Title: The Boy in the Bottle
Pairing: Vlad Masters/Danny Fenton (Maybe more…?)
Summary: Vlad Masters is marooned on a deserted island, that is until he finds a strange bottle. And what should be inside but a teenage boy? Alternate universe to the tune of I Dream of Jeannie.
Warning: Slash.
Rating: T

You know you like the chapter title. It's okay to laugh. I also like this chapter for some reason. Maybe it's the interaction. I dunno…

Chapter Six: I Want to Go to the Ball!

After another hour— and five failed attempts at focusing on an important contract— Vlad gave up on his work for the day, addressing it as useless to even try. Though loathe to admit it, he really was exhausted. So he met with his assistant, ate a quick luncheon in the dining room, and retreated back upstairs to his room.

As frustrated as he did feel towards himself for 'slacking off', there was no denying that he was somewhat eager to find his genie and ask what the problem had been to make the boy disappear from his office so fast.

He opened and closed the door to his room, admitting himself inside, before strolling over and hanging his suit jacket over one of the chairs, feeling in the mood for relaxation that an extra layer could not allow. No sooner had he turned around that his next destination presented itself, coming right to him.

"Master," he said, stepping forward with a purpose but ducking his head in hesitation. "Master, I would like to attend your party."

"It isn't a party," Vlad sighed, resting a hand on the edge of the chair. "It's more like a wake for the pilots who died. Calling it a party implies that it will be a happy festivity. This is the exact opposite. I'm only throwing it out of obligation." He sat down in the fabric of the armchair in the most elegant 'plop' one could imagine, his fatigue quite overpowering. His blue eyes closed as he ran a hand over them, and when they opened again, he saw the boy still standing there, looking expectant. Was he actually waiting for his consent that he could attend? "Why on Earth would I let you come? You'd hardly even know how to conduct yourself around people without sticking out horribly. Not to mention that every time I tell you to do something, you disobey. Who's to say that you wouldn't mess this up for me, on purpose? No, it's too big of a risk."

"That is mean, Vlad," Danny huffed, stomping his foot.

"Hey," the man objected, looking the other over crossly. "What happened to 'master'?"

"That is a term of respect, and you do not deserve it. You are a terrible master."

"What would you know of masters?" Vlad questioned mockingly, folding his arms with a smirk. "I'm the first one you've had. Besides, all you've done is prove my point. You're a petulant child who throws a fit when you don't get what you want. You cannot come. I won't have you mucking this up. I have an image to keep." He sat in his chair for a moment before passively saying, "Also I wish for you to continue calling me master."

"Of course, Master. Anything you say, Master. Is there something else you might want in the meantime, Master. Perhaps a nice, cool drink, Mast-"

"Stop that," he growled at the teen's attempt to get on his nerves. Vlad looked away from where the other stood fuming on his left, turning his head only to see Danny standing on his right instantly.

"How may I convince you to let me come?" he asked dropping to sit on his knees next to the man. "I will be on my best behavior."

"You used that one this morning," Vlad retorted, swinging one of his legs over the other while his fingers thrummed along the arms they crossed. "And that lasted for what? An hour?"

"I will make it last all night if you allow me to attend," Danny blinked innocently. He rested his hands on the armrest of the chair, but the man swatted them off.

"I hardly believe that." He sat in silence for several long moments, quieting the genie every time he tried to speak. How bad could it go if he were to allow him to be there? There would be enough people that he might go unnoticed. And then if things did get out of hand, he could always have the boy 'thrown out'. But what if he used his powers and people began to notice weird things going on? Not to mention his appearance. "No," he finally said. "It couldn't work. Just look at yourself. Your eyes practically glow they're so unnaturally green. Not to mention your hair, which is disturbingly white by anyone's standards. How could it not attract people? They'd be all over you, and then you wouldn't be just some figure in the background."

