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By the time Phil arrived at PJ’s and Sophie's, the party was already in full swing. Not that it surprised him, since he was over an hour late. In his defense, his editing software had crashed halfway through the day, deleting all of his progress and resulting in him having to work two hours past his normal office hours. If they could be called that.
He’d briefly considered not coming at all. As much as he had always liked Halloween, huge parties weren’t really his style. Especially not with so many strangers invited. But he had promised PJ, and he did rather like his costume.
That was one of the things he loved most about PJ: they hadn’t lost any of their artistic or whimsical personality over the years, which is why costumes weren’t just welcomed but actually required, as stated in the invite.
He took one last deep breath and tried to wipe the sweat off his fingers on his long leather coat, rather unsuccessfully, before hitting the doorbell.
It took a short while before the door opened, but he was pleasantly surprised that it was actually PJ who opened it and not one of the other guests who just happened to be close to the door at the time.
“Phil, hi,” PJ smiled and immediately pulled him into a hug. “So glad you made it. I was getting worried you weren’t gonna to show.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Phil replied, slightly embarrassed. “Got held up at work. My program crashed.”
“No worries, I’m just glad you came. Here, do you wanna hang up your coat?”
“Nah, I’m okay. I fear my costume doesn’t really work without it.” PJ looked him up and down and then nodded. “I love yours, though you’re a zombie-alien, I assume?”
“Yes, thank you,” PJ exclaimed. “You don’t know how many people have asked me tonight which one of the two I’m supposed to be when it’s clearly both.”
They made their way to the living room before PJ got pulled aside by someone else; apparently, he was needed in the kitchen. He mouthed a quick ‘Sorry’ in Phil’s direction before vanishing into the crowd.
Phil sighed. He’d hoped he’d be able to follow PJ around for a bit longer before he had to venture out into the crowd of people by himself. At least the house wasn’t so full that he was actively being squashed between multiple bodies at all times.
And everyone had followed the costume rule. He had slightly panicked while getting ready and re-read the invitation multiple times just to make sure he wouldn’t make a complete fool of himself. Most people had gone for fairly basic Halloween costumes. He saw a few witches, angels paired with demons, a skeleton, and even a rather realistic-looking mummy.
After spending the maximum amount of time that could be deemed socially appropriate people-watching, he decided to at least get a drink. Maybe he would even talk to some people. If these people were all friends with PJ somehow, how bad could they really be? Maybe he’d even recognize some from the game nights PJ and Sophie hosted about once a month.
He had almost made it to the kitchen when a guy in a rather lazy vampire costume suddenly started to stumble and fall forwards into Phil’s direction. He himself was too shocked to do anything, his reflex skills had never been great, but luckily, someone caught him before they fully collided. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the guy’s beer splashing out—directly onto Phil.
Phil stared down at himself, a little bit dumbfounded. His previously perfectly nice red shirt now had a huge stain on it and clung to his stomach in a cold and uncomfortable way.
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, mate.” The guy responded after he had gotten back on his own two feet. In his defense, he did look rather sorry. Not that it helped Phil at all. But he didn’t want to start anything. So, he just shrugged, “It’s okay. Not like you meant to do it.”
Not willing to continue the conversation, he simply turned around and walked in the other direction. He could get a drink another time, or never.
Before he could decide what to do next, someone suddenly grabbed his arm. “Phil, hi. PJ said you’d finally come.” Sophie looked as joyful as ever. Her costume perfectly matched PJ's, and Phil made a mental note to remember and ask them later how they had made the costumes.
“Yeah, sorry, work stuff.”
“Don’t worry, I’m glad you’re here now.” He could tell that she was about to pull him into a hug when she noticed the big stain on his shirt.”
“Huh, what happened to your shirt.”
“Bumped into some guy, and he spilled beer on me,” he responded, trying not to sound too bitter about it. He liked this shirt and the costume, actually, and was rather upset to have it ruined so early on.
“Shoot, hey, you and PJ are about the same size. Just go up to his room and take one of his.” He considered it. He didn’t really fancy walking around slightly wet and smelling like beer all night and could use the time alone to readjust.
“Thanks, that’d be great actually.”
