Chapter Text
Phil threw himself into his “work,” starting an absurd competition with himself in which he pushed the line of what was reasonable to expect Dan to do further and further. During the next few weeks, Phil’s right hand was consistently clenching and cramping – and not in any sort of fun way. But through it all, he had a sneaking suspicion that this little game of his was all for naught – he had, evidently, already found Dan’s “line.” After all, those (admittedly rather risqué) drawings from the… unforgettable bachelor party had never been replicated. Not that Phil truly believed Dan would do so – the drawings were a little out there as far as fanart went (or rather, fanart that the creator interacted with, especially on such a consistent basis). And sure, that was a little disappointing, but who was he to presume to oversee Dan Howell? And so, he pushed himself, nearly becoming a challenger to those speed-draw YouTube channels he frequented when he wanted to feel like an artist but was far too lazy to actually put in the work required to produce a piece. But it was worth it.
Because exactly twenty-four days into this spree, he found himself in the wonderful position of bestowing upon the world a true gem through the medium of an enjoyably embarrassed and slightly flirty Daniel Howell.
The day before this marvelous photo was released onto the internet and exactly one week before the tour was to begin, Phil had a very strange encounter with Flame in which certain suspicions of his gained more and more traction.
It was an hour or so after Dan’s last Rize stream, a medium he had picked up in preparation for the tour, in which he just so happened to completely coincidentally, perfectly accidentally, amazingly serendipitously, wind up doing his best impression of a center split on the floor of his bedroom. As always, Phil had reblogged his previous post with that same such position – this one was done in shades of black and blue with the pastels Phil sadly forgot about much of the time.
It was a bittersweet day. Not one video from Dan had been posted as of late, and these weekly Rize streams only served to remind Phil and the rest of the fandom of the fact that they missed him. Not that this was all that unusual, really. Dan’s uploading schedule was… tumultuous at best, negligent at worst, but with the tour coming up, the fans were clamoring for more. Phil at least could be somewhat satisfied with the streams, even if he, too, wished Dan would upload.
All that drama aside, one thing that had never and potentially could never let him down? Popcorn.
So on that day, Phil was happily snacking on a bowl of the stuff, scrolling through Tumblr, as he was so prone to doing, when a little notification popped up and Flame’s “voice” entered Phil’s head as he read.
“rize streams huh. bane of my existence ngl”
Phil smiled down at his phone and happily popped a kernel into his mouth before replying, “yeah i guess lol. why did it have to be rize???”
“ugh ikr. maybe not the smartest decision in the world” This was followed by a second, hasty message. “but uh don’t tlel anyone i said that yeah?”
“yeah dont worry ur secrets all safe with me. ill keep it nice and warm for u :)”
“youre so weird”
Phil had heard worse. “so ive been told” Besides, he had a feeling that wasn’t meant in a derogatory way. “but u love it”
That was far less of a risk to send now than it had been even a few months ago. Phil’s anxiety took a vacation nowadays when Flame was online. It was nice.
“yea u know i do ;)”
“:)”
Their conversation halted for a few minutes, Phil resuming his munch-and-scroll, as he thought about the best caption for the next drawing he was considering posting. Considering. Not for-sure-definitely-posting-that, but considering. After all, though he knew he and the world needed to see Daniel James Howell in makeup, he wasn’t sure the fandom was ready for it. Not to mention, if the stripper photos hadn’t been recreated, he wasn’t sure if Dan would shy away from makeup, as well.
Of course, it should be taken into consideration that posing as a stripper and putting on a little bit of eyeliner (even circa 2009 emo eyeliner would be sufficient) were two entirely different beasts and for some strange reason, Phil felt like Dan wouldn’t be completely averse to the latter. But at the same time, some level of pride was getting in his way – he had been rather fond of those dancer drawings and it kind of stung that Dan had decided against doing those in particular. (Yeah, yeah, there was no way it was because of the quality of the photos, but Phil’s traitorous brain protested otherwise.)
No. No, he would post it. Because the goddamn world needed to see Dan in this position. So post it he did. Nerves be damned.
Putting aside the lovely topic of Daniel Howell feminized, Phil decided to scroll through his top posts. Hey, he was proud of his stuff! Nothing wrong with that. Plus, it was a good way to pass time, and he could watch himself improve before his very eyes, which was always thrilling to see. For an artist, or at least for Phil, seeing himself improving and knowing he would continue to was the greatest thrill in the world.
He had only made it a couple posts in when he received another message from Flame.
“phil wow”
Phil smiled. That was something he could hear for the rest of his life about his art and not be tired of it. Or, at least, he assumed it was about his art, as it had long since been established that Flame unabashedly kept post notifications on for amazingsketches along with his recently developed side blog, amazingreblogs and knew whenever Phil posted something new. But, just to be a little shit, he asked anyway. “what? ;)”
“u know exactly what fil. that drawing!!!”
“so… what did you think”
“i think its fuckin amazing like the rest of your.. sketches”
“lol okay thanks anything else”
“mm yes bb I love it when u fish for compliments”
“oh shut it… (:”
“lol but really I did like it… tho i guess im wondering about dan.”
“dan?”
“yknow… that little game you guys are playing…”
This was interesting. Although Phil several times had instigated conversations about Dan’s recreating of his pictures, Flame had always pushed the conversation to something else or even simply stopped responding after a while. So Phil had stopped trying to talk about it with Flame (he had Lizzie to freak out with, after all). This was certainly the first time Flamey had ever willingly began to talk about it. Phil felt the corners of his lips tilt up. Maybe now would be the time to see about some of those suspicions Phil had...
“ah and what game would this be?”
“dick. u know what im talking about. ur whole drawing then he recreats thing?? yknow the thing the entire fandom has been talking about for weeks???”
“so ur a full-fledged part of the fandom now are you. thought you said u were a ‘lurker’ or smthg”
“ha stiil a lurker don’t think thats gonna change any time soon. but it was pretty ahard not to pick up on this little bit of drama”
“is that so”
“yea. so anyway ur avoiding my question.”
“which was what exactly”
“god ur so mean to me why dont people know this about you???”
“what r u talking about im an angel ;)))”
“right right totally”
“so… question?”
“why?”
“wy what”
“I mean you’ve drawn some pretty scandalous shit (see man split and duck face) but I feel like. idk. do u think danll do it?? idk bout that”
“a man can hope!” Phil felt like a super secret spy when he typed out his next text. “but who knows.. its not like either of us can idk see into his head or anything right?” He very specifically kept a winky face out of the message. Just in case it was too far.
It take Flame a minute to respond. “lol right. my votes still on him not doing it. I mean if he does why not go all the way and do those like stripper pics from forever ago.” “but well see I guess.”
“I guess we will ;)”
The next day, Dan posted a selfie of him and Louise. The caption stated, “She made me do it.” And in the picture? Full glam makeup. On the both of them. Phil felt unjustly smug. Hell yeah.
And if Phil had a very embarrassing time in the shower that evening thinking about that photo, no one had to know.
***
When it happened, it was three days to the tour, three since the already infamous makeup photo was posted. When Phil saw it, it was 5:16 PM and he was taking a break from working on his pet project. When it really happened was seven minutes into the video, a story-time kind of thing talking about one of Dan’s college days. Specifically, a party. One that involved friends hiring certain special people to make the night “special”.
Phil’s blog that night would only have a reblog of a certain special post of his with the caption “don’t think I need to post from this video… I already did.”
Once again, Phil’s lips were turned up in a smile as he fell asleep that night, the sound of asks pouring into his inbox the soundtrack to his dreams.