A/N: Let me tell you a short (but not very short at all) little story. There once was a fanfiction writer known as Pokeshadow55, who sometimes also called themselves Blacknovelist. This author was in a livestream one night, talking about the happiness that was various characters in their college years before tragedy and real life struck, when an idea came to mind.

I'm pretty sure you guys mostly know where this is going by this point.

I started planning and writing this not too long ago, and I wanted to hold off posting it until I had more details worked out. Then a certain fan event known among fans as Phanniemay came along, and I knew this was perfect. What better way to kick-start an AU Story than during the AU segment of Phanniemay?

Mind you, I'm still working out a lot of kinks in the story.

The title, which is Latin, roughly translates to "House of Love" or "Family of Love". I thought it was fitting, personally.

Also, to apply for this and future chapters: Italics will always denote thoughts, unless a chapter involves flashbacks; In that case, thoughts will be shown as Italics that are underlined, while flashbacks/memories/past events will be only italics. I'm sorry if that seems confusing, but it generally works the best. Either might be bolded for extra emphasis on occasion, and if the whole thing isn't italics, its just for emphasis.

And so, without further ado!

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or anything in relation to Danny Phantom.

Prologue

"I'm telling you Jack, it won't work."

"Bogus, V-man, it totally will! The proto portal is guaranteed to punch a hole right into the ghost dimension."

"Jack, these calculations aren't right!"

"BANZAI!"

Beep...Beep...Beep...

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep...

"AAARGH!"

Vlad jolted awake, startled by the obnoxious sound blaring in the small white room. He shot up, body tense and eyes wide, before he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He could feel his heart beating rapidly in his chest, his face still stinging from the remainder of the energy that had caught him head-on who knew how long ago. His eyes were still flashing, though he stopped shaking at least, his breaths coming more naturally than before though his heart still shuddered inside him.

Sighing, Vlad leaned back on his hands, closing his eyes as the last of his shock faded. The blaring sound had stopped as soon as he awoke, leaving him to listen to the faint noise of people walking outside the room he sat in. The surprise gave way to a strange exhaustion and he sighed as he finally opened his eyes to look around. He blinked, feeling lost as he took in the complex machines that lined the pale walls, the hazmat suits he could see through a large window right in front of him. This place looked more like a lab than a hospital.

Wait, hospital? Why would I be in a damnable hospital?

Then Vlad took a good look at his own reflection, faint and barely visible in the glass before him. Another slow blink, a pause as his mind caught up, then his eyes widened as panic and memories flooded through him.

No...

They were working on the portal, him and his best friend and his crush. He never found as much interest in the supernatural, though he knew just how much the other two adored it. He couldn't help but feel jealous whenever the two of them shared a smile or a look or a moment with each other. Still, he would continue to hope that he had a chance. But for all of his lack of interest, there was still something thrilling about all this work they were doing.

He launched himself off the bed, stumbling as he tumbled off the side and rushed forwards, to the somewhat foggy glass. He didn't notice how the bed never moved from his violent reactions, nor did he hear the absence of footsteps.

No. It's not true.

The proto portal was finally complete, their own extracurricular activities finally reaching its grand height. They just needed to run the final checks, and Vlad planned on finally telling Maddie how he really felt about her. It would be the perfect end to a perfect day, and already he could picture it.

His chest felt like it was going to burst, his heart like it would give out, his lungs like they would never have enough air ever again. He reached for his reflection in the window, recoiling when he saw his hands. Pale, tinged a faint blue. Pure denial. He turned his head left, seeing the mirror hanging innocently above the sink, chaos rushing through his veins, his mind, his body.

NONONONONONONOTHISCOULDN'TBEHAPPENING

Even if Maddie rejected him, at the very least he'd finally have that closure. Sure, he'd sulk and gripe, perhaps spend a few days or weeks holed up at his apartment, but it was a fact that Maddie and Jack were all he had left. He knew it, they knew it, and he wanted to believe that, at the very least, they wouldn't lock him out of their lives completely.

Vlad lunged across the door, reaching for the only thing that could prove to him that he was hallucinating. He refused to think of the other possibility, to even turn a piece of his mind into the other thought, the chance that what he saw in the glass wasn't just his imagination, that this wasn't all just some big joke.

PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEGODLORDPOWERSABOVEPLEASENODON'TTELLMEGODNOITCAN'TBE

So long as he could be with them, he could accept that. That was what he always told himself, whenever the cold bitter feelings threatened to swallow him up. Surely there was something better for him anyway. Right?

