Chapter Text
Danny paced, blinking hard every time his angry gaze cast a green glow into the room.
How hard would he have to push?
Green flashed him again in the reflection of the window as he passed it. He harshly rubbed at his eyes with his palms until it went away.
Don’t think about it.
At least he got to text Sam.
He also got his mom to believe his phone was broken. Whatever Vlad had done to it, maybe the new one would be exempt. Maybe he could get a few texts out before Vlad confiscated it. Assuming his mom was even willing to get him another one, after the way he'd just treated her. He’d basically done Vlad’s work for him and pushed her even closer to him.
His foot slipped through the floor, tripping him partially, and it took a minute of concentration to get it to phase back up onto solid ground.
Cheeks flushing with embarrassed frustration, he stopped pacing in front of his bed. It didn’t matter if the phone didn’t work out. He had his backup plan and he was more confident than not that Vlad didn’t have any clue. He would have said something today.
He just needed to retrieve his phone. That was going to be the tricky part.
In the meantime, he had some time to kill.
He glanced at the door undecidedly. He didn't want Vlad to think he was getting comfortable by going up to the observatory again, but he also didn't want to spend the next several hours pacing.
His eyes trailed over to his mostly untouched suitcases, still haphazardly tucked beneath the bed.
He pulled one out, unzipped it, and went digging through its contents, tossing whatever article of clothing or comics he wasn’t interested in carelessly to the floor, partially because doing things one handed was a lot of work, and partially because the mess he was making behind him gave him some petty satisfaction.
He got to the bottom of the suitcase and suddenly stopped. Thanks to his arm (and a good bit of uncooperativeness on his part), he hadn’t really packed anything of his own; Jazz had done most of that for him when she’d seen him pack one half empty backpack.
She had definitely over packed judging by the wide range of seasonal outfits neatly and carefully folded at the top, but he hadn't realized what she had put on the bottom.
Safely cushioned underneath all of that extra clothing were his two favorite space shuttle replicas, his travel-sized telescope, and on the other side, a stack of picture frames, all of which had been gently wrapped in clothing to keep them safe.
In the topmost photo, Sam and Tucker’s smiling faces stared up at him.
He looked at it for a second, a mix of emotions holding him in the empty eye contact. After a second or two, he pulled it out of the bag and held it in his lap.
He hadn't gotten to talk to them after everything and he was sure Vlad had something to do with it. They hadn't even been able to come see him in the hospital.
Sam was the last one he had a chance to talk to, and only in a pathetic attempt to keep Vlad away from his mom. Neither of them knew it had been Vlad behind his dad’s behavior. They might not even know where he went, he really wasn't sure.
He just had to count on Sam. She would tell Tucker and then they could figure something out.
With a deep breath, he placed the photo on top of his bed and went back to digging around through his suitcase.
He didn't have a lot in the way of entertainment, but he ended up settling on a sci-fi book he had been meaning to read for… maybe a year.
He was just zipping the bag back up and shoving it back under his bed when Vlad phased through the door.
Startled, Danny instinctively covered the photo of Sam and Tucker with the book and whirled around.
Vlad caught the end of the movement, but didn’t say anything, instead reaching behind him to turn the lock on the door.
Danny’s eyes fixed on the handle for a moment. Taking a nervous breath, he sat on the edge of his bed and glared.
“You're not even gonna knock anymore?”
Vlad crossed his arms behind his back and moved further into the room, scowling at the mess Danny had left littered all over the floor.
“Knocking is a courtesy you haven't earned,” Vlad replied as he surveyed the mess, pausing on Danny’s book. “I don't recall assigning that one.”
“It's extracurricular,” Danny said.
“Oh, so you finished your homework that quickly?” Vlad challenged.
They both knew Danny had not touched the pile, so Danny decided not to be baited and sat with his arms crossed, glaring at nothing.
