A knock echoed through the noisy house of the Fenton family. Over the noise of children playing and the clunking of metal from the basement, hurried footsteps could be heard heading towards the wooden door. A black gloved hand turned the knob to reveal a man in a business suit with white-gray hair pulled back into a pony tail on the other side.
The man had a smile on his young face and his ocean blue eyes took in the woman before him. She wore a teal HAZMAT suit and had short auburn hair. She gave a delighted smile to the businessman before moving aside to let him enter the hectic household.
"Well, this is a surprise. Come on inside Vlad, it's good to see you," she greeted.
"Thank you Madeline, you look lovely as usual. How are you and the children?" Vlad asked as he strolled in and looked around the living room. It had been a while since he had last been there. Not much had changed in the home except for a few new stains here and there.
"Oh, same ol' same ol,'" she replied, "what are you doing here? I know you must be so busy nowadays with your company and all."
"I was just in the neighborhood and thought I should stop in to check up on my favorite family."
"Well, you are always welcome here, Vlad. Why don't you make yourself at home; Jack is in the basement and the kids are upstairs if you want to say 'hi' to them. I'll be in the kitchen making supper, if you need me." With that, she retreated back to the kitchen, leaving Vlad by himself.
He stood for a moment just listening to the sounds of the kids chattering, Jack working in the lab, and dishes being placed on a table. After taking it all in, a mischievous smirk came to his face. He silently made his way over to the kitchen to make sure Maddie wasn't paying him any attention, and, noticing she was focused on her work, he snuck to the entrance of the basement.
He had come here for more reason than just being "in town" or to visit his precious Madeline. He had come with a plan, not quite one as intricate and precise as the ones he was currently working on, but a simple one that would still keep him looking innocent enough.
The businessman quietly opened the door at the top of the stairs and peeked in to make sure Jack wasn't anywhere nearby. With the orange-clad man nowhere in sight, he summoned a duplicate to bring him a bucket filled with disgusting green liquid that he had prepared beforehand. The copy came invisibly and handed him the nearly full bucket before being absorbed back into the man.
As he was lifting it above his head, a small voice broke his concentration making him almost drop the bucket. He fumbled for a second to get his grasp on it back as it swayed and nearly tip its contents out. Once everything was under control again, he peered to his left where the voice had come from. "Uncle Vlad!" it had exclaimed.
Standing at the bottom of the stairs were 5 year old Danny and 7 year old Jazz wearing euphoric expressions. Suddenly, they were both clutching onto his middle in a hug. He set the bucket down with a smile and gave a gentle hug back. Blue and teal eyes stared up at him glimmering with happiness at seeing their "uncle."
"There you are. I was starting to wonder if you two were even here. How are you Jasmine? Daniel?" Vlad said to the two young children.
"We're good, Uncle Vlad," said Jazz, speaking for her little brother as well. "I just got a new book, it's about psychology. Oh, and I'm helping Danny learn about the stars." The girl continued to talk about everything the elder man had missed since his last visit so long ago while her shy brother stood back without saying a word.
Vlad replied to her rambling appropriately until she finally became sick of talking and left to the living room with her new book in hand. Danny stayed where he was just staring at Vlad until his eyes caught the bucket of green goo on the floor. "What's that for?" he asked.
It took Vlad a moment to realize what the boy was talking about before it finally clicked. He was unsure of how he should reply until a sudden thought came to his mind. He would take advantage of this opportunity and teach Daniel a little lesson. "Well, you see, I am going to play a little trick on your father," he said.
"A trick?" the boy's eyes lit up with curiosity,"Is that a game? I wanna play, Uncle Vlad! How do you play?"
"Of course you can play. Now, listen closely to what I tell you, all right?"Danny nodded his head enthusiastically. "Okay, when you play this game, you must remember 5 simple rules. One: be extra careful when sneaking. Two: make sure the target is distracted. Three: make no mistakes. Four: give the final blow quickly. And five: run. Understand?"
The 5 year old took a moment to process the information and then nodded his head slowly. The smirk came back to the businessman's face and he went on to explain the trick he was playing. He was going to set the bucket above the door so that it would fall on the next person to open it. Danny listened and watched him begin to set it up again. Suddenly, the young boy became stiff and his eyes got wide like he had just gotten an idea.
Without a second glace to his uncle, he bolted out of the room into the kitchen where his mother was. Vlad simply raised an eyebrow at the child's antics before focusing on the task at hand. He had just gotten the bucket to balance on the top of the door. No sooner had he stepped back did he hear the screech of his niece come from the living room. Looking behind him, he saw Danny speed up the stairs followed by his triumphant laughter.
Farther behind him, came his furious sister yelling every threat a 7 year old could possibly know, and for a child as educated as her, that was a lot of threats. The smirk that had been on his face grew as he heard the frantic booming steps of his large friend coming upstairs to see what all the commotion was about. Vlad barely had a chance to start on his way walking backwards to the stairs before the door flew open and the bucket released its contents.
A startled yell echoed through the house, covering up the sound of the fleeing businessman. Jack was able to catch a glimpse of white hair just before it disappeared upstairs. With a slight smirk of his own, the ghost hunter jogged in the direction he could hear the sounds of his daughter yelling, as well as where the white had gone. "Vlaaaad!" he hollered out to the other man, but there was little to no anger in his deep voice.
Vlad launched himself into the nearest door in the upstairs hallway. Jazz had gone straight into Danny's room in search of the small boy, so he didn't have to worry about her finding him. Briefly, he realized that he wasn't alone in the closet he had hidden in.
Next to him was a small form that had baby blue eyes staring up at his own ocean blue. A smile came to his face glowing with pride, "Well done Little Badger."
Already the little boy had shown his clever mind and quick thinking. Vlad decided then that since he didn't have a son of his own and Maddie becoming his wife would obviously take longer than he had expected, then he could at least have Danny. He would take it upon himself to make sure all of his knowledge was passed to the young boy; that might ensure that he could at least take something away from the man who had ruined his life.
I needed something to write and writing about what Vlad had been doing seemed like a great idea. Let me know what you think; any reviews are welcome in my book, especially constructive criticism.
I am working on Humming at the moment and have a couple ideas for long stories, but I will also take requests for one/two shots since I'll need something to write when my mind doesn't want to cooperate with my other stories.
By the way, I don't own Danny Phantom (I can't believe I almost forgot to put that in here...)