Phan One-Shots

Mind The Gap

A/n:  This was meant to be a really quick fun oneshot that I finished in a couple hours but surprise, surprise, it's as long as a full-length Misfit chapter. It's cool though, I quite like how this one turned out so I hope you guys do as well! I'll also be posting this one on my tumblr (mangothatismelancholy) if you'd prefer read it there for some reason.

Genre: Fluff, angst

Word Count: 38k 

Summary: Set in early 2017, Dan grows insecure in the amount of time he and Phil spend together. Worried that the older man is missing out on life experiences because he's too preoccupied with the signature D&P branding, Dan tries to fix it the only way he knows how.

Warnings: None! It's literally just pining.

*Dan's POV*

It was an exhilarating feeling, to look down on the world below from a high altitude. Something about it just made you feel so much bigger than everything else. That family dragging their children away from the display windows with prominent scowls, that man cursing over a parking ticket, the constant whir of vehicles and machinery below; I was above it all, nothing could reach me up here.

Save for what I'd carried up with me, which consisted of near everything that I'd been wanting to escape in the first place.

If only it were that easy, to carry all of your worries out to the curb and turn your back on it all. No, the things that had been poisoning my mind as of recent weren't so easily detached, it seemed they'd been woven into my very being. Who would I even be if I weren't worrying constantly about the future and how it'll play out?

I was doing just that all over again now, despite the momentary relief I'd found looking out over the edge of the balcony, those traitorous thoughts had wormed their way back to the forefront of my mind. I shook my head, trying to manually will them away. To think about anything else, even just for an hour or two, that was more than I could dare to hope for.

"What's up?" I jumped, not expecting my wishes to be granted so soon.

I probably would have spun around and taken a moment to appreciate the form my distraction had come in, but as a soft hand settled at the base of my spine I realized exactly who to expect without ever having to look. No one else knew me near well enough to touch me so carelessly.

I smiled to myself, the first genuinely happy expression I'd worn since this evening had started. It was all I could do to keep from collapsing back into him, ignoring the fact he'd ever spoken and just saturating in the relief I felt in his presence. The only thing that I could ever hold above my own anxieties, right here in the flesh. "Dan?"

"Hm?" I hummed, forgetting what he'd asked me.

"Why are you standing out here all alone? You were the one that planned this entire party, don't you wanna participate?" I grimaced, turning to face the opposite direction from him entirely so he wouldn't catch on. The fact that he was asking at all meant he was already worried about me, I didn't want to give him any more reason to be.

"Do you want me to?" I offered quietly, carefully trailing my fingertips along the worn railing I'd been leaning against moments before.

"Is something wrong? You only ever answer my questions with more questions when you're trying to hide something."

And there it was, strike three. First had been the gentle cautious way he'd touched me, then the second had been that seemingly harmless question, and finally the third was a far more direct approach. He had a pattern in these things, though I doubted he realized the same way I did.