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two-am-outlines-only · 2 years

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Leave Old Legends Lie

Summary: When Remus coerces Logan into pulling a prank with an old folktale surrounding their local woods where they’ll be camping, Logan can’t find it in him to say no. despite his slight misgivings he finds the idea of scaring his husband Janus and son Virgil with something as simple as a ghost story and a thrifted fur costume rather exciting- until the “fake” ritual goes a little too well, and Logan learns just how important it is to respect legends better left alone.

Warnings: mild sexual innuendo, swearing, disturbing imagery, blood and injury, mild violence, spells and curses

Ships: Intrulociet (Remus x Logan x Janus)

Word Count: 4, 775

AO3 Link

“Remus don’t do that, you'll crack your head open.”

Remus glanced up at Logan, watching him sort out their snacks for a moment before peering behind him at the freshly fallen leaves cushioning the ground. “Unless the leaves have murderous intent I think I’m fine Lolo- though wouldn’t it be funny if I fell into an eldritch portal and cracked my head open on one of their rocks?”

“No it wouldn’t, only partly because then Virgil would be afraid of falling through portals not cracking his head open.” So saying, Logan nudged the back of his son’s chair to settle it on all four legs, making the budding emo pout into his jacket. “Be a good influence. That includes not spraying hairspray into the fire this year and before you say anything I’ve already found and confiscated the cans.”

“What? No! That was one time and it turned out fine! We had fire extinguishers and we were by the river!”

“No.”

“Remus you have side jock from a horror movie syndrome and that is not a compliment.” Janus drawled from the other side of the clearing.

“Janus I thought I said Virgil and I would gather kindling-”

“Low blow Jannie I thought you’d give me more sex appeal than that-”

“Ew gross!”

“Remus language!”

“Oh yes Remus, language, because our fourteen year old son certainly hasn’t heard of sex appeal-”

“Can we please,” Logan pinched the bridge of his nose even as he struggled to hold back an amused smirk. “One camping trip. Just one, where everyone behaves?”

“No- pah!” Popping the p Remus leaned back once again, immediately tipping over and sprawling on the ground. The clearing was silent and then a lone snort from where Janus was still standing set Virgil into a fit of giggles and letting Remus fill their set up with howls of laughter. Rolling his eyes Logan went over and nudged Remus to the side, setting the chair upright and trying his absolute best to prevent his shoulders from shaking with his own laughter.

“One trip.” He muttered with a smile, making his way over to the truck to dig out their sleeping bags and flashlights for the night.

-----

Logan held the literal monkey suit with an air of distaste while listening carefully for anyone curious that might try and come up behind him. He and Remus had planned this a month ago- rather Remus had coerced him while bouncing so excitedly Logan could hardly get a word in edgewise- and had agreed that a spooky camping trip should have a scare at some point during the night that they could laugh about later. Thus the plan was that they would tell a scary story that was “real”, pretend to go to sleep and then Logan would sneak off and change and come back to scare Virgil and likely Janus. His only hope was that Virgil didn’t go into fight mode and decide to tackle him since the cold was already doing absolutely no favors for his back and he didn’t fancy an adrenaline fueled teenager tackling him onto piles of frosty leaves while wearing a scraggly gorilla suit.

He glanced up at a faint rustling of leaves, brows furrowed in confusion at the sight of a small black cat sitting by the back tire. Granted they weren’t exactly in the middle of the woods so it wasn’t that much of a stretch that a domestic looking cat would be out. Shrugging, he gave it a polite nod and turned back to the suit before sighing and stuffing it back into his sleep bag before gathering up the bag of marshmallows. Feeling eyes still following him he glanced back at the cat and nearly dropped the bags when it closed its eyes and nodded back. A very pronounced up and down tilt of its head and then a light sneeze, turning to groom its back while Logan stood wracking his brain to figure out if cats normally nodded at strangers.

“You still good for tonight Logan?”

