Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

PATTON MORALES WOULD freely admit that his best friend was... a bit strange. He went around wearing a bowler hat and a cape over his slate gray and dark yellow striped sweater, black jeans, and combat boots, for goodness' sake! And sometimes Patton would hear him muttering under his breath in another language that sounded weirdly like clicking and trills mixed with words, kinda like what he remembered from the tribe shown in this one movie he saw as a kid set in Botswana. The one time he'd asked about it that first day when he'd just been assigned to guide the new student around T E Sanders High School, he'd been looked dead in the eye and told, "You caught me. I'm an illegal alien. Don't tell anyone, if you please. I'd rather not get locked up."

Patton was pretty sure he was exaggerating, but he promised not to tell anyway since he didn't want to be responsible for his new best friend getting deported.

And Janus Serpens was definitely his best friend. Two years of Patton sticking close to him, helping him figure out his assignments or even sometimes just random things that he wasn't familiar with from having grown up somewhere with an obviously different available technology level, watching in awe as he picked up computer programming with enviable speed.... Almost nightly sleepovers after he'd figured out that Janus was hiding the fact that he was homeless as well as being in the country without official immigration papers, introducing Janus to pizza and ice cream and chocolate chip cookies, and finding out that too much sugar made him loopy like he was drunk, drunk enough that he insisted on teaching Patton a song and different phrases in his native language and laughed in weird hisses when Patton inevitably botched the pronunciation.... Janus standing up for Patton against Drake Magissa and his posse of bullies and somehow managing to get all four of them to punch each other right in view of two teachers and the assistant principle.... Patton knew things about Janus he was pretty sure no one else knew, and he had definitely told Janus plenty of things he'd never told anyone else, not even his parents or the priest in Confession! They were best friends.

Which was why he was immediately on his guard when Janus met up with him outside the school after classes let out looking troubled and vaguely hunted.

"I got a call from my mother," Janus said by way of explanation, which put Patton even more on guard because Janus had quietly admitted to him during one of their rarely deployed "sugar crash nights" that he was an orphan. "Our visa's being called into question."

"You wanna stay over at mine tonight?" Patton asked in as even a tone as he could manage, just as he did every afternoon. This time, however, he dared add, "Maybe pack a bag for the week?"

"I don't want to put you and your Dad on the spot like that," Janus said carefully, and Patton tried not to shiver at the seemingly implied I don't want you in the crosshairs when they come for me.

"Dad won't even notice," Patton reminded Janus, because it was true. Harley Morales was always at work on week nights and drunk on weekends and barely even noticed he still had one son, never mind the second teenager sleeping in his son's room and eating their food. Almost recklessly, he added, "I could disappear off to Atlantic City for a week and he'd only notice when he checked the answering machine and got the school's automated messages about my absences."

I'll run with you if you ask me to.

Janus actually had the nerve to look startled at that, staring at Patton with wide eyes. At Patton's stubborn set of his jaw, his expression softened into something both fond and sad. "You're a good friend, Pat... definitely a better friend than I deserve."

"Agree to disagree," Patton said with forced cheerfulness the way he always did whenever Janus said something cynical or self-depricating that Patton really wanted to argue with but it wasn't the time or place. "C'mon, I'll help you pack if there's anything at your place you wanna have on hand." If there's anything still in your hideaway that you haven't moved to my house already.

"....I think I have everything I could need," Janus said after a moment, giving in. "We can go straight to yours."

"Awesome," Patton nodded firmly with a bright grin, nudging Janus's shoulder with his own, grinning even brighter when Janus ducked his head to halfway hide a bashful smile and nudged him back.

They reached the Morales property without incident. Patton had hoped Janus would be able to relax once they were inside, but if anything he just got even more tense, eyes darting around to specific points in the entryway and living room as if he could see something amiss. For all Patton knew, maybe he somehow could; he was scarily good at hearing the tiny whines of active electronics even in a loud and crowded classroom, so a near-silent house like this?

Patton swallowed and kept his voice upbeat and cheerful as he asked, "You want me to put something on the TV for us to watch while we get started on homework?"

"Sounds good," Janus nodded, glancing at the stairs up to the second floor where Patton's room was. His shoulders relaxed a little and he added, "I'm gonna grab my math book from under your bed before we start. Put on the History Channel?"

"You got it," Patton agreed, mind whirling. Janus's math book wasn't under Patton's bed, but the second-hand duffle bag Patton had stashed stuff in for if he ever broke down and ran away was. It was a decently sized bag and not completely full. Patton had shown it to Janus once, when he was punchy tired and Janus was head-lolling from the sugar, and told him that if Patton ever couldn't take it and decided to run he'd ask Janus to come with him. If Janus came back down with that bag...

Well, Patton guessed he would have his definitive answer about if they were leaving or not.

He found the remote for the TV and turned it on, clicking over to the History Channel. As he'd come to expect from the once-legitimate educational channel turned giant joke, there was a rerun episode of Ancient Aliens playing, and he snorted. Janus loved making fun of this show with him, so it was probably perfect. He tossed the remote on the coffee table and sat down on the couch, digging into his school bag for the notebook he kept for passing notes with Janus during class. He never thought he'd need it in his own home, but if Janus was being cautious then Patton was following his lead.

What's the plan? he scribbled onto a blank page and then began shuffling around his books for camouflaging noise while he waited. The TV and his own movements actually managed to hide the returning footsteps on the stairs until Janus came back into view carrying... Patton swallowed. Janus was carrying Patton's go-bag and his own thrifted duffle bag Patton had gotten for him to keep his belongings hidden in the back of Patton's closet.

"'Ancient Aliens' again?" Janus snorted, glancing at the screen and rolling his eyes. He set the duffle bags on the coffee table without a sound and flopped onto the couch next to Patton. "At least it won't be a distraction."

"Not from math, anyway," Patton agreed as he passed Janus the notebook and pen. "Okay, page sixty-three... Ms Fenwick said we only had to do the even numbers, right?"

"Right," Janus agreed absently, scribbling several lines in the notebook. "Though she said something about extra credit if we did—"

"The three bonus problems on page sixty-four," Patton finished, nodding. "I don't really need 'em, but I'll help you with them if you want?"

"I could use all the help in math I can get," Janus sighed as he handed the notebook back to Patton, who immediately glanced down at it.

Keep up conversation for a bit until we can conceivably get distracted by homework, then sneak down to the basement and go through to the shed above the storm cellar. We wait there until they invade the house, then make a run for the trees. I can keep us hidden there until our getaway arrives. Below that was a single question. Are you sure you want to come with me?

