Danny PoV

I woke up with a huge yawn, stretching out on one of the softest beds I've ever been in. I heard the sounds of birds twittering from the open window as a lazy warm air stole through the room, signaling the coming of summer. It would have been great if not for the fact that I was still at Vlad's castle.

Sighing, I turned away from the open window and buried myself in the cool covers. The bright sunshine pouring in seemed to mock me, doing nothing but throwing me into a deeper depression. Glancing at the clock, I saw the ornate hour hand on the 11. Lunch would be in an hour, and if Vlad held true to his promise, he'd be eating with me. ...darn it. At least I escaped breakfast.

Jeez, why did he even care? I'm just a thorn in his side, right? Just that unruly teen he can't control. God, why did he kidnap me? It's been a week and he hasn't made even the smallest step in making me submit to his crazy evil apprentice schemes. And he's been acting...weird...lately. Maybe he wants something new now.

I turned and laid on my back, the soft bed pressing into me perfectly, like a cloud. I stared at the ceiling, trying to imagine what it would be like to wake up like this every morning, just as something to pass the time. Ignoring the fact that I'm being held here against my will, it was kinda nice. Actually, it was really nice. No blaring alarm clock or icy ghost sense jolting me out of sleep. No yelling sister telling me to hurry up. No rushing to shower, put clothes on, and eat in two minuets. No ghost making me late to school and earning me another detention.

Living here certainly has its perks.

The sun stretched over my bed, leaving me to bask in its warmth with a lazy smile over my face. If only Vlad wasn't such a fruitloop.

Maybe we could get along someday. After all, we are the only two of our kind in the world. And...and Vlad's right. However much I want to ignore it, theres certainly a bond between us. It's like...like brothers, but deeper. I think. I forcefully ignored it, as usual, that funny feeling in my stomach picking up again.

Clearing my throat and forcing the funny feeling away more, I sat up from the bed, sunlight spilling over my still shirtless self perfectly. A lazy smile wormed its way on my face once more. Yeah. I could definitely get used to living here.

But as a cloud covered the sun, eliminating my warmth, my heart suddenly ran cold, the smile slipping of my face like dead weight.

"What am I thinking?" I whispered to my self, slightly horror struck, "My family is worried sick about me! My friends need me, my city needs me. I can't start getting used to living in a place like this. Especially with him."

Shaking my head, my mood darkened as I swung my legs over the bed roughly. I can't start liking it here, even if it seems like Vlad has done nothing but worry about my self preservation.

The sun came back, but its warmth was lost to me. Frowning, my eyes swept the room quickly and I spotted a bathroom door in the corner. I was in and out of the shower in five minuets, walking over to the dresser and pulling it open. I expected clothes to be in it and I wasn't disappointed.

"Does he have clothes for me in every room of this house?" I grumbled to myself, shifting through the button up shirts and hoping to god there was something more teen-ish in here.

Finally, I found something that didn't have buttons or cuffs. It was a deep green, short sleeve shirt, made out of a light material. The hole for the head was wider than normal, but it was comfortable so I didn't care. I managed to find a pair of long, dark jeans, but it was the only pair. I pulled some black socks on and ran a brush through my slightly damp hair, scowling into the mirror.

Finishing, I looked around the empty, sun filled room helplessly, feeling a little lonely. Birds were still twittering outside so I meandered over to the open window.

The view was spectacular. Forest stretched on for miles, fading into stunning purple mountains far on the horizon. The trees were occasionally broken up by what I guessed to be rivers or lakes. The sky was the clearest blue, only a couple pure white clouds here and there. The weather was warm, hot even, perfect for swimming. A smile found it's way back on my face as the wind kissed my skin, blowing my hair gently.

I wanted to fly out there so badly.

I glared at the little black bracelet encircling my wrist, wishing it would spontaneously break. I'm sure there was a shield around my room anyways, despite the bracelet, so it's not like I'd be able to fly out in that cool breeze anyways. Still, just floating around in my ghost form would be nice. Sighing dejectedly, I looked away from my wrist and contented myself with leaning on the window sill, breathing in the fresh air.

