Patton was making muffins. Janus could smell the first round, cooling on the counter. The smell encouraged Roman to sit in the kitchen with Pat, and from his spot alone in the livingroom, Janus could hear them giggling. He sat in the dark, curled up against the arm rest of the couch, phone in hand. Crude had sent him some texts that he was ignoring. Janus scrolled through one of his only social media accounts. The name of the account was , and he only posted silly pictures of crabs. There was no indication it was his account or even that he was a human. The silly pretense let him scroll through and like anything without hesitation. Was such anonymity necessary for scrolling through pictures of strangers? Perhaps not.
"If you eat anymore you'll get a tummy ache!" Patton said, loud and clear.
"Mh-hm mhh." Roman responded.
"Okay, but don't take these ones, they're still hot." Patton said. A few moments later, Roman let out a small yelp. Patton's voice started again, laughing goodnaturedly. "I told you! I swear, you're worse than a Glutton."
Perhaps so.
Janus continued to sit in the dark, not really caring about any of the life updates the people on his timeline posted. He paused at a picture of Crude and their Logical trait. What were they called - Oh yes, Structure and Planning. Crude had their arm slung around Structure's shoulders, the picture was taken at an angle. Structure and Planning appeared surprised, while Crude was absolutely delighted to be taking a selfie together. The post was made by Elliot, and the caption read 'Found this on my phone'. Janus liked the photo and scrolled on, ignoring the odd feeling in his chest.
At an alarmed cry - Patton - Janus leapt off the couch and sprinted into the kitchen. He slid to a stop, seeing Patton in one corner of the kitchen, pressing himself close against the cabinets. On the other side, Roman knelt on top of the table, clutching the edges of it like a drowned cat. Both of their eyes were locked on a big, black spot in the middle of the room.
"Wha-" Janus squinted.
The spot moved.
Roman let out a loud yelp, flattening himself against the table. Patton whined, squirming with no where to go. The spider moved again and with his own pitiful battle cry, Patton jumped up onto the counters.
Patton finally saw Janus and called out, "Save yourself!"
With a snort, Janus said, "Okay."
He stepped closer to the spider, which made his Sides shout again, for some reason. He glared at Roman.
"Don't touch it!" Roman said. "What if you turn into an evil spiderman?!"
"Why can't I be a good spiderman?" Janus asked. He shook his head, "Nevermind. I'll just kill it."
"No!" That shout came from above. Not heaven, but the thundering footsteps of an emo running down the stairs.
Janus froze, foot in the air, as Virgil barreled into the room and practically pounced on the spider. Patton and Roman shouted on more as Virgil peered under his hands. Janus knelt, getting a tad tired of the commotion.
"Don't kill it!" Virgil said, looking up at him. Janus felt his breath hitch upon eye contact. Because Virgil was clearly in the midst of redoing his hair. And that meant-
"Virgil!" Roman squealed, "You're blond!"
Virgil didn't respond to Roman as he refocused on the spider in his hands. He cupped his palms and slowly rose to stand. Patton pressed back against the cabinets with a "Careful!"
Virgil carried the spider to the back door and released it out into the wilderness of suburban Florida. When he turned around again, Roman gave him a low whistle.
Jan could hear the laugh in Patton's voice when he said, "You look like Janus!"
But when he looked over to Patton, he could only see a bundle of hair and fingers. Pat's head tilted down, hands trying to hide his expression. Janus bit his tongue. If Patton wanted to make fun of him, that was fine. There were far worse things in the world than being blond.
Roman asked, "What happened to the purple?"
"It'll be back." Virgil said, shifting awkwardly. He always fidgeted when they all looked at him. Jan knew it was his trait, but he still found it cute. "I just bleached it."
"Why?" Patton asked, coming out of hiding. "Was it dirty?"
Janus skillfully turned an amused snort into a cough. Virgil shook his head as he said, "No, I just wanted to make the color brighter. It was starting to get all muddy brown and faded so-"
"Is that how you keep it so pretty?" Roman asked, sitting up straight now.
Virgil faltered. "Well - yeah."
"Ugh. Kai just threw red on mine cuz it was a rush job." Roman crossed his arms and pouted. "You wouldn't believe how bloody my showers look."
"Ew." Patton squeaked.
Roman flinched. "I just meant-"
"Where's Logic?" Virgil asked. Janus glanced around the kitchen, only now realizing their Logic's sturdy presence was missing.
"Must have overslept." Roman said with a shrug.
Patton sounded worried, "That's not like him."
"He's had a lot of work lately." Virgil said with a sigh. He rubbed his face and added, "Do you ever think he gets tired of thinking?"
"I do." Roman said, swinging his legs over the side of the table and crossing them.
"You think he gets tired or you get tired?" Virgil asked.
"What?" Roman blinked back.
Virgil shared a look with Janus, who hid his smile behind his hand. "Nevermind."
"We should do something nice for him!" Patton said, gaining their attention. He joined them from his spot by the cabinets as he said, "Logic is always so busy, he never has time to do what he wants to do!"
"What does he want to do?" Roman asked.
"Well, I'm not sure." Patton confessed. "But we could make him something or take him somewhere! Does anyone know his favorite food?"
"Blueberries." Janus said. They all looked at him, and it took Janus a moment to realize they were waiting for the lie to be revealed. He sighed and said, "It is blueberries. Or like, mixed berries. But he likes those. He says they have vitamin K or something."
"Is that an important one?" Roman asked.
"I dunno." Janus said.
"Aren't all vitamins important?" Virgil responded.
"I don't know." Janus said again.
