I have always understood | A septiplier fanfic COMPLETED.

|| Chapter Eighteen || Christmas Break

Mark's POV:

It was around 4am when I woke up. It was 8am in Cincinnati and I had a 4 hour flight ahead of me. Jack got up with me, to take my luggage to LAX. He looked exhausted but he wanted to say goodbye to me. We got into his mum's car and he rested his head on my shoulder, drifting off to sleep.

When we arrived at the airport, he left me at the entrance, wanting to get home and sleep.

"Take care Mark." He said caringly and kissed my cheek.

"I will, I promise."

"Bye."

"Goodbye."

I waved him off and went to get my tickets checked. My flight was at 5:30 but I got here early because I always had bad experiences with planes and I didn't want to mess it up. As my flight was called and I went to board, I plugged in my headphones and blocked out my regret for leaving Jack. I know this was only a trip to see my family, but I couldn't help feeling like something was going terribly wrong. I shook the thought out of my head and stared out of the window as the plane took off.

~time skip~

After an exhausting journey full of failed attempts at sleeping, I dragged myself off of the plane and into the arms of my aunt. She was my dad's sister but she despised him with a passion and sat shocked as I told her the story of my abuse. I reassured her that I was fine and we talked about my childhood, we hadn't seen each other since I was around 7 when I lived in Cincinnati still. It was snowing here, and it was beautiful. Jack would have liked this, I thought as we trudged through the snow to our house after a short car journey. I was greeted my overfriendly cousins, grandparents, nieces and nephews. I liked the feeling of crowdedness, it reminded me of Jack's house. I really needed to stop thinking about him but I couldn't. I unpacked in my room and headed down for coffee with the adults, not wanting to entertain the ten year olds.

"So Mark, do you have a girlfriend?" One of my grans asked.

I coughed and tried to hide my embarrassed expression.

"Uh no."

She sensed that I had more to say and gave me a quizzical look.

"I have uh.. I have a boyfriend."

"Ah, that's lovely sweety." Said my aunt and squeezed my shoulders. All of the adults nodded in agreement. It felt nice to finally tell people about my sexuality, as though a weight had been lifted off. I'd help Jack with his when I got back. The days before Christmas went by in a zoom and soon enough, after days of snowball fights and walks with frost encrusted dogs, it was Christmas eve. I decided to ring Jack.

Sean's POV:

The days without Mark seemed long and boring, and I couldn't wait for him to be back in my arms. Ever since he'd left, I felt like a part of me was missing and I wasn't my happy self anymore. I knew I had gone back to the way I was before him and it sucked ass. My mum noticed a changed in me too but put it down to me being anti festive. We couldn't go back to Ireland this year so we were having a small meal, nothing exciting. I'd spent the last few days, locked up in my room, trying to avoid the horrible thoughts and self doubt that appeared when Mark had left. It was like I was holding a weak torch and it kept flickering, the shadows drawing nearer. I only had one more day alone, then I'd be with him again. I felt like a clingy bitch and it disgusted me. I had hung out as much as i could with Bob and Wade and that had helped a bit but they could tell I missed him. They did too. He seemed like the leader in our little friendship, not even nonstop prop hunt could patch that hole. He was only away for Xmas Jesus what was wrong with me.