"What kind of job do you think would suit me?" Dan asked his friend as he leaned back on the park bench outside Paddywack's Emporium in the wonderful shopping square known as Magnolia Promenade, the sun setting behind them.
"I don't think there's a YouTuber career option, so I have no idea," Phil replied, putting his feet up on the seat and laying his chin on his knees, "Try and think of something that earns a lot and won't get you killed."
"Difficult," Dan hummed before yawning and huddling into a ball to conserve as much heat as humanly possible, "Sleep on it and we'll have a look around town tomorrow."
"Sleep on it?" Phil repeated, somewhat surprised, "We don't have anywhere to sleep."
Dan turned to him and gritted his teeth a bit before sighing, quietly, and hanging his head,
"We have here," he said, eventually and quite sadly, before looking back up and seeing the expression of pure disappointment on Phil's face.
"I don't want to sleep on a bench like Erica," Phil complained.
"Well, tough – we don't have anywhere to go," Dan retorted.
"But…"
"No. I know it's hard to take in, but this is what we have to do. You can't stay awake forever, now settle down you whinger."
Phil didn't reply, just curled up and put his head on the arm of the bench.
"Am I being too much?" He asked, innocently.
"No, no," Dan replied, hoping that he hadn't offended his friend with his teasing (this was a bad time to tease), "It's OK, I'm not too happy about sleeping on a bench, either. Try to sleep and you'll forget all about it."
It was only 8PM, but both Dan and Phil were completely exhausted and sleep seemed like a very good idea, even if it was on a bench.
"Goodnight, Dan," Phil said, after a while, taking his contact lenses out and putting them in his phone case to keep them safe before turning away and burying his face in his knees.
Dan smiled and gave a weak laugh,
"Night, Phil," he said, patting his shoulder and settling down for a cold and probably restless night's sleep…
The first thing that Dan saw when he woke up was the face of Phil Lester staring across at him whilst he frenetically shook his arm,
"Dan! Wake up!" He yelped, twitchily.
"What's wrong?" Dan asked, worriedly, sitting up suddenly, thinking that something awfully horrific was taking place.
"You have to act natural, quick: Dil's here!" Phil hissed, his eyes even wider than usual. It was strange for him to be this awake at this hour in the morning without his coffee.
Dan immediately sat up, adjusted his fringe, brushed himself down and quickly looked around to see if he could spy his Sim anywhere.
"Do you see him?" Phil asked as he jumped back onto the bench again and pulled his phone from his pocket to swipe through his images folder and type a load of gibberish into a note to look as if he was texting someone and hadn't, in fact, just woken up from a rough night's sleep on a park bench.
"I see him," Dan affirmed, looking across to him and chanting 'rhubarb' over and over again.
"Hey there!" Dil called over to them, waving and wearing an enthusiastic grin.
"Heyyyyyyyyyyy!" Dan laughed in reply, looking up and waving back. He was hoping that the Howlters would leave it as a hello and walk away, but unfortunately for him and Phil, Dil decided to come over and ensue a conversation.
"Isn't it weird how we keep running into you?" He laughed.
"Yeah, isn't it?" Phil grinned awkwardly.
"We just thought we'd come over to do some shopping seeing as it's my day off today," Dil put in, "What are you two up to?"
"Ah, nothing much," Dan answered, scratching the back of his neck, "Just hanging around, like you do."
"If you're not doing anything at twelve, you're welcome to come around for dinner," Dil offered, politely.
"Oh, thank you very much!"
"Yeah, we'd love to!" Phil nodded.
"Well, I'll be seeing you then!" Dil smiled, "Bye guys!" And he walked away with a slight spring in his step.
"Bye!" Dan and Phil chorused, vaguely surprised that their Sim said the exact same thing that they say at the end of their gaming videos, and in exactly the same way.
"Well…" Phil breathed, "That was awkward."
"It really was," Dan replied, hanging his head again, "But at least we'll have somewhere to eat later."
"I think it'd be a good idea to tell Dil the truth," Phil said
"You know," Dan started, "Usually I'd say that's a bad idea, but I think you have a point. We can't keep a secret forever: we do need help after all. Well… come on, Phil, let's go and pass the time before twelve…"
And they tiredly got up to amble their way back to Willow Creek; cold, hungry and still very tired.