“Of course,” she replied, “and be sure to join us afterwards I think PJ has finally convinced enough people to play ‘Murder on the Dancefloor.’”
There was a sign on the stairs informing the guest that the upstairs area was off-limits that Phil promptly ignored. Instead, he walked up, praying nobody would see him and make a stupid comment. PJ and Sophie had moved into this house less than six months ago, but since it wasn’t more than a ten-minute walk from his own apartment, he had been over often enough to know where the bedroom was. He opened the door, turned on the light, and was just about to walk inside when he heard a loud, high-pitched scream coming from directly in front of him.
“Turn it off, turn it off-“ The screaming continued, which he now realized belonged to the person standing in the middle of the room on a chair. He wanted to ask them what was going on, but they looked so genuinely distressed at the sight of the turned-on light and open door that he simply switched it back off.
“The door, please.” Already unsure what to make of the situation, he decided to just go with it and stepped inside the room before shutting the door behind him.
Thankfully, the room had two rather large windows so they weren’t trapped in complete darkness. Still, it took a couple of seconds for his eyes to adjust. By now he was pretty sure the person on the chair was a man, a rather tall man, actually; his head almost hit the ceiling.
“So, ahem, what’s with the aversion to light?” He asked, simply because he didn’t know where else to start, and the man was just staring at him, not offering any explanations of his own.
“Oh, right. Sorry, this must seem so weird. But I can explain, please believe me.” The man responded in a normal volume this time. He started to gesticulate with his hands while flailing his arms around dramatically while trying to explain what he was doing.
To Phil’s horror, once he moved his arms further away from his body, they didn’t simply detach like normal arms but rather wings spread out. Later on he’d blame it on the strangeness of the situation and the dark, but he couldn’t help but scream in fear at the sight of the strange creature.
The man stopped talking and stared at him, confusion written all over his face. “Are you- I mean is everything alright?”
“Wings. You have wings.” Phil managed to blurt out.
“What?” The man looked even more confused now, so Phil simply pointed at the wings visible between his outstretched arms and body. While looking down on himself in the direction that Phil’s finger was pointing, the confusion on his face slowly faded and got replaced by a huge grin and shrill laughter.
"Hey," his fear started to wear off, and Phil really didn’t appreciate being laughed at by this strange creature-person-man. “I’m not the one standing on a chair screaming for the lights to be turned off and flapping my—whatever that is.” He helplessly pointed towards the wings again.
“Right, yeah, sorry. Don’t worry, I don’t have wings. It’s my costume I’m- well my friend’s kid,” he sighed. “I'm a moth hence the wings.”
"Oh," now that he knew what he was supposed to be looking at, it did actually make sense. He refused to be embarrassed, though. Out of the two of them, he was still behaving more normally. “I’m Spike.” He offered.
“You’re dressed as a spike? And I thought my costume was out there.” The man responded.
“What, no. I’m Spike, from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.” Phil protested, he started to like this strange man less and less. Although now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness in the room and he could see better, he noticed that the man was actually quite pretty.
“Oh, yeah, that makes more sense actually.” Well, at least he knew Buffy or at least had the decency to pretend.
“Anyway, why are you on a chair? And why can’t I turn on the light?” He decided to finally ask, this whole thing was getting ridiculous.
“There is a moth,” the man responded hastily, not clearing up any of Phil’s confusion.
“I know. I’ve seen your costume.”
“What, no, like an actual moth. I’m trying to catch it so I can bring it outside.”
Oh. Oh. He hated to admit it, but the whole situation actually did start to make sense to him now.
“Okay, have you caught it yet?”
“No,” the other man sighed, “I almost had it, but then you came in and turned on the light, making it all confused.”
"Sorry," Phil mumbled, “I didn’t-“ Before he could finish his sentence, a small insect flew past him directly towards Dan, who started screaming again and jumped off his chair and cowered down on the floor and then landed safely on one of the window sills.
“What was that?” Phil whisper-yelled to not disturb the moth again.
“It flew directly at me. I was basically attacked,” the man hissed back.
“It’s a moth!” Phil protested, “It’s like two inches, it can’t hurt you.”
“You don’t know that.”
