AN: Surprise third chapter ahoy!

Finger Paintings On The Walls

-o-oOo-o-

"Did you touch them, did you hold them? Did they fallow you to town?"

"They make me feel I'm falling down, they make me feel I'm falling down."

"Was there one you saw too clearly, did they seem too real to you?"

"They were kids that I once knew, they were kids that I once knew."

-Dead Hearts, Stars

-o-oOo-o-

After six days of restless sleep, Danny woke up thoroughly and completely well rested.

His eyes peeled open, turning away when brightness bombarded him. The mattress and covers around him were not his own; they were much too comfy to be. He almost debated on going back to sleep when he realized he didn't remember falling asleep. He blinked his eyes open again, allowing them to adjust to the light cascading in through the windows. Mahogany wood made up the walls, several large pieces of furniture scattered about the room. The clock on the nightstand was blank, and Danny furrowed his brows at this.

He sat up, stretching his arms and rubbing away the dried trails of his tears. The previous night was crystal clear in his memory, and he slumped, dragging his fingers through his hair.

He didn't know what to do.

He pushed the covers aside, getting out of the bed. He assume he was in on of Vlad's many guest bedrooms, he couldn't remember which ones he'd peeked earlier, but it didn't look any familiar. Opening the first door he went to ended up being a walk in closet. The second he tried was the jackpot, and he shuffled into the bathroom, the tiled floor cold on his toes.

Bright yellow on the sink caught his attention, and he paused. It was a post-it note, covered in Vlad's scratchy handwriting. He peeled it off the tap, running his eyes over it.

'Daniel-Your parents don't know your here; there was nothing I could have told them about how you got here so quickly. I will be flying you home tonight. Feel free to use anything you need-shower, kitchen, etc. DO NOT TRASH ANYTHING!'

Danny rolled his eyes, as if he'd trash Vlad's things for fun. He'd already trashed the man's mind.

He took a quick shower, putting his pajamas back on afterward. He rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows, unable to stand long sleeves when he was awake. He ventured out of the room, wandering the halls as he looked for anything familiar. Various paintings, sculptures and packers items decorated the walls, but nothing he remembered seeing before. He was sorely missing Maddie the cat; at least she'd be able to lead him out of this ridiculous architectural maze. Maybe if he hoped hard enough, the Dairy King might come to his aid.

He came to another hall, and blinked when he recognized it as the one that had lead to the room the reunion had been held in. He was on the first floor, then. He jogged out to the main lobby, recalling that the kitchen had been left from the main door. He navigated towards where he through it was, and was incredibly relieved when he found it on the first try.

After searching the cupboards for a few minutes, Danny found the cups. He filled his glass with tap water, chugging it almost completely all at once. It's cold chill felt wonderful on his sore throat, and he felt loads better. He filled the glass again and leaned against the counter as he drank more slowly. His eyes trailed over the marble counters and the stainless steel pots hanging above the island.

Something pushed against his shoulder, and he jumped. Maddie tilted her head at him, her tail curled around her paws. Danny smiled at her, petting her around the ear.

"You might have a super creepy name, but you are super adorable despite that," She purred at him, pushing all sides of her body into his scratching fingers, "You look more like a Europa. It snows there, because of the geysers."

Maddie just looked at him curiously.

Danny took another drink of water, thoughts circling around his mind. Well, he might as well keep his promise.

"Hey, Maddie," She perked her ears, mrurring, "Find Vlad."

She meowed, batting his shoulder before hopping off the counter. Danny set the glass in the sink, and fallow the feline out of the kitchen. She took him through the dinning room, through a side door into another hall, which branched into another. Danny sped-walked to keep up with her, but that only seemed to make her trot faster too. She suddenly stopped at a door, meowing at it like she had the previous night. She tapped it with her paw, looking up at him. Danny reached down and petted her head, causing her to purr, and slowly opened the door. Maddie charged in instantly, but Danny just peeked his head in, unsure of just what the room was.

The master bedroom, apparently, since Vlad was still passed out on top of the king size bed.

Danny watched as Maddie jumped right up onto the bed, slunk over to Vlad, then laid down on top of the billionaire. Vlad didn't so much as twitch at the added weight on his back. Danny didn't know if that was because Vlad was a sound sleeper, or if he was just so used to the cat doing that. Regardless, Danny stepped into the room, closing the door quietly. He shuffled over to the bed, eying the alarm clock on a nightstand. It read 4:53 PM. Yeah, his parents were probably panicking about him.

Danny climbed onto the free side of the bed, reaching out to shake Vlad's shoulder.

