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So, this is the last chapter of this part. There are 2 more parts in this series (an explanation of how the sides formed in this AU and what happened right before the first part). I'm probably not going to post the next part for a while because I'm flying across the country for my sister's wedding soon, and I'm not really gonna be worrying about fanfic during that. Regardless, I hope y'all like this chapter :3.

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Janus was slowly getting better at doing things on his own.

He didn't need as much prompting to complete basic tasks. He could, after all, eventually get the hang of patterns of behavior. If he was supposed to eat breakfast every morning for six days in a row, it was reasonable to assume that he was supposed to eat breakfast on the seventh morning as well. He could do things like that on his own.

… At least, he was getting better at doing things on his own.

He could take care of himself and do his job, but Thomas and the other sides still seemed to want him to find a hobby. A hobby, an interest, something he was supposed to do in his spare time that wasn't just sitting somewhere and staring off into space.

That was the part he was having more trouble with.

He still wasn't entirely used to doing things because he wanted to. He did things he had to do or what was expected from him, but it wasn't like he felt any desire to do any of that beyond the basic instinct to fulfill his role. Janus had tried to ask Thomas to tell him what his interests should be, but the man had only told him that assigning him a hobby would defeat the purpose.

But that just left him unsure of what to do. There were so many possible interests that someone could have, so how was he supposed to figure out which one he liked? How was he supposed to choose? The difficulty of choosing combined with the purposelessness of the activities themselves made it hard for Janus to even really try any of them.

And so, even though Janus knew he was supposed to be doing something, he was just sitting and staring again. At least he was doing it in the commons rather than his room this time. That counted for something, right?

And so he was sitting there when Roman strutted into the room.

"Oh! Um, Janus. Hi," he greeted. "What are you doing?"

Janus shrugged.

"Okay. Right. Um…," spoke Roman. "Well, I was going to draw, so."

And Roman held up a tote bag, tipping his head toward it, before he came further into the room and settled himself on the floor by the coffee table. Then, the other side began to pull out sketchbooks and pencils and crayons and all sorts of art supplies, spreading them out on the table in front of him. Janus watched, observing the way Roman dragged pencils across paper, making lines and swirls and all sorts of shapes of all sorts of colors as he came up with ideas.

Eventually, Roman noticed his staring, looking up and blinking at Janus in surprise. Roman tilted his head for a moment, opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again.

"Janus, do you… do you want to join me?"

This time, it was Janus who blinked.

"... Okay," he replied.

With that, Janus slid off the couch and settled onto the floor, mimicking the way Roman had done so, and the princely side set a piece of blank paper and some colored pencils in front of him.

"Here," he said.

And then Roman went back to drawing, leaving Janus to his own devices. Janus, however, simply found himself staring at a blank page and the blank page staring back at him, and he was no more able to fill the page than he was able to choose a hobby. After staring at the paper for a long while, Janus allowed his gaze to wander over to Roman and his paper, and he picked up a red pencil- the same color as the one Roman was using, and he began to copy the prince's motions.

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Roman was slightly surprised when he found Janus in the common room without anyone bringing him there, but he was even more surprised when Janus agreed to his offer of drawing with him. He had expected Janus to say no, or maybe to just stare at him, but instead, he'd agreed and moved over to the table.

And so, Roman gave him some paper and some pencils and, wondering what it was that Janus would draw, left the man to it.

It took a while for Janus to actually pick a pencil up and for Roman to hear the tell-tale scratch of pencil on paper, but eventually, Janus did start to draw. He and Roman sat there drawing for quite a while, until Roman finished his own drawing, before Roman let his curiosity win and encourage him to peek at what Janus was drawing.

The biggest surprise, it turned out, was seeing that Janus's appearance had shifted to look like him, and in addition to that, Janus was apparently trying to mimic his drawing. It was a poor replication- Janus had likely never drawn before- but it was clear enough that that was what he was doing.

Roman had to bite his cheek to stop himself from snapping at the side.

"Hey, Janus, what are you drawing?" he asked instead, forcing his voice to be gentle.

"I don't know."

