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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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More Than You Bargained For (8/9)

Chapter 8 - Roman's Perfect Future

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Warnings: None

Word Count: 4736

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They had been dating for a month.

Things had been... perfect. Logan had called the two of them insufferable, Patton called them adorable, but surprisingly little had actually changed with Virgil and Roman now being in a relationship.

The main thing that had changed in their routines was how much Roman visited Virgil's house. He had told Virgil about his parents many times before, but when Virgil had asked to come over to his house he'd had to explain how his mother would react if she found him alone with Virgil - how he'd probably never be allowed to see him again. His parents didn't want him dating full stop, especially not dating someone they didn't deem good enough - which Virgil never would be, not to them.

Roman had reassured him that his parents views didn't matter, and that he loved Virgil regardless of what they thought. But they spent most of their free time at Virgil's house because of it.

Which was strange, because it meant that he was seeing Janus less and less.

They still had their deal, Janus was still obligated to be around even if they had done a lot to fix up Roman's relationships already. There was still work to do, arguments to diffuse, conversations to prompt when Roman needed it. But outside of school and the occasional study session at home, Janus had become almost absent.

Roman had been learning magic too. Virgil had been teaching him to make simple protection spells and mix herbs and read tarot cards at Roman's request. Janus had teased him for it at first, especially when Roman hadn't been able to get things to actually work. But then they'd explained to him how many different kinds of magic worked differently.

Demon magic, the example Janus had used, came from souls, souls of others that the demon owned. Janus could pull from the magic of near every soul in hell, being a prince, which was what made them so powerful. Witches were different. They drew magic from different sources based on what they were trying to do.

If you were working with herbs, Janus explained, the magic should be drawn from the plants, from nature and around you, and, the most important step - the one Roman was missing - meshed with one's own energy. He had to combine the ambient energies of the world with his own to make such spells work, and then he got it.

He would never be as good as Virgil, who had been practising his whole life, but Virgil still hugged him tightly and pressed kisses to his face when he finally got a truth spell to actually work.

But as mid-April came around, Roman started to realise that Janus was slipping away.

It was odd. They had toned down a lot of their flirting since Roman and Virgil had gotten together, and overall were just acing… strange. Roman was starting to find that he missed them.

----

"I've been struggling with college," Virgil sighed, head leaning against Roman's shoulder as they sat together on Roman's bed. They had been studying, with final exams and college acceptance things to sort out, they'd decided to take some time to study together whilst Roman's parents were away on another trip.

Janus wasn't here, but Roman almost felt their presence, looking over the two of them. They'd been absent more often than not recently, but Roman's parents had finally laid off both about Virgil in general, him having people over alone, and their demand that he'd go to law school. Finally allowing Roman to shift his application over to Sarah Lawrence College, where Virgil had been aiming to be accepted for years, and Roman had desperately been wanting to apply for for nearly as long.

"Really?" Roman asked, tiling his head, "What do you mean?"

"It's... it's money stuff," Virgil shook his head, "Tuition is more than my family saved, and I dunno if I'll be able to get a scholarship to make up the difference, I really can't be taking out loans - my family already struggle enough as it is, being immigrants-"

Roman hummed and squeezed Virgil gently against his side.

"I'm sure we can figure something out - my parents-"

"I don't want to take your money, Ro," Virgil shook his head immediately, "I love you, and I love that you want to help me with this, but I... it would feel wrong."

"I could help,"

Roman screeched in surprise as Janus popped up at the foot of his bed, materialising out of smoke in the creepy way they did sometimes when they wanted to spook Roman, who was sufficiently spooked.

"Holy shit - you don't need to do that," Roman shook his head, but Virgil was staring at Janus intently.

"What do you mean you can help?" Virgil asked, frowning.

"We could make a deal," Janus grinned, Virgil glared.

"No."

"You don't even know what I'm offering!" Janus protested, Virgil shook his head.

"I'm not making a deal with a demon for college money, end of the story."

"Fine," Janus huffed, "I'll be here if you change your mind."

And with that, Janus disappeared again. Virgil looked... confused.

"Does it seem like they've been acting weird, to you?" Virgil asked, turning to look at Roman in confusion.

"I - yeah, it does, they've been sorta... absent," Roman said, frowning.

"Have you been able to get any idea what's wrong?" Virgil asked, Roman shook his head, "Maybe... maybe we should find out, that was really weird, just offering me a deal like that - surely they knew I wouldn't take it-"

"Probably, I mean, you're not exactly the deal making type," Roman laughed a little, shaking his head, "But... there must be a problem, they've been acting more and more weird ever since we got together."

"I've kinda noticed it in school yeah, I didn't want to bring it up and seem insensitive," Virgil sighed, "You think you can ask them what's up?"

"I can most certainly try," Roman sighed, not at all confident.

---

Roman knew Janus was avoiding him now. Even in school they barely talked to him, ever since he had attempted to ask what was going on with them.

Roman had attempted to corner them one day, to no avail. And from then on, they were avoiding him. Virgil had attempted to ask too, and now Janus wasn't talking to either of them outside of school, which was irritating to say the least, even though Roman could still feel Janus' protection over him, Janus themself hadn't shown up in Roman's house since offering Virgil a deal.

"We have to do something about this," Virgil said, sighing softly, "Seeing them like this is painful. Even if they are a demon, it's not fair."

"You're right," Roman nodded, "I... I kinda miss them - like, with all the flirting and cute stuff they did - is that weird? I shouldn't be missing that when we're in a relationship-"

Virgil shook his head immediately, "No- no it's not weird, I miss it too - I miss trying to out-flirt them over lunch, and like, maybe it's silly, but... well I dunno, maybe I had a crush on them?"

It should be known that Roman tried his very best not to let out the deep sigh of relief upon hearing that. But he didn't succeed, and the droop of his shoulders made Virgil smile.

"You too, right?" Virgil said, Roman nodded, face flushed with embarrassment, "I could kinda tell. No-one is that happy to sit in another person's lap without being at least a little interested."

Roman laughed, shaking his head, "Hey, people do that all the time, that's like, the peak of being asexual, or Patton says so at least."

"You're not asexual," Virgil raised an eyebrow at him, "Or aromatic, thus, being that happy to sit in Janus' lap and letting them pet you like a cat was absolutely telling. You cannot argue this when you already told me it's true, dumbass."

"Uh! Excuse me!" Roman said with a sharp gasp, how dare Virgil accuse him of such a thing. Virgil just rolled his eyes.

"You dork," Virgil said, impossibly fond as he nudged Roman's shoulder. A second passed where Roman just stared at him fondly, before Virgil shot up, from where he'd been lounging.

"What is it?" Roman asked, looking at him in surprise as Virgil stared back.

"Do you think-" Virgil said, "Okay, this might sound really stupid, and might be totally wrong, but- all the signs are there-"

"Virgil...?" Roman asked, frowning in confusion and worry.

"Do you think Janus might have a crush on us?" Virgil asked, before shaking his head, "Or- just you, maybe? I mean- the way they treat you and flirt with you and - well- most demons wouldn't be anywhere near as nice as they are to a human they were summoned by - especially not promise to give you basically anything you could want-"

"No no- you're... you might be right," Roman said, eyes widening a little. His mind immediately went back to all of the conversation he had had with Janus before. All of the times they weren't even doing anything in particular where Janus would sit in Roman's lap or have Roman sit in theirs. How Janus would always play with his hair or even kiss his forehead occasionally. And then he thought about how Janus interacted with Virgil, how Roman had had to pull them away that first day of school when they'd been flirting with Virgil and made Roman jealous. They hadn't really stopped flirting with Virgil, and they'd get oddly pink whenever Virgil flirted back. No, Roman could definitely believe Virgil's idea.

"Okay," Virgil said, "And... how do you feel about that?"

"What do you mean?" Roman asked.

"I mean, do you like them too?" Virgil asked, rolling his eyes, "You avoided the question before."

"Well - I- yeah, yeah, I did," Roman said, blushing.

"Did or do?" Virgil said, staring at him.

"I'm with you, so, it doesn't matter."

"Answer the question, Princey," Virgil sighed, "I'm not gonna be weird about it when I already said I had a crush on them too, that would just be dumb."

"You said 'had'," Roman pointed out, "But... yeah, kinda, I think so."

"Sorry, I have a crush on them," Virgil corrected with a roll of his eyes, "I- Yeah, so... polyamory is definitely on the table, if you're interested in that, and they are too of course - I don't know if they'd even want to date us - being a demon and all."

"Well - that would be for them to decide," Roman says, "But um... if they were interested, I wouldn't mind... maybe trying it?"

Virgil's expression slipped into what Roman called devious, "Me neither - so now we just have to figure out how to get them to actually talk to us."

"It seems like you have a plan," Roman asked, grinning as Virgil nodded.

"Okay, so here's what we'll do..."

----

"Hey Janus," Roman said at lunch. No-one but Roman and Janus had arrived at the table yet, which was just the opportunity Roman and Virgil were waiting for, "I want to ask you for something."

Janus raised an eyebrow, "In a normal way?"

"No," Roman said, grinning, "In a deal way."

Janus' eyes went wide, because Roman had never actually asked them for something with a direct reference to the deal.

"What do you need?" Janus asked, sounding far more formal than they had just a moment ago. Roman almost felt bad for using the deal like this.

"I need you to hang out with me and Virgil right after school today," Roman said, "In the park, like the day me and Virgil confessed, we can even get ice cream again if you like."

"I- what," Janus said, frowning, "I... I'm not sure I understand, why are you using the deal for this?"

"Because," Virgil said, appearing at the table, "You won't show up otherwise."

Janus, to their credit, looked significantly put out by the fact they had realised it. They sighed deeply, "Alright, I'll meet the two of you after school and we can go."

Roman nodded, "Wonderful!" He said happily, sharing a look with Virgil, who smiled back and sat down next to Janus, earning another slightly confused look.

"Hey everyone!" Patton said brightly, plopping down in the seat next to Roman, with Remus immediately sitting next to them, "Me and Ree were gonna watch a movie after school, if any of you want to join in?"

"Ah, we have plans," Roman said, shaking his head with a small laugh, "Virgil, Janus and I are going to the park."

"Ooh! Like a date?" Remus asked, grinning all three of them turned an equal shade of crimson, Janus was the only one who made any attempt at hiding it.

"Yeah kinda," Virgil said with a shrug, and Roman blushed darker, so did Janus.

"Are you two trying to make me a third wheel?" Janus joked, though beneath it Roman caught something that was just... a little dejected.

"...Seriously?" Remus asked, looking between them.

"I asked what I asked, didn't I?" Janus snapped, Remus held up his hands.

"Dude, I might be aromantic, but even I can tell they're trying to woo you, in the sappiest, dumbass way possible," Remus said, waving a hand. Well, that was their plan out of the window, Roman supposed. He shared a look with Virgil, who just shrugged and looked back at Janus for their reaction.

"...They are?" Janus asked, before looking over at Roman, "You are?"

"Yeah Janus," Roman sighed, shaking his head, "That's what we were gonna talk to you at the park about."

"...Oh," Janus said softly.

"You didn't realise?" Patton asked, bobbing up and down a little as they fidgeted with the yellow bracelet on their wrist, "I thought you knew! They- they weren't exactly subtle about liking you, Janus, I mean, Roman lets you play with his hair and stuff, he never lets any of us do that-"

"I-" Janus started, and Roman didn't think he'd ever seen Janus look so cornered.

"We don't need to pressure them," Virgil said, looking over at Patton and Remus, "We're gonna talk after schools out, maybe we can come join your movie night afterwards?"

"Sure!" Remus said brightly, "When Logan shows up we can invite him too! Make it a party!"

"Invite me to what now?" Logan asked, finally sitting down with them at their table.

"Damn, late to lunch today, huh teach?"

"I was discussing an assignment with a teacher, what were you all talking about?"

"Movie night at ours," Remus said, "Originally it was just gonna be chill, but now it's to celebrate Roman and his dorks finally getting together and becoming the polycule they were always meant to be, so be there or be square."

"...Virgil and Roman got together almost a month ago, Remus, and they are only two people-" Logan said carefully. Remus rolled his eyes.

"No no no- They absorbed Janus into their relationship," Remus said.

"Ah," Logan said, "It's about time, all three of your pining has been almost unbearable."

Roman groaned, "We have not absorbed Janus into our relationship."

"Yet," Added Virgil.

Janus groaned, standing up, "They haven't asked me out, there have only been vague suggestions, and I do not appreciate it. I will see you after school, Roman."

With that Janus walked off, taking their bag with them and leaving the dining hall. Roman slumped with a deep sigh.

"...Do you think I pushed it too far?" Remus asked awkwardly. Roman shook his head.

"We've been trying to figure out what's up with them for a while, and we only just recently figured out what it might be," Roman said, shaking his head, "They've been avoiding us and refusing to talk unless its specifically about school and stuff, and I'm pretty sure this topic is upsetting for them for some reason, we were gonna try and figure it out tonight."

"...Ah," Remus said softly, "Sorry for messing it up for you, bro."

"It's... fine, maybe knowing we like them in advance will help," Roman sighed.

"They probably just got overwhelmed," Virgil said, "Do you guys want money for movie night snacks?"

"Nah nah, I'll pay for it," Remus shook his head, "Patty, Logan, you guys wanna go to the store after school to get sweets and stuff?"

"Sure!" Patton chirped, "Oh! We can stop at the bakery and get some cupcakes and nice cookies too!"

"That sounds lovely," Logan said, "I would be happy to join you."

"Awesome!" Remus cheered, "We'll meet at the gate, kay?"

"Wonderful," Logan agreed.

Roman sighed, "You're welcome to start without us, I don't know how long the conversation will take."

"I'll text to let you know if Janus is coming or not once we know," Virgil said, "But you are not allowed to tease them unless they say it's okay, alright?"

"Okay!" Patton said brightly.

"Fine," Remus groaned, "Be a buzzkill."

----

For the rest of the school day, Roman hadn't been able to pay attention to any of his lessons. They hadn't seen Janus again at lunch, and they hadn't shown up to the lessons they shared with Roman either. It's not like they really had to, being a demon they could just forge the attendance and go off and do their own thing, but it was nice to have a friend in his classes. For the remainder of the school day, Roman just texted Virgil under the table and doodled in his margins in attempt to get rid of the jittery anxious feeling that was plaguing him at the moment.

They would see Janus again at the end of the day, if they even showed up after school. But Roman had invoked the deal, so technically Janus had to come to the park with them. He'd been specific with his wording - him and Virgil, right after school today, in that specific park. But that didn't necessarily mean Janus would meet them at the school like Roman had hoped. He sighed, glancing down at his phone, where Virgil had sent him a silly cat meme. Roman smiled to himself and liked the image, sending back a heart before trying to refocus on his class. It didn't work, and after what felt like forever, the final bell rang. Roman sighed in relief, having already been subtly packing up his belongings ten minutes early, and as soon as the teacher released them Roman was gone down the hall, texting Virgil to meet him by the fountain.

The fountain was a lovely place to sit, especially as it was beginning to warm up with spring. The sound of the water was usually relaxing, but right now Roman didn't seem to have it in him.

"Hey Ro," Virgil said, appearing next to him and sitting down, "You don't look so good."

Roman sighed, "It's nothing - just anxious, I guess."

Virgil took his hand and squeezed it, "Deep breath."

Together, they drew in a deep breath and let it out. Virgil squeezed his hand again and Roman smiled.

"I'm just worried about how this is gonna go," Roman said softly, "And I feel bad about using the deal like that too."

"Well - either way, you've got me," Virgil said, "And you're not forcing them into anything really, only really being there - it's not like we're forcing Janus to say yes or feel something, that would be weird, but it's okay Ro."

With a nod, Roman pulled Virgil into a hug. "I... I don't think they're gonna meet us here, we're gonna have to go to the park."

"I was wondering why they hadn't shown up yet," Virgil said, looking around at the emptying courtyard. Roman was pretty sure Janus would be in the park when they got there, so he took Virgil's hand and together they began to make their way there.

They didn't talk very much on the way, just walked together, swinging their clasped hands every so often. Their original plan had been thrown out of the window by Patton and Remus during lunch, so now they were stuck improvising. Roman honestly thought they might be better off trying to talk genuinely anyway, rather than planning it out beforehand. ("It's more real" he'd told Virgil when he brought it up early into their walk). Roman just really, really hoped that this would all go okay.

When they arrived at the park, Roman and Virgil found Janus sitting on the same bench they'd sat on when Roman and Virgil confessed - they really had taken the wording literally.

"Hey Janus," Roman said as the two of them walked up, sitting on either side of Janus on the bench.

"Hello Roman," Janus replied, "Hello Virgil."

"So..." Virgil stared, "We did have a plan for how we wanted to tell you - but um, Remus kinda ruined that a little bit, so..."

"I miss you, Janus," Roman said, cutting straight to the point of it, "I know - I know a lot of your duties as part of our deal are done now, and that's probably why you've been pulling away, and I understand if you want to leave, because you probably have a life and all, but- I miss you, and how affectionate and flirty you were with both of us, and how much you're around, and I really- I really like you, Janus, I had a crush on you since I first summoned you."

Janus, for a moment, did nothing but stare, before turning to look at Virgil expectantly.

"I don't know how you expect me to follow up all that mushy stuff," Virgil said, already blushing, "But yeah, I like you too, I really liked flirting back and forth with you, I had a huge crush on you- I just - I like you both, a lot, and also you're the one who made fun of us for not communicating, so I think you're a bit of a hypocrite."

"Virgil!" Roman hissed.

"What! It's true! Cute, yes, but a hypocrite," Virgil said.

Janus took a long, deep breath.

"I was deal bound to help Roman with his crush on you," Janus said to Virgil, clearly trying to keep their voice level, "So I couldn't let my own feelings get in the way."

"Well you can let your feelings get in the way now," Roman said, "Is that why you've been avoiding us?"

Janus blushed, looking down at their hands in their lap - they looked uncharacteristically shy, "Maybe."

"Aweee," Roman said, leaning over and pressing a kiss to Janus' cheek, startling them into staring owlishly at Roman, "So you do like us."

"I... I do, indeed," Janus said softly, looking at the two of them in turn, "I've liked you both since we met."

"Then stop being a dumbass about it," Virgil said, nudging them, "I've wanted to kiss you for ages, so get over here."

"Excuse me!" Roman said, "There is no way you get to kiss them first, I summoned them, and I confessed first."

"Rock paper scissors for it?" Virgil offered, holding out his hand. Janus let out a stunned laugh as the two of them played the game, Roman winning with a triumphant cry and immediately shifting to pull Janus down into a gentle kiss. Roman pulled away near gasping, even when the kiss hadn't really been all that intense.

"Goodness-" Roman laughed, "You're so warm, I could kiss you forever."

"My turn!" Virgil demanded, pulling Janus into a far less modest kiss, Roman watched, a deep blush on his face as the two of them kissed until Janus pulled away, Virgil was flushed a dark red, "You were right-"

Janus laughed, reaching to pull them both into a tight hug, "You two cuties will be the end of me, you're both wonderful kissers."

Roman's blush deepened, while Virgil seemed to preen, "You bet we are."

Janus pressed a kiss to Virgil's temple, and then Roman's, "You two are just darlings, aren't you? I'm lucky to have you."

"You? I'm lucky, I was the one who summoned you," Roman laughed, Janus hummed.

"Speaking of... that deal I offered you, Virgil," Janus said, turning to look at their other companion, who raised an eyebrow.

"I already said no," Virgil said, shaking his head.

"You didn't hear me out," Janus said, "Would you at least let me explain what I want to offer?"

For a long moment, Virgil looked torn, his frown deep and thoughtful, but eventually he sighed, letting out a long breath of air, "Fine, what do you want?"

"I want your soul," Janus said, putting a finger to Virgil's lips when he went to protest again, "I wish to take your soul so you can remain with Roman, and me as well, even after death."

"That's - that's a pretty huge commitment," Virgil said when Janus let him speak again, "We- we're only eighteen -"

"I can be kind, on occasion," Janus said, "If, for any reason, you decide you no longer want to share an afterlife with us, I'll let you back out, no catch or trick, how does that sound?"

"That's-" Virgil said, shocked, "That's not- it doesn't work like that, does it?"

"It can," Janus said, "Most demons would never do it - but whatever is in the wording of the deal is it, and I'm offering you an out clause."

"And- and what would I be getting, for my soul?"

"Well," Janus hummed, "Your college tuition, fully paid for, you and Roman are going to the same place, yes-?"

"Yeah," Roman nodded, eyes wide.

"Then an apartment, for you both and myself," Janus said, and this time Virgil actually made a noise.

"Somewhere nice?" Virgil asked, hesitant but clearly hopeful.

"Anything you want, my love."

Roman saw Virgil shiver, and smiled softly,

"And, of course, the same clause Roman has, you can ask me for anything within my power. How does that sound, sweetheart?"

"I-" Virgil said, a little choked, "I think I'm overwhelmed-"

"Vee-" Roman said softly, reaching over Janus for his hand.

Virgil took a long, deep breath, "I'd like to see your true form, before I agree to anything."

Janus hummed, "Shall we return to Roman's home, then?"

"If... if that's okay?"

"Of course it's okay."

----

"Woah," Virgil said softly, staring at the demon standing in front of him. The three of them stood in Roman's bedroom, Janus' tail was swaying in a way Roman knew to be distinctly nervous. But Virgil reached forward and cupped Janus' face, eyes wide as he took them in, "You... you're beautiful."

Janus' blush was lighter than their dark grey skin, giving an odd effect on the side of their face not covered with the beautiful golden scales Virgil was tracing.

"I'm glad you think so, my dear," Janus said, and Roman was impressed by the fact that their voice seemed normal.

"I... I think I'd like to agree to that deal, now," Virgil said, voice just a tiny bit too high. Roman sat on his bed and watched as Janus restated the terms. Virgil asked for the mark in the same place as Roman's, so they matched, and Roman near swooned at the way it looked peeking through the mesh top he wore over his binder. Roman couldn't help that he immediately rushed over to kiss him.

