Chapter Text
It's been almost three months since the interview. Daniel is more or less adjusting to vampire life. Despite his rocky and rather haphazard start, he's actually doing okay for himself. Mostly thanks to Louis and no thanks to his deadbeat maker.
After being turned and subsequently abandoned, it took Daniel a couple miserable days to figure out the mind gift enough to alert Louis of his new and improved existence (he imagines this process was accelerated due to him being decently familiar with vampiric abilities and also because his maker is old as fuck). Louis showed him the ropes after that. Daniel's house is now equipped with some top-of-the-line sun blocking curtains and a suitable coffin. A pretty decent vampire starter pack, so to speak.
He's been keeping himself busy with press for the book (which is an absolute hit, thank you very much), doing interviews, signings, event appearances and what have you. It's all well under way and, by the sounds of it, Daniel might have scored a brand new project already.
"If he's really going through with the whole tour thing I might have to get in on this." Daniel speaks into the phone as he makes his way home. The phone is just for show. It's a useful tool to avoid looking like a demented lunatic talking to himself in the middle of the street. Works like a charm.
He can hear Louis laughing, "I'm sure he'll be in touch. He's read the book, you know."
"Looking to make himself the sequel then? I think we can figure something out. I mean, part one is already every teenage girl's top fixation so if he's looking to become the next Justin Bieber or whatever just say-"
Daniel is interrupted by a loud ringing in his ear. He flinches his head to the side, away from the noise. He doesn't expect that to stop the ringing, because why would it, but when the ringing gets quieter he's relieved to find out that this ringing isn't caused by age-related hearing loss, but instead by the phone he had pressed against the side of his head. He nearly drops the thing. His hearing is better than it used to be and he's still not entirely adjusted to everything being so goddamn loud. Daniel makes a mental note to take the battery out or at least put it on silent next time.
Daniel turns to Louis, or more so the vague direction he can feel Louis's voice coming from. "One second, I'm getting a call," he says.
It's probably his agent and therefore unimportant or boring. Daniel had hoped that becoming nocturnal would allow him to avoid even more of her calls than he usually would, but now he's become convinced that the woman herself just doesn't sleep. For now, he'll just put his phone on airplane mode and get back to her at a later time. As Daniel pulls the phone from his ear to finally make the noise stop he notices the caller ID. He stares at it.
"Hey uhm, I'll talk to you later" he vacantly tells Louis, the bright screen lighting up his face. He's sure Louis says some goodbyes but he doesn't hear them. The phone feels heavy in his hand. Daniel looks around to find a quieter place to stand, out of walking traffic. After a quick scan he spots an alleyway, as private as it's going to get out here. He makes his way over while frantically trying to turn the volume down.
Stood against the brick wall, Daniel hovers a finger over the green button on his screen. He'll pick up, honestly, but not before some good stalling. He tries to prepare some passable dialogue. Something that makes him sound fairly relaxed. There's some more staring and silent deliberating before he takes a deep breath and picks up.
"Rachel!" He said that way louder than he intended to, off to a tremendous start, extra lunatic points. "Hey, hi, how are you?"
"Hey dad."
Rachel, the oldest of two, the result of Daniel's first marriage. Out of Daniel's daughters, Rachel has held the most contact with him over the years. This doesn't say a whole lot. Daniel is lucky to receive three or four phone calls annually. Communication has worn down significantly after countless missed calls and lame (mostly work related) excuses on Daniel's part. Katie, his youngest, doesn't call anymore. Daniel will reach out once in a while to ask how she's doing. These phone calls will last maybe 10 minutes before they run out of things to talk about. She's doing well, work is fine, see you next year.
This is why it comes as somewhat of a surprise when he hears Rachel's voice on the other line.
"It's good to hear from you," Daniel says. Which is true. But he does put in extra effort to make it actually sound believable, just in case.
"Yeah. Hey uhm, I was wondering if you'll be home tomorrow night," she asks. She sounds slightly uneasy. Which isn't necessarily cause for concern. Going off of past records, these conversations are awkward as hell. A general dread to have them wouldn't be abnormal. Daniel feels uneasy himself.
"Yes, just after eight, why?" Daniel shifts his weight from one leg to the other, and then back onto the original leg.
"I'll be in town temporarily. If you've got nothing planned I thought I might swing by, say hello, if that's alright."
