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Dan would have lied if he said he wasn’t scared when he stood there, in front of the gates of Jurassic World. He wasn’t particularly excited about this job; yeah, it was really cool that he was about to see real, living dinosaurs, but the possibility of getting eaten by one of them wasn’t nearly as cool.
Still, for some unknown reason, he had happily packed his things and agreed to take the job – and before he even knew it, he was on a boat that was headed to Isla Nublar.
Taking a deep breath (it didn’t actually help anything, Dan just felt like doing that) he stepped inside. And it didn’t take long, until –
“Hi! You must be Daniel. Can I call you Dan? It feels more natural.”
Dan turned around and was faced with a long, tanned woman dressed in a formal office outfit. She had a bright smile and twinkling brown eyes, and Dan felt like she was literally radiating with positivity.
“I’m Frances Clawen, the manager of the park.” They shook hands, Dan wearing his usual business smile that was supposed to hide all the possible awkwardness.
Frances opened her notebook, skimming through the page before clicking her tongue. “Our director says you should start from the raptor paddock. The park is closed today, so you don’t have to worry about visitors. You can leave your stuff here, my assistant will take them to your hotel room…” She tapped her chin, lost in her thoughts.
Dan scratched the back of his neck. “Am I going to be alone with the raptors, or is there someone else with me?”
“Don’t worry!” Frances laughed. “You’re not gonna be alone, our raptor whisperer is ready to save you. Come, I’ll give you a quick tour before I let you to do your job.”
He tries his best to not look nervous.
* * *
“Can you like, not behave like that?”
The brown raptor barked at Phil, tapping one of its claws impatiently. Phil sighed, taking a dead rat out of the bucket next to him.
“Okay then, what if I give you a treat? Come on, girl, I need to take a look at that wound of yours.” Phil smiled as the raptor started moving slowly towards him, tilting her head. Phil threw the rat at her, and she caught it without a problem.
“Good girl, Lucy,” Phil whispered as she came to sniff his hand. Carefully, he placed his hand on the side of her head, checking the wound that was right above the nostril. It was red and somewhat bloody, but it didn’t seem to be infected.
“I can’t believe you fought with your sisters again,” Phil muttered, patting Lucy’s head. She let out a low growl and yanked her head back, curious look in her eyes. Phil shook his head, taking a step back and then opening the back door that led to the paddock, so that Lucy could run back to play with her sisters.
“Are– are those Velociraptors?”
Phil nearly jumped in surprise, managing to stumble against the bars of the gate. There was a man standing at the main gate, watching the animals in awe. Phil frowned. He thought the park was closed today, and even if it wasn’t, the raptor paddock wouldn’t be open.
He coughed, trying to get the man’s attention. “Um, sir?”
The man turned around, and that’s when Phil noticed that he was holding a camera.
“I’m sorry, this paddock isn’t open for visitors yet,” Phil explained, twisting his hands. The man ran his hand through his curly hair, smiling awkwardly.
“Uhh, yeah, I know. I’m Dan Howell, from International Animal Rescue,” he introduced himself quickly, then continuing, “I don’t know if you have heard, but I’ve been assigned here to make sure that the… Animals in this park are doing well and taken care of.”
Oh. Phil might have heard of that, maybe Frances had talked about it a few days ago?
“I’m going to spend a week observing the raptors if… If that’s okay with you,” Dan said, making it sound more like a question.
Phil looked at the raptors that were now playfully fighting with each other, before answering.
“Just observing, okay?” he said, maybe a little bit too reluctantly. “I don’t wanna be responsible of you losing your arm or something.”
Dan nodded. “I have no desire to try to play with them, so no worries.”
* * *
Phil really liked the days when the park was closed. Of course, there was nothing wrong with visitors, but he liked to spend time alone with the animals. The raptor paddock wasn’t open for visitors yet, but Phil had been taking care of a few other dinosaurs as well.
He was curious about Dan. Dan hadn’t tried to do anything dangerous, he just watched the raptors with such respect and awe that it made Phil smile. And he understood it, too. Seeing a dinosaur for the first time felt like it was straight from a dream.
“How long have you been working with them?” Dan asked, nodding towards the raptors. Phil leaned on the railing of the catwalk that went over the paddock, and pursed his lips.
“About two years,” he answered. One of the raptors raised her head when she heard Phil’s voice. “I was responsible of our Triceratopses at first, but when these girls were born, I gladly took care of them.” There was fondness in his voice, and Dan was happy to hear that.
“Do they have names?”
“Yes! I got to name them, actually,” Phil said, looking proud. Then he whistled, and it didn’t take long from the three raptors to come.
