He returned to Mark before he woke up, and even though the sun had rose long ago he expected still for Mark to remain asleep for a while longer. When Mark did wake up, he would have no idea of what had gone on that night, or so Dark hoped.

It was around noon when Mark finally awoke and he was glad to have wasted some of the time he would inevitably spend waiting around for Jack to come over. He knew he needed to get some work done too, however, and for that he promptly got out of bed and dressed himself. He walked into the kitchen and stretched, popping his back. He dug around in his pantry and grabbed a single protein bar from the back of a shelf then took his breakfast of champions into his office and sat down in his chair, leaning back and biting into the bar.

The first thing he did was check twitter on his computer, texting Jack on the side. Jack made fun of him for waking up so late and it made him smile despite himself. He pulled up his email and quickly scanned his inbox, groaning as he saw one from the bank. He shook his head and closed the browser, resolving to deal with that at a later date.

Once he was all caught up he began to record. His videos for today were already set to go up, but he knew how crucial it was for him to stay on his recording schedule. He sat there for a few hours, getting as much done as he could until he decided he needed a break or he would go out of his mind.

He took the time to make himself some coffee and watch whatever he could find on T.V., which usually ended up being something on Food Network. He suffered through an episode of Chopped that he had seen ten times already until he couldn't stand it anymore and got up from the couch. He paced about his apartment, wondering what to do until Jack came. He figured he could probably stock up on candy and junk food and make sure everything was situated for later, so he left the house and walked down to the nearest grocery store.

The nearest grocery store was a Publix just down the street. He walked there and grabbed a basket on his way in. He knew exactly what row to go to- third from the left held all the chips, and the one next to it the sweets. He threw a big bag of Hot Cheetos in and some of his favorite potato chips, then moved to the next aisle. He dropped a bag of M&M's in and all the candy he knew Jack loved, debating whether or not he would be in the mood for Oreos tonight. He ultimately decided yes and moved on to the drinks.

He grabbed a case of sparkling waters and paused next to the alcohol. Of course, he couldn't have any since he was deathly allergic, but he couldn't remember if he had any beers left in the fridge for Jack. He thought he could remember seeing more in the very back and so decided to leave them out this time. He walked down the toy isles to see if there was anything he could use for future videos, but nothing was too interesting and he kept going. He walked over to the big bins of half-priced movies by check out and dug around for a moment, pulling out the first one he found that looked semi-good.

He walked up and down the check out lanes, turning into the first one he found that was empty. The lady behind the register looked over to him and smiled brightly as he unloaded his items onto the counter. She had short blonde hair and seemed to be having fun at her job, even if it was barely above minimum wage.

"You planning on eating all this on your own, because I won't judge. We've all been there," she said, beginning to scan his items. Mark smiled shyly and shook his head.

"No, unfortunately."

"They're very lucky then." Mark laughed warmly, making the cashier's face light up.

"Yeah, he is." Her eyebrow edged up slightly, smile slowly widening as she nodded.

"What's his name?"

"Jack." Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, sliding out a 50 dollar bill and setting it next to the card reader. He ducked his head as she took it from him and handed him the change back.

"You two have fun!" She called out to him as he waved goodbye and walked away. Her name tag had 'May' printed across the front. Mark walked back home at his usual relaxed pace, until Jack texted him he was on his way over. He sped up to ensure he would make it home first, which he obviously did, the supermarket was just down the road. Once inside he unloaded the bags onto the counter, moving the drinks to the fridge and taking everything out of the plastic bags. Soon enough he heard a knock at his door and he hurried over to it.

"Who is it?" He said, singing the words to whoever could be on the other side of the door. He opened it and met Jack's cheery face.

"It me," Jack said, moving carefully past him and into the apartment. The first thing he noticed were the snacks laid out in the kitchen. "Ooh, you got food?"

"I sure did, you can thank me later." Mark winked at him.

"I'm thanking you now. How was your day?" Jack said, looking into Mark's eyes with genuine curiosity.

"Pretty good, I got a lot of recording done and I just got back from Publix a few minutes ago. You get that work done?"

"Mhm, yes-sir-re. All good to go, that's all I spent time doing today. I'm ready to just chill." He flopped back onto the couch, grinning lazily at Mark still standing above him.

