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Thomas heard a knock on his door. It was midnight, way past the acceptable time for visitors. He decided not to answer, not wanting some weirdo to jump out and stab him, or whatever people did when they knocked on someone’s door in the middle of the night.
The knocking only became more insistent. Desperate. So much so that Thomas’ heart began to ache as he just ignored it, because what if someone was hurt? What if they needed help? But then… why would they come to Thomas’ house? How would he help? Why should he help, so late at night? Surely this person knew that usually people were asleep by this time. Well, not Thomas, he would probably be awake for at least another couple hours, but…
He sighed, standing up from the sofa and making his way into his room. Maybe he should just try to sleep, and whoever it was would eventually get fed up and leave. If it was a friend, they could have texted or called him by now, so he ruled out that possibility. If it was a murderer, then great, he’d just escaped death! If it was a thief or something, they’d sneak in and steal his stuff, but he couldn’t be blamed for that, sometimes things like that just happened.
...wow, he must have been really tired, if he was thinking like that. He probably should have called the police or something, but that didn’t even cross his mind. Instead, he curled up into bed, and drifted off to sleep.
When he awoke, he’d completely forgotten about the knocking the previous night, or perhaps just shrugged it off as a dream, nothing to worry about. He went about his usual morning routine - scrol through Twitter for an hour laid in bed, shower, quick breakfast, get dressed, clean teeth, mess with his hair whilst staring in the mirror until his momentary confidence runs out and he can no longer bear to look at himself, grab his bag, head outside. Ready for his shift at the coffee shop, then his lecture in the late afternoon.
He never even made it out of the apartment building, as he found someone leaned against the wall opposite his door, either asleep or passed out or possibly dead. Probably not dead. Thomas quickly ruled out that possibility, wanting to believe that wasn’t the case. Though even if he wasn’t dead now, it appeared as though he could be soon - his face and clothes were stained with blood, half of his face covered in burns, cuts all over his body. Thomas didn’t think twice before he dropped his bag and went to kneel besides the man, gently touching his shoulder to attempt to wake him, trying to figure out what to do.
Just before the man woke up, he was hit with the sudden realisation that this was probably who was knocking on his door the night before, and he’d just left him . He almost felt sick at that. But before he could have too much of a crisis, the man opened his eyes, blinking in confusion, then looked at Thomas, looking… lost. Sad. In pain, mostly.
“Hey,” Thomas said, speaking as softly as possible. “Do you think you can stand up?”
The man’s eyes widened at that, and he seemed… afraid. There was something familiar about his expression, though Thomas couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“I just want to get you somewhere more comfortable,” Thomas quickly explained, glancing into his apartment, door still wide open, “but if you don’t think you can stand, then…” He thought for a moment. “I could carry you, if you want?”
Somehow, the man’s eyes widened even more at that, and he shook his head. “N-No, I…” His voice sounded rough, groggy, like he was struggling to get words out. “I can do it.” He began to push himself up, arms shaking, entire body shaking, actually, though eventually he managed to get to his feet and lean against the wall. Thomas stood up with him, watching him carefully in case he fell - which, by the way his legs were shaking, could easily happy quite soon. It did. The man toppled over as soon as he took one step, and Thomas quickly leapt to his aid, holding him upright. Whilst he winced as Thomas touched him, he did not attempt to push him away, instead allowing Thomas to lead him into the apartment and to the living room, eventually collapsing on the couch.
“Stay there a moment,” Thomas said, before moving into the hallway to grab the first aid kit from the cupboard. Whilst he was there, he quickly sent a text to his boss saying that something urgent had come up and he wouldn’t be able to come into work, along with a promise that he’d explain properly later. His boss knew him well, and knew that Thomas wouldn’t bail like that unless he was literally dying or it was something important, so… they’d probably understand.
