Janus sat with his back against a tree, his arms wrapped around his knees and his chin resting on his knees, waiting for Remus. He'd made the call not five minutes ago but it felt like an hour.

Janus put his forehead on his knees and closed his eyes. He felt tears sneak to the corners of his eyes and didn't stop them this time. Until Remus came, there was no one around.

"It's not safe here." He thought. His dad had just said that he watched Janus when he was in the woods.

"But dad wouldn't watch me now. Not now that he's gotten rid of me." Janus lifted his head and wiped his eyes. "Guess for him it's goodbye to bad rubbish." This brought on more tears and he put his head back down on his knees. He heard running and someone sitting down beside him.

"Hey, I'm so sorry that I couldn't get here sooner." It was Remus. Janus sat up properly and wiped his eyes.

"It's fine."

"Jan, what happened? I know you got kicked out but, like, in detail. Unless you don't want to talk about it now. Then we could just go back to my house and sort the whole thing out."

Janus nodded and wiped his eyes again. "I'm not gonna talk about it here." He muttered, looking around and standing up. Remus bounded up beside him with his usual bounce but there was nothing of his usual grin on his face.

"What did he say to you?"

Janus looked around behind him before looking back at Remus. "I'm not telling you here."

"Remus, why is he here?"

Janus sighed and huddled closer into himself on the couch. Remus' parents were out but Roman was not and now he and Remus were having a shouting match. Over Janus.

"Ro, he's in trouble! Just let him stay here for a few days."

"Why? What's the trouble?"

"I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone!" Janus put his hands over his ears and kept looking at the wall across from him. Maybe if he could block out the yelling, it would all go away.

"Just tell me what the problem is and then I'll let him stay here!"

"I promi-"

"Re, if you say 'I promised' one more time, I'm going to strangle you!" No. They were still yelling. "Janus came in looking like he'd cried his eyes out and I want to know what happened. I want to help if I can."

Janus sighed and got up, walking up the stairs to where the twins were. "I got kicked out." He said in a small voice. Both twins looked over at him as if they'd forgotten the object of their argument was in the house with them.

"And I'd appreciate it if you didn't repeat episodes from my childhood by yelling about what you're going to do with me." He muttered. "If I'm allowed to stay, I'll stay for a few days. Until I can find somewhere else to stay. If not, then I'll find somewhere else on my own. But it's a lot easier to find some place like a youth hostel when you have a computer. So please, can I stay here?"

The twins looked at each other and then back at Janus. Remus dropped his eyes to the floor. Janus already knew what he would say. Roman scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Yeah, sure." He said eventually. "You can stay."

Wow. This chapter was bad.
Bye,
Blaize