#t. phillip and rowan : under the mistletoe.

[harvies]

closed christmas starter for @etxrnaleclipse

phil had spent most of the afternoon being nervous, the kind that curled in the pit of his stomach and refused to leave. his home was warm now, carrying the lingering scent of roasted vegetables and something sweet he’d pulled out of the oven not too long ago. the faint sound of a record played in the background, something old and soft, filling the spaces where silence might’ve made the evening feel heavier. he glanced toward the small dining table he’d set — nothing fancy but he tried with a candle flickering low in the middle. it felt like too much and not enough all at once, but he pushed the thought aside. it’s just rowan, he reminded himself… though that only made things worse.

“it’s just rowan,” he muttered again under his breath, as if saying it aloud would ease the knot in his stomach. he turned back to the kitchen, reaching for a tea towel to busy his hands as he waited. it had been weeks now… no, months maybe, of this. something unspoken building between them, a weight he can’t really name and he didn’t want to ruin anything by trying. as the evening approached, he felt himself getting even more nervous. you should tell him. the thought whispered in the quiet moments when no one else was around to drown it out. and tonight, it being christmas eve, a night that felt so impossibly close and intimate… it seemed louder than ever.

still, the other thoughts lingered too and he doubted himself. what if rowan didn’t see him that way? what if things shifted and the easy comfort they’d built over time simply slipped away? he shook his head, exhaling slowly as he wiped his palms against the towel. “stop overthinking,” he muttered to himself, just as a knock sounded at the door. his heart jumped in his chest, and he takes a moment before moving to answer it. when he opened the door, the sight of rowan there made phil’s stomach flip in a way he tried to ignore. “hey, you made it,” phil said with a fond smile softening the nerves as he stepped back to let rowan in. “come in, before you freeze to death.”