Merry Christmas - will probably not update until after the holidays, so may it be safe and wonderful *hand heart*

Disclaimer: I don't own Dan and Phil (again, they are real people, and that is weird/terrible if I owned them), nor do I own any real life references, such as social media websites (Twitter, YouNow, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.), singers/bands (Muse, My Chemical Romance, etc.), places (Starbucks, etc.) or anything you might recognize from their own universe (such as TABINOF, PINOF, etc.) All I own is my OC and the plot.

Chapter 3: Eyes Like Christmas Lights

Abigail sat down on one of the bar chairs in the Starbucks cafe, shivering because of the cold air the door opened up into the shop. Phil was right beside her, playing an intense game of Crossy Road, and Dan on her left, scrolling through Tumblr.

"One grande peppermint mocha latte for Abi?" A barista calls out, and Abi smiles a little, awkwardly raising her hand. The barista gives her a warm smile, and Abi just takes her latte with one hand and hops off her chair to get a cap.

"I wish they'd just put the caps on for you." Dan remarks as Abi returns to her seat. "It would be so convenient."

Abi giggles. "Good baristas are hard to find, Daniel."

Dan rolls his eyes, and Phil looks at both of them with a smile, thoughts whizzing faster than the snow outside.

"So what's the plan for the holidays?" Phil asks, sipping his hot chocolate as Dan shrugs nonchalantly.

"I don't know," Dan says, not really paying attention. "I kind of want to stay home for Christmas Eve. You know how I feel about travelling during the snowy times; something that takes way too much effort to even bother."

Abi nods. "Where would we go, anyway?"

"Space?"

"Shut up, Lester."

Phil pouts, and Dan snickers. Abigail looks at them with a smirk, sipping her latte as she watched a guy and a girl, who seems to be his daughter, walk into the cafe. The girl was probably eight, and she was tugging on her father's jacket. Her smile falters as she watches the father's focus go from his phone, down to the little girl.

"You're such a pest, y'know, Gale?" Abi hears him say, and the little girl - Gale is a beautiful name - smile, hugging her father's leg.

"Love you, papa."

"Love you too, G."

This makes Gale smile, and it makes Abi smile as well, before it faltered, and made her bite her lip before she started crying her eyes out in the middle of the cafe. She continues to watch though; the dad slips his phone in his pocket and picks Gale up, spinning her around and kissing her forehead, making her squeal. Her blond locks flew past her face, and she kissed her dad on the cheek.

"Abi?" Dan asks, snapping Abi out of her semi-trance and looking at the brown headed Brit.

"Yes?" she replies, sickly sweet as well.

Dan narrows her eyes at her suspiciously. "Are you okay? Have you even listened to anything we have said?"

Abigail blushes a bit, hiding it behind her cup.

"Sorry, can you repeat?" she squeaks in a tiny voice, and Phil just frowned, as if studying her in some way.

"Dan and I were just discussing what we are going to do for our holiday radio special. I say we do a festive hashtag like '#cookingfails' or '#weirdchristmastraditions'?" Phil suggests, and Abi purses her lips a bit.

"Hashtag 'weird Christmas traditions' is long, but it sounds promising. I say go for that one." she responds absentmindedly, and Phil smiled, clueless to her attention span, and types down the hashtag in his notes. Abigail's eyes travel to the father and the daughter again.

"I wanna a pony for Christmas, daddy!" she squeals again, and it tugs at Abigail's heart.

"Do you think that'll even fit in Santa's sack of toys?" The father replies, staring into her big, brown eyes.

"Maybe I'll ask for a reindeer, and he'll just add it to his reindeer squad!" she counterattacks, and Abigail grinned at the girl's remark. It seems as if the dad liked it as well, because he laughs, ruffling her hair and getting his coffee, holding his daughter's hand all the way out.

"You alright, Abi?" Dan asks again.

