#{ ENGAGE IS FINALLY IN THE BAG (read: i stayed up until 2am on a work night beating it and will probably regret that decision later-)}

[galeforged]

When he rose from sleep that morning, the sensation felt as if... he were waking from a most vivid dream. Long and restful as blissful rest should, yet he near found himself waking with a start. Memorable in his first moments of rousing, though finer details already became fleeting the more he attempted to recall them. A dream so lifelike that it almost felt like memories, but there was no feasible way he could have actually lived them, was there?

A most confounding paradox indeed. Suppose this sort of thing can happen when you walk through one too many Outrealm Gates... or find yourself in one too many life-or-death battles.

Still, Forwin Tyrell found comfort from the relative safety of his bed, now that the war was over. The Church of Seiros saw itself reformed, those who slither in the dark were routed, and a new dawn heralded peace returning to Fódlan. After one last night spent at Garreg Mach, before everyone would part ways with the army disbanding, the time would soon come for him to hang up his hat and cape before formally assuming the name of Wyndell von Gerth again.

It’s just as well, he surmised. With all of his cross-realm travels and the conflicts he endured along the way, the bard hailing from Adrestia was certainly sated with enough adventure for a lifetime.

But this dream Forwin had, though... It felt so real, so alive! That all had to have happened, right? One final, rip-roaring, tumultuous go before seeing the songster off to a well-earned retirement? Already, he scrambled to jot down whatever he could remember, all before it would inevitably slip from his mind forever, and tragically never be put to song by his hand.

A war between Divine Dragons and Fell Dragons, dating back millennia! Emblems of myth, bringing together old friends and legendary heroes! The nations of Elyos and their great leaders, uniting under one banner to defeat the evil Sombron!

It only felt right to Forwin to write everything down into his journal. He felt he owed this particular dream that much.

However, all good things must come to an end. Before long, he would be called up to the surface one more time from Abyss, then make the last journey from the monastery to home in Gerth. This sense of finality all felt so bittersweet to the bard... but his smile would not falter, not without another work-in-progress to sing and mull over for the road.

“Rise from a thousand years ago... Shaking off a hazy dream...~ 🎶”

[idkcantthinkofaname]

It takes time/4

Pairing: BTS x Reader

Warning: none really in this chapter

Summary: after finally getting the house y/n always wanted, she find a hybrid hiding in an old shed. Unlike most people who find strays, y/n doesn’t turn him into h.c mainly because there was a lot of shady things that happened with the hybrid control in the area.

Prev

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Knocks could be heard through the house, I rolled over and looked at my phone, 9am it read. Who the fuck is here? I rolled out of bed and grabbed a hoodie off the floor. It was Wednesday and I didn’t have to work which was why I was a little upset at being woken up this early! I threw the door open. There stood two men about 6ft something, dressed nicely. “Good morning ma’am, we are sorry to wake you up so early in the morning.” The blonde on spoke, the other one just seem to smile but his eyes were looking around. I stepped a little closer to the door frame and pulled the door to me so he couldn’t see inside. These men seemed off to me. “I needed to be up anyways. So why are you gentlemen here?” The blonde smiled bigger “we are from the hybrid control here, and wanted to come and Remind people in the area, with these winter months that Feral hybrid sometime Enter people’s home for warmth.” I blinked at him. This was common knowledge... “I will remember to make sure all my doors and windows are locked.” I gave a tight smile. He nodded “if you ever see one please do not hesitate to call, we need to make sure these animals don’t hurt anyone or themselves.” The blonde one seems to eye me for a second. The other tall man was still silent but taking in the surrounding. When he finally spoke his voice was raspy. “There has been rumors of wolf and a couple of foxes in this area. Have you seen them? Or any other wild life out here?” What an odd thing to ask? “Well I’m sure, seeing how this is the woods, there would be woodland creatures”. I looked up at him. His eyes just screamed danger. The blonde one laughed “sorry for him. We will be going now. Thank you for your time and make sure to lock up.” He smiled big and they both when back to their truck.

I closed the door, that was so weird, and something was definitely off. This could be a normal thing for this area but that one dude with the raspy voice seemed to have been talking about Taehyung and jimin...like he knew they were not normal foxes....or was I over thinking this?

