#platonic moceit

[loganslowdown4]

Janus: Self care does not have to be taxing. Small pleasures go a long way. Treat yourself. Take a bath. Order dessert. Buy a cute outfit. Kiss a stranger. Start a cult. Summon a demon. Fake your own death and disappear from society forever. Eat that second cookie.

Patton: Awww

Roman: Hold up—

#wait what were those last couple again #slippery snek #thomas sanders #sanders sides #roman sanders #ts roman #patton sanders #incorrect sanders sides #janus sanders #ts janus #ts patton #platonic moceit #platonic roceit #platonic royality #moceit #roceit #royality

[logan-the-artist]

If request are open I had an idea

1E with Janus and Patton, Patton inftont of Janus? Idk I love their platonic relationship honestly

they are besties.

#i LOVE drawing them #especially janus ngl #i changed the pose a little bit but i think it looks pretty good :} #thanks for the ask!!! #my art #drawing #art #sketch #sanders sides #sanders sides fanart #log’s art #platonic moceit #janus sanders sides #janus sanders #ts janus #tss janus #ts deceit #tss deceit #deceit sanders #patton sanders sides #patton sanders #ts patton #tss patton

[analoceits]

mourning tea

A03 link

summary: He bit his tongue to stop the spiteful feeling suddenly building in his gut, shaking it off of him like a dog that was freshly hosed down. He was being uncharitable; this was an olive branch, Patton should be appreciative. They were trying to get along more, he had asked for more effort like this, he had no right to be angry or annoyed. Just.. did Janus have to pick today? - - - It’s the anniversary of the day that king died. Things are somber.

note: hi!! when i wrote this fic i forgot that that would also be the twins birthdays just. uh just ignore that for me. pls and thank you <3. uhh enjoy!!

taglist: @oatmeal-stans-the-trash-rat, @thegoldenduckie

As soon as the bumps in the table cloth settled under Patton's fingers he took a quick glance around the room, and everything was practically flawless. The tea cups were lined up to the inch, the morning sun filtered through the barely parted curtains beautifully, and the tiles were practically glowing in the light. Even if perfection wasn’t achievable, this was close, he thought. He was proud of his work.

(It was too good, though. It couldn’t last. Perfect things rest on a thin line, and they’ll tip and topple with the slightest push of the wind, and even if you try to be gentle dust will seep in with time and either way you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t and-)

And Patton really needed to stop letting his mind wander today.

He cleared his head, taking a deep breath in - unclenching his jaw and unclenching his fists - and a deep breath out - easing the tension from his shoulders and lower back. There, back to focusing. He drew his attention to the little digital clock in the corner of the room and read the time - 7:28 AM. Janus should be here soon, he thought.

Of course he would be, this was Janus’s ideas after all. This.. meeting. The meeting he had proposed after the 5 year anniversary video, the one Patton accepted without missing a beat because he wasn’t paying attention to the date and was just so happy for them to get along. This tea party for grown children.

He bit his tongue to stop the spiteful feeling suddenly building in his gut, shaking it off of him like a dog that was freshly hosed down. He was being uncharitable; this was an olive branch, Patton should be appreciative. They were trying to get along more, he had asked for more effort like this, he had no right to be angry or annoyed.

Just.. did Janus have to pick today?

He shouldn’t blame Janus for the choice, it wasn’t intentional. He doubt any of the other sides remembered, let alone Janus. Thomas was so, so young when it happened; Patton was sure that after all these years he was the only one who even remembered what day it was, really. Who would hold the grief so close but him?

After all these years he could barely remember Romulus’s face himself; he was starting to blur in old pictures as the memory waned. Still, the thought of him - his smile, his patience, his calloused hands - it made his chest ache and always left him dazed. The grief never really left or eased, he just had to grow around it.

Usually, he would spend today curled up with his knees pressed to his chest in the darkest and warmest corner of his room and he would pretend. He would pretend to himself, without telling a soul - that there were four other sides. Virgil, Logan, Janus, and Romulus. He would pretend that nothing had ever gone wrong, as if it would save him the grief.

(It never did.)

It was the only way he could get through this day, at least he thought. Now, though, standing and biting back the sickly aching pain, he thought - just maybe - he could actually survive this. Painfully, but he could make the table and talk to Janus and breath like his lungs were still right, and it’d be fine. He’d numb his wounds and it’d be fine.

As soon as he pulled himself from his thoughts the toasted dinged behind him, to which he rushed over. Two slices, on for him and one for janus. He smeared a healthy helping of butter and jam across the modest breakfast, his hands barely shaking despite himself. He could survive this.

Right as he was setting the dishes on the table, there was a swish of the door and a settling click. Janus. “Oh, it looks perfect, thank you so much dear,” Janus’s voice was sweet and thick like honey, a soothing balm. Patton looked up to thank him and offer him his seat, and he choked on air.

Golden lace dripped down his shoulders across the edge of his capelet, rippling in beautiful waves and interspersed with black teardrop gems. His - what Patton now realized was a dress - faded to a beautiful golden at the end, occasionally dotted with those same black tear drops in am intricate pattern. His bowler hat was replaced for a sun hat - complete with a golden ribbon and a black veil. He looked beautiful.

Patton seemingly stared longer than he thought, because after a moment Janus laughed tensely and he averted his eyes, in what Patton half registered as embarrassment. “It’s alright, dear,” he soothed, “I didn’t expect you to be all fancied up like me - I’m just doing the for fun, anyway. The theatre of it all, you know.”

Patton wasn’t worried about being presentable, not today, but he didn’t dare look the gift horse of Janus ignoring his bright red face in the mouth. Instead, he nodded as firmly as he could and spoke, “thank you, Jan.” With a smile that managed to be only a little awkward. His thoughts were off-topic, severely off-topic.

After one more second of awkward pause, Patton forced himself to move, pulling out Janus’s seat for him and offering it to him with a soft smile. “The foods all still warm,” he promised as Janus settled in the seat and Patton took to his own across from his. Janus gave him a warm smile - with a tint of something else, and Patton tried his best to beam it back, asking “how are you?”

“I’m doing the best I can,” he answered smoothly, blowing on the tea before taking a sip of it delicately. That same odd smile stayed after he drank, “I would ask you the same, but.. it feels a stupid question, considering the day and all.”

It took Patton a long moment to process the words as he stared blankly at Janus. As soon as the implication caught up to him, though, his shoulders seemed to knit together into one entity with how tense he got. Oh. Oh. Janus remembered. He picked today on purpose, didn’t he?

(Briefly, in the back of his mind he finally registered what the emotion lingering behind Janus’s smile was: grief.)

Janus watched his reaction with a mix of concern and mild confusion, a hand half reached out to him like Patton was something volatile to be treated with caution. Something seemed to click in his head, though, the moment after Patton came to his realization, and he quietly asked, “Patton.. you were aware I picked today with intention, weren’t you?”

Patton looked to the side and a gave a small, sad smile, and the lie was slipping out of his mouth before he could even think to stop himself. “I.. just forgot what day it was, I guess that’s why it didn’t register,” he had a mildly forced smile on his face as he spoke.

Janus frowned at him. “.. Patton,” he said slowly and painfully, painfully gently, “you don’t have to lie to me, we both know it’s a good idea to do that.” He said, and despite the sarcastic words - he never seemed particularly snappy with him. All of his motions and words were slow, gentle, like Patton could break with the slightest push.

Patton wrung his hands out tensely, seemingly trying to look anywhere in the room but at Janus. After a tense second of this anti-staring contest or whatever he should call it, he forced out, “I just.. thought you wouldn’t choose a day like this for a tea party, that’s all.” The bitterness in his tone was guttural; unintentional but inevitable.

Before he could stumble out any forced apologies or reassurances to go with the surprisingly harsh words that just escaped him, Janus spoke first. It was a question, a simple one at that. “Ah, would you.. prefer I reschedule? It wouldn’t be a problem, you know.” He asked, still so gentle.

Patton stared at him, and in the thick of his gut he knew the correct answer was probably a ‘yes, please’. It was what he had wanted all along, but now - in a warm kitchen with nice lights and Janus smiling at him so sweetly, spending the rest of the day in his room seemed unbearable. He wasn’t sure he would survive that.

“It’s, uhm.. it’s not bad.” Patton promised, a bit of desperation seeping into his tone, pleading that Janus wouldn’t insist so they could stay like this - lovingly uncomfortable or whatever he could call it. It was better than alone, he realized, so much better than alone.

Luckily, though, Janus seemed to relent with ease, letting out an all too easy, “if you insist.” Patton watched his expression and had a very strange, but comforting thought. Maybe Janus didn’t want to spend today alone either.

With that on his mind, he took a warm drink of the tea. It was sweet in his mouth and down his throat. It was a little nostalgic, too - going over to Thomas’s nanas house when they were nothing but young boys.

When there were just five sides.

The pang of pain ate up the entirety of Patton’s chest with that thought, but before he could speak in an attempt to distract himself, Janus did. Outrunning him yet again, he asked, “what kind of jam is on the bread?”

It was a simple question, but one Patton couldn’t help but giggle at. “Crofters,” he said - then added, leaning closer and whispering as if it was a big secret, “I don’t think Logan will let us buy any other kind.” It was true, in his defense.

Janus smiled and gave an equally hearty laugh at that answer, “I’m not sure why I asked, of course it’s crofters.” After that he took a bite from the toast and smiled with satisfaction, “it’s sweet and toasted just right as well.” Then he gave Patton an oddly soft look, “I wouldn’t expect anything else from you, Padre.”

The words were warm, and sweet, and the pain of the day was less in Patton’s chest with that mind. This.. was easier than being alone, wasn’t it? Suddenly, in a warm kitchen with Janus smiling at him like he was the sweetest thing, a warm but dark room was unimaginable.

Despite those sweet thoughts, Patton’s mouth ruined the moment instantly. Before anything normal could be said, he blurted out the thought that had been on his mind since Janus had asked him that little question months ago, “why.. today?”

Janus gave him a surprised stare and Patton cringed, wishing he could take back those two words more than he had ever wished for anything. After a long second, Janus just very politely said, “it felt fitting.”

Patton knew for a fact that he should stop digging there. He had gotten what he wanted, which was Janus to not leave, and so it should be fine. But, staring at him as he stared back, the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, “what does that mean?”

Janus sighed and Patton worried it was out of annoyance, but he kept up his polite demeanor nonetheless. “The..” splitting, Patton filled in mentally, “death, of king, seemed to sever the bond between us. So, having the fixing of that bond - or at least the start of it, be on the anniversary felt fitting.”

Patton stared. Death. He hadn’t ever called it a death before because, really, it wasn’t. It wasn’t. Sure, king was gone - but he didn’t die. The twins were still there. If the twins were still there, he was still there, but.. no. The twins weren’t him, were they? He had died.

It was somewhat inevitable that Patton was going to cry today. He was tired, and he was grieving, and he had woken up at an ungodly hour to set up the kitchen. It didn’t make it hurt less, though. He choked out the tears, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes until he saw stars like it would help. 

Patton managed to whisper one, choked word through his tears. “Penance.”

Janus cursed under his breath, awkwardly reaching out and setting a hand across Patton’s arm. “No, no, Patton please,” he begged, “that’s not what I meant. You aren’t guilty, you were seven, this isn’t a punishment. I..” He sighed, giving in, “I was lying. I don’t have any greater reason to this, I just-” he reached for Patton’s hand, intertwining their fingers like he was afraid Patton was going to leave when he spoke, “I just didn’t want to be alone today.”

Patton looked up tentatively, eyes still brimming with tears but expression soft, staring silently for a long, long second, before carefully clamping two of his hands around Janus’s, brushing his thumb over his knuckles. “Oh,” he said before softly adding, “I think thats ok, then. I don’t want to be alone either.”

Janus gave him a soft smile back. The kitchen was warm.

#sanders sides #tss #ts sides #sasi #patton sanders #janus sanders #romulus sanders #king creativity #moceit #platonic moceit

[naminethewriter]

Not So Jolly Christmas

It is once again time for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange! This year I wrote for @authorgirl0131 who wanted a story about Janus and Remus' first Christmas with the Lights Sides as well as some Hurt/Comfort. I hope you enjoy 💛

Read here on Ao3

Summary: Janus and Remus spend their first Christmas with the Light Sides. One in particular isn't amused.

Content Warnings: Christmas, Virgil is pretty mean to Janus, Janus is caught in a self-hate spiral near the end, Cursing, Hurt/Comfort, Hopeful Ending

~~*~~

“J-ANUS!” Remus yelled as he crashed into the door to Janus’ room and before Janus could open his eyes, the other was on top of him.

“It’s Christmas! You need to get up! I wanna annoy my brother!”

Janus groaned and slowly opened his eyes, flinching at the brightness of his room. Remus’ sharp grin was only inches from his face and Janus pushed him away with all six of his arms.

“Yes, yes, I know,” he yawned, slowly sitting up. Remus bounced of the bed, and he didn’t stop bouncing as he circled around the room, not standing still for even a second. Janus couldn’t blame him; this would be the first time in forever that he spends the holiday with his brother.

Patton had invited Janus to join them on Christmas day at the beginning of the month. When he had just raised his eyebrows at the suggestion, Patton had quickly tagged on that Remus would be welcome as well, under a few stipulations. Janus’ brow had wandered higher.

“Yes, a wonderful idea of you to invite us behind the others back, that won’t cause any problems at all!” he had scoffed.

“Wha—? No! No, I asked the others. Logan said he didn’t mind, just that I should tell him early on if you agree to come so he has time to organize the presents. Roman and Verge weren’t… thrilled by the idea but they agreed that we should try to get along, for Thomas’ sake. Roman insisted though that Remus had to follow some rules if he wants to come.”

Janus knew Patton wasn’t lying but he could hardly believe it was the truth. Virgil said okay to him and Remus coming? Ever since he left, things had been… more than a little strained. Sure, they hadn’t had the best relationship even before then, but now Virgil met them with animosity whenever he saw them.

Still, he couldn’t turn down the offer if it meant that Remus could finally spend more time with his brother.

“Alright,” he said slowly. “What are these rules then?”

“It’s just about the gifts!” Patton reassured. “Roman said that Remus can’t get us anything that is alive, rotting, sharp, or deadly. Or any combination of those.”

“That’s… fair enough, I suppose. I’ll ask him and get back to you.”

“Please do!” Patton had beamed as if he had already said yes.

Of course, Remus had agreed enthusiastically, which led them to Christmas morning.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Remus whined as Janus swung his feet off the bed and into his slippers.

