Chapter Text
On a totally legal outing a couple hundred miles away, Vlad was scouting out a new land acquisition he was going to buy soon, just outside of Amity park. Sure, some may call it ‘trespassing’, but Vlad liked to call it a ‘late night jaunt to view a potential asset’.
Only about an hour into his surveying, Vlad’s eye was caught by something in a beautiful shade of red.
He bent down, picking it up to examine it closer. It seemed like sea glass. The river wasn’t far, he supposed, but it was an odd find.
“I wonder what brought you all the way out here.” He turned the glass over in his hand. The edges were rather sharp for what he knew sea glass to look like.
So sharp, in fact, he wondered if it wasn’t just a shard of some common beer bottle a drunkard had thrown off the bridge above. The thought alone nearly had him tossing it in disgust.
But the colour—the way the cracks themselves were almost a piece of art in their own right—
Vlad sighed. He couldn’t just throw it away.
And, well, it had been a long long time since he’d seen sea glass. And something about this little piece of beauty mesmerized him.
Vlad held his discovery up to the sky, admiring the way the moonlight shone through it.
Perhaps he’d call up his jeweller for a new commission.
But first, he had to finish his surveillance and return home. After all, there was an important occasion to be celebrated. And a very special guest.
The doors to the mansion opened with a flourish, a smiling Vlad in the centre.
“Welcome, Maddie—!” His expression soured. “And others.”
“V-man! Good to see you!” Jack ran up and gave him a bear hug, ignoring Vlad’s indignant cries for freedom.
Sam rolled her eyes, pulling her bag higher on her shoulder. She followed Danny and Tucker as they brushed past the adults into the foyer.
“So, the mansion’s cool and all, but why are we really here, Danny?” she asked.
“Because I didn’t want to be stuck here on my own, obviously.”
“You said it was important, dude!” Tucker said. “I ditched my date with Tiffany to be here!”
“You left your new PDA with the repair guy?”
“Yes!” Tucker glared at him. “And he might mess her up without my watchful guidance! So you better make it up to me.”
“C’mon Tucker, I thought you loved free food.” Danny pointed to an open doorway on the left. “Dining room’s in here. Vlad sucks ass, but he doesn’t skimp on party food.”
“You can’t buy my silence!”
Sam grinned, a thought occurring to her. “If he only meant to invite your mom, then do you think he’s got a candlelit dinner for two in there?”
Danny gagged. “Oh god, why would you make me imagine that?”
“Payback for making me tag along.” Sam jabbed a finger at Tucker. “Next time you need last minute company, don’t trick me. Just take this sucker with you.”
Tucker nodded along. “Yeah, take this sucker— Hey!” He jabbed a finger in Sam’s side. She retaliated by stepping on his foot and Tucker shrieked.
Danny groaned. “Guys, can we just grab some grub before we get stuck at the table?”
“Too late,” Jazz grumbled, walking up to them. Jack, Vlad, and Maddie were only a few steps behind, to Sam’s disappointment.
“By all means, take a plate and entertain yourselves elsewhere children.” Vlad said. His collar was rumpled and hair askew. “In fact, Jack, why don’t you accompany them? You’re about the same maturity—” He cleared his throat. “I mean, they need someone mature to act as a chaperone.”
Jack laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about them, they’re old enough to look after themselves!” He wrapped an arm around Vlad and dragged him along. “Leaves us plenty of time to catch up and celebrate your cat’s birthday!”
“Oh joy.”
Jazz beat them to the food, grabbing a seat at a small table by the window. Sam, Tucker, and Danny were next. They were held up when Jack insisted they stay for a while, to be courteous to their host.
They had barely stuck around a half hour before Vlad started saying some truly disgusting things about customer service workers and Sam dragged Danny and Tucker out of the room. Tucker broke her grip briefly to grab another plate of shrimp before hurrying after them.
They walked down the halls aimlessly, letting Danny lead them somewhere quiet. They settled down in a library, one with a fireplace, couch, and armchair, as well as a handful of long wooden tables and chairs set up in the centre of the room.
