Work Text:
Dan is feeling cramped in the spare room he’s tucked himself away in to take this video call meeting. It’s been going on for a little too long and he’s already gathered the answers he needed and now everyone else that is on the call is just exchanging pleasantries and he really wishes he could hang up without losing all his business cred with these big wigs.
It’s not that he has somewhere to be. None of them have anywhere to be. That’s the point of quarantine.
He figures that’s why the call is taking longer than necessary. Human connection and all that; these business people who are used to going into big busy offices and discuss contracts and copyright all day everyday with other people must be losing their minds in their flats alone.
Dan would be too, except he’s got Phil, and he and Phil have spent well over a decade cultivating their image as self-isolating indoor-types anyways.
He tunes back in to the call when it sounds like things are wrapping up. “Okay Dan, so you’ll be expecting a version of what we discussed in the mail in the coming days.”
Dan nods. “I’ll be sure to keep an eye out,” he smiles. He hopes it’s a convincing smile.
Everyone says some form of sign off and Dan hangs up and pushes his laptop aside. He lets out a long breath and rubs his eyes. He’s free, and what’s more, he’s been productive today. That’s pretty fucking good.
*
Dan can see the back of Phil’s head and his shoulders out on the patio. He can see Phil is wearing headphones and hunched over in his editing position. They’re both being productive today, then. He grabs a glass of water and goes out to join him.
Phil looks up when Dan’s shadow crosses his face. He smiles and tilts his cheek and Dan bends forward to plant a kiss. Dan sits down beside him.
It’s nice out here in the sun. Or as much sun as London gets in early spring.
Maybe the isolation has been getting to him. Maybe just because he’s a homebody doesn’t mean he’s okay with not having the option to leave. Maybe he misses game night and the cinema and random culture events, even if it’s only been a little while without them and he knows they’ll come back soon.
Phil must’ve gotten to a good stopping point on editing his video, as he slips his headphones off. “It’s coming along?” Dan asks.
“Yeah,” Phil smiles. “I forgot how wholesome Animal Crossing is.”
“It won’t be wholesome for long, since you’ve gone and named your island Pickle,” he teases.
“You gonna start playing?”
Dan had put it off because of the stupid video call he was needlessly worried over. Anytime he has to attend a meeting like that he has a worry which overtakes his mind that all he’s gonna hear is firm no, no, no and then months of hard work will be wasted and everyone who’s already antsy over his silence will hate him all the more. He didn’t hear no today, thank goodness. But he still worried over it.
Now that the meeting’s behind him, he thinks he could focus on some cute animal villagers.
“After lunch,” he says. He nudges his foot into Phil’s shin. “Whatcha making?”
*
Dan’s starting villagers are Rosie and Pinky, and he tries hard not to feel personally attacked by the selection of cat and bear. They’re random, he tells himself, the selections are random. There’s no secret phannie doling out starting villagers— for a split second he considers making a tweet accusing one, but decides against it. Maybe later. Right now he wants the game to decompress, just to be him curled up on the sofa with Phil still editing outside.
He names his island Glass because it’s the nearest item to his right and he has Phil’s mostly-edited video on the brain and can’t think of a good reason not to.
Somewhere through the fog of his brain, Dan hears the buzz of someone at the door. He looks up from his switch to see that he’s been playing for longer than he realised; that the sun has set around him.
He’s suddenly really fucking grateful he managed to be productive earlier, so the day wasn’t completely wasted. But he sets his switch aside on the coffee table and wonders if that’s fair; was it wasted? Is getting sucked into a video game for a handful of hours the worst way to pass a day that otherwise might be spent in spiraling? Isn’t he and Phil and everyone else in the world just doing all they can to stay sane right now?
He stands and stretches and sees Phil go to answer the door. He stands at the top of the stairs and sees a man in gloves and a facemask hand over two bags. “What’d you order?” Dan asks.
“I was actually awful,” Phil admits with a bashful blush across his usually colourless face. He places the bags on the kitchen counter and Dan sees they’re from two different places. “I really, really wanted Indian,” he says, opening up that bag. He opens the second. “But I also really, really wanted milkshakes.”
“You really, really wanted your stomach to actually implode is what I’m hearing,” Dan laughs.
Phil pulls out his milkshake and unwraps the straw and sips it almost spitefully. Dan knows Phil is feeling stir crazy too. Knows he wants to be up north with his parents right now and absolutely hates that he can’t. Knows that’s what a truly indulgent takeaway order means. So he lets it slide, figures one tease is enough.
He grabs his own milkshake. It’s a little too thick to get a proper sip still, so he sets it back down to wait until it melts a little.
Phil picks up the bag of food and brings it over to the table. Dan follows. “What’d you name your island?” Phil asks.
“Guess.”
Phil grins. “Pen?”