A/N: here's an update for the first time in forever

i'm sorry for being so absolutely horrible at updating... rest in piece me

summary: Dan Howell had just started college, and he's roommates with someone named Phil Lester, who at first ignores him. They soon realize that they like the same things, listen to the same music, and they even have matching fringes. They're also basically polar opposites, but that's what makes them attracted to each other, even if they don't know it themselves yet. Phan College AU.

XI.

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happy new year

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"I really like your place."

Dan lifts his head, which was buried inside a book at the moment. He and Phil were currently lounging around his room, sharing lazy kisses from time to time or just spacing out. Right now, Phil was lying down next to him while he was reading. Honestly, Dan's been more than happy that his parents ended up accepting them as a couple a few days back. He can't help but break into a grin when he looks back to see his boyfriend smiling serenely at him.

"I'm very glad that you do," He beams, and he's about to turn back to his book (it was getting hella interesting) until he sees Phil pouting at the corner of his eye.

"Put that down, you'll have more than enough time to read when we get back to school." The black haired teen grumbles, scooting towards Dan and shoving the book out of his hands. Dan lets out a yelp of surprise and swats Phil's fingers, a deep frown on his face. "Pay attention to me."

"After this, I promise."

"That's what you said ten minutes ago," Phil groans in frustration, "It's been twenty."

Dan turns to his boyfriend, who's looking up at him with hopeful eyes. Eventually he gives in, placing the book gently on the nightstand besides his bed. "Fine." He huffs (in an attempt to sound angry, but fails), before Phil breaks into a bright grin and pulls him down to lay besides him at once.

The younger still tries to stay frustrated at him, but it's no use. He can't get mad at Phil, no matter how hard he tries. He meets Phil's eyes and starts giggling, the corners of his eyes crinkling. Next to him, Phil chuckles too—bringing a hand up to caress the other's cheek. There's fondness in his blue eyes, and Dan melts instantly. He's absolutely positive that he won't ever get tired of Phil anytime soon.

"You're so beautiful."

"You're so cheesy."

Phil lets out a laugh, before closing the distance between their lips at last. The kiss is short and chaste, but it still makes Dan feel incredibly giddy after the two part. "You love it, though," the black haired male says, smirking at him before placing a light peck on the other's cheek. Dan rolls his eyes and does his best to fight his growing smile; because in all honestly, it's true.

"Dan, Phil?" Dan's mother calls them from downstairs. "Your friends are here."

"That must be Chris and PJ." Dan remarks and sits up immediately, throwing his legs off the bed.

The four of them had agreed to spend New Year's together (which was tomorrow), and Dan was very excited about it for he hasn't seen them ever since they left to visit their own families. Phil follows him more slowly, a half-smile on his lips as the two walk downstairs to greet them. It's only been a few days, but deep down Dan has to admit that he misses his friends dearly—even going as far as missing Chris' immature jokes every five minutes.

Sure enough, Chris and PJ are in the dining room, slightly shivering from the cold outside. Both teens are donned in winter jackets, and there was a small amount of snow on their hats and scarves. Nevertheless, the other two perk up when they see Dan and Phil enter the living room. Chris notices them first, breaking into a wide smile at the sight of them. His nose is pink with cold, but his eyes were shining in happiness.

"Ah, my favorites!" Chris calls, spreading his arms. "Happy New Year's Eve!"

After the four greet each other with multiple hugs and laughter, Chris and PJ remove their coats and sit on the couches in the living room. Mrs. Howell starts a fire in the fireplace to warm them all up, and also provides the four with large mugs of her delicious hot chocolate. Soon enough, the atmosphere in the area becomes warm and cozy in just a few moments.

"How has your week been?" Dan asks PJ first, grinning at him behind his cup.

PJ gives him a half shrug and shifts into a more comfortable position before answering, "It's been great so far. Some family visited, and that was pretty fun. I missed them you know, I never really had the time to see them ever since I got into college."

"Same here, it's been a while since I've been home. What about you, Chris?"

Chris drags out a sigh and rolls his eyes, "It's always the same damn thing for me every year. Both my aunts hate each other's guts, but they still come to the family gatherings just to spout insults at from across the room. Honestly, I don't even know what happened between them but it's so fucking annoying. Do you know what was really awkward, though?"

Phil raises his eyebrows, slinging an arm over Dan's shoulders. "What?"

