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A giant football. Of course. Well, it was pretty generous of Vlad to make his “secret” ghost portal so easy for Danny to find; at this point, he was his only hope of figuring out what was going on with his evil future self, let alone fixing it. He took a deep breath, pushed the football aside, and stepped through.Danny wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but somehow, it wasn’t for everything to look just about the same as before. It was a lab. It seemed to be in pretty good working order. And when the leather swivel chair in front of an array of computers swiveled around to face him, Vlad looked like he’d barely aged a day. “Why hello, Danny,” he said with a smile that was almost…warm? “We’ve been expecting you for quite some time now.”“…wait, we?” Danny said, so jarred that he almost forgot why he’d come here. “Let me guess—you finally took my advice and got that cat.”“Oh, very funny,” Vlad muttered, rolling his eyes. “I’ll let him explain. We’ve got company, little badger!” he yelled up the stairs.“Little badger? But that’s what you used to call—”And then someone dive-rolled down the stairs into the lab, landing on the floor in a crouch, an anti-ghost wrist laser pointed straight at Danny’s head. A young man, black hair, blue eyes, maybe in his mid-twenties.“Me!?” Danny yelped, staring at his older self.The older Daniel blinked, glancing back and forth between Danny and Vlad, then stood, crossing his arms with a groan. “Jeez, Vlad, don’t scare me like that! I thought it was another ghost come to kill us or something.” He turned to Danny, smiling and scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry about that, uh…me.”Danny couldn’t process what was going on. Why was there a human version of him and the evil ghost one? And more importantly, what was he doing living with Vlad!? “I’m so confused right now,” he muttered, shaking his head.“Now now, just take a seat, we’ll explain everything,” Vlad said, taking him by the shoulders and sitting him down in the swivel chair. “Daniel, you seem the best qualified to begin?”“Fair enough,” Daniel said with a shrug. “So you know about the accident at the Nasty Burger, right? After that, well, the only place I could come was here. I was so upset I barely even remember most of it, if I’m being honest, but I asked Vlad if there was anything he could do to just, make it stop, and he…” Daniel trailed off, shooting Vlad a pointed look. “What were those gloves supposed to do? Tear the emotions out of me, was it?”“Not this again,” Vlad groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.“Well, whatever they were supposed to do, what they actually did was tear the ghost out of me,” he continued. “And then for some reason, that ghost took the gloves, tore the ghost out of Vlad, and…fused with it, I guess.”“I still wonder what kind of hidden desires you must have been harboring for it to be so clearly desperate to become one with me,” Vlad smirked, only to have Daniel elbow him in the gut. “Well it’s true! Anyways, our resulting evil spectral lovechild is the one you’ve presumably met. Does that help explain things?”“Not even a little,” Danny said flatly. “What I’m really wondering is why the heck you’re– I’m– you two are living together!”The two adults exchanged a glance before Vlad wrapped an arm around Daniel’s waist and pulled him close. “What, isn’t it obvious?”“…no way.”Daniel gave an awkward smile.“No way!” Him and Vlad? That was just too weird to even think about! “Why? How!? When!?"“…we’re just a few weeks out from our ten year anniversary,” Vlad said, suddenly having a hard time meeting Danny’s eyes.“…wait. Then that means…” Danny wasn’t that bad at math, he knew what it meant, but…“I’d just lost everyone I knew, okay?” Daniel said defensively, clinging to Vlad’s arm. “And then the whole thing with our ghosts fusing… I was confused and scared and I just wanted someone to make me forget about all of it.”“...I was fifteen!”“I won’t pretend like it wasn’t kinda messed up at first, alright?” Daniel said, blushing at the ground. “Like yeah, it probably wasn’t the healthiest way to deal with the grieving process, but it worked! I don’t think I would’ve made it otherwise. I’m not saying you should go out and hook up with Vlad as soon as you get back to your own time, don’t do that, but… We’ve been together ten years now, and y’know what? It’s actually pretty nice.”“…well, aren’t you sweet today,” Vlad said with a fond smile, planting a kiss on Daniel’s cheek.“Don’t let it go to your head, old man.”
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Danny couldn’t sleep.Vlad’s mansion was huge and empty and lonely, the guest bedroom he’d been given unfamiliar. He felt… He didn’t know how he felt. He didn’t think there was a word. He was human again, he was back to normal, but it felt all wrong, his body a leaden prison compared to the ephemeral freedom of being a ghost. Danny was alone, and scared, and even more desolate with sadness than when he’d first arrived here, and all he wanted was to forget.He slipped out of bed, arms wrapped around himself as he walked down the hall to Vlad’s bedroom and, before he could stop himself, knocked quietly on the door.“…Daniel?”Danny pushed the door open, closing it softly behind him, standing there as the dark outline of Vlad sat up in bed. “…you were awake too?”“Of course,” the man murmured. “How could I sleep after that?”“I guess so.”There was a moment of silence and stillness. “…did you want something?” Vlad finally asked.“…I was wondering…if I could sleep with you tonight.” Danny’s arms tightened around himself. “…I don’t wanna be alone.”Another pause. “I suppose.”Without a word, the boy walked over, pulled back the covers, climbed into bed next to Vlad, pulling the man’s arms so he was spooned by him. It was nice. Vlad’s chest was broad and solid against his back; his arms felt secure. It was grounding. It made Danny feel less like he was about to fade away.“…in all honesty,” Vlad murmured, “I didn’t want to be alone either.”“Yeah.”Fingers traced over Danny’s collarbone, down his chest, brushing his hip. “…perhaps we could distract each other.”“…yeah.”Vlad’s hand moved to rub Danny through his pajamas, softly, gently, drawing tiny gasps and moans as he began to harden, to feel Vlad hardening behind him. Some part of him knew this was wrong, an awful mistake, illegal and immoral and just plain not what he wanted, but it didn’t matter, because the rest of Danny needed, just for a little while, to forget. To think of nothing. And being touched and held, it was almost possible. Even if it was Vlad.“…no, wait…” he said weakly as the man started to work his pants down and off. “…you can’t…”“Shh, shh, it’s alright,” Vlad said, for a moment just holding Danny, stroking his hair. “I’m just going to put it between your thighs, it’s not going to hurt.”Danny wasn’t sure what that meant or if he trusted Vlad not to hurt him, but he hardly had the will to care. So what if he was raped. How much worse could things get. Vacantly, he let Vlad pull his pants off and lift one of his legs, settling something hot and hard between them. It felt weird. He squirmed uncomfortably as the man began to thrust, breath catching, before letting out his own pleasured gasp as Vlad began to stroke him again. This was good, this was what he’d needed. He lay there in the dark, silence broken only by soft heavy breath, and let Vlad do everything, and thought of nothing.Finally, with a quiet moan, Danny was brought to orgasm, lying there in a heavy sleepy daze as Vlad continued to thrust against him. It was strange. It all felt very far away. Finally Vlad came with a rough gasp, hot and wet against his thighs, and there was a moment of stillness as they both caught their breath, entangled together under the covers. It felt like a very long time before Vlad moved to wipe Danny’s unresisting body off with the sheets, shifting them both away from that patch of bed and settling once more into a spooning position. It was nice, letting someone else do all the thinking. Danny drifted off in Vlad’s arms, and for the first time since the day he lost everything, he slept soundly, and dreamed of nothing. Danny blinked sleepily awake to find himself in Vlad’s bed, naked except for his shirt, the man sitting next to him and doing something with a PDA. He wasn’t sure what to do. He remembered what had happened the night before, of course he did, but he didn’t know how he felt about it, or even how he should feel.“…oh, good morning Daniel,” Vlad said absently, finally noticing the boy was looking at him.“…we had sex.”“…sort of.” They both sat there in strained silence for a moment, Danny staring expressionlessly up at Vlad, Vlad unable to meet his eyes. “You said it was fine, don’t tell me you want an apology now.”“Not really,” Danny said, turning onto his stomach and staring at the headboard.Another pause. “Well? What do you want?”“I don’t know.”“Then I can’t help you, now can I.”“I just… I don’t wanna think about anything,” the boy muttered, burying his face in the pillow. “I’ll do whatever you want, so just, I dunno, make all the decisions for me.”For a moment Vlad just looked at him, one eyebrow slightly cocked. Then he turned off his PDA and put it on the bedside table before shifting to lie down next to Danny, wrapping an arm around him. “It’s a deal, little badger.”For the rest of the day they barely got out of bed. Sex, yes, Danny moaning dazedly as Vlad touched him, as he touched Vlad. But most of the time was spent on nothing. Danny dozed, drifting in and out of consciousness as he stared at the wall or the ceiling. Vlad fidgeted with his PDA, or tried to read, or got up briefly to get the food the servants brought. Neither of them spoke. “I had my lawyer draw up the adoption papers,” Vlad said, dropping a heavy packet on the couch next to Danny. “Just sign where it says to sign and we’ll handle the rest.”Danny paused his game and picked up the papers, staring through them as he turned the pages. “It says ‘Daniel Masters.’”“Of course it does.”“Why do I have to change my name?”“What, you’d rather be constantly reminded that you’re the last of the Fenton line?”The words blurred in front of Danny’s eyes, papers crumpling softly as his grip tightened. “You must be loving this.”Vlad’s face twitched. “Excuse me?”“This is exactly what you always wanted, isn’t it?” Danny muttered, glaring up at him. “For me to be your son. Well, lucky you.”“...it wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Vlad said, unable to meet the boy’s eyes. “I’m no happier about any of this than you are.”“Bullshit.”“If you want to keep your name, fine, keep it,” Vlad said, plucking the papers from Danny’s hand. “I’ll get these redone. Happy now, Daniel Fenton?”“...yes,” Danny said, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them.Without another word, Vlad turned on his heel and left. Danny stared blankly after him as he went, then buried his face in his arms and cried. Danny was in bed, staring absently at the wall, when Vlad pulled the covers back and joined him. He was expecting the usual, for Vlad to thrust between his legs or guide Danny’s hand to his erection or pull him close and stroke them both together. So when Vlad flipped him onto his stomach and spread his legs, Danny was too dazed even to react. He lay there vacantly as his hips were lifted and he was teased at with a slick finger, the room silent save for the sounds of breath, Vlad’s rough and heavy, Danny’s quick and shallow.“…stop it,” Danny finally managed to get out, kicking at Vlad and turning himself back around to face him, covering himself meaninglessly with the sheet. As though it was anything he hadn’t seen before. “You can’t just… I don’t wanna.”Vlad was half kneeling in front of him, face set, naked and hard. “I’m sick of playing Greek Love, Daniel,” he said, grabbing Danny’s wrists and pinning them to the bed. “Just let me do this, you owe me that much.”“For what!?” Danny snapped, anger bubbling up through his usual catatonic daze. “I don’t owe you anything!”“Oh yes you do, boy, I was the one who took you in, I’m the one who’s been taking care of you, I’ve gotten you anything and everything you wanted,” Vlad muttered, face an inch from Danny’s. “You said I could do whatever I wanted with you, and I am not letting you back out of it now, so just be quiet and let me!”He had said that, but that was then, when he hadn’t been expecting Vlad to actually try and rape him. He probably should have. Stupid. “You know it’s illegal, right?”The man just gave a sharp laugh. “As though it’s so much worse than what we’ve been doing up until now.”