A/N: Hey guys! This is probably going to be the last chapter for a while, since my schedule is incredibly busy (to the point that I won't even have computer access for a full week) and then I'm off to Korea afterwards. This actually works out incredibly well for me, because to be honest, I kind of need a break from all this writing. I don't want to burn out while writing this, after all, especially when I still have quite a few ideas that I think you'll really like saved up for the future.
Anyways, it's Christmas time! Even with the limited options they might have, the kids will do everything they can to make their first Christmas one of their best. And they won't have to do it alone. This will be the last cutesy chapter before we move on to the big guns again.
Chapter 40 – The First Christmas
Mike couldn't remember the last time he had truly celebrated Christmas in his own home. It wasn't that he spent the Yuletide alone and without friends – most years, he had spent the holidays over at one of his friends' places, or on rare occasions hosted a party for his buddies from Eisensteel. But with nobody permanently staying at his house, there had never been a good reason to take the time to set up Christmas decorations when nobody would see them except for him.
It was amazing just how much could change in a few short months. Now, the frame of his rooftop was adorned with Christmas lights, there was a Christmas tree in his living room covered with decorative ornaments and lights with a golden star on top…and he had a full family of seven children to share in the festivities.
As the alarm clock hit 7 AM, Mike slammed it to silence and threw the covers off his bed. It wasn't often that he woke up this early nowadays, but he was more than willing to sacrifice one or two hours off his usual bedtime to make sure that his first family's Christmas was as ideal as possible. He crept past the kids' bedrooms and down the stairs, moving as silently as possible. Hopefully, he'd be able to make a nice cup of coffee to prepare himself for…
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
The collective shout of seven joyful ghosts instantly snapped him out of his thoughts. The children he had thought were sound asleep had in fact woken up even earlier than he had, ready to celebrate their first holidays together. "Oh, right…" Mike thought once he had snapped out of his confusion. "Kids always wake up earlier than their parents on Christmas."
He hid his bewilderment with a grin. "Merry Christmas, kids!" he declared as he stepped into the room and sat down in front of the tree. "You guys are getting your main Christmas presents later, but what I have under the tree is something that I think will start the day off nicely!"
The kids looked under the tree to find seven envelopes under the tree. Each of them took one and tore open the top, eager to see what was underneath.
"An iTunes gift card!" Gabe exclaimed as he took out the gift card that lay inside. He turned the card over and his eyes widened. "For 500 dollars!"
"Yep!" Mike grinned. "You guys have had your laptops for a while now, and I'm sure each of you have different tastes in music, movies, whatever. You've been listening and watching media together as a family, but sooner or later you're gonna want to follow your own interests. 500 dollars each will give you plenty to work with."
The ghosts all rushed towards Mike and buried him a hug. "You're the best, dad!"
"Thanks so much, dad!"
"I can't wait to test this baby out!"
"Best gift ever!"
Nearly drowned out by the clamoring of thanks, Mike managed to calm the kids down only after several seconds. "Geez, if you're already this excited then I can't even imagine how you guys are gonna react to the second set of presents."
"Can we have a hint?" Cassidy was all but jumping up and down in the air at the thought of getting another round of Christmas presents that was apparently even better than what they had already gotten.
Mike shook his head and smirked. "Nope. I want to keep you guys in suspense for a while." He got up and gestured for the kids to follow him to the dining hall, where a single large red and green stocking had been set up over the fireplace. "Normally parents put candy and chocolate in stockings, but since that doesn't really work for you guys I figured we'd start the morning with one activity out of many instead. There's one for each of you."
The ghosts reached inside the stocking and each pulled out what looked like… "Are these…lottery tickets?" Susie asked curiously as she looked at the ornate Christmas-themed card in her hand.
"That's right!" Mike grinned. "It was a lottery ticket that turned my life from a complete mess into a story of success." He took out seven pennies and handed one each to the children. "I doubt that we'll have a repeat performance of that luck today, but who knows? Maybe one of you might get lucky."
The ghosts started scratching away at their tickets. Fritz was the fastest one out of them all, the most eager to see his prize…and the first to be disappointed. "Aww…" he complained. "This card's worthless!"
