Manipulation (A Sanders Sides Story)

Chapter One

Months have gone by since the incident.

They couldn't do anything about their situation. They were stuck.

Janus remembered it like it was yesterday...

Paranoia...Pride...and Manipulation. They took their friends... inside a kingdom within the Imagination.

Logan...Patton...Remus...Roman... They were gone.

All that was left is Janus and Virgil.

Anxiety and Honesty...

Janus and Virgil missed Roman, their boyfriend, dearly. This was very rough for them.

The two left the Imagination a week later after the incident, to check on Thomas. They had been doing that more often, to make sure he was doing alright. Nothing had affected him, so that was good. Possibly the only good thing...

But all good things come to an end.

It was a gloomy morning; it had been raining and storming outside when Janus had awoke. He sat up in bed and yawned, stretching. Another day to be miserable. 

He got up out of bed and put on his yellow bathrobe and walked downstairs to the kitchen. He grabbed a coffee cup and walked toward the coffee maker and stared at it, as if contemplating if he really wanted coffee at the moment.

He decided against it and opened the fridge, pulling out a large bottle of vodka, pouring it into the coffee mug.

A pair of quiet footsteps near the stairs caused him to look up, only to find his lover, walking toward him.

"Hey," Virgil said simply, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He had stopped putting the smudgy eyeshadow under his eyes, and had stopped covering his face in that pale foundation. He didn't see the point in wearing makeup anymore.

"Good morning dearest," Janus said, taking a sip of his drink. "Did you sleep well?"

"No."

"Me neither."

Virgil leaned against the kitchen counter, staring down for a long moment. "I uh...Had another dream."

"Nightmare?"

"Yeah..."

Janus gave a nod. "I had one too. What was yours about?"

"Damion came back here with...them..."

Janus knew Virgil meant their friends. He put a hand on Virgil's shoulder in a sympathetic way.

"And...They...took you too..."

Janus said nothing as he pulled Virgil closer, into a firm hug, silently letting him know he was right here. In a soft, quiet voice, he spoke. "Virgil, I am not going anywhere... I've got you..."

Virgil gave a tiny laugh, hugging him as tight as he could. "Ro always said that..." he paused. "I miss him... I miss hearing him sing in the mornings just to annoy and wake us up.. I..I miss Pat always making us heart shaped pancakes and baking us cookies..A-and Logan telling us about some new book he read..and- and Remus- even though he pranked us all the time and him and Roman always fought in the living room- like- literal sword fights-"

"Yes, those were always quite dangerous, but fun to watch..." Janus commented.

"I just...I wanna get them back Jan... it hurts too much..." Virgil said, burying his face in Janus's shoulder, his shoulders trembling the tiniest bit.

Janus kissed the top of his head. "I know... I do too... But Virgil... I promise we're going to get them back... We...We just need to wait until their guard is down. Then we can strike and save them."