Virgil got a call not ten minutes later, being offered a full scholarship to their college of choice, and Janus just looked smug.

Roman found he couldn't stop smiling, as he took Virgil and Janus' hands in his own, making them into a little circle when Virgil took Janus' other hand too. The three of them shared another round of kisses, before Virgil laughed.

"Remus is probably gonna get pissed if we take any longer," He pointed out, "And he's gonna eat all the cupcakes before we can get any."

"Oh dear, we can't have that," Janus laughed, their appearance already shifting back to their more human one.

"I demand cuddles from both of you, once we're downstairs."

And just as Roman requested, the three of them squeezed onto the two seater sofa, Janus' arms around both of them as they settled in with the rest of their friends for a night of eating snacks and watching terrible movies.

Yeah. As it turned out, summoning a demon was, by far, the best decision of Roman's life.

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@full-of-roman-angst-trash @your-local-random-dino @cutebisexualmess @glacierruler @roseianxiety @bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti @scalesfeathersnfur @oatmealdaydrea ms @littlerat2 @goldnskyart @virgeandhis-pocket-protector @amateurmasksmith (if anyone wants to be added, let me know!)

#sanders sides #roman sanders #virgil sanders #ts roman #ts virgil #janus sanders #ts janus #ts remus #ts patton #ts logan #sanders sides fanfiction #ts fanfic #More Than You Bargained For

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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ITS SO FUCKIN GOOOOOOD LOOK AT IT ALLLLLLLL

Artwork for the fic More That You Bargained For by @prince-rowan-of-the-forest for @tss-storytime.

On Tumblr | | On AO3

Rating: T Warnings: Parental neglect, controlling but absent parents, past internalized homophobia plus transphobia/homophobia from OCs, religious imagery, Minor self injury (for demon summoning purposes) Pairings: Roman/Virgil/Janus, Queerplatonic Remus/Patton, eventually qpr Remus/Patton/Logan

Roman had what was, to everyone else, a perfect life. He was a senior in highschool, with good friends and rich parents. what more could he possibly want? In reality, Roman felt like his life was falling apart. With his self esteem was at an all time low, failing grades, his friendships crumbling before his eyes and his parents trying to force him to go to law school, Roman decides it's time to resort to slightly more drastic measures in order to fix everything. He had only meant to summon a lesser demon, not Demon Prince Janus. But they were here and it's not like Roman could go back now. Maybe things would work out better than he ever thought they would after all.

Snakes and religious imagery (pentagrams) under the cut.

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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More Than You Bargained For (7/9)

Chapter 7 - Dinner and Icecream

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Warnings: None

Word Count: 4356

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Roman needed to stop crying.

They had moved to the floor, he was still in Janus' lap and that was the only thing keeping him from having a full breakdown.

Virgil had found out, Virgil had known - he knew what the sigil meant, he knew what Roman had done, he knew what Janus was. And he'd been angry. Roman didn't think he could remember Virgil ever being as upset with him as he had been just now. Roman hated it, he didn't like seeing Virgil upset.

And then Virgil had tried to take Janus away.

Now that even a little bit of time had passed Roman could see that Virgil had simply been panicking. He hadn't meant to upset Roman so much, Roman was sure. Virgil was kind, he was always caring and joking and making sure Roman was okay when he was upset. Virgil was anxious and prone to panicking and overthinking small things, but he wasn't mean, and this wasn't a small thing.

"So," Janus said softly, "I'm a demon, you know this, how?"

"I saw the sigil," Virgil said, clearly trying not to grind his teeth. If Virgil really was a witch, he supposed the tension between him and Janus made some sense, "I'm - my family are witches, it's the kind of thing we study."

"Mhm, and then what did you do?"

"I... panicked," Virgil said, taking a deep breath, "I tried to do a spell to- to get rid of you - I swear I was trying to protect Roman."

"I know that " Janus said, shaking their head, "That's a natural response to have when you think your friend is being threatened."

"I still don't trust you."

"You're a witch," Janus hummed, Roman glanced up - their tone was almost teasing, "Can't you do a simple truth spell?"

Virgil spluttered, before huffing and pulling a few little mesh bags out of the front pockets of his shorts and kneeling.

"Roman if you don't wanna be in the spell you can move away," Virgil warned. Roman was grateful to be given a chance, but he stayed in Janus' lap regardless. Virgil shrugged after a moment and got to work. He spread something sweet smelling from one of the bags in a tight circle around the two of them, before doing another ring of some other herb from a different bag. Then he pulled out a stick of chalk from his jacket and began to draw symbols that Roman didn't know or recognise. Janus being calm at his back reassured him though, and Roman took deep breaths to stay relaxed.

"Okay," Virgil said, "Try to say something that's not true."

"I-" Janus started, but their voice choked off like an invisible hand was slapped over their mouth. "I attempted to say 'I am human', is that a good enough test for you?"

"Sure," Virgil shrugged.

"Do you just keep all of that on you?" Roman asked, tilting his head and looking down at the circle, amazed. Virgil shrugged.

"You gotta be prepared, and truth spells are pretty simple."

"...Huh, okay," Roman said, frowning in thought. It was pretty cool, honestly. He wondered if anyone could learn magic.

"So, Janus," Virgil said, sitting down cross legged outside of the circle, "Is that really your name?"

"Yes," Janus said, raising an eyebrow, "What, it didn't say that in your textbooks?"

"No," Virgil huffed, "It only listed you as 'The Snake Prince', or the Eighth Prince of Hell, only a few demons are actually listed by names rather than titles in my books."

"Hm, interesting," Janus hummed, "But yes, that's my name."

"Great, what do you want from Roman?"

"Wow, jumping right to the meat, hm? Where's the bread, you have me in a truth circle, you really don't want to ask me anything juicy?"

"No," Virgil hissed, "I want to know if you're hurting my friend."

"I don't intend to hurt him," Janus hummed, "What do I want from him... well, of course, his soul, that's what we made a deal for, after all, he's such a pure thing, so sweet and gentle - I'd like to have him with me forever."

Virgil scowled and turned his gaze to Roman, "And you're not worried about that at all, I suppose?"

"Not really," Roman shrugs, "Who knows what happens after I die? Maybe being with Janus will be better."

"For most, its reincarnation," Janus smirked, "Especially for witches."

Roman couldn't help but think that comment was pointed, clearly it was about Virgil, but Roman couldn't for the life of him understand what they were trying to communicate.

Virgil seemed to get it, if his hiss of 'bitch,' was anything to go by.

"Alright, but you already have his soul guaranteed," Virgil said once he recovered, "So what do you want from him now?"

"For him to be happy, mostly," Janus shrugged, and despite the truth circle, Roman and Virgil both seemed equally surprised by the genuine answer.

"Really?" Roman asked, gasping softly.

"Of course, pet," Janus hummed, "It's part of our deal, yes, but I can't deny I've become invested in you regardless."

Virgil was giving them an odd look that Roman couldn't decipher. He was almost worried about how much of this conversation seemed to be going straight over his head.

"Okay," Virgil said, taking a deep breath, "And what was the deal? Why was it good enough to risk all this for?"

"I- I already told you," Roman said, "I needed help - they've been helping me talk to Patton and Logan-"

"I've already been helping him, in school, when they hang out, you know - and I also promised he can ask me for practically anything, within my power," Janus said, making Virgil's eyes widen. Roman himself had honestly forgotten about that part of the deal, it just hadn't come up, "And I'm making sure his parents don't send him to law school."

"Oh thank Apollo," Virgil shook his head, "I'm at least glad about that."

"Mhm," Janus hummed, "What else would you like to ask, darling?"

"...Roman, are you sure you're safe?" Virgil asked softly.

"Yeah Vee," Roman said softly, "They haven't done anything worse than burning my math homework when we got frustrated. There hasn't been a single moment since we made the deal that I haven't felt safe with them."

Virgil couldn't help but laugh a little.

"And you're... comfortable? With all this?" Virgil gestured to them, with Roman still in Janus' lap, and it made him just a little more aware of the position, "I thought you didn't like touch much?"

"It..." Roman sighed, "It's weird, I don't normally, Janus is really nice, it's almost like being cuddled by a giant cat."

Janus snorted. "Cute."

"So... you still don't like normal touch?"

"If you want a hug Vee you can just ask," Roman joked, "But touch is fine, as long as I know it's coming. Janus has been helping me get more used to it."

Virgil nodded, moving forward. He broke the truth circle and pulled Roman into a much more hesitant hug.

Janus let him go, and he leaned forward and hugged Virgil properly, pressing his face into Virgil's shoulder and wrapping his arms around Virgil's waist. At first, Virgil was tense, clearly nervous, but he relaxed into the embrace, humming softly as he squeezed Roman back.

"I'm glad you're safe, Ro," Virgil said softly, "I was really scared."

"I think that's understandable," Roman said, nuzzling Virgil's shoulder a little, "I'm sorry for running."

Janus chuckled behind him, patting Roman's shoulder gently.

"How about I go and get ice cream, and you two can sit together for a moment?" Janus suggested, "It sounds like you both just had a rather stressful experience?"

"Ice cream sounds nice," Roman admitted, Virgil hummed.

"I'll have to send a quick text to my parents so they don't worry - but yeah, ice cream sounds great right now."

Letting go of Virgil, Roman stood up and went back to the bench, leaving Janus to stand and help Virgil up in a way that was reminiscent of a prince. Virgil smiled and sat with him, pulling out his phone and sending a quick text to his parents before sighing.

"I'm sorry our hang out was a bit of a failure," Virgil offered with a small, awkward smile, "and I knew there was something weird about Janus."

"Oh yeah, you suspected them from day one," Roman laughed, "I didn't know you were a witch though! Why'd you keep that from us?"

"It- wasn't exactly meant to be a secret, you guys have just... never been to my house before," Virgil sighed, "And I've never really needed it around you guys either, it's just- family tradition and stuff."

"...Does summoning a demon make me a witch too?" Roman asked, a look he knew was mischievous on his face.

"No," Virgil laughed, "Anyone can summon a demon with good enough instructions, being a true witch is in the blood, but I'm sure I can teach you some simple stuff if you wanted."

"Really?" Roman gasped softly, "I would love that."

"Magic isn't a game," Virgil told him sternly, though the warning was followed up by a poke to Roman's cheek, which made it seem a lot less threatening, "If you wanna learn it you're going to have to take it seriously, okay?"

"Okay, yeah, I can do that."

"Roman, darling?" Janus' voice had him turning, they carried two ice cream cones, one of which they passed to Roman, and the other to Virgil, before sitting down on Roman's other side, "I had a thought whilst I was getting your ice cream."

"Oh yeah?" Roman asked, biting the top off of the absolute mountain of ice cream on his cone, "What was it?"

"I believe we forgot to mention a part of our deal," they said, in a tone that made Roman think if they were in their demon form, their tail would be swishing in that mischievous way it always did when they had a plan. Roman did not like that tone, he felt suddenly that Janus was about to say something Roman really didn't like.

"What is it?" Virgil asked before Roman could think of something to say that would get them to shut up. Janus grinned in a way Roman could only describe as devilish, scheming. Roman wanted to throw his ice cream at them.

"He wanted help talking to his crush, too," Janus said, in a way that was almost sing-song. Roman almost hissed.

"Shut up," Roman whined, covering his immediately reddening face as he glanced briefly over at Virgil to find him looking extremely confused.

"Roman has a crush on someone?" Virgil asked, hesitant and almost... upset.

"Indeed," Janus said, still smirking that awful little smirk, and sounding far too pleased with themself, "It's kind of pathetic how much of a crush he has, actually, Logan and Patton know."

"And you... didn't tell me?" Virgil asked, and now he just sounded hurt. Roman winced.

"Janus," Roman said softly, "Stop being mean."

"Maybe you should start telling him things, darling," Janus teased right back, "Like how you regret the way you treated him, for one."

Roman did wince then, "Could this not have waited until we finished the ice cream?"

"Nah," Janus grinned, "This is the first time I've managed to get you two together without one of the others."

"Why does that matter?" Virgil asked, "Shouldn't you be trying to get him to talk to his crush?"

"Why don't you try and shut out the self depreciation for a moment," Janus said, reaching over and flicking Virgil lightly on the temple, "And take a few moments to think about it."

Virgil, for his part, actually did listen. It seemed like he was having a little trouble, but when Roman went to say something Janus hushed him, with a whispered 'give him time, he'll get it' before Virgil turned fully to look at him with wide eyes.

"...Me?" He asked simply, making Roman blush even more and Janus groan in relief.

"And finally, he figures it out," Janus says, flopping onto the bench like they were boneless.

"You... you have a crush on me?" Virgil asked, eyes still wide. Roman nodded slowly.

"...Yeah, yeah I do - I have since... since we became friends, really, I didn't know it until later, though," Roman said, "I'm... I'm really sorry for how I treated you, too, I was jealous of how friendly Patton was with you when it felt like we were growing apart and I was a dick to you because of it and it completely wasn't fair - I just - I just started feeling like it was too late to say anything and I didn't want to upset you by bringing it up but-"

Roman was interrupted when Virgil practically threw his arms around him. He yelped, holding his icecream out so he wouldn't get any on Virgil's clothes and quickly hugging him back after Janus plucked it out of his hand.

"I've got a huge crush on you too," Virgil said, "Didn't want to say anything 'cause I was all bitter, and then I was worried you wouldn't like me 'cause I'm trans and all sorts of shit-"

"Why the hell would that make a difference?" Roman asked, pulling back a little to look at him, "You're a guy, I'm gay, and I really really like you."

"I really really like you too," Virgil said, cupping Roman's face and laughing a little.

"You two are both stupid and sappy," Janus said, their tone incredibly fond, "But can you just kiss already so I can give your ice creams back, they're starting to melt in my hands."

Roman laughed and Virgil leaned forward to catch his lips as he did so. Roman squeaked in surprise but, a second later, kissed back. Virgil's lips were soft and cool and tasted a little of the ice cream and it was so perfect Roman felt like he might cry-

Virgil pulled away and kissed his cheek, Roman took a long deep breath, smiling softly.

"Okay, wonderful, ice cream time," Janus said, handing their ice creams back. Virgil laughed and took it, and Roman just shook his head fondly.

"So..." Virgil said softly, glancing over at Roman with a look of fond adoration that Roman thought might be able to bring him to his knees if he was standing, "Does that mean we can like... date?"

"If- if you wanted to!" Roman said, trying very hard not to let his voice become a squeak, "I would... I would really like that."

"I would really like that too," Virgil smiled, nudging him gently, "How about... we go on a proper date, just to test it out?"

Roman nodded along as they continued to plan such a date. Roman suggested the coffee shop near his house, Virgil said he couldn't afford it and Roman promised to pay for everything, he just wanted to treat Virgil. Virgil had, eventually, agreed and they'd decided on Saturday. All the while, Janus hadn't said a word.

It was strange, Roman thought. Janus was usually pretty talkative, especially with Roman. He would normally have said something flirtatious or teasing by now. But Roman was able to quickly put it out of hims mind in order to focus on Virgil right now.

Right up until Virgil got a text.

"Oh - fuck I forgot my parents are waiting for us," Virgil laughed awkwardly, Roman tilted his head.

"Oh- oh yeah," Roman said, he'd almost forgotten all of the events that led up to this. "Oh they're probably going to be so worried..."

"We're gonna have to talk to them about all of this," Virgil admitted, looking away, "I... Kind of told them about Janus, and they're probably thinking we're going to be doing an exorcism when we get back-"

"You didn't tell them everything was okay when you texted them?" Roman said, voice going up several octaves.

"Don't worry, darlings," Janus said, possibly the first time they'd spoken since Roman and Virgil had kissed, "It will all work out alright."

"You sure?" Virgil asked.

"See darlings, there's this wonderful thing called 'communication' that you two and your friends are remarkably bad at," Janus said, frowning at them both, "Why don't we go back to your house, we can speak outside if you think your parents will have warded the house, and we can all talk to each other."

Virgil groaned, "I hate talking, though."

"Darling they're not going to trust Roman's word, and they're certainly not going to trust mine, I fear you're going to have to."

"C'mon Virgil," Roman said softly, "We gotta get this whole mess cleared up before your parents start throwing crucifixes at me or something."

"That's Christianity," Virgil said, shaking his head, "They'd probably start throwing salt and sage first."

"You know what I'm trying to say," Roman groaned.

----

Walking back to Virgil's house felt almost like he was walking to the firing squad.

There was nothing overtly wrong with the house, but Roman had a sense of dread in his stomach. Virgil reassured him that they would be fine. His parents would hear them out before doing anything rash, but Roman was still worried regardless.

Virgil knocked. Which, by his mothers surprise when she opened the door, was not normal.

"Virgil! You're back, thank goodness, I thought something had happened to you-" She pulled Virgil down to press a kiss to his cheek, Virgil patted her back reassuringly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry - I did text you but I didn't realise we'd be out so long after that," Virgil said, "Um, good news though, we don't have to rescue Roman from a demon!"

"Really? Oh, goodness, well of course I'm happy, but- well what actually happened?" she asked, turning to Roman next to him, "Oh Roman dear, you're not hurt, are you?"

"No- no I'm not hurt," Roman said, shaking his head.

"And who's your new friend?" She prompted, looking at Janus behind them.

"I'm the demon," said Janus, wiggling their fingers in a wave. Virgil turned around and punched them in the arm.

"This is Janus," Roman sighed, "They're the demon I made the deal with, but they're not bad, and not a problem, I promise."

"I did a truth spell on them both," Virgil said, when his mother still looked unsure, "Roman's not being hurt at all, and Janus doesn't have any bad intentions for him, or the rest of us."

While she still looked apprehensive about the idea of her son - and her son's best friend - being around a demon, she eventually seemed to relent.

"Okay - okay, it's... lovely to meet you, Janus, was it?" She said, looking wrong footed and unsure. Janus hummed, holding their hand out to shake.

"It's wonderful to meet you too," they said, grinning a little, "It's nice to meet the person who raised someone as lovely as Virgil."

She laughed a little, flushed, "Oh! You're a charmer."

"It's what I'm known for," Janus agreed, smirking. Roman just rolled his eyes.

"Is dinner still on the table?" Virgil asked, tilting his head.

"Of course!" She said, stepping aside immediately, "Come in, I'm sure we can fit one more-"

"Oh, there's no need for that," Janus waved their hand.

"I insist!" said Julia, waving them inside. Virgil went first and Roman followed, but Janus didn't make a move to step inside, "If my son and his friend trust you, then I will too, but I'm sure we'd love to get to know you better over dinner."

Janus wavered, looking uncharacteristically nervous as they shifted from foot to foot.

"Janus? What's wrong?" Roman asked, confused. Janus never looked nervous.

"There's..." Janus said, looking like the words hurt to say, "There's salt on the door, I can't come in."

Virgil groaned, "Of course - don't worry Jay, I'll get it."

Running off into the kitchen, Virgil left the group at the door for a minute. Roman went back out to stand with Janus - who seemed to relax a little with Roman beside them - and wait for Virgil to return with a damp cloth to mop up the salt.

"There," Virgil said, throwing it aside, "Can you come in, now?"

Janus hummed, and experimentally tried to step foot through Virgil's doorway, smiling when they found they could.

"Your home makes me itch," they grumbled, shaking their head as they all followed Virgil back through the hallway and into the joint kitchen-dining room where Virgil's father was waiting with a set table. Roman's stomach rumbled. He hadn't realised just how hungry he was.

"We have a lot to talk about," Virgil said as they all sat down, "But we can start with the fact that Roman's my boyfriend now-"

——

Dinner with Virgil's parents had, so far, gone shockingly well.

There was definitely some awkwardness around Janus, though Virgil had managed to smash through that with the announcement that the two of them were now dating. Roman thought it was a good move, especially because it took more of the heat off of Janus and onto them - in a good way. Virgil's parents were nothing but happy for the two of them, talking about how Virgil had had a crush on Roman for so long, and telling plenty of embarrassing stories to go around.

Janus had most certainly endeared themself to Virgil's mother by complimenting her cooking. The demon seemed to be a master of charm, just like he'd said, and Roman was grateful for the fact that Virgil's parents seemed on board with him. The threat of an exorcism was terrifying, so he was immensely glad that that was no longer on the table.

But something was still eating at his mind. Something about just how much of the conversation they'd had earlier went over his head, just because he didn't understand as much about magic and witchcraft and demonology as Virgil and Janus did. He wanted to ask about it, but couldn't find the right moment. Not until after dinner, when Virgil's mother was working on putting dessert together and the three of them, plus Virgil's father, were sitting together in the living room of their little house, and Virgil had changed out of his original outfit into a loose t-shirt with a band logo and a half zipped up baggy hoodie, Roman thought he looked just as adorable in the more casual outfit, and really it just made him want to snuggle more.

But despite how huggable Virgil looked, Roman still wanted answers to the burning questions he had right now.

"Can I... ask you guys something?" Roman asked softly, leaning into Virgil's side a little. Janus sat next to them, one of their hands resting on Roman's leg but otherwise not touching him at all, which was most certainly strange for a casual moment like this.

"Sure," Virgil said with a nod, "What is it?"

"Mm," Janus hummed, "go ahead, darling."

"Earlier- back in the park, you guys were both talking about reincarnation?" Roman asked, already frowning to himself, "And Vee you seemed so upset by the fact that I wouldn't reincarnate, and I guess I'm just wondering - what's the significance of it? I mean, why did it upset you so much?"

Virgil let out a deep breath through his nose, sitting up and gently nudging Roman to do the same. He thought for a moment, and Roman didn't say anything else.

"I think it's best Virgil explains this one," Janus said to fill the silence, leaning back against the sofa. Virgil nodded.

"Okay, um... as witches, we tend to believe strongly in reincarnation, based on your deeds and actions and stuff," Virgil said, "It's... kinda complicated, but basically what, when and where you're reincarnated is based on how you lived your life, and we believe that soulmates will always wait to be reborn together, so... if we were meant to be, so to speak, we would've been together in our past lifetimes, and we would be together in all our future ones too, except- with you selling your soul, it'll mean... I guess it'll mean I'll have to go on alone..."

