Summary : Danny's been sneaking out…a lot. First once every couple of months, then twice, now it's up to every other day. When something pushes him over the edge, what – and who – will set him back again? NOT OVERLY SLASH FIC!

Jolly Holidays…and a few not so Jolly Ones

I glared at the man – ghost, really – in front of me. "Why?" I whined at him. "Why won't you give me any alcohol? Not even a sip? Please?" The bartender shook his head, "No, Phantom, not today. Come back tomorrow. I've told you this before, I'm not giving you wiskey – or beer or vodka or any other type of alchohol – every day. I'm pushing my moral limits with giving you any at all." I sighed and stumbled over to my seat.

Suddenly, the door was opened again, and I felt a cool breeze brush against my back, my breath misting in front of my face. I didn't care that my ghost sense was going off, I was in a tavern packed full of ghosts. I would be worried if it didn't go off, to be truthful. "Weakling, give me my usual." The deep voice of Skulker pounded through my mind, jerking me out of my seat.

"Tommy! Why will you give him some, but not me?" Thomas, the bartender, sighed. "Because, first of all, he's legal, second of all, he isn't a minor, and third of all, he doesn't have school tomorrow because he's an adult." I glared weakly at him as he started pouring out Skulker's drink.

"But..but…I had school today! And I'll have it in two days! And I've had it nearly every day for the past three years! Why not today?" Skulker glanced at me, surprized. "Ghost-child. Your pelt belongs on my wall. I will—"

I waved my hand at him, "Yeah, yeah, hunt me, blah-blah, keep my pelt on your wall, something that should sound dangerous but is freaking funny, die a horrible and pain-filled death, I got the drill. Tommy, I want to get wasted before he kills me…please?"

Thomas shook his head. "No, Phantom. I told you, only every other day. Otherwise, your hangover is so bad you'd be stuck here for a week…again." I shrugged, "Yeah, but it was worth it."

Jane, one of the regulars, snorted and called out, "Phantom, you were moaning in pain for nearly a month! I thought you had forgotten me." Insert pout. I shrugged, "Like I said, it was worth it. Not nearly as bad as when Mistah skull-face decided to lock me up for a few weeks. I nearly went into an alchohol un-induced coma. Seriously, though, could you not try to…yuh know?"

The blond shook her head slightly and grinned at me, showing her sharp canines. "But…Danny, you know it's in my…nature to be so…purr-fect." I started laughing, almost histerically. I remembered the last time someone said that, and she just happened to make out with a blond haired, brown eyed, somewhat physically attrictive 17-year old male seconds later. It still hurt.

I gazed with renewed purpose at Thomas. "I'll pay double." "No," came the even response. "Triple." "No." "Quarduple?" "No." "Ten times as much. "No." "What about I give you a thousand dollars, and you give me a glass of wiskey." "No." "Two thousand?" "No." "What about five thousand! Please say yes!" "…No." I slammed my head aginst the table top, nearly breaking it. "What about a million dollars, for half a glass of wiskey?" Thomas looked over at me, conserned.

"No, Phantom, I won't. Why are you so desperate?" I shrugged. "Imagine the first time I came in here, and then imagine that I'd been with her for three times as long, and then instead of hugging, it was frenching - with me in full view, mind you – for nearly twice as long." Everyone who had been here that night stared at me in shock. Jake, Jane's wolfish twin brother, came walking over to me as I slammed my head back on the table again.

"Phantom?" He said softly. "Are you okay? Please tell me." I rocked my head aginst the table. Skulker was just staring dumbly at me. "Well, tell me why then, Phantom." I shook my head again, acting like a todler. "…Are you drunk."

I shrugged, "I stole a couple of Plasmious's bottles of scotch. Not really." Skulker opened his mouth, and then closed it again. "Those are extremely alchololic! Aren't you a minor, ghost-child?" Aparently, he decided to open it again. I shrugged.

"No. Well, half a minor. Ghosts can get drunk as long as they've been a ghost for a month…legally, anyway. Fenton can't drink until he turns 21…another four years. Not like that's stopping me. Could be stopping Tommy-boy over here, though." Thomas just sighed and poured me out a glass. "I'll give this to you if you promise not to come back tomorrow." I nodded and grinned widely. "Thanks! This'll make me forget Sam and Larry…not!"

I drowned the glass in one gulp, and smirked at Skulker. "Hey, you came here to get drunk and forget about damn women, right?" He nodded mutely. "Cool. Wanna call a truce and get drunk together?" He nodded again. "Right! Okay, Tommy, keep 'em coming."

Thomas just grinned and started my tab. Jane walked over to where I was sitting and laid herself out on the table, her ears twitching and tail flexing. "Oh, Danny I doubt that this would be a fair race. I mean, you are seeing who will drink longer, right? And we all know how much you drink. Wanna start a betting pool, boys?"

