A/N: enter me, screaming into the void

i was supposed to upload this January but so much happened since then and i lost SO MUCH motivation for writing this... not to mention that i had huge author's block (which always gets in the way of everything) :-/ i'm really sorry if my writing sucks ass in this chapter, but i really owe you guys one... thank you so much for sticking with this story even though my updating schedule is once every few months ;w;

anyway i'm on spring break now (FINALLY) so i'm taking advantage of that :-)

summary: Dan Howell had just started college, and he's roommates with someone named Phil Lester, who at first ignores him. They soon realize that 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. Phan College AU.

XII.

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white noise

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Going back to school after winter break is probably always going to be the worst moment of Dan's life.

First of all, there was always that issue of writing last year's date even though it wasn't that year anymore. And Dan also knows for a fact that he's still going to keep doing that a few months later. Next, there was always the issue of trying not to fall asleep in the middle of a lecture, because Dan really couldn't afford to fail any of the classes he was in even if he was horribly exhausted.

Finally, back to school also means back to homework.

Dan mentally groans at the thought of pulling all nighters to finish numerous assignments. Last semester was absolute hell; he barely managed to scrape through all of his subjects. The only good thing about this whole situation was probably Phil's presence with him in the dorm—he knows that he'll be a stress reliever of some sorts.

There's one thing he also knows for sure, though; at least he's not going to be struggling alone. His fellow classmates were already complaining as soon as he stepped in the room, and Dan couldn't help but relate to all of the things that they were saying. He would totally prefer being at home binge watching TV shows and staying up past twelve midnight than be here at all.

"It's like I forgot how to hold a pencil correctly." Chris remarks during French, uncharacteristically agitated. He throws said pencil on his desk and folds his arms with a huff, shaking his head. "I think I'm forgetting how to write."

"It'll come back to you, Chris. No need to worry, mate."

"I already misspelled my name twice." Chris's eyes widen in disbelief, and he shows Dan his paper for proof. Surely enough, the upper right hand corner of the page is full of eraser smudges. The brown haired teen has to cover his mouth so that he wouldn't be caught laughing. "How the fuck do you even manage to spell your own name wrong? I wish we were still on break."

"Time to count the days until summer vacation," Dan replies, watching with tired eyes as their professor walks in with a dejected look on his face. It seems as if he doesn't want to be here either, and Dan honestly couldn't blame him. "But if we were still on break, it might be possible for you to forget how to write completely."

There's a moment of silence as Chris ponders this.

"True." He hums thoughtfully, eyes also trained on their professor, who had now started the class with a somewhat dreary Bonjour and was now going on about the new concepts they were going to go over for the next part of the new semester.

"I swear I'm never going to be a teacher in the future." Chris continues, leaning against the desk with his head resting in his palm. Dan turns to him, eyebrows raised in curiosity. "I will never be willing to grade assignments nonstop over the weekend. Reading my own essay already makes me want to dig myself into a hole and never come out of it... just think of grading 800 papers a day."

Dan cringes at the thought of it.

"Yeah, that'll definitely be hell. Now I understand why Mrs. Williams is so grumpy all the time."

Chris snickers when Dan brings up their same History professor, but he swiftly covers it with a fake cough. "Right? But get this: we are the ones who choose what we want to do with our lives. If Mrs. Williams wants to spend her life grading 10,000 papers, well. That's her problem, isn't it?"

Dan doesn't even get to reply when a whispered "SHHH!" interrupts him, coming from one of the students in their class (Dan never really bothered to get to know anyone besides Chris, so he doesn't even know what their name is) giving the two friends a dirty look.

Chris and Dan look at each other simultaneously.

"Looks like our conversation's being cut short," Chris whispers with a subtle roll of his eyes, and Dan manages a smile. "Can you believe that some people actually want to learn?"

They do end up shutting up and paying attention after that, though.

Sort of.

After his classes end for the day, Dan walks to his dorm and sits down at his desk both physically and mentally exhausted.

He had so much shit he needed to do (which was due tomorrow) and so little time. Dan knew that he had to get started on his stuff sooner or later, but he really didn't want to either; which is why he rejected Chris and PJ's offers to go get lunch with them outside campus. Eventually, he decides to at least start one of his assignments since he knew that it would take a short amount of time, and he gets to work despite how hungry he feels at the moment.

A good thirty minutes later, he's halfway almost done (feeling very accomplished with himself, it's the most he's done in one sitting before) but he's also seriously considering throwing his French textbook out the window when he hears the door open and the jingle of keys.

