Butterfly Kisses||Phan Oneshots

19: Landslide

Title: Landslide
Genre: Sad, Parent!Phan

Summary: Phil hasn't seen Dan in almost four years. Dan is a carrier and now has a 3 year old son. He also has very big a secret.
Author: dannihowell (iguessicantry)

Okay Here We Go. I apologize in advance.
Warnings: Cancer, Mentions of Breakup, Mentions of Premature Birth, Death, Fighting.
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"Hi, Phil."

There is an uncomfortable silence as the two of them stare at each other on the front steps of Phil's apartment building. There is a small child clutching Dan's hand but Phil doesn't really see him yet.

"Hi?" Phil replies uneasily. He hasn't seen Dan in almost four years, not since that night where their feelings ran too high and they both said things they never could have meant.

"I've—well, we've been waiting for you."

Phil looks down at the boy who's just barely out of toddlerhood, thumb tucked under his teeth. "You have?"

"Yes," Dan nods. "This is Henry." Henry looks up at Dan then Phil, seemingly lost to why his name was just spoken. The little boy looks like Dan, his hair is brown and curly, and he has Dan's straight nose. The eyes surprise Phil because they aren't a chocolate brown as he expected but a light sky blue, turning grey.

"Is he...?"

"He's my son."

"Oh. Wow."

"And he's your son too."

Both Henry and Phil's eyes go to Dan. Dan bends down to pick up his son (their son) and gives Phil a quiet smile as if he's showing the evidence of the last time they slept together so many years ago. The boy is so much of Dan and so little of anything else but he believes Dan.

As the shock begins to wash away, confusion seeps in among the mist of anger gathering. Phil is one of those people who is keenly aware of his emotions and he figures it's best to deal with this upstairs in his flat than out on the street.

"Would you like to come in?"

Dan nods, hitching Henry on his hip and secures a baby bag over his shoulder. Phil reaches it for it and Dan lets him hold it, not saying a word. Once inside the 20th floor flat, Phil offers Dan a drink which he refuses.

"We should talk," Phil says, turning on the television and finding children's programming. Dan sets Henry down on the sofa and places a kiss on the boy's forehead and whispers, 'be good for me.'

Dan follows Phil into the next room where they can still hear the television but Henry can't hear whatever they might say. Phil is the first to speak.

"How old is he?"

"Three and a half. His birthday's in June."

Phil runs through the timeline in his head. It doesn't make sense. "June 2010?"

"Yes. On the fourteenth."

"The last time I saw you was that previous December. How did you hide it so well? You would have been three months along."

"Henry was premature. We conceived him that December but I had some complications and he came 10 weeks early."

Dan tries to hide the sadness he feels because he hates mentioning how terrible the pregnancy had been. Having a premature birth is terrifying and watching his child grow in an incubator for those two months instead of his crib almost killed him. A smile returns to his face but it's too late. Phil has seen every single one of Dan's facial expressions and though they've been apart for years, Phil believes he's still an expert.