Sam set her bag on the armchair, her friends taking the couch. She might not like Vlad, but he certainly had a collection—the occult section in particular caught her eye. She wondered if he had anything worthwhile.
“‘Just dinner’ my ass.” Danny grumbled, hands shoved in his pockets. “I’ve been lied to. Bamboozled. Made a fool of.”
“You forgot naive.”
“Thanks, Sam.”
“I'm not sure what you expected,” Tucker said through a mouthful of shrimp.
“I expected truth and honesty from my parents and all I got were lies.”
“Almost done?”
“Not yet, one more.” Danny drew in a big breath and yelled, “Why the heck am I in this stupid mansion?!” He paused and put a hand to his ear. A moment later his own voice echoed back along the walls of the massive library. He slumped back into the couch. “Now I’m done.”
“Feel better?”
“No Tucker, I do not feel better.”
“Sucks.”
“At least this library isn’t so bad,” Sam said, picking a book off the shelf. The title read, My Gorgon and Me: A Memoir. “That’s a new one.”
Behind her, Tucker and Danny started talking about the new Doomed 2 coming out in a few months. She would’ve joined in, but was a bit preoccupied pulling down most of the books from the shelf. She had a tower of books in her arms by the time she walked back to the armchair.
“Whatcha got there, Sam?” Tucker asked.
“Partial payment for my plans being ruined.”
Danny groaned. “Seriously? He’s gonna be super annoying about that once he notices they’re missing.”
Sam grunted as she tried to shove the books into her spider backpack. “Sounds like a you problem. I’m just getting my dues.”
“What’d I even pull you away from?”
“It was occultism night at the Skulk and Lurk.” She huffed. There was a sound of tearing fabric and she hastily pulled out the books. “We were gonna talk about ancient artifacts and expand on working theories about how they affect the dead.”
“You’re literally friends with me.” He gestured to himself. “Resident ghost boy. Human ghost expert extraordinaire.”
“Being a ghost boy doesn’t mean you know more than me,” she said. “And even if a lot of the stuff we read about ends up being bogus, it’s still fun.”
“Fine, I’ll make it up to you too.”
“You better.” She emptied her bag. A lipstick blaster and notepad fell out, along with a familiar book. A Compendium of Ghostly Artifacts: Volume 1 . Huh, Sam must’ve grabbed that by mistake; she already had a copy at home.
“Hey, get your own shrimp!” Tucker said.
“But that’s so far,” Danny whined. “Just gimme some of yours.” He reached around Tucker for the plate, but Tucker held his plate above his head, his free hand pushing against Danny’s face.
“No—” Danny leaned over him, nearly toppling them both. “Quit it!”
“You quit it!”
Sam rolled her eyes. “Tucker you brought a mountain of shrimp, just give him one.”
“I brought a mountain of shrimp for me,” —he glared at Danny—“and when I said I wouldn’t share earlier, he said ‘oh that’s okay, I don’t even like shrimp’!”
“I don’t, but I just want a little taste!”
“You always say that! It’s never just a taste!”
“Just give him the damn shrimp, Tucker. I’m trying to focus on playing Tetris with my new book collection.”
“You’re only saying that because it’s not your plate!”
“No, I let him steal food every once in a while.” She set the book down on the side table next to the armchair and started shoving books in her bag. As an afterthought, she added, “Like on his birthday.”
“Daniel?” Vlad called, his voice distant. “Come out and bring your friends, it’s time for cake! Then you can take your idiot father and leave.”
“Finally.” Danny got up from the couch, stretching his arms above his head with a satisfied grunt. He grabbed his empty plate, stared at it a second, and then dropped it back on the cushion with a smirk. “He can find this later.”
“You’re an evil mastermind, Danny,” Tucker said, rolling his eyes and popping another shrimp in his mouth.
The two of them started heading for the door when Sam called out, “Wait, let me finish stuffing my bag.”
“Want any help with it?” Danny asked around a mouthful of shrimp. Tucker kicked at his shins, still trying—and failing— to keep Danny out of reach.
