Demus/Dukeceit One Shots

❥ Reputation Or Truth?

Tw: swearing, homophobia, homophobic slurs, mentions of deadnaming a character. (Please tell me if I missed anything!)
Au: high school (human)
Words: 1575

Janus huffed as he sat in his seat, the yelling and laughter of the teens
around him filling his ears. At least it was art class- the one lesson he didn't mind suffering through. The soft screech of a chair being pulled back caught his attention and he turned his head slightly. "Oh, hey, Roman." Janus smiled slightly towards his friend who'd sat down next to him. Roman returned the smile and leaned over, grabbing his and Janus' sketchbooks from the pile. "Heya! Sorry I'm late, my brother was being a dick as per usual." Roman sighed, getting out his pencil and resting his chin in the palm of his hand.

Janus bit at his own pencil and chuckled lightly. "Still think he's homophobic, huh?" The shorter male asked, referring to Roman's twin brother- Remus. The older twin scoffed and looked at Janus dramatically as always. "He called me a fag, told me to burn in hell and tried to eat my pride flag. He's not exactly being the most accepting person on the planet."

Janus raised an eyebrow at this and hummed, looking into Roman's eyes. Roman stared back, almost reading Janus' mind. "You're not being serious-" Roman muttered, realising what Janus' silence was inferring. "He's gotta be closeted, Ro. I refuse to believe that he's just a straight up homophobe." He turned his attention back to his sketchbook, his eyes skimming over his old artwork. "I'd like that to be the truth, but- I just can't believe it, y'know. Not yet anyway." Roman spoke up after a few seconds of consideration, sadness evident in his voice.

"Give me a chance to prove it then." Janus glanced up slightly, sketching the outline of his drawing. Roman laughed sharply and raised an elegant eyebrow. "And how are you gonna do that, huh?" Janus couldn't be serious, could he? But come to think of it though, this could actually work- possibly.

"Remus is in my Maths. We're gonna be in partners today and the teacher always lets us pick. Usually, I'd prefer to work on my own- and so does your brother." Janus explained, adjusting his hoodie to cover his chest. "Imma ask him to be my partner and hopefully he says yes. From then, we can see if he, one- calls me any sort of homophobic slur, or two- misgenders or dead names me." He crossed his arms and watched as Roman considered this.

Roman stuttered as he tried to find the words to say. "I guess.. that could work. I mean, he talked about you before, but that was before you came out even to me. Welp, here's to hoping my brothers not a transphobe!" Both boys chuckled quietly at that and nodded. With that, the plan was set.

Now, you might be thinking 'why would Remus be openly hateful towards a random person? Surely he's just like that to Roman because they're siblings. Well, you haven't met Remus- How do I put this, he's known to speak his mind. He doesn't seem to care about anyone else's feelings apart from his own. But, there was one person that he never planned on being rude towards. They weren't even a close friend, or a friend at all. Despite this, Remus had always admired them, not that he'd ever admit to it. That would ruin his reputation!

The last thing that Remus expected whilst sat in Maths class, was for that one person to walk over to him.

"You're my partner." Janus stared at him, his eyes seeming to burn right through the twin, Remus' intimidating and mean facade already faltering. "The teacher said we could choose." Remus managed to keep up his annoyed persona, averting his eyes from Janus. "Mhm, and I chose to be your partner." He wasn't going to leave, he was stubborn- Remus could already tell this. The taller male groaned and moved his bag off of the chair next to him, allowing Janus to sit down. Janus smiled slightly and sat down, tensing up as the teacher began calling the register.