Insecure |Phan|

Chapter 3

Dan returned his thoughts with nothing but a smile, although he couldn't stop his face from turning obnoxiously red once more, but Phil and him both knew that one smile spoke volumes.

Phil had finally finished cleaning Dan's face and his hand lingered there for a moment, his blue eyes flickering down to Dan's pink lips for a second.

Dan quickly dropped his gaze down to the floor, and Phil quickly withdrew his hand from from Dan's cheek, leaving Dan to beg in his mind for Phil to keep touching him, setting his skin on fire with each and every contact.

"Okay, now I need you to take your shirt off." Phil said bluntly. 

"Ex-excuse me?" Dan exclaimed, taken aback at Phil's sudden statement.

"So I can clean up the cuts and bandage them, silly." Phil chuckled at Dan's embarrassment.

"Isn't this a little too intimate and weird, seeing as we only just met this morning?" Dan said, giggling.

"Why?" Phil laughed, "It's  not like I'm asking you to make out with me." He winked at Dan cheekily, making the familiar heat rise up to Dan's cheeks.

"Okay, now take it off." Phil repeated with an adorable smile.

"I-I can't." Dan muttered, staring intently as his feet.

"Does it hurt to? Should I help? Here..." Phil asked, concerned. He brought his hands to the hem of Dan's sweater, twiddling with the fabric for a moment before starting to pull it off.

Dan quickly grasped Phil's hands and placed them delicately back in Phil's lap. 

"N-no, I, uh, I mean- I- I don't want to, Phil." Dan repeated, his voice shaking. Dan was absolutely terrified. His worst nightmare laid on the precipice of being uncovered, and all because of this gorgeous boy sitting in front of him, who seemed to care about Dan for no particular or visible reason that Dan could scavenge for.

Phil furrowed his eyebrows, and looked at Dan's face studying it intensely and trying to decode the plague behind his masked eyes. His eyes suddenly traced down to Dan's sleeves, which were long, and covered his entire arms up to his wrists.

And it was summer.

Everything clicked in place for Phil now. 

"Dan..." Phil said softly. Dan remained quiet, and didn't shift his gaze from the ground.

"Dan." Phil repeated, more stern and worried. Again, Dan didn't say anything.

"Dan, you're scaring me. Please, say something." Phil's voice wavered, losing its usual cheeriness and brightness.

Dan finally looked up, meeting his tear-brimmed eyes with Phil's. He let out a shaky breath, not saying anything. He didn't trust his own voice at the moment, as if he had said something, he would've broken down right then and there. And he couldn't do that in front of Phil... he barely even knew him, and Phil barely knew Dan. 

There was no one to trust in this world, and Dan had been aware of that as long as he could remember. He knew not to blatantly put your trust in others, because that gave you the vulnerable position and the other the power to leave you broken and shattered in one touch.

Therefore, in the tense air of the closed bathroom, Dan kept his lips pursed and did what he did best: stayed quiet.

"Dan, show me your arms." Phil said, fearful of what the actual truth might have beheld.

"I-I can't Phil. I'm sorry." Dan choked out, within a sob.

"Please." Phil begged. "I need to know if you're oka-" 

"Why? We barely even know each other. Why do you care, Phil?" Dan shakily whispered.

"Because even if I may not know you as well as I want to yet, I know that you deserve better than this." Phil whispered, looking straight into Dan's chocolate brown eyes, not dropping his gaze for a second.

And with those words, it took all of Dan not to jump fiercely at Phil and attack him in a hug, because Phil had no idea how long it had been since Dan had even heard half of those words said to him. Phil had no idea how much Dan needed  to hear those words, how he was dying a little more every day inside, losing a shard of hope every single fucking day.

He trusted Phil. He may not have known him for more than a few hours, but there was something about this boy that made him trust him more than anyone else Dan had ever encountered. 

So, with one last shaky sigh, he hesitantly rolled up the sleeves of his sweater.