Chapter Text
Dan should have known it was a bad idea to come out to his catholic parents. He had never really got along with one another, he hoped maybe that doing that would let them know more about him? About why he’s a certain way?
No. Not the case.
He was now arriving at the new boarding school where he’d be converted and ‘fixed’. Yay.
He arrived early to speak to the headteacher who simply looked down at him, scoffed and gave him his room key. He was told where the room is and the name of his roommate. Phil Lester.
While walking to the room, he saw some students walking around. They looked.. Happy? Hopefully it was that. After a little bit of a walk, he entered a hallway which was apparently the one to hold his room. Once he got to the room, number 15, he knocked on it, just in case, before opening it, where he saw the student he was to be bunking with.
“Hi, my names Dan, are you Phil?” He asked, hoping the room wasn’t wrong.
Phil had been on his phone the whole time after therapy, which hadn’t been going well ever since he got here. Everyone knew that, not just him. That made him kind of a problem in the boarding school but he didn’t mind that much. That’s when he heard a knock on the door and raised his head from the bed he laid on and spotted a boy he’d never seen before which meant he was new. He was very attractive and him being Phil’s roommate made things even better. He smiled gently at him and nodded.
“Hello. Yeah, I am. You’re new here, I’m guessing? I haven’t seen you before.” He replied, sitting up straight and then stretched.
Dan nodded as he placed his bags down on his bed. He looked around the room and sat down. That’s when he looked at his roommate properly. He surely was handsome. His hair fell in such a soft way and his features were carved perfectly. Damn.
“Yeah, I just came in today.” He smiled. “I’m not too excited really.” That’s when he rolled his eyes and sighed.
Phil chuckled lightly and nodded, shrugging a little. “Yeah, it isn’t really that exciting to begin with. You’ll get used to it though.” He said, smiling at him. “Maybe you’ll even like it here? I’m a fun roommate, if I do say so myself!” He joked, now sitting on the bed in a way that one leg was on it and the other was hanging off.
“Hmm, well I’ll take your word for it.” Dan chuckled, sighing. “It better be fun here. I swear.” He added.
Standing up, he turned to his bags and started to unpack, piling up his clothes, toiletries and other necessities in certain piles. He started to put his clothes away first, just something to do.
“Well...The people here are alright. You shouldn’t have a problem with them or worry about them.” Phil said, getting up from his bed and walked over to Dan. He learned that Dan was shorter than him - not by that much but still shorter. It was cute. “Do you need any help unpacking?” He asked, scanning over the items that Dan had sectioned out in piles and then looked at him with a friendly smile.
Dan looked over at Phil and nodded a little, smiling small.
“I mean, if it’s not a problem?” He asked softly as he continued to put clothes away in an orderly manner like he would back home.
“It isn’t.” Phil replied with a smile and began to help Dan unpack and put his clothes away.
The thing was that in this boarding school, you were brought here to get “fixed”. You were brought here because you were the human embodiment of a sin and it was time to be cleansed of your supposed evil. All the boys that were brought here had their coming out experience blow up in their faces, resulting in them being thrown out and disowned for the time being until they’d been “cured”.
Phil had been in this boarding school for a while now, and being the stubborn gay that he was, he wasn’t leaving any time soon. But why?
Because he slept with every single boy who he interacted with. Which resulted in them being caught. That had happened many, many times, until the last time it happened, Phil was threatened with a more.. Extreme form of therapy. One that would supposedly rid him of his homosexuality for good. He actually did care about the threat and had been able to control himself.
That was until Dan arrived, of course. Now, he didn’t care at all.
They continued to put all of Dan’s things away for a while until it was all in its own places. Dan sat down with an exasperated sigh, leaning against the wall his bed was beside.
“So,” He started. “Tell me about yourself. If we’re gonna ‘live’ with one another for a while I may as well know you right?” He chuckled lightly.
Phil sat down next to Dan and looked at him, smiling a little as he listened to him speak. How long has it been since Dan had been in the room with him? Twenty minutes maybe?
Twenty minutes and Phil was already heavily attracted to him. It was Dan’s first day, so he decided to take it easy on him and try not to flirt.
“Uh, well, what do you wanna know?” He asked with a chuckle.
Dan shrugged. “Anything! Surprise me.” He joked a little. “Tell me facts, info, anything you want. How old are you? What’s your favourite colour? Anything!” He hummed.
He turned his body a little so he could look at Phil better. Taking a minute to examine him again, he got lost in his eyes. Why is he attracted to this boy already? It hadn’t even been that long! Calm down, Dan.
Phil giggled and nodded. “Okay, alright.” He said, smiling. He hummed as he thought of what to tell him. “Well, I’m seventeen. My favorite color’s blue..I think. I like colors in general, don’t really have a favorite one. Erm..I came out to my parents when I was fifteen so I’ve been here ever since. Don’t really talk to them anymore and when I do all they ask me is if I’m still gay.” He chuckled dryly. “I’m not really that interesting. I was lying when I said I was fun.” He shrugged and laughed a little.
