A/N: This is a collaboration between myself (HarvestBeauty) and ellasdogs. We decided to do this just for pure fun, because we've noticed that we both have a singular, passionate focus on one specific character: for me, it's Larry... and she focuses on Janet. It's sort of a tribute to our friendship, in a way. The timelines do not quite add up enough for me to consider this a part of my canon, but I've told ellasdogs that she is more than welcome to consider it a part of her canon if she wants to. Regardless, having our two worlds meet was a very fun writing exercise for the both of us!

HarvestBeauty

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I just wanted to add that this has been one wild ride! It's an incredibly rewarding experience to see the characters we are both so emotionally invested in share a hug at this intersection of the two universes.

The concept was originally HarvestBeauty's. As for the meeting of the two ideas for the two chapters we came up with independently of each other and months apart… that's an amazing story in itself.

Unfortunately, this story doesn't fit in with HarvestBeauty's timeline which is different from mine. Since I've always played fast and loose with linearity, it clicked effortlessly into place on my timeline.

Also, I wanted to say many thanks to HarvestBeauty for so many things…

ellasdogs

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I

The all-too-familiar shave-and-a-haircut knock on the front door yanked Janet out of her dream. In itself, it wasn't that much of a loss. The dream, which she couldn't remember in detail, had been vaguely frightening and set her nerves on edge.

Still, she didn't feel like moving just yet. But no one else was home, which meant she would have to get off the couch to admit Larry, whom she wasn't that eager to see in the first place.

Larry Dallas, their upstairs neighbour and, surprisingly enough, Jack's best friend, wasn't among Janet's favourite people. And that was putting it mildly. A stereotypically crooked used car salesman, an inveterate skirt-chaser and, worst of all, a virtuoso liar. She often wondered how he and Jack could be so close. Okay, Jack was quite the skirt-chaser and liar in his own right, so it was no mystery what the two men had in common. However, no matter what mischief Jack would get up to, Larry's antics always made him look like a prince in comparison. Besides, Jack had many redeeming qualities which endeared him to Janet. Larry, to the best of her knowledge, had none.

She was tempted to shut her eyes again and hope for a nicer dream. But the knock was repeated, and ignoring people waiting to be let in wasn't how she'd been raised.

She opened the door just wide enough to see Larry's suggestive grin.

"Jack's not here," she announced before he had a chance to ask.

"Oh?" Larry didn't sound too disappointed. "Is Chrissy here?"

"No," she said, surprised. What could he want with Chrissy? Other than the obvious, that is.

"So, it's just you and me? No one else around? That's even better!"

He took a step forward, and she had to step back. Suddenly, he was inside the apartment. He shut the door and leaned his back against it.

"What do you want, Larry?" asked Janet trying to keep the stress out of her voice.

"Nothing in particular. Can't a guy visit with his pretty neighbor just to be neighborly?"

He took another step towards her. This time, she stood her ground, even though her whole body was shivering. Standing this close and towering over her, the man looked menacing. She couldn't suppress a shudder.

"What's your problem?" he asked. "I am not hurting you, am I now?"

She felt she was on the verge of a panic attack. This wasn't the first time she'd had to deal with an aggressive male, and normally she was able to defuse the situation. But now all this was messing with her head and pushing all the wrong buttons.

"Stay away from me, Larry," she said in a warning tone.

"Hey, I am not doing anything! Why are you being weird? Come here!" He slipped an arm around her and pulled her to him.

That did it. She slid out of his embrace and pushed him away with unexpected violence.

"Get your hands off me, you low-life!" she hissed.

Shocked, he sprang back as if she were a red-hot iron.

She froze, horrified by her own outburst. The blood rushed to her face, and she felt her eyes well up with hot tears.

"Are you fucking crazy? I don't need this!" He put his hand on the door handle.

"Oh no, Larry! Please wait!" she cried. "I am so sorry… I didn't mean that!"

He turned around to face her. "Now you are sorry, eh? And that makes it all right?"

"Larry…" she gasped. "Please listen! That was a terrible thing for me to say. I don't even know what came over me!"

