Soft sunlight pooled into Phil Lester’s bedroom wakening the dark haired boy. He yawned and sat up stretching. He glanced at himself in the mirror as he got out of bed. His hair was sticking up wildly. He ran his fingers though his hair trying to get it to go back to normal. Phil rubbed his groggy blue eyes as he opened his door. The flat was quiet and still so he assumed Dan wasn’t up yet, that was typical for Dan, not getting up till almost 12. Phil padded softly past his friend’s room laughing slightly at the sound of cute snoring coming from inside.
The truth was Phil had a slight (huge) crush on his best friend and flat mate Dan. But he decided long ago that he wouldn’t tell him with the risk of losing him. He was sure the feelings weren’t retuned and he would rather just be friends then nothing at all. Pushing those thoughts aside Phil opened the bathroom door and froze. There was a badger and its baby sitting on the tile floor by the toilet. It looked up at him and made a hissing noise. Phil stifled a surprised yelp and quickly closed the door. He leaned against the wall and took a moment to calm himself down before he tried to think of what to do. He had never seen a bagger outside a zoo so he had no clue how the badgers had managed to climb into the small bathroom window, but they had and he had no idea what to do. Thinking Dan might have some clue he walked back down the hall. Phil knocked on Dan’s door but got no replay so he tried again.
"Dan?" he called and to his luck Dan answered with a sleep ridden "what?"
"Um, Dan there’s a problem we have a badger in our bathroom." Phil said thru the door. He heard Dan shuffle around and suddenly the door opened. A hobbit haired Dan pocked his head out. His brow eyes slightly misted over with sleep. He stared at Phil for a moment before shaking his head to clear the thoughts of how beautiful his friend’s eyes were. He couldn’t give away his feelings for him like that.
"We have a, what in the what?" he asked confused.
"I woke up to use the bathroom and there was a badger and its baby in there. It made a weird sound like this,” Phil said making the noise Dan said he used for every animal. Dan couldn’t help but laugh at his adorable friend as he walked out of his room. “I don’t know what to do. We can’t just leave it there," Phil explained. Dan just blinked and then his eyes widened as he fully realized what Phil had just said.
"Well then um..." he tried to think of a clever way to get the animal out of the flat to impress Phil but his mind was drawing a blank. “Show me." he asked and the two of them walked back to the bathroom. Phil opened the door slowly and Dan looked inside. The badger hadn’t moved much but hissed at them again so they closed the door.
"Well that’s a badger all right and it doesn’t look too happy," Dan said leaning against the door. He looked up at Phil who was standing across from him.
"Well we have to do something. Maybe its hungry, what do badgers eat?" Phil asked shrugging his shoulders. Dan smiled at phi’s kind nature. That’s one of the things Dan loved so much about Phil, he was always so eager to help others no matter what. He was so nice to everyone. Dan wished he could be more like that but more often than not he came off as sarcastic.
"Um, I’m not sure but we probably shouldn’t feed it. I don’t really think we have anything a badger would eat... unless they eat Maltesers or tea." Dan said and Phil nodded knowing he was probably right. "How about we get some breakfast and then call animal control. They should know what to do with the badger. I mean even if we got it out of the flat we can’t just let the badger out to wonder around London it would get hurt.”
"Okay, thanks Dan" Phil smiled at how caring Dan was being and they walked into the kitchen.
"Daaaan, can we make pancakes please!" Phil said sliding around the kitchen in his mix match sock. Dan looked over at him to find Phil giving him puppy dog eyes. This made Dan blush slightly.
"Well I can’t say no to that face now can I, yes Phil we can make pancakes." the dark haired boy jumped up and down like a five year old. He ran and hugged Dan, who was slightly surprised at the sudden act of affection but didn’t complain and hugged his best friend back. "God damn it Phil, you are too cute sometimes!" he said as he watched Phil sing Toxic while he gathered all the ingredients. Phil tried to hide the reddening in his cheeks but Dan noticed it. Maybe he does like me back or maybe I’m wishing to hard. He thought moving to stand next to Phil as they made pancakes. In about 15 minutes they both had full plates of the beautiful Delia smith pancakes. They ate in silence but Phil could have sworn he kept seeing Dan sneak glances at him. After they washed the dishes Dan looked up the number for the animal control. He quickly explained what was wrong and where they lived.
"Okay thanks" he said and hung up. "The guy said they would be over in 20 minutes." Phil nodded then looked down at himself. They bother were still in their pjs.
"I’m gunna go change don’t wanna be caught wearing lion pj pants" he laughed and walked away to his room. Dan watched him go then made his way to his room.
He looked at himself in the mirror as he pulled on his universe t-shirt. He hoped that one day he could tell Phil that he liked him. He was a lot shyer about his feelings then he put out and he was terrified of rejection. He knew that if he told Phil and Phil didn’t like him back it would probably destroy their friendship and Dan might have to leave the flat. He never wanted that to happen so he hadn’t ever told Phil. He walked out of this room and logged on to Tumblr. He secretly liked looking at the Phan tag. He thought the ship name for him and Phil was pretty witty. A lot of the pictures on there were really cute and some were just plain weird.
“What you looking at Dan?” Phil asked making Dan Jump. He quickly changed it to Twitter.
“Nothing just seeing what the fans said about my last video.” Phil plopped down next to him on the couch and Dan could smell the girly shampoo that Phil used.
“I hope the badger is okay I mean we have no idea how long it’s been in there!” he exclaimed looking slightly worried.
“Don’t worry Phil I bet the animal control people will be here soon.” Dan said patting Phil’s knee. Suddenly the bell rang. “What did I tell you,” he laughed and pushed himself off the couch. Phil hid slightly behind Dan as the younger boy opened the door.