When he arrived back in the living room, the man had his eyes closed again, though he jerked awake as Thomas stepped close to him. “S-Sorry, I…”
“Shh,” Thomas said, sitting down besides him and opening the first aid kit. “It’s alright. I…” He sighed. “I’m guessing it was you knocking on my door last night?”
As Thomas began to clean up the blood on the man’s face, he slowly nodded.
“Sorry for leaving you out there,” Thomas said in response. “It was late, I wasn’t… thinking.”
“It’s fine.” The man looked away. “Probably should have known better than to knock on your door. Wasn’t even sure if you still lived here.” He paused. “What year is it?”
Thomas stopped for a moment, staring at the man. Still lived here? What year is it? What… Was Thomas supposed to know this person? There… was something about him that felt familiar, like the two were connected somehow, but he didn’t recognise him. That could be something to do with the burns on his face, though they looked old, he must have had them for a long time. But Thomas must have known him, otherwise how would he know where he lived? Unless he got the wrong apartment, somehow, or…
“Thomas?” Oh. Perhaps this guy did know him. “Sorry, I must have freaked you out there. Are you alright?”
Thomas nodded, slowly, even as his head pounded and a million thoughts circled around his mind. “Should I know who you are?” he asked, before he could stop himself.
Silence for a moment. “Janus. You know. Your… partner.”
Thomas just stared at him, blankly. “What, like a romantic partner? Because, I mean, I’m fairly certain that I’m single, unless I… hooked up with someone that last party I went to, I don’t know, uh…”
“No, I mean, like…” Janus sighed. He didn’t finish his statement.
“Business partners, then?” Thomas offered.
Janus looked as though he was about to shake his head, but instead just frowned. “Look, I know it’s been a while since we spoke, but… surely it hasn’t been long enough that you’d forget me. Christ, what- what did they do to you?”
Thomas only grew more confused at that. “Who’s ‘they’? Who- What are you talking about?”
Janus was silent for a moment, before he repeated, “What year is it?”
“2018?”
Janus absolutely did not seem satisfied with that answer, as his face fell, and he tried to shuffle away from Thomas, only stopping as he winced from moving with all his injuries.
“What’s wrong?” Thomas asked.
“That… can’t be right.” He looked away, beginning to breathe faster, close to hyperventilating. “I… I thought I… I didn’t travel back that far, I-“
“Janus,” Thomas said, moving off the sofa to kneel in front of him, “take a deep breath for me.”
Janus shook his head, turning away from Thomas. “N-No, no, I shouldn’t be here, I- Fuck, we haven’t even met yet, I…” He closed his eyes. “Just… forget you saw me, I’ll find help somewhere else.” He tried to stand up, which only resulted in him toppling over again. Thomas caught him still, gently lowering him to the floor.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going on,” Thomas admitted, “but you are not leaving like this. I’ll still help you, okay?”
Janus seemed scared, but after a few moments, slowly nodded.
“Okay, great. Now, I need you to take a deep breath for me.”
Janus nodded again, and inhaled, letting it out slowly. He repeated this a few times until he had his breathing under control again, and slumped against Thomas. It’s at that point that Thomas realised he was still holding Janus in his arms, and now he was hugging him, and… it felt so natural, to have this man in his arms. This man that he apparently hadn’t met. Yet.
Thomas wondered what Janus meant by yet .
“I’m sorry,” Janus said, after realising what had happened. He broke away from Thomas hold, instead leaning against the couch and pulling up his legs, hugging his knees. “I… really fucked up.”
Thomas frowned. “I mean, I have no problem with you hugging me. Looks like you need it.”
“No, I mean…” He sighed. “I shouldn’t be here. I wasn’t meant to go back so far. Must have got the calculations wrong. Knew I should have gotten Logan to double check…”
Thomas almost asked who ‘Logan’ is, but held himself back. That was the least of his concerns right now, Janus was still hurt and clearly there was something much bigger going on here and what was he supposed to do ?
“Could you, uh, maybe start from the top?” Thomas asked. “I am very confused right now.”
