Under The Stars | A Phan One-Shot

Under The Stars

Phil awoke to quiet whimpers and a rustling sleeping bag caused by a restless Dan. He yawns and flips onto his side, rubbing his eyes before peering over at his best friend. "Why are you still awake, Dan? It has to be the middle of the night by now."

Dan jumps, internally cursing himself for waking up Phil. The last thing he wants to do is admit he's too afraid of the noises outside the tent to fall asleep, especially after he was the one to suggest he come along. Instead of answering right away, he glances down at his phone. Phil is indeed right, it's nearing three in the morning. "No reason."

Phil sighs and sits up, crossing his legs underneath him as he pulls back his sleeping bag. "Obviously there is. You were complaining earlier about how tired you were."

Dan bites his lip, looking back up to Phil. Damn him and his ability to tell when he's lying. Although, he should know that after being best friends with him for years that it isn't hard to pick the truth out of the lies. "I guess you can't break the habit of a night owl, huh?"

Phil raises an eyebrow as Dan fidgets with his slightly curly fringe, a clear sign he's nervous. The only time Dan ever gets nervous around Phil is when he's lying, and he knows this. "Dan," he says gently. "What's bothering you?"

Dan huffs in frustration. "I can't sleep," he admits, his eyes immediately darting to the floor of their tent.

"Why not?"

"I'm afraid of dark, creepy forests, you dork," he blurts, covering his face with his hands, not quite sure why he's embarrassed. He knows Phil would never make fun of him for being afraid of something. Maybe it just has something to do with his pride and not wanting to admit that Daniel Howell is scared by a bunch of trees and night sounds.

Phil shakes his head, his lips almost curling up into a smile. "Then why'd you come on a camping trip where you knew you'd have to sleep in a dark, creepy forest?"

Dan furrows his eyebrows. "I thought it would be fun, spending a weekend with you and your family. I didn't really think about this part, Phil."

Phil stays quiet for a moment, taking in Dan's slightly shaking figure in the fairly dark tent. He knows neither of them will fall asleep if he doesn't come up with something to get Dan's mind off of the supposedly "scary" forest surrounding them. Deciding he actually wants to get some sleep tonight, Phil grabs a flashlight and the blankets piled in the corner before unzipping the tent and slipping out of it.

"Phil, where are you going?" Dan asks pathetically. If he acts this way when someone's with him, he'd hate to see how much of a mess he would be on his own.

"You'll see if you get out of there," Phil replies, beginning to walk away from the tent. He glances back just to make sure his parents are still sound asleep in their own respective tent. He would hate if he'd woken them up on accident.

Dan growls out a quiet disapproval and scrambles out of the tent, jogging to catch up with Phil, who was already making his way into the dense part of the forest. His nerves are jumpy and he shifts closer to Phil once they get too far away from the campsite for his comfort. Finally getting some sense, Phil switches on the flashlight and it immediately illuminates their path.

Phil's pleasantly surprised that Dan didn't complain at all on their little journey and the look on his face when he sees the small clearing in the middle of a forest heavily populated by trees is priceless. "Phil, why the hell did you bring us here?"

Phil rolls his eyes and hands the flashlight to Dan, who gives him a confused glance. Phil ignores his question and takes the first blanket, tossing it onto a smooth patch of grass. He plops down on one side of it and holds out his free hand to Dan, who stands there looking skeptical. "I'm showing you that there's nothing to be afraid of."

Dan sighs and takes Phil's warm hand, gasping when he's suddenly pulled down beside him. He gives his best friend a small glare as a flare of pain shoots up his spine from the impact of hitting the hard ground, to which Phil just gives an apologetic smile. He watches as Phil untangles his hand from his own and lays back on the blanket, bringing his arms under his head as a pillow.

"What are you doing?"

"Stargazing," he hums contently in reply.

Dan looks at him in disbelief. "You brought me out into the middle of a fucking forest because you wanted to stargaze?"

Phil laughs. "No, you doofus. I brought you out here to calm down."

"You literally only succeeded in making it worse. Now we're exposed to everything I'm kind of afraid of!" he hisses.

"Just lay down with me, Dan," Phil mutters, glancing at him.

Dan grumbles something very impolite under his breath before doing as Phil asked. After all, he was the one who decided to invite himself. Now wasn't the time to be rude and storm back off to the campsite, leaving Phil on his own. He is only trying to help him, even if his methods are a bit stupid.

Dan settles his head by Phil's, looking up at the black sky filled with what seems like a million stars. He would never admit it to the boy laying beside him, but the serene sight of the little twinkling lights in the sky did help calm his jumpy nerves. Okay, so maybe Phil's idea wasn't as stupid as he initially thought. 

Phil glances over at Dan, who is being suspiciously quiet for someone who protested the idea so much minutes before. His lips twitch up into a smile, a feeling so natural that he doesn't even notice it. "Making things worse, am I?"

Dan hits Phil in the chest gently. "Shut up."

Phil laughs quietly as he looks away from Dan, focusing his eyes on the stars once again. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, he breaks it by pointing out a constellation, and soon the boys start a game of recognizing the rest of them. After spotting all of them, Dan is declared the winner and they both fall into quiet laughter as Phil tries to protest the victory.

Dan yawns and blinks his eyes tiredly a few times, pulling the blanket further up on his body. He finds himself curling into Phil, but he's too tired to even notice or care. His hand falls into Phil's open one and their fingers intertwine under the blankets. He listens to the quiet intake of breath that Phil makes before the body he's curled into relaxes. He takes the silent approval a step further and rests his head on his friend's chest, deciding it's more comfortable than the hard ground.

Within minutes, Dan's falling asleep to the steady sound of Phil's heart beating in his chest, the once scary sounds of the forest around him quickly forgotten. The last bit of tension in his body leaves immediately as Phil's free hand reaches up and gently plays with his hair.

As long as Phil's by his side, the forest is no longer a fear of Dan Howell's.

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So, I was just binge watching every gaming video of Dan and Phil's and I came across the Slender video and after Phil told Dan to look up at the stars, this popped up into my head. I wasn't going to write it, but then I couldn't get it off my mind so I decided to say "Screw it. If anyone asks, I'll just say it's an activity to help improve my writing." 

EDIT: If anyone finds this, I apologize for how cringy it is. I was young when I wrote this and since then my writing has improved a lot. And as much as I want to delete my early pieces, everyone has to start somewhere. This is my start and I have to embrace how much I've grown as a writer.