Work Text:
The massive cruise ship almost covered the blinding sun slowly rising with its silhouette. Occupants on board were anxiously scurrying back and forth to finish all their business before going to bed. It wasn't a tour. And the ship had been quietly moored in its rightful place in the port. It's just that at this time it served as a temporary shelter for Dracula and his family, who were left homeless.
It was decided that at dawn, when Dennis is in a beginning slumber, curled up next to Tinkles, the adult family members will gather in the largest cabin for a small meeting. However, it wasn't quite certain. They were all disorganised, unsettled and, especially one of them, pretty stressed.
“Who knows how long
I've been awake now?
The shadows on my wall don't sleep
They keep calling me
Beckoning...
Who knows what’s right?
The lines keep getting thinner
My age has never made me wise
But I keep pushing on and on and on and on…”
Johnny and Ericka, looking deep in thought, were sitting on the carpet in a kind of absent-minded expectation, listening to guitar music and the song adapted to it. It was at least something, no offense to Vlad – he sang with feeling and shrill, but it would be stupid to set a goal to cheer up the family in such a situation as they were in. So the song was appropriate, blue, but beautiful. Vlad often expressed himself like this earlier, during the years of separation from his family. Vlad made Ericka laugh a little a couple of minutes ago, though, by asking if there was a piano somewhere, since he was a bit better with it. But she shook her head, and they chose the guitar.
The vampire finished this one to the end, keeping voice powerful till the last chord. His listeners nodded respectfully and gratefully once in response to his vibrant gaze.
"Thank you," Ericka beamed as Vlad got up from the couch, putting down his guitar to take a break. "If it wasn't for you, we would have been sitting in this mute. Brrrgh! I'm out of the habit of this..."
"Why did you decide to stay with us?" Johnny questioned, watching him with esteem. "I'm pretty sure you have your own problems to deal with."
"Yeah, responsibility doesn't go away, it's all my life," Vlad admitted, starting it as a wise lesson, "But look, I'm exaggerating, of course, but if you were stuck in a landfill right now, then I would also be stuck there. My family is in a difficult situation, and I have to be with you wherever you go. Until everything gets better at least a little... Oh, I guess I have a fitting song!.."
"No, no, no, thanks, we, uh, don't want to bother you much!" "Let's rest, you need to relax, too!" They both protested when he was already reaching for the instrument. Vlad shrugged and pulled his legs up on the sofa, body swinging thoughtfully.
In order not to delve into the negative, Johnny found a new topic of conversation and moved to one of pillows. "Guys, so, I was thinking, as not to annoy Ericka's great-grandfather, who's still not very loyal to Drac and me, maybe we'll stay at Vlad's for a while, huh?"
"I would love to," he readily responded, dismissing the idea, "but... It won't take a day or two. There are few of us, but the space is huge... And who knows what you will encounter there. My very picky and vigilant guard, the kitchen, where the girls will immediately want to clean up, or a sudden naked man running out of the bathroom... And you're with a kid! Sheesh..."
Johnny couldn't stand it and burst out laughing, and Ericka rolled her eyes mockingly. "Yes, yes, we already realized that you have a public bath there... But there is a more convincing argument. The further away we are from the ruins of the hotel now, the better for Drac."
Vlad and Johnny stopped the fleeting fun and looked at each other sympathetically. Ericka's opinion sounded reasonable. There was no point in creating any hurting reminders and hints for Dracula, who had lost his business and home at the same time in an instant. At the moment, it was necessary not to think about the lost hotel with despair, but not to lose heart and prepare for serious changes.
"Wait, where's Mavis?" Johnny noticed the absence of his wife, who had promised to join them only fifteen minutes ago.
"I suppose she fell asleep while she was putting Dennis to bed, hehe," Vlad tilted his head.
"Or... maybe she's with Drac?" Ericka hesitantly assumed.
"Do ya think so?" Vlad didn't really believe in this outcome. He lay down on the couch on his side, hugging a pillow with an unhinged look. "An hour ago, he didn't come to dinner, locked in his room. He adores Mavis, but he's unlikely to let even her in. Drac needs some time alone..."
"It's better not to put pressure on him," Johnny reasoned, yawned and lay down on the carpet, putting his hands under his head. "I don't wanna run into trouble."
The trio thought for a minute. It was only the second day since the tragedy. Dracula was at risk of withdrawing, and it was important for them to do something so as not to aggravate the problem. Everyone knew the Count as a reliable, conscientious and caring person who had tremendous success in the hotel business for his time. Now, when his life's work suddenly crashed, he switched his active character to other things. For example, the question of their new home, which, as Vlad, Ericka and Johnny thought, he was now preoccupied with in the first place.
