Error Code: Dan Howell (Phan)

Nine

Dan wakes up to the soft breathing of Phil next to him. The way Dan is sinking into what ever he was laying in lets him know he is in Phil's bed with none other than Mr Lester laying right next to him, staring at the ceiling while Dan layed flat on his stomach.

"Hatch close." Dan orders and the opening to his heart slid back into place. He turns onto his side and looks at Phil who has refused to look at him since he's woken up. "Hello."

"Hello? Is that all you can say? I just kissed you and it was fantastic. I loved every second of it then the next thing I know that beeping I've become accustomed to starts. Then the next thing I know you're screaming in pain and ripping you shirt off so I can reboot you or whatever it's called. I want answers Dan, not some hello. I want to know who and what you are." Phil finally looks at Dan and the only readable expressions are pain and confusion.

"Are you sure? It's a long story." Dan tells him.

"Yes I want to know, especially after what just happened."

"Alright." Dan takes in a breath, he's never told anyone before, but there's a first time for everything. "It's started two years ago, I was fourteen or fifteen. Wait no, definitely fifteen, I had just recently turned that old. I went to the doctor one day since I was having some troubles that I hadn't noticed but my parents did, so they brought me to the doctor. They told him the symptoms they'd seen and I was scared because all those symptoms was what was happening to me and I hadn't even noticed. So they ran a few tests, but something happened to those tests. There were mixed up with someone else's or something and it came back as stage two lung cancer. I was absolutely terrified, cancer, bloody cancer. I'm not sure what's worse, not knowing I had been wrongly diagnosed with cancer or not knowing the real disease I had was equivalent or worse to what I had been diagnosed with." He takes a breath in and cast a glance at Phil who is starting intently and concentrating on the story.

"I went threw chemo therapy and I lost all my hair. The next thing I knew almost a year had passed and I was becoming weak and frail. I couldn't do anything for or by myself. I was absolutely helpless. There was a point where I had given up, just accepted death for the thing that would be what welcomes me into its cold arms. Then one day they found the real results and apologized for there mistake of their misdiagnosis. My parents were furious and sewed them for only making my condition worse since they were doing nothing to help it, only postpone my death. It turns out I had cardiomyopathy, a heart disease. The next thing I knew I couldn't leave bed and whenever Chris and Pj came to visit I'd cry to them and they'd hold my rotting body in their arms. It was terrible." Phil grabs Dan's hands gently and rubs his thumb against the back of them. 

Dan starts to tear up and turns onto his back so he doesn't have to look at Phil while he tells the rest of the story. "I-I was dying Phil. I was also losing my will to live and, and I-I-" he pauses to take in a shaky breath. He never really thought about what he had asked his parents to do. His eyes tear up even more and he covers his mouth the conceal his own gasp.

"What did you do?" Phil asks quietly. His voice was soothing and it lets Dan know that it's okay.

"I asked my parents to let me do assisted suicide!" Dan starts to cry and uses his hand that was over his mouth to cover his face while tears starts to pour down his now pink cheeks. Phil wraps his arms around Dan's shirtless frame and holds him tightly. He hushes the brunette and let's him know he can only go on if he wants to. Dan shakes his head and removes his hands from his face so he can continue the story. "I thought it was my only option and the doctors were okay with it. I started to cry a lot more then, most often when people came to visit. Especially my sister, I'd never be able to see her grow up which was all I wanted to do. My parents had already had the death talk with her earlier on in my treatment when they thought it was cancer. But now we knew, I wasn't going to survive this. Which absolutely sucked! I wanted to live and grow old with someone but my only choice was to end it all because there was nothing else to do. Or so I thought."

He sniffles and rubs his eyes. "Th-then they came to me one day and said they'd been working on a way to cheat death. A robotic heart. They hadn't tested it on anyone yet and they asked if I wanted to try it. Having no other options I took my chance. I went into surgery and when I woke up I had this this in my chest and an opening to it on my back. I could feel it beep in my chest, still can actually, I also had a bunch of new information swarming around in my head which led me to many panic attack. Which was unfortunate since when a normal heart beats fast it's normal, but when my 'heart' beats too fast, I have three warning beeps before it malfunctions and needs to be rebooted. I was terrified because now I heard loud beeping and my chest killed. That's when I found out I needed to reboot whenever that happened or every once a year." Dan finishes the story and Phil's eyebrows are furrowed together in confusion, he obviously has a question or two to ask.

"You said you had information swarming around in your head, what was that about?" Dan sighs, he wished Phil didn't pick up on that.

"With a new heart came new information. This new information was all about technology. Now I can hack into anything. If people knew I'd be hired for every company out there. So I keep it to myself and hack the accounts of people from our year who bully me or I just gather information for one day when they might cross me. Which is why I have no friends, I find out there dirty secrets then I don't trust them." Dan explains.

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Do you have information on me?" Phil releases Dan from his hug.

"Yes." Dan replies simply.

"What do you have?" Phil asks. Dan looks away from him. "Dan please I deserve to know."

"Fine. Your sister died of cancer and you miss her like hell. That eventually led to depression and you started cutting until one day you were lying on the bathroom floor and were rushed to the hospital. From then on you were giving therapy which has been helping you. Then you got a boyfriend named Chad, however Chad broke up with you, said your whole relationship was a joke, and made you the laughing stock of the school. Which is why you transferred to this school." Dan sniffles and uses his hand to wipe his now runny nose. The brunette rests his hand over Phil's and he can feel him growing tense. "I'm really sorry Phil, I know that's personal and-"

"No you don't Dan, you shouldn't be looking that kind of stuff up about people." Phil pulls his hand away from Dan's.

"Phil, I found out all this before I meet you!"

"Promise?"

"I'm sorry, I can't do that. I've hurt your trust to much as is." Dan scans Phil's face, his expression is unreadable.

Phil takes in a breath and closes his eyes so he can avoid looking at Dan. "I think you should leave."

"Phil please I-"

"I don't want to hear it." Phil snaps, making Dan freeze. "I really, really liked you Dan. I truly did. Sadly still do. But I need you to leave."

Dan decides there's no point in arguing so he nods his head slowly. "Alright." He leans over and kisses Phil's cheek. "Where did you put my shirt?"

"My chair over there." Phil opens his eyes and points towards a chair.

"Thank you." Phil hums in reply. Dan grabs his shirt and walks towards the door to Phil's room.

"But I just thought I better tell you," Dan starts, "you still have a bet to win, and I'm going to help you win it."