As said in all my active story posts this week, this is probably late because I was in London for the weekend with no time to write.

Onward!

-YD-

Vlad looked at his son, wide blue eyes fixed on his 'uncle'. He had to comfort rather than worry the boy.

"Ingrid's gone out to get some air, we were arguing about something stupid and Dracula's can get a little hot headed."

Adam frowned slightly; Vlad suspected the boy could sense he was lying. Vlad had no clue where Ingrid was, or what specifically he had said to upset her.

For a brief second, it felt like she was saying she was as unhappy as Vlad was that he had married Adze. Vlad rationalised it; Ingrid was nobodies second option. Even so, she had seemed to say the only reason she turned down their leaving everything behind for each other was Vlad's humanity.

But if there was one thing Vlad couldn't let go of, it was peace. He had potentially done irreparable damage to the relationships he could have had with his son and his sister, bound himself to a psychotic, serial-cheating rapist to appease the Council members who were supposed to do his bidding rather than the other way around.

Oh hellfire. He had to try and sleep alone. Ingrid had been his oasis of safety and security during the day, her scent and touch and general presence what made him feel like he was going to be okay again one day. Vlad wasn't sure how to be without it. Without her.

Adam was still frowning, but he saw Vlad had been busy.

"Can I help?"

It took Vlad a minute to realise the boy meant with dinner.

"Wash your hands then."

Adam's frown stretched into a smile as he skipped to the sink, washed his hands and, with Vlad's keen supervision, helped finish the cutting up vegetables. It was good really, helped stop Vlad's mind being allowed to drift lest his son be injured.

"Now what?"

"Now it has to cook. I think maybe some night soon we'll go out for ingredients and I'll teach you to make bread. The cold weather is coming soon so bread and soup will help keep you warm until you're older and don't get cold."

The boy nodded, smiling as he perched at the table swinging his legs under his chair. Then his face turned serious.

"Vlad?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you get used to it?"

"Used to what?"

Adam bit his lip, drumming his fingers against his knee for a minute.

"Being a vampire. Mum said you never really wanted it. I'm kinda on the fence but obviously I can't tell mum about that."

Oh. Adam had apparently inherited even more of Vlad than he thought.

Ingrid would kill him.

"I don't know that I ever got used to it, I'll always sort of wish I wasn't a vampire but I learnt to make the best of it. I have soy blood to manage my cravings, I train and work at controlling my instincts a lot. And I don't try to be someone I'm not. I was given this title and power and I put to the best cause I could - peace."

Vlad checked the temperature on the cooker, then moved to sit next to Adam. His son looked so unsure all of a sudden.

"I get worried mum won't like me as much if she knew I wanted to be like you. A vegetarian vampire I mean."

"Ingrid loves you Adam, so much that I can barely believe it after growing up with her. You are her whole world. What she wants more than anything is for you to be safe and happy."

He reckoned Ingrid would probably be annoyed that Vlad had somehow passed on his 'soya slurping' to their son, but she would never hold Vlad and Adam to similar standards. That much was clear in the fact she fucked Vlad but wouldn't let him be Adam's father.

"You think?"

"I know."

Adam smiled again, leaning in for a hug Vlad offered without hesitation.

"Thanks Vlad."

"Anytime Adam. Better check the soup... you wanna stir?"

A beaming boy nodded eagerly so Vlad lifted him up, letting Adam be the right height to stir the pot without burning his bare arm.

"Nearly done?"

"About... ten minutes. Cooking the vegetables makes the water have flavour, otherwise it's just wet veg."

That was a simplified explanation but Adam got it anyway. Vlad wasn't big on stock cubes if he could help it; they often had garlic added and hunting for ones that wouldn't kill him was a lot of effort when he could just not use them.

"Blech!"

He wrinkled his nose cutely and Vlad couldn't help but smile. Adam was such a blessing in his life.

"I like that you let me help cook all the time. I'm gonna make some other boy super happy one day!"

Vlad almost did a double take as he sat Adam down on top of the table.

"What makes you say that?"

Adam shrugged.

"I don't like girls. Whenever people talk about getting married I always think about boys. Is that... is that not ok?"

Suddenly he was nervous again, and Vlad was relieved to offer the boy genuine reassurance.

"It's totally fine. I just didn't know was all."

Adam brightened.

"It's ok?"

"Totally. Vampires are not the faintest bit concerned by that."

Vlad was different; he was held to a different standard simply because male vampires couldn't have his babies. But vampires were a hedonistic race, and sex was sex whether with men or women. Vlad himself had been propositioned by others before. He just wasn't interested in anyone but Ingrid.

"Promise?"

"Promise. We're immortal. That would be a long time to spend hung up on nonsense like that."

"I guess. Will mum mind?"

