Summary: It is Danny's first time hosting the Christmas Truce party.
Characters: Danny, Vlad; Vortex x Nocturne
Written: November 2013
Prompt: Sakural7865 wanted a Christmas Truce fic with Danny being the one in charge of hosting it and maybe something going wrong that Danny has to deal with; Ghost-chicky's art of Vortex inspired something I wanted to add in, and I was inspired to use Ghost-chicky's redesign of Vlad's outfit.
Christmas Truce: A Night of Surprises
For most of his life, Christmas was never the merry time of the year for him. While everyone was getting in the festive mood and spreading holiday cheer as Christmas grew nearer, Danny was sulky and gloomy over the approaching holiday. But ever since getting his ghost powers, his opinion of the holiday had changed, and not solely due to the Ghost Writer's little stunt of trapping him in a rhyming Christmas tale that he could control with the typing of words on his Quantum Keyboard. That was the year that Danny learned about the Ghost Zone's Christmas Truce. The following year, Danny got to look forward to avoiding his parents' continued argument about Santa Claus for a time by escaping into the Ghost Zone to join the rest of the ghosts at the party. It was strange to spend time with them when the rest of the year, they were always fighting him, but it was nice and he got the opportunity to actually get to know the ghosts a little.
It wasn't until his second time attending the Christmas Truce party that he got to make his amends with the Ghost Writer, who wasn't quite willing to accept the apology. The glaring of all other ghosts at the party, however, forced him to, perhaps a bit grudgingly, accept it. After some prodding from some still disgruntled ghosts, the Ghost Writer muttered an apology for causing so much trouble and potentially ruining everyone's Christmas with his revenge for his ruined book.
This year, however, the duty of setting up for the Christmas Truce party fell on his shoulders. If dealing with school wasn't enough of a hassle for him, organizing the party added to his stress. Danny rubbed at his temple as he stared down at the clipboard with his drawing for the layout of how he wanted to set up the decorations. When he lifted his head, he sighed tiredly, finding that things weren't exactly how he wanted them to be.
"This is impossible," Danny complained, almost at the point of wanting to throw down the clipboard in his frustration. The Christmas Truce party was later that night, and the place where he was hosting it looked pathetic at best.
"Maybe you could ask some of the other ghosts for help," Tucker suggested as he added one of the ornaments from a crate onto the tree. "They probably wouldn't mind. I mean, this is the one time where they all actually help out and stuff."
"No," Danny said rather firmly as he frowned. "I need to do this without their help. I need to prove that I can do this to them." He left the clipboard on one of the long tables set up around the room. Then he walked over to help with setting up the rather large Christmas tree. "You guys don't need to stay. You've already helped out enough, and you should go be with your families."
"We don't mind helping," Sam said, circling around the tree with a string of shimmering tinsel. She was the one that found a place where he could set up for the Christmas party: an old abandoned warehouse that belonged to her family's company but was no longer in use. Since he didn't have his own lair within the Ghost Zone, this was the best Danny could do. He just hoped that his parents would be so busy with their Santa Claus argument that they wouldn't pay attention to the large amount of ghosts gathered in one place.
Danny took the string of tinsel from Sam, and after transforming, he flew up in a circular path to lay the tinsel around the tall tree. Ghost powers certainly had their advantages. "I appreciate that," he said as he returned to the ground, "but I'll feel bad knowing I've kept you from spending the holiday with your families. So go on." He shooed them. "I can handle the rest of the setup by myself." Actually, he didn't think he would get very much done alone before the ghosts started showing up, but he didn't want to make Tucker and Sam waste all their time helping him.
Tucker and Sam shared reluctant glances before they both agreed to go.
"We'll see you tomorrow," Sam said, giving him a hug. "Gift exchange as usual, right?" Danny nodded with a smile.
"You can tell us how the party went," Tucker said, slapping Danny on the back. They waved as they left the warehouse.
Once they were gone, Danny glanced around the warehouse and sighed. He rolled up the sleeves of his Christmas sweater. He had a lot of work to do and only a few more hours in which to do it. Clockwork's Time Stop ability sounded really good right now, and it was almost tempting to dive into the Ghost Zone and see if Clockwork might be willing to pause time just long enough for him to set everything up. Snorting, Danny knew that was an impossible wish. He had time, having been notified in advanced, to set up, but with school, his free time to work on decorating the warehouse was limited until their break started. Then his time didn't feel like enough.
