#kid remus sanders | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

artistowlsnest · 2 years

Text

Put Myself in Control

@dukeceitweek

For Dukeceit week Wednesday prompt: Wild/Control

2,905 words

Summary: Deceit needed to make sure that everyone on his side of the Barrier stayed on his side of the barrier, but the Duke didn't want to cooperate. Maybe if he became friends with him - no, if he convinced the other side that they were friends. Yes, that would work.

Deceit did not stare at the perfectly innocuous looking door in the hallway just past the kitchen. He did not sit in the living room, no matter who else was there, just so that he could keep an eye on it, and on everyone else – the two other Sides that had come with him, and all the other Aspects that weren’t full Sides yet, and maybe never would be.

It was his job to keep control over them now, and keep them from crossing the Barrier.

He wasn’t the oldest there, but he was definitely the most mature. Deceit was thirteen (or a little younger, but close enough) and he knew everything.

He knew that Morality was stupid and too busy thinking about other people to think about what was best for Thomas. He knew that Logic was too wrapped up in thinking about stuff like school and the future to be overly concerned about all of the very big and important changes that had just happened.

He knew that…that the Prince had taken every scrap of idealistic naivete that Creativity had had with him in the split. He knew that when he looked at the Prince, he would see eyes that looked nothing at all like Creativity’s and yet were obviously still identical, and he knew that that made him feel a lot of complicated things, and that he did not like feeling those things, so it was better to avoid the Prince.

And he knew that it didn’t matter how he felt a lot of complicated feelings about the Barrier, because now it was there, and he didn’t have enough influence over Thomas to tear it down, and he wouldn’t do it even if he could.

(He may not agree with Morality on most things, but one thing they could agree on was that there were some things that Thomas didn’t need to know about himself. That Barrier was built from lies as much as it was from guilt and fear.)

So, now, he guarded it, more or less. The others probably couldn’t slip past it on their own, but he wanted to keep an eye on who was trying.

Fear – no, he was Anxiety now – wasn’t a security concern (he’d even helped put the Barrier up, whether he realized it or not). Deceit hadn’t even seen the oldest Side since the Barrier had come up, and knew that he was probably hiding in his room.

(Did Anxiety still count as the oldest side? That was one thing that Deceit admitted, at least to himself, that he didn’t know. Instinct had been the oldest, but then he’d become Fear, and now he was Anxiety. Did it even count? Deceit wasn’t sure, and he liked to debate it with himself now that he couldn’t debate it with Logic but if any of the others asked, he would have said no, just to be contrary to Anxiety, who said yes.)

The Aspects were somewhat more of a concern, but they didn’t even have enough influence to be full Sides, so Deceit would be able to stop them easily enough.

Which left him with his biggest challenge. And while the last Side wasn’t exactly competent, he made up for it in both enthusiasm and sheer unadulterated stubbornness.

And speak of the devil…

Deceit closed his eyes and let out a weary sigh when he heard another crash. “Duke, stop.”

The other Side bounced his way into the living room, without even the decency to pretend to look sheepish.

Looking at the Duke’s face elicited much of the same reaction that looking at the Prince’s did. A little different – rather than the Prince’s simperingly positive face, the Duke’s was usually screwed up in a grin that alternated between manic and cruel. It was a face that Deceit had seen only every now and then on Creativity, maybe a little more as the years went on, but it seemed to be the Duke’s normal. It was a face that reminded Deceit that he wouldn’t ever get to see Creativity again.

(And then he grabbed his grief by the neck and shoved it into his box of denial. Maybe it would suffocate and die before he had to deal with it.)

(This was a habit that he shared with Morality, he knew. He put that thought into the box of denial as well.)

“You can’t go through the barrier, Duke.”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” the Duke immediately replied.

Deceit resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose – whether changing their function impacted their age or not, Creativity had been the youngest side, and the two parts of him had been the most recent to change, so whichever way one looked at it, the Prince and the Duke were the babies of the Mindscape – and whenever he had to deal with them, Deceit was unfortunately inescapably aware of that fact.

He took a deep breath. It wasn’t the other Sides’ fault that he was just so much more mature than them. “I don’t need to tell you,” Deceit said. “I control the Barrier, and if I say that you can’t leave, then you can’t.”

It was only half a lie – Deceit hadn’t been the only one to make the Barrier, so he was pretty sure that he wasn’t the only one with control over it, but the Duke didn’t need to know that.

“Then let me,” the Duke said, his voice high and whiny and nasally. “I’m bored.”

Deceit was far too controlled to actually shudder at that, but he did have to suppress the urge – he still remembered the last time the Duke had said that; the living room still smelled faintly like fish.

“Go play in the Imagination then,” Deceit said. “Stop bothering me.”

He probably shouldn’t have said that last part, because the Duke never liked to do what he was told, and sure enough made a beeline for the couch, jumping up onto it and then jumping up and down on one of the cushions, bouncing Deceit along with him.

Deceit pushed one of his legs forward so that the Duke fell face-first onto the coffee table. It made a loud crash and he heard a crunch that sounded sickeningly like splintering bone. Deceit refused to feel bad – he’d seen the Duke get up completely unharmed from worse, and he’d been about to break the couch, and none of the Sides on this side of the Barrier could properly fix that sort of thing yet.

The Duke rolled to the side, grinning up at Deceit. His nose was crooked and bleeding, and his gums were bloody too. The wounds were only there because the Duke wanted them to be, Deceit knew, though the sight of all that blood did make him have to remind himself of that. “Are we fighting?” the Duke asked in an utterly delighted voice.

“No,” Deceit said as firmly as he could. “I want you to go to your room. Or the Imagination. Or literally anywhere that you’re not bothering me.”

“Like the other side?”

“No, that would be bothering me.”

“Ughhhh.” the Duke flopped dramatically onto the floor, his head landing against it with a crack. “You’re no fun.”

“My job isn’t to be fun.”

The Duke perked up. “No, that’s mine!”

“So why don’t you go have fun somewhere else?”

“’Cause you’re the only one here who doesn’t run away,” the Duke said, entirely casual.

And that…that gave Deceit a pause. “That can’t be true.”

The Duke shrugged against the floor. “Sure. Anger used to fight me but I kept winning so now he doesn’t want to fight anymore, and I told him I’d let him win and that just made him madder but he didn’t even fight me about it, and Procrastination is even more boring than you, and Anxiety’s a little scaredy-cat and always says dumb stuff like ‘that hurts people!’ Like, duh, yeah, that’s the point dummy –”

Deceit very nearly said that he could see why the others didn’t want to be around the Duke, but bit his tongue. If Deceit was smart (and he was always smart) then he could perhaps use this to get some measure of control over the other Side.

“Of course that's the point.”

“Exactly!” The Duke pointed at Deceit victoriously. “But he didn’t like that so he told me to get out of his room, and he’s scary when he wants to be, did you know? And that’s super cool, but then he sunk me out so I didn’t get to tell him so.”

“How rude of him.”

“Totally.” The Duke nodded rapidly at Deceit, his neck bones clicking in a way that made the latter wince. “So I want to go to the other side.”

