How Did We End Up Here? - A Phanfiction

Chapter Six

Phil was on the first baby shift, waking up at a little after 2am to feed and burp, getting Anna back to bed quickly. When he came back, he laid down next to Dan, still touching, but maybe not quite as wrapped up as they had originally been. Dan had the second shift, and when he returned he simply lay face down on the bed a few inches away from Phil, groaning into the pillow. Phil understood, this was going to take some getting used to and it felt a little strange to cuddle with his best friend. However, a minute later when he thought Dan had fallen asleep, the brunette reached his arm out and put his hand on top of Phil's shoulder, keeping that bit of contact. Throughout the rest of the night, they cuddled to varying degrees, but by the 7am baby trip, they both were done and spent the rest of the night separated, though closer than the past month had been.

When Phil finally woke up for good around 10am, he felt a bit cold, and looked over to see that Dan was gone. So was Anna's crib. Phil stumbled bleary-eyed into the kitchen, and stopped at the entrance as he saw Dan softly humming a lullaby to Anna as he flipped a pancake. Phil felt a strange rush go through him. It was warm and fuzzy, and his mouth formed into a smile without him even realizing.

He thought back to when he had first agreed to take Anna. How he had been so sure that Dan was going to leave, that he'd be in this alone. Now he couldn't be more grateful to the man flipping pancakes in the kitchen, cooing to their baby. Phil wanted to go up and hug him out of gratitude, and only hesitated a moment before remembering that he could do just that now. He made his way over behind Dan, being sure to stay quiet, and wrapped his arms around the brunette from behind.

Dan screamed.

Phil stumbled back in surprise as Dan whipped around, mouth wide in terror, raising up his spatula in self-defense and accidentally launching a pancake across the room, before realizing it was just Phil and putting a hand over his heart, breathing heavily. Phil immediately felt guilty, he should have warned Dan that he was coming. Phil immediately went over to Anna's crib and took out the baby who had begun crying after Dan's scream, bouncing her gently.

"I'm so sorry Dan! You were being so nice and making breakfast and keeping Anna calm and I just messed all that up. I just saw you and wanted to say thank you and remembered what we agreed yesterday and.."

"It's okay Phil. Just give a guy some warning next time, okay?" Dan smiled a bit, and went to retrieve his pancake, throwing it in the garbage. He continued to make breakfast, and Phil continued to bounce Anna until she was sound asleep. After a few minutes, Dan spoke again. "Yesterday was nice. It was strange, and it'll take some getting used to, but it was nice. If you're still feeling okay with it... I'd like to keep it up."

"I'm still okay with it." Phil responded. Because he was. Yes, it felt strange, and no it didn't come naturally to him, but once he was able to settle into it it had felt nice, and he could learn to make it normal.

"Okay. Thank you... for suggesting it." Dan spoke as he stacked pancakes onto their plates, and they moved to the dining table. Phil was fairly certain they'd used this table more in the past month than they had since they moved in. "So..." Dan began as he cut his first bite of pancake. "About the other thing you suggested yesterday." Phil remembered that they were supposed to decide this morning whether they were going to tell the internet they were together, and began wondering if it was as good an idea as he had thought before. He had meant to think about it last night, but it had slipped his mind.

"Oh yeah... I don't know. If you don't think it's a good idea..."

"I actually think it's kind of brilliant." Phil's eyes widened slightly. "It will get crazy for a while, but I think you're right that once the 'phans' get what they want, they won't have as much to theorize about or pick apart. I mean yes, there will be the few who are always trying to get us to be physically affectionate in videos, but you were right that there are tons of YouTube couples who are out, but don't kiss on cam. And if our viewers have been so convinced we've been together all this time, we won't have to act all that different, maybe just a bit here and there. I don't know... the more I think about it, it just makes sense and it seems so much easier than the shitstorm that is Twitter right now." Phil nodded, agreeing. While both he and Dan used to spend hours a day on Twitter, they maybe spent ten minutes on the site now each day, and more often than not just didn't even open the platform.