#I needed to get all those icky-feelings™️ out of my system

[sanders-sides-fic]

The other side of the story

Trigger warning: Character death. It happened before the story begins, but it’s still a major part of the plot.

Janus was cocky and slick. Janus was always in control, or at least knew how to turn a dire situation around to his own benefit. Janus controlled the room with just a single word dripping from his silver tongue, or one facial expression. Janus demanded the attention of everyone around. Janus knew what everyone wanted and Janus knew how to use that. Janus always knew what to say, what to leave out, what to imply, when to stay silent, when to smile or smirk or chuckle or laugh.

Janus laughed with his head thrown back ever so slightly, gloved left hand coming up to cover just a little part of the mouth, a sweet melody that was up to the listener’s own interpretation.

Janus was smooth, Janus knew how to flirt. Janus always flirted with the people around him, gave a seductive wink without any commitment behind it. But Janus loved fiercely, dramatically, Janus wooed like he danced in his favorite Jazz club. Janus loved with hushed reassurances, with thoughtful hums, with the result of a cunning ploy as answer to a bad day, with firm touches that claimed you, with teasing beyond the fair, with fulfilling your dreams, with tricking and deceiving you into self-care, with ice cold smiles that froze your enemies, with threats between the lines to whoever may have stolen a smile from your face.

Janus was the passion of a secret relationship. Janus was the smug look of the man who’d just tricked you into revealing what little he hadn’t known before. Janus was lies that hadn’t been lies at all. Janus was the golden flame you were weary of, yet couldn’t look away from. Janus was a favor done and a debt owed. Janus was a monument of hushed conversations that couldn’t seem to be brought down by the gods themselves.

Janus was always collected. Janus spoke in lies, and empty hints, and perfectly tailored half-truths. Janus never showed what he was thinking or feeling. 

That right there? That was not Janus. And yet, somehow, it was him. Somehow that was what Janus had become, what he had been reduced to.

Roman looked into the mysterious golden pools of mischief he’d grown so accustomed to over the years. What he found instead were two empty, clouded orbs. And for what seemed to be the first time in his life, he saw Janus break the eye contact first. It hadn’t even been long, but apparently the short time he’d had his eyes averted from the items clutched in his hands had hurt him. At least if the tears shimmering in those awfully empty eyes were anything to go by.

“Jan?”, Roman tried again. But Janus didn’t even react this time, barely batted an eye. “Janus, please, you need to eat something and change out of that suit. It’s been a day since the funeral. Come on, Jan, you gotta take care of yourself.” No reaction yet again.

“He’s right, you know? They… They wouldn’t have wanted you to do this to yourself. What would Virgil say if he could see you like this, hm?” Remus sounded uncharacteristically soft, caring. Yet Janus still didn’t look up, just clutched the jacket in his hand tighter when the name fell. Well, at least that was something…

“You know Logan didn’t like hypocritical behaviour, Jan. And Virgil even said he didn’t like how death breaks people’s spirit so many times! And Logan said that the best way to mourn someone was to-”

“They also said they’d never leave me!”, Janus yelled at them, startling both twins away from him with sheer unknown volume and raw pain in his voice, “They said we’d grow old together and that I was stuck with them until I died! They said we would never be alone again!” He brought the hoody and the tie closer to his chest, an uneven breath leaving him.

No one said something for quite some time. There was only soft sobbing that left the shell that had once been Janus, muffled by the fabric of the favorite hoody and tie of his late husbands. Until he took another shuddering breath and barked out a lifeless laugh. “It’s not fair, you know? It’s just not fair. And no one cared. Why did no one care? So that stupid hero caught that stupid villain. Who cares? She killed them, because she couldn’t be bothered to make the people around her a priority. Because saving innocent bystanders from collateral damage just doesn’t bring you much fame, does it? People actually celebrated. How fucked up is that? She decided to draw people into that fight for fame and that decision gets celebrated and she gets glorified.”

There was a dark edge to his voice, an edge that made both Roman and Remus shudder. Janus had never had much regards for society, only following rules when strictly necessary or when Logan and Virgil had made sure of it. And it didn’t sound like he was inclined to believe in society much more now. Roman had an awful hunch right then and there, and he hoped beyond hope that he was wrong. He didn’t want his brother-in-law to go down that path, especially not since he himself had just graduated from his training for the other side of this.

But Janus smirked at them, his eyes alight with a flame that had been missing for weeks since the incident. “I want to make them regret that. I want to make her regret ever making that decision, and I want to tear down the society that rewarded her for it. They’ll curse the day they took my loves from me.” And he looked happy with that thought. Delighted. Energetic. All the things he hadn’t been since the police had showed up at his door, shattering his world with an uninterested face and a colleague still smiling happily at recordings of the incident.

Roman sighed. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want his long time friend, his ex lover, his brother-in-law to do this. He didn’t like anything about this even one bit. But when he at least looked like more than an empty shell again, more than a shadow of who he once was, more than dead inside… Maybe revenge would help. Maybe, in some way.

And Remus must have thought the same thing, because he hummed the hum he usually hummed when he decided on a cause of action that was stupid, dangerous, illegal and would most certainly bring him another adrenaline high. “Well, if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then you’ll need help, Jan~”, he sang.

Roman sighed again. “Yeah, I’m in too. Just… I have a few conditions. First of all, you have to take care of yourself. Secondly, no unnecessary blood is being spilled. We’re leaving innocent bystanders out of it this time, end the circle, you know? And third thing is we’ll stay together. We’re all that’s left of this family. We have to be each other’s priority.”

Janus looked between them stunned. “Really?”, he breathed in awe. “You… You’re really okay with that? You would do that?”

Remus snorted. “I’ve always wanted to be a villain, Jan. Only reason I’m not yet is because my team needs a braincell. Besides, everyone expects me to become a villain any day now anyways.”

Roman sighed a third time. “Well, I can’t say I wanted this but… I lost Virgil too, you know? And I don’t want to fight against either of you. Again, priority.” He gestured to the other two. In the corner of his eye, he saw Remus nod.

Janus hesitated for a little while more, before his usual smirk returned and he took up the bowl of cold soup Roman had brought him. “Well, then. I suppose those terms are acceptable. As long as they are implied to all three of us.”

It was half a year later when the villain trio Serpent, The nightmarish Duke and The Prince of Darkness appeared for the first time. They climbed up the ladder of super villains fast, and the superhero Flame was their first victim. They puzzled everyone with their obscure goal, but it didn’t take long until no one felt safe anymore.

It was the hero Heart who brought down the shapeshifting Serpent, the perception controlling Duke and the power blocking Prince. Eleven years had gone by at that point in time, and everyone was elated by the news. But when they were supposed to be brought to prison, the holding cell was empty, safe fore a single note in elaborate, golden letters:

“Don’t think you’re safe from us yet. If any of you ever forget what heroism takes, we’ll come back to remind you.” And behind those words the date of the day Flame brought down her last villain, written in blood red and underlined in poisonous green.

Taglist: @gattonero17 @alias290