Suffice to say, Danny was NOT in the best of moods the next morning. He hadnt slept for a minute while waiting for something-ANYTHING-to happen. And nothing did happen. Vlad walked into Danny's room at seven the next morning, wincing when he saw the state of the room, but was quite surprised to see Danny already awake and still at his post on the bay seat.

"Daniel, are you coming down for breakfast?" he asked, trying to push back the urge to make Danny clean the room before school. Danny looked up at Vlad, scowling.

"Whatever."

Taking that as 'teenager' for 'sure, now go the hell away', Vlad backed out of the room and headed to the dining room, where the Ghostwriter was already at the table, predictably reading a book. "Morning, Vlad," he said, sounding quite cheerful. Vlad nodded and sipped his coffee. "...What's wrong?"

"...Daniel took it upon himself to redecorate his room last night," Vlad replied tersely.

"...So that's what that noise was," Andrew replied absently. "How does it look?"

"Like a bloody hurricane hit it!" Vlad nearly shouted, almost upsetting his coffee cup. "You may be right, Andrew; I MIGHT kill the little rat during his stay here. Just MIGHT."

"Let me know when you want to, I'll bring the camera."

"...Not helping, Andrew." The 'Writer smirked and put his book down to lean over to Vlad.

"Does this help, then?" He pulled Vlad's tie just enough to lean the man forward and kissed him. Vlad sighed with content and leaned into the kiss, but then both pulled back when they heard something drop onto the floor loudly, and turned to see Danny gaping at them in the doorway, his backpack on the floor.

All three fell into silence for a moment, then Danny picked his backpack up. "Why does this NOT surprise me?" he muttered, mostly to himself, as he left the room. "I'll walk to school, thanks..."

"Daniel, your school is five miles away!"

"I'LL WALK!" Cue sound of door slamming shut hard enough to rattle the chandelier. Vlad heaved a sigh and knocked back the rest of his coffee, then stood up.

"Where are you going?" Andrew asked.

"I'm going to get my car and drive him to school," Vlad replied, looking a little flustered around the cheeks. At his lover's incredulous expression, he elabortated. "Andrew, it's five miles to the school, and it looks like rain!" He gestured to the window, where there were indeed dark grey clouds outside. "I took away his powers for the duration of his stay. The VERY least I can do is drive him to school."

"Unbelievable..." Andrew grumbled, putting a hand to his face as Vlad headed into the garage for a car. He look out the window a few moments later to see that Vlad had taken the Solstice. "...Little brat..." he growled conspiratively.

Vlad didnt have to drive long until he found Danny, who was walking more slowly than he should, considering he had less than an hour to walk five miles to school. The billionaire sighed and pulled up next to Danny and rolled his window down. "Daniel, let me drive you to school."

"I'm fine, Vlad," came Danny's terse reply. Vlad felt a twitch above his left eye.

"Get in the car, Daniel, it's going to rain."

"I'm FINE, Vlad."

...Okay. No more Mister Nice Ghost. Vlad silently created a clone that phased out of the car, snatched Danny up, and deposited him in the passenger seat before going back into his original body. He ignored Danny's indignant cries of rage and reached over to pull the seatbelt over the boy's body and clicked it into place. "I tried being nice, Daniel," he growled. "Now sit back and let me drive you to school. I'll pick you up at three-thirty."

"WHY CANT YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Danny shrieked, glaring at his caretaker with malice. Vlad resisted the urge to backhand the boy right through the window, and instead gripped his steering wheel tighter.

"Because I am SUPPOSED to take care of you, Daniel!" he snapped back. "Which would be MUCH easier if you were not acting like such a spoiled brat!"

"I'M the spoiled brat?" Danny bit back. "I'm not the one with billions of stolen dollars, living it up like a fuckin' hedonist."

Vlad nearly hit the brakes with that last comment. "...For your information, Daniel, I quit stealing money years ago when I developed my own companies and people began coming to me WILLINGLY, so you had best shut your mouth about what you have NO idea about!" There. He made his point without completely flipping his lid. Congratulations, Vladdie.

"Like that changes anything," Danny muttered. "It's still dirty money."

"Are you TRYING to get yourself beaten within an inch of your half-life, Daniel?" Vlad shouted. "Because I am NOT above punching you right now!"

Danny actually had the audacity to snort. "Yeah. Explain THAT to the teachers, when I get out of the car with a bloody nose. Explain my bruises to my parents when they come back." He turned to give Vlad an icy cold stare. "And you'd hit me without my powers?" He held up his wrist. "Coward."

