A/N Welcome back everyone for another chapter of the story. This one does feel a little out of place considering I'm not posting it during Christmas time, but I still think it's a great part of the story all the same. With the last chapter and the next few I am so excited for what's happening, ESPECIALLY for chapter 21 once we get to it. But we'll cross that bridge in a couple weeks, for now I'm just really excited to keep Danny and Ember's relationship growing and for all of you to enjoy it. So without further ado please enjoy the newest chapter, I love you all more than I can express and remember as always to leave a REVIEW!
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December 20, 2004
The weekend had passed with Danny and Ember spending every moment together that they possibly could. After bowling on Friday night they snuck into a movie on Saturday, hovering near the ceiling and invisible the whole time, Danny making a joke that they were attending a private screening. On Sunday snow had fallen, so they went back to Lake Eerie which had frozen over and skated together on it and had a brutal snowball fight. Now it was Monday and Danny was hanging out with Tucker at the Nasty Burger for a bit because he didn't want his best friend to feel neglected. Both Danny and Ember would prefer that she was there with them to hang out, but unfortunately if she showed herself Maddie and Jack would probably show up guns a blazing. So while Danny and Tucker were hanging out she chose to just stay in the warehouse and have a jam session with her guitar. Also she wanted to plan out a little surprise for Danny's Christmas present. She hadn't told him about the annual Christmas truce yet in the ghost zone, but was planning to later. Meanwhile, Tucker was asking Danny if he had any Christmas plans with Ember, since he hated the holiday and all.
"So you mean to tell me neither of you has brought up the topic of Christmas yet?" asked Tucker while taking a sip of his soda.
"No I have not and I'm not even sure I want to," said Danny frowning, never liking to be reminded of his least favorite holiday. "Every year this holiday is nothing more than a nightmare around my house, why would I want to bring that into my relationship with Ember? Besides I don't even know if Christmas is a thing for ghosts. For all I know it doesn't even exist in the ghost zone."
"Yeah I know this holiday has brought some really bad memories for you, but you never had a gorgeous girlfriend to celebrate it with in the past, now you do," said Tucker smiling with encouragement. "This is your opportunity to completely reverse how you feel about it by doing something great for her, and I'll bet she does something great for you too."
Danny looked down at his burger, thinking about what Tucker was saying. Indeed Christmas for him was nothing but a long string of bad memories as far back as he could remember. But he wasn't blind to the fact that almost everyone else he knew loved the holiday season. Even Sam was known for being insanely cheery rather than her usual gothic self, and crazy thing is that she's Jewish.
"Well even if I do want to celebrate it with her and exchange gifts, I'm not sure what I would get her," said Danny poking at his french fries. "I've never been very enthusiastic about getting Christmas gifts before due to my parent's annual Santa Claus debate. It's something I always kinda half assed since most of the time they would get destroyed from my parents blasting things."
"Which makes this yet again another perfect opportunity to change the course. Get her an amazing gift that blows her away and makes her happy, and your parents won't be involved with it at all," said Tucker as if it was obvious.
Danny started thinking hard about what he would even be able to get Ember. Her favorite thing after all was music, but what kind of gift would be perfect for a girl that was a ghost and lived in the 1970s and 80s?
"Well I'll have to do a little research on this tonight to see if I can even come up with a gift idea for her, and that's assuming ghosts celebrate Christmas," said Danny as he took another bite of his burger.
"You'll just have to ask her later when you see her tonight," said Tucker grinning about his own Christmas plans. "And while you're doing that, I'll be working on my new hat with mistletoe attached, so all the ladies will want to kiss the Foley stud."
Danny narrowed his eyes a bit as he saw Valerie walk into the restaurant over Tucker's shoulder. Remembering he had a deal to hold up, he got up and walked over to meet her by the counter.
"Hey Valerie, how's the day treating you so far?" asked Danny patting her on the shoulder. Valerie smiled seeing him as she gave her order to the clerk and Danny pulled out his wallet.
