Chapter 2

   After finishing up all the recordings for the day, Jack leans back into his chair with a long heavy sigh. All thats left is to send the footage to his editor, Robin. He can do that while on the phone with Mark. Eagerly, he snatches his phone from his desk, but the eagerness falls away upon glancing at the time. Surely Mark is busy recording his own videos now. Sighing he stands from his chair and makes is way to his room. He supposes he can kill time packing for his trip until later.

  Sitting on his bed folding clothes, he begins to fantasize about all the fun things he and Mark can do together once hes there. He pictures the excitement on Mark's face when he opens the door to discover Jack standing there. Would Mark sweep Jack from his feet and twirl them around like in the movies? Will he gasp excitedly? Will there be a silly moment of disbelief and suspicion?  A smile drags across Jack's tingling lips as he imagines Mark's lips excitedly attacking his. Such wishful thinking, but Jack cant bring himself to stop.

  When he thinks of Mark, he doesnt think about not being good enough. He doesnt worry about what his next big idea will be. When Mark is on his mind, things are natural and happy in his head. He glances mindlessly around the room, then zips his bag with finality. He supposes thats everything.

Except, well... He bites his lip, remembering Vi's gift. They'd used up the majority of it during the extra days Jack had spent there. Should he get more? Will it be necessary this go around? He rolls his eyes to himself and makes a mental note to pick some up at the shop tomorrow. No reason not to, even if his nervous side continuously tries to talk him down from it. He grabs his phone once more, and checks the time. now is as good a time as any, he thinks to himself as he holds the phone to his ear.

  After what seems like years, Mark finally finishes video number three for the day, and groans to himself in his seat. He doesnt want to do any more today, but Ethan and Tyler are already setting up cameras in the livingroom for his next recording.

Normally, doing videos is just second nature, but he's been rather distracted. He hates himself for letting these worries plague him so dramatically, but he cant help himself. Ontop of all the Vegas grief he gives himself, there have been a few rumors going around on Tumblr that Jack is seeing a female gamer by the name of Remy. The two have been colaberating in quite a few videos lately, and the fans are going wild with speculations. Mark has never met Remy, nor has Jack really talked about her.

Then again, he and Jack havent been talking nearly often enough to really keep eachother up to date with that stuff. Though, Jack is very aware that Mark has recently broken up with his girlfriend, Brittany. After all, he was there for the incedent. But, if Jack really is romantically involved with Remy, Mark has no clue. The thought really bothers Mark beyond words, but he cant find the bravery to ask Jack about it.

Besides, hes really got no room to be jealous. sure he may feel like he and Jack shared something special, but that doesnt mean Jack feels the same, and he doesnt have to. If Jack would rather be with Remy, then Mark will just have to suck it up and be happy for his friend.

Ugh. That word feels like a kick in the teeth.

'Friend.'

After all that they've done, shared, and experienced, could he really just go back to calling Jack a friend? He grits his teeth slightly, a brew of emotions in his throat, creating a lump.

This thing with Remy could just be rumors he reminds himself, but another part of him cruely reminds him that it could also be the reason for Jack's sudden distance and 'busyness'. Rolling his eyes at himself., Mark pushes away the thoughts. They do him no good to worry over, and certainly will only hurt more if he continues down this path of thinking. Gathering all his will, he stands with a disinterested grunt and joins the two in the livingroom.

Standing side by side, Tyler's tall and bulky frame dwarves Ethan's smaller on, despite Ethan's recent workout attempt to thicken himself up. Glancing beyond his shoulder, Tyler gives a curt nod in greeting, as Ethan beams eagerly as usual.

"Ready?" Ethan asks, bounding to greet Mark at his side. Mark nods, grabbing the materials for another Markiplier Makes video. This time they're making bath bombs. None of them are particularly interested in it, it was just a fan reccomendation that Mark took. He's been doing that quite a bit lately, as trying to come up with new things every day is starting to take a toll on him with his already worry-clouded mind.  He sets the three seperate boxes on the table in front of their seats and takes his place in the middle. He sends confirming looks between the two before letting his eyes meet the camera.

