I can't stop making new stories. I'm really sorry, because that just makes me slower with the other ones I need to update. But if I don't get these out of my head, I'm going to fricking explode! I mean these aren't even good, but I just need to vent them out.
Daniel Howell was most known to be a cynical, witty and nerdy boy with black and leathery clothes who's on Youtube and Radio1 with a friend sharing the almost same fringe haircut as he except in black. He had reached over five million subscribers on his channel on Youtube already at 24 years old. He still couldn't comprehend why so many people would enjoy his videos, but he really appreciated it. But he knew he would have never had any of this without his best friend Phil. He was the reason he managed to pull together the courage to make videos. He wished so much that more people would see the talent his friend had who had made videos for longer than Dan.
Dan realizes that he might not even be on this planet anymore without Phil. So he holds tightly onto him whenever he could because he could never let him go and needs Phil to know how much he means to him. Phil had made him brave enough to be himself. He wasn't so scared anymore to voice his opinions and show who he really was, though he did still fear the feedback sometimes from people enough for Phil having to comfort him.
Today Dan had made a discovery about himself where he really needed some courage if he wanted to fulfill these newly found dreams. And this was the age he could do it still or never.
Dan had been scrolling mindlessly on Tumblr and had stopped at a blog full of pastel coloured clothes and decor with some punky edge to it. He couldn't stop admiring all these things and a thought came to him. A thought of doing something so drastic to himself he wasn't sure if it would be alright if he would do it. I think you can see where this was going.
Before Dan realized fully what he was doing he had ordered jumpers, shirts and black, skinny jeans ripped at the knees and three of flower crowns in different pastel shades from a shopping site. Also, a set of new golden earrings in the shapes of feathers and planets. And maybe a few necklaces with pretty lockets made from crystals.
But just as he had bought them without the option of returning, he remembered he couldn't do this. What the hell was he thinking? He was one of the most put-out there people on the whole of internet. If he suddenly changed his appearance this drastically, surely people would be shocked and unsubscribe to him because this wasn't what they thought of him or wanted from him. Of course his appearance wouldn't really change his content, but people would probably think so. He couldn't do this.
What would he even tell Phil if he suddenly put on one of their old flower crowns they had once bought for a video? What would he think of him? Dan doesn't think Phil would hate him, he's too kindhearted for that, but maybe dislike the way he looked. Maybe he would feel a disconnection to Dan afterwards? Oh God, Dan couldn't let that happen. Why was he so stupid? Why did he get on such a stupid whim to buy so much? He would never be able to wear what he really wanted, but now he would also have to look at them from a painful distance. A reminder of what he couldn't have.
Dan closed his laptop securely and put it on his work-desk with a deep sigh. He will go watch anime with Phil and hopefully forget what was coming in the post for him in a couple of days.
oOo
"There they are", Dan mumbled to himself as he received the package from the postman and took it to his room. He slightly reluctantly opened the parcel just to see if it was the right one.
Oh yes it was.
He picked up the lightly pink flower crown from the top and looked at it for a while before putting it on his head. He looked into the big, silver mirror in his room and stared at his reflection critically. Did it even look good on him? Kinda. Maybe if he let his hair grow out a bit more so it would be more fluffy? Okay, he'll not wear this until his hair has grown a bit more and then he will reconsider wearing it while he's alone.
He put the crown back into the parcel and hid it in his closet behind his other dark clothes. He couldn't believe how hard it was for him to wear something he wanted. It was petty of him to be like this. But he couldn't help but think of other people and what they would think of him if he wore this in town. Phil had told him multiple times not to care about other people's thoughts, but Dan was too self-conscious.
oOo
They were at the shop. They had run out of lactose-free milk and soy milk (for Dan) and thought why not go out for just a bit to get some fresh air. They had been cooped in their flat a bit too long for it to be healthy. Not that it wasn't normal for them anyway.
While they wandered through the aisles of food and plastic on the look for milk, Dan stopped at the hair-dye section. A certain hair-dye colour had struck him. It was between the pink and the blue one.
A light lavender shade.
Without thinking much more of it (he seemed to do much of that lately) he grabbed the little box and went to the self-service check-outs on his own first to buy it and put it in his black backpack before sneakily going back to Phil who was now looking at some vegetables he was never going to buy. He felt a bit bad for doing such things behind Phil's back, but he wasn't even sure if he was going to really dye his hair if he wasn't sure he could wear the clothes.
"Where were you?" Phil asked Dan as he got to him. Phil held up a bag of carrots in his hand and was reading the back of it. "Sorry, I was just looking through the DVDs for a while. They were all children's movies", Dan quickly made up. Phil hummed and put the carrots back down. He hadn't looked at Dan for a single second during this moment. Dan just felt worse by the minute. "Well, I got the milk so we can go now or is there something else we need?" Phil asked and pointing at the two cartons of milk in his trolley.
"Chocolate", Dan said with a cheeky grin and Phil chuckled at him.
oOo
One Month Later
He pushed his hand up against his scalp. The brown, soft locks completely covered his hand under them. This could be the time. This could be the time. Just to do something he really wanted, drastic, surprising, shocking and fun. He could always get the colour out if he didn't like it, though it would probably hurt his hair a bit.