Roman felt something in his chest squeeze painfully. Virgil's voice sounded heavy with hurt, grief for a future life with Roman he hadn't even lived yet. If they truly were soulmates, Virgil would have to go on and live lifetimes without Roman, because he went and made a deal. A look back at Janus showed that even they were upset about this.

"I-" Roman said softly, "I'm so sorry, Vee, and I didn't even know-"

"It's... well, I can't say it's okay," Virgil sighed, "But it's what's done, we can't change that, so we can't dwell on it - we'll just have to enjoy this life together whilst we have it, right? I mean... I guess I probably won't know I'm missing something when I reincarnate, it's not like you keep memories."

"I hope not," Roman says softly, "I just... hate the idea of abandoning you like that."

Janus made a soft noise from next to him, and Roman looked over to find them looking a little contemplative. But before Roman could ask what was wrong, they stood from the sofa.

"I do think that I've overstayed my welcome," Janus said, ruffling Roman's hair as he walked past.

"You're welcome here," Virgil said, shaking his head at Janus, "But if you want to leave, that's okay - I'll see you in school Monday?"

"Of course," Janus smiled, and after a moment's hesitation, ruffled Virgil's hair too. They gave Roman a playful wink, before heading out of the house and disappearing entirely.

Their friends most certainly noticed the abrupt change of attitude towards Janus from Virgil. It was like a switch had been flipped after he'd found out and they'd talked, but the announcement of their relationship had most certainly overshadowed all of that, and thus it wasn't questioned.

Life went on as normal, as normal as it was for Roman at least, with a demon in his life. He didn't exactly know how to judge 'normal' anymore, but he was happy, and really, what else mattered?

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#sanders sides #virgil sanders #roman sanders #sanders sides art #sanders sides fanfiction #ts roman #ts virgil #ts janus #janus sanders #tss fanfic #More Than You Bargained For

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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More Than You Bargained For (6/9)

Chapter 6 - The Witch And The Demon

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Warnings: Misunderstanding/argument

Word Count: 3980

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It had been weeks since Janus had joined their friend group and Virgil still wasn't sure how he felt about them.

He was just... impossible to figure out. Virgil didn't get it, Janus was strange and odd and flirty and pretty and weird. Virgil didn't know how he was supposed to feel about it.

Janus also seemed oddly affectionate with Roman. Virgil knew they'd known Roman first, and that Roman had been friends with Janus for longer than Virgil had, but it seemed to spark an odd feeling of jealousy in Virgil.

The crush on Roman he had tried to suppress was trying to once again rear it's head. Virgil knew it, he just didn't want to admit it.

Safe to say, Virgil had been crushing on his friend when they had first met. Virgil hadn't transitioned as much back then, and he'd at first been worried that Roman wouldn't like him because he looked like a girl. Then he was worried Roman wouldn't like him because he was trans - which he knew wouldn't be the case, but he had an anxiety diagnosis for a reason. And then he was worried he shouldn't like Roman because Roman had been such an asshole to him.

It was hard to be angry with Roman. He'd more than redeemed himself after the first year they'd known each other. It wasn't like Roman had hit him where it hurt at all either, it had all just been petty and annoying. No, Virgil wasn't mad at Roman for that anymore. What he was upset about was thee fact that Roman had never properly apologised.

But it's not like Virgil could just go up to him and demand an apology for stuff that happened three years ago, Roman probably thought he was over it. Hell, that's what he wanted them to think. Of course it was what Roman thought.

It was the weekend now, and over the past week Roman had been mentioning the fact that he'd like to hang out more properly, and after a slightly odd suggestion from Janus, Virgil had invited Roman over.

Roman had never been to his house before.

Honestly that probably made Virgil a bad friend or something. They'd known each other for what, three years? And none of them - not even Patton - had seen Virgil's house.

it was stupid to be worried about it. He'd already given Roman a lucky pendant, so he could trust nothing terrible would happen to him. Both of his parents were just excited that Virgil was finally bringing someone over. His ma was cooking dinner already - "I'm making something fancy for you friend!' she'd said - and he'd spent a few hours the day before tidying and making sure everything was where it should be. His pa had patted his shoulder and told him kindly that he was overthinking this. Virgil tried to argue, before realising that his pa was definitely right.

So now he was sat on his bed, alternating between scrolling through his phone, staring out the window and staring at his feet as he waited for Roman to arrive. They'd agreed on 3 pm to meet and it was currently 2:46, he shouldn't be worrying.

"Virgil! Angioletto!" Virgil heard his mama call from downstairs, he couldn't help but roll his eyes at the nickname, 'little angel', how fitting, "Your boyfriend is here!"

"Mama!" Virgil yelled back, aware his face was flaming red as he ran from his room to go downstairs, "he's not my boyfriend! You know that!"

When Virgil made it downstairs, she was standing in the hallway with a smirk on her face that made Virgil well aware that she knew that and many other things too.

Virgil just rolled his eyes and walked over to open the door just as Roman knocked on it.

"Hey Ro," Virgil said, kicking himself for how awkwardly it came out. Still, Roman just grinned.

"Hey Virgil! Your house is beautiful!" Roman said, looking around as he walked in. Virgil saw him shiver as he stepped through the door, and Romans eyes immediately went up to the sprigs of rosemary they hung there, as well as the salt they laid along the door frames.

"Thanks," Virgil smiled. His house was nowhere near as nice as Roman's, he'd been there enough times to know that, but Virgil's house had everything they needed, they could decorate to their hearts content, they had a little garden out back where they could grow herbs and plants for both cooking and their practice. Virgil even had a decent sized room that was his own space, plus a spare room for when family came to visit. There was nothing to complain about in his mind. He didn't know what he'd do with all the space Roman had anyway.

"Smells… like incense?" Roman guessed, Virgil nodded.

"Yeah, Mama burned some in the kitchen before she started cooking," Virgil said, before turning around, "Speaking of, Mama this is Roman. Roman, my mama."

"Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Capello," Roman said, holding out a hand. She took it and smiled.

"Please, call me Julia," she said, shaking his hand before letting go, "Now you boys go play upstairs. Don't need you getting in the way while I make dinner, shoo."

She waved her hands and Virgil laughed, heading up the stairs and letting Roman follow him until they reached his room.

Virgil's room was dark, but not in a way that was dull or dingy. His walls were painted a dark, midnight purple, but most of the space was covered with posters and pictures. The wall behind his bed had the beginnings of a mural he'd started, with green vines and leaves. He planned to make the whole corner of the wall into a fantasy forest type landscape, the leaves he'd drawn were really just a test, but Roman was marvelling at them, gasping softly as he traced his finger over the lines. watching him take such care with something Virgil had worked on made Virgil blush as he sat down on his bed. His sheets were purple and plaid, with a weighted blanket on top and a fluffy purple blanket on top of that.

His altar sat on the windowsill, currently housing a collection of snowdrops and primroses. Since it was the beginning of spring, he'd gone out recently to collect them. A candle was lit too, cinnamon scented, which Roman leaned over to sniff enthusiastically.

"Is that the show you were telling me about?" Roman asked, pointing over to a poster on his wall, detailing a cartoon Virgil had been into for quite a long time. Virgil nodded, "Oh this is so cool - I'd love to be able to decorate like this."

Virgil watched as Roman took in his room, investigating everything on his desk, running his fingers across the posters and pictures and other decorations on his wall that had been gifts from various family members. He let Roman touch the feathered dream catcher that hung in front of his window, and laughed a little when Roman knocked into his wind chime, making it jingle and Roman gasp.

"It sounds so pretty-" he said softly, finally coming to sit next to Virgil once he was done looking around, he reached over and carefully picked up a round, squishy black cat plush that Virgil's aunt had gotten him a few years ago, squeezing it gently, "Are your parents really okay with you having all of this stuff out like this?"

Virgil's heart squeezed just a little. He'd been in Roman's bedroom before, with Patton and Logan usually. He knew it was pretty plain, Roman didn't have posters up, he had one or two framed pictures and, if Virgil remembered correctly, a piece of landscape art. The only colour he really remembered were Roman's red sheets and maybe his rug, but it had been a while since he'd been there. He'd always assumed the lack of personal touches was Roman's choice, but it wasn't very in character for the Roman that Virgil knew.

"I- yeah?" Virgil said, tilting his head a little, "My dad helped me put up those shelves, and mama's always encouraged me to decorate as much as I like - the only rule is I've always had to save up for new things I want, like if I wanted a new desk or different paint or something."

"They let you paint your walls?" Roman asked with a gleam in his eye. Virgil knew that look - he'd worn that look when he wandered around Roman's mansion - a kind of jealousy mixed with wonder. It wasn't a mean thought, Virgil could tell - Roman was just... wishing he had what Virgil had, just like Virgil had wished for the money Roman had access to far too often. Now he was realising that there were downsides to that lifestyle that he never got to see.

"I could help you paint your room if you wanted," Virgil nudged him gently.

"My parents would kill me," Roman laughed, shaking his head, Virgil sighed. Roman was eighteen years old, just like the rest of them, and he wasn't allowed to put up posters in his room, let alone paint his walls a colour he liked rather than that boring cream.

"I'm sorry," Virgil said softly.

Roman shook his head, "Not your fault - but we're not here to be upset about me," Roman shook his head, "What uh, what did you wanna do?"

"Well... first of all, I had something to give you," Virgil said, turning away to hide the way he was blushing.

"Really?" Roman gasped, sounding genuinely excited about whatever Virgil had to offer.

"I- yeah, hold on," Virgil said, getting up and walking over to his windowsill. From a dish next to his altar, he grabbed a small glass jar sealed with black wax with a string attached, "I made this for you."

"Ooh!" Roman said, reaching out his hands to carefully take the jar. It was filled with different things. Various herbs, black salt and a rolled up slip of paper that Virgil had written Roman's name onto when putting the whole thing together, "What is it?"

"It's a protection spell," Virgil said, sitting back down, "You can wear it and you'll be protected against evil stuff, bad luck, negative energies, that sort of thing."

"Oh - Virgil that's lovely," Roman gasped, lifting the string so that he could tie it around his neck. Virgil couldn't help but smile.

"You're welcome," Virgil said - he put a whole lot of effort into the protection spells, and he only gave them to the people he cared about the most - and maybe he'd had a slight ulterior motive to giving one to Roman too.

It's not like he meant to judge, but Virgil was wary of Janus. He'd always found it incredibly easy to read people's auras, understand how they're feeling and get a vague sense of their personality. But Janus was odd, they gave him a weird feeling and Virgil was, just slightly, worried about Roman when it came to being around Janus as much as he was. So he'd wanted to give Roman a spell jar just in case there was something weird going on. He hoped at least it would make sure the worst didn't happen.

Virgil noticed out of the corner of his eye as Roman tied the necklace that the string had caught on his flannel shirt, pulling it aside just enough for Virgil to notice a tiny bit of black peeking out against his collarbone.

"Did you get a tattoo?" Virgil asked, eyes wide. Roman was practically the last person he had expected to do something like getting a tattoo. Hell, he'd probably put Roman's crazy brother way above him if he were to rank his friends on just how likely they'd be to get a tattoo.

"Oh - I-" Roman said, eyes widening as he pulled his shirt closer around himself, Virgil raised an eyebrow.

"You know I'm not gonna judge you, Ro," Virgil said softly, "I think tattoos are awesome - can I see?"

Roman didn't protest as Virgil reached over to push his shirt aside to reveal what Virgil had thought was a tattoo. But when he saw the small mark, he recoiled like he'd been burned.

"Roman-" Virgil whispered, reaching forward again to pull his shirt aside. That was when he realised Roman was holding his breath, he looked up at him and Virgil realised Roman's eyes were wide and scared.

Virgil's eyes were fixed on the sigil on Roman's collar. He recognised it, the snake eating it's own tail wrapped around a pentagram. For a moment, Virgil couldn't say anything, just tracing the snake's scales across Roman's skin. 11Virgil looked up at him.

"What did you do, Roman?" Virgil whispered softly.

Roman's breath hitched, Virgil felt him shift under his fingers.

"Nothing," Roman lied, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Virgil said, pulling his fingers back and glaring at Roman, "You made a deal with a demon."

It was obvious he was right when Roman's eyes widened at his words.

"This is the sigil of a demon prince," Virgil said, "Roman, what deal did you make?"

"It- it's not bad, I promise," Roman said quickly, "I swear-"

"What did you bargain with, Roman," Virgil asked again, voice a deadly calm that made Roman look even more worried.

"My soul-"

"Roman!"

"-It's not bad! I swear! They're only going to take it after I die-"

"Roman!" Virgil yelled, grabbing his arms, barely resisting the urge to shake him, "Do you not understand that you've doomed your afterlife? Just because your soul won't be taken now - you'll be trapped for eternity! Roman what the fuck could possibly be so important-"

"Janus wouldn't hurt me-" Roman said. Well, at least now he knew why Janus had been pinging all weird to all of his senses.

"Janus?" Virgil said sharply, "Janus is the demon? of course they are, why didn't I figure this out sooner - oh my god! Roman - do you not understand how much danger you're putting all of us in by bringing them around here?"

"They're not-"

"You have no idea what they are or aren't!" Virgil stood, "You clearly don't know anything if you went and summoned a fucking demon prince - what are they giving you?"

"I-"

"Tell me, Roman. What the fuck is important enough that you'd put all of your friends in danger for it?"

"I needed help!" Roman cried, "I needed - I needed someone to help me fix everything, okay? And I couldn't - I couldn't ask any of you because I was fucking terrified - they've already helped me so much, talking to Patton and Logan and with my grades and parents and all sorts! They're fixing my life, Virgil!"

"Roman- oh my god - you could've talked to me! I could've helped you! Or, I don't know, a therapist? Even a fucking psychic would've been better, lady Athena save ne -"

"Virgil I- I couldn't - I-" Roman tried to get the words out while Virgil stood and frantically began to search through his bookshelves for the demonology book his parents had brought him.

Virgil didn't like demon magic, often it was difficult and dealing with such fickle beings unnerved him, and they tended to be evil spirits, responding the requests with pettiness or spite or worse. He much preferred harnessing the magic of nature. but Virgil was a witch. He was practised in all sorts of magic.

He found the book he needed and pulled it out, flipping through it.

"Virgil, what-" Roman started as Virgil frantically flipped through the pages, "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna get that thing out of you," Virgil said, voice coming out far more harshly than he had meant it.

"No - Virgil, please listen they're not -" Roman was clearly panicked now, but Virgil was certain he was misguided, or he was being manipulated or maybe even hypnotised. Janus was an incredibly powerful demon if they were a prince, who knew what they were capable of?

Virgil found the page he was looking for and started to recite the Latin words written there, Roman stood, and Virgil wasn't quick enough to stop him from bolting.

"Roman!" Virgil yelled, tucking the book under his arm and running after him. The front door to Virgil's house had slammed shut before Virgil could even get down the stairs. By the time Virgil had pulled his simplest shoes on - a pair of beaten up bright purple converse - and rushed out after him, Roman was gone from sight.

"Angioletto? What's going on?" Virgil's mother came around the corner into the hallway, now dressed in an apron with her hair tied up on top of her head. She looked worried.

"I-" Virgil said, trying to take a deep breath and failing, "I think I really fucked up-"

"Oh dear," She said, putting down her spatula and coming over to pull him into a hug, "What happened?"

"I think Roman's in trouble," He said, "Like- like really really big trouble, and I just- I scared him away-"

"Okay," his ma said, taking both of Virgil's hands and squeezing them tightly, "Do you know where he went?"

Virgil shook his head, trying not to let his panic get the best of him.

"That's okay - we can find out," She said, squeezing his hands again for a few seconds before letting them go. His breathing subconsciously followed the pattern, "What kind of danger is he in?"

"The 'made a deal with a demon prince and also brought said demon to school with him' kind," Virgil said, leaving his mother to stare.

"You-" She said, "You're not joking, are you sweetie?"

"I wish I was," Virgil said, shaking his head.

"Okay," She said, "First of all, it will be okay."

Virgil was about to protest, before she shook her head.

"You've been practising scrying, haven't you?" She said, Virgil nodded slowly, "Good, go upstairs and find out where Roman went, and then you go and bring him back here, okay? I'll get your Pa and we can start working on a spell to help him."

"That's what made him run away in the first place," Virgil said, taking a deep breath, "I- I panicked and tried to-"

She shook her head, "It's okay honey, whatever you did scared him off, I need you to go and bring him back before he gets himself hurt."

"...Okay," Virgil took a deep breath, before letting go of her and heading back for the stairs. He went to his shelves, grabbing various herbs and a few candles and taking them into the upstairs bathroom together.

Mirror magic was something Virgil had always found himself drawn to. It certainly fit his spooky aesthetic well enough that was for sure. His whole family were witches, and Virgil was the most drawn to the classics - tarot, rituals, mirror magic - while his mother specialised in attaching magic to food. His grandmother worked with rope - knot magic, primarily, weaving spells into clothing and such. The Horned God necklace Virgil always wore was strung on a weaved thread of different colours of his grandmother's making. She'd gifted it to him after he came out. A lot of his family in Italy didn't truly understand, but she'd told him it would help to give him a more masculine energy, and Virgil trusted her work.

Now he had to trust his own as he turned off the lights in the bathroom and lit the candles he'd placed on their shelf, either side of the mirror. He'd turned on the hot water to create some steam and, once the mirror was steamed up enough, he crushed some of the herbs he'd grabbed into the water filling up the sink, all the while focusing on Roman and asking to see where he had gone.

The reflection of Virgil's own face shifted and swirled until Virgil could see something different instead. Through the steam he could see a road, feet hitting the pavement quickly, he was running, but to where? Virgil pushed at the image with his mind, he needed to see something, a road sign, a landmark - there! Roman passed through a wrought iron gate that Virgil recognised as the one leading into a nearby park. He was slowing down, too, maybe Virgil could intercept him if he hurried.

With a rushed thank you, Virgil snuffed out the candles with a hood and emptied the sink. His parents would understand if he left his spell components in the bathroom until he got back.

"He's in the park!" Virgil called over his shoulder as he grabbed his keys and rushed out of the door, "I'll be back soon!"

And with that, Virgil was flying down the street towards the park. The place was about halfway between Roman and Virgil's houses, so it had been a popular meetup spot after Virgil had joined the friend group. It was maybe ten minutes away at a good run - for Roman at least. It took Virgil almost fifteen, and when he reached the gate he was practically wheezing. Running in a binder was never a good idea regardless, but especially not if you were sprinting. Leaning on the gate for a moment, Virgil pressed a hand to his chest and just took a moment to take deep breaths, He'd have to take the thing off when he got home again.

But for now, he had to find Roman.

Virgil pulled a handful of dust from his pocket, closing his eyes for a moment and thinking of Roman before letting it loose. It wasn't perfect, not when he was so rushed and panicked - but the dust formed a loose trail for him to follow through the park. It wasn't a small place by any means, and if Roman was trying to hide from him Virgil wouldn't stand a chance at finding him in here. Luckily for him he had magic to make things easier.

Virgil was close to panicking when he didn't catch sight of Roman for another five minutes. But eventually, he caught sight of Roman's curly hair over a wall and he ran over.

"Roman!" He called, making Roman jump, "I was so worried - I- you-"

When Virgil rounded the corner he not only saw Roman, but Janus as well. Seeing them, knowing what he knew now, was enough to stop Virgil in his tracks.

Janus was holding Roman around the waist, head on his shoulder - or it must've been, for Virgil not to see them before - and now was looking at him with confusion. Virgil might've thought the expression was cute, if the word 'Demon' wasn't being screamed in his head.

"Me, darling?" Janus asked, confused. Virgil could see just how tense Roman was, even with Janus' apparent comfort.

"Yes, you, demon," Virgil spat, taking Janus even more by surprise. So Roman hadn't told them Virgil knew. "Get away from Roman, I won't let you hurt him-"

"So that's why you're so upset," Janus practically cooed, not to him, but to Roman. Roman made a sad noise of agreement and Janus looked up at him.

"Virgil," Janus said, "You're a witch, yes?"

"Yes," Virgil said, though giving the answer felt like handing over his own death warrant, "What's it to you?"

"I think maybe," Janus said calmly, "Before jumping straight to something drastic, we should all sit down and talk, would that be okay with you, doll?"

Wiping his eyes, Roman looked between Virgil and Janus. He looked miserable and Virgil's heart hurt knowing that he had been the one to cause that. But Janus was rubbing his back between his shoulders and letting Roman lean on them and... comforting him.

"Yeah- yeah, I think - talking would be good," Roman nodded.

Virgil suddenly felt wrong footed.

"Okay, fine," Virgil said, "Lets talk."

----

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#sanders sides #roman sanders #virgil sanders #ts roman #ts virgil #sanders sides fanfiction #rowans writings #ts fanfic #More Than You Bargained For

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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More Than You Bargained For (5/9)

Chapter 5 - Study Session Gone Right

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Warnings: Homo/transphobia, panic attack.

Word Count: 4187

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"You are saying that you would both like my help to study for the upcoming chemistry exam, am I correct?" Logan asked, standing ramrod straight, as prim and proper as he always was. He had his chemistry book in his hand, in fact they had just been packing up to leave the class.

"Yeah, I could really use the help," Roman said, looking down, "I know trying to tutor me didn't really work out for us before, but I was really hoping you'd be willing to give it another shot - You're incredibly smart, L, and I really need the help - maybe it'll be better with Janus there to help us?"

"Maybe it will," Logan hummed, "Would you like to study at the library? Or one of our homes?"

"I was actually thinking we could use Roman's home," Janus piped up, "I've visited it a few times and it seems like there would be plenty of space for us to study in his bedroom, plus he can order us food if we get hungry."

Logan hummed, clearly not enthused by the idea but at the same time, he wasn't outright denying them either, which was... probably a win.