Abigail faces Dan with a sad smile. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

2005

A Christmas tree was centered in the middle of the room, and lights glowed vividly outside, but inside the house, the only light was the fireplace and the tree, due to the fact that the hope in thirteen year old Abi's heart was dimming.

She sat beside the Christmas tree, cross legged and looked at the presents. The shiny wrapping paper reflected in her hazel eyes, and she looked up, her hair dangling behind her as a smile grew on her face, showing dimples.

"Daddy?" Abi called out. "Are you coming?"

Not long later, her dad came shuffling down the stairs, his eyes baggy from lack of sleep, and red from crying. His hair was a mess, and all he wore was pajama pants, a white t-shirt, a red robe, and slippers.

"Merry Christmas, daddy." Abigail whispered, sliding her gift to her dad's feet. He frowned bitterly at it, but sat down beside her anyway. Abigail's eyes lit up like the tree as she watched her dad tear the wrapping paper apart, revealing a box, containing a white mug that said '#1 Dad'."

"I love it." he mumbled, giving her a quick hug and setting the mug aside. Abigail fought off tears.

"No you don't." she said bitterly, and her dad let go abruptly.

"I am sorry, Abigail," he replies just as snarkily. "but you know how things are going right now."

"It's Christmas, daddy." Abigail moaned, and her dad angrily stood up.

"Your mother is not here," he growls. "It's not Christmas unless she is right beside us, but she's not. So fuck off, okay?!"

He stormed up the stairs, leaving Abigail to cry by the tree.

X~*~X

Her dad came back about two hours later, and comes back to see Abigail at their kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal silently. He shuffled past her, but not before slipping a small, wrapped box beside the milk. Abigail looked up, and her dad's eyes moved towards the box, telling her to open it.

Reluctantly, Abigail did as told, and revealed to herself a golden locket in the shape of a heart. The year '2005' was engraved on the surface.

"Be a good girl, Abi." Her dad murmured in her hear, kissing her forehead, and walking out of the house, leaving Abigail to stay in the house alone, where she realized that the locket her dad gave her had a picture of her dad, her mom, and herself in it, along with the words 'be a good girl, Abi' engraved in there as well.

She cried.

Abigail sits beside the tree, surrounded by pieces of wrapping paper. They had just finished opening presents, and now Abigail was going to clean up. When Dan walked into the lounge from the gaming room, Abigail smiles, and Dan sits down beside her.

"Hey," Dan says with a grin, and Abigail nods silently, holding onto her whisker-themed mug.

"Finished filming?" she asks, and Dan nods, eyes twinkling like stars.

"Yeah, I think it's good. We just finished filming the final 'Dilmas', and I think it is going to be a perfect way to end 'five days of Dilmas.'. All that's left to do is edit some stuff out, and we can post it by Christmas Eve."

Abigail smirks. "You're 24, and you're career is you living vicariously through your virtual son's life."

Dan sticks out his tongue, and rolls his eyes at her. She giggles in response.

"Jk," she says, pronouncing each letter, "I love your videos and you know that."

"You're right." Dan says with a wide grin. "You are, like, Dan and Phil trash #1"

Abi leans back, laughing as Phil walks into the lounge with a Christmas jumper and his phone in his hand, a wide smile on his face that pushed up his black-rimmed glasses. Abigail's eyes widened, covering her face.

"Phiiiillll," Abi moans, giving him that knowing look, and Phil laughs.

"Don't worry, Woods," he says with a smile, "It's just for us."

Abi nods in satisfaction, and Phil waves the IPhone camera in front of Dan, who gives his best 'festive smile'. Abigail, however, just smirks at how ridiculous he looks, and Dan seems to see this because he just punches her lightly on the arm.

"You know, Abi," Dan says, avoiding her glance and searching through gifts, "you are going to have to show your face one day."

Abigail grimaces. "Don't remind me. I don't think I am ready to ruin any chance of 'Phan' and get trampled by a bunch of fangirls in order to protect their beloved 'internet leaders', if you know what I mean."

Phil nods. "Fair enough. Can you imagine how many subscribers we'd lose?"

