XXX

Janus sighed deeply as he debated whether it was a good idea to take his stuffed animals back out of his bedroom or not. Luckily, Thomas had something to do that morning and left shortly after waking up, and- with some 'gentle' insistence he follow- Patton left soon after as well. And that left Janus alone to figure out how he should tackle some minor redecorating. Technically, he could put his stuffed animals wherever he wanted. It was his room, after all, and he had the right to decorate it however he saw fit. And he'd (long ago) made it so Thomas and the others couldn't come into his room, whether that be this one or his bedroom, without his permission. He didn't want them to just show up whenever the desire struck. So, he could put everything back where it was yesterday…

But should he? What if this sleepover with Thomas wasn't just a one-time thing? What if Thomas still had trouble sleeping, and the others decided to just keep using the solution that they found to have worked? He couldn't just hastily leave to clean up every time they asked him, or they would start to get suspicious. Hell, Virgil and Roman were already suspicious, though he was sure their suspicions were far off from what he had actually been hiding.

He would likely indulge Thomas if this was requested of him again, he knew. He couldn't help it. He loved his host- of course he did- and his whole purpose was helping Thomas get what he wanted so he would be happy. If Thomas truly wanted something from him, anything, he would give it to him. And maybe he was being dramatic, but that included going into Deceit's room.

That didn't mean he wanted Thomas or the others to find out about his hobbies, though. Would he tell Thomas if he somehow knew enough to ask, and him knowing the answer would really contribute to the man's overall wellbeing? Yes, he would, but that was unlikely to happen. His hobbies didn't really make any difference to Thomas's wellbeing, and all that would come of telling him would be Thomas dismissing what he said, and that would actually end up hurting Thomas. So, it was better if Thomas never knew. And there was no reason to tell the others anything (Even if he secretly wished that Patton would like what he did and maybe want to join him, either in creating the toys or playing with them. But that desire was buried so deep that he doubted he would ever fully acknowledge it. He wouldn't tell Patton. Even if Patton was the one least likely to mock him, he still might, and he might accidentally tell the others something. And besides, just because Patton liked stuffed animals and he wasn't being openly antagonistic toward Deceit anymore didn't mean that he would actually want to spend time with Janus).

… Perhaps it would be best to just keep all the stuffed animals in his room for now. He would just wait and see if Thomas's problem persisted, and once he was confident that Thomas wouldn't need to come to his room for a while, he could put them back. For now, he would just arrange them with the ones in his room.

And just to be safe, maybe he should also consider a change in location. He didn't quite want the others to be able to figure out where his room was. He didn't want them getting any ideas.

XXX

Just as they had planned, Virgil started distracting Logan after breakfast (a breakfast that Janus was conspicuously absent from). Roman slipped away from the table faster than usual, saying he had something to take care of in the imagination. He had started asking Logan about what his favorite flavor of Crofter's was and the pros/cons of each flavor, and that got Logan to launch into a ramble even easier than he had expected. They remained in the kitchen, both of them sitting at the table and drinking their coffee while Patton did the dishes.

Distantly, Virgil thought it was a shame that they were having this conversation as a way to keep Logan away from his room while Roman went to go snoop. He didn't see Logan get excited like this very often, and it was nice seeing the logical side chatter without trying to hold himself back. There were a select few topics that got Logan to speak so passionately, and Crofter's jam just so happened to be one of them. Watching Logan when he was like this usually made him happy, but today, it just made him feel guilty.

But Virgil tried not to focus on that. They were doing this for Thomas. He knew Deceit was hiding something, and he couldn't let whatever it was hurt Thomas.

And so, he just kept a small smile on his face, nodding and responding at all the right parts of the conversation and hoping that Logan wouldn't catch onto what he was really doing.

XXX

While Virgil was distracting Logan, Roman left to find the blueprints. He sank out and into the logical side's room as soon as he was out of sight of the others. Logan's room was about what one would expect of him: neat, orderly (apart from when he got overly-stressed), and, most importantly for this venture, excessively labeled.

Logan had a spot for everything- every book, every pencil, hell, probably even every paper clip. Roman should be able to figure out where the blueprints were without too much difficulty. The only problem was that he didn't know exactly what form the blueprints took. It could be a paper, or a page in a book, or even a digital file on Logan's computer-

Or a map on the wall.

That's right, Logan had a map on the wall, and though Roman hadn't paid it much mind the few times he'd been in the logical side's room (spending too much time in there made him feel boring), now that he was looking at it, it was clearly a map of the mind palace. And just like everything else in Logan's room, it was clearly labeled, with small, neat letters.

"Bingo."

