#Janus kinda got long head in this one but that’s ok | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

threecrowsinatrenchcoat · 4 years ago

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So Give Me Hope In The Darkness

Dukeceit Week Day 4: Free Day

Janus comes to him scared and broken. And there is nothing Remus wouldn’t do to help him.

AO3 Link: [here]

Word Count: 8855

Warnings: violence, dehumanization/people as test subjects, implied past abuse.

@dukeceitweek <3

“Remus, the transport’s here. You ready?”

Remus looked up from where he had been meticulously finishing the last fold on the absolute best paper airplane he had ever made in his life. “The what?”

Roman, leaning against the doorframe of Remus’ office, sighed deeply. “For the love of all things Disney and musical theatre, Remus, check your e-mail on a regular basis.”

Remus glanced at his desk. His laptop sat half-buried in crumpled up reject airplanes, the screen dark, so he slipped his phone from his pocket to check his e-mail with instead and… oops. One official work order, sent over 40 minutes ago, and three more messages from Virgil that all read somewhere along the lines of “Jesus Christ Remus respond to this so we know you read it.” Which, of course, he hadn’t.

“Uh…” Remus said helplessly. Roman scrubbed a hand down his face, then motioned for Remus to follow as he stepped back out into the hallway. Remus scrambled after him.

“I’ll fill you in, but we need to hurry,” Roman said.

“The hell do they need me for? Wasn’t it just another one of those underground lab bullshit raids? Those always turn up fucking zilch.”

“Not this one,” Roman replied and, well, shit. Now Remus was interested enough to shut up and let his brother talk. “They actually found, like, the real headquarters. Evil scientists and all.”

“Fuck yeah, good for them. Logan and Virgil have been working themselves to the bone...r. But why do they need me?”

Roman gave him a look. It was his it’s time to be serious now, Remus look. “They found a, uh…” he hesitated, looking for the right word. “A test subject.”

“Oh.”

Well that answered that.

By this point, Roman had reached the door that led out to the parking garage. He stopped at the door and gave Remus a pointed look.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Remus muttered. Quickly, he emptied out his pockets and shoved his phone, wallet, keys, a small notebook, a miniature lockpick set, and a pocket knife all into Roman’s waiting hands. The last time he’d tangled with an aggressive gifted, he’d gotten the entire contents of his pockets- as well as the pants themselves- reduced to a pile of molten plastic and ash. “Right. Here I go.”

“Logan will brief you. Be careful.”

“I’ll be fine, bro, chill out.” Remus patted Roman’s cheek- which his brother couldn’t do a damn thing about with his hands full of Remus’ stuff- then pushed the door open and made his way out to the intake dock.

There was already a small crowd gathered around, a safe distance from where the armored transport van had been backed into the receiving bay. Logan, Patton, and Virgil were there, of course. But the presence of a handful of armed officers was a surprise. Logan usually refused to allow the police department to send their thugs into situations like this. This sort of thing was what Remus was on the payroll for.

“Wasn’t expecting a party,” Remus said as he approached his team. Logan turned away from his conversation with Virgil.

“Ah, Remus. There you are,” he said. “I take it you have read the work order?”

“I… skimmed it,” Remus lied. Logan looked unimpressed.

“Well, just in case you missed anything important, let us recap. Virgil?”

“Uh, yeah.” Virgil stepped closer, looking troubled. “We found a gifted in there, probably a test subject knowing these bastards. He’s aggressive, borderline feral, and those jokers-” He jerked his head in the general direction of the uniformed police. “Didn’t fucking help the situation. I couldn’t reach him, but I don’t know if that’s cause he’s in a state of mind where logic and reason are completely out the window, or if he’s… like us.”

Remus nodded. His own powers would work where Virgil’s had failed, but only if this one wasn’t completely immune to the effects of other gifteds like he and Virgil were. He turned to Patton. “You got anything for me, pops?”

“Of course!” From the pocket of his white doctor’s coat, Patton produced a small capped syringe filled with bright blue liquid. “I had to guess at the dosage, though.”

Remus accepted the tranquilizer and shoved it in his pocket. It would be a last resort. Looking to Logan, he asked, “Any ideas on powers? What to watch out for?” He was not pleased to see Logan grimace.

“We don’t know yet. The base is still being swept, so it will likely be some time before we will know what, if any, information was found on this subject.”

There was a heavy thunk from inside the armored van that made Patton jump.

“Sounds like we don’t have that kind of time,” Remus mused. “Somebody wants out.”

“He was restrained when we found him. Blindfolded, too,” Virgil offered. “So he needs either visual, touch, or both.”

“Really narrows it down there, Virge,” Remus said with a huff. There was another thunk. “I’m going in. Standard operating procedure?”

Logan nodded. Remus nodded back, then looked to Virgil.

Virgil led him through the crowd of uniforms, snapping at a few of them to move back, and up to the back doors of the van. He met Remus’ gaze. There was another thunk.

“Ok, now!” Remus said. Virgil tore open the door. Remus threw himself at the gifted on the other side, and Virgil slammed the door shut behind him.

He hadn’t been sure what to expect, so when he collided with a much smaller body, his momentum sent them both sprawling across the back of the van. Remus was bigger and stronger though, and didn’t have the disadvantage of being blindfolded, so he flipped the smaller body easily beneath him, wincing slightly at the hiss of pain he heard, and pressed a palm firmly against the bare skin of his neck.

“Why don’t you take a nap,” he growled. His power reached into the body, weaving its way into the circulatory system to slow the heart. Or, well. It tried to. He couldn't get a hold anywhere.

“Fuck. You are like us,” Remus muttered; more to himself than to the other, who was becoming increasingly difficult to hold down as he writhed and struggled against Remus’ weight. With his free hand, Remus reached around to try and fish the syringe out of his pocket. But the movement put him off balance. The gifted threw him off with a sharp jerk and scrambled away.

They both staggered to their feet on opposite ends of the cramped space, and Remus got his first good look at the gifted. His long blonde hair was a tangled mess, and he was still blindfolded- though he tracked Remus’ location enough to bare his teeth at him. Some sort of restraint seemed to be keeping his arms behind his back. Remus kind of wanted to murder whoever had done this to him.

“Hey, look, I’m not trying to hurt you,” he offered, even though he knew Virgil had already tried using his literal powers of persuasion on him. “I swear, I’m just trying to help you. But you need to calm the hell down.”

The gifted had pressed his back up against the wall of the van. Talking wasn’t going to do shit. The sooner Remus ended this the better. He rushed the gifted again; the gifted spun out of his grasp, and his hand closed on… feathers? The fuck? Whatever. The gifted had cornered himself against the back wall of the van. Remus spun sharply and slammed his weight into him. Winded, and with his back pinned into the corner, there was a precious few seconds where the gifted made no move. That was enough time for Remus to slip the cap off the syringe and jam it into the gifted’s thigh.

His muscles immediately went slack, and Remus carefully lowered him to the floor, mindful of the goddamn wings he could now see were strapped down tightly against the gifted’s back.

“What the fuck did they do to you?” he asked sadly. He leaned over to bang three times on the van wall to signal the all clear to Virgil. A sudden, sharp pain raced up his other arm, and he jerked back with a yelp. The gifted had apparently gathered enough strength for one last act of defiance and had lashed out to fucking bite him, what the hell? Remus pushed him back down to the floor, and this time he stayed down.

One of the back doors to the van eased open, and Virgil peeked in. Remus turned to him, and the whole world spun.

“Ah, fuck,” he managed. “Venomous. Cute.”

And then he promptly blacked out.

Remus woke up in one of the dimly lit rooms of Patton’s infirmary. Patton had a vendetta against fluorescent lights, instead opting for soft, warm lights that didn’t give everyone headaches. Remus was thankful for this every time he woke up here- which was often- but especially now. His head was throbbing, and he kind of felt like he’d been hit by Virgil’s big armored transport van. Which he had before (his own damn fault) so he knew exactly how it felt.

His phone buzzed. Wincing at the movement, Remus glanced over to the small table beside the bed where his phone sat amid the pile of his other belongings. Which meant he had been out long enough for Roman to stop by and leave again. His phone buzzed again, so despite his body screaming at him for doing so, he reached over and grabbed it.

His team’s groupchat was filled with missed messages from the past hour. He scrolled through the most recent ones with a slight frown.

Nerdy Wolverine

Patton, please give us an update on Remus’ condition.

Daddy

He’s gonna be just fine, kiddos, he’s just sleeping it off.

Daddy’s Favorite

👏👏👏

Surly Temple

Oh joy.

Daddy’s Favorite

You were just as worried as the rest of us, Dr. Gloom.

Surly Temple

You can’t prove that.

Daddy

Calm down, kiddos.

Nerdy Wolverine

Patton, I would also like an update on the subject.

Daddy

Are you sure? There’s kinda a lot to talk about.

Nerdy Wolverine

Something brief, then. I will come by the infirmary when this meeting is over.

Remus

Logan, texting during a meeting??? 😱😱😱

Surly Temple

Remus!

Daddy’s Favorite

Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!

Remus

I lived, bitch.

Daddy

I’ll be right there! Don’t you dare sit up!

Remus was already in the process of sitting up when Patton burst through the door. He winced slightly at the pain, but moreso at the disappointed look Patton gave him.

“Uh-uh, you lay back down, mister,” he said. Remus sighed.

“I’m perfectly fine, pops,” he whined, but laid back down anyway, because even Remus knew better than to argue with Patton.

“Maybe, but you know the drill,” Patton replied. Remus made a noise of protest, but let Patton take his vitals and check him over. Then after an eternity- or more accurately, about five minutes- Patton stepped back and said, “Alright kiddo, you’re all good. Take it easy though. Maybe go home after the debrief, ok?”

Remus sat up now that he was allowed to. “I can’t believe that little fucker bit me,” he scoffed. He glanced down at his arm, where it had been bandaged up. “What happened to him? Where is he?”

Patton looked a little uncomfortable, which more or less answered Remus’ question. The agency would be forced to hold the gifted here until the illegal lab had been fully cleared out and all the paperwork filed; and, well, there was a good chance Logan’s bosses would send in government officials to “assess the mental stability of the liberated test subject,” which was really just shitty politician speak for “see if this could become a huge scandal and decide if it was better to just make it all disappear.”

“Fuck,” was all he said. Then he got unsteadily to his feet. “Where’s Logan?”

Patton put a hand on his shoulder to help steady him. “He’s in a meeting with the chief of police. They’re trying to take the case.”

“Teach won’t let ‘em,” Remus said proudly. “I’m gonna, like. Go sit in my office. Cool?"

Patton eyed him suspiciously, but nodded. Remus gathered up all of his stuff from the table beside the bed, and darted out the door before Patton could change his mind.

When Janus woke up, he immediately became aware of three things, in consecutive order.

First, he was somewhere he had never been before. That realization did not come as a surprise. He, of course, distinctly remembered the whole… “getting dragged out of his cell by people he didn’t know” incident. Usually he knew better than to lash out, but… there had been so much noise, so much unfamiliar chaos, and in his fear, he hadn’t known what else to do. And of course, it hadn’t done him any good; it never did. And now he was here. Wherever “here” was.

The second realization did come as a surprise, as he sat up on the cot where he’d been laid, and looked around the sparse, softly-lit room: he was completely unbound. His wings were still instinctively pressed against his back, but they twitched at the realization and slowly unfurled to their full span. He winced slightly as tendons snapped into their proper places for the first time in a very long time but then he sighed in relief as the fragile bones settled.

He had only just begun to catalogue the state of the rest of his body when a voice startled him into the third realization: he was not alone in the room.

“Damn, look at you!”

Janus flinched so hard he almost hit the wall the cot was pushed up against. He brought his wings around him protectively, and turned his eyes on the man sitting on a plastic chair near the opposite corner of the room. He narrowed his eyes as he recognized the voice of the man from the truck.

“Hey, hey, don’t ruffle your feathers at me like that,” the man laughed. “Sorry about before, man. It was the only way to get you off the truck.”

Janus didn’t say anything. But he shifted so he was crouched on the cot rather than seated, in case he needed to dart away quickly. That seemed to amuse the man further.

“Relax, I ain’t here for a rematch. You kicked my ass fair and square. I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

Janus glared.

“I’m Remus, by the way. You got a name, snake-bird?”

He stood up as he said it, and Janus instinctively flinched back. The man-Remus?- didn’t look like the bad people, dressed in baggy jeans and an alluringly soft-looking green flannel. The bad people always wore white coats or body armor, depending on what they were planning to do to him that day. But… maybe they were just trying something new.

The man hadn’t moved closer. He was watching Janus with a look that fell somewhere between sadness and anger, and it kind of made Janus want to curl up into a ball and hide.

“I, uh… I guess they treated you real bad down there, huh?” Remus said slowly. “Look, I know you’re scared, and you’re probably super confused, but you’re safe now. I can at least promise you that.”

He didn’t wait for any sort of response from Janus this time, instead turning to riffle through the bag that had been leaning up against his chair. He withdrew a fluffy, pale yellow blanket. He looked between it and Janus, and while Janus wasn’t the best at reading facial cues, he thought for a moment that Remus looked… embarrassed. Then, he moved forward a few paces and set the blanket down and backed up again.

“Here, uh… that’s for you. If you want it. Anyway, yeah. I’m gonna just.” He edged toward the door. “I’ll leave you alone now.”

“Janus.” His name leapt from his tongue before he could stop it. His voice was raspy, and his throat was sore, and he was still afraid- terrified- but still he ground out the words that made Remus pause in the doorway to look back at him. “I’m… Janus.”

The file Logan put down in front of them was almost the size of the textbooks Remus used as doorsteps in college (rather than their intended use) and for a moment, they all just stared at it. Then, Remus said what they were all thinking: “Well, fuck.”

“I hate to agree,” Roman sighed. “But yes. That.”

“Of course there will be much more to go over after I have had the time to fully analyze these files, but I thought it imperative I explain the current situation to you all as soon as possible,” Logan said. He was seated at the head of the conference table. The rest of the team was seated around the table except for Virgil, who paced restlessly nearby. Everyone- even Remus- stayed quiet, because when Logan talked, everyone listened.

“With this file, and similar documents recovered both from the most recent site and from previous sites, as well as the recovery of a live test subject, our case is more than sufficient to ensure those responsible will not walk away from this.”

There was a collective sigh of relief. Virgil, who had been working on this case alongside Logan for years, looked especially relieved. He collapsed into the chair next to Remus, and Remus leaned over to ruffle his hair with a grin.

“You guys should be proud,” Patton exclaimed. “You worked so hard to see this through!”

“Well it’s not finished yet,” Roman pointed out. He nodded to the file in the middle of the table, that none of them had dared to open yet.

“Roman is correct,” Logan said. For a moment, he looked very tired; then, he adjusted his tie, and continued. “We must first ensure we have indeed apprehended all parties responsible. There are more names in these files than persons in our custody. Additionally, there is the matter of the test subject-”

“Janus,” Remus interrupted. Everyone gave him an odd look, so he clarified, “His name is Janus. He told me.”

“...Janus, then,” Logan amended. “Janus is to remain in our care until he can be evaluated. If he is deemed capable, he will be free to go once the investigation is closed.”

Logan did not, nor did he need to, state what would happen to Janus if he didn’t pass the evaluation. The agency’s evaluation essentially just looked to see if a gifted could still be considered a “person,” or if they had gone “feral”- and not in the fun way. Feral gifteds got locked up somewhere and were never seen again.

Remus, like all gifteds, hated it; but the government viewed them as dangerous. And a gifted that wasn’t in complete control of their mind, and thus, their powers, was considered too dangerous to let go free. Regardless of what trauma had made them that way in the first place, and if, with proper care, they could heal from it. It made Remus sick.

“They’re not taking Janus,” Remus spat out, interrupting whatever Logan was going to say next. “I won’t let them.”

“Ree,” Roman said gently. “We may not have a choice.”

“No. You guys haven’t seen him- he isn’t aggressive, he’s just scared.”

“Do you know how many people it took to get him into the damn truck?” Virgil snapped. “Oh and also, he bit you? You’re immune to gifted powers and he still knocked you out?”

“Think about it from his perspective. You’ve been trapped in literal hell for who knows how long, and then suddenly you’re getting dragged out by people you don’t know, blindfolded and tied up, to go who knows where? I’d bite too.”

Patton looked heartbroken at Remus’ words. Virgil didn’t look convinced. But it was Logan who spoke.

“We have time,” Logan said. “Until the investigation closes, he remains in our custody. We make the decisions regarding his care.” He cast Remus a meaningful look, and repeated, “We have time.”

Remus understood.

He left Janus alone for the rest of the day, because he figured the guy probably could use some time to calm down. He even managed to persuade Patton to put off any sort of medical examination for the time being- partly for the same reason, and partly because Remus would need to be there in case Janus reacted badly, and Remus still sort of felt like shit and he just wanted to go home and sleep.

So Remus had gone home, passed out for like 15 hours, and woke up feeling a little less like death and decay.

The benefit of going to sleep at like 2pm was that, even after his stupidly long “I got bit by something venomous” nap, he still made it back to the agency at the crack of dawn. It was quiet, none of the police department’s goons hanging around, and Remus, with his years of practice, could sneak easily past Logan’s office.

He peeked in through the little window in the holding cell door. Janus himself was nowhere to be seen- instead, there was a Janus-sized blanket mound curled up on the floor in the corner of the room. The sight made Remus smile fondly.

“Damnit, you’re actually kinda cute,” he muttered. And then promptly decided he was not going to overthink that.

Remus camped out outside the holding cell until the headquarters came to life. The mornings were always a flurry of activity, even moreso today what with yesterday’s events. He saw the moment the noise from the hallway woke Janus up- the gifted poked his head out from under the blanket, mismatched eyes blinking sleepily, and then quickly vanished into the blanket mound once more. It was stupidly adorable.

An intern came by with a tray of food for Janus, and Remus stopped him from approaching the door.

“I got this, kid,” he said with an amused grin. “This is way above your paygrade.”

The intern handed over the tray with a look of relief and scampered off. Poor kid.

The blanket mound stirred when Remus stepped into the room, but there was no further indication that Janus intended to come out. He shut the door behind him, and walked over to crouch down near- but not too near- the blanket mound.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty. I take it you like the blanket?”

The blanket shuffled backward a few inches. Remus set the tray down on the floor in front of him.

“I don’t really know what kind of food you like, so hopefully there’s something here you'll eat,” he said, eyeing the assorted fruits, toast, and eggs that had been sent up. “But like, if you want something else, you can tell me.” There was no response, so Remus stood up slowly and backed away. “I’ll just… be over here, then.”

He dragged the plastic chair to the opposite end of the room to give Janus as much space as possible, and plopped down in it with every intention of waiting him out.

It took about forty minutes of idly scrolling through his phone before Janus emerged, slowly and warily, mismatched eyes darting between Remus and the plate of food. Remus glanced toward him.

“Go ahead. It’s yours. Cold by now, I’ll bet.”

It took a further ten minutes for Janus to make up his mind and emerge fully from under the blanket and approach the plate- but when he finally did, he downed the food so fast, Remus was surprised he didn’t choke.

“Guess you like everything,” he mused. “Fuck, did they even feed you down there?”

He wasn’t really expecting an answer, because Janus was moving back toward his blanket. But rather than vanishing again, Janus sat down facing Remus, with his back to the wall, wings draped around his body like a blanket, and the actual blanket across his lap.

“They did, sometimes,” he replied. His voice sounded a bit rough still, like it had been a while since he’d used it, and quiet enough that Remus had to strain to hear him from across the room.

“Shit, man, these people fucking suck. How long'd they have you?”

Janus seemed to consider the question, but ended up just shaking his head. “I don’t know.” He avoided Remus’ eye for a few minutes, but he looked like he had more to say; Remus just waited in silence until finally, Janus asked, slowly, “Why am I here? Who are you?”

“I’m glad you ask, bud,” Remus answered. He stood up, and Janus flinched back slightly, feathers puffing up a bit. Remus moved a few feet closer, and then sat down on the ground so he was level with Janus. “It’s kinda a long story, but the short version is that it’s our job to go after the kinds of people who do this sort of shit. And the people who took you are gonna go to jail for the rest of their fucking lives for what they did.” He hesitated for a moment, then added, “They ain’t gonna lay a finger on you ever again. I promise.”

Janus eyed him carefully, like he wasn’t sure if he could believe what he was hearing. Remus couldn’t blame him. And then he was gone, vanishing back under the yellow blanket. Remus cleared his throat awkwardly, and stood up.

“I, uh. Yeah. I guess I’ll leave you alone then.” He paused at the door, and glanced over his shoulder. “You want more blankets? Some pillows, maybe?”

A muffled “Yes,” was the reply. Remus, again, could not help but smile fondly to himself.

Sleeping on the floor meant that Janus could stay alert to anyone approaching his cell, by sensing the vibrations in the ground. By his third visit, Janus could easily discern Remus’ gait from that of the others that passed down the hall.

He brought pillows and more blankets, just like he said he would. And then he asked if he could bring a friend in.

“He couldn’t give you more than a quick once-over when you first got here,” Remus explained while Janus sat on the floor and inspected his new blankets, marveling at how soft they were. “But he wants to make sure you’re not hurt anywhere.”

“I’m not hurt anywhere,” Janus said quickly. It wasn’t totally a lie; he wasn’t hurt anywhere specific, he just sort of hurt in general. That was normal though.

“Ok, I’m gonna pretend I believe that,” Remus huffed. “But even so. He’s gotta do it sometime soon.”

Janus cast Remus a sideways glance. He still wasn’t sure what to make of the situation, and he still wasn’t sure how much he could trust these people. The ones before had never shown him kindness- he’d been grabbed off the street in his early teens and treated like an animal ever since. This new place… it felt different from anything he’d experienced before, and that made him wary.

Being shown kindness and then having it taken away was worse than having never been shown it at all.

“Okay,” Janus said finally, because he didn’t think he was actually being given a choice in this.

“Okay,” Remus echoed. He seemed unconvinced, which sent a small spike of anxiety into Janus’ chest, because the last thing he wanted to do was upset Remus. The man had brought him blankets, for goodness’ sake. “I’ll text him.”

Janus decided to busy himself with nervously running his hands through his oily feathers. His wings badly needed grooming, but he didn’t know how to ask for brushes. Would they let him have brushes here? He wasn’t allowed them at the old place. He was so lost in that thought, that he didn’t sense someone approaching the door until it was being opened.

“Hey, pops, come on in,” Remus said. Janus glanced over, and was immediately gripped by panic.

He didn’t recognize the man, and his expression of “cheer fading into concern” was an unfamiliar one, but it was the white coat he wore that Janus recognized. He knew what the white coat meant.

He got caught in his pile of blankets as he tried to scramble to his feet. He tripped and crashed to the ground; out of the corner of his eye, he saw Remus make a grab for him. But he was too quick, kicking off the blanket that had tangled up his legs and springing to his feet. He used his wings to balance himself and buffeted Remus over the head in the process.

“Janus- fuck-” Remus staggered back to avoid a second blow from Janus’ thrashing wings. The man at the doorway looked torn between rushing in to help and backing away. Janus bared his fangs at him, but he was shaking so badly, he felt like a small breeze could topple him.

The man took a step closer, hand held out, but Janus barely heard his words- “Oh gosh, kiddo, I’m not gonna hurt you!”- over the blood pulsing in his ears. His back hit the wall behind him, and abruptly his legs gave out. He slid down to the ground and curled his wings over his head.

“Janus?” Remus’ voice sounded far away beyond the curtain of feathers. “Hey, you gotta talk to me here.”

“I’ve been good,” Janus managed to choke out. “I- Please don’t, I’ve… I’ve been good.” He curled further in on himself, fully expecting to be struck.

But nothing happened. The door opened and closed. Then silence. Janus risked a quick peek through his feathers and found that the other man was gone. Remus sat a few feet away.

“It’s ok, he’s gone,” Remus said quickly. Janus did not lower his wings, but the shaking abated slightly.

“I’ve been good,” he said again, a little more firmly this time. “You promised.”

Remus looked unnerved. He scooted a few inches closer and asked, “What did I promise?”

“That they… they wouldn’t hurt me again,” Janus hissed. Then, softer this time, “I’ve been good.”

“You have been good, but that doesn’t have anything to do with… wait, did you think…” Remus looked confused, his brow furrowing slightly. “Patton isn’t one of them. Is that what you thought?”

Janus just glared.

“Oh, snake-bird.” Remus’ eyes softened. “Patton’s one of us. He’s ok.”

“He looks like them,” Janus growled. “White-coat.”

“White coat… oh, shit, man, I didn’t even think.” The sudden volume of Remus’ voice made Janus shrink back into the safety of his own wings. “Oh, shit, sorry. Hey, come back. I’m sorry.”

Janus folded his wings back with a huff, and gave Remus an unamused look. Remus gave him a soft smile in return.

“I mean it. Patton is one of us. I can tell him to take off his coat. He won’t touch you unless you tell him he can. And you can tell him to leave, at any point, and I’ll throw him out myself. Deal?”

Janus searched his face for a long time. Remus seemed… so distressed. What would be the point, of faking that? There would be no reason to fake any of this, would there?

(Or maybe there was, and he was just too blinded by the hope that his nightmare had finally come to an end to see it.)

But slowly, reluctantly, but unable to shake the small seed of trust in Remus that had just started to take root, Janus said, “Deal.”

After the small fiasco that was Janus and Patton’s first meeting, things actually went rather smoothly. Patton wasn’t able to give as thorough of an exam as he was hoping. Janus was too skittish for that. And he had flat out refused a blood draw, which Remus had kind of expected.

But at the very least, Patton was able to sign off that there were no signs of physical trauma that demanded immediate medical care, which was really all Logan’s bosses wanted.

Despite his initial reaction, it seemed like the experience with Patton actually helped Janus feel more confident in his new situation. He grew more comfortable exercising his new control over his body and his space, even going so far as to tell Remus to go away when he wanted to be alone. And when he asked for brushes for his wings one day, Remus left work then and there to go get them. When he came back, Janus was waiting at the door for him.