They said they were from H.C. I have seen what the department here has done to hybrids...when I was in high school a friend and I was headed to her aunts home. We had come into town for snacks. when we came across H.C. handling a “feral” hybrid...they were dragging the poor thing out. Yelling at people to leave cause it was dangerous. But when the hybrid was brought out....there was no way it was dangerous...the dog hybrid was covered in blood and bruises. Eyes was dead to the world, but the whimpers it made was a cry for help. It broke my heart. When it’s eyes locked with me I ran to help him. Everything happened at once. Someone grabbed me, yelled at me to get back. That the dog hybrid would hurt me. I screamed they were hurting him try to get to him. The dog hybrid started to struggle to get free, but they beat him. The puppy kept looking at me with hope in his eyes....I know it weird to act as such when I didn’t really know him. But seeing him my heart just broke. I had to help him. I tried to get free again when someone fist collided with my cheek..I landed hard on the concrete, my friend ran to my side as I placed a hand in my cheek and looked up. “You were told to leave!” The man above me shouted. My friend dragged me up and tried to pull me away. The dog was thrashing hard and eyes were locked with the man that was in front of me. The man pushed me hard. “Last warning leave!” A vicious growl came from the dog but the men hit him hard in the head. He was knocked out cold. My friend dragged me away with tears in my eyes. This was their true colors, they say they’re here to help hybrids for a better life. Most actually are good, but the ones here treats them terribly.

I shook my head, and walked to the kitchen. I need coffee. I blinked back the tears that formed..I still remember how that poor hybrid the hopeless look in his eyes. I bet when that hybrid was happy and smiling it would had been bright like the sun.

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After another weekend of work, I finally made it home around 2am. Which wasn’t to bad. I locked my car as I headed to the front door. “So do you like just work nights?” I jumped and turned around to come face to face with jimin. Who was in all black. “Omg you scared me!” I smack him slightly in the arm. Jimin giggled “sorry, I was waiting on you at sunset..” “wait you have been here since sunset?” Jimin scratched the back of his neck. “I wanted to come see you.”. I let out a hefty sigh. “Well let’s get inside” we walked into the house. “I only work only three nights a week, Saturday through Monday. So if you want to come see me and don’t want to wait until I come home, you might want to come on my days off.” Jimin smiled and nodded. “I’ll try to remember that.” I walked into the kitchen, “so how is everyone?”

I looked over my shoulder to look at Jimin, who was leaning against the door frame. I turned back, how could someone standing there look so good. I know hybrids were made to be beautiful people, but he was taking it to a whole other level. I shook my head, I’m not doing this. I open the fridge and started pulling out some left overs to eat. As I was setting stuff on two plate, i jumped.

Two arms wrapped around my waist, and Jimin placed his chin on my left shoulder, it took all my inner strength to not freak out. I wasn’t use to anyone holding me like this. Jimin giggled “ you don’t get held like this a lot do you?” I looked at him and raised an eyebrow and blushed “your heart rate picked up and you are blushing kind hard” I looked down and what I was doing. “No, not for a very long time.” I sighed and moved to place a plate in the microwave to warm it up.

Jimin had let go and stayed in place for a second before I turned around and leaned against the counter. “You had someone before?” His tail was twitching at the end. “Once, I was engaged to someone...”his tail stopped then start twitching again. “Engaged? What happened?” I sighed and took the first plate out and handed it to Jimin. “He choose other women and drugs over me..” I shrugged. As I waited for my plate to warm up, I turned to Jimin, he was starring at his plate with a frown on his face. “Something wrong Jimin?” He looked up and locked eyes with me. “I just don’t see how someone can do that to someone else? Especially you?” I smiled “sometimes people are like that I guess” we stared at each other, it looked like he was going to say something else but the beeping sound rang threw the kitchen. “Time for us to eat!” I smiled.

We sat at the dinning room table. Jimin still was in his head. “So Jimin, how come only you came this time?” I asked. “Oh Taehyung had to do help namjoon with something last night. So he couldn’t make it.” He scooped some food into his mouth. “Why are you and Taehyung the only ones that come? Why doesn’t Jin?” Jimin seem to stare at his plate for a second, then he looked up. “ Because Namjoon doesn’t want him here.” I blinked the. Looked down “They actually don’t know that Taehyung and I have come here.” He stated. I looked down, idk why I’m kinda hurt by this. From Namjoon reaction I’m not really surprised.

