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breakfastatmilliways · 8 years ago

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I Found the Cure to Growing Older 1/?

Summary: Dan died. Phil thought that might perhaps be the worst of his problems - after all, what could be worse than losing your best friend?

Turns out, it was the zombie apocalypse.

When that’s all said and done, as much as an apocalypse can be said and done, he gets a phone call. Also posted on AO3.

Author’s Note: Because I really needed a second multi-chapter fic going while I’m already writing one, eh?

This one is an AU based on the fantastically awesome television show “In the Flesh”. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. Adorable cured zombies (A.K.A. Partially Deceased Syndrome Sufferers), serious feels, and well rounded LGBT characters? Yas. IT HAS IT ALL. Like seriously, if you have not seen this show, go watch the trailer and immediately become convinced to watch both seasons. I will wait here....

Did you watch it? Okay, good. Anyhoo, if you have seen it and are familiar with the canon, you’ll obviously notice that I’m making some changes, mainly in the timeline. The bulk of it will be taking place in 2021, with the backstory taking place around current day. I do otherwise intend to try to keep this shit accurate to the universe, though.

So yeah, prepare your butts for a good old fashioned zambie angst and fluff pie.

Oh, and credit to my good buddy @bad-twin for reading it over and providing a fabulous place to bounce ideas around.

28 January, 2021

“Hi guys! Can you see me?” Phil asked the old webcam on his laptop, giving a little wave at it as he did so. He couldn’t help feeling a little bit nervous- this would be his first live show in nearly four years. It occurred to him that it was a bit silly to be anxious about something as innocuous as talking to some fans on webcam, when he’d literally had to bash a rabid zombie’s head in with a bit of piping to save his own skin in the not too distant past. Then again, his mental processes had always been a little bit out of the norm.

The messages started coming in after a few seconds, and his face split into a grin at the general excitement he was seeing. The chat moved a lot slower than it would have once, but that was to be expected. Plenty of people out there didn’t even have an internet connection back yet, and he was sure that quite a few of his old fans had forgotten him. Something about living through the apocalypse tended to shift a person’s priorities, and his fans were no exception.

“Great! Looks like we’re live then. How are you guys? It’s been ages!” He scanned the chat as he spoke, and laughed slightly. “Katie123 says ‘I’ve missed you Phil!’, that’s so sweet! I’ve missed all of you too. It feels great to be back. I’ve spent almost the last year out of London, staying with the family. They got hit a lot harder up there than we were here, it’s taken a lot of work to rebuild. I’ve missed the flat though, it’s really great to be home.”

A glance at the chat showed that a lot of people were clamoring for a look around, and he obliged, picking up his laptop and doing a quick 180 of the sitting room to show it off before setting it back down in front of him. “Looks the same as ever, doesn’t it? You’d almost think the world didn’t nearly end.”

A few people in the chat were having a small freak out, apparently having missed the sight of the sofa crease, and Phil couldn’t help a small pang at the phrase. It was a fairly unwanted reminder that said sofa crease was empty. He pushed the thought aside, because now wasn’t the time to get down in the dumps, and settled on another question that managed to make him laugh.

“‘Did any of your houseplants survive?’, bad-twin wants to know. Well, have I got a surprise for you, bad-twin.” He hopped up from his spot to cross the room, coming back with a pot in his hands which contained a rather unhealthy looking, but surprisingly living, cactus. “Susan 7 here managed to survive the water shortages, via her cactus-y resilience. She’s looking a little worse for wear now, but I’ll have her fixed up soon enough.”

“Have I seen anyone from the old days recently? ‘Kringlemanger24’ is asking.” He paused, quirking a brow. “What’s a kringlemanger? Do I want to know?” When the chat erupted into a series of caps lock ‘NO!’s, he decided that he would take that advice. “Okay, just going to forget about that entirely then. As for the question, yeah, I have. I saw PJ the other day after I got back to London, and I’ve got plans for Louise to come for a short stay with Darcy in a few weeks. I heard now that the borders are open again, Tyler’s going to try to get across the pond for a while, so we’ll probably have a little meet up of everyone who’s still around. We might even be able to get a few collabs in.”

