Valentine Ghoul

Soaring, flying, fluttering, searching, waiting, snatching, tasting, hugging, kissing...

The vampire woke himself up before Lupisei could delve too deeply into his mind.

The Lupisei plant stood beside him, its tendrils coiled in marked disapproval. 'Why have you broken the connection, Darkwing?'
'Don't get your leaves in a ruffle, Lupisei.' Darkwing countered. 'It's my head now and I don't want that Darkwing Duck fiend back. Period. Finis. End of discussion." He stood up and stepped over to the door.

Darkwing cautiously opened the door a crack and listened for white noise. Only the red witch could be heard. Just ... Morgana.

'If Darkwing Duck and Morgana have been dating for months then she can't be any more of a threat now than she was when I was whoever I was when I started dating her.'

The vampire loitered at the door looking for his courage. Of all the people who were here earlier Gosalyn trusted Morgana the most.
'On the other hand, Gosalyn trusts me and I haven't found much justification for that.' He shook his head and tried yet again to steel his nerves.

'... I'll be near to chase away fear.
So sleep now and rest till tomorrow.'

He couldn't remember where the song came from and he could only remember the one verse but it felt very true and important.

'Just get a grip, DW.' The vampire swallowed, 'if I'm going to do right by Gosalyn I can't afford to be ruled by my fears. Not when it's my job to chase hers away.' He took a steadying breath. 'And now is just about as good a time as any to make a start.'

Darkwing shoved determinedly through the door and walked out to find out what the red witch had in store for him.

"Morgana?" DW ventured towards her, doing his best to hide his nervousness. "Uh, how are you?"
The red witch stood up from the armchair, looking down at him from her lofty height, searching his eyes. "Oh ... I ... am okay, Dark. The matter is that ... you ... are still not fine." She pointed at him, her keen green eyes almost glowing. "Your aura field still looks unhealthy."

There was something extraordinary about this person and it was quite apart from her being a witch. This had to be someone who really did care about him to read his aura and then get upset over it. Dark looked at Morgana with a growing feeling of amazement.

"Is there anything you want to tell me, Dark?"
"Yes, actually, there is something I want to say to you as a matter of fact. You're a beautiful person, Morgana."
"Why, thank you, Dark ..." she accepted the compliment with a momentary blush.

Then she raised an eyebrow. "But I did mean about your health."
He hesitated. "I feel fine, Morgana. I remember everything back to waking up the other night."
"Oh, no." Morgana sighed and shook her head.
"So what?" He quacked. "It's not as if it's a big deal, Morgana." He gritted. "I mean, have you actually looked at this Darkwing Duck guy properly? What kind of vampire rides a motorbike instead of flying? I'll tell you: a maladjusted miscreant misfit! And dallying about with a daredevil deviant; that makes me suspect that Darkwing Duck also has a few screws loose."

"I wouldn't say Launchpad was a deviant as such." Morgana commented.
"Aha!" He exclaimed, folding his arms in triumph. "So that means I got the rest right! Well, there's one thing I can say for Darkwing Duck and that's 'good riddance'."

"... I want my Dark back ..." Morgana murmured.

'Why?' The vampire pondered on the obvious question of what it was that the red witch actually was wanting. "Maybe if we kissed it'd help."
"I ... I don't know. I suppose it's worth a try." Morgana sat back down on the chair.
Dark came over, leaned forwards and kissed her for a long moment. He brought his hands up to take her shoulders. Feeling the slightest energy drain from the contact points between them he figured this meant she was hungry so he opened up his energy field for her. Morgana immediately struggled in his grasp and in the next moment she let a bolt of lightning fly from her hands. The vampire jolted back, tumbling onto the floor in a heap.

In a moment he recovered and sat up, his feathers still crackling with the energy from the lightning strike. "What was that for?" He squawked. "I couldn't be any further from ... I mean I wasn't ... Wait a minute! You-that was my energy you used against me!" He realised the fact aloud. Then he laughed and stood back up. He looked her over. "My, aren't we the cunning and tricky individual tonight?" He remarked in approval. "Despite the fact that you're a witch you have-."

"Despite!" Morgana huffed indignantly and stood up. "Is that all you see, Darkwing?"
How sensitive she was! The wave of emotional hurt crashed over Darkwing and it alone threatened to tear him to pieces. "No, Morgana, I do not just see 'some witch'." He stated firmly. "There are so many good things that I see inside you, Morgana. I see ... you ... Morgana." He breathed her name softly. "How else can it be that my heart breaks so completely with yours?"

