Phan Fluff One-Shots

A Dream Come True

By: darkness_prince_dan on ao3

Word count: 7,843

Summary: Dan's got a major crush on an artist that frequents the coffee shop Dan works at and then there are magical drawings appearing on Dan's arms. He should not be as cool with that as he is.
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The sentences he wrote on his forearms were pretentious as shit, Dan could admit to that. But ever since he was little he wanted to become a writer, a famous author whose stories would entice people and make them reread his books over and over. So practising riveting lines by etching them on his skin kind of became a thing. His mother used to tut at him for always having smeared lines of blue ink running down his arms, fondly calling him her blueberry and just sighing before sending him to scrub his skin clean. Though, the next day the story would repeat itself again and soon his mother stopped even commenting on it.

Dan was sixteen when he finally and permanently outgrew that habit thanks to all the remarks and looks he received at school and outside of it. The dream of becoming a writer also took a back seat because honestly, Daniel, how do you expect to survive in the real world by scribbling stories? – that one's from his father, - or seriously, man, a writer? You'd have more luck becoming a ballerina – that one, followed by bouts of laughter, from his best friend. But Dan's favourite came from his literature teacher – Mr Howell, your lack of talent for writing is shocking and I would strongly advise you not to pursue a career where you would have to use your abysmal lack of imagination. A truly sophisticated comment that made Dan run to his mother and cry into her shoulder while she petted his hair and hummed a soothing tune.

Yeah, that last one shattered Dan's hopes and any sort of fleeting pride he had in his skills as a writer. So he followed everyone else's advice and got himself into university for the respectable and hopefully future money making degree of law. Already after the first few months he realised he hated it.

And thus Dan sits behind the counter of a shitty 24/7 coffee shop that serves the shittiest coffee and the shittiest bagels whose owner pays shitty money for this shitty job and laments his shitty life choices. But at least he's no longer miserable about his degree as he dropped out of uni a month ago. Ah, yes, the silver lining of the humongous and thunderous void-black cloud that is his life. Just brilliant.

Dan sighs for the umpteenth time since his shift started and drops his forehead onto the countertop, smacking it a couple of times for good measure. He hates night shifts. Well, the majority of the night shift, but his regular and extremely handsome customer comes in for only a couple of minutes well into the night so that's not a huge relief.

It's past two a.m. and of course no one's here. Actually, the only people that dare step foot into this place at any time at all are sleep deprived students in need of a quick caffeine fix or people who don't know any better.

There's a not so gentle rap of knuckles on his skull and Dan lifts his head, frowning and narrowing his eyes at the girl who's standing in front of the counter. She lifts an eyebrow and leans her arms on the countertop.

"Really? Sleeping on the job? Oh, Howell, whatever I'm gonna do with you," Reina sighs and shakes her head in disapproval.

"What are you doing here?" Dan asks through his yawn, lifting his arms and stretching a bit. He glances at the clock which shows that it's nearing three. Huh. He actually did sleep on his job. Not that he feels any guilt about it.

"Rude," Reina reaches out and flicks him on the nose. "Can't a friend just visit a friend because of the goodness of her heart, you jerk?"

Dan totally doesn't let out an undignified noise, he totally doesn't glare at the short Asian girl like she's the devil herself and, most importantly, he doesn't reach forward to return the favour only to have his hand twisted sideways in Reina's vice grip, making him whimper like a scolded puppy. He's way more adult than that.