Work Text:
Henrik sat alone in his bedroom, on the end of his bed. His usually soft hair was messy and tangled, his fingers running through it as he mumbled incoherent words to himself. Salty tears cascaded down his face, dampening his cheeks and making him struggle to breathe through the almost irresistible want to just lay on the carpet, muffle his crying, and rot away by himself.
His pajamas had small, damp spots on them where his tears hit the soft fabric. The doctor had no idea why he felt so awful. He had just woken up in the middle of the night and felt his emotions hit him like a nail in the heart. It was the fucking worst. And hearing that familiar static crackling into focus in the dark corner of his room absolutely didn’t help.
“Hello again, my dearest doctor~” called the demon, Antisepticeye, in sarcastic sweetness from the shadows of the room. Henrik mumbled something unintelligible but definitely rude in response.
Anti hummed and sat down next to him, gleefully soaking in the doctor’s misery while he had the chance, before one of the other egos came along and fixed Henrik’s mood with hugs and soft words of encouragement. Ew, empathy.
Anti took a moment to remember the last time he had gotten caught basking in Henrik’s misery — Chase had come in and ambushed him with a crowbar, which had left a nasty bruise on Anti’s shoulder that took a long time to heal. But as of now, it seemed like everyone was asleep. Good for Anti, too bad for the doctor.
He only then noticed that Henrik had stopped crying, only muffled sobs escaping from beneath his hands, which hid his face. Anti smirked. He thought he had it together, didn’t he? Thought that his depressive episode was over this fast? How cute.
«Not yet, bitch.»
“Is it Rachel again? Is she bothering you?” asked the demon sarcastically, with a mean-spirited, sharp-toothed grin. Henrik nodded slowly, flinching noticeably at the mention of his vindictive, gold-digging slut of an ex-wife.
Lately, she had only been getting worse, taunting the doctor ruthlessly through text about his life problems at any given opportunity. Anti had hacked his phone and read his texts while he was asleep, so he knew how remorseless Rachel was getting. It was kind of admirable, for a human woman. However, using this situation to his advantage could tip the scales of revenge in his favour…
He turned his attention back to the doctor, who was now letting out quieter sobs, and decided to try and mimic Chase to move his plan forward. After all, humans trusted those who showed empathy, did they not? But he didn’t need to know that it was fake.
The demon let out a fake sigh and pulled the doctor closer to him, arms wrapped around him to give him something to lean on, and moved him slightly so that Henrik was sitting on his lap. Henrik was in no state to reject any affection, even from Anti, and therefore sunk into the touch, letting out a soft sigh at the contact as he leaned on Anti’s chest.
The glitch could feel the ego’s tears dampen his shirt, feeling slightly uncomfortable but sticking it out anyway. He tried his best to stay quiet and to sound empathetic. “Shh, enough tears..” he whispered.
Henrik choked a bit and grabbed onto his shirt tightly, making Anti flinch, but the demon was willing to let Henrik do whatever he needed to do in order for his plan to succeed. “It’s okay. She’s not here. Rachel can’t hurt you right now. You’re safe.” Anti repeated some of the lines he had heard from Chase and Jackieboy, which surprisingly helped Henrik a lot. His breathing slowly evened out, and Anti hid a wicked grin. The doctor was so desperate for comfort that he had practically attached himself to the demon.
“..zhank you…” came a small mumble from the still-upset ego. Anti mimicked an empathetic smile.
“Don’t mention it. You know… I’ve been watching, and I know an easy solution to this entire problem.”
Henrik was listening now. This was hilarious! He had been so drowned in his own misery over his life problems that some fake acts of kindness and comfort were all it took to earn his trust.
Anti moved Henrik back to his spot, and then stood up, facing away from the other ego, and held a hand out in front of him like the subjects of artistic paintings held apples.
Red strings descended from the ceiling and rose from the floor, trailing dark red smoke that quickly filled the room — strangely, it didn’t affect either the demon or the doctor’s ability to breathe. The strings wrapped around and around themselves, creating the shape of a sharp, shiny, jagged-bladed knife.
The threads fell away and dissolved as the weapon fell gently into Anti’s hand.
He turned back to Henrik, quickly summoning another, and holding them both in the same hand as he observed the German man’s reaction. Fear and interest were twisted together in his eyes, behind crooked glasses that he hadn’t bothered to either take off before he went to sleep, or wipe the tears off of the lenses.
“Wh… vhat are you.. suggesting..?” Henrik asked quietly. Anti grinned manically, reminding the doctor of his true nature, and leaned down until their faces were inches apart. Holding the doctor’s chin up with his free hand, he stared him in the eyes with a gaze that could melt metal.
“I’m suggesting that we kill her.”
