SUPER RICH KIDS | PHAN

eleven.

dan

dan sighed, playing with his fingers and waiting for phil to get his thoughts in order. he was shuffling through pages of notes; apparently his ideas came in scribbled paragraphs and torn paper. and he was wearing glasses. why didn't dan know he wore glasses?

it seemed as if phil hadn't wanted him to know, though; he kept pushing them up on his nose and glancing at him. thinking-phil was a lot more strung up than every-day-phil.

"do you need some help?" dan asked, watching his face. phil had mostly ignored him for an hour, despite saying this was a 'team effort'. phil glanced up at him again, and grumbled something.

"i dunno. i'm thinking about what we'd wanna put in the papers about it."

"you're really serious about this, huh?"

phil looked up at him again, his gaze solid and sharp. he messed with his glasses. "i need that car."

dan couldn't help rolling his eyes, leaning on the desk with his chin in his hands. "got it, yeah."

phil glared at him and yanked a piece of paper out from under his elbow. "yeah."

dan sighed and watched a muscle in phil's neck twitch. jesus. he stressfully shuffled his papers, making sure they were perfectly straightly stacked.

without even thinking about it dan reached out and bumped phil's fist with his. phil's eyes shot to his hand, and his brows furrowed in confusion.

dan smiled a bit, searching his eyes. with his other hand he guided phil's fingers into a fist as well. he made his hand flat, then into a scissor shape, still looking at his face. phil met his eyes.

"i'm not playing rock paper scissors with you."

dan groaned. "why not? you need to relax."

phil pulled his hand back. "no, i don't. i'm fine."

dan reached up and attempted to smooth out the wrinkle between phil's eyebrows, mostly for the satisfaction of annoying him. phil swatted his hand away. "you don't have to help, you know. all i need you for is your guitar."

"ouch." dan laughed. "thanks for the offer, but i want to help." phil scowled.

"whatever."

dan watched him work for another minute before sticking out his hand again. he heard phil sigh and try to ignore him, but soon he was playing a round with him without even deciding to. dan won, which made phil roll his eyes and go back to his work grumpily.

soon dan was able to draw him into another game, and this time he let him win. dan saw the corners of his lips turn up a bit, but phil kept his eyes down so dan couldn't see much. dan grinned, and they played another round. the focused creases in phil's face were softening, and it was kind of amazing to watch.

"now that we've established i'm better than you at everything," phil mumbled after a few more games. "we should get back to work."

dan caught his pinkie with his, locking them together on impulse. phil's eyes shot to his. "one more."

"hey dan, i- oh." katrina raised her eyebrows at them from the door. "am i interrupting?"

dan pulled his hand away, shaking his head. "no, of course not. what's up?"

"earl was wondering if you would read him something before bed."

dan nodded, smiling and pushing himself up. "yeah, okay." he glanced back. "see you later."

phil's face was red and the stressed wrinkles were back. he nodded stiffly, his gaze falling back to the papers.

➹

earl seemed a bit pale, but his spirits were just as high as always. dan got it; it could take a lot of energy getting used to a new place.

he nearly climbed into dan's lap as soon as he sat down, and dan laughed. "hey." he ruffled his hair and earl made a face at him.

"where have you been?"

"with phil."

earl yawned and nodded, leaning against his chest and tangling his fingers in dan's shirt. "are you guys dating?"

dan blushed, his eyes going wide. "no, of course not."

"good, because he's mean."

dan smiled. "why'd you ask?"

"because you like everybody."

dan's blush darkened. he used to get a crush on any boy that came along; boys who gave him a dollar or told him he was good at playing, hot-dog stand boys, boys working at the coffee shops that he sat outside of. it didn't matter who, dan fell head over heels. but luckily dan had learned (the hard way) that liking anyone who came along hurt far too much. you had to watch, watch for the ice behind their eyes or the way their faces folded in disgust at the sight of you. nobody has just good in them, and a fairly unfortunate amount of people have too much bad for it to matter.

dan sighed. "no. we aren't dating, and i don't like him." he pushed his hair back. "do you?"

earl scrunched his nose. "no! he's old."

dan frowned. "he's my age."

"exactly." he giggled and pressed closer to him. dan laughed and patted his head as if he were a puppy.

"one day you'll be my age and you won't think it's old."

"maybe," earl responded softly, and by the time dan thought to ask what he meant by that, the boy had dozed off.