“I do need to get dressed first, Remus,” he reminded.

“Oh, pft, no you don’t! We could both just go in our birthday suits!” He shimmied his shoulders and Janus rolled his eyes fondly. Despite his words, Remus had come to his room fully dressed.

“You said you would behave, Remus. And Patton said that they usually wear their Christmas sweaters, and that we didn’t have to but I like mine, so I’ll go put that on.”

“Ugh, fine! You’re no fun anymore.” Remus threw himself on the bed dramatically as he pouted. Janus didn’t pay him any more attention and disappeared into the bathroom.

He walked to the sink and splashed some water into his face before taking a deep breath. He couldn’t share Remus’ excitement, on the contrary, he was dreading the day more than he looked forward to it. Yes, Patton would do his best to make them comfortable and Logan would be polite as usual, but the other two? Well, Roman would probably be preoccupied by dealing with Remus but that would also mean that Virgil’s focus would be mainly on him.

And that was not an inviting concept.

But he had agreed, so now he had to get through it. If only for Remus’ sake. He again splashed his face with water and got moving to get ready.

When he came back out of the bathroom a few minutes later, fully dressed and a bit more confident to face the day, Remus was crawling along his ceiling on all fours. At least this time he wasn’t secreting slime.

He let himself drop and crashed into the floor when he saw Janus, practically vibrating with excitement again.

“Can we go now?!”

“Almost,” Janus chuckled. Remus’ face fell but Janus knew that he could improve his mood with just a few words. “I have an early present for you.” Immediately, Remus started actually vibrating on the spot, looking at Janus with big eyes.

“What is it? What is it?”

Summoning the box into his hand behind his back, Janus revealed it to his best friend with a flourish. Remus grabbed it greedily, tearing in the wrapping paper and pulling off the lid as soon as he could. Inside laid a thin, green collar with a metal box that kept the ends together.

“Uhh, pretty!” Remus laughed, pulling the collar out of the box with much more care.

“It’s a shock collar,” Janus explained and immediately Remus’ eyes snapped to his.

“For real?” he asked, overjoyed.

“Yes, but—” He grabbed a hold of Remus’ arm before he could put it on and try it out. “For now I have disabled the highest settings. I’m giving this to now because I want you to try and use it to stop yourself from going on your lovely rants the other love so much.” His tone was sarcastic, but his eyes were serious and Remus nodded.

“I get it. Fun impulse control so I don’t fuck it up for us in the first five minutes.”

“Remus—”

“I know, I know. We’re starting small or whatever. I’ll have my fun with this, thanks Banana Bitch!”

Janus sighed but dropped the topic. “You’re welcome. I’ll let you have the full range of options tomorrow, I promise. Now, let’s head to the others before you explode on me.”

Remus whooped, grabbed Janus’ arm and dragged him out of the door.

Janus let him.

This was going to be a long day.

~~*~~

As they arrived downstairs, Janus took a moment to survey the scene before announcing their presence.

(Not that Remus would hold back for his sake, which meant he had until Remus found something to throw himself at. Literally.)

He spotted Virgil and Roman in the living room together, their backs towards him. They were leaning on each other and probably looked at something on a phone together. Patton meanwhile was in the kitchen, humming jovially to the Christmas music playing at a comfortable volume. Logan he couldn’t see, though he presumed he’s helping Patton.

“RO-BRO!” Remus yelled, storming towards the couch and throwing himself into Roman and Virgil’s laps. They both started cursing and shoving at him immediately. Janus decided he wasn’t going to deal with them on his own, so he headed for the kitchen instead.

“Janus!” Patton greeted happily as he saw him enter. “I’m so glad you made it! Remus joined the others in the living room I assume?”

“Yes, he did. Merry Christmas, Patton.” Janus let his eyes wander around the kitchen as he spoke, spotting Logan at the kitchen table, absorbed into a crossword. “And merry Christmas Logan.”

“Merry Christmas to you too, Janus!” Patton laughed while Logan just mumbled, “To you as well,” without looking up from the paper in front of him.

“Don’t mind him, he does one of those every morning and he won’t let the holidays stop him,” Patton smiled, and Janus simply nodded. “Would you mind helping me set the table for breakfast? We’ll do presents first, of course, Roman was already cranky that we had to wait on you to start.”

“Sssure.” The involuntary hiss made Janus flinch slightly – he might be more stressed by the unfamiliar situation than he realized himself – but Patton either didn’t notice or knew not to comment on it as he waved him over to load plates into his hand that he was supposed to place on the living room table.

After only a minute or two they had everything settled and Patton laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Thank you very much for the help, Jan! I really appreciate it.”

“I expect your firstborn in exchange,” he replied dryly and the other laughed.

“But you’re all my kiddos and I don’t actually know which one of you is the oldest!”

“Right.” Janus knew he was being short, but his eyes had wandered over to Roman, Virgil and Remus. Remus seemed to be rambling about something and the other two looked like they would rather be anywhere else. He wondered why they hadn’t tried to stop him.

“Are you nervous?” Patton asked. He was suddenly a lot closer, whispering close to his ear and Janus flinched for the second time that morning.

“No, not at all. Why would I ever be nervous?” Patton didn’t immediately answer but Janus could see in his eyes that he didn’t believe him.

“I understand. But I’ll do my best to make it comfortable for you two, too.”

Janus wanted to bite back, make a witty comment and shrug off the unpleasantness in his stomach but his tongue went dry, and he couldn’t get a word out. So he settled for nodding instead. Patton nodded back and grabbed a plate of cookies off the table.

“Alright, everyone is here so let’s start the day, shall we?” he called, bright and cheery. Janus almost got whiplash from how quickly he had changed his tone.

“Ugh! Finally!” Roman groaned. He grabbed Virgil’s arm and pulled him away from Remus to sit on the other end of the couch. Remus stayed on the floor, a manic grin on his face and Janus could see the movement of his hand in his pocket as he pressed the shock collar remote. The twitch that followed the voltage was almost imperceptible. He remained silent.

“Yes, I have finished my crossword and am ready to give you my undivided attention,” Logan said as he entered from the kitchen. He walked towards the couch with certain steps and took a seat. “Good morning, Remus and merry Christmas.”

“Merry Shitmas, dork!”

Patton laughed uncomfortably at Remus’ returned greeting but didn’t comment on it. He moved towards the Christmas tree that Janus had heard had been created and decorated by Roman. Underneath it sat multiple sets of presents, ten of which Janus had placed there himself during the night, both his and Remus’.

Janus swallowed before moving around the couch to take his own seat. He could tell the moment Virgil noticed him because his gaze felt like a blade trying to dig into him. He gave him only a short glance but that was enough to see the deep distrust in his eyes.

He ended up sitting next to Logan and doing his best to not look over towards Virgil.

The gift giving went mostly smoothly. Patton called a name and that person picked one present of their pile to open. He started with Roman – probably because the prince would have thrown a fit otherwise – and continued with Remus, then Logan, Janus, Virgil and lastly himself. A few presents in, Patton got too distracted by his excitement over what he received that he forgot to call names and Roman just got up, grabbed the rest of his pile and asked who else wanted theirs, too.

The roomed dissolved into loud chatter and yells of excitement. Janus quietly unpacked his gifts – a self-knitted scarf from Patton that had a few holes here and there, a nice bottle of wine from Logan (which he was stopped from opening immediately), a pair of socks from Roman and a blanket from Remus of which he could adjust both temperature and weight. Virgil hadn’t given him nor Remus a present. Janus wasn’t surprised.

His given gifts were received well, too. Patton loved the scrapbook materials and Logan closely studied the motive of the 1500 pieces jigsaw-puzzle. Roman begrudgingly admitted that the fountain pen he had given him was tasteful. He was sure the golden accents and his engraved name helped. Remus cackled manically as he unwrapped his whetstone. His weapons would be even more deadly know, he promised.

At the end only one gift remained wrapped, which Patton pointed out, looking at Virgil quizzically.

“Why’d you leave that one, ki— Virgil?”

“I’m not opening it.”

“But why—?”

“Leave him be,” Janus spoke up, having recognized the wrapping. Virgil stared at him as he said it, his jaw clenched, non-verbally challenging him to agree with Patton and force him to open it.

“But it’s rude towards who gave it to him—"

“He doesn’t have to open it if he doesn’t want to, I don’t mind.”

He’d imagine Virgil wouldn’t have opened Remus’ gift either if Remus hadn’t threatened him to do so with his morningstar. Now Mr. Fuzzy sat with Virgil’s other presents, probably to be thrown into the trash the minute Virgil could get away with it.

(Janus did his best not to think about how much work Remus put into making him.)

Patton looked between the two of them, most likely torn between not wanting to start a fight and reprimand Virgil for being so confrontational.

He settled on, “If you say so,” and called them to the breakfast table.

The tension quickly left the room as they gathered around the table. Roman started bragging about how he gave the best gifts this year which Virgil immediately teased him for, and Remus argued that his had been better. Patton and Logan chimed in occasionally, but Janus kept quiet for them most part. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself again.

The rest of the day passed similarly. They moved from activity to activity (boardgames, movies, etc.) and Janus let the others talk. When he did contribute however, Virgil more often than not shot back with some passive aggressive statements, no matter what the topic had been. Patton tried to get him to stop but Janus waved it off, pretending it didn’t bother him.

Those times Patton didn’t catch him lying.

~~*~~

Then it was time for the last activity of the day. Apparently, it was tradition for the Light Sides to go out to a snowy landscape Roman created to enjoy the chill, drink something warm and light a few sparklers. Janus wasn’t enthused about the idea on grounds that he was cold-blooded and going out into the snow would surely lead to him loosing his precious body heat but he participated nonetheless.

Especially since it gave him an excuse to stay farther away from Virgil.

He took the longest to get ready, as he needed to wear more layers than anyone else. He was in the process of pulling on a second jacket, standing close to the door that would lead him outside to the cold where the others were already waiting.

Well, almost all of them.

Virgil passed him, lightly knocking into him. It didn’t hurt but it certainly got his attention.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here,” Virgil hissed. He stood in the doorway, blocking Janus’ view of the others.

Isolating him.

“If you think you can fool me by playing the good guy, then you’re wrong. I know you. I know your tricks and your lies. And you always lie. You’ve got some kind of agender, you always do. But newsflash, your stupid plans never really seem to work out, now do they? The wedding fiasco for example. You should leave before you ruin this too.”

Virgil didn’t wait for his response. He turned back and headed outside. He was greeted by Logan who pushed a steaming mug into his hands with a smile. Past them, Janus could hear and just make out the twins having a snowball fight that Patton seemed to be refereeing.

They seemed to be having a pretty good time.

Without him.

Janus left.

Before he could really think about it, he was back in his room, shrugging off the jackets, then the snow pants and more layers until he was left with a long-sleeved shirt and leggings. In a daze, he crawled into bed, under his many, many blankets.

Virgil was right. He didn’t belong there. He had been awful to Roman during the wedding affair. To Logan, too, if he was honest. Patton may have found common ground with him but maybe that was build up on false pretenses. He didn’t really know him after all.

Would Remus even be his friend if they hadn’t been stuck with each other for all those years?

Maybe he would leave him too now.

He wouldn’t begrudge him for it.

Remus deserved so much more than him.

He was just a manipulator.

A liar.

A snake.

Unlovable.

Unlovable.

Unlovable.

Unlovable.

Unlov—

“Janny!”

The blankets are pulled away from him and Janus gasped, wide eyes finding Remus, who stood above him with a worried expression.

“Hey there, snakey. Those didn’t sound like nice thoughts to have.”

“Remus?” Janus’ voice was weak and he only now noticed he was crying.

“Yeah, it’s me. You didn’t come outside, so I got worried. C’mon, sit up.” Gently, Remus pulled Janus up so he could sit leaned against him. Then he pulled a blanket around his shoulders. And not just any blanket but the one that Remus gifted him this morning. The weight settled nicely around him and Janus sighed, relieved.

“Here,” Remus pushed the controls for the blanket into his hand. “Put in what you need.”

“It’s already good, thank you.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Okay. Just let me ask one question.”

“Alright.”

“Was it Virgin?”

Janus couldn’t help the flinch. Remus growled lowly but didn’t move.

“He couldn’t leave you alone for just one day, could he.”

“Please Remus, I don’t wanna think about it more now.” Janus knew if he started now, it would be opening a can of worms and as much as Remus would enjoy that if he meant it literally, he didn’t and didn’t have enough energy to do so metaphorically.

“Fine. Cuddles for my snake now, a mace to the face for the emo tomorrow.”

Janus didn’t argue in the moment but they both knew that he wouldn’t let him get that far in the morning. For now, they just sat in silence, Remus holding him in a loose grip. After the tears stopped, he made him drink some water and afterwards offered to put on a movie, but Janus just wanted to sleep.

Remus helped him settle down, sitting next to him and quietly complained about his brother to provide background noise so Janus didn’t get lost in his thoughts again.

Then there was a knock on the door.

Janus really didn’t like how much he flinched today.

“I’ll get it,” Remus mumbled and got up. Janus felt like a coward but didn’t move. He couldn’t deal with any of the others right now.

“Oh, Remus. I didn’t know you were here.”

That was Patton. Why was he here?

“Yeah, well, Janny’s my friend. What’s your excuse?”

“I noticed Janus never joined us outside, so I wanted to check on him. I know him being cold-blooded made the weather less than ideal for him, but I thought he’d come out at least for a little while. And after Virgil said all those things… Well, I got a bit worried.”

Oh, wow.

Patton actually cared.

Janus knew that, of course, but he hadn’t realized to what extent.

Remus glanced over to him; thankfully he was hidden from Patton’s view.

He didn’t want to be seen like this by anyone but Remus.

“Yeah, that was a shitshow. But that’s a discussion for another day, Janny’s asleep and I don’t wanna wake him.”

“Oh! Sorry to have bothered then, I’ll come by tomorrow. And I’ll have a talk with Virgil, promise. I can’t force him to get along with you, but he shouldn’t have said all of those things.”

“Sure. Bye now, daddy.” Remus closed the door in Patton’s face before he could respond and returned to the bed. “You heard all that? He’s gonna be back tomorrow.”

“Yesss. Thank you, Remus.”

“No problem. I’ll let you sleep now.”

Janus didn’t register himself moving until he was already holding onto Remus’ sleeve tightly.

“Don’t go. Please.”

He hated how small his voice was but the idea of having to be alone was even worse.

Remus blinked a few times, surprised, but then he grinned and quickly climbed onto the bed next to Janus.

