The League [Phan AU]

Chapter 29

The apartment felt eerily quiet. They were both unaffected by the door being unlocked, they did that a lot on accident. But what ticked Dan off was the misplaced shotgun, which he had left leaning against the wall in the hallway.
"Someone has been here!" Dan shouted at Phil, as he paced back and forth in the living room.
"I don't see anything different," Phil said, his voice much quieter than Dan's.
'He's naïve, don't listen to him.'
"The shotgun is misplaced, the knife under my pillow was moved, and something was taken down from the wall in the office!" Dan argued back.
"Dan, just calm down-"
"I am calm!" Dan exclaimed, realizing suddenly how loud he was. He sat next to Phil and put his head in his hands. Phil rubbed his back soothingly. "I'm sorry..."
"Don't be," Phil interrupted. "It's been a crazy past few days. It's okay to be a bit stressed out."
"Why don't we go get those rings?" Dan suggested, looking up at Phil. Their faces were so close that their noses were almost touching. Dan leaned in closer and pressed his lips to Phil's. They held it for as long as they could before breaking apart to breathe.
"Before we go, there's something I want to say," Dan whispered. Phil's face scrunched up in worry. "If you want to quit the League, that's okay with me. I'm sorry if I came across angry at first about you being in the resistance, but I'm fine with it. Now that my dad's gone things can be different."
"I have a proposal, too," Phil said. "I will stay in the League, if you promise to help me reform it, and make it better."
"Okay, yeah," Dan nodded. "We can do that."
----
After their visit to the home of Philip Lester, Eren did some more digging. The knife's handle had brought no more clues, since the only fingerprints Hanji could find were not in any police accessible database. He decided to look at the financial records for the apartment, finding that the bank that was paid the rent, and the person whom paid the rent.
"Daniel Howell," Eren told Levi, explaining what he had found. Neither he nor Lester have driver's licenses, but they do have credit cards. I set up an alert to be sent to me the next time any of their cards are used."
"Great," Levi nodded. "I think blood on a knife is enough to bring Lester in, but Howell is another story."
"I say we put them both in interrogation rooms. We then take Howell's fingerprints and see if we can match them to anything," Eren suggested.
"Okay, we'll get their location next time one of their cards is used and bring them in."
----
The nearest jewelry store was only a few blocks away, so they walked there hand in hand. Until Phil had searched online they hadn't known this place existed, though. When they walked in they could tell how fancy the place was, and probably expensive. A man in a black button-up walked over to them, he was just as tall as the two of them and had dark purple eyeshadow and winged eyeliner adoring his face. Phil observed that his makeup was better than most of the female workers in the establishment.
"Can I help you two with anything?" he asked them.
"We're looking for rings, uh engagement ones," Dan answered.
"Of course, follow me," he replied with a smile. "So who popped the question?" the salesman asked with a smile.
"That was me," Dan said awkwardly.
"No time to get a ring beforehand, huh?"
"No, it was kind of spontaneous," Dan chuckled in reply.
"That's sweet," the salesman cooed. "Here are the rings we have. The cheapest are to the left and the most expensive to the right."
"Thank you," Phil said to him, turning with Dan to look at the display case.
Shiny silver rings and gold ones were all laid out to see. Dan scanned them over, looking over at Phil's cute face.
"I think we should go with something simple. Like that," Phil said, pointing to a silver men's ring that was plain except for a small intricate carving of a heart on the front.
"I have an idea," Dan muttered, turning around to look for an employee. He caught the attention of a lady in a black dress who came over to them. "Is it possible to get personalized rings? Like have specific things carved into them?"
"Yes, if you come with me the front we can take your measurements and make the bands accordingly and carve whatever you want into them," she explained.
"What's your idea, Dan?" Phil asked.
"I want to get a P carved into mine," Dan told him. "And I thought maybe you could get one with a D on it."
"Aw, I love it," Phil smiled.
"Okay, then follow me," the lady beamed.
----
They left the store and began walking home. The rings would be finished in about a week and they would get a call when they were ready. They stopped at a corner to wait for the signal to change on the sign for pedestrians, when a car pulled up in front of them on the crosswalk. It was small, with only two rows, and there was a police light on the dashboard that wasn't on, but noticeable to Dan who always kept an eye out for cops. Two men got out of the car, one much shorter than the other. They were in finely pressed suits and the tallest one had his detective's badge hanging on a chain around his neck.
"Daniel Howell and Philip Lester?" the shorter man said.
"Tha-That's us," Phil stuttered.
"We're going to have to ask you to come with us," the same guy explained.
"Why?" Dan demanded. "What do you want?"
"We just need to ask you some questions for a case," the taller one said.
"O-okay," Phil nodded.
"What are you doing?" Dan whispered, grabbing Phil's arm and stopping him from walking to the car.
'We have to comply, Dan," Phil replied. "If we don't it'll look suspicious, like we have something to hide."
"Shit, you're right," Dan sighed. "Okay, I guess we're going."