Merry Christmas! Happy….which ever holiday you choose to celebrate! I hope yours is great! Ok, on with the fic before I lose my train of thought again.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. That's it. Wish I did but, unfortunately, there was nothing even vaguely Danny Phantom related under the tree. Dang.
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Danny drove the Specter Speeder through the Ghost Zone, Sam and Tucker both sitting to his right. Tucker was concentrating on one of the many new hand-held games he'd gotten for Christmas, leaning with the game, and occasionally yelling when his character went the wrong way or was hit. Sam just rolled her eyes at him when he did this, and looked out the window. She played with the cuff of the black faux-fur coat her grandmother had given her, and looked up at the reflection in the window of the black ski hat with smiling bats around it that she'd received from Danny.
"Danny, are you sure this is a good idea?" asked the Goth, turning back to face Danny. His bright blue eyes met her violet ones, and he smiled.
"Of course it is. Now that my parents are finally used to me being half ghost, they have to get used to the same ghostly traditions as I have." Danny ignored his girlfriend's skeptical stare and looked at the Ghost Zone map in the dashboard to make sure he was going the right way.
"But, why do they have to? You're the Ghost Boy, that's your job, isn't it?" asked Sam, looking back at Danny's parents both sitting in the back. Both had agreed to come and not bring any weapons at all. So, naturally, Jack had brought ghost weapons. The fact that they'd both bonded with several ghosts at past holidays didn't seem to matter much, so Maddie was sitting and glaring at Jack as he emptied his pockets of all the weapons he had. There was a rather large pile forming.
"Because, I can't keep this up without my parents support. I'm trying to make friends with the ghosts so I don't have to keep fighting them off all the time, and I can't do that if my parents are going to be attacking them every time they come near the house." Danny looked up from the map in the direction they were headed, then back again a few times before making a sharp left turn that threw everyone to the side.
"Oh man!" Tucker yelled as his red beret fell to the floor and the screen on his hand-held flashed "Game Over". He scowled, pushed his glasses back up on his nose, and thrust his beret back on his head. Sam rolled her eyes, smiling, and hid the game under the seat.
"It's just a game Tuck." Danny said, trying not to laugh. "Besides, we're almost there."
The friends looked up just in time to see the large red doors come into view. There were strings of garland and bunches of holly hung around them. As soon as the Specter Speeder stopped, the doors flew open to let everyone in.
Danny adjusted his red and white jacket and glanced back at his parents. Jack sat staring at the floor as if he'd been told he couldn't go to a party instead of having just gotten to one. Maddie smiled at him and pulled him through the door. The three teens stepped out after Danny's parents.
Danny lead the way into the room. As soon as the doors shut behind them, every bit of activity stopped. Those talking became silent, dancers stopped mid spin, plates and drinks went down on the many red circular tables, the loud Christmas music stopped, and every eye went to the small group that had just entered.
Every eye in the crowd of ghosts went from Danny to his parents and back questioningly. It took a few seconds for Danny to realize he would have to break the silence.
He sighed. "My parents have agreed to honor the truce just like me this year. No fighting, no weapons. Ok?" He waited a moment for them to say something, anything at all. He didn't know if it was ok that he'd brought a few of the most persistent ghost hunters to a party of ghosts. It probably wasn't.
Skulker came forward. "Fine." Danny looked up him, surprised. "What? Did you think it'd be a problem that you brought your family? There's nothing wrong with bringing your parents, it was just unexpected. Enjoy the party!"
The next few seconds went by in a blur. Sam and Maddie were on the other side of the room with Ember and her little boy before Danny even saw them move. Tucker had somehow found his hidden video game and rushed after Skulker as if the hunter could get past the demon dragon that kept killing Tucker's character. Jack had suddenly stopped sulking and wandered over to the snack table.
"Try something, most of it won't bite!" encouraged Lunch Lady as Jack looked curiously at the slightly glowing food. He picked up a blue-ish cookie, turned it over a few times and popped the whole thing in his mouth.
"Mm! Gingerbread!" He began darting up and down the table tasting everything he could reach.
Danny blinked and realized he was standing alone. He glanced around the room and was surprised to see Jazz standing near one of the many overly decorated Christmas trees, talking to Dora and Spectra. He smiled and invisibly floated up to her.
"BOO!" he almost yelled in her ear, poking her in the side and making her jump. She spun around a few times before realizing he was invisible. Danny laughed and became visible again next to his confused sister.
"Hey, stranger. Where've you been the last few months?" asked Danny, poking the now annoyed red-head.
"Danny!" Jazz nearly tackled him in a half surprised, half irritated hug. He was to startled to go intangible and just hung there breathlessly for a few seconds. "You know, I was going to say sorry for not visiting," said Jazz, dropping her brother to the floor. Dora and Spectra stood there laughing till he stood back up and dusted himself off.