"You said it, not me," Patton forced out in as normal a joking tone as he could manage, grabbing the pen and writing YES below the question in double-sized letters. Because that was an actual bug-out plan that implied people - possibly armed people - would be breaking into Patton's house looking to abduct Janus, and there was no way in Heaven or Earth that Patton was going to leave Janus to face that alone, not while he drew breath. "C'mon, the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can move on to something nice and easy."

"Sure, we can tackle chemistry next," Janus teased even as he slumped and closed his eyes. Patton couldn't even begin to parse his expression, but he thought it might have been relief.

"I will never understand how you can be a total ace at chemistry while math eludes you," Patton shook his head, smiling softly when Janus cracked open one eye to halfway glare at him. "Here, problem two, what is the sum of all the angles in the rectangle above?"

"Five-fifty.... no, wait, three-sixty."

"Good! Okay, problem four...."

They worked through the math quickly enough despite Janus stumbling a bit on the answers here and there, though much less frequently now than he used to. By the time they were done with the extra credit problems, the sun was starting to go down and Janus was visibly getting antsy. Patton reached over and squeezed his knee before shifting the books silently off their laps and onto the coffee table.

"Chemistry next, or do you wanna do our reading for English first?" he asked, gesturing at their bug-out bags.

"I know I said chemistry, but I could really go for just some quiet reading right now," Janus nodded, his voice sounding suitably tired despite the very alert look on his face.

"If you need to fall asleep on me for a bit, you can," Patton said as he shifted around and carefully got up. "I'll wake you when it's time to scrounge up dinner."

"Mmkay," Janus feigned a yawn and made some extra noise as he also got up off the couch, grabbing Patton's notebook as he did.

"Oof!" Patton huffed to cover the sounds of them picking up the bags. "Literally falling asleep on me, I see how it is."

"Shush, pillows don't talk," Janus muttered in a grumpy tone that belied the frankly admiring look he was shooting Patton as he slid the notebook into his own bag.

"Alright, alright, I'm shushing," Patton sighed back, watching Janus, who held up a hand, his head cocked to listen. After a long moment, during which Patton counted eight of his own heartbeats, Janus nodded and led the way slowly and carefully to the kitchen and the door to the basement.

Together they descended the stairs into the darkness, Patton using his cell phone as a flashlight to help them bypass the two squeaky steps. Once in the basement, Patton held Janus back long enough to grab a few of the granola bars, the first aid kit, and the two emergency flashlights from the closet, leaving his phone in place of the flashlights. Then it was his turn taking the lead into the tunnel that went from the basement to the storm cellar and its covering shed twenty feet behind the house and thirty feet from the treeline.

"Last chance to back out," Janus warned in a low murmur that managed to be quieter than a whisper as they crouched together on the stairs, reconfiguring the straps on the duffle bags to work strapped to their backs to leave their hands free. "They'll probably let you go if you turn back now and pretend you fell asleep in the living room."

"I'm a terrible liar," Patton lied, miming a punch to Janus's shoulder. "And I'd be too ashamed to show my face in church if I left you to face this alone."

"If you're coming with me, you won't be showing your face in that church ever again," Janus warned, getting an eyeroll.

"Oh, no, I won't ever get to go be preached at that I'm going to Hell for existing," Patton deadpanned. "You know you're the only reason I haven't already left this crappy closed-minded town ages ago, so quit trying to talk me out of it. Unless... you don't want me coming?"

"Don't be daft," Janus huffed back at him. "You're the main reason I stayed as long as I have. If you really want to stick with me, I won't be strong enough to deny you."

"Then it's a good thing I'm strong enough to hold on," Patton murmured back. He met Janus's eyes and they shared a look of mutual understanding born of hundreds of late nights and shared moments building trust. Then they settled in to wait.

That was the worst part thus far: the waiting. Patton didn't have his phone anymore and wasn't going back for it, so he had no way to track how long they sat there on the stairs, listening for any sound to indicate that their moment had come....

A crash of breaking glass startled him up, only for Janus to grab his hand and shoulder open the door, dragging Patton through after him. "Now, go, run!"

Patton ran. Behind him, he could hear more breaking, glass and wood, and some shouting, but he didn't dare turn his head to look. A crack of gunfire had him clenching his jaw against a scream, putting on even more speed as two more shots were fired before he heard someone shouting for whoever was shooting to hold their fire, don't hit the kid—

He jerked to a stop and was pulled sideways by Janus's grip on his hand as his friend changed direction and began moving diagonally through the trees. Patton risked a glance behind them, but couldn't even see the house anymore, never mind any possible pursuers. His split attention made him trip over a root and he quickly turned back to focus on the ground where Janus was leading.

"You okay?" Janus rasped, sounding winded.

"Fine," Patton gasped back and, oh, yeah, maybe his chest hurt from more than just fear. He gave himself a moment to try and concentrate on his breathing, getting more oxygen into his lungs, then asked, "You? Those bullets—"

"Didn't hit anything vital," Janus panted back, which did nothing to quell the sudden surge of adrenaline up Patton's spine and his head snapped up.

His breath caught in his throat. "Your face...."

"One of the bullets came too close for comfort," Janus admitted with a grimace. He didn't stop moving, but he did turn his face so that his left cheek was bared for Patton. "How bad is it, can you tell?"

Patton swallowed. Breathed. Swallowed again. Because....

"The bullet tore all the way through the skin layer and the edges are ragged, but... it doesn't look like any of your scales are damaged," he said with the same forced calm he'd been using since they left the school together. Janus stumbled, and Patton reflexively tightened his hold on his hand. "Careful... do we need to stop and put a bandage on it?"

"Do we even have one that will cover it?" Janus rasped, tone thin and strained.

Patton nodded, then remembered Janus probably couldn't see him very well right now watching where they were going and said, "Yeah, there's a couple options. Giant band-aid or gauze square and tape."

"Gauze and tape," Janus decided after a moment where Patton absently wondered what he was thinking when Patton himself was very determinedly Not Thinking At All. "The people chasing me won't be fooled, but anyone else we meet out here should get to keep their plausible deniability."

Lucky them, Patton thought semi-hysterically, but bit the words back hard and gave an affirming hum as he slung his duffle around to get at the first aid kit he was now very glad he'd grabbed. "Hold still a second, I'll be quick."

Janus held still and let Patton position the gauze square over his cheek at an angle so the torn gash through the skin... mask... skin-mask... was completely covered before he taped down two edges, quick as can be. He shoved the gauze wrapper into his pocket and then took Janus's hand again, squeezing once when the hand remained limp and unsure in his.

"Lead on, Macduff," Patton prompted him, and practically felt the way Janus gave a full body shudder before closing his own fingers around Patton's again. "Which way?"