Dan rolled his eyes and laughed softly, shaking his head. He rested his head on the wall and yawned a bit.
“Oh damn.” He nodded. “I came out last week - should have known it was a terrible idea.” Is what he added.
“What are your hobbies? I hope to have something in common.”
“We don’t know that it’s a terrible idea until we actually do it. It’s not our fault though. It’s our parents’. Shouldn’t have had any kids if they didn’t want them to possibly turn out gay.” He said and shrugged, sighing. “Oh, um, sorry. I didn’t mean to ramble about it.” He chuckled a bit embarrassingly.
He thought about his hobbies.
Was having sex a hobby?
Of course he wasn’t going to say that! God, Phil.
“And video games..I used to draw a bit but I kind of stopped. I lost motivation, I guess. I still have my sketch book somewhere here.” He said, looking around the room and then back to Dan. He was so pretty to look at. Breathtaking, really. “I used to bake. Stopped when I came here.” He shrugged. “A lot of things stopped when I came here.” He paused before things became too depressing.
“What about you?”
“That sucks.” Is what Dan first said. It did suck. Just because these kids were gay, didn’t mean they should have to give up on all they have.
“Uhm…” He thought. “I liked video games too, music, art.” He said, shrugging. “All things I’ve done since I was younger.” He explained.
“Music? You play an instrument?” Phil asked, smiling as he spoke. “They do have a music classroom here, so you can still work on your music skill if you want.” He said. “Also it turns out we do have a few things in common!”
“Piano.” Dan nodded, smiling widely. “We do!” He said happily. Phil seemed nice, calm and fun. This shouldn’t be that bad then, right? Hopefully not.
“That’s cool! Could you play for me sometime? It’s been a while since I’ve heard someone play.” Phil said and chuckled a little.
Dan nodded, chuckling gently. “Of course, whenever you’d like.” He agreed.
“What’re your favourite subjects?” He then asked as a follow up.
Phil thought a little. “English is alright I guess. I’m not a big fan of the scientific subjects. We have a shit ton of religion hours though which sucks. They’re all so boring.” He said, rolling his eyes and sighing to just the thought of being forced to listen to things he didn’t care about. It’s not like he’d change his mind any time soon. He wouldn’t. It’s like forcing a straight person to stop being straight. You couldn’t really do that.
“What are yours?” He asked, moving backwards to lean his back against the wall, turning his head to look at Dan.
“Music - that’s a given - but I also like history and modern studies.” Dan shrugged a little. “I’m definitely not excited for the religious hours - I never liked doing R.E.” He explained. “Such a boring and biased class.”
Dan ran his hand through his hair, looking at the time and hearing his stomach growl.
“What time is dinner? I could do with some food before I sleep. I don’t wanna wake up late for breakfast.” He asked, to be sure.
Phil listened to Dan speak and nodded silently at his words with a small smile. He leaned himself slightly forward and looked at the clock when Dan asked his question. “We have another thirty minutes before we go have dinner.”
“Ah okay great.” Dan smiled and nodded.
“Wait, speaking of, when is breakfast and when do lessons start? I was told all this in my induction but I just don’t remember - like at all.” He chuckled. Dan was never good with memory, this was just one of the times it wasn’t good.
Phil chuckled and shook his head. “It’s alright. Ask me whatever you need to know.” He smiled. “Breakfast is at 7:00am. Classes are at eight. I usually wake up at 5:00am just to have time in case I forgot to do homework so I can just speed do it. Waking up at six is good too though.”
Dan nodded slowly. “I’ll probably be up at 6.” He said. “I never do work in the morning because I manage to get it all done at night as I never do anything at night.” He shrugged. “Pretty boring, I know.”
“No that isn’t boring! I’m just irresponsible.” Phil said with a shrug, smiling a little. “Do you wanna shower before or after dinner? I suggest before dinner because after dinner is when all the hot water runs out which sucks.”
Dan chewed his lower lip and nodded. “Yeah, that might be best.” He said, standing up and taking some comfy clothes and a towel out of his own belongings.
He walked off to the showers and gets in. While in the shower, he got to think about what happened that day. One minute he was dreading the whole boarding school thing, the next he was roommates with someone super hot and kind.
After his shower, he changed and walked back into the room, his towel sling over his shoulder.
“Hi again.” He beamed and sorted out his dirty laundry and towel.
As Dan showered, Phil was left alone with his thoughts. Dan seemed like a good person and he couldn’t imagine anything going wrong with them living together. Him being attractive really distracted him but he didn’t mind the distraction. He’d stare at Dan all day if he could.
Once Dan returned, Phil smiled at him. “Hello.” He chuckled as watched him sort his things out. He looked even cuter with his hair being wet. Phil had already showered before Dan came because he had nothing better to do.
