starry heavens, a danny phantom fanfic

.starry heavens

Vlad hated space.

It took seven years for Vlad to find his way back to Earth. Or, more precisely, it took seven years for Danny to convince himself to go search for him. Seven years is a very long time, and its effects on Vlad showed in every little motion he did after he returned. The sheer cold of space had seeped into his bones, and he imagined they were frozen as ice. For the first few months he could barely move and was restrained to his bed; which awkwardly enough belonged to Danny. Vlad wasn't one hundred percent sure where the other halfa had been sleeping, but he assumed it was on the ragged old couch in the front room of the tiny apartment.

Danny loves space.

He's going to college in New York now - not the one he'd really wanted to get into, but college all the same - and majoring in astronomy. He thinks he might try for a teaching degree. He likes telling people who don't already know about the differenet constellations, and what they mean. The way different faces all light up the same when they can finally see the picture he's describing to them in the stars is more than he'll ever need. He likes sharing this.

He doesn't like sharing his bed with Vlad Masters. He's twenty-two now, and he wants to sleep in his own goddamn bed. Sometimes, on odd nights, he storms into the tiny bedroom of his tiny apartment ready to shout and finally kick the older man out; he's still not sure why he went to bring Vlad back, let alone why he's letting a world class A criminal wear his pajamas.

He stops short every time. Vlad shivers and shakes like a wet rodent when he sleeps now.

On those nights where Danny finally builds up enough resolve to kick the man out on his own, Vlad always wakes up with one more blanket covering him than he went to sleep with.

The night sky in New York is dark and polluted with smog. When Danny looks up and out the window, all he can see is inky blackness, and it's suffocating. In New York, he understands how Vlad feels about space, if only for a few short moments before he returns to writing his papers.

Danny learns quickly that even though Vlad is basically freeloading off of him, the man is still the same stuck up and rude person he was seven years ago, if only a bit more reserved. He's almost had it when Vlad tells him to stop eating like a pig when Danny doesn't even own a table.

Vlad had broken it one morning when he refused to stay in bed any longer and 'couldn't stand eating Daniel's foul cooking any longer' in an attempt to make breakfast. His legs had given out on him and he'd crashed down onto the mahogany table, shattering two of it's flimsy wooden legs. He'd been silent and complacent for the rest of the day.

When Danny tries to tell Vlad about some of the most beautiful aspects of space on long nights with nothing to do, they get into screaming matches that more often than not end in physical pain on both ends. Vlad doesn't want to hear about it, and Danny won't stop pushing.

He wants to see that look on Vlad's face. He doesn't know if it's even possible for the bitter and broken old man's face to twist in such an expression of wonder and joy, but if it is he wants to see it.

Danny tells Sam and Tucker about Vlad, and although he can see they're uncomfortable with the thought, they trust Danny's judgement and follow his lead. If they demand get-togethers a little more often than before, however, he trusts their judgement and is happy to oblige.

Life dregs on; before they know it, Danny and Vlad are used to living together. Danny stops putting sugar in the coffee before he takes it out of the pot, and Vlad doesn't touch anything on the bottom shelf of the refridgerator. Danny sometimes comes home to an unusually clean apartment, and although he really wants to he swears he'll never tell anyone about finding Vlad sweeping the pale redwood floorboards with one of those dinky showercaps on to keep the dust out of his hair.

He'll never admit it, but for the first time since his accident, Vlad feels happy. He doesn't appreciate being cooped up in a tiny apartment all day like a pet, but he understands it's for the best. Maybe after some time passes and his face is forgotten, he will be able to traverse the winding streets of the world once again; but until then he's Danny's snarky and strangely helpful houseguest.

The apartment is dark, and Vlad is relaxing on the couch and reading a book when he hears the door open. Before the younger man even walks in, Vlad can feel the tension and negative emotion in the air. He greets Danny with a single raised eyebrow, and casually folds his book closed. He's morbidly surprised when the halfa simply drops his things loosly on the floor and wanders out onto the balcony. Danny leans over the railing, burying his hands into his hair. The silence between them is thick and alive. Vlad is about to open his mouth when-

"Damnit!" Vlad's eyebrows practically shoot off his forehead and his mouth drops open in a comical expression of surprise when Danny lets out a stream of curse words, and begins to kick the railing.