This time Logan did startle hard enough to drop the bags, whirling around and shoving the sleep bag behind him before registering it was Remus. “Remus, please don’t sneak up on me. What if you had been- a bear or something?”

Remus cocked his head and looked down at the bags. “Then it would have had a delicious dessert, and then marshmallows as a midnight snack.” Winking at Logan's heated face he hopped up into the back bed of the truck and poked his cheek. “You good? Don’t tell me you’re already spooked, this is going to be the best prank we’ve pulled in years!”

Logan smirked. “Yes I can’t wait to figuratively scare them out of their pants.”

“You don’t have to say figuratively. I doubt in this cold Jannie’s even taking his pants off to pee.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Though I’d take mine off for you Logan.”

“Remus, you're going to smash the marshmallows.” Logan pushed his face away with a snort, leaning over to pick up the bags.

“Know something else I’m gonna smash-” Logan’s face heated once again as he felt a light tap at the small of his back, standing up just in time to see Janus making his way towards them.

“Remus, stop flirting with my husband and help Virgil start the fire...safely.”

Pouting, Remus jumped down and reached over to cup Logan’s cheek. Smiling into the touch, Logan closed his eyes in exasperation when he felt one of Remus' affectionate licks on his cheek rather than a normal kiss any other person would give. “My husband too.”

They watched as he dashed over to the campsite, squatting beside Virgil who was currently trying unsuccessfully to strike the flint hard enough to create a proper spark. Turning back around, Logan smiled ruefully at Janus who was currently leaning against the tail light with an eyebrow raised to him. “What were you two planning over here?”

“A great camping trip with my lovely, lovely family.” Logn sniffed indignantly and shoved the marshmallows into the bag with the crackers and chocolate they had brought for smores.

Janus squinted but said nothing, grabbing up a bag of jerky and tearing it open without breaking eye contact. “Mhm.”

“Mhm.”

“Seems we have a familiar.” Pulling the bag over his shoulder Logan looked to where Janus was nodding to, spotting the same black cat only a few feet away. “Mm. It’s been spying on us for a while now.”

Janus took a slow step forward, tearing a bit of the jerky apart with his teeth and tossing it to the small shadow, who promptly turned its nose up at it and sauntered off deeper into the trees. “Indignant little thing. Cats can eat jerky right?”

“It probably filled up on squirrels earlier, just don’t let Remus or Virgil see it; they'll want to take it home.”

Janus snorted, resealing the bag and taking up another bag with blankets before nudging the trunk closed with his elbow. Looking up he frowned. “Is it getting darker faster than it should be or-?” Logan too, looked up at the sky, seeing the thick treeline rapidly darkening with the sinking of the sun, clouds moving in a way more reminiscent of horror movies than reality. Shaking it off he simply shrugged. “Must‘ve spent more time over here than we thought- come on before Remus turns our son into an aspiring arsonist earlier than we predicted.”

They hadn’t walked a dozen paces before Virgil jumped up excitedly and pointed at the now merrily crackly campfire. “Dad!!! I made fire!!”

Janus snorted and nudged him playfully. “Think we were a bit late on that one Logan, remind me not to buy hairspray for a while.”

Remus’ head snapped up immediately and pointed at both of them accusingly. “One time!!”

-----

Virgil laughed as another marshmallow exploded from the heat of the fire, turning into sticky tar that coated the wood and burned sickly sweet until it disintegrated to nothing in the heat. Remus grinned and stuck another one that he had roasted in his mouth, crunching down on the completely burnt ball that could have been more stick than treat for all he could taste. Logan winced as he slid his own just-the-right-amount-of-crisp-thank-you-very-much-Remus onto his cracker and carefully placed the chocolate on top, letting it melt a bit before adding the other cracker and sighing as another marshmallow exploded.

“Let them have their fun dear, they're both idiots but you also encouraged Remus to microwave a marshmallow last week to see what would happen so you really have no room to say anything.” Janus whispered quietly while eating cold smores so he didn’t get chocolate everywhere.

