Sanders Sides (power rangers au)

Chapter 22.

Janus spent very little time in the ambulance. So he was out quickly, and jogged back to his mother. His mother was the most kind woman you would ever meet. She had hair similar to his lighter brown hair. Hers was much longer, however, and reached her waist with a slight curl that began towards the bottom. She almost always had it up neatly, but currently there were sticks and other pieces from the forest in her hair, which frayed out of its hair tie. Her eyes were similar to Janus's too, both that same envy green that sparked with mischief. His mother was still in her work clothes. One of her job's clothes, anyways. She had pressured him to finish highschool, as she had her GED instead because she dropped out to have him. Her family had disowned her for not yet being married when she had him, and Janus's father had skipped town when he was still little. So instead, she raised him all alone, then held down three jobs while still giving him a wonderful life so that he never had to get a job while in school.

"Jan, hun, you sure you're gonna be okay?" His mother's voice spoke. She had a voice that caused Janus to relax his muscles and feel the stress of the day leave his bones.

"Yeah, mom. I'm just tired. You ready to head back home?"

"Of course. I made dinner before I got the call. It's your favorite."

"You are the best." Janus smiled. He looked up to see Logan walking a ways ahead of him with his sisters. Patton was in the ambulance. Virgil was standing with his mom while she cleared things with the police, and Janus couldn't see Roman or Remus anywhere. He shrugged, and put his arm around his mother's shoulders as they made their way to the car.

Janus spent most of the car ride looking at his own wrist. The bracelet was no longer a glowstick, which he was grateful for, but he was surprised by how much he actually liked what was now on his wrist. It was a mittens bracelet. Pretty simple in design, just a gold chain that had a small ring on his middle finger. Where it connected to his wrist, Janus could see a thicker chain wrapped around. On the thinner chain in between his wrist and finger, there was a small yellow rock that sat clasped between the two sides of the band leading to and from his finger. It was much more his style than before, but he was a bit worried about hiding it. They couldn't afford anything that looked like this, and Janus didn't want his mom thinking he'd stolen it, so after admiring it, he shoved his hand into his pocket and leaned against the window to watch as they neared their apartment.

"Here we are." His mother said, turning the wheel as Janus watched their apartment complex pull into view. It wasn't the prettiest place, but it wasn't awful. Janus had grown up in this apartment after all. He had made friends with the neighbors when he used to play mailman or go trick or treating. He'd grown to associate the musty, slightly damp smell of the place with home. Plus, they were in a ground floor apartment, so the stairs were never an issue. Janus made sure his mom didn't need help, before walking ahead of her. He could see a face hiding behind the staircases ahead of him.

"I see you, Remy."

His friend, Remy, sighed as he walked out from his spot. Remy lived with his grandmother in the apartment above them, and was one of Janus's partners in crime. He and Remy used to be much closer before highschool, when Remy was transferred to a private school. His grandmother decided he needed more structure in his life.

"Damn." Remy walked out, grinning at him with a pair of cheap Walmart sunglasses sitting on top of his short afro. "Where the hell you been, loca?"

"Nope." Janus turned away, walking away from Remy and towards his apartment. "The minute you quote Twilight is the minute I walk away from a conversation."

"Zero fun, Janus." Remy called, before walking to catch up. "What's that on your hand?"

Janus stopped, looking at the bracelet on his wrist. He turned and walked back to Remy, passing his mother on the way. "I'll be there in a bit, Mom!"

"Please don't take too long. I'm hesitant to let you out of my sight right now. You might try to forest gump your way to those woods again!"

Janus grinned, before turning back to Remy. "I didn't steal it... Well, I did, but I kinda had to. I mean, I couldn't-"

"Janus, you stole that?" Remy grabbed his hand and looked closer. "I mean, I guess it might be made of gold, but you could've done better."

"Ha. Ha."

"What did you mean you had to?"

Janus paused. He wanted to tell Remy. He trusted Remy, but this wasn't just his secret. It was the other's secret too. Plus, having seen and heard what he'd seen and heard today, Janus wasn't entirely sure it was safe to tell Remy, or if he would be putting himself in more danger by telling him. "It doesn't matter." Janus answered finally.

"Oh come on, don't shut down! I won't judge you. Please?"

Remy gave Janus a look that made him question his decision. "It- It's complicated, and I just don't think I can tell you yet." He turned and walked back towards his apartment, leaving Remy standing in the hall as he undid his lock and went in.

"Janus?"

"Who else?" Janus smiled, walking towards the kitchen and snagging a plate from his mother's cooked chicken. His mother was at the table, or the best they had for one. It was broken on one leg, so there was a stack of old school books and fantasy novels that held it up. As a kid, Janus liked to pull out the ones at the top, which were ones his mom had read but hadn't liked, and sneak away with them, leaving a much smaller and less stable children's book in their place. Now he liked the stack because it was so bizarre. They probably had enough to get a cheap plastic table now, but Janus and his mom like their current one so much that they never bothered. He ate quickly, unaware of how hungry he'd actually been until the food entered his mouth, then put his plate in the kitchen.

"I'm off to shower, Mom, you need the bathroom?"

"I'm fine, Jan." His mom said, standing up, and giving him a hug that lasted a few seconds longer than their normal ones did. "I love you from here to the moon."

"I love you too." Janus smiled, before walking to his room. He closed the door softly behind him, before grabbing a change of clothes and walking to the bathroom for a quick shower. He wasn't able to get the bracelet off, even after he verbally said that he promised to put the thing back on once he was done. He finally gave up, and got in the shower as he was. He was quick, since water was expensive when they used too much, and then changed into his pj's and set his torn clothes on his nightstand. It was really just an old storage container, but it did the job just fine, so he wasn't mad. Janus flopped down on his bed, cutting off his overhead light as he did, and pulled out his phone. He saw he was in a new group chat, so he opened it. It was titled, "The Color Crew." There were already a few messages in the chat, so he scrolled up and read through them all.

Unknown: Hey! It's Patton! I got all of your numbers so we could chittychat!

Janus smiled, put in the number as Patton's, then kept reading.

Logan: Hello Patton. This is Logan. I feel we should all have a plan to meet together again soon and decide what our plan will be.

Unknown: This is Roman. I guess we can meet up sometime this weeknd.

Logan: Weekend*.

Unknown: Oh God. Now my phone has two otocorects (Remus, btw)

Logan: autocorrects*.

Unknown: It's Virgil. I'm fine to meet this weekend, but I really wanna go to sleep. Can we have this talk tomorrow?

Janus: same here

Logan: Same* here.* Yes, I agree. Sleep is very important.

Janus set his phone down, hearing it buzz once or twice more before growing silent. Janus tried to focus on sleeping, even as his brain tried to go back over the chaos of the day. Eventually, he was able to convince himself to calm down enough that he could close his eyes and drift off.