Logan wrote another line of the essay he had been writing for the past five hours. He removed his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose, sighing wearily. Logan needed stress relief. Setting the pen down and readjusting his glasses, he stood from his desk and cracked open his door, peaking out into the mind palace hallway. The grandfather clock told him it was three in the morning. Who else would be crazy enough to be awake at this hour?
The intelligent side opened the door further, stepping cautiously into the hallway. The question, it seemed, answered itself, as there was only one other room with its lights still on: Virgil’s.
Logan padded down the hall silently, knocking softly on the purple door.
“Virgil?” he whispered. “May I come in?”
There was silence and then some shuffling, and he heard the creaking of the bedsprings. Then, finally, the door opened a tiny bit, and he saw Virgil’s curious purple eye.
“Do you… need something?” the anxious side whispered back. “My room’s a… little messy…”
“I don’t mind a bit, Virgil.”
Silence again. Then the door opened, and Logan was pulled unceremoniously inside, shutting behind him. Cobwebs and crumpled notebook paper filled the room, illuminated by a single desk lamp.
“I-I’m sorry for the mess-“
Logan’s hug cut off Virgil’s apology.
“U-uh… This is new… and nice-” He cautiously hugged back.
“Virgil, I’ve been working all day… I need to unwind.”
“Okay, I get that; trust me, I do, but I don’t know what the word ‘unwind’ means.”
“Do I have your permission to use you as a stress ball?”
“As a… as a what??” Again, Virgil was cut off by some quickly-placed squeezes to his sides from Logan, smiling softly as the purple side began squeaking, collapsing to the floor. “WHAHA WAHAHAIT-!”
“Just a few tickles, hun, then I’ll leave.”
Virgil resigned himself to this tickly fate, as it was clear to them that he thoroughly enjoyed this. Logan’s tickles were methodical, wiggling and scribbling with surgical precision in all the places he knew Virgil loved.
“You look adorable when tickled. Did you know that?”
“SHUHUHUT UHUHUHUP, FOHOHOUR-EHEHEYES!”
Logan chuckled. “Rude. Why so hostile? I’m doing what you want.”
Virgil began hiccupping, a sign for Logan to stop. He laid the anxious side on the creaky bed and ruffled his hair.
“Thank you. Your laughter acts as a very good therapeutic.” Logan turned off the lamp light as he walked out, closing the door as the other side fell asleep with a big smile on his face. “Back to work,” he thought, glad to have such a fantastic stress reliever.