#prompt fill: 'if i hear pumpkin spice one more time i'm going to scream'

[sign-from-god-complex]

Hello again! (I'm the one who asked about requests) might I suggest... autistic sides/side hopping in crunchy leaves for sound stim + happy flapping arms? It's so fun, I love the crunchy noise

Falling Leaves

Summary: Patton adored the fall.

Not for the cooler weather or the variety of pumpkin-spiced food items—though he liked those things too. No, Patton adored the fall for all the leaves that came with it, leaping and bouncing from crunch to crunch, boots hitting the pavement and bringing a smile to his face.

Logan learns to understand this.

Pairing: Platonic Logicality

A/N: Lucky for you, I adored this prompt and started writing it pretty much as soon as I saw it. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had writing a fic in quite a long time, even if it’s not particularly complex or emotional. So here! I hope you enjoy!

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Patton hopped across the sidewalk outside their house, jumping from one leaf to the next and delighting at the sounds they produced. Some were wet and disappointing, smushing under his boots and leaving an absence in his chest but some—some—made that wonderful…

“Crunch.”

Patton echoed the word aloud as another leaf was flattened beneath his shoes, unable to stop the giggle that erupted from his chest. It felt childish but, at the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to care—people were always gonna judge him for one thing or another, might as well have fun with it.

“Crunch, crunch,” Patton echoed again, stepping on two different leaves in quick succession. Unfortunately, one did not make the lovely noise he had expected and he frowned for a moment, searching around for one that would.

“Patton, what are you doing out here?”

Glancing up from the ground, Patton saw Logan approaching him, groceries in hand from his trip to the shops. Patton gave him a big grin and watched Logan nod his head in acknowledgement—not really one for exaggerated expressions.

“I’m crunching the leaves!” Patton explained, eyes still distractedly scanning the ground for any that he might have missed, “They make this really cool sound when you step on ‘em and it’s-”

The rest of that sentence was simply Patton flapping his hands happily but he was sure Logan was familiar enough with that stim to understand exactly what he was trying to convey.

Logan simply hummed his reply, seemingly satisfied with the explanation, before turning to head into the house and leaving Patton to his crunching.

It was only a few minutes before Patton found himself mostly out of fresh leaves. Autumn had only really just begun and Patton had possibly jumped the gun in his leaf excursion but in his defence, he had been really excited. Now though, Patton headed inside, knowing that the cold seeping into his exposed arms and legs had demanded it far before he’d decided it was worth it to listen.

Logan wandered into the hall at the sound of the door closing, just catching Patton’s sigh as he rubbed at his arms, trying to warm up a bit. 

“Why did you return so quickly? You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”

He had a feeling Logan only really knew that because Patton had told him as such. The reasoning behind it was irrelevant anyway, he was just happily surprised that Logan even cared enough to ask.

“I’m out of leaves,” Patton stated plainly.

“Out of leaves? What do you mean? There’s an infinitesimal amount of leaves in Flo-”

“Lo, I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

Logan blinked for a moment. “…Well, regardless, I think it’s near impossible for you to run out of leaves”

“I mean, around the area, at least. I’m sure there’s some elsewhere but we’re not elsewhere, are we?”

Patton tried not to be too overtly disappointed by his statement, knowing that though Logan may not be the most intuitive of the four of them, he was almost certainly scanning Patton for any irregularity in his body language.

“We could be…” Logan said thoughtfully.

A confused sound drew from Patton’s throat but no one was there to hear it as Logan had already ascended the stairs out of Patton’s line of sight.

Almost immediately, Patton picked up a stim toy from the kitchen table, fiddling with it absentmindedly and wondering if Logan had any real plans to return.

He had a tendency to do things like that, wandering off, poorly estimating the amount of time his task will take and returning several hours later as if he expected the person he left to still be there. Or sometimes he would want the person to follow but wouldn’t clearly instruct it, resulting in him turning around to say something and finding only empty space.

