Phan One Shots

I'll be home for Christmas

Summary: Dan is a traveling business man and Phil worries that he won't be home for the holidays
Ft. Parent!phan because I can't control myself
Warning(s): lots of crying and sadness but also fluff so it is balanced👍🏽
***
The nervous knees of a father bounced violently as to keep the persistence of a memory. With closed windows and the heat of a mechanical system, it was not a chill that sent this man shaking- It was fear.

Phil Lester sat firmly on a cozy chair, thinking in the deafening silence of his flat, silence only broken by the heart beat heard in his ears and the spring of his knee. Condensation on the windows and the warm glow of fairy lights gave the house an appropriate Christmas atmosphere. But Phil was not in the mood for the sickening sparkles and garlands wrapped up the stair handles. How could something, anything dare be so cheerful when there was so much sorrow in the air.

Down from the hallway came the padding of children's feet. Out of the dark shadows came a curly haired girl enveloped in a multicolored blanket littered with stars (and juice box stains). She wiped the sleep from her eyes and began an attempt at seizing her father's attention.

"Papa!" The child wailed with grabby fingers front and center.

Phil's straight, thin lips turned into a smile. The anxiety quickly evaporated from his face as though it was never there.
Even though the girl was very young she could still sense the the sadness in her father's eyes. But that too disappeared as Phil lifted his daughter and draped her in his arms.

"Are you sleepy Winnie?" He cooed. His husband, Dan, had chosen the name. When the 2 syllable name left his lips Phil knew it meant to be.

"Where's Dad?" She questioned, wide eyes all a glow with the excitement of seeing her father.

Phil let out a rough breath, removing his hands from Winnie and to his aging forehead.
"He's not home yet, dear. Would you like to give him a ring?"

The amount of work that Dan was given placed a heavy burden on the family. As a traveling consultant, Dan was forced to give up the large majority of his days with his husband and daughter to spend them in dingy motel rooms and stuffy office buildings. Though the job paid tremendously well, the fear placed on Phil that his loved one would miss out on the life of his daughter and family could keep him up for days on end.

Winnie toddled to the landline and looked up gleefully, anticipating the voice of her dad. Phil typed in the numbers and waited next to Winnie, listening to the dial tone he had grown accustomed to.

"Hello?"

The voice made the two jump. It was loud and unlike the groggy one they were used to hearing.

"Dad! Dad! I lost a tooth!" Of course that was the first thing the tot would say, she had been babbling non-stop about her wondrous achievement.

"Really sweetie? Did you put it under your pillow?" The smile in Dan's voice could be heard, making Phil slightly warmer than before. If he couldn't have his partner beside him, then all he wanted was for Dan to be happy.

The two went on with Phil monitoring close by. Phil hummed in bliss as he acutely listened to his husband's voice. Then the question he had been fearing for many days left the lips of his child.

"Are you coming home for Christmas dad?"

The words were filled with such innocence, yet they began the sinking feeling in Phil's stomach. He knew the answer, the answer that ate away at his hope.

A long pause came, followed by a harrowing "No."

The silence that followed mirrored the one from earlier, the deafening, heavy kind of silence. Winnie did not speak, for she did not have the courage to. Phil did not speak, for he did not have the will to. Dan did not speak, for he did not have the heart to.

"I have to go now, I love you both so much," Dan said with a clear grimace in his voice. Phil slowly reached for the phone with no words and no expression, placing it on the cool plastic rest. The call ended.

Winnie was very young, but she could still sense the sadness in her father's eyes. So she did the only thing natural- she cried. Tear came pouring down her plump cheeks, silent and painful. She grasped onto her father and looked at him with tearing eyes. It was almost like a signal Winnie was trying to give Phil, telling him it was okay to cry to. And so he did.
***
Just then, while in a heap of emotion and saltwater tears, a sound of keys chiming came from the door. It was almost too faint to hear over the sniffing, but Phil sensed it and paused. The shanking grew louder and the door became unlocked. Phil's flight or fight response kicked in and Winnie was quickly shielded behind his back.

The door flew open and a large frame was silhouetted in the doorway.

"Oh my god!" Phil cried, a desperate muffle in his throat.

Phil bounded for the door, leaping- no, collapsing into the figure.

"Dan, is it really you?"

But there wasn't an answer needed. Phil knew it was Dan, here and in the flesh. He nuzzled deeply into his coat and cried- this time, tears of solace and rapture. For the more than half year that the family had been separated, this was a moment in which Phil could displace his fear, and hug his husband.

Winnie popped up from he hiding spot and ran as fast as he toddler leg would take her over to her father. "Dad!" She howled, tear tracks still littering her face. The family stayed in silence, no need to speak when everything could be said through their embrace.

"I didn't think you'd make it," Phil breathed, head perched in the crook of Dan's neck.

"I made a promise to myself that I would be here, no matter what got in my way," Dan replied with teary eyes and a warm smile.

"You got us good dad!" Winnie laughed like a monkey.

"Did I monkey? Did I trick you?" Dan played, sweeping Winnie up like a package and swinging her lovingly in the air. Dan did not say it out loud, but he had missed Winnie terribly, and felt like the luckiest man on earth to be holding his daughter by his heart.

"I love you so much Dan," Phil whispered from behind him. He placed a small peck on Dan's cheek and a hand gently on his shoulder.

"You missed!" Dan exclaimed.

"What?"

Dan placed Winnie delicately on the cozy chair before taking Phil's hand and swiftly switching around, dipping his beautiful husband. He went for it, giving his partner the first kiss they had shared in a long while, passionate and full of month long waiting.

"Oh," Phil whispered, giggling like a lovesick mess.

"Ewe!" Winnie stuck her tongue out in fake disgust and wagged her finger in a disapproving fashion. The couple laughed at her outburst and Phil stuck his tongue out too, playfully mocking her.

"Merry Christmas Phil," Dan whispered, high off the joy he felt from being home, surrounded by loved ones.

"Merry Christmas, my love."