#kinda platonic dukeceit

[naminethewriter]

How It All Began

Chapter Four: A New Deal

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Story Summary: Remus, son of a simple fisherman, had worked hard to become the captain of his own pirate ship. And in his humble opinion, it was going great! His crew was small but reliable and they had just stolen something that could them some nice cash from a military vessel they happened to cross on the open sea. They just needed to hide it somewhere until it was safe to sell. How lucky for them that they come across a nice, uninhabited island.

Little did Remus know just who he would find on that little piece of land and how it would change his life entirely.

Content Warning: Clay Construct that fails to emulate human anatomy, References to past Abuse, Riddles

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Logan was quite nervous. Janus had returned a few days after their last conversation to inform him that his patron wanted to speak to him in person about the request he made for Remus. She would arrive on the island the next day when the sun was at its apex to speak to him. It was just about time and Logan was pacing up and down his campsite. He was confident in Remus’ sincerity when making the request, he was unsure of whether he could properly convey as much to his patron.

Yes, he had talked with Lady Ala many times before but that still didn’t change her intimidating presence when he did. She was on the Council of Elemental Spirits for Nature’s sake! He could never meet her completely relaxed.

A rumble shook him out of his thoughts. No more time for worrying. She was here.

The ground under him vibrated as a mound of earth formed on the other side of the fire pit. It grew taller and taller, about seven feet before it formed humanoid features, a head with long hair and kind eyes on a slender body, smooth as the clay it was formed from. The limbs were just a bit too long and didn’t bend quite right which, along with the sheer height, made for an unsettling sight.

“Logan,” a melodic voice spilled past freshly formed lips that moved but didn’t have a mouth to conceal. “I hope you have been well.” Logan shook himself from his stupor and bowed. He had seen this process a few times before already, but it never failed to stun him.

“Yes, Your Grace. I haven’t been lacking.”

“Good. Good.” She smiled, her lips stretching too far along her face to seem human. “I am pleased to hear you make a request of us. I am always willing to hear you out, you know?”

“Yes, of course.” Logan did know that. Lady Ala had made it clear early on in their partnership that she wanted him to be comfortable in his new life since he had proven himself worthy of it. Still, Logan struggled with asking for more than the bare minimum he needed. His moss bed was something he had only been comfortable asking for after around fifty years of serving her.

“Though, this request isn’t technically for you, correct?”

“Indeed. It is for a… friend of mine.”

“You do not sound sure of using that title for him.” Her voice was as serene as before, but Logan felt like there was an edge to it. It must just be his nerves talking.

“We only briefly met but I do believe he is sincere. He spent a lot of time asking me questions about my… situation and was very forthcoming with personal information.”

“You spend such brief time together and yet he asked something so important of you?”

“It was a rare opportunity. There are few like me out there and there was no guarantee that we would meet again.”

“Is that what he told you or what you simple believe to be truth?”

Logan faltered. “He… did not tell me so outright but he implied as much before. And I do believe his intentions to be sincere. He does not wish to exploit you.”

“How are you so sure, my dear Logan? In such short time it is hard to find a person’s true character.”

“With all due respect, Lady Ala, but I am well acquainted with the sort of man who would seek you out solely to satisfy their greed.” Logan looked up at the clay construct that his patron had chosen to speak through. “I spent three years as their prisoner, unable to leave their ship. I know their eyes, the words they speak, the way they twist their words to present themselves in a better light. I know the ones that try to act like they pity me, that try to fool me into trusting them to get what they want. I spend three long years suffering under their hands. Remus is not like them. He is honest in his curiosity. He does not hide his blemishes. He has embraced who he is and forges his own path no matter what others say. He does not wish you harm or seek to exploit you. He is simply curious.”

Lady Ala was silent for a long moment, watching him from her high vantage point but Logan didn’t shrink under her gaze.

“You speak very highly of this person.”

“Yes, he is one of the most impressive people I have ever met. I think he deserves a chance to prove himself to you as well.”

“Very well. I will grant him a chance.”

“Thank you, Your Grace.”

“How could I not be intrigued by a man that you chose to put your trust into, my dear Logan? I was worried you were growing lonely recently.” She watched him attentively. Logan knew she saw him as one of her ‘children’ and that she cared about him more than his research, even if not everyone on the Council shared that sentiment. But he couldn’t see her in that light at all. She was superior to him, a being higher than himself, he couldn’t familiarize himself with her in that way. And she respected that, thankfully.

“I am very satisfied with my living conditions here, Your Grace. Janus and Virgil are companionship enough for me.”

“If you say so, I shall believe it.” She nodded her head and straightened her posture, towing at her full height over him. “Now then. In regard to the trial the human you call Remus shall face, along with those he travels with, I will leave it to Janus to deliver the quest. He will be his last judge. You will relocate as planned. You are not to provide aid to this human.”

“How could I aid him if I am away from here? I will be gone before he returns.”

“Indeed. However, I shall share with you the details of his quest. You are not to leave aid for him here when you leave.”

Logan frowned slightly but nodded. “Understood.”

“Good. Then listen.”

~~~

Two hours later, Logan walked across the island, following along the creek upstream. From what Lady Ala had told him, the trial Remus had to overcome to prove his worth wasn’t all that complicated, even if he knew that the instructions themselves would be presented in a riddle. Still, Remus was an intelligent man, Logan had no doubt that he would be able to figure out what he was meant to do. But there was one part of the trial that he supposed Remus could use some advice on. Lady Ala had forbidden him from aiding Remus in his quest, but Logan was sure he could leave a simple book recommendation behind for the pirate to find, right? He arrived at a familiar cliff and stuffed a ripped page from his notebook into his pocket and started climbing.

Once he returned to camp it was time to start packing. His time here was up. He just hoped he would encounter Remus again on another island somewhere out there.

~~~

Almost half a year. Remus hated that it took them almost half a year to return to Logan’s island. The damned navy wouldn’t give up controlling ships entering harbors in order to find the seal until last month. Being a pirate in general during those months had kinda been a pain, but they managed just fine. And now the whole thing had passed, and they should be able to smuggle the seal to a good buyer without much problem. Not that Remus cared that much about it anymore, he just wanted to see Logan again. The man had been haunting his dreams and maybe not just because he was an Immortal.

Maybe Remus just thought his eyes were pretty.

He was gay, fucking sue him.

Anyway, they were approaching their destination at a steady pace and should arrive there before noon the next day. Remus was so excited he considered not sleeping for the whole night. Which was a stupid plan, especially since he had already been sleeping less these past few days due to being too excited. He suspected that his crew knew they weren’t only returning to grab the seal but none of them had asked him any questions. He and Patton hadn’t told them anything about Logan so far and Remus didn’t want to share with them more until he was sure they would actually get the chance to prove themselves to the Elemental Spirits themselves.

A knock on his door pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Come in!”

His door opened but a crack before Patton’s voice floated over to him, “You’re decent, right, Captain?”

Remus snorted. “Yes, Pat. I got all my clothes on, don’t worry.” The cook peeked inside, only stepping across the threshold when he saw that Remus hadn’t lied.

“We’ll be at our destination about two hours after sunrise according to Corbin,” Patton reported with a small smile.

“Good.”

“The others are wondering how long we’re going to be docking there this time.”

“I have no idea, Pat. I guess it depends on what Logan’s got for us. If it’s just a straight up ‘no’ then I guess we would stay for like a day or two to chat, maybe introduce him to the rest of the crew if he’s chill with it. If it’s a ‘yes’ though… Well, then there’s no telling where it will lead us. As Logan said, we’ll have to prove ourselves worthy to meet the Council and whatever we have to do to do so? We’ll do it.”

“I understand. So, I’m telling the others to be ready to take off again whenever?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Okay, got it.” Patton nodded while fiddling with his sleeves. “Are you really sure about this, Remus?” He asked quietly, almost too quiet for Remus to hear. He knew Patton had his doubts – well, he still had his doubts about their whole profession, but this was another other level of danger. Him using his name instead of his title just stressed how much it was on his mind.

“I’m super certain, Pat. If you don’t want to come along then I understand, of course. We’ll set you off at a good harbor.”

Immediately, Patton shook his head. “No, I promised I would stick with you, no matter what and I meant it! You saved my life, I’m staying.”

“Patton, I…”

“No, I know. You don’t see it as a debt and neither do I, I just want to help you.”

Remus sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just don’t want you to force yourself into danger for my sake.”

“I’m not. I want to meet the Spirits, too. I’m just worried what will happen if things go wrong.”

“Oh, I’m sure they will!” Remus laughed, winking at Patton. “But whatever happens, I’m sure we can handle it. We always managed before, haven’t we?”

“I wish I had your confidence,” Patton chuckled weakly. “But okay, I’ll give your orders to the crew. Try to sleep, Captain. Tomorrow is going to be a lot.”

“Yeah, I know. I promise, I’ll try to sleep. Goodnight, Pat.”

“Goodnight, Captain.”

~~~

True to Corbin’s word, they anchored by Logan’s island a little over two hours after sunrise. Remus and Patton were the only ones to set off towards land this time and the captain was determined to meet Logan on his own for now. Patton respected his choice and waited on the beach. Remus entered the jungle alone and thankfully he had a good memory and a trusty compass that guided him in the right direction towards Logan’s camp quickly.

He found the path he had traversed with Logan back then, but it was different than before. More overgrown. As if nobody had walked along it for a while. A bad feeling spread through Remus’ chest and he quickened his steps. Maybe he was just imagining it. Maybe Logan just hadn’t had a reason to come this way recently. Yeah, he was sure the nerd was fine. He had to be.

Still, the sense of dread wouldn’t leave him alone the entire way to Logan’s camp. His eyes flitted around without rest, hyperaware of every movement around him, though it was mostly leaves being swayed by the rather strong winds of the day. Remus tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down but that was kinda hard to do while powerwalking along an uneven path.

Ten minutes later he broke through the line of trees into the clearing that contained Logan’s camp.

And his heart sank.

There was nothing there.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The indent of the fireplace was still there but it was empty. As was the space under the stone awning that had previously held Logan’s bed and belongings.

No trace of the Immortal was left.

Remus gripped the locket on his chest through his shirt as his heartbeat picked up.

He panicked.

He began to run, calling out Logan’s name in the hopes that he was mistaken. He had to be on the island somewhere, right? Maybe he had just moved his camp for some reason. That was the only explanation Remus could think of.

Well, that wasn’t true, but it was the only positive explanation he could think of.

He forced himself to not think about the possibility that his request could have led to Logan suffering the consequences. That the Council had rescinded their blessing because he had been too greedy.

Remus ran, calling and calling, but he didn’t receive an answer.

He ran around like a headless chicken for about ten minutes until he broke through the tree line again onto a beach. Not the beach where Patton was waiting with the rowboat but a small bay that was quite hidden between two cliffsides. There, Remus stopped, gasping for breath. He leaned on his knees, staring at the sand beneath him as he tried to force air back into his lungs.

“You’re quite a loud one,” a voice commented. It wasn’t one Remus had heard before, but he was sure it was just in his head, after all, no one else but him and Patton were here. And Logan. Hopefully.

“I gotta…” He heaved for air. “I gotta find him.” Why was he talking to a voice in his head? Because he needed to sort his thoughts and talking out loud helped him with that.

“Why?”

“Because I told him I’d come back.”

“Well, he’s not here.”

“He has to be. If he’s not here then… where is he?”

“If this is about your meeting with the Council, I am here to speak with you about that.” Remus head snapped up. Maybe this wasn’t a voice in his head after all.

His green eyes met gleaming gold. A Siren sat on a stone jutting out of the sea in front of him, the tail disappearing under the waves lapping at the rock. The sun caused his scales to sparkle, and his long hair flowed in the wind like some sort of goddess paintings he had seen in the few temples he had visited.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” Remus breathed. Apparently loud enough for the siren to hear because he raised a brow. “Sorry, you caught me off guard.”

“Yes, I noticed. So, the deal.” The siren opened his mouth to continue but Remus cut him off.

“Wait, what about Logan?”

“Why do you care? I’ll give you your task, that’s what you want, right?” His voice was cold, and Remus remembered Logan mentioning that both of the siren’s he made regular contact with weren’t fond of humans. This was probably one of them.

“I mean, I can’t say I don’t want it but I also wanna know if Logie’s okay. He’s my friend and if my asking him for an audience with the Council got him in trouble, I don’t want to meet them.” The siren looked at him skeptically, taking his time deliberating his words.

He seemed to deem him sincere after a few moments because he reassured him, “Logan’s fine. He just moved to another isle.”

“Why? Did I do something?” Again, the siren looked surprised.

“No. His relocation was decided long before you came here. It just happened to coincide with your appearance and request.”

“So I can go see him then? Wherever he is now? You know, right?”

“I do. But I’m not going to tell you.” The siren said it with a grin, showing off his sharp teeth. Remus scowled.

“Why not?”

“Because it would make this thing rather pointless, wouldn’t it?” From behind his back, the mer pulled a glass bottle into view. From the distance Remus could see it contained a role of paper. “This holds your instructions to prove yourself worthy of being considered for an audience, as you call it.” Remus watched as he played with the bottle, suspicious of the siren’s intentions.

“What’s the catch? And what does it have to do with me meeting Logan again?”

“If you do this correctly, then it will lead you to Logan’s new home and if you make it there in one piece, you will be allowed to take on the real tests to prove your honest intentions towards the Council. A trial run, I believe you humans call it.”

“Then give it here.” Remus held out his hand, ready to catch the bottle if thrown but the siren just smiled coyly and placed it back behind him.

“Not yet, I think.”

“Why?” The pirate grit his teeth in irritation. The mer was burning daylight, he wanted to get going, to figure out where Logan went.

“Because I’m not willing to acknowledge you as a candidate yet. Logan says he trusts you, but I don’t buy it. You two met three times and one of those you killed him. And yet he wants to give you a chance to meet the entities he has sworn to protect and serve? It doesn’t add up.” The siren stared at him with piercing eyes full of mistrust. Fine, he wanted to play this game? Remus would oblige.

“What do you want me to do then? To earn your trust?”

“I have questions for you. Answer them and I might give you the bottle. And don’t try to lie to me, I can tell when you do.”

With a sign, Remus let himself fall on his butt in the sand. “Shoot.”