"Well better now that I'm getting a free meal, thanks again for this," said Valerie as the clerk took the cash from Danny. "And what about Foley, has he gotten the message yet?"
"I was actually just about to tell him, and not a moment too soon after what he just told me about his Christmas plans later," said Danny with a chuckle.
"Well make sure he knows that if he keeps pestering me after this he's gonna have a hard time asking any girl out for a while because his PDA will be lodged somewhere he's not gonna be comfortable with," said Valerie with a smirk. Danny visualized what Valerie just described and it sure didn't sound fun, his own area clenching as a result.
"Oh don't worry, he'll get the message loud and clear," said Danny as he headed back to his booth shivering, Tucker noticing that Valerie was there.
"Hey, any chance you were talking me up to her?" asked Tucker hopefully.
"Um, no I was not. And on that topic, it'd definitely be in your best interest to stop asking her out, you won't like what happens to your PDA if you do so again," said Danny in a seriously scared tone.
"Oh come on, how can she not want to go out with..."
"Tucker seriously, for your own good, just move on from this one and pick another girl to ask out," said Danny quickly cutting him off. Tucker could tell he was not playing around by how serious he sounded, almost shaking actually.
"Alright alright, I get it, I'll lay off," said Tucker with a moan.
"Plenty of other fish in the sea man, just lay some of that good old Foley charm and you'll be golden," said Danny sarcastically, knowing full well that the odds of him getting a girl that way were about as good as Technus becoming Amish. Danny took a look at his watch and thought he better get going so he could go see Ember and finally clear the air on whether or not Christmas was a thing for her.
"Gotta get going to your special lady?" asked Tucker when he noticed Danny looking at his watch.
"Yeah, and I'm not sure what I want her answer to be on whether or not she cares about Christmas," said Danny, weighing the pros and cons in his head as he stood up.
"Well whatever it is, if you know what's good for you you'll go along with it. Something tells me not making her happy could be dangerous," said Tucker with wide eyes.
"You're telling me, I love her but I definitely do NOT want to make her upset with me," said Danny with a light chuckle as he started walking to the door. "See you later Tuck, and remember not to try anything more on Valerie."
Tucker nodded and gave a wave as Danny walked out the door, heading behind the Nasty Burger so he could go ghost before flying to the warehouse to meet Ember. While flying overhead there were all kinds of people down below enjoying the spirit of Christmas. Kids playing in the snow, parents joining in if they were present, carolers in the park spreading joy, plenty of people going into stores looking for Christmas presents. One girl in particular was doing this but wasn't sure how she would go about giving it.
Sam was walking through a toy store and was looking at all kinds of different figurines. Even though she and Danny weren't exactly on good terms right now, that wasn't stopping her from wanting to show him how much she cared about him as she looked for something that would be considered a good present. She still got something for Tucker earlier, but was putting more thought into Danny's gift. She wasn't even sure how she was going to be able to give it to him, it was possible she'd have to give it to him anonymously, or just say it was from Santa. While walking down one of the aisles full of different figurines, she came to a pause when one caught her eye, and it felt like it was speaking to her as soon as she saw it. It was a small scale model of Apollo 11, the shuttle that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon in 1969. Sam stopped right in front of it and just stared for a few moments, thinking how perfect it was for a space fanatic like Danny. She felt a small tear forming in her eye as she thought about what she had lost in her friendship with him, and possibly more if things hadn't gone so south for her, as in Ember never coming into the picture. Reaching up she pulled it off the shelf and examined the box a bit closer, just trying to picture how excited Danny would look if he opened a present and found this inside. Sam didn't even look at the price before she walked over to the register and paid for it, taking the bag and receipt from the clerk and walking out of the store to head home. Looking up she thought she almost heard the sound of someone flying by, but Danny was nowhere in sight as he had already passed by while she had been inside.
