Disclaimer: Rocky Horror isn't mine. All belongs to the Everlasting RO'B.
Brad goes back to the living room and drops into a chair. Janet glides in from the next room like a shadow, she watches him for a moment, glad that his 'help' is no longer required.
"You look tired," she observes as she comes near him. "Is she still giving you a hard time?" She takes a seat on the footstool in front of him.
Brad looks at her and smiles, shaking his head with half-shut eyes. "I still think she's a little crazy, but we've reached an understanding. I think it's taken care of, you know? I don't think she'll be needing me again."
"That's good. Thank you for helping her. The fact that she let you near her means a lot, especially since you're an Earthling. I'm just glad we're done sharing you."
"Now all we need is to get you two switched back and everything will be peachy," Brad yawns. He blinks, focusing on her fully; she'd braided her hair to keep it out of her face, but the look doesn't quite suit her. He studies her carefully, searching for his Janet in her sister's body. Finally he hits upon it: they have the same kind of heart-shaped face, and the same smile. They simply stare at each other silently, just content to be together.
"So what kind of understanding did the two of you reach?" Janet asks, abandoning the footstool for his lap.
"Well, that's the kind of funny part. I think…she trusts me. I'm kind of an honorary member of the family. She did her elbow thing, like she does with Riff-Raff."
Janet doesn't quite believe what he'd just said, "Vith you?" He nods. "There's nothing 'honorary' about it, Brad. I don't know what to say, this is a real shock! It isn't to be taken lightly, I can't even think of how to explain. It represents something beyond trust, beyond…love! Magenta chose you. You're her brother now, there's no other way to tell you. She must have been impressed vith you."
Brad doesn't say anything more on the subject, instead he starts unwinding her wild mane from its restraints. He runs his fingers though it, fluffing it back up, pondering its stark contrast to her pure white skin.
"You said you used to sound like Magenta. Did you ever look like her, too?"
Janet giggles nervously, turning her face away from him. "No, never. She was always the pretty one." She turns back to him, to see whether or not he agrees. "Mother used to tell me I had potential, but then ve came here. Earth people's standards are qvite different. Here, everyone vants to look like they've been in the sun too long. Even I do, by comparison. Back home I had much fairer skin, since it's nearly always night there, and our blood isn't red like yours."
"Really? I hadn't even thought of that. What color is it?"
"Kind of a light lavender. It might be that our sameness is only skin-deep." She stops, afraid she'd said the wrong thing. "It's still me, Brad. Nothing important has changed. Riff-Raff even thinks that you and I should still be able to have children." Janet looks up at him apologetically; meanwhile Brad starts to look like he's getting a headache, worrying his fiancée that they're approaching dangerous waters. "I'm sorry," she whispers, drawing away from him dejectedly. She slinks to the other side of the room and curls up in the other chair. They star across the room at each other, completely unsure of where they stand, when a bloodcurdling scream comes from the guest room.
"Look at me! I'm right here, don't pretend I'm not here!"
"If you expect me to act as though nothing's different, then maybe you've finally cracked!" Riff-Raff shouts back.
"Just be with me, talk to me," Magenta demands.
"What do you call this?!"
"Riff, we're not talking, we're screaming!" Brad and Janet snap out of it and listen, for the moment all they can hear is panting. Then Magenta speaks, softly repeating her request. "Please talk to me. It's still me, it's still us! Brad talks to me."
"Oh, so it's 'Brad', now, is it? I thought he was beneath you. Perhaps being beneath him changed that."
"I can't believe this. How can you be jealous? I had to sleep with him; you weren't giving me any options, might I remind you. I wasn't exactly begging to. Besides…he is an Earthling, but…I don't know. He's okay."
"Oh, Gods! You did it, didn't you? Magenta, how can you be sure he's worthy? He's friends with Everett Scott!" He stalks around the room, looking anywhere but in his sister's direction.
"Was friends with him," she corrects, "He's hiding us from him remember?"
Riff sighs, clearly not angry anymore, but sounding as though he still needs to understand. "I just don't want anything to happen to you." He stops his pacing in front of her, looks her in the eye and presses down gently on her shoulders to get her to sit on the bed. He sits next to her, taking not of her anxious expression and cursing his temper. Somehow she senses they've made up and wraps her arms around his, pressing her cheek to his shoulder. He runs a hand up and down her leg, getting an approving sound in response. "You're not a child, I know. I just want to make sure you're not making a mistake, by joining him to us so fast. He's an Earthling! But…" he consents, "Janus trusts him. She loves him. And now he's earned your trust as well?" He looks down at her, she quirks an elfish smile, as if to say "I know what I'm doing." Riff smiles back, gives her hair a flip. "It's not so bad. Nothing your blow-dryer can't fix. Besides, it'll only be a couple more days. Come on, let's see what there is to eat around here. It's a nice change not having to serve anyone, isn't it?" They chuckle conspiratorially, eliminating any doubts of where they stand. They give each other a one-handed elbow-sex, sealed with a kiss. They get up and wander out to the rest of the house. They find Brad and Janet in the kitchen making a pot of coffee on the stove.
"I just ordered Chinese. It's lucky there's someplace in town that delivers, since the car won't be back till tomorrow."
