"Good morning!"
The kettle was rustling quietly as the smell of coffee enveloped the house.
"Good morning, Philly!"
"Hey, don't call me that!" Phil laughed as he turned around to face Dan who was standing at the door in just his boxers.
Ignoring Phil, Dan yawned quite loudly and headed towards the fridge. After having stood in front of it for a good couple if seconds, he took out the milk and let the metallic door close itself, after gently shoving it. Phil filled the two mugs with boiling water and watched the coffee dissolve.
"So what's on the agenda for today?" Dan approached Phil from behind, wrapping his arms around him, and placed a gentle kiss on Phil's lips.
"Ummm...," Phil paused for a moment, picking up the two mugs, gently pushing Dan away from him. "Well, we were supposed to go meet with the publishers today, but they canceled, so we're doing that tomorrow. Also I gotta write a quick email to the game programmers. They asked for a confirmation and whether we liked the beta version of the app so far. But other than that... I don't think there's anything we have to do today."
Dan took the mug out of Phil's hand, as the two headed to the lounge.
"We need to think of a way to announce the app, don't you think?" Dan asked, seating himself down on one of the bright-coloured chairs.
"We can just mention it at the end of a video," Phil took a sip of his coffee. "Or make a separate vid. Either way, we'll figure out after vidcon, when it comes out."
"Yeah, I don't think I'll make any videos before then anyway," Dan agreed. "Speaking of vidcon, oh man, it's gonna be so hard to, you know, hide our thing in front of thousands of people."
"We could always... Not hide it," Phil reasoned. He took Dan's hand in his and gave it an encouraging squeeze. "No one is telling you we should be hiding ourselves. I'm not against coming out. It will be so much easier for both of us."
He leaned in and kissed Dan.
"I love you," Phil said quietly.
"I love you too, Phil," Dan replied almost instantly. "But I..."
"But what, Dan? All of our friends know. Cat knows, Louise knows... If we don't come out, they're going to have to hide it too. You're placing responsibility on them too! Look, it will be better for everyone if we told the internet who we really are."
"Okay, but I," Dan paused again. "I feel like our relationship is something private. Our fan base is literally a herd of teenage girls who will lose their shit if we came out. I don't want screenshots of us making out all over the internet! I don't want publicity, Phil!"
Phil squeezed his hand again.
"You know what? I actually think our 'phandom' is ready for this. Even if they are, as you say, a herd of teenage girls, if we ask them not to overreact, they'll surely agree," Phil looked Dan in the eyes reassuringly, but realised that he was not convinced. "Look, remember the valentine's video?"
Dan nodded, looking at the floor.
"Instead of posting screenshots of it everyone as 'phan proof', our fans actually block any websites that post it ever since we told them to do so. They can be trusted!"
"I guess," Dan began, "I guess you're right!"
The two kissed.
"Sorry I just kinda forgot about that," Dan continued. "And you're right, we can't hide it forever. It's not fair for our friends either, but...," he looked at Phil, "can we release it after vidcon?"
"Why?"
"Well, you know, I don't want 'Dan and Phil are gay' to be what people will focus on."
"I see," Phil agreed. "True, I wouldn't want that much attention. So I guess we can film it today and post it the week we come back."
"I love you," Dan hugged Phil and placed his head on his shoulder.
"I love you more."
"How was your day?" Dan read out a question someone sent him in his live show chat. "Good," he replied. "Made an important video so uh look forward to that at some point."
Meanwhile, Phil chuckled to himself in the office. He was listening to Dan's live show on his phone while editing the video.
The two were cuddling in bed in their hotel room.
"Soon," Phil placed a kiss on Dan's forehead. "Just imagine not having to hide anymore."
"It would feel nice," Dan simply said. "Because I love you and sometimes I just... I just want to show everyone how much I really do."
"Is something bothering you?" Phil asked cautiously.
"No, why would you think that?"
"I don't know, I just feel it I guess."
"Well," Dan buried his head in Phil's chest. "Damn you and your psychic powers, Phil! I don't know it's just..."
"Look, I'm not gonna force you to do anything."
"I'm scared of how the internet would react. Today, when I was on the panel with Jenna, Glozell and the others, I though that... Whenever they said my name, the crowd would go crazy. I couldn't even talk, it was such a mess. I'm scared, Phil. I don't want our private thing to be shown to all those people I don't know. It's going to be so overhyped and..."
"I understand," Phil said.
"I know it's necessary and we can't hide anymore," Dan continued. "Sometimes I really want to kiss you or just hold your hand when we're walking through the hallway, but..."
"Okay how about this," Phil's voice changed to a serious tone. "Since you've already told them you're releasing an important video after vidcon, we'll just have to wait and see how they react. I'll mention it a couple of times too, say that I made this video - not just a collab, - but this video with you, which is really important. We'll wait for a couple of days after vidcon just to see how they react. And if it's overhyped and you're not comfortable, then we won't release it."
"You can't just play them like that!" Dan disagreed. "But... It is a good idea."
"So if you're not comfortable, I'll just release another vid. Let's say the announcement of the seven second challenge. You'll be in the video so it will look like that was how it was meant to be."
"I'm honestly... I'm so happy to have you, Phil," Dan stuttered out and kissed the other passionately. They finally switched off the lights in their room at 2am.
"Holy shit."
"You okay, Dan?"
"Come, come," Dan urged Phil to look at his computer screen. "Tumblr is literally going insane."
"About what?"
"What do you think? The video, of course! Literally all of my feed is about it!"
"Oh my god."
"And twitter as well! And every single fucking social media site! It's not even Thursday, but they're all going crazy!"
Phil sat down next to Dan and closed his laptop.
"It's okay," he hugged him. "It's okay, Dan, really, it's okay."
"Phil, I'm not coming out! Not to them! I don't even know them! I don't want to..." he continued shouting into Phil's chest, trying to break free from his arms.
"Dan," Phil said strictly. "Dan, firstly, calm down. We are not releasing anything! Calm down."
"I'm sorry."
"Do you remember the plan? We'll make a seven second challenge commercial and no one will know. But for that I need you to calm down. We can't have you crying on camera!"
"I'm sorry I'm just...," Dan put his arms around Phil. "I love you so much you can't even imagine. You're my everything, Phil. You are."
Phil continued stroking Dan's back, placing soft kisses on his lips.
"I love you too."
"We're number one in the App Store! Phil, that's crazy!" Dan rushed into the lounge with his phone in hand. "That's absolutely crazy! Come here, let me kiss you!"
"Have you seen the videos everyone's making?" Phil embraced Dan. "They're hilarious! I have to say, the 'phandom' has a great sense of humour!"
They both sat on the sofa.
"You know, I think I overreacted a bit," Dan said. "The 'phandom' does have a great sense of humour. I was looking through the whatstheimportantvideo hashtag and it actually made me laugh. I love these guys! I mean look at this pic!"
Dan found a screenshot of a funny tumblr post on his phone and showed it to Phil.
"Also someone pointed out that I never said that the Thursday video will be the important one, so... There's still a chance!"
"Dan! Are you serious?" Phil looked at Dan with eyes full of happiness. "You'll do it? For us? I'm... I'm so proud of you!"
"You know I love you," Dan laughed. "And I want the world to know about it too. Even if these are people I'll never meet, I want them to know!"
"Can we make out now?"
"You spork, Philly! Of course we can!"