“Well then, eager beaver, I hope I got the right stuff,” Remus said. He handed over the bag. It was way more than the two brushes Janus had asked for, but Logan had given him the company card and, well, Logan should know better than to do that.

“Anything is better than a rag and my own hands, which is what I usually use,” Janus said. Remus very politely did not make the joke he so desperately wanted to make. “Is that… a bottle of dish soap?”

“Sure,” Remus answered as Janus pulled the little blue bottle of Dawn dish soap out of the bag. “They use it to clean crude oil spills off penguins and shit and, like, a penguin's a bird, right?”

Janus sighed deeply, but he was smiling, and Remus would steal him the sun if it meant Janus would keep smiling.

“Anyway, uh…” Remus shifted awkwardly. “I can, like. Leave you alone, I guess. If you want. Unless you want… uh, never mind, I’ll go-”

“Would you help?” Janus asked. He glanced down at the bag in his hands, and added, with much less confidence, “Um. There are parts I can’t reach.”

“Yeah, of course,” Remus said immediately. “Just tell me what to do?”

Janus guided him to sit down on the ground, and then plopped down next to him. He carefully spread one of his wings out and, after a moment of hesitation, let it drape across Remus’ lap. Remus tried not to feel too overwhelmed by the incredible amount of trust Janus was putting in him right now.

“Here,” Janus passed one of the bristle brushes to Remus- one of many that Remus had bought- and then chose one for himself. “Just go with the growth, please. But if you find any loose feathers go ahead and work them out. Gently, though.”

Remus obeyed. He brushed carefully through the feathers, marveling at their soft golden-brown color. Even covered in oil and grime, they were beautiful. But after a few minutes, Janus frowned.

“Everything ok?” Remus asked. He was suddenly afraid he was brushing too hard, or hurting Janus somehow, even though Janus had given no indication that he was in pain.

“It’s just…” Janus sighed helplessly. “They’re so dirty.”

He looked almost on the edge of tears when he said it, which was enough to put Remus immediately into I will do anything for you mode. “Do you want to try the Dawn? One time Patton used it to wash a cat he found that was all grimed up and shit, and it worked real well.”

Janus seemed to consider it. He glanced over toward the door that led to the little private bathroom attached to the holding cell, then shook his head.

“There’s not enough space in there,” he said. “We’ll make a mess.”

“We can go downstairs,” Remus suggested. “There’s showers in the employee locker rooms. Plenty of space.”

Janus looked skeptical. “Is that allowed?”

It was, technically, not allowed. Janus had not been evaluated yet, and he wasn’t really allowed out of holding until he was. But… well, if they were quick, no one would notice. What was life without a little risk?

“Sure!” he said. “It’s fine.”

“...Okay. Sure.”

Grinning, Remus got to his feet and gathered all their supplies back into the bag. Then he beckoned for Janus to follow.

“Logan’s in meetings for most of the day, and Roman’s off on assignment,” he said. He eased open the cell door and peered out into the empty hall. “And Patton’s usually swamped with paperwork in the afternoons. Everyone else who works here is too scared of me to say anything.”

Janus didn’t question it. Remus led him down the hall and paused to make sure the stairwell was also empty before leading him down the two flights to the ground floor. Janus seemed nervous in the unfamiliar surroundings. He clung close to Remus, close enough that he almost ran into him at several points. Remus tried to give him reassuring smiles and the occasional word of encouragement.

There were voices in the break room, so they had to go around to get to the locker room. It was usually empty at this time, and today was no exception. Remus held the door open and ushered Janus inside.

“The showers are over here.” Remus pulled back the curtain and leaned in to turn on the water. “You a warm water person or a cold water person?”

“Warm,” Janus said quickly. “Please.”

As the water warmed up, Remus helped him to pull off his soft flannel shirt (one of many Remus had bought because the agency-provided shirts were those horrible starchy t-shirts and Janus had hated them.) Remus was amazed at how much healthier the scaled half of his face and body looked after just a week of proper meals and consistent rest.

“Are you sure this isn’t going to turn everything blue?” Janus asked when Remus passed him the bottle of Dawn. He still looked vaguely unconvinced about this whole thing.

“Nah, it won’t, don’t worry!”

Janus sighed. “Ok, but if it does, I shall never forgive you.”

“If I turn your wings blue, I’ll buy you so many blankets, they’ll fill up your whole room. Ready?”

“Well that makes me want my wings to turn blue,” Janus said. He followed Remus into the shower stall.

It took longer than Remus was expecting to wash out all the years of grime from Janus’ wings. It was especially difficult closer to the point where the wings met his back, because Janus couldn’t reach there on his own. Remus worked through those spots carefully, and it wasn’t until he was almost done that he realized Janus had gone silent.

“Hey, you good?”

“Mhmm.”

Remus leaned over to catch Janus’ eye, only to find his eyes were closed. There was a content look on his face.

“...did you fall asleep?”

“No.”

“You totally did!” Remus grinned. “You fell asleep standing up!”

Janus opened his eyes to glare at him, but the glare was tempered by the obvious half-dazed look of someone who had, in fact, just woken up.

“...Ok, maybe I did for a moment there,” Janus huffed. The glare became a pout. “It just feels nice.”

Remus let his grin soften into a smile. “Good. I’m glad.”

The sound of the locker room door opening and closing startled them both. Remus pulled back the curtain just enough to look out into the locker room- and he immediately came face-to-face with Virgil.

“Oh. ‘Sup, Virge.”

Virgil was eyeing him suspiciously. “What are you doing?”

“Uh… a smoothie?”

“That’s not… Remus, that’s not how that meme works. And you’re not even holding a smoothie.”

“Worth a shot.”

“Are you showering with your clothes on?”

“Sure, doesn’t everyone?”

Virgil’s eyes flicked toward the ground, then back up to Remus. “You realize I can see there’s someone in there with you, right?”

Remus also glanced downward. The curtain stopped about six inches off the ground. “Uh…”

“And I can also see the pile of feathers on the floor that you sure as fuck better not try and wash down the drain.”

“I’m not that dumb.”

Virgil sighed. “Hello, Janus.”

Janus hesitantly poked his head out from the other side of the curtain. “Hello.”

“The fuck are you guys doing?”

“We’re not having sex if that’s what you’re thinking,” Remus said. Janus made a choked sound and vanished back into the showers.

“There is no universe in which I was thinking that,” Virgil growled.

“No universe? Not even one?”

“What the fuck are you doing down here?”

Remus rolled his eyes. “If you must know, snake-bird here looked like a penguin in an oil spill. We’re washing his wings.” A pause. “Hey, since you’re here, wanna hand me a couple of towels? The big fluffy ones Patton hides.”

Virgil walked away grumbling, but by the time Remus had finished rinsing the soap out of Janus’ wings and shut off the water, Virgil was waiting outside with a stack of Patton’s fluffy light blue towels. Remus took one and wrapped Janus up in it.

“What’re you up to, Emo?” he asked as he took a second towel and started toweling off Janus’ dripping wings.

“Logan sent me to find you,” Virgil answered. He was watching the scene unfold in front of him with a look that Remus didn’t bother trying to decipher. “You weren’t answering your phone.”

“Probably ‘cause it’s sitting on my desk. What’s Teach need me for?”

“He wants to talk. Work stuff.”

“Oh.” Remus looked at Janus. “We should, uh. Probably get you back upstairs before he comes looking for me himself.”

Janus nodded. He gathered up the brushes and, after a moment of eyeing Virgil cautiously, reached over and snatched up one more of Patton’s fluffy towels and shoved it in the bag as well. At Virgil’s look of incredulity, there was nothing else for Remus to do but burst out laughing.

As it turned out, Logan would probably not have been upset over Janus’ field trip downstairs, because when Remus finally made it to his office, the first thing Logan said to him was, “Would you be opposed to letting Janus stay in your home?”

Because apparently, Logan had pulled some strings with his bosses to get Janus out of holding; he had argued that spending his time in a home environment- instead of a type of confinement similar to what he’d endured for a large portion of his life- would vastly improve his chances of passing the assessment. The higher-ups had agreed, with the stipulation that Janus be released into the care of one of Logan’s team.

“Of course he can come home with me,” Remus had said, almost automatically. It was a chance to get Janus out of the box he’d been stuck in all this time. There was nothing that could make him say no.

Janus had seemed hesitant at first, but ultimately agreed to it. So the next day, they had packed up the mountain of pillows and blankets, the bag of brushes and stolen towels, the couple of books Logan had sent up to keep Janus occupied when Remus couldn’t, the snake plushie Virgil had apparently dropped off the night before, and the multicolored cake Patton and Roman had brought by for him that morning that was now half-eaten, and hauled it all over to Remus’ apartment. For a guy who’d been dragged out of hell with only the clothes on his back, Janus sure had a lot of shit to move.

Janus had balked at getting into a car, so Remus talked Patton and Roman into driving his stuff over for him, and then walked with Janus to the apartment. It wasn’t that far, and, Remus realized with a stab of guilt, it was probably the first time Janus had seen the sun in a long time. He kept pausing to close his eyes and tilt his head up toward the sunlight for a few moments at a time, before darting after Remus. Remus didn't stop him.

It slowed them down to the point that when they finally got to the apartment, Roman had let himself and Patton in, brought all of Janus’ stuff up, and then left. Which was just as well- Janus had met Roman only once, and had seemed oddly jumpy around him.

“So, yeah,” Remus said, after showing Janus around. “You can just grab anything you need. I don’t really keep anything fragile in here ‘cause I tend to break stuff, so don’t worry.”

It was odd, seeing Janus standing in the middle of his living room, with his wings- which after their scrubdown, actually had a soft golden sheen to them- folded carefully against his back. But he seemed relaxed in a way Remus hadn’t seen before. Logan was right.

That evening, Remus got Janus settled into the bedroom.

“Where will you sleep?” Janus asked tentatively as Remus dumped all of Janus’ blankets onto the bed.

“Huh? Oh, I’ll just be in the other room,” Remus replied. “I sleep on the couch half the time anyway, no big deal.”

“Oh.” was all Janus said. Remus made sure he was comfortable, and then went to pass out on the couch.

When he woke up sometime late in the night, he wasn’t quite sure what had woken him. Remus was, historically, a heavy sleeper. He’d once slept through a monsoon in a cheap tent. If he was tired enough, he could probably sleep through an earthquake.

He turned his head to squint out into the dark apartment, and could just make out that the bedroom door was ajar. Remus stood up to go check on Janus- and then promptly tripped over Janus.

Remus yelped, and collapsed into the blanket nest that had appeared on the ground next to the couch; Janus yelped, on account of being tripped over, and scrambled out from under his pile of blankets. They both stared at each other through the darkness for a moment, and then both spoke at once.

“Are you ok-”

“I’m sorry-”

They both paused, and then Remus laughed.

“Shit, J, almost gave me a heart attack there. You ok?”

Janus looked a little sheepish. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s ok. What’re you doing sleeping there, though?”

“Um…” Janus looked down at his hands where he was clutching the snake plushie. It was stupidly cute. “I couldn’t sleep, alone. I thought I’d sleep better… out here.”

Remus blinked at him, still half-asleep. And it was probably because he was still half-asleep that he said, “Do you want me to sleep in there with you?”

Janus, after a moment, nodded.

“Ok. I can do that, snake-bird. It’s ok.”

Remus helped Janus stand up, and they moved the blanket mound back into the bedroom. The rest of Janus’ blankets and pillows had been made into a nest wedged into the space between the bed and the wall. Remus smiled fondly.

“Didn’t like the bed, huh?”

“I feel safer on the floor,” Janus said, looking embarrassed. “I can… sense vibrations in the ground. I know if someone’s coming up to me.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” Remus glanced between the nest and the bed, and shrugged. “I got the bed, then.”

He laid down, while Remus clamored over the bed to get to his nest and then promptly burrowed under the mountain of blankets. And as he was drifting off, Remus could have sworn he heard a soft sigh from Janus, of something that could, perhaps, be contentment.

Janus had never slept so well before. Tucked into the space between the bed and the wall, in a room so unlike the cement-walled cell he’d spent years calling home- and with the soft snoring of Remus, the man he had tentatively come to trust, nearby, Janus slept through the night. And the night after that, and the night after that.

So when he woke with a start the fourth night, it took him a few groggy minutes to piece together why he was awake. He was still curled up comfortably under his blankets. Remus was snoring away in the bed above him. And then the people in the kitchen took another step toward the bedroom, and the vibrations in the floor raced up to Janus’ body. He sat up in a panic.

“Remus,” he hissed. No response. He reached up and grabbed at Remus’ shoulder to try and shake him awake. “Remus!”

Remus grumbled something incomprehensible, and did not wake. Starting to feel frantic, Janus crawled up onto the bed and shook Remus harder. At the same moment that Remus’ eyes fluttered open, the doorknob turned.

“Janus?” Remus asked, voice rough with sleep. Then the door was flung open. Flashlight beams fell across them both as men poured into the small room. Janus turned, baring his teeth, and spread his wings to shield Remus behind him.

“Take him, alive,” one of the men ordered. Janus squinted through the harsh glare of their flashlights to pick out who was speaking. “Kill the other.”

No. Absolutely not.

Janus caught the leader’s eye and summoned his powers to him. The man tried to look away, but even in the gloom, Janus’ powers held him rooted to the spot.

“Sleep,” he snarled, forcing all of his power and will into the command. The man dropped to the floor.

In the seconds it took for him to wrest the leader’s consciousness away, the other men had fanned out around him. Janus whipped around to his left, but froze when he felt the cold muzzle of a gun touch the back of his neck.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice behind him sneered. A man to his right reached to grab him. There was a crack and a grunt of pain behind him, and the gun fell away- Remus appeared on his right and swung what looked like a crowbar. There was another sickening crack, and the man grabbing for Janus immediately collapsed in a heap.

The momentum of the swing propelled Remus up off the bed and into the next armed goon. They both fell backwards- Remus knocked his gun away, and as they hit the ground, a whack from the crowbar meant only Remus stood back up.

“Janus, get down!” he shouted suddenly. Janus turned- there was one man still standing, and he had his gun leveled at Janus’ chest. Janus froze. A gunshot rang out.

Janus felt himself hit his mound of blankets. Remus had shoved him off the bed. Hesitantly, he peered up over the edge.

Remus had bowled the man over onto his back amid the sheets and now sat on top of him, a hand grasping at the exposed skin of his neck. The man, rather than struggling against Remus’ grip, was clutching at his own chest. He convulsed, then fell still.

Janus put a hand on the ground. There were no more in the apartment. He climbed up onto the bed.

“Remus?”

No response. Janus hesitantly reached out to touch his shoulder. At the same time, Remus slumped forward and slid to the ground.

“Remus!” Janus cried out in alarm. He vaulted over the bed and crouched down next to Remus. There was blood soaking his shirt.

“Remus, fuck. Why’d you do that?” Janus hissed. He gathered Remus up into his arms and tried to put pressure on the wound. Remus gazed up at him with glassy eyes.

“I promised,” he said weakly. Janus looked down at him.

“What did you promise?” he asked, probably sounding a little hysterical. Remus gave him a gentle smile.

“I promised they’d never touch you again.”

A neighbor had heard the gunshot and called the police, which was just as well, because Janus had no idea how to work Remus’ phone. The police had come and whisked Remus off to the hospital in an ambulance. Virgil came to take Janus back to the agency so that he wouldn’t be left alone in what had now become a crime scene. Janus made sure to bring his pale yellow blanket, the first one Remus had given him.

The investigation that followed revealed the intruders to be the extra names Logan had been searching for, and had returned to try and reclaim Janus before leaving town. With this, Logan could finally put the case to rest.

Remus was fine. When Janus was finally allowed to see him a few days later, he had just grinned and said, “Still not as bad as that time Virgil hit me with his truck.” Janus was not amused.

With the investigation closed, the agency could release Janus to be evaluated. Everyone gathered in Logan’s office to wait anxiously.

“He’s gonna be fine,” Roman said in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring tone. It did nothing to soothe Remus’ frayed nerves.

“Yeah, but what if something goes wrong, like they spook him or something-”

“If he can tolerate Princey randomly belting out Disney songs, he can tolerate anything,” Virgil scoffed. Roman glared. Patton stifled a giggle. Remus opened his mouth to reply, but in that moment, the door opened. Logan stepped into the office- behind him came Janus.

“...Well?” Remus asked impatiently. His eyes were fixed on Janus.

Janus glanced toward Logan. Logan gave a slight nod, and a smile spread across Janus’ face.

“I’m free to go.”

Remus sprang up and engulfed Janus in a hug. Janus clung to him tightly, and his tears of joy soaked Remus’ chest.

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wisherbysharlight · 4 years ago

Text

My God if I could only say, I'm holding every breath for you

Description: Patton Hart has been pining for his best friend's twin brother and his boyfriends for as long as he can remember. Word Count: 3067 Ships: Patton/Remus/Janus/Virgil, background Logince, established Remus/Janus/Virgil Warnings: Remus being Remus, twins squabbling AO3 This is a gift fic for @sunshineandteddybears for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange. The “summer romance” piece kinda got away from me, but this is definitely found family! I hope you enjoy!

Patton was wiping down the counters, about 15 minutes after closing, sunset shining through the windows as he hummed along to the radio, a sense of peace radiating through the store.

Of course, that’s when chaos erupted.

“Pattycakes, you gotta save me!” Remus cried as he threw the door open so roughly the windchimes actually smacked against the window above the door before falling back down and jingling merrily to announce his presence. He ran behind the counter with no hesitation, gripping onto Patton’s waist. (Patton only shivered because of the burst of adrenaline. That was the only reason. No other possibilities. Nope.) Remus angled them both towards the doorway just as Roman came bursting in with the same amount of urgency, fire in his eyes and shirt dripping wet and seemingly tinted a particularly garish shade of greenish-brown.

“Remus, you can’t hide behind Patton forever, you bastard!” he seethed, and Logan, Janus, and Virgil came through the door behind him, much more calm, almost to the point where Patton would call them bemused. Logan took a seat at one of the small tables along the wall, pulling out his phone with a very evident intention to simply wait the whole debacle out, while Janus and Virgil both leaned up against the glass case in front of Patton. “Get out here and face me, you coward!” Roman bellowed again, clearly not giving up anytime soon.

Patton grabbed an empty paper towel roll from next to him and turned at the waist to whack Remus in the head with it, “Remus you cannot use me as a human shield, go answer for your crimes.” “Kinky. I’d much rather have you issue my punishment,” Remus joked with an eyebrow wiggle, then cackled when Patton made a strangled noise and shoved him back to the other side of the counter. However, as soon as he was in range, Roman grabbed hold of him and pulled him into a headlock and his laughter turned swiftly into a shriek of “Oh shit!”

They were 12 years old, tearing through the woods in a dual-friend-group game of manhunt the summer before 7th grade. Virgil was hot on everyone’s heels and adrenaline was coursing through their veins. Patton leapt over a log and turned a corner, hunting for a good place to hide.

He heard a curse of “Oh shit!” echo through the woods before the sound of three branches breaking in succession, a huge crash, and a subsequent groan. He quickly pivoted and went sprinting back towards the house, and the sound, easily finding Remus splayed across the forest floor even in the dim light of the moon.

“Why would you climb a tree, silly goose? Don’t you know the branches are weak that high? Scared me half to death!” he chided as he fell to his knees beside him, already pulling band-aids out of his wallet in his pocket.

Remus grinned impishly up at him, and Patton felt his breath catch in his throat, fumbling with the wallet briefly in a way he prayed the other boy didn’t notice. “What’s a lil fear in the face of a bunch of excitement, Patty?” he crooned, and Patton shoved a handful of band-aids at him with little delicacy in his haste to move past the tease. “Besides, I have the best nurse in the world to patch me up when my fun does go south, apparently.”

Patton flushed and turned away, positive Remus could tell even in the weak light, but he couldn’t keep the earnestness out of his voice, “I’ll always patch you up, Ree. Promise.”

Remus didn’t get a chance to respond before Virgil burst through the bushes and tapped them both on the shoulder to get them out and a loud, extended debate began about the validity of the “injury time out”.

Janus leaned on the counter in front of Patton, jolting him out of his reverie. He pointed at the menu, with three shiny new additions at the bottom, “You finally manage to find a flavor sweeter than you, sugar?”

Virgil shoved him out of the way with an eye roll and a fond grin, thankfully distracting from how Patton felt his cheeks would melt the freezers. “He can’t stop flirting even for two seconds, I swear.”

Janus gasped dramatically, swooning against the counter and batting his eyes at Virgil like a starlet in an old black and white, “Maybe if you and Remus gave me the attention I deserve I wouldn’t need to hunt it down in beautiful, endearing ice cream shop owners.”

Remus snorted despite the way he was currently trying to claw his way out of his brother’s hold while being noogied like they were still teenagers and not fully grown and employed adults, “We could give you all the attention in the world, Janny, it would never stop you from flirting with Patton.”

Janus sniffed derisively at them, then cocked his head to the side as the song changed and smiled softly, “Hey, I know this song.”

Patton smiled brightly back, “Yeah of course, have it on all the playlists for the shop!”

“Simp!” Remus called over just as brightly, and Patton glared back at him, assuming it was aimed at him.

“Ok, you look miserable,” Janus said, making Patton jump from where he was staring down at his water glass watching the liquid swirl around the glass as he moved it in little circles and maybe lamenting his singledom a little bit in the face of a dance floor full of sappy teenagers in fancy clothes enjoying the crisp June night and each other as their last hurrah before graduation.

Patton plastered on a smile, “Oh Jan, I am perfectly hap-”

Janus arched a brow at him, tsking lightly and just loud enough for Patton to hear and stop speaking. “Don’t try to lie to me, I know what you look like when you are actually happy, Patton. And also you’re a god-awful liar.”

“...yeah ok. I’m a little bit lonely, maybe, with Ro and Lo gettin their dance on for the romantic stuff. But I’m not mad, they’re in love, and I told them to go hang on their own. We’ll hang out at the beach house after!” He couldn’t help but glance at the dance floor, where Logan was leading Roman in a waltz that was perfectly on time with the music, lost in their own little world.

“Well Ree and V bailed for the beach early. Not exactly their style of music or dancing, or my vibe to make them do something they don’t enjoy just to get my feet stepped on. Why don’t we be miserable together?” The song changed, to a song with a more Latin-inspired beat that Patton knew only one of every 10 words to, and Janus smirked, “Maybe you and I can even make the most of it and I can score a salsa partner.” Janus ended his proposition with an exaggerated wink and bow, and Patton took his offered hand with a genuine grin.

Janus didn’t miss a beat, switching eye contact to Roman on a dime, “Hey, did you know Remus was the one who’s been screwing with your guitar’s tuning?”

“NONONO HE’S LYING,” Remus cried as Roman tightened his hold and doubled down on his attack, this time poking at his ribs and making Remus shriek in laughter.

As Janus watched Roman wrestle Remus down to the floor of the shop, clearly satisfied with the reaction he managed to get, Virgil nudged him over with his hip to take his place leaning across the counter and whisper conspiratorially, “I bet it was actually Logan. Bastard can get away with murder, I just know it.”

Patton couldn’t help but giggle, with Virgil’s playful smile and dancing eyes across from him, so open and trusting in a way he never was unless it was just the group of them. He smirked a bit, nibbled at his lip in consideration, then leaned in to say in an equally conspiratorial style, “Logan’s only involved to see how long it’ll be before anyone catches on. My record stands.”

“You are a trickster Patton Hart,” Virgil gasped in mock-scandal. He wagged his finger with his hand on his hip in a not-half-bad impression of Patton during a lecture, though he was unable to match his Patton-ted Disappointed Frown while he was grinning, “I’d never expect my partner in crime to be doing something like this without telling me, shame on you. You know I always have your back.”

It was their last weekend of freedom before they started high school, and as per usual both twins had both their friends sleeping over. Patton woke before Logan and Roman, also as per usual, and snuck out of Roman’s room down to the kitchen, only to jolt as he found the light already on and Virgil sitting on the kitchen counter.

“Whatcha doin?” Virgil asked, legs kicking in the air in front of the cabinets lazily.

“Gonna try to make pancakes! I’m positive I won’t burn them this time, I just know it,” Patton enthused, then squinted suspiciously at Virgil, “What’re you doing?”

“Oh just hanging around, keeping an eye out in case anyone tries to burn the house down again so I can help out. Figured they might need a partner in arson crime, ya know, and I could let them know I’ve got their back,” Virgil teased, nudging Patton’s leg with a sock clad foot. He looked so precious with his sleep mussed hair and eyeliner from the night before smudged under his eyes that Patton couldn’t even bring himself to argue that he really didn’t need a babysitter. Honestly, he couldn’t even begin to pretend he didn’t want the excuse to spend more time with him.

The twins’ argument grew more heated, finally managing to distract Patton from where he was a bit lost in the way Virgil’s eyes lit up when he was amused.

“You fucked up one of my favorite shirts!” Roman screeched as he attempted to give his brother a wet willy.

“You put red koolaid in my shampoo two weeks ago, you baby!” Remus cried back, shoving at his shoulder to try to get him off, and succeeding rolling them only for Roman to roll them straight back.

“I know you were the one who put my script out of order,” Roman fired back.

“You should have been off book anyway! And you broke bro code and told Virgil I was the one who deleted his X-Files off the DVR. You are just as bad as me.”

“You gave mom’s computer a porn virus and blamed it on me!” Roman protested, and everyone else seemed to simultaneously sigh as they descended into their usual back and forth of dredged-up pettiness.

“Oh you're still - you squashed my bug collection.”

“You left me stranded in the yard after Remy’s homecoming party senior year.”

“That was absolutely justified, you made me listen to you wax poetic about Logan’s fucking lips for 3 hours.”