Well if that was the only reason why…

Deceit scoffed. “Why would you even want to be on the other side? There’s nothing over there but a place that looks like this but brighter, and a bunch of stuck-up Sides. Just stupid old Morality, and Logic, and –”

Deceit paused. He’d been about to say your brother, but that wasn’t really accurate, was it – they weren’t brothers, they were Sides, and had only had a spare couple weeks together before the Barrier had been erected and from what Deceit knew they had spent most of it fighting, so he didn’t really think that they even saw each other as anything close to family. Still, they were closer in origin than any of the other Sides.

“Your counterpart,” he eventually decided on.

“Narrative foil,” the Duke suggested, which sounded even more like a big-kid word coming from the Duke’s mouth, and Deceit was begrudgingly impressed – then again, of course it would be the literary vocab word that he would know, wouldn’t it?

“Sure. Why would you even want to be around them? You have to know that they’ll run away from you faster than anyone here will.”

And the Duke paused at that, and Deceit felt a little hopeful for a moment, but the Duke shook his head. “Nah, they won’t run – not yet at least, I’d get some time before they do. I mean, Morality already does, but Logic’s kinda fun to annoy ’cause he still doesn’t know how to react and he gets mad about it, but it is kinda lame that I can’t really do anything that sticks to him.” The Duke propped his elbow on his knee and his chin on his hand. “Princey’s fun though. He’ll always fight me.”

“Don’t you want to be around people that you don’t have to fight?”

The Duke wavered again, just for a moment, but continued, “it’s fun though, we’re playing.”

“You are?”

“Yeah! He’s the good guy and I’m the bad guy, and I do lots of fun nasty stuff and he goes and stops me from doing it and we fight about it and then he kills me and I get to have a super cool death scene.” The Duke fidgeted with the hem of his tunic. His eyes were far away. “I even let Princey do a death scene sometimes, but I’d mortally wound him and let him die slow so he had time to do a dramatic monologue first. Those are more boring though so we didn’t do ’em a lot. He likes to win and I like to die in cool ways.”

Deceit…hadn’t realized how mutual their battles were. “I see.”

“And no one here wants to play with me like that,” the Duke muttered.

Deceit…hesitated for a moment, considering. He’d sparred with Creativity before – they’d both always been very dramatic Sides, and it had been fun, with lots of monologues and fancy flourishes.

But that was stage-fighting, nothing like the bloody mess that the Duke liked to leave. Deceit couldn’t die obviously, but he could get discorporated, or even just hurt, and he wasn’t quite good enough at lying to himself that the pain wasn’t that bad yet.

(But maybe he could practice at that…?)

Deceit stopped that thought in its tracks. No way was he letting the Duke try to attack him.

“Well,” he said, thinking quickly, “are there any other games you like to play?”

The Duke’s eyes lit up – not literally, thankfully. “Oh yeah! There’s laser tag and theater with swords and knuckle-sandwich patty-cake and charades to the death and knife monopoly!”

Deceit was beginning to see a trend. “Wow,” he said pleasantly. “Those do sound fun. I wonder though, is there anything…” he couldn’t say something that involved sitting quietly, couldn’t say something that didn’t involve danger, “else?” he said after a brief pause.

The Duke tilted his head to the side with a crack of bone. “Like what?”

“Like…” Deceit cast his mind around frantically. Something creative, maybe? “Drawing pictures?”

The Duke’s nose wrinkled a little. “Drawing?”

“Drawing – police sketches. Of murderers.”

That got the Duke’s attention, and he even seemed to give it more than two seconds of consecutive thought. “And we can make up stories about what they did and why…”

“And if the police will ever be able to catch them, and how,” Deceit continued, relaxing a little. He’d played pretend with Creativity many times before, he’d always been a good actor. This was…maybe a little more morbid, but Deceit maybe liked morbid better. “I’ll do that with you.”

The Duke scrambled to sit up straight, leaning forward on his hands as he looked up at Deceit with a wide-eyed trusting openness that almost made Deceit feel bad. “You will?”

“I will,” Deceit said, voice as generous as he felt. “So if you want to follow me Duke, or even lead the way –”

“Oh, don’t call me Duke,” the Duke interrupted.

Deceit’s eyebrow arched up before he could make his face stay blank. There was no way that the Duke had already changed his function now…was there? “What should I call you?” Deceit asked carefully.

“How about Dukey,” the Duke said cheerfully.

Deceit huffed out a sigh when he realized that the Duke wasn’t actually changing his function, then he frowned when he realized what the Duke was asking. “I’m not calling you that.”

“Like Dooky! That means poop.”

“I know what it means –”

“Or a doody, or doo-doo, or shit, or scat, or poopy, or diarrhea – did you know that diarrhea can make your butt explode?”

The Sides did not get paid. Deceit, somehow, still felt like he was not getting paid enough for this. “I’m pretty sure it can’t.”

“It totally can.”

“Sure, whatever. I’m still calling you Duke. I’ll put a ‘the’ in front of it, that’s the most you’re getting.”

The Duke blew a raspberry at him. “You’re a dooky.”

“Whatever.”

The Duke huffed. “Fine. If you won’t call me Dukey, you can call me by my name.”

Deceit paused. “…What?”

“My name,” the Duke said again, like that helped at all.

“We don’t have names,” Janus said, trying not to scowl at the Duke for being dumb. “We’re Sides, not people.”

“Well I wanted a name and so did Princey, so we gave ourselves some.” The Duke sounded very pleased with himself. “And my name is Remus.”

Remus…

Deceit always kept his face in a perfectly controlled mask, and right then was no exception; he was sure that the Duke wouldn’t be able to see any of the (many, and complicated) feelings that were playing out inside his chest.

“I see,” he said slowly. And the Duke – Remus? – was looking at him so eagerly, he couldn’t help but add, “it’s a good name. It suits you.”

Remus bounced to his feet and turned a few sloppy cartwheels across the living room floor, and when he stood up he was smiling, wild and gleeful. “I know, right!” he bounced on the balls of his feet. “Are you going to choose a name too?”

It was probably a very predictable question, but Deceit somehow still felt blindsided by it. “Huh?”

“You should, you totally should!”

It was…an interesting thought. He’d always been Deceit – well, maybe he’d been something else before Thomas learned words, and he technically was ‘Lies’ and just told everyone to call him Deceit once he learned that word because it sounded cooler…but a name of his own?

It was a thought. Something to keep in mind, maybe.

“…Well,” Deceit said slowly. “When – if – I come up with one…you’ll be the first to know.”

Remus’s smile was wild as ever, but it somehow seemed more genuinely happy than Deceit had seen him yet. And when it made Deceit want to smile too, his mask slipping and showing his fang in a rare real grin…he decided that he wouldn’t bother to suppress the action. Just this once.

Forming this thread of control over Remus would bring him one step closer to being able to control every part of this whole situation, which would let him actually be able to properly influence Thomas, and that was what was important. If the fact that Remus seemed…happy about being around Deceit made Deceit feel weirdly nice and warm, well, that was just a bonus.

And if while he worked on getting a metaphorical leash on the other Side, they ended up actually enjoying their time together…well. Remus wasn’t Creativity…but maybe he wasn’t all that bad.

Maybe. Just maybe.