“…I’ll run away,” Danny said. “You’ll never see me again, you’ll really be alone for good.”“You won’t,” Vlad said, voice taking on a strange edge, grip loosening just a bit. “You don’t have anywhere else to go, and there’s no one else in the world who could understand what you’ve been through. You can’t leave me.” Even in the low light, Danny could see the tension of his grit teeth, his furrowed brow. “Daniel, why can’t you just…”For a long moment, Danny just glared up at him, tears forming no matter how he tried to fight them. “You’re the worst.”Vlad didn’t reply. He didn’t even meet his eyes.“…fine. I don’t care anymore. Just…just do whatever you want,” Danny finally muttered, tearing his wrists free of Vlad’s grip and wrapping his arms around himself. “But you have to kiss me first.”Vlad blinked. “…you want me to kiss you.”“I want you to treat me like more than just a fucktoy,” the boy said, blue eyes tearful and cold. “I know I’m not my mom, but just try, for one second, to pretend you actually give a shit about me.” His gaze fell, voice dropping to just above a whisper. “I mean, that’s what I’ve been doing.”Silence and stillness as Vlad’s face worked, something like a frown coming over his features. Then he bore down on Danny in a kiss, forceful and clumsy, tongue hard in the boy’s mouth. Neither had closed their eyes. Vlad kept kissing him as he shifted Danny onto his back, crouching over him and spreading his legs once more, and this time the boy didn’t fight. He let out a low, uncomfortable noise as a long, slim finger pushed its way inside him (“Just relax, Daniel.” “How the hell am I supposed to do that?”), neither painful nor pleasurable, just strange and more strange as Vlad stretched him.He was really letting this happen. He was really just letting a grown man, Vlad, fuck him. Sure. Fine. Whatever. Vlad was right; it’s not like it was so much worse than jerking each other off. (Yes it was.) He stared sullenly up at the man above him as Vlad readied him, occasionally giving the boy an awkward, perfunctory kiss. Danny wasn’t sure if this was better or worse than if he’d just let him shove his face into the pillows and take him without a word.“…you’re not gonna use a condom?” he asked as Vlad withdrew his fingers and positioned himself, hitching Danny’s legs up over his hips.“Well, it’s not exactly like there’s a risk of my impregnating you, now is there, Daniel?” Vlad muttered. “So unless you’ve got some kind of venereal disease, I don’t see the need.”“…that’s fair.”Vlad pushed inside him. It hurt. He knotted one hand in the sheets and bit the knuckles of the other to keep from whimpering, but he could still feel the tears threatening as the man began to move. Every once in a while Vlad bumped up against somewhere inside Danny that made his hips twitch pleasurably, but for the most part, it was nothing but discomfort and pain. He had no idea how anyone could enjoy this. He just wanted Vlad to hurry up and come already so this whole stupid thing could end.And finally, after what felt like an eternity, Vlad stopped thrusting with a strangled moan, and Danny felt something wet and thick fill him. It was gross. He could feel it leaking from him and dirtying his thighs as Vlad pulled out. He was all aches and sharp raw pain. He wanted to shower, but trying to move in his current state felt like a mistake.“Here, I'll finish you off,” Vlad said, wrapping a hand around Danny. He’d completely forgotten about getting off himself. He was barely even hard. So he just lie there on his back, not looking at Vlad as the man jerked him off, until pleasure won out over the pain in his lower body and he came, covering his mouth with a hand to stifle a moan. It was over.“Well?” Danny asked, staring up at the ceiling as Vlad settled next to him. “Happy now? Is that what you wanted?”Vlad didn't reply. Danny had already given up on getting an answer when he heard a quiet “...of course not.”He could have screamed. Screamed and hit him and demanded to know why he'd done it in the first place, what exactly he had expected, if not that, how he was ever going to make up for it. But he was just so tired.“You owe me,” Danny said instead. “Maybe you didn't before, but you do now.”“Owe you what, exactly,” Vlad asked, sounding every bit as unhappy as Danny felt.“I don't know. Something. Something better than this. Even if it's just pretend, I don't care, just...do a better job pretending.”“Pretending that I...what, love you?”Danny felt his face growing hot. Stupid, after everything. “I guess. Sure.” It was no different than every other awful decision he'd made since he lost everyone he'd ever cared about. He was lonely, so lonely he couldn't breathe, and he'd try anything to make it stop for even a moment.So when Vlad pulled him into his arms, face to face, running a hand through his hair, Danny welcomed the gentle touch. “Then you have to do the same, little badger.”Danny blinked. Okay then. “What do you care, if I let you do me?”The man's only reply was to kiss him, shallow and gentle and still strangely clumsy, running a hand up and down his back. It was nice. Danny didn't care if it didn't mean anything, not when it was so easy to pretend there was still someone who wanted him, cared about him, loved him. Actually, not meaning anything just made it easier. One less thing he could lose. So sure, if Vlad wanted to play boyfriends, he could do that.Danny leaned into the kiss, wrapping his arms around the man, pulling the tie from his hair and running his fingers through it. It felt vaguely ridiculous, doing this with Vlad of all people, but it was the kind of ridiculous he could live with. “You’re not very good at this, huh,” Danny said as Vlad lay heavy atop him, kissing at his neck.“Neither are you, but you don’t see me complaining, now do you,” the man muttered, sitting up to frown at him.“Of course I’m not, I’m fifteen. Shouldn’t you have had some more practice by now, though?” Vlad didn’t reply, turning onto his stomach and resting his blushing face on his arms, and suddenly it hit Danny. “Oh. Okay. That actually makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it.” He was a lonely old bachelor, and he’d always been hung up on Maddie, so yeah, that tracked. Slowly, something like a smile spread across Danny’s face, until he burst into a soft laugh. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed.“Oh, shut up,” Vlad muttered, turning his back and sulking.“I can’t believe my first time was with a forty-year-old virgin,” Danny said, still fighting back laughter as he leaned up against the man. Somehow, that took the sting off. Just a little.“And I can’t believe mine was with a teenage boy. Now let’s never speak of it again, shall we?”“How was I?”“Underwhelming.”“Yeah, well, you just plain sucked.”Danny fell asleep folded in Vlad's embrace, and when he woke up, the man brought him painkillers and pancakes and hot cocoa.
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“I want to go back to school,” Danny said abruptly. He was leaned up against Vlad on the couch, playing a video game on his DS. It seemed like they were always together now, always touching, as though Danny would fade away if Vlad wasn’t there to hold him.“You’ll never have to work a day in your life, you know,” Vlad said, not bothering to look up from his book. “There’s really no need. We ought to hire some tutors so you can get your GED, but only because it wouldn’t look right for you to be a high school dropout.”“Yeah, I know,” Danny said. They’d never talked about it as such, but he was the sole heir to Vlad’s fortune. Working was a joke. “But I wanna.”Vlad finally closed his book, face unreadable as he looked over at Danny. “Isn’t this enough?”“What? No. Of course not.” Spending all day lazing around, barely leaving the mansion, reading comics and playing video games, clinging to the sheets as Vlad had his way with him… It was easy. It would be so easy to stay this way forever, to let himself forget how to be anything other than what Vlad wanted him to be, until the act stopped being an act. That was what was so terrifying about it. “I just… I dunno. Things are never gonna be the way they used to be, I know that, but I just want something even a little normal.” Going to classes, getting crushes on girls, wanting to be popular. Not hunting ghosts. He couldn’t do that anymore. Even after a year the thought still made his eyes sting; he wasn’t sure he’d ever really get over it. “It’s different for you, you’ve got companies to manage or whatever.”“I have so little to do with the day-to-day of VladCo,” the man said, putting his book aside and pulling Danny up onto his lap, burying his face in the crook of his neck. “I’m the furthest thing in the world from busy.”“I’ll go to private school if you want, I’ll wear the stupid preppy uniform and everything, so what’s the issue?” Danny said, glaring when Vlad’s hand started working its way up under his shirt. “Stop trying to distract me.”“I’m not.”“Yeah you are!” He shoved himself out of the man’s grip, shifting to the other end of the couch and crossing his arms. “You’re the one who cares about appearances so much, you have to know how sketchy it looks to keep me cooped up here. Why do you even care so much whether I go or not?”For a moment, Vlad just stared at him with that weird, petulant face he sometimes got when Danny didn’t do what he wanted. Then he sighed. “Oh, very well, I’ll get you enrolled. And you’d might as well just attend public school; all things considered, sending you to a Catholic institution just feels...wrong.”“...little bit, yeah.” He smiled weakly, moving back over to give Vlad a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”“Yes, yes.” Danny didn’t know if his hearing was better than normal as a result of having been a ghost, or if people just thought he was stupid.“So you know the new kid?” someone at the next table was whispering just loud enough for him to hear, gesturing not-so-subtly for the girl next to him to look. “Apparently he’s living with Vlad Masters. The Vlad Masters.”“…but his name’s Fenton. What, you think he’s a secret lovechild or something? They don’t look anything alike.”“I know, right? All I’m saying is, some billionaire starts living with a teen boy he’s not related to… They’ve gotta be doing it, right? Like, what else could it be?”“I dunno, seems a bit out there.”“So what do you think is going on, if not Fenton being his boytoy?”“He’s a family friend,” Danny said loudly, shooting the two gossiping students a glare that made them jolt. “He took me in after my parents died.”The two glanced at each other. “…see? I told you there was an explanation!” the girl said, giving the boy a whack on the shoulder. “Sorry he’s such an idiot…”Danny didn’t respond, just picked up his lunch tray and left.“…he gives me the creeps,” the boy whispered as he was walking away. “There’s something up with him. He’s like a ghost.”Okay, that he laughed at. “So how has your first week back at school been?” Vlad asked, leaning over Danny’s shoulder and toying absently with his hair as the boy tried and failed to focus on a reading for history class.“I dunno. Boring. Weird,” he sighed, pushing the packet away and closing his eyes. “I kinda forgot how much I hate classes. And everyone’s kinda… Like, it got out that I’m living with you, probably because someone insisted I have a driver, and I was expecting everyone to be like ‘oh wow, you’re living with Vlad Masters? What’s up with that? What’s he like? You’re super rich, right?’ But no one ever said anything. At least not to my face. I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I wanna try to explain any of this, it’s just… Everyone seems kinda, I dunno, scared of me. I guess.”“I could have told you that would happen,” Vlad said, resting his chin on Danny’s head. “We’re both a bit uncanny, ever since…you know.”“Yeah. Guess I just forgot since I’m only ever around you.”“You don’t have to keep going if you don’t want.”Danny paused for a moment, thinking. “...no, I’ll stay. Just to kill time.” He didn’t expect to make friends, not with the way people looked at him. He wasn’t sure he’d even want to. But it’d still be better than spending the rest of his life as Vlad’s plaything.“If you say so,” Vlad said, straightening up and giving Danny’s hair a last tousle. “If you ever change your mind, just say the word.”“Yeah.”Fingers caressing the boy’s neck, a thumb brushing over his lips. “Come to bed, Daniel.”“...yeah.”