“You made me listen to you wax poetic about Patton’s EVERYTHING for 13 YEARS”

Everyone in the shop simultaneously went silent in a blink of an eye. Virgil went white as a sheet and swung to look at the twins with wide eyes, Janus gripped the counter white-knuckled and looked at Patton with a similarly stunned expression, and Remus turned nearly as red as the sash on Roman’s favorite Prince Charming costume. He shoved Roman off of him for real, a more severe growl to his voice as he seemed to realize there was no way to play it cool, “You are such a fucking dick!”

Roman stammered for a moment, clearly trying to digest the change in tone and the weight of what he’d said, before waving his arms above his head in apparent bafflement, “It’s not like he didn’t know you all were into him!”

“Roman,” Logan spoke up suddenly, gesturing at Patton and what Patton knew had to be a completely shell-shocked expression.

Roman looked up and went just as wide-eyed as the others, “Pat… did... did you not know?”

“...all of you?” Patton asked, then winced as his voice cracked in shock. He watched Virgil flinch and seem to retreat into his hoodie out of the corner of his eye, and Janus’ face smoothed over into a perfect mask of calm in the blink of an eye. He felt his heart break just a little bit at the disappointment in both of their eyes at what he was sure they saw as a rejection.

Logan grabbed Roman’s arm and yanked him away roughly, though Roman followed easily, “You all clearly need to communicate. I will handle this one.”

“Don’t wanna know about you handling my brother, poindexter,” Remus joked hollowly, sounding almost like it was a reflex with none of his usual cackle behind it.

Logan rolled eyes and headed out the door, tugging behind him a Roman who was fervently whispering, just barely audibly, “He didn't know, how did he not know,” to himself over and over again.

There’s silence in the shop for a while, just the sound of the radio faintly playing over the loudspeakers echoing off the walls as they all just stare at each other, not knowing how to start. Then Janus took a deep breath and spoke first, “Patton, I refuse to speak for these two clowns, but I will absolutely tell you that I, at the very least, have had feelings for you for many years, feelings which i was unaware I was not making perfectly clear, or that there was a chance of any sort of reciprocation.”

“Around 7 years for me, give or take. That first morning we made pancakes together,” Virgil added quietly, fiddling with the zipper on his sleeve.

Remus averted his gaze, looking nervous in the way Patton had only seen the day before he confessed to Virgil and Janus in high school, and admitted in the quietest voice Patton’d ever heard him use, “I don’t know exactly when, Pattycakes. You’ve always been there and as far as I’m concerned I’ve loved you just as long. And-and I just assumed it wasn’t returned.”

Patton swallowed thickly, trying to push back tears because he knew these boys and knew they would take them for disappointment rather than the joy they were. He dove at Remus first, vaulting the counter the way he always scolded Roman against and sliding to his knees next to the other man on the floor before crushing him in a hug. He flailed back at Janus and Virgil with one hand to pull them in as well, “Come here, all of you, we’ve lost so much valuable cuddle time!”

Patton was pretty sure Janus broke the sound barrier with how quickly he was plastered to his side and burying his face in his hair, and Virgil wasn’t far behind, wrapping an arm around his waist and burying his face in the crease of his neck and shoulder. Patton took that moment to be a bit daring himself and press a kiss to the corner of Remus’ lips, then giggled brightly when Remus grabbed hold of his cardigan and used it to pull him back in to kiss him full on the mouth with just as much passion and impulsiveness and laughter as Patton had always imagined. His mustache tickled Patton’s nose a bit but he leaned into it, humming happily in the back of his throat and feeling like a puzzle piece clicked into place.

Virgil only gave them a minute before he untucked his face from Patton’s neck and grouched that he wanted a turn. Remus let Patton go with a very put-upon sigh that didn’t match his playful grin, flicking Virgil on the nose lightly. “You gotta give him his kisses or he’ll never shut the fuck up,” he fake-whispered.

Patton grinned and turned readily to Virgil, and his lips met Patton’s in a much gentler dance. His kiss was no less deep or passionate for its caution, and his hands cupped his face like he feared Patton would float away if he didn’t hold tight. His fingers curled and twitched upwards like they wanted to bury themselves in his hair but didn’t want to overstep, so Patton took the initiative to grip the back of his neck and tilt his own head to encourage Virgil to do what he wished.

Janus was more patient, waiting for them to part for breath a few minutes later before taking hold of Patton’s chin from Virgil without a word and gently but firmly turning Patton towards him. Janus’ kiss could only be described as a caress, light and teasing and peppered with soft nips to his bottom lip before building up to something more solid. His warm hands rubbed calmingly up and down Patton’s spine and over his shoulders like he couldn’t figure out where he wanted to touch first.

Remus soon demanded he get another shot, then Virgil wanted another, then Janus again, leaving Patton so beyond cloud 9 he could barely think any more. They spent at least 20 minutes there on the floor, lost in each other, rotating kisses that were long overdue, letting their actions make the confessions their words hid from for years, not daring to move and break the spell of the moment.

Then a camera shutter sounded, paired with a bright flash of light that made them all jolt and look up in surprise.

“I said communicate you know, not make out on the floor,” Logan sighed, digging through his wallet to pull a 20 out to hand to Roman, who was grinning victoriously.

“I’m sorry for being a dick, but I had to do something and I told Logan the “accidental slip” would work,” Roman said as he pressed a triumphant kiss to Logan’s cheek and pocketed the 20, “But you have to admit it was a pretty great performance on my part.”

“Can’t believe I was betrayed by my best friends, I don’t know whether I owe you a scolding or a fruit basket,” Patton lamented playfully, cheeks hurting from how wide he was smiling. Janus ruined what little remained of the facade even more as he shifted slightly and pulled him into his lap and Patton clung tight to Virgil and Remus’ hands, with no intention of disconnecting any time soon.

#IntruAnaMoCeit #patton/dark sides #patton/remus/janus/virgil #polyamsanders #ts fic #i had no idea how to tag this #all sides #remus mention

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pennie-umbra · 4 years ago

Text

Game Night

I don’t really know what this is, I’m just glad I was finally able to finish a sanders sides’ fanfic for the first time.

This fanfic was born from the last video, obviously, and the realization that the creativity twins canonically feel physical pain when their ideas are desregard or their function is “offended” let’s say, which I had to exagerate and turn int angst, of course, so enjoy!

Summary: Remus get sick so frequently that those nights have became his idea of a sleepover.

Ship: platonic dukeceit. Or romantic. You can interpret it however you want

Characters: Remus Sanders, Virgil Sanders and Janus Sanders

Warnings: swearing, kinda grapphic descriptions of pain and sickness, mentions to vomit. Also maybe some umsympathetic Virgil? I don’t see it like that, but I guess it depends on how you interpret it.

Word Count: 1729

Sorry for any mistakes, english is not my first language

-----------------------------------------------------------------

If Remus was real, he would be dead.

And if snakes could demonstrate worry, they would make exactly the same expression that Janus had after looking at the thermometer.

"How do you manage to get so bad so quickly?"

"What can I say, being bad is the only thing I'm good at" Remus joked, the words scratching his throat as an unwanted cough came with them. Janus rolled his eyes, trying to seem calm. And falling.

"Any idea what was the cause this time?" Remus' focus went down to the old and familiar sheet, which he fiddled with, avoiding the question.

"How hot am I?" He vaguely pointed to the thermometer.

"You have a 113°F fever"

"Well, fuck. That's a new record" he touched his own forehead, smiling almost maniacally right after "Shit. How long do you think it takes until my brain melts?

"Bold of you to assume it hadn't already" Virgil was the one to answer, entering the room with a bowl of hot soup in his hands.

"Wow Virgil, that was fast " Janus lied, raising an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"I was trying to actually cook something real for once"

"Please don't tell me your burned the kitchen" the half-snake child replied, with some amount of actual fear behind the dramatic hand to his chest and horrified expression.

"Ha ha" pause "...not on purpose" Virgil replied, looking away.

"Yeah, that's my job!"

"Remus, eat your soup, the grownups are talking" the embodiment of Fear interrupted jokingly, even though any of them was older then twelve. Then he turned to Janus again, already guessing what he was going to say "but... it's fine now. I took care of it" Janus made a mental note to go take a look at the damage as fast as possible. They could all be kids, but Janus knew very well he was the only responsible there.

"I don't like it...!" Creativity replied, sounding like a child who doesn't want to eat salad. Janus sighed as his thoughts were interrupted, conjuring a bottle of perfume and poured it in the meal.

"Now eat" and so he did. Virgil raised an eyebrow, but he was smiling, trying not to be so worried. Or at least not demonstrate it. After so many times, he should be used to it, but... well, he was Fear. It was his job to keep track of the worst case scenarios.

"Did he get better?"

"On the contrary. The fever is higher than ever"

"And I also feel like someone ripped my bones out of my skin and then put them back, but like... in the wrong way" Remus added, spilling hot soup all over the sheet and his clothes by trying to communicate with his mouth full.

"So it's one of those nights" Virgil mumbled.

"I'm afraid so"

Remus finished his soup smiling like there was no tomorrow, opening his arms despite how much that simple gesture hurted "Game night while I'm dying!" Janus smiled, with more sadness in his eyes than anything else.

"I'll get the monopoly"

•••

"I won"

"No, you did fucking not" Remus immediately answered, not even looking away from his cards.

"You can see for yourself" Janus showed his game, which clearly meant a victory, indeed. Remus tossed his cards on the sheet like it was their fault. He was so fucking close!

"You cheated" Virgil said sharply, as if it was an undeniable fact.

"Do you have any proof? Janus challenged, not losing a beat or his mischievous smile.

"Yeah. It's the only thing you know how to do" the teenager replied, his tone as cold as a lake in the winter. Janus looked down before he could help himself. Couldn't he keep it down for at least one night? The night Remus needed both of them?

The cards caught fire. It was an accident, but Remus decided to go with that, jumping out of the sheets, trying to ignore the terrible twist that movement gave to his stomach. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he threw up. At least that way these two would stop fucking fighting.

"What the hell?!" Virgil exclaimed, tossing his game away like it was burning. Which was the case, indeed.

"Let's watch a horror movie!" Well, he got their attention.

"Did you need to burn things before saying that?!" Virgil screamed. He was standing and seemed even more distressed.This was a mistake, Janus realized. It was foolish to think they could ignore their differences for the sake of Remus.

"It's more fun this way! What can it be? One of the classics? Some shitty obscure one?" He kept trying, getting out of bed and walking toward Virgil, who walked away from him. Janus immediately got up too, already anticipating the disaster that situation could turn to. A worst one. Because it was already a disaster.

"Please, control yourselves"

"I'm controlled! I'm not the one burning things" Virgil replied, the trace of the tempestuous tongue in his voice proving that he was anything but in control.

"Remus, please. Apologize for burning the cards"

"It's just some stupid paper!

"Now"

"It was a fucking accident"

"We all know it wasn't" Janus almost, almost told Virgil to shut up after that. But he didn't need to make things worse than they already were.

"It was a fucking accident" his voice started getting threatened, his eyes started shining with a red danger "But you know what wouldn't be a fucking accident? if I..." his vision went black, a headache that felt like someone had opened his skull being everything that existed and then not even that.

Anxiety got out of the room immediately after his friend fainted, keeping his gaze to the ground, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stand any amount of time alone with Deceit.

•••

Remus wished he was real, so he would be dead.

He felt like someone had catched his body on fire, then hit his head with an axe, then exchanged his blood for poison and his bones with knives.

"I knew you were stupid, but not stupid enough to try and suggest an idea for Thomas. On your own. After terrorizing him the whole night. Literally hours after recovering from your last..." Janus looked down at his friend, in one of the only moments he didn't try to hide his emotions. Fear. Somebody had to fill the vacancy now that Virgil is gone, I suppose.

"It was..." He coughed blood. "A good idea"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure he thought the same" Janus rolled his eyes. Remus tried to say that he would be fine, but his throat still hurt from the acid of his stomach and the scratching of his coughs.

"I told you to not do anything too dangerous. We are..." he looked down to his gloves which, as he knew, covered up for the scales that apparently had decided that half of his face was not punishment enough. "In a delicate situation, now that..."

"The emo is gone. I know" Remus completed, his voice not much more than a whisper.

"Oh please, no. We are better off without him haunting us all day. If he prefers to deal with them, the only thing I feel is pity" anyone else would have believed that. Remus knew it was bullshit the second those words left his mouth. But he didn't say that. Mostly because he was feeling nauseous again and he learned that, apparently, people don't like if you throw up while trying to talk to them.

Janus stayed in silence for a couple more seconds, then something changed in his eyes and he got up.

"Well, if you need me, I'll be reading" said, but before he could go too far, Remus grabbed the bottom of his coat, deciding to make use of his positions of creativity, as with a snap of his fingers green words appeared in the air:

"It's game night, not a fucking book club"

"I don't think you're able to play games right now"

"I've never been better in my entire fucking life"

The words glitched as his consciousness stumbled.

"Remus"

"You've been reading, studying, planning, whatever every fucking time we were together" he finally was able to find his voice again "Is it me, Virgil, or just you being a dick?

"You need to rest"

"I'm gonna vomit on your shoes"

Janus sighed, sitting again on the bed.

"What do you propose?"

"Truth or dare" Janus never plays truth or dare. The two of them, Virgil and Remus, would play it at any given opportunity, on the other hand.

"Don't test me"

Floating words again: "I'm gonna take it easy"

"You never take it easy."

Remus frowned.

"Ok" the half-snake man sighed "let's find a compromise: I can play Never Have I Ever"

Remus smiled diabolically. So they had a deal.

•••

"Finally! It's been so long since our last sleepover!"

"This is anything but a sleepover" Janus replied, not looking away from his book.

"Yes it is! We're sleeping together not in a sexual way and wearing pajamas.

"I'm not-" Remus snapped his fingers and suddenly Janus had a yellow onesie on. "...I'm not having a sleepover with you. And you're not even that bad"

"But I'll be. And in the meantime... Please play truth or dare with me just this time please please" he said in one breath.

"You already know my opinion about this game"

"I know that you like it! You would always laugh and even participate when me and Virgin played!" Janus flinched.

"That was a long time ago"

"Just two rounds!"

"I..."

"C'mon! You're not gonna lose an arm if you play just one time. And even if you did, you would still have five perfectly good ones left"

Janus hesitated. He knew Remus would get worse. It was obvious by the tiredness in his voice, even when he was so excited. And how pale he was. How deep his eyeshadow appeared, making him seem like a dead body.

He sighed. Remus smiled from ear to ear. Literally.

"Truth or dare?!" Asked as if he was a child whose birthday had come earlier.

"Dare, obviously" Janus said, unable to stop himself from smiling at his friend's happiness, even though they both knew it wouldn't last long.

But that was okay. Because they would have one another. And that was enough. It had to be.

#sanders sides #fanfic #dukeceit #tw swearing #tw vomit #tw sickness #remus sanders #janus sanders #virgil sanders #rabbit writes

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luminous-shifting-vibes · 4 years ago

Text

*sequel* to actual fucking quotes from the shiftblr coffeehouse discord server

once again, it's out of context because x1000 funnier

also x1000 longer than previous post

"ur satan is gnc af"

"Bestie I’m already having gender envy over a fucking demon please"

"O_O ODEPIJHFbavevisdpvfhzdcnjawedsidjksjdkoeirjfmkdsoeirujdksodifjndmksoidfjdksidfj ITS" NOT IN MY FRAFTS IS SPEDNT 1 hour PN THAT SHIT"

"AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

"ohoho sexy"

"I am very proud of myself"

"himbo x edgy fuck"

"YOU COULD SQUISH HES CHEECKS"

"he has teefs"

"SQUASH"

"good for biting 📷"

"he's a himbo basically"

"B͂̒̄iͫ̍̈tͧ̓ͯè̄̇"

"bifth"

"i havent watched blue exorcist in years but mr okumura my beloved </3"

"MY LIFE QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED"

"is it important information to mention that the person i put up for my turn is the son of satan" "I know like 1 thing about everyone who isnt ranboo lmfao"

"crimes"

"tumblr sexyman"

"idk why but my first thought was cowboy onceler"

"I vibe with him but he is very long and twisty"

"steampunk e-girl"

"steampunk tumblr sexyman"

"Canonically bi crimelord I agree!!"

"OOO FRIEND SHAPED"

"ARTIST SIGHTED"

"they look like someone i would want to be friends with but is way cooler than me so i'd never actually talk to them"

"babby..... would die for him"

"honestly i probably kin him"

"i'm sure he's lovely but he looks way too much like my ex i'm sorry-"

"i'd be down for another rotation! i have another twink to show y'all"

"Also :00 blonde friend"

"Let us all infodhmo"

"Hsjagdvbs shhh im on phone"

"Nix woukd you like to joon?

"skitters away"

"I have two braincells and they both drink dumb bitch juice"

"oof wait whats the order again i have 0 memory"

"i want to bond with him over cosplay-"

"Awkwardly watches in band kid"

"One day I'm gonna a broadway star"

"which isnt to say they were bad. they were just fortnite dancing during rehersals"

"I threw it so hard my glasses flew off and slid under the stage right divider"

"anyway heres my boi"

"emo"

"haha emo"

"virgil sanders kinnie"

"he looks like he listens to my chemical panic at the fallout boy"

"Bro I bet he'd kick my ass with his deck"

"bird man my beloved"

"fuck i had so much to say and then i forgot it all"

"Birds!!"

"guiguhuh"

"crabrave"

"She sounds like someone I would end up stealing her personality"

"yess name collector gang"

"alias glass aiden haven absinthe fish brick rice"

"But I have Cypress, Remure, Genesis, Lemres, and Comet"

"And she's named after a mars candy bar bc alien"

"Hey, if plato went by plato, you can be king thief"

"im not dissing my gramma like that shfojd"

"My dad has seven legal names" "bitches be like *looks at fictional character* *steals their name* it's us we're bithces"

"coraline lowkey traumatized me but i adore it regardless"

"mmmmmm magic man :]"

"°0° green man"

"criminal (affectionate)"

"he would shoplift a candy bar from walmart and then brag to all of his friends about the sick stealing he did"

"despite the fact he's canonically been capable of overpowering a minor deity"

"i would commit so many crimes for him"

"Very babey"

"Yes please tell green man he is very pog"

"he also keeps a lot of dumb secrets"

"but I will sorely miss the chaos and energy of this here chat until I wake again" (by request XD)

"i just say words and if they're funny then they're funny"

"* or extremly chaotic either works"

"at this point we are just taking turns rambling"

"oH--"

"bc my brain has a schedule"

"Hopefully they have gyoza there or I will lose my mind"

"hehe yes spooky man"

"my ghost glucose guardian"

"the head of the undead group that lives there, and we end up dating. (yes I date a ghost, no I will not be taking constructive criticism /lh)"

"ghosts r just inherently sexy"

"i mean im becoming a squid thing so"

"Raven quirk raven quirk!!"

"ł â m p"

"łæmp"

"mothman: ooh lamp you look very nice today! do you come here often? mothman: wait shit no"

"I'd date a ghost"

"mine is still accurate, i am still sobbing (/j)"

"p e e p e e"

""@nick wilde is a tumblr sexyman" is the best thing i have ever seen"

"im sorry im cackling like a dying hyena"

"you're all 12 year olds"

"PEENIE"

"He once caused global warming on accident so he could get a tan"

"god, what a himbo. i love him"

"that reminds me of my friends kin assigned me jesus"

"Man outside of battle be like: princely crying but then in battle hes like: "CATACLYSM! DISASTER! DEVASTATION!" Chill out man"

"Every time I talk about satan it never fails to shock people it's my favorite thing to do"

"im kin assigning him roman sanders" ""Oh yeah he caused global warming because he wanted to get girls" "he what""

"oh damn i forgot satan was straight"

"twink appreciation club"

"give us the twinks"

"my first thought was bottom-"

"so many people to try and get his dad to love him"

"daddy issued"

"OH MY GOD ITS WILBUR"

"Big boy but"

"anyways janus is swagggg"

"........................."

"gib twink"

"give twink then i will share"

"holds him gentle like hamburger"

"This dumb bitch opened a book that said "do not open" and got possessed by a little bastard"

"he is. fragile creachur"

"klug is beauty klug is grace i would let him step on my face"

"If I'm playing swap and I have to hear one more "Pwanet Powew" Im gonna lose it"

"Who is to blame? Pandora or the box?"

"Bakugo isnt my type but I respect the drip"

"i say like my type isnt long-haired pretty boys and girls that look so gnc that people have a history of confusing them for men"

"hes a gremlin and i can appreciate a pretty gremlin"

"that is to say i am attracted to VFlower vocaloid. This is a confession."

"note i am a lesbian"

"You may like Schezo wegey"

"why does he have one single expression"

"soul soul eater passes the vibe check"

"magic wand"

"I Want To Hold His Hand"

"i would commit a war crime for him any war crime idc which one"

"my favorite one is when he sounded rlly gay because he said "Muscular bodies keep me satisfied""

"p e a n u t"

"Klug is a homophobic homosexual its just facts"

"grug from the croods is peak male performance"

"jaw drops to floor, eyes pop out of sockets accompanied by trumpets, heart beats out of chest, awooga awooga sound effect, pulls chain on train whistle that has appeared next to head as steam blows out, slams fists on table, rattling any plates, bowls or silverware, whistles loudly, fireworks shoot from top of head, pants loudly as tongue hangs out of mouth, wipes comically large bead of sweat from forehead, clears throat, straightens tie, combs hair Ahem, you look very lovely."

"tag yourself im the fireworks shooting from the top of the head"

"i like essays"

"central time gang"

"11:11 pog-" (wait... is that a suprise angel number?? yes it is lovelies just for you <3)

"Then again im also a dumbass bitch who wonders what the souls in soul eater taste like. SERIOUSLY THOUGH. THEY LOOK TASTY AS HELL!!!! LIKE GODDAMN BRO YOU'RE MAKING ME FUCKING HUNGRY. Like. that shit- it's Bone Apple motherfucking Teeth. hell yea my guy. Im hongy now.... shlorp I'm seriously considering this. Like. They seem kinda like a liquid? But a solid? Are they like jello? The fuck they taste like my guy???? I keep imagining they're like sour, like sour candy maybe? Or do they taste salty? Sweet? Maybe some combo of two? Do they even have a taste or is it about the texture? The sensation? God my mouth is watering what the hell. I am starving. I think I need to go get a cookie. I'm gonna go get a cookie. Brb. I'm better. I'm still craving souls though. Which is a weird-ass cringey thing to say but I'm being dead-ass rn. They just.... look tasty???? And I wanna eat one. Thus. I am shifting to Soul Eater for the express purpose of satisfying my fucking cravings. enjoy"

"points were made"

"jello? more like helloooo schloooAHFJDSDAIDWNALDHSJKDAIDANDM"

"WAIT I THINK I HAVE AN ANIME GIRL BITING VIDEO TOO"

"anime girl voice: mmm! mm... ahhhhmp!! mmm, mmm... aaahmp!"

"i think it sounds great i'm going to start eating like that"

"several people are typing"

"do these look edible to you"

"forbidden gummies"

"when I was on lsd I couldn't eat my fruit gummies because I thought they were alive because they had little faces on them"

"oh shit yeah don't do drugs"

"anyways general consensus is puyos are edible, ty for your input everyone"

"everypony is a word so powerful it can bring nations to its knees"

"pls the self control it's taking me not to say "hewwo everypony" in gen chat when someone new joins-"

"hewwo evewrypony uwu deaw cewestia i hopwe it doewsnt wain owo"

"ive cooked up a sowution wiwth the knowwege ive acwued. they say a kitcwen time saves niwne, but im just savwing two. Ive gathewwed the inwedients to make a time sowbet. Thewe's hawdly woom fow seconds when the seconds mewt away."

"I had a ten year old sister... you know what happened to her??? very sad, very tragic... she turned eleven....."

"NIIICE"

"Guts dont say the secks word :( /j"

"watch your fucking language in front of the president"

"im so sorry lumi"

"i think you're like ehhhh 8/10 funny"

"now me???? 10/10. Hilarious"

"sometimes i have to take a step back and remember that this is the same guts i follow on tumblr /lh"

""ok every here's some good shifting advice!!! uwu have a good day" "yeah i did lsd and ate fruit gummies""

"i have one setting and it's whatever this is"

"my bitch ass cat just pushed the door open with his fuzzy face and now my sleeping dad is being lulled into dreams by Cosmo Sheldrake's 'Pliocine'."

"me on discord: nick wilde"

"me on tumblr: shifting water! haha funne! me on here: my hermit crabs are cannibals also i want to eat souls."

"im sorry yOUR VIBESA RE JUST SO DIFFERNT"

"u give off older cousin ive never spoken to but always admire at the family gatherings vibes"

"what the fuck"

"BC I HAVE LIBERTU"

"If you adopt me then yes"

"am I qualified for dad jokes???"

"we're all a lot smarter on tumblr"

"I'm like "awww... sweet... sweet little shiftlings... posting such sweet shiftling content... so pure, so wholesome... does not even know abcs....""

"can't think before you speak if you never think B)"

"I'm not responsible enough to be a mom"

"cat pet"

"show us pictures of the cat or i will do Crime"

"maybe thats me being a coward tho"

"MOTH!!!! MOTH MY BELOVED"

if y'all want I can make this a series bc shiftblr keeps giving me more content

#tw drugs #tw swearing #tw cannibalism #tw crime #tw food #tw homophobia #shitpost #out of context #out of context quotes #lumi's quotes

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sleepless-stories · 4 years ago

Text

The Dark Plans of the Dark Sides (1/2)

Part 2

Summary: Virgil wants a change and to join the light sides. Janus along with Remus encourage him to go and do it.

Warnings: Panic Attacks, U!Patton & U!Roman, weapons, threats

__________________________________________

Janus walked down the hall quietly, looking down at the philosophy book in his gloved hands.

There was suddenly a crash in the kitchen.

Janus dropped his book running to the kitchen. In there he saw Virgil kneeling on the floor with a huge puddle of water and glass shards everywhere. Janus sighed walking slowly closer, “Virgil?”

Virgil looked up tears in his eyes before glancing back at the glass, he was struggling to breathe, it had just come on so suddenly.