Sniffing indignantly, Logan brushed the crumbs from his lap and tied up his bag, making sure to seal it so animals wouldn’t be tempted. “Whenever you’re finished eating burnt sugar Remus, didn’t you have a story you wanted to tell tonight?”

Remus stared at him blankly, stick still held in his mouth until he swore and spit out his latest abomination, throwing his stick in the fire with a huff. “Sure. We need to sit a little away from the fire though, since the story is also,” pausing for dramatic effect and glancing at Virgil. “A ritual.”

“I’m sorry a what?” Janus sat up a bit. “Remus what did you do? You know we don’t mess with spirits in this family.” “Relax Janus, Remus talked with me about this a while ago. It isn’t going to summon anything and it’s actually quite interesting.”

Janus turned to squint accusingly at Logan. “Oh he cleared it with you did he? Is that what you two were conspiring about earlier?”

“No,” Logan replied patiently as he scooted back from the fire and dragged the snacks back with him. “Remus was being Remus earlier and talking about tapping my-”

“Ask you later got it- Logan honestly you got on Remus earlier for his language and our son is right there.”

“Yeah guys I’m right here.” Virgil chipped in absently from where he was trying desperately to wipe marshmallow out of his bangs.

“Smartass.” Logan muttered but handed Remus his stick to draw in the dirt with. “Besides I was already reading the books on the subject for fun so Remus came to me with questions. And we modified the “ritual” so even if it could hypothetically work it wouldn’t. We took superstitions into account, love. Don’t worry.”

“You say as your husband is currently carving a sigil around our fire.”

“Why is he only my husband when you disapprove of something he does?”

“Because I married two idiots sharing one brain cell and whenever you’re the one carrying it you use it to encourage the one scientist in our family without an actual degree!”

“Done!” Tossing the latest stick into the fire as well Remus took his perch on his folding chair, squatting instead of sitting and wiggling his eyebrows ominously. “We ready to get spooked and learn how to protect ourselves from the local forest cryptid?”

“We have a local cryptid?” Virgil perked up with interest, making Logan smile in triumph. He was glad to know his son was still interested in things like this, even though Logan found it a bit silly especially combined with Janus’ superstitions.

“We do! I found it in one of your father’s books and it has an entire horror story surrounding it and everything!”

“Remus-”

“Relax Jannie we aren’t actually going to summon a demon we don’t have all the materials here for it anyway...well I mean we do but we aren’t gonna use ‘em all it’s fine. Anyway, I found that in this very woods, there lives an ancient creature whose name has only been whispered in fearful respect for centuries since it was released. One with such malice and want for destruction that it had to be turned against itself to be defeated. Stories dared only to be passed down in hidden tomes and word of mouth- about the legendary Firepaw.”

“Firepaw?” Virgil interrupted with a smirk. “That sounds like a five year old named a monster they drew in daycare and wanted it to be cool enough to hang on the fridge.”

Remus shot him an unimpressed look. “You follow at least sixty blogs revolving around Bigfoot, I think you can suspend your disbelief for Firepaw.”

“Hmph.” Burying his reddened face in his hoodie, Virgil mumbled into it spitefully. “It’s fifty-two, I only follow the good ones.”

“Stand me properly corrected and chastised.” Remus deadpanned and shifted to lean back more. “May I continue?”

“Hmph.”

“Firepaw used to be one of the more benevolent demons of the time, being summoned for warmth and safety when there was little to be found in a harsh, undeveloped wilderness. A great beast wreathed in flame, it brought great comfort to those who summoned it and inspired fear only in those who didn’t understand its purpose. For centuries the locals of the woods lived in peace with it as their protector in the lush green woods they had chosen for their home.”

Virgil was leaning forward with interest now, as was Janus Logan noted with amusement, as Remus’ animated storytelling skills painted the picture around them.