Roman came closer to the map, and as expected, the locations of all the rooms on the Light Side seemed to be accurate. As his gaze shifted over to the Dark Side of the mind palace, he saw a note written in what was now a blank space, an empty void: 'The Previous Location of Virgil's Room'. Looking back over to the Light side part of the map, Roman saw the note: "The Current Location of Virgil's Room- Note: When Virgil is upset, his room causes anxious thoughts to be amplified. When he is calm, it can increase motivation. And though that was interesting, he was on a mission with an unknown time limit and couldn't dawdle. As he kept looking, he saw that his brother's room was apparently connected to a section of the basement, and with a shudder, he decided that he did not want to know what exactly Remus would use a basement for.

His eyebrows crinkled as he still couldn't find where Janus's room was. Logan said he knew things about the deceitful side's room, and nothing he said suggested that he didn't know the location of the snake's room. And, sure, Virgil said that Janus moved his room a lot, but surely he didn't do that so often that Logan wouldn't be able to figure it out, right?

He looked again, checking the whole map before accepting that Janus's room wasn't anywhere to be found. Just as he was about to leave and report this back to Virgil, however, he saw something strange happen.

Suddenly, a bright yellow dot appeared in the center of the map and began bouncing around to different empty locations. It hopped back and forth between spots, landing on spots on the Light Side a few times but mostly remaining in the Dark, before eventually stopping somewhere in the same hallway as where Virgil's own room had once been. And then the light blinked out, being replaced by words: "The Current Location of Deceit's Janus's Room- Note: When Deceit Janus is upset, his room causes an increase in lying and self-preservation behavior. When he is calm, it creates a feeling of safety.

Roman stared at the map. He'd just watched it update as Deceit's room moved. And that meant that Janus had just moved it, right?

"Yeesh, talk about paranoia," Roman mused. "What, is he trying to be Virgil?"

And with that, having found the information he was looking for, Roman sank out of the room.

XXX

"Wait, so his room is near where mine used to be?"

"It is for now," Roman replied. "Do you know how often he moves it?"

"Not exactly. It's not like he does it on a schedule or anything," Virgil huffed. "He probably just did it because we were there last night. He probably won't move it again right away, though."

"What now, then?" Roman asked. "Do we just repeat what we did with Logan and try to distract him?"

"Hmm, I don't know; I don't think that'll work on him. He'll probably pick up on the fact that we're up to something, since neither of us really talk to him much. Plus, ya know, 'Lord of the Lies'," Virgil denied. "And besides, he has some weird way to keep people out of his room. We can't just sink into it, and it's safe to say that he'd probably lock his physical door, too."

Roman groaned.

"Well, we can't just give up! If there's a hidden danger looming over Thomas, we need to find out what it is!" the side declared dramatically.

"Yeah, I know that, Princey. I didn't say we were giving up," Virgil replied. "But if we want to get into his room, we're gonna need his permission."

"Yeah, like he's gonna give us permission to snoop into his evil schemes!"

"He won't," Virgil agreed. "But he will agree to letting Thomas sleep there. So, if we can convince him to let one of us stay with Thomas next time…"

"Oh! We can snoop while he's asleep!"

Virgil nodded.

"Yeah. Whatever he's hiding, he'll probably keep it in his bedroom," Virgil conspired. "And the door to that will probably be locked, too, but if he gives us permission to stay in his room, we should be able to sink into it and look around."

"So, are we including Thomas in our plan, then?"

"No, we can't tell Thomas about this!" Virgil hissed. "He's starting to trust him more, and he'll probably try to talk us out of doing this at all. I don't think he'll believe us."

"... I… I guess that… makes sense," Roman agreed hesitantly. "We aren't going to have to give Thomas nightmares on purpose, are we?"

"What?! No, of course not!" Virgil exclaimed. "We both know that Remus is going to keep doing what he does, so we'll just… wait for him to do something."

Roman sighed and looked down at the floor.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, we'll do that… It's just…"

"Just what?"

"Doesn't this plan seem a bit… snakey… to you…?"

Virgil joined him in his staring contest with the floor.

"I know. I don't like it either…," he admitted. "But I guess…"

Virgil tried to build up his confidence, but the attempt was bad, even for his standards.

"Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire."

XXX

Once he had finished his work for the day, Janus went back to working on the rabbit he had been planning. He had finalized the design and was now onto actually crocheting the thing. For this one, he decided on making the main color baby blue with pink and white accents.

He had been feeling a bit excited about starting the rabbit a little bit ago, but unfortunately, his mood had since soured. Janus wasn't even sure how he did it, but he had somehow managed to tangle up his blue yarn. How did this even happen? All he did was drop it, and then it rolled across the floor, and when he went to pick it up, the loose strands of the skein got messed up somehow, and now he was dealing with a series of ridiculously tangled knots.

"Literally. HOW?!" he yelled toward the ceiling, throwing his hands up in the air.

