emotions (phan)

three

I woke up on a bed, wearing an old t-shirt and my boxers. I blinked. Was this Phil's bed? I turned and didn't see him. The bed was perfectly made on his side, obviously not being slept in. I got up groggily, yawning and rubbing my tired eyes.

I walked out the bedroom to see Phil asleep on the couch. I noticed a folded blanket on a shelf and found myself wandering towards it, picking it up and trudging over to Phil before draping it over him.

He shifted and for a second I thought I woke him, but he just made a noise of contentment, not opening his eyes. I let out a breath, relieved. I went home afterwards and got ready for work, heading out and greeting Robert.

"You didn't come back to work last night."

My jaw dropped as I slapped my hand over my head. "I'm sorry, I completely forgot-"

"It's alright. Just don't do it again."

I nodded and walked over to Phil's car and climbed under, beginning to fix it. I noticed the wires were pulled, but nothing could've caused that unless someone pulled it themselves.

Wait a minute.

That little shit pulled the wires himself. I groaned, working on piecing them back together.

"Your boyfriend was really nice yesterday," Robert spoke.

"Yeah, because he gave you mon- wait, boyfriend? Hold on, we aren't dating. He's just a fr- guy I met."

The guys around me chuckled. I blushed.

He laughed. "You two would make a cute couple though."

"Rob, I don't have any emotions on, so I can't exactly love anybody. Unless you expect us to have a no-strings-attached kind of thing, it won't work."

"It's possible for him to love you, though."

I scoffed. "Well yeah, but I know he doesn't. He wouldn't. Besides- him loving me won't turn my emotions back on." I continued to toy with the wires, still under Phil's car.

"That's possible."

I moved to raise my head up from under the vehicle, hitting it on the car and groaning. I paused for a second to wallow in pain, rolling out and rubbing at the new ache. "What?"

"When someone has their switch off and they meet someone who does, it's possible for that person with feelings to somehow bring the other's back. Even without flipping it back on, your humanity will slowly come crawling back until your switch is completely on again."

My jaw dropped. "Why didn't I know about this?"

He shrugged, a coy smile on his face. "You never asked."

After work, I said bye to Robert and went back to my dorm to order takeout. I thought about what Robert had told me, now fearing that if Phil and I got too close, I'd turn my emotions back on. I couldn't handle that. All that pain at once, it'd be too much. I just had to stop being flirty and hang out with him less.

Maybe even entirely.

The delivery guy arrived later, and as I was eating a slice, there was knocking at my door. I furrowed my eyebrows and stood up, looking through the peep hole to see it was none other than Phil Lester.

"Sorry, not home!" I called.

He huffed, lips forming in a tight line before breaking into a grin. "Open up, Dan! I'm bored. Come on, don't you wanna play?"

"We're grown men, not in the fifth grade."

"That's not the type of play I meant," he replied, humor powering over lust in his voice. I rolled my eyes.