floor with a series of right-hand turns until he found the room he was searching for.

Logan felt a happy jolt in his stomach when he saw the two police officers standing on either side of one of the doors at the end of the second hall. He continued his steady pace, glancing down at his clipboard before looking up at the room number, as though confirming he was in the right place. "Evening, Officers," he murmured, reaching for the door.

"Wait, Doctor, stop…" the officer on his right called out as he opened the door.

Swallowing quickly, he partially suppressed an annoyed-sounding sigh, "Yes, Officer, what is it? I know why this patient is here but he still deserves to be treated."

"Well, no, it—" the officer pointed at Logan's lab coat. "Your pen is leaking."

"Oh!" Logan moved his clipboard to the same hand as his tea, freeing his right hand. He looked down and tugged at the lab coat and sucked his teeth. He brushed at the stain while letting his left hand tip, spilling the contents of his cup down the chest and pants of the officer to his left.

"What the fu—" the officer leapt back, and Logan's eyes narrowed as he watching the man's hand jerk up to his gun, flicking the strap open before catching himself and blowing out a sharp breath. "Watch it, doc."

Logan's eyes flew open, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I've just been so clumsy today. Here, let me..." Logan approached the officer, brushing at his clothes, feeling the Kevlar armor under his shirt. The officer quickly stepped back again.

"It's fine Doctor, it's fine. I"ll go find a hand dryer or something."

"Oh, Nurse Kaye down on three always keeps a hair dryer for her patients under the nurses' station. You know, the one down by the good coffee machine." Logan smiled brightly at him, but the officer's attention was still captured by the large, cold wet spot covering the front of his trousers. Logan heard the officer next to him clear his throat.

"Yeah, Jake, you should probably go get that taken care of. It's three in the morning. This perp's not going anywhere."

Logan muttered as he shuffled his mug and clipboard between his arms, "Sorry, again. Excuse me." He opened the door all the way and slipped inside. The heavy door completely muffled the officers' voices on the other side and a hushed silence filled his ears, broken only by a quiet, periodic beep from the pulse-ox monitor next to the bed.

The slimeball was asleep, one wrist handcuffed to the bed rail.

A slow smile spread across Logan's face as he removed his lab coat, leaving it and his now-empty mug on a chair near the door. He approached the man lying in the bed, glancing down at the chart by his feet. "Mr. Utuado?" Logan, said, tapped sharply on his bandaged leg. The man's eyes shot open. "It's time to wake up, Mr. Utuado."

He stared at Logan with unfocused, blood shot eyes. He had bruises around both eye sockets and a split lip. Logan checked his IV bags. He nodded as he took in the automatic dosage machine, supplemental saline, and the tiny empty package of stool softener left behind in the trash can. "Is the morphine helping with the pain, Mr. Utuado?"

"How the fuck did you know they gave me morphine?" he spat. "And who the fuck are you? Are you supposed to be my lawyer or something?" Utuado eyed Logan's nondescript grey shirt and jeans with stuffed pockets. "You're dressed like a slob."

"Your doctors told me about your medications. Forgive me, I should've introduced myself. You requested a lawyer at the police station while they were—" Logan winced as he examined Utuado's injuries. He frowned and shook his head. "Well, I'm not surprised you're having some memory troubles. Those cops really worked you over, didn't they?" He patted Utuado's injured leg again, smiling sympathetically. "Don't you worry, though, we're gonna sue their asses for every cent they have."

Utuado's eyes widened and he licked his damaged lips. "Really? You think I could get money out of this?"

"Oh, definitely! Given the extent of your injuries... it doesn't matter what that brat has to say now... I won't let them get away with this without paying for it."

Narrowing his eyes, he asked, "What do you mean what 'that brat has to say now?' What'd she say?"

"Well, the kid says the webcam was on, but—" Logan scoffed, looking down at his clipboard and sitting on the edge of his bed, bumping the man's leg. He flinched but didn't say anything. "I don't buy it."

"The computer was off when I was in there, anyway..." Utuado muttered, looking away, reaching toward his leg.

A small smile tugged at Logan's lips. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, and it was dark in the room when—" Utuado blinked, eyes wide as he looked up at Logan. His mouth fell open slightly.