There seemed only one sensible way that he could see to fix their communication problem. 'Morgana.' He reached her side and offered his hand for her. 'Come.' In a slow, gentle fashion he took her hand and calmly led her back to sit in the chair again. 'Morgana.' He leaned forwards and kissed her beak gently. 'Morgana.'

"Uh ... yes, Dark?"
'Let me taste you.'
"... Taste?"
He trailed his finger up her neck and she shivered. As he moved his beak closer to her neck he felt her flinch in his arms. 'Just a taste.' He assured her of his intention. He drew his finger up along her neck again, feeling her fine silky feathers against his. The suspense was potent as he waited for her response.

"No." She found her strength and made her decision. "I'm sorry, Dark." She put her finger against his beak, gazing at him with her emerald green eyes. "I want you to be you when you give yourself to me."
He straightened away from her immediately. "Oh, I see." He contemplated her with a frown. "I'm not good enough the way I am."
"I'm sure you can appreciate that I don't want to take advantage of you when you don't know what you are doing."
"But I do know what I'm doing!" Dark quacked, feeling remarkably inflamed. "I didn't realise my competition was so intense!" He fumed to himself.

"I am prepared to be where you need me, as you need me right now, Morgana. How long has he postponed your needs for? Months! How long will he continue to cast you aside like you were some minor pursuit?"
"It isn't like that!" Morgana gritted back. "Dating is a socially acceptable practice. Those are the rules we're following and frankly I made the decision to follow the rules right at the beginning so I see no reason why we must rehash it."
"Whose 'society' accepts this 'dating rule'?" Dark crossed his arms smugly. "It isn't in the witches' code, is it? We certainly didn't get it from the mastership."

"You don't remember what it was like to be a duck." Morgana said in a soft voice. "How horrible!"
Dark narrowed his eyes. "No, I don't remember and I'm not exactly what you could call tempted. Ducks have 'opinions' and they're obnoxious about it, constantly manoeuvring people into doing dangerous things and meeting questionable people. If not then they're egotistical beyond a joke."

"Oh. Well, that is true ... or you could say that Launchpad sees the world and the people around him could do with a helping hand and so he takes it upon himself to do it, and Darkwing Duck studied for years to be as good as he is."

Dark shook his head. "You don't get it, Morgana. I don't want to be that person anymore. If I remember him, I'll risk going back to being him. Now ..." He swallowed. "For Gosalyn's sake which would be the better option? A clean slate like I am or that ..." He searched for an adequate description, "loud and quarrelsome savage?"
"Gosalyn has her own voice." Morgana responded soberly. "Although I'm pretty sure of what she'll say." Morgana stood up and cast a glimmering portal. Her head vanished as she poked it through the magical doorway. "Gosalyn? Oh, good. Won't you come up and talk to your father for a moment? I don't seem to be getting through to him."

Gosalyn's father listened to the cautious sound of the duckling's approaching footsteps from the other side of the portal.

'Cautious?' "Whoa!" The vampire snatched the frying pan as it swung towards his head the moment she appeared in view. "Gosalyn, honey, what's this for?"

"To help you remember, dad! Du-uh."
"Gosalyn!" He squawked before calming down. "Sweetie," he knelt down to her, "how about we make some all new memories together, huh? I know you like sport, what sort do you play? Baseball, right? I can tell because you've got a real good swing. Oh, I know: how about a trip to the arcade?"
"Da-ad!" Gosalyn took his shoulders and shook him. "That's great you wanna hang out with me and-I-really-do-appreciate-it-honest but what about your job?"
"There's lot's of stuff I can do." He shrugged. "I can get a job in a petrol station for a start ... then maybe I could study and become a circus performer or something. Acrobatics seems rather appealing."

Gosalyn groaned and rolled her eyes. "Do you really think you need to study for that, dad?"
"Study, practice, whatever. You've got to work for what you want in life, Gosalyn. If it's too easy the fun'll wear out too quick and you'll get bored."
"Yeah? How about studying things that are already boring?"
"If you didn't have a few boring things in your life then how would you recognise the fun stuff?"

"Yeah okay, but don't you think History class is going a bit far, dad?"
"History's the fountain of knowledge." The statement popped into his mind.
"Why?"
"Well ..." He searched for a reason why he would have thought such a thing "I guess ... If you don't learn about history you'll make the same mistakes as they did."
"Gee. That sure is deep." She tapped her beak.

