Author's Note: The Creeper series continues! I wrote this as an independent fic that could be read without reading the earlier parts of the series, but it probably is more satisfying if read in order, so I'm just going to add it on this website as an additional chapter of the same fic. I actually posted this (and a few additional parts of the series) a while ago on Tumblr and AO3, but hadn't gotten around to putting any of them on this site, so if you want to see my stuff right away when it's written and posted, you might want to follow me on Tumblr (where I'm "adorkablephil").

Skype 21/10/09

"So you made it home all right on the train?" Phil asks. The Skype connection isn't great, but at least he can see Dan's face, and that's all he wants right now. It's only a few hours since they parted at the train station, but it already feels like forever.

Dan nods but doesn't say anything. He's lying with his head resting on his pillow, his laptop beside him on the bed.

"Are you okay?"

Dan nods again, then says sadly, "I'm pretending you're here in the bed with me."

Phil smiles gently. "I wish I could be. I already miss you."

Dan murmurs, "It was a great weekend, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Phil replies just as quietly. "The best. The very very bestest ever."

"I can't wait until Halloween. It seems so far away."

"It's not, though," Phil insists. "It's only 10 days, and then we'll be together again. And I can introduce you to the other YouTubers I know! I'll get to show you off!"

Dan laughs a little, but Phil thinks he can hear traces of a sob in the sound as well. "A few days ago I was really looking forward to meeting all these people, but now all I can think is that it'll mean I can't be alone with you."

Wanting to get Dan onto a happier topic, Phil asks, "Have you looked into when you can come visit again?"

"Yeah. It looks like maybe I can come on November 6th. Would that be okay?" It's his uncertain, lost little boy voice again.

Phil beams, his whole world lighting up with the prospect of Dan visiting again so soon. "Dan, that's only a week after Halloween! So we'll see each other in 10 days, and then again a week after!" His smile slips a bit. "I mean, if you come on November 6th … my parents will be here. So…"

Dan smirks, "So no making out on the sofa?" Phil loves to hear that flirty tone in his voice again.

Phil shrugs awkwardly, "Yeah. We'll need to … you know…"

Dan supplies pertly, "Behave ourselves?"

Phil nods.

Dan's bottom lip sticks out slightly in a teasing pout. "That's no fun."

Phil laughs. "We can still have fun. I mean, you can still sleep with me in my room."

Dan makes air quotes with his fingers, "You mean 'sleep'?"

Phil laughs again. "Well, that, and actual sleeping. We'll just have to be … quiet."

"Oh, Phil," Dan purrs. "You definitely don't have that effect on me."

Phil's mouth drops open slightly. Dan was much less flirtatious in person, but it seems that being on camera makes him more comfortable with it again. It's different now that they've been together, though. It feels more intimate, more real, now that he knows what Dan's lips feel like, knows what his body feels like when they're pressed together, knows what his face looks like when he comes…

Dan's smiling now, head still resting on the pillow, and it's almost like when they lay talking in Phil's bed together. A silence stretches as they just gaze at each other across the distance through their shitty webcams.

"Um…" Phil begins, not sure if he should ask this, but incredibly curious. "Are you still wearing my boxers? The ones you borrowed from me?"

Dan rubs his head against his pillow like an affectionate cat, a seductive little smile on his face. "What do you think?"

Phil gulps. It's ridiculous to be so excited at the thought of Dan wearing his clothes, even if it is underwear, but he can't help it. Certain parts of his body are starting to take an interest in the conversation. "Yeah?"

"Well, I'm in bed. And I usually only wear boxers to bed," Dan teases.

"So you're…" Phil stammers.

"Yep. I'm wearing nothing but your boxers right now." Dan smirks like the evil little shit he is.

Phil licks his lips and lets his eyes roam Dan's face. He looks so much happier now than he did at the start of their Skype call. He also looks like a fucking tease who's enjoying winding Phil up. Phil wishes he could see more of Dan than just his face. He swallows, then rasps, "Show me?"

Dan looks suddenly very young and shy again, but then a determined look comes onto his face. There's a vertiginous movement of Dan's laptop and a shuffling of bedclothes, and then Phil is seeing a stretch of bare skin, looking down along Dan's flat, tanned stomach to the heart-covered boxer briefs that are hiding parts of Dan's body Phil hasn't seen yet but has definitely imagined. The laptop swings around again and a duvet blocks Phil's view for a moment, and then Dan's face is there again, now looking pink and embarrassed. "Happy now?" he asks, obviously nervous.

"Very," Phil says huskily. "You don't even want to know what I did after I got home from the train station, thinking about you wearing those."

This seems to boost Dan's confidence, and he arches an eyebrow. "Are you sure I don't want to know? Because I think I probably do."

Phil laughs uncomfortably and says, "I'm sure you can guess."

Dan's eyes shift to the side, then back to Phil's face on his computer screen. "Probably the same thing I did when I got home."

They smirk at each other, both simultaneously awkward and happy and embarrassed.

"I think I'll be doing a lot of that for the next 10 days," Phil quips, feeling a little self-conscious.

Dan rolls onto his back, providing Phil with a gorgeous view of his profile. "I could almost do it right now," he says casually to his bedroom ceiling, arching his neck a little.

Phil gapes, then chokes. But Dan rolls back over onto his side to face the camera and smiles wickedly. "But I think I'll wait."

Phil laughs in disbelief. "You evil, manipulative, fucking tease!" He doesn't really mind, though. It's so wonderful to be playful with Dan like this again. Everything was so emotionally intense when they were together over the weekend that they hadn't bantered like this as much, and Phil realizes that he missed it. He hopes that eventually they'll get to the point where they can be in the same room, wanting to tear each other's clothes off, and still carry on a normal conversation like this.

Dan giggles, and it's one of Phil's favorite sounds in the entire world.

Phil sobers and, before he can chicken out, says haltingly, "There's something I've been wanting to say to you … but I think … maybe it's too early. Maybe I should wait."

Dan's eyes go dark and intent. He licks his lips nervously. "Me too," he says in that nervous little boy voice again.

"Yeah?" Phil asks, feeling a giddy hope fill him almost to overflowing, wanting to laugh out loud with happiness.

Dan smiles the sweetest dimpled smile Phil has ever seen, the smile he came to adore over the course of the weekend and says, "Yeah."

"Yeah," Phil repeats stupidly, his brain short-circuited with almost unbearable affection for this adorable boy.

"Yeah," Dan whispers happily.

And they just watch each other for a long time after that, just smiling like a couple of idiots in love.