Chapter Text
Janus quite honestly forgot that this little “meeting” was going to happen. So when the day came he was just chilling on the kinda crappy bed reading some philosophy book, then there was a familiar knock on the door.
Janus glanced up, “Yes?”
Ms. Opal opened the door, “You ready Janus?”
He narrowed his eyes, he put a bookmark in his book while saying, “Ready for…?”
Ms. Opal sighed, “The meeting? The interview?”
Janus’s eyes widened. As stated, he completely forgot about this. Some random couple who he never even seen before, them just both getting a mere glance at him, want to be foster parents? Do I really-
“Yes you have too.”
Janus looked at her, “I never said anything.”
“You were thinking it.”
“You know me too well.”
“Hush and get ready for the interview.”
Janus sighed and got up looking at himself in the mirror. He straightened ( Gayed up. God I’ve been friends with Patton for too long- ) his hair and stared at his face for a bit. Taking in every detail. Every scar, every bit of patchiness on his face, every-
Ms. Opal called out, “You coming?”
Janus flinched putting his hand to his heart, turning around to see Ms. Opal was still at the doorway, “Jesus Christ! Don’t do that!”
“I’m sorry.” She genuinely was, she never wants to scare any of the kids and teens here, “Also I know what you're doing. I know this is easier said than done but serious Janus, they won’t judge your scars, your heterochromia, vitiligo, anything. They don’t care about any of that, they want to meet you as a person.”
“I’m not a v-“
“-Not a very good person, I know. You say that all the time but Jan… you’ve grown so much since you first came here. I’ve seen it first hand, being away from your father as well as that boy Patton certainly helped with things.”
Janus looked down not really knowing if it was from the mention of his father, or the mention of Patton.
“Look, Janus, just…” Ms. Opal sighed, “Let’s talk to them ok?”
Janus stayed quiet for a moment before mumbling, “Fine, whatever.”
“Alright. If you genuinely don’t like them you don’t have to let them foster you, but give them a chance ok?”
Janus nodded and shuffled his way with Ms. Opal to the room where he would meet his potential foster parents.
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“Do you really think he’ll want to meet us?”
“You know Em, for being a therapist, you really are showing a lot of anxiety here.”
“That doesn’t mean anything and you know that.” Emile took a deep breath and held Remy’s hand. They were sitting in a room that vaguely looked like a principal's office with the desk and chairs. He squeezed their hand, “I’m sorry Rems, I am anxious.”
“Yeah no shit.” Remy smirked and rubbed their thumb on Emile’s hand, “If he doesn’t like us then we’ll keep looking, god knows he ain't the only troubled kid in the system.”
Emile sighed, “Yeah… yeah I know.” He looked back at the door, there was a little window that showed a couple kids, both younger and older, playing, “I wish I could take all of them.”
“We only have room for one babes.” Remy reminded, “And we’re here to hopefully become parents, not for you to gain a new client-”
Emile rolled his eyes, “-Obviously Remy, I wasn’t thinking that.”
“I wasn’t saying that you were-”
“-You kinda implied it-”
There was a knock at the door and they both froze. Remy gave a quick kiss on the cheek and squeezed Emile’s hand as an ‘I’m sorry’. As Emile smiled, Terry walked in with the boy, Janus. The kid walked in, not really looking at either of them, but once he sat down the kid looked up and his eyes widened, “You’re a gay couple?”
Remy sucked a breath in, glancing at Emile. Emile squeezed their hand, about to reply, when Janus spoke up again, “I apologize. That’s… it’s not a problem. I’ve just… I’ve never seen one in real life before…” He looked down, backing up in his seat.
Emile smiled softly, “That’s alright. I’m Emile Picani, he/him pronouns.” He glanced over at his husband.
“I’m Remy, same last name, they/them pronouns.” They let out a small smile.
Janus nodded and their introductions, trying to take it all in while also trying not to just implode on the spot. As much as he didn’t want to be here, he wanted to make a good first impression, maybe they would be the ones to give him a family again? Well not anymore, especially after that horrible first showing, now he just sounds like a homophobic jerk.