“Fuck yeah, sleepover!” With a giggle and wiggle he pressed himself tightly against Janus’ back and hugged him. “Gonna cuddle you so hard we’ll melt together over night!”

Janus made a face.

“I’ll make you bathe at least every other day.”

The hold loosened a bit.

“Fine. No melting.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure thing! Melting or not, I’ll always be here for you, Janny.”

Janus couldn’t help the smile that stole itself onto his face.

“Same here, dukey.”

Remus giggled at the nickname but didn’t say more. Quickly after Janus could tell he had fallen asleep as his breathing evened out.

He yawned, getting sleepy himself.

Maybe one day the two of them will find their place along the others, to help Thomas be whatever he wanted to be. But for now they had each other and nobody could take that away from them.

#namiswriting #sanderssidesgiftxchange23 #platonic dukeceit #platonic moceit #ts janus #janus sanders #ts remus #remus sanders #ts patton #patton sanders #ts logan #logan sanders #ts roman #roman sanders #ts virgil #virgil sanders #christmas fic #virgil is a bit mean in this one #janus has a self-hate spiral #cursing #hurt/comfort #hopeful ending #sanders sides #fanfiction #reblogs are appreciated

[tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors]

Symbiotic Mutualism

Mutualism; a relationship between two different kinds of organisms that benefits both.

Pairing: platonic moceit

Word count: 896

Warnings: a pushy failed blind date, but nothing happens

Notes: part of my MPD verse

for @lighthouseinagardenofstars

thank you to @teacupfulofstarshine for beta reading

---

“I will give you four dollars and a really good croissant if you let me hide in here.”

Devin blinked in confusion at the cherubic, wind-flushed hobbit who’d just entered his store, who was currently glancing nervously over his shoulder and looking like he was on the run from a pack of wolves.

Making a split second decision, he gestured firmly for the hobbit to come behind the counter  (he didn’t think he had time to explain the curse, so talking wasn’t going to be helpful at the moment), earning a relieved smile. The hobbit darted behind Devin, who turned back to the dried and powdered flowers display next to the register, looking surreptitiously out of the corner of his eyes at the door.

A man walked past, looking searchingly around him, even going so far as to cup his hands to the glass front windows and scowl inside. He didn’t see Devin’s hidden charge, visibly slumping in frustration, and huffed out what was most likely an inaudible curse word before stalking further down the street.

“Ex?” he said, not looking up (just in case the searcher suddenly came back).

“Blind date,” said the hobbit.

“That bad?”

“Worse.”

“Condolences.”

“Is he gone?”

“I’m surely going to have an easy time answering that before you’ve looked at my curse bracelet.”

The hobbit visitor simply appeared next to him in that startling way hobbits often did, as if he’d materialized from nothing. He peered around Devin’s shoulder, and Devin helpfully raised his wrist so the bracelet could be read.

“Okay, I’m up to date!”

“In that case, no, he’s right outside the door.”

The hobbit giggled, before offering a hand for a shake.

“Thanks so much!” he said cheerfully. “I’m Patton. What’s your name?”

“It’s not Devin. And I’m certainly not at all curious as to what your blind date could have done to make himself so distasteful you hid from him that quickly.”

“The date was actually last night,” said Patton. “And it wasn’t that bad, we just didn’t hit it off, and I said so in the text I sent him after. But he showed up to my work today and bothered me through my whole shift, and then he tried to follow me home after I got off.”

“Totally not completely terrifying.”

“I know right?” said Patton. “He’s lucky my brother wasn’t working today, Virgil might have literally stabbed him.”

“Doesn’t sound like my kind of solution.”

“Thank you so much for letting me hide!” said Patton, pulling out a lunch box from seemingly nowhere.

“It was very troubling,” said Devin, waving a hand dismissively.

“Here’s your croissant!”

“I want it,” said Devin. “It was a huge inconvenience to let you duck behind my counter for three minutes. I’ll be taking your lunch.”

“I have two!” Patton chirped, holding out the napkin-wrapped croissant insistently. Devin was surprised – normally the longer he spoke, the more trouble people had parsing what he was trying to say, but Patton didn’t seem confused or put out by having to decipher it. He hadn’t even mentioned Devin’s curse since he read the bracelet.

“Fine,” said Devin, taking the pastry and nibbling on the corner. “... Unholy shit.”

“I know, right?” said Patton smugly. “Me and my brother are so good.”

“You didn’t make this,” said Devin incredulously.

“Sure did! Apothecafe, down the street, it’s me and my brother’s coffee shop and bakery. Patton Cottonwood, at your service.”

“I’ve had a chance to try it out.”

“Well, that won’t do!” exclaimed Patton. “All my friends get half off treats!”

“Oh, really?” laughed Devin’s, “Is this how you normally make friends?”

“Oh definitely not, normally I’m the one doing the rescuing,” said Patton, in a very over-the-top way and a twinkle in his eye that made Devin think he was being sarcastic in a strangely saccharine way. “I’m a regular superhero, just look at me. Can’t you tell?”

Devin looked him up and down, all four-feet-something of him, springy brown curls and golden skin with pink-apple cheeks and a smile like a storybook character.

“Oh, definitely,” he deadpanned.

Patton let out a trill of a giggle.

“Gimme your phone,” he said, shaking his hand insistently. “I’ll put my number in and you can text me when you’re coming into the bakery! I’ll be sure to find something you like on the menu.”

“You’re not at all presumptuous you know,” said Devin, even as he did capitulate by unlocking and handing over his phone.

“I’ve been told I make friends like a steamroller!”

“An inaccurate comparison.”

Patton handed Devin’s phone back and trotted toward the door.

“I gotta head home, chores to do, but text me!” said Patton. “Treats! Half off! I am not above bribing you to be my friend!”

“You’re not very strange, Patton Cottonwood.”

“You’re stuck with me now so you better get used to iiiiit!” sing-songed Patton, darting out the door with a jingle of the bell and half-jogging down the street in the direction he’d come from.

“What a normal little creature,” Devin muttered to himself.

He glanced down at the contact in his phone.

‘Your New Best Friend Patton.’

Rolling his eyes, Devin changed it and texted a screenshot to him, getting a long string of laughter emojis in response.

‘Patton (Nuisance)’

Patton replied with another screenshot, and Devin couldn’t help but laugh.

‘Snake Boi 🐍’

#platonic moceit #mpd devin #mpd patton

[ask-nico-and-the-sides]

Hey Janus, what do you think of Orange simping for Logan? You know, as his Snake Mom?

Patton: As for my question, I think he’s alright. I used to be better friends with him, but once I developed into the representation of morality, he kinda backed off.

Janus: He’s kind of scared of you.

Patton: I don’t know why.

Janus: You used your dad voice on him one time when we were kids.

Patton: Oh crap, did I?!

#sanders sides #janus sanders #patton sanders #platonic moceit #I love the idea of orange being scared of Patton

[theimprobabledreamersworld]

Happy Birthday Patton!

A nice little Moceit one shot I speed wrote for Patton’s birthday! :D

Inspired a little by Law and Order SVU, no warnings just a little hurt/comfort :)

I'm starting from scratch with a writing taglist, if you would like to be added, let me know!

Happy Birthday Patton.

Word count: 1,031

Platonic/Pre-romantic/Romantic Moceit- whatever you would like to see it as :)

Janus sat on the sofa staring at the floor, deep in thought about how much of a rollercoaster life had become recently. He had made himself well and truly known to the others, the drama wasn’t usually his forte, but he wanted to make sure his entrance was spectacular. He had torn everything apart, he had pieced one tiny section back together, it was a tiring existence for him recently. Despite the turmoil he had caused, there was one constant light in his life.

Patton.

As much as it sca- pained him to admit it, Janus and Patton had been growing closer recently, despite Janus’ adamant sarcasm in the latest video calling Patton ‘his bestie’. He actually found himself becoming fond on Patton’s company. He found himself baking cookies with Patton, reading classic novels to him when neither of them could sleep, watching Disney movie after movie with no complaints; just acceptance. Even the quiet moments were acceptable, just sitting in a comfortable silence without the chill in the air coming from the others. Janus noticed that his sarcasm was beginning to rub off on Patton ever so slightly. He smiled fondly as he remembered an exchange from the other day.

“What will you be doing when we’re 85?”

“Squabbling with you.”

“Now wouldn’t that be nice?”

They were both lonely, craving the company of someone who didn’t look at them with indifference or anger, so it was only natural that they would grow closer. That wasn’t such a bad thing after all, at least not in Janus’ mind.

“Hey, you!” Janus jumped when the cheery voice appeared out of nowhere, followed by someone collapsing onto the sofa next to him. It took all of two seconds for him to recognise that cat hoodie he lov- despised so much.  

“If you’re trying to give me a heart attack, you’re going the right way about it!” He retorted, his tone dripping with sarcasm as Patton giggled, playfully hitting his shoulder.

“Oh c’mon, you know you love me!” Patton teased making Janus roll his eyes. If only he knew…

The comfortable silence filled the space until Janus glanced over and noticed Patton looking at him with nothing but worry in his eyes. Could he really make the choice to step back? Step back from Patton?

“Hey. What’s going on in that mind of yours?” He heard Patton try to mask the concern in his voice as he felt as hand rest on his arm. Janus sighed and rested his gloved hand on top of Patton’s.

“Oh you know, just thinking about how I could ruin the next thing we have to face.” Janus bitterly answered, the realisation hit Patton like a freight train and he forced Janus’ chin up to look him in the eyes.

“Talk to me. Please?” Patton pleaded quietly, the tone of voice that Janus just couldn’t say no to. He sighed and began to open up to the one person he knew wouldn’t judge him… because they needed each other.

How could he broach this in a way that wouldn’t hurt Patton? He had already done that before, and it was something he swore he would never do again. The one time he caused Patton to spiral was the worst experience of his life, and one he was still regretting to this day.

"You know, when we started spending more time together, what five months a-"

"Six, actually." Patton interrupted with a smirk. Janus let out a chuckle as he removed the gloves from his hands. His mask being removed and letting the vulnerability show.

"Always have to have the final say, don’t you?” Patton shrugged and Janus bit the bullet, continuing like he was saying. “Before we met... The world was an old movie, it was all black and white. Then you, you started to meddle your way into my world and the black and white became different shades of grey. Before I knew it... There were blues... and greens and yellows and reds...”

He couldn’t help but smile when he listed the colours, as he watched the concern from Patton’s face melt away into fondness and happiness, especially when blue was mentioned first. Despite his reputation of lying, every word was true. He had been caught in a monochrome world until Patton showed him colours, how the world isn’t set in its ways. He could be happy with Patton, even when the rest of them told him he was just shifty and untrustworthy.

“You... opened my heart, Patton... And I thank you for it..." Janus felt tears sting the corners of his eyes as he saw the concern flood Patton’s face again.

"And?"

"I- I have to step back, before anyone else gets hurt." He heard Patton gasp and turned his face away.

“No. No! Don’t you dare!” Patton’s voice echoed off the walls. Janus raised an eyebrow in confusion, why was it such a big deal?

“You can’t… you can’t step back. I absolutely won’t let you! I need you, Jan. And I have to go LilyPadton mode to make you understand that, then so help me-” Janus smiled fondly at the nickname and gently put a finger in Patton’s lips to stop him from talking, then rubbed his cheek softly with his thumb.

“Alright. I’ll stay, but only for you.”

The comfortable silence fell between them once again and then the clock beeped indicating midnight. Janus suddenly realised what day it was.

“Oh! Before anything else…” He quickly got off the sofa and ran to his room, grabbing a small blue bag with a gold bow around it. Janus came back to see Patton looking confused, so he handed over the bag.

“Wow, you’re early! Thank you, Jan!” Patton gasped excitedly as he took the gift and peeked inside. Janus chuckled as he loaded up ‘Tangled’ on the DVD player, he knew that neither of them would getting sleep anytime soon. He sat down next to Patton again and let him cuddle up while the opening credits rolled.

“I just wanted to be first… Happy Birthday Patton.”

#happy birthday patton #sanders sides #ts patton #ts janus #patton sanders #janus sanders #moceit #platonic moceit #pre romantic moceit #romantic moceit #ts fanfic #sanders sides fanfiction

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Protector

Chapter One

Chapter Thirty-Seven:

Janus woke up with a splitting headache that almost felt worse than the hole in his chest.

He groaned and pushed himself up, dropping his head in his hands and rubbing at his face.

Well, today was the backup to his pushed back deadline.  He had to get out of his room sometime today.  He’d have to find a way to deal with everyone’s hatred.  He’d made Virgil and Remus put up with it for long enough, after all, and turnabout’s fair play.

And if Remus was right and Virgil really would be worried about him if he stayed in his room all day, then Janus wanted him to be focusing on anything else but that.  He deserved a chance to recover.  Besides, he could give Virgil plenty of space outside his room too.

Janus checked on Thomas in the corner of his mind as he climbed out of bed.  Not any better than he was yesterday, not that that was a surprise.  He wouldn’t really get better until Virgil returned.

Or, well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true.  Thomas wasn’t really good, obviously.  But he didn’t seem to be having breakdowns while smiling anymore, which was a definite plus.

He must have the others to thank for that.  Janus was glad they were fixing things.  Just because they weren’t going to be his family anymore didn’t mean he didn’t love them dearly.  He’d just have to want good things for them from a distance.  It would be fine.

Janus looked around his room, trying to find some excuse to hang out here for another couple hours.  He’d be a lousy Deceit if he didn’t try and put off the inevitable for as long as possible.

Janus winced.

He was a lousy Deceit.

Well then.

Janus took a deep breath, snapped his clothes on because he was still feeling lazy, and walked over to his door.  He took one more deep breath and pulled it open.

He was met with the surprised face of Patton who had held his hand up to knock, now just hanging in midair.  Behind him were Roman and Logan, looking just as surprised.

For a good ten seconds, all of them just stared at each other.

Finally, Patton seemed to come to his senses with a jerk.

“Janus!  Here, this—” he reached into a pocket and pulled something out.  “This is for you!”  He shoved a piece of paper at Janus’ chest, and Janus took it without getting a chance to really look at it.

He swallowed.  “Okay.  I’ll look at it later, if that’s okay,” he said, not surprised at how scratchy his voice came out.  It had been a while since he’d talked.

“I— I think you should look at it now, Janus,” Roman said.

Janus squeezed his eyes shut.  “Do we have to do this now?”

“We do,” Logan said firmly.

Janus sighed, and looked down at the paper.