Dan doesn't look towards the door and thinks it's Chris and PJ trying to get him to go out with them again—

"I'm too busy to do anything right now, I thought I made that clear!" Dan lets out an irritated sigh, not even bothering to turn around in his chair. He buries his head in his hands and mentally prepares himself for Chris and PJ to start bothering him and begging him to join them again.

A light chuckle gets his attention, though, and Dan whirls around to face Phil, who's looking down at him in pure amusement.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning." Phil teases, flicking his boyfriend's forehead affectionately before he sits down on his bed. Dan's cheeks color in embarrassment, and he groans, covering his face in his hands.

"Shit, sorry... I thought you were someone else."

"Chris and PJ?" Phil guesses, and Dan nods; not even bothering to ask how he guessed correctly.

"Yeah." The brown haired teen snorts, turning back to his French book reluctantly. "They wanted me to get lunch with them earlier, but I couldn't because I have a lot of things to work on tonight. I'm not even that hungry, I don't know why they should bother... Mrs. Williams actually had the nerve to assign us an essay due in three days, and we just got back from break!"

As soon as Dan finishes talking, his stomach growls.

His eyes widen in realization once it does, and he looks down in embarrassment as Phil bursts out in a fit of loud laughter.

"Don't. Say. A. Word." Dan grumbles, as Phil pretends to wipe a tear from his eye.

"Sorry," The black haired teen says, sounding completely unapologetic. His hair falls into his eyes a little as he addresses Dan, a small smirk playing on his lips. Dan instantly feels the annoyance dying down; expression softening at once. "That sucks that you're busy, though. I was going to ask you to join me to eat somewhere."

"I don't know, I kind of have a lot of stuff to do..."

"Don't be like that. You need a break. How long have you been working on that?"

"Ever since class ended, but—"

"Dan."

Now defeated, the brown haired male looks at Phil before back at his homework slowly, passing a hand through his hair. He finally places his pencil down on the table after a few moments and doesn't miss the smug smile on the elder's lips.

"Fine, I'll come with you."

He stands from his desk, shrugging on a thick jacket while Phil smiles; tongue poking in between his teeth as the corner of his eyes crinkle in amusement.

"Not hungry, my ass."

"Shut up."

There isn't much variety among the restaurants outside of campus, but Dan and Phil manage. They end up at this diner after a while and spend the next few moments in a comfortable silence as they pick what they want to order.

After Dan chooses his, he places his menu down and waits for Phil to finish deciding.

He can't help but stare at his boyfriend as he does so. Phil's just honestly one of those people who's really hard to stop looking at. Dan couldn't help but notice that something was pretty different about the other male today too. He knows for a fact that it's not anything physical.

The elder just looks happier.

It seems like such a long time ago when they met for the first time. Phil used to give off a negative vibe, and Dan couldn't help but find him a little intimidating. Honestly, it was hard not to. He never really acknowledged Dan and seemed totally indifferent even after Chris brought him into their friend group.

But nowadays, Phil just seemed... different.

He didn't give off that negative vibe anymore. To be fair, he stopped giving off that negative vibe ever since the two actually started to become friends. His smiles were much brighter these days as well, and Dan started to witness Phil giving genuine smiles to everyone in general. It was a little off-putting at first (for Dan wanted to be the only one who received those smiles) but now he actually finds it reassuring.

Chris and PJ always told him that Phil used to be much happier in the past, and Dan was always curious about that. Before, he would've thought that it wasn't possible. But now, after all what happened, he's actually starting to think that Phil was slowly going back to his regular self.

He snaps out of his thoughts as soon as Phil meets his eyes.

Dan looks away at once, embarrassed.

"Shit. Uh, sorry. I wasn't staring."

At the corner of his eye, he could see Phil lift an eyebrow, a small smile playing on his lips. "Right, and my name's not Philip Lester."

Dan scoffs and rolls his eyes.

"Wow, you're hilarious."

"Thanks, I try."

It's silent after a few more moments, but it's far from uncomfortable. It's never been uncomfortable between the two of them, and that's the way Dan likes it. A few moments after they start talking about school, the waitress brings them the milkshakes they ordered (even though it was cold as heck outside), and Dan quietly sips on his chocolate drink before Phil purses his lips and opens his mouth to say something.

"Listen... about Sarah."

Slightly taken aback by Phil's sudden statement, Dan lifts his head, alarmed at the mention of Phil's ex-girlfriend's name.

