A/N: Long time no talk! Are you ready for the next installment? I'm excited for this, so I hope you enjoy it!

As always, reviews are cherished. Thanks for reading!

-Justin

Chapter One: Phil

30-1-17

"Can you believe it? Someone actually made a wedding video set to Toxic." Dan had his laptop on his stomach, slowly sliding further and further down the bed and showing a very prominent double-chin, which was pretty adorable. He moved one finger lazily around the trackpad, looking up to see my reaction to the video he'd just played.

"Are you surprised?" I asked with a laugh, sliding an arm around his shoulders as I leaned in closer. He moved his head to rest against my chest and continued scrolling. Mornings like this had become my favourite- just the two of us, almost complete silence since the builders had finally finished whatever they were working on, and a feeling of absolute security. Nothing felt better than the warmth of Dan's skin against mine, still making butterflies flutter inside me after a year and a half, or almost eight years if you really wanted to be technical about it. "The only thing I don't get is how they made it plausible."

"You were a mob boss," Dan explained with a giggle, pointing a finger at the screen. "I think I was on the 'enemy's' side"- he put air quotes around the word- "and you were supposed to kill me, but instead"-

"You've only seen it once, and already you've analyzed this thing?" I asked, grinning even though he couldn't see from this angle. I lowered my arm a bit so I could reach his slightly pudgy stomach and let my hand slip under the fabric of his shirt, rubbing a circle into the skin there. He flinched when my fingertips grazed over his abdomen.

"Jesus, your hand is freezing," he complained, reaching out to shut the computer down. He closed the laptop and set it off to the side before reaching down to take my hand in his own and twining our fingers together. "I may have already seen it," he added sheepishly, snuggling in closer to my side. "Four times."

"And you wonder why people keep photoshopping you in wedding dresses," I stated, eliciting a soft smack from his palm. "You think they know?"

"I think tumblr would've broken down if they knew," Dan said, patting my arm. "In fact, all social media would be in flaming ruins if the world knew that no homo Howell was engaged to his male best friend."

"I can't wait to see their reaction when the vlog goes up," I mused, already having planned out several possibilities. We'd agreed a while back to make the fans wait until the reception before posting anything. It was still a while to wait, but we'd be outing ourselves as a married couple through a 'Day in the Life" video focusing on the wedding and reception afterwards. And then we'd run off to a secluded island for our honeymoon, far enough away that they'd never be able to find us. "August sixteenth is a long way away, though, still."

"I still can't believe you're enforcing that," Dan sighed, but I knew he was just as excited as I was. Even as I thought of it, I could see him holding back a smile. "It's such a cliché."

"It's cheesy and romantic and everything a wedding should be," I argued, squeezing his shoulders. "And it'll be a day that can be dedicated just to that, and not surrounded by the phandom in some way."

He was silent for a moment, probably coming up with some kind of smartass comment, but after a few seconds, he just said, "This is true," with a nod. "I guess you're special, because I wouldn't do this for anyone else." He let out a yelp when I suddenly tugged him over to lie on top of me, and then he moved one of his hands to my chest for support as he shifted until he was straddling me. His fingers slid up to cup my cheek as he leaned down to press his lips to my ear, whispering, "By the way, happy birthday." He left a trail of kisses, starting with the lobe of my ear and across my neck, once on the tip of my nose, causing him to let out a giggle as I wrinkled my nose up, and finally he came to rest at the corner of my mouth, pressing his lips to mine and adding the words, "Old man," before parting his lips slightly and placing his other hand on my neck, expertly evading my own palm aimed at his arm.

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2-2-17

"I honestly don't think you're worth it," Dan said as he thumbed through one of the magazines Louise had brought over. She and Zoe had taken over the design and decorating part of the wedding, much to mine and Dan's delight. Neither of us knew anything of colour-coordination or which napkins matched what silverware, and if it had been up to us we'd have probably just eloped. "Look at this shit! Four hours to find the perfect tuxedo? There's only about four choices for guys- did they spend an hour on each one?"

"That's nothing," I said, holding out the catalogue I'd found. "This guy spent months looking for his." Dan looked over with wide eyes and let out a lout sigh before snapping the book shut and sliding it across the coffee table. "Imagine if we were stereotypical. We'd never get through it!"

Dan pulled the magazine from my hands and tossed it behind him before crawling into my lap and wrapping his arms around my neck. "Tell me again why we're allowing this monstrosity?" He'd removed his prosthetic for the night, so he had to sit a certain way in order to prevent one of us from getting smacked by his knee. I wound my own arms around his waist and held him tight against me. He leaned into the embrace and shuddered lightly, but didn't say anything else. I knew how stressful it had to be for him- after everything he'd been through in the past two years, I'd have expected a total meltdown (multiple meltdowns, to be honest, but he was a lot tougher than I'd ever known) but he seemed content to simply protest against the elaborate decisions Zoe and Louise kept making on our behalf. I smiled widely when I remembered the one thing we were both excited about.

"Cake testing," I reminded him, and he tilted his head a bit, just enough to look into my eyes. I grinned and raised an eyebrow. "Remember the pictures? Zoe said we could have an entire party dedicated to it."

