WARNING: Knives, mention of blood

The Captain's Chaos had a weird way of collecting new crew members. Although Janus was glad of it, he still hated it. New people weren't his strong suit.

Especially not new people he'd just tried to kill, who'd tried to kill him.

He'd ducked down below deck the moment they were back on their ship. He didn't want to even look at the crew of the King's Loyalty and he needed to find Remus. He was worrying him.

He was about halfway down the corridor when he realised he was being followed. He could hear the steps, slightly out of time with his, and felt eyes on his back. It made the hair on the back of his neck prickle.

Janus reached for the small knife hidden in his belt. He quickened his pace slightly, heard the steps shuffle to catch up, rounded the corner and pressed himself against the wall. He slid the hilt of the knife from its nook in his belt into his hand.

Whoever it was came around the corner and Janus grabbed them by the shirt, pressing the tip of his knife to their throat.

The Prince.

Janus felt himself freeze. He stared at the Prince's face, eyes wide. The Prince had his head turned to the side slightly, trying to avoid the point of the knife pressing on his windpipe.

When Janus didn't say anything, the Prince raised an eyebrow slightly.

He looked strange without his mask.

"Are you going to let me go?" He asked. Janus blinked and stepped back. With a flick, he slid the knife back into his belt.

"Don't sneak up on me," he said, trying to sound tough. It probably wasn't working, Remus said he couldn't sound tough for the life of him.

"I wasn't 'sneaking up on you'," The Prince said, putting quote marks around the words. "I knew you knew Remus and I wanted to ask if you knew where he was. I want to talk to him."

"So do I." Janus paused. "Sorry, I'm bad with names, what did Rem say your name was?"

"Roman," the Prince replied. He stopped. "What did you call Remus?"

Janus shrugged. "It's just a nickname. Why?"

"Why are you giving my brother nicknames?" It sounded like something protective in Roman had kicked in. He sounded like he was trying to threaten Janus now.

"Your brother?" Janus repeated. "I thought you were step-brothers."

"I'm his step-brother, he's my brother." Roman shook his head. "It's complicated-"

"Obviously."

"You wouldn't get it," Roman said. There was a finality about his tone. "Anyway," eager to switch topics, "where is he?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out too." Janus knitted his fingers together behind his back. "Look, how's this? I'll go find him, you go away and if he wants to talk to you, I'll come find you, yeah?" He really wanted to get away from this crew member in particular.

"What do you mean if he wants to talk to me?" Roman asked. He looked genuinely bemused. "He's my brother, of course he wants to talk to me."

"He seemed to want to punch you a few hours ago," Janus muttered. He sighed. "Have you been told about how anything works here?"

"Your captain's not giving me the time of day." It was almost funny how bitter his tone was. Janus tried to hide his smile.

"Go talk to him about it. I'm sure you'll find lots to argue about."

Before Roman could say anything else, Janus turned and walked away from him. He was half-expecting him to yell after him about 'impertinence in the face of royalty' or something. Surprisingly, nothing.

He got to Remus' door, which he found shut and very probably locked. He knocked on the door gently.

"Go away."

"It's just me," Janus said. There was silence. "If you don't want to talk to me, that's fine, but my stuff's in there. I need one of my notebooks."

More silence.

"Which one?"

"It's not bound," Janus was pulling lies out of thin air and Remus probably knew it. Somehow, Remus always knew when he was lying. "I could just come in and grab it, that'd be a lot easier for both of us, I think."

Even more silence. Janus felt his hope trickle away with every passing second. Maybe Remus had taken what he'd said the wrong way and now didn't want to talk to Janus even more. Maybe-

The lock in the door turned with a muffled click. Remus opened the door a crack, as if to check it was actually Janus.

"No one with you?" He asked.

"If there was, I'd've told you," Janus said. Remus opened the door a little wider, to let Janus in. Janus smiled. "Thanks." The moment he was inside, Remus shut and locked the door.

Janus had never seen Remus so upset. He'd pushed himself away from the door and was pacing up and down the room now, rubbing his knuckles. Janus noticed his knuckles were dark red. There were a few spots of darker red on the walls too.

"Rem..." Remus whipped around and stared at him like he was scared. Janus decided to drop the end of the sentence he'd started. "You sure you don't want to talk about what's bothering you?" He tried instead.

WHO'S READY FOR TRAUMA NEXT CHAPTER!
I know I'm not, I hate this plotline now
Bye,
Blaize