the city // dan howell

Part 5// Catch Me

"Bye Phil!" Dan and I wave as we watch Phil ride away in his taxi, the other seats filled with shopping bags. That's one of the only good things that came from him leaving- now we're free of luggage. "Apple Store? And don't worry- I won't buy anything." Dan laughs, dragging me by the wrist towards the entrance to the store. "It's not really my decision, so yeah, sure." I smile, leading him the right way into the store.
We walk straight in the set glass elevator, which would take us down to the overly crowded store. Me and Dan stood in the corner of the elevator, arms touching because everyone else in the elevator seemed to be trying to push us into each other. I grab a hold of Dans wrist and lead him out of the elevator. I don't let go of Dan once we step out- however- my hand only moves down to lace our fingers. "Safety first, right?" I laugh as Dans grip on my hand tightens when he walks us around the store. "Sureee." He laughs back. "This place is amazing." Of course it's amazing to him.
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Dans POV:
(A/N trying something new idk if this'll work I apologize in advance)
I rest my hand in this kind of, maybe, a little bit gorgeous stranger as we walk around the literal, actual Apple Store in the LITERAL, ACTUAL NEW YORK CITY. Wow. It's not even my first day here but I'm still stunned by this place. At this point, I'm just leading Tyde in circles around the store. I look at the Mac Books and iPhones, but my eyes keep wandering to the cluster of people with their American accents all huddled into one store. One very popular store.
"Dan, it's been half an hour and all you've been doing is staring at people. They're starting to stare back." Tyde laughs into the side of my arm. "Oh. Right. Probably not going to get anything. Sorry." Im so awkward. "So you want to leave? We can go to Rockefeller." She smiles, disregarding my horrible awkwardness. Or at least that's what I hope she's doing.
"Yeah, that sounds fun, actually. Do you think we'll ice skate?" I ask, hoping for a yes. I know the lines are long but... I really want to ice skate, you know? "Well, I mean, if they let me reserve VIP tickets right now, over the phone... maybe." I glance at her with wide, hopeful eyes. I can feel them gleaming with excitement. "That'd be great." I grin, pulling her to the elevator and outside the store as she calls the place. I listen to her smooth voice contrast among the loudness of the passerbys as she speaks. "Yeah. 2 VIP tickets for 9 PM today." "Is that okay? They're for Dan Howell and Tyde Carter." "Okay, good, thanks." She hangs up. "They're a little expensive, I can pay..." she starts out. I have a lot of money and this is my vacation, so no way. "No." I chuckle, pulling her along the sidewalk despite not knowing which direction to go in. "Wrong way." her mouth emits a cute giggle as she drags me in the opposite direction. I'm so a w k w a r d.
(A/N comment if dans pov is okay because idk man)
Tyde's POV:
"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" I swoon to Dan as we watch people ice skate in the light snow down below. "Yeah, it is." His voice is barely over a whisper so that I can only slightly hear him. I glance over at him to see if he's okay; he looks fine, but wow. Wow. He's gorgeous in the shimmer of the moonlight reflecting off of the snow. I find myself staring, so I look down. Don't want him getting the wrong idea.
As soon as my head shoots down, he looks towards me. He gently places his hand over mine, which is resting on the little cement blockade. "Maybe we should find someone that will confirm our tickets and let us in." he suggests to me, sending shivers down my back. Or maybe it's just the cold..
We surge through the thick crowd of people to get to the bottom of the pit; where the rink and white tent is. "So, you liking the city?" I ask as we cut through the crowd. "Yeah, it's kinda growing on me." He admits to me, sighing a bit. Or maybe somebody else was the one who sighed. I can't really tell, he's behind me.
We reach the tent, where we receive skates (VIP. Thanks Dan.) and check in; but there's a bit of a line. Maybe ten minutes, at most. "Dan, we're gonna have to wait a bit." I roll my eyes as he catches up to me in line.
My teeth chatter from the cold and I rub my arms up and down. "Cold?" Dan sniggers, staring at me arm movements. "Just a smidge." I sarcastically reply. Sarcasm is my calling in life, to be honest.
Dan places his warm hand on my shoulder, and it immediately sends heat waves throughout my body. I relax and feel the warmth as we move up in line. "Thanks." I say. "For what?" Dan looks at me, puzzled. He's either extremely thick or he's not trying to warm me up. "You know what? Never mind." I giggle it off as he shoots me a glare. I study his eyes while he looks ahead; they're brown, but intricate. They're like warm cocoa in some places, but other areas had smudges of dark soil; others blasts of milk chocolate. A little bit gold around the iris, and-
"Tyde?" I hear. I slightly shake my head and blush to the extremities. "Oops." is all I'm able to press out of my mouth.
