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Dan was nervous, not obviously so, he had learnt to hide it pretty well over the years, but Phil could tell, Phil could always tell.
They were on their way to the big YouTuber Christmas party, the one they planned to come out to their friends at.
Phil took Dan's hand, only for a moment. "Just take a deep breath Dan, you can do this, we wouldn't be here if I wasn't absolutely sure this is the right thing to do."
At Phil's touch Dan relaxed, not a lot, just enough to make him comfortable enough to walk into the party.
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After a while most of the cameras went away and everyone got just a little drunk.
Dan was sitting in a corner, trying not to be noticed while Phil was making his way around the room, glancing at Dan every few steps to make sure he was alright.
Dan knew what Phil was doing, he was looking for the perfect spot and waiting for the right moment to make the announcement. Dan couldn't help but chuckle, the fans had it more right than he and Phil ever did.
Dan's phone lit up in his hand.
PHIL: 'Hey, I think it's time, come over here!!'
DAN: 'OK, I'm on my way.'
Dan emerged from his corner, trying really, really hard not to just turn around and walk out the door.
Phil was standing off to the side of the party proper, talking to Louise.
"I can't say why just yet, but in a minute, can you try and get everyone's attention? Me and Dan have something we need to say."
"Oooohh mysterious."
Dan squeezed past the last few people between him and Phil as Louise stepped into the main group.
"So are we doing this?" Dan asked.
"Yeah, Louise is just about to get everyone's attention in a minute."
"I'm not sure this was a good idea Phil."
"Sure it was, come on Dan, it'll be fine."
"This is literally the most nervous I have ever been."
"I'm kinda nervous too, but really I'm just excited."
"I'll never understand how you manage this stuff, like just before the start of the tour, how do you manage it all."
"I don't really know, I think I just know that you'll end up badly if I lose my grip on things."
"Wow Phil, such trust, all that confidence in your boyfriend."
"You have no idea how good it feels to hear you say that, finally."
"It can't feel as good as I feel when I get to say it to you."
Without noticing they had leaned into each other and Dan's hand had slipped into Phil's.
Louise's return startled the pair from their little bubble, just in time to take a step away from each other, hopefully for the last time.
Louise managed to get the assembled YouTubers quiet, and everyone's attention focused onto Dan and Phil.
"Before we say anything else, can we just make sure all your cameras are off for a bit please, this isn't to leave this room just yet." Phil started the talking, because Dan couldn’t think properly at that moment.
After a few moments of shuffling to get all the cameras into their carry bags, Phil started again.
"Ok, I don't know how to say this properly, I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just say it in the smallest possible number of words. Phan is real. As in me and Dan, in a relationship."
The room was silent for a few moments before someone started clapping. Before long everyone was cheering and celebrating.
"We don't want to tell any of the fans yet ok, can we all keep this under wraps for a while?"
A general chorus of affirmatives rose from their friends before everyone started asking questions.
"How long have you been together?"
"How long until you tell your fans?"
"Why are you telling everyone now?"
After a moment everyone seemed to realize that they were being really obnoxious and quieted down again.
Dan grabbed Phil's hand and said his bit, the few lines he had been going over in his head for the entire party so far.
"Me and Phil are together, that's all anyone needs to know right now. We'll tell the Internet soon enough, until then just keep it quiet ok? There will be a video, at some point. Now if you would excuse us, I'm going to go sit down with my boyfriend before I pass out from the nerves."
He turned to Phil and whispered "God it feels good to be able to say that to everyone."
Phil responded with a kiss on the cheek and a giggle.
The rest of the evening passed quietly in comparison, everyone made their way over to Dan and Phil's table in the corner to congratulate them on everything.
That night, when the pair arrived at home, Dan sat right into his sofa crease and picked up his laptop.
Phil settled down next to him under a blanket and opened up his laptop too, until he noticed that Dan was constantly refreshing the twitters of everyone who was at the party.
"What are you doing Dan?"
"Nothing."
"It doesn't look like nothing, it looks like you are worried someone will say something."
"Fine, you got me. It's not that I don't trust them, I just expect that everything that can go wrong will, just like it does every time things start looking up for me."
"Hey, it'll be fine. Even if everyone did find out, since 2012 they have all been a lot more respectful about everything."
Phil gently lifted Dan's laptop out of his hands and shifted it to the unoccupied space at the far end.
"Leave it for tonight, if anything happens by morning I'll deal with it OK?"
"OK."
"We should go to bed, it has been a long night for both of us."
Morning came and nobody posted anything they shouldn't have, after that Dan calmed down a fair bit and the two went on with their lives, there were still videos to make after all.