~Present Day~

Phil lay in bed, staring at the ceiling of the bus. The road they were traveling down was quite bumpy, so he knew sleeping was out of the question for the time being. Thoughts of years prior flooded his mind. Everything from his and Dan's first kiss, to the mock wedding they held one late night when they were on cloud nine with each other was racing through his mind. He was so preoccupied in his thoughts, he didn't hear Dan softly tap on his door. When he looked over, he saw Dan's pale face peeking through the doorway, patiently waiting for Phil to notice him. Phil jumped when he noticed Dan, then immediately calmed down.
"Can I come in?" Dan whispered.
"Of course" Phil replied, scooting over in his bed to make room for Dan. The boy sat down gently on the bed, making sure to keep his distance from Phil. "Do you want to talk about earlier?"
"I do, but I don't know what to say. I know that it was just a slip up, but it brought back so many god damn memories. Especially from that night." Dan spoke quietly, keeping his eyes glued to his hands which lay folded in his lap.
"It did for me as well," said Phil. "It's all I've been thinking about for as long as I've been in here."
"Two hours? That's a long time." Dan said, quietly chuckling.
"What? It's been two hours?" Phil asked surprised, grabbing his phone and looking at the time. "It felt like twenty minutes, tops. I guess I just got lost in my thoughts."
"Yeah… I tried sleeping, but I couldn't. there's just too much to think about." Dan said, shyly glancing at Phil.
Phil caught Dan's glance, gently staring back at him. Before he could even think about what he was doing, he wrapped himself around Dan as tightly as he could. In his mind he knew that this was a dumb, impulsive idea that would more than likely make things difficult for both of them. But he heart was screaming for him to show Dan how much he meant to him, regardless of the consequences.
Dan was slightly taken aback when he felt Phil's warm body against his. Part of him wondered why this was happening, but he had been so desperate for some form of affection from the man he still loved, he wasn't going to question it too extensively. Wrapping his arms around Phil, he squeezed him gently but firmly, just like they used to when they had returned home from places where they couldn't show their affection freely.
Time seemed to stand still while they hugged. They weren't sure quite how long they spent wrapped around each other, but by the end Phil was crying and Dan was pulling him as close as humanly possible.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," Phil whispered over and over again, Dan responding with "It's okay, it really is," as he pulled away from Phil.
"No Dan, it isn't. I should have stuck it out. Things would have been so much better for the both of us if my selfishness hadn't ruined the most perfect thing in the world. Every time I look at you, guilt is eating away at me." Phil said, burying his face in his hands.
"Phil, you were doing what we both thought was best. At the time, how would we have known how things would actually be afterwards between us? We couldn't have." Dan whispered, scooting closer to the boy again.
"I see it sometimes, how much I've hurt you. I see how you look at me when you think I'm not looking. I can see the pain and the love all at once in your eyes, Dan." Phil whispered, feeling his hands slightly trembling.

Dan blankly stared at the floor, not sure how to respond to Phil. Part of him was glad that Phil had noticed what the breakup had actually done to him on the inside, but the other part of him, the part that cared about Phil more than anything in the entire world, was sad to see him hurting.

"Listen," said Dan, his voice quiet. "I'm not going to lie to you, what happened really fucking hurt me more than I can ever describe with words. I spent months feeling like my entire universe had shattered into a million tiny pieces that couldn't even come close to being put back together the same way. But I got over it. Not fully, to this moment it still hurts sometimes when I see you talking to other people or just start thinking about it. But you know what?" Dan asked, gently taking Phil's hands in his. "I've gotten to spend what ended up being the best years of my life with you right by my side almost every step of the way. It doesn't matter what relationship we had, as long as you were there. That's all that's ever going to matter."

Phil stared at Dan. Even though it was dark, he could read Dan's face. He knew what he was saying was truthful, and not just lies to keep him from breaking down even further, but that didn't change the guilt that was slowly but aggressively eating away at him from the inside out.

"Will you stay with me?" Phil whispered, not daring to look Dan in the eyes.

"I'll always stay with you, Phil." Dan replied, quickly slipping under the covers of Phil's bed.

Phil snuggled into Dan, his arms around his waist and his head rested on Dan's chest. Dan's hands quickly found their comfortable old spots on the back of Phil's head, and tracing along Phil's arm. Soon after, Dan could feel Phil's weight increase on him, and hear his breathing slow. He watched quietly as Phil's head rose and fell on his own chest, the steady rhythm slowly causing him to fall asleep.