Gosh, you'd think I'd be done with these by now! But I'm not! I can't stop writing! AHHHHHHH!

So here is another pointless one-shot. Enjoy.

Sleepless

Danny rolled over in bed for the tenth time. He just couldn't get comfortable. His shoulders ached terribly refusing to let him lay on his side as his bruised back kept him from sleeping on that as well. The fact that his mattress springs felt as stiff as bricks wasn't helping much either. The thought of going downstairs and sleeping on the couch was becoming more inviting by the minute.

But he was so exhausted… Just pulling himself out of bed would be a struggle, not to mention trying to get down the stairs. He'd probably have to crawl down them and the young halfa simply didn't have the strength.

Even in his sleep deprived state the teen vaguely wondered if it were possible to be so tired that you couldn't fall asleep.

Danny moaned painfully as he turned and buried his face into his pillow. He couldn't sleep like this either. His hands would have to go under his pillow and then his head would be laying on them and that wasn't comfortable either. He groaned.

What could he do? There had to be something he could do to get himself to fall asleep.

"Maybe Sam or Tucker is still awake…" He mumbled in the darkness. "I could call and talk to one of them. Maybe they'll know what I should do…" Not even trying to sit up the ghost boy reached over to his bedside dresser where his cell phone was laying. He would call Sam first. If she was awake, for whatever reason, she would know what to do.

And if she didn't pick up he'd call Tucker. …

Danny really hoped she would pick up.

With heavy eyes Danny squinted at the numbers trying to make them out, but couldn't. Oh well. It's not like he was so tired he couldn't remember how to count right? All the numbers were in order and he knew Sam's number by heart so…

Closing his eyes the ebony haired boy started dialing. Pressing the phone to his ear he waited as it began ringing. But sadly after only 3 small rings the teen had already started to drift off and for a second even forgot why he was holding his cell phone in the first place.

"Hello?" A slightly surprised voice came through on the other end.

"…."

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

"Hmm, oh. Sorry." Danny mumbled softly. That's right, I was calling Sam. She is awake. Thank God. "You don't know how happy I am that you're still awake." The ghost boy said with an honest smile, waking up just a tiny bit more.

"Danny? Is that you?" The voice on the other end sounded shocked to say the least and oddly enough a little worried.

"Of course it's me. Who else?" Danny replied teasingly in a tired worn out voice.

XXXX Line Break XXXX

It was an extremely rare occurrence when Vlad Masters was truly caught off guard. When he was so taken by surprise that he was rendered speechless.

However, this was one of those times.

Danny. Danny Fenton had just called him at two o'clock in the morning. He sounded terrible. Not sickly or anything. Just completely worn-out as if all the energy in his mind and body had been drained. Perhaps it had…

Because not only had the boy called him unexpectedly and at a ghastly time of a day, but he actually sounded… happy. Still tired yes, but very pleased and even grateful that the man had picked up the phone.

Something was definitely wrong.

"Daniel is everything alright? Why are you calling me this early in the morning?" Why are you calling me at all? Is what Vlad really wanted to ask but he kept it restrained.

"Is it morning?" Daniel's voice asked softly, not truly caring. "Sorry, I didn't check to see what time it was. Yeah everything's ok I guess. I just couldn't sleep so I wanted to talk to you."

Vlad nearly dropped his phone at those words. Those utterly sincere words. Now the man knew something was wrong. There was no way Daniel would say that to him. And so openly, so honestly! The boy must have hit his head somewhere! He couldn't be in his right mind! He-

Vlad suddenly held the phone in a vice grip. He knew what the boy was doing. He was playing another one of those childish pranks on him again.

"Are you still there?" Danny's voice sounded worried.

"Daniel is this some sort of prank?" Vlad asked his voice hard as stone.

"A prank? What'ya mean?" The ghost boy yawned.

"I mean is this some form of practical joke? Calling me this early for no real reason?"

"What? No." Danny replied sounding a little offended. "Since when have I ever done a prank phone call?"

"How should I know?" Vlad replied in an annoyed tone as he leaned back in his office chair. "I don't know what dim-witted teenage boys do in their spare time, now do I?"

Vlad's eyes widened as he heard Danny's soft laughter on the other end. "Good one." The boy commented. "But come on, even if I would do a prank phone call it would be on Tucker or something. You know I wouldn't do it to you." Danny assured confidently.

Now the billionaire was really confused. He knew that Danny was referring to the Foley boy but couldn't make sense of anything else the boy had told him.

Vlad sighed. "Danny, tell me the truth, is something going on? Is something wrong?"

There was silence on the other end. For a moment the older halfa thought the boy would truly fess up to something but instead said this:

"I just can't sleep. I'm tired, heck, I'm flat out exhausted. But I just can't fall asleep. I didn't know what else to do and when I thought about asking someone for advice you were sorta the first person that came to mind."

At those words Vlad's heart nearly stopped, shapeless emotions welling up in his chest at his little badger's words.

Deep down he knew Danny must have really been desperate to call him for help, the boy certainly sounded desperate, but that mattered little to the man. The point was Danny had thought of him. When the boy didn't know what else to do he thought of asking him for advice, for guidance.