"I can fix that," the teen smiled, knocking away Vlad's pathetic excuse. He blinked his eyes. The man watched and saw that when they opened again, they were a bright and marvelous sky blue. He then noticed a motion that began in the boy's hair, starting at the roots. A cascade of dark color fell down and enveloped each strand, turning them from pure white to a deep raven black. "Do you like it?" he asked with a bright smile, standing up and looking in the mirror that hung above the fireplace and admiring the reflection. The man only stared. "This is what I used to look like, long ago… I do not remember much about the transformation into my current self, aside from the crippling pain of my body being rebuilt. I do know that it is what must have changed how I appeared though. Before then I looked like this."

Vlad nodded his head, looking to the other again before saying, "Things would be much easier on me if you looked like this all of the time, less worry about you being spotted. Honestly, if you don't want to have your white hair constantly, why not simply keep this form? It seems to make you much happier, my boy."

"It does," Danny said, running his fingers through the black hair and watching them fall back into place in the mirror's reflection. "But it is only an illusion, Master. Much like the forms I pulled this morning, being a woman and such. I would like nothing better than to look at least a few years older than I do right now, but it would not be real. This morning I was not a teenage boy, but I felt like I always do. I even looked like a girl for a minute, but I still was not one... What I mean is that I would not get pregnant or anything if we were to…" He trailed off and Vlad was not entirely sure that the boy wasn't trying to bring the subject up again. Honestly though, if he hadn't given in earlier when the other had literally been all over him, why would he give in now? The teen cleared his throat awkwardly. "Not to mention that, though slight, it is a drain on my powers. I could keep a different shape for three days maybe before it exhausted me."

"How interesting," Vlad thought aloud, the researching mind in him finding it all very fascinating. "But you still cannot come this weekend."

"What?" Danny shouted, turning around and staring at him incredulously. "Why not?"

"Amongst other reasons, I would have to say that it's because there's something you're not telling me," he replied with a knowing grin. "Like perhaps why exactly you are so adamant about attending."

"What are you talking about?" the boy retorted uneasily, dropping his eyes from the gaze the man had fixed him with. "Why would I not want to be around people? I miss people, Master. Not that you are not wonderful yourself," he flattered, kneeling in front of the chair.

After a long moment's deliberation, Vlad finally nodded his head. "Very well, you may attend," he said, having his own secret agenda behind his 'giving in'. He would find out the boy's true motive for being so unwavering on the subject. Danny's face broke into a smile, and the man could tell that he was about to start yammering excitedly and so interrupted him. "There are conditions to this, you understand."

"Name them, Master," he grinned. "I will follow obediently."

"For starters, you will, of course, keep this form all night long," he began. "Next— what should go without saying— you will not use any magic. I mean this. No magic at all, save for altering your appearance. Also, you will not speak to anyone unless they speak to you first." The boy seemed to become quite crestfallen at that demand. "If they do speak, I expect you to have good and inconspicuous answers. And lastly, you will dress as I say for the event."

"As if it were my choice to wear this to begin with," he replied, picking at the short, black vest he wore. "The Blue Djinn made me. I only wear it now because by the time I had figured my powers out enough to change, I had already become so accustomed to it."

"Good, good," Vlad said, stroking his neatly trimmed facial hair. "And you will obey all of my demands?" The boy bobbed his head up and down enthusiastically. "All right then. Just don't make me regret this." That time he shook his head. "Now, I've taken off from my duties for the rest of the day. I want nothing more than to relax here and perhaps catch up on some reading. Do what you want as long as it isn't loud or irritating."

He got up from his chair and walked to his bed, opening the nightstand and grabbing a book out of it. There was a short-lived feeling of shame as he noticed the thin jacket of dust on the cover. How long had it been since he had last taken the time to sit down with the book?

When he turned around, he almost fell back in surprise to see the teen right behind him. "Master, will you not make a wish? I feel like these powers I have are being wasted."

"Then they shall be wasted for now," he said, pushing past the other. He had a feeling that he was once again followed and noticed that there was not the slightest sound of the boy's pattering feet. He moved like a soundless ghost. "Call me overly cautious if you will, but I don't want to rush into any wishes without thinking them through first. If not because of any trouble I might get into with the law, then because I worry over how you might twist my words."

"Have it your way then," the boy sighed.