Janus was silent for a moment, before sighing again and turning back to Thomas. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. Probably best to just… forget that I came. I don’t want to mess with the timeline more than I probably already have.”
Thomas frowned. “Timeline?” he repeated. Suddenly, it clicked. “Wait, you’re, like, a time traveler, then?”
Janus froze, eyes widening. “No, of course not, that’s impossible. Are you feeling alright? Maybe you’re just imagining everything right now.”
“No, I don’t think so.” Thomas looked away for a moment, then back at Janus. “So I don’t meet you until later on? I mean, I’ve met you now, of course, but like…”
“I really don’t think I should tell you, Thomas,” Janus said, his eyes fixed on the floor. “If I tell you now, it might not happen, and then… things could end up worse.”
“End up worse?” Thomas repeated. “What happened already?”
“You’re not gonna lay off on this, are you?”
“Nope.”
Janus groaned, but looked back up at Thomas anyway, looking… resigned. “There was a fight. A bad one. I ended up with this-“ He pointed to his burn scar. “-and escaped into the far future, leaving you behind. I don’t know what happened- or, what will happen, I guess, to you. But based on the future I found, I… guess that it didn’t exactly end well. I spent a while trying to get back to you, with many, many other people trying to stop me - hence, y’know, all the cuts and stuff - but managed to travel back in the middle of the battle after everyone else screamed at me to get out of there, and… well, I guess I must have got something wrong, because I should be in the year 2022 right now. Which I am clearly not.”
Thomas took a moment to take all that in. “Okay. Okay, that’s…”
“A lot, I know, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologise.” Thomas stared at him for a moment longer. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I am feeling absolutely wonderful, never felt better, perfectly dandy-“
“Alright, yeah, I get it, stupid question.” He looked away for a moment, taking in a deep breath. “So are we, like, superheroes, or something?”
Janus shrugged, then winced due to the movement. “I guess you could say that.”
“Woah.”
“I can guarantee it is less cool in reality than it is in your head,” Janus said. “Take, for instance, the state of me right now.”
“Oh! Right, right.” Thomas took the first aid kit off the couch and laid it in front of him, moving to continue cleaning up Janus’ wounds. After a few moments of silence, he paused again. “Do you think you should maybe go to the hospital?”
Janus shook his head wildly, looking back at Thomas, eyes wide in fear. “Nope, bad idea, I don’t… I can’t risk anyone else seeing me like this.”
“But you choose to come to me?”
“Yeah, because you’re- you will be the only person I can trust, in about three years time, and for the next fifty years or so.”
“Fifty years?” Thomas repeated.
“That’s, uh, how far I travelled into the future. Purely by accident, I didn’t mean to go so far.” He paused. “Thinking about it, I probably should have gone back , maybe we could have prevented that whole mess…”
Thomas hummed. “You’re back now.”
To that, Janus frowned.
“I mean… you could stay here,” he clarified. “Change how things happened.”
Janus hesitated for a moment, before shaking his head. “No, no, I… I have to get back, or at least get past 2022. Can’t have two versions of me wandering around.”
“Oh.” That did make sense. All Thomas knew about time travel was what he’d seen in movies or television or video games, but yeah, it didn’t seem wise to keep Janus here, in a time where he wasn’t meant to be.
“I’ll just stay as long as it takes to heal,” Janus said. “If… that’s okay with you, I can go somewhere else if this is all too much, don’t want to overstay my welcome or anything-“
“You can stay as long as you need you,” Thomas promised, offering Janus a small smile. Janus didn’t seem to believe him at first, still hesitant, but slowly began to smile as well, silently thanking Thomas. “Now I need you to hold still, whilst I bandage some of these cuts up.”