“I suppose you didn’t have the time. You had a busy day of being a brat. Do you feel pleased with yourself? Is it satisfying that instead of having a nice day, your mother is now in her room crying?”
Danny's heart clenched, but he buried the sting in a biting tone as he asked, “Why? Did you confess your love?”
Vlad looked down at him darkly, then stepped up to the bed, the air around him shifting and growing heavier as he approached.
Danny leaned away as the weight of it started pressing in on him.
“Stand up,” Vlad commanded.
“Why?”
Vlad’s steely eyes bore down on him. He didn't look at it, but Danny could tell his focus was on the book.
“It’s nothing,” he insisted.
“Then stand up.”
Danny’s lips pressed together into a grimace as he stood up and watched Vlad push aside the book to pick up the picture beneath.
“I told you it’s nothing,” Danny said, trying to sound annoyed, but despite himself, his eyes were fixed to the picture anxiously.
“Mm,” Vlad mused, “You wasted your message.”
Danny’s muscles seized in panic and it took him a beat to temper his voice. “What?”
“You should have messaged Mr. Foley. He’s more technologically inclined, isn't he? He might actually be able to do something about your communication issue."
Danny blinked at him, stunned and confused.
More than anything, he was waiting for the shoe to drop; for Vlad to taunt him that his backup plan had failed and that he'd been watching him the whole night he had been sneaking around the mansion.
"Was that pure miscalculation or were you just that desperate to hear from your little girlfriend?” Vlad taunted.
Confusion growing, he waited a beat, but the mocking look Vlad was giving him didn't seem to be hiding behind anything. Since Vlad was waiting for a response from him, he gave a dismissive shrug.
“Do you suppose your mother will continue letting you send messages through her after today?” Vlad said tauntingly.
If he knew, he was really drawing it out, so Danny decided that he didn't know and to just play along.
“Worth a shot. Now give it back,” Danny replied dismissively, reaching for the photo again.
Vlad held it a little higher, so Danny crossed his arms impatiently.
Vlad relaxed his hold of the photo and smiled smugly when Danny didn’t reach for it this time.
“I haven’t figured it out yet, Daniel, so why don't you enlighten me. Was that whole fiasco a ploy to get a new phone or are you just actually that childish?” the man asked, turning the picture over idly.
Danny scowled, retorting, “It's like you said, Vlad; I've got a lot of influence right now. I wanted to get her away from you and hey, look at that! It worked.” This time, he held his hand out for the photo demandingly.
Vlad’s eyes darkened and he looked at the photo again thoughtfully. “Maybe I should keep this… After all, I’d hate for you to torment yourself with painful reminders.”
Danny didn’t respond; didn’t trust that he would do anything other than snatch for it again.
“Unless you’d like to apologize,” Vlad offered.
“For what? Messing up your date? And for the record, I didn't even want to go out today.”
Vlad scowled at him. “You created a scene with your mother for no reason and have upset her. I think you need to apologize for that. You also attempted to bypass my rules and managed not to do any of the homework I assigned you, even after I gave ample time.”
“We've been out all day! When was I supposed to do that?!” Danny complained, intentionally ignoring the bit about his mom.
“What reason were you unable to do your homework during all of those hours you spent in the observatory?”
Danny felt a little jolt of panic. So he did see him? Yeah, his mom had said he was in the observatory, but not how long he'd been there for. Had Vlad just been waiting all day to confront him about it?
A quiet enveloped them and the longer it lasted, the more Danny was convinced Vlad knew what Danny had been doing last night and that this was just Vlad toying with him.
“No excuses, hm?” Vlad pressed, an eerie calm overtaking him as he removed the photo from its frame, folded it, and slipped it into his inner suit pocket.
Danny swallowed, steeled his nerves and replied, “I'm not going to apologize for making things hard on you.”
“It's your decision,” Vlad said, shuffling through a different pocket.
Danny’s brow twitched confusedly until Vlad pulled out the Plasmius Maximus.