—

Vlad sat reading quietly for some time. It became increasingly obvious that he was unable to concentrate though. It was not because the boy was distracting, quite the opposite. As those old movies said, it was too quiet. After he found himself unable to focus at all on his current page, he put his book down with more than a little trepidation.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, seeing a pair of once more green eyes staring straight at him from behind the cover. In his surprise he even dropped the book, its pages fluttering down until it rested on the floor next to where the boy sat staring at him. "What are you doing?"

"I was watching you read, Master," Danny answered plainly, somewhat confused as to how that wasn't obvious. He picked the book up and flipped through the pages several times, thoroughly losing Vlad's place. "Though there are no real words here."

"It's in English," the man scoffed, snatching the book out of the other's hands. "I thought my wish for you to understand the language might have covered reading it as well." The flapping sound of paper ran under his thumb as he fanned through the numerous pages, trying to find where he had been.

"You only wished for me to speak it, not read words," the teen pointed out with a shrug. "Though with a wish, you could remedy that."

Vlad had his mouth open to do so before he stopped. "No, I don't think so, not yet anyway. Currently there's no reason to. And for all I know, you'd go through my personal documents out of boredom."

"But I am bored!" Danny sulked angrily. "And you are mean for not allowing me the simple ability to read."

"I'm sure if you think of something to do, it'll come to you," Vlad mumbled, uninterested. "Just don't leave your— or my— room. And don't watch me read. It's unsettling."

The genie sat on the floor for what must have been twenty minutes, making a point not to look at the man, as had been requested. Eventually he admitted, "I do not know what to do."

Sighing, Vlad closed his book, a finger placed in the page he was on. "Why don't you watch television or something? Children your age love that sort of mind numbing entertainment."

"Teh-rah-vee-zion?" Danny repeated curiously, a horrible mangling of the word. It didn't go unnoticed by the man that it also seemed to carry a bit of a Persian accent. It was enough to make him wonder if perhaps his wish for the other to speak English had taught him all of the words or if it merely translated what he said and heard. If the latter was true, it would make sense that any word not in his primary vocabulary would, of course, come out sounding like he was repeating it in his original idiom and accent. Very interesting indeed.

"Just call it 'T.V.'," the man amended with a slight shake of his head. "It's a box with moving pictures in it. Imagine watching a play on demand in the comfort of your own home."

The teen certainly seemed intrigued enough, given the excitement flashing in his eyes. "How do we watch it?"

"Normally," Vlad said, giving up and placing the bookmark between the pages, "I would go down to the den, but I'm not taking you there with me. Therefore, as averse as I am to the thought of televisions in the bedroom, I wish that I had one right there." He pointed above the fireplace where the long mirror was currently hanging.

The eager genie nodded his head and stood up, crossing one arm over the other. He took a deep breath and then did nothing. Slowly he deflated as he stared dejectedly at the wall. Dropping his arms, he turned around to look at Vlad. "I do not know what a T.V. looks like…"

The man ran a tired hand down his face, letting out a long sigh. "Of course. Let's see," he trailed off. Pulling his suit jacket off of the chair he was sitting in, he went through one of the pockets before retrieving his phone. It was brand new— having replaced the one he had lost in his little swim to the island— and internet capable. After a moment of punching in letters and browsing, he pulled up a picture for the boy, a nice and expensive flat screen. "This, right there."

Readying himself again, Danny crossed his arms and that time blinked, the same model appearing on the wall. If anything though, he had actually created it bigger than in the original picture. The new one exceeded even the length of the fireplace. "Now what?" he asked.

Vlad tapped the picture still on his phone, pointing out the remote control that had been forgotten. With an embarrassed blink from the teen, it appeared in his hand. "Now you sit down," he motioned to the chair next to him. "And we will partake in the device ruining intelligence and basic human interaction." The teen shrugged off his words and sat down as instructed, crossing his legs in front of him on the cushion.

The power button on the remote was pressed and Danny watched the expansive screen light up and turn to pictures. His eyes widened in intrigue as Vlad channel surfed and told him to say when he saw something he liked and he would leave it there. But what that it landed on wasn't amazing to the teen? Colors, black and white, cartoons, a man standing in front of a map and pointing at little clouds, it was all fascinating.