~~~

Remus let himself be interrogated for hours. He answered the siren’s questions, no matter how private. At least the ones about himself. The mer also tried to get detail about his crew but Remus refused to offer up their information without their consent. He figured he did the right thing there when the siren didn’t push him further. Eventually the questions stopped and they simply stared at each other for a while. Remus didn’t speak up, daring the siren to continue badgering him.

“Fine. I have to admit, Logan’s seems like a better judge of character than I thought,” the mer sighed and threw the bottle in Remus’ direction. It landed a few feet to his left with a dull thud. Remus didn’t reach for it right away, watching the siren. “What are you waiting for, pirate?”

“What’s your name?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I just want to know. Logan told me about two sirens that visit him and I think I know which one you are.”

“Oh, really?” the other asked, brows raised again. “Enlighten me then.”

“Janus, right?”

“Correct.” The siren looked like he had bit into something bitter as his name left Remus’ lips. “You have quite the memory.”

“I tend to remember things I find interesting. And I’ve always wanted to meet a siren.”

“You didn’t look so happy to meet me a few hours ago.”

“Yeah, ‘cause I was worried about Logan more. You promise he’s alright?”

“Yes. He is fine and doing his research like he’s supposed to.” Remus glanced at the bottle before meeting Janus’ gaze again.

“And if I manage to clear your trial, I can see him again.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Remus got up, shaking the sand off his pants before finally going over to grab the glass container and looking inside. It indeed was a rolled-up piece of paper. He put the bottle in his satchel to look at when he was back on the ship. “Thank you,” he said to the siren that looked surprised at his words.

“Why thank me? I kept you here and made you humor me.”

“Yeah, and that was kinda a dick move, but you also gave me a way to meet my friend again, so I’ll take it.”

“You’re strange, human.”