“Hello, are you Dan? We’re here to take care of the badger. ” The taller of the two women said shanking Dan’s hand.
“Yes, come in the badger is right this way.” Dan said he knew Phil had a hard time talking to strangers. Phil kept close to Dan as they struggled to get the badger and its baby into a crate. There was a lot of hissing from the animal and at one point it almost ran out of the bathroom. Dan felt Phil flinch every time it made a noise and soft whispers of “It’s okay.”
It took about 10 minutes for them to finally get the two badgers captured.
“They’re gunna be okay right?” Phil asked as they walked back into the living room. The look of concern had never left his pale face. Dan wrapped his arm around his shoulders hoping to make that look go away. The animal control lady smiled and nodded.
“Don’t worry we’re going to take them to the wild life care center so they can be released back into the wild. It was a very good thing that you called us instead of try to handle this yourself.”
“Okay thank you,” Phil said and a smile appeared in his face again. Dan and Phil walked the animal control ladies to the door. Dan still had his arm around Phil and neither of them seemed to mind.
"You two really are a cute couple" the shorter women said smiling as she walked out holding the badger cage. Her face fell when she saw the embarrassed and slightly hurt looks on their faces.
"Oh, um… we’re not a couple" Dan said blushing slightly. He dropped his arm from around Phil’s shoulders
"Yeah… we’re just really good friends," Phil said wishing he could have responded with a thank you. The lady apologized for making the assumption and left quickly embarrassed as well.
The flat was strangely quiet for a while as neither Dan nor Phil knew what to say. They just stood in the entry way looking anywhere but at each other. Dan noticed that Phil looked upset but he didn’t know why.
“It’s a good thing the badger is safe now.” Dan said breaking the silence. Phil just nodded.
“Um, I’m gunna go to my room for a bit.” Phil said quietly and turned and walked away before Dan could call him back. Dan was unsure why Phil was so upset and he wanted to ask him but he knew it was best to let Phil be for a bit.
Phil flopped face down on his bed and sighed. He wasn’t sure why the animal control lady’s comment made him so upset. He was trying to hold in the tears that were welling up but he failed and they slowly slipped out. He concluded that he was mostly mad at himself; he was too scared to tell Dan how he really felt and the fact that he had to want something that he knew he couldn’t have. He sighed and rolled onto his back looking up at his ceiling.
“Dan why can’t you just see that I like you?” he mumbled.
Dan was trying not to freak out; the fact that Phil was upset and he didn’t know why was bothering him. He had tried to edit his last video but all he could think about was Phil’s sad face.
“That’s it I can’t take this!” he said getting up and going into the kitchen. He quickly made them both some tea and then walked to Phil’s room. He carefully held both cups in one hand as he knocked on the door.
“Phil can I come in I made you some tea?” he asked. He heard Phil sniffle and his worry grew.
“Yes,” Dan heard Phil say and he opened the door. Phil was curled up on his blue and green bed not facing the door. Dan walked over and after setting the tea cups on the night stand sat down on Phil’s bed. The black pale boy scooted to give Dan more room but didn’t turn to look at him.
“Phil what’s wrong?” Dan asked softly playing with his best friend’s dark hair. it was so soft.
“Nothing,” he noticed the boy curled up more and heard him sigh.
“Phil I’ve know you well enough to tell when you’re lying, please tell me.” Dan begged. There was silence for quite a while. The only sound was their breathing and the traffic outside. “Did I do something wrong, Phil, is this my fault? Oh god did I hurt you somehow?” Dan asked softly. At this Phil sat up and grabbed Dan’s face and stared at him with those blue eyes of his. The eyes that Dan wanted to lose himself in.
“No, Dan you didn’t do anything wrong you do quite the opposite actually, you are the reason I smile each day, you make me happier then I’ve ever been in my life.” This made them both blush.
“You do the same for me you know,” Dan said still looking at Phil with his brown eyes, his eyes reminded Phil of dark coffee. “Will you please tell me what’s making your eyes all teary then?” he asked and absent mindedly wiping the one that had slipped down Phil’s cheek.
“I don’t think I can Dan,” Phil sighed and looked down at his hands. “I don’t want to hurt you just forget about it okay.” He pleased but Dan was Dan and wouldn’t let that happen. He put his hand on Phil’s shoulder.
“Nothing you say will hurt me; I want to know what’s going on in that your head of yours.” Dan laughed and a small smile spread across Phil’s face. “Is it something that happened today?” Phil nodded. “Is this about the lady saying we were a cute couple?” Dan’s eyes widened with realization when Phil nodded. “Phil… Phil do you… do you like me?”

Phil looked up at Dan’s words; his eyes were watery from new forming tears. He just stared at Dan for a long time wondering what to do. Very slowly he nodded and watched in utter amazement as a huge smile spread across Dan’s face.

“I can’t believe it!” at this Dan hugged Phil. “I thought you would never like me back. You know how happy this makes me?” Dan asked laughing with the biggest smile Phil had ever seen.

“Happy enough to kiss me?” Phil asked hopeful for outcome.

“Yes, happy enough to kiss you!” Dan said and pressed his lips to the boy he had loved for so long. Phil kissed back softly taking in how soft Dan’s lips actually were. He had been dreaming of this moment for years and now it was finally happening.

They broke apart but kept their faces close together. Both of them were blushing and had smiles on their faces. Phil sighed in relief and hugged Dan again.

They just sat on Phil’s bed got the next few hours tossing complements and confessions back and forth. Dan took Phil’s hand in his and intertwining their fingers together.
“You know what Dan, I’m really happy that badger got stuck in our bathroom, without it I would have told you I liked you today” Phil said looking over at his new boyfriend. Dan leaned over and kissed him again smiling at the fact that he could now do that whenever he wanted.
“Same here Phil.”