#every time I watch criminal minds I just get annoyed it's so obnoxious and pathologizes deviation so fucking hard

[neverendingford]

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[sanders-sides-fic]

I (don’t) do best on my own! [TINND!R? prequel]

AU-masterpost: here

“Run!”

Virgil didn’t need to be told twice before complying. It didn’t even matter that the terrified shout had in no way been addressed to him. Janus, on the other hand, only smiled his brightest smile.

“Well, isn’t this nice?”, he asked the aliens all around him. No one was able to react to him, before suddenly a new alien in uniform came to a slithering halt in front of him and pointed a strange weapon at his chest. Chances where it wouldn’t hurt him, but then again, there had been some weapons which had proved to have an even stronger effect on humans. Besides, a bullet-like projectile inside a vital organ generally tended to end badly for any species, and he had no idea what this particular weapon was or what it would do.

All around him the aliens looked at him with expressions nothing short of disgust, horror and distain. It was strange and yet fascinating to him, how the varying expressions were all too different and yet obvious once you’d gotten used to it. Sometimes, he would try and remember them, just in case it would be needed to communicate something. Like with the angry alien in front of him. He really wished he’d know what was hidden behind the mask. Was this a bohver? A photynêsc? Perhaps a flastrae? Something with an anatomy somewhat similar to a human’s at least. But what exactly this alien was, he did not know.

“Look, I don’t want to hurt anyone here.”, he started, smile unfaltering. He knew that expression didn’t translate well, but since they had escaped from that ship, it had become somewhat famous. He hoped that would be enough. “My intentions are not violent. I only want to have my…” Uh, what was that word again? He suppressed a sigh - something most aliens thought to be a sign of anger rather than frustration, apparently - and pointed to his bag the horrified laesk still clutched to his - or… her? It’s? he wasn’t quite sure… To their chest. “I want to have that back and then we can all go our own way. Sound good, yes?”

The alien shook their head vehemently. “There is no way a-” Okay, Janus did not know that word. Did that mean police man? He assumed so, but wasn’t sure. “-would let a deathworlder go! And that scar is enough to-” Why did this alien use such difficult words? This time, Janus had no idea what it meant. He didn’t even hold the sigh back anymore. But what he did understand, was his name: “Janus Viper!”

And so did the other aliens. All of them repeated his name, now even more terrified than before. The ones that were still present were too scared to run, so they only took a few cautious steps back.

“Yes. That is in fact me. And Virgil just ran away, you kind of scared him. Very rude, by the way. Now, why can’t you let me go? And please use simple words, I’m not… what’s it… I am still bad with common.”, Janus clarified. Something he hated to admit, actually. Of cause he was better than Virgil as he’d had longer to practice and less… obstacles to overcome. Still, he was far from fluent and specific words or technical jargon were basically impossible for him.

The policeman said something, but Janus didn’t understand even a single word. Was that even common? He sighed again, a bit more annoyed how. “I do not understand you. Will you use simpler words?”, he asked, now clearly agitated. The policeman shied away a bit at his words, but didn’t even think about lowering that obnoxious weapon. Well, at least Virgil was safe.

“I said you are a wanted-” Person? Criminal? Probably criminal. -”and I have to take you with me.”

Janus sighed. “Great. He stole from me, and I’m the… criminal was it?”

“Yes!”, came the answer from all around him. He chuckled, shaking his head. “Fine. Fine! I tried to be nice, don’t forget that. Thank you.”, he said. The aliens around him exchanged confused, unsettled glances. So far so good. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, not really. But he would use their prejudges and their fear to his advantage without question. What else was being an infamous ‘deathworlder’ good for, after all? It really didn’t have much advantages.

Janus was just about to continue, lie his way out of this situation, preferably with their bag of supplies, and go find Virgil, wherever he’d run off to, when…

“Argh!”

Suddenly, a flash of black and purple fell from atop the roof, right onto the policemen. Janus winced as a sickening crunch filled the semi-silence. Virgil slowly stood up, taking the weapon in his hands. It seemed to be heavy or at least hard to handle, judging from the way he had to hold it in both his hands. Everyone just watched silently, as he pointed the weapon right at the thief, his eyes cold and his hand shaking only slightly.

“Oops.”, Janus chuckled from behind Virgil, relief mixing with a slight sense of hysteria. “Looks like you should give that back now.”

