When Daniel had finally woken up, he lifted his head to see the scariest sight of Alexander's creepiest smile he would ever see.

He then proceeded to scream, shove the baron off the bed, and run out of the door, still screaming his head off.

Needless to say, Alexander was very confused.

After finishing his letter to Daniel, he had placed the journal on the stand next to his bed and decided to wait for the other to wake up. His mind went to all sorts of places, such as the memories of torturing civilians for their crimes whether they were guilty or not, the sounds of fresh screams being ripped out of their throats as their bodies and minds started to shut down. Those were his happy memories.

His mind eventually trailed off to thoughts of Daniel and what he has done since arriving at Brennenburg. Other than being a constant annoyance, burning holes through the wooden table and floor, constantly stealing and writing in his own (private!) journal, and ruining the walls of his castle with crude paintings made from magically appearing paint…Daniel wasn't all that bad.

And once he could get Daniel working on torturing the prisoners with him, that would be just lovely! He'd trick Daniel into doing his very bidding; he highly doubted the boy would even notice that he was doing awful things. Of course, Alexander knew that Daniel would be reluctant to hurt another human being in the beginning, regardless of criminal status. However, he could turn the boy around easily. The two could be great partners! Oh, how he had plans for Daniel…

Alexander was hardly aware of the smile slowly stretching across his face, far too engrossed in his thoughts to notice. The smile was growing more sinister by the second as the thoughts ran through his head; the ideas just kept coming! He was hardly in the mood to stop them, however, and so he allowed his mind to wander. The torture devices he could use on new sets of prisoners, listening to their screams; it was all too delicious.

…The next thing he knew, something had pushed against his stomach and he had fallen to the floor, landing on his back. His ears nearly burst with the loud screeching that could have very well been heard throughout all of Brennenburg.

He stayed on the floor for a while, only coming to his senses when the sound of quick retreating footsteps finally got to him. …Just great. When had he started staring at Daniel? Who knows what thoughts could be running through the boys head right now; what if Daniel got the wrong idea? Alexander started to panic.

Grabbing his journal and a quill from the stand, he stood up and quickly ran out the door after Daniel. Oh, wasn't this just dandy. Ever since he started the blasted thing, Daniel had gotten worse! It was unbelievable. Alexander let out a frustrated groan as he continued to sprint down the hallway, his breathing labored. People of his age should not be running through giant castles chasing young paranoid men!

After what seemed like an eternity, Alexander came to the conclusion that he was getting nowhere and he allowed himself to stop running. He placed his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Where had Daniel gone? There was no way he could be this far! Then again, there was the huge age difference that played a factor in their speeds…

When Alexander decided that he was going to start searching for Daniel once more, he removed his hands from his knees and started brushing microscopic dust particles off his clothes. It helped him feel more dignified. He took a deep breath before taking one step forward. It was at that moment another scream echoed throughout the castle, a scream that Alexander could now very safely say belonged to Daniel.

Why was the git screaming now? Alexander dropped his journal and quill to the floor and started to rub his temples. This was simply too much stress to deal with in one sitting. He racked his mind and tried to think of all the things Daniel would scream at.

A mouse, a cockroach, mirrors, a door, Alexander, his own shadow, loud noises, footsteps, fire, water, a lever, a rock, wine, sharp tools, broken tools, blunt tools, erasers, sharp edges of paper, a feather.

…A Grunt.

Shit.

There were a couple of thumping noises from the room above him before it all fell silent. Alexander tried to control his breathing; if he was quiet enough, then maybe he could hear something else. But no. It was all horrifyingly silent. As much as he would love to hear(or rather, not hear) Daniel actually being quiet for once, the thought was terrible to him now.

And he started to panic once more.

His footsteps sounded like roars of thunder as he quickly ran to the nearest flight of stairs to see what had happened. His heart was pounding. If something bad had happened to Daniel, he didn't know what he would do. He didn't know if he could forgive himself. Of course, he didn't care if children and teenagers were harmed or killed in his torture process; he wasn't very emotionally attached to them. But he had been forced to stick with Daniel for a while now, and he had grown attached the boy. (Of course, he would never admit this on his own.)

Alexander slowed his sprint once more as he neared the door where the sound had seemingly come from. He placed his journal and quill in one hand and placed his other on the cool knob of the door. The male lightly picked his hand up and could feel it peel away with a disturbing noise; the amount of sweat layering his hand was tremendous.

