AN:/ Another quick update for you. I don't know why but it didn't save my formatting when I posted so don't freak out. Oh and just as a heads up I'll be starting school here in a couple of days so updates may slow down. just be patient. As difficult as that may seem to some of you. alright well i guess i really don't have anything else to say. Enjoy.

Running to the Enemy's Arms

Chapter 21: We Are Family?

by:deadlydaisy8o8

Originally Uploaded: Saturday, September 4, 2010, 10:04PM

IMPORTANT: Vlad woke up before Danny and managed to get out of Danny's grasp without him waking up. I didn't want to wiggle that super awkward "I'm gonna wake up and i'm cuddling with Vlad Masters" scene in there. because I'm lazy and I think Vlad is perfectly capable of getting out of this situation scott free, because he's Vlad. If enough People complain, I'll write the scene but i won't put it in the story i'll just PM it to all the people who were angry. There that's all you need to know.

Danny's POV

"Daniel! You need to wake up!" I groaned and rolled away from the far-away voice. It sounded angry and I did not want to deal with "angry" right now. I wanted to sleep.

"Daniel this is your last chance!" I continued to remain immobile. Couldn't this voice see that I was tired and that I wanted to be left alone? I waited a couple of moments expecting more shouting, as that had been the pattern so far.

ZZZZAAP!

My eyes shot open, a brilliant green. I instantly whipped around and grabbed the hand of my attacker; focusing only long enough on the person's center-of-mass to shoot a powerful ecto-blast.

"Daniel!"

The person only dodged out of the way after slipping from my grasp. I blinked a few times as I registered that the voice was Vlad's and that I was in my pajamas still. I sighed and slumped back to my pillow. I really had to stop doing that. Now officially out of "attack whatever is waking me up mode" I was getting a headache from moving so fast so suddenly. Maybe if I just went back to sleep for a minute it would go away.

"Daniel don't even think about going back to bed. Sit up this instant." I sighed and begrudgingly obeyed. I rubbed my eye as I looked at Vlad. He was of course, all ready for the day, just as always. He stood over me as I took in my surroundings and got my bearings. I spotted a very large burnt hole in the wall and cringed; slowly looking back to Vlad.

"Sorry about the-"

"Daniel, we've been over this every morning since you've arrived. I will not be accepting any apologies. You are incredibly hard to get to wake up dear boy. It was only as a last resort that I gave you a little jolt. You actually took it much better than I expected. Now, I need you to get up. You have to go to school today and I have to be to work." A whole host of emotions welled up inside me when he mentioned school. I didn't know how to sort through them all. Mostly I was dreading going though. I really didn't want to deal with those people right now. Vlad must have noticed because he opened his mouth to question me.

"Is something wrong Daniel?" I avoided eye contact and shook my head. This was something I didn't want him 'helping' me with.

"No I'm fine." Vlad just gave me a 'do you really expect me to believe that' look but left it alone. He told me when to be down to breakfast like he always did as he walked towards the door .

"Well now that you are finally awake I will see you down at breakfast in about twenty minutes." I stretched and nodded; pretty used to this routine by now.

"Okay I'll see ya then." With that Vlad left the room and I was alone. I sat mindlessly on the bed for a minute before I started to move towards the bathroom to take a shower. As I went through my morning routine I tried to remember this dream I had had last night.

It was a very weird dream. It had been a nightmare, at least at first. Nightmares were nothing new though. What was weird was that it had gone away after a little bit and turned into a good dream. I had a lot of nightmares in this past year and they never turned into good dreams. They only went on and on until I got so freaked out that I woke up, or Jazz heard me scream and came to wake me up. Some people say that sometimes you can control your dreams and change them and stuff but that's never happened to me; at least not with any nightmare I've ever had. I can be completely aware that I'm dreaming and I still won't be able to snap myself out of it. I mean, I've been having these hardcore nightmares for the past year, and me and Jazz have done everything to try to get rid of them. Then tonight I have one and it just stops being a nightmare right in the middle of it. This dream was weird because in all of the nightmares I've ever had, I've never had one that just stopped. I grabbed a towel after I turned myself intangible in the shower to get all of the water off. Just because I was dry didn't mean I wasn't cold… or a little self conscious.

