I'll Find You... I Promise

Chapter 7

TW: Mentions of murder, Talks about underage drinking/alcohol, Janus doing that self-blame thing again. 

Janus woke up to the sounds of conversations happening across the house. He had stayed with Virgil in his room, and the two had squished together on the full-sized bed the night before. The walls of the room were a pale lavender color, decorated with a few generic landscape paintings. It had not quite been personalized yet, the furniture consisted of a toy chest, a desk, a bed, and a bookshelf.  There were a few drawings hung in one corner of the room, held up by tape that was slowly peeling off the wall and signed with the messy scrawl of Virgil and the occasional one by the twins. A few stuffed animals here and there, and Virgil's clothing hung in the closet. Though Janus noticed that the number of clothes had grown significantly and consisted of all sorts of different materials and styles. He even spotted a pale pink skirt that he knew for sure had not been among Virgil's belongings a month and a half ago.

The sounds of laughter drew him out of the room a few minutes after waking up, and he shuffled into the dining room wearing the black sweatpants and blue t-shirt Logan and Patton had let him borrow him as pajamas. The dining room was a mess of activity as Patton dished out breakfast; pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs. The twins and Virgil were all bickering as they fought over pancake decorating ingredients or juice or whatever else, while Logan calmly sat in his seat drinking his coffee and reading a book. His pancake was dressed in some sort of jam, the tiniest amount of maple syrup, and nothing else. 

"Good morning Janus," Patton greeted with a large smile before turning back to the table, "Logan, dear, would you help Virgil pour his juice?"

"I got it," Virgil insisted, though he was clearly struggling to not spill. 

Despite Virgil's attempts, Logan still reached over to help the youngest pour the beverage, "There is no shame in asking for help Virgil," Logan informed him as he handed him his cup. It seemed this guy was always trying to teach someone something, which Janus found ironic seeing as Patton was the teacher.

Patton turned back to him, "Do you want some breakfast?"

"Uh, sure, if there's enough," Janus said as he took a seat in the same spot as he had sat at dinner the night before, "If not it's fine, I don't normally eat breakfast anyway."

Logan sipped at his coffee and turned a page in his book, "Breakfast is an important factor in the body's process of preparing for the day as it provides the body and mind with energy and nutrients it needs in order to wake up and begin working at a satisfactory level. Breakfast has also been proven to better mental health and a person's mood for the rest of the day."

"Yeah, well, coffee does most of that with the added benefit of not making me late to class," Janus replied with a shrug as Patton dished out some food onto his plate.

"There is plenty to go around," Patton told him, "And you really shouldn't be having coffee every morning kiddo, once in a while when you need an extra boost is fine but every day can have some nasty effects on you."

The teenager only gave a small roll of his eyes as he complied with the unspoken request and poured himself a cup of juice like Virgil had done. Patton gave him a grateful smile as he sat down in his own seat and started eating. Breakfast was a little more chill than dinner had been, the twins seemed less rambunctious and Virgil was mostly quiet. That wasn't uncommon, Virgil wasn't much of a morning person and didn't really talk much until after he was a little more awake. 

"What are you reading Papa?" Roman asked, leaning forward slightly in his seat to try and get a view of the book.

Logan glanced up at his son, "Roman you're going to get syrup all over yourself, sit back down properly," He chided, waving for Roman to do as he was told. The twelve-year-old frowned but did so, "I'm rereading an old favorite of mine I read while in high school."