Henrik didn’t jump back, or immediately protest, or scream like Anti had expected. A surprise, to be certain, but a welcome one nonetheless. He simply let out a quiet gasp at the suggestion, tensed up, then went quiet.
When Anti backed up and stood a few feet before him, he could tell that the doctor’s thoughts were swirling as he held his hands out in front of him, staring down at them like they had been coated in blood. Morals and wants battling, tears starting to fall down his face again, his breath wavering, long-buried memories stabbing at his heart because he just couldn’t, but he could, but he didn’t want to, but he did, the trauma whispering to him like a demon in his head, like a voice that was so loud that it hurt his head yet so quiet that nobody else could hear, encouraging him, encouraging him to kill Rachel, egging him on and telling him “Just do it, she doesn’t deserve life, look what she did, take back what you had. Take back the life you had before she fucked it all up, before she cheated, before she left, before she taunted you, ruined your confidence, destroyed your self-worth and cost you hours of your life because you couldn’t choke back your tears. He can help you. Anti can help you. Trust him. Don’t fear him. Look how he comforted you. He is trustworthy. He is not the enemy.”
Henrik’s hands and body trembled more the longer he thought, until Anti thought that he might break down, fall to his knees, and scream like his heart was being ripped out of his chest and torn in two through a shattered, blood-soaked ribcage. While he adored the sight of the German ego’s suffering and how immense it was, he grew impatient, and grinned sadistically.
“Don’t act like your morals won’t let you do it. I’ve seen what you’ve done. Watched it firsthand. I’ve seen the real you, you sadistic monster.” Henrik flinched and hid his face in his hands as Anti’s smile grew wider, showing off sharp teeth.
“When you can’t control your emotions, you take them out on your patients when they need you the most. Cut them just to cut them, watch their blood flow, tear out their organs like you’re ripping tissue paper and not fragile, essential parts of a human’s survival. I’m everywhere, Henrik. I’ve seen the sanity in your eyes fogged over, morality blinded by what you’ve been through, only to return once the job is done, like a werewolf. Every time you hear that heart monitor flatline, that dreaded, long beep of failure and a gruesome reminder of humanity’s mortality, it comes back. You come back. It wakes you up from what you were. But I have never once seen an ounce of regret in your eyes. You simply clean up and say that you failed to save them. Like a fucking liar. You knew what you were doing. You knew that you were ripping away the life of an innocent person, just because yours is ruined. You didn’t care, Henrik. Not one bit. You are NOT innocent like you say you are.”
“Enough… stop…” came the choked, muffled pleas from the man in front of Anti. “I know vhat I am.. I know vhat I did… I’m sorry... just, please… stop…”
He must have cried out half of the hydration in his body by now. Tears dripped like a leaking tap from under his hands. It almost made Anti feel something. Even when he had Henrik chained to a wall by his neck like a dog on a leash, scars all over him and scarlet blood seeping from cuts in his flesh, he had never seen him in this much pain. He had never seen anyone in this much pain. Not even Chase, when he would drunkenly sob about Stacy and his children.
«It is often the strong and silent who hide their pain the longest…» Anti reminisced on a lesson taught to him by an elder demon back in the shadow realm. Henrik had pretended to be fine for so long that whenever his emotional dam broke, all hell broke loose and he became a helpless, sobbing mess. To Anti, it was a beautiful sight. And yet, he needed to wear him down even more, so he couldn’t stand here and admire the doctor’s sadness.
He got down on his knees on the floor and pulled Henrik into a hug. He felt strong arms throw themselves around his neck as tears dampened his shoulder. “Shhhh…” he whispered to the miserable, sobbing mess of a human in his arms. “You didn’t let me finish. This is not your fault, Henrik.”
“…i..it’s not…?” came the choked reply.
Anti shook his head gently and slowly. “No, no it is not.”
“She made you like this. Her ruthless mockery, and the things she did to you. She did this to you, didn’t she? I know she did. It’s her fault. She hurt you. Whenever she couldn’t contain herself, she took it out on you, leaving marks on your skin that, while they would heal with time, would leave internal scars on you even now that you wouldn’t let your children see. That’s why you do the same to your patients, because you have endured so much pain that you purposely inflict it onto helpless individuals, because you don’t enjoy hurting them, you enjoy the experience of evening the scales with the world around you. You enjoy getting revenge for everything you had to endure, because it makes you feel powerful, something that you didn’t feel before. You may not be innocent, but you are not the villain of your story. You are the victim. Rachel made you the broken mess of a man that you are. And yet you still cry over her? What? Do you want her to forgive you? Do you want her to love you again? When are you going to stop clawing for something that’s never going to happen?”