I shook my head as I opened up the door to the room all of my clothes were in. It was just a stupid dream I guess. I didn't want to question the good things that happened to me anyways. I reached over to my left and found the light switch on the wall. I had hesitated in calling this room a closet because it was about as big as my old bedroom. Vlad had all of my clothes moved to this room after I had picked which bedroom I wanted.

I paused for a minute when I realized something. Today was the first day I had been allowed to pick out my own clothes. Up until now, I either hadn't known where they were or I had to wear something else. A smile lit up my face and I started walking towards the less formal side of the closet. You couldn't exactly call any of the stuff in here 'casual'. I was about to grab a pair of jeans when I remembered a couple of things.

First of all, was that I was that the school had a dress code, and a very strict one. I had eventually gotten my hands on a student handbook yesterday and they had thought of every loophole. Second was that I would look like an idiot wearing what I usually wore, and that wouldn't help me in my mission to let everyone know who they were messing with. The third thing I thought of surprised me but I had already thought it before I could stop myself. That was that Vlad wouldn't be very impressed with me if I wore jeans, converse, and an unbuttoned oxford.

I sighed and turned toward the suits at the other end of the closet. I don't know why it was so important that Vlad liked what I was wore now, but it was. He had dropped a huge bomb on me last night when he told me he wanted me to take his place when he retired. I mean, I knew he wanted me as a son and stuff, but I guess I really didn't get that he really actually meant it. He really truthfully wanted me to be his son. I really didn't know how to feel about that. It made my stomach do all kinds of flip flops when I thought about it. I had never really had anyone want to be around me that much. On the one hand the fact that Vlad wanted me to be his son was a little creepy and freaked me out, but on the other hand I really liked the attention. I'd never had anyone actively care that much about me before. It was cool to have someone think you were the best thing ever and want to take care of you. I mean my family had cared about me a lot but there was just something different about Vlad. My family was required to take care of me, Vlad didn't have to and he did anyway because he wanted to. Last night it had finally hit home that Vlad really did care, and not just because I was half ghost like him. He had enough faith in who I was as a person to think that his companies would be safe when he was gone if I was the one running them. He trusted, and liked me enough to give me everything he has; and he wasn't even waiting until he died! He'd already said a couple times that I had access to everything he had access to.

My parents had talked a couple of times about taking over the "Family Business" some day, but the way they talked about; it was different. They had always made it very clear that we had very little choice in what we were going to do when we got older. I mean they never specifically said "We expect you are going to take over Fenton Works when you get older" but they had come pretty close. Vlad made sure to let me know it was my decision whether I wanted to follow his career or not. My parents never used words like "if". I knew Vlad wanted me to take over his companies but he'd also made it very clear that it was up to me. I'd never really had that choice before and it felt really cool. In a way it made me feel more independent, like I could make my own decisions. I really didn't like business all that much, but I kind of was considering what he was offering me. Vlad thought I could do it, and if he thought I could do it, I was pretty sure I could. Vlad was never afraid to be blunt about what he thought a person was capable of. The fact that he wanted me to do it made me feel really important.

All of this really made me want to show Vlad that he didn't make a bad choice in believing in me so much. I wanted to make sure that I didn't disappoint him after he had shown he had so much faith in me. I definitely didn't want him to think that I didn't care. I did care; a lot. I don't know when it happened but it suddenly mattered that Vlad thought I was doing a good job. I didn't want him to think that I thought that everything he was doing for me was some joke. I mean, after all he's done for me, I want him to know that I'm serious about this stuff too. And one of the ways I could show him I was taking him seriously was to get my act together. I could show him that I could do a good job. Being the best at this business stuff became that much more important than it was before. It wasn't just for me anymore. I was doing it so that Vlad would see that he had made a good choice in believing in me.

I reached for a black suit I thought looked the nicest and tried really hard not to wrinkle it as I put it on. I buttoned everything up, tucked everything in; I even brushed all of the invisible dust off of it like Vlad did. I thought I looked pretty good. I went and ran a brush through my hair even though I didn't think it needed it. The only thing missing was the tie. I grabbed one randomly off of the long rack and looked at the baby blue silk in my hand. Vlad had tied my tie yesterday after I had put up a fuss about wearing one. He didn't know that I didn't know how. This was going to be so embarrassing.

