"Dan, look at this one," Phil said as he looked down at a short brown coffee table. Dan walked over and joined him, gazing down as well.

"Brown? Really, Phil? Brown?"

Phil's lips grew into a tiny grin, "It was just a suggestion."

Dan looked around, "Why the hell are there so many different coffee tables?"

"People want variety, I guess."

"This will take ten years!"

Phil thought for a second. Dan was most likely getting a little irritated (they had already looked at over ten coffee tables, and neither of them had agreed on one yet).

"How about we separate?"

Dan had been glancing at one in the distance but took his eyes off of it, "Separate? Why?"

"So we can get this done faster. If either of us find one that we think we'll agree on, we can just text the other and meet up where the other is."

Dan contemplated the idea, "All right. I go this way and you go that way?" He pointed in opposite directions.

"Yep. Okay, off we go. Keep your eye out for deals!" Phil said as he walked off.

"Will do, Captain," Dan said quietly and saluted, joking with himself.

Dan huffed. He'd been searching, on his own, for about half an hour and hadn't found any that he thought would make the cut between the both of them. He had seen one that he had leant towards, but he knew Phil wouldn't like it, so he kept looking.

Phil looked behind boxes and boxes. That's where the good ones are, his mom had said years ago. It's where people put the good stuff that they would come back for when they had more money. Phil moved yet another box out of the way, revealing what might be their final allowance to go home. They had agreed that they weren't leaving without a coffee table, and this one might be the one. Phil pulled his phone out of his pocket, opening it and going to the messaging app. He typed a message out, saying that he had found one that he thought could work. He hit send and was met with a red exclamation mark beside the message bubble. He checked the top of his phone, seeing that he had no service. Phil sighed, putting the phone back in his pocket. He couldn't possibly wander around looking for Dan, that would take an eternity. One, because Ikea is huge and somehow like a giant rat maze, and two, Dan was also on the move looking for coffee tables and possibly Phil as well. Phil let out a puff of air as he contemplated one of the ideas his brain suggested.

"Marco!"

Dan turned his head around, searching for the source of the sound. Many other people turned their heads as well. Dan blushed, recognizing the voice immediately. Really, Phil? Marco Polo? Dan smiled. Without looking at any of the other people, he shouted in response, "Polo!" and started walking towards Phil's voice.

"Polo!" Dan said once again. They had been playing for about five minutes or so, slowly finding their way to each other. They were close, they could tell by how much less they had to shout across the store. Phil was just a few aisles away, so Dan was walking as fast as he could without having to run.

"Marco," Phil said in a regular voice, aware that Dan was near. Dan turned the corner, smiling at Phil as he said, "Polo". Phil let out a sigh of relief, glad that he didn't have to say "Marco" anymore. He grinned at Dan, who gave him a questioning look.

"No signal," Phil said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"And done," Dan announced as they put the last screw in the table leg. It had taken them both about an hour and a half to set the table, but they were just glad it was done.

"Finally," Phil said as he laid on his back, his arms and legs splayed out on the floor. He lifted his head to look at Dan, who was admiring their work, "We should've just kept the old one," Phil told him.

Dan turned to him, "That thing was falling apart. It had dents in it from our shins!"

Phil was sitting up now. He shrugged, "Would've been easier than this." He pulled Dan down gently onto the floor with him, holding him in his lap,

"Then we wouldn't have gotten to play Marco Polo in Ikea."

"True," Phil kissed him.

i have finally finished. with a bad ending, per usual.