“The tiniest one is Iota,” he said, pointing at the raptor that was significantly smaller compared to the others. “The one with a blue mark around her eye is Beta, and the last one that has a wound on her face is Lucy.”
Dan raised his eyebrow. “Lucy? Iota, Beta and Lucy? Why didn’t you name her like, Delta or something?
“She looked like Lucy!” Phil claimed defensively.
“That doesn’t make any sense ,” Dan said with an amused smile.
“Look, Lucy and I have a special bond,” Phil explained with a serious expression. “Isn’t that right, Lucy?”
Lucy purred loudly, looking at Phil. Then she was interrupted by Beta, who was trying to bite her tail.
“You really care about them, don’t you?” Dan asked softly. Phil bit his lip.
“I do. Of course, I was kinda scared at first, like, they’re literal dinosaurs and I’m probably the clumsiest person alive, but everything has calmed down a bit.” He shrugged. “I mean, I know they’ll still eat me if I show any weakness but as long as I stay strict, they respect me, at least a little bit.”
Dan listened to Phil as he stared at the dinosaurs. He couldn’t quite comprehend how amazing Phil’s job must be. He might have been a little jealous.
“Do you like dinos, Dan?”
Dan laughed at the question that suddenly felt very childish. It was like two children bonding over dinosaurs.
“I guess I do,” he answered. “At least when I was young I did. My favourite was Ankylosaurus.”
Phil’s face lit up. “We have a few Ankylosauruses! I’m sure Frances would let you to go to see them later today if you want.”
Dan grinned. “That’d be neat.”
* * *
After spending three days with Phil and his raptors, Dan realised he actually enjoyed it. Phil was a genuinely person, and watching him work was interesting. The raptors really seemed to respect him, funnily enough. Obviously they weren’t like dogs, obeying Phil’s every command, but they didn’t want to eat him either.
(Or probably they wanted. Who knows.)
“Where are you going next?” Phil asked, as he was feeding Lucy, Iota and Beta. “Like, after you’ve had enough of me and the girls.”
“I’m probably checking out the T-rex paddock next,” Dan said. There wasn’t anyone else with them at the paddock – Phil’s co-worker Jimmy had gone to get coffee. Dan was… Kind of glad about that.
He didn’t know if it was weird, but he could have easily spent another week with Phil and the raptors. And by that, he meant mostly Phil. To be honest, he had nothing against the idea of spending a day alone with Phil.
Yeah, it was probably weird.
“Oh.”
“Do you know the person who works there?” Dan asked, when Phil’s expression changed from curious to scarily unreadable.
“I do, Clarissa is a nice girl,” Phil muttered.
“You’re not very convincing.”
Phil sighed. “It’s just that there’s… Competition, sort of. Like, everyone knows T-rex. Everyone wants to see a T-rex.” He hesitantly gestured something with his hands. “But I have the Velociraptors, so in other words Clarissa and I have the deadliest animals of this park. It’s just that Velociraptors aren’t as familiar to the visitors as T-rex. That’s why visitors aren’t allowed to come here yet.”
Dan tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“Frances says that we have to find a way to make the raptors more attractive to the masses.” He frowned anxiously as he watched the dinosaurs eat and fight for the food.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Dan admitted. Phil shrugged.
“She just wants me to train them so she could advertise them as a show number or something, but I don’t think she knows that it doesn’t really work like that.”
Dan was quiet for a moment. “And this all ties to the T-rex..?”
“It just isn’t really that nice listening to Clarissa’s teasing all the time. And she literally named our T-rex Tinky Winky,” Phil huffed, rolling his eyes.
Dan bursted out laughing. His laugh echoed in the paddock, getting the raptors’ attention and making Phil giggle. Dan’s laugh was loud and bubbly, contagious.
“I can’t believe she named a T-rex after a fucking Teletubbie .” Dan snorted, shaking his head. Phil still giggled quietly and took a step back, going to lean on the railing. Which he really shouldn't have done.
They heard a loud screech , and suddenly Phil was falling.
“Phil!” Dan shouted, staring in horror as the man fell into the paddock with a thump . He could have sworn his heart stopped for a second and all he heard was the raptors growling, but then he found himself running towards the side gate.
He slammed the green button without thinking, biting his tongue painfully as he watched the gate slowly open. Phil had got onto his feet, backing slowly away from the raptors that had now surrounded him.
“Phil, run!” Dan yelled, panic swirling inside him. He gulped as one of the raptors – Iota? – looked at him, her yellow eyes fixated on his face. Dan was very aware of the fact that there wasn’t anything between them.
“I can’t, they’ll attack me!” Phil shouted back. His voice was surprisingly steady; if he was scared, he didn’t reveal it.