"Hey fruitloop, wake up," Vlad did nothing, not a single stir. His silver hair fell around his pillow and blankets like tiny albino snakes. Danny shook a little harder, "Vlad, it's 5 O'Clo-!"

Fingers closed around his throat and Danny shrieked. Little sound escaped his lips due to the crushing grip cutting off his airway, bright pink shining in his eyes. His fight reflexes kicked into high gear and he kicked-hard. His foot connected with something solid.

The pressure disappeared and Danny gasped, gulping down precious oxygen and choking on it at the same time. His fingers massages the sore areas he was sure were going to bruise later.

"Radi boga, Daniel, I could have killed you!"

Danny coughed, looking back at Vlad. The man was massaging his left side, sitting back on his heels. His breathing was calming down, and Danny didn't need to be a genius to know he'd deeply startled the other halfa. Danny just nodded as he pushed himself up.

"Sorry," He apologized meekly, his voice a little hoarse, "Note to self, never wake a sleeping Vlad."

"I'll say," Vlad scoffed, brushing his hair out of his face, "I'll also say you have no sense of privacy. Why are you in my room, and why did you wake me up?"

The open sarcasm and brash attitude was a breath of fresh air for Danny. He was upset he'd probably kill it. He threw a hand towards the clock on the nightstand, "It's 5 o'clock and we need to talk before I go home."

Vlad sighed heavily, "I should have expected that to be what you would say. Though I disagree. What else if there to say?"

Danny shrugged, "How about what you meant when you said I could expect to inherit your stuff. How about what bothered your so much about my drawings. How about why you chose to isolate yourself. How about what can happen now, what we can try to do to fix everything. How about how much I was legitimately terrified last night and how guilty I feel about everything. Any of those would be a start."

Vlad looked away, remaining silent. Danny shifted his legs under him, sitting cross legged on the plush covers. Maddie padded out from behind Vlad and plopped down between the two halfas, rubbing her head against Vlad's knee. He absently stroked her fur.

"You'd rather not, I assume?" Danny supplied after a while.

"Correct. But you're right. It needs to be done..." Vlad trailed off, his tone void of emotion. His still didn't look back at Danny, his eyes scanning the carvings on his dresser, "I would have expected the answer to the first of that list to be obvious."

Danny jabbed his tongue between his teeth, his throat tightening. He wanted so much to have been thinking wrong. He wrapped his arms around his middle, "You...I...I thought you were...planning on killing yourself...Last night, when you said...everything."

"You assumed correct," Danny tensed, and held himself tighter. Vlad continued, "What things and reasons do I have to remain alive? I said what I meant last night, I'm tired in ways sleep can't help."

"What things?! How about everything you do have that you can't seem to see?! Like your companies. Your money!" Danny snapped, barely able to believe that Vlad thought he had so little since the man had more things than anyone Danny had ever known before. But Danny tried to swallow his irritability on the subject, he knew that everything Vlad had was superficial, that he was still missing what he'd always truly wanted. The teen's eyes drifted towards Vlad's hands, which were still busy petting the stretched out feline between them. Danny gestured to her, "And this Maddie!"

"Oh yes, a whole three things."

"I'm being serious!" Danny beat his fists on the bed, "You said last night you missed things, that you wanted to go back and change everything. Those things you miss aren't gone, Vlad, mom and dad are still there-"

"You're attempting to tell me to forget my grudges and try to move on," Vlad interrupted, "Your sketchbook stated similar."

"It'd be for the best. It's the root of all the problems."

"It's not that simple, Daniel."

"How isn't it? You're tired of it all and you want it all to stop-"

Vlad shook his head, letting it drop into his hands, "Because I'm-..." He trailed off, shaking his head more.

"You still feel wronged. Annoyed. Frustrated, angry, upset? Right?" Vlad finally looked towards Danny. The teen smiled sadly, "Let me help, Vlad. I want to, I...I don't want to fight anymore either."

"I stand by what I said last night. I don't think you can 'fix' me. I've done so much damage and screwed up so badly, in ways that can't be fixed or undone. I've cheated, lied, stolen, hurt and broken for twenty years; nothing you, a fourteen year old with a borderline hero's complex, could fix." Vlad stated.

"Well I think I can. You're not okay, Vlad, and something needs to give," Danny looked down, his bangs falling into his eyes, "I don't...I don't want to be the only halfa."

Vlad nodded, his fingers carding through his hair, "...I know," He whispered, "I know."

