#phanhighschoolau

Summary: Dan and Phil are captains of rival soccer teams, and have hated each other for as long as Dan can remember. However, it starts to seem as if Phil is out to win more than just the game…

Length: 1.9k 

Genre: Fluff, so much fluff 

Ao3 link! 

Dan leant forward in a lunge, stretching his leg muscles further than they’d ever stretched before. He needed to be at peak performance if his team was going to win. Dan looked to his left- his best friend and best attacker Jake was stretching too, just like he’d asked him to. Good.

“Hey Dan! Lester’s making fun of us again!” Jake exclaimed, pointing accusingly at the opposite side of the field.

Dan scowled. Phil Lester, captain of Greenwich soccer team, was the biggest asshole Dan knew. Phil was taller than Dan - only by a couple centimetres or so, but he made sure to never let Dan forget it. He had silky black hair that was obviously dyed, contrasting heavily with his extraordinarily pale complexion. But the most notable feature by far was his striking blue eyes, that Dan swore should be illegal to have.

Okay, even if he was a complete douchebag, Dan had to admit he was a good-looking one at that. Dan looked across the field to where his friend was pointing and practically hissed when he took in the sight before him.

Summary: Dan doesn’t want to get his fourth strike

Word count: 1.289

TW: puking

A/N: Prompt from the blog Phanfic cause where else?

|read on ao3| |read on wattpad|

Dan groaned when he woke up and quickly covered his abdomen as the pain he felt there was unbearable, Dan opened his eyes but closed them hard quickly when a headache started to form

Word count: 5k

Warnings: Mild homophobia

Genre: Light angst and fluff

Summary: In which Dan silently pines and Phil doesn't notice what's been right in front of him the whole time. 

i. When the girl was too mean

Phil Lester met his first girlfriend in primary school, and after 32 great minutes, he broke up with his first girlfriend in primary school.

Phil decided that primary school was the best thing since sliced bread within the first hour of being there. The second he walked through the door he and his mum were greeted by a young woman with brown hair that bounced on her shoulders as she scurried excitedly towards them.

“Hello! I’m Miss Hopkins, lovely to meet you!” Her voice was bright and enthusiastic. “This is little Phil Lester, isn’t it?” She reached her hand down to shake Phil’s tiny one.

Phil flashed a toothy smile- albeit slightly less toothy as it would normally be, he had lost his first tooth just the day before- at his teacher, before responding. “Yes! Hello Miss Hopkins! What are we gonna do today?” For the next few minutes the bubbly brunette filled Phil and his mother in on the plans for the day, which sounded amazing to Phil. They were going to read ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, Phil’s favourite book of all time, play in the playground for 60 whole minutes, and colour in any picture from the colouring book that they wanted to.

Phil was gently shading in a drawing of a lion when he was interrupted by a voice.

“Your colouring is really good.” The little girl with red pigtails who had been sitting next to him for the whole day was smiling at him expectantly.

Phil looked at his drawing for a second, the orange was way out of the lines and he had only coloured in half of the lion’s foot. He didn’t think it was anything particularly astounding. Being the polite boy he was, however, he graciously accepted the compliment with a smile.

“Thank you.” He smiled at her but went back to colouring in straight after, determined to finish the shading before lunch break.

“So do you like lions?” the girl seemed eager to continue to talk to Phil. She had definitely picked the correct conversation starter to do so.

Phil perked up immediately. “Yes!! I love lions so much, they’re so brave but so cute... And their sharp teeth are SO cool!”

Phil and the girl ended up talking until the bell rang. In this time he learned that her name was Andy, her favourite colour was red, and she would listen to Phil rant about lions for a VERY long time.

He and Andy had just sat down in the playground, Phil about to take a large bite of his peanut butter sandwich when,

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?” Andy looked very hopeful and not nervous at all, surprisingly.

Phil had never had a girlfriend before, he wasn’t even exactly sure what it meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend. He did know, however that generally having a girlfriend led to marrying said girlfriend and therefore obtaining a wife, which Phil supposed was one of his end goals. Might as well start early. And Andy was pretty enough, nice enough and she did seem to enjoy each and every one of the facts Phil spurted out about lions.

“Yeah, okay! That could be fun.” Phil grinned and linked his hand with Andy’s. For the next 30 minutes Phil and Andy chatted happily, played on the monkey bars and took turns pushing each other on the swings. It was when Phil was pushing Andy on the swing that he spotted a small brown-haired boy sitting in the corner of the playground, alone. Phil felt something tug in his chest. No one should be alone in the playground, they should be having fun! Before he really thought about it properly, he was calling the small boy over. “Hello!” The boy’s head turned to Phil’s direction upon hearing the sudden noise. Good. Phil had caught his attention. “Yes, you! Come over here please, I want you to play with us!”

The timid boy looked like he would rather choke to death on his sandwich then come over to where Phil and Andy were, but out of fear, or politeness, or something he slowly walked over to the swings.  “Hi! My name’s Phil and you just looked bored over there so I thought maybe you’d think the swings would be fun, yes? I’ll push you and everything. What’s your name?”

The boy seemed to let go of his initial suspicion a bit, and showed Phil a small smile. “Hi, so, um, my name is Dan.” he said as he sat down on the swing next to Andy’s.

He says things weirdly. Phil thought. But I like it.

Phil stopped pushing Andy on the swing in favour of pushing his new friend, Dan. Dan began to giggle a little as he went higher and higher into the air, until he was VERY rudely interrupted. “PHIL!!! WHY’D YOU STOP PUSHING ME?” Andy screeched. This was a new side of Andy Phil was seeing, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.

“Oh, sorry Andy. I thought I had pushed you for heaps already and Dan needs to be pushed now.” Evidently, this was not the right answer as upon hearing this, Andy huffed and roughly pushed Dan out of his swing. The thud that followed was worrying.

Phil didn’t enjoy the hot, red, bubbling feeling he was experiencing after seeing Dan be pushed out of the swing. He didn’t know what the feeling was called, he just knew he only really felt it when his brother called him names or when someone said that lions weren’t cool. “ANDY! That was really mean! I’m telling Miss Hopkins!” Phil stomped his foot on the tanbark, sending pieces of tanbark flying in several directions. Andy simply sniggered.

Phil lent down and reached his hand out for Dan to grab, helping him get up. He immediately brushed as much tanbark off Dan as he could, not noticing the blush that had taken residence on Dan’s face when Phil touched his hand. Phil felt so bad for the poor boy, Dan’s eyes had welled up with tears, his knees were grazed and he had a scratch on his cheek. “I’m so sorry Dan! I never wanted you to get hurt!” Phil began walking Dan to Miss Hopkins, who was on the other side of the playground, making sure kids weren’t peeing on the slide.