“I like your hair by the way.” Remy smiled softly, “It suits you.”
Janus’s eyes widened with shock, twisting his finger through the ends of it, “O-Oh, umm, thank you.”
The couple smiled and Terry sat down behind the desk, pulling out paperwork, “So this is essentially a ‘get to know you’ meeting.” She looked over at Janus, “Emile and Remy will talk about themselves and their home life, ask as many questions as you want. And there is no pressure to talk about yourself, most of the really important stuff is in your files.”
“Great…” Janus grumbled, sinking into his seat a little more.
“We’re not going to force you to talk about any of it bud.” Emile reassured, “Talking about trauma is… a tricky thing, to put it lightly. Your lovely case worker here did mention though that you are improving, so that’s great! Just know that, if you do allow us to foster you, you are allowed to talk about it with us. Neither Remi or I mind helping you out when you need it.”
“And why would I come to you?” Janus asked, with a little bit of a sneer.
Terry lightly glared at him and Emile waved it off, “Well I am a therapist, so I do know a thing or two about trauma and ways to cope with it. But mainly it’s because… we are, or, would be your foster parents, your guardians. Having an adult figure to talk to about your issues is beneficial.”
Janus looked over at Remy and they shrugged, “I know a thing or two about trauma cus I’m traumatized.”
Janus snorted then quickly covered his mouth, not expecting to laugh at that, or for Remy to be so blunt, “I uhh, sorry.”
“Nah it’s alright.” Remy shrugged then sighed, “I don’t… talk about it often, but I liked to poke fun at it from time to time. Make light of the situation.”
“That you do my love.” Emile grumbled, but then gave a small smile and squeezed their hand, which Remy responded back with a kiss on the cheek.
Janus flushed a little, again not used to the open queerness, then asked, “So uhhh, what do you do? Like for a living? And uhh, day to day?” He glanced over at Terry who gave him a smile and thumbs up.
Emile smiled, “Well you know that I do therapy work. Remy over here owns and operates their own coffee shop! The Cozy Cup, if you’ve heard of it.”
Janus had, from Patton. He said that him and his parents went there one day and that he wanted to take Janus out there too, describing the latte he had as “out of this world delish”.
“In terms of day to day? Well when we are both home from work we like to watch movies and tv shows, Remy cooks most nights. We do our chores every Saturday, and we try at least once a week to go out and do something.”
“Something?” Janus squinted his eyes.
“Yeah! I guess you could say date night but it isn’t always like that. Sure sometimes we go out to eat, go on whatever romantic outing. But sometimes we go visit my family, we hear about some event or festival happening and we go.” Emile smiled softly, “And if you were to join us and there was something you really wanted to go to we would go do that.”
Janus’s eyes widened and quickly leaned forward in the chair, “Wait wait wait, I would join you guys?”
“Well yeah, it’s a family outing for a reason.” Remy smiled, “Unless you don’t want to, then we wouldn’t force you to go.”
Janus’s jaw practically dropped, leaning back in the chair trying to process all of this. Terry saw this and looked at Emile and Remy, “Mind if you two step outside and give us a moment?” The two looked at each other and nodded, Terry waited until the two were out and shut the door before asking, “You ok Janus?”
Janus sat frozen for a couple seconds before saying quietly, “They seem… nice.”
Terry smiled and nodded, “Yeah, they are. Now I know you might be a little skeptical of their kindness.” Dammit how did she know? “But I promise you, I would not have recommended you to them if I didn’t trust that they had the best of intentions.”
Janus sighed but nodded. He may have gotten better, but he still had a lot of trust issues.
“What do you say kid?” Terry asked softly, “Do you want to give them a chance?”
Janus sat and pondered, his mind racing. Sure they seemed nice now, but who knows if this is just a front that they put on? They already know about his trauma, and who’s to say that they won’t use that against him? Or force him to talk about his trauma? They could lead him into a false sense of security and leave him even MORE traumatized than he is now! Did he want to take that chance? Did he want to have a family again? Did he-
“Janus?”
He took a deep breath, and nodded, “Yes, they can foster me.”