On A Cold Night And A Collection Of Other One Shots (Phan)

On A Cold Night

Word count: 1110

It was late and I was tired, but I was determined. I was driving down a pleasant country road at night, the snow glowing softly in the moonight. The radio was off and I was deep in thought.

I was thinking about random things, not really over thinking, just pondering. I thought about how the snow made everything seem quieter, how the full moon made everything seen softer, how the stars made everything more beautiful. The yellow of my headlights reflected off of the long dirt road as I traveled closer to my destination.

When I got to the clearing, everything was perfect. The water was frozen with a layer of sparkling snow on it, the trees glistened with icicles, the stars shone brighter than normal.

I parked my car away from the area and got everything out of the trunk. I set up my tent with plenty of blankets and pillows inside. I arranged the wood into a picture perfect campfire and grabbed a fold up chair, positioning it by the soon-to-be fire and finally grabbed a cooler with a thermos full of hot chocolate and other warm drinks and snacks. I lit the fire and sat down, watching the smoke float into the otherwise clear night sky.

I must have fallen asleep next to the fire, because when I opened my eyes, I was in the tent, in the familiar arms of my husband.

"Happy anniversary." I whispered, looking up at him.

He looked startled, his glasses slipping down his nose and his blue eyes widening in surprise.

"It's not quite midnight, but sorry I'm late. I had to put Alex to sleep at Peej's house, she wouldn't even lay down without me." He explained, kissing me on the forehead softly.

"That's okay, as long as you brought your half of everything." I whispered, snuggling into his arms farther.

"Of course." He scoffed, gently slipping away from me.

I helped him clear a space within all of the blankets and pillows to set up our little picnic. He grabbed a wicker basket and produced a bottle of champagne. I raised my eyebrows and he smiled before pulling out some red wine and Jack Daniels. He got out the glasses and some chocolate and fruit.

I took out my phone and we counted down the minutes until midnight, toasting eachother with our respective drinks. Champagne to him and wine to me- the Jack Daniels was for later.

"Okay, you first this year, seven things you're grateful for." Phil said, handing me the tape recorder.

"Okay, uhm, December eighth, 2022, twelve o' three am. I'm grateful for having such great friends to watch our daughter. I'm grateful for having found this beautiful clearing seven years ago on our wedding night. I'm grateful that we had a tent in our car for whatever reason. I'm grateful for red wine. I'm grateful for not having any permanent damage from playing Tekken with our feet forever ago. I'm grateful for YouTube. And finally, I'm so grateful that Chris didn't try and sabotage our anniversary this year like he threatened to if we didn't go to that party." I clicked the button, handing it to Phil, giving him a chance to think before he pressed record.

"I'm grateful that Mr Lester didn't forget the blankets this year. I'm grateful for the flower pot Alex made me for Father's day. I'm grateful for the hot chocolate my husband packed. I'm grateful that Playlist Live got U2 to play last summer. I'm grateful for not burning down the apartment this morning. I'm grateful for big showers. And I'm thankful for our daughter being lactose intolerant so we don't have cheese very often." He clicked of the recorder and put it back in the basket.

"Well, Mr Lester, it's been another great year of being married to you." I whispered, crawling onto his lap. "Now let's get the Jack Daniels out."

"Danny, let's just snuggle for awhile, I'm tired." Phil whispered, kissing me softly.

"Okay," I whispered back, "but don't fall asleep, I want to go look at the stars later." I curled up against him to keep warm.

"Dan, come on, I thought you wanted to look at the stars." Phil whispered quietly.

I opened my eyes and stretched, letting out a little yawn. "I do." I whispered back.

We climbed out of the huge pile of blankets to look at the clear night sky. The stars were shining beightly, the dark blue-black of the sky only interrupted by clouds of our breath as we stared up.

"We're so tiny." I whispered, leaning against my husband.

"Oh no, are we going to have an existential crisis tonight?" Phil laughed softly.

"No, I'm just thinking about how in all of the space out there, all of the billions of galaxies, in this one, this tiny, insignificant blip on the radar of the universe, I, an insignificant human, managed to find love. Out of all the possible senarios, all the different outcomes with different people, we managed to find eachother. Even though we are so, so unimportant." I looked at him and smiled.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned, in my universe, you are the most important thing that has ever happened to me." He kissed me. "Even more important than toast."

"What about Buffy?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"You are very important to me, Daniel James Lester, but don't even try to get between me and Sarah Michelle Geller." He smiled that crooked smile of his and rested his head on my shoulder.

"It's been good, Phil, really good." I whispered, gazing up at the sky.

"What do you mean?" He asked, not moving.

"Everything, you, YouTube, Alex, the radio show, everything." I turned my head to place a soft kiss on top of his.

"You're right, and don't forget the book and tour, it was great meeting all of those fans." He added.

"Yeah, except for Katie." I muttered, still upset.

"Dan... I think she was just misunderstood." Phil started slowly. "Yeah, what she did was wrong, but it's not the worst thing to ever happen to us. So many of our fans stood up for us, maybe we should have reported her earlier, but she was just another fan. Maybe she had something wrong in the head? Maybe she had a bad homelife?" Phil reasoned.

I sighed, leave it to him to make the best out of anything. "Okay, okay, you're right." I agreed, wrapping an arm around him.

"I know I am. Now let's go back to bed, I can't feel my feet." He giggled.

"I agree, come on, love."