He honestly hadn’t been sure what it would be.  Maybe some kind of list of demands, or new boundaries they hadn’t wanted to say to his face.

He hadn’t expected a simple card.  The front read “Ur Fam” and Janus opened it to find “ILY” written on one side and the four of them drawn on the other.

He looked up, trying to hide any emotion from coming through on his face.  “What is this?”

“We just wanted to make something to make you feel better, kiddo,” Patton said.

“Why.”

“Janus,” Roman said softly.

“Honestly, just go,” Janus said, crossing his arms.  “I don’t want to try and have this conversation, okay?  We all know what’s going to happen.”

“We don’t know that, Janus,” Logan said.  “It is impossible to know the outcome of events that have not taken place.”

“And yet the impossible is occurring,” Janus said with a cool glare, leaning against his doorframe.  “Please don’t patronize me.  Just go and do what you wanted to before you came here.”

“Janus,” Roman said, stepping forward and crossing his arms.  “This is exactly where we all want to be.”

Janus gripped the side of the doorframe.  “Don’t lie to me, Roman.”

“He’s not lying, Janus,” Patton said.  “Could you please just hear us out?”

Janus didn’t say anything for a moment.  He wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of talking with them all only to be inevitably disappointed when it went exactly how he expected it to go.  But he probably owed them something of an explanation.  And if this was going to have to happen eventually, it was probably better to get it all out of the way.

Janus sighed, long and exhausted.  “Fine.”

He stepped back inside his room and walked over to lean back against his desk, letting the other three walk in.  Logan came through last and closed the door behind them.

“What do you want to know then?” Janus asked, looking tiredly up at them.

“We’re not here to interrogate you, Janus,” Logan said.

“Then what do you want?” Janus asked, looking up at the ceiling.

“We’re here to check on you, kiddo,” Patton said softly.  “We figured you’re probably not doing too good.”

“You don’t need to worry about it,” Janus snapped.  “I’ll be fine.”

“Falsehood,” Logan said, raising an eyebrow.

“I will be fine,” Janus insisted.

“That is not what I was referring to, though I doubt that is true either.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Of course we need to worry about it,” Logan said.  “You’re our family, Janus.”

Janus tensed.

“And that’s why we’re here too,” Roman said.  “To make sure you know we’re not going to get rid of you just because you made a few mistakes.”

Janus grit his teeth.  “Well, I didn’t realize you were all so exceedingly stupid then,” he hissed.

“Janus,” Patton said.  “Stop it.”

“I did not make a few mistakes,” Janus said.  “I made many large mistakes.  Mistakes that badly harmed other sides and Thomas.”

“And ostracizing you would not remedy those mistakes,” Logan said, raising an eyebrow.  “It would actually be quite a bad idea.  It has not seemed to be successful in the past.”

“You misunderstand, Logan, that’s just a reason to get rid of the problem entirely,” Janus said, spreading his arms.

“You’re not a problem, Janus,” Patton said.

“Well I’m a failure then,” Janus said.  “And it seems that it would be a much better idea to simply get rid of failures entirely.”

“You are not a failure,” Roman said firmly.

“Yes I am.”

“Janus—”

“Please do not twist facts just to make me feel better, Roman,” Janus said.  “I am a failure.  I failed to protect Anxiety and Remus, I failed to protect Thomas, and I failed to properly guard the others.”

“How does that make you a failure?” Logan asked.  “I thought that part of your job was only to assess whether Thomas was ready to meet the others.”

“Yes, you thought that because I lied to you about it,” Janus snapped.  “But I suppose I also lied to you about my function as a whole, so I guess I did part of my job alright.”

Well, maybe he shouldn’t have said that, because now everyone was staring at him.  Or maybe he should have said that.  Maybe this was how he got them to leave.

“Did I not mention that?” Janus said, rolling his eyes and trying to act like he didn’t care.  “My original function was Deceit.  I figured none of the core sides would really like having a side like that around, so I lied about it.  Seems rather fitting.”

Patton made a wounded noise, which Janus was going to pretend didn’t sting.  “You lied about it for fifteen years?”

“Yes, because I’m not a good side to have around,” Janus said.  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.  I lied about that and I lied about what my job was and then I tried to cover up all of those lies when Anxiety and Remus came here.  And all of that caused all of this.  So why don’t you all get rid of me and be better off for it?”

Patton took a couple steps across the room and wrapped his arms around Janus with no warning.  Janus stiffened in surprise, but Patton just squeezed him tighter.

“Janus,” he said.  “Didn’t you know we love you for you?”

Janus scoffed and pushed Patton off of him.  “Oh stop it,” he said.  “How naive do you think I am?”

“Janus you moron, you’re our family, not someone we’re interviewing to hire,” Roman snapped.

“Roman is correct,” Logan said.  “You are not going to drive us away by telling us that your job is different from what we’ve thought.”

“I can’t drive you away by lying to you for as long as I’ve known you?  What would it take, then?” Janus asked, rolling his eyes.

“A lot worse than anything you’ve done,” Roman said plainly.

Janus scoffed.  “Get out.”

“Do you think we’re lying to you?” Logan said, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course you are.  You can’t forgive me just like that.”

“And why is that?” Patton asked, putting his hands on his hips.

“I’ve done despicable things.  I don’t deserve it.”

“It’s not about deserve, Janus,” Roman said.  “And you can’t decide that for us.”

Janus looked between the three of them.  “Try me.”

“Excuse me?” Logan said.

“I said try me,” Janus said, and he reached out and shoved all three of them from his room.  He heard the beginnings of Patton crying “Wait!” before they were all gone.

Then he sat down at his desk and put his head in his hands.

…

Janus felt it when Virgil came back.  Thankfully, he was holding up Remus’ end of the bargain, and he was down in the kitchen when it happened making something to eat.  He did imagine Remus hadn’t exactly been suggesting that Janus sneak out in the middle of the night to do everything.  But Janus was going to keep his room firmly locked unless some unforeseen circumstance happened, like Remus or Virgil or Thomas needed him.  For some reason.

He did head up and look for Remus for this one reason, though.  He imagined Remus would forgive him, just this once.

Janus knocked on his door, and it was less than two seconds later that Remus had opened his door and was glaring at him.

“I thought I told you—”

“Virgil’s back,” Janus said, pointing at the door right next to them.

Remus froze, and for a second Janus was almost sure he imagined a look of terror that flashed across his face.

“Remus?”

“Did I say you could speak?” Remus snapped, but his voice was shaking, and so were his hands, and now he was backing into his room and leaving the door wide open.

Well.  This was a terrible idea.

“Remus, what’s wrong?” Janus asked, pushing the door open further as he walked into the room.

Remus shook his head, turning around to face away from Janus.  “Can’t go see him,” he said, burying his hands in his hair and pulling again.

“Don’t do that,” Janus said, walking forward and pulling them down.

“I said don’t touch me!” Remus screamed, smacking Janus’ hand away.

“Why can’t you go see Virgil?” Janus asked, lowering his hands.

“It was my idea,” Remus said, turning and sitting down against the desk and burying his head in his hands.  “The nails.  It was my idea.  Gave it to Malice when I was bored.”

Janus clenched his hands past the wave of guilt that hit him in the next second.

Get out of your own head.  This isn’t about you right now.

“Okay,” Janus said slowly, trying to keep his voice even as he sat down across from Remus.  “What does that have to do with going to see Virgil?”

Remus looked up at Janus like he was an idiot, and Janus took a minute to analyze Remus’ face, and found the guilt he saw in the mirror.

“Oh, Remus,” Janus said gently.  “It isn’t your fault.”

“Shut up, you don’t know anything,” Remus snapped, burying his head in his knees this time.

“I do know that it isn’t your fault, Remus,” Janus said softly.  “That’s too much to put on yourself.  You can’t be held responsible for things that Malice did to Virgil.”

“But it was my idea,” Remus insisted.  “I gave it to him.”

“Oh, and of course if you hadn’t done that, Malice would have had a complete change of heart and decided not to hurt Virgil at all.  Right, that’s what would have happened.”

“Virgil wouldn’t have wanted to die,” Remus whispered.  “He would be here.”

“Virgil is here right now,” Janus said softly.  “I imagine if you wake him up he’ll be very happy to see you.”

“Or he could hate me because I hurt him,” Remus said, starting to rock back and forth.  “And then the only person I’ve ever had would hate me and I’d be totally alone and no one would ever want me ever again—”

“Remus,” Janus said.  He reached out and put a hand on Remus’ knee, and Remus jerked upright and stopped rocking.

“Don’t touch me!  I told you don’t touch me!”

“I’m sorry,” Janus said, backing up.  “I’m sorry, I was trying to help ground you.”

Remus hissed and buried his head in his arms again.

“Remus, please listen,” Janus said.  “I know I’m not exactly your favorite side, but I’m who’s here right now, and you need to listen.  You’re going to have a panic attack.”

“Fuck you,��� Remus snapped weakly.

“Remus please, please look at me.”

There was a long pause, and then Remus slowly pulled his head up and looked at Janus.

“It is absolutely not, in no way, not in the slightest your fault,” Janus said.  “No one is going to blame you.  Especially not Virgil.”

“How do you know?” Remus said, glaring away, though he sounded more hesitant.  “You don’t know anything about me and Virgil.”

Janus winced, but pushed the guilt firmly aside.  “Remus, if Virgil can forgive the rest of the core sides, which a lot of his behavior seems to demonstrate he’s done, I doubt he’s even slightly mad at you.”

Remus hesitated, but that seemed to get through to him.

“Will you come see him, at least?  I bet he’s ready to be woken up after a week of being gone.”

Remus was quiet for another moment, then finally he nodded.  “Okay.”

Janus moved back and waited for Remus to stand up before he did the same, and then he followed Remus out into the hallway and to the next door.

Remus somehow managed to open the door completely silently, but then moved immediately across the room to Virgil’s bed and knelt down on it, and that was all it seemed to take for Virgil to shift and open his eyes.

And, thank Thomas, Janus had been spot on, because the second Virgil saw Remus he sighed in relief and reached up to pull him into a hug, with what looked like very weak arms too.

Virgil glanced over at the door and spotted Janus, which Janus took as his cue to go, and he turned and shut the door quietly after him.

He had one more thing to check before he went to hide back in his room, after all.  And he was pretty sure giving Virgil and Remus a moment was the right move.

…

“Thomas?” Janus murmured, quietly just in case he was asleep, but he doubted it.

Sure enough, Thomas was sitting up awake in bed.  He was also crying, which didn’t surprise Janus at all.  This couldn’t be a fun experience.

Thomas looked up at Janus as he appeared and wiped at his eyes.  “Hi Janus,” he said weakly.  “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” Janus lied instantly, moving to sit on the bed next to Thomas.  “I’m here for you right now.”

“It feels like Anxiety’s back,” Thomas said, rubbing at his chest.

“He is,” Janus confirmed.  “Are you feeling better?”

“Define ‘better.’”

“Fair enough,” Janus said with a sad smile.

“Are you okay?” Thomas asked again.

Janus clenched his hands together behind his back.  “I said I’m alright, Thomas,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

“Why… are you still asking?” Janus said, squeezing his hands together tighter.

Thomas stared at him.  “Because your entire world just got flipped on its head, Janus,” he said.  “Because I would be devastated and you’re part of me, and because I’m not okay.”

“Well that’s why I’m here,” Janus said, hoping Thomas would just take the hint.  “What can I do to help?”

Thomas took a deep breath and wiped at his eyes.  “I think I’d like a hug, Janus,” he said, giving Janus a knowing look that Janus did not like.

Janus tensed.  “What else can I do?”

“Why don’t you want to do that?”

Janus bit his lip.  “No reason in particular.  I just think—”

“Is it because you’d like a hug too?”

Janus scoffed and crossed his arms.  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“The others came to talk to me, you know.”

Janus swallowed.  “Ah.  I’m sure they exaggerated.”

“Oh, did they really?”

“Thomas, I’m trying to help you.”

“Janus.  I want you to listen to me now please.”

Janus cursed his inability to deny Thomas something he wanted and sat back, glaring down at the blankets.

“Are you trying to push everyone away?” Thomas asked.

“I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want me to,” Janus muttered.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“So what if I am?  Why would you care?  Why wouldn’t you want me to?”

“Janus,” Thomas said, a pained look in his eyes.  “No one hates you.”

“Remus does,” Janus pointed out.

“Remus is different.”

“If you’re trying to say Remus and Anxiety are allowed to hate me then just say it.”

Thomas sighed.  “Fine.  Yes, Remus and Anxiety are probably allowed to hate you.  But that doesn’t mean everyone does, and trying to push everyone away is just going to create more problems, Janus.”

“I already did that,” Janus snapped, pushing himself to a standing position.  “I don’t understand why you think you can prevent more problems by keeping me around!  Clearly I cause them!  I’m trying to fix it for you!  I’m trying to make up for the problems I caused!”

Thomas was quiet for a long moment, to the point where Janus stopped breathing heavily and started to worry.

“Thomas?”

“Janus,” Thomas said quietly.  “To me it just seems like you’re trying to punish yourself.”

Janus didn’t have a clue what to say.

“I— I’m not—”

“You know that’s not a helpful reaction, right?”

“I—” Janus pulled his hat off so he could hold it to hide the way his hands were shaking.  “Thomas, you— you don’t understand.  They— I left them there.”

Thomas nodded.  “Yes.”

“Why aren’t you angry with me?  Why aren’t you screaming at me?”

Thomas gave Janus a pained look.  “Could I say anything that would make you feel worse than you already do?”

“I—” Janus’ legs were shaking.  “I—”

“Janus,” Thomas stood up and walked over to him, and held out his arms.  “Come here.”

“No.”

But Thomas didn’t move, and Janus was pretty sure he was about to collapse, and he couldn’t think of a better place to do it than in between Thomas’ arms.

And he always had been selfish.

Thomas ran his hands through Janus’ hair, and before long Janus was pretty sure they were both crying, though he doubted Thomas could match the heaving sobs Janus was choking out.

Thomas made quiet shushing noises, and Janus hated how much they made him feel better.

“It’s going to be alright,” Thomas murmured.

“Thomas,” Janus managed.  “They’re my boys.  I left my boys.”

There wasn’t a good response to that and they both knew it, so instead Thomas just shushed him again and kept running his hands through his hair.

“Do you know why the others came to talk to me?” Thomas said after a minute.  “They said they were worried you were going to succeed in isolating yourself.  I— I didn’t really care then, because I couldn’t, but I do now.”

“Why,” Janus said.  His voice sounded like he’d dragged sandpaper over his throat.

