The Academy of S.I.D.E.

No. 52: Escape

"You're actually here?" Janus exclaimed, getting onto his feet (and stumbling slightly as he did). "How the hell did you even find me?"

"No time for that now," Virgil said, starting towards the cell. "We're here to rescue---"

"Wait."

Everyone looked at Remus, who was holding up one of his hands. "Our first date," he said, voice shaking slightly. "What did we do?"

Janus let out a little laugh. "We went to go see a screening of Alien, and you bought jalapeno popcorn like an idiot, and you ended up spitting it all over the heads of the people in front of us whenever there was a jumpscare, and we nearly got kicked out of the movie theater---"

"But it was so worth it," Remus whispered, eyes starting to well up with happy tears. "Oh god, it really is you. Oh god." He paused. "Jan-Jan, I'm gonna need you to stand back. Actually, I'm gonna need everyone to stand back."

Everyone backed away from him as tentacles popped out of his back and wrapped around the bars. Remus screwed up his face in concentration and pulled.

He yanked the set of bars out of their place and set them against one of the walls.

"You could've just broken down the door," Logan sighed.

"Let him be, Lo," Patton told him in an undertone.

Janus and Remus ran towards each other and into the other's arms, Remus lifting Janus from the ground as he did. The two of them kissed for what seemed like forever, though Virgil wasn't really tempted to tell them that they were kind of on the clock here.

"I can't believe it," Janus whispered, cupping Remus's face with tears in his eyes and a smile a mile wide. "You're actually here. Until I got that call from Remy, I thought... I was so scared that I'd never see you again."

"Yeah, well," Remus murmured, kissing him on the forehead, "I wasn't gonna let some punk in Adidas merch take you away from me."

Janus let out a choked laugh. "Oh my gods, I love you so much."

"I love you too, Jan-Jan." Remus brushed a lock of hair away from his face. "Can I kill Augustus for this?"

"Only if we run into him on our way out, darling."

"I'll take it."

The two of them kissed again---even longer this time.

Roman cleared his throat loudly. "Hello, yes, we're here, and we helped rescue you to, and you've had a lovely reunion with your boyfriend, but we're still here."

"Shut your whore mouth, Roman," Remus said, not even looking at him.

"No, no, I'd like to say hello to my friends," Janus told him. "Could you put me down, please?"

Remus hugged him tighter. "No."

"Darling, come on," he said, laughing a little. "You can't keep me all to yourself."

"I'm not done giving you love."

"You can give me love later, all right? I missed them, too. Even your idiot brother."

"Okay, fine." Remus set him down on the floor.

Janus took two steps towards the rest of them and his knees promptly buckled. He grabbed onto Virgil's arm to steady himself.

"Jesus shit, Jan," Virgil said, helping him to his feet. "Were you seriously starving yourself?"

"No," he responded as his stomach let out a massive growl.