Sanders Sides One Shots & Shorts

All Grown Up (Moceit and Analogical)

Trigger Warning: Mild cursing/swearing
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Date Published: July 3, 2020
Word Count: 3281
POV: 3rd Person

Janus pulls the corner of the bedsheet over the edge of the mattress for what feels like the seven-hundredth time. He tugs on it, and strains to try to tuck it underneath the mattress, between it and the bedframe. It fights him the whole way, taught and pulling back just as forcefully, clinging to the fabric of the mattress cover below. But, Janus refuses to be triumphed by a sheet that is supposed to fit. He wrestles the elastic over the side, using a lot more of his strength than should be necessary to shove it down to hold alongside the edge of the mattress. He lets go, watching it with bated breath, hoping that this time—Yes, he's got it this time. The corner stays curved into position, and Janus breathes out a sigh of relief. That was way harder than it should have been. Those pesky final corners are just going to be the death of him. Janus stands up straight, pressing his hands to his hips, just in time to see...

The opposite corner snap up.

Janus bites the inside of his cheek to keep from swearing. "Patton, could you assist me with this?" Janus asks. "I need you to hold this corner." He figures that maybe securing this side will help from undoing his completed work, while he tackles the other side.

"Sure, just a sec!" His husband's voice comes from inside the bedroom's closet. Patton is entirely invisible from where Janus is standing, having disappeared into the walk-in closet, literally engulfed by his task of clearing it out. However, he emerges a few moments, later, staring at something small and blue that he has grasped in his hands. Patton turns it over and lifts it up for Janus to see. It's a blue ribbon, small and cheap, dollar-store quality. The words "First Place" are stitched into the fabric with fraying silver thread.

"Do you remember this?" Patton asks, smiling at the ribbon reminiscently. "Virgil won it at his first art contest. In second grade."

Janus shakes his head, floored. "I have no idea how you manage to remember such things." He says. He still has one hand atop the corner of the mattress that they'd just bought. It's bigger than the mattress that had been in here before. The previous bed had been small, for a teenager, well outgrown by its former occupant. "It's all so long ago now."

Patton's eyes wrinkle at the corners when he smiles, upturned "happiness lines", he calls them. Patton wears his age with more grace and optimism than Janus does. Janus always scowls when he notices a new silver-turning hair peeking out from under his hat, and he doesn't want to admit to it. However, Patton just faces his reflection with a smile, and reminds Janus that "wise suits you, Jay."

Patton looks at the ribbon for a little longer, running a thumb over the fabric tenderly. It's funny how something so inexpensive could have meant so much to a little boy, who'd worked up the courage to submit his drawing in his school art contest. That boy went on to submit his artwork to many more competitions and auctions. Patton tears his eyes away from it eventually, and sets it aside on the bookshelf, whose shelves are, for the most part, empty. They used to be filled with adventure novels and sheet music, but now, they sit waiting to be filled by the belongings of visitors. This bedroom, with its washed-out walls and soft grey carpet, used to belong to their son, Virgil. But now, Janus and Patton are in the midst of turning it into a guest bedroom. A bit last minute, considering that the guests that they're doing it for are due here in a little over an hour.

"You needed my help with something?" Patton asks, as he thinks better of leaving the ribbon on the shelf, and instead tucking it into the back pocket of his trousers.

"Oh, yes." Janus nods, turning back to his failed attempt at getting the sheet over the mattress of the bed in the centre of the back wall. "Could you hold this corner in place while I remedy that one?" He asks, pointing to the opposite corner of the sheet, the one that has come out of position.