Until a knock at the door interrupted my bliss.

"Daniel?" Vlad asked through the door. Why doesn't he just phase straight through like usual? What evil villain knocks first?

Pushing my strange musings away, I looked to the door, staring at it flatly, making him wait.

"Daniel." he said again, a little louder. He wasn't giving up.

"What?" I called, comfortable at my spot near the window and not wanting to move.

"You've slept straight through breakfast. Your not skipping out on lunch either, come out here." he said matter-of-factly. At least he wasn't shouting.

Not wanting to be the one to start any conflicts, I held my rude retort back and went to open the door reluctantly.

"Why do you even care?" I grumbled, looking up at him when I opened the door.

"Well I'm not just going to let you starve." he scoffed.

"Yeah, but why?" I asked.

He just looked at me with a smile, a smile that was definitely hiding something. Instead of answering he simply held the door wider, his arm open as an obvious sign for me to leave the room. I crossed my arms, decided to be stubborn. He sighed, reaching in and pulling me out by my wrist.

"Hey!" I yelled, accidentally stumbling into him again. I really need to quit doing that.

"You act like I'm taking you to your death." Vlad rolled his eyes, shutting my bedroom door.

"Well it is you." I muttered darkly, brushing non-existent dirt from my clothes and glaring at him.

"Oh cheer up Daniel, you have no school work here, no ghost fighting, and I'm giving your free reign of the castle. It could be worse."

"Yeah. You could have kidnapped me and taken me away from my family, but thank heavens that didn't happen." I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

Vlad rolled his eyes and pushed me forward.

"If you'd rather, I could stick you in my lab and experiment on you all day." His voice was light, as though we were chatting about the weather.

"Trying to get in with the guys in white now?" I repressed a shudder at his comment.

"No, just trying to show you that things could indeed be much worse."

I scowled at the carpet.

"What do you want to eat for lunch?" he asked after a pause, honest curiosity in his voice.

"Depends. Your not going to feed me again, are you?" I scrunched up my nose a bit.

"Well if you enjoyed it that much Daniel..." he drawled, a cat like smile on his features.

"I did not!" my voice stammered, a blush rising to the cue.

Vlad just laughed in amusement as we traveled down the stairs. Stupid jerk.

We walked into a hallway, leading deeper into the mansion. Windows opened the place up, spilling sunlight everywhere and lifting my mood despite the situation. The floors were polished to perfection, I looked down at them as we walked, seeing our warped reflections in the black and white tiles. Vibrant green plants seemed to bring the forest outside in, and windows were thrown open, letting the warm air dance through the house.

Vlad turned a corner and lead me into a small kitchen, a kitchen that was outside. We literally turned a corner near one of the windows and walked into a patio sort of thing. A fridge, stove, counter, and pantry were attached to the wall of the house, a small stone awning shielding them from the sun. They even matched the setting, being made of wood or painted in smooth earth colors. A small table for two was set out in the open, surrounded by waving flowers and breezy emerald green grass. And here I'd been expecting some dark, ancient, Gothic décor of a kitchen.

"Whoa." I breathed.

"You seemed unjustly surprised." Vlad commented with a light smile.

"There's something wrong here." I said, adopting my Sherlock Holmes tone.

"What, is it too righteous? Evil doers can't enjoy the pleasures of nature?" Vlad rolled his eyes, completely sarcastic.

"No, what happened to your servants? Evil doers can't cook." I looked around curiously, my voice flat.

"Then I guess that means I'm not evil because believe it or not, I can cook." Vlad turned to the fridge and pulled out a bag of assorted vegetables. They looked fresh from a garden.

"Uh...how do you-no, why are you cooking?" Even if he could cook, why would he waste the time? Surely he doesn't cook every meal.

"So you can't claim that there's poison in the soup, now get over here and make sure I don't try to poison you." Vlad glanced back, nodding to the space next to him on the counter top.

Okay, so the man had a point.

