Phil looked at him, confused.

  "What is it?" he asked. Dan closed his eyes, breathing in slowly before letting it out and explaining.

  "Phil, I love you, I really do." He smiled as Phil's face turned bright red at these words. "But I can't just be with you, not without facing some serious consequences. I'm a Reaper, I'm not from this world, and if I stayed with you, I wouldn't be able to go back to my world. Ever, and I don't want that. But I don't want to just leave you either. There's.......there's another option, but I don't know if you'll like it." He trailed off.

  Phil stared at him. "Well don't leave me anticipating, what it is?" He asked, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion and anxiousness.

  "Well, I could.......well, they, the Highers, could.....they could make you like me. A Reaper."

  It was completely silent after that, as Phil stared at him with wide eyes. It felt like days, years, before he finally spoke, and Dan waited, holding his breath, for Phil to instantly reject this stupid idea.

  "You can actually do that?" He asked quietly.

  "I mean, yeah." Dan said, slightly confused at Phil's curiosity. "But you'd have to give up everything from here, your life, your family, school....not to mention the transformation process is quite painful. I don't know if you could.....handle it."

  "Dan, I think I could handle anything if it meant....being with you." He blushed as he said this, looking down at Dan's chest. Dan smiled at his words. Man, this boy was perfect.

  "But what about everything you have here? Your fam-"

  "I don't have anything here." He interrupted softly, and Dan looked at him confused. "School, it wouldn't matter if I stopped going. That's what the internet, and books are for. Its not like I have much of a social life either, and my family? They probably wouldn't even notice I had gone." He smiled sadly, and Dan could see the pain in his eyes. He didn't like seeing Phil hurt, in any kind of way.

  "What do you mean they wouldn't notice? They're your family."

  "You've only known me a few days, its not like you know about my home life or anything."

  "Well than let me know."

  Phil stared at him in disbelief, like he was surprised that Dan actually wanted to hear about this personal thing about him. He took a deep breath, hesitated, before talking.

  "When I was about six, my mum died." He said. His voice was a bit hoarse, and Dan was going to tell him that he didn't have to keep going, but he was also intrested about what had happened. "My dad, he uh.....he was devastated, he stopped going to work and barely got out of bed in the mornings. I had to take care of myself. I was six, can you imagine that, and I was cooking, cleaning, going to school on my own. Two years later, dad decided he couldn't take care of me by himself, not that he was doing it anyway, and he put me in foster care. I was there for four years, and I was harrassed by the other kids because I was 'weird'.

I didn't talk to anyone, not even the adults, I didn't eat or play with the other children. I cried myself to sleep every night."

  Dan's heart nearly wrenched from his chest as he saw Phil start to cry, pausing in his monolouge. He took a shaky breath and continued, even with tears falling down his cheeks.

"I thought it was a blessing, when someone decided to finally come and take me away. I didn't care that they were starngers, I just wanted to leave. But it was just like living with my dad again, just without the depression hanging in the air. They got me clothes and other necessary things, but other than that, they completely ignored me. I never understood why they adopted me in the first place, like, why adopt a child, if you're not gonna actually love them, or at least pay attention to them. I tried everything, I got good grades, did everything they wanted me to without them asking. But it was useless, hell, they didn't even come to my graduation. I was valedictorian, top of my class, but I didn't even get a 'congragulations' or 'well done'."

  Phil's voice was rising, and his fingers were curled into angry fists.

  "But I still forgave them, because I thought that maybe they would, I don't know, snap out of it or something. It was stupid really, I was an idiot to think it would happen.....but I hoped. Christ, I still hope. But I know its useless, because it'll never happen. So yeah.....they couldn't care less if I joined some supernatural alternate universe with my Reaper boyfriend."

  There were still tears falling down his flushed cheeks, and he was staring at the wall beside him angrily. He looked about ready to punch something, and Dan knew exactly how he felt, emotion wise at least. Je had no idea what to say, so he said the first thing he could think of.

  "I'm sorry."

  "You shouldn't be." Phil scoffed. "Its not like you put me through it. I used to think it was my fault, ya know? Maybe I was doing something wrong. But all I was doing was......trying to get them to acknowledge me. And they didn't. So don't apologize, its really their fault." He wiped his face, pushing the tears away, and smiled weakly. "So yeah, I want to be a Reaper."

  Dan looked at him, concern etched onto his face. "Are you sure?" He asked, and Phil laughed.

  "Absolutely."

                                ********************************

  "So you just walk through?" Phil asked, his voice wary and somewhat scared.

  "That's how it works, yeah." Dan said, chuckling at Phil's confused face.

  They were standing in front of the closet door, the Portal Key stuck in the lock. For the last few minutes, Dan had been trying to explain to Phil how to use it, but Phil was still reluctant to try for fear of being 'splinched, like in the Harry Potter books' or something like that. Dan really just found it amusing.

  "Come on, just take my hand and we'll go through together. We can't stand here all day."

  Phil sighed, still staring at the door, and grabbed Dan's hand. Dan pulled the door open and they stepped through, into PJs room-

  -only to see Chris and PJ making out heavily on the bed.

  "Jesus Christ, Peej, didn't I tell you to keep it clean while I was gone?" Dan said, laughing, while Phil stayed silent, blushing beside him.

  Chris was also turning red, but PJ only scowled at Dan. "Like you don't suck face with Phil every chance you get."

  "Yeah well, at least I can keep it in my pants for five minutes."

  "That's cause you wouldn't know how to take it out, Mr. Virgin."

  "Hey, that is not to be discussed, we made a promise."

  They continued to argue playfully about their sex lives until Chris cleared his throat suggestively. His and Phil's faces were still bright red, they weren't used to such vulgar talk. But they'd have to get used to it, Dan and PJ were some of the most inappropriate people alive.

  "So you brought pretty boy along then? What did you decide to do?" PJ asked.

  "He's decided to, join us." Dan said. PJ stared at Phil, his eyes wide with wonder.

  "Really?" he said. "You actually decided to become a Reaper? It hurts like a bitch, I hear."

Phil laughed awkwardly. "Yes, I've been told."

  Even though there were four people in the room, it was still deadly silent. No one knew what to say after that, they were still processing Phil's decision.

  "Well, guess you better take him to the Highers." PJ said.

  "Yeah, we're gonna head over there now." Dan said, and be grabbed Phil's hand, pulling him from the room. "And please try to keep it PG-13, I don't want to see anything more than what I already have."

  "Oh, shut it." PJ said, throwing a pillow at him as he laughed and closed the door.

  "Well, he's, uh......nice." Ph said as they walked down the empty corridor, their footsteps echoing on the stone walls.

"He's something." Dan said, still laughing.

  "You guys seem very close."

  "He's my best friend." Dan said simply. His only friend, besides Phil, who didn't really count since friends don't usually kiss each other and hug like they did.

  "Who are the Highers?" Phil asked, after a moment of silence.

  "They kinda rule over everything here. They make the rules, and decide whether or not someone should become a Reaper."

  "Should I be scared?"

  "Oh, you should be very scared."

                                    *************************
a/n:

  sorry its so short and boring