I Want It, I Got It: Chapter 23
Summary: Phil Lester was a worker for the BBC in London. Working in the advertising department, he was content being alongside his friend and fellow coworker PJ during every shift. However, the BBC is temporarily being used as a film set for a new movie staring Hollywood ‘It’ star, Daniel Howell. Being stuck as an extra on the set, Phil finds it’s hard to ignore the famous star. And maybe, just maybe, Dan finds it hard to ignore Phil as well.
Word Count: 2.6k (this chapter)
Warnings: Occasional swearing
Rating: Explicit
Updates will be every Sunday around 1pm EST
**MASTERLIST | READ ON AO3 | WATTPAD**
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
Phil rubs the inside of his eyes with his fingers and lets out a long, drawn out sigh.
“It’ll be okay, Phil.” Dan says, his voice gentle on the other end of the line. “I’ve talked with Marianne and she’s working on getting all stories surrounding us pulled from news sites and TV news. I also am working closely with my publicist who is telling me that you shouldn’t post our videos we filmed together on YouTube right now until this all moves on.”
Phil groans and rubs his hand over his face, tugging at the skin. “Is this going to be a mess?”
Dan sighs, his voice crackling a bit through the receiver. “Probably a bit but…we’ll get it sorted.”
“I hope so.”
“I know that it’s hard right now but just…please don’t go on social media. My publicist wants me to issue a statement so I’m going to but I won’t say anything about us. I promise.”
Phil’s heart picks up its beating and he feels like he’s going to sick all over the floor. Spike takes note of his sudden tension and climbs onto the couch, fitting into his lap and curling into a ball on his thighs. He reaches down and runs his fingers through his fur, comforting himself.
“What are you going to say?” Phil asks, feeling his voice crack a bit.
“I’m just going to ask for privacy and I’m going to ask for the media to basically stop.”
“Is that going to work?” Phil asks. He can’t help but have doubts.
“Hopefully.” Dan says. “I know what you feel though…I’m pretty upset by all of this too.”
“We should have expected it.” Phil says and he’s not sure who he’s even saying it to: Dan or himself.
“Of course but that doesn’t make it easier.”
“I know.”
Dan sighs. “I’m gonna be honest, Phil. I’m not sure what to do.”
“Me either.”
“I’ve spoken to every possible person on my side and the only thing we can do at this point is release some statements or try and keep quiet.”
“I know.”
“Fuck.” Dan exclaimed, followed by the sound of something heavy falling in the background. “Oh my god!”
“Dan?” Phil asked, his voice suddenly rising. Spike whimpered on his lap and he ran his hands through his fur to calm him down. “What’s going on?”
“This is actually unbelievable!”
“What is?”
“Phil, I just got word that I’ve been casted as Christopher Robin in a new live-action adaptation of Winnie the Pooh!”
Phil felt his stomach fall to the ground. He doesn’t know why, but the news of that causes his stomach to knot even more. “That’s amazing!”
“Phil, I literally―Oh my fucking god, this could not have come at a better timing! I needed something like this today. You have no idea. I auditioned for this role like four months ago and they gave me a call back and I went and I thought I totally fucked my chances but oh my God.”
“I’m really glad that everything worked out.” Phil says. “I hope it all works out for us too…”
“We’ll figure this out, Phil.” Dan says, his voice wavering a bit over the speaker. “Together.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“I’m going to draft my statement and then have it be approved by Marianne. I’ll text you when I’m about to post it but if I were you, I’d delete social media for the foreseeable future.”
Phil nodded his head.
He said his goodbye’s to Dan not long after. Dan was coming to London soon anyway and hopefully when they’re together, they can get this figured out a bit more than it is right now. Because right now, Phil is feeling like this is going to be a disaster in waiting.
He’d spoken to his mum about it some more but it didn’t end up helping in the long run when his mum just kept telling him they should hire him someone who can help. Phil didn’t want that. He just wanted the drama to be fixed. He wanted to be left alone but right now, he can’t even go to the park without being noticed.
In his wildest dreams, he has thought about living a life like this. But for Phil, this life was because he was a famous YouTuber, not a famous movie star. However, after being around Dan for as long as he has, he’s realized pretty quickly he doesn’t want this.
