Chapter Text
Dan and Louise were walking through busy central London for an afternoon of shopping. Dan hated shopping, but he needed a prop for a video. He had wanted to order online, but Louise needed some stuff and she was always looking for a way to have Dan spend quality time with her. Bonus points for leaving the house. Not that they were getting any sunshine on their faces. It was quite drab out.
“Look! This one has a huge sale!” Louise said, pointing to a convenience store.
Dan looked the place up and down, sceptic that he’d find anything good there. “That’s because it’s a closing sale. Can’t be much good stuff left, I’m betting.”
But Louise was already walking into the shop and Dan wanted to get out of the drizzle.
After a bit of perusing, Dan knew for sure he wouldn’t find anything useful. The items on display were truly lacklustre. The inside of the store was basically as drab as the weather outside. No wonder they were closing.
“They just missed the mark, you know? I mean, this location, in the right hands, could be very lucrative,” Dan said as he looked through some off-brand hand lotion he has no interest in getting.
Louise gave him a look. “Uh, and by the right hands, you mean your hands?”
Dan rolled his eyes at her with a smirk. “I mean someone with flawless taste who understands what people want and need.” He walked further through the aisle or miscellaneous products. Honestly, what was this store even supposed to be about? “And if those happen to be my hands… I mean, my danisnotonfire merch is selling great.”
Louise put a candle in her basket and said, “Then why don’t you do something about it?” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and sported a devilish expression.
“I’m pretty sure telling them they’ve ran their store into the ground would be rubbing salt into the wound.”
She rolled her eyes and followed Dan into the next aisle, “No, I’m saying that if you think you can run this location better, this is your chance. They’re closing.” Dan turned from a shelf of cleaning supplies to face Louise, still next to even more candles. "You could sell your merch here. Or any other YouTube, emo, nerd things you like.”
He burst out laughing, maybe slightly too loud for the size of the shop. “Oh my god, Louise, I can’t just open a store!”
Louise was trying to look casual, picking out another candle, but a sly smile gave her away. “Why not? Might be fun?”
They walked past cold medicine and baby food as the idea slowly lodged into Dan’s brain. He was barely looking at the products anymore. He was trying to imagine the space without them. Without the obnoxious bright yellow “FINAL SALE” and “50% OFF EVERYTHING” signs. It was hard to estimate how large the space actually was. The rows of shelves could definitely be positioned more strategically. No, stop it. This was getting ridiculous.
Louise went to the till to pay for her items and they exited the store into the drizzle. They continued dipping in and out of shops in the busy London shopping centre. And throughout the day, this thought was like a little earworm what wouldn’t stop popping up. He couldn’t open a store. Could he? He hadn’t become a Youtuber to sell merch, he sold merch in order to make a living with Youtube. Louise had just made a joke.
Later that week, Dan was at home, on his couch in his browsing position. He was looking at his online merch sale stats. It was going alright, and he wondered how it was going for other Youtubers. He had started selling merch because that was what all the Youtubers were doing. It was a great second source of income, with how volatile the Youtube algorithm was. But in the process of developing merch, he found that he loved it. Designing t-shirts was a real craft. He could shape his own brand, express himself, and make fashion choices. There were some merch items that weren’t standard, like backpacks and pencil cases, and he quite liked trying to fit his designs on different objects.
The first time a fan recognized him while wearing his merch had been so exciting. She recognized him and had asked for a picture. Then he had recognized his branding on her shirt and just couldn’t stop thanking her. All his content was Youtube videos, so it sometimes didn’t feel real. Nice comments were just pixels; it didn’t exist in the physical space. But the merch was real, tangible, and fans decided they liked him enough to wear it to school. That was something special.
Maybe a merch store could be a positive power in his life. A way to interact with fans more and see the joy they always said he created. And the place he’d been at with Louise was just such a great location. Close to his place, too.
God damn it.
~~~~~
Phil had been a Youtuber himself a couple of years ago. When he was in uni, he had made some silly video’s and gathered quite a following given the size of Youtube at the time. He had mastered in video editing and had done some freelance work, editing other people’s videos. He had decided that he really wanted to help build this community, help shape Youtube into a platform where creatives can express themselves instead of a corporate hellhole with the occasional cat video.