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“So they’re starting to talk about college applications and stuff at school,” Danny said, picking at his lobster. He still hadn’t gotten used to posh food and upscale restaurants; he’d rather order pizza and eat it in front of the TV any day, but of course that wasn’t good enough for Vlad. So here they were in the classiest, most expensive place Madison, Wisconsin had to offer.“And?” the man asked, sipping his wine.“And I wanna go to college.”“Why, might I ask?” Vlad sighed, putting the glass down. “It’s not as though you’re enjoying high school so very much.”“...that’s different.” College was college. He’d have a chance to live on his own, take care of himself, try to remember what he was like when Vlad wasn’t around. “And besides, you’re the one who’s always all hung up on appearances. Can’t have a son with nothing but a high school diploma, now can you.”“I suppose you’re not wrong,” Vlad said. “And I’ll admit I’ve been thinking about it some myself.”Danny leaned forward over the table, face brightening. “Wait, really!?” He’d been sure Vlad would want to keep him from going, the same way he’d never quite stopped hinting he should be homeschooled.“You’ll go to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and you’ll major in biochemistry.”Yup, that was more what he’d been expecting. “...why.”“Because that’s where I went and what I studied,” Vlad said, cutting up his steak. “The department is still quite grateful for the Masters Laboratory; I’m sure they’d be happy to accept you, no questions asked.”Danny slowly settled back into his seat, crossing his arms and pouting. “I don’t want some kinda vanity degree.”“What, did you have something else in mind?” Vlad asked, gesturing with his fork. “Career aspirations, perhaps?”The boy shifted in place, blushing just a bit as he stared at his plate. “I wanted… I want to be an astronaut.”“You haven’t got the grades.”“I know.”Vlad put a piece of meat into his mouth, chewed, swallowed. “So it’s astrophysics, is it?”Danny gave a single, forceful nod.“Well, I suppose it’s all the same in the end,” Vlad sighed. “I can always donate another building if needs be.”“I said I don't want a vanity degree.”“And I said you don't have the grades to get accepted into an astrophysics program without my pulling strings.”“I know, alright?”Vlad sighed forcefully, putting his fork down and crossing his arms. “Then what, Daniel. What exactly is your plan here.”Danny glared at his plate. “...I don't know.”“That's what I thought.”The annoying thing was that Vlad was right. Being an astronaut had never been anything more than a stupid dream; he'd never had the genius or the drive it would take to work in that field. He'd always known, on some level, that eventually he'd have to decide on a real job, something he could do to make ends meet, something boring and practical. Like taking up the family business. But now he couldn't even do that, could he.“I think you ought to go to college, if that's what you want, and I see no reason why you shouldn't major in astrophysics,” Vlad said. “But there's no reason to be so stubborn about accepting my help. Especially after all this time.”“... I'm just sick of relying on you for everything,” Danny muttered at his lobster.“Well, until you decide on something else to do with yourself, I'm afraid you're stuck.”“I guess.”“So you'll let me talk to the Dean of Admissions.”“Sure, fine, whatever.”“Honestly, Daniel, I have no idea why you're always like this,” Vlad said, stabbing a vegetable with a little too much force. “All I'm trying to do is help you.”“Trying to control me, more like.”Vlad's fork froze halfway from his plate to his mouth. “In what regard?” he snapped, words quick and level. “When have I ever refused you anything? You wanted to keep your surname, I let you. You wanted to go back to school, I enrolled you. You want a meaningless degree in a field for which you’re desperately underqualified, I'm doing everything in my power to make that happen. I've been nothing but generous, boy.”“...then let me live in the dorms,” Danny blurted out. He'd been meaning to wait until Vlad was in a good mood to ask. He'd been planning on spending all day cozying up to him, to really give his best effort in bed (Vlad was better at it now, it actually felt pretty good when he fucked him, but that didn't mean Danny was enthusiastic about it), but he couldn't stop himself. Not when Vlad was taking that holier-than-thou attitude.Vlad's eyes widened at Danny's words. His face worked, jaw tightening and brow furrowing, gripping his fork so tight Danny thought it'd break. “What, so you can be ignored by your peers round the clock?”“I just want things to be normal!” Danny said, tears threatening at the corners of his eyes. “This… Us… This isn't normal. Maybe if I'm by myself for a while…”“Of course it's not normal,” Vlad muttered through gritted teeth. “We were part ghost, Daniel. The remains of that, whatever you want to call him, is still running amok, and the only reason he hasn't destroyed Amity Park already is because of my anti-ghost shield. What part of that, might I ask, sounds normal to you?”“...I just wanna forget about all of that,” Danny said. “Try to make a fresh start or whatever.”“You can't honestly believe that will work.”Danny shrugged listlessly. He didn't, not really, but what else could he do?“You'll continue living with me in my mansion, and that's final,” Vlad said, cold blue eyes fixed on Danny's. “This is the one thing upon which I'm going to insist.”The boy only wished he could be surprised. “Are you seriously that hung up on my ass?” he hissed, leaning across the table.“Not in public, Daniel,” Vlad hissed back.Like hell that’d stop him. He was so far beyond giving a shit. “You're a billionaire, I'm sure there are plenty of pretty boys out there who would just love to be your fucktoy, so go find one of them instead if you're so desperate to get your rocks off, alright?!” Still glaring, he slowly sat back down, crossing his arms again.Vlad just stared, frowning slightly, mouth tight, eyes unreadable. “...do you really think that's how I see you?”“How else would you?” Danny muttered. “That's what I am to you, isn't it?”Vlad's expression didn't change, except to get more closed in. “...Daniel...please don't move out.”Danny blinked. He honestly wasn't sure Vlad had ever said please to him before. “...say that again. Say it properly.”“Say what, exactly.”“What you want.”Vlad was starting to blush. “...I want you to stay with me instead of moving out.”It didn’t look like an act, did it. It wasn’t as though something like this was out of the realm of possibility or anything, it was just...Danny hadn’t expected him to be sincere. Like sure, it was just so he could keep fucking him, but...“Why,” Danny asked. “Go on, tell me why exactly.”“You know why,” Vlad muttered, scowling.“Say it, or I start sleeping in my own bed.”The man’s eye twitched. “I was thinking I’d miss you, but I’m starting to wonder if it might not be good riddance.”Slowly, a smirk was starting to spread across Danny’s face. “Oh, really? Cause if you don’t want me around, I’d be more than happy to leave.”“As though there’s anywhere else you could go.”Danny just laughed. “Wow, Vlad, you really are a lonely old man, huh?”“Oh, shut up.”
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Danny was downing a coffee and cursing his decision to take morning lectures when a classmate (they’d done group work once or twice before, what was his name? Kurt?) walked up and dropped something on the desk in front of him. “…this is you, right?” Kurt said, looking like he didn’t know where to put himself. “Daniel Fenton?”“I mean, yeah?” Danny said reflexively before looking down at the magazine in front of him and jolting. Oh. Shit. This was…this was going to be a problem.“Is it, like, true?” Kurt asked as Danny picked up the tabloid and mechanically flipped through, growing paler and paler with every word and every photo. Other students were glancing over and whispering. Seriously, shit.Danny sighed through gritted teeth, rubbing his temples. “Okay, let me just… Some of it is, yeah, like Vlad Masters did adopt me when I was fifteen cause my parents died and I do live with him, but the rest of it is obviously just tabloid bullshit! He’s like my dad, I don’t even wanna think about that. Friggen gross.” Not even Vlad could get offended, considering the circumstances. Somehow, Danny didn’t think anyone else would understand the nature of their relationship. Especially when he barely understood it himself.“Right, right, of course,” Kurt laughed nervously. “I mean, it’s pretty ridiculous, right? That sorta stuff doesn’t actually… I mean, it does, but…”“What a stupid story,” Danny said distractedly, still flipping through the tabloid. He overheard a girl whisper something about how Vlad had always seemed like the type. Whatever that meant. He was starting to feel kinda sick, and he didn’t think it was just because all he had for breakfast was coffee. “Ugh, I can’t deal with class now… Mind if I take this?” he asked, waving the magazine.“Oh, yeah, sure thing,” Kurt said. “…I just thought you should know, I didn’t mean to…”“Thanks,” Danny said as he slung his backpack over his shoulder and left, feeling every eye in the room burning into him. “Oh hello little badger, you’re home awfully early,” Vlad said as the boy burst into his office and dropped the magazine in front of him. “…and I take it this is why.”“Have you seen this!?” Danny asked, pacing in front of his desk. “How are you not freaking out about this?”“It’s a tabloid, Daniel,” Vlad drawled. “It’s all speculation and circumstantial evidence.”“Yeah, and it’s all true!"“And? It doesn’t matter if no one can prove anything,” the man said, standing up and pulling Danny into a hug, stroking his hair. “Some Hollywood type will get married or divorced or pregnant, and everyone will forget all about this.”“But—”“Just calm down and think about it logically. You’re now of legal age, and no one’s in a position to press charges for anything that happened in the past. Well, barring yourself, of course. So there’s really nothing to worry about.”Danny opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and buried his face in Vlad’s chest. “…I don’t like it.”“Of course you don’t, nor do I, but it’ll blow over in no time.”“That’s not what I mean.” Danny’s shoulders were starting to shiver. He didn’t know whether he wanted to cling to Vlad or push him away. “I just… Is this just what things are gonna be like? Like, legally, I’m your son, and even if I wasn’t I moved in with you when I was fifteen. There’s no justification for this, there’s no way to explain it, I wouldn’t even feel right trying to, and it’s just gonna be like this forever.”Vlad’s hand stopped in Danny’s hair. “…do you regret sleeping with me?” he asked softly.All Danny could do was laugh, bitter and humorless. “God, Vlad, I don’t know! Are you kidding me? I don’t even… Jeez, I barely even remember what I was thinking then. I dunno. I keep thinking about it, but I dunno how else things could’ve gone.” It had felt so inevitable, like some outside force drawing them together, like the irresistible weight of gravity. “…do you?”“I suppose I don’t know either.” They stood there for a long moment more, Vlad’s hand resting on Danny’s head. “…I regret forcing myself on you.”This time, Danny did shove him away. “I fucking well hope so.”“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Vlad said, eyes downcast. “I’m sorry.”“That’s not… You can’t just apologize for raping me, that’s not good enough, and you just…kept doing it…”“…I thought you didn’t mind so much.”Danny groaned in exasperation, glaring at the man in front of him. “I don’t know, alright!? The touching was okay, I guess, I kinda liked that even, but actually being fucked by you just… It hurt, and it was humiliating, and I hated it.”Vlad glanced up. “…I can’t help but note your use of the past tense.”