Mike took one look at the card and then tossed it in the trash. "Yep, no dice there," he confirmed. "Everybody else?"
Cassidy, Jeremy, and Liz, and Susie all shook their heads as they tossed away their pieces of junk. As for Gabe and Charlie…
"Holy crap! I actually won something!" Gabe exclaimed as he pointed at part of the card "See? 10 dollars!"
Mike nodded approvingly. "Hey, not bad!" he commented. "Considering how hard it is to so much as break even on lottery scratchcards, that is definitely a win."
Charlie's eyelights twinkled. "I can do one better," she confidently declared. As all eyes turned to her, she slowly unveiled her prize. One hundred dollars.
"And we have a winner!" Mike declared as the rest of the kids congratulated their sister for her luck. "Soon as I have time I'll be sure to cash this in at a convenience store later. Guess lottery luck runs in the family."
The ghosts giggled. "Technically, that wasn't YOUR lottery ticket to begin with, dad," Liz pointed out.
"Having somebody GIVE you a jackpot lottery ticket is probably even luckier than finding it by yourself to begin with," Mike countered, to which she only shrugged in response. "Anyway, that was a quick freshener to start the day. The next I have planned is something rather more Christmas-y." He and Charlie went into the kitchen and came out with three trays, each with the basic framework of a gingerbread house on them. "It's time for a gingerbread house making contest!" he declared as Charlie went back inside the kitchen to get toppings. "You guys are gonna be working in pairs while Charlie supervises. I want to see who can make the most creative, most decorative, the tastiest gingerbread house I've ever seen. The winning team gets to decide which movie we watch this morning."
"I'm working with Liz!" Fritz immediately shouted as he moved next to her. "We're gonna blow this competition out of the water!"
"Not if Gabe and I kick your ass first!" Jeremy retorted.
"Excuse me!" Susie interrupted. "Cassidy and I have been doing arts and crafts stuff long before any of you started caring about it. If anybody wins this, it's gonna be us!"
Charlie rolled her eyes as the kids started arguing and eyeing their gingerbread houses competitively, already picturing the masterpieces they were going to make for their dad. As they got started, Mike's cell phone suddenly rang. Mike raised a finger to excuse himself and moved over to the next room before answering. "Hello?"
"Hey, Mike!" Melody's voice called from the phone. "Merry Christmas!"
Mike's eyes lit up as he realized who it was. "Oh hey, Melody!" he answered back. "Merry Christmas to you too! How's your day been so far? I got the kids 500 dollars each on iTunes and they're making gingerbread houses right now."
"Ooh, sounds like fun!" she replied. "I haven't made gingerbread houses since I was a kid! And 500 dollars each? Putting that lottery money to good use, I see!"
Mike laughed, but something about Melody's tone felt off. "Everything all right, Melody?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah!" she answered a little too quickly. "Everything's just fine! Why do you ask?"
"Melody…"
Melody was silent for several seconds. "All right, Mike, you saw right through me," she reluctantly admitted. "My family was supposed to visit for Christmas, but their place got hit by a brutal snowstorm yesterday. Nobody got hurt, thank God, but there's no way they can make it here in time. In fact, if the weather's as bad as I heard, I don't think they'll even be able to get here by New Year's."
Mike winced. "I'm sorry to hear that, Melody," he murmured sympathetically. "Is there anyone else you can spend your Christmas with?"
"Unfortunately, it's too late," Melody answered sadly. "Eisensteel decided to hold its Christmas party out of state this year, and it's too far for me to drive there in time. And almost everyone I know is spending Christmas out of the state, if not out of the country." She sighed. "Guess I'm spending Christmas alone this year."
Mike's mind subconsciously flashed back to every Christmas he'd "spent alone." Not just the few years when he hadn't spent his holidays with his buddies from Eisensteel or college, but also the ones when his only company had been an abusive father who ignored his presence if he was lucky or the unfeeling shadows of the city alleyways. "No you're not, Melody," he declared. "I think it would be a great idea if you spent Christmas with us."