Thinking of Ingrid's early infatuation with Bertrand, who Vlad was certain played both ways, he nodded.

"I think she would prefer it. Means no other girls in your life to come between you."

Adam giggled.

"Yeah I noticed mum doesn't really like other girls much."

"I think that's probably a lot to do with our mother always being really terrible. She would side with Ingrid sometimes but then suddenly turn her back on us and it was tough on her."

The heavy conversation soon gave way to needing to sort the bubbling soup, and Adam was distracted by the steaming bowl he kept blowing on in frustration and eagerness to taste it. Vlad chuckled to himself as he supped on soy blood first, the little scowl on Adam's face a carbon copy of Ingrid's own.

Things got bad again as dawn approached, both vampires unhappy Ingrid wasn't back.

"Why isn't mum here?"

"She must have realised she couldn't beat the sunrise. She'll have just found somewhere to roost for the day and come back tonight."

Adam looked sad; Ingrid always said good-day to him. It was probably an integral part of his bedtime routine as much as his dinosaur pyjamas were.

"I hope she's ok."

"She's Ingrid. Ingrid is always ok."

Vlad watched Adam go to bed - after several reassuring hugs from Vlad - before hovering in the hallway for several minutes. Eventually he caved and went to Ingrid's room anyway, curling up alone in her coffin and feeling terribly small with all the excess space available.

He couldn't go to his own room anyway, Vlad rationed. It was too far from Adam's room. It was safer this way.

Of course, he didn't really sleep. Loneliness and anxiety were only part of the problem. Vlad was utterly petrified he had deterred Ingrid strongly. He didn't want to be Adam's father like this. Nor did Adam want his mother gone.

Then again, Ingrid adored Adam so completely that Vlad should have known better than to fear her leaving her son.

She was back that night and Adam was ecstatic, hurling himself into Ingrid's arms before he had even finished his peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. She gave her son the embrace he needed, but avoided Vlad's eye. He knew he probably deserved it; Ingrid hated being pushed and Vlad knew that but did it anyway.

"I missed you mum."

"Missed you too son. I just went for a long flight and didn't realise how late it was until dawn was happening."

"That's what Vlad said. I'm just glad you're back."

Ingrid smiled as she patted Adam's messy hair and he hugged her tighter.

"Doesn't mean you get out of tutoring."

"I know! But I'm still happy you're back."

Vlad felt, as ever, excluded from it all. Sure, Adam was happy to see him when Vlad came back from overnight work, and he got affection and smiles from the boy. But he wasn't essential to Adam's life. If Vlad left, Adam would be upset but get over it. Ingrid's absence had proven that Adam's world may well fall apart without her.

Somehow, Ingrid managed to perfectly balance cold-shouldering Vlad without raising Adam's suspicions, as the boy didn't once question the palpable tension between the two siblings. Vlad would have stayed away from Ingrid to make it easier to avoid the awkwardness, but Adam was glued to her side and so Vlad was forced to be around her since he wanted to be around his son.

Surprisingly, Ingrid met him halfway on that and sat in the kitchen so Adam could help with lunch and dinner without losing sight of his mother, but Vlad still felt the weight of her ignoring him even then.

By daybreak, Vlad was nicely tense and uncomfortable. He only managed to lie in his own coffin for twenty minutes before the fear of Adze taking advantage of him again became too much. Vlad knew it was irrational, knew Adze had done it to get knocked up and her end had been achieved. But his skin still crawled and he still felt sick and scared and vulnerable. A long bath didn't help, so Vlad got up and dressed for the training room.

Hitting targets didn't make him understand Ingrid better. Meditating didn't change that Adam only thought Vlad was his uncle. The punch bag didn't make Adze disappear.

And none of it made Vlad feel tired enough to sleep without a reassuring set of limbs to tangle his own with. Without the familiar scent sticking to his skin as Ingrid's soft porcelain body shifted against his. Even Ingrid's hair occasionally tickling his nose was part and parcel of it.

Vlad leant heavily against the wall, chest lurching with the breaths his body decided to need for no real reason. He was sweaty, aching and exhausted. But he still missed Ingrid and he was still terrified of his wife. So he hadn't actually achieved that much other than some target practice. Reluctantly taking his sweaty self off for a shower, Vlad spent the rest of the day in his study workimg on hugely-neglected Council work.

When night began to fall, he downed half a bottle of soy and prepared to play well-rested for Adam. The boy didn't seem to notice, but Vlad knew Ingrid could tell when he hadn't slept. Probably because she knew he couldn't sleep without her anymore. Still, he couldn't mope.

He had Council that night.

His muscles protested even lifting to put his robes on, but Adam hugging him goodbye was a spark of pure joy for Vlad.

"I'll see you later Vlad!"

