#(obv ghost is also allowed to stall him)

[fakeloveaskblog]

(Hi, me again.)

Okay Remus, the address is *insert address*. I’ll go and keep an eye on Oswald to make sure he doesn’t show up. I’ll warn you if he starts get close and stall him as long as I can. Call me if you need anything.

I’ll teleport to where Oswald is and invisibility watch him.

Glow Eyes

A shudder went through Remus' entire body ending in him closing his eyes and letting out a long sigh as his shoulders relaxed.

"...it's not the same adress" He mumbled out with his eyes still closed "I don’t know what I'd done if it was the same...if...I think I would implode and die and blood and bits and pieces everywhere-"

"It's not the same place" Janus said in a calm tone to stop him from spiraling into what ifs "You know that now. Full certainty"

"Yeah.....yeah"

He dragged his hands through his hair before his fingers went down his face, pulling at the edges of his eyes till the red underlinings stuck out. There was a trembling in his legs that he tried not to think about.

"I gotta get my sketchbook an-and my..." His words trailed off as he abruptly started to look around the room as if he had only just now remembered where he was.

Janus had to quickly look up where the adress actually was and how they could get to it because Remus just staggered out of the apartment, pale and wide eyed, and started walking out towards who knows where.

He quietly followed after Janus along with Remy when they actually seemed to know where they should go. He stayed worryingly silent while waiting for the bus.

Remus motioned for Remy to sit beside him on the bus. Janus took the seat directly behind them and started to mumble on about a murder mystery riddle they’d read about. It was mostly to see if their friend wanted to be distracted from whatever he was thinking about or if he wanted to be left alone.

At first Remus replied but the conversation quickly fizzled out. Only leaving him to ask every now and again how long time it was left until they were supposed to get off.

A cough came from the older lady on the bus and the muffled sound of a teen or two tapping on their phones could be heard. The bus driver was talking on the phone with someone but no one had the energy to listen in.

Remy glanced over and noticed Remus trembling lip, the way he was staring down into the ground to try and hold back tears. They slipped their hand over to his while moving to meet his eyes.

“it’s not fair” Was all he said.

He curled up against them and let them hold him close. Remy put their chin against the top of his head and closed their eyes “It’s not fair. I know. I know”

To Janus’ surprise Remus moved his hand so they could hold it. He squeezed their fingers tight like a lifeline. Every single one of his fingernails had been bitten down to the skin.

--

The busstop they got off on laid right next to a tiny supermarket. Half of the store’s neon sign letters had stopped working. Remus hadn’t let go of Janus’ hand even as they began walking to whatever direction they were pointing too. They really didn’t mind.

Without really thinking of it they started to hold on tightly to him as well when they realized the apartment should be right around the corner.

“We don’t have to do this” Janus reminded.

Remus just nodded a little while continuing to walk.

“Well...Either way you’re not alone”

It was just a small nudge but Remus bonked the side of his head against Janus’.

They turned past the corner of one of the apartment houses and found themself on a road. On one side the apartment houses continued, on the other larger suburban like houses were built. The apartments weren’t anything to fnuss about, they were definitely larger than the one Janus rented. There were a few parking spaces for cars right alongside the road. It was late enough so a few of the cars had parked at home for the day but another few were still missing.

With a knot in his stomach Janus looked down at the adress showing on his phone and realized which of the apartments, along with the empty car space, belonged to Oswald.

He parsed his lips to tell Remus but he didn’t have to. Remus was already staring up at the windows. His hand let go of Janus’ as his fingers seemingly went numb.

“I bought him that lamp” 

Janus followed his eyes and looked up to see a lamp shining a dim orange from one of the windows. The lamp was even from down there noticebly cheap, probably from a second hand shop, but it was made to look like a silly fish. A wide silly fish smile and all.

They looked back to Remus and for less than a second they saw dozens of emotions flash across his face. Anger, grief, shame. Undescribable emotions. Before his face went stale. His brows furrowed into a focused look as he started to rumage around in his bag.

Obviously it took a while to paint things. Especially if it was an oil painting. So Remus didn’t have time to make the full painting right now. He was going to take photos and sketch though.

He got sort of the same look as when he was hyperfixating on something, but any ounce of joy was gone. He formed his fingers into a frame and started to check for the right angle.

--

Oswald had been assigned to close the aquarium for the day. He was cleaning up the last fish tank while telling the soon to be sleeping fish about how fucking annoying the customers had been today.

When he turned around he tried to hit the trail of snails following him with a broom but the snails dodged out of the way as always. Last week he’d tried to burn one of the snails but it’d only resulted in his fire alarm going off. He had blamed it on the next door neighbor smoking.

Even though he knew no one else was there he still glanced around before blowing a goodnight kiss to his favorite octopus.

He grabbed the aquarium keys and went to lock the entrance for the day before heading to his car. The army of tiny snails slided along after him.