Set Up •●• phan

XXV

"A BLACK FEATURE WALL?" Dan yelled. "THAT IS THE WORST AND THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD!"

"Glad you like it," Phil laughed.

They'd been walking around the apartment for the past ten minutes, and in every room Dan would make some exclamation about how fantastic the interior design was, or how much he liked the colour palette. Phil hadn't realised his apartment had a "Radziner feel" about it, but Dan seemed to know all this kind of stuff off the top of his head.

"Did you decorate this place yourself?" Dan asked.

"Well, the walls were already painted when I got here, so I just bought some matching furniture. The only room I really changed was your room."

"It was a stroke of genius putting the black wall in," Dan told him. "It makes the room feel so much more stylish and less like a white box."

"Uh... Thanks?"

"That was a compliment. You can feel flattered."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Anyway, I'm impressed. You should consider interior design as a career, you know."

"I've got a career."

"When YouTube ends, I mean." Dan explained. "You can't do YouTube forever."

"Well, I plan to."

Dan detected the irritated edge in Phil's voice and winced. He changed the subject quickly.

"Have we seen everywhere?"

Phil's face brightened and Dan congratulated himself inwardly. "No. We've still got the study."

"Where's that?"

"It's this one tiny square room on the totally random third floor," Phil explained, taking Dan's hand. "Let's go!"

Dan smiled at his enthusiasm and  followed him up the stairs to the third floor.

"Nice," he said once they reached it.

"Nice? Is that all?"

"It's not as great as the other rooms. It's ok."

"Really? I like it up here"

"I do like it," Dan argued.

"But you want to redecorate."

Dan laughed sheepishly. "You got me."

"We can decorate if you want, but you need to settle in first."

"Patience, young grasshopper," they said at the same time, and giggled.

"Let's unpack your stuff then," Phil said, opening the door.

Dan followed him downstairs and Phil led him into the room with the black wall.

"This can be your room."

"Why am I not in your room?" Dan whined.

"Because you need somewhere to store your stuff and film your videos. And sleep, believe it or not."

Dan looked at Phil with pleading eyes.

"Fine," Phil relented. "You can sleep in my room. But you're filming in here."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want people to know about..." He paused.

"You don't want them to know?" Dan asked, picking up on Phil's point immediately. "Why not?"

"I share a lot with my subscribers, but I don't know what would happen if I admitted I was gay."

"I'm sure they'd accept it."

"But I don't want to take that risk. I've faced homophobes before and it's not been fun, in case you haven't realised."

Dan pulled Phil into a hug and rested his head on Phil's shoulder. "Ok. If you want me to pretend this is my room, then this is my room."

Phil kissed Dan's nose. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Now, shall we go and unpack?"

Dan untangled himself from Phil and nodded. "Let's drag suitcases up the death stairs!" he said, with purposefully false enthusiasm.

Phil laughed. "Yay!"

They linked arms, skipping out of the room, laughing.

"Is this what every day's going to be like with you living here?" Phil asked, unravelling their arms and shaking his a few times.

"Hopefully. Why? Is that a problem?"

"Not at all."