Phil could tell that Dan was trying to hold back tears. He wanted to comfort him as best as he could, this was Phil’s own fault!

“Andy is just a big meanie, you know.” Phil said intentionally loud enough for Andy to hear, and  blew a raspberry in her direction. “And she’s not my girlfriend anymore.” Andy’s face had turned cherry red in anger and embarrassment, before she burst into tears. Dan laughed, his whole facing lighting up and that was when Phil made it his mission to be the cause of that sound as often as possible.

“Hey you wanna hear something cool about lions?” Dan nodded eagerly.

“I like them almost as much as I like you!” Phil beamed at Dan, not noticing the other boy’s blush.

“O-oh.”

Young Phil Lester would swear that he did truly love Andy for the 32 minutes of lunch time they were together. But for some reason, he enjoyed the last 28 minutes of lunch time a whole lot more.

ii. When Phil wasn’t the only one dating her

Phil didn’t have his next girlfriend until junior high. It wasn’t that he couldn’t get one, it just took him a while to realise that not all girls were evil after his first girlfriend. So here he found himself now, sorting through his entire wardrobe in search of the perfect shirt.

Phil threw the red plaid shirt behind him, onto his bedroom floor.

“This red is not the same red as the red on my converse…” Phil muttered bitterly.

“Phil, that’s literally the 17th shirt you’ve rejected today. I don’t think Casey will care that the red of your shirt doesn’t perfectly match with your converse.”

While most of the time Phil enjoyed his best friend’s snarky and sarcastic attitude that was saved just for him, now was not the time.

“Dan, this is my one month anniversary with Casey! Do you not realise how big of a deal that is?!”

Dan rolled over onto his side, getting comfortable on Phil’s bed and rolled his eyes. “Phil, you’re literally 12, a twelvie. We’re at the memeist age possible, don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re going to go to her house, walk to the cinema together, have a pleasant but average time and then go home. Not a big deal.”

Phil was quite used to the sarcastic and blunt nature of his best friend, but what he didn’t understand was why he always became so snappy whenever Phil so much as mentioned Casey. Casey was a nice girl, and actually nice, not Andy nice. She always made effort to talk to Dan as well as Phil whenever the three of them were together, and hadn’t pushed Dan off any playground objects, as far as Phil knew. The only logical conclusion Phil could come to was that Dan was jealous of the fact Phil had a girlfriend, and he didn’t. I think I would feel pretty crappy if Dan had a girlfriend and I didn’t, Phil mused.

Phil chose to ignore the rude words Dan had thrown at him and instead said,

“Dan, you’re jealous aren’t you?”

The brown haired boy whipped his head up so fast Phil thought he would get whiplash.

“N-No!” He exclaimed after a moment’s hesitation, not meeting Phil’s eyes. “That’s ridiculous Phil!”

Phil cooed at the blush that had spread over Dan’s cheeks. “No need to be so embarrassed, I’d be jealous too if you had a girlfriend and I didn’t. Being in a relationship is overrated anyway. You don’t need to be dating anyone right now, we are just ‘twelvies’ as you so beautifully put it.”

Dan seemed to contemplate something for a moment before replying.“O-Oh. Yeah, that’s what it was. I just really wish I had a girlfriend, I’m so lonely.” Dan nodded sadly at his friend.

“Dan, that’s okay! You’ll find some great girl soon, and she’s gonna be the luckiest girl in the world.” Phil ruffled Dan’s brown hair and ooh- when did it get so soft?- before picking his plaid shirt off the floor.

“You know, on second thought, this shirt DOES match my converse.”

Several hours later Dan was lying on his bed, My Chemical Romance blasting throughout his room. He felt the need to listen to hardcore emo music when he got home from Phil’s, and it had nothing to do with the fact that Phil was on a date with Casey. For the 13th time this month. Not that Dan was counting or anything.

Gerard Way’s belt of “We’ll carry ON!” had to be paused, for Dan heard a knock at the door. He checked the time. It was 9pm. Who would come visit him at this hour besides Phil- and he was on a date right now! Dan begrudgingly hopped out of bed and padded down the stairs. Whoever was at the door better have a good reason for turning up uninvited. What Dan didn’t expect to see when he opened the door was his best friend, eyes red and face crumpled, hunched over on his doorstep.

“Phil? What happened? Why aren’t you with Casey?”

This seemed to trigger something in Phil as tears began to well up in his blue eyes, and his chest began heaving. “Casey, she- she broke up with me.”

Dan had to mentally slap himself for feeling just a bit happy at hearing that. He closed the door behind Phil, pulling him into a hug. Dan was at a loss for words, so he just let Phil cry on his shoulder for a good few minutes. When Phil finally calmed down enough to talk properly, Dan prompted him for more details.

“She said that I was just her backup-backup boyfriend, and that she didn’t need to date me anymore since the guy she actually wanted to date finally asked her out. So not even her backup boyfriend, who was Jacob. He’s getting dumped tomorrow.” Phil’s voice held a sneer the entire time he was talking.

Dan was shocked. “What kind of a twat was she? I can’t believe she would betray you like that, I mean you’re literally the most perfect, cutest, kindest, funniest- um, yeah I mean how could she do that?”

Phil sadly shook his head. “I don’t know, Dan.”

“Well she’s a right twat, you know. And anyway, she never even liked Mario Kart. Speaking of, wanna play?”

Phil smiled for the first time since he had arrived at Dan’s house.

“Only if you’re okay with being beaten for the gazillionth time.”

iii. When the girl was homophobic, and just a little bit racist

“Phil.”

Phil stopped sipping his strawberry milkshake and looked up at his best friend.

“Yeah?”

“I’m gay.”

“Oh, cool.”

Dan flailed his arms around in a very over the top fashion, similar to how he would whenever they played Mario Kart.

“Oh great, Phil! Yep, after months of building up the courage to finally tell you this, exactly what I needed was a fucking two word response!”

Phil raised an eyebrow at his friend. “Dan, don’t take this the wrong way, but I thought we both mutually knew that I knew you were gay when I found and read the page of your diary in freshman year that had the phrase “I’m gay and I don’t know what to do” written on it 50 times.”

Dan looked genuinely surprised. “But I told you that I wrote it to troll you, that it was a prank to see your reaction to me being gay and that it wasn’t real?”

