Chapter Text
Remus bursts into Janus’s room at some time during the night.
At the sound of his doors banging open, Janus flinches, then turns into his pillows, mumbling.
“ Janus —“
“In the morning, Remus—“
The bed dips, and Janus feels the whisper of a breath on his ear, and then— “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. Or, wait, do I have to kiss you?”
“In your dreams.” Janus drags in a deep breath, knowing Remus wouldn’t do it, that coward, then sits up reluctantly.
“I’m not going to set anything on fire with you,” Janus yawns into the back of his hand.
Remus stops bouncing on his bed. “How’d you know?”
Now more awake, Janus notices Logan leaning apologetically in the doorway, still in his dark blue night robes, his hair an endearing mess. The Alchemist turns to hide a yawn himself.
Janus raises a brow at Remus.
Remus’s grin is almost from ear-to-ear.
“You look like the Cheshire Cat,” Janus comments, pushing out of bed, to step into his slippers. “What’d you say to get Logan to come with you?”
“Very little, actually.” Logan interjects. “I was dragged here entirely against my will,” which earns a quick bark of laughter from Janus.
Remus bounces off the bed, heading to the window. “Let’s go!”
Logan looks after the Duke, puzzled, as Remus pulls open a glass pane. Then the Duke nonchalantly climbs out, Janus shrugging off his cardigan to follow.
Remus is already balancing on a tree branch outside, Janus climbing over the windowsill, by the time Logan shakes his head.
Well, no wonder the two evade guards so easily.
Janus pauses, looking over his shoulder at Logan.
“Need a hand?” Janus asks, holding his out.
“Is this really necessary?” Logan asks, glancing at it, and then coming over to look at the fall below. Janus completely understands his misgivings, and grins, his teeth flashing white in the dark.
So he doesn’t expect Logan to take his hand, putting a foot on the window ledge. But then Logan pauses afterwards, looking contemplatively down into the fall below.
Logan glances up to check where Remus was, and notices that the Duke’s much farther away now, perching on a branch, looking strangely at home in the trees, fifty feet above the ground. He glances at Janus, who’s waiting, whose mouth lifts in a half-smile.
After a second, Logan pushes off the ledge, and Janus steadies his arm. They wobble precariously, and hear Remus’s voice—
“Woah—”
Despite himself, Logan finds he’s squeezing his eyes shut as he presses into Janus, realizing every way this could possibly go wrong. This was a bad idea. This was a terrible idea. Why were they even—
Janus manages to balance somehow, noticing when Logan starts to panic. He looks towards Remus, who’s making his way back over to them through the branches.
“It’s okay,” Janus breathes. “We got you.”
“Lo, open your eyes! It’s super fun, I promise!” Remus calls.
“I’m very sure we have different ideas of the word ‘fun.’” Logan says, a little louder than intended.
But he does open his eyes, because Janus loses his footing. For a second, both of them feel a weightless panic, knowing the fall below would be painful, if not fatal.
Logan grabs onto the first thing at hand, the nearest branch, as he grips Janus’s shirt in a vise.
Janus manages to catch himself against the branches, though Logan’s hold on him certainly helps.
“It’s alright,” Janus breathes, meeting Logan’s eyes. “See?”
Logan didn’t see anything alright with the situation, and has no idea what the Prince is talking about. It was a stretch of a lie, even for him, and he doesn't know who the Prince is trying to convince.
Remus, meanwhile, grabs Logan, and Logan gasps as he’s pulled into a firmer branch, letting go of Janus.
“It’s a lot easier with your eyes open,” the Duke’s saying, as he reaches over and offers a hand to Janus.
Janus takes it, maneuvering through the branches to sit beside them.
“I don’t think we’ve had a scare like that since the winter ball three years ago.” Janus says, his breaths evening as he looks below.
“Oh, that was fun,” Remus laughs. He looks at Logan. “You good, Lo?”
Logan remembers that ball. The Prince and the Duke showed up two days after the ball had ended, causing quite a stir in the span of time they went missing.
“What exactly happened before the winter ball?” Logan asks, catching his breath as he tries not to think about what could’ve happened.
Remus tilts his head, and Logan can see the slant of his smile in the dark. Logan feels a flutter in his stomach, and ignores it. “I fell.”
