A Finger's Width (Septiplier)

Chapter 12

Jack slept temperamentally and was up early in the morning for the third day in a row. He left Mark asleep in the bed and made his way through the house and to the back door. He took little time in leaving and embracing the morning dew in the air. It was misty outside and the sun had just risen. He walked briskly to the woods and out to his tree before realizing that he didn't feel like standing still and continued to walk. In the back of his mind he knew he should have left some sort of note for Mark, but at the front of it was something much more important. Anti.

Anxiety ran through his chest at the thought of the demon. He knew he shouldn't pity the thing, but he also knew him better than anyone else would. He was worried that he had gotten himself into trouble, as he usually did, but with what the flashes had shown it was getting worse. He shook his hands out and maneuvered carefully through the brush, trying to clear his mind and get out coherent thoughts. The night before last it looked like he had been falling but was hung up by something. Last night all he saw was the ground and his claws, like he was laying down but was chilled to the core at the low growl he had heard from behind him.

"Fuck," he said under his breath. From what he could conclude, Anti might be hurt and in an unsafe place. He wished he had more information, it was practically eating him alive not knowing. He returned to the house before Mark would have woken up, just to clear his conscious on that. The walk hadn't really solved anything for him, but it was a relief to feel some clean air on him. Ever since Dark had returned last night he had felt like he was choking on everything. Remembering his encounter with Dark he sighed, Mark would never even worry about that one and it made him feel stupid and just a tiny bit jealous. He would never understand why Jack stressed so much over Anti, because he had never had to. It was just a fact.

Mark didn't wake up for hours, and in that time Jack spent his time trying to get work done, though his mind was really elsewhere. He hadn't felt right since the fight, it it was constantly bearing down on his mind. At least yesterday he was able to distract himself by cleaning up the house with Mark, they had fixed mostly everything that could be fixed and thrown away everything that couldn't. Needless to say it looked much better, and the less evidence of that night the better in his opinion. When Mark came down finally, Jack was laying on the couch mindlessly watching T.V. Mark smiled and sat down on his chest.

"Hello," he said. Jack groaned loudly and bent inwards.

"Hello to you too, now get off of me."

"Not before I do this." Mark leaned down and pressed their lips together, and Jack melted into him easily. It only took him a moment to get his senses back and push him off again.

"Gross, you have morning breath," Jack said, pretending to gag. Mark laughed and took a big gulp of air before bringing himself down again and putting his forehead on top of Jack's. Jack grinned madly and kissed him again briefly. "Right, that's enough of that. Off." Mark leaned back and got off of him allowing Jack to stand up.

"Have you eaten yet?" Jack shook his head. "I can make us something."

"Okay." Jack smiled politely and Mark walked away into the kitchen. Jack reached to turn the T.V. off and followed him in.

"Hey, Jack?" Mark said, his back still to Jack. He turned around and jumped seeing that Jack was already there. "Oh, I uh. Well... Dark is back." He looked down as he said it, dreading seeing Jack's reaction. Jack was relieved he already knew and had had time to process it before seeing Mark. When he didn't respond, Mark looked up at him cautiously.

"I know, Mark." Jack said, walking forward and sliding an arm around his waist.

"You do?" Jack nodded. "How?"