Phil stared blankly at the screen, the cursor blinking threateningly. He hasn't written anything since the last chapter, and he has his deadline to keep up. He should have sent his beta the chapter this morning, but now it's 3 a.m. and nerd4Lyfe is probably ready to cut his head off. Phil does this far more often than he'd care to admit. The thing is if he's working on a really important chapter, he never wants to let it go. But also, if he's just finished with a really important chapter he never knows where to go with it. He decides to just go spend an hour with Dan, and then he promises he WILL get back to work.
"Dan," Phil whines peeking his head around the door, not surprised to see the brown haired boy on his laptop in bed. "I'm bored."
Dan jolts up, quickly closing his computer. "Shit Phil, ever heard of knocking." Phil sticks his tongue out before launching himself at Dan. The force of Phil's impact causes Dan to bounce up and off the bed. "Fine Phil, what do you want to do?" Dan said laughing from the floor.
"I was thinking we could go somewhere," Phil said.
"Like where?"
"Forbidden Planet?"
"Okay, let's go." Dan agreed, struggling off the floor. It's possible he got tangled in his blankets on the way down.
It was a rare sunny day in England so they ended up going to the park. Being that Phil is an actual four year old he suggested they play tag. They couldn't believe how quickly an hour passed as the stumbled over bushes and at one point even a fence. Till they found themselves laying on the ground shaking with laughter.
Dan was clutching his side, "fuck I can't run that much."
Phil, whilst attempting to hide his huffing and puffing, grins and says, "well I can, must be all that time at the gym." He flexes his skinny arms
"Actually shut up you dork." Dan shoves him and suddenly they're wrestling. About ten seconds in they both get tired and tap out. So they just lay side by side waiting to catch their breath.
A half hour later they were nearly home. They opened the front door laughing as Phil replayed HOS stumbling over everything in the hallway. "Oh no Dan are you about to confess your love to me," Phil joked.
"Only in your dreams Lester, I want someone who can stand on their own two feet."
They're in the lounge by the time Phil thinks of a way to retaliate. "You must not like yourself very much then Howell." He says, pushing Dan, "who can't stand on their own two feet now?"
Dan only grins and him and say, "you," he steps to the side and Phil tumbles onto the couch. Phil takes the chance to seize the remote, and cue up some old Buffy episodes.
"It's always Buffy with you." Dan says.
"That's because it's the greatest show ever." Phil replies, pressing play on one of his favorite episodes and not allowing Dan to argue.
They're about to start a third episode of Buffy when Phil looks at the clock, "Oh shit!" He says, remembering the chapter he hasn't started.
"What?" Dan asks.
"Um, I forgot to finish this script for a video I promised I'd would have out by Friday." Phil racks his brain trying to remember if he showed Dan his finished script. Judging by Dan's complete lack of suspicion he knows that he hasn't. Phil quickly flees to his bedroom and his laptop, with the still blank screen. He briefly considers just writing an apology note to his followers and just writing tomorrow, but he's far too dedicated for that. Plus he doesn't know what to do with his Wednesday mornings if he doesn't read HOS with Dan.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Dan retreats into his bedroom still smiling from his day out with Phil. He opens his laptop to the abandoned oneshot he was working on. He started to grin uncontrollably when the fictional Phil found a Shelter plushie. Phil really was adorable, both fictional and real Phil. Dan can totally imagine him having this response to a Shelter toy, there really isn't much that he wants to change with this one. This writer could probably do a really great chaptered fic. Dan can't help but think of how adorable that would be, they are so cute together. He puts his computer to the side for a second, contemplating about what he just thought. Maybe he has been reading too much fanfiction. He knows better than anybody that he and Phil aren't really together, and they don't want to be. They don't like each other as anything more than friends. Right?
The fanfiction writer part of Dan thinks this is the start of a crush. But the Dan part of Dan knows him better, and knows that he doesn't like Phil. They're just friends, and have been for six years, if they were gonna fall in love it would have happened by now. He decides he needs a distraction from thoughts like this, it's getting a little weird. He's supposed to be editing the new chapter of HOS, and he knows that won't have him and Phil together in it, it's gonna be angsty and good. It will calm down and excite him at the same time. He quickly opened an incognito tab and pulled open his email.
Dan had been hoping to get the chapter finished before his live show, but the damn author hadn't sent it yet. PhantasticLester does this all the time, and Dan thinks if HOS wasn't so fucking good he would have given it up ages ago. Now he would have to stay up till four finishing it, not that he didn't stay up till four anyway. It's just that he had been hoping to have some tumblr time that night.
Dan decides if he can't edit the fic now, he might as well use this as his tumblr time. Tumblr doesn't keep his mind from wandering though, and he thinks about his day with Phil. He thinks about how there's no one else he would exercise that much with, he thinks about how he doesn't obsess about his fringe when he's with Phil, and he thinks about Phil nearly killing himself walking through the door. He thinks about Phil's voice reading fanfiction across the breakfast table, and he thinks of the way his brain froze when Phil asked if he was about to confess his love. He doesn't love Phil, but he's starting to wonder if it's more than fanfiction that makes up his dirty little secret.