The last line definitely shook Henrik right to the bone. “I…” was all he could muster before falling silent. His tears ceased after a few minutes, and he mumbled to himself.
Anti kept his arms around Henrik, holding him tight to calm him down, and checked the alarm clock out of the corner of his eye. 1:45 AM. Jeez, he had been tormenting the doctor for a long time.
Speaking of Henrik… his sniffling and mumbling had stopped. Now there was only soft breathing, along with the occasional cough. After a minute, Anti pulled back to look him in the eye.
It had been a while since Anti had been scared, lost for words, felt threatened. The last time had been when he had been fighting Darkiplier earlier this month, and the other demon had almost killed him. Anti had had his fair share of near-death experiences in his time, but most of them didn’t scare him because he knew he would win. However, to see this look on such an unpredictable and broken man’s face… it didn’t truly scare him, but it left an uneasy feeling that felt a lot like it.
Henrik still had his arms around Anti’s neck, hands and clothes wet with tears and his shoulders and muscles free of tension, but his facial expression had become one of numbness. Tear tracks stained his cheeks and trailed down to his jawline, damp, shimmering, reddened eyes making him look tired. But he showed no emotion in his expression. No pain was left. Nothing… until you looked closer into his eyes. That was what made Anti’s breath stutter.
A shimmering void of blue and black, rasping wishes of death on Rachel. Anti could practically see through the window of hell as he stared into Henrik’s glazed eyes, as the rise and fall of his chest evened out to a steady breathing rate, and his eyes kept their gaze on the floor. Morality had died in this man’s mind, if only for tonight. Anti took a moment to take this all in, then casted another wicked smile.
“That’s my boy…” he whispered. He stood up, dragging Henrik up with him. “How do you feel, doctor?” the demon asked quietly. No response came from Henrik’s lips for a few seconds. The way his eyes and hands shifted made Anti guess that he was searching for the right word.
“…ready.” Henrik finally answered. “Let’s…” He struggled with the words coming out of his mouth. “…let’s kill her.”
Anti grinned proudly and handed him one of the jagged knives. He watched the ego’s hands fiddle with the weapon, turning it around and gripping the handle in different ways to find which way allowed him to wield it best. Once he found a good grip, he looked back up to Anti. There was hesitation in his expression, but Anti patted his shoulder. “You know where she lives, Henrik. Lead the way there. I’m right behind you... partner.”
Henrik nodded slowly, threw on a random jacket from his closet, put on a pair of gloves, and the two left the house, making sure to lock the door behind them.
The doctor led Anti through the streets, dodging through back lanes and taking an unusually complex route. Anti was beginning to think that he had gotten lost, until Henrik stopped in an alley and pointed forward like a robot, to a large house with a blue roof and a tilted mailbox.
“Zhere,” he said. He was completely monotone and serious, it was almost scary to Anti. “She lives in zhere. My kids vill be asleep, but Rachel and her fiancé Rick vill be avake. You get him, I’ll take her.”
He sounded confident in his plan, so Anti nodded and checked for traffic, dashing across the street together when there were no cars or civilians in sight. “Zhis neighbourhood is like a ghost town at night,” Henrik whispered. “Perfect environment for zhis kind of plot to take place.” He smiled a bit at Anti, looking for approval, who grinned back proudly. His new partner was already getting the hang of being openly wicked.
Henrik fished a paperclip from his jacket pocket and picked the lock of the backyard shed, pulling out a ladder while doing his best to make as little noise as possible.
“Smart thinking. We’ll climb in through a window and hit em fast n’ silent, be out of the house and have their bodies six feet under before sunrise. Good plan, doc,” Anti told his companion, who smiled back at him. He helped Henrik prop the ladder up against the second-floor window — the one to Rachel and Rick’s bedroom. Anti climbed up first and peeked in the window.
A black-haired man laid asleep on the bed, not even under the covers or anything, the goddamn animal. Henrik gave him the nod, and the demon pushed open the window quietly, trying his best not to make noise as to not wake the man. Upon closer inspection, he seemed to have passed out drunk on his bed, the smell of beer on his breath and spilled alcohol around his mouth.
Anti got into position and, after being given the signal by Henrik, quickly slashed the sawback blade across the sleeping man’s throat.
Blood poured from the newly-formed cut, and Henrik watched ominously from the opposite side of the bed as Rick immediately woke up and tried to scream for help. Henrik quickly covered his mouth, glaring down at him and holding the knife in between his eyes. Rick’s sudden realization of who he was made the doctor smile.
“Hello again, Richard,” the German taunted. “How refreshing it is to see you at my mercy.”
Rick tried to cuss him out, but nothing but muffled, choked gurgles emerged from his throat. Henrik made a point to injure him as much as possible before he died, stabbing the blade into the man’s shoulder and watching him convulse in agony.
