Sanders Sides Oneshots/Short Stories

Kidnapping (Loceit)

WC: 1106

TW: Kidnapping (more like adult-napping, or side-napping), Janus OOC

"You're having nightmares again," Janus said quietly.

Logan's shoulders stiffened. He bit back a 'no wonder' and did his best to smooth his expression blank, but bleary from lack of sleep and still gasping from a quick awakening, hiding his face completely seemed the better option.

After Logan had been 'kidnapped' for lack of a better word, Janus had allowed him to go see what he had done in the logical side's place, only to be much more subtly pulled back to the Dark Mindpalace. Here, Janus had simply led him to a room and, using his ability, hypnosis, lulled the already tired Logic into a much-needed sleep. When Logan woke, he had found- much to his dismay- that he couldn't just sink down and appear back in the Light Mindpalace or in Thomas's living room. He was trapped.

The cold seeped through the bare soles of Logan's feet. His fingers tightened on the window edge.

The antagonist's footsteps came closer behind Logan. He clamped down on the instinctive urge to turn - seeing what was coming didn't make much of a difference anymore. A warm hand rubbed (presumably) soothing circles against his corded muscles, causing him to suppress a flinch.

"Was it me again?" Deceit asked.

It seemed a spectacularly cruel question to ask in so soft and concerned a voice, as if that didn't just make it worse.

Janus's gaze burned into the side of Logan's face. One hand reached up, capturing his chin to turn his head for a better look. A gentle thumb wiped away a tear he hadn't realized was there. "Ah, of course it is."

It had been a month. One month, ten days, and five hours. The sky was swollen and heavy with rain clouds as oppressive as the 'kind' hand on their back. It was a murky early morning so early as to still be called night, although that was the normal weather here. Unpleasant. Like everything else about this predicament.

Logan's jaw clenched. He jerked his head away.

"I told you that you should take those pills I got you," the villainous one said. "They'll help you sleep. You need rest. Look at you, you're getting all worn around the edges."

"Heavens forbid," Logic spat. Heavens forbid that the snake's captive be anything other than flawless. "I'm not taking anything you give me!"

Janus sighed.

It seemed a threat. To have his sedated and groggy, drugged food and drink, or maybe just strapped down with a needle (an IV, of course) in his arm if he refused to come down to dinner. Because three square meals a day was healthy and he was clearly incapable of looking after himself. Logan wanted to snarl. Mostly he wanted to sob.

"Come on, come back to bed."

The logical side let himself be pulled along, mostly because he was too tired not to and because he didn't want to see what the Dark Side would do if he didn't.

Janus switched on the bedside lamp, picked up Logan's book discarded on the bedside table (what else was there to do, except read and plot and fight and the fighting was like mashing his head against the wall - painful and getting him nothing but a dull ache). The usually deceitful one started reading aloud.

The hero studied his face uneasily.

One month, ten days, five hours and twenty minutes, and he still didn't know what to make of this. Of any of this. If he ever got himself captured by the Dark Sides he expected death, or torture, or some other unnamed and awful thing.

This seemed an unnamed and awful thing, but far more difficult to get at. It was too cruel to be kindness, and too merciful to be cruelty. Janus had simply said he couldn't allow the Light Sides to keep fighting them. He hadn't, overtly, tried to persuade Logan to switch sides. He hadn't questioned him for information. He'd just...kept him. It was unnerving. Kept them in a nice room, supplied them with paints and books and whatever food or drink he asked for within reason.

None of it made any sense at all! Worse, Logan had his growing theories.

One months, ten days, five hours and twenty two minutes and he had yet to see what the trick was, see the mask crack if this was some attempt at Stockholm syndrome, some manipulation.

"I dreamed,"Logan said, an edge in his voice, "that you were in love with me." It was a lie, and a truth, and they wanted to see what the liar himself would say.

Janus's voice cut off. His hands froze around the book.

"Truly, a nightmare," he murmured. "I can see exactly why you woke up screaming and crying. It's by far my worst crime yet, love."

Shit. Logan released a breath..

The snake-like trait touched him, frequently. A hand on his arm, through his hair, on his cheek. But not like that. It hadn't been like that, he had never even raised the suggestion. The look on Janus's face was obvious sometimes, but Logan had hoped it was just an empty heat. Without heart. He could have dealt with that, used that, grabbed a fistful of the strings of that and used it to choke the bastard with.

People in lust were predictable. Easy. What they wanted was relatively simple and, in essence, it was always the same. People in love were the most dangerous creatures in the world. They didn't all love simply, or kindly, or with reason. Lust faded. Love did not.

"It is when you don't love someone back."

"I wouldn't need you to love me back. I need you to be safe and not to fight me." It wasn't that hard to see what the deceitful one was referring to; the fact that all the Light Sides actively ignored Logan, or worse, tried to shut him up.

"This isn't funny," the logical side growled.

"I'm not laughing." Janus glanced over, then, and the look on his face was utterly cold. "It's a nightmare. I meant every word."

Logan... honestly didn't know what to say to that. The silence stretched, him wide-eyed and his kidnapper watching him flatly. The silence stretched more, until the Light Side simply couldn't bear the weight of it - thick with the early morning, the unsaid things, the heartbreak that anyone would love like that or think his love a bad dream.

He looked away, first. "Keep reading."

It was the only thing they both enjoyed in these late night early mornings - to be someone else for a while. Just until the sun rose.

This was heavily based off of a Hero x Villain, prompt, if you couldn't tell. I'm in a Loceit mood right now. Take it easy guys gals and non-binary pals, see you next time! :D