"We're heading to the gravel pit," Janus answered him as he started walking again, Patton falling into step with him. "It's more exposed than I really want, but it's better than the graveyard or anywhere populated. Easier to lock onto just us for pick-up."

"Okay," Patton agreed.

Silence. Then... "You're being a lot calmer than I expected about this."

"I think I might be in shock," Patton said after a moment. "Or maybe disassociating... compartmentalizing? Eh, something like that. Saving up my inevitable freak-out for when you say we're safe and nobody's shooting at us."

"Fair enough, I suppose," Janus admitted. A pause. "Would you tell me if it was too much?"

"Is there anything you could do to make it not too much?" Patton asked, fairly certain he knew the answer but curious to see if Janus would admit it.

"Not really, no," Janus said, squeezing Patton's hand tentatively.

Patton squeezed back. "Then no, I'm not going to tell you. It can all wait until you say we're safe."

"Even—"

"All of it."

"...Okay."

They walked on in silence for a while, picking their way through brush and over roots, ducking under low branches. Janus didn't try to let go of Patton's hand again, for which Patton was silently grateful. Crazy situations and revelations aside, having his best friend right there was doing better at keeping Patton grounded and functioning than all the breathing exercises he'd learned from the school counselor.

The gravel pit they were heading for was at the back of a big landscaping company building, the remnants of a quarry that now held giant piles of different kinds of rock for whatever kind of gravel bed or path or fieldstone walls got commissioned, large piles of rocks with a big open space in the middle for driving the company's bulldozer around as needed. There was a fence around the property, but it was just a standard chain link affair that the local kids had long since cut a gap in against one post to sneak in and hang out cutting class and smoking things that probably weren't just cigarettes. Patton had never gone with, but Janus had once, and had come back rather disgusted with the supposed mediocrity of teenaged rebellion on offer, which had made Patton feel better about having chickened out of going. Although...

"If we run into anyone from school," Patton said, trying to speak softly and still flinching a little at how loud he sounded in the quiet, "should we try and get them to leave?"

"Probably," Janus muttered back. "Either that or make up something about how we're there to hook up and they should keep their distance if they don't want a show."

"Oh... oh, God," Patton groaned as the words pulled up dozens of mental images out of the box he'd been keeping a lid on for more than a year and a half, splicing them together with that flash of scales on Janus's cheek... "Aaand now I'm thinking about it, and I don't even know what to think about."

"Sorry," Janus winced.

"How would that even work... no, wait, don't answer that," Patton shook his head. "File that under yet another thing that can wait until we're safe."

"I'll add it to the list," Janus promised dryly. A moment later, he stopped, tugging Patton over to crouch down against a tree as he began fishing through his own duffle bag. He pulled out a somewhat dirty pink and white cosmetics bag and unzipped it, dumping the contents out onto the ground. The shapes were hard to make out in the gloom, but one of them kind of looked like a wristwatch of some fancy designer label Patton couldn't hope to afford and another looked like a chunky sort of silver ear cuff and snake chain attached to a weird blob of something surrounding a metal bead. Janus picked that one up and fiddled with the cuff before he held it out to Patton. "Here, clip this somewhere on your ear shell and put the end inside your ear canal. It's not the most effective universal translator available, but it'll be better than nothing and won't leave you not knowing what's going on if I can't translate immediately."

"I always wanted to have an immersive language learning experience," Patton joked as he took the... translator... and slipped the cuff portion onto the shell of his right ear, pushing it down to rest close to his hairline. The blobby part was cool and dry to his touch, but squished when he squeezed a little, and when Patton pushed it into his ear the blob adjusted to fill out the space and hold the central bead inside. "And this'll work for me to understand other languages?"

"《You tell me,》" Janus said. Patton blinked, jaw dropping, because he'd heard the English words in a synthesized version of Janus's voice in his right ear, but his left ear had clearly heard the clicking trill of Janus's native language. Janus smiled, though the expression was still a bit more strained than Patton liked. "《Every language I know is programmed into the memory database that the translator connects to remotely. As I said, not perfect, but hopefully better than nothing in the short term.》"

"How remotely?" Patton asked, blinking when Janus pointed to his duffle which... was probably just as well, since he wasn't ready to confront the looming likelihood of just how remote that signal might go. As a distraction, he nodded to the wristwatch thing that Janus was strapping onto his left wrist. "What's that?"

"《Binary signal communicator and locator beacon,》" Janus answered distractedly, still speaking his own language. "《It will let me send and receive encoded messages to my crew and provide the signal for them to lock onto me for pick up. Unfortunately, it is also trackable by your military.》"

"Will your crew be able to get here in time?" Patton asked, and then immediately wished he hadn't. If the military were the ones behind the break-in they'd just fled, then they were already in the area and alert for any signal that could lead them to their target. It wouldn't matter how fast Janus's crew could travel to reach them, the military would get there first. "Nevermind. We'll just have to stall them and hope they still don't want to risk hitting..."

Me.

Because they clearly didn't care if they hit Janus with those awful bullets, and Patton hated them for it.

"《I am going to wait to send the signal to my crew until we are in position,》" Janus said quietly. "《Less interference from the trees. It should take only about》 ch!oq'ri 《five-point-two-one.》"

"Didn't catch that last bit before the numbers," Patton admitted apologetically.

Janus made a face, and Patton realized with a start that it was the same face he made whenever they were doing math homework. After a moment, he said in English, "Ten minutes."

"Got it," Patton nodded, adjusting his duffle to be more secure and then helping Janus get his own back in place. Without his friend holding his hand, it was hard for Patton to focus on him at all, so he kept his focus on the duffle and then slid his hand from the patched canvas to the body beneath, feeling down the length of his arm until he found Janus's hand again and his best friend abruptly came back into focus. If he concentrated, he could almost feel that fuzziness of perception wrapping around them both like mosquito netting, blurring out their edges. "That's some really effective camouflage."

"《It only works under tree cover, unfortunately,》" Janus said, sounding apologetic. Well, that explained why they hadn't been seen or followed once they reached the trees. "Patton—"

"What did I say about trying to talk me out of coming with you?" he interrupted, frowning at his friend who put up his free hand in a gesture Patton would have called surrender. Maybe it still meant that?

"《And I am not going to try,》" Janus said, squeezing Patton's hand again. "《I just... Thank you. You did not have to help me as much as you have, or even befriend me, but you have and you did and I am... deeply grateful to have you in my life.》"

"Yeah, yeah, I love you, too, Jay," Patton murmured, squeezing Janus's hand back. He could barely see him in the dark now, but he thought his cheeks looked darker beneath the bandage and wondered how that worked with the skin mask. Mentally adding that to the list of questions to ask later, he added, "Ready to go when you are."

