Six Times Janus Dropped and Six People Who Took Care of Him

King

How was it possible for everything to be so perfect?

It was so, so much easier now that everyone knew. No more being whisked from the room when he regressed, no more stress about keeping baby Jay confined to one room, no more stress about the others finding out- Janus truly felt as though the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. He felt so much better.

The others continued to improve, taking care to keep themselves healthy both mentally and physically. His relationship with Virgil started to build back up again, and it was close to the way it had been all those years ago, when they had been so close that they were practically brothers. The cave was back in use, and Janus felt happier than he had been in years.

His activities as Jay became more fun, too. No longer was he kept confined- now, he was allowed to go anywhere in the Mind Palace, provided one of his caretakers was with him. He could go into the gardens without whoever accompanied him constantly on alert. He even got to play with other children in the Imagination.

It was almost perfect.

Almost.

Even though he had his five caretakers, there were still times where he found himself missing the one he no longer had. Sure, the feeling was far rarer than it had been when none of them knew, but occasionally the smallest thing would bring back memories of King and the longing would hit him full force. Maybe it was selfish of him, wanting the one thing he couldn't have, but he couldn't help it. He missed King.

-

Roman and Remus separated like magnets, both of them tripping back across the room. Remus managed to stay upright and leaned heavily on a wall, but Roman collapsed to the ground. Both of them were gasping like they had just run a marathon.

Hell, Remus felt like he'd just run a marathon. On Jupiter.

"Time?" He forced out between breaths. 

Logan pulled his watch out of his pocket. "Twelve hours, forty-one minutes, and thirty-nine seconds."

Both of them too drained to go over to the other, the twins high-fived. Almost thirteen hours! And to think, when Roman had first come to Remus with the idea, they'd barely been able to hold it for a second and had passed out for a week. Now they were at thirteen hours, and they were both still conscious!

Better yet, just in time for Janus's birthday. He couldn't wait to see the look on his face when they revealed what they had been working on. Once he could summon the strength to lift his arm, he flashed a thumbs-up at Roman. Roman returned with what was probably meant to be a smile but turned out as a grimace.

On Friday, they would surprise Janus. Today, they would nap.

-

Janus knew the others were hiding something from him. Of course, he didn't know what they were hiding from him, but he knew they were hiding it. Honestly, what did they think they were doing, lying to the embodiment of deceit? It was actually kind of sad.

But back to the point- every once in a while, the five of them would just disappear off somewhere, and when they came back, Roman and Remus always looked like they'd run a couple of miles. When he asked, all of them gave pathetic and contradicting answers. He could have found a way to find out what they were doing via process of elimination (asking about all available options and seeing which answers they lied) but he had better ways to spend his time. As long as the Mind Palace wasn't burning down, he supposed it was all good.

Besides, he had better things to focus on- such as his birthday on Friday. He liked to pretend he was above such childishness, but he couldn't wait!