Do I really need a disclaimer since they are real people?
Dan groans from his spot on the floor, laying face down in the hall. His mind is once again racing through thoughts such as 'What is life,' 'Does my existence even matter,' and the usual 'Is living even important? How do I know if this is even real life,' that accompanies his twice a week existential crises.
He was on his way to his bedroom to go film a new video for his YouTube channel, danisnotonfire- which has over two million subscribers now, when he felt his mind falling into the dark pit he finds himself in twice a week for an hour or two. The video he had promised his fans, his danasours, is already two weeks late, even though he promised and told his viewers he would wax his legs as punishment if he didn't get it up by a certain time.
He groans again as his mind brings up images of wax taking not only his leg hairs but his flesh. This seems like a good topic to bring up in one of his 'Reasons Why Dan is a Fail' videos. It is shortly after he ponders over the existence of the human race and if he is making a difference when he feels a weak shove to his shoulder.
He turns his head to peer up at his flatmate and best friend, chocolate brown eyes meeting bright blue that hold specks of green and yellow.
"I'm heading out to get dinner."
Dan notices how Phil's voice is still husky from his cold last week and how visiting his parents the day before had brought back his Northern accent a little bit.
"Are you going to be fine here on your own, Dan?"
Dan just nods and turns his face back into the hard floor. He doesn't even bother trying to calm his racing thoughts, they normally stop on their own eventually.
"Chinese.." He mumbles into the tile. They normally eat Chinese food on weekends but he has had a slight craving for sweet and sour chicken and rice.
"Chinese take out it is," Phil laughs, his hand coming up to cover his smile and how his tongue peeks out the corner of his mouth, a habit he had ever since Dan first saw a video posted by the YouTuber user AmazingPhil back in 2009 and even beyond that back before Dan knew who Phil was.
"When you come out of your funk, you have a video to make, Dan," The older of the two reminds as he steps over Dan's sprawled out form, his voice telling how he is worried but knows nothing he can do will help. It's a miracle his clumsy ass didn't trip.
"I'm going to take the underground and head out to that new Chinese food place near where we get Boba Tea. I should be back in an hour or two." Phil doesn't wait for a reply, knowing already Dan will only give a groan or a whine.
Phil leaves their shared flat to get dinner and Dan stays on the floor.
Eventually, Dan can bring himself to get up off the floor, and not to go make his video. "What is life," He snickers at his dilemma and drags his feet to the lounge, or living room like Americans call it, figuring he has the right to sit in his sofa crease while assuming the browsing position scrolling through Tumblr. He sees many gifs of him and Phil some of their fans tagged him in, claiming they should 'come clean about them dating' by assume they give each other heart eyed looks.
Dan also sees gifs of them photo-shopped in odd situations such as a Dan-Pumpkin that resembles Quasimodo and many drawings of him and Pooh Bear or a llama. He can feel his mood lifting as he crackles at some of the things his fans do, and how Phil's seem to always draw him naked.
He pushes his brown fringe back where it should be and answers a few questions sent to his ask box, knowing there is no way he could answer every single one. He even goes so far to amuse himself by skimming through some of the fanfiction, or phanfiction as their fans call it.
"Why do they always write where Phil is dead with me crying over his body?" Dan wonders out loud as he continues scrolling. "And there is the smut…" Dan exits out of Tumblr, not feeling the need to have to scroll past pages of people shipping him and his best friend. He doesn't even know why their fans feel the need to tag them in it.
"Oh my god," he exclaims while throwing himself to the side to lay on the couch, "I am so bored now!" He had never seen a problem with the fact he tends to talk to himself, he had even talked about it in one of his videos.
"The office is dark so I'm not going to go play a game," he crosses off things his mental list of things to do around the apartment. "I'm too lazy to clean. I hate people. I don't feel like doing a YouNow."
After thinking about half of his options, Dan decides to just watch Netflix. He and Phil have talked about starting Death Note, and he figures why not start now and ruin it for Phil? The jerk deserves it for eating all of his cereal.
"Where is Phil anyway?" Dan asks himself why looking at the clock above the mantle. "What time did he leave anyway?" He doesn't know how long he was laying on the floor during his existential crisis nor how long he was scrolling through the void that is Tumblr. "He should be back now, shouldn't he?"