Stepping out from the tree line was more nerve-wracking than Patton had expected it to be, though he guessed knowing that their protective cloak had been dependent on the tree cover had something to do with it. He still didn't let go of Janus's hand as they made their way to the gap in the fence, releasing him only long enough to crawl through the fence while Janus held the metal out of the way and then to hold the fence flap up so Janus could crawl through after him. From the way Janus gripped his hand tightly when they connected again, Patton suspected he wasn't the only one with heightened anxiety now that they were essentially out in the open.

They encountered no one as they walked along the top of the fence to the cut down track that let down into the bowl of the quarry and around the massive rock piles. Patton stayed as close to Janus's back as he could without stepping on him as his friend led the way down. They both moved closer together when they reached the bottom and it came time to step out from between the rocks and into the open space. They stopped about ten feet from the rocks and locked eyes, and Patton squeezed Janus's hand once more, getting a squeeze in return before they both let go, Janus turning his attention to his communicator thing while Patton started scanning their surroundings intently.

Seconds passed without a word between them as Janus worked and Patton kept lookout. Patton heard the soft clicks of buttons being pressed, but no other sound reached his ears. He guessed it was set to be audible only to Janus and his much more sensitive hearing. After about forty-six seconds by Patton's counting, Janus sighed and looked up.

"《That—》" he started, then his eyes widened at something behind Patton. "《Down!》"

Patton flung himself forward onto Janus, taking them both to the ground just as something whizzed by where he'd been standing a moment ago. Patton could just barely see what looked like a weird-shaped dart sticking out of the dirt several feet away before the area they were huddled was suddenly flooded with bright white lights, and not even Patton could have missed the sound of a lot of guns being cocked and taken off safety.

"Attention, unknown extraterrestrial, alias Janus Serpens," a megaphone amplified voice echoed against the rocks. "We have you surrounded. Release the hostage, drop your weapons, and surrender."

"I have a name, thank you!" Patton shouted back, adjusting his limbs to better cover Janus, who hissed a little at him even has he curled his own limbs in close underneath Patton. "And I'm not a hostage, either!"

There was a long moment, and then a different voice came over the megaphone. "Patton?"

"Dad?!" Oh, crap, crap, crap, why the heck did his deadbeat alcoholic father have to pick now to pay attention and be home that he'd gotten caught up by the military invading—

"I'm here, son!" his dad said, sounding relieved. "Are you alright? You're not hurt?"

"I'm not hurt," Patton confirmed. More testily, he added, "Not that all these guys with guns have made it easy to stay that way!"

"Can you come up here?" his dad asked, still speaking into the megaphone. "Just come up here and we can go home where it's safe."

.....No. Oh, no.....

"No thank you," Patton called back, tightening his arms around Janus. "I actually feel a lot safer right here!"

"Patton, be reasonable," his dad sighed into the megaphone, the traitor. "This is not a safe situation. Come up here and let me take you home."

"Oh, you're so right, Dad," Patton called back with a rather savage forced cheerfulness to his voice. "It really isn't very reasonable to feel safe with all those guns being pointed at me and my best friend! Maybe they should stop doing that!"

"Patton, that creature is not your friend," his dad said firmly, the words echoing around the rocks. "It's not even human!"

Patton felt Janus flinch beneath him, and snapped.

"So fucking what if he isn't?!" he shouted, his own voice bouncing around the rocks now. "He's still a person, and yeah, also still my best friend, the one who's listened to me and cared about me and shown me more compassion and decency in the last two years than you have my entire fucking life! You're gone most of the time and drunk when you're not, and you think I have any intention of leaving my best friend alone with people who keep shooting at him? For you?!"

"Your mother wouldn't want you to throw your life away like this!" his dad tried, sounding desperate, and Patton was just done. How dare he bring up Mom like it wasn't his fault she was gone?!

"Fuck you and burn in Hell, Harley!" Patton growled, lifting one hand just enough to flip the middle finger in the direction of the spotlight. From beneath him, he felt Janus shaking and heard the slightest sound of hissing. And then...

"《Time to go,》" Janus breathed, and the bright white light directed at them was suddenly being drowned out in gold. Patton heard shouting, and felt a line of fire burn across his shoulder before he heard the sharp retort of a gun going off, and then it felt as if every single cell in his body was being squeezed and pulled through a straw—

The stretch abruptly snapped back leaving him panting in reaction as the glow faded out from around them. He heard someone shout in a language that the translator didn't catch or maybe just didn't think it could be translated, and then more people were shouting and the translator was feeding him words like "enemy" and "kill" and there was a loud electrical whine... and then Janus was surging up, Patton slumping down to the ground, still panting and trying to catch his breath as Janus began shouting back.

"《Do not fire!》" he was yelling. "《He is not an enemy! Do not fire!》"

"《That filthy—》" A word Patton couldn't understand but guessed was probably an insult from the tone and context. "《—had you pinned down!》"

"《He was protecting me!》" Janus snapped back. "《The military had their weapons pointed at me and he shielded me with his body! He is my friend!》"

"《You were down there to monitor communications and warn us if they noticed our presence,》" another voice said, and this language was different, full of rolling vowels and glottal stops. "《You were not supposed to pick up strays.》"

"《I was there for two planetary orbits,》" Janus clicked, huffing a breath. "《He took me into his nest, shared food with me, cared for me in moments of weakness, and immediately volunteered to come with me when he learned I had to leave, all without knowing we were not the same species. And when he had proof of our difference, he still stayed and helped and protected me, even from his own blood kin. And you would have me repay his loyalty by leaving him behind?》"

There was a long moment where no one spoke and the loudest sound was Patton's strained and heavy breathing. Finally, the rolling vowel voice said, "《Is he supposed to be leaking red?》"

Janus said another word the translator didn't catch, but one that Patton remembered his friend teaching him in that song, and suddenly Janus was crouching down beside him, his hands fluttering around the burning area of Patton's shoulder. "Patton? Patton, 《are you okay? Can you hear me?》"

"Jay?" Patton mumbled, slowly prying his eyes open and trying to focus through his crooked glasses. "We safe now?"

"《Yes,》 Patton," Janus said softly, his hand leaving Patton's shoulder to take his hand again and squeeze. "《We are both safe now.》"

"Okay," Patton breathed... and promptly dissolved into tears.

Chapter Text

CRYING AND BLEEDING into his best friend's sweater after being beamed up onto an alien space ship away from being surrounded at gunpoint and shot at by some branch of the United States military after cursing out his father was... probably not the most dignified first impression Patton could have made on said best friend's crew mates. Because when his best friend had said he was an illegal alien, he had really meant extraterrestrial alien and not just from another country. Aliens were real, and he had been best friends with one for two years without noticing even though in hindsight there were a lot of really glaringly obvious hints that Patton had just brushed aside or put down to cultural differences.