Janus gently reached down pulling Virgil up off the floor and lifted him carrying the anxious side to the couch. Janus sat holding him close, “remember, in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, out for 8 seconds.” he whispered tapping the rhythm on Virgil’s shoulder. “You’re safe, thunderstorm.”

Virgil nodded resting his head on Janus’ shoulder as he struggled to breath, slowly breathing with the rhythm of Janus’ tapping.

As Virgil got calmer Janus stopped tapping and just rubbed Virgil’s back. “What happened?”

“Panic attack.” Virgil mumbled gripping onto Janus’ capelet.

“All so suddenly?”

“Yeah… It’s ok, and I could clean up the kitchen.”

“Nope.” Janus shook his head, “I’m going to go clean the kitchen, you are going to rest.”

“No, Jan-”

“Yes.” Janus let go of Virgil and stood up, “Remus!” he called out.

Remus popped in instantaneously, “Hey snakey.” he grinned maniacally.

Janus nodded, “Please take Virgil to his room, he needs to rest.”

Remus’ smile fell and he became a bit more serious as he glanced at Virgil with a soft and slightly saddened look, “Panic attack?”

“Yean… but I’m fine.”

Remus nodded then scooped him up, “Well off to rest for you Emo Raccoon, maybe later we could play clue?”

Virgil nodded and held onto Remus.

Remus nodded to Janus before sinking out.

Janus sighed looking up at the ceiling when they left, he slowly walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a towel. He took off his capelet and hat then put dish gloves over his own before kneeling down on the floor and soaking the water up with the towel. Janus pulled out the trash discarding of the large glass pieces before he was able to vacuum up the rest.

Janus finished after not too long and got up, he got a glass of water and a bottle of grape Gatorade before going to Virgil’s room. Knocking lightly before he opened the door, Janus walked inside, he walked over to the side of the bed and put the water and Gatorade on the nightstand then looked at the bed.

Virgil was asleep under the covers and his weighted blanket, Remus was still there having not left him and was cuddling Virgil not leaving the other.

Remus glanced up half awake, “Join us?” he whispered.

Janus nodded laying down and getting under the covers cuddling the two, he fell asleep after a little while.

____

Virgil sat in the living room staring at a mirror on a wall, though it was more like a window. A window showing whatever one wanted to see. He was staring at the light sides quietly, all of them interacting with Thomas.

Janus walked into the room and saw as he walked over, he sighed softly and hugged Virgil, “what’s up?”

“I… I just wonder what it’s like there.”

“Don’t know… Virgil would you like to go there.”

“What? No! Of course not.” Virgil shook his head looking at Janus with a hint of fear in his eyes.

Janus pulled Virgil close, “I know you’re lying. You don’t have to be scared, I know you wouldn’t be abandoning us.”

“I know… I guess I just want…”

“Change?”

“Kinda.” Virgil nodded and sighed, he brushed his hand over the mirror making it just reflect them.

“Well you’re anxiety and change is scary.”

Virgil nodded, “what if they don’t like me.”

“You’ll be allowed back here, and if you’re lonely I’ll be there right away.”

Virgil nodded.

“You should do it.”

“Alright… tomorrow?” Virgil asked softly, looking at Janus.

Janus nodded, “tomorrow.”

Virgil touched the scales on Janus’ face for a moment before hugging him tightly. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, storm cloud.”

Remus popped in and looked at the two cuddled on the floor. He went over lifting them up and sitting on the couch holding them. “What’s wrong?”

“Virgil is going to go, he wants to join the core.”

Remus nodded instantly hugging tighter, “watch out for my brother! He’s insufferable.” He groaned with a laugh.

Virgil smiled, “and you’re not?!”

“Of course not.” Remus grinned.

Janus shook his head, “lies.”

They all sat cuddled on the couch not leaving each other, at least for now.

_____

Virgil woke in the morning still on the couch with Janus and Remus. He yawned slowly pulling himself out of the cuddle pile only for Janus’ arms to constrict around him holding him in place.

“You’re not leaving without breakfast and a proper goodbye.” Janus mumbled, opening his eyes.

Virgil nodded softly, “I’d never leave without those.”

Janus nodded letting go.

Virgil got up then walked away to his room.

Janus pushed Remus causing him to fall off the couch and to the floor, but still fast asleep. Janus shook his head laughing softly as he went to the kitchen starting to make pancakes.

Remus woke up as soon as he started smelling food. He jumped to his feet running over to the kitchen, “breakfast?”

“Yep. I made your pancakes specially, tuna and broccoli.” Janus laughed.

“Aw thanks Janny.”

Janus nodded smiling.

Remus skipped down the hall going to Virgil’s room.

Virgil had a bag packed and was just putting the last of his things in it.

Remus opened the door walking in. He looked around the room, “you’re really going...”

“Yeah… before my anxiety tells me to stop.”

Remus nodded and went over and hugged him, “I’ll miss you.”

Virgil hugged back, “I’ll miss you too.” He sighed.

Remus let go before snatching a stuffed crow, spider, cat, raccoon, he had once made Virgil off the bed “you better not be leaving Nightmare.”

Virgil laughed, shaking his head, “I’d never even think I’d leaving it.”

Remus nodded handing it over.

There was a light knock on the door, Janus stood there leaning against the door frame. “Breakfast time.”

They walked out of the room and all sat at the table in the kitchen eating in anything but silence, seemingly not wanting to lose a minute with Virgil. Just talking about anything that came to mind.

Virgil sighed finishing his food, “I… I think it’s time.”

Janus nodded getting up. He grabbed Virgil's bag then went over giving him a hug, “I’ll visit you soon.”

Virgil nodded, wiping away tears and hugging back. “You better, or I’ll think you abandoned me.” He laughed slightly.

“Don’t worry, we never will.”

“I’ll never abandon you either. I love you guys.” Virgil said looking at Janus then Remus.

Janus hugged him tighter, “love you too.”

Remus hopped up from the table, “love you!”

Virgil peeled himself out of their grip then took a step back, “goodbye.”

They nodded watching Virgil disappear, leaving.

____

Virgil appeared in the living room of the other sides, greeted with glares of the happy go lucky sides. “H-hi…”

“Villain… what are you doing here?” Creativity growled.

Logic shot creativity a look before shaking his head and sinking out.

Creativity got out pulling a sword out of thin air and pressing it against Anxiety’s neck. “Don’t get in my way.” He said before sinking out.

Morality sat on the couch glaring before standing up walking over, “you’re just evil aren’t you?” He asked with a bite to his tone.

Virgil stared his eyes welling up with tears, he should’ve known… he wouldn’t be accepted just showing up… they had always saw them as evils only hurting Thomas. He took a deep breath as he felt his anxiety rising.

Morality watched before bursting out into light hearted giggles, “don’t worry anxiety, we’ll see eye to eye soon enough.” He winked, his eyes glowing a bright aqua blue before he sunk out.

Virgil fell down to his knees as soon as he was alone, tears running down his face. He could do this… he’ll be accepted soon enough, it would be fine. He shook his head breathing before disappearing to his new room.

______________________________

General Tag List

@crazy-multifandomfangirl

@aceawkwardunicorn

@mistythegenderqueermess

#Janus Sanders #ts janus #ts remus #remus sanders #virgil sanders #ts virgil #unsympathetic patton #u!patton #unsympathetic roman #u!roman #ts logan #Fluff and angst #sanders sides #sanders sides fic #domestic dark sides

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wastelandcrown · 4 years ago

Text

logan lark’s adventures in trying to appease his parents

CHAPTER 7: you matter to me (the terrifying tales of the grimm monarchy)

Summary: Logan Lark is a fairly average high school student. By all means, he should be impressing his parents on all grounds. Except...he doesn’t exactly have a social life. So after his parents give him puppy dog eyes, he decides to join the local theatre's youth production. Good grief...His life is about to get weird isn’t it?

Warnings: Potential ooc behavior, Mr. and Mrs. Grimm’s A+ parenting, panic attacks, unconventional sibling problems/dynamics, very brief disappearance (If I miss something please tell me!)

Notes: This fic is based off an idea from @under-the-blue-moonlight. If you wanna be tagged in chapters, please ask!! All feedback is very welcomed, I didn’t have anyone to beta so *sighs loudly*. This chapter is kinda angsty and opens up some fun new plot relevant strings. I also want to make it clear that I will be demonstrating Roman putting in work to fix his mess ups in later chapters as well! He’s got some loose ends to tie up, and he will do so.

Pairings: Intrulogical, Eventual Rociet, Creativitwins

Tagslist: @under-the-blue-moonlight @why-should-i-tell-youu2 @im-actually-ok @hauntedturkeycalzonedreamer @croftersjam15 @rainbowsixth @snaketho @wasinotwantedatthisexactsecond @a-soul-among-the-stars @sweet-razz-tea @the-cactus-lord @genderlessfish

Janus’ eyes move to Logan, they seem to communicate without a breath between them. Logan takes nothing but his phone with him when he heads into the hall, but it’s far too late. Remus is nowhere in sight.

Roman takes a shuddering sigh, places his head in his hands, and leans against the makeup counter.

“I’m-I’m sorry-I don’t-I don’t know what that was-”

“Yes, you do.”

The room feels so uncomfortable, the tension could be cut with a knife. Roman knows Janus well enough to know his glare cuts sharper than any weapon could ever. Especially to him. His face stays firmly planted in his hands, hiding from the truth he’s been avoiding for far too long.

“Roman, look at me,” Janus orders.

He listens and keels back in shame at the look of anger and disappointment on his friend’s face.

“Tell me the truth, why are you doing this?”

It’s a good question. For all it’s worth though, he doesn’t know. Which seems like the cop-out of the century, but truly...he has no clue at the moment. That, however, is not an answer Janus will accept and not one he will accept of himself.

With a deep breath, he thinks “Alright, Roman. Be honest. Why are you doing this?”

Within moments he gets it and it is the easiest conclusion he’s ever come to. The twins have always had a very sturdy dichotomy. Remus was a messy and wild child growing up, while Roman was clean and polite. When they played, there was always a good and just prince and an evil conniving duke. There were good marks and bad marks. Good ideas and bad ideas. Clean and messy. Good and evil. Something nice and something terrible. Even in the eyes of their parents. It didn’t matter to them as children, Remus even seemed to enjoy it on occasion. Looking back, he only ever liked being “bad” when he got to choose it. When they played in their yard and there was a choice between swimming in the pool and scooping water onto the grass to “drown the bugs”, he was the happiest child in the universe. When the school called their father and told him that Remus had been in another fight, he looked like someone had ripped his soul from his body. It didn’t matter the reason he was fighting, he was “bad”. Roman had always thought the merit of the fight was dictated by why you were fighting in the first place, but apparently, he was wrong.

The dichotomy they played into was fun! It was! For a while, at least. Then Roman began being berated by everyone around him for acting similarly to his brother. Then Remus was the new social outcast months before they hit middle school. Then it wasn’t fun anymore. Being “good” was stressful and lonely. Teachers, classmates, friends, family, everyone equated “good” with perfect. Perfection is a hard burden to bear alone and twelve years old. Roman’s mind drifts to when they split up. When the dichotomy became less of a two-person game played for fun, and more of an ugly sweater from an aunt that they had to wear to every formal event. It was hard, it was always much too hard. It hurt him. Recently, he realized the much heavier burden of being “bad”. The stress and loneliness must be tenfold when everyone beats into your brain that you are the perfect example of the “Evil Twin” trope. Even your own brother. Your twin.

“Everyone told me,”

They had been a pair once.

“‘Roman, you’re such a good kid, you’re good at everything.’”

They were a good pair. Even now. He’d worked with him just a month ago to put something together and it was amazing.

“‘There is nothing you can’t do!’”

A few months ago, he was doing something he hadn’t thought possible and making amends with his brother.

“To them, I was independent and self-sufficient,”

He wasn’t either of those things, not then and not now. He had always been a pair.

“I was perfect. I had to be.”

The catch is that he gave up the only person who didn’t care if he was perfect.

“I thought it was true, I-”

The catch is that now his actions dawn on him fully like a wave over the shore.

“I needed them to be right.”

His breath shakes, “Who am I if I’m not that?”

The wave of grief and guilt crashes into him, and all he can think about now is how much he wants to take back every single mean thing he’s ever said about his brother. He feels the sea of emotions that he’s held back take him in and drown him with ferocity. Janus sighs as Roman stares at him through watery eyes.

“Roman. You were doing so well with Remus.”

He’s right, Janus is always right about these things. Two months ago, he had been doing so much better. He and Remus were still bickering in public, but it was fun to him. Though when Remus had “glue-and-feather’d” his makeup bag, he had thrown a little fit, he laughed about it later. Remus had laughed with him. It was light and fun. May, June, and most of July were the most fun he’d had with Remus in years. They’d spent time together, helped each other with chores, ridden to the theatre together. Little, minuscule things. Things that made such a tremendous difference in Roman’s confidence.

“What happened?”

The same thing that always happened. His mother came home

There was always something different about his mother. When he and Remus had befriended Janus in elementary school, they met someone else's mother for the first time. He realized the day he had met her what made his mom so different. Lillian Devine, or as they called her Mrs.Lilli, was quite possibly the strangest woman they had ever met. The first time they saw her, Janus had seen her outside the school and made a beeline for his mother’s arms. She took him up into her arms, gave him a spin, and hugged him tightly. Roman doesn’t remember much from being that young, but he can remember the first moment he felt jealousy was when Lillian took Janus into that hug and loudly announced that she missed him. Only gone a day at school, and she missed him enough to announce it to the world. He remembers going home to a very big, very empty house. He was grumpy, clutching Remus’ hand like a lifeline as their nanny ushered them into their room and told them she would collect them at dinner time. When she collected them, Roman asked if she had missed them. She said, “I’m not your mother, am I?”.

His mother was different. When she came home, she would offer Roman a hug and give him a big kiss on the cheek. Every time, even the most recent. Like clockwork. Roman, sometimes accompanied by Remus, would wait outside the door for his mother’s car to arrive. She would exit and her heels would clack along the stone pathway. She would kiss him on the cheek when she got up the steps, offer him a quick hug, then begin to speak about her latest adventures in Paris. If Remus stood with him, she would give him her coat. Roman would always take it from him, hang it up, and follow his mother wherever she went. Recently the thought of their mother handing Remus her coat made Roman want to puke.

They’d had dinner together one night in July. On her most recent visit, she told stories of her new revolutionary fashion line. He told her all about the newest theatre show. Remus made an effort to sit with them, and it was a labour for Roman to look at his mother when he spoke instead of Remus. He was there for all his anecdotes but he would still hang off of every word just to find something to prod at. Remus stood, and his mother’s words echoed in his brain.

“Remus, dear,” His mother begins in her shrill voice, “If you’re not going to eat with us, at least go and shower. Your smell is unbecoming.”

He latches onto that conversation, that’s really when the downfall started.

“Mother, that was quite rude…” He says softly, keeping his eyes on his plate.

“Sometimes you have to tell the truth, my darling.” She laughs then, and Roman wants more than anything to get up and chase his brother.

“Speaking of your theatre production,” He turns his attention back to her, “Your father is thinking of coming this year.”

All thoughts of defending his brother leave his brain entirely. His mouth dries and he feels the onset of excitement and pure panic. At that moment he is consumed by selfishness and tries to push away the panic and think only of this dream come true.

“He’ll be happy to hear you got the lead again,”

“But Mother, I told you, I’m only-”

“Yes, the understudy. You’ll change that, won’t you, my darling? I didn’t raise you to get second place, did I?”

He was good. What he was doing was good. He couldn’t disappoint his mother, let alone his father. Truth be told, he barely even spoke to the man except for their short and brief calls on the major holidays. He hadn’t seen him in person in nearly two years. He’d outgrown the excuse of him being busy but hadn’t outgrown the fire that a visit from his father lights inside him. It became even worse when after two feeble attempts to be rid of Logan, his father called him. Unprompted, unscheduled, and entirely without cause. He buzzed when he picked up the phone.

“Roman.”

“Hello, father.” He can barely contain the happiness buzzing around in his throat.

“I have made time in my schedule to come to see your stage performance at the request of your mother. She has told me you landed the lead role again, I can’t say I’m not impressed. This is the sixth year in a row she has asked me, you know. I hope there is some merit to your casting director’s choice.”

He can barely keep himself sat down, the urge to jump around is so intense that he nearly dies. “Oh, certainly! I won’t let you down! Oh! And neither will Remus, he’s entirely spectacular in his role this year, I really think you’ll love-”

“I am not attending this production to see your brother. I trust you won’t let me down, because unlike him, you are not a failure. I will see you then, goodbye.”

In one fell swoop, his father had crushed his mood and strengthened his resolve.

“My father is coming to the production. He called me himself to confirm.”

“The man who talks to you on average thirty minutes a year is coming to our show? Please tell me you’re joking.” The shock is evident in Janus’ voice as he searches Roman’s face desperately to ensure he’s lying.

“I’m not. My mother, she-she told him I got the lead. He told me-He told me that he was impressed with my track record. Then I-Well I started talking about Remus’ spectacular performance and he...He said he wasn’t coming to see Remus and that I-” Roman is on the verge of tears, he feels the urge to crumble like a war-torn kingdom.

Janus places a hand on his shoulder, meant to be a comfort, “That you what?”

Tears track down Roman’s face as he sits and slumps over to physically display his guilt, “That I’m not a failure like him, so I won’t let him down.”

“I am internalizing so much anger at the moment, please give me a second.” Janus takes a deep breath and screams angrily out loud. Roman takes it as initiative and screams as well, but much more wet and sad.

Janus pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers.

“You didn’t think to tell anyone any of this?” Roman shakes his head and sniffles.

Janus mutters to himself, “Right. Of course, you didn’t. You fool.”

“We all know you’re not an absolute prick Roman. You’d obviously just pick on Logan for no reason you’re totally not super stressed or something.” He recoils at that, Janus’ face falls.

“I’m just-Roman-You can talk to me,” Janus speaks with an air entirely too soft for him.

What gets Roman’s attention is the tired and slightly sad, “Lord knows that neither of you does enough.”

“I’m here for you, even if you do some very morally shifty things. Especially if it’s all because you’re all stressed out and your daddy issues are taking centre stage in your mind.” He sits beside him now, taking Roman’s hand in his.

“I know how passionate you are, and I can tell that this isn’t how you want to do it. So, you don’t have to. You have...lots of things to make up for and apologize for. But there is still time. As long as you mean it, and you want to do better.”

Weakly, he mutters “I do.”

“Then find a way to apologize and fix it the way you always do.”

“And what way is that?” He asks with a soft smile, to which Janus chuckles under his breath.

“Facing every and all challenges with courage and honesty. Obviously,” Janus raises a thumb and wipes the tears from Roman’s cheeks with a genuine smile.

So it was settled then. Roman needed to apologize. To everyone. He was already thinking of ways to express his sorrow and regret properly, his brilliant brain spitting out lavish and somewhat laborious ideas. Janus can tell from the way the passionate light returns to his eyes and he smiles. There is work to be done.

The door slams open and an entirely too panicked Virgil stands in the doorway, “Janus-”

Work to be done later. Virgil’s breath is coming in whooping waves, his body is shaking, makeup smudged from anxious tears rolling down his face. Janus moves with purpose, approaching Virgil like a particularly protective guardian. Virgil grabs the fabric of his hoodie and tries to breathe.

“That’s it, Virgil, you’re alright,” He coos, gently placing a hand on his head.

“We can’t-” Virgil speech is messy and laboured, “We-We can’t find Remus-He’s-He’s not picking up his phone-I’m-We-”

Roman’s blood runs cold. Remus has done this before, sure. But it’s always been silly and fun and not motivated by weeks worth of stress and terrible feelings. Roman knows his words were the cherry on the cake, and nearly slaps himself for still being sat there while his brother was who knows where.

Roman grabs Remus’ bag from the floor, opening it to find his phone. There are almost fifty missed messages, most of them from a contact labelled “The Sexy Kind Of Spider” who he can only assume is Virgil.

“His phone’s still here,” He sifts through the bag some more, “Along with his jacket and his car keys.”

“Well, I’d say he can’t have gone far, but we all know how crafty Remus is,” Janus says with a drained expression on his face which only inspires Virgil to clutch his shirt even tighter.

There’s a fire in Roman now, an urge to find his brother’s newest hiding spot and somehow make it up to him. He slings the bag over his shoulder and approaches the pair.

“No need to fear, Virge! I’ll find Remus and bring him back to us as quickly as I can!”

Virgil only nods in response, prompting Janus to gently ruffle his hair. Roman leaves, knowing that the Virgil situation is in very capable hands. On to finding his brother.

He sends a quick text to Thomas debriefing the situation, playing it off as a “typical Remus situation”, and leaves the building. If Remus had been outside the theatre, he certainly wasn’t anymore. Potentially unfortunately from Roman, a certain nerd was out there looking instead. When they made eye contact, Logan approached. He looked...frazzled. Much more so than Roman had ever seen.

“There you are. I was wondering when you would come help. Remus is missing and hasn’t answered his phone.”

“He left it here, but I’m going to go and look for him.”

Logan mutters something under his breath about the inefficiency of something-or-other, but Roman does not have the time to care. Him and Logan talk for another minute, Logan even gives him his number to call when he finds him. Logan says he’s going to get more people to look, Roman only nods. He’s focused in, there’s hope for a new start still and he’ll be damned if he loses it to Remus randomly disappearing forever. He piles into his car with Remus’ bag and starts his search.

Hope turns to fear after the third hour with no signs of his brother. He had checked his house, all the old spots Remus used to love, their whole neighbourhood, Janus’ house, every department store near the theatre. Nothing. It was like a magician cast a spell to make his brother disappear. He’s on the verge of panic. His hands are shaking like a bitch and his breathing wavers with each word he mutters to himself to ease his anxiety. He has to pull over into the parking lot of the convenience store near his home. It wouldn’t be safe for him to drive anywhere anymore. He wonders for a moment how in the hell his brother disappeared so quickly. He only had about thirty minutes on foot ahead of them, how had nobody found him? He almost cries sitting at the wheel. What if he’d been kidnapped? Murdered? Taken for ransom? Wait, that’s the same as kidnapping, isn’t it? God, it didn’t matter now! His brother was gone. For nearly ten minutes he lets the situation hit him hard. Tears roll through his body and he sobs. If Remus was gone forever, what would he do? What could he do?

A worker from the store comes out from the front. They see Roman and Roman sees them. Roman couldn’t care less that they now look incredibly uncomfortable. They move to the back of the store and from Roman can see, they’re talking to someone. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t know why he’s watching. He’s still crying like a baby. The thought of having lost his brother to the universe is still making his head pound. The worker gives whoever they’re talking to a smile, walks back inside the store, and from the till inside they give Roman a reassuring smile as well. He gives them a thumbs up. He takes a deep breath. He needs to pull himself together and find-

When Remus turns the corner from behind the store, Roman goes for the door handle before he can think. The sight of his shivering, tear-stained, obviously upset brother has him moving. He rips the door open and scrambles out. He trips over the edge of the car door and it doesn’t even matter. His palms and knees scrape against the concrete, ripping the skin on his hands and hurting his knees. He doesn’t care. It stings and he doesn’t care. The second he’s on his feet again he bolts at Remus and throws his arms around his chest. His head is firmly locked between Remus’ neck and shoulder, he’s grabbing at his shirt like a lifeline. His breathing is erratic, the tears are back now and back with a vengeance. His knees are shaking. He hadn’t even recognized how terribly and horribly scared of losing his brother he even was. Feeling it now was like the first breath of autumn air in your summer lungs. Remus stands there, just stands there. For a moment, the buzzing of his mind recognizes someone saying his name. Then there are arms around him. He’s being squeezed within an inch of his life. He doesn’t mind. He will never mind again.

All Roman’s scared voice can squeak out is a loud and cracking, “I’m sorry!”

They stand together in the chilly late-august afternoon air, in full sight of any neighbours or employees at the store, for five minutes. They sway slightly. Remus doesn’t say a word. Not one passes through his lips. Remus pulls away, only to take Roman’s hand and drag him to the car.

“C’mon you crybaby, let’s go home.”

Roman just nods and doesn’t comment on the tears on Remus’ cheeks. Remus takes the driver’s seat and Roman piles into the passengers’ side. He holds his brother’s bag in his lap, he squeezes it tightly. The drive home is only a few minutes, but Roman’s breathing calms enough to the point where he can rationalize texting. Janus, Logan, and Virgil all get a very simple text, but it’s enough to explain the situation.

‘Found him. We’re going home. He’ll call you in a bit.’

They pull into the driveway, shuffle into the house, take off their shoes. It seems weirdly unreal. It’s like Roman has entered some twilight zone where he and his brother get along. A twilight zone that Roman hopes to make a reality. Like he’s an upset kid again, he takes his brother’s hand and remains resolute in not crying again as he leads him through their empty house. The maid is there, she sees them pass. She doesn’t say a word. She watches the obviously upset twins make their way down the hall and into Roman’s room. Remus lets Roman take him by the shoulders and sit him on his bed. They stare at each other for a moment, unsure of what to say.

Roman takes the first step, “You scared me, Remus.”

Remus looks away, “I didn’t think you’d care, really…”

“Of course I’d care! Remus, I-I always cared! And I meant it when I said that I am truly sorry!” He’s crying again, and frankly, he feels a little stupid.

“I kinda figured when you ran at me crying like a crazy person,” His brother picks up the end of his blanket and wipes his face with it, “You’re crying a lot today.”

“I’ve had a quite terrible afternoon, I think a little emotional distress is warranted.” He huffs and crosses his arms over his chest, Remus smacks the blanket gently across his cheek.

Remus ushers him in again, nudging his head against Roman’s stomach and wrapping arms around his back. Roman stands between Remus’ legs and holds his head like the precious thing it is.

There’s a shudder of a breath from each of them. Both of them are so painfully aware of how long it’s been since the last time they sought out each other for comfort like this. There’s something so familiar in it. The warmth that Roman remembers from a childhood spent at each other’s sides. They used to be so close that they shared a bed by choice. He spent nights asleep and calm holding onto his brother. This feels like that. Something so personal and so old. Remus starts to cry again and it’s a messy sob that makes Roman’s ears ring. He squats down to look Remus in the eyes, taking his hands in his.