"Guess what? I don't care. I am outta here."

"If you knew what I've been through… you'd understand why… why I overreacted like that," she stammered.

"What you've been through? What's the worst that ever happened to you, little Miss Perfect? Got a B instead of an A on a test?"

"That's not fair! You don't know squat about my life!"

"Do you know anything about my life? What do you know of real life anyway?"

She heard footsteps on the stairs. In a few seconds, the door opened to admit Jack.

"Hey, Lar!" he began cheerfully. Then his smile faltered as he took in the upset in his friends' faces. He looked from one to the other. "What's going on here? Why are you guys looking like this?"

"It's okay, Jacko," muttered Larry. "Gotta go now… Talk to you later."

He stepped outside, slammed the door behind him and was gone.

Jack turned to Janet. "What just happened here?"

"Oh Jack…" She pressed her palms to her burning cheeks. "I'm afraid I messed up."

He fixed her with a stern look. "What did you do?"

Haltingly, she told him.

"Oh no," Jack shook his head. "That's bad. That's real bad. Smooth going, Janet."

"I know," she hung her head in shame.

"How could you say something like that to Larry? Don't you know him by now? I know he can come across as a jerk, but that's just an act. You, of all people, should've seen through that."

"How? I am no mind reader."

"Oh come on. Okay, he lies a lot, mostly to score with girls or to sell a lemon, but other than that, he is harmless. He'd never hurt a woman. Least of all, you or Chrissy – you are like family to him. He is good people, once you get to know him. And he's been through so much bad shit in his life it's a miracle he's keeping it together at all."

"You may know him well enough, Jack. I don't. And if he's ever opened up to you about his past, I wasn't around to hear it."

"Don't you always tell us not to judge too harshly without knowing the whole story? I might've expected something like this of Chrissy, but you… I thought you'd be able to see beneath the surface. This act he puts on… that's just a defense mechanism. That guy's been hurt a lot, so he's trying to protect himself from more hurt. And that word you hurled at him… that particular word… believe me, that didn't help any."

"Oh Jack," she pleaded. "I feel terrible. Could you please tell him how sorry I am?"

Jack looked at her with something close to disappointment.

"I don't know about that, Janet. It's your mess. Not mine."

He turned away from her and walked into his room.

...

Janet lived with a heavy heart.

Technically, she had apologized to Larry, and peace had been restored. But he hardly ever spoke to her these days, and sometimes she caught him looking at her so darkly that she cringed inwardly.

Doing the right thing was never easy. She had learned that early on.

She climbed the stairs to the third floor, secretly hoping Larry would be out or too busy with a girl to answer the door.

No such luck. He opened the door and stood there glaring at her. "What?"

"May I come in?"

"Without a police escort? Might not be such a good idea."

"Look, Larry, I just want to apologize."

"You've done that already. Apology accepted. What else can I do for you?"

"Please, can we talk?"

"I don't see what we have to talk about."

This was going nowhere. Janet was beginning to feel desperate and ridiculous at the same time. Until she realized that, in her embarrassment and remorse, she forgot she had a superpower which, so far, had proved 100% effective.

She gave her hair a slight shake and directed at Larry her most dazzling smile. That, paired with a sly sideways glance from under half-dropped eyelids, never failed to conquer the best-fortified citadel.

"Larry, come on," she purred. "You are not gonna keep me standing out here all night, are you?"

Larry was not immune, either. His face softened and his stance relaxed just a bit.

"Okay, get in here," he grumbled stepping aside. "You sure you don't need a chaperone?"

"Don't be that way. I just want to talk to you."

He nodded and gestured to the couch.

"Larry, listen," she raised her stunning dark eyes to his, "I know you think me a sheltered mama's girl. True, most of my life has been pretty smooth sailing. Unlike yours, I am sure. But not all of it. If I tell you about something that happened to me years ago, it may help you forgive me for overreacting and for hurting and insulting you the way I did. And also… I know you don't like to talk about your own past. But if there's anything you may want to share with me in confidence, I'll feel privileged to listen. Do we have a deal?"

