Danny stormed into the restaurant, eyes blazing, fists clenched, his body bent forward slightly and his footsteps heavy, Vlad hurrying in behind him with an expression of frightened, timid concern, looking as a woman looks when she is aware that her abusive husband has just come home from work in a foul mood.

Danny stomped over to the hostess' stand where a young Asian woman was distractedly staring down at the restaurant's laminated seating chart and marking it with a dry-erase marker. She didn't notice him at first, and Danny's expression darkened considerably.

"Hey, lady," he barked, tapping his knuckles on the stand. "Are you going to stand there and draw all night or are you going to seat us?"

The woman's head snapped up abruptly. She looked stunned at first, then immediately apologetic. Vlad rushed up to the hostess' table and placed his hands on Danny's shoulders upon hearing his comment and said quickly and sheepishly to the hostess, "Please, forgive him, he's been through a lot in the past few days. He didn't mean it."

"No, no, I should've been paying more attention! I'm sorry!" said the hostess, her voice skittish and guilty.

Vlad chuckled nervously, and on his face embarrassment and shame were painfully discernible as he observed the people at the tables near the hostess' stand looking at them with disbelief and reprimanding anger.

"Oh, no, it's quite all right," he said. Then, he leaned down, squeezed Danny's shoulders roughly, and hissed, "Apologize to her at once, Daniel. That was extremely rude."

Danny slowly turned his head without changing the position of his body so he could glare at Vlad. His eyes glowed red. He ground his teeth together. He trembled in anger.

"Don't you ever tell me what to do, you mother fucker. Don't you even think about it," Danny hissed quietly enough that Vlad thought he had been the only one to hear it and make sense of it but loudly enough that people could tell whatever he'd uttered had not been pleasant even if it was not audible.

With that, the teenager tore out of his grip and barked at the Asian woman who hid timidly behind the hostess' stand again, "The sign doesn't say "seat yourfuckingself", so why don't you do your job and get us a table?"

"Daniel!" Vlad yelled, his mouth hanging open in disbelief and his eyes wide, completely and utterly appalled. "Apologize at once!"

Danny whipped around again, this time so he was completely facing Vlad, and said, whispered, his voice low and threatening, his eyes bright and burning with rage, "I should kill you right now."

But before Vlad could formulate any sort of response or any altercation could get underway, the hostess had gathered two menus and said, "Please, let me take you to your table." And Danny, tempted by the promise of food because he had not eaten since the omelet that morning, promptly backed down and followed the hostess through the dinning room, leaving Vlad to stand in the lobby of the restaurant and stare at Danny's backside, stunned. After a moment, he quickly rushed into the dining room, aware that it probably wasn't the smartest idea to leave Daniel unattended, feebly avoiding the stares of the occupants of the tables near the door, and caught up to them.

She took them to a small booth in the back of the restaurant—thank God, Vlad thought—and they sat down on opposite sides of the table. She set the menus in front of them, smiled, and told them their waiter would be with them momentarily, and left.

When she was gone, Vlad allowed the smile he'd feigned to fall away from his face and he glared at Danny. He leaned in, his face twisted in anger that was being just barely contained, and hissed at Danny, "I know things are different between us now, but they certainly don't have to be."

Danny leaned in too, smirking cockily, unfazed. "Oh, yeah?"

"Daniel, I know you think that you can do and say whatever you like because up until now I've let you get away with it. You think I've gone soft, and you think you can do anything you want. But I am going to warn you, Daniel, do not push me."

Danny grinned. "Watch me."

And Vlad's hands shot out and grabbed the collar of Danny's shirt almost instantly.

Wednesday, April 25

Dear Diary

There's nothing much to say. I think I almost made Vlad lose custody of me today. I feel like such an idiot and a jerk for pushing him like that. I'll bet he thinks that I hate him now, but the truth is, if he had to give me up, I really don't know what I would do. Of course, I would never do what I did…I would NEVER let myself become Dan…

I wouldn't separate my halves—I would just destroy the one I didn't want. And the truth is, Vlad is the only reason I'm keeping my human half anymore. Without him there's no point at all. I want my family back.

Suicide would be so easy.

Sam's handgun is in my drawer.