Demus Oneshots

Stealing The Immaterial

I know it's two masquerade one shots in a row, leave me alone. This time it's actually important to the plot

Pat let out a scream of excitement and jumped out of the carriage before it had even stopped moving. They wrapped a laughing Janus up in a hug so tight it squeezed all the air out of Janus' lungs.

"Jesus, Pat." Janus said, still laughing weakly. "You act as if you haven't seen me in years."

"Oh shut up, you missed me too." Pat snapped, hugging their friend even tighter. Janus laughed and hugged them back.

"Yeah, I did." He conceded. "But don't kill me before all the fun starts."

Pat pulled back, their eyes glowing, and grinned. "Oh, it's exciting, isn't it?" They said and sighed. "A proper masquerade ball right here."

"Yeah." Janus looked up at the castle with Pat. "Now that father's... put away, we're allowed to do a lot more than we ever were before."

"Oh, wait until you see my mask!" Pat said excitedly. They danced around on the spot. "It's simply divine." They sighed again and grinned up at the sky.

"It better be, to combat your personality." A voice from behind them said. Logan smiled at Janus and inclined his head. "Good to see you again, Janus."

Janus felt as if all the air had been squeezed from his lungs again. He was sure he was blushing like an idiot as he stared at Pat's older brother.

"You too, Logan." He said, his words breathless. Pat looked between the two and giggled excitedly. They hooked their arm through Janus' and started to pull him away, towards the castle.

"Come on, you have to show me your outfit for the masquerade." Pat said too loudly. "I bet it's going to be absolutely wonderful." They grinned behind them at their brother before turning to Janus and hushing their voice. "He's absolutely enamoured with you." They insisted. "He talked of nothing the whole carriage ride. Not even of his new book!"

Janus scoffed. "Oh, please. Enamoured with me?" He asked. "Logan's got far better people to be enamoured with, he can do a lot better."

"He can do better than a prince?" Pat asked sceptically. "Open your eyes, Janus. The only boy he likes more than you is Mr Darcy and he's not even real!"

"Oh, shut up." Janus said, rolling his eyes and elbowing Pat.

"I've seen his dance list." Pat continued. "And guess who's top of the list."

"You?" Janus asked. Pat laughed.

"Please, like he'd be seen dead dancing with his sibling." Pat said. "I've got two left feet, anyway. No, it's you! He wants to dance with you more than anyone! Really."

Janus scoffed again and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. I'll believe that when I see it."

"And it's going to be brilliant." Pat finished, their eyes shining. Janus grinned at his friend's excitement.

"You're going to look a vision, Pat." He said.

"I know." Pat said, practically glowing. "Anyway, what about you? I know you've got something up your sleeve."

Janus grinned bashfully. "Well, I do have a new waistcoat..." He said. Pat giggled excitedly. They knew Janus was aching to talk about it. "Okay, so it's this beautiful gold-yellow colour and it's got black vines and twirls all over it. And the buttons are silver and it shouldn't work but it does! It works so well!"

"And, and?" Pat egged.

"And my coat's the same but inverse." Janus' grin grew even wider. "It's such a deep black and the gold edging is sure to stand out in the candlelight."