Phil laughed, his head thrown back and his tongue poking out of his teeth. Adorable . Dan thought. “Did you honestly think I believed that? I thought you telling me it was a prank was one of those lies people tell to make things less awkward, even when both parties know it’s a lie. Like, like when your mum catches you wanking and you say you’re ‘just itching’.”

The poor boy opposite him was flabbergasted, his mouth hanging open.

“But, Dan, I’m proud of you for coming out to me. And you know this doesn’t change anything between us, right? You’re still my best friend. In fact, may I call you my hoBRO?”

Dan spurted into a fit of loud, outrageous laughter, something Phil had prided himself in causing for pretty much the entirety of their friendship. He was wiping away tears of laughter from his eyes as he said, “Fine. But I get to call you heteBRO.”

Dan never doubted that Phil would have accepted him, but it still felt amazing to finally come out to someone. He felt free, and for the first time in his life, like he was being true to himself. There was only one thing in that moment that he would have rather been than Phil’s friend, but he wasn’t ready to admit it to himself let alone Phil yet.

As usual, Phil got carried away talking to Dan, which was the reason he was frantically running through the shopping centre to the bowling alley, which was on the opposite side to the milkshake place he was at with Dan. Phil was panting and heaving, man, he really needed to start exercising again. By the time he got to the bowling alley, it was 6:30, half an hour later than when he was supposed to arrive. He had already made a bad impression on his blind date, he was sure of it.

He hesitantly walked up to the girl sitting alone outside the alley, looking quite dejected. Oh dear.

“Hello? Are you Katie?” he said softly.

The girl’s face lit up immediately. “Yes I am! Are you Phil?”

“Yes, and I’m so sorry about being late, I lost track of time.”

“That’s okay, I’m just glad you’re here. And it helps that you’re as cute as Cat said you were.” Katie let out a small giggle, linking her arm with Phil’s.

The rest of the night went smoothly, surprisingly so. Phil never expected this blind date to turn out so well, but here he was. They were in the middle of picking a bowling bowl for the next game, smiles on both their faces when the familiar music from Phil’s favourite kids movie started playing. Phil’s eyes lit up and he put the bowling ball down. “This is one of my favourite films! Please tell me you’ll sing ‘Let it go’ with me, Katie.”

“Oh my gosh, I love this movie too! Yes!” Katie practically squealed.

“They had so many talented actors in it, Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff-”

“Oh, him.” The excited tone in her voice was gone, replaced with a mildly disgusted one.

“Who? Jonathan?”

“Yeah…”

“What’s wrong with Jonathan?” Phil pouted a little. Jonathan was probably Phil’s favourite actor from the entire movie.

“Oh it’s just, nothing personal about him, it’s just I didn’t think it was appropriate of Disney to cast a gay man in a kids film. We wouldn’t want kids to be influenced by him, would we?”

Phil could not believe his ears. Surely she was kidding.

“I’m sorry, you’re kidding right? You’re seriously homophobic in this day and age?”

“No! I’m not homophobic at all, silly. It’s just being gay isn’t natural, it’s not good for, like the world. In general, they’re just not really the best people. Gays make their choice to be gay, but they don’t need to inflict it upon others, you know? There’s a name for it, the gay agenda.”

Phil thought he was going to faint.

“But I’m totally not homophobic, I even have a gay friend, and she’s actually super nice and really pretty, especially for an Asian.”

If Phil was angry before then he was furious now. How could Cat set him up with a homophobe and a racist? Clearly Katie and him were not as compatible as he had once thought. Phil grabbed his bag before practically running to the exit.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Home. I just don’t really appreciate being around someone who thinks my friends are ‘unnatural’ and who believes the gay agenda is an actual thing, whatever that even means.”

Phil cried himself to sleep that night. How could someone think so lowly of gays, of his best friend? Dan was kind, and funny, and smart and the best person Phil knew. It had taken him so much courage to come out to Phil today. Phil was not, and never would be okay with dating someone who thought his best friend was wrong just for who he happened to love. Dan was not wrong, she was.

iv. When the girl was too bland

Phil had come back from his fourth date with a girl from his biology class, feeling dissatisfied. There was nothing explicitly wrong with her, as had been the case with the past few girls he dated, it was just that she was so- bland, for lack of a better word. It didn’t help that she was blonde, when Phil realised he preferred brunettes, for, whatever reason. And her eyes were green, when Phil just thought brown eyes were so much softer and nicer. When he explained this to Dan (conveniently leaving out the part about the brown eyes and brown hair),  he was met with that beautiful laugh he loved so much.

“So you’re not going to see this girl anymore, because she’s- ‘bland’?” Dan asked, obviously attempting to seem unfazed, but Phil couldn’t help but notice the little look of relief Dan had on his face.

“Well, yeah. She’s very hard to hold a conversation with! It doesn’t flow naturally, the conversation should flow naturally with your girlfriend, and when there’s silences, it’s not awkward, you know, like how it is with you and me.”

Dan blushed heavily, which he must have realised as he tried to hide his face from Phil when he spoke again, “Yeah, well, um, if she’s bland, that’s just not on.”

Despite Dan’s efforts, Phil noticed the obvious blush that had spread across his friend’s cheeks. Recently, Phil had been noticing how Dan would become very flustered and embarrassed around Phil quite often, especially when Phil complimented him, mentioned anything to do with Dan’s self-declared non-existent love life, or even so much as brushed fingers with him accidentally.

There was also the fact that Dan always tried to change the topic, or became even snarkier than usual whenever Phil would mention a date he had been on, or a girl he thought he liked. All these signs would lead Phil to the conclusion that yes, Daniel Howell, his best friend of twelve years, liked him. But he couldn’t let himself assume anything, and make his friendship weird for no reason.

The possibility that Dan liked him niggled in his mind for the next hour as he played Mario Kart with Dan. When Dan blushed for what Phil counted to be the seventh time that night, when Phil shoved Dan lightly when Dan used a blue shell on him, Phil decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He paused the game.

“Hey! Why’d you pause?” Dan pouted at him, his bottom lip sticking out cutely. Not that Phil noticed.

“This is really awkward to say, Dan, but lately I’ve been noticing that you act really flustered around me, and you get weirdly salty whenever I mention any girls I’m dating or that I like… so I guess what I’m asking is, do you maybe, have a crush on me? I won’t be mad, I promise!”

There was silence for what felt like a very long time before Dan answered.

“Um, yeah, I kinda do. I’ve liked you since primary school when we met, and you invited me to play with you, and stood up for me when that girl pushed me off the swing. After that, I thought my little crush would go away but it kinda, um just got worse and here we are today, with me pathetically pining over my heterosexual best friend!” Dan rushed out his words very awkwardly, letting out a very forced laugh at the end of it. The boy looked terrified, but it was clear he was trying to hide it.