#dukeceitweek2022 #janus sanders #ts janus #remus sanders #ts remus #Canon verse #kid sides #child sides #kid janus sanders #kid remus sanders #post creativity split #remus typical violence #could be read as ship if you squint

12 notes · View notes

casart · 4 months

Text

Toy Castle au because why not!🧸🏰

#casart #sanders sides #remus sanders #roman sanders #creativity twins #creativitwins #does anyone else know this show???? I been on a kick of old media I used to watch as a kid #does this age me lol flipping LOVED these kinda obscure live action shows lmaoo #anyways not sure who the others would be but maybe patton would be rag doll and janus china doll #and im so tempted to make virgil the ballerina skjfhks #the toy castle #le château magique

250 notes · View notes

loganslowdown4 · 10 months

Text

All Sides: *all speaking over each other at once*

Logan: Everyone, one speaker at a time please...

All Sides: *continue bickering*

Logan: GUYS! SHUT UP!

All Sides: *continue shouting*

Logan: ... well, since no one is listening, no one will hear about that sex dream I had about Remus…

All Sides:

Logan: Oh so NOW you guys have stopped talking? I hate you all.

#was he kidding or did he really have that dream #you’ll never know #lol #thomas sanders #sanders sides #logan sanders #ts logan #Remus sanders #ts remus #ts intrulogical #intrulogical #cw sex mention #incorrect sanders sides #roman sanders #sander sides #ts roman #patton sanders #Virgil sanders #Janus sanders

317 notes · View notes

always-anxious612 · 1 year

Text

I can't draw children for the life of me, but I'm using these two as test subjects until I get better because I love them.

#these two have my heart #also if anyone has any tips on drawing kids please share #idk what im doing :')#roman sanders #remus sanders #creativitwins #ts creativity #ts fanart #fanart #sanders side #art #artwork #drawing #illustration #kid!remus #kid!roman

287 notes · View notes

veecosplayer · 5 months

Text

REVIEWING ASIDES VIDEO CAUSE YEA!

• roman being joy bc he has to be the main character and he is really trying to fit this role

• patton being sadness

• thomas pointing to the phone and looking at seemingly no one

• janus being perfect, as always

• roman bring up how he's controlling

• his immediately shutting down the idea of scrolling again

• logan doing crosswords without a pencil in hand

• roman saying "lo-gan"

• janus saying "here it goes" implies that this has happened before

• everyone telling remus no

• the very common idea that an animal will get into your plumbing

• logan's face

• roman gripping his hat

• the sound effect

• "joyman" being a play off roman

• patton agreeing with remus on buzzkill roman

• roman holding his tongue after patton said that

• janus yawning

• remus

• the "yay" sound effect

• the deep "i can't do this"

• janus is casted perfectly

• virgil's pigtail hair

• the multiple "oh"s

• roman covering his mouth with a frown on it

• remus's laugh then saying he looks stupid

• janus is amazing

• the thank yous

• janus and remus being bribed

• they have played this in the past

• remus being best friends with virgil

• janus agreeing then bring up Maya Hawke

• roman immediately having a miscommunication error and yelling at janus

• janus just staring at him

• "hi bud" double wave

• all the heads shaking

• remus

• "simply because we both wear neckties. No for other reason."

• roman making logan angry just to prove a point

• roman saying they like virgil better

• the smiles

• thomas's jaw dropped

• patton avoided eye contact

• janus's look

• roman's noises

• logan's face, bring back up his crosswords

• remus saying what needs to be said

• virgil wanted to win in a fight

• everyone agreeing, expect remus

• the look

• "interrupting cow"

• roman singing for 3 hours and virgil threatening to kill him

• "buddy"

• janus face looking like a wine mom again

70 notes · View notes

sleepyvirgilprompts · 1 year

Text

When the Sides were younger, Virgil used to have trouble sleeping because he thought that there was a monster under his bed. Remus started sleeping under Virgil’s bed in order to scare the monster away.

#sanders sides #virgil sanders #ts virgil #sanders sides prompts #fanfiction prompt #themed week #theme: monster under the bed #remus sanders #ts remus #kid virgil #kid remus #kidfic prompt

238 notes · View notes

fantastyfanfictionist · 2 months

Text

King and the Kids

A short story about the Sanders Sides Feedback is encouraged and welcome. Hope you Enjoy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

A baby cried in the other room. Kingsley looked into the basket. Not seeing anything else.

“Now where’d you come from, small one?” He picked up the child. A piece of paper fell out from the blanket. “What’s this?” He picked it up. “Morality.”

The baby laughed and grabbed Kingsley’s hand.

“We are going to have so much fun.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Patton, you rascal.” Kingsley huffed playfully, while chasing the toddler.

“Peek-a-boo.” Patton laughed while running from the other. “Boo” He ran into the other room.

“You need to hold still. You can’t run around the house, you might fall and get hurt.”

Patton just laughed and ran off again.

Twenty minutes later Patton finally had a sippy cup of juice laying down next to the tired adult.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Look what I did King!” Patton shouted running into the kitchen. He handed the older one a piece of paper.

“That’s so pretty.” Kingsley took the paper and put it on the fridge next to several others.

“This one is a dog park with all kinds of dogs and puppies.” Patton beamed proud of himself.

“That’s amazing. Would you like to help finish dinner?” He asked the six year old.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kingsley woke up to the eight year old next to his bed. “Nightmare Patton?” He asked the child.

“No,” Patton had a bundle of blankets in his arms. “It’s a baby.”

“A what?” He sat up and carefully grabbed the bundle from his son's arms.

“This was with it.” Patton pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. “Where did he come from?”

“I’m not entirely sure. You remember the story when I found you?” Kingsley asked. Patton nodded. “It’s the same thing.” He unfolded the paper. “Logic.”

Looking at the sleeping child he smiled. “Go back to sleep, Patton. I’ll help the baby. You can help tomorrow.”

“Okay King.” Patton walked out of the adult’s room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Logan!” Patton whined. “Give me back my glasses.”

“No!”

“Done with schoolwork?” Kingsley asked Patton, walking in to see what the commotion was.

“No. Logan keeps grabbing my glasses and books.” The ten year old grabbed his glasses back, making the other cry.

“Why don’t we give him his own then?” Kingsley went back into his room, only to come out a moment later with a children’s book and a smaller pair of glasses identical to Patton’s.

“We have the same glasses!” Patton exclaimed.

“bwooks!” The two year old reached his hands out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“Logan. What are you working on?”

“Puzzles.” The six year old stated.

“Can I join you? That sounds fun!” King sat next to the child.

“Yeah, I’m almost done with it anyway.”

The two sat for the next thirty minutes focused on the task until a shout was heard from the kitchen.

“Cookies are done!” Patton dusted the flour off his shirt. He went to find the others.

“Oh, a puzzle. Can I join?” Patton walked into Logan’s room. “This looks fun.”

“No, Patton wait-” A box with puzzle pieces tipped over. Logan stared at the mess, tears coming to his eyes.

“I’m sorry Logan.” All three of them started picking up the pieces.

“Accidents happen.” Kingsley told them.

“I do want to taste some of your cookies Patton.”

The 14 year old jumped up, careful not to spill anything again. “I made some just for you King. And some just for Logan.”

“Logan, come join us?” The adult asked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Logan was eight and Patton sixteen when another child got added to their small family.

Crying could be heard throughout the house.

“Another baby!” Patton ran around trying to figure out where it was coming from. Logan found him first.

“Self-preservation.” Logan carefully held the bundle in his arms. “That’s what the paper said.”

