Prompt 3 –Video Games/ Movie: This one ended up being so much more different than I first intended. The whole concept of doing these oneshots in one day is hard because I'm trying to get it all done and as a student I don't have a lot of time, so I just keep on typing. However, I always try to stay in the best character I can and in this one I think I did it just right. I'm content that this prompt was a success.

Rating: K+

3. Unrealistic

Since Sam had moved to DC and Tucker to New York, Danny had been finding himself alone more often than not. Sure his time would be consumed by some ghost sneaking through the portal from time to time but in the end they complied and learned not to deal with that realms Half Ghost protector. That is why today, like most days when he had no classes at the community college, Danny had taken a trip through his family's ghost portal to visit the silver-haired Halfa of Wisconsin.

What he'd honestly expected to find was a busy man, ever typing out reports and keeping his many various hobbies, as Danny liked to call them, afloat. When Danny shot for the study and did not find him there he was a little surprised and drifted over to another room that he knew was the elder's personal gym, all shiny metal, green floors, and white walls, but no Vlad. Danny checked the last place he thought to look, the kitchen. He'd discovered the man's rather picky eating habits lead up to him normally cooking his own meals but once more it was empty save for a small ghost bouncing around happily cleaning.

Leave it to Vlad to still be intimidating ghost servants into doing his household chores. Though Danny couldn't complain much, some of them seemed to like doing the work.

Leaving the kitchen Danny finally touched the hardwood floor and allowed his body to revert back into a more solid form. He shrugged his backpack into a more comfortable position and walked down the hall looking behind doors until he reached the end which opened up to the main foyer of the estate. That was when he heard it, the sounds of waves and awkward squeals. This was weird.

Danny walked over to the arched entryway at the far right and followed another hallway until he came to the small theater that Vlad kept around but Danny though he honestly never used. On screen there was a commotion about something that sounded like shrieking eels?

"Uh…"

The teen stood there for a moment, mouth agape, as he took in the scene. Vlad was lounging on a couch with a knee bent over one of the arms and his head propped by a hand. Suit jacket discarded he seemed relaxed in his white dress shirt, buttons partially undone and tie hanging loosely around his neck. He still maintained the same hairstyle after so many years, though he was sure to cut it so it would not fall past his shoulders too much.

In all the time Danny had invited himself in and out of the others home he had always found the other in the best keep. Vlad went nuts when his tie was just a little askew, this… Danny liked this.

"Are you going to stand there and gawk or join me, boy? I've had a hard week and I'd thought to leave all the ogling behind me." Vlad's voice came over the shouting on the screen as the woman was lifted from the waters.

"I wasn't ogling." Danny's tone was a little offended, though he was able to hide the creeping flush of embarrassment since Vlad's back was to him. All that earned him was a somewhat unattractive snort in his direction. He'd never seen Vlad this relaxed. Their time together had settled into something that was relatively close. They considered themselves friends, in public –despite their arguments. Perhaps that's why he was being allowed behind this ten foot wall that Vlad always seemed to have up. "I don't gawk either."

Trudging over to throw himself down next to the billionaire Danny leaned back and curled his legs underneath him, bag settled in his lap as he looked up at the screen. He recognized it after a moment as a film his parents liked to watch every now and then, when they weren't in the lab. What was it called again?

A princess, a giant, screeching eels…?

"Seriously, Princess Bride?"

Vlad looked over at the boy incredulously and sat up a little straighter. "Have you ever actually watched the movie?"

Danny shrugged and said, "Well sort of. It's one of my parents' favorite movies."

Unlike the past, Vlad did not flinch at the thought of Jack and Maddie snuggled on a couch together. In fact, the thought did not cross his mind. What did come to the forefront, however, was that Danny did not appreciate what he thought of as a classic film.

"I take it you aren't too fond of the movie than?" Vlad inquired as he sat up and slid closer to the teen.

"Not really, it's so… I don't do romance-y chick flicks."

"There's action."

"Yeah, the kind that ends in silliness."

Vlad grimaced. "Is it a crime to laugh? I should think you of all people, Daniel, can appreciate a comedy. Even still, these are heroes who set themselves up for a seemingly impossible task and conquer. I am sure you can relate."