Janus did as instructed, trying to stay as still as possible whilst Thomas wrapped some bandages around his head and arms, the two lapsing into silence as Thomas worked. Thomas was fairly certain that some of these wounds needed stitching or something, but with Janus’ reluctance to go to a hospital, that seemed unlikely. Whilst he did know basic first aid, Thomas wasn’t exactly a doctor. This would have to do for now. Janus was a superhero, maybe he had a healing factor or something. Hopefully.
Once Thomas was done, Janus slouched back against the couch, letting out a long sigh. “Thank you,” he said. “I… I missed you, you know.” He frowned. “No, actually, you wouldn’t know that. I…” He trailed off.
“You were in the future a long time?” Thomas guessed.
Janus nodded, then winced again.
Thomas frowned. “Do you want a painkiller, or something?”
“That would be appreciated.”
Thomas nodded, then stood up, heading into the bathroom to grab some pills, then the kitchen to grab a glass of water, before returning it to Janus, who quickly swallowed the pills and downed the drink.
“Thank you.” He breathed in. “But, yeah, I… was there for… probably around a year. I’m not sure, a lot of the time I was in hiding.”
Thomas frowned a little. “Future really that bad?”
Janus shrugged. “If we lose that fight, I guess. I only really travelled to a hypothetical based on my actions before travelling, travelling forward is weird like that, anything could have happened in the fifty years I wasn’t around, so…” He trails off, glancing back up at Thomas, who was looking at him very, very confused. “Sorry, that’s probably too much for you to understand. Yeah, it’s bad.”
Thomas was silent for a while, before shuffling a little closer to Janus. “Y’know, the more you speak about the future, the more I want to keep you here. I don’t… want you to get even more hurt.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know you in the future, don’t I? We’re close then.”
Janus gulped. “You don’t know me like you should . Like you will.”
“So?”
Janus didn’t respond, instead staring at the wall ahead. He looks so… lost, afraid. Confused. And even though Thomas had only met him this morning, it hurt Thomas to see him like that.
“I’ll make it right,” Thomas suddenly promised, causing Janus to look up at him. “When this battle happens, I’ll make sure we don’t lose. I’ll make things better.”
“Thomas, you-“
“Trust me,” Thomas begged, shuffling around to face Janus head on. “I’ll make things right.”
Janus looked as though he might cry at that. And a moment later, he did, tears slowly beginning to drip down his cheek. He looked away, as though trying to hide them, muttering a quiet apology.
“No, no, don’t… don’t apologise, I…” Thomas moved a little closer, placing a hand on Janus’ shoulder, who immediately flinched away. “What’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing,” he said, though he didn’t sound too confident in his answer. “I just…”
Thomas looked away for a moment, biting his lip, before glancing back. “Missed me?” he filled in.
Silence for a moment. “No, of course not.” It was quite obvious in his tone that he did miss him, an awful lot.
After a moment of consideration, Thomas opened up his arms. Janus looked over at him, cautious, cheeks now stained with tears. Very slowly, very carefully, he moved closer to Thomas, slotting himself in between Thomas’ arms, and resting on his chest. It didn’t take long for Janus to wrap his arms around Thomas’ waist, leaning closer towards him, and… once again, it felt distantly familiar. Janus seemed to fit perfectly in Thomas’ arms, comfortable, as though he was very much used to it, though the way he held on so tightly, as if afraid Thomas would let go, showed Thomas that this hadn’t happened in a long, long time.
Janus had needed this. He sniffled, head buried into Thomas’ chest, not saying a word. Thomas held him close, beginning to gently stroke through his hair, to which he relaxed, calming down. They stayed like that for a while, Janus clinging onto Thomas, Thomas holding Janus close, safe.
Thomas was going to help Janus, he decided, in whatever way that he could. He’d let him stay in his apartment, nurse him back to health, allow him to talk through whatever had been going on, until he was ready to return to the future again. And then, when he finally met him for real in a few years time, he would keep him safe then, make sure that it never got this bad, that he would be okay.
But for now, he could settle with just cuddling him, for as long as Janus needed.