Anti’s eyes widened as his pupils flashed and glitched in amazement. He had watched Henrik take lives before, plenty of times, and much more viciously than this, but never as the person was awake. He knew from experience that it took way more gut to kill a conscious person than a sleeping person.
“You’re not getting out of zhis one, asshole. Not zhis time.”
Terror exploded like lightning in their victim’s eyes as he realized that there truly was no way out of this. He snowballed from shock into rage as he tried his best to fight back, but with the German and the demon pinning him down from opposite sides, he was losing badly.
The doctor quickly drew the knife out and drove it in again, slightly lower than the last time, drawing another muffled howl of pain. The ego stared at the writhing, pitiful man impaled by his weapon, and Anti saw no pity in his eyes.
The demon watched proudly as Rick quickly bled out, going limp on the bed as his scarlet blood that had soaked the sheets started dripping from the bed and onto the floor. His eyes became glassy, like a doll’s eyes. He was dead and gone, for good this time.
“Nice kill, teammate,” Anti praised, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice for once. He lifted his hand for a high five, which Henrik provides with a satisfied smirk. “One down, one more to go.”
The demon huffed confidently, and turned to leave the room, keeping a tight grip on his knife. He was surprised to feel the doctor grab his arm and stop him in place.
Anti turned around to look at the taller ego, and seeing the look in his eyes, actually dropped his weapon on the carpet.
It was the exact opposite of his apathetic look from earlier. Too many emotions swirling in his eyes to get a clear reading of what it was that he was feeling. The morality had returned to him, and he was realizing where he was, what he just did, and the risk that committing such a crime posed for his future — although there was something else bothering him that Anti couldn’t determine. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes as his focus darted from Anti, to the door, and back to Anti.
“Doc?” Anti whispered quietly. Seeing Henrik change from murderous to remorseful seemed to flick a switch inside of him, as there was a new feeling welling up in his chest.
“…don’t go out zhere. Let me go first. I hear—”
“Daddy?” came a little boy’s voice from the room across the hall.
Henrik froze in fear as Anti tensed up. He felt an unfamiliar shockwave of anxiety kick him in the face, as his idle static glitching started to get louder. Henrik tried to shush him as the tears in his eyes started to fall, but that only made it worse.
That was Henrik’s eleven-year-old son behind the door.
If he saw Rick’s body, the twitchiness and constricted pupils of his father, or Anti covered in blood, he would scream, alert Rachel, possibly alert the neighbours, and they would be busted. Anti’s loud noises were only raising the kid’s suspicion.
Memories of trying to restrain the demon back when they were still enemies hit Henrik in the face and raced through his mind like horses on a track. What had typically silenced, or at least quieted him?! What was it?! Duct tape… bandana tied around his mouth… knife— no wait, that was a different time, scratch that.
Aha! Covering Anti’s mouth seemed to silence him. Thinking quickly, he slapped a hand over Anti’s mouth. That, unfortunately, didn’t do anything positive. The demon started freaking out, his glitching and static going insane. Henrik could see the panic flickering in his eyes, his pupils dissolving and reappearing out of fear, his primal defensive instincts to cry for help from anyone nearby were kicking in and the fucking noise was getting so loud his son was going to open the door they were going to get caught they were screwed they failed they were going to get arrested they were going to—
“Max?” whispered a girl’s voice from the kids’ bedroom. Henrik’s daughter and Max’s fraternal twin sister, Felicity, had been woken up by her brother’s fretting.
“Feli, I heard Daddy from Mom’s room… I think he came to see us!” whispered Max to his sister.
Henrik felt his heart go soft. Max hadn’t been asking for Rick when he called for his father. He had been asking for him. He hadn’t been replaced like he had thought… the relief made him choke out a sob.
Whoops… the kids heard that.
A knock came on the door, and Henrik quickly wiped his gloves off on Anti’s shirt. “Dad?” called Felicity quietly. “Daddy? Max says he hears you. Are you there?”
Henrik pointed to the corner, and Anti glitched over there to hide from the field of view from the doorway.
“Yes, I’m here.. don’t tell your mozher, okay? She’ll kill me for sneaking in like zhis.”
A very quiet “I told you so!” came from Max, as Felicity tried to open the door. Henrik just managed to throw his bloody gloves and the bloody knife to Anti before the door creaked open.
He stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him, and the two eleven-year-olds embraced their father excitedly. Max had soft, fluffy, cinnamon-brown hair and his father’s piercing blue eyes, wearing blue pyjamas with small stripes. Feli had long, messy, ebony-black locks that reached down to her lower back, and her mother’s charming green eyes, sporting a lilac nightgown with small white spots.