Logan prompted him, "It was dark in the room when you..." At his silence, Logan pursed his lips, putting down his clipboard. "Remember, Mr. Utuado, attorney-client privilege rules apply anytime you talk to your lawyer." He smiled sympathetically again, gazing at his battered face and mangled leg. "You've been through enough. Tell me what happened."

And he did. Utuado's eyes tightened as he described the beating at the police station. "All I did was tell that officer she was pretty. And this is what she does to me? Bitch."

"Mm-hm..." Logan's voice was strained, his expression hardening, but Utuado didn't seem to have noticed. Logan saw the light on the dosage machine flash briefly. He prodded the man, racing against the temporary stupor he knew would soon follow the dose. "And what happened before the officer caught you."

"Well, you know, I'd just finished and—" Logan stood, taking out the small velvet bag he'd brought from his dresser at home. "Hey, you aren't recording this or anything, right?" Utuado's voice held a twinge of panic.

"No, of course not. That would be entrapment and any decent attorney would have that recording dismissed from evidence before the ink was dry on your hospital release papers." Logan smiled, eyes steely. "No, no, no, no. That's not what I have here."

Logan extracted a small hypodermic from the bag, and quickly pushed it into Utuado's IV line, bypassing the saline drip. "This is Pancuronium bromide." Logan smiled as the man's arm twitched. "Are you familiar with it?"

Utuado's eyes widened as the muscles in his arm contracted unevenly but before he could call out, his entire body convulsed, then went still. "It's a paralytic." Logan smiled and he gripped the blanket covering Utuado's injured leg, clawing at the contusion. "But it won't interfere with pain sensation." He stared into Utuado's eyes, watching the way his pupils contracted and expanded. "I know you felt that. Don't worry, though, the end will come soon enough."

Still smiling, Logan continued. "Given this dosage, after a few hours, your smooth muscles will finally stop functioning. I could leave you like this as you slowly suffocated. Conscious. Alive and aware of every sensation, unable to beg for mercy, right up until the very end."

Logan's smile disappeared. "Did she beg for you to stop hurting her? The little girl?"

Squeezing his leg again, digging his fingers into the wound, Logan watched Utuado's eyes. "I bet she did. I did. We always do.

"And I'm going to give you the same mercy you gave her."

Giving his leg one final twist, Logan wiped the blood from his gloved hand on the blanket where it had started to pour through the dressing. Tugging another clean glove over the first, he removed the other hypodermic from his bag. "I don't know how much time we have left otherwise, believe me, Mr. Utuado, I'd make this last longer."

Holding up the hypodermic, Logan smiled again. "This is potassium chloride." He shrugged. "It's in Gatorade. It's a simple compound, but our physiology is so fragile. A tiny imbalance in electrolytes can be... fatal."

He tapped at the fluid. "Even three or four cc's at this concentration directly administered via IV could trigger cardiac arrest. More than that and your smooth muscles will seize, causing horrific pain in your lungs, intestines, esophagus, urethrae... It's used in lethal injections, but even capital punishment laws require that it must be administered in conjunction with a painkiller." Logan's grin grew as he held his little bag upside down, shaking it to show it was now empty. "Alas, I'm all out."

Logan pressed the entire contents of the 100cc needle into the IV as he leaned close to the man's ear.

"You've hurt a child for the last time, Mr Utuado. I'll see you in hell."

---

Logan peeled off his gloves and shoved the soiled ones into the pocket of his jeans as he watched the light die in Utuado's eyes. He put on one last clean pair and then his lab coat. He picked up the clipboard and his mug, breathing in and out rapidly, bringing himself close to the point of hyperventilation. He threw the mug on the floor next to the bed, then rushed to the door, ripping it open, pleased to see that the officer he'd sent on a wild goose chase for a fictional nurse and her hairdryer was still gone.

"Officer! Officer!" he cried out breathlessly. "The call button's broken in here! I'll get a crash cart! Go, go, go, go! Get a nurse, he stopped breathing!"

The officer's eyes flew open and he rushed off in the direction Logan had pointed, the opposite direction of the nurse's station he'd passed on his way. Glancing one last time at the room, Logan felt his pockets for the velvet bag, emptied hypodermic needles, and used gloves. He walked through the door and toward the closest stairwell.