I hesitantly walked over to the open kitchen, slowly inching myself closer and closer to Vlad. Hey, just cause he had a good point for making the food doesn't mean he has a good point for using such a huge knife to cut the vegetables. I was gonna be ready for anything.

His focus was slowly taken away from cutting the greens into small bits and he stared at my tense form, giving me a look. Rolling his eyes and sighing exasperatedly, he unexpectedly dropped the knife and lifted me up, my butt plopping onto the spare counter space.

"What is it with you and picking me up?" I grumbled, giving him a dirty look and glaring off into the trees.

He just continued cutting the vegetables, that secretive smile on his face.

Eventually it became too tiresome to keep my glare up, so instead I gazed leisurely at the area of yard we were in, taking in the scenery. The foot ball field was nowhere in sight, and other than the forest about fifty or so yards away, nothing took up the area except for a very nice and very large pool off to the far side of my vision, complete with its own island.

The clang of pots directed my attention back to the man cooking our meal, and I forgot to make sure he wasn't poisoning the food. He filled the pot with water, but instead of placing the pot on a burner he held his hand under it as red ecto-fire flared. The water was boiling within thirty seconds and a satisfied smirk came from Vlad.

"How'd you do that?" I couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Do what?"

"Get the water to boil using ecto energy without the water coming alive and trying to eat you." I was totally serious, and my straight face told Vlad that.

He gave me a confused look that questioned my sanity, raising an eye brow and mutely asking for an explanation.

"My mom tries to cook using ecto energy. She successfully creates hot-dog, ham, and turkey monsters each time." I stated matter-of-factly.

A smile tugged at my lips as Vlad burst into true and honest laughter, sounding so much better than that maniacal laugh he gets when he's doing something wrong. In fact, I actually like his laugh.

He gripped the unused stove for support, breathing deeply with a grin still displayed on his face.

"I'm serious," I went on, hoping to get him to laugh again, "One Christmas the turkey reared up and attacked Jazz. Completely devoured her hair."

He laughed again, deep and ringing, echoing across the stone patio. I didn't even know he could laugh like that. Finally, he got a hold of himself, wiping moisture from his eyes and stirring the vegetables in the boiling water.

"That," he chuckled, "Has got to be the most hilarious thing I have ever heard."

"I can tell." I barely noticed that I was grinning from ear to ear, my legs swings in the air.

Conversation came easy after that, so much so that I didn't stop to think about what I was doing when I started helping Vlad cook. Sitting on the counter was boring, so I helped out by measuring spices and oils. Vlad would throw different things in the pot now and then; soon the smell wafting from the concoction started making my mouth water.

"...So that's when I decided to order a map of this place." Vlad laughed lightly, finishing his story about how he first got lost in his own castle and stumbled into a mold filled cellar he didn't even know he had.

"That's a sign, genius. Get a smaller house. Who the heck needs all this space anyway." I threw up my arms for effect, looking up to the tall spires that rose so high above us.

"Well once I buy the Packers..."

I snorted, laughing at his pipe dream. Vlad playfully smacked me in the back of the head, so I flung a green bean at him.

Finally, the soup was done. We set out bowls and Vlad pulled out a thick loaf of bread, a long bread knife resting beside it. We casually sat for lunch, never breaking conversation. It was amazing at how much we had to say. Usually, if your with someone you don't like, conversation is forced and awkward, but we totally clicked. I realized that I've never actually talked with Vlad before. He was quite relateable.

The sun hung high in the sky, beating down on us with it's heat. The food had been finished ages ago, but it was so nice out that we didn't bother going inside. In fact, we did the last thing I would ever imagine doing with my supposed-to-be arch enemy.

"I liked the tree so much that I decided to just build the pool around it. After all, how may pools do you see with a large weeping willow right in the middle of it?" We were looking at, obviously, the pool. The long sweeping leaves of the green willow tree tickled the crystal water, making soft ripples.

"Actually," he murmured almost to himself after a pause. "I think I'm going to go for a swim. Care to join me Daniel?"