"Hello everybody. My name is Markiplier and you all know wingus and dingus." He guestures at the two men at his sides lazily.

"Today, we're becoming basic bitches and making our own bathbombs." In the corner of his eye, Ethan fans his face while batting his lashes and pursing his lips. Mark smirks, but doesnt acknowledge the act as he twists his neck to Tyler.

"Tell 'em the history of the bath bomb Ty." Tyler gives Mark a sharp look under his brow, but ultimately sighs and turns to the camera.

"Uhh, ancient egyptians used to combine a bunch of.... stuff together to make the river fizzy and theyd all bathe in it and pray to Zeus..." Tyler pulls a story out of his ass on the fly. Ethan laughs, narrowing his eyes in Tyler's direction.

"Zeus, the greek god?" Ethan questions through his giggling. Tyler flounders helplessly for a moment before turning to the camera.

"...Yes."

  Mark catches himself chuckling softly and shakes his head indifferently. All of these 'history of whatever' stories are entirely bullshit anyway.

"Take notes kids, this will be on the test" Ethan continues, chuckling while pointing at the camera sharply. Mark fights a smirk as he rolls his eyes to the camera.

"Alright. So, we each have fifteen minutes to create a functional, smelly, pretty bathbomb. Everyone ready?" Mark instructs, sending yet another look between the two. Tyler isnt blind to the lazy disinterest in his friend's tone, but nods anyway. He's sure this Youtube bullshit has a way of draining him after a while.

  Ethan is a bit oblivious to Mark's lull tone today, but that's mostly because he's held this temperment for some time now. Ethan doesnt know exactly why, but he has a sneaking suspicion that it has to do with Mark's ex, Brittany. All of his moodiness started when they split while he was in Vegas, and he hasnt been very open to the idea of talking to someone about it.

Mark doesnt mean to be a drag, but he finds things very hard to enjoy when all he can think about is Jack. Jack isnt here, its not Jack at his side, the shirt he gave to him no longer smells like him, he's always busy, they dont talk as much anymore, he might be dating someone else or at least trying to-.

  Mark grits his teeth and banishes the thoughts again as he takes the box thats in front of him and peels it open. He doesnt need to hang on to such clingy thoughts. Jack is his own person and most likely just needs space and time. He cant keep convincing himself that he's losing Jack just because a few things have changed. After all, isnt change supposed to be a good thing? It doesnt much feel that way.

  Ethan and Tyler follow in his lead, and they discard the instructions as with every Markiplier makes.

"Oh no, none of these packets are labeled!" Ethan comments with a chuckle as he begins to madly dump powders into the small bowl Mark had provided. Mark lets out the barest of a huff. Ethan wouldnt read the damn lables anyway, so it hardly matters.

"Why does this smell like piñacolladas?" Tyler questions after a moment, holding the small pouch in front of Mark's nose with the inquiry. Mark makes a face as he pushes Tyler's hand away.

"Do you mean coconut?" Ethan questions with a chuckle, earning a lighthearted glare from Tyler.

"Or pineapple!" He snidely responds.

"Whatever, alcoholic." Ethan mutters, instantly releasing nervous giggles when he catches the sharp look Tyler wears before he chuckles as well.

"Shut up." Tyler demands playfully as he returns to his task. Mark is lazily focused on the packages in front of him. One of them has a flowery scent, one of them smells like nothing and the other hurts to inhale, so they must do SOMETHING once combined properly, right?

"Do we need water? I'm going to go get water." Ethan says to no one in particular, after a momentary struggle to get anything to happen. Standing from his seat with his bowl to go to the sink, he glances between the other two for confirmation but recieves nothing. Tyler is too busy mixing two of the powders with the cream, and Mark seems lost in his own world. Mark sighs, his eyes in his own bowl with confusion. How the hell is this mess supposed to clump together? Maybe if he'd focused enough to see the cream hiding behind his bowl, he may have an answer. Or, maybe,  Ethan is onto something with the water idea.

