The following weekend rolled around and when Phil woke up on Saturday he went to use the restroom.
As he washed his hands he glanced up into the mirror.
The roots of his hair were turning red again.
When he returned to the bedroom to get dressed he found Dan lying awake, looking up at the ceiling.
"Wanna get your hair cut today?" He asked Dan with a slight smile.
"Yeah, sure. Uhm, Phil?"
"Yeah?"
"I've got my social security card and stuff. I just never used it, you know."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I can go and get it, as well as some money for my hair."
"Yeah, that'd be cool."
Phil turned back to his chest of drawers and pulled out a sweater and some jeans to wear. He could hear the sound of Dan undressing and he glanced back just in time to see him shift into the wolf.
"That's still so incredible, you know?"
Dan had a look in his eye for a moment.
You're still so incredible.
Phil scoffed.
I'm going to get everything I need like this.
"What about clothes and stuff for on the way back? You can't just carry a bunch of money and stuff in your mouth." Phil laughed.
There's still some clothes there. It'll be faster this way.
"Okay. I'll cook breakfast for us then and we can eat when you get back? And then we'll go out?"
Sounds good.
Phil turned back toward his chest of drawers, finding socks to wear for the day.
Phil, I'm not quite as evolved as you are at the moment.
He turned around, grinned widely and crossed the room to open the bedroom door. Dan slipped out smoothly and trotted over to the front door, which Phil opened as well.
Dan stopped on the porch, turning his long snout to look back at Phil.
I'll be back.
Phil just looked on as Dan gazed at him for a moment, and then he turned to trot down the steps.
Once on the road, he darted off, almost quicker than Phil's eyes could follow.
"Incredible," he whispered to himself.
Dan was such a beautiful creature.
Phil watched until he couldn't see the wolf anymore, and then he stepped back underneath the threshold to the house. He returned to his room and changed into some day clothes. He had showered the night before, as did Dan, so his hair was a bit curly, but he was going to be getting it done anyway, so he didn't fuss with it.
He went into the kitchen, his feet padding softly, yet somehow deafeningly loud in the quiet house.
Normally Dan was there, and making some sort of sarcastic remark, talking to himself, making noise in some part of the house, or at the very least, breathing and shifting as he read, on the floor beside the couch.
He began to cook up sausage and refried the baked potatoes from the night before in the sausage oil.
Dan flew threw the trees on his four paws, jumping over logs, climbing the uneven terrain, and flitting through foliage.
He'd forgotten how exhilarating this was.
He'd arrived at his cottage too soon. He let the warm murmur of that quintessential energy run through his blood and he was soon stood on two feet. He stepped inside quickly. A shiver ran through his body the instant he stepped under the threshold.
He wasn't cold.
He looked around the main area to his old home and the hair on the back of his neck rose. He carefully navigated around the room, his eyes scanned every detail.
Dust covered the surfaces, and anything normally left untouched when he was here. Half melted candles could be found in a few spots. The cupboard doors were slanted, falling off of their hinges. One of the cupboards was missing its old ornate handle. There was left over kindling in a bucket, a few pieces of firewood in a tray. Sand filled the fireplace. The quilt blanket was on the recliner, where Phil had left it.
Hell, Dan could still smell Phil from where had once been sat there for a few hours, dozing.
He stepped underneath the archway to the second part of the house.
The bed was unmade. Books lined the expansive bookcase with no order or pattern and a few were unevenly placed around one of the end tables beside the old bed. His chest of drawers was full of some neatly folded clothes.
He crouched and reached under the bed. His hands found cold, rigid metal and he searched for the edging of the safe. He dragged it out from under the bed and he rocked back onto his shins, settling, as he worked the dial on the safe.
His money, as well as his social security card and birth certificate from when he was born was still in the safe.
Dan didn't find anything out of place. It was just as he'd remembered it was left.
But it just didn't feel right.
A chill ran through him when he thought about how he'd just abandoned the house, about how it had never even occurred to him to come back to check up on things. He stood, absentmindedly running a hand down one of his bare arms.
He felt a pressure at his back, and instinctively he whirled about, expecting something to be poised for attack.
There was absolutely nothing there.
With bated breath, he stopped and used the full capacity of his hearing to listen for anything in or around the house.
He heard the normal morning noises of the woodland creatures. He listened to the birds tweeting or the scratching of a squirrel's claws as he scampered up a tree.
Nothing was wrong.
But it felt so wrong.
He had to get out of there. Now.
He went to his old chest of drawers. He grabbed the first sweater and trousers he could find, as well as underpants and socks.
