Archive of Our Own ^beta

DANNY

Jazz sat at the table in her kitchen, slightly leaning back, with her legs folded one over the other, and a cup of coffee in her hands, which kept her from folding her arms. The expression on her face hid what she was thinking, but after years of living under the same roof, and Jazz being one of the earliest confidants of his secret, Danny knew what she doing, and that Jazz’s friendly calm was hiding how the analytical assessment centre of her brain was probably working overtime now – it had been a while since Danny had actually visited her, and the last time they had spoken Danny had basically dropped Dan in her lap. (There had been no other way, it wasn’t like Dan had cared to make things easy for them).

She had gotten a lot better at keeping her thoughts to herself since they had been teens, Danny thought, and then that Jazz probably didn’t truly know just how much he appreciated that. Her worrying had driven him mad at times, even when it had been warranted. Or maybe especially then because she had never only filled just the role of his sister. But she knew that, Danny thought with a little frown, she most certainly knew that.
There was no need to say it, but Jazz certainly had a much clearer understanding of why he had previously resented the nickname Dan and refused to ever grow his hair out. But they hadn’t talked about it, or the fact that Jazz most certainly suspected the anxiety he should have felt around his twenty-fourth birthday.

Of course Danny had told her what had happened to Dan, what should have happened to him, he’d told her so much more than initially planned after revealing his secret identity to their parents, but now that Jazz sat across from him – she was at the table, Danny sat on the kitchen counter, and the cup of coffee was beside him – he could tell that seeing Dan was different from hearing about Dan. And he thought that perhaps exactly that was why the thought of checking in on Jazz hadn’t let him go.

“I didn’t know how to tell you...” Danny admitted. Meaning Dan, the explosion, the alternate timeline, cheating on the test — everything. “I knew you were right, I knew… what you wanted me to do, it wasn’t that, it wasn’t like I thought you’d be forever disappointed, I mean… you would have been, about the test, just not…” Not knowing how to finish it Danny broke off the sentence and simply continued with the next thought, “but it’s not like that matters considering what happened to him, it was just... so much… that’s why I asked Clockwork to let me visit Vlad after his accident.” Surprised by his own admission Danny furrowed his brows ever so lightly and grabbed his coffee to drink from it.

Across the kitchen he saw Jazz lift her eyebrows even more surprised than he was himself.

Danny sighed, grumbling something unintelligible into his coffee and leaned his head to the side as thoughtful as he was confused. “It is true what I said, he’s one of my kind and I’d rather have him on my side than against me, that I think he got the short end of the stick, I just…” He hadn’t been able to not think about the explosion. With a snort Danny briefly raised his brows, “I feel some kind of awful for taking so long to realise it, but knowing how Dan was made... made himself? He was all alone, I was all alone and I turned to Vlad, and all he wanted was to help and I just thought it’s unfair that I got Sam and Tuck and you, and he didn’t have anyone, and when I didn’t have anyone I thought I could truly trust… him.”

Jazz remained silent.

“I know it doesn’t undo anything, it doesn’t absolve him,” Danny sighed, vexed, “but for all that I know there’s only three of my kind and I hate the thought of having to spend the majority of my life fighting him!”

There it was, both of them thought, Danny realised when he looked at Jazz again.

Slowly Jazz placed a hand on the table as she got up and walked around it. “Thank you,” she said softly and placed a hand on Danny’s arm. “For telling me.” Finally, the expression on her face was saying, and Danny just couldn’t bring himself to admit to the nightmares as well. Instead he only lowered his head onto her shoulder, with an exhaustion he hadn’t felt in many years. “I would have never let you turn into someone cruel,” Jazz said quietly.

“I know…” Danny said with a sigh and lifted his head. “I wasn’t worried I’d turn into him just like that,” Danny snapped his fingers, “but it scared me to know that that was in me, I mean, sure he’s part Plasmius,” he said gesturing, “but Plasmius didn’t create a bloodbath with my human half or ripped out Vlad’s ghost half so…” He pulled a grimace and grabbed his coffee again. “That was so much scarier than finding out I became a villain over cheating on a test, ‘cause if you think about it that’s too ridiculous to take seriously, and I like to believe it was the grief and loss of a support system more than anything that flipped the switch.”

Despite the smile Jazz couldn’t hide the worry now clearly displayed on her face as she rubbed his arm for comfort. “You wouldn’t have been a burden.”

“Jazz…”

“I’m so glad Clockwork decided you deserved a second chance, and not just because it means I got to live, but you shouldn’t have had to deal with that alone on top of everything else.”

She didn’t say it, but she didn’t have to. Danny closed his eyes, trying to ignore how his stomach sank and his thoughts spiralled around Dani. Another thing he hadn’t told her, or really anyone, about. When he opened them again, it was only enough not to spill the coffee when he raised his mug to drink.

“So, how’s he doing?” Danny managed, trying not to show the upheaval her words had caused in his mind. Although it was silly to think that Jazz would ever suspect Dani for what she really was.

Jazz’s expression turned bittersweet. “As good as he can, but he hasn’t missed a day, though he doesn’t seem to be sure what to do with himself… which is expected.” Sighing Jazz walked over to the table to retrieve her mug and leaned onto it with her free hand. “He can hold a conversation, which is good, sometimes he stays overnight, which is also good – I’m trying to figure out if he eats, and if he does what he likes… right now I’m trying to convince him that he might like a bath, not that ghosts needs to worry about getting clean, but I think it would be good for his soul, like eating…” Jazz furrowed her brows. “I can deal with the you part of him, I’m not sure I know what to with the Plasmius side.”

“There’s a Plasmius side?” In all the years since he’d known about Dan, he admittedly had never attempted to unravel his character like that.

Jazz nodded, and drank coffee. “The grief cuts deep, but it’s not all there is.” She paused. “You know, I’ve always wondered, but never really got a chance to figure it out – how come you still look like you when you transform and well Vlad looks like that?”“We grew up hearing mom and dad talk about ghosts, and you have to ask?”
“Vlad is too arrogant for to be pure self-loathing.”

“Well then I’m out of ideas.”

With a shake of her head Jazz turned and took her seat at the table again, just like at the beginning of their conversation. “He’s both of you, and he’s neither of you, and both is important, we have to allow him to be his own person and let him figure out who that is.”

Sighing Danny closed his eyes, he didn’t even know why. “There’s a part of me that feels terrible for locking him up and keeping him in the thermos,” Danny admitted quietly as he opened them again. “In retrospect I want to say I did it because I was scared of facing him, but I just didn’t know any better, I always thought I’d wake up some day and everything would fall into place and I’d know what to do with him, but I never did and it makes me feel stupid that I ever believed that.”

“You were fourteen, you couldn’t have–“

“It doesn’t take the feeling away!” As he stared at Jazz, Danny wondered, ever so briefly, if it was the same for Vlad with how he felt about his parents. But Vlad wasn’t the topic right now, so Danny shelved it. “I know,” he said more quietly. “I know…”

“And I just want you to hear that nobody would have expected you to be able to handle it,” Jazz said empathetically. “I’m glad that you were able to open up to mom and dad, I really am, for your sake and Dani’s, but that doesn’t change that it’s part of the burden.”

Danny bit down on the inside of his lower lip to keep his face from grimacing. He’d kept up the lie that she was their cousin for so long that now he didn’t even feel the knots his stomach twisted into when his family talked about her. It was what it was and Dani was what she was, and what mattered most was how he treated her. As he emptied his coffee Danny thought that in Dan’s world she had never existed and that that was a whole slew of problems by itself. With closed eyes he set the mug down.

“I’m very proud of you, but none of this should have been your responsibility,” Jazz concluded her thought and Danny managed a weak smile.

