The following Tuesday Dan went about his duties as per the usual work day. Louise assisted him in everything he needed before making her own way at home at 4. Dan locked up the shop at 5 and on the way out to his car he glanced at the tattoo parlor.

He hadn't talked with Phil since the previous morning. He didn't hesitate though, until he had his hand on the key, about to start the engine. He glanced up again, and then got right back out of the car. He crossed the parking lot to the tattoo shop and pulled the door open to step inside, unsure of where to expect Phil to be.

But he was right there at the counter, talking with a blond man who was much shorter than either of them. Phil looked up, closely followed by the man he was with.

"Hey," Phil smiled brightly.

"Er," Dan began nervously. "Hey."

This man's most remarkable feature was the black tribal tattoo that decorated his left arm and disappeared into the sleeve of his black t-shirt. He wore glasses with wide, black rims and had an oval shaped face. The way this man looked between Dan and Phil as if he knew something wasn't lost on Dan. He looked helplessly at Phil.

"Oh, sorry," Phil glanced at the blond. "Dan, this is Tyler. Tyler this is Dan."

"Hi, Dan!" Tyler greeted him cheerfully.

"Hi," He replied in a much less enthusiastic manner.

"Dan works at the flower shop next door," Phil explained.

"Oh, so you're like, his competition?" Tyler asked playfully.

Dan laughed, glanced at Phil and said, "Not exactly."

"Not exactly?"

"Well, If anything it brings in the guys who've nearly forgotten a gift for their girlfriend's birthday," Dan explained. "We both get very different types of clientele."

"Oh, okay. That's good," Tyler smiled widely and then turned back to Phil. "Well, I better head out. But I'll be back tomorrow, Phil!"

"Okay, I'll see you then!"

Tyler said a farewell to Dan as well before turning to leave the shop.

"So anyways," Phil said "What's up?"

"Just wanted to come and say hey," Dan nervously pulled at the inside of his jacket pockets.

"Well, hey," Phil said with a hint of a smirk and braced a tattooed arm on the counter.

Dan's thoughts rapidly became scattered as he struggled to come up with a conversation starter. Oh god, he thought. Should've just gone home.

"Did you already lock up the shop?"

"Yeah," Dan looked up and found that Phil's expression changed from one that he dared to say was slightly flirtatious to one of concern.

"Well, I've still got a few things to do here," Phil said with his eyebrows slightly knitted. "But how about I call you later?"

"Yeah, okay. That sounds good."

"Alright, cool."

"I'll talk to you later then."

"Later," Phil agreed, before Dan left the shop and went home for the night.

Just as Phil had said, he called Dan who wouldn't admit that he was waiting for the phone to ring and when it did, he rushed downstairs to catch it.

"Hello?" Dan asked. The phone had already rung twice.

"Hey!" Phil said.

"Hey, Phil," Dan said and let out a stream of air as he realized how winded he became after running down the stairs.

"Did I call at a bad time?" Phil asked. "You sound kind of breathless."

"Huh? No, no, I was just upstairs because I had been in the shower and I left the upstairs phone down here the other night and-, why are you laughing?"

"You're so cute," Phil said as he began to regain control of his diaphragm.

"What? Cute?"

"Yeah, it's adorable," he confirmed, his voice lowering and causing Dan's heart to jump in its pace.

"When you assume I think you've been up to something less than innocent. It gives away what you're really thinking."

"Okay, Freud. Are you going to tell me I have mummy issues, next?"

"Now, that's a theory!" Phil said, and Dan let out a peal of laughter.

"In all seriousness though, Phil. I really was just running downstairs."

"Mmhm."

"Seriously!"

"I believe you!" Phil laughed. "Anyways, I'm glad you stopped by earlier today," Phil continued. "I wanted to be able to catch you before you left but I had a lot of things to take care of still. I was actually kind of bummed about that."

"No worries," Dan replied, letting the rhythm of the conversation take over

"So what have you been up to lately?" Phil asked.

It was about mid-week, and the two, tall men were sat across from each other in Dan's favorite diner.

"Erm, not much," Dan said, tapping his fingers restlessly.

"I'm all ears," Phil replied.

"Honestly Phil, I'm like the most boring person on the planet," Dan said. "I've got nothing."

"Sure you do. It's always the people who are the most quiet that have the most to say," Phil argued.

"That's so profound, Phil."

"Oh c'mon, get real for a minute."

Dan chanced a look at Phil, and his expression was that of one you might have when solving a difficult a math problem and running his tongue over the piercing near the corner of his mouth. He glanced away again quickly.

"The flowers are still doing really well," Phil tried.

"That's good."

"So, I'm still wanting to know," Phil began, causing dread to sink into Dan's bones. "Since you gave me the cold shoulder before-."

"I did not give you the cold shoulder!" Dan argued, and Phil began to laugh.

"Okay, maybe you didn't. But you were avoiding talking to me, that's for sure."

"Er," Dan made a thoughtful noise, almost a groan and said, "maybe I was."

"Maybe? More like, probably."

"Maybe, probably," Dan said in a playful tone.

"Well, do you want to maybe probably tell me about what you like about running the shop?"

"Oh, that. Erm," he paused. "I dunno, it's…"

Phil waited.

"It's kind of where I grew up," Dan said.