What. The. Fuck. Phil was expecting, at most, a small admission of a small crush Dan had had on Phil for maybe, a month, tops! Not a confession that his best friend of twelve years had practically been in love with him since they first met in the playground! Phil was freaking out. What did this mean for his and Dan’s friendship? Why did he kind of feel… warm inside when he was listening to Dan’s admission? Phil didn’t like this turbulent cocktail of emotions he was experiencing all at the same time, so he said the first thing his stupid brain told him to,

“Oh, I’m sorry Dan, I’m- I’m straight.”

Dan’s face didn’t fall like Phil expected it to, it kind of just washed over with a look of understanding and unsurprise.

“Y-yeah, I know, that’s okay. Thanks for not hating me.” Dan gave him an obviously fake smile and unpaused the game, not noticing that Phil’s eyes, as well as his own were welled with tears.

Phil wasn’t upset about Dan liking him, no. He was upset at how his heart swelled in his chest at the thought. But he did what Phil Lester does best, and pushed it to the back of his mind, hoping it would be forgotten.

v. When there was nothing wrong with the girl

The small girl in front of him pushed the plate of lemon meringue pie across the bench towards him. “Eat!” she commanded, beaming at Phil. Phil smiled back, digging his fork into the dessert.

“Delicious, as always.”

Phil had been dating Rachel for two months now, She was not mean, not dating other boys, not a homophobe or racist in the slightest and was definitely not bland. She was the most bubbly person Phil had ever met, which was admittedly a bit hard to deal with at times due to his introverted nature, but he couldn’t deny she was a lovely person.

Phil polished the piece of meringue pie off in two minutes flat, amusing Rachel greatly. When she gave him a faux-judgemental look he simply said,

“Well you know what they say, when life gives you lemons, bake them into a pie and get your boyfriend to eat it as fast as possible, lest it go to waste.” Rachel let out a tinkling laugh, but it lacked the richness and dimpliness of Phil’s favourite laugh. Okay nope. Why did he always think of Dan when he was with Rachel? He always found himself comparing everything they did and said, from how they would laugh at Phil’s jokes, to how many sarcastic quips they would make in a day. And in every case, Rachel was the one coming up short. This wasn’t a big deal though, was it? It was normal to think of Dan so much when he was with Rachel, he was Phil’s best friend of twelve years, after all.  

Ever since that night, things had become kind of, cold and awkward between him and Dan. They didn’t text as much, only hung out once a week when it used to be every day, and although Phil didn’t want to admit it, only tagged each other in a FEW memes per day. Phil’s heart hurt.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Rachel’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

“It’s um, it’s Dan. I’m worried about our friendship.”

“Phil, baby, I can’t count how many times you’ve mentioned Dan throughout this past week, let alone the two months we’ve been dating. You said you two were best friends and now aren’t as close anymore, but I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me. So, what really happened with you and Dan”

Shit. Rachel was good. Phil guessed it could only help to tell her everything that happened. “Okay, well this will take a while. Grab some pie.”

“-and I guess that brings us to now, where whenever we hang out it’s kind of awkward, when it used to be so easy and so fun and so perfect, and I could just make him laugh with whatever I said. Did I tell you about how his eyes crinkle and his dimple pops out when he laughs? Anyway, now I just don’t know what to do.”

Rachel brought her tea to her lips and took a big sip, eyeing Phil like she knew something he didn’t.

“Um, Rach? I kinda just explained my entire history with Dan to you, I would appreciate some advice and- why are you looking at me like that?”

“Simple. You’re in love with Dan.”

Phil spat out his tea.

“What?!?”

“You heard me.” Rachel raised her eyebrows.

“Okay, that’s impossible. First of all, I’m not gay, and second of all, I’m dating you! That’s crazy!”

Phil had never heard such an absurd concept in his life. His entire life he had liked girls, and he didn’t believe that had changed.

“Ever heard of a little thing called… bisexuality?” Phil’s eyes widened. “Yep. I think that’s you. And to the part about me, honestly Phil, these two months have been great, and as disappointed as I was, at first that you don’t like me, I’ve kind of known all along. We rarely kiss, and when we do you look repulsed, you call me ‘bro’ and ‘homie’, and 90% of what you talk about is Dan, or Dan’s dimple or Dan’s smile. Plus you just spent 30 minutes telling me a story you could have told in 2, if you hadn’t interrupted yourself with a story or a musing about something cute that Dan does.”

Rachel’s words hit him like a ton of bricks. Everything she said was true! Rachel was in theory the ‘right’ girl for him, but maybe the right one was… was never a girl. It wasn’t platonic at all the way he thought about Dan, if only he had realised earlier, before things were weird between him and Dan. Phil opened his mouth to speak, but Rachel cut him off.

“Yes, let’s break up. And it’s okay, I’m not mad. And please go talk to Dan. I know, I’m the coolest ex-girlfriend ever.”

Phil pulled her in for a warm hug.

“Thank you.”

He grabbed his coat and made his way out the door. He had important business to attend to.

i. When Phil finally did something right

Phil knocked furiously on the Howells’ front door. Phil’s heart began beating even faster than it already was. It dropped when he saw how completely broken Dan looked when he opened the door. “Phil? What are you doing here? Weren’t you on a date with Rachel tonight?” The boy sounded pained.

“We broke up.”

“What? Why? Things were going so well.”

“Well, Dan. I’ve dated five girls in my life, and sure, they all had their own individual flaws and quirks. But the common one they all shared? They weren’t you.”

Dan’s eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his head, before anger flashed across his face.

“Phil I know we don’t hang out as much anymore but it’s pretty fucking disrespectful to make fun of me like that, you know how I feel about-”

“Dan. Dan.”

“What?!?”

“I swear on my lion plushie, and all seven of the versions of Mario Kart that I own, that I am not messing with you. But I’m definitely not straight, and I’m definitely in love with you too. I wish I realised earlier. Everything’s just better with you. You're pretty ace.”

Dan blushed for the billionth time Phil had witnessed, but this time, he did not follow it up with a mumbled sentence, or him hiding his face, but with a kiss on Phil’s lips.

Summary: Phil Lester’s been hiding something his whole life. No, not murder, or being gay. He’s out and proud. He has the power the grow plants- but only when he has feelings for someone. Sounds cool, right?Not when it nearly cost him his life. Phil had fallen deeply in love with his last boyfriend, and when he'd left him Phil wilted like every plant he'd grown during their time together. After a few crappy months in hospital (aka the worst time in his life), Phil promised himself he would never let himself catch feelings again.Two years later, Phil has moved on and has a best friend, Dan Howell. Everything's going great, they hang out pretty much every day and Phil is happier than he's ever been. That is, until he finds himself with growing feelings (and plants).

