Just Like Old Times
Trigger Warnings: Remus being himself, mild emotional hurt/comfort and festive blues
Shining lights and bright colours covered the walls of the mindspace and, as an added assault to the senses, festive spices seemed to be everywhere with no visible source.
This was how the sides celebrated Christmas and Roman and Patton were mostly responsible for how extravagant and over the top it all was.
Virgil had been with them for plenty of years and knew how it worked quite well by now but this year he didn’t feel at all comfortable.
The decorations seemed tacky and the smell of spices was sickly. Even the quiet sound of Christmas music had him gritting his teeth and covering his ears as it sounded tinny and annoying.
Everything seemed off and not as inviting as usual but then again Virgil had dropped a significant truth bomb on Thomas that had probably caused this sudden disconnect from everyone else.
Virgil sighed, sitting on his bed with his head in his hands as he thought and over thought the moment he revealed his past to Thomas.
He’d been going over that moment constantly since it’d happened and honestly it was starting to drive him a little nuts.
He felt cooped up in his room but he’d rather spend time in there than out where the Christmas decorations and smells seemed to have infected everything.
He wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t want to stay in his room forever but he knew he wouldn’t be able to stand leaving it.
Unless….
Virgil frowned and shook his head at the idea immediately, it was stupid.
But it wasn’t as if he had much of a choice was it?
Sure he could stay here but he’d be alone, anxious and stressed out of his mind.
At least with Them he knew he’d be able to stomach it
Well… If they even let him join them that is. After everything he wasn’t sure they’d want him back, especially considering how he’d left things.
Virgil pondered the decision for a while longer before standing up and making his decision.
This Christmas he would spend with The Others or The Dark Sides as Roman liked to call them.
He took a deep breath before focusing on his door, trying to ignore the way his heart was pounding away in his chest as he felt the air shift slightly and he knew he’d successfully reopened the link to the other mindspace.
Cautiously he pushed open his door, peeking out warily and freezing as he was hit by a wave of nostalgia.
The dark corridor had fairy lights shining along the walls, each door he could see had a coloured wreath and he was surprised to see his door with a black and purple one. He’d assumed they would have just left his blank.
He opened his door wider and peered further down the corridor and couldn’t help but smile as he spotted a familiar door covered in bright green decorations that also seemed a bit goopy.
That was Remus’s door, same as usual and if Virgil ventured a little further he was sure he’d see Janus’s door with the snake shaped wreath of yellow.
Even further down the corridor there would be a door with an orange wreath but Virgil didn’t have time to reminisce, he needed to find the sides in question.
He carefully slipped out of his room and quietly shut the door, taking a calming breath to try and slow the panicked race of his pulse.
He slowly crept towards where he knew the living room to be and paused as he heard familiar voices.
“Remus! How many times do I have to tell you!”
“Clearly more than once!”
Remus’s voice was full of glee, probably at the expense of Janus who sounded exasperated and tired.
“You know what? Fuck it, eat the tinsel and when you feel ill later I’ll say I told you so.”
Virgil covered his mouth with his hand, grinning at the typical Remus action and fondly remembering the years he’d spent helping Janus keep him from eating various decorations.
“Do you reckon I’ll get tinsillitis then?” Remus asked, and Virgil could imagine the infuriating grin he probably had at the awful joke.
“Remus, I swear, if you keep it up who knows what might happen to my infamous festive cookies.”
“Wait! No! You’re making those again?”
“Perhaps, I hadn’t quite decided but I feel less inclined to do so now…”
Remus let out a screech and Virgil winced but was amused at how the dynamic of the two still seemed the same after so long.
Virgil venture forward and peered into the room, a lump forming in his throat at the familiar décor.
There was an enormous real Christmas tree with various decorations, a couple of them handmade by Remus for each of them, his own not appearing to be on there which was understandable.
He spotted the side in question wrapped in various garlands of tinsel grovelling at Janus’s feet begging for him to make cookies.
Janus had a circlet of fairy lights around his hat and was looking down at Remus with a raised eyebrow, amused at the sudden change in his attitude.