"Wait, WHAT?" Melody exclaimed, clearly shocked. "I can't do that, Mike!"
"Why not?"
"You have a family now, Mike!" Melody insisted. "You should be spending time with them! Not me!"
"The kids have been spending time with me and, barring a few exceptions, ONLY me for the past six months, Melody," Mike calmly replied. "I think this would be a nice change of pace for them."
"But…"
"Melody, if I have to drive over to your house and drag you here myself, I will."
Melody sighed again, but Mike could hear the smile in her voice. "All right, Mike, I'll be over there in a few hours. Thanks for inviting me."
Mike smiled back. "My pleasure, Mel. The gate will be open for you. Trust me, the kids'll love to see you again." As he hung up, Charlie poked her head through the doorway.
"They're done, Mike," she told him. "Ready to judge?"
"Yep! Just got done with the call!" Mike replied as he returned to the dining room. For kids who had never done this before, all three gingerbread houses looked incredibly delicious. Gabe and Jeremy had made a relatively classic design, with frosting on the roof and door frames and gumdrops all over the roof and sides. Fritz and Liz had done one better, adding candy canes next to the door and windows on the front and sides. But Susie and Cassidy's was by far the most creative of the bunch. Not only did they have the same innovations that Fritz and Liz had, but…
"Wait a minute!" Mike stared at their house. "Is this meant to be Freddy's?"
"Yeah!" Susie grinned. "It took us a while to find something that would make for a good Freddy head on the top, so we used some gingerbread pieces and put some chocolate pieces on them!"
"And look over there!" Cassidy pointed at the walls next to the gingerbread house. Each side of the door had four Sour Patch Kids next to it – one orange, yellow, purple, and red each. "It's Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy!" The pair of girls had placed the four "animatronics" on multiple places throughout the gingerbread house, trying their best to recreate the spirit of the pizzeria before it had been tainted by William Afton's evil.
"Wow," Gabe whistled. "I think you win."
"Yeah, much as I hate to admit it, this one's all yours," Fritz conceded.
"Well, glad we're all on the same page," Mike commented. "When everyone does a good job, you look for the best. So, Susie and Cassidy…what do you want to see for our morning Christmas movie?"
Susie turned to look at Cassidy. "There was a movie that Meghan talked about earlier. What was it called, Cass?"
Cass thought for a moment. "I think it was called…the Incredibles?" she suggested.
Mike grinned. "Ooh, that is a good one! And I think this would be a good time to introduce you to a whole new genre of fiction."
The ghosts looked up excitedly at him. "What kind of genre, dad?"
"Superhero movies," Mike explained. "There's so many more worlds of fiction out there beyond what I've already showed you. And even though Incredibles is off the beaten track when it comes to superhero movies, I think it's a great starter for all you guys." He got up from his chair and beckoned to the kids to follow him. "Come on, kiddos. The movie came out in 2004 and it's still better than a lot of movies that came after it. You're in for a treat."
A few hours later…
"I hope the kids are okay with having me around," Melody thought as she drove up to Mike's house. "Hopefully the stuff I brought will make things better if they think I'm intruding."
She got out of the car and nervously walked over to the front door. Taking a deep breath, she hit the doorbell. A few seconds later, the door swung over to reveal a grinning Mike. "Glad you could make it, Melody!" he greeted her as he gestured for her to come in. "You came at a great time, we just got done with watching the Incredibles."
"Dad, who are you talking to?" a voice that Melody recognized as Susie's asked. The ghost girl peered around the corner and her eyes widened when she saw the woman at the front door. "Miss Nguyen?" she gasped.
Melody smiled at her. "Please, call me Melody."
Susie jerked her back inside. "Guys, Melody's here!" she exclaimed. Immediately there was a flurry of activity as all the ghosts dropped what they were doing to greet the new arrival.
"Holy crap, I wasn't expecting this!" Gabe exclaimed.
"Great to see you again!" Liz happily greeted her.
"Didn't know you'd be coming!" Cassidy added as her eyes twinkled.
