Ephemeral

Adore

"Aw babe you hurt my feelings." Chris pouted.

"Even grosser you called him 'babe'"

"Bae."

"Stop it!" Dan shrieked.

"Baby."

"I will kick you out."

"N'aw me n' my sugar just wanted to make sure you were okay." Chris cooed, pretentiously swooning at Pj and fluttering his eyelashes.

"Oh Jesus." Pj sighed, pushing Chris away, only for Chris to squeal and dramatically fling himself into the wall.

"I know you love me really, sugar!" He wailed, fake blowing his nose into his hands.

"Chris can we stop with the Harley Quinn act?" Dan laughed.

Chris pouted, but otherwise stood up, fluffing Pj's hair affectionately and grinning at the taller boy's unamused grumblings.

"Shall we go upstairs? Or are we going to stand in the hallway for the next couple of hours?" Dan mused.

"I like your hallway." Pj stated, sensually stroking the door, only to snatch his hand back in fright when there was a sudden knock at the door. Dan immediately burst out laughing at the shell shocked look on Pj's face, Chris following in his footsteps immediately.

Dan was so busy laughing that he almost forgot to answer the door - almost - and when he finally got around to shuffling a stricken Pj out of the way and swinging the door open widely, the smile fell off his face and his mouth dropped open in rivalry of Pj's shocked expression. A flash of Phil in the same position only days before ran through Dan's mind and he had to mentally shake the thoughts from his head to focus on the present.

"My gran sent me over." Phil said meekly, a tray of cakes in hand and a shy smile on his face. "I didn't realise my presence would cause so much wonder and, uh, giggling..."

"What?" Dan muttered lamely, then at Phil's pointed look, his brain seemed to snap back into his skull and the sound of Chris wheezing behind him caught his attention. He turned, noticing now that Chris had fallen to the floor somewhere in his fit of giggles and Pj had schooled his expression into confused wonderment at the sheer ridiculousness of Chris' laughter - all snorts and giggles.

"Your faces oh my God!" The boy wheezed, and Dan turned back around to face Phil and his inquisitive and somewhat amused expression.

"Do you want to come in?" Dan asked at last.

"I think so." Phil said, his eyes not leaving Chris and Pj as Pj now attempted to haul Chris up off the floor behind him. Dan only knew because of Chris' yells of "ow my arm!" And Pj's "how much do you weigh?"

"You think?"

Phil's eyes snapped back to him. "Well I mean my Gran was perfectly capable of giving these to you herself but she sent me so I guess she wants us to be friends."

"I thought we were friends?"

"We aren't friends."

"Right..."

Phil smiled a warm smile, handing the cakes to Dan and brushing past him. Dan slowly closed the door.

"Hey Phil!" Chris wailed, his voice strained as Pj continuously pulled on his arm and Chris seemingly tried to make it as hard as possible for Pj to pull him up.

"Would you - hi Phil - just get up?!" Pj wheezed. Then, at Chris' stubborn shake of the head, he shrugged and dropped Chris' arm - Chris flopped onto the floor with a thump and an 'ow!' And Pj snickered evilly as Phil smiled awkwardly at the both of them.

Dan rolled his eyes affectionately as he cautiously made his way past the flailing ball of limbs that was Chris and the stubborn form of Pj to make his ways upstairs. "Coming Phil?" He asked, turning to glance at the boy still stood staring flabbergasted at the two idiots in Dan's hallway. "Those two will come when they sort themselves out." He added, before Phil could ask. Then, without checking to see if the other boy was following, he headed upstairs, yeah of cakes precariously balancing in one hand while he stuffed his face with the other.

Phil halted just inside Dan's room, looking around the blank space with an expression that suggested he didn't really see anything at all. His tongue darted out to lick his top lip as his eyebrows scrunched together but he didn't say anything, just slowly followed Dan and carefully perched himself on the end of Dan's bed.

"Your friends are really interesting." He said after a while, Dan sniggered.

"That's one word to describe them," he agreed. "But you've only met them twice."

"I don't wanna know."

"No you don't." Dan smirked, he fingered the tray of cakes he'd placed on his bedside table, trying to think of what he could say to the black haired boy that wouldn't anger him, or scare him off, or both. Phil eyed him curiously for a moment, then his head snapped to the door as a procession of loud banging was heard and suddenly Chris shot into Dan's room, before Dan could ask, he'd catapulted over Dan's bed and ducked behind Dan's lanky frame.

Dan knew his expression mirrored Phil's; bewildered shock.

"Don't let 'im hurt me, Dan!" Chris wailed, pulling on Dan's t-shirt as a flustered and annoyed looking Pj entered Dan's room, closing the door behind him with a sinister 'click'.

Dan heaved a sigh, and mentally prepared himself for what was to come.

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