"It's called a Windsor knot. Now you try it." Vlad handed me the tie he had just undone with a smile in his eyes. We had just finished breakfast and he was helping me with my tie. When I asked him he had smirked at first and probably wanted to laugh, but that didn't last long, for which I was grateful. I popped the collar of my oxford and went through the instructions in my head as I took the strip of fabric and put it around my neck.

"Okay so you go under first…" I looked up at Vlad hesitantly and he nodded for me to continue. "Then you go through here, and across in front again, and then you tuck it through this loop thing?" I had just finished pulling everything tight when I heard a stifled laugh. I looked back up to Vlad who was very poorly concealing the fact that he was the culprit.

"What?" My cheeks were starting to get a little hot in embarrassment. Vlad only shook his head and pointed to the end of my tie.

"You don't see anything wrong with this?"

"Why what's…" I got a look at what Vlad was talking about. I had been so concentrated on figuring out the knot that the skinny part of the tie had ended up on top. I had done the knot with the wrong end of the tie. I went to undo the knot while Vlad spoke.

"Well at least you got the knot right." I paused to shoot Vlad a glare while I redid the tie. As I finished up we started walking towards the entryway and Vlad continued conversation.

"I do have to say Daniel that I am rather pleased with your choice of attire. I was certain you would have come down to breakfast with more jeans and converse on. What made you decide to wear this instead?" My heart skipped a beat when Vlad said he was happy with what I was wearing. This stupid, uncomfortable piece of crap was paying off after all! I stuttered a little bit as I responded to Vlad's question.

"I-I dunno. I mean, you were going to send me back up to my room anyway if I came down in what I wanted to wear. Plus this is what everyone else is wearing at school. If I wore anything else I would have stuck out and probably have gotten some grief for it." Vlad frowned looking stern for a minute, which made me worry a little bit when he spoke next.

"You haven't already made yourself more enemies than Mr. William have you? Has anyone been giving you trouble?" I immediately shook my head.

"No, everything at school is fine. It's only been one day. I mean what the heck could've happened in that amount of time anyway? I just want to keep myself out of the spotlight and dressing like everyone else is a good way to do that." Vlad still looked skeptically at me and I tried to look innocent. He didn't need to know about my school problems. I would look like a wuss if he came in and told everyone to lay off. I really didn't know how these people operated but I was pretty sure that parental interventions were looked down upon. I had to do this by myself. I was torn from my worrying when Vlad sighed, exasperated.

"You can't be openly rude to people like you can at Casper Daniel. People with money don't care about brawn, they can all easily buy that. You have to get them with something they can't buy, your brains. If you try to physically assert yourself you are going to appear to know nothing in regards to climbing the financial ladder. This in turn makes you into a person they might easily take advantage of or manipulate to their side." I tried to act like I was confused with what Vlad was saying, but that was a little difficult as I internally was trying to commit what he was saying to memory. Fortunately or unfortunately, I can't decide which yet; Vlad saw through my confused act and went right on with his little speech as we arrived in the entryway

"You already are very good at out-witting your enemies Daniel. You do it frequently with your ghostly adversaries. I must say you are quite famous throughout the Ghost Zone for your sarcasm. Apply that to this situation and I believe you will find yourself quite ahead of the game. Your peers have had not had quite so much practice with competing with a tongue of your caliber." I blushed a little when he pointed out that everyone in the Ghost Zone knew about my witty banter. Nearly every ghost I ran into had something to say about my "snappy remarks". It was cool to know that Vlad thought it was a good skill. I hadn't been born spouting sarcastic insults. Sure I had always liked irony and sarcasm, but it takes a while to get used to thinking on your feet like that. Vlad once more ignored my awkwardness and kept going on giving me advice.

"I believe you are also familiar with finding loopholes and excuses to be rude while techniquely being polite; lying while techniquely telling the truth. These sorts of things are vital to covering up your true intentions and tend to make others particularly angry. If you want to get under someone's skin be polite to them but in a very insulting way. It sets people off because they know your taking advantage of them and they can't do anything about it because it would make them look bad." I paused a minute because what Vlad said was right. I was very used to doing all of that. I had to if I wanted to keep my ghost half a secret. I was constantly coming up with cover stories for where I was and why. I was always lying to my parents and my teachers. I knew how to cover for myself that was for sure, but that didn't have to mean I was proud of it. Vlad must have noticed me slump slightly because he finally took a break from his monologue to grab me by the shoulder and give me a reassuring squeeze.