Kingsley sat in the rocking chair after taking him from Logan. Patton was by his side cooing at the small one. They both tried to stop the crying.

“I’m not as young as I used to be.” He turned to Patton. “You children are growing up fast and now we have another baby to take care of.”

“I’ll help you.” Patton whispered. They both watched as the baby’s eyes began to close and his crying slowed.

“I know, you and Logan both will. You both are very different, but everyone has their own talents.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“Janus! You come back here!” Patton chased the toddler. Logan and Kingsley watched from the couch.

“No!” The child shouted. The adult laughed.

“What’s funny?” Logan asked him.

“I did this same thing with Patton.” He said fondly. “And now he’s the eighteen year old chasing the two year old around. And you're ten?”

“Yup!” Logan beamed.

King smiled. “When did you get so old?”

Almost an hour later with both Patton, Logan and King chasing the toddler they finally got him to sit down. They made dinner while he drank juice from his sippy cup.

“Will you boys make sure Janus gets in bed tonight? Especially you Patton. I'm going to bed early.”

“Of course.” They responded simultaneously.

“Thank you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“Look what I caught!” Janus ran to Patton. The 22 year old shrieked.

“Snake?! Janus, those don’t belong in the house.” Patton told him.

Janus laughed. “Can I keep it?” He asked.

“You have to ask King.” Patton went back to what he was doing as the six year old ran off.

Logan was with Kingsley.

“Hey King?” Janus whispered as he slowly opened the bedroom door.

“He’s asleep,” The 14 year old whispered back. “What did you need?”

“Hey Janus.” King slowly opened his eyes. “How’s my little snake doing huh?”

“I finally caught one today.” Janus held up his hands for the adult to see.

“I’m proud of you. Set up a vivarium. I’m sure Logan would love to help you.” He smiled at his two youngest.

“Okay King. We’ll let you sleep more.” Logan took the younger’s hand and they left the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

“Is he going to get better?” Janus asked Patton. They were sitting on the couch while Logan was in his room.

“King is a champion. Of course he is. He’s just getting older.” Patton responded. “We can go see him if you’d like.”

“I’d rather not.” The 8 year old whispered. “Is that bad?”

“Of course not. This is a scary time for all of us.”

“Is that why Logan’s always in his room?”

“He has his own ways of expressing his concerns.” Patton hugged the younger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Four years have passed. Patton, Logan and Janus kept growing more and more worried as King’s condition seemed to worsen. The once close family was falling apart as their parental figure was getting worse with each passing year. And their house was slowly changing without any of them realizing it.

“I’m trying, King. I really am. I’m just not sure what I’m doing wrong.” Patton told him, despite the other being no longer able to respond. “Janus is almost a teenager now and I feel like we’re all drifting apart. Logan stays in his room all the time. I don’t know what to do without you.”

King was in an unconscious state. The 28 year old laid his head on the bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“You lied to me!” Janus stormed off when Patton told him the sad news. Logan walked out of his room hearing the commotion.

“I was trying to protect you.” Patton answered back.

“Protect me from what!” Janus stormed off.

“I thought it was the right thing to do.” Patton mumbled.

“Can you keep the noise down? I’m trying to study.” Logan said, turning and quickly going back into his room.

“We all have our own ways of coping.” Patton mumbled to himself walking into the kitchen. He pulled the ingredients knowing the recipe by heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Several weeks had passed. Patton and Logan were getting along, understanding that none of them could change what had happened. They were slowly spending more time together. Janus was drifting farther apart and everytime Patton tried to help he was met with resentment. Janus was angry and bitter towards Patton. ‘It’s his way of coping’ Patton would remind himself. 'He'll get over it'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

A cry woke Patton. ‘Another baby? It’s been a long time.’ He got up and walked into the room. Logan had a baby in his arms.

“Creativities.” He simply stated. “That’s what the paper said.”

“Oh,” Patton walked towards Logan and the baby. “What does that mean?”

“There were two babies. Janus took the other one. He almost took both.”

“Two babies? Why does Janus have one? What does he want?”

Janus had built his own place far away from Patton and Logan. The oldest realized Janus was better off being by himself and just let him be. They hardly spoke to the other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“Roman! Don’t go over there!” Patton stopped the 4 year old from entering into the forest

“Why?” Roman asked.

“It’s dark, you don’t know what could be over there.” Patton told him. Roman turned towards the grassy field giving one last look behind him before skipping away.

“Logan,” Patton turned toward the other. “What am I going to do?”

“About?” Logan briefly looked up from his book.

“Roman’s getting more and more curious. What if he learns about the others?” Patton whispered the last part. “I just don’t want what happened to Janus happening over again. I miss him.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

“Remus!” Janus yelled across the house. “What do you have!”

“A knife!” The eight year old laughed while running away.

“No!” Janus ran after him. “What did I say about knives?”

Remus pouted, having finally been caught. “Only throwing, no running.”

“Only throwing in the designated throwing room. You’ll totally slice someone’s head off, and I’d rather it not be mine.”

“It’s boooring!” Remus whined. “Everything’s already chopped up and then some.”

“I know you need to expand your creative outlook. How about I create you a room specifically for beating things up, or go into the forest.”

“You’ll let me in the forest! There’s so many small animals.” Remus hopped up and down.

“You need to get rid of some of the energy anyway. Let’s go.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Two years later Janus got more concerned as Patton and Logan got more and more control over the imagination, no doubt with the help of Remus’ twin. Janus and Remus stayed back in their corner, Janus still bitter with Patton from all those years ago and Remus having been told the stories.

Roman started exploring more of the forest, much to the dismay and eventual approval of Patton. “As long as you stay around the edge and don’t go in the middle.”

Remus loved exploring the darkest part of the forest with all the creepiness, Janus keeping a watchful eye of both his child and the others. Always avoiding.

“Patton!” Roman rushed to the other. Patton was making cookies and brushed the flour from his hands. “I heard a villain in the forest.” Logan paused his reading from the couch to listen in. “He was laughing like the bad guys do in the movies!”

Logan and Patton shared a quick glance. “Are you sure it wasn’t your imagination kiddo? I know it tends to run a bit wild when you’re playing.” Roman thought for a moment.

“Maybe it was just an animal or something.” Roman said eventually. “Or a monster!” His eyes widened.

“Well, I’ll be the cookie monster if you don’t come eat my cookies.” Patton put the cookies on the table along with a cup of milk.

Later that night Patton woke up to what he thought was crying. After a minute of not hearing anything he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Janus smiled and looked at the small baby in his arms. ‘Anxiety’ the note read. Janus walked back to his place of living and sat down. “Goes good with self preservation don’t you think Remus?”

“A baby?” Remus sleepily stood next to Janus.

“We’ll raise him like I raised you.”

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfic #Roman Sanders #Logan Sanders #Remus Sanders #Janus Sanders #Virgil Sanders #King and the Kids #ssfanfic #king creativity

19 notes · View notes

darkboysroadtrip · 3 months

Text

I redrew the profile picture!!! And I adore how it came out!

#remus sanders #virgil sanders #janus sanders #deceit sanders #sanders sides #thomas sanders #anxceitmus #remember kids: reblogs are cool!