Logan walked all the way down to the sub-basement, following the growing smell of bleach and the faint tinge of burnt linen. After a few minutes, he found the laundry room. He stripped off the lab coat and checked the collar for stray hairs before stuffing it in a pile of laundry in a canvas cart. Still gripping the clipboard and stethoscope, he popped on his eyeglasses, pulling his hair forward in its usual style. He spotted a red stripe along the wall and followed it upstairs to an emergency exit, the key to disable the alarm taped to the side of the door. Smiling one more time at this evening's luck, he inserted the key and turned it before pressing gingerly on the push bar. Not a peep.

He walked through the door, keeping his back to the single camera aimed near the exit and headed to the M42 bus back home to Gravesend. He passed a urine-scented alley five blocks down from the hospital, with an over-flowing dumpster. He shoved the stethoscope and clipboard inside, puncturing a bag and letting its foul contents fall over his temporary props.

Logan nodded when he glanced at his watch under a streetlight. He still had time for his shower before he needed to be up for the NASDAQ, the actual market he was watching today.

And after he was clean, it would be wise to make some time for breakfast. He hoped Patton hadn't found his stash of Crofter's yet.

---

taglist: @mavenmush @demon9980 @crossiantgay @psychedelicships @justmeandmygayships @tsfanficarchive

[edupunkn00b]

I have the self control of Remus on meth and caved and read @melaniidarling​ 's haunting fic.

💙 Wow. 💚

I am so glad I read it! It's beautiful and heartbreaking (mind those tags, folks!)

(I am quietly Ignoring the knowing laughter of my friends who know i have a bad habit of ignoring tags and then affectionately complaining how much a fic hurt me.)

I am also deeply relieved that we have such different ideas about a serial killer Logan. Having such different approaches gives me a fighting chance of not tripping over my own feet, failing to measure up to your fic, melaniidarling! :)

Here’s where I’m going with this story (the full fic is coming out for @intrulogicalweek2021​, but here’s some Logan backstory. (Logan knows what to do when the bad guys win...)

When The Bad Guys Win - Ch. 2: Big Brother

When The Bad Guys Win - Ch. 2: Little Brother

Remus’ backstory is in the first three stories in the History | Matchr series, and includes Birthday Drinks, The Comedy of Horrors, and For The Last Time.

A dating service where matching is based on people’s search history exists. You’re a serial killer. You go on a date with a writer.

[edupunkn00b]

Chapters: 1/2 Fandom: Sanders Sides (Web Series) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Logic | Logan Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders Additional Tags: Familial logicality - Freeform, big brother!patton, younger brother!logan, Alternate Universe - Human, History | Matchr Universe, detective!patton, oml we found a good cop, a detective‚ at least, they are roommates and brothers, we're saving the romance for the future Intrulogical‚ okay?, (sadly‚ not in this fic), vague discussion of a crime, vague discussion of an arrest that led to a hospitalization, vague vague vague vague Series: Part 4 of History | Matchr, Part 4 of AUgust 2021 Summary:

Logan Sanders knows what to do when the bad guys win.

[edupunkn00b]

When The Bad Guys Win, Ch. 1: Big Brother

When The Bad Guys Win, Ch. 1: Big Brother When The Bad Guys Win, Ch 2: Little Brother

Rated G - Vague discussion of crime and hospitalization - WC 1438 [ AO3 ] - Part of the History | Matchr Universe TSS AUgust Day 6: Roommates

Logan Sanders knows what to do when the bad guys win. ---

Logan's eyes shot open, something sudden and loud waking him and he lay still. The apartment was quiet, as though the walls themselves held their breath after a sudden noise. His room was perfectly dark, allowing him to keep his eyes open wide to maintain his night vision. He breathed quietly, listening. There was a scraping sound, and the quiet clunk of a cabinet being closed.

Silently, Logan reached under his pillow for the 7-inch cylinder he kept there and slipped out of his bed. With a sharp flick of his wrist, he opened the telescoping steel baton and held it behind his leg. He opened the door with his other hand, listening. He looked down either end of the hallway, noticing bits of shadow moving at one end of the hall. The light was on in the kitchen, and someone was moving around. Logan's eyes flicked to Patton's door—it was closed and no light shone underneath. Patton appeared to be asleep.

Quickly, Logan padded down the hallway on the balls of his feet, avoiding the two spots in the floor he knew would creak. He approached the kitchen doorway, readying the baton. Suddenly, Patton moved around the refrigerator and screamed.

