#ts gift exchange 2020

[thesentientmango]

[Click for better quality]

This is the first part of my gift for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange​ for @dragonindigo245​!

Hey Indigo! This has been so fun to do even that time when I accidentally followed you (which I don’t regret) and you immediately tagged me in a conversation you were having! It’s been super fun to do. I really hope you like some of it!

Part 1 (you’re here!), Part 2

Image description below the cut:

[A digital drawing of Deceit disguised as Patton like in the Sanders Sides episode Can Lying Be Good. Deceit is a white man with brown mid length wavy hair and brown eyes. He has large dark glasses and is wearing a baggy grey shirt with a grey, brown, and green plaid scarf. He is face on to the camera and his head is tilted at a 45 degree angle. His tongue is sticking out to the side, and one of his arms is raised and the index and middle fingers of that hand are crossed and pointed at his neck. A dashed yellow line is going across the background where his neck is and extends to his crossed fingers. END ID] 

[visceraah]

The sound of music

(aka i’m so sorry for naming it after a musical it has nothing to do with dkjsdjksdjk names are hard)

My gift for @anianthe for @sanderssidesgiftxchange

Rating- Teen cause i’m incapable of not writing wayyy more swears then are necessary-

WC- 2947

Ship- Just Virgil interacting w the other sides,, feel free to interpret romantically if you want!

Warnings- not really any! Remus shows up briefly so.. beware of that. and ig Virgil is also kinda mean bUT he does it affectionately.

AO3

-

“We’re having a movie night!”

Virgil blinked. Took off his his headphones which, unfortunately, hadn’t been playing anything- he wore them out of habit, sometimes- meaning he heard everything his stupid best friend just said.

“No, we aren’t.”

Roman flopped down on his bed without waiting for any indication it was okay, something Virgil was all too used to. “We are now.”

Virgil sighed heavily and pushed Roman with his foot, trying to roll him off the bed. He didn’t budge. “And if I don’t want to?”

“Pleaseeee?” Roman employed the puppy dog eyes and Virgil knew already this was a losing battle. Ugh.

“I get to pick the movie.”

Roman perked up immediately, coming to sit next to him. “Yes! Okay! Just- Disney?”

Virgil rolled his eyes, wondering if Roman was capable of consuming content made by anyone else. He was beginning to doubt it. “Nightmare Before Christmas, then.”

“Predictable.” Roman murmured smugly, and he elbowed him.

“You want this movie night or not?”

“Okay, okay! I yield!” Roman cried, clutching his ribs. Virgil was pretty sure he was more upset at the prospect of a cancelled movie night then the ‘pain’ he was overplaying right now.

“Okay.” Virgil agreed, smugly, and set the movie on.

He’d seen it a million times already, which for most people would only make it boring by now- but Virgil found comfort in familiar things. Plus, that animation! He could happily watch it a million more times- and, honestly, probably would.

That meant he had it memorised, though, and soon enough he was singing along to the introduction under his breath. He listened along contently, until an unfamiliar third voice joined the chorus, and he startled, looking to the side. “Roman?”

Roman stared back, raising an eyebrow at him. “... Hi.”

“Were you singing along?”

Romans eyes flicked between Virgil and the screen, where the movie was still playing, in confusion. “Yes, Dr Gloom? Look, I know what a downer you love to be, but these pipes can’t stay closed all the time! They need exercise- and, the world deserves- neigh, needs to hear them!”

Virgil huffed at the dramatics, although it was fond. “I never said it was a problem, Sir Sing-a-lot, I’m just surprised.”

“One, that’s not an insult and I’m absolutely using that,” Roman retorted, “And two… It’s Disney! One of their best! Do you really expect me to not know the words?”

Virgil snorted, but he had to admit, he couldn’t disagree with that. “Whatever, nerd.”

Roman gasped, somehow seeming more upset than when Virgil had elbowed him. Of course that’d be what got to him. “I am not! I’m a prince- a very princely prince! Not-”

“Whatever you say, prince of the nerds.” Virgil hummed out, smirking to himself. Maybe Roman bursting in out of nowhere wasn’t so bad… This time. He still hated surprises and would not be convinced to do this again. He said that every time

-

Being Romans best friend, unfortunately, had its side effects. One was unplanned, unannounced Disney marathons he had no choice but to roll with. Another was actually listening to his musicals so often he learned to like them, too.

For all he said about Hamilton being overrated (and Romans reaction was priceless every time), he had to admit it was good. A little fast for him to keep with, but he rarely sang along to his songs anyway, preferring to hum quietly unless he was really in the mood.

He liked keeping his music to himself, too- he didn’t want to annoy anyone, so he always wore headphones- but sometimes he just wanted to drown the world out, and they went to full volume. Worked a treat to drown everyone out, but plenty audible to everyone else in the room. Sometimes, though, they’d just have to live with it.

Today was one of those days, where Virgil didn’t want to speak to anybody and had the volume to show it. He was playing one of Princeys musicals, too, humming along to ‘my shot’ no matter how different it was to his normal taste. He nodded in acknowledgement as he passed Logan on his beeline for the fridge, planning on grabbing the easiest and least healthy snack possible.

Retreating with his bag of marshmallows in hand- he was pretty sure they weren’t meant to be in the fridge, but they were imaginary, so maybe nothing needed to go in the fridge. Holy shit.

He pulled the headphones back, opening his mouth to ask Logan's opinion, when he heard a sound that made him freeze in his tracks.

Logan was rapping along to himself. And well. Jesus, how had he forgotten about that? He stared, still in disbelief, and Logan awkwardly trailed off when he noticed his gaze. “Ah, you could hear me.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to ask… Doesn’t matter. Holy shit, Lo, you’re amazing.”

Logan flushed slightly, looking down at the table. “I simply have an appreciation of the genre, and Hamilton has some particular, uhm- how would you say? ‘Bangers’.”

Virgil laughed, slipping into the seat opposite him and taking the headphones off completely. “Dude, I’ve spent enough time with Roman to know having an ‘appreciation’ doesn’t mean you can pull something off.”

Logan raised an eyebrow, clearly fighting back a smile. “I am not sure he’d appreciate you saying that.”

“Eh, I’ve said it to his face before- and will again.” Virgil dismissed, feeling his lips turn up as well. “Why don’t you do it more?”

Logan shrugged, adjusting his glasses awkwardly. “It is hardly a logical skill for me to have, so it simply… Hasn’t come up.”

“Ro doesn’t need an excuse for songs to ‘come up’ before he starts singing them.” Virgil pointed out, and Logan chuffed.

“No, he certainly doesn’t. But we are different people.”

Virgil laughed, nodding. “You could say that again.”

“Oh. Alright, we are differen-”

“It’s an expression, dude. Come on.” Virgil interrupted, sounding nothing but fond as Logan widened his eyes in realisation.

“A highly illogical one, but alright. I can add it to my flashcards to avoid further confusion.” He decided, pulling out his deck there and then to add to. He paused when he heard the crackling of a plastic bag pulled open, looking up as Virgil helped himself to a marshmallow. “Please do not tell me you intend on consuming that entire bag.”

“Maybe.” Virgil held it out, grinning now. “Want one?”

“A key ingredient is gelatin, created by boiling down a pig or cows bones, skin, ligaments or tendons.” Logan deadpanned, and Virgil almost threw the whole bag away in disgust before he remembered,

“But they’re imaginary!”

Logan titled his head. “I suppose so.”

“Actually, I was thinking…” Virgil began, curious about how the fridge actually worked. Soon enough Logan was in a full-fledged rant about mindscape food, and half of it went over his head, but he didn’t mind listening. It was interesting, after all.

-

Whatever concerns Virgil had about not bothering anyone with his music, the other sides didn’t share them. Roman didn’t hesitate to sing whatever came to mind as it came to mind, offering full renditions of his favourite musical tracks daily, Logan could be heard humming to himself as he worked, Remus had no restraint about… Anything, really, and this was no different, Janus wasn’t exactly considerate, and Patton- Patton was the worst at all.

He wandered the mindscape belting out whatever was in his head at the moment which, as a father figure, was always old, tacky, and bad. They’d learned to ignore it for the most part, but some of the songs he played… Some of them were just unforgivable. And, sitting on the couch as Patton tidied up a little, Virgil had left himself completely at their mercy.

“JOLENE-”

Virgil pulled his hoodie over his ears, wishing he’d brought his headphones. Or just not left his room. “Please, no.”

“Jolene, Jolene, Joleeeeeeeene, I’m begging of you please don’t take my man-”

“Pain, Padre. This is causing me physical pain.” Virgil groaned, slamming his head back in an attempt to make it all stop. Unfortunately, the sofa was soft, and he just bounced back. Eurgh.

“Awh, cmon kiddo! I’m just singing. You could always join me.” Patton chirped, rearranging the same jar for the fourth time in three minutes.

“I might die.” Virgil deadpanned, staring Patton dead in the eyes, and he giggled.

“Don’t be silly… Come on, my music isn’t that bad!”

Virgil couldn’t quite believe his ears. Maybe they were still bleeding from being subjected to Dolly Parton. “You listen to dad music.”

“Well, yeah, but what else did you expect from your pops-”

Virgil groaned louder, shaking his head. “I- whatever. When’d you even start listening to country music?”

“Nico likes it!” Patton replied, brightly, and Virgil bristled.

“That’s it, Thomas has to break it off.”

It took Patton a second to recognize Virgil was joking, and he started laughing. “Don’t be so judgy! I listen to your music- in fact, I quite like being cautious in the disco.”

“Oh my god.” Virgil pulled his hood down further over his eyes, the secondhand embarrassment hitting him full force. “You’re so old.”

“Now, I know I’m no spring chicken, but that’s hardly a nice thing to say-”

“We are all the same age.” Logan interjected as he walked through the room, gone before Virgil could try and drag the only other sane one around him to his aid.

“Look, Patt- I love you, but Dolly is too far.” Jesus, Virgil was spending too much time with Roman. Dramatic ultimatums weren’t his style at all.

“... How about Country Roads?”

“Jesus Christ.” Virgil sunk further back into the sofa, hoping it’d just swallow him and his smile.

-

“I wanna play a song.”

“Get your own headphones.”

“But yours are so loud, they’re basically speakers! You ever turn them up to full volume while they’re on? How loud are they? Oooh, reckon they could rupture your eardrums so blood would bubble out your ears and trail down your face-”

“Stop.” Virgil interrupted with a grimace, before Remus’ imagination could go anywhere gorier. They’d been at this for ten minutes and his answer hadn’t wavered once. “It’s a no, alright? Just… Go away.”

Remus huffed loudly and dropped onto the sofa next to Virgil. Great. “What do you want?”

“Hmmm… Oh, I can do a list!” Remus declared, and before Virgil could tell him please, god, don’t, he was off. “A pony- to disembowel so I can use its guts for ritual purposes, that one dick in a Russian erotica museum they claim is Rasputins and has magical fertility powers, for Barry Bee Benson to be real so I can fu-”

“Alright!” Virgil shuddered and disconnected his headphones. He didn’t know what Remus wanted to do with a literal bee, and he liked it that way. “There.”

Remus grinned a grin with far too many teeth, just a little too sharp, and Virgil rolled his eyes, waiting for whatever monstrosity he was about to hear.

 There’s some whores in this house, there’s some-

“You did not just play WAP!” Virgil punched Remus in the arm, pulling his headphones off “You- I swear to God, don’t do the dance.”

Remus was already halfway stood up and Virgil quickly pulled him back down. He’d never wanted Remus to stay sat next to him more in his life. (To be fair, it wasn’t something he felt often.)

“But I already know it!”

“Of course you do.” Virgil grumbled, glancing over at Remus. “Why do you have to play… This, up here?”

“Jannie’s kicked me out, you know how he is.”

Virgil blinked at him, regretting what he was about to say before the words even left his mouth. “If I get him to back off, will you keep your music to the dark side?”

“That’s not fun, though! Ooh, wait, Logan likes rap, doesn’t he? Reckon he’d like to see the dance?”

Virgil stared at Remus blankly. “Please, say that was a joke.”

“It wasn’t! If you wanna hear one, though… Ooh, ok. Two kids walk into a hospice- ”

“No.” Virgil interrupted again, although even he had to snort a little at how ridiculous it was. Even if it was also deeply, deeply twisted. “I- look, I’m gonna do it.”

Remus tilted his head further then looked natural. Virgil was pretty sure he heard a crack. “Thought you hated me and Double Dee.”

“I- I’m just doing this for my sanity, alright? And Logans.” Virgil snapped back, avoiding meeting his eyes.

Avoiding things didn’t work with Remus, though, and soon enough he was uncomfortably close, peering right at Virgil with that unsettling grin. “Awww, Purps is being nice to us.”

“Shut up.” Virgil hissed, sinking out before Remus could pry any further. Creativity was so pushy, Jesus.

-

Virgil shuddered. He hadn’t been in the dark side of the mindscape in years and, after so long of the bright upstairs, the dark walls felt a little claustrophobic. He just needed to make this quick.

He strode down the hallway, trying to squash the growing nervousness in his stomach. What was the worst that could happen?

… Literally the worst thing he could’ve asked himself, he realised, speeding up subconsciously. So much could go wrong, while he was down here, and he didn’t even know where Deceit was, what if he tripped and fell and broke something and nobody would-

Piano, faint, made him stop in his tracks.

He wasn’t really an expert in classical music, but this had to be one of the more famous pieces, because he’d definitely heard it before. It was good, though, Mozart or something. Pretty difficult, too.

Exactly the kind of pretentious shit Deceit would play, and kick Remus out to enjoy. (Although Virgil couldn’t really blame him for that second part). Emboldened now he knew he wasn’t alone, and could make some jokes about what a snob he was, Virgil entered the room the sound was coming from.

He paled, because in front of him sat Deceit. At a piano. Playing the song.

“Since when do you play.”

Deceit only glanced up at Virgil, the melody smooth even with the interruption. He hated to admit it, but it was impressive. “Things have been quiet. I had time.”

“Quiet? With Remus?”

“I made things quiet.” Deceit amended, shrugging nonchalantly. Knowing him, it had probably been meant to sound as murder-y as it did. Didn’t stop Virgil from shuddering, anyway, serving as the perfect reminder of just how desperately he wanted to leave.

“Alright, look- whatever plan or plot this is, or is covering up, I don’t care.”

Deceit sighed, looking up at Virgil without faltering the music once. Jesus, he actually was good. “You’re right, I’m incapable of having any interests whatsoever without there being some deep, sinister plot behind it. You’ve spotted my evil plan.”

“I- alright, sarcasm’s meant to be for something obviously not true! That could be true!” Virgil protested, already feeling like he was losing this.

Deceit just raised an eyebrow at him in response, and Virgil instinctively hissed back, feeling more and more like he was backed into a corner.

Deceit had the nerve to laugh at him. “It’s been a while since you’ve done that.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve had to talk to anyone so- so-” Virgil groaned, glaring at Deceit. “Stop playing that stupid thing, would you?”

“Alright.” Deceit agreed, and Virgil waited. He kept waiting. The piano continued and after an excruciating minute of listening for an end, he cursed. Why had Virgil assumed he’d be honest?

“Dick.”

“That is my legal name.” Deceit agreed dryly, and Virgil rolled his eyes. He was impossible to talk to.

“Look, just let Remus back down. He’s probably scarring Logan as we speak.”

Deceit smiled at the thought, looking back down at the keys as he played them. “I never said he couldn’t be down here. Oh, and I’m sure there’s /nothing/ about ‘scarring’ Logan that could’ve appealed to him.”

“What, so Remus lied?” Virgil crossed his arms. Remus was plenty of things, but one of them was painfully, brutally, upfront and honest. “That’s your thing.”

“Not lied.” Deceit tutted, like scolding a child for not knowing something they should have. Virgil clenched his fists. “Just… Was dramatic.”

Virgil tried to figure out what he meant before realising it meant literally nothing, and he glared at Deceit. “Stop being so cryptic for five seconds and tell me, Jesus.”

“I wasn’t aware you cared about him so much.” Deceit smirked, and Virgil threw his arms up in exasperation.

“I’m trying to get rid of him!”

Deceit snickered but finally, mercifully, seemed to have already had his fun. “I didn’t tell him to get out if he couldn’t just be quiet and not…” His smile faltered… “Dance on the piano.”

Yeah, that expression was priceless. Virgil laughed as Janus furrowed his eyebrows. “What?”

“Just… Nevermind.” Virgil was pretty sure imagining that scene playing out was enough entertainment to last him weeks. And a reminder that honestly… Remus didn’t cause as much chaos as he gave him credit for. He was all bark… And plenty of bite, too, but nothing too permanent. “Keep playing, or whatever.”

“You aren’t going to demand I fetch the Duke?”