"Alright then, i will consult my planner and message you the dates and times at which I'm free, Roman, please attempt to respond in a timely manner."

"Yessir," Roman nodded, before wincing, "I mean - yes, yeah I'll do that, thank you so much, Logan."

"You are welcome," Logan said, picking up his bag to leave the classroom, "I would like to see you actually putting effort into this study session, if you remain unable to do so, I will have to cut it short."

"Yeah - that- that's fair," Roman nodded, taking a deep breath. They could do this, it would be okay. No pressure or anything.

----

They had arranged to meet up Saturday afternoon. It would, apparently, best fit Logan's busy schedule, and didn't clash with any of Roman's drama work, so they had decided that it would likely be the best time for them to meet up. Logan had arrived at Roman's house at precisely the time he had said he would and Roman opened the door just as promptly mere seconds later. He knew Logan well enough that he would arrive on the dot.

"Good afternoon, Roman," Logan nodded to him, "Has Janus arrived yet?"

"Yeah, they're upstairs," Roman nodded - they had agreed that Logan would probably be offended if Janus arrived later, so didn't want to take that risk.

"Wonderful, I assume your parents are not home?" Logan glanced back at their empty driveway, Roman shrugged.

"Are they ever?" He said, and after a look from Logan he shook his head, "No, they went out to some fancy business lunch thing, they might be back this afternoon, though."

"Alright," Logan nodded, "Shall we, then?"

Roman returned the nod, let Logan into the house and closed the door behind him. Logan knew the way to Roman's room from the many, many times they had done this exact thing, so Roman simply followed him upstairs.

"Good afternoon Logan," Janus grinned from where they lounged - in Roman's desk chair this time - "Lovely to see you again. Come sit, Roman got us snacks. Isn't he a dear?"

Janus gestured to the selection of snacks laid out on the floor where they would sit to study. A fruit salad, some crisps and various other snacks of both the healthy and unhealthy variety. Roman and Janus had planned this out meticulously to make sure that Logan felt considered. Logan had mentioned, on the first day he met Janus, that he didn't feel like Roman took him or his work seriously, so he was trying to amend that now.

"I see you are prepared," Logan said, sounding as surprised as Logan was probably capable of sounding.

"Mhm," Roman said brightly, "I wanted to get started as soon as possible."

He sat down on the floor, cross legged, and pulled his laptop onto his lap. On it, he'd already pulled out their syllabus, "I don't want to fail another test."

"Your determination is admirable," Logan said, sitting down beside him and pulling a bundle of practice papers out of his bag, closely followed by an entire folder of notes, "but you will need more than determination to improve your score in this class. Unfortunately, you are very behind on the material."

"I- I'm not," Roman shook his head, "I take notes and pay attention and all, I just - I struggle with how to do the exams, really, I know the answers, I just never write them down in the way they want me to."

Janus looked like they were considering that for a moment, before humming.

"How would the two of you have normally gone about these study sessions?" Janus asked, "If I wasn't here."

"Generally, we would work through the revision material in the textbook, making notes and flashcards in order to prepare for in class assessments," Logan explained, Roman nodded.

"Mhm - mostly it's just going over the material, copying notes, that sort of thing."

Janus hummed, "And that wasn't working for you?" they asked Roman bluntly. Roman didn't get a chance to answer.

"Clearly, as per Roman's test scores, he was failing to pay attention during any of them," Logan said, making Roman duck his head in embarrassment, feeling stupid shameful tears well up before he could stop them. He quickly took a deep breath, trying to will them away.

"Have you, perhaps, considered that this method of study may simply not work for Roman?" Janus asked, causing Roman to look up - he was almost surprised Janus was defending him here. Though maybe he shouldn't be.

"Elaborate, please?" Logan asked, frowning.

"Well-" Janus said, shifting to grab Logan's flashcards, "Logan, you said your method of study is to go over the material, yes? Presumably to cement it in your memory and ensure you are aware of everything you need to know going into the exams."

"Indeed, that is correct," Logan said, still seeming confused.

"But Roman, you said that you believe you already know the material. You just struggle applying it in the way they need you to for you to receive the marks on the tests themselves."

Roman nodded slowly, "I- yeah, I think so, I mean, going over the material definitely helps too, but I don't think it's the main thing I'm struggling with."

"In that case," Janus said, "Instead of focusing entirely on revising the class material, it would make sense to go over these exam papers and perhaps work on them together so that Roman can get a better grasp of how to work the answers?"

Slowly, Logan nodded, "Hm, I do see how that would be helpful," he agreed. "Do you pay attention when our teacher goes over the exams we do, Roman?"

Roman nodded, "I - yeah, I always make notes of the stuff I did wrong-"

Pulling out a notebook, Roman flipped to the pages he had filled in for their last exam. Logan took the book from him and read through it.

"Although I believe the colours and doodles are highly unnecessary, I do believe that these notes are decent," Logan concluded, "But they are all about the points in the material you missed, if you truly are not struggling with the material itself, then this will not help you with exam technique."

Roman nodded, even though he wanted to curl up into a tiny ball and never see the light of day again. If he could get through this without crying, that would be a win in his book. But of course he'd already come close and they'd barely been here five minutes.

"So, instead of my original plan, I think that we should go through these past papers, and I will talk you through how to answer each kind of question," Logan said, "there is a pattern to them, certain words and phrases they want you to use when answering certain types of questions, that kind of thing. If you have any of your old tests, I can also see what types of questions you lose the most points on, and we can go over those especially."

Suddenly, Roman was looking at Logan in wonder, eyes wide as he took in the person who, until recently, had made no effort to really help him. Was it really as simple as Logan not truly understanding what it was he needed help with? It was true he had never been able to articulate it was well and concisely as Janus had.

"We can go over the material a little afterwards," Logan said when Roman didn't respond, "And then perhaps I'll have you practice a few and see where you are still going wrong, do you believe this would be helpful to you, Roman?"

"I- yeah, I think so," Roman nodded, "At the very least I want to try and see."

"Alright, then that shall be the plan - so long as Janus agrees?"

"I'm fine with anything, my dears," Janus hummed, "It'll be nice to get an idea of how your school does things."

"Indeed - knowing how the tests function will give you an upper hand on future ones," Logan hummed, "Alright, lets get started, shall we?"

Logan began to go through the exam papers with Roman, taking him through question by question and comparing it to a printed grading scheme to show Roman exactly what they wanted from each question. They were looking for keywords, certain sentence structures and various marking points. Of course, Roman knew the material, but he realised as he watched Logan go through the exams that he had been entirely missing out on this crucial piece of knowledge that he needed in order to actually pass the exams.

At some point, near the end of the first exam paper, Janus had gotten up under the guise of taking a break to grab them snacks and drinks from downstairs. Logan had offered to pause, but Janus had waved him off.

That had been fifteen minutes ago.

"Where is Janus?" Roman asked, sitting up suddenly, startling Logan a little. He'd felt a ping of worry in his chest that he wasn't sure the origins of.

"They said they were going to gather us snacks and drinks," Logan reminded him, sitting up as well.

"It's been way too long for that," Roman said, frowning, "Do you think something happened?"

"What could possibly have happened?"

"Oh shit," Roman said, "I never told my parents you guys were coming over. Maybe they ran into them? Janus doesn't know what my parents are like-"

"Would they really be that bad?" Logan asked, raising an eyebrow at him, "They've never had a problem with me and Patton...?"

"Sure, but you guys aren't totally strangers. They've never met Janus before," Roman said, wanting to kick himself for this oversight.

"I see. Yes, finding a stranger in your house must be rather alarming. Are you alright?" Logan asked.

Roman was not, in fact, alright. He was actually panicking quite badly. Would his parents be angry with him? Would they kick Janus out? They just hadn't been around enough yet to meet him, but would they take offence to that? Roman had no idea.

Logan placed a gentle hand on Roman's wrist, snapping him back to the present.

"Can you tell me five things you can see?" Logan asked. Roman blinked a few times, surprised at the immediacy with which Logan wen into the grounding exercise. It took Roman a moment to clear his head enough to actually answer.

"You, the exam papers, my colourful sticky notes, the floor, the pens," Roman said, looking down.

"That's good, now can you tell me four things you can touch-?"

The two of them continued the exercise until Logan was sure Roman was calm again, and then he himself took a deep breath, going to get up.

"Alright, now, I will go downstairs and find Janus, you sit here and recover, alright?" Logan told him, "I will deal with your parents."

"…Okay," Roman said, taking a deep breath, "Could you bring me back some water, if Janus didn't grab any?"

"Of course I can," Logan nodded, standing and heading for the door.

----

Janus had wanted to leave the pair alone for a little while in hopes that they might find something to bond over without Janus interrupting. That's the main reason they had excused themself in order to go downstairs and find them some snacks and drinks. They'd put together a plate of various snack foods they'd been able to find and was just filling up a nice pitcher they had found with orange juice and lemonade when someone else came into the kitchen.

"Excuse me," said the woman, staring at them like they'd just stepped out of hell, "Who are you, and what are you doing in my kitchen?"

"I'm one of Roman's friends, ma'am," Janus said politely, the formal address left a bitterness on their tongue. They were a prince, for hell's sake, they shouldn't need to answer to a random mortal woman, "We've been studying for an exam in school."

"Roman hasn't told us he's having friends over," The woman said, frowning. Janus bit their tongue when they wanted to tell the woman that such a thing was probably because she was never there for her son. Why should she have the right to know when Roman was hanging out with friends?

"Well - we are. My name is Janus, it's nice to meet you," Janus said, working through the annoying, stiff pleasantries with practised ease but no less bitterness.

"Maria Ramirez," The woman introduced herself, "I'm Roman's mother, it would've been nice to meet you through him, rather than finding you standing in our kitchen."

"I'm gathering us drinks." Janus pointed out.

She narrowed her eyes, "'Us'? Are you and Roman alone?"

"...No," Janus said, frowning in confusion, "Why do you ask?"

"Ah, Roman knows he's not allowed to have boys over one on one," She says, and that pulled Janus up short - he had never said anything like that, "Can't have him becoming like his awful brother and that little friend of his, it'll ruin his future you know - and our reputation, having another gay in the family-"

She had started to mutter, and Janus pulled themself up to their full height, "First of all," they say, "I'm not a boy, do not presume to know my gender, and Roman is not going to be 'turned gay' by hanging out with other boys, that's not how it works. That just makes you an idiot."

"Excuse me? You're talking to me like that in my own home?" she hissed, and Janus realised their mistake. She was an authority figure here, even if they could easily pull rank on her, they were masquerading as Roman's friend from school. To her, they had no power here.

"Sorry, Mrs Ramirez," Came Logan's voice from the stairs, "Is something happening here?"

"Ah, Logan," She said, her demeanour changing entirely, "It's lovely to see you again honey - is this one of your friends?"

"Indeed, they're a new friend, I've been tutoring them and Roman for chemistry."

She sighed deeply, "Alright, fine, you-"

"My name is Janus," Janus reminded her sharply. She scowled.

"Janus, make sure you learn some manners before you come back here."

"I will do my best to teach them, ma'am," Logan said, before taking the plate of snacks and gesturing for Janus to grab the tray, "Come on, I've left Roman to study alone upstairs whilst I retrieved you."

Janus took the tray and followed, risking casting one last glare at Roman's mother as she walked back towards the living room. When they turned back, they found themself almost nose to nose with Logan.

"What are you doing," Logan hissed in a whisper, "Antagonising Roman's mother like that?"

"She was being a bitch," Janus hissed back, "She deserved it."

"Hey," Logan said, glaring now, he didn't say anything for a moment - until the door to the living room was definitely shut, Janus realised, "Anything you do to annoy her will just be fired back on Roman. He has had to fight to keep Patton and Virgil as his friends because of their gender identities, and they only allow me around alone so long as they can check that we really are studying. I understand that his parents are horrible people, but please wait until you are not within earshot to say so, or you'll only make life more difficult for Roman."

Janus paused, before taking a deep breath, "I… understand, thank you for informing me. Is Roman alright?"

"He panicked a little when thinking that you might be around his parents," Logan informed him, turning to climb the stairs. Janus immediately felt bad, "But I calmed him before coming to find you."

Okay, so Janus had completely misjudged Roman's relationship with his parents. It wasn't just strained, like they had previously thought. They hadn't realised that Roman's worry about them sending him to law school and generally otherwise not being there at all weren't his only worries with his parents.

Logan led the way back into Roman's room and immediately walked over to sit down next to Roman, taking his hand and squeezing it.

"Is everything okay?" Roman said softly, looking worriedly up at Logan. Janus could almost forget the little arguments they had seen them have during class.

"I do believe so," Logan said, "I was able to calm your mother, though I do believe it would be beneficial for you to tell Janus a little about your relationship with your parents in order to avoid a situation like this happening in future. However, I do understand that it's a personal matter, which you may not wish to talk about with a new friend."

"Thanks, Logan," Roman said, crossing his legs and reaching for a glass, "I- I really appreciate you deflecting her. I don't want something bad to happen."

Roman's eyes met Janus' and suddenly they felt like they were about to melt. They wanted to scoot over and cuddle Roman close and hold him until he believed that everything would be okay again. Janus tore their eyes away, they couldn't be thinking like that. Once Janus had helped with Roman and Logan's relationship, he'd have to finally help Roman with his crush on Virgil - who himself was just as adorable. It wasn't fair, but it was unfortunately the hand they had been dealt.

"Have a snack, Roman," Janus said, gesturing to the plate. Roman nodded and took a little pastry from the plate. The sugar would do him good.

Once Roman had recovered, they went back to studying and Janus went back to mostly ignoring them, considering they didn't actually need to study in order to pass the test - they could just make that happen by spelling the paper. Not too hard. The most they were doing really was keeping an ear out for anything going wrong between Logan and Roman.

Nothing did, surprisingly, not until they moved on to English homework - Roman had mentioned feeling productive, and Janus couldn't imagine Logan passing up a chance to do more work.

"Would you be willing to read over this story I've had to write for my creative writing class?" Roman asked Logan, the expression on his face strangely tentative. Even Logan looked surprised, "Just for like - grammar and punctuation stuff?"

"I can, but you don't normally welcome my feedback. Are you certain?" Logan asked, reaching for the paper.

Roman nodded, "You're better at grammar than me, and I've been struggling with tenses."

"Alright, I can have a look," Logan hummed, taking a deep breath, adjusting his glasses and starting to go through the papers Roman had clearly printed off for this. Roman's eyes were locked onto the paper as Logan took a red pen and started crossing things out, writing something new in its place and then moving on. Janus watched Roman get more and more tense the more Logan edited.

"Darling," Janus interrupted when Logan was about halfway through, they reached out and put a hand on Roman's shoulder to get his attention, "What's wrong?"

"Is something wrong?" Logan asked, sitting up a little, Roman glanced over at Janus, who gave them a nod in encouragement.

"You-" Roman said to Logan, "You're crossing out quite a lot of my work, there."

"Ah, I was editing," Logan explained, pushing the paper he'd already worked on over, "There were some things that I thought may be unnecessary as I was reading, so I thought it would be better to simply remove them."

"O-oh-" Roman said, chewing on his lip, "Logan - I know you're better at grammar and spelling than me, as well as a whole lot of other things, but writing is my own talent, and I had already edited the writing itself."

"Go on, dear," Janus said gently to encourage, Roman gave them a them a thankful glance.

"I didn't ask for you input on the writing, just the spelling and grammar - this part that you took out here was essential to the character's development throughout the rest of the planned story - and this part here is important to showcase her relationship with her mother."

"...Ah," Logan said softly, "I have offended you."

"No, no, you haven't offended me," Roman shook his head, "I just - didn't ask for criticism on the content of the writing, and I would rather you focus on what I asked you to, if that's okay?"

"That is perfectly fine, my apologies, I believed I was being helpful," Logan said, taking the offered sheet back.

"Thanks, L," Roman breathed a sigh of relief, "It's not that I don't appreciate your feedback, I swear I do, but just - not when I haven't asked for it, okay?"

"Alright," Logan agreed, "Thank you for informing me."

"See?" Janus hummed, "The two of you can talk to each other without arguing."

"Huh?" Roman asked, eyes wide. Logan frowned.

"When do we argue?" Logan asked. Now it was Janus' turn to look surprised.

"...Literally almost every time the two of you are in a room together," Janus said, confused, "The day I met you you started arguing about the use of nicknames."

"That's -" Logan frowned, "I swear I did not intend to argue with you, Roman, if that is how it came out I sincerely apologise."

"I- appreciate the apology, Logan," Roman said, "Genuinely, and I'm sorry too - I didn't mean to argue back, nor offend you to the point where you had to argue."

"It seems we have reached a reasonable conclusion," Janus said, shooting Roman a grin that Logan didn't seem to notice, Roman smiled back.

Janus would take that as a win.

Logan left their house a few hours later and, for once, Roman felt like he was ready for the exam they had coming up. The feeling like he was absolutely doomed was merely a tingle in the back of his mind, rather than absolutely overwhelming.

"Logan really cares about you," Janus said, smiling softly as they stroked Roman's hair.

"Huh?" Roman asked, turning to look at them properly, "What do you mean? Logan doesn't care that much-"

"Earlier, when I went downstairs, I encountered your bitch of a mother," Janus said, almost hissing, "He helped diffuse the situation and then told me off for engaging instead of just placating her myself, he explained how it would hurt you, that was why he helped me."

"i... oh," Roman whispered.

"You didn't know, did you?"

"He's just - he's always so angry with me," Roman said, shaking his head, "Everything I do seems to be wrong with him, I just - I don't know."

"I think that's just the way he is, darling, he's more analytical and less fuelled by emotion, he still cares about you, but maybe he doesn't express it in the same ways you might," Janus explained, pulling Roman back into this chest and going back to playing with his hair. Roman went easily, he was clearly touch starved, Janus was trying to fix that slowly but surely.

"I... suppose so?" Roman said, tilting his head.

"Logan shows his care with actions, he teaches you, he defends you to your parents, he shows it with small acts that make your life easier, acts of service - you show your affections with gifts, kind words and physical affection, sometimes," Janus hummed, "I can see why the two of you wouldn't realise the other cared."

"He... he doesn't know I care about him either?" Roman said, voice small as he looked up.

"I couldn't tell you, pet," Janus hummed, "Though maybe both of you could do with telling each other more."

Roman nodded, immediately reaching for his phone to send Logan a text, thanking him for today and letting him know that he cared about him. Roman wanted Logan to know that.

"I'd say that's two down, don't you think?" Janus hummed, giving Roman a smirk, Roman nodded.

"One to go?" He asked, smiling softly.

"One to go," Janus nodded.

---

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#sanders sides #roman sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #ts roman #ts janus #ts logan #sanders sides fanfiction #rowans writings #ts fanfic #more than you bargained for

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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More Than You Bargained For (4/9)

Chapter 4 - Calculus and Cookies

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----

Warnings: Fire (briefly)

Word Count: 4370

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From Roman

Hey V - was wondering if everything was okay today? I noticed you were looking kinda awkward with Janus?

It took a while for Virgil to reply, almost an hour in fact, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Virgil had never really been all that good at checking his phone. Roman didn't expect him to reply immediately, he was probably playing some kind of video game or studying or something, if Roman could guess. But an hour later Roman's phone chimed with a notification and he was shocked to see a whole paragraph when Virgil's responses were usually pretty short.

From Virgil

Sorry for replying slow - but yeah Ro - it's all good. Don't worry. You know I tend to have some issues meeting new people? Yeah, it's just that - I was just sort of anxious today. Also, I feel really bad asking this but are you sure Janus is good? I don't want to doubt your friend, but I was getting some really weird vibes that I couldn't work out from them today. You said you met them in drama, right? Are you sure they're, yk, okay?

Roman reread the message twice. At first he found himself annoyed on Janus' behalf - 'bad vibes' were no reason to judge someone. And then he remembered that Janus was actually a demon, so having a weird feeling about them - for someone as weirdly in tune with that kind of stuff as he knew Virgil was - was probably kind of normal, and maybe he should've expected it. He then had the thought that he really shouldn't dismiss Virgil's feelings over all of this. Roman worried his lip between his teeth as he stared at the message, trying to come up with a good way to reply.

From Roman

Oh yeah. That's okay, I know it's hard. I've known Janus for a little bit and I'm pretty sure they're trustworthy, but yeah they're a new friend. I want to give them a chance, but if it doesn't work out I wont force you to be around them, okay? don't worry.

From Virgil

Thanks Ro - I'll give them a chance, maybe it'll just take a couple days to get used to h

From Virgil

You wanna play that game we wanted to play btw? I've been doomscrolling and I need to do something else.

From Roman

The starving one?

From Virgil

'The starving one' lmfao - yeah, Don't Starve - I can set it up.

From Roman

You wanna call?

From Virgil

Yeah sure - gimme ten and I'll be ready

----

"How long did you play video games with Virgil last night?" Janus asked him, taking in Roman's sleepy form as he slumped over the breakfast bar the next morning.

"How'd you know about that?" Roman grumbled.

"Call it intuition," Janus said, rubbing Roman's shoulder, "Answer the question?"

"We were up until... like two in the morning."

Janus raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, it was more like half three-"

"that's what i thought," Janus hummed, "Darling, you need a better sleep schedule."

Sighing, Roman shook his head, "I know..."

"I can't deny, you spending time with your friends is good, but staying up so late will only hurt you in the long run."

"I know," Roman sighed, shaking his head, "I'm gonna get coffee."

Janus pushed Roman back into this seat when he tried to get up and went over to the coffee machine himself, Roman sighed and let it happen until a hot mug of coffee was placed in front of him.

"It's nice that you're spending time with Virgil, though," Janus pointed out with a smile, "Do the two of you play games together regularly?"

"I guess? We play different stuff every so often. It's uh - its really nice," Roman smiles a little, holding the coffee mug in both hands.

"Do you do similar things with Patton, Logan and your brother?"

"Eh, not really, it's kinda just a me and Virgil thing - sometimes Patton'll join but most of the stuff we play he'd call scary." Roman said, shaking his head.

