Desmond paced back and forth, pulling at his gloves as his mind raced. He was outside the coffee shop where Remus worked; well more, he was near it. He wasn't dumb enough to actually pace in front of a glass window where he could be seen. Apparently, however, he was dumb enough to ostracize his best friend, and then think everything was okay. Their messages hadn't really changed all that much, but there was a wall between them. It was palpable even across the screen. All he had to do to fix this was apologize, right? He hadn't even apologized yet?

Desmond pulled at his gloves, pulling one-off and ringing it in his hands. How did he apologize to a chaotic entity like Remus? Patton had been easy, he was so soft and gentle, it all just came tumbling out. In the past two months, they had talked about a lot of things, reasons that Desmond had pushed Patton away, ways to make all of it easier. Patton had led it all and Desmond hadn't even needed to try. He was so blessed that Patton was the person who had moved in, but he would never admit it.

Remus, on the other hand, wasn't the same. Remus wouldn't take it seriously at first, probably. Then again, predicting Remus' behavior had never been his strong suit. Maybe Remus' chaotic nature would make all of this easier. Maybe not.

He bit at his lips. What to do? What to do?

"Desmond, is there a particular reason you are pacing in front of my place of employment?" The voice caught his attention and Desmond quickly turned to look at Logan, a curious gleam in the nerd's eyes. Logan had been very helpful through Desmond's little breakdown and the subsequent rebuilding of himself, without even trying. He offered thoughtful insight on problems and was rarely judgemental. Des would never say it out loud but he really respected Logan's opinions and could see why Remus had fallen for him. He also realized that having Logan start the conversation might make the situation a little easier to control.

'I need your help with something.'

"Were you waiting out here for me? No matter, you have not gotten yourself into any kind of trouble have you?"

'No, of course not, this is about Squid.'

"Squid?" Logan obviously didn't know who 'Squid' was, not knowing about the relationship that his classmate and his workmate had had.

Desmond spelled out Remus' name.

"I guess I could see how one might aquent him with a creature of the deep, but what has he done? As his manager, if he did something while at work it's my job to see to that it is properly handled."

There was a light dusting of red on his face that it was more than just being Remus' manager and Des barely managed to hide a smirk. The past few months had been very revealing in regards to Logan's feelings surrounding Remus. He pretended that it was purely professional, but Logan talked about Remus a lot more than was 'strictly professional'.

'He hasn't done anything. But I need you to say something to him, I don't think he can sign.' Desmond had a plan.

"Very well, what is it you wish to communicate?"

Desmond signed something and a look of confusion crossed Logan's face. "That is a very strange phrase, can you text it to me so that I can verify I understood you correctly?"

Desmond nodded with an excited smirk, typing out what he wanted Logan to say.

"I, of course, can ask him that, but I don't understand the purpose of it."

'Inside joke.'

"This joke does not make any more sense when told within the confines of an establishment, how is it an 'inside joke'?"

This time Des actually laughed. 'It's a joke only the two of us will understand.'

"Oh... well, very well. I will give it a shot. Though, I thought the two of you only met once?"

Des just shrugged as the two of them walked in, hopefully, Logan would be willing to give Remus his break early when it became obvious the two had something to work out.

"Good afternoon Remus."

"Heya teach, and friend, oh! You're the one with the cool scars. Long time no see."

"Please behave Remus."

"Well behaved boys are rarely interesting, but you can spank me to teach me a lesson if you wanna." Remus wiggled his eyebrows, smirking at Logan.

A sigh left the nerd's lips as he pushed up his glasses, trying to hide the crimson on his face. "My friend here wanted to order something. He wrote, and I quote, 'He needs a Swamp Monster, extra dirty, for the Kraken's left tentacle?'" Logan repeated, looking at Desmond who's eyes were completely trained on Remus.

All of Remus' normal confidence and bravado left him as he looked between Logan and Desmond, piecing the puzzle together in his head before he muttered a quiet. "Snake?"

