Little Light
Quick Sequel to "The Watcher in the Darkness." In their new villa in Northern Norway, Vlad ponders about the nature of his fate one night with his newborn child, Danny.
Hello! Just a warning for you-extremely fluffy. Fluff-haters, grab your holy water and slowly flee while you can. FLEE!
Quote:
"Until you have a son of your own... you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be."
~*~
Fate had tempered judgment with mercy.
Vlad thought so, even as he stiffly rose from the elegant, wintergreen colored covers, yawning slightly as he blinked blearily into the darkness.
He sighed before standing up, a thin smile on his lips as he shook his head, the soft mewing noise becoming louder and louder with each
passing second from the corner of his chamber.
He didn't need to bother Alfred with THIS one. The poor lad was weary enough from supervising the move in the livelong morning and
afternoon.
With as much funiture as they had for the rooms he never planned on actually USING....
Still, he did rather like his new abode. It had previously been one of his winter vacation homes, but it had been easy enough to convert into a
new Masters' Manor.
What was even more wonderful with the drop of his governmental duties was the fact that there were TWO Masters boding here.
So many times, he had anticipated it being Maddie….but that no longer seemed to matter very much to the billionaire.
He hesitantly glanced at the cradle Alfred had thoughtfully placed in his suite. Vlad was reluctant to let the child anywhere out of his sight for...
well, if his current thoughts had any indication, anywhere from now to the next generation.
There was really no need for him to try and guess what the source of that cry was. He already knew.
The billionaire turned slightly, and crossed the velvet carpet, bare feet padding slightly in the darkness.
Though mostly hidden by the room's darkness, the older hybrid knew exactly what lay within the heart of the redwood. He had, after all,
placed Danny in there (He quickly glanced at the nearby clock.) quite a few hours ago.
Hesitantly moving the white cloths surrounding the wood, the man paused, looking at the small bundle with lowered eyes.
Ah...Danny must've accidentally phased through the blankets again. Judging by the goosebumps etched on...what was now his child's limbs,
that had been easy enough to guess.
Vlad was a little awkward with babies. Alfred-who had grown up the eldest of many brothers and sisters-had patiently instructed the billionaire
on the correct way to hold a child.
After all, when the...first incident occured, Danny had been transfigured into a four year old. A child-not a baby.
Uncertainly, he scooped the boy's petite figure up, unconciously cradling the infant against the warmth of his shoulder when it stretched and
wriggled.
Danny's cries were beginning to drop and accelerate-like a badly tuned radio, as Vlad turned on the lights with a simple clap of his hands, and
settled for a brilliant scarlet armchair near the dying, occasionally sparking embers of the grand fireplace that sat beneath a mantle.
He uncertainly settled Danny in his lap, using one arm to prop the infant up against him and the other to quietly pat Danny's spine.
This, the man had discovered, was one the best ways to calm an infant down. The touch of another person allowed them to realize that
someone else was indeed present and knew there was a problem.
Hadn't he'd known that, even the day of Daniel's first piano....?
The billionaire violently shook his head, resuming his odd pat, pat, patting on the infant's back.
At first, Danny didn't really respond to the hybrid's efforts to comfort him. He still continued to cry and squirm, face slightly red as the salty
trickles continued to fall from eyes that flashed from blue to green so quickly and so frequently Vlad fancied they looked almost a sea-turquoise
color.
What would the boy be like, without the false memories? Memories of your experiences and endeavors-how you handled them, how they
shaped you-were what made you, in the end.
But this Danny-his own child now-was different. His life was just starting.
Just like when he had been a four year old wild child. Vlad smiled faintly at the thought, watching the glowing coals glowing dimmer and
dimmer. Only Daniel had not been aware of such a fate.
Rebirth. Reverse. Rebirth.
How long was this cycle going to last? With the knowledge that his little badger had been returned to him-truly and really returned-albeit in a
slightly....different form, he had been too giddy with estactic cartharsis to really take anything in-on what this would mean.
Only now, in the quiet hours when he and Danny had some alone time, did he finally understand.
This was a real life-the one Vlad had wanted to give to Danny in the first place.
He had hardly spent time around babies-he had been an only child, and glad of it. He couldn't-wouldn't, and shouldn't leave the boy for Alfred
to raise. He had done it before-he could do it again! Right?
....right?
Vlad could feel little Danny try to move into a different position in his arms while he had become lost in thought. Bringing himself back to the
present, he shifted the baby from one arm to the other and used the now free one to continue rubbing the back of his spine. This seemed to
help his situation, since his son was now quieting down a bit from his former wails.
In Norway....well, Vlad was adept at numerous languages. Danny would simply have to become proefficient in many once again. Though, truth
be told, even when Danny was a much older child, he had not made him learn this tongue.
Would the aspects of Danny stay the same? If all his memories were decimated, what then?
Would his favorite color still be blue? Would the child still gobble down latkes?
And what about his ghostly counterpart? Would he manage it the same way he had before? Or would he become uncertain-angry-almost
fearful?
The thought made the billionaire shudder, despite the warm bathrobe tucked deeply around him.
A gurgle brought the man out of his brief reverie and back to the present for the second time since this task had begun. He looked down at the
small child that had made the sound and continued to do so. Danny had greatly calmed down since Vlad had first picked him up, but he was still
squirming and every now and again, would let out another squawk.
The longer he was quiet however, the more the billionaire took it as a sign that his son was starting to tire again. When he was quiet enough,
then it would be safe to put teh younger hybrid back in the cradle. It would safe to assume that then, he would go back to sleep and stay that
way until morning, at the very least.
Danny was normally a bubbly, energetic child. The billionaire felt as though seventeen or so flight stewardnesses had stopped to coo over the
little bundle.
But anyone only able to judge anything by temperature, scent, seeing, hearing....
When he had first taken over their care,Vlad, much to his dismay, found that babies didn't stay asleep for very long. It was more like they slept
in intervals that could vary from one to two or more hours. At first, before hunger or other necessities awoke him, the child would sleep for little
less for two hours. Then he would wake up and demand attention of some kind occasionally. Mostly, he was content with lying on his stomach
and looking up at the ceiling for a while, murmuring indiscernible gibberish to himself for a time until the billionaire came around.
~*~
Vlad's gaze fell upon Daniel for a moment. He tentaively watched the infant to see what he would do now. In return, the little one only stared
back up at his adopted father with flickering eyes and yawned once.
Differing shades of blue poured into each other in the silence.
Then Danny turned on his side and cuddled up against the bewildered hybrid's chest, faintly listening to the tune of Vlad's heartbeat. Within a
few thuds, he had fallen asleep again.
Silence again.
Save for was his gentle breathing.
Vlad stared down at the child that he held with a gentle, startled smile. He really didn't know how long he had been trying to calm Danny down.
It could have been half an hour or even beyond an hour.
But to be honest, he really didn't care.
Still sitting in his chair, Vladimir now encircled his son with both arms. For a moment and with extreme gentleness, he cuddled the infant. For a
moment, it seemed the infant would wake, but he simply let out one of his trademark sighs of content, and then turned to face the warmth of
his father's body.
Again, Vlad could only smile.
Danny would grow up to be who was destined to become. The one thing Vlad could do now was point him in the right direction.
The man quietly crossed the room, carefully placed the boy back underneath the covers-doubling them, in case he phased again-and turned.
He paused, then let one of his hands brush slightly at Danny's raven spikes.
He managed another smile, and silently made his way towards his four poster again.
Daniel Masters....
A euphoric smile crossed his features, but he had already been claimed by sleep.