Work Text:
Phil Lester, for one, was a liar.
He had been promising his therapist that he would try getting more comfortable with driving and yet he hasn't used his licence since he was 18. It felt silly now that his motto was "try new things" because he truly couldn't bring himself to try this one thing that most other adults could easily do.
And then it hit him. What's the one thing that got him to actually try new things and that also had a secondary benefit to it? Making a YouTube video! It was a foolproof plan. He just had to make a YouTube video about learning how to drive. Nineteen years into his career, however, Phil knew that his audience trusted him to put out good content. He had singlehandedly built a community of people who appreciated his good ideas and weird humor, and he was 100% sure that they would love a video where he was an Uber driver for a week to force himself to drive. So he grabbed his laptop and started planning.
Setting his account up and renting a car within the app did not take long so it helped Phil to not overthink the whole idea. How hard could driving after not practicing for 21 years be? He could try it out a bit and then forget everything had happened if he crashed into something (or someone). It was going to be fine.
Pick-up for the rental car was not too far from his apartment. It was on a busy area too, so Phil knew he would get some requests for rides easily. He parked nearby to set up his camera on the front of the car and turned it on to explain the video to his subscribers.
He was suddenly interrupted by his first ride request. He took a full minute reading the details when they popped up on his screen. And, listen, Phil was no one to shame another person but this guy —Daniel Howell, apparently— had requested a trip to go five blocks down the street in a straight line to go to the dentist. It was easy enough for a first ride, anyways, so Phil accepted it and got to work.
Driving, it turned out, was easier than Phil thought. Streets were calm enough that he managed to get to the pick-up spot without even a risk of crashing his car, which was better than he thought he'd do. He noticed a tall brunette man waiting for him as he pulled up. Phil loved making up backstories for random strangers and the fact that this guy looked like an anxious chihuahua while also being the tallest person Phil had seen in a while worked wonders for that. He did not have much time to wonder because as soon as the guy got into the car he started speaking.
"Hi, hello. You may see that this is quite a short journey. You see, I sprained my ankle."
Phil stayed silent for a second. He never spoke to the Uber driver when he took one, he didn't know people usually explained their rides. He felt bad for shaming this guy when he had injured himself and was probably relying on Uber to get everywhere. "Oh, I'm sorry for that. Are you okay?"
The guy then looked at him through the mirror and when Phil looked back at him his second thought was that not looking at the road was probably the first cause of car accidents. His first thought was that he could not tear his eyes away from Daniel's face. He was just the most gorgeous man he had ever seen. In his 38 years of life he had never stared at such pretty eyes. He only managed to stop staring because they were arriving to their dropoff barely a minute and a half into the ride.
"Yes, thank you," said Daniel, as he struggled out of the car. The guy stood on the sidewalk looking back at him and Phil could not bring himself to drive away. He told himself he was doing a good thing because this guy had to cross the street and it was a dangerous thing to do with his sprained ankle. So he allowed himself to wait for Daniel to enter the dentist office.
Phil didn't believe in love at first sight because that had never gone well in the past for him, but he truly thought this might be one of those moments. What happened next, however, left him speechless and reconsidering all his previous thoughts. When the light turned red, Daniel started crossing the street with the most obnoxious and most obviously fake limp. It was almost fun to watch, especially when he switched what was the "bad" foot half way through the street and started putting all his weight on it.
What a weirdo.
Phil was in love with him.
When Daniel finally closed the door of the dental office, Phil turned on his camera and started telling what just had happened. He had successfully made his first ride ever while also getting a great anecdote in the way. Everything was going according to plan.
His second ride was a lot less uneventful. Phil just focused on not crashing the car or running any red lights. He got the hang of it pretty easily. He was proud of himself for trying this out because it was obvious that most of the struggle to do so was in his head. If he managed to not kill anyone by the end of the week, the video was going to be inspiring. Phil was already excited for that.
And he also started enjoying the Uber part of it. People apparently loved talking to their drivers. Some people asked him about his day, some talked about sports, and some —just like Daniel— told him where they were headed at. Someone even recognized him, and it was pretty hard explaining why AmazingPhil was his Uber driver for the day.
By the end of his self-imposed three hour shift, Phil was exhausted. He couldn't believe he had survived driving in London for so long without committing any crimes at all. He ordered some lunch while he edited his next video and tried not to think too much about Daniel the rest of the day.
The next morning, Phil was mad at himself for forcing himself to get another job. But he ate some cereal and got ready for his second day. Driving with music proved to be a lot more fun than driving without it, even if old people told him to turn it off. One girl even complemented his taste, so he was obviously going to include that in the video. No one seemed to point out that he was a bad driver even though he really was, so he counted that as a victory. Three hours later, Phil was ready to head back home when a new ride request popped up in his phone. He was about to decline the trip when he noticed the location for pick-up.
It was Daniel Howell's house.
He accepted immediately. A second thought told him that maybe someone else was requesting a ride from that address. Maybe it was Daniel's girlfriend... Phil only relaxed a little bit when he noticed Daniel himself had requested that ride. Only then did he notice that it was a forty minute drive. He had never driven for that long at a time AND had to go on the motorway. Fuck. He was going to crash and kill himself and this perfect (and really dumb) guy.