"Lovely," Janus hummed.

They headed to school after that. Remus was with them today and Patton had stopped by to pick them up rather than letting Roman walk. It was a detour for Patton to drive up to their house, which is why they never asked her to do it, but today they'd all been able to pile into Patton's car together.

"Good morning!" Patton cried happily, leaning over to kiss Remus' cheek as he climbed into the front while Roman dragged Janus into the back, "How's everyone doing?"

"Tired," Roman mumbled, "Stayed up gaming last night."

"Oh so that's what all the yelling I heard through the wall was," Remus scoffed.

"You can't hear me," Roman rolled his eyes, "Your room is halfway across the house and our walls are soundproof, you're just trying to be mean."

"Caught!" Remus laughed, turning back to face the road.

"You know you should really try to sleep," Patton said, her tone chastising, "I know you and Virgil like to play your little games but you can't keep coming to school exhausted.

"You're talking like my dad again," Roman said with a frown, slumping a little in his seat.

"Well someone's gotta look after you!" Patton said with a bright smile, clearly not noticing Roman's distaste for the treatment. Roman just sighed and shook his head when Patton continued, "How are you today, Janus?"

"I'm doing perfectly well, thank you for asking," Janus hummed.

"Oh I didn't get to talk to you much yesterday!" Patton gasped as she drove, "You have to tell me all about your first day of school as we drive, okay?"

"Eughhhh-" Roman groaned a week later, dropping his forehead onto the desk with a deep groan, "I give up."

"What's wrong, my pet?" Janus asked, looking up from where they were laying on Roman's bed, reading a book from Roman's shelf.

Janus was back in their demon form now. Usually they had to be disguised since they were always around other people, but right now they had their wings spread across Roman's bed, their feet kicking and tail swishing lazily. Now they were staring intensely at him with those slit pupils.

"It's just math homework," Roman sighed deeply, lifting his head - there was ink smudged on his cheek, unknowingly to him, "Calculus, I just don't get it."

Janus hummed and rolled over to stand up, walking over and leaning down to place their head on Roman's shoulder, looking at the paper on his desk, before humming.

"Surely it's not too hard, we can figure this out," Janus said, moving around Roman's chair to instead sit down sideways in his lap, taking Roman's homework into their hands and kicking their feet up over the arm of Roman's desk chair.

"I- uh- sure?" Roman squeaked, his face red from the way they were sitting. Janus ignored him and read through the work.

"We did this in class," Janus hummed, looking through the questions Roman had already answered.

"I know," Roman sighed, shaking his head, "Math just goes in one ear and out the other for me."

Janus hummed, a small furrow between their brows forming as they pushed their hair back behind their pointed ear.

There was silence for a long moment, before Roman piped up, "Uh - is everything okay?"

"Yes, of course it is," Janus huffed, leaning over to put the paper on the desk and grab a pencil to start working with.

After another few moments of scribbling and attempting to work something out, Janus groaned too.

"I don't get it," The demon said, pouting. Roman sighed deeply, thunking his head on Janus' shoulder.

"I'm doomed," He sighed deeply. Janus shook their head.

"No darling, we'll solve these."

Janus sat up properly and grabbed the paper again. The two of them started to talk through the questions, trying to work them out out loud and on the paper. It didn't really seem like they were getting anywhere to Roman though. All he could tell was that Janus was getting more and more frustrated the further along the sheet they went.

Eventually, Janus just crumpled the paper in their hands and let it burst into flame.

"There, it's gone," Janus hissed, "No longer an issue."

Roman gawked.

"You-" Roman whispered, "Janus- fuck- I needed to do that homework-"

"Darling, don't worry-"

"You don't understand - if my parents get called in 'cause of another failed class they're gonna kill me, they're already pressuring me to get into law school-"

"Roman, sweetie," Janus said, dropping the ashes onto the desk before cupping Roman's face, "I'll just fake the grade, darling, don't worry about it."

"You-" Roman said, snapping out of his panicking a little when Janus tapped his cheek, "You can do that?"

"How do you think I've been getting by all week whilst doing no work?" Janus raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, "I don't have time for that, I'm here for you."

"I- Right," Roman whispered, "Could you - please?"

"Of course, doll," Janus hummed, crossing their ankles, "Don't worry about math class now, I won't let you fail, what other homework do you have to do?"

"Uhh - I have one for English, and I have to study for Chemistry."

"Wonderful," Janus said, "Lets get that all done and then I'd like to talk to you about your friends."

----

"Okay," Janus said, they had returned to Roman's bed, their tail swaying happily behind them, "So, I've spent this week for the most part just watching your interactions with your friends," Janus said, pulling out a notebook, "So now, I have to work on actually helping you improve you relationships, its what I'm here for, yes?"

"I- yeah, that all sounds right," Roman nodded, sitting backwards on his chair facing Janus, "Where do we start?"

"I believe the easiest place to start is with Patton," Janus said, flipping through the pages, "We'll take these one at a time, so, I know how you feel about Patton, but would you like to hear what I think?"

Roman nodded and Janus glanced down at their pages where they must have been making notes after interactions based on what they had seen. Of course, when they had first appeared, Roman had told them about his friends, and they'd met Patton the first night, Janus was pretty confident in the fact that they'd managed to get a pretty decent read on Patton's character at this point.

"So," Janus said, kicking one leg over the other, "The biggest issue I've noticed is that you often find his words or actions condescending. You've mentioned multiple times that it feels like he's trying to parent you, or that he acts like your father."

"I- yeah, I guess," Roman nodded, looking at them with those big brown eyes that Janus was absolutely not enraptured by, "He tries to be the dad friend, which seems to come off well with everyone else, I just - find it overbearing."

"And you haven't told him about this, I assume?" Janus raised an eyebrow, already knowing the answer.

"Kind of," Roman huffed, "I managed to get him to stop calling me 'kiddo' a while ago, though that was... definitely related to the fact that he had started dating my twin brother."

Janus frowned, that must've been an awkward conversation for Roman, "Yes, I can see how that would feel strange for you - And something else that I've noticed - there seems to be some past bad blood? Something has happened between you in the past, yes?"

Roman took a deep breath, squeezing his own wrist, clearly hesitant to admit whatever it was Janus was missing, "I- I didn't react well when he came out."

"Oh?" Janus asked. As far as they had been able to tell so far, Roman was incredibly supportive of Patton and Virgil in their gender identities - genderfluid and transgender - there had been no issues with their own identity, or Patton's relationship with Roman's twin, so this shocked them.

"Yea - I'm ashamed of it - it was like... four years ago, I think? Almost five - whatever, but- my parents aren't great people, they're incredibly homophobic and being brought up in that didn't do me any favours, so when Patton came out I didn't understand and I was, admittedly, horrible about it-"

"You were also fourteen and didn't understand," Janus pointed out, "Surely he cannot hold that against you, when you've clearly moved past that."

"Well - yeah, we've moved past it, but it was still a whole thing when it happened. My parents stopped talking to Patton's, and I barely managed to convince them to let me keep having Patton over once he explained and I got over myself-"

"None of that, sweetheart," Janus interrupted when Roman started to get into self depreciation territory, as they had tried to whenever it happened. It wasn't healthy for someone to talk like that about themself, "You had to unlearn biases you were brought up with, it is not your fault, it sounds as though you attempted to understand and did your best to be accepting despite that, so I believe your efforts were more than 'getting over yourself'."

Roman said nothing.

"Was that it?"

"That was the only issue, yeah, when Patton came out as genderfluid he just explained it to all of us, which was fine, and Virgil introduced himself to us as he/him and I didn't question it - by that point I understood a lot more," Roman sighed, "Patton has just.... now whenever he talks to me about queer stuff he'll preface it with an explanation like he still thinks I'm fourteen."

"Do you think your parents have been part of the reason a strain has been placed on your relationship? Even if it's not directly?"

"Oh definitely," Roman laughs a little, but it sounds sad and empty, "It's probably why I hate the dad treatment so much."

"Mm, and then you mentioned guilt tripping, which I've noticed too - the poor dear isn't doing it on purpose. I'm not sure he's ever actually been told he does it. I've also noticed you having issues with him touching you, and then subsequently others doing the same, is that normal?"

"All of that is normal yeah - the touch thing... I dunno, whenever he surprises me with it it makes me panic and it always feels like it's burning and then it's so cold and I hate it-"

"That's alright, pet," Janus hummed, flicking a pen into existence to write something down, "Really, I still think all you need to do is talk to him."

"I can't-"

"You can't, I know," Janus rolled their eyes, their tone just a little condescending in the way that always made Roman blush cutely.

"Really, though-"

"I'd help you, my darling," Janus interrupted again, standing up to walk over to Roman's chair and ruffle his curls. Roman leaned into it like a cat getting scratches behind the ears,. How Roman's friends didn't find Roman to be the most adorable creature, they had no idea, "Will you hear me out?"

"...Okay," Roman nodded, taking a deep breath, "What have you got?"

----

Roman had always loved visiting Patton's house.

He'd been there plenty of times before. He had spent afternoons sat in the bakery downstairs doing homework after school. He'd curled up on Patton's sofa to watch movies or sat on the carpeted floor making friendship bracelets together. Patton's house was almost as familiar to him as his own. It was a lovely, cozy place with many a good memory attached.

They were baking. Roman had sent Patton a text under Janus' instruction asking if he'd like to spend an afternoon baking together and Patton had eagerly said yes. He'd offered to come to Roman's, but Roman - again, under Janus' instruction - had admitted that he would rather do this at Patton's apartment instead. The reason they had given was that Patton would already have all the supplies. Really it's because Remus wouldn't be there. They needed to have a private conversation that Remus couldn't be there for, but Janus had allowed that Roman wasn't nearly confident enough to turn away his headstrong brother just yet.

Roman really was interested in the baking they had planned, but he also had a list that Janus had put together with him, detailing the topics Janus wanted him to bring up and some little pointers and conversation starters he could use, as well as a few ways of counteracting the guilt tripping, Roman had read through the paper at least ten times in preparation for all of this, but he still slipped it into his pocket just in case, holding onto it like it was a lifeline.

Roman rang the doorbell for the apartment and waited for Patton to let him in. His best friend was bouncing on the spot when he opened the door and waved Roman up the stairs, leading him to the kitchen where all of the baking supplies were already all laid out.

"I wasn't sure what you wanted to make so I just got everything out. We can sort it all out when we decide!" Patton said brightly as he pulled out a dessert recipe book from a shelf and laid it on the counter for them to look through. Roman smiled and flicked through the pages until he found a recipe he thought looked appetising.

"Do you have bananas?" Roman asked as he stopped on the page for banana bread, Patton grinned and ran to grab a few from their fruit bowl, Roman grinned back. "Awesome."

They got to work measuring and mixing up the ingredients. As they worked, Roman found himself more and more pushed aside as Patton took over. He was the expert, Roman almost just let it happen before he remembered the piece of paper in his pocket. He took a deep breath, this was the sort of thing Janus wanted him to talk to Patton about. He could do this.

"Hey Pat, you think I could join in a little more?" Roman asked tentatively, "You're taking over a little."

"Oh! Sorry Ro!" Patton said immediately, "You wanna mix this?"

"Sure," Roman nodded, taking the bowl to mix, "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry! It's okay, I didn't mean to take over, it's just what we normally do," Patton shrugged.

"Yeah, it is - I just... don't normally say anything," Roman admitted feeling terrible about it even as the words came out of his mouth. The desire to take it back to keep Patton happy was strong, but he tried to ignore it.

"Oh! Why not?" Patton asked, tilting his head.

Roman took a deep breath, remembering the words written on the paper, this was the worst part, "Sometimes uh - sometimes when I bring stuff up to you accidentally end up making me feel guilty about it..."

"What?" Patton gasped, "Well I don't mean to do that - when do I do that?"

"It's just sometimes when you don't agree with me on something or - or if you think I've done something wrong," Roman said, pausing in his mixing, "I actually um, I did wanna talk to you about a few things, if you were up to it?"

"Of course ki- I mean - Roman, sorry," Patton laughed a little, "Lets get this bread in the oven and then we can sit and have a proper chat."

Roman nodded - he hadn't expected Patton to be so open to it, but maybe he should have. Patton had never been mean, and he'd always acted like he wanted to support his friends. Even when his actions themselves didn't always line up perfectly, it was never with bad intentions. He gave a relieved sigh and continued on mixing.

"Can I mash the bananas?" He asked, staring at them in the bowl. Patton just laughed and handed him the fork.

----

"So..." Patton said softly once they had set a timer and sat down on the sofa together, "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Okay - well um - just-" Roman said, taking a deep breath, "There's just a few things you do that tend to make me feel kinda bad and I've been encouraged to talk to you about them, because I know you do care about me."

"Of course I care about you, Ro!" Patton said, eyes wide and a little upset, "What's going on?"

"Okay - first of all, you can't start crying or get all sad - that's - that's one of the issues, you do it whenever I try to bring something up and it makes me feel terrible, so I always just end up backtracking, which is unfair to both of us when the issue just doesn't get resolved," Roman said, that was one he could say firmly, he'd been rehearsing that in his head the whole time because he knew it would come up first. Patton quickly wiped his eyes and took a deep breath before nodding.

"Okay, okay, I'll do my best," Patton says, shifting as if he was squaring up for a fight, "I don't mean to make you feel guilty, I promise, Just - knowing my friends are upset makes me sad too, but I really wanna help, so I'll keep it all in until we sort it!"

"Thanks Pat," Roman smiled a little, taking a deep breath, "I think um, the easiest thing to address might be the touching."

"Touching?" Patton asked, tilting his head.

"Yeah, uh, Janus has sorta talked to me about this and I didn't even realise what it was myself, but I think I'm kinda touch averse to an extent?" Roman tried to explain, "It's like - sometimes some touches feel really bad or make me panic, he also thinks I might be a little touch starved, which kind of makes sense because I avoid it? But the point is, really, that when you hug me by surprise especially, or just - grab me or touch me when I'm not expecting it, it kind of hurts? It makes me feel really bad and panicky."

"Oh my goodness-" Patton gasped, "I had no idea - I'm so sorry Ro - I know you always squirmed away but I thought it was a more playful thing like what Ree does. Can I ask what touches are okay?"

"Honestly - if you ask first or I know its coming so I can duck away if needed anything is fine - I don't mind when you hold my hands or lean against me," Roman said, infinitely glad that this was going well so far, "Stuff like ruffling my hair is usually fine too - I think really just ask before doing anything big like hugs."

Patton nodded, "Can I hug you now?"

A laugh escaped Roman before he could stop it. Patton had always been the most affectionate one of their friends - aside from maybe Janus, he was the most affectionate person Roman had ever met. Of course he would ask for a hug immediately after Roman told him to ask.

"Sure," Roman said, "Oh - and it might help if you don't squeeze me so tight, just - it sometimes makes me feel trapped."

Patton nodded, "I'll try to keep that in mind, remind me if I mess up, okay?"

With a nod, Roman opened his arms and Patton, smiling, shuffled closer to pull him into a hug. Roman still wasn't sure how he felt about it, but being prepared and having more control over it definitely helped. He smiled softly and patted Patton's back before pulling away.

"Okay - is that all?" Patton asked. Roman winced and shook his head.

"There's a few more things I wanted to bring up," Roman sighed, in fact that was only two of the long list they had prepared, "I... actually brought a list?"

"A list?" Patton laughed as Roman pulled out a piece of paper, "I see Logan's been getting to you, too."

"A little - it was actually Janus who helped - he um - didn't want me to forget something."

"Awee- that's actually kinda sweet," Patton said softly, "Okay, hit me, what's next?"

----

Roman and Patton talked for a long time. It was longer than Roman had expected, and had actually taken them right up to the moment the timer beeped. They had ended up icing the banana bread and then sitting down to watch Gravity Falls, snuggled up a little, and demolished the whole cake in one go - saving pieces for Patton's parents and Remus, of course.

Full of cake and extremely glad their relationship wasn't entirely ruined. Roman had headed home two hours later to once again find Janus waiting for him in the living room.

"I'm... I'm honestly shocked he was so willing to listen," Roman admitted as he sat with Janus, holding the list and his phone in hand.

From Patton:

Hey Ro! When you get home could you send me that list? I know we talked about a lot and I don't wanna forget something important - never want to make you uncomfortable okay? I love you <33

"I love you?" Janus asked, raising an eyebrow when they read over Roman's shoulder.

"He means it platonically, says it to all of us," Roman quickly waved them off, "It's something I quite like actually, nice to know you're loved."

"I suppose it would be," Janus smiled, ruffling Roman's hair again, "But he clearly cares about you, I'm glad you managed to talk to him, without me there too, you did such a good job, doll."

Roman blushed, "I- Thank you."

"Don't thank me, sweetheart, you did that all on your own."

Roman sent a heart emoji back to Patton with a promise to send the list in a little while. He was smiling softly as he put his phone down, laying back on the bed.

"So... I've helped you with Patton," Janus hummed, "So what's our next move?"

"I suppose our next move is to see how my conversation with Patton turns out," Roman said thoughtfully, looking over at the demon lounging on his bed, "And then... Logan or Virgil next?"

"Logan, I believe," Janus said, "Save the best for last."

Roman nodded in understanding, "Right - so... whats your plan this time?"

"Simple," Janus grinned, "We're going to study."

----

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#sanders sides #virgil sanders #sanders sides fanfiction #rowans writings #ts roman #ts patton #patton sanders #More Than You Bargained For

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

Text

More Than You Bargained For (3/9)

Chapter 3 - Strained Friendships

<- Previous | Masterpost | Next ->

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Warnings: None

Word Count: 5388

----

A chime rang through the house as the pizza delivery arrived at the door. Roman hummed and hurried off of the bed to head downstairs and grab it, grabbing his wallet on the way out to pay. Janus followed, though at a much slower pace. Roman took the boxes from the waiting delivery guy and smiled at the smell of fresh pizza wafting through the box.

Through the door along the hallway, they could hear the sounds of whatever film Remus and Patton were watching. Roman shifted, silently trying to work out whether to give Patton his dessert first, or if he should sort out his own food…

"Well?" Janus said, taking the boxes from his hands when Roman started to look a little lost, "Are you going to go give Patton his dessert?"

Problem solved, he supposed.

Roman took the cream puffs and headed over to the living room. Knocking quietly on the door before pushing it open and creeping inside. Patton was cuddled up to Remus on the sofa, playing on their phone, though he'd looked up when Roman knocked. He gave them a smile, scurrying over to hand the box to Patton.

"Here," Roman said softly so he wouldn't interrupt. Remus grinned, though, clearly having other plans.

"You and your new partner gonna join us at any point?" Remus asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"He's not my partner," Roman huffed. hoping that putting his foot down would stop the accusations, "We talked about this."

"Remus! Be nice," Patton said, chastising as he took the box, "He likes Virgil, silly."

"Hey! Maybe he wants two boyfriends! I don't judge," Remus said, rolling his eyes. Clearly to him it was just some lighthearted teasing, Roman didn't feel the same way as rage bubbled up inside him. It was just disrespectful! He'd told Remus this and a million other things hundreds of times and yet he still felt the need to bring it up over and over again.

Roman didn't care, he didn't want to hear it anymore.

With a huff, Roman picked up a pillow and threw it at Remus' face. Patton had to duck out of the way at the last second.

"I'm not dating Janus, I barely know him," Roman fumed, "I'm not even dating Virgil yet, and he's my actual crush, so why don't you just back off?"

"Maybe you would be dating him if you weren't such a coward," Remus giggled. Roman near-growled and turned on his heel, storming out of the room. Distantly he heard a quiet, "Too far?" from Remus, but he didn't care.

He was so unfocused, in fact, that he almost walked straight into Janus' chest. The demon hummed, tilting his head a little.

"I cannot stand him!" Roman whisper-yelled after closing the door behind him, waving his hands around in his annoyance. A moment later he sighed, "Can we take this upstairs, please?"

Janus hummed, putting down the pizza boxes and crossing their arms, "No."

"I- what?" Roman asked, blinking in surprise, "What do you mean, no?"

"You want to fix your life, don't you, darling?" Janus said, stepping forward and tilting Roman's chin up. They had a look of disappointment on their face that made Roman's heart drop to his stomach, "You can do better than that, can't you? You need to talk to him, doll, nothing will be fixed if you run away every time something goes wrong."

Roman sighed, because Janus was right, but he still didn't like it, "I just yelled at them," he said, "I can't just go back in - I'm sorry, I know I just made it all worse, Remus just provokes me on purpose and I react and I just-"

He took a deep breath, shaking his hands out. He really was a mess, wasn't he?

"Maybe, but you can tell them both that it makes you upset, can't you? Taking a step out when you get angry is normal, sweetie," Janus shook their head. Roman blinked.

"I - I guess? I don't want to interrupt them though-" He knew he was making excuses now, and he was almost starting to feel disappointed in himself too, here he was resisting the help of the person he'd basically hired to help him, how stupid was that? He just felt so awkward, "Like what, do I just walk in after yelling at them and storming out like 'hey sorry I'm such an asshole guys!'"

Janus tutted, slipping their hand up to cup Roman's cheek, "Roman, darling, you must stop overthinking this. Perhaps we should get you fed before you work yourself up over all this, hm? Then you can go back?"

Roman considered it, and he really did consider it, wanting to run off and hide from all his problems with his pizza and Janus and never talk to Remus ever again, but that wasn't the goal here, was it? And somehow being given such an easy out gave him the confidence to actually do what he was supposed to.

"No - no you're right, I'm being stupid," Roman shook his head, "I should just talk to them, and - and if it doesn't go well I can just hide under my bed forever."

"Sure, darling," Janus said with a small, teasing chuckle, "But it would be best not to insult yourself - I'm sure that's doing wonders for your mental health."

"Right," Roman winced, "I'll… I'll try."

"Good… now, what do you plan to tell them?" Janus prompted, raising an eyebrow at him.

Roman took a deep breath to prepare himself, "I'll apologise for getting angry, at least, and… I guess tell Remus that those sorts of jokes upset me - and ask him to stop?"