Dan finished up before plopping back down onto the bed beside Phil. “God, I’m starving. The drive here took so long.” He complaining, groaning causing Phil to let out a giggle beside him.
“How goods the food? I’m not gonna be happy if I have to eat shit food for god knows how long.”
Phil looked at Dan and uneasily chuckled. “I-I mean the food’s not that bad..? It’s, um, edible? I think. It probably isn’t actually edible but you know.. We eat it anyways because we don’t really want to starve to death.” He said and shrugged.
He glanced at the clock, seeing it was now dinner time, and then turned back to Dan. “It’s actually time to go eat so you can judge the food yourself.” He chuckled and got up from Dan’s bed, stretching a little. “Come on, let’s go.”
Dan grimaced at the description of the food, the food he was not excited to try.
He looked at the time and nodding, standing. He yawned and stretched out his arms before beginning to follow Phil to the cafeteria, looking through the halls. The walls were decorated with posters and quotes about how homosexuality was bad and why they were at that school.
Bull shit
They got into the cafeteria and he looked around. Everyone seemed cool, happy even. That made Dan smile. At least the weights of the things they were put through here wouldn’t show too much. Well, not around other people at least.
Phil left off to get him and Dan some food. He returned to him and sat down next to him at the table they shared with their friends. They all introduced themselves and treated Dan nicely.
At one point, actually, one of them started taking a specific sort of liking towards Dan.
“You know, the food here sucks, but I know how to get better food. Maybe you could come along with me? Just the two of us.” The friend, whose name was Alex, said suggestively to Dan with a smirk playing at the corner of his lips.
Dan tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at that comment. He’d never really been flirted with before, not at all. Was he even flirting? He had no clue.
“Where to?” He asked, wanting to know more.
Phil’s eyes darted between Alex and Dan, feeling the blood boil underneath his skin. Why was he even getting jealous? He couldn’t show that he was, of course, so he kept quiet even though he wanted to stop it badly.
“We’d sneak out. Maybe, go to town a little. Have some fun-“ Alex’s sentence was interrupted by Phil’s scoff and an unamused Phil.
“That seems a bit unrealistic, don’t you think? You’d get caught.” He said, rolling his eyes which then scanned over the cafeteria.
“Not with me he won’t.” Alex replied, turning to look at Dan and openly checked him out. “Plus, you’re just jealous that I’ll be alone with Dan because you like him.” He continued, a grin plastering on his face as he awaited a verbal reaction from Phil whose cheeks turned into a deep red.
“W-What? I don’t like him. I’ve only known him for an hour. ” Phil stuttered nervously, feeling his whole body heat up. “Plus, what do you mean I’m jealous that you’ll be alone with him? I literally live with him. I can have as much alone time as I want.”
Why couldn’t he just shut up?
“That’s true. But if he’s with me for the whole time then you won’t really have alone time now, would we?” Alex continued, purposely trying to provoke Phil some more.
Phil glared at Alex, not a word coming out of his mouth but the look in his eyes said all that he wanted to say. He remained quiet and looked away from Alex and Dan, tapping his leg on the floor and folding his arms across his chest.
By the time the two had finished arguing, Dan’s cheeks were a deep red and he was so confused. What was this? He didn’t speak though - he stayed silent and continued to eat his food, only ready to speak when spoken to. That’s definitely not what he expected at all - never mind so soon.
As they had dinner, despite the awkwardness that occurred earlier, they began to speak to one another again as if nothing happened, but there was still visible tension between Alex and Phil.
When everyone had finished eating, they were all told to go to bed and if anyone was caught outside, there would be severe consequences. Phil, for once, actually respected this rule and didn’t go outside when he wasn’t supposed to.
Oh who was he kidding? Of course he went outside when he wasn’t supposed to! He never got caught though. However, tonight he wasn’t going to risk it. He didn’t feel like going out anyways to begin with.
Dan and Phil returned to their room together and they both let out a synchronized sigh.
After they got ready for bed, Phil turned to Dan. “I, uh, I’m sorry about what happened with Alex earlier.” He said in a quiet voice and embarrassingly chuckled.
Dan in return shook his head, sitting down on his bed in his pyjamas. It was a bit weird, but it was fine.
“Don’t worry.” He said calmly. “It’s nothing too bad. I was just confused.” He added with a slight chuckle.
“Yeah. Alex’s the only one who..picks - I’m not sure if that’s the right word- on me, I guess. He claims it’s all jokes but I don’t know he only does it to me. It’s fine though.” Phil shrugged with a little chuckle and then yawned leaning back onto his bed and put his face in the crook of his arm. “We should go to bed. Don’t wanna be late for your first day tomorrow.” He said, turning his head to look at Dan with a smile.
Dan nodded, shaking his head. He got underneath the duvet and laid down, curling up. “Goodnight, Phil.” He said softly and closed his eyes, slowly but surely letting himself drift off to sleep.
“Goodnight.” Phil responded, it only taking a few seconds for him to fall asleep after closing his eyes.