Henrik felt the tears coming back as he felt how tightly his twins hugged him — they had clearly missed him, and for good reason. It had been about two months since he had seen them in-person — Rachel had full custody, and wouldn’t let him see them, because she was just a garbage person who wanted to raise her children to be just like her.
When the kids pulled away from the hug, they had a lot of questions. Feli spoke first — at least she kept her voice down.
“Dad, what’s wrong? Your eyes are small, you’re crying… are you okay?”
Shit.
Henrik tried to dodge the question, chuckling a bit to himself and whispering “It doesn’t matter.”
Max tried to open the door, but Anti saw the knob turn and dived for it, sitting against the door to keep it closed.
“Daddy, I can’t open the door..!” Max complained.
“It’s okay, Max, you don’t need to,” the doctor assured.
“But I heard something!”
“It‘s probably just zhe vind.”
“I hear broken TV noises!”
“That’s called static, Max,” came an interruption from Felicity.
“It’s just glitching out, you two, don’t vorry. I’ll get Uncle Shawn to fix it. Zhe vone vith zhe hat, not zhe hoodie.”
Anti felt his heart rate going insane as Max continued to struggle with the doorknob. Why he was so panicked, he had a feeling that he had an explanation for.
While there were most likely no repercussions for him getting busted, since he could easily break out of any measly human prison and rip the cops’ throats open with just his nails, Henrik getting caught would severely damage the demon’s chances of his plot succeeding.
The doctor, at least to his knowledge, was 100% human. He had human strength, human abilities, and human resilience. He could be arrested, placed on a watchlist, or even shot on the spot. Even in this short window of time, Henrik had proven himself to be an astounding partner, what with his extensive knowledge of the weak points of the human body, experience in murder, excellent knowledge of the city’s layout, ability to reject the pleas of mercy from struggling victims, incredible acting skills that could be used to sell a story to possible witnesses or future victims, and not to mention his quick, strategic thinking that had been very prominent in these last couple of interactions.
Losing him and his partnership to the idiocy that was humanity’s legal system could mean a devastating drop in luck for Anti to succeed. He listened to Henrik and his kids whisper outside the door. Maybe it was just the anxious static noises emanating off of him, but he couldn’t hear a word they were saying until his name was called by the doctor.
“Anti?” came a low whisper through the door.
“Yeah? What’s up?”
“Zhey know it’s you.”
Anti froze.
FUCK.
“They.. do?”
“Zhey’re too smart for me. Zhey heard you breazhing, and zhey vant to meet you.”
“Idiot, I can’t come out, I’m covered in—!”
“I like his voice,” Feli thought out loud. Anti looked at the door, a little embarrassed. This kid didn’t know he was a literal hellspawn, but she liked him anyway.
“Uh.. thanks, kid,” he said quietly.
“You’re welcome,” responded the girl cheerfully. “Now can you pleeeeaaaase come out? We really want to see you! Dad says you’re super cool!”
Now Anti felt even more embarrassed. He had never gotten compliments before, especially not from someone that he previously only saw as a puppet for him to toy with and manipulate. The closest he had ever gotten to compliments were after-battle comments from Dark congratulating his victory whenever he won.
“He said what now..?” was all Anti could say.
“He said you’re super cool,” Feli repeated as if it was nothing.
“I’ll give you a chocolate bar from my snack bucket in the cupboard if you come out!” offered Max, prompting a laugh from Anti, but he still didn’t budge from his spot.
“You’ll be afraid of me,” he said simply. A gentle knock on the door made him turn his head.
“Anti, please..?” asked Henrik through the door. He lowered his voice even more, out of his children’s earshot. “Zhey don’t have to see vhat ve did. And if zhey are afraid of you, I vill protect you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Vhy vouldn’t I? You’re zhe reason I’m even seeing zhem again.”
“Henrik. They’re going to be afraid of me, or they’re going to see the bastard and scream, and then you’ll get arrested and I’ll be exorcised.”
“Zhat von’t happen.”
“How do you know?”
“I just do. Please trust me, like I trusted you.”
“…”
Well now he just felt like shit, and he didn’t know why. Something about how Henrik valued his trust, and how much he trusted the demon, when Anti had faked his kindness, faked his empathy, faked any emotion or care or concern for the doctor, deceived him into thinking that they were friends, and planned to use him like a goddamn tool, sparked that tiny human part inside of the glitch. This was the least he could do — trusting the doctor just this once was the least he could do to make that spark go away.
Reluctantly, Anti slowly stood up. His common sense told him that this was a horrible idea, but he didn’t want to listen to it. He used his red strings to move Rick off of the bed and into a closet, and wiped most of the blood off of his face with his hands, before hesitantly cracking open the door.