Taking the full-time job at Youtube in London had made his uploading infrequent, and his channel hadn’t grown much since then. But he had made some great connections with newer creators, and he loved helping the get funding for their wild projects.
Now he had a meeting with danisnotonfire. He’d seen a couple of his videos when they reached the homepage. He was becoming a big deal for Youtube UK, raking in quite some views. He’d collabbed with some other British Youtubers, and that was exactly the kind of thing Phil had been trying to make more common when trying to foster a Youtube community. This meeting request had also been about a collaboration of sorts, so his colleagues had put it in Phil’s agenda. The detail that it also contained a budget request was the more boring and corporate part of his job.
Phil stood up from his desk as Dan entered his office. Phil was wearing skinny jeans and a blue button up with dots. The Youtube offices didn’t do strict office wear, but Phil still made sure to look presentable. He reached out his hand to Dan, who took it.
“Dan.”
“Phil.”
Alright, so Dan was cute. An objective fact. He was conventionally attractive. Though, apart from his looks, there was little unconventional about him. He was alternative. Exactly the type of alternative MySpace boy that Phil had been trying to attract when he had started making videos all those years ago. But Dan wasn’t one of his followers. He was here for a business meeting. Business mode.
“So you’ve come with a pitch?” Phil sat back down and motioned Dan to take the chair at the opposite side of the desk.
Dan sat down and Phil could tell he was a bit nervous. Dan said, “Yes, I’ve got an idea that might be interesting for YouTube and local creators.”
“Well, I’m in charge of new projects and creator collaborations, so let’s hear it!” Phil beamed.
“Alright, so,” Dan took a deep breath. “A bunch of YouTubers, myself included, are selling merch, and to speak for myself, that’s going well. We’re all doing it in different ways though. With different hosting sites, different shipping companies, production companies. Each YouTuber has to re-invent the wheel, while none of us are business people. So that was something I noticed when I was trying to start selling my own merch. The second thing I noticed is that London is full of physical merch shops for all sorts of touristy things. Nerdy things you’ll find on Tumblr, like Sherlock and Doctor Who things.”
He was rambling fast, but Phil could tell he had rehearsed this pitch. His nervousness was quite cute, actually. He hoped his office wasn’t too intimidating. It had been when he started working here, just because it was an office instead of a bedroom.
“So what if I’d open a shop, a physical shop, where I sell merch. Lots of creators can easily tag along with this. YouTubers from the US too! They can just send bulk shipments according to how much they usually sell to the UK. I’ve already found a suitable location, actually.”
Phil was nodding along. He could see where this was going.
“I’d need a starting investment, that I hope you’ll want to provide. You can put the YouTube branding on it, and have a pop-up booth part that features your online events and tags and such. But erhm, it would still be my store. I don’t want Youtube to take this idea. I know you’ve had pop-up locations in the city before. I uh, I want this to be mine.”
Phil smirked. He had always liked Youtuber merch himself, so he saw the appeal. Plenty of tourists would visit. And from having have been a creator, he admired how Dan was immediately clear he wanted to keep creative control. He was glad he was the company representative on this, so he could show a human side instead of corporate.
Phil decided he was going to pitch this plan to his bosses to get the funding. He liked this merch store idea. He also maybe liked Dan. But he was a professional, so he pulled up a document on his computer to take some professional notes.
“Alright, let’s get some things set. Why don’t we start with the name of the business?”
“Well, I just name everything danisnotonfire, but it would be way more merch than just mine. I don’t want it to just be called ‘The YouTube Store’ thought. No offense, but I think that’ll be way too corporate. It needs to be appealing to niche fandom culture, but also random London shoppers. Actually, if we could leave that one blank for now, that would be great.”
Phil smirked. “Sure, sure. Business address?”
“Okay, so I’m working on that.” Dan fidgeted in his seat. “But I can’t lease out the place I’ve found until I know if you will invest. I wanted to wait for your response.”
