Chapter Text
Roman was panicking, Patton was panicking, hell, even Logan was panicking. Why? All three of the light sides could not make a baby Virgil stop crying. They’ve tried, holding, rocking, singing, feeding, diaper changes, not even Patton could calm the anxious side down.
“What should we do?” Logan asked frantically as the baby side cried louder, instinctively Logan looked over to Patton. He was the emotions after all.
“I don’t know! Roman?” Patton yelled, causing the baby to grow more hysterical.
“What? Why me?” Roman yelled back over all the yelling. Logan groaned and responded.
“Because you found him like this in the imagination, therefore this is your fault!” Logan explained, having to raise his voice as the little baby was still crying and this time pushing away from the side that was carrying him.
“This is not my fault!” This went on for a few minutes, while Patton was trying to hold the struggling, crying baby.
“Oh, please do keep it up with all the petty lies-” Janus stopped halfway through when everyone looked over at him. He didn’t look at the sides, his eyes were on Virgil. Upon seeing Janus, baby Virgil stopped crying and reached out for him.
“Mama!” Patton almost dropped Virgil when he said that. Thankfully, Janus briskly walked over to Patton and grabbed the young boy.
“Hello my little shadowling, what are you doing so small and cute.” Janus instantly dropped his ‘villain’ suave voice and instead went to his ‘motherly’ voice. Cooing at Virgil and tickling him slightly. Virgil was all laughs and giggles, not a tear in sight; the others were rightfully confused. Suddenly Virgil was getting whiny and fidgety; the three light sides braced themselves for the crying to start again, but Janus just shushed the small child.
“Aww baby, are you not comfy? Here.” With a snap of his fingers, Virgil was in a baby onesie, covered in black cats and pumpkins. Baby Virgil made a gurgling noise with loud shrieks of laughter. Everyone was absolutely gobsmacked by Janus’s soft nature towards their dark emo.
“How did you know that Virgil needed different clothes?” Logan asked, Janus didn’t stop looking at Virgil. He looked at him like he was the moon, his light, his life.
“Virgil never liked the feeling of polyester when he was a baby, he preferred cotton.” After Janus said that, Virgil yawned a little bit and Patton’s heart melted. Even Roman and Logan had to admit that Virgil was adorable when he wasn’t crying. Their little adoration moment was cut short when a certain gremlin side showed up.
“Guess how much-” His shrieking was cut short when his eyes landed on Virgil. Both Roman and Patton made a move to shield Virgil from Remus, but what happened next shook them to their core.
“Papa!” Virgil exclaimed as he reached out for Remus. Remus dropped whatever weapon he had in his hand and snatched Virgil from Janus, Virgil laughed loud and bubbly as Remus held him tight and swayed slightly.
“Oh, my beautiful baby boy! How’s the cutest baby bat doing?” Remus asked the non talkative baby Virgil. Virgil’s only response was a yawn, to which Remus stuck his finger in Virgil’s mouth, making him laugh instantly.
“Oh, you stop that.” Janus chuckled as he swatted Remus’s hand away, taking the baby from Remus, he pouted. “Don’t give me that look, I have a job for you. I need you to put all of Virgil’s baby stuff in his current room, and to baby proof it. Virgil seems to be in need of a nap.” Remus nodded and ran upstairs to Virgil’s room, Janus then turned towards Patton. “Can you hold him for me, while I make his bottle?” Patton nodded, but no sooner had Janus pawned him off, did Virgil start screaming again.
“Oh, nononono. Virgil, it’s me, your happy, pappy, father figure Patton.” Patton tried to shush Virgil, but had to reluctantly give him back to Janus. To which he calmed down immensely, Janus then summoned a baby bottle and gave it to Patton.
