"Someone's here darling, someone you've been asking for", Phil said as he greeted lily outside. Dan sat on the couch, smiling and waiting in anticipation. Lily quickly ran inside and squeezed Dan in a deep hug.
"Hi lily", he greeted. Lily just squealed in response.
"Come play", she yelled as she dragged Dan to her room. Dan sat down on her floor as he grabbed one of the dolls. The 2 played in silence for a while. "Danny?" She asked after a couple of minutes.
"Mmh?" Dan hummed.
"Daddy told me that he loves you".
"Did he?"
Lily nodded, "do you love him?"
"I do", Dan said.
"Does that make you my new daddy?" Lily questioned.
"I don't know, do you want me to be?"
Lily thought for a second before shaking her head. "I want you to be my friend", she said.
Dan smiled and wrapped her in a hug, "alright, best friends then".
Lily shook her head again. "Charlotte is my best friend", she giggled.
"What?" Dan asked in fake shock, "no, no, that can't be", he said while tickling her.
High pitched giggles filled the apartment.
"Tell me I'm your best friend", he said.
Lily laughed, "okay you can both be my best friend", she finally said.
Phil stood in the doorway with a fond smile on his face. "Do you want to come eat your snack lily?" He asked in a soft voice.
Lily quickly ran to the dining room while Dan took his time to get up. Phil whispered a quiet 'thank you', Dan didn't know what he meant.
Lily was slamming her fists on the table. "Food, food, food", she chanted. Dan laughed at her and gave her a juice box while Phil put the bowl of cut apple in front of her. "Can we watch little mermaid daddy?" She asked after eating a couple of slices. Phil nodded and went over to the tv to put it on.
"Only after you've finished your food though", Phil said.
Lily pouted but did as she was told. The 3 of them moved to the couch, Phil between Dan's legs and Lily laid on her dads chest. Dan and Lily sang along to every single song and Phil just smiled. He was happy, he had a full family again. His daughter was happy, Dan was happy. Lily quickly fell asleep and Phil brought her to bed before moving to his own bedroom. He kissed Dan goodnight and fell into a deep sleep.
Dan started moving around and pushing the blankets off of him, he was hot, way too hot, he went to grab a glass of water but felt too dizzy to actually stand up. Suddenly he felt sickness coming up, he ran to the bathroom.
Phil awoke a few seconds later, he went to the kitchen and grabbed a glass before moving to Dan. "Dan?", he asked, "I'm coming in okay?" He pushed the door open and saw Dan, as white as a piece of paper, sitting in front of the toilet. Phil kissed the top of his head and offered the water, which Dan gladly took. He lifted Dan up and cleaned up quickly before moving Dan back to bed. "Do you want me to stay home tomorrow?" He asked concerned.
"No", Dan shook his head, "I'll be fine, don't worry about me".
"Can I at least take your temperature?"
Dan nodded and let Phil take care of him.
"Definitely a fever", Phil pouted, "do you need anything? Water? Soup? Tea? An extra blanket?"
"Phil go back to sleep, I'll be fine, promise".
Phil hesitantly closed his eyes again. Dan just sighed and rolled over.
The next morning he saw Dan laying there, big bags under his eyes, pale as ever, coughing, glowing.
He decided to not wake Dan up, he grabbed a note and wrote him a little message before taking Lily to preschool and preparing to leave himself.
"I'm in school till 3, I'll bring back chicken soup and some toast, hope you'll feel better once I'm back. Take care, love you xx"
Dan woke up 2 hours later, he read the note and a small smile formed on his face. He felt miserable, he didn't even understand what happened, he was feeling fine the evening before. He wrapped his blanket around himself and went to the living room, where he watched the entire first season of Free!.
Meanwhile at school, Phil had to deal with people missing their favourite teacher.
"Sir, where's mr. Howell?" Kevin asked.
"Yea, he never misses a day", Amy said worriedly.
"He's got the flu", Phil answered.
"How do you know?" Asked Neil.
"Because he's in my b-he called in sick this morning", Phil quickly recovered.
Allison smirked at him, "can you tell him we hope he gets well soon?" She asked.
Phil nodded and started his lesson.