He groaned as he finished placing the last ornament on the tree. Didn't the ghosts realize that he had life and obligations that came with that? He couldn't spending every waking hour of his life working on preparing to throw the biggest and best Christmas Truce party ever. He also didn't have a lot of cash to spend on it. Gifts for his friends and family, plus buying the giant tree, took up most of what he had. The ornaments and tinsel and lights for the tree all came from his, Sam, and Tucker's families. They picked off what they thought they could get away with taking, the little bits and pieces that would go unnoticed. It wasn't a lot, but he thought the tree looked fairly nice when he stepped back to take a look at it.
A sudden shiver made him gasp. Danny spun around, immediately transforming as his green eyes narrowed. The ghost he sensed approached, and it wasn't any of the ones he was expecting. When the ghost strolled into the warehouse, Danny resisted that immediate urge to blast him in the face.
"Vlad," Danny growled, holding back enough to keep the glow of energy from appearing around his balled fists.
"Hello, Daniel," Vlad said, though his attention seemed to be elsewhere. His red eyes swept around the warehouse. "How quaint." His nose wrinkled just a touch, but it was enough to make Danny feel insulted.
"What are you doing here?"
Vlad turned his gaze onto Danny, who blinked, realizing for the first time the difference in the older half ghost. He wasn't dressed in the way Danny recalled after their years of battling one another. He ditched the white tunic, instead favoring a dark form fitting suit with a bright red cravat. He kept his cape though, but now it was pitch black instead white with red lining underneath. His raven locks were smoothed back and drawn into a ponytail that looked much more fitting on him than the horned look. Danny's brow creased, pondering over the change in Vlad's ghost appearance.
"I'm half ghost, aren't I?" Vlad's eyebrows lifted, an amused smile tugging at his mouth. "Aren't I invited to the Christmas Truce party too?"
"You've never come before," Danny said, still on guard about Vlad's appearance. "You do realize that you can't start up trouble at this party, right? It's a truce party. There's no fighting allowed."
"Daniel, I know quite well what a truce party is." Vlad walked slowly around the area, and Danny followed his movements. "Is this all you planned to do for the party?"
Danny scowled then walked over to the table where he left the clipboard. "No," he grumbled as he walked over to Vlad. "I had it all planned out." He thrust out the clipboard, nearly jabbing it into the older half ghost's chest. "But I'm short on cash and time to get it all done."
Vlad looked over the sketch for the decorations of the room. "That's not bad looking," he admitted with some surprise. "Did you plan for food as well?"
"I-" Danny paled. "I hadn't even thought of that!" He forgot all about the food the other ghosts had served at past truce parties. How was he to even prepare that? He couldn't exactly go out and order a catering company to prepare ghost friendly food, even if he could afford it.
"Daniel, I understand wanting to pull this off on your own, but this was a tall task to ask of an eighteen year old." Vlad handed the clipboard back to Danny. "If you like, I can make sure everything gets done before the other guests arrive."
"W-What?" Danny stared at Vlad, the clipboard nearly slipping from his grasp. Vlad was actually offering to help him? Danny could hardly believe it. "My mom's not going to know anything about this, Vlad. You don't have to pretend to be all nice and helpful. It won't win you any points with her."
Vlad snorted like the suggestion that he was doing any of this for Danny's mother was a juvenile thought. "I'm merely offering a hand to help. But if you'd rather keep the party looking like," he waved a hand around with his nose wrinkling again, "this, then be my guest. I'm sure the other ghosts will appreciate all the hard work you did. They certainly won't feel offended by the lack of the usual grand scale that their parties have."
Danny's mouth pulled thin as he narrowed his eyes. He knew the warehouse wasn't decorated as nicely as the other ghosts had done in the past. He didn't need Vlad to rub that fact in his face. "Why do you want to help me?" He folded his arms and eyed Vlad with some suspicion. "What do you gain from helping me?"
"Nothing, my boy. I merely thought you could use the help. After all, you must have been pressed for time with having school work to take care of." Vlad glanced around again. "And judging by things, you've only relied on your human half to pull off this party."
One eyebrow quirked upward. "How else was I supposed to pull off this party?" Danny was hesitant to know the answer, still uncertain about this whole... new Vlad that appeared before him. He still had some of that same smugness about him, but something was definitely different. For one, Danny couldn't seem to find any way for this to be one of Vlad's schemes.
"I could show you if you like."
"Is this some way to somehow trick me into joining sides with you?" Danny tensed up, readying himself for a fight. "Because I can tell you right now, that is never going to happen."
