Dream a Little Dream // Daniel Howell x Reader

Chapter 9

Dan leaned back, resting his feet on the coffee table as he reclined into a browsing position of sorts. He took out his phone from his pajamas' pocket, noticing what time it currently was. He felt a little uneasy at how late it was, it was well past 9:00pm and still no sign of Phil. Phil had gone out sometime in the afternoon and now it was nightfall; Where was he?

No text either, it was completely unlike his friend to give no indication as to where he was. Dan swallowed nervously, quickly finding Phil's contact information and sending him a swift text.

MSG To Phil:

Where are you? You've been gone for quite some time and I was wondering where you went. Hopefully the squirrels didn't gain intelligence, rally against you and capture you as a human slave. I hope not cause that would be bad

Dan hit send way to quickly, cringing at the obnoxiously ridiculous text he had sent to his friend without thinking properly. He bit his lip as his fingers sped across the screen to type up another hasty reply.

MSG To Phil:

Text me soon, thnx.

Dan rolled his eyes and slumped back into the sofa, hoping his texts didn't come off as an overly concerned parent. Though to be fair he had a good reason for worrying when it came to Phil. The guy could be such a child sometimes, his pure innocence getting the better of him sometimes. And his willingness to help people, one day he was definitely going to accidently help someone bury a body because they needed help carrying their 'luggage'.

Dan sighed, coming to the conclusion that he shouldn't worry right now. Maybe he was just caught up in something important at the moment. If he didn't get a text in 30 minutes, he would text again.

Alright, 30 minutes is a stretch. 15 minutes then he gets a call.

In efforts to bury the rising anxieties in his chest, Dan brought the blanket over his head and wrapped it tightly around his body. He poked his hands through the fabric so he could browse the internet while he waited for a response. His skin pricked with unease at how quiet the apartment was without someone else present, the thought of being alone making Dan chew his lip worriedly. He glanced down the hallways, the unlit corridors sending shivers down his spine as he thought about what could be lurking there.

Truthfully he was terrified of the dark, the thoughts of the unknown that would wait in the dark a shuttering fear for him. At least when someone else was in the apartment, it put his unreasonable fright at ease to a somewhat functioning level. That's why it was great to have Phil as his flatmate; the benefit of having someone else look out for shadow lurking demons and the fact that Phil would sometimes leave the lights on all night. Granted in order to save money it was wise to turn them off, but the simple action of lighting up a dark room was all Dan needed to keep calm.

Yet here was the current dilemma; Phil wasn't here and the lights were still off. Two of his greatest fears all squished into one horrendous blob. He let out a small whimper, shrinking closer into the couch as he took his legs off the coffee table to tuck them underneath the blanket. He cradled his phone between his chest and legs, trying his best to keep his focus on the Tumblr page lighting up his screen.

The home page featured some miscellaneous pictures of boy band members, specifically K-pop artists with some flowery edits added to them, hundreds of notes encouraging the account for more posts like that. Scrolling down further, there were a few anime posts that highlighted recent episodes; Dan quickly zoomed past them once he realized that they could contain some unwanted spoilers.

Funnily enough, a picture of himself appeared every so often through the jumble of images that fell past. Mostly highlights from his recent videos, embarrassing gifs taken out of context and the occasional piece of amazing fanart. Then there was Phil, an equal amount of things about him posted on his page as well. It was somewhat unreal when Dan realized that it was impossible to skip over content of himself and Phil; they practically ruled Tumblr at this point; their fanbase a towering force online.