“He’s not a dog.” Virgil dismissed, resisting a smile at Deceit’s murmured ‘ehhhhh’. “He’ll come back when he wants to. And Logan can look after himself.”

“Amazing.” Deceit sighed heavily. “You wasted my time for nothing, then.”

Virgil could be proud of that, at the very least. He grinned in way of response, sending Deceit a nod before he sunk out.

[mistydragonflyart]

HOLIDAY GIFTS FOR A SPECIAL PRINCE

Here’s my gift for @thisweirdicecuttingsongisabop for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange ! Hope you like it and hope you’re having a wonderful time this holiday season!

[ultrafangirlishness]

Hey everyone, happy new year!

This is a gift for @analogicisms for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange. Hope you enjoy these sweet sweet boys!

[menace-sama]

~~Here’s your self-care package~~

Dear @viana-dascolli

I, your secret santa, am here to gift this to you.

The year may be rough, but please don’t lose hope. That light of happiness awaits. 

Till then, take care of yourself, and have a happy holiday. 

With care <3

@sanderssidesgiftxchange

[pinkmilkyblue]

Hey there @hitmewiththatfanart33 !!

I’m your @sanderssidesgiftxchange Secret Santa!! Here’s a drawing of Virgil and Roman dancing from your fic, The Dark Prince. I loved the chapter and this moment where they get all flustered!

I couldn’t decide what background to go with, so I just posted both! I hope you like it, and hopefully it does justice to the super sweet and cute chapter you wrote!! You’re a very talented writer :)

Btw I’ll send you a copy of the drawings without my watermark via private message. Happy Holidays and have a good day!! ❤️💜

[alexvidraws]

Happy holidays to @sparkedawg :)) I’m your secret santa, and I hope you like this angsty comic I made! Thank you @sanderssidesgiftxchange for making this fun event :)

[nightashes]

And We Were Roommates

A/N: A gift for @who-said-i-was-asleep for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange. I hope you enjoy!!

Summary:��Virgil is tired. So very tired. Luckily, he has the best roommate in the world. Who also might have a crush on him?

Warnings: food mention, creepy face mention

writing masterlist - ao3 version

***

The wood of the bunk was kinda weird. Virgil thought to himself as he laid in bed, staring at the grain of the frame above him. If he squinted and tilted his head just right, he could make out the image of a face. It was kinda unsettling, the way it stared back at him with it’s eyeless visage. It caused a shiver to pass through his bone-weary body. Virgil knew his exhausted mind was making it seem worse than it actually was. But his eyes were heavy and his brain was foggy. And the last thing Virgil wanted to see, as he struggled to calm his mind enough to rest, was the image of a haunted face made up of the sketchy lines of wood grain. 

Virgil rolled his head to the side to escape the stare. The clock greeted him, blinking unforgivingly back at him. Six o’clock. Virgil slapped his hand against his forehead and let out a curse in frustration. Great. Another sleepless night. And another day of fighting to stay awake during class. Just perfect.

Above him, he could hear the beginnings of movement. His roommate climbed down from the top bunk. Virgil watched him attentively, what must it be like to be able to just sleep when you were supposed to? Logan stared back, no doubt noticing the growing bags beneath his eyes. 

“You know, Virgil, your curses in the morning work better than any alarm clock I’ve ever had.”

“I hate you.” Virgil only half joked.

“Another sleepless night?”

His answer was a groan of pain and exhaustion. He pulled his comforter up and over his face, hoping to hide from a world that could be so cruel as to deny him rest.

“Do you want to skip our morning class again? Try and get at least a couple hours of sleep?”

“I can’t miss any more, I’ll fail.” He mumbled from beneath the blanket. 

“I’ll grab you something to eat.” Logan shuffled off to dress for class. 

Virgil laid there listening to the sounds of his roommate. Silently, in his mind, Virgil conversed with his body. It’s time to get up, he whispered to his legs that refused to move. Leaving the safety and comfort of his bed seemed to be impossible at this moment. Perhaps a compromise could be reached?

He rolled out of bed, taking his comforter with him, and flopped onto the floor into a messy pile. He laid there, breathing in the stench of old carpet. This is fine, he thought, he could live here happily, on the floor.

“I’ll be back with food.” His roommate called. The door clicked shut and Virgil was left alone with the floor.

Coffee. He needed coffee. Virgil departed his friend, the carpet, with a reassuring pat to the polyester fibers. The room tilted as he stood. His head whirling from the movement. He steadied himself against the wall and breathed in deeply until his vision cleared. He slipped on a sweatshirt as the chill began to seep into his bones. His hands buzzed from exhaustion as he shuffled over to their busted second-hand coffee maker. It did not glitter but it sure did produce the finest gold, a hot cup of coffee.

He sipped at the steaming hot liquid, as he stared out the window, slowly forcing his mind to clear. It did not work.

Today was going to suck.

He took another sip.

Virgil slipped on a pair of shoes and groggily tied up the laces. His fingers fumbled as his hands buzzed, jittery and fatigued. Logan returned with a white paper bag of fast food. He passed Virgil a steaming breakfast burrito.  Yummy.  The idea of food was not a welcome one at this moment. Not that he wasn’t hungry. He was. But it just felt like too much. Still he forced himself to take several small bites. The taste was better than what his mind had expected. And once he got into the rhythm of eating, it became a little easier. He could do this.

They departed their dorm together and walked across campus in silence. Virgil hummed along to the tunes blasting through his earbuds, desperately clinging to the energy that the noise provided. Lost in his own little world, he tried to imagine a different one. A world without morning classes or sleepless nights or deadlines. A world full of pillowy clouds to drift to sleep on. He thought that would be quite a nice place to live. 

Logan was attempting to read as he walked. His gaze flicking furiously from the page to the sidewalk and back again. Virgil wasn’t sure how much Logan could retain anything reading like that. But then again, it was Logan. If anyone could manage it, he could.

The TA greeted them as they entered the lecture hall. Virgil led the way to a seat in the back. No way was he sitting up close while this tired. He plopped down into a chair and allowed all the tension to drop away. He was here now. All he had to do was make it through this class and then he could try and sleep after.

The hush of chattering voices began to die down as the professor took command of the room. Her voice was soft and monotonous. The sounds of her chalk scratched against the blackboard. Virgil could feel his eyes begin to droop. He shook his head, forcing himself back to attention. He fiddled with his pen. Trying to move enough to keep his body awake, while also making sure to not draw the attention of his fellow classmates. 

In the back of the class, he fought against his own mind. The fog that filled his head and softened the voices of rationality. He struggled to keep his eyes wide and open. He pinched at his skin, as if this were a bad dream that he could force himself to awaken from. But the room was warm from the packed bodies. It was warm and it was quiet. The lecture was a lullaby, a meditative chant that softened his gaze. As the hour ticked on, Virgil lost himself to the fog of sleep. He could feel his head bobbing. And then he lost his sense of presence.

Virgil drifted in consciousness. He knew a little about where he was and what he should be doing. But his body and mind were out of his control. He floated through the haze of thought. And in that classroom he slept.

The sounds of chatter jerked him back to awareness. Class. He was in class. He frantically swiveled his head, taking in as much as he could. What had he missed? Had anyone noticed him sleeping?

People were packing up their books. They were getting ready to leave. Class… he had missed the entire class. Virgil thumped his head against his textbook.

“You mustn't be too hard on yourself, Virgil. You were here, you were marked present. That’s all that matters right now.” Logan reassures him, closing up his own two notebooks. Wait, why did he have two notebooks?

Logan passed one of them to Virgil as he finished collecting his things. “Ready to go?”

Virgil stared down at the notebook in his hand. He flipped it open. It was full of lecture notes. Not just from today. The dates… they were from everyday that he had skipped so far and then today as well! 

“What is this?” Virgil asked dumbfounded.

“You expressed displeasure at the idea of failing. This will help. It is everything that you have missed so far.”

“You copied your notes into a separate notebook?”

“Well, no. I formatted these slightly differently and included certain contexts that you would need after having missed the lectures… It should help.”

“Logan, this is incredible.”

A blush of pink dusted the cheeks of his roommate. “It’s no big deal. I just thought it would help.” He cleared his throat and cast his eyes about, “No one should miss out on the chance to learn, afterall.”

Virgil smiled at his roommate. “I was going to take a nap before my next class. But later on, maybe we could study together? If you want that is. I mean it’d probably be easier to just study on your own and I know I’m really behind-”

“Yes.” Logan interrupted the torrent of thoughts spilling from Virgil’s mouth. “I would love to go over the notes with you.” 

He paused as if just realizing he had used the word love. Logan quickly tacked on: “I have a passion for teaching is all.”

“Of course,” Virgil rolled his eyes at the awkwardness. Logan was such a dork when he was flustered. Wait? He was flustered! Did this mean that… Logan liked him? Virgil cheeks flushed at the thought. “Uhhh… I’ll see you later?”

“Later then.” Logan stiffly departed the hall, leaving Virgil alone with a whirlwind of thoughts. His roommate had a crush on him? His roommate had a crush on him! 

After passing out in their dorm for his afternoon nap, Virgil spent his next class with one thought and one thought only running through his mind. Logan had a crush on him. Logan: who had gone out of his way to take notes for him. Logan: who was one of the smartest people he had ever met. Logan: who had blushed! 

Virgil wasn’t really sure what to make of it. All he knew was that with every passing minute, he was getting closer to their study date. Well, not a study  date, more like a study session. Wait, was it a date? Could it be a date? Did Logan think of it that way? No. Certainly not. He had been flustered by even the insinuation of romance! But maybe… Maybe it could become one… eventually?

And that is how Virgil found himself, pacing their dorm clutching the gifted notebook to his chest, and worrying his lip, as the time for the study session drew ever near. Logan arrived only a minute late. He was weighed down with books from the library and he smiled tiredly at his roommate. Despite this a soft blush was present on his face.

“Hello, Virgil. Are you ready? I got some extra books that might help.” He plopped himself down at his desk, swiveling the chair to face outwards. Virgil followed suit, still clutching his notebook to him.

“Yeah. Yeah. Let’s do this. Ummm… how was your day?”

“Adequate. A small mishap in labs, but nothing I couldn’t handle.” Logan rubbed at the bridge of his nose. 

“If you're tired. We can do this later. You know I would understand.”

Logan’s gaze locked onto him. “I want to do this.”

The heat in Virgil’s cheek was like a warning bell. He was in dangerous territory now. His heart was being stolen by a nerd in glasses. What a way to go!

“Alright, let’s do this!” Virgil smiled brightly.

They worked their way through the gifted notebook. Going over all the notes that were provided there. They stopped whenever Virgil found himself confused. Logan assured Virgil that no question was too small. And then he would beam at Virgil whenever he finally understood it. It made Virgil feel like he could accomplish anything. Virgil’s favorite part was when Logan would pick up a book to rant in depth about his favorite parts. His passion for academics was like a blazing fire. It flooded Virgil’s stomach with butterflies and made his heart race with the knowledge that he was falling hard. Eventually, they began to lapse into silence as they slowly got further into their own readings. 

Virgil was going over today’s lecture notes again. But he couldn’t stop thinking about the person beside him. The notes were written in a tight script. It was precise and easy to read. A sharp contrast to Virgil’s own chicken scratch. He traced his fingers over the blue ink. Virgil didn’t think Logan would be one to write with colored ink, but Logan enjoyed the color blue. The thought drifted into his head again. Logan liked him, right? 

Virgil flipped a page.

Virgil liked Logan. 

He really really did.

He should say something right?

Virgil looked up, the words forming on his lips, only to find Logan slumped over his desk. His face pressed into his arms, his glasses askew and digging into his skin. There was the smallest trail of drool beginning to form at the corner of his lips.

Virgil chuckled.

Now Logan was the bone-tired one.

Virgil stood from his seat. He carefully and gently removed the glasses from his roommate’s face. Pulling the blanket down from Logan’s bunk, Virgil draped it across his shoulders. And with a flick of the switch, the room is darkened.

Virgil readies himself for bed quickly and quietly. As he lays down in his bunk, he watches Logan at the desk. It couldn’t be comfortable to sleep at a desk. But selfishly, Virgil enjoyed seeing his crush asleep beside him. 

He whispered into their darkened room, “Goodnight, Logan.” And promptly fell asleep.

taglist: @stop-it-anxiety @hexatrash @ollyollyoxinfree @battlebunnyteardropsinthesun @leiasolo77 @arya-skywalker @alexxadontplaydespasito

[djpurple3]

Sanders Sides Gift Exchange 2020 - Gift!

@amatasia howdy!!! happy new year!! happy holidays!! I’m your giftmaker this year :) @sanderssidesgiftxchange

I’ve written you a fic about agere!Remus making a blanket fort with his family. Hope it’s alright!

in this, Remus age regresses (completely SFW), Logan uses they/him pronouns, Janus is hard of hearing, and Roman has chronic pain. 

Summary: they’re all just VIBIN DUDE. mild angsty theme of dark sides being sad that Virgil left in the past but they’re chilling all together now :)

roughly 2900 words

--- --- ---

Janus swore he usually had more blankets than this. He liked the weight of layers when he slept, so he normally had a lot of them. But he was staring at his bed with his hands on his hips, taking in just how unpadded it suddenly was. Even his favourite blanket – yellow, soft and weighted – was gone.

He rubbed his face, and listened as hard as he could.

Ah. There. He could just pick up the faint sound of giggling.

He had a suspicion, now. He strode out into the corridor, towards the stairs, when he caught sight of Logan in his room, facing a very similar conundrum.

You see, Logan was a person who was particular to a good pillow. He probably didn’t seem like the sort of person who would be, but they had a large variety of pillows, that they liked to swap in and out on his bed, or on the sofa, or so on and so forth. They had their pillows colour-coded by softness and density. A pillow for every occasion. A few in the shapes of animals, too, though those usually did not leave Logan’s room even in the direst of circumstances.

Logan was very attached to their pillows. So it was particularly obvious when some were missing. Like… say, right now.

  Janus paused in the doorway, leaning against the frame and smiling as Logan scratched their head and sighed. “Let me guess,” he called, making Logan jump. “Missing comfort items?”

   “Maybe,” Logan smiled, rolling his shoulders and raising an eyebrow at Janus. “Any ideas?”

They heard another bout of laughter, and Janus snorted as Logan’s face fell into an understanding expression, and he started to nod.

   “Yes, that’d do it,” Logan mused, and they paused together at the top of the stairs to see.

---

The lounge had been drastically rearranged from the last time either of them had been downstairs. The sofas had been dragged against the wall, the dining chairs moved in closer, and Janus could no longer see the floor for how many blankets were draped everywhere.

There was the smell of popcorn in the air. There was giggling coming from within the cave of blankets that had been meticulously erected in the middle of the room.

   “I’m guessing that’s where my pillows went,” Logan murmured, making Janus snort.

   “I see it’s movie time,” Janus smiled back, and he carefully began to descend the stairs. Logan followed him, and soon they were picking their way through a forest of pillows and blankets, and what they recognised as several of Patton’s soft toys, and even… some of Virgil’s hoodies?

   When they reached the ‘entrance’ of the cave, that was sealed with a draped blanket, Janus and Logan looked at each other, before Logan started to reach for the blanket. “Knock knock,” he sing-songed with a smile. “Can we come in?”

The sound of whatever movie it was stopped immediately, along with a sharp gasp, and there was no response for a moment.

Logan paused, not pulling back the blanket yet, and when it was obvious that they weren’t moving on without a go-ahead, there was a little “uh-huh” from deep inside the blanket fort.

Logan finally pulled back the curtain, and the two of them kneeled down to see… Remus. Wide-eyed and huddled in what looked like Virgil’s old hoodie, with one of Roman’s sashes around his shoulders like a scarf, and Janus’ favourite yellow blanket draped over him. He had a sipcup in his hands that he was clutching tightly, peering over the top of it.

   “Hi there, dear,” Janus smiled, noting with concern just how scared Remus looked at being caught. “Looks like you’re having fun.”

   “…Mm-hm,” Remus mumbled, curling in on himself.

   “Hey,” Logan said softly, reaching out to pat the ground reassuringly but making no move to close the distance. “We aren’t mad, little duke, alright? Just wanted to see if you were okay.”

Remus’ liquidy eyes melted in relief, but he still looked tense.

   “Just be careful with your drink and your popcorn, alright?” Janus instructed, glancing around at the cosy interior. There were even fairy lights strung up, making the alcove feel almost magical. “Is there anything else you need?”

Neither of them mentioned how Remus had stolen their things. Remus’ lip wobbled a little, but he didn’t reply.

   “Is there someone you want?” Logan added, patient. “We can go get Roman or Virgil or Patton for you.”

