Chapter Text
Whatever he had expected to happen one day, once he was able to leave home and truly discover himself, Dan had never thought kids would be part of the plan.
He glanced over at Phil, sitting beside him at their gaming desk, and smiled. "It's been ages since we've played Who's Your Daddy , but, um…" Phil paused to look over at Dan and reach for his hand underneath the desk, squeezing it briefly. "we thought it'd be fun to play again!"
"And see if it's still utterly shit with the controls," Dan added. Of course, they'd had other reasons to dig this game out again, other than nostalgia or whatever else their fans would credit it to, but it wasn't time for that particular announcement yet. Not until they could be sure it was the right time.
-
The whole thing had started not long after they returned from their honeymoon in Japan (of course). Once the jet lag wore off, they'd paid a visit to Louise and Pearl, who'd advanced to crawling around the floor extremely fast. It was when Louise left the room for a few moments that it happened.
Phil had glanced up at him, over Pearl’s head, with the look that almost always meant some kind of trouble. “You know,” he’d said with a smile, glancing from Pearl up to Dan and back again. “We have managed to keep Dil alive this long…”
He’d lived with Phil for long enough to know exactly what was going on in that head of his. “Phil, no.” He’d shaken his head, pointing at him warningly for good measure. “No.”
“I haven’t even killed a houseplant in a few months,” Phil had shot back, before adding, “Or the dog.”
Dan had rolled his eyes as he sat down on the floor across from the two of them. "I'm sure an actual baby would be ridiculously more complicated than your bloody houseplants or Susan, love." He wasn't even sure how they had managed to keep a dog alive for so long since getting her a few short years ago, but Susan was still as happy and energetic as she'd been then. Still, a puppy, even one as crazy as Susan, would obviously be easier than a baby human .
"I just thought it would be a nice idea," Phil had said quietly as he let Pearl examine his wedding ring. Dan absentmindedly began fiddling with his too, a habit he'd picked up with his engagement ring first, shortly after they’d gotten engaged.
Phil got his way, of course. Louise had come back into the room to make sure her daughter was alright, making her own comments about Pearl having a playmate in a few years, and that had been the final nail in the coffin. The surrogacy agency they'd found had been wonderful so far. Dawn proved to be a good match, instantly approved of by Susan, who'd marched over and gently laid her head in the woman's lap. Dawn even played bloody Mario Kart with them because she wanted to know what they liked to do.
-
“Are we keeping this old thing?” Dan’s voice broke through his thoughts from his spot on the other side of the guest-room-turned-nursery. Phil glanced over to see his husband, currently barely visible below his shoulders and surrounded by the piles of random crap they’d collected over the years, lifting a golden jacket in front of his head.
Phil smiled at the jacket and the memories it held. "I didn't even think we still had those," he said. It felt like it had been ages since the first tour, their first time meeting so many of their fans around the world, all the new experiences and new foods they’d gotten to try. Interactive Introverts had been amazing in its own way, of course, but Tatinof had still been the very first thing they’d done on such a huge scale. “We can keep them for now, I think.”
Dan shrugged. “Sure.” He folded it up, careful to not cause any damage, and tucked it into the storage bin in front of him. Phil smiled with a sigh.
Right where Dan sat, just in front of the wide window, would be the crib’s spot in a few short months. An old dresser of Phil's had been uncovered in the closet and moved to the opposite wall beside the door, awaiting a fresh coat of paint and dozens of tiny clothes to fill the drawers. Phil couldn't wrap his head around that, even now. The idea of having a child of their own had become a reality.
A baby . Their baby.
Wow.
-
"We've still got loads to do before we're ready," Phil said to the camera with a smile. "But I think we're on the proper track. Just a few months, yeah?"
He could see Dan looking over at him with the sort of soft expression he felt lucky somehow to be able to see. "Six months left of full nights of sleep."
"Which we will spend playing Mario Kart and watching TV," Phil added, nudging Dan's shoulder. Dan shrugged, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
"Obviously." Dan sat there and looked over at him for another calm moment before speaking to the camera again. "Anyways, we can't wait to meet you, Susan's convinced we're moving or something probably, but you'll love her. She's literally a teddy bear."
The whole idea of recording videos just meant for the baby had been Dan's idea, from a session of browsing the internet for parenting tips from the sofa crease. It would be something for them, too hopefully get rid of some of the nerves, and maybe for the baby themselves one day, if they wanted to see what their dads had been like back then.
