A Million Worlds Apart

The Party

It was unusual for the god of magic to sit on the sidelines during a party.

Remus was only a minor god, true, but all of the Olympians knew that he had more power than most of them did in their pinky fingers, and he was wildly unpredictable. So he was invited to almost all the parties they threw, and he ended up being the life of them every time.

Except for tonight.

He was leaning against a pillar, sipping nectar from a goblet with a neutral expression on his face. The only sign that he was engaged was his foot tapping along to the music.

"Are you serious?" Janus whispered, looking over at him as discreetly as he possibly could. "No alcohol at all? Is that even Remus?"

"Trust me, that's Remus," Dionysus responded, passing him his newly-filled goblet. "I guess he just wasn't feeling it tonight."

"But he's always 'feeling it.' Even when we're celebrating Ares's insane bloodbaths, he's 'feeling it.'" Janus paused. "Well. If I'm being quite honest, especially then."

Dionysus nudged him, grinning. "Hey, look on the bright side. You can go talk to him now."

"I was already planning on talking with him."

"I meeeeeeeeeean," they said, stretching out the word, "you can talk to him alone. Without Ares or Poseidon or Roman or Dad bothering the two of you."

"You're already bothering me," Janus muttered.

"What do I gotta do to get you to talk to your crush?"

"Leave me alone and go celebrate. Need I remind you that this party is in your honor, now that you've been promoted to Olympian status?"

Dionysus spread their hands. "Can I just talk to the only other Olympian who's even close to me in age? And grill him about the weird-ass guy he's in love with?"

"You are the last person to criticize Remus about being weird, Mx. I-Started-A-Wine-And-Murder-Cult," Janus said, setting his glass down and fixing his hat. "And I am not in love with Remus. I just find him... interesting." He smiled slightly. "More interesting than the rest of the Olympians, at least."

They let out an offended gasp. "How can you say that? We're all interesting!"

Janus raised an eyebrow. "Our father is less the god of the sky and more the god of not being able to keep it in his pants---and we are proof of that. Our stepmother's desperately trying to cling onto the marriage and has gone after us and several of our half siblings for existing."

"That's Zeus and Hera," Dionysus reminded him. "The others are---"

"Poseidon gets around even more than Zeus, and that is saying something," Janus continued. "Hestia's nice and normal, but don't even get me started on Demeter and the way she chooses to raise her son. Roman, in true Olympian fashion, flirts with everything with two legs, and his sister decided to start a lesbian hunting committee. Aphrodite and Ares have the most cliche relationship of all time, Hephaestus just locks himself inside his forge all day and doesn't come out, and Athena has about a million side projects going on every day. Did I miss anyone?"

Dionysus sighed. "No, you didn't."

"Exactly." He folded his arms. "And I'm considered the odd one because I happen to have a steady job."

"Hey, you drink your respecting-women juice," they reminded him. "That's a good thing in my book."

"Dio, I'm gay."