“Alright that’s fair, we’ll leave that one blank as well. Great start, Dan.” Another smirk tugged at Phil’s lips. He couldn’t help it. Dan’s rambles were quite cute.
Phil continued, “Hey, here’s an easy one: brief description of the business?”
“Well, so, err, it’ll be a merch store. But it’s also not just a merch store. It’s not even just a store. It’s a place where people can, like, come and meet other fans and geek out. But it’s not like a café or a community centre.”
“Okay, so we’re pretty clear on what it’s not,” Phil said. Was Dan blushing? He clearly hadn’t practiced this part of his pitch.
“Yeah, it’s an environment. And yes, we will be selling things, but it’s also a themed experience.”
Okay, now it was getting properly vague. “You definitely have a vision, Dan, but I do need to have answers for when I pitch to my bosses.”
Now Dan seemed to be switching from nervous to peeved. “You couldn’t use anything I just said?”
Phil tried to save it: “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you email me later, when you have a cleared idea of what you want to do with your business?”
Their eyes met. Dan frowned. Phil wasn’t deterred. He knew he was going to just tell his bosses what they wanted to hear, and get the investment.
“I do. I do have a clear idea,” Dan said defensively.
He realised that Dan being peeved was maybe even cuter than when he was nervous. He leaned into it. “Oh, so you’ve settled on a name, then?” Phil quipped.
Dan almost scoffed, if he wasn’t so flustered by Phil’s teasing.
Phil stood up and reached his business card over to Dan. “Look, take this, it’s my card, e-mail on the back. I look forward to hearing from you.” He would’ve wanted to keep him in his office longer. Just chat. But he had a full workday ahead of him, so he needed to end the meeting. At least this way, Dan had his contact info.
Dan reluctantly took the card and replied, “Erm, alright. Yeah, okay.”
He stood up and started walking out of the office.
“It was nice to meet you, Dan.” Phil said with a smile.
“Yeah.”
~~~~~
The next day, Dan was sitting on Louise’s sofa with a glass of red wine. Louise was sitting on the other side of the sofa, feet neatly tucked under herself, glass almost empty.
“So I went to pitch at Youtube yesterday and the guy in charge of special community projects is AmazingPhil!!!” Dan was wide-eyed and using hand movements big enough to almost slosh his wine over the brim.
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Louise confessed.
“My god! He’s an OG Youtuber! Haven’t seen a video of his in ages, but I certainly did as an emo teen.”
“Keep it down, will ya? Darcy is asleep upstairs remember?” Louise shushed.
“Right, right, sorry,” Dan whispered.
Louise giggled, “Were you fangirling in his office? Did you scare him off?”
“No, no, I didn’t even mention it. Good thing too, cause he basically laughed at me for not knowing the name of the store yet. Never meet your heroes.” Dan shook his head. He chuckled at himself for how ridiculous it was, but he could also sag through the floor from embarrassment.
“He laughed at you??” Louise asked incredulously.
“Basically, yeah.” Dan lied, looking at Louise over the rim of his wine glass as he took a sip.
“Oh well what did he say?” Louise knew Dan well enough to prod.
“He told me to get back to him once I had a clearer idea of what my business was,” Dan said. “I mean, the nerve, right? He was being so cheeky!”
Louise tilted her head to the side, making the sweetest eye contact, “And then he laughed in your face?”
Dan scoffed, “Okay so maybe he didn’t! But there was a vibe!”
Louise laughed. “Okay great! So you know that I think the store is a good idea and you think it’s a good idea and he didn’t hate it.”
Dan circled the rim of his wineglass with this index finger. “You know what, now that I replay the conversation, I think that he was actually very patient with my rambling.”
“Wait, you blew something out of proportion?” Louise gasped sarcastically.
“Oh my god, shut up,” he said as he gave her a playful shove.
~~~~~
Later that night, Dan got home more than tipsy. He turned on the lights in his apartment and flopped onto the sofa. The room was spinning only slightly. He went to properly sit, and fumbled in his jeans pocket to fish out Phil’s business card. It had standard Youtube branding and was honestly not very noteworthy. It said ‘Philip Michael Lester’ in bold font, with ‘Special projects and community collaborations’ under it. On the back it had his AmazingPhil socials, his Youtube email address, and a phone number.