  Vacantly, he stands just as Ethan is returning from the sink, and the two bump into one another clutsily. Mark's heart oddly leaps with familiarity as Ethan instinctively places his hands on Mark's chest to push himself away. Oddly, he doesnt have his bowl with him, but thats not where Mark is focused at the moment.

"Sorry." Ethan giggles, backing away from Mark, who stands frozen for the moment. That innocent accident felt so much like Jack it almost hurts. Instinctually Mark reaches out and takes hold of Ethan's small chin, his brown eyes desperately searching the confused blue ones. There has to be something in there worth looking for. He has to have some sembleance of everything Mark is missing from Jack. Is there some notion of similarity between the two that Mark can learn to love like he does Jack? It cant just be Jack, he has to feel like that with someone else, anyone else. Why Jack and not Ethan? Why Jack and not Brittany? Why him and no one else? But this, it felt so painstakingly similar, and for no reason! Was it Ethan's slimmer frame? Was it his hands on Mark's chest to push himself back? Why did such a stupid clutsy encounter awaken such a desperate search? And why cant he find anything?

  How unfair that Jack can run off and find Remy to replace Mark on a dime but Mark cant see anything in anyone but Him.

"Uhh, Mark?" Ethan questions, his hand wrapped around Mark's wrist, tugging it away from his jaw. Mark snaps back to reality and hides his eyes away in shame, sliding himself back into his seat with a hot wash of red painting his face.

"Where's your bowl?" Mark asks, desperately trying to breeze away the weird moment. Ethan shrugs tense shoulders, the moment didnt breeze by him the way Mark had hoped. Ethan clears his throat, shrugging once again more loosely, reminding himself of the question Mark had just asked him. 

"Its in the freezer." He admits as he takes his own seat next to Mark, having already clearly given up on the bathbomb project. Mark is acting even more out of the ordinary than normal today, he notices, sending a questioning set of blue eyes over his shoulder at the dark haired man who busies himself pouring something smelly into his bowl.  Ethan notes to create an opprotunity to talk to Mark one on one after the video, something tells him that Mark needs it.

"Why is it in the freezer?" Tyler chuckles humorfully as he pours his rather soupy mixture into the mold. Mark covertly lets out the breath he was holding, glad the two seemed to sweep the moment away without care, unknowing of Ethan's plan.

"Dont fuckin' question me!" Ethan bellows, tossing his own plastic mold at Tyler, who flinches as it bounces harmlessly off his head.

"Jesus Christ." Mark mutters as he forces back a chuckle, fixing his cakey figure into the shape of a 'dog', finally able to make a semisolid mixture after discovering the cream that alluded him a few moments before.

"What are you doing?" Tyler asks, peeking over Mark's shoulder curiously.

"Stop questioning our shit!" Ethan bellows once more, throwing his plastic mixing tool at Tyler now.

"Stop throwing shit at me!" Tyler hollers back past his chuckling.

"Its a dog, you uncultured swine." Mark snips with a flick of his chin at Tyler who holds his hands up in surrender.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were too poor for a dog!" Tyler carries on the running joke of the Markiplier makes series. Mark releases a breath from his nose in place of a laugh.

"I was! This is the best I could do as a kid! Shaping flowery smelling bullshit into the shape of a dog!" Mark returns sassily pointing with both hands at his creation, earning laughter from the group.

  The timer goes off, signalling the end of their previously discussed fifteen minutes. Ethan stands and bounds to the freezer and removes his slightly chilled pile of foamey slosh.

"So, I made a bathbomb for after you get sunburnt, and need relief." Ethan smiles proudly at his explaination, causing Tyler to laugh.

"Wouldnt that just cause more skin irritation?" He questions. Ethan narrows his eyes at Tyler after finding nothing to throw in his reach.

"Bold of you to judge mine when you just made hand soap over there!" Ethan jabs, throwing an accusing point at Tyler's bowl. Tyler's was basically liquid soap when he opened the mold.

