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Virgil took a deep breath as he stood outside Roman's room, hand poised to knock. Virgil's job as anxiety made him aware of all of the sides anxiety levels. Normally, he doesn't do much with that information, but sometimes he needed to intervene.
This was one of those cases.
Virgil had known that Janus had been feeling stressed about something lately, but he had refused to talk to Virgil about it this time. Any time Virgil tried to figure out what was bothering Janus, the deceitful side would spin a diversion out of thin air by lieing so convincingly that it was only when Virgil walked away and could still felt the thrum of stress resonating from Janus that he realized he had been fooled.
It didn't help that Janus would sometimes resort to flustering him as a diversion.
All in all, Virgil realized that this was a problem he couldn't solve on his own. Thats why he was ready to pull out the big guns and get his second boy friend involved.
What if Janus gets mad that we were talking behind his back? Virgil fretted. Then he shook his head. If Janus wanted to stay between us, he should have talked with me.
Steeling his resolve, Virgil finally knocked on Roman's door quickly three times. Virgil stepped away from the doorway so Roman wouldn't feel crowded when he first opened it by Virgil being awkwardly close.
Roman probably wouldn't mind either way, but the small step backwards helped Virgil keep his own anxiety at bay.
Virgil fiddled with his hoodie sleeve as he heard papers, probably one of Romans scripts, being thrown on a coach before excited footsteps raced toward the door.
Roman threw open the door excitedly, a grin on his face. "Storm Cloud! What are you doing here?" Roman's smile fell slightly as he noticed the anxious way Virgil was biting his lip and fiddling with his sleeve. "Whats wrong my most precious emo? Your biting your lip again."
Virgil noticed the taste of blood in his mouth and groaned. He meant to stop doing that, but he didn't even realize he was doing it sometimes. "Sorry," Virgil mumbled, "I don't want to bother you, but there is a problem and I don't know if I can fix it…"
Roman reached out to Virgil. Virgil happily leaned into Roman's chest as Roman's strong arms surrounded him. "You could never bother me! Well, unless you count when you and Janus team up to steal all my snacks when we watch a movie. Regardless, I am happy to help you with whatever is troubling you."
Virgil's mouth ticked up on the left side into a small lopsided smile. "Thanks Roman. The thing is, Janus has been really anxious about something lately."
Roman sighed. This has happened before. Despite being all about self care, their snaky boyfriend somehow slithered his way out of taking care of himself for Thomas' sake at times. "And I'm guessing you already tried and failed talking to him about it," Roman said, resting his head on top of Virgil's.
"Yup," Virgil said tiredly, popping the p.
Roman pushed Virgil away gently so he could look Virgil in the eye while resting one of his hands on each of Virgil's shoulders. Dramatically, Roman declared, "This really is an emergency!"
Virgil sighed and nodded and walked into Roman's room to throw himself onto the couch. He did in fact land on one of Roman's scripts, but he fished it out from under himself and tossed it onto Roman's desk.
It landed perfectly.
Roman's jaw dropped. "How did you do that?"
"Magic," Virgil said flatly.
Roman huffed but he closed his bedroom door and then squeezed his way onto the couch so Virgil's head rested in his lap. As he spoke, Roman began to twirl Virgil's hair, "Well, like I was going to say before you distracted me with your amazingly lucky throw, I have been thinking about what to do if a Janus Situation would happen again ever since the last time it happened."
Virgil let out a sigh of relief. "Thats good, because past trying to get him to talk and solving the problem directly, I got nuthin."
"Its a good thing you have such a creative boyfriend to help you then, hmm?" Roman teased. Roman tried to boop Virgil's nose but had his hand swatted away.
Virgil rolled his eyes in feigned annoyance. "Yeah, yeah. Your amazing and whatever. So whats your great idea?"
Roman seemingly forgot the Virgil on his lap and jumped to his feet shouting, "Surprise party!"
Virgil fell on the floor with a thump. "What the heck princy?" Virgil complained without moving to get up. This had happened before, and Virgil knew that it would probably happen again.
"Sorry, Virge. I just got a little excited. It won't happen again," Roman said sheepishly, rubbing his neck.