Dan slumped from the couch onto the floor. He groaned loudly at himself. It was far outside of business hours, so Phil wouldn’t pick up anyway. Unless he would, and then they’d be calling on a Friday night. He was too tipsy for this. But he was also too tipsy to make a smarter choice. He copied the number.
The tone beeped, then went to Phil’s voicemail.
“Hi Dan, it’s Phil,” Dan said and immediately froze. He moved the phone away from his face and cringed so hard his whole face contorted. He couldn’t believe he just swapped their names, god, so embarrassing. This was a voicemail, he couldn’t go back. Fuck. He placed the phone back to his face, trying to just move on.
“I um… was just calling to run my business plan by you in uh, in a little more detail. Soooo… Feel free to give me a call back, and I will be happy to walk you through it. Okay, ciao.”
Dan hung up and immediately shouted: “Ciao?!?! I said ciao to him?!”
He leaned his head back against the couch and sighed deeply. Then he tried to leave another message.
“Hi, Phil! Yeah I think I – I think I called you Dan. Which, that’s not—that’s not your name. You can just delete that text. The—the voicemail… that I left you. Erhm, just thought it’d be a good idea to give you some background information about the, ehm, the store.”
This wasn’t going super well yet. He was trying not to ramble again, to stay coherent.
“It’s basically a merch store that will support Youtube creators and be a space for fans and fandoms to meet and—” his phone dinged with a notification sound. He looked at his phone and then put it back to his face, "Oh sorry, I just got a text, but ehm, oh wait…”
The call had ended. He dialled again.
“Yeah so the text cut us off. So where was I?”
~~~~~
Dan was at a little coffeeshop on Monday morning, trying to write this e-mail, when his phone ringed. He looked at the screen and his breath hitched as he saw Phil’s name on the screen. He collected his composure and picked up.
Be cool, be cool, be cool “Hi Phil! I’m guessing you, err, you saw that I tried to call the other day?” Memories of last Friday swirled in his brain. Gosh, how long was he rambling on the phone for? How many messages had it been in total? He was glad Phil couldn’t see his face, because he was positively turning red already.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t pick up, I was at a thing.” Phil sounded on the other side of the line.
Dan sighed in relief. “Well, best you didn’t.”
“But I got all your messages!” Phil sounded too chipper and Dan felt like he could sink through the floor of the café.
Dan rubbed his hands over his face and tried, with a sliver of hope, “Ah, and then you listened to just the first one and then erased the rest?”
“No no no, I had to listen to all of them to piece them together. I actually played them for a few friends of mine. I was at a birthday party so there were a lot of people weighing in."
Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Dan dropped his head down onto the table in front of him, letting the cringe and shame flow through him.
“Just kidding, I didn’t play them for anybody.” Phil giggled.
Dan sighed. Oh thank fuck. This man will be the death of me. He wasn’t fully over his embarrassment yet, but managed “Okay, well, I was just working on the e-mail, so—”
“You know,” Phil interrupted him, “the good thing about the messages was that I was able to get enough information to fill out your forms.”
“Oh thank you.” Dan was genuinely thankful, and sat back upright to close the horrible open e-mail box on his laptop screen.
“It’s a good idea for a business. Selling merch and creating a fan experience.”
“Thanks.”
“And I like the name, “Pixelshark”, you know, it’s just nerdy enough.” Dan could practically hear Phil’s smirk on the other side of the line.
His embarrassment blush turned to pride. Phil liked the name he thought of. “Do you really like it?”
Phil didn’t even acknowledge the question and moved on, “So I’ll call you when I hear back from upstairs. And if I don’t get a hold of you, I’ll just uh… leave a message.”
Dan chuckled, and then Phil chuckled too. Dan looked up to the ceiling and let it sink in that this was happening. “Okay. Thank you.” He said finally, and he meant it.
“Ciao.” Phil said, and hung up.
Dan cursed under his breath as the embarrassment flooded back. But now with a twinge of appreciation. Though it was at his expense, Phil was funny. And he was good at his job too.