“Instead of stealing my food, why not just, I don’t know, rip the seams on all of Vlad’s clothes,” Tucker hissed at him. “Then you can swing by the kitchen and get your own shrimp!”
Danny stopped struggling abruptly, swallowing the food in his mouth before saying, “Tucker, you’re a genius.” A sinister grin grew on his face. “I can also clog all his toilets while I’m at it.”
“Daniel, hurry up!” Vlad yelled, voice closer than before. “If I have to track you down, I’ll make you regret it.” He punctuated his point with the sound of a slammed door.
Sam started using her knee to push the stack of books further in her bag. “Go out and distract him before he comes in here!” she hissed.
Danny threw his head back with a long, drawn out groan. “Do I have to?”
Sam glared at him. “Yes!” Danny groaned again, which she cut off with a hissed, “Danny!”
“Fine, fine. Let’s go, Tucker.” Danny turned to leave, dragging a protesting Tucker along with him.
“There you are,” Vlad said. His eyes flicked up to the doors behind them. “I’m surprised you bothered to hide someplace I’m sure you have no interest in.”
Tucker quickly pulled the double doors shut just as Danny said, “Hey, I read books!”
“Yes yes, comic books, I’m well aware.” Vlad rolled his eyes. “Now hurry along, let’s—” His eyes narrowed. “Wait, where’s the girl?”
“Uhh, powdering her nose?” Tucker said at the same time Danny said, “Shining her boots!”
Vlad narrowed his eyes at them.
“Look Vlad,”—Danny said, pointing at him with a piece of shrimp; abruptly Tucker realized the little thief snagged his whole plate when he wasn’t looking—“You don’t really care where Sam is, so let’s just get going. She’ll find us eventually.”
“Don’t use food to gesture at me.” He furrowed his eyebrows. “And I thought you didn’t like shrimp.”
“I just wanted a taste!”
Vlad groaned. “And after all I went through to get foods you and your father hated.” He shook his head. “Why do I even bother with my spies if they never get anything useful?”
“Yeah, you really should get rid of them. They’re terrible at their jobs.” Danny said, holding back Tucker as he tried to take back his plate.
“Danny we’re gonna head back to the dining room anyway, get your own shrimp!” Danny protested, but Tucker kicked at his ankle and got him to stumble. He grabbed the plate and Danny caught himself midair before floating over Tucker’s head to reach for the shrimp.
“C’mon Tuck, don’t be stingy!” Stingy? The guy had already eaten a third of the shrimp on the plate! At this point, Tucker didn’t know if he actually liked shrimp, or if he only liked eating it off his friends’ plates.
Though, he supposed he should know better, considering Danny did the same thing with baked potatoes. And grilled fish. And Caesar salad—though that’s more a problem for Sam than Tucker.
Wiggling fingers were inching closer to his precious prize and Tucker quickly hunched over it. Every time Danny’s grubby fingers got a little too close, Tucker would shift in the opposite direction. Danny made noises of frustration each time. “Give it up, Danny, you can’t get through my airtight defenses!”
Okay, so Tucker was hamming it up a little bit, but whenever he caught a glance at Vlad’s scowling face, he felt it was entirely worth it.
After a while, there was a long, weary sigh. When Tucker looked up, Vlad was pinching the bridge of his nose. There was a pretty ugly looking ring on his hand. “As… riveting as watching a boy with intangibility fail to steal a single plate has been, I’d really rather you buffoons get out of my home sooner rather than later. Maybe even today, if possible.”
“For once, we’re in agreement.” Danny huffed, floating back to the ground. “Can’t though, need to get a taste of Tucker’s shrimp first.”
Before Tucker could start up again, Vlad said, “Truly, I will never understand teenagers.” He glared at Danny. “There is an abundance of shrimp still on the table. Go back there and get some yourself.”
Abruptly, Danny stood straighter. He put his hand to his forehead in a salute. “Whatever you say, Vlad.” He turned on the spot and started marching down the hall.
Tucker watched him go, a little confused, but happy his plate was finally free of half-ghost thievery. “I’ve been saying that the whole time!” he called as Danny got further away.