“And that’s why I say I don’t fucking know, because I kinda like that now too and I dunno if it’s cause you got better or I got used to it or I just have Stockholm Syndrome or what, alright!? I just… Ugh. I need some time to get my head straight. I…I think I might sleep in my room for a few days.”“...well, I suppose that’s fair enough,” Vlad sighed.“...wait, you’re just gonna let me?” Danny asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Since when are you so, like, reasonable?”“What, do you want me to insist?” Vlad muttered. “After this conversation? I told you, I regret forcing you and I’m not about to do it again. I can’t say I’m happy about this, but I can’t exactly stop you either, now can I.”Wow, it seemed like he actually meant it. It was always a little surreal when Vlad was like this, as in anything other than selfish and clingy. “...alright then. Cool. See ya later,” Danny said, sidling awkwardly out of the room, Vlad staring after him to the last. Danny hadn’t slept alone in years. He couldn’t get comfortable, tossing and turning, curling up in a tight ball with his arms around himself and the blankets tucked close. He’d gotten so accustomed to having Vlad’s arms around him, his head nestled in the crook of the man’s neck, that he didn’t know what to do without that feeling. Sex was one thing; he still didn’t know how he felt about letting Vlad use him, but being held by him had always felt so secure. For a long time, it had been the only thing that made Danny feel real. So yeah, he missed it. He missed it a lot. But he couldn’t exactly just go climb back in bed with him now, after everything he’d said. Not without looking like an idiot.Danny didn’t sleep that night. When he got up in the morning to go to class, Vlad was waiting for him in the kitchen, looking just as tired as him, and it was awful how badly he wanted to fall into the man’s arms and let him take him to bed and make him forget about everything. He was so used to being touched that he felt incomplete without hands on him and skin against skin. Vlad looked like he wanted it too, the way he jolted and stepped forward when Danny came into the doorway. “Good morning, little badger,” he said gently.All Danny did was nod curtly, grab an ice coffee from the fridge and a granola bar from the pantry, and leave.In his car (the car Vlad bought him; what did he own that Vlad hadn’t bought him?), he rested his head on the steering wheel and bit his lip, trying to fight back tears. Stupid. It wasn’t anything to cry over, it was just… Up until now, he’d always just let Vlad take charge, do whatever he wanted with him. Danny would spend his nights on his back, staring up at the ceiling as Vlad touched him, kissed him, satisfied himself with his body, murmuring soft gentle words that didn’t reach his ears. He never asked if Danny wanted it, and Danny was fine with that, because it was easier not to think. But it looked like Vlad wasn’t going to do that anymore.Which meant Danny found himself in the awkward position of trying to untangle whether he wanted Vlad because he’d spent the past few years having desire traced into his body, or simply because he wanted him. The only clear thing was that, on some level, he did want him. One night alone was more than enough to prove that.The right thing to do would be to leave. Danny knew that. He could max out all his credit cards, call up the New York Times and offer them the exclusive of the century, run off somewhere no one would recognize him and get some dumb job and try to forget all this bullshit and have a normal life. He couldn’t imagine Vlad would just let him, but he didn’t think he’d be able to stop him either, not if he really wanted to go. The problem was, he wasn’t sure he did want to go.Maybe Vlad was just using him. It had reached a point where it was impossible to tell if he genuinely cared for him or if he’d just gotten better at acting like he did; hell, Danny wasn’t sure it even mattered. Either way, he was desperate not to lose him. He’d do anything to keep Danny from leaving, because he’d be all alone without him.Just like Danny would be all alone without Vlad.He took a deep breath, wiped his eyes, got out of the car, and went back inside the mansion. “Shut up,” Danny said, cutting Vlad off as he opened his mouth, before grabbing the man by the lapels and pulling him down into a kiss. “If you say anything about this I’ll walk right back out again, got it?”Vlad might not even have heard. He was too busy kissing Danny back, forehead nose cheeks eyelids lips, pulling him into a crushingly tight embrace, slipping a hand up under the boy’s shirt to touch the bare skin of his back. God, Danny had missed this. It felt like he could breathe again. He still wasn’t sure whether this was what he wanted, but he needed it.Danny didn’t go to class that day. He let Vlad take him to bed, moaned and panted with pleasure as he rode him, fell asleep curled up in his arms. It felt good. It felt natural.He just couldn’t convince himself it was alright for it to feel that way.
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“So, have you gotten your grades for the term yet?” Vlad asked, sitting down next to Danny with a mug of tea.Danny stared blankly at the TV screen, fingers frozen over the controller, as his character was pummeled. “...yeah.”“And?”He flopped over with his head on his knees, arms hanging lifelessly, as he was K.O’d. “Too scared to look.”“Oh come now, I’m sure it’s not as bad as all that,” Vlad said, patting his head.“I’m pretty sure I bombed my finals,” Danny muttered at the floor. “Spent a good half-hour just staring at the paper for the last one. You know what, Vlad? You were right! I’m never gonna use an astrophysics degree! Especially if I can’t even graduate!”“Is that not what I’ve been telling you all this time?” the man said, lifting him gently up by the shoulders and looking him in the eye. “There’s no need to keep stressing yourself out over this. You don’t need this degree and no one is forcing you to get it; you’re just being stubborn.”Danny stared at him sullenly for a moment before slumping over onto the back of the couch. “...I always kinda knew I’d never be an astronaut, but when I became a halfa, and learned about the Ghost Zone and portals and everything… I dunno, I thought maybe I could go to space that way.” He laughed bitterly. “Stupid, huh?”Vlad reached over to toy with his hair, expression thoughtful. “Did you really want to see space that badly?”“Course I do. Always have. Yet another thing I’ve gotta give up on, I guess.” He pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms tight around them. “I mean, it’s not like I expected to do well at college or anything, at least not well enough, but I guess some stupid part of me still thought that maybe if I tried real hard… But nope! I guess I’m just not good enough, and now my last chance is gone.” Danny leaned over onto Vlad’s chest, shoulders shaking just a little. “You win. I’m not smart enough. I’m dropping out. Happy now?”Vlad sighed. “You know I’m not, Daniel.”“Why not?” Danny said, words coming out sharper than he intended. “Isn’t this exactly what you wanted? You never wanted me to go to school in the first place, so just go ahead and pay off whoever you have to pay off to get me the stupid honorary vanity degree so you can pretend your son’s not a total moron.”Vlad’s body was tense against him. “...that was years ago.”“So? Are you seriously telling me you wouldn’t rather have things go back to the way they were when I first got here?”“Yes, I am.” The man pushed Danny back by the shoulders to meet his eyes, something strange and sad in his own. “Is that so hard for you to believe?”Danny just laughed, dry and humorless. “Honestly? Yeah, it kinda is. Like, why the hell wouldn’t you want me as your obedient little indoor pet?”Vlad’s gaze dropped to the floor. “...you were so unhappy.”Danny felt his face growing warm. He hadn’t expected that. It had been just about the last thing in the world he’d been expecting, actually.“I don’t want you going back to that,” Vlad said, still unable to meet his eyes. “You need to keep yourself occupied; if not with school, then with something else.”“...like what?”“That’s for you to answer, isn’t it? You can do whatever you want.”Danny didn’t know what to think. It was obviously bullshit cause Danny couldn’t graduate college or go to space or move out no matter how much he wanted to, but the sentiment was genuine, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just an act; Vlad genuinely didn’t want to see Danny unhappy, even if it meant loosening his grip on him. It was weird, and the weirdest part was that he hadn’t seen it coming sooner.“If there’s anything I can do for you, just tell me, little badger,” Vlad said.Wordlessly, Danny wrapped his arms around him and toppled them both over sideways onto the couch, face buried in his chest.Vlad held him and stroked his hair. It was a few days later that the subject was raised again, when Danny and Vlad were lounging together in the bath in a post-coital daze. “So I was thinking about the whole ‘what should I do with myself now that I’m a college dropout’ thing,” Danny said abruptly.“Oh?”“Like, I wanna do something I’m actually good at? I think that’s what I miss the most about the whole ghost thing. Having something I could do that felt like it actually mattered. And in retrospect it seems really obvious, but I don’t actually need powers to do that stuff? Like my parents were totally human and they were ghost hunters.”“And lord knows they were good at that,” Vlad said, only to yelp as Danny elbowed him in the gut.“Have some respect for the dead,” Danny muttered. “So I was thinking we could, y’know, make some anti-ghost weapons? Maybe even rebuild the ghost portal.”“...you want to work with me?” Vlad said, and Danny could hear the surprise in his voice.“I mean, I was never any good at that sorta stuff, or I guess I never really tried it, but I figure I could be your lab assistant or whatever.”Danny said it as casually as he could fake, but he hadn’t stopped thinking about it this whole time. It felt a little traitorous, a little like letting Vlad win, because wasn’t this what he’d wanted all along? For Danny to join him, be his son, work with him? But it had been so long, and things were so different now.The thing was, Danny wanted to do something he was good at, and this was all there was. This was all there had ever been. And he wanted to do something for Vlad; not because he felt like he owed him anything, god no, just for the sake of his own self-respect. So he could tell himself he wasn’t completely useless outside of bed.“...well, aren’t you sweet to offer,” Vlad said, tilting Danny’s head to give him a soft kiss. “You know you needn’t force yourself, though. If there’s anything else you’d rather do…”“Shut up,” Danny muttered. “If there was, I’d be doing that instead. And don’t get any stupid ideas, I mean like I literally don’t know what else to do with myself.”“Yes, yes, I’m sure that’s all,” Vlad said, cuddling Danny closer against him. “You know, you could always change majors to mechanical engineering. It would complement my biochemistry quite nicely.”“Cause I’ve been doing so well at school up til now.”“It wouldn’t have to be a full course load, just one or two a term to gain some practical knowledge.”Danny sighed, grimacing. “I mean, you’re not wrong. I guess. At least I’d be using it. Why the hell not, I need something to get me out of the house.”“That’s the spirit,” Vlad said, kissing him again.“...was that a pun?”“...yes.”