"Well," Chris sips his hot chocolate nonchalantly, "my ex-girlfriend showed up at the door on Christmas evening."

Dan's eyes widen.

PJ almost chokes on his hot chocolate, "What the fuck? You didn't tell me this!"

"Why would I want to?" Chris huffs. "I really didn't know what to say. I thought she didn't even know where I lived anymore. She looked really awkward standing outside, and she looked like she was regretting all of this in the first place. And then, she apologized for being such a bitch to me again. Can you believe that? Two years later, and she still feels guilty. I was so surprised, I couldn't say anything."

"Holy shit," Phil mutters.

"And then do you know what she did? She asked me if we could start over." Chris shakes his head in exasperation. "Obviously, I was flabbergasted; but I did remember the fact that she had a boyfriend. So I asked her, aren't you with someone?and she told me that it turns out that he was cheating on her about four months back, so they broke it off. Serves her right. Karma bites back, bitch."

"Don't tell me you said yes, because if you did I'm personally kicking your ass out of Dan's house." PJ warns.

Chris looks mildly offended. "Excuse me, I am 100% loyal. I would never drop your ass for someone like that. I told her no, but she looked like she kind of expected that answer. Then she gave me a box of chocolates and left, but not before asking if we could at least be friends. At this point I felt sort of guilty, so I said okay. She texted me this morning, but I have better things to do. Sorry."

Dan snorts, "Looks like someone had a wild Christmas."

"Did you see my post on Instagram?"

"Yeah, how hilarious." Phil says sarcastically. "I can't believe you had the nerve to put 'Merry CHRIStmas everyone' in your caption."

The other three laugh at this, and Dan can't help but continue to smile as they continue talking about all the things they've done throughout the week. They had just started to play Monopoly when Dan's mother walks back in the living room, a warm smile on her face. "Daniel, is it okay if you can go out to buy some ingredients for me? I forgot to get them earlier, and your dad's taking a nap upstairs."

Dan stands up immediately and takes the list in her hands. "Of course, mum."

"I can come with you." Phil tells him, as soon as Mrs. Howell walks back into the kitchen.

"No, no, it's okay. I'll be fine, just go ahead and keep playing."

"You might get lost."

"The grocery store's not even that far from here."

"Still—"

"Leave him be, Prince Philip." Chris throws a few fake dollar bills at him, sounding incredibly amused. "Let the princess go."

Phil smacks Chris hard in the face with a pillow in response, and the other male lets out a muffled scream from behind the object. Next to Chris, PJ lets out a deep sigh and shakes his head; as if this happened every day. Dan laughs at his friends before grabbing his coat off the hanger, pulling that, his beanie, and his shoes on before waving them a goodbye and exiting the house.

The cold air is biting, and Dan pulls his beanie lower so it completely covers his ears. It's snowing lightly at the moment, but even so Dan has to squint to be able to see where he's going. He regrets not bringing gloves, for his hands were absolutely freezing. He stuffs them in the pockets of his coat in an attempt to make them warmer, and it fortunately works.

Dan makes it to the grocery store in five minutes, and he greets the warm air that hits his face the moment he walks in.

He pulls out the list his mother gave him from out of his pocket, muttering the ingredients under his breath quietly as he grabs a basket. The brown haired male wants to get this over with fast so that he could come back and hang out with his friends some more before they started counting down to the new year together.

It's a good thing that it doesn't take him long to find the ingredients, and pretty soon he's at the cashier.

"Happy New Year's Eve," The cashier cheerfully tells him, as soon as it's his turn to pay.

"Thanks, and you as well." Dan smiles, but when he looks up he has to refrain from letting out a loud gasp of surprise. In front of him is Sarah, Phil's ex-girlfriend. At first, he doesn't think it's her—until he reads the name tag on her uniform.

It was her, all right.

To his relief, Sarah doesn't look as cold and unfriendly as she did when Dan last saw her. Today, her gray eyes were shining with happiness. Her smile was warm and friendly. If she recognizes him, she doesn't show it. Instead, she looks down to scan his items, as the brown haired male stands there cautiously with his hands in his pockets.

Was this why Phil dated her in the first place? He couldn't help but wonder.

Dan pays for the ingredients when she finishes scanning them all and watches her bag his items. Dan's a little taken aback when Sarah smiles at him again, after she gives him the receipt.