“So I’ve heard. Can I go now?” The siren waved his arm as if to shoo him off and with an eye roll, Remus walked back into the jungle. Behind him he heard the splash of Janus diving back into the water. He really hoped that one day he could bombard the siren with his own questions, but for now he had a seal to collect, a crew to return to and a piece of paper to pull out of a bottle and decipher. He pulled out his compass. Time to find his way back to the creek.

~~~

Around two hours later, Remus pulled Patton into his quarters. He had told his crew to set sail towards the harbor where he hoped to sell the seal. Meanwhile, he and Patton would see what was given to them by Janus.

“And you’re sure Logan’s fine?” Patton asked for the third time after Remus pulled the door shut behind him.

“I think we can trust the siren’s words, yeah.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Me neither, but there’s nothing else we can do. This—“ He held up the glass bottle. “—is the only clue we have, so let’s concentrate on that.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I just worry,” Patton sighed, sitting down in a chair in front of Remus’ desk while the captain sat behind it.

“I know, Pat. Let’s get you distracted.” With a grin, Remus held up the bottle, fully intending to smash it against the desk to break it open.

“STOP!” Patton all but screamed, eyes wide. “Captain, that’s a horrible idea! The shards would be everywhere. They will hit us!”

“Oh, right. Oops?” The other glared at Remus but didn’t say more. Instead, he took the bottle from Remus and inspected the neck and contents.

“I think the paper is wrapped tightly enough that it will just slip out if we pull the cork.”

“Boring!”

“Want me to get Emile so he can lecture you about safety procedures again?”

“Don’t threaten me, Pat, this is my fucking ship.” Despite his words, Remus’ tone was more akin to a whine than actual annoyance.

“Then don’t put yourself in harm’s way over a stupid message in a bottle.” Patton pulled out a corkscrew out of his pocket – he really carried that around with him? – and gently shook the paper out. It fell into his hands, and he handed it over to Remus who eagerly pulled away the piece of twine keeping it rolled up. It wasn’t very big and only a few lines were written on it. He read it out:

“To find where you need to go, visit the roaring mountain lying between the Mouth of the Ocean and the Ever-Frozen Isle. Offer your precious to the heart of the temple standing on the mountain’s side and then the stars shall guide you to your destiny.”

Both of them were quiet for a moment, trying to process the words. Remus read the note over and over while Patton stared at the ceiling in thought.

“I think I know what they mean by ‘Ever-Frozen Isle’,” Remus muttered, squinting at the paper in his hand, “but what the hell is a ‘roaring mountain’ supposed to be?”

“Couldn’t that mean a volcano?” Patton questioned. “I don’t know a lot about sea legends apart from what you told me since they weren’t common where I come from, but we did have some about volcano outbreaks. And in those there would be verses like ‘the mountains roared and the flames followed’ or something along those lines.”

“Hm, makes sense, I guess,” Remus hummed. “Then what is the ‘Mouth of the Ocean’?”

“I never heard of it. What do you think the ‘Ever-Frozen Isle’ is?”

“It’s a common legend about an Island in the south seas where it’s always winter. It’s supposed to be super beautiful but getting there requires sailing through quite a few hazards, not to mention that you need to be prepared for the freezing temperatures once there, so there aren’t many records about it.”

“Fascinating!” Patton was on the edge of his seat listening to Remus. “I would love to see it; I’ve never even seen snow!”

Remus laughed. “Maybe someday we’ll go there if we can find some stuff to protect us from the cold.” The other beamed. “Anyway, this will require research, I think. We’ll ask the others if they can think what any of this means but even if they do, we’ll likely need more precise coordinates and maps.” They’d most likely need to visit a library. Remus hated places that forced quietness. Patton looked at him empathetically.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad. Let’s see what the others think first? How much are we telling them anyway?”

“Just that we got something interesting going on and that they’ll get the details later. I don’t want to get their hopes up.”

“I understand,” Patton smiled weakly. He didn’t like secrets, but those were his captain’s orders, so he would stay quiet on the subject. He was about to stand and make his way to the door to gather the crew but suddenly stopped short. “Did you get the seal?”

Oh right. Over all of Patton’s worrying over Logan, he had forgotten to check the box he had retrieved from the hiding place the Immortal had shown them. He pulled the wooden container out of the satchel and placed it on the desk in front of him. Patton leaned closer to peek inside. Remus opened the lid to find the seal where he had left it, as well as a piece of paper that hadn’t been there before. He pulled it out, unfolded it and began to read.

Dear Remus (and Patton),

I apologize that I am not there to greet you, but I must to continue my research elsewhere.

This has been planned for a while and I cannot stall it any longer, nor do I truly want to.

If you are serious about your request, I am sure we will meet again soon.

Speaking of which, I was told not to aid you and I shall refrain from doing so, however, I wanted to share with you a rumor I heard while still at court before my time with the Spirits.

Back then there was talk of a book, written by a rather well-known researcher on the subject of Sirens and their culture. The man, Frederick van Woodsworth was his name, I believe, had been believed to been lost at sea for many years before he miraculously returned one day. He spoke of having been saved by a siren and living alongside them for a long period of time. Of course, he was deemed insane for his claims, after all, it was widely believed back then that Sirens are nothing but bloodthirsty creatures out to kill humans. Woodsworth was ridiculed and cast out.

He wrote his experiences down in a book and attempted to publish it but was detained for treason. The copies of his book should still exist, however. I heard of one of them being kept in the library of Marblerock Port, not far from here. It’s probably not accessible to the public, however.

I hope you find use in this tale.

Until we meet again,

Logan

Remus stared at the letter with a raised brow.

“What the fuck is he trying to say with this?!”

“I’m not sure,” Patton hummed, suddenly standing behind him and reading over his shoulder. “Maybe he just thought you might find it interesting since you told him you’d like to meet a siren one day?”

“I don’t know. I feel like he’s trying to tell me something, but I have no clue what.” Remus squinted at the letters, trying to will them to reveal their secrets to him. Nothing happened, sadly. “I don’t have the patience for riddles! And now I have two!” he groaned. Patton pat him on the shoulder.

“Let’s look on the bright side! You and I already have some leads on two parts of the riddle and I’m sure the others have something to contribute, too. And if we need to do some research anyway, going to this specific library works just as well as going to any other, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. Let’s see if the others can prove to me that it’s beneficial to keep them around.”

“That’s not nice!” Patton protested, but Remus was already moving past him.

“Relax, Pat. It’s just a joke. They could all break a leg tomorrow and I would let them stay, you know that. Hell, they can haunt me if they want, I still wouldn’t want to get rid of them.”

“Yes, I know,” Patton giggled, following his captain out of the room and up on deck.

“Okay, chucklefucks!” Remus called out loudly. “I’ve got a riddle for you and if you can help me figure it out, we can go on the adventure of our lifetime!”

[quackkaz]

Remus, teasingly : Come ooooooon, I'm one of the most responsible people you know!

Janus : I agree. Usually, when something happens, you're the one responsible.

[pheonix-inside]

Guys guys guys. I have an idea for a Sanders Sides hero/vigilante/villain fic. With the characters, their arcs, and the basic plot all figured out.

I got this idea yesterday at like 2 am. I think I was given magic.

Anyway time to write about teen vigilante Roman realizing that being a superhero isn't actually as wonderful as the thought, and learning more about his family than he ever thought he would. Yippee.

[emoprincey]

dukeceit and prinxiety for the ask game?

Ty for the ask!!

Dukeceit - ship it

1. What made you ship it?

They're literally husbands, what more do I have to say /j. No but fr tho, I think it was just... their potential dynamic??? The fact that they're both over-the-top villains and I thought they'd be really good together right from the start. Also fan content, there's so much amazing dukeceit content in this fandom XD

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

So many things... they just have an unparalleled aesthetic, I kinda see them as having a Gomez and Morticia vibe.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Speaking of the Gomez and Morticia vibe, I like to think they give compliments in the same kinda weird way. In the kind of "you look like death" "aw thanks babe" kinda way (this goes for anxceitmus too btw).

The unpopular opinion part of this has to do with the evil twin comment. I think Janus and Remus call themselves evil and such things as a joke, so I don't think he'd be too bothered about it really.

Prinxiety - Ship it

1. What made you ship it?

Prinxiety was the first Sanders Sides ship that I actually shipped, and I was really into it for all of one week lol (I do still like them now, there r just other ships I prefer). I think it's because Roman and Virgil had the most fun dynamic right from the start. Roman was the first character Virgil interacted with (unless you count C!Thomas) and I do love enemies to lovers!

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

I think mostly how far they've come from where the used to be. They used to despise each other, but now they're besties and they helped set Thomas up with Nico together.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Idk if this counts as unpopular, but I kinda prefer their platonic dynamic to actually shipping them?? If I think of them being in a relationship, it's more like best friends who make out sometimes

[darth-does-stuff]

look at him go!! trash bastard!!!

[howlsofbloodhounds]

(Texting)

Remus: You know what I always wondered? How do tall people like you sleep when the blankets can't completely cover you from your shoulders to your toes?

Logan: Remus

Logan: It's 4 O'CLOCK IN THE FUCKING MORNING!

Remus: So...you can't sleep, huh?

Remus:...is it because of the blanket?

-----

Deceit: Why are you looking at me through a fork?

Virgil: I'm pretending you're in jail.

Deceit:...why?

Virgil: It's surprisingly healing.

---

Roman: How do you sleep at night?

Remus: On silk sheets, rolling naked in money.

Roman:..can I stab him?

Virgil: Not in public.

----

Remus: I wish there was somewhere for me to sit.

Logan: *gestures to empty chair beside him*

Remus: *kicks over the chair* If only there was somewhere for me to sit!

Logan: *sighs and gestures towards his lap*

Remus: *sits on his lap* I knew you'd catch on!

----

Deceit: I've done the best I could to raise you! Have I been perfect? No.

Deceit: Do I know anything about children? No.

Deceit: Should I have picked up a book on parenting? Probably!

Virgil:

Remus:

Deceit: Where was I going with this? I had a point.

-----

Deceit: When I was your age--

Virgil: When I was your height--

Deceit: Now listen here you little shit.

----

Logan: Everyone, synchronize your watches.

Patton: I don't know how to do that.

Roman: I don't wear one.

Virgil: Time is a construct.

----

Logan: You are supposed to bang your fist against mine.

Remus: Why?

Logan: I am told it is a widely accepted gesture for mutual success.

Deceit: I love it when you two impersonate normal people.

----

Logan & Roman: Can we go to McDonalds?!

Patton: We have food at home, kiddos.

Roman: This family sucks!

[Meanwhile, with the Dark Sides]

Virgil & Remus: Can we go to McDonalds?!

Deceit: [pulls up into a drive thru]

Virgil & Remus: yayyyy!!

Deceit: One small black coffee, please.

----

Remus: Deceit is a really nice person, underneath the part of him that hates everyone.

----

Deceit: [taps pen]

Remus: [taps pen in response]

Virgil: Stop that.

Deceit: Stop what?

Virgil: You're talking about me in Morse code.

Deceit: Yes, that's what we're doing. In our very limited free time, we took a class on a very outdated, very unnecessary form of communication just so we could talk about you in front of you.

[Later]

Remus, to Logan: That's exactly what we did.

---

Remus: (lying in the hospital, waiting for his appendix to be taken out) If I die during this operation, would you do one thing for me?

Roman: Anything, Remus.

Remus: (grabs Roman by his collar and squeezes eyes) Blow up the fucking hospital.

----

Remus: Here's a fun Christmas idea: We'll hang up mistletoe, but instead of kissing, you have to FIGHT whoever else is under it!

Deceit: We're not doing that.

Virgil: Mistelfoe.

----

Logan: It's very embarrassing...

Logan: You know, having feelings.

----

Remus: If Patton finds out you disobeyed his orders, he'll blame me!

Roman: Yes, I'll make sure of that.

----

Deceit, to Virgil: You can't cancel! Remus is even wearing his formal leather jacket!

Remus: It's the one without any blood on it.

----

Remus: You are what you eat!

Patton, mumbling under his breathe: I don't remember feeding you a huge disappointment.

----

Deceit: Why is your back all scratched up?

Remus: [flashback to him and Virgil chasing a raccoon after Deceit told them to leave it alone]

Remus:...I killed Roman.

----

Logan: Can you imagine not being human and living your life as a weeping willow, though? Beautiful? By the water? Unburdened? Ideal.

Remus: I wanna be the one from Harry Potter that beats the shit out of everything and everyone.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Space Heaters

Prompts: so your fic "grounded" reminded me of one of my favorite headcanons - that janus is coldblooded and remus a living space heater, means perfect for cuddling - and also of the fact that in some of your writings remus switches into soft clothes when he comforts someone - so i really would love to read something like that with dukeceit being soft? only if you wanna of course and your writing is always amazing no matter what you write 💛💛💛 - anon

Okay. So I don't know if this is where you're supposed to submit prompts or not, but since reading one of your latest Sander's Sides ficcs, I MUST have one about Roman being Janus's space heater, and I refuse to believe I'm the only one. - lifezvictory

Read on Ao3

Warnings: kinda hypothermia, not really, just cold snek

Pairings: roceit, dukexeit, kinda, can be platonic or romantic I don't care

Word Count: 2984

Creativity runs warm. 

It’s getting colder outside and the Mindscape isn’t exactly season-proof. 

Even Logan would agree that this is a logical choice of action.

Janus stifles a noise, curling further in on himself as the blankets rustle around him. He grits his teeth against the draft that threatens to slim under the top layers and tugs them closer, ignoring the way his arms protest the movement. 

It’s getting colder outside and the Mindscape isn’t exactly season-proof. 

The cover of blankets makes his breaths double back and hit him in the face. It’s an awful feeling, he decides, and he doesn’t want to feel it anymore but as soon as he pokes his head out from under the blankets, the cold rushes in and he whines, burying his head back underneath. 

It’s cold. It’s so cold. 

“Jan-Jan,” comes Remus’s voice from somewhere too far away, “we were supposed to do the thing today, where are you?”

Janus just sighs and resigns himself to suffering in his inadequate blanket nest. What he really needs are a lot of sweaters with people’s body heat trapped in them, but Virgil’s gone who knows where and Remus…well, Janus doesn’t exactly trust Remus to keep his sweaters clean. The blankets will have to do. 

