Dan tapped his foot impatiently, looking at his watch in fake-annoyance. Phil came running up to him, panting.

"What kept you? You're twenty minutes late!"

"I... had to talk to a teacher about my English work."

Dan didn't pursue the matter. It was obvious that Phil didn't want to talk about it, and he didn't want to ruin the day.

"Where's your house, then?"

"It's literally across the road," Phil said, pointing to a small side road. "Down there."

Dan laughed. "That's not far to go in the mornings, is it? Oh, what I'd give for a lie-in like you must get..."

"I don't get that long a lie-in!" Phil protested, laughing. "But yes, it's very convenient."

They crossed the road, and Phil dug his keys out of his pocket. "There's never anybody home until about five, so we have the house to ourselves for a while."

"We should learn some extra loud pieces, then," Dan said, with a grin.

Phil smiled back, unlocking the door and holding it open for Dan. "Welcome to my humble abode."

Dan stepped inside, looking around. "My God. You call this humble?"

Phil unlaced his shoes and chucked them to one side. "No, but my parents do, and I've picked up the saying from them."

"Your parents call this humble?"

Phil laughed dryly. "They're quite rich."

"I can tell," Dan said, looking around in amazement. They were still only in the hallway, but Dan could already see artwork that must be worth thousands of pounds, carpet so thick that his feet disappeared in it, and gold edged wallpaper. "How much did it cost to build this hall alone?"

"Far too much, I can assure you," Phil said, heading for the kitchen. "Do you want something to eat?"

"What do you have?" Dan asked, putting his shoes tidily by the door and following Phil.

"You could have cheesecake?"

"I love cheesecake," Dan said with a grin.

Phil cut two pieces and put them onto plates, handing one plate to Dan with a fork. "Let's go to the piano room."

"What the heck is a piano room? A room just for your piano?"

"No. It's my bedroom. I just called it the piano room because that's what we're using it for."

Dan grinned and followed Phil up the three flights of stairs that led to his bedroom.

"Is this the attic?"

"It was," Phil said, "but then they got it converted so they could tuck me up here with all my stuff and pretend I didn't exist."

Dan decided not to pry.

"They do like me," Phil continued, "but they spend a lot of time out of the house, and pretending I'm not here makes them feel less guilty."

Dan made what he hoped was a sympathetic face, but he had a horrible suspicion that he looked more like a moose than a human.

"Here is my room!" Phil proclaimed dramatically, flinging open the door.

It was surprisingly empty compared with the rest of the house. Phil's bed was at one end, with a blue and green duvet, which seemed to set the colour scheme for the rest of the room. One wall was a dark blue, the others lighter shades of the same colour. The carpet was light, with a green rug at the end of Phil's bed.

Around the edges of the room were bookshelves, where Phil kept, not only his books and DVDs, but the TV, clothes, board games, and what seemed like a few hundred different types of merchandise.

In the centre of the room stood Dan's favourite thing, a steely grey, highly polished baby grand piano, with a matching cushioned stool.

"You take good care of your piano," Dan observed.

Phil went red. "To tell you the truth, it was in the corner, gathering dust, until you played for us the other day."

"Really? Why?"

"Because I hated not being able to do it. But then, when you played, I decided that I'd learn."

Dan smiled. "Shall we start practising, then?"

Phil nodded, and motioned to Dan to take the stool, while he grabbed a chair from beside his bed.

"What do you want to do today, then?"

"I'm thinking we should learn something different. I mean, I can basically play Für Elise already, and I can just keep practising, so let's try a new piece."

Dan hadn't been expecting that, but he nodded. "What were you thinking?"

"You know that piece you were playing when I came into the music room today? I liked that one. What was it called?"

Dan blushed. "I- I composed that one myself."

Phil looked amazed. "Really? Really? It was so good! You're seriously good at the piano, you know that?"

"Thanks..."

"Could I learn that?"

"I haven't really finished it yet... Maybe another time, yeah?"

Phil grinned. "As long as I get to learn it, ok?"

"One day," Dan laughed.

"How about this, then?" Phil went over to a section of shelving and pulled out a music book.

"Einaudi?"

"Yeah. You know any of his pieces?"

In reality, Dan had learnt almost all of Einaudi's pieces, and one of his pieces, I Giorni, was Dan's favourite piano piece of all time. But he wasn't about to tell Phil that. "I know a few."

"How about..." Phil flicked through the book, and stopped on a page he liked. "I Giorni. This one looks easy."

Dan cursed inwardly. "If you like."

Phil dropped the book onto the music stand, and sat down heavily on the stool. "How long do you think it'll take for me to learn?"

Dan thought for a second. "A few weeks, maybe? Depending on how much you practise."

"That means you can come back round tomorrow!"

Dan laughed. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Phil smiled, edging up so that he was sitting in the middle of the piano. "How does it go, then?"

"Do you want me to play it to you?"

Phil nodded eagerly, and Dan, sighing amusedly, edged up towards the middle, pushing Phil out of the way.

The piece came in four sections, which were repeated towards the end. Dan played Phil the first three, ending on a simple chord rather than continuing. Phil applauded him, and Dan, grinning, blinked back the tears that had sprung to his eyes.

"Wow."

Dan laughed.

"That was amazing!"

"It didn't go wrong, if that's what you mean."

"No... I think that's my new favourite piece of all time."

"Mine too."

They sat there for a few seconds, smiling stupidly.

"Anyway," Dan began, moving back towards the higher end of the piano, "Let's start."

Dan, although he wanted to, didn't suggest the same teaching method as that morning. Instead, they played the same phrases, over and over, until Phil had them perfect, and then moved on.

After about an hour, Phil yawned. "Shall we take a break?"

"Ok."

"Do you want a drink?"

"No, I'm alright."

Phil stood up and headed for his bed, jumping onto it and turning himself so that his head was hanging off the end, looking at Dan upside-down. Dan followed suit, going to lay beside him with his head hanging down to the floor.

"You like Sword Art Online?" Dan asked, seeing a poster pinned up on the ceiling.

"I like every anime. Especially SAO."

Dan laughed. "It is great, isn't it?"

Phil, his face going steadily redder as the blood rushed to it, sat up. Dan stayed hanging upside down, but Phil's next question made him almost fall off the bed.

"Are you single?"

"Why do you ask?" Dan snapped, confusion making him annoyed.

"It's just... you're gay, and I'm gay, and I thought maybe..."

Dan sat up. "Well, yes, I am..."

Phil smiled. "Does that mean I can kiss you?"

Dan wasn't sure what to say to that.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Okay so something weird happened and it said four chapters were published when they weren't so if you read the chapter I published published few days ago and got confused then SORRY and here's the actual next chapter 😂