Chapter Text
Phil does buy him ice-cream but it doesn’t last long, too much teasing and laughter resulting is Dan smearing his Ice cream on Phil’s face and Phil shrieking in disgust, tackling Dan to the ground his own ice-cream forgotten. Now they sit together on the grass, leaning heavily on each others shoulders. Dan think’s about the feel of Phil by his side, his head spinning with so many thoughts that he feels like he needs to do something, say something before he bursts.
‘Phil’ he says quietly not wanting to ruin the moment.
Phil turns his head in response and their sitting so close that they’re barely inches apart , he should pull back, but he doesn’t. And then Dan does something reckless, thinking fuck it for the tenth thousand time since he landed in Vegas and he leans in across the few inches separating them and kisses him, light and gentle and barely for a second, but it’s enough to make his heart race. And when Dan pulls away he’s ready for the rejection, ready to hear the words that will shatter every part of Dans world because Phil is everything. He’s in every precious memory, every little stolen glance and loud laughter at 2am and Dan doesn’t know how he’ll pull him self together after this when he’s been so thoroughly pulled apart.
‘Dan looks at me’ Phil says, his voice barely there but Dan complies anyway. There’s a soft smile playing on Phil’s face and before Dan has time to register that expression to file it away and categorise it in his ‘the many facial expression of Phil Lester’ file that he has memorised, the expression shirts into something more serious, one that Dan can decipher. Phil leans back in and Dan barely moves, can barely breath for fear of scaring Phil away. He’s so close that Dan can see all the different specs of blue in Phil's eyes, the little freckles dotting his skin.
‘I need to know if you meant to do that, this cant be a joke, because If you think this is funny-‘ Phil starts
‘Oh for fuck sake Phil’ he says part in disbelief and part in frustration. He leans into kiss Phil again and this time he doesn’t keep it gentle, he makes it real and hungry. Too much teeth and tongue but perfect all the same because it’s Phil he’s kissing. He bring’s his hands to cup Phil's face, eager and wanting, only pulling away when he needs air, bringing his forehead to rest against Phil, breathing heavily.
‘Never doubt if my feelings for you are real’ Dan says.
Phil pulls back slightly and Dan feels the bitter sting of rejection ‘your feelings for me?’
‘Oh come one Phil, don’t play dumb’ Dan says defecting back to his jokes, reminding himself he needs to protect himself.
‘I’m not playing dumb, Dan what are you -
‘I love you, okay’ he yells, all of his emotions finally bubbling out, he gets up pushing off from the grass, trying to escape, his pulse hammering in his ear. He makes it three quick paces before Phil's on him grabbing his arm and spinning him close. Dan's head is spinning
‘Don't’ be an asshole, it doesn’t suit you’ Dan spits and he vaugey wonders how odd they must look in their costume arguing like this.
’You don’t have to give me the it’s not you it's me speech’ he carries on ‘the old I really want to focus on my career right now or are you going with I don’t want to ruin our friendship because I’m pretty sure I just did that’.
He tries to turn away ashamed at his outburst but Phil keeps his grip on his arm and Dan can do nothing but stand there. He deflates eventually, adrenaline gone and nothing but a hallow sinking feeling left.
‘What do you wan’t Phil?’ he asks not maliciously this time, because even after Phil broke his heart he still has the obsessive need to put Phil first, make sure he’s alright, he hates him self for that. Phil remains silent, finally letting go of his arm and Dan turns again, and starts to walk away, wanting desperately to go and hide from the world, preferably with one of Tyler’s margaritas, okay five of Tyler’s margaritas and pretend this whole thing never happened.
‘I love you, okay’ Phil shouts at him, before Dan can get too far, he stops dead at hearing his own words said back to him, turning towards Phil again, not daring to believe.
‘ I thought this was all a joke and then you kissed me again and I thought this is it, this is my chance. Then you did what you always do, every fucking time Dan. You think you don’t deserve someone who loves you, like it’s such a strange concept that anyone could ever love you. So you put up these walls of sarcasm and wit, so no one can get close enough to see what a caring, smart and funny little shit you really are. Expect it didn’t work Dan, I'm here and I see you and god damn it I love you’
Phil’s breathless from yelling and Dan doesn’t care that this is straight out of a romance novel, he closes the space between them and this will be the last time that space ever exists. And this time it’s Phil that kisses him, passionately and most importantly full of love and Dan thinks he must of been an idiot not to of done this a long time ago. When Phil pulls back, they're both grinning and he gives a purposeful look at Dan’s wildcat jersey and says
‘Does this make me your Gabriella?’ and Dan thinks he must be really fucking lucky to get this nerd as his husband.
Later they’ll tell Tyler and he’ll laugh hysterically and say ‘So operation seduce phil was successful huh?’ and Phil will look at him bugged eyed and say ‘you cant of been trying to seduce me, I was trying to seduce you!’
And eventually they’ll go home and Dan will worry that England means he can’t have this, that what happened in Vegas really will stay in Vegas. And Phil will take his hand, the gold bands sitting proudly on their fingers, and whisper ‘I love you, okay’. And Dan will squeeze his hand and whisper ‘okay’ pouring as much love and devotion into the word as he can.
But for now they’’ll stay there in a park in Vegas not caring where they were or what was going to happen because they finally had each other.