Whoo! Think I finally broke that writer's block! Hot dog!
This chapter is FULL of stuff.
Vlad PoV
I stared at the mahogany ceiling above me. Daniel's small limp form was resting lightly on top of me, his soft breathing a cool contrast to the heat of our skin. His nude body was flush against mine, and I could still smell the incense from his featherlight midnight hair as it tickled my chest.
Softly, I pet his black locks, feeling it slide like water between my fingers. He didn't stir, being the heavy sleeper he is. I smirked slightly. My hand returned to resting in the curve of his back, and once I pushed back my ever present desires, my mind returned to it's original pondering.
I had made sure to cancel all plans for this week, fully intending to enjoy all my valuable time with Danny. Of course, I had a whole slew of other things I should probably do first, such as warn Skulker that if he ever plans on waltzing into my castle unannounced as usual, I would personally tear him in half. Normally I wouldn't particularly care, but with the chance that he might run into me and Danny while were...together...well, I'm sure Danny would not be pleased.
I'll take care of that later today. Skulker should be picking up a new weapon set today anyways. Hmm. I'll have to warn Danny.
His lithe body shifted on top of mine, and I smiled affectionately down at him as he mumbled incoherently in his sleep. I couldn't stop the thoughts of how thankful I was to have him by my side, finally. Granted, it's a little different than I first imagined , but that makes it all the more perfect.
Brought on by the sudden happy appreciation, exciting ideas ran through my head. I would finally get to teach him how to use his ghost powers properly. Finally, I'll be able to unlock his potential, and with his consent so less. Honestly, I don't care about ruling a flawed world or exacting petty revenge, as long as I have my Daniel with me forever everything will be perfect.
A sudden realization struck me, erasing my more emotional thoughts quickly and bringing me back to earth. How could I have forgotten? He must be warned-no, informed-of the condition his human half is in as an effect of being half ghost.
I bit my lip at that, feeling nervous. How would he react to finding out he has a significantly extended life? Even more so than myself after the original accident? After all, he absorbed much more ectoplasm than I when his oh-so-brilliant father decided to place the On switch inside the portal. (I may not be after Jack's life anymore, but that doesn't mean he's not annoying.)
Logically, the effects on my human half are not so extreme. I would age at a much more normal rate compared Danny...if I hadn't already injected myself with excessive amounts of ectoplasm to extend my life and strengthen my ghost form. I had done that about 3 years after the incident with the proto-portal, after I fully discovered the effects of being half ghost. While my initial intentions were for power and a longer life to sustain such power, this new reason works out quite nicely. As far as our half human bodies are concerned, the age gap between me and Danny will never be more than about ten years.
Still, how would he react?
I pushed the more somber thoughts away, deciding to worry about that later on in the week.
Danny began to stir, groaning tiredly and stretching like a cat. I felt his muscles grow taunt beneath my fingers and relax; he looked up at me with a half asleep grin.
"Mornin' sunshine." he mumbled, his grin expanding.
"Sunshine?"
"Fine, fruitloop, whatever." He laid his head back down on my chest, snuggling close and looking as though he were about to go back to sleep.
"Oh no you don't. It's nine o'clock in the morning." I lifted his light frame up easily, my hands holding him up from under his arms.
"Vlaaaad." he grumbled, eyes blinking blearily.
"Don't you 'Vlad' me. Your not going back to sleep."
"But I wanna." he pouted adorably. I almost gave in. Almost.
"Tough pancakes."
He snickered, sleep momentarily forgotten as I set him back down on top of me.
"What is it with you swearing in pastry?" he laughed.
"Pancakes aren't pastries." I argued.
"They way my dad eats them? Yes they are."
I laughed, imagining Jack dumping pounds of melted fudge on a stack of pancakes.
"I had a mother who was much more strict than I against profane language." I soon explained dryly once I got a hold of my self, forcing down a shudder as I remembered the one and only time I cursed in front of her.
"Bummer."
"Not really. At least I don't sound like an uneducated fifteen year old." I smirked.
"Fu-"
I slapped a hand over his mouth, an dark grin coming to my face.
"Daniel, if you want to sleep with me I'm sure you could come up with a much more creative way to ask."
As predicted, he turned a flaming red, eyes widening.
"Vlad!" he scowled.
I laughed heartily, the look on his face was priceless.
"That wasn't funny." He grumbled.
"Yes it was." I grinned cheekily, breaking his jumpy glances and pulling out a smirk.
"Whatever." he rolled his eyes and settled comfortably back on my chest.
As I reflected on the small joke, our unclothes states seemed to become more prominent. Danny's blush still hadn't gone and he was resting his head against my chest again. His pleasant expression complimented his perfect face, and I stroked his hair fondly. He looked up at me with his ice blue eyes, pure innocence. I contentedly stroked his hair for a few moment, marveling, until the moment broke with a small rumbling coming from under the sheets.
"Uh..." Danny looked down at his stomach, shrugging and giving me a wince.
"If you were hungry you could have said something." I raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but, I didn't want to get out of bed." He replied meekly, making me smile.
"That's a problem easily solved."
I remained human and split my forms, the duplicate already transformed as Plasmius. He sunk into the floor, disappearing quickly. Danny stared openly at the spot my clone stood seconds ago.
"You can duplicate into your ghost form while your human?" he was surprised.
"It took some work, but yes." I couldn't help but sounding smug. It had taken a while to perfect after all.
Danny sighed in a rejected sort of way.
"And I can barely hold four forms." he mumbled.
"I can assure you, my boy, that won't last long."
He looked at me with confusion.
"Did you honestly think I wouldn't train you?" I asked a little dryly, watching with amusement as his face lit up excitedly.
"Really! You are?"
"Duh." I smiled at the use of the teenage slang, deciding to spontaneously loosen up a little.
Danny laughed.
"You sounded like me for a second there." He chuckled, high on excitement.
"Wouldn't that be a tragedy." I responded sarcastically, earning a light punch from him.
"Hey!"
After a pause, he remembered to ask what my duplicate was for.
"He's bringing up breakfast." I explained.
"Sweet."
Barely two seconds after the candy related expression died on his lips, my clone appeared from the floor, holding a large bed-tray with two plates of breakfast, setting it on the bed.
"Nice service." Danny commented..
The clone was quickly absorbed, leaving us with steaming pancakes, bacon, and hash browns. The tray was propped up on stands, raised from the actual bed. I scooted it closer to us and shifted a bit. Danny's warmth slid from my body as he practically inhaled his food, wiping his mouth clean and downing the milk for a finishing touch. By the time he was done I'd barely gotten through half of my meal. Teens.
"How come I never see any of your ghost staff?" Danny asked, a little out of the blue, erasing the silence that was momentarily around us.
"Because I like it that way. Walking around your home with undead servants flying around doesn't help eliminate any loneliness one might feel." My reply was deadpanned.
Danny swirled his fork in a syrup puddle on his empty plate absentmindedly.
"Well, your not alone anymore." he glanced up at me, as though looking for confirmation.
I smiled lightly at him, leaning down slowly to press my lips against his, tasting the sweet remnants of syrup.
"No, I'm not." I said gently, a hair's breathe away from his face.
He grinned, happiness lighting up even the deepest recess of his eyes. It was beautiful.
Breakfast was quickly forgotten after that. I recaptured Danny's lips, my tongue gliding effortlessly across his mouth, hands grasping his hips as I pulled him on top of me once more. His light weight pressed into me, his soft flesh tantalizing and everywhere. Danny's finger's slid through my silver hair, as always, making slight goosebumps shiver down my spine.
I decided this was a great way to start a morning.
After a long, long while we broke apart, his face so soft under my caressing fingers. His gaze held me indefinitely as his hands stroked my long hair.
"You seem to like doing that." I commented lightly.
"Doing what." he asked lazily.
"Playing with my hair."
He looked sheepish for a moment; it was adorable.
"It's very soft." he answered as though this explained everything.
I laughed lightly, kissing him once more.
"Well thats good to know." I replied in a low whisper, both of us once again lost to time as we wrapped each other up in our arms.
Finally, we managed to focus on something other than heated passion and extricated ourselves from the massive bedroom, clothed and clean at last.
We were walking down the hall with no real destination in mind. I had a nagging feeling that I was forgetting something, but I couldn't think of what it was. My mind was much too focused on the shorter figure bobbing along beside me. It wasn't until I caught a fleeting glance of a ghost maid before she whipped out of sight that my stomach lurched. I quickly remembered what I had forgotten. Skulker has a scheduled appointment-I glanced at my watch-in five minutes. And when it involves weapons he's always early.
"Uh Danny," I started hastily, "I forgot to mention, Skulker will be showing up soon to pick up some weapons down in my lab, thus, you might want to make yourself disappear for a little while."
"How soon is soon?" he asked apprehensively.
"Whelp!"
Oh butter biscuits.
Danny scowled at me, putting his hands on his hips, looking like a mother ready to scold a child. I shrugged with a wince.
"Invade my employers home will you? Your pelt will hang on my wall before the end of the day!"
Danny sighed in annoyance, changing into Phantom.
"Well, I guess I do need the practice."
"Yes, right, practice. Good job looking at the positives, Danny." I held a thumbs up to him, half smiling half wincing.
"Shut up Vlad."
He shot into the air, and I took a back seat, using this valuable time to observe Danny's fighting skills without the help of his friends or thermos.
He was better than when we last fought, definitely, but there was still much to improve on. He'd gotten better a dodging, faster too. Skulker had a harder time landing a hit on him, instead blowing up my unimportant decorations. Skulker did manage to blast Danny into the vaulted ceiling with a large missile, but the agile teen flipped in the air before he slammed into the wall and shot back down to the hunter ghost, a blazing ecto blast in his fiery hand.
Skulker almost put a hole in the floor when he was hit with the blast, quickly retaliating with a series of shots, a couple of which that clipped Danny. Obviously irritated, the hybrid dove into the fray hazardously, only to be blasted from the floor by one of Skulker's guns. I made a note to teach him not to be so hasty.
Bordering angry, Danny pulled himself from the wall and split into two forms, smartly conserving his strength. One of the clones melted back into the wall and disappeared from sight. The original Danny dove back towards Skulker, skirting the edge of the ghost's blast zone to avoid being shot again.
I saw several openings where Danny could have slipped past Skulker's defenses, but he missed them. Finally, he caught an obvious one and punched, nailing skulker in the face. The hunter stumbled back a bit, only to be kicked to the ground by Danny's reappearing clone.
From there it was pretty much all over. Skulker couldn't keep up with two Danny Phantoms and eventually fell to their combined kicks and punches. After his large metallic body crashed to the floor, missing a few limbs, Danny pulled himself back together and returned to his human form, a satisfied smirk on his face. His hair was a bit more ruffled than usual and a bruise was probably forming on his chest, but other than that he was fine.
I clapped my hands, the sound echoing around the house as I came back into attention.
"That was good Daniel. We'll need to work on your offensive strategies though, and your patience." I came to a halt in front of the defeated Skulker.
Danny nodded deftly to me, breathing a little hard. Skulker was looking in confusion at me and the young hybrid, obviously not understanding.
"What new scheme do you have now, Plasmius?" he asked angrily, slowly coming to the conclusion that he had just been used.
"Daniel has finally decided to let me teach him how to use his powers properly." I replied, sparing Skulker the truth even though I knew he wouldn't care about it anyways. In the ghost zone, no one really cares who you choose to love. You can't have rules of society when there is no society.
"Does this mean I won't be able to hunt the whelp anymore?" he demanded angrily, not looking very intimidating from his incapacitated pose on the floor.
"Of course not. He needs practice after all. Sorry about the suit though, I'll be sure to pay for a new one." He was a good ally. Couldn't have him running off in discontent now could I? It was bad business.
He grumbled a little incoherently, slowly bringing up his back-up power reserve and lifting himself from the floor. It was no where near enough power to fight, but just enough to get him back to his lair to rebuild a new suit. I saw Danny tense for a moment, but then lower his arms when it was obvious Skulker wasn't going to attack.
"Daniel, why don't you wait downstairs. This shouldn't take very long."
He got the message and floated into the air silently, looking back at me once before flying off downstairs. Skulker looked curiously from me to him.
"How did you manage to tame that wild animal?" he asked, jerking a thumb back to the area where Danny disappeared.
I only smiled secretively in response, transforming into Plasmius.
"Use your imagination." I suggested, stepping into the air and heading down to the lab.
