Little Moments in Time - A Phanfiction

Chapter Seventeen

***One year later***

Dan groaned, blinking awake. Today was the day. Today was the day he had agreed to do a liveshow with Phil. He had been becoming increasingly nervous for this moment over time, though their fans just would not leave them alone about it. If he had thought that their fans were intense before, they were terrifying now. 

Phan had become a phenomenon, and people were obsessed with the idea of his best friend and him being in a secret relationship. This, unfortunately, put a lot of stress on the way they had to act in front of the camera. Their friendship was naturally a bit flirtatious, they had a strong bromance, and he wasn't ashamed. However they couldn't be as easily themselves as they could at the start of their channels, because now anything they did would be picked apart by their audience, who, it should be noted, had grown rapidly. 

Both Dan and Phil had separate channels now, and they also had a joint gaming channel. All three had subscriber counts in the millions, and Dan was still in shock that anyone wanted to watch them. The reason a liveshow terrified Dan was that there could be no editing. No going back and assessing how the video looked to a viewer, and how the phandom would react. No taking out little moments that may be construed as 'phan proof'. It would just be them talking to their audience, and if they slipped up for one second and did something remotely relating to a relationship, their audience would go wild. 

Not only was this liveshow making Dan nervous, they were also announcing an app they had launched. Phil had created the seven second challenge months earlier, and it had become a massive YouTube craze, with everyone trying it out. Unfortunately not many people credited Phil, and Dan got defensive, telling Phil he should make something more real out of it so people couldn't ignore that it had been him who created it. Phil had agreed, and they had gotten to work creating the Seven Second Challenge app. They'd be playing it on today's liveshow. 

Dan rolled onto his back, looking at the ceiling. He couldn't believe how much his life had changed in just over a year. The past twelve months had been crazy, writing a book, planning a tour, creating this app, and growing a huge community online. Not only that, but his friendship with Phil had become the center of his life. The two of them did everything together, and their bond was unbreakable. They were really the only people either of them spent much time with, as they rarely went outside, and neither of them seemed to have much interest in dating anyone at this point in their lives. That being said, Dan had decided that he was not asexual or aromantic. He had spent a lot of time pondering this over the year, and realized he truly did want love someday. He really did believe that he was just waiting for the right person. 

Dan smiled, thinking about how Phil had affected his life. And now that he thought about it, it wasn't only his life. All of Phil's previous flatmates had been inspired by his work, and they had all started their own YouTube channels. Zoe had even convinced her brother to start one, and now he was rising in subscriber counts quite quickly. All of the old flatmates hung out quite often, and invited Dan and Phil out to various parties regularly, but they rarely accepted. Don't get him wrong, they partied. They just preferred to party alone, where there were no strangers trying to hit on them, or people trying to get sneak footage of them when they weren't looking. 

It had become a mutual understanding between the two that when they drank, they were allowed to sleep in the same bed and cuddle together. And yes, Dan would admit it, there had been a few nights where he simply wanted to curl up next to Phil, so he had drank a glass of wine with dinner, pretending that it affected him more than it had so that he had an excuse to go to Phil's room that night. He couldn't be sure, but he suspected that Phil had done the same on more than one occasion. There was just something so safe and comforting about falling asleep in that way, and waking up to the other's arms wrapped around him.