A/N: hey friends so i have a lot of inspiration for this story and wow yeah i think i'll enjoy writing this one because COLLEGE! and yeah, ahahaha. it's gonna be really fun writing this, i can tell already ah! and, thank you Kandyskullz88 and Sara Mason Cullen for reviewing! :)

summary: Dan Howell had just started college, and he's roommates with someone named Phil Lester, who's quiet and moody. They're similar in a lot of ways, they like the same things, listen to the same music, and they even have matching fringes. They're also basically polar opposites, but that's what makes them attracted to each other, even if they don't know it themselves yet. College AU. Phan, with some kickthestickz.

disclaimer: disclaimed

setting: college AU

enjoy!

II.

coffee

—

.

.

.

Ever since then, Dan's convinced that he and Phil's relationship is something.

They've began talking more recently, and Phil's no longer ignoring his presence as much as he used to during lunch, which improves Dan's mood. When passing by each other occasionally in the halls, they give each other a small nod — one rare day, Dan had smiled at Phil, and the brown haired boy thought he imagined it, but he thinks that he saw Phil grinning back at him. It's weird, but Dan always feels giddy whenever he manages to make Phil smile, even if it's just a scoff or a smirk.

Chris and PJ have also noticed the change in the way the two of them have been treating each other lately. After Phil had to leave early during lunch for his Art class, Chris immediately turned around and wiggled his eyebrows at Dan the moment Phil was out of earshot. On the other hand, PJ's grinning, but he looks generally embarrassed. Chris smirks at Dan, who's eyebrows are raised in slight apprehension. "What?" He demands. Although Dan's known the two of them for a few weeks, he feels like he's known them for years. Judging by Chris's reaction, Dan's suspects that he's about to say something dirty.

"So... You and Phil, eh?" Chris says, smirking. "When you guys hook up, I expect delicious details."

Dan nearly chokes on his pasta, but feels his face heat up at the same time. "That's disgusting."

"You know it's true."

"I don't even like him like that!" Dan protests, but he's cut off by Chris's ridiculous kissy noises. Dan can't help but laugh as he throws a spare plastic fork at Chris, having it land directly on his head, earning a loud yelp from said person. PJ laughs from Dan's other side, and he shakes his head as he crosses his arms. He's still smiling as he looks down.

"Yeah, yet." Chris doesn't need to remove the fork from his head, gravity does the job for him by causing it to collapse on the benches they're sitting on. Dan doesn't even bother on arguing any further, he knows that his friends could see his face tomato red. Despite the humorous situation, Chris's green eyes are glittering with seriousness, which is surprising — coming from him. "But honestly, something's happening between you two." He says, referring to Dan and Phil. He raises an eyebrow. "You certainly have been looking happier lately."

"Well, we're actually maintaining conversation now." Dan replies as he finishes the last of his dish. "And he's an interesting person."

Chris giggles, and this time PJ sighs in exasperation. "Chris. Calm down."

"It's not every day that I witness a beautiful love story blossoming, just like ours," Chris remarks, smirking, as his eyes dart over to PJ. In response to that, PJ facepalms, and Chris keeps talking. "Anyway, later. Gotta catch my next subject." He winked at Dan, blew a kiss to PJ, and then left, sassily walking away. Once he's out of earshot, Dan turns to PJ, who looks in between mortified and in slight admiration.

Then Dan shakes his head. "Well."

PJ smiles apologetically. "You'll know something's wrong if Chris isn't spouting any dirty jokes. It takes a while to get used to it."

Dan agrees with him on that one.

It's the middle of Biology and Dan can't stop thinking about Chris's remarks on his and Phil's friendship, or acquaintanceship. Either way, he's not so sure how to feel about it — all he knows is one thing, there's no way that he likes Phil. Dan firmly shakes his head, closing his eyes as he does so. No. It's just Chris being weird again, there's no way that would ever happen, Dan and Phil barely even knew each other. Er, okay, maybe that last bit's wrong — but he seriously doesn't like Phil like that.

But there's absolutely no way that it would happen.

Sure, Phil's eyes are probably the most beautiful thing Dan has ever seen in a pair of someone's eyes, and that's saying something. They're multicolored; some days Phil's eyes are blue, other days they're green, or sometimes the occasional gray. And then there are times they were those three colors mixed together into one, and it really looks nice. Phil also does wear glasses, but he doesn't wear them a lot of times. In the times that Phil does wear his glasses, a small part of Dan's brain highly thinks that they suit him really well.

Dan sighs in frustration as he tries to focus on his class assignment.