Phil just shook his head and walked over to the window sill where the moth was still sitting on. It was rather pretty too, actually. He could see a small black and red underwing peek out from under the normal brownish wings. It looked rather annoyed to him, maybe it didn’t enjoy being trapped in this room with a giant replica of itself either.
He opened the window, and luckily the moth flew right out. Crisis averted.
“You can stand up again, the moth is gone,” he announced to the man still cowering on the floor after he had closed the window again.
“Thank you.” The man uttered, “And sorry. For screaming at you, I mean. I owe you on.”
Phil shrugged, “It’s fine. It’s not often you meet a large moth scared of a tiny one.”
“Hey,” the man protested.
“Plus, you might have yelled at me, but you didn’t spill any beer over my shirt or ruin my costume, so you’re still not the most annoying person I’ve met tonight. Although you might be the strangest.”
He was pleased to see that the man started to look more relaxed again and actually giggled a little at his comment, “Fair enough. Although you’re the one who thought I had real wings.”
Phil rolled his eyes but couldn’t help the giggle that escaped him.
“I'm Dan, by the way.”
“Phil.”
“So, Dan,” he started before sitting down next to him on the carpet, “why are you up here in the first place? And please don’t tell me the moth chased you in here.”
"Ha ha," Dan responded, “I just needed some peace and quiet, I guess. Lots of people down there, you know.”
Phil nodded.
“You?” Dan asked.
“Oh, Sophie sent me up here to get a new shirt. Not really looking to smell like beer for the rest of the night.”
“Sophie, that’s PJ’s girlfriend, right?”
“Yeah, do you not know her?” While he might not know everyone down there, he’d be rather confused if PJ and Sophie didn’t know them all and vice versa. Especially since Dan didn’t seem like he’d come with anyone. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking. Now that he was seeing him up close, it was undeniable how gorgeous the man was.
He had dark eyes that studied Phil curiously and curls that hung into his face in a slight sideways fringe.
“Not really. I mean, PJ told me about her. We- well, I’m an actor. He did some of the stage design for the play I am currently doing. But we haven’t known each other long. He begged me to come, though, and said there was someone I needed to meet. I don’t know though. Too many strangers overwhelm me. Sorry, I don’t mean to unload my mess onto you. You can leave and go back to the party.” Dan looked rather embarrassed now, and Phil immediately felt an urge to fix it.
“I’d rather not,” he admitted. “Honestly, I almost didn’t show tonight. But PJ’s one of my oldest friends, and I couldn’t blow him off again. I was about ready to leave when that guy ruined my shirt. Sophie just found me before I could find the front door.”
Dan smiled, looking relieved. “Well, I’m not kicking you out of my hideout. And I don’t actually think your shirt is ruined. Goes with the outfit. Could be blood or like some kind of demon gore. Aren’t they always fighting something on Buffy?”
“Yes, but it’s so much more than that. Have you seen it? It’s seriously one of the greatest TV-shows of all time. Buffy alone has such an amazing arc over the seasons, and that’s not even factoring in the other characters and world-building.”
“It’s been on my watchlist for a while. Maybe I should bump it up.” Dan responded.
“Yes! You have to! And you need to tell me what you think. I haven’t gotten to experience the twists and turns with fresh eyes since I was a teen.”
“Okay,” Dan responded, looking rather amused.
“I’m serious. You said you owe me.”
“And you want to use that for this?” Dan asked, slightly bewildered, “What if you need me to save you from a fire or something?” But Phil shook his head. “No, I want this.”
“Regular episode reviews coming right up for you then.” It was strange how comfortable and easy conversation with Dan was. Usually meeting new people was an awkward and slow process for him, but with Dan it just felt natural.
Unfortunately, the beer smell was still all around him, reminding him of the reason why he had originally come up to the bedroom.
“Do you mind if I turn on the light now?” He asked. “I think I will actually change into something clean. Really don’t like the smell of beer.”
“Sure. No alcohol for you?” Dan asked, voice clear of any judgment.
“Alcohol's fine. I just prefer a fruity cocktail. The sweeter the better.”
The light blinded him for a couple seconds once he switched it on again. He’d gotten so used to the darkness before.
