Bloom >> phan

Pain, Pain, Go Away

     Although Phil wanted to stay at his place until his approaching hospital visit, Dan needed to pick some things up from his own apartment.  Phil felt terrible now.  It was almost like all of the pain in his sides from the past month began bubbling over into this exact moment, as he was standing in Dan's living room watching him fiddle with gardening tools for his work.
The clouds outside the bay window were turning dark gray along with Phil himself as he dropped to his knees on the floor, coughing painfully. Phil had no idea what was happening to him, nor did he remember how quickly Dan had let go of his equipment to rush over to him, or even the way he hurriedly called an ambulance as his eyes were brimmed, almost overflowing, with tears. His lungs filled with fire, exhaled the desire to live, but his vision started to fade away as he was put on a stretcher and carried out of the apartment building and out onto the street as Dan's neighbors watched worryingly from their own windows.
Before Phil became fully unconscious, however, the words of the strange, yet surprisingly wise, Dr. Iplier came to his mind again. Although he had the lingering feeling that he was going to make it out okay, he reached over and put a hand on the paramedic helping him into the ambulance. As the woman, Shawna on her name tag, stopped working to look down at him, Phil whispered, "Make sure he knows that I'm going to be alright."  Shawna nodded.
     "I'll put on some anime for him," she quietly joked.  "I've seen the one on his sweater."
     Phil smiled weakly as Shawna continued hoisting him into the vehicle.  I'm going to be fine...  Right?

---

This was happening all too quickly. Phil woke up gasping for air. His hands were grasping for some sign of life. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Dan appeared. He wasn't speaking, wasn't moving, only looking at Phil melancholically. He almost looked like a projection of his usual self. Dan simply stood next to Phil, who so desperately tried to grab hold of him. However hard he tried, his hands slipped right through Dan while his heart began to rise higher into his throat. Once his vision began to fade for what seemed like the final time, he stopped trying to hold onto the amazingly beautiful man whom had changed his life so quickly for the better. Then he noticed that Dan seemed to be on fire, and the strange man from the doctor's office stood behind him; he almost seemed to be guarding Dan. Phil didn't have time to register this, as his choking turned into a violent shaking and the peace and the panic of the moment melded into one as he woke up to bright lights all around him.
"Phil! Phil wake up! PLEASE, PHIL!" Phil still couldn't understand exactly where he was or who was yelling at him; all noise was muted as if he was drowning underwater. "Phil! It's just a bad dream, Phil! Please, wake up!"
At last Phil's eyes adjusted to the light and his panic. Dan stood above, almost lying across, Phil's hospital clothed body. Thankfully, Dan didn't look anything like he did in Phil's nightmare. However, he was pressing painfully onto Phil's chest. Phil let out a soft whimper and shifted his body to a more comfortable position.
"Phil! Oh my god, you're okay! I've missed you so much!"
"What day is it?" Phil croaked, his voice still heavy with sleep and dull pain coming from his chest.
"Well, it's still the same day..." Dan lifted himself off of Phil and sat on the edge of the bed, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.  Phil grinned.
"Well, then I'm glad that you're still awake."  By this point he had resorted to whispering his responses.  "It seems pretty late." 
     "It is," Dan replied.  "But I'd stay up forever to be with you."  With this, Dan leaned back over Phil and kissed him, cupping his hand around the shaved black hair on the back of Phil's head.  Phil immediately reciprocated the kiss, and when he felt Dan start to pull back, he threw his arms around Dan's shoulders and deepened the kiss further.
     As they separated, their foreheads together and their lips barely touching, Phil pulled his arms back towards himself and cupped Dan's face in his hands.
     With tears swimming in his eyes, Phil whispered, "Dan, I had no idea that I'd end up in the hospital for some sort of lung issue, but...  You really took my breath away."
     "You cheeky motherfucker!"  Dan laughed and pulled Phil back in for another kiss.  As soon as their lips connected once more, Phil heard a knock on the open door as a familiar voice followed it.  Dan quickly broke the kiss and looked up to see who it was.
     "Um...  I'm sorry if I'm interrupting something here, but I, uh, just wanted to check up on Mr. Lester."  Dr. Iplier's eyes were darting across the room, all except for the spot where Dan still laid across Phil's body.  However, Dan seemed to notice this and scrambled back to his spot on the chair beside the bed, all while fixing his curly hair back into place.
     "Uh..."  Phil nervously laughed, glancing to and from the other men in the room.  "No, you're good, Doctor."  Dr. Iplier let himself walk into the room with a more confident stride than the embarrassing vibe his eyes seemed to encase.  He sat down on the other side of Phil with an important looking file in his hands.
     "Look, I know I wasn't the most helpful person yesterday...  I should have told you to head to the hospital immediately."  He put the file in his lap and started to rub his face with both of his hands as if to hide his shame.  "Anyway," he took the file and gave it to Phil, "Here's everything you need to know about your condition.  You're going to die-I mEAN LIVE!  I'm so sorry, it's just out of habit...  You're going to l-live, easily.  However, you do need to be treated for pneumonia; it's a very common illness, as you probably already know.  But...  I've gotta go.  Good luck, Phil." 
     The troubled Worst News Doctor, after being thanked by both men, left Phil to read the file that he had been given.  Pneumonia, huh?  It sounds awful, but if Dr. Iplier is positive...  As he leafed through the pages, the first being a pamphlet titled "So You Have Pneumonia - What's Next?" (very professional), he felt Dan stir beside him.  After he finished reading about how long the treatment would take, he put all of the papers back neatly into the file and placed it on his nightstand.  When Phil looked up, he saw Dan by the windowsill watering a bunch of yellow roses that had red tips from where they sat in a vase.  For a moment, Phil wondered why Dan would bother having flowers in the room they were going to leave in the next few days.
     "Those are very pretty, but why did you bring them here?"  Dan set down the cupful of water and picked up a pruning tool. 
     Without looking up from his work, Dan stated, "Flowers are one of my escapes.  Although, quite recently," he grunted as he snapped a difficult stem off, "My escape has been you."  Once he was finished he went and washed his hands, soon returning to Phil's side.  "What's your escape, Phil?"
"Well, um, I don't know..." Phil stumbled on his words as he tried to answer this difficult question until he landed on one he felt suitable. "Music. Definitely music." There was a silence following his words, and Phil knew he had forgotten to mention Dan. He felt such strong feelings for the other man, but, somehow, he didn't feel comfortable addressing the fact that he wouldn't be here without him.
Dan turned away from Phil and looked back at his flowers, the early morning sun shining through the window made the wet petals look as if they were glittering. "I understand," he said.

AN:
Neck Deep + twenty one pilots + hospital visit?! wowza
also, thank you so so much for over 300 reads! I can't believe that so many people would pick up the fic! Thank you!
anyways, I need to start making these notes shorter so have a great week...or month if I don't update until fall...
-xoxo Em