Logan quickly collapsed the baton, slipping it into his pocket. "Oh, sorry, Pat, I didn't mean to startle you. I was just going to get a glass of water." He rubbed at the back of his neck, intentionally slouching to appear shorter than his older brother.

Patton let out a high-pitched laugh, hand gripping his chest. "Oh, don't worry about it Kiddo! You didn't startle me…" Logan raised an eyebrow, grinning. "Okay, maybe you startled me a little."

Logan retrieved a glass from the cabinet and opened the refrigerator, eyes scanning the counter tops and the sink as he did so. He saw the open cabinets and that the small step stool they normally stored next to the dishwasher was open and set in front of the highest shelves. "Pat, what are you doing up? It is quite late for you."

"Oh, Lo… I was trying so hard to be quiet, too. I did wake you…"

Logan drank half his water then gently took the pan out of Patton's hands. Logan spotted where there was a tiny new dent on the edge of the saucepan, nodding to himself. Heavy pan + floor? That's probably what woke me. "How about you sit down and I'll make you the hot chocolate?"

"How did you know I was going to make hot chocolate?" Patton's mouth hung open. "I haven't taken it out yet."

Logan laughed, "You have the step stool out. Clearly you were looking for the marshmallows I hid, Detective."

"Are you sure you don't want a job down at the precinct?"

Still laughing, Logan shook his head, "Oh, you don't want me there."

"You're right," Patton chuckled, "You'd make me look bad." Patton shook his head, pulling out a chair at the kitchen table. "Shouldn't I be the one making hot cocoa for his little bro in the middle of the night?"

Logan smiled, pulling out the box of baking chocolate and a can of condensed milk. "Consider it the first payment in a long-overdue debt for all the many nights you've done this for me after I'd had a nightmare or…" Logan let the rest of his sentence go unfinished. He rubbed at the crooked ring and middle fingers on his left hand and gave Patton a little half-smile. Clearing his throat, he opened the glasses cabinet and, stretching, moved aside a tin of teas. Reaching blindly, he retrieved a small bag of mini-marshmallows.

"That's where you hid them!" Patton cried out, laughing.

Logan chuckled, "And if I hadn't hid them, we wouldn't have any now for hot chocolate, would we?"

After a few minutes of measuring and stirring, Logan poured the steaming concoction into two large mugs. He set them down on the table and pulled out spoons, napkins and the—now smaller—bag of marshmallows. Patton smiled his thanks and began plopping marshmallows over the top of his drink. Logan slowly stirred his, peering closely at Patton.

There was only one thing that kept his ordinarily deep-sleeping brother awake this late at night.

"Want to talk about it?" Logan asked, looking at his cup and not his brother.

Patton sighed, resting his elbow on the table, holding his head in his hand. "Am I that obvious?"

"I know the work takes a lot out of you, and…" Logan shrugged, "And nothing's worse than when the bad guys win."

"Well, the bad guys haven't won yet, but…" Patton popped a marshmallow into his mouth, rolling it around while he grasped and failed to find a pun. "Truth and justice are at about a seven in the countdown, though, and heading for a knock out."

Logan took a careful sip of his hot chocolate, watching Patton over the edge of the cup. "Tell me what happened."

Patton made a face and gulped from his drink. "It's the same old story. Slimeball says the kid is lying but we all know the truth. We just can't prove it." Logan's face grew dark and he set down his cup. "And to top it all off, we broke protocol. One of the arresting officers was also on the scene when we found the kid and she, uh, used a bit more force than was strictly necessary.

"The creep's in the hospital now." Patton raised his hand, "Yeah, I know ACAB, but he'll be fine. It's for observation. They're likely going to release him in the morning." Patton took another long pull on his hot chocolate. "So not only will the guy walk but he's going to end up with a nice payout at the taxpayer's expense."

Logan shook his head in sympathy, looking down at his cup. "Did they at least send him to Bellvue?"

Patton scoffed, "They're out of secured beds. He's in a cushy suite at Maimonides." Patton rolled his eyes. "Nothing but the best for criminals who hurt kids, right?"

"I'm so sorry, Pat, that really sucks." Logan put his hands in his lap. He looked at Patton, eyes full of sympathy, while he fiddled with his watch. After a minute, he leaned forward, reaching for Patton's hands across the table. "Is there anything I can do?"