Meanwhile Danny was heading to the warehouse to see Ember, and as he was flying over it and about to faze through he could hear the sound of her guitar coming from inside, making him stop for a moment to listen. She was shredding the guitar so smoothly it was giving him goosebumps, her voice sounding so hardcore and angelic. Fazing into the warehouse slowly he kept himself invisible so he wouldn't disturb her while she was in the zone. Sitting on top of her bed he watched his girlfriend rock out and it was quite a sight.
YOU KEEP ON SHOUTIN' YOU KEEP ON SHOUTIN'
bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
I...WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT...AND PARTY EVERY DAY
I...WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT...AND PARTY EVERY DAY
I...WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT...AND PARTY EVERY DAY
I...WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT...AND PARTY EVERY DAY
Danny couldn't stop a open mouth smile from forming on his face and his leg tapping as Ember shred her guitar and sang the lyrics. He was pretty sure he'd heard this song before but couldn't put his finger on where. Odds are it was an old song from when Ember was alive and the world was obsessed with rock and roll.
As she sang the last lyric Ember started a final shred on the guitar, going a little crazy with her body movements and dropping to her knees, looking like she was having the time of her afterlife.
"YEAH," shouted Ember as she strum the last note of the song and stopped playing, raising her arms as if an audience was in front of her cheering.
Danny's face was shining with admiration at how happy she looked and how natural it all seemed for her. There shouldn't be any reason why she couldn't perform in front of a huge crowd without using mind control. He decided right then and there that he was going to do something to make that happen as soon as possible. But right now he needed to tell her how amazing he thought she sounded.
"Wow, just...wow," said Danny as he started clapping and made himself visible on the bed.
Ember shrieked and turned around quickly, just now discovering that she did have an actual audience for her little session. Once she realized it was the boy she loved she smiled and crossed her arms.
"So you liked what you saw and heard Baby Pop?" asked Ember knowingly with a little laugh. "How long have you been there listening and watching?"
"Only for that last song, and it sounded absolutely incredible," said Danny as he stopped clapping for her.
"Well one of the greatest features of my guitar is that it can automatically tune itself for whatever song I want to play. Keeps me from having to change instruments for each song like every musician does when they perform live," said Ember patting her guitar proudly.
Danny didn't know about that little feature and it just made her guitar that much more impressive. It could attack others, from what he'd seen it was harder than steel, and now finding out it could autotune itself. Was there anything that guitar couldn't do?
"I'm pretty sure I've heard that song before that you were playing but can't quite place it. Who is that song by?" asked Danny as Ember pulled her guitar off her shoulder while walking towards the bed.
"It's by KISS, one of the greatest rock bands of all time," said Ember, putting her guitar down on its stand and walking over to sit on the bed with Danny, the two of them snuggling together once she did.
"KISS, KISS, KISS, I know I've heard of that band before, isn't there something really unique about them?" asked Danny as they fell onto their backs, lightly holding each other close.
"They're known for wearing makeup to look like clowns, but the most hardcore clowns you'll ever see, also for using really big special effects on stage," said Ember as she felt Danny's hand on her back and start lightly rubbing it. "Their stage names are the Cat, the Spaceman, the Demon, and the Star Child. The Star Child, Paul Stanley, has always been my favorite of the four and one of my biggest inspirations to want to become a rock star.
"Sounds like I would enjoy the Spaceman the most, bet he looked really awesome," said Danny with a grin while they both stared at the ceiling together.
"The Spaceman is Ace Frehley and very few can shred a guitar better than him," said Ember while fondly remembering how she would listen to their music in her bedroom. "Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley are both guitarists, Ace usually taking the lead and Paul singing lead vocals. The Cat is Peter Criss who plays drums, and the Demon is Gene Simmons who plays bass and is known for his crazy tongue and pyro effects. I used to have a huge poster of the band in my room back when I was alive."
That's when it suddenly hit Danny like a comet. He flashed back to when he was investigating Amberline Lane's house a couple months ago and was in her old bedroom. He remembered that there was a small amount of a poster that was still intact, and on it was what appeared to be part of a person's face. That face had a black star painted over the eye.
