#dnp12daysofhell

The television was on with Wall-E waiting to be played . Dinner was almost finished and being served. Their Christmas tree casting a soft white glow on the whole room. The candles Cozy Browsing and My Soul burning, creating a surprisingly pleasant festive smell around the house. There Phil sat, on his knees next to the table, browsing Tumblr on his phone while waiting for Dan to get the drinks.

“Phil! Do you want a Coke? Or Merlot?”

“Uh Merlot seems more appropriate for tonight, right?” Phil calls back.

He looks up to see Dan walking in with the wine bottle.

“Yea, but thought I’d ask anyways.” Dan says while sitting down on his knees.

Phil giggled as he opened up the bottle and Dan played the movie. The two ate in a comfortable atmosphere, eating their turkey and assortment of casseroles, sipping their wine, giggling at the comedic bits of Wall-E and just looking at each other, drinking in and savoring the fact that they found each other, they found their dream career and after more than a decade, they found their forever home. And here Dan and Phil were, celebrating their first Christmas with it by doing what they do best, staying in and being with each other.

About halfway through the movie, they finished up dinner and turned to pause it.

“I’m, like, ready to pass out into a food coma.” Dan said leaning back and spreading his legs.

“Me too, I don’t even want dessert. I feel like I’d explode even if I ate a cherry.”

“Well we don’t want that, do we now?” 

“No, but let’s clean up a bit and we’ll give each other presents?”

Immediately, Dan stood up and started taking as much as he could back to the other end of the floor, to the kitchen. Phil smiled as he saw how excited Dan was. He couldn’t blame him, he was really excited for Dan to see his gift too. Once they were all done, they sat back down at their table, on their knees, except Dan kept moving around.

“Alright Dan, I see you about ready to combust.”

“Shut up, I just really want to give you your gift.”

“Well go on then.”

Passing by the whole wall of floor to ceiling windows to get to the tree next to the television, Dan grabbed both of their gifts to each other and handed his to Phil, sitting back down across from him. They both made the decision to open their gifts at the same time, so they both looked at each other and counted to 3. Opening their gifts and seeing what was inside, they felt both of their hearts skip a beat and their breath hitch slightly.

“Dan… did you really?”

“Ha… wow, look at that.”

Upon opening up their gifts, they both find a single box and they could only guess what was inside it. 

“Well… I guess there’s no beating around the bush, right?”

Dan puts his box from Phil down and grabs the one in Phil’s hands.

“Philip Michael Lester, since we have found our forever home, would you, my soulmate do me the honor of becoming my husband?” he says while opening his box.

Phil only grabs the box Dan set down.

“Daniel James Howell, I love you forever and always and I will absolutely be your husband, that is, of course, if you become mine as well.”

They both look at each other and laugh, now noticing each other’s eyes are slightly teary. Taking turns grabbing each other’s hand and putting the rings on, admiring Dan’s engraving of “Forever Soulmates” and Phil's “Forever and Always”, they look at each other one last time before leaning in for a kiss. Truly feeling the warmth in their hearts for each other, as the kiss becomes passionate.

Breaking away, Phil wipes away a stray tear that has fallen down Dan’s face.

“Merry Christmas, bear.”

Dan chuckles slightly, “Merry Christmas, love.”

They share one more kiss, before going to the couch, blowing out the candles and playing the rest of Wall-E. Cuddling into each other’s arms, Dan and Phil find themselves drifting off into sleep, but not having a care in the world for it. Soon, they are both in a deep slumber, with the television having been turned off from being idle, the only light that was seen was from their tree. And there they lay, with memories of each other in the past filling their dreams, they knew they could rest easy for tonight, as they were never letting go of each other, especially not in their Forever Home.

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