"Yeah, Mike invited me over to spend the day with you guys," Melody quickly explained, not wanting to sour the ghost kids' happy mood with her own unfortunate story. "So…Incredibles, huh? Mike starting to get you into superhero stuff?"
Jeremy grinned. "Dad was right, it was a great movie! I'm still not sure whether I like it more than Kung Fu Panda, though."
Melody shrugged. "Different styles, different genres. Can't really compare the two and fairly say one is better than the other. Though I'm pretty sure everyone I know likes them both. Gotta say, though, my favorite part is and always will be NO CAPES!"
Everyone burst out laughing at Melody's sudden impression of Edna. "No offense, but that didn't sound like her at all!" Fritz jokingly criticized.
"Well no kidding, the person who voice-acted her was a guy," Melody commented dryly. "But yeah, all those superheroes out there wearing capes and it's this movie out of all of them that points out how bad of an idea that actually is."
"To be fair," Mike countered, having been silent up until now, "plot armor and the quality of being cool throw the practical problems of wearing capes right out of the window in fictional universes. And besides, some heroes do have legitimate reasons for wearing capes. Like Doctor Strange."
"Speaking of Doctor Strange," Melody gave him a stern look. "If you're going to show these kids superhero movies, you better start with the MCU. They're the only modern superhero movies nowadays that are actually any good."
"Pfft, you think I'm going to ruin their first superhero experience with DC's live-action crap?" Mike snorted. "Fuck no, I'm sticking with Marvel like any man of good taste would."
Charlie tilted her head. "What are you two talking about?" she asked quizzically. "Marvel? DC? Wha…?"
"Don't worry about it," Mike brushed her question aside. "Question is, what do you think we should do now?"
"I have an idea," Melody smiled. "You know how you put up some Christmas lights around your house?"
"Yeah?" Liz nodded.
"Well, there are some people in this town who go really, REALLY over the top when it comes to their Christmas decorations, and I think you'll be blown away by just how pretty they look. I know I just got here, but how do you guys think about going for a drive?"
Gabe grinned. "I think that's a great idea!"
"Would be nice to get out of the house on Christmas!" Susie added.
"Great!" Mike opened the front door. "I was starting to run out of ideas on what to do for Christmas anyway." He and Melody walked out the door, talking animatedly about which MCU movie they liked the most as the ghosts followed. Charlie quickly pulled Melody to the side and, with her position, set up the mental link so that she could converse with the ghosts without attracting unwanted attention. After she was done, Charlie, Gabe, Fritz, and Liz got inside Mike's car, while Jeremy, Susie, and Cassidy got into Melody's.
"I still can't believe there's a bunch of ghost kids riding with me in my car," Melody shook her head as she drove out into the open road. "This is so surreal."
"You're taking it better than Dad did when we first showed up at his house," Jeremy joked. "And we weren't even trying to scare him at first!" Melody shrugged without saying anything in response, but the ghosts could see the faint smirk on her face.
"So what are you working on right now?" Cassidy asked curiously. "You mentioned some big project last time you were at our house. It was the reason why you were in Mike's workshop, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," Melody answered. "I'm technically not supposed to tell you guys, company secrets and all. But…" she winked, and the ghosts leaned forward eagerly. "We're trying to create robots that can act as closely to humans as possible. Maybe not a full blown artificial human body, exactly, but robots that can maybe one day do things like smell, taste, even outright eat food."
Gasps of shock echoed from the three ghosts in the car. "That sounds awesome!" Cassidy exclaimed. "Why would dad retire when your company was working on something this big?"
Melody shook her head. "It was only a small side project when Mike left the company," she explained. "It didn't really become a big thing until afterwards. Besides, if Mike did take on this project, he'd still be spending his days working at the company instead taking of you guys. This project has been a top priority for more than a year now. I doubt he'd be able to take care of you guys at all."
The ghosts flinched at the idea of anyone besides Mike being their father. "Maybe it is for the best then," Jeremy admitted. He looked out the window and his jaw dropped again. "Oh my God!" he exclaimed. "Is that…"
"Yep!" Melody grinned. "We're here!" She and Mike got out of their respective cars while the ghosts quickly turned invisible. They had stopped in front of a house that was all but buried in different colored lights. Unlike their own house, which only had lights lining the frames of the roof and door, the lights on this particular house had been arranged in specific Christmas-themed shapes and patterns.