"Nerds," had been Dan's suggestion for that last bit, accompanied by a grin.
Susan popped her head up then, bursting Phil’s thought bubble and pulling him back to the reality of filming this video. Dan grabbed the dog under her front legs to pull her into view of the camera. She gave a bark at the camera, having gotten used to the object after her adoption, and turned to sniff at Dan’s shirt.
"Anyways," Phil continued, pausing for a glance over at his husband and their dog that he knew was incredibly soppy, "I know you'll be happy with us."
Dan reached for his hand, turning to the camera. "We can't wait to meet you, love," he said in the softest voice, and switched the camera off a quiet moment later.
"You're so sweet," Phil half-teased, leaning over to drop a quick kiss on Dan's cheek. Dan swatted at him with a grin that quite betrayed his mock annoyance.
"Shut up," Dan muttered. "You're so much worse, you spork."
Phil laughed, then lifted their hands to nuzzle against Dan's. "I know. It's cause I love you."
There was no response to that other than Dan yanking him closer and holding him as tightly as he could.
-
Somehow, Dan hadn't ever put much thought into how much stuff one tiny baby could possibly need. He watched as Phil held up yet another onesie with a perfectly in-love expression on his face.
"It's all so cute," Phil whined , laying the newest onesie in their cart. Dan just smiled and readjusted his grip on the camera.
It was just all so tiny , everything from the ever-growing pile of onesies and pyjamas to the incredibly tiny socks .
Especially the pair of booties he'd just picked up off the shelf. "Phil, look at these damn things." He held them in his hands. “They’re goddamn Winnie the Pooh, Phil . I can’t. They fit in one hand , can you even imagine what they’ll look like on this kid’s fucking feet ?” The booties were a stupidly soft-looking pastel yellow, with Winnie on one with a jar of honey and Piglet on the other. He glanced down at the pastel blue Eeyore onesie in the cart already, sighed, and dropped them in with a wistful smile.
“They’ll be spoiled rotten between us and their grandparents,” Phil observed, shaking his head with a smile at the half-full cart from the hour since they’d entered the store.
“Fucking hell, Phil,” Dan murmured. “ Our kid’s gonna be wearing all this, and I can’t… I almost can’t believe it.” He could feel the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, even though he’d said he wouldn’t start crying in the middle of the bloody store, and yet here he was. Phil leaned against the cart, staring down at the contents of the cart with that specific smile that suggested he was about to start fighting back tears of his own.
Phil managed to take the camera from Dan and rest it on top of a pile of stuffed animals, most of which they'd debated over buying before tossing all of them in the cart. "Yeah. All dressed up and playing with more toys they'll know what to do with," he said with a laugh, earning a half laugh from Dan.
"Let's finish up, then," Dan said after a moment or so, pointing vaguely behind him. "I think I saw a talking dog toy that looked like our bloody dog back there we've got to have for this kid." All that Phil could do in response was chuckle and turn the cart around in the direction Dan had pointed.
"Away we go!" he cheered. Dan rolled his eyes, though his smile gave him away.
-
The next time they saw Louise was at a park with Pearl after she’d practically demanded an update ‘in person this time, lovies’. They found her on a blanket, Pearl sitting in front of her with an assortment of toys, under a small group of trees.
“How goes the shopping?” she asked once they’d gotten settled across the blanket.
They shared a glance before Dan admitted, “We’ve already bought a cart full of clothes and toys. Just furniture left at this point.”
“And actually being ready for them to be here,” Phil added, shrugging. “It still doesn’t feel real.” He grabbed a unicorn toy just out of Pearl’s reach that she’d been struggling to get and handed it to her with a rather goofy smile.
“You aren’t going to feel ready ever, you know.” She paused for a moment to smile down at her own little girl before looking back up. “No matter how much stuff you put together or how much you think you couldn’t be more ready, it’ll still feel scary, the first time you hold them. I believe in you two, though. I know you’ll be able to handle it, eventually. You’ve got me, anyways, to call at ungodly hours of the night when there’s a problem to solve, right?”
Dan let out a short laugh at her last sentence, replaced by a somewhat more serious look as he thought over the rest of her words and watched Pearl play. “I hope so.”
“We wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t ready, right?” Phil said, reaching over for his hand.
“I guess so.”