He could have sworn he heard a shushing noise from inside the room, as if someone were telling their partner or companion to be quiet. If he weren't so engrossed in finding out what happened to Daniel, he would have focused on this more. Alexander took a deep breath, braced himself, and threw open the door.

Two seconds later, he started frantically scribbling in his journal.

OoO

Dear Journal,

I can NOT believe that I was actually worried for this git! This is…this is crazy! I nearly gave myself multiple heart attacks over this idiot, and for absolutely nothing! He's perfectly fine. There are large amounts of…pink and red hearts decorating the library, and I see the said idiot painting more! Where does he get all of his paint? I could have sworn that I do not own this much paint!

And what's worse? A Grunt. One of my very own Grunts is actually HELPING HIM paint the hearts. …Well, my Grunt's 'hearts' look as if it is splattering blood all over the wall and all over Daniel's little 'hearts', and I commend it for that. Remind me to give it another sacrifice later, journal. If you can. I mean, it would be kind of hard for you to tell me everything, and-

…Am I actually talking to you as if you are a real human being with feelings and emotions? As if you could actually talk back to me? Ha! I…I think I just may be going insane…

Anyway. The two are painting blasted hearts all over my

FUHLSDJAMKFHUAJK.

ULASHDASJDMASNHYALJD?

AUUEIHHAMHUGYLAFUJI!

…What the…Those blasted Grunts and Brutes! When I get my hands on them, I will…! Ugh!

OoO

Alexander allowed the journal and the quill to fall to the floor. He stood there, completely silent, as Daniel (and now his own Grunt!) continued to vandalize his walls, apparently not knowing he was there. Daniel started humming as he drew more hearts on the wall, and he hopped off the little stool he was standing on to move to the other end of the room.

He then noticed Alexander staring at him with a smile equivalent to his other one from just half an hour ago.

Daniel's first reaction was to throw the bucket of paint he was holding at Alexander's face. And that is exactly what he did. He then realized what he had just done and gasped, diving behind the Grunt's body to save his face.

"DANIEL!" Alexander screeched, his face completely covered in red. It quite fit. Daniel quivered from behind the monster, but did not reply out of fear. "Just WHAT, pray tell, are you DOING IN HERE?"

"…Painting hearts." came the muffled reply.

"And just why," the older male seethed. "Are you painting hearts? In my library, no less?"

"…W-well…" Daniel stuttered. "Valentine's day was yesterday, and we didn't do anything, so…I just wanted to surprise you…Looks like that did not go too well…Oh, look!" He tried to smile once more. "This is one of the monsters I painted on the walls. I ran into him while running away from your horrifying look earlier. I thought he was going to horribly mutilate me or worse, but he is actually very kind!" He stood up and patted the Grunt on the head.

"…Daniel," Alexander's eye twitched. "My Grunt is not for petting."

"But he is really soft! He is perfect for petting!"

"No. He is meant to-" To what? Kill, kidnap, torture, mutilate?

"To what, Alexander?"

"To….do chores! You can not expect me to take care of this castle all by myself, now can you?"

"N-no, I suppose not-"

"This Grunt is one of my helpers. Do not bother them on your silly quests to destroy my castle."

"But I wasn't-"

"No buts! Do you understand me?" He felt like a parent scolding their child. In a way, that really was kind of similar to their current conversation.

"Yes, Alexander…"

"Very good. Now go to bed." Daniel instantly shot up.

"What? But Alexander, I have just woken-"

"Go to bed." He crossed the distance between them in three large steps and lightly rapped Daniel on his head. The younger male would have fallen to the ground in a heap, but the Grunt was able to catch him in time, luckily enough. Alexander looked up at his Grunt. "Take him to his room. I'll deal with him later. When you're done, go back to your regular duties!" He said the last statement in a shout and the Grunt quickly ran away, not wanting to be caught in the line of fire.

When the room was empty, Alexander finally allowed himself to relax. He needed wine. Badly. He brought his hand down on his face in exasperation.

Really, what was he going to do with that boy…

OoO

A/N: Rushed chapter is rushed. Gahh. I hope it's still readable! I wanted to get this up before it got too far from Valentine's day, lol. I hope you all had a good one!

And I'll have Daniel do something other than paint on walls next chapter, I promise, lol.

On the bright side, Daniel now has a new monster friend! :DD