The snow had piled up around the houses as it did nearly all times of the year here. Virgil had moved to a state up north, nearly bordering on Canada, a few years ago because he’d hoped it would help him to not think about Remy as much. It sorta helped.
His apartment was empty right now since he was still at work. Well not completely empty. Three big cats were a laying near the window pan licking up the warm rays of sunlight coming in. Bela was the first to notice when a glowing ghost appeared in the middle of the room but Boris and Elsa soon followed along since they all knew the ghost usually brought cat treats.
“Hey. My little monsters, I’m home” Virgil said as he got home.
He threw off the overalls and gloves he had on while working while letting out a long tired sigh. He’d upgraded from just being forklift certified, now he could drive excavators as well! He mostly built though, carrying brick and that sort of stuff. Getting to work physically helped begrudgingly somewhat with his anger issues.
Bela let out a loud sqwuak at her papa being home followed by Boris running up rub his face against Virgil’s leg while Elsa was still focused on getting treats. A big stupid grin appeared on his face, one which he only showed to his cats, as he hunched down and petted them. When Virgil saw the ghost, or more realistically saw her bright pink glow reflecting over his floor he casually said hi before continuing on with his after work routine. The ghost showed up pretty regularly, at least once every other week, he and the cats were all used to it.
While he poured up some microwave soup for himself and filled up the cat’s food bowls he talked to the ghost about a new movie he was interested in seeing before asking if maybe she wanted to play a game of scrabble (the halloween edition). Before adding some half hearted threat about how he was totally gonna beat her this round.
From the outside looking in he might have looked a little lonely as he relaxed on the couch as his cats surrounded him to take all his heat and a faint glow of a ghost set up a game of scrabble, but really he was quite content.
Logan cleared his throat and changed the page in the book he was reading. The only other sound near him was the nearly constant tapping of keyboards coming from Janus. They were working on an essay for their university course in philosophy. Both Remus and Remy thought they sounded a bit insane for taking university courses ‘for fun’ but they just really enjoyed bitching about the topics they were passionate about. Such as what a buffon George Berkeley had been. Lo often joined them for their study sessions just to spend some time with them.
“You’ve made a grammatical error” Logan commented as he looked over his partner’s shoulder.
“Writing his surname without an uppercase letter was a choice, not an error. Let me enjoy it until I have to proofread” Janus replied.
“There’s no better background sound to reading than being with you”
“Not even that cracker rap you like?” They said it in a lighthearted tone.
“Not even those because as far as I know I don’t love any of those” Logan gave them a sloppy kiss on the cheek “Look, I am being so emotive and loving, adjectives, etc etc”
Janus turned his head to meet him in a kiss “I’m aware darling. Peak romance of you. I think I’m done with rolling this metaphorical boulder up the mountain for today. Want to eat at my place?”
“Yes please. I am barred from me and Patty’s place for the night. Rowan is in town and they would prefer alone time”
Patty and Rowan had eventually realized that since they were long distance for most of the time they worked better as friends and part time lovers. Patty was still the first person Rowan went to see when she was in town and Patty still sent Rowan photos of every cute dog she saw.
Logan drove right past the city centrum and stopped near the apartment Janus, Remus and Remy shared. It was decently sized with a balcony where Jan had set up some pots to grow sunflowers along with other plants. They were most proud of their tiny tiny lemon tree. Remus kept making jokes about ‘lemon stealing whores’ but Jan refused to look up what he was referencing. Rem also had a few of his own pots where he tried to frankenstein together new plants.
When the couple got to the inner court of the apartment complex they saw Remus and Remy relaxing on the grass in front of their place. The sun was striking down with florida heat and slightly obnoxious pop music was coming from Remy’s phone. They were working on a pair of shirts a client had commissioned for them to sew and without them knowing Remus was drawing them. He liked the concentrated look on their face, they looked so adorable with their eyebrows all furrowed.
Remus had taken his shirt off to tan because this year he was going for a bit more of a werewolf look than a vampire. (which his partners were very happy for, testosteron did wonders for body hair). The scars from his top surgery gleamed in the sun.
“Jannie-babey!” Remy exclaimed when they saw their partner.
They held their arms out and let Janus lay down with his head against their chest. He kissed them hello while Logan sat down next to them. Remus quickly finished his sketch before leaning forward to kiss Janus hello. Both of the Rems gladly greeted Logan as well (”LOG!! My fav type of tree!” “Lo! Girlie!”).
“Whatcha think?” Remus asked as he showed off the sketchbook page.
“Aww babe you captured my sexyness sooo well. Right Jan?”
“I must admit you had truly drawn a perfect replica of the most sleepy bastard this side of the north pole”
Remy let out an overly dramatic gasp before using Jan’s own dreads to hit him in the face with “Such rudeness! The gall! Love truly is like totally fucking dead! truly!”
“I spoke no misstruthts! You are sleepy and you were born out of wedlock”
“Ah-” Remy opened their mouth to respond before closing it again. They put on a sour look while continuing to hit their partner with his own dreads. Jan had a goofily self content look on his face.
The sun began to disappear behind the trees so the group decided to head inside. Ms. Carl was sleeping in Remy’s wheelchair, it was one of her new favorite spots.
