Phil's Overhead

Phil was finally healed (to an extent) and was excited to go home to Dan's flat. It was dark when he had gotten home, and just wanted to sleep. Dan showed him to his bed, and cuddled him safely in his arms.

"Thanks for taking care of me," he said.

Dan peered over to make sure he wasn't hurting his tender red arm, then kissed his neck. "I'm happy I did. I love you so much."

Phil had a smile form on his lips. "I do too." With one arm draped over him, Dan found and grasped Phil's hand. Phil kissed to top of it. "So what made you want to talk to the random boy from the library in the first place? Why was he so special to you?"

"He was you," Dan decided.

Phil didn't care for an explanation. He was perfectly pleased with that one.

~~~~~

Dan's Overhead

As days past, Phil made himself comfortable, with enough books to ever read. He followed Dan to the library everyday, and shared a caramel macchiato with him on his breaks. At home, Phil happily spent his time with the one he loved, no longer hiding from anybody from behind a paperback.

"He's really something else," Brooke commented as she and Dan watched Phil continuing to read.

"I know."

"I'm happy you've got him. He needed you."

"I think I needed him a lot more than he needed me."

She nodded. "You needed each other then?"

"That works too." Phil caught them looking at him. He smiled and waved, and they waved back. Dan took out a small piece of paper, and wrote a little note:

"So, how's about a date tonight?

~Dan"

He folded it and handed it to Brooke. "Take that to him, would you please?"

"What for?"

"He'll get it."

She did so, and Phil turned to him and nodded.

He smiled.

Brooke returned to him, and noticed a large box of books beneath the desk. "Collin wanted you to put these returns away an hour ago!"

"I'm getting to it."

"Do it now, because when you're fired, I'm not punching anybody in the face for you to keep your job."

Dan lifted the box. "Fine. But I am asking for that raise."

"You don't have a chance."

"Thanks for the support, Doll-Face!" he said, taking the returns to the designated aisle. On his way, Dan passed Phil and leaned over his shoulder. He was reading a new book.

Phil saw him and turned his head to him. He grinned and snuck a kiss from Dan's cheek. Dan did the same. "Love you," he whispered to him.

"Love you too."

Dan left for the bookcases to put away the books, and everything seemed perfect. As he pulled up the books, one after the other, Dan found himself a copy of "Jane Eyre," the same book lost in the house fire. He opened it aimlessly to a page, and read a random passage of it to himself:

"I have for the first time found what I can truly love-I have found you. You are my sympathy-my better self-my good angel-I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you-and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one."

― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre