Vlad pulled up the car in front of Fenton Works. He scowled at the large neon sign above the house, announcing their location. So loud and large and obnoxious, just like Jack.
Vlad looked to Danny who unbuckled his seat belt. Vlad had already dropped off the other two teens at their respective homes. Danny was last of course, since Vlad wanted just a moment alone with the boy, to perhaps give a proper goodbye, finally figure something out to say that would make the boy do a double take, perhaps smile and say something in return that gave Vlad hope that the boy would soon see things his way.
"Daniel, a moment," Vlad said as Danny reached for the car door handle. The ghost boy paused and looked to Vlad. The older man faltered a bit. "Uh…" Problem was, Vlad hadn't exactly planned out what he was going to say.
Before Vlad could call upon some hidden sentimental, emotional side of himself, Danny's ghost sense went off, just as a shock ran up Vlad's spine.
"Great, it was almost going to be a quiet, ghost-free day," Danny mumbled as the white rings surrounded him, turning him into Danny Phantom. Acid green eyes looked to Vlad. "This isn't somehow your fault, is it?"
Vlad raised his hands as though to prove their cleanliness. Danny shook his head and fazed through the roof of the car.
Vlad leaned over the steering wheel and peered out of the windshield, watching as Danny began to fight some giant ferocious green beast that had fazed through some buildings and appeared.
"Whoa Cujo! Hey, it's just me! Whoa boy! How'd you get out of the Ghost Zone again!" Danny called, grabbing onto the beast's thick black collar to try to rein it in from the destruction it was causing.
"Vlad Masters."
Vlad sighed, not taking his eyes off the ghosts outside. "Can this wait, I'm trying to watch the show."
"It's time for the next step, Vlad Masters. And now might be the perfect opportunity."
"Oh?" Vlad inquired, finally glancing up into the rearview mirror where the familiar solid blue eyes stared back.
"Similarities, Vlad," the spirit said.
Vlad arched a silver eyebrow. "Is this becoming some kind of dating service? I've got to find 'common interests', like a love for hiking, walking on the beach and writing poetry?"
"This is about finding common ground, Vlad," the spirit said, ignoring the sarcastic comments of the billionaire. "The boy can't take a serious interest in you if you two cannot find common ground to bond over."
"Yes true," Vlad said with a smirk, pulling the keys out of the ignition and stepping out of the car. "Well then this should be easy at least. Danny and I are already a lot alike. I mean we are the only two half ghosts in existence and that's—"
"Whoa whoa, Vlad look out!" Vlad looked up and suddenly was tackled to the ground. He looked up in surprise to see the giant beast, its massive paws pinning him down, growling down at him, bright red eyes glaring and drool dripping down from a mouth full of sharp snarling teeth. The drool dripped onto the front of Vlad's suit, positively revolting the man despite the monster that seemed about ready to eat him.
Vlad glared up at the beast. "This is a new suit, so if you wouldn't mind…" Vlad growled, his eyes flashing red for a moment. The green ghost stopped growling and suddenly a thick tongue stuck out, licking Vlad on his face, leaving a slimy trail.
"Ugh, Daniel, get this thing off me before I resort it to ectoplasm!" Vlad cried just as Danny floated over, laughing.
"He usually hates cat people. Do you secretly have a love for slobbery, cuddly dogs, Vladdie?" Danny asked, floating over to Cujo's large head and scratching him behind the ear. The giant ghost dog barked happily and suddenly turned into a small happy green puppy, who continued to lick at Vlad's face.
Vlad sat up, his face scrunched in disgust as he held the squirming puppy away from him. "Cats are quiet and clean, dogs are way too over anxious and…ugh affectionate," Vlad said, standing and handing over the ghost dog.
"You think you'd want something overly affectionate in your home, instead of a moody old cat," Danny said, scratching the dog under his chin. "I'll never understand why lonely people choose even lonelier animals as companions."