24 notes · View notes

faulty-rob · 1 year

Text

Remus seems scary but in reality he’s just a big kid seeking attention

#remus sanders fanart #remus sanders #remus fluff #big kid #intrusive thot #intrusive thoughts #hc that Remus would actually be a good babysitter bc he just ‘gets’ kids if ykwim

132 notes · View notes

jaratedeguadalupe · 1 year

Text

Everybody on their life saying that remus would be *that* kid in school when we all know it's virgil

#sincerely from *that* kid in school #yes I would literally hiss at people #i don’t want to talk about it #they can be the weird kids together to be fair #that was the dark ages #ts virgil #ts remus #virgil sanders #remus sanders #sanders sides #vermtalks

104 notes · View notes

i-am-bitterly-jittery · 8 months

Text

I had a song stuck in my head but I couldn’t figure out why since I didn’t actually know the song

It’s the song from the anime intro. Anyway, here’s some screenshots

#…I have a lot of screenshots from yesterday’s vid #the one with all of them looks like it belongs in the intro for a little kids’ show #virgil sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #sanders sides #ts sanders sides

46 notes · View notes

artistowlsnest · 2 years

Text

I’m Not Afraid (I Lie)

@dukeceitweek

For Dukeceit week Thursday Prompt: Acceptance/Abandonment

3,967 words

Summary: Remus was a big kid. Who cared if his village banished him because he couldn't entirely control his magic, he could take care of himself! What, did they think that he was dumb enough to walk into some great beast's cave and get eaten?

The desert was really different at night.

It was cold, for one. You wouldn’t think it in the day when the sun was beating down on you and there was no shade, but at night the air was cool, and there was nothing to break the wind. If he stayed out for much longer, the air would go from cool to just cold. The night was noisier, for another. Everything came alive at night, and they made their presence known.

If you didn’t know anything, you might have been scared by it. Even if you did know some stuff, most people still kept a respectful fear of those long stretches of sand and rock that you could walk through for days with no sign of water, or other people. There were so many ways to die in the desert – too much sun, not enough water, not enough food, exhaustion from going so far, and of course, all of the animals and bugs that would kill you without hesitation.

Remus had been born in the desert, and he’d lived in it for more than ten years now; he knew everything. He wasn’t scared at all.

Well…he hadn’t exactly lived in the desert, not really, he’d lived in the village.

And now…he didn’t.

The colorful tents and few stone buildings had long since faded from the horizon behind him, and the green plants growing around the lake had faded from view even sooner.

Remus scuffed his boot in the sand, letting it drag. He hadn’t bothered looking behind himself for hours, so he had no way of knowing by his tracks if he was still walking in a straight line or not.

It didn’t matter much, as long as he stayed away from the village, which he’d be able to see from way away.

He’d been walking since just past noon, and his feet were aching. So were his legs. And his arms, from carrying the few supplies he’d been granted – bag in one hand, waterskin in the other.

More importantly, he was bored. Normally he would have sung a song, or at least whistled a tune to help the time go by, but he’d only been given one skin of water, and he knew better than to waste it. He would have danced, or even just skipped, but he was already tired, and wanted to find shelter rather than just lie down in the sand to sleep – with the way the wind was going, he’d be buried alive. He would have preferred to at least talk to someone, even just at someone, but, well…

Another gust of wind blew past. Remus turned away so that he didn’t get sand in his eyes and shivered, drawing his robe tighter around himself. At least the cold felt like a blessing against the brand on his cheek, the burn still fresh and smarting.

Stupid village, stupid family, don’t need them anyway, he told himself, and pretended that it didn’t feel like a lie. He could totally survive on his own, become a mad desert guru, living off of wild dog meat and cactus juice.

A patch of sand a little ways in front of him shook, and a scorpion crawled out. Remus froze, an excited smile on his face. A meal already!

There was a reason that he wasn’t scared of any of the animals, even though the village hadn’t let him take any weapons with him into his banishment.

Remus pointed his first two fingers at the scorpion, carefully taking aim. He concentrated very hard.

The magic always felt like it started in his chest, zipping out of his heart and through his veins until it burst out of him. He sent it through his fingers, letting the bolt of lightning zap out of them and onto the ground.

Sand pelted his face and clothes, the strike kicking up a huge cloud of it. He knew that would happen, of course, since he’d done this before, and he knew to close his eyes and hold his breath just before he let go of the strike to protect himself.

Remus waited, super patiently, bouncing on the balls of his feet as his eyes stayed closed, waiting for the sand cloud to settle. He hadn’t eaten since the morning, before the trial, and was so hungry it felt like his stomach was trying to eat itself.

When he didn’t feel like he was getting smacked in the face by very very tiny hands, he rubbed the grit from his eyes and darted over to the center of the blasted sand, looking for the very dead, very cooked, and very tasty scorpion.

It wasn’t there.

Remus blinked in confusion. He squinted, looking closer at the sand – it had to be somewhere –

Oh.

There was a tiny bit of charred carapace left, there in the sand. Which had mostly melted.

Remus stared at it for a moment, then pouted. That wasn’t fair, how was he supposed to catch food if even the tiniest little strike of lightning he could make would blast his prey to smithereens?

He felt – no, it wasn’t fear. Couldn’t be fear. Remus wasn’t scared, he was too powerful for that! He was so clever and powerful that the other people were scared of him, and sent him away! He felt…wary, that’s it. He would need to find a new strategy, since he couldn’t use his magic to catch his food. He would just make a knife, since they hadn’t given him one. He’d find a sturdy rock. Better yet, he’d make some sharp glass. Then he could hunt! He could make spears and knives and anything he needed.

His people moved with the seasons, they lived in the desert for weeks at a time. It didn’t matter that he was on his own, he could still do the same!

…Once he found shelter, at least.

~*~

It had taken so long to find the rock.

Remus felt like his feet were going to fall off. He’d been walking half the day and he was pretty sure that he’d also been walking half the night by then. He was…going to have to get some more food pretty soon, he hadn’t realized how much he’d eaten out of his pack.

He still felt hungry, too.

But the sand dunes had finally turned into dry, cracked rock – well, not really, there was still a lot of sand, but it was mostly rock – and a few sparse, dry plants. Those gave Remus some hope – maybe there was water nearby.

Even better, there were more rocks sprouting up from the ground, like the stumps of massive trees. Remus immediately found the biggest one – bigger than his whole village, and maybe the lake too – and made his way over. There would surely be some alcoves in the rock that he could tuck himself into for shelter.

He scouted around the big rock for a bit, and his luck must really have been looking up, because he didn’t just find an alcove – he found a cave.

Remus immediately wriggled into the open space, and realized that it was entirely dark inside – duh, there wasn’t any moon to light it up. He snapped his fingers, and a few sparks appeared, flickering around his hands, briefly lighting up the place. The cave looked narrow, and Remus reached both hands out, touching the walls before either of them had extended fully. That was fine, it meant that he would be able to walk without a light, letting the walls guide him and stepping carefully to make sure that the ground didn’t suddenly disappear under his feet.

Remus made his way forward. The space was cramped, but he’d always been on the shorter side, and managed to get through it fine, only sometimes having to duck his head. He kept his hands to the sides, fingers skimming along the rough walls for ages – the tunnel felt like it was super long, though that may have just been because of the dark and how slowly he was going.