“Snakey, where are you?” Remus is getting closer. “I have plans, and you said you would—oh.”

The way Remus suddenly stops talking and then stays silent tells Janus all he needs to know about what Remus is thinking. 

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the outer layers of the blanket nest start to shift and then he’s hissing as the chill hits his scales. 

“Snakey?” Remus’s face peeks in over the mound of blankets. “You okay in there?”

“Put it back,” Janus snarls, aiming for intimidating and missing by half a mile, “it’s cold.”

“Are you cold?”

“That’s what I just said. Now put it back.”

“Snakey, did you—how long have you been here?”

Grunting, Janus reaches out and tugs the blankets away from Remus, curling back up in his huddle. “I don’t know, Remus, now stop stealing my warmth.”

“Janus, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Oh. Oh, shit, Remus just used his full name. Oh, dear.

“…Remus, I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” Remus’s voice is even and serious and part of Janus is glad he’s already hiding so he doesn’t have to see his face. “If you’re cold and you’re not moving, your limbs are going to freeze up and you might seriously injure them. We need to get you warm.”

“What do you think,” Janus says through gritted teeth, “I’ve been trying to do?”

Remus sighs, almost too quiet to hear, before there’s a slight rocking of the blanket bundle. “Can I pick you up, Snakey?”

“Can you?”

“Don’t correct my grammar,” Remus warns, still speaking in his serious voice, “are you alright with being picked up or not?”

Janus huffs, breath doubling back on him. “I was asking if it were possible for you to—hey!”

Remus scoops him up like he weighs nothing, carrying him off down the hall in a wriggling pile of blanket and cold snake. Resigning himself to one, being carried, and two, not knowing where they’re going, Janus curls as much as he can into the blankets and—and—

“Easy,” Remus murmurs as Janus shudders with the sudden feeling of warmth radiating through the blankets, “easy, Snakey, it’s okay, we’re almost there.”

The sudden reemergence of the pet name shouldn’t make him feel warm either, but here they are. 

There’s a pause and the creak of a door opening before Remus sets him down on something soft, reaching for the blanket layers again. 

“I need to get these off of you,” he says quietly, “we need to see how you are.”

“But it’s cold.”

“Shh, shh, I know, Snakey, I know, but these—“ Remus tugs the blankets— “aren’t helping.  Clearly.”

“It’s better than nothing,” Janus whines, clinging to one of them as Remus begins to shift the blankets away, “and nothing else will keep me warm.”

“I’ll keep you warm.”

Wait, what?

But before Janus can ask what exactly that means and why it didn’t sound like an innuendo at all, Remus pulls away all of the blankets but one and Janus whimpers, the cold striking his scales and trying to burrow under them. 

“Shh, shh, shh,” Remus murmurs, hands landing like irons on Janus’s shoulders, “hang on, Snakey, just hang on a minute for me. Just let me look at you for a second and then we’ll get you warm.”

“Hurry,” Janus croaks, “hurry, please, please, it hurts—“

“I know, Snakey, I know.”

He doesn’t know what Remus does or what it means, he only knows that staying still while the chill rushes over him is hurting and he’s doing this for Remus and he wants to be warm so badly but if Remus doesn’t hurry up and finish he’s going to cry. 

“Thank god,” Remus mumbles, “okay, you’re okay. Let’s get you warm now.”

About damn time, Janus wants to hiss, but only a burbled noise makes it out of his throat. He hears the sound of Remus snapping his fingers and then his hands are being picked up and rested on something warm and soft. 

“C’mon, Snakey, come steal my body heat.” Remus—it’s Remus he’s touching, how is he so warm— “that’s it, Snakey, you c’mere.”

Warmth under his hands turns into warm arms around him, scooping him up again like he weighs nothing and lying down. Different blankets are pulled over him, thick and warm, pressing down on him with a substantial weight this time. There’s a high-pitched noise coming from somewhere and he only realizes it’s him when the chest under him chuckles and Remus’s voice is calling him a little noisemaker. 

“It’s okay, Snakey,” he says after Janus buries his mortified face in the crook of Remus’s neck, “you don’t have to be embarrassed, you’re cold. It’s okay.”

“’S stupid.”

“No, you’re you and you get cold and you need cuddles to warm you up.” The warmth around him squeezes. “That’s okay.”

“You’re soft.”

“Mhm. You like soft things, so I’m soft now.”

“You’re warm.”

“Like a space heater. Which means there’s more than enough for you to snatch and hide away under all your scales.”

Janus shifts, hooking his chin over Remus’s shoulder and closing his eyes, letting the scaled side of his face rest against the warmth radiating from Remus’s nick. He wasn’t exaggerating, he really is a space heater. Janus can feel itself sinking further and further into Remus’s embrace. It’s almost like he’s lying on a sun-warmed rock, that’s how warm it is.

“Aw, thanks,” Remus chuckles when Janus makes to voice the thought out loud, squeezing him a little tighter and rubbing his cheek against the scales, “now, are you gonna need to stay here for a while?”

“I might not get up ever again,” comes the threat that’s only about half-empty. 

Remus chuckles. “Oh, Snakey, how long have you needed this?”

“Told you,” Janus manages, his voice beginning to slur from the onset of exhaustion, “dunno. Been…been cold.”

Remus is quiet for a moment. Then the arms around him move and shift and his head is being pulled back enough to look at his face. 

“Anytime you need to be cuddled,” he says, voice all serious again, “you come and you find me, okay? I don’t care what’s going on, if you need to get warmed up, you tell me.”

Janus just stares at him before nodding slowly. Remus nods back and pulls him in. 

“Now you go to sleep, Snakey, I can tell you want to.”

The last things he notices are the blankets pulled tighter around them, the shifting of  so Janus is fully on top of him, and the kiss pressed to his scales.

He could get used to this. 

————

It is winter and he is cold and he is hungry. 

Janus’s skin itches now when he accidentally brushes his arms against his sides. He wears his sleeves longer and thicker, his cape wrapped around him, folds his arms and his hands and remembers to keep them to himself. A barrier is better than nothing and those whom he would touch, has touched, he knows better now. 

He will not be needy, not when he has to keep his head. 

When the distance is there, he can hold it. But when it isn’t, oh, he wants, to drown himself in it until his ears fill and his eyes wither and his tongue turns black and falls out of his head. But that would be greedy and he will not be his worst self in the face of that greed. 

As you might be able to tell, Janus gets dramatic when he’s cold. 

He wouldn’t normally object to stealing body heat, no, he’s pressed himself up against Remus and Virgil and shamelessly stolen it, flirted with Logan and Patton to make them all warm and flustered, but he’s trying to be better about respecting boundaries and they—

They don’t trust him yet. 

That’s okay, he understands. 

So when he begins to sniffle at the end of the week, he ignores the aching burn in his hands by stuffing them into ticker gloves and hunching his shoulders against the mass of shoulder pats and hand clasps that surround him as he sinks out. He burns all the way to the Dark Sides’ living room, trembling hands excused with a weak smile about how cold it is outside. He can’t quite get his fingers around the door knob, fumbling with the handle, and shivers as he runs into the walls trying to find the light switch in the dark. 

By the time he struggles out of his coat and gloves, he is nothing more than tremors. His nose is raw from tissues, blistered from the cold, protesting even as he swallows the pills in his cabinet. 

His stomach turns at the thought of food so he doesn’t. His arms ache, his skin burns as he slumps against the walls. He has to get out of his work clothes, they’ll be such a hassle to clean if he ruins them. Softer clothes, easier clothes, clothes that can be ruined. Clothes that can be destroyed with a touch and no one would look. 

A sniffling and trembling mess huddles on his bed, blankets piled high until he feels that he can hardly breathe, but it’s not enough. The cold is young, yet older than he can name, lingering just under his skin where the blankets can’t reach it. It’s not enough, either, to fill the well of loneliness as he shifts, the sound of the blankets too loud in the room. His body is tired. He aches. The best he can manage is a low whine as he tries, tries, tries to get warm. 

The next tissue is filled with tears. 

His imagination is cruel as he tries to fall asleep, taunting him with the memories of seeing carefree touches and casual affection. A ruffle of someone’s hair, clapping them on the shoulder, linking arms as they walk. What does that feel like, it whispers, do you even remember?

Do you hate the process of asking for touch, it continues, undaunted by the whine that escapes his throat, because you know that they would never understand how much it means for you?

Is that why you refuse to allow yourself the permission for casual touch, because you know it means much more for you than it does for them?

He wants Remus but Remus isn’t here. 

As if it can hear his unspoken answer, or if it takes pity on the whine that emerges despondent from his throat, his closed eyes well up again as the phantom sensations of fingers carding though his hair makes him shudder. But the empty promise of someone being here, someone running their hand through his hair is enough to soothe the worst of the tremors. 

Perhaps he’s got a better control of the Imagination than he thought. 

His sleep-slack brain keeps going, imagining the hand brushing his hair back from his forehead. He imagines it lying there for a moment, the back of it resting against damp skin, checking is he has a fever. It lingers there for another minute before smoothing a few stray hairs out of the way. He mumbles, scrunching his eyes tighter to cling to whatever figure his longing has conjured. 

The hand pauses, and for a moment, he’s afraid it will disappear entirely, but then it moves again, somehow more carefully than before. It moves with purpose now, the pads of their fingers pressing gently against his scalp. 

“Janus?”

He must be exhausted, it sounds like someone is calling his name. The hand in his hair doesn’t stop, but it feels…warmer, now, somehow, as if there’s a weight to it. 

“Janus,” the imaginary voice calls again, “are you awake?”

“I thought I told you not to wake him up,” says another voice—what’s—what—

“You’re the one who’s yelling.” The voice softens, the hand passing over his forehead again. “You can open your eyes now, you can stop pretending.”

His eyes don’t want to. He wants them to be real. But…but…but…

“Hello, little snake” Roman says softly, his hand still brushing his hair back from his forehead, “you’re not well, are you?”

Janus blinks at him. Why…why is he here? Why is he touching him? He’s going to get sick—he tries to pull away but only succeeds in rucking up the covers a little. 

“Don’t move too much,” as the hand slides up to cup the back of his head, fingers tangled in the hair there, “you need to rest.”

“Which is why—“ Remus, that’s Remus— “he wasn’t supposed to wake you up.”

The hand on him is warm. It’s warm and it makes his head feel fuzzy and that means it was real. There was a hand that carded through his hair, there was a hand that carefully checked if he had a fever, there was a hand that stroked his head and oh, oh—it was real and—and—

“Does it hurt,” comes the voice, worried now, as a thumb swipes a tear from his cheek, “are you in pain?”

It burns. The memory of the touch on his face is almost more than he can bear. The hand pulls away and he whimpers, trying to chase it. 

He hears a rush of breath from above him and a rustle of fabric, then the hand returns, a thumb gently caressing his cheek. 

“You can have it,” Roman murmurs, “if touch is what you need, you can have it.”

If he were slightly more awake, slightly less unwell, or slightly less drunk on simple touch, he might question why he’s here, why Remus is here, why they’re in his room, or why Roman sounds sweet and worried. But he isn’t, and he can feel the questions leaving his mind the longer the hand stays on his face. 

“Hey, hey,” and now Roman sounds like he’s speaking to something precious, “don’t cry, little snake, it’s alright.”

He’s…crying? Roman’s other hand comes up to cup his face and yes, yes, he’s crying. 

“Shh, shh,” Roman whispers, leaning down to murmur the words right up against his forehead, “you’re alright, little snake. It’s okay.”

“Ro, if you get sick, I swear to god—“

“You and I both know we run way too hot for that.”

Janus whimpers. It’s not fair. The two of them have so much body heat and he has none. It’s not fair. It’s not fair. 

“Oh, sweetheart,” Roman sighs, sliding one hand up to card through his hair, “you want to steal some body heat? Is that it?”

But Remus is busy. Remus is doing things and not here and Janus is still crying. 

“You can steal mine, little snake.”

What? 

Roman—Roman is letting him what?

“R-Roman?”

“Yeah?” Roman smiles at him. “You want to cuddle, little snake?”

A wounded noise leaves his throat before he can stop it and Roman chuckles, snapping his fingers and changing into a soft shirt and boxers. 

“Roman runs hotter than I do,” Remus’s voice says, “steal all of his so he doesn’t inflict it on me.”

Janus is not listening anymore because Roman is settling into bed next to him and it’s like having a furnace he can cuddle and Roman is not allowed to leave anymore. 

“Am I just an oversized teddy bear?” 

Remus chuckles at Roman’s bewilderment. “Oh, did I not mention that he gets a little…snuggly?”

“A little snuggly? Remus, I don’t think I could move if I tried.”

“That’s how you know you’re being cuddled right.”

“This explains so many things.”

“You might as well get comfy and go to sleep, you’re not getting up until he lets you out of there.”

“Oh, no,” Roman murmurs, sarcasm drawing sweetly over them like another blanket as warmsafecomfortable arms wrap around Janus, “what a tragedy, however will I survive?”

Janus would love to come up with a retort but his brain is currently sending out very strong warm good, sleep now signals and he just hums. 

He could get used to this. 

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[red-balloon12]

Heyyy, so I just saw your ask thing about your opinions on Sanders Sides ships, and idk if you still care to answer asks about it, but if you are, may I ask what your opinion is on Dukeceit? It's just my favorite ship in the show and I like hearing anyone and everyone's opinions on it, even the critical ones (though the ones that talk about seeing them as more like father and son are kinda uncomfy to me but that's purely cause I focus so much on them as romantic, it's nobody's fault but mine and anyone who prefers that dynamic with them is valid af lol)

Honestly, I’m not the BIGGEST fan. I actually used to ship this hard in the past so I defiantly see the appeal. But now it feels like it’s more of a “well so and so are with each other and there for so and so have to be together to” kind of ship. It’s the type of ship that people turn too because it seems like the most “logical” step. I also find it kind of isolating. I’ve seen a lot of art work with Janus and Remus being next to each other on the far end instead of being mixed into the group. I know the ship is going for a “partners in crime” aesthetic, which is a great dynamic ngl. But with Janus and Remus being often labeled as “The Dark Sides” and having them be paired up so much just leaves a weird taste in my mouth. I like it more platonically. I hope you get where I’m coming from-

[northlight14]

A love for love

Description: Roman loved love. He always had, even as a small child. So why was it so different whenever he was involved?

TW: panic attack, mention of making out but nothing is actually shown, cursing, questioning, unrequited love, let me know if I should add anything else

Ships: unrequited royality, platonic roceit, dukeceit

Genre: high school au

Prompt: prompt 6, aromantic (prompt by @pridewrite2021)

