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Twoshot. It's a shame the fairy tales don't come with one. At least, pardoning the ones that don't end badly. Somewhat DannyxVlad
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Just trying to take a more rational route (Whilst giving angst a go) with the pairing, folks. Please review.
It's a mercy the Grimm brothers and Anderson died when they did, really, back in ye olden times of horse-drawn buggies and jeans with holes ripped into the knees on purpose. In the 21st century, they probably would have been brutally mauled in the streets, and, chances were, seventeen year old Danny Fenton would have been leading the lynch mobs.
In retrospect, he supposed you couldn't blame them TOO much. After all, it had been society that had insisting on dressing up the nastier, original fairy tales into charming and sweet modifications for little children before Disney could sweep in and finish the job years later with singing animals and dancing household appliances.
Browsing in an ancient, woebegone copy of fairy tales that he'd "borrowed" from Vlad's library one dark and blustery night, Danny learned the truth: The little mermaid princess actually had her tongue cut out by the sea witch. As in: The woman just cheerfully hacked it out with a dagger she happened to have on her. None of that "snatching your voice harmlessly out by magical means" garbage.
Then, there was the matter of Prince Charming, (The guy showed up in so many fairy tales Danny wondered whether or not the man were a pimp) who fell in love with some wealthy girl instead of the chick he'd actually been searching for. The mermaid-turned-human could have just gone back home to the sea by killing the guy's girlfriend, (You didn't see that in the storybooks these days) but the mermaid girl had too much class for that, and in any case, she'd wanted to get an immortal soul more than she'd wanted the guy, anyway. So the little mermaid offs herself, and is greeted by a community of "spirits" that want to help her earn a soul so that she can move on.
Then, there was Snow White. In the many modified versions, you'd find some pretty grisly stuff, such as the evil queen dancing in a pair of white hot metal shoes that killed her, but in the actual version, Snow White was assaulted and killed by the dwarves themselves.
The lesson to young women in 600 AD? Never go out unaccompanied, else strange men will murder you. Way to pull the old heartstrings.
In Rapunzel, the way the witch had found out that a prince was visiting the long-haired maiden was pretty simple: She was pregnant. Of course, the church hadn't been too jolly about the whole pre-marital sex thing, so the copy was edited to Rapunzel being so positively stupid that she basically said this:
"Whoops, nt s'posed 2 tell u dis, but a prinz vizits mee ever night whups I just told u lol"
Or some other nonsense. At the very least, one of the fabled "happily ever after" endings came out of it. The actual story of Tom Thumb was so positively creepy that Danny had to slam the antique shut before he did something stupid, like toss the thing into the roaring fire in Vlad's study.
Soberly enough, he had to acknowledge that the man most likely wouldn't notice its loss behind its glass case and lacquered pillow, despite its alarming cost at an auction and an enchanting collection of fading, hand-painted pictures, even if some of them could get pretty gruesome sometimes.
Then again, Vlad was like The Selfish Giant in that regard, who probably wouldn't really notice if any of the gold fruit on his trees were missing, but didn't want any of the children playing in his enchanted garden, anyway. The idea makes him feel so callous and bitter that it never fails to bring a smile to the young man's face.
If someone had to paint a scene with both hybrids, what might they depict? Certainly none of the pretty sunrises or blossoming flowers that had appeared when the prince had come to wake some napping princess whom he'd never met before, but fell in love with immediately, regardless. Danny's finally grown up, and the sight of the time-old words, "And they lived happily ever after" make bile burn in the back of his throat, now.
The scene an artist might use with the two of them would not be a pretty one. It was enough to live out its grotesque image day after day, all the while trying to paint over the graphic scenes and somehow turn something terrible into something sweet.
A sweet, sad lie. The original story kept bleeding through its fresh layers of paint.
While some pretty sinister fairy tales have endured to this day, new, domestic ones don't normally find a welcome place with them unless they're equally as charming or saccharine sweet.
You don't call an unhappy relationship a fairy tale. You call up a counselor. Or a friend you know can coax you to get out of before you get in too deep, or assure you that you were NEVER in too deep-there was always an opening for you to get out of, in a hurry if need be.
Danny had neither. And not just because he didn't dare to use the phones anymore. Vlad had tapped them all, and after the disastrous result of the one time he'd called home and admitted to his mother that he felt somewhat "down" (In other words, he was seriously depressed and crying every night) and "lonely," well...it was nothing he wanted to try again. Ever. While Vlad had (For the most part) gone back to being his charming self, there was still something new and sinister in the air that kept the base of Danny's neck prickling at all times, paranoia beginning to gnaw at his nerves.
Vlad could easily afford surveillance; was he watching him even when he wasn't home?
Of course, that was a step TOO far even for his eccentric lover. Sure, he'd had the phones tapped, and had gently/dangerously approached the young man about it, making a few rather unsavory comments and suggestions...but Vlad wasn't watching him from work. Vlad wouldn't know if Danny had decided to run away until he'd searched the entire house. Right?