Next to him, PJ nudges him. Dan snaps out of his thoughts and blinks, frowning back PJ, wondering why he'd done that. His friend's eyes are widened in expectation, and when Dan continues to look at him with confusion, another voice speaks out from the front. With a jolt Dan realizes that it's his Biology teacher who was speaking — did he just ask a question? Dan exchanges a glance with PJ, who's eyebrow is raised.

"Mr. Howell?" His teacher frowns.

"Er... Yes?" Dan says timidly, his cheeks coloring with embarrassment.

In response, his Biology teacher sighs and shakes his head. "Pay more attention in class, Daniel. Next time, I won't be so lenient." He goes on and returns to his lecture, and both PJ and Dan exhale in relief that it's not anything else. Daniel. Dan's nose crinkles at the sound of his full name; he had never thought of himself asa Daniel — everyone in his life that he knew always had called him by 'Dan.' Just, Dan, and nothing else. No one's ever called him Daniel, exactly, except teachers and sometimes his mother when she gets frustrated at him. "Daniel James Howell," she'd always say.

His thoughts wander off to Phil again — he forgot that his actual name was Philip.

Dan cracks a smile as he stares at his worksheet. Philip Lester. Come to think of it, he's never heard anyone call Phil, Philip. To Dan, Phil was more like a Phil than a Philip. He chuckles quietly, running a hand through his hair. It's an interesting thing, to have an actual name and to not be called by it. Dan desperately tries to pay attention in Biology for the rest of the class period, but he can't help it.

He's too busy thinking about Phil.

After the final bell signaling class has ended rings, Dan immediately is the first one out the door.

He knows for a fact that it being a Friday, a whole shitload of students were going to be out partying. It's a college thing, Dan assumes. A lot of students were usually out hanging out or partying almost every day of the week, even though there were classes the next day. Maybe it's a way to get all of the stress out of you. But Dan doesn't really care much about it, for he highly prefers going back to the room rather than going to a bar and getting drunk.

As he approaches room 326, he notices that the door is slightly open.

Dan frowns and fishes in his pockets to pull out his phone, clicking the on button to display the time. 5:35... Hmm. It's strange since even after class officially ends until the next day, Phil doesn't usually show up at the room until six o' clock or so, Dan suspects that because he probably works half-time somewhere, which probably causes him to arrive later.

The brown haired boy pushes the door open more, and is more than surprised when he sees Chris and PJ sitting on both his and Phil's beds. They're in the middle of discussing something, but they immediately cut off when Dan walks in the room, feeling a bit disgruntled that they've somehow managed to break in, or something. His brow furrows as he addresses Chris, who's smiling innocently. He closes the door behind him, and sighs loudly.

"How the hell did you get in?" Dan demands. He holds up his room key, dangling it in front of Chris's face. "I'm pretty sure that Phil and I are the only ones with the same room key." He tilts his head to the side and crosses his arms. Chris holds up his hands in surrender, as PJ smirks. "Cough up." Dan extends an open palm to PJ, but he shakes his head.

"We're not giving it up that easily. We may or may not have a spare for your room, I mean." PJ then pipes up, holding a key looking very similar to Dan's. Dan blinks, as PJ grins. "It's alright mate, we're not going to break in as often as everyday, we just wanted to see what your room looks like, cause we haven't seen it yet." His green eyes flicker to the posters on Dan's side of the wall, and Phil's as well. "It's pretty cool."

Chris then throws something at Dan — out of instinct, he catches it, surprisingly. Room 538, the key reads. Dan raises an eyebrow. "It's our room key," Chris says, explaining, as he swings his legs excitedly, like a two year old. "It's only fair, isn't it?" Dan snorts in response, taking a seat next to PJ, who scoots over since he's sitting on Dan's bed.

"I guess," he responds, and at that same moment, the door opens once more and Phil walks in.

He stops mid-stride as he realizes Chris and PJ are in the room, smiling goofily at him. His blue eyes widen — he's not wearing his glasses this time. He looks a bit windblown, and tired. Dan bites back a giggle, waiting for his reaction. Nonetheless, Phil frowns as his eyes flicker back and forth to the duo. "And what the fuck are you doing here inside my room?" he asks.

Chris starts. "Welcome back Philly! Have fun?"

"Shut up, Chris." Phil groans. "Don't call me that. And I barely had fun, I had work, you idiot."

"You're such a Debbie Downer," Chris replies, waving him off. He gets up and dusts himself off before walking to the door, PJ behind him. "well, we'll take our leave now. It seems like we're not wanted here." The last few words come out with a choking noise, like a fake-cry. All three of them (besides Chris) roll their eyes. After Chris dramatically makes his exit (but not before making an obvious wink towards Dan), PJ bid them both goodbye, closing the door behind him.

The door makes a click, and it's back to just Dan and Phil again.

