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“Come on, Dee! You’re holding everyone up!” Janus looked up to see Roman yelling at him a few yards ahead of him. He realized that he had stopped moving, though his mind had been moving at a million miles per hour. He had gotten so lost that apparently he forgot to keep moving forward at some point.
Janus tried to keep his surprise muted, but he knew he failed when Roman frowned at him, his beckoning slowing down. Janus glanced down at his hands, following Roman’s eyes to his interlocked fingers in front of him, a habit Janus formed whenever he was alone and stressed. He quickly let go, his hand coming together behind him in a much less outwardly stressful position.
To ease whatever tension that came from his unconscious action projecting his feelings, he rolled his eyes, body still tense, but less so than before.
“Sorry I’m not Speedy Gonazales, Roman, not all of us were on the track team in high school.” Janus drawled, walking briskly to catch up to the group. The groups consisted of Janus’s two boyfriends, Emile and Thomas and the quadruple threat of Logan, Roman, Patton, and Virgil.
Roman spun his hand around, gently slapping Janus in the face with his magic. In response, Janus conjured a snake around Roman’s neck. Roman made an undignified noise in response as he scrambled to get it off his shoulders. When he managed to get the snake off, he threw it as hard as he could in a random direction, Janus snapping the creature away before it hit the ground.
“Dee, I told you not to conjure snakes around me! You don’t just... do that!” Roman snarled, smoothing down his outfit while staring daggers at Janus, who was trying hard not to smile.
“Well, you don’t just going around hitting people with your magic, dipshit!” Janus retorted, straightening his own outfit.
“Language, kiddo! And Roman, that wasn’t nice.” Patton called from beside Roman, lightly holding Roman’s arm back, looking concernedly from Janus to Roman. His furry ears laid back against his head in residual fear of Roman retaliating again
Roman whipped around, looking almost ready to protest, but the moment he saw Patton’s eyes and expression, he wilted, looking down at the ground like a kicked puppy, nearly like Patton was going to be as the full moon was soon, but that was besides the point.
“You’re right, I’m sorry Pat.” Roman relented, walking forwards as Janus and Roman’s antics had stopped the group once again.
Janus muttered under his breath quiet enough that no one but him could hear, “I’m not your kiddo.”
Finally, the conversation went on, everyone seeming to forget what just happened, but Janus’s racing heart made sure he wasn’t forgetting anytime soon.
-
“See you next week! I can’t wait to do this again!” Patton called out as him and his boyfriends walked away from Janus and his boyfriends’s house. The night had gone by so fast, that one moment with Roman was nearly lost in the overall ambience of that night.
Almost.
Instead, Janus couldn’t help but replay how Roman’s face had contorted in a snarl directed directly at him. He knew he was getting lost on thought just like with Roman, but he didn’t care as all he saw was Roman’s hatred and how he didn’t like him or hated him and he didn’t- shouldn’t-
“Janus!” A voice ripped through his spiral like a tissue, the melodic voice of Thomas centering him as he blinked his eyes open, not knowing when he had ever closed them. He focused in on Thomas’s inhumanly angular face, realizing belatedly that someone was holding his arms, seeing Thomas’s grip on him.
He desperately wanted to fix this, to assure Thomas he was fine because he had to be, because he wouldn’t let his stupid feelings ruin the night.
But instead his traitor body decided to disregard what he wanted as he suddenly burst into tears. He felt Thomas bring him close, Janus taking in Thomas’s forest smell of his realm. Another hand on his back signaled Emile was nearby as well.
He couldn’t exactly understand what was being said over the rumbling of Thomas’s voice in his chest, but he knew what he said when he finally spoke.
“I would overthrow the government for Roman, for all of them. But it’s illegal and- I- and he would- they would-” Janus heard Thomas this time as he lighly squeezed Janus, and Janus felt like he was being moved somewhere, but he couldn’t tell over his overwhelming sobs.
“Sometimes, illegal and bad are not the same thing, Jan.” Janus heard his words echoed back at him, the countless times he had talked about society and how most of society was bogus.
“How dare you use my words against me...” Janus muttered into Thomas’s neck, sobs spent and now his body was heavy from the effort of holding all that emotional energy like that for so long. He distantly realized he was laying down on the couch with Thomas, but couldn’t bring himself to care as his eyes began to slip closed.
“Because I love you. And... Emile and I also love those 4, but until they show reciprocation, we can’t intrude.” Thomas hummed, Janus groggily realizing he was trying to lull Janus to sleep with what he was doing, and Janus couldn’t help but accept as he sunk down into the warm vat of sleep.
-
A number of miles away, the 4 boyfriends being talked about with Janus individually realized they couldn’t get out that moment of true surprise from Janus out their heads, blushes covering their cheeks as they tried to sleep.
Roman most of all couldn’t get what happened out of his head, his mind replaying how he snarled at Janus with frankly unnecessary malice and that little note of surprise made only one coherent thought reverberate through his head.
Fuck.