First! A Shout out! I don't judge how well I'm doing by reviews but by follows because it means they want to keep reading. So for that Thank You! Now I'm sorry I'm a smidge late with this. I got stuck with a project over the weekend and if anyone out there is in school as an animation major they will know what those projects can get like.

Now I just have to say I received a review from someone that I'm not sure is who I'm thinking because they didn't log in but if it is I'm a huge lover of all things written by Nimrod and I'm always glad to see that I have a stamp of approval. Yes, even we in the world of Fanfiction can have our celebrities and Nimrod the Writer is one of mine. I highly suggest you look up the author and read their work. If by some chance that was not who I thought it was well…awkward...but regardless I won't budge on what I said. But without further ado.

Prompt 5 – Kissing: This one was fun to write because I decided that I wouldn't go back on any of the thoughts that I had going for it. I wouldn't rewrite a line (unless to fix something obvious) and I wouldn't change the plot. So it's a very impromptu write. I like it though, mostly because I love writing these little things that led up to their relationship.

Rating: T

5. A Chaste Start

They're relationship wasn't forced but it wasn't comfortable either; at least not at the beginning. After years spent fighting and exchanging words of pure hate it was hard to choose any alternative. When the game of cat and mouse was over and one or the other had been caught, what now? Neither of the two had tired of the game it simply became a new one.

It started in an almost covert way. Vlad had been in his lab while the Fenton family waited above for him. There had been plans to go see a game made by Danny as a way to find the boundaries in their more recent, hopefully more permanent, truce. After a minute said teenager, about sixteen at the time, made his way down bypassing what security Vlad had installed to prevent the child.

"Come on, Fruitloop! My Dad's getting anxious and you know what that means," The boy said. "I am not responsible for any property damage that occurs while you waste time."

Vlad turned his gaze to the boy from where he was looking at the surveillance. "I don't think I can do it. Not this soon. I'll be honest, Daniel. I have spent so much time resenting your father and adoring your mother that..." Vlad and Danny sighed. The elder man didn't look horribly distraught or anything, no any distress he was feeling was meticulously hidden beneath coiffed hair and an expensive suit. Vlad Masters was too good to look depressed.

"Think of it, like therapy," Danny finally said. The teen walked over to stand beside the man but was careful not to touch him. "For both of us. I'm not all that crazy about you coming but if any of us are going to live semi-normal, stress free lives it's like this."

Like he had once before Vlad closed a portion of the space between the two and took the teens hand. Danny fought hard not to recoil and instead shot Vlad a warning glare, he didn't want any funny business.

Vlad shot a half-hearted smile at the glare and continued to pull the boy closer as he sat. The boy's narrowed eyes were not misplaced. "You know you have hands like your mother's." Vlad finally said. Danny knew that look in the elder's eyes, it was hidden and so very hard to see if someone wasn't looking but Danny had seen it so many times now to know exactly what it looked like. In the midst of his thoughts he felt the skin at the back of his hands become warm as Vlad leaned forward. Like he'd been suddenly electrocuted Danny withdrew his hand but the damage had been done, the incredibly soft skin of the man's lips had just barely grazed the boy and his face was on fire.

Danny whipped around, cradling his hand to his body, "Hurry up."

They called it friendship. Neither tried to imply more than was necessary. The same went for the amount of time they spent together.

Unknown to both of them was that the other was never far from their mind. Small interactions like parties and reunions often enough brought them together. Slowly it became that they weren't trying to force each other together in good manner but apart.

Danny was just a month shy of his eighteenth birthday when he graduated from high school. His parents had spent the last month trying to convince their son to pursue his dream of being an astronaut and had been more than shocked when their son adamantly refused. However, the excuse he'd made about using his engineering degree to help in ghost hunting softened the blow to just a soft static. Regardless, come the day he would walk the line his family, Jazz included, met him before they were to walk through the halls of their school one last time.

Jazz was the only one with a dry eye as she tried to joke with Danny about being without Sam or Tucker for that moment; both had been dragged by their own respective parents to take pictures.

It was about when Danny started teasing Jazz about her now shorter height that he spotted it. While Jack Fenton had a presence that was almost always noticeable in a crowd because of his large girth, this man stood out in his own way. Everything about Vlad Masters would always exude power no matter how human or not-human he was. Danny should have expected his parents would call Vlad with how close they'd gotten since Danny and Jazz had stopped pushing the man away.

"You call him?" Danny asked his sister.

Jazz shook her head and tucked her hands into the folds of her turquoise skirt. "I don't even know if mom or dad did."

No matter, Jack was the first to greet his friend. Vlad's eyes didn't even have that once hard glint of hate as the large man dragged him forward. While their friendship may never be what it once was Vlad had definitely done his best to get past everything. The five of them conversed until Sam and Tucker came to drag the teen away. They all smiled as Maddie broke into another round of tears. She was led off towards the seats they would occupy leaving Danny to give Jazz a quick hug before turning to Vlad.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to stay, Little Badger." Vlad started, his eyes darting up to both of the younger halfa's friends; they got the hint.

"You can catch up with us." Tucker said, patting his friend's shoulder.

"But not too long," Sam added. Her tone was close to dangerous. While she accepted that there was a truce she could not so easily be dissuaded from the thought that it could be a trick. The same could once have been said of all three of them but it had finally trickled down to just Sam who had always had an untrusting nature to begin with.

