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When Dan wakes up, he’s not in his bed. His vision is blurry.
He’s a little panicked for a moment. Then he remembers- he’d turned eighteen the previous day. His soulmate must be older than him, for them to have swapped bodies on the day after his birthday.
His soulmate’s room also has a hideous color scheme, Dan notices.
Hideous, but familiar.
There’s a sudden lurch in Dan’s stomach as he sits up abruptly, eyes not quite adjusting to his surroundings in the way he’s used to. He spots a pair of glasses lying on a table and he grabs it, sliding it on.
There’s no questioning where he is. Dan sees all the posters, covering the walls, he sees the blue and green walls, he sees the blue and green duvet.
Dan’s in the room of his idol. He’s in AmazingPhil’s room.
With that final thought, he promptly passes out.
*
Dan wakes up again approximately half an hour later. He’s still in Phil’s bedroom.
(Just to make sure, he pinches himself. He’s not dreaming.)
Unsurely, he gets up, and spots a door to what he assumes is a bathroom. He walks in, and stares at the mirror.
That’s Phil’s face alright. AmazingPhil is his soulmate.
Dan stares at himself- Phil?- for a good two minutes, admiring his face in a rather stalkerish manner. He can’t help it. Phil Lester has been blessed with a gorgeous face.
He washes up quickly, feeling incredibly creepy. He heads down after, seeing a blonde woman flipping pancakes at the stove.
Phil’s mum, he thinks. Time to make a good impression.
“Oh, Phil, you’re up a little later than usual!” Mrs. Lester says, turning around as she hears Dan’s footsteps.
“I, um, I’m not Phil,” Dan stutters out awkwardly, and wow, he did not expect his voice to sound so…different.
“You’re not…Phil?” Mrs. Lester raises an eyebrow. “Are you pranking me, or something? Is this for YouTube?”
Dan suppresses the urge to laugh. “No, I’m sorry,” he says, an apologetic tone coloring his voice. “I-I think I’m your son’s soulmate.”
Mrs. Lester’s eyes widen, and suddenly, Dan’s wrapped up in a tight hug. He lets out a surprised laugh and melts into the hug, because after all, this is Phil’s body, and this is Phil’s mum. He should be used to hugging her.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” she exclaims, pulling away. “What’s your name, dear?”
“Um, I’m Dan,” Dan states.
Mrs. Lester doesn’t look fazed by the fact that her son’s soulmate is a male- if anything, she looks happier.
“Well, I’m Phil’s mum. Phil’s your soulmate’s name, by the way,” Mrs. Lester declares, and Dan briefly wonders if he should tell her that he already knows this, along with several bits of unnecessary general trivia he has found out about Phil by stalking his Twitter every night.
He smiles instead, not knowing how to respond. She seems to sense this and leads Dan to the dining table instead, serving him a large plate of fluffy pancakes, drizzled with maple syrup and topped by blueberries.
Well, Dan thinks. He wouldn’t mind this lovely woman being his future mother-in-law.
*
“Alright, Dan,” Mrs. Lester sits in front of him, after he’s done with his breakfast. “Do you stay near Manchester?”
“I, uh, I stay in Reading. Could I call myself? I mean, Phil. But- yeah, me,” Dan realizes he’s rambling, and he shuts himself up, resisting the urge to facepalm. Mrs. Lester has a strangely fond look on her face, so maybe he has left a good impression on her after all.
“Absolutely, dear,” she says softly, and she brings in the phone. Dan dials his own number, pressing the green call button and lifting the phone to his ear. He tries to squash the nerves in his stomach, but it’s not really working. After all, this is going to be his first interaction of any kind with AmazingPhil.
Or maybe just Phil, but Dan doesn’t think he can get used to that very soon.
In the middle of Dan’s inner monologue, Phil picks up.
“Hello?” Dan winces at how absolutely cringeworthy his voice sounds.
“Um, hi,” he says anyway, brushing off the thoughts of his own voice. “Phil?”
“You’re Daniel, right?” Phil asks, voice filled with barely contained excitement. Dan smiles in spite of himself, because only Phil Lester can make the horror story that is Dan’s voice sound nice.
“Yeah. But please call me Dan,” Dan replies, an automatic response to anytime someone calls him by his actual name.
“It’s alright. My name’s Philip,” Phil states, and once again, Dan wants to say that he knows that, but that’s a lot to spring on your soulmate the first time you talk to them.
“Oh, really? That’s cool,” is what Dan says lamely instead. They continue talking, make plans, and, finally, they decide on Phil taking the train back to Manchester so they can meet. Dan hangs up giddily, because his soulmate is really fucking amazing- no pun intended- and they’re going to meet.
“Oh, are you finished, Dan?” Mrs. Lester walks back into the room- honestly speaking, Dan hadn’t noticed her leave. He was too wrapped up in Phil.
“Yeah,” he says happily. “Phil’s coming to Manchester.”
Mrs. Lester says something that Dan understands is her expressing her joy for this situation- but he doesn’t quite hear it.
He’s going to meet Phil. They’re soulmates.
*
A little more than three hours later, Dan’s waiting nervously at the Manchester Piccadilly station. He’s pretty sure he’s fixed his hair more than thirty times already.
He stays in that same spot, bopping skittishly for the next twenty minutes. Mrs. Lester leaves him to go get coffee.
Then, he hears the train.
Suddenly, everything is a lot slower. People are alighting from the train, and the whole station is filled in no time.
Dan feels a little odd, searching for himself in the throng of people. And suddenly-
“Dan?”
Suddenly, he’s back in his own body. And there’s Phil. Right in front of him.
“Phil,” Dan murmurs, mostly to himself. “So. Soulmates, huh?”
Phil’s face breaks out into a smile- a beautiful, bright smile, enough to light up tiny cities, maybe light up the entire world. Dan doesn’t really think- he throws his arms around the older man, holding on tightly.
“Hey,” Phil whispers into his ear, clutching onto Dan’s shirt with equal force.
“Hi,” Dan mumbles back. It sounds astonishingly cheesy, even to himself, but he feels like he’s found his missing puzzle piece.
He feels whole.
“By the way,” Phil remarks, as he pulls away. “Your laptop was on when I woke up. It’s always nice to meet a fan.”
“Holy shit,” Dan squeaks, mortified. But Phil- sweet, gorgeous Phil- merely giggles and loops an arm around Dan’s waist in one easy, familiar motion.
“Look, mum’s coming back,” Phil points somewhere Dan doesn’t see. They begin walking.
And right there, right then, Dan feels nothing but inexplicable happiness. He’s where he belongs.