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It all started with a few snowflakes sprinkling down from the sky and then all of a sudden, there is a thick blanket of soft snow spread across the London streets.
Ice hung from the tops of their windows as the snow showed no sign of stopping its fall from the sky. Sunlight, peaking through the clouds and gently shining down on the ground, creating more light than probably planned when it hits the snow that’s already settled on the ground.
He’ll happily sit here, in his lounge, under a blanket watching random things on the television that usually would not have as much interest for him if the weather wasn’t like this. But he loves it and the only thing that annoys him is that Dan doesn’t feel the same way.
Sometimes he does. And those sometimes he will happily sit in front of the television with Phil, and maybe they would turn on the fire for bonus points to make it extra toasty and cosy.
Dan is more of a I want to bask in the snow and just watch the world below deal with it type of person. Phil calls it evil because of the number of times he has heard Dan laugh about seeing someone go flying after slipping on some ice. Apparently, it isn’t evil and it’s just accepting the world for what it is, or whatever Dan decides to go on a rant about that day.
Phil stands up from his space on the sofa, shivering slightly as he loses the heat that had filled the barrier between his body and the blanket, but not letting it deter him from taking a proper look outside.
He already regrets the lack of substantial clothes he’s wearing as he looks outside at the crispy white sheet that’s hiding every inch of ground on their balcony but he is also far too much of a salty human being to admit defeat and go back to get something to keep him warm. It’s fine because no one can see him, other than Dan, but he could have gone with something other than his emoji pyjamas and friend’s tee. That may have made him just a little bit warmer, maybe if he grabbed his coat from by the front door or anything.
At he remembered the gloves that Dan had placed on the coffee table, in an attempt to coax him outside about ten minutes ago. It didn’t work because Phil had just rolled his eyes and said that Dan couldn’t get him outside if he tried.
But time is different now. It’s only been ten minutes, but Phil is bored and he shoves on his trainers that he leaves by the balcony door in case he ever needs to step outside, and does exactly that, thanking his previous big brain moments for doing that. He also curses his dumb zero thoughts brain moments too as he steps through the door frame and is hit with the cold December air.
His thoughts are correct when he steps outside and realises just how freezing cold it is. Phil wouldn’t want to be out there if it wasn’t for Dan, and needing his company.
“You’re going to be freezing, what are you doing?” Dan chuckles as he turns around, seeing Phil stepping outside with a smug look on his face. Dan already knows what Phil is doing, they’ve been together long enough. Just over eleven years of this, Dan and Phil, Phil and Dan. Therefore, he knows Phil well enough to be aware that Phil has been sitting inside after saying no bored out of his brains and is now looking for Dan in order to annoy him, accompany him, anything to that effect. Phil isn’t sure yet.
It has always been the case with them. Dan would ask them to do something. Phil would say absolutely not because he is content with whatever he is doing, whether that be watching something on the television or just sitting in the lounge doing absolutely nothing. Dan would act like he isn’t bothered at all by Phil’s refusal and does the thing anyway. Dan would wait maybe ten or fifteen minutes before he sees Phil caving, tail between his legs like a dog that has been caught out, and joining him with the thing Dan had asked Phil to do with him.
Dan always whines about how Phil could have just accepted that he wanted to do the thing with him fifteen minutes ago because it would save them a lot of them, but Phil always counters back that there would be no fun in the chase otherwise, whatever that means. Phil isn’t sure he knows what it means himself but seeing the fond smile spread across Dan’s face as he shakes his head is enough to prove it’s worth it.
“I’m here aren’t I? That’s what you wanted,” Phil smiles back, closing the balcony door behind him, only a touch because they don’t want the same mistake that led them to be locked out of their apartment for an hour before Martyn, with his spare key, had to come to rescue them.
“Not if you’re going to catch a cold,” Dan replies.
“You’re worth the runny nose I’ll get.”
Phil closes the gap eventually, looping his hand around Dan’s waist and pulling him even closer. Dan follows naturally with the same smile on his face, not faltering.