“I didn’t mean it, Rem. I don’t think you’re a failure-I-” Remus cries harder, he does his best to wipe the tears with his fingers.

“You-You mean much more to me than I’m sure I've let on in recent years.” There’s a tenderness and honesty in Roman’s voice that feels good and right.

“Mother and Father have been driving me insane, pressuring me to say and do things that I frankly don’t believe in.” The feelings he’s sharing now are lightening something in Roman’s chest, and from the look on Remus’ face, his words are more than on the right track.

“Not anymore. I promise to you that from now on I am going to do everything I can to make up for the terrible things I’ve done.”

Remus smiles at him, teary-eyed and covered in snot. It’s not gross to Roman, not right now, because Remus looks better.

“Can you start by getting me some water?” Remus’s hoarse voice coughs out, Roman is on his feet and goes to the kitchen as quickly as he can.

With two glasses in hand, he hurries back. He stops at the door. Inside, he hears Remus talking. He’s on the phone with Janus, who sounds more than upset. He goes in, gives Remus the glass, and turns to leave for privacy reasons. His brother grabs at his wrist and tugs him back. He sits beside Remus and they drink their water. He keeps his mouth shut and listens to the ways in which other people love his brother. Janus is angrier than anything else. The heart-palpitating rant that ensues is wildly emotional. He talks about how much the incidents of this afternoon scared everyone, goes off on tangents about the risks of running off and not telling anyone, tells him with the most love in his voice that he was worried about him. Remus promises not to do it again, Janus only sighs in a loving way. Janus brings up his talk with Roman, emphasizes his support of both of them, and lets Remus be on his way. Virgil is next, and he’s quiet. The call is full of little silences, Virgil takes breaks between sentences. Stops mid-word to take a breath and keep his wits. He tells Remus that he scared him. Tells him that he cares about him, no matter what. That he loves him and wants the best for him. He doesn’t use those words exactly, but Roman reads between the lines.

They’re fairly average calls considering the circumstances and their relationships. Roman sees Remus hesitate as his fingers ghost over the call button under Logan’s contact. He’s saved as “Boobear” with a blue and green heart. It’s by far the most normal of the names on his list. It’s by far the sweetest as well.

“Something wrong?” He asks, and Remus gives him a shaky smile.

“I’m worried about what he’s going to hate me now or something,”

It’s almost the stupidest thing Roman had ever heard. He might not get along great with Logan, but he’s not blind. The little nerd is wrapped tightly around Remus’ finger. He’s seen Remus hang off of Logan and say all kinds of crazy and vulgar things, only to get a small reprimand or occasionally an annoyed-but-loving smile. Remus can spout off in a rant about nothing in particular, only to have Logan hang onto every word and provide commentary and factual corrections. There is nothing in the world that could shake away the Logan Lark who was smiling and dancing in a field with his brother only a month ago.

“With the way he looks at you,” Roman chuckles, “I wouldn’t be surprised if this made him love you more.”

Remus blushes furiously, and instead of dignifying Roman with a response, he hits the call button.

Logan picks up the second it goes through as if he was waiting by his phone for Remus to call him. The intense emotion in his voice makes the twins do a double-take. He’s normally so straight and narrow. Measured. Collected. There is an air to the typical Logan that has vanished now. Roman wonders why he couldn’t show this side on stage more often.

“Remus? Please tell me this is you.”

To cover up his anxiousness, Remus flirts terribly, “Heya hot-stuff, what’re you wearing?”

There’s a relief filled laugh on the other side of the phone, “There’s my answer. Are you alright?”

“M-hm! You’ll never guess who made me feel better with a shit ton of groveling!” There’s an air to Remus’ voice that conveys humour.

“Remus.” Logan sounds so serious, Roman watches Remus sigh and roll his eyes at the care.

“Yeah, Logie. I’m okay. I mean it.”

Logan speaks again, that same serious voice, “I’ve been worried all afternoon.”

“Yeah...”

It’s quiet for a second, there’s a tension of the unspoken affection the pair have for each other floating in the room.

“I feel this is as good a time as any to tell you that I don’t think you’re a failure at all. You-I...In truth, I find you quite interesting to be around. You...You are...immensely talented in my humble opinion. I...While I understand we haven’t been friends for long- I hope it is not presumptuous to say that we are friends-But our relationship is...important to me. I enjoy your company and all you do for me. It...It is a true pleasure to be in your company, Remus. I-”

Despite the blushing on Remus’ cheeks, he softly mutters “You’re ranting again, Lo-Lo.”

“My apologies,” Logan nearly whispers out, there is affection seeping from his voice, “However, I meant everything I said.”

“I think you’re the shit too, babes. Sorry for worrying ‘ya.” There’s that affection again, Roman has never heard his brother sound so affectionate.

There’s another pause, Remus speaks again “I’ll make it up to you.”

“If you make a sex joke at a time like this-” Logan scolded, they could almost see his grimace.

“No, I mean it,” Remus laughs, “We can do something together. To make up for it.”

“I’d like that.”

Roman looks to his brother, the phone, and then his brother again. To him, it sounded as if Remus had just asked him out on a date, but he knew well enough that Remus and Logan were probably too dense to understand the implications.

“I’ll uh-I’ll talk to you ‘bout it later then, kay boobear?” Remus asks while staring at Roman, confused about the ‘oh-my-god-you-totally-like-him’ look he’s getting.

“Alright. Goodnight, Remus.” Logan’s voice drips honey and roses as he wishes him goodnight, there is so much Roman can hear wrapped up in that simple sentence and it’s a wonder to him.

“Goodnight.”

The call ends and Remus lets out a dreamy sigh.

Roman winds back and smacks Remus with a pillow in excited fervour.

“You did not tell me you were that in love with Logan!”

“Wha-You asshole!” Remus takes the pillow and smacks him back, “I am not in love with him!”

“Yeah right! That was the gayest conversation I’ve ever heard!” He nearly shouts, getting up and grabbing more pillows from the collection at the head of his bed.

“We didn’t even say anything juicy!” Teases Remus, grabbing pillows at lightning speed, preparing for what he knows is coming.

“It was in the tone! And don’t say juicy like that you dolt!”

Remus hits Roman with a pillow to the face. With an excited cackle, Roman launches an attack, throwing as many of his numerous pillows at his brother as he can. There is an all-out war within seconds. Both boys are shrieking and laughing. By the end of the pillow fight, they’re breathless and more joyful than they have been all day.

“How do you feel about a sleepover?”

Good. Remus feels very good about a sleepover. That night while laying in Roman’s dumb red sheets, cuddling up to his brother in the way that little kids do, he feels happy. Really happy. Genuinely happy. Logan had told him that it was hard to love somebody when they didn’t act as if they loved you back, and he was right. The smartass was always right. Now though, he felt it. His brother had cared, ran for him like he was the only thing that mattered to him in the world. He loves Roman. Apparently, Roman loves him too. His brother hugs him closer in his sleep. That’s more than enough for his brain to quiet tonight.

Addendum; August 20th -

Remus went missing this afternoon. It worried me greatly, but he turned out alright. Things between the Grimm twins seem to be better. On August 21st, they arrived to practice bickering but holding hands. They both appeared near ecstatic all day, needless to say, it was tiring. There will be no more need for the “Roman Incidents” section of this notebook.

Circled in red pen, written largely at the bottom of the page, underlined three times over.

Note: Investigate your true feelings for Remus Grimm.

#sanders sides #sanders side fic #intrulogical #creativitwins #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #i love tHEM #next chapter is intrulogical AND rociet....#i can write two things: over-dramatic dork loves different kind of over-dramatic dork and BROTHERS WHO CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER #ALSO THIS IS NOT SHIP FOR REMUS AND ROMAN I CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH #the little addendum from logan <3 #hes taking back his fic TODAY

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kieraelieson · 4 years ago

Text

The Haunted House

Commission for @borrowedblue

Logan had the house practically all to himself. It was empty, and had been for as long as he could remember, which was about seven of his twelve years of existence. The first five had only scattered memories, but those memories were of his parents, so he held tight to them.

He still lived in the same house under the floorboards, but he often spent more time outside than inside. A few hours walk away from the house in each of the four directions he’d built little shelters, in case he stayed out too long, but he just couldn’t commit to being an Outie.

And he was doing fine as he was. He hadn’t ever been so injured he couldn’t find something to eat somewhere, and he had places to stay, and he had his experiments with seeds he was working on to keep him busy when it got boring. He hadn’t figured out yet how to get two halves from different seeds to combine, though he had combined two sprouts before. And he was determined to succeed someday.

But then one day a car drove up to the house. He only vaguely knew what a car was, and was incredibly curious, but what little he knew was that cars held humans. So he waited outside. And the human went in, and then went back out a few hours later, and drove away.

Logan wondered if this meant that there would be more humans. He wasn’t sure though, whether that would be a good or a bad thing. Dangerous, obviously, but intriguing.

And that was that, until, when he went inside, he found a strange rectangle, sitting on a previously bare counter.

He approached cautiously, wary of some form of a trap, and jumped back when it suddenly moved and made a sound. But it seemed… Logan flipped it over, and was both impressed and intrigued to see it light up with a picture, seemingly of two rather similar-looking humans.

Logan started by investigating the buttons on the sides, but quickly realized that the whole area that lit up was also responsive to his touch.

He was too excited to stay still, and kept circling around the thing, shaking his fists up and down energetically, and then coming up with something new to try, trying it, and shaking again excitedly.

••^*^••

Janus walked into the room with his annoyed ‘you’ve done a thing. Again.’ face on.

“Where’s your phone?” He asked, his tone slightly clipped.

“In my—“ Remus tapped his pocket, and then his other pocket, and then just around, and found no phone. “Huh.”

Janus rolled his eyes. “Roman called. He said you called him acting suspicious, and wouldn’t say anything, and you aren’t responding to texts.”

Remus shrugged and grinned. “No idea!”

“Then who answered your phone?”

Remus suddenly grinned brighter. “What if it was a ghost!?”

Janus sighed, and turned to walk away. “Please locate your phone.”

“Well, someone’s in a bad mood today,” Remus grumped, checking around the office and then going out to look in his car.

“Welp, not here. I wonder if I left it back at that house?” Remus gasped. “Then it really would’ve been a ghost!!”

Remus was a realtor, or at least that’s what Janus called him in front of people. He found the haunted houses, and showed them off to people, trying to get the ghosts to talk to him and them, and then Janus dealt with the selling parts. He’d gone to a house today that was supposed to be haunted, but it was completely empty. Either that or the ghost was super shy. But if it had used his phone then it must really be there!

••^*^••

“Helooooo? Ghoooost?” Remus called, walking into the house.

He didn’t see anything different, except that he heard his phone from the other room. “Logan is a 2017 American superhero film starring Hugh Jackman as the titular character. It is the tenth film--”

Remus walked into the kitchen, where his phone was still droning on about the movie. But he wasn’t interested in that, he wanted to see the ghost that was talking to his phone. He didn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t there.

“Hello? Are you having fun with my phone?” He asked, smiling brightly at the open air. “You can keep it if you trade for it.”

There was silence for a long moment.

“Ok, then. I guess I’’l be coming back then, though, and probably bringing other people, so if you really hate humans-- no wait. If you really hate being around humans, and you’d just leave, let me know now. If you just hate humans normally that’s fine. You can even try to kill me! That could be fun!”

A voice suddenly piped up, a voice with an origin. It was coming from the cabinet. Did the ghost get formed by someone bashing their head on the corner? That would be awesome! He’d definitely try and take the cabinet home if that were the case. But then he realized he’d entirely missed what the voice had said.

“Oh, wait, I wasn’t listening. Say it again?”

There was a small, annoyed huff. “I don’t like humans, so go away. And leave the phone or else I’ll curse you.”

Remus’s eyes lit up. “But that’s not a trade at all, cause I’d love to be cursed! How about you curse me and then I leave the phone?”

There was a silence again.

“What else would you take for a trade?”

“Oooh,” Remus said quietly, thinking. “Well, I’d take seeing you, probably, or maybe hearing about how you died, or if you told me more about how ghosts work! Oh, but first, I’d guess it was the cabinet. Was it a boring old slip or…” Remus trailed off, because as he said cabinet, there was a sudden shuffling sound.

He opened the cabinet door just in time to catch a flash of movement as a much smaller door in the back of the cabinet closed. His hand darted forward, fingernail barely catching the tiny edge of door and pulling it open.

“Leave me alone!” the voice said, now distinctly higher and quavering slightly. “I swear I will curse you, and you won’t like it! It’ll be a curse of boringness!”

“But you can’t do that. You’re not actually a ghost.”

“A-am too!”

“No you’re not. I’ve seen you guys before. You’re teeny and not dead.”

“Leave me alone!”

Remus backed a step away from the cupboard. “Ok. Did you want me to leave my phone still?”

For a minute he thought he’d completely scared the little guy away. But then the voice came again, a good bit more muffled. “Why would you do that?”

“Well, you seemed like you were having fun with it. I mean, I can’t blame you, Wolverine is pretty cool. But it’ll stop working in,” Remus checked the battery. “Probably about two hours or so.”

“Why would it stop working?”

“Cause the battery would die.”

There was a silence again.

“So do you want me to leave it and come back for it later?”

“Yes. er… no. Leave it and never come back.”

“Well, I do kinda need it, so I have to come back at some point.”

There was another annoyed little huff. “Fine. But knock first. It’s still my house even if I’m not a ghost.”

#logan sanders #remus sanders #g/t #sanders sides g/t #sanders sides #platonic intrulogical #my own work

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agerestorybits · 4 years ago

Text

Family issues. Human AU

Thomas regressed from between an infant to a preteen. He had been regressing since highschool but never told anyone. Then he moved in with his housemates. He never let anyone in his room due to having a large amount of stuffed animals and toys. He was afraid that they would figure it out and then freak out on him. So he kept his door locked at all times. He was so paranoid about it he would double check that it was locked before leaving.

He would leave if he started feeling even a little small and gave weak excuses as to why he needed to go. He knew that his friends were going to think something was up with him. He could only hope that they didn’t find out.

After a few months he got too comfortable. It had been a long day and Patton was acting all parental like always and-

“Thanks dad.” He said after Patton gave him a cookie. Thomas immediately slapped a hand over his mouth. Everyone was looking at him. Oh shoot! What does he do? What-

“Yeah thanks dad!” Remus said louder, causing everyone to look away from Thomas.

“Best cookies ever Dad!” Roman added giving Thomas a wink. He felt relief wash over him as the twins helped cover up his mistake.

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Don’t be rude to Pat-”

“Awww! Kiddos!” Patton said almost bouncing at being called dad. Everyone moved on, Logan kept glancing at Thomas thoughtfully.

After that everyone except Janus and Logan took up calling Patton dad. (though Logan and Janus both slipped out once each and each time it left Patton beaming for the rest of the day.) So maybe the fact that Thomas took up looking at Patton as a dad didn’t help when he had a nightmare and regressed.

He took a polar bear stuffie and a fluffy blanket and went to the living room to watch t.v. He found Logan and Patton there talking. “Oh...sorry.” He muttered, turning around to go back to his room.

“You can stay.” Patton said, calling him back.

Thomas gave a shy grin before going over and sitting as far away from the other two on the couch as he could. Patton frowned at that. “You can sit closer if you want.”

“I’m ok.” Thomas said, tightening his grip on the polar bear.

“What are you doing up so late?” Logan asked. Thomas had to work in the morning, in less than two hours he normally got up to get ready.

“Had a nightmare.” Thomas said. Patton and Logan shared a look.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Patton asked.

Thomas teared up thinking about it and shook his head. Patton’s eyes widened at how vulnerable Thomas looked. “Oh Kiddo. It’s ok. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” He paused. “Would you like a hug?”

Thomas nodded rapidly and shifted over so Patton could wrap his arms around him. “It’s ok. You’re safe now.”

Thomas sniffed. “Thanks dad.”

Logan watched the whole thing play out. A theory forming in his head.

---

The next time Thomas had a nightmare he went to Patton who was more than happy to let him sleep with him. Promising he would keep the nightmares away. Thomas was a bit surprised at how Patton didn’t find it at all weird for Thomas to seek out his company instead of just dealing with it on his own. Then he found out that Virgil did the same thing.

Thomas was curled up in Patton’s bed when there was a knock on the door. Patton got up to answer it waking Thomas up. He rubbed his eyes and froze as he saw Virgil staring at him from the doorway.

“Did you have a nightmare too?” Patton asked Virgil.

Virgil nodded slowly, carefully stepping into the room. “There’s still plenty of room.” Patton said smiling as he gave Virgil a one armed hug. Thomas shifted over so there was more room.

Virgil looked uncomfortable. Thomas felt bad, “I can leave?” He offered.

Virgil shook his head. “No..I didn’t mean to..interrupt?”

Thomas didn’t get it, but Patton seemed to. “Oh no Kiddo. It’s not like that. Thomas had a nightmare.” Thomas nodded his head at that.

Virgil relaxed a little. “Oh…”

“Do you still wanna sleep?” Thomas asked, tired and ready to go back to sleep himself.

Virgil snorted at his tone and crawled into bed. Thomas was asleep before Patton got back in bed. It was a tight fit but they managed.

In the morning Virgil was more friendly towards Thomas than he had been the entire time he had been there. They had found their common ground. They never talked about it, but if one of them ran into the other on their way to Patton’s room they would hold each other’s hands until they got there. A silent, ‘I’m here you’re safe’.

When Patton mentioned off hand to Logan, the teacher paused before moving on. He added that to the list of behaviors that he found odd about Thomas.

---

Logan hadn’t planned on confronting Thomas but when he ran away in the middle of movie night again he needed to make sure that if it was what he thought it was, that Thomas didn’t feel they would hate him for it.

“Are you alright?” Logan asked as Thomas was unlocking his bedroom door.

Thomas jumped and spun around to stare at Logan terrified. “You age regress don’t you?” He asked, jumping straight to the point.

Thomas froze before slowly nodding. “Are you regressed now?” Another nod. Thomas looked away from Logan and crossed his arms protectively in front of himself.

Logan stepped closer, “No is going to judge you for this.” He said softly.

Thomas looked at him wide eyed. “You won’t?” He asked his voice higher than normal.

Logan smiled, “We won’t...do you want to tell the others?”

Thomas grabbed Logan’s hand, “Can you do it for me?” He asked hopefully.

Logan nodded and tugged Thomas along back to the Living room. Everyone looked up as they stepped back in the room. The movie was already paused at both of them abruptly leaving.

“Is everything ok?” Roman asked as Patton stood up.

“Ummm…” Thomas looked to Logan.

“Have any of you heard of age regression?”

----

It didn’t take long to explain it to everyone, and like Logan promised no one was mean about it. Roman and Remus had known someone who age regressed before and had a hunch that was what was going on with their friend.

“So how old are you right now kiddo?” Patton asked.

Thomas thought about it, “Seven? I think?”

“That’s fairly young. I don’t think you should be by yourself right now.” Janus said tugging Thomas so he sat down on the couch between him and Remus. Janus put an arm around Thomas’ shoulders. Thomas relaxed as Roman started the movie again. They didn’t hate him.

---

He started regressing around the others instead of running away. They even decided on cues to show that he was regressed. He would say blueberry or clap twice.

“So does anyone else know about this?” Virgil asked one day.

Thomas shook his head. “You guys are the first people I’ve ever told.”

Virgil paused before he spoke, “So I’ve done some researching and… there’s this thing called caregivers? Do you want a caregiver?”

“Well I mean..kinda? I never planned on telling anyone so I never really let myself think about it.” Thomas admitted.

Virgil nodded. He had an idea but he wanted to ask the others about it first.

---

Thomas walked in to everyone waiting for him. “Ummm….Hi?” They never hang out together outside family nights so all of them waiting for him in the middle of the afternoon? His anxiety spiked. Fear choked him. Did they decide the age thing was too weird and were kicking him out?

“So remember how I asked if you wanted a caregiver?” Virgil asked. That eased Thomas’ fear and replaced it with curiosity and a hint of hope.

“Yeah?”

“What if we took care of you?” Patton almost yelled way too excited to let Virgil build up to further.

Thomas looked around at all of them smiling at him. “R-really? You all want to?”

“We do.” Janus agreed.

“Yeah! I mean we’ve kinda been doing that already?” Remus said.

“Might as well.” Roman said.

“Only if you are comfortable with it.” Logan added.

Thomas half regressed at that. “Yes! I would love that!” He flapped his hands before clapping twice. There was laughter as Thomas ran around hugging all of them.

He never thought he would get one caregiver and now he had six!

---

They all started going out together on their days off. More often than not places that would cause Thomas to regress. He was a bit nervous about it but he had six people to take care of him and that eased his discomfort.

The zoo was crowded. Thomas tugged on Patton’s hand as he dragged his friend towards the marine life. The rest of their friend group followed at their own pace. Patton chuckled to himself as Thomas pointed excitedly to the seahorses. It was clear that he had regressed sometime after seeing the lemurs.

“How are you doing Kiddo?” Patton asked quietly so as to not draw attention from the other people around them.

Thomas held up four fingers. Patton nodded. When Thomas regressed under five he went non-verbal. Patton ruffled the little’s hair and grabbed his hand to make sure he didn’t run off and get lost.

When Roman and Remus caught up to them they took in how Patton was holding Thomas’ hand and looked at each other. Remus darted over and picked up Thomas before putting him on Roman’s back. Thomas giggled as Roman gave him a piggyback ride.

“Don’t drop him!” Patton warned as Roman and Remus walked off with Thomas.

They got a few looks but Thomas was having too much fun to notice and Roman and Remus didn’t care.

They got ice cream for all of them and sat on some benches in the shade. Thomas got ice cream all over his face and shirt. Patton laughed a bit as he wiped Thomas’ face off. “Messy.”

Thomas giggled and flapped his hands happily causing a couple close by to shoot them an odd look. This time Thomas picked up on it and put his hands down. He wanted to shift out of his headspace but he was stuck. He frowned before yawning.

“Looks like it’s time to head home.” Janus said grabbing out of Thomas’ hands, Roman grabbed the other. Thomas fell asleep on the ride home. A seahorse plushie Logan had got him from the gift shop tucked under his arm.

---

Thomas didn’t lock his door anymore. In fact most of the time he left it open so that the others could stick their heads in whenever they wanted, or come in and hang out. He liked the silent company of Virgil who would sit on the bean bag in the corner of the room. (Thomas may have gotten it just for him.) Or Remus laying across his bed spilling out random slightly disturbing facts. Roman sitting on the edge of the desk and helping Thomas spitball ideas for his writing. Janus who would find Thomas staying up too late and insist they both get some tea to help them relax for bed. Logan who would drop off random books that he thought Thomas would enjoy reading. Patton who gave him small gifts of sweets or toys.

To say he was spoiled was an understatement. Thomas never had to go without a caregiver if he was regressed. There was always someone free who was more than eager to take care of little him. There was a nagging thought that the others preferred him regressed to him normally began bugging him.

Patton and Logan would often ask multiple times a day if he needed to regress, giving him disappointed looks when he said no. Roman and Remus would just go ahead and baby him big or little and half the time that caused him to regress. Virgil spoke to him more when he was regressed and Janus…Janus seemed to just like taking care of people and when Thomas regressed whether he liked it or not, needed to be taken care of.

So Thomas tried to back off regressing. This however didn’t go as he planned as the next day Logan insisted they all go on a trip. A couple hours away was a huge museum that little Thomas had wanted to go to for forever. He was regressed before they even got in the building.

Logan pointed at the dinosaur fossils and listed off facts for Thomas as he hung on to Logan’s arm staring at him with wide eyes. Listening intently. Thomas loved learning when he was little which is why Logan suggested they all go to the science museum. Sure it was a drive but it was worth it for the look on Thomas’ face as he pointed at things he liked and demanded that Logan tell him about them.

He was around ten, on the other older side of his regression range. He still had to hold someone’s hand the whole time so he didn’t get lost and this time he chose Logan. Janus hung around close by while the others wandered. Thomas grabbed his hand too when he stepped over to get a look at a prehistoric flower drawing. Thomas beamed at him and Janus knew he wasn’t going to be getting his hand back anytime soon. (Not that he minded.)

It wasn’t until they were leaving that Thomas remembered that he was trying to not regress and managed to wrestle himself out of his headspace. The ride home he was silent which the others took as him being little. In fact he was thinking. He didn’t think having six caregivers would be a problem.

---

Thomas was small, the smallest he had been around them. Remus and Janus were the only ones home with him and they were both more than happy to take care of the baby. Remus held Thomas in his lap while Janus coo’d at him. Thomas giggled and clapped happily too young to speak. Janus took pictures.

When Thomas saw the pictures later they made him feel…small. Janus was quick to snatch up the printed out pictures before shooing Thomas from the room. Thomas was a little disappointed that he didn’t get to hang out with Janus but shook his head. It was fine. They clearly didn’t want him around if he wasn’t regressed anyway.

He started only seeking out their company when he was regressed and was bitter about how none of them complained about it. They really did only want to spend time with him when he was little. That hurt in a way Thomas didn’t expect.

---

One weekend they all went to the park. It was warm and not likely to rain. The only problem that Thomas could think of was that there would be other people. But his fears were eased when Logan assured him they would be going to a part of the park that no one normally visited.

Thomas played tag with Remus, Roman and Patton while Janus and Logan set up the picnic. Virgil had muttered something about the sun before he went to find some shade. Thomas stopped running and leaned against a tree. He looked confused.

“Are you ok?” Roman asked.

Thomas cleared his throat. “Yeah..just...forgot where I was for a second.” He said in his bigger voice.

Roman nodded. “You want to go get some food?”

Thomas smiled. “Yeah. Yeah ok.”

Roman grabbed Thomas’ hand even though he wasn’t regressed anymore. Thomas frowned but didn’t say anything about it. What was he supposed to say? He didn’t want them to start ignoring him because he wasn’t little anymore.

