"god, this is so fucking stupid. why don't you have keys?" phil grumbled.

"oh please, stop complaining. i forgot my keys inside the house when i left-oh! i almost have it," dan said through his gritted teeth and cigarette.

"you know, you probably shouldn't be smoking when you're breaking into a house, or on a 10ft ladder for that matter," phil scoffed, holding tighter onto the metal steps that were supporting dan.

earlier that day at breakfast, phil had agreed to help dan break into his house to get some extra clothes and his phone and anything else. dan had broken his window without his parents knowing a few months back when he had gotten mad and threw a liquor bottle at the glass; he now used it to get in every so often when he lost his keys. dan was prying the cracked screen away from the wood when:

"got it!" dan exclaimed proudly, looking down at phil on the ground, who was rolling his eyes at dan's excitement. he tossed the cracked screen into the room and carelessly jumped headfirst into his room, landing on his bed.

"you're gonna light your house on fire, damnit," phil said strictly, but he was giggling, softly.
"just come on up!" dan laughed, already throwing some of his extra clothes into his backpack.

"whoa," phil muttered, surveying dan's room.
"the matter?" dan said instinctively, taking another long drag from his cigarette.

"ok, dan? how have you not died from alcohol poisoning?" he gestured to the empty cans and cracked bottles all around the room. he seemed to be legitimately shocked at the quantity.

"god, you sound like my parents. where the fuck is my phon-shit!" dan hit the top of his head while he was looking in the cabinets.

"ugh! dannny, you told me you only smoked once in a while?" phil picked up the endless amount of cigarette packs and slammed them down on the countertop. dan didn't reply and kept searching for his beloved phone. but phil kept lecturing him nonetheless on his overwhelming quantity of alcohol in his room, and ranting to him how he'll either die or get cancer, then die after that.

"uh huh, that's right," dan nodded by instinct.
phil was silent for a few minutes, looking through the mansion at the obvious wealth and money invested in it. suddenly he had an idea, and smirked.

"you know what danny, i've changed my mind," phil hopped off the kitchen counter he was sitting on as dan kept looking through the silverware drawers.

"hm?"

"let's leave now, with nothing except cash in your wallet, which you will give to me," he smiled hugely, holding his hand out for dan to put his wallet in.
dan's face went paler, if that was even possible, and his head jerked in phil's direction.

"you, you cannot be serious? i need this stuff!" he had whipped the cigarette out out of his mouth and was gawking at phil's idea.

"if you want to show your parents that you can be independent and that you're not hopeless, don't go using all the stuff that they bought. you're proving yourself wrong for fucks sake."

"but i-but phil, no.." he said between puffs of smoke.
phil smirked cruelly and extended his hand out farther. the zippered leather wallet was dropped grudgingly into phil's hand and he grinned widely.

"phil, i sometimes want you to just drop dead," dropping his cigarette onto his tiled flooring and stepping on it.

"the feeling's mutual, howell," he giggled.

the two walked outside with phil smiling and dan skulking across his tamed, green grass lawn.

"what now?" dan asked, cheering up a bit due to phil's relentless cheery skipping.

"i don't know, i usually just walk around and enjoy the day, then party at night. we can explore the streets of london! we can go insane and vandalize our ex's house, or we can go be basic and get burgers, or we can sneak into concerts! this is so much funner now that i have a friend to be homeless with," phil rambled along and dan just smiled until the last bit, where his face dropped.

"w-what?" dan stuttered.

"what's wrong? trust me, vandalizing my ex's house was a lot of fun, it'll be great for you too!"

"no, no i mean... you think of me as a friend?"

"uh, yeah. we are facing the horrors of new york city together! oh, oh no. sorry dan, i don't think about you sexually, i apologize if i totally just friend-zoned you, i'm just not interested right now," phil patted dan's back and laughed sarcastically.

dan scoffed, "please, you weren't even that good at making out."

"you just didn't turn me on that much, that's all. it's okay dan, if you are secretly in love with me, i'll still be your friend," he shrugged, trying his best to not laugh.

"not turned on, my ass. tell that to your boner last night," dan winked, before tripping over a crack in the street.

"duh, that was from seeing the bartender that you punched make drinks behind you. mmh now that man is sexy," phil laughed, sliding his tongue over his lips.

"my god lester, where even are we?" dan laughed, gesturing to the land around them.

"i don't-i don't actually know. but this is nice. just walking and talking and just enjoying each other's company. i haven't done this in a long time."