He was used to ghost hunting weapons. He was used to all of the various things his parents and even other ghosts used to try to hurt him. But at the sight of the little handheld device, Danny’s eyes grew wide as fear zipped through his nervous system and before he realized what he was doing, he had transformed and gone intangible, trying to fall through the floor.
Vlad had him in the same instant, vice-like grip on Danny’s good arm despite the intangibility. Before his feet had even made it through, he was hauled up until he was dangling like a wriggling fish in Vlad’s grasp.
Wondering if maybe his intangibility had stopped working, Danny tried again to phase through the older hybrid’s hold.
Every fiber of his being capable of thought and concentration was instantly scrambled as the prongs of the Plasmius Maximus jammed into his abdomen. Volts of electricity pierced straight through him, reaching into his core to shred it to pieces before spreading outward into his veins with icy hot needles.
White rings enveloped his spasming body as his powers evaporated, and as the light of the rings disappeared over him, he went instantly limp.
Vlad removed his other hand from over Danny’s mouth, apparently having muffled the screaming Danny had been unaware that he was doing, but the other hand still held him dangling over the floor. He pulled him in close, narrowing his eyes.
“I’m disappointed, Daniel. I had hoped you might adjust a little easier. Have I not been patient and understanding?”
Danny just trembled as an aftershock rolled over him. Shuddering, he cast a weak glare Vlad’s way.
Vlad sighed harshly through his nose, dropping Danny enough to let his feet touch the floor, but not releasing him. Danny took the opportunity to catch his breath, feeling some strength returning to him, though echoes of pain lingered in his abdomen.
“I have afforded you privileges that I’m beginning to think were too optimistic of me,” Vlad said.
“Your company isn’t a privilege,” Danny snarked dully.
Vlad’s eyes narrowed further, dark and sadistic, and Danny’s whole body tensed at the sight of it.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Vlad started pulling him and Danny couldn’t help it; he dug in his heels and resisted with everything he had, the ominous aura surrounding Vlad penetrated whatever bravado Danny had managed to muster.
He was so focused on getting away that he wasn’t prepared to catch himself when Vlad slung him into his own closet like he weighed nothing. He smacked the wall with his right shoulder, but it didn't save his left from the sharp heat spiking in his collarbone. He grabbed at it, pinching his eyes shut and curling in on it as it throbbed.
Vlad ignored him, grabbing the books from Danny’s desk and a pencil and tossing them in with him. “Consider yourself grounded for the next 4 hours. In that time, I expect you to read a chapter each of your homework and complete the related assignments. When the four hours are up, I'll be back to grade them.”
Danny grunted and pushed himself off the wall, turning to direct a glare at the older hybrid. “Well, you’re gonna be grading blank paper because I’m not doing it!” he snarled through pain, kicking one of the books spitefully.
“Then I suggest you find a way to make this closet entertaining,” Vlad countered, grabbing the door handle. “Anything less than an A will earn you an additional half hour per grade letter.”
“Vlad!” Danny rushed the door as the man slammed it shut and locked it. “You can’t keep me in here!” he growled as he banged his good fist on the barrier.
“Oh no? You spend the majority of your time in this room anyway. I hardly think Maddie will notice your absence.”
“I’m not just going to–”
“What good do you think will come of your mother finding you in there?”
Danny’s fist stilled as the implication settled over him, dulling the angry heat that had been helping him ignore the pain still lancing through his arm.
Vlad seemed to take the sudden silence as compliance, as his tone shifted to one of patronizing authority. “I'm no longer extending the privilege of my patience. My expectations of you from here on will be much higher. If you don’t want to become intimately familiar with that closet, I would recommend adjusting your attitude.”
Danny fists clenched and he thought about smacking the door again, just to be spiteful.
But what if his mom heard.
Gritting his teeth, he stepped back and leaned against the wall of the closet, scowling into the darkness.