Her low voice purred near my ear, and I shoved her off the table. "Danny! Why?" I took a fake-caring glance to Skulker, "I don't want to lower his chances anymore than they already are, Jane." She shrugged and stood. "Fine. Two piles, near Thomas. One for Phantom, one for Skulker. I'm betting a fifty on Danny. A penny on Skulker." I snorted and drew a tweny out of my pocket. "I'm betting twenty on Skulker." Jane nodded and placed my twenty over the penny.

Soon, there were two large piles stacking up. The one on the left was for Skulker, and the ones who bet on him weren't here often, and only saw his big size versus mine. My pile was full of the regulars, and the every-other-day-ers who came when I did. They knew that I could chugg like nobody's business.

Skulker took an uneasy seat across from me. "…Are you sane?" I shook my head, "No, my girlfriend…my ex - is, and almost always was, a bitch. Just trying to forget her." Skulker nodded. "…I know how you feel, whelp."

I grinned and took my first glass of beer, "To forgetting the memories, and getting drunk along the way?" Skulker nodded, "And to two days truce, until Christimas." I nodded and drowned that glass and pounded it back on the table, Skulker's following not even a millisecond later.

"Again."

.-.-.

I gazed blearily at Skulker, who seemed not quite as out-of-it as I was. "Awe you sweepy yet?" He shook his mechanicial head at me. "Naw, I aint tired, young'un." I chuckled at his wording. "When did we start this dare?"

He shrugged and looked back at me. "When you said 'And I'll tell you what happened to me if you can hold a southern accent longer than I can hold a tired child's speech,' which I won, by the way." I banged my head on the table.

"Danny, darling, quit that! You'd end up brain-damaged. More so than you are now, anyway." I glared at the felinish woman in front of me, her green-gold eyes glimmering in the faint glow of ectoplasmic lights strung up around the room. "And you can't knock yourself out and get away from our agreement, ghost child."

I sighed deeply and started my tale.

.-.-.

I wasn't doing much. I knew that the Christmas truce was coming up, and I would have the whole day just doing whatever I wanted with Sam…my girlfriend of three was why I started going to the bar in the first place.

Bar, tavern, whole-in-wall, whatever. First night I was there, I was an absolute wreck. Ask anyone who was there. The usualls - Jane, Jake, Thomas (whom I call Tommy when not thinking clearly – aka: drunk), and some unsualls…Ember, Clockwork, Kitty, Johnny 13…even Walker and Desiree. Did you realize that if you spell out her name and just take off an 'e', it spells desire? Really, D-e-s-i-r-e-e turns into D-e-s-i-r-e, or desire. Ironic for a 'whishing ghost', huh?

Danny…

Aparently, they wished that Walker could get me cought for doing something illegal…that didn't work to well. I ended up getting sympathy from the poor guy, can you believe it? 'Parently, his girl cheated on him too. Course, all mine did was hug this extremely 'hot' (her words, not mine) guy for about five minutes…nothing compared to him walking into his bedroom with another guy lying in bed with his wife.

Poor him. No wonder he's so uptight about the rules, it was because someone broke them he lost his, practically, only happiness. And the fact that he was a prison escapee was to helping be why he's so uptight about the break-outs, too.

Danny!

Sorry! I get rambly easy! Anyway, that's about it. Oh, wait, I was supposed to tell you why I came today, wasn't I? Danny… Okay, okay! Well,I saw Sam, my ex, making out - frenching (…that means open-mouthed kissing…with a lot of tongue) – with this…this…ASS , just after I bought her Christmas present…just some skull and cross-bones earings. Actually, I might just give them to Ember now, the bright green could match her eyes and the blue matches her hair. Yeah. That's it.

.-.-.

Skulker just stared at me. Then, with surprizing gentelness, he patted me on the back with his giant, mechanical hand. "Poor ghost-child. My girlfriend did the same thing. Ember…I ain't gonna remember."

I rolled my eyes. "Right…let's see how well that goes. So, who won the drinking contest? I can't drink another…" Skulker shrugged. "I can't either. Thomas, who won?" Jane grinned. "Actually, you tied…barely. But that isn't right, because Danny had more to drink than you at the beginning. So Danny won."

I grinned and looked at Skulker, who was staring at me in shock. "You…you…won?" I nodded. "Yeah. That's what happens when you've been drinking since you were fourteen!"

Jane just shook her head and started pulling the piles towards her. "So, Danny gets this, and they get that…" Jane started to create dozens of smaller piles of cash, and soon was only left with a penny, the one she bet on Slulker. She fliped it towards me, and I tossed it at Skulker.

"Take it. You…earned it." He just stared at me as I stood up and swayed dangerously. "Ghost-child, you need to rest. And not walk…or fly…or move, really." I nodded and slumped back in my seat .

"Ahh, I'm gonna kill myself yesterday." Jane laughed and turned to Skulker, "He's going to go to Clockwork tomorrow and try to convince him to let Danny go back in time to kill himself before he gets drunk. It won't work, Danny, and you know that. Come on, I'll take you home."

Thankfully, she was one of the ghosts that became more normal when drunk. Well, she's normal when sober, flirty when buzzed, and normal when drunk. Except for when she's shit-faced drunk. When she's shit-faced drunk, she's shit-faced drunk. There's no other way.