"You're really cute," Sarah says, giving him a subtle once-over, "whoever's dating you is very lucky."

Dan doesn't know what to say to this because he's too busy trying to figure out how to get out of here, but he gives her a curt nod before taking his groceries. He hears her say "Have a good rest of your evening, sir!" behind him, and he waves quickly before speed walking towards the exit, all of his alarms going off in his brain.

But honestly, what the hell was she doing here?

He remains in a panicky mood even after he enters his house, looking back a few times just to make sure that she wasn't following him. Just in case. After all, you never knew what was going to happen.

Dan fumbles with the key and unlocks the front door as fast as he could before rushing inside, making sure to lock the door securely behind him. He's still breathing heavily as he rubs his shoes on the doormat, shaking small flurries of snow off of his beanie and coat before putting both of those away.

When he walks in Phil's shouting, "STOP CHEATING!" very loudly at Chris, who's in the middle of laughing his head off. PJ's yelling at Chris as well, ears red as he furiously shakes his fist at him.

"Oh, my." Mrs. Howell says, sparing the trio a swift glance before greeting Dan at the door. She takes the groceries out of his hands with a smile. "Thank you so much, Dan. Your friends are very good company, I must say. Though, I never knew that they'd be so competitive."

"You haven't seen them play Twister yet." Dan groans, remembering when they tried playing said game in Chris and PJ's room. Needless to say, it went quite horribly. Phil accidentally hit his head on one of the bed frames, and PJ almost twisted his ankle when he turned around to get in a more comfortable position. "It's nothing short of a nightmare."

His mother chuckles at this and walks back into the kitchen, as Dan joins the rest of his friends on the couches. "Hey, guys."

"I missed you," Phil tells him, kissing him on the forehead gently.

Chris gags from the other couch, and PJ snickers. "He was only gone for ten minutes."

"It's your turn." Phil smacks him with another pillow, and ignores his previous statement. "Roll the fucking dice."

"Calm down, will you?"

The game goes on, and it soon ends with Chris winning ("I can't accept this," Phil grumbles). After cleaning up they went back to talking, pausing only to take more sips out of their hot chocolate. Throughout their discussion, Dan can't help but think about Sarah—how friendly she seemed when she saw him at the cashier. Did she even recognize him at all?

Why was she acting so sweet to him, then? She also did tell him that whoever he was dating was lucky, and he didn't even say anything along the lines of being in a relationship with anyone. Gosh, what did this all even mean? Honestly, he was worried. He was really worried, especially since Chris and PJ told him that they didn't like her one bit, and that she was really horrible...

"Hey, are you okay?" Phil suddenly asks him, concern laced in his tone. "You look really worried."

Dan looks back at him for a few moments, trying to figure out what to say. He bites his lip in deep thought, and then he sighs in resignation. He knows that he can't keep this from Phil, he was bound to find out anyways. "I... ran into Sarah."

Chris and PJ immediately stop horsing around as soon as Dan speaks, and turn to him with shocked expressions mirrored on both of their faces. Phil's eyes narrow at the mention of his ex-girlfriend's name, and if possible, he begins to look even more concerned.

"You what? When?" Chris says in disbelief.

"She was working as a cashier at the grocery shop," Dan tells them, folding his hands together cautiously, "She told me Happy New Year, complimented me, and also said that whoever was dating me was very lucky. I never even told her that I was in a relationship... so I'm assuming that she knows about Phil and I."

PJ pulls a face. "I thought she was out of our lives for good..."

"I can't fucking believe this at all." Chris grumbles, and presses a hand to his forehead. "Dan, you've got to be more careful these days. Sarah's never been that sweet to anyone... not even her own friends. If she's acting like it, then that clearly means that she's up to something."

Dan gulps, and he starts to feel really worried again. "She freaks me out, I really hope she's not following me or something."

After he says those words, Phil engulfs him in a tight and loving hug. Dan immediately feels himself relaxing into the embrace, and his quickening heartbeat manages to slow down. He closes his eyes, basking in the comfort of Phil's arms.

"I won't let her do anything to you." Phil says firmly, giving him a gentle squeeze. "I won't let her."

Chris and PJ give each other a swift glance, and then they break into wide smiles. They let out similar sounding battle cries as they launch themselves on Dan and Phil, earning a surprised yelp from the black haired male and a loud squeak from Dan as they too join in on the group hug.