Skulker raised an eye brow for a moment but then shook his head, slowly following after me. His suit was dented, definitely damaged beyond fighting, but he had enough strength left to carry the new weapons home. However, knowing Skulker, even if he didn't have the strength he'd carry them home anyways.
We sunk down from the ceiling of the lab, all it's pristine glory laid out to us like an artistic landscape. A landscape full of beakers, computers, and chemicals. I floated over to a large metal cabinet, throwing open the doors and revealing many half built and completed weapons. Skulker eyed them hungrily from behind me, fingers almost twitching.
I pulled out a long gun that would attach to his arm and weigh barely three ounces. Along with this I gave him several ghost-proof nets, two grenades that would spit acid in the explosion, a gun that shot traps from long distances, and another blade that had the duel ability to burn and slice.
Skulker's greedy green eyes followed the weapons as I dropped them gently into a thick bag, drawing it shut and placing it in his remaining hand.
"Skulker." I glared at him, not taking my hands from the bag just yet. He looked at me.
"Do not come into my house unannounced ever again." I commanded coldly. He knew from experience not to disobey my private requests.
He gave a quick nod, his grip on the bag tightening. I held his gaze for a second longer and finally let go. Skulker immediately brought the bag closer to him.
"This is about the whelp?" he asked, turning back once as he floated toward my open portal.
"Yes."
Skulker left it at that, knowing from my tone that I wasn't going to elaborate. That was one of the best qualities about Skulker. He knew when to shut up. As soon as his banged up self was gone, I flew up through he ceiling and into the den, where I guessed Danny would be.
I was surprised when he wasn't there, but it didn't take long to find him. He was flying around in lazy loops and circle in the grand entrance, occasionally sliding down the staircase railing. He had a content expression, looking lost in thoughts and daydreams. I floated up behind him as he blindly sailed backwards. His light weight bumped into my chest and he quickly opened his eyes.
"Oh, hi Vlad. All done with Skulker?" He asked cheerily, righting himself in the air.
"Indeed I am. I gave him several new weapons I'm sure you'll see in the future." I couldn't help but inform him, the look on his face amusing.
"I can't believe your suppling my personal predator with lethal weapons. When I die, I hope your wracked with horrible guilt." He narrowed his eyes.
"Oh please Danny. You and I both know that there isn't a snowballs chance in hell that he'll ever actually defeat you." I scoffed. "Besides, it's good practice, and none of the weapons are lethal anyways."
"I suppose your expecting me to take this all as a compliment or something?" he asked flatly.
"Yes." Of course it was a compliment. It was a testament to Daniel's strength that I let Skulker continue hunting him.
"Vlad, you have a funny way of complimenting people." Danny laughed, a light expression on his visage, "So now what do we do?" he cocked his head slightly, dark tresses falling into this crystal blue eyes. I smiled at him affectionately, reaching to brush the hair from his eyes.
"What ever you'd like." I replied.
He thought for a moment and then an eager look came over him.
"Training." he said simply, a hopeful glint in his blue orbs.
I smiled, the plan much too good to pass up. I've waited an entire year for this.
"Excellent."
I led him outside, away from the foot ball field and pools and porches and anything else a stray ecto blast could destroy. When we reached the edge of the forest we transformed into our ghost forms, jumping into the air and rising high above the tree tops. I lead Danny out about a mile from the mansion, forest surrounding us from all sides.
"Jeez Vlad. Your completely isolated out here." Danny looked around, his snow hair shining brilliantly in the sunlight.
"I like my privacy." I folded my arms, watching him, his long tail spectral tail dancing on the wind.
He looked back at me, determination in his eyes, waiting.
"I have a training room in my mansion. It's created from the latest technology and will allow even the most powerful of ghost attacks to be preformed without damage to the house. It will also set up obstacle courses; the level of difficulty is to the users discretion. It is, without a doubt, one of the most useful rooms in my mansion." I began.
"They why are we out here?" he asked, confusion coloring his voice.
I smirked.
"Because the only thing it doesn't offer is an experienced opponent. Your enemies will not operate like machines."
"Except Skulker." he muttered lowly to himself, but I easily heard it.
"Even Skulker has a mind of his own, no matter how dense." I said dryly, thinking of his one track goal.
Danny grinned. I rose an eye brow, getting back to the task at hand.
"I will not go easy on you." I warned, wanting it to be very clear that I have every intention of running him into the ground. After all, practice makes perfect.
"Good. I don't want to be babied." Danny fell into a fighting stance, hands lighting with a restrained, neon-green ecto blast. I watched as he mentally put up his wall, wrapping himself up in the mind set of attack.
I smirked, a little darkly, very much liking his attitude. One day he will be a very powerful fighter. Red encompassed my hands, ecto-fire collecting neatly in them. Then I attacked.
Danny dodged my punch well, taking the obvious opening to my stomach. It would have been a good hit had I not blocked him, twisting his wrist around and throwing him behind me. Danny spun in the air, bouncing off an invisible wall and shooting like a bullet back at me. He was fast, but sloppy, I blocked his punch and kicked him in the stomach. He sailed downward, but quickly stopped himself. He came up, floating on the edges of my reach and quickly formulating a strategy. I could see his brain ticking through those narrowed, green eyes.
I said nothing, waiting for ten seconds before going to attack. Danny dodged smoothly, missing a couple openings, but coming back with a well placed round-house kick that sent me sailing. I felt the ecto blast speeding my way before I saw it, instinctively putting up a pink shield and watching the attack explode in a million tiny lights upon impact, obscuring my vision momentarily.
I kept a careful eye on Danny, watching him serve his attacks and block several of my own. I could tell he was holding back, saving his strength. Most of his throws were petty ecto blasts. But his shields had gotten much stronger, able to withstand almost all of my attacks.
I decided to kick it up a notch, splitting my self into four clones to see how he would cope. To my surprise, he didn't clone himself. Did he honestly think he could take on all four of me at once. I caught a minuscule smirk from him and had no time to decipher it before two clones of himself shot very powerful ecto blasts through two of my own clones from behind, quickly eliminating them.
I realized he already had cloned himself, probably when I was distracted from his round house kick. Clever boy.
The two clones formed into one, doubling their shared strength and attacking my remaining clone. The original Danny jumped at me, throwing ecto powered punch after ecto powered kick swiftly, putting me on the offensive.