Remus hesitated, eyes flicking between the two of them, before down to his lap, where he was hugging one of Logan’s precious animal pillows tightly. It was a unicorn. Logan’s eyes flicked down to it briefly, as if he were checking it was okay, but they didn’t demand it back.

Remus was chewing his lip, before he mumbled something that neither of them caught.

   “What was that, dear?” Janus queried, leaning in a little. “You’ll have to speak up for me. My hearing’s bad, remember?”

   “Wan’ ev’ryone,” Remus mumbled again, a little louder this time, before haphazardly setting his sipcup down and burying his face in the pillow in his lap.

   “Everyone,” Janus repeated, more to doublecheck he’d heard correctly. “We can do that, can’t we, Logan?”

   “We most certainly can,” Logan agreed, getting to their knees with a little groan. “I’ll go get them and send them down.”

Remus looked up suddenly, and reached out towards Janus with grabby hands.

   “Cuddle time?” Janus asked, and he scooted inside the blanket fort, smiling as Remus nodded insistently. It seemed he had not only regressed but gone mostly non-verbal as well. Which, if Janus may put on his concerned caregiver hat for a moment, usually only happened after Remus got very stressed.

But still, he scooted in, making sure to pop his hat on Remus head, which made him giggle, and laid back on the many, many pillows. He let Remus crawl over and flop on top of him, and rest his head on Janus’ chest.

   “Hi,” Janus hummed, wrapping his arms out Remus as they squirmed and shifted and got comfortable, before Remus reached out and adjusted the laptop he’d been watching movies on somewhere better for their new position. “You comfy, my little thief?”

Remus whined, and buried his face in Janus’ cape.

   “Oh, I’m only teasing,” Janus hummed, brushing Remus’ hair back and trying to coax him out of his shirt. “I don’t mind, my dear. Just ask next time, okay? I’ll even help you set the fort up. Did you make all this by yourself?”

Remus nodded into his shirt, and took Janus’ soft cape by the handfuls, kneading it like a cat.

   “It’s lovely,” Janus smiled, honesty softening his voice. “I like the fairy lights.”

Remus hummed something that sounded like a thank-you, and kept stimming with Janus’ cloak. Janus was usually quite protective of his cloak and keeping it crumple-free, but… well, for little Remus, he didn’t mind a bit.

He probably spoiled the darling, now he thought of it, but he wanted nothing more than for his dear friend to be happy, and if this was part of it? Then this was part of it.

   “Knock-knock!” came another declaration from the entrance of the fort, before the blankets were tugged back to see Patton’s smiling face. “I heard it was all hands-on deck for a cuddle pile?”

   “Pa!” Remus perked up, lifting his head from Janus’ chest and holding out a hand towards him, grabby-handsing towards him too.

   “Let me take off my shoes really quick, first, kiddo!” Patton chirped, before the curtain fell. A moment later, a shoe-less and glasses-less Patton was scrambling into the blanket fort to join them. He carefully navigated through the nest of blankets and rolled over to stretch out beside Janus. With a little oof, Remus rolled off Janus’ chest and wedged himself in between the two of them.

   Patton reached up to muss up Remus’ hair, making him giggle again. “Logan’s just rounding up Roman and Virgil now,” he relayed. “Just a few more minutes now, hopefully.”

Remus shivered a little, and Patton sat up to tuck the yellow blanket around Remus a little more firmly. Remus accepted it with a couple slow blinks, mumbling something indistinct as Janus lifted his arm for him to burrow into Janus’ side.

   “You seem tired,” Janus hummed, letting Remus cuddle in close wordlessly. “Did you get enough sleep last night, my dear?”

Remus hid his face in Virgil’s old hoodie, which was answer enough for them.

   But what they didn’t expect was the quiet words Remus added. “Bad dream,” he said.

   “Oh,” Patton cooed sympathetically. “I’m sorry, kiddo. Can I cuddle you?”

When Remus hummed his consent, Patton scooted in close and wrapped his arms around Remus’ middle, spooning him from behind. And the warmth and pressure of two close friends being nearby seemed to relax Remus a fair amount, but he was still tense under Janus’ arm.

Remus’ eyes were bright and alert, despite the heavy bags under them, and they were trained on the entrance to the blanket cave.

 ---

   After a couple moments, filled only with gentle breathing and murmured questions between Janus and Patton, there was the sound of footsteps on stairs, before there came a mediocre impression of a trumpet, and someone declared, “Hark! We arrive!”

And the blanket was pulled back to see Roman’s legs, and a Virgil sitting back and pulling off his boots. Logan hunkered down as well, giving Remus a little wave from outside, which Remus returned. His eyes were trained on the three of them, but especially on Virgil, and he only really relaxed until Virgil crawled into the cave.

   “Wow,” Virgil commented, pausing and looking around. “It’s a real party in here, huh?”

   “Vi,” Remus whined, and reached out for him.

   “I’m here,” Virgil said softly, and Janus was beginning to guess what Remus’ nightmare may have been about. “Where do you want me, kid?”

Remus patted the space above him, and Virgil obliged. As soon as he was in position, Remus took off Janus’ hat and put it on Virgil’s head, before plopping his own head into Virgil’s lap. Almost immediately, he relaxed. But he kept his eye on the entrance, and the fact that Roman was holding it open for Logan, who they could see taking off his glasses. As Logan entered the mix, Patton and Janus set about moving blankets and pillows to change it from a nest into more of a comfort den, until all of them were swamped in warm layers and cosiness.

But still, Remus wasn’t satisfied.

   “Ro?” he warbled, and Roman slowly knelt by the door, an apologetic smile on his face.

   “Give me a moment,” he said as he eased himself down. “Sorry… bit of a rough pain day today.”

Everyone winced in sympathy as Roman finally forged his way into the blanket fort, stopping to admire the atmosphere.

   “Remus!” he gasped, exaggerated in that delightful way children deserve for their hard work. “Did you make all this yourself?”

Remus shyly nodded, half-hiding his face under the yellow blanket.

   Roman sat back and clapped his hands, beaming. “It’s beautiful! And so cosy! I love it so much. The fairy lights are a wonderful touch. Now, before I join you, does anyone need anything more?”

   “I’m good,” Patton mumbled from where he still had an arm or two wrapped around Remus. Janus shook his head.

   “Nah,” Virgil shrugged as he played with Remus’ hair.

   “I am fine,” Logan added as they kicked back, crossing his ankles and hugging one of his animal pillows to their chest.

   “Fabulous,” Roman smiled, and he adjusted the laptop into a better spot. Then, he paused, before exaggeratedly glancing over his shoulder at Remus, who was watching him avidly with a growing grin. “Do you want a bigger screen, bro?”

Remus nodded excitedly before anyone else could protest.

   “Oh-ho-ho!” Roman crowed, and he shuffled back a little. “Let us bibbity…” he swished his hands back and forth, “bobbity…” he twinkled his fingers…

   “Boo!”

Roman jabbed his hands towards the laptop, and from his fingertips came streams of silver sparkles that shot out and surrounded the laptop. It shook once, twice, then they all watched it grow into a TV, which just managed to fit in the far end of the blanket fort. Suddenly, it felt like a very cosy cinema.

   “I’ll change it back later, I promise,” Roman quickly added, noticing the look on Logan’s face.

Remus giggled, before reaching out for Roman too.

   “I’m coming, I’m coming,” Roman fake-groused, scooting towards them until he ended up wedged in the gap between Remus’ and Patton’s legs, his head propped up against Patton’s knees. “Is this okay?”

“Mm-hm,” was all he got out of Remus, but Janus couldn’t help but smile softly as he noticed just how relaxed Remus now was with everyone close by.

---

And so they stayed like that. The six of them crammed into a cosy blanket fort. And honestly? They hadn’t just… hung out like this for a while. It had been a very busy time of year for them all. And it seemed, Janus noticed as he looked around their merry band, that many of them hadn’t been sleeping well either.

Because Logan was already fast asleep, slumped over sideways and head on Patton’s side, snoring softly. Patton kept blinking himself awake, but it was clear that he was about to doze off any second. Roman, who had been boisterous and jovial, successfully quoting Peter Pan almost entirely by memory for the past hour and a bit, was now oddly still. 

Janus couldn’t see his face, but the steady rising and falling of his chest and the way his head had lolled to the side told him enough. Virgil was quiet, still smoothing back Remus’ hair.

And Remus. His dear Remus, who was alternating between watching the movie and watching Janus. Janus kept his eyes forward most of the time, but he couldn’t miss how many times Remus’ nearly fell asleep, before jolting himself awake. It was only when Remus started to pinch himself to keep himself alert that Janus moved to intervene.

   He took Remus’ hands in his own carefully. “My dear,” he soothed, keeping his voice low for the sake of those who were sleeping, “is everything alright?”

Remus didn’t shake his head, but he didn’t nod either. He just looked up at Janus with big eyes – eyes that were suddenly threatening to leak tears.

   “Oh, my dear,” Janus rushed, and rolled over and wrapped his arms tightly around Remus as Virgil made soothing noises, helping as best he could as Remus clung back. “You’re safe here. Your nightmare… it was just a dream, I promise.”

   “Stay?” Remus finally warbled, his voice so soft and wobbly that it broke Janus’ heart right then and there.

   “Of course,” he said immediately. “I’d never leave you, my dear. We’re here. We’re right here.”

   Remus tilted his head up and looked at Virgil, tears leaking over as they made eye contact. “Stay?” he whispered again.

   Virgil’s face twisted with grief, but he forced it into a smile, though the smile was far too raw an expression than he intended. “Yeah,” he agreed without hesitation. “I’m here, Rem. I promise. I’m staying right here, with you.”

Remus took a moment to wipe away his tears, pointedly using his brother’s old sash rather than Virgil’s hoodie or Janus’ blanket, before settling back with his head in Virgil’s lap. Here, framed by warmth and surrounded by family, he looked the happiest Janus had seen him in a long, long while.

   “G’nigh’,” he mumbled.

   “Goodnight, my dear,” Janus hummed, leaning over to press a kiss into Remus’ forehead, which earned him a sleepy giggle. “Sleep well. We’ll be here in the morning, okay?”

And Remus closed his eyes without any more argument, and almost immediately dropped off to sleep. His snores joined the gentle cacophony of unconsciousness that filled the blanket fort.

It was quiet. Peaceful, even. The sleepy atmosphere was contagious. Even Janus’ own eyes were feeling pretty heavy now.

   “Are you going to sleep too?” he asked Virgil softly, tilting his head up to look at Virgil like Remus had before.

   “Yeah, probably,” Virgil murmured, and Janus watched him hesitate for a moment, before his free hand darted over and started to smooth back Janus’ hair too. Janus stiffened for a moment at the contact, before relaxing – almost going boneless. He forgot how nice this was. And it was kind of funny to see Virgil in his hat. He probably hadn’t seen the sight since they were all teenagers.

Virgil seemed to think the same thought, and gently reached up to take it off and set it aside, with a carefulness1 that made Janus smile.

   “Get some sleep, Jan,” Virgil whispered. “I’ll be here in the morning.”

The breath caught in Janus’ throat before he could figure out a reply, but between Virgil’s fingers smoothing his hair and Remus cuddling into his side and the warmth and safety all around him… it didn’t take long for sleep to claim him too.

And all was calm, quiet, and at peace. Virgil switched off the TV, before settling back with a sigh and a soft smile. He closed his eyes, listening to the even sounds of his family sleeping, and before he knew it, he was drifting off to sleep too.

And all was at peace.

--- --- ---

i hope you have a very happy holiday season, or what’s left of it, a very merry new year, and i hope that what i’ve written is good enough :)

[thesentientmango]

We Dance My Love, Into The Night

A/N: This is one of my parts for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange for @dragonindigo245! This was a blast to write even though it turned into an absolute MONSTER of a project! Honestly especially since it turned into this monster of a project, that just made it even more exciting! I hope you enjoy it and hopefully it’ll make the end of 2020 a little better!

Read on A03

Summary: Roman is throwing his annual ball and this year a few new guests have been invited, although it was the day before and Roman might have not delivered one of the most important invitations yet, it would be fine! Everything was under control.

Rating- Teen

Word count: 17540

Ship- Roceit

Tags- physical fighting (it’s play fighting), swearing, food, fluff, cooking, dancing, Remus being Remus so some minor gore

