A/N: Hey, guys! I decided to do something a bit fluffier this time. Also, it's sans lemon (gasp!). I felt like I've been writing too much smut lately, and I wanted to go with something with a bit more romance. I have to admit; I played around with the POV here, because I couldn't decide whom to put as the main POV. I figured why mess with a great formula, so like most of my other stories, it's in Phil's perspective. Anyway, enjoy this short one!

Warnings: Just potty mouths and somewhat sexually charged situations.

OoO

"Have you ever thought about me in your fantasies?" Dan thoughtfully asked Phil one day over breakfast.

The ebony-haired boy spluttered and spit out his drink. He turned to his best friend, who was currently beside him at their breakfast island with a pensive expression on his face. "What?"

"Not those kinds of fantasies," Dan rushed to explain, his cheeks tinged pink. "I mean, I would be honored, don't get me wrong. I just meant lifestyle-wise."

Phil furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Dan didn't need to know just what kinds of fantasies he starred in, and the ebony-haired boy wasn't about to offer up any examples. Phil's voice was weary when he asked, "What are you on about?"

"Shit, I'm not very good at explaining myself," Dan frowned, his cheeks still rosy red. "I meant…like if you ever thought before I moved in that this was what you wanted. Like, living with me and all that stuff."

Phil raised an eyebrow. "Um, I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. It just kind of made the most sense, honestly."

"Yeah," Dan said, "but how did you feel?"

Confusion was apparently the emotion of the day. Well, it wasn't like the feeling was entirely new; in the weeks leading up to Dan's moving in, Phil battled with himself about his newfound and entirely uncalled for feelings about the brunette. In fact, it was a continuous battle, because part of him wanted to forget about his strange attraction for his best friend, and part of him secretly enjoyed the thrill of a secret crush. It helped that Dan was about as dense as a fruitcake. The analogy was also very appropriate, considering the younger boy's bisexuality. Which didn't help Phil in the slightest.

"How do I feel?" Phil asked, and thought about it. Living with Dan, though it had its downsides (secret romantic feelings were kind of hard to keep when one lived with their crush), made Phil the happiest he'd ever been. So he told the brunette as much. "I'm pretty happy, I guess. You're an awesome flat-mate. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering if…" Dan started, pausing to take a deep breath, "if you ever felt like I was keeping you from your love life."

"My love life?" Phil asked incredulously, his mouth agape. Did the younger boy seriously just ask him that? Phil would have laughed at the irony had he not felt completely blindsided.

"You know what? Never mind," Dan muttered, his cheeks flushing. He made a point of turning back to his cereal, swirling the spoon around the soggy mess.

"Okay," Phil said slowly, deciding not to push it. It wasn't like this was a conversation that he wanted to talk about, anyway. He stared blankly at his own cereal, looking at the shapes as if they held all the answers. He really wished they did, because his mind held a plethora of questions and absolutely no answers.

OoO

"I have a guy for you," Dan randomly announced a few days later as they sat watching Master Chef.

Phil blinked and looked over to his roommate. "What?"

"A guy," Dan said slowly, as if talking to a child. "For you to date."

"I don't think it works like that, Dan," Phil said, a soft smile on his face. "Whatever happened to flowers and romance?"

"Well, I could set you up with a date," Dan offered, shrugging.

"A blind date?" Phil asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. It's not that bad," Dan said, shifting awkwardly on the couch. "He's a really great guy. You'd like him."

"I don't know," Phil bit his lip. "Your skills as a matchmaker are kind of spotty. Remember Fred?"

Dan winced. "It's not like I knew about his secret obsession with dolls."

"I don't think bringing his stuffed girlfriend counts as a date," Phil said, trying and failing to hide a smile.

"I hear they're married now," Dan said offhandedly, shrugging and smiling.

"Good for him," Phil said, laughing. Dan soon joined in. Just like that, the tension lifted and Phil felt at ease.

"I can't imagine their children," Dan said, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Ugh, please don't put that mental image in my head," Phil groaned.

"Man, all that stuffing, covered with—"

"Dan!"

"Okay, okay," Dan said, laughing and holding up his arms in a placating manner. "I'm sorry."

Phil rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right."

"But seriously, just try it? Please, for me?" Dan asked, looking pleadingly at Phil.

Dan looked so adorable that Phil couldn't help the small smile on his face. The ebony-haired boy sighed, already resigned to his fate. "Okay, fine. Just please do a background check on this guy, first. Make sure you ask him upfront if he has any questionable hobbies, like dating inanimate objects."

