Bad Guy | Sanders Sides

Chapter One

I'm not always the bad guy.

The words lingered in his head as he laid in his bed, staring up at the stars. His room didn't have a roof, but of course none of the others knew that. Nobody had ever ventured into his room before - they were all too wary of him. They probably should be wary of him. He was wild and unpredictable. He might hurt them. He scoffed bitterly.

Knocking on his door caused him to jump slightly, and he rolled his eyes. He was quite comfortable where he was. The knock came again, and he literally rolled off the bed, clambering to his feet and trudging over to the doorway. Cracking the door open slightly, he sighed as he spied Roman. He wasn't in the mood today.

"What do you want?" He snapped irritably.

"Thomas is making a video," The fanciful side announced.

"And?"

Prince faltered. "Don't you want to come watch it?"

"Not particularly."

"Come on Anxiety," he pleaded. "Thomas is our host. You could at least pretend to be interested."

Anxiety closed his eyes and exhaled. "Fine." It wasn't that he didn't like Thomas, in fact he was very fond of the boy, it was just that he didn't want to be disturbed today. It was one of those days. He really just wanted to be left alone.

Prince dragged the darker side towards the Studio. The Studio was the main control room of Thomas's mind. They could watch what he did, hear what he said, that sort of thing. Anxiety didn't even have to look to know Thomas was stressed, but he didn't know what about. That troubled him, not knowing. For once, it wasn't him adding to Thomas's stress. Their young Host was doing it all on his own.

Without warning, he felt himself being summoned, and was immediately dumped in the real world.

"Anxiety," Thomas welcomed dully. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean? You summoned me." Anxiety stared at his host in masked concern, noticing the bags under his eyes and the tiredness in his posture. "You look horrible."

"Not my fault," Thomas said lowly, voice harsh like broken glass. Anxiety recoiled slightly; Thomas has never been so...aggressive to his sides before. Thomas stared at Anxiety. "Have you been keeping me up at night?"

"No," he answered honestly.

"Why do I feel like you're lying?" Thomas's face was twisted with suspicion.

"I'm not," The side protested. "I've done nothing." Immediately, he felt Thomas' stress levels rise, and panic began to set in. "Thomas?"

"If you're not causing it, then what is?" he muttered.

Anxiety glanced quickly at the camera. "Are you recording?"

Thomas shook his head. "I was, but now..."

His growing panic triggered Anxiety's own, and both started breathing quickly. Anxiety did the only thing he could think of. "Patton!"

Dad appeared almost instantly and quickly took in the situation. He turned to Anxiety, eyes softening as he took in the clenched hands, the trembling breaths, the pale face. "I thought something was wrong," he murmured. "I'm not sure what you've triggered, but I'll deal with it."

"I didn't do anything," Virgil promised, but Patton was already turning his attention back to Thomas.

"Thomas?" Morality cooed soothingly. "Thomas, listen to me. Deep breaths. That's it." He looked up at Anxiety, mouth pinched. "You can go now, Anxiety."

Numb, he nodded and disappeared, shock coursing through his system. Logan and Roman were gathered in the Studio when he appeared, frowning as they watched Patton talk to their Host. The turned twin glares on him when he fully materialised, hands jammed deep in his hoodie pockets.

"What happened?" Roman demanded, but Anxiety shook his head.

"I don't know."

"He had a panic attack," Patton answered from behind him, adjusting his glasses. He looked tired. "A pretty severe one too. Plus, he hadn't been sleeping. I told him to go the doctor to see if he can get something to help."

"What did you do Anxiety?" Prince breathed.

"I did nothing," he said defensively. "What does everybody blame me?"

"Statistically, its you that causes the problems," Logic stated clinically, face devoid of emotion. Anxiety sneered. "To put it bluntly, you are the cause of a majority of Thomas's troubles."

"Logic," Patton scolded, but his brown eyes were sorrowful as he gazed at Anxiety. "Harsh as it may be, though, I do agree with Logan. You do tend to be at the center of a lot of Thomas's problems, kiddo."

"It's my job," Anxiety protested. What else was he supposed to?

"We don't require your presence here," Logan said, blandly, already turning away. "Please leave."

"Enough Logan." Patton took a step towards Anxiety, but he flinched back. "Anxiety-"

"No it's fine." He smirked feebly, stuffing the hurt deep down where it wouldn't be seen. "I'll leave you morons to it." Without another word, he stalked away, willing himself to hold it together, at least until he could be alone. 

He could still feel Thomas's panic thrumming in the air, and he chewed on his lip. Thomas had never reacted that negatively to him before, and the lack of concrete facts made Anxiety's skin crawl

For once, Anxiety hadn't done anything wrong.

Why was he always the bad guy?