Patton didn't mind showing some skin every once in a while. He didn't mind showing off his body to Roman whenever he knew the Prince would enjoy it. Heck, he's okay with modeling his tank top from the online store for laughs and was open to Virgil's idea of turning it into a crop top so the father figure could be more like Winnie the Pooh. He was fine with all of those thoughts and possibilities, but he just didn't like seeing his stretch marks.

Patton hoarded a lot of memories from Thomas's past and within his hoard, there was the memory that Thomas had a bit of a tummy. Fortunately, what Thomas had was only a portion of what Patton had. Back then, Patton's sweet tooth was much worse and his eyes were evidently bigger than his stomach. He thought giving in to his sweet tooth and cravings would help, but Logan and Virgil giving Thomas warnings about his health ended up giving him guilt and motivation to help better Thomas and himself. It took a long while, but time and hard work were enough to not only keep them from being too plump, but, thanks to Roman, eventually learn to love themselves. Patton still had his sweet tooth, but he has gotten better at controlling himself. Whenever he looked in the mirror, he expected to feel proud of being a different person in contrast to the one in the past, but whenever he looked at his stretch marks, something always told him that what happened with himself and Thomas in the past was his fault.

This self-blame was the reason he would only look at himself from the chest up when looking in the mirror. It was the reason why he wouldn't mind being topless as long as he was wearing bottoms that were high-waisted. Did he want to tell anyone about it? No, of course not. Even though he was not the brain, he knew there were reasons why he shouldn't bring up those thoughts: Thomas would be emotionally damaged if the feelings were verbalized, Logan would bring up reasons why he WAS to blame (as if he didn't know already), Virgil would go into a frenzy, and Roman has his own atelophobia that he needs help on, so Patton bringing up his own concerns would just make himself selfish.

One day, Thomas decided to order pizza for himself and his friends which resulted in the sides having pizza in the mind as well. Logan rationed his slices for the sake of nutritional intake, Virgil enjoyed his slices, but decided to wait until they cooled down so that he doesn't risk burning his mouth, Roman sung an ode to the pizza before eating his slices, and Patton just ate several slices out of joy until he looked down his shirt and noticed his stretch marks and slowed to a halt gradually enough so no one would be too suspicious. He continued to socialize with the others for the evening while keeping those thoughts to himself.

As everyone else was getting ready for bed, Patton looked at himself in the mirror without a shirt and with some paw print pajama bottoms. He took a deep breath as he looked at himself. He wasn't exactly as slim as the average spokesperson for diet trends, but he couldn't deny he had done a good job on his body. He looked his reflection in the eyes with a determined expression.

"You have worked so hard to get here. You have more control of yourself. You're still plump in some areas, but, hey, at least that makes you more cuddly for Roman. Even if you gained some extra pounds by accident, that only means there's more of you to love."

He continued to give himself a pep talk in the mirror, but froze as his stretch marks moved from being something barely out of his line of vision to being his main focus. He was so focused on his stretch marks that he only remembered that he left his door open when he felt a pair of strong arms wrap themselves around him.

"You, sir, are my teddy bear. My teddy bear who has lines of poetry on his stomach and thighs and stretching of his skin that tells the story of a beautiful man," he heard his Prince say in his ear.

"It was my fault Thomas and I had weight trouble," Patton claimed with tears welling in his eyes.

"You both pulled through and bettered yourselves and I am so proud of you, no matter what size," Roman retorted.

Roman escorted Patton to bed and traced his love's stretch marks softly and continued to remind Patton of his accomplishments until the Prince fell asleep cuddled with his fatherly teddy bear.