"That's one cliché I can get behind." He nuzzled his head into my neck, letting his fringe brush against my ear, tickling my skin. I rested a hand on his back, patting gently, and I could feel him starting to sag against me as he fell asleep. Louise would be here soon with more design ideas, but for now I was more than content to hold him close and listen to his quiet breathing.

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4-2-17

"Dan's out," I said to the chat, answering at least half the questions flowing through. "He'll be back later." It wasn't even a lie- Chris had shown up an hour ago with a long list of things he needed to do in preparation, and practically tossed Dan over his shoulder as he drug him out the door.

Where's he going?

Already with the secret meetings?

When will he be back

"I don't know," I lied, eyeing the camera lens with a smirk. "Guess you'll just have to wait and see." I was actually surprised, because the live show was almost over, and this was the first time I'd seen them mention Dan. Usually I only got about ten minutes in before they started demanding his presence. Of course, things had died down considerably since that day over a year ago, when Dan had managed to mentally scar the entirety of tumblr with nothing but powder and water. Now that it was all out in the open, there was no snooping necessary and people were finding other things to do with their time (read: waiting impatiently for one of us to slip up and make out on camera). I was on air for another five minutes, saying goodbye to everyone I could catch in the messages, and then the screen went black before showing the loading that always appeared right before someone else was about to go live.

I shut the laptop down and leaned back into the cushions on the sofa. It was almost Valentine's Day, and I'd been spending a lot of time thinking about it. It wouldn't be our first one together, but we hadn't done anything special last year because of all the emotional trauma going on. Dan was in a pretty fragile state, having nightmares at least once a week- though thankfully only a handful of them were about me leaving for some reason- and generally hating a lot of things because there were so many things he couldn't do anymore. Luckily, between the therapist and me, we were able to convince him that he was wrong about that, that he could still do all that stuff. Our fans had been equally supportive, sending constant messages of positivity and even mailing things to us. Our office was still full of unopened boxes, simply because we didn't have time to unwrap them all at once. My current system was taking one from the stockpile whenever Dan started feeling crisis-ey, and that was happening less and less often these days.

I jumped up when the doorbell rang. I wondered who it was as I made my way toward the door, because Dan and Chris would've just come on in. I pulled the knob and was nearly assaulted by Louise and Zoe, who burst into the flat with arms full of papers and huge smiles.

"Get Dan," Louise said at the same time that Zoe sang, "We've got stationery!"

"He's out with Chris," I told them with a laugh, stepping to the side so they could reach the stairs. I reached out to take half the pile from Zoe's arms because it looked like everything was about to fall. "First fitting of the season."

"How come you're not with them?"

"It's supposed to be a secret, remember?" I followed them up the stairs- they knew what they were doing with this stuff better than I did- and dropped the envelopes down on the dining table once we reached the lounge. "If anyone caught us in the shop together, they'd know right away."

"Oh, right," Zoe said as she sunk down in the orange chair and began sorting through the stacks of paper. "Louise and I took it upon ourselves to handle this part of the wedding. God knows you and Dan haven't a clue." She smiled sweetly and dodged my arm when I went to smack her shoulder lightly. She was right, anyway; we had no idea, nor did we particularly care what kind of shape was printed on the invitations, but I'd never say that to them. They both lived for this kind of thing.

"We've narrowed it down quite a bit," Louise explained, sitting down across from Zoe. I looked between them for a moment and then down at the massive pile of paper before taking a seat next to Zoe. "There are four choices here." She began placing sheets in separate stacks.

"Alright."

"This one has abstracts," Louise continued, gesturing to one set with stripes and swirly patterns. "Daisies," she said, touching another set with a whole lot of flowers drawn on. "'Romantic'." She stuck one hand up to make air quotes before sliding a small stack of envelopes over. They were full of hearts and swirls and the word love written in every available space. That was too much, even for me.

"And here's a generic," Zoe cut in, pushing her stack over. It was plain white with a few silver swirls and looked pretty boring. "I doubt you'll pick this one, but I figured we should have it in the choices just in case." After a moment, she added, "I don't think you'll pick the hearts one, either, but it was too cute to throw out." She gave a sheepish smile and sat back in her chair. Louise watched me carefully, and I wondered which one was her favourite.

"You're making me choose?" I asked incredulously, looking down at each set of papers. I liked the abstract and the ones with flowers, but I'd assumed they were going to take control over every aspect of this. I hadn't expected to be given a choice in the matter. I laughed, causing them both to give me strange looks.

"We didn't want you to think we were too controlling," Louise explained, and then both of them giggled, covering the mouths with their hands. "We can wait until Dan gets back and see what he thinks." I usually had at least a small inkling of an idea how he'd feel about something, but this was one thing I had no clue about. I guess we would all be surprised this time.

A/N: Hey hi buddy pal friend. Sorry for the hiatus, but writer's block + working way too many shifts= no time. I'm gonna try to have a schedule for posting "(once a week for this story) so be on the lookout! It's gonna be a long and bumpy ride.