As they sat down to eat it was clear that he was annoyed but he didn’t talk so Roman assumed he regressed again until in the middle of eating Thomas stood up, “I’m going to go take a walk.”

Janus, Patton, and Logan all half stood to go with him. “Alone.” He said sharply. He felt back at the hurt and shock on their faces but he needed to be alone for a bit.

He walked off faster than necessary. It took him twenty minutes to get to the other side of the park, there he found a swing set that had a pair of adults sitting on it. One was wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket ( It’s the middle of summer? That’s way too hot?) And the other had pink dyed hair.

“Mind if I join you?” He asked the pair. The one with the sunglasses tensed but the pink haired one beamed.

“Sure!” He said before sticking out his hand. “I’m Emile! This is Remy!”

Remy sighed. “Emile we don’t talk to strangers.”

“He looks nice.” Emile protested and It clicked that Emile may be regressed.

“Are you...um..a little?” Thomas asked awkwardly.

Remy glared daggers at him. Emile didn’t seem to mind at all. “Yep!”

“You got a problem with that?” Remy asked threateningly.

“No! I mean..I regressed too so...I just never met anyone else that did...that.” Thomas said weakly.

Remy’s face softened. “Oh?”

Thomas nodded sitting on the swing seat next to Emile. “Yeah.”

“It’s good to meet you!” Emile said. “Maybe we can be friends!”

Thomas smiled at that dropping a little. “Sure!” Remy’s lips twitched a little in a small smile.

“So. How young do you get kid?” Remy asked as he gave Emile a small push on the swing.

“I’m normally around seven. But I can be older or younger though.” Thomas said.

“What’s your name?” Emile asked.

Oh. He hadn’t given his name yet had he. “Thomas.”

“Ok!” Emile said he looked at Remy. “Do you think we can have Thomas over sometime?”

Remy sighed. “Let’s see if you two can be friends first.”

Emile nodded.

“How young are you?” Thomas asked Emile.

“Four!” Emile said happily. Thomas smiled. He was feeling about eight.

“Do you have a caregiver?” Remy asked. Thomas got really quiet. Remy frowned. “It’s ok if you don’t.”

“No I..I do.. I have six.” Thomas muttered. Remy’s eyes widened. “They’re my housemates.” Thomas explained.

“Lucky you.” Remy teased.

Thomas shrugged. Remy frowned again. “Is there a problem?”

“I just...I don’t think they like big me.” Thomas confessed.

“Why not?” Emile asked.

“Cuz they like little me.” Thomas said.

“So? Remy likes me little and big.” Emile said stopping swinging so he could talk better.

Thomas kicked at the woodchips under the swing. “I dunno. I think...I dunno.”

Remy pulled out a piece of paper from a bag he had sitting nearby. He scribbled a number on it. “If you ever need to call me you can.”

“Thanks…” Thomas said shyly as he tucked the piece of paper in his pocket. He stood to walk back before freezing and realizing that he didn’t remember the way back. He patted his pocket for his phone and forgot he left it with Logan so it wouldn’t get damaged while he was playing.

“Something wrong?” Remy asked.

“I don’t remember how to get back.” He muttered.

Remy and Emile drove him back to the other side of the park and dropped him off with a reminder that he could always call if he needed anything and that Emile really wanted a playdate.

“There you are!” Patton said relieved. “Logan still has your phone and we couldn’t find you anywhere!”

“Sorry.” Thomas said.

“And you’re small? Oh Thomas what are we supposed to do with you?” Patton exclaimed, grabbing Thomas’ hand and dragging him back to where they had set up their picnic.

“You found him!” Remus said, giving Thomas a hug. “Where were you?”

“I met another little.” Thomas said.

“Really?” Remus said excited. “Do they want a playdate? Do they have a caregiver?” Remus asked quickly.

Thomas answered the questions in a subdued tone. Remus and Patton looked at each other concerned.

“What’s wrong kiddo?” Patton asked.

Thomas shrugged and looked away from them. He was silent as the others showed up each giving their own exclaimants of concern or worry. He teared up on the way home and sniffed a couple times. Thankfully no one commented on it.

He locked himself in his room as soon as he was home. He hugged a giant teddy bear the twins had gotten for him. He wanted to go be taken care of. He wanted to tell them how he felt but...what if they told him he was right? That they only like Regressed him?

A knock at the door. “Are you alright?” Virgil asked.

Thomas got up and opened the door. He crawled back in bed and let Virgil leave the door open. Virgil sat down on the bed next to him. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t want you to hate me.” Thomas said.

Virgil tilted his head confused. “Why would we hate you?”

Thomas hid his face in the teddy bear. “Cuz you only like me when I’m little.”

Virgil blinked, “What? Of course we don’t only like you when you’re little. You’re a great friend Thomas.”

“No I’m not! I’m always so weird...and you only have time for little me.” Thomas said.

Virgil paused thinking. When had he hung out with grown up Thomas? Virgil pulled him into a hug. “How about we make sure we hang out more when you aren’t regressed ok?”

Thomas agreed.

---

This was awkward. It was clear that Virgil and Thomas didn’t really have that much in common. It ended up Thomas regressed and Virgil was relieved that he knew how to handle that. Thomas felt worst than ever. He decided to call Remy.

“Who’s this?” Remy asked.

“It’s Thomas...from the park.” Thomas said.

“Thomas! How are you kid?” Remy said voice brightening.

“I’m..not great honestly. Can I talk to Emile?” Thomas asked.

“Sure. You want me to give you his number or do you want to meet up?” Remy offered.

Thomas was surprised. “Ummm both?”

Remy laughed. “Sure thing kid.” They agreed to meet up at a cafe close to Thomas’ work. They planned to be there just after Thomas got off work.

---

“Sorry I was late.” Emile said as Remy and Thomas were already there. “A session ran late.”

“Session?” Thomas asked.

“Emile is a therapist.” remy said. Emile nodded.

“Oh.” Thomas said. “That seems like a…”

“Strange choice?” Emile offered.

“No. Like a lot of work.” Thomas said.

“It is. But I know that’s not why you wanted to meet up.” Emile said getting the conversation back on topic.

“I wanted your advice.” Thomas said.

“Shoot!”

“I recently found that My caregivers prefer me little...In fact they don’t really like hanging out with me when I’m not regressed.” Thomas said. He noticed both Remy and Emile frown. “They even try and get me to regress when I’m not really in the mood and I’m not sure what to do.”

“Have you talked to them about this?” Remy asked concerned.

“They just brush me off.” Thomas said frustrated.

Emile hummed. “Maybe you need a third party to step in to help you communicate your issues.”

“Do you know someone?”Thomas asked hopefully.

“I do. Very well in fact.” Emile said smiling.

“Wh-..it’s you isn’t it?” Thomas asked.

To his surprise Emile shook his head and turned towards Remy. Remy smiled at the shocked look on Thomas’ face. “Don’t worry I’ll help you get it all worked out.”

They all agreed to meet up at the park where they met. This time Thomas was taking his caregivers with him.

---

Thomas was nervous and his caregivers could tell. “We can call this off if you don’t want to go.” Logan said for the fifth time.

“I do! This needs to happen!” Thomas said firmly.

They looked at each other confused. “I’m sure your friends won’t be that upset if you put it off.” Patton said.

Thomas shook his head and continued to lead them to the back of the park. Remy and Emile were sitting on the swings and Thomas visibly relaxed as soon as they were in sight. He took a deep breath. This was going to be ok.

It was going to be ok.

----

It took nearly two hours for the issue to be resolved. That Thomas felt smothered by them and that they didn’t care about him as a friend. They as soon as they really listened, were a bit ashamed that they made him feel like they only valued him for being little.

“I’m sorry Thomas. I just wanted to make you feel safe and validated as yourself. I never thought that I might have taken that too far,” Logan said.

“Thank you.”

“So what do we do now?” Remus asked.

“Do you want us to stop being your caregivers?” Janus asked.

“What? No! I just...maybe spend more time with me when I’m not regressed. We can go places and hang out without the expectation that I will Regress….if that’s ok.” Thomas said.

“Of course it is!” Patton said moving to hug Thomas before stopping. He wasn’t sure if hugging counted as babying. Thomas moved to hug him.

They ended in a group hug thanks to Roman and Remus tackling them.

“Now that that’s all finished.” Remy said as the hug broke apart. “Let’s-” He was cut off by Thomas hugging him.

“Thank you.”

Remy ruffled Thomas’ hair. “Anytime kid. Now Let’s all go get something to eat. I want to talk to all of you instead of yelling.”

“You didn’t yell.” Emile said, “You firmly scolded.”

Remy laughed as they all walked off. Thomas holding hands with Remus and Janus. Not because he was small but because he wanted to. He beamed the whole way to their cars. Maybe having six caregivers wasn’t a problem after all.

#Agere Thomas #little Thomas #Agere Emile #Little Emile #cg Remy #cg roman #Cg Remus #Cg logan #cg Virgil #cg patton #cg Janus

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im-actually-ok · 4 years ago

Text

Fangs

Chapter four

First, Previous, Next

Masterlist

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Ships: Platonic DLAMPR, platonic Logince

Word Count: 1140

Genre: Not really angst, kinda just fluffish and plot development???

Warnings: Fangs, very slight body horror(the fangs), food, eating, spying (i think that’s it but if i missed anything please let me know so i can add it, thank you!!!)

------

Logan awoke the next morning to a knock on his door and he jumped slightly only to realize he had fallen asleep curled up on the floor. Oops. He simply rubbed his eyes and moved to the door, pressing his forehead against the wood. “Yeth?”

“Hey, Lo, I’m back,” Roman said, a hand resting on the door.

“Good morning, Roman,” he said, blinking sleepily as he moved to sit on the floor, yawning.

“Morning, I- uh.. I’m not sure what’s going on with you but I want to help so, I wasn’t sure about what to get but I stocked the fridge with like, uh, bacon and steak and just kinda meat stuff? Is that- uh- I don’t know, sorry,” Roman said awkwardly, shifting from one foot to the other.

“Oh,” Logan said simply, huh, “um, thank you, Roman… I really appreciate that..”

Roman perked up a little, “you do?” he asked with a smile, happy he could help.

“Yeth, I do,” he said with a smile, “You… you really did not have to though, I do not want the otherth to quethtion…”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, I took care of it,” Roman said, resting his hands on his hips with a very proud of himself smile.

“You took care of it?”

“Yeah! I also have a pet now so that's cool,” he said with a grin, moving and sitting on the floor by the door.

“Oh, do you think it is withe to lie theeing as Janus has the ability to thenthe said falthehoods?”

“Well I only lied once, and now it’s not a lie! So now I’m telling the truth because I really am feeding my pet,” he said happily.

“Erm, if you’re thure it is alright,” he said with a small nod even though Roman couldn’t see it.

“Trust me, Microsoft Nerd,” He said, tapping his knuckles absentmindedly on the wood in front of him.

“Alright, I trutht you.”

-------

Logan… wasn’t finding any solutions. He tried everything but they wouldn’t go away. But things were getting better, Roman came and visited him in the mornings and before bed and brought him dinner which honestly was much better than the self isolation and not eating anything, though the all meat diet… was not ideal, it was better than nothing.

Logan was currently working on a new, stronger metal file at his desk, hunched over in a sort of ‘you’ll regret sitting in this position later’ position, bouncing a leg nervously below the desk. His hair fell down into his eyes and he brushed it aside before it fell right back into his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back but it fell right back into place and he huffed, annoyed with the uncooperative mop of brown hair.

He pushed away from his desk and stood, walking to the bathroom and pushing open the door. He stepped in and turned, slightly startled by what he saw in the mirror, “What the hell???”

He found his hair had grown a substantial amount, much faster than it should have in simply a week, almost to his shoulders but not quite. He ran a hand through the mess atop his head and groaned, “Great. Thith is jutht what I needed,” he grumbled sarcastically to himself. Whatever was happening to him was… unnatural to say the least. Whatever. His hair could wait, he had more important things to worry about.

He rummaged through the bathroom cabinet until he found a hair tie, tying the hair back in a small ponytail and returning to his desk. At least it wouldn’t fall in his face anymore.

--------

Roman came up a little late that afternoon, he had been helping Thomas brainstorm new video ideas and they had gone a little late, it was almost 9:00 now. But nonetheless he went down to the kitchen and made up dinner for Logan like he had been doing every night.

“Hey, Ro,” Pat said with a smile as he entered the kitchen, “getting dinner for that little cutie of yours?”

“Yup,” he replied with a smile, not exactly a lie because they could all agree that when he’s not upset, Logan is pretty cute, “Just making it up before I head up to bed,”

Patton smiled and nodded a little bit, “That’s nice, but it’s kind of late, isn’t it? You should get her on a feeding schedule, and I can always pop in and feed her if you get busy again,” Patton offered with a smile.

Gah, play it cool, Roman, “Uh, no, that’s alright, Pat, I got it, you don’t need to worry about it,” he said with a grin, taking the now cooked meat and putting it on a plate and before Patton could answer Roman was already out of the kitchen and up the stairs, “Night, Padre, talk to you tomorrow!” He called as he went upstairs.

“Oh- uh- night, Ro…” Patton said, tilting his head in confusion. He seemed… odd… Maybe Pat should just go check on him…

Roman got up the stairs and promptly knocked on Logan’s door and he was met by a small, “Ro?”

“Hey, Lo, sorry, I know it’s late, Thomas and I got carried away brainstorming,” he said with a small apologetic smile even though Logan couldn’t see it.

“That’th ok, I do not mind, you are not obligated to do thith in any way anywayth,” he shrugged.

“Hey, listen, I am obligated to do this because I’m your friend. I’m always gonna be here to help you,” he said with a small smile.

“Yeah……” Logan said softly and, gosh, he couldn’t believe he was considering this but he was and he said, “Hey, Roman?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you… want to come in?” He asked softly, “You’re probably tired and want to go to thleep but it was just a thought I was jutht-”

“Yeah! Of course I want to come in- Erm- if you’re comfortable with that,” Roman replied with a smile. Logan trusts him oh wow he trusts him.

Logan took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping out behind it so Roman couldn’t see him yet.

Roman smiled and stepped inside.

Patton felt bad about this, he really did, but he was a dad and he was worried about his child so… he followed him up the stairs and hid. He watched Roman walk down the hall towards his room but… he stopped? In front of Logan’s room? Oh gosh they’re talking??? Oh god Logan’s room?! With the plate of meat…? What is going on? Why wouldn’t Roman tell him about something like this?? How long has he been talking with Logan??

Patton took a deep breath and once Roman was in Logan’s room Patton ascended the stairs and quickly went to his room… gosh. What was he gonna do?!

------

Chapter four you guys!!! This is exciting, I’m just having a good time writing this over here XD

Fang Au Tags:

@did-he-just-hiss-at-me @aegis-the-ace @occasional-fander @thefivecalls

#sanders sides #because i can #my writings #thomas sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #Fangs Au #tw fangs #fangs #tw slight body horror #slight body horror #tw food #food #tw eating #eating #tw spying #spying

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lunar-lair · 5 years ago

Text

More headcanons from my main doc? Why of course.

(God this doc is so long, ple ase help me it's like 6k-)

Remus and Roman eventually thought up getting tattoos. They both have half of a heart on their right and left wrists respectfully. Remus' is red and Roman's is green, so when they hold up their wrists together, it makes a heart that's red on the left and green on the right. Both are outlined with orange, since that's what green and red are mixed together.

Of course, it wasn't too hard of a decision, since conjuring a tattoo for them is as easy as waving their hand.

The others, though, don't have it that easy, so they end up asking them for their own hearts. All of them are whole, and their own color, and they're on their left wrist, since they're all left handed.

Just as Roman and Remus have nicknames for the others, Janus has his own set.

For Roman, of course, they have their little two sided thing. He also calls him Sir Roman or My Knight at times, and does the same for Remus.

When the King was around, he called him accordingly, often addressing him as 'My King', sometimes with a bow.

If or when the twins ever fuse again, he may dust off the old name and bow once again, taking his hand and simply saying, "Hello, my new King."

The twins don't mind. (Being called the same name as him is...undesirable, as they aren't him anymore, but...at the same time, together, they are more. And besides, My King is an excellent name, and simply makes them feel royal. And they adore feeling royal.)

For Logan, he sometimes calls him Dr.Who, The Brain, or Mr.Logic.

Logan himself has some rebuttal nicknames, calling him Jekyll or Hyde depending on whether he's being nice or fuckin with him, like Roman and Janus' system.

For Patton, he'll call him Heart or simply Pat.

He's been calling Virgil Stormcloud for ages, same for Little Spider.

He'll sometimes call Remus Little Rat, because Remus loves rats in general and also really wanted him to call him that when he was younger. Now it's just another nickname, really.

When Roman jokingly asked for a version of it for him, Janus answered seriously with 'Little Lion', and now that's a thing too.

The others have their own nicknames for Janus, of course; Jan, Snake, Mr.Snake (though that's usually Patton or Remus when they're being Silly), Roman also uses Jekyll and Hyde sometimes, Scar (which is usually Remus, for shits and giggles), and whatever the hell else they end up thinking of.

I like to think the rooms work almost like they do in canon

Like they have the same layout as Thomas' actual apartment

But they can be changed slightly, whether that be certain fixtures like chandeliers or even shifting the layout of the area itself, though the twins are the best as this, of course.

And then there's the extension garden that they can go out the front door to find, too; all it takes is them simply deciding whether they wish to leave their rooms to the halls or to their garden. Though, it's isolated from the others, somehow, even though their rooms are right next to each other. The logic in it all is rather odd, and Logan has been trying to wrench an explanation from the twins for ages.

Roman and Remus themselves made their rooms much more extravagant, with the door to the Imagination being the closet closest to the door instead of...you know, a closet, and their couches much bigger. Even their kitchen is a much more decent size. Both of them made their bedrooms bigger, too, with their own canopy beds and an extra loveseat nestled in there. Not to mention all of the extra decorations they have everywhere. And, of course, they've got their desk, covered head to fucking toe with papers. Remus' looks disorganized, but to him, they are. Roman's are just disorganized.

They also have Balconies, Of Course, with seats and hanging plants and all

Remus really likes hanging off the balcony railing

Like just hanging himself halfway like a towel out to dry or even just holding on to the bars and swinging around on the outside edge

Roman was a bit 'idk dude :////' at first but eventually he was just like 'ok yeah he just does that' and even sits on the railing every now and then when he's feeling Dangerous

Remus will sit on it, yeah, but he'll also rock back and forth really hard and walk on it precariously for shits and giggles

Roman just holds his hand and waters his/Remus' plants, just to make sure he doesn't fall, cause he doesn't know what's down there or how their rooms really work with these balconies that somehow don't show the other sides' rooms beside them and a long field a story or two below and he does not want to figure out how it does work by watching his brother fall into the abyss, even if he could probably snap himself back up

Janus has absolutely used that balcony to dry clothes before, whether over the railing or with a clothesline

It's rare, but he still uses the twins' balconies for that to this day

Patton made his own kitchen a lot bigger-for baking!!!-and his living room, too-for cuddling!!!!!!-and his bed a bit comfier-for sleeping well!!!!!!!-and overall, the whole place is just. A bit more,,,,,,Homey. And as we know, there are all those old items scattered about, along with a absolute fuck ton of old stuffed animals stacked up in his room.

Logan's room is almost exactly the same as Thomas' apartment, since he didn't see much reason in changing much. There are, however, some more science-y posters and memorabilia, and that damned picture has been changed to one with squares instead of circles, which makes much more sense to him. He also implemented a decently sized desk to work at, but beyond the garden, there isn't much change besides that.

Besides the decorations we've already seen, Virgil's room isn't too much different, mostly cause he thought it was fine and it felt nice and familiar. He made his bed a bit bigger and nicer, though, and made his closets bigger, Just In Case. He also has extra cabinet space and a bigger fridge, for Snack Storing. There's also a blanket and pillow on the couch 24/7 for when he wants to go to sleep w the TV on (mostly for having smth on in the bg), but that's less smth that's part of the room and more somethin Virge set up for himself.

Janus' room isn't much different either, honestly. Bit bigger rooms, just for the sake of the place being less cramped, and a good sized kitchen bc A Bitch Gotta Cook. His closets are a bit deeper, too, for storage reasons. He also has his own washer/dryer/dishwasher for when the ones in the main area get full and things are still a goddamn mess. He'll just snap it to his room to deal with later. He also has piles of laundry scattered about-mostly in his bedroom, so it doesn't clutter up the rest of the place. The Vibe is a bit different, too, with how he's decorated it. It's very...like...classy. I guess. Just...lots of black and gold. Very like...old fashioned, kinda.

He also has a huge bed, partially for the fun of it, but partially because the other two used to come to him when they felt bad.

Now they do again, and it finally serves a purpose.

Rarely, the other three will even come to him, knowing he has a solution for their problems; they all have so much trouble with caring for themselves properly, and he knows about that, is all.

He's happy to let them come to him, really. It's his job to help them take care of themselves, anyways.

So ik we all write Patton as knowing how to clean and shit

But we all know how he actually is in canon

I'll give him the ability to cook for Family Dinner Purposes but I'm also saying he doesn't know how to clean for shit

The only one that cleaned before Janus came around was Logan, and that was purely because a clean area is better for someone to live in, not for any actual desire for things to be clean

He was usually too busy doing other Important Logic Shit to clean anyways

So the dumbasses lived in relative dirtyness

Until Janus came along and flIPPED HIS SHIT

Basically, Janus got a good look at the light sides' area and went 'oh my god what the fuck.'

See, he's got all the Cleaning Want, being self preservation and all. Aka, yknow, wanting to keep your area clean so you feel better about shit.

So even with Remus around, the dark sides' area is usually relatively clean, and when Virgil was still around, he kept his room clean, too.

He tries his best with Remus, but Remus has that kind of chaos where he knows how it works anyways, so he just does his laundry and not much else.

The first time he happened upon the light sides' area, though, he,,,,,yeah, he highkey flipped his shit.

All the others were there, so it was a whole ass show. Remus just laughed his ass off and Virgil just blankly stared, thinking 'yeah, I expected this.'

He flitted around the living room for a good while, cleaning things and saying 'why is this confounded place so dirty? There's laundry everywhere and the couch is a mess and the carpet! The carpet! How are you even living here?!'

And the others finally found out where every drop of cleanliness went to.

They're at Janus' whims for a couple hours, forced to help him tidy up the area. Virgil and Remus are sent off easily, like trained troops out to war. Jan says 'Remus, dishes, Virgil...check that fucking closet.' (It was filled with random bullshit. No surprise honestly.) And they're off, with salutes and all.

By the end of the session, the living room is clean and Janus is vowing to keep this godforsaken place clean for once.

"I'll take care of whatever it is you all need me to," he says, sighing as he closes the closet. "Just as long as this place stays clean, and as long as I'm the one that's allowed to handle it." He shrugged, a smile on his face. "It is rather fun after all."

Oh yeah, that's exactly where all the cleanliness went to.

He even asks to be allowed to see about helping the others with tidying their rooms up a bit. Even Remus mentions that his has gotten a little out of hand, surprisingly, and unsurprisingly, Roman is basically worshipping the ground he walks on, because his room is a fucking mess and he just. Doesn't know what to do with it.

(Remus eventually helps Roman figure out a good organization system For Him when Janus' system didn't really...work. They end up with smth super specific based on themes of items and shit.)

Virgil is first, since, with what he represents, he honestly doesn't have the energy for cleaning most of the time. (And yet, a messy area just makes him feel worse.) It's one of the main reasons Janus used to come by and do it for him every now and then; he respects the fact that Virgil simply can't do it himself, and so he doesn't mind helping out a bit.

The mess hadn't gotten too out of hand without Janus around, so they mostly just have a nice chat while Janus makes some piles and finally makes use of the basket Virgil has in there for clothes again. They even trade some old stupid jokes for really specific shit, like saying 'cup' super excitedly when there's a cup. (Janus found one under Virgil's bed one time when he had been missing so fucking many from the kitchen and he got overly excited for a second.)

Remus was second, considering the fact that if he was saying it was getting out of hand, things were really getting bad.

See, he usually doesn't keep things like dishes or clothes in there, surprisingly; usually the only mess is a hell of a ton of papers and different craft supplies, with some costumes here and there, but not actual clothes. He'd forgotten to haul some of that shit out recently, though, and it was fucking up his Chaos Organization.

Yet again, Janus had to fight off his need to Organize This Shit as he dug through stacks of papers to find the few dishes that were scattered around in the middle of them all.

At least they got to have a bit of conversation on their own again; it had been awhile. As always, they made the classic cup joke that all three of them knew (and would likely soon teach to the others) and generally talked about some other shit.

Third came Patton. Now, this one's a little...special. Yes, Patton's room is a Whole Ass Mess that needs Organizing, but that organization honestly includes throwing out some...old things.

See, a part of self care is absolutely throwing away things that remind you of bad things or past relationships that you don't need to think of anymore, or even just things that are cluttering up your space.

So after they got the general cleaning out of the way, having a moral debate or two along the way, they had to take a good long couple of hours organizing things, and then a couple more making a 'trash' pile, which took an awful lot of convincing from Janus and even more discussion about what things are good things to keep and what weren't.

Like the difference between all the old guys and dolls pamphlets and the card Virgil gave him on Christmas.

One reminds him of a long gone relationship that needs to be forgotten and the other is a reminder of a great friendship.

There was certainly a small conversation around the second, though, where Janus mentioned all of the little things he had from Virgil and the relationship they used to have, the relationship they finally had back.

And there was certainly a long discussion on the emo they both know and care for almost like a parent.

Fourth was Roman, mostly due to how grateful he seemed at the idea in the first place and how much that worried Janus.

And boy, did he have a right to be.

Roman's room was simply chaos. And not even organized chaos like Remus', no, he has no idea where anything is ever. The whole place was covered head to toe with papers, clothing, dishes, books, any and everything. Walking was a hazard in itself.

Janus just sighed, sat down, and started his piles.

