106Notes:
OMFG... I'm back! x3 Hello anyone who remembers this fic! I hope you enjoy the newest chapter!
Confession Problems!
Chapter XXII
Hope
When Dan is within visual range of Fenton Works, he enters an alley way, switches from walking to flying, and enters through Vlad's room. His adoptive father is sitting in his office chair, facing the window (how does he always know Dan is approaching?) with a smirk on his face. Dan pouts at him.
"A restaurant?" he asks with a mild glare. He is not really mad, merely... miffed.
Vlad chuckles, "They had the right timing and no problem with hiring a teenage band."
Dan scowls, "Why?"
"It seems as though the restaurant's owner has a son who enjoys the type of music Gat's band makes. Therefore, it makes sense to hire this kind of entertainment for the boy's birthday."
Dan gawks. "We have to sing Happy Birthday?"
Vlad laughs, "No, no. The boy was adamant about that."
Dan sighs in relief, "Okay, good, 'cuz I don't know if any of them even knows the right pitch to that song."
Vlad grins, "Yes, it has been altered quite a bit, hasn't it?" Suddenly, the man sobers. "Dan..." His son tenses. "You have been avoiding young Daniel like the plague. Why?"
Dan stares at the floor, "He hates when you call him that, you know."
"I am aware." Vlad sighs, "But he hates you ignoring him even more."
Dan scowls, "So what! I'm not the only one!" At Vlad's confused look, Dan elaborates: "He's been ignoring Tucker! Ever since he started d-dating—" he had to spit the word out, "—that wretch, he's been putting us all on the back-burner! Why should I not do that same!"
Vlad watches his son calmly, "Because it is not Danie—Danny who is doing it. Samantha is the one who is tugging the boy around, and you know bloody well that Danny will only fight her if he has a reason to. That reason could be you, Dan."
Dan stares at him incredulously for a moment. "... did you just cuss, Vad?" Vlad gives him a pointed look and Dan stands a little straighter, recognizing that look as the one his father uses when he is exasperated. He stops and thinks over what he was just told. "... I... can make him stop dating Samantha?"
Vlad smiles slightly, "It all depends, Dan."
"On?"
Vlad shrugs, "Whether or not you stop avoiding him."
Dan studies his father, "... You don't know if I can make him stop, do you?"
"Of course I do not know," Vlad says in a way that implies he does not care that he is uncertain; Dan knows is bothers him. "What I do know," the man continues, "Is that nothing can come from nothing."
Dan blinks. Hearing that, he is taken back to when he was learning multiplication as a child. Nothing can come from nothing was the phrase Vlad had used to explain the 0 times table.
Dan slowly smiles.
"You're right..."
Vlad snorts, "Of course." His expression softens and he smiles at Dan. "Told you math is important."
Dan just laughs.
In the kitchen, Maddie hums to herself as she makes dinner. 'It's working!' she thinks gleefully. 'Sammy will make sure that Danny doesn't become gay like those two and she'll keep Dan's bad influence at bay! It's foolproof!' She checks the chicken in the oven.
In the living room, Danny sighs to himself as he does his history homework. He grumbles about the Cold War and Stalin as he reads the chapter. He blinks as he suddenly realizes that he has been reading the same paragraph for the last twenty minutes. He utters a soft curse and immediately hopes his mother did not hear it.
He sighs warily.
'Homework is so stupid.' He stares blankly at the page. 'I just want to talk to Dan.'
The sound of footsteps pulls Danny out of his stupor. He glances up when he notices that it is coming from upstairs. 'Who's coming down?' he wonders. His mind is still reeling from the paragraph he could not really read and part of him is aware that he should really try to read it again. But he is so bored with history! Then again, he is bored with almost anything in school. … Especially if it does not include Dan.
Danny blushes slightly. Then he frowns. Dan has been avoiding him a lot. Ever since last night when he came back. He had comforted himself the whole way home with the thought that Dan would be there to make the nightmares go away. Instead, the boy had ran off and stayed the night up with Vlad. Danny scowls. He wanted Dan in HIS bed, damn it!