...right?
If there was ever a fairytale meant for the two of them in their royally screwed up relationship, Danny can't exactly lie when he sardonically admits to himself that he would have liked it to have been Beauty and the Beast-esque. Sure, in the original version, Belle had sisters, and the Beast wasn't all that bright considering that he asked the girl to marry him each night without telling her that he was really a prince under a spell….but same concept. Love conquers all, people could learn to love, etc, etc, more mushy forerunning crap that came before Hallmark was invented.
While he's aghast at his own stupidity, all alone in the dead of night, Danny swears he can feel himself shaking with laughter when he's shuddering under the comforters of Vlad's bed. He's laughing so hard, he can't make a sound.
What had happened?
What had happened?
Things had been splendid when they'd been dating. He'd been shocked to find the older man's attention swivel away from his mother to him, and while he'd put up a considerable fight at first, he never could deny being flattered when bouquets of flowers would "mysteriously" arrive in his room, or little gifts and sweet notes would pop up every now and again. (Essentially, every other day.)
His parents' focus (When not on ghost hunting) had been on their brilliant daughter, Jasmine, and how to afford her Yale tuition. Danny's fund had even gone to her account when Vlad offered to pay his...providing that Danny stay a couple of days with him, of course.
Vlad had not, had not-taken advantage of him, even if Danny HAD felt overwhelmed with the whole "declaration of love" thing. Sure, it had been kind of early, but they'd done it, and it had been fantastic.
Kind of.
Sort of.
Not really.
Okay. It had gotten good later, but it had just plain hurt. Why did people find biting each other to be erotic? The idea had always left the boy nonplussed when reading bad romance novels, and Vlad had left a number of bruises and cuts on him out of sheer "eagerness." To be honest, Danny didn't like it: Didn't like role-playing, didn't like s&m, didn't like biting, didn't like being clawed, didn't like being rutted into. Why had simple lovemaking gone out of style?
Vlad, of course, enjoyed these things to no end, and Danny had meekly gone along with it, even though he'd bled, cried a little, and his body had been left aching for days. And the whole "frequency" of the man's desire was kind of overwhelming, too. They could have been sleeping for an hour or two after doing it, only for Danny to be prodded awake by Vlad, who only ever wanted more.
He was a greedy bastard. He saw that now, although it couldn't actually be true. Not really. Vlad had been the first to give him such genuine and affectionate attention. Not even Sam could give that to him in their own sad excuse for a relationship. The two had felt compelled to try, had felt no spark, and ultimately, Sam had gone after some other emo kid who had rich guilt and could boast a number of scars on his arms.
In the alternate universe Clockwork had shown him where Vlad had been married to his mother, the man there had also been suspicious, domineering, possessive, and unhappy. (Though that was only what his sister had called the man, and she certainly didn't know what she was talking about.) He'd dismissed the relationship as poor from the start; while Vlad found his mother very attractive, there had never been real chemistry or trust between the two. And Vlad could never stand to let go of something once it had unfortunately found its way to his hands.
It was sick. HE, Danny, was just as bad. He hadn't yet found the courage to leave, fearing the repercussions too deeply, and hating his own cowardly heart. He would stay, if only so that Vlad did not take a pistol to his own head, or set out to destroy him, or try to lock him up in a spectral prison and keep him marooned underneath the floorboards for the rest of his days.
Ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha! Like that could happen! Like that could possibly ever happen! Like that could very possibly ever happen and the only thing keeping Danny from running out of this madhouse screaming was the possibility that his boyfriend would hunt him down and maybe even kill him! Ha! Ha, ha, ha!
One evening, while browsing through the old collection of fairy tales, Danny stared soberly out at the dark night in the man's study, the crackling of the fire the only soft sound breaking the deathly silence through the enormous manor.
He ought to be thrilled. So what if he had to take all of his college classes online, and for some bizarre reason, could not access any sites that would him to communicate with his friends. He had a freaking mansion to stay in, with gourmet meals available twenty-four/seven, while famine victims were eating mush in the desert. He could buy anything he wanted online, had a number of awesome video games to play, several gaming counsels
This hadn't been what he'd signed up for. Sure, other people in high school would become hopelessly infatuated for a mere couple of days, texting under the desks and blushing and giggling and sending hopelessly corny texts…but before the "couple" could celebrate their ridiculous "One week anniversary," Billy found out that Sally was cheating on him with his best friend Alex, and soon enough, the two were avoiding each other at all costs, writing nasty things on each other's lockers, spreading rumors, and cheerfully bashing the person they claimed they had wanted to marry just a few days ago with their friends.
But he and Vlad weren't supposed to be like everyone else. Even if the relationships stupid teenagers (And Danny had to admit; they often WERE stupid) built with each other, or worse, with much older people, were oft so quick to crumble….