Shit.
He gives me a funny stare for a moment, and then subtly points to the lady at the 'desk.' We're in the front of the line.
"Uh- I, uh" I begin, starting to lose myself in my words. "Dan Howell and Tyde Carter. We bought VIP passes today for 9 PM, which I believe is the time now." Dan looks down at his nonexistent watch. That idiot, my god.
"Here we are, yes, Howell and Carter. That'll be 210 dollars." (189.15 euros!)
I give a sympathetic look to Dan and begin to pull out my wallet, feeling slightly guilty that a stranger is paying for me. I take out my credit card and hand it to the lady. She doesn't even look up when she reaches for it.
"Sorry, wrong thing." Dans deep voice mutters as he gives the lady cash, and attempts to get my card out of my hand before I can object.
Now, I don't object, but him trying to get the card out of my hand went a little bit wrong. Accordingly to his clumsiness and potential lack of chill, he goes in to grab my card, but misses. His hand crashes into the table, bending his index finger backwards. "I... meant to do that." He stutters out. He tries again, getting the card out of my hand successfully. Not really. He drops the card, so he bends down to pick it up. His face is mad red, blushing. "Did you mean to do that too?" I laugh at him as I take my card back, stuffing it into my wallet. "Yeah." he rolls his eyes at me as the lady prints the receipt. I take a 105 dollars out of my wallet before I put it away though- I wrap my arm around Dan's waist, earning me a little bonus sigh from him. He tries covering it up with a cough. That didn't work, so it's even more cute. I stick my hand in his jeans pocket, pushing the money inside the tight pocket. I ever so slightly take my hand out, but keep my arm around his waist so I don't raise suspicion. Gotta be careful, you know?
"Shoe sizes?" The lady demands. I unwrap myself from Dan and say, "11 women's." Dan pokes my side. "I don't really know.." he mumbles. "He doesn't know his size because he's from England." I burst out, stifling my laugh until we leave. "Well, what's it in England for you?" the lady asks. "46?" (sorry if i got that wrong) he questions. "That's about a size twelve." She pushes the skates in front of us. "Have a nice day" she hurriedly says as she orders the next person in line to come up. "Thanks." I mumble. "It's okay. Where should we put these on?" Dan asks, looking around in the crowd of people. "There's a bench over there." I squint, starting to lead Dan over to the little seat just big enough for us both. We sit on the little bench and take off our shoes.
"Wait, Dan, can you stay here and watch over my skates? I'm gonna put our shoes in one of those lockers..." I take our converse into my hands. "Yeah..."
Dan's POV (mini):
Tyde gracefully maneuvers her way through the crowd and into the little igloo tent sort of thing. I shake the image of her out of my head and lace up my, luckily, black skates. They fit right, at least. I begin tapping my leg, thinking about when we go back to London. Me and Phil are gonna have to go back to our normal lives, no more tourism for at least a month, I think. That's weird. At least Tyde will be over somewhere near us- speaking of Tyde, I need to STOP SPEAKING OF TYDE. She's still a stranger. A unique one, but still. I don't know. I snap out of it when I realize she's been sitting next to me for about a minute, skates already on. Clueless idiot.
Tyde's POV:
We enter the rink. I start to push myself forward, keeping in pace with Dan. I haven't done this in such a long time. Just wish I had my camera, you know?
Dan grabs onto my wrists and starts spinning us. "Dan, we'll fall!" I squeal, secretly enjoying our skin contact. "Alright." He lets go of me, sending me falling backwards, a smirk permanently plastered on Dans face. But, before I fall on my ass, someone catches me, and who other than Dan? I laugh, and say, "My savior." "Of course." Is his response. Literally, I cannot express this enough, WHAT AN IDIOT. I lift myself off of his arms, and take a quick glance at his hair. The white snowflakes stain his dark brown hair. I take my hand and brush the snow off of his hair. He smiles and pokes my nose in return. I stick my tongue out at him and skate away as fast as I can. Dan chases me, but he's obviously not going to catch up. I skate in circles, taking in the clouded sky emitting little flurries, the cold air, the frosted building and cold people. It's all great, I'll miss it here for the time that I'm gone.
My thinking is interrupted when I bump straight into someone. "Sorry" I begin to say, but it's Dan. "Not accepted." his permanent smirk taunts me.
This is the start of a great friendship, I can tell.