"Its a bathbomb float thank you very much!" He snaps back matter of factly. Mark gazes into the camera like a cast member from 'The Office' until the two stop their bickering to check out Mark's. His hadnt solidified in its shape, so it was still like a mostly wet pile of mud, but still the most bath bomb-y out of the three. In the end, the all deem Mark's the winner when they each dump their conction into a bowl of water to see which works the best. Ethan's does nothing, as he'd already added water, Tylers foams, but Mark's is the only one to look like the actual thing they've seen in the videos.

  Cleaning up goes surprisingly fast, Mark notices as he continually glances at the clock. Now is about the time that he and Jack are both mutually free, but it seems Ethan is slothing a bit, taking his time to clean up his area and put some of the equipment away. So much so, that Tyler leaves before he's through. With Tyler gone, Ethan takes the opprotunity to try and talk to Mark.

"Hey, man, you doin alright?" Ethan asks suddenly, breaking the quite of the room as he wipes down his side of the table. Mark blinks at the slimmer man. The question came out of the blue, and oddly enough he isnt sure he has an honest answer.

"Yeah, why?" Mark responds, gulping back any hints that he's telling a falsity.

"Well to put it frankly you've been acting weird lately." Ethan boldly announces, spinning back to meet Mark's eye. Normally, Ethan steers clear of this sort of confrontation, but he looks up to Mark in a lot of ways. And more than anything hes concerned for his friend, especially after the odd moment today.

"I act weird all the time." Mark tries to shrug away the comment, but Ethan raises an eyebrow.

"Not this kind of weird." Ethan challenges in return. Mark swallows, his eyes finding his socks.

"I dont know what you're talkin about." Mark lies again, trying to show sincerity where there is none. Ethan opens his mouth, ready to call Mark out for the falsehood, but instead he sighs and rubs the nape of is neck. Maybe, Ethan thinks to himself, he should try to break the ice by mentioning the issue himself?

"Look man, I know thing have been weird since you and Brit-" Ethan tries, but cuts himself off when Mark's sharp brown eyes slice through the air to pin his blue ones.

"It doesnt have anything to do with her." Mark spills before cursing himself for contradicting his earlier lie that nothing was wrong. Pinching his eyebrows together, Ethan tilts his head curiously.

"So what is it then?" He asks, sitting on the table in front of Mark, ready to listen. Mark's muscles spasm unsurely with the will to admit all the craziness that happened at the convention and has been bouncing around his skull ever sense.

"You wouldnt understand." Mark spits but regrets it instantly as Ethan's expression falls to one of hurt.

"Does that matter?" Ethan questions after an interval of silence. Mark swallows mutely. Perhaps not. Perhaps it doesnt matter at all. He just needs to tell someone, anyone, anything, right now. And if it cant be Jack, Ethan will do.

"Have you ever been in love?" Mark mutters, his eyes searching the floor for the words he's preparing to rattle off like a speech, but finds far too many to focus on. Ethan hesistates.

"That depends, what do you consider 'being in love'?" Ethan inquires in return. Mark meets the yonger man's gaze.

"It means-" He catches himself,  licking his lips cautiously. "I-I guess-" He tries again, shuffling his weight, but stops when he sees Ethan shakes his head out of the corner of his eye.

"I dont think theres any guessing in love." He doesnt like he feel that he has much advice when it comes to love, but perhaps if he can get Mark to talk through the issue, Mark can find his own solution. Mark pauses, taking in the words.

"So, what is it?" Ethan tries again after Mark remains silent. Mark shakes his head frustratedly.

"Its when- you want- they-" He groans, raking his hand back through his hair.

"It can be anything." Ethan reminds him, flicking his shoulder, grateful that Mark is attempting to open up. Mark swallows and lets out a slow breath.