It wasn't true, it couldn't be, it really was his heart beating, he needed to breathe, this was all wrong, he wasn't actually-

NO.

He felt the tingle of electricity from the portal just before it activated. Green overtook his vision, and three simultaneous screams echoed through his ears as a searing pain took over him, the ectoplasm invading his body. He knew nothing but the chilling cold green, freezing and burning him all at once.

Dead.

The funeral service was small, short, and in their opinions, was a disgrace to the memory of their best friend. Of course, they weren't that oblivious; there weren't many people at the university that liked any of them, but that didn't mean they had to be so seemingly flippant about this. At least, that was how it felt to Maddie and Jack. But then, Vlad had been their best friend.

A couple of his teachers had gone up to talk about Vlad, all of them mentioning generic things; a good guy, hard worker, how he would be missed. Maddie and Jack both went up themselves, and their own words came out short but emotional. They both knew no one would listen, but that didn't matter; the words were for them, and them alone.

The procession to the graveyard and watching them bury his body felt like forever, and yet once it was over neither of them could remember much about the time between. They weren't entirely sure of how long they'd stood together near his grave either, but the haze of detachment that had fallen over them was only broken when Jack reached out and carefully held Maddie's hand, though whether for her comfort or his own they didn't know.

Still, neither of them said anything, even when their grief reached its height and tears began to flow, the firm grip of the other's hand keeping them grounded. Even as their quiet sobs rang out, no words were said. No words needed to be said. It had been afternoon when the funeral was over, but now the sky was tinged with orange as the sun brushed the tops of the trees as they released each other's hands, simply accepting the quiet company. It wasn't until night had truly fallen that they left the gravesite.

They moved on auto-pilot, returning to their apartment and going to sleep that night. They woke at the same time they did every morning, once the sunlight streamed through their curtains and into their eyes, but it was only as they stepped out and met only one other set of eyes that they remembered where their third roommate was.

A silent conversation streamed between the two, and they moved into the kitchen, Jack pouring himself a bowl of cereal and milk as Maddie fixed coffee. He sat for a moment, poking the wet corn flakes and glancing up at Maddie before he let out a breath and resolved himself. Just as she sat down next to him, cradling the steaming mug in her hands, he spoke up.

"Maddie, do you think we should stop ghost hunting?"

She blinked at the abrupt statement, taking a moment to process what he'd said before she looked at him sharply. Jack just stared straight ahead, at a framed picture hanging innocently on the wall from just a few weeks before.

"Why do you ask, Jack?" She asked, voice soft. His eyes still didn't move as he responded, "Because the thing we loved doing has just killed our best friend, Mads, and I need to know this." Finally his eyes moved to meet hers, eyes shining not with doubt but with conviction. "I need to know, Maddie, so please. Just answer me."

Maddie thought, running the question and her own thoughts and beliefs over and over in her mind. At the forefront were expectations, what people thought they would and should do following all of this. But she knew that wasn't what he was asking about, and she knew precisely how to answer.

With a deep inhale, she said to him, "No."

Jack barely responded, prompting her onwards with his silence and a single look. She pursed her lips and kept going. "I don't think we should stop, Jack. The research, the ghosts, the everything... Vlad wouldn't want us to stop doing what we love just because he died, so I don't think we should either."

A beat of silence, then Jack broke out into a loving and happy smile. "Thank you, Maddie." Then his grin broadened, becoming more like the familiar grin that would often adorn Jack Fenton's face. "I agree with you. Vladdie wouldn't have wanted us to mope around for the rest of our lives! Let's continue with our work, both for him and for us!"

Maddie smiled back at him, turning to face forwards and taking a sip of her coffee. Once more they fell into a companionable silence, though they both knew there was one more thing to be done.

Though the subject hadn't come up at all, Maddie and Jack unanimously decided to visit Vlad's grave once more. Neither of them said a thing as they left their three-bedroom apartment and strolled out onto the street, the few people out and about steering clear of the duo. They walked into the graveyard, hearts beating in both anticipation and a strange foreboding.

Surprise wouldn't begin to cover it when they saw the stranger in front of Vlad's grave, the gray-white labcoat flaring oddly around their legs and the collar popped oddly. Black hair, styled in front and draping over the back of their head with a light gray stripe down the center seemed mysteriously familiar, but what really startled them was once it was clear that this stranger was not just unfamiliar, but floating an inch above the ground, as though there was an invisible platform beneath their feet.