I stared at him, a lot of conflicting emotions barging me at once. Swim? With him? And was asking me? Not just demanding I go and dragging me in? Well jeez, how could I say no if he was asking? But he's my enemy. You don't swim with your enemy, you swim with your friends. But is he really my enemy? Oh and there was one other, really big, potentially disastrous problem. I couldn't swim.

"Daniel?" I snapped back to reality at the sound of his voice. He was still looking at me, waiting for an answer.

"Um..." I winced and shrugged a little, going with neither yes or no at the moment, "I can't swim."

He stared at me incredulously.

"You can't swim." he stated in disbelief.

I shook my head, shrugging helplessly again. He paused.

"Well we'll just have to fix that then." he replied, standing up and taking a majority of the dishes to the sink.

Wait, what?

Was he seriously going to teach me how to swim?

"Uh Vlad?" I stood up hastily dumping the rest of the dished in the sink and rushing after his retreating figure frantically.

"I don't think that's a good idea." I breathed, catching up to him.

"Why not? What if you get shot down in a fight and revert to your human form, only to land in a lake? Or what if one of your friends gets tossed into a large body of water and you have to swim to save them? It's a perfectly good idea, besides, every one should know how to swim. It's like learning to ride a bike."

"Uh..."

"Please tell me you know how to ride a bike, Daniel?" Vlad sighed, never breaking stride.

"My dad gave us ectoguns when we were seven, not bikes." I shrugged, a smirk tugging at my lips.

Vlad rolled his eyes at that and muttered something I couldn't hear.

It seemed that we were upstairs in record time and I realized my efforts to deter Vlad from his teach-Danny-how-to-swim goal was not working out.

"Swim trunks will be in the spare room. If not just call for Stephen and he'll show you where to find some." he said, giving me a gentle push into my current room. How did we get here so fast?

"Stephen?" My brain was spinning.

"He's my head butler. Try not to take too long now Daniel, or else I'll come in and drag you out." He warned, towering over me with a marginally dark smirk and closing the door with a snap.

That's more like the Vlad I know.

Still, his stupid logic made sense. I never even thought about what I would do if I was stuck in human form and Sam or Tucker fell in a lake. That would be bad. So, muttering murderously to myself, I jerked open the top drawer, shifting through till I found a pair of red swim trucks with heavy pockets on the sides and a white draw string.

"Darn it." I muttered, having hoped that they wouldn't be in there.

I pulled them on, still muttering to myself when I threw my discarded clothes on the bed. I guess there would be towels outside, cause I wasn't about to go look for a laundry closet and find another secret cellar for Vlad.

Tentatively, I opened the door of my room, peeking out with an odd bubble of nervousness in my stomach. I didn't see Vlad anywhere, so I quietly closed the door with a click and scampered down the hall.

The path to the back patio was easy enough to remember. All I had to know were a few key ugly statues and then boom, the whole house opened up and lead me directly outside. I tiptoed my bare feet across the gleaming floor, peeking out of the French door to the pool, seeing Vlad already there and setting out a couple towels.

I still couldn't believe that was was going to get swim lessons from Vlad Masters. This must be like, every females dream.

Still remaining silent, even though I had no idea why, I tip toed to the edge of the side walk leading to the pool area, getting a much closer view of Vlad and letting my jaw go slack, that weird feeling surging through me unexpectedly..

Holy crap, Vlad was frick'in gorgeous.

Weird thought, I know, but how could I deny it when the stunning proof was standing in front of my face? I mean, I'd always known Vlad was an attractive guy. Crazy, but still pretty attractive.

Attractive is an understatement.

He moved fluidly, all of his muscles defined and perfectly proportional. Unlike a nasty body builder who is more top heavy than a Hooters girl, Vlad's body was perfect in size anyway you looked at it. His hair gleamed like silver in the bright sun, falling like a waterfall of riches when he pulled it out of the black tie and let it cascade around his shoulders.

I could feel my heart rate quicken and a red blush tinge my face, enraptured by the man before me. The man who I had to keep reminding myself was a fruitloop and such thoughts should not be associated with him, especially from me. It would be more than a disaster if I started crushing on Vlad.

