Sanders Sides AU August

A Fresh Start

AU: Borrower

TW: Fighting, hurt main character

WC: 2679

Date: 8/4/2021

On days like this, Virgil hated the first borrower who got themselves caught. He knew the legends, that borrowers at one time lived within the walls of houses, undetected, borrowing what they needed and nothing more, never being seen, never being heard. That had all changed when one borrower got caught and blabbed about their existence. As soon as a single human knew, their anonymity was shot, and now, Virgil lived as a fighter. Each day he was thrown into a ring attempting to fight his way out against the other borrowers. He had to fight, if he didn't, he didn't get food, and he wasn't going to die at the hands of a human. Especially not while trying to protect Janus, even if he did so reluctantly.

Borrowers looked out for one another.

That didn't mean that Virgil liked Janus, the other borrower had been a lab specimen before being a fighter, and that came with some pretty nasty quirks. He was skittish, and the first time Virgil tried to approach him, he had gotten bit. If he had been a normal borrower, Virgil could have let that go, but Lab borrowers were different. No one was ever prepared for what a lab borrower might be able to do. He had heard of one in the fighting rings who had taken on 100 other borrowers all at the same time and survived. The thought still gave Virgil chills. Apparently, after that incident, he had been sold off to The Cleaner, a shadow figure who went to borrower fights all over the country and bought troublesome borrowers.

Janus was considered troublesome. Virgil had been in a coma for 3 days after being bitten and had a fever for 2 weeks after that. He barely survived his fights and their 'owner' wasn't happy about it. Janus refused to fight, saying it was beneath him, but Virgil wasn't going to let another borrower die, not if he could help it. Janus might have been a prick, but he was still going to fight to protect him.

That meant Virgil ended up doubling his fights, to the amusement of his 'owner'. He fought twice as hard, twice as often, and wasted twice as much energy. He was beginning to run out of stamina but he had yet to come up with a plan to get himself and Janus out.

"You don't have to fight for me," Janus said, keeping to his side of the cage. "I am quite content pissing him off by simply existing."

"Yeah, well I told you before I'm not letting you die."

Despite Virgil's eyes being closed, he could feel Janus rolling his eyes.

"You are burning yourself out. If you don't stop this soon he is going to sell you to The Cleaner, possibly both of us anyway."

"What's the likelihood we run into that human anyway?"

The silence was answer enough, they both knew that the chances were pretty high. The fights only happened in major cities where it was easier to hide what was happening, they also happened on a rather regular schedule. The Cleaner would eventually make it to their city. Virgil knew this. Janus knew this. Every borrower in the ring knew this, but Virgil was trying to be ignorant. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was always aware that there was a possibility that he would get "cleaned" but if he allowed his brain to focus on it, he would eventually be overcome by it.

"I'm going to rest for my next fight. Don't wake me up unless you are dying."

He could almost see Janus rolling his eyes again, and that was enough to help Virgil rest. If he could just keep that little bit of normalcy, maybe he could force himself to keep going.

~~~~~~~~

Virgil woke up sore and cold. That was nothing new, the floor of the cage was always too hard for him to sleep well, and though sometimes the two borrowers would snuggle for warmth, they would never admit it in the morning.