Time to talk with Deceit~

Also, not relevant to the fic, but I drew Janus wearing a shirt that says B*tch because I thought it was funny, and it has over 300 likes on Insta, which is crazy 'Cuz nothing I post ever gets that much engagement. And like, my other drawing of Janus has like. 5 likes, for comparison. The people have spoken.

XXX

It was all very well and good that they had decided to try to include Janus more (and have a discussion with him), but apparently, the Light Sides had no idea where Janus was- and not because they believed the Dark Side would likely be anywhere other than his bedroom, but because they didn't know where Deceit's bedroom was.

"Seriously? You guys don't know where Deceit's bedroom is?" Virgil questioned, an eyebrow raised.

"Well, it's not like we had any reason to go there!" Roman shot back defensively.

Virgil sent a dead stare in his direction.

"You live in the same house- mindscape- whatever- and it's in the same place it's always been," Virgil pointed out. "You've literally been there."

Patton fiddled with the sleeves of his cardigan.

"We have, kiddo, but it's been a pretty long time."

Virgil mumbled something under his breath about how misplacing an entire room is ridiculous, but he left it at that.

"I take it you know where his room is, then, Virgil?" Logan asked.

"Well, yeah."

"Lead the way, Linkin Dark."

With a disproportionately deep sigh, Virgil started leading the way toward Janus's room. It would have been faster to just sink and appear there, but Virgil knew that Deceit made it so no one could enter his room without permission. Somehow. Virgil had pestered him to tell him how to do it too, but the snake had never let him in on the secret. Well, at least that made it so the other sides were able to get to him when he ducked out. He sure as hell wouldn't have opened the door if they had knocked.

Deceit might not open the door either. Virgil knew that, expected it, actually. But he also knew that the Light Sides were stubborn, and now that they had decided to talk to Janus, they would probably pester him until he relented. Virgil could speak from experience on that one.

But Deceit could be just as stubborn if he wanted to. Sure, he preferred to slink away when things started to annoy him, but there wasn't really anywhere other than his bedroom for Janus to slink away to, unless he decided to spend the day with Remus. And Virgil very much doubted that Janus would do that because, Remus himself aside, his room was absolutely disturbing. If the others thought that Anxiety's room was bad, they'd probably die looking at Remus's room. Janus mostly just found the room to be gross and worried about his clothes getting something strange on them, though.

So, yeah. Janus was probably going to be trapped in his room, and it would end up being a battle of wills to decide who was the most stubborn. Which maybe wasn't the best way to go about this (after all, Virgil hated feeling trapped and knew that Janus did too), but that was really all they could do at the moment.

The thing was that Janus almost never left his room unless he was injecting himself into their conversations with Thomas. He didn't particularly need to otherwise. All of their rooms were really more than just a room. Each one was a version of Thomas's house with slight alterations to fit their traits a bit better. The commons was there for the sake of social interaction, and Janus was most definitely not the social type.

Regardless of whether this was the most sound plan or not- and Virgil's mind, now that they were really about to knock on that door, was coming up with a hundred ways why this plan was horrible- they reached Janus's door. It was a warm, brown wood with a doorknob shaped like a snake's head, and the sight of it reminded Virgil of the countless times he'd stood in front of it like this over the years.

It was Patton who stepped forward. Virgil felt trepidation settle over his shoulders.

XXX

Janus was legitimately surprised to hear the soft knocking at his door. He really hadn't thought that any of the others would come to find him. Virgil was the only one who might have done so in the past, but he certainly wouldn't now, and Virgil didn't knock like that, anyway.

"Hey, kiddo. Um, mind if we talk for a bit?"

Ah. Patton.

Of course it was Patton. Morality always did have a thing with trying to comfort people. It was part of his 'Dad' persona, apparently, and it seemed like his brief lapse into the truth had warranted Patton's fatherly concern. But that didn't matter. Janus wasn't in the mood to talk at the moment, and if Patton felt bad about being ignored, then so be it.

And so he ignored the knocking.

"I know that you're upset with us right now, kiddo," Patton continued regardless. "But ignoring the problem isn't going to solve it."

Janus rolled his eyes. He wondered if Patton forgot he wasn't really a dad sometimes. Or if he forgot that the other sides weren't children, which was a bit ironic since Patton could be considered one of the more childish sides himself at times. Actually, the whole dad charade could be considered a lie if one thought about it. Well, lie or not, he didn't want to deal with it, so he just continued to pet his snake.

Even more surprisingly, the next voice to speak wasn't Patton's. It was Logan.

"Deceit," he spoke through the door. "Patton is correct in saying that ignoring a problem solves nothing. We had a discussion and concluded that we should try to listen to your input. And we would like to talk to you about that, but you do appear to be upset over today's events."

Okay, why was Logan here? He could understand why Patton would show up- he was just like that, and he probably felt guilty or something- but Logan had no reason to come talk to him. He was Logic, after all, and he didn't engage in pointless things like talking to doors. But… Logan also didn't have a reason to lie.

"We just want to talk, okay?"

Patton again. Strange how Logic and Emotions were teaming up to pester him.

He sighed.

"Oh, I would just absolutely love talking to you," Janus said finally, giving up on ignoring them because they were annoying and he just wanted them to leave him in peace.

"... That was a lie, right?"

Ah. Roman was here too, apparently. With that being the case, there was a good chance that Virgil was part of their little entourage, remaining silent. How wonderful. Seems like the gang's all here to bother him, saying they want to talk to him when all they ever do is ignore everything he says. He knew they didn't really want his input. Maybe Logan was lying after all.

"Yeah, Princey, that was a lie."

And yup, there was Virgil.

"Me? Lie? Why, I would never!" Janus shot back.

"Well, you appeared to have spoken rather honestly earlier," Logan pointed out.

Janus moved closer to the door, only so it would be easier to hear the others and, therefore, make them leave.

"I'm never honest."

"It would certainly be a lot easier to figure out whether you're lying if that were true," Roman replied. "Well, it can't really be true if you're never honest, but… Ugh, never mind. At least if you were always lying, we could just assume that the opposite of what you're saying is the truth."

"No, it would be far more difficult," Janus responded almost automatically.

There was just the slightest pause on the other side of the door.

"... Janus, what color is the sky?" Virgil asked, probing.

"The sky is green."

"Ah. Yup," Anxiety came to a conclusion. "He was being too honest earlier. Everything he says for a while will probably be a lie."

"Wait. That was too much truth for him?!" Roman exclaimed. "He wasn't even honest for the entire conversation!"

Janus sighed in annoyance.

"I just love when people talk about me as if I'm not right here," he said. "Almost as much as I love talking through doors."

"We wouldn't have to talk through a door if you would just open it!"

"And we would have to if you would just leave."

Janus was about to walk back into the room and start ignoring them again, but then Logan decided to cut into the conversation.

"Deceit. If you do not wish to have this conversation right this moment, we can have it at another time if you would prefer," he offered.

"Yes, this is a conversation I want to have at some point."

"Janus."

Oh, Virgil used his serious voice. How fun.

"Look, I get that you're angry or upset or whatever it is you feel, but… you literally told us earlier today that you wanted to be listened to," Virgil told him. "This is us trying to listen."

Janus clenched his hands into fists tightly before slowly releasing them with an equally slow exhale.

And then, against his better judgement, he went to open the door.

XXX