Freckles and Constellations (DnP)
Madison Square Garden is absolutely jam-packed, and Dan is still having trouble believing that it’s all for them. Technically, he knows that most of the people out here singing along to My Chemical Romance and waiting for them to come on stage have come for PJ, his best friend of twelve years and lead singer of The Stars Are Not On Fire , but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s about to play guitar on stage in fucking Madison Square Garden with twenty something thousand eyes on him (okay, fine, most of them will be on PJ).
They’ve played big crowds before, been on countless late night talk shows and one day time talk show and national television, been mobbed by crowds in airports, had one girl hide out in a dumpster once to meet them, but for some reason this is when it really hits Dan for the first time: they’ve made it. This is most likely going to be the peak of his career. Sure, they won’t phase out quickly, not with the number of fans they have right now and how they’re basically dominating the internet with the frankly ridiculous amount of memes featuring them going around, but it can’t get much better than this, and it sure has hell won’t go on like this forever.
He whips his head around at the sound of PJ’s voice. Him shouting like that only minutes before the start of a show is never ever a good sign.
Dan groans. “And that is?”
“Try New Things is not sounding as good as it should be.”
“What are you on about? It sounded bloody sick in sound check, just like it has when we’ve been rehearsing and playing it live for the last five months?”
PJ purses his lips. “Yes, and it’s been bothering me for just as long, but I’ve finally figured it out!”
He pauses. Dan waits for him to continue. Finally, he gives in. “And what was it that’s been making our lead single that thousands of people have been singing along with and dancing to for months sound so terrible?” (Okay, maybe it isn’t only now that Dan’s realized they’ve made it.)
PJ grins, and Dan can already tell that he will hate whatever comes out of his mouth next. “We need someone to play the triangle!”
“The triangle! You know how in the studio recording there’s always this ding sound after the chorus? We’ve been missing it on stage.”
Dan doesn’t know. His expression clearly gives him away, because PJ sighs, gives him an exasperated glance and runs away, probably in search of someone else to torment with his weird triangle fantasies. Dan doesn’t spare him any more thought. He can’t, not when there are literal minutes left until they need to be on stage and for some reason at this moment he feels more nerves and stage fright than he has in the last couple years combined.
It’s just that Madison Square Garden means so much to him. It’s where he saw his first concert in America, together with PJ, right after they’d moved to New York to ‘make it big’. He still remembers standing in the crowd, so far away from the stage that the band wasn’t much more than a big blob, arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders, whispering about how that could be them some day. Two weeks later they got their first record deal. Five months later, their first single unexpectadely made its way to the top of the charts and stayed there for fifteen weeks. Their album was talked about so much that he couldn’t leave the house without being recognized a month before the release. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Finally being on stage and performing feels as good and is just as nerve wrecking as he imagined it would be. The energy in the place is amazing, probably the best crowd they’ve ever had, and his attention is entirely split between trying to let it sink in as much as possible that these people are here for them (mostly PJ) and trying his absolute darndest not to fuck up and ruin everything.
It’s safe to say that he’s caught a bit off guard when, while introducing Try New Things, PJ announces that they’ll be joined by a special guest on stage. As far as Dan knows, they’ve never had special guests on stage during anything (Ed Sheeran did sing with them once, but that’s something completely different and Dan still isn’t fully sure that he didn’t dream it).
Chris is smirking at him from behind his drums, so he obviously knows what’s going on, and PJ has the biggest shit-eating grin on face, and suddenly Dan thinks he has an idea of what might be happening, and he is not happy. He kind of wants to run off the stage and hide.
Sure enough, he hears PJ go ‘Now please give a warm welcome to our very own roadie Phil on triangle!’, and the crowd’s loud (if slightly confused) roars, and then Phil fucking Lester is walking out on stage with a triangle, waving adorably to the crowd before proceeding to stand awkwardly next to Chris’ drum kit.
Dan regrets ever having played truth or dare with Chris and PJ that one night in Jamaica, when they’d all been on a high from having finished recording their second album (also some weed) and thought that it would be a great opportunity to break out the tequila. It was fun. Just. Not when Dan woke up the next morning with the sinking realization that he’d told his bandmates all about his stupid, hopeless crush on Phil.
Phil, who’s been with them since the first tour, always in far too tight black skinny jeans and a different bright quirky t-shirt every day. Phil, who blushes when Dan teases him and bites his tongue when he laughs and doesn’t understand what the sound barrier is. Phil, who Dan once spent five hours talking to on a beanbag backstage and then realized that he felt more comfortable with him than he had with anyone in years, maybe since forever, not even PJ. Phil, who definitely does not like him back the same way, because life never works out like that for Dan. Phil.
Somehow Dan manages to keep his cool and plays the song without messing up once. If anything, Phil is the one who makes the most mistakes, which Dan really wouldn’t have thought was possible because all he has to do is hit the fucking triangle once after every chorus, and he must have heard this song just as many times as they have by now, but he still plays it either too early or too late or too often every single time. And yet Dan can’t bring himself to care. Phil is up on stage with him, and so what if he spends at least half of the song looking at him? It’s fun to see him stumble over nothing and scrunch up his face in apology every time he does something wrong, and he’s wearing all black for once, their very own Try New Things merch, which looks even better than on the models that wore it for the official pictures on their website.
After the final chorus and the final ding PJ bids him goodbye and he shuffles off the stage the same way he came on, to an equally confused sounding applause. They play their last few songs. Dan doesn’t think about Phil. It’s fine. He is absolutely not going to murder PJ (and Chris) once they get off stage.
Somehow, the crowd at Madison Square Garden seems to be even larger than two years ago, and that’s after he’s been on six month stadium and arena world tour. The screams are definitely louder this time when they announce that Phil will be joining them on stage for Try New Things. And the place basically explodes when Phil detours on his way to Chris and instead walks up to Dan, squeezes his hand (only slightly awkward since it’s still on the guitar strings) and briefly presses a kiss to his cheek. When he pulls back the glitter on his cheeks sparkles under the too-hot lights and it all feels so silly and perfect and just. Phil.
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