The single dad || phan

The final chapter

Two years later, Christmas Day

The falling flakes of snow submerged the landscape of Manchester within minutes, building up slowly. The Howell house was covered with tinsel and lights. In the corner of the living room was a Christmas tree that was decorated by their little family a few weeks prior. Under the tree there was near to a hundred wrapped gifts stacked in piles. The house was silent.

Until an alarm went off in Dan and Phil's room. Dan woke up instantly and reached over to stop the alarm from ringing. As he reached over he strained his back and winced in pain. He was getting old, or so he thought. Dan's brown hair, with the roots turning grey, was all over the place, the curls forming a quiff from the way he had slept. He reached his hand up to his husbands face, tracing a finger along the faint wrinkles around his eyes and the ones beginning to form on his cheeks. It was strange how much the two men had changed over the years.

Dan smiled at his husbands sleeping face, remembering the memories they had collected over the years.

Phil began to stir, repositioning his head and parting his lips slightly. Dan moved his body over to Phil's side and lay his head on Phil's shoulder and placed his right arm onto Phil's torso. He lay there, contented, for around ten minutes before Phil once again began to stir, moving his arm to place his hand on top of Dan's hand.

Dan tilted his head up to see is Phil was awake but his eyes were closed. Dan, once again, got fascinated by his husband but this time played with a loose strand of ashy grey hair. He pushed the strand up to be with the other strands of hair, resulting in his hand brushing the back of Phil's ear. Phil's eyes began to flutter open and Dan pressed a kiss into his cheek.

"Good morning, my love" Dan said to Phil lovingly.

"Good morning angel" Phil's sleepy voice replied before proceeding to kiss the top of Dan's forehead.

"Merry Christmas Phil" Dan smiled happily.

"Merry Christmas" Phil started, "do you want to go and wake up Evan?"

"Sure" he smiled back, "but only if you come with me too"

"Of course" Phil said before lifting the covers off of their bodies. He twisted himself around to sit at the edge of the bed. He reached under the bed for his slippers and put them on his chilled feet. Standing up he twirled around to face Dan in the bed, offering a hand to help him out of bed.

Once out of bed Dan put on his black dressing gown and passed Phil his blue one. They ventured into the next room slowly, cautious of making any noise. Phil crouched next to Evans bed and Dan day on the edge of it. They both shook him gently, causing him to wake up slowly.

"Merry Christmas bud" Phil said in a whisper.

"Do you want to get up to open your presents?" Dan said, joining in.

Evan look confused for a second but then nodded. "Yeah, can you pass me my dressing gown please?"

Dan nodded and unhooked the pink dressing gown from the door hangers, placing it on Evan's bed. "Oh and merry Christmas to you both too" Evan smiled, followed by a yawn, causing Phil to yawn too.

The next few hours consisted in opening presents and eating a beautifully cook breakfast made by Phil and Evan. Evan got many gifts consisting of a new phone, a laptop, some clothes and other miscellaneous items. Dan and Phil got each other gifts too. Dan got Phil a collection of cooking books as he had shown a new found interest in baking after cutting down his working hours. The cook books were also used to make the pancakes that they all had for breakfast. Phil had gotten Dan a scrapbook of their journey so far. Memories from when they first met, to their engagement, to their wedding, to Lucy finishing college and to today. The book made Dan cry due to the memories he was reliving in his mind.

Dan and Phil were now preparing Christmas dinner. Evan was upstairs on the phone to his friend, Dylan Anthony Berry to which Evan called Dab. This year their entire family had decided to have Christmas dinner at Dan and Phil's house. Lucy, Jake, Ben, Arabella, Sarah, Chris and Xander were all on their way to celebrate Christmas. Louise was also coming to their house but later on in the day.

After the Christmas dinner all of the guests sat in the living room with the fire glowing in the middle of the wall singing Christmas carols. Chris was holding baby Xander in his arms and Dan had Arabella sat on his knee making the noises babies do before they could talk. 

Their story wasn't over yet, but this part was. They were happy. And their family was almost complete.