Phan One Shots - jilliancares

The Boy In The Mirror

Dan never knew the boy in the mirror. There was, of course, his reflection, but he never knew the other boy in the mirror. For whenever Dan looked into the mirror, there was an exact copy of himself, tried and true, but standing next to his reflection was a boy with black hair and blue eyes. At first Dan was confused when other kids couldn't see the boy in the mirror, but eventually he just came to accept the fact that the boy in the mirror was for his eyes only.

When Dan was little he had wondered idly whether he should be frightened by this figure that followed him from mirror to mirror. Surely something only he could see must be scary and sinister, there was no way that some phantom mirror boy could be anything but trouble, right? With that new mindset, Dan focused on trying to get this mirror boy to leave him alone, but all of Dan's efforts only made the boy in the mirror begin to stand closer to his reflection.

At first the boy in the mirror, the reflection that came from nothing, would stand only on the side of the mirror, in the corner of the room. He stood still over there, watching Dan wherever he went. Dan hadn't actually been afraid of the boy, for he'd been there Dan's whole life, and Dan didn't see the harm in him. The boy in the mirror grew up as Dan grew up. He could remember when the boy in the mirror was little, just like him. And as Dan grew bigger and taller, so did the mirror boy.

But still, despite Dan being used to the mirror boy's familiar presence, he wanted him gone. Dan knew that he was the only one who saw other little boy when he looked into a mirror. He knew that other little kids saw only themselves, only their reflections, and Dan wanted to be normal like them.

So with a mission to be normal , Dan began to talk to the boy in the mirror, even though he'd never talked to him before. Dan yelled and pleaded and glared threateningly, he just wanted the boy in the mirror to leave him alone for once. (Dan had to admit that the boy in the mirror left him alone quite a lot actually. Whenever Dan went to the bathroom or showered the boy in the mirror politely turned around, which Dan was grateful for.)

"Why are you here? Surely it can't be entertaining to hang around in my mirror all day," Dan said casually to the boy, who didn't respond. Dan had taken to talking to him, trying to persuade him that there were better things to do, that Dan was a simple and boring kid.

"I mean I know some cool people that you'd probably have loads of fun stalking. Have you heard of Sarah Michelle Gellar?" Dan asked, glancing at the boy briefly, before examining himself again. The boy in the mirror was standing pretty close to Dan's reflection, and he smiled whenever Dan spoke to him. Dan didn't want to admit it, but he knew it'd be rather lonely if the boy in the mirror were ever to leave him. Dan didn't have any real friends, and he certainly didn't have a best friend. The boy in the mirror was the closest thing he got, and plus, he was the only one who'd stuck around all Dan's life.

"Can you talk? I mean I know you're always in the mirror for some reason, but you can probably talk, right?" Dan questioned. The mirror boy shrugged, though his lip was quirked up to the side slightly, and Dan rolled his eyes fondly.

Dan and the mirror boy had a few good memories together, as Dan's parents rarely questioned why he hung out in the bathroom all the time. Of course, Dan had bought a few mirrors for his room as well, just because it must be boring only ever seeing the world from a couple mirrors. The mirror boy had probably only ever seen the world from Dan's house, school, and a few public bathrooms.

"Well, I gotta go. See you later!" Dan said, as he left the bathroom and headed to school. What he didn't know was that the mirror boy followed Dan, waiting for him to go find some mirror or another. He knew that Dan could only ever see him in mirrors, which was more than everyone else, anyway, so he was grateful. Plus, he knew that he could speak and feel things, although others tended not to hear or feel him.