When 12 o'clock finally rolled around, both Phil and Dan were both already ready in Magnolia Park, waiting patiently until they could walk down the street to Potters' Splay where hopefully Dil would be putting his cooking skills into action and preparing the best meal to ever grace this universe… or just fish tacos, neither of them would mind – they were both starving and the only thing they'd eaten since they'd been in this world was a single cucumber sandwich made by none other than Dil's crazy stalker.
"Should we start walking now?" Dan asked, checking the time on his phone screen as the sun shone down on the park bench.
"I guess so," Phil nodded, still vaguely shaken from their awkward encounter with their Sim, "What time is it?"
"Twelve exactly," Dan replied as he got up and gave Phil a hand to stand, too.
"Great timing! Let's go!"
And they both strolled to Dil and Tabitha's house, making sure to avoid being seen out of the window of the Pancake residence: the last thing they needed was a madcap Eliza rushing after them.
So under the shadow of the palm tree, stood next to the magnificent llama hedge, Phil Lester straightened his shirt collar as his friend knocked elegantly on the front door. It's always good to make a good first impression with a smart knock.
It only took a few seconds for Tabitha to answer them, swiftly opening the door with a wide grin,
"Hey, you two! Hope you're hungry; Dil's been planning all morning since he came home and said he bumped into you in town," she greeted them.
"Oh, we're starving!" Dan affirmed (and he wasn't joking, either).
"Well, come on inside and take a seat," Tabitha said, heading inside, Dan and Phil in tow, "I've got to go out and collect the child from nursery now, so I can't stay and chat, but I'll talk to you when I get back. See you later!" And she walked out the door.
"Bye, Tabitha!" Dan and Phil chorused, then called, "Hey, Dil!" seeing their Sim in the kitchen, frenetically chopping what appeared to be an assortment of vegetables.
Dil waved back to them, grinning ecstatically. He was clearly very keen to be cooking again.
Dan inevitably headed for the black chair at the table, whereas Phil took a seat opposite him on the blue, trying to act as casual as possible even though his heart felt like it was beating out of his ribcage, knowing it was finally time to tell the truth.
"So how are you doing?" Dil started, politely making conversation whilst the pleasant smell of blackened bass drifted from the oven.
"We're… fairly alright," Dan replied; telling him the honest answer; as he put his arm over the back of the chair to face him.
"Found a house yet?"
"Not yet," Phil sighed through his teeth. He wasn't too sure he wanted to find a house anymore; he just wanted to get out of here and go home to his comfy bed and eat dry cereal out of the box.
"Ah well," Dil smiled, putting the veg on a tray and sliding it into the oven, "You'll find one sometime. Anyway, seeing as you're here, shouldn't we take the time to get to know each-other?"
"Oh- yeah, I-… getting to know each-other, yeah," Dan stuttered, edgily. He didn't know quite how to get onto the subject of 'hey, we created you and we're kinda' homeless and stuck in your weird universe', but he supposed he'd just take it as it came, though he could visibly see Phil getting more stressed, "Let's start with you; how's your family? You all good? Your son OK?"
Dil seemed a little bit surprised at the sudden awkwardness (so much so that he dropped the salt shaker).
"Yeah: we're great," he said, brushing the salt calamity into his hand and carrying it to the bin, "Enjoying family life and all that, you know?"
Dan nodded with a ginger grin,
"Don't get much sleep, nowadays, then?" He replied.
Dil laughed,
"You got that right. He's a handful is Dab…" and he paused before adding. "I'm really still not sure why we decided to call him that… I mean, why not something normal like 'Chad'?…"
"At least it'll stand out," Phil put in. He'd been quiet for a while now and had decided to vent his agitation by tapping his fingertips on the tabletop to the rhythm of The Internet Is Here.
Dan took a second to whisper 'it's OK,' to him and pat his hands before turning back round and racking his brains to think of another conversation starter. He was always really bad at thinking of conversation starters.
"So… know anyone who would possibly employ two really clumsy guys who hardly ever leave the house and have almost no skills in any department whatsoever?" He asked.
"Unfortunately, I can't say I do. Then again, I'm pretty clumsy and I have a job…" Dil answered.
"Wouldn't have thought scientist and clumsy would be a good mix, would you?" Dan laughed.
"Yeah, I- Wait… how did you know I was a scientist? I never remember telling you that…"
This was when a very intense silence set in.
Dan choked up on his words as he tried to desperately think of something to say. He heard his friend's frantic finger tapping get faster and his breathing get more rapid, too.
He breathed a sigh of defeat, flashed a quick warning glance to Phil and cleared his throat,
"I think it's time we told you something…"