Well, it wasn't like he'd been wrong about that, even if he'd mistaken that culture as still being from Earth.

Janus held him as he sobbed, rubbing his back and trilling softly to him, a wordless croon that didn't register with the translator he had given Patton back before everything had gone to Hell. He hadn't tried to shush him or urge him to calm down, just held him and comforted him while he cried and shook and hiccup'd and cried some more. In fact, he only broke off the comforting trill when one of the crew approached them, lifting his head and hissing.

"《Peace,》 Ianous," the alien with the language full of rolling vowels and glottal stops said softly from much closer than before, and Patton couldn't help but flinch a little closer into Janus's hold. This was the one who had called Patton a stray. "《Your human is still leaking red, which my check of the ship's database says is blood. He needs medical attention, and you both need to get off the transporter pad.》"

"《It can wait until we have docked with the Mindscape,》" Janus protested. "《He is not bleeding badly, thank the stars, and he has just been through a very emotional ordeal. I know that emotions are not your strongest base of knowledge,》 L'ohnga'ohn, 《but surely you can understand the need to process a high stress experience.》"

"《Which is why I sent—》" A word Patton couldn't quite catch which sounded weirdly like a guttural cough that the translator didn't kick in for, which was probably a name. "《—to the helm so you would have privacy to comfort your human and no obstruction between here and the on-board infirmary,》" the one Patton thought might be called "L'ohnga'ohn" said with measured patience.

"《You had best make sure that—》" Another word Patton recognized from that song Janus had taught him which the translator skipped; he was beginning to suspect that Janus had taught him the alien equivalent of a bawdy drinking song full of insults and swearing and maybe he hadn't been laughing at him just because Patton kept butchering the pronunciation. "《—does not transmit falsehoods to the Mindscape and alarm the captain over my friend being aboard.》"

"《I locked the communications array, not to worry,》" was the response. "《Go on, I will go to the helm as well and give you both the space to move as you need.》"

Patton heard footsteps retreating, though it sounded like the one walking away had more than just two legs. He wasn't sure since he hadn't dared look anywhere but at Janus yet, but then he suspected that was also part of why they were being left alone. There was a rattle that sounded kind of like the rolling of automatic doors opening back on Earth, more footsteps, and then another rattle, and then Janus sighed.

"How're you doing?" he murmured, and Patton almost flinched again at hearing Janus speaking English. He'd gotten surprisingly used to hearing the synthesized version of his friend's voice in his ear over the click-and-trill of his native language.

"Think I'm done crying for the moment," Patton muttered back after a bit of turning the question over for a real answer. "Shoulder doesn't hurt as much anymore, either."

"That's good," Janus hummed, ducking his head back down to press his cheek against the top of Patton's head. "L'ohnga'ohn wants me to take you to the infirmary to get the wound taken care of, but we don't have to go anywhere if you're not ready to move yet."

"Is us being on this... transporter pad... are we in the way like this?" Patton stumbled through asking in a small voice.

"Nah," Janus denied, shaking his head, his cheek rubbing against Patton's curls. "The transporter is just for moving down to or up from the surface of a planet or moon, bypassing the gravitational pull. You felt how uncomfortable it was, right?"

"So that was normal?" Patton asked, shivering a little at the memory of having every cell in his body squeezed and pulled like he was being stretched through a straw before snapping back together all at once like a recoiled rubber band.

"Sure was," Janus huffed. "It sucks, and no one really likes it, but it's still less energy intensive than trying to take a ship slowly down to the planet's surface without burning through that highly combustible atmosphere or crashing and then having to get back up off the planet and out of the gravity well. When we dock with the main ship and have gone through the repressurization cycle, everybody will just walk out through the airlock into the decontamination—" He paused, and groaned. "That's why L'ohnga'ohn wanted me to take you to the infirmary. Shit, I forgot..."

"What is it?" Patton asked, trying not to let his brain conjure up all sorts of possibilities from the mildly uncomfortable to the highly invasive.

"Decontamination and acclimation," Janus admitted, resuming rubbing Patton's back in response to his tension. "I've been down on your planet for two years, getting steeped in your native atmospheric soup of bacteria and microbes, some of which don't play well with others even when they're both thriving in the same environment. So, decontamination, and we should take a bioscan of you to make sure you're not carrying anything hazardous to anyone, including yourself."

"How will you be able to tell?" Patton asked apprehensively. He didn't even know all of the bacteria and microbes that lived in his body and were supposed to be there, never mind the ones that weren't or could hurt another person on the ship!

"You aren't the only human out here in the greater galactic community," Janus said gently, patting Patton's back. "You aren't even the first to leave your planet voluntarily, though unfortunately that happens more rarely than anyone with a good ethical constitution would prefer. Earth is still considered a proto-civilized planet for reasons I'm sure you can guess after what just happened, so humans who leave Earth through... unsanctioned means... don't tend to ever go back."

"Good," Patton muttered, tightening his grip on Janus's shoulder. "I wouldn't want to go back even if I could."

Janus trilled softly. When the translator didn't kick in, Patton guessed it was some kind of hum or coo equivalent. After a moment, he asked, "Think you can walk if I help? I don't know if you've got your limbs about you again yet."

Patton didn't know if he had his limbs about himself again yet, either, whatever the heck that meant. Still, he was already feeling embarrassed over his first impression for two of Janus's crew mates (friends?) being him having an emotional breakdown all over their transporter pad, so he swallowed down both nerves and nausea and said, "Let's find out. You'll stay close in case I pitch over flat on my face, right?"

"I won't let you fall," Janus promised solemnly, rubbing his cheek against Patton's head again. Patton made a mental note to ask about that gesture later - it wasn't exactly new, but he had a feeling the meaning behind it was much more nuanced that he'd originally thought back when they were on Earth - and reluctantly shifted away from the comforting reassurance of his best friend's embrace in order to lever himself upright and try standing.

"How is there gravity?" he asked, more to fill the silence than anything, though that was a very good question since they were in space and should have probably been floating... at least by the standards of Earth's current space-travel technology.

There was a pause, and then Janus asked, "Would you believe me if I said it was really big magnets?"

"No," Patton snorted, pushing himself up and practically dragging his legs underneath himself. He was clinging to Janus tightly, but since his best friend didn't protest or pull away at all as he helped Patton stand, Patton resolved not to apologize for it. "You can just tell me if you don't know. I won't be upset."

"It's not so much that I don't know," Janus temporized, sliding an arm around Patton's waist to support him as he turned them towards a set of sliding doors in the opposite direction from where the helm and his other two crew mates were, "but that what I know is pretty basic from my perspective, and I don't know how to translate it into a frame of reference that would make sense to you given the level of physics classes we were in together."

