Phan: Just...friends [oneshot]

He can't remember exactly how it happened.

It was back in their old Manchester apartment, on a Saturday night after a day of lounging around and eating sweets. It had started, Dan recalled, because he began complaining.

"Saturday night with no date!" Dan had moaned. "This is no way to live."

"Oh, come on." Phil laughed. "You could get a date easily. In fact I'd bet it would be harder for you to find a girl who wouldn't date you rather than one that would."

Dan laughed too and shoved Phil's shoulder. "Yeah? Then what about you? You could get just as many girls as I could, if not more, and you're stuck here too."

"Not even, Dan. More girls would go for you-you know, with your hair and dimples and all."

"But your eyes, Phil, your eyes! C'mon, you have to admit you have the eyes in this friendship."

To prove his point Dan had grabbed Phil's face, mashing his cheeks together and looking dramatically into his light blue eyes.

Phil had laughed, but it petered out as Dan's fingers fell off Phil's skin, though while his head remained only inches away from Phil's face.

That's when the story got a little blurry, because suddenly they were kissing and kissing and kissing, and suddenly shirts were being thrown off and belt buckles undone and Dan woke up the next morning completely naked and wrapped between Phil's arms and the duvet.

They more or less forgot about it after that, though. Dan had gently disentangled himself and collected his clothing before pouring himself a bowl of cereal. They never addressed the fact that Phil walked out of his room in nothing but boxers and Dan had a love bite on his neck that he had to cover up for the next week. Neither of them were entirely sure what happened or if it even did happen, so they just let it go.

The next time it happened was the night after they moved to their new flat in London. For some reason that neither of them were completely sure of, only Dan's mattress had been delivered that day, so being the good friend he was, Dan offered Phil half of his bed so that he didn't have to sleep on the couch. Phil had agreed and the two of them crawled into bed early that night, more or less tired from moving that day.

But yet that night it happened again, they were kissing all of a sudden and then Phil rolled on top of Dan, and Dan woke up the same way he had that first morning, only this time he showered instead of making a breakfast.

By the time he had finished showering, Phil was out in the kitchen, standing in his boxers and looking slightly lost.

"Phil?" Dan asked as he ruffled his hair with a towel. "You okay?"

"Um..." Phil looked up at Dan, a flash of something that looked like sadness flickering through his eyes before he turned to face the cupboards. "I just...couldn't find the bowls."

Together they unpacked the kitchen supplies and they still didn't talk about the night before or the night in Manchester. They just let it go.

It happened again, after their first radio show. They returned home high off adrenalin and once the door had shut, Dan found himself pressing his lips to Phil's, the two of them maneuvering their way to the couch where they made out until Phil's phone rang and he jumped out from under Dan.

"Yeah, yes. Thanks again for calling...of course. See you soon, bye."

"Who was that?" Dan asked as he pulled on his shirt.

"PJ." Phil replied, watching the careful movements of Dan's fingers.

They looked at each other in silence, the previous moment clearly not passed for either of them, and Dan opened his mouth like he had something to say, but then he closed it again in silence, and Phil simply walked past him to retrieve his own shirt that was still laying on the couch. And neither of them mentioned it again.