Disclaimer: I do not own Dan & Phil.

'Dan,

I don't know how, but you wormed your way into my mind. You've been so kind to me, so nice and funny when I need it and you always know just what to say. I can't just walk away from you anymore like I thought I could.

I guess I never really expected to be leaving you in the first place. But it doesn't stop the fact that I have to. I have to leave you Dan, just for a little while.

This isn't legal. You're not of age yet and I don't think I can resist you while I'm in the same part of the country as you. It just won't work out like that my dear. You mean too much to me for the officials to take me away for so much longer than this wait will be. Think about it, a year versus several years-ten at least. I don't want to, but it's the only way.

I don't want to leave you. I don't want to question if you're all right every day that I'm gone, but I can't live with the risk that someone will find us out-and believe me they will. People tend to make a scene over things that aren't true, can you just imagine if they were? I can, and I don't want to put you through that.

So I'm leaving you with this letter and all of the amazing memories that we shared so far. I can understand if you don't want to ever talk to me again after this, but I'd be more than willing to work out a time when we can video chat for a few hours each week. If you still want to talk to me after this, then I'll be on from four this afternoon to ten this evening.

I still love you.'

Phil pinned the note to Dan's jumper for the day and grabbed his bag before leaving. Tears streamed down his face and he let out a quiet sob before leaving. He already left a note to Dan's parents thanking them for their hospitality and for letting him stay the night before he went away on a business trip. He had told Dan's parents the day before he came over and asked them not to tell Dan, that he'd tell him himself. And in a way he had. He left him a letter because he was too chicken to do it himself.

He walked to the train station and took the stairs when he got to the building that held his new flat in London. All thirty-two flights. The burning in his thighs just faded away into the background as he wished beyond anything that Dan was of age.

When he finally reached his door he opened it blankly, hardly taking in the bare rooms. He knew that he'd need to furnish it but he had no desire to at this point. His boxes of things were already here and he didn't bother to do anything other than locate the box labeled 'OPEN ME FIRST'. In it was supplies to make tea and his duvet and a pillow with Lion sitting right on top of everything.

Pulling all of it out, he went to the kitchen and made himself a cup of tea and pulled his laptop out of his bag, already booting it up before it touched the floor. He logged in and waited for Dan to contact him. He was in for a long wait and he was most certainly not looking forward to it.

Surprisingly it didn't take as long as he thought it would.

Dan had woken up to a cold bed and a completely silent house. He wondered if Phil was on his laptop, but not even the telltale sound of keys being pressed or the gentle hum it made. He knew that he was alone.

He rolled out of bed and rubbed his eyes figuring that Phil had been called into work early. That seemed to happen to Phil a lot since he was one of the only employees that didn't skive off work because they slept in. Generally he was the one that his boss could count on.

He found a note pinned to the top of the jumper he set out the night before and grabbed it, eager to see what his boyfriend had to say. By the time he reached the end, his face was covered in tears. He knew that it was for the best, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. He took his laptop and turned it on, dreading what would happen next.

As it turns out, it wasn't too difficult to stop the tears and put his emotions on the back burner. He put the jumper on leaving his pajama pants, went to the bathroom and grabbed his laptop before heading to the kitchen and taking a bowlful of fruit out of the fridge. He set that down on the island and poured himself a glass of milk before logging on and searching for Phil's name. He'd wait refreshing the page all day if he had to.

Turns out he didn't.

Phil saw the button flashing, signaling a video chat request and he accepted it, stunned that Dan had actually logged on this early.

"Phil?"

"Hey Dan. You look horrible." And he did. Dan's face was pale and he looked super skinny compared to normal, which was probably a trick of the camera since he seemed hunched in on himself. He saw a few pieces of fruit in the bottom and assumed that he had a bunch of fruit for breakfast, something that Dan never did.

"Yeah, I imagine. I woke up way too early for me, it's only eight in the morning!" Phil saw Dan shiver.

"Dan go get your duvet. I'll still be here when you get back, trust me on that." He watched as Dan got up and obediently got his duvet to wrap around himself for warmth, which he did almost immediately after sitting down.

"You left." He nodded. "For...London?" He nodded again. "Because you don't want people finding out about us until we're both legal?" He shrugged.

"Yes and no. Yes mostly. But I got another job in London also."

"So...where does that leave us? I know it's only nine months until my birthday but..." He trailed off and Phil knew instantly where he was trying to go with his question. It broke his heart to know that there might be a possibility that he might not be able to say that he was still in a relationship for the next nine months and possibly after that but it had to be Dan's choice.

"It's up to you Dan. If you want to go out and find other people to spend your time with romantically then I guess I can't stop you. I'd much rather you didn't, but I'm not going to force you to choose something you don't want."

"No, I don't want you to leave me. I didn't want to have to face the fact that what we're doing is technically illegal but now that I have to...I don't want you to be able to say anything other than you're taken because you are mine, no matter what the law or other people say." Phil smiled in spite of himself.

"Good because I really didn't want to let you go. I really didn't want to move here either but here I'm making three times as much as I was before and living in my own flat and eagerly awaiting your coming of age." Dan smiled. It was then that Dan's phone rang and he answered with a dull hello. A masculine voice answered him.

"Hey baby you know who this is? It's Mike, the one that you're going to want so bad by the end of the month you'll break it off with whoever you're going with now so you can have a piece of me...or all of me if you beg." Dan pulled a face.

"Gross. I'm taken and I will never leave them, especially for the likes of you. Talk to me again and I'm filing a police report." He hung up and tossed the phone to the other side of the counter, looking at it as if it was made of blood.

They talked for awhile after that until Dan had to go so his parents didn't think he was unnecessarily lounging around the house all day again.

Dan went and changed before doing some straightening and making dinner before his parents got home. When they did he found out about the story Phil had told them and rolled with it, letting his stiffness melt away a little bit at the prospect of having to lie to his parents. He hated lying to them if he could help it.

Phil, on the other hand, had put his clothes on the floor in an organized manner and put the boxes along the wall so he could easily access anything he may need. When he fell asleep he was looking at a slideshow of all his pictures of Dan. There was one in particular that kept catching his eye, the one taken when he was sitting on a swing in a park and laughing at something that Phil had said. It wasn't the best resolution, but Phil still fell asleep with a smile on his face. He didn't have any dreams or nightmares that night.