"Obviously he is not a snake, he is a human."

Desmond shook his head, and signed, 'Sorry Squid, guess I have some explaining to do don't I?'

Thankfully Logan translated.

"Damn right you do! Lo-Lo, I'm takin off early." Remus vaulted over the counter, not even waiting for Logan's response. "You can explain this over messenger, I have so many fucking questions now."

Desmond wasn't sure if Remus was excited or mad; he hoped excited, but either way, he had to play it cool. Des was literally dragged outside to one of the tables and Remus immediately jumped into his questions.

"Alright, How did you get those scars? Did you block me because you were so weirded out by meeting me in person, or was it something else? Why did you never tell me you were mute? Wait, you told me about a fire, is that how you got the scars? So your real name is Desmond, I don't know, you look like a Janus to me. What have you told Logan? You've known for like 2 months now, right? Why didn't you tell me? I- "

Des held up his hand, trying to get Remus to slow down as he typed out responses and soon Remus' phone began to ding with notifications.

'Yes to the fire.'

'My middle name is Janus, weird that you guessed that.'

'There wasn't much to tell.'

'And it's complicated.'

Remus could see that Desmond was still typing so he looked at his phone in anticipation, foot bouncing on the ground.

'When I knew it was you, suddenly you became real, someone who could have an actual impact on my life, I guess that kind of scared me and I was trying to protect myself. I didn't realize how much you already affected my life. I was kind of a mess without you.' He was trying to be as honest as possible here. You didn't fix friendship with sweet lies, those would come crumbling down, though every self-preserving bone in his body was screaming that this could make things worse. It was Squid though, honest to a fault, didn't Des owe him a bit of honesty?

"Of course you were, I'm amazing. I mean, how boring your life had to have been without me for a whole weekend."

'You don't know the half of it.'

"So what now, Snakey? Why'd you bother apologizing now?"

Desmond shrugged. 'I realized I messed up. You typically apologize after that, but things seemed normal for a while so I guess I thought it wasn't as needed, but I also started to feel like you weren't being as open with me. Guess I'm just trying to repair what we had.'

"I'm up for trying but it did hurt that you tots ditched me. So what now, how are you going to make it up to me?"

'I guess we start with setting you up with the hot boss you are always talking about.' Des smirked.

"What, psh, no, we just flirt. He's not interested in me." Desmond was happy to have gained the upper hand again. It was easier to control the conversation this way.

'How about for my apology I prove you wrong?'

"What? How are you going to do that? I know I like torture and all of that but I kind of wanna keep his skin the way it is."

Desmond stood up, scrolling through his old DMs with Remus, thankful that they weren't deleted when he blocked Remus, and he quickly went into the shop to find Logan.

"Snakey, wait!"

"Desmond, did everything go well?" Logan asked as Desmond walked in, face in his phone.

'Yea, we apparently were online friends for a very long time, but that's not important. You need to talk to Remus about your crush on him?'

"What? I have no idea what... Why would you imply that?"

'The overprotective nature, wanting him to do better because you don't want to see him hurt, that stupid shy smile when you talk about him. Right, you totally don't like him at all, you talk about all of your friends that way.'

Logan looked over at Remus who was following right behind Desmond, obviously very confused.

"Even if the statement you are asserting were true," his eyes flicked over to Remus, "I am not one to assume that the sentiment would be reciprocated."

That's when Des held up his phone to Logan, 'Remus is squid.'

Logan was confused but looked over the messages, the blush growing on his face until he looked at Desmond again. Remus had talked about Logan... a lot.

'And, realization! My work here is done, you two talk.' He shot Remus another message saying goodbye before making his way home. This would all work out for the best. He had to try to believe that.

AN: I know it's been a month... sorry. Thank you so much for being patient! This month has been really hard for me but I'm hoping it's going to be getting better. Are all of you taking care of yourselves? Making sure you put your mental health first? Don't wait until the plane is crashing to take the time and rest that you need! I love all of you!