"I don't know about you kids, but I miss him," Vlad firmly decided and got off the couch, hiding under his cape to go on deck and not get burned by the sun. "And I need to make sure he gets the rest he deserves."
Johnny and Ericka immediately went after him. Sitting in this cabin, they definitely did not improve the situation significantly, and the most obvious way to do this was to check how Drac was feeling. Everyone knew in advance that everything was much deeper and harder for him than it seemed outwardly. They set out to at least offer the support and love they wanted to give.
Since the arrival of the family on the ship, Dracula has hardly spoken a word. He listened in silence to Van Helsing's rant about his precious Legacy, which shouldn't be damaged in any way during their stay, endless words of support from his family, the discuss about choice of three separate cabins from the many available ones... When the food in the kitchen from the specially summoned cook was already hot and smelling delicious, and it was time for a late dinner, he quietly escaped while everyone was distracted by setting the table. "I don't have enough appetite to waste time on this," he thought.
Drac didn't keep track of the time, but in the bedroom, he realized from the clock on the wall that he had been lying and staring at the ceiling for half an hour. With the realization, thoughts about the hotel returned to him and flooded his mind. The picture of the ruins, all the mess of stones, wood, furniture and everything that could possibly be in the hotel, presented itself to him clearly and depressingly. The Count clutched his ruffled hair with his hands, body tensed and howled, and then sprawled weakly on the bed. Tears seemed to be squeezed out of his eyes.
He understood that no one he knew would be able to feel the same way about it. Even Mavis. Therefore, he believed that he would cope with the difficulties piled up mainly on his own. He had already formed dozens of chaotic plans, but none of them could catch on. To calm himself, he was walking around the cabin, changing his pace every few seconds.
It was nearing 8 a.m. Dracula assumed that the family had already finished dinner and gone to their cabins. He stopped in front of a closed round window and stretched his shoulders. What the hell is this? Why hasn't anyone even knocked on his door all this time? Even Ericka should have come to him by now, because as husband and wife they shared a cabin...
Drac pulled himself tightly into his cape and sighed. A hopeless melancholy descended on him, and he urgently needed to seek at least temporary salvation. He remembered that his daughter and son-in-law probably had a laptop in their cabin...
A weakened hand rose to knock on the snow-white iron door. Having received no answer after two attempts, Dracula pressed the door handle and stepped into the room as dark as a tightly sealed box's inside. The porthole was closed in the best possible way to not to let the rays of the sun. The lights were turned off completely, but although Drac could see perfectly well in the dark, he quietly crept to the desk and flipped the switch on the wall lamp with a blue glow. The blue-colored light gave him a peaceful view of Dennis, no longer sleeping with his giant puppy, but in bed. The boy was lying with almost half of his body on a fluffy, fuzzed pillow, his red curls were a little messy. Mavis was dozing, sitting on the floor, but with her hands and head on the edge of the bed, and at the same time her appearance was completely satisfied and relaxed. Jonathan was not in the cabin.
Dracula silently made his way to the table and took out the laptop, returning with it to a wide comfortable armchair. Since this one didn't have a specific owner, it didn't have a password on it. Drac was still terribly out of focus, so he almost dropped the strangely slippery and smooth laptop from his hands, but managed to settle into the armchair so that the pc was placed between his bent and chest-tightened legs.
"Okay..." His fingers crooked over the keyboard, and he was anxiously whispering to himself so as not to accidentally wake up his daughter and grandson. "What do I need? And most importantly, where do I need it to be?"
The vampire, protected from the sun by his cape, and the two humans accompanying him behind him walked hesitantly to the door of Drac and Ericka's cabin. Ericka knocked first, not daring to call her husband out or ask him anything. To begin with, they just needed any response.
"It's no use," Vlad stopped her when she was about to repeat after she didn't hear an answer. He sniffed around. "As far as I understand, he recently left. There’s a lot of his scent..."
"But why would Drac go anywhere?" Johnny spun fussily in all directions. "Maybe he's just sleeping, eh?"
"Doubt it," Vlad put his hand on the hip and, judging by the knitted eyebrows, was deep in thought. "He's too nervous to just go to sleep."
"Or maybe...?" The redhead began to mumble in a broken voice and shuddered with eyes filled with horror.
"You idiot, get that out of your head!" Vlad barked. Ericka looked away with repulsion. "We just have to figure out where he's gone..."
"Aight, if he's not in our cabin, then he must be in Mavis and Johnny's," Ericka tapped her foot on the floor. "Come on." Without waiting for the men to agree and follow, she abruptly turned away and walked briskly down the corridor. No matter how she hid it, Vlad could see through that she was as edgy and uptight as he was.
