"Your flatmate will be here soon, I would start unpacking if I were you before he takes all the good spots." The landlord, Oliver, grinned a big, toothy grin before turning on his heel and walking off down the corridor, leaving Dan with two giant boxes in his arms and another truck full outside the block of flats.
"Thanks." Dan mumbled under his breath, wondering how on earth he was going to be able to unpack everything.
"Oh, I almost forgot! Here." A key landed on the floor beside Dan's feet, most likely to open the door he thinks before placing the boxes carefully on the ground and picking the perfectly carved piece of metal up, sliding it into the lock.
The flat was spacious, with a huge glass door on one side of the room, which gave the entire place a very airy and light feeling. He buzzed the moving guys up and the next 2 hours were spent moving sofas, the bed, the fridge, tables and chairs around until Dan decided they looked all right while the rest of the boxes were scattered around aimlessly. He had been told that his new flatmate didn't have any furniture so he was the one who had to supply all the basic needs except for the bed.
Dan had literally just sat down on the sofa when there was a knock at the door, he sighed and stood up again, walking clumsily on his feet which hadn't had a rest for most of the day. Before he could reach it however it swung open and there stood Oliver, his big, toothy grin still on show.
"You move really slowly!" He commented before striding into the room.
"Great, so what are you doing here?" Dan asked irritably.
"Your new flatmate has just arrived, he's just outside. Clumsy one though, he's just dropped three boxes of things down the stairs." Oliver chuckled before adding, "A bit childish as well if you know what I mean, he literally has 5 boxes of cuddly toys in the moving van. I'm surprised he was even allowed to move out as it was, he's like a giant kid!" Dan laughed while thinking that maybe having a flatmate wouldn't be as hard as he initially thought. Suddenly, there was a yelp coming from outside the door followed by the sound of several boxes being dropped.
"That must be him now! Like I said, he's extremely clumsy." Oliver said while gesturing to a giant Totoro that had just rolled through the doorframe, a jet black head of hair followed closely behind. The new flatmate stood up with both his arms full of teddies which blocked his face from Dan's view.
"Hello." The voice was muffled but Dan could still make out that it was quite deep, yet able to reach quite high pitches considering the yelp from earlier. But there was something bugging him, the checked shirt, black skinny jeans and odd socks reminded him of someone, someone he had known a long time ago, 5 years to be precise. He had known this someone very well, perhaps a little too well and that was what made the goodbye so difficult, but the person standing in front of him today wasn't that someone. It couldn't be, they had gone their separate ways and were never looking back. That's what they had agreed all those years ago.
"Dan this is Phil Lester, Phil this is Dan Howell… Have fun." The words hit Dan like a tonne of bricks. He didn't notice Oliver happily trotting out the room, nor did he notice him walking back in two minutes later with a few boxes and the key. He didn't notice Phil dropping his teddies again and staring at him in shock, he didn't notice anything except the words that still hung in the air like a foul odour. They rung in his ears and bounced around his head, bringing up old memories, both happy and sad, that had been tucked away in a chest in the corner of his brain. He had locked that chest three times and thrown away the key, but the memories had insisted on breaking free so Dan had pushed it to the darkest, dustiest part of his mind and piled more things on top of it, preventing its escape. But now these memories came bursting through and filled Dan with so many feelings that he felt like he was going to collapse. But it was Phil's voice that eventually brought him back from his mind.
"-ou okay Dan?" He blinked a couple of times, his eyes growing accustomed to his surroundings once again. Phil's face was closer than when he had left it, his icy blue eyes filled with worry and concern, behind him 3 or 4 moving guys were bringing in box after box but Dan didn't notice this. His mind was formulating a plan on how they could work this out. One of them couldn't move out yet, they had to give a 6 month notice before anything like that could happen. He eventually realised they were stuck in this situation for a while and began to come to terms with everything. After a full 5 minutes of staring at each other Dan's mind finally came up with something.
He walked past Phil and closed the door where the moving guys hadn't before turning back around and walking straight towards Phil, his hand outstretched.
"So, Philip Lester was it? It's nice to meet you, and you seem pretty cool judging by all the Pikachu's and Totoro's that are currently everywhere. Do you want some coffee?" Phil was taken aback by this but shook Dan's hand anyway.
"Urm, it's Phil actually Dan… And yeah I'll have some coffee." Replied Phil before perching on the sofa carefully, as if afraid that Dan would yell at him.
"3 sugars," They both said at the exact same time, turning their head to meet each other's eyes. They stared for a while after that, Phil wondering how Dan had remember that small detail about him and Dan wondering how Phil could think he would forget. Again, memory upon memory flooded Dan's brain and he had to look away eventually, the tension could have been cut with a knife and served on a plate.
He rummaged through a box marked 'Kitchen shit' before eventually finding the only two mugs that hadn't smashed in the five years of having them.
It was Dan's usual multi-coloured one and the mug that Phil never came back for but Dan never had the heart to throw away. It had an assortment of animals on it with the word Phil on one side, Dan smiled when he remembered the day that he and Phil had found that mug in a pound store, and he had got so excited that it had his name on it that he almost broke it. Unconsciously, Dan began to make the coffee while his mind threw memory after memory at his eyes, forcing them to see the tongue poking out of Phil's mouth and the glasses that Phil wears every morning.
Dan shook his head and exited the kitchen, placing the first mug on the coffee table and keeping his fingers wrapped around his own. Phil eyed the mug suspiciously but said nothing.
"So, do you have a job Phil?" Dan eventually broke the silence, causing Phil to jump from the sudden sound.
"Ur, yeah I do actually. I work for the BBC." He wouldn't meet Dan's eyes as he said this remembering that once they had quit the radio show they began working in different parts of the BBC, never once crossing paths again.
"Oh really, so do I. We must have different working hours." Replied Dan shortly, taking a small sip from his drink.
"Yes we must." The conversation ended there and an awkward silence replaced it. Dan placed his drink down on the coffee table, the thud of wood against china echoed throughout the flat. It suddenly felt extremely empty and big. Dan was so lost in thought that what happened next was not expected.
A Totoro flew across the room and hit Dan square in the face, falling onto the floor but not before another one went soaring threw the air and hit his arm. He looked up to see Phil grinning from ear to ear and launching teddy after teddy at his body. Dan eventually caught up to the situation and started tossing them back, missing mostly but occasionally landing an extremely good shot.
They began tearing around the house, dodging attacks and aiming new ones. In and out of rooms they went, laughing and smiling so much their faces hurt. Phil took a running leap and landed on Dan who toppled over onto the carpet where they both lay, laughing and panting, entirely out of breath.
Once they had calmed down they moved towards the sofa where they sat, Phil leaning against Dan's shoulder.
"What happened to us?" It came as a barely audible whisper but held so many meanings; luckily Dan knew what Phil meant.
"I was a dick. I'm sorry." It was another whisper; the reply came in the form of a tight hug. "Thanks." Was all Dan could reply with before falling asleep in Phil's arms, while Phil fell asleep in his.