I blocked the attacks easily. They were strong, yes, but still sloppy. He need to concentrate on his attack more, not just half aim his punches and hope to hit. He missed more openings, but landed a few solid hits.
After the fifth or so punch, I decided to really give him a challenge.
A powerful ecto blast from me set him flying back, crashing into a tall tree. He winced, and pushed off into the air again, I didn't give him a chance to get his bearings. He managed to block me once, but I quickly restrained his arms behind him, sending a sharp electrical charge running up and down his body in an attempt to weaken him.
He shouted in pain for a second and then silenced himself, gritting his teeth angrily. His body glowed a bright green and I realized he was gathering his energy within himself. I let go and jumped back, just missing the wave he sent out. He twisted around, body smoking, and charged. I grabbed his punches out of the air, a test of strength forming between us. He grit his teeth, barely two inches from my face, eyes glaring into mine as he pushed against my restraining hands. He was very strong for his size, but no match for me. At least not yet.
I smirked and his glare dropped, apprehension glossing over him as his breath hitched slightly.
He crashed into the earth when I threw him over my head and sent him downward, a following ecto blast pushing him harder. The earth rumbled slightly from the impact and I heard him groan. I floated down, waiting for the smoke to clear so I could declare victory. However, when the crater was revealed Danny wasn't in it, I had two seconds to look behind me sharply before his fist contacted with my face.
My back slammed against a tree and I instantly phased through it, determined not to let myself be defeated. I disappeared in the trees; Danny floated through them, looking all around for me with narrow eyes. I came from above, feet digging into his back as I forced him to the ground again.
He grunted and phased through the ground to relieve the pressure on his back. I twirled around and punched him in the face before he could sneak up on me again. He crashed into the base of a tree and the branches shook, sending a couple leaves down. I peaked his scrunched eyes open and yelped, narrowly avoiding my fist as it dug into the tree where his head had been seconds ago.
He stumbled slightly and he turned around, his arms jumping up to block again.
The battle didn't last long after that. Danny was fatigued, my relentless attack was wearing him down. When a restrained punch to the chest sent him back into a tree again, I knew he was beat. My fist turned to a splayed hand, holding him up slightly. His eyes were closed, his breathing deep and ragged. His lip was bleeding and a dark bruise was forming on his jaw. My wall crumbled away and I felt remorse wash over me, something I'd never experienced when fighting Danny before. Actually, it was something I'd never experienced when fighting anyone before. I took my hand away and stepped back. Danny bent over, his hands on his knees and breathing hard.
"Damn...you..." he coughed, wiping sweat from his forehead and glaring up at me in annoyance. An unexpected flash of fear ran through me. Did I go too far? But was quickly able to tell he was more annoyed at himself for loosing.
"It was much better than our last fight. You did very well." I felt the need to reassure him, but I couldn't help but tease. "Except, of course, for loosing."
"Shut up Vlad." he groaned, flopping onto the soft grass, face down.
I chuckled lightly, sitting down next to him and petting his soft hair. The sun shone down through a hole in the canopy above. A stream of sunlight separated us from the darkness of the forest, warm and comfortable. I accidentally lost track of the time, perfectly content to sit in the warmth and pet Danny's head as he lay face down beside me. His breathing was normal, my hand went from petting his hair to rubbing his back gently. I don't know how long we sat there, surrounded by the sounds of the forest.
"You know, I don't think you're going to learn very much if we stop like this all the time." I chuckled down at him when I finally noticed that we'd been there for quite a while.
"We're not stopping." his voice was muffled, "We're...uh...taking a break."
"Indeed, a break." I rolled my eyes, letting the laws of gravity fall away from me as I floated into a standing position.
"Come Danny, I have a remedy that will heal your bruises faster. Then we can begin actually learning how to ghost fight." I looked down at him, remembering all the things he needed to work on to perfect his attacks.
"So no more beat-up-Danny time?" he still hadn't moved.
"Yes, no more beat-up Danny time."
"Sweet!" one second he was on the ground and the next he was floating next to me, dried blood still on his lip. "Lets get that remedy, you punch hard."
I winced slightly, feeling guilty but certainly not voicing it, and rose into the air with him. We sped toward the castle and I made a note to teach him how to warp soon. The wind sped past us, whipping Danny's hair back as he zoomed past me.
"Race ya!" he called, his spectral tail zig-zagging in a challenging way as he looked back at me with a smirk. I grinned and increased my speed, coming into a close behind him.
He was fast, I'll give him that. The fact that he could even manifest a spectral tail shows he has great strength in agility. Unfortunately, a gift is useless if not used correctly, and my 20 years experience easily surpassed him.
The castle was rapidly approaching and I fell back till we were neck and neck. When an ivy covered wall was practically upon us, I stopped so suddenly that Danny didn't know what was going on, looking back at me in confusion.
"Don't forget to phase, Daniel!" I called evilly, laughing with a wince when he smacked right into the wall. Butternuts, I am a jerk.
He groaned in pain and fell to the earth, eyes rolling around his head in disorientation. I floated back to the ground, the black rings returning me to my human form, and looked down at him, a smirk on my face. The way I see it, this is early payment for all the gloating I'm going to endure when his speed does surpass mine.
"You...are such...an ass." He panted, clutching his head and struggling to push himself up.
"I know." Grinning, I swiftly picked him up, being sure to avoid his bruises.
"Hey! Put me down!" he yelled in protest, miffed about smacking into the wall.
"Danny, you can barely walk. Do you really want me to put you down?" I asked, knowing the answer.
"Well whose fault is that?" he grumbled, settling down and transforming back into his human form. The white rings went through my body, feeling like a cold relief on a hot summer day.
"If you had let me train you, oh say, a year ago this wouldn't be a problem." I reasoned, hugging his light form to me as we approached a doorway into the mansion.
"Well I would have, if you hadn't been such a bitter revenge-bent fruitloop."
"Touche."
He smiled to himself, finally relaxing into my arms.
"So, is this remedy thing like, a shot or something?" I could hear the apprehension in his voice.
"Of course not." I laughed, "It's a tea. Technically, it's a type of root from the ghostzone, but I prefer to boil it into a tea. If you'd like to eat it raw, be my guest."
"Ugh." he made a face. "No thanks. Eating raw plants is Sam's job."