Just as Patton was about to head up to see if he was needed, Logan finally came back into view, several coats and scarves piled in his hands. Carefully, he passed one to Patton who opened it up to find his favourite winter coat—light blue with little white pawprints on it and fur around the hood. 

“Would you like to go for a walk with me?” Logan asked as Patton looked up at him questioningly, “We can find more leaves on the way.”

The grin Patton gave him was blinding. “I think I’d like that.”

——————————————

He flapped his hands absently as Logan locked the door behind the two of them, anticipating all the fun stimming to come.

Stepping on leaves was such a seasonal thing, giving him only a small window to be able to enjoy it, and Patton was delighted at the chance to wring as much pleasure out of it as he could.

There was quiet as they walked, occasionally interspersed with excited giggles or a muttered “crunch” from Patton. Logan didn’t seem to be paying Patton too much mind but sometimes when Patton flapped particularly hard he caught Logan drumming his fingers against his thigh quickly—a stim of his own—so he knew he was being granted at least some of Logan’s attention.

Logan spoke up as they turned a corner, hearing Patton make an awed noise at the number of leaves he could see.

“What is… the appeal… of this exactly?” Logan’s voice was careful, not judging but mostly curious—exactly what Patton would have expected from him.

Patton hummed for a second as he thought, stepping on a nearby leaf.

“Well… part of it is trying to figure out which leaves are gonna make the sounds you want. I think that’s the bit that’d appeal to you, anyway. You gotta look at the leaf very carefully—” he interrupted himself with a short hop, smiling at the crunch that resulted—“so you know which one’s the right kind of leaf!”

“And what are the criteria for the… right kind of leaf?” Logan asked, eying the ground with a kind of suspicion that Patton had to try not to giggle at.

“I can’t tell you, Lo, that’d take all the fun out of it!”

Logan furrowed his brow for a moment, screwing up his mouth before taking a step forward onto one of the leaves in their path. Patton watched his shoulders drop at the way it was smushed into the concrete but rather than becoming discouraged Logan scanned the ground again, taking another step forward. 

This time, as Logan’s boot descended upon the leaf, Patton heard a—“Crunch.”—Patton’s word quietly mirroring the sound Logan had created.

He glanced briefly at Logan, seeing the corners of his mouth quirk up ever so slightly, his hand moving to tap quickly against his leg again. Thankfully, Logan didn’t return the look, eyes focused firmly on the ground where more leaves could be found.

With a quick scan of the walkway, Patton bounded forward a rather large distance, landing on another leaf and grinning as he was successful yet again.

“Crunch.”

He turned his grin on Logan, watching him step on every leaf before him until finally reaching one of the right ones.

“Crunch,” Logan replied softly and Patton beamed in response. 

Their walk, while fairly quiet before, was now filled with twice as many quiet crunches—both from the leaves underfoot and the mouths of the two walking. 

Patton was happy flapping twice as much too, ecstatic to be sharing in this experience with someone else for the first time since his childhood. He had been a bit worried that Logan wouldn’t enjoy it or would think it was too silly—as opposed to Patton, Logan had issues surrounding not being taken seriously—but he was so very glad to be proven wrong. 

And as they arrived back at the house, Logan saying goodbye with a nod and a small smile that hadn’t been present before, Patton made a mental note to ask Logan out for a walk again before fall was over.

Taglist: @mutechild @super-magical-wizard @shadowsfromthesun @teadays @sandersships @camcam774 @autism-goblin @deadlyhuggles6 @romanthestarstruckqueer @whispers-stuff-in-your-ear @rainboots-are-for-snobs @sanders-and-sides @spirits-in-my-thoughts @kee-and-co @autistic-virgil @stop-it-anxiety @figurative-falsehood @jadedfantasies231 @poisonedapples @sanders-screams @another-sandersidesblog @do-not-just-see-observe @mychemicalpanicattheemo @thomassandersenthusiast @localagendergrape @fandomsofrandom @idosanderssidespromptssometimes