Johnny almost opened the door of his own cabin without knocking, but fortunately Ericka managed to grab his wrist. She knocked cautiously, hoping that at least Mavis, who was undoubtedly inside, would answer her. All three of them froze.
"Who's there?" Surprisingly, Dracula himself answered them. His voice didn't seem to obey him, but he found the strength to say it. "Jonathan, is that… you?"
"That's not just him, son!" Drac heard his father reply, trying to sound more cheerful.
"It's us, honey, can we come in?" His wife asked affectionately.
After a few seconds of silence, during which the Count probably gathered his courage, he unlocked the door for the family. He faced them, being only in a shirt and trousers from his usual suit, barefoot. Red blood vessels were visible in the eyes, which appeared for several reasons. He avoided eye contact, intending to say something, but as if changing his mind.
"Are Mavis and Dennis here?" Johnny looked over his shoulder.
"Yes. Yes, they are... They're asleep, I didn't wake them up," Drac explained, holding on to the door handle, and examined them with a tired smile. "Oh, come on in, I was just considering some options for us to settle down for.... a while!"
"Options?" Vlad asked again confusedly as Dracula pushed them into the room with unprecedented simulated hospitality.
"Oh yes, yes!.." Drac confirmed, forgetting that he could wake up the sleepers. "Daddy, Ericka, Jonathan, you're going to love it!"
"Tsss!" Johnny whispered loudly, looking at his wife and child. "You'll wake 'em up, man!"
"Drac, sweetie, keep it down," Ericka urged him by sitting him down on the armchair where he spent time with the laptop before they arrived. Vlad and Johnny resourcefully dragged a small sofa closer, where they sat down with Ericka.
Noticing their attention on him, Drac became a little dumbfounded and glanced at the laptop next to him, which returned him to his recent active mood. "Um... Here, look."
He discreetly giggled and turned the laptop screen towards them so that they could see a picturesque photo of a rocky seashore with coniferous trees. "Hehe, it... It took me a long time to decide where to start searching, and eventually I realized that I had to choose a country first of all... What about Bulgaria? It's warm, beautiful and not so far from Romania, if we need anything here."
"Wait, wait, wait, Drac, buddy, are you seriously ready to move to another country?" Johnny interrupted in surprise.
"Wh-why not?" Drac stumbled a bit. "I'm well over 500 now, and I'm still doing nothing and haven't changed anything in my life for over a hundred years!"
"Look, honeybat, I would be happy if you all found a place to live indefinitely anywhere..." Vlad leaned over to his son, seeking for insight. "But I would advise to settle in your homeland first. You need to get it together."
"Mavis remembers that I once told her that I would never live on a ship," Dracula muttered, putting down his laptop after realizing that he was doing something wrong again. "And where do I live now? That's right, on the ship. Holy rabies, I'm such a loser..."
"Please, sweetheart," Ericka sat down next to him on the armrest and wrapped her arms around his neck in frustration, "try to, well, slow down. We have eternity ahead of us!"
"I tried, it turned out terribly..." Drac sniffed, taking his wife's hand.
While the others were talking, Johnny took advantage of the moment to scroll through on his phone. He had been reading something there for a few minutes, and then attracted everyone's attention by sounding positive.
"Hey, Drac, maybe this will support you in some way!"
"What is it, Johnny?" Vlad and Ericka immediately huddled on his sides to look in. The Count just took a deep breath, shrugging his shoulders up and down apathetically. The big news was clearly not waiting for him.
"Oh, this is the hotel's website, right?" Ericka pointed her finger at the logo.
"Yeah," Jonathan nodded casually, "we're on online reviews right now. And in the last twelve hours, there have been a lot of condolences about the hotel. And hey, if it's not your dad with dozens of fake accounts, then I have to say, the people, that is, the former guests, are very sorry for you, Drac!"
"How could you think that?!" Vlad pretended to be offended and turned away, and then checked on Dracula, who had been silent until now, and laughed a little tensely, along with Ericka and Johnny. "Drac, baby, I swear it's not me!"
"Read me some of them, my boy," he suddenly asked Johnny, leaning back.
"Um, okay," his son-in-law quickly chose one of the most liked messages. Everyone listened. "My family and I visited this hotel five years ago, but none of us has forgotten how warmly we were received there and continued to please us in every possible way throughout the week. We are terribly wretched to hear that this wonderful place and the best hotel for all living beings is over. We love and support everyone who was involved in this, and especially the hotel manager, Mr. Dracula Impaler. We hardly had a chance to see him in person, but we know that he is the most caring and responsible vampire the world has ever known. May his heart not bleed for the tragedy that has happened..."