“None of us hate you, Janus.”

“I do,” Janus muttered, half on purpose.

Thomas made a wounded noise and tightened his grip.

“Please let us help you,” Thomas whispered.

“I’m supposed to help you, Thomas.”

“You’re part of me,” Thomas said.  “I want to help you Janus, please.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you idiot,” Thomas said.  “We all do.”

Janus shook his head, but didn’t say anything.

“Are you going to keep trying to push us all away?” Thomas asked.

Janus didn’t say anything.

“Janus?  Are you going to stop hurting yourself?”

Janus just ducked his head down further.

“Please, Janus.  I don’t want to see you hurt.”

Oh, now that was just mean.

“I’ll try,” Janus whispered.

All of the tension rushed out of Thomas’ body at once, and he sighed in relief and pulled Janus closer.

“Promise you’ll talk to the others?”

“Don’t push it, Sanders.”

Thomas gave a displeased huff, but left it there for now.  And for a long while after, the two of them stayed there together.

...

Chapter Thirty-Eight

#sanders sides #janus sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #remus sanders #virgil sanders #that's right my boy has RETURNED #platonic moceit #platonic roceit #platonic loceit #platonic dukeceit #platonic anxceit #my fic

[i-am-bitterly-jittery]

On Death's Doorstep (pt 23/?)

[<<First],,,,[<Prev],[Next>] [ODD Masterlist]

Word count: 1555

Rating: Teen

Pairing: Anxceit

Warnings: swearing, mentions of character death, accusations of murder

Please Note: While writing the chapter after the funeral chapter, I decided I needed a new chapter between that one and the one before, so this is now chapter 23 and the funeral chapter has been changed to chapter 24. I hope this isn’t too confusing for anyone

~~~START~~~

When they were first starting out as a petty thief, Janus had followed the news religiously. They’d needed to know if anyone was reporting their crimes, if their crimes were being connected together, if anyone realized that there was an illusionist terrorizing the city.  

They were perhaps a little arrogant back then, it wasn’t until Logan started sponsoring them and allowing them to pull off bigger and bigger jobs that the media actually took notice of their existence.  

After the accident, Logan dropped his civilian job as a sociology professor and took up selling his gadgets on the black-market full time, and when that hadn’t been enough, he’d taken up his own supervillain identity. Janus had returned to following the news religiously every time Logan went out as Dr. Frankenstein, terrified that he’d get himself hurt or captured — a fear that only grew stronger when the twins barreled into their lives.  

They’d spent years weaning themself off the habit, and they could now say they were perfectly comfortable relaxing at home while their associates were out on business.  

Today, for instance, they were stumbling their way through a “tea” party with Patton, content with the knowledge that Logan would return home safely before sundown.  

“Um, do you want some cake?” Patton, considering the pile of toy food — a birthday present courtesy of Remus — in front of him thoughtfully.  

“I would love some cake, thank you,” Janus replied. They could feel Virgil smirking at them, but they steadfastly ignored him (they broke into city hall last week and released tons of classified data onto the internet before kidnapping the mayor and abandoning him five miles outside of town without his phone for fun, Virgil should not be smirking at them like that!).  

“I want pizza!” Patton informed them as he placed the plastic pizza on his own plate. “You need something to drink,” he observed, handing Janus a plastic teacup.  

“Oh, thank you, is this tea?” 

“No!” Patton giggled as though the suggestion were absurd. “You drink coffee. I don’t drink coffee because I’m five!” 

“Ah, of course,” Janus chuckled. “How silly of me.” 

“Daddy needs coffee too!” Patton insisted, holding an empty cup out to Virgil.  

“Oh, do I?” Virgil asked as he walked over and took the cup from Patton. “Thank you, kiddo. How’s about I drink this while I make us some lunch with real food?” 

“Um, okay!” Patton agreed. “We can’t eat this food because it’s just pretend.” 

“Yeah, just pretend,” Virgil agreed, placing a kiss on the top of Patton’s curls. He also placed a kiss on Janus’s cheek before he headed to the kitchen, causing Janus to melt just a little bit the way they always did when Virgil casually expressed affection. “Are you staying for lunch, Jan?” 

Janus opened their mouth to confirm when the door of the apartment suddenly banged open.  

“JANUS!” 

“Jeez, Princey, what happened to knocking?” 

Roman, who had seemed almost manic when he’d burst in, blinked owlishly at Virgil for a moment before his words finally caught up to them, then they winced apologetically.  

“Sorry, Virge, I just–” they scanned the apartment before finally zeroing in on Janus. “I really need to speak to Janus about– uh, about business stuff.” 

Janus grimaced — whatever was important enough to be worth bursting into Virgil’s apartment must be pretty urgent — before standing.  

“I’m sorry, Pat, but we’re going to need to postpone our tea party.” 

“Oh, okay,” Patton visibly deflated.  

Unsure of what else to do, Janus leaned down and kissed the top of his head like Virgil had. In return, Patton wrapped his small arms around Janus’s legs.  

“Bye, Janus.” 

“I’ll see you later, Patton,” Janus promised.  

Virgil was frowning as Janus kissed him goodbye, but Janus couldn’t reassure him of anything — they didn’t know anything, and they certainly weren’t going to lie to Virgil just to make him feel better temporarily.  

As soon as the door closed behind them Roman dragged them down to Remus’s apartment. Inside was another Roman — the original Roman as evidenced by the fact that Janus’s Roman reabsorbed into him — and no less than three Remuses expressing various degrees of uneasiness. The original Roman and one of the Remuses had their eyes glued to the TV while a second Remus paced the floor and the third cleaned the kitchen compulsively. The TV was playing the news, which was showing footage of a collapsed building with the headline “Building Collapse During Supervillain Attack: Currently 1 Dead, 5 Injured” underneath it.  

The three supervillains watched as the news station continued to repeat the details they knew and report the new ones as they came out. Dr. Frankenstein had broken into a genetics lab earlier in the day; about half an hour later, the vigilante Sandman went in after him; most of the staff had been evacuated from the building, but a few had remained inside for one reason or another; footage showed Dr. Frankenstein jumping out a fifth-story window just moments before the first explosion happened; so far one employee had been found dead and two more were found injured; at least three civilians outside of the building had been injured either by the blasts or by debris.  

Two employees were confirmed dead, eight more injured. Six civilians outside the building were injured.  

Sandman was confirmed dead.  

Janus had trouble wrapping their mind around it. A genetics lab was right up Logan’s alley, and explosions weren’t uncommon for him, but destroying an entire building?  

Sure, Janus was a supervillain, and so were most of the people they were close to, but none of them were death-and-destruction take-over-the-world types. Knocking out a wall or busting through a window were one thing, but taking down a building with civilians inside was a completely other thing.  

While Logan had never been against taking lives if he had to, he’d never been one to kill people needlessly. Logan was efficient and calculating, this was rash and unnecessary! 

It wasn’t Logan. It couldn’t be Logan. Logan wouldn’t do this! 

Would he? 

It was a tense couple hours while they waited for Logan to return and explain his side of things.  

When Logan finally did come home, he seemed dazed. He blinked owlishly at Janus and the twins when they went to meet him in his lab, not quite seeing them.  

“What happened?” Janus demanded. Logan blinked again.  

“There was an explosion,” he stated blankly. His lack of reaction only agitated Janus further. 

“You blew up a building, Logan!” 

That seemed to snap Logan out of his daze. “I did no such thing!” He snapped.  

“Uh, buildings don’t just blow up on their own, Doctor Frank-N-Furter,” Remus pointed out. “That would be cool though.” 

“You killed Sandman, Logan!” Janus shouted. “Jesus Christ, she was seventeen!” 

“I KNOW THAT!” 

“Hey guys, maybe we should–” 

“Shut up, Roman!” Logan snapped. “I did not blow up that building. I did not do anything that could have resulted in the building blowing up. I–” Logan faltered, staring off into the distance before continuing quietly. “I have no idea what happened.” 

“Buildings don’t just explode,” Janus pointed out, pinching the bridge of their nose. They were developing a headache and this somewhat circuitous conversation was not helping.  

“I am aware of that, but the fact of the matter is: I did not cause the explosion!” 

“So, someone else blew up the building then?” Remus asked thoughtfully.  

“Why would someone else blow up a genetics lab?” Janus demanded, ignoring Remus completely.  

“Possibly to frame me for–” 

“Someone just happened to know you’d hit that genetics lab today?” Logan glared at Janus for interrupting him, Janus glared back.  

“While I understand that that seems unlikely,” Logan explained slowly. “That seems to be the most reasonable explanation.  

“That’s nowhere near reasonable!” 

“So you think that I killed her and am now lying to you about it?” Logan demanded.  

“Yes, actually!” Because why would some other villain frame Logan for this? How would anyone even know that Logan would hit that lab today of all days? 

“Guys seriously–” 

“SHUT UP ROMAN!” Logan and Janus both shouted before glaring at the other for daring to have the same thought.  

“Whatever,” Roman muttered. “Keep arguing in circles for all I care, I’m leaving.” 

The silence that followed in Roman’s wake was tense and palpable. Janus attempted to calm down, knowing that this conversation would be much easier if they all approached it with level heads, but they were too worked up. They’d promised Virgil that none of them would go after Sandman, and now they would need to tell him that she’d died during a battle with Dr. Frankenstein — assuming he hadn’t already heard in the few hours since they’d last seen him.  

It was Logan who eventually broke the silence, deflated and looking older than he ever had. “Get out. I have work to do.” 

“So you’re moving on just like that?” Janus seethed.  

“Yes,” Logan answered coldly. “Just like that. Get out.” 

“Fine!” Janus stormed out, vaguely aware of Remus trailing behind them. Their eye was twitching in irritation and all they wanted to do was go lay down in their room in the dark and hope this had all been a bad dream.  

But someone would need to tell Virgil, and Janus couldn’t let anyone else do it.  

~~~END~~~

So one time I was having a tea party with my 4yo cousin and she gave me a cup. She’d already established that she was drinking milk so I asked if I was also drinking milk and she informed me that no, I was not drinking milk, I was drinking beer, and she couldn’t drink beer cuz she was 4. Which is hilarious to me, and mildly horrifying to her parents.

Virgil doesn’t strike me as a beer guy, and if Orin drank beer I don’t think Patton would associate it as something that favorable adults drank, so coffee

Anyway just to be clear, the next chapter I post will be chapter 25

ODD taglist:

@royalty-of-all-things-snuggly @pixelated-pineapple @arsonic-knight @lost-in-thought-20 @remy-the-lemon-berry @jinxcrafter @apinkline2715 @gothfoxx @donutsarepartybagels @xoaningout @meganmoneky14

#sanders sides #ts sanders sides #virgil sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #logan sanders #on death’s doorstep #superhero au #anxceit #parental moxiety #platonic moceit #platonic moxiety #thursday writes #my writing #sanders sides fanfiction

[loganslowdown4]

Patton: *taking out a knife* We have ways of getting people to talk—

Janus: WHA—?

Patton: *takes out an apple* —by giving them fresh apple slices!

Janus:

Janus: Why did I even think that sentence would end any other way?

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #janus sanders #Patton sanders #ts janus #ts patton #platonic moceit #moceit #ts moceit #ts incorrect quotes #incorrect sanders sides

[thatgenderlessentity]

Virgil- Keep an eye on Janus.

Patton- That’s what I'm doing.

Virgil- I mean keep an eye on him in a defensive way.

Source: DC's Legends of Tomorrow

#sanders sides #sanders sides incorrect quotes #ts virgil #virgil sanders #ts patton #patton sanders #source: DC's Legends of Tomorrow #platonic moxiety #platonic moceit

[edupunkn00b]

First Snow

A gift for @8beez for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange. Rating: G, WC: 2445 - AO3 - Spotify Playlist CW: cold, scroll to the bottom for additional spoiler-filled warnings. ~~~

Snowflakes glittered in the lantern light and the wind came up over the frozen stream, creating little eddies along the path to the big yellow house on the other side of the bridge. Snow crunched under the boots of a passing couple and Patton nodded to them as they passed, then continued on his way toward his old friend’s house. Or his friend’s old house. Both, really.

The snow had started early in the day with big, fat flakes that stuck to hats and scarves and tree branches before they gradually shrunk into the crunchy, sparkly, tiny crystals that now floated through the evening sky. They caught the light and the breeze, dancing together as they gently fell over the quiet town. With the exception of the young couple, the paths between structures were empty, and soft, golden light spilled from windows. The promise of warmth and home shone in the flickering shadows, along with the occasional peal of laughter that managed its way up chimneys and smoke holes.

Patton always loved the snow, especially the first snow of the season, the way it blanketed the houses, pristine and clean. Snow drifts collected on the banks of the stream, still running sluggishly in a lazy bend past the town. A thick layer of cottony white already decorated the previously bare trees, lending a magical feel to the otherwise depressingly empty branches. Later, the snow cover would brighten the long winter nights, reflecting the moon and starlight with a silvery glow. The stream would freeze solid and the townsfolk could go out with blades strapped to their boots and skate across the slippery surface.

For now, though, only patches of the stream were frozen, and most of those, Patton knew, were only a few inches thick. Not nearly thick enough. Ice skating would have to wait for a few more weeks.

He shook himself, resuming his walk across the bridge and, before long, found himself standing on a large, covered porch in front of a well-worn wooden door. The thick wood was adorned with a brass knocker, now darkened with a rich patina. Patton remembered when the knocker was brand new and he’d needed to drag over one of the milk stools from the barn just to touch it. It was easier now, of course, but he still had to stretch to reach it.

Sooner than he might expect, a bolt clunked into place and the door creaked open. “Janus!” Patton cheered at the first sight of his old friend. Leaning heavily on his walking stick—’It’s not a damned cane!’—Janus smiled out at him, wincing as a blast of cold air ruffled his greyed hair. 

Clad in flannel lined work pants, Janus was wrapped in a thick woolen sweater the color of fresh butter, and, if Patton knew him, just as soft. A matching scarf was draped over his shoulders and he already wore rabbit fur-lined gloves. “Pat,” he whispered, voice creaky, like he hadn’t spoken for a while. “I was hoping I’d see you this evening.”

“Well, of course you would!” Patton grinned, waving his arms around them. “It’s the first snow of the season! We couldn’t miss that!”

“Let me get my coat and I’ll be right out.” He stepped back, opening the door a little wider. “Would you like to…” Janus began and before he could even finish his question, Patton stood next to him, smiling brightly at the ribboned evergreen boughs draped over the doorway.

