When Light Met Dark // Phan

Nine

"It's going to be fine." Phil looked up at Dan from behind his laptop, watching the other man fidget uncontrollably in his seat, which would surely break under the weight if he carried on for much longer.

"How do you know?" Dan was due to leave the apartment in about half an hour, so really, there wasn't any point in  worrying about it longer than necessary, but that was far easier said than done. He couldn't help but let his mind drift towards the worst possible outcomes; what if he was late? What if his new colleagues didn't like him? What if he couldn't handle the workload? What if -

"Dan. You're thinking too much." It was quite obvious to Phil where the other man's mind was at; you couldn't miss the vacant look in his eyes, or the way his fingers fiddled with each other relentlessly, or the way he crossed and uncrossed his legs almost uncontrollably; fear practically radiated from him.

"No shit, Sherlock." Dan huffed, standing up suddenly to look at himself in the mirror, straightening his tie, though his eyes met Phil's in the reflection. In that moment, it was like all- or at least most- of the anxiety that had built up in Dan's head over the past couple of days seemed to have slipped away into irrelevance.

"Sorry." His voice was low and full of something that could only be described as regret as he sat down again, slumping back into the cushions.

"There's nothing to apologise for." Dan smiled quietly before letting his head hang so he could only look at the floor below him, allowing a strange silence to fall over the two men. Deep down, Dan knew how childish he was acting, and he regretted the words almost the moment they had left his mouth; Phil had been nothing but understanding the whole time he'd been here, yet this was how he treated him?

"I think I'd better go now." Dan stood up, shrugging his bag on, despite the fact that he still had twenty minutes to go, before he felt Phil's grip on his wrist. Phil retracted his grasp almost instantly before standing up himself to meet Dan's eyes, swimming with apprehension, along with any other relatively negative emotion.

"Just..." He bit his lip, wondering if he should go in for a hug, but eventually deciding against it last second, "good luck. You're going to do amazing."

"Thanks, Phil." It meant a lot more to Dan than he let on; the last time he started a new job, his dad barely glanced in his direction, let alone wish him luck. He didn't want to have to think about his father on a day like this, but he invaded his thoughts as he closed the door behind him.

If it was possible for the apartment to get more quiet than it had been, the moment Dan left, it did just that. It was an eerie kind of quiet that would usually leave Phil feeling on edge, and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't escape the feeling. After staring into space for a good five minutes, he finally decided he ought to distract himself until Dan got home, and hopefully, his return would bring good news.

*

"Looking forward to starting your first day?" Anne, the woman who had interviewed him a few days ago but he'd never bothered to listen to her name until now, was smiling widely, far too much so, but Dan wasn't about to piss her off this early in his employment. Her attitude seemed to have changed dramatically since he'd first walked through the office doors, but that was probably down to the change in circumstances.

He nodded as enthusiastically as he could, despite every part of him telling him to run out of the building, back home.

"So I'm going to get you to shadow someone for the first few days, let them show you the ropes and stuff, you know?" Shit. That meant he had absolutely no excuse to not talk to people. But he carried on nodding like he had no care in the world.