Prelude
Dan Howell. Dan was a classic. Sarcastic, opinionated, and smart. Interesting enough to hold your attention once he gets it but he won't reciprocate. Dan Howell was the type of person to take charge and not know what he was doing, but somehow it still turned out okay. He was the one who studied once on the night before the test and got an average grade. The one who stood in the corner of the party but stuck in everyone's head. He was addictive as the sweetest drug that always left you on your highest low. He couldn't stop influencing and he knew what he wanted. He that one guy with the hair who had your eyes blurring from the way he talked and had you wrapped around his finger, but wrapped around his finger in the way where he'd only wanted to have you in his own kind of way. Where he could ruin you but he didn't think he could. Nor would he ever. Loving Dan is like sitting on the couch all day and eating popcorn for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Dan was Dan.
Phil Lester was a whole nother story. Phil was a dizzy hurricane who was clumsy and interesting and stuck in your head after saying a random thing that shouldn't have been that serious but had you up at twelve wondering and thinking and rambling. I'll stop there. Phil was the one who amazed everyone with his silly party tricks and always left everyone feeling happy. He was the boy who caught your eye in the store and his eyes were your ocean of thoughts, and there sure as hell was a storm brewing. He was sweet and slightly intoxicating but not in the way where it made you crazy. The kind of intoxicating where everything left your mind except "Phil, Phil, Phil" and you just wanted to cuddle him a lot. Phil was a kind of personificated dizzy. A switch that turned the light off with the on button. A walking oxymoron. The moment where you mess up but it's okay because life is okay. It was only a small mistake. Breathe in, breathe out. Loving Phil is like sitting in the part of the sofa where it's soft and smooth and feels like your entire backside has been molded into it and you kind of feel at home.
Phil was Phil.
When Dan met Phil, it was like water and fire collided. Water didn't put out the fire, though. And the fire didn't evaporate the water. They just created a kind of steam, and an addictive one as they couldn't stop creating it. It was like the mist of an extremely potent potion, because not even they could get enough of it.
It was like they evened each other out. They somehow made each other feel at a kind of ease. Instead of causing more distress to each other when trying to help, it actually helped. Instead of an overdrawn dull drabble, it was a conversation that relaxed them and made them more focused. Even though the stress wasn't completely gone, it wasn't a throbbing headache anymore. And meeting each other wasn't one of those stories, "When this boy pulled up to my front yard as I died from cancer like everyone else in my neighborhood, my life changed forever."
Phil changed Dan. No, it wasn't in the way where Dan's insecurities melted away when Phil's blue eyes melted into Dan's memory. It was more like therapy without the awkwardness and pretending to care. Phil didn't "fix" Dan, because there was nothing broken. Dan was maybe a little misguided. Not broken. Phil just leads him.