Fortunately, the waitress comes back, saving him from coming up with a response. As she lays down their burgers and fries in front of them, Dan stares at the table quietly, wondering how he was supposed to react to this. They haven't talked about her much ever since Dan ran into her on New Year's, and just thinking about that never fails to make Dan spooked again.

Dan quietly thanks the waitress for bringing their food right away and takes a bite out of his burger to further delay responding; the food was delicious anyway. In front of him, Phil was chewing on a french fry absentmindedly. A few moments later, Dan places his burger back down on his tray. Well, it was now or never.

"What about her?"

Phil sips some more of his milkshake before replying. As he stirs the drink with his straw carefully, he says, "In all seriousness, I don't want you to get involved in whatever's happening right now. Now that she's back, I really can't risk anything happening to you."

The black haired male takes a few bites out of his burger as Dan struggles to take the words in, slightly confused. He eats his food to distract himself, and finally manages to say something after a few moments.

"Don't you think that's a little too late for that?" Dan furrows his eyebrows together. "I mean, she already knows that I exist."

Phil sighs, wiping his hands on a napkin.

"That's the problem. I really have no idea about what her goal is. I don't know why she came back at all."

Dan chuckles nervously.

"Now that you're saying all this stuff, it's getting me creeped out even more."

"I'm sorry. I really don't mean to scare you, but... I think it's for the best." Phil frowns, and reaches out to place his hand over Dan's own. Dan relaxes immediately, and nods slowly. He understands about where Phil's coming from, even if he knows that he's perfectly capable for looking after himself. Nevertheless he feels a wave of comfort wash over his emotions, and he manages a tiny smile.

To lighten up the mood, he remarks, "Your hand's greasy."

"Oh, crap," Phil's eyes widen, and he retracts his hand immediately at the younger's words. Dan snorts, wiping his hand with a napkin.

"But really, thank you for worrying about me." Dan gives Phil a half-smile before taking another bite of his burger (damn, it was delicious). After a while, he adds, "Just don't forget that I can protect myself too, you know. I'm not some princess locked inside a tower who needs a knight in shining armor to save me from my impending doom."

Phil grins at his statement, amused. He lowers his head in a fake bow, "Understood, Your Highness."

"Shut up, you." Dan wrinkles his nose (failing to hide his growing smile), and Phil laughs; the corners of his eyes crinkling.

They get back to their dorm at 9:28 (they left at seven), Phil holding the leftover food in one hand and Dan's in the other.

As soon as Dan gets the door open, he's met with Chris and PJ looking at them in the dark with matching huge (and creepy) grins on both of their faces. Their laptops are in front of them, the light illuminating his two friends' faces, giving them both an eerie glow.

This, of course, scares the shit out of him.

"MOTHER OF—"

"Hi Dan!" Chris interrupts Dan with a cheery smile and wave, as Phil lets out a dejected sigh and flips the light switch on. "Hi Phil! How was your date?"

"Great, thanks." Dan manages to say, breathing slowly to try and maintain his heart rate as Phil places the leftovers on top of his dresser.

"What's in here?" PJ asks, nodding at the boxes.

"Burgers and fries." Phil replies on the beat, taking his shoes off. "You guys can have some if you want."

"Aww Philly, how sweet of you." Chris bats his eyelashes at him, and Phil rolls his eyes. Chris stands up and walks over to the dresser, taking out one of the boxes and popping it open. He takes handful of fries and passes the box to PJ, who then takes it.

"And may I ask why you two are in here? Dan and I have stuff that we still need to do tonight." As soon as Phil sees the suggestive look on Chris's face, he facepalms. "And before you ask, I don't mean anything sexual."

"Why, a study session, of course." Chris replies, taking another fry. He munches on it before saying, "That way, we can help each other with our work."

Dan removes his coat and hangs it on the door, sighing.

"Are you sure about this? We probably won't end up doing our work anyway."

"I've never heard anything more true in my life." Phil agrees, taking a seat next to Dan on his bed. "The only place where we all can work together without distractions would probably be the library—"

"—Which closes at seven." PJ cuts in, twirling his pencil around his fingers. "It's almost ten. So, no library field trip. Besides, we've brought all our stuff here anyway." He gestures to his laptop in front of him, and to his textbooks, which were neatly stacked on top of Dan's dresser.

Dan and Phil look at each other, having a silent conversation.