Vlad pulled out the red handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped the drool from his face. "Cats have basic manners, first one thing" Vlad said dryly, glancing at Danny to point a glare at the boy, but paused when he noticed the laughing Danny not listening and playing with the puppy, who was floating around the ghost boy's head, yapping and panting happily. He likes dogs. Great, there goes that similarity, Vlad thought with an irritated twitch in his eye.
"So I assume you know this little beast," Vlad mused.
"Yeah, he caused some trouble at Axion Labs a few years ago and ever since he's kind of shown up every now and then. He really is sweet, he just needs someone to play with him," Danny said with a smile.
"Seems he's really taken a liking to you," Vlad said dryly, just as the dog floated up to Vlad and licked his cheek again.
Danny laughed as the man wiped at his face with his sleeve, grabbing the dog and holding it under his arm. "Yeah, and he seems to like you too, God only knows why." Danny smirked as Vlad struggled with the rambunctious pup. The older man looked to Danny pleadingly, so Danny laughed and took Cujo once again into his arms. "I wish I could have a dog, but this little guy belongs in the ghost Zone. I'll have to bring him back—"
The front door to Danny's home suddenly opened, Jack Fenton standing in the doorway with some kind of blinking gadget in hand. Danny yipped like the puppy and stepped behind Vlad, quickly letting the white rings turn him human again with Vlad as an effective shield.
"Vladdie? That you?" Jack asked as he came down the steps to the sidewalk. "Be careful! There's ecto-energy going crazy right now! There's a ghost around here! Dang specters getting close to my home!"
Vlad rolled his eyes as Jack came closer, following the tracking device's blinking and beeping. The gadget lit up when it was pointed straight at Vlad's chest. Jack looked to Vlad in confusion and Vlad just smiled innocently, his heart actually beating a bit faster than normal. It would be really bad if Jack suddenly decided to use his head and connect the pieces…!
Jack put a hand to Vlad's shoulder and moved the man to the side to see behind him and was surprised to see his own son standing there, looking just as "innocent".
"Danny? What are you doing here?" Jack asked. "Have you seen any ghosts floating around?" Jack looked down at the machine in his hands which was going nuts, blinking and beeping, indicating a strong ghostly presence.
Vlad noticed Danny's worried gaze, and Vlad try to send him a reassuring smile but he worried too. Vlad's repressed ghostly powers were vast and insanely strong, combined with Danny's own hidden powers and the currently invisible ghost behind the boy's back, that machine might actually explode from the intense ghostly pressures it was picking up. And that might be bad.
"No dad, I haven't seen anything," Danny began quickly.
"Huh," Jack said, looking into the skies and then shaking his head. He hit his thick fist against the contraption with a sigh. "I just don't get why these machines keep lighting up around you, Danny-boy." He pointing the machine away and towards Vlad, watching it light up and beep even louder. "And now it's even doing it for Vlad! Man, I need to tweak this thing and try to get it to work!" He looked to the sky again and sighed. "I guess it was just a false alarm."
Jack then retreated back towards the house. "Oh and Vlad, you're more than happy to stay for dinner!"
Vlad sighed as Jack entered the house, squeezing the bridge of his nose. "That man is an even bigger idiot than I thought."
"Hey, you can't call him that when you know his invention works just fine," Danny argued as Cujo turned visible and floated around Danny, licking the boy's face. "Good boy, Cujo."
"It's not the technology not working, it's the fact that he can't connect the pieces," Vlad said with a shake of his head.
"So, you wanted him to figure out that you and me are ghosts?" Danny asked with a confused tilt of his head.
"I don't want him to, I'm just commenting that he's an idiot because he hasn't."
"My mom hasn't figured it out either you know."
Vlad paused, glancing to Danny. "Well then she's an idiot as well."
Danny's eyes widened for a moment but then he glared at Vlad. "Quite bashing my parents okay, and just be happy they haven't figured it out or you would be ripped apart molecule by molecule."
"And you wouldn't be?" Vlad asked with a raised eyebrow.
Danny faltered a moment, breaking eye contact as he glanced to Fenton Works. "Well…I'm their son—"
"If you trust them not to rip you apart should they ever find out about your ghostly half, then why haven't you told them?"