Word count: 5.4k 

Warnings: none

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Phil Lester wasn’t normal. Sure, he went to high school like a normal 17 year old, had a solid group of friends and even had a fairly good relationship with both his parents. But the difference between him and most 17 year olds was that he had a power.

Whenever Phil began growing feelings for someone, plants would grow on him, around him, under him; the intensity of the growth all dependent on the intensity of his feelings.

It sounded a lot cooler than it actually was.

Maybe at first it was fairly innocuous, like when he was seven years old and had a small crush on a girl in his class named Sally. A small green stalk had shot out of the palm of his hand, and while it confused him at first it wasn’t a point of concern. Seven year old Phil had actually liked his power.

Plants continued to grow on and around Phil; small daisies shooting out of the ground when he walked to school, the grass he ran over while playing tiggy turning greener, and even some wilted plants reviving when he touched them. Phil knew that if he told anybody about his powers they wouldn’t believe him but that was ok; he was content keeping this little secret to himself.

When Sally moved away however, this all changed. The daisies that had grown on the sidewalk? Shrivelled. The grass at school? Wilted. The plants he’d revived? Dead as they were before he touched them.

Phil had noticed this- the sudden death of all the plants he’d grown in the past few months and was feeling confusion and disappointment on top of his sadness over Sally leaving. Phil wasn’t doing much better than the plants either. It was harder to breathe when running all of a sudden, he’d suddenly become quite thirsty for water when he’d always preferred juice and the sun would burn him a lot easier than it had before.

At the time Phil hadn’t connected the dots but it was clear what had happened; Sally moving away caused not only the plants to wilt and shrivel, but Phil as well.

Things only got worse from there on out for as Phil got older he developed deeper feelings for people and for longer periods of time, too.

His little crush on Sally was nothing compared to the most recent person he’d fallen for; Thomas Ryan.

Thomas had asked Phil out two years ago when Phil was nothing more than a naive freshman. Initially, Phil had been reluctant to date someone two years older than him but eventually Thomas had won him over with his enviable smile and charming personality. They dated happily for one year, in which Thomas had taken Phil out for countless romantic dinners, picnic lunches in the park and even ice skating a couple times.

In that year, Phil had grown more plants than he ever thought he could. Huge, metre tall sunflowers would spring up whenever he walked in the park. Bright blue petunias would spring up in his neighbours’ gardens when he’d bid them a good morning.

Most notable of all, however was what grew the night Phil had fallen in love with the older boy.

The morning after he’d fallen in love with Thomas he’d woken up to find a beautiful red rose- growing out of his chest! Phil wasn’t expecting it at all, either. He’d probably grown every flower known to man previously, ever flower except a rose. When he’d woken up and discovered the rose growing out of his chest, he’d yelped and hastily pulled it out. The thorns on the stem had pricked his skin, causing a small amount of blood to seep out and Phil to hiss in pain. Once he’d cleaned himself up however, he’d examined the rose closely. It was deep red in colour, had petals that had no imperfections or creases and when he’d smelt it he’d sworn it was what heaven smelled of.

As he skipped to school that day flowers of every kind had blossomed out of the ground, suddenly and bigger in size than they usually were. Phil felt on top of the world. When he’d finally reached school, he’d thrusted the rose in Thomas’ face and wished him a happy anniversary.

“Wait. Is that today?” Thomas had asked, a panic-stricken look on his face.

Phil had retracted the rose from his boyfriend’s face sheepishly, feeling quite awkward. He’d forgotten.

Silence followed. Phil hadn’t known what to feel. A little hurt, of course but at least it hadn’t been Thomas’ intention to hurt him. Things like this happened all the time! It wasn’t a big deal. Phil had been just about to tell his boyfriend that he was forgiven when,

“I-I think we should break up.”

His stomach had dropped.

“What?”

Thomas had bitten his lip, clearly debating something in his mind before speaking again.

“I’m so sorry I’m doing this today of all days but I can’t keep this going any longer. I just- I just don’t think I love you anymore. And I feel so fucking shitty for doing this today of all days but I’ve been planning to for a while now and I can’t keep dragging you on like this any longer. It’s not fair on either of us.”

Phil ended up not going to class that day. After Thomas had comforted Phil for a few minutes he’d attempted to coax him into going to class. Phil had simply shaken his head and stood his ground, crying even more when the bell rung and Thomas left.

When he’d finally worked up the energy to walk home, he remembered the flower he’d kept in his hand the whole time.

The rose was dead and black, its previously plump and soft petals shrivelled into nothing. Its smell had disappeared, too and all that was left were the thorns.  Phil would’ve started crying had he not spent the past two hours bawling his eyes out.

That night he’d gone to bed with a minor headache, hoping that would be the extent of the post-breakup deterioration. He was wrong. Just within the span of a few days, Phil had grown so weak he’d lost his ability to eat, move or even breathe properly. He’d wilted like the rose.

Phil’s mum had been understandably distressed over his health, and so the day she found her son sickly pale and coughing up blood she’d put her foot down and admitted him into hospital despite his protests.

The next few months were filled with medical bills his mum couldn’t afford, hundreds of tests to find out what Phil’s illness actually was and more injections than he could count. By the end of it, Phil had sworn he would never allow himself to fall in love again. If the risk of falling in love was his own life it was one he just wasn’t willing to take.

-

Phil swung his school bag over his shoulder and walked hastily over to his friend’s locker. He tried to ignore the immense pressure he felt on his shoulder from the weight of all the textbooks that he was going to pretend to read over the weekend. He made a note to buy the online copies of his books next year in order to save his shoulders dying from the weight of chemistry and mathematics- the subjects were already doing that to his mind.

He reached the locker of interest and stood expectantly in front of its owner, his hands on his hips. Dan always took a billion years to pack up his stuff after school. After a few seconds, Phil grew impatient as Dan still hadn’t noticed his presence and so took matters into his own hands.

“Daniel…. It’s time for your neck exam!” Phil said in the creepiest, sing-songiest voice he could with his post-pubescent vocal chords. He shot his hand out and lightly brushed over his friend’s sensitive neck, laughing when Dan dropped his textbook to the ground and jerked away. He looked around for a few second before he noticed Phil standing there, a proud smile on his face.

