Five Sides were hanging out in Thomas' living room, getting ready to film. Patton was scrolling through funny posts on Instagram, seeing one that caught his eye. He looked up, eyeing Deceit with a smirk.
"Hey Deceit?"
The snake-like Side looked up, raising an eyebrow. "Yes?" he replied.
"Are you ticklish?"
As if something was triggered within him, Deceit jumped up and backed away across the house. Everyone looked at him confused, small smirks on their faces. "Absolutely not, I'm not ticklish," he snapped, frozen.
Patton smirked, biting his tongue as he stood up and approached him. "Are you certain?" he said, backing him into corner.
"Y-Yess-s," he said, nodding nervously. "O-Of course I'm not ticklish."
The moral Side giggled, pouncing on him. He started tickling him mercilessly, earning fits of laughter from the lying Side. The other Sides watched with smirks and Virgil even recorded it on his phone. When Deceit was gasping for breath, Patton finally stopped. He grinned with pride at getting him to laugh.
"I like you very much right now," Deceit muttered, still panting as he recovered. "How dare you use my uncontrollable habit of speaking in lies against me!"
Patton just laughed, smiling. "What can I say? I love making people laugh! That includes you!" he said with a smile. He turned sitting back down next to Logan, looking proud of himself.
"Don't worry, Deceit," Roman said, chuckling at the way the snake-like Side scowled. "If Patton gets you to laugh it means he likes you. Despite being a Dark Side, you're still a Side."
The prince looked back down at his phone, missing the way Deceit's face changed to one of shock. He blinked a few times, looking down at himself and then at the other Sides. A small smile found its way onto his lips; this time it wasn't a sister one. Virgil looked up to catch it, smirking.
"I know that feeling too well," he called to Deceit, earning a confused look from him. "It's nice, isn't? Feeling like you belong?"
The anxious Side looked up to meet Deceit's eyes. They shared a look before Virgil looked away, shrugging it off as thoughts of his past resurfaced. He didn't want to think about it, making him frown and curl up on himself more. Roman noticed this, looking between him and Deceit curiously. He frowned as the snake-like Side sat down on the opposite Side of the couch, clearly staying away from Virgil on purpose.
The prince frowned again, his curiosity kicking it. Before he could say anything, Thomas got their attention. He made a mental note to talk to the anxious Side about it later.
"Alright guys, let's start filming!"