24 Hours - Phan

2:00am

"Dan," Phil ventures softly. "It's Ok.... everything is going to be fine. I know things will be different at first, but it's going to be so unbelievable," he says, the words tumbling out of his mouth quickly. "I know that you want this, you said so yourself."

He steps forward and cups Dan's cheek in his hand. "Please come back to bed. To our bed. We can talk and work through things when we wake up." He brushes a kiss across Dan's lips. He doesn't respond at first, but then his eyes grow heavy and Phil attempts another soft lingering kiss. He can feel all the tension run out of Dan's body. "It will be ok," Phil whispers.

Dan finally gives in and returns the kiss, but then suddenly turns his head and twists out of Phil's embrace.

"If we stop now, we can still go back. We can pretend last night didn't happen, that it was nothing. I just can't bear the thought of this ending!"

"It's not possible for me to pretend last night didn't happen. It definitely meant something for the both of us, so it really hurts that you would even suggest that it was nothing! I just don't understand why you think it has to end at all," questions Phil forcefully.

"Every relationship I've ever been in has had a clear end date on it," Dan pleads. "It's like falling in love starts some sort of timer. This can't end. It just can't! Even if it means pretending for the rest of my life that it is less than what it is, I can't spend each day waiting to find out how it's going to end this time. We have an amazing life together. I was completely alone before that first video. I turned on that camera in a desperate attempt to make something permanent in my life...something that would keep me afloat. And that is exactly what happened. I found you. You are the something solid that my life is built around and I won't let you take that away!" he shouts.

Dan steps back suddenly and sucks in a breath. One hand comes up and covers his mouth in surprise at his own words and his other grasps the wall as if he were trying to keep from falling.

"Dan," Phil responds soothingly, "Why do you think I would take anything away from you? I want this so bad! I would never leave you no matter what!"

Silence fills the room.

Dan looks up at Phil and pleads softly, "You haven't thought this through...".

"You haven't thought this through?" Phil says, bewildered and with his anger sparking. "You haven't thought this through?" he repeats even louder and more forcefully. "Dan, how can you even say something like that? Do you really think this is something I just came up with all of a sudden? It's all I've been thinking about since the day I met you!" he says in astonishment. "It's always been you. Always."

Dan opens his mouth to respond but stills at the last comment. Wait, what?

Phil runs his hand through his black hair in confusion and starts pacing back and forth across the room, alternately staring up at the ceiling and then back down at the floor. Dan stands frozen in place, his only movements are his eyes cautiously following Phil around the room.

Frustrated, Phil slaps the wall loudly and storms out of the living room back towards the bedroom again. Dan sprints down the hall after him. "Please...just listen to me!"

Phil angrily turns on the light and sifts through the clothing on the floor until he finds his jeans. He yanks them on over his legs and then continues looking around until he finds his keys.

"Are you leaving?" Dan cries. "You can't just leave like this! Please try to understand!"

"Do you know what I understand?" Phil asks fiercely. "I understand that we have been together for almost 9 years. How many people have I dated in that time, Dan? None! After I met you, no one else even had a chance of being good enough. Didn't you ever wonder why I wasn't with anyone else in all that time?"

"And do you know what my biggest fear was?" he continues in frustration. "It wasn't of being alone. It was that you would meet someone and I would have to stand by and watch someone else get to love you when I've loved you in silence this entire time!"

Dan opens his mouth to talk, but Phil's words hang heavily in the air between them, rendering him speechless.

"You don't get to touch me and kiss me the way you did and then just decide to take it all back! There are some things you just don't get to do!" Phil yells at him while fighting back tears.

Dan flinches, Phil's last statement feeling like a punch to the gut.

Phil pushes past him and heads towards the front door.

"Don't go," Dan pleads as Phil starts down the stairs. "Please...don't go!" he loudly repeats, panicking as he runs forward and grabs Phil's arm. Phil hesitates at the feel of Dan's hand grasping him and tugging him backward. He can feel the tears welling up in his eyes and threatening to spill over. He can tell from the sound of Dan's voice that he is already in tears. Phil briefly puts his hand on top of Dan's. "Please,' Dan begs him once again.

"If I don't have you, what do I even have here anymore?" Phil asks cruelly.

He pulls his arm away and continues down the stairs. With Dan's sobs growing louder behind him, he opens the door and steps out into the crisp London night air.