Jul 15, 2025
~ Pet Names ~
@darksideweeks Dukeceit week day 3!
Janus knows all the right things to say to turn Remus to jelly<3
Image ID under the cut.
seen from Egypt
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seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Germany
seen from Philippines
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from Uzbekistan
seen from United States
seen from Venezuela
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~ Pet Names ~
@darksideweeks Dukeceit week day 3!
Janus knows all the right things to say to turn Remus to jelly<3
Image ID under the cut.
[ID: A digital illustration of Janus and Remus Sanders with a brainlicking.tumblr signature.
Remus is laying on his back, his head resting on a pale green and yellow striped pillow, he is wearing black shorts with green trim and a green tank top with a black slime pattern. Janus is leaning over Remus's torso, propped up on his elbows, he is wearing a long sleeved black shirt, yellow gloves, a small yellow diamond earring and there is a tiny floating blower hat above his head.
Their faces are close and Janus is smiling down at Remus with a blush across his cheeks. Remus' eyes are a pair of bring green lovehearts and his mouth is a cartoony, squiggly smile with his tongue hanging from his mouth. There are a number of yellow love-hearts floating around Remus' head.
Above the two of them are yellow speech bubbles spoken by Janus of his pet-names for Remus, with green love-hearts around the words. From left to right, the dialog is-
Janus: Dear cretin. My wicked little devil. Spur of my heart. Darling fiend. Wretched beast.
The background is a green and yellow gradient.
End ID]
Getting ready for roadtrip
This is for Dukeceit Week @dukeceit-week-2024 and @imnotgrimimjustagrumpyreaper
Janus is checking that everything is ready while making sure that Remus doesn't do anything to the sunscreen (like eat it or something)
Dukeceit
sunflowers/ocean
On the face of a cliff.
At the end of my wits.
I’m diving in.
I’m going in after you.
Fool.
Idiot.
Lover.
Darling.
Remus Prince is a man in love with the sorts of views that make your heart race. He likes being one misstep away from death. It makes him feel alive.
He’s been hurt doing this a time or two, and so now his partner comes with him, and works in the car while he keeps an eye on Remus.
Most days are uneventful and nothing happens.
Some days he has to jump off a 30 foot cliff mostly fully clothed to make sure his partner doesn’t drown because the idiot can’t swim and got too close to the crumbling edge of a cliff to capture the sunflower that was growing out of the cliff face, in spite of its circumstances.
truthfully, if this were the real world, the likelihood either of them would be okay after that sort of a dive, with no prior training in cliff diving, is rather slim. but thankfully, this isn’t the real world. this is the land of make believe where everyone survives and the heroes are the people we loved all along.
the picture of the cliff face and its unlikely sunflowers earned Remus national acclaim.
And no one ever talks about the danger he faced to get it. or the romance of being dived in after.
@imnotgrimimjustagrumpyreaper (i know it’s late but i have no sense of time! apologies!)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Day 6: sharing clothes
@imnotgrimimjustagrumpyreaper @dukeceit-week-2024
Y'all won't be seeing any art for me for Dukeceit week unless you get really lucky and like...the productivity beast bites. I will hopefully being doing oneshots for each of the days though just like I did for IB week a while back. Also...I'm hoping to be able to tell you to stay tuned for the last day of Dukeceit week and after for a new longer project...
HAPPY DUKECEIT WEEK DAY 1
Prompt: Truth/Dare
Pairing: Janus x Remus
Tw: Sexual inuendos
Au:Human, college
@dukeceitweek
@spacedouterri
Janus Castillo was a complicated guy. He typically kept to himself, despite being a typical view at a college party. Rumors spread like fire, light whispurs shushed as he sulked by nose buried in a book. He was mysterious, yet edgy always paired with his slick leather jacket. A jacket he fit so perfectly into it just highlighted his figure.
Which meant Remus found him incredibly intriguing. His sharp piercing stare, eyes narrow, darkening as he spoke.His voice itself, a confident racous sound. Yet it almost seemed soft as well, barely above a whisper though that didn't mean it wasn't able to send a chill down ones spine. An unknown mystery, was he a top honors student, was he a rebel, somehow both? Either way Remus yearned to know more. Not only did it peak his curiousity and creativity ; he was extremely attractive.
So when Remus found himself dazing off at a Friday night party, gaze focussed ahead at the chatting chucking Janus, he just knew he had to go up to him.
He sauntered himself over towards Janus, "hey! Janus is it right?" he greeted with a grin, eyes shimmering with hope. "A group over theres playing truth or dare, care to join?" He took a quick glance around, "I mean its kinda just you not playing sooo It'd be weird if you said no-" he pointed out.
Janus froze, he raised an eyebrow before slowly gazing up towards Remus, eyeing him up and down for a moment (which was enough for Remus's heartbeat to rapidly increase). "Hm, sure why not," he replies, "I like your jacket by the way," he adds after a moment of walking with him.
Remus couldn't help but smile, gripping onto his jacket tight. His eyes grew wide, blush rising to the apples of his cheeks. "You should see me without it, and the rest of my clothes to be honest," he coos, clicking his tounge as he spoke.
He bounced on the balls of his feet eagerly, as he continued to fidget with his hands, extremely jittery.
Janus huffed, his head tilting upwards towards Remus. He narrowed his eyes meeting his gaze with the other. "Oh really?" he quipped, almost in a whisper. Janus chuckled, stifling back a smile of his own. "Can't believe you won't even tell me your name first I mean isn't that a bit rude?" he jabs teasingly.
Remus stumbled, blush darkening to more of a crimson shade, "Remus!" he exclaimed in response, "Remus Adelio," he added quickly. Oh my god, he was actually talking to Janus and it was absolutely amazing.
Yeahh Remus had a huge crush on him if it wasn't already a crush it was definitely one now.