“It’s said that there had been unrest between neighboring settlements for some years now, fights for territory and resources as greed overtook compassion. So one fateful night, when the wind blew cold through the trees and fires whipped around restlessly in their stone prisons, there was a group who summoned Firepaw for their own gain. Two sigils were carved deep into the ground that night: one to summon and one to seal. The beast rose from the flames, tail still and head high as the guardian of the forest...and then the second sigil burned bright.”

Remus threw bits of wood from his pockets into their fire, making everyone jump in their seats as they flared out for a moment, brightening the area around them while wild, flickering flames. Logan startled and squinted into the darkness, sure he had seen something glitter like eyes behind a tree, but the flames calmed before he could focus. Leaning closer to Janus he tried to shrug it off; a cat being around didn’t mean anything, it was just a stray drawn to warmth but too shy to come closer.

“Tail lashing in irritation and then anger the great beast roared- the first time it had ever done so in all the time it had been summoned. The flames that consumed it grew brighter and hotter than they had ever meant to be, claws growing like roots digging into the earth as fangs dripped from it’s open jaws like icicles from the trees. Never was it meant to be tamed by man- let alone attempted to be controlled, and in their hubris the group foolishly thought they could be the first. The only reward they received that night was the mercy of a quick death as the flames burst forth too quickly for the thought of escape to even cross their minds. Both sigils burned brighter still, then disappeared completely, the seals broken to leave the beast to roam free. In a fit of rage it bounded through the forest, turning trees to hollow ash in seconds and the wind carrying embers to others to spread the destruction as far as it could reach.

“The forest burned as the beast raged, killing and destroying everything in its path. To this day the birch trees that make up this forest are still darkened and cracked from the untamed flames-”

“Oh! They’re actually black birch and the reason the bark is so dark is because-”

“Logan, it’s a story. You can science it up when we get home I promise.”

“Right, apologies.”

“You’re okay. But the real reason they’re so dark,” Throwing a playful wink to his husband, Remus continued. “Is because of the warpath Firepaw led that night. Nothing was left save for a small settlement smack in the middle of the trail it was blazing. Everyone else had long since fled and most likely been consumed by the surrounding flames, except one person who stood and waited while the beast gouged the earth with its claws and threw trees from their roots with its lashing tail.”

“Why were they just standing there?” Virgil asked from the edge of his seat.

Remus shrugged. “Maybe they had already accepted their death and wanted to see if they could do anything before they died. Maybe they couldn’t run. Maybe they were crazy, who knows? What the legend does say is that Firepaw raged its way right in front of them and stood infuriated that they hadn’t moved an inch. Instead, they held their hand to the monster's snout and through the flames placed it gently enough to snap it to its senses, even as the person burned in front of one of the last standing trees. It’s anger finally calmed but unable to reverse the destructive it had caused or cool the flames that consumed its forest, it turned the curse onto itself, and burned away to nothing.

“The forest grew back from the ashes but kept it’s jinx as it grew, turning all the trees black and leaving the final clearing where the guardian and its last victim had died.”

“This clearing?” Virgil and Janus both asked with slight panic in their voices.

“This very clearing!” Remus grinned wide. “Now they say the beast’s spirit wanders the woods, sometimes in the form of a black cat as it’s true form had burned down to all those centuries ago- but sometimes in the form of one of it’s victims, black as pitch from head to toe and running through the trees in remembrance of that fated night. And they say it can still be summoned with it’s sigil-”

Here Remus stood, putting a toe to the dirt and completing one final line of the design he had previously drawn around the fire, taking delight in the look of horror on Virgil and Janus’ faces.

“A fire to represent its original purpose,” Here he threw another handful of wood bits and sicks into the fire, making it flare up brighter than before. “And something sweet to symbolize it’s last stand against the stranger who had either the bravery or stupidity to reach out- and Janus you ook about ready to faint it’s just a story.”

“A story you found in an old book with a very detailed description of a forest spirit- complete with a summoning sigil and instructions!”