"Fair enough," Patton admitted as he shifted his arm to go around Janus's shoulders. He didn't feel as bad anymore, but his knees were still a bit wobbly and he couldn't entirely put it down to the transporter. "Even if there was a good cross-cultural analogy, one or both of us might not have the vocabulary necessary for making sense of it."

"Exactly," Janus nodded. "Watch your step here."

Patton watched his step, clinging just a bit tighter around Janus's shoulders as they both descended from the transporter pad. Patton glanced back, taking note now that he wasn't on top of it of the dull amber lines in the glossy black surface that curved and crossed over each other and how there was an identical round black surface with the same dull amber design on the ceiling directly above it. It kind of put Patton in mind of a summoning circle from a B-list horror movie, which probably wasn't the best mental association he could be making here.

Unaware of Patton's preoccupation, Janus guided him over to the doors, which really did look like fancy sliding doors on a supermarket, except opaque instead of glass. He reached out and pressed a button next to the doors, which obligingly slid open with that familiar rattle, revealing a tidy looking room with a lot of drawers and a table that looked like it was covered in the same squishy stuff that was on the earpiece of the translator Patton was wearing. "What is this stuff?"

"The word for it in Galactic Standard - that's the language you heard L'ohnga'ohn speaking - is 'whoulpaq'," Janus answered as he guided Patton over to the table and helped him remove his duffle bag from his back in order to sit on it and then lie down. Patton was somehow not surprised that it squished to conform to his body and provide full support. "Think of it as kind of a cross between memory foam and ballistics gel in terms of how it behaves."

"Neat," Patton said, and he meant it. With the translator and this medical bed as examples, he could see how useful it must be to have something that could conform and adapt to different configurations of anatomy across multiple different species. "Now what?"

"Now I set the medical bed to do a basic bioscan of you while I get the first aid kit you brought out and see if it's got what we need to patch up your shoulder," Janus said, already pressing buttons on the side of the bed out of Patton's line of sight. "If not, we'll use the stuff in here, but I figured it would be easier on you to stick with as much familiarity as possible right now."

It was on the tip of Patton's tongue to ask just how different alien bandages could be, but then he actually thought about it. If Janus was saying that the familiarity of band-aids and Neosporin versus whatever was in those drawers was something that mattered, Patton was probably better off trusting him on that. Heck, for all he knew, when the time came that he needed a bathroom, he might end up presented with three shells!

"So, what's gonna happen with the decontamination process?" Patton asked, as much to distract himself from the hypothetical bathroom issue as to mentally prepare for what was to come.

"We'll all disembark from the scouter ship through the airlock and into the receiving chamber of the decontamination line," Janus answered as he shrugged off his own duffle and then ducked down out of sight, presumably to look through Patton's duffle for the first aid kit. "Then we'll go one by one into the preparatory room where we'll strip down out of everything, which does mean the translator and your glasses, too, I'm afraid. You can put it all in your duffle, at least, which will go into a large tube that will have a blue light inside, and then you'll walk through the next door into the actual decontamination chamber. Uh, it'll probably remind you of a cross between a tanning bed and that airport security scanner you told me about going through once."

"Fun," Patton said dryly. "Should I close my eyes for it?"

"Probably," Janus hummed. "It won't damage your eyes to have them open, but it can get pretty bright while the cycle is going. The lights will dim down when it's done and the door you're supposed to leave through will open so you can retrieve your newly decontaminated duffle bag and everything in it and get yourself re-dressed. You and I will probably then be sent through the left exit in order for you to get your inoculations while I... will be having some minor corrective surgery."

"Surgery?!" Patton yelped, nearly sitting up in alarm. Quicker than he expected, Janus popped up and put a hand on his chest to keep him down on the table.

"Stay put, the scan's not done yet," he scolded. "And yes, minor and relatively painless surgery to disconnect certain prostheses that make me appear closer to human, along with reattaching a few bits that couldn't be hidden under the syntheskin." He made a face. "I should probably take that off before we disembark, actually. With the cheek torn, I won't be able to put this face back on before you see me again."

"Why would you want to?"

The question was out of Patton's mouth before he had even realized he'd opened it to speak. Janus blinked down at him. Patton blinked back. After a moment, Janus said hesitantly, "You're gonna have to help me out, here, Pat. I... I'm not sure what you meant there."

Patton wasn't quite sure what he had meant, either, especially since he hadn't thought he was going to say anything to begin with. But as he looked up at Janus, his eyes slid over to the square of gauze he'd taped over the gash where the... syntheskin? Where it had torn from (nope, nope, nope, not ready to think about that one yet) their escape from Patton's house. He swallowed.

"Why would you want to put that face back on?" he asked softly, tearing his eyes away from the gauze to meet Janus's eyes (were they even his real eyes looking at him?) and biting his lower lip before adding, "It's not actually your real face, right? And honestly, the idea of wearing a full face mask like that for two years without a break seems like a really awful experience that would make me want to rip it off the moment I could and not put one on again for a really long time, so... I don't get why you'd want to. Put it back on."

"Oh," Janus blinked, ducking his head a little as his visible cheek turned ruddy, and Patton was actually really curious about how what he knew was fake flesh was blushing. "It's not as bad as you're probably thinking. The syntheskin is actually pretty light and breathable despite being full-body coverage, and I have spent the last two years seeing this face in the mirror all the time. It'll probably be weird for me not to see it, actually, and... well, it's the face you're familiar with seeing on me...."

"And I already know you have scales on your real face," Patton reminded him as gently as he could. Janus still flinched, so he hurried to add, "They're pretty! I mean, well, I couldn't see them too well, what with the shade from the trees and the sun going down and being more concerned with checking for b-blood, but I thought they were..." He trailed off, swallowed, and finished a bit lamely, "Pretty."

"They're not at their best right now anyway," Janus said after a moment, glancing up through his (the mask's?) eyelashes with a shy smile. "Stuck under syntheskin for two years and all... Maybe hold off on evaluating my au naturale—" Patton had to try and bite back a snicker as the translator in his ear intoned "natural" a half-second behind Janus. "—aesthetic. What?"

Okay, so he wasn't doing too good at hiding his amusement.

"The translator," Patton explained, gesturing to his ear. "It translated the French, even though it's one of those phrases English borrows wholesale. Hey, does that mean you know French?" he asked, remembering that Janus had said the remote database the translator connected to was programmed with every language Janus knew.

"English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Yoruba," Janus confirmed. "We weren't sure what part of your planet I would be arriving on, so we tried to maximize my chances of being able to blend in. Well, as much as I could, anyway. Thomas would have been a better option for actually blending in, but he's, in his own words, a complete rube with computers."