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Five years. Danny had been with Vlad for five years, and things were comfortable, normal, even nice. It was so terrifyingly easy to forget that the man he now ate breakfast with and drew up schematics with and went to bed with had once been his enemy. Every once in a while it would hit him again, how messed up this all really was, and Danny would wonder what everyone he’d lost would think if they could see him now. Then he forced the thought out of his mind. He’d gotten very good at doing that.And then there was Vlad, awkward and doting and clingy, who treated him like his… Well, the word “boyfriend” came to mind. “Husband,” even. Not “fucktoy,” not anymore. It had reached a point where Danny couldn’t tell what was or wasn’t real; how much was Vlad playing happy couple so he wouldn’t have to go back to being a lonely old man and how much was genuine affection. He didn’t even know which he’d prefer anymore. Like just about everything else in Danny’s life, it was weird. He couldn’t help wanting to needle at it. Like poking a sore in your mouth.He was in bed, letting Vlad undress him and kiss down his chest, silver hair falling loose around the man’s face. “Hey Vlad,” Danny said, propping himself up on an arm and using his other hand to tilt the man’s chin up to meet his eyes. “Suck me off.” It might be the first time he’d asked anything of Vlad in bed; at least, anything more than "not so hard."Vlad blinked, blushed. “Pardon?”“You heard me,” Danny said, blushing a little himself, even as his expression remained almost bored. “Go down on me. Give me head. Fel-la-ti-o. You get the picture.”“Yes, but…” Vlad sat up facing Danny, looking almost petulant. “You’ve never done that to me.”“And your point is.”“Well it’s not exactly fair, now is it, Daniel?”“Yeah, well, you’ve never taken it up the ass either, and yet here we are,” Danny sighed. “I let you do whatever you want, so just do me a solid and suck my dick already.”Vlad looked sullenly up at him through his lashes. “Do you really want it so badly?”“...yeah, sure,” Danny shrugged, blush deepening.With a quiet sigh, Vlad shifted to lie on the bed with his head between Danny’s thighs. He was actually doing it, the younger man realized as he felt fingers against his cock, then the soft scratch of Vlad’s beard, then the softness of lips and tongue. Danny hadn’t quite expected him to actually do it. He leaned back against the headboard, twitching and gasping softly as Vlad’s long, slow licks made his toes curl. The older man wrapped his tongue around the tip, took it in his mouth, sucked down hard, and Danny was seeing stars. He definitely hadn’t expected Vlad to try this hard, let alone be this good at it, but it looked like it was a day for surprises. “Ahh, Vlad…” he moaned, one hand knotting reflexively in his hair, the other in the sheet, moving his hips in time with Vlad’s motions, legs squirming against the bed.“Why Daniel, you’re so sensitive,” Vlad purred, switching to his hand for a moment as he looked up at Danny. “Going to pieces over something like this… How sweet.”“I am not-” Danny managed to get out before having to bite his lip to keep from moaning as Vlad took him into his mouth again. “You’re the one...getting all hard…” he panted, drawing a jolt from Vlad as he brushed a foot over the older man’s erection.Danny was expecting Vlad to mutter something about how it was completely unrelated and he was only sucking him off in the first place because Danny would be a real brat about it if he didn’t, but he just gave him a kiss on the tip and a smirk. “And why shouldn’t I be, when my precious little badger is moaning and writhing so irresistibly?”That nearly made Danny choke. Yup, it was a day for surprises, alright; not even what Vlad said as much as the way it made an excited heat rush down the younger man’s spine. Fuck. Fuck, that was… That was really erotic. Like Vlad really thought of him as his lover. He would’ve been pretty damn weirded out by it if he’d had the presence of mind to do anything but claw at the sheets, but as it was, all he could do was sigh “Vlad, Vlad…” again and again as the older man took him to the moon and back.It was when Vlad took him all the way in, swallowing around his cock, that Danny finally lost it completely. “Ah, fuck, Vlaaad…!” he cried out, forcing the older man’s head down to the base as he came, hips jerking reflexively as he rode out his orgasm, grip only loosening as he collapsed weakly back against the headboard, gasping for breath and dizzy with afterglow.“Honestly, Daniel, you could at least have given some warning,” Vlad muttered, spitting cum onto the sheets and wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist. “Well? How was I?”“...amazing,” Danny sighed before he could think about it, blushing as Vlad gave him a satisfied smirk, wrapping arms around his oversensitive body and kissing him until his head spun. His mouth tasted like cum. Danny was surprised to find it didn’t bother him.“I just love seeing you lose yourself in pleasure, my dear boy,” Vlad purred, running fingers through his hair. “You’re so lascivious.”“You just love using words I don’t know,” Danny muttered.“Wanton. Salacious. Concupiscent.” He leaned in close, breath hot against the younger man’s ear. “Slutty.”Danny shoved Vlad away with a hand to the face, curling up into a sullen, embarrassed ball with his back to him. “Shut it, dirty old man.” He just wished he could say he was wrong.Vlad just laughed, spooning him and kissing his neck. “The lad doth protest too much, methinks.”“Jeez, what part of ‘shut it’ don’t you understand?”“I’m afraid you’re just too tempting to resist.”Danny gave an annoyed hmph, curling up tighter into himself. It was weird. It had to be an act, right? Vlad must have just decided to really commit this time because he was worried Danny would leave or something if he didn’t. Just like all this time. That was the only thing the made sense.There was a way things had always been, where Vlad used Danny for sex and Danny used Vlad for shallow companionship. But it hadn’t actually been that way for years, had it? They weren’t just bodies to each other anymore. Vlad tried to teach him to make pancakes (Danny always flipped them too soon) and Danny tried to get him to play co-op video games with him (Vlad was surprisingly good at them) and they’d watch movies together and go to restaurants together and laugh at each other’s jokes. If you looked from the outside, they were a happy couple.For the longest time, Danny had thought of Vlad as replaceable. Anyone would have done; he just happened to be there. And he’d assumed the lonely old man felt the same about him. But after all this time...It was weird and honestly kinda scary and Danny didn’t want to think about it. “Good night,” he muttered, ignoring the way Vlad was rubbing up against him. He could take care of it himself. All Danny wanted to do right now was sleep.
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“How do you feel about me?” Vlad asked abruptly, causing Danny to almost choke on his soda. Sure, he’d been acting kinda off all day, but Danny thought he was just gonna ask him to try bondage or something like that, not this lovey-dovey stuff again.“What do you mean, how do I feel about you?” he asked, dedicating all his attention to cutting up his steak.“I think it’s a fairly self-explanatory query,” Vlad said, sulking at him from over the table. “What am I to you, Daniel?”Good fucking question. “...you go first.”Vlad sighed through gritted teeth, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Don’t play these games.”“I’m serious! You think I know any more than you do?” Honestly, Danny just had his fingers crossed that Vlad would chicken out and they could drop this whole stupid subject. They lived and worked and slept together, wasn’t that enough? Why did they have to get feelings involved?“...if I answer, you swear you’ll do the same?”Well, no such luck. “Sure. Fine. Whatever.”Vlad couldn’t meet his eyes, blushing as he toyed with his glass. “I love you.”Danny felt like he’d been hit in the back of the head with a brick. “What the fuck.”“I told you, now it’s your turn.”“No, no, wait, we’re not just glossing over this, what the fuck?” Danny buried his face in his hands, rubbing his temples. “Seriously? Since when? Why?”Vlad pounded his hand on the table, causing Danny to look up with a jolt. “Because I don’t have anyone else, Daniel, is that what you want to hear!?” he snapped, red faced and teeth gritted and tears threatening in the corners of his eyes and dear lord, he actually meant it, didn’t he. “You’re endearingly bratty, you’re infuriatingly charming and sweet when you want to be, you’re a fine lab assistant, and most importantly, you’re the only person in the world who could possibly hope to understand what I’ve been through; is that enough of an explanation for you!?”“...yeah,” Danny mumbled. “...sorry.” He really didn’t know what else to say. Now that Vlad had actually said it, he had to admit he’d known. It was a little obvious. It was just so much easier to pretend that none of it meant anything and feelings weren’t a part of what they had. Whatever that was.“Your turn,” Vlad said through gritted teeth, downing the remainder of his wine and pouring himself another glass.Danny didn’t know how to answer. He didn’t know how he felt about Vlad, or what the man was to him if not his weird roommate/lab partner/fuckbuddy. He’d spent so long trying not to think about any of that.He didn’t know whether he liked things the way they’d started, where it was all just an act for both of them, but it had been easy. Easier than caring, easier than this.“Does it really matter?” he sighed. “Like, I do whatever you want me to, why do you care how I feel?”Vlad looked like he’d been slapped. “How can you say that, after all these years?”“Because it’s true,” Danny said, crossing his arms, unable to look at him. “I never asked you to love me.”“You asked me to treat you as though I did.”“That’s different.”“So you’d rather it were an act, is that right?” Vlad snapped, tears threatening once more. “Is that all it’s ever been for you?”Danny just shrugged. He didn’t know anymore. That was the worst part. If Vlad was really nothing more than a tool to him then none of this would be an issue, and he could cuddle up to him and kiss him and say he loved him as many times as Vlad wanted, certain that it didn’t mean anything. But it felt wrong to lie to him like that. Especially now that he knew Vlad meant every word.“...I think you should sleep in your room tonight,” Vlad said curtly, turning back to his dinner, mouth tight.“...fine.”It was only a few days before Danny wordlessly invited himself back into Vlad’s bed. Everything went back to normal, more or less. It was as easy as ever for Danny to pretend nothing had happened; it was what he’d been doing all this time. But every once in a while, he’d catch Vlad looking at him with the strange, closed-in expression he now recognized as hurt.It was so hard to imagine Vlad as capable of being hurt by him.