Phil doesn’t turn the TV back on that night, nor does he even pick up his laptop. He’s running behind on his assignments for the BBC and it’s quite sad for him to feel like he doesn’t even care. He doesn’t care if his assignments are late. He doesn’t care he if even finishes them at all.
He just wants to be left alone.
Sometime that night, his doorbell goes off. It scares him half to death but he climbs up from the couch and makes his way over, peering out the peephole. His brother is stood on the other side, holding a large pizza box in his hand.
Phil opens the door slowly and steps aside so Martyn can come in. “Mum rung me like an other ago. She wanted me to make sure you’re okay so I brought some pizza from Dominos since I know you like to eat that when you’re stressed.”
Phil feels his lips curl into a smile. “What kind did you get?”
“Well,” Martyn says, walking past Phil to set the pizza down on his breakfast bar. “Dominos got rid of the sizzler so I ended up just getting pepperoni.”
Phil opens the box and is immediately salivating over the smell of greasy pizza and plastic cheese. He didn’t even realize he hadn’t ate the entire day until he was suddenly reaching for a slice and nearly inhaling it down in the process.
“So tell me what’s going on.” Martyn says. “Brother to brother. Friend to friend.”
“Dan and I officially began our relationship when I was in the US.” Phil says.
“Oh, that’s brilliant!”
“Well, yeah, but it’s also not.” Phil says. “Because paparazzi are following us everywhere and we literally cannot go anywhere without be ambushed. Just this afternoon, I was met with a pap in the park with Spike, taking photos of me and yelling after me to tell him about Dan.”
“What did you say?” Martyn asked, taking a bite of his slice.
“I didn’t say anything to them.” Phil says. “I just ran off.”
“Did you tell Dan about it?” Martyn presses. “Mum said she told you to contact him.”
“I talked to him this afternoon.”
“And what did Dan say about it?”
“He’s working with his own team to clear everything up.” Phil says. “But it doesn’t matter because nothing will change.”
“But isn’t that what you signed up for when you began to pursue Dan?” Martyn pressed.
“Don’t start acting like mum.”
“I’m not meaning to.” Martyn paused and Phil looked at his brother. “I just mean that you clearly decided that you wanted to be Dan so isn’t it not all that shocking that all of this is happening? Like, Dan’s name has been the source of headlines all over the world for the past three years.”
“I know.” Phil says. He set’s down his pizza slice onto his plate and pushes it aside. He doesn’t feel hungry anymore, just sick and a bit greasy. “But Dan isn’t like that.”
“Like what?”
“He’s not that typical celebrity figure that everyone thinks he is. He hates being in the tabloids and he actively hides to try and get away. You should have seen how much he panicked even going out to get food. He normally gets his manager to pick him up something instead and bring it to his house. He also wears sunglasses and hoodies in public to try and hide but they always notice him. We went into a restaurant for a few moments and every person was staring at him. It made him so uncomfortable that he left and told me to order his food for him.” Phil feels winded when he’s done speaking. “Do you know what any of what I said means?”
Martyn nods, but doesn’t say anything right away.
Phil picks up his slice of pizza and takes another bite, willing himself to keep it down despite his body protesting a bit. Martyn continues to eat in silence as well and the tension in the air is pulled tight like a rubber band about to snap. Spike comes over sometime in the middle of this silence and Phil bends down and hands him a tiny bite of the pizza.
“You’re really smitten with Dan, aren’t you?”
Phil looks up at Martyn. “What do you mean?”
“You seem to know so much about him and care about him more than you’ve cared about anyone else in a while. You’re quick to defend him and to state his story. You’re really gone for him.”
Phil blushes because everything that Martyn says in true. “I know I am.”
“Are we going to have a new Lester in the family one day?”
Phil shrugs and refuses to answer. Martyn lets out a laugh and Phil chuckles as well. The tension in his stomach unknots and he feels a lot better now about everything. He finishes off two more slices of pizza and then he and Martyn watch some anime on his TV.
***
Dan: I posted the statement
Dan: Marianne checked to make sure I didn’t have any typos
Phil wakes up to those messages on his phone screen. It takes him a moment to adjust to being awake, grabbing his glasses in the meantime. He puts them on and reads the screen again and feels his heart pick up pace a little bit.
