A/N: This was a totally random idea I had, but I thought it was a good one, so I hope you guys enjoy! I had so much fun writing this, it's incredible. It's such a break writing a oneshot after the novel I just wrote last month, wow.
Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Dan and Phil. I wish I was, but I'm not. Also – although this story is fictional, every video referenced in this is real. Look it up. It's honestly pretty spooky.
The first time it happened, Phil didn't take any notice of it until afterwards.
The year was 2009, the month February, and AmazingPhil was still a hobby Phil had, a creative outlet, and just for fun. He found a lot of enjoyment in making his videos, and it helped him relax from the stress of university. Just the simple act of sitting in front of a camera and talking about his life, or doing something silly, and then editing it to share with the world, was a happy thing for Phil to do.
In this particular video, Phil thought it would be a neat idea to play with a pack of tarot cards he had been given. He hadn't had the chance to try them out yet, and he thought it would be pretty entertaining for the audience if something happened with them. It wasn't supposed to be the whole video – just a minute or so. He also wanted to talk about his scary-sounding heating fan, his experience with Big Brother auditions and the movie Faintheart, so he covered those first before pulling out the tarot cards.
"Tarot cards!" Phil exclaimed excitedly before showing the pack to the camera. "My grandma was a psychic woman and apparently she passed that gift on to me so let's see!"
While keeping up a commentary, he pulled his past card, revealing that he was vain in the past month. He laughed, knowing that his viewers would get a kick out of that, and pulled his present card. It said that he would probably be involved in a three-way relationship that would end in heartbreak, which he dismissed, and maybe minor surgery. He expressed some concern over that, saying his wisdom teeth hurt.
Finally, Phil pulled his future card out, revealing his prediction of what his next months would be like. It was a lovely-looking card, colours swirling and forming the shapes of two knights, all yellow and black.
"The future!" he announced. "The Knight of Wands."
Reading the description on the box out loud, he told the audience, "So some guy is going to have a big impact – an energetic warrior, he has a hasty personality and he's very quick to love or hate."
"Hmm, interesting," Phil continued. "I'm glad it wasn't, like, death."
He started to sign off the video with, "Okay, then, I'm going to go – eat some crisps? No, that's the first thing in my head at the moment," he laughed.
Searching for something else to say and end the video with, while still remaining in the same vein he had all video, Phil felt a strange need in his mind to say something meaningful. Something about the tarot cards had shaken him, especially the last prediction, and he suddenly said, "No, I'm going to go change the world – in ways you could not believe."
Phil ended the video with a smile and a wave, and edited it, all while still feeling a bit shaken about the tarot cards. He couldn't stop thinking about that last prediction, the one that talked about the guy who would have a big impact on him.
He had other things to do, like eat crisps at that moment, so he dismissed the thought shortly.
Eight months later, Phil met Dan Howell, danisnotonfire, in person for the first time.
"Sorry, I'm tired," Phil yawns in his video. The year was 2014, and he's making another video where he just rambles on about different things in his life. It's just as calming as it was back in 2009, or 2006 for that matter.
"I had a weird dream last night, or actually, it was like a dream inside a dream," Phil explained, motioning with his hands. "Me and Anthony from Smosh were at this amusement park, and he got green candyfloss, and then we couldn't decide what flavor that would be! So I asked him and then he was like "blehh"" – Phil motioned with his hands again – "and then I woke up properly."
Phil chuckled at how ridiculous it sounded, and continued on with his video, but he felt a tingle in his head. He, again, couldn't shake the feeling that that dream was important somehow.
Several months later, Dan and Phil visited an amusement park in Florida with Smosh. Phil and Anthony rode a roller coaster, a green one, and Anthony felt sick afterwards. Nobody else rode that roller coaster, just Phil and Anthony, and Phil's shirt was also green.
It started to happen more frequently, especially during their gaming videos, when Phil's emotions started to run high, one way or another.
He called for Slender Man when they were playing The Eight Pages.
"Slendy, oh slendy?"
"He's right there!" yelled Dan, and they began to run away in the game.
Phil was just trying to make jokes, but they kept coming true in the Sims.
"Hope it doesn't electrocute him."
"They're probably discussing the world."
"He's telling a joke about a dog."
All of these individually could easily be played off as coincidences, but it was happening so often! He was starting to get scared of this – whatever this was. Was he psychic? That would explain it – that would be cool, like an anime character!
But real life is not an anime, no matter how much one might wish it was.
Phil wished he knew how to control this ability, but he didn't, and it was only getting stronger. Every time it happened, he predicted the future, whether it was eight months from then or two seconds from then. That was the only pattern he could spot, and that still gave him no idea how to control it.