Phil shakes his head. "I still don't know how they've managed to get in." He's wearing a galaxy-like hoodie this time, and Dan thinks it's pretty cool — it makes Phil seem like a guy who likes space rather than some guy trying to be cool and getting the galaxy hoodie. The black haired teen sits on his bed and sighs as he massages his temples in his hands.

"They've gotten a spare key, somehow." Dan replies to Phil's previous question. He's wondering where Phil has been, but doesn't pry. Instead he turns to his backpack and pulls out the homework his American History teacher had assigned him, and groans inwardly. Dan sets it on top of his desk and continues rummaging through his things before yanking out a French worksheet, cursing under his breath as he realizes he has to translate a whole load of English to French.

On the other bed, Phil laughs without humor. "Huh. I'm not surprised, honestly." He glances over to Dan's papers he'd set out neatly on his table, and Phil looks at the French one. "Someone's French teacher is an asshole." Dan rolls his eyes as he plucks the paper out of Phil's hands, earning a small smile from Phil. Dan grins back, and shakes his head as he reads over the worksheet, sighing.

"He always does this to us," Dan complains. "I'm going to fail French."

Phil smirks as he brushes some of his hair out of his face. "You're gonna do better than me, anyway."

"Yeah, considering you don't even take French."

"The thought counts."

Dan looks up from his French worksheet — Phil's grinning again. "Shut up!" He says, laughing, as he throws his eraser at Phil, who dodges it. The eraser lands gently on the wall and plops on Phil's mattress. "I can't focus if you're here bothering me." Phil snorts as he throws Dan's eraser back at him, making it hit Dan's hand softly. Dan shoots him a look, but doesn't say anything in response.

The two of them sit in silence for a few comfortable minutes as Dan scribbles out French translations.

"Where do you work at anyway?" Dan then decides to say. He looks back at Phil, who had kicked off his shoes revealing one red and black checkered sock and another polka dot sock on his left foot, which was green and blue. The black haired boy tilts his head, as if he's deciding whether or not to tell him. Then he sighs, and swipes a hand through his hair. He looks down at his mattress. "A coffee shop."

Dan raises his eyebrows; he thought Phil worked in a bar or something. "That's pretty surprising," he says in all honesty. Phil already had a half-time job, and he was still just in his first year of college — but that makes sense all the better. Then Dan smirks. "Do they like you over there?"

Phil snorts. "Yeah. It's just it can be a bit boring sometimes. I usually see the same people every day."

"I don't think that's a bad thing," Dan blurts out before thinking. He hesitates. "I'm pretty sure they'd like it if you remembered their orders."

Phil looks up at him, blinking. "I do. And you're right, they do like it. I can tell." He rests his head on the wall, and Dan returns to scribbling out the rest of his French translations. He's finishing up when Phil speaks to him again. "You know, Dan?" The other teen doesn't look up right away — he's writing the last translation, but even though he does it messily he puts his pencil down, and sighs. Then he looks at Phil, nodding. "Yeah?"

His head is still rested against the wall. Only his blue eyes move as they flicker over to Dan. "You're weird."

"Uh, thanks?" Dan's not sure if it was meant to be offensive, but he smiles anyway.

Phil then removes his head from the wall, and looks at Dan quite seriously. Then he grins — his tongue is poking out to the side in between his teeth, and Dan's pulse gradually rises faster as he watches Phil smile. It's amazing. He keeps his mouth shut, however, and frowns as his roommate shakes his head. "You're impossible. I wasn't finished yet." He smirks as he brushes his black fringe to the side. "But it's like an interesting weird, you see what I mean?"

"Well, thanks... I guess?"

Phil laughs, and it goes on for a while as Dan stares, incredulous, at Phil, who's gasping for air now. "No, no... It's a nice thing. It's a compliment, I guess you can say." His blue eyes soften. "You're a pretty interesting roommate, and you make good company." He smiles as he places his head between his knees. "Is that better?"

Dan can't help but grin back, as he looks over his French paper. But mostly he does that so Phil won't be able to see his red face. He's still smiling rather goofily as he looks back at Phil, who gives him a small smile in return. You're an interesting roommate.

"I could say the same about you," Dan just replies, smiling shyly at him.

Phil smiles back, and the two of them grin at each other for a while.

The next day, Dan decides to grab lunch outside of the dining hall.

Although it's technically a small snack and not even lunch, he informs Chris and PJ this and Chris suggested visiting this coffee shop that's a few minutes away from campus, so Dan can basically walk there. However, Dan felt slightly uneasy, after bidding goodbye to the two of them Chris turned excitedly to PJ and had a malicious and cunning smile on his face. Dan's still thinking about it as he pulls on his student ID lanyard around his neck. What are they planning?

