Chapter Text
It’s colder this time than when Dan came up to Manchester in October. It’s only been a few weeks, but Dan does feel like it’s been ages since he stepped off the train and into Phil’s arms.
Little things have shifted now, plenty of them. They’re not accidentally matching this time. He knows when he kisses Phil that he’ll be kissed back. He has stood in Phil green and blue bedroom and lived to tell the tale.
And this visit north wouldn’t be quite so terrifying if it weren’t for one tremendous factor— the Lesters are back from Florida. He and Phil won’t have the run of the house anymore. There are two sets of eyes that know their son very well without knowing one particularly vital thing about him, and they’ll be watching Dan the whole three days and two nights he spends in Rawtenstall. He just knows it.
He doesn’t worry about that when he sees Phil standing on the platform waiting for him, hands awkwardly shoved into his pocket and cupid’s bow so goddamn inviting that it takes every bit of Dan’s keen awareness that they’re in public to resist kissing him.
“Look,” Phil says as they’re making their way to the bus stop. He’s tugging the collar of the shirt he’s wearing from under his coat. It is the dark collar of a striped polo Dan had left behind last time, per Phil’s request.
Dan looks down at his feet while they walk. He can feel his rosy patch blush. He feels Phil poke his dimple. “Looks good,” Dan says, pushing Phil’s hand away with a laugh. “Suits you.”
*
Introducing Dan isn’t as scary as Phil had feared. It helps that his parents think he’s just introducing a mate. They don’t grill him the way sitcoms imply overprotective parents grill new potential boyfriends.
Dan is lovely, as always. He wants Phil’s parents to like him even if they don’t quite understand what’s going on.
Phil doesn’t want to admit how much that makes all his insides warm.
“I’ve changed the sheets in the guest room for you, Dan,” his mum says before they walk out of the kitchen. She points at Phil, “I can only imagine this one didn’t bother after you visited last time.”
“Actually, he’s gonna crash on the couch, in my room,” Phil says. He hopes his face is neutral. He hopes he is convincing.
“That old thing? It’s all lumps.”
“I’ve had worse,” Dan smiles. “It’s alright, Mrs. Lester.”
Kath shrugs. “Well, you don’t have the back of an old woman, that’s for sure.”
Phil tugs Dan’s sleeve and ushers him towards the stairs, but he’s sure to remind his mum she isn’t old on their way out.
*
Dan has stolen his polo back. It smells like Phil, and it's warm because he’s only just pulled it off, and Dan tries to harness that creepy enjoyment of these things into the video they’re about to film about befriending internet stars.
Phil keeps petting Dan’s hat and as much as Dan wants to pretend he hates it, he really fucking doesn’t.
But he does threaten to tape up Phil’s hands earlier than necessary for the shot they need if he doesn’t stop. It’s a good thing he doesn’t actually because there’s soon two short knocks on Phil’s door and before they can be answered his mum is sticking her head in.
“We’re off to bed,” she says. “Sure you’re comfortable in here, Dan?”
“Of course, Mrs. Lester, thanks,” he says, offering the kind of polite smile his nana taught him years ago.
Phil leans back on his bed after his mum shuts the door. Dan is still sat on the floor where he had been speaking to the camera. “Does that always happen?” he asks Phil.
“What?”
“Barely a knock and then they come in?”
Phil shrugs. “It’s their house. They’ve been doing that since I was a kid. I think sometimes they forget I’m nearly twenty-three.”
Dan looks over at the couch he’s never actually slept on. “Would be pretty bad if she did that in the morning and we were both asleep in your bed, huh?”
Phil shrugs again. But they both know it would be.
*
Phil knows his parents have been asleep for hours by the time he and Dan are ready for bed. Dan has the actual audacity to spread his long body on the little couch and mumble, “G’night” before Phil is stood over him. Phil starts poking his sides, tickling that soft warm skin.
“You’re not actually sleeping on that, Howell,” he says over Dan’s hushed laughter, “unless you can convince me that you really, really want to.”
Dan sits up and uses a long leg to push Phil out of tickling range. “But if your parents walk in…”
Phil grabs his phone. “We have like five hours before they’re even going to be up,” he says. He sets an alarm for around that time. “There, I’ll kick you out of my bed then, and not a minute sooner.”
Dan wastes no time leaping off the couch and pushing Phil onto his own bed. They’re a tangle of limbs and laughter trying to be quiet in the still and silent house. They mostly succeed.
Phil falls asleep with his arms wrapped around Dan, and Dan’s face so wonderfully close to him that he keeps sleepily dropping kisses every so often until he actually drifts away.
*
Dan hears the horrible phone alarm chirp before Phil does. He turns it off and climbs out from Phil’s sheets. He figures there’s no need to wake Phil if he manages to sleep through Dan’s departure.
He stands by the side of Phil’s bed and bends to kiss the mole by Phil’s jaw and wipe away a drying trail of drool.
That, not the noise of the alarm of the jostling of Dan climbing out of bed, is what finally wakes Phil up. “You’re leaving,” he pouts.
Dan lays on the couch and tries to find a way to actually fit. “I’m not leaving leaving,” he says. “Across the room is a far cry from across the country.”
Phil’s pout deepens. He slides closer to the edge of his bed and holds out his arm. Dan does the same. They almost reach. “Might as well be,” Phil says through a yawn.
He scoots a little closer. A little too much. He tumbled from his bed with a thud that seems to echo off the wall.
They’re both laughing and Phil is still curled up on the floor when the door flies open. A wide-eyed Kath in a cornflower blue robe looks at her son and rolls her eyes. “Hit anything important on your way down?” she asks.
Phil pats his head, “Don’t think so.”
Kath huffs a relieved laugh and closes the door. Dan also lets out a sound of relief, something too shaky to be laughter though. “Good thing I was on the couch, I guess.”
Phil gets himself off the floor, at least so much as to be on his knees. He takes the few steps to the couch and kisses Dan, still shaking with a little bit of laughter. He doesn’t seem as worried by Kath’s drop in as Dan is. He’s kissing Dan deeply and deliciously and Dan’s head begins to spin from it.
When Phil stands and almost immediately plops into his own bed, Dan is still a little out of breath. “I hate that couch,” Phil whispers. “Can’t wait til you're back in here with me.”
Dan looks at the time on his phone. “Few more hours,” he says, though he has no actual idea of the Lesters’ schedules.
Phil yawns. “Sleep til then.”
“Mmm,” Dan hums. He holds his arm out again, and Phil does too. They don’t fall this time, and it’s still a little too far. But it won’t be for long.