On Your Marks... (Reader X Markiplier)

2. Coming home

You stood up and made your way towards the car waiting for you, at least you hoped it was yours and not just a random car waiting to kidnap you. The driver's door opened to reveal a puff of bright pink hair attached to an equally bright guy.

"Ah, you must be (Y/ N)!" He smiled. I nodded and grinned. "Nice to meet you, I'm Mark." He held out his hand, which you gripped hesitantly, before pulling you into a surprisingly gentle bear hug for how freakishly strong he appeared. You sneaked a quick look at him up and down before he could notice. He was pretty damn handsome really; his muscles bulging beneath his black shirt and his sharp jaw line accentuated by a little stubble. You look back up, hoping he didn't notice.
"Yeah, nice to meet you too! I didn't expect it to be so hot." You glanced down at your black skinny jeans with a face as he chuckled.
"Yeah, I was the same when I moved here, don't worry."

He helped you get your things in the car as you made your way to the passenger door.

"Whoa, hey, wait there!" He shouted. You stopped in your tracks immediately. Had you done something wrong? Oh god, did you do something stupid? He jogged over to you and put a hand up before opening the car door and halted for a few seconds, looking at you.
"Well?" He said. "Are you gonna get in?"
A moment passed before you let out a huge belly laugh, shocking Mark and making you laugh more.
"What?" He asked, confused.
"Y-you," you got out between giggles. "I...thought I'd d-done...something...wrong!"
Mark suddenly burst out laughing too.
"So that's why you looked so panicked!" You both giggled for a good minute before finally getting in the car and heading back to his- no, your - place.

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You finally made it to the apartment in a painfully long hour, although you didn't mind as much as you at least got to see the awesome scenery. The sunny streets were foreign to you having come from a country drowned in water, the blue skies could've been an alien invasion for how rarely you had seen them and the amount of people smiling and being friendly to strangers was weird to say the least. Back home, people only talked to those they knew, and even then it wasn't likely to be something so cheerful or friendly that they'd say. Yet, despite how new this was to you, you couldn't help but feel like you belonged here. You began to understand why so many musicians and artists came here to fulfil their careers; this place was a breeding ground for inspiration.

You get out of the car, stretching and yawning.
"Wow, that was a long jam." You said.
"What?," Mark laughed. "That's just normal."
You looked at him with your mouth agape, you knew traffic was bad around here, but not that bad. You'd literally travelled about a mile or two from the airport, back home, you would've been there in a quarter of the time it took now.
"Seriously?" You asked, incredulous.
"Yup." He replied with a smile.
"Wow, that's gonna take some getting used to." You sighed.
Mark laughed before popping the boot to get your stuff. Again, you tried to persuade him to let you take your things, but he was stubborn and insisted on carrying some of it into the complex. He grunted as he picked up one of the pieces of luggage.
"What the hell've you got in here? Bricks?"
You giggled.
"What? You can't handle it?" He started to turn red.
"N-no, it's just...unnecessary for someone to have something this heavy." He stuttered.
"Well, since you asked, no; it isn't bricks. That is a saxophone." You finally answered.
"What? A saxophone? I thought they were supposed to be nice and small and lightweight." He pouted.
"Yeah, alto saxes are, but that's a tenor."
"What's the difference?" You laughed.
"Just carry the damn thing since you wanted to do it so much."
"Oh, The pains of being a gentleman." He muttered dramatically.
You only laughed more.

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When you finally got to the top of the stairs with Mark huffing behind you, you let him pass you to unlock the door and stepped inside with a gasp.
"Whoa," you said, looking around. The place was open plan, with the living room and kitchen in one room, divided by a black counter. One wall was made entirely of glass, making the place look bright and vibrant with its white walls reflecting the light from the sun outside all around the room. The walls were decorated sparsely with pieces of art in various different colours, there was a huge flat-screen mounted to the wall and a glass table and large couch in front of it. Last, your eyes were drawn to the elegant spiral staircase in the centre of the room - this place had an upstairs?! You thought it was just a normal apartment - the staircase was glass with beautiful black iron rails.
"You should've charged more for this place, you know that?" You said, your mouth still wide from awe.
"Well, I can't charge that much for someone to live with a pain like me" he chuckled.
"Come on, from what I've seen, you're the perfect gentleman!" You exclaimed.
"Don't say that, you haven't lived with me yet." You didn't know how to respond, so just laughed instead.

"Well, anyway, as you can see, this-" he gestured around the space. "Is the living room and kitchen. We have a bathroom over here,  and a few closets, etcetera. Then, if you'd like to follow me upstairs..." he lead you up the staircase with your bags in tow to a long hallway.
"On the left is my room, the one opposite is the other bathroom, the next room on the right is my office and opposite that is your room. Then we have a spare room at the end." He finished. You stood frozen for a few seconds.

"This place is huge."

He laughed loudly, holding his stomach.
"Really? I thought you were having some sort of attack again, (Y/ N)!" He was still laughing, tears in his eyes. You blushed.
"Hey, I come from a small place okay?"
He held in his laughter and held up his hands in defence.
"Okay, okay! How about you go into your room and set all your stuff up while I get together some food? Pizza sound okay?" You looked out the window, you didn't think it had been that long since you got off the plane, but the sun was already starting to set.
"Yeah, sounds cool." You replied before heading into your new room to start unpacking.

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You looked down at the cases spread on the floor. One down, four to go. Your clothes were already in your wardrobe, but your most valuable possessions were yet to be taken out. First, you pulled the largest case toward you, flipping the catches and opening the lid to reveal a beautiful golden tenor saxophone. This was your main instrument, and your most expensive. You remembered all the nights you spent practicing with it until you had tears of frustration stinging your eyes, you couldn't leave it behind no matter how hard you tried. You set it in the corner of your large room on a stand, shining in the same orange shades as Autumn leaves. Next, you pulled toward you your next case, pulling out a black fender Stratocaster and strumming it experimentally - finding it still in tune. Nice to know none of the airport staff mishandled your baby. You set it in the corner with the third item, a small amp to practice with. Last, you moved to the fourth and final case. You unzipped the fabric and removed from it a fender jazzmaster bass, your newest instrument, and set it with the guitar.

With that done, you took time to look around your room properly. The walls were plain white, along with the sheets, with a flat screen on the wall across from the bed. You were going to have to fix that at some point, anything that white is begging to be painted. There was a large window to the left of the bed with a view of the back yard. You walked over to look out and almost jumped with glee.
A pool.
The place had a pool.
And you could use it because it would be nice weather.
How far from home you were.

"(Y/ N)!" You heard a yell from downstairs. "Pizza's here!"
You took one moment to glance back at the sun set before heading downstairs. Somehow, you knew this was where you belonged.

A/N

Did I do good? I hope I have, but I live in the UK myself, so I can't really be sure whether this is accurate or not. :/
Well, please comment if you enjoyed it and keep posted for updates. See you in the next episode.