A/N Sorry it took me so long to update this time, I have had lots of exams and things to do lately! But i hope you enjoy this chapter! If you like it please follow/favourite, or review because i love feedback :)

Chapter 12

London Life

Squirming in my bed sheets, the quilt twisted around my body, my eyes snap open, awakened by an abrupt end to a pleasant dream. Turning over and pulling the sheets off my clammy legs, I swipe open my phone and peer at the time – just after 8am, Thursday 11th July. It's been nearly half a week since I visited the beautiful gallery, yet my memories are still as pure as if it was yesterday.

Yanking myself out of bed and shoving on my slippers, shuffling into the lounge area of my apartment, I take the usual routine of getting ready and prepped for a usual day of nothing on my laptop. It's not like I can do anything related to my job yet, the people I am working for haven't told me what I should be painting.

But wait. I recently discovered that Dan and Phil work in the studio I visited – what if they are my clients? The possibility is large, yet the coincidence even more so. The time edging to 9am I decide they are probably awake, so decide to call the two.

4 rings pass until I hear the familiar voice of Phil through the landline;

'And apparently we have a phone call!' I hear Phil indirectly say down the phone,

'Hello?' I inquire to him

'And it's Maddy! Hey!' Again, rather indirect.

'Hi Phil! I never had the chance to ask you – I have a job at Radio 1, as a graphics artist, do you know of anyone you're supposed to talk to, you know, seeming as you are possibly my client?'

'Oh my god! Yes! I completely forgot! Oh dear you are right yes, what a weird coincidence!' I knew it! But then presumably to Dan he says 'Hey it's Maddy - yeah – okay – really are you sure? – okay'

'Are you alright there?' Curious about the second hand conversation.

'Okay Maddy, seeming as we need to meet up obviously to talk about this, and well, today actually me and Dan are filming a video – all day, so really the question is, do you want to be in a day in the life of us?'

The question takes me back, for one they are filming their lives today? But okay it sounds logical I guess. 'Sure thing, sounds great, I mean it makes sense you know'

'Great! Okay we've actually filmed some this morning, so really we should be over soon, are you decent?'

'Oh wow okay, sure yeah I'm ready I guess, not much on today really, when will you be over?'

'Well we're on our way out, so pretty soon!'

'Okay see you two soon!' I bring the phone away from my face as I hear Phil say bye, then a faint muffle of a conversation between him and Dan at the other end.

Right. Boys are over rather soon. Wow it seems I'm not going to go two days without being with them! Of course, it's no problem – not when I feel so happy around Dan, like I never have before, around anyone.

Only a little while passes, me scrolling through tumblr a few pages at least, until the familiar knock on the door tells me they have arrived.

Opening the door quite wide as I hold on the handle whilst balancing to pull on my shoes, I am met with the two huge smiles of Dan and Phil at my door, never a sorry sight.

'Hey Maddy!' Dan chirps rather musically,

'How're you?' Phil sort of continues,

'Good thanks!' I finally yank on my shoe and stand up straighter, 'so then, where shall we go? Or rather what are we doing?' I turn my head up and look at them, just then to realise there is a small black camera pointed directly at me, oh right! I'm being filmed darn it I forgot!

Dan chuckles at me then responds, 'actually we're probably going to head into town, and believe it or not do all the London-y things we haven't even yet done'

Watching what I say for the video, I suddenly become self conscious a little and can't think who to reply.

'Oh yeah' Dan talks to the camera, 'this is Maddy, say hi!' I randomly smile and wave at the camera, and we continue to walk down the corridor and the stairs until we're outside the flat building.

'Okay so now we really need to decide what to do, we won't film every little thing so you know we can talk Maddy'

Feeling slightly bashful I feel my cheeks pinken, 'Oh right okay, I was wondering' I laugh a little and smile up at Dan who's standing to my right, behind him the stretch of our London street disappearing in early morning heat and haze.

'You know Dan, after the year we've been in London – we've never physically visited all the stereotypical London places!?' Phil excitingly pipes up,

'That is true! Okay I guess that's the thing to do then right? okay!' He bounces on his heels in anticipation like he always does, that cute bob of his hair flopping over his head as he does so.

We head down the streets and approach the general direction of the tube station, exchanging stupid little funny small talk as we walk.