The truth or dare game had gone as expected, mostly casual though a few interesting things until finally it was Remus's turn.
His face lit up as he turned towards Janus next to him, "truth or dare!"
Janus sighed, rolling his eyes at the othee before he spoke up,"dare, why not," he hissed. Janus tapped his fingers on his arm mindlessly, waiting for Remus.
Remus's scooted himself closer, glancing down to Janus's lips before his eyes darted at his eyes again. "Kiss me," he smirked, "unless you're too scared or something because I get it I'm just too intimidating," he cackled, trying to ignore his obnoxiously loud heart beat. Remus could feel his face heat up, anxiously waiting for Janus's answer.
Though, before he could muster another word he was yanked forward, lips smashed into Janus's. Remus's eyes blinked closed as he leaned himself forward, his hands running up and down Janus's sides. Remus's lungs ached and yet he absolutely loved it, every short shared breath between them, the way Janus's lips would gently puff against his own.The connection, the spark that hit once their lips met. Remus melted into Janus's tight embrace, captured by his soft lips. Remus only paused for a moment to mumble small sayings.
Janus hummed contently, cuping the others face ever so gently.
That kiss was only the first of many.
Word Count:688
Led to You
As a child, everyone finds their "soulmate guide," an animal meant to lead your soulmate to you. And one morning, Janus and Remus wake up to see a stranger's guide in their homes.
Written for Day 3 of @dukeceitweek : snakes/bugs
AO3 link
Pairings: Dukeceit, Familial Creativitwins, Platonic Loceit, Moceit, and Dukexiety
Warnings: Some Remus-typical violent thoughts, scorpions/tarantulas/snakes
Word count: 4228
Janus woke up to something brushing against his hand. He groaned and batted Dusa away while muttering "Five more minutes"
But when it brushed against his hand again, he noticed it was definitely not the headbutt from a snake. His eyes snapped open and he glanced down to see a fucking scorpion on his bed holy shit-
If his roommate asked if that was him that made the high pitched squeal that morning, no it wasn't.
He scrambled out of bed to look around for something to try and trap the scorpion under, but he didn't want to get near it what the fuck-
Janus paused. The scorpion was staring at him. At least, it looked like the scorpion was staring at him. It at least didn't look like it was trying to attack him.
Did... did it wave?
Now that Janus had calmed down, he noticed the scorpion was a deep, emerald green. Janus didn't know much about bugs, never had a reason to, but he never heard of a green scorpion before.
Could it be...?
"Hey, Logan?"
Footsteps came from the kitchen down the hallway.
"I was wondering when you were going to call me in," Logan said as he opened the door, his deep blue raven perched on top of his head, "What happened?"
"Can scorpions be green?"
"Why would I know that, Janus?"
"Because you know everything."
"Why are you asking?"
Janus pointed to his bed, and when Logan looked down he jumped back with a startled shout, disturbing the raven on his head.
The scorpion turned towards Logan and, yeah, the scorpion definitely waved.
After calming himself (and his bird), Logan slowly approached Janus' bed.
"...While I have heard of scorpions glowing green under ultraviolet light-"
"Oh, so you did know, you asshole-"
"I haven't seen a scorpion that looks like this, no," Logan said, crouching down next to the bed, "Is Dusa here? She was not under her heat lamp."
"Dusa? Come here, darling."
Dusa didn't crawl out of hiding, and Janus' room and the living room under her heat lamp were the only places she liked to be first thing in the morning.
"I guess she isn't."
Logan's raven, Minerva, hopped off his head onto the bed to examine the scorpion. She leaned down and the scorpion gently bumped heads. Minerva let out a happy chirp.
"My soulmate guide is a scorpion."
"Fascinating," Logan muttered as the scorpion and Minerva playfully chased each other around the bed, "I haven't heard of a bug guide before."
Janus glanced at the clock and put his hand down on the bed. The scorpion immediately ran onto his palm.
"I have class in an hour," he said as he cupped his hands and lifted the scorpion, "So how do you feel about business, corporate, and commercial law?"
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
Remus woke up to Roman screaming. After a moment of debating whether to go back to sleep or not, he decided that, yeah, he probably should go check on the well being of his brother. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Remus trudged towards the living room to see a snake curled up on the couch, with Roman's robin perched on its head.
"Peter, please come here!" Roman pleaded. But the little bird seemed perfectly content on top of the snake. The snake started to slither off the couch, making roman shout again. The robin flew onto Roman's hand and he relaxed a bit as he held the bird to his chest.
Roman took his gaze off his brother back to the snake and- oh look at that it. It was headed towards him.
"Remus stop standing there what is wrong with you-"
The snake was around four feet long with yellow-and-black stripes. Quite gorgeous, really.
Remus decided he wanted to pick it up.
He knelt down and outstretched his arm (as Roman continued to shout at him), letting the snake crawl up and around his shoulders. The snake nuzzled its head against Remus' cheek.
Roman stared at him, eyes wide and mouth opened.
"What?"
"You're insane."
"And you're a chickenshit. You've lived with a scorpion as a roommate your whole life and you're gonna freak out over a snake guide?"
"How was I supposed to know it was a guide!?"
Remus stepped over and placed a hand on Roman's shoulder. "...You're a moron."
Roman shoved him.
"Peter was fine. And we should be expecting to find strange animals in our apartment at this age."
"Oh, piss off to find your soulmate and stop bothering me for a while."
"Gladly."
Remus turned to go back to his bedroom.
"...I'm really happy for you, you know."
Remus stopped and groaned. "Roman, no sentimental bullshit before nine."
"But I mean it. You deserve this."
"...Thanks, you idiotic bastard."
Roman gave him a gentle smile as Peter hopped onto Remus' head and nestled into his wild mess of bedhead.