After a second cycle through all of the channels— Vlad's patience thinning— Danny finally stopped him. "Look at that one, Master. They are talking about ghosts."

The man snorted inelegantly. "Yes, I know. But don't put any stock in anything they say. It's only a bunch of imbeciles walking around old buildings in the dark and shouting like children." Regardless, he left it there, if for no other reason than to mock the show.

And mock it he did, rambling on and on about the inaccuracies, the shaking camera that could make a person sick, and the general stupidity. He would have continued until the very end if the boy hadn't asked him to be quiet. In retaliation, he simply threw the remote at Danny and picked his book up with a warning not to adjust the volume. He then went and sat in the wingchair at his desk.

When he left several hours later to go down for dinner, the other was still gazing at the television, positively taken by it. Humorously enough, all he was watching was the weather. Although, it did make sense that someone from such a long ago time in history would be interested by the ability to predict weather conditions.

An hour later he returned after having his meal and a discussion with Riter. By then it was broadcasting cartoons, and Vlad had to wonder if the boy was actually comprehending the jokes that he was laughing at. Probably not considering their contemporary nature. But he laughed anyway.

It wasn't until Vlad actually finished his book that he took a look at his watch and noticed that it was past midnight. That would certainly explain why his eyes were burning so badly. With a yawn, he sat the book down on the desk, ready to take it back to the library in the morning. He then went to the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and changed into his pajamas.

Now the television was tuned to an old sitcom. He noticed that Danny was making a point to laugh every time the studio audience did, and that became annoying very quickly. Walking across the room, Vlad reached to the side of the screen and manually turned it off. "Bed," he said simply.

Defiantly, the teen found the power button and turned it back on. "No, I want to watch more T.V., Fruitloop."

"Where did you-?" the man gaped, glaring at the boy.

"Someone said it on the box."

Vlad growled under his breath, doing his best not to yell at the other. "I am 'Master'," he reiterated, turning the screen off once more. "And I realize that you're quite taken with the idea of television. In fact, I'll pretend that I actually see the importance of you watching it, given all of the culture you have to catch up on. But when I go to sleep, it goes off." He saw his little insolent genie raise the remote again and snatched it out of his hand. "Put one in your room for all I care. But I leave for my main office in Madison at seven in the morning, and you're coming with me. I won't have you running around my house. Stay up at your own risk." Danny pushed his words off with a huff, stomping from the room and muttering unpleasant things under his breath.

The man settled into his bed, neck welcoming the pillow and his eyes grateful to be closed. He had almost drifted off into a much needed sleep when he heard the whirring of the television and its accompanying voices. Springing up in bed, ready to have the justification to shout at the boy, he saw that the screen was off and the room was still dark. Looking around curiously, he noticed a faint blue glow coming out from the top of the genie's bottle. More subdued light was shining out from the sides that were not painted, being only a layer of thick glass.

"What are you doing?" he grumbled, leaning over and looking into the bottle's opening.

"I am watching T.V. in my room," a quiet voice replied, and when Vlad was finally able to focus, he saw the little miniature genie watching a little miniature television that sat on the opposite side of the circular couch running around the inside of the bottle.

Vlad only groaned in reply, falling back onto his mattress from exhaustion, most of which was caused by the boy. He took in a long breath through his nose and released it from his mouth in a groan. For tonight only he would compromise on this. Picking the bottle up— ignoring the faint hollering he heard inside as he shook it a little more than necessary— he walked across the room and placed it on his desk. Returning to his bed, he was quite happy to hear that the small sound didn't carry.

Danny's so silly. Vlad finally gives in to let him go to the "party" and he shows his thanks by immediately and indirectly disobeying him. Silly genie.

Sadly, this is all that I have written at this time. I'm going to try to get right on it, but understand that my job leaves me physically drained every day but on weekends. And sometimes I have things to do on the weekends. Now, I want this written as badly as you guys might (I assume you like it…) so know that hounding me on the subject will do nothing. It might actually be counterproductive because I don't like people telling me what to do. So… yeah. Sorry.