“One cup of milk, warmed and mix in a tablespoon of honey.” Patton nodded and walked into the kitchen as Janus sat down on one of the couches, the other two light sides followed in suit. Patton wasn’t going to lie; it hurt deeply that Virgil seemed to have trusted Janus and Remus more than him. He even called Remus ‘Papa’! It just hurt, after all he was the father figure. Back on the couch Janus tried to ignore the staring while Virgil played with his fingers, but Roman was getting closer to his face.
“What do you want, Roman?” Janus sighed, slightly hissing. Virgil giggled at him, to which Janus immediately softened to him.
“How?” Roman asked. Janus almost didn’t hear him.
“What?”
“I believe what Roman means is how are you able to keep Virgil calm?” Logan explained, before Janus could answer Roman through in his own questions.
“Why did he call you ‘Mama’ and Remus ‘Papa’? Why do you have baby stuff for Virgil?” Janus breathed in deeply as Patton came back with the bottle. Janus thanked him and took the bottle feeding it to Virgil, who happily sucked on it. Then Remus returned back down the stairs, in his hand was a small lavender blanket and a black pacifier.
“Do you want to put him to bed?” Janus whispered, Remus nodded his head enthusiastically. Janus chuckled softly and gave Virgil to Remus, who took the baby up the stairs. Patton and Logan almost followed him, but Janus placed a hand on their shoulders. They both sat back down as Janus sighed and leaned into the couch a little bit.
“When Virgil first formed, he was just a baby. Remus originally found him crying in the imagination and took him home. At the time we were dating, so naturally Remus started calling us Mama and Papa and Virgil copied him.” Janus gave a small laugh. “He got so many habits from Remus, nothing bad really, he just loved to copy Remus.” His laughter died down a bit, his happy smile turned sad. “We basically raised him together, and when he got older-” Janus motioned to the three of them. It was silent until Logan cleared his throat.
“You said you two were dating?” Janus fiddled with his gloves, trying to ignore the disgust that was plain on Roman’s face.
“You dated my brother! No, you dated Remus .” Janus did glare at him for that one.
“For your information your brother was the best partner I had.” Janus shot back, he could feel some heat rise to his face. The smirk on Roman’s face and the giggle Patton was trying to hide was evident that they could see it.
“Oh puh-lease, it’s not like there could have been a very long line of suitors to court either of you.” Roman retorted, at that Patton did smack his shoulder and a quiet cackle from the stairs. Janus looked over to see Remus walking back down with a baby monitor in hand.
“A line of suitors? For Jannie? Try maybe three stadiums worth of suitors on the dark side of the mind. A lot of people had a thing for Janus back then, it was a hassle to go on a proper date without him being harassed every five minutes.” Janus burned bright red and pulled his hat down.
“Remus, please don’t tell them about that.” Remus cackled and placed the baby monitor down in front of them.
“What, you don’t want them to know how I punched a rapist in the face on our first date?” Remus said it so normally he could have just asked for a glass of water.
“What?” Patton and Roman yelled, making Janus shush them and pointing at the monitor.
“The baby is sleeping, and it wasn’t our first date it was our second date. On our first date you threw someone out a window because they were flirting with me.” Remus smirked and lifted Janus’s chin to face him.
“Aww, how sweet you remember, after what? 669 dates?” Logan coughed in his sleeve as Roman choked and Patton stared in shock. Janus just smirked.
“You counted.” This time Remus went red and pushed Janus away who was laughing.
“I’m getting a drink.” He announced and walked away from the group, as Roman went to follow him. Janus laughed softly and stared at the monitor, thinking as Logan got up to talk to Patton alone. Janus couldn’t help but wonder what happens now?
Virgil didn’t trust the light sides.
The light sides didn’t trust Remus or Janus enough to stay with him.
He highly doubts they’ll let them take him back home.
Why did Virgil turn into a baby? When will he turn back? Will he turn back? Panic raced in Janus as he got up and walked to Logan and Patton.
“Patton,” Janus said smoothly as he got his attention. “How did Virgil get turned into a baby?” The room went silent, even as the brothers stopped talking, while Roman did admittedly look guilty. Logan was the first person to answer him.