Part 1, Part 2 (you’re here!)

~~~

Roman walked through the roads of the mindscape as he made his way back into his corner of Thomas’s mind. Roman had just finished delivering the final invitation to the annual ball he threw every year, well delivered was a strong word, he’d searched for Janus’s house for a few hours and then tracked down Remus instead. He wasn’t 100% sure Remus knew where Janus lived but Roman had confidence that Remus would get the news to him in one way or another, although he wasn’t quite sure in what state the physical invitation would be in.

Maybe Roman shouldn’t have put delivering it off for so long. He had delivered all the others weeks ago but for some reason, he couldn’t or hadn’t managed to deliver that one. Something in the back of his mind kept whispering that he wouldn’t come even if Roman invited him, so not inviting him was the best way to beat the rejection to the punch.

Roman kicked a small pile of leaves frustratedly and the wind quickly scooped them up and began to swirl around him before beginning to twist a path in front of him. Roman hummed before following them into the woods. Eventually, they brought him to a stone path which Roman began to follow.

As Roman approached the end of the path, he smiled as he recognized it as the pathway leading to Patton’s house. He heard the familiar giggling of children, the memories of children that Thomas knew or had known, and Thomas himself, or more literally, a personification of some parts of Thomas’s inner child. Roman passed by the backyard and jumped over the fence which had little painted handprints and flowers all over it. The backyard was constantly changing, and Roman loved to see what the kids were up to now and again.

“Roman!” A younger looking Thomas, who was missing a few teeth, slid down a pole from the treehouse that was occupying the backyard and ran over to him. He narrowly avoided tripping over his untied shoelace and grabbed Roman’s hand. “We’re playing pirates!” He glanced around before beckoning Roman to lean down, “and we’re hiding from the sea monster.” He said in a not so quiet whisper, “Shh!”

Roman glanced around, “Of course! Back to the ship, young buccaneer!”

Thomas nodded, although Roman was pretty sure he didn’t know what buccaneer meant, and began to tiptoe back toward the ‘ship’. Roman noticed with a smile that Tiny Thomas had a makeshift sword in his belt, it was cardboard with a pool noodle around it to prevent any actual injuries.

Thomas clambered up the ladder and waved for Roman to follow, but before he could he was tacked. Roman heard the playful shrieks of the children in the treehouse and he looked up at his ‘attacker’.

Patton was grinning down at him, his glasses were hanging from his shirt. “Hey!” He said before turning back to the kids and presumably making a face because they all giggled and ducked below the edge of the ship. “Are you just stopping by?” Patton asked.

“Yeah.” Roman said with a smile, “I was just checking up on you guys!”

Patton grinned and turned back to the kids, “This one’s mine!” Who shrieked various versions of ‘No!’ And ‘Ah!’ as Patton began to carry Roman back into the house.

“Go on without me!” Roman called up to the kids, “Be careful out on the high seas!”

Once they got a bit further away from the action, Patton set Roman back on his feet and hugged him. “Well, it’s great to see you. Are you coming later?”

“Of course!” Roman said, “I wouldn’t miss Family Dinner Friday!”

Patton smiled, “How’s the dance been coming? You’ve been working on it for months now.”

“It’s coming along marvelously, I can’t wait for you to see it tomorrow!”

Patton bobbed his head up and down excitedly, “This is going to be so much fun!”

Roman grinned, “Indeed it will!” He paused, “Patton can I ask your advice on something?”

“Sure thing!”

Just then, a little girl with pigtails ran up and presented her arm which was bleeding slightly, it looked like she had fallen.

“Look at that battle wound!” Roman said, immediately changing the subject.

The girl puffed out her chest slightly, “I got it while trying to catch the sidekick of the Wise Spider of the Deepest Darkest Lagoon!”

“The wise spider? What a coincidence we happen to be good friends!” Roman said while Patton began to clean her cut. “Do be careful with them,” Roman said in a fake whisper, “They pretend to be all tough, but they're a little fragile.”

“You’re all good to go!” Patton said as he finished putting on the bandaid.

She jumped to her feet, “I won’t forget Mr. Roman!” She said as she ran back to the ship.

“I should probably get going, stop distracting you, they seem to be quite capable of getting themselves into trouble,” Roman said as he watched her return to the ship, “seems to me like you’ve got your hands full enough as it is.”

“Alrighty, well if you want to talk to me about that thing later, we always have dinner!”

“Right,” Roman said. “If I’m still looking for guidance then I’ll be sure to come to you!”

“Thanks for dropping by!”

Roman waved as he walked out the front door and out the fence that surrounded the house. Time didn’t really exist there, Roman could simply choose to appear at his home if he wished, but something in his mind kept him wandering. Roman came to the base of a ranch-style house that was attached to a greenhouse, a huge laboratory, and an even bigger library. Roman smiled as he heard the melodic tunes of the violin from inside.

He walked up to the door, passing by the observation tower, and knocked on the door of the house, which looked quite out of place attached to all the extraordinary buildings of science and knowledge which surrounded it.

The violin halted and after a few moments, Logan opened the door. “Roman, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Nice to see you too,” Roman said as he walked in. “How's Avery doing?”

Logan smiled softly, “She’s doing well. I would like to thank you for creating her for me, she is very helpful.”

Roman grinned, “Aw! I love you too Specs.”

Logan huffed but didn’t protest, “Would you like to see her?”

“Yeah sure!” Roman said as he hopped up on Logan’s kitchen counter.

“Be careful,” Logan warned before turning into the house. “There’s a lot of breakable stuff on that counter.” A few moments later, a beautiful parrot flew into the room and began to cling to Logan’s shirt.

“You should have learnt to whistle!” Roman asked as Avery flew over to him. “I find it very effective to communicate with birds.”

“Whistling to birds is a very fairytale thing to do.” Logan said, “Frankly my way works just as well, it’s like summoning, she can choose to stay or come, but she knows I am requesting her presence, and it is quiet, and thus less obnoxious than whistling.”

“And you can’t whistle.”

“That’s not the point!” Logan huffed, “Whether I can or can not whistle does not impact the fact that my way of calling Avery is much more efficient.”

“Perhaps,” Roman said as Avery pressed her head into his finger he was using to pet her. “But you know, it’s nice to know that I’m better at you at one thing.”

“You’re better at many things. You’re much better at summoning and conjuring than I am.”

Roman waved him off, “oh that comes with the job, but whistling? That was something I did myself.”

“Well did you come here to talk about anything, or just to see Avery-” Logan cleared his throat as he said, “-and ‘flex’ your whistling talent on me?”

“Hey you didn’t even need your flashcards that time!” Roman said. “I’m proud of you!”

Logan fiddled with the knot of his tie, “Thank you. So you did just come for Avery?”

“Well I do love her, but I actually came to ask for your advice.”

Logan perked up, “Really? Well I will do my best to provide insight into whatever you need.”

Roman smiled and sent Avery back over to Logan, “In your objective opinion, hypothetically if someone didn’t come to the ball tomorrow, would that be a sign they didn’t like me?”

Logan squinted slightly as he looked at Roman. “In my purely objective opinion… it is not necessarily a sign of them disliking you. It is a possibility, yes. However, that would be jumping to a conclusion, that in itself would not be enough data to draw an accurate conclusion of the situation.”

Roman nodded slightly, “Okay, thanks.”

“This is about our new guests this year.” It wasn’t a question.

“I’m not very good at hiding things, am I?” Roman replied to which Logan laughed.

“No, no you aren’t. Perhaps you could ask some tips from Janus, he seems to be the person to ask when you have a secret to hide.”

Roman laughed nervously, “Secret? I don’t have any secrets.”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t saying you did.”

“Right!” Roman said far too quickly, “Well thank you for all your help Logan.”

“I’m glad I could help.” Logan said, “Are you off so soon?”

“I have some business to attend to,” Roman said. “However I’ll see you at dinner.” Roman pet Avery, “and I’ll hopefully see you sooner than it was last time.”

“I think she’d appreciate that,” Logan said as he looked fondly at Avery. “Goodbye.”

Roman waved as he slipped out the door and leant against it.

That didn’t go very well.

It would be much easier if he could go to Janus for help to conceal the bubbling of nerves he got whenever Janus so much as looked in his general direction, but that was extremely not an option.

He didn’t know where to go next, but Roman just started walking, he was almost sure Logan would be watching, and he wanted to look like he had some sort of a plan. Roman began to roam(an) around the woods. Logan had said that it wasn’t a guarantee that he disliked Roman if he didn’t show up, but it was a possibility. And if it was a possibility then Roman needed to prepare for it.

Roman began to pace around a small clearing as he began to rehearse the different scenarios that might lead to him not showing up. In the middle of one of his disaster scenarios in which Janus did come but got accidentally burnt by the fireworks and was so mad that he never spoke to Roman again, he heard a voice behind him.

“Are you trying to start a fire?”

Roman whirled around, and frowned when he saw no one behind him, “Hello?” Roman said as he looked around, “am I going insane?” Roman mumbled to himself.

“Up here dipshit.”

Roman glanced up and saw Virgil sitting slouched on the crook of a branch. “Yo.” He said.

“What in Merlin’s beard are you doing up there?”

Virgil sighed, “Well the thing is, I was relaxing, listening to music just as loud as I possibly could, trying to fall asleep right? Then suddenly, out of nowhere, I feel so much emotional turmoil just in the middle of the forest. Good thing I came too, or else you might have literally created a forest fire with all your pacing.”

“Don’t you mean figuratively Dear Evan Heathen?”

Virgil snorted and sat up straighter, “No actually, I don’t. You’re literally sparking, creating flame, igniting the ground. I assume unintentionally, but that doesn’t really matter when everything’s up in flames does it?”

Roman glanced around and saw that where he’d been pacing there was a small ring of burnt grass. “What the hell?” He cried as he jumped and tried to scramble away from the sparks that now seemed to be everywhere.

“Fucking idiot.” Virgil mumbled before yelling down to Roman, “Stay still! What are you doing? It’s coming from you!”

“How do I get it to stop?!” Roman said as he flailed.

Virgil jumped down next to Roman and grabbed his shoulders. He flinched slightly as a spark burst off Roman and almost hit him in the face, as he said, “How am I supposed to know? But you have to calm down. You’re panicking.”

“No shit Sher-not!” Roman said as he sat down defeatedly on the ground.

Virgil snorted and shook his head, “That wasn’t even- you know what it’s fine, you’re struggling.” Virgil sat down a safe distance next to Roman and asked, “Why’d you come out here anyway?”

“I had some stuff to think through,” Roman replied vaguely.

“Well you’re gonna tell me. Cause this vague stuff isn’t gonna stop your fiery problem.”

Roman huffed in annoyance, “I suppose... if you must know... I’m a little bit nervous about the ball.”

“You’ve never burst into fire over it before,” Virgil pointed out. “So something’s different. Is it Janus and Remus?”

“Huh?”

“Well this the first time they’re coming. Is that it?”

Roman tilted his head slightly, “Yeah, yeah that’s it.”

“Well knowing them, and I do know them, they’re gonna be stoked. A chance to dress up all extra, and a party? Yeah they’re gonna have fun, don’t worry ‘bout it.”

“So they’re gonna come?”

“Is that what you're worried about?” Virgil asked, “Yeah of course they'll come. They can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but they’re not impolite, well...” Virgil paused, “calling Remus polite is a stretch, but he’ll come. Probably whether you want him too or not.”  

Roman fiddled with his sash, wrapping it tight around one of his hands. “That’s good to know.”

“Hey, it’s gonna go well.” Virgil said, “Look I know I’m probably not the best one to be giving you advice about this, and no matter what I say I’m gonna be a fucking hypocrite, but I can tell that you’re brewing up a worst case scenario, and it’s clearly not doing you any good.”

“Yeah…”

“Just let it be, even as creativity, you can only control so much.”

Roman nodded slightly and looked through the gap in the trees, “Yeah, you're right.”

“Wow would you look at that,” Virgil said dryly, “you’re not a human firework anymore.”

Roman glanced around, sure enough the sparks were gone.

“You’re stealing my brand Roman. I’m the one who’s supposed to overthink myself into a fire,” Virgil said as he stood up to leave, “Next time leave it to the professionals okay?”

“Gotcha,” Roman said. “You should go back to your beauty sleep, you clearly need it.”

Virgil flipped him off, “Whatever you say Wannabe Human Torch.” Then he sank out leaving Roman alone again.

Roman huffed and looked around at the mess he’d made. The imagination was still a ways away, but as Creativity, Roman had some sway over the landscape regardless. It was much more limited than his limitless power in the imagination, but regrowing some grass was not a problem. He waved his hand, the grass instantly perked up again. Roman turned towards the direction of his castle, he’d done enough outside for one day. Perhaps he could find something else to work on before dinner.

~~~~

There was a knock on Janus’s door and he paused, he didn’t get visitors very often, by design of course, there was a reason he chose to live in the middle of nowhere.

Janus glanced through the peephole and immediately rolled his eyes, “Remus,” he greeted as he opened the door, “What are you doing here.”

“Just delivering a message!” Remus said as he waltzed into Janus’s house and tossed a wrinkled letter which was dripping with some sort of slime at Janus.

Janus peeled the letter off from where it had stuck to his chest and held it by the least disgusting corner, “Oh... thank... you. Who’s it from?”

“Roman.” Remus said, “I think it’s an invitation or some shit like that.”

Janus glanced up Remus who was inspecting a painting Roman had given to him as a gift a few years back. Janus looked back down at the dripping envelope and peeled it open, despite his best efforts his left glove was covered in the slime like substance in the process. After freeing the letter he took it out with his clean glove.

In Roman’s elegant calligraphy writing it read.

Prince Roman ‘Creativity’ Sanders the First would like to extend an invitation to the most honorable Janus ‘Deceit’ Sanders to the annual ball being held tomorrow, August the third, at the Castle of Dreams and Wishes. There is no dress code! Dress up as much or as little as you would like.

“Tomorrow?” Janus asked Remus.

“Yep!” Remus said as he picked up a vase to look at its carvings before shrugging and immediately dropping it.

Janus summoned a ghost of a hand which effortlessly caught the vase and placed it back on the counter as Janus huffed, “He’s so annoying, I swear. How long have you known?”

Remus hummed, “Uh month and a half?”

“Well I’m certainly not going to go dressed in this.” Janus said as he summoned a mannequin. “Remus if you wouldn’t mind,” Janus flicked a hand and the door swung open.

“Sure thing! If you wanna add a little something something, you know how to get a hold of me!” Remus walked out of the house before turning around and waving at Janus as the ground swallowed him whole.

“I swear if he messed up my garden.” Janus mumbled to himself as he peeled off his gloves and summoned a new, less Remus impacted pair before he began working on his outfit.

Janus was very good at lying, it was an aspect of what he represented after all. This, of course, allowed him to be incredibly good at detecting lies, and very good at lying to other people, but an absolute fool to think he could lie to himself.

“Really Roman is so obnoxious.” Janus mumbled and his own brain practically rolled its eyes. “I’m only going because it would be rude to turn down this invitation.”

Who did he think he was fooling?

Janus began to summon different sample fabric bases to work from.

“Alright fine whatever,” Janus said. “Maybe I don’t mind Roman.” He said as he selected a fabric. He wasn’t a Creativity, but anyone with any amount of power in the mindscape could construct clothing if they wished, that didn’t mean it would look good by any means, but they could try.

Roman always made clothes look good, Janus thought as he began to experiment with the fabric. It was truly one of the things Janus found astounding, that his ideas could just come to life like that. As he began to shape the base fabric, Janus wondered if he’d helped make any of the other side's outfits.

Janus shook his head and tried to concentrate as he summoned all his helper hands. He needed all hands on deck so to speak. Anyway, it didn’t matter to him whether or not Roman had helped the other sides! They were friends, it made sense that he would. He was just curious about what to expect, curious... yeah that was it.

Of course that was a lie, Janus knew he was lying, and he knew that saying that wasn’t going to change his actual opinions, but pretending was easier.

“Anyway,” Janus said, “No one’s getting hurt, besides perhaps my pride if I admit it to myself.”

“What exactly is going to hurt your pride?”

Janus almost jumped as the voice came from seemingly nowhere, and whirled around. Just his luck someone would walk in on him, but that’s what he got for leaving the door open and talking to himself he supposed.

Logan was standing just outside the house, and Janus faltered slightly. He hadn’t realised Logan knew where he lived. Logan was looking at Janus with a curious look in his eye, and Janus partly wondered if the curiosity was due to the hands which were still working on the dress as Janus walked towards the door, or if it was because of what he said.

“I don’t know quite what you’re referring to,” Janus said smoothly. “But do come in.”

“Let me remind you,” Logan said. “You were talking to yourself as I walked up, and you said, and I quote, ‘No one’s getting hurt, besides perhaps my pride if I admit it to myself.’”

Janus smiled tightly and nodded, “I did say that didn’t I... well I was just lying to myself, as I do, because I’m Deception, and I was just talking about how if I admit I’m lying it will hurt my very sensitive ego.”

Logan’s gaze was scrutinizing and Janus knew he wasn’t buying that being the full story. “Okay,” Logan eventually said. “Well the actual reason I am here wasn’t for that.”

“You mean you didn’t come just to eavesdrop on my conversations with myself?”

“No, although perhaps if you practiced closing your door I would not have overheard.” Logan said and Janus could hear a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Well what can I do for you?” Janus considered adding a quip about hoping Logan had another month late letter, but though better of it since Logan wouldn’t have understood.

“I was hoping you could assist me with preparing dinner, although I see you’re quite busy so I’ll-”

“Nonsense!” Janus said, “I was thinking of coming by to lend a hand soon anyway.”

