He seriously hated this job.

  After lunch, they had gym together, and yeah, Dan got quite a bit of exercise being a Reaper and all, but that didn't mean he wanted to do it for fun. And today, they were running.

  "Can't I just fake an injury or something?" Dan complained to Phil, as they headed to the gymnasium.

  "Dan, it's your first day, I don't think anyone would believe it." Phil replied, laughing. "It's not that bad."

  "Any kind of physical exertion is bad." Dan muttered under his breath. By then, they had reached the gym, and Dan stopped complaining as they went to the boys locker room.

  Since it was Dan's first day, he didn't have the uniform, and he'd had to bring some shorts from home. Him and Phil were the only ones in the room because they had been a bit late.

  Dan glanced over to see if Phil was ready to go yet, and was met with the sight of his naked upper body. Well, his back, since he was facing away from Dan.

  Jesus Christ, that boy really doesn't know how sexy he is, Dan thought.

And it was true. His skin was very pale, but it went well with his dark hair and bright, blue eyes. His back was smooth, not a blemish in sight, and come on, that ass wasn't bad either. He wasn't what most girls, or guys, would go for, but Dan was all over that.

  "You ready, Dan?" Phil said, snapping him back into reality. And Dan was glad, cause his thoughts were starting to veer off into the naughty section.

  "Y-yeah. Let's go." Dan said. He smiled at Phil, who smiled back, and they left to go and join the rest of the class.

                ***************

  "Alright, you know the drill! Stretch those muscles and get to running, 10 laps around the gym!" The gym teacher was a giant, muscly guy, who looked like he would snap your neck if you breathed the wrong way.

  Dan and Phil sat on the sidelines, stretching and trying to hold off on running. This was one thing that Dan had always hated about high schools, gym class and gym teachers, too. They always seemed to be the most strict and mean.

  "Stop wasting time, Lester, and take the new kid with you!" Mr. Jones snapped at them.

  "Let's go, Dan, we don't want to get on his bad side." Phil said, standing up.

  "You mean that's his good side?" Dan said, following Phil onto the floor.

  "Shut up." Phil said, laughing. They started running then, or jogging really. Not even a minute after they had started, Dan was out of breath. He had to be the most out of shape person ever.

  "I can't go on much longer, Phil." he said, his breathing heavy.

  "Christ, Dan, you need to get out more. We haven't even done half of a lap." Phil chuckled. He still stayed beside Dan though, slowing his pace to match Dan's.

  After the second lap, Dan was ready to fall out. His vision was getting blurry and his thighs were throbbing. How the hell did humans do this? He stopped, leaning against the wall and catching his breath. Phil stopped beside him, but Dan just waved him away, telling him to go on. He didn't want to get him in trouble.

  I don't think I'm going to survive this, Dan thought, clutching a stitch in his side. He shook his head and started running again, slowly at first, but then gaining speed. Only eight more to go, Daniel. Come on.

  He saw Phil on the other side of the room, still going. Jesus, he had a lot of stamina. Wonder what he's like in the bedroom...

  Now was not the time. He shook his head and continued, trying to keep a steady pace. He completed his third lap, then another, and another.

  His head was hurting, his legs and sides aching, but he didn't stop. His vision was black at the edges, Bohr he didn't take any notice of it.

  His legs suddenly gave out, but he never felt the impact of the floor because he blacked out.

                  ****************

  "Dan? Are you okay?"

  He opened his eyes and blinked, as blinding light hit his face. His head and chest hurt, and he groaned.

  "Dan?" said the voice again, and Dan looked over to see Phil sitting beside him, worry etched all over his pale face.   

  "What happened?" Dan grumbled, sitting up and clutching his head. He was sitting on a bed thingy, surrounded by white walls. There was a door opposite him, closed, and a tall cabinet beside it. Phil sat in one of the two chairs beside the bed.

  "You passed out, while running. Hit the floor pretty hard, too, I heard it from across the room." Phil said. "You sure you're okay?"

  "I'm fine, just a bit sore. So, what, I'm in the nurses office?"

  Phil nodded, biting his lip. Dan wanted to be the one biting that lip. He looked away quickly, blushing at that thought.

  "You've only been out for about twenty minutes, but we don't have to go back to class if you don't want  to."

  "Definitely not." Dan said. They both laughed, and Dan hopped off of the bed. The door opened then, and a plump, kind looking lady walked in, smiling at them.

  "I see you're awake, Daniel." she said in a high pitched voice. "Are you okay, dear, no pains or anything?"

  "I'm fine, just a bit sore." he said, repeating what he had told Phil.  