But damn, he was still hot.

"Daniel your drooling." Vlad grinned, teeth shining white.

I jumped, not having noticed that he caught me staring. My blush flamed across my face and I suddenly wanted to drown my head under the water.

"Shut up Vlad." I mumbled, moving self consciously to a chair near the water and trying to glare at him. His chest was very distracting.

Vlad grinned wider and hopped in the pool, water swirling a little below his waist. He gave me a look and made the 'come here' sign with his finger. I swallowed thickly, butterflies in my stomach.

"Don't make me come out and get you." he warned.

Scowling, I stood up stiffly, still severely self conscious. Vlad waited patiently as I inched over to the pool, the gleaming water lapping gently against the concrete edge. I peered over the edge as one would do with a cliff, looking nervous. After about two seconds of consideration, I walked over to the stone steps leading into the water and started my decent.

The water clung possessively to my waist. I held my hands above the water, looking at the offending liquid apprehensively. I slowly made my way towards Vlad, who was leaning against the edge with an amused expression.

"Any day now." he quipped.

"I'm working on it." snapping at him but refusing to take my eyes away from the water.

"It's not going to eat you."

"It will if I ever go deeper."

"You mean when you go deeper?" Vlad said casually.

I couldn't help but snap my head up at him.

"When?" I croaked, suddenly watching myself drown in the twelve foot section.

"You can't very well learn to swim in three feet of water."

I glanced fearfully to the deeper end of the pool, trying to hid my emotions from Vlad. It was fruitless of course, because nothing gets by him.

"I'm not going to let you drown, Daniel." he said seriously, sincerity filling his voice with such magnitude that I actually believed it.

I was barely two feet from him; thankfully, the cool water had calmed my blush from before. Vlad smoothly walked through the water, standing very close to me, so close that I had to look up to see him.

"Do you trust me?" he asked calmly.

"Not a chance, fruit loop." I grinned back.

"Then teaching you to swim might be a bit difficult." He muttered, rolling his eyes slightly.

"Okay, there's about three basic things you need to know about swimming, at least enough that you won't drown. How to swim forward, how to stay afloat, and how to go underwater. We're going to start with going underwater."

"Uh, do we have to?" I asked nervously. I didn't relish the thought of submerging myself in the dark airless liquid, especially with him in the capable position to hold my head under the water.

"It's not difficult. As long as you don't breath in the water you'll be fine."

"It's not the water I'm too worried about." I muttered to myself, looking away.

Vlad sighed exasperatedly.

"Have I done anything this week to make you think I want to kill you?"

"Not this week..." I trailed off, emphasizing the word 'this' and drawing it out.

Vlad paused, looking thoughtful.

"What if I go under with you?"

I thought about it for a long moment, but finally relented.

"I guess that would be okay." I said, a little unsure.

Vlad smiled in relief.

"Good, problem solved. Now give me your hands."

"Why?" I asked, but resting them in his own anyways.

"So your paranoia can be sure I'm not going to drown you." Vlad explained in a flat tone, moving his hands against mine and interlocking our fingers together.

And that was how I got to holding Vlad's hands under the cool waters of his pool, putting a fair amount of trust in him as far as I was concerned. I couldn't see anything, but I could feel the heat from his hands as he held mine in a tight, but gentle hold. It felt protective, something I never thought I'd feel from him.

But then again, I've been getting all kinds of weird feelings around Vlad lately.

My lungs slowly started to burn, but I didn't want to be the first one up. My stubborn pride wouldn't let me. I tensed up automatically as I ran out of air, gripping his hands and shaking my head under the water, trying to resist the temptation of sweet oxygen not three inches above my head. Unfortunately I succumbed to the need quickly, shooting up and breaking the crystal surface as I greedily sucked in air.

Vlad breathed heavily in front of me, giving me an impressed look.

"That was...well over a minute Daniel." he gasped, our hands releasing as we massaged our burning chests.

"Almost...beat you." I smirked shakily, still panting.