Of course he didn't know. He was mimicking Roman's drawing, and Roman was drawing a creature he made up.

"You don't have to draw the same thing as me, you know," Roman pointed out.

Janus didn't respond to this, only scratching out the final lines on his paper and setting down the pencil.

Roman held back a sigh.

"Well, did you have fun?" he asked, trying to probe for more information.

Maybe Janus would like drawing, or being creative. After all, he was still Deceit, and that included acting, so maybe he'd like some of Roman's hobbies.

"I…," Janus sighed, and surprisingly, Roman could hear a hint of frustration in his tone. "I don't know."

"Hm," Roman hummed, getting an idea. "Well, drawing's a lot more fun when you aren't copying something, but it's hard to draw something when you don't know what to draw, right?"

Janus nodded.

"Well, sometimes, when I have art block, I like to use prompts," Roman explained. "You're given an idea, and then you can interpret it however you want. Wanna try?"

"Okay."

"Great! Let's see…," Roman hummed as he thought. "How about you draw a magic flower?"

Janus stared at him for a long moment before nodding and turning back to his paper, picking up a green pencil hesitantly. He looked back to Roman, so he nodded at him and continued his own drawing.

The two of them scratched away at their papers for a while, and when Roman paused to check on Janus, he found that he had shifted back into himself.

And on his paper, there was a red and yellow flower with a green stem.

XXX

Remus whistled as he skipped down the hallway, his eye locked onto his destination:

Deceit's room.

The others had been trying to keep him away from Janus for the most part, apparently thinking he was going to hurt him (most likely because he'd joked that he would, but he was joking. Mostly). And while stopping Remus from doing something he wanted to do was practically impossible, distracting him was rather easy. So with the others taking turns distracting him with everything from slime molds to battles with new monsters, Remus had almost forgotten about his intentions to pester Deceit.

Today, though, everyone else was busy (and technically, Janus probably was too, but Remus knew he'd stop working if he told him to. One of the perks of having a living doll around). And so, he decided that it was a good day to enact the pestering plan, and hopefully, the pestering plan would lead to one of the other fun plans he had spinning around his mind.

Upon reaching the door, he didn't bother to knock. Instead, he just grabbed the handle and pulled it open (though, he would have preferred breaking it down. Unfortunately, Janus never really seemed to lock it anymore). Inside, he found Deceit sitting on his bed tangling his golden string together into some kind of pattern that meant nothing to Remus but probably made perfect sense to himself.

"Heya, Jannie!" he shouted, making the other side look up from his work. "Come on, we're gonna go have some fun!"

Janus glanced back down at his work for a second before looking back at him.

"I'm supposed to be working?"

"Not anymore!" Remus declared. "Time for a break!"

At that, Janus put the string down and stood up, following Remus out of the room. Part of Remus liked that Janus was doing what he wanted, but at the same time, another part of him would have preferred being able to pester him for a bit longer before he gave in.

"What are we doing?" the side asked.

"We're gonna mess with the others!" Remus told him excitedly. "It's been way too calm around here lately. Time for some chaos!"

Janus hummed.

"Okay."

"Let's start with a classic: the ol' put-tapeworms-into-the-milk trick!"

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Virgil let out another groan as a downpour of ping-pong balls cascaded out of the cabinet when he went to get a cup.

Apparently, Remus decided to have a one-sided prank war, and he'd dragged Janus into it because he knew he wasn't going to say no to any of it. Virgil had woken up late, and as soon as he woke up, he knew he'd need coffee to get his work done that day.

And as soon as he tried to leave his bedroom, a pie flew into his face.

Him and the others had been subjected to numerous similar pranks the entire day, and Virgil had long-since gotten past the point where he was tired of it.

Except he and the others had made an agreement to not say anything unless the pranks got out of hand.

Why?

Because, after a few pranks, they'd noticed a small smile on Janus's face.

And, well, what were they supposed to do? Tell Janus to stop doing something when he'd finally found something he actually seemed to like doing? Sure, the fact that annoying them was the closest thing he'd found to an interest was irksome, but at least it was something.

