The Last Of the Dragon Witches (Prinxiety)

21

The group stayed frozen in their tracks for a few seconds. None of them was expecting such an outbursts from Janus. The silence around them was deafening.

"Well, shit, that was intense!" Remus said with a small uncomfortable giggle, earning an elbow to the stomach from his boyfriend.

"Ouch! I'm sorry, I'm not good with conflict!" He pouted, slightly glaring at Logan.

His comment seemed to get Remy out of the state of frozen shock they all seemed to have fallen in, letting him run after his friend.

"Janus!" He yelled, seeing him still walking just a few meters in front of him. "Janus wait!"

"Leave me alone Jeremy." His voice was cold but the cat eyed guy could hear the slight cracking at the end, even as his friend kept walking and giving his back to him.

"No." He said, as he followed behind him effortlessly. "No, I won't leave you alone."

Remy let him walk a few more meters before finally grabbing his arm, making him snap around and hiss at him angrily.

"Stop." He said as Janus started trying to yank his arm free.

"Janus, stop." He growled, but the guy refused to listen to him, instead he started to use his other hand to try and pry the other's open, as tears of frustration started falling from his eyes.

"Janus, I said stop! By acting like this you're not only hurting yourself but your daimon too!" Remy exclaimed, sighing in relief when he saw the other stop, frozen.

"Listen, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you I know how it feels to go through what you experienced." Remy started, his breath imperceptibly labored. "But just stop for a second and think about it. He is not the person who hurt you Janus. For what you told me, there was not even a moment where that asshole acted nice towards you or Diego, whereas Patton has been nothing but nice and understanding, even when you were the one treating him like shit."

Silence fell between them, only interrupted by the chirping of the birds around them and the rustle of some animals in the bushes. Janus could feel Remy's concerned eyes look at him expectantly, but he refused to meet them, choosing to study the ground instead.

He knew the panther was right; he knew Patton had been nothing but kind to him and it had been unfair of him to act that way. But after what had happened almost ten years before, he was scared shitless of what he was feeling; because the truth was... Jake was nice too. Sure, he hadn't been the kindest to Diego when he saw him the first time, but it could have been easily blamed on a fear of snakes or reptiles, it was common between humans. So what stopped Patton from being any different? What was there to assure him that the sweet and loving guy he had been seeing every day for the last week or so, was nothing but a façade?

Seeing more tears running down his friend's face, Remy gently pulled him in a hug, not caring that he didn't immediately hug him back, purring gently in an attempt to calm him down.

Eventually Janus reciprocated the embrace, the rumble coming from the usually sassy guy's chest comforting him enough to stop his crying.

"Listen, why don't you come back with me, mh?" Remy offered gently, his hands still on the other's shoulders as they broke the hug. "You don't have to explain anything, and if anyone gives you shit for how you acted I'll rip their throat out."

Janus actually giggled at the loving tone his friend used for the threat, drying his cheek and nodding slightly.

Remy smiled before continuing, "But you have to promise me you'll apologize to Patton." The scaly guy's face fell, his eyes going back to the ground as he played with the hem of his shirt.

"Hey. Soulmate or not, he is a part of our group, and despite understanding why you acted the way you did, he still deserves an apology. You don't have to explain anything to him and I'm not telling you to start dating immediately." Remy tried to reassure him immediately. "Just talk to him. The guy's a puff-ball, I'm sure he is more concerned about the fact that you stormed away rather than upset about you telling him to fuck off."

"Okay." He whispered, offering his friend a small smile as they both started their way back towards the others.

They walked in silence, hearing the whispers as soon as they got to the tree line.

Once they came out Janus didn't bother looking up when he heard the other stop talking almost immediately, not wanting to see the looks and glare they were probably shooting him.

"There's nothing to see guys, come one. Let's start walking, it's already almost noon." Remy said, quickly getting everyone to go back to walking.

Janus shot him a grateful smile as before keeping his distance in the back of the group.

His eyes widened when he saw Diego quickly slithering towards him, making him stop for a second to let him climb up his leg.

The snake immediately wrapped around his shoulder, hugging him gently with a soft and apologetic hiss that made Janus smile.

He hugged his best friend back, feeling eyes on him and looking up, barely catching Patton looking away, but he didn't miss the sad smile on the usually cheery guys face.

The day went by quickly, and janus couldn't help but be more and more confuse by the way his soulmate acted; every time Diego tried to even just go near him, Patton would find a way to avoid him, whether it being talking to someone or completely side stepping. At some point he even asked Virgil to ride on Nyx and despite him saying that he just enjoyed flying, the snake guy had the feeling there was more to it.

They finally stopped walking when the sky got dar and it started to rain. Nyx quickly located a spot where they could stop for the night and luckily enough she even found some big boulders positioned in a way that could shelter them from the rain.

Logan and Remus quickly got a fire started as Virgil put up some protections and rain-repellent spells, before they sat down and ate some of the game Roman and Remy managed to catch.

For the entirety of the night, Janus kept his distance, not talking to anyone that wasn't Remy if it wasn't strictly necessary, ignoring the sad and guilt filled looks Patton shot him every once in a while.

Eventually, after everyone went to sleep, he managed to fall asleep too. Diego was curled up next to him as he played down next to the dying bonfire, his arms wrapped around himself and his legs to his chest for comfort and to try and keep himself from getting too cold.

And if during the night Diego saw someone cover his best friend with a warm sweater, he surely didn't wake up Janus to let him know.

Hello, so yeah, I'm not dead. I know this chapter sucks, but I haven't updated this story in way too long and I felt bad. 

Since I have less to no idea on what to write for this story since I only have some scenes here and there prepared, please feel free to leave suggestion or requests on what you want to see in the story and I'll try my best to wove it in with what I know I want to write!

sorry again for the absence

Bye,

Ali