TAMPONS | PHAN

seven; may

"So I call her back and explain. She didn't believe me at first until another diner pointed out the handprint to her. Luckily she was quite forgiving. Nevertheless, we never went back there again" said Dan's Dad and despite himself – and the utter embarrassment he felt – Dan joined in on their laughter.

Dinner passed by quickly, with talk, laughter, and a few more embarrassing stories. After their plates had been cleared, Dan's Dad refused any help with the dishes and sent the two of them to Dan's room with promises to bring up brownies later on.

"Your Dad is amazing," commented Phil as they headed down the hallway to Dan's room.

Dan opened his mouth to protest, but then thinking of all the times his Dad had been understanding, kind, and simply there made Dan change his thought.

"Yeah he is," Dan agreed and for a moment Phil was silent. Dan could tell he was thinking about his parents. "Erm... this is my room," said Dan awkwardly pushing open the door to reveal his bedroom, or the place in which he spent the most time.

"It's neater than I thought," Phil said and Dan laughed.

"If only you had arrived 30 minutes earlier. My room was a tornado zone," he said, thinking of how in the half-hour before Phil arrived he had flown around his room in frenzy cleaning up all the mess he and Mitch had made. The bin underneath his desk was brimming with sweet wrappers and random bits of paper with maths equations scribbled over it.

"My room is normally messy too. I think I have a disorder that doesn't let me pick up my clothes," said Phil, moving over to examine Dan's dresser which was strewn with various knick-knacks. "Where did you get this?" he added picking up a stone figurine of a giraffe.

"My dad got that for me in Africa when he went for a business trip," replied Dan. They spent the next few minutes going over every single one of Dan's trinkets until they found themselves staring at one another, unsure of what to do.

"Do you want to watch a movie?" asked Dan and Phil's eyes light up.

"Don't judge me for this, but I need to know. Do you watch anime?" he asked, his eyes shining as he looked at Dan in anticipation.

"One." Said Dan holding up a finger. "I would never judge you for anything, unless you murdered someone though it would depend on your reasoning. Two–" he held up another finger "— whomever judges another person for watching anime of all things, has to be the most insane person ever. And Three—" yet another finger was raised "— I love anime." Dan finished with a flourish.

Phil shot Dan a dazzling grin. "You didn't have to make your response so dramatic."

"It's who I am" replied Dan theatrically. "Or at least, who I've become after spending so much time with Mitch."

"He was nice. I liked him." Said Phil and Dan raised an eyebrow.

"Not in that way," added Phil blushing.

"Good. I love Mitch and all, but he goes through guys like they're tissues. His heart is in the right place though." Said Dan giving Phil an if-you-dare-slut-shame-mitch-i-will-tear-you-apart-i-don't-care-if-i-may-have-a-crush-on-you, kind of look.

Phil got some of the message as he closed his mouth abruptly as though he were about to say something and thought better of it.

"I think the brownies should be ready soon," commented Dan taking a big sniff of the air. The rich smell of chocolate was emanating strongly from the kitchen, making Dan's mouth water.

"Should we go help?" asked Phil.

"No. Believe me, after I nearly burnt down the kitchen after the last time I tried to cook... I'm not allowed near the stove anymore," said Dan. "I'll stick to watching cooking shows with Mitch," he added.

"When did you meet Mitch?" asked Phil taking a seat on the edge of Dan's bed.

"When we five. He stole the pink crayon from this boy I hated called Jeremy because Mitch needed it to colour in his t-shirt on his drawing. When he saw me looking at that crayon longingly, he broke it in half and we've been best friends ever since. When we were twelve, just after my mum died... we started movie nights every Sunday," said Dan and Phil smiled.

"Flynn and I met when we were four. But we hated each other" said Phil smiling wistfully, caught up in his memories of the past.

"Dan! Phil! Brownies!" called Dan's Dad and Phil made to leave but Dan stopped him.

"How did you end up becoming friends then?" he asked Phil.

"Oh I peed on him. Then he cut my hair. We spent all of playtime in the time out section and from then on we were inseparable" said Phil giggling.

"You peed on him?" asked Dan shocked, and Phil nodded giggling.

"I was a weird child. This one time I— "

"I guess I'll just eat these all by myself then!" said Dan's Dad loudly and Dan rolled his eyes.

"We better go. He's not kidding. One time he ate two whole pizzas because I waited ten minutes to come down to dinner," Dan said and Phil laughed.

-

Later as they sat shoulder to shoulder on Dan's couch watching anime, Dan couldn't help but feel utterly content. He felt safe with Phil, he felt comfortable, most of all he felt at home.

He got electric shocks up and down his arms every time Phil's skin accidentally brushed against his own. Butterflies swarmed his tummy, every time Phil whispered something funny in his ear. Dan quite enjoyed the warming sensation he got when being near Phil.

The only problem was; he had never felt that way with Kate. 

- 

i'm really really unhappy with this chapter. this is probably the worse piece of writing i have ever done in a while and i just hate it so much but i know if i leave it and try and re-write it, it will take forever and i really wanted to update for you guys because it's been a long long while and i'm really sorry for that. writer's block is not fun.

idk if it was even writer's block tho. it was kind of a mix of that and procrastination. i wanted to write everything that wasn't this book. which is annoying to me because in order to upload those other things i need to finish this one and ugh... 

if i keep this up this a/n will end up being longer than the chapter...

oh i have a rant book too! it's called word garbage; rant book so check that out if for some reason you want to read my jumbled thoughts.

love you all and stay safe.

rach.