The weather outside was cloudy which wasn't uncommon. It was a relaxing day. Dreary and yet comfortable. Anti was in his room cleaning some of his favorite knives. Yes, even though he had a bad history with them, he still like the designs on them and could wield them expertly. He carried at least one with him on his person no matter what. He was fiddling with his favorite currently that was a regular Chef's knife with a neon green handle. 

Jameson had gifted it to him Halloween night seeing as he was so good with chopping and slicing food. But then this got him wondering on what to do with it. He really couldn't cook. He had spent most of his life on takeout or leftovers so he never had the option to cook. That and with Marvin having constantly spoiled his food before.

'I want to use it' Anti suddenly had a vision in his head of Sean's throat slit and he froze, flinching away.

Taking a gulp of air, Anti shuddered, 'No.' he thought, 'Properly. It's a Chef's knife, after all'

He thought he heard a small whisper in the back of his mind, '̸F̵l̵a̵y̷ ̷t̸h̷e̶m̶ ̷a̴l̶l̵'̶ ̴. . . but he pushed it out and finished polishing and sharpening it.

Anti walked out of his room, knife in hand humming to himself as he thought, 'Maybe I could learn to cook with it' he spun it in his hand like a fidget spinner and started down the stairs to make his way to the kitchen, 'But how? Where do I start? Do I just look up videos online or something?'

As he walked into the kitchen, he didn't see Jackie and bumped into him with a yelp, the knife falling from his grasp and cutting his finger, "Ouch!"

Jackie gaped at him, "Were. . . were you spinning that fucking thing? Oh look what you did, now! You're getting blood on the floor" 

Even though the two had gotten along since the family's discover of his problem, Anti was still uncomfortable being around him. Jackie still had this look in his eyes that made Anti sad as if he still didn't trust him.

"S-sorry!" Anti tried picking up his knife and running but Jackie gripped his wrist instead and led him to the sink to run water under the cut.

"Idiot" Jackie scoffed, "What were you thinking? You could have cut off a finger, you moron"

Anti was silent, however, as Jackie stopped the water and opened up a first aid kit that was in a cupboard, courtesy of Henrik.

Anti was glitching slightly  as Jackie put a band-aid on his fingers after disinfecting the 'wound' and getting the small cut to stop bleeding, "You're good at that" he commented.

Jackie snorted, "Of course. I'd have to be. I come home with wounds like this and more all the time. The price of being a hero" he winked and Anti smiled softly with a giggle, the ice being broken a bit.

Jackie pat his hand, "There. Now why were you flinging that knife around?"

Anti refused to look him in the eye and glitched nervously, "I. .. . I don't know. I was thinking. I wanted  . . .to do something with the knife. It's the Chef's knife Jameson gave me."

Jackie hummed, "So you what? Wanted to slice and dice some shit?"

He pouted, "Well. . . I don't know. I've never really cooked before besides helping Marvin with cutting ingredients for his potions. Was thinking about looking up something online?"

Jackie shook his head, "That's just asking for a burned down house if you've never cooked before. No way."

"Then how would I learn? Should I ask Chase or Henrik?"

The hero bust out in laughter, "What?! Hell no! Chase only knows take-out and Schneep can only work the coffee pot. Jameson can't teach you either. Never letting him near modern kitchen appliances again after the microwave incident."

"What about Sean or Marvin?" 

Jackie put his hands on his hips, "If you want weird ingredients in your food that could fuck you up like Alice in Wonderland, you can ask Marvin. Be my guest. Sean, although he can cook a good risotto, only has eyes for delivery currently so he's no help either. That and he's too busy."

Anti looked out of place biting his lip, "Then who could teach me?" 

Jackie scoffed, "I could teach you"

He was okay with the thought of Jackie spending time with him but Anti was still a bit worried. Jackie had bullied him around for so long and although he apologized for it, he still felt uncomfortable around him. It felt like Jackie was just WAITING for him to mess up. He just had that aura around him that seemed borderline hostile similar to Dark's but he knew that that was different. Jackie's aura felt off to Anti because he had hurt him so much.

"I don't know" Anti rubbed the back of his head. 

Jackie rolled his eyes, "I won't mess with you, Anti. We're past that. Although it hasn't been long since then, you can trust me. I can trust you . . . right?"

He nodded, "Yeah" seeing no way out of it, Anti gave in and crossed his arms, "Okay. You can teach me."

Jackie smirked, "Good. The best things anybody can learn to cook are pasta and soups. You can put ANYTHING in them you want."