I remembered him telling me about his strange ultra-recylo vegetarian friend. How he could stand to be around so much tofu is beyond me. We walked across the threshold of a doorway and into the cool air of the mansion, my footsteps muffled by the elegant floor carpet.
"Okay, I'm all better, can you put me down now?" he said quickly, beginning to squirm again.
"Nope." I smiled, having fun arguing with him.
He huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms, looking disgruntled.
"Your so cute when your angry." I grinned, kissing him lightly on the head.
He deflated at that, glancing at me with a furtive smile, his arms falling limp and swinging in the air. I lead the way into another kitchen, this one very small and full of miscellaneous bottled plants and such. It looked more like an apothecary than a kitchen. A few pumice stones stood on the wooden counter tops, the largest one on the square island next to a single burner. The who room had a very outdoorsy jungle feel. Not that I really cared how the room was decorated as long as it served it's purpose.
"Jeez, Vlad, how many kitchens do you have?" he looked around the small room as I set him down on one of the two bar stools as the island.
"I honestly don't know." I rummaged through the cabinets, finding a mason jar full of a sickly green looking root and setting it on the counter.
"Ew, I have to eat that." Danny made a face.
"Yes. It comes from an evil plant ghost named Undergrowth."
"Wow, that makes it so much more appetizing."
I laughed, slowly turning the root into a nice bitter tea that Danny probably wouldn't like.
"It's not going to turn me into some crazy evil plant or something it is?" he glared at the root.
"No, but it's not going to be very tasty, I'll give you that."
"Of course not. It comes from an evil plant ghost." he poked the extra roots within the mason jar, glaring at them like a distrustful cat.
I watched him with slight amusement, keeping an eye on the boiling root tea. I pulled two deep blue mugs from the cabinet, setting them down in front of us. When the tea started whistling, Danny jumped and looked at the kettle in mild surprise.
"I thought that only happened in cartoons." he muttered.
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head a pouring the blackish-green tea into the pair of mugs.
"Hey, why are you drinking this? It's not like you got hurt." he mumbled bitterly.
"Trust me, you landed a few good hits. Besides, I've come to like this tea a little bit."
"You can't get addicted to this stuff, can you?" he eyed the steaming drink apprehensively.
"Taste it and that'll answer your question. When I say I've come to like this tea a little bit, I really mean a little bit." I took a sip, managing to not make a face.
Danny stared at it for a little longer and then took a hesitant sip, almost immediately choking and spiting it back out.
"That's disgusting!" he gagged, giving the mug vile glares.
"True, but it's very potent. If you managed to get down even a drop through that hacking fit you'll know what I mean." I took another sip, feeling the rush of rejuvenation run through me like a wave.
Danny sighed, wincing at he picked up the mug again and put it to his lips, tipping it back slightly and shuddering as it fell down his throat, looking as though he were in pain. I laughed lightly.
"Your so dramatic." I shook my head, an amused smile on my face.
"I am no-Oh, wow, that stuff is potent." he blinked, sitting up straighter.
"Told you." I smirked.
"Whatever, I'm still mad at you for the wall thing." he stuck out his tongue.
I rolled my eyes, talking a bigger sip.
It took Danny a while to drink the tea, and once finished he swore it would have been just as painful to wait till the bruises faded. I called him dramatic again, which prompted him to push me into the wall. As fate would have it, I fell against a plant which fell over and knocked down a priceless vase, which immediately shattered upon contact with the tiled floor. I told Danny his clumsiness was wearing off on me. Danny said it was karma.
I led him to my training room and his irritation was quickly forgotten. The massive room was surrounded by paneled white walls. I knew that at the push of a button a different type of gun would appear from behind almost every one of the panels. A boxing ring set in a corner of the room and many weight benches and weights were next to it. Rings jutted out from the ceiling and walls, some with the ability to be set on fire.
I had other miscellaneous things to test intangibility and invisibility and such. Different types of walls to fly through and different environments to retain invisibility in. After all, it takes more stamina to remain invisible in extreme heat or extreme cold compared to normal room temperatures. Same principle applies with intangibility. Different types of surfaces are difficult to phase through, such as infra red walls.
In a small room protected by every shield available, the controls rested. From in there I could raise or lower the difficulty setting. We spent almost four hours in the training room, most of the time working on Danny's hand to hand offensive combat. I taught him where to spot an opening in an enemies defenses and how to most effectively penetrate it. I told him to have patience and wait for an opening, not to try and make the enemy create one by jumping head long into battle in a barrage of haphazard attacks.
We were in there for as long as he wanted, and while I was pleased with his determination to learn, I wasn't about to let him run himself ragged. So, when he was panting with exhaustion and practically falling over, I made him stop. He reluctantly agreed.
"Man I'm tired." He breathed deeply, placing his hands on his knees.
"I would expect so after three hours and forty five minutes of ceaseless sparring."
He just gasped for air in response, drowning down the water from the bottle I gave him.
"What...time is it?" he asked.
"Almost five. We're a bit late for lunch."
"Oh, just a bit." He gasped sarcastically, smiling playfully up at me.
Standing straight, he stretched high to the sky, bending his cracking back and exhaling. Muscles under his damp skin were pulled taunt, quickly attracting my wandering eyes. After a pause he looked down to his sweaty body and made a face.
"Ew. Shower first, then dinner." he said.
His bare chest was glistening with shiny droplets, the basket ball shorts he was wearing hung low on his hips. It had been very fun teaching him how to block and attack, I remembered with a lazy grin.
"Uh, Vlad?" he waved his hand in front of my face.
"What?" I pulled myself from my memories slowly.
"Shower. You coming?" he asked, pointing to the ceiling and changing into Phantom.
I gave him a look.
"Right," he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Well come on then."
I reached out and pulled him into me, transforming into Plasmius. The black rings passed through me and he instinctively pressed himself closer to me, a comfortable smile on his face.
"I'm teaching you how to warp this week." I promised.
He grinned in elation and excitement. I caught his smile in my lips, pressing him to me as we disappeared in the air. I led him through the warp into our bathroom easily, the soft carpet below us once more. The jacuzzi brought back good memories and judging by the light blush and secretive smile on Danny's face, he thought so too.
"We're never going to leave here if we use the tub again." I said practically and looked over to my double wide shower. "Shall we?" I raised an eye brow, smirking.
