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Remus sat on his side of the imagination, diligently opening the skull of a manticore. He slammed his morningstar downward, watching as bone splintered into wild cracks under the touch of the weapon’s points. Blood splashed up, coating his cheeks and mustache. The smell and tacky feel of it made him giggle and thrash his weapon harder.
Normally, he’d be out and about at this time of the day, filling Thomas’s head with fun ideas like eating dog food. Actually, he and Janus had talked about teaming up to coerce Thomas to push his competition down the stairs, but then right in the middle of their conversation, Janus went rigid.
“Occupy yourself, Remus,” he had said while straightening his hat, face grim and not in a fun way. “Things are worse than I thought.”
So now Remus was doing what he could to keep himself occupied. If he didn’t, he’d surely go storming upstairs and mess up whatever Janus was doing.
A large portion of the manticore’s skull popped off and Remus dropped his morningstar. His free fingers dived into the pinkish mush of one of the biggest brains Remus had ever seen, poking and squishing like it was merely playdough. Just as he was about to pop a piece into his mouth, there was a soft whoosh of air, signaling the entrance of a side.
“Re?”
Remus looked up, giddy laughter breaking as his eyes fell onto Janus. The self-caring side had popped up on the other side of the manticore, his shoulders slumped forward and heavy.
With a click of his fingers, Remus made the manticore, its brain, and all the blood vanish.
“Jan, you okay?”
Janus swallowed hard and Remus opened his arms for the other side to slip into. Janus did, his nose pressing against Remus’s neck.
“I told them.”
Remus’s eyes bulged.
“Like...told-told them?”
“Yes, Ree, took off a glove and everything.”
Remus whistled. He never thought Janus would give his name as soon as he had. Out of all the sides, Janus was the one who loved his name the most. He wore it like a badge and would never let anyone he didn’t think deserved to say it to even know it.
“How did they take it?”
“Roman laughed.”
Remus stiffened, his fingers curling into the fabric of Janus’s shirt.
“I’ll crush him.”
“Don’t. I...I think I already did that.”
Janus pulled out of Remus’s arms, his hands folding in his lap. Remus reaches out, taking the shaking appendages in his own. He rubbed circles against Janus’s skin, the most gentle thing he’s done all day.
“I...compared him to you,” Janus explained. “I don’t know why. I just...I wanted to hurt him back. My name is...it’s not something I can just say like it’s nothing, you know? I didn’t even want to say it but there was no other way they would listen.” Janus’s bottom lip trembled. “And then he...he got upset. Of course, he did. And then Roman asked Thomas if he still thought of him as a hero and when Thomas answered, Roman looked to me. I tried to convey to him that things would be alright but…”
“But?”
“He took it the wrong way. He...he thought I was lying...” Janus pulled his hands free from Remus’s and rubbed his eyes. “After all that, after...trying so hard to help Thomas, after telling him my...my name— he still didn’t tr...trust m..me.”
Janus was sobbing now, shoulders shaking and sharp hiccups bubbling up his throat.
Remus crawled closer to Janus, scooping the self-caring side into his arms again. Janus shuddered, staring into Remus’ sad eyes as he fell apart. When he tried to hide, Remus tipped his head up again, carefully brushing away the falling tears with the tips of his fingers.
“It's going to be okay, Jan.”
“Is it?”
Remus bothered his lip. Saying yes would be a lie. Remus didn’t know for sure. How could he? So much can change in one day, in one conversation.
“I don’t know,” Remus admitted. “But you and I will be okay.” Remus flicked the lip of Janus’s hat. “No matter what happens, you'll always have this stinky bag of garbage.”
A smile curled the corners of Janus’ lip.
“And you’ve got this snek boi.”
Janus’ head dropped against Remus’s shoulder. He focused on his breathing, waiting out the hiccups and sniffles that still shook his body. Remus sat with him through it, holding his friend and babbling away about manticore brains.