Hello!

So I really like the teacher au. I don't know why. I just do, so I decided to write one! Yay!

Disclaimer: nope. Don't own 'em.

Hope you enjoy!

Words: 2941

Phan status: together

Warnings: very mild swearing, OOC-ness.

Dan POV

"And this is how you can see that most modern philosophers don't just come up with their own theories, but they shape and mold other philosophers work – they modernize it and continue to question our existence" I said animatedly to the already-packed-up class.

With the exception of one or two people, everyone looked bored out of their minds. I chuckled to myself. "Alright, ten minutes left and you all look like something out of the Walking Dead. You can chat amongst yourselves."

With that, the volume of the classroom heightened gradually as all the students began to talk. I smiled as I retreated to my wheely desk chair – it wasn't that long ago that I was in their place, wishing school had never been invented.

My phone dinged rather loudly as I got a text from my boyfriend, Phil;

How's class going? Fancy a lunch date? Xx - PL

I laughed softly at his comment. Phil was a math teacher on the other side of the building, probably letting the students do exactly what I was.

We can't, silly, there is a meeting for the first half of lunch. Maybe tonight? Xx - DH

"Who're ya texting Sir? Your boyfriend?" One of the homophobic people, Brian said. He always had something against me, ever since the rumours about me and Phil started spreading.

I looked up at him smugly.

"Yep" was all I responded with.

His mouth opened in shock, as he hadn't actually expected me to answer. "Fag" he muttered under his breath. I scowled and walked over to his desk.

"Brian, detention every day after school for a week" I said sharply, handing him a slip of paper.

He grumbled a bit, but took it anyway.

When I returned to my seat, I found the class looking at me expectantly.

"What?" I laughed

"So the rumours are true are they? You're really dating Mr. Lester?" Christina asked. There was a heavy dread in her voice, it was no secret that she had a crush on Phil.

"I didn't say anything about dating Mr. Lester" I said elusively.

She relaxed and opened her mouth to ask something else when she was cut off by the bell ringing.

"Well, if any of you have any questions that aren't about my personal life, don't hesitate to ask. Dismissed."

I walked out the door and as I turned the corner at the end of the hallway, I ran into Phil. Literally.

"Whoa there" he said as he caught me around the waist to stop me from falling.

A couple of girls stopped in their tracks, giggling as they watched the exchange.

I blushed slightly. "Thanks Phil."

He smiled back at me as he slowly released his grip on my waist. "Ready for another really boring staff meeting?" he asked jokingly.

I sighed in an over-exaggerated manner and nodded. "Let's get this over with then" I said.

We walked side-by-side towards the staff room, just close enough so that our finger brushed as we went.

"So, what'd you do last night?" Phil asked, he visited his parents yesterday and thus wasn't home last night.

"Your mum"

"Haha, very funny. But really, what'd you do?" Phil rolled his eyes.

"Watched re-runs of Buffy and cried when Angel lost his soul again" I said.

Phil looked surprised "wow, you really went all the way back to the beginning, didn't you?"

I nodded, smiling.

Phil looked at his watch and his eyes widened "we have to be there in one minute, Dan!"

Oh crap. I took his hand and ran through the corridors, lucking everyone was out to lunch. We arrived at the staff room, coughing up our lungs and about five minutes late.

"What? D'you stop off for a quickie in the supply closet before coming here?" Pem, one of the art teachers, asked jokingly. The entire staff also suspected that we were dating. We're not very good at keeping this under wraps.

Phil gave a breezy laugh and motioned for the principal to continue.

Phil POV

The meeting ended around halfway through lunch and it was only about the general things – make sure you stick to the curriculum, try and reach out to the students, don't put them in groups where they won't work well together, silly things like that were kinda obvious.

"Wanna come eat lunch in my classroom?" I asked Dan as we both fetched our lunches from the kitchen. He nodded and grabbed both mine and his lunched from the fridge.

"Aww, you even know whose lunches are whose. You guys should just get married already." Alice, the deputy principal, cooed.

Dan rolled his eyes and I smirked as I thought about the little black box sitting at home. Well, with any luck, we will be soon I thought.

"c'mon, Phil" Dan said, handing me my lunch and walking out of the room, with me trailing behind him.

When we arrived at my classroom we found that there was a girl waiting outside already. "Christina" I said, making her turn around.

"Mr. Lester, can I talk to you for a minute please?" She said, glaring warily at Dan. I nodded, it must be about the calculus I taught her yesterday – she looked like she was struggling with it.

"Sure, d'you mind waiting out here for a second, Mr. Howell?" I asked him. Dan smiled and nodded, turning around to lean his back against the wall.

I unlocked the door and let Christina in first, then walked in after her and shut the door. "Is this about the calculus?" I asked her as I sat down.