When he realizes what he just said, Danny turns beat red.
Suddenly, he hears laughing.
When he looks up, he sees Dan. His eyes widen and he turns redder. 'Please, PLEASE, tell me reading minds is NOT part of being a ghost/halfghost!' Danny mentally yells.
Dan leans back in the couch across from Danny and smiles, hiding his annoyance, "Thinking of Samantha, Danny?"
Danny chokes and pales. Idly, he wonders if it is healthy for blood to move that fast. "NO!" he answers between his coughing. Dan stares at him. "No, I—" Danny looks up and blushes again and this time his wonder isn't idle. "I-I like someone, Dan." 'Just switch the 'someone' with 'you'...'
Dan's eyes widen. "someone?" he echoes.
Danny nods, "Yea..."
Dan blinks. "... I... see..." He looks away. "I assume this means you don't like Samantha?"
Danny bites his lower lip, "I do." He glances up and sees Dan's conflicted expression. "I mean... as a friend. Not... like that, you know?" Dan slowly nods.
"You should tell her that."
Danny sighs, "Yeah, I should..." He frowns. 'But I'm afraid that she and Mom will kill me.' He sighs again.
"Keep sighing and I'll be taller than you again."
Danny blinks and looks up at Dan. When he sees his brother's serious face, Danny bursts into laughter. "I don't think a few sighs can make up for the 5 inches between us, Dan!"
Dan pouts, "O shut up!"
"I-I like someone, Dan."
From the kitchen, Maddie pauses in her inspection of the chicken. She holds her position for 5 seconds. 'W-What?'
"I assume this means you don't like Samantha?"
Maddie's eyes widen.
"I do."
Maddie sighs in relief.
"I mean... as a friend. Not... like that, you know?"
Her eyes widen again. Her hands clench into fists and she grinds her teeth together. 'No. This is NOT happening.' Her son is NOT turning away what is good for him. He is NOT, damn it!
"You should tell her that."
"Yeah, I should..."
'NO!' Maddie fumes silently. She glares at the wall. 'No.'
After the laughter dies down, Dan moves to sit next to Danny and proceeds to help him with his homework. In between the history questions, Dan answers some of Danny's. Where he had been all afternoon, why he had to leave, when the concert was, whether or not he can get tickets for free (Dan laughed at that), and...
"Question #9. What was the Iron Curtain?"
"Can you tell Tucker I'm sorry?"
Dan blinks and looks at Danny oddly. "Why?" Danny ducks his head and fidgets nervously.
"He's mad, right?"
Dan studies Danny silently. "I don't know," he answers honestly. Tucker was miffed but mad? Dan is not sure if that is all that accurate. "You should talk to him." Dan frowns, "You've been ditching him a lot lately."
Danny sighs, "I'm sorry."
Dan shakes his head, "Don't tell me. Tell Tuck. He's the one you're letting alone."
Danny nods, "Right." He smiles at Dan, "Thanks."
Dan blinks at him, "For?"
Danny laughs and returns to his homework.
When History is done, Danny decides to take a shower and then sleep. He corners Dan before he does, though, and makes him promise to wake him up in the morning. After realizing the hidden command in Danny's odd request, Dan nods and accepts. He chuckles and leaves his younger twin to wash up.
"So, how did it go?" Vlad asks when Dan returns. His son smiles.
"Well." He walks over and hugs the man, "Thank you."
Vlad chuckles, "You would have done nothing if I did not push your sorry hide." Dan pouts and sticks his tongue out at him. The half ghost only laughs.
Dan shakes his head, "Whatever. Can I use the portal?" Vlad nods and waves him away before going back to his work. Dan grins and activates the now invisible (thanks to Technus) Ghost Portal before jumping in and flying off to find Ember.
Posted: July 11