Jack

"Mark, when she says someone like you, she probably means as intimidating as you."

"But I'm not intimidating! I'm a sweetheart!"

"She doesn't know that. She exists to protect Emily from everything. You are the second person she's met, and you're not only taller than she is, but you look stronger. She's scared of you, and she's dealing with that the only way she knows how."

"By scaring me."

"Exactly. By the way, why did you pin Emily against the wall?"

"I honestly thought it was Bloody."

"Look for the eyes, Mark."

"Oh, right. Hers becomes blue?"

"Blue."

"Okay." There were a few moments of silence. "What should I do now?"

"Apologize, I guess? You were trying to protect me, weren't you? She probably gets that. Go on."

So Mark apologized to Emily and Bloody while I finally finished breakfast, but I then realized I had been subconsciously holding Anti back for the last ten minutes. He was not known for backing down. Seeing Mark face off with a knife-holding Bloody worried him. I held my head as it began to hurt, escalating from throbbing to piercing.

Footsteps approached, and a voice said, "Jack?" Then I blacked out.

Bloody

I heard Mark call for Jack, then yell. Emily ran into the living room, then turned over control at the sight of Sean holding a knife and coming towards our room. Behind him, I saw Mark knocked out on the floor.

I chuckled. "Put the knife down, hun."

Anti hesitated. Then he roared and charged.

I darted to the side. He stopped his momentum and thrust out, trying to stab me. I grabbed his wrist in both hands and twisted his hand, forcing him to spin so his arm was behind his back. I laughed as I brought my knife up and held it next to his neck. We had had this fight so many times it felt choreographed.

"You still haven't told Sean you're wandering around at night, have you?" I asked him.

"What the hell was going on?"

"Oh, you mean the little stand-off?" I laughed again. "A simple misunderstanding."

"There was blood on your knife."

"He pinned me against a wall and I nicked his arm. No big deal. And if you were really concerned about him, you wouldn't have knocked him out."

"I was scared it would escalate. Sean was right there; you could have hurt him."

"Bullshit. You of all people should understand that I don't actually want to hurt anyone. After all, you don't either."

"Yes, but I've hurt people before."

I finally let go of his arm. "I've killed before, but that doesn't mean I enjoyed it."

He turned around and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Okay, I enjoyed it a little," I admitted, "but that was different. She was a bitch."

He laughed, a rare occasion that he had never done in the flesh before.

The two of us had found that our time together was constricted by Sean and Emily, so instead, we discovered we could meet up at night. We couldn't play cards, but we could talk, and we could fight. I beat Anti every time.

I put my knife away and sat on the floor of the hallway, and Anti followed suit. "So what happened between you and Mark?" He asked.

"Well, I may or may not have been a little scared when I saw that the new person to be staying at the apartment was the size of a bear, and I acted a little defensively. Mark freaked out and thought I meant to hurt Sean. He pinned me against a wall and threatened me, and I nicked him to make him let me go. Sean came in and sorted it out. No one was seriously hurt."

"So Mark was trying to do my job."

"Basically."

Anti was quiet for a while, then he asked, "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Trust so easily."

I turned to look at him. "I think we just proved I don't."

He gave me an incredulous look. "You think that little spat was a big deal? He apologized and you just went 'okay' and trusted him! And when we met, I was literally pinning you down and holding a knife. You didn't even threaten me. Hell, you threw your own knife away! Then you talked to me and got me to play cards!"

I laughed, then thought for a moment. "I guess it just never occurred to me not to trust someone until Mark. Bear in mind, he's the second person I've technically met. Still, I just… I think I usually worry so much about whether someone will like me that I'm not usually concerned about whether I should like someone."

He chuckled. "That's kind of hard for me to imagine. I've been suspicious of everyone my whole life."

I saw him suddenly wince. "Time to go?"

He gave me a half-hearted smirk. "He always gets scared when I'm happy."

"Yeah, Emily's a little nervous, too. See you later, okay?"

He smiled at me, and we both gave in.