Danny picked at the tasseled edges of a blanket near him, running the soft thread through his hands. He stole a glance at Vlad, neither one of them were taking the conversation very well. He decided to switch topics, "Can I know what bothered you so bad about the drawings...?"

Vlad was quiet, his eyes focused on Maddie. When he finally did speak, his voice was quiet, "...You wouldn't have drawn me that way if you didn't see me in those ways. It rattled me to my core. It was...never my intent to become...that, in your eyes. Never. I thought," He sighed, closing his eyes, "I thought I could wear you down, force you to see what I thought was in your best interests, what I wanted...I ended up estranging you so much worse than I thought I had...It...It also hurt to see what used to be, what I've tried to forget. It hurt so much more than I thought it would...both things."

Danny nodded solemnly, "If it makes you feel any better, it was my anger driving when I made most of them. It was my way to get out my frustrations. Jazz had suggested writing when she noticed I was too stressed, but I suck at writing so...I did something I could do..."

"It doesn't, but I appreciate your attempt. You have artistic skill, Daniel, that's for sure," Danny blinked at Vlad, at a loss for what to say. Vlad nodded towards him, then pushed himself off the bed, "I'm going to go call your parents, it'll take us an hour to get to Amity by air and it's getting late. You should focus on what you're going to tell them."

"Alright," Danny nodded, watching Vlad grab his cell out of the pocket of a coat hanging at the closet. Vlad stepped into the bathroom and Danny hopped off the bed, excusing himself from the room. Maddie pattered after her owner, leaving Danny to think about why he 'ran away' from home in his pajamas and went all the way to Wisconsin. He wondered if his parents would buy sleep hitchhiking.

Vlad collected him from the lobby where he had been waiting, dressing is his usual tailored suit. He looked more like himself than he had before, but the dark bags still under the older halfa's eyes still told tale that he wasn't all okay yet. The entire car ride to Vlad's private jet was silent, and Danny almost couldn't stand it. He didn't feel comfortable with leaving things as they were at this point. His conversation with Vlad wasn't encouraging.

At least Danny knew which plane he'd be on, since there was only one with dark maroon spelling out "Masters" on the side at the airport.

As Danny boarded Vlad's jet, he stopped dead.

Vlad noticed and turned, raising a brow, "What?"

"This isn't a jet, it's a damn palace on wings," Danny shuffled slowly forward, looking over the bar, the sofas, the 90 inch TV and the work station. All of which were just in the main section, Danny was sure there were other areas just by the fact that there was a door at the opposite end of the cabin. They entire interior was paneled with wood, trimmed in chrome, and the ceiling was glass. Not a single luxury seemed to have been forgotten.

"Not so much, this is my secondary. My primary is in for maintenance," Danny stared at him, gaping. Vlad just shrugged, "Billionaire, Daniel. The money to buy jets is pocket change to me."

Danny just shook his head and sat down. He looked out the windows as the jet took off, his stomach unsettled due to never flying in a plane before. It was different than he was used to. Vlad flipped through a notebook from the desk area, occasionally jotting something down. The silence was eating away at Danny's mind.

"You said something odd after you woke up," He said suddenly, causing Vlad to look up, "What was it?"

Vlad looked back down at his papers, "Russian, 'for god's sake.' I sometimes slip into the language accidentally, thought thankfully it's become more rare."

"You speak Russian?"

"Russian, English, French, Ghost and slightly fluent in Latin."

Danny nodded, looking back out the window, "I don't think I could ever speak five languages, it was hard enough learning a second that wasn't by fluke."

Vlad looked up again, his brows raised, "You know a third language?"

Danny blinked, "Yeah? You didn't know?"

"No, I didn't. What language?"

"Esperanto. Tucker tried to teach me what little he knew, but it wasn't enough so I started having midnight study sprees at the library. Was a better environment than at home."

"The artificial language developed in the 1800s as a neutral language...a highly unusual choice of tongue to learn, difficult because of it's lack of resources. Why that one?"

"A ghost friend that speaks it speaks little English. I started just to get fluent enough to understand him in case we ever met again, but I just kept going even when I met that goal."

"How fluent are you?"

"Tre. Ne tiel kiel fantomo, kaj mi ne hazarde glitis en ĝin kiam mi ne intencas ankoraŭ, sed mi kelkfoje pensas en ĝi," Danny smiled at Vlad's dumbfounded face, and chuckled, translateing, "Very. Not as much as Ghost, and I haven't accidentally slipped into it when I don't mean to yet, but I do sometimes think in it."

Vlad nodded, "I'm impressed."

"Say something in Russian."

"Ty nemnogo der'ma, no ya lyublyu tebya vse ravno."