(I’d taken a lot of Jan and Remus telling Remy that their pain was bad enough and that they could use a wheelchair even if they could technically walk to convince them to get one. They mostly used it when working at a coffee shop nearby but it also helped on dates. They’d been able to go with Remus on much longer trips into the woods! He liked finding gross mushrooms and weird bugs and they both enjoyed screaming into the abyss!)
(Soon after but unrelated Remus had started to sob during his psychologist appointment because it’d hit him that he’d been dating Remy and Janus longer than he had been with Os. It’d been mostly tears of relief)
The apartment was cozy and not too big. There was a bedroom with a king sized bed but also an extra smaller bedroom right next to it for Remus sake. Most nights he did sleep together with the other two but knowing that he had another option was still reassuring. It was also kind of practical to have an extra bed in a relationship between a sex repulsed asexual, a sex positive asexual and a non asexual.
The extra bedroom mostly worked as Remus’ art studio. For the moment the walls were plastered with sketches for a horror themed coloring book for adults he was planning on creating. He was trying to make it as gross as possible.
On the rest of the apartment’s walls hung many paintings he’d made of his partners. His favorite was a painting based on a photo he’d taken off Janus during a trip they’d done to an abandoned themepark where he was standing next to a half broken attraction but Remus had drawn a big reptile monster lurking behind the building.
“Logie! I got some new mold to show you!!” Remus exclaimed as soon as they got into the apartment. He pulled the other man along out to the balcony.
Remy laid down on the couch while making grabby hands for their partner “Let the nerds have their nerd time”
Janus collapsed onto the couch and moved his arm around them so they could move to lay half snuggled up on top of him, their lips grazing against the nape of his neck. He moved his free hand to feel along the faint wrinkles that had started to form next to their mouth and beside their eyes.
“Looking forward to your birthday?” He asked in a quiet tone.
“For when you and Rem kidnap me away to a mysterious place to like torture me with like clowns or whatever? Yeah sure”
“Hey I would never torture you with clowns”
“You would torture me with snakes”
“Well yes. Who wouldn’t want to be tortured by snakes”
“Britney Spears wouldn’t. she would befriend them”
“True! You have a point” Janus sneaked in a kiss before continuing “You’re going to look tremendously hot as a 30 year old dear”
“Pff. You’re just jealous”
“Yes! Indeed! I truly am!! I was made to be a middle aged slash slightly elderly strange aunt. I already have my teapots and mysteriously patterned skirts ready. All I need now is for my hair to start greying and perhaps my skin to be less smooth”
“Aww babe I can get you some like tots cool grey hairdye”
Janus flashed their eyelashes a bit jokingly “Promise?”
“.....” They squinted “....Only for a kiss”
Janus chuckled before leaning in to kiss them. He moved his hands to play with the dress strap on their shoulder. Before he suddenly paused only to say.
“I would make such an absolutely wonderful slightly mysterious godfather, right?”
Remy snorted only because it wasn’t exactly the first time they’d asked “Yah yah especially after the grey hairdye girlie”
“but only the tips. I’m not dying yet, unless you just poisoned me”
“Of course! It’s fashion girlie!!”
“Patty and my Logan have to get that adoption permission accepted quicker so I can officially become the greatest godfather ever in the history of the universe. No one will remember Ghandi or Alexander the great no more. Only me”
“Whatcha talking about?” Remus asked as he came back in with Logan.
“How I can’t see Logie as a daddy like at all. Sorry” Remy instantly replied.
“I think his dad body is coming along quite nicely” Janus argued back.
“Well thank you honeypie” Logan replied “All though I still haven’t been able to find a clear definition of what a so called dad body is”
“MAKE ROOM FOR ME!!” Remus leaped onto the couch and landed with his ass directly on top of Janus’ stomach making him exhale like a broken balloon.
After 5 years of figuring out optimal cuddle positions for 3, sometimes 4, people all of them quite quickly managed to fit on the couch. Logan obviously sat next to Janus while Remy enjoyed getting pressed together between their partners to suck up all their warmth and comfort. Remus liked doing little braids in Remy’s hair during long conversations like his own little fidget toy. He also liked gnawing on them sometimes, they didn’t mind.
Ms. Carl slithered over to see what was going on. Remus picked her up and gave her a kiss on the snoot before giving one to Remy as well.
“Anyone wanna get takeout tonight? I’m feeling like toots for some starbucks and pancakes” Remy asked.
“I’m feeling mario party first!” Remus replied.
“Please we’re adults” Janus said “so I’m taking dibs on Princess Peach since I will not lose. I am here to figuratiely kick your entire asses”
“Aww no big evil reptile for you?” Remus teased.
“I am a far more advanced creature than a Bowser main”
“I’m taking Rosalina!” Remy added.
Logan squinted at the characters “The round ghost should work for me”
It took them all a second before they realized one of them would have to get up from the comfortable cuddle pile to go and get the controllers. They all looked at each other like cowboys about to shoot before collectivly deciding through the democratic means: rock, paper, scissor.
The loser ultimately became Janus who complained loudly and dramatically the entire time he dragged himself up from the couch and got the game inserted. All of his partners dragged him back to the couch as soon as the game was ready. Even though the task had been so smile they all showered him in kisses until he was grinning.