“I love your decorations this year, Jay!” He turned on the spot, gazing around the room as Janus pulled on a heavy down-filled coat. “They’re just beautiful.”

Smiling, Janus pulled on a wool cap and nodded toward the door. “I was hoping you would like them,” he said as he joined Patton on the porch and closed and locked the door. Together, they made their way slowly down the steps, and Patton smiled gratefully at the way Janus’ new gloves gripped the snow-slicked handrail.

Once they were on the path, Janus followed Patton’s gaze and nodded. “They were a Christmas gift from my granddaughter. Nice and warm. She made them,” he smiled, pride warming his features even as it stretched the jagged scar that split his cheek from the corner of his mouth to his ear. “She’s visiting with her wife and their kids… They’re putting the little ones to bed and Payton is out at the dance in Town Hall.”

“Well, tell her I think they’re beautiful,” Patton said. “She does really nice work!”

Janus nodded, attention focused on his steps as they moved over a growing snow bank. “We’ll need to get back before that grows too much,” he murmured.

“We will. It’s not a long walk,” Patton reassured him, looking over his shoulder at the path heading back over the stream. “Not like the other way.”

“I remember,” he nodded, voice cracking again. They walked in silence for several more feet, Janus’ walking stick tapping against the snow-covered  pavers with each step. “First snow had come early that year,” he mused, nodding to the beat of his staff. “You were so ready to go skating. You wouldn’t listen to anyone try to tell you to wait.” Condensation puffed out into the cold night air with his low laugh.

“In my defense, I was only eight,” Patton giggled.

“It’s a good thing you were, too, I could fit you on my sled to get you back to my house,” Janus harrumphed, sounding every bit of his ninety-three years.

~~~

“Pat?” Janus called from the top of the hill. He’d just seen him, and Pat had promised to wait until he went down the slope one more time before they went to test the ice on the stream together. The weather had turned quickly that year, butt luckily they’d just finished bringing in all the carrots and beets before the ground iced over. It still meant helping Papa chop wood in the snow, but it also meant the start of sledding sooner, so it all worked out in Janus’ mind.

Pat had other ideas. “It’s so cold,” he’d grinned, kicking at the icicles growing from the edge of his porch. “I bet the stream’s already frozen hard enough for ice skating.” He lowered his voice as his older brother walked past with his nose buried in a book. “Meet me by the bridge tonight and we’ll go see. It’s a full moon, plenty of light to see.”

So, about an hour after dark, Pat had stood at the bottom of the hill, just next to the far side of the bridge. “C’mon down, Jay!” He waved a large branch over his head. The big hickory on the other side of the schoolhouse had fallen over in the last storm and all the children in the town had claimed a piece of it. Pat’s was taller than he was, thicker than his arm at its widest part. The pair had spent a good hour debating what to make with it but still hadn’t decided, so Pat had taken to lugging it around with him, alternating between pretending it was Moses’ staff or the oar Charon used to take new souls across the River Styx.

And now the branch lay abandoned in the snow next to the stream.

Jumping on the sled, Janus raced to the bottom and leapt off. He picked up the stick and called out again. “Pat!? Pat, where are you?” 

“Jay?” The voice was a whisper on the wind, weak and shaky. But it was definitely Pat. “Jay, I’m down here.” Janus’ eyes darted around the bank until finally he saw a dark lump near the snow. It was shaped like a person. A very small person. “Pat!”

Janus ran toward the edge of the water, but his feet flew out from underneath him when the snow gave way to ice. The little boy went down hard and his face hit a sharp rock, cutting a long gash in his cheek. He barely felt it and jumped back to his feet, taking the branch with him as he rushed to the water’s edge.

The dark shape by the water was Pat. Clinging to a tree root, he looked up at Janus with a fuzzy gaze, the lower half of his body still submerged. With a sickening squelch, his little fingers slipped from the roots and the water closed over his head.

“Pat!” Janus screamed and drove the branch into the water next to his friend. “Pat, hold on! Grab it!” There was no movement in the water and Janus held his breath, afraid the smallest sound, the tiniest shifting of his own body would distract him from his friend. After an eternity of waiting, he dropped down on his belly, some distant part of his mind noting the snow around him was stained red. “Pat, hang on!” he called again, and tried to scoop the branch underneath his friend.

Something caught and he levered the branch against the snow until one small arm flopped out onto the bank. Janus scrambled toward it and gripped Pat’s hand, soaking his own woolen gloves with the icy water. Somehow, he managed to heave his friend out of the water the rest of the way.

Fingers growing numb, Janus left Pat higher up on the bank while he dragged over his sled. “Come on, Pat, one more good push,” he begged his limp body as he pushed and pulled him onto the sled. The impact forced a weak coughing fit from the little body and Pat curled in on himself, hacking up some of the water he’d inhaled. 

When it was over, Pat lay in a sodden heap on the wooden slats, and Janus took off his own coat and laid it over his friend. There was more red blood against the dark gold wool. Then he wrapped the rope around his arm, leaving his numb fingers in a loose and useless fist as tugged hard.

Slowly, one step at a time, he inched the sled up the embankment, the sled rope tangled around one arm. He drove the branch into the snow as they moved and used it to pull them both up. When they reached level ground at the head of the bridge, Janus leaned on the branch, panting. Red splotches covered the stick and his coat, and a shaky red trail in the snow marked their path up from the water. He rested for less than a minute before he started out onto the bridge.

At the midpoint, Janus spotted a lantern lighter and he called out, “Help! Help, he fell in the water!”

As two adults rushed over at his cries, Pat coughed again, a glimmer of blue peeking between his eyelids. “You’re gonna be okay, Pat. Gonna be okay.”

Janus hovered close, shaking off Miss Dot’s kind hand as she tried to lead him away, “Jan, honey, let’s get you someplace warm and take a look at that cut on your face…”

“No,” he said loudly. “No, ma’am,” he repeated in a lower voice, looking up at the tall woman who’d been their teacher for the past year and a half since the last school teacher moved West. “Pat's my friend. I'm gonna stay with him.”

Miss Dot nodded with a stiff smile. “Well, then, let’s get you both inside and fetch you something warm.” She eyed his cheek, turning his head gently with one gloved hand. "It looks like the cold has helped stop the bleeding, at least," she muttered, then took his hand.

They followed the lantern keeper back to Janus’, the closer of the boys’ houses, and got them both settled on a mat in front of the fire. “Is he still breathing?” Her low voice carried through the quiet house but Janus only paid attention to his friend.

“I’ll keep you safe, Pat,” Janus whispered, pulling the blankets up close to his friend’s chin and keeping him facing the fire. He smiled when Pat’s eyes seemed to follow him. “You’ll be fine, I promise.”

Another cough wracked his little body and their mothers came over. When did Mama get here? She dabbed at his cheek with a wet cloth but he shook his head. “No, get Pat warm first.”

“Jan, it’ll scar if we leave it too long,” she cajoled, following his gaze to Pat where he finally lay still, eyes glistening in the firelight and panting quietly with the force of his last coughing spell.

“I’m fine, Mama,” he insisted. “Pat first, then me.” Pat coughed again and Mama touched his mother’s shoulder as Janus helped him sit up, rubbing his back.

Mama's voice was gentle. “Let’s call the doctor to take a look at that cough, Lucy.”

~~~

“It sure was lucky Doc was able to fix me up before spring,” Patton’s cheerful voice rose up with a gust of wind, dancing among the snowflakes falling like diamonds from the clouds. “That cough could’ve turned into pneumonia really fast,” he nodded, keeping pace with Janus. Occasionally, Patton would see something ahead and investigate it. First, a long clear icicle hanging from a low tree branch. Then later, what looked like rabbit prints in the snow. But he never moved more than a few feet away from his friend’s slow, steady steps. “Pneumonia can be serious.”

”It really can be, Pat,” Janus nodded. Leaning heavily on his hickory walking staff, its diligently polished gleam barely marred with time, he slowly lowered himself to a seat on a nearby bench and looked out at the falling snow. The flakes were falling faster now and the town was so quiet, he could hear them touch the ground.

”Granddad?” Payton’s voice behind him was soft, but still he started slightly. “It’s getting cold, Granddad.” She stood next to the bench and offered her hand. The door to town hall banged open in the distance and music flitted through the air. “The dance just got out. How 'bout I walk you home?”

Janus turned to where Pat had stood, the snow blanketing the ground smooth and glittering gently under the streetlights. He gestured to the small marble headstone in front of them. “Did you know I helped Papa carve Pat’s name into that?” he nodded. "He let me hold the chisel and everything."