Jimin grabbed my hand “don’t worry, we will all be here soon! Trust me.” I looked at him, I was going to question what he meant but he stood up. “I gotta go now.” He smiled. “Wait take some food with you.” I stood and headed to grab the left over I had stored away. I may have made all my meals a. Little bit larger on purpose just in case they had comeback. I handed Jimin the large bag. He smiled. “You are the sweetest Y/N.” He hugged me. Burying his face in my neck. “I was jealous of taehyung getting you touch you last time.” He spoke into my neck with his lips moving lightly against my neck. These hybrids are going to be the death of me. Jimin smiled and moved back “I will be back y/n.” He lightly touched my cheek with his knuckles then turned to leave.

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@beach-bitch-bitch-beach

[unitedwearestoned]

2

When I’ve thought about writing a book before, it always included some thought of an epic tale of love and happiness and joy and shit right? Well, I hate to disappoint, so I can indeed tell you there is an epic tale of love in this book, you just haven’t made it there yet.

WARNING this is gonna get a little adorable.

At the ripe and lovely age of 19, I was a meth addict. I threw away every bit of what I had going for me away for drugs. I looked gross, too honestly. I had greasy nasty hair, I never showered (too busy playing cards). I was disgusting. I had a son, who I loved dearly and I lost him because of my choice to use drugs.

I lost my sweet boy and met my husband to be in the same week. I had also managed to get pregnant again. (I did warn you this was going to be a roller coaster of emotions with me.

I downloaded an app on my phone in my old best friends room. Meetme. This is the beginning of our love story and it’s also the beginning of a very, very long hard road. Just as I’d joined, there were plenty of boys trying to meet up and hookup. I was looking for something to drown the sorrow of losing my son.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I quit using drugs right about at this point.

Back to my husband to be...

I wish all those years ago I saved our first conversation. It was so cute. I’ll try to quote it to the best of my memory for you.

T- “Hey cutie, how are you?”

Me- “not too bad, homeless isn’t the worst position I’ve ever been in”

T-“Do you have somewhere to sleep tonight?”

Me- “My car counts right?”

T- “No, why don’t you come over you can have the bed I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Me- “I’m not gonna take your bed from you.”

T- “We can figure that out when you get here”

Mind you, all of this happened at like 3AM, and he had to work the next day. So I get in my Nissan and roll on down to his apartment, where I stayed for about a week.

T- “Wow, you’re even more beautiful in person than I expected.”

Me- *Blushing so hard I literally can’t speak*

That very night, I knew I loved him. A week after my arrival, T knew I was pregnant and knew he loved me, too. There is one small problem that I forgot to mention. He was just previously engaged.

I know, GASP. What have I gotten myself into?! He was betrothed to be MARRIED, for God’s sake!

On the first day I was there, we laughed and talked until about 4:30AM and finally we both passed out, sideways on his bed.

The second day wasn’t so casual. He admitted being engaged previously to my arrival and we sat on the couch and talked about everything that has happened to him and this girl previously. I guess I’m a love counselor as long as it wasn’t for myself back then. Then, later that evening, we were talking more and he broke. He was just telling me something and I saw his eyes begin to tear up. I embraced him tightly and held him for what seemed like the rest of our lives. In this 24 hour period, I fell in love with a broken man who was as kind and sweet as could be.

The third day I was there, my insecurities overrode me and I, at 2am, was going through his phone. I read how he missed her and wanted her back and plenty of things I DID NOT need to see. I was infuriated. I actually didn’t bother confronting him about it because I knew he was already broken inside. I didn’t need to help that. I left it alone and pretended like I never saw the messages. That afternoon, we sat on the couch and listened to music and talked about our past. When we’d finally exhausted everything we had to say, I began to sing. I will never forget how his eyes lit up. I’ll never forget how he almost teared up when I sang for him.

The rest of the week was a rollercoaster of ups and downs, but eventually, he let her manipulate him into letting her come back and destroy him again. I went to his mothers house and they basically adopted me. T didn’t come over for a while with his fiancée back in his life. A couple times they actually did come over, I was a bit of a bitch. Still not sorry for that one.

Until one day, the fat witch finally messed up. She struck him. Smacked him clean across the face. At the time, I laughed and shook my head because I knew T was more than capable of handling the situation. He proved to be very brave that night, and called the police to come and arrest her for domestic assault.

BOOM. This is my chance.

I, of course, showed up at his house with his mother and sister, if I’m not mistaken. And he came outside and told me I shouldn’t be there blah, blah, blah. I didn’t care, all I wanted was one more day with him. I could figure everything else out later. This day, I just wanted him. The police escorted her out and to jail and I happily stayed to comfort my love. His mom has loved me since day one.

