Vlad flipped another page of the album on his lap. It was an old one, one he hadn't even taken from the back of the shelf where he'd shoved it when he'd first moved to this mansion. He'd vowed he'd never look at it again, but couldn't bring himself to throw it away and had thus crammed it behind a thick engineering book to rot.
But he'd been feeling nostalgic today. He blamed it on how slow and boring things had been lately, refused to acknowledge that it might have been because it was the anniversary of his accident. So he'd dug it out from the shelf and sat down with it.
He remembered this day, remembered every cloud in the sky. It had been early fall, just a week or so before the start of his sophomore year and Jack had dragged them- him and Maddie that is- to the lake not far from campus. The picture showed him and Jack trying and failing to balance on a drifting log that had been floating just off shore. Maddie had been the one to snap the picture before he'd fallen in and dragged Jack down with him. He wouldn't admit it outloud now, but that had been one of the best days of his life, just spending the day having fun with his friends.
"But they're not your friends anymore." Plasmius' voice chimed through his head, sending a chill racing up his spine to nail him square in the back of the head. A feeling like being suddenly immersed in freezing water stole the billionaires breath as Plasmius materialized apart from Vlad's body to stand in front of the chair and teasingly flipped the album closed. "You don't have any friends."
"I could if you would just let me." Vlad snarled before he could stop the words from flying out of his mouth; realizing too late that he'd over stepped the thin line he walked with the ghost.
A small downward twitch of Plasmius' lips was all the warning he got before his head snapped to the side from a sharp slap. He didn't make a sound, didn't lift a hand to the bruise he knew was starting to bloom, or try to shake the stars dancing in front of his eyes; he wouldn't give the ghost the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt. Moments later that same hand reached out and cradled his jaw, carefully turning his head forward to face the specter.
"Now why did you make me do that, Vladimir?" Plasmius cooed, tenderly stroking his thumb over his vessel's split lip, painting it red.
Vlad pressed his lips together, stubbornly tilting his head away from the soft touch.
Undeterred, the blue skinned ghost continued stroking Vlad's face, this time paying attention to the bruise he'd left on his cheek while his other hand slowly loosened the tie holding the human's long hair back. "You know I do it for your own good. Do you really think anyone would accept you for what you are? Who would understand?"
The billionaire felt his shoulders slump a fraction, a wave of hurt and hopelessness muscling it's way in beside the anger he felt towards his ghost half. "No one would have to know. I could hide it. I could..."
"Shhh." Plasmius shushed, pressing his lips comfortingly to his host's temple and running his gloved fingers through the now loose silver hair. "I'm just protecting you. People can already tell there's something wrong with you, Vladimir. If someone were to find out about me? Would you really risk being shunned, hurt, hunted- and for what? Friendships founded on deceit? Being with people who you have to hide yourself from?"
The halfa's walls crumbled, the ghost's words tearing him down. "But, I... I'm..." Lonely.
"I know." Plasmius soothed, hearing the unspoken word as clearly as if Vlad had shouted it and took a silent victory from it because it was exactly how he wanted his vessel to feel. He just needed to push a little further. He phased the hand that had been petting the human's hair into his chest, reaching down into his very core. "But I'm here with you. I know what's in here. I know you when you're raw and open with nothing to hide behind. You can be yourself with me; no hiding, no lies."
He could see small tears shimmering in Vlad's deep blue eyes. Just one more thin inch...
"I'm all you need." Blue lips met trembling, blood smeared ones. Plasmius let the sweet tone slip just a fraction, keeping his lips lightly pressed to his human's. "And I'm all you'll ever have."
As he pulled back the first of the tears fell and the man's pain was so thick the ghost swore he could smell it in the air. Retracting his hand from Vlad's chest, Plasmius gripped the halfa's wrists and pulled him up. "Come to bed, Vladimir. Let me make the hurt go away."
Plasmius took his distraught host's shaking shoulders under his arm and Vlad silently obeyed, just like the specter knew he would. Vlad may not like it and his methods may be cruel, but the red eyed ghost had been telling the truth: Vlad did need him. In the two decades they'd been together Plasmius had made sure of it because Vlad was his and only his. And nobody- not that bumbling idiot Fenton or that bitch or her brat- were going to change that.
Even if it meant he had to eliminate them from the equation and lock his precious vessel away, nobody was going to take Vlad away from him.