"Shit, you're bleeding." Danny said suddenly, looking at Vlad's hand that he had been holding the coffee mug with, prior to its untimely demise. He took hold of Vlad's hand without thinking, and ever so gently pressed a napkin to the cut, before removing it briefly to have a look.
"It doesn't look to deep, little badger, it's alright."
"It's bleeding a lot." He said with uncertainty, gently dabbing the blood away. How strange, that the boy should care so much about a tiny little cut.
And then Vlad realised what was really going on. Such a small action spoke louder than any words ever could.
Danny was freaking out. He was so very afraid of losing the only person he had left in the world that such a silly thing as a minor cut had him scared.
But that pretty much summed him up all over. Danny was rash; he often said and did things without really thinking them through. He fought ghosts with a ferocity that was downright scary at times. But he was a good person underneath it all. He was kind hearted, gentle. He wouldn't hurt a fly if he didn't have a very, very good reason to do so.
And so Vlad sat there and allowed Danny to obsess over the cut until the bleeding had subsided. He observed the somewhat worried look on his face, the way his hair was perhaps more of a mess than it had ever been before. The way he was tenderly holding his hand and attending to his wound as if it was the most important thing in the world. It was adorable.
Danny had a way of making you like him, whether you wanted to or not. The way he was made it impossible to not be fond of him. There was a certain light around him; a warmth that seemed to follow him wherever he went. In a way, Vlad was happy that they now had this. Though he wasn't entirely sure what 'this' was, it was nice sitting here with the boy without having an ulterior motive, without there being feelings of anger and hatred being thrown to-and-fro across the table.
"My parents were killed in front of me when I was a few years younger than you are now." He said calmly, never taking his eyes away from Danny. He was pretty sure that the cut had stopped bleeding, but Danny was still pressing the napkin to it, and holding his hand. He looked up curiously.
"You don't have to talk about it, I mean, if you don't want to."
"It's fine. If we're going to be living under the same roof, it's only fair that we know these things about each other, right?"
"I know. It's just, you know, I don't want you to feel you have to talk about it if you aren't comfortable with it."
"My father was a very proud man, and a very wealthy one, but it wasn't always that way. He made a few choice investments earl y on in his life. He borrowed money from people who, generally speaking, you should never ever borrow money from. He paid back his debts when his business took off, but once the low life criminal he borrowed from found out about his success, he proclaimed that he was partially to thank for said success, and demanded more money. When my father refused to pay up, things started to get violent. One night, he and few other crooks broke into the mansion and shot both my mother and my father, and then ran off with the safe and a few other valuables. I don't think he realised that I was hiding under the bed the whole time."
"That's awful. I never knew." Danny had stopped what he was doing and was looking at Vlad with a painfully sympathetic look on his face. "It must have been really hard on you."
"I suppose. I was able to stay in the mansion, mainly because I was the sole heir to their fortune and knew who the pay to get what I wanted. I hired private investigators left right and centre to find the guy who killed them, but they'd always either show up dead or missing. In the end I gave up, right up until I got my ghost powers." Vlad abstractly noticed that Danny had discarded the napkin all together in favour of holding Vlad's hand with both of his. It felt oddly intimate, but he didn't dare look into it. That never ended well.
"What did you do?"
"I followed the leads that my private investigators had been following. It turned out that he'd made quite a name for himself while I hadn't been paying attention. He was rich, powerful, and had hundreds of lowly criminals at his beckoned call. When I found him, I lead him to believe that I was just another investigator trying to make a wage by looking into the deaths of Mr and Mrs Masters. He tried to shoot me. You can imagine his surprise when the bullets passed right through me without even leaving a scratch. I toyed with him for a while, made him scared, and then I ripped him apart and took control of his criminal empire."
"Wow." That was all he could say, really. It was quite impressive – and touching, albeit in a sort of sick way. He'd acquired ghost powers, and he'd put avenging his parents above all else, including Maddie and the whole world domination business. That was incredibly sweet by Vlad's standards.
"It gave me some peace to know that the person who caused me the most hurt in my life would never hurt anyone again." He took a deep breath and squeezed Danny's hand, offering a comforting smile. "Kind of like Dan being trapped inside of a thermos for the rest of eternity, wouldn't you agree?"
Danny smiled and nodded. "I guess so. I just kind of want to... Kick his ass. You know what I mean?"
Vlad laughed, before looking at his watch. "It's almost 10am. When are you getting picked up?"
"Any time now I guess. I'd better go and get my stuff and straighten the room out a bit."
When he slipped his hands away from Vlad's, he was instantly aware of cold it felt, and of how much he really hadn't wanted to do that. He felt a brief pain in his chest and put it down to indigestion, even though he knew full well that it wasn't.
"I'll see you soon, little badger."
"See you."
The walk to the lift felt like a mile. He was aware of Vlad's eyes following him the whole way, though he suspected it was just his imagination playing tricks on him. As he stepped into the lift and the doors closed, he let out a deep sigh. That whole hand-holding thing was, well, weird. It made him realise something that he'd been ignoring for a very long time.
He had feelings for Vlad.
He was reluctant to admit it, even to himself. It was weird, he'd never felt this way about anyone before – especially not a middle aged man who had tendencies of trying to kill him, trying to kill his father, trying to seduce his mother, et cetera.
That should definitely not be a turn on.
Perhaps he had to look at this logically. He was supposedly in love with Sam, as he'd been told by virtually everyone. People expected them to be together, he expected them to be together.
When they 'went steady', no one was particularly surprised. But they were more than boyfriend and girlfriend, they were best friends. He certainly cared about her more than he'd ever cared about any other girl. He felt comfortable around her, and there was no denying that she was hot. She was pretty; she had nice eyes, she was slender, interesting, intelligent... But there was always something missing.
He enjoyed being with her. He enjoyed making out and all the things that came after. Of course he enjoyed sex, he's a guy.
... But she didn't have that spark. When he was around Sam, his heart didn't beat at three or four times the normal rate. He didn't get that sudden burst of adrenaline, he didn't feel excited or, dare he say it, turned on. He didn't pine after her when she wasn't around. He didn't find himself obsessing over where she was or what she was doing when he hadn't seen her for a while.
And he knew he loved her. That said, he loved Tucker, he loved Jazz, he loved his mom and his dad. What if it was the same thing? You know, family love. Like Sibling love or bromance.
It didn't even matter anymore, not really. Sam was gone, and so was everyone else. Whatever was or wasn't there was irrelevant. Nothing could become of it anymore.
He squeezed his eyes shut. He was not thinking about this. It was ridiculous – ludicrous, even. To even entertain the idea that he fancied Vlad was madness. Of course he didn't. His feelings were all over the place, his family just died. There was Vlad acting all fatherly and caring, and here Danny was crushing on him.
How wrong is that?
He decided to put his foot down. He was not going to think about this. He didn't have the time to waste. He did, after all, have a plane to catch.