It was a normal day for the sides and it had been pretty quiet since Roman and Remus were in the Imagination for the day. Virgil was sat on the top of the fridge while Patton was baking muffins for everyone as a change. He knew that his dark strange son was on the top of the fridge but he used to it and he had given Virgil a cup of coffee a while ago. Logan was sat on the couch, reading as usual, and Janus was up in his room most likely sleeping. The logic side was feeling relaxed which was rare for him and Janus had overworked himself without realising it. The deceitful side was sent to bed by Patton who said that they'll wake him up if they needed him and Janus wasn't too happy but he was too tired to argue. Thomas was nowhere to be seen but they knew that their host wasn't in danger since Virgil was quite calm. If their host was in danger then the anxious side would certainly be freaking out and the others would be alerted of the danger. Emile and Remy had said that they planned to stop by during the day but they hadn't shown up yet. They always kept their word when it came to visiting the sides so maybe they were just running late which wouldn't be surprising since Remy doesn't set a timer when he takes a nap. It was pretty common and there had been times where the pair had to stay the night because they couldn't wake Remy up.
The peace and quiet in the house was soon disturbed when the twins returned from their trip but something was wrong. Thomas was still missing, and the twins were arguing over something, but no one knew what it was about. Janus had been woken up the noise and walked downstairs with a giant fluffy blanket wrapped around him since it was freezing for him. Remus had broken the thermostat by accident and no one had gotten the chance to fix it yet. The temperatures were manageable for the others but Janus was cold-blooded so he hated the cold and it was certainly too cold for his liking. The snake-like side sat down next to the logic side and snuggled up close since Logan was a perfect source of warmth. Logan didn't seem to mind and everyone had gotten used to Janus being cuddly when he was cold. It wasn't a bad thing but it took everyone a while to get used to it and Janus would cuddle with anyone he could find even Thomas. The twins soon stopped arguing and they both sighed in defeat. They needed to tell the others about what had happened.
"So we may have a problem," Roman said which seemed to grab everyone's attention apart from Janus who had fallen asleep again. They didn't have the heart to wake him and they had decided to explain things to him later. He needed all of the sleep he could get currently after overworking himself over the span of four days. They needed to sort his sleep schedule out for him so he got some proper rest.
"Roman fucked up," Remus said as he pointed at his brother without hesitation.
"I did not," The prince said in defence.
"Did too," The duke shot back.
"Kiddos, what did you do?" Patton asked the pair after he came out of the kitchen to see what was going on. He hoped that it was nothing bad and that it was a prank of some kind.
"That's a bit hard to explain," Roman answered.
"We shrunk Thomas," Remus answered excitedly as he held up a rather young looking Thomas and Patton was frozen to the spot.
"You did what?" Virgil said in shock as he looked at the baby version Thomas. How the hell did they manage to turn Thomas into a baby? What did they do and how did this happen in the first place?
Patton gently took Thomas from Remus and made his way over to the couch, still in shock over what had happened. He sat down on the other side of Logan and even the logic side was in complete shock. They needed to figure out how to fix this and fast but first, they needed to figure out how this happened in the first place. Janus groaned in his sleep but he didn't seem to wake despite the noise around him. Logan made are that the deceitful side stayed asleep for the time being since everyone knew what Janus was like if he was woken up for no reason. Remus learned that the hard way. They were thankful that he was asleep at the moment since he would have strangled the twins for turning Thomas into a baby.
"How did you manage this?" Virgil asked as he gestured to the baby version of their host in Patton's arms.
"I was working a potion when Remus distract me," Roman explained. "I can't remember what he had distracted me with but he knocked the potion that I was working out of my hand."
"It just so happened that Thomas was walking nearby," Remus added. "And since we didn't know, it went all over him and we realised what had happened when we saw a baby on the ground."
"We didn't know that he managed to get into the Imagination until it was too late," The prince finished explaining. "I didn't even know what the potion did until I saw what had happened to Thomas."
"So he got hit with this potion and now he has been turned into a baby," Logan said which seemed to summarise everything he had heard so far. "This is most unexpected."
"Janus is going to murder you two," The anxious side stated and everyone knew that it was true. "You know how protective he is over Thomas."
"Wait what?" Roman questioned.
"I'll be fine and he loves me too much to kill me," Remus said with a shrug as if he was used to it. "I'm his personal heater so he won't kill me because he needs cuddles."
"We need to figure out how to change Thomas back," Patton said. "We can't leave him as a baby."
"If I can recreate the potion," Roman said. "Then I might be able to figure out how to reverse the effects but it may take some time."
"And if you can't recreate the potion, what happens then?" Virgil asked he could feel his anxiety spike at the thoughts of what could wrong.
"Then we wait for the potion to wear off but even that can take some time," The prince answered. "I'm unsure of how long the potion will last for so I'll have to do some research."
There was a groan from the couch and everyone froze as Janus let out a loud yawn. The deceitful side sat and stretched his arms out in front of him as he slowly woke up. The blanket slipped from his shoulders to reveal the yellow cardigan underneath that he had been wearing to help keep him warm. It was a present from Patton that he wore in secret so Patton was surprised to see him wearing. It made a change to what he usually wears and it was nice to see him so relaxed.
"You kept the cardigan?" Patton questioned. "I thought you said that you didn't like it."
"He was lying Pat," Virgil said. "He kept it and he only wears it in his room."
"What's going on?" Janus hissed out while he was still half asleep.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Virgil asked as he turned his attention towards Janus.
Janus simply nodded his head and Patton held up baby Thomas in front of the deceitful side. There was no response for a while, which was concerning, and Logan carefully moved away from the very quiet side. Janus simply takes Thomas from Patton and stayed completely silent as he stared at the baby in his hands. Remus had begun to sneak away as quietly as he could so he wouldn't get shouted at for what happened. Thomas let out a curious sound and placed a tiny hand on the dishonest side's scales which seemed to surprise everyone. The baby let out a happier sound and smiled which melted everyone's heart. He was just too cute but what surprised everyone was the dishonest side's reaction. No one had realised that Janus was crying and it wasn't the reaction they were expecting. Everyone was starting to freak out as they believed that they had just broke Janus which wasn't the case.
Logan watched as Janus pulled baby Thomas close to him and the logical side was in shock to see this softer side of Janus. It was like a caring parent worried for their child. It was certainly a sight to see and no one knew how to react or what to do in the situation. This was way too precious to handle but they need to focus on the matter at hand. They needed to figure out what to do and they needed to figure it out fast before anyone realised what was going on.
How were they going to turn their host back to normal?