"Me too, shall we get situated then finish this thing?" Jack made a noise of agreement and hopped back up from the couch. They poured bowls of chips and chocolate, grabbed paper towels, and picked their drinks. Jack searched through Mark's messy fridge until he finally found one of the beers he knew he was hidden somewhere. They fell into their positions on the couch and booted up the game, starting from where they had left off.

It took them another two hours and entire bag of Cheetos to finish the game. The ending left them both teary-eyed. Mark's character had betrayed Jack's to save himself, leaving Jack's a heap on the stone floor in a pool of her own blood. It was an unsatisfying ending that left both of them longing for more. It just seemed so cut off left like that, especially with everything the characters had been through together. Mark wiped at his eyes and looked over at Jack, glad to see he wasn't the only one tearing up.

"Dude, what the fuck?" He said.

"I'm sorry man, I didn't know the dog was gonna die," Jack said, laughing and swiping at his face. Mark leaned over and shoved his arm.

"You're such a dork, oh my god."

"They better come out with a second one or something, because that was awful," Jack said, leaning backwards and stretching. Mark nodded and agreed.

The rest of the night was spent playing various board games and going through all the sparkling waters Mark had just bought, sitting criss-cross on the floor on opposite sides of the coffee table before the T.V. They spent a while playing Cards Against Humanity, but it wasn't as fun with two people so they just started messing with the rules and digging through all the cards, occasionally throwing a really stupid one at the other's face. At 2:00 AM they put on the shitty movie Mark had purchased earlier and laid down on either end of the couch. They were a little too big to both be sideways on it, but they compensated by just kicking each other off at various times.

Mark fell onto his butt again as Jack nudged him off for the thousandth time and glared up at Jack, who laid staring and giggling at him with the back of his hand pressed to his mouth. Mark shook his head and grabbed his leg, yanking firmly and bringing Jack down to the floor on top of him. Jack rolled away and almost hit his head on the table, but Mark was quick to grab him and angle him away from it. Jack thanked him in between laughs and frantically sucking in air, lying face down on the floor and tears collecting in his eyes. When he was finally able to control himself and sit up, Mark leaned forward and ruffled his hair fondly, smiling uncontrollably at him. He let out a soft sigh and scooted closer to Mark. He turned so he was leaning his back against the bottom of the couch and lifted himself to sit on top of Mark's outstretched legs.

"Ow," Mark said, grumbling about how his legs were going to go numb. Jack just chuckled and leaned his head back onto the couch cushion, then he turned it so he could meet Mark's eyes.

"We should probably go to bed now, shouldn't we?" Mark snickered and nodded his head frantically, his drooping eyes showing how tired he was. Jack pulled himself up, groaning, then held his hand out to Mark. Mark took it and stood up, stumbling tiredly and purposefully leaning his arm onto Jack's shoulder. Jack looked up at him and shook his head in mock disappointment, then looped his fingers around Mark's wrist and took his arm off his shoulder, swinging it lightly in front of him. Mark looked around at the room and all the wrappers laying around.

"Guess I'll deal with this tomorrow."

"I'll help you," Jack said reassuringly, unknowingly brushing his thumb across Mark's skin as he still held onto him. He dropped his arm soon thereafter.

"Alright, you go get settled and I'll turn all the lights off," Mark said. Jack turned and disappeared into Mark's room, while the other went about shutting the house off for the night. Finally, he followed Jack into his own room and saw Jack kicked back onto his bed reading something on his phone. When he walked in the man dropped his phone onto his chest and beamed up at him, having changed into the old grey shirt that used to be Mark's, but had been set aside permanently as Jack's pajamas for nights like this. Besides that all he wore were boxers, but it wasn't anything weird, as they had been friends for way too long for them to have not seen each other naked.

Mark went into his drawers and pulled out a large shirt for himself, stripping down to his boxers as well. Neither of them bothered to brush their teeth or anything, but simply sunk into bed and went to sleep for the night. Mark took to the right side of the bed and curled up under the blankets, getting comfy and facing Jack. Jack maneuvered himself so that he was actually under the blankets and looked into Mark's eyes.

"G'night, Mark," he said.

"Night, Jack. See you in the morning." Jack made a small noise and closed his eyes, already drifting off to sleep. Mark turned over and did the same, the two quickly falling deeply asleep next to each other.

