Stray Cat

Chapter Twelve

Phil decided to make pancakes for dinner, and he settled onto the sofa with Dan to eat them while watching anime. Dan fell asleep before the end of the episode. Phil wasn't too tired, but he wanted nothing more than to lie in bed with Dan's warm body beside his, so he turned off the TV and wrapped his arms around the sleeping Neko. As he placed Dan on the bed he saw that Dan had woken up. "Sorry," he whispered as he slipped into bed beside him and pulled the duvet over them. "Didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep."

Dan sat up a bit. "I fell asleep right after dinner, didn't I? Oh no."

Phil put a hand on his chest to make him lie back down. "It's okay. I'm a bit worn out after work. I'm okay with going to bed early."

"I'm not." Phil could see Dan pouting in the moonlight coming in through the window. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh? We can talk. What did you want to talk about?"

Dan bit his lip and he was quiet for a moment. "Nothing in particular. I just wanted to talk. How was work?"

"Okay." Phil grinned. "No one shouted at me or threw things at me, so I guess work went well. How was your day? Do anything interesting?"

"Interesting..." Dan weighed the word. "I guess you could say so. I wanted to tell you... Martyn gave me the password to your laptop. Is that okay? Are you mad at me?"

Phil couldn't think of anything on his laptop that he wouldn't want Dan seeing. "I'm not mad at you. Of course you can use my laptop. I should have thought to give you the password myself."

Dan sighed in relief and closed his eyes. "Thanks, Phil."

"You really thought I was going to be mad at you?" Phil asked with a laugh. "My brother gave you the password – if I was mad at anyone it would be him, but I'm not. You can use my laptop. I mean... what were you using it for?"

Dan glanced at him and he seemed nervous. "Martyn showed me a website: YouTube. It was interesting. I liked it."

Phil smiled. "I like YouTube, too. Maybe we could watch it together sometime. I'll show you some of my favorite channels."

"I'd like that." They lapsed into silence. Dan was very warm and Phil relaxed beside him. He felt himself drifting off to sleep.

Phil woke to the sound of retching. He reached out and the sheets beside him were empty and cooling. Dan was gone. Phil sat up and put on his glasses. He looked around the dark room, but no one was here. Then he heard the sound of someone being sick again and he got up, following the sound to the bathroom. "Dan?"

Dan grunted in response; he was bent over the toilet.

Phil sat on the edge of the bathtub. He placed a hand on Dan's back. "Are you okay?"

Dan shook his head. He spoke in a soft voice, "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

Phil's mouth opened and closed as he started to mention the hospital again, but then he remembered that Dan said someone might be looking there for him. So, he decided to try to be reassuring since he didn't know what else to do. "It's going to be okay, Dan. You're going to be okay. You've been doing so well. Just another day and a half and everything will be back to normal."

He shook his head. "I can't do this."

Phil moved his hand up Dan's spine to rest it on his neck. He started rubbing there, trying to be soothing. "You can. You'll be fine."

"Ugh, don't do that please. My neck is sensitive." Dan waved away his attention.

"Sorry, I should have realized." Phil placed his hands on the side of the tub.