*Casey's P.O.V*

"Do you want me to come with you? I could give you a lift?"

"Joe, it's not my first day of school. I'll be fine on my own." I chuckled as I pulled on my jacket.

"I know, but your first ever job is a pretty big deal."

"Well, it's not my first ever job."

"I don't think the dog walking business you had when you were thirteen counts, Case." He said and I couldn't help but laugh.

"I better go, I don't wanna be late on my first day."

"Alright, I'll see you later then, yeah?"

"Yeah, okay, bye." I hugged my brother.

"WAIT!" A South African voice screamed as Caspar ran in, "Do I not get a goodbye?!"

"Bye, Caspar." I giggled, giving him a hug.

"Good luck." He chirped.

"Thanks." I smiled before I left the apartment and made my way to the bus stop. After about a month of living in London, I'd finally found myself a job working at Starbucks and in case you hadn't figured it out by now, today was my first day.

"Good morning, Casey." My new boss, Hanna smiled as I walked in.

"Good morning." I smiled back.

"You ready for your first day?"

"Yep." I grinned.

"That's what I like to hear." Hanna beamed as she gave me my apron and I got to work.

A few hours later, I was taking the last few orders before my shift ended.

"What can I get you?" I asked the person who had just walked up to the counter, not looking up from my notepad.

"Wow, not even looking at your customers when you serve them, how rude." A familiar voice laughed. I looked up and smiled when I saw Dan.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted a coffee... And, okay, maybe I wanted to come and see how your first day went." He smirked.

"Aw, that's nice."

"Nice? That's all you have to say? The blandest and most boring adjective ever. Honestly, Casey." He huffed, shaking his head in disapproval but I knew he was only mucking about.

"Do you want a coffee or not?" I laughed.

"I don't think you have a choice in that if you wanna get paid."

I just poked my tongue out at him, only earning a chuckle from Dan, "Wow, real mature, Case."

I quickly got Dan his coffee and he took it to go so we could both leave as I'd finished my shift.

"Hey, you wanna come back to mine?" Dan asked me as we walked towards the bus stop.

"Sure, but why?" I gave him a quizzical smile.

"I dunno, the house is just kinda quiet with Phil gone." He shrugged.

"Aw, does Danny miss Philly?" I teased, poking Dan's side.

"Stop it, you'll make me drop my coffee!" He giggled, squirming away, "I'd just like some company that isn't my own, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it," I nodded, "Let me go home and get changed first and then I'll be right over, okay?"

"Alright." Dan grinned just as the bus arrived. I told Dan I'd see him later before getting on the bus and letting it take me back to Joe and Caspar's.

"Hey, there she is!" Joe cheered as I walked through the door. I giggled.

"How was your first day on the job?" Caspar asked me.

"It was great," I smiled, "I think I'm actually gonna enjoy working there."

"Everyone says that about their first job," Joe chuckled, "Trust me, you'll start to hate it sooner or later."

"Joe! Don't be so discouraging!" Caspar scolded my brother.

"It's fine, Casp, I wouldn't expect anything less from my dear brother." I said, giving Joe a sarcastic grin, "Anyway, Dan invited me over so I'm gonna go get changed and then I'll be off."

"Wait, Dan invited you over?" Joe asked me before I could leave the room.

"Yeah, Phil's out of town and he just wanted someone to hang out with." I shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal, which it wasn't.

"Hang out?"

"Yes, Joe. You know, that thing that friends do together?" I spoke slowly as if he were a small child.

"And that's all you're gonna do?" He continued questioning me.

"Yes, Joe, that's all we're going to do," I sighed in annoyance, "Look, whatever you've got in mind, stop it because we're not gonna be doing whatever you're thinking."

"Well, you can't blame me, can you? You get on really well with Dan."

"Yeah, I do, because he's a really good mate, that's all. Now, I'm walking away from this conversation. Goodbye." I turned and went downstairs to my room before Joe could make any more stupid accusations. I changed out of my black polo shirt and put on a grey jumper that looked like I was wearing a shirt underneath it, a pair of light denim skinny jeans and some simple black Converse. I'd curled my hair this morning so I left that the same and slipped on my silver arrow necklace, wearing it underneath my collar and slid my black cat ring onto my right ring finger. I added my pink purple dreamcatcher case to my phone and shrugged on my denim jacket which had a daisy embroidered on the back, before I was ready.