"well, like i was saying before you got all sexual, i haven't had a friend in a long time," dan mumbled, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.

"no friends, please. how about adrian? boyfriends are just friends with extra sex," phil laughed, nudging dan with his elbow.

"adrian isn't my boyfriend," he mumbled, looking down at his feet as the two walked along.

"well, he's someone special. you have his name tattooed on your middle finger after all. or is the location of the tattoo saying something? maybe you actually hate this guy. but then why would you get the tattoo in the first place?"

dan noticed soon after meeting phil that he rambled, a lot. he'd just go along saying his thoughts out loud, rarely stopping to take a breath, saying whatever came to his odd, curious mind. but dan did too, so it didn't particularly bother him.

"he's my brother, he had a tattoo of my name on his middle finger too," dan hoped that the quieter he spoke the less interest phil would have, but it had the opposite affect.

"had? he had a tattoo of your name? do you two not get along anymore and he got his removed?" phil inquired, oddly examining his own middle finger. he kept on asking about adrian and dan felt like he had had enough.

"why are you so intrigued? why does it matter to you who the hell he is?!" dan snapped.

"just curious," phil shrugged, rubbing dan's arm for a brief second before dan winced away. he tried to play it cool and act like he had just awkwardly coughed, but phil had seen his body tear away from contact instantly.

"yeah, well, ask me about something else," dan said quickly. when he got nervous he tended to talk a lot quicker.

"how about your drin-"
"not my drinking."

"ok fine. how about your paren-"
"ew, not my parents."

there was silence in between the two of them as they continued to walk in a direction neither of them really cared to check where they exactly were heading.

after a few minutes of saying nothing phil spoke up again, after debating whether or not what he was dying to ask would upset dan. probably.

"why are so skinny but still somehow kinda muscular and how is that even possible?!" phil asked so quickly it was almost hard to understand, but dan got asked this more often than not so he got it. phil anxiously waited his response but dan just groaned loudly.

"no."

phil sighed and gave up trying to get dan to talk about himself. he was obviously uncomfortable with all of phil's questions, and phil got that.

"how about you just start conversation? i don't really have anything i won't talk about so you ask me something," phil said, glancing at dan's side profile as they walked.

dan thought for a minute on what to ask before speaking up from his quieter state.

"so... right, you said you were in rehab and now you're homeless, but don't you have family or anyone from before rehab?" dan asked, looking at phil's side-profile as he talked.

"well, no, i checked myself into rehab, and i was living with my ex-boyfriend before i went there. i mean, yeah. i used to have family but i left the house when i was 15, and then chris, my ex boyfriend, found me on the streets and took me in," phil shrugged, nodding up himself as he went on.

"oh. why did you guys break up?"

"well, our relationship wasn't very... uh, pleasant, and i was planning to go to rehab anyway and i didn't have any plans of what i would do after, and thought it best if i decided to just end it."

"hm. why did you leave when you were 15?" dan felt nervous about asking this, but he didn't really know why.

"oh, sorry, i didn't leave. i was kicked out when i came out," he sighed, raking his fingers through his black hair.

dan almost envied phil for his constant happiness, although as dan later learned, phil had a way of only showing the good parts of himself, and being optimistic and nice to everyone when he really is the polar opposite. no one expects you to spend your weekends pouring burning, boiling poison down someone's throat or punching someone's ribs until they choke on their own vomit and blood when you're as optimistic as phil acted.

and although dan wasn't answering any, phil had an endless amount of questions he wanted to ask dan, but he knew that dan didn't feel comfortable talking about himself. dan mentioned that he slept around a lot, and phil wondered about that.

he wondered if dan was like him, in the sense of neither of them really had any emotional contact with other people, so they tried to make up for that by sleeping around and getting an overcompensating amount of physical contact, in a poor attempt of trying to balance their lives out.

phil also wondered about dan's family. why he hated his dad, why he didn't talk about his brother, why his parents had kept both adrian and dan away from the public eye this whole time. i mean, phil knew almost immediately who dan was, but he had no idea that he even had a brother.

he wondered why dan drank so much, or why he hated drugs more than anything. he wondered why dan didn't have any friends. he figured dan never opened himself up to other people so he came off as just being a dick.

he wondered a lot of things.

he had a lot of unanswered curiosities, but he was patient, and filled with determination to figure these things out.

it's not like he really had anything better to do.