Dan laughed. "That's the first thing I'll ask. And Phil?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks," Dan said, smiling softly at the brunette. Phil's heart clenched at the affectionate look. If only the younger boy knew the truth, what he really did to Phil. It wasn't like that was ever going to happen, though; Phil knew that if the brunette ever got word of his affections, it would only make things incredibly awkward. Phil couldn't handle it if he lost Dan.

So he found himself smiling and nodding, swallowing his feelings like a bad pill. "No problem."

OoO

Phil really wanted to like Tom, he really did. But the lipstick kind of threw him off. And the mascara. And the dress. Don't get him wrong; he really didn't care about how people dressed or what they did in their spare time. People had every right to do what they wanted, and that was perfectly okay with him. Tom just wasn't really his type. Phil much preferred darker hair, and hazel eyes, and goofy grins that made him feel warm inside and—if he was being honest, just Dan. Could someone be attracted to only one person for their entire life? Dansexual had a nice ring to it, he thought.

He also really wanted to like Theodore. And Bill. And Tiffany (Dan had given up on the male gender and Phil could sense some frustration and desperation coming off of the brunette in waves). But the problem was, none of them were Dan. The irony didn't escape Phil that the only person he cared to have, the only one occupying his waking life and his dreams, was the one trying to set him up with countless love interests. Seriously, was Dan that dense?

After Diane turned out to have slight homicidal tendencies, Phil couldn't take it anymore; he'd had enough. "Dan, you really don't have to do this. I'm perfectly capable of finding a date on my own."

The brunette looked up at Phil from the couch, frowning slightly. "I thought Diane was pretty nice."

"She wanted to choke me with her lanyard," Phil explained, rolling his eyes. "I give her props for creativity, but I don't think I'm into that sort of stuff."

"Well, what are you into?" Dan asked innocently.

Phil sighed. "I don't know. Someone who has normal hobbies that won't land me in the hospital. Someone with a sense of humor, I guess, and an ability to put up with me. A friend, someone I could trust to tell everything to, who I know won't push me away if I told them I fancied them. Someone like…"

"Who?" Dan sat up, his eyes wide.

You. "Never mind."

"You like someone!" Dan accused, pointing a finger in Phil's direction. "Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have set you up if I knew you had a love interest."

"Because there's no chance in hell that they'd be with me," Phil shrugged, shuffling awkwardly on his feet.

"Have you told them?" Dan asked.

"No."

"Why not?"

Phil bit his lip. He did not want to have this conversation right now. "Because—you know what, it's not really that important."

"Yes it is!" Dan argued. "How can you know they don't like you if you haven't told them?"

Phil sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Dan, just drop it. I really don't want to talk about it."

Dan opened his mouth to say something, but closed it. Eyeing Phil critically, he acquiesced, "Okay, fine. You're gonna have to tell me eventually, though."

"Yeah, I know," Phil sighed out. "Just not now, okay?"

Dan nodded, a frown sitting on his lips. "Okay."

And that was it. Maybe Dan sensed Phil's extreme reluctance, or maybe the brunette deemed it a battle he couldn't win, but he didn't bring up their conversation again. After a week of walking on eggshells around Dan, Phil finally settled down and their easy relationship returned.

OoO

"Is it Carrie?" Dan asked one day over breakfast.

"Is what Carrie?" Phil questioned as he flipped over a pancake.

"The person you like," Dan explained.

Phil's hand stilled. Very cautiously, he replied, "No."

"Well, what about Peej?"

"You know he's in a relationship, Dan," Phil reminded, forcing himself to move again and act as if his heart wasn't beating a mile a minute. He turned the pancake over with a little more force than necessary. "And, before you ask, no, it's not him. Or Chris. Or any of our other friends."

"So it's a stranger?" Dan made a fake gasp. "How scandalous! A torrid love affair, destined to meet but not to be together."

"No," Phil replied, rolling his eyes. "Where do you get these things?"

"Too much time on my hands?" Dan said, and Phil could picture the brunette shrugging.

"Apparently," Phil murmured under his breath. He raised his voice so the other boy could hear him. "You're not going to guess it, so stop trying."

The silence that answered him made Phil smile. Was Dan finally going to give up? It wasn't like Phil was stringing him along on purpose; he just really didn't want to muck things up with the brunette. Dan was his life, and he didn't know what he would do without the younger boy.

"Is it me?" came Dan's voice, tiny and unsure.

Phil jerked suddenly, accidentally hitting his head on the stove vent and burning his hand on the pan in the process. He cursed loudly and his uninjured hand twitched, trying to decide which wound required the most soothing.

"Shit, Phil, are you okay?" came Dan's worried voice, and Phil heard the chair scraping and suddenly felt a warm body beside him. Phil looked over to his right and saw the brunette a hairbreadth away, looking at his hand concernedly. The older boy suddenly found breathing rather difficult.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Just peachy."

