"Uncle Danny, tell us another story!" Jo's bright red eyes sparkled. She was cuddling her pet cat, -which was black, of course- and she was sitting next to her older brother, who seemed far more interested in Terra than my stories.
Thankfully, Ember's daughter had enough sense to ignore him, whispering with Catherine about...whatever teenage ghost girls talk about. I chuckled, not finding it surprising that Dallas was just like his father.
Even after seventeen years, I still couldn't believe I was sitting peacefully in a room full of my former enemies' children, telling them stories about their parents. Obviously, I was told to keep the gore to a minimum.
"Didn't you and Kitty have a fling that one time? Tell her about that." Youngblood snickered from my side.
"As in my mom?!" That certainly caught Dallas' attention.
"Wait, seriously?" Dani, who was sitting on my other side, leaned over to her boyfriend. "How come I never knew this?" A devious smile played on her lips.
"Guys, it's not really a big-" I was interrupted by Jo, who'd had an epiphany.
"My mommy's name is Kitty! So..." She raised her eyebrows at me in shock. "ew!"
Youngblood was proudly telling the story to the eager ghost children. "So this one time Johnny was being a real jerk to Kitty and-"
"I sure hope you aren't telling stories about me, Danny." The devil herself was standing between us, her old snarkiness seeping into the cheerful tone she'd adopted sometime after Dallas was born.
I laughed nervously. "Of course not, Kitty." Frankly, she still scared me a little.
"Yeah, it was all Youngblood." Dani chimed in.
Kitty narrowed her eyes at the freckled boy, but she let it drop after a minute. "I came to tell you all that dinner is ready!"
A chorus of 'yays' followed, while the kids practically trampled each other to get to the giant table with food spread out.
"Dude, this turkey is awesome!" Tucker burped loudly, earning a lopsided grin from me and an elbow from Jazz.
"Tucker, have manners!" She hissed. But I could see that she was smiling too.
Somewhere along the line, my best friend and sister managed to snag invitations to the yearly parties as well. They end up coming with Sam and I simply because Tuck likes eating, and Jazz is always wanting to learn more about ghosts and their behavior, as if having one for a brother isn't enough.
Sam isn't always too crazy about coming either, blaming it on the lack of 'ultra-recyclo-vegetarian-friendly foods', but I'm pretty sure it's because she thinks the ghosts will be a bad influence on Jack and Veronica. Honestly, I'm more worried about my parents' influence on them.
Everyone was pretty much talking amongst themselves, with the occasional bursts of laughter, until a voice rang out that suddenly made everyone go quiet.
"Danny, you never finished telling us that story!" Terra gave me a sly smile. I'll bet you my ghost powers that she's trying to mess the party up.
Dani glared at her, and Youngblood snickered, leaving me to answer.
"What story?" I smirked back at her. Call me childish, but I wasn't going to let a sixteen-year-old upstage me.
"Y'know, the one about Kitty..." She glanced at her Godmother, who raised an eyebrow at me.
"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Johnny looked between the two of us. And Sam calls me clueless.
Youngblood whispered something to Ember, whose eyes went wide. "Oh! That story." She laughed, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. "I could tell that one, if you guys want me to."
I sighed. She was married with kids, but Ember still hadn't grown up.
"Don't you dare!" Kitty snapped. Then her face relaxed into a smile. "I could tell them when you and Youngblood totally got your butts kicked by a group of teenagers."
"No fair. I was only 12." Youngblood whined.
By now, it didn't take a genius to figure out where this was headed.
"I could tell them about when you got stuck in the portal." Ember fired back.
"That wasn't even my fault! It was Shadow's."
"Was not!" Johnny argued. "It was Phantom's father's."
"Don't bring our innocent family into this, 13!" Sam wrapped an arm protectively around Victoria.
"Sam..." I tried, but it was no use. She'd already shot out of her seat, daring anyone to say something.
"Innocent...sure..." Spectra purred.
"At least I don't try to kidnap people for their DNA." Sam hissed.
"At least I don't need a group of ghosts to help me realize I'm in love."
Ember laughed. "Everyone knows I helped the most."
"Say, Danny, why did it take so long for you to figure out?" Kitty raised an eyebrow at me.
Everyone's eyes were on me. What was I even supposed to say? That I was too clueless?
Right when I was about to stutter out something about too many hero duties and embarass myself, a swish of red silk came out of the kitchen.
"Who wants pie?" Dora's voice echoed through the room, effectively grabbing everyone's attention, but more importantly, diverting it from me.
"I owe you one." I whispered as she passed by.
She smiled back at me. "Consider it a Christmas gift, Sir Phantom."
Totally horrible Christmas drabble. But hey, it's there. Haha, I wanted to post this earlier but FF wasn't cooperating. Anyway, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!