When they walk into the restaurant, they wait for the people ahead of them to be served and step up to the counter. "Oh my god, Dan and Phil?!" The host behind the counter exclaims. The two look at each other, grinning. "Um, yeah. Hello!" Phil says politely. "I am such a fan!" The host says. "Oh, sorry. You're here for dinner, right." He smacks himself on the forehead. "How can I help you?" "Um, table for two?" Dan says, glancing awkwardly at Phil. The host notices their demeanor. "Wait. Are you two on a date?!" He says. Phil and Dan begin blushing furiously. The host grins and decides not to embarrass them by pressing it any further. "Follow me." He leads them to a table in the back corner of the main dining room, quiet and somewhat far away from any other tables. "Here you are. A server will be right with you." The host hands them menus and leaves. For a couple seconds Dan and Phil just stare across the table at each other. Suddenly a perky waitress appears, almost out of nowhere. "Hello! I'm Lindsay, your waitress for this evening. Would you like something to drink?" She exclaims quickly. Startled, Phil shakes his head a bit to clear it. "Um, I'll have a Coke." "Same here." Dan and Phil tell the waitress. "Okay, I'll be right back with your orders!" Lindsay walks away.
"So... how was your day?" Dan awkwardly tries to start the conversation. "Really, Dan? 'How was your day?' Nice opening." Phil smirks and sticks his tongue out slightly without knowing it, so Dan knows he's joking. "Oh, shut up!" Dan laughs along with Phil. He swats Phil's arm playfully and accidentally brushes Phil's hand when he pulls back his arm. Dan catches his breath and stops. Sure, they had touched and hugged each other before. Even not 10 minutes ago in the apartment, after they had said they liked each other, they hugged. But that was more like a friendly, almost celebratory gesture that just felt natural. This was different. All these thoughts and more passed through Dan's mind in a millisecond and he finally closed his own hand around Phil's. Phil glanced at their hands, startled by the sudden contact. He looks up and meets Dan's eyes. Time seemed to stand still. Phil glances back down at their hands. Slowly, he flips his hand upwards from beneath Dan's and interlaces their fingers together. 'We're holding hands,' Phil thought. 'We're holding hands!' Phil had dreamed about this for weeks. Literally.
It all started when Phil and Dan had gone to a party. Both of them had gotten a bit drunk. A bunch of people at the party decided to play Truth or Dare. Dan had gotten dared to kiss one of the girls at the party who had told her friend, Lily (the one throwing the party), that she had a crush on Dan. Lily had been the one to dare Dan. Later that night, Phil had dreamed about what it would be like to have been the girl in that scenario, kissing Dan. Once Phil woke up, and realized what he had dreamt about, he was extremely embarrassed and stayed in his room for hours to avoid Dan (luckily it was still fairly early in the morning so Dan didn't suspect anything). All that time alone gave Phil a lot of time to really think. Eventually he realized he liked, maybe even loved, Dan. The feelings were always there (Phil remembered the small crush he had on Dan when they first met), but they had grown ever so slowly, so Phil didn't even realize he had fallen for Dan until then.
Afterwards it was awkward for Phil to be near Dan, knowing what he knew about his feelings toward Dan. Dan didn't notice anything particularly odd about Phil during this time, so that's why he was surprised when Phil had told Dan he liked him. But every night after the party, Phil dreamed about Dan. They weren't doing anything interesting in the dreams, normally Dream Phil and Dream Dan were just going about their normal day, eating breakfast or watching an anime, but they were holding hands almost always and kissing every so often. Thinking about the dreams, ironically, snapped Phil back to reality. It had still been only a couple seconds since Dan had first touched Phil's hand. Phil's heart skipped a beat as he continued to gaze at his and Dan's hands. 'We're holding hands!' Phil thought again gleefully.
Dan was watching Phil, who seemed to be just barely composing himself as he took in the sight of their hands and appeared deep in thought. Dan smiles in spite of himself and admires Phil. After a couple seconds Phil glances up again and holds Dan's gaze. Of course, right at that moment Lindsay appeared. As they were so engrossed in their staring, neither noticed when Lindsay walked up to their table. "Um, here are your drinks." She felt very rude and out of place for interrupting what seemed like an intense moment for the two men sitting at the table. Both men, shocked by her appearance, jump apart, as they had unknowingly leaned closer towards each other, and pulled their hands away. "Oh, thank you." Dan says and receives his drink as Lindsay hands it to him, then she sets the other drink in front of Phil. Clearly the two were not ready to order, as the menus lay untouched in front of them, and they had been preoccupied with the hand holding moment. "I'll come back in a couple minutes to take your order," Lindsay says, and she walks away.
Dan and Phil look at each other, smile, and open their menus. They settle into an easy conversation concerning what they were going to order, the radio show, and remembering fun times they had on tour. After about an hour and a half, dinner was over and the check had arrived to their table. Phil reaches for the check. "I'll take that," he tells Dan. "No, come on. I can pay for it," Dan replies, not wanting Phil to pay for his meal. "Dan, it's all right," Phil reassured him. Dan pouts and crosses his arms, but couldn't stay in such an un-Dan-like pose and burst out laughing. Phil grins at him and pulls out his wallet from his coat pocket. Lindsay comes by soon after to pick up the check and later returns with his change. "Thank you!" She says to them. "Have a great night!" Dan thanks her and bids her a nice evening as well. Soon after she leaves, Phil and Dan stand to go.
They begin to walk out of the restaurant. The host, Jack (they read from his name tag), says goodbye as Dan and Phil walk out, and they return the farewell. "Thank you for dinner," Dan says to Phil, looking sideways at him through his fringe. "Of course! Besides, you're getting the next one, right?" Phil jokes. Dan laughs and they continue walking and lapse into a peaceful silence. As they walk, they seem to be getting closer to each other. Wether this was on purpose or not, one can't tell, but eventually they drift quite close together. Dan, feeling bold this evening, lightly touches Phil's hand as they walk. Phil responds by moving his hand behind Dan's wrist and pressing their palms together. Dan knew Phil was waiting for him to confirm that this was what he wanted, and so he gently laces their fingers together and clasps his hand as they walk. Eventually they reach the apartment. "Well, this is my place." Dan says. "Thanks for walking me home!" Dan smiles, then turns, unlocks the door and waves goodbye to Phil. Phil laughs, shakes his head, and follows Dan inside. It is about 10pm now and they stop in the front hall. "You know, I'm actually pretty tired. I think I'm going to go to bed. Thanks for a great date!" Dan says. He smiles at Phil and turns to walk down the hallway leading to his bedroom. "Wait, Dan?" Phil calls. He turns back around with a questioning gaze. "Yeah?" "Goodnight." And Phil leans in and softly presses his lips to Dan's. Dan smiles and begins to kiss back. After a couple seconds, Phil pulls away. "Goodnight!" Phil says, smirking, then walks to his bedroom, steals one last look at Dan, still standing there, dazed and pleasantly surprised, and closes the door.
A/N: Hey guys! I hope you liked this chapter. It was a lot longer than the first chapter, but I thought the plot in this one tied together nicely so I left it all in. please review and comment what you think! -L