“Wait right there.” Danny kept going, heedless of Vlad’s hissing. Vlad teleported down the hall right in front of Danny and dragged him back to Tucker. He jabbed a finger at them. “What are you two planning?”
“We’re just waiting on Sam,” Danny said. “No elaborate plans here.”
‘The best lies had a little bit of truth to them’ Tucker was pretty sure he heard that somewhere, but right now, he really just wanted to punch Danny. There was no way Vlad was going to believe that.
“So the girl’s off messing with something then? You really ought to learn to lie better, little badger.”
“She has a name and I just told you we aren’t doing anything elaborate.” Danny grinned. “But I mean, if you want us to burn down all your curtains, egg all the rooms, and clog all your toilets, I’d be happy to oblige, V-man.”
“You insufferable—” Vlad groaned. “Oh, how I wish you would—how do the kids say it these days? Ah yes, eat dirt.”
In the very next moment, Danny tripped over something and slammed face first into the cherrywood floor. Tucker did his best to hold in a laugh.
“My, what a delightful bit of luck,” Vlad said, smirking.
Danny surged to his feet, his eyes starting to glow. “I promised mom to not cause any trouble, but if you do that again—”
“As much as I’d love to take credit, it seems you simply have two left feet.” Vlad’s smirk grew. “Quite ironic considering your powers.”
Oh boy, that promise to not get in trouble was probably not gonna last. Maybe if he apologized with Danny later to Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, he wouldn’t be grounded for too long? Worked last time.
Danny was ready to retort, probably something about not believing crazed up fruitloops, when Tucker saw Jazz appear at the end of the hall. Quickly, he handed his plate to Danny before slapping both hands over his eyes. Danny stumbled back. “Tucker, what the—”
“Mr. Masters!” Jazz called. Tucker felt Danny freeze. “Where do you keep your tea bags?”
Vlad mouthed the words ‘tea bags’ a few times.
“Small bags with tea leaves in them?” Tucker offered.
Vlad looked at him with a truly sour expression and Tucker really hoped he wouldn’t shoot the messenger. A moment later, Vlad called back, “There are several different tea leaves in the cabinet above the sink. The strainer is in the cutlery drawer.”
Jazz yelled her thanks and left. Vlad mumbled something about the Fentons “living in squalor”. Danny pulled Tucker’s hands away and handed back the plate, his eyes no longer glowing. “Thanks, but did you really have to slap me? You could’ve just turned me around.”
Tucker shrugged. “Slapping was quicker.” It was also payback for stealing his shrimp.
As if reading his mind, Danny made a grab for the shrimp again. Vlad immediately pulled them apart, holding them each by the shoulder. “Would you two stop that?”
Danny slapped Vlad’s hand away, one hand still outstretched towards the shrimp. “What do you care? I’m just—”
Vlad turned a glowing red glare on Danny and let go of Tucker to grab his shoulders with both hands. In a low voice, he said, “Where. Is. The. Girl.”
Danny froze, his voice catching in his throat. Tucker caught the glint of Vlad’s glare reflected in his friend’s wide eyes. He put his free hand in his pocket, gripping his wrist ray.
“Well?” Vlad shook Danny. “Where—?”
“Hey, guys!” A loud voice spoke behind them, the squeak of the doors’ hinges accompanying it. “Man, that library is like a maze, huh?”
Tucker glanced back. Sam was standing there, an awkward little smile on her face and a thumb pointing at the room behind her. Her eyes flicked to Vlad and Danny, then to Tucker, and then settled on the wall at the far end of the hall.
With the same forced enthusiasm, she patted her stomach and said, “Well, I don’t know about you all, but I’m all set for cake! Let’s go. Immediately.” She turned on her heel, starting to walk away. Her spider backpack was large and lumpy on her back, with sharp outlines of books stretching the fabric to its limit. There was a hair tie tying the two zippers together.
Vlad appeared in front of her, fists clenched at his sides and still glaring. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To get cake,” Sam said, slow and condescendingly. “You came here to tell us that, right?”
“And just how do you know that?”