'Holy crap, now I remember,' thought Danny in his head. 'After I went home that day I looked up musicians with a black star over their eye and that guy came up as the top result. Unbelievable.'
"I had such a crush on him back then and even today he still looks and sounds great for his age," said Ember with a little tease towards Danny, indicating he might have competition. But Danny saw right through the tease and just played along.
"Would it work in my favor if I just painted my face to look like his?" asked Danny smirking as the two of them snuggled a bit closer laughing lightly.
"Well I guess I'm okay settling for that, but if I call you Paul you'll have only yourself to blame," said Ember as she leaned in to place her lips against Danny, the two of then sinking into a deep and passionate kiss. They stayed in that position for several minutes before they separated and Danny felt winded and dazed.
"Unbelievable, I doubt I'll ever get tired of doing that," said Danny with a lovestruck grin on his face.
"Well maybe I'll just give you a full day of that for your Christmas present and save myself the trouble of getting you anything," said Ember smiling, but Danny suddenly felt his insides turn a bit at the mention of Christmas. Looks like he had his answer on that topic before he could even ask.
"Oh, so ghosts do celebrate Christmas?" asked Danny trying not to sound suspicious. "I wasn't really sure if that was a thing or not, but looks like you just answered it for me."
Ember batted an eyebrow at Danny's words, not sure what to make of them and whether or not that meant he was planning on getting her anything.
"Oh you better believe that ghosts celebrate Christmas, quite seriously actually," said Ember sitting up a bit. "In fact, there's something I need to take you to on Christmas day so you better make yourself available at least for a portion of it to me."
Whatever it was that Ember had in mind, Danny didn't have any problem making himself available for the whole day.
"I don't know what it is you're talking about, but as far as I'm concerned you can take me wherever for the entire day," said Danny quickly. "I've always hated Christmas at my house because my parents are even bigger nutbags than usual that time of year. They actually fight over whether Santa is real or not."
Ember looked surprised by his words. Whatever it was she was expecting to hear, that was definitely not it.
"Seriously, your parents fight over whether Santa is real or not?" asked Ember with wide eyes. "You know what, as absurd as that sounds, I think I'd still take that over what happened at my house where my parents barely even seemed to register that I existed."
Danny suddenly felt quite horrible, remembering everything he learned about Amberline and how her parents never seemed to even care about or love her. How could he be so stupid to let something like that slip his mind.
"I'm sorry Ember, I didn't really think about that, I guess it's just so hard to believe that any parents could be so cold towards their child," said Danny while kissing her forehead and taking her hand again.
"It doesn't matter anymore, I'm happier now than I've ever been and I wouldn't change anything from the past, because if I did I probably wouldn't have ended up here with you," said Ember, hugging her boyfriend tightly to herself. "I remember though that I always hoped when Christmas came around that somehow I would get something so unique that I'd be the only person in the world that could receive whatever it happened to be."
The two of them stopped talking for a few moments and just cuddled together, Danny rubbing her back, Ember rubbing his arm, sneaking a few kisses here and there. All of a sudden Danny had an epiphany and almost jumped to his feet, practically knocking Ember off the bed.
"What gives Dipstick, did a bee sting you or something?" asked Ember now slightly annoyed that the mood had shifted.
"Ember, I love you, but I just realized something and have to go right away," said Danny pulling her into a tight hug. Ember was pretty stunned by his words and didn't hug him back at first, wondering what he was up to. "I know this is sudden, but trust me, you are going to absolutely love it when you realize what it is."
Danny pulled her into a deep kiss, which again Ember didn't respond to at first due to his fast pace and catching her off guard, but she didn't push away either and kissed him back, both of them hugging each other tightly.
"Well whatever it is that just hit you, it better be something that is off the charts amazing for you to be running off on me like this out of nowhere," said Ember as a warning. "A girl like me who prefers all attention on her isn't going to be too thrilled if whatever this is turns out to be underwhelming."