"I want to dance with- them. I want to hold their hand, to make them smile, and laugh. God that laugh. They make me want to be someone better, he brighens my whole day with two words. I want to grow with him, spend my days smiling with him and my nights curled around him. I ache when I miss hi-" Mark snaps his jaw shut, realising his mistake mid sentence. Ethans eyes are wide, but his expression soft, understanding. A brief window of silence passes, but Ethan grabs hold of it, unwilling to let Mark fester with his own confession in silence.

"That sounds like love to me." He agrees easily. His curiousity is eating away at him but he unsure if hes brave enough to ask Mark who he's so bonkers for.   Mark grits his teeth, wanting to grab the words from the previous moments and cram them back into his head. But, honestly, he feels a bit better having told someone. Its even better that Ethan isnt freaking out about the information. Letting out a soft sigh, Mark interanlly admits that it would feel even better to say more, but preserve Jack's privacy in the matter.

"I've never felt this way about someone before, especially a guy..." He admits, his shoulders drooping. Ethan shrugs.

"I dont think that matters." He noncholantly says, to Mark's bitterness.

"How doesnt it matter? What does this make him? Me? Us?" He stammers over himself with his questions. Ethan sends a soft look over at Mark.

"Love is love. It doesnt really matter what that makes either of you." Mark lets out a defeated sigh and rubs his face with both hands. 

"Does he feel the same?" Ethan cautiously questions, sensing Mark's dissatisfaction with his previous answer. Mark jerks a shoulder into a shrug.

"I- Maybe... I'm not really..." He fumbles with an answer, while avoiding any eye contact for fear that Ethan could impossibly see Jack's name written in them. Ethan rolls his eyes, attempting to lighten the mood. "It sounds like you need to talk to him about it." Mark's eyes meet Ethan's with horror.

  Everything he and Jack had built so far has been on the premise of not saying anything aloud. Everything they are is hidden beneathe the mountain of action between them, but no spoken words have connected the final dots in the picture. Can he really just talk to Jack and make all of this make sense? Talking about things could ruin them. Then again, the two of them say 'I love you' to one another constantly. Mark flinches. They could be nothing more than empty words. They may not matter in the way he wants them too.

"I'm not sure I can." Mark confesses, flopping heavily into the seat in front of the blue eyed guy. Mark suddenly feels incredibly guilty as a sudden silence crosses the room. This is probably way more than Ethan bargained for when he offered up a listening ear.

  Quirking his lips, Ethan does his best to mull over any sort of clichè advice to give, but hates himself when none leave his lips. Glancing over at Mark, he feels his stomach sink slightly, catching the saddness in his dark eyes. Ethan hops down from his seat and bends down to Mark's eye level as he reaches out to place a hand on his shoulder. Dark eyes meet light ones with uncertainty, but Ethan tries to smile anyway.

"Then I'll help." He says, shocking even himself with the confidence in his tone. A slight, unsure smirk crosses Mark's face.

"How?" He asks, his voice still heavy and nervous. Ethan shrugs as he stands upright.

"However you need. Even if you just need someone to listen. What are friends for if not that?" He responds with a wide smile as he places his fists on his hips matter of factly. Mark laughs stiffly.

"Thanks, man. I think that may just be what I need." He earnestly replies, trying to meet Ethan's eyes gratefully.

"Well then, I'm your guy!" Ethan chipperly says, jabbing both thumbs in his own direction. Mark chuckles light heartedly, nodding understandingly. Ethan grins, glad that Mark had finally smiled with some actual authenticity.

"So, whenever you need to get some stuff off your chest, I'm just a call away. OK?" Ethan states as he begins to gather his things, meeting Mark's eyes as if he expects a promise.

"OK." Mark states, almost as if it is a promise in only two letters. Ethan grins again.

"Good. I best get going, but think about what I said, alright?" He says as he crosses the room to the front door. "I'll catcha later, Mark." He says on his way out. leaving Mark in a sea of questions and uncertainty.

  Surely this is out of Ethan's arena of expertise, but his willingness to listen alone makes Mark feel better. Maybe if he opens up to Ethan about all the crazy things that Jack makes him feel, maybe it will be easier to do with Jack... If he ever works up the courage.