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Phil noticed it as soon as Dan moved in, how could he not? Dan left notes... everywhere. They were on sticky notes, note cards, in the margins of books, old receipts, even on tissues that Phil would find tucked into the couch cushions. The notes varied, they could be a shopping list, something Dan wanted to remember, or just something he wanted to tell Phil when he happened to not be around.
At first it kind of bothered Phil, there being little pieces of paper all over the apartment, but eventually he grew to enjoy it. Every note was like a glance into his best friend's mind and he loved to find the ones that Dan never expected him to. Ones about things that caught his attention, ones about things he wanted to look up later, or ones about how much he loved Manchester and later London. These were Phil's favorites as these were the thoughts Dan didn't always voice.
When the day came that Dan and Phil finally got together, new notes started showing up. Phil would find notes next to the coffee pot in the mornings asking him what he wanted to do that day. Or there would be one tucked under the remote on the arm of the couch telling Phil that Dan loved him. These ones soon became Phil's favorite type to find.
The only thing was that for as many that Phil could read there were two more slips of paper that he couldn't make any sense of. Dan's hand writing was so bad that Phil often couldn't read any of the note and was left guessing as to what Dan was trying to tell him. This was alright most of the time as the two didn't often talk about what the notes said, but there was one that caused a bit of trouble.
One day Phil came home from wherever when Dan asked,
"Did you pick up the groceries?"
"What? What groceries?" Phil asked, a confused look on his face.
"The groceries on the list I left in the kitchen." Dan said, walking out of the living room to meet Phil in the hallway.
"I didn't see a list, show me?"
Dan led Phil into the kitchen and pointed to a note on the counter next to the stove. Phil picked up and read the note then turned to Dan with a sheepish look on his face.
"What is it?" Asked Dan.
"Umm... Well, you see, I can read what this says."
Bewildered Dan asked "What do you mean you can't read it?!"
"I mean I can't read it. Just like I can't read read half of the notes around the flat!"
Dan was shocked, he'd always thought Phil could read all the things he left laying around.
"If you can only read some of them what do you do when you can't read one?"
Phil was a bit nervous as he answered,
"I just leave them and hope it wasn't anything important."
"Hope it wasn't anything important?!" Dan half shouted. Exasperated with Phil, Dan stormed out of the kitchen and into his bedroom. Confused Phil stayed in the kitchen for a minute before following Dan down the hallway.
Phil knocked on the door before opening it only to find Dan face down on his bed, his body slightly shaking from his tears. Phil walked in, cautious of Dan's anger but concerned as to why he was so upset. As he sat on the bed next to Dan the man rolled onto his side to face him with a tear streaked face.
"I'm sorry, I know I'm overreacting." Dan managed to sniff out.
"It's okay, just tell me whats wrong."
Dan wiped at his tears and sat up before answering the question.
"It's just most of he notes I leave are notes to you telling you how much I love you. And if you can't read many of them then how do you know how much I love you?"
Phil watched Dan ramble with a small smile of his face, when Dan looked up at him as he finished he was surprised and asked Phil why he was smiling.
"Because you're adorable. Dan I don't need notes all over the house to tell me how much you love me. I know you do and I hope you know I love you too, even if your handwriting is terrible."
Dan smiled at Phil and leaned in to kiss the other man.
"I do know you love me and I love you too." Dan whispered against Phil's lips.
Later that night the couple gathered all the notes from around the apartment and Dan read all the ones Phil couldn't read aloud. Afterwords Dan promised to work on improving his penmanship and Phil promised to practice reading Dan's writing so that they met somewhere in the middle.