“Not cool, Phil. You know how much I hate having my neck touched!” Dan’s warm brown eyes were now narrowed and accusing, his forehead crinkled up in a way Phil thought was very amusing. His arms were crossed defensively against the My Chemical Romance tshirt he always insisted on wearing. The one giveaway that he wasn’t actually mad was the small smile fighting its way onto his face, nearly overpowering the glare he was giving Phil.

“Oh hush, you don’t even care when I do it. You were taking too long anyway.” Phil grinned up at his friend as he bent down to pick up the worn textbook that had dropped to the floor. He frowned when he examined the pages properly- they were all tattered and falling out. Maybe it would be best if Dan bought the online copies of the textbooks next year too.

“I SO do care when you do it, Lester.” Dan argued weakly, his face tinted red all of a sudden. He looked like a nervous tomato.

Phil unzipped Dan’s backpack and carefully placed the textbook in the back pocket, not wanting to cause the pages even more damage.

“Whatever you say, Howell.” Phil replied, amusement clear in his voice as he finished zipping the pocket back up.

“You should really take better care of your books, you know. They cost a lot.”

Dan shrugged his shoulders thoughtlessly, causing his backpack to hitch up a little and closed his locker door. He pushed Phil on the shoulder playfully, eliciting a laugh from his black-haired friend.

“It’s alright. I’ll be burning them as soon as we get out of this hellhole anyways.” he marched over in the direction of the gate, Phil not noticing at first before quickly catching up to his side. “Now, your place or mine?” Dan wiggled his eyebrows mock-suggestively.

This was a running joke between the two friends; always asking whose place to go to when they both knew they’d always end up going to Phil’s. It was just an added bonus that they could turn it into a joke about one night stands as well. Though they’d only been friends for just over a year, Dan had been to Phil’s house approximately 293 times. It was a very fast-growing friendship, as well. Phil had made his return to school after spending three months in hospital, hoping things would be the same with his friends. They weren’t.

The entire year level plus the whole of Thomas’ year level had caught wind of Phil’s hospitalisation. To the doctors, his mum and the school he had a ‘severe but treatable case of an illness yet to be officially registered’. He’d become  ‘mystery boy’ and ‘the sick one’ to friends he’d hoped would never treat him differently because of it but the sad thing was that they did.

It wasn’t necessarily even bad, either. Phil knew they only had the best intentions but he couldn’t stand any more pitying looks or comments from his friends, so it came as a relief when Dan transferred to the school.

Just as tall, just as introverted and possibly even more awkward than Phil himself, Dan had sat next to Phil in literature one day and they’d been friends ever since. Phil admired Dan’s love for Shakespeare and his sarcastic sense of humour that he’d since adopted; Dan admired Phil’s disgustingly positive outlook on the world. They were quite similar, but also different in many ways. Their friendship was just one of those things that just worked, like peanut butter and jelly.

The walk back to Phil’s house was full of teasing, banter and complaints about all the homework they needed to but probably weren’t going to do until the night before it was due. Walking home was always a little hard for Phil as he’d usually be reminded of that one day two years ago when he’d walked home, running past hundreds of wilted plants that had bloomed when he’d had Thomas. It got easier every day, not by a lot but when he’d started walking back with Dan all thoughts of that day had suddenly become non-existent.

After an easy ten minutes, they’d arrived at the familiar house and immediately begun raiding Phil’s cupboard and refrigerator for food. They were well aware it had been 2 hours since they’d last eaten, and quite frankly that was 2 hours too long for two lanky teenage boys.

After 15 minutes of fruitless searching, both Dan and Phil gave up. All they’d managed to find in Phil’s cupboards were expired pop tarts, vegetables (shiver) and a few questionable cuts of beef. Dan had taken to melodramatically crying in the pantry, sitting on the floor and hugging his knees to his chest.

“WHY PHILIP, WHY? I’M SO HUNGRY!” he wailed before fully collapsing onto the floor.

“Dan! Get up, you spoon.” Phil sniffed in amusement at the sight in front of him. Dan would definitely have an imprint of flour on his butt when he stood up.

“I’ll just order pizza, it’s fine.”  Phil shook his head and took his cell phone out, dialling the number for his favourite pizza restaurant.

Dan abruptly stood up and dusted his black jeans of flour and other pantry floor particles.

“Oh. I’ll have a large pepperoni please. But hold the pepperoni.” Dan declared, no sign of humour in his voice. Phil looked at Dan incredulously, what was his friend thinking? That was just a cheese pizza then! He was a strange one indeed. A second later, someone picked up on the other line and Phil was forced to talk to a stranger, something he’d hated his whole life.

“H-hello. I’d like a large chicken pizza and a-,” Phil looked at Dan disappointedly, shaking his head, “large PLAIN cheese pizza. Yep. That’ll be all. Thank you.”

Dan gaped at Phil, apparently shocked for some reason. He gesticulated wildly for a second then realised no words were coming out of his mouth.

“Phil! What was that? I told you I wanted a pepperoni pizza, hold the peppers. What was that?”

“Oh my god, Dan. That’s what you told me to order! You said, pepperoni pizza, hold the pepperoni. I just assumed you wanted a cheese pizza and were trying to be funny!” Phil couldn’t stop himself from laughing now, Dan’s face had gone all pouty and sad.  It was hilarious.

“Oh fuck. Did I?” Dan’s mouth was still open in shock.

“Yes!”

“Well you better call them and change it!” Dan exclaimed, looking expectantly at his friend.

If it were anyone else, Phil would have refused. His best friend was a pleb, however and as his best friend it was his job to be understanding of that. Shaking his head at Dan, Phil dialled the pizza place back up.

-

By 8pm the pizza was long gone and the boys had taken to playing Mario Kart on the couch. Phil bit his lip in concentration, working hard to beat Dan at the game he always seemed to win. They’d played the game every Friday together for the better part of two years, and Phil was still yet to beat Dan. Phil’s character of choice, Yoshi was zooming through the track. He was in second place, quickly gaining on Dan’s character, Mario who was in first. He zipped over a rainbow speed booster, instantly overtaking Dan who had missed it and yelled out triumphantly. He continued zooming through the course, only a few seconds away from the finish line when a green shell hit him right in the back, allowing Dan to easily overtake him just before the finish line.

Phil threw his controller frustratedly onto the couch. This wasn’t fair. Dan won every time! And to lose by something as lame as a green shell, not even a blue shell was just embarrassing. He refused to look at Dan or the screen.

“Ha! Did you choose Yo-shi cause yo-r SHIT?” Dan quipped, nudging Phil in the side. He was way too pleased about this, his eyes crinkling up with glee and the dimple on his left cheek popping out. This would not do.