But he had to make the ride. Phil had always believed in fate. This guy requesting two different Uber rides just as Phil was close-by was not a coincidence. Also considering that Phil was not an Uber driver, he was just making a silly video for his YouTube channel. It had to mean something, right?
He arrived to the pick-up spot and his heartbeat started speeding up as soon as he saw Daniel waiting for him. He was wearing a white shirt and some dressing pants, and luckily there was no girlfriend in sight.
Daniel had to walk a bit to get to the car and Phil laughed out loud when he noticed he wasn't limping. He got in the car without taking his eyes off his phone. Maybe he was starting to become a full on Uber driver because —even before noticing how good Daniel's curls looked— he could only think: "What a rude client". The feeling didn't last for long because he then noticed that Daniel was frowning and typing quickly. Phil debated between leaving him alone or talking to him and it didn't take him long to decide on the latter.
"Glad to see your ankle is doing better"
Daniel raised his head immediately and his faced turned red in recognition. It was good to see that he had recognized Phil, and it was funny to see him struggling to explain himself.
"It's- Yeah, yes. It's gotten better"
"You could've just said that you were running late, you know?"
Daniel covered his face at that and Phil thought that maybe he was taking it too far but then Daniel started laughing. "Yeah, I guess I should've. Did I look too stupid?"
"I've done worse," replied Phil. They looked at each other through the rearview mirror for one second and Phil could only think that he was glad that Daniel took care of his teeth because he had the most beautiful smile.
"I'm Dan"
"Nice to meet you again, Dan. I'm Phil. Do you mind me asking where are we heading over now?"
Phil was trying to keep his eyes on the road but Dan's silence was a little too long. He took a quick glance and noticed that Dan looked really tired all of a sudden. "Um... I'm kinda going to quit my job."
"Oh, and why is that?"
"You can't laugh at me or tell me it's a stupid decision because everyone else already did that."
"I won't!! I'm very open minded I swear," Phil rushed to say.
"The thing is that I went to law school and became a lawyer even though I've never really liked it so I don't care if I'm too old anymore I'm quitting..." Dan took a deep breath. "To become a YouTuber."
It was so out of the blue that Phil couldn't help it but burst out laughing.
"I told you you were going to laugh at me!"
"Sorry, sorry! It's not an stupid decision at all," he replied. He saw Dan shuffling in his seat, his face turned to the side in a question.
"Do you really think that?"
"Dan, do you want to know why I'm an Uber driver?" He nodded. "You don't have to fear for your life because I swear I'm a better driver now but I wanted to force myself to drive because I haven't used my license since I was 18. And instead of like... going for a drive alone or something, I decided to become an Uber driver because I thought it would be a good idea for a YouTube video for my channel."
He saw Dan's eyes lit up (and Phil really needed to keep his eyes on the road). "You're a Youtuber?"
"I've been one for the last 19 years!" Phil said proudly. They let that linger between them for a second.
"I can't believe you used me as a guinea pig for your driving project".
"Hey! It was a one minute drive!"
"I was running late!!" said Dan, starting to laugh again. "Sorry that you had to see me limping down the road."
"It was amusing, to be honest. You're lucky you're pretty," said Phil, trusting fate too much to feel anxious about flirting. If Dan didn't reciprocate his feelings they were about to have a very 30 uncomfortable minutes left of their ride.
He felt Dan's stare on him for some seconds until he spoke: "Actually, pretty privilege saved you from me calling the police on you for almost killing me with your bad driving".
"I'm not a bad driver!" Phil said as they both struggled to keep a straight face.
Their chat took on from there until they arrived to their location. It turned out that, despite having very different careers, Dan and Phil had a lot in common. They liked the same videogames, had been to the same concerts, and even watched the same Youtubers, which made Phil wonder about an alternate universe where Dan had gotten one of his videos recommended and maybe had become a fan. But that was even more absurd that meeting in an Uber, right?
Phil almost took a wrong turn on purpose because he didn't know what else to do to keep talking with Dan. He felt betrayed by the fact that he had to drop him off and then continue with his life.
"Phil?"
"Yeah?"
"Could I have your number? For Uber reasons, of course." Phil thought he was going to have a heart attack. He hit the brakes so hard that Dan almost hit his head with the front seat.
"Uber reasons, right, of course," said Phil in a rush, his heartbeat louder than his own words. He handed Dan his phone with shaky hands. "You're going to get yourself killed"
Dan smiled, his face bright and calm. "It's worth the try." He gave Phil his phone back and grabbed his things to get off the car.
Phil rolled out the window as Dan was walking away. "Good luck quitting your job!" he shouted.
"Good luck killing pedestrians," said Dan as he got into the building.
Phil spent the 45 minutes of his drive home replaying every single thing Dan had told him in his head. Sometimes fate meant not crashing your car on your second day ever of driving and sometimes it meant meeting your soulmate because of a one minute Uber ride. And now he had Dan's number. It took Phil less than a minute to decide what to text him
"I heard you needed an Uber ride to go have dinner tomorrow"
Dan texted back immediately.
"I do :)"