Maddie and Jack shared a wary look, cautiously circling to approach from the side rather than from behind. Jack was warily fingering the prototype ecto-knuckles he had in his pocket when the stranger seemed to snap out of whatever it was that kept their eyes glued to the headstone, turning their head towards them, and in sync three pairs of storm blue, amaranthine, and dull red eyes widened, the stranger landing lightly on the ground.

Their skin was tinged blue, eyes a different shade but set into such a familiar shape it was all they could do to not simply gape at them. It felt like mere seconds that they stared, and yet at the same time it felt drawn for hours as the two parties struggled to respond to what was in front of them.

The stranger spoke first, with a familiar voice and a barely noticeable echoing tone, "Maddie? Jack?"

It can't actually be.

"...Vlad...?" Maddie asked, voice rife with disbelief and shock, "Is- is that you?"

The blue-skinned ghost nodded once sharply, his eyes never leaving theirs.

Maddie opened her mouth again, but Jack cut her off, barking out, "How do we know you're really our friend and not some specter that borrowed his face? Prove it to us."

The Vlad-Lookalike ghost focused his gaze on Jack in slight surprise before understanding and faint exasperation fell over his face and he looked between them.

"I certainly don't know what you expect me to tell you two, but I'm hoping you don't expect me to completely retell that story of Jack and I in the fifth grade chemistry class." They said dryly.

Almost immediately Jack's face split into a wide smile, though he didn't move from his place beside Maddie. "Yep, that's Vladdie."

"But... how is this possible? For you to be here you'd have to be..." Maddie forced her mind away from the thought, instead saying, "Why did you come back?"

Vlad opened his mouth, tiny fangs sparkling as he prepared to respond before he seemed to think otherwise, shutting his mouth with a contemplative expression. Then he said, "As much as I'd love to explain everything I know to both of you in this lovely place," Vlad gave a pointed look to the various gravestones that surrounded them before continuing, "I was hoping that you might be able to help on that front as well. What do you say we return to the apartment and speak there?"

The reunited trio returned to the apartment, Vlad invisibly trailing behind them so as to not startle any passersby that happened to be out. Maddie automatically moved into the kitchen, pouring three mugs of coffee before she realized what she was doing. Before she could take the third mug and dump it however, Vlad floated over and swiped one mug for himself, taking a drink as Jack and Maddie looked on in fascination.

Eventually the three sat down in the living room, the two ghost hunters eagerly listening as their dead friend explained how he'd woken up in a hospital room utterly confused before he'd seen himself. Vlad uncomfortably described his panic upon learning of his new dead state, how he was startled by the sudden entrance of a nurse and how he turned invisible as a result. He told them that he'd followed her out and upon hearing something about the two of them and the funeral, he had immediately left for the graveyard.

"I arrived sometime late last night, most likely not too long after you'd left. I... can't seem to remember much afterwards. It's all just, blank."

"So," Maddie reiterated, "all we know is that a few days following your... death, you formed in the hospital room as a ghost and decided to seek us out? And that none of us have much of an ideas as to why you formed."

Vlad tilted his head in acquiesce, looking irked at the lack of information they seemed to have. "That is the general gist of it, yes."

Jack, who had been holding himself back the entire conversation, finally burst out, "But in a way this is great, Vladdie! We can learn more about ghosts, you're still around, and we can help you figure out why!"

"...Jack, isn't it a bad thing that I stuck around for, I don't know, unfinished business or some similar reason?" Vlad said dryly, staring at his old friend with skepticism.

"Not at all! Knowing you Vlad, you never left anything half-done, so that can't be it. But that's why we're going to figure it out and help you move on if we can, the three of us, together!" And with that, Jack stood and swung out his arms, pulling Maddie and Vlad together in a hug, forcing Vlad to turn his legs intangible lest he bang them on the coffee table. Large arms still slung over their shoulders, Jack pushed them all into the kitchen, an endless stream of chatter and various harmless experiments they could run with ectoplasm and their new ghostly friend, laughing all the while.

The two melted into the familiar gesture, Maddie smiling and adding her own ideas to Jack's, occasionally cutting in to veto some of his stranger ideas. Vlad just smiled; he didn't tell them about how he'd felt when he heard about them from the doctors, or about the inkling of an idea he had now about his reasons for sticking around.