Just like that, she was gone. She never came back, either. Just like that, she was a memory. Well, at the time she was. You’ll see what I mean, later.

We slept on the floor of his newly rented trailer and listened to music all night while he cried about losing the woman he thought he knew he loved. The truth was, he’d fallen in love with me that second day, too. He was confused and overwhelmed because he loved her, too. She’d been there for almost 3 years of his life.

We eventually ended up moving in with his mom because $900 a month for a trailer in 2015 was a laughing joke. We couldn’t afford that. By this time, I’m around

six months pregnant with my daughter. When that got to be too much to handle, I called my mom up and begged for her help. She let us set up a tent outside her house and slept in it for a week before it got cold outside. Then my mom put us in their box truck. With a space heater. It’s at least October at this point. Temps are dropping and I’m six months pregnant. We made it through it, of course. It was not easy or fun.

T and I made the best out of a bad situation and struggled financially, emotionally, and mentally for four years before we finally are on track today. We stuck it out together and reprogrammed each other’s destructive thinking and actions to be the better people we are today. Well, mostly better.

I did mention we sell weed, right? I don’t recommend you go out and try to repeat what we are doing. I’m writing this from my bed in D.C. happily fixing to bag another 8th for some tourist that doesnt give a damn how much it costs-only that it’s the best.

[daniactuallysnuffledthatpopcorn]

Night People

Summary: Dan is put on the night shift at McDonalds with the new kid.

Word count: 3.3K

[A/N] This is rated M for Mature. Read at your own risk.

Dan came into work at a quarter to ten that evening. It was bound to be a long night, so he had downed four cups of coffee in a span of 70 minutes before coming. Maybe four had been a bit much, but least he felt like he could dance the tango for two hours straight rather than like he was ready to die dramatically in the gross kitchen of the McDonalds he worked at.

 The evening shifters were just cleaning up their things when he walked past the counter and into the breakroom. At the table in the corner was a boy he had not seen before. His manager was stood on the other side of the room, squinting at the roster on the corkboard. He turned around when he heard the door open and gave Dan a nod. Dan had worked here long enough to remember when his manager first started; when his eyes lit up every time he saw one of his employees come in. That was now a year and a half ago and boy, had this job sobered him up.

 “Hi Derek.” Dan said as he stood still just in front of the door, reluctant to go sit with the stranger at the table.

 “Hi Dan.” Derek had gone back to staring at the corkboard. A few long, awkward seconds past during which no one said anything. Then finally the boy at the table spoke up.

 “Hi, I‘m Phil.”

 “I’m Dan.” Dan responded. He mustered up the courage to go over and sit opposite Phil. He sank down onto one of the hard plastic chairs and gave Phil what he hoped was a friendly smile.

 Derek finally turned around and walked over to them too, “Dan, you’ll be showing Phil the ropes tonight. This is his second shift, so be nice to him.”

 “As if I’d ever be mean.” Dan joked. Derek didn’t laugh but Phil shot him a grin.

 “I need you to properly mop the floors tonight and clean the toilets. That’s all. The day crew did most of the jobs as it was a very quiet day, so I’m expecting an even quieter night.”

 “Fantastic.” Phil responded. Dan wasn’t quite sure if he was joking or not, but he laughed anyway.

 Derek left the room and Dan and Phil were left alone. Dan uncomfortably fixed the collar of his shirt and coughed. “So,” He began, “First night shift?”

 “Yeah.” Phil responded. He shifted in his seat. “I worked the morning shift yesterday. Hectic.”

 “Don’t expect that tonight. We’ll be lucky if we see one person per hour.”

 “Who the heck even comes into a McDonalds in the middle of the night on Monday?”

 “Some drunks and the occasional student who forgot that no one goes out on Monday nights.”

 Phil groaned.

 --

 As they were walking out of the breakroom, Dan fastening the hideous apron behind his back, he thought of the things he’d have to show Phil. “So you know how the register works and how to make fries and stuff?”

 “I know where the bags of fries are and how to throw them into the fryer, yes. Don’t make it sound more like a real restaurant than it is.”

 “Already a good dose of cynicism towards your workplace. Good start.”