"I see three reindeer pulling a sled!" Gabe exclaimed once he had oriented himself to all the bright lights.
"There's a Santa head with a hat over there!" Susie pointed at the other side of the house. "How did the owners even arrange all those lights like that?"
"That snowflake on the left window looks so pretty!" Cassidy gushed at a snowflake that had been made from blue and white lights.
"My favorite one is that Christmas tree with the presents underneath it!" Jeremy pointed to a Christmas tree that covered almost the entire wall of the house.
"It isn't just the lights on the house that make this so pretty," Melody commented. "So many trees surrounding this house and the owners took the time to wrap lights around every single one of them. And look over there." She pointed to several large plastic candy canes and peppermint lights that lined the walkway leading up the house. "It makes you really think that you're walking up to Santa's workshop in the North Pole."
"Man, our setup is so lame compared to what these guys did," Fritz shook his head, before suddenly turning to his father. "Hey dad, why don't we try doing this to our house next Christmas?"
"Yeah, dad!" Liz eagerly agreed. "I think it would be a lot of fun!"
Mike shook his head. "There's a couple of problems with what you're suggesting, guys," he pointed out. "First off, we'd have to get a LOT of Christmas lights for this. And unlike whoever set these lights up, we wouldn't know where to begin with how to arrange them into shapes and sizes. Granted, that alone wouldn't be any issue apart from the amount of time and energy you're willing to put into this. But there's bigger problems."
"What bigger problems?" Gabe tiled his head.
"This is a massive, MASSIVE fire hazard," Mike explained. "If you even have one faulty wire, this whole house could go up in flames. Heck, just having this many wires and plugs could cause a fire even if everything is working correctly. Maybe I'm just being too pragmatic, but I wouldn't want to risk my house, any people inside it, and everything I own burning down to the ground just to set something up that would last a few days." Everyone shuddered as they remembered the fires that had burned down Fazbear's Fright and the trap pizzeria. Enough time might have passed to blur out the details except for Charlie and Liz, but being surrounded by a scorching inferno was a memory that would haunt them for a long time.
"It's not worth it then," Liz sighed. "I'm not going to do anything that puts dad in danger."
Fritz wasn't ready to give up the argument yet, though. "Aww, it can't be that bad, can it?" he pressed on. "What are the odds of that ever happening?"
"A neighbor of mine tried to do this a few years ago and his house burned down," Melody answered, the mirth fading from her eyes. "He was lucky that nobody got hurt."
Fritz cringed at that. "Okay, yeah, never mind," he backtracked.
"Tell you what, though," Mike offered. "Next Christmas, we'll travel to New York City or some other place that specifically sets up beautiful decorations for tourists to enjoy when Christmas comes. You guys will be blown away by some of the things that people do to celebrate the holidays. What do you guys say?"
"Sounds like a deal, dad!" Gabe happily accepted, and the rest of the kids quickly agreed with him. Everyone returned to the cars and they drove back to Mike's house. Once they had arrived back home, the kids decided to go out to the backyard and show Melody the fun things they did whenever snow fell from the heavens. Mike had been taken quickly by surprise when Melody let loose her playful side and threw a snowball at his back, leading to another 4v4 snowball fight with Melody leading the girls (except for Charlie) and Mike leading the guys. Ironically, the two people there who could actually get hit by snowballs were the ones who did the best job dodging them, and soon it was down to just Mike and Melody. Melody threw two snowballs from her hands, just like Gabe and Liz had done for their final attack, but Mike ducked under the snow mound to dodge both. He then got back up and threw a single snowball from his hand.
"You're kidding me, right?" Melody deadpanned. "That was nowhere near…"
SPLAT!
Melody's sentence was cut short as the snowball she thought was a complete miss smacked her in the shoulder. Mike's snowball had subtly changed trajectory in the air, a trick shot that nobody had seen coming until too late.
