April 2022

Dan stumbled on his way in with the bags weighing him down. "I'm too old for this…" he mumbled, grumpy for having to take it all in himself. He set the bags down in the kitchen and dragged his feet down to the bedroom down the hall. "Ugh, why is it so bright in here?" he laughed as he plopped down on the bed beside his husband, rubbing at his eyes.

Phil smiled at him quickly before returning to his work on his laptop. "There are finally lights in here that aren't below 400 lux." He tried to keep multitasking, wanting to talk to Dan but putting the final touches on a video. "I can't believe you kept it so dark in here, how did you stand it?"

"It was just for filming," Dan shrugged. "I fixed it in editing, right?" He waited for Phil to agree with him, laughing when all he got was silence. "Right?" he prompted again.

Phil shrugged, innocently feigning indifference. "Sure you did," he laughed, shaking his head. "Turning up the exposure doesn't fix a lighting problem, Dan; you can only really fix bad lighting with better lighting. I watch your videos, you look like a sheep."

Dan was about to argue before, "… Wait, a sheet or a sheep?"

"A sheep, yeah," Phil responded in all seriousness. He saved his work and closed the program, opening up YouTube and setting it to upload. In the meantime, he had something else he wanted to get done quickly.

Dan laughed and just went with it. He turned his back on him, pretending to be offended by the comment on his video editing. "So, what are you doing?" he asked casually, laying his head back against his shoulder and trying to see what was happening on the screen. Phil had been working or whatever for a few hours now, and Dan was getting lonely waiting for him. "Editing?" he guessed, not at a proper angle to really see.

Phil swiped playfully at Dan's face. "No," he grumbled, deep in concentration.

Dan smirked and turned to see for himself. "You're… making a new channel?"

Phil hummed an affirmative, tongue poking through his lips as he worked at it. "For Natalie."

Dan stared for a moment. "Babe, I don't think 18-month-olds need YouTube channels." He rested his chin on his shoulder, on his hands and knees behind his husband and quickly pecking his neck.

Phil smiled, shaking his head. "It's so we can post videos of her without spamming our own channels."

Dan hadn't even thought about that. They'd already discussed how much they were each willing to allow Natalie to be in videos on the internet at all, and Phil had managed to convince Dan that there was no harm in it, and recording her would preserve memories a lot better than anything else would.

"And then maybe we can give it to her when she's older! Maybe YouTube will run in the family." Phil laughed and leaned back into his husband for a moment, kissing his cheek.

Dan laughed with him. "Okay." He kissed his neck again sweetly. "How are you feeling today?"

"Better, thanks!"

He smiled. It was slow progress, but therapy had really worked for his husband, and Dan couldn't be more grateful for that. "Come on." He kissed his lips. "Let's go meet our daughter."

October 2025

"Play nice, Nat!" Dan called across the playground to where little Natalie was playing with two little boys, but didn't seem to be sharing her sand toys. He huffed out a laugh; Phil was over there with her, sitting on the edge of the sandbox but sort of just watching on.

Dan was sort of more the disciplinary parent; if Natalie was throwing a tantrum or hitting someone with her toys, that was an immediate five minutes in the corner, or locked in her daddy's lap until she agreed to behave. But a little bit of not sharing was nothing to have her in trouble for. He was the one more willing to punish her; Phil didn't want to oppress her and make her rebel as a teenager. Dan teased him for acting like the stereotypical new age artist parent.

They maybe weren't the most traditionally ideal parents, but they loved their daughter and meant to do well by her, and Natalie was a happy child who loved both her daddies. She was always fed well and healthy, clean and dressed appropriately for the weather. She'd started preschool and everyone loved her.

"I think we're doing a pretty good job," Dan mused to himself.

He watched his husband pick their daughter up from the sand pit and almost trip over a few kids as he brought her over to Dan. "Someone isn't playing nice with the other kids, so I think it's time to go home."

Dan was a bit surprised that Phil was disciplining Natalie, but it was kind of a pleasant surprise. "Oh, well, maybe next time she'll know next time to share her toys." He stood up from the bench and stroked the little girl's hair. "Come on, let's go home."

The two could never keep their little angel punished for long, and they were already taking her home from the playground early.

"Higher, Daddy!" Natalie laughed as the little family walked toward the apartment, prompting Phil to lift her higher before setting her back down, and again, and again. It was a quicker and more fun way to walk along, and just as fun for the parents as the child. Dan got a kick out of just watching.

"What should we get for dinner?" Phil asked his husband, Natalie giggling as he picked her up and propped her up on his hip.

"Definitely takeout, I don't have time to cook tonight." It was Dan's turn to cook dinner while Phil watched Natalie, but he had a video to work on.

Natalie smiled brightly, knowing exactly what getting takeout meant. "Daddy making a video?" she asked hopefully. She was such a little ham for the camera, and wanted to make an appearance in Dan's new video like she had in Phil's most recent.

Dan smiled back at her. "Yeah, Daddy's making a video." He dropped the grin from his face. "But little girls who don't play nice with other kids don't get to be in videos."

She took on a look of horror. "Daddy, no!" she begged, squealing in distress.

Phil smiled at his husband's teasing, then turned to their daughter. "Maybe if Nat apologizes and promises to be good tomorrow, Daddy will let her be in the video." Dan had no idea why he liked to speak to their child in the third person, but it wasn't hurting anyone. He rolled his eyes playfully nonetheless.

"Mkay… I sorry, Daddy."

Dan nodded and stepped closer to kiss her cheek. "Okay, I'll see where I can squeeze you in," he smiled.

They decided on picking up Chinese before going home. They didn't like giving Natalie junk food, and had cut it (mostly) out of their own diets as well, just so they could keep up with an energetic four-year-old.

They came to a more crowded area of the city, and Dan took over carrying Natalie. He kept his eyes on Phil, who seemed to be growing more anxious with every stranger that passed by. "You okay?" he whispered, but received no response.

Dan knew what he was thinking. He'd been surrounded by people when one had first put a gun to his back, over ten years ago. And all the time, all the therapy, and even knowing his attacker was long dead couldn't keep him from growing tense in crowds, nerves on fire as if waiting to feel something pressed to his back and a threatening voice whispering into his ear.

Dan winced sympathetically and took Phil's shaking hand in his own, knowing some wounds would never fully heal.

A/N: Thank you all for reading! This was a lot of fun to write, I'm sorry for any feels I may have broken, please review, and have a happy 2014!