It was Janus's first night alone after he was forced to start acting on his own accord, and he truly didn't know what he was supposed to do. For the first night, the others had stayed around for most of the night, and Thomas allowed him to sleep on the couch with him. Janus had clung to him, both literally and figuratively. He had tried to watch Thomas's every move to get a sense of how he wanted him to behave, quickly grabbing onto one of Thomas's arms once they sat on the couch, and he hadn't let go until after he fell asleep.

But now, Janus was alone in his room in the mindscape. One of the others (he hadn't noticed which one) had suggested that Janus should sleep in his room, and it looked like Thomas agreed. So, Janus allowed Roman to lead him back, holding onto the princely side's hand until they were in the room. He hadn't wanted to let go of Roman's hand, but Roman gave him a strained reassurance and an even more strained smile, and Janus had to let go. His memories (were they really even his memories?) were murky, but he knew that Roman didn't exactly like him very much, and he didn't want him to get mad at him, and by extension, make Thomas get mad at him.

So there he was, sitting in a plain but no longer blank bedroom, without any contact or direction or even a cue for what he was meant to do now. Was he supposed to go to sleep? Was it late enough for that, or was he supposed to stay up a while longer? What if he fell asleep, and Thomas needed him for something? Was he supposed to be doing his job right now? Is that why he was returned to the mindscape? Or was he supposed to come up with an interest, as Thomas had wanted him to.

He didn't know.

And so, Janus stood in his bedroom for most of the night, only moving to lay down on the floor once he was too physically tired to remain awake. Even in such a simple choice, Janus felt his skin crawling with uncertainty. He still didn't know if he was supposed to sleep, but he did know that if he did sleep, it was supposed to be in a bed, and there was a bed against one of the walls in the room that was likely meant to be his. But even knowing that, he couldn't decide to go over to it, let alone to slide beneath the blankets and fall asleep there. Even his decision to sleep on the floor was made less by choice and more because his body wouldn't allow him to do anything else.

He awoke to someone shaking his shoulder.

"Hey, Janus, are you okay?"

As the sleep was gently shaken from his mind, Janus opened his eyes to see Patton kneeling beside him, looking somewhat concerned. He blinked at the moral side, who gave him a kind but sad smile.

"Hey there, Kiddo," Patton greeted him. "What are you doing on the floor?"

"Sleeping?" he replied slowly.

And he saw Patton's eyebrows crinkle, but he didn't quite understand what the expression was meant to convey.

"Oh, okay," Patton replied. "Do you want to come eat breakfast, Kiddo?"

Janus felt his chest tighten.

"I don't know."

Patton sighed, looking away for a moment before returning his gaze to Janus.

"Come eat, Jan," Patton ordered gently. "I'll make pancakes, okay?"

He felt the relief settle over him as Patton decided both that he should eat and what he should eat.

"Okay."

Then, Patton took his hand and started to stand, and Janus got the memo that he should stand as well. A second later, Patton sank out, taking him along, and they reappeared in the mindscape's kitchen. The others were already there, with Logan and Virgil sitting at the table, Roman leaning against the counter, and Remus sitting on the counter. Whatever conversation they had been having cut off as soon as they noticed they had appeared. Patton released his hand, and Janus almost let out a noise of protest, but he was stopped by Remus speaking.

"Hey, J-Anus," he greeted him. "Now that you're, like, a person and shit, you should come hang out in my side of the imagination sometime!"

"Okay."

And it looked like Roman was going to protest, but Virgil shook his head.

"Dude, you're just gonna confuse him."

Janus continued standing there for a while, staring at the others, until Logan spoke. By then, Patton had started pouring pancake batter into the pan.

"Janus, sit down at the table," he directed.

And so Janus sat. He almost fumbled at deciding which chair to sit in, but one of them was closer than the others, so he sat there. No one seemed to have any complaints, so he must have chosen correctly. Once he sat, the awkward silence returned for a while before being broken again, this time by Logan.

"Good morning, Deceit," he said, giving a more typical greeting than Remus. "Tell us how your night went."

Janus relaxed a bit more.

"I slept on the floor," he responded.

And at that, Roman and Virgil both turned to look at him more fully.

"You what?!" Roman exclaimed. "Why didn't you sleep in your bed?!"

Okay, he knew Roman wanted an answer. He could answer.

"I didn't know if I was supposed to," he replied simply.

In front of him, Virgil sighed and let his face fall into his hands, while Roman continued to stare at him incredulously. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Patton stiffen.

Logan nodded.

"I see," he spoke. "Deceit, I believe it may be helpful to you if we set some ground rules. Just a basic list of things that you know you can do without being told."

He tilted his head.

"We will work on it after breakfast if that suits everyone," Logan announced.

There were a few nods from around the room, and not long after, Patton brought over a large stack of pancakes. Roman and Remus went to sit down in their chairs, and Patton piled some onto each of their plates before sitting down himself.

"Okay, let's eat, everyone!"

And Patton looked at him while he said it, making sure he knew that he was being included in the demand, so Janus slowly picked up a fork and began to eat. He didn't add anything to the pancakes as the others did, but no one called him out on it, and he was content to just eat the fluffy discs as they were.

They were good.

No one spoke for the duration of the meal, but once everyone had eaten and the plates had been cleared away, Logan summoned a pen and some paper, and they began to write him his set of rules.

The others were the ones to come up with them, and Janus just listened to what they said without offering any of his own input. Some of the rules included:

Janus can sleep when he wants to.

Janus can sleep in his bed.

Janus can eat when he wants to.

Janus can bathe when he wants to.

Janus can do things he likes.

Janus can leave his room when he wants to.

And on and on the rules went, and Janus didn't know how to feel about them. On the one hand, it was helpful to have rules written out for him to follow now that he couldn't tell what Thomas or the others wanted him to do so easily anymore, but on the other hand, he felt that most of the rules were too vague. He was allowed to eat when he wanted to, but when did he want to? He could tell that they were using that phrasing to be careful, not wanting to restrict his freedom to do things, but he had only had true free will for less than two days, and he could already tell that determining when he wanted (such a foreign concept to him) to do things was going to be difficult.

But the others made their list, and they read it out to him, and they gave him the paper and told him to keep it. He folded it up and stuck it in a pocket.

And then they stood and started to leave, but Janus remained sitting, and they noticed.

"Jan?" Patton spoke questioningly.

He turned to look at the fatherly side.

"What am I supposed to do now?" he asked.

Patton's face fell, and he could see that Virgil and Roman were becoming increasingly exasperated. They had apparently hoped that the list would be enough guidance for him.

"For now, go do your job," Logan told him. "One of us will come get you for lunch later."

"Okay," Janus responded, standing up.

With that, Janus returned to his room and walked over to the corner where his golden thread sat. It had gotten all tangled somehow, so he had to start by detangling it, and once he was done with that, he wound the thread back around the spool. Finally, it was in a good enough condition for him to work, and he began it immediately.

He remained in the corner as he wove tapestries of lies, giving each one an intricate pattern and making sure they were strong enough to be stored for later, so they would be ready when Thomas needed them. Some of them were small, more of a doily than a tapestry, while others were as large as quilts made to cover an entire bed.

The golden thread sparkled in the light of his room, and he found a familiar comfort in it. This was what he knew how to do, what he was made to do. He didn't have to ask anyone else about it now that he had gotten started.

And so, Janus continued to weave layer after layer of lies, stacking them up beside him as he finished each one.

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