He gathered all the papers around him and said, 'get me a box and grab all the dishes you can find. After that, grab the laundry.

We're making piles.'

Janus ended up doing a 'throw shit away' method with Roman, too, because he had ended up holding on to way too many old ideas and costumes, etc. and it really needed to go.

He also forced Roman to put some of his papers in binders, because for heaven's sa kes, there was so much loose leaf in that goddamn room that Roman didn't even know of. There were also some really fucked up notebooks they tried their best to salvage.

Lastly, and happily, leastly, was Logan. His room was mostly clean except for like 50 stacks of books and notebooks that he didn't know what to do with.

He insisted on keeping most of them, surprisingly-'so many of these are informational, or have records of important information!'-and Janus actually let him keep most of them, believing him and his pretty-solid reasoning. He ended up throwing a lot of the notebooks in a box and finding a place for them in one of the closets in his room and fitting in a new bookshelf-he just called in one of the twins to throw one against the wall behind the couch-to fit all of the old books into.

He actually had to force Logan to throw away some stuff, too. Old college textbooks and even age-old children's books tucked away in his closet, rotting away. (He found them while looking for room for the notebooks.) Logan had to finally admit that he was attached to them because...well, Thomas just doesn't learn nearly as much these days, and while he listens to him a lot more now, there was a time when he didn't, and just...he just missed when Thomas listened to him more. He missed when Thomas was striving for something so educational. He still has that old diploma hanging up just above his desk. (It was one of the few old things he let him keep.)

Janus had to drill it into him that Thomas does listen to him now, and holding on to the past, no matter how much better it may seem, simply isn't good. He ended up making a deal of sorts; "I'll listen to you rant about whatever you like, whenever you like, if you promise to let go of this all. Listening to you talk is usually fascinating anyways."

Janus ended up with a teary Logan in his arms and a whole box of old children's books and college textbooks to throw away, but he certainly didn't mind. (Remus had fun burning it all in a bonfire later anyways.

That was a fun night; all 6 of them at a little bonfire party in the Imagination.)

(Their chess matches were filled with explanations of astronomy and further chemical engineering knowledge after that, and Janus simply smiled and listened, making winning moves while Logan wasn't looking.

Janus wouldn't have it any other way.)

*Stumbles over myself* ok, hear me out here-

Remus and Virgil, one day, started calling Janus 'mom' as a joke in reference to how he was literally the mom friend among them.

Eventually, though, it was revealed that he actually...really liked the nickname.

It is part of his purpose to keep the others happy and well, after all. And besides, it just...made him feel. Important. Recognized for trying to help them.

Also it was a fun little in-joke and it gave Janus a reason to make up cute little nicknames like 'little spider', 'little rat', and 'stormcloud'.

After Virgil left, though, he...stopped calling him that. Remus kept it up, of course, and Janus was grateful, but still…

It simply felt...wrong.

Eventually, Janus and Remus found their way to him again, and Janus began holding out hope...just a little.

The first time Virgil said it again, it was as a flippant joke after Janus had fretted over his lack of sleep, rolling his eyes and snorting. "Sure, Mom."

Janus immediately paused, tearing up, and a great big smile grew over Remus' face. The others simply watched in confusion, unknowing of their little joke.

Janus smiled softly. "Of course, Little Spider."

Virgil was then left with a crying Janus, an explanation that he didn't mean to but that it was probably fine anyway, and a bunch of confused friends who needed an explanation of their own.

This is gonna sound kinda weird but I like,,,,,have my own ideas for how The Dorks look

Like when I'm writing them I go 'yea they look like that, mhm'

Like Virge has a pair headphones around his neck, 24/7

Jan's hat has a yellow ribbon, Of Course

They switch up their outfits sometimes cause I like that idea and it makes writing more exciting cause I get to explain what they're wearing when they go to hang out and stuff uwu

Also....sides. In skirts

Specifically Jan

Lolo in button ups…...yes pls

Same for Jan tbh

If Pat's not wearing lil friendship bracelets, what's the point??

Ro? Green eyes. Rem? Red. That's it, no debate

*Vibrating* I'm listening to 'I Miss My Mum' by Cavetown and I'm only half a minute in, but,,,,,,

Janus leaving post it notes around to help Virge/possibly Remus/maybe eventually the others remember to take care of themselves is an immaculate concept

Like Virge moves in w the lights and he's like 'shit,,,,,I never realized how much l relied on Jan and his damn post it note system' and now he's just always forgettin shit

And it's not like the other dumbasses there are any good at remembering that shit anyways

Then Jan shows up and he starts up his post it note system again by pure habit, not thinking to tell the others

Rem is like 'business as usual', Virge is like 'oh thank god I missed these things', and the others are like '????'

Pat asks Jan if he knows anything abt the weird post it notes that have been showin up a couple days in and he's like 'oh yea, those are mine, sorry I forgot to tell you guys'

And he's got a color coded system, too

Like if it's a note for Virge, it'll be purple, Remus green, etc

And then notes for everyone are yellow

Yet again, you all have been laid bare to my stupid thoughts that I get at random times!! Hope they were at least a little cool.

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #ts remus #ts roman #ts logan #ts patton #ts janus #ts virgil #its The Whole Gang #also some momceit vibes #...ok ill tag it #momceit #sanders sides headcanons #ts sides headcanons #trash talks #some #creativitwins #content #not a whole ton but like. a bit

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threecrowsinatrenchcoat · 4 years ago

Text

Plant Your Hope With Good Seeds

Dukeceit Week Day 3: Snakes/Bugs

Remus and Janus break up. But literally everyone knows that's not what they want. Everyone, including their plants.

AO3 Link: [here]

Word Count: 4337

Warnings: n/a

@dukeceitweek <3

Unknown Number

hey so i kno i said i wouldnt text u but rupert isnt doin good. can i bring him back? he misses u

Janus stared at the text for several minutes. Rupert was, of course, the Monstera Variegata that he and Remus had raised together all the way from propagation. It had been one of the pride and joys of their plant collection. Losing Rupert in the split had hurt almost as much as losing Remus.

...Almost.

Janus

Is it getting enough light? Remember it needed the grow light even next to the window.

Janus texted back against his better judgement. He and Remus were broken up. They’d agreed not to text for a while. They’d agreed to give each other space, get used to being apart.

It sucked, though. The apartment felt empty without Remus and half their plant collection.

Unknown Number

ya i kno. but i don’t have any south facign windows here. our place is better

Unknown Number

i mean ur place

Janus sighed morosely. Well, if it was for Rupert…

Janus

Fine. Rupert can come back.

Unknown Number

yay! ill be in town this weekend. ill bring him ok?

Janus

Ok.

And then Janus promptly threw his phone across the room.

Because here’s the thing. Janus and Remus were broken up. Remus had moved eight hours away and everything. He’d been accepted into the Nuclear Engineering graduate program a state away, and they had both heard too many horror stories about long-distance relationships to brother trying. So they’d had a very civil and mutual split. Janus kept the apartment. Remus took the TV. And they’d divided their plant family between them: they each kept their favorites, and Remus had taken the hardier plants, while Janus kept the ones that were likely not to survive an interstate move.

And then… Remus left.

And Janus had not immediately wanted him back. Not at all.

(And, of course, Janus was lying to himself.)

Remus texted him Saturday morning that he was on his way, and Janus spent the first few hours of the wait stress-cleaning. He then checked on every single plant in the apartment. Watered the ones that needed it. Rotated some of the more vivacious growers so that they wouldn’t lean full-body toward their light source. Moved his small army of Sansevierias out to the apartment balcony for some extra sun.

Then, when all that still failed to fill up the entire eight hours of waiting, he started stress-cooking. So by the time Remus texted that he’d just gotten off the highway, Janus had himself a pot of minestrone soup simmering on the stove, a tray of made-from-scratch lasagna in the oven, and was mixing up a batch of double chocolate chip cookies.

There was no way he was going to eat all this food himself, he realized. He was so used to booking big meals like this, because Remus ate like he was three people. And lasagna was his favorite.

“Oh, Jake, what am I doing?” he groaned to the N’Joy Pothos that cascaded down the side of the refrigerator. And then his doorbell rang.

Janus opened the door to find Remus, dancing awkwardly from foot to foot, with his face half-hidden behind the green-and-white leaves of Rupert.

“...Hey,” Remus said, sounding sheepish. Janus’ heart clenched.

“Hi,” he said. They stood there in the doorway for a full minute before Janus stepped back and motioned for Remus to follow. Remus hesitated, but obeyed.

“Uh… I’ll just…” Remus looked around. Janus hated how uncomfortable he looked. Until about two weeks ago, this had been Remus’ apartment, too. “Can I put him in his old spot?”

“Sure,” Janus replied with a nod. Rupert’s old spot had been in the bedroom, where the big, beautiful south-facing window let in a ton of light. He’d moved Venus de Milos, his Marble Queen Pothos, and La Hoya Jackson, the finicky Hoya Carnosa that Remus had wanted but didn’t expect to make the 8-hour drive without going into shock, to free up Rupert’s spot. Remus hesitated again, before he nodded awkwardly and wandered off to the bedroom, all three feet of plant and two gallons of soil in tow. Janus went to the oven and took out the lasagna.

“Howl looks good,” Remus said when he came back into the kitchen. Janus glanced up from where he was laying balls of cookie dough out onto baking sheets.

“Thank you,” he replied. Howl was their dramatic fiddle leaf fig tree, which had decided to throw a fit just before Remus left. “I switched it to a terracotta pot with peat moss and pearlite, and doubled its water intake. It seems to be tolerating it well.”

“Good.” There was a long pause. Then,” How are you?”

Janus looked back to the cookies. “I’m doing well,” he lied. “And you? Do you start class soon?”

“Next week,” Remus answered. “And, uh. Yeah, I’m doin’ good.” Another long pause. “Uh… I’ll just. Head out, I guess.”

“You could stay,” Janus blurted out. Shit. “For dinner, I mean.” He gestured to the tray of lasagna, fresh from the oven. “If you want.”

Remus gave him an uncharacteristically shy smile, then nodded slowly. He didn’t say anything, though, so Janus just gestured for him to take a seat at the table. And then he joined him, a plate of lasagna for each of them.

“So tell me, how’s living with Roman again?” Janus asked, a few bites into the meal, because he could not take the awkward silence a moment longer.

“It’s ok,” Remus answered. He shoveled another forkful of lasagna into his mouth. “This is really good, Jan.”

Janus smiled softly. “Thank you.” A pause. “Roman doesn’t mind all the plants?”

“Nah, he’s dating this guy Patton who apparently loves plants, so the apartment being full of houseplants is a huge plus to him now.”

“Good for him.” The oven timer went off, startling him slightly. He started to get up, but Remus waved him off.

“I got ‘em, you did all the cooking.”

Janus didn’t protest. Remus got up and took the cookies out of the oven. And he even moved them to a cooling rack like Janus had taught him to do. He came back to the table.

“How’s work?”

Janus sighed. “Oh, terrible as always,” he answered. “I really must start looking for a new job.”

“Finally getting fed up?” Remus teased. Janus rolled his eyes. More seriously, Remus continued, “You deserve better, Jan. You gotta find some place that treats you right and pays you what you’re worth.”

“Thank you, Remus.”

“And hey, just sayin’, I still think you’d make an excellent stripper.”

Janus snorted at that. “I haven’t fully ruled out that particular career change.”

They fell easily back into their usual banter, lingering late into the night over a dessert of milk and cookies. It was pushing 10pm when Remus glanced at his phone and cursed softly. Janus glanced at his phone as well.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you so late,” he said. Remus shrugged.

“Nah, it’s cool. Thanks for dinner, Jan. It was real good, as always.”

“Where are you staying?”

“Uh… well, the plan was to stay with Logan, but I guess he had some kind of family emergency, so I don’t wanna trouble him. I’ll probably see if I can find a hotel room.”

Janus’ brow furrowed at that. “Why don’t you just stay here?”

“Oh, uh. I don’t wanna trouble you. I kinda feel like I already overstayed my welcome a bit?”

“Nonsense. A hotel room will cost you at least $100 for the night, and that’s simply ridiculous,” Janus insisted. “You should just stay here.”

Remus worried at his lip, which Janus knew meant he was mulling over his options. Then, he nodded. “If it’s not a bother?”

“Of course not. You’re not a bother, Remus.”

Remus’ eyes softened, and he smiled. “Ok. Thank you. Oh… lemmie go get my overnight back outta my truck.”

When Remus came back inside, Janus had just about finished making up the couch.

“Hey, you don’t gotta get all fancy,” Remus teased. “You know I can sleep basically anywhere.”

“This is for me,” Janus replied. He fluffed up one of the pillows a bit more. “You take the bed.”

An odd look flashed across Remus’ face. “No way, Jan. I’m good on the couch.”

“Remus, you just drove eight hours, and you’re doing it again tomorrow. I am not letting you fuck up your back.”

‘I don’t-”

“Yes you do, no matter how often you say you can sleep anywhere,” Janus scoffed. “You can’t lie to me.”

Remus’ eyes softened, and after a moment, he sighed. “Ok, Jan. But what about you?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You hate sleeping on couches.”

“It’s only one night-”

“And don’t you work tomorrow?”

“Yes, but-”

“You’re going to be so grumpy at work without a proper night’s sleep.”

“I’m usually grumpy at work anyway,” Janus pointed out. Remus snorted.

“Ok, that’s true. But I don’t want you to be even grumpier,” he said. “Let’s just share the bed.”

Janus eyed him for a moment. This was a terrible idea. They should not do this.

“Ok,” Janus said anyway.

They got ready for bed in awkward silence, which just made Janus miss Remus’ long, rambling chatter that much more. When Janus finished in the bathroom, he found Remus sitting gingerly on what used to be his side of the bed. Janus came over and sat down on the other side.

“Hey, uh… thanks,” Remus said. “For lettin’ me stay.”

“Of course,” Janus answered. “I… I still think of you as a friend, Remus.”

At that. Remus grimaced slightly. He didn’t say anything, seeming unable to find the right words. Before he could, Janus pulled back the top blankets on the bed and laid down. After a moment, Remus did the same.

“Good night, Remus,” Janus said quietly.

“...Good night, Janus,” Remus answered. Then he reached over and shut off the light.

Remus played that night over and over in his head in the days after he got home, and each and every time, he was just as stumped.

He knew, in his brain, why he and Janus had broken up. It had been the only thing that made sense at the time, when the facts were just that Remus was moving away to pursue a lifelong dream, and Janus would never ever try to stop him from doing so. So they broke up. It made sense… right?

But… That morning, he’d woken up to Janus curled up in his arms, face smushed against Remus’ neck, and… Remus had completely forgotten why they had even broken up in the first place.

Remus was back at Roman’s apartment, now. Eight hours away in his own cold bed, arms empty of the man he loved, just staring at the ceiling. A sharp knock on his door snapped him out of his daze.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty,” Roman called. “Don’t you have class in like an hour?”

“Fuck!” Remus scrambled to get up, but succeeded only in rolling out of the bed.

“Don’t forget to lock the door when you leave,” Roman added. Clearly he was unconcerned by the loud “thump” of a body hitting the floor.

“Yup, got it,” Remus groaned in reply. He staggered, successfully this time, to his feet.

Getting dressed was a rushed affair of ‘grab whatever’s closest,’ and soon he emerged from the bedroom with one shoe on, the other in his hand, and his backpack slung over one shoulder. He rushed into the kitchen to grab the travel mug of coffee Janus always set out for him in the mornings. And then the realization hit: Janus didn’t live here.

Remus dropped his shoe.

The rest of the day went about as well as it could have gone without any coffee- that is to say, terribly. He got lost trying to get to campus, then he got lost again trying to get to class. Then he got stuck in traffic on the way back to Roman’s apartment. And then, to top it all off, the grocery store had been out of his favorite chips.

So here he was, mopey and chip-less, and fucking exhausted. He dumped his backpack and collapsed face-first onto the couch. Roman, who happened to be sitting on said couch, made a noise of protest.

“Move, I need to sulk,” Remus mumbled, though his voice was thoroughly muffled by Roman’s thigh, since that was where his face had landed.

“What on earth do you need to sulk for?” Roman asked incredulously. He moved to shove Remus off of him, but Remus went full ragdoll, and Roman couldn’t do a damn thing. “You are a grown man, you know.”

Remus turned his head just enough to stick his tongue out at Roman. Roman stuck his tongue out back.

“I had a terrible day, I earned a good sulk.”

“Didn’t like your classes?”

“Nah, they were great.”

“Professors?”

“Great.”

“Classmates?”

“Great.”

“Then Zeus Almighty, what are you so mopey-dopey about?” Roman remanded.

Remus squirmed around so he was laying on his back, head still in Roman’s lap, to look up at his brother. “So… uh… you promise not to get all, like. I told you so and shit?”

“You miss Janus!”

“No! I-”

“You do!” Roman crowed triumphantly. Remus rolled onto his side so he didn’t have to look at his brother’s dumb gloaty face.

“...Maybe,” he groaned. Abruptly, he clamored to his feet and started for the stairs. “I gotta go build a chair.”

“Carpentry won’t solve your relationship problems,” Roman called after him.

“I know,” Remus called back. “Wrong type of wood.” If Roman had a response to that, Remus was already out the door and didn’t have to hear it.

Patton found him out in front of the apartment building some time later, a jigsaw in hand, and a pile of cut wooden dowels at his feet.

“Hey, kiddo, what are you up to?”

Remus looked up from where he was balancing a plank of wood precariously across a milk crate, because his work table was one of the things he’d had to leave behind at Janus’ place.

“Oh, hey. Ro-bro’s upstairs.”

Patton gave him the sort of smile teachers gave to the kid they caught eating glue for the fourth time. “That doesn’t look super safe. Do you want any help?”

Remus took in Patton’s soft blue sweater and the dad-jeans from the nicer end of his closet, as well as the reusable grocery store bag that smelled suspiciously like some kind of lovely home-cooked meal; he shook his head. “You look dressed for a date night,” he said. “I don’t wanna fuck up two relationships this week.”

Patton’s eyes, impossibly, got even bigger and softer than they normally were, which honestly was quite the feat. He walked over to the stairs but, instead of making his way up to Roman’s apartment, he plopped down on the third step, facing Remus. Remus stared, bewildered.

“Uh, what’chu doin’ there, pops?”

“Well, it just sounded like you needed to talk,” Patton replied cheerfully. “So here I am.”

Remus stared a moment longer, somehow even more bewildered than before. “Uh…”

“I know I haven’t known you very long,” Patton continued. “But something tells me you’re the type of person who busts out the power tools when you’re upset.”

“How the hell can you tell that?”

Patton glanced over his shoulder, then leaned forward slightly. “Because,” he said, voice lowered conspiratorially. “I’m like that too.”

Remus blinked. “You?”

“Yup! I replaced all the tables and chairs in my house with ones I made myself after my last breakup,” Patton giggled. “Only two of them collapsed when I sat in them, too!”

Remus glanced down at the jigsaw in his hands, and then he sighed. He set it down, and went to sit next to Patton on the steps.

“Ok, well. Yeah, maybe I’m kinda upset.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Yeah? No? Maybe?”

“Yup, those are your three options!” Patton teased. Remus rolled his eyes.

“Ok, fine. You win, daddy-o. I’m upset because I miss my boyfriend. Or, well, my ex-boyfriend. I want him to be my boyfriend again.”

“Have you told him that?”

“Of course not,” Remus whined.

“Why not?”

“Because… I mean. It wouldn’t change anything. I still moved away. And I don’t even know if he’d want to be my boyfriend again either. Maybe he’s happier now.”

“You don’t know that,” Patton said gently. “Sure, maybe the circumstances aren’t the best right now, but if you both want it, things have a funny way of working out. But you have to talk to him.”

“I…” Remus paused. And then he sighed deeply. “I guess you’re right. Hey thanks, that did actually sorta help.”

Patton offered him a gentle smile. “Of course, Remus! Any time!”

“Hey!”

They both turned to see Roman standing at the top of the stairs, arms crossed.

“My own brother, hogging my boyfriend like this! The betrayal-”

“Relax, Ro, he’s not my type,” Remus shot back. “I prefer sarcastic little menaces.”

Patton giggled at that. He stood up and patted Remus on the shoulder. “I hope things work out,” he said. Remus smiled back.

“Yeah, I hope so too.”

Really, he just wanted Janus to be happy. Ideally with him, but if Janus was happier without him, well… so be it.

- - -

Janus was miserable.

“Dude, c’mon,” Virgil grumbled, immediately upon seeing the state of the apartment. “You’ve been watering your plants and filling the humidifiers, but you can’t be bothered to throw out your gross pizza boxes?” A pause. “Wait, you don’t even like pizza, what the hell.”

Janus just shrugged. After letting Virgil and Logan into the apartment, he’d gone straight back into blanket-burrito-on-the-couch mode. And really, he’d only bothered to get up and let them inside in the first place because Virgil had threatened to axe down the door- and Janus knew for a fact that Virgil owned multiple axes.

“I believe he is engaging in what is described as ‘emotional eating,’ or using food as a coping mechanism in a time of stress and emotional turmoil,” Logan said helpfully. Virgil just huffed.

“That’s fine and all, but Jesus Christ, dude.” He gestured around the livingroom where… ok, yeah, it was a mess.

“Did you two come here just to insult me?” Janus grumbled. His face was half-mashed into a pillow, though, so who knows how much of that was actually discernible.

“We came to make sure you were still alive,” Virgil snapped, indicating that at least most of what Janus had said was discernible. “You weren’t answering any texts.”

“Yes, and you called out of work three days in a row,” Logan added. “We are concerned for you, Janus.”

“I’m perfectly fine,” Janus lied from the comfort of his depression blanket burrito. He was not particularly surprised when neither Virgil or Logan looked even remotely convinced.

“Alright, drastic measure time,” Virgil growled. He walked over to the window, and picked up the young Burgundy Rubber Tree Janus had yet to name. Janus sat bolt upright.

“Virgil? Don’t you dare-”

Virgil walked past him and vanished down the hall. When he came back, his hands were empty, and he had a smirk on his face.

“Oh, fuck you,” Janus hissed. He dragged himself up off the couch to go rescue the poor thing, finding it stashed in the dark, windowless bathroom. When he came back to the livingroom, Virgil and Logan were sprawled across the couch.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Janus set the rubber tree back on the windowsill alongside the Snake Plant Army. “Ok, I’m up. Are you heathens happy now?”

“I take offense to that,” Logan muttered, while Virgil just crossed his arms and said, curtly, “Spill it.”

“Spill what?”

“Why are you so upset?”

“I’m not upset-”

“Falsehood,” Logan interrupted. “I have known you since high school, Janus, and I have never seen you like this before. It is highly alarming.”

“Is this about Remus?” Virgil asked.

“No,” Janus said immediately. “Of course not.”

Virgil and Logan exchanged a Look. Janus groaned.

“Fuck. Ok, fine. Maybe it is.”

“Was that so hard?” Virgil asked.

“Yes.”

“You-”

“Janus,” Logan interrupted Virgil’s retort. “It is my understanding that emotional distress is often alleviated through, as they say, ‘talking it out.’ It is clear you are not handling the break-up as well as you initially believed-”

“Of course I’m not!” Janus snapped. He took a deep breath, and turned back to the plants on his windowsill. Kaa, the Sansevieria Moonshine Remus had gotten for Janus as an anniversary present last year, was already leaning slightly toward the window again. He rotated it, and a few of the other snake plants on the sill. And then he realized the others had been quiet for far too long. He turned to find them both watching him with sympathetic expressions. “What?”

“Keep going,” Virgil prompted. Janus sighed. He felt exhausted.

“Of course I’m not,” he said again. “Because I love Remus.”

“And?” Virgil prompted.

“...And I didn’t want us to break up,” he finished, feeling glum. Wordlessly, Virgil stood up, and approached Janus, arms out. Janus stepped into the embrace. Nobody said anything; Janus didn’t cry, but he stood there for a long time. Then, he stepped back.

“Thank you,” he said, and he meant it. Virgil gave him a small smile. Logan cocked his head, seeming confused.

“I don’t understand. You just… needed a hug?”

“Hugs are great, Logan,” Virgil replied. “You should try them sometime- hey, where are you going?”

Janus strode past them both, beelining for his bedroom to find his laptop. Over his shoulder, he answered, “To fill out some job applications.”

- - -

Remus was outside building a new bookshelf- because Patton was moving in, and Roman's teenie-tiny sad little excuse for a bookshelf, which held only Disney DVDs and no actual books, wouldn’t suffice for all of Patton’s cookbooks- when his phone rang. Which was weird, because nobody ever called him, because he never fucking answered.

“Not interested, Mr. Spam Man,” he crooned over the sound of the generic iPhone ringtone. He was learning how to do kerf bending for this bookcase, and goddamn it he wasn’t going to be distracted by-

His phone started ringing again. He swore and ripped off his gloves to silence his phone. But as he did so, he realized the number flashing across his screen was a familiar one.

“Janus? Are you ok?” he answered the call, half panicked, because Janus hated phone calls almost as much as he did.

“Hi. Yes, everything’s fine.” Janus sounded slightly hysterical, which made Remus feel even more frantic. “Where are you?”

“I’m at Roman’s. Are you sure you’re ok-”

“Great, don’t leave. I’ll be right there.”

“What does that mean-” Remus demanded, but the line was already dead. Remus swore again. He briefly considered calling him back, because what the actual fuck was that all about, but he was only about 30 seconds into that brief consideration before a familiar car tearing through the apartment complex parking lot caught his attention. He quickly brushed as much of the sawdust off his clothes as he could because holy shit Janus had just parked right there in front of Roman’s apartment.

Remus watched, dumbfounded, as Janus scrambled out of his car- dressed in his very nice black suit and pale yellow button-up- and came running across the lawn toward where Remus was working. He had a tiny plant clutched to his chest.

“Uh, Jan, you good?” Remus asked. Janus stopped in front of him and doubled over, breathless, for a few moments. Then, he straightened up, and fixed Remus with a look of sheer determination.

