Underneath The Mistletoe {Phan} (Book Three)

🌨One🌨

I love Christmas.

What's not to love about it? Everyone's singing Christmas songs, drinking hot chocolate by a cozy fireplace, and putting a smile on others' faces by giving them gifts. Christmas is a time to make people happy, something I absolutely love doing. I mean, why wouldn't you want to make others happy? It's such an amazing thing to do!
"I hope we get a white Christmas." I whispered as I stared out the window looking for even the slightest hint of snow. Throughout the entire month, it's been bitter cold but not even a single snowflake has fallen from the sky. At the beginning of the month, I wasn't really worried about it because there was plenty of time for snow to fall. But now that Christmas was a week away, I was getting extremely worried. London wasn't exactly known for never snowing so it was already strange enough that it hasn't snowed for the entire month of December. "What's Christmas if there's no snow?"
"Phil, don't be so sad." I felt Dan wrap his arms around me and pull me close to him. He then placed a kiss on my cheek and I closed my eyes and felt a small smile form on my face. "I don't like seeing you sad, especially since your favorite holiday is coming up very soon."
"I know you don't like seeing me sad Dan." I continued to whisper as I opened my eyes. "But I can't help it. I want it to snow and I'm scared that London's not going to get a white Christmas for the first time in a very, very long time."
"Everything will be alright darling." Dan planted another kiss on my cheek and the small smile I had on my face grew bigger.
"I sure hope so." I let out a small sigh. "Hey, I'm going to go for a little walk. Do you want to come with me?"
"Not tonight sweetie. I'm feeling quite tired today." I heard Dan yawning without needing to look behind me to see that he was doing so. "But don't let that hold you back. Go enjoy a nice relaxing walk."
"Well... Alright Dan." I felt him break the hold he had on me and gently rub my back. "But I'm not leaving without a goodbye kiss."
"I wasn't going to let you leave without giving me one anyways." Dan laughed a bit as he forced me to turn towards him before pressing his lips to my own. I immediately kissed him back, pulling away from him a few moments later when I needed a breath.
"Don't stay out too late." Dan laughed a bit once more as I ruffled my hair.
"Hey, you're going to mess up my fringe if you do that!" I rushed to fix my hair back to the way it was before he ruffled it. "You better behave or else there won't be OGDTBCEPT tomorrow like I promised!"
"Okay, I'll behave." Dan smiled as he planted a small kiss on my forehead. "Enjoy your walk."
"I will. Sweet dreams Dan." I grabbed his right hand and kissed it before giving him a small wave and opening the door, hearing the ringing of the bells I had placed on the wreath I put on the door. "You better be ready for me to snuggle up to you when I get home."
"Don't worry, I'm already eagerly awaiting it." Dan waved back at me and I smiled as I closed the door behind me and stepped outside. I was immediately hit with the freezing wind that had become so common this year. As my teeth started chattering, I went back inside and rushed over to the coat rack in the kitchen after slamming the door behind me and grabbed the first winter jacket that I saw. I then put a Pikachu hat on so that my ears wouldn't get cold. After putting on the Pikachu hat, I grabbed a scarf and wrapped it around my neck and mouth. I then reached into the pockets of my winter jacket and pulled out the gloves that were inside of them. After slipping them onto my hands, I walked back to the front door, feeling prepared to face London's bitter winter cold.