And then, mayhem broke loose. Screams sounded from around them as the aliens either ran or hid wherever they could, the thief threw the bag at the duo and scrambled to get away from them, and there was the sound of approaching reinforcements for the now dead officer. Fortunately, they weren’t able to get through the other aliens running around aimlessly with their only apparent goal being to just get away.

Virgil and Janus looked at each other for a second. “Roofs?”, Virgil signed, obviously still too shaken up to speak. Janus, without commenting on it, smirked, answering out loud: “Roofs.”

Virgil gripped the bag tightly, before providing a leg up to Janus, who in turn didn’t waste a second in using it to get on top of the very roof Virgil had just jumped off of. Virgil, being the more experience one when it came to accessing the top of seemingly smooth walls, climbed after him effortlessly. Or at least effortless enough to reach the top the same moment Janus managed to pull himself up completely. “You’ve gotten better at this.”, Virgil remarked with a smirk before motioning with his head which way to go. Janus was about to retort something smooth and witty, but the first shots were fired in their general direction so he started to run with a curse under his breath.

Roofs in most cultural diverse alien towns were as flat as the one they were on right now, but sadly also extremely slippery and wide away from each other. Every jump was scarier than the last to Janus, but he could see the delighted face of the more anxious boy next to him, a rare grin on his lips. The faster they went and the longer they catapulted themselves from one roof to the next, dodging bullets and sometimes using routes simply to avoid getting caught in the fire, slithering to a stop on the next roof and sometimes gripping each other for support, the less afraid and the more free Virgil seemed. At some point he even let out a few cheers or a short, breathed laugh when they avoided a fall.

Janus never understood why this, of all things, made Virgil feel so very free.

Way too late they reached their space ship and with way too little time they slipped inside, closed the door and ran to their posts. “Ready?”, Janus asked as soon as he sat in front of the steering wheel, looking towards Virgil above his shoulder. Virgil ran around for a few more seconds, checking some lights and pushing a few buttons, before he gave a short nod. So Janus started the ship and flew away as fast as he could manage. Not quite fast enough, judging from the sound of a projectile hitting the ship, but no warning blared, so it was fine. Probably. Hopefully.

He’d best keep that a secret from Virgil.

About half an hour passed in silence before Janus switched to auto pilot, leaving the cockpit. He found Virgil curled up in the kitchen, absentmindedly watching as the stars and planets passed by the window. Janus could actually see him doing that in a train or a car or something.

“Why didn’t you just run? You almost gave me a heart attack when I realized you were still back there!”, Virgil muttered under his breath. So he hadn’t been too absent minded to notice Janus.

Janus sighed. “Well, I would have just loved to loose all our supplies, because we have so much money to spare, don’t we?”

Virgil let out a little growl. A habit he’d developed through being stuck in situations where that was all he could do to voice his distain lately. “You could have died there!”, he hissed angry, still not looking at Janus.

“Oh, relax, dear storm cloud! I totally had that covered.” They both knew that was a lie. A complete and utter lie. He’d been close to being shot. Again. That was why Virgil didn’t let him leave alone anymore, a little voice in his head reminded him. The lie was enough to earn a glare from the younger man. He opened his mouth, but closed it again after a few voiceless moments with a soft blush. Instead of saying anything, Virgil stalked out of the room and towards the sleeping quarters.

Janus sat down, face buried in his still gloved hands. He messed up. If Virgil hadn’t been able to talk even though they were alone, if his selective mutism had been triggered by his emotions, then Janus really fucked up. And that hurt more than anything Virgil could have said, if he was being honest.

“Fuck.”, he whispered.

But it was okay, actually. They may be friends, but honestly, it was a friendship born solely out of their need. A pathological liar and an overly anxious teen didn’t really fit as friends, did they? And both of them had been alone all their lives before shit went down. They could both take it.

Still hurt like a bitch, though.

❧✾☙❦❧✾☙

“Virgil, diner’s ready!”, Janus called out. He hadn’t heard anything from his ship mate since their earlier almost-argument, so he hoped that Virgil would answer his call. He knew that he could do little to none until Virgil left his room on his own, though. They had traveled together long enough for him to know how Virgil dealt with things like this and when he had to leave him alone to cool down.