"Here, let's get your hand under running water," Dan said softly, reaching with one hand to turn off the burner using the other to grasp Phil's wrist firmly. The touch burned from both the pain and the feelings it invoked. Dan led the ebony-haired boy to the sink and turned on the faucet, pushing Phil's hand gently under the stream of water.

Phil gasped softly when Dan's warm body pressed up against him from behind. He tried to focus on the soothing feeling of the cold water running down his hand, instead of the tight feeling in his chest (and pants) at the contact. He tried to pretend that his flushed cheeks were a product of the pain.

"Are you okay?" Dan whispered, his lips near Phil's ear and his breath tickling Phil's lobes. Phil couldn't help the shiver that ran through his body.

"Y-yeah," Phil replied, trying for a casual tone and failing.

"Good," Dan murmured. Phil could feel the smile against his neck. Since when was the younger boy so close?

Dan didn't move from his position even after Phil turned off the faucet, and his hand continued to clutch Phil's wrist. Phil tried, "I'm okay now, really. You can let go."

"You still haven't answered my question," came Dan's voice, low and husky. Was it Phil's imagination, or did Dan grip his hand tighter? Phil was unused to this side of Dan, the one that seemed to hold all the answers and knew what to do. He liked it, rather too much.

Phil realized he was shaking slightly, and tried to calm his nerves and the beating of his heart. He gulped and whispered, "I know."

The room was silent except for Phil's hammering heart, which he was completely sure the brunette could hear from their close proximity. Dan's hot breath on his neck made Phil shiver not too unpleasantly, and Phil tried to ignore the pooling of heat in his groin.

Dan let go of Phil's hand and the ebony-haired boy sighed in relief. His sigh turned into a gasp, though, when he found himself abruptly turned around and looking into intense hazel eyes. They were so close that Phil could see the small flecks of green in the chocolate orbs.

"You could have told me," Dan whispered, a small frown on his face.

"I didn't want to ruin our friendship," Phil whispered back, biting his lip nervously.

Dan's soft smile made Phil's heart stutter and his head swim in confusion. "You wouldn't have ruined anything."

"Why?" Phil croaked out, needing some sort of answer lest his head explode.

"Because I fancy you, too, idiot," Dan explained softly and slowly, his smile turning into a wide grin.

"You…I…fuck, we're such idiots!" Phil groaned, having the sudden urge to bang his head against the vent, purposefully this time.

"Yeah, pretty much. But that's okay," Dan said, leaning closer. "Because I'd rather fall in love with this idiot than have anyone else."

Dan pressed their lips together gently, and Phil groaned slightly. Dan tasted like cinnamon and the sugary maple syrup they had just consumed. Their lips slid over each other's so perfectly that it felt so right, like they had done this a million times before. Phil's hands tangled into Dan's hair, the injury forgotten as he threaded his fingers through the soft brown locks. Dan's hands wrapped around his waist, holding Phil firmly but gently at the same time. They broke apart, and Dan looked at Phil searchingly.

"Do that again," Phil breathed, his voice rough and scratchy.

So Dan did. Multiple times. Phil's head swam from all of the emotions he felt, his body feeling heavy yet light as air at the same time. He couldn't believe how lucky he was, that Dan actually liked him back. All of the time he spent wallowing in self-pity, and actively avoiding the topic of love, now seemed stupid and meaningless. Dan loves me. He loves me.

When Dan pulled back from their twelfth or so kiss (Phil didn't really have it in him to count), he grabbed Phil's injured hand and inspected it. "Does it still hurt?"

Phil bit his lip. "No, not really."

"I knew it wouldn't hurt," the brunette grinned. "The power of my love healed all of your wounds."

Phil groaned and rolled his eyes. "I don't know which is worse, the fact that you just said that, or the fact that it's kind of true."

"Just kind of?" Dan smirked. "Oh ye of little faith. Just wait until I can heal you in other ways." At this, he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"I don't know why I even bother," Phil groaned.

"Because you love me?" Dan asked, his eyes alight in amusement and excitement yet something indescribable.

"Yeah," Phil said seriously. "But I'm starting to rethink that decision."

Dan punched the older boy's shoulder lightly. "Asshole."

"Prick."

"Love you," Dan suddenly whispered, grinning.

"You, too," Phil breathed, still unused to the words on his lips. "Now can we get back to the pancakes? I think my tummy is slowly eating itself."

"Absolutely," Dan chirped. "Just as long as I get to show you my moves later on."

Phil groaned. What have I gotten myself into? He watched as the brunette sashayed away, and Phil couldn't help the smile on his lips. Something amazing, he answered for himself, his smile widening and his heart flipping over. Something incredibly amazing.