White rings crossed Danny and revealed his brilliant blue eyes again, a mischievous glint in them. He kicked his shoes off and started undressing as an answer; I quickly followed suit. The shower was made of black marble, just like almost everything else in the bathroom. The four gold shower heads were angled perfectly, all the soaps one could imagine set into a niche in the shower wall. Danny stepped hesitantly into the shower, glancing up behind me as though to make sure I were still there.
I smiled reassuringly and placed a hand on the small of his back, closing the glass door behind me, encasing us behind it's misty wall. The water came out at the perfect temperature, mildly hot water pouring down on us from all four spouts.
"Vlad, the word excessive comes to mind when I think of your bathroom." he looked at the four spouts, shaking his head hopelessly with a smirk.
"Excessive? Nonsense, I just like to enjoy the simple pleasures of life." I shrugged and then pulled him close, "Now come here."
Danny fell against me, and his skin was as smooth as ever. I bent down to kiss his neck lightly and then poured a small amount of shampoo on his head. I worked the soap into his beautiful hair, my fingers massaging his scalp. He hummed with a happy smile, closing his eyes.
"That feels good." he mumbled contentedly.
"That's the idea." I smirked from behind him, my bubble covered hands delicately working the soap in.
I reached up and pulled one of the shower nozzles from the wall, the long tube looking like a snake sliding from the wall. The hot water bled through is hair, removing the white soap and revealing the midnight hair beneath like a rebirth of treasure. The conditioner slipped through his tresses, making them sinfully soft.
Danny leaned against my chest, his hands caressing my thighs where they fell against me. A soft washcloth of body soap rested in my hand furtively, I tipped Danny's head back slightly and kissed him. His lips moved smoothly against mine, like gentle waves. Slowly, he turned around, his arms traveling up my chest and wrapping around my neck. His fingers ran through my loose, wet hair, sometimes coming up to caress my face.
When my hazy mind remembered, I rested the soap covered cloth against the small of Danny's back, bringing it up to wash his back. Danny deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding against mine. I clutched him tighter, his flesh feeling so perfect as it melded against me.
I washed his lithe body, the ripples of muscle flexing under the soft cloth. Danny groaned slightly when I went from washing his chest to a much lower region, but he didn't break the kiss, instead holding me tighter, his hands becoming more needy.
I moved slowly, holding him close and taking care to be exceedingly gentle, almost teasingly so. Danny moaned when I passed over his arousal again, this time slowing down. He clutched me tighter, but I returned to washing the rest of his beautiful body, much to his disappointment.
"Jerk." he huffed, hugging me close to him.
I laughed lowly, the clean water slipping off my shoulders and onto him.
"We do have to leave the shower eventually Danny." I reminded him.
"Really?" he obviously wanted to stay in here all night. It was a very tempting thought.
"Really. Can't have you starving to death again can we?" His needs held priority over my pleasure.
"I'm not gonna die if I skip one dinner." he mumbled.
I kissed his forehead, quickly running some soap through my hair.
"Oh no you don't." Danny suddenly transformed into phantom, right in the shower, the HAZMAT jumpsuit repelling most of the water.
Before I could ask what on earth he was doing, he snaked up behind me and moved my hands away, replacing my fingers with his. They tangled in the silver locks, rubbing the soap in and playing with my long hair. Danny removed his gloves and they faded out of existence before they fell to the shower floor. His spectral tail was curled around me, cooling my fiery core unlike any other.
Still, I couldn't help but laugh slightly that he had to phase into phantom to reach my hair comfortably.
"Just you wait Vlad, in a couple years I might even be taller than you." He grinned vengefully from behind me, tugging a strand of hair as he played with it.
I smirked back at him, pushing away the gut wrenching pull in my stomach and hiding my true emotions. Daniel wouldn't even be taller than me in thirty years.
"Vlad?" his concerned tone suddenly took me by surprise. I though for sure I had hidden my emotions perfectly.
"Fat chance." I raised an eyebrow, bringing a playful tone in my voice.
Danny blinked and then rolled is eyes, returning to washing my hair.
"You won't be saying that when I actually do turn out to be taller than you." he washed out the soap and applied conditioner, spreading it liberally through my hair. I took the time to wash the rest of my body as he cleaned my hair and he put on a pouting face.
"Hey..."
I quickly turned around and kissed him on his protruding lip, the pout melting into a smile.
"Dinner awaits." I reminded him again.
He sighed but returned to playing/washing my hair dutifully, a private smile on his face.
Eventually, we finally made it out of the room, freshly clean. Danny had insisted on wearing his pajamas around the house and a long passionate kiss was more than enough to convince me. Dinner awaited us in the kitchen, spotless silver domes retaining the heat of the food. We sat next to each other, neither of us really aware of the pull between us, just following our instincts.
"Man, It's gonna be a bummer going back to demonic turkey and burnt vegetables when I go home." Danny savored the chicken alfredo, a light smile on his face.
"Indeed. You probably won't be able to stand the commoner food and you'll just have to come over here that much more." I sighed dramatically.
He snorted and rolled his eyes, shaking his head.
"You probably couldn't handle "commoner food," could you Vlad?"
"On the contrary, I used to eat frozen boxed foods on a regular basis."
"College?"
"College."
He nodded in understanding, a thought suddenly coming to him.
"What was your childhood like?" He asked curiously.
I set my fork down, an odd feeling in my stomach.
"My childhood?" I sounded almost as if I were trying to remember. What an odd and unexpected question.
He watched me, waiting, looking as though he regretted asking. I answered before he could take the question back.
"I grew up in a suburban neighborhood, about a twenty minute drive from the capital of Wisconsin. It was the type of neighborhood where appearances are everything and everything looks the same." My tone obviously expressed that I never liked it.
"My mother and father were complete opposites." I laughed slightly, reminiscing. "She was straight from the sixteys and never left them, he was a stern straight forward man who didn't deal with nonsense. Why he married my mother, I'll never know. She made hats and purses and sold then in her own store in the city, made quite a bit of money too. He worked for a corporation and was one of the higher ups in the business. He wasn't home as often as my mother, but I didn't really care. I never liked my father very much." I couldn't help but narrow my eyes. Honestly, I hated my father.