“You were yelling about it earlier, obviously.”
Vlad held up a finger, mouth open to protest. After a moment, he slowly lowered it and scowled at her. “Fine, but if I find anything out of place, I will exact my revenge.”
“Getting revenge on a teenager, real mature,” Sam said. She was turned away from him, but Tucker could hear the eyeroll in her voice. She turned back briefly glancing at Tucker and then just to the side of him. Her eyes pinched for a moment before she looked away. “C’mon, let’s go guys.”
She walked past Vlad and Tucker followed at a slower pace. At the lack of footsteps behind him, he turned back to see Danny not moving, still staring at the spot Vlad used to be in.
“Danny, let’s go,” Tucker mumbled quietly, reaching back and tugging on his hand until his friend started to follow him.
Danny was silent the rest of the way to the dining room. He was silent through cake and presents and the quiet disses about Vlad that Sam whispered in his ear.
She didn’t catch the whole conversation at the time, but when she sent a questioning look to Tucker, he just shrugged.
Sam leaned over to whisper in Danny’s ear. “Hey, whatever’s up, you know we’re here for you, right?”
“You’re here,” Danny said, the first words he’d spoken in over an hour.
Sam nodded. “Yeah, I’m here. Tucker too.”
“Sam is here.” Danny blinked. A moment later he groaned, shaking his head and rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand. “Ugh, sorry. Vlad was just worse than usual today. I’m so ready to get back in the RV.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “That makes two of us.”
Tucker’s hand reached past Sam, setting a slice of cake in front of Danny. Forgoing his own slice of untouched cake, Danny picked up Tucker’s plate and immediately started to dig in.
Sam smiled. She’d have to get the details from Tucker later, but for now, she was happy Danny seemed back to normal.
When he’d finished his own plate and started flicking his eyes between her and her cake slice though, Sam smirked. “You’re still hungry after all that shrimp?”
Before he could try again to insist, rather badly, that he only had a few pieces, Sam was already nudging her plate towards him. He looked up with raised brows.
“Don’t get used to it,” she said. “The cake just tastes bad.”
It probably did taste bad, considering Danny had barely touched his own slice yet. It was chocolate cake covered in chocolate icing with layers of some type of red jam. Maybe strawberry, like the one she had at home. She really needed to remind her mom to buy some more.
He blinked. “It’s not my birthday.”
Sam said nothing, waiting for him to just take the damn slice.
Danny continued to stare at her.
She picked up her fork to gesture at him. “If you don’t take it, I’m giving it to Tucker.”
That had Danny quickly pulling the plate towards him, almost curling around it. “No no, I’ll take it.”
She huffed a laugh. “Thought so.”
With Danny back to his usual self, Sam spent the rest of the time at the table enjoying Mr. Fenton getting unintentionally under Vlad’s skin and snickering with Danny and Tucker about it.
When the sun had sunk low over the horizon, the room growing darker and Vlad needing to turn on the lights, Mrs. Fenton finally announced it was time to leave.
Vlad was wheedling her, trying to insist that she should stay behind, relax in his mansion. In the same breath, he said Mr. Fenton should get home in case there was mail or something. Sam wondered why he didn’t make up some excuse about ‘getting the kids back in time for school’. Then again, Vlad was pretty stupid when he wanted to be.
Jazz wasted no time, having poured another cup of tea in a rather large takeout cup and beelined it to the RV. Mrs. Fenton, after enduring Vlad’s nonsense a moment longer, followed her daughter’s lead.
Surprisingly, Mr. Fenton followed too after giving a bone crushing hug to Vlad. He said something about needing to check the engine before Mrs. Fenton started it, since he was testing some kind of ‘Fenton Ecto-oil’ in the RV. Sam didn’t know what Fenton Ecto-oil was and at the moment, she didn’t really care. That was a problem for the future when she, Danny, and Tucker were sneaking into the lab to catalogue new inventions.
She sighed. On cue, Danny and Tucker sighed with her. The three of them miserably made their way off the stoop, walking towards the RV.