Suddenly, the rock disappeared. Not the ground under his feet, thank the ancestors, but the walls beneath his fingertips, and Remus stumbled a little as he entered what must have been a cavern.

Oh, that was perfect. He could totally live here, with the opening so small that no one else would be able to enter. He raised his hand to summon more sparks –

Fwoomph.

A fire roared to life beside Remus, and he stumbled to the side, throwing up a hand against the bright light. He heard more and more fires rising up around him, and he moved his hand from his eyes, squinting in the light as his eyes tried to readjust.

His jaw dropped open.

The cavern was huge, easily able to fit his village inside of it, probably with room left over. There were huge braziers lining the cavern that were holding the fire, illuminating smooth stone walls and somehow barely lighting the ceiling, it was so high. There was a pool on one side, a few tables and chairs in front of a hearth on the other, the walls were lined with rich cloths, and in the center of the thing was a pile of riches – Remus could see more cloth, colorful glassware and pottery, and stacks of precious metals and gems. On top of the pile was a pillow, huge and decadent, covered in embroidered silk and lined in tassels.

On top of the pillow was a dragon.

A dragon that was looking right at him.

The dragon was a sandy-golden color, with heavy scales, its back lined in spikes and ridges, and its face ringed in different sized horns. It was long, like a snake, and had – Remus was pretty sure it had six legs, stuck out to the side like a crocodile or a lizard as it rested on its belly. Remus didn’t know much about dragon expressions, but he thought that this one might be angry. It was hard to tell – the narrowed eyes and upper lip curled back just enough to show teeth might have not been a snarl. Maybe it was a smile.

(It probably wasn’t a smile)

“What,” it said, in a deep, rumbling voice, “is this pest doing in my lair?”

The smart thing to do would probably be to stumble out some hasty apologies, and then run for his life.

Remus puffed out his chest and looked the dragon in the eye, even as his heartbeat quickened. He wasn’t afraid, he told himself. He was never afraid. “Am I supposed to be scared of you?”

The dragon paused at that, staring him down like it was thinking yes you fucking should be you idiot, I will eat you now.

“I will ask again,” the dragon said after a moment, the threat of a growl in its voice, “why have you come?” It leaned closer, long sinuous neck arching so it could look down at him. Its breath was as hot as the desert sands at noon when it wafted over Remus, stealing the night’s chill from his skin as it carried the threat of a fiery death. “To steal? To kill?”

“I was just looking,” Remus snapped defensively, forcing his body to not shake. Not afraid, not afraid – “You don’t have any signs or anything, how was I supposed to know someone lived here?”

The dragon pulled back its lips further, snarling. Remus couldn’t stop his gaze from falling to the sharp teeth set in purple gums, each longer than his arms. “Only a curious whelp, hm? And I’m supposed to believe you?”

A heat rose up behind Remus’s eyes, and he blinked quickly. No, no, he wasn’t going to cry, he was ten, he wasn’t a little kid anymore, how could he survive on his own if he cried at every little threat –

But this wasn’t a little threat, and Remus might not get a chance to survive to the next dawn.

“I’m not lying!” he said, voice rising sharply.

“I don’t care,” it said bluntly, and Remus felt like the floor had suddenly dropped out beneath him, leaving his stomach behind as he fell. “I have no patience for trespassers, and I know well enough that to let one go will only lead to a hunt for my head.”

Remus spun around to run to the crevice, but a shadow passed over his head and with a heavy thud that shook the ground, the dragon landed between Remus and his only exit. Remus skidded in place. His heart thudded against his chest, and the heat was prick-pricking behind his eyes.

He was going to die.

“I won’t tell anyone!” Remus said, panicked. “I won’t!”

“Why should I believe you when humans always lie?”

“I’m not lying!” Sparks were starting to flicker off his shoulders. The dragon didn’t seem to notice, but Remus also probably could have fit inside the dragon’s eye socket if it was empty, he didn’t even know if the dragon could see the little sparks.

The next breath that blew over him smelled of ozone, though that probably was Remus himself. “I tire of this. Goodbye, human.”

And it opened its mouth, and its throat lit up. Remus scrambled back, but it didn’t do any good, and the dragon let out its breath.

Remus screamed, shocked and scared, but…

Not in pain.

It wasn’t fire that the dragon was breathing onto him, it was lightning.

Lightning, crackling and snapping and dancing across his skin in ticklish pinches. Not hurting. Lightning wouldn’t, couldn’t hurt him.

The rapidly melting sand beneath his bare feet was a bit more hazardous though, and Remus skittered backwards away from it as the dragon closed its mouth.

The dragon looked as surprised to see Remus still alive as Remus felt. “How…”

Remus wanted to say something witty in response, but his throat didn’t seem to work.

It didn’t matter that the dragon’s breath couldn’t hurt him, the beast could swallow him whole with ease, slice open his stomach with the swipe of a claw, crunch his skull between its teeth as easily as Remus could bite through the skin of a fruit.

(Remus had always had an overactive imagination for these sorts of things and often cheerfully relayed them out loud, it was one of the things that made the villagers wary around him. The thoughts didn’t seem as fun and interesting when any of those things could happen to him right then.)

(And the heat behind his eyes only grew.)

“I – I won’t tell anyone, I swear,” Remus said, breath quickening to a pace just shy of a sob, eyes filling with tears. “I can’t, they won’t let me back, I can’t go back and I –” Remus just barely managed to bite back his words before he said that he wanted to go home, like a child, but as the tears spilled out of his eyes he didn’t think that he would be able to keep his pride intact, whether or not he escaped with his life. “Please,” he begged, sinking to his knees, “I don’t want to be here, I didn’t mean to trespass, I – I’m sorry, I won’t tell anyone, I swear, please don’t kill me.”

He ducked his head and furiously scrubbed at his eyes as he sniffled, shame somehow finding purchase in the spaces between the fear in his chest. “Please, please don’t kill me…”

He felt a faint touch beneath his chin, and he looked up and jerked back in a single motion, and let out a ragged gasp.

The dragon was…small was maybe the wrong word, but it was smaller than it had been before. It was just a little bigger than a crocodile maybe, and its neck and tail made it even longer, neck curved like a water-bird’s to look down at him while it pulled back one of its upper legs, the one that had brushed his chin. He still did not know how dragon expressions worked, but it wasn’t snarling now, instead just looking at him almost…warily?

The dragon reached that leg back again, and Remus flinched back before it touched his face. The dragon’s foot (hand?) hovered in place over Remus’s cheek – over the mark that had been branded there.

“You’re one of the cursed children?” it murmured, almost to itself.

Remus nodded shallowly anyway.

“Hmm.” The dragon looked him up and down. “How old are you?”

Remus wiped at the snot and tears streaking down his face with his arm. “Ten.”

“Hnn.” The dragon’s grunt sounded a lot less neutral than before, and Remus barely stopped himself from flinching.

“…Can…can I go?” Remus asked quietly, barely daring to hope.

“Hmph.” The dragon looked at him a moment more, then turned away, seemingly disinterested. “Where are you going?”

“…Dunno. Wherever.”

“Do you even know where the nearest human settlement is?”

Remus frowned. “I…I think I came from there. I can’t go back.”

The dragon scoffed and muttered something that sounded like “of course.” It stood there for a long moment, head turned aside, then tipped back its head and groaned. “Fine,” it snapped.