It’s still weird to be romantic outside of their apartment. Of course, the balcony is still their apartment but it’s outside and that makes it a little different. They have always been careful to not do these types of things in public, because whilst they wouldn’t care about themselves individually, they care a little too much about wanting to keep this private and special. It’s been eleven years and it’s been working so why change something that’s not broken?
“Hm,” Dan says absentmindedly as he runs his pink hands through Phil’s droopy quiff. Phil feels a speckle of guilt when he sees how cold Dan’s hands seem. He wants to pick Dan up, although he is definitely not strong enough to do that and would definitely drop Dan in the snow making him even colder than he could possibly be right now, and take him back inside to safety and warmth. “It probably isn’t actually, because I will not be waiting on you hand and foot if you get sick.”
Dan makes a crinkled face as he draws his hands away – the adorable little scronch that Phil knows that he does when he’s equal parts disgusted or embarrassed and fond. It makes Phil smile, the kind of goofy smile that he has only reserved for Dan.
“You wouldn’t,” Phil pretty much whines. He isn’t proud of it but he has no shame in becoming a whiny child sometimes.
“You say that now,” Dan chuckles as he draws his entire body back from Phil’s front and points at him with his index finger. It’s meant to portray annoyance, particularly Dan being annoyed at Phil, but the smile on his face says different.
Phil watches as Dan spins back around, resting his forearms on the balcony and staring out onto the view that they have of London.
“What are you looking at?”
“The snow makes the entirety of London so pretty,” “Like London is sometimes pretty. You see it at night and the lights make it beautiful but daytime isn’t really anything special, you know?”
It’s Phil’s turn to crinkle his nose at the thought. He knows exactly what Dan is talking about. London isn’t necessarily the most beautiful city, especially not how people not from London or even the UK imagine it. It’s kind of ugly if it’s really thought about.
Phil bends down, careful not to get his knees wet from the snow on the ground, and scoops up a handful of the snow. He moves his gloved hands enough to allow the icy cold snow to form itself into an average ball, not really holding it long enough before he aims his hand back behind his head and throws it with a near perfect aim to the back of Dan’s head.
He feels guilty, for only a second, because Dan had been spending their visit to the snow staring out at the city below them, and whenever Phil had looked over at him for a brief moment, he had a look in his eyes that Phil wanted to ask about.
But that was all over now as soon as Phil threw the snowball and suddenly there’s a shriek coming from Dan’s mouth. He spins around on his heels, holding the back of his head like it had been really painful to him but Phil knows it had been for dramatic effect.
“What the fuck, Phil?”
“Sorry!”
“It was just ice, Jesus Christ,” Dan chuckles, rubbing the back of his head a final time before dropping his hand to his side. He decided against gloves when they left their flat to go onto their balcony, his hands look incredibly cold. Phil just wants to press them together and put them in his pocket, and whilst he is thinking about it, just put the entirety of Dan in his pocket.
He is small enough to do that with sometimes, Phil thinks to himself.
“You must be glad I don’t have gloves on because I’d royally fuck you up, Lester,” Dan continues, but there’s no conviction in his tone. If anything, he sounds even more fond than before the snowball incident.
“Yeah?”
“Yes, exactly,” Dan laughs, reaching out to grab for Phil’s hand again and pulling him closer. It’s a little different than before, and Phil can’t place it.
Dan just looks beautiful.
There’s frost in his hair and a smile spreading across his lips. His eyes twinkling in the bright light that is shining into them from the sun to the snow.
“There’s snow in your hair,” He trails off as he speaks, too busy looking at the man in front of him and how the cold air and snow makes him look different but the same at the same time.
“Yeah? And?” Dan teases, that smug smile returning yet again.
“It’s so pretty,” Phil continues.
Phil isn’t too mad when the only response from Dan is a gentle kiss on his lips. It may have lead to them returning indoors, which Dan claimed to be a victory for Phil and that it was exactly what he was after but Phil didn’t care where they were.