"My mother more or less raised me. Her and father often got into fights over parenting styles, but in the end they usually worked out fair deals. I went to private schools until college, because my father had to keep his image up. It looked much better on his reputation if his only son went to private school. My mother was a very free spirited woman with a very open mind." I smiled, remembering her. "She was accepting to everything I wanted to do, unless of course it would harm me in some way. I used to meditate with her all the time, as odd as that sounds. She was a devoted pagan, my father an atheist."
"Pagan? As in witchcraft and stuff?" Danny's face told me he thought all of that was a lot of nonsense.
"Indeed, and it's not as crazy as one might think it is, although it was never quite for me. I was simply content to believe in a mysterious higher power and left it at that. However, It was through her paganism that I gaining an interest in spirits and ghosts, much to my fathers disapproval. I was already discontented with the life he wanted me to live so I didn't really care. Anyways, it was when I started taking a more active interest in the paranormal that my father stepped in. According to him, it wouldn't do to have his son turn out crazy."
"Ouch." Danny winced.
"Indeed. For all my father's abilities in manipulation and deceptiveness, he had an odd knack for talking without thinking when around his family. My mother was furious, but in the end, as always, they made up."
I paused, wondering if I should really run the risk and bring out the past in front of Danny.
"It...it was my senior year in high school. I knew I was allowed to choose my own college and had every intention of going to the University of Wisconsin. Mostly to piss my father off. It was a public college after all and with my grades I could have made it to Oxford in London."
"My mother died before I graduated." Danny's eyes widened and everything in him stilled. "She was driving home one night and a semi-truck flipped over because of a drunk driver. She was killed instantly."
Danny was very quiet, staring at his food.
"My father was distraught. He quit his job, sold the house, and moved to the country. I went on to college. Her death turned everything upside down for me. I became more reclusive, moved on from the paranormal to science and business, became an atheist. In short, I was my father. It wasn't until my junior year in college that I looked in the mirror and realized this wasn't what my mother had hoped for me. It took a while, but after I faced my depression head on, I slowly returned to my old self. Although I was more like a teetering rock on a needle, no way of telling which way I'd fall."
"In my senior year of college I took up more paranormal classes and less business. That, of course, was where I met your mother and father." I paused, wondering whether or not to continue. This part could get awkward.
Danny watched me, waiting for me to continue.
"I...well I saw a bit of my mother in Maddie, and thus became very attached to her as you can imagine."
Danny raised an eyebrow.
"I think I can do more than imagine Vlad."
"Right...well, after the proto-portal accident and her rejection, the rock fell the wrong way on the needle and I turned into more of a monster than even my father, and I don't mean my ghost half." I glared bitterly at the wall to the left of me, ashamed at myself.
But slowly, my face softened, as a much sweeter thought fluttered across my mind.
"And then you came along..." I muttered, a smile crossed my face subconsciously; I was still staring at the wall.
There was a moment of silence between us until Danny's voice spoke up again.
"What about your dad?"
Good thoughts gone.
"Ah yes. Him." my tone darkened significantly and my glare returned. I looked over at Danny.
"After I discovered I was half ghost I was close to going insane. Because of my own doing, I didn't have two devoted friends to help me through it. So, I went to the only person I had left, my father."
A look of dread was coming over Danny's face, almost as though he knew what happened next. I wouldn't put it past him, he has excellent intuition.
"To put it very lightly, he declared me a freak, denied I was ever his son, and told me he never wanted to see me again. I haven't spoken to him in over twenty years."
Danny was shocked into silence, and I resumed to glaring at the wall, waiting for my bitter emotions to die down.
"And thats my childhood." I finished, the anger stubbornly hanging on for a few more minutes before I breathed deeply, not wanting them to remain. I was tired of being angry.
I looked over to Danny, my expression lighter and probably more approachable. He was moving a few peas around on his almost empty plate, looking as thought he was the one with an unpleasant past.
"Danny, that's all over and done with. I don't dwell on it because you can't change the past. Experience has taught me it's best to use your energy on shaping the future, as cheesy as that sounds." I waved a hand flippantly.
"Still..." he winced.
"Daniel." he looked up at me. "It's over with. Personally, I'm much more inclined to focus on the now, if you get what I mean." I cast him a suggestive smile and his face cracked in a reluctant smirk.
"Are you always horny?" he laughed.
"With you? Yes. Lets go upstairs, shall we?" I asked pointedly, intending on finishing what I started in the shower.
Danny stood up as well, a sultry smirk on his face. Unfortunately, it was quickly wiped away with a look of remembrance as he smacked his palm to his forehead.
"I gotta IM Tucker." he groaned.
"Now?" I asked.
"Do you really think I'll get to it later?" He gave me a look and I relented with a sigh.
"Fine, come with me." I sighed.
I let him to an office-esque room. It was small for my mansion, filled with useless books, empty filing cabinets and a polished desk, complete with the latest Desktop.
"Will this do?" I asked.
"Yep." Danny plopped down in the desk chair and I logged him on.
Curiosity momentarily distracted me as Danny pulled up the Internet and pressed several different things that somehow led to a chat box.
Clueless-1_Tucker? Sam?
"Clueless-1?" I questioned, a laugh in my voice.
"Sam and Tucker insisted it was the perfect user name for me, but I don't know why..." he shook his head making me roll my eyes.
He really was clueless if he still couldn't see how bad that goth friend of his had it for him. It's a good thing there is absolutely no competition between us or else I might have to violently intervene. I brought my attention back to the screen in time to see that his friends had replied.
TechMaster01_Danny! You still alive?
Clueless-1_Kinda.
Spooky-Bat-Grl_Whats that supposed to mean!
Clueless-1_Sam, I'm half ghost.
Spooky-Bat-grl_Oh. Right.
Clueless-1_Is Jazz there?
TechMaster01_Danny? This is Jazz. Are you okay? Why didn't you IM Tucker yesterday?
"Is that all their going to babble about?" I muttered.
"Probably." Danny muttered back, typing faster than my personal secretary.
Clueless-1_I'm fine guys. Vlad's not brainwashing me, and why the heck would I IM you yesterday? I spent all day with you guys.
TechMaster01_I can't believe your sister stole my user.
Spooky-Bat-Grl_ Tucker. Focus.
TechMaster01_Jazz again. Of course you should have IM'ed yesterday! For all we knew he could have killed you when you got back to Wisconsin.
