Phan Fluff One-Shots

Twenty-Five Things

By: cafephan on ao3
Word count: 22,285

Summary:
A present Dan receives for his twenty-fifth birthday causes him to relive twenty-five key, happy moments in his life.

(or, twenty-five individual oneshots in honour of Dan's twenty-fifth birthday!!)
•
•
•

He didn't expect to have spent hours slaving over the task of completing the reading of a book that was only twenty-five pages long. But nevertheless, there sat Dan Howell, sprawled across the desk in his and Phil's shared hotel room in Vegas, eyes scanning curiously yet eagerly across the thin pages of the book that he had found buried in his bag mere hours before.

'25 things I have learned in my 25 years of life' was intriguing by title alone, and it was mesmerising to Dan how each little point that the anonymous author wrote triggered anecdotes from Dan's own life. The book had been a novelty gift from one of the crew for his twenty-fifth birthday, solely because of the title and same age of the presumed author, and this was the first time Dan had really looked at it.

The words on each page seemed to almost dance off of the paper, and each anecdote that Dan recalled was relived in vivid colour and detail, and though he was majorly sleep-deprived, he never felt more awake than when he was taken back into a daydream state of recollection.

1. There are exceptions, but for the most part, happiness is a choice. Choose it.

October 2009. The train station was blustery, and Dan regretted opting for a simple checked overshirt as opposed to an appropriate jacket or coat, but he had bigger things to worry about.

He gulped as he looked up at the boards detailing the next departures and arrivals, specifically as he saw the train he was booked on, stating that Manchester Piccadilly was one of the stops. He subconsciously clenched his fists, crinkling his ticket in the process, and staggered backwards.

It was surreal. Truly, it was, it was happening. He padded over to a nearby bench, and flopped beside a tight-lipped businessman tentatively sipping on a piping hot coffee, who cast a disapproving side-eyed glance before standing up and walking onto the platform. Dan scrambled to a straight-backed sitting position, and took a deep breath. He flicked his gaze over to the board again, and saw that only one more train was due to arrive before his, so he retrieved his phone, but halted, tossing the device around in his hands.

He placed his head in his hands a second later, involuntarily leaping into a state of overthinking. Was he making a mistake? He didn't want to wreck whatever it was that he had with Phil, what if he was disappointed when he saw Dan in person? It could happen. It probably would happen. Maybe he should just get his ticket refunded and go home, let his anxiety win once again, let the inevitable depression overcome him.

It would probably just be best if he-

His phone began to ring, the caller ID displayed a screenshot from one of Phil's latest videos, and Dan felt a shiver down his spine.

As was usual by this point, his palms turned clammy and he began to shake, but he managed to click 'accept' before the call went to voicemail.

"Is your train there yet? Are you on it now? Did you find your seat okay?" Phil began eagerly firing questions before Dan had a chance to greet him. Simply hearing Phil's voice brought over an overwhelming sense of guilt, Dan had basically made up his mind regarding the choice of whether or not to go. Surely it was better this way, for Phil's sake.