Anti nodded, "Okay."

"Clean your knife up. We'll use it to chop up some veggies and meat. Good thing I had Chase go to the store yesterday."

Quietly, Anti cleaned up his knife and watched as Jackie got some stuff out of the cupboards and fridge, "Alright so what kinds of stuff you want in your pasta?"

Anti froze, "Oh. . . .I don't know"

"Come on, take your pick!" he slapped Anti's shoulder making him flinch a little.

''̴C̸u̷t̵ ̴h̵i̴m̵'̷

Anti shook his head but Jackie read it as he didn't want to choose, "What kind of pasta do you like? Alfredo? Spaghetti and meatballs? Ramen?"

Anti swallowed nervously, "I like Alfredo"

"Okay good. You can put just about any and all vegetables in an alfredo pasta. Pick your veggies to cut."

Coming up to all the choices, Anti slowly picked out onion, bell peppers, black olives, grape tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, mushrooms and carrots. 

"Good." Jackie put all the other ingredients back up, "Now do you want any protein or meat in with it? We have steak, chicken, shrimp, turkey-"

"Shrimp!" Anti bounced a little in excitement. He always loved shrimp, they were delicious. 

Jackie nodded with a slight smirk, "Alright, shrimp it is then."

As the two set to work, Jackie guided him through making the pasta, chopping, slicing and dicing the veggies and de-veining the shrimp before putting it all in the alfredo to simmer and cook. Anti was happy to learn everything Jackie was teaching him, taking in the lesson in its entirety. Finally once the pasta was done, Jackie had him taste it and it was SO GOOD!

"MMMM!" Anti licked his lips and tried to go for another taste but Jackie swat his hand with a stern look. Anti chuckled nervously and Jackie rolled his eyes.

"Good job" Jackie pat his shoulder, "It's about dinner time now. I'll go get the others for supper and we can all dig in"

"You think they'll like it?"

Jackie nodded, "Of course. Keep stirring and get plates for everybody, will you?" as he left Anti to do the tasks alone, Jackie sighed in his head.

'Why do I always feel bad for the brat?' Jackie grumbled to himself, 'I mean I know I was harsh with him back then but things have gotten better now, right? Why does he still flinch and glitch around me?'

Of course the others would say that Anti just glitches all the time anyways when he's nervous and anxious but they didn't get it. Anti seemed to glitch even MORE around him than anyone else and it bothered him.

'Maybe spending some time like this will have helped?' 

In truth, Jackie really was sorry. If he had known Anti had been suffering with being bi-polar then he wouldn't have hurt him and tormented him so much. It wasn't his fault. Like Schneep had said, there was something else in his head that had taken over but since he had been taking the medicine, that had all stopped. 

Right? 

Jackie knocked on Marvin's door first.

Meanwhile with Anti, he had gotten the plates and silverware out and positioned and was standing in front of the pasta to make sure it didn't scald or burn. He stared at the simmering sauce and a voice echoed like a faint whisper in his head, '̶B̷o̵i̷l̶ ̴t̵h̵e̴m̵.̴ ̸B̵u̶r̸n̷ ̴t̷h̸e̵m̷'̵

Anti shook his head, 'What was that?' he scratched his neck scar and swallowed with worry but before he could think any more on it, Jackie came back in with the others save for Sean. He was back home with his girlfriend for a while and stocking up on videos.

Dinner was pretty quiet but everyone enjoyed the food, praising Anti and Jackie for the job well done. Jackie, however always so observant, noticed that Anti didn't seem to really pay all that much attention. He seemed lost in thought.

Anti was eating his pasta that he made and pretended to look like he was paying attention to what everyone was saying but he couldn't. He kept his head down at his plate. Every time he looked up at one of them, a violent image burned in his head. When he looked at Schneep, a memory of what he did to him was there. He looked at Jameson and was reminded of when he had possessed him. When he fought Jackie. He never remembered the actual events themselves but he saw them through the monster's eyes. It as like it was him doing all those terrible things.

But it wasn't him. It wasn't Anti. It was the monster. The demon that was forced down with the help of the medicine Schneep gave him.

He was safe. They were safe. Right?

Anti didn't want to say anything and rise suspicion. He didn't want to say anything and see the fear in their eyes so he kept silent and pretended everything was okay.

After dinner, they all went back to their respective rooms but something was still bothering Jackie. Sure he was painted as the tough hero but he was worried now about Anti. Something wasn't right. He trusted him but what if  something was wrong? It was just nagging on him until he finally decided to just get up and wander to his room. 

