2.

A/N: I realize IHOP is American, but now there's one here, because, plot reasons.

Phil's alarm woke him up at 7am, annoying him as usual, although he'd set it to play "Toxic" by Britney Spears, in order to make it less irritating.

"Baby can't you see," he mumbled, grabbing his phone clumsily and turning it off.

Partially awake and tangled in a mess of bedsheets, Phil stared at the ceiling, which had very subtle silver stars painted on it. They glittered in the early-morning sunshine, the only clue that they were even there at all.

The ceiling only seemed to be blurry out of one eye, which either meant Phil had forgotten to take out his contacts and just lost one, or he'd only taken one out the night before. Or, it had rolled back into his skull during the night. Well, if you could call it a "night" – he'd collapsed into bed at 3:30, so really only three hours ago.

Groaning, Phil heaved himself out of bed, popped his one remaining contact out, exchanged them for glasses and showered, although he wanted nothing more than to sleep the day away. He had to go to work, because his sadist manager had scheduled him for the morning-movie shift on a Saturday.

Seeing that Martyn had left coffee for him, Phil was so grateful he could have hugged him. It was lukewarm, not hot, but the caffeine rush was welcome, and after three cups and a lot of toast, Phil could think more clearly.

Despite the crazy lack of sleep, last night had been fun. He'd gone to a party, because the Howell guy – he totally forgot his first name – had good parties, and then he'd invited the guy's brother out to see a movie. Dan? Dan, yeah, that was him.

It was cool. Phil smiled, thinking about Dan. He'd written his number on Dan's hand, but hadn't gotten Dan's back, so now he had to play the waiting game. Dan would probably wait three days before getting back to him – or was that only for dates?

Phil stopped mid-sip. Did Dan think that was a date? Last night was a little fuzzy from tiredness, especially towards the end, but he had said it wasn't a date.

The all-too-familiar worry started in his stomach. Dan had been really nice, and even if it wasn't a date, he'd have to tell Dan eventually if they were going to be friends. He didn't want to have to let Dan down, the way he'd let down all the others.

By the time Phil got to the movie theater to start work, he'd checked his phone nineteen and a half times (taking it halfway out of his pocket, but not looking at it, totally counted as half). Still, nothing from Dan – he must be a late sleeper.

He'd made up the uniform story. They only had to wear a vest with a name tag and a cap as their cinema uniform, but despite the weird manager's best efforts, were allowed to wear whatever else they wanted to. Today, for Phil, that was black skinny jeans and a ladybug-spotted sweater that, while it did match the red vest and cap, did make him look a bit like a ladybug. He didn't mind, really, as long as it was colourful it worked.

Except for the black ring on his middle finger – well, that stayed black.

The morning crowd of moviegoers were never Phil's age. They were older people, going to see the "blast from the past" films they always showed in the mornings, and young mums with babies buying cheap tickets to cartoons. It wasn't the worst shift at all, but Phil preferred the afternoons, when he didn't have to wake up to get there early. More than once, he found himself yawning as he sold popcorn and tickets.

What made it even worse was that he was usually alone in the mornings. This was a small theater, after all, and since they only showed three movies at a time, somebody thought it was a great budgeting idea to have some poor sleep-deprived guy work alone in the mornings.

Phil didn't mind too much. Between movies and customer rushes, he would sweep, organize the ticket counter, and – more often than that, sneak handfuls of popcorn. The machine was right there! You couldn't expect him to not have a little! He'd earned it, and nobody cared anyway.

By the time his shift was done at noon, Phil was about ready to unsteadily drive himself over to the nearest IHOP and spend his paycheque on the biggest stack of pancakes known to man, but he checked his phone in the back first. To his surprise and delight, there was a message, another one coming in as he read.

(unknown number): hey this is dan last night was fun

(unknown number): shit i meant the movie the movie was fun :P

Phil: yes it was great! did you sleep well?

Phil cringed as he sent it. Smooth, Lester. He sounded like his mum.

Dan: yeah i literally just got up hbu

Phil: worked all morning, am ready for pancakes

Don't think too much, Phil reminded himself as he typed the next message. Live in the moment.

Phil: want to join?

Dan: yes!1!

Phil: ihop in 20 see you there :D

Phil sighed as he shoved his phone into his jeans pocket. He wasn't really one for sudden changes in plan, but this opportunity was too good to pass up. There was no need to be nervous. It was simply pancakes with a new possible friend after a morning shift.

20 minutes later, he walked into the familiar IHOP, the amazing smell of pancakes making him relax and feel better almost instantly. This was something of a tradition for Phil, getting pancakes after working all morning. It was something to look forward to after a boring shift, something to make getting up in the morning for work a little bit easier.

He spotted Dan in a booth by the back, and slid in across from him, grinning as he took in Dan's disheveled appearance, nursing a cup of coffee.

"How are you so awake?" Dan moaned.

"My blood is 99% caffeine and Haribo," Phil grinned. "Ooh, coffee!"

As if on cue, the waitress had swung by with another mug, and had filled it with coffee at Phil's urging, topping up Dan's mug while she was there.

Dan stared. "Are you kidding me?"

Phil laughed at Dan's incredulity, sticking his tongue slightly out from between his teeth.

Dan didn't speak much over the next few minutes, taking time to wake up. Phil ordered for the both of them, assuming (correctly, thankfully) that Dan liked pancakes.

It was quiet, but the silence was comfortable. Phil hummed slightly to himself, and Dan slowly woke up, after several cups of coffee and some extensive eye-rubbing at one point.

"I'm sorry," he said unexpectedly after a while. "I'm not a very interesting brunch date."

Date. Oh no. "Ah, it's okay," Phil said, and paused. He couldn't just let that go. "Is this a date? Did we talk about that last night?"

"Yeah, we did," Dan said. "I thought you'd said you didn't have anything to drink."

"I didn't, I was just really tired, I don't remember a ton of details," Phil explained, feeling nervous. "Memory of a goldfish, and all that, ahaha."

He wrapped his hands around his mug to warm them. It was cold in the restaurant, rather contradictory to the warm and welcoming environment. Maybe a broken heater.

Dan's eyes flicked down to the black ring on Phil's hand. "I like your ring," he said casually.

"Thanks," said Phil. "It, um – has a lot of significance to me." Phil willed Dan to connect the dots, hoping to get this over with as soon as he could. He couldn't have a repeat of last time. Dan was so nice, and it wasn't awkward so far, please please please don't screw this up-

It was like a light bulb went on in Dan's head, and he – he smiled.

"You're ace," he said, still smiling. "Oh my God, is that what you're so nervous about?"

Phil nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"That's okay, you spork!" Dan said, almost fondly. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Scared you'd think I was – I don't know, leading you on or something," Phil mumbled, the relief infinite.

"You really don't remember a ton, do you?" Dan said, and yeah, that was definitely fondness in his voice. "I never thought this was, y'know, a proper date."

"But you just said –"

"Figure of speech!" Dan cut in. He laughed slightly. "I thought I was driving you away with my awkwardness, all this time!"

"Not a chance," said Phil, and this time he managed a smile as well. "You're stuck with me now."

"The pleasure's all mine," Dan said, as the pancakes arrived, and the air finally, finally began to feel warm.