It hardly mattered, right?

Vlad carefully walked after the nurse, wary of touching anything and hoping this strange ability would last him. He was still shaky from his shock at his ridiculous appearance, but sitting around in shock was hardly befitting of himself, so he resolved to find someone who could provide answers.

He flickered back into visibility a few times, but he was thankful he remained invisible so long as there was a chance of him being spotted by other people. Being visible hardly mattered when no one was around to see him being visible, after all.

He started aimlessly wandering, losing track of the nurse along the way. Eventually he stumbled into the front halls, where receptionists, doctors, and nurses bustled in and out to various hospital rooms. He carefully walked around them, weary of accidentally breaking his cover, when a conversation caught his attention.

"...Yeah, can you believe it? The guy seemed so strong, it's still hard to believe he just died a good few weeks ago."

"Tragic, isn't it? The funeral's today, I think. His friends are probably devastated."

Vlad's eyes widened at this news; it didn't take a genius to guess they were talking about him, but to know he had actually died a few days ago? It made sense, but there was something intrinsically unnerving about hearing news of your own funeral. His momentary distraction caused him to almost miss their next words;

"Yeah, I'll bet. What were their names, again? Madeline and Jack?"

Something inside Vlad seemed to thrum inside his chest at those words, though he couldn't fathom why.

"Pff, you mean those crackpots?" A student from the University cut in, snorting. "Yeah, I bet they'd be upset by this. The three never went anywhere without each other."

"Hey, be nice." One of the doctors scolded." "But yeah, those two. They came in almost every day, demanding to know how their friend, Vlad right? They kept trying to get in and see how he was doing."

"They'll probably be at the funeral or something, I didn't catch what time it was going to be at."

"How do you think they're dealing?"

Vlad tuned them out in favor of maintaining his invisible state and understanding the strange instinct and feeling in his heart (chest? Did ghosts even have hearts or something as a substitute for one?).

Making up his mind, Vlad dashed for an empty hospital room; he had no idea whether he was really a ghost or what power that would grant him, but he figured he must be able to fly or something, right?

Time for a power crash course, then straight to the cemetery.

Though he wasn't sure why he felt a pull there, and he felt like a bit of an idiot for possibly going to his own funeral if it was early enough, but his gut never lead him wrong before.

Maddie and Jack would help him, their friend, even as a ghost. He was sure of it.

A/N: Man, writing this has taught me three things: first of all, AU's are great but wow planning is difficult, which while expected was more difficult than I expected: second, I have a really, really hard time writing grief and thirdly; Dialogue is the thing I did not realize I could not write. I mean, I'm getting better at both of those things, but I struggled a lot with them. You would not believe how many times I had to rework that part with the apartment, right after the funeral scene. I had lots of trouble figuring out how to keep their grief in character as possible, as well as where I'd have the scene with Jack questioning Maddie and where it would work best, then I kept moving it around because I couldn't figure out how to work Vlad back into their lives either.

Then everything after that was about 1000 times worse in writing until the hospital flashback/memory thing. That part just kept fighting me the whole time, and it was so fricking hard to try and keep them as in character as possible. I think I've managed somewhat well on that front, hopefully.

To those of you thinking this might be out of character for Vlad, I'm of the opinion that he got along famously with Jack, with or without Maddie, before his accident in canon. At this point, he hasn't even been conscious long enough in the hospital to realize what's happened to him before he died, there were zero chances for the two of them to have even seen his hospital room, and at this point in life Vlad still cares about both Maddie and Jack. He didn't have that time to feel abandoned in the hospital, he wasn't even conscious at any time before his death and after he got a face-full of ectoplasm.

Don't get me wrong about my opinions of Vlad's character either; In canon he's a despicable manipulative old man with an unhealthy obsession with a fourteen to fifteen year old and a married woman. Sure, he might have some sort of potential in there (I'm also of the assumption that what Future!Vlad said was mostly the truth), but we can't forget that he's an emotionally and just generally manipulative jackass that tried to kill several people and was perfectly content in trying and failing to clone a child and felt virtually no mercy when said clones melted before his eyes, (And please, excuse my language).

But hey, that's what AU'S are for, isn't it?

Thanks to you all, for taking time to read this, and I'm terribly sorry if the characters are OOC in any way. I tried my best, but feedback would be lovely.

Edit: I've gone back and just shuffled a few things. :P Doing it on mobile wasn't as bad as it usually was this time around, which was nice.