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II

Larry and Janet had been sitting on his couch for the past three minutes in a heavy silence. Larry had nothing that he wanted to say to Janet, but it appeared that Janet did have something to say... only she was having trouble getting the words out. Larry made no attempt to help her or to break the ice. After all, he was still feeling pretty angry about what she had called him earlier. He decided to let her find the words herself. Normally, Larry wasn't the type to hold a grudge or to stay angry with friends, but her angry outburst toward him really wounded him. He pretended that he had no feelings so well that sometimes he would end up tricking himself into believing it. Only this lie always came back to haunt him later on, unfortunately.

"So..." Janet began awkwardly, forcing a pathetic chuckle. "I've noticed that you've been giving me these really nasty looks lately..."

"Gee, have I?" Larry spat as his eyes narrowed.

He looked at her with such venom that she was taken aback. She steeled herself before continuing.

"I've already apologized to you and I know that another apology won't do any good, so I want to tell you why I reacted so strongly to you. Maybe that will help you understand," Janet tried again.

"So you've said." Larry said flatly. How many times was she going to say that? She'd said just as much to him at least two or three times, but without the promised story. To Larry, it just sounded like an empty excuse. He gestured toward her with his hand, making a sarcastic gesture to encourage her, as if to say "Out with it, already."

He was met with more silence. After a few seconds, Larry sighed impatiently. He decided to just show her out of his apartment and to declare a truce.

"Look, maybe this wasn't such a good idea – " Larry began.

"Larry, when I was fifteen, I was... attacked." Janet forced herself to say the words quickly, like ripping off a band-aid.

That stopped him in his tracks for a moment as he tried to process the meaning of her words.

"What do you mean by attacked?" Larry asked for clarification, hoping that she didn't mean what he thought she meant.

"I was just a few feet away from my home. The guy was in front of me, rather than behind me. Before I knew it, he turned and grabbed me and dragged me across the street. As we got further and further away from my house, I just remembered hoping I could make it back to my family somehow. I was so afraid I'd never get to see my parents or my sister ever again. I felt like I was having a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from..." Janet paused as a chill of disgust passed through her petite body. "Larry, I was almost home."

Larry was horrified. It had never occurred to him that anything like that could have ever happened to her. She resembled a modern-day Snow White to him, and he had trouble imagining the whole scenario. Suddenly, he was feeling very protective of her and angry on her behalf.

"When he got me where he wanted me, I called him the same name I called you... a low-life." Janet winced a little. "I tried not to show any fear at first. Well, he pretty much beat whatever bravery I had right out of me for that little remark. I was slapped, kicked, punched, had my arm twisted... you name it. He called me filthy and vile names as he tore at my clothes, and I was completely powerless to stop it. I was utterly helpless. I was saved at the last minute because he ended up getting spooked by some unsuspecting people walking nearby. Had they not scared him off, I would have been raped," Janet confessed quietly. "After that experience, I made a promise to myself to never let anything like that happen to me ever again. To this day, whenever a guy acts too aggressive or sexual with me, it triggers those memories for me all over again. It's not just with you, though, it's with any guy. Even Jack, and he has the bruises to prove it."

Although Janet meant for that last line to be funny, it was painfully true. All angry tension that Larry had in his body had finally left him, and he merely stared at her. His expression was one of sadness, and he shook his head before responding to her.

"First of all, I'm sorry that happened to you. I hope you know that I don't mean any harm when I come on to you and Chrissy... I'm just trying to be complimentary, I guess. Plus, it's kind of like our thing: I flirt with you girls, you guys shoot me down... like a call and response or a fun inside joke. I don't think I'd know what to do if you or Chrissy actually accepted my advances, because I haven't thought that far ahead." Larry chuckled softly for a moment before continuing on a more serious note. "But I want you to know that I'd never, ever force myself on you, Chrissy or any other woman. That's disgusting and it's not who I am. If I ever gave you a reason to think otherwise, well, then I'm the one who is sorry. I am all about having fun... any woman who has ever been with me made that choice on her own. I would never force something like that."

