Janus, stumbling through the forest, bleeding and shaking, felt like his every nerve ending was on fire. It had taken every ounce of strength and stealth he possessed to escape that hellish facility, and he couldnāt let his guard down for even a second lest they catch up to him and drag him back.
It was dark, near midnight, and with only a weak crescent moon to light his way through the dense forest, he had almost no idea where he was going. But he did know that, exhausted as he was, he was starting to slow down.
Of course, as it often did, the universe decided that it wanted to torment Janus further- and he soon heard the distinct sound of twigs cracking amongst the dense foliage to his left.
It wasn't anyone from the facility, though - Janus had rather successfully lost them at this point - but, of course, he didn't have any way to know that. It wasn't like the source of the footsteps had spoken, after all.
"It's fine! This is fine! I'm gonna go... Sweep the river! Yup!"
Remus stood, and quickly just,,, walked outsde.
"He'll be fine. He just needs a while to calm himself down."
Ah, so Roman had been listening in!
Why?
Janus watched him go with a sense of dread, fearing heād just caused damaged he wouldnāt be able to fix.
Romanās appearance startled him, and he flinched, immediately breaking out into apologies.
"It's alright, you didn't do anything wrong. I've been trying to figure out how to break that news for a while anyway, so... Thanks!"
Remus could be heard screaming from outside, though it was VERY muffled.
Roman peaked out the window, and walked away from the window immediately.
"He's screaming into the dirt again."
He let out a soft whine, very distressed by the upset heād cussed for Remus. He curled in tightly on himself, tucking his chin against his chest.
Roman sighed softly.
"He'll be fine in a few minutes. He tends to be a bit... Melodramatic. He does this regularly - I just let him scream into the dirt until he comes back inside."
Oh, so this is just A Thing He Does?
Janus remained concerned, but some of the tension eased with Romanās confidence that Remus would be okay.
āIā¦.I didnāt mean to upset him,ā he whispered guiltily, despite.
"As someone whose lived with him for the entirety of both of our lives, it's incredibly easy to upset him. He once started crying because he finished his lunch before I did, so I still had food when he didn't."
...Well that's-...
That's sure A Thing
āThatās no excuse, I should know better than to upset people,ā he murmured, raking his nails across this skin of his arms. āI need to be better. Not good enoughā¦ā
Roman sighed softly, quickly joining Janus on the floor.
"Okay, here's what we're gonna do. When he comes back inside, you apologize, and all of this stops being a problem, okay?"
He didn't particularly like dealing with it like this, but he presumed it would be more effective than trying to reassure Janus that he'd done nothing wrong, as this had worked on him when he and Remus had first escaped.
Janus slowly looked at him, and nodded.
āO-okay. Youāre right, I should apologise.ā
He drew in a deep breath, feeling mildly better. āThank you.ā















