"You're going to have to edit this out," Dan said breathlessly, the words muffled through his sleeve as he buried his face in his elbow. He coughed again, a harsh sound that hurt Phil's ears just to listen to it.
Dan and Phil were working on a video for Phil's channel, but all the talking and laughing seemed to be upsetting Dan's lungs. He'd been sick for over two weeks now—nothing too serious, just a nasty cough. He'd had a fever off and on as well, but neither Dan nor Phil were the type to worry so they had just chalked it up to a chest cold due to the changing weather as October gave way to November.
Phil didn't know what else to do but wait quietly for Dan to finish his coughing fit. It seemed like an eternity before Dan finally raised up his head and took a long, shaky breath. "Owww," he moaned on the exhale. "Hurts to breathe deep."
"Do you want to take a break?" Phil offered helplessly.
"We're almost done," Dan protested, placing a hand protectively over the left side of his rib cage as he coughed once more. "Let's just finish this and then maybe I'll go lie down."
"Whatever you say, Boss," Phil conceded. He didn't like the way Dan looked: absentmindedly rubbing his side, slumped almost imperceptibly to the left in an effort to protect the sore spot. Phil remembered just once when he'd had pneumonia as a child, the way he'd bruised a rib from coughing so hard, and the pain that lasted even after the sickness was gone.
But he didn't say anything more about it. Only Dan knew how he felt and what he was capable of; if he wanted to finish filming, they'd finish filming.