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Janus doesn’t expect for Patton, of all people, to be the one to invite him to the Lightside palace for the first time after his… acceptance, of sorts. Patton describes it as something of an apology dinner, so after telling Remus to fend for himself, he leaves at 6:30 precisely in a freshly-cleaned outfit and new gloves. He forces himself to rise rather than appear in Thomas’ living room for courtesy reasons, the middle ground he and Patton decided to meet in. Patton and Logan wait, quietly talking, and Patton grins when he sees Janus. Logan says nothing, and Janus cannot blame him. He will come around. They exchange pleasantries and Patton grabs his hand, presumably to sink out, and pauses.
“Are you going to wear that to dinner?” The older pauses and looks to the younger.
“Ah… My gloves?”
“Yeah! They look a little uncomfortable.”
“Mm.” He looks to the ground, then back to Patton, offering a reassuring smile. He is thinking of Virgil when he responds, “No. No, I’ll be quite alright, thank you.” Patton flushes a little and mumbles an embarrassed apology, one that Janus waves away immediately.
They arrive in the dining room. Roman is, as he would’ve guessed, nowhere to be found. More disappointingly, but equally obviously, Virgil is also either not here or has spontaneously turned invisible and mute. He presses his lips together but does not press the issue. He can feel Patton’s worried gaze and Logan’s mute stare, and simply turns to smile again at Patton.
“Where should I sit?”
Dinner passes uneventfully. Logan never speaks to him directly, Janus remains courteous and almost works up the courage to apologize, almost, and nothing seems to change between the on-the-border sense of formality between them.
Ah…Well. Almost.
Patton, having apparently gained the ability to sense tension, tries to fill in the gaps. He jokes with Janus and Logan alike, half-forcing Janus to have seconds, even sneaking in a few jokes about his own prudeness. Janus is… Impressed, to say the least. Janus tells him as such as he stands up, dabbing his mouth off with a napkin before he speaks. Patton flushes and grins, gets halfway through thanking him before noticing Janus grabbing the plates.
“Oh, what– you don’t have to do that, I can clean..”
“It’s only courteous, dear, truly. Let me show my thanks.” Patton grins at him.
“If you’d wanna drop those off at the sink, I can finish those up…”
"Darling, please.” The taller one exhales and pulls at his cardigan a little before nodding.
“...Thank you. I’m gonna go make sure, um… the others, that they get some of the leftovers before I put it up.” Janus nods, then after a pause, responds.
“Tell Virgil I said I’m sorry I missed him.” Patton nods right back.
He’s halfway done with the dishes when he hears Patton enter. He can tell the moral one is trying to stay quiet, but he’s apparently not very good at it, Janus having heard him before he even came back downstairs. He pretends for Patton’s sake, though, and lets him watch silently for a moment before speaking.
“Is… Is that wine?”
Ah. Oops.
Janus pauses for a long moment, face flushing deeply. He had forgotten he summoned that. It’s part of his nightly routine; clean, have some wine, self-care, then sleep. It’s an unconscious habit, at this point. (Which is slightly concerning, now that he thinks about it.) He waits a second longer before turning off the water and turning to Patton.
“Is that… Okay?” He’s more nervous than he seems. He doesn’t want to ruin this. He doesn’t want much, but he does want this. This is progress. Sure, he doesn’t like how strict they are, he doesn’t like how they took his Virgil, and the lights are just a bit too bright and the environment just a bit too clean but Patton was joking and the water isn’t scalding like it does in his kitchen and isn’t that enough? Can it please be enough?
Patton and Janus only stare at each other for a moment, and Janus worries he’s let too much fear into his voice before Patton smiles shyly- nervously.
“Um, we drink here, too. Just surprised me, is all. People don’t usually drink alone, or at the very least not while doing the dishes…”
“Well, why not join me?” The surprise on Patton’s face is shared by Janus. He doesn’t know why he said that, but he doesn’t regret it when Patton nods. He goes to a plain-looking cabinet and opens it, grabbing a bottle of whiskey and pouring it into a cup.
So he comes to Janus, and they wash dishes together, one scrubbing and one rinsing, taking quiet sips of their respective drinks while their arms bump together.
After the dishes are done, Patton takes them to the living room. Janus asks to turn down the lights and does so without waiting for a response, leading Patton into a guffawing laughter. Janus is quite proud of that. They sit in the dim light on the couch and Janus lets Patton turn on some show neither pay attention to. They meet in the middle of the couch, leaned against each other, and Janus doesn’t know when they did but Patton is very warm as is Janus’ face so he does not mind. Janus is in the middle of laughing, a real belly-laugh, before deciding to bring up a thought he had earlier that night.
“I didn’t expect you to be a whiskey drinker.” Patton looks at him thoughtfully for a moment, face flushed, before responding.
“Well, it’s what Thomas drank first… I’m, hah, I’m a person of tradition!”
"Have you even had anything else? I can’t imagine you prefer whiskey.” Patton goes a little redder again, swirling his drink around in his cup.
“No.” Janus gasps.
“You haven’t? Oh, well, you can have–”
“Patton. It’s three in the morning.”
They both turn to face the new arrival– Roman, standing on the stairs, fuming behind a milky white face mask. Janus clears his throat while Patton cringes at himself.
“Oh… Haha, um. Did we wake you up, kiddo? It, um, sorry, we’ll get to bed.” He pauses and Janus feels it sink in for himself. Ah. He’s being sent home. Well, he couldn’t have expected this to last forever. Roman huffs and heads back up the stairs, and Janus takes it as his cue to stand, beginning a goodbye to Patton before he grabs Janus’ sleeve.
“Wait.” Patton looks up at him in a way that makes Janus wish he could fall on top of him, hold him and make sure he never wants to look so desperate again. “I… I wanna try your drink.” Oh.
“...You can have the rest.” Patton looks to the glass.
“Right.”
Without asking, Patton moves to wrap his hand around Janus’, where he’s holding the wine glass, and together, they move to bring the rim to Patton’s lips. Janus notices now his gloves aren’t on. He doesn’t remember taking them off, but right now, he’s quite glad he did. He closes his lips around the glass as Janus helps him lean the glass back, Patton finishing off the wine slowly, like it isn’t the taste of grape he’s trying to savor.
Banging sounds on the wall from upstairs. Janus, half in a panic and half on accident, sinks out. His room feels much colder than normally, and he stares off into the distance for a moment, Patton’s face on his mind, the way his tongue flicked against the side of the foggy glass, his flushed cheeks.
Janus looks down to the empty glass in his hand. (Patton’s spit is still on the side.)
It’s three in the morning. He should get some sleep.