I just want you readers over here to know that - I know I don't always give my YD work the priority it deserves, and I know you guys are super damn patient with me, and I appreciate you guys so much for sticking with me for it!
-YD-
Yawning in to his hand, Vlad shoved aside the tome that covered the movements of all the clans that started with 'A' over the last hundred years, noting the relatively fresh ink covering the last decade or so and feeling glad the books had been updated. Score one for Dracula paranoia.
"On to the B's I guess."
The amount of clans that had surnames ending in B was, thankfully, small. The C book wasn't much bigger, but the D-book? Huge. With so many clans taking monikers that had similar draconic tones like Dracula, there was a hefty chunk of them. Of course, the book could be half empty - space to fill out future history. Vlad lived in hope. Reading by candlelight, it was late into the night of a Saturday, and he kept coughing on the dust kicked up by book covers, but progress was progress, right? He was waiting on a letter back from the VHC to answer queries about vampire activity in the last twenty years in the United Kingdom, under guise of an extra credit project for his Blood Tests.
The fact there was no such thing probably never even occurred to the VHC, who sent back a carrier bat the next night saying his request was being processed. There was a lot of admin, so Vlad was expecting a bit of a wait, and passing the time with solo research. Ingrid thought he was mad as a box of frogs when he told her about carrier bats.
Vlad could not fail to notice that for all Ingrid's statement mercurial personality, the upcoming transformation wasn't actually having that much of an effect on her mood. He'd expected her to be close to murder almost daily by March, but April loomed close and she was barely different to the previous year and a half he'd known her as a Stokely Grammar student. Musing that it might be down to the half-human side, Vlad shoved a bookmark in the B-tome, placed the book down at the side of his bed and accepted the defeat of needing sleep.
"Oh Vladdy! Look at this moon! Let us go out!"
Burying his head under his pillow with a groan, Vlad shook his head as his dad swooped in, flinging the window shutters open.
"Dad, go away!"
"But it's past midnight!"
Was it? No wonder Vlad was tired. He'd been reading for hours.
"Exactly! I'm trying to sleep."
Bracing himself for another irate exchange that would only delay sleep further, Vlad could practically hear his dad filling up with hot air and wondered if staking his dad was too extreme a response.
"Honestly! It's like you don't even want to embrace your vampirehood!"
Rubbing the bridge of his nose as he finally pulled his head out from under the pillow, Vlad sighed. How many times would they have this argument?
"I don't. And I have school! So I have to sleep. At night. If I miss school the local peasant mob will come after you!"
Blood and garlic, he just wanted to sleep...
"I thought your breather school was off on the weekend."
Damnit. Despite his tiredness, Vlad was struck with inspiration about how to at least make use of the time and his dad if he wasn't going to be allowed to go to sleep. Scrubbing a hand through his hair, Vlad stretched.
"Fine. I'll get up and look at the moon... if you show me where the Blood Mirror is."
"Whatever for?"
"I'm your son and heir. Shouldn't I know where the heart of our clan is for if something happens to you?"
The 'son and heir' thing usually got him his way, if he played it right. And Vlad was determined to figure out where the Mirror was, so he could show it to Ingrid and she could understand more of what was coming. He knew that for all his attempts to explain everything, uncertainty lingered. No wonder, really. Ingrid had adjusted hugely well, all things considered, in such a short space of time.
"Yes, yes. good point! Not that anything would ever happen to me! But yes, you are my heir. Come on then!"
Surprised and enthused by Vlad's sudden interest in vampiric things and being the Dracula heir, his dad was practically flapping on the spot as he waited for Vlad to climb out of bed, pulling his dressing gown on and stepping in to warm slippers, not wanting to traverse the cold stone floors of the castle barefoot. He was still exhausted, but there was a tingle of anticipation in getting answers and he followed his dad down from the tower, Renfield skittering away at a barked order from the Count when he dared ask where the father and son were going.
"Move that would you Vladdy?"