“MyRotterRomanceattheDisco wants to know how I feel about the reintegration initiative. I think it’s great, really. I understand why some people are against it, the PDS sufferers didn’t exactly make life easy for any of us, but then you’ve got to think, they’re still people. They were our friends and neighbours once, and they didn’t know what they were doing. Some kids are going to have their dads back. You might get a sibling or a mum back. It’s… I mean, it’s a much more positive ending to the war than you’d expect, don’t you think?” The chat seemed to be mostly in agreement with his opinion, despite a few voices of dissent, and he smiled.

That initial feeling of anxiety had swiftly been replaced by warm fuzzy feelings. Phil hadn’t realized quite how much he had missed his fans. They were a mad bunch, but they were a good bunch. Well, most of them. As the live show continued, the occasional troll did show up. The worst of them were the ones that popped in just to comment things like ‘Where’s Dan?! LOL’, and while it stung a little, it was heartening to see the way the rest of the chat banded against the trolls in his defense.

Things were still going well enough, when Phil’s phone went off. He’d been in the midst of answering CuteRandomLlamasxo’s question about his birthday plans when it vibrated on the sofa next to him, and he paused in explaining that Martyn would be coming to visit him in order to pick it up and take a look. “Hang on a second guys, I need to see who-”

He faltered, and immediately went quiet. The chat was filled with expressions of concern, and a few people making jokes about how they hadn’t thought it was possible for him to go paler, but he didn’t even notice. It was as if everything in the room had blurred around him, except for the screen on the phone in front of him. Not even bothering to excuse himself, he simply shut the laptop, ending the stream instantly, and with shaking hands, accepted the call.

“...Mrs. Howell?” Phil’s voice came out as an undignified croak, and he cleared his throat before trying again. “Er… Hello?”

For a long moment, he thought that maybe she had just dialled his number by mistake. He couldn’t hear anything on the other end of the line, and he was just about to end the call when she finally spoke up. “Phil! Hello, dear. How have you been?” Dan’s mother sounded extremely awkward, and Phil couldn’t blame her for that. They hadn’t spoken since the funeral, and he wasn’t doing much better in terms of awkwardness.

“As well as can be, these days. How- how are you? How’s the family?”

Another silence stretched out, and Phil reached up to scratch at the back of his head. This was beyond uncomfortable, and he rather hoped that she would get to the point soon, because he really wanted to hang up.

“Good, good. Well, you see that’s… actually why I’ve called. I have, well, news.”

“Is everything alright? No one’s been hurt, or anything?” Phil’s concern was genuine, even if he still wanted to be doing just about anything other than having this conversation. Regardless of how long it had been since they had spoken, Dan’s family would never really leave his heart, and he certainly cared for their well being.

“Everyone’s just fine, no, no one’s hurt. It’s the opposite, actually.” For the first time since the call had started, Phil noticed that she was audibly crying, and suddenly his stomach began to twist with anticipation about what she was about to say. “It’s Dan. He’s come home.”

***

9 February, 2017

“Phil, it’s been over a week. The birthday milking has to stop.” Dan was saying from his place on the sofa, settled comfortably in his crease. His laptop was balanced on his knees, and he was pointedly ignoring the puppy dog eyes that Phil was sending his way.

“What do you expect us to have for breakfast tomorrow, Dan? Do you expect me to go hungry? So soon after my birthday? We don’t even have cereal.” Phil was expecting the pillow that Dan threw at his head in response, but he still failed to react quickly enough to prevent it smashing straight into his face. “Ow.”

“We don’t have cereal because you ate yours and mine. You get off your ass and go to Tesco’s. I’m the one who’s wounded.”

“You fell down a week ago. You’re fine. You’re at least fine enough to go to buy cereal and pancake mix.”