"Every day after school grandpa picked me up from school because my parents were still at work. While he was in the greenhouse I worked on my homework in the office. Sometimes I would help him with the flowers and he would teach me all about them. Sometimes I told him about my school work. I got to know some of his regulars."

Memories flooded his brain. The sound of his grandpa humming, the way he barely could use the desk in the office because he was so small, and how he laughed when his grandpa complained about having to begin using a computer to keep track of everything.

"I wonder why I stopped going," he said, more to himself than anything.

He remembered secondary school then, when his parents allowed him to stay home alone after school and he began to spend too much time on the internet and less around others.

You hardly come around anymore, his grandpa once said. Been busy?

Something like that, was the seventeen year old Dan's response.

The truth was that he didn't really have any friends at school and being confused hadn't helped much either.

"There are so many memories. I couldn't sell the property to a stranger. He would've wanted it to remain as a flower shop. All of his regulars still go and some have even said before that they're glad I took over. I know some of them from when I was a kid still."

"Erm, anyways," he finished, looking up and noticing that Phil seemed to be hanging onto his every word with a pierced lip slightly parted. "That's enough from me."

"Aw, but I love listening to you talk."

"Yeah, I'm sure everything I say must be absolutely riveting."

Phil didn't miss a beat. "What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic. Your voice is like music and all that."

Dan laughed. "You're so corny, Phil."

"Hey, come fall asleep on my couch."

"Oh, hey. I'm doing pretty good, thanks!"

"I'm serious," Phil laughed. "I bought this new game and stuff. Come over. I'll order pizza and we can make pancakes in the morning and everything."

It was Saturday night, the end of a long, busy week for the both of them. It'd been a week and a half since they'd last spent any real time together.

"Oh, I don't know," Dan said dramatically as he shut the fridge he'd been looking into idly. Pizza sounded much better than the leftovers that were a bad attempt at a recreation of something his mom used to make.

"C'mon, don't tease me. I rehearsed this in the mirror for five hours."

"You're joking."

"I am," Phil laughed. "Come overrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

"Alright," Dan conceded. "I'll be there in an hour."

"Awesome. I'll see you soon then!"

"See you soon."

They spent the evening exercising their teamwork skill in co-op of a new first person shooter game, grazing on a box of pizza, and then settled with a movie and Dan felt like he had a best friend for the first time.

He was twenty three years old and somehow never had the fundamental experience of pizza and video games with a friend while growing up. He supposed that maybe it was a bit sleepover-movie-cliché, but that didn't stop that stupid tightening in his throat when he realized how grateful he was that Phil gave him that. He tried to cough and the feeling soon passed, but he looked over at Phil, who glanced back at him.

"Erm, are you okay? You've got a funny look."

"Sh. I'm trying to watch," Dan said and put a finger to his lips.

Phil noticed the gesture, his eyes lingering on the way Dan's lips pursed for a moment.

The night grew older and the two of them, sleepier.

Phil's legs found their way onto the couch and his arms found their way around Dan, who froze in uncertainty.

"Relax, Dan. It's just me," Phil said, noticing the tension radiating throughout his body.

But it wasn't just Phil. It was Phil. Phil, who was adorable and attractive and much different than he expected him to be and his first best friend, who he talked to more in the month and a half that he'd known him than with any other person he'd known, who he'd had his first proper chat on the phone with, and the first person that was really making an effort to know him.

Dan felt that stupid tightening in his throat again and tried to gulp it down. As the feeling passed he brought his arm to rest around Phil's shoulders and Phil moved even closer if that were possible.

"You're adorable," escaped Dan.

"Why thank you," Phil mumbled back to him without taking his eyes off of the television screen and Dan giggled.

"Nerd."

"Dork."

"So," Phil said when he got up to turn the television off. "I'll stay out here that way you can sleep in my bed."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, its no problem. Plus, if I stay out here and I get up before you do it won't wake you up."

"That's really considerate of you. Thanks."

"Don't mention it. I'm just glad you decided to come over."

"You hardly gave me a choice, Phil."

"I hardly gave you a choice," Phil repeated in disbelief.

Dan laughed and said, "thank you for inviting me over."

Dan stood from the couch and picked up his duffel bag so that he could change in Phil's room.

"See you in the morning, then?" Dan asked.

"Yup. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"Good morning, sunshine!" Phil had a full mug of coffee and was dispensing out the right portions for pancakes over a skillet plugged into the wall.

"Maybe to you," Dan mumbled as he padded into the kitchen. "Do I smell coffee?"

"No. It's a figment of your imagination."

"It's too early for that shit, Phil."

"I'm teasing!"

"Yeah, too early."

"How'd you sleep?" Phil asked as Dan clambered awkwardly onto a stool.

"Pretty well. Your bed is so comfortable."

While Dan slowly woke up Phil made a second cup of coffee and set it on the counter in front of Dan.

"Oh, thanks." He took a sip and when he lowered the mug again he said, "You know how I make my coffee?"

"I paid attention the last time you were here."

"Oh."

Dan looked down into the creamy goodness that was his coffee, hiding his smile.

"How many pancakes do you want?"

"Er, a hundred."

Phil shot him a look to which Dan said, "Okay, like, five."

"That's a bit more realistic," Phil said. He put a stack of pancakes onto a plate for Dan and then pushed syrup and butter towards him.

"I seriously owe you for this breakfast. So delicious."

"Don't worry about it."

Phil was always saying things like that.