Dan somehow looked even better in the light than he had before. His hair was a beautiful brown color, and his curls looked even more defined like this. He was pretty sure he was wearing some eye make-up too, that wonderfully brought out his eyes.
His costume was impressive too. It consisted of a large, long-arm black shirt that had wings sown in between the body and the arms. There was a beautiful pattern stitched onto the fabric, looking nothing like the cheap costumes he’d seen downstairs.
Dan turned slightly pink under Phil’s gaze and started playing with the fabric. “It’s not actually mine,” he explained, “it’s a rejected costume from our current play. I have a friend who has a five-year-old daughter, and the other day they came by, and I showed them the theater. She was so sad that the costume wouldn’t be used, so I promised her to find an occasion to wear it.”
“It’s beautiful.” You’re beautiful. But he couldn’t say that. There was a thing such as coming on too strong, and he didn’t want to blow this by blurting out something too early.
He walked over to the closet, hung up his leather coat, and then removed the red shirt. The closet door was a mirror, which allowed him to catch Dan looking at him through the mirror. Once they made eye contact, he immediately looked away, clearly embarrassed. Interesting.
“You can look. I don’t mind,” he said, trying to sound as cool and casual as possible. Even if he didn’t feel that way. He wasn’t insecure about his body, but he also knew that he wasn’t the fittest person on the planet.
Not that Dan seemed to mind. Now that he had permission, he could feel Dan’s gaze on him, following his every move.
While looking through PJ’s closet, he found both a black and a blue shirt that could work with his costume. Feeling bold, he decided to turn around and show them to Dan. “Which one do you think would work better?” He asked.
Dan still looked a bit startled, and Phil shamelessly hoped he was the reason for it.
“Well, personally I’d go for the black. But the blue would look good with your eyes, I think.” Dan offered once he had recovered enough to speak.
“Blue it is then, we can’t both be dressed fully in black.”
“I hope you like color then. I basically only wear black.”
“I do,” Phil responded, “I really do.”
He put the new sweater on and decided against the leather coat for now. Spike didn’t wear it in the beginning of season seven anyway, and that was pretty much the only time he wore blue. He sighed. A quick check of his phone told him he’d already been up here for more than half an hour. If he didn’t want PJ or Sophie to come looking for him, he’d probably need to go back downstairs soon.
“Is it bad that I don’t really want to go back to the party?” He asked. It was meant to be rhetorical, but Dan answered anyway.
“No, I don’t wanna go back either.”
“Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we just go back to mine and watch Buffy? I only live like ten minutes from here anyway.” He regretted the words almost as soon as he said them. Why did he always have to ruin situations by blurting out the first thing that came to his mind? Now Dan was gonna think he was weird.
“I didn’t- I mean- I sorry that sounded wrong.”
But Dan didn’t look angry or turn off, instead he looked genuinely delighted.
“I’d love to. Watch Buffy, I mean. Or do anything else that offer might include.”
Oh. “Great. I actually did mean Buffy. But I’m not opposed to hmm other offers as you put it either. But I’ll warn you, I take Buffy very seriously; no funny business while we watch the episode. If we watch them.”
Dan smiled, “Wasn’t expecting anything else.”
They made their way down the stairs, Dan following closely behind Phil. Luckily, it hadn’t gotten any fuller in the time they had spent upstairs, so finding PJ and Sophie wasn’t too hard
“Phil, there you are. I was worried the bedroom floor had swallowed you or something.” Sophie called out when they found her.
Phil felt himself blush slightly. “Nah, just got caught up.” He turned around slightly and found Dan was still practically attached to his back.
“I see. Who is that behind you?”
“Dan, hi,” PJ interjected. “I've been looking for you. The guy I wanted you to meet,” he looked around and seemingly just now noticed Phil too, “is standing right in front of you, actually. Have you two met already?”
“Yes,” they answered in unison. Oh God. Phil was so screwed.
“Told you they would get along,” PJ whispered into Sophie’s ear.
"Anyway," Dan interrupted, “we were just about to leave, actually.”
“I’m sure you were,” PJ responded with a cheeky grin. “Don't ruin my sweater, yeah.”
Phil rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Love you too,” before grabbing Dan’s hand and pulling him towards the exit.