Riff and Magenta exchange looks, "You're right, my dear, it's still us," he murmurs into her neck. Watching them interact gives Brad a glimpse of what he's been welcomed into. In just that glance between brother and sister he can almost see 'beyond trust, beyond love.' That Magenta could feel that towards him, so soon after having met him, was disquieting to say the least. While he is still uncertain how he feels for her, he had freely promised that he'd keep her safe, and already he thought of her as family. If they would ever achieve the symbiosis she shared with her brother remains to be seen, though Brad doesn't suspect they would.
"So, it should be here in about 20 minutes or so," Brad finishes, as though he hadn't heard Riff-Raff's cryptic remark. He tries to act as though seeing Magenta, masquerading as Janet, clinging to Riff with such devotion didn't bother him at all.
Janet sits at the table with a cup of coffee, fiddling with it as though she needed to keep her hands busy. "Are you feeling better, 'Genta?"
She takes a seat next to her, in obvious good spirits, "You're lucky I stepped in for you, little sister. Consider yourself initiated. I believe I initiated your Earthling." The girls share a laugh over this idea.
"Oh, really?" Janet asks, casting an eager look at her fiancé. Brad picks up on her appraising expression.
"That'll have to wait. I have to be honest, you're kind of scary-looking."
And instantly the laughter ices over. Both women turn and stare at him, affronted. Riff-Raff wisely inches his way out of the room.
"Scary-looking? You think I'm scary-looking?" Janet asks, her voice dangerously soft. Magenta just sits there, frozen in disbelief. She murmurs something inaudible.
"Wh-what?" Brad asks, getting the feeling that he'd said something reprehensible.
"I said…I could have been a finalist for Miss Teen Transexual!" And she storms out of the room after her brother.
"Wait, I--" Brad trails off, finding himself once again alone with Janet. She sits there, studying her reflection in the back of a spoon. She touches her face, runs her fingers through her hair with an air of vanity. Then she gets up and heads for her siblings' center of operations. With a very hurt and confused look she tells Brad, "You owe someone an apology."
He follows her to Riff and Magenta's room, and finds them all together on the bed. After grimly wondering at what Riff-Raff's methods for comforting his sisters might be, he knocks on the doorframe and gestures to Magenta to follow him into the hall. Riff and Janet creep forward to listen in, unbeknownst.
"Never in my life have I been so insulted, Majors!" Magenta hisses venomously, sweeping around him angrily, a cruel caricature of a fallen angel. "Scary-looking?"
"Well, you're not now," he covers lamely.
"Ordinarily? When I'm myself? How?"
"I don't know, you just are. You're so pale, and you have all that hair…and your eyes. Even with Janet behind them they're just…otherworldly. Even your makeup looks creepy!"
In the next room, Riff-Raff and Janet exchange looks. Riff smiles darkly, looking his sister up and down while Janet inspects herself in the mirror. Even when she and Brad had arrived at the castle, before she could remember who she was, she hadn't found Magenta repulsive…it had been erratic behavior that had so frightened her. She got the feeling it had been their intention. But in her own half-crazed alien way she was strikingly beautiful, and she knew it.
"—And you sound like a vampire!" Brad stupidly continues, making everyone flinch. "No one else at that castle sounds like that. Why do you?"
"He didn't," Janet breathes.
"He did," Riff answers
"He's dead."
"Soon enough."
Magenta winds up and slaps him in the face; shaking the sting from her hand, she draws herself up, "Because," she says as she savagely advances upon a retreating Earthling, "I chose to keep my accent! Riff says it reminds him of home, Riff thinks I'm beautiful! What do you know about anything? Scary-looking indeed! Well you're no prize-winner!"
"And she trusted him, she liked him," Janet laments.
"You asked," Brad reminds her, getting an almost tearful look in return.
"In case you've forgotten, we're not from here, Majors!"
"I know, I'm sorry"
"I want to go home," she admits, walking back out to the living room and sitting on the couch. "I never thought I'd hear my best features thrown at me as insults. Everything on this wretched planet is so different."
"I'm sorry," he repeats, standing behind her seat, unsure of what to do to help a homesick alien sister-in-law. "I shouldn't have said it like that. Talking to girls has never been my strength, I usually end up with my foot in my mouth sooner or later."
"Riff said it could be a few days till the switching device is fixed. What does that mean for you and Janus—Janet? I don't know much about Earthlings; back home we fool around with people we're attracted to physically, but we devote ourselves to people we love. She was sensitive about how she looks since we were young. She went through a rather awkward time, and I remember telling her the story of the ugly bird who grew up to be a bat." She looks directly up and sees Brad's puzzled expression. "You don't know the story? Every child hears it, if they feel like they don't fit in. It's about a little family of birds up in a tree, and one of them doesn't look like the rest, and likes to sleep hanging upside-down. The others all gang up on her and tease, so the ugly bird flies away from home, and is so lonely and sad that she's so ugly. Then, in another tree not far from hers she finds many others like her, all hanging upside down like she does. They call to her and she stays with them forever, because she's not really an ugly bird, she's a beautiful bat. You have to have heard the story."
"Something like it," Brad smiles, "It's just hard to imagine Janet thinking she's ugly."
"Like it's hard to imagine me as being anything but."
"That came out the wrong way, I said I'm sorry. I'm sure you're a beautiful bat."
She turns and faces him, touched in spite of herself. "Well, Riff-Raff and I suit each other just fine. As long as we have each other, it's not so bad."