Dan woke up the next morning, his face tear stained, and his head pounding. He ran a hand through the mess of a mop that he called hair, before checking the time. It was only 9:30, but he knew there was no point in going back to sleep. He wouldn't be able to sleep again. Dan arose from the couch, and trudged into the kitchen, his kitchen. The thought made him smile, after a year, he could finally call the apartment home again. He started the coffee, and grabbed a mug. The Dan and Phil mug, maybe that would get him back to the old Dan Howell. The one before he fell for Phil. The one before he left for a year. The one before Hazel... Sadly, that wasn't about to happen in the course of a couple of hours. Once he had his coffee, he settled back onto the couch, pulling his phone out. Twitter was unhinged. Apparently the split between him and Jason had made it's public debut. People were happy with him again. That was good. He reminded himself to make a video about it soon, but at the moment social media was the best he could get. He simply took a photo of the room, captioning it with the words, 'Don't worry, guys, I'm home..' If there was one thing he knew how to do, it was making the Phandom go crazy. Instantly, his phone was blown up by Twitter notifications. Likes, retweets, anything and everything.

"PHAN IS BACK!" Was the tweet that first caught his eye, making him laugh. One could only wish.

"Well, screw Hazel, Dan's back," Another tweet, making Dan laugh.

Everybody was going insane. In a good way, of course, the way the Phandom never failed to do. He was happy again, for the first time in almost a day. Truly happy, and his fans were happy with him. That was definitely something that Jason had made him miss. His finger felt different, bare, without the gold ring that had previously adorned his finger.

Dan was pulled out of his thoughts by Phil walking into the room.

"Hey," Dan whispered, smiling up at the older.

"Hello," Phil responded with his signature grin, "How are you?" He asked, sitting next to the brown-haired boy.

Dan shrugged, putting the coffee mug to his lips, "Better," He assured, "Much better."

Phil nodded, putting a hand on Dan's cheek. Dan turned to look at the elder, and his breathing stuttered. For a moment, Dan thought that Phil was going to kiss him. Of course, he didn't, but that didn't stop Dan's heart from fluttering.

Phil, of course, thought about kissing the other, but he couldn't. Not yet at least. He couldn't make it that obvious with Hazel. He drew back his hand, and thought he saw almost disappointment in Dan's brown eyes.

Dan finally breathed again as Phil took back his hand. His brown-eyes gazed at the floor, his face flushing.

Phil followed Dan's gaze to the floor, seeing his friend's face redden. Inside, he grinned, but he pretended not to notice. For Dan's sake. For his own sake. For Hazel's sake.

They stayed in silence until Hazel made her way downstairs.

"Hello," She greeted the boys, a smile on her pale face.

Dan grumbled in response, while Phillip caught the blonde's hand. He pulled her over to him, kissing her hand.

Dan bit his lip, his resentment showing through his 'no expressional' face.

Phil could see it in Dan's eyes, of course he could, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he just focused his gaze on the ground.

Hazel didn't see anything wrong with the situation, well maybe it was a little tense, but other than that she decided it was fine. She went to the kitchen, got coffee, and sat down across from Phil. She tried to make conversation, 'So, Dan, how's your life been?' Well how did she think his life had been? For the past year, he'd been in love with his best friend, his fans had hated him (Well now they loved him again), got engaged, broken off an engagement, and he was still in love with his best friend. Yep, his life was just the best.

It's not like Hazel didn't know about Dan's thing for Phil. It was everywhere. Magazines, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and literally everywhere else. Everybody knew, especially everybody who was a YouTuber. She just didn't think Dan was a threat. After all, Phil had had seven years to make a move. If he was going to, he would have by now, right?

Well, no, Hazel Hayes, he would not have.

After a lot of awkward small talk, Dan went with Phil to reclaim his room. It had been changed to accompany Hazel's things, but Phil said that it didn't matter. They could move things around, and they would. Phil would do anything for Dan.

Dan's sheets had been moved to a hall closet, along with most of the rest of his stuff. It could be rearranged to the way it had originally been. The old, rickety piano was still there, it hadn't been touched since Dan's departure. Whenever Phil left the room to go check on his girlfriend, Dan sat down on the piano bench. He ran his fingers over the keys, closing his eyes at the familiar texture. He pressed down on one of the keys, jumping when he didn't expect the noise that came from it. He then went on to play Beethoven's Für Elise. It was one of the most familiar songs to him, and it was almost comforting. He opened his eyes whenever he finished, breathing out. He hadn't realized he had stopped breathing. The sound of clapping made him practically spring of off of the bench.

Phil was standing in the doorway, hands slapping against one another, "That was amazing. I've missed the sound of that dusty old thing," He said this softly, almost as if he were afraid of hurting Dan.

Dan shrugged, "Where's Hazel?" He questioned, his voice low.

"She had meetings all day, it's just us for right now. Just like old times," Phil whispered this, walking into the room. He took up the rest of the bench seat, his arm brushing Dan's. They just sat for a while. Dan almost rested his head on Phil's shoulder, but ultimately decided against it. Dan was the first to break their little break of silence.

"I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry. For all of this. This is my fault, now we don't have the Sims, or like anything else about Dan and Phil. I'm sorry.." Dan whispered this all, his voice cracking frequently.

Phil swallowed, looking up at Dan, "Wanna know a dirty little secret?" He asked.

"Do I?" Dan questioned, his heart beginning to race.

"I didn't throw any of our stuff away. That's just what I told Hazel," Phil admitted, shrugging like it was nothing big.

Dan couldn't help but giggle, "Phillip Lester, you're so scandalous," He teased.

It was Phil's turn to giggle this time, "That's what I want wrote on my tombstone."

That sent Dan into more fits of laughter, "Here lies Philip Lester. The most scandalous YouTuber of his time."

Phil could hardly breathe as he responded, "There ya go, you're officially in charge of my tombstone."

They laughed until they were wheezing.

"Okay, new subject," Phil finally managed, "Netflix marathon?" He asked.

Dan nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, of course, lead the way."

With a smile, Phil led the way back to the lounge. They settled on the couch, after many breaks to get tea and snacks, and finally decided that they would just re-watch Stranger Things. They had binged it once, and they had tons of Anime to catch up on, but it seemed pointless to start it again. They were nearing the end of the third episode whenever Dan was yelling at the TV.

"Goddammit, Mike," He was practically yelling, "Don't yell at her, this isn't Eleven's fault. No, Mike, you just need a hug."

Phil had to agree, "I hate when they yell at Eleven, she's just trying to help. And little Mike just needs to be consoled."

Dan nodded, "And I get it, you're having a rough week, but Eleven's had a rough life."

Stranger Things. Stranger Things was the thing that made Dan feel at home again with Phil. It seemed to bring them back to their original closeness. Almost to the same amount of friendship. They both still cared, loved each other just as much as they had previously, but things were different now.

Dan blamed himself, Phil blamed himself. Both boys felt terrible, but how to make it better? That's a chapter for another day..