Vlad DID slam on the brakes this time. He stared ahead, where the school was in sight, and unlocked Danny's door with the button. "...Get out," he said, his voice deadly quiet. Danny unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door.

"Gladly, asshole." He slammed the door shut and walked the rest of the way to his school. Vlad sat in his car for a few moments before growling to himself and turning around to head to City Hall.

Perhaps after he killed Daniel, he'd give the boy's ghostly remains to Andrew to finish off.

Vlad's brilliantly happy day (note: sarcasm) only got better around noon, when his secretary poked her head into his office and said that he had an urgent call from Casper High School. Resisting the urge to shoot something, he nodded and picked the phone up, pressing the button to access the line. "Hello, Mayor Masters."

"Mister Masters, this is Vice Principal Lancer. I'm so sorry to bother you, but -"The Da Vinci Code", Fenton, stop SHOUTING!- are you Daniel Fenton's guardian for the interim?"

Vlad took the phone away from his head for a moment to rub his tired eyes with his other hand. "Yes, I am," he replied, trying to to sound THAT irritated. "What can I do for you?"

"Mister Masters, I am so sorry to inconvenience you, but I need you to come down to the school and pick Danny up. He's been suspended for two weeks, effective immediately for fighting and -do NOT make me call security, Fenton, I MEAN it!-!"

"I'll be right over," Vlad said quickly, putting the phone back on the hook. He grabbed his jacket and car keyes, glad that the school was only a few miles away, and passed his secretary on the way out. "I need to pick my godson up from school." His secretary nodded and he ran outside and got into his car before driving to the school, making it there in less than ten minutes.

He was directed to the vice-principal's office, where Danny was sitting slumped and brooding in a chair, his arms crossed and looking literally homicidal. Vlad was shocked and a bit worried to see blood on the boy's grey hoodie. "What happened?" he demanded of Mr. Lancer. The vice principal gave Danny a withering look.

"Danny here got into a fight with Dashiel Baxter, in the lunchroom," he replied. "Not only did he break the boy's nose-for the second time this year alone-but he also knocked two of Dash's teeth out and gave him a concussion. I have no choice but to suspend him. He's very lucky he's not getting expelled for these infractions..."

"It's bullshit," Danny muttered.

"Daniel!" Vlad snapped. "Language!"

"That would be English."

"DANIEL!"

"IT'S BULLSHIT!" Danny shot up from his seat and pointed to Mr. Lancer. "It's BULLSHIT, Vlad! Dash has done a LOT more to me since FRESHMAN YEAR, but LANCER here turned a blind eye to it! I WAS STUFFED INTO LOCKERS, PUNCHED, KICKED, AND BULLIED FOR TWO AND A HALF YEARS, AND WHEN I DECIDE TO DEFEND MYSELF, HE-!" His hand shook as he kept his finger pointed at Mr. Lancer. "-DECIDES TO SUSPEND ME! JUST BECAUSE I'M NOT SOME FUCKING JOCK! IT'S BULLSHIT!" He turned to glare at his teacher. "I HATE YOU! I HATE THIS SCHOOL AND EVERYONE IN IT-!"

"We're going, Daniel!" Vlad snatched Danny's arm and pulled him out of the vice-principal's office. Danny only struggled briefly before allowing himself to be dragged down the halls, where some of the kids were gaping at him in the hallways, having heard his screaming.

"The FUCK are YOU looking at?" Danny shouted at them. They scattered away, and Vlad yanked on his arm harder out to the car and practically shoved the boy in before pulling out his cellphone.

"Tiffany, I'm taking the rest of the afternoon off," he told his secretary. "...Yes, take care of that for me. Thank you." He closed his cellphone and got into the car, glaring at the boy in his passenger seat, who was looking like he was about to punch a hole right through the hood of his car. Words proper for this situation failed him at the moment, so Vlad buckled in and drove back to his townhouse, fuming over Danny's behavior, but also worried about it as well.

By the time they were home, Danny looked about five shades paler, and his expression had gone from homicidal to that of total hopelessness. THAT began worrying Vlad more. He got out of the car and opened Danny's door for him, then led the boy back into the house and to his study, where the Ghostwriter was waiting.

"...What's he doing home so-?" he began.

"Andrew, out," Vlad said shortly. "I need a word with Daniel." Andrew looked between his lover and the younger halfa, then sighed and left the room. Vlad sat Danny down in a chair and took the boy's backpack from him and set it aside. "...Daniel." He waited until Danny looked up at him from under his curtain of (supposedly) unwashed hair. "...Daniel. Talk to me. Please. What is the matter with you?"

What IS the matter with Danny? Gimme guesses, and I'll give you more chapters! With cookies!