Dan sat alone in his room again. He could hear Phil in the other room, but he could, of course, do nothing. Because he knew why Phil was depressed and doing this to himself. Knew that the loss of his kid brother had hurt him in ways that Dan would never understand.

1 week prior-

Dan and Phil were sitting at the table eating cereal, occasionally beginning a conversation, and when silence fell, it was a comfortable one. During one of these silences Phil's phone rang, and he picked it up. Dan watched Phil's face closely, trying to determine why someone would be calling at such an odd time in the morning on a Sunday. Dan watched as Phil's face went from polite attentiveness to stone. Just as Dan was about to inquire as to what was wrong, Phil just got up and walked away silently, hanging up the phone.

Reaching his door, Phil closed it lightly and didn't come out for the rest of the day. Their shared flat was silent until about 10 that night, when Dan began to hear the sobbing.

Dan later got a call from Phil's Aunt that Luke, Phil's 12 year old brother, had died. He had been hit by a van while riding his bike home from school and it was a complete accident. There was no one to blame or convict, just a sad, terrible accident.

From then on Dan heard the sobbing every night, and the silence during the day. In an attempt to help, Dan left food outside Phil's door every few hours. The food would disappear, but Dan had a feeling that Phil wasn't eating it, but he felt so helpless he kept leaving the food anyways.

Dan had been working up his courage, and his repertoire of speeches for whatever he might find in Phil's room. Dan took a deep breath and opened the door.

Before Dan laid an unconscious Phil, surrounded in blood. His arms had such deep slashes in them that the whites of his bones showed through. His legs were in a similar state. Dan franticly checked for signs of life, and remarkably Phil's heart was beating steadily. Dan took another quick glance around, tears beginning to stain his cheeks. There were crumpled up wads of paper everywhere, goodbye letters to Luke, scribbled out suicide notes, old pictures. One picture in particular caught Dan's eye. It was of the two of them, smiling and happy, and it was in his friend's pale hand.

Nothing could have prepared Dan for this. He didn't know what to do.

So, after thoroughly cleaning and dressing Phil's wounds, Dan sat down by his friends head and pulled it gently into his lap.

After sitting there for hours absently stroking Phil's hair, Dan realized what he was going to have to do.

2 hours later-

Dan had long since steeled himself to what Phil's reaction to what he had done would be. He was expecting hatred, or the silent treatment, or something as horrible as a physical outburst. Dan was sitting on the little white chair that the attendant had left next to Phil's head.

At the moment Phil was laying peacefully, his wounds dressed in the same white as his sheets, and his arm restraints.

-Upon laying there with Phil's unmoving head in his lap for hours, Dan had realized that his friend wasn't just going to need comfort, he needed medical help. So Dan had called up the local psychiatric hospital, and enrolled him as an urgent patient.-

After Dan had been brooding silently in his chair for hours, he finally saw Phil stirring. Dan's heart beat sped up to an unprecedented pace, nervous about what Phil's reaction would be to his new surroundings.

Phil's glacier eyes opened slowly, and looked around. He seemed to be confused, and he pulled experimentally at his restraints and winced.

Dan immediately shot up, "are they too tight?" he asked franticly, fretting about his friend.

And that was when Phil's eyes found Dan. They weren't full of betrayed hate, or animalistic rage, but of something akin to…thankfulness?

Several months later-

Phil was getting let out of the hospital in a few hours. The staff told Dan that he was getting much better. They had Phil making 'Youtube' videos about the things he likes most about life, so he would focus on the positive, rather that the negative. Dan decided, in a moment of friendly solidarity, that he would do some too, so they could have something to do together.

Things began looking up more and more when Phil came home. To Dan he seemed almost to be his old self.

Dan would sometimes catch him looking of into the distance with a lost look on his face, but he would always eventually turn around and find Dan waiting patiently for him to come back to himself.

The bond that they created here became all that mattered to both of them, they were practically one person now, and did everything together. After a while they allowed a few friends into their group, and then began leaving the house more. Expanding their circle of acquaintances to other YouTubers, and began meeting their ever- growing fan base.

But despite all these things, no one around them ever had the notion that they could get anywhere as close to either Dan or Phil, as they were to each other.