Remus’s heart leapt into his throat. “I can go?”

“Yes,” it grumbled. Then it continued, “I’ll take you to the next village over.”

Oh. Remus didn’t know how to feel about that offer, but it didn’t really matter because – “I can’t.”

“Why not?” The dragon sounded annoyed, he thought.

Remus gestured to the brand on his cheek. “Everyone will know that I’m cursed ’soon as they see me. No one’ll let me stay with ’em.”

The dragon stared at him. Its face didn’t really look like it had moved at all, but Remus got the feeling that it was, in fact, annoyed at him, which was really unfair, he thought – he hadn’t asked for any of any of the things that had happened to him today.

“Alright,” the dragon said. “So where were you planning on staying then?”

Remus shrugged. “Somewhere.”

The dragon blew out a noisy breath, like a sigh. “Fine then,” it said in a voice that was not quite a growl but also wasn’t not a growl. “You’ll stay here.”

Remus’s heart stuck in his throat again, much less pleasantly. “Wh– you said I could go!” he said shrilly.

The dragon scoffed. “You’ll die alone in the desert at best,” it said, waving its hand/foot at Remus impatiently. “At worst, an untrained child magician such as yourself can do untold damage to the land.”

And Remus was very curious about what the dragon had called him there, but that wasn’t important right now – “You can’t keep me prisoner!”

“You won’t be a prisoner, child, please. I intend to teach you how to survive, and once I do, you may go anywhere you please.”

Remus scowled furiously. “You were saying all that stuff about not liking humans before, so why do you care if I die or not?”

“Call it a bleeding heart,” the dragon said, voice dry as sun-bleached bone. “I assure you, I’m as displeased with this as you are, but even if you manage to not hurt yourself you can hurt so many others. Why did your village cast you out, hm? I assume that no small part of it was due to simple human fear of the unknown, but I don’t think that was all of it – for them to have waited for you to grow as old as you have…you did something to prompt this, didn’t you?”

Remus turned his head away with a scowl.

“You did, didn’t you? Tell me, which was it – did you break something important, or was it someone?”

“Shut up,” Remus snapped.

The dragon made a noise like it was clicking its tongue at him. “I’m not irresponsible enough to let you roam around, a danger to yourself and others. You wouldn’t last a week out in the desert anyway.”

“Maybe I would,” Remus shot back.

“Unlikely.”

Remus fidgeted in place for a moment. “…What was it you called me? A magician?”

“Mm. One of the more tolerable breeds of human, assuming they have an understanding of the world at least. I’ll teach you that, as well as how to truly use your magic.”

Remus looked down at his hands. To actually learn how to use his lightning, rather than stumbling along as he tried to figure everything out himself while hiding it from everyone else who looked at him with hate anyway…it was a thought that came right out of his wildest and best daydreams, the ones that he knew were too good to come true. There had to be a catch. “You aren’t gonna eat me?”

“You would taste terrible, I’m sure,” the dragon sniffed. “Don’t annoy me enough and I won’t even consider it.”

“I am very annoying.” It felt fair to warn the dragon.

The dragon closed its eyes briefly. “Then pray that you will be a good student, so that you may leave quickly.”

…It wasn’t a good deal, Remus was pretty sure. The dragon could still kill him very easily if it decided that Remus was too much trouble.

…But it also wasn’t wrong that Remus wouldn’t be able to make it out there alone. He didn’t exactly have much choice.

Besides, maybe he would actually get to learn more about his magic.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll stay.”

“Huzzah,” the dragon said unenthusiastically.

Remus hugged his arms to himself. He was starting to feel tired again, the rush of fear over and leaving him even more drained than before. “Do you have a name?”

“Of course.” The dragon did not elaborate.

“…What is it?”

The dragon heaved a sigh. “Unpronounceable by human tongue. If you must have something to call me by, then you may call me Janus.”

“I’m Remus.”

“Good to know.” Janus turned and started walking away, twisting its body like a lizard with each step. “We’ll start now.”

Ugh. Remus looked longingly at the crevice, but if Janus was able to shift its size, then it would surely be able to follow him, and it would probably be able to see in the dark too. “M’kay,” he mumbled and started after it, rubbing at his eyes.

When he looked back up, Janus had paused in its steps, head turned to look back at him.

“What?”

“Nothing,” it said, then darted off.

Oh come on…Remus picked up his pace, even though his feet felt heavier than lead. He managed to catch up to Janus, which had its back to him as it messed with something in its hoard. “’S what we studyin?” he mumbled, pinching his arm to try and wake himself up.

Janus heaved another great sigh, then stepped aside. Remus squinted at the bunch of fine fabrics that it had arranged into…a lumpy pile with a divot in the center. “We will start in the morning,” it said. “You’re clearly too tired to do anything right now.”

Remus straightened his posture. “Am not!” he said, though the effect was somewhat undercut because he yawned immediately after.

Janus didn’t look impressed, though that might have just been its regular face. “Sleep, child.”

“…Fine.” Remus made a show of pouting so that Janus didn’t think that he was listening to it because he actually was tired, and thought that he was only trying to humor it. Remus climbed onto the pile of cloth and – ohhhhhhh that was soft.

More cloth was draped over him. Remus had already closed his eyes. “I will wake you in the morning, of course, so – don’t expect to be sleeping in.”

“Mmhmm.”

As he slipped into sleep, Remus thought that he felt a clawed foot hesitantly pat his shoulder.

#dukeceitweek2022 #remus sanders #ts remus #janus sanders #ts janus #fantasy au #angst #hurt/comfort #off page harm to children #death threats #attempted child murder #kid remus sanders #dragon janus sanders

9 notes · View notes

jungle321jungle · 2 months

Text

Something Worth Stealing: Five

“What do you think?”

Truthfully Virgil was terrified at the very prospect. There was a reason each nanny didn’t last long, and Virgil had heard enough horror stories about the Ackroyd boys to avoid them at all costs when he had worked in the past. Hell the only reason he still got some to come in now and then was because the job was so high paying. Mr. Ackroyd knew exactly what he was doing advertising with all those zeroes, he was reeling in any nanny who would skip talking to peers at the sight. And now by some twist of fate that very bait was dangling above Virgil, and even worse there wasn’t anyway he could feasibly afford to ignore it. A sigh escaped his lips as he looked the man in the eye, “I think it is more than a generous offer that I would be happy to accept.”

(Virgil becomes the newest nanny for his very attracti- for Logan.)

Ao3 - Previous Parts - Masterlist

Five

Virgil was burning up. He wasn’t sick or anything, but the nerves surrounding this date had every nerve on fire to the point he was surprised he hadn’t melted into a puddle. Was it possible to get heat stroke while blasting AC in a car? If not, he’d likely be the first victim of such insanity. There was just too much riding on tonight. Sure, romance was on the line- but more than that, his job was on the line, and so were his relationships with Logan’s sons.

Because what if he did something so horribly stupid tonight that left Logan’s fancy suit covered in fancy dinner? Surely, he’d be fired on the spot. And just like that, no job. No money. He wouldn’t see the twins or Patton. Janus would lose some friends. Janus would never get his own room. He’d-

“Are you okay?”

