Summary: Some changes pass unnoticed while other changes are hard to accept.
Pairing: Vlad x Danny
Prompt: Reflection

Day Three

The first time he stared at himself in the mirror after the accident, he didn't recognize the face staring back at him. It was same face that stared back at him for twenty-four years, and despite a little cosmetic surgery after the accident left his face scarred, it looked exactly the same, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that it was all wrong. He touched a hand to his cheek, running his fingers over smooth flesh no longer covered in those disgusting pus filled boils from the ecto acne. The doctors kept him confined to his room, still wanting to monitor his condition even though they said they cured his ecto acne after many long, suffering months. He wouldn't be attending his college graduation.

The ghost powers were odd, a strange side effect from the blast of exposure to the ecto radiation from the Proto Portal. He first discovered them while he was forcing down that gross sludge they called hospital food that he could barely tolerate and often left him running for the bathroom. He raised the dinky plastic fork to his mouth, uncertain of what exactly it was that he was eating for lunch, when his teeth clamped shut with a clink, chomping down on air. With a surprised blink, he glanced down to see that his arm vanished. His screams brought a nurse running into his room, but by the time she arrived, his arm was visible again.

After that experience, he tested his powers, toyed with them, as he learned about what he could do with this new found ability. During his stay in the hospital, he amused himself with freaking out some of the nurses and doctors, especially on the night shift. But his attention became focused on one thing. He might have missed his chance to confess his love to Maddie during college, but he would find a way to win her heart once he was free of the hospital. If every ghost had an obsession, Maddie was his obsession.

He had plans to woo her. But when the pristine white envelope with fancy swirly writing appeared before him, his heart ached painfully. He could almost feel it withering away into a cold, dried up husk as he read the wedding announcement for Jack and Maddie. His Maddie would be marrying that idiot, that buffoon? It was unacceptable!

The change came subtly. He barely noticed the minor differences here and there as the time passed. His ghostly appearance soon came to reflect the monster within him, the dark, unlovable ugliness that he became as rage and bitterness and hatred consumed him. He didn't know if it was possible for a ghost to change their obsession or have more than one. He never came across any such example throughout his time. But if it were possible, his anger toward Jack would be his second obsession.

Vlad hunched forward in his chair, sitting by the fire in his study as he stared unseeing at the red carpeted floor. The ghostly obsessions ate at him, was all he thought about since the accident. But would achieving either satisfy him? Would he gloat with pride if he ever managed to kill Jack? Would the void inside him be filled if Maddie confessed her undying love for him? As the thoughts twisted inside his head more and more, he felt a growing pain of loneliness inside his chest. No one could ever love him. Not the monster he became. It was a fact that he was quite slow to realize, but now that he was coming to understand that, to see the truth of it, his ghostly obsessions were falling apart. He was becoming unstable with no course of action to cling to. His powers were starting to act up again, like when he first discovered them, and it began to scare him.

Hands cupped his cheeks, and Vlad lifted his gaze, meeting with bright blue eyes. "Why are you still here?" He tried to turn his head away, but the hands held on firmly.

"Because I refuse to leave you alone," Daniel answered firmly as he tilted his head forward to bump their foreheads gently together. "Because I care too much about you to let you do this to yourself."

"You shouldn't care," Vlad snapped back. "No one should care."

Daniel sighed, his warm breath washing over Vlad's face. "Maybe I shouldn't. Not after everything you've done. But I do care. And I believe in second chances. And I know there's still some good inside you. Why else would you have saved my dad?" Daniel smiled as his arms snaked around Vlad's neck. "You never let yourself become completely evil."

Closing his eyes, Vlad shook his head. Daniel could spout out all the pretty words he liked, but that didn't make any of them true. All Vlad could see in himself was a monster.

"I'm not giving up on you," Daniel whispered, his lips brushing against Vlad's own. A small tilt of his head sealed their mouths together, silencing any argument Vlad might try to make.

coopt98: Thanks! =) They're pretty cute together. 8D