She walked towards me from the door, swaying her hips as she went.

A hard knot of dread settled in my stomach. She wasn't going to… was she? I mean… she can't possibly think!

"Try again" she said in a seductive whisper.

She sidled up to my desk and leant forwards so that her boobs were practically falling out of her black bra. I sighed, opening my mouth to just tell her to stop trying because I'M GAY.

Instead she pushed her mouth heatedly onto mine, my eyes widened and I was frozen. Eventually I pushed her off and said "Christina, you need to stop I-"

"I know that you're a teacher, but I also know that you like me in a way that's purely animal" she said in a sultry voice. No! I don't! What do I do?!

I don't know what to! I've never been in this situation!

She walked one of her hands towards me and the other hand moved to pull her collar down, exposing even more flesh and biting her lip.

I was getting really uncomfortable now and I really wish that I didn't close the door. I slowly began wheeling my chair away from her.

Flash!

We both turned around at the bright light and Dan standing in the doorway with his phone held up, still in position from taking the photo.

Warm relief ran through me and I relaxed when I saw that Dan had seen the situation for what it was, instead of misunderstanding.

"You do know he's gay, right?"

Christina looked at me, horrified. She hurriedly pulled her t-shirt up to cover her previously exposed flesh and burst into tears before running out of the room.

"You are, aren't you?" he asked, looking at the floor.

Oh god.

He though that I actually-

"Dan, Dan look at me." I got out of my chair and made my way over to him "Dan, I promise you that I in no way wanted or knew that was going to happen. I'm so completely gay, I thought you knew that by now?" I chuckled, cupping his face and gently raising his head.

"I do" he said in a small voice.

"Then c'mere you" I said, pulling him into a hug. His hands grasped the back of my shirt and he buried his face into my shoulder while I rested my head on his.

After a couple of seconds, we let go.

"So, lunch?" I asked, motioning towards the desk.

He laughed.

"Hey, Mr. Lester, did you know that Mr. Howell has a boyfriend?" Amy asked, probably hoping to get some kind of jealous reaction me.

I continued to sort out my paper and replied with a nonchalant "oh, does he?"

When the class filed in, I wasn't surprised to see Christina had skipped. I just sighed and located the marked tests I was going to give back this lesson… not there.

I furrowed my brow and looked through the paperclipped piles again. I mentally faceplamed when I saw a pile marked 'Canterbury tales.'

Dan must have accidently switched tests when we marked together. I contemplated sending a student over but turns out I didn't need to as I heard a quick knock on the door and Dan walked in.

"Hello Mr. Howell" I greeted "have you come to return my tests?"

He grinned sheepishly "how about we do a switch, Mr. Lester?"

I chuckled and passed him the English tests and he gave me back the math ones. "Last time we ever mark together if this is what's going to keep happening" I said jokingly.

Dan stuck his tongue out at me. "Later Lester" he said as he walked out the door.

I shook my head at his antics. My boyfriend can be so silly.

"You sure not dating?" Mike asked, smiling.

"Thought you said he had a boyfriend?" I retorted.

"Anyway, I have the tests on algebra back, and for the most part, you all did well. We'll probably spend the rest of lesson just going over it, because it's basically the end of the term and it's the last period."

The class gave a small cheer.

"Can we just order pizza tonight?" Dan pleads from the couch.

"Already on it" I tell him, grabbing the phone and ordering a large Hawaiian and a large Meatlovers.

When the pizza arrives, Dan gets up to pay the delivery guy and I dash to my room and snatch up the box, checking that the ring is still inside.

I place it in my jacket pocket and run back to the couch. Dan comes back a moment later holding two pizza boxes and a roll of paper towels. "I think ahead" he said, holding up the paper towels.

I chuckle nervously, helping him place the pizza boxes down on the coffee table. "So… Attack on Titan?" I ask, hoping it will distract me from the bundle of nerves that have settled in my stomach.

Dan looked at me worriedly. "Phil, are you ok?" he asked and I nodded reassuringly. He didn't seem convinced though.

After we had finished the pizza and finally finished all of Attack on Titan, I started to clear up all the things while Dan ranted about the ending (spoilers!)

"I can't believe we never find out what's in the basement! And how did he turn into a titan in the first place! And why did all the other people-turned-titan look different to him?!"

(spoilers over!)

"Because anime" I said simply.

He laughed. "Yep, that about sums it up."

I inhaled deeply. This is it. No more putting it off.

"Hey Dan?" I said as I walked over to where he was sitting on the couch.

He looked up. "Can I ask you a question?" he nodded.

I took a deep, shaky breath and got down on one knee, pulling the box out of my pocket at the same time.