Roman loved love. He always had. Even as a small child, he'd watch wide eyed as Prince Charming leaned down and gave sleeping beauty true loves kiss, something so powerful that it was able to break an evil witches curse. He'd stayed up till early hours in the morning, squealing with excitement as he read about two warriors able to take on an entire army, motivated by their want to keep the other safe and stealing glances at each other as their metal swords collided with the enemies weapon. He'd sing his heart out when a romance song came on the radio, gushing about their love interest with such emotion that Roman adored.

Yes, Roman loved love.

So why was it so different whenever he was involved?

The earliest memory Roman had of this was when he was in first grade. Two of his classmates ran up to him giggling as they sang "Savannah has a crush on you!" Instead of feeling that overwhelming joy like the ones described in his books and music, he felt a deep cutting disgust in his stomach. Roman felt less like he could conquer the world and more like the world was going to swallow him whole. Rather than singing any great love song that he'd sang so many times in his room or in the car, he began crying instead while the two girls looked at him in confusion.

"It was just because I don't like her." Roman told himself.

But this feeling of being out of place only grew as his fellow classmates gushed about their boyfriends and girlfriends, crushes and which cartoon character they find cute. Granted, they were in second and third grade, so the terms "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" roughly translated to "they let me borrow their crayon at break once and now we're in love and going to get married." However, this love for love spread like a virus and Romans desire to fit in only grew. So, during a sleepover with his friends, Roman looked upon the TV, at the princess Aurora and decided 'She'd make a good crush.' Before announcing it to the crowd of toddlers, the words immediately sounding wrong as he spoke them, as if he'd spoken them in a foreign language. He decided that night to never speak of his supposed "crush" ever again. Roman liked Aurora with Prince Philip much more, anyway.

Roman was in fifth grade when he was talking to one of his best friends, Valorie. The two of them just laughing and joking when his friends approached.

"Who's your girlfriend, Ro?" one laughed, putting his arm around Roman. And he knew it was a joke. He knew that. But it still felt like the arm hadn't wrapped around his shoulders and instead knocked all the air out his lungs in one hard punch. This moment lingered in his mind like a haunting apparition, quickly causing any friendships with girls to become strained. First only talking occasionally while in class or on the yard, to only talking when his guy friends weren't around, to only texting outside of school to nothing at all. Roman mourned these friendships but it had been made clear that boys and girls couldn't just be friends and the idea of people thinking he was dating any of these people made him feel like a caged bird.

Later that year Roman decided, despite his love for love, he didn't want to date. The reason for this being...

"I'm just more focused on my career."

"I just don't see the point in dating right now."

"I've never really liked anyone so what's the point?"

"I just like being more focused on myself."

And any other excuse he could possibly come up with, repeating them as many times as he needed to to believe them. Roman had always been a good actor, after all. But, of coarse, with this supposed decision came "reassurance" from adults, as if they had the ability to see the future.

"You just haven't met the right person, yet."

"You'll change your mind one day, when you get a bit older."

"All kids say that at your age."

"Roman isn't interested in dating YET."

These invalidating promises made Romans blood boil the more he heard them. It was as if he was yelling while trapped in a soundproof box, unable to escape. But, despite what seemingly everyone around him was saying, Roman knew deep down that romance just wasn't for him.

He also remained thankful that this love for love hadn't infected his friendship too much.

That was until seventh grade when what was originally a few cases of a love for love became an epidemic. It seemed that all anyone wanted to know was "do you have a crush on her?" "Did you hear that Lily and Reese are going out?" "Do you find her attractive?" This soon made its way over to his friends as they talked about how hot the girls were and teased each other relentlessly about who they liked. Roman once again felt like an outsider in his friend group. His friends conversations about their girlfriends may as well have been spoken in Latin.

Then the day came when his twin brother, Remus, came out as gay and started dating a guy named Janus. It then occurred to Roman.

"Maybe the reason I haven't been feeling anything for all these girls was because they were girls! Maybe I like boys instead!" Roman had never been a very logical person but this definitely seemed to make more sense. If he didn't like women then that surely must mean that he liked men instead, right? Because otherwise...otherwise Roman didn't know what that meant.

So Roman tried. Really God damn tried to find boys cute, to fantasize about dating them, to relate to gay experiences. But all he was met with was the same foreign and hollow feeling he'd felt when he lied about having a crush back in 2nd grade. Roman quickly began feeling his love for the concept of love diminish.

So when Roman entered grade 9, he decided to put anything to do with his romantic feelings (or lack there of) in a little box in the back of his mind to deal with later. Instead putting his passion and good acting skills to use by joining his schools drama department. The moment he stepped foot on stage, he felt himself come alive. The crowd, the praise, the creativity, it was addicting.

And it was only made better with the more friends he made. There was one person who he grew partially close to. Patton Heart. The two quickly became best friends, often hanging out outside of rehearsals and texting non stop. And, for the first time in what seemed like years, Roman was happy and comfortable.

That was until 10th grade. Roman way lying on his bed watching Netflix on his phone when a message from Patton came through. Roman clicked on the message and was caught massively off guard as he read it.

Patton: hey, Roman. So I've been thinking a lot lately. In particular about us and about you. And over the past few months I've started to realize that I have a really big crush on you. You're really handsome, funny and talented and I love spending time with you. It's totally ok if you don't like me back, but I figured it's better to be honest.

It should've been it. The moment when one of the main characters confesses their feelings for the love interest and they proclaim they feel the same way. Sparks fly and their hearts beat faster with excitement. It all becomes so clear when they hear that confession in movies and books.

But this wasn't a movie.

Roman felt time stand still as he read the message, his hands shaking so much he didn't think he would be able to respond even if he knew how to answer.

He couldn't breath. Why couldn't he breath?! The edges of his vision went fuzzy as he desperately gasped for air.

"Patton's great." He thought through his suffocating panic. "He's funny and charming and sweet. You should like him. Why don't you like him? What's wrong with you?!" Romans thoughts yelled as he tried desperately to hold back the tears threatening to spill over.

Not sure of what else to do, Roman ran to Remus' room, hoping he'd know how to respond.

Roman knocked on his brothers door and Remus responded with a very annoyed "come in" after a few beats of silence. Remus and Janus were sat on Remus' bed and Roman could tell from their slightly red lips that the two had been making out. But he wasn't in the headspace to even pretend to care that he'd interrupted them right now.

"Ugh, what do you want?" Remus said, clearly too irritated by his brothers presence to notice his distress.

"P-Patton just messaged me s-saying he likes me and I don't know what to say." Roman barely stuttered out, trying desperately not to cry in front of Remus and his boyfriend.

"Aw, cute. Roro finally got a man." Remus joked but Roman was definitely not in the mood for that kind of humor.

"Do you like him back?" Janus asked, calmly, clearly taking more notice of Romans distress.

"Well, I do. But not like that."

"Ok, so just tell him that. It doesn't have to be this whole thing. Why are you getting so upset?" Remus said, looking at Roman as if he was stupid.

Which, to be fair, Roman did feel very stupid right now.

"He's my best friend. I don't want to upset him." Yeah, that was the reason Roman was freaking out. He just didn't want to hurt Patton. That was it.

"Well, just say you don't want a relationship right now or some shit. Besides, he's probably more worried now because you've taken so long to answer." Remus pointed out. Yeah, Roman was never coming to Remus with his problems ever again.

"Yeah...ok." Roman said. Slowly, he walked out the room, noticing Janus looking at him curiously but deciding not to focus on it.

Roman: I'm really sorry Patton, but I don't feel the same way. We can still be friends tho. It doesn't have to be awkward between us. Especially because I really like being friends with you.

Patton: Yeah, that's ok. This is kinda what I was expecting to be honest. But yeah, I still wanna stay friends.

A few days later Janus came over again for dinner. Afterwards, Roman went into the living room and sat on the couch, scrolling through Instagram.

To his surprise, Janus followed after him and sat next to him. "So, how are you feeling after a few days ok. Broken his heart yet?" Janus teased.

Roman huffed out a laugh. "Uh, yeah, we agreed to just stay friends. Which I'm happy about but it's also really weird. I honestly don't know where we go from here which sucks because I really like Patton. Just not like...that." Janus nodded in understanding.

"You must care about him a lot if you had a panic attack just because you didn't want to hurt his feelings." Janus said. Roman just shrugged in response. "So, does that mean you like someone else?" Janus asked.

"No...I. I don't know. I've...I've never really liked anyone. I don't think I ever will. And people say I'll change my mind but...it isn't like I've made a choice. I've felt like this my whole life and everyone around me has had a crush on someone by now. I just... don't think I was built for romance. Which I know probably sounds stupid but that's just how I feel." He said, so honest it almost hurt.

Janus nodded slowly, taking in what Roman was saying. "It doesn't sound stupid." He said before pausing, as if considering his next choice of words. "Roman...have you ever heard of the term aromantic?" He asked.

"No." Roman answered, looking at Janus curiously.

"It basically means someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction. So they don't get crushes and stuff like that." He explained.

Roman felt his heart leap and for once it wasn't because of a fight or flight reflex. "Wait, that's a thing?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, a surprising number of people identify with it. I don't want to assume anything but I thought I might mention it just from what you've told me and what Remus has said in the past. Plus that panic on your face yesterday reminded me a bit of when I tried to force myself into romantic situations with girls." Janus smirked to himself.

That night Roman researched more on aromanticism than he did for his science test. The more he searched, the more it just made sense. Of coarse, he still had a long way to go towards self acceptance. Roman could feel himself already starting to mourn the idea that this was a choice he'd made ages ago and he was going to feel romantic love one day. It was an odd feeling, realizing that even though he knew deep down it wasn't a decision and he'd always hated when people made those comments, a part of him took comfort in adults promising that he'd change his mind one day. He was also horrified to realize that he didn't know what his future was supposed to look like now without romance. After all, media seemed to show single middle aged adults exclusively as depressed and lonely. But as he scoured through wiki articles to tumblr pages to memes, he knew this was a good start to unlearning any nonsense society had been shoving down his throat.

The more Roman learned and the more people he talked to online about it, the more he started to feel his love for love increase. But instead of it being centered on a prince and princess in a movie, two in love warriors keeping each other alive in a book or a cheesy love song on the radio, it was a different type of love Roman was finally starting to feel the more he accepted himself.

Self love.

Reblog’s >>>> likes

[count-woe-laf]

You can’t spell stargaze without gays

I write? Since when? Yes I’m aware the title makes no sense, I’m uncreative. This was supposed to be a late birthday present for @me-a-mess-morelikelythanyouthink but it’s super late now, I still enjoyed writing it and planning it with her, I hope you’re having a great day, Silver. I’m sorry I got science facts wrong and I don’t know how to end things or how normal people talk

Logan and Virgil are hopeless pining gay idiots with horrible communication skills, but they’re working on it. (Romantic analogical, very background royality and platonic dukeceit.) 1850 words

"Bring me a diet coke!" Virgil called to Roman as he ran out of the truck, through the gravel parking lot, and towards the bright 7/11.

Logan let out a small laugh from next to him. "You know he's going to spend an hour flirting with the cashier and forget."

"Yeah I know, it's fine. Surprising that he's moved up from panicking around Patton to flirting with him, that's what I call character development."

"Character development that's gone on for ten too many seasons."

"True. But while he's in there I have more time to spend with you," Virgil replied with a smirk, Logan's cheeks reddening.

"You all are disgusting," called Remus from the backseat.

"I agree," Janus sighed. "Though I can do many things, understanding allos is not one of them."

"Then get out of my truck," Virgil jokingly glared into the rearview mirror.

"It's Roman's truck-" Logan started, Virgil shifted his glare towards him. "Ok yeah, get out."

"Think we can find bigfoot, Jan?"

"We're only half an hour away from the city, try again," but Janus let himself be dragged out into the nearby forest.

Logan and Virgil were left alone, thoughts of what had gone on the past week between them running through their heads. The hand brushes, the late night phone calls, the hoodies, the excessive amount of feelings that for once, neither of them minded. There was always more to say though.

"You can see lots of stars from out here," Virgil commented rather nervously. "You should come outside with me and look at them."

It was an offering just for Logan. He was the only one allowed to stargaze with Virgil while others were flirting in a 7/11 and being chaotic in a forest. Logan and Virgil in the bed of a truck staring at the night sky. ...Well, one of them was looking at the stars.

"You know to stargaze you actually have to look at them, right? You can just look at me, V."

"Who's saying you're not a star? 'Cause you definitely are, love."

"Love?" Logan tilted his head towards Virgil's red face.

"Uh-" Virgil looked away quickly. "What is that constellation? It looks like a spoon."

"Do you seriously not know? That's the big dipper, it's part of the constellation ursa major."

"You're the science-y one here, how would I know?" Logan just sighed. "You should keep talking though, I love your voice."

"Oh… Well that's the northern star…"

"Why is it called that?"

"Um, it's the most northern star, I believe astronomers base things off of it."

Virgil snoted, "wow. Star dudes sure are creative."

Logan looked over, an indescribable emotion on his face. "Pardon me, but did you just call astronomers, 'star dudes'?"

Virgil stared back, a teasing glint in his eyes. "Star. Dudes."

"...I will defenestrate you."

"Oh?"

"Do you even know what that means?"