The last part turned into almost a question as Roman looked to Janus, hoping he was answering correctly. He relaxed a little when he received another affectionate head pat for his efforts though.

"Good job, darling," Janus hummed, "Now go on - I'll be right here."

"Okay…" Roman said, shaking out his hands with a deep sigh before turning around and walking back into the living room. Patton and Remus had paused the film and clearly they'd been talking too, since both of them startled when the door opened. Remus especially looked shocked to see him. His open mouthed staring didn't exactly make Roman feel any better.

"Okay, um, hi," Roman said, fidgeting nervously with his fingers.

"…Hey?" Remus said, sounding mostly confused.

"First of all, uh, sorry for yelling at you guys," he said with a small wince, "I probably shouldn't have done that - it's just - those sorts of comments actually really upset me, I don't really find them funny and I would really rather you stop making them."

"Am I… having a stroke?" Remus asked, sitting up properly, "Since when have you ever talked about feelingsy stuff with me - I only do it 'cause I care about you, dork."

"I- what?" Roman asked, stunned.

"You gotta get a harder shell before someone actually hurts you," Remus huffed, "But I'll stop, 'kay? I didn't realise I was really hurting you."

Roman was shocked into silence for long enough that Remus huffed and pushed himself up to bully Roman into a hug.

"I love you, even when you're a dumbass," Remus said, ruffling his hair roughly, "Go get your friend and your pizza and come watch the film with us."

"There you go!" Patton chirped happily, "I told you you just had to be a little nicer! I knew you could get along."

"You told him-" Roman started, though he was interrupted by Remus shoving him gently in the direction of the door.

"Hurry up before your pizza gets cold!"

"Okay okay-" Roman relented shoving Remus back gently, "I'm going."

The weekend passed in a blur. Janus hadn't shown their face again since the first night and Roman wondered where they were, what they were doing. It could be anything, really - they could be back in hell managing legions or souls, they could be causing havoc in the mortal realm.

But no matter how much Roman wondered and thought, Janus didn't return until Monday morning.

Romans parents had gotten back from their work trip the night before. He'd stayed up to greet them - they'd be pissy the next day if he didn't - which meant he'd gotten less sleep than he might've wanted. But Roman knew he wouldn't be seeing much of them the next day. They'd gotten back late and he knew they would be jet lagged and likely sleeping all day. Not to mention he had school, so at least he could get away there.

He had gotten through most of his morning routine. Showered, done his hair in a tight ponytail with little strands hanging down around his face. He'd pulled on an outfit quickly - the bell bottom jeans he'd embroidered with stars and one of his favourite flannel shirts. He'd done his makeup before heading downstairs for breakfast.

Janus chose the moment he took a bite of his chocolate spread covered toast to show up out of nowhere. Roman screeched in surprise, whipping around to where Janus had appeared behind him.

"Fuck!" Roman yelled, almost throwing his toast, "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Oh but it's so much fun!" Janus laughed, leaning over Roman's shoulder, "You're scream is absolutely adorable."

"Menace," Roman huffed, going back to his toast with a pout on his face.

"Is that your breakfast, my dear?" Janus asked him, tilting their head.

"I- yeah? Is there something wrong with that?" Roman asked, frowning in confusion as Janus looked scornfully at his toast.

"I… suppose not," Janus sighed, "I would encourage you to eat something healthier , though, like some kind of protein, perhaps?"

"I can't cook eggs," Roman said, frowning, "And I don't believe we have any sort of yogurt."

"Nuts, perhaps?"

"Sure, if you want to take me to hospital," Roman waved his toast at Janus.

"An allergy?"

"Yeah," Roman nodded, taking another bite, "I'll take some fruit to eat between classes, is that good enough for you, Mr. Demon?"

"I suppose that'll do, but don't call me that, darling," Janus shook their head, Roman grinned.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Roman said, taking another bite of his toast. Janus raised an eyebrow.

"You forget I own your soul, as per our deal, I can make your afterlife miserable if you choose to wrong me," Janus told him, glaring. Roman shrank back a little.

"Right," he said softly, sufficiently told off as he refocuses on his toast.

"Don't worry sweetie," Janus smirked, "You're only one offence in."

Roman didn't think even one offence was very good, so he didn't say anything else.

For a long, quiet moment, Janus simply watched him eat.

"Taking fruit to class is a wonderful idea," Janus said eventually, Roman was just relieved that the awkwardness was broken, "Though I'd encourage you to eat something now as well."

"Great," Roman hummed, as Janus tossed him an apple which he glared at for a moment before sighing and beginning to cut it into slices, "I thought demons were all for unhealthy stuff anyway."

“Sure” they said, nodding with a sigh and crossing their arms as they fixed him with a stare. “But when it’s in the terms of our deal for me to care for you… well. I might as well be as good as an angel.”

"Surely you can be a little lenient? I summoned a demon, after all," Roman said, still pouting.

Janus smirked again, walking past and ruffling Romans hair, "My duty is to fix your life, is it not?"

"You don't have to make it boring in the process," Roman huffed.

"This isn’t making it boring, sweetie. I'm offering you new things, if you just listen to my advice,” They smirked. “For example, if you eat correctly, putting on muscle and helping with muscle tone is much easier, making you even more attractive to your pretty little crush.”

"Boring," Roman says, just to be annoying as he nibbled his apple slices. Roman turned to stare at Janus for their reasoning, though. He wasn't sure Virgil actually cared much what he looked like - he'd mentioned being more attracted to personality than looks (so Roman was fucked, but he didn't say that). Still, looking nicer definitely wouldn't hurt, "I... Suppose you might be right, I do wanna be pretty..." He conceded.

Janus tutted, “You already are pretty, darling. Don’t sell yourself short. It’s just to make you even prettier,” they explained to him with a shake of their head. Ignoring Roman's blush at the correction, Janus got up to investigate Roman’s fridge whilst he ate the remainder of the apple. When they gave up, Roman assumed that they hadn't found anything useful in there.

"Alright, when do you normally leave for school?" Janus asked once he was done eating. Roman glanced up at the clock.

"Usually in about ten minutes," He said, "Sometimes Remus walks with me, but since he's not down here right now I'm assuming he's either gonna be late or he'll skip first period entirely."

"Is that common?" Janus raised an eyebrow.

"For Remus? Yeah," Roman sighed, "He doesn't take school seriously at all - that's his choice, though."

"Of course. Well, if you're ready, I suggest we go now," Janus said, walking towards the hall, "It'll give us time to be called to the office without missing class."

"Sure, we can - wait, what? Called to the - Janus! What did you do?" Roman hurried to follow them. Getting called to the office wasn't usually a good thing in his experience. It usually meant he'd done something wrong like failed a test or said something back when a teacher was being a dick.

"Relax, darling," Janus purred, "You'll be called in to be designated as my guide - it'll be an explanation for us having matching schedules, it'll be odd if they just happened to align randomly."

"Oh- right," Roman laughed awkwardly, shaking his head, "That makes far more sense - sorry… did you deal with all that over the weekend?"

"Amongst other things, yes," Janus said, "Come on, we wouldn't want to be late."

"So," Roman asked on the way to school, hands behind his back and looking up at Janus with a look of curiosity that should probably scare them, "I was wondering…"

They were walking slowly, a nice leisurely pace compared to Roman's usual hurry. As they walked they passed a few more houses like Roman's. Big, beautifully manicured, almost mansions - the nice part of town. As they got closer to the school, though, the houses became more packed in, still nice, but nowhere near as expensive. Patton lived around here, his family had a small apartment above one of the local cafes where Patton helped out outside of school hours.

"What were you wondering, dear?" Janus asked, already sounding exasperated.

"What sort of magic do you have?" Roman asked, "Like - what do you do?"

He was honestly surprised he hadn't been able to find a moment to ask it earlier. Magic was one of his favourite things - it always had been. Janus seemed momentarily stumped by the question.

“Hmm… As for abilities … I can do things like hypnosis, and memory alteration is simple. I can do most…” they paused. “I’m sorry, did you call it magic? I’m no witch. I’m a demon.”

"Oooh-" Roman said, before tilting his head, "Well Yeah - I mean, not the same sort of magic as a witch, but still magic, right? Or is it not?"

“It isn’t magic. Magic comes from the ley lines and other outer sources like herbs and spells. I have abilities that are directly tied to my being, and the amount of souls I possess.”

"So... Two different magical sources?" He said, raising an eyebrow with a mischievous grin on his face. "You must possess a lot of souls if you're so powerful, right?"

"Yes, I would consider myself rather powerful. I have many souls under my control," Janus agreed. They must be humouring him at this point.

"Okay, so if it's not magic then, what do I call it? Can you sense when other people have - whatever you have? Or use magic?" Roman asked next, Janus sighed at his questioning.

"My abilities, or power," Janus told him, exasperated but clearly trying to contain their anger, "Of course I'd recognise a demon, yes, and I'd be able to sense magic as well."

"Right, okay, abilities," Roman nodded, "Right - wait, so witches are real?"

"Indeed - there's a few different kinds, but we don't have time to get into that right now," Janus said, Roman went to interject, before they held up a hand, "We're getting close to the school now, darling, you'll start looking crazy if anyone overhears you."

Roman pouted, went to say more and then thought better of it. Janus hummed in approval as they turned the corner into the front courtyard of Roman's high school.

"Well, here we are," Roman said with a soft sigh. He didn't feel ready for today. He hardly ever felt ready for any day, but he supposed it had to be done. Soon enough they were both called into the office.

"Do you meet with your friends before school?" Janus asked him, curious as they left the office, Janus' schedule and student handbook in hand. Both were tossed into the trash once they were far enough from the office. Roman supposed they wouldn't need them.

"I have my first class with Logan, so I usually meet him there, Patton usually meets Remus if he's here, and Virgil won't be here until two seconds before his first class - so… no, short answer, we usually all meet up properly at lunch," Roman explains, shaking his head as his words came out muddled like a ramble, rather than as anything elegant.

"I see, I suppose I'll meet them in due time, then," Janus hummed, turning away from Roman to head towards their first class. Roman quickly pulled ahead of him.

"I'm supposed to be guiding, remember?" Roman teased a little as he lead the way to chemistry.

They were the first ones there and Roman immediately made his way over to the desk he usually shared with Logan whilst Janus spoke quietly with the teacher. He pulled out his red pencil case and his sparkly notebook as well as their chemistry textbook, meticulously arranging all of his stationary - pencil, black pen, red fountain pen, red glitter gel pen, etcetera - in front of him.

After they were done speaking to the teacher, Janus walked over, sitting down on the desk behind him.

"Why're you back there?" Roman asked, leaning back on his chair to talk to Janus.

"I assume Logan usually sits beside you, if you share the class?" Janus hummed, "Wouldn't want to keep you apart from your friend, would I?"

"I- Right, yeah," Roman nodded, looking back at his paper and grabbing his fountain pen, writing the date and subject out in slightly rushed calligraphy.

"Aren't you looking forward to this class?" Janus asked as people started to slowly file in, "You seem… upset."

"I guess - it's usually fine, we just had a test on Friday and we'll probably get it back today, don't think I did well…"

"Good morning Roman," Logan said, placing his travel mug of coffee on the desk and pulling out his own supplies, sitting down next to him, "Were you talking about the test we took last Friday?"

"Yeah," Roman said, "I bet you did great - oh, this is Janus, I messaged you guys about them over the weekend?"

"Yes, I recall," Logan adjusted his glasses as he turned to look at Janus, "Pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Logan."

"A pleasure to meet you," Janus grinned, "Roman has told me great things."

"Oh really? Surprising," Logan says, raising an eyebrow, "Roman doesn't often have good things to say about anyone."

"Wh- that's not true!" Roman protested, "I don't - I- what?"

"You often ridicule me," Logan says, voice flat, "It's a rather common occurrence, why are you surprised by this?"

"I- no? No I don't- what the fuck?" Roman said, astounded.

"You call me names and make fun of my work," Logan said, sounding almost uninterested as he did.

"I call everyone nicknames, they're friendly - it's a friend thing- and you've never said you don't like them before- and since when have I made fun of your-"

"Alright, everyone, settle down," The teacher interrupted. Roman groaned and looked down at his page. He had smudged the ink of the Y without realising. "Today we'll be going over the tests you all took last week."

"Logan," Roman whispered as the teacher began talking about the tests, Logan glanced over, "I really don't mean to upset you with that stuff - if it bothers you I'll stop with the nicknames."

"We can talk about this later," Logan hissed back, making Roman wince. Logan refocused on what their teacher was saying and Roman risked a glance back at Janus, who wore a confused frown on their face.

Roman wondered as the tests were passed around how he could've known Logan all his life but never once realised that the nicknames upset him. Did they really upset him? Or maybe they didn't upset him enough for Logan to actually think to tell him about it. Had he told Patton and Patton had never told Roman?

He was so distracted by his thoughts that he barely even noticed the test being put down in front of him.

"I expect better from you, Roman Raminez," The teacher told him as she placed it, snapping Roman out of his thoughts, "If you fail another test you're going to be at serious risk of failing this class as a whole."

"Yes ma'am," Roman said softly, looking at the front cover. 56% - a fail - but he was so close to a passing grade this time. It was embarrassing to think that this was one of his better tests.

"I see you have performed poorly in yet another test," Logan hummed, looking down at his perfect 100% score. Roman resisted the urge to scoff.

"Yeah," He sighed, way to rub it in, Logan.

"May I look at your test, Roman?" Janus' voice came from behind him. When Roman turned, they were leaning over the table a little, smiling softly at him, "I'd like to see what the material for this class is like, since I wasn't here to take the test myself."

"You might get more academic insight from looking at mine," Logan offered before Roman could hand over his test, "Considering I was able to answer every question correctly, plus, Roman needs to study his test to work out where he went wrong in order to study better - or at all - in the future."

Roman's face flushed with embarrassment, and suddenly he realised he didn't want anyone seeing his test at all. Janus sighed softly and took Logan's test, feigning reading through the answers as their teacher went through the paper and detailed common mistakes and the correct answers that were to be expected. Roman wrote down every one of them in his notebook, still doubtful that it would really help, but he needed to pass this class, if taking notes was going to help him at all, he needed to do it.

"I believe I'm going to need to help out with more than your friendships," Janus hummed as they left the class, "I'd like to see your test at some point, when we return to your home, or at lunch perhaps."

Roman was surprised to find Janus so invested in this, but he nodded anyway. He couldn't exactly argue as they headed into their next class.

The rest of the day had been going smoothly so far. He didn't share his other classes before lunch with any of his friends - though now at least he had Janus. He breezed through creative writing, as always, and English Lit was easy enough. Janus had laughed when he found out Roman had taken Spanish for the easy credit since he already spoke the language and calculus had been hell as always. Janus didn't seem to understand that one either.

Now though, thank goodness, it was lunch. Roman was clearly relived to leave the calculus classroom and head down to the cafeteria.

When they arrived, Virgil and Logan were already sat together at the end of one of the long tables that filled the cafeteria. Virgil had his lunch spread out in front of him, a sandwich, drink, and some kind of home baked sugary treat - a brownie with rainbow sprinkles, Roman was pretty sure - while Logan had a plate of food from the cafeteria kitchen (something chicken, though Roman couldn't for the life of him identify what).

Roman's gaze found them near the back of the room quickly, they were sitting in their usual spot after all. So after grabbing his own tray of nondescript chicken based lunch food, he quickly began to pull Janus in their direction. His eyes were elsewhere, though, sweeping the cafeteria to look for Patton and Remus.

He spotted them across the room, shifting to wave at Patton and earning a quick wave in return before Patton looked back at Remus to continue his conversation. Roman looked away as they arrived at Virgil and Logan's spot, dropping his tray onto the table and then his bag heavily next to the seat opposite Virgil and slumping down into it.

"That bad, huh?" Virgil asked with a raised eyebrow as Janus much more gracefully took the seat next to him, opposite Logan.

"Yeah - Mrs Harrison was being hard on me on purpose, I already know I'm awful at calculus, she doesn't have to rub it in," Roman sighed, calculus had not gone well for him even despite Janus'… attempts at encouragement.

"Hello Janus," Logan said in the tone he used when he was trying to be casual. Logan didn't really do causal, so it just came off a little snippy, "It's nice to see you again."

Logan didn't get a response, though. In fact, when Roman looked over at his demonic companion, he found them locked in a battle of intense eye contact with Virgil.

"Uh-" Roman said, "Janus- this is Virgil, Virgil, this is Janus - I've told you both about each other."

"This is your new friend?" Virgil said, almost hissing, Roman startled.

"I- yes?" He asked, suddenly nervous "Is that a problem?"

Virgil's eyes widened and he was first to break the uncomfortable eye contact, shaking his head and then his hands as though he was trying to shake off water, "No, no, it's not, sorry."

"Janus?" Roman asked, raising an eyebrow. Janus blinked a few times and looked over at him.

"The only problem here is how gorgeous he is," Janus smirked to save themself - Roman could see Virgil's cheeks going pink out of the corner of his eye, "How could you leave out his beauty when you were talking about him? An insult to us both!"

"I- I didn't-" Roman says, confused. Virgil laughed a little.

"You're not too bad yourself," Virgil hummed, taking a sip of his drink - a can of Monster that his parents probably didn't know he had - and glancing at Janus over the top of it, "You didn't tell me much about your friend's good looks either, Ro."

"Perhaps he simply felt a description would never live up to the real thing, hm?" Janus said, hiding their own blush, "Awe, are you blushing, darling?"

Virgil squeaked, he actually squeaked, before shaking his head, recovering quickly, "No more than you are," he teased. Janus raised an eyebrow, a smirk spreading across their face.

"That's a lovely necklace," Janus said, reaching across the table to take the simple silver chain with a pendant on it between their fingers, it was shaped like a circle with a sideways crescent sat on top, as far as Roman knew, Virgil never took it off, "Am I right in thinking it represents the horned god?"

"Yeah," Virgil nodded - and Roman glanced between them, "I like yours too - pentagram, right?"

Roman was suddenly not sure if they were flirting or fighting.

"Mhmm," Janus says, curling the black string that held the golden pentagram pendant they had chosen to wear around their finger, "It's almost as lovely as you, darling."

"I can't believe you'd use such an overused line," Virgil rolled his eyes to hide the blush on his face, "What next, are you going to ask if I fell from heaven?"

Roman tried not to snort, but as their back and forth continued, toeing the line between flirting and fighting, something else started to bubble up inside him. Something hot and angry that made him want to scream or cry or tug the two of them apart and never let them speak again.

He was jealous.

Jealous of Janus, for so easily capturing Virgil's attention and bantering so seamlessly it was like they were meant for each other. Jealous of Virgil because… well, he supposed the same reason, maybe it was the way Janus had been treating him on Friday night, with the soft affectionate pats and gentle pet names, he wanted that for himself.

"Janus?" Roman asked eventually, interrupting Janus mid sentence. He winced as Janus looked over, "Could I - talk to you, for a moment? Please."

"Of course," Janus sighed. Roman didn't miss the wink they shot Virgil before standing up, offering a helping hand to Roman and leading him over to a quiet corner.

"What was all that?" Roman asked in a harsh whisper once they were away from people.

"What was what?" Janus asked, tilting their head with a small smirk that made Roman think Janus knew exactly what he was talking about.

"That!" Roman said, gesturing back to their table, "Flirting with Virgil? You know he's my crush, he's half the reason you're here! Do you not think that maybe flirting with him doesn't help me all that much?"

Janus stared at him for a long moment, before a smirk slowly spread across their face, "You're jealous."

"I- what? No, no I'm not," Roman said, shaking his head quickly, "Why would I be jealous of you?"

"Because I'm smart, beautiful, and managed to catch Virgil's attention within just a few seconds of knowing him, whereas you've been trying for what, three years now?"

"…Almost three years," Roman said weakly, "Okay, maybe I'm a little jealous."

"Good, darling, now you've admitted it, what are you going to do about it?" Janus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Wha- I'm gonna assume you don't want me to bottle it up and pretend it doesn't exist forever," Roman joked, Janus just hummed, "But - well - I'm talking to you about it right now, aren't I? Asking you to stop."

"See?" Janus hummed, "It's really not so hard to talk to someone about an issue you're having, is it?"

"I- what?" Roman asked. Janus was smirking at him properly now.

"I was hurting your feelings, so you pulled me off to the side and told me so," Janus pointed out, "So now I'll stop - or, at the very least, I'll stop being so intense with my advances - Virgil is rather lovely, I can see why you like him."

Roman huffed, before gently nudging Janus, who laughed and shoved him back.

"Would you like to sit back down now, darling?" Janus asked, making Roman blush in embarrassment.

"I- right, yeah," Roman nodded, heading back over to the table.

"Everything okay?" Virgil asked softly, reaching over the table to nudge Roman's hand. Roman nodded with a small smile.

"Yeah, everything's fine V, don't worry."

Janus gave him a look that Roman couldn't decipher the meaning of and the four of them went on eating.

---

Over the course of lunch, Janus had toned down their flirting just as Roman had asked and Virgil had, for the most part, mirrored them. Though Roman couldn't help but notice the glances Virgil kept casting at both him and Janus, like he was suspicious of something. Every time Janus broke a silence he startled, Roman wondered what could possibly be wrong. Clearly something was up and Roman needed to find out what before this drove even more of a wedge between their friend group than there already was.

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#sanders sides #roman sanders #virgil sanders #sanders sides fanfiction #janus sanders #logan sanders #rowans writings #More Than You Bargained For

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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More Than You Bargained For (2/9)

Chapter 2 - Janus' Very Interesting Day

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Warnings: Excessive flirting

Word Count: 5101

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The demon in the circle was tall, towering over Roman, who was still on the floor. Their skin was a dark, warm grey and half covered with golden, glittering snake scales. Their hair was even darker, long and curled, their eyes were a bright and piercing yellow as they locked onto him, pupils slit like a snake.