"Dad wins!" Charlie declared as Mike was mobbed by the ghost boys on his team.
"Aww heck yeah, dad!" Fritz cheered. "You rock!"
"Of course we won, we have dad on our side!" Jeremy said smugly.
"How did you even do that?" a stunned Melody asked. "I don't think I've ever seen a trick snowball before!"
Mike smirked. "I learned a couple of tricks over the years," he blithely commented.
Melody rolled her eyes. "You're just full of surprises aren't you, Mike?"
The man's smirk only grew. "Let's be real, you wouldn't like me nearly as much if I wasn't."
"That's true," the woman admitted as she tried to hide a smile of her own. "So what should we do now?"
Mike raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you mention that you brought the kids gifts or something?" he asked in a barely audible whisper.
"Oh, you're right! Hey, guys!" she called out to them. "How would you like to see the present I got you?"
The kids' eyes lit up. "You got us a present too?" Susie squealed.
"Of course I did, it wouldn't be right for me to join in your Christmas unless I brought a present with me," the woman grinned. "I think it'll be a great teamwork exercise that you'll enjoy." She gestured for the kids to follow her through the gate linking the backyard to the front of the house. Once they had all followed her, Melody walked over to her car and showed the ghosts the Harry Potter LEGO sets she had gotten them.
"Would've been nice to do this with Alex and Meghan," he commented. "Unfortunately, the Marshalls are out of town for Christmas and it wouldn't be right to impose on them anyway."
"Don't worry dad, we're loving Christmas as it is!" Jeremy assured him.
Mike gave the boy a grateful smile as the ghosts got to work on creating their very own Hogwarts in the basement. In the meantime, Melody started taking out food from Mike's fridge that the man had labeled for a Christmas dinner and got to work making meals for the two of them. It took the ghosts a couple of minutes to figure out how LEGOs worked, but once they got the hang of it, it took them only two hours to finish not just the main Hogwarts set, but also the smaller structures that Melody had gotten them as well. Melody was surprised with how quickly they got it done, and she and the kids spent the next hour cooking a Christmas meal for her and Mike.
"You're kidding me!" Melody laughed as she finished making the mashed potatoes. "Nobody can make food that bad!"
"It looked like something straight out of a toxic waste dump!" Susie giggled as Fritz gave them both an annoyed look.
"It was NOT that bad!" he complained petulantly.
"Yes, it was," Charlie deadpanned. "I could smell it and my senses are dulled because I'm in an animatronic body."
Fritz sighed. "All right, I admit it. I might need to use a cookbook if I want to try this again. Happy?"
"It's a start," Cassidy muttered.
Liz started feeling bad for Fritz and decided to change the subject. "So when are you guys gonna eat dinner? That meal smells really good!" she added wistfully.
Melody winked. "As soon as he's done with round 2 of your presents," she told them.
"Which would be right about now!" everyone turned to see Mike standing at the entrance to the kitchen. "And man, am I starving!" He and Melody set up the food in the dining hall while the ghosts watched, and the two of them sat down next to each other and started eating the dinner Melody had prepared. It actually looked quite similar to the Thanksgiving meal that Mike had prepared last month, except with ham replacing turkey.
"This ham is absolutely delicious, Mel!" Mike praised as he took a bite out of the gravy-drenched ham. "You've really outdone yourself!"
Melody shrugged. "Eh, I basically just oven-ed it for a couple of hours. Not really all that hard, just time-consuming."
"Well, thanks for having the patience to make such an amazing meal!" he praised as he scooped some mashed potatoes onto his plate and started eating.
"We helped too!" Cassidy pointed out excitedly.
"I know, I saw!" Mike gave her a thumbs-up. "You all did a great job!" Then his smile faded a bit. "I wish you guys could enjoy this like the two of us could, though…"
Jeremy shrugged. "It's something we can handle just fine, dad. The two of you should just enjoy yourselves. Who knows when you'll be able to hang out like this again?"