”So that’s where Mom gets it,” she smiled as Janus took her hand and, between her help and the strength of his walking stick, pushed himself up to his feet. They slowly walked back to the big yellow house, following the single set of footprints he'd left in the fresh snow. "Why don't you tell me about it, Granddad?"

~~~

Spoiler: "off-screen" major character death

#First Snow #ts janus #ts patton #kid!janus #kid!patton #historical AU #hurt/comfort #ts fanfic #human au #ts fanfiction #sanders sides gift exchange #moceit #platonic moceit

[naminethewriter]

Hurt No One Knew About Chapter Two: Answers and More Questions

Masterpost | Previous | Next | Ao3

Story Summary: Logan has been acting weird for the past few weeks and the others aren’t sure what to do about it. When Janus appears looking for Remus they strike a deal: He figures out what’s going on with Logan and afterwards they’ll help search for Remus.

Turns out the two problems are more connected to each other than anyone thought.

Content warnings: none

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

A loud crashing sound from upstairs startles Roman, Patton and Virgil out of their seats. They look at each other for a second before they start running towards it. When they arrive at Logan’s room, they find him slumped over his desk, Janus next to him with his shepherd hook in hand, apparently attempting to take off Logan’s shirt.

 “What are you doing?!” Virgil screeches, running over and pulling him away.

 “Logan? Are you okay?” Patton runs to the side’s unconscious body. His eyes are open, unmoving. With tears in his eyes, Patton looks to Janus who looks annoyedly at Roman who in turn is threatening him with his sword.

“What did you do, you fiend? We send you up here to help him, not knock him out!”

 “If you just let me explain-“

 “So you can attack one of us next?! Not happening,” Virgil hisses, still holding onto Janus’ arm.

 “He won’t move, why won’t he move?” Patton whimpers.

 “Calm down and listen to me-“

 “You attacked Logan, why would we-“

 “It’s not Logan!” Janus yells which finally gets the others to stop, though Roman and Virgil don’t let him go just yet.

 “What do you mean?” Patton asks, looking between him and the unmoving body beside him.

 “It’s a robot.”

 “A robot?”

 “Yes, a robot. Here, let me show you.” He pulls his arm free from Virgil’s grip and sidesteps the sword, walking over to the desk and again moves to pull up Logan’s shirt. Patton flushes and looks away while Roman tries to protest but no words come out. Janus moves the fabric until most of the back is exposed and then he hits it once, firmly with his fist.

 A whooshing sound, then a panel flips open and the metallic innards are exposed. The others stare at it, slack-jawed.

 “See? A robot.”

 “How is that possible?” Patton whispers. “Since when...?”

 “Holy shit.”

 “You can say that again, Spiderboy.”

 “Holy shit.”

 Janus rolls his eyes. “Yes, yes. It’s very surprising. Stay focused.”

 “Right! …What does this mean for us?” Patton asks, again watching the Logan-Robot’s face. The open eyes still unsettle him and he quickly looks away.

 “Well, if that thing’s here, then where’s the real Logan?” Virgil questions.

 “That’s indeed the question,” Janus mumbles, peering inside the panel. “Virgil, you come take a look at this, you are the most knowledgeable about tech stuff of us.”

 “I don’t know that much,” he grumbles but comes over. Patton steps away from the robot to make room for him and goes over to Roman who seems deep in thought.

 “You okay, kiddo?”

 “Huh? Oh, yes! Just a bit confused is all.”

 “That’s understandable, I don’t get it either. I mean, we don’t even know how long this has been here. Just the last few days or longer?”

 “I believe they changed places that time Logan locked himself in his room two weeks ago. His energy was different all of a sudden, but I didn’t think…” Roman drifts off.

 “His energy?” Patton asks but Virgil speaks up before Roman can answer.

 “This makes no sense.”

 “What doesn’t?”

 “Everything! This thing shouldn’t work, the wires aren’t connected properly, there are gears for some reason, I can’t find a circuit board…” He huffs. “This isn’t working technology; this is just a mash of things used for different kinds of machinery as if the person who made this has no idea how electronics actually work.” They’re all silent for a moment before Roman nods.

 “I figured that might be the case.”

 “What do you mean?”

 “As you know, Remus and I can create basically anything we can think of and it’s a lot easier to do in the imagination then here.” The others nod. “Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that because in order to create something, we need to have a good understanding of what we want. That’s why creating monsters isn’t something either of us can just do in a second, we need to think about how their physically works, blood flow, organs, brains and so on. If we halfass it, they often die quickly.

 “Technology is especially tricky since neither of us is very knowledgeable in that regard. So, in order for this robot to exist, there either needs to be someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, for example Logan, who builds it from nothing – but that would require materials he wouldn’t be able to get without the help from either Remus or I and a lot of time – or it’s created as something that looks like a robot but actually isn’t one.”

 “So it’s a creature?” Patton asks, still confused. Roman shakes his head.

 “Not really, it’s more like a puppet, I think. But I can’t really figure out how it managed to fool us for an entire week before – I’m assuming – it started to break down. I should be able to tell you all apart from mimics Remus might create. You have different energies than our creations. And I felt Logan’s energy coming from this thing, even if it was a lot weaker than usual.”

 “We give of energy?”

 “Yeah. It’s like a kind of aura Remus and I can see. Our creations have them, too, so it’s easy to tell mine apart from his. But I didn’t see any other energy than Logan’s and I don’t get how that’s possible.”

 “I should’ve noticed, too,” Patton chimes in. “I can feel everyone’s emotions slightly and I could sense some coming from Logan the past few days, but I couldn’t identify them since they were very weak.”

 “And Thomas didn’t notice any change, so Logan’s functions were still being fulfilled. That might’ve been what the robot’s been working on his laptop the entire time. And if it started breaking down, it probably prioritized keeping that going instead of trying to fool you into thinking Logan was fine,” Janus offers.

 “Can we assume then that this robot was linked to Logan in some way?” Virgil asks.

 “That would be a possibility,” Roman nods. “But if that’s the case it must’ve taken a lot of energy to keep it up. Any type of influence we can act out on other sides takes a lot out of us.”

 “Which would explain why I haven’t seen Remus since it presumably showed up. If it’s that much work, it might take all his focus to keep it running,” Janus reasons and the others nod in agreement.

 “So, to summarize: We assume Logan’s been replaced by a robot two weeks ago and we don’t know where he is. Remus vanished at the same time, so he’s probably involved. The robot isn’t functioning because of technology but because of the magic bullshit you twins can do.” Patton reprimands him for his language while Roman protests his wording, but Virgil keeps talking. “Janus hasn’t been able to find Remus, so he’s most likely on his side of the imagination where the creatures are extremely violent now but Roman can track him down.”

 “That is what we have gathered so far, yes,” Janus nods.

 “Do we think Logan’s with him?” Patton asks.

 “It’s likely. If Remus connected him to the robot the entire time, it would be a lot easier if they are together,” Roman explains. Virgil starts chewing on his fingernail.

 “Well… then we should all go and look for them in the imagination, right?” Patton asks, gently guiding Virgil’s hand away from his mouth.

 “That would probably be for the best,” Roman sighs, rubbing his face with his hands. “Let’s go to my side first though, then I can create us some gear to make the whole thing easier. Especially if we’re going to be attacked wherever we go.”

 “Lead the way then, my prince.” Roman and Janus leave the room first and Virgil is about to follow them when he notices that Patton isn’t moving.

 “You okay, Pat?”

 “Huh? Oh, yeah. I was just wondering if knocking out the robot hurt Logan in any way. Since Roman said that the two are probably connected.”

 “I’m not sure, but if I were to guess, I’d say probably not? We don’t know why Remus did this but I’ve got a feeling he didn’t do it to hurt Logan… But it’s just me guessing.” While Virgil doesn’t sound confident in his own reasoning, Patton smiles at him.

 “Yeah, I think so, too. I feel better now, thanks, Verge.”

 “No problem, Pop.”

 “Let’s catch up with the others before they go into the imagination without us.”

 “Yeah, let’s.”

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

Art for this chapter here

#namiswriting #Hurt No One Knew About #Chapter 2: Answers And More Questions #platonic romoxiety #platonic moceit #ts roman #roman sanders #ts patton #patton sanders #ts virgil #virgil sanders #ts janus #janus sanders #multichapter fic #sanders sides #fanfiction #reblogs are appreciated

[artist-owl]

Have Some Detention, With a Side of Death

@moceit-appreciation-week

Moceit week, Wednesday prompt: AU/General

(This is a Percy Jackson AU. You do not need to know anything about Percy Jackson to read this, Janus doesn't know anything either and he's totally fine!)

Word count: 3782

Summary: While Janus was of the opinion that Saturday detention was a cruel and inhumane punishment, he never expected it to be deadly

Janus’s father pulled up next to the school building, and put the car in park without turning it off. Janus didn’t turn his head, electing to stare straight ahead at the ‘no parking, fire lane’ sign, but he could see Dad turn to look at him out of the corner of his eye.

“I’m not happy with you, right now.”

Janus resisted the urge to groan and roll his eyes. Honestly. Dad had already lectured him last night when Janus handed him the detention slip, and again this morning before they left. Did he think Janus had forgotten? 

“Fighting is not an appropriate conflict resolution. If you have an issue you should go to a teacher, or another adult.”

“Yes sir.”

“I’ll pick you up at one. You’re lucky I had time to drop you off today.”

“Thank you, sir.” 

“Don’t you get smart with me now, boy.” The annoying thing was that Janus actually was being sarcastic, and getting called on it anyway made his bad mood worse. “Now don’t be late.”

“Alright.” Janus opened the door and stepped out of the car, grabbing his backpack that Dad had insisted he bring.

He didn’t even know that Saturday detentions were still a thing. Maybe his school was just old-fashioned. Lucky him.

He trudged through the halls to the room they’d told him to go to. Hopefully, they’d had more sense than to put him in the same room that the kids who had jumped him were serving their detentions in. He didn’t have much hope.

He grimaced. Our school has a zero-tolerance policy – oh, terribly sorry, he forgot that he was supposed to just lie down and take a beating. Honestly, they probably still would have given him detention for being involved with the fight at all.

Janus found the room and gave a hefty push to the door, letting it screech open. He was in the main building, which had probably been a very nice place a hundred years ago or whenever they’d built it, but at this point it was getting to a state of disrepair that even the best rooms had suspicious black sludge crusting the ceiling tiles, pipes that rattled incessantly, and most of the doors would open and close at will, even when locked. There were rumors about the school being haunted for a reason.

It could be worse, he supposed. At least this building had radiators, the “temporary” trailers that had been put up around a decade or two ago couldn’t even say that.

When he looked inside, he was relieved to see that the other kids weren’t there. Just the teacher, and - “Patton?” Janus said in surprise.

The boy looked up and beamed, waving. “Oh, hi! Janus, right?”

“What are you here for?” Patton was new, he’d just transferred a couple months ago. He was nice, friendly, and sociable enough that he’d managed to avoid pissing off the kids who normally wouldn’t have hesitated to beat him up. He was also incredibly pretty, though he didn’t have the fashion sense to back it up. 

He was an enigma, to Janus at least. Janus was really good at telling when people were lying, even when they didn’t seem to show any tells, and Patton was a really good liar. Whenever he saw Patton, the other boy seemed to be telling some white lie - brushing off ‘how are you’s, ‘are you okay’s, and ‘where were you’s like it was second nature. And with that, combined with his aforementioned communication skills, he should have given Janus the impression of being a liar and a manipulator, purposefully crafting an image for others to see with every move he made. And yet, he was a distressingly genuine person. His friendly personality wasn’t a front at all, and he was somehow one of the most honest persons Janus knew. It was weird.

In any case, he was one of the biggest goody-two-shoes that Janus knew. The hell was he doing in detention?

Patton opened his mouth to respond to Janus, but the teacher hissed a shhh.

Looking at her, Janus was fairly certain that he’d never seen her before. She had one of those faces that could be anywhere from early thirties to late fifties, and the few streaks of white at the temples of her black hair didn’t help him at all in guessing. The fluorescent lights gave her olive-toned skin an almost green tint. She wore red-rimmed glasses, a flowy paisley blouse, and a green skirt that touched the floor.

“Are you new?” Janus asked, like an idiot. “Sorry, I just - haven’t seen you before.” And their school was small enough that he knew the teachers by face at least.

She gave him a close-lipped smile. “I’m here to proctor this detention room today.” She had a slight lisp, making her s’s come out hissed. “And one of the rules, that I’m sure you know by now, Mr. Cunningham, is that talking is not allowed.”

Janus pressed his lips together. He’d had one detention before this, and it quite frankly was none of her business. He didn’t bother replying, just took a seat near Patton and set his backpack on the floor with a thud. 

Patton gave him a sympathetic smile. The boy was wearing slightly better clothes than usual, which was not remotely saying much. He was wearing skinny-fit khakis, which Janus didn’t even know existed, sneakers that might have been white at one point, and an oversized blue knit sweater with knit paw-prints stitched onto it (not knitted into the design, no, knitted separately and then attached so that they puffed out obnoxiously) over his polo shirt. At least he was wearing the damn sweater instead of tying it around his neck. 

Janus sullenly pulled out his copy of The Scarlet Letter from his backpack. He may as well get some homework done while he was here.

He flipped the book open to where he last left off and grimaced down at the long blocks of text. Anyone who wrote paragraphs that were over half a page long and made up of only two sentences could die in a fire, as far as Janus was concerned.

Janus stared at the tiny type, willing the letters to stay still. The choked hum of the radiator gurgled to a stop in the background, making the room quiet in the way that made every sound in it twice as loud as usual. There was a fly on the ceiling. Patton was tapping his desk with his pencil. The teacher – huh, she hadn’t actually introduced herself – was walking across the room, her heels click click clicking against the linoleum floor, and she closed the blinds. All of the fluorescent lights were on, and were letting out a tiny electronic whine. Janus realized that his eyes had glazed over, and he forced them to refocus. Something about Pearl planting dragon teeth? Janus realized that he hadn’t taken in the last page he’d read at all, and stifled a sigh as his eyes flicked back to the top of the page. The teacher was click click clicking her way across the room again, having successfully eliminated all of the natural light in the room. She clicked her way over to Janus’s desk, and he stubbornly refused to look up. If she wanted any of his dwindling amount of attention, she could damn well ask for it.

Suddenly, he felt the other side of his desk – the side that Patton was on – lurch as a hand grabbed it and yanked, and Janus’s desk toppled to the side. With him in it.

He felt that the yelp he let out as his world suddenly shifted 90 degrees and he had to scramble to avoid hitting himself too badly was fairly justified. “Patton, what the hell?” he shrieked yelled.

As he spoke, Patton was launching himself out of his own desk, over Janus, and at the teacher. “Run!” he shouted, and pulled out – was that a fucking knife?!

Patton took a swipe at the teacher with the knife holy fuck, but she was gone in an instant, on the top of a nearby desk in the blink of an eye. She wasn’t standing on it, she was what the fuck what the fu–

She didn’t have feet. Beneath her skirt poked out the ends of two acid-green snake tails, one where each of her legs should be, coiled around the desk.

She hissed at Patton, fangs where her canines should be, tiny needle-like teeth in place of all her others. Her skin was definitely green, it wasn’t just the fluorescents, and her eyes were yellow, with slit pupils and no whites. 

Venomous, the snake enthusiast part of his brain helpfully supplied. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, screamed the rest.

Patton swiped at her again, and she dodged backwards, desk falling back as she did so. Patton whipped his head back as she was distracted, meeting eyes with Janus. “I said run,” he said, then bolted to the other side of the room. Distracting her from Janus.

Janus scrambled to his feet and booked it for the door, as fast as his wobbly legs could take him.

He was almost at the door when something yanked backwards on his ankle and he pitched forward. He didn’t hit the floor, but was hoisted upside down in the air. He felt a hand grab his arm, and was twisted around for a disorienting moment, before he was being held vaguely horizontally, with one hand grabbing him by his upper arm, and another propping him up by the head, one snake leg still wrapped around his leg. He felt a cool breath fan over his neck and then two sharp points against it. He froze, his breath coming out in quick, shallow gasps. Her fangs hadn’t pierced his skin (yet), but they were resting gently against it, preparing to bite down.

The teacher (Janus was starting to think that she was not actually qualified for the position) was holding him with his head facing away from her, so he got to see Patton freeze in place, knife still in hand.

“Take one step closer, halfblood,” the teacher hissed, thankfully drawing back a hair to speak without biting Janus, “and this one dies.” 

Patton shifted his weight, wide eyes flicking from the teacher to Janus behind his glasses. She laughed, a raspy hiss of a sound, and a drop of something fell on Janus’s neck. He hoped that it was spit. He had a feeling that it was venom.

Fuck, she was going to kill him, wasn’t she?

If Patton moved towards him, she’d bite. If Janus tried to talk his way out of this, she’d probably bite. If he could somehow take her by surprise -

Janus swung his free arm backwards, elbow slamming into her abdomen as hard as he could. She dropped him with a yell of surprise and pain - her hands dropped him at least, her snake tail leg was still wrapped around his leg. He fell, slamming into the floor, and felt something wrench out of place in his ankle. Fuck, that hurt.

She wouldn’t be distracted for long, but the moment of shock was all Patton needed. He darted forward while she was still reeling, feet pounding against the floor before Janus hit the ground, and as she looked up, already collecting herself, Patton stabbed her in the throat.

She shrieked, which was a fair reaction to getting stabbed, and then…crumbled, almost, dissolving into a golden glittery sand that mostly fell onto Janus (ew). 

Janus laid there for a moment, motionless save for the heaving of his chest. Patton stood over him, looking at nothing with vacant eyes. 