The horns on their head reminded Roman a little of a ram, though they were black and decorated with gold. One of the horns was broken at the base, jagged like it has been snapped off. The horns looked so strong, Roman wondered how something like that could even happen to break them. Big leathery wings were folded neatly behind them and a thin tail with a club shaped tip flicked behind them and on top of that, the robes they wore looked well made and expensive. Their gaze on Roman felt almost predatory, it made him feel hot, judged, like he was about to be jumped on and torn apart.

"Well well," The demon said, voice low and melodic, "What a cute little human you are, hm?

Roman's face went pink - why was the the demon calling him cute? That definitely wasn't right. They were still grinning too, like a cat who'd caught a canary.

"Hi-!" Roman found himself squeaking, rather than talking, he cleared his throat quickly, trying to calm himself down, "Um - I made you cookies, as an offering," he said quickly gesturing to the plate, before realising that the demon couldn't get the cookies outside of the circle and racing to carefully push the plate in with his foot. The demon stared at the cookies in surprise, before bursting out in mocking laughter.

"Oh darling," they said, putting a hand on their hip as they grinned, "You really think cookies is going to be enough to get me, a prince, to made any sort of deal with you, a puny little human?"

Roman paled as the demon crouched, reaching for the plate and taking a cookie. A prince? He hadn't meant to summon a prince-

"I want something better from you," The demon prince hummed, brandishing the cookie - Roman noticed that their fingers were tipped with golden claws.

Roman didn't know what he could possibly give - he wasn't about to sacrifice someone, or something, he wasn't a murderer. There was no way he could kill an animal, let alone a person - and sacrifices seemed to be the main form of offerings, from what his book had said. He panicked a little, what would the demon ask for? What would happen if it wasn't something he could give?

"What-" Roman started, hesitating - asking a demon's opinion would probably be a bad idea, right? Though… he didn't really have much choice, he had no idea what to offer, "What would be better?"

"Silly thing," The demon said, shaking their head as though they were condemning Roman - he winced, right, he should've expected that, "Don't you know how dangerous of a thing that is to ask? I could ask you for anything."

"Well-" Roman said, finding just a small piece of his courage, "I'd like to hope you'd make it fair, I - I'll be honest, I didn't mean to summon someone as powerful as you, my request isn't much, I don't think."

"Isn't much, hm?" The demon said, giving him another grin as they stepped out of the circle, the action taking seemingly no effort despite how much effort Roman had put into the circle itself. He tensed as the demon strode closer without a second thought and crouched down in front of him, their tail wrapping loosely around Roman's arm. They were grinning again, face now much closer to his, enough that Roman could feel the warmth radiating off of them, "How about you tell me what you're after, then? And I'll see what I consider a fair deal."

Roman squeaked, trying to pull away, when he did, the demon's tail tightened, stopping him, it wasn't like he could go far with the bed behind him anyway. "Well it's gonna sound really stupid, because - because I wasn't trying to summon someone as powerful as you must be-" he said, not wanting to be made fun of - his momentary burst of courage all but gone at the breaking of the circle, "But I just, um-" He takes a deep breath, "All of my relationships are falling apart and I wanted help fixing them," he said quickly, squeezing his eyes shut, he knew it wasn't exactly a typical request, he just hoped not to be ridiculed.

"Oh?" The demon hummed, tilting their head, they looked almost interested when Roman peeked again.

"I don't even want- magic or anything - I just want someone to help who won't just ignore or abandon me-" he rambled quickly. The demon gently shushed him with a finger pressed to his lips, before pulling away.

"You truly just want someone to help you? A companion of sorts?" The demon asked, tilting their head, sly grin now replaced with curiosity, "I must say it's an intriguing request - not typical by any means - a little pathetic, but interesting, I suppose."

Roman winced but nodded, pathetic, yes, that about summed him up. The demon pulled away, standing again and crossing their arms.

"Alright," The demon said, turning away to look around his room, “I’ll make a deal with you, little human. Everything you've asked - friendships being mended… and I have a feeling you might have a crush too…” Roman's eyes widened and the demon laughed, “I can see it in your eyes, darling - I'll fix your short lived life, as well, of course,”

“Whatever it is you need, for the coming future, and all I want in return is your soul - ah, and your body being mine upon death too. I find myself wanting to make a little pet of you,” They told him, leaning down to meet his eyes again, “Is that alright, little human?”

"I feel like selling your soul is… kinda universally a bad idea," Roman said hesitantly when the demon was done listing their demands, "What... What exactly would that do to me?" He asked, he wanted to take the deal - he needed this - but that didn't mean he didn't worry about what selling his soul could do to him.

"Nothing, darling - not until you die, and then you'll belong to me, we'll have so much fun!" The demon said sweetly. Roman didn't feel overly convinced.

"What's to say you wouldn't kill me sooner just to get that?" He asked, narrowing his eyes as he slowly pushed himself up. The demon grinned, and suddenly gloved fingers slipped under his chin to lift it so they were eye to eye. They were far too close for comfort. Still, he felt his cheeks get hot. Damn his stupid gay self, this was not about to turn into one of those cringy stories written by twelve year olds on the internet.

"I would never," The demon said, bringing a hand to their chest in mock offence "I’d be stupid to make you resent me terribly - How about I sway the deal even further in you favour, would you like that? How about: if you ever find something else you wish to add to the deal - whether it be me making someone disappear… protecting you from whatever nasty thing you need… whatever it is, all you need to do is order me to do so.” They told him in a low whisper. "Would that sway you, silly little human?”

Roman couldn't help the blush on his face as the demon whispered in his ear, hand on his other cheek. The offer was really tempting, and if he took that deal then… he could order the demon not to kill him, if it came down to it. He was being given a lot of power here, he could tell. His book had been very clear that demons would try to take all they could from you given the chance, but here this demon was offering so much despite Roman's meagre request. He didn't understand it, but he also couldn't help but think he'd be a fool not to take it.

Roman leaned into them against his own will, what business did their hands have being so warm? It wasn't fair, "You think you can convince my parents I don't need to go to law school?" He asked bitterly, only kind of joking, "I-" he still hesitated, thinking about it, he'd get help, he'd still get to live his life, and he'd have a demon to protect him if he needed it, and then whatever fun Janus was talking about afterwards. He wondered why people warned against selling your soul, if that was the case.

“I can do whatever your little brain can come up with.” The demon told him simply, tapping Roman's cheek with a grin on their face. “If you don’t want to go to law school, then I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen.”

Well that… really did sound kind of amazing.

"Okay," Roman said eventually, "Yeah that- sounds good - how does making the deal official work?"

“Well, with such a powerful deal… you’ll be left with a mark - a physical reminder of our deal, so to speak.” They explained to him. Roman nodded, it wasn't like he could say no if he wanted the deal to happen, after all.

The demon looked him over for a moment, almost as though they were analysing him.

“Pardon the intrusion, my little human.” They told him, pulling Roman’s shirt to the side. Roman didn't have much of a chance to respond with more than a squeak of surprise before the demon leaned down to press a kiss to the fragile skin there. Roman couldn't see what it looked like, but he could feel his skin heat where the demon had kissed him. It wasn't painful, just tingling. Maybe a little pinch at first, like a spark landing on your skin, but nothing that made him overly uncomfortable.

"Consent, dude," Roman huffed, pouting. The demon laughed.

"Apologies, little human," They said, righting Roman's shirt, "I took the deal agreement as consent."

"You could've at least warned me," He said, irritated, "But - fine, whatever - that's it?"

"That's it, silly thing, the deal is made."

Roman sighed in relief, the deal was done, the demon was going to help him.

“So uh- what's your name, then? And also pronouns?” Roman asked, walking over to the standing full length mirror in his corner to pull his shirt aside and look at the mark. It looked like a small sigil, with a snake eating its own tail wrapped around the outside of a downwards pointing pentagram. It resembled a tattoo, and it looked kind of cool - probably not something Roman would've chosen for himself, but not something he was overly unhappy with either.

"It's Janus," the demon hummed, walking over to his desk to flip through the papers on it, "And 'they' will do fine."

"That's a pretty cool name," Roman smiled, without looking back over, “I’m Roman Ramirez, he/him.”

"It's lovely to meet you, darling," Janus hummed, flipping through his notebook, "For someone who did so much research… you really seemed unprepared."

Roman frowned, feeling sufficiently embarrassed that Janus was looking through what was essentially his glorified diary, though he didn't think he'd be able to do much to stop him.

"Well-" Roman said, "I really truly wasn't intending to summon a demon prince, that's what threw me off."

"Oh really? Not my good looks and amazing personality?" Janus hummed, clearly teasing. Roman was upset that it worked.

"That too, I guess," He huffed, crossing his arms.

"Well," Janus said, once they were done skimming through Romans journal, "Since I'm now deal bound to help you, how about you tell me a little about the people I'm supposed to be helping you with?*

They put the book down and walked over to sit with him on the bed, watching Roman expectantly as he laid out all of the issues he had in his friendships. He told them about Patton and Remus' relationship, how he and Logan had started fighting so much more than before, and hence had drifted away from each other as friends, how he often felt so guilty around Virgil it hurt. Janus hummed along, tapping their fingers on the bed sheets as they listened to him.

"Sounds to me like all you need to do is talk to them, darling," Janus said, raising an eyebrow, "Surely you didn't need a demon to tell you that."

"It- it's really not that simple," Roman shook his head quickly, "I've tried talking to Patton before but he'll just get upset and start crying - blaming himself, that sort of stuff - and it makes me feel horrible, with Logan it'll always end up in an argument-"

"And Virgil!"

"Virgil I-" Roman paused, before drooping in a sigh, "I guess I'm just too scared he'll reject me."

"Awee- poor thing," Janus teased, ruffling his hair. Roman sighed, and then startled at a crash from downstairs.

Janus raised their eyebrow at him and Roman groaned softly.

"That'll be Remus and Patton coming home," He said.

"Will they come in here?" Janus asked.

"Most likely," Roman nodded, "Remus'll probably want to brag about how much fun they had - uh, you might wanna hide? I don't really want them knowing I summoned a demon…"

"Don't worry, dear, I have it under control," Janus said. With a snap of their fingers, Roman watched the summoning circle he had drawn on the floor fizzle away into nothing, and then with a hum and an odd glow that lifted their hair, Janus' very appearance shifted before Roman's eyes.

Where their skin had been a dark grey before, it was now a more natural dark brown. Their eyes were no longer snake like, now green and a lightish brown-amber colour. Their horns were gone, but their hair stayed pretty much the same.

They lost the wings and the tail, the scales became birthmarks - He was pretty sure they had kept the fangs.

Where all the jewellery that had been on their horns and tail had gone when they disappeared was a mystery Roman didn't, and probably would never have the answer to.

It was only a moment later when his bedroom door burst open, crashing against the wall - where there was already a dent Roman had filled at least four times before giving up.

"Heyyy RoBro!" Remus yelled, before stopping short, "Woah! Who's the hottie? You didn't tell me you were getting bitches-"

Roman huffed, "I'm not, they're my friend."

"Damn, you're not getting bitches," Remus said, "The world makes sense again!"

"Don't be mean!" Came Patton's voice from behind him, "You know Roman has the cutest crush on Virgil - hey Roman! Who's your new friend?"

"My name is Janus," Janus said smoothly, standing up beside Roman - who had ended up blushing darkly at the comment. He quickly realised Janus hadn't lost an inch of their towering height in that transformation. Even Remus looked intimidated for a moment.

"Oh! Lovely to meet you! I'm Patton, he/they at the moment!" Patton smiled warmly, though Janus looked a little confused.

"At the moment?" They asked, causing Patton to look away nervously - receiving a squeeze to the hand from Remus.

"I'm genderfluid," Patton explained with a slightly awkward laugh, showing off the yellow and blue bands on their wrist, "I wear these bracelets to let people know what my pronouns are - blue is for he/him, pink for she/her, and yellow for they/them, sometimes I wear multiple, or all of them."

"I see," Janus nodded, and that seemed to be the end of that - the silence devolving into awkwardness.

"Well um-" Patton said, clapping his hands to break the tension, "It's awesome to see Roman making new friends - where did you two meet?"

Janus looked at Roman expectantly and he panicked, quickly scrambling for an excuse.

"You know that theatre thing I do outside of school?" Roman says, "They're part of that!"

"As it turned out, I'm transferring to your school quite soon, and when I heard Roman also attended, I thought to suggest becoming friends," Janus cut in, lying smooth as butter.

"Oh amazing!" Patton gasped, "Well don't worry! You'll have a place at our lunch table! When do you start?"

"On Monday," Janus told them - Roman gave Janus a panicked glance - how the hell was Janus supposed to go to school on Monday? They had no paperwork or parents or ID or anything of the sort that you needed to get registered into a school! But Janus simply waved them off.

"Well we'll be sure to make you feel welcome, then! Won't we, Ree?" Patton said, grinning, "Do Virgil and Logan know?"

"Oh - not yet, but I can message!" Roman said brightly, Patton frowned, but didn't say anything, "I didn't know about all of this until recently - sorry I didn't tell you all sooner - we'll be there at lunch too, Janus can meet everyone on Monday."

"It's okay!" Patton says quickly, though the damage that left Roman feeling guilty had already been done.

"Yeah yeah - so, if you've not claimed him, does that mean he's single-" Remus said, before Patton smacked him playfully on the arm.

"We've just got back and you're already hitting on another guy? I'm betrayed," Patton giggles, clearly not really upset. Remus just wiggled his eyebrows, and Patton made an exaggerated gagging face in response.

"No," Janus said, "Is the simple answer, while I may be single, I'm not interested in you, especially not if you already have a partner."

"They're poly," Roman said with a sigh, rubbing his cheek.

"Yeah!" Remus grinned, "Only a couple right now, but open to more-"

"Stop hitting on Roman's friend," Patton chastised, "They already said they weren't interested-"

"It's alright," Janus said, sighing, "Anyway - Roman, is this the friend you were telling me about?"

Roman sighed in relief, "Oh, yeah, one of my three best friends."

“Aawweee Ro! Have you been talking about me?” He laughed brightly, jumping forward without warning and pulling Roman into a tight hug. Roman yelps in surprise, his hands flying up to defend himself as Patton clung to him.

Roman had always had what would probably be considered an odd relationship with touch. He'd never received it much as a child, so now as an almost-adult (he was 18, that was basically an adult, right?) it could either make him melt or scare him half to death. Patton's surprise hugs were… usually the latter.

"Pat- I can't breath-" Roman said, panicked as he tried to wriggle free.

"Right, right, sorry," Patton said quickly, letting him go, "I forgot."

"It's- it's fine," Roman said, shaking his hands out and trying to get rid of the almost painful constricting feeling of the phantom touch, "But um, yeah, I've been telling them all about you guys, since they're coming to our school I thought it might be nice if they knew of some friendly people as well as me."

Roman was explaining as if he was trying to excuse himself for talking about them, as though it was a bad thing even when Patton seemed excited. Janus gave him an odd look, a mix between curiosity and amusement. Roman could almost tell that they'd be laughing at him if it weren't for their company.

"Oh you’re so sweet! Isn’t he being sweet?” Patton laughed happily, looking to Remus, who was lounging against the door frame looking at his phone while they talked,

"Looks like he's being a suck up to the pretty boy to me, but sure," Remus laughed, Patton huffed, pouting at him, and Remus changed his answer, "Yeah yeah, very sweet."

“Good - oh! Have you told him- sorry- pronouns?” Patton amended quickly.

“They/them, preferably,” They waved him off, though, clearly not upset. Patton shifted and smiled.

“Have you told them about Virgil and Logan too? Well- mostly Virgil because you know-“ he asked excitedly, taking Roman’s hands and swaying them slightly, seeming to be full of energy even after their outing. Roman blushed at the implications, though he was much happier with just the hand holding that he was with the full hug.

Janus hummed, stepping back slightly. “He’s told me all about you all. Don’t worry” they told Patton. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Patton, Remus."

Remus giggled, "Pleasure to view you, pretty-boy."

"How was your date?" Roman asked quickly to push the attention off of them again since Remus had apparently decided to rejoin the conversation with more one-sided flirting, he wanted to get Patton and Remus to talk about themselves, the most effective way to rescue himself from teasing and questions.

"Oh it was great!" Patton beamed, "Remus won me this cute little guy at the arcade!"

Patton pulled a little stuffed toy out of his pocket that seemed to be an amalgamation of creatures.

"Cute…?" Roman said, unsure what he actually thought of the creature.

"Yeah! I'm an awesome partner," Remus said, throwing an arm around Patton's shoulders and making them both laugh, "We went to that awesome pizza arcade place."

"Oh yeah?" Roman said - trying not to be disappointed. It had been one of his favourite places to go a few years ago, but he hadn't been there with his friends in what felt like forever, "I'm glad you guys had fun."

"Yup! And now we're gonna make popcorn and watch some movie in the living room, if you and your new boy-toy wanna join when you're done being boring?" Remus shrugged, waving as he led Patton out of the door. Patton smiled and waved at them before closing the door behind them.

"Have fun…!" Roman said, trailing off into a sigh as the door closed sharply.

“Satan below, aren’t you a wreck?” Janus sighed playfully, looking Roman over, “Poor thing, you need a demon for assistance when really you just need to talk to your friend.”

A hand came up to ruffle Roman's curls again, but Roman batted their hand away with a halfhearted glare, leaving Janus a little startled at the rejection.

Roman wrapped his arms around himself, embarrassed at the confused look he got when he refused the affection - the hug was still burning his skin.

"It's not- it's not that easy," Roman said, looking away, "How am I supposed to talk to him? He's always with Remus nowadays and Remus'll just mock me and then Patton'll just guilt me into taking it back like always - he doesn't even realise he's doing it, I don't think."

"You have his phone number, don't you?" Janus asked, raising an eyebrow, "Can't you ask to talk privately?"

"I- I could - but then what do I say? They'll feel awful - I can't do that to him, if I told him how I've been feeling for years they'd be devastated, that's not fair-" he said quickly, he didn't want to hurt Patton. Janus frowned and stepped forward again, Roman stepped back. Stopping in their tracks, Janus tilted their head and Roman sighed, "Sorry - the hug Patton gave me caught me off guard…"

Janus nodded a bit, humming and seeming to accept that explanation easily, “Don’t apologise, doll,” They told him, crossing his arms as they took a step back and stared at him. “About Patton…”

"What about him?" Roman asked, going to sit on the bed, thinking he was probably in for a lecture. Janus sighed, leaning on the desk again as they thought through the answer.

“Why do their feelings matter more than yours?” they questioned eventually. “You should be making sure your friends know how you feel so that they can help you, surely? Especially when it comes to him. He seems like the type to care deeply about his friends."

"I- I don't know if it'd work-" Roman sighed, twisting his hands together, "He does care I just- I don't want to upset him - 'cause then he'll cry and then I'll feel awful for upsetting him and apologise and then we'll just pretend like it never happened and it'll go right back to how It was." It had happened plenty of times before, usually when he'd been arguing with Remus or annoyed at Virgil, Patton would, unknowingly, end up guilt tripping him with tears and pouts until he apologised and pretended to be fine again without anything really being fixed.

Janus tutted, coming close again and slowly reaching to take Roman’s face in their hands - giving him the chance to pull away if he wanted, “You poor, poor thing… your heart is too big. Isn’t it? Caring for others so very much, not leaving any room for your own needs, is that right?”

Roman didn't pull away this time since he saw the touch coming. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to hold back tears, "Maybe," he says, voice a little strained, "I just want them to be happy - I want to be happy, But- but not at their expense-"

Janus hummed and started to trace Roman's cheekbones with their thumbs, making it harder and harder not to cry at the idea that he really did deserve to be cared about and happy.

"You- your hands are warm," He says, which hadn't been what he originally was going to say, he was going to ask something along the lines of why Janus was being so nice to him, before he remembered that he was literally deal bound to be there for him. That thought had him tearing up again - Janus was here sure, but only because they had to be. He'd just upset Patton with his feelings, Logan wouldn't get it and Virgil had done nothing to deserve being burdened with Roman's bullshit. It wasn't fair to any of them.

"I'm sorry I've dragged you into this, too," Roman said with a small whimper. Janus cooed, wiping the tears away before they could fall far, which only made Roman want to cry more.

"Darling," they said, "It's almost funny that you think you'd be able to make me agree to anything I didn't already want to do."

"…Huh?" Roman asked, looking up at them with wide eyes.

"You didn't drag me into anything, I agreed to be here, really all you did was ask me for help, pet," Janus told him, gently squeezing his face, "I'm a Demon Prince, remember? You couldn't force me to do a thing, little mortal."

"…Oh," Roman whispers softly, "I- Thank you, then…"

"Hmm.. so now that's dealt with," Janus said, "How about you this school you signed me up for?"

"I'm sorry!" He practically yipped, sitting up faster than he thought was possible, "Shit- I didn't mean to do that - I just had to come up with an excuse."

"Darling calm down," Janus told him, sitting down next to him on the bed, "It'll be necessary for me to see what's going wrong with your friends."

"How are we even going to get you enrolled in the school?" Roman said, biting his lip.

"Leave that up to me, my darling. Now…" they hummed, "I saw how disappointed you looked when they mentioned the pizza place, and I'm guessing you haven't eaten yet. How about you order yourself something to eat, hm?"

Roman sighed, "…I guess."

"If you'd like - maybe you could get something for Patton, too?" Janus raised an eyebrow, "Food is a good way to win people's affections, I've found."

Roman hummed, nodding and reaching to grab his phone from his pocket and text Patton.

From Roman:

Hey Pat, ik you already ate but I'm ordering dinner from the fancy pizza place with the desserts we like, you want anything sweet while I'm ordering?

Once he'd sent the text, he switched over to the delivery app and found the pizza place he was talking about.

"Would you like something to eat too?" He asked Janus. He wasn't sure whether demons actually needed to eat or not. Could they even eat? Would it be offensive to ask? He had no idea, and he couldn't exactly take back his offer now. It was polite, he convinced himself.

Janus hummed quietly, leaning back on their hands silently. “I don’t need food,” they told him with a shrug. “I can eat, however, would you rather I did, darling?"

