Danny, briefly, considered ding-dong-ditching Vlad's house and making a run for it. That way he'd be able to piss off Vlad and not have to talk to him, a win-win situation in his mind. The only problem was his mom's firm grip on his shoulder, like the talons of a hawk clutching her prey, that prevented him from doing anything remotely devious or prank-like. If he bolted now he'd probably die. Well, maybe not die, but he'd have to be on the run for the rest of his life. Go into the witness protection program. Never feel safe in his life again. Because he had no doubt that if he made a break for it now, his mom would hunt him to the ends of the earth.

So no, he could not, would not, ding-dong-ditch Vlad Master's too-fucking-big-mansion, no matter how much he wanted to.

Didn't make him want to ring the obnoxiously fancy doorbell either, though.

But he was starting to feel his mom's glare burn a hole in the back of his head so he grumbled and cursed and pushed the stupid probably-plated-in-real-gold button and waited for a probably-named-something-like-Jeeves butler answer the door.

But "Jeeves" never opened the door.

Vlad did.

For some reason it was the last thing Danny expected to happen, so it kind of tripped him up. It also seemed to trip Vlad up too. Not the being-the-one-to-answer-the-door-thing, but the Danny-being-on-his-doorstep-with-no-explanation-thing. Probably.

They both just stared at each other. Both mildly surprised and internally sighing in extreme relief. The ache had disappeared for both of them (for the mean time at least).

"Fenton," Vlad said stiffly once he seemed to get his shit together. He stood ram-rod straight in a forced type of posture Danny had rarely seen him take on, it made him look even more like an ass and a little on the defensive side. His eyes kept looking Danny over, suspicious and confused. He looked just like he did at school; fancy-ass cardigan that was probably cashmere, fancy-ass, properly ironed, dress pants, fancy-ass high gloss polished shoes, fancy-ass real gold watch, etc. etc. Except that, for some reason, he seemed a lot more sullen and tense. Strange.

"Masters," Danny spat back. Just because his mom was making him apologize didn't mean he had to be nice about it. In fact, he was going to try and be as hostile about it as possible. Because like hell was he going to start giving an actual fuck about Vlad's feelings. He felt the hands on his shoulder squeeze in warning and Danny mentally shaved at least two or three years off his life expectancy.

"Remember your manners, sweetie," his mom said cheerily, yet there was an undertone of steel that made Danny shiver. Make that four years.

Vlad arched an eyebrow and gave him a look that seemed to say, Yes, Daniel, remember your manners, without him having to even open his mouth. He was likely just as afraid of the Fenton matriarch's wrath as Danny was. Still, Danny was both irritated and grudgingly impressed. He wanted to be able to say things without saying them, too.

"Hello, Vlad, dear," his mother said, and Danny wanted to gag, "Danny came by to say something important, didn't you sweetie?"

Danny would rather have faced a full-death on the spot than look Vlad in the eye and actually apologize for anything ever, but considering the tightened grip on his shoulders a full-death was a real possibility if he didn't.

"Yes," he said grudgingly. Every bit of this was grudgingly. He didn't want to be here, even if the ache in his chest had been soothed just by seeing Vlad. He still hated the shitlord after all.

"Hello, Mrs. Fenton," Vlad says like the snobby-fake-polite rich kid that he is. Danny can tell that he's enjoying this and he has to hold back to urge to kick him in the shin. Fucking dickweed. "What was it that you wanted to say, Daniel?"

Vlad's tone was sickly sweet and Danny grit his teeth to stop himself from punching that smug smile off his face. The sooner he got this over with the sooner he could leave and not get ultra-double-forever-grounded by his mom because he kicked the shit out of Vlad when he was supposed to be apologizing. The longer he was around Vlad the more likely he was to end up fighting him.

He grumbled as quietly as he could manage at first, wanting to get away with minimum effort and minimum embarrassment/wounded pride.

"What was that?" Vlad said with the type of conceited, stuck-up, pompous smile that made Danny's skin crawl it was so full of ego and haughty amusement. Danny was going to find him at some point and he was going to kill him. Or at least give him a real good kick in the balls.

"I'm. Sorry." Danny couldn't even look the asshole in the eye when he said that. This was the worst day of his life and he just wanted to leave.

Vlad opened his mouth, probably to say something awful like "I couldn't hear you" just so he could gloat and make Danny say it again, but his eyes snapped over to Danny's mom before he nodded his head. Then he said with one of the fakest 'gracious' and 'humble' voices Danny had ever heard, "I accept your, apology."

"Good," Danny's mom chirped with a smile. "Now, I hope you boys can learn to get along better."

"Of course," Vlad said at the same time Danny said, "Sure, mom."

They exchanged heated glares. At least his mom didn't seem to notice.

"Vlad, dear," she said, "I wanted to ask, is your mother home? I talked to her earlier on the phone but I wanted to see if we could chat in person."

Vlad stiffened like he was suddenly in pain, his previously taunting expression closed off and shut down. His voice was tight and clipped when he answered, "No. She's still in Paris."

"Oh," she said, sounding a bit taken aback but she brushed it off, "Well, that's alright then, we'll talk another time. I have some shopping to do anyway."

Then she patted Danny's shoulders, finally releasing her prey grip, gave them both a jaunty wave, said, "You have fun boys!" and skipped off to the RV so fast it gave Danny whiplash. It also left him still standing on Vlad's doorstep as she drove off.

Vlad looked shell-shocked and Danny cursed as he watched the worst familiar betrayal to ever take place in the history of ever unfold before his eyes. "Et tu, Mater?" whispered on the winds.

Danny watched the RV drive off and until he was sure that it was out of sight. If he couldn't see her then she couldn't see him. Then, slowly, he turned to face Vlad again. Vlad arched an eyebrow at him and Danny clenched his fist.

Vlad didn't have time to duck the sucker punch.

He did, however, have time to launch a kick into Danny's stomach afterwards.

From there they fell into their usual routine. Punching, kicking, jabbing, and generally ending up rolling on the floor trying to strangle each other. (Neither of them wanted to think about how close they held the other, even if it was in a violent sense rather than… any other type of sense.) Danny was angry, furious with Vlad (like always) and furious with his mother for making him come here. It didn't matter that the ache in his chest had faded with proximity to Vlad, it just made him all the angrier with denial. He vented that all out on Vlad with bloody punches and quick-fading bruises. Danny fought viciously, but Vlad seemed to be incensed to a completely different level.

He fought like a wounded animal, mindless and hurt and crazed. It was close to scary with the way growled and kicked with as much strength as he could muster (which, considering they both had supernatural strength, was very, very hard). Danny was flung away from Vlad and he landed somewhere in the perfectly manicured lawn, spitting blood from his mouth and clearing his head just enough to realize something was different and probably wrong. Vlad was never this wild.

Vlad charged for him, his eyes burning pink, but Danny decided that enough was enough with this fight and turned invisible before changing and taking flight, avoiding the berserk Vlad still snarling on the ground. He didn't want to be ripped to shreds today, thank you very much, no matter how angry he was.

Vlad didn't pursue him after he disappeared, just stood there glaring at the ground while pink flames arched from his clenched fists. Danny watched him a bit, wondering what exactly had caused such a huge reaction with the other teenager. After a few silent moments he flew off, shaking his head at himself. Vlad was a pissbaby and that's all there was to it.

But as he passed intangibly through the mansion he thought it might have something to do with how empty the big house felt.

He closed a fist over his chest as the ache came back (harsh and seemingly even worse than before) before he finally slipped through the portal in his house and escaped into the Ghost Zone.