Danny didn't respond, his gaze resigned and far away as he stared at his front door. Vlad sighed.
"If you tell them and they still love you, that'd be great. You'd still have your happy little family but without the fear and lies. But, if you told them and they rejected you, still saw you as an enemy, then you'd lose your family. And the thought of them hating you and trying to kill you is scary enough that the more favorable outcome just isn't worth the risk."
"Exactly," Danny said with a sigh. "You're lucky you don't have a family to hide from."
"No matter the circumstance, it's never lucky to not have family," Vlad said sternly, his eyes narrowing at Danny.
Danny shrunk back a bit, shame suddenly flashing in his gaze as he realized what he'd just said. "No you're right, I'm sorry. I mean, well…"
"And for the record," Vlad said, cutting the boy off before he could ramble on like he was prone to sometimes. "I do still have to hide. I have my masks just as you do, Daniel. You have to act the perfect son, the normal teenage student, and the ghost fighting hero, being what people believe you to be, switching back and forth with your roles and your double identity.
"I have to act the kindly mayor for the people of this city." Danny rolled his eyes and Vlad smirked. "I have to play the old college buddy of Jack." Vlad rolled his eyes. "As well as the evil villain to satisfy a certain ghost boy's growing hero-complex." Vlad chuckled and reached out, ruffling Danny's dark hair.
"You're not pretending there," Danny said, shaking his head and brushing away Vlad's hand. He smirked as he tried to fix his unruly black hair. "That's your true face."
Vlad shook his head. "I'm not a villain, Danny." Before the boy could argue, Vlad said, "But I'm not a hero either."
Danny paused, looking at Vlad carefully. He grabbed Cujo from the air and turned back into Danny Phantom.
"No. You're right, you're not a hero. You can never be one."
Vlad had no reason to argue. He didn't want to be a hero. He saw the pressures the boy put himself under by saving the city, by fighting all the ghosts. People relied on him, to always win, to always know what to do and make the right choices. It was too much pressure for a teen who could barely control his powers, who still had to graduate high school and keep this all a secret from everyone. Hero's were glorified and it seemed like Danny like it, but Vlad knew it was way harder to be a hero than a villain. But then again, being a villain just didn't pay off as well as one would think sometimes.
But for some reason, Vlad didn't want Danny to believe this. He didn't want Danny seeing him as a villain, and even though Vlad had no intentions of suddenly becoming some saint and fighting crime, he didn't want Danny believing he couldn't be a hero. He wanted Danny to…to count on him, to look up to him and to…believe in him. He wanted someone's faith, someone's trust, and Vlad realized that someone was this boy.
"Why can't I be a hero?" Vlad asked. He stared at the boy's green eyes, searching. His eyes were wide, hoping the boy would see some potential in him, some good. He didn't think he could bare the ghost boy seeing him as just another enemy, as just some obstacle, just an evil force he needed to rid the city of. He needed to be something to the by, something substantial and important and permanent!
Danny merely shook his head. "I need to return Cujo to the Ghost Zone."
Vlad's hopes dropped. He nodded. "I'll go then. Don't let me get in the way."
"My dad invited you to dinner."
Vlad paused, wondering if that was an invitation in the boy's voice. It sounded more like he was reminding Vlad so that the man wouldn't break his dad's heart. "I'm sure you're father won't miss me. He's got his own family."
Danny looked ready to say something else but Vlad merely turned and got back into his car, slamming the door shut without another glance at the young ghost hero.
So this one is a shorter chapter but I hope you still like it ^^ it was fun to write and i just find it endearing haha I mean Vlad and Cujo! xD too cute haha Im really excited for the next chapter, its gonna be a veery long one, and I'll try to get it up this week. The major problem is my lack of wifi so hopefully i can stop by the library or something to post it haha
Thank you all so much for your comments and favorites! I'm glad a lot of you find them all in character, that's what I'm hoping to stick with because it can sometimes be hard to find good fics for these two with them staying character. So I'm glad I'm doing well with that ^^ Hope you all had a good holiday and don't favorite to leave a little comment! ;)