"Also you screamed like a little girl."
"Fuck off-"
Remus cackled as Roman shoved him again. Peter gave Remus a petulant little peck on the top of his head.
Peter flew back over to Roman while Remus held out his arms go guide the snake in front of his face.
"Are you gonna lead me to my soulmate?" Remus asked with a large grin, which only grew wider when the snake nodded.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
Janus was very much enjoying having a scorpion on his shoulder. People instinctively stepped away from him, even more so than with Dusa, meaning he didn't have to fight his way through the crowded sidewalks.
The scorpion had been upset that Janus didn't follow its directions. It scuttled frantically from one shoulder to the other. It calmed only when Janus explained he had to go to class, but would follow its directions immediately after.
Janus was stopped in his tracks, though, by a corgi running up to him and jumping on his knees.
"Hi, Peachy," Janus said as he scratched behind her ears. The scorpion crawled down his arm in curiosity.
if someone's guide was a common house pet like a dog or cat, they were issued a special white collar to show they were a soulmate guide to be allowed in public places along with service animals.
But this dog didn't have such a collar. She was just a dog.
"Hey, Janus!" someone called out. Janus looked up to see Patton jogging down the sidewalk, his guide right beside him.
"Hello, Patton. Hello, Cookie," Janus said to his friend and the capybara standing next to him.
Patton had been Logan's friend first, and Janus hadn't been too keen on his... optimistic personality at first. But dammit, the guy's too sweet.
"Miss Peachy! What have I told you about running off?" Patton said with a light scowl as he reattached her leash. But of course, unlike a guide, she couldn't actually understand. She jumped off Janus' legs to go lick the capybara's face.
Janus didn't understand the appeal of keeping animals that weren't your guide, but to each their own, he supposed.
Patton's eyes fell to Janus' shoulder, and after the instinctive fear vanished a large smile took over his face.
"Oh! You've got your soulmate guide!!"
"Yep," Janus said as he resumed walking down the sidewalk. Patton followed.
"Ohmygosh, this is so exciting!" Patton exclaimed, practically bouncing as he walked, "How long have you been out trying to find them? Do you think you're close?"
"I'm going to class, actually."
"Really? Gosh, you've got more self control than me," Patton laughed, "I don't think I'd be able to wait."
"I've got exams soon, Patton. I can't risk missing anything."
"Oh, I'm not trying to change your mind! You do what you think is best. But aren't you excited?"
Janus was convinced Patton was smiling so hard his face was going to get stuck like that. But when Janus didn't answer immediately, his frown dampened.
"Hey, are you okay, Jan?"
"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Oh, honey. You're nervous, aren't you?" Patton asked as his smile turned empathetic, which Janus thought was almost worse than excited.
The scorpion nuzzled against his neck, which was an odd sensation for sure, but Janus appreciated the sentiment.
"Of course I'm not nervous. I have no reason to be."
Patton tilted his head down slightly and gave him that look. The soft-smile dad-friend look that meant you were about to be comforted, whether you like it or not. Janus sighed.
"Okay, fine. A little," he conceded. He probably should be worried about how close that scorpion and its stinger was against his neck as it cuddled closer. But he'd never heard of a soulmate guide killing anyone, so he chose not to.
"Oh, sweetie," Patton said in that annoyingly soft tone. He wrapped an arm around Janus' and led him over to a bench. Peachy promptly hopped up to sit on Patton's lap while Cookie plopped against Patton's legs, giving Janus a soft nudge with her nose.
"It's not a big deal," Janus huffed, "I just think its reasonable to be nervous about meeting some stranger I am now expected to spend my life with."
"You have every right to feel what you're feeling. Such a big life change can be scary. But I'm certain your soulmate will understand your reservations and will go at any pace you're comfortable with."
While yes, the idea of a soulmate was a pleasant one, it was also a bit... concerning, to say the least. Janus was quite happy with where he was in life, and he wasn't too keen on the idea of something changing it all completely.
He was a bit surprised Logan wasn't his soulmate. He was the perfect roommate: neat, consistent, punctual. And Janus felt enough fondness for Logan that he was sort of expecting to wake up one day and have their guides just push them into each others' arms.
Alas, apparently not.
Janus bit his lip, debating. It would be good to talk about his worries. And as much as Janus pretended, he was actually quite fond of Patton.
"Patton, what if we don't work?"
"What do you mean, hon?"
"This person is supposedly meant to complete me. To make me better. But I'm perfectly fine the way I am now. I don't feel like I'm missing anything. What if I meet them and they just want to... to fix me? Because I'm expected to change for them?"
"Janus, your soulmate is meant to compliment you. Not complete you. You aren't missing any parts of yourself, because you're already your own complete person. And you certainly don't need to be 'fixed.'"
The scorpion crawled down to Janus' hands, and Janus ran his thumb over its back to pet it.
"But what if... what if we meet and nothing happens? Everyone always talks about their 'immediate romantic connections' but I don't buy it. What if we're doomed to always be strangers? After all, I'm not particularly good with people, Pat. What did I call you when we first met? A-"
"An annoying, self-righteous, dependent puppy with no boundaries?"
Janus winced. "Yeah. That."
A gentle smile grew on Patton's face as he held his arms out for a hug. Janus hesitated for only a moment before accepting.
"You don't need to worry about anything. Soulmates don't always mean romantic. Even if you don't feel romance at first, even if you never do, you two are going to share a tight bond and a special relationship different from anyone else you know. Nothing gets to take that from you."
"...Thank you, Patton. For taking the time to talk to me."
"Of course! What are friends for?"
Patton gave him a soft smile, and Janus gave him a rare, genuine one in return.
"Oh! I hope I didn't make you late for class!"
Janus looked at his watch. "I'll be fine if I hurry. Thank you. Again. Goodbye, Cookie. Bye, Peachy."