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Vlad was incredibly bad at keeping secrets. Especially when it was something big. Like renovating the mansion.“Okay, seriously, just tell me what it is already?” Danny said, cornering Vlad outside the East Wing where he was directing demolition with his usual perfectionistic fervor.“I don’t think so,” Vlad said, crossing his arms. “It’s a secret.”“You’re tearing down the wall, Vlad,” Danny sighed. “You can’t call it a secret.”“Yes, well, I still want to keep my reasons a secret.”Danny rolled his eyes and walked over to the nearest construction worker. “Hey, excuse me? What exactly are you building here?”“What, you didn’t know? It’s gonna be a tower when it’s done.”Vlad buried his face in his hands.“Why couldn’t you just tell me that?” Danny asked. “You know I couldn’t care less what you do to this place.” As long as he had his own room with none of Vlad’s tacky decor and narcissistic self-portraits (quite a few of which were new additions featuring Danny as well, unfortunately), that was fine by him.“...it’s an observatory,” Vlad finally said.“...like for stargazing.”“I’ve already ordered the telescope, yes.” He was blushing, just a little, as he met Danny’s eyes. “It was supposed to be your birthday present this year. That’s why I wanted it to be a surprise.”Danny was at something of a loss, standing there as the deafening noise of construction hammered at him. “Can we go inside?”“Why, of course, little badger,” Vlad said before turning back to the foreman. “Be careful with the gas main there! And the wiring! If this place goes up in flames you’re liable, you know!”Danny was curled up on the couch, head in his hand, when Vlad sat down next to him. “Don’t you like it?”“I mean… It’s not like I don’t like it, it’s really cool, but can you just give it a rest already?” he said, eyes fixed on the electrical outlet.Vlad tensed against him. “I beg your pardon?”“Like, the backstage passes and the sportscars and the pre-release tech and the trips everywhere, it’s not like I don’t appreciate that stuff,” Danny muttered, “but it’s not gonna work.”“What isn’t going to work.”“Whatever you think you’re doing. I already told you, I’ll do whatever you want, so you don’t have to… I don’t know, buy me.” He felt like enough of a whore already, thank you very much.“Daniel… Daniel, look at me.” Danny looked up to see Vlad’s face set in the same taut expression he’d grown so tired of. “I’m not trying to buy you, I’m trying to make you happy. You do like those things, don’t you?”Danny wrapped his arms around his knees and rested his head on them, turning back to the outlet. “...I dunno. I guess.”It wasn’t that he didn’t like the things Vlad did for him. Last spring they went to Houston and took a private tour of NASA, even got to see the control center and go in the cockpit of a space shuttle, and that had been amazing. If he was being honest, most of the stuff Vlad did for him was amazing.What he didn’t like was the way Vlad looked at him when he did those things, like he was expecting Danny to throw his arms around his neck and shower him with kisses and say he loved him just because he bought him something nice. Vlad was a billionaire. Money didn’t mean anything to him, and after seven years, it didn’t mean anything to Danny either.And some stupid part of Danny didn’t like that he couldn’t just give Vlad what he wanted, when he was clearly trying so hard. He might not feel like he owed him for the gifts, but the devotion (and that was the only thing he could call it) was a different matter.That was why he hadn’t said anything sooner; because he didn’t want to see the hurt on Vlad’s face.“What do you want, then?” Vlad asked, putting a hand on his shoulder, trying to meet his eyes only to have Danny look away.“I don’t know, alright? I just… I don’t know.” There had been things he wanted, precious things that had been taken from him and that he wanted back, but he’d made himself forget, because he wouldn’t have survived otherwise.He let Vlad pull him into his arms, didn’t turn away when the man leaned in to kiss him. “I love you, Daniel.”Danny really wished he wouldn’t say that.“Do you wanna do something?” he asked, head resting against Vlad’s chest, because he felt like an ungrateful piece of shit.“Like what?”“A movie or a video game or lab work, I dunno, whatever.”“A game, then.”They played Ninja Deathmatch 6 on co-op and it was fun, the way playing video games with Vlad was always fun, and it made Danny feel a bit better until they reached the end of a level and Vlad said he was going to turn in for the night and very pointedly did not ask Danny to come to bed with him, giving him that look all the while.Danny went to bed with him. Danny blinked awake to the smell of coffee and pancakes. “Happy birthday, Daniel!” Vlad said, beaming down at him from beside the bed, a tray with breakfast on the bedside table next to him.“...I’m not hungry,” Danny mumbled, turning his back to Vlad and stuffing his face back into the pillows. Right. Today was his birthday. He’d completely forgotten. “...how long have you been staring at me like that?”“Come now, little badger, can’t you have a bit more enthusiasm?” Vlad asked, drawing an annoyed groan from Danny as he pulled the covers off.“No,” the younger man muttered, reluctantly turning to face Vlad again. “Jeez, what is up with you? I already got my present and everything.” The observatory was nice. Vlad was having Danny teach him how to find constellations and planets. So that was a fun couples activity.“Well, since the surprise was ruined, I got you something else too,” Vlad said, sitting on the side of the bed and handing Danny a mug of coffee. “I trust you’ve heard of those zero-gravity flights that are so popular lately?”“What, you’re not taking me to the ISS?” Danny said, staring into the mug. “I figured you’d know a guy.”Vlad sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Daniel…”“Yeah, yeah, I’ll stop being an asshole,” he said, leaning over to kiss Vlad. “Thanks, that’s sweet of you.” It did sound cool, it was just that Danny had a hard time getting enthusiastic about much of anything lately.“Yes, it is,” Vlad said, handing Danny the tray. “Now have some pancakes. I made them myself.”Danny handed it right back. “I told you, I’m not hungry… Come hold me, I wanna sleep more.”Vlad pouted, but still shrugged off his dressing gown and climbed back into bed to spoon Danny, tucking the younger man’s head under his chin.“This has been a nice birthday so far,” Danny said, pulling his arms around closer, nestling into the familiar steady warmth. “Seriously. I’m just tired, that’s all.”“...if you say so, little badger,” Vlad said, kissing his hair. Danny did try to at least fake a bit more excitement as they jetted down to LA for the zero-G flight, but he didn’t think it was working very well. Vlad knew him better than that, after all this time. So the crew must have been pretty confused as to why Danny looked so bored and distracted, and Vlad looked like a sullen child.But then they got to the zero-G part, drifting weightless in the wide open cabin, and Danny was hit with an aching sensation of familiarity as he tried to glide through the air the way he once could have. From the look on Vlad’s face, he felt it too, tears drifting from the older man’s eyes as he looked at Danny.It was like being a ghost again. They were quiet during the drive back to the hotel, both lost in their own thoughts. Danny couldn’t stop glancing over at Vlad. He’d never seen the man with such a hollow expression, at least not since this all began. It scared him, a little, but more than that, he just didn’t like seeing him so upset. Especially not when it was something he did for for Danny in the first place.They got back to the room. Vlad undressed, hung up his suit, sat on the edge of the bed in his underwear and socks, staring at the floor. “...I hadn’t thought about it,” he finally said. “I thought you’d like to experience zero-gravity because you like space, that’s all.”“...do you miss it?”Vlad just looked at him like he’d never heard such a stupid question in his life.“I barely even remember what it was like,” Danny sighed, sitting down next to him, leaning against his shoulder. “I mean, I was a ghost for less than a year, y’know?”“It was over twenty years for me,” Vlad murmured. “I’d forgotten what it felt like to be human. I still forget sometimes, and try to fly or reach through things. I’m not sure I’ll ever get completely used to it.”Danny had never really thought about it before, but that had to be the case, didn’t it? He wouldn’t say it was worse for Vlad than himself, he was the one who lost his friends and family, but having something that had been a part of him for decades torn out like that… “...sorry.”“Don’t say that.”“Yeah, but, it’s kinda my fault, isn’t it?” Danny laughed humorlessly. “Like, if I hadn’t asked you to do that, you’d still be a ghost. We both would.” He looked up at Vlad’s expressionless profile. “...aren’t you mad?”Vlad didn’t reply, body tense against the younger man’s. “...of course I was,” he finally said. “For years. But my options were to take it out on you, the only other person who could understand how I felt, or to tell myself it didn’t matter anymore and try to move on.”“Yeah, same.” Part of Danny had wanted to make Vlad suffer for everything he’d done. He’d deserve it. They were stuck together, trapped in orbit, and if Vlad was miserable Danny would be too, but part of him thought that wasn’t too high of a price to pay.It wasn’t that he was still doing that. Not really. He didn’t hate Vlad anymore, he didn’t want him to be miserable, and he could feel the gravity pulling them closer with every look and every touch and every moment spent together, and he knew that eventually he wouldn’t be able to resist it anymore and he’d be able to give Vlad what he wanted, because it wasn’t that Danny didn’t want to give it to him.“...thanks for that,” Danny said, shifting to lie on the bed and pulling Vlad over to hold him. “I mean it.”Vlad didn’t reply, but he pulled the covers over both of them and wrapped his arms around Danny.The younger man was almost asleep when he heard a soft “I wonder if we could do it again.”“...do what again, the flight thingy?” Danny mumbled.“The accidents that made us ghosts.”“...you’d wanna?”“Wouldn’t you?”Danny was quiet for a moment, thinking. “...I dunno. It’s been such a long time, I’ve gotten used to being human again.”“Hm.”Vlad didn’t say anything else, and Danny fell asleep. The subject was dropped, but Vlad’s distractedness made it obvious that he hadn’t stopped thinking about it.Danny wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up again. He was thinking about it too, of course; he’d never even considered the possibility before, but why not? Hypothetically, there was nothing stopping them. He could be Danny Phantom again, not just some billionaire’s kept man. It was tempting, it really was. But something about the thought of going back to the way he was before any of this started, only without any of the people he’d spent that time with, felt wrong. And besides, now that Vlad wasn’t his enemy, he probably wouldn’t have many ghosts to fight anyways. Their weird psychosexual son was still running around somewhere, but the ghost-hunting squads Vlad funded were handling that whole mess pretty well. So Danny didn’t really see the point, especially when there was still a risk that he’d die for real. He didn’t want it that bad.Vlad, though, was a different story.“You became a ghost when you were infused with energy from the Fenton ghost portal, yes?” Vlad said suddenly while they were lounging on the couch together, Danny’s legs crosswise over Vlad’s.Danny paused his game. “I mean, yeah?”“Do you remember the conditions?” Vlad said, turning to look at him, something close to desperation in his eyes. “Do you think you could recreate them with our portal?”For a long moment, Danny didn’t say anything, just sat there and looked at Vlad. “...we’d have to retrofit it,” he finally said. “But yeah, probably.”Vlad snapped his book shut. “What do we need?”“You really wanna be a ghost again?”“Yes.”“You’re not just gonna go back to being a villain, are you?”Vlad’s eye twitched. “Daniel, we have cohabitated for seven years now. I should hope you know me a little better than that.”“...yeah, you’re right.” VladCo was doing fine, and more importantly, there was nothing left that Vlad wanted, not now that Maddie was gone and Danny was his.Vlad turned to him, pulling Danny up into a sitting position so their faces were level. “You’ll become a ghost again too, won’t you?”“...I dunno.”“Why are you so hesitant?” Vlad said, voice tinged with frustration.“I just… I don’t see the point, okay?” Danny said, words coming out more snappish than he’d intended. “I was absolutely terrified when it first happened! I had no idea what was happening to me or how to control it and I couldn’t even tell my parents cause I was scared they’d dissect me! It wasn’t cool, it wasn’t fun! The only reason I ever liked it at all was cause I could use them to do something good, something useful, and even if I got my powers back now it wouldn’t be the same.” He stopped himself, took a deep breath, let the tension drain from his body. “...I’m fine with being human, alright? I’m fine with the way things are now.”Vlad was blinking at him, eyes wide. “...I see,” he finally said. “Well, I suppose I can’t force you, if that’s what you want.”“You’re still gonna do it though?” Danny said as Vlad stood up and neatened his suit.“Yes, I am,” the older man said. “Come help me in the lab.”Some part of Danny wanted to say no, that he didn’t want Vlad to do this, but he couldn’t put it into words even in his own head. So he got up and followed Vlad down to the basement.