 The evening shifters wished them good luck as they started leaving one by one, until only Dan and Phil were left behind the counter. The first hour or two were okay. A few lost people trickled in and had some late-night hamburgers. Phil got to sweep the floor after a bunch of tween girls on a sleepover accidentally knocked into a table and sent a tray full of fries flying, and Dan got to engage in his favourite activity: watching other people do the crappy jobs while he stood safely behind his cash register.

 A couple came in just after midnight, and by the time they left no one new had come in. “It’s started.” Dan announced. He wiped some imaginary dirt of the counter and leaned over, elbows on the counter and head in his hands. “Getting paid for doing nothing is worse than getting paid for actually working at McDonalds.”

“Derek did give us jobs to do.” Phil offered.

 “No, my young friend, the trick is to leave the jobs you have been given until the moment you almost can’t stand the boredom anymore. If you do the jobs now you’ll just get bored again way too soon and spend more time than necessary in extreme agony.”

“Great, so now what?”

 “Now we wait.” Dan said.

 “Wait for what?”

 “We will know that when it happens.”

 Phil sighed and sat down at one of the tables.

 “My buddy Ben and I like to play a game called ‘Guess the Stain’. Shall I introduce you?”

 Phil raised his eyebrows, but nodded. Dan took him to the playroom for children, rummaged through the ball pit until he found what he was looking for, and then picked up a ball. It had a brownish stain on it that covered about half the surface. Phil pulled a face and took a step back. “Don’t touch that! Are you crazy?”

 “No, I’m keeping us occupied so we don’t go crazy. Now what do you think this stain is?”

 “It’s disgusting, that’s what it is.”

 “Try harder.”

 “God, chicken nugget sauce maybe?”

 “Good one. Ben thought maybe poop, my money was on years of skin cells mushed together.” He dropped the ball and pointed to the ceiling. “Now what about that one?”

 Phil looked at the stain on the white ceiling boards and shrugged, “Looks like a simple leakage.”

 “See, we thought so too, until Derek told us that there’s apparently been a family of weasels living in the roof for the past five years. Now we think it might be weasel pee.”

 “This is a restaurant!”

 “You just said at the start of our shift not to call McDonalds a restaurant.”

 “God, you know what I mean.”

 1AM

Dan and Phil were playing dodgeball with the ball pit balls. It had taken Phil exactly 38 minutes of boredom to get over his disgust of the balls and get desperate enough to play a game with them. At ten past one a lone man walked into the restaurant. Dan peeked his head out of the playroom and announced: “We are back in business!” He hurried to the counter to help the customer. Unfortunately, the man only ordered a milkshake – which the boys argued over who could make it -  and then left. They were alone again.

 Phil swept the floor for a few minutes while Dan unnecessarily cleaned the milkshake machine. “The trick to a truly good sweep is moving all the furniture out of the way.” Phil said as he did the exact opposite.

 “A good sweep.” Dan repeated. He tossed the dishtowel into the laundry bin and motioned Phil back into the playroom for another round of dodgeball.

 2AM

Phil got stuck on the slide in the playroom. Four minutes into trying to free him, a customer came in and Dan laughed heartily before telling Phil to “stay strong” and running off. Phil stayed put in the slide for the ten minutes it took Dan to handle the customer and get the guy his Big Mac and get back into the playroom.

 “Save me.” Phil’s muffled voice came through the plastic slide. Dan had to try his best not to start laughing.

 “Don’t worry, my brave friend, I will get you out of there. I will pour some frying oil down to make it all more slippery. You’ll be down in no time.”

 “Don’t you dare!” Phil shouted. A weak threat coming from someone who was stuck in a children’s slide.

 “I’ll slide in too and push you out.” Dan then said. He climbed up on the structure and into the slide. His torso wasn’t even inside the slide yet when his feet already hit Phil’s shoulders.

 “Push!”

 Dan was in hysterics again. “I’m giving birth!” He cried.

 “Come on, you buffoon!”

 Dan finally started pushing down with his feet and felt Phil go further and further down. He managed to grab a hold of the outer rim of the slide just in time to prevent himself from falling down too. Phil scrambled to his feet down on the floor and gave Dan a thumbs up.

 “No more playing in the slide.” Dan said.

 A customer came in.

 3AM

“I think if aliens exist, they would never contact us, you know.”

 Dan was lying on his back on the counter. Phil was sat beside his head, drinking a smoothie.

 “Yeah, I mean we’re only messing everything up. Why would they want to alert us to the existence of their perfectly good planet so we could come over and ruin that one too?” Phil responded.