Peachy didn't react. Cookie gave him one last gentle nudge.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
The snake in Remus' arms couldn't guide in front of him like Roman's bird would or any sort of animal with wings or legs. While he could let it slither on the ground, it would be dangerous with how busy the sidewalk was. And Remus really didn't need to return the snake to his soulmate all squished.
So it was wrapped around his shoulders, reaching down his arms, and rested in his hands, guiding him down the street like a compass.
The snake turned back to look at Remus.
"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked as he kept walking, the snake shaking its head urgently. Only for someone to grab the back of his jacket and yank him back, pulling him off the street and narrowly missing oncoming traffic.
"Watch where you're going, asshole," the person muttered. Remus turned, ready to start shit, but instead broke into a goofy grin when he saw Virgil.
"Hey, emo!"
Besides Roman, Virgil was Remus' only friend. Most people were too put off by Remus', well, everything.
And Virgil had been too, at first. But the two bonded over their soulmate's guides being creatures most of the public feared and the stigma that came with that. And now he was used to Remus' bullshit.
"And hey, Helena," he said to the tarantula sitting on Virgil's shoulder.
"So. You found your soulmate guide," Virgil said. The snake reached over to inspect Virgil and he scratched under its chin, the snake then nuzzling against Virgil's cheek.
"On your way to find your soulmate?" he asked as the snake and tarantula started inspecting each other.
"Yep!"
"Are you nervous?"
"Nope!"
Virgil squinted at him, searching for any sign of dishonesty, but all he saw was the normal, excitable Remus.
"Shit, you're lucky, man. I've been psyching myself out over meeting mine."
"But aren't they, like, made for you?"
"Supposedly. But you know me. I can't stop thinking about all the bad things. Like what if they don't like me?"
"Well, that would be a them problem."
Virgil let out an amused huff. "Really? You wouldn't be bothered?"
"Well, yeah," Remus said as he watched the snake and Helena play peekaboo behind Virgil's neck. "But like, it's not like I'm not used to people not liking me. And if I don't know this person, what would I lose, really? So actually, this can only go up for me."
Virgil cast him a sad smile. Remus hated it.
"It'll be good for you," Virgil said as the two crossed the street. "You are a strange fucking creature, but you're a good dude. Mostly. Partially? Mostly."
"It'll be good for you, too, then. Cause you're better than me."
Virgil nudged him with his shoulder.
"Ultimately, I know it will be. My brain just hates me."
"You and me both, emo."
The snake curled back against Remus after booping Helena and resumed its role as soulmate compass.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
Remus ended up on his old school campus.
Ew.
He had dropped out, and he had hoped he would never have to step foot back here again. Oh, well, C'est la vie, or whatever the fuck.
Though you needed to swipe a student ID to unlock the doors, Remus knew if he yanked hard enough the doors would give. He had managed to make it through a whole semester without his ID after he lost it.
A grimace grew on Remus' face as he walked back into the Taylor Building for the first time in over a year. It was named after his least favorite professor, and he had a lot of bad memories in this building.
Time to find his soulmate and get the fuck out.
He was just about to head upstairs when someone shouted at him.
"Excuse me! Only students and faculty are allowed in this building."
Yeah, Remus supposed he didn't look like the typical law majors that took up a majority of the classes here. Not with his spiked leather jacket and ripped jeans. He turned to see who had yelled at him.
And speak of the devil.
"Hey, you're Taylor!"
The man straightened his shoulders.
"Yes, I am. Were you a student of mine?"
"Yeah! I hated your fuckin' guts."
The man looked like he had been slapped before a sneering look of recognition appeared on his face.
"Remus Kingsley."
"Aw, I'm flattered you remember me. Especially since I dropped out. You encouraged me to, remember? Right after you called me a, what was it, 'moronic good-for-nothing- imbecile that would never amount to anything?'"
"You need to leave immediately."
Taylor had reached out to grab Remus but he bolted up the stairs, making sure he had a tight grip on the snake.
He wasn't about to give up on his soulmate that easy.
As they ran down the upstairs hallway, Taylor continued to shout at him. But Remus wasn't worried. He was clearly much faster.
He turned to see the disheveled man chasing behind him and laughed. This was kinda fun!
Then he had to turn around and run face first into the chest of a campus officer.
Well, bitchtits.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
Janus' class was nothing out of the ordinary, except that his surrounding classmates had inched as far away from this as they could, and Janus was enjoying the extra space.
The scorpion had been still on his shoulder for the most part, settling in where Janus' neck and shoulder met. But now it stood, rushing down Janus' arm to the desk and running around in circles.
"What is it?" he whispered.
Right after he asked that, shouting was heard down the hallway. The professor and students all turned their heads in time to see someone running past the door, laughing, with Professor Taylor chasing after them.
"...Okay, then," The professor said, "Now back to your review material."
Janus hardly listened as the professor spoke. He was more focused on the scorpion that kept switching between running in circles and scuttling onto Janus' hand.
When the professor dismissed the class, Janus hung back. He preferred to let the crowd of students leave before him instead of trying to fight his way through.
By the time he walked into the hallway, it was mostly empty. Janus was holding the scorpion in the palm of his hands and it jumped to get his attention. It gestured with its body to go down the hallway.
"Alright, let's go."
The scorpion led him down a couple of hallways, and Janus heard shouting and the sound of running footsteps against the tile.
A man ran around the corner, his neon green combat boots skidding on the floor as he tried to stop. He had a mustache above a wild grin, with a streak of white through his hair.
He also had Dusa wrapped around his neck.
Janus stared. The man stopped in front of him.
"Fluffy!" he said to the scorpion in Janus' hands, who was alternating between running in circles again and hopping in excitement.
