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."
.
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