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So, this is the argument that led to Virgil leaving the Dark Sides. It takes place somewhere between 'Accepting Anxiety' and 'Can Lying be Good?'

Just for the record, the friend mentioned in this chapter isn't meant to be anyone in particular. *shrug*

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"I'm not doing that, Jan!"

"Why?! Don't you want what's best for Thomas?!"

"How is making Thomas's friends hate him what's best for him?!"

"They wouldn't hate him, Virgil!"

"You don't know that! They might!"

Janus growled.

"For Christ's sake, Virgil, Thomas's friends aren't going to hate him for engaging in self-care!" he argued.

"They're having a hard time right now, and they need Thomas!" Virgil denied. "What do you think will happen if Thomas stops supporting them right now?! What if it hurts them, and they end up hating Thomas for it?!"

"They can't possibly expect Thomas to be there for them 24/7, and Thomas can't expect himself to do that! He's been up all night for days talking to them! He needs a break!" Janus continued.

This wasn't the first argument they'd had. Far from it.

"Don't you think Thomas would be devastated if something happened to his friend because he needed a break?!"

"Other people's mental health is not Thomas's responsibility!"

"He cares about them, you jerk!"

Janus felt his fists clench, and he took in a deep breath to try to calm himself down. It didn't really work, but he managed to keep himself from shouting his next words.

"Well, don't you think that his friend would be devastated if they knew Thomas was suffering for their sake?" Janus tried.

And he should have left it at that. Maybe Virgil would have seen his point, and maybe this argument wouldn't have had the consequences it did.

"I just don't get it, Virgil!" Janus continued, despite his common sense. "You've been different ever since you started hanging out with the 'Light Sides'!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You never listen to anything I say anymore!" Janus shouted. "Even when the others are wrong, you'd still rather listen to them!"

"Well, maybe I don't listen to you because you're wrong!"

"Oh, so now I'm wrong about everything?!" Janus questioned angrily. "You didn't think so until you started hanging out with them all the time instead of us! As soon as they accepted you, you started following them around like a damn lost puppy!"

Virgil's glare deepened.

"That's what this is really fucking about, isn't it?" he laughed dryly. "You just can't deal with the fact that I've made friends with the Light Sides. Maybe, if you got your head out of your ass, you'd realize that they aren't as bad as we thought!"

Janus couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Not as bad as we thought?!" the deceitful side exclaimed. "They drove all of us away! Including you!"

He saw Virgil hesitate for a moment, but not enough to stop the argument.

"Yeah, they messed up, Jan, but at least they're trying to do what's right for Thomas!" Virgil growled. "I thought… For a long time, I thought that's what you were doing too, but I'm really not so sure about that anymore… I mean, every time your influence is at play, something goes badly! Thomas wants to be an honest, caring person, and everything you do seems to oppose that! You're just..."

Virgil took a deep breath in before his glare settled back into place at full force.

"You're just a lying snake."

Janus tried to respond, but Virgil kept going.

"You… You just want to wallow in the past and be bitter about it! I get that the others hurt us, hurt you, but at least I'm trying to move on!" Virgil continued. "You can't keep using the past to justify being a villain!"

A villain. A villain.

"So I'm a villain now?!" Deceit scoffed. "You are such a hypocrite, Virgil."

"I'm not a hypocrite! I realized I was wrong!"

"You're a traitor, Virgil!"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Anxiety. "YOU NEVER CHANGE! YOU DON'T WANT TO CHANGE!"

Janus knew that, once Virgil started using his scary voice, he should back off, but he didn't want to. He didn't want to back down. He wasn't sure what exactly it was about this particular argument this time, but he just couldn't stop himself.

"WHY SHOULD I CHANGE?! TO SING AND DANCE FOR THE SIDES THAT KICKED US OUT?!"

"WELL, MAYBE THEY KICKED YOU OUT FOR A DAMN REASON!"

Virgil's words hung heavily in the air. Janus stared at him with wide eyes, disbelief flowing through him, but he didn't detect any lies on Virgil's tongue. Actually, he realized that Virgil's words hadn't been painted with lies for this entire discussion. And at this realization, Deceit's stomach sank, and his vision started going red.

"I'M TIRED OF YOU TRYING TO CONTROL ME! IF YOU WANT TO BE MISERABLE, THEN YOU CAN GO BE MISERABLE BY YOURSELF! YOU'VE BEEN PISSED EVER SINCE I STARTED SPENDING TIME WITH THE OTHERS, AND THOMAS IS THE ONE WHO SUFFERS FROM IT!"

By himself. Virgil wanted him to be all alone, just like before.

Deceit bared his teeth.

"Well maybe if I'm such a horrible, controlling villain, you should just fucking leave, then," he spoke darkly, his voice dark with a false calmness. "Go run to the fucking perfect little light sides! Maybe they can save you from having to deal with the sides who fucking took care of you when they didn't want you!"

Deceit saw tears gathering in the corners of Virgil's eyes, but he was too hurt himself to feel bad for what he said just yet.

"MAYBE I WILL!"

"GOOD! FUCKING GO, THEN!"

Deceit didn't mean that. Even in that moment, as angry as he was, he knew he didn't mean that. He wanted Virgil to go away for a while, wanted to go back to his own room until they calmed down, but he didn't want Virgil to go to the Light Sides. That was probably one of the last things he wanted. But he was angry and hurt, and his ability to tell the truth was waning.

"GO AND DON'T FUCKING COME BACK!" he screamed. "I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

Lie. Lie lie lie. But he was so mad.

"FINE!"

And then Virgil was storming away.

But then, right before Virgil left the room, he paused, and in strained, honest voice, he spoke:

"I fucking hate you."

And then he was gone, slamming the door behind him.

Janus stood there for a long time before finally mustering up the ability to go to his room. He was glad that Remus was in the imagination right now, because he knew the other side would be upset about this. Despite his violent tendencies, Remus always hated their fighting. He wasn't even sure how he was going to explain this to Remus if Virgil really didn't come back.

Once he was alone in his room, Janus sank to the floor and snapped his fingers to change into a hoodie. He already knew he wasn't going to be leaving his room for a while, so he might as well be comfortable in his misery.

"It's fine. I'm fine. I'm not upset at all," Janus lied automatically under his breath. "The sky is green, and everything is fine."

Today, he didn't even bother hesitating in removing his gloves and rolling up his sleeves. His head was thrumming, and his skin was crawling, and he wanted everything to just stop for a bit. By the time he was done, blood was smeared onto his fingertips and under his nails. He sighed as he looked at the damage he had done. Janus probably would have done this whether they had an argument or not, but this was definitely one of those times when the line between his compulsion to pick his skin and a desire to hurt himself started to blur. It was always like this when they argued.

"Everything is fine."

And they had been arguing a lot recently. It's not like he wanted to, and he doubted that Virgil did, either, but they just couldn't seem to get along anymore. Janus felt betrayed by Virgil pushing them aside in favor of the Lights, and Virgil apparently hated him now. It just seemed like, no matter what they did, they just couldn't stop being angry at each other.

Virgil hated him.

"No. No, Virgil doesn't hate me…," Janus told himself tearfully. "He'll be back…"

It wasn't until Janus said that aloud that he realized he didn't actually believe it.

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