Danny looked really confident in himself as he kept his arms around her waist, leaning his face close to hers.
"I promise you, this is something that is going to blow you away so hard it'll extinguish your hair," said Danny while rubbing her shoulders.
"Okay then, there's a lot of pressure on you now to deliver, hope you're up for that challenge," said Ember smirking, quite intrigued now. She may have joked a moment ago, but she already knew what she was going to get Danny for Christmas, and she was also quite confident that he was going to love it.
"I'll see you later, I gotta get going on this," said Danny as he kissed her one more time before flying out of the warehouse and heading straight home.
Danny flew as fast as he could straight to his house and headed straight for his room, barely even saying hi to his parents or Jazz as he ran in the door. All three of them watching him run up the stairs with confused looks on their faces before looking at each other. Jack and Maddie shrugged their shoulders before walking down into the lab together, and Jazz was raising one of her eyebrows while looking up the stairs towards Danny's room.
Danny however didn't pay any attention to the confused looks on his family's faces as he ran upstairs, going straight for his computer and typing furiously into Google. Danny spent the next couple hours researching everything he could that could help him with his plan on giving Ember the most amazing Christmas present he could think of. He just hoped it worked out, because if this plan ended up being a bust it was going to land him in some pretty hot water with his girlfriend after he hyped it up real good. Danny's research and investigating ended up taking him well into the evening. So much time had gone by since he got home he didn't even notice that it was completely dark outside and everybody else in the house was going to bed. He barely even heard it when there was a knock on his bedroom door.
"Come in," Danny said without moving his head to look at the door as Jazz poked her head in.
"Um, Danny, are you okay in here? Whatever you're doing has been going on for hours, and it's almost midnight," said Jazz concerned, watching her brother lean way closer to his computer screen than was necessary.
"Yeah, everything is perfect Jazz, just doing some research on a present I want to get someone," said Danny, still not looking away from the screen.
Jazz slowly moved more into the bedroom and peeked around to get a look at what was on his screen. Once she saw what it was she tilted her head to the side a bit, not really sure why Danny was looking at these particular things. But a few seconds later Jazz had her own little epiphany and snapped her head back straight, a small smile forming on her own face.
"By any chance are you researching something for a Christmas present for a certain special someone?" asked Jazz knowingly. She could tell that Danny was so distracted he probably wasn't even paying attention to what she was saying.
"Yeah, I need to figure this all out quickly so I can get her the best Christmas present she's ever gotten," said Danny, sounding like a robot answering a command.
Jazz smirked happily at Danny, this was such a refreshing sight for her to see. Danny was notoriously anti Christmas every year, and she was pretty sure that tradition would continue right up until this very moment. It was abundantly clear to her now that he was trying to do something extra special for Ember. While she had no idea what his actual plan was or how he came to it, it was pretty clear that something had happened to make Danny's opinion of Christmas do a complete 180, or at least outside the house it had. She was so tempted to ask what exactly he was looking for, but if she pressed the matter it would be too suspicious and she swore she'd wait until Danny was ready to share all the details about his alternate life freely. Which was a real drag because she was dying to find and give Ember the protective big sister talk even though she supported their relationship completely. Whenever the whole thing did come out she was going to have a lot of fun teasing her little brother about everything.
"Well whatever it is you're planning, I hope it goes well, just don't kill your vision in the process by staring at that screen," said Jazz as she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.
"Yeah, thanks Jazz, anytime," said Danny, barely even aware that he'd just had a visitor in his room.
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December 24, 2004
Danny had spent the last several days running and flying all around like a madman trying to get Ember the most amazing present he could. It was the early afternoon on Christmas Eve and he was just getting back home from a crazy trip, finally satisfied with all his effort and feeling like he'd actually pulled it off. He couldn't wait until tomorrow when he'd be able to give the present to Ember at whatever this surprise thing was she was taking him to. Flying into his room directly since nobody was home, Danny landed in the middle of his bedroom and transformed back into Danny Fenton, falling flat onto his back with a sigh of relief.
