It's oh so quiet and I am wishing for a thunderstorm cus its best YD writing background, but instead I put season one DVD on and am giggling at when they were babies!
-YD-
"It's not going to hurt them, is it?"
"Not a bit. A minor headache, at most, but that's rare."
Ingrid frowned, but nodded. Being in her bedroom was strange, and Vlad was still very much trying to make sense of everything that had gone on over the last couple of weeks. But Ingrid had asked him about hypnotising her mother and human brother, because her birthday was very near and there were going to be some very obvious, hard-to-ignore signs once she stood before the Mirror. So cover was essential. Vlad was freely permitted access to her bedroom since Sally knew he was Ingrid's half brother, despite the whole 'dating' thing of before.
He was relieved to see Ingrid still visibly caring about her breather family so close to transformation, and nothing had spontaneously caught fire in over a week.
"Anything in particular? Are you planning to still live here when you've turned?"
"Where else am I living?"
"I already made dad promise you could move in to the castle if you wanted, since it was his roving fangs that started this whole thing in motion. If you want, staying here is your choice but I'll need to put in to their heads that setting up blackout blinds in your room and never cooking garlic bread is normal. You'll need to think about things like open curtains and stray splinters on a busted doorframe. And there's the fact you'll be hungry, and they will, at times, seem like a carton of juice on legs."
Ingrid wrinkled her nose.
"Gross. Put all that in there, you can change it right?"
"Yeah, I can if need be."
"If need be?"
"Messing with it too much can cause memory gaps, but a couple of tweaks will be fine, don't worry. Just not something to abuse, is all."
Nodding, Ingrid stretched out on her bed and looked up at the ceiling. Vlad wished he could offer more, make it all easier on her but there was only so much one could do to ease the "eternity as an undead bloodsucker" thing.
"Is it going to hurt?"
"The change? Mostly, it shouldn't. Except when your fangs come through. That can be pretty painful, but its over quickly and then you're done."
He saw Ingrid run her tongue over her teeth, obviously contemplating having a full set. Vlad looked back down at the paper in his lap, seeing all the arguments going on in the vampire world about where the coronation should be hosted, scrapping about who should be leading the Council in the meantime (because vampires hadn't organised for it, apparently...) and of course, who had the best claim to the Crown overall, as it would dictate the invite list for the coronation itself. As head of a clan, his father had a miniscule one that equalled every other vampire clan.
It also meant he was a possible candidate for host - if the VHC told a vampire they were hosting something, they did it. Vlad hoped not. There were two dozen other prime candidates, and all but one of them at least an ocean away from him. Where he liked large swathes of vampires, generally. Only Chieftain MacDonald up in Scotland was on the same island as the Draculas, and they were small and strange and kept to themselves, rather fond of feasting on the local wildlife rather than peasants most of the time.
A gentle knock at the door was followed by George peering around it, smiling at them both.
"Mum said dinners ready if you guys wanna come down."
"Thanks George."
"We'll be down in a minute."
"Ok."
George disappeared, and Ingrid looked to Vlad expectantly.
"It's best left til they've eaten, as most people fall asleep after so their mind can reshuffle. So we might as well go eat dinner."
Ingrid rolled her eyes, and Vlad suspected her indecisive taste buds at work made normal meals tricky, and so it was with great reluctance she followed him down. Dinner seemed to sit alright with her though, and Vlad savoured the properly cooked, normal meal very thoroughly. Dessert was sweet and satisfying to match, and Vlad helped clear up afterwards despite Sally's protests.
"Really, it's no trouble."
"You're a sweet boy Vlad."
He smiled. It was rare he heard such a compliment, except from Mrs Branagh.
"Thank you."
Taking a minute to organise his mind, make sure the right thoughts and 'memories' went in, Vlad tasked Ingrid with finding and getting rid of any of the garlic in the kitchen; so close to her transformation, she wouldn't struggle and 'allergy' was the easiest way to convince her mother not to bring garlic in to the house again.
"Anything else you can think of, now would be a good time."
She thought for a minute, but shook her head. Vlad left her garlic-hunting, heading through to where George and Sally had plopped down on the sofa to let dinner settle in their stomachs. Taking a few deep breaths, Vlad cleared his throat and focused. He'd managed the double-hypnosis on the Branaghs, so he knew he could do it.
"Everything alright Vlad?"
"Yep, fine..."
He trailed off, waiting for their eyes to turn glassy and blank before he started speaking the commands in, feeling each one 'take' before he moved on to the next. Mentally inventorying the necessary changes, he was satisfied and stepped back, snapping his fingers. Both of them yawned, rubbing their faces.
"Oh, Vlad, didn't see you th-" Sally cut off, letting out a deeper yawn and stretching "sorry, I've come over all drowsy..."
Within two minutes, they were both fast asleep. Ingrid came in, looked surprised.
"It worked?"
"It should have."
"How do I check?"
"Ask them about garlic bread tomorrow, see what they say? Or wait for your mum to buy you blackout blinds. If anythings off, let me know and I'll tweak it but I mastered this pretty fast, it should be fine. I'll... leave you to it. Give them an hour before you wake them, then you can send them to bed and they'll be back to normal in the morning."
He headed toward the door, sitting down to pull his shoes back on and grabbing his jacket from the hook. Ingrid hovered, silent.
"See you tomorrow."
Vlad said, though it felt lame as a goodbye but he didn't know what else to say. Ingrid opened and closed her mouth three times, then just stepped away and nodded. After he left. Vlad heard keys in the lock as Ingrid secured the home for the evening, and he began the walk back home. It wasn't yet night, but the moon could be seen against the faintest purple tinge over blue skies.
By the time he got back to the castle, his dad was up for the night, pacing about and harping on to himself about Dimidius children.
"Well, you know how to avoid that is to not see a breather and f-"
"Enough! I really thought she was one of us."
"Except for the heartbeat and body heat. Night dad."
Vlad headed past, flopped on his bed and stared out of the window to watch the sky grow darker from his tower.
Not long now.
-YD-
Vlad and Ingrid had a very different sibling relationship in season one...