"Yeah," Virgil said. "It means you pick me up and I get to simp over your muscles."

"It also means I throw you out of a window."

"I'll take what I can get." Logan let out a fond sigh. "Ok 'cause your constellations are boring and factual- don't worry I still love them- but I'm telling stories now."

"You're going to kill me."

"In your dreams, babe."

"What's that supposed to-"

"Over there is Elenor, it kinda looks like a bunny, I know. Their boyfriend is Jesse over there-"

"Virgil I swear, I'm leaving you in the forest." Logan's words gave a much different meaning when he was struggling to keep in his laugh.

Virgil chucked. "Oh Logan, so naive, there's so much more. Those three stars? Yeah they're Bo Peep's sheep."

Logan choked, the statement taking him by surprise. "Excuse me? You can't just…"

"Y'know, from Toy Story? Doesn't she have three sheep or something? I swear that was a plot point in one of the movies."

"The threat of being thrown out of a window still stands, Virge." 

"Good, now that star over there…"

"Her name is Jennifer, she got a constellation for making the best bean salad."

Virgil tried to hold in a laugh. "And what did you say that one was?"

Logan was so enamoured with Virgil's laugh that he almost didn't notice him intertwining their fingers. Almost. He still had to take a breath to regain his nearly non-existent composure. Although fifteen minutes couldn't have passed, Logan could tell that it was a good decision to accept Roman's offer for a fake road trip.

"That guy with the belt?" Logan continued. "He was the first person to invent clothes. Quite the fashion icon for his time."

"Oh yeah?" Virgil giggled and Logan's heart stuttered in his chest.

"Yeah, he was also the only straight man in his village. It was very controversial." Virgil hummed in response, trying to calm his laughter.

"We're pretty controversial."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We're lying in the bed of Roman's truck, well past midnight and the city limits, looking at stars. Janus and Remus are probably lost in the forest and Roman and Patton have probably gotten over their gay panic and are planning their wedding together."

"I'm not sure how that's controversial, but it is interesting that we've achieved nothing compared to them." Logan's eyes drifted back to the stars.

"I think not getting lost is a plus." He made a noise of agreement. "And uh… I know we're not as vocal about stuff like the others but… Dating you wouldn't be bad." It came out more like a question, causing Logan to look back at him.

"Fuck- I mean-" Virgil ran a hand down his face. "It would actually be really really nice if I could be your boyfriend because- ugh stop staring at me like that! It's just that you're really great and nice to be around and to talk to and I can't imagine you not being in my life. A-and I know we've been kinda sorta dating but you know how dumb we both are about romance and all that stuff- oh god this is romance, I can't believe that…

"I just really like you, Logan and I need to make sure you know that."

Virgil's words swirled into the air, into the sky, into that great expanse of stars and light.

They laid there and stared at the stars, thinking, considering, and a fair amount of staring on Logan's side.

He couldn't help it, really. He couldn't stop his eyes tracing the curve of his jaw, his bitten lips, the words that previously escaped them were still spinning through Logan's head. And Virgil's hair, his adorably messy hair that was usually hanging in front of his eyes, was pushed to the side, Logan could see a galaxy reflected in his beautiful eyes.

Virgil was his galaxy, his sun, his stars. He had kept him sane through years of school. He constantly went out of his way just to brighten Logan's day a little bit more, and brighten he did.

Virgil meant everything to him and he'd be damned if he went home tonight without showing him that.

"Didn't… Didn't you say you always wanted to go stargazing with your partner?"

"Uhh, yeah." Virgil replied hoarsely.

"I suppose you get to cross that off your list, then." Logan wondered how he suddenly had some semblance of smoothness to his words.

"Oh."

The stars seemed awfully bright that night, especially in the way they reflected off Virgil's freckles.

"Is… Is that a shooting star?" Virgil lifted his free hand, tracing the bright line across the map of stars.

"There's no such thing as shooting stars." Virgil rolled his eyes. "But, I… do believe that's a satellite."

"Then make a wish."

"That's stupid and makes no sense, wishing on a satellite has no affect on my life."

"Just do it, my northern star."

Logan's red face was a reflection off the far away street lights, nothing else. "Am I supposed to tell you what I wished for?"

"Not really, but you can. I'd love to know what goes on in that brilliant head of yours."

"My head is empty, unfortunately." Virgil laughed, he did that quite a bit around him. "I wished that we'd have a good relationship. Apologizes, is that weird, or too soon? I… just mean that we're both terrible at communicating, I hope that we can improve together as a couple."

“Oh."

Although Virgil may not have realized it, Logan noticed as he lightly brushed his thumb over his hand. It was stupidly endearing and soft, just as Virgil was.

"That's probably the cutest thing anyone's ever said that slightly regards me."

"Glad I can be of service, darling."

"So darling is what you go with?"

"Would you prefer something else?"

"...No. If I can call you my boyfriend you can call me whatever you want." Virgil smiled. "…You're my boyfriend. That's nice to say."

"It is. I wonder how I stumbled upon a boyfriend as good as you."

"You- you need to stop doing that," Virgil blushed.

"I'm not doing anything!" Logan shifted closer to him, for heating purposes of course, it was a little chilly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know full well."

"Do I really, Virgil?"

"Shut up and look at the stars."

"Make me."

"Logan I swear-"

"Fine, fine, I will." Virgil mumbled thanks under his breath. "But they aren't as pretty as you."

Virgil let out a noise, a mix between a screech and a cough. There was no way he was showing Logan how fluttery his words made his heart feel. (Although he felt it was common knowledge among them.)

"There's around twenty minutes until the others get back, that's twenty minutes to mess with you."

"I'm already regretting this, Lo."

"As you should, my love."

Yes, their friends may have interrupted their stargazing a few minutes later. Yes, Roman may have forced Patton to leave his shift early resulting in one too little seats and an angry boss. Yes, they may have almost ran out of gas on the way home. Yes, they may have bought fries as Janus looked for a gas station. Yes, they may have fallen onto the floor seconds later. Yes, Remus may have jumped out of the car afterwards because he said it looked fun and almost sprained his ankle. And yes, Roman did have to explain the situation five times to his parents because they couldn't stop laughing about all the shenanigans they got into that night.

Still, Virgil's arm stayed around Logan's waist like it was the most casual thing in the world. Still, they shared a milkshake once everyone had given up on the fallen fries. Still, they were both filled with such a bright happiness that it was impossible to drag them down. And maybe they fell asleep on a video call that night. Or maybe Logan stayed over and they woke up with their limbs tangled in each other's, feeling content and appreciative of the other as they slowly woke up. Honestly, who's to say? It was just a good night.

[four-rabbit]

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.

[naminethewriter]

Skater Dark Sides AU (bullet fic) 6

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Ao3

It’s been a year and I finally finish this thing! The other Sides finally make an appearance and it kinda has an ending, I guess? But I never had a proper ending for this, so I guess this’ll have to do. Maybe one day I’ll add onto this, maybe not. If you want to do something with this, feel free to but please inform me, I’d love to see it 💛💚

Again this will include: romantic Dukeceit, platonic Dukexiety, brotherly Creativitwins, everything else is open to interpretation so far

No trigger warnings I could think of, if you want me to tag something, send me a message/ask/tag/comment 🥰

let’s finally meet Virgil

he’s new in town after one of his mom’s got a new job

basically he’s in the Gabriella Montez situation where he’s moved around a lot but now his moms made him a promise that they’ll stay in this town until he graduates

they move during the last two weeks of vacation so he has some time to explore the town before school starts

he started skating when he was quite young and it helped him find some place to hang out in whatever town he moved to

so after they’re moved in and he has some free time he goes on a drive around the city to find a good skate park

that’s when he comes across Remus’ gang (Janus isn’t there that day)

similar to how Janus was initiated, he was noticed by some members of the gang and they started asking questions about his skills

being on a skateboard is one of the few things that let’s Virgil forget his worries, so as he shows of his tricks he relaxes and soon is comfortable with the guys

eventually Remus comes over and they start talking and getting along

Virgil becomes fast friends with the gang

Remus might just be a bit enthusiastic as he tells Janus about him and he gets a bit jealous

(it’s his first relationship and it’s the first time Remus met someone new since they got together and he has a hard time convincing his brain that his boyfriend won’t just fall out of love with him)

when Janus meets Virgil he might just be a bit snippy so they get off on the wrong foot

Remus talks to Janus about it when they get home and Janus admits to being in the wrong and simply worried, Remus plans to reassure him more often

Janus apologises to Virgil and while he accepts it they still aren’t friends

school starts again and Remus moves in with Janus who now feels more secure, knowing that he can spend time with his boyfriend even when he can’t make it to the hang-out

Virgil is nervous about school but since they’ve done it so many times already, he and his mom are quick to get him registered and shown around and he’s on time for his first class

once he sits down there’s a boy in front of him immediately who introduces himself as Patton

Patton welcomes him and offers him a more detailed tour and explanation of the school which Virgil accepts

at lunch he’s then introduced to Logan and Roman, Patton’s best friends

Virgil is very much confused when he sees Roman, considering he’s been hanging out with Remus for at least a week and has been told that he dropped out of school

he decides not to say anything since Roman acts very differently from Remus and showed no signs of recognizing him but he keeps a close eye on him

Virgil gets along great with Logan; Patton is a bit much but he kinda enjoys his peppiness but he and Roman get off on the wrong foot and it quickly turns into bitching at each other

after lunch Virgil has a class with Logan and asks him about Roman

he tells him that Roman is scared of failure since his parents always held such high hopes for him and that he fears they’ll treat him like his brother if he fails to meet their expectations

Virgil uses the opportunity to ask about said brother and gets confirmation that it’s Remus

while Virgil likes Logan and Patton fine, he decides to keep it to himself that he knows Remus even when Logan tells him that they’ve been looking for him since Roman’s worried

with even that little information he can guess why Remus left but he will talk to him about it first

however since starting at a new school is stressful even when you make friends on the first day, Virgil doesn’t manage to meet up with Remus and his crew until the weekend

he just talks with Remus a while before bringing up Roman

Janus is with them, himself exhausted from his first school week and the assholes of his class

Virgil and him bond a bit by comparing the amount of assholery they had to deal with so far

eventually Virgil mentions that he’s met Roman

Remus gets unusually quiet and even Janus doesn’t know how to react to that, he hasn’t really talked to Remus about his family since he learned that he had a brother and his parents didn’t search for him

what neither of them know is that Remus has been thinking a lot about his brother lately

since so much has changed for him in the last few months and he now feels like he build up a steady life for himself (he has a job, a boyfriend, and a home), he was thinking about maybe contacting his brother but wasn’t sure how

but now Virgil’s there and apparently became friends with Roman’s friends

he asks a few questions about how Roman’s doing and Virgil complains about him a bit more which helps Remus relax

they decide to mess with him for a while

Virgil will drop increasingly more obvious hints about Remus until Roman catches on

he starts by calling Roman ‘Princey’ as a reference to Remus nickname ‘Duke’

then he makes comments about appearance like saying that maybe Roman should try growing a moustache or dye his hair – at which point Patton asks him to stop because Roman is sensitive about things related to Remus and that Virgil might not know better but should not bring it up again

so he has confirmation that they get the connection to Remus now even if they think it’s coincidental

this continues for a while

Logan is the first one to actually ask Virgil if he met Remus which he doesn’t hide but Logan simply nods and says that he doesn’t want to get involved with the twin’s conflict so he won’t tell Roman but he’s glad to know that Remus is doing well

it takes Roman about a month before he blows up and accuses Virgil of conspiring against him

which he had been doing so he doesn’t deny it

Roman demands to see his brother but Virgil says no which leads to Roman chasing him but like Remus’ teammates, Virgil manages to lose him

he tells Remus that the jig is up and they agree that they’ll tease Roman a bit longer with the chases but that Virgil would eventually lead him to their hang-out spot

it’s Patton’s pleading that makes Virgil stop around a week later

Patton hasn’t really interfered much until that point since he felt like it wasn’t his place to but Roman’s been getting really frazzled and angry and he didn’t want him to lose it

Virgil agrees that that would be going too far

so he lures Roman to the hang-out spot with Patton and Logan in tow

Remus knew they were coming and was prepared but Roman didn’t know he would succeed after failing so many times, so he’s stunned when he’s actually face to face with his brother which gives Remus time to make an overdramatic speech

Roman stops him after around a minute by pulling him into a hug

Remus freezes at first but hugs him back after a few seconds

Roman admits how worried he’d been and that he was glad that Remus is okay

Remus tries to play it off but that just makes Roman mad and the yelling starts

they accuse each other of being selfish, of breaking the family and a lot of other stuff

Janus and Patton have to pull them apart before they start hitting each other

the other members of Remus’ gang excuse themselves so the brothers can resolve their issues

Logan steps in to moderate their talk, ensuring that they can finish without getting interrupted and no more yelling starts

Remus starts by explaining how bad he felt at home, how he was sick of their parents comparing them, how school made him feel worthless and that he was starting to hate Roman a bit and he didn’t want that because it wasn’t fair, none of it was his fault and he was just living his life but Remus needed to get away from that or he would do something he’d regret

Roman is quiet for a bit which is weird considering how much he wanted to say before

but he does eventually talk about how he was feeling pressured by the comparisons as well, that he could see Remus was struggling but didn’t know how to help, that he was scared of what would happen if he did say something and that he was scared when Remus left

it hurt him a lot that Remus’ friends wouldn’t tell him where he went, that Remus would just leave him behind like that without even trying to talk to him first but that he now understands why he didn’t

