"Careful! What are you doing!?" Phil withdrew his finger quickly from the pan, startled by Dan's reprimand. A small light extinguished behind Phil's eyes and his stomach felt as if it had suddenly shrunk inside of him.
"Don't shout at me. I was only trying to see if they were still squishy!" Phil's tone was whining and steeped in disappointment. He looked at the skillet, his arms folded across his chest as if holding himself tightly would prevent his insides from feeling any more wretched.
"Pancakes can be squishy?" Dan finally broke the awkward reticence between the pair of them. Eyebrows furrowed with slight worry, which he otherwise tried to hide for fear of seeming apologetic, he looked at Phil, who like Dan was trying to conceal his feelings. Still, he looked hurt. He hadn't done anything wrong, Dan thought. But he knew Phil was sensitive, especially to being scolded. Dan couldn't help but feel guilty, even for such a small incident.
"Well I mean yeah, sort of. They puff back up when you touch them." Phil explained half-heartedly.
"I don't know if we should be eating squishy pancakes." Dan countered.
"That's why I was checking them!" A slight blurriness obscured Phil's vision as salty threads stitched down his cheeks. He felt absolutely idiotic for crying at something so minuscule, but the argument was one of many they had had that day. Dan finally looked at Phil, and was frozen at the sight of his tears. His own face became rather hot and he could feel his shame prickling at his neck. Resisting the urge to sigh, for fear of further offending Phil, Dan swallowed his pride and moved over to the stove. His arm slipped behind Phil's back and when his hand reached the opposite side of his body, Dan pulled him by the waist into a hug. As he buried his face into the crook of Phil's shoulder, he kissed the exposed skin above the collar of his jumper and muttered "I'm sorry." Phil let out a sob he had been struggling to suppress for several minutes and reciprocated the embrace, holding on tightly to Dan.
"Forgive me?" Dan whispered. Phil nodded and let his head rest against Dan's. He exhaled.
"I've been a bit sensitive I suppose." Dan smiled at Phil's kindness and shook his head.
"You've been perfect as always." His smile brightened the mood between them as he pulled away from the embrace, without entirely letting go, to look into Phil's now slightly puffy eyes. He noticed Phil's lips were still trembling slightly, but was too taken by his icy eyes to look down fully. "Perfect, but shaking a bit,"Dan teased and with his own, now also trembling, hand cupped his baking partner's chin. "Let me help with that." He continued, his words were almost inaudible; they were no louder than either of their breathing. Phil, though no longer feeling hurt, was too struck with the sudden turn of pace to speak. Their lips near touching already, Dan leaned forward slowly. Beeeeep beeeep beeeep beeeep! An alarm screamed suddenly, prompting Phil to do the same.
"The pancakes!" Dan spat out abruptly, suddenly wondering how they hadn't noticed all the smoke.
"Turn it off! Turn it off" Phil insisted urgently, too surprised at first to himself take action. Dan bolted for the fire alarm with a broom and began jabbing at its button with the handle. Meanwhile, Phil, instead of turning off the stovetop had filled a glass with water and with all the finesse of a panicked rabbit, splashed it onto the charred pancakes. The alarm stopped and Dan returned, immediately moving the pan off onto a different burner. Phil, he noticed, looked rather upset again.
"At least they aren't squishy" Dan joked, trying not to make Phil feel worse. Unfortunately, this did not work. Phil sniffled slightly.
"Come on, I'm only joking. This is my fault." There was a moment of silence. Dan bit his lip anxiously.
"What are we going to do now?" Phil asked, seeming slightly more cheerful than before. Dan looked around the kitchen, noticing the syrup on the counter. He grinned cheekily.
"Take off your jumper, we've still got syrup."