Not his mother or his father or his sister or either of his little friends. Danny had thought of him.

"Are you still there?" Danny's voice asked softly in his ear, tired and worried again.

"Yes, I'm still here." Vlad replied calmly despite how fast his heart was pounding.

"Good." Danny sighed in relief. "So what should I do?"

Vlad gave a thoughtful pause. "Have you tried getting up and getting a glass of water or warm milk?"

"No, I can't even get out of bed let alone make it downstairs." Danny replied sadly.

Vlad nodded though he knew he couldn't be seen. The poor boy was more exhausted than he thought. "Have you tried counting sheep?"

"You're kidding right?" Danny asked sounding half serious, half joking.

"Yes, I suppose that never really works does it?" Vlad smiled softly.

"I don't think so." Danny replied with a yawn. "Just stay on the phone and talk to me a little bit. Hearing your voice always helps me relax." (If Danny hadn't been so tired I don't think he would've admitted that to Sam. And he's not even talking to Sam!)

"It does?" Vlad couldn't help but ask a bit awkwardly.

"Yeah. But you don't have to keep talking if you don't want to. Just stay on the phone ok? Maybe just listening to you breathing will help me fall asleep." Danny chuckled softly.

"Alright." Vlad replied quietly, unsure what else to say.

So Vlad stayed on the phone silently breathing into the receiver as he continued to look at the papers on his desk. Although it was hard to focus on any of them, what with his little badger on the other end of the phone…

After a minute of silence Vlad vaguely started to forget he was still on the phone with a half-asleep ghost boy. He started to hum.

It was a simple melody. The tune was soft and slow and soothing. The man couldn't remember where he had heard it but he often hummed it when he was alone and relaxed.

"That's a really nice song…"

Vlad stopped humming when he heard the almost inaudible voice.

"Don't stop." Danny pleaded sweetly. "I liked it…"

Vlad smiled gently and without a word started humming again.

After a few minutes Vlad stopped.

Danny didn't say anything.

"Daniel…" Vlad said softly into the phone. "Danny, are you still awake?"

His only answer was soft and even breathing. The boy was fast asleep.

Vlad chuckled softly, his heart close to melting. "Good night little badger."

XXXX Line Break XXXX

Next morning at school.

"Hey Danny." Both Sam and Tucker greeted with a smile as their friend walked over to their lockers.

"Hey guys." The ghost boy said with a large smile.

"You're sure happy this morning." Sam commented as Danny opened his locker door.

"Yeah, and I have you to thank for it." Danny beamed at his goth friend.

"Really?" Sam asked in confusion. "What for?"

"For last night when I called you." Danny replied as if it were obvious.

"You two talked to each other last night?" Tucker asked curiously.

"Yeah, I couldn't get to sleep last night so I called Sam to ask her what I should do." Danny replied grabbing some of his textbooks. "She gave me some advice but I was too tired to try any of it so she just stayed on the phone with me until I fell asleep."

Sam's violet eyes widened at this news. "Uhhh, Danny I-"

"Awwwww. Isn't that sweet?" Tucker teased with a grin.

"But I never-"

"It wasn't like that Tuck. Sam was just being a good friend and helping me, that's all." Danny said calmly though his techno geek friend didn't miss the light blush on his cheeks.

"Suuuurrrreee, because friends always-"

"UM GUYS!" Sam said loudly getting their attention. "I never got a call from anyone last night. I didn't talk to Danny."

Danny paused for a moment, staring at his friend seriously. "Yes you did. Don't you remember? I called you and you got a little angry at first. You thought I was playing a joke on you or something."

"No Danny," Sam said slowly. "You didn't call me last night."

"But I did! We talked! And you, you hummed that song! Don't you remember!" Danny asked desperately, now feeling a little scared.

Both Sam and Tucker looked at him as if he were crazy. "Ummm, I'm pretty sure I'd remember singing a song to you over the phone Danny." The goth girl replied seriously.

"But then… who did I…" Danny whispered running a nervous hand through his hair.

Sam's face softened. "Maybe you just dreamed that you called me. That would explain it."

"But I…"

The school bell started ringing.

"Come on dude, let's just get to class. I'm sure Sam's right. You probably just had a weird dream." Tucker said reassuringly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Danny sighed.

As his friends began heading to first period Danny carefully pulled out his cell phone and started checking his phone calls.

I know I called someone last night. I know I talked to someone. But if it wasn't Sam then who…

All the blood drained from the ghost boy's face as he immediately recognized the number he had dialed.

But t-t-that means…

Ohhhh yes. It was going to be a very, very long time before Danny would be able to face Vlad Masters again.

Yes, pointless one-shot is pointless. I honestly had no idea that it would take this turn but I think it was pretty funny. XD

Poor Danny… He always seems to need therapy after one of my stories.

Well, at least Vlad's happy~! I mean, we don't really have to tell him that Danny thought he was talking to Sam, do we?

It would break his heart…

So we won't tell him!

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