"This is no trick, boy." Vlad frowned, slight offense in his eyes. "Are you saying you don't wish to accept my help?" He started toward the door.
"Wait!" Danny shouted, and the older half ghost paused. "I can't believe I'm saying this." He rubbed at his forehead. "But I could use the help. The other ghosts are supposed to be coming soon, and this is hardly how I wanted things to look. So if you're really offering, with no tricks, will you help me?"
Vlad turned around slowly. "Gladly." He smirked with a hint of victory in it. "Let's get started then, shall we?"
The time flew by rather quickly, and Danny couldn't believe they were able to get the warehouse completely decorated, and nearly identical to how he drew it up in his sketchbook. Vlad even called upon a few of his underlings to bring in some food suitable to serve to the ghostly guests. Vlad showed Danny a few tricks that he could do with his powers, and not once did he say or do anything in an attempt to sway Danny to his side. Before Danny could even talk to Vlad about the strange change in him, the guests started appearing and the party got into full swing.
Danny was busy playing good host, weaving between groups to chat and entertain. It was exhausting, and he much preferred being a simple guest instead. He kept trying to catch hold of Vlad, but the moment he got close, other ghosts would get in his way and the older half ghost would mysteriously vanish from where Danny last saw him. It was rather vexing to the young hybrid. When he sensed another ghost, make that three ghosts, approaching, he went to greet them as they entered.
"Vortex," Danny said, smiling though it was unusual for the weather ghost to appear at the truce party. His eyebrows rose in surprise when he saw who was with Vortex. "Nocturne!" His green eyes darted back and forth between weather ghost and dream ghost. "First time I've seen either of you at the truce party. And you're arriving... together?"
"Were we not invited for some reason?" Vortex demanded with that wheezy quality in his voice, and Danny winced with each spitted word.
"That's not-"
"Don't get started." Nocturne frowned severely at the weather ghost as he placed his hands on what might have been the hips of his star speckled body. "There will be no fighting at this party, so try to behave." Vortex grumbled like a scolded child, and Danny bit his lip to keep from laugh. "Normally," Nocturne said as he turned to address the half ghost, "we don't bother with this celebration. But we decided," he glared when Vortex released a snorting laugh that he quickly turned into a cough, "to attend. It would be a good chance to introduce everyone to-"
Danny's yelp interrupted Nocturne, and he jumped away, still feeling a bit jittery after that small zap like electricity running up his arm.
"I guess Nimbus likes you," Nocturne said with some surprise.
"Nimbus?" Danny questioned, furrowing his brow as he rubbed at his arm.
"Ah! Not so fast you little dust devil!" Vortex reacted quickly, snatching hold of the floating child that nearly got away from him.
Danny stared, his eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets as they snapped from Nocturne to Vortex to the child. "You," he pointed at Nocturne, his voice cracking slightly, "and you?" His finger jerked over to Vortex, who held the child comfortably in his arms. The child's little arms wiggled about, and Danny felt his surprise mounting as little bits of cloud started to take form, shaping into what looked like a little bunny that the child then hugged to his chest. The young half ghost didn't think he could take any more surprises in one night. Vlad being helpful and nice without ulterior motives was already mind breaking enough to him.
"Is there a problem with that?" Vortex demanded, his red eyes narrowing as if daring Danny to say something and give him a reason to start a fight.
"No," Danny said quickly, holding up his hands, "no, no. Of course not. I'm just surprised is all. I never knew you two were, you know, a thing."
"We've been a 'thing,' as you put it, for the last three hundred years," Nocturne said with a bit of a huff to his voice.
"Should we really include the time during my imprisonment by the Observants?"
"Why not?" Nocturne blinked at Vortex's question. "I certainly wasn't unfaithful to you. Unless you have something you wish to tell me." His eyes narrowed, and Vortex quickly shook his head. "Good."
"Well," Danny laughed with some nervousness, "I hope you enjoy the party."
"It looks like you've done quite well for your first year hosting," Nocturne said, gazing about impressed by the decorations.
"Perhaps we'll let you babysit Nimbus for us sometime," Vortex said with a wheezing chuckle. "Since he seems to like you so much."
"Ha, ha, yeah." Danny rubbed his arm again, but dread settled into the pit of his gut at the idea of babysitting for the ghost child. He tried to shake that thought out of his mind as he returned to his duty of being the host of the Christmas Truce party.
simplegay me: Yush! I really enjoy writing Dan and Kwan together. XD *definitely wants to add more to that one*
