Another FanFic Fail! Whoo-hoo! Was in a pensive mood when I wrote this...decided to work a little bit more with symbolism. The little bird is obviously Danny-it seemed to fit, somehow. Sorry for the gushiness-THAT part, I can get down easily.

Really hope you like! Please read and review!

Vlad doesn't really know how to share. Maybe it comes from being an only child-maybe it comes from amassing a corporate empire by treading lesser corporations made by groveling halfwits who'd been asinine to cross Vlad when he'd offered them a chance to jump ships and save themselves-and their livelihoods.

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the man has never really been able to clutch onto anything truly special-something with core value, something precious. Fine stones and real estate are all well and good, but when they clatter to the floor, they still reverberate one thing to an incensed and desperate man:

Nothing at all.

Absolutely nothing.

Years of loneliness have driven him to clutch eagerly at every passing opportunity to get what he always believed should have been his-to a frightening and vice-like extreme. In his endeavors, Vlad's crushed every single butterfly of hope that ever meandered to his hands-every bird of a chance has suffocated in his unyielding grip while the owner searches desperately for a golden cage to put the hope in-to keep it from fluttering away from him, out the door. It was like trying to hold sunlight in the palm of your hand-the moment you close your fist, you see it perched smugly atop your hand.

He kept crushing Maddie-he sees that now. But although his feelings for her are now a shadow sense of the fondness he once had for her, he still feels guilty. Because he doesn't really believe he'll let his newest little bird go anytime soon.

You see, Vlad didn't learn everything he needed to know in Kindergarten. He must have missed that class on sharing, because he rarely wants to share Danny with anyone.

In many ways, that's just fine with the young hybrid, on the evenings he drops by Vlad's manor, or when the elder half ghost comes in at night to watch Danny sleep.

Call him a stalker, call him pathetic, call him sweet-call him whatever you wish; I doubt he much cares.

After years of trying to tantalize Danny to be his son-of being able to hold onto Danny so tightly and infallibly that the gasping little bird's lungs would bruise and his breath burst-Danny became something else to the man, something that had horrified him, initially. How sickening can you get-to fall in love with the boy of the woman you once loved?

But that still didn't stop his heart from nearly breaking once again in despair. And so, the small bird had watched suspiciously in the trees, expecting the man to swoop down like a hawk, and spirit Danny away from an albeit busy, but happy existence. Away from loved ones, the sky, and the sun. To an artificial sea of bars.

But the man had remained frozen, and stooped in the snow. And suspicion had slowly given way to pity.

And so, the little, lightning-fast little bird had cautiously come out of the trees, and hopped a little closer-but still farther away. The man had been so miserable he hadn't even noticed.

Over time, the bird had come closer, and closer. Curiosity had breed sympathy, and one day, the man had looked up from the snowy ground, eyes dull-only to find the bird closer then he'd ever thought possible.

His heart had nearly stopped in midbeat, and his first impulse was to snatch the bird as quickly as he possibly could. But Vlad didn't think he could take seeing the other hybrid take flight from him again.

It had been enough, in that short, timeless moment, to sit and look at the bird-and allow it to hop closer.

At that close distance, in the midst of all the snow, they'd stayed like that.

Just so.

When Vlad had reached out a hand-the bird had fluttered back a few steps, suspicion rekindled in its eyes. It had taken a lot of coaxing for the bird to reluctantly step forward again.

In their quiet time together, Vlad had told Danny things. Never anything deep, or taboo subjects that they both knew would drive Danny away-but things. Danny listened, and that was enough. After awhile, Danny said things too, and that, was more then enough.

Days had turned into weeks, into months. Breathless was Vlad when he'd been able to hold Danny in a small hug-made as brief as possible so as not to make Danny suspicious.

But Danny had held on tightly when the time had come to say goodbye again.

And Vlad, while being as cautious as if he were handling a mere baby Robin, held on just as tightly.

Ultimately, what had drawn the two closer together was when Danny had been critically hurt during a territory war in the human world between several angry, restless spirits. The bird had been driven out of the sky, barely alive, and covered head to toe in gashes.

Vlad had, needless to say, not destroyed, but annihilated his younger counterpart's attackers after whisking Danny out of a certain death dive to the ground. Seconds later, he was speeding back towards his home, an unconscious little bird in his arms, with a heart that was beating as faintly as Vlad's was storming.

Upon returning, Vlad had rushed to save Danny's life, only faintly realizing later that night, that he hadn't looked for a deadlock to put the vulnerable boy in now that he finally had him in his grasp.

Because, he realized, it no longer mannered. Taking away what the bird thrived on would only ultimately kill it.

And now, the only thing that mattered was finding the bird a safe place-was paramount.

That night, the scarce-breathing little thing had indeed found a safe place-tucked next to an anxious man's breast.

Sam, Jazz, and Tucker weren't exactly thrilled with the news. Not that Danny expected them to be (Or that Vlad cared very much), but wedding invitations still found their way to respective doors.

In planning a ceremony, Vlad was eager for a little elaboration-for the more ridiculously expensive, the more time he managed to have Danny come over to help. It made the college student laugh and roll his eyes, but in the end, they both know that if simplicity and cleanness can be found in anything at all, why not go for it?

For their honeymoon, Vlad plans on taking Danny on a cross-country trip of Italy-ALONE. While he wants nothing more then his lover to be happy, and smiles in large gatherings when they're together, it's in the rare little minutes he can squeeze with the two of them that are truly beautiful. He dreams of being able to wake up their first morning together as a wedded couple-as a WE, not as a MINE-and can already imagine the slight blush and smirk Danny might give him to melt his heart at 7 in the morning.

Those few weeks in Italy will be something truly special-this he knows.

You see, Vlad's working on the whole 'sharing' concept. Not that I believe Danny minds all THAT much, even when he's complaining that Vlad's a paranoid control-freak.

But a little bit of a closure was never much to ask for, is it?