Janus stops in his tracks — when did he start pacing anyway? — and takes more deep, deep breaths. Everything’s fine. Everything is just fine.

He can deal with this.

It’s not like he had a chance with Logan anyway. Not after how he had treated him during the wedding debacle.

Not that he had a choice. If he had let Logan participate in the trial, he would have argued every point he wanted to make, so he had benched him as quickly as possible. And after the wedding he needed some opening, a way to get closer unnoticed so he could interject when the time was right! And Patton had given him the golden opportunity! In his haste he might not have used the best method to take Logan’s place, but he had done so out of necessity!

When he had later gone to apologize to Logan, the other had seemed understanding enough (though he was also rubbing his red neck at the time). He had also accepted the bottle of wine Janus offered him. It was still tense between them, but at least that was better than the icy stares Roman gave him.

It was then Logan who approached him about the chess matches. Apparently, Patton had told him that he was at a loss for what to do to iron out the relationships in their famILY and brought up that Janus had mentioned to him that he enjoyed a game of chess. So, Logan’s logical solution was to spend a bit of time with Janus to play the game and Janus started using it as an excuse to pull Logan from his work when he got too stressed.

In all, yes, he has a friendly enough relationship with Logan at the moment, but it is mostly based on placating Patton and keeping Logan stress free.

Logan is tolerating him, nothing more.

Which is fine. He doesn’t deserve more.

And another reason why it is fine for him to help Logan. He owes him that much. Right?

Right.

It’s only right.

He just really wishes he knew who Logan meant. It is driving him wild! Logan’s face was unreadable when he talked about it, and Janus can’t tell when the others are lying when it doesn’t relate to Thomas. Whatever is going through Logan’s head is not connected to their core in the slightest.

It may even be that he doesn’t have a crush in the first place, though Janus is doubtful of that. Logan had been more absentminded recently, not only during their games but also during other activities like movie nights or meals. A developing crush would certainly explain his change in behavior.

But then who…?

No.

No, it is none of his business.

Logan owes him nothing, so he will rise to the task without asking more questions. His secrets are his as long as they don’t involve Thomas.

And they don’t, otherwise Janus would have been able to tell.

It’s fine.

Everything is just fine.

He can do this.

It’s not going to hurt.

It’s just helping a friend out.

Totally normal.

…