Chapter Text
Patton was doing a little spring cleaning when he found the box, actually spring cleaning wasn't the right way to phrase it. Patton would never throw away any of the memories he kept in his room, they were all too precious, but he loved sifting through them from time to time. Unearthing old birthday cards or forgotten photos taken by family or friends.
Speaking of photos, the box was full of them, from Thomas being around eight and playing on the swings to the start of his teenage years and him heading off to his first day of high school. Patton had no idea how he'd never come across these photos before, they were all such fond memories! They must have appeared in his room without him knowing because he'd never have buried photos that reminded him of such great memories of the past this deep. He hadn't forgotten how adorable Thomas had been when he was a kid but this was a pleasant reminder.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door, "come in!" The door opened and Virgil entered the room. Patton perked up "Hi kiddo, did ya need anything?" Virgil wouldn't look him in the eyes, "just thought you might want to know that I'm probably not going to be at dinner tonight." Patton frowned, "why not?" "Just.. not feeling very well". "What's wrong? are you sick? Do you want me to make some chicken soup?" Virgil shook his head "don't worry about it Patton, I'm just not feeling up to it tonight, figured I'd tell you so that you didn't make too much food". "Oh, well feel better soon and if you decide to join us we've always got leftovers!" Virgil still wouldn't meet his eyes "Yeah, I'll keep it in mind". Virgil closed the door behind him as he left and Patton directed his gaze back to the box of old photos.
Gosh he wished everything could be like it was back then, when it was all so easy and Patton got along with everybody. Everybody had needed Patton back then, to tell them what was right and what was wrong. To bake cookies for lunch or to take care of them when Thomas (and by default everyone else) got sick. Now sometimes he doubted Thomas even needed him. Patton wished there was someone who needed him again, who would come to him for everything because they wanted him to help. Standing up Patton grabbed a scrapbook and a glue stick out of his deskside drawer. Turning the book to the nearest empty page Patton began sticking the newly found photos into the book, telling himself he would decorate the pages accordingly after he made dinner. Looking through the older pages of the scrapbook Patton looked at all the old photos, some were of Thomas though the majority were of the sides themselves, 12-year-old Roman bowing after performing his one man rendition of The Lion King, 14-year-old Logan so engrossed in Thomas's reading for chemistry he hadn't even noticed Patton had his camara out. A few incredibly old Photos of before Janus had left and that hurt to look at sometimes. Even one green stick figure drawing that had been shakily slid under Patton's door late one night when he was 11.
He didn't have any photos of Virgil in his scrapbook, well that wasn't completely true. He had plenty of photos of him in his scrapbook, the oldest being right after Virgil had been accepted with Patton insisting on taking a photo to celebrate, but there were no photos of when he had been a child. Patton had asked Virgil if he had any once, with Virgil shaking his head upon being asked why Virgil had just responded with "who would have cared enough to have taken one?" Patton would've cared enough, if he had met Virgil when they were children, but he didn't. Virgil was probably a cute kid, he thought. If Patton wanted to go about it realistically then he could have guessed exactly what Virgil looked like when he was a child due to the fact that they all looked the same as parts of Thomas's personality, but thinking realistically was Logan's job. Even though they all technically looked the same there was something different about everybody. Virgil's thing was probably his eyeshadow or his bangs. Patton just wished he'd met Virgil earlier, he was his Kiddo after all.
Wow, boy was there was a lot on Patton's mind tonight, but he had had plenty of things to think about recently. Everything was turning out to be so grey instead of the black and white he had thought it was, everybody was so complicated and it felt like all his relationships were deteriorating and he didn't know what to do. He just wished he had someone who needed him again... or someone who had to need him, someone who didn't have a choice in the matter. Like a kiddo of his own to take care of. He thought back to how Virgil wasn't feeling well tonight and probably wouldn't be as vigilant as usual if somebody tried to do anything. He was just about to go check if Virgil was feeling drowsy when he realized what time it was. 6:00, he had to start making dinner! He could check on Virgil later but for now he had to put on some Mac&Cheese. Patton grinned, everything was going to turn out fine. He would have to finish his scrapbooking later though.