"If you come over tonight we can travel through time,
we can sleep on the ceiling and creep under black lights"

***

"Dan Howell is such a lesbian."

Phil looked up from his French textbook at the sound of his boyfriend's name, watching Chris sit down across from him at their lunch table. It was rare when he sat with them at all, let alone fuming about people being lesbians. "Why's that?" He asked curiously.

"Just cause, don't argue with me."

"You know, as much as I'd love to not argue with you," Phil said with a smirk, "I don't think that's a very valid reason for someone being a lesbian."

"We're talking about lesbians?" Elliot said from behind him in much too excited a tone. He sat next to him, and Phil realized that Audrey was with him too, their fingers interlocked. Grayson was suspiciously absent from the group. "The sexy kind?"

"Don't be an asshole, lesbians are people too," Phil said, turning the page of his textbook uselessly; he was supposed to be studying, but his friends were being their usual distracting selves, and he was getting nowhere.

"He got higher marks on a test than me," Chris said, continuing their earlier conversation as if they hadn't been interrupted. "I mean, I know he's smart and all that, but Chemistry is my subject, I established my dominance a long time ago."

"Well, don't take it too seriously," Elliot said sarcastically, which made Audrey laugh, a bit too theatrically to be genuine.

"I'm having a real shit day," Chris sighed, burying his head in his hands. "I broke my enhancer this morning, you know how much it's gonna cost to get a new one?"

"How?" Phil asked. He knew Chris was pretty clumsy, but he was someone who took good care to make sure the things he liked stayed intact.

"Dropped a bowling ball on it."

"Where the fuck did you even get a bowling ball?"

"Does that matter?" Chris said. "I dropped it, and now I'm gonna have to get a new enhancer."

"You do know you don't have to spend almost two hundred dollars for one," Phil said gently. "There are some pretty cheap ones out there."

"Yeah, on fucking ebay, that were probably used to kill people or something. Either way, they suck."

"You're so picky."

He gave up the pretense of studying, closing the book and laying his head on top of it. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night, between getting home late after their 'meeting', which had ended at 11 o'clock, and staying up half the night stuck in his own head.  Thoughts of Dan, and Grayson and Elliot, and his future all collided into one colossal mess of Fuck My Life, and it was surprisingly hard to escape from it. He was probably going to end up asleep next period.

He was just starting to drift off, despite the noisy chatter of the cafeteria, when his phone buzzed in his pocket, making him jump slightly. He pulled it out with a sigh.

lover:
algebra can suck a dick. meet me in the bathrooms??

Well, he couldn't say no to that eloquent request.

Chris was still sulking into his tray, Elliot and Audrey were engrossed in their own conversation that involved way too much giggling and touching, and Grayson was still missing, so Phil figured he wouldn't be entirely missed for the next ten minutes.

phil:
as you wish, my insatiable conquest

lover:
stfu, loser

He smiled and stood up, unnoticed by his table mates, pushing through the hoards of other students towards the exit. He understood completely why Chris hated it so much in here; he had a very hard time himself not shoving everyone that was in his way to the floor. They were loud and insensitive and unnecessary.

He had to be careful, or he'd be caught by a teacher, and that would most definitely not be a good thing, for various reasons; most of them would love nothing more than to give him weeks worth of detention just for wandering the halls. But worse than that, he wouldn't get to see Dan.

It was to his luck that the corridors were empty, and he made it to his destination without a hitch.

Dan was already there, sitting on the counter that stretched across the far wall, his legs dangling over the edge and his head leaned back against the wall with his eyes closed. He didn't seem to notice that Phil was there yet.

It always struck him at random times, how gorgeous Dan was. He'd always found him attractive, from the time they'd first met and every moment in between, but it was like a punch in the stomach, when Phil really stopped to look at him. And he knew that Dan didn't think much of himself, that he'd had self-esteem issues when he was younger and hadn't fully gotten over that,  it Phil could never think of him as anything but goddamn beautiful.

"So, I heard," Phil said, smiling when Dan jumped at the sound of his voice and glared at him, "that you scored higher than Chris on a Chemistry test."

"Okay, I know we're dating," Dan said, hopping off the counter, "but that's a bit stalkerish."

"Well, he was complaining about it before I left, kinda hard not to hear. Called you a lesbian."

"It wasn't that hard a test, honestly," Dan said with a shrug, but Phil saw the small smile that passed over his lips. "And he didn't score much lower than me."

"Yeah, whatever, genius," Phil teased, pulling him closer and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Are you doing okay?"

Dan looked up at him blankly. "Yeah. Why?"

He didn't know how sensitive a subject it was, but he felt it was better to at least try and approach the topic. "Just, with everything that happened yesterday...you seemed pretty freaked out. I wanted to make sure you were feeling better about the whole thing. I know I left before we talked about it properly, that was really stupid of me, I should have made sure you were okay."

"I'm fine," Dan said, smiling at Phil's rambling, and it seemed genuine. "I was just...not in such a good place then. I'm totally over it now."

"You're sure?"

"Completely," Dan reassured him gently, reaching up and cupping his face. "Now. A serious discussion is not why I wanted you to meet me here."

Phil laughed, and leaned down to kiss him once, quickly. "Yeah? That's all I am to you, a quick snog in a bathroom?"

"Oh, you're so much more than that," Dan said, faux seriously. He kissed him again. "You're one of the most important parts of my life."

There were no more words between them after that, because then Phil pressed their lips together, maybe a bit too firmly because Dan had to step backwards so as not to fall over, and they ended up leaning against the wall. It wasn't a messy kiss, not anything near it, but it wasn't exactly tame, either.

