Work Text:
‘I loved the fic so much!! It’s so soft and full of love and makes me want to have a piece of their love. (Who am I kidding, I want all of it.) I loooved the flower symbolism you used for developing Eddie’s love for Richie, but I have to admit, my favourite part was when Richie went “Fuck, I think I’m in love with you.” and then the awkward staring and then Richie said, “Yeah, I’m just gonna go now.” But all in all, I love that they got together and they’re shamelessly in love and they’re happy (and safe and… alive.) I’m so glad they’re raising their cat together. I meant son. I love Peter. Can’t wait to see what you write next. Can’t believe this was your first fic!! Well done, I loved it!!’
Dan rereads the comment over and over again, until it’s imprinted on his heart. That was the best comment he’s ever got. Well, not that he has anything to compare it to, and even though he loves the few ‘nice!’ comments he got on his fic, this definitely made his day.
He’s been checking the hits, kudos and comments - he’s worked hard on this fic and he actually likes it, unlike some fics that are gathering virtual dust on his laptop. But this mysterious stranger liked it and left a very lovely comment, so he knows it was worth it.
He types a reply to that comment. It’s only borderline creepy as the comment was posted only two minutes ago, but Dan’s excited.
‘thank you so much!!! i’m so hapyp you liked it. i love reddie and i wsa hesitating at first but i’m so glad i did it. now wathc me write a sequel in the matter of 5 minutes about the shenanigans of peter lol!’
He presses enter, seeing all the mistyping when he does. When the page refreshes, he sees a comment by the same person.
‘Oh, forgot! My ask box is always open if you want to scream about Reddie! I’m buffysreddie on Tumblr! I mean you don’t have to, but I don’t really have anyone to talk to about Reddie. Anyway, shutting up. Loved your fic, bye!’
Dan laughs when he reads the additional comment. So this person loves Reddie, loved his fic and is awkward as fuck. He knows what he has to do.
He opens Tumblr and is about to search for the person, but he gets distracted by some shiny gifsets. He reblogs them, then reads a post about American politics which enrages him, but a fan video of Reddie calms him. When he remembers what he was doing in the first place, he’s followed about 7 new people, reblogged and liked about 40 posts and read a fic.
He spends the next few minutes going over the commenter’s page. Some very aesthetic Reddie gifsets, followed by some Buffy posts and a ramble about how it’s Thursday night and he wanted to have some friends over to play video games but his parents didn’t let him because it’s a school night.
Dan’s cursor hovers over the ‘Send an ask’ link for a few seconds before he clicks on the direct message button. After another bout of hesitating and wondering what the hell he should write, he sends a ‘hi :)’.
Then he waits. For a few minutes. He wonders if the person is asleep or just busy, then it hits him. This is just an odd message from some rando on the internet. (To be fair, Dan does have the URL ‘reddie-trash’.) So he quickly adds another message.
reddie-trash:
‘shit sorry this is the guy who wrtoe beating hearts’
After a few seconds comes the reply.
buffysreddie:
‘Oh thank god, I thought you were a porn bot trying to scam me out of some money! ’
reddie-trash:
‘i mean you never know lol’
buffysreddie:
‘Where is my prince then?’
reddie-trash:
‘lol’
There are no new messages for long minutes and Dan hasn’t got a clue what to write. Maybe he shouldn’t have messaged in the first place.
He checks Twitter, refreshes Tumblr and reblogs yet another gifset as he waits. Then he sees the notification.
buffysreddie:
‘Hi, I’m Phil, and I’m very bad at talking to people.’
reddie-trash:
‘hi phil i’m dan and i’m also very bad at talking to people’
‘but you know what i’m extremely good at?’
‘talking about reddie for hours’
A month later, Dan posts another fic. It took him longer than he would’ve liked, but his distractions are justifiable. College is a lot, seeing this is his last year. His parents are, as usual, arguing constantly. There was a new video game. But the best distraction he got is something he’s really happy about.
“Come on, hit post.”
Dan tilts his head to the side, so Phil has perfect access to the crook of his neck. He hovers over Dan’s shoulder, watching the same screen on his laptop. Everything is ready, he just needs to press post.
“You know it took me like a week to work up the nerve to post Beating hearts?”
“Yeah, well, you have me so you get like two seconds before I do it myself.”
Dan smiles as he clicks the button. Phil’s right. He does have him now.