I was slightly offended by that.
Clueless-1_You guys are way too paranoid. And how did Jazz use Tucker's user? Are you guys all at Tuck's place?
Spooky-Bat-Grl_Yeah. He's got tons of computers. Jazz doesn't want to make an account so she's just using Tuckers. Okay, back to the main point.
TechMaster01_Jazz here again. How do we really know this is Danny?
Spooky-Bat-Grl_Yeah, good point. This could be Vlad pretending to be Danny.
I rolled my eyes.
"Good lord, are they always this paranoid?" I asked.
"Yep." Danny sounded as though he put up with their paranoia on a regular basis.
"Tell them it's me and your locked in a closet about to be maimed by Skulker."I suggested, feeling devious.
Danny turned around in his seat and gave me a look.
"Do you want them to come busting through here in the Specter Speeder?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Oh come now, they wouldn't go that far, would they?"
"Trust me. They would."
I sighed in defeat, contenting myself with reading their messages instead.
Spooky-Bat-Grl_Hello? Is this really Danny? Are you still there?
Clueless-1_Yeah Sam, I'm still here.
TechMaster01_But how do we know your really Danny?
"Jeez, their not gonna give up!" Danny muttered to himself, suddenly pausing and looking around the desktop.
"Um...Can I help you?" I watched at he scrambled around the desk, looking for something.
"Yeah, do you have-Ah! There it is." he looked at a little camera lens built into the top of the computer, smiling. "And it's built into the desktop. Nice."
"I'm sorry, what is that?" I asked in confusion. What did he need a camera for?
"You'll see." he had a mischievous smirk on his face and I wasn't sure whether I should be alarmed or not.
Clueless-1_Tucker, can you connect your Web Cam to Vlad's?
TechMaster01_My user isn't Tech Master for nothing. ;)
"Web Cam?" I asked, feeling uneducated and not liking it.
"You'll see." Danny repeated again.
I exhaled sharply and crossed my arms, waiting and watching the screen. About two minutes later a little box popped up asking if we wanted to sync with "Too Fine Tucker." Danny clicked yes and ten seconds later a box about half the size of the screen appeared. The concerned faces of Samantha, Tucker, and Jasmine were all squeezed into the small frame.
"Danny!" Their face lit up happily, full of relief.
"I liked the chat box better." I muttered, their loud, obnoxious voices already starting to annoy me.
At the sound of my voice their grins fell and they glared at me as one. I stared back at them, completely unphased.
"Stop it, Vlad." Danny stuck his tongue out at me and I wondered how loud his friends would scream if I reached down and kissed him. Tempting.
I restrained myself, flicking him in the back of the head instead.
"Leave my brother alone." Jazz glared. Who did she think she was to boss me around like that? I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make her squirm.
I placed my hands possessively on Danny's shoulders, leaning over him slightly.
"I'll do whatever I want with him, Jasmine." I grinned darkly.
The glare slipped off her face and a scared expression replaced it. Her eyes glanced down to my hands and back to my face, something akin to suspicion in her eyes.
"Vlad." Danny breathed quietly, warningly.
Without a word I stood straight, moving my hands back to my sides. There was a tense silence between the six of us where no one talked. Everyone was glaring at someone except for Danny, who looked more like frantic child stuck between two feuding parents.
"So, um, now you know it's me." he broke the silence with a strained voice, shrugging helplessly to his friends.
Eventually, they dropped their trained glares and resumed attention to my Daniel. I stood silently behind him, watching them expressionlessly.
"What did you do today Danny?" Jazz asked innocently.
Danny shrugged.
"Trained mostly."
"Trained?" Sam sounded suspicious.
"Yeah, but there's no strings attached. Just training for the sake of training." he assured them. They didn't believe him, casting me suspicious glances. I ignored them. Let them be suspicious, it's not like there was anything they could do about it.
"So...what did you guys do today?" he asked.
"Not much. School. A little ghost fighting. There haven't been a lot of ghosts though. It's weird." Tucker replied.
"That because I've told them all to back off." I supplied an answer to their mystery in a bored tone.
They looked at me in confusion, torn between appreciation and stubborn dislike.
"Really? Thanks." Danny looked up and smiled at me. My irritation to his friends disappeared when I looked down at him, a soft smile forming at his thanks.
I really wish he'd hurry this up.
He read my mind, turning to his friends.
"It's been a long day guys. I'm gonna get to bed early." he said, finality in his voice.
Their faces fell, obviously not wanting him to leave.
"But we've barely been on for ten minutes." Tucker whined.
"I know, but its been a really long day. I wanna go to bed." He said again, a little more forcefully this time.
They all sighed dejectedly. I smiled smugly to myself, getting an odd satisfaction out of knowing that Danny was cutting off their conversation for me.
"Alright, but promise me you'll IM here tomorrow again." Jazz said sternly.
"Promise." The arrow on the screen hovered over the little square, x-box on the Web Cam screen.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow." Danny smiled.
"Night."
"Night." he answered to them, instantly shutting the screen down and turning around to me.
I wasted absolutely no time in pressing his lips against mine, phasing into Plasmius. Danny followed my lead, hooking his arms around my neck and floating up from the chair. I held his hips gently, as though I were afraid they would break if I gripped him to hard. Danny's breath flowed into mine, his warn tongue tracing the contours of my mouth lightly. I pulled him closer to me, wrapping my arms around his thin frame and pressing him against me.
Little swirls of pink twisted around us, spreading across our view and enveloping us like a blanket. We twisted out of existence, never breaking the kiss. I easily led us to my room, the pink hue dissipating as we appeared and fell to the bed.
Stars twinkled outside but neither of us noticed, to wrapped up in our own desires. Life went on around us, we existed in our own space. Nothing could touch us here and the unbridled emotions could flow between us openly, without fear. This was our oasis, our escape into a better place. Who needed heaven when we had each other?
Aww, how sweet. H'okay, so if I somehow offended anyone with mentioning Paganism (GASP) in this, then I must say I'm not sorry. Your reading a slash fic people. The last thing you need to feel offended by is mentionings of Paganism. Seriously.
On a more legit note, I feel Vlad's childhood was a bit 'out there' even for a fan fic. I just really didn't want to make him a farmer. Your thoughts?