Frowning, Vlad looked at the coffin. It was one of the heavy stone ones in the crypt, although unlike the others it appeared to be built in to the ground of the castle. The stone lid was ridiculously heavy, and Vlad wanted to throw something at his dad for making the untransformed teenager do it instead of using his own superhuman strength. At least it turned out to be going somewhere, rather than just containing a body.
More stairs. Long, winding hallways covered in dust, but the route itself was easy enough so long as Vlad didn't forget not to be diverted down a side corridor. Finally, they came to a big set of double doors.
"Through here, my son, is your future."
Resisting the urge to roll tired eyes, Vlad followed his dad through when the doors opened themselves dramatically. The Mirror was pretty big - having a foot on his dad, easy. Golden guardians stood watch either side, eyes opening in warning when they approached, as if knowing they were not supposed to be there, not yet. A gilded, detailed frame housed the large glass, which felt... warmer than Vlad expected when he touched it, fascinated despite himself that it could pass for extravagant but innocuous, yet held so many secrets and powers.
"Impressive, is it not?"
"Uh-huh. So, how does it work?"
"All in good time Vladdy, all in good time!"
As his dad launched in to a dramatic tale of him defending the Blood Mirror from a dust bunny or something, Vlad tuned him out, walking around the Mirror in a circle, the guardian statues blinking as he did so, suspicious.
"Just looking."
He told them, unsure if they were really aware but figuring it couldn't really hurt. They didn't claw his eyes out, so that was a plus. As was his father finally letting Vlad go back to bed, his avid need to make Vlad appreciate vampiric stuff sated by the visit to the Mirror. Collapsing to sleep, Vlad had a weird yet satisfying dream where the Mirror guardians chased his dad round in circles for hours.
Rising the next morning still a little tired, Vlad crammed cornflakes in his mouth en masse, then plonked down in front of the TV to watch mindless nonsense with his cup of tea before he'd return to ploughing through heavy vampiric tomes.
The knock on the castle door surprised him, as did Renfield asking who the person there was - he knew the Branaghs, and the only other visitor Vlad could think of was Ingrid, who did have a habit of just turning up unexpectedly.. But even then, Renfield would recognise her.
"Is Vlad here?"
"Whats it to you?"
Recognising the young voice, Vlad hastened over before Renfield scared the child off.
"George?"
"Oh, hey Vlad!"
Shooing Renfield away, Vlad leant against the door, bemused to see Ingrid's younger brother at the door for no currently explained reason.
"Hey. What can I do for you?"
"Well, my mum sent me to ask if you wanted to come over for tea today. Except it's sunday so sunday dinner is earlier. I think she knows you and Ingrid are friends but Ingrid won't admit it."
Biting back a laugh, Vlad weighed up his options.
"Uh. Sure, I guess. Just wait here while I go get some shoes."
Ingrid was probably going to threaten to disembowel him, but she did that to someone on a daily basis at school. He was just giving her the opportunity on a weekend. Vlad could check on her and pretend it wasn't that he had such a ridiculous crush, and that Ingrid didn't sort of encourage it with kissing and touching and just... the way she was around him. Either way, he went. George was pleasant enough company, bounding along at Vlad's side as they walked down the long hill.
"So, what brought this on?"
"Mum knows Ingrid comes over here sometimes and she decided it's only fair if we have you over instead for a change."
Still confused, Vlad pretended not to know the way to the Giles home by heart, led in by George to see a not-terribly-surprised Ingrid, who he suspected had been consulted on the matter but had shown indifference in the outcome.
"Glad you could make it!"
"Thank you for the invitation, really."
Sally hugged him, which was strange but sort of nice, he guessed. Physical contact wasn't really a vampire thing, unless one counted sex and even then it seemed very much a byproduct of wanting the effects of intercourse, like orgasms or offspring or revenge.
"Can't have Ingrid just hiding away with you at the castle al the time, who knows what you might get up to!"
Memories of Ingrid pressing him down against his bed flashing before his eyes, Vlad really hoped he wasn't blushing.
-YD-
It annoys me that the Blood Mirror changes design from S1+2 to S3+4+5, but as I liked the new one better I stick with that one. Actually, a lot of continuity errors in Young Dracula annoy me, but that is neither here nor there.