He dressed as quickly as possible. He slipped on a pair of boots he hadn't worn in years.
He knelt once again beside the safe, and grabbed the envelope of cash, and the second envelope which contained his social security card, birth certificate, and his father's will.
He slipped them into the deep pockets of the trousers he had found.
He shut the safe, double checked that it locked, and slid it back under the bed.
He stood and turned towards the archway, heading for the exit. But he stopped in his tracks as his eyes zeroed in on an oil lamp that had once sat on an end table and he sucked in a breath.
The lamp had been knocked over. The glass was broken and the spilt oil had dripped onto the rug beneath the table.
He returned to Phil's home as quickly as he could. He hadn't realized that he could move as swiftly as he did on two feet with ten toes inside restricting old boots and loose trousers. He was more familiar with the terrain when he was on his calloused paws.
He could smell food, and hear Phil moving about, the scraping of a spatula against a pan.
He practically sprinted the last stretch of road up to Phil's door. He rushed into the house, shut it securely behind him. He paused in the foyer and caught his breath.
Alarming Phil was the last thing he'd wanted to do.
They were meant to have a nice time out today.
"Dan?"
"Yeah," he grimaced at the edge in his own voice.
Phil came round to the foyer and looked at Dan, concern knitting his eyebrows.
"Everything okay?"
"Of course," he lied. "I've got my paperwork and everything."
Phil surveyed Dan's body, taking in the rapid rise and fall of Dan's chest, his windswept hair, reddening cheeks and parted lips. He completely ignored the awkwardly fitting trousers.
"Er, that's good." Phil supposed that maybe Dan was in a hurry to return. He'd made it back much sooner than he had expected anyways.
But there was a look in his eye that he hadn't seen. Not since they'd been out in the woods, when Dan was being especially vigilant, and he realized then that it was for Phil's safety.
Something was wrong and it chilled Phil to the bone.
"Are you sure that everything is okay?"
"Yes, of course." He tried to smile warmly and he sniffed the air dramatically, eyes shut. "What did you make?"
"Oh, potatoes and sausage."
"It smells delicious."
"Well, let's have some then." Phil turned away and went back into the kitchen, trying to shake the cold feeling in his stomach.
Dan slipped the too-tight boots off of his feet and adjusted his trousers. He followed Phil into the kitchen and saw that he was reaching into the cupboard for plates.
He approached him from behind, and he was holding Phil.
Phil puts his arms over Dan's.
"Everything is okay, I promise."
He sighed. "I believe you."
Guilt made Dan feel sick to his stomach.
If Phil found out that Dan had deceived him, he would hate him.
Regret settled in his chest and he heaved a sigh of his own.
"Let's eat, huh?"
"Yeah, I'm hungry."
But Dan had lost his appetite a long time ago.
For Phil's sake he emptied his plate, and feigned eagerness as he ate.
When Dan was done with his food, Phil cleared their mess.
"We'll go in just a bit." Phil told him.
"Oh, okay I'm gonna change into clothes that fit properly then," Dan grinned as he stood.
Phil didn't say anything more, but continued to clear up the kitchen, so he turned and headed towards the bedroom.
Phil's stomach was in knots, and his breathing felt restricted.
In the bedroom Dan sunk onto the bed and rested his head in his hands for a moment.
He needed to think.
Phil's house probably shouldn't be left unwatched. But Dan couldn't suddenly change his mind about going out with him.
Phil would definitely pick up on what was going on, if he did that.
Perhaps, he could try and act a bit rushed. Although, how much could you rush someone cutting your hair without ending up with a bad cut?
On the other hand, it would become painfully apparent that they were in danger if they took their time and returned home to find that the house had been ransacked.
There was really nothing else he could do, but go with Phil, and sit through the anxiety.
After all, how long would it actually take to get their hair cut?
"Well, I've never had a proper hair cut before, so whatever you think might look alright, just do that. You're the professional."
Dan ran a hand over his chin, glad that he had taken a bit of time to shave before they left the house.
Phil was in another chair, with dye in his hair. He had to wait for a bit, before the lady who did his hair could rinse it out. In the meantime, the dark haired lady began to work on Dan's hair.
She brought him over to another chair where she washed and rinsed his hair out, and then they returned to the other chair.
Dan asked to face away from the mirror, but watched in vague horror as inches of his hair fell to the tiled floor.
"Wow, I had more hair than I thought I did."
The lady, Karen, laughed at him as she dexterously brought the scissors with the weird handle to his hair over and over.
After she had cut Dan's hair, she rinsed out Phil's and he returned to linger by Dan while his hair was dried and straightened.