“There’s a light switch on the left. And remember, Daniel; I expect good grades. I won’t tolerate any slacking from now on.”
Danny listened sullenly as Vlad left his room and shut the door, but he didn’t move for a while. He stared into the dark, hand hovering over his collarbone protectively and wincing as the throbs of pain slowly lessened into a dull ache.
Eventually, he found enough energy to turn the light on. He settled on the floor criss-cross applesauce and pulled the books close to him. He didn’t want to give Vlad what he wanted, but it was worse to just hand him hours’ worth of uninterrupted time with his mother.
Despite having absolutely nothing else to do and enough motivation to do a good job, he struggled to keep his concentration on any of his work. He doodled in the pages, he read and reread the same lines trying to absorb any of it, he drummed the end of the pencil listlessly on his knee. He really was trying, but his mind kept wandering elsewhere; to the pain in his arm, to what his mom and Vlad were doing…
And to the heavy aching in his stomach. It wasn’t real, he knew, but it was like his body couldn’t move on from the shock of the Plasmius Maximus. He wasn't sure what it was doing to him, but phantom pain still radiated from his center, demanding his attention, demanding he worry.
It was the same pain he’d felt in the portal.
It felt like dying.
He had managed to do all of the reading he had been told to do and was in the middle of writing the last essay he was supposed to write when Vlad came back to check on him, opening the door and smiling like he had not assaulted him hours prior.
Danny stood and started to leave the closet, but Vlad physically blocked him, holding his hand out expectantly.
“You’re going to grade them now?” Danny asked incredulously.
“And you’ll wait in here until I’ve finished,” Vlad instructed.
Danny pressed his lips together, but turned to pick up the books and hand them off to Vlad.
He took them and sat at Danny’s desk, grading quietly and leisurely.
Danny wasn’t entirely sure how long it took, but by the time Vlad gathered together the completed papers, it had been long enough for him to get a cramp or two. He disguised the discomfort with bored restlessness; kicking his legs out of the doorway, switching the light switch on and off rapidly, drumming on the door frame, whatever obnoxious thing he could think of, because no matter how agitated he got, he refused to sit back down. That’s what Vlad wanted him to do.
Vlad walked straight up to the door frame, forcing Danny to take a step or two back inside, before he handed the graded papers to the teen.
The first thing Danny saw was a disheartening amount of red ink marks spattering the page’s contents. It looked like a crime scene. He flipped through the other pages and saw it was the same for the rest, but the mortal wound to his work were the grades.
Two D’s and a C-.
That wasn’t the part that truly upset him, though. He had gotten enough fluctuating grades to know when he deserved a good one or not.
“Are you kidding me?” Danny complained, thrusting his finger at a portion of his essay. “How is ‘uninspired’ gradable?”
“I’m sure your public school teachers would’ve considered that drivel passable, but until further notice, I’m your teacher and I’m not looking for passable; I want exceptional.”
Danny took a deep breath, reminding himself that he wanted out of the closet more than he wanted to scream in old man's face. “Vlad, I had four hours to do this. That’s the best I can do."
“Oh, dear, I certainly hope not,” Vlad said, concealing his mockery with concern as he leaned forward and locked eyes with him. “Your mother will be so disappointed when she finds out genius doesn’t run in the family.”
Danny ground his teeth, going rigid with anger and trying desperately to keep his composure.
Vlad smiled, pleased at the reaction as he handed Danny the graded papers and books. “Try again, Little Badger. Another four hours and you can turn these into A’s.”
Vlad started to shut the door, but Danny managed to find his voice, tight as it was, to remind him, “It’s dinner.”
Vlad looked in at him.
“Mom’s gonna wonder where I am.”
Vlad chuckled. “No, she won’t.”
Danny stood stiffly with the pile of books in his arm as Vlad shut the door on him, heard the sharp click of the lock being turned.
The tension left him and he stepped back into the wall, slid down it and stared at the books in his arm.
He threw them at the wall.