So, Virgil let out a long sigh and grabbed his cup as the last few balls bounced off the counter.

Turning around so he could go to the coffee machine, Virgil almost immediately jumped again, though he was pretty sure this wasn't an intentional prank this time. There were two Remus's standing behind him, and like he usually assumed when there were two of the same side present, one of them was Janus.

It had become commonplace to see duplicates wandering around the mindscape. Janus had been turning into them more and more often, usually shifting into whoever he was spending time with. Sometimes, though, he would shift into someone else, or would shift when he wasn't even with anyone in particular. He didn't usually seem to notice unless it was pointed out, though. Logan theorized that mimicry made it easier for Janus to figure things out, so in addition to copying what they did, he would also copy how they looked. It was weird, and Virgil still felt creeped out whenever he walked into a room to find himself standing there, but it did seem to be working.

Sometimes, Virgil would enter the living room to find two identical Logans sitting on the couch, and he couldn't always even tell which one was actually Logan. Other times, he'd find two Patton's baking, and while it was always easy to figure out which one was which, he'd actually heard Janus humming along to Patton's singing a handful of times. Janus and Roman were also drawing together regularly now, and even though he was still shifting to look like Roman, he was slowly getting the hang of drawing his own original work instead of copying someone else's.

It seems that Remus decided it was his turn to model behavior for him, and sure enough, Janus shifted to look like his teacher.

Virgil just hoped Janus wouldn't end up actually becoming a second Remus.

"'Sup, Emo," Remus greeted, clearly unperturbed by Virgil's momentary flinch.

"Hey," he sighed in return, beginning to make his way across the kitchen. "Coming to set up another prank?"

"Nope," Remus replied, popping the 'P'. "DeeDee said he's hungry."

"Oh."

That was a surprise. Janus was getting better at doing things for himself, but he still wasn't great at expressing what he wanted to others. So, if he was hungry, he would just get something. Until now, he hadn't actually said he was hungry- expressed his desire and interrupted an activity that someone else had directed him to do.

"So, what do ya want, Jannie?"

"I don't know."

Well, baby steps. He was definitely getting there.

"Hm, let's eat tide pods, then."

"No!" Virgil shouted, turning away from the coffee machine. "Do not eat tide pods. Eat actual food."

"Aw, you're no fun."

It was then that Patton, Logan, and Roman came into the kitchen, barely even glancing at the duplicates of Dark Creativity.

"Oh, heya, Kiddos!" Patton greeted. "If you're discussing lunch, I was just going to make some grilled cheese if you want."

"Yeah, that sounds great, Patton," Virgil accepted, glad that he wouldn't have to argue about why tide pods were not a suitable lunch.

"Can I put-"

"Whatever it is, NO."

He and Remus started bickering, because even though Virgil had managed to avoid arguing about eating tide pods, he apparently couldn't avoid arguing about whether nails, superglue, and magnets were acceptable additions to grilled cheese. Patton stepped around them and began making lunch while the others sat at the table.

Finally, after fifteen minutes, they had compromised with Remus adding sardines and mustard to his sandwich and leaving Janus's alone. At some point during their arguing, Janus had changed back into his own form, and for some reason, he caught him glancing in his direction, looking away after he saw Virgil looking back at him.

Brushing it off as Janus just staring again, he turned back toward the coffee pot and finally pressed the button to turn it on.

Suddenly, a green cloud exploded out of the machine.

Virgil jumped back and tried to wave the cloud away, listening to the sound of two people laughing while Patton tried to ask if he was okay. As the cloud dissipated, Virgil realized that he was covered in green glitter.

Not even the coffee maker was off-limits in the pranking, it seemed.

He turned toward the table, glaring at Remus, when he registered the fact that Remus wasn't the only one laughing.

So was Janus.

Janus, for the first time, was laughing. Actually laughing, because he thought something was funny and not because he thought he was supposed to. His shoulders shook with amusement, and a wide smile had spread over his face, his eyes crinkled happily.

And so, despite the glitter and his lack of coffee, Virgil couldn't help smiling just a bit.

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