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Janus was covering his room in brightly-colored sticky notes when he felt himself being summoned. Which was fine. He was trying out Logan's suggestions, but he quite frankly hated covering his room in sticky notes. It just ruined the aesthetic of the place, and, well, he wasn't quite sure that the constant reminders were helping. In fact, it might be making things worse because, even if they reminded him not to pick at his skin when he was about to, they reminded him about his skin more, and that just made it harder to not actually do it.
So, he was actually glad, relieved even, that Thomas was summoning him.
Surprisingly, however, when he appeared in Thomas's living room, he found that he had been summoned alone.
"Hello, Thomas. Finally ready to nudge a few people down the stairs?"
"What? No!" Thomas exclaimed quickly. "No. I just wanted to chat."
Janus only barely managed to contain a groan.
"I'm afraid I've had more than enough 'chatting' recently."
"Oh. Well. Um, can we talk anyway? Please?" Thomas requested.
The deceitful side let out a sigh. Curse his soft spot for Thomas.
"Oh, alright," Janus acquiesced. "Something on your mind, Thomas?"
"Uh, I guess?" Thomas told him. "But this isn't about me, actually."
"One of your little friends, then?"
Thomas shook his head.
"No, Janus. It's about. Well. It's about you."
Well, fuck.
"Oh?" he said, trying to sound as if everything was normal.
"I mean, I haven't really seen you around in a while."
Right. He hadn't really left the mindscape lately, so he hadn't actually spoken to Thomas outside of business since… he wasn't really sure.
"Sorry, Thomas. I've been a bit… busy, as of late," he apologized.
He had been busy. Officially, he didn't actually have all that much to do, but trying to figure out his issues was surprisingly time consuming.
"I must have lost track of time, I suppose."
But Thomas didn't seem to believe him, as he simply crossed his arms over his chest.
"Janus," he sighed. "I've been a bit… concerned."
Well, double fuck.
"It's just, out of nowhere a while ago, I suddenly got super interested in, like, skin picking?" Thomas told him.
Oh, fuck.
"And, well, at first I thought it was just Remus acting out again, but actually, Logan was encouraging it?" Thomas continued to explain. "And I was wondering why, so I started asking everyone what it was about, and Patton let slip that Logan was trying to help one of you."
He, apparently, needed to have a few words about respecting his privacy with both Logan and Patton.
"At first, I thought it was about Virgil, since, you know. Anxiety," said Thomas. "But he said it wasn't him."
And Virgil, it seemed.
"And, well. Then I asked Roman, and he said that you have a skin picking disorder," Thomas finished.
Oh, goody, he could apparently just turn it into a group thing. And he would have to figure out some kind of revenge against Roman now. Great.
"So, are you doing alright, buddy?"
At this, Janus mimicked Thomas's position, his arms crossed, and despite the ice that was now flowing through his veins, he forced his usual smirk on his face.
"Not to worry, I'm absolutely fine, Thomas," he told his host. "I'm not quite sure what Roman was on about, but there's no need for you to worry."
Thomas frowned
"Sorry, bud, but I kinda don't believe you?"
Janus put a hand over his heart and made an exaggerated scandalized expression. He doubted it, but maybe he could still convince Thomas that everything was fine.
"You wound me," Janus replied, his tone as exaggerated as his expression.
"Janus, I'm being serious, and I know you're just trying to distract me," Thomas pointed out, not taking Deceit's bait. "I really just want to make sure you're okay, so can you drop the act? Please?"
Despite his wishes, Janus felt his shoulders slump. He sighed.
"Well, you can't blame me for trying," Janus huffed, refusing to make eye contact with the other man.
"I'm not blaming you for anything, Janus," Thomas clarified. "I'm just worried."
The deceitful side grimaced slightly. Curse his soft spot for Thomas.
"And I told you it's fine," Janus insisted. "It's not like this is new. I've just… it's been a bit worse recently. But it's not… You don't have to worry about it, Thomas."
He tapped his gloved fingers on the sides of his arms.
"And, well, I am working on it," he said. "The others are trying to help. That's how you found out, after all."
Thomas relaxed slightly, letting his arms fall to his sides before one hand rose up to the back of his head.
"Well that's… that's good," he replied. "I'm glad that you're working on it. But you can talk to me if you need to, okay? Even if it's not about this."
Okay, maybe he would retract his cursing of his soft spot for Thomas, since it could be rather nice at times.
"I'll keep that in mind," he accepted. "But for now, I must be going. I believe I need to explain the concept of privacy to a few idiots."
"... Just don't nudge anyone down the stairs."
Janus jokingly rolled his eyes.
"Oh, very well. No stairs," he agreed. "As I've said, there are much more fun ways to get things done."
"Janus, what does that mea-"
"Farewell, Thomas. I have some revenge to plan."
And before his host could stop him, Janus sank back into the mindscape.
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