Summary: Dan and Phil get into a fight right before their radio show.
Warnings: none
Word count: 1,471
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"Dan, for God’s sake. Hurry up. We’re going to be late if we don’t leave now." Phil groans, nervously throwing his keys from one hand to the other as he waits for his friend to finally leave his bedroom.
Dan came back from his date with Hannah, a girl he had met only a few days ago, merely 15 minutes ago and with him taking ages to get ready, they are now several minutes late and Phil really doesn’t want the BBC people to get mad at them
"Calm down, Phil." Dan calls annoyed. "We’re just in time."
Seconds later the boy enters the hall and smiles sheepishly. “I’m ready now. Let’s go.”
Phil rolls his eyes, not returning the smile at all as he turns and leaves through the front door, impatiently waiting for Dan before locking it up.
"What’s up, Phil?" Dan asks once they’re in the elevator, sensing that Phil isn’t fully being himself..
Phil huffs, turning to glare at Dan. “I can’t believe you thought going out with that girl was more important than starting our radio show on time.” He says, crossing his arms.
"God, Phil. We are still on time." Dan groans. "Don’t make such a fuss about it."
"Yeah, whatever." Phil replies flatly, done with Dan’s behaviour.
It’s not that he’s particularly mad at Dan (because let’s be honest, Phil’s been late more times than he can remember) but everything just kind of sucks today and he has a sore throat and a blocked nose and can feel a headache forming.
And Dan going out with some girl he hardly knows, leaving sick Phil back alone in their flat, certainly hasn’t helped with his bad mood at all.
-
They arrive at the BBC building exactly five minutes before they’re meant to be there and Dan can’t help himself but rub it into Phil’s face.
"See. I told you we’d make it in time." He says proudly and grins at Phil, hoping he’d be in a better mood now that they’ve safely made it to their jobs.
"Save it." Phil spits, not even glancing at Dan as he rushes through the doors, leaving the boy back baffled.
He hasn’t meant to let those words come out so harshly but something about Dan just really pisses Phil off tonight (and the reason for it totally isn’t the fact that Dan went out with someone that isn’t Phil and Phil totally isn’t jealous at all.)
-
When they enter the studio, Jameela is already waiting for them and they both quickly sit down and Dan can’t help but notice how Phil seems to sit as far away from him as possible.
Dan’s kind of afraid the fans will notice that something is wrong, but as soon as the cameras are on, the whole atmosphere changes and Phil is smiling and laughing next to him and maybe the reason for it, is only that they’re on camera and have to act friendly towards one another, but either way Dan is going with it and just hopes their little row is forgotten already.
And maybe it is, because everything seems natural and okay, even when Phil has to put face paint on Dan’s face and Dan can’t fully ignore the fluttering of his stomach when Phil’s soft fingers brush over his cheeks, his chin, his nose and also his neck a little bit which would usually freak Dan out, but it doesn’t because it’s Phil.
"… and Phil is going to be at the other side of the studio today, because he’s ill and I don’t want to catch any of his germs." Dan jokes then, grinning at Phil only to notice how the boy’s eyes become sort of hard all of sudden and their usual spark is missing and Dan thinks he might have said something wrong.
"Yeah." Phil replies. "We don’t want to get you sick as well now, do we?"
He’s still smiling, but Dan can sense the sudden rivalry pretty much radiating from him and maybe Phil’s still not gotten over their little fight.
-
Now, Dan has only meant the whole Phil being on the other side of the studio as a joke, hasn’t thought this was even a option, but Phil, apparently, took it as his opportunity to be as far away from Dan as possibly, obviously still mad at him. And when Dan enters their studio a few minutes after Phil, Phil is standing directly opposite from where they’re both usually stood, not even glancing at Dan when he passes by.
Dan really wants to pull Phil aside and talk to him, apologise for being late because of his date (which had been sort of really awful anyway and Dan knows exactly why). But Phil seems to have other plans, because he doesn’t even look at Dan, completely ignores him as he talks to their producers and tells them why they have decided to stand on different sides tonight.
-
They’re 10 minutes into the radio show and Dan thinks he’s going to cry if he has to keep smiling and laughing and act happy because fact is, he isn’t happy at all with Phil on the other side of the room.
But Phil- Phil is just damn stubborn and angry at Dan and Dan thinks he’s overreacting but he can’t really blame him either because he’d probably be pissed too if their roles were switched.
Dan tries making eye contact with Phil, tries to show him somehow how sorry he is, but Phil doesn’t react in any way, just keeps talking and smiling and laughing and Dan can tell everything is fake but the same goes for him. Neither of them is actually enjoying what they’re doing and all of it is Dan’s fault.
If he hadn’t gone out with that stupid girl, he wouldn’t have been late home and Phil wouldn’t have shouted at him for taking so long to leave.
It’s all Dan’s fault and Phil has every right to be angry with him.
"This is You Need Me, I Don’t Need You by Ed Sheeran.” Phil says and Dan doesn’t notice it but the song starts and suddenly he has tears in his eyes and he can feel them rolling down his cheeks. And it doesn’t even make sense because that song means literally nothing to him but it’s just the way Phil has said it’s title. It has felt like he was talking to Dan and this is sort of Dan’s greatest fear. That Phil at some point will realize that he’s better off without Dan and will just leave him.
It takes Dan only a few seconds to remember where he is though, and he quickly turns around a bit and wipes his eyes, hopes the quality of the camera is too shitty to capture the redness of them.
He’s lucky though and when he checks the live stream on one of the monitors neither him nor Phil are shown, but one of the drawings and Dan can only hope it’s been like that the whole time.
For the rest of the song, Dan doesn’t dare looking up at Phil. He doesn’t want him to see his tears, doesn’t want him to see how weak he is. As soon as the song comes to an end, however, Dan’s head is jolting up when he hears Phil speaking again.
"Can I come back to your side now, Dan?" He asks and Dan has to hold himself back from immediately shouting yes and of course, you can and please come back, Phil.
"No. Stay away with your germs." Dan answers instead, jokingly, because he’s supposed to want Phil to stay away from him. But Phil keeps pestering him and Dan still denies it because he thinks Phil is just bluffing and trying to joke around.
But then Dan notices a small, apologizing smile on Phil’s lips and their eyes lock and maybe things are actually sort of alright now because Phil is standing next to him again and that’s a good start, right?
It’s only when their next song is playing, with music video and everything, that Phil fully turns to Dan. He smiles sheepishly at him and shyly takes his hand in his own, giving it a light squeeze before whispering “I’m sorry”.
Dan is sort of disappointed that he doesn’t get a hug but then he remembers that they’re still surrounded by people and the cameras are still on and they still have loads of time for hugs and cuddles later.
So Dan just shakes his head and grins at Phil, squeezing his hand back. “It’s okay.” He mumbles and it is, because Phil is next to him again and he is smiling and they aren’t fighting and Dan thinks everything is sort of perfect.