As he walked out with Logan, he silently cursed himself for forgetting that it was Friday. This invitation couldn’t have come on a worse day.

~~~

It didn’t take anytime for Roman to arrive at the foot of the hill that led up to his castle. Since time was warped in the mindscape, he just willed himself to arrive sooner and not moments later he was there despite how far he walked away from his home.

Roman headed up the hill, and eventually arrived at a large drawbridge that started to lower as he approached, and by the time he arrived was completely down. After he got off the bridge he ran his fingers over the railing of the stairs as he walked to the iron gate and large wooden doors. The gate rose and the doors swung open on their own volition as he approached.

Roman entered his castle and offhandedly wondered if any of the figments were around. Many of them enjoyed spending time near the imagination, of course the children were outliers, but Roman guessed that was because unlike the other figments they had a home outside the imagination with Patton, so they rarely felt the need to go there.

Of course, some other figments, besides the children, had made homes outside the imagination, however it was much easier to build inside the imagination for anyone who was not Creativity, so most of them liked to stay inside the land of infinite possibilities.

Roman looked around the decorated ballroom, it certainly looked like a nice place to throw a party, hopefully it would turn out that way tomorrow. Roman snapped himself into a ball gown, (not the one he was going to wear tomorrow of course) and summoned a dance partner, who might have happened to be as tall as Janus, but that was purely coincidental. Music came from a piano as it began to play itself, and Roman and his dance partner began to glide across the room.

Roman wasn’t really thinking as his partner led him around the ballroom, his mind was wandering, although not to anything specific yet. As he bounced around the various corners of the ballroom, his thoughts too bounced around his head. Thoughts of what he might still have to prepare, there wasn’t much. Thoughts of dinner later that night. Thoughts of what his guests were going to wear, Roman had helped a few people with summoning outfits. However most people who were able to create using the power of the imagination and mindscape, could summon and make clothing.

As he continued to drift around the room, his brain began to focus on a thought,  well to call it a thought was an incomplete understanding of the picture, but the idea itself had been bouncing around in his head for sometime and was now at the front of his brain.

It was fanciful, an unrealistic thought of a perfect scenario on the night of the ball. As the idea developed, and the details of what people were doing and wearing and saying began to take shape, his excess creative energy began to seep through his skin, causing his fingertips to glow.

Roman was standing in the middle of the ballroom, fireworks boomed outside, and Roman smiled as the multicolored bursts of light reflected onto the floor.

Roman heard the clicking of heels on the floor and glanced behind him, Janus stood, looking at Roman with a bemused expression on his face. “Roman, you didn’t join us?”

“It seems not.”

“And after all that work to get us outside too. What’s keeping you in here?”

“There’s a dance left,” Roman said. “It seems we’ve skipped one.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

Roman walked up and took Janus’s hand in his, “Ours.”

Roman snapped to as he suddenly realized his dress had changed from a simple red ball gown to a long black asymmetrical dress which glittered golden as it Roman moved. Roman was glad he didn’t start a fire this time. Although the new dress was certainly more constricted around the legs, it was kinda cute, certainly not something he’d wear to the ball though.

Sure, the idea was unrealistic, Roman thought as he spun out of the dance and walked towards the balcony. That scenario was most probably impossible, Janus would almost definitely not find him first.

Something more realistic then...

Janus spotted him from across the room and asked him to dance, and they danced all night, Janus was the only side who had any hope of keeping up with him in a classical dance anyway.

Roman sighed to himself as he stared up at the sky, imagining Janus coming out here with him at the end of the night, the fireworks going off in the background as they stared into each other's eyes. The tension grew and the music swelled from inside, and…

There was a loud knock on the castle door. Roman jumped slightly as he was pulled from his daydream, and Patton’s voice echoed throughout the castle, “Kiddo are you here?”

Roman stood up straight and began to walk towards the door, his clothes returning back to normal as he walked to the door, he swung it open exaggeratedly, “Patton! Why it feels like I just saw you yesterday! What can I do for you?”

Patton laughed and gestured behind him, “It’s dinner time! You’re still coming right?”

“Absolutely!” Roman said as he bounded out of the castle.

Patton grabbed his hand, and suddenly Roman felt himself being tugged to a new location. Roman gave in and let Patton take him to the community house. FamILY dinner Fridays were always held on neutral ground, each one of their houses were wonderful, but they each had home rule advantage to one side.

Patton came up with the idea of a neutral ground after Logan suggested the idea of having group bonding time, shortly after his debate with Virgil. He said it would be beneficial for them and Thomas for each of them to get to know the other’s better. And although Virgil had been invited every time, he didn’t come to any of them until after he had revealed his name.

As soon as Patton had offered the idea of a community building, Roman had jumped at the chance to be helpful and had created a building that mirrored parts of Thomas’s home. Of course it had Roman’s spin on it, he wasn’t just going to copy and paste Thomas’s house into the imagination, because how boring would that have been to create! But it was still a neutral place.

Roman glanced around at the Sides in the building he created. Virgil was sitting at his normal place with his knees to his chest as he scrolled on his phone. Logan was cooking something with the help of Janus, who was also wrangling Remus away from the food. Roman watched the way Janus moved, he was so fluid with every motion, it was like he was moving through water.

Patton tried to skip into the kitchen but Janus immediately stopped him, “Oh no I am not going to have two trainwrecks in this kitchen thank you very much.”

“Hey, I’m good at cooking!” Patton protested.

Janus raised an eyebrow, “You’re as good as Thomas at cooking. And seeing as you’ve burnt water before, and as we are five minutes from dinner, I think it’s an excellent idea for you to get involved.”

Remus, taking advantage of Janus being distracted, started to edge his way over towards the food.

One of Janus’s hands grabbed the collar of Remus’s shirt, “Nuh uh. We’re not doing this.” Janus looked over at Roman who immediately flicked his eyes away, embarrassed that he’d been caught staring.

Janus just smiled though, “You know what, Roman?” Roman looked back over, as Janus shoved Remus towards him slightly, “would you be a darling and take your miscreant brother out of the kitchen before he burns something?”

Roman wasn’t exactly sure what Janus said, he’d caught a few words, but he’d mostly shorted out after Janus said darling, but Janus tipped his head towards Remus and Roman assumed he knew what Janus meant.

“Of course!” Roman boomed, “Remus, come now! We don’t want to set anything on fire!”

Virgil snorted and Roman turned around as Remus snapped himself out of the kitchen, reappearing hanging upside down on the chandelier.

“What’s so funny?” Roman questioned.

“Yes, do tell!” Remus said. “We’re dying to know!” As he said that his skin began to rot and his skeleton began to expose itself.

Virgil wrinkled up his nose, “Really dude? Right above the dinner plates?” Virgil sighed, “Whatever. I just thought it was ironic that Roman was chastising you about fire. That’s it.”

Remus’s skin was back to normal as he looked over at Roman with a gleam in his eyes, “Arson? Did you do arson?”

Roman waved his hand dismissively, “Arson is a strong word. It was more temporary wildlife damage.”

This caught both Janus’s and Logan’s attention. “Roman tell me you did not attempt to burn down the forest.” Logan said. “I have a lot of ongoing experiments which would not withstand fire damage.”

“I live in there!” Janus said incredulously.

“Yes I’m aware, and I didn’t!” Roman said, “I would never burn down the forest!”

“Boring.” Remus muttered under his breath.

“Now if you would allow me to finish, you would see it was an accident that resulted in nothing more than a patch of burnt grass, which I fixed!”

Janus still looked unconvinced and was clearly on edge, but he rolled his eyes and turned back to the food.

“How’d it happen?” Patton asked.

“A burst of stray creative energy?”

Remus narrowed his eyes and swung himself off the chandelier, “What were you thinking of? It may have been stray, but it’s not random, and I doubt you were thinking of setting the place a blaze!”

Roman opened his mouth slightly before he closed it and looked away, “Oh, I don’t remember.”

Roman swore he heard Janus scoff in the other room, but Remus just shrugged, “I thought maybe you’d thought of something spicy for once!”

“Speaking of spicy.” Logan said as he walked in with a large dish, he was followed by Janus who was holding several other pans. “Dinner’s ready.”

~~~~

Janus liked to think he had pretty good timing. Well some might say his timing was bad but that was just because they were wrong, for his purposes he was always on time.

So Janus didn’t mention the letter throughout dinner at all. He didn’t bring up the ball either. He noticed Roman shooting Remus looks throughout dinner and he wondered if he was worried Remus hadn’t fulfilled whatever promise he gave to Roman.

During cleaning up, when everything was winding down was when he struck. He sat on the counter beside the sink and waited for Roman, who was washing the dishes, to acknowledge him.

“Hey Janus,” Roman said with a smile. “Can I do something for you?”

Janus ignored the way his heart skipped when Roman smiled at him and pushed on, “Why yes, I have come into the possession of a particularly peculiar item and I was wondering if you could identify it for me.”

Roman nodded, “Why of course! I’m honored you’d ask me, this seems more Logan’s territory but I can give it a shot!”

Janus summoned the slimy envelope and held it out to Roman who visibly recoiled. “This is it. Quite interesting, no? What’s even more interesting was what was inside.”

Janus summoned the letter and Roman’s face immediately dawned with realization. “Oh, that. I’m glad Remus got it to you! And it’s at least mostly in one piece?”

Janus smiled, “Yes it’s quite an accomplishment for Remus. One thing about it did bother me though.”

“What would that be?” Roman asked.

“The date, I mean you only gave me a day’s warning. Really Roman, if you wanted to be the best dressed, there are some actually effective ways to do that.”

Roman scoffed, “If I wanted to be the best dressed? My dear serpentine side, I am and will always be the best dressed, even if you have years to prepare.”

“Be careful Roman,” Janus cooed. “That almost sounded like a challenge.”

“And what if it was?”  

Janus tipped his hat to Roman, “Then I would say see you tomorrow,” Janus hopped off the counter. His hand brushed Roman’s side as he whispered, “Prince Roman.”

Once Janus was out of sight of Roman he sank out, he arrived at his house and immediately collapsed against the wall in a fit of near hysterical laughter, “Shit-” Janus said as he pressed a hand against his chest where his heart was trying to burst out from. Janus exhaled slowly, “Oh I can’t believe I did that.”

Roman’s voice rang in his head, ‘My dear serpentine side.’

My dear serpentine side. My...

Janus pressed a hand against his face, “Ugh, he didn’t mean it like that.”

~~~~

Janus walked out after thoroughly flustering Roman, and Roman blew out a breath, “Oh my god…” he whispered to himself, “He’s trying to kill me.”

“Who’s trying to kill you?” Remus chirped.

Roman shrieked and turned around sharply, “Remus! You can’t just appear like that! What's your deal?”

“Deal? I don’t gamble! Maybe I should, do you think I could get a group together for strip poker?”

“No, I mean maybe. No! No! Nevermind, what do you want?”

“Well I wanted to know what that was with Jan, but then I heard you talking about murder, and that seemed more interesting!”

“There was no murder,” Roman said dismissively. “We were simply talking about tomorrow.”

“And there was still no murder?” Remus tsked, “Unrealistic, Jan’s definitely gonna kill you in the outfit department, and I’m always up for murder.”

Roman flicked some water at Remus, “You are not killing anyone tomorrow. It’s going to be a nice night.” He said, completely ignoring the first part of the sentence, it was partly true in a way, Roman was going to die when he saw whatever wonderful outfit Janus had thrown together for the ball.

The water hit him and Remus pretended to be mortally wounded by the drips of water. “You’ve killed me!” Remus screeched, “There was a murder after all!”

Roman rolled his eyes as he dried his hands off, “You know what, if you want we can duel tonight, if you promise to be relatively civil tomorrow.”

Remus sat up and grinned as he summoned his morning star, “Deal! But we’re doing it on my side this time.”

“I made a battle ground!” Roman protested.

“I can too!” Remus put two fingers on either side of his head and closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them and leaping to his feet, “All done! Now come look!”

Roman snorted, “Okay fine.” He extended an arm which Remus grabbed, “Are you going to sink out or disappear?”

“I don’t know how to sink out with another person! Also disappearing is just better and more fun!”

Roman groaned as he closed his eyes. “After I do this, you better not cheat.”

Roman felt a sudden jolt and he was brought down to his hands and knees. His head was spinning and Roman didn’t even want to consider opening his eyes for several seconds.

“You gonna puke?” Remus asked. There was a slight amount of concern in his voice but most of it was just interest in the situation.

Roman opened his eyes slowly and looked up at Remus, “No, I am not going to ‘puke’ thank you very much.”

Remus looked slightly disappointed as he shrugged, “Aw… well do you like it?”

Roman sat back on his feet, ignoring his spinning head, “Oh wow.”

The battle field was grand. It was a bit more… phallic than Roman would have gone in places, but it was also intricate, and Roman found himself amazed that Remus had created it in only a few seconds.

On each side of a large battle field, there were two large identical towers where they’d start, each had a rickety watch tower that was pushed out from the main part of the building, and Roman could see a spiral staircase heading up the tower. In between the two towers was a tangled dark forest, which had large roots sticking out from the ground and briars wrapped around the trees. None of the trees had leaves, instead the branches weaved together to create an uneven and unstable canopy.

“Is that good?” Remus asked.

“Yeah of course it’s good. This is awesome!” Roman said as he walked up to one of the trees and admired the way the branches curved.

Remus grinned, “Okay so standard rules?”

“Yep.” Roman said, “Same safeword?”

Remus giggled, “I’m so gonna make you say it this time!”

Roman rolled his eyes, “Oh you can try. Do you want to do the countdown?”

“Yeah I got it!” Remus waved, “see you when I’m kicking your ass!”

“You wish!” Roman replied, then Remus was gone.

Roman followed suit and sank out, glad to be able to sink out, it was far more comfortable.

Roman arrived in his tower and after a few seconds Remus’s voice boomed across the field, “5...4…3...2...1… Good luck~”

Roman immediately vaulted out of the tower window and his shoes grew wings and caught him before he hit the ground. Roman sprinted towards the forest, summoning both a sword and shield, as he counted in his head.

6…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Roman had just made it to the edge of the forest when like clockwork there was the boom of the tower exploding behind him. He was blasted forward slightly, but like second nature Roman made the sword and shield disappear as he rolled the momentum from the blast out. As soon as he was to his feet again the sword and shield were back in his hands.

Roman looked through the dense forest, and summoned an orb of light and cast it in.

It illuminated everything within Roman’s eyesight, which was in fairness limited by the trees significantly, Roman lifted off the ground slightly and with as much awareness as one could have, began to move silently through the forest with the guidance of the light.

“Roman~” Remus’s voice echoed throughout the thicket, “Did the tower get you this time?”

Roman rolled his eyes before blowing his voice into his hand and throwing it away from him. He replied, his voice sounding distant, even to him. “No of course it didn’t.”

“Well that’s just too bad.”

Roman called his voice back and looked around, something was wrong. Remus sounded a bit too calm.

There was a moment of silence.

Roman was turning around, he had eyes all around him. It was too quiet. Then he heard a laugh, and his blood ran cold.

Roman threw his shield above him and braced for impact just in time as the morning star came down hard from above. Roman was thrown to the ground by the impact, but at least he hadn’t taken it in the head.

“Peek-a boo!” Remus cackled as he swung his morning star towards Roman again. Remus had taken a different approach to seeing in the forest, his veins were admitting a sickly green glow and his eyes were neon pink and green, swirling in a spiral.

As Roman landed on the ground, his sword had shrunk to the size of a throwing dagger which he threw directly at one of Remus’s eyes before scrambling to his feet.

Roman had excellent aim, however one of the branches from a nearby tree grew out and the knife bounced off it, harmless.

“Oh is that the best you can do?” Remus cooed as he subtly closed ground with Roman. “I almost feel bad at how easily I’m going to beat you!” As Remus said beat, he began to swing his morning star at Roman again.

Roman saw it coming though, he’d had made it too obvious, and Roman easily side stepped it, and used Remus’s own force against him to pull him to the ground. Before Remus could react, Roman drove his sword deep into Remus’s stomach.

Roman expected it to be over, sure it would have been the fastest match they had ever done, but Remus had just been impaled. However Remus just spit some blood onto the ground as he began to laugh. Roman watched in horror as Remus’s skin began to swallow the sword until the only evidence he had ever been stabbed was the cut in his clothing.

Remus pulled something from his pocket and threw it on the ground. The ground began to burn through Roman’s feet as a circle of roiling fire enveloped the ground. Roman hissed and jumped onto the air, the wings on his shoes kept him hovering a few inches off the air as the soles of his feet stung.

Remus was still firmly planted on the ground and if he could feel the heat, he was unbothered.

Roman looked around, he didn’t want to get close, but clearly he couldn’t throw anything, so perhaps he didn’t have much of a choice. Roman summoned a sharper, bigger sword than he used last time and closed ground with Remus, while he still hovered slightly off the ground.

His sword clashed with Remus’s weapon and sparks shot from the weapons as they collided. Roman managed to get the sword in a position so he could momentarily let go with his right hand. Roman summoned a second weapon, a short sword, and slashed it across Remus’s stomach.

Remus stumbled back, “Oh feisty!”

Remus swung at him, but his morning star was much slower compared to Roman’s swords, so Roman just closed ground with him and slashed him with his sword again.

Roman could tell Remus was trying to form a plan, and probably trying to figure out some quicker weapon to summon. Roman did his best to not give Remus any room to think as he made a wall of arrows appear behind Remus as he slashed him successfully with his sword again. As soon as he pulled away, the arrows shot fast and hard. Remus gasped, clearly taken aback by the sudden attack from behind, and was forced to a knee.

Remus huffed as he stumbled back to his feet, he usually looked a bit disheveled, but the barrage of arrows had clearly taken a lot out of him. Roman was sure he almost had him, especially since he felt a lot better than Remus looked.

Remus suddenly got a look in his eyes which sent chills down Roman’s spine, “I feel like mixing things up, what about you?” With a snap of his fingers the entire forest turned pitch black.

Roman screamed before quickly trying to summon a light source, but it didn’t seem to do anything against the impenetrable inky darkness.

Roman cursed under his breath and he flicked a hand towards the canopy to try and open a gap to escape. Remus‘s morning star collided with his leg, which immediately buckled, but a perfect square had already dissolved from the canopy, making just enough light seep into the forest for Roman to see where to go.

Roman didn’t need to stand to fly, so he began to escape up as he heard Remus’s laughter slowed, “What Roman, can you not handle a little darkness?”

Roman arrived on the top of the trees but didn’t land for several reasons: his leg was injured and Remus seemed to have some control over the trees. Roman didn’t want to take the chance of being trapped. Roman summoned a bow and arrow, fully prepared to ambush Remus when he came through the hole.

There were several seconds of silence, far too many. Roman almost wondered if something was wrong, and he had to stop himself from peeking over the edge.

Out of nowhere, Remus shot through the canopy, creating a new, Remus sized whole to Roman’s left.

Roman took three shots at Remus; all three hit. Roman wondered slightly to himself how Remus was still going. Then Remus began to shoot towards him at an alarming rate, and Roman suddenly noticed he had given himself tentacles which were pressed to his sides to help with aerodynamics.

Roman summoned his sword, but too slowly, as Remus scooped him off the ground.

His sword fell onto the tree tops and wedged itself in a few branches as Roman dropped it.

“Put me down!” Roman said.

Suddenly from all sides it felt like knives or very sharp spikes were stabbing into his skin. As the tentacles squeezed tighter, they sunk deeper. His entire torso and his arms were all being punctured. Roman felt light headed.

“Put you down?” Remus said, “If you insist!”

The tentacles let go, and as they did, the spikes slowly began to withdraw themselves from Roman’s chest. For a split second after they let go Roman was just hanging, looking at the ground because there was nowhere else to go, all signs led to down. As Roman began to fall he felt the spikes in his back all come out at once in a sharp stabbing pain, as they couldn’t hold his weight for any longer than a second he was suspended after Remus let go.

Painful, but impressive.

Roman frantically attempted to slow his fall but his brain couldn’t focus on anything but the stabbing pain from his torso, so he hit the ground hard.

Roman landed on his side and he gasped as something inside him cracked. Roman tried to get up but he couldn’t move, the only thing that filled his brain was agony as he lay there, his blood making the otherwise dry branches sticky with moisture.  

“Nacarat-” Roman gasped, unsure if Remus would be close enough to hear him. It didn’t matter though because as the safe word was uttered fireworks went off signaling surrender.

“Yes!” Roman heard from the sky, “I can’t believe that worked!” Remus landed next to him and glanced down, “bet it hurts like hell though.”

Roman did his best to glare at Remus who, although was definitely in better shape than him, was pretty beat up too. “Yeah it hurts. Would you mind helping me out with that?”

Remus picked Roman up, “oh sure!” Roman had no time to brace himself this time as he was instantly teleported to the steps of his castle.

His injuries were gone, as were Remus’s. They were temporary wounds which fortunately only existed for an hour within the battle ground that they were inflicted in. Although Roman was physically fine again, he was very glad he was not standing, as his head spun from the instant teleportation.

Remus plopped him on the steps before sitting down next to him, “That was so much fun!”

Roman looked over at him fondly, “Yeah we should do this more often. I really thought I had you though.”

“Oh yeah that was a last ditch effort. I had no clue that would work! I thought you might have enchanted your skin against puncture wounds or some fantasy shit like that.”

“No it was very impressive.” Roman said, “I was at almost peak performance and you knocked me out of commission just like that.” Roman snapped his fingers.

Remus grinned, “You just gotta get a little more creative.”

Roman rolled his eyes, “Oh you were nearly down.”

“You don’t know that!”

“You literally just told me!”

“Semantics.” Remus said before standing up and stretching, “Okay! I’m gonna make sure Janus doesn’t need any help with his outfit!”

“You better not make it too good.” Roman said.

“Why, you worried Jan’s gonna steal the stage?”

“That’s not it.” Roman said, but Remus just laughed.

“Sure it isn’t. Bye dickhead!”

“See ya loser!”

Remus disappeared into thin air, and Roman stayed sitting on the stairs of his castle for several seconds before standing up and walking inside.