"St. Canard needs you to remember your history, dad. How to be Darkwing Duck: the terror that flaps in the night striking fear in the hearts of evildoers! Those criminal scumbags know they're not safe wherever they may lurk! Look out bad guys coz here comes Darkwing Duck!"

Darkwing glanced at Morgana as Gosalyn ranted. "Boy, is this guy self-involved or what?" He mentioned aside to her.

He chuckled and petted Gosalyn's head. "Gosalyn, sweetie-pie. St. Canard got along fine before 'Darkwing Duck' was around and it'll get by fine without him. It's you I care about, kiddo. You're my number one responsibility. I'm your dad and there's no job more important in the whole world."
"Aw, thanks, dad." Gosalyn hugged him.

It felt good to have her in his arms with her warmth and feeling surrounding him and he happily hugged her back.
"I really need you to be Darkwing Duck again, dad." She said quietly as she rested her head against his chest. "You're just some wimpy vampire without your memory, dad."

"Wimpy? You look at a vampire and-."
"Well, without your memory you've unlearned all your important lessons." Gosalyn pulled away from him. "And how to not be a wimp is something that you learnt!" She put her hands on her hips, a stern look in her light green eyes. "My dad was never scared of Morgana. Maybe about being turned into pudding or eating her pudding but not Morgana."

"Gosalyn ... honey ... Darkwing Duck is also very selfish." He frowned at her. "And it's had some disastrous consequences. You of all people should know that."
"You're too hard on yourself, dad." She cooed, petting his arm. "Anyway, that's why you've got me and Launchpad and Morgana to look after you." Gosalyn picked up the frying pan, "now hold still and I'll make it real quick!"
"Wait!" He quacked, bracing himself. "Sweetie." He hooked his fingers around the rim of the frying pan. "If Darkwing Duck means so much to you, then I'll get him back for you."
"Right," she snorted derisively, "coz that plan's worked so far."
"Um, isn't it past your bedtime, young lady?"
Gosalyn pulled the frying pan backwards out of his light grip. "Alright, dad, how about a deal?" Her face screwed up as she spoke. "I go to bed and you try to get your memory back."

Then she smiled sweetly at him but there was something treacherous in her mental expression which made his heart rate rise. "You'll remember everything in the morning."
"Thanks for the temporary reprieve, honey." He quietly gulped as he petted her head.
Gosalyn leaned forwards and kissed his cheek. "Goodnight, dad. Goodnight Morgana."
"Goodnight, Gosalyn." Morgana responded from above.
"Goodnight, my little Gosalyn." He responded quietly.

Darkwing's little girl turned on her heel and crossed the tower, frying pan in hand. She got onto one of the chairs sitting in the corner. In a flurry, she'd gone down the hatch.

Darkwing stood up and looked back at Morgana, musing on his daughter's wicked streak.

"Well, Dark? Now that you've been given an ultimatum from Gosalyn herself, what do you intend to do?"
"Ultimatum nothing!" He grumbled at Morgana. "She's not going to bed until she's set a few live traps for me." He slapped his forehead. "She won't be able to sleep until she's done something about it, so there's not even a point in my stopping her."
"Well, Gosalyn does have a point, Darkwing. You're not exactly ... that person she remembers anymore."

"Oh, Morgana." He looked at her. "I don't want to be that evil person."
"But you're not an evil person!" She put her hand on his shoulder for a moment and then stood back and shrugged. "You're an extremely opinionated person, yes and your arrogance about how you think you know what's best all the time can be rather annoying and your stubborn persistence combined with your habit for meddling even though you're not at work and you don't fully understand what you're dealing with can be markedly troublesome at times ... but that's not evil. As you pointed out earlier, that's just you being a typical duck."

"... Gee, thanks for sharing." He acknowledged dryly. "So you really want that meddler back?"
"Dark, I've said it before. I want you to be you." She leaned forwards and kissed him. "Goodnight, Dark." She turned and cast another portal, creating a shimmer in the air that she then stepped through and disappeared.

He was now completely alone in his tower.

"Darkwing Duck!" The vampire called loudly into the silent emptiness. "I sure hope you're worth it!" He turned and headed into the depths of the tower to visit Lupisei once more.

The vampire casually observed a familiar roaring sound of a motorcycle engine down on the roadway. He was reaching for the door handle when he realised as the noise of the engine bounced loudly around the stone walls that the motorcycle was coming up to the tower level.