Work Text:
Phil is supposed to be brainstorming video ideas.
He and Dan have a lot of pre-filming to do before the tour. Sure, they’ll record a few videos on the road, but they don’t want to feel obligated to sit out touristy adventures in order to record a new video.
Dan’s in the office. Phil’s in their lounge on his laptop.
Phil misses Dan. Maybe that’s pathetic.
Phil is supposed to be brainstorming video ideas.
He swears he was. He was brainstorming. He was looking through their backlog of gaming videos to see if they could redo a similar idea post-hiatus, and that’s how he happened upon their Fortnite video from 2018.
Phil snorts at one of his own jokes. It’s a good video, even though Phil remembers the stress they were feeling at the time—planning Interactive Introverts, Dan’s crisis about his sexuality and posting his desired “June Video,” the possibility of ending the Dan and Phil brand forever at the end of the year…
Phil is so glad that they’re back and better than ever. He’s so glad things didn’t end forever…
Phil is supposed to be brainstorming!
Just as he is about to hit the back arrow, 2018-Dan’s Fortnite character runs across a rickety bridge and he shouts, “I will find you in any world, Phil!”
Phil smiles. Any world, huh? That’s nice to hear.
He continues watching. When he hears his past self say to Dan, “We could make a life together up there,” he gets weirdly emotional. Even closeted, he knows that their love for each other was obvious to anyone paying attention.
Dan clears his throat.
Phil flicks his eyes upwards, down to his screen, and then back up. It wasn’t video-Dan who cleared his throat; his very real, very-2024 Dan is standing mere feet from him.
Phil yelps and closes his laptop. “I was brainstorming!” he shouts.
“Sure, babe,” Dan says with a grin, striding over and then sitting next to him on the soft, white couch. “I don’t think brainstorming gets you smiling like that. Unless you thought of a new, super funny video we can do?” Dan pokes Phil’s side playfully.
Phil smiles, but he’s quiet. He looks away for a moment and Dan waits for the thought that is obviously forming in Phil’s chaotic mind.
“Dan,” he says, “do you think we’d really always find each other?”
Dan snorts out a laugh before Phil turns back to face him with a terribly sincere expression on his face. “Well, Phil,” Dan says, reaching to thread his fingers with Phil’s, “I’d hope so. Don’t know where I’d be without you.”
A smile flickers across Phil’s lips. “Sad lawyer,” he jokes.
“Yeah,” Dan says with a nod and a bit of a smile, too, “sad lawyer, maybe.”
Phil continues, “And maybe I’d be a video editor. Maybe I’d work from home and tie your ties for you before you’d go into the office.”
“And every day when I’d get back from work, I’d say—”
~
Dan unlocks the door and swings it open. He shouts, “honey, I’m home!”
Phil turns around the corner with a grin. “Dan, you don’t have to say that every day, you know. I’m not your housewife.”
Dan toes off his dress shoes and pecks Phil on the mouth. “Househusband,” Dan says, like that’s the entire truth. Phil takes Dan’s briefcase and quickly scurries away to put it in the home office. Alright, so maybe he is just a little househusband-y. Sue him.
When Phil reemerges, Dan has loosened his tie and reclined himself on the couch, with his feet up on a pouf. He looks terribly tired in all honesty.
“How was your day, Danny?” Phil says, scooching Dan’s feet over to the side and sitting on the pouf across from him.
Dan groans and closes his eyes. “You know. Same old, same old. Another fuckin’ business, another fuckin’ contract.”
Phil takes hold of one of Dan’s feet, massaging the soles. “Poor baby,” he coos, just a little facetiously.
Dan opens his eyes, nods down at his feet, and says, “thanks.” Then, “how’s the editing world?”
Phil grins. “You know. Same old, same old.”
Dan chuckles for a moment and then says, “shut up,” with no bite at all.
Phil continues. “Trim a bit at the end, trim a bit at the beginning, cross-dissolve,” he takes Dan’s other foot in his hand and moves them both to put some weird emphasis on “jump cut.”
Dan can’t help but giggle. He stares at Phil for a moment, heart-eyes in full effect. “Love you, Phil,” he says. “I fucking hate being a lawyer but it’s all worth it for you.”
~
“Or maybe,” Dan says, “maybe I’m a famous actor. And you—”
“I work the soundboard!”
Dan quirks an eyebrow. “The soundboard? I’m a stage actor in this universe?”
“Yes, you’re on stage,” Phil says, smiling. “You belong there.”
~
They’re set to open so soon. It’s tech week and today’s the dreaded ten-out-of-twelve. A twelve-hour day with theoretically ten hours of actual work and two hours of break quickly becomes at least twelve hours of unfair labor for techies.
At the eight-hour mark, Phil very well may be losing his marbles. The last half-hour involved running a scene with a glass-shattering sound cue fourteen times back-to-back. If he has to stare at QLab for ten more minutes he might just lose it.
Luckily, the director calls for the company’s dinner break just before Phil, himself, breaks. He puts the computer to sleep, takes off his headset, and sighs. He spins around in his chair and to his surprise, Dan is standing at the top of the stairs.