he asks Remus if he will come home with him to talk to their parents and maybe resolve their issues

Remus refuses, he doesn’t want them to try and force him into a life he doesn’t want again if they know he can survive on his own and won’t come running back to them, he’d like to wait until he’s 18

Roman doesn’t think they would do that but Remus is adamant that he doesn’t want to risk it

Roman asks him where he’s living then and Remus finally properly introduces Janus as his boyfriend and roommate

he’s shocked to hear that not only did Remus get a boyfriend before him but that they’re already living together which leads to more bickering between the twins but more good natured this time

Janus, Virgil, Patton and Logan watch and agree that the new school year’s going to be a lot for all of them, having to keep the twins in control and graduating

They’ll try to help each other out and are officially all friends

[whyiask]

Okay so. I started out with a writing alt, @ranger-njoyc but I don't use that account anymore, and we're just gonna post fanfic on main.

Fandoms I've written for so far: Sanders Sides, Fablehaven, The Owl House, Agents of Shield, Nevermoor, Dream SMP.

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The Owl House

My Beautiful Stranger. ✤ AU: "I work in the library and I’m a little concerned for your health bc you never stop studying" ✤ Luz, a library assistant, decides to talk to the mysterious girl who is always in the corner of the library. ✤ Lumity ✤ wc: 907 ✤ x.

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Fablehaven

i’ll see you on the other side ✤ "AU where instead of Kendra throwing fruit at Ronodin, she walks up and gives him a hug that he desperately needs" ✤ In which Ronodin gets the much-needed hug he deserves and Kendra questions her perception of the world. ✤ platonic ronodra ✤ wc: 1465 ✤ x.

15 Days Til’ CotTG ✤ 15 one-shots posted in the 15 days before Champion of the Titan Games was released. ✤ Day 1: Love ✤ Day 2: Dark & Light ✤ Day 3: Fairytale ✤ Day 4: Fire ✤ Day 5: Voice ✤ Day 6: Sick Day ✤ Day 7: Beginnings ✤ Day 8: Discovery ✤ Day 9: Betrayal ✤ Day 10: Unrequited Love ✤ Day 11: Journal(pt.1) ✤ Day 12: Journal(pt.2) ✤ Day 13: Journal(pt.3) ✤ Day 14: Spy AU ✤ Day 15: Legacy ✤

12 Days of X-Mas ✤ It's winter time at Fablehaven! The whole family is coming over, and fluff and holiday bonding is bound to happen.

My Partner in Crime ✤ Warrenessa Mortal Childhood Friends AU ✤ multi chapter ✤ When a mysterious new family moves in across the street from Warren, he is immediately drawn to the thrill of suspense. After befriending their daughter, Vanessa, together they team up to explore the secrets of the town. But being associated with the Santoro family might have more consequences than Warren could’ve ever imagined. Soon, he has a real mystery on his hands- one he is determined to solve before Vanessa inevitably has to leave town forever. ✤ updates randomly ✤

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Sanders Sides

Superpowers AU one shots:

New Year's Party - in which Virgil and Patton take a breather from their friends' New Years Party. x.

-

Requests:

"that pet name was so gushy but also so cute." Princxiety. In which Roman has a beautiful voice and Virgil takes a much needed nap.

"I'm proud of you." Loceit, platonic or romantic, your choice. In which Janus is a good friend and Logan finally gets the attention and concern he deserves.

"your an idiot." "but you love me." Dukeceit/Demus. In which Remus goes to Jan for help.

“i’ve got you.” Princxiety, platonic or romantic. In which Virgil has an anxiety attack and Roman helps him calm down.

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One shots:

it didn’t matter anyways ✤ platonic LAMP & platonic or romantic Princxiety ✤ wc: 2526 ✤ summary: set post POF, Roman has a breakdown and Virgil is there to help him ✤ tw: crying, little bit of blood, self-deprecating thoughts, depressing thoughts(kinda) ✤ genre: HURT/COMFORT with mostly hurt and a tiny bit of comfort at the end ✤ x. (no ao3 link atm)

Once Upon a December ✤ creativitwins, platonic lamp/calm ✤ wc: 1476 ✤ summary: Roman has been singing a song to himself, but something is always missing. The same song has popped into Remus’s mind and he can’t stop humming it. Maybe all they’re missing is each other. ✤ tw: a bit of gross stuff having to do with intestines during Remus’s bit in the middle ✤ genre: light angst --> fluff ✤ x.

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Multi chapter:

Just a Stupid Dare ✤ princxiety, slow burn, enemies to lovers ✤ high school au ✤ When Virgil Summers, the second most feared kid in the whole school, is dared to befriend Roman Stone- a nerdy theater geek with only two friends- Virgil doesn't hesitate to accept. But things get a little more complicated when he realizes he genuinely enjoys Roman's company. (And he totally doesn't fall in love along the way. Of course not.) ✤ tw: unsympathetic dark sides, bullying, manipulation, fake friendship ✤ genre: hoo boy this one is angst with only a tiny bit of fluff and pining ✤ updates every week on sunday ✤ x.

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Dream SMP

more bitter than sweet ✤ TUA au ✤ tw: canon-typical violence (for tua) ✤ multi-chapter ✤ 42 children around the world were born with superpowers over the course of several years. Reginald Hargreeves adopted 7 of them, and somehow raised them to be the most dysfunctional family to ever exist. Now, with the impending threat of an apocalypse looming over their heads, they'll have to either set aside their personal problems with each other or watch the world burn. ✤ updates every week on saturday ✤ x.

The Ultimate Guide to Surviving the City ✤ fic universe ✤ city au ✤ Wilbur's Guide to Taking Control. X. ✤ Sam's Guide to Speedrunning Fatherhood. X. ✤

[pheonix-inside]

OH SHIT YOU ALSO ASKED ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIPS LMAO I MISSED THAT

Ok so I made a post answering a separate ask about Dukeceit so I'll spare that (also I don't wanna retype it all)

But the gist of is that the AU is endgame LAMP, but it takes a minute to get there because they are all Very Stupid.

Roman has a big fat crush on Patton. Has forever. He thinks of Patton as his soulmate, the prince to his charming, etc etc.

Logan has had feelings for Roman ever since they deemed each other their best friend, but he refuses to even humor the idea of doing something about it, because of how besotted Roman is for Patton. And he understands why Roman likes Patton, maybe a little too well, because Patton is perfect, he's pretty and kind and funny and all sorts of other adjectives for amazing that Logan can think of. And that's obviously just objective fact, there's no way Logan has any sort of bias on that, none at all.

Patton, meanwhile, is the only one aware that he's definitely got some non-platonic feelings for the both of them. And he's kinda got bigger things to worry about at home (👀 ask me ask me ask me) so he just kinda figures they'll blow over. Besides, he can see how much Logan loves Roman and Roman clearly feels the same, even if he apparently doesn't realize it, so there's no need to mess with it. But he does really want to shower them all with love sometimes, especially when he catches Logan making such fond expressions at him and Roman play-flirts.

And then Virgil shows up, and all three are pretty quickly enamored. He and Roman exchange witty quips and debate over silly topics, with Logan he can relax and share interests with, and with Patton he can be silly and affectionate without getting too anxious. Pretty quickly they've all got crushes on Virgil.

And things get more complicated when Roman realizes that he likes Virgil and Patton, bc wait what. How's that possible. Does he have to choose. How does that work. Poor boy's never heard of polyamory.

And then he sees Logan all dressed up for some fancy hero party (his parents are heroes, and the organization sometimes has stuffy events where everyone is treated like they just push papers or smth, and kids can tag along) and realizes oh no he's hot.

Virgil meanwhile is sitting here just happy to have friends in the first place, finding all of them attractive but recognizing they clearly have some kind of weird triangle going on, so he just won't mess with it. But they're so determined to help him despite the fact that he's the one who caused all of his problems in the first place (in his opinion at least) that he can't help but want to kiss them all. And it doesn't help that they all look at him like he's some wonderful thing.

So yeah they're all stupid as hell.

um excuse me I have an order here for *checks tags* an explanation of the relationships in Roman Pryce: Teenage Superhero and two questions

does anyone ever call Virgil "gay-le"

have you posted this anywhere I could read or is its existence confined to one specific corner of your brain and I will consequently have to continuously bother you about it if I want more details? (or a secret third option idk)

(i lied the amount of questions has grown) exactly how many crises does Roman have?

how does Janus fit into this?

so. Virgil is Not Okay, right? and Remus (and presumably Janus) are part of his Tragic Backstory. I don’t actually know how to phrase this as a question, but it is one. see below.

how much are you willing to say about this AU?

:D

ok ok oKAY WOO

so 1. I did not think of that but now somebody definitely called him "gay-le."

2. It currently just resides in my brain, I came up with the idea less than 48 hours ago and within an hour of existing it already had a fully fledged plot and character development and all that, but i plan to write it as soon as i wrangle my adhd to work with me.

3. counting them all, i think Roman has 3 romantic crises, 2 familial crises, 2 moral crises, and 1 identity crisis. So he has a total of 8 crises. Oof.

4. Janus is another villain, working alongside Remus. And also is Remus' best friend, handler, and moral compass. I'm completely abnormal about them.

5. Virgil's tragic backstory is mostly separate from Jan and Remus, but they Know About It, and are tied to a less tragic, more shameful (at least for Virgil) part of his backstory. Gale wasn't always viewed as purely a force of good :) (But yeah, Virgil is Not Okay, though he gets better once the gang finds out the details about his Tragic Backstory)

6. Other than spoilers for like Big Moments in the plot or Big Reveals, I'm willing to say a lot, because this thing already takes up so much space in my brain and the more hyped i get about it the more motivated I am to write, so pls ask me more about it, it sparks So Much Joy

[subtlereferencetomyinterests]

Master Post

My Master Post for Sanders Sides fanfiction! These are arranged chronologically from newest to oldest, measured by the date they were completed and uploaded in full, so that will reflect the quality here. (there’s a ton more under the cut btw).

Fast Friends - ao3... (15k Remus-centric intruality, lopsided enemies to friends to lovers, humor and a bit of angst with a happy ending. tw; emetophobes beware!) Patton doesn't like Remus, until one day, he does! Well, Remus isn't buying it. So Remus is not about to be friends with him just because he wants to (no matter how much it maybe, kind of wouldn't mind that).

I’m Not Sorry - ao3... (6k remus-centric intrulogical. continuation of Did You Miss Me. Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.)  Remus just wanted to get home safe to his wonderful, loving boyfriend. If some greaseball guy thinks he can screw that up, then Remus is perfectly willing to let the night take a turn for the vengeful.

Redamancy - ao3... (5k romantic prinxiety, fluffy friends to lovers with a smidgen of misunderstanding.) Virgil is undoubtedly excited about Nico. The thing is, that’s not the only person he’s excited about. 

Did You Miss Me? - ao3... (13k romantic intrulogical, unhealthy relationship and mutual stalking treated light-heartedly. Dead Dove: Do Not Eat). Logan and Remus haven’t spoken in years. But that doesn’t stop them from keeping up with each other, through... various means. 

The Down (and up)-side of Individual Expression - ao3... (8k romantic logince, angst w/ a happy ending, prosey and dealing w/ some kinda touchy subject matter vis a vis body image). As the sides have taken on vastly differing appearances over the years, Roman and Logan find themselves incredibly attracted in body and mind to each other. The issue is, Logan still has some trouble believing it.

Tree Bark and Fresh Fruit - ao3... (Fusion AU part six! romantic royality fusion returns for some prose and a lil bit of h/c). Patron doesn't come around often, getting lost in the excitement of Patton and Roman's new romantic relationship- so when she gets a shot to exist again, he's determined to make the most of it by figuring out just what the heck he's supposed to be. 

Bitter Licorice and Bright-Blue Bubblegum - ao3... (Fusion AU part five! analogical fusion is back!)  Logan and Virgil end up fusing much more regularly, much to Livril's satisfaction at getting to exist, and virtually every other side's chagrin at having to put up with them. Everyone, it seems, but Patton.

Scary Monsters and Family Bonds - ao3... (Fusion AU part four! Platonic anxceitmus with romantic dukeceit, short and mostly meaningless.) Rennet, freshly born like five seconds ago, is desperate to find some people to bother and/or amaze. But instead, Rennet finds an attachment that nobody quite expected to be so intense, but hey, it's not complaining, and neither is Virgil. 

Acceptable Behavior - ao3... Remus is surprisingly concerned about his boyfriend's boundaries. (short & sweet intruality drabble. p/ much just cuddling)

On Truth and Untruth - ao3... Janus is allowed to participate in the group, and that is more than enough for them. Not too bad of a change up, really, and they aren't going to complain about it any time soon. Patton, however, insists on throwing a wrench into their system- their perfectly functioning, if maybe hypothetically a bit lonely, system. (28k word janus-centric romantic moceit and platonic dlampr, lots of angst and lots of yearning, with a happy ending. something of a character study.)

I Taste Honey but I Haven’t Seen the Hive - Chap.1, Chap.2, Chap.3, Chap.4, Chap.5, Chap.6, Chap.7, Chap.8, Chap.9 - ao3... (Finished!) Patton doesn't think of himself as misunderstood. More accurately, he's not very good at explaining himself. Remus explains himself perfectly well, succinct, confident. People are just bad at listening. Patton is lonely. He'd never say it out loud. No one knows. Remus is lonely. He says it in everything he does. No one knows. They're similar. They're different as can be. Contradictory, maybe; complimentary, definitely. They could be good for each other- they just need to explain it right. (hurt/comfort, eventual queer-platonic intruality, a healthy amount of angst).

Sharp Spikes and Glamour - ao3... (part three of my Fusion AU! a little angstier and racier than the others, but that’s thanks to the dukeceit dynamic, and its nothing too bad). Now, just a month ago, Remus could very confidently say that his and Janus’ relationship was perfect. And it still was, really, but that was before Roman and Patton had pulled some cartoon fusion bullshit that exactly no one had known was possible. There was no question. Remus was going to learn to do that.

Squishy, Precious Lil’ Baby! - ao3...  Very short, platonic intruality fluff. Remus turns into a rat for a scare, but Patton is very unafraid of him in the new form.

Black Cloth and Star Systems - ao3...   (Almost 4k fluff, part two of my Fusion AU! Very heavy on the descriptions, and also the Love that these two Have.) After Patton and Roman fuse, Logan can't help but feel desperately curious about this new discovery, and the possibilities of fusion between sides. But, his interest is a little more personal than he could stand to admit... Because what if- what if he could try it, too?

more under the cut

Flare Up - ao3... Human au drabble. Romantic sleepxiety. They are soft and in the rain.

Soft Walls and Roses - ao3... (Part one of my Fusion AU! Fluffy, sweet, and prose-y. Abt 3k.) On a nice, cheery day, Roman and Patton get a little lost in a dance <3.