"Dear boy, you should not feel ashamed for knowing how to do these things. I believe you are going to quickly find that you are not the only one with this knowledge. The difference is that you will be able to act the perfect gentlemen while you do what you need to do. Now I want to advise you on one last thing before I send you on your way." I looked back up at Vlad curiously. The way he looked at me like he was going to be there for me made me feel better. It was really awesome to know that he was going to be there whenever I needed him. I opened my mouth to ask what he wanted to say.

"Alright well what is it?" He grinned at me before he stood up slightly.

"Your posture dear boy." I gaped for a minute before I responded.

"My what?" Vlad smiled a little more broadly.

"Your posture. Body language can say a lot about a person. People read other people by how they carry themselves and how they interact before they even talk to each other. Presenting yourself strongly is a subtle way to get ahead. So there are a few things you need to know. The first is that you need to stand as tall as you can with your shoulders back and your chin slightly up." Vlad demonstrated and waited for me to copy him. I sighed and rolled my eyes before I humored the guy. He studied me for a moment with a contemplative frown before he pushed my shoulders back a little and tilted my head a little downward.

"Good. You don't need to look at the ceiling, just a slight incline will do. Keep your hands clasped behind your back to help with your shoulders and your chest. It also makes you appear relaxed. Do not however lower your head or put your hands in your pockets. You don't want to appear too worried or anxious as these are signs of weakness. If you do something that feels awkward or submissive, chances are it makes you appear that way as well. I believe that will suffice for now." I sighed out of the tense position Vlad had put me in. He raised an eyebrow at me as I spoke. I appreciated his help and all but this was a little much.

"Vlad I don't want to look like I'm a snob. Don't you think this is a little overboard?" Vlad grinned slightly before he responded like he had been expecting my accusation and his mind was really elsewhere.

"You certainly don't have to take any of my advice Daniel. This is simply the information I believe is going to help you in the long run." Vlad continued to study me like there was something he was trying to figure out. I tried to ignore it, but the way he kept staring at me was making me uncomfortable.

"Vlad?" He didn't stop his studying as he responded.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?" Vlad paused for a moment and furrowed his eyebrows.

"You are sixteen, correct?" I looked at him skeptically. Where the heck was this going?

"Yeah…" Vlad studied me for a moment longer before he looked right at me.

"You only look like you're about the size of a twelve year old." Okay, now I was really confused and insulted. Never a great combination, especially with my life.

"Well thank you Vlad, for reminding me of my stunted growth. Do you want a golden star for your observational skills? What the heck does my height have to do with anything?" Vlad smiled proudly for a moment. It took me a minute to realize it was because I had been sarcastic and we had just been talking about that. I sighed and dragged my hand down my face, causing Vlad to chuckle and finally answer my question.

"Daniel you really are abnormally small for a young man your age; especially being the son of Jack Fenton." A weird emotion swelled up inside of me when Vlad said I was my dad's son and I didn't like it. It made my stomach twist into an undoable knot almost like I wanted to puke. I could feel the blood rush out of my face and I really didn't feel like standing up anymore, but I forced myself to anyway. I came out of my own thoughts when Vlad spoke again.

"The limo still has a few minutes before it will pull around, why don't we sit down?" I wanted to protest and say that I was fine but I found that I couldn't. My hands had started shaking and had turned white as I thought of my Dad. Can you call someone who's pointed a gun in your face your Dad? Does being related by blood force you to love someone? He could and would have killed me; was he still my dad after that? I felt my breathing get shallow. I knew then, that I needed a distraction. I looked pleadingly to Vlad. He immediately complied with my silent request.

"Daniel have you ever wondered why you haven't hit a growth spurt yet?" I clung to the subject of conversation and worked to actively distract myself. I shook my head as I responded.

"No, I mean they say that everyone is different. I always thought that I was just, you know, a late bloomer or something. I mean yeah it's really annoying but it's not that big a deal, I'll catch up eventually…. Right?" The contemplative look Vlad was wearing was making me uncertain. Vlad thought for a moment before he asked another question.