“It shouldn’t have been yours either,” he said ever so quietly, and cautiously lifted his eyes to look at her. When Jazz’s eyes narrowed Danny raised a quizzical brow, he could tell that it wasn’t directed at him, but there were simply too many things that could warrant a stare like that for Danny to narrow it down effectively.

“After all he’s done… are you sure, you did the right thing with Vlad?”

The sigh that left his lungs heaved his entire body. It was a question that Danny hadn’t asked himself in a while. Hadn’t wanted to ask himself in a while. It had been at its worst right after he’d finished his visits to Clockwork, and the uncertainty whether he’d done enough to even change anything to begin with or whether Vlad would even remember him had been at its peak, it had settled when Vlad had put the puzzle pieces together and raised its head again after he’d left him again, because Danny hadn’t been sure whether his good efforts had stuck. Vlad had shown himself to be fickle and selfish before, and even though Danny had wanted to trust that it was different this time, Vlad had had to earn that certainty.

If all they were granted was a single human life span perhaps Danny would have insisted now that he was, because while Vlad hadn’t exactly become a model example of the human species within the past two years, he was… better. Danny couldn’t deny that, Vlad made an effort to be better in his presence. But they had more than a human life span, and Jazz wouldn’t believe his attempt to put on a brave front anyway, all he could do was shut down the question.

Now looking at her Danny felt the constraints of his ribcage and an afflicted expression laid itself over his features. “I have to believe it.” He wanted to as well.

VLAD

Awkwardly Vlad patted at the sweat jacket and smoothed it over his torso. Danny had left or forgotten it during one of his recent visits, Vlad hadn’t been sure, but he’d washed it and stowed it away for when Danny returned because that had seemed like the sensible thing to do at the time. And now he was wearing it. He hadn’t planned to, but that didn’t seem to matter in the great scheme of things, because the alternative was Dan making Vlad Plasmius shish-kebab,

Try as he might, the damned jacket didn’t fit him, it wasn’t his cut and it wasn’t his style, but it was the only article of clothing that was currently in his possession that was neutral enough for Dan to bear his presence.

The worst it ought to smell of was laundry detergent.

Dan glowered and wrinkled his nose. “This is acceptable,” he grumbled and took a step closer, leaning in as he did so as if testing how well the new item of clothing masked Vlad’s scent for him.

He was imposing, and while Danny was a far cry from a scrawny teenager now, Dan was still a walking brick wall, even if Vlad didn’t find it all that intimidating. He could take him in a fight if he played his cards right. Just maybe not as a human.

Funny enough no matter how much he stared at Dan, Vlad couldn’t find a trace of Plasmius in him, even the red eyes, the cape and the little beard could be easily explained away. Of course Vlad knew that his ghost half was in there, Danny had explained it to him after all, it just didn’t change the fact that Vlad saw more of himself visually in Danny’s current transformations than he could see in Dan at all, but of course that disregarded whatever went on inside of the other. And perhaps Plasmius was more a state of mind for Dan than an actual physical expression, in which case he had been more than right to bring Dan here.

Tugging at the sweat jacket again, Vlad thought that he would need a better solution for next time, if there was going to be a next time, but something about Dan’s demeanour told him that he would have little choice in that matter if it came down to it. He felt too odd wearing something of Danny’s of all people, and he couldn’t keep wearing the aftershave (some unopened package, he couldn’t remember acquiring) that had come from the back of his bathroom cabinet promising that at least he wouldn’t give off his usual scent, and given how menacingly Dan had initially regarded him it was all he had cared about, still, it didn’t make Vlad feel all too comfortable in his skin.

Shaking his head as if shaking off something unpleasant, Dan asked, “what is this place?”

“One of my houses, albeit one that I don’t frequent,” Vlad explained with a shrug. “I don’t get to be in this area often.”

A grumbling sound that may have been an “oh” left Dan, who was visibly weary of him, but showed no signs of fright.

Admittedly Vlad hadn’t chosen the place because he had thought Dan wouldn’t feel comfortable at his mansion, okay maybe a little bit because of that, but mostly it was the other way around and it hadn’t sat right with himself to have Dan in his living space under the current circumstances.

The term house was more than apropos; it was just that, a house, big enough for a family and some guests, not even close in size to his mansions, ordinarily way too small for his needs, but he’d liked the location, right down to the spot where it stood in, and the nice big yard which surrounded it and kept prying eyes from all angles at a distance.

Silently he regarded the house with Dan who made no move to get any closer or inside, and somehow Vlad thought he better not ask if the other wanted to do the latter. Staring at it now, it occurred to Vlad that he didn’t want to go inside either, and that if Dan had asked why instead of what, the answer to his question would have been a much different one. The past he had buried in these walls wasn’t one Vlad was keen on unearthing, yet... Plasmius was a part of Dan.

A twinge of conflict made him fold his arms almost defensively, but Dan didn’t seem to notice.

A part him wanted to ask what it was like to be comprised of both Plasmius and Phantom, but Vlad bit his tongue and said instead, “I don’t know how alike my history is with that of your Vlad, but I presume the broad strokes are the same.” Unthinking Vlad leaned his head a little to the side. If he was correct, then this house in both realities hid the same thing. “And I’m sure I speak for the both of us when I say, that if he had known what the process would do to you he would have destroyed all methods of separating you from your human half to make sure it didn’t happen…”

When he noticed Dan’s glare, Vlad explained, “I think you at least ought to hear it from one us, but amends like that aren’t why I brought you here.” Perhaps he was also saying them because he knew Danny would like to hear him acknowledge it, and it was one of the easier things to admit to because he hadn’t actually done it. Not this version of himself anyway.

When he had sought Dan he had come with a bait, and Vlad was quite certain that it was the only reason Dan even tried not to beat him to a pulp for whatever reason he thought he deserved it in this timeline too.

Vlad had thought he would come up with an eloquent or clever way to phrase it, but the words eluded him even now. There just wasn’t an easy way to broach the subject. “I won’t presume to know what it’s like for you, but maybe it’ll help knowing what it’s like for me,” Vlad said quietly and wandered a few steps towards the house. When he glanced at Dan, Vlad could see that he thought there wasn’t anything to explain, that they had been alike up until he had become them both and through that something entirely new.

A wry smile showed on Vlad’s face. “That’s where you’re wrong, that’s where he’s wrong – we’re the same kind, but we weren’t created the same way, sure the blast of ecto-energy gave me my powers, I concede to that, but where Phantom is an extension, Plasmius is an ulcer that festered into existence all those days, weeks, months on end I had to spend in that damned hospital, with doctors and nurses who wouldn’t listen and had no idea what they were dealing with, and the only people who could help me would rather see me on a slab in their lab, who cares if he’s really dead, ghosts don’t feel a thing and if they do what would they have cared?” with a red glare in his eyes Vlad snarled.

The expression on Dan’s face was rightfully unimpressed, but more importantly he looked even if only a little bit intrigued. “But you are a ghost-hybrid,” he clarified for the both of them.

“I know what I am,” Vlad scoffed and started walking towards the veranda, only made a sharp turn at the front of it to walk around the house instead inside of it. With heavy, much more leisurely steps Dan followed. “Two hearts and two souls – that’s what I am. A living ghost.” Looking back for a moment as he stopped in his tracks, Vlad mused, “now what does that make you? An eater of hearts and souls, or just a personified duality, I wonder?”

A brisk unidentifiable sound left Dan’s throat as he averted his gaze, and remained otherwise silent.