Patton grinned, "You made me hot cocoa, Little Bro, what more could I need from you?"

Logan smiled back, taking another sip of his hot chocolate. Suddenly his watch alarm went off.

"Oh, no, already?" Logan swore under his breath, tapping at the buttons on his watch.

"Language!" Logan rolled his eyes and Patton shrugged. "Big brother rights." He tilted his chin toward Logan's watch. "Big sale on Nikkei?" Patton guessed. The last time Logan had his alarm set for an absurd hour, he'd told Patton he was trying to catch one of the international markets while his competitor fellow day traders were still snoozing.

Logan sighed, "London Stock Exchange." He swallowed the last of his hot chocolate, then quickly poured what was left from the saucepan into Patton's mug and rinsed it in the sink. "I need a new USB key, too, there's some Bitcoin action, and my package never arrived. I need to go hit the bodega." He kissed his brother on the top of the head. "Finish your hot chocolate and try to get some sleep. You'll get the bad guys in the end. I know you will."

He rushed back to his room, quickly changing into plain blue jeans. He yanked the tags off a cheap, bright red t-shirt and layered it over his plain grey sleep shirt. He popped in his contacts and put his frames without correction on over his face, tucking his real glasses in their case in his pocket.

Peeking into the hallway to see that Patton was still in the kitchen, Logan quickly closed his door and opened his bottom drawer, shoving the clothes aside to reveal the little tab that would open its false bottom. He pulled out a small bag from inside, along with his thinnest black gloves. Shoving both in his pockets, he replaced the false bottom, carefully tidying the stacks of sweaters he never wore, then closed the drawer.

Tucking his wallet and keys into his pockets, along with his drugstore Trakfone, he put on the matching red baseball cap he'd picked up at the same dollar store and closed his bedroom door.

"See ya, Pat! Don't wait up… as soon as I get back I'll need to jump online," he called to his brother. "Get some sleep!" --- @tsshipmonth2020

[edupunkn00b]

My Heart is On My Sleeve and my Fics are on AO3

AO3 | Honesty Hour | Logan’s Master Schedule | Art

Just Like Magic - Endgame QPP Mage Loceit and more

Other Current Stories:

💚🩵Villains Aren't Born. They're Made.: Intruality ancient deity AU

🩵💙Where the Air is Sweet: a month of short and sweet Logicality fluff

Increasingly Inaccurately Named Coming Soon List:

On a Butterfly's Wing - Intrulogical Week 2024 story (coming November 3rd)

Thrall - The conclusion of the vampire/werewolf Beside Me universe, takes place immediately after Ours and Dee

Echoes of Our Future - Platonic (?) Intrulogical, canon(ish)verse, part of Echoes of the Past October writing event

Recently Completed Stories:

Intruality Week 2024: Roomies

Guardian ad Liber: A(n Intru)loceit Happily Ever After Butterfly Story

💙💚Meus ex Machina💛🧡 and Progression, Superhero/Villain AU

Spaced: When Thomas spaced and forgot about Roman's birthday

Mise Out of Place: The Patton and Remus Cooking Show we knew we all wanted. Keep the fire extinguisher handy, Virge.

Decoherence: Intrulogical human AU for tss-storytime

A Light in the Darkness - Magical AU, Logan-centric, Will o' the wisps

Ours, a Royality Week story set in the same universe as Beside Me, Dee, and the upcoming Thrall.

The Uses of Adversity - Logince butterfly story from the Happily Ever After universe in which Janus met Remus at Jack's party. He never walked home alone and never became friends with Logan.

Overruled - Butterfly story from the Happily Ever After universe in which Logan never met Kelly. He does, however, meet Janus and Remus

Recent One-shots:

You'll Ruin the Surprise - (Good Omens)

Time Travelers Point and Laugh at Archeologists - Intruanalogical "modern" magic AU

Lucas Is a Part of You That Loves You - canonverse Orange!side

A Winter's Tale- Intrulogical human AU

Cold Hands, Warm Heart - Remy/Janus canonverse fluff

The Tutor, Intrulogical high school AU

Recent multi-chap fics:

French Kiss: Tale of the Revolution - Dukeceit. What happens when a revolutionary spy falls in love with the future King of France? What happens when Prince Remus loves him back

