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“So?” Phil asked, immediately after their hotel door fell shut. It was already past three am, and they had only now finished filming. Thankfully they’d see Sam and Colby again in the morning for hotel breakfast, meaning they didn’t need to do the whole awkward goodbye thing in the hallway just now.
“So, what?” Dan responded, stifling a yawn. Three am wasn’t too strange a time for him to be awake, but usually he didn’t spend his night hours walking this much. Let alone filming.
“As much as I appreciate you not letting your skepticism get in the way of a good video, I know you must be dying to tell me all the reasons why everything we experienced tonight was actually totally normal.” Dan gave him a once-over; unlike himself, Phil was still standing by the door fully clothed, shoes and all, looking rather tense. Oh, so that’s how it was.
Still, he decided to tease him a bit before giving in. Because they both knew he would. He always would.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he responded. “I'm one-hundred-per no totally convinced now. Ghosts are real, and if we had stayed any longer, we probably would have been beaten up by a poltergeist.”
Phil rolled his eyes, but at least he finally started taking off his shoes and jacket. “Really, no comments about, like, the unreliability of EMF readers or something?”
“Nope” He laid down on the bed, happy to finally be able to stretch out all of his limbs again without hitting stone.
“Really?” Phil asked.
“Unless, of course…”
“Unless what?” Phil immediately turned away from their suitcase to look at him.
“Unless, of course, you’re scared and need me to explain away the monsters for you.”
Phil momentarily froze before slowly turning around to the suitcase again and taking out his PJs. Dan almost felt bad now. He looked stressed.
“Nope, Sam and Colby know what they are doing. None of the ghosts came with us.”
God damn it, who was he kidding? “I mean, now that I’m thinking about it, the flashlight was already a bit faulty before we started to use it to communicate with the spirit. Us thinking it was talking to us was probably just apophenia anyway. Lots of things are.”
“Ha, I knew they didn’t beat the skepticism out of you.” Phil exclaimed, but at least he was smiling again.
“Like anyone could. Regardless, using EMF readers is mostly bullshit, like we had phones, cameras, and all that ghost-hunting equipment with us.” Huh? Maybe Phil had been right, and he needed to get this off his chest. “They could have just as easily set off the EMF reader. And don’t get me started on the motion’s sensors. Those things are probably hypersensitive and pick up on things like flies or even just changes in the air flow.”
Phil had finally finished changing and laid down on the end next to him, watching Dan as he explained all the reasons why ghost hunting equipment didn’t work.
“Sure, buddy. Keep telling yourself that. But I saw how scared you were while we were in the castle.” How on earth had Phil turned this around on him now?
“First of all, you weren’t any less scared. Secondly, of course, I was scared we were in a dark castle, part of which was definitely at risk of collapse, not to mention all the stories of torture and evilness.”
“Aha,” Phil mumbled, but he looked fully at peace now. Mission accomplished. “Why don’t you tell me more about that tomorrow? I’m tired, and you haven’t even changed yet.”
“I- you wanted me to do this.” He protested, but of course he got up to change. His jeans were starting to bug him anyway.
Less than five minutes later, they were both snuggled under the blanket of their (singular!) king-sized bed. They had opted to skip the shower for now despite the musty castle smell coming off both of them. They might not have brought any evil spirits back with them, but there was definitely some castle wall stuck in their hair from the part they had to crouch in.
“Are you okay, by the way? Not actually dizzy?” He had meant to ask after the séance, but there hadn’t been any time, and Phil hadn’t shown any of his usual signs when a migraine or dizziness attack was approaching.
“What?” Phil asked, already sounding sleepy, “Oh, nah. That was the ghost talking, not me.”
“Yeah right,” Dan responded, but there was no fire behind it.
“Excuse me, are you questioning my legitimacy as a conduit for the ghosts?”
“Please, I know you and you spend half that séance trying to tell me you wanted to go home.”
“I did not,” Phil mumbled. “The spirit did say home…. At least once.”
“Alright, bub. I believe you.” He whispered in Phil’s ear
“Good.” Phil responded.
“But just to be clear, there is no migraine coming?”
Phil shook his head and cuddled up closer to Dan, despite the fact that he was already practically on him. Maybe they could make some of the money that they used to buy performative twin-rooms back by getting single-bed rooms from now on. Who needed a double if they were sleeping like this? Not that he was complaining; if anything, he was quite glad to have Phil this close. Not that he would admit it. After all, he wasn’t scared!
“No, just got overwhelmed. And the ghost really did say something like that. Was a bit rumbly, though.”
“Sure.”
“I am.”
For a while Dan thought Phil had simply fallen asleep, despite the light still being on, when he suddenly spoke again. “I’m glad we did this. They were actually really nice. I kept on thinking I would mess it up somehow, but in the end it was just-“
“Fun?” Dan offered, knowing exactly what Phil meant.
“Yeah, I mean scary cause of all the ghosts, but fun.”
“I’m glad we did it too.”
A couple more minutes had gone by when Phil spoke again. “Are you gonna turn off the light any time soon?”
“Soon,” Dan answered, trying his best to sound normal, but of course it didn’t work.
“Daniel,” Phil gasped, “don’t tell me you’re afraid of turning off the lights now.”
“Not now. I’ve always been afraid of the dark, remember?” He protested. “I made a video about it.”
“Hm. Yet somehow you never mind turning the lights off at home.” Phil grinned.
“Whatever,” Dan responded.
“Just turn off the light. I’ll protect you. I promise.”
“Fine.” Dan sighed, but he did as he was told, and if he immediately buried his face in Phil’s neck afterwards, no one really needed to know that.