  "Well, you're free to leave, if so. Just be careful." she smiled again and left. 

  "So what are we gonna do? There's still, like, half an hour of class left." Phil asked.

  "Well, I need to change, firstly." Dan said. He was still in his sweaty gym clothes, and he wanted to get back into his skinny jeans as quick as possible. He saw that Phil had already changed he'd back. "And I really don't want to go back to class. Maybe we could just, hang out somewhere?"

  Phil nodded, and they left the room, heading to the locker room once again to get Dan's clothes. Once he had changed, they left, not really hacking a destination in mind. Eventually, they just sat down in a random corridor, talking.

  "You know," Phil said, a smile tugging at his lips, "you could have just told Jones that you weren't feeling well, and he probably would have let you sit out."

  Dan smirked. "What kind of man would I be if I wussed out like that?"

  "The kind of man that doesn't pass out in the middle of class!" Phil exclaimed, laughing as Dan went red.

  They sat like that for the rest of the period, asking idle questions and making jokes. They actually had quite a bit in common, and Dan was glad that he wasn't some prick who went along with society.

  "So, why did you move here?" Phil asked, clutching his knees to his chest and looking over at Dan.

  Usually, Reapers had to come up with some kind of back story in case someone ever questioned them, but Dan had never really got the chance to do so. Actually, he had just been too lazy to attempt it. But he had to come up with something fast, he didn't want to look weird.

  "Uh, I.... my family, they've been going through some, uh, things. Yeah, money and such. My dad, he got a job up here, so we moved. Had to attend a completely different school, a whole new neighborhood." He stopped, looking at the floor so that his lies didn't show in his eyes. He was usually good at this, lying to people, but he didn't like doing it to Phil.

  "Oh." Phil said. "Sorry."

  "Don't worry about it. It's my life."

  "That doesn't mean I don't want it to be better."

  Dan looked at him. Phil was smiling at him, his cheeks tinted red. This boy really was something.

  At that moment, the bell rang and doors along the hall swung open, letting out streams of students. Dan and Phil stood up reluctantly, joining the crowd and trying not to lose each other.

  Dan was actually excited for next lesson, because it was art. Ever since he was little, Dan had enjoyed drawing, painting, anything artistic. He couldn't wait to finally do something he liked.

  The teacher for this class was Mr Grey, a middle aged man whines actually quite fit. He smiled at all the students as they walked in the classroom. Maybe he wouldn't be as horrible as the other teachers.

  Dan sat next to Phil, as always, in the back. It was one long table that they shared, but it was also a bit small so that their arms brushed together occasionally. Which Dan didn't mind.

  Apparently, the class was in the middle of some project that was due at the end of term. They had to work in pairs and create two separate projects, which they would find a way to connect to make one big sculpture thing. And since Phil had been by himself, he would have to start working with Dan.

  "So, what ideas do you have?" Dan asked. He had no idea what Phil had in mind, since he had already started the project.

  "I was just gonna, uh, do a painting sort of thing, and maybe, just... I don't know, it's stupid really." He looked at the table, his fingers knotting together nervously.

  "Hey, it's not stupid if you at least try it." Dan said. He really did want to hear Phil's ideas, just to see what his mind was like.

  "Well, I was gonna do a sculpture thing, like out of clay or something, and make this sort of city out of it. And then I was gonna do a painting, some sort of background, and just sort of put them together. It seems cooler in my head." He looked sideways at Dan to see his reaction.

  It actually sounded like a cool idea, better than anything Dan could think up.

  "That's a great idea Phil. What have you got done so far?"

  "I've, uh, I've started on the sculpture already, it's at my house though."

  "So I'm gonna do the painting?" Dan asked, and Phil nodded. He was glad, because sculpting wasn't his strongest point.

  They continued the rest of the class discussing the details of the project. They couldn't really do the whole thing in classes, so they had to go by each others houses to work on it.

  "You can come over to mine, maybe next week?" Phil said. Dan nodded. He would have given anything to go and see where this boy lived, but all it took was a school project.

  That was the last class of the day, and as the bell rang, Dan was both glad and upset that the day was over. He wouldn't see Phil until tomorrow...

  Stop being such a dork. He thought to himself. He had no right to start obsessing over this boy, the consequences would only hurt him, because either Dan would end up leaving him, or he would have to take his life. Neither was a pretty scenario.

  Needless to say, that night as Dan was going to bed, he couldn't help but smile as he thought of seeing Phil the next day. And his dreams, which usually consisted of dark nothingness, were filled with pale skin and ocean eyes.