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artist-owl · 2 years

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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 –”

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