This was entirely too risky, he was sure they both knew that. But it was hard to think about the underlying consequences of making out in such a public place when Dan was clinging to his shirt like his life depended on it, and his own lips were starting to go numb.

Kissing Dan was an entire experience of its own, mind blowing and mesmerizing all in itself.

So of course the moment would be ruined by someone walking in.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know anyone was - holy shit."

Phil pulled away from Dan as quickly as possible, but it was too late. The damage was done. He looked over at the intruder and almost immediately wished he had the power to set himself on fire.

"Grayson," he said,  trying to come up with some kind of excuse as to why he was just caught tongue wrestling with someone he supposedly hated. The choices were not so great. "I, um... what are you doing here?"

Gray raised an eyebrow, his face a mixture of disbelief, amusement and confusion. It would almost be funny if Phil wasn't on the verge of cardiac arrest. "Oh, I don't know," he said sarcastically, "what does one usually do in a bathroom?"

"I, um," Dan spoke up from beside him, his voice shaking slightly. "I'm gonna go. See you later?" Phil would rather he stayed, and not leave him to deal with the aftermath of this chaotic situation, but another part of him was glad he was leaving, the over-protective boyfriend side of him most likely. So he nodded, and watched Dan carefully exit the bathroom, stepping around a still shell-shocked Grayson.

"I can explain," Phil said as soon as the door closed, and Grayson nodded.

"Oh, you'd better," he said. "Why are you and Dan Howell humping like pre-pubescant fourteen year olds in a school bathroom?"

"You can't tell anyone," Phil pleaded, taking a step closer. "Please, Grayson, this is so serious, and I know you probably don't care, but it could ruin everything if you tell."

"I won't."

"It's complicated and messy, and it probably won't end well, but - wait, what?"

"I won't tell anyone," Grayson said. "Why would I?"

Was he missing something? "Because...we're not supposed to be together?" He said uncertainly. He didn't know if this was some kind of joke or not, so he wasn't completely letting his guard down.

"And who decided that?" Grayson asked. "Hey, I've got no right to judge you on who you like. If you get your rocks off on 'forbidden relationships' or whatever, I don't care."

"You're seriously okay with this?" Phil said. "I was sort of expecting a bit more yelling and.....hitting, or something."

Gray laughed, and stepped closer to pat him on the shoulder. "Do what you want, mate, it doesn't affect me."

That had gone a lot better than expected, and Phil didn't really know what to do now. "Okay," he said. "I, um...we should get back to the cafeteria, then?"

"Oh, I'm not going there," Grayson said with a twisted smile. "Too much emotional drama for me." It was only then that Phil remembered Audrey's  sudden appearance at their table, and realized why Gray hadn't been there in the first place. He agreed.

"See you later, then," he said, and then turned to leave.

Back at the lunch table, no one had noticed his absence, and he sat down again without any questions about his whereabouts. Thankfully too, because he was still trying to process everything that has just happened in the last few minutes.

He didn't think he'd have any problems about Grayson telling anyone about him and Dan, but it still worried him. Now he has one more person to keep track of, and he wasn't sure how persistent he'd be about it.

***

By the end of the day, Phil was practically dead on his feet. It didn't help that he still had practice with the band in an hour, and he planned on getting at least another thirty minutes of sleep before then. He couldn't imagine even holding his guitar right now, let alone play it.

He followed the wave of students out the front door and to the parking lot, digging into his pockets for his keys, but stopped when he saw Dan standing by his car.

"Hey," Dan said with a small smile. "I was just wondering if I could have a ride, um....my usual carpool is sick, so I don't have anyway to get home."

Phil nodded. "Yeah, no, it's fine. Get in."

"So, um," Dan said, climbing into the passenger seat as Phil started the car, "what happened with Grayson, after I left? Sorry for, like, abandoning you, I just kind of freaked out."

"Nah, it's alright," Phil said. "It didn't go as bad as I thought it would. He doesn't care, at least, and he said he wouldn't tell anyone."

"That's good, then," Dan said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

It wasn't a long drive to Dan's house, and it was only a few minutes later when Phil pulled up into the driveway. His parents weren't due back until tomorrow, but Phil didn't try bringing up possibly coming inside; he'd probably end up skipping practice to spend time with Dan.

"Call me later?" Dan said, giving Phil a hopeful look.

"Of course," Phil smiled at him, and reached out to run his fingers through his hair gently. "Might be a bit late though, Chris is on a fucking warpath right now about practice."

"Good luck then," Dan said. He twisted his fingers into the front of Phil's shirt and pulled him closer until their lips met, a bit messily, but they didn't pull apart. Phil kissed him deeper, his teeth digging into Dan's bottom lip, and then Dan pushed him away. They sat there for a few seconds, barely an inch apart and breathing a bit off kilter. "Bye," Dan muttered.

He got out of the car, and Phil watched him until he'd gone inside the house, before heading back the way he'd come.

***

a/n: this story has such spontaneous updates, it must be so annoying. I remember the days when I had a consistent updating schedule....

But I love this story, and I have plans for it, so I will keep up with it

I didn't even put an authors note last chapter, I was so tired

But I hope you guys liked this chapter, sorry if it's a bit short, and that I took a while to update it. Just a heads up, it's gonna b a a bit more...dramatic after this chapter. Like, you guys don't even fucking know what I'm gonna do to these characters, you're gonna think I'm a sadist or something. ;)

But I'll see you guys later, I love you and I hope you always know that, I support you in every decision you ever make, and you can come to me about anything, you beautiful children, peace :3