Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Not Like She'll Get It Back Now
2013
Dan Howell rushed through the underground, hoping to catch the train back to his flat. He had just came back from getting his parents a gift for Christmas, and Phil had somehow convinced him that 'now is better than ever!' - when was he going to decide to ignore Phil for once? That boy was so persuasive...
He looked at his phone, and he had about three minutes until the train came. He blew a sigh of relief.
Dan began to play a few phone games when he heard a shriek. He looked up, and saw that a girl - about 5'8"with brown hair in a tight ponytail hidden underneath a dirty grey hoodie - leaning over the edge of the train tracks. His eyes widened, and he heard the mumbles of 'my dad gave it to me' from the girl.
"What happened?" Dan heard a few people ask from beside him.
"Apparently, that girl dropped her beloved" - The sarcasm in the man's voice made Dan hate humanity even more than he already did - "locket down the train tracks." Dan looked over at the girl in some sort of pity as the woman shook her head.
"Not like she'll get it back now."
Dan hated physical activity more than anything, nor is he actually good at exercising. But for some good reason, he felt like he needed to be the hero at least once - it wasn't like he was doing much with himself nowadays.
He didn't now what possessed him, to be honest.
Dan dropped the bag and dashed to the girl side, towards the train tracks, and leaning in to see something gold sparkle. The girl looked at Dan with some sort of fear in her eyes, and Dan's conscious was starting to tell him to leave.
He jumped down.
The girl shrieked - so did some other people. Dan could hear the train coming as well.
"What the hell?!"
"He jumped!"
"He must be one of those suicide kids."
"Someone help him!"
As soon as Dan's knees hit the metal tracks, and his face scraped against the floor, he froze.
'What am I doing?' Dan thought frantically. 'It's just a locket! Goddammit, it's an inanimate object!'
Composing himself, his ashy hands scramble to grab the locket, throwing it around his fingers. He heard two bells, and his eyes widened as he saw a miracle in front of his eyes when he looked up from his desperate position.
The girl held her hand out.
Panting, with all the strength he had left, Dan grabbed the hand and tried to become lighter. He heard the girl grunt, and he felt himself get pulled up from the train tracks and thrown onto the yellow line that was painted along the edge of the track.
The train came running after, about two seconds after Dan reached safety.
Dan gasped for a breath, on the ground as people clapped around them. Dan just looked around frantically - the white light he had saw before he felt the hand was gone, so he must be alive. He turned around to see the brown haired girl panting beside him.
"A bloody hero." More sarcasm. Dan hated it.
"Jesus Christ, he's alive."
"A fucking miracle, if you ask me."
"Isn't that the British guy from YouTube? The one with the cat whiskers, I mean."
Dan stood up, brushed himself off, and didn't bother when he missed his train, or that everyone was staring at him like he just won the lottery. He, instead, turned to the girl, smiling tiredly. "I believe this is yours."
The girl silently stood in front of him, and Dan saw that even if she didn't jump down the tracks, there were dirt marks on her face. She grabbed the necklace from Dan's hands, and their fingers' touch lingered a while. She didn't meet his gaze.
"You know, a simple 'thank you' would be nice. I almost died for that."
"You didn't have to do that." Her voice was raspy, but Dan could identify the British accent.
"Well I did," Dan gritted his teeth, trying not to sound angry, "but whatever."
Dan turned to walk away, mad that he saved someone's butt for nothing, and mad that he missed the train. He then felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned around to see the smaller girl turn to him with hazel eyes.
"I said you didn't have to do that, but never said I didn't thank you for it." Dan nodded, but he didn't tear his glance away from the tears that were in her eyes. He looked down at her and rubbed her shoulder reassuringly.
"Why are you crying? You didn't see the inevitable end."
"It's just that no one would do that for me." She mumbled. Dan frowned, and ushered her to the bench to wait for the next train, which, conveniently, arrived in another agonizing ten minutes. He faced his attention to the girl, who wiped the tears from her dirty face.
"I ran away from home." she murmured, looking down. Her back was slumped forward, and her forearms were on her knees. "My dad gave this locket to me when I was fifteen, and he told me to always be a good girl. And I never listened." Dan looked at her in shock, but never asked what she did.
She shook her head. "The least I could've done was keep the necklace. To remind me that I never actually did become a good girl."
Dan erased the thought of 'why don't you just sell it for money? It looks expensive.' and looked at her with sympathy.
"How long have you been on the run?" Dan paused. "If you don't mind me asking."
She shrugged. "My parents lived up north. I did as well. I got a job at Tesco, two months before I planned to run away. Things were getting worse, but I scraped through. I got enough pounds to get a flight down to London about a two months ago. I had enough money for a little food that I ration to last a long time. It's December now...so that means I've been on the run for about a month or two"
Dan's eyes widened. "A month?"
She nodded, looking down. "I lived, hadn't I?"
Dan tried not to let his big mouth say anything else.
"What are you?" she asked, and Dan chuckled.
"I'm a YouTuber." He tried not to sound cocky. "I'm 'danisnotonfire'. I live in a flat with my best friend, 'AmazingPhil'. We've been living in London for a while, mainly because of a radio show we have with BBC Radio 1. We make a living. I'm also pretty clumsy and awkward - I don't do things like that often."
The girl's eyes widened. "I've heard of you. When I was at home, I used to watch some of your videos. They helped. They're pretty good. I'm surprised I never recognized you. Sorry."
Dan laughed. "You don't have to be sorry. It's been a while since you've been on the internet."
The girl shook her head, and pulled out what seemed to be an IPhone 4. "This is mine. I kept it, and brought the charger. I honestly can't last a day without social media, and I knew I would barely survive without it, so I brought it along with the money."
Dan shook his head, standing up and grabbing her hand as he saw the train come. "You are staying at my place until you secure yourself."
She laughed. "Now you are just an idiot. I might be a serial killer or something."
"Are you?"
"...No."
"Then come on."
The girl paused before they got on. "Aren't you gonna ask my name?"
Dan paused. "That depends if you actually want to."
"...Abigail Woods."
"And as you know, Dan Howell."
They both smiled, and Dan hadn't noticed that even if she had been on the streets for nearly a month, her teeth somehow sparkled like pearls against the ocean shore.
He snapped out of his daze as he helped her onto the train. She grabbed her brown, tattered, leather satchel, slung it around her body, and climbed onto the train with him. Dan smiled at her as Abigail looked at him after a moment of silence of standing on the train.
"I hate my name, you know?"
Dan nodded, not looking up from his phone. "Abi it is."