Fear Will Be Your Enemy

Repression Can Be Very Bad Indeed

The breakfast table was remarkably empty. Apathy sat between the creative twins, and the three remaining sins sat across from them, with the Dragon Witch at the head of the table and Emile and Remy on the other end. It was quiet. So, so quiet. Remus's face was puffy from crying, and he, Apathy, and Roman looked exhausted.

A storm of biblical proportions was rampaging outside, the sky dark. Rain slammed against the windows, the building seeming to groan under the pressure of the wind. It seemed much more than your average wind- hell, it might have been a hurricane. Thunder crashed outside, filling the room now and then with blinding light. 

"Ree," Roman murmured, reaching over and putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Please, take some deep breaths. You'll wreck your imaginary citizen's homes, they don't deserve that."

Emile seemed surprised by this comment. "You mean he's doing this?" the side asked, waving to the windows.

"Well, sort of. Not intentionally. When we're on our side's of the imagination, the weather is affected by our mood."

Remy whistled. "Dang, Remus. As Oz would say, 'who put salt in your Kool-aid?' " and then began to laugh. Envy sported him a polite smile, but nobody else seemed to find it funny.

The wind howled so loud Emile's attempt to de-escilate the situation was futile, as Remus made no effort to acknowledge them nor change what was going on outside.

Remus continued to stab at his plate with a lazy malice, not really eating, his gaze fixed on his Waffles. A bolt of thunder shook the room. Apathy shreiked and covered his ears. The lightning was blinding as it struck the side of the dining hall, and all of the window's and their glasses burst at the energy.

Remus stood up suddenly, waving his hand in a jerky motion and the storm vanished, leaving a never ending expanse of dark clouds, but not bothering to fix the windows. He ran out of the room, shoving his hands in the pockets of... one of Janus's favourite sweaters, and slaming the door behind him. 

Roman stood to follow, but Apathy was already up, running after him. The sides called his name, but he was gone, running after Remus. The halls were big and his legs were short, how was he supposed to find Remus? In a burst of inspiration, he sunk into Thomas's apartment.

"Thomas!" Apathy shouted, running through the place, looking for him. He found Thomas asleep still- which was fair, it was very early. Thomas yanked a pillow over his head.

"Thomas Sanders wake up!" Apathy yelled, taking the pillow and hitting him with it a few times until Thomas sat up, yawning.

"What? Are they back yet?" He said hopefully. Apathy shook his head, and Thomas visibly deflated. "Oh. Then what do you want, App? You've never showed up on your own before."

"Well I had wanted to play Mario Kart with you today; Emile said that might cheer you up and I've never played it before-" Thomas sighed heavily, and Apathy realized he was getting off topic. "Sorry. Can you summon Remus for me? I don't know how else I can find him, and I'm worried he'll do something dumb and then I'll be stuck with Roman as my only parental figure and he'll try and be a cool dad which you do not want to see, let me tell you- one time he thought it would be fun to make Spaghetti with Syrup and sprinkles and things like in the movie Elf and it was terrible, I don't like sugar, but Remus makes really good Spaghetti and so it would be awful-" 

Thomas put a finger to Apathy's lips and shushed him, stopping the child's ramblings. "Please. You are giving me a migrane. I'll summon him, but you gotta let me go back to sleep for a few hours, okay?"

"I promise I promise," said Apathy, getting up and jumping on Thomas's bed until Thomas summoned Remus.

Apathy jumped off the bed into Remus's startled arms. "Fuck!" Remus screeched in surprise, and Apathy giggled. "Come on, can we go downstairs? I promised Thomas we'd let him sleep, but you and I need to talk."

Remus rolled his eyes, but there was a tired affection in his gaze. "Did you really wake Thomas up to summon me? App you sly dog-" he said, setting the child down and waving to Thomas as Apathy lead him from the room.

Remus put on The Addams Family Values and Apathy settled on his lap, the two of them cuddling close under a mountain of blankets. After watching for a few minutes, Remus started to cry. "It's not fair..." he choked out, rubbing his face on his sleeve.

"I know. It was kinda mean of dad to just leave-"

Remus shook his head, cutting Apathy off. "Mean? App, Janus is brave. Janus is so, so brave. He literally loves his family more than life it's self, you know. He would do anything for us. But we're not the only people he considers family."

Apathy nodded slowly. "Oh. You mean, like Virgil?" 

"Yeah, but not just Virgil. Pride, Lust... your dad feels bad that they ever had to be around Honesty. He thinks it's his fault that they suffered so much; that he failed to protect them. And so he thinks he has to go and save them. And he's a prick for doing so. My brother's supposed to play hero, not him. Janus is supposed to be here... with... with us."

Apathy hugged Remus tighter. "Well, aren't you proud of him? Or happy about what he's trying to do?"

Remus shrugged. "I should be! But what if he never comes back? What if I never get to see my husband again? Or any of my friends! He's just so selfish!" Sobbed the creative side. "And I shouldn't feel like this, you're right, I should be proud, and not... not hate him for leaving me."

Apathy tilted his head to the side in that adorable way he did when he was thinking. He attempted to fit the TV remote in his mouth before his eyes lit up with a thought. "Maybe you should stop focusing on how you think you should feel, and just feel your feelings."

"Did... did you just give me profound advice?" Remus asked. Apathy shrugged and went back to trying to fit the whole remote in his mouth.

"The way I see it..." he said around the remote, making his speech difficult to understand. "You have every right to be mad and upset at him, even if it feels morally wrong to be mad and upset because what he's doing is good. I mean, Patton's the expert on this stuff, but why should you feel bad about feeling bad? Janus made you sad. When he comes back, you can talk to him about it."

"But what if he never comes back?" Remus said, his heart hurting. "What if the potion doesn't work, or he get's hurt, or something happens-"

Apathy had no answer for this. He just shrugged. "I don't want to think about that. Nero is basically my best friend and probably the coolest adult here, no offense, and I... I kinda would prefer to repress that concept."

"Repression's bad for you, you know," Remus hummed, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, I know. I saw Thomas's videos. Your song was really cool! How did you do that? Did you write it all out first, or did you come up with it as you went along? I wish I got to see it in person!" Apathy giggled.

Remus smiled, and Apathy knew he had said some things right. He really wasn't all that in the mood for Remus to explain it all, but it made his uncle happy, and was a good distraction for the both of them. Which was certainly something they both needed.