He looked up at Janus with a manic grin. "Hey! I'm Remus. I'd love to stop and chat but I'm afraid I've found myself wrapped up with something."
Two campus officers rounded the corner.
What the fuck.
Janus took the scorpion - Fluffy - in one hand and held it against his chest, grabbing Remus' wrist with the other and bolting.
Remus let out a delighted laugh as he let Janus pull him down the hallway and down a set of stairs.
Jesus, what did Janus get himself into?
He was heading towards one of the student parking lots, cutting through the Union. There would be lots of students and he hoped they could get lost in the crowd. But with two idiots running across the yard with a snake and a scorpion, people were parting a path for them. Which made them more obvious but at least let them through.
When Janus looked behind him, he couldn't see the officers, but he didn't want to risk it. It wasn't exactly hard to identify them: one with a large scar on the left side of his face and the other, with, well, a lot of fucking identifiable traits.
Logan would probably get mad at him for this, but Janus was sure he would be forgiven that same day if he made Logan thumbprint cookies. So Janus let go of Remus' hand to dig in his pocket, finding the spare key to Logan's car he gave Janus only for emergencies. Janus would consider this an emergency. Logan probably would not.
Janus unlocked the car and Remus got in without question. Remus hardly stopped laughing.
Great. So his soulmate was a maniac.
Janus pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street, gunning it out of there as Remus shouted in excitement.
"Fuck, yeah, dude!" he yelled. His seat-belt was not on, by the way.
"What the hell did you do?"
"Trespass, technically. But it would've been fine if that bitchass Taylor hadn't come along. And then I maybe assaulted an officer, but could it really be assault if I just whacked him when he tried to grab me? Anyways I already have three offenses - I guess four now - and I didn't want to go to jail or anything so I started running-"
"God, I'm going to miss my next class," Janus groaned, "What if they try to find me tomorrow?"
"How's your track record?"
"It's clean. Unlike someone, I don't get caught."
"Psh, then you're probably fine. you're a white law student."
Janus took a deep breath as he tried to collect his thoughts. What was even happening right now?
"...Okay, I may have fucked this up," Remus started, and he at least had the decency to sound sheepish, "I didn't mean to drag you into this mess, even though I was purposefully... searching... for you... Shit, I didn't even think about that. I don't think a lot, actually. I mean, I wasn't even paying attention on the way to find you. I almost got hit by a car. Could you imagine, Fluffy leading you to me only to find your soulmate and guide squashed by a car and our blood and guts everywhere-"
"Remus."
"Sorry, sorry," he groaned as his hands went to grab his hair, "I was really excited to meet you, and even when being chased by police my dumb brain only wanted to focus on finding you because I don't have many friends cause most people get weirded out since I can't control my thoughts or my mouth so, like, all the weird shit that pops int my brain just comes right out and I was really looking forward to meeting someone who wouldn't leave-"
"Remus, it's okay," Janus interrupted, "Deep breaths, okay?"
Remus took a couple deep breaths.
Then Janus let out a short laugh. He felt bad for laughing, but he couldn't help it.
"...What?"
"I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at you. The situation just caught up to me: You're my soulmate, we just ran from the police, and we just took my friend's car and wow. Can't say this is how I expected this to go."
Remus grimaced. "Sorry."
"No, actually. This is better than the sappy shit I was thinking about."
Remus perked up a bit. "Yeah?"
"Is it always like this with you? Am I sentenced to spend my life digging you out of trouble, now?"
"Yeah, probably."
Janus laughed again as he pulled into the parking lot of a shopping center. He had no clear idea where he was going, and at least this place had plenty of people and plenty of parking. When he stopped, the scorpion hopped off his shoulder and scuttled to Remus.
"Hey, Fluffy," he said with a smile as he put the scorpion in his lap.
"Hey, actually, let's talk about that," Janus said, "You named your scorpion Fluffy?"
"Yeah. I named him that to trick people. Scared the shit out of my mom when he first showed up. 'Hey, meet Fluffy,' then I pull a scorpion out from behind my back. It never gets old."
Janus couldn't stop smiling, and he was sure his face was disgustingly close to Patton's in terms of fondness, but he couldn't do anything to help that.
"I'm Janus. The lovely lady on your shoulders is Dusa."
"Janus. That's a badass name," Remus said as he scritched Dusa under her chin.
"Thank you for your help today, Dusa," Janus said with a grin as she slithered back over to wrap around Janus, "And you, too, Fluffy."
"Fuck yeah. Thanks guys. Shit, Dusa was awesome. I'm pretty sure that while I was running, she flicked her tail to open a door and it hit one of the officers in the face."
Janus glanced down at her. "You are an enabler."
She stuck her tongue out.
"Well, since we're already here, would you like to go on a date or something? It seems like you have stories to tell," Janus said as he gestured to the mall in front of them.
"Yeah," Remus said with a fond grin, "Are you hungry? I'm starving. Wanna go to the food court. On me. We'll have to be careful, though. I'm pretty sure I'm banned from this mall."
Janus stared at him before bursting out laughing again. This was his life now, and how exciting that thought was.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to."
.
.
Thanks for reading! Requests are open in my inbox. Hope you enjoyed <3
popcorn & pronouns
Fandom: Sanders Sides Characters: Janus, Remus, Roman Rating: Teen & up Relationships: Dukeceit, Creativitwins Warnings: Not much to warn for in this one. Language, a little bit of suggestiveness, vague non-detailed descriptions of a horror movie. Word count: 3402
Read on AO3!
My writing masterpost
Starlight Universe masterpost
Dukeceit Week 2021 start - previous - here - next - masterpost
Summary: A movie night date leads to an important conversation. Already being t4t makes it a lot easier. Or, in Remus's own words, “This is just, like, going to be a week of people coming out to me, I guess. Huh.”