~~~

Janus had just finished making a base he was happy with when there was a knock at his door. Janus groaned, “What is it now?”

“Oh someone’s grouchy!” Remus said as he jumped onto Janus’s counter. “Need some help?”

Janus looked over his dress, it was bare bones at best. “I mean I’ve got it completely under control, but if you must.”

Remus grinned and flicked his hand towards the dress. Layers of fabrics started appearing and folding and attaching themselves to the dress.

“Chill—” Remus said, “I’m gonna make you look hot as fuck.”

Janus looked at the dress as a piece of yellow fabric began to fold itself up the left side of the dress. “Fine. I trust you.”

Remus grinned, “Oh I don’t know about that! You should never get too comfortable around me!”

Janus shrugged, “I’ll take my chances.” He settled down on his couch, “So Remus, what have you been doing?”

“Beating Roman up!”

“Just a normal Friday then.”

Then there was another knock on Janus’s door.

“Why and how is everyone visiting me today?” Janus mumbled under his breath. “Come in?”

The door swung open, Logan and Virgil were on his doorstep.

Janus threw his arms up exasperatedly, “What is the point of living in the middle of nowhere if you all just figure out where it is?”

Logan at least had the courtesy to look sheepish, “My apologies, however it is to my understanding that your house moves, and I knew that Virgil might be able to bring me here.”

Virgil, who had invited himself in, and was inspecting the dress nodded, “Yeah... don’t worry I didn’t tell him how to find it again.”

“Then how did you find it the first time?” Janus asked.

“Ah I asked Remus.”

Janus shot a dirty look to Remus, “I’m going to change the movement pattern if you just bring people here.”

Remus just shrugged, “He’s very convincing.”

“Falsehood,” Logan interrupted. “I just asked and you immediately brought me.”

“I didn’t say it took much!”

Virgil snorted, “Yeah it wouldn’t.”

“What’s that emo?”

“I said-!” The group began to engage in a more aggressive conversation of sorts. It was still friendly, but it just got louder and people began to talk over each other as they picked fun at one another.

Janus ran his hands over his face, he was going to go crazy if they didn’t stop talking over each other and Logan still needed to tell him why he was here. Janus flicked his hand and all three of them were promptly silenced.

“Ah the sweet sound of quiet,” Janus said as he focused on keeping Remus quiet, it was quite the challenge to shut the Duke up. “Now Logan,” Janus said as he released his hold on Logan. “Why did you come here?”

Logan nodded, “I came to apologize for eavesdropping earlier, and offer my assistance with your outfit, however it seems you have that covered.”

Janus paused momentarily, “there’s not much you could do to help with the actual construction of the outfit... but... there is one thing you could assist me with if you wished to be helpful.”

“Name it.”

Janus beckoned Logan over and began to whisper his request, as much as he trusted Remus and Virgil, they either couldn’t or wouldn’t keep it a secret, and that just would not do.

~~~

Roman headed towards his bedroom, he passed by a room which had a crackling fireplace. Roman paused momentarily before hearing the sounds of soft talking between a few people and deciding to walk in.

Roman walked in and as he grew closer to the fireplace he could see three people, Sleep, September and October, or Remy, Seth, and Toby as the Fandom had dubbed them. Remy was leaning against the wall by the fireplace, and was talking to Seth and Toby who were playing chess while they sat on the couches.

“Hello,” Roman greeted his unexpected guests, who immediately turned around. “I wasn’t expecting to see anyone here this time of night-”

“It’s only eight?” Remy said.

Roman continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted, “BUT I’m certainly glad to see you all!” Roman sat down on an armchair and looked over at what Seth and Toby were doing. “Who’s winning?”

”I am of course,” Toby said, “But I’m really surprised at how well Seth’s holding his own, you know because of my untouchable intellect?”  

Seth was stifling laughter as he moved one of his pieces, “I’m pretty sure I’ve got you three moves to checkmate but okay. Your turn.”

Toby floundered slightly as he stared at the board, “No way— I mean I meant to do that.”

Seth snorted, “Sure you did.”

“I did! It’s all part of my master plan!”

Roman left them to their game and sat down next to Remy. Roman hummed as the heat from the fireplace rushed over him. “I see why you chose to sit over here, it’s nice.”

Remy nodded before glancing over at Roman, “Yeah, the warmth is really good for getting some sleep.” Remy tipped his thermos of something, probably coffee if Roman knew anything about Remy, towards Roman. “Maybe you should take advantage of that.”

Roman yawned, “Mmm… Maybe.”

“What did you even do to get tired this early?”

“I lost a duel with Remus?”

“If you fall asleep Roman, we could bring you to your room!” Seth said, “Ya know if you don’t want to sleep on the floor? Checkmate.”

Toby groaned, “Come on man, how do you do that!”

“That’s very kind of you,” Roman said as his eyes began to drift closed. “But I assure you, I won’t fall asleep. I’m not even tired!”

“Sure you aren’t,” Toby muttered and Seth stifled a laugh.

Remy rolled his eyes, “Well if you aren’t tired, would you like me to help you? You need your beauty sleep for tomorrow after all.”

Roman laughed slightly, “On a second consideration, I think I can manage something on my own, waking up is ten times harder when you help.”

Remy shrugged, “Suit yourself.”

Roman leant himself against one of the chairs and immediately his eyelids felt heavy. As Roman began to drift off to sleep, he felt something soft and warm drape over his legs before he completely lost consciousness.

Roman woke up the next day as sunlight peeked through his curtains and birds chirped outside.

Roman sat up and skipped down the spiral staircase that led down the tower that his bedroom was in with renewed energy as he remembered what was happening later that day. He peeked into the room he had been in last night and smiled slightly when he saw Remy curled up on one of the couches. Toby and Seth were both gone, presumably to their rooms in the castle or to their homes in the imagination, but Remy looked like he had crashed. Roman walked over and pulled the blanket that had slipped off of him back on before turning off the lights and walking out of the room.

To get to the kitchen, Roman had to pass through the ballroom which was decorated for the night’s festivities. Roman paused as he passed through to admire his handy work. The ballroom in the castle was all done up for the party, candle lit chandeliers hung from the ceiling, burning with the infinite power of the imagination which lived just next door. The center of the large room was clear for dancing and general socialization, and the floor was spotless. Around the perimeter were several tables each with candles of their own as well as beautiful bouquets of flowers that resembled the fireworks Roman had planned for when the sun went down.

Several balconies overlooked where the party was going to be and Roman admired the plants that hung down from them, which made the room alive.

Roman heard a note, B if he was not mistaken. Roman glanced around and saw Logan fiddling with the grand piano.

“Logan!” Roman said as he walked towards him. “You’re here rather early.”

“It’s nine o’clock, I’d hardly call that early.” Logan said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh pish posh, early late, it’s all the same!” Roman pointed at the piano, “I didn’t know you played?”

Logan looked down, “Piano? Oh I don’t.”

Roman hummed, “Well I do! Budge up!”

Logan moved down the bench and Roman sat next to him, he played a quick scale before being to improve a slow piece, he wasn’t warmed up, so there was certainly no need to do anything rash.

“We should play sometime!” Roman said, “I’m not sure how we haven’t done it before.”

“Perhaps we could make it a group activity,” Logan suggested. “I believe we all play instruments separate to those Thomas knows, and even if I’m incorrect, we can all sing and have Thomas’s natural affinity for music, so it might be nice to do something as a group.”

“Everyone plays an instrument?” Roman asked, “How come I didn’t know that?”

Logan shrugged, “Well Remus, like yourself, plays several different instruments, however drums is his favorite. Virgil likes the bass although he also can play the electric guitar.” Logan smiled, “He played acoustic for a while, but he said it didn’t fit his aesthetic... And um I believe Patton plays the tuba, and I of course play the violin.”

“What about Janus?” Roman asked.

“Right, of course, I believe he plays the oboe, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he knew how to play other instruments as well, he is quite good at hiding things.”

Roman sighed wistfully, “He is... He’s so talented.”

Logan raised an eyebrow, “Yes quite... is there something specific you’re referring to?”

Roman scoffed, “Is there something specific. Specs, have you looked at him? I mean besides his very obvious...” Roman trailed off and stared off into space, “... I mean there’s his clothes,” Roman mumbled dreamily, “Remus told me he made them completely himself. I mean his eyes too, gods, they are just so beautiful, the way they sparkle when he’s talking about that philosophy stuff.” Roman sighed, “It’s like looking into the stars themselves.”

Logan smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, “Oh.”

“And I know,” Roman continued, “I have this playful rivalry thing with him, but...” Roman got up from the bench and began to pace, “He’s just so amazing! Why did I ever seriously want to work against him? Oh I really hope he doesn’t think it’s serious now.”

“He certainly seems to be the object of your affection.”

“I guess that’s one way of putting it,” Roman said as he bounced excitedly from foot to foot, “you could also say, I’m in deep, head over heels, under his spell, smitten, infatuated, enamoured.” Roman stopped pacing momentarily as a thought dawned on him, “and I’m going to tell him tonight.”

Logan stood up sharply, his hand accidentally colliding with the piano, creating a loud dissonant sound.

Roman looked over sharply and Logan snapped his hand away and composed himself by adjusting his tie, “My... apologies, I am being summoned and it startled me.”

“How?” Roman asked, trying to imagine how the gentle tugging of being summoned could surprise someone.

“Janus is summoning me.”

“Oh. Oh!” Roman paused, “Well go duh, but you can’t say a word! I reserve the right to lose all my vast amounts of courage and not tell him!”

Logan chuckled as he began to sink out, “I won’t say a word.”

Roman took a breath as Logan disappeared and slowly began to go over to the kitchen.

After he ate, Roman found himself making his way into the imagination, the preparations for that evening were complete so what else would he do? Roman wandered around, his thoughts drifting ever closer towards Janus, and how he could tell him. It had to be extravagant, no way around that one, Janus might even appreciate a grand gesture unlike the Debbie Downers on Valentine’s Day.

Roman didn’t notice how he was beginning to approach the neutral zone in between the two sides of the imagination, he didn’t notice the lighting darkening slightly or the sky turning ashy. If he had been paying attention he would have noticed the forest growing more unkempt, but as he had experienced the full extent of Remus’s forestry and his side of the imagination recently, it all went unnoticed as Roman continued to brainstorm.

~~~

Janus appeared at the edge of the imagination and dropped his disguise as he walked in. He only had to walk a couple of steps before the forest began to change into a canopy of woven dead branches that covered the sky. He sat down against a familiar tree and summoned a block of wood and a knife, as he got comfortable the snakes that lived there began to peak themselves out and coil and slip over his legs.

Janus twirled his knife as he tried to digest what he’d just heard. He hadn’t meant to hear that, he was just going to look at Roman’s outfit, see what he was up against. But... Could Roman have known it wasn’t Logan? Did he know it was him instead? Was this some sick prank Remus put Roman up to? It was possible. But did Remus even know? No if he knew everyone would know. He was way worse than Roman at keeping a secret, he was also pretty bad at detecting secrets. And Janus most certainly hadn’t told him outright.

As Janus took a chunk out of the wood he mumbled something which sounded a bit like ‘Fucking Roman with his perfect eyebrows messing with him.’

The only person who might know about his... feelings... was Logan, he was the most perceptive of the other sides, or perhaps Patton, feelings were his area of expertise after all, but neither of them would tell... or at least they would try not to tell Roman, right? Maybe not, they were closer to Roman after all. It was probably just a joke.

Janus huffed, “Who does he think he is. Playing with my emotions.”

One of the snakes curled around his arm and squeezed slightly, Janus laughed, “I’m not actually upset but thank you. I’m just... confused.”

Janus turned back to the block of wood and scraped a much more controlled segment off as he dwelled in his own thoughts. He didn’t want to take out his

emotions too much on the carving, he’d just end up with a pile of wood chips, although maybe that was what he needed. Janus very slowly began to dull the corners as he tried to decide what he was going to do about Roman. He couldn’t avoid him forever after all.

After a while of the only sounds being the far off cawing of crows and the creaking of branches rubbing against each other, it was peaceful. That was until an eruption of noises came from the snakes that surrounded him. It started with a couple of hisses, then they were all hissing and then the rattlesnakes were joining in the fun too.

Janus looked up and around to see what was causing all the fuss. Like his house, it wasn’t easy to get into the corner of the imagination he was currently in, and if you didn’t know the way it was nearly impossible. Of course Remus had helped him set it up years ago, but whether or not he remembered doing that was up for debate. Anyway the snakes didn’t respond like that to-

Janus locked eyes with Roman.

Oh.

Oh no.

Janus set down the wood and snapped the knife closed as he stood up.

“Roman.” Janus said carefully, “I wasn’t expecting company.”

Roman was staring at the snakes and although he seemed to know Janus was there, he was more absorbed with keeping track of them all than looking at Janus. Janus couldn’t decide if that was a good sign or not.

“I-I was just passing by!” Roman said quickly as he finally broke eye contact with the herd of snakes and glanced around, “What is this place? It looks a bit like the battlefield Remus made.”

“I go here to think.” Janus said as he folded his arms. “Remus helped make it.”

Roman looked at one of the snakes that was slowly encroaching on his personal space, “Why?”

Janus rolled his eyes and pretended to misunderstand the question, “I’m not as good at creating as he is? Remus summoned those snakes too, but don’t worry, they’ve never bitten me.”

“Very comforting,” Roman said as he shifted his weight even further back away from the snakes, “but I meant more why are you here now? Also how did you get here?”

Janus considered Roman’s questions for a second, it seemed like he truly didn’t know. “One of the side entrances and because I wanted to. Is it so hard to believe that I have hobbies outside of my role as a side?”

“No it isn’t... Wait!” Roman frowned at Janus, “Logan said you were summoning him?”

Janus raised an eyebrow, “I did momentarily.” He said before deflecting, “Why were you speaking to Logan so early in the morning?”

“See that’s what I said!” Roman huffed, “but he was all like Roman it’s nine o’clock why aren’t you more productive with your time?” Roman rolled his eyes, “Well he didn’t really say that but I could feel the silent judgement.”

“The nerve.”

“I know right!?”

Janus snorted and brought his hand up to partially conceal his smile.

Roman looked at Janus with a fond smile before he shook his head and looked back at where Janus had been whittling, “I didn’t know you knew how to do that.”

Janus toyed with a fold in his glove as he said, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me Roman.”

“But of course! It’s in your nature.” Roman said, and Janus looked him over curiously. “May I ask you a question though?”

“You may ask.”

It didn’t go unnoticed to Roman how Janus didn’t refer to the truthfulness of his answer. “What were you carving?” Roman asked as he gestured to the block of wood.

Janus regarded Roman for a moment, there was no harm in showing him, he hadn’t actually carved anything after all. Janus picked up the wood and tossed it over to Roman who caught it effortlessly. “I didn’t get very far.”