“This madness needs to end. You can’t try to negotiate birthday favors for the rest of the year. A week is where I draw the line, Philly. If you’re so worried about our cupboards, you can restock them.”

Phil simply stared at him, a pout on his face that he knew probably looked utterly ridiculous, but it seemed to do the trick. When Dan finally glanced up from his laptop screen, he cracked up, shaking his head.

“Okay, no. You’re not going to win me over just by making yourself look like a complete idiot. But, I’m willing to Rock Paper Scissors you for it.”

It was a bit silly that two grown men settled almost every dispute that life handed to them with a children’s game, but it had worked for them all these years, so Phil was more than willing to agree to those terms. Besides, he had rather good luck when it came to predicting Dan’s moves.

Five minutes later, he watched with smug satisfaction as his friend grumbled to himself whilst puttering around the flat, collecting the necessities for a trip into the horrid, cold wilderness that made up the journey to Tesco’s. Dan jammed a hat onto his head, then turned to stare at Phil with a look of pure loathing. Phil just grinned up at him, tongue poking out between his teeth.

“I hate you.” Dan commented, although the words lacked any real venom. “This is literally the last time I’m ever letting you pull the ‘All or Nothing’ card.”

“I hate you too.” Phil replied affectionately, before settling back against the sofa to carry on with his perusal of twitter. “Don’t forget the Crunchy Nut.”

Dan rolled his eyes and headed on his way, calling back at Phil as he headed to the stairs.

“Yeah, I’ll remember it, and I’ll remember to hide it when I get back so I’ll actually have a bowl of it for once, you living hoover.” He punctuated this statement by slamming the door behind him.

This would prove to be the last time Phil saw Dan alive.

***

28 January, 2021

Phil was glad that he had already been sitting down when he’d answered the phone, because he was pretty sure his legs wouldn’t have held him up for long after that particular bombshell.

It wasn’t as though it was impossible. Everyone that rose from the dead in November of 2017 had died during that year, although Phil had mostly heard of it happening to those that died nearer to the Rising. Dan had died right at the beginning of the year, so technically he made the cut. It wasn’t a possibility that had ever crossed Phil’s mind, though.

He’d said his goodbyes years ago. He’d mourned. He’d even started learning to be happy again when the Rising had come along and turned the entire world upside down. Suddenly, his own grief hadn’t seemed so important anymore. It was still there, and it still hurt, but helping to rebuild an entire society after a horrible event nearly tore it apart really put things in perspective.

He didn’t even know how to cope with this.

“...Phil, are you alright?” Dan’s mum’s voice finally managed to through to his consciousness, and he snapped to attention. He must have been silent for several minutes.

“Yeah, thanks, I just… That’s a lot to take in.” He excused lamely, pushing his glasses up to rub at his eyes and taking a deep breath. His hand was wet when he pulled it away again. He was crying, apparently. That was interesting. “How, erm… what’s he like?”

“He’s Dan.” She replied, and judging from her voice, she was probably still crying too. “Sarcastic as ever. He keeps making jokes about being dead inside at uncomfortable moments.” She was quiet, yet another length of silence stretched out, before she spoke again, in a quiet voice. “He misses you. He won’t say it, but… this isn’t his home anymore. I know it’s a lot to ask, and I know you have a whole life you must be trying to get back to, but-”

“I’ll make sure his room’s set up.” Phil found himself responding before he even consciously made the decision. “I never packed anything away, really, but I’m sure most of his things have gathered a lot of dust, and I don’t know what state the sheets are in, so I might have to pop round to the shop and see if I can find some replacements.”

“Thank you.” The relief was palpable in her voice, and she even gave a shaky laugh. “He would have been so miserable, staying here. You have no idea how pleased he’ll be when I’ve told him.”

Phil didn’t say as much, but he rather thought that he knew exactly how pleased Dan would be, if the enormous grin that had somehow crossed his own face was any indication.

#phan #phanfic #phanfiction #in the flesh au #angsty but fluffy #death isn't permanent here

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