"How often do you need your hair cut?" I was taken a little off guard by the question so I had to think for a minute.

"I dunno, I think maybe once every eight months or something. Not very often." When I answered Vlad looked like he had just discovered something significant, though I have no clue what was so special about how often I got a trim. I would soon find out though.

"Daniel, have you ever considered taking growth hormones?" I just stared at him for a long minute. I had no clue where he was going with this so I was going to let him do all the talking. When he figured I was waiting for him, he spoke again.

"You don't find it odd at all that your hair grows at such a slow pace or that you are still so short? You see when I was in the hospital one of the side effects that I was diagnosed with was a decrease in growth hormones. My hair and fingernails virtually stopped growing all together. One of the things they did to remedy that was give me small doses of hormones to jump start my system again. I was wondering if you might consider a similar course of action. You obviously are not growing at a normal rate. At such a critical time in your life especially, I would think you would have at least grown a few inches. I don't believe it's out of the realm of possibility that you may require a jump start like I did." I blinked a few times at what Vlad was saying. He was so casual about the whole thing, like it was no big deal. I slowly started to come out of it.

"So you're saying that you think I'm not growing because my ghost half is somehow stopping me, and I'm not going to grow if I don't do something about it?" Vlad smiled cautiously like he wasn't sure if he should have told me the information.

"Essentially, yes. That or you will grow at a very slow pace in comparison to others. Whether or not you want to do anything about it is up to you. I don't believe it would be detrimental to your health if you chose to opt out of taking it, but I believe you may also like the effects it could have. It is a very low risk drug and has very few side effects other than what is intended of course." I had to sit and think about this for a minute. What Vlad said was really random, but it made a lot of sense. I mean if he had this problem too then he would know what he was talking about. Plus I really didn't like being short and wiry. I was constantly teased for it, and I was definitely not opposed to being a little taller and a little bigger. This was probably something that could help me. I hadn't been to a doctor in about two years because I was afraid that they would figure out that I was half ghost, so I didn't really know if I was necessarily healthy or not. It was very possible that Vlad was right. I mean my hair did grow really slowly and I hadn't had to by different sized clothes since I went into the portal. I felt like this was something I should take a little time to think about before I decided, but I felt like I was already sure what I wanted. I mean if it was going to make me better then why not? What was there left to decide? I trusted Vlad knew what he was doing. I paused before I looked up to Vlad.

"Okay, I'll do it." Vlad looked slightly taken back that I had decided so suddenly.

"Are you sure you want this Daniel? You don't want to take more time to think this over?" Vlad looked at me skeptically and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Not really. I'm pretty sure this is what I want. I mean it sounds like you know what you're talking about and that there really isn't anything bad that can go wrong. Sounds like a pretty straight forward decision to me." Vlad only nodded seeming to consider something.

"Alright then, I'll have a prescription written up for you today after school when I can give you a check up." I nodded my head.

"Alright that sounds… wait what did you say?" I looked at him confused when I registered what he'd said in that last part. He just looked at me like he had won something.

"I'll need to take your medical information Daniel. I'll need to have all of your information to be able to prescribe the correct amount." That's what I thought; there was a catch. I shouldn't have expected otherwise I guess. With Vlad, there is always a catch, whether it's supposed to be for your benefit or not. I had to have a check up if I wanted this stuff. I couldn't go back now either because I had already agreed. Crap, there wasn't really a way out of this. Well except,

"I'm 5'4'' and about 100 pounds. There, now you don't have to do anything." I could have sworn I saw shock flash over Vlad face for a minute before he was looking at me with a smirk.

"You aren't getting out of it Daniel. Though I suppose that never stopped you from trying before." Before I could reply there was a honk from outside. I growled to myself and Vlad only smirked as we stood up.

"I believe that is your ride Daniel. I'll see you after school now. Remember what I told you. Shoulders back, chin up, and no pockets." I only huffed and slouched just to spite the guy. He wasn't having any of it and kept right on smiling.

"Whatever Vlad, I'll see you I guess." He raised his eyebrows laughingly and waved from the doorway as I made my way down the front steps.