Arizona's Journal - Select entries from Arizona Tate's journal while Remus worked in Copenhagen. Takes place between And I Feel Fine and Happily Every After

Everyone Leaves - Canonverse collab. with lost-in-thought-20

Do Androids Dream of Electric Jam? - Intrulogical, Roceit, Future Dystopia

Variations on a Sin - Intrulogical Week story, prequel to Play Us a Song

Just Like Magic - Magic AU, platonic Loceit (WIP)

Revisions, A New Year Old Tropes Event Story

Out of the Machine, Superheroes, Villains, and Vigilantes

Dee - Sequel to Beside Me

Punks, Poets, Parents Human AU, punk!Remus

Smoke, Snakes, and Soulmates - collab. with typically-untypical, vexelore, and thecrowslullaby for treeni

A Little Bit of Love (Wouldn’t Do Us Any Harm) - part of the Side by Side in the Mindscape canon-ish series (Masterpost)

Matchr, the final story in the History | Matchr series

Play Us A Song (Human AU, Logince, past Intrulogical) - [ AO3 ]

Side by Side in the Mindscape - Includes Shackled, Servatis (a) Curiositas (Saving Curiosity), Intrusive Truths, To the First and the Last , and entire Overture - Canon-ish Sanders Sides Fan Fic, Post-POF/Post WTIT  ❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🩷 

The Happily Ever After/Logan, Janus, Roman, Remus series

Happily Ever After (T)- Logan Sanders thought he had secured a fairy tale ending when he married Kelly Croft, mother to his first child. Perhaps Logan should have spent less time in the non-fiction sections and more time reading actual fairy tales. (2019 - 2021)

Objections (M)- Janus and Logan meet in law school. Logan and Roman meet. Janus and Roman meet. Janus and Remus meet. Buckle up, it's a bumpy ride. (2001 - 2003)

And I Feel Fine (T)- 12/21/12 was supposed to be the end of the world. Roman and Remus Prince, Janus Pater, and Logan Croft will soon find out what this year has in store for them. (2012)

What Might Have Been (M) - The butterfly effect gets all the press, those tiny little changes that ripple through time. It’s easy to forget that the big decisions matter, too. (2021 - 2023)

Other Series

Play Us A Song (Human AU, Logince, past Intrulogical) - [ AO3 ]

Beside Me (Vampire AU, Dukexiety, ...?)

History | Matchr (Human AU, future Intrulogical, Roceit, past Dukeceit), including Matchr, the final story in the series

Side by Side in the Mindscape - Includes Shackled, Servatis (a) Curiositas (Saving Curiosity), Intrusive Truths, To the First and the Last , and entire Overture - Canon-ish Sanders Sides Fan Fic, Post-POF/Post WTIT  ❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🩷 

Butterfly Stories - Overruled (Alternate to Objections)

Remy & Emile - Happily’s Remile needed their own fic

Shorts and One-Shots, Event Series

Happily Ever After Minis (Series) - Intrulogical and Roceit, post Happily Ever After and/or post Happily Ever After/WMHB

Blink and You’ll Miss It - Nicomas/Karrot Kings

Analogical Week 2021 Series - Some fluffy platonic Analogical

May Flowers Event 2021 - Fluffy & angsty ship stories (WIP)

Holiday Stories

3.14159265 ... - Pie-based Pi Day Celebration with a fluffy crust

The Sides Celebrate Hanukkah - platonic DRLAMPT

Fear Response - Halloween exchange fic, rated G, shapeshifter AU

Anything - Halloween exchange fic, rated M, human/magic AU

Doctor Who/Sanders Sides Crossovers

The Best of Humanity -The Doctor must find a way to save humanity from its greatest threat. Hint: humanity’s greatest threat isn’t off-planet. #you dear sir are a timelord

More Time With You - (WIP) - A soulmate crossover AU between Sanders Sides and Doctor Who. Yes, that escalated quickly. Sides are Souls.