Carefully, Jackie knocked on the door, "Anti? It's Jackie. Can I talk to you?"

A few seconds went by before Anti finally opened his door, "Hey. What's up Jackie?" he tried to smile but the hero wasn't buying it.

"Can I come in and talk?"

Sporting a sudden small frown, Anti sighed before opening the door the rest of the way to let him in. Anti plopped back on his bed and sighed, "What'd you want, Jackie?"

Said ego looked around his room for a moment before answering, "You seem off today. Anything bothering you?"

Anti sat up and leaned against the wall, "Nope. Why?"

"I know when you're lying, Anti. Something's wrong. Is it something to do with me? Because you know I'm trying, right? I trust you. So you can trust me. . . .okay?"

Anti nodded, "Y-yeah. . . . I trust you."

"You hesitated."

"No I didn't"

"Yes you did, I heard it!"

"No I didn't! You're hearing things" 

Anti flinched at himself saying that, "Look it's just . . . . Well what do you want me say, Jackie?!" 

He suddenly yelled at him making Jackie's eyes widen, "It's only been a few months since you were beating me and pushing me around like trash!"

They were suddenly both silent at that omission. Jackie didn't know really what to say, honestly.

Anti sighed and continued, glitching again, "Y-you can't expect me to j-just suddenly forgive and t-trust you after all of that. You've hurt me. G-granted Marvin did, too, but he never hit me or called me n-names." a few tears ran down Anti's face as he stuttered, "It's going to t-take a bit longer for me to get used to being around you w-without you hurting me, Jackie. I'm sorry"

Anti curled into himself sitting on the bed and buried his head in his knees and arms. Jackie was stunned but it was fair. Anti was right. Jackie had given him no chances. He had hurt him so much. It wasn't right.

Carefully, Jackie stepped over near the bed and slowly pushed himself on it against the wall beside him. Anti felt Jackie move near him but made no attempt to either get away or acknowledge him. There were a few minutes of silence before Jackie finally slipped his arm around Anti's shoulders and pulled him to his side. Anti flinched but Jackie's hold was steel and hugged him to him. 

Anti gasped as Jackie leaned his forehead in Anti's wild  fluffy hair, "I'm sorry." he said and chuckled a bit humorlessly, "You know, it just occurred to me that I never properly apologized to you. I'm sorry, Anti. I'm so fucking sorry"

Jackie held the smaller to him and kissed Anti's head in a gentle manner, "I'm such an asshole, I'm sorry, Anti." he started to cry into his hair. 

'̵N̵o̷w̶'̸s̴ ̴y̴o̴u̶r̶ ̴c̷h̷a̶n̷c̷e̶.̴ ̴B̶r̴e̴a̴k̷ ̵h̷i̵s̵ ̶n̸e̵c̴k̴-̸'̶

Anti hugged Jackie back, burying his face in his chest crying. Jackie rubbed his back. He had seen Chase do this for him before and although he wasn't a father figure or a good brother, he tried his best to console him.

"It's okay Anti. It's okay. Things will be better. I swear it" Jackie tore his mask off pulled down his red hood. He'd have to wash his uniform to get rid of the tear stains but he didn't care. He just held him, trying to soothe his spastic glitching and whimpers.

Anti knew that Jackie couldn't hear the voices like he could. Jackie didn't know that that was why he cried. The sudden voices in his mind edging out. Something was definitely wrong. Anti tried burying the voice out, muffling it by cuddling himself into his brother.

It was how it started in the beginning, too, the voices telling him to do things he didn't want to do. But he couldn't tell Jackie that. He couldn't tell him now and ruin this moment. Anti just laid in Jackie's arms relishing the moment, fearing that it would never come again. Fearing that if he let go then the voice would take control all of a sudden like long ago and fulfill it's words.

"It's alright Anti" Jackie rubbed his back, "I'll never hurt you again . . . . I'm here for you."

''I̸'̷m̵ ̷h̴e̸r̴e̶,̶ ̴t̷o̸o̴'

Anti whimpered in fear and held his brother tightly. Protectively. 

'Not this time' Anti thought with determination burning in his heart, 'Not ever again'

After a while, Jackie had finally parted from Anti and the two shared a smile before Jackie left to go to his own room for the night. Anti laid in his bed deep in his own thoughts until he fell asleep blissfully. 

The next day, the voice was gone but Anti was not relieved. He could still feel something there. Something waiting and watching.

 Maybe something was wrong with his medicine? He hoped that was all it was.

Uh-oh looks like there's trouble afoot. :D