'So..' I bring up as we turn a corner of the road, huge buildings disappearing up as a big red bus drives closely past, 'Why are you doing this Day in the life thing?'

Both Dan and Phil chuckle, 'Well, we did one back in Manchester, when we lived there, so we thought it would be fun to do another' Dan starts to explain,

'Hey and also we promised to after winning the award!' Phil's mark confuses me a little, leaving me intrigued.

'Award? For what?'

'You know,' Dan raises his eyebrows and shrugs a little comically, 'The radio show, it's the Sony Headphone award'

'Wow that's impressive, well done!' Still not having the foggiest clue what the Sony thing was, but I do know they have a radio show at least.

'Yeah thanks, it was good everyone voted for us!'

I reply to Phil, 'people must really like you'

My comment sort of hangs for a second in conversation, until we reach the station.

We head down the escalators and Dan mimics jumping on the side rail, making like he's flying – but soon gets the glare from a station attendant so stops, making us all laugh in hysterics. Just before we made a bet that we would get in trouble somehow from being in public, which inevitably came true!

Running a little down to the end of the travelator, we laugh and the sound carries down the tunnel, until we are hit by the wave of people heading into the tube.

Bustling in I pass glances and smirks with Dan, as we hop on and hold the head rail near the doors of the train. The train jolts and rocks until we reach the correct station – then we climb out past the array of public you usually find in London at this time.

Finally we see Daylight again, emerging from the steps in the ground, to be met by a huge wheel, the London Eye.

'Well we'll be doing that later – right now, I fancy a coffee, how about you?' Dan poses the obvious and for me, thankful question.

'Oh yes that sounds great' I smile at him then turn to Phil, for him to reply too,

'Yeah sure, I think there's a Starbucks just around the corner from here'

'Okay right, and let's get out the way of this constant flow of people here –' We follow Dan who walks around the corner with his head held up high, peering over all the rush of people to locate the all to awaited Starbucks.

'There it is!' Dan spots the huge green banner, all too familiar, and heads even quicker in that direction.

We finally get into the doorway of the coffee shop, and we all bundle inside, I breathe in the fresh smell of coffee – and usually hipster bloggers – in the morning.

Jumping into the slightly long queue, Dan turns around and sort of suspiciously smirks at me, and I have no idea why. As soon as it's our turn to buy ours, he poses the question,

'So what's your usual?' Instead of answering, I talk to the lady behind the counter instead, sneaking Dan a returned smirk

'Caramel Macchiato please'

'No way.'

'What?' Dan looks at me again with wide eyes, and almost a wondrous expression.

'Well, same for me I guess!' He replies to the lady, then shortly after Phil orders too, then quieter to me 'That's like my favourite ever, spooky!' He chuckles at me, his dimples depressing into cuteness again.

I catch myself staring, before realising and replying 'Well I guess that's just a thing in common – it was the first Starbucks I ever tried, and now my usual favourite!'

'Well then that's cool' Dan smiles at the server and tucks his hands in his pockets and she pours frothy milk into our mugs.

Shortly after they are made, and hands the drinks to us, mine's warm and delicious as the criss crossed syrup jiggles on top of the froth.

Grabbing a table we all sit around the circular black table – at least it's not the same Starbucks as the one I met Tara in.

We all heave into the squishy sofa, then Phil pulls out a miniature tourist map of London, and spreads it out on the table.

'Right,' –he takes a sip of his coffee- 'we're here, and The Eye is here-' He points at the map accordingly.

'Oh cool I've never been up before!' I exclaim realising where we're going.

'Yeah we haven't either, really want to though!' Dan responds then brings the mug up to his face, after drinking a dollop of froth is left on his nose.

I burst out laughing and point at his nose, realising he almost snorts his coffee out through his nose as he wipes away the milk, trying hard not to laugh and get coffee everywhere.

We all end up laughing, and I see Phil is trying hard not to laugh really loudly as the place is quite quiet this morning, but I end up cackling at Dan anyway.

After finishing our coffees, we make our way back outside, dodging many speeding cyclists, mostly on those Boris Bikes you see chained with the Barclays parking around the streets. Wouldn't be London without them I guess!

We finally arrive at the foot on the London Eye, and wonder at its sheer size, you never really realised how big it really was, just from photos or the view.

After the whole faff of buying tickets and queuing, we reach the gate entering the bit where you go into the big carriages of the ball cage things.

