I had a bad writers block combine with a bad mental health spell and so yeah I am struggling but HERE I AM doin ma best. Y'all are absolutely bomb for hanging on in there.

-YD-

Ingrid was avoiding him.

Vlad didn't blame her. But that didn't mean he had to like it. Their pressing need to figure out her lineage in time for her birthday had faded now they knew - she'd been stood in front of the very Blood Mirror she needed already, knew exactly where she needed to go. It wasn't even going to be a long trip.

He continued to torture himself with wondering how she felt, what was going through her mind - and her families mind, at that, about discovering that the budding young couple were actually half-siblings. Sally had been happy, glad someone had drawn Ingrid out of her shell just a little besides herself and young George. And now? Now Vlad was certain she probably felt he'd done more harm than good, even if it meant she now knew who her biological father was.

Of all the places his long-lost half-sister could live... the backwater village that was barely more than a chip shop and a few families?

Even so, Vlad didn't resent that they had met - if they hadn't, what would have happened to Ingrid when she turned sixteen? - but he resented that they had been related, that his father had screwed up something that made him happy years in advance. And the hypocrisy of it all... he was forever telling Vlad to stay away from breathers, that all they were were portable drinks and the like. And he'd not only been physically intimate with a human - Vlad highly doubted Sally was even the first - but had not so much as flashed a fang at her, let alone bit her. Sally had survived and gone on to birth the half-human, half-vampire child that grew up to be Ingrid Giles/Dracula.

Her birthday was growing ever-closer. And with them not talking, there was no way to figure out what the plan to deal with her family was - would she tell them? Or just attempt to navigate life without sunlight and avoiding their suspicions. Granted, that was much easier in Wales, where it wasn't exactly bright and sunny, but the UV slipped through the clouds so she would still be in danger.

His father was hovering, trying to work out how to do something to make Vlad stop looking at him like he wished he could dust him with a glare, but there was nothing he could do. The Count had not only cheated Vlad out of years at a time where he was forced to try and suppress his 'breather-loving' and pretend he was someone he wasn't, he'd also risked leaving a Dimidius - and somehow, Vlad doubted Ingrid was his only illegitimate offspring out there in the world - unknowing and a hazard to those around her. Not to mention Vlad never knowing he had a sibling, and while it wasn't specifically his fault Vlad had developed a crush, it was his damned DNA that meant Ingrid pulled away after Vlad worked so hard to get her to open up, just a little.

Sighing deeply, Vlad piled up all the books on vampire clans and transformations; after so much time and research, it had all been for nothing. Save for those few moments when he and Ingrid were...

No. Vlad couldn't think about that. She was his sister. Before had been a far more innocent time to think of her, but now he knew? Vlad had to keep his mind far cleaner. Easier said than done, but he was getting there.

Ingrid was probably already over it, he mused with only a slight edge of bitterness.

School the following Monday was a bizarre experience; he couldn't tell Robin about what had happened, because that would out Ingrid as a vampire and he'd never leave her alone. But Robin, slightly self-absorbed as he often was, could still tell something was up with Vlad. And so, when asked? He lied.

"Just Blood Test stuff. Dad has me hitting the books like my unlife depends on it."

"Well, with your dad, it sorta does. Cus he might kill you if you fail."

"Thanks Robin."

Clearly seeking to actually cheer his friend up, Robin even offered to go to Chess Club after school with him. Robin didn't even like Chess Club - nobody there challenged him and a few were downright rude to him because they were jealous - but he offered because he wanted to cheer Vlad up, and the thought meant as much, if not more, than a physical gesture.

"Nah, not in the mood for chess. Alright if I hang out at yours? It'll be a relief just to be somewhere not full of cobwebs."

"Sure."

Vlad caught Ingrid glancing his way as they left school, but she looked away when she saw he'd spotted her and left him wondering if she'd even noticed he was off toward Robin's house instead. Not that she'd be coming over to see him any time soon, so what did it matter?

He intentionally stayed downstairs with the Branagh family, so Robin couldn't try to drag more out of him about his peculiar moods lately. It worked, and thanks to Mrs Branagh and her obsessive need to take care of him, he even got cake. And a lecture from Mr Branagh about plumbing, but even that was incredibly preferable to actually thinking about the complicated things waiting for him beyond the walls of surburbia. Reluctantly letting them send him home as the sky started to darken, Vlad was greeted by the sight of his father awake and punishing Renfield for... something. Bats only knew what.

"Ah there you are Vladdy!"

"Don't. I'm still angry at you."

His icy tone stalled his father long enough for Vlad to escape up to his room, wondering humourlessly if his father was glad or annoyed Vlad now had more of an attitude toward him. He'd always wanted Vlad to be less 'nice' and 'pleasant', but seemed shocked whenever he actually acted that way.

Honestly, Vlad was already wondering how things were going to change; Ingrid was going to have to face him eventually, just for the sake of access to the Blood Mirror if nothing else. But that wouldn't be til her birthday, and that felt like an incredibly long time to let the weird, unresolved... whatever it was, fester. Oh, he knew it would be awkward, but that didn't mean just outright avoidance was better.

Or was it?

Vlad found himself ambling back down to the Mirror, wondering if the weird experiences he'd had with it himself thus far would ever make more sense. He approached the room slowly, skin prickling, hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Only when he was stood right in front of the glass did the doors slam shut, and Vlad questioned whether going down there was a wise idea after all.

-YD-

Well, next chapter will have some Vlad stuff. Like, I think I mentioned Vlad is still the Chosen One at the start, but that sorta got forgotten by me getting distracted with the fun and the angst...