The familiar sound of a phone's ring tone was what suddenly awoke Phil Lester as his eyes shot open and the glare of the sun came streaming into his irises.
As the ring tone finished, he blinked in the intense daylight to try to clear his vision and sleepily looked around the park through the wonky lenses of his glasses that had fallen sideways as he'd slept.
He was about to sit up straight and start waking up, but he decided not to.
"Hey!" Dan said, cheerily yet quietly, trying not to wake his friend properly, "What's up?"
Phil yawned and listened to his conversation, trying to identify the voice on the other side of the line. It sounded familiar but he couldn't quite tell who it was.
"Oh, is it? Sorry, I lost track of time..." Dan continued, "Yeah, we'll be back soon; don't you worry… Alright, sure thing, no worries… See you soon."
And then the call ended.
Phil heard Dan lock his phone and place it down on the arm of the bench before tapping the screen with his fingernails in a steady rhythm.
Opening one eye to squint up to him, Phil opened his mouth to speak.
"Was that Dil?" He asked, huskily, closing his eye again.
"It was, indeed," Dan nodded, slipping his phone into his pocket, "Just making sure we were OK because apparently it's after half eight and we've been out for almost two hours."
"Have we?" Phil breathed, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes.
"Yeah, we should probably start heading back now that we've gotten more than our daily dose of fresh air."
Phil managed to let out a quiet laugh at Dan's reminder that this was the most exercise they'd had in quite a while and stretched his arms before opening his eyes fully to gaze around the park again.
Of course, it was still swelteringly hot even though the sun was getting gradually less bright and was glaring of the lenses of Phil's glasses, giving him a sensation of a headache coming on.
"Are you coming?" Dan asked as he stood up, holding out a hand to his friend to help him to his feet.
Phil nodded, without taking his hand, and stood up, his legs still wobbly underneath him. He averted his eyes to stare at the llama hedge ahead of him. He'd missed the sight of these little, strange and random things and quirks placed around this universe. You don't get anything like this back home.
"You alright?" Dan asked, bringing him back to reality.
Phil turned to quickly to him that his fringe flipped across his forehead. He gave a short chuckle and nodded his head,
"I'm fine," he affirmed, "Now let's go before the Howlters start wondering if something terrible has happened to us," and, looking to Dan for one last smile of approval, stuck his hands in his pockets and started on his way out onto the main road again.
It wasn't a long walk back to the road: they hadn't ventured far into the park – they probably would have gone down Memory Lane if they hadn't have run into Summer, who had walked down there after greeting them – so it was only a few paces away.
Dan supposed that the reason that this time seemed a whole lot different from before was not only because it was now warmer, but also because back in February, they hadn't really taken the time to admire the scenery: they'd either been to confused, too miserable or too angry to care about trees.
He and Phil turned left along the path when they got to the road and even though they didn't speak, Dan could tell that he was feeling just as absorbed as himself.
The time was nearing 9:00 and the sun was starting to go down now, so even though they were walking towards it, it didn't blind them as much as it would have a few hours ago.
Another good thing about it getting later was that now they could see the sunset.
Sure, it wasn't technically a real sunset, but it was still surprisingly striking.
The oranges and yellows contrasted with the lush plants around and the trees were darkened to black with only a slight glimmer of green leaves around the edges where the light hit and shimmered through.
Ahead, Dan could see a meandering river flowing alongside the pavement, curving away towards them way after the path took a sharp turn to the right.
Swallowing and admiring the scenery, Dan couldn't help but slow down his walk to savour the moment a bit longer.
Phil slowed to match his pace and asked no questions as to why they were suddenly decelerating. In fact, he was glad that they did: he was in the same reflective mood as his friend.
They passed the museum with its charming cherry blossoms, the bar with its lights glaring out onto the pavement, the gym – where Dan remembered Dil had first met Eliza Pancakes – and finally the white, ornate library.
The places seemed to pass them by instead of them passing the places, as they hardly diverted their gazes to look anywhere but the sunset.
They only really stopped staring when they missed their turning and hurriedly back-pedalled a few steps to correct themselves.
They carried on at a steady pace, crossed the bridge over the river, passed Chez Llama again (of which had its illuminations still switched on and was looking very aesthetic) and crossed one final bridge before they could even see Potter's Splay.
They sped up for the home stretch and happily yet sleepily gazed up the owl slide where the sunlight was just about peaking over the very top.
Admiring their own horrible taste in lawn ornaments and the unplanted roses lining the path, they finally reached and pushed open the door.
They noticed, just before they entered the house, a flash of movement from through the window beside the door. It was Dab, who had been patiently waiting for them to get back home so that he could show them his latest… art creation.
"Uncle Phil!" He chirped, skidding in front of both him and Dan and holding up a sheet of paper, "Look!"
"I- I'm looking…" Phil stuttered, surprised at the sudden emergence of a small child, "Hey, that's pretty good!" He said, eventually, when he had processed exactly what was happening.
Dab looked both happy and excited that his childminders approved and so beamed a huge grin up to them before scuttling off to tape it to the wall outside his bedroom, of which already had one sheet of paper stuck to it with his first painting on. Phil did not know what this painting was of, but it was named 'shapes' and it looked vaguely akin to a butterfly: a very square butterfly with some weird Magic Maize type stuff stuck to it.
It wasn't much, of course, but it still gave Phil a feeling of satisfaction knowing that it was him who had sparked this interest in drawing, even though he in himself wasn't very good at it.
Looking up, Dan noticed Dil walk into the room to greet them.
"Oh, good; you're back!" He said, cheerily, "Tabitha and I have just been getting everything ready. There are some sheets on the sofa for you-"
"I noticed…"
"-So you'll have to fight it out for which one of you gets the sofa. I hope that'll be enough for you just for tonight. Tomorrow you'll have to decide who bags the bed."
"We'll Rock-Paper-Scissors it," Dan let him know.
"Great! And I've written out another schedule for you so you know the routine, alright?"
"That's ace, thanks," Phil assured, his northern accent coming through as he said the word 'ace'.
He wouldn't have noticed had it not been for Dan's very quiet snigger (it was very quiet – like a small fly sneezing consecutively three times).
"Brilliant!" Dil smiled, "Come on, then, Dab; let's get ready for bed."
And both Dil and Dab headed away into the child's bedroom.
"I think this time will go swimmingly, don't you?" Dan whispered when the Howlters had left the room.
Phil took both his and Dan's shoes and put them to the side, next to the door, before brushing himself off and giving a firm nod of agreement,
"I think so, too," he yawned, watching as Dan headed over to the sofa, picked up the two blankets and placed one down on the floor, keeping the other neatly tucked up under his arm as he piled the two matching sofa cushions up at one end of the chair.
"Do you want to talk about-" Phil started, but before he could continue, Dan cut him off.
"Absolutely not, pal," he retorted, bluntly, flashing a glare over to Phil, knowing what he was about to suggest, but after seeing the look on his face, he softened his expression, "Come sit down," he invited.
Phil cautiously wandered over to the sofa, his eyelids struggling to stay open, seeing everything in a blurred sort of vision.
He folded his legs underneath him to kneel on the sofa, and Dan took a seat beside him.
"I can assure you," Dan smiled, "It won't happen again."