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Dan Howell stood in his kitchen, a big salad bowl in front of him. It was salad Wednesday in the Howell-Lester home, and this always gave Dan time to take stock of his life.
He had an amazing creative endeavor. He had a beautiful house that was finally finished…correctly, might he add…two beautiful dogs who were the best in the world.
And the most amazing partner. Phil was everything he could have never allowed himself to have. The most trusting, loving, kind ray of light. He'd gained a reputation over the years as this dark void, and yeah, maybe ten years ago he was. But this last three years had been some of the best, not just professionally.
But personally.
Personally was just a beautiful thing for him. He'd married Phil in a quiet ceremony in Japan, they adopted two dogs, their cherished Pancake and Susan. But nobody had expected their latest gift.
Phil walked in with their latest gift. A beautiful brown curly haired baby with the bluest eyes imaginable. Dan looked up at Phil, and their infant daughter, and smiled softly.
"Pippa Belle, look. There's Papa."
Dan grinned and put his salad ingredients aside and washing his hands before walking over to his husband and daughter.
."You keep calling her Pippa Belle and she's gonna think that's her name."
"Oh, I'm sorry, my love. Piper Arabella is a mouthful."
Piper Arabella Howell-Lester came into their lives at a time where it was completely unexpected, but absolutely wanted.
"You know, Bug. We need to make a video about her."
Dan sighed, sliding the salad over to Phil, and he took the baby while Phil started eating his lunch. Dan nuzzled his daughter and nodded.
"I know. We have to explain why we took a little break. The kids are getting nervous."
Dan said, placing soft kisses along Piper's forehead. He had never felt more grateful to the private surrogate they hired, their families and their closest friends for keeping this secret for them.
"Why not go live? Just drop the bomb while we're live? She's been ours for two and a half months now, and now we can share her with our fans. We don't have to show her face. We can just…explain it."
Dan trusted Phil completely. He'd been fine without announcing to everyone that they'd had a baby, and he'd continue to be fine. But he also knew that they couldn't keep hiding and it was the perfect time.
"Okay. We'll do it. But we're not showing her face. And the second someone asks us to, we pull the plug completely. But…what if I had a better idea?"
Dan said, rocking a sleeping Piper. Phil looked at Dan as he pulled up Twitter and composed a tweet. He showed it to Dan before he tweeted it. Dan nodded and Phil sent it out.
@AmazingPhil:
Special little video coming tomorrow. 👀👀👀
And then they watched as the Twitter verse exploded. Then shortly after…Tumblr, in anticipation of what their video would be.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The video opens with Dan, sitting in the middle of the office table. He was wearing a t-shirt that had a hole in the shoulder and he looked tired. His curls were all over the place, but he looked at peace.
"Hello internet. I bet you're wondering what's going on. Why we suddenly took some time off. Where's Phil?! Did you break up?! Are we hiatus-ing again? We've seen all the questions. And we're here to answer those questions. Phil's here. He'll be along in just a little bit. We're definitely not broken up…that I know of. Phil, did we break up?"
"Not today. But you did threaten me about the cabinets again, so there's a possibility that it's very close."
Phil said off camera. Dan chuckled and was still looking off screen, sending a lethal bout of Heart Eyes Howell in his and Piper's direction before coming back to the camera.
"So, what's the story? Why did we take time off?! This is with all sincerity, and no lies. About a year ago, Phil and I started on a journey. It was a journey that neither one of us had thought possible. I was depressed, and he was chronically sick. We were married, we have two beautiful dog daughters. But what if it was time…"
Dan found himself getting choked up. He sniffled and smiled. He nodded at Phil and then back to the camera.
"You wanna come in now, Bub and bring the surprise?"
Dan asked. Phil slowly walked into frame. He had a pale yellow blanket in his arms and he sat down in his chair as Dan slid over. Phil grinned at Dan and then back down at the baby. They were very careful to keep her face hidden from the camera.
"This…is baby Bug. Baby Bug is our little girl. She does have a name, but we are keeping that a little bit of a secret for now."
Phil said, pulling down the blanket just enough to expose her brown curly hair. Dan reached over and stroked her hair gently, as he has every night since she'd come to them.
"We started on a journey with a friend of ours about a year and a half ago. A couple of previous attempts that failed led to one successful one. Phil and I had both contributed samples. There were a lot of tears, and finally, one of my samples took."
"Hence her beautiful curly hair."
Phil cut in. Dan blushed visibly on screen, and placed his hand on top of Piper's head, and rubbed it lovingly.
"We got lucky though. Because Baby Bug has the bluest eyes. And it's just like getting lost in Phil's eyes."
Phil looked over at Dan and unleashed the most lethal Love eyes Lester at him. Dan focused back on the video and smiled.
"A couple of things. No, you will not be seeing her face. Internet culture now isn't like it was when Phil and I first met. It wasn't safe then either, but I was just more brazen about it. Also no, she doesn't have a Phandom name. So, she doesn't have a Buffy name or a sponsor name, or anything like that. They were just two names we fell in love with and sounded well with our names."
"Also," Phil started, his face going as serious as possible, but still loving.
"We will be referring to her with she/her pronouns, until such a time she can tell us her pronoun preferences. So, for now, she is our daughter with she/her pronouns."
"But we will be raising her in an environment where everyone is valid. There is too much awful shit in this world, and I don't want her to ever feel less than."
Piper started to get fussy in Phil's arms, so Dan reached over and grabbed her, holding her against him gently. He started humming Aerith's Theme quietly to her and Phil took over.
"Yeah, so there you a have it. A video explaining where we've been recently and what we've been doing. We'll be back soon, but for now. We say thanks!"
And Phil finished the video. He listened to Dan humming to Piper and grinned.
"Aerith's Theme?"
"It just randomly popped into my head. I kind of want to play it for her."
Phil took Piper from Dan and smiled. The posting of the video could wait. They'd decided against a livestream because it was too much of a wild card.
Dan walked out to the piano, Phil by his side holding their now two month old daughter. He sat down and played, closing his eyes as the melody just came to him.
His life couldn't get any better. A husband he couldn't live without, two dogs that were one of the best parts of his day, and more importantly, a daughter he never allowed himself to want, But he was so glad he changed his mind. When he finished playing, he leaned into Phil, placing a small kiss on Piper's head.
"Sleep well our beautiful Pippa. And we're so glad you're here."