Patton interrupted, smiling widely. "Berries are perfect. Berries are absolutely perfect."
Roman grinned. "What do you have planned?"
"We won't be able to do it today, obviously." Patton said, "But wouldn't it be fun to take him to a berry farm!"
"A berry farm?" Virgil frowned, "They have those?"
Patton nodded, "Sure! And there's some nearby! My family loved to go to different farms and orchards and pick our own foods. Oh, it'll be great!"
A smile began to grow on Roman's face, "I've never done that."
"What? You didn't even get your own pumpkins?" Patton shook his head. "Why didn't you tell me? We would've gone to a pumpkin patch!"
Roman glanced at Janus. "Well. You weren't really here for pumpkin season?"
Patton's eyebrows twitched down, until he remembered that most of early fall he spent as Kyler. Hand covering his mouth, Pat turned to Virgil.
With an empathetic shrug, Virgil said, "I bet there's still some on the vines."
Patton recovered. "You're right. And if we go to the right orchard, they might have both!"
Roman relaxed. "Sounds fun."
"It'll be berry cool!" Patton said, glancing at Janus.
Jan offered a small smile for the idea. Patton looked away quickly, and Janus exhaled out his nose.
He shouldn't expect to be treated like a Logic. To be noticed when he's missing. To have others plan an event just for him. But still, a small part of him watched Patton, clearly overflowing with such care, and he wanted that to be directed at him.
Did that make him so bad?
Janus finally looked at Crude's texts. They didn't mention the last time they spoke and Janus stormed off. Janus didn't expect them to. They had sent Jan a few memes, a link to one of Vogue's videos, and a handful of random, horny thoughts.
Janus messaged: Sup
Crude replied instantly: Get over here fuckface - Manny found new shit for you
And how could Janus refuse such a polite and reasonable request? He responded he'd head out soon, and gathered the energy needed to deal with his friends.
As he stood by the front door and put on his shoes and Roman's jacket, Patton called out, "Are you going somewhere?"
Janus froze. Curled up together under a blanket, Patton and Virgil sat on the couch, clearly in the middle of a movie. Janus mentally cursed. He was hoping the others were still at their jobs and classes. The house was quiet, for once.
"Is that allowed?" Janus snapped.
"Of course." Patton said quietly. He looked down and then back up again. "Where are you going?"
Janus adjusted the jacket. It was long and Roman was just a smidgen taller than the rest of them, so Janus ended up feeling even more small and surrounded.
"Out." Janus frowned, trying to tell the truth. A lie sat on his tongue, waiting to be dropped, but all Janus could muster was a very pitiful, "With friends."
Virgil shifted, "Do you want company?"
"No," Janus said, relaxing once more. He felt the pressure to lie release a little and his trait calm. He smiled warily, the lie feeling sweet on his lips. His muscles relaxed as he said, "Thanks. But, I'm good."
Virgil shrugged and laid back against Patton. Janus zipped up the jacket and tried to not think about how warm and comfortable they both must feel.
"I'll be back later." Janus said, opening the door.
He closed it behind him as he heard Patton's soft, "Be safe."
Janus stood on the porch, staring down at the pavement. What did Patton mean by that? Like Janus will just waltz into danger? Or he'll cause the danger? Or did he mean… maybe…
Janus shook his head and forced himself to start walking.
Crude's cramped house always smelled like something. Cigarettes, sex, alcohol, or on the fun occasion - burnt food. Whenever Janus visited, he would open at least two windows. Janus loved Crude but would rather die than be their roommate.
Janus wasn't a neat freak, but he liked things to be accessible. What if he had to make a daring escape; and then he died because he tripped over roller skates that Crude was never going to use? What then? Then he'd be dead!
Gods, he sounded like Virgil.
Still, whenever Janus visited, he couldn't help but pick up a little. He let himself into Crude's house - the idiot never locked their doors. He could hear Crude and Manic-Arrogant talking in the bedroom. Janus glanced around the front room. Crude was attempting to use the trash can Janus stole for them; a pile as tall as the couch was covering it up. That's an improvement!
Janus kicked a few cans over to the trash pile, making a walkway for himself. He gathered the random clothes thrown about and condensed them into their own pile. If he cleared off the couch, the room would look much better.
"Janny!" Crude appeared in the hallway to their room. "Stop being such an Ethical an' get over here!"
Janus followed them into their room, eyeing the rest of the mess along the way.
"Look at all the sweet shit Manny's got you." Crude said, gesturing to another pile in their room. Janus rolled his eyes, but approached it nonetheless.
"Oh, wow." Janus said, dryly as he lifted a plain white shirt with a mysterious stain over the chest. "Thanks."
"Look harder, asshole." Crude flopped on their bed and nudged Manic-Arrogant. "This sonofa has been digging through name brand garbage for you."
Janus glanced over at them, picking up a black leather jacket. He admired the spikes on the shoulders. He looked at the discount tag to find the date from weeks ago. He frowned and said, "How long have you been gathering this stuff?"
Manic-Arrogant shrugged, looking rather sluggish. On a down swing, it seems. "Found the first batch after you left."
"And you kept it?" Janus pressed the jacket against his chest.
This time Crude shrugged, "You'd be back."
Janus could have been insulted by the small phrase, but instead he felt comfort settle in his bones. He looked over at the pile and picked up a pair of soft, yellow gloves.
He asked, "Can I lie to you?"
Crude snorted, "Obviously."
Janus smiled, the tension leaving his body entirely. He said, "This stuff sucks."
And his friends laughed.
And Janus felt at peace.