Fang: Here it is, my dear readers, after months of waiting. If you didn't like it so much it probably would have lain down and died a quiet death… The next chapter is mostly written and merely needs to be tweaked. I would have liked to make it longer, but Velya told me not to.

Vlad

There are moments in life that nothing can prepare you for. The accident that ruined my life and gave me ghost powers was one of them. Meeting another of my kind after twenty years of knowing that I was alone and unique in the twin realms was another. But this… surpasses both of those.

Blue eyes stare at me unreadably from behind a dark fringe of hair, shadowed, haunted… but aware. After two hellish weeks of delirium he was standing again. Stiffly perhaps, with echoes of pain in each movement but still, it was almost more than I could have hoped for, considering what had happened. I winced at the memory of harsh florescent lighting and silver tile coated with his life's blood.

A tentative smile came to my face as I looked down on him. It was oddly warm, matching the feeling growing in my chest… the feeling that had somehow found root there while caring for the boy after his own parents had ripped him apart. It felt strange, after so many years of nothing but hatred and contempt. That warm glowing orb was shadowed though. A cold coil of fear snaked it's way around my stomach and threatened to swallow that ever so fragile care.

This was the first time the boy had been truly aware since I had brought him here and I was not at all sure that he would remember what had happened… or anything at all really. I waited with bated breath… torn between going forward and taking the broken boy before me into my arms and retreating. Hoping beyond hope for some small measure of the warmth that had grown for the boy to be returned, waiting for his eyes to turn feral and dangerous and his harsh wit to shatter what little fragile hope I had to pieces.

His balance wavered, and I started to move forward to help him, only to abort the movement when he steadied himself against the side of the bed before he could truly begin to fall. I'm sure he could see my concern plainly as he stood there, looking at me. That too, was strange. I had made it a habit to always hide my true emotions. His head tilted consideringly before he offered up a tentative smile, a pale echo to his typical confident smirk. It was as fragile and broken as my own had been, but it made that small orb in my chest burst, the warmth strengthening until it had burned away the fear.

"You should still be resting, little badger."

That half-grin of his widened just a fraction, a hint of true amusement showing through the weariness.

"I never could stay down for long… fruitloop."

I shook my head. For the first time that had actually sounded like a term of endearment rather than an insult. Some part of me was distantly annoyed that even though everything had changed I was still stuck with it, but the rest of me was simply to happy to care.

"No… I suppose you never could."

My gaze wandered down to the tangled and slightly singed tubing of the I.V. stand. A burst bag of saline allowed its contents to soak into the carpet. It looked like the stand had been kicked over and then hit with a very weak ectoblast. Daniel's eyes followed mine and distaste crossed his features. Sorrow passed through me in a wave. He would most likely have a hatred of hospitals and labs to rival mine after… what happened. I pushed it away. He would not want my pity. Stubborn, prideful creatures that we are, it is not something that either of us want or tolerate.

"It's been a while since you've actually eaten something, I can have something brought up if you would like…"

He pushed away from the bed, and though his balance wavered he stubbornly locked his knees and refused to fall. That set to his jaw and light in his eyes were beyond familiar to me. It was the same look that I had seen countless times during our many fights. An indefinable sense of relief along with amusement and additional worry joined the confused tangle in the back of my mind. Though my boy was most definitely wounded he was still unbroken. Despite it all, he's still Daniel.

Fang: Yes, stubborn prideful creatures indeed.

Velya: Remind you of anyone Fang?

Fang: I've no clue what you could possibly be implying.