"Thomas?" Patton repeated, startled. Based on L'ohnga'ohn and the other crewmate whose name he hadn't caught, and even Janus himself, he hadn't expected to hear such a normal-sounding name.

"Remember I mentioned other humans out here?" Janus said, sighing when Patton nodded. "Well, Thomas is one of the ones who didn't choose to leave Earth voluntarily. The rest of his story isn't mine to tell, but he joined us under... less than ideal circumstances. He'll probably be the one to meet you at the end of decontamination and acclimation, give you the tour and take you up to meet the captain while I'm in surgery."

....Right, Patton had almost forgotten about that. He wondered what had to have been so important that the captain had sent Janus, who had to be surgically altered to fit into a human shaped full body syntheskin suit, over the apparent actual human on the crew, but he didn't trust himself to ask that right now. Not when he had a more pressing question bubbling up to his lips.

"Can I help?" he asked cautiously. "With the... the removing the mask? Since you said you should probably remove it before we disembark... and that way I'll be sure to recognize you later without it, when you're fully back to looking like yourself!"

"You'll be able to recognize me easily enough," Janus mumbled, and whatever was making the mask blush for him was definitely working overtime now. "It's not like there's any other Shi'itashi on board the ship."

"Is that the name of your, er... species? People?" Patton felt his own face heating up as he floundered. "'Shi'itashi'? Kinda sounds Japanese… or like a mushroom… wait, that's not better… help?"

"Species," Janus said, coming to Patton's rescue. "At least according to the Galactic Registry. My people are the crew of the 《Mindscape》, what with being found as an egg on the black market and presumed orphaned."

Patton stared up at Janus as he processed that. He'd known Janus was an orphan, but part of him had hoped the whole "orphan" thing had been part of the disguise, a fabricated backstory to explain why he was running around alone and homeless while still going to school. And even being completely true, he had at least thought his friend might have known his parents for even a little while, but.... "Is the scan done yet? 'Cause I really need to hug you right now."

"Wha— Yeah, but—" Janus stammered, only to cut himself off with a hissed squeak as Patton surged up off the bed and wrapped his arms tightly around Janus, holding him as close as the could manage and hooking his chin over Janus's shoulder to get even closer.

"I don't know what your egg must have been doing in the black market, and I can't think of any good reasons right now," he said lowly, hands fisting in the slippery black capelet his friend was still wearing, "but I am so, so grateful for whatever circumstances got you away from there and safely hatched."

"Well… for a given definition of safe, anyway," Janus mumbled against Patton's shoulder, his voice just a little too thick to make the joking tone ring true. "What with, y'know, hatching in space on a ship with a bunch of people of different species, none of whom were prepared to be parents. Don't get me wrong, they all stepped up and did their best for me," he added hastily. "Just… well, you don't sign on to a ship like ours if you're looking for a calm life, and the twins in particular kind of have a reputation that is more than earned, and the closest equivalent translation for their appellation is 'the Wrecking Balls'."

"Sounds like a fun pair to have at parties," Patton chuckled, squeezing Janus a little. "I'm looking forward to meeting your family. Properly, I mean, since I don't think earlier should count."

"They're gonna love you when they get to know you," Janus promised, patting Patton on the back. "Hey, uh... if you wanna help me get the syntheskin off my head and face, I kinda need to take some things off first, so..."

"Oh! Right," Patton reluctantly released Janus, trying not to blush or stare... or not stare, since even when they had their sleepovers, Janus had always changed in the bathroom and borrowed a hoodie to sleep in which covered his head. Since Patton could feel the constant coolness of his hands which he'd put down to poor circulation, he'd always assumed that Janus just got cold easily despite living in Texas. Maybe that was even true, to a degree, if Janus was some kind of... alien reptile person under the mask.

He tried to pretend that he didn't notice the way Janus's hands were shaking ever so slightly as he reached up and removed the bowler hat, reaching under the brim to poke at whatever he used to hold it secured to the tightly coiled curls of his hair. Patton's eyes followed it as Janus took the hat off turned upside down and saw two small comb clips tacked onto the inside of the crown. Neat. The hat was set down on the bed next to Patton's leg and Janus turned his attention to the clasp on the capelet, shrugging it off and laying it down on top of the discarded hat.

"I, uh... contacts," Janus murmured, still looking down. "Just... I need to...."

"Go ahead," Patton whispered, then swallowed and said a little louder, a little more firmly, "I'm not going anywhere."

It was still a little disconcerting to see Janus reach up with both hands and actually seem to pinch his own eyeballs and pull. Patton swallowed again as the contacts came free and Janus blinked rapidly.

"《Oh, that feels so weird,》" he clicked, giving a full body shudder as if that could somehow help him make his eyes... what, less dry? More dry? Patton knew what it felt like to sleep in his contacts because it was so hard to put them in and pull them out again, which was part of why he barely ever wore them in the first place. And Janus had been wearing those huge things for two years to make his eyes look human?

"I have some saline in my duffle," he offered hesitantly, "if you think it'll... help.... Oh..."

"Too weird?" Janus asked hesitantly, blinking again.

"Beautiful," Patton corrected absently, staring into the newly revealed eyes. Gold dominated them, at least five different shades where the eyes shown by the contacts had been two, maybe three shades of dark to medium brown. As he lifted his head and the light in the room caught in his eyes, Patton saw the pupils contract from chevrons to slits before he blinked again. "I like your real eyes better than the contacts."

"I... uh..." Janus swallowed and mumbled, "《Stars and egg shards, I am too love-stupid to deal with this…》" As Patton was trying to process that, he coughed and said, "So, um, I'm gonna turn around, and... there's a gonna be some odd-looking bumps along my spine, and a line on top of them that probably looks like scar tissue? You'll need to hook your fingers in under the right side and pull left to open the seam and then work your way up into the hair to give me enough of a gap and ease to pull the mask forward and off my head."

"And it's not going to hurt you or anything, right?" Patton checked cautiously. "Like it's not... glued down anywhere, right?"

"No adhesives at all," Janus assured him as he turned his back. "There might be some fluid that leaks out, but that's meant to keep me from drying out or freezing if I got too hot or too cold on Earth. It's not biologically generated and it's completely safe for both of us to handle."

"Okay," Patton murmured, eyeing Janus's bared back. "Scar tissue" was a pretty close descriptor, though it was decidedly odd for scarring, and stood out nearly white against the dark caramel brown of the syntheskin, like a twisted line of whipped cream on top of a chocolate bar. It felt cool and firm to Patton's careful touch, and it clearly still transferred sensation as Janus gave a small shudder and a hastily choked off gasp. Patton flinched. "Sorry... I... under the right edge and pull left?"

