Dan licked his dry lips and browsed the bookshelf for something more exciting than a cookbook to read – an actual story of some sort ideally. He stopped and turned his head when he heard little footsteps running behind him. There was the sound of flowing water in the background; the sink, obviously. Dinner was over now and Phil had clearly been left to clean up on his own.

"Aren't you… going to remind them to clean up?" Dan started, clearing his throat and looking to his friend, fiddling with the book in his hand.

Phil stared back, his usually bright eyes dull, and heaved a deep sigh.

"Kids!" He yelled, his voice raspy, but neither Dab nor Evan answered.

"You need to go and talk to them," Dan said, flatly.

Phil didn't reply, but rolled his eyes, dried his hands, and trudged across the room to Dab's bedroom. He looked tired, but not physically, but more exhausted mentally of having to put up with all of… this. Dan didn't do anything to hold him back, but shrugged his shoulders and went back to reading the back cover of the novel in his hand to see if it was worth reading. He could hear talking in the other room, and he could tell that nobody really seemed very happy. He couldn't blame his friend for his tone of voice, though, because Dan would probably be the same in his situation, especially with the kid answering back like that. No snapping, though, strangely enough – Phil was doing a better job of keeping himself together than Dan did back in-… no, that's irrelevant – but there had to be a breaking point sometime: there always was.

"He really doesn't like me," Phil frowned after a bit, walking back out of the room and stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"I…" Dan started, knowing who his friend was talking about even without any sort of specification, "I'm sure that deep down, he still does, just like… Uh…" he stuttered, regretting the start of his last sentence.

"Just like you?" Phil finished for him, his eyelids falling slightly, almost so he was squinting – but perhaps that was just because he was tired – but then he flashed a smile, "Yeah, I know. You don't have to tip-toe around it like this anymore – we've got better things to worry about right now."

Dan was silent, almost in surprise,

"Yes… Yes, I suppose we do," he smiled back, softly, "So let's do something about that, hmm?"

Phil's smirk fell and he rolled his eyes for the second time in a short space of time,

"I'm trying," he hissed, under his breath.

Dan felt like telling him to try harder, and even though he meant it well, he decided it probably wasn't the best thing to say at that very moment in time.

"You're doing well," he assured him instead, "Things can only head up, right?"

"Right," Phil nodded, with a hint of something that was either mistrust or sarcasm or determination. Maybe all three at once, however that was possible.

Dan could see that a snapping point was pretty much inevitable, and he supposed that all he could do was sit back and watch.

"Would you… like to come and read with me to take your mind off it?" He offered, and saw his friend thinking deeply about it as if it was a very important decision. Dan made his most pleading eyes and added a 'please?' onto the end, and received a 'sure' in reply (the eyes almost always worked). So he grinned, put his arm around Phil's bony shoulders and walked him over to the sofa where the light was shining through the window right onto the cushions.

The sofa was nice and warm in the sun and they soon got settled, huddled up beside each other, and opened up the book. Dan insisted on Phil reading aloud, so he did, in a hushed voice, and Dan leaned on his shoulder and listened. It was a good way to take Phil's mind off the kids not listening, and a good way to let Dan think about how on Earth he could help without interfering, but however hard he tried, he couldn't really think of anything, so he just listened instead, all snuggled up.

There was something about the lighting, the smell of the book in front of him, the soft but husky tone of his friend's voice and the feel of his breathing that was very relaxing and oddly nostalgic-feeling: kind-of wistful and homesick. Dan gave a sigh, smiled tenderly, followed along with the words on the page, breathing in the stuffy book smell and shuffled his weight a bit before finally settling down and closing his eyes at last to rest. It was a nice day today and it was perfect on the snug sofa in the warm sunlight.

They lay there for quite a while, swallowed up by the story. There was still washing up to be finished but Dan wasn't about to remind Phil of that now – he seemed to be relatively content sitting in the daylight and reading – and, of course, there was still the dirt on the floor, but that didn't need to be brought to mind right now, either. In fact… nothing did-

"Hey, Dan?" A call came from behind, quite loudly, disrupting the little moment of bliss, "Can we go outside?"

Dan turned around – and so did Phil – to face Dab, who was stood in his bedroom doorway, looking very hopeful of something. Dan considered his request for a moment and chewed his lip in thought. Instead of giving a reply, he turned to Phil, expectantly. Phil nodded his head to the mucky floorboards, and Dan saw Dab roll his eyes and groan before trudging back into his room.

"You should have told him to do it," Phil whispered, his expression blank, saving his page in the book with his thumb, "He would have happily complied."
Dan frowned and shook his head,

"No, he needs to realise that he's not cheating your rules by asking me instead," he decided, turning back around, "Now, are we going to carry on with this book?"

Phil swallowed loudly and his throat rasped as he drew in a breath.

"What time is it?" He asked.

"Only two," Dan told him, tilting his head to the side, inquisitively, "Why?"

Phil shrugged, nonchalantly,

"Just wondered," he said, and got to his feet.

"Philly? Where are you going?" Dan asked, suddenly, grabbing his friend's wrist to stop him until he'd explained.

"Well, I need to put the dishes away," Phil replied, in a tone as if it was very, very evident what he was doing, even though it really wasn't, "Can't just leave a job half-done, can I?"

Dan let him go, though he was slightly disappointed that his reading partner had now disappeared to do something more important, so he snuggled down on his own and closed his eyes again. He wasn't going to finish the book on his own, that'd be spoiling it, so he patiently lazed about and waited. He was sure he could hear the quiet drone of what he could only assume was Phil talking to himself in the background.

Everyone was pretty much doing their own thing. This wasn't what it was supposed to be like – they were all supposed to bond this time, but it wasn't really going that way at all.

They were all together physically, yes, but in tendency, it really felt like each one was all alone.