Roman turned the block over in his hands. “But what was it going to be? Or what will it be?”

Janus shrugged, “If you find out, do tell me. I didn’t go in with a very concrete plan, more a mix of thoughts and feelings I wanted to take out. Perhaps it was going to be nothing more than wood chips although that would be a little disappointing.”

Roman nodded and tossed the block back, Janus fumbled with it before getting a solid hold of it and regaining his composure. “Maybe,” Roman said, “of course only if you wanted to, you have every right to say no, but if you wanted to, maybe you could show me how you do it sometime, whittling that is. I’ve never attempted it before and it seems like a very interesting art form...”

Janus nodded as he sat down among his snakes again, “Why not. Do you have anything to do right now?.”

“That’s okay I-” Roman frowned as Janus’s words sunk in, “Wait you said yes.”

Janus nodded as he flicked his knife open and began to carve another chunk off the wood, “Mm-hm.”

“Oh.” Roman hesitantly sat down next to Janus, he was forced to sit shoulder to shoulder with him as the snakes were not exactly making a lot of room.

Janus’s heart began to beat out of his chest as Roman sat literally so they were touching. “You need gloves before I give you a knife.” Janus said as he attempted to ignore the fact that this was Roman and Roman was touching him, and Roman was warm, and Roman might actually like him.

Roman glanced down at Janus’s gloves, they were the same yellow as normal, but they were much thicker. “Why?” Roman asked, “We can just vanish the injuries.”

Janus clicked his tongue, “Safety first Roman! Anyway it’s not like you’re impervious to pain just because you can vanish an injury.”

“I know that quite well.” Roman said as he winced. He snapped his fingers and a pair of red gloves, similar to Janus's, appeared on Roman’s hands. “Alright! What’s next?”

Janus handed Roman a knife and a block of wood. “Now you carve something.”

Janus began to show Roman the proper hand positions, which involved more contact and they were even closer now and was Roman smiling? Janus would be the first to admit that he rushed through teaching him the basics, Roman was Creativity, he should be able to figure it out.

“I’ll try this lil guy!” Roman said as Janus instructed him to pick something to carve. Roman gently picked up a small snake, it began to curl around his wrist and looked quite at home.

Janus glanced over and smiled, “her name’s Eris.”

“Eris, what a lovely name for a lovely little beast!” Roman glanced around at the dozens of snakes, “Do they all have names?”

Janus laughed, “I mean possibly, but I know I don’t remember all of them, and it’s very likely I’ve named some of them more than once, I’ve been coming here since the middle school era.”

Roman hummed and began to carve the basic structure of the snake out.

“So... how did you get here?” Janus asked.

“I just stumbled into it,” Roman said. “Truly.”

“That’s not an easy task. Sometimes I can’t find this place even if I’m looking.” Janus mumbled before turning back to his carving.

Roman began to struggle with the knife, and after a few seconds Janus slipped one of his hands over Roman’s. “You’re trying to brute force it.” Janus said quietly.  “Your problem is the angle not how much force you’re putting in. The knife’s sharp enough not to need much pressure.”

Janus readjusted the knife position and guided Roman though the first few strokes, “You of all people should know that life needs a little finesse sometimes.”

“Right.” Roman said, as he bit his lip and ignored the heat rushing to his ears. “Finesse.”

About an hour of struggling later, Roman finally had something that vaguely resembled a snake. Roman stood up and stretched, “Thank you for the lesson. See you tonight?”

Janus looked up, “I’m not one to turn down an invitation.”

Roman sank out and Janus turned his half finished carving over in his hands, if he didn’t know any better he’d say it looked an awful lot like Roman’s emblem. Janus sighed as a smile crept onto his face. Yes, he was a fool for falling for Roman, but perhaps there was a chance Roman was a fool too.

~~~

Roman stood in front of grand doors into the castle, it was time, this was it. He took a breath before making a gesture with his hands to open the doors.

Logan was the first to arrive as he arrived not thirty seconds after the door opened.

“Specs!” Roman greeted as Logan arrived, “Punctual as always.”

“I seem to be the only one with functioning time management skills.” Logan commented.

“I’ll toast to that!” Roman scanned Logan’s outfit which he had helped Logan create. It consisted of an asymmetrical dark blue skirt which dragged on the floor behind him. He had a collared black shirt on and an identically colored waistcoat with a flowery patterned tie. “You clean up nicely.” Roman said.

Logan sighed, “This is hardly that much of a divergence from my normal attire.”

“Oh but you’re wearing something I created so you’re instantly so much better dressed!”

Logan rolled his eyes as Patton and Virgil walked up. In the distance, Roman could see some of the figments arriving, although he knew many of them would come from the imagination entrance.

“Hi Roman!” Patton chirped.

There had been no dress code, Roman just wanted people to have fun, so he was unsurprised when Patted turned up wearing a fluffy multi colored layered skirt, and Virgil showed up in an outfit too edgy for Roman to even fathom creating.

“Well welcome to the ball all my honorary guests and you emo.”

Virgil snorted, “You said have fun with our clothes Princey, when else am I going to get to wear all of this at the same time?” He said gesturing to his outfit.

Roman actually really liked Virgil’s outfit, as edgy as it was, it all really went together and he liked how the skirt matched his usual hoodie patches. The only thing that made Roman a little annoyed was he had an eight inch stiletto heel on for the sole purpose of being tall but since Virgil had worn knee high combat boots he was still shorter than Virgil. He wasn’t really annoyed though, he’d just wanted to be taller than Virgil for once.

Most of the people had arrived by the time Janus walked up, Roman had waited at the door for this moment, determined to greet him when he arrived, he had said he was coming after all.

Roman tried not to let his jaw hit the floor as Janus arrived, although the smug look on Janus’s face clearly told him it hadn’t worked. Janus was wearing a pale yellow floor length dress with exaggerated folds from the waist of the dress, and see through flowy sleeves. There were yellow flowers which trailed down the folds on the left side and around the base of his dress.

Roman frankly couldn’t believe he’d done that in a day even if he’d had help.

“Oh honey I know I look good,” Janus said, as Roman tried and failed to say anything to greet Janus, “The drooling is much appreciated though.”

Roman snapped his mouth closed, “Uh welcome! Your dress is stunning.”

Janus winked as he brushed past Roman, “Why thank you. You look quite nice yourself.”  

Janus tried to disappear into the crowd but Roman didn’t let him get away, “Running away so quickly?” Roman said as he caught up with Janus.

“This isn’t Cinderella, I wasn’t running from you Prince Charming.”

Roman ignored his heart beating out of his chest, “Prince Charming? Why if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were flirting with me.” Roman said with a slight laugh before extending a hand, “might I have the pleasure of being the first to dance with you this evening?”

Janus took his hand, “The pleasure is all mine.”

The first dance was to much more classical music, Roman had set it up so that when Janus arrived the music would shift into the more ballroom appropriate style of music, but all the other music was decided by what the feeling of the room was.

As they drifted around the room, their hands intertwined, their eyes occasionally made eye contact and electricity would spark in between them. They only made eye contact every few moments and would always glance away quickly as the tension threatened to snap.

Throughout the dance Roman noticed Janus loosening up, his grip became looser on Roman’s hand and his movements became more fluid. He was clearly relaxing, like something he’d been dreading turned out not to come true.

When the song ended they were chest to chest and smiling as they stared into each other eyes for the first proper time.

Roman opened his mouth to say something but before he could Janus had already pulled his hands out of Roman’s and was looking everywhere and anywhere but Roman.

“Thank you for the dance.” Janus said before fleeing.

~~~

Janus ran.

Well maybe ‘ran’ was a bit dramatic, but he certainly didn’t stick around to see what Roman was going to say. He probably would have just laughed in Janus’s face for believing him.

He tracked down Remus who was hanging upside down by his knees off the stair bannister as he talked to Virgil.

“There you are!” Remus said as he took one of his knees of the banister to wave at Janus with his foot.

Virgil cringed and looked at the floor, “I’m so worried you’re gonna fall, but if you do I swear I’ll laugh at you.”

“I’d like to thank you Remus,” Janus said. “Roman was quite literally speechless when I walked in the room, and I know I certainly would not have had an outfit this good without you considering the short notice.”

“Nice!” Remus said, “So he’s who you’re trying to impress?”

Janus blinked, “Um I suppose.”

Virgil bumped his shoulder against Janus’s “That wasn’t very confident, which means that you weren’t expecting that, and Remus hit the nail on the head.”

Janus opened his mouth slightly, “well yes, but only because I wanted to create a better outfit than—”

“You can fool them all day,” Remus said as he gestured out to the crowd. “But sometimes you try to hide your tells so much that it is a tell and it makes you the worst liar.”

Janus folded his arms, “What do you want.”

“Well I want to know how that dance went.” Virgil said, “Looked pretty heated to me.”

Janus rolled his eyes, “It was nice. It ended, he was going to say something, and I ran.”

Remus groaned, “Really? Just when it was getting good.” He let himself fall off the banister but grabbed the ledge with his hands before dropping the rest of the way.

“You’ve gotta talk.” Virgil said, “I mean you’re just dancing around the elephant in the room. Just ask him out.”

“Virgil you should know better than anyone that it’s not that easy.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, nerves whatever. But it’s not gonna go away until one of you does something!”

“Well it’s not going to be me.”

~~~

“Logan, I’m freaking out!” Roman said as he paced around Logan who was just watching Roman with a slightly amused expression.

“And what exactly is causing this?”

“Aren’t you supposed to like, remember stuff?” Roman lowered his voice and said, “You know... the crush thing on Janus.”

Logan blinked in mild surprise before saying, “Right. That. Now I’m not saying go to Patton, but he’d certainly be better at giving advice.”

“I don’t need advice.” Roman muttered. “I need confidence. I just need to walk up to him and say ‘Janus I like you, will you go out with me?’ But when he looks at me my words just shrivel up and die.”

“That’s a little dramatic. But I suppose difficult.” Logan said, he still seemed entertained by Roman’s dilemma.

“Yeah.” Roman sighed.

“Have you tried making a scene?”

“This is serious!”

“Sorry sorry, I was just thinking of things you were good at.”

Roman sat down at one of the tables and pouted, “Logan,” he whined. “Can you do it for me? It’s so hard.”

“Let me get this straight.”

“Please don’t.”

“You think the best course of action in this situation is for me, to go to Janus, and like a bunch of middle school children, you want me to tell him that you like him for you.”

“Yeah that just about tracks.”

“Roman that is quite possibly the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Just tell him yourself.”

Roman sighed, “but what if he says no?”

“Then it will hurt for a while, but at least you won’t be pining after an unattainable goal!”

“Ugh fine... I’ll tell him before the end of the night.”

~~~

Janus glanced over at Roman, “Why is he just standing there?”

“He’s talking to Logan?” Virgil said.

“But why?”

“Stop being so antsy, it’s only been an hour. Nothing weird is happening.”

“I’m bored.” Remus said, from his upside down position as he was doing a handstand. “Hey Janus wanna make a deal?”

Janus narrowed his eyes, “That entirely depends.”

“If or when Patton comes over, you have to go talk to Roman.”

Janus hummed, “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Fine.”

Remus grinned and stood right side up before immediately yelling, “PATTON!!!”

“Shut up!” Janus hissed, “I thought you meant naturally!”

“Well you should have read the fine print! PATTON!”

Patton poked his head out from the crowd and walked over to the group, “Hey guys! Did ya need something Remus?”

“Yes!” Remus said as he jumped to his feet, “Dance with me!”

“What?”

“It’ll be fun!” Remus began to drag Patton to the dance floor, and he glanced over his shoulder and winked at Janus, “I’m sure Janus and Virgil can find something else to do.”

“Fuck you.” Janus mouthed.

As Remus disappeared into the crowd with Patton. Janus sighed and grabbed Virgil’s hand, “Okay come on.”

“Wait what?”

“You’re coming with me and you’re not going to complain about it.”

As they walked over to the piano where Roman was hovering, Janus overheard Roman saying to Logan, who was toying with a violin, “You know you could just not practice now.”

“It’s not practice.” Logan said, “It’s fun. Anyway, you came and interrupted my practice with Avery, and you won’t let me play now, really Roman I’m starting to think you have something against either me or violins.”

“Well I can’t be responsible for interrupting you at a party! It’s a social event!” Roman spotted Janus, “Speaking of being social, hello Virgil, nice to see you haven’t crept away into some corner, and Janus good to see you too!”

“Why hello.” Janus said, “funny seeing you here.

Logan nodded to them, “Greetings.”

“I was wondering if I could steal the second best dressed from you.” Janus said to Logan, as he flicked his hand in Roman’s direction.

“Well I’m not sure how you can steal yourself,” Roman said. “But I, as the best dressed, would be happy to come with you.”

“I believe you misspoke-”

Logan interrupted Janus’s objection by saying, “Why don’t you both take a vote to see who the most fashionable is? Seeing as your quarrel will continue until a resolution is found.”

Virgil snorted, “I don’t know if I would trust him with that.”

“Pardon me?” Janus said.

“I was actually talking about Roman,” Virgil said as he scanned Janus, “but now that you bring it up snake face, I don’t think I’d trust either of you with the task.”

“Excuse you!” Roman gasped, “I resent that!”

“You’ve literally rigged votes in the past to get what you wanted.”

“Fair point.” Roman said, “I still resent it!”

“And Janus is the embodiment of deceit, so not exactly someone I’d trust not to cheat.”

“I too resent that Virgil,” Janus said as he sent a look over to Roman’s direction, “Frankly I would never cheat first, and I would only rig the vote if I knew my opponent had done so, therefore nullifying the cheating.”

Logan frowned, “Um that’s not how it works.”

Janus looked around before spotting Patton, “Patton! You agree right?” He yelled.

Patton glanced over before cupping a hand around his mouth and yelling back, “What was that kiddo? I couldn’t quite hear you over this rocking music!”

“This is in no way rock music,” Logan protested. “It seems classical, perhaps with some elements of jazz, but certainly not rock.”

Janus smiled slightly at Logan before calling back, “I asked if you agreed?”

“Oh! Sure thing!”

“See Logan?” Janus said, “it must be right if Patton and I are on the same side.”

“That’s a flawed perspective in multiple ways and we all know it,” Logan said. “But I will concede... for now.”

Janus offered an arm to Roman, “And with that, may I have this dance?”

Roman grinned and the music began to pick up as they walked into the grand ballroom dance hall.

It started relatively slow, a waltz, it felt more comfortable than their first dance, less forced in a way.

“As much as I’ve talked about being more fashionable,” Janus said. “Your outfit truly is stunning.”

“Thank you.” Roman said, “Yours is beautiful, and quite impressive considering the time you had to create it.”

Janus smirked, “I have a knack for details. Speaking of... On Friday, why did you start sparking? You never did say.”

“I didn’t remember!” Roman said.

“Right,” Janus said as he let go with his left hand to effortlessly transition into a spin, “I remember that’s what you told us.” Roman came back around and took Janus’s hand again. “However,” Janus continued, “you forget yourself Roman. I know there’s more there, and you can’t trick me like that.”

Roman blanched momentarily, if he hadn’t known Janus didn’t believe him, he definitely did now. “Um I was thinking about tonight, running through different scenarios.”

“I should really teach you how to lie,” Janus mused. “Not that it would matter to me regardless. But I won’t press you.”

“I’ll tell you soon!” Roman stammered out.

Janus just raised his eyebrow, ah, so it was about him.

Roman’s grip tightened around Janus’s waist as he twirled him around and fell silent again. Somehow the music seemed to get louder to overcompensate for Roman and Janus’s conversation faltering, but that didn’t make a lot of sense considering they were in no way the only ones talking or dancing.  

“I like you-” Janus started to mumble, it wouldn’t have been audible over the music, but as he spoke the song abruptly ended, and Roman blinked in confusion not at the music but Janus. Janus took it in his stride, “-Tube. I don’t tell you enough how well a job you did guiding Thomas to his passion.”

“Oh!” Roman said as he rubbed the back of his neck, “Thank you, that’s very kind.”

Janus stepped back slightly, “Every word is deserved.”

“Hi guys!” Patton said as he skipped over with Remus, “Can I steal Jan from you?”

