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Phil considers himself a pretty patient guy. He thinks that handling his boyfriend’s hasty moods in his best days is already a feat not everyone would be up to. And he does it happily. Don’t get him wrong: Dan is a great person and Phil really loves him a lot. It’s just that whenever he gets sick, he suddenly becomes absolutely unbearable! He goes on long rants about how miserable his life is, how much he appreciated life before the symptoms started, how effective his pills are (not at all, apparently). And don’t even get him started on the endless complaints about the taste of the medicine!
The thing is Dan and Phil are very different people. Sure, they share a lot of interests and they click so well together that people get them mixed up most of the times, but if you look at their personalities closely, it’s easy to spot the differences. Dan is loud when Phil is gentle. Dan loves to go on long tirades about life and whatever is on his mind, while Phil is his balance, always keeping his cool and positive attitude. They work perfectly well together exactly because they balance each other out nicely.
The balance shifts completely when one of them gets sick. When Phil has a cold, he chooses to stay in bed for a while, feeling sorry for himself. He withdraws to watch some TV and recover on his own, silently sulking and letting his body do its magic. Dan will occasionally join him and try to nurse him back to health, but that’s not something Phil enjoys very much. Sure, he loves cuddles, but he’s not for making his boyfriend sick for no good reason. So he mostly hides for a while until he’s better - which usually upsets Dan because he’s one clingy guy when he wants to - but, for the most part, they are okay and everything eventually goes back to normal.
When Dan is sick, however, Phil doesn’t know how to deal. Firstly because he naturally tends to let people heal on their own and doesn’t like to get involved so much. It’s not because he doesn’t care, he does! It’s just that he likes space when he’s sick, so he just assumes that’s what other people prefer as well.
But as fate would have it, Dan is the exact opposite: he constantly wants attention when he’s sick. He gets clingy and demanding and he wants Phil to listen to him all the time, no matter what he has going on. So Phil does the best he can, putting a movie and some tea to make Dan feel better and maybe even joins him if he really wants some company. But no matter what he does, it’s never enough! The thing with Dan’s sickness is that he just needs to make everyone pity him and unfortunately Phil is always an easy target.
“Phiiiilllll,” Dan’s voice reaches his ears again and he can’t help but sigh in contempt.
“Yes, Dan?”
“Stay with me? I’m lonely!” He whines. Phil honestly thinks he looks very cute, wrapped up like a burrito on the couch. The problem is he has other things he should be doing right now.
“Dan, we’ve talked about this,” he sat down next to Dan for a second, playing with his curly hair, “I have to go edit some video material in the office. I have a lot to get done today.”
“But I’m so boooreeedd when I’m sick! I can’t fucking do anything!” He complains much like an annoyed child.
“You should get some rest. You need it,” he advised, rubbing Dan’s arm comfortingly.
“You know I can’t sleep right now because my nose is too congested! And that stupid medicine doesn’t work! I don’t know why I keep paying for this shit, it doesn’t do shit!” Dan flails away from him, angrily sulking on the other side of the couch.
“Ok, ok!” Phil interrupts, placating, putting his hand up, “can’t you just watch some TV, then?”
“But I’m bored and I feel like crap!” He pouts, “can’t you just edit your video here with me?”
“Yeah, I guess I can do that.” Phil answered after some consideration, unsure. Dan smiled back at him and at the time it felt like it would be worth the pain of having to deal with his grumpiness.
Oh, man, was Phil wrong! A few hours passed and he seriously regretted his decision-making. He let Dan’s cuteness lead him on, when his true intentions were to just continue to be a nuisance the whole time! Constantly demanding attention and stopping Phil from actually getting any work done, Dan kept making it very clear how awful he felt.
It’s a fact that Phil prides himself in being a patient person. But there’s patience and then there’s listening to his damn boyfriend complaining about being really bored for the seventh time in the last twenty minutes! He was starting to lose his cool and that didn’t happen often at all as the most dedicated fans would know.