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Months passed, and Vlad was seeming more impatient and more off by the day. Progress on reconstructing the portal and conducting tests was crawling along, mostly because of Danny’s...well, ‘sabotage’ was an awfully strong word. It wasn’t like he was going to the lab in the middle of the night and smashing stuff or anything. His memories of what condition the portal had been in weren’t so clear anymore, that was all, so they had to keep trying different configurations until they got the one that worked. And it would be absolutely awful scientific practice not to test it thoroughly before Vlad used it on himself. So it was natural that it wound up taking a lot of time.“Can’t we take a break today?” Danny said, sleepily groping for Vlad’s arm as the older man got out of bed.“I’m feeling optimistic about this configuration,” Vlad said, pulling himself free and going to get dressed.“We never do anything together anymore though,” the younger man muttered.“Of course we do.”“Lab work doesn’t count.”“And why not?” Vlad said, turning to glare at him, arms crossed. “Because it’s not what you want to do?”Danny hadn’t been expecting that. “I mean… It’s just that you spend all your time working now, so…”“I spend all my time working because this is important to me, Daniel!” Vlad snapped. “I know you’d rather have me at your beck and call round the clock so I can be player two in your silly video games or help you with your math homework, but there are things I want to do as well, you know!”“What’re you… You’re the one who’s always offering to do stuff for me, though!”“Only because you don’t seem willing to tolerate my presence otherwise,” Vlad muttered, expression taut. “You barely humor me even when we’re doing things of your choosing, let alone anything I’d want.”“What? That’s not true.”“Remember the last time we went to a Packers game?” Vlad said. Danny did remember; he’d spent the entire time grumbling about how stupid sports were when he wasn’t on his handheld. “Or golfing?” Danny had deliberately hit his balls into every water trap there so he didn’t have to play. “Or when I tried to teach you chess?” It was ten minutes before Danny flipped the board and walked out. “Or knitting?” Danny still hadn’t stopped mocking Vlad for knitting in the first place. “You’ve never taken the slightest interest in anything I care about, and you needn’t force yourself now. I know you’ve only ever been humoring me.”Danny wasn’t awake enough for this. “Why would you think I…”“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because it’s what you tell me every time I’m so foolish as to ask!?” he snapped, tears threatening at the corners of his eyes, storming out before Danny had a chance to get his thoughts in order.It was actually pretty fair, was the thing. It wasn’t like Danny ever actually said he liked Vlad or spending time with him or anything. Vlad was always the one doing stuff for him, cozying up to him, and Danny just...let him. He might feel kinda shitty and ungrateful, but he still never did anything to reciprocate. No wonder Vlad had gotten sick of him.Maybe that was why he wanted to become a ghost again. So he could start doing more stuff in the Ghost Zone. Without Danny.He’d never even considered the possibility of Vlad leaving him, because it had never seemed possible to begin with, not with how desperate the man was. It seemed possible now. There was no reason why that should scare Danny was much as it did, but... It wasn’t just that he’d be alone without Vlad, or that no one else could understand what he’d been through, or that he’d miss the attention and the gifts. He’d miss Vlad. Vlad was up to his elbows in wiring, a manual open beside him, when Danny came down the stairs. “...I brought you some coffee,” the younger man said. “The Belgian Chocolate one, with lots of milk and sugar.”Vlad wiped his brow on his wrist and turned to Danny, accepting the mug without meeting his eyes. “...thank you.”They leaned against the wall, Vlad sipping his coffee, Danny his soda, glancing at each other out of the corners of their eyes. “Sorry for being such a little shit,” Danny finally said.“...you should be,” Vlad muttered, then sighed. “Apology accepted.”“I, uh… I don’t want you to do this, okay?” Danny said, turning to make the older man meet his eyes. “I don’t want you to become a halfa again.”Vlad’s expression was fixed and unreadable. “Why not? What is it to you, anyways?”“...I like that we’re the same,” the younger man said, feeling his face starting to grow hot. “That’s what brought us together in the first place, right? That we’re the only people like us in the world? I don’t wanna lose that.”“...you consider being with me a good thing?” Vlad said, features starting to soften.“I do now, yeah,” Danny replied, putting down his soda and putting a hand on Vlad’s arm. “I’ll be less of an ungrateful brat, I promise, so please… Don’t leave me.”“Because you won’t have anyone to cater to you anymore?”“...because I love you.”Vlad dropped his coffee, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. He didn’t even seem to notice the mug shattering in front of his feet.“...c’mon, say something, don’t make this weird,” Danny said, suddenly unable to meet his eyes.“...do you mean it?”“Course I do.”And then Vlad’s arms were around him and Vlad’s lips were on his and he was kissing him and kissing him, covering his face and neck with kisses until all Danny could do was kiss him back, laughing with relief and happiness. “You really are a brat,” Vlad murmured fondly, forehead to forehead.“Yeah, but I’m your brat.”This was still all messed up, Danny couldn’t help but think as he fumbled with Vlad’s buttons, as Vlad pushed up his shirt to caress his bare skin. He was just a kid when this all started, Vlad was old enough to be his father, hell, legally he was his father; no one could call that anything other than messed up. But Vlad was the only one for him, and Danny was the only one for Vlad, and messed up or no, right now he was happier than he’d been in as long as he could remember. Maybe, just maybe, he could be okay with that. “So do you still wanna be a ghost?” Danny asked hours later, when they were curled up together in bed, sweaty and pleasantly exhausted.“Do you still not want me to?” Vlad mumbled into the crook of Danny’s neck.“It doesn’t feel like such a big deal anymore,” the younger man said, running his fingers through Vlad’s hair. “Like, you’re not gonna up and ditch me just cause you get your powers back, right?”“Of course not! I don’t know why you thought I would do such a thing.”Danny shrugged. “Dunno, cause I’m apparently kind of a dumbass when it comes to this sorta thing?”“Your words, not mine,” Vlad said. “But, well… I’ll have you as long as you want me.”“You big sap,” Danny laughed, kissing him. “I’ll, y’know, try to be less of a little shit, alright? Like, if you don’t wanna play video games or do astronomy together or whatever…”“...it’s not like I don’t enjoy those things,” Vlad said, blushing as Danny cuddled him. “I’m just tired of being the only one making an effort.”“Well, I’ll make an effort, alright? Promise.”“I hope you know I’m going to hold you to that.”“I hope you do.”“And to answer your question, I suppose I’ll give it some more thought,” Vlad said. “...I like us being the same as well. And I think it’s sweet how much you care.”“I think you’re sweet,” Danny said, kissing him until he was a flustered, blushing mess.“...you don’t play fair.”Danny just laughed. “Never have, never will.”
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Danny and Vlad were in bed together, kissing, undressing each other, when Danny shifted suddenly to crouch atop Vlad, pinning the older man to the bed. “So I was thinking we could try something different tonight,” he murmured, smirking down at him in his best imitation of Vlad’s own hungry, lustful gaze. From the way Vlad gulped and flushed, it looked to be working.“And what exactly did you have in mind, my boy?” he asked, squirming ever so slightly as Danny traced light fingers down his hip.“Oh, I think you know exactly what I have in mind, old man,” Danny whispered as he spread Vlad’s legs. “It’s my turn.”Vlad made a weird, flustered, indignant noise and an even weirder, more flustered, more indignant face as he scrambled out from under Danny, pulling his knees up to his chest. “Honestly, what do you think you’re doing, trying to act so dominant all of a sudden? You sound ridiculous.”“Really? Cause it didn’t look like you minded so much,” Danny replied, rolling his eyes. “So are you gonna lie back down and let your ‘boy’ fuck you so hard you forget your own name, or are you gonna be all weird and uptight about it?”“As though you could manage something like that,” Vlad hmphed.“Well, I can pretty much guarantee I’ll be better than you were the first time you fucked me, so that’s something.”“You needn’t be so rude about it,” the older man said. “Honestly.”“C’mon, Vladdy, you know you’ll love it,” Danny teased, coaxing Vlad out of his defensive posture to trace fingers over his erection. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it before.”Vlad’s only reply was a deepening blush and an averted gaze as he let Danny shift him onto his back. This time, he spread his legs on his own. “If you say anything, Daniel,” he hissed, “I’m getting out of bed and taking a cold shower and you can just take care of yourself by yourself, do you understand me?”“Sure, sure,” Danny said, smiling and toying with Vlad's hair. “Don't worry, I'll be gentle with you...”“Oh, shut up.”Danny knotted his hand in the older man's hair and kissed him, deep and passionate, until Vlad was moaning into his mouth and grinding up against his hip. “Not yet, Vladdy,” Danny said, holding Vlad down with a hand to the chest as he sat up and rummaged one-handed for the lube. “Can't have you getting off before I've even started, now can we.”Vlad groaned and rolled his eyes, but stayed put as Danny slicked down his fingers. He let out a stifled noise as the younger man began to tease him, blushing bright red and biting his lip and looking fixedly at the sheets, then another more uncomfortable noise as a finger was pushed inside him. “I am not enjoying this,” he said, voice clipped.“Jeez, give me a sec here!” Danny replied, prodding around inside him. “I've only ever been on the receiving end. As you damn well know. So just hold your friggen horses and let me find your prostate!”“Why, Daniel!” Vlad said, positively scandalized. “You oughtn’t to be so—aaahh…!” He cut himself off with a gasp, hips jerking.“See?” Danny was grinning for all he was worth. “Found it. We're already doing like twenty times better than my first time!”“Shut...up…” Vlad managed to get out between stifled moans before giving up and biting his knuckles to keep quiet.“Aw, he's shy…” Danny said, giving him a kiss on the forehead before slipping in another finger to stretch him in earnest. “Well? Still not enjoying it?”Vlad's only reply was to grab Danny by the hair and drag him down into a hard, dirty, open-mouthed kiss. He didn't pull away until Danny's head was spinning.“I'll take that as a yes,” the younger man said, flushed and panting.“Actually, yes would imply that I'm still not–” was as far as Vlad got before Danny kissed him again, adding another finger, doing everything he could to shut him up. Now was not the time for pedantry; they were trying to fuck here, for goodness’ sakes.Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick. When Danny broke the kiss, fingers still working inside Vlad, all the older man could do was gaze up at him, panting, moaning and gasping softly whenever Danny hit him just right. It was damn near the hottest thing he'd ever seen in his life. He wasn't just Vlad's plaything anymore, even a beloved one. Now Vlad was the one whimpering and squirming and absolutely going to pieces under Danny, and god, he was actually letting him do it. Letting Danny see him needy and vulnerable. So yeah. It was pretty fucking hot.“Think you're ready?” Danny murmured into Vlad's ear, still stretching him. “Cause I know I am.”Vlad just nodded, once, like he didn't trust himself to speak, and Danny was honestly kinda embarrassed at the wave of love that rushed through him at the sight. He didn't trust himself to speak either, kissing him tenderly as he pulled out his hand and slicked himself down and positioned himself between the older man's legs.“Just relax,” he murmured as slowly, slowly, he pushed inside, and damn, if this was what it felt like every time Vlad fucked him, no wonder he was such a horndog. “God, you're so tight…”“Likely because I can’t help but tense up,” Vlad said in the same uncomfortable, clipped tone as before. “Daniel, this is not pleasant and is in fact rather painful.”“Yeah, well, now you know how I felt,” Danny said vaguely, too distracted by the hot tightness of Vlad's insides to care much about poetic justice or anything else. “Just relax,” he repeated meaninglessly, giving the older man a kiss before gasping in pleasure as he started to move.“Daniel this is not helping,” Vlad said through gritted teeth, painful tears springing to the corner of his eyes.