Phili pushed the stupid boy in front of him, causing him to fall onto the couch butt first.

“That was a terrible joke. Apologise.” He demanded, crossing his arms.

His friend’s face showed no signs of remorse or guilt, however and instead of apologising he merely grinned and held out a hand to Phil.

“Nope. Help me up now please.”

Phil glared angrily down at him, but they both knew he wasn’t really mad. Being the kind friend he was, he begrudgingly reached his arm out but was caught off guard when he was suddenly jerked onto the body below him.

“Daniel!” he yelped, his voice two octaves higher than it usually was.

His face was squashed into the crook of the other boy’s neck awkwardly while their hands stayed linked. Phil felt the warmth of Dan’s chest radiating onto him, an admittedly nice feeling. Phil could feel Dan’s heartbeat, it was beating way faster than any healthy heart should. The boys remained silent, neither sure what to do next.

After too long, Phil pushed himself off the chest below him using both hands and sat up straight. The warm feeling that had overtaken his body was now gone. He felt strangely disappointed for some reason.

A slightly pink-in-the-face Dan scrambled up too, making sure to keep a reasonable distance between him and Phil on the couch. He cleared his throat and sniffed.

“It was a great joke and you know it. Don’t even try to deny it.” Dan’s voice sounded a little shaky and held an air of false confidence that Phil chose not to comment on for fear of making this kind of awkward moment even worse.

“Hmph. Well Mario? How about, Mari-no humility!” Phil decided on saying, knowing his joke would go down well with Dan.

“Oh my god. You did it. A joke even worse than mine.” -

The rest of the night was pretty normal for the two boys, the awkward moment forgotten as quickly as it happened. Phil was sad to see Dan go at the end of the night, as usual but was comforted by the thought he’d see him the next day, probably.

He pulled his pyjamas on after he’d bid Dan goodbye and jumped into bed, exhausted. It took him quite a while to fall asleep, his thoughts plagued with his best friend for some reason. Tonight had been… weird to say the least. He wondered if Dan was feeling as awkward as Phil was about it. Was he making too big a deal out of it? It shouldn’t be a big deal, he guessed. They were best friends for crying out loud! Phil forced his mind to shut up, faintly feeling a small tickling sensation on his left hand as he drifted off to sleep.

-

Phil jumped awake to the sound of his phone blaring ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears. He slammed his hand down on the alarm before getting out of bed. He walked to the bathroom and fumbled with the door handle before grabbing his toothbrush. Phil was sleepily brushing his teeth, looking at his reflection in the mirror before noticing something green on his hand. He promptly put his toothbrush down, inspecting his hand closely.

Oh no.

It couldn’t be. There was a fucking plant growing out of his palm. Phil knew what this meant, it’s what had happened when he’d started liking Sally in the second grade, Kyle in the fifth grade and Thomas in freshman year. Phil quickly pulled the plant out of his hand, feeling a soft tug on his skin. He knew it meant he’d caught feelings for someone, but who? He barely talked to anyone anymore, having shut off all of his friends after what happened with Thomas. Literally the only person he talked to was Dan!

Wait. Phil thought back to what had happened the night before, how warm he’d felt lying on Dan’s chest and how strangely disappointed he’d felt when forcing himself out of Dan’s tender embrace. His thoughts had been filled with his friend the whole of last night, and as much as Phil had wanted to deny it then, the fact that a plant had sprouted out of his palm left no room for questioning. He liked Dan.

This was not good. Very not good. In fact, so not good that Phil began pacing around his bathroom, hyperventilating while he was at it. His thoughts were running wild with what he should do, he couldn’t let himself nearly die again. One heartbreak had been enough for his emotions, not to mention his body.

After a good ten minutes of thinking (freaking out, really) Phil had come to a solution for his problem: he had to distance himself from Dan, ideally cutting him off completely. It made his heart hurt at the thought of not being as close to his best friend anymore, but it’s what he needed to do.

Phil quickly sent Dan a text saying he was feeling ill and would not be coming to school, and that Dan should just walk to school alone today. It wasn’t a lie, really. Phil wouldn’t be going to school, and he was feeling unwell, just not for the reason Dan would be assuming. Phil wiped the sweat off his brow and went back to bed. He couldn’t deal with this right now.

-

Phil spent the rest of the day playing video games, but it wasn’t much fun without Dan. He sighed. It had only been 16 hours and he was already having Dan withdrawal symptoms. Phil was just about to finish the level when the doorbell rung.

He groaned and begrudgingly made his way to the front door. He hated unexpected visitors. Phil swung the door open, his eyes widening when he saw who was on the other side of it.

“Phil! You’re a bit of a weakling, aren’t you? Missing school and leaving me all alone.” A smiling Dan teased, handing Phil a container filled with a mysterious brown substance.

“I made you chicken soup as well!”

Phil examined the liquid closely and cringed. It did not look appetising at all.

“Why is it brown?”

“I-erm, I’ll explain when we’re inside.” Dan said, pushing past Phil and walking into the house.

Phil internally groaned, why did Dan have to come over? Phil was supposed to be ignoring him!  Dan was the last person he should be around right now, but Phil was missing his best friend and did not have the heart to kick him out when he’d brought him chicken soup and was clearly missing Phil too.

Phil was snapped out of his thoughts when Dan tapped him on the shoulder.

“Oi, mate were you playing Mario Kart without me?” Dan was looking genuinely offended, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout. Why did he have to be so frickin adorable, it wasn’t helping Phi’s problem at all!

Phil nodded, ashamed of his betrayal.

“You’ll have to make it up to me. 1v1 me right now!” Dan grabbed Phil’s hand, guiding him to the couch.

Phil needed to forget, just for a bit that he couldn’t hang out with his best friend anymore. This would be the last time they’d hang out properly, at least until Phil was sure his feelings were completely gone. Phil chucked Dan a controller and grinned,

“You’re on, Howell.”

-

The next few months were a struggle for Phil. He’d had a great time hanging out with Dan that day, which came as no surprise. It really didn’t help his growing problem, however. The minute Dan had walked in he’d known he was seriously fucked. Seriously, why was Dan so cute? Coming over and bringing chicken soup just to make sure Phil was feeling better, he truly was a great friend.

After that day, Phil had tried, and succeeded to some extent of hanging out with Dan less. He’d declined Dan’s offers of hanging out as much as he could without seeming too suspicious, began walking to school alone (telling Dan he preferred solitude in the mornings, which Dan had just nodded suspiciously at) and only had Dan over a couple of times in the three month span.