The year was 2015, and Dan and Phil were finally on their dream vacation – to Japan! They had explored many, many extremely cool places. Some of these they vlogged about, or kept notes on, for their upcoming book which they hadn't announced yet.
One of these amazing places was a shrine called Meji Jingu. If it wasn't for their tour guides Duncan and Mimei suggesting cool places to visit, Phil didn't think he and Dan would ever have made it there, as it was hidden away in a forest in the middle of the Tokyo metropolitan area.
There was a little place next to the temple where you could write prayers on little pieces of wood and hang them on a tree. Of course, both Dan and Phil wanted to do that, so they filmed a couple of seconds talking about it, and then turned off the camera to write.
Dan was writing the moment he was given the pen, and Phil knew what he would write; something the viewers would appreciate, something silly, yet still true to Dan. Dan was already scrawling away at it in his deliberate, slightly smudged handwriting.
Phil, on the other hand, had no idea at all what he was going to write. He wanted to phrase it like a wish, like Dan was doing, but he didn't know what would be a good thing to wish for. It seemed it had to be something meaningful – the atmosphere of the forest temple seemed to command it.
As soon as Phil touched his pen to the piece of wood, it was like an electric shock flowed through him, and he jumped. He knew what this was, it was happening again! He couldn't fight it, though, and he still couldn't control it. However, when he recovered from the shock, he realized he had the perfect wish to write and hang on the tree.
"I'm going to turn the camera on," Dan warned, and they filmed a little bit more for what would be their "Day in the Life of Dan and Phil IN JAPAN" video.
"I wish for pandas to mate and increase in population!" Phil declared to the camera, after everyone had heard Dan's Kanye West-related wish.
As soon as Dan and Phil got home, the increase in panda population had become large enough to be on the news.
The year was 2016, the month September. Phil had all but forgotten about his "psychic powers", as it hadn't happened since they were in Japan.
That is, until an image swam before Phil's eyes as he was pouring cereal for himself one morning.
It was nothing much – just a screenshot of a Twitter page, but it was incredible enough that Phil dropped the box of cereal, spilling it all over the counter.
The tweet that he saw was from the World Wildlife Foundation UK, saying that thanks to conservation efforts, giant pandas were no longer endangered. The time stamp on the tweet was – Phil looked at the clock – four minutes from then.
Not bothering to clean up the cereal, Phil skidded out into the living room, nearly knocking over Dan, who was wearing the Totoro onesie, as he had taken to doing lately.
"Phil, oh my god, slow down," Dan exclaimed, grabbing Phil's elbow to stop him. "What even-"
"Left my phone in the lounge," Phil explained, slightly out of breath.
Dan looked past Phil, to the spilled cereal all over the counter. "Phil, is that my cereal?"
Oops, Phil thought, and for the millionth time cursed himself for being so clumsy. He looked back at the clock again – two minutes until the time in the image.
"Uh, I'm sorry, I'll clean it up, but this is really important," Phil said, talking fast.
Dan let go of his elbow, and Phil burst into the lounge, grabbing his phone.
His fingers shook as he opened up Twitter. Out of his peripheral vision, he could see Dan, who had countered his earlier path into the kitchen, and was now coming to see what was so important.
Phil knew exactly how Dan would react if he found out. Dan would ask if this was a prank, or play it off as coincidences, when Phil knew that they weren't. They couldn't be, not with those strange feelings he had in his mind whenever this happened.
Twitter finally loaded, showing the WWF UK account, and Phil glanced at the time. One minute to go, any moment now.
"What is it?" Dan asked, perching on the couch next to Phil and looking over his shoulder.
Phil's heart leapt. If he was going to tell Dan at all, now would be the time – he knew when it was going to happen, and Dan couldn't play this off as a coincidence. It might put him into an existential crisis, but that was a risk Phil was willing to take.
"In about one minute, they're going to tweet about giant pandas not being endangered anymore," Phil explained, very quickly, pressing the refresh button.
"How do you know?" Dan asked.
Phil looked Dan square in the eyes, and knew that he had to tell him. He couldn't keep this from him anymore. Phil pressed the refresh button again, and said it, for the first time.
"Because I'm psychic," Phil said. He quickly looked away, and pressed the refresh button. Any second now.
Dan, seemingly unable to say anything to that, followed Phil's gaze to the phone screen, and when Twitter loaded again, he gasped.
Thanks to incredible conservation efforts, giant pandas are now no longer classified as endangered!
"How the hell," Dan started.
"I told you, I'm psychic," Phil said. There wasn't a joke in his voice, and Dan couldn't help but believe it. When Phil used that tone, he was never joking.
Dan had seen a lot of movies, and whenever somebody found out they had powers, they usually kept it hidden for a long time before they told anyone close to them. So instead of disbelief or shock, which was his natural reactions, he decided to go with a more helpful route.