“Remus. I want to get back together.”

Remus’ heart, the traitorous bastard, leaped up into his throat and blocked all his words from coming out.

“It’s… it’s ok if you don’t want that,” Janus continued. His look of determination faltered slightly. “It’s ok. But I needed to tell you. Because I love you, so much. And I… I didn’t want you to think I didn’t, even if you don't-”

Remus found his words abruptly. “Jan, fuck! I do! I do love you. I never stopped loving you. All I want is to be with you.”

Janus’ eyes softened. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Good, because I’ve just been offered a job here.”

Remus choked. Janus was eyeing him smugly. “You. Just like that, you got a job here?”

“Just like that,” Janus grinned. “I just came from the interview. They offered me a position on the spot.”

Remus couldn't help himself any longer. He lurched forward and pulled Janus tightly into his arms.

“Hey, be careful,” Janus said, though he made absolutely no effort to get out of Remus’ embrace. “You’ll crush our new son.”

Remus pulled back just enough to look at the small plant Janus held in his hands, and only then did his brain register what it was.

“Is! Is that-”

“Yes,” Janus replied, holding up the tiny Drosera Capensis seedling. Remus had wanted one of these for ages.

“For me?”

“Well, for us, ideally,” Janus answered, with a shy smile. “But, mostly for you, yes.”

Remus gently plucked the baby octopus plant- their new son!- from Janus’ hands, and placed it carefully on top of the milk crate that was serving as his carpentry workbench. Then, he hoisted Janus up off the ground and spun him around.

“Oh- Re-” Janus exclaimed, though he was laughing. “Put me down!”

“No!” Remus trilled. He spun Janus around once more. Then he just stood there, holding Janus, gazing up at him. Janus’ eyes grew soft. Slowly, he carded his fingers through Remus’ hair.

“Hey,” Janus said.

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Remus set Janus down, but kept his arms still wrapped tightly around him. His heart felt warm.

“Hey.”

Janus looked up at him. “Yeah?”

“I love you, too.”

#dukeceit #dukeceitweek #remus sanders #janus sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides fic #kye writes

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that2000skid · 4 years ago

Text

I have a headcanon - Sanders Sides

Ok, context. So I was swimming today at my community pool, and this headcanon just popped into my head.

Logan and Virgil - members of rival school swim teams. They are both the fastest swimmers on their respective teams, always neck and neck at meets. You never know who has the edge on the other because their specialties are different stroke styles - but they’re both monsters with the 100m freestyle.

This is long, so the rest is going under a cut.

The reasons they each joined swim team:

- Logan: grew up by the ocean, learned to swim there and fell head over heels with it. Moved inland during middle school, and his dads (Janus and Patton [yes, I am trash for parental Moceit]) signed him up for the local swim club as fast as they could. Moved onto high school, and quickly made a name for himself as one of the best starting? (I don’t know sports) freshman on the swim team. Wants to become a marine biologist after college, and wants to be out in the ocean, collecting specimens and being on the boat, although he does kinda live in the science labs and library at school.

- Virgil: swimming helps with his anxiety. He’s been swimming since middle school, and joined swim team sophomore year of high school. He loves being in the water, and when he’s not in the band room practicing (he’s also a band kid), he pretty much lives in the water. He wants to become a swim coach after school, because he wants to give other kids the same support through swimming that he got. He lives with his dad, Roman, and his uncle Remus also lives there as well.

Anyways, after a meet, he and Logan are pulled aside by the same recruiter for the Olympic swim team. They end up talking to each other after that (gotta know how your opponent thinks if you’re gonna edge him out for the spot), and the rest is up to you.

If anyone wants to write something based off of this very long headcanon, I would be honored. Just DM me, and then tag me in the work if you do, because I’d love to see it.

(Also, can you tell that I’m complete trash for Analogical?)

#sanders sides #headcanon #logan sanders #virgil sanders #analogical #moceit #swimming

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mother-snake · 4 years ago

Note

You want some angry snek?

I got some angry snek.

Italics are internal thoughts

--------

Boiling Over

--------

It had been a very long week for Janus.

Even though he was spending more time on the light side, his room was still on the dark side. Meaning; he could only get energy from his room. So he still had to go back every night.

Wrath had been even more irritated lately due to a group of trolls on Thomas' twitter. And when Wrath is angry.... Lets just say its more then a bruse.

Depression keeps trying to send Thomas into a depressive spiral (not anything different but it was still really bloody annoying. Plus he had been really persistent this week) and Apathy?

Apathy is doing his own thing somewhere

Unfortunately, Apathy is one of the only people that can calm down Wrath. Not like he did it most of the time anyway.

So it was a really bad week.

So thats why Janus was holding an ice pack to a newly acquired black eye in the light side common room. Head against the back cushions, wincing in pain as he waited for Patton to come back with some pain killers.

Later then what he would have preferred, Patton came back with the meds and a glass of water, "Here you go kiddo! Might want to do the water first! Its a bit chalky!"

Janus also split his lip in his altercation with Wrath, so he simply nodded to avoid ripping it open again.

"I really wish you didn't have to go back there every night, I hate seeing any of my kiddos hurt!"

Maybe you should have picked me up quicker when I first formed then. Inside voice Janus. Inside voice.

Janus shugged and took the meds. Patton walked away to go make some cookies to maybe cheer up the snake. Thats when Roman came in.

He took one look at the yellow side before opening his mouth. "Wow Jeckel and Lie!" Um ouch? "you're looking more and more like Virgil everyday!"

Janus lifted his head from the back cushion. "What?"

Roman didn't catch the glares coming from a light blue side in the kitchen. "The black around your eyes! It looks like Virgils eyeshadow! You really look up to him uh?"

Mind your karma Janus. It isn't worth it.

"I mean, Virgil would be a pretty cool big brother! Bet you two listened to My Chemical Romance together based on how much black you wear!"

Screw karma

"I am nothing like Virgil."

"Wha-"

"I SAID I AM NOTHING LIKE VIRGIL!!!"

"Janus I didn't mean to offend I-"

"I would never abandon my child to the mercy of some abusive assholes!!" Janus could feel the pot boiling over, but he couldn't stop the flow of words now.

"I would never lie to someone about their own function for years and only tell someone when they overheard a conversation that they weren't even meant to hear!!!" Roman was looking towards Patton for help. He didn't mean to offend Janus! He thought that him and Virge were back on good terms.

Janus was practically screaming at this point. But this was not the anger that sparked tears. This anger was hot and dry. It happened when someone cracked under strain and the target was almost never the actual cause of the anger.

Just the person who sparked it.

It was like a match with a galllon of gasoline.

"VIRGIL WAS NEVER A FATHER TO ME! HE WAS AS FAKE AS THE REST OF THE DARK SIDES, WHO BY THE WAY. HAVE A FUCKING UNIFORM! I DON'T EVEN LIKE WEARING THIS MUCH BLACK! AND I HATE MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE!!" Patton was standing beside him at this point. He put a gentle hand on Janus' shoulder.

"Come on Janny, when was the last time you had gotten any sleep?" Patton wiped away a small stream of blood dripping from the reopened split lip as Janus shrugged. "Oh kiddo, why haven't you been sleeping?"

Janus rubbed at his good eye, "Wrath was bored"

Patton winced in the very thought of what that could mean. He pulled the much younger side to his chest. "Why don't we have a rest then? Does that sound like a good idea?"

Janus rubbed his face into Pattons soft cardigan while huming, "I'm nothing like Virgil..."

"No, you aren't kiddo. You are your own amazing person and you need to rest." Patton was backing up slowly, bringing Janus back to the couch. When he finally sat down, he pulled the side closer to his chest so Janus could hear his heartbeat.

"I'm no-m-ting like Vee" Janus was slurring his words, that must be a thing when he was tired.

"Shh, Shh little snake. Go to sleep." Janus soon became dead weight on his chest.

Patton looked back up at Roman with a sympathetic smile. Tilting his head towards the couch, edging him to sit down.

When Roman sat, both of them looked towards the sleepy side on Janus' chest. They weren't blind to how Janus pulled himself to himself in an effective effort to make him smaller.

Patton sighed, "I know this isn't going to be easy kiddo, but he are going to have to work with what ever trama Janus as... And he as alot..." Patton looked back to Roman, "He's been taught to hide everything he was feeling from a very young age, none of this is your fault Roman-"

"But I was the one who brought it up!"

Patton locked eye contact with Roman. "None of this is your fault." Patton took a deep breath, "We made the mistake of not addressing these issues earlier. Now we just have to help Janus recover. Ok kiddo?" Roman nodded

"Why don't you find a movie for us to watch?"

Roman lit up again, "What if we put on one of Janus' favourite movies so he wakes up to something he likes!"

Patton nodded eagerly.

"Ok so! Chicago?"

"Roman, we have watched that everyday this week. I don't really want to watch that again."

"Over the Garden Wall?"

"Same kinda thing kiddo."

Roman had to think for a bit. "Coraline?"

Patton thought for a few seconds before agreeing.

Coraline it is.

Janus was a very happy snake when he woke up.

---------

Turns out that angsty mood disappeared 5 minutes after I sent that last ask.....

*Updated timeline*

I absolutely love this! Oh the heartache!

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anothersillyfanblog · 4 years ago

Text

Earth On Hell

This is my Sanders Sides gift for @marsupials-of-mars for @sanderssidesgiftxchange!!! Basically all the sides are demons, hanging out in hell, but one of them (wonder who) is a teeny bit more chaotic than the others. (P.s I am gonna post on ao3 in a few days as well btw.) Btw I’m not great at tags so mega apologies if it still slipped through sorry.

Hell.

Lunch breaks round here weren’t boring- there was plenty to see and do in hell- it had just kind of reached a point for Janus where most of it had already been done. Hence why, no matter what his colleagues in the eighth circle said, there was something interesting about sitting down with this chatty little demon and watching the human flesh blister.

“Y’know what I think?” the younger demon, Remus, casually asked. Janus sighed. “I try not to.” “I think that everyone who ends up here is dumb.” He tossed a rat into his mouth “All you gotta do is act nice and suck up to the big daddy in the clouds- that’s it! Easier than boiling babies!” “No,” Janus raised his eyebrows. “Because it’s based on the nature of your soul not what you do.”

“Well that ain’t fair! What if you can’t HELP dreaming of torture and carving hearts into carcases (or whatever these idiots got in here for), like it’s in your pretty little head from day uno?” He wagged his finger at Janus. “They could never do anything wrong in their entire life but get sent here for naughty thinking… seems a lil shitty to me.” “Well apparently they can ‘repent their sins and get eternal salvation’.” Janus revelled in the other guys’ confusion for a moment. “Say sorry a lot and it’ll be ok.” “Ohhhhhhhhhhh right. Oh yeah ok.” Remus nodded. “Seems a bit suspicious, are you sure that’s a thing?”

A couple of screams got louder, and Janus turned to see a scrawny horned demon carrying a bucket and biting his lip. He had his arms comically wrapped all the way round it- an ugly neon yellow bucket with a ‘warning’ label (because hell needs health and safety standards)- and he was edging towards a nearby cliff.

“Hey Virge!” Remus called out “What’cha doin?” “I…” the horned demon tipped the bucket over the precipice as the screams intensified “…am adding a couple… of new souls… to the… whirlwind.” “Come get lunch, Virgil! It’s rat day!” he grinned, holding up a rodent “Also didn’t Pat tell you to do that like, a week ago?” “Yes but I’m also a dumb bitch.” Virgil sat down next to Remus. “Who’s this?” he glanced awkwardly at Janus. “I-” “HE’S my friend from the EIGHTH FUCKING CIRCLE!!!” Remus interrupted. “That not being the eighth circle of fucking, though it might well be…” “It’s not.” Janus clarified. “Yeah, I didn’t think it was.” Virgil smiled “I’m Virgil. I work with him under Patton? Second circle so-to-speak.” “Oh yeah I know the guy.”

Patton was the overseer for a lot of things in the lower levels. Not really a specific tier, or a specific expertise, but if you spent any time in one-five then you at least saw him. Most people ‘above’ him were aware of him in a general sense. Janus had met him twice? Three times? Yeah, if you counted bumping shoulders at the river Styx that one time, then it was three.

It made sense that Remus and Virgil worked for Patton- a lot of the younger demons did these days.

“UGH doesn’t everyone?” Remus whined “He is annoying!” “He’s your boss.” Janus observed. “Yes, and he’s annoying! I say we, I dunno, set fire to his ass or something…” Virgil shrunk into his seat “He’s our boss? Also he isn’t in charge of everyone, he has a boss right…” “Yeah, but uh…” Remus clicked his fingers “We were saying weren’t we?” he looked at Janus. “No. Whatever you think we were saying, we weren’t.” “People shouldn’t get here for wanting to do crimes!” he clapped his hands “I think we should break everyone out of hell.”

One week later: Hell

Work hours, naturally. Janus was trying to process new souls but honestly there was no signal and his tablet just wasn’t working.

“And they say eighth circle is an enviable job…” he tapped the screen “I- I’ll be with you in a moment, sorry about this.” He said to the guy in line to be thrown into the pit. “No, no, take your time.”

Finally, the sound of footsteps approaching! Janus looked up and smiled. “Ah, the tech guy! Yeah, there’s no service on this, so if you could-”

“Where’s Remus?” Janus smiled a little “Excuse me?” “Which circle can Remus be found in?” the tech guy kept his face stern (if he was the tech guy) “I know you know him.” “I’m working right now, or trying to, so come back when I’m not and then we can talk.”

The tech guy ripped the tablet out of Janus’ hands.

“Where can Remus be found?” “He isn’t an important demon-” “Lower tiers…” “Not what I mean, I meant you shouldn’t need him.” “But I do.” “Why?” “Irrelevant, just tell me where he is located.” “Well forgive me for thinking you’re going to hurt him, but I think you’re- you know- going to hurt him.” “Falseh- it’s inconsequential, I must find him.” Janus paused. “Fix my tablet, please. I believe you.”

The tech guy looked momentarily confused before realising what Janus meant and doing so. “Second circle, every time I’ve seen him.” Janus said “Is… is he in trouble?”

“Not with me, negative. I do not have the influence to get many people into trouble. As for the future…” he sighed “I would advise you to keep your distance from him, though that’s my observation.” He left off towards the exit of the tier.

Janus grimaced, looking at his now-working tablet.

“If it’s any consolation, it probably won’t affect you.” The guy in line said, making Janus jump in surprise. “Shit! I need to get all you processed, I am gonna get in trouble.” He smiled at the guy who now frowned. “Okay name and age at time of death…”

One month later: Hell

“Where’s-” “Remus?” Patton interrupted. “we’re dealing with it.” Janus chuckled “Will anyone down here actually let me finish a sentence?” “Of course, my apologies- what were you going to say?” “Where is Virgil?” he smirked. “He works in your general bracket, right?”

Patton breathed in sharply. No one had seen Virgil since Remus had started (conveniently) quietening down, and Janus knew it. Everybody knew it. His work tallies were still placed in- by who, nobody knew- but the second circle was widely lacking in Virgil.

“He’s doing some work on…” Patton’s eyes darted round rapidly “admin. He’s working on potential field experience up there, needs to put in the admin first.”

Janus raised his eyebrows, looking up towards the Earth. “The thing is, Pat, I’m Eighth circle. I specialize in fraud- you know what that is?” Patton nodded. “Deceit, Patton, lies. And every day suave fuckers queue up trying to tell me why I have ‘the wrong circle’ or why ‘they should get special treatment’ and guess what, Patton? It’s always bullshit.”

He stared straight at the other demon. “I have been doing this for too damn long to not have the fucking right to tear the throat of anyone, ANYONE, who dares to be as lousy as you at lying to me. So don’t ever tell me that Virgil is doing admin, FUCKING ADMIN, because no one here will believe- or miss- you.” He sighed. “Let’s start again. Where’s Virgil?”

Patton swallowed “I…”

“Do you not know?” Janus asked, “This will go a lot better for you if you just admit that you don’t know.” Patton shook his head “Not exactly, no.” he whispered, “We’re not sure where he is.” “Not sure or don’t know?” “We know he’s in hell… we know that, we’re aware of him but not where.” Janus pinched his forehead “Okay so out of all the nine circles of hell, you have no clue, none. Lovely.” “If Remus would co-operate…” Patton muttered. “If I would what now?”

Ah yes, Remus. Walking cheerily towards them, smile slightly wider than ever, living his best life. Of course it was most likely that he had been questioned on Virgil’s whereabouts, given their activities during the past month-or-so, but Remus had decided to ‘calm down’ now and had ‘no idea about anything that anyone was doing’. Or so he had said to Janus.

“Patton! You already know I told ya everything about Virge, didn’t I?” he grinned. “Of course, don’t doubt it.” Patton said, as if he were lecturing a child. “And you got all your silly little friends to stand down which was very good of you.” Remus clapped his hands. “Yes! I did that!” “BUT!” Patton wagged his finger “I think you may have forgotten places that Virgil could be- or things you knew about Virgil.” Remus gasped in shock “Oh no!” “We want to find him, you want to find him. Let’s do this together please.” Patton nodded towards Janus. “Isn’t that right?” “Huh?” Janus smirked “Oh yes, working together. Of course.” Patton smiled again, then turned to leave.

Remus groaned “Ugh, what an annoying piece of poop! Wanna feed him to a pack of rampaging squirrels!” “Where’s Virgil?” “Up your butt!” Remus laughed, “Just kidding, don’t check, I have no idea.” Janus nearly prayed out of sheer frustration. “Don’t fucking lie to me, Remus, unholy shit.” “Okay, okay!” he giggled. “So I might know… but I can’t tell you.” “Why?” Janus asked, confused, “You think I’m going to run to Patton?” Remus looked down “Well, Logan says you shouldn’t be involved in-”

“You’re still working with Logan? You said you’d told them to stand down…” Remus chuckled “You believe that?” “Well, no,” Janus admitted, “But I…what the fuck are you planning?” “Eh, just a little bit of trouble…” “What you did already was a ‘little bit of trouble’- hell, it got your supervisors’ attention, so actually it was kinda a bit more than that.” Janus explained. “I made a group?” “A militia.” Remus threw his arms up “Well, we barely did anything! Pat WAY overreacted!” “Not… if you’re actually planning something he didn’t.” “So you are on his side?”

“I…” Janus looked away. “I don’t want this going south. For you, Virge, us. That’s the bargain you make when you leave heaven, to look out for you and yours. Get what is considered ‘best’ down here.” “But what if what is ‘mine’ is…” Remus looked wistfully at the hurricane of souls swirling around them “Never mind. See you around!”

He made his way off towards the offices where he worked, leaving Janus listening to the winds scream for mercy.

One year later: Hell

“Here.” Janus held out a bucket of blood that spat angrily at both of the demons, “from management.” Roman didn’t look up. “Chuck it in, before they get too comfortable.”

Janus peered down at the bubbling lake, almost glad to see that some parts of hell hadn’t changed that much. He poured the new blood in and watched the souls writhe- no hope of Remus for this lot. Though somehow, in some corners, they screamed out his name. How? Patton had nearly torn his horns off the first time he’d heard it, because how? How could they know about him? And that was the problem when the fresh blood was added and the screaming began anew.

What they screamed for.

Roman rolled his eyes “I’ve never wanted them to stop more…” Janus scoffed “You should see Patton, he has lost it.” “How so?” “Apparently,” he began, “He’s been inventing and subjecting harsher tortures for any souls who mention his name- or the others.” Roman chuckled at this “Well! Woe betide any gossip outlet, then…” “He’s getting them shut down, I think.” Roman gasped “His higher-ups can’t approve of that- right?”

Janus raised his eyebrows “His higher-? Roman, after the whole, well, you know… after Remus did all that, his only higher ups were a couple of folks in what used to be ninth circle.” He looked to the lake of blood. “Now? I don’t think some of them would even challenge him…”

“Oh.” Roman smiled. “How long’s that going to last?” “What?” “Patton- in charge? Until things are figured out, right?”

At this Janus started to laugh. He kept laughing and laughing till Roman joined in then realised it just wasn’t funny because it never had been.

“Forever.” He scowled. “He’s going to stabilize and reorganize the layers he has, take back the ones he doesn’t, put the souls back into torment, then execute the demons. All of them. Remus, Virgil, Logan, Remy, ALL OF THEM WILL DIE. Painfully. And then! He will rule over hell forever.”

“That’s a bit cynical.” “Well EXCUSE ME-” “No, I just thought- being an ex-friend of Remus- you might’ve been more cheerful.” Janus bit his lip. “We weren’t friends because we were even remotely similar. We were friends because I was bored, work was boring.” “Okay, makes sense!” Roman smiled. “So we’re all gonna end up working under Patton (if we aren’t already) and it’s gonna be aaaahhh ooohh not good very bad?” “Little bit more than that, but yes.” “Ah so more painfully terrible every moment we’re awake?” “Yeah.” “Hm… why not leave?” Roman casually asked. You know, casually.

Janus scoffed “Because of the whole dying thing?” he gestured wildly “I can’t go off on my own; I don’t stand a chance, I can’t repent; you have to mean that shit, and I can’t go with Remus and his crew because- because…” he looked down “I’m sorry Roman but the reason I never got too involved in the first place is because what he plans just isn’t going to work. He can’t win- he’ll die, and if I get involved then I will too and the point of all of this,” he spread his arms round “Is so you can look out for yourself, so you don’t have to be selfless and give up everything for someone else. Why do I have to be ashamed for not wanting to be a martyr?”

“I… you don’t.” “Exactly” Janus snapped. “If you truly believe that this is what’s better,” Roman added. Janus whistled “No, that’s…” he shook his head “Anyway. Whatever happens, they can’t be faulted for trying.” “No, absolutely not! Wait we are talking Remus and-” “Of course I’m talking about Remus’ lot.” Roman nodded “Ah, well yes- I agree. They’ve done a surprisingly competent job, all of them.”

They both paused for a moment. “It’s because they have the tech guy.” “It’s coz of the tech guy.” Roman agreed “I mean it’s not like the rest of his crew can’t organize things, but…” “It’s the tech guy.” Janus concluded “I hear he orchestrated the ‘Virgil plot’.” “Exactly!” Roman exclaimed “and that was wow, just impressive as anything (if you don’t mind me saying), like- hiding Virgil for that long to steal that many souls? If they don’t win it’ll be a little depressing.” “It’ll be more than that.” Janus smiled solemnly.

“It’ll be the end of life as we know it.”

Ten Years Later: Italy.

“Virge!” Janus could hear someone calling outside of the cavern “can you get that thick ass over here, please?” That ‘someone’ was probably Remus. “Janus, that includes you too!” “How does ‘Virge’ include me?” he called back. “Don’t question the king of crimes!”

Reluctantly, Janus stood up and wandered out to the frosty mountainside. He grimaced- the cold bits of hell had never been his favourite, even when they flaunted ‘coveted positions’ and such. Still.

“You want a coffee?” Remy asked. “Please.” He gestured over to a nearby hut “The coffee machine is right there, honey.” “But I never get the ratio right…” Janus pleaded. Remy chuckled and sipped his drink “Girl, that just ain’t my problem!”

“Janus!” Remus grabbed his arm suddenly and yanked him away “You sexy motherfucker, I called you an AGE ago! Now come on!” “Right, what do you need?” “Emotional stability…” Remus placed his hand on his chest “Just kidding! So basically, the waterpump’s broken (but Logan’s “dealing with that”), we received word that Patton has guns now- so we need better defences just in case- and also Patton has guns so yeah. Can we have those please?” Janus’ eyes widened. “Ok so is Patton-with-a-gun confirmed, or a rumour? Because hell basically never deploys projectiles.” “Are you sure I can’t be used as a projectile?” Remus half-spoke aloud “Yeet me at them.” “You’re getting distracted.” “Oh. Yes, it’s confirmed. One billion percent.” Janus pinched his forehead “Well, somehow I doubt that statistic, but okay. Let’s work on anti-gun strategy, defence, etc. because it is possible they’ll get hold of unholy projectiles specifically for us.” “Why can’t we get guns?” “Maybe one day, but if you actually think I trust you with a GUN-” “Fair point”

“Um, I was called?” Virgil was stood in the snow, watching them talk. They both jumped. “Yeah like, FIFTY YEARS AGO!” Remus cried. “Oh I’M sorry, look I did show up- it’s just I didn’t want to interrupt…” he trailed off. Janus smiled. “That’s understandable.” “That’s understandable.” Remus mimicked “Ooh, whatever, we were just chatting! No rules on chatting! Also what are your thoughts on guns?” “I think we should focus on hiding for now…” “BORING! Guns?” “Let him speak” Janus warned. Virgil looked down “I mean, our last skirmish went well, and we are getting more to join… but right now I think we should focus on what we have. And that advantage is mystery. Let’s keep it.” “Ooh mystery! Spooky!” Remus wiggled his arms. “No, I get what you mean.” Janus nodded “Like how you got so many in the beginning because they were intrigued, people will talk if we stay off the map for a while.” Remus tutted “Oh, you. Being sensible.” He frowned “We’ve been lucky, haven’t we? To live?” Janus smiled “Like this? Absolutely.” “Yeah, we should go under. Be sneaky! Recruit people who aren’t dicks and so on.”

Logan agreed with the idea for once, which was probably because it was Virgil’s, but also he stated: “We have already been living ‘both figuratively and literally underground’ so it makes an appropriate amount of sense to make this an officially secret place of dwelling.”

He also agreed with Janus’ gun-plan. This, of course, being that they focus on defence and perhaps work on getting weapons of their own in the future. Though he was a little heavier on the “no gun-wielding-Remus” stance, stating: “On no condition can he be allowed a gun, none. Others in our company- fine. I will trust from the upper-most generals to the smallest child amongst us with a projectile, but never Remus. Oh and can we consider adding Remy to that list?”

Janus didn’t bother to question the part about trusting children with guns, he simply nodded and got to work on defence, sometimes smiling at Remus as he did.

And it didn’t matter what anyone was or wasn’t doing, Remus always grinned away.

One Century Later

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