Surprisingly, Dan didn't explode.
Instead, he started crying. Acid tears streamed down his already stained cheeks. He was breaking down.
"Manchester," He managed to get out, "My baby is in Manchester,"
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Phil hugged him tight. "Manchester isn't that far away, remember? We can get a quick flight and be there in no more than an hour, maybe an hour and a half."
Dan wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "Okay," He murmured, "Thank you, kitten,"
It didn't take long to get the airline tickets (thank God for iPhones) and soon enough, Dan and Phil were off on what would turn out to be both their worst and greatest adventure.
They decided it'd be best to run to a bank before hailing a cab, as they had used up all their pocket money on the ride downtown.
Phil typed their code into one of the ATMs along the outside wall and collected one hundred and fifty pounds from the account.
"That's quite a lot of money," Dan noted. "Do we really need that much?"
"You'd be surprised how little you can do with anything less than a hundred. We need to be sure we have enough cash for travel and food. If we get a chance to stop for a quick bite, we best take it."
Dan nodded and follow Phil out of the building, not wanting to waste anymore time.
They spent no more than five pounds on the drive to the airport, as it was just two or three miles away.
They scurried up the escalators (Dan got his hoodie sleeve stuck for a half a second. Much panic. Many strange stares for random strangers.) and through security check all the way to their gate.
Wheezing a bit from the mild exercise they'd just endured, Dan and Phil melted into the chairs provided.
"Do you want coffee?" Phil offered, taking Dan's hand in his.
"Yeah," He smiled at his husband. "But I'll get it. It's good for me to keep my mind busy, right now. I don't want to over think everything and start freaking out again," He tried to laugh at himself, but it turned out weak and just plain sad.
Phil frown and the tip of his tongue poked out of the side of his mouth. He didn't want to leave Dan's side during these trying times. He had promised to spend every second of the rest of his life with him. But if Dan felt that alone time was what he needed, then Phil would give him some space.
"Okay," He said, faking indifference, "Could you get me a tall black and a raspberry scone?"
Dan gasped dramatically and pretended to be deeply offended. "Philip! I thought me being a tall white was fine with you, but if you'd prefer someone darker than I guess I better just--"
Phil rolled his eyes "Shut up, you big dork,"
"Fine, fine, I'll get going," Dan smiled and stood from his seat. "So just to be clear, you want an extra grande coconut latte with a splash of whiskey and a German muffin? Correct?"
Phil face palmed and laughed. "You're such an idiot."
"I may be an idiot but I'm your idiot," Dan said smugly, "foreverrrrr" He added, pointing to his silver wedding ring.
Phil laughed more, then managed to ask, "And what in the world is a German muffin anyway?"
Dan shrugged and smiled mischievously. "I dunno. Guess you'll find out."
Dan walked over to the tiny Starbucks stand in the little food court area. Luckily, there was barely any line and he could order right away.
He got two tall black coffees and a raspberry scone (hopefully Phil would let him have a bite or two) and started to walk back, but something caught his eye.
A young girl with dark hair was leaning over a sketch pad. She was drawing Phil!
Dan watched her from behind for a while until he realized how creepy that must've looked and decided to say something to her. "AmazingPhil, huh? You know, I'm his biggest fan."
"I'm pretty sure I'm his biggest fan. Fight me," The girl responded without looking up.
Dan chuckled lightly and replied (in his best Winnie The Pooh voice), "Oh no, I'm not the fighting sort."
At this, the girl whipped around, her eyes wide and mouth hung open. "Y-y-you're Dan!" She stuttered, "hOLY CRAP IT'S ACTUALLY YOU!!!" She shouted and tackled him in a hug. "I never thought I'd actually meet you but... just... WOW!"
Dan laughed and hugged her back. "That's a beautiful drawing," He told her sincerely. In it, Phil was smiling with his tongue poking out the side of his mouth. And of course he was wearing his lion onesie. "Very accurate."
"Thank you," She blushed . "My name's Willa, by the way."
"Well, hello, Willa, I'm Daniel Howlter."
Willa laughed. "Where's Phil?"
"He's found us some seats near gate thirteen."
"Thirteen?! That's the same flight I'm on!" She said excitedly. "I'll try to finish this drawing on the plane so I can give it to you before we land!"