"Why haven't you visited, anyway?" asked the bruised halfa. He glanced around again. "And where's your idiot?"
Jazz ignored the new nickname and glanced around as well. "That's a good question. They should've been here by now…"
"Who's 'they'?"
Jazz turned back to her brother smiling. "The reason I haven't been visiting is because I've been a bit busy with… a project I guess you could say."
Before Danny could ask for more of an explanation, the giant doors burst open again and two more guests rushed in.
Danni, looking at least two years older than she had last time Danny had seen her, flew by in a blur and skidded to a stop mid-air. She spun around and floated above Danny with her arms crossed.
"Danni?" called a very confused Phantom. "Why're you-"
Before he could finish the question, an oddly green Vlad flew through the doorway and towards the floating girl.
"You…!" he yelled, looking aggravated. There was a split second when Danni looked worried and Danny meant to fly up and help her before…
"Cheater!" Vlad smiled suddenly and Danni let our a fake scream as he tackled her. They landed on an empty space on the dance floor. Danny only became more confused as they disappeared and he heard Danni laughing.
Jazz shook her head and headed towards the sound, Danny floating right behind. They pushed their way through the crowd till they found the two, Vlad holding Danni with one arm as she giggled and tried to squirm away.
"I didn't cheat! I didn't do anything!" She smiled innocently.
"Then what's this, hmm?" asked the older halfa, holding his free hand in front of her and smiling as it dripped some sort of green goo to the ground.
She shrugged as best she could. "I dunno. I guess you just need a bath." She laughed, as did most of the ghosts watching.
"Oh really?" Vlad raised his hand above her head and she looked up, suddenly silent. "That's what I thought. Now admit you cheated, or this goes in your hair!"
"EW! No, no, no, no!" This time struggled for real, though she continued smiling at the game.
"Okay, time out," Jazz interrupted, stepping into the little circle of bystanders.
"Aw, what fun are you?" asked Vlad, looking over towards the apparent referee.
"None at all. Ew, stop!" She had to back away again as the now green halfa began flicking goo at her. Danni took this distraction as an opportunity to phase out of his grasp. She took a second to stick her tongue out at him before flying off to find Youngblood.
"So…" Danny came up next to Jazz as the circle of onlookers wandered off. "This is the project? Danni and Vlad?"
"Yep!" Jazz replied cheerily. Vlad went intangible and let the goo fall to the floor before changing back to his human self.
"Oh, so I'm just a project now, am I?" he asked, putting his arm over Jazz's shoulders.
"Yes, but you're my favorite project," she replied, patting his head like a pet puppy.
"Wonderful," replied Vlad sarcastically. "Well, now that your project is finished, it's my turn."
Jazz looked nervous as she was dragged farther onto the dance floor. They began a slow dance, carefully at first, then as the song got louder, more easily and gracefully.
Danny again found himself standing alone. He spun around absent mindedly. Skulker was still trying to win at the game Tucker had brought, and failing. Jack had finally given up on the snacks, apparently because he found the one plate that justified the statement "most of them don't bite." Over by another, rather large evergreen tree, Technus was holding his son up to reach a shiny gold ornament, Ember floating next to him incase he fell. Danny couldn't tell exactly how long he stood there staring blankly at the little family before he too was dragged into the dance floor.
"Hey, are you still there?" Sam asked, putting her arms around his shoulders. He blinked and found her light violet eyes staring straight into his bright blue ones. He finally noticed the song playing, some slow song sung in French.
"You're really pretty," he said, still a bit spaced out. Sam giggled.
"You're so weird. But I love you anyway." She had to stand on her toes to kiss him. He'd grown pretty tall in the past year. "Hey, guess what?" She leaned towards his ear. "Merry Christmas."
Danny was suddenly jolted out of his fuzzy thoughtless dream as he remembered where they were and what day it was. He mentally checked his pocket for the small box he'd nearly forgotten when they left. How long had he been carrying it around now? Wasn't he going to ask tonight?
Not now…he thought. He looked around at all the other dancers: Box Ghost and Lunch Lady danced awkwardly near the edge of the dance area. Johnny and Kitty swayed to the music next to Technus and Ember who were taking turns dancing their little boy around. Freak Show spun Lydia around in circles and across the room, Jack was spinning with Maddie. Vlad and Jazz danced by again, and Danny noticed Danni and Youngblood in a corner making disgusted faces. He smiled.
"Hello? Danny?" Sam waved her hand in front of his face a few times before he looked back at her. "Are you okay?"
He smiled and leaned down to kiss her again. "Yeah. Merry Christmas."
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Aw… I like to call my boyfriend an idiot. He is. They all are. Anyway, I know it's late, but Merry Christmas anyway! I hope you liked this one, and I really hope to get back to these. I miss writing them! New Year's is next!