“Do you ever crave it?” Vlad taunted. A quizzical look crossed Dan’s face. “Do yourself and Danny a favour, and give me a call when you do.” The red glimmer had returned to his eyes, and while that intrigued Dan Vlad saw no sign of recognition for his words in the other’s face. Good. But for the first time in a long while Vlad was acutely aware of the fangs in his mouth again. They weren’t so sharp that he had to be careful how he moved his mouth, or too bulky to properly close it, but they were there, and he couldn’t help but notice. With a breath he gathered himself, he wasn’t here to start a fight, although that would have certainly released some of the tension he now felt.

When he looked at him again, Vlad could see that Dan was itching for the fight that wouldn’t come. “Not today,” Vlad simply told him and slowly continued his way through the garden, with Dan in tow, who pretended rather badly not to care about what was going on. “I won’t argue that you seem to have some measure of control over my powers, but if you want true control, you’ll have to understand Plasmius.”

“Why can’t I do it like you?” Dan didn’t mean to complain, Vlad could see it, but he still did.

“Because you’re entirely a ghost and I’m only half one, that should be obvious,” Vlad replied, a little more weary of the explanation than he wanted Dan to know that he was. He glanced at Dan, “it won’t stop unless you try to at least harmonise what you are.”

“I’m the antithesis to harmony,” Dan glowered. It seemed he had understood the hint, but Vlad wouldn’t give him any more than that. Otherwise he might have to explain himself after all and he wasn’t about to do that just now.

“Is that what you believe?”

“What does it matter?”“Plasmius is comprised of folklore,” Vlad admitted with a shrug. “Monstrous folklore, mind you, but folklore nonetheless.” He was silent for a moment, certain that Dan didn’t want to hear what he thought right now. How much he was still like Danny. Instead he told him, “Danny doesn’t know about this house, well he doesn’t know about most of my assets, but that’s not the point…” With raised brows he looked at Dan, “I would appreciate if you didn’t terrorise the neighbours when you need to be alone.”Confusion and suspicion scrunched up Dan’s face, but before he could go on a tirade Vlad interjected.

“I understand you have no reason to expect any good from me, but there’s a part of me in you, and while I agree that a certain degree of supervision is not amiss, I know I would want a retreat where nobody could find me.” Vlad let the words hang in the air until Dan looked cautiously interested enough for him to continue. “One, the house remains in my name, this is simply for conveniences sake,” Vlad raised a finger as he spoke, “two, you are not to terrorise the neighbourhood and I mean that, three,” Vlad raised a third finger, “I left a few things in the kitchen, they are yours to take if you want them, four, I have no interest in babysitting you, if you cannot get your shit together I will intervene.”

“Don’t make that sound so promising.” After a pause he added, “why are you doing this?”

“I’m sure Danny and Jasmine has been awfully busy keeping you in check, but I don’t think you need constraints, I think you know very well, what you ought to do and shouldn’t… I think you need a space to breathe and just… be… that’s what this is,” Vlad paused, silently regarding Dan, “that is, if you want it…?”

A long pause where Dan simply scrutinised him followed. “Where’s the catch?” he growled and leaned in closer.

Calmly Vlad raised his eyes accordingly, and smiled without emotion. “If you’re that desperate for one, you may consider my ownership of the house and everything in it that.”

DANNY

The first thing Dani had done upon seeing him when Danny had sought out Ember’s lair since handing her over was giving him her best human torch impression, much to Ember’s delight and Danny’s own amusement, who had pulled her into a tight hug. Seeing her so lively again had made him feel better than anything in the world and Dani had eventually been forced to tell him to let go, to pry herself away from him to breathe again.

There were no words needed to convey what needed to be said, and while it wasn’t what he had come for Danny had been happy to watch her show off what she had learnt in the brief span that she had been in Ember’s care. He would have to figure out an appropriate gift for Ember, although from the looks of it, seeing Dani’s quick progress and enjoyment of her own power seemed to already be plenty for her. Still, it was only right to thank Ember properly for her efforts.

“You’re not here because mom and dad are worried?” Dani asked with sudden suspicion.

“Nope,” he said and quietly indicated at Ember to give them a moment. “I wanted to talk about Dan, and I thought you should hear it in person.”“What about him?”

Carefully Danny glanced around, briefly even left Dani to make sure they were really alone, before settling in front of her with a deep breath. “You can tell him,” he eventually said and simply waited for the words to sink in. “If you want to, that is.”Dani’s eyes had grown big and still seemed to grow as she was gawping at him. “Are you sure?”

Quickly Danny nodded. He’d thought a lot about it and what could possibly be the best approach for the subject, but in the end there had only been one resolution to it all. And that was Dani herself. “He’s us.” Danny sighed. “He’s me, and because of that he’s you, but you don’t exist where he’s from, and unlike mom and dad we can’t brush him off, now I don’t think he’ll take kindly to finding out what you are and why, but,” Danny weighted the word, taking a moment to pause, “it should be up to you whether you want to tell him or not, and I trust that you will make the right call.”

Danny’s heart sank as he watched Dani’s expression crumple, before he realised that it was relief washing over her like a tsunami. With a quiet breath Dani attempted to hold her composure, and without thinking Danny pulled her into a hug again. “I’m sorry that it’s all I can give you,” he muttered, swallowing, and burying his face in her hair. Against it he felt Dani shake her head determinedly. “I know it’s not the same.”

As troublesome as it was to talk with Vlad about Dani it allowed him an openness towards the subject that he had with no one else, except perhaps Dani herself, although it was different with her too.

Hugging her tight as he could Danny spun them around in the Ghost Zone’s aether and set Dani down with a brisk, but honestly happy laugh. “You’re the best one I could have asked for,” Danny said, and when he affectionately pulled her close again Dani playfully fought against it, until he pressed a kiss to her temple and let her go. “Vlad gets no say in this,” he ultimately declared with hands on his hips. “You’re both me, and well Dan’s also him, but I want no secrets like that between me, myself and I.”

Overwhelmed with emotion still Dani was engulfed by flames within seconds, but she smiled just as brightly. “He goes to see Jazz every day, right?” Danny nodded and she continued, “I wanna go see her once I’m not so prone any more to accidentally setting everything, including me, on fire… maybe… Dan could come too? I want to meet him first before I decide.”

With a smile Danny promised he would tell Jazz of her plans, feeling reluctant to leave Dani alone with her emotions right now. It wasn’t right, but he could tell that she didn’t want him to see the full force of what was breaking down on her. The only reason she wasn’t wiping her tears was because they evaporated almost instantly when Danny saw them in the corner of her eyes.

The way that Vlad studied him with such an attentive gaze reminded Danny of the first time they had met at the hospital, when they had been effectively strangers – it was as if Vlad was seeing him for the first time again, yet there seemed to something soft, appreciative about it all. It almost made Danny inclined to say that Vlad was happy to see him, not only that he seemed pleased with everything being as it was. (It eased the fears Jazz had stirred with her question).

Or maybe it was because he’d never seen him in a lab coat before. It was probably that, Danny decided. He hadn’t exactly planned to be here today, but Vlad had warned him that his lab would be under maintenance for the next few days, and after the first time he’d been there to help had quickly turned into preventing the murder of his parents, and because Danny knew his way around a ghost researcher’s lab (he’d grown up with one in the basement too after all), and because he figured getting familiar with Vlad’s would combat the unease he still felt in it to a certain degree, and because he considered it an innocuous way of spending time with him, Danny had donned a lab coat and flown the distance to Vlad’s mansion.

He rarely got the chance to fly like that to begin with, but he always enjoyed it more than he initially expected. So of course he had jumped at the chance.

Awkwardly scratching the side of his chin Danny asked, “too much? I like the shirt and I wasn’t sure what to expect, when I had to clean my parents’ lab there was always some kind of spill, no matter what they did… besides I didn’t know if you had any coats that fit me.”