"Yes, I know that. And I'm sorry I snapped at you," Janet said quietly.

Larry was silent for a moment. He looked pensive, and Janet could see that he was tying to digest everything she had just told him. When he finally spoke up again, what he said next shocked Janet to the bone.

"The same kind of thing happened to me once," Larry admitted.

Janet's already enormous brown eyes got even larger at the revelation, and Larry felt the need to backtrack.

"I mean... sort of. I don't know. I guess it's different for guys?" Larry stumbled a little on his words. "From the age ten and up, I knew way too much about sex than any kid that age should ever know..."

"Wait... how does a ten-year-old know about sex?" Janet blurted before she could stop herself.

"Well, it wasn't from the other kids my own age, that's for sure." Larry flashed her a painful smile. "Anyway, in spite of all that, I didn't actually lose my virginity until I was fourteen, and, oh boy, was it an experience. I was with a girl at least four years older than I was because I didn't know what I was doing, obviously. That part of it was consensual. But then afterwards, her friend comes to join us out of nowhere... I guess her friend also had her eye on me, although I can't tell you why. This part of it was not consensual. The one I was originally with held me down while the other one... did what she did. I actually got to liking it after a while... I didn't stay a victim for long, that's for sure. I didn't get the snot beat out of me like in your case. Like I said, I guess it's different for guys..."

Janet gasped in horror.

"No, it is not any different for guys. Not at all," Janet spoke up. "Assault is assault, period."

"I tell you, it really messes with your mind when you begin to enjoy something like that and then start seeking out more of it. My Dad committed suicide about a month after that, and that was like the final straw. Set me off and sent me down a dark road... a road that I am still trying to come back from. However, that is a different story for a different day... if I told you all of that and went through that whole mess, we'd be here all day," Larry stated quietly as he looked straight ahead and not at Janet. "I guess I want you to know that I do understand where you are coming from, sort of. Only I don't run from sex... I embrace it. I figure if I stare it down and chase it with gusto, then I've won because it can't scare me anymore. Somebody who is always willing can't be raped, right?"

Janet was silent as she thought about things. For her, sex made her freeze up and repulsed her. For Larry, he couldn't get enough. She marveled that two such different reactions were born out of basically the same experience.

"I guess you and I are a lot alike." Larry's voice broke into her thoughts, as if reading her mind.

"Yeah, I suppose we are..." Janet reflected painfully.

"Well, for one, we are both dark and gorgeous..." Larry stated, trying to lighten the mood.

Janet looked at him and smirked knowingly.

"We both have Mediterranean roots..." Larry continued, touching on Janet's Italian background and his own Greek one. "We are both friends with Jack and Chrissy... and... that's about it..."

Larry trailed off awkwardly, triggering laughter from both himself and from Janet.

"We both cry at sad movies!" Janet pointed out in an attempt to help him.

"I do not!" Larry denied the charge. "Well, only when animals die. I hate movies in which animals die. There needs to be a law against making movies like that."

Janet hummed in agreement before continuing.

"We both like plants," Janet offered.

Larry smirked a little bit and shrugged. It didn't really go with his image, but Larry did have a thing for nature. He quite liked flowers, trees, animals and the natural world a lot. It always gave him a sense of calm.

"So, are we okay now?" Janet asked him hopefully.

"Yeah, we're okay." Larry smiled at her with ease. He then stuck his hand out toward her so she could shake his hand. Janet looked down at his hand in disbelief before looking back up at his face. She raised an eyebrow, mildly insulted. What was she, one of his customers at the car lot?

"Put that thing away and give me a hug!" she demanded.

"You don't mean that." Larry's eyes glittered playfully.

Janet rolled her eyes before leaning toward Larry and giving him a hug. Larry just kind of accepted it for a few awkward seconds, unsure of whether to touch her or not. Normally, he was pretty hands-on with everybody, but now he doubted himself and wondered if it was appropriate for the situation. Finally, he returned her embrace warmly.

They would never be the best of friends, but now they had an understanding.

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December 1, 2020