'Wow this really is huge!' Phil, naturally stating the obvious, is absolutely correct.

Then Dan seems to basically voice my exact thoughts; 'Yeah Phil you would expect it to be, you know, the Eye of London would be pretty big! But yeah you're right' He talks as we are ushered through and step into a ball.

'Okay fine you know' Phil replies as I continue to walk through the huge domed carriage. All around me is glass, I press my face up to the side of the, well window, and peer down into the Thames river below – the water swishing underneath me.

I turn around to see basically Dan and Phil doing the same thing, entranced by the beauty of the refracting light, making little swirly pattern dance around us and on the water below.

'This is so cool!' Exclaims Dan, but all I can do is stare in awe, much like Phil.

Suddenly the door shuts, and we're the only ones in this carriage, the booth raises up, rotating vertically around the wheel, we are carried to see the view of the London Skyline.

It takes a long time for the whole wheel to go around, but you don't care, not when it's so awesome.

I sit on the bench provided, still fixated on the view. Dan comes and sits beside me, like really close, but not too awkwardly close.

Phil meanwhile is staring out on the other side of the carriage, captivated by the movement of the bustling city.

'It's really awesome isn't it' Starts Dan, in a hushed voice, only for me to hear. It makes me feel special, like this is a moment you watch in the movies, yet never imagine could happen to you.

'It's truly amazing.' I manage to reply.

'Actually, it's beautiful.' The carriage is reaching the peak of the wheel now, and I feel like we are nearly touching the clouds.

'Really, really beautiful' we both speak in quietened voices, basically entranced by the view it's hard to be too abrupt in conversation.

'here' I suddenly feel a tingle on my hand as Dan brushes his onto mine, then loops his fingers around my palm to gently hold my hand. Looking up, he smiles at me, gesturing for me to stand with him, I smile and join him as he gently tugs on my hand.

He leads me over to the very edge, where the glass creeps round underneath you, so when you look down you aren't standing on anything solid anymore.

Dan walks over, tightening his grip on my hand, it's causing fluttering in my stomach, and I feel as if nothing else even matters right now.

'Look here' He pulls me close to him, so I am in front of him, and hooks my hand behind me, still holding on. I find myself directly standing on nothing, so it feels like I am floating just above the London Skyline.

I squirm, 'It feels so weird!' I try to turn around, but am hesitant in letting go of his hand, I turn my head around and up to see his face behind me, his expression is soft and staring at the view, then notices me and looks down, I catch his eye and find myself lost in his deep brown eyes.

Turning back around to fixate back on the view, I feel myself blushing, not knowing quite what to do with myself in this moment. I feel my hand slightly slip out of his, and it hangs loosely by my side, the sensation of his touch still lingering on my palm and fingertips.

'Definitely beautiful.' I hear Dan slightly whisper under his breath. Assuming he's referring to the view I respond a dreamy, 'yeah'

Almost by default, he jerks his head a little, almost in realisation that I heard, when I wasn't supposed to – which makes me think that maybe, he wasn't talking about the view.

DAN'S POV

I look down at Maddy and see that she's looking down at her feet, her hair parted down the sides of her shoulders; my head is near the nave of her neck now.

Did she hear what I just said? I'm pretty sure she heard me, but I know what I meant, and it wasn't the view – yet I'm sceptical if she interpreted it the same way as me.

I have the urge to wrap my arms around her right now, snuggle my head into her shoulders and never let go. I've never felt this way before, and I know I may never feel this the same way again about anyone else.

I'm not touching her anymore, but the few seconds I had her hand in my grasp was a rare and tender sensation which I crave more of.

'Dan, I don't know if this is the right time, but I guess I can't leave this unsaid.'

Wait. Is this it, is this what I think she's going to say –

I can't believe she feels the same way – what do I do I don't even –

'I saw your twitter open, Tuesday night, and I saw, like a lot of hate from, people and I don't know why.'

Oh god. Please no I don't mean to-

'Like I have no problem with it I guess, but I just want to know why you know? It was weird like I know you're kinda famous and stuff but those mentions were strange' She turns around to me, steps aside and faces me, almost my height, yet I stand above her a little.