Daniel stares at the brick wall opposite him, as if Rachel is standing there. He tries to remember the last time either of his daughters were voluntarily at his house. They are absolutely welcome, of course. But it just doesn't happen anymore. It hasn't for years.
Daniel tries to begin speaking. Three times. He opens his mouth with the intention to say something and then draws a complete blank, three separate times. The silence makes him antsy.
"Uhm, I get that you might be busy, it's fine if you--"
"Nonono, it's not that, sorry. Of course you can come, that'd be great! I'll make sure I have some coffee or something, you can just let me know what time you'll be here."
That wasn't so bad. It might have been better if he said it like a normal person, and a whole lot quicker. Baby steps though, right?
"I won't be there long, you don't have to go out of your way to get anything. I'll text you tomorrow, okay? I think I should be there around 10 if that works."
"Sure, that's fine Rach. I'll see you then."
"Bye, dad."
"Bye sweetheart."
She hangs up.
≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪
Daniel spends the rest of the night obsessively cleaning his apartment. No floor, wall or ceiling goes without a good vacuum, wipe-down or dusting (do you need to dust ceilings?), followed by an extensive examination in which Daniel concludes he hasn't missed any spots. After that, he dedicates over two hours to turning over pillows, inspecting blankets and pulling apart his couch.
Fabric, vampirism has taught him, is horribly prone to stains. It's not like he didn't know that before, Daniel does have some life experience believe it or not, but he's never been more confronted with the fact. Bloodstains, to be specific. They are, without exaggeration, everywhere. He's had to throw out and replace half of his wardrobe since his 'rebirth' or whatever you want to call it. He managed to scrub off dried blood from his shoes or glasses, but most of his clothing tragically couldn't be saved. It isn't all bad though, it gave him an opportunity to put newfound wealth to good use and reinvent his style a bit, steering away from dressing like a retirement home. Louis had promised him that in a year or so he won't have to go shopping as often, as he'll likely have the eating more under control. Until then, fabric remains an issue.
Daniel's trying his very best to make his apartment look normal, maybe even welcoming if he can manage it. So bloodstains are currently his biggest concern. It doesn't read very homey to have evidence of murder lying around. He hasn't seen Rachel in person in ages, the last thing he wants to do is scare her out the door because his apartment looks like a crime scene. Which it honestly doesn't, but it's always best to be sure and get anything strange looking out of the way. The apartment needed a good clean for non-blood reasons anyway, two birds with one stone.
After dismantling the entire living room, Daniel is happily surprised to find that the place isn't actually that bad. Sure, he had to throw out a pillow case and cut a leaf off of a house plant, but it could have been way worse. That is to say, it has been way worse, looking back on the first couple weeks after Dubai. Furniture had to be replaced more than a few times. But now, the apartment looks decent. It looks human and lived in, which was really the only goal. That's one thing out of the way.
Daniel sits down on his stain-free couch to take a rest. The gift allows Daniel to be on his feet for infinitely longer than he would otherwise be able to, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Daniel isn't a huge fan of manual labor, he became a writer for a reason. From the couch, Daniel looks at his front door. It looks threatening, like it's going to fall on top of him, even when he's sitting 8 feet away. Daniel taps his fingers on the arm rest. His impatience seems misplaced, it's not like he can sit here until Rachel knocks on his door. He'll have to go to sleep soon, the sun will be up in a couple of hours. For now though, he sits, waits and watches. After taking the time to look at the door, he can't help but notice how empty that area looks. One pair of shoes, a coat rack with two jackets that or both his own, an umbrella leaning against the wall. Looking around, the whole apartment is just his stuff. Which makes sense, Daniel lives here alone, but it makes the space feel sort of empty. He hasn't noticed this before. Now that he thinks of it, he hasn't actually had any guests over in months, even before the interview. Delivery drivers don't count. And even if he had had guests, his kids coming over is kind of a big deal. Daniel doesn't like to think of it as a big deal, and tomorrow he'll definitely act like it totally isn't, but it's pretty damn significant. And, honestly, Daniel is freaking the fuck out. As if tearing apart his house wasn't a big enough sign, he's also been pacing all night. He didn't let himself stand still until the place was spotless. And even now, as he's sitting in a clean apartment, he doesn't know what to do with himself.
The restlessness that he feels comes partly from nerves, Daniel is very aware of how bad this can and might go, given his track record, but it's also from a fervor of excitement. He's missed having people over. He's missed his kids. So despite being an absolute wreck, he really is looking forward to tomorrow.