Notes: Day 6 of Dukeceit Week 2021! Almost there! @dukeceitweek Takes place in my Starlight Universe, where each piece can be read without any context. Takes place 9 months after college; at the start of the story, Janus uses only they/them pronouns.
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“Ooh, popcorn! Can I have some?” Roman popped his head into the kitchen of the apartment he, Remus, and Logan had shared in the nine or so months since they had all graduated college.
“No, Jan and I are having a date in twenty minutes,” Remus said, waving Roman off without looking away from the air popper.
“Okay, I don’t see how that’s relevant to my question.” Roman pushed himself to sit on the counter by the sink. “I mean, that’s really cute, I hope you have fun. But can I have some popcorn?”
Remus rolled his eyes. “Make your own when I’m done.”
“But you make it better!” Roman pouted overdramatically.
Remus raised an eyebrow. “All I do is plug in the machine?”
“Right, which is better than me doing it.” Roman grinned at them. “Less work for me.”
“Hey!” Remus swatted his arm. “The transphobia, honestly—”
“Well, if you making it for me is transphobic to you, then you not making it for me is—” Roman broke off quite suddenly, his expression undergoing several shifts very fast that Remus could not make sense of. Which was… unusual, to say the least. Roman was normally the one person they could always count on understanding. They didn’t like this new development one bit.
“Ro?”
“Iiiiiit’s… queerphobic to me,” Roman said at last, a worried pinch to his eyebrows. He laughed, and it almost didn’t sound forced. “So we’re at a tie, so you should just make me popcorn.”
“First of all, I’m queer too, make your own damn popcorn. Second—” Remus turned away from the popcorn machine and gave Roman his full attention, leaning back against the kitchen island and tilting his head to the side. “Do you wanna talk about whatever the fuck that was?” So far as Remus knew, Roman was bi; that was the label he’d been using for years and years, so long that it practically felt like forever. Since almost the very beginning of high school. Since before Remus had questioned their gender, even. Only last week, he’d called the light switch biphobic without hesitation when it broke.
Whatever had happened to make him so very deliberately not call himself bi just now, it was new.
Roman’s expression closed up very fast indeed, but not before Remus caught a flash of something he was almost certain was fear. “No.”
“You know it’s okay to question, right?” Remus inquired awkwardly. “No matter what specifically, and no matter what the outcome is? Yeah?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You know I’d still love you no matter what, right? Even if you were, like, a straight man—like, I would make so many jokes about not agreeing with your lifestyle, but—Ro, you know everything is always gonna be okay, right?”
Roman glared at him. “Remus, I don’t want to talk about it.” He wrinkled his nose. “And I’m definitely not straight.”
Remus blinked and raised their hands. “Alright. I didn’t mean literally straight, I just meant—you could be literally whatever, and it would be cool. That was—like—the most extreme example I could think of, you know?”
Roman let out a slight huff of laughter. “Thanks,” he said reluctantly after a pause. “It’s nothing, though.”
“Bullshit,” Remus said immediately.
“It—” Roman swallowed. “I need it to be nothing, okay?”
“If anyone’s making you feel shitty, I’ll beat them up,” Remus said immediately. “Even if it’s Patton. Just drop the names. I’ll do it. I’ll—”
“Remus, it’s fine. I want to stop fucking talking about it now!” Roman snapped.
Remus hesitated, fumbling for what to do or say next, everything about the conversation feeling just a little wrong and sideways.
Roman sighed. “Sorry.” He pushed off the counter, went to the fridge, and stared into it for a solid thirty seconds, then took a cheese stick out of the door. “I’ll make my own popcorn later,” he mumbled and retreated back to his room.
“Damn, alright,” Remus said to the empty room. “Be like that, I guess.” They flung their hands into the air and went to get the butter they’d been melting in the microwave before Roman’s appearance.
Roman would talk to them about it, whatever it was, eventually. He always did. And whatever was bugging him, Remus would figure out a way to bug it back until it stopped and Roman was all happy and bubbly again. Because that was what Remus always did. It would be fine. It was just a waiting game.
Remus sighed. He always hated waiting.
***
“Mmkay,” Remus said, when Janus had arrived, and they had worked together to move the TV out of the living room and into Remus’s room, and they had settled in on Remus’s bed—Remus sitting up against the headboard and Janus half-laying in Remus’s lap with their long thin legs stretched out along the bed and their head on his chest—and the popcorn had been set beside them where they could both reach it, and the blanket nest had been fluffed once more. “What shall we watch?”
Janus was silent for a long moment. Actually, come to think of it, they had been quiet since they’d arrived at the apartment—even more quiet than usual. But Remus was almost certain they weren’t nonverbal, seeing as they had exchanged a few fond words with him. It just hadn’t been very many words.
“Janny, baby?” Remus leaned forward, over their shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of their face.
Janus had their fingers knotted in the blanket that was spread over their lap, fidgeting with it anxiously, a thinking-hard expression on their face.
“Baby?” Remus curled one hand lightly around theirs. “You good?”
“Choices are too hard right now,” Janus said at last.
“Okay, that’s okay. Do you know what you need?”
“I want to watch a movie.” Janus frowned. “I just can’t choose.”
“Gotcha. No problem.” Remus pressed a kiss to their cheek. “I’m really good at choosing.” He threaded his fingers through Janus’s long hair, scratching soothingly at their scalp in just the way he knew they liked, and pulled up the library of movies, switching from Roman’s profile to his own.
“How’s some really cheesy horrible horror film we can make fun of sound?” he asked, scrolling with the remote and still playing with Janus’s hair with his other hand. “I know we have a bunch of those, I loved ’em when we were kids and I think they’re funny.”
“That sounds fine.” Janus nodded and relaxed a little further against Remus.
“Good.” He kissed the top of their head. “Do you need anything else?”