Dan's eyes went wide and his breath hitched. I hope that's a good thing.

A/N: get ready for some massive OOC-ness. I am seriously ashamed.

"Um, I realize this probably wasn't the most romantic way to do this, but I spent weeks and weeks trying to decide how to until I just kind of said, stuff it, I'm going to do this today."

Dan's eyes started watering and he gave a spluttery laugh. I hope that was also a good thing.

"Daniel James Howell, I love how we can say 'I love you' with a casual certainty and hear the same phrase thrown back. I love how you can always say literally more times than an English teacher should. I love how you get so into horror movies. I love how your dimples to show up when you smile.

"I love how you play piano. Daniel James Howell, I love you. And… would you do me the honour of becoming my husband?"

Dan's face was now streaked with tears and I was beginning to think that it wasn't a good thing.

"…Dan?" I asked nervously when he didn't reply.

Dan nodded his head and threw his arms around my neck, successfully toppling the pair of us over. I laughed and wrapped my arms around his waist, squeezing him tightly.

Dan pushed himself up and sat on his knees. I softly lifted his hand and slid the ring on.

"I-it's beautiful" he whispered. It really was, it was gold (not solid gold), it had a diamond in the center and small red and blue gems around it. I smiled widely, completely drunk on the euphoria of his wordless answer.

"Hey Dan" I said, smiling "We're getting married."

His face split in a smile and he cupped my face and brought his lips to mine. I placed my hands on his waist and passed my tongue against his lips. We continued to kiss for a few more moments until we had to break for air.

I pressed my forehead against Dan's and looked into his chocolate eyes that never fail to make me weak at the knees.

"We're getting married" he whispered.

Dan POV

"Hey Mr. Howell, is that an engagement ring?" Chelsea asked. Hmm. Observant girl, I didn't think anyone would notice.

"This?" I asked, holding up my hand and smiling "yep."

The entire class started whispering and asking questions about it.

"I thought my personal life was my personal life, as in, you don't need to know" I said.

That was all I heard of it for the rest of the lesson, but I could practically feel people texting. I sighed. Today's just going to get lot worse.

Coincidently enough, the first thing I got asked when my next class filled in was "Mr. Howell, is it true? Are you really engaged?"

I sighed. "Yes, it's true, now, who remembers when we read A Midsummer Night's Dream?"

More hands went up than expected.

"Good. Tell me one thing that you just found silly, one thing that just made you think 'What was this old guy thinking when he wrote this?'"

"Elise."

"Sir, if you're getting married-" I sighed, they're not going to let this go, are they? "- then what's your last name going to be?"

"I don't believe that was in the play, Elise" I said "alright, hands down, in your books I want you to write down the answers to these questions"

I turned around and wrote on the board;

What is something that made you question Shakespeare's sanity?

Something you thought was funny?

Briefly explain each of the plotlines

Give a character description of your favourite character

Draw your favourite character.

I sat down behind my desk and took out my phone.

They won't stop asking about the ring! - DH

Phil replied almost immediately;

The one ring to rule them all? – PL

You dork – DH

XP you love it – PL

Should we just… tell them? – DH

Do you want to? I mean, they ship us anyway – PL

Ok then, see you at lunch? Xx – DH

Cya! X – PL

I smiled, stood up and wrote on the board;

Once you have finished, you can ask questions.

I sat back down and prepared myself for the shit-storm.

About a minute after I sat down, Elise raised her hand.

"I think that's the quickest I've ever seen you finish anything, Elise"

She looked a bit sheepish before asking "What's your last name going to be?"

I laughed "probably something along the lines of Howell-Lester."

Her eyes went wide and the rest of the class either had looks of surprise or smugness, as if they already knew.

"So it was true that you and Mr. Lester were dating?" James asked.

I nodded.

"How long have you been dating for?"

"Seven years"

James chuckled and shook his head.

The rest of the class passed in a whirlwind of questions and when the bell rang, I told them; "now, go tell people so I don't have to repeat this stuff again. Dismissed."

When lunch came around, I went over to Phil's classroom.

He was hunched over some marking when I knocked on the door. "Hey you" I greeted.

He smiled warily at me. "I am so done with this marking…" he grumbled.

"I know that feel" I laughed "Want some help?"

He smiled gratefully and after I sat down on a spare chair he hugged me.

"I SHIP IT"

We both jumped and sprang apart when we heard Pem yell. I turned around to glare at her but she had already run off. I swiveled back around to face Phil.

"Meh" I shrugged "I ship it to"

"You dork" Phil laughed.

I'M SORRY I DON'T KNOW HOW TO WRITE ENDINGS

Anyway thanks if you followed/favourited/reviewed!

I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes

Cya!

Thornsword.