This was the one thing he disliked about using yarn. He tried so hard not to get the yarn tangled, and yet- here he was. And then he had to spend up to two or three hours fixing the yarn before he could even start. Even worse was when it got tangled after he started, because then he had to be careful not to destroy what he had already done- which is exactly what happened in this case.

He wanted to cry. Which was stupid because it was just some damn yarn, and he really could just start over if he had to, but he didn't want to. He'd already done most of the body, and he didn't want all his time and effort to have gone to waste. He'd been excited about this, and now he just felt like he hated it and everything else.

Just as Janus was debating scrapping what he had and starting anew with a different ball of yarn, he felt himself being summoned.

"Oh, great," he huffed before appearing.

Once again, he found himself in Thomas's bedroom with the others. It had been a week or so since the last time, and apparently, Remus still wasn't letting up.

"Hello," he greeted, trying and failing to keep the frustration out of his voice.

"Oh, um, hi, Kiddo," Patton returned the greeting. "Are you okay?"

Janus took a deep breath in. He couldn't let the others see how frustrated he was right now. He couldn't let them see him yell or throw a tantrum over some stupid yarn. He was an adult. He could do better than that. He was better than that.

He looked over to Thomas, who had bags under his eyes again. Despite seeing how tired his host was, he knew he would have to do this.

"I assume I have been summoned for the same reason as last time," Deceit spoke.

He glanced around the room quickly to check everyone's expressions, but he didn't actually give any of them enough time to respond.

"Unfortunately, I don't believe that it's a good idea for Thomas to be in my room tonight," he huffed.

"Oh. Uh, that's okay," Thomas accepted. "I didn't mean to bother you…"

Oh, how he hated this. He wasn't trying to upset Thomas, and normally, he would have done what Thomas wanted. But tonight, he couldn't.

"No, Thomas," Janus denied, speaking quickly. "It has nothing to do with you. I'm simply in a bad mood, and I don't want to risk making things worse by letting my room affect you."

He was being honest. He didn't want to be, but he knew that everyone could already tell that he was pissed. There wasn't any point in hiding it, and he couldn't exactly let Thomas think that asking him for help was a bother (even if he was afraid of how Thomas would react to him, he would never see his host as a bother).

"Oh no, is something wrong?" Patton asked, his expression appearing concerned.

"It's nothing, Patton," Janus responded. "I just don't want anything to happen to Thomas."

His honesty, however, did not extend to admitting that he was so frustrated by some tangled string that he feared losing control and letting his room hurt Thomas.

"Dude, if it's something that's riling you up enough that Thomas wouldn't be safe in your room, then how is it nothing?" Virgil asked.

Janus was surprised by how little malice was in Virgil's tone. It was still present, of course (it always was), but the anxious side wasn't yelling or hissing at him, at least. Even still, that didn't mean Janus was in any better of a mood.

"I don't remember it being any of your business, Virgil," he replied bitterly.

At this, Virgil did glare at him, but before he could speak, Logan cut in.

"Janus, Virgil's right about taking this seriously, I believe," he said. "If something is upsetting you to that extent, it should be looked at. If your mental state is in disarray, that could actually be contributing to Thomas's sleeping dilemma."

Janus ran a hand over his face. And he thought he was dramatic.

"My 'mental state' isn't in 'disarray', Logan," Janus sighed. "I'm just in a bad mood. I wasn't until a bit ago, but now I am, and I can't just switch moods. It's not a big deal, though."

He pinched the bridge of his nose, wanting to just leave.

"Look, I'll try to talk to Remus and see what he's up to," he offered. "Maybe I can distract him for the night or something."

"... If you're sure you're okay, Kiddo…," Patton accepted. "But if you need to talk, you know where to find me, okay?"

Janus nodded stiffly before returning back to his room.

"Well, wasn't that just hilarious?" he asked himself as he went to go find Remus.

(The one time any of them express concern about him, and it's because he's a tiny bit angry about something stupid. Not when he's actually, truly upset about something- No. Not any of the times he's cried or felt alone or had any real, serious problems. Nope. Just when he was frustrated about yarn. Or when Patton thought he wasn't eating just because he didn't want to trek across the mind palace for some toast. The only concern he ever got was for stupid, made-up things.)

He supposed it was because he suggested that his emotions might affect Thomas. He shouldn't have said that. He should have just made up another excuse. But he didn't want Thomas to hear a weak excuse and infer that Deceit just didn't want to help him, so he told the truth.

And what a lot of good that did him.

XXX

For this chapter, I offer you: Invading the Privacy of Multiple People and Yarn Troubles. (Sorry Logan)

I was trying to keep this part realistic, since most people probably don't get this upset over tangled yarn, but when my yarn gets tangled up really badly, it legitimately ruins my day. So. Beware the yarn tangles.

XXX