"Right, I'm done. You want to take a look?"
"Is it bad?"
"It looks perfect, Dan." Phil reassured him.
"It does?"
"Yes, you look really nice. C'mon," He urged Dan.
"Okay…"
Karen turned Dan around in his chair and his jaw fell open slightly.
"No way!" He laughed, leaning forward. "I look so different. That's incredible."
Dan messed with the fringe that fell across his forehead and patted the rest of his head. He mussed it up a bit, sort of shaking it out and then ran a finger to straighten it out across his forehead.
"You like it, yeah?"
"Yeah," he ran his hands through it again, ruffling it and then readjusting the fringe.
"Thanks," he smiled widely at Karen.
"Sure," she chuckled.
Karen gave them the price for their separate cuts and they went to the front of the salon.
"It really does look good," Phil said as they lingered at the front desk with their cash, waiting for Karen. "You look really handsome."
"Thanks."
"I mean, not that you weren't already handsome."
"I get it," Dan chuckled.
They left the salon after paying Karen and climbed back into Phil's car. Dan was anxious to return to the house to make sure that everything was okay.
"Do you need new clothes or anything like that?" Phil asked as he started the car.
"Er…" Dan hesitated. "I mean, what I've got now is all that I need."
"You don't want to get anything new?"
"Not today," he feigned reluctance at admitting that he just wanted to go home.
On the inside he was urging Phil to just drive already.
"Alright. We'll head back, then."
It was still early that Saturday when Phil decided to put on some video games for the two of them to play.
When they had finally arrived home again after getting their hair done, Dan didn't sense any sort of disturbance, see anything out of place, or detect any foreign smells and he was immensely relieved by that.
He supposed that maybe he had been making a mountain out of a molehill when he'd saw the broken oil lamp.
Maybe a curious hiker had found the old house, maybe Dan was paranoid.
But his instincts kept him constantly alert from that morning on.
Dan had shown Phil his social security card and other paperwork when they'd gotten back from the salon and he put them away, in a box, in his bedroom closet.
"Hey," Phil said in between races on their video game.
"Hmm?"
"Do you want to get your GED at all, like go to school or maybe work?"
"Er, I don't know. I'd never really had the opportunity to do all that stuff, you know."
"Well, at the very least, you should get your GED, in order to be able to work."
Dan looked away from the television, and at Phil.
"Oh, I see how it is." Dan smirked playfully. "You want money."
"What?!" Phil smiled, but his eyes were a bit wide. "I just thought you might get bored, you know. There must be something you're interested in doing."
"Well, to be honest… I think it'd be kind of cool to be an actor." Dan admitted with a slight smile, but frowned at his next words. "But I doubt that's likely."
"Hey, you never know. If you went to school you could take a few drama classes, join the drama club. If anything you'd be able to do it for fun, while working on something else, even if it's just general studies. You might find some classes that are interesting. And if you take class you're interested in, you're more likely to pass."
"Erm, it sounds like a good idea." Dan wasn't eager to admit that it made him incredibly nervous to think about doing everything that Phil was talking about.
"What do you mean 'sounds'?"
"Well, I'm kind of nervous talking about it."
"Well, don't stress about it much. We'll just maybe get your ID for starters. How does that sound?"
"Yeah, that's alright. Thanks, Phil."
They played a couple more races, and Phil wondered.
How would Dan and PJ interact, both of them being companions?
"I want to invite Chris and PJ over. We can order pizza later, and play some more video games and stuff. Is that cool?"
"Yeah. I want to find out what PJ is like," Dan agreed eagerly, grinning.
"I'll give him a call, then. Hang on."
Phil stood and went to get his phone from his room and dialed Chris' number as he returned to the couch.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Chris," Phil greeted him.
"Oh, Phil. Hang on. I need to put my pants back on."
"What?" Phil hoped he was joking.
"Don't worry. What's up?"
"Not much. I'm thinking about getting some pizza and stuff later, why don't you and PJ come over?"
"Pizza sounds awesome. Er, hang on a moment." Chris's voice became a bit distant. "Hey, PJ, do you wanna go see Phil and Dan today?"
Once again with his voice coming through clearly, he said, "He says yeah. We'll be over in… around an hour?"
"Okay, see you then."
"Okay, see you." And as if the phone was held away from his mouth again, he said, "Alright, PJ we better do this quickly…"
"Chris?"
Chris had already hung up at that point and Phil hung up, shaking his head at his friend's suggestive remarks.
"They're coming over?"
Phil hummed, a slight smile lingering on his face. "I'm kind of excited for you to meet PJ."
"Me too."