"Yep," Janus confirmed with a short nod. "Go ahead... and remember, no matter what noises you hear me make, you are not hurting me, okay?"

"Okay," Patton swallowed and set his jaw. Even expecting something to happen, it still caught him a bit by surprise when he hooked his fingers into the right edge and there was a distinct give followed by seeping, faintly orange fluid. Sternly reminding himself that Janus had told him that stuff was there and safe, he hooked his fingers in deeper and began pulling the syntheskin towards Janus's left shoulder blade, unable to keep from wincing as more of the fluid seeped out and began dripping down his back and onto Janus's sweater. "Is this safe for clothes?"

"Yep!" Janus gasped on the edge of a low trill. "Comes... comes right out... in the wash... nngh... up now..."

"Right," Patton muttered and brought his other hand up to work both edges of the syntheskin suit open, going up into the hairline. He could see what he thought might be burnished gold spinal ridges under the syntheskin where the bumps had been, and as he worked his way up more of the green-gold scales came into view to either side before he started seeing what looked like pale orange tendrils of clumped hair or wet feathers. "Got enough room to pull?"

"Almossst," Janus hissed, shuddering a bit more. He reached up to grab at the syntheskin over his face and Patton quickly averted his eyes back to working the back seam further open and up... and then Janus pulled, and the whole mass of hair and syntheskin stretched, squelched, and slid... off! "Ugh... 《Shards, I wish I could have a》 chrrk'ree 《sand bath!》"

"Is that… not something you can do on the ship?" Patton asked hesitantly, his hands fluttering near the bunched up edges of the back of the suit. Did it need to come the rest of the way off? But Janus hadn't removed his sweater, and it looked like the seam went further down from where he'd been working….

"On the main ship, sure," Janus sighed, doing something with the lump of hair and syntheskin at the front that Patton resolved not to think about or question before apparently deciding to shove it all under the front of his sweater neck. "On the scouter, I'll have to make do with a towel or something."

"You could use this," Patton offered as he hastily began stripping off his shirt, biting the inside of his cheek to keep in a hiss as the pain in his shoulder flared again. "Between the blood and the bullet tear, it's pretty much a lost cause, so it might as well get one final act of usefulness, right? And I can just wait to put on another shirt until after the decontamination process is done…"

"Be sure to tell the captain I'm claiming you when you meet him," Janus broke in softly as he turned around and took the offered shirt from Patton. "Because he is definitely going to adopt you just like he did the rest of us."

Patton squeaked softly as he caught the briefest look at gold eyes and green-gold scales before they disappeared beneath his discarded shirt and Janus began rubbing at his head and face vigorously just the way Patton would towel off after a shower. Aside from the weirdly blue infirmary and the squishy... what had Janus called it? "Whoulpaq"? The weird alien padding stuff underneath him on the medical bed. Besides that, they could have been back on Earth just darting in from the rain with Patton having stripped off his barely damp shirt to let Janus dry off with. Not that he'd ever done that, even though he'd thought about it. He'd never quite dared, and even now he was struggling not to feel self-conscious about his shirtless state even though he had just been helping Janus peel off layers he'd never seen beneath before. Really, him being shirtless was just making them even, right?

"Pat?"

Patton started, abruptly realizing he'd dropped his eyes to stare at his hands which were twisting together nervously. Silently scolding himself - the last thing he wanted was to make Janus think he was nervous to be around him - Patton forced his hands to still and looked up.

Oh…

Any nerves that he hadn't managed to strangle and shove down abruptly fled as he took in the absolute beauty that was Janus's natural face. Without the human mask in the way, Patton could see that his eyes were actually quite a bit bigger than what would be considered normal for a human, which Patton realized must have meant that when he took out the contacts the inside of the mask had been rubbing against his eyes directly with every blink. No wonder it felt weird!

Janus blinked, unintentionally releasing Patton from his near-mesmerized state, enough that Patton could shift his attention enough to take in the rest of his best friend's face. Pebbly gold scales surrounded the most sensitive areas of eyes, mouth, and two curved slits that Patton thought must be nostrils, the scales taking on a greener tinge along his chin, cheekbones, jaw, and the lightly ridged scales going up from just above his nostrils between and above his eyes and up over his skull. Right in the middle between those ridges about where his human mask hairline would have started was what Patton could only call a crest of silky-looking white about three inches long that... yeah, he still couldn't tell if they were hair or feathers or something in between, but it ran up and over the top of Janus's head almost like a mohawk or a horse's mane.

"Wow," Patton breathed softly, awed, and was treated to the sight of those tiny, bead-like pebbly scales beneath Janus's eyes turning a brighter gold. "Any, um... any extra bits to reattach up here?"

"Just, um… the horns," he mumbled, ducking his head a bit. Patton caught a glimpse of four dull ovals, two the size of a large chicken egg and two more half that size, one set on either side of the ridged scales framing the white crest. "Rose promised they'd go back on without any issues or weak points going forward, so…"

"Rose?"

"Our medic," Janus answered. "Her actual name is something none of us can pronounce, but she let Thomas give her 'Rose' as a nickname since she's what Thomas calls a russet crystalline and is the only one on the ship who actually wears a syntheskin suit as a matter of safety. Her language sounds a lot like wind chimes, actually, and it's in the translator's database so you'll be able to understand her when you meet, and she'll probably give you a chime sequence that'll be her nickname for you."

Patton might have asked another question, but a three-note whistling sound echoed in the room, followed by a voice speaking the familiar clicks and trills of Janus's language that the translator obligingly filtered. "《Attention, crew and passenger, we are about to dock with the Mindscape. Please secure yourselves and your belongings and prepare for imminent disembarkation and save your flirtations for your quarters.》"

"Damn it, Ro'Mac," Janus growled, glaring at the ceiling. "You'll be my alibi when I murder my brother, right?"

"I would absolutely be your alibi," Patton promised, leaning forward and wrapping his arms around Janus in a hug that made his best friend go still. "But how about instead of murder we just pretend his words don't bother us and leave him in suspense for future retaliation?"

"Have I mentioned how much I adore your devious streak?" Janus breathed as he carefully wrapped his arms around Patton in return.

"Once or twice," Patton teased and, daringly, leaned up to rub his cheek against his best friend's, marveling at the texture of his scales rubbing against his own skin. Yeah, he could definitely get used to that feeling, especially if Janus would make that soft little trilling sound again when he did it. Then he swayed, and Patton actually felt the shift in inertia of the bed beneath him. "We're docked with the main ship now?"

"Yep," Janus murmured and sighed, rubbing his cheek against Patton's one more time before reluctantly pulling away and helping him down from the bed. "Ready to face L'ohnga'ohn and Ro'Mac?"

"Only one way to find out."