"Joe, will you stop being so ridiculous! This is no different than you hanging out with Louise or Tanya or Niomi or any of your other female friends!" I said, clearly annoyed after Joe asked me what Dan and I planned to do while I was over there.

"Except I usually only hang out with them with other people. You and Dan are going to be all alone, together."

"How many times do I have to bloody tell you, Joe, nothing's going to happen! We're just going to hang out as mates and nothing else! Look, I need to go. I told Dan I'd be over after I got changed. I'll see you later." I said, walking towards the front door.

"At least text me when you leave?"

"Fine." I mumbled, before leaving and slamming the door behind me. I took out my phone and texted Dan on my way to the bus stop.

To: Danyul 😎👽😂💕

Hey I'm on way, sorry I took so long, Joe wouldn't leave me alone 🙄 xx

He texted back seconds later.

From: Danyul 😎👽😂💕

It's fine, the door will be unlocked so just walk straight in when you get here xx

The bus pulled up just as I finished reading his text and I put my phone back in my pocket before climbing on. Before I knew it, the bus stopped at my destination and after the short walk from the bus stop to Dan and Phil's apartment building, I arrived.

"Dan?" I called out after letting myself in like he said. The sound of footsteps running down stairs could be heard and Dan appeared in front of me in seconds.

"Hey." He smiled wide when he saw me, dimples on display and all.

"Hi." I said with a small sigh. I was still pissed off about what happened with Joe.

"What's up?" Dan frowned and I couldn't help but smile at his immediate concern.

"Nothing, it's just Joe. He thinks something's going to happen between us just because we're alone." I explained.

"What do you mean he thinks... Oh." Dan realised what Joe meant and his cheeks turned slightly pink.

"Yeah, but we don't need to worry about him. He doesn't know what he's talking out." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah..." He trailed off, neither of us knowing what to say next, before he perked up again, "Come on, let's go upstairs." He started walking up the stairs and I followed him. We went into the living room and sat down on the sofa, where Dan's laptop was perched on the arm, Tumblr open.

"Oh, wow, who would've guessed that Dan would have Tumblr open on his laptop." I sarcastically teased.

"Shut up." Dan laughed, shutting his laptop and moving it from the arm of the sofa to the coffee table.

"Do you want anything? Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?" He offered.

"Oh, no, you don't have to." I insisted.

"Oh, go on. I was going to make myself a coffee anyway."

"Okay, fine. But I'll come and help." I decided, standing up from the sofa.

"If you want to." He chuckled before we both exited the living room and went into the kitchen.

"So, what's the plan for this evening?" I wondered as I stirred my hot chocolate.

"Well, actually, it's funny you should ask that." Dan replied, a mischievous look in his eye.

"Should I be scared?" I asked, knowing that look.

"Maybe..."

"Maybe? What's that supposed to mean?!" I cried causing him to laugh.

"Okay, well, since Halloween is in a few days, me and Phil have this thing on the gaming channel called-"

"Spooky Week, yeah I know." I cut him off and he looked at me like he was surprised I knew that, "What? Just because we're friends now doesn't mean I have to stop watching your guys' videos."

"I never said you did." He said with an amused chuckle, "Thank you, by the way."

"What for?" I asked and Dan shrugged.

"I don't know, I'm just obviously incredibly grateful for all of my viewers but sometimes I wish I could thank them all individually. I guess thanking you, someone who watches my videos, is something."

"Honestly, Dan, it should be us thanking you for making such awesome content for us to watch."

"Stop it, you're being too nice now." He smiled bashfully, colour rising in his cheeks.

"Aw, you're blushing!" I giggled, standing on my tiptoes as that was the only way I could reach his cheeks to pinch them.

"Get off!" He laughed, gently swatting my hands away.

"Anyway, what was this idea you were gonna propose?" I asked, intrigued to know what he had in mind.

"Oh yeah! So, I have to film a gaming video for Spooky Week while Phil's away and I don't really want to do it alone so I was thinking maybe you could step in for Phil?" His voice got higher at the end and a hopeful smile graced his face.

"What game were you thinking of playing?" I wondered.

"Outlast..." He mumbled, probably knowing that would put me off.

"I don't know... I'm not good with that sort of scary stuff. I'm not good with scary stuff in general, but homicide-run mental asylums especially. I'll probably end up sh***ing myself."