But Dan disregards it; it's cold and he's feeling in the mood for coffee anyway. Once he reaches the door, he opens it and almost welcomes the warm blast of air that hits him, making his hair ruffle a little bit. He steps inside and looks around, his two hands both stuffed inside his coat pockets. There are some people inside the store as well, either lounging on soft chairs or seated at the wooden tables. Dan recognizes some other people that go to the same college as he, this seemed like a pretty popular place to visit.

Dan smiles as he continues observing his surroundings, it's a very cozy place. He goes up to the cashier to order a caramel macchiato as he digs in his wallet to see if he has enough to pay for it — aha, he does. Holding a five pound note in his hand, he walks up but immediately widens his eyes. The cashier isn't looking at him at first — his head is bowed down, he's not really paying attention. Then he speaks.

"Hi, welcome." The cashier says, as he raises his head up. Dan can't believe it — he knew it was him, but he wasn't completely positive at first. However, the cashier's eyes are closed, and he greets Dan sleepily, saying, "What can I get for you today?" When he finally opens those familiar blue eyes, Dan is grinning at him, on the other hand, Phil stutters as he nearly trips himself taking a step back.

"Dan?" Phil gapes. It's the first time Dan's surprised him, and honestly, he'd never seen his roommate like this before. Phil's expression hardens slightly, but he blinks. "What the hell are you doing here?" He adds quietly, looking to the side. He's wearing a black long sleeved shirt along with black skinny jeans, and over it a white apron. His brow furrows.

"So you do work in a coffee shop!" Dan says.

"No shit, Sherlock." remarks Phil sarcastically. "Now, are you here to order something? I don't have time to chat."

Dan shrugs. "Chris told me to go here. And I'd like a caramel macchiato, actually. It's cold."

Phil stops to look up from the cashier, giving him a really look. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

As Dan hands Phil the money, he pushes it back, staring at it like it's something off a dirty shoe. Slightly baffled, Dan raises an eyebrow, and offers him it once more, but once again Phil pushes it away from him, shaking his head gingerly. His eyes are narrowed at it, and he can't seem to meet Dan's eyes, increasing the brown haired boy's curiosity. "No... Don't give that to me."

"Uh, how else am I going to pay?"

"You don't." Phil says firmly. His blue eyes are sparked with defiance. "I can't accept that from you."

"Why?"

"It's just." Just. "It doesn't feel right. Now take it back."

Dan places it back in his wallet, and can't help but giggle at Phil's stubbornness. As Phil gives the order to another worker, he turns to Dan. Luckily there's no one in line after him, and the people around don't seem to take note of what was happening. "What?" The blue eyed teen demands, at Dan's amused expression. Dan shakes his head, and walks away to sit — it's quite funny to him, actually.

I can't accept that from you.

Dan adds stubbornness to his list of things that characterize Phil. It's not like he's a creepy stalker observing him and scribbling something down, but it's something made inside Dan's head because he finds Phil to be a very interesting person. He didn't realize he could be this stubborn. And Phil's tone when greeting Dan sounded much friendlier before he recognized him was very nice and welcoming. Dan frowned, and wondered why he wasn't like this all the time. Friendly. Outgoing.

Maybe something happened. Something with a capital 'S' that caused Phil's personality to alter.

He was a smiler. Chris remarked.

Dan sighs, and when Phil finally calls his name for his drink, Dan snaps out of his thoughts at once. He gets up from the table he's sitting in and makes his way to the counter, where Phil is waiting. He gives Dan a small, crooked smile, and hands the drink to him. Dan smiles back, and Phil begins to leave when Dan speaks again. "Thanks, Philip." He calls, as he clutches his drink in his hands (it's in a to-go coffee container).

Dan is still looking back when Phil rolls his eyes.

"You're welcome, Daniel."

After Dan leaves the shop and makes it back to campus, he doesn't realize that he's grinning stupidly at himself before Chris points it out. Lunch isn't quite over yet, and as soon as Dan approaches their table, macchiato in hand, Chris and PJ immediately swivel around to look at him. PJ is grinning, and Chris is wiggling his eyebrows. It then dawns on Dan that they probably did this on purpose. At this, Dan dies on the inside.

"Did you have fun?" Chris asks, as PJ bursts out into giggles.

Dan has to hide himself behind his drink, for he's blushing.

A lot.

A/N: aaaa i'm done! this is uploaded faster because i'm actually really very hyped up for this story. so yes, Phil works at a coffee shop! it's not quite a coffee shop centered AU though, but mentions of it will be in the fanfic to provide info on Phil's half-time job yoooo

also, i'm sick. UGH. i can't breathe through my nose fml

another thing: thank you for those who reviewed/faved/followed, it really means a lot, especially if someone is sick and miserable until they check their email to see the notification! (: i'll go back to burying myself with tissues now..

-choco xx