As soon as his friends walked away some Danny stood a little taller to face the older man. Vlad smiled, Danny looked ready for the world, his body lithe and toned beneath a black button up and pressed pants. Perhaps his worry was just a little misplaced.

"Well what is it?" Danny finally asked when Vlad did not start talking,

Vlad sighed, but retained his smile. "I wanted to give you another chance, Daniel. Tuition isn't an issue and you'd always have easy access to Amity Park through my portal." Danny flinched inwardly at the thought of the reconstructed piece of machinery. "Not to mention I'd always be right there whenever you needed someone."

Taking a deep breath, lifting his shoulders for exaggeration, Danny fixed the elder with a look. "I told you before Vlad. The Fenton Portal is the most active one in the world, the only one that stays open 24/7 for anyone who decides they just want to put their toe through. My parents are great hunters but let's face it, they just can't get the job done like Phantom can."

The argument couldn't go any further, they were running on borrowed time. Danny had to be in his graduation line and Vlad had to be on a beach in the Bahamas for all the other knew.

So instead of attempting to push the subject further Vlad leaned forward and pulled the boy into a hug. They didn't do that often, it was familiar with a touch of strange.

"Congratulations, Daniel." Vlad whispered, pleased that the teen reciprocated the motion. So pleased indeed that he failed to notice his actions until they'd already passed.

Danny felt it in an instant. The soft pressure against his cheek that warmed him from his core to the tip of each of his toes was unexpected. His sky blue eyes looked upwards at the man who didn't even seem to notice he'd just kissed Danny's cheek.

From that moment up until when Danny walked the line he tried to fight the confusion that threatened to show.

Those passing moments were sweet, in their own sort of way. It was almost always initiated by the elder man up until a morning when Danny was moving his belongings into his new apartment.

Vlad had finally won out, after a semester of community college, and convinced Danny to move to Wisconsin where he would be able to attend a real college and be near a ghost portal. There had been so many arguments that had nearly ended in compromise that would have allotted Danny to stay in Amity Park at least. However, the appeal of moving out and being a real adult far from his parents was something he could just barely turn down.

The newly turned nineteen-year-old lifted a box onto his shoulder and reached down for the handle of a suitcase. He carried it inside, thankful that he'd at least convinced Vlad to not buy the entire upper floor of the apartment complex. The apartment was on the ground floor and contained a large enough living room to fit a desk, couch, and T.V. comfortably. The small kitchen had a bar so he wouldn't have to buy a table and the master bedroom was of decent enough size that he would actually be able to wheel the T.V. in there if he chose to. Come to think of it he could have wheeled the T.V. into the bathroom if he wanted...

Shaking his head at the thought he dropped the box on his shoulder to prop the door open.

"I think you could have done better." Vlad's voice wafted to the teens ears to where he was in the bathroom.

"I don't plan on being here forever, besides it's college. Not even you didn't have a mansion back then, you shared a room with my dad."

"It's a castle, my dear boy."

"Whatever, point is I'm not going to spend a lot of time in here so it's fine as it is."

There was no arguing that point.

They spent the next hour pulling things out of the truck Danny had rented. Finally when everything but on box of clothing was in the apartment and Vlad got stuck with it. Danny pulled the suitcase that was propping the door open, feeling a sense of accomplishment as he looked at all the boxes. He had a bit more than he'd thought he had but it wasn't anything that he couldn't figure out.

"Daniel, do you want these in the –umph!" A soft thud said Vlad had fallen and the other sounds said he'd opened the closet. When Danny walked in Vlad was sure enough sitting on the floor in a pile of clothes and other various knickknacks that he'd stowed in there. "Your organizational skills leave something to be direly desired."

Danny laughed and bent down to offer his hand to the elder man who rather ungraciously took it yanking himself up and almost causing both of them to topple back over. Having crashed into the elder man's chest Danny looked up and glared at the smirk on his lips. He hated that smirk.

So he got rid of it.

Height wasn't as much of an issue as it could have been at one time so he only had to arch his footing just slightly to obtain the desired effect.

Vlad's eyes widened and the smirk was certainly gone when he felt lips on his. The contact was soft but it was not scared or nervous if anything he may have likened it to determined and he could be just so. Vlad pushed back, nearly shocking Danny enough to pull away but there was a hand at the small of his back now and another creeping around to the base of his neck keeping him in place. The taller man's lips parted just enough for him to taste the breath that escaped the other. It was chilly and it made the boy stiffen but Vlad held tighter and pulled him back in.

This time the elder took advantage of those parted lips and moved in to taste the sweet flavor of cinnamon buns and toothpaste from his morning routine. The small groan from Danny's lips only encouraging the action further. Both hands slipped down to play with the strip of skin between jeans and a cotton shirt, Danny's own hands slipping around the other's neck as he arched further to make a closer contact. Teeth gnashing, tongues dancing, it almost seemed like too much before suddenly Vlad fell forward.

Still as human looking as ever Danny had phased out of the other's arms and made his way from the bedroom to the living room without looking back.

"Come on, Fruitloop, I need to have the truck back in an hour and I'd like to pick up a nightstand and some barstools."