Prompt 2 –Cuddling Somewhere: I really like this one. There's something about this whole not knowing if it's love thing going on in here that I can't help but feel as if butterflies are trying to escape my stomach. I have to admit it's hard to write a cuddly Vlad. As I've expressed before in another fic, when it comes to slash I am not fond of the girly approach and I kept trying to think of ways that didn't make it so. In the end I just kept writing and Ta Da!

Rating: K+

2. This is New

This is new to them.

This being in the same room, the feel of the others' hands on them without ill intent. Eyes did not glow in distaste and depict venom. Words did not have the same bite as once before. Thoughts were even hesitant, afraid of this fragile minute being broken. Everything in their near four year long history did not prepare them for this moment.

They sat together in the library that doubled as Vlad's study. Despite the large estate even the billionaire knew the convenience of it. That little notion made his younger guest relax his shoulders in just the slightest. The carpet was a deep navy blue and the walls, paneled in red wood, were stacked high in many colors that Danny doubted had all been touched. Windows that stretched as high as the ceiling allowed for the coming evening's light to drift into the room, its cool colors clashing with the warmth of the fire at the dark marble hearth.

Back relaxed in the presence of his home, Vlad curled his fingers in the inky black of the younger's hair. The sensation sent a shiver down Danny's back, the thought that those fingers had before tugged and thrown him across rooms prevalent in his mind. Ignoring the small motion of the boy, Vlad kept his hand steady and continued reading from the small book in his other hand. He was just able to turn the pages of the small paperback with two fingers, something he was silently thankful for. His ice blue eyes would drift down to Danny's head in his lap every now and then but he tried not to disrupt.

Studying for the SAT's had become a task that Danny could hardly endure long enough to even open the book. Both his mother and father (though lacking common sense the college graduate was a brilliant man in certain aspects of academia) had been more than willing to help him in anything he didn't understand but, like always, they coddled him. Danny found it hard to ask for help but when the most unlikely offer had come his way he found very little reason to say no. So now he lay with his head on the older Halfa's lap with aforementioned fingers combing through hair that hadn't changed much since he was younger. The book in his hands was heavier and he balanced it on crossed knees every now and then to write an answer with a pencil that passed between his hands and lips more times than he could count now.

The sound of fire crackling in the hearth, the scratch of a pencil on paper, the turn of a page, and their steady breaths overwhelmed them. It was not the crackle of power at their fingertips, the scratching of flesh hitting the pavement, the turn of their sudden movements in the air, and nor was it the familiarity of short, winded breaths. This sense of sound was going to engulf them and both seemed to come to that realization at the same time as their eyes met and Danny held his book up to the elder.

"Uh, can you explain to me tangents and all that again?"

When Vlad slipped his pointer finger into the pages of the book and began talking Danny was reminded again of why he'd chosen Vlad over his parents. Where they seemed determined to feed him the correct answers for future reference Vlad was meticulous in assuring both Danny and himself that the younger would remember each step as it was to be done. Telling Vlad that he could not do something wasn't an option, unless he wanted to be ridiculed for spending more time 'playing hero' rather than in school.

Danny listened and wrote a few more notes alongside the margins of the page. He wasn't to certain he'd get a great score on the test, but for the sake of his mother and father (and maybe even Jazz) he would try. Even as he watched the man hanging his head over him he felt the need to make someone proud.

There it was again. This sense of newness was awkward. Since when did he care if he made Vlad proud?

Danny didn't want to linger on when it started. For all he knew it had always been there, lingering in the back of his mind, waiting to strike at the most opportune moment. Last year, sometime just before he turned seventeen there was a realization that struck the two, a sense of camaraderie that said there would never be anyone else like them. They were in this new frontier alone and the realization had hit them, mostly Danny, pretty hard. Their truce was silent; it lurked in the background of their new found 'something' and formed itself in small actions and words.

This had brought about something new in both of them. Vlad still had a plotting and slightly sadistic mind but he was quick to be balanced out by the righteous and kind natured young man beside him. Though Danny often opted to play hero he was no longer as careless as before and had adapted some of the calculating skills he was exposed to around the elder. Now and then they did not see eye to eye and some local street would suffer the consequences but in the end they would managed to find that balance again.

It took a moment for Danny to realize that Vlad had stopped talking and when he brought himself back into focus he smiled sheepishly; he'd stopped listening a little while ago.

"Did you hear a word I said?"

"Yes," Danny said automatically.

Vlad raised a brow. "And which word per say did you hear?"

"A few actually: there, the, it, and, is, will. Shall I go on?"

The roll of the older man's ice blue eyes amused Danny, he couldn't help it. It was a familiar pastime that he may never be able to get over. The way Vlad placed his thumb and forefinger on the bridge of his nose made him smile. After so much change he could still twist and grind Vlad's nerves.

It happened in an instant with just barely enough time for Vlad to comprehend what happened.

Danny dropped the SAT book on the carpet with a soft thump and pulled himself up to lean his head on the older man's shoulder. His slight body was sinew and muscle, comparably smaller than the older man's who wore black to hide the bulk of his being. Danny nudged Vlad's free arm until it complied and wrapped around the boy's slim shoulders. Pulled closer Danny sighed in relief and in return wrapped his own arms around the man. The shared warmth was different than that of the fires but neither seemed primed to complain.

Readjusting himself, Vlad settled for bringing the boy a tad closer till he could feel his breath on his neck. Their eyes met for a moment and neither had an explanation.

"This is new," Vlad muttered.

Danny knew it was, all of it was. He didn't know how to explain what he did, or why he did it. But everything is so new already, why not keep the ball rolling?

A/N: So did I do it any justice. I noticed I've been writing a lot more of how they feel rather than dialogue, but I wanted this particular one to have that more emotional level of cuddling with someone at the very beginning stages of a relationship.