“Janus I assure you even if it was meant to work it wouldn’t.” Logan laid a comforting hand on Janus’ arm. “We didn’t put anything sweet into the fire to actually summon the thing, roasting marshmallows doesn’t count.”

“You know I don’t mess with this stuff-”

“Is it actually true? I had never even heard about it and I’ve looked up tons about the local area-”

Logan looked over to where Virgil was currently grilling Remus about the story, who was doing his best not to bust up laughing and answer with a seriousness their later prank needed. Leaning closer to Janus, he whispered quietly, “It’s mostly to pull a prank on Virgil later as a bit of fun for Remus. Also our son has been gaining an interest in these things lately and we know how you are with superstitions so I thought this may discourage him from actually trying anything in the future.”

Janus huffed out a laugh. “Of course this was mostly Remus’ idea. Is that what the gorilla suit is for?”

“You know about that?”

“A father knows everything including what his husbands get up to at three in the morning when they sneak out of bed and drive to the store no where near an anniversary or holiday.” Janus smirked and lightly shoved him. “You’re both idiots but I love you anyway. Just don’t hurt yourself running through the woods alright?”

Logan smiled ruefully. “That is the plan, yes.”

-----

“Remus. Remus, are you awake?”

Logan huffed as all he received was a snore in response. Of course Remus would fall asleep before the prank he had planned was executed- erratic sleep schedule be damned Logan wasn’t cutting him slack for this one. If he wanted to sleep then he would just have to be scared along with Virgil and Janus- even though he had a feeling Janus was probably lying awake waiting for him so he didn’t get startled awake like Virgil and could play the cool dad. Rolling his eyes fondly, Logan stepped away from the sleeping bags and around the dying fire. It was nearly three in the morning at this point as they had stayed up quite later after Remus’ story exchanging tamer ghost stories until Virgil started nodding off.

All he had to do was go a little ways into the woods and run out yelling like a madman until the trick seemed to go on long enough and then he could go to bed. A fairly simple operation provided he could see in the dark and through the rather tiny eye holes the suit provided. It didn’t matter- he’d be in and out before anything bad could actually happen. Shrugging absentmindedly to adjust the suit he carefully twisted on the head and made his way into the trees.

The further he ventured into the trees the more the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end despite the uncomfortable warmth the suit provided. He could hardly see in the darkness and yet the unmistakable feeling of eyes raking over his back was unmistakable- he knew it was most likely that damn cat stalking him again, no accounting for any kind of subtly as it had continually watched from the shadows even far into the night when most creatures would be either hunting or sleeping. As long as he didn’t trip over it when running he decided not to worry about it. If the cat wanted to watch him sprint through the woods like an idiot well- he supposed someone should witness the start of his descent into madness at the hands of his puppy-eyed husband.

Deciding he’d gone far enough, Logan turned around and with one last adjustment of the suit began to run back to camp, yelling nonsense at the top of his lungs and trying desperately not to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all the whole time. Breaking the treeline he could already see Virgil sitting up terrified, jumping onto Janus’ sleeping bag and screaming in terror as Remus began to cackle from his own. So much for playing it up. Slowing down Logan quieted and lowered his arms, jogging forward and already waving his arms in surrender when his foot caught something soft and small, hurling it forward with his momentum and straight into the fire.

No one spoke. No one dared breathe as the cat curled up in the flames as they grew taller and brighter, burning hot enough for a horrified Janus to scramble back with a silently screaming Virgil in tow, Remus right beside them as Logan could only stand and watch.

The cat stood.

The surrounding woods grew darker yet darker as the flames grew higher and the distorted shape in the flames began to grow along with them. It stretched to the limits of the sigil and then oozed past them, singed claws digging trenches in the earth and shadowed tail whipping hard enough to fan the flames that consumed it. Its great head lowering towards his family cowering still tangled in his sleeping bags finally snapped Logan out of his shock. Taking up the suit head he hurled it at the monster. It burned to nothing the instant it touched the flames but caught its attention nonetheless, eyes running deeper than the void of space filled with rage snapping to his own in an instant.