“Ah, well, Roman and Virgil took a walk in the imagination and Roman came back with Virgil like that .” Janus nodded along and turned towards Roman with the sweetest smile he could muster. Remus immediately backed away from Roman as Janus walked towards him.
“You are going to go back into the imagination and find an antidote to make Virgil bigger. Do I make myself clear?” Janus hadn’t used his “mom voice” in so long but the fear in Roman’s eyes was good enough to know it still worked.
“Yes, sir.” He then ran off, and Janus turned towards Logan and Patton.
“I need you two to go check on Thomas, I’m sure Virgil being this small is definitely not going to mess anything up.” They both nodded and sunk out, all that was left was Remus and Janus. Remus just stared at Janus while eating deodorant. “Yes, Remus?” Janus asked nicely.
“You’re hot when you take control.” Janus full on laughed before remembering to stay quiet while Virgil was sleeping. Remus smirked while Janus placed his hands to his face,
“You were always such a charmer.” Janus whispered as Remus made kissy faces at him, Janus playfully shoved him.
“Why did we stop dating Jannie?” Remus unexpectedly asked, Janus sighed knowing exactly why they stopped.
“You know why.” Remus threw his deodorant across the room, Janus looked down and fiddled with his gloves.
“Tell me anyway.” Remus spoke gently.
“We got into a fight, about Virgil. We both said things we didn’t mean and then Virgil was gone.” It was silent between them, then Remus broke the silence.
“I blamed you.” He whispered, Janus laughed softly.
“So did I.” Janus could feel the tears slowly drop down his face, Remus turned his head to face him, wiping away his tears.
“I’m not angry anymore.”
“Well sometimes I am.”
“I don’t think badly of you.” Remus whispered, holding Janus close. Before Janus could properly reply the baby monitor went off and Janus left Remus’s reach. Barely hearing what Janus said.
“Sometimes, I do.” He then disappeared up the stairs, Remus then bashed his head on the counter. He fucked everything up, from the baby monitor he could hear Janus softly singing to Virgil. Calming the distressed baby. Unaware to Remus, Roman came back and saw the entire situation.
They still liked each other and were pinning hard. So he decided to be a good brother (for once) and help his twin. He then went up to where Patton and Logan were explaining the situation with Thomas.
“So that’s why I didn’t feel nervous about going to the store.” Logan nodded and Patton greeted Roman.
“Hey kiddo what can I do for you?”
“Remus and Janus are in love.” The statement threw everyone into a whirlwind.
“Uh, I’m gonna go to the store now and pick up some…..uh..Crofters.” Thomas said and left, while the other two just stood there awkwardly.
“Roman would you care to elaborate?” Logan hesitantly asked.
“I was just in the kitchen where I saw Remus and Janus pinning hard for each other, apparently they broke up after a really big fight about Virgil. Then Virgil left and the blame shifted onto Janus.” The room was silent until they heard loud yelling from inside the mind palace, all three sunk down quickly to find Janus suppressing giggles as Remus was showing off his muscles. Patton spoke up first.
“Shouldn’t you keep your voices down for Virgil?” Janus turned bright red as Remus flexed his muscles towards Patton.
“Don’t worry about it Daddy~” Patton, Roman, and Janus cringed at the name. “I soundproof the room, he’s fine. Also, Janus just checked up on him a few minutes ago.” He sent a wink towards Janus who blushed and swatted at his arm.
“We heard screaming.” Logan pipped up, looking unfazed at the half naked Duke in front of him.
“Oh that was me.” Janus admitted, looking a little bit embarrassed. “Remus took off his shirt to show me a hole in his chest, he didn’t mention that there was a live rat in there. So I screamed and he closed the hole.” Remus cackled as Janus threw a pillow at him. “And now he’s refusing to put the shirt back on.” They both laughed and at that moment Logan and Patton realized Roman was right.
They were in love.