A/N: We hit the actual plot tomorrow, I'm so excited! Enjoy. :)

Chapter Ten: In Which There is Lunch and Liu

It was lunchtime when Jeff saw Liu again. It had been his and Eyeless's day to cook lunch, so Liu caught him looking like a housewife. It had always been a joke in the Mansion to wear aprons and chef hats when it was your cooking day, so Slender had bought them all their very own aprons and hats. Jeff's apron was white with little red splatters and "Killer Chef" written across it—his hat was matching, white with red. Needless to say, Jeff was mortified when Liu entered the kitchen. It was some condolence that Liu looked surprised, so Jeff assumed his brother wasn't cornering him in the kitchen, where there were lots of potential weapons to kill each other with.

Eyeless sneezed, making them both jump. "Sorry," he muttered. "This smells like pepper, though. Or is it paprika? Jeff?"

"Oh, you know which one it is. Don't distract me," Jeff said. "Hey, Liu."

"Snappy much?" Eyeless said. "Hi, Liu."

"Hey," Liu said.

"Jeff assumes I can smell everything—I mean, mostly I can, but would you mind confirming that this is pepper?" Eyeless held up a little pepper shaker.

Liu nodded, caught himself, and said, "Yeah."

Eyeless smiled. "Thanks. Jeff, you should be more like Liu. Notice how polite he is."

"I'm polite," Jeff protested.

Eyeless laughed. Liu's shoulders seemed to relax some and Jeff couldn't help but admire how smoothly Eyeless handled people. How he did it without even seeing their body language, Jeff had no idea—or maybe he could smell their emotions? Now that would be weird. Discarding the thought, Jeff grabbed the pepper from Eyeless and set it on the counter. "We don't even need pepper."

"Ah, we don't? I thought for sure the recipe—"

"It said garlic pepper, not just pepper," Jeff sighed.

"I can't read."

"I told you the recipe. Here, you watch—listen to this boil," Jeff said, shuffling around Eyeless to the spice cabinet and pulling out what they needed.

"Liu, could you start the bacon?" Eyeless asked. "It's in the fridge. Jeff, show him where it is."

Jeff stiffened, almost protested, decided that would make things more awkward, and cautiously stepped to the fridge. He pulled out a packet of bacon and stretched it out to Liu, who refused to look at him but gingerly accepted the pack and took a place on the other side of Eyeless. "Oh, or were you doing something?" Eyeless asked Liu—like the thought had just occurred to him. Tricky bastard.

"Um, not really," Liu said. "Just looking for Jack."

"Which one?" Eyeless asked.

"Laughing," Liu said, his mouth twitching up just the littlest bit.

"Newbies gotta stick together, huh?" Eyeless said. "Jeff, the pasta feels squishy." Eyeless scooped out a piece with the spoon and held it towards Jeff.

"Yep," Jeff said.

"Now we drain it?"

"Now we drain it," Jeff agreed. Eyeless took the pasta to the sink, leaving an empty space between Jeff and Liu. Jeff didn't look at Liu, and Liu didn't look at Jeff. Jeff loathed the fact that he ever had to be this nervous around his brother. It wasn't how things were supposed to be. But here they were, both of them wolves turned rabbits because of a fucking stupid mistake. It was an enormous relief when Eyeless stepped between them again.

"Well this is pleasantly awkward," Eyeless commented.

"Isn't it though?" Liu murmured. "How done does the bacon need to be?"

"Most of them like it crispy, and the others can suck it up," Eyeless said. "Twelve pieces should be good."

Jeff grabbed the pot of pasta and dumped it into the mixing bowl, stirring it with the other ingredients.

"So Jeff told me you guys are brothers," Eyeless said. Jeff stirred more irritably. Of course he would bring it up, he just couldn't leave it alone. Liu kept his silence. "So you are?" Eyeless pushed.

"I guess," Liu said.

"Why guess? Parents sleep around a lot?"

Liu snorted. "No. I just—I don't know anymore."

"I thought we were brothers," Jeff said quietly, eyes focused on the mixing bowl.

"Are we?" Liu asked.

Jeff peeked around Eyeless, who leaned back some. Liu was still focused on the sizzling bacon, but his eyes were distant and tired. "Of course you are," Eyeless said. "You don't get to pick your blood."

"I don't think—that's not what we mean, Eye," Jeff said.

"Well what do you mean?"

"Brothers are supposed to take care of each other," Liu said. "Protect each other—we didn't. Both of us fucked it up. Here, bacon."

Eyeless took the five slices that were done and began tearing them into little pieces, which he threw into Jeff's mixing bowl. "Well just 'cause you fucked something up doesn't mean you can't fix it."

"He's not even Jeff anymore," Liu said, his tone darkening.

"He's got a point," Jeff said. "I'm not really that Jeff anymore."

"Is Liu exactly like he was five years ago?" Eyeless asked.

"No," Jeff and Liu said together.

"Then New Liu and New Jeff can still be brothers."

"If only it was that simple," Liu sighed. "Look, Eyeless, I appreciate the concern but I just don't think either of us wants to be brothers again."

"I kind of do," Jeff said.

"Neither of us could stand to be brothers again."

"Probably not," Jeff said. "Are you going to kill me?"

"I feel like I should be the one asking you that," Liu said. "I don't think so."

"Okay. I don't think I'll kill you either," Jeff said. "I'll have to think about it."

"Wow, what a comfort," Liu muttered. "More bacon."

"This was not the end I wanted to achieve," Eyeless commented. "I'm not letting it go."

"Okay," Jeff said.

"Right," Liu said.

"Jeff, I don't think you should kill Liu," Eyeless said.

Jeff opened his mouth to say that he couldn't decide that he wouldn't, because he still hated that his brother was living in this fucked world, but then—well, then Liu would know why Jeff murdered their family. Jeff wasn't sure why that thought was rebuffing—shouldn't he have wanted to explain himself? So maybe Liu would understand?—but it was. And then, after a second, he realized why it was. Liu would call him insane, think he was mental. He wasn't. And he didn't—he didn't want Liu to think that. Ever. Even though he probably already did. But Jeff wouldn't give him any more reason to focus on.

Hell, there was already so much to talk about. Did Liu kill people? Would Liu understand his reason? Did they have the same reasoning? Was Liu lying when he said he wouldn't kill Jeff? Why had he agreed to become a proxy? Could they be brothers, if they both understood killing? Could they work together? To answer Eyeless, Jeff shrugged and said, "I probably won't."

"Okay, I order you not to kill Liu."

Jeff grinned. "Slender's already done that. I can't say how much of a difference it'll make."

Eyeless shook his head. "Don't make me beat you, boy. Is that done?"

"Yeah," Jeff said, hefting the bowl off of the counter. "Now we chill it for an hour, right?"

"You tell me. I still can't read." Eyeless grabbed the recipe book and threw it back on top of the fridge. "Probably, though."

The rest of the day was actually pretty good. They ate lunch outside—they even brought Toby with them—in the summer sunshine, and they did the same thing with dinner, although they dumped bug spray all over themselves before they did. After dinner they ate a chocolate cake Masky and BEN made, and sprawled out in the living room—all of sixteen (Slender included, but minus one of the newbies, who was out on a job) of them—and watched movies late into the night. Slender disappeared sometime after the second movie, but Jeff didn't think much of it. And that, as mundane as it was, was the last good time in the Mansion.