"All right, fine." Dan finally says. He walks over to his desk and picks up his still-open textbook, bringing it over to Phil's bed. "You guys can stay."

To his surprise, Chris lets out a groan while PJ cheers loudly.

"HAHAHA! I told you he wouldn't kick us out!" PJ exclaims. "You're the absolute best, Dan."

Confused, Dan raises an eyebrow.

"Wait... what just happened?"

Next to him, Phil covers his face in his hands and groans. "Did you guys make a stupid bet again?"

"Yeah, a bet that I lost. Again." Chris shakes his head in disappointment and reaches into the front pocket of his jeans, pulling out his wallet. He hesitantly hands PJ ten pounds and sulks. "Damn it, I was so sure that I was going to win this time."

"Face it Chris, you're never going to win a bet against me."

"I won once!"

"One time and one time only. Pity."

"Suck my ass, Peej."

"Gladly."

"Lord help us." Dan whispers to Phil, who's staring at the two other boys with an odd mixture of disgust and amusement on his face.

Chris opens his mouth to say something, but is cut off at the sound of loud police sirens. All four boys stop conversing at once, and all turn like one man towards Dan and Phil's dorm window. Outside, he can hear other people's doors swinging open and other people chatting, most likely because of the situation.

Chris hums thoughtfully. "Do you think they're the policemen from our campus?"

"Those sirens sound awfully close." PJ then says, blinking.

Since he was closest to the window, Chris gets up from Dan's bed and draws the curtains from the window back. Dan watches as Chris frowns, eyebrows furrowing. "Yeah, because they're literally outside."

"Seriously?" Phil's eyes widen, and the rest of the boys join Chris at the window.

Sure enough, there are two police cars parked outside. The officers were out of their vehicles, talking to some people that Dan couldn't recognize from the top of their heads. He frowns at the sight, confused and slightly worried.

"I wonder what's going on." Dan muses. "I think everyone's talking about it in the hall."

"Let's check it out, then." Phil says, and without hesitation he stands up and opens the door. The three other boys file in behind him as he looks into the hallway—Dan sees that he's correct when he sees a bunch of his neighbors talking amongst themselves.

He's brought to his attention when he hears a voice call out his name: "Hey, Dan. Are you guys having a party in your room without me?"

Blinking, he looks to the left and makes eye contact with his American classmate Tyler. Tyler was really great person; the two had English class together and shared several common interests. He was often told that their laughs sound the same as well (he didn't really know how to feel about that).

"Oh, no, we were just having a study session before we heard the sirens."

"Did you hear what happened?"

"No, not yet," Phil interjects, tilting his head to the side. "Do you know?"

"Yeah." Tyler nods, frowning. "Someone's dorm got broken into. I think the story was that they came back from dinner to find their room unusually really cold, and when they looked around they found out that the window was smashed. The weird thing is that nothing was taken."

Dan blinks.

PJ frowns, "That's a good thing that their stuff wasn't taken, but then why was the window smashed in the first place?"

Tyler shrugs.

"I'm thinking that the moment the person broke into their room, they changed their mind and left."

"You think so?" Phil asks.

"Probably, but I'm not usually right about these sorts of things. I'm really bad at guessing and assuming things because I'm usually wrong about them. Well, catch you guys later." Tyler waves merrily at them before walking back to his room. "I don't care if they say it's safe; I'm boarding up my windows tonight."

As soon as he leaves, the four boys all head back inside the room.

"Well, that was eventful. What a good way to start off the semester, am I right?" Chris says, putting the curtains back in place as soon as they get in. He takes another fry from the to go box and winces when he tastes it. "Oh gosh, these got cold pretty quickly."

"That is so strange though... to break into a place just to not do anything in the end? What's the point of breaking in in the first place then?" Phil wonders aloud, sitting back on his bed. "Huh."

PJ scribbles a few sentences on his homework paper. "Surely it isn't just vandalism?"

"I don't think it is, for some reason. My gut feeling's telling me that this was an attempt to steal something."

Chris shrugs.

"Whatever it is, it should be a one time thing. I don't think we should worry about it too much."

Dan nods in agreement, but he frowns as he presses the tip of his pencil to the paper on his textbook.

It really was strange...

A/N: wooooOOo finished! and my leg's asleep. i love my life.

anyway hope u guys like this chapter! wow much action such plot

thanks for being so patient with me guys. i hope it won't be too long until i update again... those of you who are anticipating an update for fairy academy, i will probably (hopefully) get to it at the end of the week. bye~

until next time,
choco