Thin Lines - A Markiplier Fanfic

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

EIGHT YEARS LATER

Claire’s POV

Summer was my favorite time of the year. It always had been and always would be. Sure, the heat got intense sometimes, but at least the sun was out and the world was bright. Besides, what were beaches and pools for? Such things reminded me of LA, where there were plenty of water sources around to cool off at all times. I’ll admit it, I often missed LA. I had always wanted to see it, and I felt very fortunate to have been able to live there. It was a great city, and yet, I had come to love the city I was currently living in so much. Cincinnati had begun to feel like home.

“Are you alright, babe?” A pair of chocolate brown eyes met my gaze and I smiled.

“Yeah, I’m just thinking,” I answered, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Mark pressured me.

“A lot of things. Everything, I guess.”

“Maybe we should stop thinking so much and just relax. Isn’t that why we’re here right now? To relax?”

“Mom!” Well, relaxation at the park was only temporary. A little girl, just a hare over eight years old, came running up to Mark and I. She had long, straight, dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. She wore a short sleeved blue dress and black sandals, and she was pulling a little boy along behind her. His hair was the same dark hue, but instead of blue, his eyes were a familiar shade of brown. He was younger - five years old, rather than eight. He wore a t-shirt striped with different shades of black and gray along with shorts and sneakers.

“Hey guys, what’s going on?” I asked when they reached me. They were Persephone and Trace, the two beautiful kids that Mark and I had.

“Can we go see the puppy over there, Mommy?” Trace wondered, pointing to a young golden retriever that a couple kids were petting. Even though I was used to the greeting, I still grinned when Trace called me Mommy. Now that Persephone was eight, she called me Mom instead. She was already trying to grow up too fast. Not Trace, though. He still liked being young.

“Sure. Let’s go see the puppy. But remember, what do you need to do before you touch him?”

“We have to ask his owner if we can pet him first,” Persephone replied.

“Right.” Mark and I got up and the four of us started walking. Persephone stayed close to my side while Trace went ahead with Mark. It was obvious that he was a daddy’s boy and Persephone was a mommy’s girl, contrary to the daddy’s girl and momma’s boy trends that I had known.

“Oh, Persephone. You have dirt on your dress. Again.” For whatever reason, she felt the need to wear her favorite blue dress anywhere and everywhere. She liked dressing girly, but she still wasn’t afraid to get dirty and play with all the boys her age. She was quite the mystery. As for Trace, he wasn’t a fan of playing with girls except for his sister. But, he was going to start kindergarten soon. The not hanging out with girls thing would probably change - but maybe not for a while.

“Sorry, Mom. Can you wash it again?” Persephone snapped me back to reality and away from my thoughts.

“Of course I can. But if you keep getting it all dirty and I have to keep washing it so much, we might have to replace it,” I warned.

When we reached the puppy, Persephone asked for permission and then she and Trace petted the puppy and laughed as it licked them. Afterwards, we left the park and got ice cream. Of course, Trace and Persephone were dead set on getting a pet after seeing the puppy in the park. Mark and I explained that pets were big responsibilities and that we’d have to do a lot of thinking before we could get an animal. Truthfully, though, we wanted a pet too, and we’d probably get one soon enough. Hopefully a dog. I had been wanting a dog for a really long time.

When we all got back home, I threw Persephone’s blue dress in the washer and Mark disappeared into his office to record. He was still on Youtube, eight years, two kids, and a wedding ring later - we had gotten married when Persephone turned four, so she was the flower girl. Trace was born about nine months after the honeymoon - you can guess why. The content on Mark’s channel had changed a bit - there were some videos with Trace and Persephone now, who loved acting silly on camera. But Mark still loved playing video games, and it seemed that he was passing that on to both our children, our son especially.

After Mark was done recording, we had a stay-in movie night with popcorn and candy. One thing I had learned about movies was that it tired both of our kids out, so we put them both to bed after it was over. Mark and I had a little free time once they were asleep, since we both stayed up relatively late.

“Can you believe Trace is starting school in a few weeks?” Mark realized as we sat up in bed with the TV on.

“Not really,” I replied. “And Persephone’s going to be in third grade. That’s just crazy.”

“It really is.”

Mark’s POV

It seems like I think about everything late at night. Usually I end up overthinking when I should be sleeping. That happened a lot normally, but now that I had kids, it was worse. Now I worried. But, so far, things had gone really well. Claire and I had two healthy, happy kids, and we had great relationships with them. Before Persephone had even been born, I had so many doubts about myself as a father. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to control my anger or that my kids wouldn’t like me. I had been so wrong. There was a thin line between my true self and the darker side of me, and it was very easy to accidentally cross it. However, I had never crossed it with my kids. I never could. I couldn’t stand to see them hurt or upset, and it would sting too much if my foolish anger was the reason for them to feel that way. The truth is, love changes everything. It changed me, for the better. I still had a dark side, somewhere inside myself, but for eight years, it hadn’t really shown much. I had three people that I called my family who kept me afloat, and that was all I needed. That was all I would ever need.

Well, it's officially over now. I hate to end it, but like I always say, every story has to end sometime. I had a lot of fun writing this story, so I hope you all enjoyed reading it! If you did, feel free to check out some of my other Markiplier stories that include Not Alone, Never Alone, and Paranoid. I also have a book of Markiplier One Shots. It isn't very full yet, but whenever I come up with an idea, I'll add to it. Well, anyways, thank you so much for reading and supporting this story! I really, really appreciate it. Please leave me some comments and let me know what you thought of the end :)