Yet another new chapter without much change aside from some adjustments to the proper flow of the story! I promise I do start making some bigger changes further along in the story but for now, I'm just making enough changes to adjust the flow of the story.

KorevainsoLightshire: About Mavis, I honestly didn't even think about that. But you'll be pleased to know I went back into the previous chapter and made a slight adjustment thanks to your comment! Thank you for letting me know and I hope you like the story!

Chapter 5: Unexpected Favor and Uninvited Guest

Mavis found herself unable to head to sleep. Too many thoughts of the boy with white hair occupied her mind while she laid in the silence of her room. So she decided to head down to the lobby and do some exploring. A smile was spread across her dark lips as she walked through the halls of the hotel, greeting all the monsters. The ones who she knew smiled and called to her by name while she introduced herself to the new ones.

"Honey bat, what are you doing still up? The sun is up. It could kill you" Dracula said, meeting his daughter at the stairs leading to the lobby. "Didn't Danny take you to your room?"

"Yeah, well, that was a few hours ago and I wanted to see some of the guests." Mavis said shyly, tucking some hair behind her ear. "Do you know if Danny is awake yet by the way?"

"No, I haven't seen- Why do you want to know?" Dracula asked, noticing his daughter's sudden curiosity.

"Oh! No reason, I was just curious. He's interesting..." Mavis said, smiling at the floor as she thought about the boy.

Dracula chuckled, getting an idea of what was running through his daughter's head. He made a mental note to go and talk to the young ghost boy in the future and try to get to know him better as he set a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

"I haven't seen him but his parents are out on the patio having lunch. You could go ask them." he suggested.

Mavis' blue eyes lit up and she nodded before running out to meet the couple.

Meanwhile, a familiar head full of wild red hair was shoving his way through the revolving doors of the lobby with a large backpack. Out on the patio, Jack had set a plate of food on the table for his wife, who kept glancing up at the window she knew led to their bedroom.

"Come on, Sally. You gave him some deadly night shade mixed with moon dust. He's fine. If you spend all your time worrying about him almost as much as you do at home, you won't get any vacation time." Jack said, reaching over and setting his boney hand on his wife's hand. "Let me worry about him. You relax."

"Jack, I'm his mother. I'm supposed to worry about him." Sally said, taking a second to look at her husband's empty eye sockets, which accompanied a frown and an exasperated sigh.

Sally couldn't help but laugh at her husband's antics as he rested his head in his boney hand. He seemed deep in thought before his face lit up and he snapped his fingers.

"How about I spend the day with him tomorrow? Get some food? Explore the forest? Scaring like old times? All while you spend the day to yourself. Stress free and relaxing like you deserve." He said, a large grin decorating his skull.

"I think it'd be very sweet of you to do that." Sally smiled, the stitching along her cheeks making her seem much happier than anyone else they knew.

Jack stood and took a step toward his wife in her chair. Leaning down, he rested his hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead lovingly. Then he took a step back and sent her a wide, boney smile. While his eye sockets were empty, Sally could see the sparks of all the ideas already running through his skull.

"I've got some planning to do, then. I'll see you later." And with that, he was gone.

Sally couldn't stop herself from laughing at the irony. Her husband had taken this vacation in order to get away from all of the planning and stress that the mayor usually put him through as soon as Halloween ended, only for him to start planning for things at the hotel. Her husband wasn't himself without his plans and she loved him for it.

The flapping sound of small wings caught Sally's attention and she turned to see a small bat just as it morphed into Mavis who greeted her with a smile.

"Hi Mrs. Sally! Have you seen Danny?" Mavis asked as she took a seat in Jack's abandoned chair, her eyes scanning the area before she turned to face the doll lady.

"Hello, Mavis." She smiled as she sipped some tea that Jack had brought for her. "Yes, he's sleeping. I gave him something to help him sleep so he'll be out for a few more hours."

"Oh. Does he have a hard time sleeping?" The vampiress asked, concerned for the boy.

The ragdoll woman set her cup down and rested her hands in her lap. If Mavis was anything like her father, Sally knew that she'd find out sooner or later as Dracula always had the gift of finding out information regardless of how much of it was hidden. And now Mavis was concerned about her son. Of course, Danny was always the one who caused those around him to grow to care for him almost unnaturally. Almost all of the monsters back in Halloween town always had a tendency to make sure the ghost boy was always happy and entertained. No one wanted to see him sad, especially after seeing the state the boy had arrived at back in the beginning.

This vampire girl here wanted to find more about the ghost boy. Seeing as how they were fairly similar in physical age, it would be nice for Danny to be able to spend more time with her. He was always so patient with all the older monsters back home but he didn't have anyone near his age to hang out with. Mavis would be someone for the ghost boy to connect to. So Sally deemed it appropriate for her to know.

"It's not usually something that ghosts like to talk about but each has their own response to how they died. Jack and I met a ghost in the past who loved talking about how she died. It was how she would get her revenge on the ones who used to bully her but she was a very rare type." Sally explained, knowing that Mavis was listening fairly carefully. "As for Danny, he doesn't remember much from his life but his death was and is still very traumatic for him so he often has nightmares from it and will refuse to get a night's rest. He's tried in the past to go without sleep but it's still important to have a moment to stop and recharge, especially with the events and responsibilities he has back home. So, every night, I'll make a potion for him to have dreamless sleep so he can get his rest. Even the undead need to sleep."

Mavis nodded, looking down in thought as she absorbed this information.

"If I could ask a favor." Sally say, causing the vampiress to look back up at her..

"Of course, Mrs. Sally."

"I think that having someone closer to his age would help Danny. While we are his parents, he can only bring himself to tell us so much about what he's going through. As a teenage boy, he still has the mentality to try to get through issues by himself. I think that if he were to trust someone else aside from Jack and myself, it would be a teenager like him." Sally said, her motherly concern showing through as she spoke. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like for you and Danny to spend more time together and come to trust each other. As much as you can, at least while we're here, we'll talk to your father about possible future visits, of course. He may come to confide in you more."

"Oh. Of course, Mrs. Sally. I'd be more than happy to try to help him." Mavis said, shocked by this mothers request.

Of course, she'd only known Danny for a day but she felt the draw of wanting to be around him some more. Mavis wasn't sure if this woman knew but she was pretty lonely in the hotel too. For now, she'd try to help and get close to Danny as best as she could. She would watch over him. She still owed him from when he saved her from those humans, after all.

—

Later, after she had excused herself from the patio with Sally, Mavis was thinking of a couple of fun things she and Danny could do together as she once again found herself making her way down the stairs leading to the lobby. Her mind was so distracted by her plans that she didn't seem to notice any of the chaos that was going on around her. There was a broom flying around the room and it's owner was on the floor below jumping around as if trying to catch it. A red haired boy was screaming as he held onto the rouge broom for dear life. The wild broom did a few loops in the air and promptly collided into Mavis as soon as she noticed the boy. The broom flew off as the two tumbled down the stairs, Mavis managed to catch herself and land on her knees, clutching her head but the boy landed right on his head of red hair.

"Oohhhh, what hit me?" the boy muttered, holding his head as he sat up.

Mavis, having recovered before him, held her throbbing head.

"More like what you hit. Which would be me and the floor." Mavis replied, ignoring the headache that was forming from the collision.

He paused as if fully realizing what happened and slowly turned to look at her, his eyes widened and he scurried to back away from her.

"Gah! I'm sorry!" He exclaimed, his voice cracking slightly out of what sounded like fear.

Mavis only tilted her head at him in confusion as her headache faded. He looked terrified but she couldn't have been the cause of that. Could she? He looked like her uncle Frank. His bright red hair sticking straight up and a stitch pattern on his neck. His blue jacket seemed three sizes too big for him and he wore an orange and yellow shirt under it with tan khakis and sneakers.

"Um, it's ok. I'm fine." Mavis said, taking a moment to study the boy a bit more before her dad rushed to stand in between them, stretching his cape to cover the boy and block him from her sight.

"Mavis, honey, are you alright?" He asked, looking at her with what looked like a mix between concern and nervousness.

"Yeah, I think so." Mavis answered, straightening and coming to a stand. "That was really weird."

Her attention was drawn from her father by the boy talking again.

"My head hurts." he muttered.

"Dad, who is that?" Mavis asked, her dad's hiding of this boy must mean something and she had to find out why.

"Who is what?" Dracula asked, trying to act confused. It didn't seem to work as his daughter crossed her arms and gave him a pointed look. "Oh, that. That is nobody."

"Seriously, Dad?" Mavis asked, her voice deadpanned as she raised a brow.

The two vampires' attention was caught by the boy as he suddenly pushed past Dracula's cape and gave Mavis a bewildered look.

"Dad?!" he exclaimed.

Mavis giggled, used to the reaction she had been getting from customers since she was born.

"Yeah, I know," She smiled. "Dracula's daughter. Everyone freaks out at first."

"Dracula?!" The boy exclaimed before her dad wrapped him in his cape and backed away.

"Okay, we got to go." he said hurriedly before flying away.

Mavis stood and watched her dad, suspiciously. However, her attention was drawn to a certain white haired teen as he flew into the lobby. He looked around as if searching for something before his eyes landed on her and he smiled, flying over to her.

"Hey Mavis!" He greeted her as he landed in front of her.

"Hey, you're looking better. More well rested." She smiled at him and set a hand on her hip.

He really did look much better than he did when she first met him. His eyes were actually glowing despite it being a lit area and his hair was clean and brushed. He had changed his clothes to a black t-shirt with the P inside a D insignia from his sweatshirt over a white long sleeve with black jeans and white combat boots. His mood was energetic and his face was decorated with a large grin. She realized he was staring at her and felt her cheeks warm up slightly.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Much better now that I got some sleep." Danny said before rubbing the back of his neck. "My aunt told me you were looking for me."

"Oh! Yeah. I wanted to know if you wanted to go up to the clouds and play hide and go seek sharp objects but... you know... without the sharp objects." Mavis asked shyly, holding her hands behind her back.

"I've never heard of that. Maybe I played it when I was alive. You'll have to explain the rules but it sounds like fun." Danny said, his bubbly attitude making Mavis smile.

Her competitive nature kicked in as she morphed into a bat.

"Alright! Race you up there!" She exclaimed, flying through the air.

She could hear his laughter behind her and couldn't help but laugh as well

Bonus cookie points for anyone who caught the Harry Potter reference in this chapter.