Christmas In July {Phan} (Book Two)

☃Five☃

I woke up before Phil did so that he couldn't run into my room and yell at me to wake up.
"Dan, it's time for activity one of OGDTBCIJE day four to-" He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that I was awake. "Aw, damn it. I wanted to wake you up again. That's been the best part of this whole thing."
I smiled as I saw that he was wearing the snowman Christmas sweater that I had half knitted (He did the other half because I couldn't figure it out for the life of me) for him.
"Gee, thanks." I laughed a little. "Go downstairs and eat your cereal out of the box while I get changed into the sweater that you made me."
"Okay!" Phil cried out in happiness as he ran downstairs to do what I had told him to do.
"It's like having a little kid getting excited on Christmas Day." I chucked to myself as I got up and started getting changed.

*****

"Activity one of OGDTBCIJE day four has officially started!" Phil announced to seemingly everyone as we were standing outside a giant mall. "Here's the catch though. Each of us has a task. What is that task, you may be asking yourself?" He wrapped his arm around me. "Well Daniel, the task is to find a Christmas in July present for me. As you may have been expecting, my task is to find a Christmas in July present for you."
"Oh, and here I thought that this task was going to be challenging." I teased.
"What's that supposed to be mean Howell?" Phil crossed his arms but I could still see a small grin on his features.
I crossed my arms as well, making sure that a small grin was visible on my face. "It means that buying a Christmas in July gift for you is going to be easy as hell, Lester."
"Oh, I guess we'll see about that." His small grin has turned into a smile. "Meet me back here at three. No sooner and no later. I better see you holding a bag containing my Christmas in July gift. Note how I said gift. It's singular. That means that you can only buy me one gift and that I can only buy you one too."
"The same goes for you." My small grin had also turned into a smile. "Also, one gift? Man, you really are making this super easy for me."
Phil just smiled and rolled his eyes as he looked down at his watch. "Your time starts... Now!" He took off running towards the entrance of the mall. I of course didn't feel like running so I just walked to the entrance. I watched to see what direction Phil went in. Once I determined that, I went in the opposite direction as him and almost immediately was glad of the decision that I had made. There was a store that was only open during July that was Christmas in July themed.
"Oh Phil, you're going to wish so badly that you went this way." I laughed a bit as I entered the store. As I looked around, I realized that Phil would want every single item that was inside. It was really going to be hard picking just one thing for him.

*****

"Holy shit, this literally screams Phil." I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a giant Pikachu wearing a red Santa hat. "He's going to lose his shit when he sees this." I carefully grabbed the giant Pikachu and literally had to drag it because it was so heavy to the register. The cashier was awesome and wrapped it up for me. She even said that she would deliver it to my house today since it was super heavy and she didn't want me carrying it all the way out to my car.
"Thanks so much. My fiancé is really going to love this."
"That's really nice to hear. I hope you look forward to seeing the smile on her face."
"Oh, my fiancé's a he." I corrected her.
The cashier then frowned at me. "Oh, I see."
I left before she could say anything homophobic towards me. Homophobic comments really bothered me because I've literally been rejected by own family because I'm gay. I can't tell you how many times those people have told me to do my Bible reading or to find God or that being gay is a sin. I wish I was like Phil in the way that he didn't let homophobic comments get to him and kept a smile on his face throughout the whole thing.

*****

"Dan! Where the hell is the gift that you got me for activity one of OGDTBCIJE day four?!" Phil cried once it was three in the afternoon and we had met up at the spot that we agreed to meet up at. I looked down and saw that he was holding a bag in his hand. I couldn't see what he had gotten me since he had bought wrapping paper to wrap up whatever he had bought me an he was using it to cover up my gift so that I couldn't see it.
I smiled. "It's at home Phil." A few hours had passed since I had purchased the giant Pikachu for him so it was more than likely waiting for us at home. "I bought your gift and had the store ship it to our house."
"Why did you do that?" Phil looked genuinely confused.
"You'll understand once you see what I got you." I smiled.
"Oh, okay!" He smiled back. "Guess what time it is?"
"It's three o'clock, the time you told me to meet you back here."
"Well, I guess so smartass." Phil laughed. "But it's actually time to start activity two of OGDTBCIJE day four to start."
"And what exactly is activity two of OGDTBCIJE day four Philip Lester?"
"Activity two of OGDTBCIJE day four is getting lunch because I'm starving." Phil laughed again.
"Of course you are. All you've had to eat so far is a box of cereal."
"You keep judging me for eating cereal out of the box but let me tell you something about doing that." He started walking and I almost immediately fell into pace with him. "When you eat cereal out of a bowl, you have to use both a bowl and a spoon. Guess what you have to do after you finish eating the cereal? You have to wash the bowl and spoon that you used. Now, you save all that extra effort when you eat cereal out of the box."
"But if I eat cereal out if the box, I won't be able to have milk with my cereal!" I protested.
"I'm not going to sympathize with you on that one darling." Phil laughed. "I'm lactose intolerant after all."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." I teased.
"Gee, thanks." Phil crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. He gave me a smile as a way I'd telling me that he knew that I was just joking."

*****

"It's time for activity three of OGDTBCIJE day four to start!" I drove home and told Phil to close his eyes so that he wouldn't be able to see the giant Pikachu that was waiting for him on the front lawn. "You get to open your present first Phil!"
"I'm so excited!" Phil jumped up and down in his seat while keeping his eyes covered and close as I went over to his side of the car and opened up the door. I unbuckled his seatbelt and helped him get out of the car so that he wouldn't trip and fall onto his face. Once I got him close enough to the giant Pikachu, I instructed him to open his eyes and they immediately went wide as they scanned the wrapped giant Pikachu.
"What on earth did you get me?!" Phil's voice was laced with excitement.
"Open it up and find out!"

Watching Phil tear open the wrapping paper on that giant Pikachu was like watching a little kid opening a huge Christmas present on Christmas Day. I was smiling the entire time because I loved how excited Christmas made Phil.
"Oh my God!" His voice squeaked with excitement once he had finished opening his present and the Pikachu sat before him. "This is absolutely amazing Dan! Thank you so much!" He gave the Pikachu a hug before he jumped on me, causing the both of us to fall down on the ground. I chuckled and hugged my jet black hair fiancé back.
"I'm guessing you like it?" I asked him with a smile on my face.
"Are you kidding me right now? I love it!" He pressed his lips to mine in a passionate kiss a moment later. I immediately responded to his action by kissing him back just as passionately.

I felt my heart drop once Phil pulled away. We both drew in a breath and smiled at each other.
"Your gift makes my gift look like I barely put any thought into it."
"Stop it. I'm sure I'll love it." I stood up and dusted the artificial snow that had gotten all over my clothes off of me. "Go wrap it up while I go put your Pikachu in your room."
"Okay!" Phil was in the house running upstairs to where we recorded our gaming videos a moment later.

*****

"Here you go Dan." Phil extended his arm in order to hand me a small gift. I turned around after finding a good place for his giant Pikachu before taking the gift from him. "It's not as great as what you gave me but I hope you'll still like it."
"Maltesers?!" I cried out in excitement as the second love of my life came into my vision.
"See? I told you that your gift made it look like I didn't put much thought into yours." Phil genuinely looked sad.
"Hey, I really love your gift." I pulled him into a hug so that he would know that I wasn't joking. "It's perfect. Thank you love."
Phil was smiling a moment later. "You're welcome. I'm really glad you love it."