Janus shook their head. “I’ve just been kind of stressed lately. Work’s been shit, and all that. It’s fine. I just want to cuddle and things.”
“Ooh, ‘and things,’ I like the sound of that,” Remus teased, sliding his hand gently to their chin and drawing them to twist around far enough that he could kiss them soft and slow.
“I didn’t say what kinds of things,” Janus said innocently, their eyes still closed and so close to Remus that their lips brushed against his as they spoke. “Perhaps I could be persuaded later.”
“I’ll be sure to prepare my best arguments,” Remus said, leaning slightly up to kiss their forehead and then back down to their lips for another lazy kiss, taking his time and exploring Janus’s mouth until they sighed and melted against him.
“A compelling preview,” they murmured, their eyes still closed and the slightest smile curling at their lips.
Remus meant to make some kind of witty quip in return, really he did, but all that came out of his mouth was a quiet, awed, “Holy fuck, you’re so beautiful, Jan.”
Janus’s eyes opened and met his for a moment, soft and vulnerable, before they turned and hid their face in his neck. “Love you,” they whispered against his skin.
“Mm, I love you too,” Remus said happily, wrapping his arms securely around Janus and kissing the top of their head. “Love your pretty eyes and skin and hair and body, love how clever you are, love your scary goth clothes, love your snark, love your stims, love you—”
Janus whined wordlessly into his neck, pressing kisses to it and fisting their hands in the front of his shirt.
Remus chuckled, taking a handful of their hair and gently tugging until they looked up at him once more. “Do you want to watch a movie at all, or do you just wanna make out? Cause I’d be good with either, but if you wanna do a movie, we should get on that before we’re too distracted.”
“Oh.” Janus leaned their head back a little until it was resting against Remus’s hand. “Not that I don’t want to make out, but—”
“Nah, I gotcha. Gotta at least get through the popcorn, am I right?” Remus cast about for the remote, lost in the blanket pile, as Janus shifted about until they faced the television again.
“There it is!” Remus snatched the remote up, clicking through the library on the television until he saw the particular film he was thinking of and pulled it up. “This look good?”
“‘When moving into their new house, little do our protagonists know it is haunted by a demonic serial killer. Will they get out in time? Or will they be his next victims?’” Janus read the summary aloud. “Sounds absolutely thrilling. Extremely original. Love the bad Photoshop on the cover. I’m sure the acting will be of the highest quality.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s so shitty, I love it. So many cheesy effects and fake blood, it’s the actual stupidest shit,” Remus assured them. “I love it, though. Went as the demon thing for Halloween when I was nine. Nobody fucking knew what I was, but I had the time of my life. And got fake blood on Roman when he wasn’t looking. It was great.”
Janus chuckled, reaching up to brush their fingertips against Remus’s cheek. “Well, with such a glowing review from someone so attractive, how can I resist?” they said fondly.
“That’s the spirit!” Remus hit play.
Remus had watched this particular movie more times than they could count over the course of their childhood. He peppered commentary throughout the film:
“This is my favorite part, if you pay attention you can see her real fingertips holding onto the fake hand she’s about to get chopped off!”
“There’s a jumpscare in this scene, I know you hate those—okay, hit the skip-ten-seconds button in three, two, there. Perfect. Dumbass demon movie can’t even trust itself to be creepy without cheap scares.”
“Look, I know the mom is supposed to have some kind of hot blonde thing going on for the horny straight men in the audience, but she’s got nothing on you.”
“For some reason they made a director’s commentary and it actually includes the fake blood recipe they used, I’ll show you sometime!”
Janus, in turn, provided brilliant, extremely snarky roasts, mostly of either the actors’ absolute lack of skill or the gaping plot holes:
“Oh, yes, going alone to the attic at midnight without so much as a candle is a fantastic idea, nothing bad could possibly happen in this scene.”
“Listen, I can excuse the children because they’re about eight years old, but do you think this man has ever even heard of acting? Or even, like, speaking in a non-monotone?”
“I am truly fascinated by the special effects department’s understanding of human anatomy.”
“So, the demon feeds on misery? Why hasn’t it taken up residence in a large office building? I mean, come on, hundreds of souls in an environment designed to grind out constant levels of misery? It’s perfect. The poor thing must be starving out here in the two-point-five-kids-and-a-dog suburbs, every meal it gets is tiny. I would be so much better at its job than it is.”
At last the credits rolled.
“Wanna see pictures of the costume I made?” Remus asked.
“Sure.” Janus sounded amused.
“Lemme just—” Remus scrolled through their camera roll for a minute. “Oh, here they are.” They displayed their phone to Janus; tiny nine-year-old Remus, who sported long tangled brown hair in two ponytails, was draped in a black curtain, donated by his great-aunt, that he had very enthusiastically taken a pair of scissors to to create a tattered effect; the curtain was splattered with bright red goo, and tiny Remus had a pair of plastic knives in his hands, which were blurry in almost every photo because they’d hardly stopped making stabbing motions all evening. To their right, their little sister Gabby, who’d been six at the time, was dressed as Elastigirl and making a punching motion; to their right, Roman—who had already been a full three inches taller than Remus, even at nine—was wearing a Belle dress with a poofy skirt and a sword strapped around his waist and a huge smile that was missing one front tooth.
Remus swiped through the photos; a delightful scene unfolded, as tiny Remus posed for a few pictures, then in one was blurrily turning towards Roman, then dumping something on him, then Roman was screaming and Remus was laughing as red goo dripped down the poofy yellow skirt; Gabby watched with both hands clapped over her mouth, eyes huge.
“You two really have not changed at all, have you?” Janus asked, stifling laughter.
“Absolutely not,” Remus agreed with an answering laugh. “I think the most that either of us ever changed was when I chopped off all that hair and dyed it green.”
“When was that?” Janus asked.