“Woah, he’s green!” Max whispered. “I didn’t know that people could be green!”
Henrik smiled and looked to the ceiling, sighing and shaking his head lovingly at his son’s innocence.
When Anti stepped out of the room completely, the kids stared at the blood coating his clothes.
“Dad, where did all that blood come from…?” asked Feli curiously, but fear was absent from her voice. It made Anti feel almost sorry to think about what this child must have seen if the sight of a bloody green person with a slashed throat, sharp teeth, demonic eyes, and pointed ears didn’t scare her.
“Uhh.. vell…” Henrik struggled for a response.
“It’s my blood,” Anti told the kids, to cover for his partner. “See this cut on my neck? It started bleeding out of the blue, it does that sometimes. Your father helped me.”
Luckily for the adults, Henrik’s twins believed the story instantly. “Daddy’s a great doctor,” Max said proudly. “Of course he could help you! Right Feli?” Max turned to his sister, who kept her eyes on Anti, looking spaced out.
“Felicity..?” Max asked again, confused.
“Humans can’t be green, Max, he’s obviously an alien,” Feli said to her brother. “Look at him! His eyes don’t look like ours, he has claw hands, he’s got that weird static cloud thingy around him, and he’s GREEN!”
Max looked back up at Anti after his sister finished talking, eyes wide. “Are you really an alien, Mr. Anti?” he asked in awe. Anti’s eyes moved to Henrik to signal for help, and the doctor nodded quickly.
“Yep,” Anti whispered. “You found me. See why I didn’t wanna come out? I thought you wouldn’t like me, because I look scary.”
“Awesome!! I knew aliens were real!!” Max exclaimed, making Henrik flinch. Feli smacked him on the arm, then pointed downstairs.
“Max, honey? What’s going on up there?” called a woman’s voice, a voice that couldn’t be anyone else’s but Rachel. Anti looked back at his murder buddy — Henrik looked scared. Genuinely terrified of being found. Felicity must have noticed too, because she covered for her brother by shouting down to their mother.
“Sorry Mom! Me and Max are just playing space invaders!”
Henrik sighed in relief as Max whispered “sorry, sorry, sorry” over and over again to his anxious dad.
“Well try to keep it down, sweetie pie, Mommy’s watching TV,” Rachel called up.
“Okay!” Feli answered, before lightly hitting Max on the back of the head. “Stupid!” she whispered. “Dad said not to let her know he’s here! And you’re lucky that it’s a Saturday and she never looks at the clock, we shouldn’t even be up this late!”
“I said I’m sorry, okay!” Max whispered back, annoyed. He looked up guiltily to his father. “Sorry, Dad.”
“It’s fine, Maxvell, just be careful,” Henrik replied, relaxing slightly. Anti joined the conversation to hopefully break the tension.
“How would you two like to see something cool?” the glitch asked. Both of the kids were paying attention now, so he kept talking.
“One of me and your dad’s friends is a magician, and another is a superhero. We could see if I could get cell service, and I could call them here to show you what they can do! But first, your dad has to do something really important, and it’s a solo mission, so we’ll need to leave him be. How does that sound?”
Both of the children’s eyes lit up. “That sounds amazing!” Felicity whispered. Max nodded excitedly, making hyped-up noises and bouncing in place. Anti grinned.
“Good. Listen, there’s better service outside, but your mother can’t know that I’m here, so I’ll need you to climb out of the window with me, okay?”
Felicity nodded. “If Dad trusts you, then I do too.”
Anti led Henrik’s children to the window, telling them that it was his blood splashed around the room, and helped them climb down the ladder, then told them to wait there for about five or ten minutes as he climbed back up and snuck back to Henrik, who looked at him like he was a genius.
“I’ll pretend to have bad service and distract your kids. You do what you need to do, and meet me outside when the job is done. We’ll bury the bodies, take them back to yours, and then mission accomplished.” The demon handed Henrik a new pair of gloves, and then his weapon after he had put them on.
“Anti... I truly don’t know vhat to say. Ve’re horrible people for doing zhis, but it feels like zhe right zhing to do... my head is splitting in two, telling me to run avay and not do zhis, but also to go downstairs and kill her...” he whispered.
Anti took ahold of his hand surprisingly gently, then held it up and tightened the doctor’s grip around the knife.
“We’re taking back your life and hurting the people who hurt you, Doc. They had this coming. Don’t hold back on the bitch.”
Henrik nodded slowly, and squeezed the knife in a gesture of confidence that what he was about to do was deserved and righteous. Anti felt proud. Genuine pride filled his expression, a half-smile with fiery eyes. But the doctor didn’t go downstairs yet.
“Anti...?” he whispered.