Confusion mixed incomprehension on Vlad’s face. Admittedly, Danny hadn’t announced his visit before he had been almost halfway to Wisconsin, and since he hadn’t announced himself at the door and instead had simply let himself into the mansion and Vlad’s lab, his appearance was quite unexpected.

“Dangk- ... Danie-,” a few more attempts were made that sounded like Vlad had newfound trouble with syllables, before he asked, pointedly, “Neil, why are you here?”

“To help,” Danny announced promptly and surely, and put his hands akimbo, looking awfully pleased with himself. “I thought you might like some company.” It had always been more fun with Sam and Tucker, or Jazz helping him out. “I made us a playlist,” he then added and waved his phone for Vlad to see.

“Well, that’s very nice and reasonable, but you don’t need to help me,” Vlad replied, now seemingly finished with sizing him up and having regained the majority of his composure. With his hair clipped to to the back of his head and in jeans and t-shirt he looked terribly much like he did in the pictures in his parents’ photo albums. Not quite as young, well, that was a matter of interpretation, Danny thought, given that Vlad had stopped ageing somewhere along the line, so it was reasonable to say he’d gained a few years after the accident, but then again Danny had to admit he didn’t know how many exactly. And the grey hair certainly wasn’t doing Danny’s attempts any favours.

“But I want to,” Danny now declared confidently.

“That’s… nice,” Vlad repeated tilting his head to the side, looking bemused now more than anything. “Well, be my guest,” Vlad gestured at a nearby lab bench, which even now was a far cry from the mess his parents usually made. “There’s not a lot of cleaning to be done now, I’m upgrading my equipment, and well… basic inventory.”

A smile showed on Danny’s face, and he grabbed one of the screwdrivers. “Why don’t you just buy new ones if they’re outdated?” He asked, pointing the screwdriver at Vlad and gauging whether he was picking up the correct device from the other’s expression.

“Because none of this exists on the market in way that I have it in my lab, especially not those computers,” Vlad said with a tinge of pride as he pointed at what looked to be a wall of analysers and other computers he didn’t recognise.

Curiously Danny studied them, then glanced at Vlad, before he asked, “what do they do?”

“Mostly remodelled analysers and working stations, some hospital equipment…” the sigh that left Vlad’s mouth was almost pained, “I could just buy new ones, yes, but the technology is only half the issue, I have to reprogramme them to work on ectoplasm, that means I have to get into the code and… it’s just easier to keep the machine and the programme and upgrade it’s processing power until they actually build a new one with better features and a better computer that’s worth spending the money on.”

“Man, Tucker would have a field day in here,” Danny grinned. “That’s incredible!” An awkward little smile showed on Vlad’s expression. “So what’s the plan?”

Silently Vlad pointed over his shoulder and when Danny turned, for the first time he noticed the Jenga tower of boxes and packages Vlad had stored in his lab. “Do inventory, throw out some stuff that’s been collecting dust along with the junk, make a list of broken or otherwise damaged equipment for replacement and exchange a fuckton of computer insides, so I hope you like screwdrivers and lists.”

Danny’s brows furrowed lightly, that certainly wasn’t what his parents had him do growing up. “What about the portal?” he asked, noting now, that he actually looked at it that Vlad hadn’t just closed the gates but actually shut it off.

“No, that’s separate,” Vlad said with a shake of his head and folded arms. “It’s not really on a schedule, just whenever something breaks or I find better parts, it’s not an exact science, it doesn’t work like a computer, so I can’t just stick something new in there and expect it to work, I have to fiddle with it more to keep it stable.”

“Hearing you say fiddle is weird.” Danny squinted, but the corners of his mouth quirked amused.

“Shush.”

“Alright, what do we do first?” The grin had now fully spread on Danny’s face.

Vlad pointed him back at the lab benches. “There are lists, take one and see what you can find. Throw out what’s broken, if something looks particularly unused put it in a separate box, I’ll go through that later.”

Sure enough there was a clipboard with a small stack of papers attached to it. “Do you just… have these?”

“Well, I keep the ones from previous years for convenience,” Vlad explained as he walked over to the stack of boxes, picking up one of the larger ones and opening it with a sharp nail that looked black enough to belong to his ghost form. He picked through the smaller boxes inside and took a cursory glance at his lab, already on his way to where he wanted its contents.

There was a way about how he said, that made Danny wonder whether Vlad truly needed the lists for anything other than convenience, like if it came down to it he could recite most of it from memory. And as Danny flipped through the pages, he thought how unlike his parents this was and how it seemed nothing short of a miracle that Vlad had ever been able to share a lab with his father. The thought made Danny bite his lip to suppress a laugh, wondering how far he might get with his questions before Vlad would have enough.

Putting the list aside Danny pulled out his phone and turned up the volume, whether Vlad had asked for it or not, there was going to be music. He’d pried into his parents’ old record collection for an educated guess on what Vlad would probably like or at least approve of, and though Vlad shot him a quizzical look when Danny pressed play and adjusted the volume to a comfortable level that still allowed them to talk, he didn’t demand for him to turn it off.

Pleased with himself Danny set out to work, while his gaze occasionally wandered back to Vlad who was distributing electronic parts to free delivery boxes for junk and dusty lab equipment. Somehow there was actually junk. A discovery over which Danny puzzled as Vlad hovered the empty boxes over to him.

With careful curiosity Danny pocketed the screwdriver and opened a drawer, uncertain what to expect, but with the distinct realisation that he found its contents rather dull. Vlad was a scientist, like his parents, only richer, and in all honesty, Danny couldn’t see anything that frightened him.

The question why he had expectant to be frightened circled through his head, as he flipped through the lists on the clipboard until he found the drawers contents and scribbled down a few numbers. Dani – that was the answer. It was the answer to everything with Vlad. Pausing for a split second Danny glanced up to see Vlad emptying more boxes for sorting out damaged equipment and expired materials. Looking back at the drawer, Danny rummaged through it to count the rest of its insides. Dani’s creation hadn’t physically affected him beyond the fights which had served to collect his DNA, but yet the fact that this place, even if not this room specifically, was responsible for cloning him was a terribly invasive thought that Danny didn’t know how to escape on the best of his days. He wasn’t even sure whether he wanted to escape it, he just wanted…

His thoughts were interrupted by names and numbers as he continued the list.

The point was that he couldn’t pretend like it was nothing, he couldn’t pretend Dani didn’t exist, or hadn’t come to be the way she had, but also that he didn’t really want to – Dani was simultaneously the best and worst thing Vlad had ever created. And this place… this place…

Frustrated Danny started counting all over, he hadn’t been focusing, and he didn’t want to give Vlad a reason to give him something else to do. Whether it had been intentional or not, but Danny appreciated the opportunity to go through Vlad’s lab at his leisure. There was something inherently disarming about the task of getting to know what was actually there and seeing that it were all things he knew from home, school and college, things where he could say what they did and argue that in the end the only difference between what Vlad and his parents had done was how they had used their tools.

He’d slept in this place, Danny thought as he finished with the first bench and walked over to another, he could see the corner under the tables where he’d slept back when his mind hadn’t allowed him peace and he’d come here to threaten Vlad about it. The lab had reminded him of home then. At least it had been more familiar than the rest of Vlad’s mansion to him.

After three lab benches, several more cupboards and going through the walk-in freezer, Danny decided he had seen enough of Vlad’s lab for the time being to be convinced that it contained nothing that warranted the terror Dani had instilled in him.

With a little groan Danny stretched, noting how pristine his lab coat still was when he straightened it, despite the fact that Vlad had a rather extensive supply of ectoplasm in his fridge. Squinting he surveyed the lab until he found Vlad half inside one of his analysers.