He keeps going like that for what feels like hours, until the he's huffing and sweating. Vlad takes the opportune moment, and slides outside with the younger man.

"What... seems to be the problem, Daniel?" Vlad tries to keep his tone neutral, but he can't help the slight waver of worry from pervading his voice.

Ice blue eyes bore into his, before breaking away and looking down at the street below them. "It's... nothing."

"Don't give me 'nothing.' It's obviously something."

"Nothing you need to worry about, Vlad."

Vlad crosses his arms and fixes Danny with a cynical stare before motioning to the abused railing at the college student's feet. It's been bent into an unnatural shape by Danny's persistant kicks, and he has the decency to look a little sheepish before turning his gaze to the inky blackness above them. "I... I applied for the NASA expidition."

It was obvious that wasn't everything, and Vlad nods his head for Danny to continue.

"I wasn't accepted. That was my only chance."

Vlad instantly feels his blood freeze, and it was like he was alone out in space all over again. What do you tell a person who's true lifelong dream has just been crushed? Vlad himself had felt that loss when Maddie had married Jack, and he still didn't know what he could possibly say to make something like that feel better.

Danny laughs humorlessly and a tired expression filters it's way onto his face. He gestures lazily up at the sky above him. "And now I can't even see a single star in the sky." He shakes his head, and snorts. "I really hate New York." He folds his arms over the top of the railing and buries his head into them.

Deep in thought, Vlad leans against the railing next to Danny, staring up into the dark heavens with him. An idea is flitting around in his head and he honestly hopes it will work. "What do you mean you can't see a single star in the sky? I see one right there."

Danny's head shoots up, and his eyes are violently swivling about, searching for the star Vlad mentioned. He follows where Vlad is pointing, and there it is.

A tiny, bright, blinking light sparkling happily in the night sky. Danny stares at it agape for what Vlad exaggerates to a whole hour, before suddenly a look of confusion dawns on his face. "That... shouldn't be possible! How-" He realizes what it is, Vlad knows. Danny's voice is small when it comes out again. "That's... nice of you, Vlad. But it's just a little tiny ball of ectoplasm, isn't it?"

Vlad doesn't bother with lying. "Yes, it is. Is there a problem?" He flicks his wrist towards the sky, and when Danny looks again there are hundreds, if not thousands of tiny glowing lights floating in the distance. "Can't you do your... star thing... with these? Come on, Daniel, tell me about the constellations and the asteriods and the meteor belts and all that ridiculous jargon you love. For once in your life, I want to hear it."

He can't place the look Danny gives him then. He's not sure if it's utter hopelessness, some kind of awkward happiness, or maybe a mixture of both. "It's... not the same, Vlad. I- I can't- these aren't really stars. There are no constellations or asteroids or meteor belts up there for me to name to you. I-"

"Then make some."

Danny stares at him, confused. "Make... some?"

Vlad huffs impatiently and rolls his eyes. He points up at a random bundle of lights flippantly. "Let's see, that set! Those five- or- is it six? Hold on, let me recount- seven! Those seven stars are going to be the Plasmiustellation. That's me." He nudged the ectoplasm a bit with his intentions, and the little lights slowly formed together to look like his ghost form's hair. "See? Definitly the Plasmiustellation."

Danny is completely confunded and silent for a long while, before he breaks out in racous laughter. He's splitting his gut, holding his sides and hunched over the railing. He looks back up at the sky with a grin stretched across his face wider than any meteor belt. "You're on, Vlad!"

And before Vlad knows it, the man is off, his mouth running a mile a minute and pointing wildly at different sets of 'stars' while coming up with fantastic stories about them on the spot. Vlad hurries to keep up with Danny, constantly probing the ectoplasm to move according to his wishes and match whatever Danny is describing. He's only slightly alarmed when the little balls of light start fixing themselves before he tells them to.

Vlad watches Danny instead of the stars, after a while. The college student is so lively and animated as he talks, creating his own sky with handcrafted myths and names for each group of stars, with the blazing lights in the sky dancing to follow his every whim and idea.

When the sun comes up and the stars are all gone, Danny turns to Vlad. It feels like the floor drops out from under him when he sees the look on Vlad's face, fixated solely on him.

'The way different faces all light up the same when they can finally see the picture he's describing to them in the stars is more than he'll ever need.

fin