Chapter Text
It'll probably be a while before James bothers him again. Apparently Janus and Remus have a reputation in this school, and once he's seen hanging out with them suddenly everyone is much nicer to him. Virgil thinks it's probably more out of fear than anything else, but he appreciates it.
It's been a few weeks before anything too crazy happens again. Aside from Remus' antics obviously, but Virgil very quickly has grown used to them, treating them with a mixture of amusement and the bored disdain that Janus seemed to hold to pretty much everything.
He's walking with Janus to the library one day, talking about nothing as friends do, when all of a sudden Janus eyes widen with surprise and apprehension.
"Shoot, shoot, shoot," he mutters, grabbing Virgil's arm and pulling him away out of sight. "What? What is it? What's wrong?" Virgil asks worriedly, as he follows his friend away.
"Logan's back."
"Who's Logan?"
Janus looks at him like he's an idiot for around three seconds before he sigh and goes, "Well, I suppose you get a free pass on this one since you're new and all." his face immediately darkens. "Logan is my arch enemy."
"Oh. Why?"
That earns him a glare and a huff. "You can't even show a little bit of shock, or friend solidarity?"
"I did not realise you were so dramatic." a flat voice calls out from behind them, and Janus nearly jumps five feet in the air. There stands your typical nerd, complete with glasses and a few textbooks held loosely in his arm. The boy looks completely bored already - Virgil guesses that's punishment for actually studying - whereas Janus hisses and pulls Virgil in front of him as a human shield.
"Get back!"
"Oh, my god," Virgil murmurs to himself.
"Greetings, Janus. I see you have accqired another new student to terrify." Arch Enemy No. 1 replies.
"How dare you! Virgil is my friend, and he is valiantly protecting me."
"Dude." the 'valiant protector' mutters. "What did you take today? Drugs? What is this?"
Arch Enemy No. 1 turns to Virgil. "Is this true? You are his friend?"
Virgil eyes Logan warily. "Yeah, I guess."
"Right."
"Get back, fiend!" Janus hisses again. "I owe you nothing!"
Virgil looks at Janus. "What do you owe him?"
"Nothing! I said nothing!" Yeah, Virgil's gonna go out on a limb and say that's a lie.
"Falsehood. Janus and I formed a deal last week that I would do his Chemistry homework in exchange for $20. I fulfilled my part of the deal, he did not. I simply wish to receive my payment so we can move on from this ridiculous exchange." Arch Enemy No. 1 huffs.
"I don't remember that happening." Janus smiles smugly, crossing his arms. "What proof do you have?"
Logan raises an eyebrow. "Do you want me to get Roman?"
A heavy silence falls between the two as Janus glares at Logan. "... Fine." he opens his backpack and retrieves the 20 dollars, handing it reluctantly to Logan.
"Thank you. Good bye." Logan turns immediately away from them and begins walking in the opposite direction. What a strange person, Virgil wonders briefly.
Janus mutters under his breath all the way to the library. "Stupid Logan ... Threatening me with Roman... How dare he?"
Virgil has never met Roman, but Remus briefly mentioned him before.
"My brother," he said grimly, as he flopped down at the library table one day. "Roman told on me to mom! Now I can't bring tomatoes to school anymore!"
Janus had gone bright red at the mention of his name, and Virgil has joked that "you don't need tomatoes, Re, you've got Jan." And he knew something was off by the way that Janus merely scowled, for once not giving a sarcastic or witty comeback.
So Virgil is curious (and also slightly concerned and okay he's worried) about this 'Roman' guy. What has he done to Janus to make him react like that? Is he a bully? There are million possible conclusions to come to but he decided to just let Remus explain as they enter the calm of the library and spot Remus, waiting rather unpatiently in their usual spot.
"Finally!" he shrieks, ignoring the looks of disdain and hatred from the librarian and other students. "What took you so long?"
Virgil and Janus take their seats as Janus takes in a long breath, preparing to explain.
"I hate Logan." is all he says.
"Well that's hardly new." Remus prompts, but Jnaus just gooerrs at his backpack. When there's no response, Remuse turns to Virgil.
"Well?"
"Logan wanted his 20 dollars. I think he was upset because he threatened to call Roman?" Virgil guesses, shrugging slightly. "Sorry. I don't know either of them well."
However, Remus seems to make sense of it, as understand gleams in his eye, making him look almost manic. "Ohhhhhhhhh right." he says, with a demented grin on his face as he leans back on his chair.
"What does that mean?" Virgil questions cautiously. He's learned that Remus likes to draw out the suspense, so it's usually best just to ask him directly.
"Well, you see, Janus has an itsy bitsy hugey wugey crush on my brother." he wrinkles his face at the word brother. "Satan knows why."
"No, I do not." Janus mumbled resolutely. "I do not have a crush on him. Nope. Nope. Nope."
"Convincing." Virgil agreed, reaching into his bag to get his lunch out, decidedly ignoring his friend's attempts to prove his lack of feelings. "Eat your damn food."