A/N: There was no update for Ice and Lightning on Monday because it was Thanksgiving, and I couldn't be bothered. :'D So you get this today instead.

"Eat."

No.

"Daniel, eat."

Danny stared down at the plate of food in front of him. His body was rigid as he gripped the sides of the seat of the chair so hard his knuckles turned white. He knew he was hungry; the gaping hole he felt inside of him proved that, but he could not trust food prepared by him.

Seeming to read his mind, the white haired man across from him sighed, "Daniel, I didn't prepare the food, my servants did. Even if I did I wouldn't poison it. If I wanted you dead, you would have been dead a long time ago."

Danny turned his glare from his food up to Vlad, he hadn't spoken to Vlad since their fight three days ago, and Danny had eaten only what the butler had begged him to. Danny was beginning to like the butler; his kind attitude helped him feel comfortable in his room. Now, faced with an actual meal Danny felt like he was going to hurl.

Vlad stood up and paced, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to keep calm. He could understand Danny's reluctance to eat to an extent, but this was getting ridiculous. The boy's face was starting to sink, his skin taking on an even paler hue than when he was a ghost.

"Daniel, I won't ask you again. Eat."

A breakthrough happened as Danny picked up his fork. Vlad held his breath. Danny carefully scooped some mashed potatoes onto his fork. Vlad watched his every move.

Splat.

Vlad slowly opened his eyes, bringing his hand up to wipe the potato off his face. His anger was bubbling up again, and he was about to fire an ecto laser at the insolent boy. How dare he have the audacity to throw mashed potatoes at his benefactor.

Vlad took a series of calming breaths, opening eyes to see a smirking teenager. At least it's a change from his sombre demeanour…

"Daniel…" Vlad felt like he was talking to a four year old, not a fourteen year old. "…Really, food is for eating, not throwing. Would you please take one bite?"

Danny's face went from rebellion to steely determination. Danny glared at Vlad as he put the fork back in the food, this time picking up a piece of the cubed chicken on his plate. Vlad prepared himself to send up a shield if Danny should try anything, but the boy simple looked at the chicken and put it back on his plate. "I'm not hungry."

It was the first thing he had said to Vlad in three days, and it left a sour taste in the teen's mouth. The words were a lie, and he knew Vlad could see right through them. "Don't make me force feed you, Daniel."

Danny moved his hands back to the seat of his chair as if the piece of furniture was about to start bucking and throw him off. For all Danny knew, it could do just that. He was, after all, in Vlad's house.

The freak.

His ruse was broken when a loud growl broke the silence between the two of them. Vlad instantly had a triumphant grin on his face, and Danny's went beet red. "Not hungry, hmm?"

A glare.

"Edward," Vlad called out and Danny turned his glare from the billionaire to the plate of food in front of him. The butler took a few steps forward from the wall. Danny didn't even know he'd been in the room. Vlad turned to him and gestured to Danny. "Edward, please make sure he eats something." Once the butler nodded, Vlad turned to leave.

"Where are you going, Fruitloop?"

Vlad paused and turned to Danny, narrowing his eyes slightly. "If you must know, Daniel, I'm going to go clean up." He crossed his arms as he stared down the Fenton kid. The older man sighed, "Is that quite alright, Daniel? Or would you rather I say here and watch you eat?"

Danny looked down at his food and Vlad said something along the lines of "I thought so," before his footfalls announced his exiting.

Edward the butler stood silently for a moment before leaning down towards Danny. "Master Daniel," Danny had tried to get him to just call him Danny but the butler wouldn't listen. "Please eat something."

No.

"I'm not hungry."

"Master Daniel," Danny "you need to eat. What would your sister think if she could see you now?"

Danny froze and stared holes into his plate. The butler had a tendency to pick at him by using guilt and his family members, Danny knew it was Vlad's influence. Danny felt like he had just been punched in the gut and he picked up the chicken again.

"I hate you, Edward."

"I know, sir."

"Oh would you shut up!" Danny shot a large collection of ectoplasmic power at the man floating a few feet beneath him. The man simply exploded into a bundle of smoke, and Danny growled in anger: a duplicate.

"Is that all you've got, little badger?"

Danny spun around sending out a wave of ice to mimic his motion and Vlad raised a shield, prepared for this attack as he always was. "What do you want, Fruitloop?"

It was four in the morning, and Danny was tired. He'd had a long day at school, and had spent all afternoon and evening fighting ghosts. All he wanted was to curl up in bed and forget about everything until it repeated tomorrow.