Mike conceded the point and continued eating his meal alongside Melody. In between bites, the two of them talked about what their daily lives were now like. Mike and the ghosts gave Melody a picture of how the family spent their days, and Melody was thoroughly impressed at how strong their relationship was, especially with the conflict in the past and the lack of consistent father figures in Mike's life. Conversely, Mike had been faintly aware of Melody's project when he had left, but he had no idea that Eisensteel had decided to pursue it so thoroughly and both he and the ghosts who hadn't been in Melody's car were shocked at how far the project had progressed.
"My dad actually considered making an artificial human body one day," Charlie commented. "It was one of the projects he had planned for the future once Fredbear's Family Diner kicked off and established itself as a successful business." She sighed sadly. "Unfortunately, we all know how that worked out…"
"Your father sounds like he was a technological genius," Melody complimented in an attempt to comfort her. "Hopefully something of his work will live on."
"Hopefully…" Charlie agreed. Nobody noticed the slight twinkle that flashed in Mike's eye for the briefest of moments at those words, and the two adults soon finished their meal after a few brief exchanges in conversation.
"So…" Melody said as she and Mike finished. "What exactly is Part 2 of your Christmas presents, Mike?"
The man grinned and got up from the table. "Come with me over to the living room, kiddos." Once they were all in the familiar room, the kids' eyes widened to see that seven gift boxes now filled the space under the Christmas tree where they had previously found the gift cards. "One for each of you, just like before."
The kids scrambled to get their presents and eagerly ripped open the boxes. Gabe gasped as he took out what was inside. "This is..."
"A smartphone!" Mike declared with a chuckle. "The important piece of technology aside from a computer that pretty much everyone owns. You guys handled laptops quite well, so I figured you deserved these too. You may not be able to do quite as much on a smartphone as you can with a laptop, but it's a lot more convenient and less bulky to us. Besides," he winked, "since it's a lot easier to hide phones acting by themselves than it is for laptops, you have something you can do in the car now!"
Melody had to stifle a laugh as the ghost kids all but bumrushed their father in a group hug. "WE LOVE YOU DAD!" they all exclaimed as one. "BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!"
Mike smiled at them all and returned the hug. "Love you too, kiddos." The eight of them stayed together for several moments, Melody watching with a respectful silence until at long last, they broke their embrace.
"We still have a couple of hours left before the day ends!" Melody declared once she felt comfortable speaking. "Why don't we spend the next couple of minutes singing some Christmas Carols?"
The kids' faces lit up at the idea, and Fritz even started to form a mischievous idea in his head about getting Mike and Melody to sing a duet together. But before anybody could say or do anything, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Melody gave Mike a puzzled look. "Uh, Mike?" she questioned. "Were you expecting somebody today?"
Mike shook his head, looking equally confused. "Not at all," he replied uncertainly. "Heck, I even outright locked the gate after I let you in, Mel."
Charlie gave a wary glance in the direction of the door. "I'll take care of it," she decided. The two adults and other six ghosts watched silently as she entered the hallway and floated towards the front door, "Pop Goes the Weasel" playing faintly in the background. Nobody made a sound as they heard the Marionette girl slowly swing the front door open.
Then, a shout suddenly echoed throughout the house. A shout filled with shock, joy, bewilderment...and a word that not a single person had expected to hear.
"DAD?"
/
A/N: Heh heh heh...cliffhangers are the best, aren't they?
And that's the Christmas chapter for you! I was definitely going to bring either the Marshalls or Melody into this chapter, and since I've already used the Marshalls so many times and haven't used Melody at all yet apart from her intro chapter, I figured that she deserved to have some time in the limelight too.
After four chapters of fun and lighthearted fluff, I figured that now was the time to go back to the serious, dramatic, lore-exploration aspect of this fic. And I think that it is no exaggeration to say that the next plot arc may very well be the most important in the entire fic. This is a major plot arc that I've had planned from the very beginning, and it might be just as long as the Nightmare arc if not even longer.
As I mentioned before, there is a good chance that I won't be able to post often during the first half of July (and I will DEFINITELY not be able to post next week) due to my busy schedule. I'm sorry about that, but it is time off that I need for multiple reasons, and I hope you guys are having a good summer too. When I pick up again, I promise you won't be disappointed.
Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed!