-

Jack woke up first, blinking his eyes open and looking at the light streaming in through the blinds. He knew it would be late in the day already, they were both lovers of sleeping in and had stayed up fairly late the night before. Remembering last night, a ghost of a smile brushed past his lips. He turned over to face Mark, seeing the man spread out across the bed like a starfish with drool dripping from the corner of his mouth. He laughed softly at the sight, unsure of whether or not he wanted to wake the deep sleeper.

When a loud snore came out of the man's mouth, Jack had to clamp his hand over his own mouth to keep silent. He began to slide himself out of bed, being extra careful not to wake Mark, then tiptoed out of the room. He figured he could take a shower and be out before Mark woke up. He walked into the bathroom, grabbing a white towel from the cabinet and stripping off what he had slept in. He rubbed a spot on the towel where it had turned pink from excess hair dye and wondered why Mark hadn't bothered to buy different colored towels. He jumped into Mark's shower, washing up and using all of the different products lining the tub's edge without regret.

Mark woke up to an empty bed, and for a minute it terrified him. But then he heard the faint sound of running water and relaxed, Jack had to still be here. The little adrenaline rush had awoken him enough to get out of bed easily, but he still had to blink a few times after he turned the lights on. As he walked out into the hall, he noticed that the bathroom door was shut and was about to walk past when he heard something coming from behind the door besides the sound of the shower running.

Jack was singing, not that he could make out most of it, but a few words floated clearly through the walls. Mark's heart rate sped up the tiniest bit listening, it was the first time he had really heard him put effort into a song. Within the muffled notes, he was able to piece together one line;

"Inside, what a wonderful caricature of intimacy."

Jack swore loudly and laughed to himself, unaware of anyone listening to him. Then the water shut off and a moment later Jack walked out with nothing but a towel around his waist. He leapt sideways and yelped when he saw Mark, the towel slipping in the process and beginning to fall. Jack's eyes widened and he snatched it, holding it firmly in place once more.

"Well, wasn't expecting to see you," he said.

"You are the epitome of elegance," Mark said, deadpanning. Jack's cheeks turned a light shade of pink and he stuck his tongue out. Mark simply smiled and walked away into the kitchen, patting him on the shoulder on the way then wiping his wet hand on his shirt. Jack turned and went back into Mark's room to change into his clothes from yesterday. When he came back out and met Mark in the kitchen, he had already poured them both a bowl of cereal. Lucky charms, of course, solely because they were good, and totally not because of his Irish friend. They ate together at the kitchen table, making easy conversation.

"When was the last time you went to the dentist?" Mark said.

"Pft, forever ago. I don't even clean my own house, you think I go to the dentist on a regular basis?" Jack said.

"I'm due to go, but I don't wanna."

"So don't, just brush your teeth and you'll be fine."

"You're a bad influence on me," Mark said, pointing at Jack with the end of his spoon. Jack reached forward to steal the spoon from his hand, but Mark pulled it away from him and scrunched up his face. Jack's foot accidentally hit Mark's under the table, and, instead of moving away, he immediately nudged it again on purpose. Mark furrowed his eyebrows at him.

"Ow, stop hurting me." Jack stuck his tongue out at him. "And stop sticking your tongue out at me, you rude fucker."

"Fine," Jack said. He took a few more bites of his cereal.

"Did you tell Anti where you were going?"

"Yeah, he spent all of yesterday lounging around on the couch so it wasn't all that hard to find a time to tell him. I'll have to get home soon, though, God only knows what he's been up to." Mark snorted and looked up at him.

"That sounded weird."

"No it didn't, you made it weird." Mark nodded.

"Yeah probably." They finished up their breakfast (even though it was closer to 1:00 PM now), and Mark took the bowls to the sink. Jack leaned against the counter and watched him. "Will you help me clean up the living room?"

"Yeah, I said I would."

"Just making sure," Mark said. They moved into the room once again and assessed the situation. "Hey, before we start- can you put some music on?" Jack nodded excitedly and walked over to the speaker, letting whatever song came on first play. Mark tossed him a small plastic bag to put the trash in and they started on the mess. They were finished within a few minutes, two people couldn't make that much mess. Mark glanced at Jack and gave him a sheepish smile.

"Why stop there?" He said, referring to the rest of the unorganized stuff lying around the various rooms in his apartment. Jack sighed and glared at him playfully.

"So now I'm your maid?" Mark laughed, walking past him and nudging him with his hip.