Virgil held back a gasp as he noticed a dusty box sitting on the sofa with the star that usually sat atop the tree poking out the top.
He wondered who put it on the tree after he’d left considering that used to be his thing but brushed it off as he heard Remus’s voice again.
“Oh my dear snake, please forgive me for my tinsel addiction for it is what I must eat when you’re cookies are unavailable. Seriously though Jan, I would murder for those cookies and I’m likely to go smash a bunch of my brother’s stuff if I don’t get them.”
“oh no, whatever shall I do? Poor Romans stuff. A tragedy if ever I heard one.”
Janus expression and voice remained deadpan as he spoke and there was a brief moment of silence before Remus let out his cackle of a laugh and Janus chuckled.
Virgil had to hold his own amusement back at the achingly familiar humour that both urged him forward and also made him want to run for it.
It had been so long since he’d any sort of civil conversation with any of them and he was probably being hasty in his decision to come back for Christmas, surely they’d never want him back? Not after everything he’d said?
“Virgil?”
Panic gripped Virgils heart as he locked eyes with Janus who seemed just as surprised to see him as Virgil was to be seen.
“I… um…” Virgil stuttered, eyes wide and his breaths starting to get harder to take.
“Woah there emo nightmare, you need to chill the fuck out my dude. Deep breaths and all that shit.” Remus was suddenly right next to him which didn’t exactly help.
“Oh shit, Remus how many times do I have to tell you not to pop up next to him suddenly because it makes things worse? you know what never mind, hold on Virgil, I’ve got you, it’s ok, just breathe.”
Janus approached Virgil as his extra arms came out and it was as if Virgil had never left as Janus inquired if it was ok to touch him and, when he was given the go ahead, embraced Virgil in an enormous comforting hug and calmly told him everything was ok and reminded him to breathe.
After Virgil had managed to calm himself down he pulled back from Janus’s hold and looked around awkwardly, unsure how to proceed.
“So what brings you back to this ass of the woods?” Remus asked, ignoring Janus’s suffering sigh at his choice of words.
Virgil hesitated, worried of their reactions and not sure what he’d do if they turned him away but he wouldn’t be too surprised.
Perhaps it was because Janus knew him so well or it had something to do with his role when it came to hidden knowledge but whatever the reason, Janus’s expression suddenly changed into one of understanding and surprise.
“You told him.”
It wasn’t a question and it didn’t need an answer, Janus knew from the look in Virgils eyes.
“Wait, what?” Remus asked, blinking in an exaggerated manner as he tried to figure out what was going on.
“And?” Janus asked Virgil, ignoring Remus’s question for the time being as he watched Virgil carefully.
“He… um… I didn’t really…” Virgil spluttered, struggling to get the words out as his mind filled with the expression on Thomas’s face when he’d told him.
“Oh, honey, it’ll be ok.” Janus said in a soft voice, pulling Virgil in for another hug as tears began to run down his cheeks.
Remus was still confused dot com but wasn’t going to say no to a group hug opportunity
After an amount of time none of them were keeping track of Virgil felt all the worries that had been eating away at him since telling Thomas seemingly melt away and he knew that was probably because of Janus.
“I… thank you. Um… I was uh, I was wondering if maybe, you know, you weren’t busy or if you wanted to, it’s no big deal really, um, would it be alright if I, maybe, um… stayed here? with you guys?”
Virgil stumbled his way through his question, eyes darting between the two almost as quickly as the thoughts flitting through his head about them turning him down.
“Of course!” Remus shrieked, his toothy smile immediately appearing as he began bouncing up and down on the spot in excitement. "This means we get to have the star on the tree this year! Wooooo!“
Remus bounced away, running around the room shrieking and yelling in glee as the other two watched, Janus in amusement and Virgil in bewilderment.
“Wait, what did he mean?”
It was Janus’s turn to look awkward and he looked down at his gloves, picking at them instead of meeting Virgils eyes as he replied.
“no reason really, Remus being his weird self.”
