Phanfiction One Shots

Reaction Time

Title: Reaction Time

Pairing: Phan

Genre: Angst/ Fluff/ Comfort

TW: Feelings of sadness/ despair

They held their breaths as Phil clicked the blue "Done" button on the youtube page.

Your video is now ready at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN-QBnrdGUA

"This is it, Phil," Dan whispered.

"I know." Phil replied. He turned around and looked Dan in the eye. "We wrote a fucking book!" Phil exclaimed, his eyes lit up in excitement. He grabbed Dan's arms and actually swung him around.

They both laughed and then Phil noticed the tears in Dan's eyes. "Hey, bear? Whats wrong?" Phil asked, worried.

"Nothing! Dan exclaimed, wiping tears with the back of his hand. "We wrote a book Phil, we wrote a book! Thats a big deal. It's just amazing you know?" Dan said with a laugh, through the tears. "Its just something I never thought I'd be saying. I wrote a book with my best friend, and now we're going on tour. That just sounds crazy!" Dan said.

"To me too Dan! Its insane and amazing but it fine. 'cause like you said, we're doing it together. Oh my god, that sounds like the corniest thing ever!" Phil said with a laugh. He leaned and hugged Dan. Dan squeezed back. "Hey, its fine," Phil said.

"Thank you," Dan replied. "For everything."

∞

They uploaded the second video, the actual explanation video, the next day. Phil smiled at the tweets he was getting from people, congratulating him and Dan on their book. He smiled and went to Dan who was on the sofa with a cup of coffee; staring intently at the responses he was getting.

"Hey," Dan said, smiling at him, his eyes shining.

"Hi you," Phil said. "It finished processing. They can see the actual explanation now."

"Oh Phil! I'm so excited for this!" Dan said. "I hope they like it."

"I'm sure they will," Phil replied. "After all, its just us, except in a different format. And we worked pretty damn hard on this, so they better appreciate it." he said with a laugh, making Dan laugh as well.

"Yeah, you're right."

∞

It started with a couple of posts about "Dan and Phil jumping on the youtuber bandwagon" and "no longer making genuine content." Phil scrolled past, trying to block it out. He then saw a whole essay dedicated to proving the fact that "Phil and Dan were just a brand and they were just doing it for money." He scrolled past again, trying his best to ignore the negativity. Yet he couldn't help but question things in the back of his mind. Is that really what our subscribers think of us? That we are just doing it for the money? He switched tabs, going on his emails now, and answering some. When he went back to tumblr he saw that the post had a lot of notes and people were actually believing what it said. He got up and went into Dan's room.

"Hey, Dan? Have you seen this post?" Phil asked. "Its like, uh.. i don't know."

"What?" Dan said, confused.

"Its this thing." Phil said. He didn't want to worry Dan too much so he mumbled, "Never mind."Oh wow, that sounded stupid. I just walked into his room asked him something and said never mind.

"Wait, no phil! Tell me what's bothering you." Dan insisted.

"Nothing, its just stupid, okay?" Phil said. But now he had tears in his eyes and he buried his face in his hands. "Oh my god I'm so stupid! We've both been crying today." Phil said.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, Phil. What's wrong? Tell me please?" He took Phil's hands and lead him to the bed where they sat down.

"Its just this post on tumblr and its all about how we're just manipulating our subscribers and making Dan and Phil a brand, who only care about money. And they're saying stuff like how we're faking our relationship and friendship and that we've been queer-baiting and stuff and just. I don't know Dan. I'm sorry" Phil knew he was rambling on, but he just told Dan the post in brutal honesty.

"What? Really? What the actual fuck made them think that?"

"Just you know, we've been using all the word phan a lot and yeah."

"What so we're not even allowed to be comfortable on camera anymore?"

"No! I don't think that's what they meant. I think, they just think that we're doing it for money"

"But we're not! What the hell? We worked our asses off on this okay? We've literally had so many sleepless nights because of this. We wanted to do it for them and they're just saying that we're doing it for money. Thats stupid. And why the hell would we fake our connection? We're real people, for fuck's sake! We don't have some kind of superior motive behind everything we do!"

"Not all of them are like this! They're mostly really nice, its just that some of them got to me, okay? And when you say it that way, it just makes the whole thing sound so stupid."

"Because it is!" Dan said, exasperated. "You know what Phil, show me this post okay? Clearly it upset you. I wanna write something to the person.

"No!" Phil exclaimed at once. "No, no, no! Dan, that's just going to make it worse."

"Yes, but Phil, its going to continue if we don't stop it! That person isn't just going to back off."

"Dan? Have you read the post?" Phil asked quietly.

"Yeah," Dan replied after a pause. "But I didn't want to- I- I don't know Phil."

"This is the last thing I wanted to happen you know. I just wanted to share something that we'd worked on together. We worked really hard on this Dan. I really didn't want this reaction. I just thought it would be something they would enjoy. But-" Phil stopped unable to continue as a new onslaught of tears came over him.

"Hey, its okay Phil. Its okay. I'm sorry on behalf of them okay? You shouldn't have to feel this way." Dan said, tears threatening to spill out of him as well.

"No! no! Dan. Please don't say that. I just wanted them to be happy, but instead we started this whole shitstorm." Tears were streaming down both their faces now. Phil leaned in close to Dan and hugged him again. "I'm so sorry. I just didn't know how to deal with it."

"Ssssh, its okay, Phil. It will get better. Its fine." Dan said.

"Thank you," Phil replied. "For everything."