Secrets to Keep (Phan)

Chapter 18

Over the next few weeks things got better. My birthday came and passed, so now I was twenty-one and Dan was sixteen, which made me feel exactly as pedophillic as that sounds. I didn't exactly feel older, but I guess it's not really something that just happens in a day like everyone tries to pretend it does. I don't think anyone ever actually feels older until they're wrinkled and senile, sitting on a rocking chair and wondering where the days have gone, along with their eyesight, hearing, and hair. 

Valentine's Day also passed. I got Dan a stuffed bear, and we shared the box of chocolate he got me, getting Takeaway before settling down with our new house's Netflix and having a movie night. We ended up moving into the cheap flat, and Dan got a morning job at Tesco, which he hated, and I got hired at some little bookstore as a clerk. I told him he didn't have to work at some place that made him miserable and sleepy, but he refused to quit, telling me we needed the money.

I knew it was true, but I still didn't want him to loose so much sleep over a few pounds an hour.

__________

I stood by the stove in our kitchen that was separated by a glass door, pouring the creamy pancake batter into the frying pan that rested on the glowing burner. It was literally three in the morning on Monday, and I knew Dan would be up soon to get ready for work, before going straight to school. I hadn't even gone to sleep in the first place, and as I lay in bed with Dan snoring into my side, I got this crazy idea that I would make him breakfast.

It seemed like the nice thing to do since I was already up, so I gathered up some online Delia Smith recipe, found some rogue pancake ingredients and got to cooking. They turned out pretty good for the most part, except for the last one that may or may not have hit the light fixture when I flipped it, creating a pancake-splosion.

I stood in front of our bedroom door with the tray in hand, and I knew how much Dan would hate me for waking him fifteen minutes early, but I guess I just hoped that the pancakes could double as some sort of peace offering alongside being breakfast. I pushed open the door ever so slowly, casting a dim light across Dan's sleeping form. I could see that in my absence he had wrapped himself in a cacoon of blankets and pillows, grasping the pillow I had previously been laying on close to his chest. He was so cute.

Gently, I slid the tray onto the bedside table, before climbing into bed with Dan, stroking his messy hair from his eyes and giving his forehead a light kiss.

"Hey Dan, I've got a surprise for you." I whispered softly, planting kisses across his soft cheeks.

He groaned in response.

"C'mon sleeping beauty you'll love it."

"Phil I have an alarm." he whined, nuzzling his face further into the pillow.

"And I've got breakfast, which I think is a much better wake up call than Carly Rae Jepson."

"God I hate that song." Dan mumbled, sighing as I ran my fingers over his arm.

"Well why is it your alarm?"

"Because I can't put a song that I like as my alarm. It'll completely ruin it for me." he explained, his voice muffled slightly by my pillow.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" I asked softly as I started to twirl one of his curly brown strands of hair around my finger.

"Y'know I don't think you've mentioned it." Dan responded, sarcasm leaking from his tired voice.

"Get up."

"Mmmmb." he replied incoherently through the pillow engulfing his face.

"I'll give you another hickey." I threatened, running my finger over the darkened purple mark already fading into Dan's neck, and causing him to shiver.