Dan & Phil: Not of This Earth

22 | Rumours

Word Count: 647

     "You know, that didn't go as poorly as I thought it would," Dan remarked for probably the eighth time on the tube. His parents didn't believe him at first. Their first instinct was to laugh but the serious, guilty look in Dan's eyes told them he wasn't kidding.

     Dan's brother just blinked at him and simply said, "I knew you were an alien." It sounded like a joke or a one-off comment, but he had actually caught Dan shapeshifting his arm to reach something under his bed when he still lived at home. Considering his age at the time, he had convinced himself it had been a dream. He said he had kept it in the back of his mind for years, though, just in case.

     Now, Dan sat contently next to Phil in a fairly full rail car in the underground metro. A low chatter, a barely-there rumble, filled the car along with the continuous clattering of the wheels on the rails. Most people were either blindly staring into space or focused on their phones.

     "I know, I told you that," Phil responded with a yawn. "I didn't even use my...intuition for that. I just knew."

     Dan nudged him with his elbow. "I think that's technically part of your intuition, Phil."

     "Eh."

     "Eh," Dan echoed. He closed his eyes and smiled just enough for a single indent to barely appear on his right cheek. "So, should we break to our fanbase next?" he asked softly.

     "I...don't know. Telling PJ definitely helped and telling your family was comforting, too. I think I'm overthinking this now."

     Somebody in a hoodie sitting next to Dan popped out an earbud and butted into the conversation. "What? Tell everyone you're gay? You're those YouTube dudes everyone wants to fuck each other, yeah?"

     Dan shot this person a glare that could've killed. "Piss off, mate. This is a private conversation," he growled.

     The tube patron scoffed and replaced an earbud, returning to whatever they were scrolling through – Tumblr or Instagram or whatever. "Which you're having in a public place."

     "Here come the rumours," Phil whispered, sounding more defeated than anything.

     Dan's shoulder's hunched and he moved his lips as close to Phil's ear as he could without making it too weird, whispering, "We weren't speaking that loudly – this is ridiculous. Don't even worry about it."

☆☆☆

     The rumours came after a few weeks from a Tumblr post: 

"Heard Dan & Phil talking about coming out to their parents on the tube. They were considering coming out to you phannies, too. I don't think they will, so consider this my good deed for the year."

     Dan and Phil never addressed the issue, ignoring the matter when it appeared in the chat of their liveshows and no matter how much more rabid fans spammed their Twitter feed with it. Eventually, there was an uprising by a good portion of the phandom that began posting things like: 

"It's their personal life – it's none of our business unless they decide to share it – fuck this guy," 

"They respect us, let's respect them,"

"Half the phandom freaks every time this shit happens. Fucking stop," 

"This is why they're not open with us. You guys pick and you pry, and you freak out over every little thing! Why the hell do you think they're so tight-lipped about their personal lives? They can't live with you all breathing down their necks! Learn to have some respect!"

"This is ridiculous,"

"The phandom is so fucking rabid. Don't believe everything you read,"

and, Dan's personal favourite, 

"Are we really going to believe some rando? Some rando that doesn't know nor respect Dan and Phil? I think the fuck not."

     With that, it was over as soon as it started. It, however, forced both Gems to push down the idea of revealing their true identities for several years.