The deafening silence that was swirling around Virgil began to splinter at the sound of his nephew’s voice. Glancing in the rearview, he could see that Janus had looked up from the book he had been reading- was it too dark to be reading that now? The sun was beginning to set, so he shouldn't be straining his eyes. Virgil opened his mouth to tell his nephew so when he saw Janus frown, “So you’re not okay.”

“No-no! I’m fine. I’m fine! I was just going to say you should stop reading for now. But I’m fine!”

“You said that three times.”

“Because it’s three times the truth.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, yes, um… it doesn’t matter. I'm fine, Janus.”

“No, you’re not. Are you worried about your date?”

“A- a little- just the tiniest bit. It’s been a while since I was even on a date.”

“Was that with the guy who cheated on you?”

“W-what? What?” Virgil sputtered.

“When I talked to Mom this morning, I told her you were going on a date. And then she said that the last guy was really mean, and he cheated on you, and he made you cry. So she said it’s now my job to watch out for you ‘cause sometimes you have bad taste like she does. But Mr. Logan is nice, so I don’t think you need to be nervous.”

Virgil gave a long and heavy sigh before he couldn’t help but smile, “Well, I’m always grateful to have you on my side, Jan… But what else did your mom say about me? Or my past boyfriends?”

“Nothing really,” Janus shrugged (to Virgil’s relief). “Just that you should take her advice more.”

Virgil gave a frown and mumbled to himself, “Did she tell you she’s a hypocrite too?”

“What’s that mean?”

Apparently, Janus had good hearing. Good to know. “I’ll tell you later,” Virgil said, pulling into Logan’s driveway. “For now, let’s head inside.”

Inside the home, Virgil found Logan in the family room talking with three other staff members, likely talking about watching the children for the evening… Virgil wished them luck. Upon realizing their arrival, Logan turned to grave Virgil with a small, slight, barely there smile, which somehow made Virgil’s knees feel like goo. He was dressed nicely (as always)- Logan’s attention snapped back to the few he was speaking to, and hushed voices were heard as they crowded Logan before they abruptly shoved Logan in Virgil’s direction.

Virgil was about to comment on it, when he noticed that in the second he had turned around Logan’s perfect hairstyle had been messed up the tiniest amount in what was clearly an intentional way. Perhaps those three weren’t discussing babysitting at all, had he asked them for advice? The mental image was one Virgil couldn’t help but smile at.

“You look nice,” Logan said with a nod.

“You as well, I-”

“Mr. Logan?” Janus interrupted.

“What can I do for you, Janus?” Logan asked, redirecting his attention. “If you’re looking for my boys, they’re in Roman’s room.”

“Okay! But first, what’s ‘hypocrite’ mean?”

Virgil gave a heavy sigh as Logan answered the question. “A person who says one thing then does another. Like if I told you to eat your vegetables but I never do. Does that make sense?”

Janus pondered for a moment or two before he nodded and turned to Virgil, “Then my mom’s one for not listening to you but wanting you to listen to her?”

“…She listens sometimes.”

“No, she doesn’t. I’m gonna go upstairs to play. Have fun!”

When his nephew disappeared, Logan let out a slight chuckle, “It sounds like you two are having quite… intellectual conversations.”

Virgil’s huff in reply only made Logan’s smile widen, so he turned away. “Let’s not miss our reservation.”

Dinner did not go as planned.

Despite arriving at their reservation early- their table had apparently been given away which led to waiting. And upon finally being seated their waiter took the drink and appetizer orders and then promptly ignored their existence. The drinks had eventually found a way to them, but as time passed Virgil had the sneaking feeling that the appetizers would never come. This was only proven correct as the waiter vanished from the floor entirely, and according to the whispers of employees in the dining room- he had left the building entirely. Virgil couldn’t help but want to be a tad nosier, but he caught Logan’s amused gaze.

“Any more info?”

Virgil shook his head as he sipped at his near-empty water, “Nothing I can hear from here. But sorry, I forgot what I was saying.”

“I don’t recall myself,” Logan admitted. “I was staring at the couple behind you who received their meal. We have been here far longer than they have.”

“Does the food look good, at least?”

“As hungry as I am, everything does. I neglected to eat lunch today.”

“What? Why?”

“I was distracted by the boys and pulled in different directions. I had to make some calls, and then I had a meeting over Zoom. Ultimately, I didn’t even realize I had missed a meal until I began to get ready. So I simply ate an apple to tide myself over until dinner.”

“That’s not like you at all.”

“I agree. But I digress; how was your day off with Janus?”

“Good, good. I had told him to pick what we would do today, so we ended up at one of those pottery places where kids can paint the pieces. He was very meticulous over a few pieces of dish ware. He wanted a perfect matching set.”

“That’s adorable,” Logan smiled. “I’ve wanted to take my boys to do that, but I have a feeling that Remus would break far more than he’d paint. But he also wouldn’t take kindly to me just taking Roman even if I took him elsewhere.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“What did you paint?”

“I chose a shark piggy bank because… because it was there? Anyway, I made it purple with different colored polka dots because it annoyed Janus.”

“Brilliant reasoning.”

“I think so.”

“You-”

Logan’s words and Virgil’s train of thought flew off the tracks at that moment as a server walked by, holding a tray of dishes that looked beautiful but also smelled divine.

“As good as that looks, I regret not choosing a place I am familiar with,” Logan frowned. Apologies.”

“Don’t apologize; you had heard good things about it. It seems like this is an off day. And I appreciate the thought process that we could try something new together.”

“Why do I sense a but coming?”

“However,” Virgil started because it was a different word than ‘but.’ “It is clear we are both starving, and it’s also clear that our food will never get here considering we still have menus. So, would it be such a bad idea to go elsewhere? I know a hole-in-the-wall a few blocks away with the best tacos I’ve ever had.”

Logan didn’t speak for the longest moment. Rather, his piercing eyes stared into Virgil’s as he folded his hands and sat up straighter in his seat. And in that moment Virgil couldn’t stop the strike of fear that shot through him as he wondered if he had accidentally insulted his date- if he had offended his boss. Logan had put in all this effort for tonight and yet, Virgil just wanted to throw it away. He opened his mouth to quickly amend his statement, but Logan spoke first.

“Couldn't you have said that ages ago? Do they have quesadillas?”

Virgil gave a slight sigh of relief, “Real good ones.”

“No point in bothering for the check, it’ll take forever. I’ll leave more than enough cash for the drinks. Lead the way.”

The food was wonderful, and with it in their stomachs, conversation flowed easily. It was almost scary how easily Virgil forgot he worked for Logan. Right now, they weren’t boss and employee; they were just two (severely overdressed) guys on a date, and that was perfect. There was something alluring about just watching Logan be Logan. Just in the way he spoke and expressed himself as if trying to remain reserved but in the same way allowing Virgil to see his true expressions underneath. Virgil had always known how nice it was to listen to Logan speak of his children, but it was just as nice to hear him speak about his life and dreams. And even nicer was how smoothly he came up with ideas on how to integrate Virgil into them. It was a first date unlike any Virgil had been on, and as Logan took his hand as they walked back to the car- Virgil couldn’t have been more thrilled with that fact.

~~~~

All Parts

#Analogical #virgil sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #remus sanders #Janus Sanders #patton sanders #kid!au #kid!remus #kid!roman #kid!janus #kid!patton #KidFic #worth stealing

12 notes · View notes