Stray Cat

Chapter Twenty-Six

As they boarded a bus and found some seats secluded in the back, Phil saw how tired Dan was when he collapsed onto his seat and immediately closed his eyes. Phil reached out – he couldn't stop touching Dan – and he touched the soft skin between Dan's eyes to make them open, the chocolate eyes glinting with amusement.

Phil smiled. "Sorry. I shouldn't have made you open your eyes. I can see that you're tired."

Dan shook his head as he yawned. Then he sat up a bit straighter. "It's okay. I slept a lot while I was in there. I'm just worn out, but I can sleep later. I'd like to see your face right now. I missed your face."

"I missed your face, too." Phil giggled, and before he realized what he was doing he had reached out again, this time to stroke the soft fur of Dan's ears.

Dan started to purr and his eyelids lowered, but then he shook his head. "Hey, Phil, that isn't helping me to stay awake."

Phil pulled his hand back. "Sorry. I just can't believe you're here. I can't believe my eyes, so I can't keep my hands off you – when I touch you I know that you're real."

Dan scooted closer to him on the seat so that their arms were touching. "I'm real. Believe it. So, tell me why you decided to pack up and move North? Did it have something to do with the money I cost you? Is it my fault?"

"Don't think of it like that. You had something to do with it, but I haven't lost anything. I really didn't care about that apartment. As for money, you didn't really cost me anything." Dan's eyes were wide now and Phil could tell that he had the Neko's attention. He elaborated, "You cost £20,000. I talked to Linda, and she handed over the 10,000 she got for selling you. Martyn sold his car for 2,500, and then Mum pitched in the rest. Mum requested that I move back home, sort of to repay her. Her reasoning was really sweet, though. I'll tell you about it later. Oh, I did sell my Muse concert tickets, but I'm using the money to cover moving expenses."

"Wow," Dan said. He bit his lip and looked away. "Your mum and Martyn... I know they did it for you, but still I never thought I'd be worth so much trouble to so many people."

"Of course you're worth it, and they didn't just do it for me. Martyn likes you too, and he wanted you to be safe. I told Mum how I feel about you, and you know what she said? 'He's already family'. Linda is the only one who didn't do it for you, but she didn't do it for me either – she just decided to do the right thing in the end."

Dan frowned at this last part. Then he returned his attention to Phil. "What about your job? Did you quit?"

"No, I got fired again." Phil blushed slightly and looked away, though he wasn't really embarrassed. "If I hadn't been fired, I would have quit. I couldn't go to work until you were safe again. I couldn't focus on anything."

Before Dan could comment on this, the bus was pulling up to their stop and they stepped into the busy street where Londoners were hurrying home after work. The street lamps had already turned on, though the sun was still setting. A breeze swept past, making Phil shiver in his thin t-shirt. Dan noticed and moved to take the jacket off, but Phil stopped him. "No, keep it on. We're almost at Martyn's."

They clasped hands and silently walked the last two blocks. A couple moments later, they were at Martyn's door. Martyn opened the door, beaming at Dan. "You have no idea how good it is to see you."

Dan looked slightly bewildered but also pleased when Martyn pulled him into a hug. When Martyn pulled away, he said, "Good to see you, too."

Martyn led them to the living room, where Thai takeout containers were spread out across the coffee table. "You said you like Thai, right?"

Dan laughed. "Martyn, this is great. You could have offered me a boiled shoe and it would have been the best thing I've eaten in a few days. Or however long I was gone – I'm not sure."

"Four days," Phil said as they settled down. Dan sipped at a glass of Ribena and closed his eyes as he savored the taste. Phil asked, "What did they feed you there?"

Dan grimaced as he reopened his eyes. "You don't want to know. It will just make you mad."

"I can be mad at them if I want to be," Phil said indignantly. "They deserve it. I'm already mad at them." He looked at Martyn. "You know how they brought him to the room where I was waiting? They were dragging him across the floor by his wrist."

Martyn made a disgusted noise as he reached for a container of Thai food, which he then poked at with chopsticks.

"Well, that was Jimmy," Dan added. "He also brought me my food, so I really didn't like him."

Putting a name to the face somehow made Phil hate this man more. He had noticed that Dan hadn't taken a bite of his dinner yet, and he was worried that bringing this up was making Dan lose his appetite. "Dan, do you not want to talk about this right now? We can discuss it later if you like."

Dan saw Phil's eyes on the chopsticks in his hand, and he hurried to put them to use. After swallowing some Thai food, he shook his head in answer to Phil's question. "I don't mind telling you what happened, if you really want to know. I've always been so secretive about my past, and it's never done either of us any good. That... disagreement we had the last time we were at your place?" He glanced at Martyn, leaving no doubt in Phil's mind that he was talking about the panic attack he had while they were having sex. "I don't think that would have happened if I had been open about the bad things that had happened to me. So, this time around I'm going to talk more. This feels like a second chance to me, and I don't want to screw it up."

Martyn and Dan continue eating in silence, but Phil had lost his appetite as he considered Dan's words. It had taken four nerve-wracking days to get Dan home, but Phil had thought that it had been soon enough that Dan hadn't been harmed. So, he had been wrong.

"You okay, Philly?" Martyn was staring at him, chopsticks frozen in his hand as something in Phil's expression had made him concerned.

Dan stopped eating to stare at him, too. "Did I say something wrong?"

Phil shook his head quickly. It was good that Dan wanted to open up, and he didn't want to make him change his mind, thinking that Phil couldn't handle it. "You didn't do anything wrong. It's them. What did they do to you? I have to know."

Dan looked away, idly poking at his food with the chopsticks. "I'm not sure where to start. That place was hell. I mean, you saw it."

He had the sudden urge to strip Dan naked to check him for bruises that his clothes might be hiding, but Phil asked, "Did they... assault you?"

Dan blinked at him, seeming to understand what he was asking. "No. The closest who came to doing that was Jimmy. He came to my cell and said some things. I think he was going to make me blow him, but I told him I'd bite off his dick if he tried." Dan gestured to the faint bruise on his cheek. "He slapped me and left."

Phil felt like he was going to lose the little bit of his dinner that he had eaten. He felt like all of the claims he had made lately were false bravado – how could he protect Dan? A strong man would think about how he had had his hands on that pervert this afternoon when he shoved him in the hallway, and he would want revenge and promise violence. That wasn't the kind of man that Phil was though, and he was coming to accept it. He wasn't the tough guy, but he was the person who Dan had chosen. All he had to offer was comfort and promises that Dan was safe now. He hoped that it was enough.

Phil said, "I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner."

Dan shook his head. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You saved my life today. I don't know where I would have ended up if you hadn't come to get me, but I know that it wouldn't have been a good place."

Since he had come home four days ago to an ominously empty apartment, Phil had felt like his world was falling apart. It was a sensation like realizing the Earth under his feet was spinning too fast and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Now that Phil was sat on a sofa with Dan finally at his side again, he took a deep breath and felt the spinning world slow beneath his feet once more. He had Dan, Dan was okay, and everything was going to be alright.