But they didn't. Eight years later, Dan was still missing. There had been no trace of him. Not even a scent to follow.

Phil had done his best to move on. It still hurt like a bee sting as the anniversary of his brother's disappearance neared, but he'd managed to distract himself with new things. The internet and YouTube being a big one. He'd even made a couple new friends. But nothing made up for the hole where his brother had been. As far as he was concerned, no one could ever heal that. No more Mario Kart until six AM, no more conversations about anime or Harry Potter.

Wow. Twenty-two seems so old, Phil thought as he rummaged under his bed for the sock that had fallen under it. He had to go do something just to get out of the house. He didn't know what though. Maybe he'd go into town or run through the hills with his arms spread out because he had the mental age of an eight-year-old.

Before he knew it, he was sitting in a café with a large cup of coffee in front of him. He was staring out the window at the dark storm churning overhead.

'Hi,' a voice with an accent not quite right for the region greeted. 'Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full and I don't want to go outside because it looks like it's going to rain and I don't want to get wet.'

Phil shrugged, not looking away. 'Sure,' he replied, nodding to the empty seat near him and looking at the stranger for the first time. He was about six feet tall with long dark hair with a fringe similar to Phil's own, except slightly different and flipped to the other side. He had dark brown eyes and tannish skin. He was fairly skinny, and clad completely in black. 'I'm Phil,' he added. 'Phil Lester.'

The stranger smiled, revealing a deep dimple on his left cheek. 'I'm Dan—Dan Howell.'

It took a good deal of effort on Phil's part not to cringe. 'That's my brother's name,' he remarked, trying to sound nonchalant.

'Well, it's a great name,' Dan Howell joked with an amused chuckle. Phil felt the corners of his lips tug up in an unwilling smile. There was something friendly and comfortable about this newcomer. Probably the laid-back aura he exuded. Something that made Phil feel like they could talk without the awkward this-is-the-first-time-I've-ever-seen-you-in-my-life-so-we-have-to-only-make-small-talk crap that usually came with meeting new people.

But, of course, rules of society still had to be followed, so it wasn't like he was going to lay his entire life-story out on this guy he'd barely met.

'Yeah,' he muttered.

'So what's your life like? How's it treating you?' Dan asked.

Phil shrugged. 'Treating me fine I guess. Not much interesting is really going on,' he replied.

The two talked for hours, falling into an easy rapport. They talked about the shows they liked and their favorite types of food and found out that they both found drawing cat whiskers on their face absolutely hilarious—though neither of them were sure why they had ever thought of that. 'You know, I think you should try YouTubing,' Phil commented as they stood up and started to walk outside. 'You'd be great at it.' Dan's eyebrows lifted slightly with skepticism.

'What do you mean?' he asked.

'Well it's kind of fun to talk to people and tell them funny stories or opinions on something and I'm sure people would think you're funny.'

Dan shook his head. 'I don't think I'm very funny or entertaining.'

'You literally told me you've done drama almost your whole life a half hour ago,' Phil pointed out. 'And if what I've heard is true, you don't get very far on stage if you're not entertaining.' Dan pulled a face and didn't say anything while they looked around at the storm brewing overhead. 'So where are you headed?' Phil asked, pointing up and down the road.

Dan shrugged. 'Dunno. First time here. Where would you suggest?'

Phil blew out a breath a bit like a raspberry as he thought. 'Well the cinema's up the street,' he replied, scratching the back of his head. 'Or there's a shopping centre that way.' He nodded off to his left. 'Or there's just sort of quaint little shops all along that street,' he concluded, pointing off to the right.

'So where are you headed?'

'I dunno. I was thinking about going outside of town for the afternoon and get a breath of fresh air.'

'"Fresh air"?' Dan quoted. 'No thank you. I'm more the kind to stay in and waste time on the internet all day.'

Phil snickered. 'Yeah, same, but I've been trapped inside for like eight years—not literally—and just feel like I need to see the hills and woods again.' He put his forehead in his hand. 'That sounded really cheesy,' he mumbled into his palm. Dan shrugged like he didn't mind it sounding cheesy and looked at the sky as a raindrop splashed onto his forehead.

'Mind if I come with? I grew up around woods, just not here,' he asked.

'Be my guest. There's not a lot to see. Just a lot of trees.'

'Thanks. I'm curious about this place.'

'What for?' Phil asked. 'It's not like it's London. It's not even particularly interesting.'

Dan shrugged nonchalantly. 'I like new places,' he commented. 'And making new friends.' He gave Phil a cheesy smile. The older one rolled his eyes.

The two reached the trees before they thought they would. The time just seemed to shoot by while they talked. Goodness-knows-how-many topics were discussed as they travelled the paths and got their shoes dirty. They were similar discussions to the ones Phil had once had with his brother. Pokémon, Harry Potter, anime, video games, and cereal took up most of the afternoon. The sun had started to go down and they realized they were hungry. 'Wow,' Phil remarked. 'I haven't had this much fun in… years. Thank you.'

'No, thank you for being so nice to me on my first day here,' Dan replied.

'No problem. I like making friends—considering I don't really have that many.'

End Note: Another chapter out of the way. This one literally took me a week to write because I couldn't think of a decent way to tend it, and even now I still don't like it, but that's okay. It could have been worse.

Thanks for reading!

~Cass