“How can you be so bored?! I stayed with you, the TV is on, you have the remote! What is your problem now?” He couldn’t hide the anger in his voice this time. Dan was clearly startled by his tone of voice. How could he even be surprised after complaining for so long? Did he really not realize how annoying he was being?
“Am I bothering you?” He asked, at first genuine. A second later, however, Phil could just see a little devil whispering in his ear as he got increasingly annoyed, “Is your boyfriend too much of a bother? Why don’t you just leave me here to suffer, then?” He challenged, over-dramatically.
“Look, Dan, I love you. But, please, would you just let me work? Please?!” He begged, softening his tone, because he knew Dan was already angry and there was no point in making this more dramatic than it already was.
“I see, that’s how it is! You are just worried about your stupid video! Fine, then!” He got up, storming off to his room without even sparing his boyfriend a glance, letting the door slam shut behind him.
Phil sighed. He couldn’t possibly see a better way to handle that situation other than actually shaking some sense into his stubborn flatmate! There was nothing he could do right now, though. The damage was done and he’d have to face the wrath later on. Shrugging, he went back to editing his video, now a thousand times faster without being interrupted every ten seconds.
In the back of his mind, Phil was aware that he should go talk to Dan soon. He could hear his nasty cough sometimes and he frowned, a flash of worry going through his mind. But he paid it no mind, knowing that if Dan got worse he would know. Finishing his video as efficiently as he could, Phil left it rendering, happy to finally get some of his work done.
That’s when he noticed something. Or rather the absence of something. The house was eerily quiet. So quiet, in fact, that he couldn’t hear Dan coughing or sneezing in his room. Thinking it was odd, he decided to check on him and see if he finally fell asleep or if he was really just sulking really quietly. Getting up, he walked up to Dan’s room and knocked softly. No response. Frowning, he opened the door slightly and looked in. Dan was clearly asleep on the bed and Phil smiled at the sight, deciding to go check if he was doing better.
As he entered the room, though, he soon realized something was wrong. Dan was moving too much in his sleep, clearly agitated. Crossing the room, suddenly concerned, he sat down next to the boy in the bed. He assumed Dan must be having a nightmare and tried to call him, but he was still fast asleep, only little groans of discomfort leaving his lips.
“Dan?” His voice was growing a bit louder with worry as he tried to wake him up.
The youtuber reached out and touched his boyfriend’s forehead, withdrawing his hand quickly. He was very warm. Worryingly warm. Phil frowned again, going to get a thermometer to check his temperature. The fact that he didn’t wake up when Phil called him was also really strange. He usually at least responded to his voice or something.
“Mmmmmm No! Mmmm no, don’t!” He heard Dan mumble in his sleep, getting more agitated by the second.
He rushed back, grabbing the sick boy’s shoulder and lightly shaking him
“Dan?! Dan, it’s just a nightmare! Baby, wake up!” He insisted until Dan’s eyes popped open and he panted, jolting to a sitting position, eyes wide open and looking around his room. When he seemed to realized where he was, Dan let his head fall in his hands, mostly likely trying to compose himself.
“It’s just a nightmare. It’s okay.” Phil reassured him in a low voice, giving him space to calm down for a bit and only continued to speak when he raised his head again “Hey! I need to check your temperature. Can you open up for me?” He coaxed, gently and the boy obeyed, quietly.
As stated before, Phil was usually a very calm person. There was, however, one thing that had always unsettled him: Dan’s silence. He knew his boyfriend well, he was an endless ball of thrumming energy, always moving or tapping, and he was always loud and talkative in the most endearing ways.
And yet Dan hadn’t said a word since he woke up. The lack of complaining on its own already made Phil’s heart skip a beat. He could always count on Dan to be loud whenever anything at all was wrong, but he seemed very out of it now. Was it really serious? Should they go to the A&E? As he waited for the device to beep, Phil just observed Dan, who seemed a bit too docile for his taste, especially after the big scene from earlier.
It soon beeped and Phil gently took it out of his mouth to check: 39,5ºC. He whistled, surprised. No wonder Dan was looking really sick! He had quite a temperature! He looked at the boy, who had his back against the headboard and his arms hugging himself, eyes closed again, breathing raggedly. He still didn’t say a thing. Didn’t even ask Phil what his temperature was or complained about being thirsty or something. Absolute silence.