No wonder all four of them shed tears. This one may not have been perfect, but there were dozens, maybe hundreds, of similar kind-hearted messages. Johnny was happy to retell any of them for Dracula to prove once again how much he was appreciated and respected. Drac swallowed the rising sob and wiped his wet cheeks. This was not the state he wanted right now.
"I... I have to thank them all for this... I..." he struggled.
"No one will blame you, even if you don't," Vlad smiled at him, "Take your time, son. Martha would have told you the same thing..."
"M-Martha?" It was like a complicated puzzle had formed in his head. "Martha... Oh no... How did I not think of it?! Martha! She was... She was left there in the ruins! My Martha!" He reached a real panic, with rapid breathing. And of course his family couldn't help but notice how the always steady vampire heart was pounding in his chest from the emotions.
Johnny and Ericka looked at Vlad awkwardly. He scratched the back of his head.
"Ouch. I shouldn't have mentioned Martha, apparently... Okay, alright... Come here, baby..." he barely had time to hold out his arms to his son, as Draс himself gave up and fell into his careful embrace, whining.
Comforting Dracula and finally transferring him to the sofa, his father looked questioningly at Ericka, looking for mental guidance from her. She sighed and nodded that it was fine. Johnny and she stroked the crying vampire's back.
"Starting tomorrow night, I will order that all this devastation begin to be sorted out, Drac," Vlad whispered a promise to him, "The guys who will do this will not let you down and will save everything from there that is possible. Including yours and Martha's portrait. As for the rest... Magic will fix everything. And not just the magic you're thinking of, love." He laughed softly and wiggled his fingers enveloped in a red haze.
"You know, I've known you for quite a long time for my... human understanding, and I noticed that you've even lost weight," Johnny said, looking at Dracula's slender legs in loose-fitting trousers as if to convince. "I'm sure that overworking also influenced this."
"Don't make a big deal of it, Johnny," Ericka gently chided, "our Drac is physically absolutely fine, albeit a little thinner. It's never too late to change something about yourself, yeah?" To everyone's delight, the Count made a muffled sound of agreement, still not moving his face away from his dad's chest.
"Speaking of late. The sun has been shining for a long time," Vlad took a break from his occupation and looked at the clock ticking on the wall. "I won't speak for everyone, but... It's definitely time for one of us to go to bed."
"You're talking about Johnny, aren't you?" Drac grumbled in a voice that had almost recovered from crying, but was still in a pessimistic mood.
"Johnny will be fine, he, Ericka and I have other things that don't concern those who are very tired. So you have no other choice."Vlad easily picked him up in his arms and carried him to Mavis and Dennis on the bed. Surprisingly, these two slept soundly, only occasionally changing their sleeping position. Dracula really, really didn't want to do this, but still he yawned and stretched out on the bed in an empty place.
"Oh, don't tell me you're gonna sing him a lullaby like he did with Mavis," Ericka got up and walked over to the bed, admiring her husband curled up.
"Huh... Are you kidding?" Vlad chuckled. "That's not what he needs, actually." Without saying another word, he busily adjusted the blanket on Drac, who seemed to not mind anything anymore.
I’ll follow you way down wherever you may go
I’ll follow you way down to your deepest low
I’ll always be around wherever life takes you
You know I’ll follow you…
At that wonderful time, when the sun was no longer a threat, the whole family, except Dracula and Dennis, stood on the bow of the ship.
"Good morning, everyone!" Mavis came up last. "Sorry, I was checking on Dad's sleep and took Dennis to play by the pool so as not to disturb him."
"By the way, he almost moved to Bulgaria..." Vlad clicked his tongue. "Thank the devil, we were able to calm him down for a while!"
Mavis didn't really get into the subject, but shook her head sympathetically. She could hardly get away from the hotel topic entirely on her own. "We definitely need to find something worthwhile to do while we solve this issue."
"I agree," Ericka joined in, leaning against the railing. "For some reason I feel that not on land... Vlad, what are your plans?"
"Mine?" Vlad turned his head towards her, taken aback. "Well, I'm definitely not staying with you guys, but you know, just lemme know and I'll find you." He winked at everyone promising.
Johnny, who had not yet had a chance to get in a word, bounced impatiently beside Mavis, sometimes holding her by the shoulders. He didn't quite understand what was going to happen in the near future, despite the fact that he remained positive, sometimes he was visited by fear.
"Hey, so what are you gonna do?"
Ericka smiled mysteriously, standing apart from them. "Maybe go on a random sea voyage?" Several screaming seagulls flew over their heads, reminding them of the place where they were. Mavis, after a moment's thought, gave a thumbs up. Truth was, they needed a serious shake-up.