He was humming, Danny noted as he walked over and plopped himself down next to him on the floor. He’d never heard Vlad hum. Not like that. Not to a melody. Somehow that surprised him, as if he had previously thought Vlad incapable of that, even if it was stupid. A part of him didn’t want to break the spell, still he said, “okay, I’ve been here for several hours and I’m not covered in ectoplasm and other questionable substances, which is making me feel some kind of weird and glad at the same time – can I hand you anything?”

Vlad’s reply was muffled by the analyser and whatever he held between his teeth, so Danny had to make an educated guess based on the few words he could make out, but apparently he had picked the right tool because Vlad didn’t immediately toss it back at him.

“What are you doing?” Quizzically Danny studied the machine when Vlad emerged from it and tucked a few loose strands behind his ear. Danny glanced at him, then back at the machine. “What does this thing do?”

Momentarily Vlad squinted at the machine with a thoughtful look on his face. “It’s an analyser for blood and ectoplasm, and wouldn’t you know ectoplasm requires a lot more processing power than blood,” Vlad explained, pushing a rouge strand behind his ear and when it wouldn’t stay put trying to stick it back in place between the others, as he now surveyed his tools. “It has what you expect, being a form of blood, but… ghosts are supernatural creatures, so it’s not just blood and a full scan is rather complex, it’s almost as complex as a DNA scan, which is why those are usually mapped instead of an exact full read-out, and this machine has the job of making sure it only reads what we would categorise as blood.”

“Ectoplasm is… both?” Admittedly Danny had never thought that hard about it, beyond that ectoplasm equalled his ghost-half’s blood. Carefully Danny furrowed his brows, he wanted to ask how, but it felt like he almost knew the answer. Ghosts where made of ectoplasm after all. He blinked. Of course. “They’re made of it,” he said, answering his own question.

Vlad snorted, seemingly amused by watching him think. “Yes, that’s part of the answer,” he agreed and began to put the analyser back together, with Danny handing him what he needed. “Ghost’s are made of it in their entirety, although there is an argument to be made that it’s not just a mishmash, like humans have different layers of skin, ghosts are made up of different layers of ectoplasm, which, depending on the analysis can lead to different results,” Vlad paused as he finished up with the analyser, and got up to move to the next machine.

His interest piqued, Danny grabbed the remaining tools and followed.

“The actual answer, the precise one is that it’s neither, it’s its own thing, but that’s terribly unhelpful when it comes to you and me, we have blood and DNA and human bodies,” with a sigh Vlad started opening the machine, seemingly annoyed that he couldn’t just phase into it to do what he wanted. “So I have to treat it like those things for comparable results that make sense in the in between, sense for DNA with a-” muttering curses under his breath, as he weeded through the insides of the machine, Vlad stopped, seemingly unaware of Danny’s display of patience in response. “Our DNA’s bloody coated in the stuff, if I want to get a clear reading on the human part I have to be able to separate it, or, well, at least know what’s human and what’s ghost if I can’t separate it to begin with, which is most of the time.”

“Our DNA is coated in ectoplasm?”

“Yes, you don-…” Looking at him, Vlad realised that of course Danny hadn’t known, there had been no way for him to know, but whatever he could read on Danny’s face was obviously encouraging him to keep talking. “I can show you…” Mid-gesture Vlad realised what he was offering wasn’t possible as of this moment and he made dismissive gesture. “Later… once we’re done here,” he clarified with a little frown, which deepened as Vlad brought his thoughts in order. “It’s a fused coating that actually goes into the DNA sporadically, and I haven’t figured out what exactly makes it do that yet, initially I thought it was repair, basic influx of predatory genetic material out for pure self-preservation, but that’s… really hard to proof with such a huge amount of non-coding DNA in the human body, I can’t say it’s fixing something when I don’t even know what the thing does in the first place, also DNA mapping alone takes a metric fuckton of processing power and time, and that’s just the incomplete readout of the amino acids and then I have to separate the ectoplasm out of that and compare that with what little we actually know about mutations, missing and broken DNA which is a lot of work and we don’t even have the tech for more than half of that shit, I have to make it work as I go!”

A glimpse. It was a glimpse into where Dani had come from, Danny thought, and yet, he was more intrigued than he had been by his parent’s research in years.

All through his explanation Vlad hadn’t stopped working on his machine, evidently it had reigned in his rant a little and kept his attention focused instead of giving Danny a two-hour lecture. It had apparently also made him work faster because Danny felt like he had blinked and Vlad was already closing the panels again after installing what he deemed necessary.

Somewhere in the back of his mind it occurred to Danny, that there was a definite reason Vlad and his parents had gotten along at some point – he knew better than to point that out; but there was also a definite fork in the research they had done. Danny was sure that there still had to be some overlap, but where his parents had focused their understanding and research to better kill ghosts, Vlad had continued to better understand himself and what he had become. And to increased his wealth and status.

Of course Danny had taken advantage of the weapons when necessary, to protect himself, his family (despite everything), his friends, Amity Park. Vlad’s understanding of protection had been self-preservation, and Danny couldn’t help but frown a little about it as he thought about it. There was something he wanted to ask, but the question seemed out of place in what they were currently doing so he shelved it and told himself to remember it for later.

“Your lab’s pretty nice…” Danny admitted instead, digging through Vlad’s tool for the required item. “It’s very… not a biohazard!” The words almost made him laugh, but Vlad looked more exasperated than amused.

“I’m trying not to kill myself entirely.”

“Sensible.”

With only very little protest Danny had managed to drag Vlad away from what he was doing after they had worked their way through the majority of the lab, at first he had left Vlad to his own devices, but after a sightseeing tour through the mansion and cuddling Maddie, Danny had returned to the lab to convince Vlad to take a break, mostly so he would have some company. The mansion was so terribly quiet and calling Sam and Tucker just didn’t achieve the same effect, because this wasn’t about voices, if he had wanted voices Danny would have turned on a TV, watched a film or listened to an audio book – this was about the physical presence of another person.

They were in one of the many living rooms of the mansion, or perhaps it was a study. Danny wasn’t quite sure with half of the rooms what they were, when they were large enough to house several people but Vlad also carved out a corner for himself to work in.

Thoughtfully Danny studied the brandy Vlad had handed him, but he didn’t really watch the glass, he watched Vlad who after settling with his wine, set it aside and pulled the hair tie out again – he’d removed the clip and pulled out the tie earlier on their way here, to tie his hair back more loosely than before, but now, bothered by the strands that kept slipping out he seemed to rethink his previous decision. Having tamed the loose strands Vlad settled more comfortably in the armchair, it was only when he grabbed for the wine that he noticed Danny’s stare.

“Second thoughts?” An expression sly as a cat’s laid itself upon Vlad’s features.

With a scoff Danny ceased his scrutiny and took a sip. Surprisingly Vlad hadn’t needed much convincing when he’d asked him for a drink (he hadn’t asked for brandy specifically, but Vlad had offered and it had seemed unreasonable to decline, when Danny doubted that any of Vlad’s alcohol was cheap and there hadn’t been anything particular he wanted in the first place), the only thing he asked was whether Danny was sure of his request.

Danny had responded by telling him he’d wanted a drink, his tone carrying the implication that his inhibitions shouldn’t be a concern in that equation. Vlad had shrugged, seemingly having gotten the reply he had been vying for.

“I’ll take that as an enthusiastic no,” Vlad mused now and emptied almost half of his own glass.

Admittedly, the question hadn’t been unwarranted – they had never been drunk around each other, let alone tipsy, and neither had broached the question whether they were truly comfortable with that.