"Scratch that, we definitely won't let anything happen to our baby." Chris coos, ruffling Dan's hair and messing it up in the process.

"Don't call me that!" Dan swats Chris' hands away from his hair, but there's a smile on his face.

"Fine then, princess."

"That's even worse."

"It fits, though! Prince Philip and Princess Daniel. Isn't that cute?"

Phil sighs. "You never made any sense to me, Chris."

"In all seriousness, Dan," PJ tells him, his gaze sincere, "We're all here for you."

Dan takes one good look at all of them—Chris, PJ, Phil—his dearest and also closest friends. The ones who accepted him into their group and loved him all the same. Dan's never been this close to any of his friends before, and even though that he just got to know the three of them the past few months he already feels like he's known them for years.

He can't help but start to feel sort of emotional at this, and he bites his bottom lip to keep it from trembling. He feels the tears threatening to fall, and he keeps his head up in an attempt to furiously blink them away.

"Aw, Dan, are you crying?" Chris laughs.

Dan shakes his head, "It's just... thank you so much. I love all of you."

"He loves me the most, though." Phil says with a smirk, and Dan laughs at this because it's true.

PJ's the first one who steps back from the group hug, but he reaches inside of his back pocket. He brandishes a noisemaker in his hands, a sly grin on his face. "Come on guys, let's try not to cry on New Year's Eve. We still have so much to do. Let's party and worry about all of this crap later!"

"You heard him." Phil smiles at him. "Let's make this one the best New Year's party yet."

Dan grins.

The four of them spend the rest of the night sharing more stories and cracking jokes, party hats on each of their heads.

It's eleven fifty-eight now, and Dan feels incredibly excited because this was going to be his first New Year with his friends. His parents were upstairs in their room, probably watching the broadcast live on TV. The television in the living room was on as well, but Dan wasn't really paying much attention to it yet. They're all far too busy anyway, eating snacks and drinking apple cider in paper cups.

"God, this is the best New Year's party ever." Chris says for the twentieth time this evening, taking his apple cider in one shot. He turns to PJ, a stupid and wide grin on his face. "PJ, I love you so fucking much."

"And I, you." PJ smiles back at him, leaning forward slightly to place a light peck on his boyfriend's lips.

"I think I just threw up a little," Phil gags when he witnesses the scene, and Dan laughs besides him.

Chris rolls his eyes, "As if you two are any better."

"Touché."

"It's eleven fifty-nine." Dan says, and the four of them turn to the TV. "I'm so excited for this, holy shit..."

They all grab noisemakers, and Chris grabs a can full of confetti, prepared to spray it as soon as the countdown begins. PJ stuffs more popcorn inside his mouth as he wordlessly glances at the TV, and Phil slings an arm around Dan's shoulders, giving him a light squeeze.

"Are you ready?" Phil smiles at Dan, and the latter grins.

"Of course."

The countdown begins.

"TEN. NINE. EIGHT. SEVEN. SIX. FIVE. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE—"

The people on TV all scream along with them.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Chris sprays confetti all over them, laughing maniacally when he sees the looks on all of his friend's faces. Meanwhile, PJ almost knocks the popcorn bowl over when he stands up quickly—grabbing the sides of his boyfriend's face before pulling him into a deep kiss. Surprised, Chris drops the confetti can, kissing PJ back with an equal amount of force.

Phil tackles Dan with a hug, earning a surprised yelp from the younger as they lay on the couch.

"Happy New Year, Dan." Phil whispers, before he leans down and finally closes the gap between their lips.

Dan can't help but feel completely blissful at this moment, because all of this just felt so incredibly surreal. He couldn't believe that this was happening; that this man had the ability to make him so, so damn happy. He was just so grateful for Phil's existence, and he never wanted to let him go.

Never.

"Happy New Year, Phil."

A/N: wow more fluff bc fluff is my WEAKNESS

yay, more fantastic foursome bonding time! i miss them all together irl. i can't say for sure when the next update for this story will be though, hopefully it'll be in a couple of weeks. hopefully. also i apologize for grammatical/spelling errors, i'm too lazy to edit this. rip.

thanks for sticking with me for this long~ i'm not going to abandon this, i promise. this fic is my baby, and we still have a long way to go before it's officially finished.

love you all,

-choco xx