"Phew, I did it, I can't believe I actually did it," said Danny to himself while looking at the gift in his hand and smiling. "Now I just need to get it wrapped and hidden until tomorrow."
Running downstairs and into the living room where all the Christmas decorations and wrapping paper station were still set up, Danny went to work wrapping the present and tying a blue ribbon around it in a color that was the closest to matching her hair. Taking a marker out of a drawer Danny stuck a sticker on the present in the corner, and happily wrote "To my beautiful flame" "From your Dipstick". Danny lifted up the gift and just stared at it for a moment, so proud of himself that he'd actually been able to pull this crazy task off. But he was quickly snapped out of his pleasant mood when the sound of shouting could be heard from right outside the front door, quickly getting closer as the door was being unlocked. Danny started to panic as the gift was in his hand, not wanting his parents or Jazz to see it because he didn't know how to explain it without looking suspicious. Unable to think of anything better, Danny quickly turned his hand intangible and stashed the gift inside the sofa where nobody would be able to find it, even accidentally unless they were cutting the thing open, just as the door was opening.
"He does exist Maddie, and nothing is ever going to convince me otherwise. What's so wrong about a man that brings happiness to the children of the world," said Jack while glaring at his wife, who returned it with interest.
"It's not physically possible to do what he does Jack, a sleigh flying at that altitude, the speed that would be required to travel, and enough toys for the entire world, it's a hoax and always will be a hoax," said Maddie while holding a sign that had Santa's face on it with a big X over it.
Danny took in the sight and was rapidly regressing to his usual Grinch attitude, hating the sight of his parents, two grown people, arguing over something so childish. Jazz was right behind them and had a deadpan look on her own face, clearly she'd been riding along with this argument for a while, wherever it was they were just coming from.
"Well I'm going to be sitting by the chimney again this year ready to prove you wrong when he shows up tonight," said Jack, running to the kitchen and returning with a large plate of ham and the Fenton fisher.
"You do this every year Jack, but you've never seen him in any of the years past and you aren't going to see him this year either," said Maddie crossing her arms at her husband.
Both of the two arguing adults started to get in each other's faces and their words were turning inaudible because they kept trying to talk over the other, making Danny grab his head in frustration. Over the last few days he'd been starting to have different thoughts about Christmas thanks to Ember, but then his parents had to keep walking in and wipe all of that out, regressing him right back to his Scrooge personality wanting to shout 'bah humbug'.
"ARE YOU TWO SERIOUSLY STILL GOING AT THIS RIDICULOUS DEBATE, JUST STOP ALREADY," shouted Danny, too upset to restrain himself.
Jack and Maddie immediately stopped going at each other and turned to look at Danny with stunned faces, not expecting their precious boy to just explode out of nowhere. But Danny still had more to say.
"EVERY YEAR, EVERY DAMN YEAR IT'S THE SAME THING, SANTA IS REAL, SANTA ISN'T REAL, BACK AND FORTH BACK AND FORTH, I CAN'T STAND IT," shouted Danny gripping his hair. "I was trying, really trying to actually enjoy Christmas this year because I've been so happy the last couple months about things, but then all it takes is two seconds for you to remind me why I absolutely despise this holiday. But go ahead and keep it up, I'm sure it won't be long before the cops show up again just like last year to report a noise complaint, possibly from me just now."
Leaving Ember's present in the sofa since he couldn't retrieve it with everyone there, Danny stormed out of the room and up to his room, slamming the door hard behind him. Falling face first onto his bed he didn't even budge when his ghost sense suddenly went off.
"Well that was certainly an interesting scene, seems you were pretty vague about your parents and this little debate they have every year," said Ember, making herself visible and sitting on Danny's bed beside him.
"Great, how much of that did you see?" asked Danny, turning his head to the side to look at Ember. Knowing that she had been here to see that wasn't exactly his proudest moment.
