Warm.

The smell of warm.

The smell of home.

That's what Dan and Phil were confronted by a few seconds after the barrier was broken: warmth.

They had stood back to break through it – the rock had made a crack for them – and used their whole body strength to shatter the whole thing. Pieces of what looked like glass flew past them everywhere and they both closed their eyes to save from getting glass in them.

They still had their eyes squeezed shut when they… landed with a clatter onto the office floor. There had been a rather concerning crack, too, which Phil couldn't tell whether was the sofa bed or one of his bones.

Finally opening his eyes, slowly, he found himself on his back on the sofa bed; Dan lay on the floor beside him, also breathing heavily.

"We did it…" Phil whispered, jolting upright and staring around the room. Everything was there, exactly as they'd left it: the computer was switched on, lighting up one of the screens, and all of their camera equipment was set up beside it, ready to record.

Phil couldn't see what was on the screen, what with being almost blind without his glasses and all, but he didn't really care: he was home and that was all that mattered.

"Am I dead?" Dan yelped, sitting bolt upright and pinching himself on the arm. He felt pain, so clearly he wasn't dreaming.

"I can't believe it worked," Phil swallowed before turning to Dan and laughing, "It actually worked!"

Dan choked a startled and amazed laugh, getting to his feet and putting his hands on top of his heart, an astounded expression on his face.

He looked down to Phil, took his hands, pulled him off the sofa, to his feet and wrapped him in his arms, breath wobbling and legs trembling.

"I never thought I'd be so happy to see this room in my life," Phil stuttered, trying to summon enough strength into his legs to be able to stand on his own.

His heart was throbbing through his chest and he wasn't sure how he was feeling… it was a mix between relieved and also slightly pained that he had to be back in the real world and do proper human things now.

Dan let him stand alone and calmed his breathing,

"Me, neither," he agreed, gasping for air. Everything had happened all at once: saying goodbye, walking to the forest, breaking the barrier and now getting home… all in around an hour.

He turned to his right, seeing the computer screen and realising that The Sims 4 was running on fast-forward, the camera idle, as usual turning itself off after only 20 minutes.

"Hey, all of that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't have been tinkering with that thing," Phil sniggered as Dan took a seat at his chair in front of the monitor.

"'Tinkering'?" Dan repeated, "Do you really want to say tinkering?"

"I like the word tinker," Phil replied, "As I was saying, it's all this that actually caused that whole thing."
"I'm sorry about that," Dan sighed, biting his lip.

"What are you talking about? Don't be sorry!" Phil insisted, "It's been great, it really has."

Dan gave him a warm smile,

"If you say so," he said, "I thought you'd had a horrible time."

"No way! Look at me! Do I look like I've had a horrible time to you? In fact, I'd like to thank you for the experience," Phil chuckled, holding his arms out to his sides before putting his hands in his pockets, his fingertips feeling the familiar texture of paper.

As he took it out of his pocket, he opened it up he saw that it was Dab's drawing of all three of them together.

When Phil looked up again, the room around him seemed to flash back to Potter's Splay with everyone's faces staring up to him before returning to normal.

It was an odd feeling, quite un-nerving, but it passed soon enough.

It was strange thinking how it could have not been real… and nobody would believe him if he told them, of course, but he knew it was real… and he had the drawing to prove it.

He placed the paper on the table beside the monitor and sat down on his chair, brushing himself down and gazing at the screen to see what was happening. He could see, now that he was closer, that the days had flown past to Saturday at around 11PM; of course, Sim days were a lot shorter than real days, so it had probably taken two virtual days to get through the barrier.

"Pause it," Phil ordered, straightening the neck of his jumper and resetting the camera to start filming again, "I think we should film that gaming video we never got around to recording."

"Really?" Dan laughed, "Alright then, I guess we can… and we can upload on Saturday…"

Phil nodded, placing the camera back in position and pressing record, quickly thinking of something to start the video with.

"Ready?" He asked.

Dan grinned and nodded, straightening his collar and making sure he was presentable before he cleared his throat.

Phil gave a last smile and cleared his throat, sitting up straight to begin.

He knew what his intro should be.

"Hello, Dan and Phil Games tinkerers!"

THE END

A/N: What an experience, eh? Thank you all so much for coming with me on this adventure and for showing all your support; I've really appreciated every comment I've received, and I'm not just saying it. This has been great, and who knows? There might even be a sequel sometime...

So thanks muchly once again,

This really was the most fun I've ever had.

-Whisker