a messy canvas

Battlefront [Phan]

He found it odd, how his feelings would burst at their seams aching to be released at one point and at other moments he would become unbearably numb, where tapping his fingers upon any available surface was his single tether into the makings of his life.

There was no immediate trigger that brought warning to these ongoing shifts, they simply were spontaneous acts seeking to grasp all the glory that was Dan's attention. No one could pull him away from the slumps they gave, leaving everyone to carelessly cast him aside.  These never ending fights inside his mind were a battlefront which he always stood alone in, because no other being could begin to fathom such clashes that occurred on nearly a day to day basis.

Maybe this was for the better, not having companions around. For if he could barely focus on making sure he was okay, how was he supposed to give others the heartfelt bond friendship entailed the other person would ultimately be seeking?

That was his mantra, a silent reminder to help the loneliness that would taunt him not hit so harshly. All of that was thrown for a loop when Phil etched his way inside to be Dan's partner on the battlefront.

When Dan was struggling to recall what was real and what was a figment formulated by his distorted mind, Phil was there as a witness to the tangible events. As Dan would ask further questions on the verge of tears because he was just so confused, Phil read aloud scribbles taken in a notepad the boy before his eyes had as his outlet during the early hours of the morning, when the invalid occurrences his thoughts conjured up just wouldn't leave him alone to get some sleep.

Their relationship was hard to put into words, for they didn't have the typical friendship of going on about their passions, fears, and wonders of what the world offered. For Dan and Phil it was more of a mutual bewilderment of how complex they were as people, Dan's chaotic turns of mood caused by not having any other way of coping and yet he was capable of gaining peace with the mayhem temporarily, as long as his best friend was alongside him. As for Phil, he was the strong trooper that more than willingly fought to keep the boy he cared so much about grounded. Dan was who had so much to bring into his own universe just by being there, the least Phil could do was prevent the destruction of the very essence that sparked both their worlds to life.