Janus coughed, some of the dust floating a little too close to his face, and Patton seemed to shake out of his stupor. “Oh my gods, Janus!” He dropped his knife with a clatter and fell to his knees, helping Janus sit up. “Are you alright?”

Janus was feeling an awful lot of things at that moment. ‘Alright’, charitably speaking, was not one of them. “What the fuck.”

“Language.”

Janus blinked up at him. “I’m sorry, but our teacher turned into a fucking snake demon, tried to kill me, and you fucking killed her. I will say fuck if I want to right now. I think I deserve that at least.”

Patton sighed, but whatever he was about to say next was cut off by the creaking of the door. Janus’s back was to the door, and he quite frankly did not feel like moving at that moment, but he could see Patton’s face just fine. The other boy froze for a moment, like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and then abruptly sagged, with a defeated sort of look on his face.

“What on earth happened here?” the voice of a different teacher said from the doorway.

Janus blinked. He realized several things in quick succession:

There was absolutely no way he was going to be able to explain to the teacher - or anyone - what exactly had happened

Patton had realized this, and apparently accepted it, and,

Patton seemed to have accepted it with resignation, like he’d...done this before, and already knew that he wouldn’t be able to tell the truth, and that he would be blamed for whatever had happened. Janus suddenly remembered that Patton was a new student, and for the first time he wondered why Patton had transferred in the middle of the school year.

He made a plan of action just as quickly.

Patton’s knife was still on the floor between them, out of the teacher’s line of sight. It was long, triangle shaped, and made of...bronze? Maybe? For some reason? It was sharp enough for what he needed though. Janus snatched it, using his wrist more than his elbow to hide the action from behind, and made two small wounds in his wrist, close together. He spun in place on his knees, palming the knife onto Patton’s lap as he covered the action with his back, and looked up at the teacher with wide eyes. “There was a snake,” he said.

The teacher blinked. “A snake?”

“Yeah, it bit me!” He offered his wrist up, and the teacher crossed the room, stopping short and paling slightly when she saw the wound. “It came out from that inside wall, under the cabinets, and we saw it there – that’s why the desks are knocked over – and I tried to grab it but it bit me. Which, I, uh, should have thought would happen, actually.”

“You tried to pick it up?” the teacher said, aghast. 

“It wasn’t venomous,” Janus said, praying that the teacher didn’t know that non-venomous snakes didn’t have fangs. “I wanted to grab it and take it outside, so that it didn’t get hurt.”

“I think I saw it slither under a crack in that outer baseboard,” Patton piped up from behind Janus. “It’s probably outside by now.”

Janus rolled his eyes. “The building’s old enough that that wouldn’t surprise me, there’s probably holes in the walls big enough for small mammals to get it, much less snakes.”

The teacher’s eyes were wide. “O-oh. Are...are you kids okay?”

“We’re fine, like I said, it wasn’t venomous, I’m barely bleeding,” Janus waved her off. “It just, uh, kind of...surprised us.”

“I’ll bet.” The teacher chewed her lip for a moment, looking at them, then said, “come on, we’ll put all y’all in the media center for today, I don’t want y’all in this part of the building.” She turned around, walking towards the door across the hall with the cracked open door, muttering, “gonna have to call someone…”

“Janus,” Patton’s fingers brushed against his elbow, like the other boy wanted to get his attention but stopped himself halfway through the motion. “Are...are you okay?”

“Fine.” That was a lie. Janus steadied himself with his hands and moved to get up, but fell back down with a hiss of pain, instinctively grabbing at his leg. “Less fine.”

“What happened? Oh gods, did she bite you?”

“No fool, I’d be panicking way harder if that was the case,” Janus grunted. “It - it’s my ankle, it got screwed up when she dropped me.”

Patton walked forward on his knees, examining the appendage. Janus tugged his skinny jeans up (with some difficulty), revealing a bruised and swollen ankle. He winced in pain.

“Looks sprained,” Patton observed. He bit his lip, seeming to debate something, then rummaged in his pocket. “Here,” he said, putting out a plastic bag with a slightly squashed...lemon bar? Inside of it. “Have some of this.” He broke off a small piece of it and offered it to Janus.

Janus leaned away. “Why?”

“It’ll help with your leg,” Patton said, a small, subdued grin at the corner of his mouth. He didn’t seem to be lying, even if Janus couldn’t figure out how a pastry was supposed to help with a sprained ankle.

Janus slowly reached forward and took the piece of cake, popping it into his mouth. It tasted like lemon and honey, and it was surprisingly warm, like it had just come out of the oven. That warmth stayed, traveling down his throat, and getting...hotter? Janus gasped as the pleasantly warm sensation turned uncomfortably hot for just a second, and then cooled until he couldn’t feel it anymore.

“Was that enough?” Patton asked, peering anxiously at Janus behind his glasses. “Is your ankle alright?”

Janus wiggled his ankle. It ached a little, more like a memory of pain than an actual sensation, but there was no swelling or bruising anymore, and the movement didn’t hurt. He reached forward to poke at it with his hand, and realized that while there was still blood on his wrist, the actual cuts were entirely gone – no scars, like they’d never existed in the first place.  Janus looked back up at Patton, brows furrowed and eyes wide. “What is that stuff?”

“Boys?” Both of them jumped at the sound of the teacher’s voice. “What are you doing?”

“Sorry Mrs...Harrison,” Janus said, remembering her name as he spoke. “We were checking to see if the snake was still here. It’s not, we think it’s gone.”

Mrs. Harrison seemed to buy it, even though they hadn’t moved at all. “Well come along, I don’t want you boys here if it comes back.”

Patton got to his feet first and offered his hand to help Janus up. Janus accepted, expecting just a steady hand to hold as he stood up, and almost stumbled when Patton pulled him onto his feet with one hand.

“Is your ankle okay?” Patton murmured.

“Uh...yeah,” Janus said, mouth a little dry.

They walked into the hallway. Mrs. Harrison was apparently proctoring the three guys who had jumped Janus, and they all gave him a nasty look once they noticed his existence. Janus had, quite honestly, forgotten about them entirely. Shit, how long had it been since he’d got to detention? The fight with the snake teacher seemed to have taken ages, but Janus was pretty sure it had been over in a matter of minutes at most.

“Let’s head to the media center, quietly,” Mrs. Harrison said.

Janus squinted at the back of her head as they walked along. Was she going to turn into a snake monster too? Probably not, Janus knew Mrs. Harrison, he hadn’t recognized the snake teacher at all. Besides, Mrs. Harrison was wearing pants and shoes; it was a little hard to hide snake legs like that.

Janus was rudely jostled out of his paranoia by one of the guys who had gotten him into this mess in the first place – what was his name, Anthony, Antony? Something like that. Probably-Anthony said in a low voice, “so what do –”

“I said quietly,” Mrs. Harrison’s firm voice cut over Anthony’s. “Mr. Moretti, perhaps you would like to walk up here by me instead? This is not a social event.”

Anthony scowed at Janus like it was his fault for Anthony running his mouth, then stalked up to the front of the group.

“Spread out,” Mrs. Harrison said once they arrived at the library. “I want everyone at separate tables, with at least a table’s length between each of you. Get your work out again, keep working on it.”

Janus sunk into a chair, pulled out The Scarlet Letter, and proceeded to stare blankly at it, not even attempting to read. 

Why did Patton have a knife? Why did he know how to use it? Why did it look so weird? Why did Patton bring it with him to detention? What was that pastry he gave Janus? How did it heal Janus? Why did Patton bring that to detention? Had he been expecting the teacher to...do that? How much of that encounter had Patton been prepared for? Had he ever done something like that before? What the hell was that teacher's deal? Were any of the other teachers like that?

Janus barely moved until Mrs. Harrison gathered them all together at noon and herded them outside for their parents to pick them up. He hardly noticed Anthony’s dirty glare as the other boy got into his mom’s car, he was too busy making a beeline to Patton.

Janus snagged the elbow of Patton’s sweater. One of the paw prints had been sewn on like an elbow patch, and Janus valiantly ignored it. “My dad can’t pick me up for another hour. Can you give me a ride?”

Patton blinked. “O-oh. Uh, sure?”

“Thanks. You can tell me what the hell happened with that teacher on the way.”

Patton hesitated. “I...what do you mean?”

Janus raised a brow. “I mean how she turned into a snake monster and tried to kill us. And then you killed her.”

“...That didn’t happen.”

Janus stared. “Are you. Are you actually trying to lie to me about that.”

Patton winced. “Did it work?”

“...Oh, yeah, no, you’re totally right. In fact, I’ve already forgotten about the teacher who almost poisoned me and the fact that you stabbed her with the knife you brought into school. That information is entirely gone from my memory.”

Patton heaved an aggravated sigh. “I get it.” He looked off to the side. “We’re...not supposed to let people know about it.”

“First of all, that ship has sailed, wrecked, and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Second of all, who is we?”

Patton bit his lip for a moment, considering, then looked up at Janus. “I’ll explain in the car.”

“Damn right you will.”

“Language.”

“Oh come on –”

#my fics #moceitweek2022 #moceitappreciationweek #platonic moceit #janus sanders #ts janus #patton sanders #ts patton #percy jackson au #demigods au #highschool au #fight scene #minor character death #death cw #blood cw #violence cw #monster fighting typical violence #its not as dark as it sounds #there is very little blood but i wanted to tag for it just in case #gen fic

[two-am-outlines-only]

Controller Passing Made Easy

Summary: Having Patton in his lap just makes switching who’s playing the game easier, that’s all! And if cuddling ensues during and after than that’s their business.

Warnings: none

Ships: platonic Patton x Janus, platonic Mociet

Word Count: 1713

AO3 Link

Janus swore quietly as he took another hit from a bulbin he hadn't noticed sneaking behind him. The buttons clicked loudly on the old controller as he executed a rather impressive spin attack that went immediately into a finishing blow, making Link turn quickly to slash at another enemy and sending it flying into the lava. The camera angle spun wildly as he searched for more enemies, letting out a sigh when he saw there were none.

"Alright, let's see if I remember this boss."

Since Janus had been accepted and Remus...mostly accepted, the barrier between the "light sides" and "dark sides" had been much easier to walk freely across. Which allowed Janus to finally bring his console out from the other sides' common room and install it in the "light sides'" where there was much fewer outlets being used and the couch was free of mysterious stains and sticky spots from where Remus flopped down on his returns from his side of the imagination. He shuddered to think of what even a quarter of them could possibly be from.

Shaking his head he gathered what hearts he could from the pots surrounding the door and entered the last room of the dungeon just as Patton came down the stairs. His eyes flicked towards the other as the cutscene started but Patton's were glued to the screen, watching curiously as Link entered a large room with a sleeping beast chained upright in the middle of the room. He crossed the floor slowly and quietly sat beside Janus on the couch as the gem on the beasts forehead glowed red, music beginning to pick up while the monster raised its head to examine its prison. It roared as it tugged at its chains and Patton gasped out as it ripped them free from the wall and let a final challenging roar right in Link's face. The battle was on.

Quickly maneuvering behind Fyrus, the Goron Mines final boss Janus instantly remembered the gimmick as he saw the chains dragging on the ground, grabbing them as he switched on his iron boots and tried moving backward, swearing louder as it did nothing. Remembering his bow just as the monster was catching up to him he aimed and quickly shot at the glowing gem on its head, grabbing the chains again as Fyrus' steady gait turned into a stomping rampage. The top heavy boss fell hard on the ground and he quickly ran around to slash at its vulnerable gem, smirking in satisfaction knowing he was doing it right. This particular boss was one of the easiest in game to figure out and beat but it had been such a long time since he had sat down and played any kind of video game that it was almost like doing a first playthrough again; which was nice considering how many times he had beaten this particular title in the past.

With a final strike of his sword another cut scene started up, victorious music swelling as Fyrus shrunk and collapsed while twilight particles flew off of him to condense into a piece of fused shadow above, Midna taking form to reach for it and create a portal to exit the dungeon. Smiling slightly Janus made sure to save before putting the controller down and turning towards Patton.

"Was there something you needed?"

Hurt was quickly replaced with a smile as Patton stood up quickly and shook his head. "Nope, sorry! Just wanted to see what you were up to since you've been down here a while, I'll leave to let you-"

"Patton." Janus winced as he realized how his question must have sounded. "I didn't mean anything by that, I've been down here a for a couple hours and thought perhaps you were wanting the TV. I truly didn't mean anything by it."

Patton’s smiled turned more genuine as he carefully sat back down, gesturing to the TV. "I haven't seen this in a while. What's it called again?"

"The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. Thomas got this shortly after getting a Game Cube, it was one of Virgil and I's favorites."

Patton nodded. "I remember now. Did you know Thomas owns the newest one?"

"There's a new one?" Janus put the controller down curiously. He'd been a little out of the loop lately when it came to the things Thomas did unless he was actually needed.

Patton nodded again more excitedly, launching himself over to the TV and digging quickly through the game sleeves until he found what he was looking for. "This! The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild!"

Janus took it excitedly, wondering when it had come out. The cover art looked beautiful, slightly painted and bright and showcasing an expansive world to discover and explore. He looked up at Patton imploringly, eyes flicking to the switch he had noticed but hadn't touched since it wasn't technically his, content enough to play on the console he had brought up with permission. Patton laughed softly and took the sleeve from him, quickly setting up the game and handing him a different controller.

-----

"There's another one!!" Patton bounced slightly as he made Link dash towards another frog to add to their inventory. Janus smiled fondly and tightened his grip around Patton's waist, the fatherly sides soft hair tickling the underside of his chin but he made no move to sit up. He didn't really know how they had gotten into this position, sitting in front of the couch with Patton nestled comfortably in his lap with his head resting underneath Janus' chin, but he supposed it made passing the controller back and forth easier. They hadn't gotten very far in the game, both of them much too excited to explore the map and take pictures to actually progress the main storyline. As it was almost six hours later their stamina wheel was full and they had done enough shrines and collected the spirit orbs needed to gain seven new heart containers. Janus was reasonably sure that they'd probably be overpowered for most of the games bosses at this point but he didn't care and Patton didn't really seem to either, excitedly moving from one interesting thing spotted in the distance to another.

He blinked out of his thoughts as he felt Patton tap his hands with the controller, unwinding them from their previous position and taking it as the moral side settled back against him with a content sigh. Thankfully it was a "finish all the leftovers in the fridge please" day so they hadn't had to be distracted for too long as they whipped up something quickly earlier and ate before returning to their game, the other sides not doing much more than shooting them questioning looks before going about their own business. Roman and Virgil's glances were admittedly a bit more...touchy, but it didn't seem to bother Patton so Janus was content to focus on the game rather than the tense atmosphere the mindscape hadn't managed to shake yet.

Some time later Janus finally made it to the top of a glowing mountain, smiling at the scattered blupees running around before gasping as he took in a strangely beautiful creature. Snapping it with his camera The Lord of the Mountain stood in the small pond surrounded by the little bunny owl creatures, celestial patterns swirling across its glowing blue body as it moved around unaware of his presence hiding behind a bush. He tapped Patton's arm gently not having heard a reaction from him yet. Looking down as he still received no response he nearly melted at the sight. Patton was slumped slightly to the side, glasses askew and mouth agape as he slept still nested in Janus' lap, which he only now realized was quite cramped. His back also let it's own discomfort be known as he glanced at the clock and startled as he realized it was nearly midnight.

He set the controller down gently and with a wave of his hand turned off the TV and console, knowing that unless he shut the game down completely it would pick up where he left off. He carefully maneuvered to stretch out his tired legs, taking off Patton's glasses and setting them down on the table as well. Gently twisting he managed to get an arm under the other's knees while his other supported his back, holding him close as he slowly stood up. Glancing at the stairs he scoffed and shook his head. Absolutely not, and sinking down would risk waking Patton up, which looking at his peaceful face that was something he definitely did not want. Couch it was then.

He sat down slowly and leaned back to swing his legs onto the cushions, gently moving Patton around until he was more or less laying on top of him. Thanking the stars he seemed to be an incredibly heavy sleeper he snapped his fingers to change them both into their pajamas, chuckling as Patton curled tightly into him clad in his fuzzy gray cat onesie. Janus himself had black socks and sweatpants with a comfortable dark grey long sleeve that covered his arms until they met his usual gloves. His relationship with the others was improving, but the trust was not yet established enough for him to break out his own onesie just yet. Another snap left the room blissfully dark and with Patton's warm weight on top of him he drifted almost immediately to sleep.

------

Patton blinked tiredly as sunlight knocked insistently against his eyelids. Waving his hand had the curtains drawn in an instant and he sighed into the darkness, snuggling further into the warmth beneath him.

His eyes snapped open as he lifted his head to see exactly where he was, confusion marring his features as a scaled face was seen just inches from his own. Realizing he must have fallen asleep while playing the game last night he smiled warmly at the other side, giggling as Janus shifted in his sleep and the tip of a forked tongue blepped out adorably. Settling again on the others chest, Patton sighed into the warmth and closed his eyes, content to have a late morning with the beat of Janus' heart thudding comfortingly in his ear.

#oren writes #sanders sides #sanders sides fic #janus sanders #sanders sides janus #deceit sanders #sanders sides deceit #patton sanders #sanders sides patton #platonic moceit

[ask-nico-and-the-sides]

patton! let the voices in! do it!

#sanders sides #patton sanders #janus sanders #platonic moceit