As I was walking around, I noticed how dead the streets were. There wasn't anyone walking around and hardly any cars had driven by at all. It was weird seeing London like this since it was usually a busy city with people and cars everywhere. Now it seemed like a town that was completely abandoned.
That's when I saw someone sitting on a bench.
This someone that I saw appeared to be very small. There wasn't any chance that they were an adult because their size was that of a child. I studied the figure for a few moments to see if I could determine what age they were but I just couldn't. I could tell the person was female due to the fact that they had black hair that rested on their shoulders. As I was looking at the young girl, she glanced over and saw me. Before I could even react, she quickly looked away and started shivering. She then placed her legs onto the bench and pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms as she did so while continuing to shiver.
I had the choice to just walk away, but I didn't make that choice.
How could I make that choice?
It'd be heartless me to do so.
She was all alone out here in the bitter cold. She'd freeze to death if I just walked away.
"Hey, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" I asked the young girl gently as I approached her. "Your parents are probably worried sick about you."
The girl shook her head. "No, they told me to wait here for them to come back." When she spoke, I immediately knew that she wasn't from around here. Her accent didn't sound like any British accent I've ever heard. I immediately wondered where she was from. But that was a question to be saved for a later point.
"How long have you been waiting for?"
The girl thought for a moment. "A few hours."
My heart dropped when I heard this. It broke into two when I said, "Sweetie, I... I don't think that your parents are going to come back. I t-think they lied to you when they said that they were going to come back."
I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach several times as I saw tears form in her brown eyes. "No... No, that's not true. They'll come back. My mommy and daddy love me. They've always told me that they love me."
Now it felt like someone had cut open my chest and ripped my heart out. "People don't always tell the truth."
She opened her mouth to respond but her teeth started chattering instead.
"Come with me. I'll buy you a nice winter jacket that'll keep you warm." I held out my hand towards her.
She shook her head. "No, that's okay. You don't have to do that."
"Yes, I do. If I don't, you're going to freeze to death in this cold if I don't." I moved my hand closer to her. "Now, come on, there are some shops that are still open. I'll let you pick out whatever jacket you want."
The girl stared at my hand for a few moments before grabbing it. I helped her stand up while she continued to shiver. "T-thank you."
"You have no need to thank me." I gave her a smile. "My name's Phil. What's your name?"
"E-Ellie." She started shivering more.
"That's a beautiful name. I love it." I started walking before she got any colder than it already was. "Where are you from? You don't sound like you're from anywhere in England."
"I'm from America."
"That's cool. What state in America are you from?"
"Indiana. Fort Wayne, Indiana, if you wanted to know the city as well. I just got here today and my mommy and daddy were getting ready to move into the new house they bought. They took over to the bench we were just at and now they aren't coming back." Tears threatened to spill from her eyes again. "Well, according to you at least."
"No, please don't cry. Look, this shop sells really nice winter jackets." I pointed to a nearby shop in an attempt to distract her from thinking about her parents. "Do you want to look in there?"
"O-okay." She whispered.
"Let's go inside then and see what they have." I opened the door for her once I was close enough to it. She stepped inside and almost immediately stopped shivering. I stepped inside, allowing the door to close by itself behind me.
"Remember, you can pick out whatever you want. You don't have to worry about the price."
Ellie didn't seem to hear what I said because she immediately started to wander around the store. She went over to a coat that was hanging up by a mannequin that was wearing the same coat. I went up to where she was, not wanting to lose sight of her.
"What does this mean?" She pointed to the pound symbol on the price tag.
"Oh, that means the coat costs that many pounds." I explained. "Here in England, we don't use dollars like America does. We use pounds. That's why the symbol looks different. Even our money looks different than how American money looks."
"Really?" Ellie looked up at me with curiosity in her eyes. "What does money look like here?"
I pulled my wallet out of my jeans and pulled out a five pound note. "You see that lady on there? That's the queen of England."
"Queen? England has a queen?" The curiosity in Ellie's eyes grew.
I nodded. "Yep. That's another difference between England and America. America has presidents while we have kings and queens."
"Woah, that's so cool!" Ellie smiled. "You know, London's such a beautiful city."
"It is." I nodded in agreement and smiled. "You should see it when it's snowing. It's so wonderful. I'm hoping that we get a white Christmas."
"Yeah, a white Christmas would be nice." Ellie looked back over at the jacket she had been previously looking at.
"Do you like that jacket?" I asked her.
She nodded.
"I like it too. It's a nice pretty pink color." I smiled as I picked it up from the clothes rack it was hanging on after checking to make sure it was a size that would fit her. "Let's go pay for it."

*****

"How does it fit?" I asked Ellie when we were outside and I had told her to try on the jacket.
"It's perfect. Thank you so much." She hugged me tightly and I kneeled down before hugging her back.
"I told you that you didn't need to thank me."
"I know, it's just... I feel like I have to."
I smiled. "Since it's obvious that you have nowhere to go, why don't you come and stay with me until we can find you a place you can call home."
"You'd let me do that? Wouldn't I just get in the way?"
I shook my head. "No, no, you wouldn't at all. I'd love to have you stay. There's a guest bedroom you can sleep in."
This time when tears formed in Ellie's eyes, they were tears of happiness and she allowed these tears to escape from her eyes.
"Don't cry. You're going to make me cry too." I held out to my hand to her like I had done earlier before buying her a winter jacket. "Come on, I'll take you to my flat."

*****

Dan was asleep when Ellie and I got back to my flat so I told her to be as quiet as she possibly could as we tiptoed up the stairs and into the guest bedroom. I shut the door quietly once we were both inside.
"This room's all yours so feel free to make yourself at home." I pulled back the covers on the bed. "If you need anything, I'm one room over. You just come and wake me up, okay? I won't be bothered at all, I promise."
"Okay." Ellie nodded as she climbed onto the bed. Once she was laying down, I pulled the covers over her.
"Oh, I almost forgot to ask. How old are you Ellie?"
"Ten." She held up both of her hands.
"I'll remember that." I laughed quietly as stood up from being kneeled down to her level. "See you in the morning. Sweet dreams."
"Good night Phil." She whispered to me before I slowly and quietly closed the door behind me. Afterwards, I tiptoed over to Dan's and my bedroom before carefully laying down and snuggling up next to him, feeling too lazy and tired to actually change into my pajamas. Even in the darkness, I could see a smile form on Dan's face. Normally, I would smile back, but I just couldn't tonight.
I planned on making an adjustment to OGDTBCEPT and I didn't know if Dan would be okay with it or not.