But Danny knew there were just some things that were just fantasy. And sleep, for him at least, was just that; nothing but a deliciously close, but untouchable fantasy.

Vlad teleported close to Danny, so close their noses were almost touching. The red eyes of his Plasmius form bore into Danny's green ones. "I'm going to offer this to you one more time, Daniel." His voice was a hiss, no more than a breath of air, "Join me. I could teach you so much more than that idiot father of yours. Think about all the powers you could learn to control." Vlad allowed himself to float back, eyes narrowing as Danny opened his mouth to protest.

The billionaire cut him off before he could, holding out his hand and letting a flame dance there. Danny's green eyes flicked from it, to Vlad's face as the older man smirked at him. "You and I could rule the world. Think about the things we could accomplish!"

There was nothing Danny hated more than this rant. His green eyes narrowed angrily as he aimed a punch at the hybrid's face, actually managing to make contact and send him reeling back a couple of feet. Danny was shocked to see blood on Vlad's chin when the man turned back to him.

"I will never join you," Danny hissed, clenching his fists as they began to glow an eerie green. "Nothing that you, or anyone else, do will ever make me join you." The angry halfa shot a blast at Vlad Plasmius then, the ectoplasm so charged that it began to eat away at Vlad's suit, his skin underneath bubbling and cracking, bleeding and staining the white fabric.

The anger in Vlad's eyes was unmistakable, his fangs hooked over his lower lip as he hissed, "Mark my words, child, I will be back for you, and you will pay."

The older hybrid vanished then, in a plume of violet smoke and Danny sighed in relief, holding a hand to his forehead to try to ease the aching headache he had acquired during the fight, mostly because of his lack of sleep.

Phasing into his room, Danny shook his head, trying to dispel the heavy weight in his head.

"Freeze, ectoplasmic scum!"

And Danny did just that. He had been hoping his parent's hadn't woken up. But as ghost crazy as they were, he supposed he was hoping for something that would never happen.

He turned around to see his father pointing a deadly looking gun that Danny hadn't seen before. His eyes widened in horror as he realised he didn't know what that thing did, or how to dodge it.

Nothing had ever terrified Danny more than that moment.

"What did you do to my son!" Jack took a threatening step forward, but Danny was rooted to the spot, staring down the barrel of the gun. "Where is my son!"

It was then that Danny saw the emotions in Jack's eyes. His father's eyes held a mixture of anger, fear and regret. Danny swallowed as he realized his father was blaming himself for Danny's supposed disappearance at the hands of Phantom.

"F-fear not, citizen," Danny tried his best to put on his super hero voice, desperately trying to remember how Super Danny pulled it off. "He is safe! There was trouble and I flew in to warn him to evacuate.. but he had already run out to get some weapons!"

Jack frowned, buying it, and for a second, Danny thought that he might be safe. Jack lowered the gun a few inches, confusion playing on his face as his eyes flicked to Danny's door. Sure, it had been open when he'd first come to check on his son, but…

"How do you know that?" True, the mere fact that Jack was holding a gun could have tipped Phantom off to their well of anti-ghost weapons. But it never hurt to ask. The gun was once again level with Danny's forehead.

"I-I uh," Danny struggled to come up with something; he never thought his dad would ask that. How was he going to get out of this?

The gun began to make a whirring noise, and if it was possible in his ghost from, Danny's face paled. A bright white light started at the very end of the barrel, gaining in speed in direct relation to the intensity of the noise the gun was making.

A loud bang resonated around the room, and in comparison a very faint "Dad, NO!"

The water hit him like a torrential downpour. His red eyes stared at the almost reflective tiles across from him, his nose buried in his knees and his bangs plastered to his face so he almost couldn't see. He had been sitting that way for almost twenty minutes, slowing rocking back and forth as the water spraying on him reminding him of the spray of the fire fighter's hoses.

Salt water mixed with fresh water as tears streamed out of Danny's eyes. It was the first time he had broken down since arriving here almost a week ago. Images flashed before his eyes as he cradled his legs against his bare body, a muffled groan of agony popping out of his lips. Danny clamped down on his wrist with his teeth, trying to keep from screaming as his ears imagined the screams his family made as they were dying. He hadn't actually heard it (thank god,) but it was easy enough to imagine.

Danny bit down on his wrist as more memories swamped over him, his teeth tearing into his flesh, causing blood to seep out and mingle with the shower water. Danny didn't notice the pain in his wrist as his eyes got wider, panic starting to seep into him.

Alone.

He was alone.

So very, very alone.