“Gimme a sec…” Danny said, trying to angle for the place that had made Vlad lose it. After a few moments of uncomfortable prodding (well, uncomfortable for Vlad; Danny was about five seconds from losing all control and railing him whether he was ready or not) Vlad gave a ragged gasp, legs twitching. “There?” Danny asked as he thrust in the same spot and was rewarded by another moan from Vlad. “Hold on tight, Vladdy,” Danny said, grinning and licking his lips as he hitched Vlad’s legs up over his hips and started to move.“Aaahh, Daniel…!” Vlad cried out, back arching, legs tightening around Danny as he was fucked, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth, breathless, helpless, digging nails into Danny's back as he clung to him, the absolute definition of a mess. “...wait...not so…”Danny could barely hear him. He could barely think. Yeah, it felt amazing, but more than anything it was the sight of Vlad going to pieces under him. He’d never quite realized before (he’d never let himself), but in some small way, he’d spent the last decade thinking of himself as Vlad’s. His pet, his companion, his beloved, but always Vlad’s, a moon caught in his orbit. Until this moment, Danny had never been able to think of Vlad as being his as well.But he was, wasn’t he. He always had been.“You’re mine,” Danny breathed, eyes locked on Vlad’s, and kissed him.He pulled back to see Vlad looking downright peeved. “Daniel,” he said in his best ‘and just what do you think you’re doing’ tone. Danny stopped, blinking, not really sure where to put himself, as Vlad caught his breath, wiped his face. “Now then,” he finally said, staring sullenly up at Danny, mouth working for a moment as he searched for words, “...that hurt!”Danny had to fight back laughter. “Uh...sorry? Guess I got kinda carried away.”“Honestly, have some consideration for your partner.”“Still better than the first time you did me.”Vlad heaved a theatrical sigh. “I’m sorry, Daniel, is that what you want to hear?”“...do you want me to stop?”“...just don’t go so fast or so hard,” he replied, unable to meet Danny’s eyes.The younger man laughed, covering Vlad’s face with playful kisses. “You’re adorable, you know that? You sweet eager virgin.”“I… I am not adorable and I am most certainly not a virgin!” Vlad said. “Honestly, you of all people ought to know as much.”“You’re a virgin as far as playing catcher goes,” Danny said, “but I’m a virgin for pitching, so I guess that makes us even, huh?”Vlad frowned at him in open bafflement for a moment before it seemed to click. “...what a strange euphemism.”“I guess? I didn’t make it up,” Danny said with a shrug. “Now do you wanna lie here chatting all night, or do you wanna get back to business?”“If it means you’ll cease in your brattiness for even a moment, by all means, continue.”“Fair deal,” Danny laughed, giving him a soft kiss as he began to move again, slower this time, trying to focus on making Vlad feel good as much as on his own pleasure. “How’s that?”“...better,” Vlad said, eyes heavy-lidded, biting at his lip, as he reached between their bodies to touch himself. “Ah, there, like that…”Danny obliged, doing his best to hit the same place, thrusting deep and slow, urged on by Vlad’s moaning and squirming, his breathless words of encouragement, the look on his face whenever his eyes met Danny’s. “God, I love you,” Danny murmured, kissing Vlad again as he was brought closer and closer to orgasm.“...harder, Daniel, I’m almost…” Vlad finally gasped out, and Danny definitely did not have to be told twice. It was only moments later that Vlad let out a wordless cry of ecstasy, tightening around Danny as he spilled hot and wet between them. Danny thrust a few more times before it was all too much and he was pushed over the edge with a ragged moan of “Vlad…!” filling him as he rode out his orgasm before collapsing boneless on top of him.They lie there for a long moment, skin against skin, catching their breath, before Vlad gently shoved Danny off him, shifting so they were face to face. “You’re always heavier than I expect.”“Again, now you know how I feel,” Danny muttered, pulling out as gently as he could before cuddling back into Vlad’s arms. “So?”“Not bad, for your first time.”“Oh come on, for once in your dang life just say you liked it.”Vlad was silent for a moment, toying with Danny’s hair. “...I imagine I’ll like it better once you’ve had a bit more practice.”It took a moment to click, and when it did, Danny leaned back to give Vlad the most smug, shit-eating grin of his life. “So you’re asking me to practice more, is that right?”“...no,” Vlad said, grimacing. “I take it back. I regret everything.”“So you’re saying you want me to fuck you into the mattress again, yeah?”“I am not.”“You’re saying you want me to bang you like a screen door in a hurricane, right?”“If your intent is convincing me to never, ever let you touch me again, it’s succeeding quite admirably!”“Oh come on, you know you love me,” Danny laughed, kissing Vlad and nuzzling into the crook of his neck. “You’re just way too fun to tease.”Vlad hmphed petulantly, but still wrapped his arms around the younger man and kissed the top of his head.“Love ya, Vlad.”“...you too.”They were a binary star, Danny thought as he dozed in Vlad's arms. Locked together in inescapable orbit, but equal, balanced.Yeah, he could be okay with this.
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“...well, aren’t you sweet today.”“Don’t let it go to your head, old man.”Danny rolled his eyes. “Sure, fine, whatever, just gonna ignore all that. So the thing is, I’m kinda stuck in the future cause of this talisman in my chest, long story, but if you can tear the ghosts out of people, you think you could use that to get the medallion out?”Daniel and Vlad exchanged a glance. “I don’t see why not?” Daniel said, shrugging. “Should work, theoretically. You still have those gloves, right?”“Yes, I believe they’re in storage somewhere,” Vlad replied, nodding. “Give me a moment to fetch them; I’ll leave you two little badgers to talk.” He waved lightly and went back up the stairs, leaving Danny alone with his future self. Not weird at all.“Soooo…” the boy began, looking for anything to talk about that wasn’t him and Vlad apparently being a couple, “did you guys know I was coming?”“We had some idea,” Daniel said. “UW-Madison has a surprisingly decent collection of books on the supernatural; one of them mentioned Clockwork and the Observers, so we figured if they got involved in the whole Vlanny mess you’d wind up here in the future sooner or later. Part of the reason we rebuilt the ghost portal was so you could find us and we could lend a hand. We’re, uh, we are working on cleaning things up on our end, by the way,” he said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “Kinda hard without any ghost powers, though.”“This future’s gonna disappear as soon as I prevent the whole Nasty Burger thing though, right?” Danny said. “Like, that was the whole point of Clockwork interfering in the first place.”Daniel frowned thoughtfully. “Hm, I mean… It definitely will for you, but… Hm.”“Silly boy, don’t you know anything about time paradoxes?” Vlad said, coming back down the stairs with a pair of very scary looking gauntlets in hand. “The timelines branch at the Nasty Burger incident. Young Danny here will prevent it, thus directing his timeline to one in which his family and friends survive, and Vladiel is never created. Whereas our timeline will continue to exist in its current state. Understood?”“Not even a little,” Danny said.“More or less,” Daniel said with a smile. “Now then, uh, me… Should I do the honors, or should Vlad?”“Definitely you,” Danny replied. “No offense, but I don’t think I want Vlad’s hands in me.”The amused look the two adults exchanged was enough to make the boy gag. “Fair, fair,” Daniel laughed, taking the gloves from Vlad and putting them on, needlelike claws extending from the fingertips. “...tell everyone I love them, alright?”Danny gave him a smile and a thumbs-up. “You got it.”“Thanks for saving them,” Daniel said. Then he took a deep breath and plunged his hand into his younger self’s chest. The younger Danny disappeared, and the older was left standing there with a medallion in his hand, looking at the place where he’d stood. After a moment, he turned, walked over to the table, placed the medallion on it, removed the gloves, placed those next to the medallion, and turned to Vlad. “Well… We’re still here.”“What did I tell you, my boy? Time paradoxes.”“...I’m kinda relieved,” Danny laughed. “Like yeah, I’m glad that other me can prevent all this from happening for him and everyone else, but… I guess I’m happy with things the way they are now.”“You really are sweet today,” Vlad said, giving him a soft kiss.“Yeah, yeah.”
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“So I’ve been wondering about this for a while now,” Danny started, lounging in bed with Vlad’s head resting on his chest, “but are you bi or what?”“…come again?”“Nah, I think I’ve had enough for one night.”Vlad groaned, rolling his eyes, as Danny laughed. “Don’t quip at me, I honestly don’t follow.”“Like, you had that weird thing for my mom, right?” Danny said, shifting to sit up. “So I guess you’re into girls or whatever, but you’ve been fucking me pretty enthusiastically, so… Are you actually into dudes too, or was I just in the wrong place at the wrong time?”Vlad frowned thoughtfully, sitting up next to him. “…I’m not often attracted to anyone, if I’m being honest. I suppose gender isn’t so much of a factor.”“Well isn’t that sweet of you, making an exception for little old me,” Danny teased, leaning in to poke at his face.“I don’t mean it like that,” Vlad muttered.“What’s that you like to say? Freudian Slip?”“And how about you, Daniel?” Vlad said pointedly. “Where do your interests lie?”Danny shrugged. “I guess I’m bi? Like I used to tell myself I was straight, y’know, before everything, but looking back on it now I was always kinda into guys too. Like I had a big ol’ gay crush on this dumbass jock and everything. I guess I just convinced myself that it was normal admiration or something? But I saw his dick once in the locker room and couldn’t stop thinking about it for a week, so yeah, probably not just admiration.” He shifted, smirking over at Vlad. “How about you? When did you first realize you wanted to bang a teen boy?”“You needn’t put it like that,” Vlad muttered, glaring at him. “And for your information, it wasn’t until you came into my room that night and asked to sleep with me.”“Really now.”“I swear!”“…no offense, but I’m not sure I believe you,” Danny said, cocking an eyebrow. “Like, there were always some weird undertones to the whole ‘be my son’ thing.”Vlad sighed theatrically. “Well, it’s no use trying to convince you of anything when you’re like this, now is there. You’ll just believe whatever you want to believe, even if it’s something as flagrantly absurd as my wanting to have sex with teenagers.”“Dude, you did have sex with a teenager. Like, a lot.”“If you’ll recall, you were the one who came into my bed,” Vlad said. “But I suppose you’ll just claim it was a spur-of-the-moment thing and you spent the whole time imagining I was that jock of yours.”Danny was silent for a moment, burying his blushing face further in his arms. “…I thought you were handsome.”“…pardon?”“I mean, you were— are a grown-ass man, it’s not like I fantasized about you or anything, but…” Danny turned away even more, voice lowering until Vlad could barely hear him. “It was weird and I didn’t know how to feel about it, since we were enemies and all, but I thought you were kinda…kinda hot, okay? My dad had a magazine with a photoshoot you did in it, what with you, y’know, shirtless and all, and that, uh…made me feel some things.”“Oh, the one for Armani?” Vlad said, not quite able to look at Danny, face slightly flushed. “Well, I suppose it’s only natural; I am quite dashing, after all.”“Oh wow, you are just insufferable, huh,” Danny said, shaking his head.“There’s nothing wrong with being aware of one’s own good looks!” Vlad said huffily. “What, would you not say the same of yourself?”Danny blinked. “…you think I’m handsome?”“…so what if I do.”The younger man laughed, wrapping his arms around Vlad and toppling them both over onto the bed, nuzzling into the crook of his neck. “Jeez, you’re so cute when you’re flustered!”Vlad blushed harder as Danny cuddled him. “And you call me insufferable. It’s truly amazing how no matter how much time passes, you never become any less of a brat.”“Yeah, and you never become any less of a pompous tsundere, but you don’t hear me whining.”“A soon- what now?”“Don’t worry about it. You’re too old to get it anyways.”Vlad sighed through gritted teeth, flipping them both over so that he was on top of Danny. “Daniel, dearest, do us both a favor and shut up.”Danny smirked, reaching up to caress his face. “Make me.”“You’re so needy,” Vlad murmured, leaning in to kiss him, shifting so they were side by side and face to face on the bed, arms and legs entangled. “I love that about you.”“Right back at ya.”