"No no - it's okay! I'm asking if you want it," Roman said, "I don't mind whether you eat or not - you might have to in school though or people will start getting worried about you,"

Roman was just scrolling through the pizza delivery app to find the pizza he wanted as another text came through from Patton.

From Patton:

Sure!! Anything is good!! Ty ro!!!!

Roman frowned at the text, sighing deeply and running his hand through his hair before going back to ordering his Pizza.

"…What's wrong?" Janus asked him, tilting their head in confusion, "You look… anxious."

Roman's mouth twisted into a frown at being called out, but there was no reason to hide the issue from Janus when they were literally contracted to help Roman with this. So he explained.

"Patton said he'd have anything but knowing me I'll choose the one thing he doesn't actually want," he sighs, "I hate having to guess what people want when they respond like that, because like - sure I know what things he really doesn't like, so I won't order those, but I also don't know what they're feeling like right now, or if I'll get something and they won't actually want it-"

Without saying anything - only giving a hum in acknowledgement - Janus plucked the phone from Roman's hand and started typing a message. Roman squeaked in surprise when they did, but Janus handed it back without sending the message, which left Roman drooping in relief.

From Roman: (editing)

Anything specific? I don’t want to get something you don’t want right now

"Try that," Janus said as Roman read it over.

"Is it… is it really that easy?" He asked, hesitantly, looking back up at Janus and then back down at his phone. He'd always been worried about following up on stuff like that - something to do with anxiety that he'd never really figured out.

Quickly editing the message so it sounded more like it actually came from him, Roman quickly sent it, settling in to wait nervously for Patton's reply.

From Patton:

Oh sure! I'd love to have their cream puffs if they're on there!

"See darling?" Janus said, leaning over Roman's shoulder, "It's not so hard."

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#sanders sides #roman sanders #janus sanders #ts roman #ts janus #roceit #rowans writings #fanfiction #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides fanfic #tss fanfic #More Than You Bargained For

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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My plan was originally to work on it once I was done with the big bang but xhdjcokdc

Has anyone hosted roceit week for this year yet??

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prince-rowan-of-the-forest · 3 days ago

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More Than You Bargained For (1/9)

Chapter 1 - Roman's No Good Life

Masterpost | Next ->

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Warnings: Past homophobia mention, Minor self injury (for demon summoning purposes)

Word Count: 4631

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Roman was pretty sure the thing that had been weighing down on him for the past few months was loneliness.

It had taken him an embarrassingly long time for him to figure out that he was lonely. And it made a stab of what he was certain was guilt shoot through his chest. Why should he be lonely? He was fairly popular in school - albeit not one of the ‘popular kids’ by clique definition, because he didn’t really want to be associated with the people who bullied not only his brother but his best friends too. But he still had plenty of friends, and he thought he was well liked!

Oh yes, he was popular, he knew a lot of people, in every class he had a range of classmates who he could consider a friend, people whose house he’d been to or people who he’d worked on a class project with. There were a handful of people in his classes who would seek him out to pair up with on projects. He shouldn’t feel lonely if he had all of these friends, right?

He even had the three people he considered best friends. First and foremost, there was Patton whom he’d known since they were toddlers. Growing up on neighbouring streets really did that to you, even if Patton's parents were nowhere near as well off as his own. Not only that, but their parents had been friends too back then, before a strain had been put on their relationship when Patton came out. Roman's parents never approved, not of his gender or sexuality, and Patton's parents had cut Roman's off when they refused to support their child. Roman was lucky Patton's parents still let him come round at all. He was lucky Patton even wanted to see him because he'd been a dick about it too at first before Patton had actually explained what it meant. But other than that small blip that Roman looked back on with cringing regret, he and Patton had always been inseparable.

Well, that had been the case until recently at least, but even then, Roman still saw Patton more often than almost any other person. Patton still came around his house every Saturday for a movie night and occasionally slept over. He came around Roman’s house other times too, but most of those times were to see Roman’s twin brother Remus, not to see Roman himself. He couldn't help being a little jealous as his brother seemed to steal his best friend away more and more every day - Patton had even started sitting with him at lunch, now. It wasn't fair for Roman to be upset, though, he knew that. They were in a relationship - a queer platonic one, not romantic. Patton had been sure to explain that one to him too.

It had only felt a little condescending. He had been fourteen and raised in a homophobic household when Patton first came out as genderfluid. Four and a half years later he would've thought his friend would trust him to actually have looked into some things - or at least let him ask before jumping to a child friendly definition.

Patton was by no means perfect, and sure they were drifting apart, but Roman still loved him, just like he loved all his friends!

He also had Logan. He’d known Logan for almost as long as Patton. They’d been in the same class all through elementary and middle school - after he'd been set back a grade at six years old, to the despair of his parents - and Logan only lived a few streets further away than Patton. It was easy for them to cycle to meet up at each other's houses or the park even when they were kids. Logan was smart and kind in his own way, he had never hesitated to offer when Roman seemed to be struggling with mathse or science homework, and Roman returned the favour with English and general assistance with social matters - which he had always excelled in.

Now that didn't mean Roman always saw eye to eye with Logan. Roman liked princesses and princes and dragons, where Logan liked maths and planets and rocks. Roman loved imaginative games while Logan preferred finding bugs or reading his textbooks as kids and even now Roman preferred to write stories while Logan protested about how studying was important. Their interests differed widely and both of them had a temper, which had led to… just a few arguments. But they always managed to get past that - after a few days to a week of resolutely ignoring each other until Patton forced them both to apologise, usually. Logan didn't understand him, nor his dreams to become a successful author. He always told Roman he was smart and could do so much more if he just applied himself, but Logan didn't seem to understand that Roman didn't want to do more, and that he was truly trying his best. He didn't want to study some crazy academic subject in college despite Logan's persistence while they were applying together, he just… wanted to live a peaceful life reading and writing his books. Still… Logan was a good friend for offering to help at all.

It didn't matter that he'd stopped tutoring Roman near the beginning of the school after finally getting frustrated enough with him to give up. Roman was dealing with it, his failing grades showcased that well.

Unfortunately, Logan only really hung around when Patton did, so he'd sort of stopped seeing him too, aside from lunch and the occasional library trip to work on applications for colleges Roman didn't even want to attend.

The final member of their little friend group was Virgil. Admittedly, Roman hadn't had the best first impression with Virgil. He had been the newest addition to their little group. Patton had just arrived to Roman's house one day in their freshman year, dragging the tiniest kid (Roman had been convinced that this kid wasn’t their age at the time) with a mop of purple hair that flopped over his eyes, eye bags big enough to resemble basketballs and smeared eye shadow like the kid had been crying, announced that his name was Virgil and that he was part of the group now and… well neither he nor Logan really argued. Roman couldn't deny that he'd been a little mean to Virgil at first. He'd been upset that Virgil could just waltz in an take up all of Patton's attention, or talk so easily with Logan without even a hint of anger even when Virgil said things that would have gotten Roman snapped at. Now, two and a half years of knowing him later, he knew he had just been jealous. He was pretty sure Virgil had noticed, too, and he'd made a poor and awkward attempt to apologise about a year ago - complete with a movie and takeout for dinner. You could almost call it a date, almost, because they weren't dating. Since then though things had gone a lot smoother, Virgil had stopped picking on him so much - and even defended him from Logan's semi-regular well meaning attacks on his hobbies and career goals - and Roman had done the same in turn. Their bickering had slowly turned to playful banter over time, and he could admit that Virgil was a better friend to him than any of the other people he knew. Nowadays possibly even more so than Patton and Logan. Though he'd never admit it.

And then the one other thing… his terrible and awful and probably painfully obvious crush on Virgil. Obvious to pretty much everyone except Virgil, at least. Patton did his best to encourage him to confess or ask him out or just something - but he never would. He was, for once, far too shy. He couldn't bear to ask Virgil out when all his other relationships felt like they were falling apart around him. He didn't want to lose the one secure friendship he felt like he had.

Even with these amazing people he called friends, though, somehow, Roman still felt alone. He felt almost like an outsider, like he was watching someone else live his life for him, sometimes he felt like he was playing a part when he was talking to Virgil, hiding his feelings from him left him guilty and strained, or that he was putting up a front when Logan criticised yet another of the stories he’d written for not being realistic enough, he always felt like he was pretending to be cheerful and peppy around Patton- and everyone else really. He couldn’t burden them with his insecurities. How he was scared he wouldn’t be good enough, that he wasn’t smart enough, that he’d never make it as an actor or a writer. He couldn’t talk about how he felt suffocated in school, how he always felt like people were looking down on him or measuring him up to expectations he would never meet.

At home was no better, either. If his parents were home - rare these days - they were ignoring him or making sure he was still applying to a good college programme and reminding him that his friends were bad influences. Roman felt wrong lying to them - and he lied to them about so many things, his sexuality, his test scores, his college applications, his friendships - but he had to if he wanted to survive until college.

He couldn’t talk about how he struggled to sleep sometimes because he was worried he hadn’t done enough during the day. He couldn't tell them how he constantly blamed himself for the state of their friendships, how he didn't feel like he belonged there when they hung out.

He couldn’t explain his fears or his worries when they had enough to deal with themselves. He couldn't bring up his constant nagging insecurities. There was nothing he could do.

Roman desperately wished for someone who could just come in and fix everything for him. Because he sure as hell didn't know how to do it himself.

What happened next was entirely Remus’ fault, really. He’s the one who put the idea in Roman’s head in the first place, after all.

“I'm bored," Remus said out of nowhere, appearing only to drape himself over the back of the sofa to look at Roman upside down. Roman had been sat there half-watching some obviously faked ghost-hunting show that just happened to be on at the time. Remus became enraptured for a moment before deciding it wasn't entertaining enough and focusing back on Roman.

Roman raised an eyebrow, looking over at him briefly before looking back down at his phone, "…So?"

"What if we summon a demon?” Remus asked. Roman had to take a minute just to make sure he'd heard that right.

“That is a terrible idea,” Roman said, glancing up from his phone- finally pausing the tiktok he had been watching.

“Maybe, but wouldn’t it be fun?” Remus asked, a grin on his face.

“It might,” Roman said, before sighing and putting on his best Logan voice, “But demons aren’t real, Remus,”

“Boo!” Remus huffed, “You’ve been hanging around dorkface too much,”

Roman huffed a laugh, “Yeah? Well even if they were real, summoning a demon would be a terrible idea, I bet Patton would agree, they wouldn’t want you to be killed by a demon,”

“Finee-” Remus glared at him, “I won't, but only because patty-cake wouldn’t like it though, I still wanna."

"Good, thank you," Roman huffed, but Remus didn't leave yet.

"By the way! Did you see that postcard that came through from our weird cousin in Oregon? He says these two kids came to stay with his boss last summer and some crazy shit happened, dude I wish we'd been there - you should read the letter.”

"I'll have a look later," Roman shrugged, "It can't be that weird."

"You'll see," Remus said as he peeled himself back up off of the sofa.

Roman sighed as his brother wandered away to inevitably cause some kind of chaos elsewhere. Roman just unpaused his tiktok - it was one of those satisfying cake decorating videos - and tried his best to put it out of his mind.

It was three am that night, and Roman had been staring at his ceiling for the last four hours. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about Remus’ earlier suggestion.

Roman was right, he knew he was right about it being an awful idea, but… if he summoned a demon, they would have to listen to him, right? That was how summoning worked, after all. At least that’s how it went in the TV shows, the human summons a demon, they make a deal and the demon does what the human wants. So if he summoned a demon and asked it to help him fix his problems…

That was such an incredibly stupid idea. Roman could almost hear Logan chastising him, besides, demons weren’t real.

It wouldn’t hurt to try, though, right? Even if he didn’t think it would work. Just for the chance. He couldn't tell Remus of course, his brother would just make fun of him, but… he was sure he could figure it out on his own.

Roman sighed dramatically, demons weren’t real, he reminded himself, but hey, maybe he could look up how to summon one anyway? Maybe he could use it for a story idea. Yeah, he convinced himself, he’d have a character summon a demon so he’d have someone to talk to! The character and the demon would be friends, and they could share all their insecurities and help each other be less lonely! Roman pulled out his laptop and opened his most trusted source - YouTube. He’d have to do some research if he was going to do this… story.

Two hours and three notebook pages later, he had both exhausted his overactive mind and made his decision.

He still hadn't quite figured out how to do it. There were all sorts of pages on demons from pop culture and the bible, summoning spells from TV shows or the like as well as plenty of warnings and notes about demons being dangerous and tricky. Nothing to show him how to actually do it, though.

Shaking his head, Roman put his laptop and notebook aside and curled up on his bed to go to sleep. He could go to the library and see if they had anything that could help. Do his research properly like Logan always scolded him for neglecting to do on his school assignments. It would be fine.

The library had been, shockingly, quite fruitful.

He hadn't found anything looking in the folklore section, or the history section. He'd almost deemed the mission a bust after an hour of searching wherever he thought a book about demons might fit and finding nothing, but just as he'd turned to leave, a surprisingly out of place, old, battered book stuffed in with the sci-if books caught his eye.

It had clearly been put back in the wrong section, Roman thought as he pulled it out as gently as he could and brushed the dust from the cover. "Reges Inferni", said the large words on the cover, enblazened in gold foil. Underneath it, in smaller lettering, it read: "Studium daemonum - dux ad convocandum"

Now because Roman wasn't a complete nerd, he did not read Latin. The pentagram depicted on the front was promising, though, so Roman brought the book to one of the free study booths at the back of the library building and set it down gently, taking out his phone and copying the Latin from the cover into google translate.

"Kings of hell," Roman muttered to himself - well that sounded sinister, "Study of Demons - A Guide to Summoning."

Well, Roman thought, that sounded like exactly what he needed.

Flicking through the book revealed to him that, thankfully, most of the rest of the contents was written in English. Albeit ye-oldie English with thous and haths and all that other nonsense, but Roman was good at Shakespeare. He was confident that he could decipher it.

When he went to check out the book, the librarian frowned and left Roman nervously shifting from foot to foot awkwardly as she searched on her computer. She eventually called another librarian over and they started whispering, leaving Roman nervously fidgeting with the crystal pendant Virgil had gifted him (He had told him it was lucky) for his last birthday.

"This book isn't in any of our records," The librarian told him eventually, looking deeply confused, "And it's beaten up enough that even if it was it would be in the archive with the other texts this old… I suppose I may as well let you take it."

"Really?" Roman asked, surprised.

"We have no reason to keep it here," She shrugged, "And you were already interested - though I'd recommend donating it when you're done."

"Oh-! Okay!" Roman said brightly as he carefully tucked the offered book into his backpack along with his school supplies. He gave them a bright smile and a wave before hurrying out of the library. He almost felt like he'd stolen from them, but they'd told him he could have the book, so… why did he feel so uneasy?

Roman had spent the rest of that night in his room planning. The book seemed legit enough. He still didn't fully believe any of the spells in it would work, but there were various chapters on general summoning, and then a few on specific demons, how they acted, what they were documented to look like, and most importantly how to summon them.

They all seemed… extremely powerful, and Roman wasn't entirely sure that he needed a super powerful demon to help with this particular problem - it wasn't as though he actually wanted them to coerce or manipulatehis friends into wanting to hang around with him, or force his crush to like him with some kind of demon magic - that would be horrible!

He just wanted advice! he just wanted someone he could talk out his problems with who would listen and maybe help him out with a plan of some kind to fix all of this! He didn't need to feed his enemies to a demon king or anything - that was far more than he ever wanted.

At the very back of the book, it listed how to create your own summoning ritual. It wouldn't call out to a specific demon, rather it would allow you to list what you want and a demon who thinks they can help might answer. Roman thought that might be a good idea, that way he'd likely get answered by a lower level demon who was willing to tolerate his issues.

Yes, Roman thought that would do nicely. Now he just had to plan out how he would actually go about doing it.

By Friday he had a plan.

He’d use his bedroom - because he figured it would be better to keep the demon contained (even if it was supposed to be trapped in the circle until Roman released it regardless, but he couldn't be too careful). It also meant that he probably wouldn't be found out, his brother didn't come into his room all that often since he had better things to do, and his parents didn't care enough to go in there regardless.

Tonight after school he’d go out and buy the other stuff needed, he was currently using his math period to plan in his notebook again. He already had chalk from his art projects, but he’d need to get some candles. He’d also like to bake a batch of cookies- in case the demon wanted an offering - because there was no way he was sacrificing a whole being. He would also have to get a knife he could use for the blood sacrifice the book said he needed.

He'd deal with that when it came to it, he was squeamish, but that was fine. It shouldn't be that hard, right?

The day finally came - Roman had been unable to sleep Thursday night due to the anxious jitters keeping him up - and he had found himself getting more and more antsy as the school day went by. It even got to the point where, when Patton met him after his last class of the day to come home with him - since she was going on a date with Remus after school - she’d been inclined to ask whether Roman was okay. Of course, Roman had assured Patton that he was fine, and they’d talked with each other the entire walk home. It hurt Roman just a little that it had almost felt like catching up with an old friend.

But that was why he was doing this.

Half an hour after they had gotten home, during which Roman had retreated to his room and left Patton and Remus to their own devices, Remus had left with Patton to embark on an evening of adventure and fun. That was when Roman’s timer began ticking. He’d have about three hours at least before they got home, so he’d better start now.

First he set about making the cookies - they were only simple chocolate chip so he hoped he wouldn't have much trouble. Roman wasn't a good cook and he knew he was an even worse baker, but years of friendship with Patton had left him with this particular recipe mastered, at least he’d like to think so. The cookies had turned out well thank goodness (he was unfortunately prone to burning things) because he didn’t want to spare the time to make a second batch if they hadn't. Roman left the cookies to cool in the kitchen so he could set up in his room, not before taking one to snack on as he did so. They were as good as they looked and smelled, which had Roman sighing in relief. He had cleared the space in his room the night before whilst he was struggling to sleep. Now all he needed to do was grab his chalk and candles and get the book and supplies ready.

The pentagram he drew on his hardwood floor in chalk wasn’t the neatest, but unfortunately Roman hadn't been able to find a ruler as big as he needed on short notice, so he’d simply tried to tidy it up where he could and decided that the demon probably wouldn’t mind if the lines were a little wobbly in places. Next he took the candles he’d bought from the bag and placed them at each point of the star as well as inter spaced between them. Most of the videos he’d watched said that the candles should be red or black, but his were yellow- the shop he’d gone to didn’t have enough big candles in stock in red or black - he was sure the demon wouldn’t mind, yellow was a perfectly nice colour, in his not-so-humble opinion. Besides, the book had said the candles had to correspond with the demon he was summoning, so he supposed the demon he got would probably be a yellow fan.

Outside of the pentagram, Roman drew a ring and carefully copied the sigils shown in his book. Each one he'd made sure to copy as precisely as he could - the book said this was what bound the demon to his command, so Roman knew he couldn't mess this part up.

Finished with the circle, he went downstairs, washed his hands free of chalk and grabbed the cookies, put them on a plate and placed them just outside the circle for the demon once they were summoned, before grabbing his knife and his book. Everything was ready.

Now onto the scary part, actually attempting to summon the demon.

He had written down his intent and desires on a page in his notebook the night before, doing his best to think carefully about his wording. He'd have to recite a chant - which he had the book for - and burn the paper. Not too hard, right?

All he had to do now was stand just outside of the circle, do all of that, and then - oh yeah, cut open his hand with the knife and drop his blood into the circle, right, that part would be fun. As he stared at the circle, that same voice from before - which still sounded suspiciously like Logan - that kept telling him that he was being stupid seemed to come back, telling him that the chant was probably just some gibberish that some person from the 1800s had made up so that people could have their fun trying to summon demons - or to scare people out of it, who knows. Roman thought that the little voice was probably right - as Logan himself usually was - but he was here and he wasn’t about to back out now. Not after he had done all of this.

So Roman stood beside the pentagram, lit the corner of his paper aflame and began the chant. He didn't know if he needed the book. he'd repeated it to himself enough times today that he could probably say it in his sleep, but it made him feel all the more official, so he kept it.

The moment he began the chant, every one of the candles flared. It took only a few minutes of doing so before Roman started to feel weirdly warm for his nicely air conditioned room on a surprisingly cool day in Florida. He considered pausing his chant to take off his jacket, before deciding against it. He continued.

Roman was glad- or, maybe he wasn’t- that he had persevered, because only moments later the candle's flames turned from red to black. The book said that this was a sign it was working. Now all that was left was the blood sacrifice.

Hands trembling more than Roman may have liked to admit, Roman placed down the book besides him and readied the knife against his palm, never once faltering in his chant. Screwing his eyes shut, he sliced the knife across his skin, hissing his way through the words as pain erupted from the spot he had cut. Quickly he held his hand out over the circle and let the blood drip there.

As soon as his blood hit the circle, it hissed and evaporated. From the spot it had dropped the chalk lit up in a gold that was almost radiant. Roman gasped, pausing in his chant for just a second as a wind with no source whipped up around him, blowing papers from his desk and tugging at his hair and clothes, As he finished his final chant, Roman saw smoke bloom from the centre of the circle and suddenly he was knocked back by the force that erupted from the centre of it. Landing hard on his ass against the wooden foot board of his bed, Roman stared in shock as his ears began to ring and his vision tilted and span. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ward off the vertigo he had suddenly felt, gasping as he tried to rid himself of the feeling that his brain was trying to wring itself out.

When his ears had stopped ringing and the world stopped spinning, Roman finally opened his eyes to first realise that all of the candles had been blown out, probably by the same force that pushed him over, and the chalk making up the circle was pulsing softly with golden light. Above him, thick black smoke was slowly dissipating to reveal what Roman realised was a figure.

“Oh my stars,” Roman muttered to himself as he stared at the figure slowly emerging from the smoke, "Remus will not believe this…"

(Art By @dndeceit !!!)

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#sanders sides #roman sanders #remus sanders #sanders sides fanfiction #ts roman #rowans writings #More Than You Bargained For

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