Today had started well. Dan had eaten a healthy breakfast of porridge and banana slices. Phil and he played Mario Kart and he had won as usual. He had only seen positive responses to his newly added video on his channel. Phil and he had went out with Chris who talked to them about filming Oscar's Hotel where he was playing Oliver. PJ, a good friend of theirs, was the directer and writer for the series. They hadn't seen Chris in awhile and it was really good to catch up. They promised to meet up soon again.
So Dan was in a good mood. And hopefully it would last after this too.
He read the instructions carefully and even looked up some tips from the internet too so that this would go perfect. If he was going to do this, he would go all out. He did as he was told and waited for the reveal. After showering the hair-dye off which was deep purple and worried Dan a bit, because full on purple wasn't what he was looking for, he toweled his hair and dared to look into the mirror.
Okay, it just looked kinda dark lavender right now when it was still wet, but it didn't look horrible which was a plus. Dan reckoned it was good he had become ghostly pale like Phil from staying inside all the time, because he doubted this would look that good with his tan.
He began blow-drying his hair excited for the final look. When he was all dry he combed it to his usual fringe.
Very curly, much lavender, he thought to himself.
Now, Dan usually hated his naturally quite bendy, curly hair, but now that it was lavender, honestly, it didn't look as bad. He thought he might even leave it like that sometimes. It just looked so fluffy and silky. But today, he didn't want to change too much of himself so he straightened his hair. He had even bought heat protection spray for his hair now that it wouldn't get damaged straight from the beginning. He should have done that ages ago though.
After moisturizing his face like Phil had once recommended him to do, he paired his face with feather earrings. They weren't actual feathers. They didn't hang from his ears, they were these little golden ones. Not too much, just enough.
Dan decided to just put on a black shirt and jeans as he didn't want Phil to think someone had broken into the house and killed Dan and tried to play off as him, instead of wearing the new clothes. Dan exited his room to the hallway and he heard Phil playing music in his room. He just decided to announce it first before going to him.
"Phil, I dyed my hair lavender!" he shouted as gently as you could and gave Phil a few seconds to comprehend what he had just said before waltzing into his bedroom. Phil was sitting on his bed, laptop and a book next to him. Blue eyes wide and mouth hanging open he stared at Dan in a shock. Dan leaned against the doorway. "What do you think?" Dan asked and tried to sound as casual as he could. But really he was a nervous reck inside.
"Well your hair is lavender", Phil said after a moment of silence (though Lana Del Ray was still playing quite loudly in this silence). In that moment Dan already had the time to freak out. But then Phil continued: "I mean how much more perfect can it be? They will go perfect with your new clothes."
Wait what? The new clothes? How the hell does Phil know about the new clothes? Dan's been hiding them in his closet for a month and hasn't taken them out since he put them in there still in their box. Now Dan looked stunned.
"How did you...?" Dan started with a confused expression.
"Oh yeah, I saw them when I was trying to look for the spare, red camera we have. I remembered you once saying something about it being in your closet and I needed to get some old files from it. I thought it was in that box of yours, but instead I saw these pastel clothes that looked very unlike you and to be honest, I was quite confused at first, but I forgot about them after I found the camera and put the files on my computer. And you that you show up with that pastel purple hair, it all kind of clicks together, doesn't it? But come look, there are some pictures here on it from the Ferris wheel", Phil explained and then motioned Dan to sit down next to him.
Dan was completely shocked how Phil wasn't. But he was very grateful that Phil was so open and nice about it. He felt quite stupid now himself. He went and sat down on the bed and they started looking through the pictures on the laptop while Phil rambled on about them.
Dan turned his head to look at Phil's face for a while. A soft smile formed on his lips when he saw Phil beginning to laugh at some picture. And then Phil turned around to look at Dan.
"Does it look good then? Or should I just wash it out?" Dan asked quietly. "Bear, don't think about what people might think of you. They aren't you, you are you. The hair looks good to me. It suits you very well even though usually we see you wearing all kinds of black clothes and this new look is a lot different from it. But you should do what you want, though I think you should keep it. It looks lovely. And probably even better when it's curly", Phil responded softly and patted Dan's head. Dan smiled and hid his face as he snuggled himself into Phil's side and Phil's arm wrapped around him. They continued watching the old photos of them in Manchester and laughing at their ridiculously long haircuts and stupid t-shirts.
Well at least his hair now definitely was better than how it was when it almost reached his shoulders, Dan thought. He bet his audiences might even like his new hair, if not because they preferred it themselves, but because they were bright enough to be happy about other people's happiness.
oOo
In Dan's next liveshow, Phil sat next to a curly, lavender head boy with a too big pastel pink jumper almost covering his hands and a light pink flower-crown sitting on top of lovely, little his head. A smile was carved on that charming face throughout the show as Phil had his fingers intertwined with Dan's under the laptop. Dan was happy. Phil was happy, and so were many others.
And that's what's important in life. Be bright kids.