They were filming another collaboration when they came across the question. It seemed so simple at the time.

"You guys are so similar, are you sure your wings don't match?"

Phil looked at Dan and shrugged. Dan took that as a go a head for the reply.

"We haven't actually seen each others wings. I guess it never came up." And with that they moved on to the next question.

Later, after they posted the video, Dan started combing through the comments, wanting to see if people liked the video. He was astonished, however, at the sheer number of comments which simply read, "You guys have never checked wings!?" or something along those lines.

"Hey Phil, come look at this," he said. "Check out the comments on our video!"

"Are they more llama jokes?" Phil asked skeptically.

"No, Phil, just look," Dan said.

Phil came over and looked over Dan's shoulder. "Jeez, this wing thing means a lot to them."

Dan bit his lip, looking up at phil.

"Do you think we should, um, maybe do it? Compare wings, I mean. It would make a cool video, in any case. The fans would like it, anyway..." Dan nervously rambled, unsure of what Phil's reaction would be.

"Um, sure," Phil said. "Should we do it now?"

"Why not?" Dan replied, getting up to retrieve the camera stuff.

"Hello Internet," he began. "As you can see, I have AmazingPhil here with me. Well, a couple of days ago, we posted a video, and you guys went crazy."

Here Phil cut in, "yeah, you guys blew up the comments. And with one specific concern: our wings"

Dan started again, "right. It's true that we've never seen each others wings before, so we decided that today we would finally show them off. So... Phil, you first?"

Phil nodded, then slowly unfurled his wings from the slits in his special shirt he had worn for this occasion. Dan gasped as Phil's wings came into view. They were beautiful- black and grey and white feathers making beautiful swirling patterns, with a patch of rainbow colored feathers at the outer edges of each wing. They were absolutely stunning.

Dan snapped himself out of his reverie and turned to the camera. "I've uh, only ever showed my wings to one other time to people outside my family, and well that didn't go so well-" he broke off, and shivered, as if remember some past trauma. He recollected himself and continued, "anyway, so here goes."

He chuckled nervously before snapping out his wings in flurry of feathers.

It was Phil's turn to be astonished as he saw Dan's wings. They were beautiful as well- a rainbow swirl of multi colored patches with a patch of black, grey, and white feathers on the outer edge of each wing. But then Phil saw something that made him gasp in shock and horror rather than awe. Dan, knowing what Phil had seen on the back of his wings, which he was carefully hiding from the camera, and shot him a warning look. Phil, understanding the look, quickly turned back to the camera.

"Well, what do you think Dan?"

"I think its a match, Phil," Dan replied.

And with that, they quickly finished up the video and signed off.

Phil turned to Dan, who was subtly trying to curl in his wings. "Dan, let me see the backs of your wings, please." His voice was soft but his face showed that he was being utterly serious. Dan stopped curling his wings and reluctantly unfurled them, turn away from Phil so that he could see the backs.

Phil gave a large gasp when he saw the whole thing. Burned into Dan's wings were two words: "FAG" and "FREAK". The black feathers were unmistakably charred, meaning that it must have been immensely painful for Dan.

" what happened?" He asked, fearing the answer.

"Someone touched my feathers" he explained matter of factly. But this was not a simple matter. Touching someone's wings-some one who is not your soulmate, anyway, is a terrible sin, as it corrupts the feather that are touched, impairing someone's ability to find a true match.

"I gathered that much," Phil said.

"It happened when I was fourteen," Dan started.

"When I was fourteen, I had a girlfriend. This was before I really accepted my sexuality, so I was still just kissing Lisa. We were getting kinda serious, and one day she asked if we could compare wings. Now, you have to understand, I knew our wings weren't a match, because I obviously was not straight. But she didn't know that.

Well, when she- when she saw the rai- the rainbow colors, she knew. This was when rainbows were still deeply associated with homosexuality in my area. And she, well she-" Dan took a moment to collect himself. He was having a hard time relating the story, as he had never told anyone before. He took a deep breath, and at Phil's encouraging nod, he continued. "She got her brother and his friends to grab me on my way home from school the next day, because she was mad at me for tricking her. She had a right to be mad, I had lied to her, but her brother and his friends took it too far. They- uh- first well they dragged me into an alley, and they uh, they said they were going to- uh- correct my- uh- my views on sex, and they, they-" here Dan broke off, tears streaming down his face. Phil hesitantly rubbed circles on Dan's back, trying to calm him down. This gave Dan some peace, and he was able to continue.

"They forced me down on my knees, and made me, well, you know, because they thought that maybe if I saw how awful it was to do stuff between two guys I would turn straight."

Tears were now streaking down Phil's face as well.

"When they were finished, they forced my wings out, and when they saw they hadn't changed- because how could they?" Dan was getting more and more upset, so Phil resumed rubbing circles in his back. "It's ok, you're OK" he murmured.

"They, they grabbed the tips to hold them still," here he raised a wing showing the scarred ends- Phil could see distinct hand prints.

"And..." Phil prompted, when Dan didn't continue.

"They started touching the feathers. It hurt so bad, Jesus, it was so painful. They taunted me while they did it, saying they were going to burn patterns in so I would never know when I found my match." He broke off, sobbing harder than before. Phil kept trying to comfort him, but then suddenly launched up and ran to the sink in the kitchen a few feet away to vomit. When he finished, he returned to Dan, who had drawn in his wings completely and was looking at the floor.

"Dan-" Phil started, but Dan interrupted him.

"I know their disgusting and hideous. I was ashamed of what I am and I never told anyone what I let them do to me. I'm sorry I showed you, you probably won't want to see my wings again."

"Dan, no, your wings are beautiful. And you didn't let them do anything, they used numbers and strength against you. This wasn't your fault." Phil said firmly. He needed Dan to know that he didn't think any worse of him for it.

"Thanks, Phil," Dan said, wiping away the tears.

"I always wondered why you were so secretive about your wings. I mean, I don't exactly flaunt mine, but you always have something covering them, even when they're folded up. I understand it now." Phil said speculatively.

"I didn't want you to see them and think I was too much of a freak to be your friend." Dan admitted.

"I would never think you were a freak for those," Phil said. Then he grinned. "I might think you're a freak for different reasons, but not for that. "

"Thank y- hey!"

The end.