Intriguing (phan)

2 - control

"does that mean i'm a liar?"

"well, you do seem quite secretive."

dan laughed, but there was a serious undertone to it. "thank you." he said after a while, eyes finally moving from his own hand to phil's face. "it's good that you're here because i probably would've just wrapped it in toilet roll. i owe you one."

phil chuckled, adjusting his grip on dan's hand, which he realised was slightly clammy. "it's fine. i drop things all the time, so it's probably going to be me next time."

"clumsy?" dan asked, tilting his head to get a good look at phil.

"so clumsy. two clumsy people in a house together probably isn't a good idea," phil joked, peeling off the towel to see if dan's thumb had stopped bleeding.

"oh no, i'm not usually clumsy. i'm usually really good at control." and for some reason, that statement didn't sound overly defensive. it actually sounded like dan was being honest.

dan's wording confused phil, but he easily dismissed it. instead, he focused on removing the towel from dan's fingers and making sure the bleeding had stopped. then he continued, "step two, is to clean the wound." when phil looked up at dan, he noticed that dan looked very absentminded. maybe phil was boring him. he decided to continue reading in his head.

he stood dan up and pulled him towards the sink, quickly washing the thumb, then drying the entire hand with a clean towel. he then peeled a plaster and carefully smoothed it onto dan's skin.

"all done," phil said. he noticed that he suddenly had a strong desire to kiss the area. he gave himself a mental slap in the face. why would he even think about that? he turned away before his mind could convince him to do something stupid.

"thanks, doc," dan said, rubbing the area of the plaster. "now how about that breakfast?"

phil silently followed dan into the kitchen, ready to judge whatever cereals dan owned.

"do you like shreddies?" dan asked, gesturing to the bowl on the breakfast bar.

"sure," phil answered, staring past the box and at the carton of milk next to it. "you drink semi-skimmed?"

dan shrugged.

"what the hell is wrong with you?"

"it tastes the same to me."

"don't you dare. semi-skimmed is so watery and disgusting."

dan gave a quiet laugh. "whatever you say. if you're that desperate, you can put whole milk on the grocery list," dan pointed at the fridge, where a magnetic clip held a yellow list labelled 'shopping'.

phil rolled his eyes, unbothered to find a pen. "i guess this will be fine for now." he said. he walked over to see that dan had laid out a bowl and spoon for him, making his heart warm at the unexpected gesture.

they both sat at the bar, taking turns to make their cereal. once they were done, dan found the tv remote and switched the tv on. "what do you want to watch?"

"i usually watch the news in the morning, so i know what's happening in the world. but we can watch whatever you want."

"nothing interesting happened today. unless you want to hear about 'uk airport staff call off 48-hour strike' or 'is this school the best in the world?' or 'flags protester wins facebook damages'."

"you know the headlines off by he--" dan paused. "i forgot about your photographic memory thing." again he paused, looking like he was considering something. "is that it for today?"

"no, those are just the top three headlines, i can go on if you want?"

"uh, no, if the first three are boring, the rest will be even more irrelevant." dan claimed and phil nodded. "you know, your memory is actually really convenient."

"i- thanks."

phil didn't understand. he always had a witty reply for everything. why was he constantly speaking so little now?

"anyway, um, what shows do you like?"

"well," phil began, moving the spoon around in the bowl. "i like anime."

dan's eyes lit up in excitement. suddenly, phil realised dan's eyes were the brightest thing about him, considering he wore all black. they were sitting close enough that phil could see the little specks of gold in dan's chocolate colored eyes.

and god, he'd never seen something so beautiful in his life.

**a/n please vote and comment if you liked, it encourages me to write more. this is still just building the setting so sorry if it's a little boring. are you liking this story so far? cause it's super fun to write.**

🔮rachel