Phanfiction

Pride

I'm just chilling on the sofa scrolling through Tumblr when Dan waltzes through the door, his homemade sign still securely held in his hand. "Hey!" I say, smiling as he walks towards me, "How was it?"

He's got the biggest grin on his face, it's adorable and makes me feel one-hundred times lighter - I'm so glad that he's finally able to be completely himself.

"It was incredible! I had the most amazing time! Marched with some awesome people, saw a load of our fans who were all so so lovely and supportive. It was just the best day ever." He sits on the sofa beside me, leaning his sign up against the coffee table and then sitting back, sighing contentedly.

"I'm glad you had a good day." I say with a smile.

He looks over at me, the wide grin still plastered on his face, "Yeah me too." His grin subsides a little, probably making sure his face doesn't ache, and then he asks me, "How was your day?"

"It was good thanks, very chilled. Contemplated filming a video but I didn't in the end." I close my laptop, balancing it on the edge of the sofa before deciding that's probably not a good idea and placing it on the coffee table next to Dan's sign.

"Oh well, you've got plenty of time."

"Yeah."

"I'm glad you had a good day though." He says, shuffling closer and managing to fling a bunch of sequins from his jacket all over the sofa in the process.

"Okay," I begin, trying to pick up some of the sequins, "You need to change before these get everywhere."

He chuckles and helps me pick them up, "But I spent ages on this, I want to get as much use out of it as possible!"

"Okay then," I laugh, "but I'm not going to be the one hoovering them up."

"Okay."

Dan drops the sequins onto the coffee table - he'd better remember to pick those up later - and then turns to me. He slowly takes my hand in his, "I'm really proud of you, you know that right?"

"You're the one who went to Pride, not me." I point out and he just shakes his head.

"Yeah, but it's not all about going to Pride. You're still out here living your life completely as yourself, and I know it took as much courage for you to make your video as it did for me to make mine. I'm just so proud of you for all of that and more."

I smile, feeling myself getting emotional, "I'm proud of you too."

"I know." He says, moving to lean against me, his head resting on my shoulder. I take a minute to watch the sunset out the window on the other side of the room. Dan fiddles with my fingers, rubbing his thumb gently along the back of my hand. "You know," he says after a while, "sometimes I still can't believe all of this is real, like, we actually did it, we came out online."

"Yeah we did, we really did." I reply, sharing that same disbelief that he gets - it really doesn't feel real sometimes.

"And it's not even just that," he continues, "it's everything. The fact that we met when we did, how well we compliment each other, everything we've done on Youtube, our books, our merch, our tours - it's just all so amazing and sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it's all actually happening."

"We've done alright for ourselves haven't we?"

"Yeah, you could say that." He laughs and I laugh with him. We've been together for so long, been through so much, that I struggle to remember a time when Dan wasn't in my life. I lean my head against his and continue to stare out the window, taking my time to just appreciate this moment.

He squeezes my hand a little, "I love you."

"I love you too." I say, squeezing back.