'Yeah that's just, well there's some people, and – well to be honest yes of course they scare me sometimes, but that's just the way they are and they're only joking' I sort of blurt out to her, leaving a bewildered look upon her face. 'Honest it's just usually ironic or joking, really'

'Well okay... As long as you don't get too much hate that affects you, because I mean I know about this stuff I guess, and I, I care about you Dan'

Did she just say – no she didn't, did she?

'Well thanks' I think I let out a nervous chuckle, this is such a blur, yet so vivid. 'That's just the way they are, nothing to be concerned out, I promise.' I give her a reassuring smile, and I realise she really is genuinely worried for me, I would be if she had a fandom like this react to one tiny missed live show – wait – I didn't even explain to them, oops.

Just as my head clears of thoughts and she turns to admire the view again, the carriages start to move on the descend down to earth again. It felt weightless and now just to have gravity pull you back down to reality again.

I peer over at Phil who is half sitting on the bench, on his phone and taking pictures of the view, presumably tweeting them and replying to people. I remember when he hit a million subscribers only a few days ago, we celebrated, but to be honest he needs a proper thing, definitely now we're having a good day already.

'Hey Phil,' I start,

'Yeah?' He looks up,

'Where did you want to go next?'

'Oh I don't know, why don't we go shopping or something?'

I look to Maddy and she just shrugs back, I guess that's confirmation of some sort,

'Let's go!'

I talk to the camera a little and admire the view for the recording, then shut it off again. The descend is quick, met with small talk between me and Maddy mostly, Phil seems to be awfully quiet.

We reach the bottom, and weave our way out into the clearing of pavement below, back on solid ground.

'Actually, guys, do you mind if I just go and do something? I forgot I have to meet someone okay?' Phil's abrupt question takes me by surprise, but I can't exactly stop him, I guess me and Maddy can go shopping or something by ourselves. Oh wait, that could be, well.

'Oh sure, I guess, we can meet you later okay?' Without much argument he nods and takes off, and I have to explain to the camera what exactly is happening right now.

xxxx

After strolling around a few stores and hunting out awesome places to visit, me and Maddy finish our lunch in a little place off the corner of where all the theatres in London are.

Just finishing our food, I get a call from Phil.

'Hello? Are you ready to rejoin yet?'

'Dan I-' I here faint sobbing from him at the other end, and a pit falls in my stomach. 'Where are you?'

'Wait Phil what's wrong?' I see Maddy's face flash with concern, 'Why are you-'

'Don't worry, I'll say I guess, just where are you?' He continues

'Okay yeah' I tell him where we are, and then he abruptly hangs up.

We are left in a haze of confusion and concern; somehow I don't feel I want to film this.

In silence, about 10 minutes passes, waiting for Phil to arrive. I tap nervously on the table with my straw from my drink, and Maddy bites her lip in anticipation. I know I shouldn't be thinking of this right now, but she's extremely cute when she does that.

Finally a hooded figure walks through the door, and Phil in his black hoodie looks up and scans the place for us. Noticing us he quickly walks over and slumps into the chair next to Maddy.

The looks of concern on both our faces are reinstated when I see Phil's face. Blotches of red cover his face from tears running down his face.

'Phil..' I keep my voice low, 'What happened?' Anything could've happened to him, and I am in no mindset to let my best friend be in any type of trouble.

Instead of replying he lets out a heaving sob, and smears his hands over his face, contorting it and stretching, scraping the tears away. I have only ever seen him cry a few times before, and right now he's in public and next to Maddy.

'Phil..' I hear Maddy try to comfort him, she places a hand on his elbow where he is slumped over the table, a flutter of jealousy bubbles up then quickly disperses. Really? Right now, these feelings? There is a much more important matter at hand right now!

'Phil look, please, please tell us what happened' I lean over the table and try to comfort him in any way.

He finally looks up at me and tries to contort himself together again. 'Well I had been talking to this girl online – like, you know, dating'

'Oh Phil' Maddy expresses, 'You don't need, I mean you could have anyone you're lovely sweetie'

'No well, thanks but-'

I don't know what to say, what exactly happened?

'And I met her this lunch, but-'he loses his words. 'It, it didn't go well okay!'

Remembering the ordeal he is left in another heap on the table, burying his face in his elbow pits, hair flopped over his arms.

A/N What will happen next? What did the girl do to him? I'll leave you on a cliffhanger until the next chapter! But if you would like to express feedback, please leave a review below, or follow/favourite this fic! Thanks for reading!