An involuntary smile quirked up on Danny’s lips. With how vampiric Plasmius was, he had always kind of taken it for granted that Vlad would be a wine drinker, but to actually see him enjoying it was something else entirely. And he had… Danny furrowed his brows once more as the thought formed in his head, he had seen Vlad happy, he’d seen him joyful even, and he had seen him enjoy things, but he had never quite seen it like this and he found it strangely disarming, in the way that it shaped Vlad more as a person outside of the picture painted in his imagination, and the impression Vlad had left when Danny had been a teenager. Then the frown returned, it had occurred to him what was out of place.

“Ribbon,” Danny said. “Don’t you usually wear a ribbon, not a hair tie?”

“Is that the great mystery you’ve been deciphering by staring at me?”

“I never really paid attention to it! I’ve never seen you fuss over your hair!”

Vlad rolled his eyes. “Yes, Neil, it’s a ribbon. With a hair tie underneath. When I expect to be seen in public. Because it looks nice. Astute observation.”

Danny rolled his eyes, and he took another sip of the brandy, trying to decide just how much he really liked it when he had admit that it definitely wasn’t bad, it just didn’t help him figure it out.

Now, Danny thought, now was a good time to ask the question that had been banging about his head when he didn’t need it. Well, technically it was two questions, potentially more, it was a full topic with several different subsets in its entirety. Danny rotated that a little more in his head, as he studied Vlad who seemed surprisingly comfortable with the situation they were in. Or at least he didn’t seem concerned about getting drunk around him, although Danny wasn’t sure whether that was truly a sign of trust between them, or if he simply wasn’t worth Vlad’s concern right now.

“What made you agree?” Danny asked, for the first time actually studying the brandy as he had been pretending to, because he didn’t want to appear to be scrutinising Vlad, but he needed something to look at. “To my proposal two years ago…” Danny clarified and briefly glanced at Vlad. “I know you’ve been… keeping the peace…” Carefully Danny rolled the words off his tongue, after searching for the most apropos and least awkward way of describing what Vlad had been doing since. With a little sigh he straightened himself a bit more and continued, “I know that you’re obstinate to a fault when you want something, and we haven’t really talked about it, and I… I don’t want to make it sound like I don’t trust you, I just don’t know… I don’t know what you think, have been thinking about it, and I can’t gauge it without distrust… I guess I’d just… like hear it.” Danny dared to look at Vlad, then lowered his gaze into his drink again. “From you. I want to hear what you think about what happened, and… has been happening. This thing…” Danny gestured between them.

“Mhmm…” Vlad’s fang tapped against the glass he’d raised to his mouth as he drank, but judging from the look on his face it seemed accidental. Still he remained like that, looking uncharacteristically thoughtful.

Slowly, Vlad lowered the glass and hummed again. He didn’t seem to know where to start. “It’s a reasonable… pact,” he eventually said, still looking thoughtful. “Truce? Proposal? Peace. You told me it’s peace that you want, and that’s… a nice thought.”
“I also want compromise.”

Vlad raised a brow. “Is this compromise to you?”“We both get something, neither of us gets everything we want, but all sides leave happy – isn’t that the core of compromise?”

The expression that flickered over Vlad’s face told him that he clearly hadn’t expected that response, it was as bitter as it was surprised, and hurt in a way that suggested Danny’s word had dredged up something old. But it was gone almost as quick as it had appeared and Vlad didn’t look like he wanted to be asked about it. So Danny refrained.

“I don’t know if we can make peace work,” Vlad sighed, sinking back into his chair and half-hiding his face behind a hand. “I don’t know if we can get back to a point where that’s indefinitely possible, but…” Vlad’s expression became more serious now. “I think we can do stability. There’s self-preservation in stability, and if push comes to shove we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.” A red glow had overtaken Vlad’s eyes and as a he continued to speak was filling out the white in them, reforming their shape and becoming Plasmius’ features. “I’ll choose whatever side guarantees to get me what I want, be it power, money, survival… I’m selfish like that, but I also never thought I could choose what you’ve offered.” He had thought that he would have to take it, that he’d have to force it, fight it into existence. “Not like this.”

And ten years ago he would have had to, Danny thought, scratching the side of his neck as he thought about it. “I never thought I’d offer it…” He sighed, but felt strangely at ease with Vlad’s response. “I can work with that…” Danny added. “I like us better like this…”

Then with a heavy sigh Danny made himself comfortable and made a dismissive gesture. “And now enough of it, we have a lifetime worth of sombre drinking nights ahead of us, let’s make this one a little brighter. What’s the worst take you had to hear in a meeting this week?”

DAN

He had been so certain of his refusal to return to Clockwork’s tower in the near future, that his arrival had surprised himself the most, but Dan needed to think, and apparently this was the place where his thoughts would settle. And though he knew better than to expect that Clockwork wasn’t aware of his arrival, perhaps if Dan pretended to ignore him and stayed in the rafts of the tower, Clockwork would actually let him be. But Clockwork had called up to him and begrudgingly Dan had come down, with no interest in tea or conversations or the flow of time, but well aware that he wasn’t doing himself any favours by defying Clockwork and fighting him on his own turf.

Clockwork had made sure Dan understood that perfectly the first time had given him an hour of freedom for the price of company.

Thankfully Clockwork had remained quiet and allowed Dan to grumble under his breath until the tumult inside of him had ceased enough for him to settle and actually think. The tumult was Plasmius, the tumult had always been Plasmius, and the grief that bounced around his ribcage was nothing compared to what he had taken from Vlad. Sure, it had made him worse, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that the need he felt to chase his inner storm clouds away came from Vlad. From Plasmius.

In his specific case it made the most sense to differentiate between them, albeit for Danny they were still one and the same.

Dan had been pondering Vlad’s words and their conversation, less for its content and more in the hope of trying to glean from it whether the reason he couldn’t stand to be around him had something to do with Vlad’s dislike for his own abilities. Whether he had inherited a snarling bundle of powers, trying to dig its claws into Phantom, because it’s primary desire was to survive regardless of whether its host wanted that.

Dan had also been thinking about what he wanted to do with Vlad’s house and the things he had left him. He hadn’t told Jazz about any of that the last time he’d seen her.

Talking to Jazz was nice.

It was like she was the centre of the storm his life had become. And a part of him didn’t really want to involve her in the mess that the rest of his life had turned into, he wanted her to remain his five minutes of peace. The storm’s eye.

Within reach, not arm’s reach, but a quick dash and grab away were Clockwork’s amulets.

Dan couldn’t say what possessed him when he realised he had been intently staring at them while brooding over his current situation, but it occurred to him that he was probably fast enough, and that there was a chance if he went for it when Clockwork wasn’t looking that he–

His body moved almost entirely on its own, but only when his hand grasped the band of the amulet and Clockwork’s staff gently but firmly came down on his wrist did the magnitude of his actions sink in.

“It would take but a moment,” Clockwork said with so much more calm than Dan had expected for his transgression. “For me to make you regret that decision.” With each word the threat (or was it a warning?) in his voice increased.
Dan glowered, a deep growl rising from the back of his throat, but neither did he remove his hand, nor did he move any other part of his body and instead continued their stalemate. “I think I ought to go back, don’t you? I know that timeline still exists somewhere out there, I don’t see–“

“You can’t.”

“Because you say so?”

“Because it won’t fix anything.”

“I have just as much a right to exist!”

“Daniel is carving out a place for you, just as he has been doing for Vladimir, does that mean nothing to you?” For the first time in a long while Dan recognised a tinge of emotion in Clockwork’s voice. An occurrence so rare between them that it made him pause long enough for the stalemate to break, but not in his favour.

With a practised gesture Clockwork used the staff to push away Dan’s arm and remove the amulet from his hand, all while visibly trying and failing to hide that something annoyed him.

“Your separate halves aren’t ready to hear it, I don’t think you are, but I think you need to,” he said, for once settled into the form of a young man with his hands on his hips, and an exasperated expression. “Come with me,” Clockwork said, gesturing for Dan to follow him.

