Summary: Phil comes home after a night of drinking with college friends and Dan has to deal with his drunkenness.
Warnings: minor smut (mostly fluff though)
Word count: 3,185
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It was three in the morning and of course Dan was still awake. He usually was, but tonight it was different because he wasn’t up because something interesting kept him up or because he still had to finish a video.
The reason was his flat mate and best friend Phil who despite having promised to be home at midnight, still hadn’t turned up and Dan was worried as fuck. Because let’s be honest Phil wasn’t exactly scary looking or anything - the perfect victim for a robbery, really.
Maybe Dan was a bit exaggerating there, but everything was possible with Phil. He usually attracts the weirdest people anyone could imagine. So why shouldn’t he cross paths with a murder or something tonight?
Dan sighed, pacing up and down in their lounge while fumbling with his phone. Should he call Phil? After all it had been three hours since he was due to get home. It was only naturally for Dan to worry about his best friend, right?
“Oh fuck it." With that Phil’s number was dialled and Dan’s phone pressed to his ear.
"Hello. This is Phil. I’m not here at the moment. Please leave-”
Dan cut off the voice mail and groaned in frustration. Of course his phone was turned off. Just great. How was he supposed to know if Phil was alright now?
Yeah, he was out with some old uni-friends but that didn’t mean he was safe. For all Dan knew they could’ve been in a club and Phil could be stumbling about somewhere in London now, drunk and completely out of his mind. He’d never reacted that well to alcohol consume. Oh god.
Dan was properly freaking out now, practically running from one end of the lounge to the other, calling Phil’s phone again and again in the hope that maybe, just maybe, he would turn it on and answer Dan’s god-damn calls.
The minutes passed and Dan was actually about to fall asleep on the sofa - not because he didn’t care about Phil anymore but more because he was just really freaking exhausted - when suddenly the door to his and Phil’s flat was unlocked and before Dan could even think about anything he was already up on his feet and running out into the hall, where a very drunk and disoriented Phil was standing.
“Fuck Phil. Do you have any idea what time it is? I’ve been waiting for you for ages. I was really fucking worried about you, okay. Why didn’t you call and tell me you were coming home later? Jesus fucking Christ." Dan couldn’t help it but yell at Phil. He didn’t mean to, he really didn’t but he was just so relieved that Phil wasn’t hurt and he just needed something to let the stress that had built up inside him out.
“Hey Danny boy," Phil chuckled, stumbling forwards and straight into Dan’s chest, making them both crash against the wall.
“Phil! Did you even listen to what I’ve just said?" Dan snapped, squirming as he tried to get out of Phil’s grip, which wasn’t that easy as the boy had his arms pretty much slung around Dan.
“You’re cute," Phil slurred, grinning at Dan before leaning in and placing a sloppy kiss on Dan’s cheek.
“And you’re drunk," Dan sighed, eventually realizing why Phil wasn’t responding to anything he said.
“M not drunk," Phil denied, pouting at Dan’s accusation.
Dan shook his head at Phil’s words, smiling slightly at the boy. It was hard to hold a grin back when Phil was all drunk and acting like such a dork.
“You are but never mind. Let’s get you into bed, yeah?"
Dan grabbed Phil’s wrists and pulled his arms away from his body, eventually getting out of his tight grasp. He dragged the boy to his bedroom and let him sit down on the bed before taking his shoes off, as Phil obviously wasn’t in the state to do so himself.
“Now lay down and sleep. We’re going to talk about this tomorrow," Dan mumbled, still wanting an explanation as for why Phil had been out for so much longer than he had said he would be.
“But I don’t want to sleep. I’m not tired," Phil whined, moving to the middle of his bed and jumping up and down a bit.
“But I am tired. Now go to sleep," Dan replied, getting a bit annoyed with Phil. He really acted like a 9-year-old sometimes. “Good night." With that Dan was at the door and about to turn the light off when he suddenly heard whimpering coming from behind him.
He turned around, only to see Phil sitting still on his bed now, his bottom lip trembling and his eyes watery. Fuck, was he crying?
“Pl-please don’t leave m-me," Phil mumbled, sounding so sad and broken, it actually made Dan’s chest hurt. He watched as a fair few tears escaped Phil’s eyes and then quickly skipped over to his bed again, sitting down next to the crying boy and wrapping one arm around his shoulder, so he could lean into him if he needed to.
“Shh sh, Phil. I was just going to my room. I’m not actually leaving you," he tried to explain himself, rubbing Phil’s shoulder soothingly in an attempt to calm the boy down. Phil hardly ever got drunk, so Dan had no idea what happened to him when he was intoxicated, but apparently he was an emotional drunk.
“Don’t leave me Dan. I love you so much. Please stay with me," Phil sobbed, obviously ignoring everything Dan had said. He threw his arms around Dan and pulled him as close as he could with both of them sitting cross-legged.
“Calm down, Phil. I’m right here," Dan whispered, hoping his quiet voice would help to calm Phil down.
Dan smiled lightly as he realized what Phil had said to him. I love you so much. Of course it didn’t mean as much as it would if Phil was sober, but it still warmed Dan’s heart up to hear those three little words leave Phil’s mouth.
Their friendship had always been a bit more than just platonic but never had one of them said the L-word, although Dan had thought about it quite a lot, especially in the last few weeks. His feelings for Phil had started to grow even deeper and he almost felt himself suffocating in the amount of love he felt for his best friend.