"Well I was watching outside for you to come home since I knew you were out doing something, hopefully for me," said Ember with a flirty smirk. "When I saw you coming back I did notice something in your hands, but was waiting for you to do whatever your plan was with it so I wouldn't spoil the surprise. Then while I was waiting I saw your parents and sister coming home and I'm pretty sure people five blocks over could hear them."
Danny groaned and hit his face against his mattress a couple times.
"Perfect, now my girlfriend got to see a whole new level to my family's craziness that goes beyond being ghost hunters," said Danny groaning.
Ember laid on her side so she could run her hands through her boyfriend's hair, lightly scratching his scalp.
"Worry not Dipstick, this time tomorrow we'll be somewhere far away from what's going on down there and you'll see a whole new side of ghosts you probably never thought was possible," said Ember, winking as Danny lifted his head up.
"You really are the best, and whatever it is I can't wait, just like I can't wait to give you your present," said Danny smiling weakly.
Ember was leaning in to capture Danny's lips and he was sitting up to accept them, but they heard footsteps outside his door coming up the stairs which ruined their chance.
"Well crap, guess I better high tail it out of here before someone finds me, see you tomorrow Baby Pop," said Ember, stealing a quick kiss before turning intangible and flying out of Fenton Works.
She stopped a bit outside Danny's window while invisible and turned back to see Danny open his door to reveal his sister. She couldn't hear what either of them were saying, but with everything she'd seen and learned about Danny's big sister she suspected it was to offer some kind of support for him. What she would have given when she was alive to have a sibling or any kind of relative like her. She decided she would just head back to the warehouse and wait until tomorrow since Danny was pretty occupied. But as she was about to fly off something caught her attention in the corner of her eye.
Looking towards the end of the street she noticed two people. The closer of the two was the mailman, the second was her absolute least favorite person in the human world. Both were heading in the direction of her boyfriend's house. The mailman was stopping at the house next door while Sam approaching him, waiting for him to finish and come back from the stoop. As soon as he did Sam walked up to him smiling.
"Excuse me sir, but could you please add this present to your delivery for that next house?" asked Sam offering a wrapped package to him. The mailman took it, gave it a look over, and nodded with a smile.
"Of course young lady, special gift for someone I take it?" asked the mailman while holding it gently. "To Danny from Santa I see, you didn't want to sign it as yourself?"
"Oh, well it's actually a secret Santa gift so he's not supposed to know who it's from," said Sam with a cheery smile. Ember was floating overhead invisible and suddenly felt her ghost blood boiling.
'Secret Santa my ass, what is that hippie trying to pull?' Ember thought to herself in her head, wanting to grab whatever that gift was and incinerate it.
"Well you're a good friend and whoever this Danny is is a lucky guy," said the mailman smiling at Sam, who blushed while looking down. "I'll deliver it right now for you, have a Merry Christmas."
"Thank you sir, I'm gonna head out so they don't see me and ruin the whole tradition of secret Santa," said Sam as she hurried away from Fenton Works, ducking behind another stoop to peek around.
Ember was clenching her fists so tight she could sink her nails right into her palms, watching the mailman walk up to the front door of Fenton Works and knock. She inched closer to the man, wanting to grab it before it was delivered. Maybe nobody would answer and it would be left at the door. Unfortunately it didn't go that way as the door was answered and Jack accepted the gift, looking ecstatic once he read the tag.
"MADDIE, I TOLD YOU HE'S REAL, DANNY JUST GOT A GIFT FROM HIM," shouted Jack as he slammed the door and rushed back inside.
Ember gritted her teeth and slammed her fist against the side of the building, furious at what was happening.
'Damn it, now if I go in and just take it they'll wonder what happened to it, and no doubt Danny just heard that so he'll already know about it,' thought Ember in a rage. Snapping her head around to look where Sam was standing up from her hiding spot, Ember took off in her direction while still invisible.