"Alright. Come on, Danny." I followed her as she dragged me to the portal in the back corner. Skulker followed and exclaimed, "When did this get here?"

I thought about it, "Around the time Tommy and Jake decided that I needed a way to get home without dying. Permanently. So they convinced me to bring this next month, and they got a way to drag my ass back to my room without my parents seeing. And it works."

Too late, I realized that I just gave the ghost that's still trying to take my hide a way to get into my room while I'm sleeping. But there's a truce until Christmas, and it's the 22…so I have at least three more days until they try to kill me through that portal. I'll wait til then.

.-.-.

It's Christimas eve, night of the party. I can't tell if Sam'll be there. She's gone before, but only because I asked her too…and then she liked it. If she comes, I'm getting drunk off my ass and hiding behind Walker, Skulker, and Jane – who protects me from anyone…and anything.

I strolled in the doors and was attacked by a flame headed girl. "Oh…poor…Phantom!" She screamed as she cried on my shoulder. Jane ran up behind her, followed by Jake and Sam.

"Shh, shh, calm down Ember. I'm alright. Shh, shh." I rocked her back and forth in my arms, rolling my eyes slightly. She knew how I felt, and I knew how she felt. "Danny," an ice-cold voice said to me, "Why are you holding that…that bitch instead of me!"

I sighed as Ember and Jane turned and glared at Sam. "Bitch! You know nothing about Danny and I!" I sighed as Ember screamed that at Sam. "You know, Ember, we could protect little Danny-kins from this…human…if someone wished we could, that is." I rolled my eyes at Desiree's actions.

"Desiree, if someone wished they could protect me from humans; Johnny, Kitty, Ember, Jane and Jake would beat the shit out of anyone who messed with me. You'd probably help." Desiree shrugged, "I might, I might not. It just depends what was going on."

Sam must have finally gotten fed up, just as Plasmius and Skulker were walking in the door. "I WISH I KNEW WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON!" Desiree said in her spooky voice, "So you have wished it…so shall it be!"

I facepalmed. Sam blinked around. "Oh. Danny's a half ghost." I snorted. "Really?" Desiree shrugged, "It'll annoy her later, when she realized what she did. That's good enough for me." Crazy females. Plasmius just looked around. "What is going on here?"

Skulker sighed and patted him on the shoulder, "I know how you feel."

.-.-.

After (almost) everything was explained to Plasmius and Sam, I walked over to the punch. "Ah-ah, Daniel, I wouldn't drink that if I were you." I took a large swig and looked at Plasmius. "Why not, fruit loop?" He sighed. "Will you ever stop with that disgraceful name calling? And the punch is spiked."

I waved my hand in a go-on motion, "With…? Wow much…? You have to give details, Vlad." Plasmius blinked and shot the glass out of my hand. "It's a 25-75 percent ratio, alchohol to punch. A ghost of a bartender, Thomas, set it up." I nodded and grinned widely, "Good ol' Tommy."

Taking another glass, I shook my finger at Plasmius, "Now, now, don't shoot this glass too, or Tommy's gonna get pissed at you!" He just opened his mouth and stared. "But…you…minor. WALKER!"

I winced as the snow-white ghost zoomed over to us. "Now, I can't arrest someone during the Christmas truce. It's against the rules. What do you need, Plasmius." The named halfa pointed a shaking finger at me. "He…minor…drinking…knows…'tender…illegal!"

I glanced at Walker and explained. "I'm a minor, as you know, and I'm drinking. I also know Tommy, the bartender, which you also know. Aparently, it's supposedly illegal." Walker nodded and patted me on the back roughly.

"You're fine, young'n. Go off and drink a bit more. I'm assuming Thomas didn't let you drink yesterday?" I nodded, "Yeah. Almost over did it on Tuesday, he didn't want me to drink on Wednesday, I explained to him about the cheating ex, and said I just couldn't drink on Thursday, and it's Friday and time to drink a-gain!"

Walker froze and glared at Sam, who was currently being harrased by Jake. "Awwe, little cheater got herself a puppy!" Jake glared at me and called over the hubbub, "Shut up, Phantom! And quit drinking so much!"

I yelled back, "I ain't drunk!" Jake sighed and turned back to the – supposedly – uninteresting human. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but I saw Sam's eyes widen fractionally as she glanced back over to me.

"Hey! Ember! Almost forgot your Christmas gift! Was gonna give it to Sam…then I got a better idea." She strutted over to me, and I took one last glance at her. "Ember, here." She looked at them, and squealed.

"Thank-you, Phantom!"

.-.-.

Yeah…this is really long. Over 9 pages in Microsoft word…Times New Roman…Font 12…

Please Review. (PS: I finished writing this the day before Halloween! I guess the Halloween fic is coming out on Christmas! *insert laugh* Anyway…that's it. Review/PM me any GOOD ideas, and some not good ones, for more chapters. Kay? Kay. *I don't care if you don't care. Just fricking deal*

Robin Grimm-Goodfellow

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