"Sounds like a good plan! See you soon!"
Dan then snapped a quick selfie with Willa on her phone and hurried back to Phil.
"What took you so long?" Phil asked, pretending to be irritated.
"Ran into a Phangirl." Dan said handing him his coffee and scone.
"A Phangirl?! Dan! You have to tell me when you meet someone so I can meet them too! I wish I could've seen her!" Phil pouted.
Dan laughed and sipped his coffee. "Her name is Willa and she's on our flight so I'm sure you'll see her at some point."
"Yay!" Phil cheered happily. He really did love meeting fans!
"She was quite the artist, too. She was actually drawing a picture of you when I met her!"
"Daaaan! Staaaahhhhppp!!!! Now I really really really want to meet her and the suspense is killing me!!!"
Dan laughed again, "Maybe you'll see her on the plane. Now come on, I think we're boarding."
They stood in line to get on the plane, along with everyone else headed to Manchester that day, and waited to board.
"Mmmm... Well aren't you just the cutest little bloke," The lady behind the desk flirted when Dan handed her his ticket.
"Oi!" Phil wrapped an arm protectively around his Dan. "He's mine. Back off, please."
The lady bit her lower lip and smiled naughtily. "Oh, poor baby, I wasn't talking to him,"
Phil's blue eyes widened in surprise but he managed to quickly snap out of his daze and throw his ticket onto the desk and scurry away, holding tight onto Dan's hand.
"That was... weird...." Phil curled his lip in disgust. Had a woman really tried to flirt with him? But he was gay! Maybe it wasn't obvious enough? Maybe he should wear more rainbows and glitter....
"Ha! You are a cute bloke, Philly." Dan said, kissing his nose. "And I love how protective you got when you thought she was hitting on me," He winked.
"Well what did you expect?" Phil smiled, "I'm from the North, mate."
Dan giggled and hugged him. "My cute little bad boy boyfriend," He cooed.
"Your cute little bad boy husband," Phil corrected proudly.
"You're right," Dan said, kissing his hand before taking his seat on the plane.
"NO!" Phil exclaimed loudly.
"WHAT?!" Dan asked, startled.
"The window seat is mine," Phil said, childishly pushing Dan over to the middle seat.
"Jesus Christ, Philip! You scared me!" Dan tried to be annoyed but couldn't help laughing, "I thought someone had stolen your bag or something!"
"HA! Like I'd ever let anyone steal my bag! Guess what I stuffed it with?"
Dan grabbed the bag from Phil and ripped it open. "MALTEASERS!!!" He cheered. The entire bag was filled to the brim with malteasers (and Lion).
Dan took out a small package and split it with Phil. Mmmm... chocolate.... yummmm......
"Hey, Phil, you got a little something right there," Dan said, pointing to the little smudge of chocolate on his lower lip. "Let me get it for you,"
Dan was leaning in to kiss Phil when Phil suddenly shot up out of his seat.
"THAT GIRL OVER THERE IS HOLDING A DRAWING OF ME! IS THAT WILLA? DAN I REALLY WANT TO MEET WILLA!" He said excitedly, jumping up and down a bit.
"Shhh! Phil! Sit down!" Dan pulled on his arm but Phil didn't want to calm down.
Dan peered over the heads of dozens of complete strangers (most of which were staring at them because of Phil's outburst) and caught a glimpse of the dark haired girl smiling back at him.
"Yeah, that's Willa," Dan confirmed. "You can say hi later,"
"Okay!" Phil agreed. He would hold Dan to that promise.
Within the next thirty minutes, the plane had taken off, flown a bit, and was almost ready to begin its decent.
"What was that?" Dan panicked when the plane started shaking.
"Just a little turbulence, bear," Phil said, trying to convince himself more than Dan. That was more that just a tiny tremor.
"There! It did it again!" Dan's eyes widened.
"I'm sure the pilot's got everything under cont--"
And that's when they started falling.
(A/N) OOOOH! CLIFFHANGER!!! I feel like I haven't written a chapter in ages but turns out it's just been like 2 days!
Oh whale!
I hope every fellow American had a fun and safe 4th of July!
-Mel