Yet despite these efforts, Phil had just felt himself falling deeper into a dangerous abyss of feelings for his best friend. Anytime Dan smiled, laughed, or did anything really, Phil could feel his heart growing fonder. And there was proof too.

Spending less time with Dan wasn’t the only reason Phil had taken to walking alone to school. His feelings had grown, and as a result more plants were growing too. He wouldn’t have been able to hide the hundreds of flowers shooting out of the ground as soon as Phil walked past. They were beautiful, too as much as Phil hated to admit. They were more vibrant in colour, taller too than any flower that had grown from Phil’s previous crushes. Phil was more than a little scared of what that meant.

Right now, Phil was holding tightly onto Dan’s hand despite his better judgement. They were at the cinema, watching a horror film and Phil was terrified. Dan’s hand was soft and warm, calming him down a little, but not enough for him to be able to let go.

The film finally ended, thank god and Phil slipped his hand out of Dan’s, feeling empty at the loss. They walked out of the cinema side by side, bumping shoulders as Dan teased Phil for being so scared.

When they made it outside, Phil felt his heart sink with disappointment. He didn’t want to go. He was happy just being there with his favourite person. Stupid plants that grew with his stupid feelings could be screwed.

Phil leaned in to hug Dan goodbye, finding himself smelling Dan’s hair. Dan’s hugs never failed to make Phil’s tummy flutter. It was the way Dan held him so tightly, like he was protecting his little Phil. He felt so warm and so… Dan. Phil swooned for what was probably the seventh time that night. God, this was just sad AND creepy.

Phil reluctantly began pulling away, already feeling the warmth enveloping him disappearing.

His heart started beating ten times faster when he saw Dan’s eyes flicking down to his lips. It nearly short-circuited when Dan leant forward, capturing them in his own. Phil’s mind was void of all thoughts except one: Dan. He kissed back with everything he had in him, tangling his hands through Dan’s soft brown hair.

Phil felt like he could burst, a tingling feeling of warmth spreading throughout his body making him feel whole. Dan’s hands were around his waist, holding him like he was the best thing in the world.

Too soon, Dan was pulling away and the realisation hit Phil. Dan had kissed him. And he’d kissed back. What was he doing? He shouldn’t have let this happen! Dan was just going to leave him in the end, and Phil would be left heartbroken and nearly-dead. His eyes began welling up.

Dan’s satisfied smile fell as soon as he saw the tears in Phil’s eyes. He propped Phil’s chin up with his hand.

“Phil, what’s wrong? Is this not what you wanted?”

Phil shook his head, tears now falling down his cheeks. He tried to speak, but his voice was too thick with tears and he choked instead.

Dan looked even more worried now, gathering Phil up in his arms. He squeezed his friend tightly. He just wanted Phil to be okay. Phil continued sobbing into his chest, his cries getting more and more hysterical.

“I’m so sorry Phil. I didn’t mean to force myself on you, I thought you liked me too- god, I’m such a fuck up I don’t want you to feel like you have to be anything more than my friend.”

Phil wished he could talk, but he was sobbing too hard to get any words out. Dan couldn’t be more wrong, Phil wanted to be his friend and so much more but that was the problem.

He felt himself being walked over to the bench outside the cinema, sitting down when Dan did. The two boys sat together on the bench for what felt like forever, Dan just holding Phil and stroking his hair comfortingly.

When Phil finally calmed down, his voice was croaky and raw.

“You didn’t do anything wrong Dan,” Dan’s head perked up, surprised Phil was finally talking. “I like you, and not just in a friend way. You didn’t force anything on me, I wanted to kiss you.”

Dan’s brow creased with confusion.

“Then why’d you start crying?”

Phil gulped. He’d never told anyone about his powers before, but he needed Dan to understand.

“The last time I had feelings for someone I nearly died.”

Dan gasped, his hands flying to cover his mouth.

“Let me explain. I um- I have these powers that make me grow plants, but only when I have feelings for someone.”

Phil stood up and walked to the sidewalk, standing on a patch of grass. A bed of white gardenias immediately sprouted up around Phil’s feet.

Dan fell off the bench rather ungracefully. He quickly brushed his jeans off, ensuringPhil he was alright. Phil smiled a little at his friend’s clumsiness before continuing.

“When I’m in love with someone, like I was with my ex- a rose grows out of my chest. But when that person leaves me, every plant I’ve grown wilts, and I get really sick. When my ex left me I got so sick I had to stay in hospital for three months and I promised,” Phil gulped, willing himself not to cry again, “-I promised myself I’d never let myself catch feelings again. But a few months ago, I started liking you which is why I’ve been trying to avoid hanging out recently. I’m just so scared you’ll leave me and not only will I be heartbroken, I’ll be half-dead as well.”

There was silence for a few seconds. Phil played with his hands awkwardly, afraid of Dan’s response. Phil felt something tingling on his hand, and this time it wasn’t a plant. Dan was rubbing the back of his hand with his own.

“Well that was a fucking emotional rollercoaster. I can’t believe my best friend is a weird plant dork.” Phil clasped Dan’s hand tighter when he saw that his eyes were welled with tears.

“Tell me about it.” Phil shook his head, smiling at the boy in front of him.

“I know I’m young and dumb, and probably don’t even know exactly what love is. But I’m pretty sure it’s what I feel for you, and what I’ve been feeling for you for a long time. I don’t plan on ever leaving you. I’m not stupid, I know that most high school relationships don’t last but I promise you I’m not going anywhere. It doesn’t matter if we’re friends or something more, I’m always gonna be here.”

Phil couldn’t answer, even though he really wanted to. He felt a sharp pricking at his chest, something was trying to burst out. He cried out in surprise before lifting his shirt up slowly, already knowing what was underneath.

With trembling fingers, he slowly extracted the most beautiful flower he’d ever seen. The rose was white in colour, different to the dark red one that had bloomed when he’d fallen in love with Thomas. Its petals were velvety and smooth, and its thorns were miniscule.

Phil saw Dan’s eyes widen in surprise, before his expression settled to one of pure giddiness. Phil loved him.

“I guess this means I love you too?” He said, looking into Dan’s eyes.

“I guess it does.” Dan’s eyes were welling up even more now.

“Thank you for- for reassuring me. I believe you. I know you’re not going anywhere, and lucky for you, I’m not going anywhere either.” Phil leaned his forehead against Dan’s, their eyes locking before Phil pecked Dan’s lips, causing him to blush. Dan leaned away from Phil after the short kiss, but laced his fingers through Phil’s, unsubtly wiping at his eyes.