“Dan?” Phil says, standing, and he can’t help but grin upon seeing his boyfriend’s face. “Why are you up here?”
“Well, you get to watch me whenever I’m on stage. I never get to see you in the booth,” he says, walking over to Phil’s workstation. “Wow,” he gestures to the sound console, “so many knobs. So many… slidey things.”
“They’re faders,” Phil explains, “used to equalize the mics and music and other sound cues.”
Dan turns to wrap his arms around Phil’s waist. “So smart and talented.” He gives him a wet kiss and maybe Phil is starting to feel revitalized. Marbles are being regained.
Phil chuckles. “Says you, Mr. Leading Man.”
They rub their noses together for a moment and giggle. “God, I’m tired,” Dan says once they manage to step away from each other, “I’m tired, but it feels good. I can’t believe we’re starting previews in, like, less than a week.”
“Yeah, I know. And Dan,” Phil says, teasing, “we’ll probably only get more tired from here.”
Dan groans. “Please don’t break up with me because of this upcoming week’s theater-induced stress.”
Phil shakes his head. “I wouldn’t dream of it. As long as you don’t break up with me for the same reason.”
“Of course not,” Dan says before his stomach growls.
They giggle softly again. “Alright, well, we better go and get some food then,” Phil suggests.
Dan nods. “Definitely. I’m ravenous.”
“Not just for me?” Phil gives Dan a shit-eating grin.
Dan rolls his eyes. “No, bitch. You’re hot, but I can’t eat hotness.”
“That’s what she said.”
“Who, your mum?”
They then let out the dorkiest simultaneous, “Ohhhhhhh!” and head out of the soundbooth and down the stairs.
~
“What if,” Phil says, “I was a merman and you were a prince?”
“Depends.” Dan snorts a laugh. “Did you sell your voice to a sea witch? ‘Cause that could change my answer.”
“How so?” Phil gives Dan a look. “You’re the yapper in this relationship.”
Dan rolls his eyes playfully, shrugs, and then sincerely says, “I’d miss your voice, Phil. But I guess, if we’re going by Disney logic, us kissing would maybe break the spell?”
“I promise,” Phil says, “I wouldn’t trade my voice. You’d just have to deal with me in half-fish-form.”
~
Prince Daniel stands at the smallest of the palace’s docks. It’s their dock.
It’s late at night, but the moon and stars light up the sky. His white linen shirt moves with the warm breeze. The dark water laps against the sand, and when Dan looks off the side of the dock and down into the sea, it’s a dark abyss.
He sits down, criss-crossed by the edge, and pulls out his recorder. The melody he plays is sweet and perhaps just a little haunting.
After a moment, he sees a single bubble rise to the surface; then another and another until the bubbles erupt like a boiling pot and Prince Daniel’s merman lover arises from the water’s darkness.
Daniel stops his playing and sighs with relief. “Philip!” he says, his words full of love, “I wasn’t sure you remembered.”
“Of course I remembered,” Phil says, swimming to the edge of the dock and holding out his hand. He flicks his sparkling green-blue tail behind him.
Dan takes Phil’s hand and gives it a squeeze. Admittedly, it’s cold and wet, but none of that matters as long as he can feel Phil’s touch.
“I’d never forget,” Phil continues. “I swim through the motions each day just so I can meet with you at night, my prince.”
Dan leans down and gives Phil a kiss on his soft, blue-tinted lips. “Some day,” he says, once they part, “you’ll live in the palace with me.” He sighs and sits up, just to slouch towards Phil again. “Father keeps trying to set me up with princesses, but I turn them all away. Little do they know that my one true love lives in the ocean.”
“If only I could live on land with you,” Phil says. He bobs up and down with the waves.
“If only,” Dan repeats. “We could join the aquatic and terrestrial kingdoms; it would be wonderful. I just don’t know how we could possibly do such a thing.”
Phil thinks for a moment. “Perhaps you could get me a large fishbowl.”
~
Dan chortles. “A fishbowl? That’s how you solve a mermaid-based star-crossed-lovers situation?”
Phil shrugs and laughs. “I don’t know! What ideas do you have?”
“I don’t fucking know!” Dan continues to giggle. “It’s a good thing that we’re both just two totally normal human guys, yeah? And not a merman and a prince!”
“Well, ‘normal’ might be stretching it…”
“You know what I mean! And honestly, I’d be a pretty shit prince—”
“Dan, Daaaaaan,” Phil laughs, “we’d find a way. We’ve always found a way in this life.”
“Yeah, darling, we have, haven’t we?” Dan says. “Things work out. They always eventually have—in this life or any life of ours in whatever parallel universe there is out there. I’m sure.”
“And you’d always find me?” Phil asks.
“Always. I’d find you in any world, Phil. I think I’d keep searching forever for you if needed.”
Phil boops Dan’s nose. “Awfully sappy,” he says with a smile.
“Sue me.” Dan’s rosy patch glows as he blushes.
“I don’t know,” Phil shrugs, “I probably wouldn’t want to sue you in the many probable lawyer universes.”
“Pffft,” Dan waves around his hand, “Like I’d be any good. Besides, I couldn’t stand dealing with any case involving my beloved little househusband.”