“Sophomore year of high school. I did not have permission to chop it all off, but I did get permission to dye it afterwards, so that was pretty sick.”
“And that didn’t go against dress code?” Janus inquired.
“No, actually. Not sure how. But I bet my parents would’ve kicked up a big stink about it if the school tried and made me change it; they were always super big on self expression and shit.” Remus gestured towards the picture, indicating tiny Roman in his princess dress. “We always got to wear whatever we wanted, and shit like that. It was nice. Made gender shit way easier when that became a thing for me, you know?”
“It sounds nice,” Janus said softly. “I’m happy you had that.”
Remus nodded and pressed a kiss to their forehead, reaching for a handful of the popcorn dregs in the bottom of the bowl.
Janus shifted in their arms, rolling over to face Remus and propping themself up on their elbows. “Actually,” they began.
Something on their face told Remus that whatever this new topic of conversation was, it was important. He swallowed the half-chewed popcorn in his mouth. “Yeah, baby?”
“Speaking of gender.” Janus picked at the edge of the blanket.
“I love speaking of that, go on.” Remus tousled Janus’s hair fondly.
Janus took a deep breath, staring at the blanket in their hands. “I want to start using he pronouns again. In addition to my regular ones. Or.” They wrinkled their nose. “My current ones, I guess. So, he/they.”
“That’s great, he/they pronouns are very sexy,” Remus said at once.
Janus laughed, looking up at him at last. “That’s true, you are the sexiest person I know,” he said fondly. A shadow passed over his features. “But,” he went on slowly, chewing on the inside of their lip and picking at the blanket once more.
“Yeah?” Remus encouraged.
“I really don’t like the idea of telling anyone else about that.” Janus grimaced. “I keep worrying I’ll get asked stupid questions about ‘oh, so are you a man again now?’ when—like—no, and I never was one in the first place. So.”
“Oh, that sounds gross,” Remus agreed at once. “I can see why you’d be worried about that.”
Janus nodded. “I just—I don’t want to explain. And I don’t want people to ask questions. And they might. And I just—I don't want any of it. I want to skip to the part where they know and it’s all how I want it to be.”
“That’s reasonable,” Remus agreed. “But, I mean, if they can get me using he/they pronouns and being nonbinary, they had better fucking wrap their minds around the concept of you doing it too. Yeah? Or I’ll make ’em. Violently, if you want.”
Janus snorted. “I appreciate the offer, darling.” They reached up and touched his cheek. “I… don’t know if I want to tell anyone else yet. But I did want to tell you.”
“You got it, cutie.” Remus booped Janus’s nose once. “Just let me know if anything changes. I’ll punch people for you. Anytime. They don’t even have to have done anything. Just point me at them and consider it done.”
Janus did laugh at that, outright, scrunching up his face and burying it in Remus’s chest. “I should not be this into you offering to punch people for me,” he said wryly.
Remus grinned and flipped their hair. “Nah, I think it’s definitely very sexy of me and should absolutely turn you on.”
Janus smacked Remus’s arm. “I did not say that!”
“You implied it.”
“Not… necessarily. That was one possible interpretation—”
“Oh, right, I see, mmhm, very interesting.”
They smacked his arm again. “You’re teasing me.”
“Only a little bit. You’re so pretty when you get all flustered.” Remus bent their head at a somewhat awkward angle to kiss Janus’s lips gently. “Are there any new words you want me to use, by the way?” they asked. “Besides updating pronouns?”
Janus tilted his head to the side, considering. “I think… I still like all the sorts of things you call me already. Pretty, and partner, and—and baby, and so on.”
Remus smirked. “That’s good, I like calling you baby.”
“Oh my god, shut up.” Janus hid their face in their hands.
“Why, baby?” Remus asked innocently.
Janus made a strangled noise, and after a pause carried on. “I do think I wouldn’t mind adding a little bit of… masc terminology? I guess? If that makes sense? Adding that into the mix. Not all the time, and not as much as the things you already call me, but… just a bit would be nice.”
“Gotcha.” Remus nodded. “I can do that. So, like, my baby is very pretty and handsome?”
Janus’s cheeks went bright red in an instant, and he hid his face in Remus’s chest again, letting out a tiny wordless scream. “Yes. That. That—that’s nice,” they managed after a pause, sounding almost entirely composed.
Remus chuckled and ran their fingers through Janus’s hair. “Good to know,” he said teasingly. “I will definitely keep this in mind.”
“Oh my god,” Janus mumbled. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“Absolutely, but only in a sexy way of making you happy.” Remus kissed the top of their head. “This is just, like, going to be a week of people coming out to me, I guess,” they mused. “Huh.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, something’s clearly eating at someone else we know, and I think they’re going to tell me about whatever it is within the week. That’s all. It was just funny timing.” Remus kissed the top of Janus’s head again. “So, the movie’s over,” they noted, which, sure, was a blatant and deliberate change of subject, but he felt this was justified, both for avoiding-speculating-about-Roman’s-personal-information purposes and, more importantly, for fun-after-movie-things purposes.
“That it is,” Janus said, a particular innocent tone entering their voice. Excellent, he was of a similar mind to Remus, then.
Remus grinned and drew them up for a kiss. “So, what does the very pretty and handsome and lovely human in my arms want to do now?” he inquired.
Janus made another small, wordless, flustered noise and promptly dragged Remus into another kiss. “You can’t just say things like that!”
“What, about how you’re the loveliest—prettiest—sexiest—” Remus pressed tiny kisses to Janus’s lips with each word, until at last they caught his lips with their own in a proper kiss to shut him up. “Pretty sure I can say it, actually,” Remus murmured against his lips. “Cause it’s true.”
“Oh, like you’re one to talk,” Janus said, sounding very pleased indeed, and kissed them again.
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