Run - The Heart Breaker I Can’t Make Myself Delete: This was originally meant to be the last chapter of More Time With You

Some of my favorite stories from the series that I like to call out:

Rain - Intrulogical, post Happily Ever After/WMHB

A Thousand Years and a Thousand Scars - Intrulogical, post Happily Ever After (Angst & Fluff)

Morning Coffee and Kisses - Intrulogical, post Happily Ever After/WMHB

Arizona's Journal (WIP)

This link is a little finicky: Tumblr Archive

Side Blogs

(As in, my other Tumblrs, not blogs for the Sides but OML don't get me started...) I've hit max links, so just the names.

edupunkbitch - (vent blog. i swear, rouse the rabble, whine, rant, and complain)

intrulogialweek - my passion :D

intrualityweek - the passion I didn't know I had

laboratorysoundsystem - Logan's lab has a sound system that plays Spotify near non-stop

eduwrites - nothing there yet... working on it

loganslaboratory - a place for my infrequent visual art experiments

saviorofdandysuits - Good Omens side blog

doctorthembo - Doctor Who side blog

captains-scribe - Our Flag Means Death side blog

[edupunkn00b]

Sending it back to you!!

How many wips do you have right now, and which one are you most excited for??

(and if you want to answer, which do you scroll past, if you have one?) 😊 - red-imeanblue, from my main

Thank you for the ask! :)

I have 13 WIPs

I am most excited for my two Big Bang WIPs, Do Us Any Harm (part of/the conclusion of the Side by Side in the Mindscape series), and Punks, Poets, Parents, a punk!Remus story. I am also really excited for Matchr, my story for @intrulogicalweek2021 (unsurprisingly, part of the History | Matchr series), as well as two more stories in the Happily Ever After universe, Dr. Sanders-Patshki and Dreams & Nightmares.

Oh, and I'm super excited for Dee, a continuation of my Dukexiety-turned(ha)-Intruanalogical vampire fic, Beside Me, and a couple of (dear Remus they have to be short one-shots and not new AUs with complicated non-linear narratives please) stories for AUgust.

Um, yeah, I'm really excited for these WIPs.

The WIP I keep scrolling past is my poor neglected baby, More Time With You. ...speaking of complicated, non-linear narratives (it's literally about time-travelling soulmates).

[edupunkn00b]

🌹

Thank you again for the lovely Asks!! :)

This one is from my upcoming Intrulogical Week story, Matchr, #8 in the list, part of the History | Matchr universe that's already gotten a bit of published love. Line 89 is kind of funny.

"She said, 'I have three kids and a mortgage... I can't be gay.' "

[edupunkn00b]

My favorite part of this playlist is that it works both for my Dukeceit stories in the canon-ish universe and those in the human AU. I've basically been listening to it on Non-stop repeat since Dukexiety Week finished.

History | Matchr (Human AU)

Birthday Drinks

The Comedy of Horrors

For The Last Time (Day 7)

Side by Side in the Mindscape

A Study in Green and Yellow

Waking Up is Hard to Do

Creativity Freed

Intrusive Truths

To The First And The Last (Day 7)

Psst... We'll see more of both of these universes soon. Side By Side in the Mindscape already has several stories and will wrap up with my TS Storytime Big Bang story. We'll also have more in the History | Matchr for TS AUgust and, of course, @intrulogicalweek2021

A little Dukeceit music...

@dukeceitweek

[edupunkn00b]

Matchr, my Intrulogical Week story, begins shortly after this story and Birthday Drinks end.

ID: Close up photo of a green integrated circuit board by Harland Quarrington, via Wikimedia Commons. Used under Creative Commons License 1.0

When The Bad Guys Win, Ch. 2: Little Brother

When The Bad Guys Win - Big Brother - Little Brother - [ AO3 ]

Part of the History | Matchr Universe

Rated T: WC: 4588

CW: referenced past assault, referenced past assault on child, hospitals, references capital punishment, assault, swearing, minor character death, blue+orange make grey

Logan Sanders knows what to do when the bad guys win.

—

Logan removed his faux eyeglasses as soon as he was out of Patton’s sight.

Once downstairs, he slipped through the back entrance of their lobby, holding down the handle as he slowly let the door close, releasing the latch only once the door was fully in place. The muffled click was barely audible to his own ears and would have been imperceptible to anyone else in the building.

If anyone had happened to be awake and wandering the lobby at two o'clock in the morning, that is.

Logan scooped up a few pebbles from the greenscape just outside the exit, depositing them in his pocket for later. He jogged the four block distance to the D train and bought a Metrocard from the bodega with a C- health department rating closest to the station. He paid with cash.

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