"And what does it mean?"

Vlad smirked, turning back to his papers, "Wouldn't you just love to know."

About an hour later had they landing and deboarding. Vlad, being Vlad, much to Danny's releife and disdain, refused to take a cab and instead called for a rental car. So Danny was forced to look like a moron who forot to get dressed in the morning while they waited. Vlad's presence did nothing to disuade people from stareing, and Danny suspected he actually attracted more attention than anything. Fact was people knew who Vlad was. He didn't see any cameras going off, though, so hopefully he wouldn't end up on the front page under a headline like 'Masters returns dumb teenager to parents'.

Danny chewed on his lip durring the drive home, the fact that he couldn't think up a decent reason why he'd left increaseing his anxiety. As if able to sense this, Vlad eyed him.

"Have you thought of anything to tell them?"

Danny gave him a pointed look, "Have you?"

Vlad's jaw worked, and he shrugged, "Point."

Danny looked back out the window, watching the buildings get steadily more familiar, "I'm debateing on just telling them most of the truth."

"That would requior revealing yourself."

"I know. But I have no other ideas beside sleep hitchhiking."

Vlad huggled, shakeing his head, "If that's what you feel you need to say, then I am in no position to stop you. Just don't get yourself shot."

Danny went silent, letting the sound of the engine take over. The car turned and Danny realized they were a few streets from his home already. He rested his chin in his palm, scanning the buildings for any hint of ghost activity. They were all in good order, so he had high hopes ghosts didn't cause too much trouble in his absence. Not that they were that active anymore due to their newfound obsessionw ith his art anyway.

The vehical drifted to a stop, the brakes slightly screetching. Vlad gestured to the door, and Danny picked at his sleeve, "Could you come in with me?"

Vlad rolled his eyes and popped the door open, not bothering to give a vocal answer. Danny slid out, casting a glace to the window. No one was there, which releived him immensely. Vlad straightened from chatting with the driver, walking towards the front door.

"Actually, Vlad, there's one more thing I want to talk about," Danny called, and the elder halfa turned, raising his brow. Danny took a deep breath, and steeled his resolve, "I'm going to tell my parents who I am, and...I want you to do the same."

Vlad snarled, his eyes flashing red, "No."

"Please, Vlad, I think it will help. They need to know everything in order for things to be worked out. No secrets, nothing held back. A blank slate to start over on," Danny pleaded and Vlad shook his head, massaging his temple.

"I don't...Daniel, that won't help me. My ghost self is very clearly an enemy to them, nothing good could come from revealing myself."

"Okay, yeah, mom won't be happy about it, but dad still cares about you and they both care about me so you wont be alone," Danny said.

"And if things go horribly wrong, we'll both be attacked and there won't be a safe haven for the both of us once they know."

"Vlad I wouldn't be asking you to do this if I believed my parents would try anything. Please?" The teen tried, but he could still see the reluctance in the other halfa.

"This is your chance, Vlad. I'm not saying it won't be easy or that it won't be painful at times or that you won't have to struggle or work to get where you want to be, but this is a chance. A way out, and I know you can do it, I know you can change. Your strong, Vlad, you're the strongest person I know," Danny outstretched his hand towards Vlad, "Come on. Let's finish this, and start working for something better."

Vlad eyed him for a long while, before sighing and shaking his head, "I've must have gone crazy. But very well, Daniel, I hope you know what you're doing. I trust you. Let's give this a shot."

His hand clasped tightly around Danny's, and a smile split the teen's face.

-o-oOo-o-

"All this bad blood here, won't you let it dry?

It's be cold for years, won't you let it lie?"

-Bad Blood, Bastille

-o-oOo-o-

AN: This is a lot longer than I tended it to be. I only intended there to be two chapters, but I couldn't end it after the previous one. I needed to add this. Some of you may recognize the choice from "Door" present here, and that's because I love that trope. As well, I apologize if the Russian and Esperanto is butchered. I had no other option but to use an online translator, as I don't know Russian and I've just started learning Esperanto. I do plan on going back to check it once I get fluent enough, though.

This story is officially complete. There most likely won't be any more to it.

I would like to thank Pokeshadow55 for the song suggestions that were ultimately used in both these newest chapters, Dead Hearts and Bad Blood by Stars and Bastille, respectively. I'd also like to apologize for any hearts I might have ripped out and stomped on, even though doing so is my absolute favorite thing to do. As they say, "I your reader hasn't screamed, cried, laughed, or begun to hate you, you haven't done your job properly."

'Till the next story!