Communication Issues (Alternative Title: Three Touch-Starved, Insecure, Metaphysical Beings Constantly Misinterpreting Each Other and Yet Somehow Falling in Love)- Chap.1, Chap.2, Chap.3, Chap.4 + Epilogue - ao3... (Finished!)  What do you do when you find someone crying, and it’s all your fault? What do you say when you hear the muffled sobs and frantic words behind the blood-red door? When you know that, no matter how much you never wanted to hurt him- never wanted to hurt anyone- you still did. Is there anything you can do to fix it, when you’ve spent so long pretending that nothing was broken? When you’ve spent so long pretending that you didn’t care if things were broken or not? (Second Person, Present Tense. H/C slowburn. romantic analogince. Note: this is not an ‘x reader’ fic, it’s just 2nd person pov.)

A Study in the Pains of Romance as a Genre - ao3... Logan wasn’t 'insecure', by most measures. Sure, he wasn't exactly in love with himself, but he knew the harm that came of self-deprecation, and was careful to avoid it. At the worst of times, he could solidly be called 'self-neutral'. Therefore, it followed that Logan was being entirely objective when he said that he would not be a good enough romantic partner for Roman. (Friends to Lovers, abt 4k, romantic logince).

I Like You, Say It Back. - ao3... Short, sweet, slightly angsty first ‘I Love You’ between Virgil and Remus. romantic dukexiety.

A Misplaced Imbalance of Fear - ao3... almost 7k friends to lovers fastburn, in that this happens in a day. Set during/right after Putting Others First, a little peak into what Virgil and Remus were doing. Hint; being a little sad and very gay. romantic dukexiety.

The Ballroom - ao3... Every side has a room, but they also come with a special domain, completely individualized to each one. Of these Extensions, the only room that no side (other than its owner) has ever seen is Janus’. At least, until he falls head-over-heels for Roman and finally lets him in. (romantic roceit).

Hypothetically, - ao3... Nearly 7k friends to lovers, with a hearty helping of platonic logince. Logan likes to use the Imagination for experiments, but he can’t manage to use it on his own. The solution is obvious. (romantic intrulogical).

No Other Version of Me - ao3... Patton isn’t very happy about his new froggy features, but Janus finds him gorgeous all the same. Hurt/comfort! romantic moceit.

Complexities Unknowable- Chap.1, chap.2, chap.3, chap.4, chap.5, chap.6, chap.7 - ao3... (Finished!) Slowburn with pre-established Dukeceit, rivals to friends to lovers, with Background Analogince (plus some platonic anxceit and Creativitwins thrown in for funsies). romantic deintruality.

I’d Like To Stand By Him - ao3... Roman and Virgil listen to each other’s playlists. romantic prinxiety.

An Open and Honest Conversation About Our Feelings - ao3... hurt/comfort, shamelessly self-indulgent. Patton doesn’t come out of his room all day, so Virgil goes to check up on him. romantic moxiety.

Something to Uplift Us - ao3... Roman-centric (and Remus-centric) DLAMPR (platonic Creativitwins!). Quarantine shenanigans; the boys put on a show for their boyfriends!

Thursday Nights - ao3... Short fluff where Remus and Patton watch a horror flick together and cuddle. romantic intruality.

5 Times Logan Helped His Partners Get Their Shit Together +1 Time They Returned The Favor - ao3... Summary’s in the title on this one, Bud. Logan-centric romantic DLAMPR (platonic p & r), very hurt/comfort.

[gaylotusthatexists]

an explosive birthday

pairing: platonic intrulogical and dukeceit

summary: It’s Remus birthday, but everyone else has seemed to have forgotten. He decides to torment Thomas to celebrate.

trigger warnings: sympathetic janus, remus is kinda morally grey ig?, some disturbing imagery (remus related), blood mention, please let me know if i need to add anything

word count: 2261

a/n: happy birthday to my favourite trash man!!!!!!!!! i would like to apologise to him for what i just put him through, but i do love him and hope he has a nice day (better than what he got in this fic ahsjsh). yeah, hope y’all enjoy tho <3

ao3

Remus stared up at his ceiling, eyes wide open and mind racing. He hadn't seen Janus in a while, not since the wedding. He hadn't been bothering Thomas, either - it was no fun when Thomas just brushed him away, and Thomas had a lot more things to be dealing with right now anyway. The only contact he'd had with anyone else was with Roman, who still wandered in and out of their shared bedroom, sometimes crying and sometimes just looking tired. Since the wedding, Remus had spent the majority of his time staring at the ceiling, occasionally heading into the Imagination to kill some things but mostly just staring at the ceiling, deep in thoughts he wished he didn't have.

He picked up his phone and decided to continue reading that... online novel he'd been reading, not really taking in any of the words or even caring about it but enjoying the feeling of his thumb sliding over the screen, a nice change from his fingernails digging into his skin. Deciding this this was boring, he locked his phone, only to turn it back on a moment later and stare at his lock-screen. A photo of him and Janus, a manic look in Remus' eyes and a bored expression on Janus' face, with a burning building behind them. Remus remembered that - it was for his birthday last year, Janus had taken him into the Imagination for a night of crime and light arson, an activity that Remus always loved.

Huh. He glanced up at the date on his phone, noticing that it was his birthday. Damn - had it really been that long since the wedding? Surely...

He sat up in bed, cringing a little at how the sudden movement caused his head to ache. He slowly began to rub his temple, fingernails scratching against his skin a little too hard and possibly drawing blood. Hmm. It was already midday, according to the time on his screen and judging by the sun seeping into his room, and nobody had come to wish him a happy birthday yet. That... wasn't exactly unusual, he supposed, but Janus - and Virgil, before he left - always used to throw him some sort of party, and back when they had a more civil relationship Roman used to at least acknowledge his birthday. Thinking about it, though, he hadn't actually seen Roman in a week or so...

Well. He hummed, deciding that maybe he should leave his room for today. It was a special occasion, after all, and it had been a while since Remus had eaten anything other than his own hair or his deodorant - he'd actually ran out of deodorant to chew on a couple weeks ago, he needed to steal some more at some point. He doubted that anyone actually remembered or even cared about his birthday - they'd all seemed to have forgotten about his existence, at the very least - but maybe he could have a little fun. Who to bother, though...

Remus clicked his fingers and appearing next to Thomas in the kitchen, draping himself over Thomas' body. "Hey, Thomas!"

"Gah!" Thomas exclaimed, jumping away from Remus and pointing a spoon at him somewhat threateningly.

A grin grew across Remus' face as he leapt up onto the counter, swinging his legs back and forth. "Wouldn't it be fun if the oven just... exploded, right now? Fire everywhere, you blown to pieces, one arm over there, a leg over here-"

"What are you doing here?" Thomas interrupted, his arm shaking.

Remus pulled his legs up onto the counter and sat crosslegged, propping his elbows up on his knees and resting his chin on his hands. "I want to talk to you! Don't you wanna hang out with your dear ol' Duke?" He felt something wet land on his hand, something dribbling down his chin. Blood - that was just a little concerning, he'd made a mental note to investigate the blood dripping out his mouth later. For now, though, he just sucked it back up, eyes lighting up at the look of disgust on Thomas' face.

Logan stepped into the kitchen, took one look at Remus, and sighed. "Remus, would you get off the kitchen counter, it's incredibly unsanitary."

Remus pouted. "Everyone else sits on the counter and you never complain about them!"

"Yes, but the rest of us shower," Logan pointed out.

Thomas moved closer to Logan, hiding behind him. "Logan, help, please."

Logan sighed again. "Remus, may I inquire why you are bothering Thomas right now?"

"It's my job!" Remus answered. "Do you want me to not do my job?"

"Your job is to make Thomas aware of the more... mature aspects of creativity, not to scare him for the sake of it."

Remus jumped off the counter and stepped towards Logan. He grabbed his tie and pulled him closer, so their faces were only inches apart. "More mature ideas, huh?" He smirked, raising an eyebrow.

A look of pure disgust arose across Thomas' face. "Ew! Gross! Can you- Can you not?"

Logan didn't move from his position or even seem to flinch when one of Remus' tentacles attached itself to Logan's shoulder, but his eyes did quickly dart over to Thomas. "Thomas, why don't you go somewhere else, I'll take care of Remus for now?"

Thomas eagerly escaped, leaving Remus alone with Logan. Logan looked back towards Remus, staring into his eyes for a solid few minutes, neither saying a word, before Remus just broke. Tears starting pouring down Remus' face, and Logan started to look vaguely uncomfortable, stepping back. Remus let go of Logan's tie and stumbled back towards the counter, leaning against it and trying to take some breaths to calm himself down. He didn't even know what was wrong - he wasn't upset, was he? It was very rare that Remus got upset. He thrived off making other people upset, why would he be upset himself?

"Uh, Remus?" Logan asked, stepping towards him again and slowly lifting a hand. "Are you-"

Remus grabbed his wrist in midair before Logan could place a hand on his shoulder. Logan stopped, beginning to look just a little afraid. That just made Remus' insides hurt even more, like all his guts where trying to push out, or like his heart was about to explode. Under any other circumstances, he imagined he would have enjoyed that, or at least enjoyed the looks on the others faces when they saw all his internal organs burst right out of his chest, but in that moment all he wanted was for the feeling to stop so he could maybe torment Logan a little more, let out a little steam.

Remus let go of Logan's wrist and moved away again, now just looking at Logan with... fear in his eyes, as Logan began to rub the red mark forming on his wrist. Without another word, Remus sank out and reappeared on his bed, crying into his pillow. Today wasn't going the way he planned.

~*~

It had been a couple hours since his encounter with Remus in the kitchen, and the curiosity still plagued Logan's mind. What had gone on in there? Logan had never seen Remus like that.

It was strange, as well, that Remus suddenly decided to be a nuisance again. He'd been quiet recently, and, thanks to Janus' help, Thomas was in a much better state mentally. Logan couldn't even begin to imagine why Remus would have been so upset, or why he looked... even worse than usual, somehow dirtier and more unkempt than he always was.

It was due to this concern that Logan found himself outside of Janus' bedroom door, a hand hovering over the wood as he tried to find the courage to knock. Logan didn't have a terrible relationship with Janus, he supposed, although he couldn't really say they were the best of friends, either. He'd certainly never gone into Janus' room before, never even considered that he may need to in the future, but here he was, right outside.

Before Logan got chance to knock, the door slowly opened, revealing Janus on the other side. "Logan," he said, sound a little surprised, "come to lecture me, have you?"

Logan frowned. "What? No." Janus seemed surprised at that, as well. "I... have some concerns that I want to talk to you about. Nothing to do with you or Thomas, I just... you're the only side I can really talk to about this."

Janus hummed, before stepping aside, allowing Logan to enter the room. It looked pretty much like Logan had imagined - walls painted yellow, musical posters hung up, a clothes rack filled with various disguises, and a couple snakes crawling over his desk. Janus went to sit down on his bed and Logan considered sitting down at the desk, but decided against it due to the snakes, one of which was slowly wrapping around the chair, and instead Logan opted to just stand up near the exit.

He breathed in. "Has... Has Remus been acting a little weird recently?"

Janus blinked. "Remus? I..." He glanced down at the floor. "I haven't seen him, actually. Y'know, been a little busy the last week or so working out Thomas' skin care routine."

"Yes, Janus, you're doing a great job on that, by the way."

Janus bowed his head. "Thank you." He looked back up at Logan. "Is there... something wrong with Remus, though? I suppose he has been pretty quiet lately."

"I don't know if there's anything wrong," Logan admitted, "but I spoke with him earlier in the kitchen... sort of. He- He started crying, and he looked a little worse for wear, and it just... got me thinking."

Janus hummed. He sat there for a while, staring at the floor, before his eyes widened and he rushed back to his desk, carefully removing one of the snakes and looking at his calendar. He swore under his breath.

"What?" Logan asked, stepping to the side to move away from the snake now trying to escape the room. "What is it?"

"It's his birthday today."

~*~

Remus found himself staring at the ceiling again, his foot bouncing up and down. He considered breaking into Janus' room and stealing his wine - even if he did hate the taste, it would at least calm his thoughts down a little. But he couldn't seem to get his body to move. Janus wouldn't want Remus in his bedroom, anyway - there must have been a reason that Janus hadn't spoken to him since the wedding, and... if Janus didn't want to be his friend anymore, than fine, in all honestly Remus didn't blame him. Remus was hard to deal with and not a brilliant friend and honestly caused more harm than good, and he knew that. Remus knew now that Janus hated him, and that was perfectly fine - he just wished he didn't come to that realisation on his birthday.

He already knew that the others hated him, anyway. Thomas first reaction to seeing him earlier was just to scream, and then run away as soon as possible. Virgil had hated Remus ever since he left, Patton had always hated Remus, and Roman was... Roman wasn't too bad, although Remus couldn't remember the last time the two of them had a real conversation that didn't just end in insults back and forth. He supposed that Logan earlier hadn't seemed to hate him entirely, although it was obvious that Remus was making him uncomfortable, which meant it was likely that Logan didn't like him either.

He heard his bedroom door open, but didn't tear his eyes away from the spot on the ceiling. It was probably just Roman, back for another few days of sulking - that seemed to be his routine recently, a week or so with the others and then a few days of crying on his bed. Remus didn't really have it in him to care, Roman could do whatever he wanted with his life.

What Remus wasn't expecting was for Roman to scoop him up in his arms and hold him tight. Remus stiffened at the sudden human contact, not entirely sure how to respond - even back when he was still friends with Janus and Virgil, they'd never hug him like this. But...

"Happy birthday, Remus," a voice whispered into his ear. That wasn't Roman. That was...

"Janus?" Remus let out. Janus pulled away from the hug, much to Remus' disappointment. "What are you..."

"I'm sorry it took me so long to remember," Janus said. "And... And that I haven't really been there for you recently. Are you- Are you okay?"

Remus was silent for a long time. He glanced around the room, noticing that Logan had come with Janus, but didn't seem to know what to do now that he was here. Janus still stared at Remus expectantly. Finally, Remus whispered, "No."

Janus pulled him into a hug again, this time refusing to let go. Remus awkwardly hugged back at first, before sinking into his, resting his head on Janus' shoulder. He breathed in and out, trying to ignore how shaky his breath was. He was... okay. Janus was still here, Janus didn't hate him, did he?

Eventually, Janus had to pull away, but still kept his hands on Remus' shoulders. "How about we go blow some stuff up?" Janus suggested. "Remember last year when we set all those building on fire-"

Remus snorted. "Yeah. That was fun."

Janus smiled at him. "We could go do that again to celebrate, if you want."

Remus breathed out, and smiled. "That'd be nice."