He looks around for his IPhone and after not finding it in his pocket or on the coffee table heads to his room. The fairy lights above his bed are still on and so is his rock light on the far nightstand so he doesn't have to worry about his room being too dark. He flicks the light switch to make the room even brighter and heads towards his bed. His cell phone is not on the black and gray checkered blanket nor on his nightstands. Looking around shows it is nowhere to be found on his dresser either.
"Where the hell did I put it?" He shuffles out and into the hall, now lit up by the light from his open door. He peers into the dark office and quickly darts towards the light switch. "Ah, ha!" Now not having to worry about the dark, he looks around the desktop computer and finds it plugged in. Now remember he was updating his Itunes library, Dan raises a hand and smacks himself in the face; which is another thing he does regularly.
"Damn it, Dan." He grins, his dimples now obvious, and reaches to unplug it. He has two missed calls and a couple text messages as well as a crap ton of Twitter notifications. After getting rid of the Twitter notifications, he looks at the text messages, two from PJ and one from Phil. He realizes he never replied to PJ yesterday and smacks himself again. Quickly answering his friend he looks at Phil's message. It was sent over an hour ago and didn't make much sense.
"The brakes have stopped? What does that even mean?" He quickly goes to his call log and notices the missed calls were from Phil. He quickly calls him back. "Pick up you, spoon," he goes to speak as soon as he hears Phil's 'Hey!' before realizing it is is voice mail, "You reached Phil, leave a message after the Rawr!"
"Phil where are you? And what do you even mean, the brakes have stopped? You better not be playing a prank on me, you turnip!" He hangs up the phone and goes to check out the voice mails Phil had left him, assuming he pocket dialed him again.
"First unread message," the automatic voice from his phone states before playing the first message.
"Hey Dan," Phil sounds stressed and worried, much worse than when he had a test back when he was in University going for his master's degree in video production.
"I'm on the tube with dinner and, uh, I don't think I'm going to get home anytime soon. They are not making any stops and I'm kinda freaked out." The rest of the message is inaudible, but Dan can make out Phil's 'Ah!' of surprise he always makes when startled.
"Next unread message," his phone starts playing Phil's second message, this one having be left twenty minutes after the first.
"Dan, I won't be home tonight. Or ever," The message starts freaking Dan out due to the tone of Phil's voice; the deep baritone of his best friend's voice was hushed like he could not believe what he was saying.
"Apparently the brakes malfunctioned. They are trying to safely stop, but I know they won't succeed. I'm sorry Dan, but I just had to say goodbye just in case."
Dan almost drops his phone in shock, unable to believe what he just heard. He starts talking to himself again, dropping F-bomb after F-bomb while trying to wrap his mind around the fact he most likely heard the last of Phil in that damn voice mail. He doesn't even notice the tears on his cheeks, too emotional to even care if he did.
His phone decides to gain his attention at this moment, cutting Dan off during a word he is using to describe the underground train system that most females find offensive.
Snatching up the device, he prays to every God he can think of that it is Phil.
It's wasn't Phil on the phone, it wasn't even anyone he knew.
Dan tries not to stare at the floor as one of the nurses leads him past crying families and bodies that are not Phil. He tries to bring himself to look at them, but most don't even have a face anymore let alone a way to tell they were once living people.
"None of these are Phil," he tells the woman leading him around. He has hope now, this means Phil could be alive.
It takes three hours for Dan to finally find Phil. He is laid out on one of the uncomfortable hospital beds, a thin sheet over his pale body.
To be honest, Dan didn't even recognize him at first. His hair is pushed back and tangled, blood clumping it together. The man's pale skin is even paler, giving him a gray tone. There are bandages around his head yet blood is already starting to leak through. Phil's nose which was already crooked from where he broke it back in primary school is swollen and covered in dried blood. Every part of Phil Dan can see is bandaged in some way and bloody in another.
"Phil?" Dan moves to stand next to the bed.
"He is in a medically induced coma," a nurse informs Dan while injecting something into Phil's IV. "He is in bad shape, I hate to say it, but I am surprised his heart is still going." She doesn't sound like she cares if her patient makes it or not, and Dan hopes she leaves soon.
"He is going to be alright, isn't he?" Dan asks while carefully reaching out to hold his friend's damaged hand, the fingers looking like they were just recently put back in the right place.
"I cannot answer you even if I wanted to. I cannot just hand out information and even if I could his brain scans have yet to come back." The nurse pats Dan's shoulder before taking her leave.