“I lost my grip trying to catch him.” Janus adds.
“The branches slowed our fall, though.”
Janus laughs. “Finding clothes to cover up those bruises in time was a challenge.”
Logan wonders what in the world he sees in the two of them.
They sit there a few minutes, the stars twinkling in an endless canvas above them, hidden only by some branches.
“Should we get moving?” Janus asks. “I love being poked at by sticks through my nightclothes, but I hope Remus had something more fun planned for us when he woke us up.”
“What if I told you I just wanted to enjoy the night air with you?” Remus smiles.
“Then I’m heading back to my room.”
“Take me with you,” Logan sighs.
Remus rolls his eyes, and shifts. “Come on.”
They make it work, and somehow, get to lower branches until it’s safe enough to jump.
Remus starts walking through the dark, and Janus and Logan follow him.
Janus was starting to feel the effects of the cold, and tucks his hands under his arms. “Where are we—”
“Shhh!”
They all freeze, until Remus starts moving again.
“What was that for?” Janus asks, scowling.
“I saw a guard.”
“We’re not near any guards,” Logan points out.
Remus snickers, just happy to be out at night, sneaking around with the two. “Should’ve seen your faces.”
“It’s too dark to see anything,” Janus says, to which Remus just grins.
Remus finally spots the tree he’d marked with a ribbon around its trunk. He jogs over, blindly rooting through the bushes in the darkness. He smiles when his fingers brush the burlap of the bag, and he pulls it out.
Logan is looking around skeptically, knowing they were in the sparse forest, safely tucked in the castle grounds, but still…
“How did you get this many?” Janus asks, sounding impressed.
“I took a few notes from you,” Remus’s smug reply comes.
Logan looks over in time to see Remus empty the contents of what looks like a sack bag onto the ground.
A few boxes tumble out, colorful and dented amongst the bushes, catching the slivers of moonlight slipping from the canopy above. Logan catches the writing along the packaging. Fireworks.
Remus crouches by one and rips off the packaging. He fumbles in his pockets for the box of matches, his fingers numb from the cold. When he finds it, he lights a sparkler up, and you could see the stars in his eyes as he grins at the other two.
Logan raises a brow, almost impressed. Guards don’t seem to come to this area much, either, so they’d have their privacy… If only Remus used that brain of his to help strengthen security instead of finding ways around it.
Remus pulls out a few more boxes of matches from his pocket, as Logan goes to sit in the grass next to him.
“This is what you woke us up for?” Janus asks, as he leans over to grab a firework, and presses the tip to Remus’s. It wasn’t long until his was sparking little stars.
“Yep,” Remus grins.
Remus looks at Logan, and Logan finds it difficult to not let his enthusiasm affect him.
“Come on! I have the ones that spin, too!”
Logan grabs a sparkler and presses it to Remus’s.
It takes a second, and then his is lit up, too.
“Are you sure they’re not fire hazards?” Logan asks, as Janus sits.
“It rained last night, so we’ll be fineee,” Remus says.
“How do your plans only become elaborate for things like this?” Logan sighs.
“Look at the stars!”
Logan pauses, and looks up, following Remus’s gaze.
The sky was alive with stars.
Logan’s seen it like this, many times.
When Logan looks at Remus again, the Duke is lighting up another few sparklers, cackling.
“I’m gonna make myself look like a firework.”
“Remus,” Logan says, in exasperation.
There’s an explosion of sparks, and Logan flinches, and turns to see Janus grinning as he sets another mini-spinning firework aflame on the dirt beside them.
Logan has to smile at that, watching the twin fireworks dance around.
Janus laughs a little breathlessly, a little form the cold, and a little because of his company. He’s done things like this with the two all the time, but it never gets old. Somehow, they always managed to make the world feel so much smaller, reducing everything of the world to the moment, as if all the world belonged to only them.
Remus’s eyes widen at the spinning firework, sparklers going off from his coat pockets and stuck in his boots, as he grins.
“Let me set off another one!”
Janus hands him one of the other fireworks, and Remus grabs the matches, setting it off. Logan’s sparkler had fizzled out without him noticing, but it doesn’t matter. He grabs another one.