“Dan?” The boy sluggishly looked at him “You are running quite a temperature. I’m going to get you medicine and some water, ok? Will you be okay on your own?” He just nodded softly, and closed his eyes again.
Phil ran off quickly to get the supplies. Every moment of silence was making him more and more nervous. He wet a piece of cloth to cool him down, not sure if there was much else he could do. Only now as he looked down at his own hands he realized how much they were shaking, showcasing how worried he really was for his boyfriend. The boy just shook his head. It was fine. Nothing bad would happen… Right?
He jogged back into the room to find Dan perfectly still, propped up just like he left him. He seemed to have dozed off in a light sleep again, as he didn’t react to Phil coming back at all.
“Dan, I got your medicine,” he touched his shoulder and the boy woke up, looking up at him, slightly startled, “here, open up,” he poured the medicine in Dan’s compliant mouth and brought the glass of water to his lips, “Drink a little bit at least,” he obeyed, moaning a bit and turning his head after drinking half of the glass. “Ok, that’s fine. How are you holding up? I’m not used to you being so quiet,” he laughed, trying to lighten up the mood and hide his worry.
“Tired,” was the simple answer, as his eyes began to fall closed again.
“Woah, okay! I’m gonna help you lay back down!” Phil supported him back on the pillows and put the cold cloth on his forehead to cool him down. Dan tried to shake it off at first, but he didn’t let him, so the younger boy relaxed back against his pillows, “How did you get so much worse in such little time, huh? Were you feeling really poorly earlier? You should have told me,” he was more talking to himself than expecting Dan to answer at this point.
“Didn’t wanna bother you,” he answered in a whisper, brown eyes opening up to stare at him, “you know, besides from earlier. Sorry…”
“You don’t need to be sorry! I’m sorry for not noticing you were getting worse. I shouldn’t have been so rude to you when you’re feeling that bad” He threaded his hand through Dan’s curly hair, stroking it slightly. Dan hummed a bit, satisfied.
“That’s okay. I was really annoying!” He shrugged, “Too proud to ask for help, you know… After,” his eyelids were heavy and he was slurring his speech a little bit.
“No, I should have been more understanding,” Phil insisted, still lightly stroking his curls, “Go to sleep, bear. You really need it.”
Dan didn’t even argue. He just drifted off to sleep, letting the rhythm of Phil’s fingers threading through his hair lull him back to sleep. Watching Dan drift off, Phil was feeling rather guilty for treating him the way he did earlier. So he did the best he could to help from now on: he stood by Dan’s bedside and waited for his fever to go down.
It wasn’t fast, but the medicine started to work and he started to sweat the fever out. When his temperature was back to almost normal, Phil helped his boyfriend take a shower to clean away all the sweat and retired back to the lounge to relax on the internet for a while after his little scare.
Dressed in comfortable pajama pants and Phil’s hoodie, Dan soon moved back to the couch and sat down, quietly. There was quite a lot of space between them as there was still some tension lingering from their previous argument, despite their earlier apologies. Phil just glanced at him for a second and put his laptop aside, opening both of his arms.
“Come here, bear," he said and he saw Dan look at him, confused at first. Then his smile broadened and his dimple made an appearance, eyes sparkling. He happily shuffled closer and let himself be cuddled by his boyfriend, letting a little sigh or relief escape his lips.
Phil put his head over Dan’s curls and held him close. He still felt a bit warmer than normal, but he looked a lot better than earlier, his cheeks having a healthier blush to them. Dan made a comforted sound for a bit as he looked up right at Phil’s eyes and kissed him on cheek, lightly, barely grazing his skin.
“Thanks,” he said, simply, getting comfortable in his boyfriend’s arms.
Phil smiled to himself, cuddled up to his rather adorable boyfriend. He honestly couldn’t find a single reason to be mad at him. Not even his obnoxious behavior when he got sick. He shook his head and held him tighter.
“Anytime, bear. Anytime.”