unedited :(
"NO!" Screams Dan, fear rippling through his entire body. He reaches his hand out towards Room 12C, almost like he's trying to grab his boyfriend's body from afar. Running into the room, he collapses down near the bed, clawing at the sheets covering Phil.
"Please," he pleads, his voice choked with tears. "Please. Come back! I need you!"
Phil had left to get Take-Out when he was hit by the drunk driver.
Dan had arrived to late.
"I never got to say goodbye..." He whispered, softly, his entire body shaking in, distraught.
*eight years later*
"Can we go to the park, Daddy?" Dan felt a tug at the end of his shirt. He smiles down at the small boy, Winston (or Winnie).
"Of course," Dan says, taking his tiny, in comparison, hand and walking with him to the playground, filled with sweaty but happy children, running around in the humid weather. "But not too late, Mommy's gonna meet us for lunch." Winnie nodded before running off.
Smiling, Dan sits on the slightly wet, wooden bench. In these quiet moments, his mind always wanders to the hauntingly beautiful boy that plagues his daydreams. He can still picture his piercing blue eyes, staring into his own, his smile directed towards Dan. He can feel his arm around him, sending shivers down his spine, despite the hot sun beating down on him.
Jesus, he missed Phil Lester.
Winnie was running around with his friend, Susan, when he was blocked by a pair of legs. He looks up to see a man, smiling down at him. The man seems to be a watery image of a human, surreal. Winnie, confused and scared, backs away.
"So, you're Dan's kid," the unknown man says, smiling. He bends down so he's Winnie's height. "Don't be scared, I'm sorry I scared you."
"Wh-who are you?" Winnie stutters out, clutching his frisbee, tightly to his chest.
Phil smiles at the boy, his hair the same hue as Dan's curling at the ends, just like Dan's natural hair. He assumes he got the green eyes from Dan's wife. Sadly, he smiles, Dan got married after him.
"Phil Lester, can you remember that name for me?" Winnie nods, a little less scared and a little more intrigued.
"Of course, sir..." Phil trusts that the five year old will.
Winnie's bright green eyes begin to widen in fear as he sees Phil's ghost of a body beginning to fade away. Phil looks down, disappointed. He thought he could've stayed for at least a couple more minutes, longer. "Are...are you okay, mister?" He asks, his voice trembling.
"Yeah," Phil says. "Listen, Winnie, can you tell your dad something for me?"
Winnie nods, yet again. Phil smiles, weakly, his temporary body beginning to hurt as it fades.
"Tell him Phil Lester misses and loves him very much. And he's so sorry he never got to tell him that before he...went away."
Winnie nods, watching the mysterious black-haired ghost disappear, just like he was never there in the first place.
"Winnie?" Susan asks, shaking her friend. "Winnie, are you okay?"
Winnie doesn't respond and just runs straight towards his father.
"Woah," Dan says, catching the boy as he hurls himself onto Dan's lap, burying his face in Dan's black t-shirt. "What happened, Win?"
"I saw...I saw a ghost..." Winnie whispered, his voice nearly inaudible. Dan chuckles, smoothing Winnie's hair with his fingers, carding the strands, comfortingly.
"Did you?" Dan asked, assumed. "What did this ghost say?"
"He said his name was...Phil...Phil Rester? Hester? Lester?"
Dan stopped smiling, his eyes grew the size of plates, his cheeks paling. He couldn't have heard that right, he's never told Winnie about Phil.
"W-what," he manages to stutter out. "What did you say?"
"Phil Lester...I think." Winnie's voice was muffled, but it was ringing in Dan's ear. He saw Phil, his Phil, his dead Phil. "He told me to tell you that he misses and loves you and is sorry he couldn't tell you that before he left. What does that mean, Daddy?"
Dan can't make out any words. Phil Lester, his true love. He never thought Phil would make his way back to Dan. Especially not through Winnie. Sighing, Dan, still shaken up, puts on a happy face for Winnie.
"I'll tell you when you're older, okay?"
"Okay!"
Later that night, Dan sat on the edge of his bed, thinking of Phil, like always. But tonight it was different, he felt Phil's presence in the room. Phil just sort of had that...aura that Dan could feel being omitted in the nearly empty room.
"I never got to say my goodbye," He whispered, his voice laced with pain and longing. Yet lighthearted and lovingly. "I love you Phil, more than anything. I miss you, more than I've ever missed and will miss anything. You were my everything. Were, because I have Winnie now... But you'll never stop taking up so much room in my heart. I'm sorry I never got to tell you these things."
Dan sighed and thought of Phil's lips. He puckered his own, just pretending Phil was there, to be kissed.
and he swore he could feel Phil's ghost kissing back.
