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Janus had walked in on Remus doing a lot of strange things over the years, had really thought he was used to it by now but he found himself unusually surprised as he stumbled upon Remus in the kitchen, surrounded by pots and pots of …spaghetti. Seemingly perfectly edible spaghetti.
Janus gave the pots on the kitchen table a suspicious glance each, then stepped closer to where Remus was standing by the stove and seemed to be right in the middle of making another batch. Shockingly enough, this might be in the top ten of strange things he had found Remus doing, and he would have been far less surprised if Remus had been painting the walls with blood of questionable fake-ness.
“Janny, good, you’re here,” Remus said without as much as turning away from the pot he was stirring, holding something out for him, “taste test this for me!”
Janus looked down at the fork Remus was offering him, taking it and letting his eyes follow the direction of his hand that then pointed at the table overflowing with pots of spaghetti and sauce.
“...Dare I ask what’s going on?” He said and Remus glanced back at him with an expression that Janus could not place for a moment before realizing that he had almost looked sheepish, a look he was not sure he had even seen on Remus’ face before.
“Nothing, just taste it and tell me which one’s the best. I haven’t even put anything fun in it.” He told him, his words which Janus translated as a confirmation that every ingredient was edible, and in the tone of his voice that he wasn’t about to discuss it further.
Janus shrugged, more to himself than anyone else, and decided that whatever this was about it wasn’t the weirdest and most shocking thing he had found his boyfriend doing, in the way that it was far from the most chaotic and destructive and, besides, he could really go for some pasta for breakfast.
He took his usual seat by the table, pulled one of the pots closer to start his assigned role of taste tester, putting one forkful in his mouth and immediately thinking that it was really too bad that Remus wasn’t interested in actual food more often because he was quite the talented cook when he wanted to be.
Janus tried the next one, equally tasty and not much different as it seemed that Remus was trying to break some kind of world record in making the same but slightly altered dish as many times as feasible. Janus wasn’t complaining, not if he got to eat the end results.
Usually they both cooked for themselves as he and Remus had pretty different ideas on the small point of what was food and what wasn’t, but now and then Remus would make them both something, like if Janus was sick or had had a particularly rough day or if he was preparing for a date that was a little fancier than usual, and-
…And that was definitely what this was about, wasn’t it, and Janus pushed back the fifth pot of pasta that he had just tried a bite from, placing it between the first and the fourth in his ranking and looking over at Remus where he was adding spices to his next batch.
“This is Logan’s favorite spaghetti dish.” He said, definitely noticing the way Remus very stubbornly kept his eyes fixed on the pot in front of him rather than turn around to look at him.
“And?” He said, just a little defensively.
“And your date with Logan is tonight… aw, are you nervous?” Janus teased, his words instantly making Remus spin around with an affronted pout that made it awfully hard to keep a grin from his face. It wasn’t as if Remus had been going all googly eyes over Logan for months or anything, god forbid he insinuated that he cared for the outcome of their first date.
“No! Shut up. You’re nervous.” Remus said, entirely unconvincingly even without Janus finely tuned ability to spot lies, and he just barely held back a snort as he got up from his chair again and joined Remus by the stove again.
“Your pasta is delicious, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Janus told him, earning a huff.
“Easy for you to say.” Remus complained, giving him a look that told him that he thought Janus was through the difficult part himself already, and it was true enough that Janus had been on a date with Logan a few days ago, a date that he himself had been pretty nervous about and which had gone better than expected, but he bit back a reply that actually it was easy for him to say as someone seeing in Remus exactly what Logan saw in Remus.
Whatever Remus might be, it wasn't hard to love.
“Oh, it isn’t as if he spent a good thirty minutes of our date excitedly going over the experiments the two of you had been up to earlier that day or anything, and it isn’t as if he smiles a little anytime he says your name or anything so, nevermind, keep worrying.” Janus said instead, hoping that his words showed him plainly enough that he was being an idiot.
Not that either of them had seen it coming last week when Logan had–a few glasses of wine into the evening he had spent with them–admitted that he wanted to be a part of the relationship that Janus and Remus had. Actually, Janus had barely believed it then despite the undeniable truth in the statement.
They had already spent months thinking that those particular feelings of theirs would never go anywhere, convinced that even on the off chance that Logan might feel the same, some day, he still wouldn’t have accepted that kind of feeling enough to voice it.
Janus was glad to have been proven wrong, even if it was a little bit terrifying–to them both if Remus stress cooking was anything to go by. It was uncharted territory, sort of.
He had just been getting used to the fact of how close the three of them had become, that Logan would choose to spend time in their part of the imagination rather than his own, with them rather than anyone else, and this wasn’t maybe going to change everything but also it kind of was.
Remus turned off the burner and moved the pot aside, not seeming to have anything to say about what Janus had told him but looking pretty smug about it, and far less tense as he moved past Janus to reach for the chopping board.
“How early did you wake up to do all this anyway?” Janus wondered, looking around the room more carefully, noticing what looked like a whole package of uncooked spaghetti that was spilled over the countertop amidst the mess of ingredients.
“...Wake up?” Remus said with slight hesitation and Janus sighed, immediately pointed in the direction of their bedrooms.
“Go get some sleep. I’ll clean up.” He said, raising his brows as Remus opened his mouth to protest and apparently managing to properly convey how he wasn’t about to accept any arguing as Remus closed his mouth again with a huff.
“You better come join me in a bit, then.” He said, taking two steps and then stopping, turning halfway back around and pointing at the stove, “And taste that one too, and then come tell me which one’s the best.”
“Go. You’ll need some energy for your date.” Janus said, which he then immediately realized was the wrong choice of words as Remus looked back at him with a grin and opened his mouth. Janus placed a hand on Remus’ shoulder and gave him a nudge into the living room before he could voice whatever dirty remark had come to his mind, and then looked after him until he heard his door shut.
Good.
Janus had some spaghetti to enjoy.