Phil shut the pantry door and opened it again. Nothing changed. He rummaged through the shelf, looking behind the cereal boxes and in a dozen other places he already knew it wasn't. Nothing magically appeared that wasn't there before.

"Err...Dan?" he peered cautiously around the door of the pantry, to where his friend was adjusting the framing on the camera. Dan blew the coarse pastel wig out of his eyes and answered without looking up.

"What?"

"Don't be mad," Phil started, at which Dan immediately looked up at him through his fluffy white fringe. His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What?" His tone was the perfect mix of accusing and resigned. The accompanying glare, however was made somewhat ridiculous by the flower crown and pastel shirt. Phil pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.

"I may have forgotten the flour," Phil grinned his best 'please don't kill me' grin and ducked behind the pantry door.

"Phil Lester!" Dan's voice was a shriek. "Do you know what the main ingredient of pancakes is, Phil?" From behind the pantry door, Phil laughed.

"It's flour! I'm sorry!" Dan closed his eyes, pinched the space between his eyebrows and took a deep breath.

"How are we going to do this video without flour?" Dan stepped out in front of the camera and began to mime the cooking video they were supposed to be making. "First the flour – what? We don't have any? Well I guess we could just push on without it, couldn't we Phil? Let's see, first the eggs, then the milk, some salt and put it all in the pan, annnd now we flip it!" Dan took the empty fry pan and spun it around in his hand. "What have I made here Phil?"

"I don't know."

"It's an omelette," Dan said shrilly, before charging Phil's pantry bunker and mock hitting him with the fry pan. "But it's not just an omelette," he continued, poking Phil's ticklish sides with the handle. "It's the most boring omelette in the world!"

Phil retreated further into the pantry, trying in vain to protect his sides. "I'm sorry! Stop!" he yelled through laughter. "I surrender! I'm sorry you had to make such a boring omelette!"

"There is no surrender, Philly!" Dan made another mock lunge with the fry pan, and Phil grabbed the closest thing he could find to shield his body. Dan's cereal. Perfect.

"Truce!" Phil called. "Or...or the cereal gets it!"

Dan snorted once at the ridiculousness of it, before he regained proper fry-pan-duel decorum and took stock of the situation. He stood half in the pantry, pan in hand at full extension against Phil's cereal box shield. His cereal.

"Low blow, Lester," he tutted and retreated from the pantry. Phil cheered in victory from the pantry.

"I know," he said, and put the cereal back. "Sorry. I honestly don't know how I forgot it," Phil went on between snickers. "There was a kid with his mum in a Spiderman outfit – I mean the kid was in the outfit, not the mum. That would have been a bit weird. But then I started thinking about the new Spiderman movie and I got distracted. And...and I forgot the flour. And now we're just going to have plain, boring omelettes." Dan looked at the ceiling trying to look put out, and not at all like he was trying not to laugh. Phil peeked out from around the corner of the door.

"Are you mad?"

Dan continued to look at the ceiling. The lights needed dusting. "Mad?" A snicker finally escaped, and he shook his head, hiding his grin with his hand. "I'm not even surprised." The camera beeped beside him. SD card full. Damn. He'd forgotten to transfer the files after the video idea he'd half recorded late that night – or early that morning. And there is was. The levelling of the playing field. He was never one-up on Phil Lester for long. There were spares SD cards, of course, but finding an empty one would probably take as long as transferring the files on this one.

"Fine," Dan huffed, and took of the itchy wig. "I'll go get some flour." Dan threw a dark jacket over the pastel shirt. Not quite the aesthetic he was going for, but it was good enough for a trip to the store. As he passed the pantry door, he leaned on it and squashed Phil against the shelves in gladiatorial style. Phil flailed and squeaked from behind the door.

"Help! Assault!"

Dan poked his head around the side of the door at a red-faced and slightly flattened Phil. "And while I'm out trying to forget that apparently Spiderman is more important than our cooking videos," Dan's smile turned sweet and he fluttered his eyelashes endearingly (or so he hoped). "Maybe you could transfer the files on the SD card to my laptop?" Phil stopped struggling for a second and his jaw dropped.

"Dan." he shuffled sideways until his head was poking out of the pantry. "Is the SD card full?" his voice was both suspicious and knowing. Dan grinned brightly and made for the door.

"Back soon!" he said over his shoulder.

"Dan!" Phil called out as he heard his friend grab the keys. "Why is the SD card full, Dan?"

"Bye," Dan laughed, and Phil emerged from the pantry with a wry smile, just as the door to the flat swung closed.

Phil shook his head and grinned. "Unbelievable," he said as he took a handful of Dan's cereal and removed the SD card from the camera. "Filing again."

…...

Dan swung the bag with the flour in it as he walked. It was another dreary London day outside. It wasn't raining, but not for lack of trying. To try and keep his mind off the fact that he was outside and voluntarily exercising, Dan tried to mentally sort out his failed 3am video. It wasn't his usual sort, but 3am was weird that way. It often brought thoughts and moods that daylight seemed to scare off.

It wasn't a cohesive video in any sort of way, but more a rambling, aimless, wandering sort of fluff. Like a bit of dandelion seed caught in the wind. Dan scoffed at his own fancifulness. A dandelion wouldn't be caught dead inside. A video should at least be true to its surroundings. Given that he rarely left the flat, that would make it less dandelion in the wind, and more dust bunny in the central heating duct.

Either way, it was a wool-gathering piece of random stuff that would never see the light of day, let alone tread the well lit stage of the internet. It was terrible.

But he liked it.

And even now, Phil would be transferring it over to his laptop, hopefully not watching it. He inwardly cringed at the thought of Phil getting bored waiting for him at the flat and looking over his footage to see what he'd filled up the SD card with this time. It wasn't exactly prime material. But Phil had seen worse, and he'd still stuck around. Still, no harm in walking a little faster.

Dan hurried across the road against the wind, pulling up the hood on his jacket.

One second, the traffic sounded quite close.

The next second, there was pain as something hit him from the side.

The next second, there was nothing.