"That you will. Enjoy your tutoring Adam."

The boy pretended to look put out until his mother gave him 'the look', to which Adam burst out laughing. Ingrid rolled her eyes but placed her perfectly manicured hand on Adam's shoulder when he came closer, hugging her son as Vlad tore his eyes away from the only family he wished to have and took off in bat form to the VHC.

"Ah, Your Grandness!"

"We hear congratulations are finally in order."

Vlad felt sick as comments about him 'doing his duty' and 'working hard' to get Adze pregnant were passed around in banter all around him. None of them had any idea what the whole experience had done to him.

"Yes yes, can we get on?"

The meeting was slow and tedious, duller than an evening listening to his dad complain about his mum. There was a lot of droning on. Vlad almost fell asleep there, already exhausted before he was bored into submission. He almost didn't notice when the meeting began to wind down, almost jumping out of his seat to dismiss them and take off, hearing a vague sound of protest but paying it no mind once his wings were starting to spread.

The women in his castle might be exhausting and difficult and terrifying and confusing, but Adam was there to keep Vlad grounded, to give him a reason not to just stake himself and be done with it.

"Vlad!"

Adam called out to him the instant he landed, bouncing happily on the spot and beaming.

"What?"

"Mum said we can do the whole How To Train Your Dragon set for my birthday!"

Ingrid had been on the fence about allowing Adam to watch so much TV, but apparently she had given in. The news was a clear hit, especially considering the boys eighth birthday was less than a week away.

"That's awesome!"

"Yeah! We were playing on your games thingy I hope that's ok."

"It's fine. You live here too. Just let me get changed and I'll come join you... did you have lunch yet?"

Adam nodded, still bouncing and smiling.

"Yep. I had a crunchy peanut butter sandwich and some more soup and mum had blood and some of her cake."

"I'll grab some soy and be along in a minute."

Adam dashed off and Vlad chucked his robes aside, changed his jumper for a more comfortable one and picked up a soy bottle before making his way to the entertainment room. Adam and Ingrid had found the playstation, and while Vlad doubted they totally understood the gameplay, they seemed to be having some fun.

"I keep losing, mum is a better wizard than me."

"She's a vampire, she has a better reflex time. I'm sure you'll beat her eventually."

Pouting, Adam continued to hammer his little thumbs on the controller as he and Ingrid duelled on the special stage of a Harry Potter game. Vlad preferred the Quidditch one himself, but then he was still trying to complete the entire bloody thing.

The long day and night began to catch up on Vlad, and he only realised he had fallen asleep watching Ingrid and Adam 'duelling' when Adam was gently shaking his arm and Vlad almost leapt out of his skin.

"Sorry for making you jump! But it's dinner time."

Vlad blinked sleep out of his eyes, then let Adam help him to stand up while ignoring the faint tremors in his hands.

"Didn't realise I was so tired. And hungry. You coming to help?"

Adam nodded eagerly, so Vlad let the time spent with his son act as a stimulant. He was still young, so Vlad wondered if his distaste for vampirism and his potential homosexuality would stick. Though he knew from experience that his age didn't mean squat, as Vlad had hated vampirism and eyed Ingrid in a way not-entirely-brotherly since childhood too. He just hadn't had the words or the ability to express those things at first.

Either way, Vlad would always be hugely proud of his brilliant, bright little boy.

"Mummmmm."

"What?"

"Hi."

Adam did that when he was in a silly mood, Vlad had noticed. Ingrid rolled her eyes.

"That's it. No more games for you."

"But mum!"

He pulled out the trembling lower lip, puppy dog eyes and pleading expression. Vlad bit back a snort as the boy really laid it on thick.

"For a week."

Adam took that as victory and turned back to his dinner, rolling a potato through sauce before popping it into his mouth. Vlad stabbed his chicken with his fork and chewed it quickly, trying not to contemplate the upcoming morning where he would have to try and sleep alone again.

Maybe he would sleep in his entertainment room. Adze had never set a single fang in there before. He might feel safer in there.

"You aren't gonna disappear again right mum?"

"No son. It wasn't intentional, now go to bed."

Ingrid hugged her son and kissed him on the forehead, soothing her distressed boy. Vlad watched with a pang of longing, both to call Adam 'son' and to be comforted by Ingrid again. Neither seemed possible. Adam pottered over to hug Vlad too, then threw him a smile and took himself to bed. Ingrid watched him go, then turned and looked at Vlad where he loitered in the halls like a wraith, never feeling less at home within his home than he did in that moment.

"Oh stop looking so pathetic. Come on."

Vlad didn't wait long enough to let Ingrid change her mind, all but leaping at the chance. Ingrid turned around and looked him dead in the face once her door was closed behind them.

"We need to talk."

-YD-

right, off to catch up everywhere else!