He led him upstairs through the tower until they had reached an outlook point at the very top of it that allowed them to survey the surrounding region of the Ghost Zone.

With a weary sigh Clockwork leaned onto the bannister as he reached the platforms edge and went through two whole cycles until settling on his middle form just like before, but the expression on his face was thoughtful when Dan reached him and examined it.

“The Observants think I do a fancy little hand wave, snap my fingers and time is fixed, but it doesn’t work like that. And neither is death a cure all.”

Oh, Dan realised. The exasperation was real. He didn’t know what to do with that, so Dan just frowned at some nondescript point in the distance.

“The Observants also wanted Danny dead,” Clockwork clarified after a moment of pause. “I could spend eternity explaining to them that it doesn’t work like that, and they still wouldn’t get it.”

It was perhaps the first time that Dan noticed an obvious frown born out of real frustration on Clockwork’s face, and as he kept watching the other ghost from the corner of his eye, he saw him run a hand through long white strands, hidden beneath the hood of his cloak. Then Clockwork muttered something of which Dan only understood the words due diligence.

“Have you never wondered…?” Clockwork sighed and folded his arms on the bannister again. “Why you’re different? This wasn’t your first separation from your human half… you have no idea how hard I tried to get it right, to make it right for you – and I couldn’t, all my attempts failed…” Long, white hair fell over his hands when Clockwork buried his face in them. “You almost had me think I was doing something wrong, like I was failing, my powers were failing me before I got it, before I got you, understood you.”

Dan had no answer for that. Admittedly this wasn’t the turn he had expected their conversation to take. All he had were folded arms and a quiet scoff as he averted his eyes. “You understand nothing about me.”

For a moment Clockwork didn’t answer. “Dan… why didn’t you go back to your body while it was still alive?”

Again, no answer.

“You can’t go back to your timeline, it’s healing and it can’t do that with you. I’m sorry for that, but I cannot change it.”

“All the more reason for me to stir things up again.” A bitter grin spread on Dan’s face, but he swallowed the unspoken bundle of emotions that Clockwork had summoned with his words.

Slowly Clockwork raised his head and then shook it. “And to think you almost got it right… you’re not inevitability – you’re permanence, that’s what I failed to see, that’s why I couldn’t fix the scene… couldn’t let you become a better version of yourself and had to start with him.” As he paused, Clockwork sized him up, as if trying to decide whether what came next was a good thing to say. “I apologise if this angers you, I understand this will be hard to hear and I may not explain it in the best way… there aren’t a lot of people I get to talk to, so I’m a little out of practice…”

The words felt placating to Dan, placating towards something he wasn’t even aware of yet. Like Clockwork had dug his hands into the very core of his existence and was no firmly holding it in place to make sure whatever was going to follow didn’t unsettle him too much. “I don’t like it when you’re doing that,” Dan glowered.

With an expression slowly sinking into sympathy Clockwork explained, “permanence – that’s what was different, you weren’t going to return to your body, like all the other times before, that’s why I couldn’t make it better, you cannot exist without each other, without Plasmius there is no Phantom, the first portal heralds the second and like an anchor in time itself it anchors you to each other, you just took it more literal than they do right now.” Clockwork’s mouth quirked into an unhappy line. “You anchored yourself in a way in time that only I can undo, and I have, and you have my sympathy for having lost your place in the world, but not for your actions.”

Something about the way Clockwork had relayed his last words made them seem personal, and though Dan could feel the struggle within himself, he also felt Clockwork’s invisibly hold on him with just as much certainty. Digging both hands into his hair Dan let out a frustrated, clipped sound that could have been a ghostly wail, not to harm, just to have a place to put all that coursed through him, but instead he closed the distance between himself and Clockwork with a menacing hiss. His head felt like it was on fire, or like someone had put his brain in a washing machine. One of the two, or perhaps something in between.

Clockwork had been right, he didn’t like what he had been told one bit, but there was no denying the fact that Clockwork also believed his words. (Dan had learnt very early on that Clockwork had no qualms lying, especially if it was for his own entertainment, so he had learnt to watch for the cues – and right now Clockwork was being dead serious).

“Understand this about yourself, and make peace with it. You are still warring, but your afterlife is still young – take time to settle.”

Clockwork’s hand touched the side of his face, fingertips resting on Dan’s temple, calming the maelstrom inside, even if only temporarily. “Permanence is the ghost’s virtue – we are forever, so we want things to be forever, but that doesn’t mean they have to be. Let your grief rest.”

Dan picked up the phone Vlad had left him, having decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and opened the already saved contacts. Surprisingly he didn’t have to wait for the man on the other end of the line to pick up. Had he been waiting for him to call?

“What the fuck is this?”

“So you’ve found it?” Vlad’s voice was free from the expected unease.

“Yeah, no shit I’ve found it, you put it in a wall, you might as well have laid the damned thing on the kitchen table with everything else! I’m a ghost dumbass, walls don’t apply to me.”

Vlad seemed to actually ponder that for a moment. “Call me when you’re actually ready to talk about it.” Then he hung up, leaving Dan cursing under his breath and staring at the box full of notebooks with newspaper articles glued and taped into them. Some had notes and photocopies of book pages too. Dan rubbed a hand over his mouth, suddenly all too aware of the fangs and unable to get fully comfortable with them.

DANNY

It had taken Dani two months of careful training and adjustment before she had felt comfortable enough to interact with the world outside of the Ghost Zone again without concern that she accidentally set something or someone on fire. And the only reminder now of the day his parents had interrupted his plans was the warmth of her hand wrapped tightly into his own – once again his opposite.

It was adorable the way she shifted her weight, tapping place, as they were waiting for Jazz to open the door.“Is he here already?” Dani asked, bopping up and down on her heels now.

“Yeah, Jazz said she was going to make sure he’s calm and approachable before we arrive,” Danny replied, unable to hold back a little grin.

Admittedly, holding her hand wasn’t solely for Dani’s benefit, as Danny found it nothing but reassuring to actually feel that she was solid.

The smile on his face widened, a mix of joy and relief washing through him when Jazz’s face appeared, and Dani flung herself against her, which Jazz reciprocated with a little laugh, messing up Dani’s hair.

“I’ve missed you too, little firecracker.”

Without a word Jazz grabbed his arm and pulled him into a hug as well, it was briefer but just as tight as the one she had given Dani, and with a lopsided smile Danny leaned into it. “I hope you planned snacks because I don’t think Dani can sit through lunch.”

Even without looking at her Danny could tell that Dani’s restlessness, unlike his own, wasn’t born from anxiety over seeing Dan again. Dani was probably the first person he had ever met to be excited to get to know Dan, and that despite having been shown the alternate timeline by Clockwork, but perhaps it was only natural given that they had a core issue in common; in truth they didn’t belong.

As Jazz questioned them about their day and Dani’s most recent stay in the Ghost Zone she handed Dani one of her cardigans, and him a jacket she’d dug up from the depths of her closet, although Danny figured that in Dani’s case it truly was just a precaution, her chances of having even the slightest trace of Vlad’s scent or ghost signature on her were slim to none to begin with.

Armoured for Dan’s convenience they made their way to the living room, while Jazz kept asking questions and Dani chattered like a little bird without need for air.

It was only when she saw Dan for the first time that she stopped, while Danny instinctively braced himself to step in, when Dani to everyone’s but most notably Dan’s confusion let out a gasp and an excited high pitched sound.

“Same hair!!!” she exclaimed, evidently forgetting every warning she had been told, as she pointed at Dan’s head.

Metaphorical question marks were starting to appear on Dan’s expression.