"Just help me, please?" Jack bit his lip and nodded. He walked over to Mark's kitchen and started placing all the dishes into the dish washer, humming along to the song in the background. Mark watched him for a minute, smiling, then moved towards his and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. He angled his head down towards Jack's and began loudly singing along. Jack grinned and looked up at him, joining in and pulling away so that he could dance around the kitchen. Between laughs and purposefully bad singing, they swung about the apartment and organized all that they could.

As Jack finished picking up all the trash off of Mark's desk, Mark slid up behind him and put his head on his shoulder.

"Almost done," he said.

"Finally. You're messy." Jack bopped Mark on the nose, who crossed his eyes and scrunched up his face. He tilted his head down and noticed the trash bag Jack held.

"I'll take that," he said, grabbing a hold of Jack's hands and playing with them for a moment before slipping the plastic bag from his grip. He turned and left the room, depositing it in the trash with the rest of the things they had picked up. Jack followed him out and threw himself down into the corner of the couch, turning the news on, but not really paying attention to it. Mark returned and walked behind the couch, flinging himself over it and landing on top of Jack. Jack groaned and pushed at his shoulders.

"Oh, Jesus! What are you doing?" Jack said. Mark didn't respond, but pulled himself off of him, still sitting way too close considering they had the entire couch to themselves. Jack didn't bother telling him to move, instead trying to listen to whatever boring news was going on. Less than a minute later Mark pulled his legs up under him and faced Jack again, a smirk in place, and started poking his knee repeatedly. Jack lifted his hand and slapped it down over Mark's, freezing it in place. "God, you're touchy today."

Mark's features softened and he tilted his head to the side, "Is that a bad thing?" Jack scoffed and shook his head.

"Nah. It's not like I have anyone else." Mark grinned back at him.

"How long's it been since you last dated someone?"

"Like two years."

"Two and a half for me," Mark said, laughing and shaking his head. Jack mumbled a reply and shifted himself so that he was laying sideways on the couch with his legs across Mark's, in doing so he had to push Mark further away from him, but it was worth it. Mark lightly dropped his hand onto Jack's leg, rubbing back and forth. Jack looked up at him from where his head lay.

"Would you ever date a dude?" Mark asked, the question coming seemingly out of nowhere. Jack gave him a funny look but answered honestly none the less.

"Yeah, I don't see why not. I'm not gonna confine myself, if I crush on a guy then so be it." Mark looked off into the wall, thinking deeply.

"I guess I could say the same." He looked over at Jack and grinned, "I can appreciate a good ass, wherever it is."

"Oh, of course. Good ass is everywhere once you open your eyes to it." They both laughed and grew quiet, just looking at each other, broken only by the news playing in the background.

"No new leads on the Flores' farm house today- that's the house that was mysteriously ransacked two nights ago. The police are still investigating, but it's not looking promising for the poor family." Jack turned his head, suddenly curious as to what the newscaster was talking about. Immediate alarm bells went off in his head when the screen panned to footage of the wrecked house.

"Oh dear God," he said, sitting up quickly, his mouth hanging ajar.

"What?" Mark asked, looking as well to the news broadcast.

"If those aren't Anti's claw marks, I don't know Anti." He looked into Mark's eyes, a wild and terrified glint in them. The camera zoomed in on the writing on the shed.

"Is that blood?" Mark said, looking past Jack. Jack spun around and gasped.

"Holy shit."

"Does that look like Anti's handwriting?"

"I-I don't know, not really? It's hard to tell." Mark nodded. "I need to go home, Mark, I'm so sorry." Jack stood up quickly and began searching for the things he had brought.

"It's fine, I understand. Go home and sort this out. Hey-" He put a hand on Jack's shoulder and turned him around. Jack looked up at him, scratching his arm nervously. "It's okay." He smiled brightly and Jack returned it briefly, then, without warning, pulled him into a hug. He pressed close into Mark's chest, for no reason other than he wanted to, and Mark wrapped his arms around him as well, rubbing up and down his back carefully.

"Thank you. I'll see you soon?" Jack said, pulling back again.

"Of course." He walked Jack to the door and saw him out, saying a short goodbye. He closed the door and sighed deeply, running a hair through his hand. What were they going to do with these demons?

"It was him." A deep voice resounded in his head.

"How do you know?" Mark said aloud, finding it easier to communicate that way. He waited for a reply for a good minute before realizing he wasn't going to get one. "Alright, then."