The water was slowly going from hot to cold, and Danny finally unfolded himself, reaching over and turning the taps off. He folded back in on himself in the tub, not wanting to get out yet. The water ran down the walls, and he envied it's carefree life.

He tasted blood in his mouth and he didn't know why.

Did they taste blood before they'd died?

No.

Don't think about that, Danny. Be strong.

Danny looked down at his wrist and gaged as he noticed the amount of blood pooling on it. Crawling out of the bathtub, Danny noticed that he had pruned up considerably. He sat in front of his sink, pulling open the cabinet to peer inside. He saw what he was after and pulled it out.

Opening the medical kit, Danny took out a wad of bandaging, wrapping it tightly around his wrist. He could feel his pulse in his fingers, but he ignored it as he roughly shoved the kit back under the sink. Standing up, Danny absentmindedly pulled on his clothes, wandering out into his bedroom to see Vlad standing there.

Oh no. He was not in the mood.

Subconsciously, Danny moved his bitten wrist behind his back as Vlad stared him down. The man had his hands behind his back and his chin slightly raised giving him an air of dignity.

Danny wanted to rip his throat out.

"Daniel, you were in the shower for over an hour."

Creeper.

The man noticed how red Danny's eyes were and a frown adorned his face. "What's wrong, little badger?"

Little Badger.

Danny glared at his care giver, throwing back the sheets on his bed and sitting in it, looking at the far wall. That was when Vlad noticed his wrist.

And when shit hit the fan.

"Daniel what did you do!" Vlad roughly gripped his wrist, yanking his arm out so that he could carefully inspect the bandages. "Daniel! You better not have harmed yourself!"

Danny phased his arm out of Vlad's grip, glaring at the man. "And why would you care!" Rage swamped sorrow as Danny defended himself. (From what? He's just concerned.) He's a creep. He hit on mom. (That's in the past, genius. He's all you've got left.)

All that's left.

Danny finally looked Vlad in the face, and saw a tide of emotions overcome the man. From rage to sorrow to… hurt? Why did Vlad feel hurt?

Vlad finally glared at Danny, his hands dropping to his sides. "Little Badger, I would suggest you get out of your pity party before I make you. Your family is dead; there is nothing you can do to change that, and I only have so much patience for sorrow."

Shut up.

"So if you know what's good for you, you'll snap out of it, and open your eyes to the wonderful opportunity I've given you."

Arrogant bastard.

Vlad walked to the door before turning back to face Danny. "You'd better wake up, Danny, or you're going to wish you died with them." Vlad slammed the door to Danny's room.

The boy on the bed furiously glared at it before flopping down. Damn Vlad. Damn him to the bloody depths of Hell. Danny picked up his pillow and chucked it at the wall, blasting it with a ectobeam. The goose down and silk covering lit up in a brilliant flare of green fire.

The flames flickered out before they hit the ground, ashes scattering across the plush carpet. Danny watched them for a second, a pang of loss as he remembered that the fire at his house was etched in green.

The teen turned his back on the ashes, staring at the opposite wall. Goddamn Vlad.

Are you mad at Vlad, or at yourself?

The question was a whisper in the back of his mind. Something he barely registered, but it made his eyes fly open.

He was angry at Vlad, wasn't he? This was Vlad's fault.

Danny stared at where he bit his wrist and felt guilt gnaw freshly at his stomach. But it was not guilt over his family's death. It was guilt over his attitude. His family would be ashamed. His dad would want him to at least acknowledge the efforts Vlad was putting in.

Danny fell into a troubled sleep.

Vlad stood outside the boy's door for a few moments, listening to the angry grunt as he presumed Daniel broke something.

The billionaire sighed, rubbing his face with his hands, exhausted. Exploding at Danny, Vlad knew, was not the right way to approach the situation. He hadn't meant to, but seeing the hasty bandaging job on the boy's wrist had set him off.

He didn't know what he would do if Danny started to self-mutilate.

Vlad had to make it up to him. He knew that Danny wasn't going to get out of this on his own, but he also knew that what had just happened would only work to infuriate the teen more.

The hybrid sauntered to the study, trying desperately to pull his thoughts together. He grasped a picture of Maddie, Jack and himself that he kept on the mantle, his eyes closed slowly. "I'm sorry, my dear Maddie." Vlad's voice was little more than a whisper, his eyes still closed. "I'm trying, but your son is just so stubborn. I don't know what to do."

He didn't expect a reply, and none was offered. Sighing, Vlad replaced the photo on the mantel. Upset and very worried, Vlad flicked off the light to the study and went to bed.