You're Not Dead Yet

A Million

Ethan stumbled into what appeared to be some kind of office. I was dimly lit, with a couple of colorful lights illuminating the wall behind him. The walls were mostly hardwood, with a small sofa and coffee table taking up most of the room to the side of him. The corner he was standing in, however, was covered in soundproof panels. 

He was standing behind someone who was, in turn, sitting behind three computer screens. There was a camera right above the middle one with a red light on showing that It was recording, letting Ethan assume that this was his gaming set up in the future, and that the man in the chair before him was himself. In fact, one of the side computer screens was pulled up to what looked like a live stream, showing what the camera was recording and that his assumption was correct. Through the screen, Ethan could tell that the him in the vision had tears in his eyes. 

The screen right in front of the vision Ethan was set to a counter, though the Ethan watching couldn't quite make out what it was for. Whatever it was, it was almost to a million. 

The Ethan in front of the screens refreshed the counter page one more time and froze. It had gone up to one million. The tears started to fall. 

"I don't-" the older Ethan wiped at his eyes, putting his head down enough that the Ethan watching could see what the counter was for-- it was the number of subscribers. "I don't know why I'm crying so much." He sniffled, wiping at his eyes again as tears continued to stream down. "We did it, guys." 

Ethan continued watching as the other version of himself continued crying and gushing about how happy he was. About all of the support that he'd gotten over the years, from friends and family alike, and about the journey he'd been on on the channel. One thing was continuous overall, though -- the genuine joy in his voice and the grin on his face as he rambled on. When he signed off and finished the stream, turning off the camera, he sat back into his chair with a breathless look on his face and a disbelieving laugh coming from his lips. 

"Fuck yeah!" He shouted, pumping his fist in the air. "I- I did it! I did it." 

The Ethan watching started to wipe the tears that had formed on his face, too, still staring at the counter in disbelief. "Yeah," he whispered. "I did it." 

Suddenly, the brunette Ethan's phone started to ring. He picked it up, smiling as he accepted the video call, and the other Ethan stepped closer to watch over his shoulder. "Hey, Mark."

"Blue boy!" The older man was sitting in his bed, a huge grin on his face. "Congratulations, man! I'm so fucking proud of you, you have no idea." 

Ethan giggled. "I can kinda guess. Do you realize how many people are probably trying to call me right now?"

"Good thing I got here first, then!" 

They both laughed, and Ethan balanced his phone against the base of his computer. "Sure, whatever. What's up?"

"What's up? You just hit a million subscribers, you're what's fucking up. You've come so far, we're all so proud of you. Especially me." 

Ethan hummed. "And what makes you say that?" 

"The fact that you're fucking amazing? I know I make fun of you in videos, like, all the damn time, but I really do mean none of it. You've come so far, not just on the channel but as a person, and with your mental health, and just… God, I am so proud of you, man." Mark chuckled. "Look at me, I'm talking in circles again. But yeah, you're one of the best people I know, in so many ways. You're funny, and your channel's great, and you look fucking stunning on top of that--"

Ethan raised his eyebrow, ignoring the blush that was starting to form from all of the compliments. "Got something you'd like to tell me, Mark?"

Mark blinked. "What?"

"That last part, what was it that you said?"

"Uhh… your channel's great?"

"After that."

Mark opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. "Um. You're one of the best looking people I've ever seen with the personality to match?" He smiled. 

Ethan just scoffed. "Yeah, right. That's gonna have to be something we disagree upon."

"No, no, I meant it! Look, I'll prove it to you."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to pick you up and take you to… I don't know yet, actually, but I'll take you somewhere, and while we're there and while we're going there and on the ride back and pretty much for every second we're going to be together tomorrow I'm going to tell you everything I like about you. Sound like a deal?"

"That… actually sounds like a date, if we're being honest."

"We are." Mark sat back on his headboard, another smile on his face. "And it is. A date, that is." 

Ethan just blinked at his phone. "Wait, what?"

Mark laughed. "I'm asking you on a date, Ethan. You can say no if you want." 

"No, no I--" Ethan shook his head quickly to try and clear it. "Yeah, fuck yeah I want to go on a date with you, I've liked you since, like, I did the backflips." He laughed.

"I've liked you since you moved here." Mark chuckled, too. "Tyler had to literally stop me and force me to acknowledge my feelings and shit when we were moving your boxes in. It was wild." 

"No shit!" Ethan laughed harder, calming down when he looked up and saw Mark staring at him with a fond smile. "What?"

"It's just… I love it when you laugh. You look so happy." Mark chuckled, starting to put his phone down. "See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah! See you!" Ethan ended the call himself, continuing to stare at the dark screen in disbelief for just a second longer before picking his phone up again and starting to scroll through all the texts he missed during the livestream with a smile. 

"Aaaaaand that's it for us, kid," X said, dragging out the "and" as Ethan continued to read and respond to his texts, putting their hand on the younger Ethan's shoulder. "How did that one feel?"

"Um…" Ethan was still staring over the other him's shoulder, reading all of the congratulatory texts along with him. He blinked up at X. "Fucking amazing." 

X grinned. "Yeah, I thought so. You ready for the next one again? It's going to be the next to last one, nothing too big, but still. Thought you should know."

Ethan glanced back down at his future texts with another smile before stepping back towards the entity. "Yeah, I'm ready. Uh, thanks. For this."

X's fingers were posed to snap, but they paused. "What do you mean?"

"For showing me all of this stuff. You're… you're doing your job. You're giving me hope. And the feeling that the hope's needed, that my life's worth continuing. Thank you."

X got an odd look on their face before finally settling out into a smile. "Yeah, kid. Of course." They snapped.

~~~

Hey look at me, being genuinely pretty late for once. Sorry abt that. Or maybe I'm not that late, my sense of time is completely worked up atm, who actually knows at this point. Also sorry that this was pretty short again, this one was surprisingly hard to write?? Don't know why, it just was. 

But hey! I'm planning on publishing a one-shot book sometime soon (crankiplier, ofc), so look out for that! And in the meantime, you can read the crankiplier stuff I've written on AO3! There's a one-shot, "A Blade to the Heart", which I swear is a lot less angsty than it sounds, and a chaptered fic, "It Was always boring since the world's been turning", which is a very long title and I'm sorry. (A new chapter for that one's coming out soon-ish(?) I've been working on the most recent chapter a good bit the past couple days.) They're both under the username its_stupidhours .

I hope that everyone's doing well and washing their hands and staying home and all those good things!! Have a nice day!