Symbiosis (Phan)

1: i spent more time on the cover than i did writing this chapter

He hadn't anticipated the rain, but appreciated it nonetheless, less so what it did to his hair, but summer was getting too hot and too dry, and rain drops upon leaves made for incredibly cool photographs and Dan was all about the art hoe aesthetic.

Of course, as luck would have it, he didn't have his camera with him that very moment, but still, he could appreciate the fact that at least when the rain was here fucking up his hair and turning into a curly mess that he wasn't quite so fond of, no one was around to see it.

Of course, that was what he thought, after all, no one really frequented the path coming down from the back of his road hidden between far too many trees - it was the kind of place you couldn't really happen upon accidentally or commuted down, seeing as it didn't really go anywhere, and truth be told, Dan only went down it to take aesthetically pleasing photographs, and a strong ninety eight percent of the time he'd spent there he'd spent alone.

But that changed as soon as he heard some sort of ungodly shriek, leaving his first thought to be 'oh god, someone's dying', and then in turn, 'oh god, I'm going to die'. Because truth be told, sixteen year old Dan Howell was just a little neurotic at times, and by times, well, most of the time... ninety nine percent of the time, or if not that, a strong ninety eight point five percent.

However, before Dan could quite process just what the fuck was going on, and in turn, just what the fuck he was supposed to do, another, louder shriek sounded followed by footsteps coming from behind him, and before he really knew what was happening, he hit the dirt path with a thump an a rather eloquently putting, "fucking tit balls," from his lips.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to run into you, I just- are you okay, I can-"

Dan rubbed his eyes, looking up to see a rather concerned looking boy, around his age with black hair and blue eyes, "yeah, I'm fine, don't worry, I'm just clumsy, I guess, sorry I-" It was only as Dan sat up that he finally pieced together just what had caused this rather unlikely chain of events, and in particular that one horrific screech. "Is that a ferret?" The boy laughed a little, looking down at the small white creature on the end of the leash in his hand. "It's either a ferret or a fucking severely deformed dog with a fucking screeching baby trapped inside it's mouth, I fucking swear to God that gave me a heart attack."

The boy met Dan's gaze, giggling a little, because truth be told, Dan did sound more than a little ridiculous, but it was cute, was as cute as someone in ferret related distress could be. "No, she'd be a really weird dog if she was one, but this is Susan, she's a striped white ferret, she's thirteen and a half months old, and I'm sorry she attacked you like that, she just gets very excited, I think she might not like the rain, you know? I don't know, you know ferret care would be so much easier if ferrets could talk, like wouldn't that be cool, like if all animals could talk, but like then I'm absolutely six hundred percent sure that all my friends would be animals and I'd have no social life."

"Uhh..." Dan trailed off, unsure as to just how seriously this boy could possibly take his ferret, before going fuck it and continuing regardless, "one question," the boy smiled at him, nodding a little, "why the fuck are you walking a ferret? It's not a dog-"

"Well, actually," he leaned down to stroke the ferret- Susan, and decided just to sit down, facing Dan, who hadn't quite gathered the emotional capacity to get back up again, "ferrets can be leash trained, and some like being able to explore the outdoors, you mean, you wouldn't like it if you were kept in a cage all your life, would you?"

"But I'm not a ferret," Dan continued, laughing a little, still not sure whether this boy was just taking the piss here or not, because seriously, who the fuck was this enthusiastic about ferrets?