Emily had long since been back in her town. What was she to do? She was known as the town crazy lady, no one would believe a word that left her mouth. They hadn’t since she had moved there. There has to be something she could do. She just needed to convince the townsfolk, right? But she had no proof. The only person that would listen to her has Gabriel, but what credit did he have? He hung out with the crazy lady’s son. Well, she thought, two is better than one, right?

She knew where Gabriel would be. He’d be swooning over Emma at the bar. Although Emily dispised the bar (she found alcohol and hooking up while drunk such a strange human behaviour), she knew she didn’t really have much of a choice. It was that or let Roman be trapped at the castle with the mean, monster dude. She couldn’t really just let him be stuck there for eternity.

*

Roman had grown incredibly bored while waiting for Janus to come back. He’d already been gone for what had felt like forever. Roman could appreciate that sometimes beauty took a while, but this was just ridiculous. Who took that long to put something nice on? Of course, Roman couldn’t really talk, because he was sure he usually took longer, but he was never on the waiting end. He missed having someone to talk to already. It was odd, he realized, that he had grown accustomed to Janus’ company. He was a little rude at times, but it was never so harsh that Roman felt hurt. And there had been several times that Janus would compliment him, though he wasn’t so sure how often the compliments were genuine. They were often off-handed sarcastic remarks, and it was hard to tell when Janus was honestly speaking his mind and when he was just flat out lying. Roman hoped for the former.

Roman was in the midst of muttering to himself when Remus entered the room energetically. “And, now, we present to you, His Majesty, JANUS!! WOOO!”

Following Remus’ outburst, was Janus. He looked incredible. He was wearing a black suit jacket over a gray-ish corset, with small gold accents. He also had black slacks on. Roman grinned. “Who helped you lace up the corset?”

Janus shrugged nonchalantly, although it was almost as though he was trying too hard to seem like he wasn’t awkward. “I did it myself.”

“Really? That must have been difficult.”

“I wouldn’t say so.”

“Well,” Roman said with a clap. “Either way you look wonderful. Now, come on, sit down.” Roman patted in front of him, inviting Janus to sit with him in the bed. “It’s nice to actually see your face,” he sighed as Janus sat down.

“What are you talking about? You can always see my face.”

“No, you can’t. You always have a shadow casting over it with your bowler hat; you also always hide in the shadows. You never come into the light. Now I can see your face. I can also see your hair. And may I just say, I was not expecting you to have curly hair.”

“Well I do.”

Roman began rocking back and forth, a poor attempt at trying to get some of his pent up energy out. “You know what I would love right about now? A nice, long walk. Doesn’t that sound nice? I used to walk to the park with my mother. The park is beautiful, you’ll have to come and see it one day. The flowers are just lovely in spring.”

“I haven’t experienced a spring in a decade.”

Roman gasped loudly. “YOU HAVEN”T? My love, you are missing out! Have you been stuck in this eternal winter all this time? Do the seasons not change?”

Janus made a look of disbelief. “Roman, it’s July. What did you think was going on here?”

Roman shrugged sheepishly. “I thought that, I dunno, your weather just worked differently in this area.”

"I don't live that far away from you!"

"I'm not a meteorologist! I don't know how the weather works," Roman grumbled. It wasn't unusual for Roman to be uneducated on certain topics, he just didn't typically care. It was more embarrassing this time though.

“You don’t know how the seasons work? Did you even go to school?”

“Of course I went to school! That doesn’t mean I paid attention. There were a lot of hot boys when I went to school. Very, very distracting.”

Janus rolled his eyes. “Oh, yes! I’m sure they were very distracting.”

“They were! Have you ever tried focusing on algebra when there’s a hot boy right next to you?!”

“I was home-schooled. Logan’s father, Henri, used to tutor me. He’d tutor Logan and I together, actually. I never got to meet any hot boys.”

That piqued Roman’s interest. “Really? I can hardly imagine Logan as a school-boy. He seems much too much like a teacher to be considered someone who could have possibly ever been a child.”

“Oh, he was a child at one point. He was still very much how he is today, but in a child-like way, y’know? He was a curious little thing.”

Roman furrowed his eyebrows. “I’ve never met someone quite like anyone here, although I can’t help but feel like you're all vaguely familiar. Minus you, I suppose. I am positive I know Remus, though. Something about him is so… I’m not even sure how to put it. I can say he is very annoying. I don’t know how you manage to live with him.”

“I will concede that he can be annoying at times. I do encourage you not to tell him that, he’ll use it to his advantage. The more you show him that he’s bothering you, the more he’ll do just that. He likes bothering people.”

Roman frowned. “Why are you friends with someone like that? That sounds awful.”

“Oh, he doesn’t do it to me. And if anything I find him entertaining. He always has something new to talk about, he’s never a bore. His mind runs at 100 miles an hour. I think that’s why he and Logan work so well together. They both know a lot, and they both think quickly. They appreciate each other.”

“Yeah, I guess. I still don’t know how you guys can stand him. It's like the younger brother you never asked for."

Janus snorted quickly. "That's ironic. But yeah, he is very much the younger brother I never asked for. But I keep him around anyway. He's the kind of brother that'll chase you with a knife and try to force you to eat things that will never be edible. But he's also the kind of brother to hold your hair back as you hurl. Maybe it's mostly because he like the smell, maybe it's because he will make jokes about eating it, or maybe it's because he actually cares. It's hard to tell with him, but I'd say with confidence that it's one of the first two reasons."

Roman narrowed his eyes at Janus as if sizing him up. "Those were strangely specific situations. Speaking for experience?"

Janus laughed. "Oh, definitely. Do not fall asleep first if you're with him. You will wake up with your piss all over yourself. And deodorant in your mouth."

Roman gagged. "That's disgusting! How is Logan romantically involved with that man?!"

Janus shrugged. "Honestly, I can't tell you. I just know they work together."

"That must be nice. To have someone be able to bear you and your awful habits. Of course, I don't have any of those because I'm practically perfect in every way."

"Everyone has something they need to improve on, whether they like it or not. If you don't think there's something you need to work on, then you're lying to yourself."

"I know."

A/n: lol I know I haven't updated in a long time, and i'll probably do that again tbh, sorry lmao. my summers kinda a wreck right now for reasons I don't want to and won't go into because it's depressing. anyway enjoy this chapter ig sorry for being a crappy author