 Dan nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose it’s a bad idea indeed. But would they be intelligent enough to have devices to communicate with?”

 “I think it’s more a question of ‘do they have the same type of communication materials as we do’. We keep scorching outer space with our machines that detect radio waves and stuff, but we never stop to think that maybe aliens don’t even use radio waves.” Phil put his empty smoothie cup down and leaned back a little.

 “Excellent point. However, I think we would’ve found a different way to communicate by now too, if there was one.”

 “Why would we? This one works just fine for us. Plus, we don’t have the same kind of technology.” As he thought about it, Phil moved his hand and instead of a counter to lean on found Dan’s head. His subconscious didn’t register it properly and before he realised what he was doing he’d been playing with Dan’s hair for ten seconds. Dan hadn’t even said anything about it.

 “Do you think aliens have internet?” He asked.

 Phil laughed, “Maybe a form of it. Probably not in the same way we do. I mean, our internet is not exactly what the makers intended it to be, I don’t think.” He kept his hand in Dan’s hair.

 “True, true. Aliens probably don’t have a dark web.”

 The thought of an Alien dark web had them speculating for a good half an hour before another two customers finally strolled in and both ordered – in drunk slurred speech – a 20 piece of chicken nuggets with extra sauce.

 4AM

Dan had started cleaning the toilets, allowing Phil to take the slightly less unpleasant job of mopping the floors. They’d started singing High School Musical twenty minutes ago but were still not through all the songs they knew.

 Everything seemed surreal. Like the feeling you get when you’re in school on a Saturday or in a shop after closing time. Dan was used to this feeling by now; he’d worked enough night shifts in his time. Phil was acting like he was Cinderella in a poor remake of the movie, so either his mind had been taken over by the surreality of being in a McDonalds in the middle of the night, or the exhaustion had started kicking in. Dan figured probably the latter.

 When he finished cleaning the toilets and had dumped the cleaning supplies back in the closet, he washed his hands thoroughly and sat on a random table. Phil was almost done mopping the floor and everything looked wet and shiny.

 As he went to put the mop away, Phil announced, “I literally feel like if I closed my eyes right now I would fall asleep just standing up.”

 “Ah, my sleepiness usually kicks in during the last hour. You’re a bit earlier, but it’s okay. You’re just a beginner.”

 They sat on the counter together and looked at the door. These were the most quiet hours; people would start coming in again just before six, so the people on morning shifts could get their McCoffee and hashbrowns before work.

 Phil rubbed his eyes and murmured, “I don’t know if I’m high on a lack of sleep, but I really want to kiss you right now.”

 That had Dan searching desperately for words for a few seconds. “You’re probably really sleep drunk.”

 “Yeah, probably.” Phil lay down on his back and closed his eyes. He didn’t even seem to realise how seriously Dan was taking his words.

 5AM

Dan had just served the first early customer of the morning rush. She had told Dan she was a garbage collector and her shift started at five thirty. Dan wished her a sincere good luck as he handed her her coffee.

 Phil was in the kitchen somewhere, doing God knew what. Possibly sleeping. When Dan was sure no other customers would come in for at least a few minutes, he went to go check up on his co-worker. He found Phil drinking some coffee by the fridges, his eyes much wider than they’d been before.

 “Woken up a little?”

 “I just kind of feel like I’m high on adrenaline now.” Phil responded.

 Dan was still thinking about what Phil had said earlier and he couldn’t help but glance at Phil’s lips. He had to admit he had been thinking about it too. When Phil was playing with his hair as they lay on the counter and when they were singing High School Musical together. He’d felt warm and fuzzy inside and the feeling kind of scared him. He’d only ever felt this way about a girl before. So why hadn’t he been taken aback when Phil said he wanted to kiss him? Surely that would’ve been a normal reaction. But he hadn’t been. Rather, he’d considered actually kissing him for a second before dismissing the thought and figuring Phil was too tired to be held accountable for his words.

 Now that Phil seemed awake and sobered up again, Dan wasn’t sure if he would still want to kiss him. Maybe he didn’t even remember saying it. But he could see that Phil did remember in the way he was looking at him.

 “You’re thinking about it too, aren’t you?” Phil asked, startling Dan.

 He couldn’t pretend he didn’t know what the other was talking about, so he just nodded.

 “You said the rush starts just before six, right?”

 “Yeah.”

 “Well, I’d say we have about twenty minutes, and I guess we’d better make the most of it.”

