Chapter Text
"Hey!" a tall boy with black swept hair shouts from across the tables, "I like your shirt"
Dan can feel himself turn red. When has anyone ever noticed him, especially when he's just sitting at a random table in a burger king.
"thanks?" He replies, confused if whether or not the emo boy was referring to him.
"So d'ya like Muse then?" The boy asks,
"Erm yea I s'pose I do" "Well then what's your favorite song?" Dan thought for a moment,
"Definitely Hysteria, its amazing. I'm Dan by the way." Phil smiles hearing that response,
"God I love that song, and I'm Phil" he replied.
"Daniel James Howell get down at this moment." A tall, sharp man shouted from the kitchen.
Dan woke up from only a few hours of meaningful rest feeling like shit. He could hear his father call out for him from downstairs. Dan got up begrudgingly, threw on a t-shirt, and made his was to the kitchen.
"Daniel, why do you never get up at a reasonable time?" His mother, a slender woman, with pale blonde hair, asked.
"Why can't you ever leave me alone," He muttered under his breath whilst grabbing some bread from the cabinet. "It's only 11 AM, why is that such late time to you guys."
"We only ask you to be up at a normal time, is that so much to ask for?" His mother continued, "It's really not that hard, if only you would go to sleep at a proper time."
"But why does it—"
"Daniel!" His father shouts, "Do not disrespect your mother." He slams his fists on the kitchen table, and the whole room goes silent. "I have to head to the church now, but I mustn't hear anymore of this 'talking back' to your mother. We are your parents and you must respect us. Do you understand me?"
"Yes" Dan replied in a small, weak voice.
Soon after both parents left for work, and Dan was left alone. In their huge house. It was silent.
Dan grew up in a very religious family, his father being a pastor, and therefore upholding his extremely religious, and old beliefs. This meant being gay, or anything outside of the 'norm' wasn't even a thought.
This scared young Dan. All he ever wanted was to impress his parents, especially his father, but that was close to impossible. It seemed as though nothing could ever impress him.
His father was a cold man, who from an outside perspective, looked to have no emotion. As a pillar of their community, he was extremely well known, and therefore they had to uphold a sort of 'perfect family' view to the outside world.
But to Dan, his father terrified him.
Dan was insecure. He was the type of person to only think bad thoughts. To him, it was hard to even attempt to look at the bright side of things, as to him, there was no bright side. The world truly looked black and white.
This lead him to spending his whole life struggling with relationships, people never seemed to choose him. He was never the first option, he was always a back up of sorts. And even when he found a group of people, even they wouldn't stand up for him. Not even his own family.
When Dan was a young child he was often the target of hateful speech, and getting things thrown at him,
"Hey Fairy," A boy, surrounded by a large group of kids, shouted, "Your not going try and kiss me, are you." Dan turned a violent shade of red hearing this,
"What are you talking about" Young Dan said quickly, "I'm not gay."
To this all the kids laughed, "Damn Howell, no need to be aggressive, unless your hiding something." another kid shouted.
Dan ran away. Like he always did. And he hid. Like always.
It seemed that the only thing dan was good at was hiding. Hiding from people, and especially his parents.
"FUCK" Dan yelled in frustration. He'd spent his playing random games on his Xbox, and had gotten killed in-game. He suddenly remembered that the dark haired boy from earlier, who he has learned was named Phil, gave him his phone number.
Dan headed into the kitchen and dialed in the number given to him.
It rang.
And rang.
Until finally someone finally picked up,
"'Ello?" He heard a voice on the other line say,
"Is this… Phil?" "That depends, who's asking?" Dan took a breath,
"Erm it's Dan, from the Burger King earlier." He said quickly, "OH, Dan yes oh my god, I was really hoping you'd call. Not to sound clingy or anything but I liked talking to you."
He heard Phil giggle through the phone, quickly followed by, "I don't know if this is weird, but would you want to hangout tomorrow?" Phil asked with uncertainty.
"I thought you seemed nice, and yes, I'd like to hangout tomorrow, I don't really do much most days." Dan replied.
"Oh thank god you said yes, I was worried I was going to sound crazy asking that to someone I'd just met." Phil chuckled as he spoke, "What do you want to do then, Dan?"
Dan hesitated, "Would you like to go around London for a bit? I don't have a ride, unless.." "I have a car." Phil stated. They agreed on this plan, and Dan gave his address to Phil,
"Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow then, Phil." Dan said, and Phil responded, "I'll see you tomorrow then"
Dan set the phone down once he'd hung up and smiled. He wondered why Phil would go out of his was just to hang out with him, that insecurity creeping up on him like it always seemed to do.
Eventually his parents arrived at home, and Dan headed to bed, excited for the day ahead of him. Finally Dan has something to be excited for, something to keep on living for. But it also scared him. Why did he feel such strange feelings around Phil?
Dan shoved these thoughts down and fell asleep.