That was true, Danny could relate to the heroics of the film but he had to agree with the kid in this movie. It just wasn't his scene …heh, movie puns.

"Well you can watch your heroes," Danny started and moved to sit in a more comfortable cross-legged position as he rifled through his bag. Vlad watched him with mild interest. From his backpack Danny produced a pair of earphones and a device that Vlad knew and detested. Video games were mindless, petty excuses for entertainment in this day and age. "I'll sit here and be one."

Not really accepting the answer, but having no other choice, Vlad ignored the boy and turned his attention back to the screen. Since Danny had turned eighteen it became apparent to Vlad that he wasn't planning on growing up. He allowed the luxury on account of the fact that he understood how much of Danny's childhood was spent keeping the world out of danger. On occasion he pestered him about that fact, seeing as how so many things could have been accomplished if he'd won some of their past battles but then again if he had what would be made of their current positions? A thought for another day.

Danny's fingers mashed buttons in different, erratic movements. Every now and then he would sway to the left or the right or take in a sharp breath. Blue eyes narrowed sometimes and on a few occasions when Vlad tore his gaze from the film he swore the boy had forgotten how to blink. It wasn't until after Vizzini was outwitted that the boy's fixation with his video games started to irk the elder of the two. Not a very long time, but then again Vlad is not known for his patience (capable, yes, but not known for).

"What did you come over here for? You could have done the exact same thing sitting in a junkyard. Which, might I add, is exactly where those things should be." Danny shot the man a glare as a sound of defeat erupted from the device. Vlad ignored him. "They are completely unrealistic."

"And this is?" Danny shot back completely ignoring the previous question. He sat up from leaning into the plush couch and his gaze flitted to the screen then back to Vlad.

"Certainly more so than games where grown men can't even swim." The boredom that seemed to edge around Vlad's tone did nothing to help the teen's attitude. Instead of agreeing (though part of him understood) he tossed the device into the man's laugh. "What do I do with this?"

"You play," he started taking his legs out from under him and leaning forward just as the elder man sat a little straighter and hooked his ankle over his knee. "I'll watch the princess and stable boy fall in unrealistic 'true love'." Danny moved his fingers in the quotation sign causing Vlad to prickle just slightly.

The room was quite, save the movie, as the two stared down one another. It was almost as if the first to move would lose some unspoken contest. Eventually, Vlad turned his attention to the gaming device and turned the volume up a bit. "All the antics performed in this film and you choose to deny true love?"

Eyes narrowed Danny responded, "It obviously didn't work out for you."

"Or you."

Touché.

"Then you admit it doesn't exist, it's just as silly as a grown man not knowing how to swim in a video game?" Danny inquired.

"No," Vlad smirked, his eyes never leaving the screen of the gaming console. "I believe that out of all the things in this film that true love exists, perhaps not as a guarantee but as a possibility. When it happens there is no stopping it and you would fight to the death to maintain it."

"Then you didn't love my mom?"

"Again, Daniel, no; I loved your mother with every fiber of my being. However, the fact that it was unrequited made it untrue. True love is when they cannot deny the other."

"Buttercup denied him." Danny retorted immediately.

"True enough. In the beginning she did not –blasted this is an aggravating game." Danny chuckled as Vlad was interrupted for a moment, most likely having just met the enemies of the first level. "What was I saying? Ah yes. While a stable boy did seem below her she came around. He never pushed, he had faith that true love would bring her to him and it worked."

"Well aren't you the romantic."

Vlad smiled. "I once intended to fall in love, Little Badger. That door unfortunately stayed under lock and key for most of the time whilst you were growing up. Perhaps I have only just found the key."

The elder man raised his gaze for a second to catch the others blue eyes in his gaze. Quickly Danny turned his attention back to film and they remained in silence for the rest of it. The sound of awkward jokes and swords clashing emitting from the television were mixed with the soft background beat of the game and a laser being shot every now and then. It was comforting and felt normal to the two as the time passed.

When, finally, the film did end Danny leaned over and assisted the elder man with how to defeat the game until he felt he had to leave. Unfortunately, it was without the game, Vlad needed to beat it.