“You know, Daniel,”—there was a small smack and when Sam turned, she saw Vlad’s hand clamped on Danny’s shoulder, a gaudy red ring on his hand—“it’s customary to thank your host before leaving their abode. Especially after being so generously invited,” Vlad said through clenched teeth.
Sam rolled her eyes and she and Tucker took a couple steps back. Well, there went Danny’s promise not to cause trouble. Maybe if she went with Danny to apologize—
Sam’s thoughts cut off abruptly as her eyes shifted from Vlad to Danny. His face was blank, shoulders relaxed, arms hanging limp at his side. Then, abruptly, he brightened, a wide smile—a genuine smile—lighting up his face.
“Oh, of course, where are my manners?” Danny turned on his heel, arms thrown out and then curling around Vlad’s back. Vlad himself startled, arms hovering in the air and staring at Danny with naked surprise on his face.
There was a brief moment where Sam relaxed. Where she thought Danny was going to pull back to reveal a Specter Deflector around Vlad’s waist. He would cackle and run off to the RV, dragging her and Tucker behind him. He would say that Vlad wouldn’t be able to get revenge for the books for a while.
Danny squeezed Vlad tighter, like he was trying to squeeze the air out of Vlad’s lungs. Maybe he was. Maybe he was squeezing all the air out of the atmosphere. Why else would it feel like something was pressing down on her chest?
Vlad looked about ready to blast Danny away and Sam was already regretting jamming her Lipstick Laser at the bottom of her bag, when Danny finally raised his head from Vlad’s chest and spoke again.
“Thanks so much for having us over, Vlad, we had a great time!”
Sam stared at the back of Danny’s head. She couldn’t see his face, but it sounded like he was still smiling. And it didn’t sound like he was being sarcastic.
Danny turned around and—yup, still smiling—walked back to the RV.
Vlad stood there, still as a statue with only his eyes following Danny’s retreat.
Sam would laugh at him, but at the moment she wasn’t much better.
She made eye contact with Tucker, finding a mirror of her own shock on his face. They made their way to the RV and then dragged Danny around the back for a private chat.
When he asked what they needed to talk about, Tucker, without prompting, asked, “Are you possessed?”
Danny blinked at him. “You do realize who you’re talking to, right?”
Sam put a hand to Danny’s forehead. It wasn’t particularly warm. Danny swatted it away. “Hmm, no fever.”
“Quit it. Mom said I had to behave so I’m behaving.”
Sam hummed. She highly doubted that was the only reason, but he’d fess up about whatever that was eventually. “Well, it was creepy, and that’s coming from me. Never do that again.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re exaggerating.”
Tucker shook his head. “No she’s right. It’d be better if you just got grounded.”
“Don’t you mean you’d rather I avoid Vlad or something?”
“I said what I said.”
Danny looked around before making a ball of sticky ectoplasm in his hands. Tucker immediately jumped behind Sam and she was about to threaten Danny if he dared get any of that on her, but she paused, the words drying up in her mouth.
“Danny.” His evil grin faltered as his gaze shifted to her. “Are you okay?”
Danny’s brow furrowed. Slowly, he answered, “Yes… why are you asking?”
“Your eyes are kind of red,” she said, pointing to her own eyes for emphasis. “Did Vlad say something?” She turned slightly, addressing both of them.
“Nah, Vlad wasn’t anymore annoying than usual.” Danny rubbed his eyes. “I was up late playing Doomed last night though.”
“Without us?” Tucker said in mock offense. “I’m hurt Danny.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “Next time I get home from ghost fighting and get the urge to play at 3am, I’ll be sure to text you.”
“Eugh, nevermind.”
Danny walked past them, hands behind his back. “Well, if that’s all, I’m going back to the RV.” As he passed, he slapped the ball of ectoplasm on Tucker’s side and ran for it.
Sam huffed. If he was still willing to mess around, it probably wasn’t anything too serious. Maybe he was just bored and trying to zone out during cake and presents.
Tucker made an indignant noise and vowed revenge on Danny. Before he left, he turned and mouthed, Later.
She sighed. Optimism was never a good look on her anyway.