 Dan wasn’t sure what he meant by that for a moment, until Phil put down his coffee cup and bridged the distance between them. He stepped much closer than would be platonically acceptable, and that was really the only warning Dan got before Phil pressed their lips together.

 Phil tasted like coffee and his shirt was soft when Dan clutched it in his fist. They were both a bit drowsy and slow from the lack of sleep, which made the kiss a bit odd but not in a bad way. It was just much slower than Dan would’ve usually done.

 Phil’s hands were going through his hair and then down his back, stopping just before Dan’s butt. He hooked his fingers behind the belt. Dan tensed up and caught himself hoping he would go further, knowing he would never have the courage to initiate it himself.

 And then finally, after what felt like hours, Phil moved his hands again. This time to the front of Dan’s jeans, where he once again hooked his thumbs behind the belt. Dan clutched Phil’s shirt tighter and kissed him harder, hoping it would convey his message of ‘please continue’. It did. Phil got to undoing Dan’s belt, breaking the kiss to look at him to make sure it was okay. Dan just pulled him back into him.

 “Wait.” Phil said, stepping away again. Dan stopped himself from groaning impatiently. “We can’t do this here. That’s actually disgusting.”

 Dan felt like he’d awoken from a haze as he realised where he was. Right. The McDonalds kitchen.

 Phil went to check if there were any customers waiting for them at the counter – there weren’t- and then they went into the breakroom, which was the least bad place they could think of. They went into the bathroom and locked the door.

 Dan had Phil against the wall within a second of the lock clicking into place, and Phil’s hands were back on his belt, making quick work of it now. He fumbled with the button of Dan’s jeans for a moment before Dan pushed his hands out of the way and undid them himself, pulling them down quickly.

 Phil’s hands were on him, palming him through his pants. Dan’s breath got caught in his throat and came out as a soft moan instead. His own hands were in Phil’s soft black hair, that was getting sweatier by the second.

 The changed positions. Dan against the wall and Phil keeping him in place. Their heads were resting against each other, their breaths coming out in short bursts and colliding in the small space between them. They had given up on kissing as neither of them could keep a steady rhythm going like this.

 Dan’s underwear was pulled down and Dan let out a desperate sound as Phil’s hand touched his bare skin. He explored Dan for a minute or two, seeing what the other responded well to, which was pretty much everything as long as he was touching him, before he started moving at a steady rhythm. Dan’s knees buckled but he kept himself standing. He was holding on to Phil’s shoulders now, as if they were the only thing holding him up, and maybe they were.

 Just as Dan started getting close to coming, a bell rang. Both of them stopped dead in their tracks and weren’t sure what the sound was for a moment, until Phil whispered under his breath, “Customer.”

 “Fuck.” Dan responded. He pulled up his pants and attempted to fix his hair a little, while Phil furiously washed his hands with way too much soap.

 “Do I look presentable?” Dan asked, still out of breath.

 “Not really, but go. They don’t want me touching their food with these hands right now.”

 “Valid point.” Dan quickly put his hands under the tap to wash off the sweat and then dashed out of the bathroom, through the breakroom, and into the restaurant. “Hello, sorry for the wait, how can I help you?” He put on his best smile, but he knew he looked exactly how he felt: his face red and his hair sweaty and ruffled.

 “Can I just have a muffin and a coffee?” Fortunately it was only one woman. There was no line and the rest of the restaurant was still empty. Dan quickly fixed her food for her, and he didn’t even wait till the door had closed behind her before he went back into the breakroom.

 “That was a wild ride.” Phil grinned at him. He was done washing his hands and was now standing in front of the mirror, trying to save what was left of hair by putting water in it.

 Dan’s hair had already gotten a bit curly from the sweat, and he knew that putting in more water would only make it curlier. He washed his face and tried to get his hair back in order with dry hands.

 “So,” He said carefully, “What was that?”

 Phil lost a bit of his confidence when he said that. His face fell. “You regret it?”

 “No, definitely not. It’s more of a ‘what does this mean’.” Dan said.

 Phil nodded, relieved. “I don’t really care about what it means. All I know is that I would really like to finish it.”

 “Well,” Dan glanced at his watch, “I don’t know about you, but I’m suddenly not very tired anymore, our shift is over in twelve minutes, and my parents aren’t home.”

 Phil ran a last hand through his hair and then turned to the other, “I can work with that.”