He sees that Dan sent him a screenshot of his tweet with the statement and he looks it over, reading it carefully.
“I don’t say this enough but I wanted to make it clear that I would like for my private life to remain private. It is hard to maintain a balance between being in public and also being in my private time. I ask that my privacy be respected in these times and I ask that news stations consult with me before running anything about me or the people I’m associated with. If my private life continues to be a source of news for many people, I will consider taking legal action. Thank you, Daniel”
Phil doesn’t know what to think reading it over. Should he have a reaction?
Phil throws his phone to the side.
He gets up slowly and let’s Spike out for a bathroom break before he takes a shower and get’s ready for work.
At the BBC, he keeps to himself the entire day. He doesn’t speak even with PJ. He finds it easier to just work on what he needs to and then leave at the time he’s supposed to.
When he leaves the BBC after work is over, he’s met with paparazzi outside the building. Phil should have known that would happen. He keeps his head low and he fights his way through them until he reaches the other side and makes a beeline for his tube station.
He stops and picks up food at the Sainsbury’s across the street from his flat and when he gets back to his flat, he lays down on his couch with Spike and cuddles him. His phone has a few messages on it from PJ, his mum, and a few from Dan. But he can’t bring himself up to actually answering any of them. He finds himself in a funk of not wanting to go through all of this.
Phil opens his laptop up a few hours later. On his screen is a little window saying that his video was done exporting―the assumptions video that he filmed with Dan in LA. Dan told him that his publicist told him not to post the video, but something inside of himself tells him to post it anyway.
Beside him, his phone begins to vibrate for a phone call and he looks down and sees Dan’s photo pop up the screen. It’s a photo Phil took of Dan in LA, when they were lying in bed one night. He looked so angelic, so peaceful. But yet, the smile on his voice showed happiness like Phil has never seen before.
He picks up his phone and answers it, putting it on speaker.
“You haven’t answered me all day,” Dan says, his voice wavering a bit. “Are you okay?”
Phil pinches the bridge of his nose. “Going to be honest, not really.”
“I kind of figured,” Dan says. “I’m not either.” Dan pauses and silence fills the room once again. “I just wanted us to be able to have a normal relationship, ya know? Going on dates, having cute little adventures.”
“We still can.” Phil says, feeling his voice waver and his eyes water. “I want to have all of that with you.”
“Let’s run away together.” Dan says, his voice light. “Let’s just go off the radar and live together on some remote island.”
“Honestly, do not tempt me.”
“We could live in a little beach cottage with Spike and we could grow our own food and live off the land.” Dan continues. “Just you and me, forever.”
“I love the sound of that.” Phil says, shutting his laptop and turning onto his side.
“Of what?”
“Just you and me forever.”
He can almost hear Dan’s smile through the speaker. “One day it will be.” Dan says. “But for right now. We just have to make it past all of this. We just have to keep fighting the tabloids and the paparazzi. You and I can do it. We’ll get past all of this.”
“I know we will.”
“Remember what we promised each other when we were in LA?” Dan asks, his voice having gone soft. “We promised that we’d never give up on each other.”
“I still promise that.”
“Me too.” Dan agrees. “Which is why I just wanted to remind you that we can do it. We can overcome all of this together.”
“I can’t wait to have you here with me again.” Phil says. “I can’t wait to hold you in my arms and never let you go.”
“Just two more weeks. Two more weeks and I’ll be here for a film premiere.”
“I can’t wait that long.”
“Me either, but we have to.” Dan says, a chuckle ending his words. “I also can’t wait to see Spike.”
At the mentions of his name, Spike’s head perks up and he lets out a surprised yelp. Phil chuckles and Dan does too.
They talk for the rest of the night, just him and Dan. They talk about the future, and how they both want to eventually live somewhere secluded in a house with a fence around it. Dan wanted a dog for Spike to play with and they somehow came to the agreement about a Shiba Inu. Before the night was over, they were discussing kids. And although that thought would always scare Phil before, talking with Dan about how many kids they both wanted with oddly comforting.
When Dan hung up because he needed to get ready for a party, Phil was nearly falling asleep. But he wouldn’t have had his evening any other way. He just has to make it these two more weeks and hopefully everything can get figured out.
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