When Light Met Dark // Phan

Sixteen

Chris stared out of his living room window overlooking the busy city roads, phone held to his ear while his free hand fiddled with the loose thread in his jeans. 

"I don't know, man," the voice on the other end was uncertain, "I think you need to let Dan go. It's obvious he's not into you."

"Come on, Peej!" Chris half shouted, falling back in his seat, "what happened to helping a friend out?" The line was silent for a moment.

"Phil is my friend. Dan is Phil's friend. I'm not going to interfere with that." PJ's breathing grew heavy, "this is your problem, not mine. Don't drag me into this." And just like that, the line went silent.

Chris sighed, throwing his phone onto the coffee table; this was only a minor setback.

*

"Morning, beautiful." Phil smiled down at Dan, who had managed to fall asleep on his chest as if it were a mattress.

"How cheesy can you get?" Dan grumbled, but still pushed himself up enough to kiss Phil lightly on the lips before standing up on solid ground. Dan noticed that they hadn't left the sofa at all last night, but that was okay; what was the point of moving if they had to leave a perfectly comfortable position?

"Do you have to go to work today?" Phil whined almost childishly as he propped himself up on his elbows with a quiet grunt. Dan smiled, wishing with every ounce of his being that he could, but how else was he to make money? Phil had mentioned a couple of times before that he wasn't exactly struggling financially, not in a boastful way, more like one of his original attempts to dissuade Dan from getting a job in the first place, but Dan still had a part of him, however small, that wanted to prove himself, show that he  wasn't entirely useless.

"I do..." He settled on finally, pulling yesterday's shirt over his head; no one would notice, and it was even less likely that anyone would care. Phil must have decided that there was no point fighting a losing battle, as not a moment later, he let himself fall down onto the mattress again, a dreamy look filling up his eyes.

"What you thinking about?" Dan prompted as he got dressed.

"I'm in the mood to film a video today, but I don't know what," Phil sighed, rolling onto his side so he could see Dan comfortably without having to get up, "I actually want to film one with you again." He said the last bit quietly, so quiet Dan might have missed it if he weren't listening properly.

"What about a q and a?" Dan said finally after a brief silence, "if I'm going to appear on your channel a lot, your audience will want to get to know me, right?" Phil thought for less than two seconds before nodding wildly, sitting up to hug Dan from behind, arms hooked around his waist.

"Daniel Howell! You're a genius!" He couldn't see from where he was sitting, but he could tell Dan was blushing from the way his head seemed to look downwards like it did every time he was given the slightest bit of attention.

"Can you wait until I get home, then?" Phil could hear the shameless smile in his voice, but as soon as it came about, he tensed, turning around quickly, the top few buttons of his shirt still undone.

"Oh wait," Dan's voice was low, croaky and alarm bells rang in Phil's head.

"What? Dan, what's the matter?" It was frightening him how quickly Dan's mood seemed to have changed, something must have triggered it.

"Chris." Dan spoke finally, eyes wide, fists clenched, and the way his chest rose and fell rapidly was unmissable.

"Don't think about him, Dan." Phil stood up, hugging him tightly, but Dan couldn't move.