"How long have you known about this?" Dan asked. He hadn't spoken in a moment, and Phil was looking worried.
"I guess it started, like, eight years ago? But I've only noticed it in the last two." Phil responded quietly.
"And what have you predicted?" replied Dan, trying to hide his surprise at "eight years ago."
"Mostly small things," Phil said slowly. "You know, bits in Sims videos right before they happen, in other video games, things that are really specific."
He took a breath before saying the next words.
"And then there's the big things," Phil said nervously. "Going to an amusement park with Anthony from Smosh, flipping increasing the giant panda population, and" –pause- "Meeting you. And that's just what I've showed in videos."
Dan couldn't hide his surprise at the last one, which was understandable. "Meeting me?" he said incredulously. "You actually predicted that?"
"Using a deck of tarot cards, in my video Robot Death Machine," Phil confirmed.
Dan sat back on the couch. This was a lot to handle.
He didn't say anything for long enough that Phil started to get worried again. He wasn't face-first on the floor, so Phil didn't think he needed to worry, but still. People generally say things.
Phil blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "You're not supposed to think dark thoughts in a Totoro onesie!"
Almost immediately, Dan cracked a smile, and whatever ice there was in the room broke.
"Oh my god, Phil," he said. "You're sending me to dark places right now!"
They both laughed at the PINOF reference, which was still a fond memory for both of them.
"So what are you going to do, about this?" Dan said.
"I don't know," confessed Phil. "It's been happening more and more lately, off camera."
Suddenly, an idea came to Dan, most likely prompted by the movies he had been thinking about.
"What have you been doing when it happens?" he said.
"I've already tried looking for patterns," Phil said. "There seem to be none."
"But what do you think whenever you see something in the future?"
Phil sighed and thought about it. He remembered the instinctive feeling of "oh no not again".
"I don't like it," Phil said. "I don't like the idea of it, it doesn't really feel bad."
"Then there's your answer, then," Dan said. "You have to embrace it, Phil!"
"I guess that could work," Phil said. He didn't think it would help, but it was worth a shot. Who wouldn't want to have psychic powers, really?
"Great," Dan said, and stood up to go back to the kitchen. But this time, it was Phil who caught his arm.
"Dan?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks," Phil smiled. He truly was relieved about telling Dan, and about the way he received this odd news.
"No problem, you spork," Dan said, and as Phil let go of his arm, he walked into the kitchen. "Phil, get in this kitchen right now!"
Phil laughed. He had forgotten about the cereal.
The next time it happened, Phil remembered what Dan said.
He was in the lounge, scrolling on Tumblr. He and Dan were going to watch a movie, but Dan had gone into the kitchen to make popcorn.
The vision caught Phil unawares. It showed Dan, reaching up to get a bowl from the cupboard. His hand knocked a glass, which fell on the counter, shattering everywhere.
Phil knew he had to try and embrace this, like a hug. He concentrated harder on the vision, trying to make it stay instead of go away as soon as possible.
Startled by the shattered glass, Dan in the vision fell backwards, losing his balance and hitting his head on the floor.
Phil snapped out of the vision. He had to stop that.
Setting down his laptop, Phil raced into the kitchen, only to see Dan opening the cupboard where the bowls were.
"Don't reach up there!" Phil shouted; his mind was still hazy with the effort of trying to make the vision stay, even though it was gone now.
Dan turned, and jumped when he saw that Phil's eyes had some sort of rapidly disappearing haze over them. It was nothing to figure out that Phil had just had a vision.
"Cut it really close that time," Phil said, once his mind had stopped being blurry and he could think properly again.
"What would have happened?" Dan asked quietly, almost afraid to know the answer.
"You would have broken a glass, fallen over and hit your head," Phil said, matching his tone to Dan's.
"Wow," said Dan, and they just stayed there for a moment. Wow, absolutely.
Phil had used whatever powers he had to stop this from happening, and he had possibly saved Dan's life. At the very least, he saved Dan a concussion. It was a long way to fall.
This time, the vision did not come to pass, as it had done for many other predictions, and as it would do for many more in the future. But this was the first time that Phil ever felt really at peace with it afterwards.
"And the BONCA for Creator of the Year goes to – Phil Lester!"
Stunned, Phil went up to the stage. Dan continued clapping until it was clear he was making a disturbance, and even then he kept smiling, all the way through Phil's speech, and even when he was called up by Phil to join him.
It was a blur until they were headed backstage, Phil still clutching the golden hashtag.
"I can't believe it!" Phil said excitedly. "I thought for sure it would be you!"
"You deserve it," Dan said, still smiling. Then, a thought occurred to him.
Leaning in closer to Phil, he said quietly, "I'm guessing you didn't predict this one, then?"
"Nope," Phil said happily. "I didn't predict this at all."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed!