*Inhale*
"FLUFF!"
That is all, proceed.

The shadow flickered and blinked on the attic wall, Casper stood before it, smiling, and holding out an apple.

"Come on, you've almost got it." The ghost smiled supportively.

The shadow reached out, extending beyond its 2D surface. It reached for the apple, but flickered like static and was forced back to the wall. The colorless eyes of the figure scowled, Casper heard an annoyed grunt from behind him.

"We don't have to keep doing this, we can stop." The ghost frowned worriedly.

The shadow quickly shook his head, a determined look it it's eyes.

"Ok, but only more try. You're going to hurt yourself." Casper held out the apple again.

The shadow reached out once more, its hand flickering towards the apple. Its claws wrapped around the red object and picked it up. Casper smiled excitedly, and so did the shadow. Then the black silluoet grimaced and dropped the apple, then dissolved away.

Casper whipped around and looked at Thatch, who was sitting on a chair, rubbing his head dizzily, his shadow returned to its proper spot.

"Fuck." The vampire muttered while rubbing his forehead.

"It was a good attempt, you finally grabbed an object!" the ghost smiled warmly.

"For less than a second." Thatch muttered with annoyance.

Casper grabbed a tissue from a box and handed it to his boyfriend.

"Here, you've got a nosebleed."

The vampire took it and held it under his nose. He looked very tired.

"That's enough shadow practice for today. Come on, let's go get you something for your headache." Casper reached out his hand and helped Thatch to his feet, they left the attic and headed for Casper's room.

You see, many vampires can use their shadows. They can manipulate their shape and movements with just their minds, and fairly easily as well. The second level of this was being able to interact with real world objects. Thatch had even heard of some vampire shadows going off and doing what the subconscious says. And there were even legends of some vampires who could travel through them!

Most vampires his age could shadow manipulate easily.

He could barely make his shadow move. It took so much effort and energy to make his shadow do anything, it was exhausting! And it gave him such a headache.

Thatch sat on the edge of the bed and swallowed two pills, then continued rubbing his head. His nose bleed had been cleaned up, and luckily it hadn't been bad. But his headache was still there, and it would take up to 30 minutes to go away

Casper sat at the head of the bed and reached forward, a warm smile on his face. He grabbed Thatch's hand and pulled his boyfriend towards him.

The vampire raised a brow with a playful smirk;

"Look, I know we're like rabbits, but not while I have headache."

"That's not what I'm doing and you know it." The ghost gave a playfully annoyed smile.

Thatch settled on top of the other, laying his head on Casper's chest. The ghost was very comfortable, especially his sweater. Thatch used to call the Casper "Marshmallow" as an insult, because he was emotionally soft. (and the color of one) But now that they were dating, he knew just how accurate the nickname was. Casper was wonderfully cuddly.

The ghost smiled warmly and ran his hands through the others hair, rubbing his head.

"Is this helping your headache?" Casper asked quietly.

Thatch just hummed his responded with closed eyes and a happy smile.

The young ghost had helped his boyfriend practice enough times by now, to know how much it tired him out and gave him bad migraines. It often worried Casper, but Thatch is stubborn. He was pretty sure that if the vampire accidently cut his arm off, he'd try to fix it himself. Granted Casper wasn't one to talk, if he broke his arm in the middle of the night, he'd wait till morning to tell anyone, just to avoid inconveniencing someone.

After a few moments of silence, the ghost decided to say something.

"You know…you don't have to practice your shadow control. I don't think it's worth hurting yourself over…" he stated apprehensively.

Thatch didn't respond immediately; Casper was starting to wonder if he had fallen asleep before he finally said something.

"I'm a pathetic excuse for a vampire." The vampire mumbled with a tired tone.

The ghost was a little taken a back. He knew that Thatch, despite all his bravado, didn't really like himself. Despite this, Casper had never expected him just to say it out loud like that. Thatch had made such a dense armor of ego, almost nothing made him depressed, just mad. He had made a system, and always stuck to it; "Feel bad about yourself? Get mad. Get mad at a person, an object, anything, just don't consider yourself the problem."

"No, you're not. You don't have to be good at every vampire power to be a vampire." The ghost responded with a warm, reassuring tone.

"I can't hypnotize, I can't shadow control without hurting myself, and I need glasses. No pun intended, I suck." The vampire groaned.

"You don't suck…" Casper reassured with a warm smile, which then turned into a slight smirk. "at least, not like that…"

"Cheeky." Thatch smirked, snuggling further into the sweater.

The ghost chuckled. He knew Thatch liked dirty jokes.

"You don't have to prove yourself to anyone, you're a vampire, and no one can take that away from you. What you can and can't do doesn't equal your worth, no matter what you are." Casper stated with stern reassurance.

"You don't exactly like yourself ether." The vampire responded tiredly.

Casper frowned sadly.

"I'm sorry, that was a dumb thing to say. I'm just tired…" Thatch frowned guiltily.

"You're not wrong. I am a bit of a hypocrite. I generally don't follow my own advice." The ghost admitted. "As people always say, easier said than done."

"Can you admit you're a hypocrite again, I wasn't recording." Thatch joked.

Casper rolled his eyes with a bemused smile, playfully slapping the others shoulder.

"I won't lie, you aren't perfect. Nether am I. But…maybe, if we can be imperfect together, that'll be enough." The ghost mused warmly.

T; "Did you get that from a romance novel?"

C; "Is it more, or less embarrassing that I didn't?"

"Hummm, I'd say more." Thatch smirked playfully.

Casper laughed.

"Though I suppose all of that is a bit of a lie. Being not perfect, makes you perfect. Or at least that's how I see things..." the ghost smiled warmly.

"I wouldn't change a thing about you, that I wouldn't come to regret." Casper smiled lovingly.

Thatch blinked.

"…how are you this poetic?"

"Reading sappy romance story's all day will do that to a person." Casper chuckled.

The vampire picked up Casper's hand and kissed the back of it like a gentleman.

"…You are the loveliest creature I ever met." Thatch smiled.

Casper gave a smitten smile and blushed.

"I'd kiss you, but I can't do it at this angle." He chuckled.

"And I am far too comfortable to move." The vampire chuckled, closing his eyes again.

There was a moment of silence before the ghost opened his eyes again, remembering something.

"I am not a rabbit…" Casper pouted.

"Yeah you are~" Thatch purred.

"I am not."

"You are a rabbit in eeeevery way~" the vampire smirked flirtatiously.

"I'll argue with you later, when your headache is gone." Casper responded sternly.

"Ok, but I'll have firsthand evidence on my side." Thatch chuckled, still smirking mischievously.

"Oh, shush and go to sleep." The ghost huffed.

"Ok…Bunny." The vampire snickered.

Casper just blushed and pouted