Abigail's eyes widen with a smile, and Dan just laughs hysterically.

"Just get us some food, Lester." Abigail hisses, but the smile never leaves her face. Phil's eyes light up, and he looks at his flatmates with the widest smile he could muster.

"Christmas cereal?" he suggests happily.

Abigail didn't know how to turn down a face like Phil's. "Sure, why not."

With that, Phil ventured into the kitchen, leaving Dan and Abi alone.

"Speaking of which, I forgot to give you a gift." Dan says quickly, and Abigail looked at him incredulously.

"You forgot to give me a gift?" she asks curiously, and Dan nods happily.

"Close your eyes first, Abi." he commands, and Abi giggled.

"I don't like where this is going," she says, half joking.

Dan rolls his eyes. "Just do it, please. Or I'll do it for you."

Abi quickly closes her eyes, biting the bottom of her lip nervously as Dan pulled two things out of his pocket. They glistened in the moonlight, and he slipped them into Abigail's open hand, placing her fingers over them

"It feels metal-y." Abi says, and she opens her eyes when Dan draws his arms back.

"Ta-da!" he exclaims, and Abigail looks down to see what was lying in her hands.

It was a silver charm in the shape of a heart that read '2013', and and a bronze one in a shape of a heart as well that had '2009' engraved in it.

"What are these?" Abigail asks curiously. Dan smiles.

"It is charms of the most important years of our life." he explains. "Open them."

Abigail starts off with the charm that read '2009'. She popped it open, and saw a derpy photo of Dan and Phil, which Abi recognized from the first 'Phil Is Not On Fire'. Small words were engraved on the other side of the locket.

"'This was the most fun I've ever had. '" Abigail reads aloud, and Dan blushes.

"I gave one to Phil as well, but as a key chain." Dan explains, embarrassed. "It resembles an important year in our lives, if you know what I mean. I just want you to be a part of it, if it makes you happy."

Abigail smiles, saying nothing as she looks at the silver charm/locket that read '2013', kind of knowing what was going to be inside.

It was a photo of Dan and herself, at the beach one summer. Phil had taken the picture; Abigail clearly remembered. She wore a bright pink bikini that Dan had helped her buy, and Dan was wearing a black t-shirt and blue shorts. He wore sunglasses, and Dan had the 'hobbit hair' everyone loved. Abigail's brown hair flew back, and they both were laughing.

On the other side, likewise to the '2009' one, it had the words 'I believe this is yours' written in cursive.

Abigail was on the verge of tears. "These were the first words you said to me."

Dan nods. "Right after I risked my life to get your locket."

"How'd you remember?"

"I'll always remember, Abi. That was important."

"You never remember to send texts anymore. Aren't those important?" Abigail says snarkily.

Dan rolls his eyes. "Besides the point, Abigail."

Abigail watches in awe as Dan moves his hand towards her chest, lifting up the familiar golden locket that was a bit rusted at the edges. He took it off her neck in a swift motion, and slipped the two lockets onto the chain.

"Now you'll always have us right in your heart," Dan mumbles, and Abigail quickly pulls Dan into a hug.

"Dammit, Howell, you are so cheesy."

"Those make for good nachos, you know?"

Abigail laughs, and when Dan begins to help her clean up, she touches the charms were her fingers, looking at the pattern - the gold on the left, the bronze in the middle, and the silver on the right. 2005, 2009, and 2013.

Abigail smiles; this totally beats the jumper she got Dan.

X~*~X

Phil looks into the lounge, carefully holding three bowls of cereal, and watches the scene unfold before his blue eyes. He smiles widely, and tries not to make any squealing that would ruin the moment in an instant.

'They're oblivious.' Phil thinks, and when he makes sure they're done, he goes into the lounge, and smiles when Dan and Abi exchange glances that glistened with happiness.

Phil suddenly, in that moment, realized how all the 'Phan shippers' felt when watching their videos; absolutely frustrated.

Reviews are great, and happy holidays :)