"So will I! But if you play with me, we can sh*t ourselves together!" He exclaimed and I gave him an odd look while Dan made a face at himself, "That sounded a lot better in my head... Actually, no it didn't, it still sounded weird and gross in my head, I don't know why I decided to say it out loud... Look, basically, I just really don't want to have to play that game by myself." I couldn't help but laugh at the goof in front of me.

"Is that the only reason you invited me over? So you could persuade me to play some game that will give me never ending nightmares?" I asked, a smile on my face so Dan knew I wasn't genuinely offended.

"No! I really did want to hang out with you, I just realised that today was my last chance to film the video and I figured since you were coming over..." He trailed off, that hopeful smile returning.

"I still don't know..." I said, biting my lip.

"Come on, I'll protect you." He persuaded.

"It sounds to me like you only want me to play so I can protect you." I smirked and Dan laughed.

"Okay, okay, we'll protect each other, how about that?" He proposed, "Please, Case?"

"Oh, for god's sake, fine!" I finally gave in.

"Yes! Thank you! You're the best!" He pulled me into a grateful hug and it was hard to ignore the butterflies that came along with it.

"But if I end up having nightmares and losing sleep, I'm suing you." I warned, with a glare that I tried to make look intimidating but probably failed.

"I'll keep that in mind." He chuckled before dragging me up to the office, where the doom would begin. Dan set up the camera, mic, computer, game and everything else he needed to do for the video before we both sat in the chairs in front of the desk and he pressed record.

"Okay, here we go." Dan began, looking into the camera lens.

"I don't want to be here." I piped up gloomily.

"It is Spooky Week on Dan And Phil Games and since Phil's out of town, Casey's here with me instead."

"I'm only here because Dan's too much of a wuss to play the game by himself."

"Oi!" He shouted, before saying in a calmer voice, "Actually, I'm not even going to try and defend myself because that's pretty much true. But you can't tell me you're not scared too!"

"I'm not, I'm terrified, I'm not gonna deny that. I've already said I don't wanna be here." I said with a laugh.

"Anyway, we're gonna turned off the lights and where headphones, 'cause the thing is with scary games, if you don't fully immerse yourself, you're not doing it right, okay?!"

"Do you wanna tell them what game we're playing, Daniel?" I asked.

"We are going to be playing Outlast, which I'm sure many of you have heard of." He said and I buried my face in my hands, already regretting agreeing to this.

"Here we go." He turned the light of and I lifted my head, putting my headphones on while Dan did the same.

"Oh my god, I'm so scared already." I whined. We hadn't even got past the home page of the game yet.

"Right, okay, new game," Dan said, selecting the button on the menu.

"I like that there's no easy mode here." I said as Dan was selecting the difficulty. It was literally just normal mode, hard mode, nightmare mode and insane mode.

"Yeah, like, get out casuals." Dan laughed, before reading out the warnings of the game, "Outlast contains intense violence, gore, graphic sexual content and strong language. Please enjoy."

"Great, looking forward to this already." I grumbled sarcastically.

"You read the blurb." Dan told me and I did as I was told, reading out the words on the screen.

"You are Miles Upshur, an investigative reporter whose ambition is about to earn him an intimate tour of hell on earth," I paused and sarcastically mumbled "great" before continuing, "Always willing to risk digging into stories that no other journalist would dare to investigate, you will seek out the dark secret at the heart of Mount Massive Asylum. Stay alive as long as you can, record everything. You are not a fighter; to navigate the horrors of Mount Massive and expose the truth, your only choices are to run, hide or die." I finished reading and my face was being covered by my hands again as I groaned, "I'm so scared already!"

Dan started playing and the first thing that happened was we were in a car, driving down a country lane.

"I always hated driving down country roads at night in a car so this has gotten off to a disturbing start already." He commented.

"Same, and Wiltshire is pretty much just all countryside so you can imagine how much fun I had." I added. My sarcasm scale today was through the roof, oh my.

"What, no, why? Why get out the car?" Dan asked as the game character arrived at the asylum and started getting out the car.

"This is already just a colossal bag of nope for me." I said, making Dan laugh and agree. Dan started controlling the guy in the game, looking for a way to get into the asylum from the outside.

"Oh no, what a shame, all the doors are locked. Let's go home." I said jokingly but with an ounce of hope in my voice. Unfortunately, we soon found an open window to get in through.