Vlad looked at me with a competitive half grin.

"Almost."

That, of course, sparked a who-can-stay-underwater-the-longest game. The first couple times I still wasn't completely trusting him, but as I got closer and closer to outlasting him I cared less about trust and just started enjoying myself. I was pleasantly surprised when I beat Vlad on the fourth try, and then the fifth and then the sixth. Finally, Vlad cheated and poked me in the stomach while we were under, making me laugh and inhale water.

"You(cough)jerk!" I hacked, smacking him playfully.

Vlad shrugged helplessly, grinning.

"I totally beat you." I taunted, giving him a smug look.

"Finally. This is the first time you've won against me since we met, what, a year ago?" he crossed his arms.

"Is not. I've beat you plenty of times." I frowned.

"Sure, with a lot of help and an obscene amount of luck."Vlad scoffed.

"Technicalities, Vlad. I won in the end didn't I? So there, I've beat you before." I remained stubborn.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night Daniel." Vlad drawled.

"Hey!"

He grinned cheekily and placed his hands on my hips, turning me around. My fiery retort died on my lips and I felt my heart rate accelerate again. The contact of his hands on my hips was electric, the more intimate touch sparking a new slew of emotions and desires that I quickly repressed. I suddenly wished he would punch me instead. This new, soft touch was almost too much to handle.

"If you've finished stalling, we have a swim lesson to complete. I assume your ready to try swimming forward now?" He said in a low voice, leaning over my shoulder and looking down at me.

I tried to focus on what he was saying.

"Uh..."

"I'll take that as a yes." he replied cheerily.

His hands traveled tantalizingly up my body, moving smoothly down my arms till he gently gripped my hands within his. He got even closer to me and I couldn't help my breathe hitch slightly as my back touched his chest, torn with the sudden desire to lean into him. Was...was he doing this on purpose?

"The easiest way to swim forward is with the breast stroke." he continued as though nothing was happening, "Cup your hands and move in a wide sweeping motion to help propel yourself forward."

He gently demonstrated by moving my body in the way he was describing, leading me through the motions, leaning into me and then leaning back.

"Of course, it only works when you keep kicking your feet up and down." he chuckled, the light laugh rumbling in his chest behind me.

I swallowed thickly again, trying to quell my madly pumping heart. What was wrong with me?

He moved us back in a standing position, his hands resting almost possessively on my hips once more. That funny feeling picked up in my stomach again, making me want him to hold me tighter, to...to touch me more. I really didn't want to swim anymore.

"Daniel?" he asked curiously.

"Uh, I gotta go. I...don't want to swim anymore." I moved away from him as quickly as I could, hastily getting out of the pool and wrapping a soft white towel around me protectively.

I didn't look back at him as I ran into the mansion, droplets of water flinging off me and marring the perfect floor. Once I turned the corner of the bright, open area, I bolted down the darker halls, the carpet molding to my bare feet.

I wasn't moving fast enough, even though everything was a blur around me. I finally got to my room, not the new, spare one but the old one I trashed. Back to the room where I still hated Vlad.

Wrenching the door open, I stumbled in, pulling it closed behind me and locking it tight. Then the wall broke and I sunk to the ground as all the emotions attacked me at once.

What was that? What the hell was that? Why didn't I punch him? Why haven't I been rude to him? I haven't I been the usual, irritating, pain in the ass? Why didn't I hate him!

"What is wrong with me?" I whispered to the cold empty room, the wreckage surrounding me. "He kidnapped me. He took me away from my family. Why did I feel those...things."

Unbidden, the memory of Vlad and I in the pool came to mind, that addicting electricity flashing through me, making me crave more. I gripped my wet hair, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to ignore it. But it was like waking up a beast and, after a straight year, I couldn't ignore it any longer.

I know it was wrong, and I know it doesn't make any sense, but what was I supposed to do? What could I do? Hell, barely even knew what it was.

"Man, I'm going crazy here." I croaked, burying my head in my arms.

What was wrong with me?

Aww, Danny's so clueless. :3