“Yeah, what do you need?”
“I just vanted to say… zhank you for helping me realize vhat I have to do.”
“Ah, it’s no problem. I’ve really been wanting to do this for a while. Have a partner, y’know. But shadow beings aren’t that cooperative.”
Henrik chuckled a bit, but his next move was something that Anti couldn’t have expected less. He walked over to the demon and pulled him closer, resting his head on Anti’s fluffy dark green hair, as his own lighter green fluff fell over his face and his arms wrapped around Anti’s back.
“Henrik, what are you—” Anti began in confusion, only to be shushed by the doctor. Anti shrugged slightly and didn’t resist — this didn’t feel half bad. He felt Henrik’s body heat warming his smaller, normally cold body, and having something to rest his head on at this time of night felt so… comfortable. He completely disregarded the blood he was drenched in as he found himself accepting the gesture of affection from the taller ego, who spoke again.
“Zhank you, Anti. Just… zhank you, so, so, so much. For everyzhing you’ve done for me, good and bad. I feel like I need to explain, so just hear me out, okay..?”
Anti nodded, keeping his head on the doctor’s chest, and hummed a quiet “Okay.”
“Every time you vould come to see me, I noticed a progression of your behavior, and a pattern of vhen you showed up. Zhe first time you came to me after you released me, I vas alone, crying because of vork stress. Granted zhat you veren’t exactly nice zhat first visit, but you did give me some good advice — “life is cruel, don’t expect everyzhing to be so fucking happy.” At zhe time, it didn’t make it better.. but zhe next day, vhen I applied zhat mindset, I felt so... ready to take on everyzhing zhat vent wrong zhat day. I prepared myself, rolled vith zhe punches, because of you. Vhenever you vould come see me alone, you vere never nice, but somezhing zhat you said alvays managed to help me.”
“And zhe pattern, I noticed later on. Vhenever you come to me… I am alone. Desperate for company, for comfort, for advice, for somezhing, but not vanting to be a burden on zhe ozhers. Vhenever I vas alone and needed contact, but isolated myself anyvay… you came in. And I almost svear zhat vonce or tvice, I saw zhis... look on your face. Pity, empazhy, somezhing… I could never tell vhat it vas vhenever I saw you like zhat, and I still don’t know, but it vasn’t spite. I guess vhat I’m trying to tell you is zhat, despite how mean you vere to me, over time…”
“…I grew a.. fondness.. for you.”
Anti was, to say the least… very fucking confused. He remembered stalking Henrik and seeing him using his ideologies, and he remembered that unknown emotion that he would feel for a few moments occasionally whenever he invited himself into the doctor’s room.. but he didn’t understand the “fondness” bit.
He did understand that he had learned how similar the two of them were over time, how outstanding they would be if they were working together, that he didn’t truly feel even a tenth of the amount of spite that he thought he carried for the good doctor, and even that being close to him, being in his arms, just being in his proximity gave him a sense of confidence and security that he didn’t feel anywhere else — but fondness?
He wasn’t familiar with it, especially not when it was someone else being fond of him.
“…what do you even mean when you say you’re fond of me…?” Anti asked quietly, confused. Henrik hum-laughed quietly and moved Anti’s head with a hand, so the two of them could look each other in the eyes.
“Hey, what the hell, I was comfortable..” Anti mumbled, prompting another small laugh from the doctor.
“I’m sure zhat you’re familiar vith Plutchik’s Vheel of Emotions?” he asked. “You seem intelligent.”
Anti nodded. “Yeah. There’s.. trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation, and joy, I think. Then there are some combos of those that I can remember.”
Henrik nodded. “Very good. Now, I vant you to process zhis for a few seconds.” Anti nodded slowly.
“Being around you makes me feel.. happy. Joyful. No matter how mean you might be. You’re like a cactus vith flowers on it. You’re scary, but not nearly as bad as you first appeared to be, and you alvays have somezhing nice masked underneazh your rudeness. You make me feel happy. And like I’ve shown you several times tonight, I trust you and your judgement, your plans and your strategies, your common sense and your skills. I trust you. Vhat is zhe combination of Joy and Trust called on zhe vheel, Anti?”
Anti took a few moments to process the thoughts. Joy and Trust. Yellow and Apple — according to a post he had seen online, that was the name for that shade of green. Yellow and Apple made Lime. What emotion was represented by Lime, again…?
Anti froze as he realized.
Oh.
“Figure it out?” Henrik asked quietly, a gentle smile on his face. “It looks like you have.”
“…love,” Anti mumbled. “Joy and Trust together turn into Love.”
Henrik nodded. “So, vhat do you zhink I am getting at…?” he asked, signalling for Anti to finish the sentence.