“They’re gonna attack you anyway, you idiot!” Dan fought against his instinct to run away and stood there, waiting for Phil to get safe.
“I can’t turn my back to them,” Phil explained, taking a deep breath. The raptors started to grow impatient, barking and growling at Phil.
Dan’s hands started to tremble slightly. He couldn’t help it – he was scared. Phil was getting closer and closer to the gate, but so were the raptors.
“Dan, if– if you don’t close the gate, they’re gonna get to you,” Phil said, giving Dan a quick glance. Dan scoffed.
“This isn’t exactly a time to play a hero–”
“Lucy! Iota! Beta!”
Dan and Phil turned their heads when they heard a voice above them. There was a blonde man standing on the catwalk, holding a large bucket. The raptors reacted quickly to their names, the man getting all their attention.
“Need some help, guys?” he asked with a grin, and Phil let out a relieved sigh, nodding.
Jimmy rattled the bucket, holding something in his hand that looked suspiciously like some sort of dead animal. “Hey girls! Phil isn’t part of your diet, remember?”
As the raptors walked curiously closer to Jimmy, Dan grabbed Phil’s arm and pulled him out of the paddock, closing the gate. His hands were still trembling, and Phil placed his hand atop of Dan’s, looking at him with a reassuring expression.
“It’s all okay now,” he said quietly. Dan squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.
“Yeah. That was just… Mildly terrifying.”
Surprising Dan, Phil started giggling, all the stress and nervousness making him eventually break into a loud laughter. Dan looked confused at first, but then he started laughing too, slumping onto the ground.
“I fucking hate this job,” Dan mumbled between his giggles, leaning on Phil.
“At least you weren’t in a serious danger at any point,” Phil said.
“I was worried about you, dummy.”
Phil turned to face Dan, a weird look in his eyes. Dan was about to ask what’s wrong, but Phil’s gaze dropped to his lips.
Dan could hear his own heartbeat in his ears.
Phil’s lips were a little chapped, but soft nonetheless as they pressed against Dan’s. Dan hummed, eyes widening, but then returned the kiss, raising his hand to cup Phil’s cheek.
“Look, I love after-the-rescue make out sessions as much as the person next to me, but I think we should make sure that Phil’s not injured or anything.”
Dan pulled away with a tiny squeak, blushing harshly as they both looked at Jimmy who stood next to the gate.
“Um. Yeah. You’re right.” Phil stood up, wiping his hands on his pants. “Thanks for saving me.”
Jimmy waved his hand. “Of course. You should be more careful, though. They’re still wild animals.”
“I know, I know. It was an accident.”
Jimmy smiled, shaking his head. “Go to see if you’re injured,” he said, “and maybe Mr. IAR official should go with you. You know, just in case if you need treatment.” He winked and walked away, leaving Dan and Phil in an awkward silence.
* * *
Dan’s life was full of surprises – accidentally becoming an IAR official, travelling to Isla Nublar to work, almost getting eaten by Velociraptors. So after he and Phil had left the raptor paddock, the way the day continued didn’t faze him at all anymore.
He was just supposed to walk Phil home. The day had been long for both of them, and now Phil had a gigantic bruise that started from his left hip, spreading up to the lower back. And Dan wanted to make sure he got home safe.
Getting pinned between a wall and Phil’s mouth wasn’t really part of that plan.
(Not that he was complaining.)
It wasn’t probably very professional either, but Dan thought it really reflected his main moods of the day – tired and horny. Mostly tired. The horniness came after Phil had kissed him in a literal dinosaur paddock.
For fuck’s sake, he had only known the guy for three days.
But he was completely okay with it, they both were tired and still shocked by the events of the day. This was an acceptable way to relieve stress, right?
Somewhere between the kisses they managed to make their way inside Phil’s house, bumping into the doorframe and Dan apologising when Phil hit his hip simultaneously. They were making out like hormonal teenagers and they loved it. It was sweet and a decision made on a whim, not supposed to last long.
Phil hissed as Dan’s slightly cold hands slid under Phil’s shirt, trailing his fingers up and down along Phil’s spine. Phil squirmed, trying to grab Dan’s hands. Eventually he pulled away, holding back a laugh.
“I’m ticklish,” he said, breathless and face adorably flushed. Then he grimaced. “...And I just realised that I don’t have condoms.”
Dan blinked a few times. “That’s… Completely valid,” he said, a hint of surprise in his voice.
Phil rocked on his heels. “We could watch a movie?” he suggested, before the silence got too pressuring. “I have popcorn and marshmallows.”
“Sounds great,” Dan smiled.
Somewhere in the park a dinosaur roared.