Virgil blew his bangs out of his face. "Yeah, yeah. You said that last time. Anyways, how is a surprise party meant to help Janus?"
Roman picked Virgil up off the floor, which was considerably difficult considering that Virgil had gone completely limp just to spite him. Somehow, Roman managed to maneuver the both of them into their earlier positions on the coach.
"Janus needs a self care party for himself! But if he hears about it, he will want to help with the planning that will only stress him out more. If it is a surprise, he won't be able to avoid it either."
Virgil hummed in acknowledgment. "That… that might actually work. I guess you are good for something," Virgil said with a smirk.
"Hey!" Roman complained.
Virgil and Roman spent the rest of the night planning out the details of the party. In the morning, Roman went to Remus to get his help in distracting and luring Remus. Despite Roman, Virgil, and Janus being boyfriends, it was undeniable that Remus was still Janus' best friend.
Remus promised to help and not spill the secret only because it was so rare that he got a chance to actually surprise Janus. "I can't wait to see his face!" Remus said giddily.
Janus walked in as Roman was trying to silence Remus' maniacal giggles. An eyebrow raised, he looked at the twins and knew trouble was brewing. "Well this is a reassuring sight," Janus said suspiciously, "What are you two doing?"
The twins turned to Janus, looked at each other, and then looked back at Janus. "Nothing!" they yelled in unison before Remus threw a smoke bomb filled with the smell of rotting fish and they both ran out of the room.
Janus sighed and waved away the cloud of noxious green smoke. He didn't even need his lie detection to know that wasn't the truth.
……
Across the mindcape, Virgil felt Janus' anxiety spike. It was a good thing that he agreed to Roman's plan, because Janus really did need some relaxation.
It was Virgil's job to enlist Patton's help in their surprise. Of course, Patton happily agreed to help bake cookies for the event as well as helping with the set up.
With a satisfied nod, Virgil went to Roman's room so he could enter the imagination and begin gathering self care items like moisturizing face masks, fluffy robes, and fun nail polishes.
Virgil kept feeling spikes of anxiety from Janus throughout the day.
That was because Janus was not having a very good day. Whenever he asked one of the other sides what they were doing, Janus could detect some level of lie in their words. The thing was, he couldn't figure out what exactly they were lieing about.
He didn't like how everyone was in on it except him. He was the king of lies, the keeper of secret! So why were even his beloved boyfriends not telling him the truth?
……
That evening, Remus tried to lure Janus into the imagination, but Janus refused to go unless he revealed what he was lieing about.
Remus pouted, but he relented. "If you go with me, then I will be able to explain everything."
Janus squinted at him suspiciously despite his words being truthful. "Will you only be able to or will you actually explain?"
Remus started tugging Janus towards his door to the imagination that was already calibrated to the location of the surprise party. "I won't need to explain if you just go with me!"
Janus sighed. He really did have work to do, but he supposed he could indulge Remus this once.
When Janus opened the door into a completely dark room, he expected one of Remus' nightmare creatures to attack him. Instead, the lights were thrown on and all of the others jumped out of their hiding spots while shouting, "Surprise!" and setting off party poppers.
Janus tilted his head, still feeling confused, "What is going on?"
Roman ran over to his boyfriend like an eager puppy. He clasped Janus' hands in his own. "My dearest, sweet snake, this is a surprise self care party!"
Janus immediately tried to leave. "While this is lovely, I have other obligations."
Remus cackled. He snapped his fingers and the door Janus arrived in disappeared, "You aren't going anywhere Jan Jan!"
Janus sighed and turned to face the others. "Is this really necessary?" Janus asked sharply.
Virgil had crept up to where Janus stood, hanging back to not crowd him but obviously wanting a hug. Janus opened his arms and Virgil fell into them.
"You have been so stressed out lately, Dee. I didn't know what to do since you wouldn't tell me what was wrong. Please don't be mad." Virgil explained hesitantly.
Janus sighed. It was nice to hold his cute boyfriend in his arms. "Fine. Do you at least have face masks?"
Roman and Virgil smiled triumphantly.