“….you, uh... you love me.” Anti whispered, barely audible.
“Correct.”
Anti felt his legs become weak, as if the doctor’s arms were the only things holding him upright and keeping him from crashing to the floor.
“You’re.. you’re being serious..?” he asked quietly. Henrik nodded.
“Strange, I know,” he chuckled, “isn’t it?” He looked down at the demon he held in his arms, expecting a negative reaction. But instead…
“..no,” Anti answered, slightly louder than before. He sounded... tired. “It’s not strange.”
Henrik sighed quietly in relief. “Good.”
It was quiet for a few seconds, before Henrik spoke again. “Listen, Anti..” he mumbled. “Zhere is a chance zhat I von’t be coming back up from zhat living room. So.. may I do somezhing..?”
Anti had a feeling that he knew what Henrik was getting at, and he felt nervous, but he nodded. “Go for it,” he said quietly.
The doctor smiled and lifted the demon ever so slightly up off the ground, meeting Anti’s lips with his own.
The glitch felt his heart jump. This was.. weird.. but it felt nice. The bit of humanity that he had felt spark earlier was now lit on fire, burning up everything else. It was a new feeling, and it was goddamn overwhelming, but in a good way. He closed his eyes calmly.
After a few moments, Anti was set gently back onto the ground as Henrik pulled away, letting his eyes flutter open. Both of them had a soft blush on their faces.
“Wow…” Anti whispered. “That’s.. all I can say… Just… holy shit.”
Henrik smiled down at him and kissed him softly on the forehead.
“I love you, Anti. Go vait vith zhe kids. I’ll catch up vith you in a moment... hopefully.”
Anti nodded slightly, already feeling colder when Henrik let him go.
“I promise I’ll be back soon. I’ll do vhat ve came here to do, and zhen I’ll meet you out by zhe shed, okay?”
“O..Okay..” Anti stammered.
“I promise, Anti,” Henrik insisted, brushing his hand against Anti’s upper arm, which was still damp with Rick’s blood. “Vonce ve get home, I’ll get zhe ozhers to accept you as part of zhe family. You von’t have to be alone anymore. Zhat vill be zhe first step. Ve’ll take it slow.”
“…okay, doc,” Anti replied quietly, nervous at the idea of approaching the others without Jack defending him, as he had tried to do before. “…I trust you. And… I can try my best to help you with those kids.. if you want..” He smiled as best as he could at the doctor, a sharp tooth peeking from his mouth.
“I love you too, Hen.”
Henrik smiled at the nickname the demon gave him, finding his awkwardness adorable.
Anti kissed Henrik quickly on the cheek, taking off one of his gloves and suspending it and the knife in the air with his strings so he could hold his hands. The feeling of their fingers interlocked, and the warmth and security that Anti felt as Henrik’s human body shared its heat with the demon’s cold flesh, was a sensation that, although new, he loved.
Through all the times he visited the doctor, he didn’t think that he had a reason for his visits aside from watching him suffer, but life works in mysterious ways sometimes.
After a few seconds, they separated, and Anti gave Henrik his gloves and bloody knife back. He watched him sneak down the stairs, and then left for the window again.
“Mr. Anti, what took you so long? We’re freezing out here!” Feli exclaimed in a whisper-yell.
Anti smiled a bit. “Sorry, kid. Me and your dad were talking.”
“About what?” Max inquired. He seemed to be less cold than his twin.
Anti smiled.
“Something… important. Your dad will be here soon.”
They waited for five minutes.
Then for ten.
Then for twenty.
Forty minutes passed of the three of them waiting out in the cold. Anti’s worry consumed him, and he grabbed the kids by their wrists, tugging them gently back to the ladder to come inside and check if Henrik was okay. The memory of his line from earlier played on loop in his head — “Zhere is a chance zhat I von’t be coming back up from zhat living room.”
As he snuck back in, Felicity and Max following behind him, Anti learned that Rachel had not only been drinking, but had been alerted of the doctor’s presence, and had swung an empty bottle at Henrik’s head when he moved in for the kill.
The entire room was covered in glass shards and blood, plus some spilled alcohol. Champagne, it looked like. The table was overturned, the TV was broken, and it was clear that a vicious fight had gone down in this room, all whilst the demon was waiting outside, keeping the children happy and assured that their father was safe and would come back soon.
Felicity and Max screamed at the sight that befell them, pain, fear and sorrow echoing through the house. Anti’s eyes widened as he felt the world turn grey, feeling sick and upset. As though what he saw just couldn’t be real.
As shown by the two lifeless bodies on the floor, blood pooling on the polished wood as it seeped from cuts and slashes on their arms, necks, and faces, Anti had been wrong, and it had ultimately been a draw.