Sighs and Fire (Phan AU) (INCOMPLETE)

(1.5)

I've only ever been to Zone 3 once or twice, so I let Phil, who's a lot more comfortable in his surroundings, lead the way with a couple bits of small talk here and there as we made our way.

"I come here a lot," he says as he pushes the gate of the park open and pulls me over to one of the trees with a chunkier trunk that's tucked away in the corner. 

I can see why - the park is deserted but at the same time looks well-kept and cared for. The only scenery around was tall buildings with stained glass windows, but it makes the whole place seem more endearing since it's more a little haven that's hidden from all the hustle and bustle in the city.

"This is my tree," Phil states, looking up and down at the bark with his eyes squinting slightly. 

"Yours?" I laugh, squeezing his hand so he knows I'm still being friendly. 

"Well, it basically is, this is where I go to think," he's still scanning the trunk and then points out a specific bit. "Look, see, I carved my name into it years ago." 

'PHIL' is written quite sloppily into the bark, like a child's handwriting, but it's clearly there in all its glory, and I can tell it's been re-carved because the letters are deep and I can see a couple of stray lines above them.

"Cute," I turn back to Phil who I only prised my eyes away from for a second to see what he wanted me to and he's blushing again with a small smile on his lips. "What if you want to come here and it's raining?" 

"Then I bring an umbrella and a towel." 

"A towel?" 

"To sit on!" He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world and drops my hand before turning around so his back is to the trunk and he slides down it until he's sitting with his knees against his chest. I sit down next to him, feeling the tree dig into my back, but I don't mind because it reminds me it's all real. I was afraid I'd wake up to discover it had all been a dream, but the tree pressing into my back told me I was very much awake and alive.

We don't say anything for a while which even though is nice in a way, it's proves harder to keep it quiet since my heading is buzzing with thousands of questions and butterflies are still jolting in my stomach.

I watch his hands pick at the grass and I get the impression from his movements that he's nervous. I am too, but not as much as I was half an hour ago. Even still, I want to make a good impression since we hardly know anything about each other. 

"Tell me about yourself," I ask Phil, but it's too open-ended to get the kind of response I wanted.

"Like what? What do you want to know? I'm hardly interesting," Phil's nose scrunches up which is too adorable for me to just brush off so I chuckle and tap it once which makes him more confused.

"I don't know...anything. Like, if you go to school or college and who you live with and if you have any friends and what you do in your spare time and what your favourite kind of music is." 

"Why do I have to go first?" 

"Because I asked you first." 

"Yeah... Well... 'D' comes before 'P' in the alphabet." 

"Touché.” I could generally be quite stubborn but let it drop just the one time so I didn't make him uncomfortable. 

He grins triumphantly and nudges my side. "Go on then." 

"Okay... So my full name is Daniel James Howell and my birthday is June 11th. I've almost finished school and I work part-time at a cafe. I have three friends at school but they're not the sort of friends you see at outside of school so I just stay at home a lot. Sometimes I play piano but only when I feel up to it which isn't often... Otherwise I just watch TV or play games. Sometimes I read comic books. Oh, and I'm left-handed. Your turn."