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“Ugh…”
He finally stirred, sitting up in his bed. According to his alarm clock, it was only around two in the morning. What could have woken him- oh. That. There it was, that noise again. That accursed noise:
“WAAAAAAHHH!”
The little fella was crying again. Of course with that he had no choice but to get up and go see what the toddler’s problem was NOW. He groggily got up and stretched, and made his way to the bedroom next to his own that originally served a guest room (as was to be expected, his manor was enormous).
The interior of the child’s room hadn’t gone through too many adjustments yet, save for a smaller bed and some toys that had been salvaged from the wreckage at least a week prior. There the boy was, sitting on his bed as he continued to wail… again. Vlad just sighed, and for a moment he just massaged his temples and mentally prepared himself to deal with whatever the child’s issue was this time.
He switched on the light, went over to the bed, and the one and a half year old kept crying. Oh boy, it was happening again. Every other moment or so, a set of bright rings of light would appear around the poor kid, and they’d go up and disappear, and the kid changing his form as it kept happening. He was once again losing control of his powers, as was to be expected since he wasn’t even two years old yet. This very well could be the reason for his fit, among… other reasons.
Unfortunately Vlad wasn’t good with kids let alone had much desire to deal with them, but this was different. He was stuck with the kid and kid with him, of course as expected considering the current circumstances. He vividly recalled the day his so-called “best friend” declared him the godfather of his children, not that he ever really expected it to come to fruition. Well, never say never he supposed. But that wasn’t important, what mattered in the moment was calming little Danny down so they could both sleep.
He sat down on the small bed, and Danny kept on hollering (and shifting between human and ghost forms uncontrollably). “Danny,” he said. For a moment, the little tyke stopped and looked at his adoptive father with his tear-filled eyes, bright green ghostly eyes. “What do you want,” Vlad attempted to say in a softer tone.
Danny stuck out his lower lip, and whimpered out something that really hurt to hear: “Mama.” Once again he called out for a late family member, something Vlad sadly could not assist with. They were gone, and the toddler had no way of grasping that concept, let alone how to control his newfound abilities at all. Alas, hearing that word made Vlad remember all of it. He wasn’t there for the incident, but he saw it in the news and before he knew it Danny was now in his care. Some paperwork and a few long road trips later, there they both were.
As for what had happened, it was something about Jack and Maddie deciding to build some kind of portal, not unlike the one from their college days. Long story short something somehow went horribly wrong and it exploded, ectoplasm and electricity going every which way. Both parents (and their daughter, he heard) lost their lives in the blast, but little Danny was now left as a pint-sized half-ghost. The poor kid didn’t know where he was, why he was there, let alone why he was stuck with this strange man (and was very likely traumatized).
Being the cold man he was, Vlad could care less that Jack had perished (how awful, he knew this), but Maddie? That was a different story. Upon hearing Maddie didn’t make it he found himself weeping, and he at least felt pity for the death of little Jazz as she was so young. Danny was rather miraculously the only survivor, now imbued with ghost powers whether he liked it or not. But that was in the past. What mattered was the present, aka calming Danny back down.
“Are you hungry?”
“Mm-mm…” That meant no.
“Water?”
“Mm-mm!”
“What, then?”
“Dada. Jazz.”
Danny quite clearly still wanted his family. Ouch. Vlad sighed once more, and just bluntly said: “They’re gone.”
“...”
Danny didn’t like hearing that, as if him going back to crying wasn’t enough of a clue. Great. Now the problem was worse. Again, the rapid form shifting and…! Oh. The boy disappeared. Not gone, just invisible. This happened sometimes, as well. With some proper training the child could and would get the hang of it, but as of yet he was far too young. Ghost powers, something Vlad was far too familiar with, as a bearer of them himself. In fact, he hadn’t yet let the little one know he had them too, lest his ghostly form scare the child any further than he already was.
“Danny-”
The crying continued, and the toddler reappeared in his default human form, and looked up at Vlad once more. For a moment, the boy’s cries quieted, but his little tears continued to fall. Well, the kid was quiet, and that was what mattered to the man at the moment. He got up and left in a rather rude manner, and went back to his own room.
He got into the bed, and was about to try and go back to sleep when-
“AHH!”
There was little Danny, he’d been followed. He was now face to face with the boy as he laid down, the kid’s face still streaked with tears and his face all pouty still as he clutched a teddy bear to his chest. “What,” Vlad said as he sat up.
Danny gave no verbal response, but did do something- he clumsily climbed onto the bed, teddy bear and all. “What are you doing?”
It quickly became obvious what Danny was up to as soon as the toddler got under the blanket. Well, THAT was certainly new. Vlad’s first instinct was to tell off his adoptive son and send him back to his own room, but he quickly decided against it as keeping the child silent and happy-ish was priority number one.
“Fine, but just for tonight.”
Vlad got back under the covers and…! He felt something, and it could only be Danny. His little arm went over his new dad, clutching the latter’s pajamas slightly. He was being hugged. The kid had barely known him for a week, and so far this was the first ever display of any sort of affection.
Just like that Danny fell asleep, clearly feeling much better. For just a moment, it was Vlad’s turn to feel something other than sleepiness; something warm and fuzzy. Yuck. But seeing as the kid was now content at long last, he finally fell asleep himself. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.