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Dan was about to embarrass himself. Here he was, a full fledged professional. A judge, someone who was supposed to be held to a high moral standard. Not just that, a judge with a reputation for being a hardass. And he was about to be giggling like a school girl because AmazingPhil was beaming at him, bright under the lights, blue eyes glowing, sequined vest sparkling, and now he had to give his critique.
It was the second week of the show, and Dan had really done his best to be professional. It was just that this was a very longstanding crush. Imagine if you walked into your office one day and the guy who used to be on posters hanging in childhood bedroom wall was now shaking your hand and expecting you to do your job.
Despite that Dan had made it through their first introduction, charming but not too charming as he shook his hand at the cast mixer. Phil was an insatiable flirt and that nearly did him in, but he knew Phil’s reputation and was at least prepared for it. Phil had clearly known he was gay, and Phil himself had been out for years now, but Dan politely, and in his opinion smoothly, kept them inside the rails of professionalism. Most pivotally he got through that interaction without revealing that he was a fan, a proper fan, and had been for a long time.
Week one judging was a bit… less professional. To be honest Phil was a bumbling mess out there. Thank god there were no eliminations week one because he was off beat, ungraceful, and forgot half the steps, but god was he cute doing it. Normally that was the sort of performance Dan would have ripped to shreds, especially for a guy young like Phil, someone you’d expect to have some amount of athleticism, but instead he said something silly about Phil’s enthusiasm and “a bit more focus in practice next week”. And oh god did people notice. His co-judges, the pros, even Twitter; talk about how he was off his game, going soft, and way, way too many people who were right. Dan had a silly crush on the YouTuber contestant.
That’s how he knew he was going to embarrass himself now, because it was another horrific performance. Dan just didn’t care. It would be like telling a golden retriever who lost a stick when playing fetch that he was a bad boy. How could you say something so cruel to a face like that? So instead, Dan told Phil that he could see how much effort he put into it, how much he cared, and that was all true. It just wasn’t enough to make it a good performance; to cover up his wacky posture and worried face and tripping steps. But Dan left that part of the critique to the other judges.
The scores from the judges went up. A two, a three, and from Dan a five. Oh boy, he was in trouble.
Except he wasn’t in trouble, because by the end of the show Phil was eliminated, and thank god. He seemed in good spirits about it, laughing and hugging the other cast members. Dan was sad to see him go, but having this guy on the show any longer would have been devastating for his reputation. He wasn’t the worst performer of the night, but the audience loves to save a sweet old man and some of these musicians have just massive fanbases, so the audience vote had cost Phil the game.
As the crowd thinned out Dan made his approach. His very professional and standard goodbye approach. “Sorry to see you go so soon! I meant what I said before, I really admire the amount of care and dedication you put in from this week to last. Not everyone comes ready to do that.”
Phil grinned at him. “That’s alright! I said I would try new things, and I sure tried it. Now I know to never do this again.” He laughed. “Anyway, I think I’m better off going out now.”
Dan frowned. “No! I bet you could have made great progress with more time, don’t say you’re better off.”
Phil took a step closer, a small smirk on his face. He leaned into Dan’s space. “I say I’m better off because I don’t think I could have asked you this otherwise, conflict of interest and all that.”
Dan gulped. Surely this wasn’t actually happening. Was today real, was this a dream? “Asked me what?”
“Would you like to go get a coffee some time?”