Remember, Everything Will Be Alright

XIII

28 December 2020

The serenity Phil finds in Dan's face as he sits beside his bed puts Phil at ease. Dan is doing so well.

Everything that has led up to this day has prepared the both of them for what is to come.

***

After six months of pulling in consistent, weekly views online with numbers in the millions, Dominic had struck gold. The EEN flew him and Dan out to host the EEN United States Music Awards red-carpet in Los Angeles. Adam tagged along, paying for his own fare and sharing a room with Dominic. Dominic insisted, knowing that the clubs on Hollywood Boulevard would be teeming with record executives and other people to know.

The instant he and Dan had finished their pre-show hosting duties Dominic, Dan, and Adam booked it back to their hotel room to prepare for the show Dominic and Adam had booked down the street from the award show's venue.

As Dominic stood on the stage that night, surrounded by the after party, he knew this performance was make or break. If he didn't sing and play his heart out—if he didn't do it as himself—he would never forgive himself. So with Dan in the audience, enjoying the sweatiest and most lively of shows since his festival days, Dominic rocked the crowd. He wailed out his songs, bouncing around the stage and stripping off layers of clothes when the action got him too hot. It was the happiest he had ever been.

Dan tried to hold back his chagrin a few days later when Dominic revealed to him that one of the suits in the audience had offered him and Adam a record deal. He couldn't be prouder that Dominic was starting to live his dream, only, he wished it didn't mean the end of the line. Even though the EEN let Dan keep the show for himself, it would never be the same without Dan's highlighter-haired partner-in-crime.

The network gave Dan as long as he needed to regroup. The show was placed on an indefinite hiatus while Dan found himself again. On those days when Dan was stuck in his and Dominic's office, trying to work in the graveyard of their old set, he would often reflect on the first time he met Dom. The hopes he had expressed to Dominic that day in early August haunted him. In hindsight, he couldn't believe how naïve he was to think that by the time he and Dominic parted ways he would be settled down with his complete family. Even the promise he had made about not depending on his job at the EEN as the outlet for his creative expression, he had backed out on.

With the events of 2019 hanging over him, Dan had clung to his job as one of the only sources of security in his life, aside from Phil. He wasn't in the process of writing a book. He hadn't been cultivating a personal YouTube channel—which he was within the bounds of his contract to do. None of that interested him. He was lost.

It wasn't until he checked his and Phil's bank statements that he found a starting point. In one of their accounts, with the number he recognized as their holiday savings fund, he found £2,200. The number was just £300 short of the estimated total he and Phil had expected they would need for a trip to Japan.

That's nothing!

It didn't take much persuasion for Phil to agree when Dan went home that night and made the suggestion that they front the remaining amount over dinner. The next morning, Phil called a travel agent and booked their trip for the end of March. The timing was perfect, they figured; not too far out, but also close. Two weeks before Harry's due date, so they hopefully wouldn't miss the baby's birth. It would be wonderful.

Day one of ten in Tokyo marked the beginning of the best weeks in Dan and Phil's lives. The 12 hour flight had spent the two of them, so the minute they were settled into their hotel room, they crashed and wasted a whole day in bed. They even blew off their tour guide who was supposed to take them into the city for dinner. Luckily, when they did wake up, hungry enough to share a horse, they were able to find food inside their resort. The hotel had been accommodating to English-speakers with translated signs and menus.