24 Hours - Phan

7:30pm

Dan sits on the edge of the bed, frozen. He looks wordlessly down at the small patch of moonlight with his watery eyes.

Phil stares at him for a minute, and then turns his attention to the computer sitting on his lap. Part of him wants to do exactly what Dan suggested, to just forget about all of this, but he can't, especially not now that the fear that Dan might be dating someone is lodged in his head. That's his worst case scenario. As long as it's anything other than that, he can handle whatever has happened.

He opens it and the screen flickers to life and what he sees surprises him.

A photo of them from 6 years ago fills the screen. Phil grins at the memory. He remembers it well. They had gone to the beach that day. The wind had whipped wildly though their then long and shaggy hair. They were both out of breath after running through the shallow sea water and they had their arms around each other to keep from tripping and falling into the sand.

He glances over at Dan, still smiling. "We had such a good time that day! It was so windy we ended up having to eat our picnic in the car so it didn't all blow away. I don't understand why you think I would be mad because of this photo." His face falls slightly when he sees that Dan has his eyes tightly clenched shut, salty tears dripping onto his shirt.

He clicks again and another photo appears. This one, a screenshot from one of their videos. They are grasping at each other and are both doubled over in laughter. He tries to find something unusual or upsetting about it, but can't. It looks like a scene that could have been taken from any of their videos. He's confused as to why Dan would have made this screen shot at all, more less kept it.

Click. Another screen shot of them huddled together in the dark while filming a horror game. He grins as he remembers Dan falling out of his office chair. He would never admit it to Dan in a million years but that was probably his favorite video they've ever filmed for that reason alone.

 Click. A screen shot of them looking at each other with raised eyebrows during a cooking video. Those cookies tasted ok, but they sure were hideous looking. It also took longer to clean up the mess in the kitchen than it took to both shop for the ingredients and bake them combined.

 Click. A photo of them sitting on the floor smiling and putting together a piece of furniture in their first apartment together. This one he remembers clearly because he has a copy of it as well. That was one of the best days of his life because they had finally moved in together. Neither one of them had furniture other than their mattresses and dressers. Even after they pooled their money, they could still only afford a few pieces of cheap fake wood furniture and a used couch. He lingered on that one, smiling at the good memory. He glances up at Dan to see if he's smiling too, but he's still motionless with his eyes tightly shut.

Click...click...click...

Click. A screen shot of them sitting upstairs at the desk in front of the computer, just as they had done hundreds of times. He frowns slightly.

What was he missing? Why would he save this?

His eyes slowly traced over the screen. He was wearing a button-up navy blue shirt. Dan was wearing his trademark black. They were smiling and looking at each other. His eye catches on something at the bottom of the picture.

Dan's hand was sitting on the desk with Phil's hand casually over it. It almost looked like they were....

Phil freezes.

Click...click...click.... He pages through the pictures quickly now, assessing each one.

Understanding dawns across his face. He has seen photographs similar to this one, but they were never saved or posted by either one of them. In fact, they're all over the internet. Fans scour online for photographs from public appearances or their videos trying to catch little moments that when looked at from certain angles, would appear as though they were holding hands or showing some sort of physical affection for each other.

Phil's heart starts to pound in his chest. This isn't possible. Dan has to be upset about something else having to do with these photos and he's just not seeing it. It's probably just coincidence that these few pictures look like that. He is simply seeing things he wants to see.

How many pictures like this are there?

He backs out of the full sized photos so he can see them lined up as thumbnails. He scrolls down to the bottom. His eyes widen as he looks at the number. 842.