"Are you ready?" Dan asked me and the viewers.

"I'm not ready." I whined and Dan shook his head in a agreement, but jumped through the window anyway. We wondered around the halls of the asylum, which seemed to be empty at the moment. Dan went into a room and was just commentating happily until there was a terrifying TV static sound and we both shat ourselves.

"Back to the wall! Back to the wall! Just like I would irl!" Dan yelled.

"You know, that's probably actually a bad idea because if someone runs in and attacks you, it makes it harder to get to the door and escape." I commented.

"Well, I'd rather that than be attacked from behind!" He exclaimed and I just put my hands up in defence.

~~~

"Dan! Hide! Quick!"

"I'm trying! I can't find anywhere to hide! Sh*t!"

It had been about half an hour and we were still playing. The last thirty minutes had consisted of a lot of screaming and laughing; mostly screaming and the game character was currently in the sewers of the asylum, trying to find a way to turn the power back on, when suddenly this creepy bad guy with a baseball bat came bursting in and Dan was trying to find somewhere to hide. He ended up crouching down behind a big metal tank, which luckily worked.

A couple minutes later, we were hiding once again, but this time in a locker.

"Maybe you're okay...turn the camera on." I told Dan and he did, only to see the guy right outside the locker.

"I'm not okay! I am not okay!"

After a couple seconds, we thought we actually were okay so we left the locker. Turns out the bad guy was still lurking and ended up seeing us.

"Sh*t!" Dan yelled as he ran back into the locker.

"No, oh my god!" I squealed, as the bad guy opened the locker and grabbed our guy.

"No!" I cried as Dan tried to run away. It was then that I decided I'd had enough and clutched onto Dan, hiding my face in his shoulder. He was yelling and freaking out, still trying to run away from the baseball maniac.

"No!" He suddenly screamed, before he started laughing, "You can stop hiding now, Case. I died."

I lifted my head and thanks to Dan's contagious laugh, I started giggling too.

"Oh my god, that was so stressful and terrifying!" Dan said, "But I liked it... Whether I do it alone or on this gaming channel, I think I'm definitely gonna continue playing this."

"Well, you have fun with that. I, however, am never doing that again."

Dan quickly ended the video but just before he turned off the camera, we got the biggest jumpscare of all... the microphone falling off the desk. We both jumped out of our skin and I found myself latching onto Dan's arm again before we both realised how ridiculous we were being.

"Okay, we'll stop. We'll stop now." Dan said, both of us laughing before he turned the camera off.

"Uh, Case, you can let go of my arm now..." He said a few minutes later.

"Right, sorry." I mumbled, feeling myself blush as I pulled away.

"Come on, let's go back into the lounge and watch TV or something. Something nice." He suggested.

"Good idea." I nodded eagerly and so we both left the office and went back down to the living room. Dan turned the TV on and found a nice, calm, not scary movie to watch, but all I could think about was the fact that I had to go home in a bit, on my own, in the dark.

"You okay?" Dan asked me, noticing the distressed look on my face.

"Yeah... I'm just not looking forward to going home on my own..." I admitted, feeling a little embarrassed.

"You know, I don't particularly want to spend the night on my own either... Do you maybe wanna stay over?" He offered awkwardly.

"Could I?" I asked shyly.

"Of course." He smiled and I smiled back at him.

"Okay, thanks. I'll call Joe and let him know when the movie's finished."

~~~

*Third Person's P.O.V*

It was 8:30 the next morning and Phil was just climbing out of a taxi outside of his and Dan's apartment complex, having just returned from Manchester where he'd been staying with his family for the past week.

"Thanks, mate." He smiled at the taxi driver before walking up to the door of the building and going inside. He got to his and Dan's apartment and let himself in, making sure not to make too much noise as he figured Dan would still be asleep. He was confused when he walked up the stairs and heard the sound of the TV. He walked into the lounge, surprised to find Dan and Casey fast asleep on the sofa, Casey's head on Dan's chest and her arm resting across his stomach while his arms were wrapped tightly around her.

Phil smiled at the pair as he picked up the remote and turned the TV off. He knew how much Dan liked Casey, she was all he could talk about most of the time, so Phil decided to let his best friend enjoy this moment. He could ask them for answers when they woke up.

(Dan's original Outlast video is at the top of you wanna watch it, but y'know, watch at your own risk because it's terrifying)