A long silence followed and Janus sighed. Looked as though the teen wouldn’t come today. He just hoped Virgil would get himself something when the light circle would simulate night.

Without warning, however, Virgil appeared behind Janus and definitely did not make him flinch by surprise. Virgil snorted in amusement, but left Janus’… lack of reaction alone other than that.

“What’s for dinner? Alien soup or alien slop?”, the younger one asked sarcastically. Janus grinned. “Neither! You know how they took some plant samples from home together with us? Well, I may or may not have found a little something. It was being sold as potent poison, of cause, but…”

As he gave Virgil his portion, the confusion shifted to disbelieving surprise. “Is that…?” Janus nodded. “Sure is. Today, we have garlic bread. Oh, and tomato soup. But, I mean, garlic bread!”

Virgil chuckled, as he took a bite, humming happily. “God! I used to hate eating garlic bread.”, he confessed, “Because of the smell and all. But right now this is the best ting that could happen.” Janus laughed, but agreed in his head. It was funny how little things could lift your spirit once everything you knew and trusted was taken away from you.

“Oh, I also found a pineapple.”, Janus mentioned. “They got really suspicious because I wanted the entire thing. Asked if I wanted to poison an entire army or something.” They both laughed at the thought.

They continued to chat through dinner, both of them avoiding what had happened earlier. Maybe it was bad to just leave it untouched, but they would come around to that when it was time.

After dinner, they watched the stars for a bit longer. “What do you think, which one is the sun?”, Janus asked long after the lights had dimmed as they ignored that they should probably go to sleep. Virgil sighed. He was too tired to have his defenses up right now. As per usual, he hadn’t slept a wink before they had docked to stock up their supplies. “Don’t know, don’t care.”, he mumbled, “’s not like we’ll find our way back there anyways. And I don’t really wanna go back.”

That surprised Janus a bit. It was the first time he heard about it. “You don’t? But… What about your family? Your father? And your friends?”

“Nah. You’re my only friend anyways. They don’t like me much better than the aliens. You can go though, I do better on my own, I just don’t like being alone. But you wanna go back, so don’t tell, m’kay? Don’t wanna make you upset.”

Janus’ heart broke a little at his words, but warmed at the last statement. “You need to sleep.”

“Fine. Just don’t die or s’m’thin’.” A common fear of Virgil’s. Ever since they had escaped, he had started to get paranoid of loosing Janus. Of cause that alone was enough to make sure Janus would never be able to leave.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you wake up. We’re together in this. Always.”

And then Virgil’s breathing became more even than the anxious teen would ever breath when he was awake. Teen? No, adult by now. But he’d been a teen when they had captured him. About sixteen or so. How old was he now? Twenty? Twenty-two? How old did that make Janus? He sighed.

Whatever, he had to sleep, too. Thinking dreadful thoughts was more Virgil’s thing anyways. But just as he dosed off, Janus was woken up suddenly and harshly by a loud alarm blaring through the ship. Huh? What could possibly be wrong all of a sudden? He carefully put down Virgil’s head and went to operation control.

What he saw shocked him at first. One of their boosters had a hole inside it. They would crash helplessly in about thirty minutes if he didn’t do anything, floating around space without anyone willing to rescue them. He knew they had the necessary things to replace the destroyed rotor blade, but they would have to land first - and fast. But how…

He cursed. Of cause. They had been short when they had made their escape. Well, fuck! He started to check for any inhabitable planets close enough to make it.

“Janus? What’s going on?”, Virgil’s panicked voice suddenly filled the air.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! How did he best tell him without sending him into a panic attack?!

“We have a little problem. But I can fix it! We only have to land first. And… We’re lucky, there’s a planet in close proximity, XY-3. We’ll have to filter the air and be quick about it, but it’ll do.”

Silence. Janus looked over towards Virgil, who signed something with shaky hands: “Isn’t that the one with the storms? The one we were told to never land on, ever?” Janus gave him a wry smile. “Uh, yes. But it’ll be fine, promise. We’re a good team, we’ll make it in time. Everything is going to be fine, okay?”

And as Janus turned back towards the controls, he bit his lip and avoiding seeing Virgil’s expression, he desperately hoped that this one time his words would be the truth…

Uhm, everyone who read the prologue… I’m very sorry? Anyways…

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