Virgil frowned as he surveyed Janus’s face carefully before turning back to Remus who was throwing his garlands of tinsel onto the tree haphazardly.
“Remus what did you mean by this year you get to have the star on top?”
Remus paused and sent a glance at Janus who was sending him the look Remus had come to recognise as ‘don’t say a fucking word’. It was a look Remus loved to ignore so with a cheeky grin and a wink at the deceitful trait he replied “Well it’s just not a real Christmas without you Virgie so the three of us decided not to put the star on top because that’s your thing and we weren’t going to just replace you or anything. Plus I’m pretty sure sulky scales here would have had a fit if we’d used a different tree topper. He was most adamant, weren’t you Janny boy?”
Remus had a shit eating grin on his face as he took in the ever reddening face of Janus who was glaring heatedly at him but not as heated as his cheeks were, you could probably fry an egg on those bad boys.
Virgil turned to Janus, stunned and a little amused at how flustered he now was. “is that true?”
Janus scowled at Remus before sighing and meeting Virgils eyes and nodding. “Like Remus said, it’s just not Christmas without you. After you left the one thing the rest of us could agree on was it didn’t feel right, there was always something missing. You.”
“wait, all of you?” Virgil asked, completely shocked.
“Yeppers, even old Shouty McPouty Amberlamps. It’s not been the same without you. Now are you going to get your butt over here and decorate this tree or will I end up eating it again?”
“Wait, when did you eat the tree?” Virgil asked in alarm and was answered by a groan from Janus who was rubbing the temples of his head.
“He got so distressed last year about the unfinished state of our tree he ended up eating it. It was horrific to watch but it was kind of impressive in an I didn’t realise that was possible kind of way.”
Virgil felt his eyes prickle as he was surprisingly touched by the knowledge he’d been missed by all of them so much.
He’d yet to see ‘Amberlamps’ as Remus liked to call him but that wasn’t surprising. The orange side usually avoided Remus because the creative traits favourite pastime was annoying people and he especially loved to annoy Wrath.
Wrath had such a low tolerance for Remus’s bullshit that the two never really spent much time in the same room because of the messes their fights had resulted in in the past and Remus usually spent time with Janus a lot because Janus was able to keep him from doing most of the random stuff that popped into his head.
“Hey sir-thinks-a-lot! Put the star on the tree already!” Remus demanded impatiently, pulling Virgil from his thoughts.
“Alright, alright, jeez.” Virgil grumbled but couldn’t help the smile on his face at how amazing it felt to be fitting back into his role so easily.
Virgil stretched up on tiptoes and managed to just about slip the star onto the top of the tree, grinning as Remus let out a childlike scream of joy and Janus’s face split into a soft genuine smile.
“Yay! Finally! the gang’s all back together!”
“I think you’re forgetting someone…” A voice said from the doorway and they all turned to spot Wrath frowning at them but it was gentler than usual as he locked eyes with Virgil and the corners of his mouth twitched up into a slight smile.
“Good to have you back Virgil, even if it’s just for however long it takes for the others to get their shit together.”
Virgil winced as the mood in the mood soured slightly at that reminder but Remus wasn’t one to be easily perturbed.
“Who cares about the future? that’s a problem for tomorrow us!
Wrath sighed but didn’t comment, instead allowing Remus this small victory because it was the happiest he’d seen him in a while and even if he was a bit of an asshole he wasn’t so bad as to make Remus miserable constantly, especially during the festive season.
"Group hug! and it’s a proper one now because good old Virgie poo is back!” Remus suddenly exclaimed and there was no warning before the other three found themselves on a couch squashed next to each other and pinned in place by Remus’s strong arms.
“Hey! Let go of me!” Wrath exclaimed but, at a look from Janus, cleverly decided to stop complaining before the snake called him out on his fake disgust at the hug.
Virgil was momentarily alarmed and caught off guard but when Janus used his extra arms to also grab them all in a hug he couldn’t help but feel safe.
Just being around his old friends again had made him forget why he’d been so anxious in the first place.
It was like coming home.
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