That instant was all Logan needed as he turned and tore his way back into the woods, feeling the heat of the midnight sun burning at his back as he desperately tried to pump his legs faster. The chase was completely silent save for the pounding of his feet and crackle of flames. He hardly dared concentrate on anything else but dodging trees and leaping over fallen logs, leading the monstrosity as far away from his family as he possibly could.

The woods caught fire around him, consuming the recovered forest in destruction and turning the floor to a sea of flickering sparks Logan attempted to weave around and jump over as best he could. Smoke filled his lungs instead of the screams he realized he had been silently hissing up his throat, making him choke on invisible hands that circled his windpipe and squeezed. No longer did he dodge trees but hollow figures hunched and moaning, turning sorrowful burning eyes to him as he leaped by, arms reaching like crude branches to an unforgiving sky.

He watched as they burned and crumpled, turning to dust that mixed with the smoke and only served to clog his throat further. Victims of the beast doomed to suffer for hundreds and thousands of years until summon foolish enough to mess with what they didn’t understand came along to doom them all again. Tears left his eyes and sizzled off his cheeks as the hot breath of his pursuer ceaselessly washed over him. His suit was too hot and his lungs were burning and he had to keep his family safe and keep running but his legs were tiring and he couldn’t see and he couldn’t scream and he couldn’t breath he wanted to breathe-

Slamming into a tree he crumpled to the ground in a sorry heap, hands shaking and gasping for air he looked up into darkness, flames all encompassing as he felt himself melting in the heat. His fur curled and then burnt to nothing, monkey suit gone in favor of flesh that boiled instead and all in front of an impassive audience. He watched as his skin dripped away like a candle left lit to long and his blood rose from shriveling muscles and shrinking arteries in a vapor the beast greedily inhaled through heaving nostrils. One last effort, one last painful breath to reach out his hand, to quiet the snap of flames and moaning of the deceased and screaming of his lungs. A reach in understanding to never tamper with spirits of old and better left gone, through the flames that writhed with the agony of being born again and settling on something soft and small.

And then blissful silence.

-----

“So what happened to the prank?” Remus lifted a trying-very-hard-not-to-laugh Virgil into the bed of the truck, chucking a bag of marshmallows into his lap to keep him occupied.

Logan turned slightly, sleeping bag much lighter now without the suit clutched in his hands to load with the rest of their things. “I- must have fallen asleep. Apologies Remus.”

“It sounded like a good prank anyway.” Virgil piped up from the blanket pile he was currently nesting in. Remus had told him and Jnaus all that was supposed to have happened that morning when they had all woken from a fitful night’s sleep. Nightmares, they had said, revolving around- quoting Janus- that awful legend that “had I known you were going to tell Remus I would have said absolutely not until our son is older he reads bigfoot blogs not Steven King novels.”

“It wasn’t even on that level!” Remus had argued.

“You drew a sigil to make it more realistic-”

Logan hadn’t bothered to pay attention after that.

“Alright everything’s packed.” Janus winced by the passenger door. “Let’s go home where there’s actual mattresses that won’t break our backs.”

Grinning Remus hopped into the truck bed, immediately starting a blanket hogging argument with Virgil while Logan made his way to the driver's seat. Shutting the door decisively he glanced into the side mirror to see the same black cat sitting by their cleaned campfire, summoning seal rubbed thoroughly out of the dirt and stones returned to their respective places around the clearing. Nodding slightly before starting the car he looked back just in time to see the cat disappearing into the trees, thick green foliage quickly hiding it from view.

Hands gripping the wheel tightly he tucked his thumbs into his palms to hide the dirt and ash still trapped under his nails, letting the white noise of his family’s playful bickering lead him out of the burning forest.