With practised ease Dani jumped into the air and transformed in a flip. “Same hair!” she repeated now grinning, as she pointed at her own head and excitedly jumped up and down in place, without ever really setting her feet back on the ground.

It was only now that Danny noted that since she had gained control over her core, Dani’s hair really was much more like Dan’s and Ember’s pony tail – flaring fire, white like Dan’s. The similarities had been there before, but never to this extent. Involuntarily Danny ran a hand through his own hair at the thought, it had never occurred to him that Dan’s appearance could have such a benign origin.

A quick glance to the side revealed that Jazz had protectively placed herself behind Dani and her hands on Dani’s shoulders in an unequivocal gesture of support, and that she had the same expectation of Dan.

Dan who had been sitting on the couch up until this point raised himself to full height, and while Dan didn’t exactly tower over him any more, Danny still couldn’t shake the feeling of how imposing his demeanour was. “That’s our little sister?”

As Dan had spoken and started scrutinising Dani again, Danny’s hand had moved almost on its own to grab Dani’s once more, and when he was sure that Jazz wasn’t looking a silent plea overshadowed his expression. Whatever Dan thought he was picking up on with her, however odd he found the similarities between them, they didn’t need his fury right now. Which earned him a sudden sharp glance from Dan, that even made Danny flinch.

“Yeah,” Dani answered for him and Jazz. “I was adopted when I was twelve,” she explained and grabbed Dan’s wrist. “Though Jazz probably already told you that.” She had allowed Jazz to explain the general situation, if Jazz thought it helped make it easier for him. Briefly Dani glance at the arm she was holding, as if surprised by how big Dan really was. He certainly was a lot bulkier than Danny, much more like their father in that regard.

A wire of tension was wrought through the three of them when Dan suddenly pressed two fingers around Dani’s cheeks, turning her head and then picked her up by the back of her suit to get a better look at her, all without Dani letting go of his arm. If anything it seemed to help her calibrate her position in the air better now.

Dani looked at their brother with big, warm eyes.

Jazz was the first one to notice it, but Danny quickly caught on when he saw her biting back a grin, at the spark which had lit up Dan’s eyes, and he was pretty sure he heard the other mutter “awesome” under his breath.

“I would kill for you. Please ask me to kill for you.”

Dani turned her head to look at him, but Danny already knew what she was going to say and his expression must have betrayed him for it because the glee was evident on Dani’s face. “He’s awesome!” And with that she tackled Dan for a hug, while Danny heard himself and Jazz dissolve into relieved laughter.

Oh god, Danny thought, as he watched Dan trying to playfully fight Dani off, they like each other.

VLAD

He hadn’t been sure how much time Dan would need until he was ready to have an actual conversation about what he had found. Admittedly, Vlad hadn’t been sure whether Dan would find the box on his own, but then again Dan had been right, hiding it in a wall had been plenty stupid and if Vlad had wanted to broach this topic any other way he should have considered that. Although deep down Vlad knew that he had wanted things exactly as they were. He wanted the outrage, because it was all he had ever expected for it.

There was a distant roar of thunder when Dan stepped out of the portal and into his study. Reining in a curse Vlad sucked in a tense breath. He didn’t like to be found so easily by people who weren’t supposed to know… well, he figured Dan could claim he had never forgotten where he lived. Frowning over that Vlad finished up with the documents he had been working on and closed the folder in the very same moment that Dan dropped the confounded box on his desk.

Numbly Vlad stared at it until he cautiously looked up at the other. It had been three weeks since they had spoken and from the looks of it Dan wasn’t ready for the conversation he wanted to demand. “No,” Vlad told him decidedly and leaned back in his chair to have an easier view. In a worst case scenario he was lighting a powder keg right in front of his face here.

“Fuck being ready to talk about this, your ghost half is a part of me and if this treasure trove and your books have taught me anything then it’s that I don’t want to stumble into this blindly, so if this conversation makes you uncomfortable, I frankly don’t care,” Dan snarled, leaning onto the desk and into Vlad’s face.

Powder keg, Vlad thought again, pointedly not looking at the box on his desk. It had come after the notebooks, as a way of containing them and a matter of convenience.

With a breath Vlad stretched his neck and eased the tension from his shoulders, within a flash he had teleported a short distance behind Dan, who had no appreciation for his display of power. “Fine,” Vlad agreed a little weary, “come with me, the mansion is big and you strike me as company best not kept idle.” As he turned towards the door, Vlad briefly looked back at Dan. “You can take the box if you like, but I don’t need it to tell you what you want to hear.” On his way out Vlad grabbed a scarf from a bag and flung it over his shoulders – it was all green and yellow, and Vlad had taken care to keep its scent neutral at best, keeping one handy in ever room that Dan might surprise him in after the last time.

Vlad was going to very slowly and carefully empty that little barrel because potentially being mauled by a ghost wasn’t actually on his agenda until next Tuesday. So with a little bit of relief Vlad noted that Dan followed without argument and with heavy footsteps, and no other complaints either.

“Hunger, and lack of control – that’s what the fuck is in that box, but I figure you already got that much from it,” Vlad admitted, folding his arms. “Turns out the hospital was practically an all-you-can-eat-buffet with all the ghosts in and around it for me with no control over my powers and quite the insatiable hunger for ectoplasm… It wasn’t like I could open a portal and take my fill from the Ghost Zone back then.”
“But you attacked humans too,” Dan frowned. “Like a real vampire.”

Vlad shrugged. “A deficiency I figure. Blood tastes awful,” he grimaced and almost shuddered. “Though I guess it doesn’t make me as sick as it does normal humans in large quantities,” he added with furrowed brows. He could only guess how much he had consumed back then, but it certainly had been enough to make a normal human sick, and mostly certainly enough to have worry the hospital staff if they had realised what he had been doing.

Kneading the bridge of his nose, Dan sighed heavily and grumbled something as they made their way down a set of stairs. “What I’m getting here is that I might desire to take a bite out of my fellow species because you had vampires on the brain when you were turned.”

“That is…” Vlad paused, frowning unhappily, “surprisingly correct.” After another pause he added, “I suspect you have subdued my powers rather than fused with them, I can’t imagine how you haven’t tried to maul anyone otherwise…” A mild frown was still present on his face.

Dan cocked a brow. “Is it that bad?” But before Vlad could reply to him he added, “if you bite me, I’ll flatten you like a pancake.”

“Oohhh, I’m quaking in my boots.” As tempting as that would be, Vlad had to admit to himself, he had no intention of feeding off of Dan. “But you don’t have to worry, you’re not on the menu. I am neither hungry, nor is my supply that poor that I would have to resort to such… drastically desperate measure.” Even without asking Vlad could tell that while Dan might not be a stranger to the taste of ectoplasm, he hadn’t ever actually craved it in the same nightmare inducing way, making his next question a little surprising.
“What is it like for you?”

“Hunger that becomes more painful by the minute and nothing you eat will ever sate it, until you find the one thing that does.”

“Fun.”

Vlad shrugged. He had no intention of sugar-coating the experience. “It doesn’t have to be as bad for you, but if you do get hungry, I think everyone involved would appreciate if you didn’t cause headlines…” Vlad inclined his head a little, eyeing Dan with rather clinical curiosity. “I might be… inclined to share my private stash in that hypothetical scenario…”

It was so obvious that Dan wanted to ask him if he was allowed to have a taste out of sheer curiosity, yet he held himself back because he just as obviously didn’t want to ask for a pack from the equivalent of Vlad’s private blood bank, that Vlad had to turn away to hide his amusement.

When he was able to keep a straight face again under Dan’s scowl Vlad glanced at him and said, “you understand why I’m telling you all this?”

“Be aware of what you’ve absorbed.”