Sam started walking down the sidewalk away from Fenton Works, hands in her pockets and looking down at the sidewalk, wishing that she didn't have to be so sneaky to give Danny a present. It shouldn't be so complicated to do something for someone you care about. She'd give just about anything to be on good terms with Danny again, she missed their friendship and how she wanted so much more than that. A small tear was leaking from her eye as she walked, hating the way things had gotten. And they were about to get even worse.
BLAST
"Ahhh," shouted Sam in surprise as a small ecto ray hit the sidewalk right in front of her. Looking up she saw the source, causing her to glare angrily. "What the hell is your problem hothead?"
"What the hell are you trying to pull giving my boyfriend a present the way you just did?" said Ember, both girls glaring with equal amounts of hate for each other.
"Figures you'd be watching me, I'd expect nothing less from you. And I don't need anyone's permission to give a Christmas present to someone I care about," said Sam, posing for confrontation even though she didn't have any weapons right now.
"That's rich considering Danny told me you're Jewish and don't celebrate Christmas," said Ember crossing her arms. "And when that someone is my boyfriend who you screwed up with, I'd say you do need permission."
"Well feel free to faze into the house and steal it away, because stealing a present sure sounds like something someone who is no longer evil would do," said Sam, taunting Ember. "Or is all of that really just an act and you don't care about Danny being happy as long as you're happy."
Ember wanted to mess up Sam's face so badly right now. It was taking every ounce of her will power not to. She quickly lowered herself to the ground right in front of Sam, putting her face right up close to the goth. Both girls had fire in their eyes as they stared, each daring the other to make a move.
"You better watch which buttons you press hippie, one of these days it's going to get you severely burned," threatened Ember as her hair flamed up a bit, their faces only a couple inches apart from each other.
Sam was hiding her concern right now with a steady face. She knew that she wasn't any match for Ember without some kind of ghost weapons, right now Ember could effortlessly mess her up really bad if she wanted to. But she wasn't going to just give in to her arch rival for Danny's love. She was going to stand her ground.
"I'm not afraid of you Ember, sooner or later your true colors will be shown and Danny will see them," said Sam calmly, willing to wait this whole thing out.
"Danny loves me, he tells me every day when we see each other, and you were there when he said it for the first time," said Ember smiling proudly. "He's the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I'd die again before I gave that up."
"He may say he loves you, but nobody can help being who they really are, and someone who tried to take over the whole world? That personality doesn't just vanish without leaving something behind," said Sam pulling herself back. "If you're going to do something, do it, otherwise I'm leaving. I just want Danny to be happy."
"He is happy, with me. It's your own fault you never made a move beforehand so don't get mad at me for your own mistakes," said Ember, floating back into the air while fighting her urge to give Sam a nose job.
Without saying another word, Sam turned away from Ember and kept walking down the sidewalk towards her own house, her blood boiling throughout her entire body on how much she despised the rock and roll ghost that got to make out with Danny every day. But she did still manage to give Danny a Christmas present she was completely confident he was going to love, even if he wouldn't know it was from her. And now that Ember knew about it she actually felt even more satisfied, knowing that she wasn't going to want to tell Danny about it because it would most likely create an awkward feeling. At the end of the day, Sam still cared deeply for Danny and she'd be damned if Ember was going to keep her from doing something nice for him.
"I'm not going anywhere hothead, better learn to accept that," Sam mumbled to herself lightly as she rounded the corner and out of Ember's sight.
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A/N And that's a wrap on the first part of this ghostly Christmas tale. I had so many ideas that I wanted to use for this part of the story and had a hard time narrowing it down until I decided on which way to go. And this is only part 1, I'm even more excited for part 2 next week with the Christmas truce and so much more. I've got so much I'd love to say about this chapter but a lot of it will carry over to part 2 so instead I'm going to just say that I love you all and save everything for next week when all is revealed. Until next week, love you all, and please leave a REVIEW!, they mean more to me than anything here.