"Hey Pat? Can I talk to you?"

Patton looked down from trying to untangle the fore-and-aft sail. "Oh, hey Kiddo." He scrambled down from the rigging and landed on deck with a small thud. "What's up?"

Janus twirled a bit of his hair in between his finger in worry. "Remus is... kind of worrying me."

"Oh?" Patton asked, trying to shake a knot out of one of the ropes.

"Not like that." Janus said, scrunching his face at Patton's tone. "Well... maybe it's like that, I can't tell."

Patton raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh shut up." Janus said, crossing his arms.

"Nu-uh, you are not hiding back in your shell, Kiddo." Patton insisted, tugging on Janus' arm. "C'mon, out with it. What's worrying you about Remus?"

"I, um, I don't know. He's just really different and..." Janus trailed off into a shrug. "It sounds stupid, doesn't it?"

"No, it doesn't. If something about your arch enemy-"

"Hey, don't give Daniel's title away so quickly." Janus cut in, making Patton giggle.

"Okay, okay, your second arch enemy. If something about your second arch enemy is worrying you, it must be something big." Patton looked out towards the horizon and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Have you tried talking to him?"

"Uh..."

"Kiddo, you need to at least try to talk to him."

"I can't really talk to a wall that doesn't want to talk back."

Patton shrugged. "You can still try. Say, how about I try talk to him for you? You know, break the ice a little?"

Janus looked at Patton sceptically. "What about Lo-?"

"Logan will be fine, I'm sure."

Janus sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I mean, you're going to have to break a lot of ice but sure."

Remus looked up with very little interest as the brig door opened. He tilted his head to the side a little as Janus came down with a person he'd never seen before. Wait, he had seen them before. They were-

"You're the person who stopped me dying, aren't you?" Remus asked. They nodded grinning.

"I'm Patton."

Remus' slight interest faded away. "Oh. Patton."

"Yeah. Why, is that a problem?"

Remus sighed and ran his nail along a healing scratch, scraping off the scab a little. "No. I was just expecting someone more interesting, that's all."

"O-Oh. Okay." Patton sounded a little hurt. Good. "Um, well anyway, Kiddo-"

"I'm not your friend or your Kiddo, don't call me that." Patton's attempt at a cheery persona disappeared from his face at Remus' words.

"Um, okay. Well, Remus, um, Janus was kinda worried about you and he wanted to talk to you." Patton stepped back a little and pushed Janus forwards as he spoke.

"Him? Worried about me? Like I'd believe that." Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"Uh, he really does want to talk to you, Ki- Remus." Patton seemed extremely out of his depth and confused. Good. Now he'd know what it felt like. "So, um, I'll just... leave you two to it." He pushed his glasses up his nose awkwardly and left.

Janus watched him go before turning to Remus. "You didn't have to be so mean."

"Why not? He's the reason I'm like this." Remus snapped.

"You've never even met Patton before. And he saved your life. At least have a little civility."

Remus snapped his teeth at Janus and growled. "Like I said, he's the reason I'm like this."

"If you mean alive, then yeah. You still didn't have to be mean."

Remus burst out, "Who even said I wanted to be alive?!"

"What, you're saying you'd rather be dead?" Though Janus was masking it well, there was a hint of worry at the bottom of his voice. That was good, that was good.

Remus narrowed his eyes and turned away. The answer was already there, hanging in the air.

Well, let's just end on that... depressing note... um, Happy April 1st. I'm finally on my Easter holidays so... yay.
Bye,
Blaize