Janus tried not to seem too frustrated as he smiled at Patton, all he’d gotten out of this was a, ‘I’ll tell you soon’, what kind of progress was that? “Certainly, if Roman doesn’t have any formal complaints, speak now or forever hold your peace~” Janus said as he began to walk off with Patton.

~~~

“Be my guest, have fun!” Roman said as he waved them away. He turned away to walk off the dance floor and was met face to face with Remus.

“Ah god! Remus what are you-”

Remus leant closer to Roman and squinted, making Roman lean back and look off to the side.

“What’s your angle?”

“Forty five degrees with a slight head tilt.” Roman answered reflexively.

“No, I mean like you and Janus, why are you doing this thing?”

“What thing? I’m not doing a thing, you’re doing a thing!”

“Yes you are! You’re like dancing around him, and not saying anything at all when you talk.” Remus said, “Come on, are you into him or not?”

Roman glanced around slightly, “I mean yes,” he said in a half whisper, “Why does that matter?”

“Get a move on then.”

“What?”

Remus tapped his wrist, “You - move - faster! Or at least make some move since you haven’t even done that yet.”

“Why what when?”

“Because I’m bored of this,” Remus whined, “and you should just make a move, tonight!”

“I mean I was planning to, kind of, well, I was thinking of backing out.”

“Nooo,” Remus whined, “Literally don’t. What’s the worst that could happen? He spontaneously combusts? He hates you so much he burns the castle down? He kills you? He ducks out? He says no? He doesn’t say anything? Come on just ask!”

“Very reassuring Remus.”

“Oh come on only like two of those were realistic! It’ll be fine!”

“Why are you so invested in my love life?”

“Oh I couldn’t give less of a crap about your love life! I just want you to stop pinning, it’s boring! Maybe even confess in a fun way!”

“So you want me to confess my feelings for Janus because you just feel like it?”

“Yeah!”

Roman huffed, “If I promise to say something today will you keep your mouth shut?”

“I can’t promise that-”

“Will you just not tell Janus!”

“Oh!” Remus said, “Yeah sure.”

“Cross your heart?”

Remus plunged a hand into his chest and pulled his heart out, “Hope to die!” He said with a grin.

Roman cringed and nodded, “Thank you, I will say something I promise.”

“Nice, now you wanna show these amateurs how to really dance?”

A few hours after Remus’s conversation with Roman, it was dark enough outside and Roman began to gather everyone outside for the fireworks.

It was the kind of cold that was comfortable, just cold enough to want you to curl up next to the nearest person but not cold enough to go numb. The crowd from inside the castle began to spill out into the field, and little pockets of multi-colored dots spotted the hillside as they began to cuddle together.

Patton ran past Roman, who was standing in the doorway out to the backdoor, with  Logan and Janus in tow. Roman watched with amusement as Patton tugged Logan to the ground as Logan stared up at the sky which didn’t have fireworks covering it yet, and Roman could see him pointing out constellations from the true to life night’s sky he’d designed.  

Even from the castle, Roman could tell Janus was laughing. As Logan was pulled down at an awkward angle which left him a tangled pile of limbs with Patton who immediately seized the opportunity to grab Janus and tug him down too.

Roman sighed fondly as he watched Janus curl himself more comfortably against the other two. What he’d give to be down there right now.

As the final couple people began to trickle out, Remy and Virgil walked by bickering slightly about something inconsequential, but as they passed Virgil sent a knowing look in Roman’s direction which Remy most certainly didn’t miss, and he stopped mid sentence to raise an eyebrow at Virgil. Roman knew Remy would be asking about that, the nosy bitch.

Roman glanced back at the empty ballroom and gestured back as he stepped forward to the edge of the balcony. All the lights turned off in the giant castle and darkness fell over the field. Roman took a breath as the cool night air washed over him.

“Let the show begin!”

~~~

Janus curled up against Patton and stared wide eyed at the sky as fireworks blossomed against the sky, they were quiet, mostly for Virgil’s sake, but the colors were just as vibrant and beautiful. They whirled in spirals before exploding and scattering the sparks of color, the dazzling balls of silent sparks burst and Janus leant back against Patton as wonderment filled his chest. He’s seen fireworks before since Thomas had seen fireworks before, but he’d never seen them before. They were gorgeous.

Janus scanned the crowd as the initial feeling of amazement began to fade, Roman should be around right? This was his big night, he organized all this and it was the grand finale and he just wasn’t here? Uncharacteristic.

Janus sat up a little and looked back at the balcony. Illuminated by the multicolor glow of the fireworks, Roman stood leaning against the balcony, staring up at the sky alone. Janus shifted slightly as he thought about getting up, but Patton was pressed into his side and he didn’t want to disturb anyone.

So Janus just sat there watching the fireworks, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he should do something about Roman, he looked so... lonely.

The fireworks eventually ended and for a little while everyone just sat quietly under the stars, there wasn’t any smoke since the fireworks were imaginary, so the sky was crystal clear, and stars shined brightly down on the crowd.

People eventually began to leave in small clusters, some got up and left through the imagination, others went out through the castle, Janus watched as Roman straightened and bid everyone who was leaving goodbye with a smile.

Janus vaguely noticed Patton standing up and Logan rubbed Janus’s shoulder, “Hey we’re heading out?”

“Good night,” Janus said. “I’ll head home by myself, you know my secret house, which hasn’t been that secret recently.”

“Right,” Logan said as he rubbed the back of his neck, “See you soon?”

“Sure.” Janus shrugged, “Take care.”

Janus waited patiently as everyone slowly disappeared. He stood up and stretched once everyone was gone and walked up by Roman and leant next to him on the balcony.

“Hey.”

“I thought you left already,” Roman said. He paused. “Why are you still here?”

“You looked lonely.”

Roman laughed slightly, “I just threw a party with all of my friends, and you think I’m lonely?”

“Mhm...” Janus said. “Well during the fireworks you stayed up here. It was weird, and you seemed like you had something on your mind and I’m not one to abandon a friend.”

Roman looked over at Janus and he swore a snake was coiling around his heart and squeezing it to keep it in his chest as it began to beat hard and fast.

“Friends huh?” Roman asked.

“Are we not friends?”

“We are! Of course we are!” Roman paused and Janus heard him mutter under his breath something about Remus. “Okay, can I talk to you about something?”

“Yes.” Janus said, now or never.

Roman glanced around and blew out a breath, “Okay, well I kinda have this dare thing with Remus.”

Janus’s heart sunk, that wasn’t a great start.

Roman ran a hand through his hair, “And- um fuck okay I’m doing this wrong. I had this whole plan, it was going to be all elaborate, but I just- What was the word you used? Finesse. Yeah I’ve got none of that. Okay maybe it would be better if I showed you?”

Janus frowned, “You were doing fine, but if you must.”

Roman laughed slightly, “You don’t have to lie to me Janus, I know that was a bad way to start any statement, we all know Remus’s dares.” Roman smiled, “But! Me being bad with words aside, allow me to show you, with hopefully a bit more finesse than my words can provide.” With a sharp movement of his wrist Roman summoned an extravagant bouquet primarily made of yellow and red flowers. Roman held it out for Janus, “how’s this for finesse?”

Janus took the bouquet cautiously, like he was afraid it was going to explode, “They’re beautiful... but this hasn’t answered any of my questions.”

“Right.” Roman rubbed the back of his neck, “I like you.”

“I would hope so. I was somewhat under the impression we were friends.”

“No I-” Roman huffed, “Yes again we’re friends! But that’s not what I was talking about. I was... I like you differently than a friend! I have a crush on you.”

Janus froze. Oh god, he must be dreaming, because there was no way Roman actually felt the same way he did. The heart and brain were cruel, he must have fallen asleep at the fireworks or something, or worse yet the ball hadn’t even happened yet and he was sleeping before or heaven forbid through it.

“Janus?” Roman asked quietly, “Please say something?”

Janus snapped back into reality but didn’t say anything, instead he pinched himself hard.

“Oh.” Janus said when he didn’t wake up and instead was just left with a slightly sore spot on his arm. “This is real.”

Roman winced, “Uh yeah. Sorry?”

“No no no!” Janus said as he panicked slightly, “Don’t be sorry, please don’t be sorry. I was just surprised that you felt that way about me too! Because never in a million years did I actually expect, I mean I just thought it was a stupid prank.”

“You thought what was a prank?”

Janus rubbed the back of his neck, “It’s funny, really you’ll laugh. I kinda maybe bribed Logan a little bit to let me disguise myself as him so I could look at your outfit to see what I was up against?” He blurred out in one breath.

Roman frowned, “What does that-” A look of realization flashed across his face, “Wait it was you at the piano?”

“Yeah...”

Roman snorted and turned to the balcony to look out over the field, “That is funny. We were really dancing around each other for no reason huh?”

“Well not for no reason, I just thought you were joking.”

Roman smiled as he shook his head in slight disbelief, “You know you still haven’t given me a straight answer.”

“I like you,” Janus said. “And I certainly can’t run from the fact that I have a crush on you too.”

Roman grinned, “I know.”

“So what happens now?”

Roman tilted his head, “What do you want to happen?”

“I want this night to last longer.”

“That’s a good start,” Roman said, as he opened the castle doors, “Because I was hoping you’d say something like that.”

Janus watched as the ballroom transformed in front of his eyes. It didn’t change too much, it didn’t need to, but the food and tables disappeared from the edges, the number of chandeliers were cut in half, so low lighting was draped over the entire ballroom. The entire room was completely empty now, besides the piano which had moved to the direct center of the room.

“After you.”

Janus stepped in, his clicking footsteps echoed around the room which had felt so busy and full earlier that night. Janus could hear Roman’s heels clicking behind him as he approached the piano.  

Janus smiled as he caught sight of the oboe on the other side of the bench, he pitched it up and looked at Roman.

“We don’t have to play!” Roman clarified quickly. “Of course doing a duet would be amazing, but I could make them play themselves and we could have a dance, you know one without the... emotional dread?”

“Why not both?”

Roman snapped, “I like your thinking!”

“Come on pretty boy,” Janus said as he gestured to the piano, “We’ve only got all night.”

~~~

Epilogue

Janus woke up at what felt like the crack of dawn, which happened every time he slept at the castle, the birds chirped far too loud for what should be possible for their little lungs. The first few times this had happened Janus had gotten quite reasonably upset, but he’d grow used to the little rascal’s constant conversation.

Janus could feel the rise and fall of the duvet from Roman’s steady and still very asleep breathing. Janus took a breath before slipping out of bed, his feet burnt against the cold wood as he stood up carefully and began to expertly maneuver around the floorboards which were horrendously creaky.

In all honesty, Janus wasn’t sure why he was bothering to be so quiet. If Roman woke up it would be purely on his own terms and no one else’s. Roman would and, knowing Remus, probably had effectively slept through a hurricane.

Once Janus cleared the landing around Roman’s room, he practically ran to the stairs and slid down the excessively long banister instead of waking down the stairs because how often were you given the opportunity to actually slide down a banister?

Janus was in socks, so after sliding off the banister he hit the ground and started sliding against the ballroom floor which had been waxed for the ball. He slid across the ballroom floor like ice as he made his way over to the kitchen. Usually Roman summoned something, but today Janus wanted to make it special. There was no particular reason, he just felt like it!

That was as good a reason as any, Janus thought as he arrived at the kitchen and began to take out the supplies for pancakes he’d snuck in yesterday. The mixing went off relatively without a hitch, besides almost dropping the bowl, but luckily the helper hands were true to their name.

As the pancakes began to cook, Janus smiled as the smell began to drift around the kitchen. It smelt good. Meaning Roman would probably be down soon, the one, and seemingly only thing that was able to wake him up was food. Janus hummed to himself as he drifted around the kitchen, chopping fruit, getting out plates, glasses and cutlery, all hole keeping an eye on the pancakes.

True to prediction, it wasn’t long before Janus heard Roman’s slow morning footsteps approaching the kitchen. Roman arrived in his red checkered pj pants and t-shirt with a crown which read, “This is real Royal-tee!”

Roman yawned as he wrapped his arms around Janus’s waist and nestled his head into Janus’s shoulder, “S’methin smells good.”

“Is it me?” Janus asked jokingly, “I can’t imagine you can smell much else but my shirt right now.”

Roman took an exaggerated breath in, “Mm- you do smell so good, like pine and maple syrup.”

Janus snorted, “Uh-huh maple syrup? I think you might be hungry.”

“Always. Speaking of the food, is this because of something? Wait is it Thomas’s birthday?”

“Is it Thomas’s birthday? Roman, darling come on, please tell me you're not serious.”

“Just answer the question, it’s too early for braining.” Roman said as he took one of his hands from Janus’s waist and gestured vaguely at his head.

“No it’s not Thomas’s birthday, that’s not for months.”

“Okay whatever it was a good guess.”

“Was it?”

“Anyway!” Roman said. “Why the cooking food breakfast stuff?”

“I cook all the time! I’m really the only one of us who can cook.”

“What about Logan?”

“Logan can’t cook. Logan can follow recipes. It’s different. But this isn’t because of anything. I just wanted to.”

Janus felt Roman smile against his shoulder as he mumbled something about Janus being a sap, and Janus felt his heart flutter happily as he smiled down at Roman.

Roman squeezed Janus’s waist and hummed melodically, “Can I help?”

Janus looked around the kitchen where his helper hands were hard at work, “I don’t think there’s anything to do.”

Roman kissed Janus’s shoulder, “Mm fine, I guess I’ll let you pamper me.”

About five minutes later they were sitting on the stools in the kitchen eating breakfast. Roman wiggled around as he ate, “This is so good.” Roman said, “Oh this overshadows summoned food by tenfold.”

“Thank you,” Janus said fondly. “I’m glad you like it since I made it with you in mind.”

“Like it is an understatement, this is a-freaking-mazing!”

“They’re just pancakes,” Janus said with a laugh. “You really need to eat more actual food.”

“Yeah I guess- hey! We should totally cook together sometime! Oh we could make a date out of it and then we would take it into the imagination for a picnic and-”

As Roman began to plan their next big date, Janus half zoned out as he watched Roman’s excitement, his eyes were alight with ideas and he flailed around his fork like he was drawing them into existence. Janus always loved seeing that passion in his eyes, it was truly stunning. Roman’s fork flew out of his hand as he clearly got a great idea, and Janus huffed in amusement.

“Be careful Roman you don’t want to set anything on fire!”

“That was one time!”

[merlybird500]

if i’ve done this right this should post on the 28th, but if not, uh... sorry?

so this is my @sanderssidesgiftxchange present for @dandomroodles

the request was coffee shop au logince, and i hope you like it!

[art-gx]

Who Could Love a Liar?

(main blog @arc-gx)

ahhh this is a couple days later than it was supposed to be sorry but here's my gift for @sanderssidesgiftxchange!

@in-verity-in-sanity i had you for the secret santa so i did your request for roloceit with janus hurt/comfort (well, as close as i could with a drawing)

i hope you like it! sorry for the wait~

–drawing without the words and image id below the cut–

[Digital ID: A digital drawing of Sanders Sides characters Logan, Roman and Janus, in a modern fantasy human au, viewed from the side. Logan is wearing a light blue blouse with a medium length dark blue skirt, black leggings, and a blue bow. Their hair is a reddish brown with a pencil stuck in it. They are kneeling down with a worried expression, holding Janus' face. Roman is in a dark red sweater which loosely hangs to expose one shoulder, short denim shorts, white and red socks, and a golden headband with a crown on his dark brown and dyed red hair. He is hugging Janus from behind with a saddened expression on his face, with his legs curled up to his left. Janus is in between them, kneeling, with his head in his hands and tape over his mouth. He has on a yellow letterman jacket, black tee shirt, and grey ripped pants. His hair is light brown and snake scales cover the side of his face facing the frame. A black bowler hat is sitting on the ground next to Logan's leg, like it fell off Janus' head. The background is a gradient of blue to black and yellow to red, with yellow stars on the blue (left) side with Logan and yellow crowns on the red (right) side with Roman. The first image has the words "who could love a liar?" written over it, and the second is the same drawing without the words. End ID]

[bothcreativitybois]

Here is one of my gifts for the @sanderssidesgiftxchange​ and this one was made for @logicalyfun​

A BUNCH OF FLUFFY PUPPIES!! I hope you like it! Happy holidays! <3

[look-ma-im-on-tv]

Hey @multi-tasking-nightmare I was your secret santa! sorry it won't tag! @sanderssidesgiftxchange

I drew this!

And for the story you requested with extraterrestrial, I'd really love to write that once I get time! I love the concept!

I hope you like your gift, and happy holidays!

(More versions, including original drawn on paper under the cut)

[strugglingispointless]

Here is my gift for @anxxiousmess hosted by @sanderssidesgiftxchange! I really enjoyed writing this, and I hope you enjoy it as well. Word count: 9,031 Summary: Christmastime is a time of tradition, and traditions are something well known in Virgil and Roman's apartment. This year, Virgil is ready to start a new one, though ae has to get over aes fear of Roman not saying that three-letter word that'll change both of their lives forever. Lucky for aer, Roman has always had a calming effect on aer.

[alexvidraws]

Happy holidays to DJ!!!!!! :))) @djpurple3 I’m your secret santa, and I hope you like what I made :)

Thanks to @sanderssidesgiftxchange for doing this event, it was fun!