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Kindred Spirits	By : RedelliaValentinos Category: +1 through F > Danny Phantom Views: 206 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, I don't own any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from writing this story, I write this purely for the enjoyment of writing. It's just me and a keyboard and my wild brain.

Chapter List
- 19
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Danny seems to be getting on with the yeti rather well. Vlad thinks so, anyway. He watches from a distance, watching them roughhouse and play like wild children. The strength that's slowly been developing as the boy's health improves manifests as being able to take a hit. And a toss. And a hard landing. And as minutes tick by, and they continue to playfully throw him about like a rag doll and pelt him with heaps of snow, more energy seems to develop and Danny starts returning the well intentioned blows.
A stray ball of white fluff makes contact with the boy's face, and Vlad winces as a sneeze resounds from the epicenter of joyful chaos. A fresh blanket of snow covers the entire pack in a sideways drift, halting the horseplay. Danny practically shrivels up, cowering in the middle of the stunned silence. The older halfa is considering intervening, standing up and ready to come to the rescue when they shake the snow off with overzealous laughter. Scooping the boy up like a prize, proclaiming "Our little snowdrift!"
He relaxes...a little. And the nickname seems fitting as he considers the instances of cold weather bursts.
The play continues with greater ferocity.
"He seems to fit in rather well," Frostbite walks up next to him.
"Mm."
"If he were not half-living, I'd be inclined to have him stay. He seems to thrive in these conditions."
Vlad sighs.
"But, as I understand it, he still has living family?"
The man sits down on a bench carved from ice, wrapping himself up in his cloak for warmth. Frostbite joins him.
"What did you find?" he asks. He doesn't want to get into the ugly nitty gritty of the boy's home environment.
The snowbeast beside him watches on, a speckle of mirth coloring his eyes as Danny jumps and takes a dive into the snow, disappearing from view. A faint trail on the surface forms. He's tunneling.
"Before I divulge anything, I must ask you...what are your intentions with this boy?"
Vlad blinks and looks at him. "Intentions?"
The yeti shows no emotion. "I'll be blunt, then. Do you intend upon him?"
Vlad's eyes grow wide and a splash of red crosses his cheeks. "Inten-are you out of your mind?!'' his voice rises, ''He's fourteen!" Wether it's from rage, disgust, embarrassment or denial, the beast is unsure.
"I understand he's young. But given the result of some inquiries, I'm thinking more long term."
Vlad grumbles.
"And he's still growing. ...as are you."
Vlad is met with both confusion and the urge to rip his head off. He thinks better of it. "What do you mean I'm still growing?"
"I mean you are still immature," he ignores the expression of anger and bewilderment, "Ghosts are interesting creatures. We are ultimately another form of life. And with life comes nature. Biology. We still endure changes and adjustments, just as livings do. When we last met, in the midst of distributing appropriate punishment, I could sense that your core was different from ours. And, despite outward appearances, not fully formed. The scan merely confirmed my suspicions."
"Please don't tell me you're trying to give me the talk."
"Merely a watered down version," he continues, "As you were the only one of your kind at the time, your core had hit something of an impasse with development. There was simply no reason for it to continue growing because there was no one else. So it stopped. Now, with the presence of another like yourself, you will eventually begin enduring...urges."
Vlad buries his face in his hands in disbelief.
"Under normal circumstances, such urges would come about slowly. Gently. A flicker here and there that we can normally write off. I worry that in your case, they may appear without warning. At which point, there's a chance that at least one of you will be driven by pure instinct alone, and you'll be beyond rational thought. I hope that, by then, you will have sorted out where you stand with the boy so that you can handle the situation accordingly."
Vinegar, tart and sour, flavors Vlad's mood as he comes to understand the meaning of his words. "You imply that I wou-"
"-Not yet, no. Pay attention. There's still time. But for the boy, he will continue as normal, and eventually, well, nature will intervene since there is another potentially compatible half-living."
Barbed wire twists in the man's gut. "He's a teenager!"
"He's a teenager for now. You have a few years to figure out where your relationship lies."
"I'm his guardian."
Frostbite's tone drops low in warning, "But that is not what he considers you to be. He understands what you are according to the laws of your world. But that's not how he sees you."
Vlad's eyes widen and he looks back at the chaotic snow fight, focusing on the wild teenager giving the pack a run for their money.
"At present, he's more confused than anything else. He doesn't see you as a parent. It would seem that, despite everything, his living parents still hold that title. He knows you aren't family. He knows you teach him, but you're not a mentor to him, either. He's still trying to figure out where you fit within his circle," the yeti looks out to the noisy play, "I don't mean to upset you. I just want you prepared for the possibility that he'll see you as something more."
Danny bursts from a bank and topples a yeti with surprising speed, catching them off guard.
"I can teach him to manage his emotions. But as for the outbursts of cold, there's nothing I can do. And nothing I can train out of him. His core is far colder than anything I've ever seen."
"How cold?" the halfa asks.
"It was measured in Kelvins," earning a wide eyed roll from Vlad, and Frostbite continues, "Ice and snow are slipping through because there's not enough thermal sheilding on his core. He's still growing, after all. The shell is still forming. When it's complete, he'll also achieve his final form, whatever that may be. He'll straighten out in time. His core is perfectly stable, as you've already found. My suggestion is to keep him until the month passes. Everything was being stalled by the coma and the damage he took, and then you gave him a boost," Frostbite says softly, "So his system is being flooded with everything hard and fast. There should be just enough sheilding formed for him to stop icing surfaces over and altering weather patterns by the end of the month."
"That's it?" the man asks, "I just have to wait it out?"
Frostbite nods. "That's it. It will take a few years for his core to fully coat itself, but he'll be safe enough for living society in a few weeks."
They watch the younger halfa continue to play in the snow for a while. Wreaking general havoc as he's taught to sculpt ice in his hands and concentrate energy. They set up makeshift targets and start firing blasts of ice, showing off who's the better shot. Danny does alright, getting about half the targets. Not all in the middle, but at least he hits a few. And the yeti give him pointers and quiet suggestions. Telling him how to channel the cold outwords. The best stance when on solid ground. Compensation for movement.
These were lessons Vlad wanted to teach. But as he listens and observes, he notices that Danny takes certain information in better. Because it's being presented to him differently, in a way only ice-dwellers can understand. His aim gets better, he misses a few targets and strikes a few yeti by mistake. The targets he does hit, he's gotten a little closer to the center. Another snowball fight erupts as a result of his poor shots. It's all in good fun.
Clad in only leggings and a t-shirt that's at least one size too big, the youngling is barefoot and exposed to the bitter chills of the realm and the antics of its inhabitants. And he's holding up just fine.
"There are a few other things I should mention, before you take him back. A few small things."
Vlad grunts in acknowledgment.
"His diet will need to change. I know you have him eating light to avoid shocking his human form. But I recommend switching to raw meats. And soon, before he gets a craving. Unchecked hunger might have him hunting for sustenance in the human realm, and I don't think I need to explain how dangerous that is."
Vlad gives a faint nod. "Alright."
"His fangs should come in in a few years, as well...'' he trails off.
Vlad feels him hanging off the edge, and is out of patience. ''What else?'' he asks, low and warning.
"Your reaction to being told to step outside. To separate yourself. It worries me."
Vlad says nothing. But his brain is scrambling.
"It implies that your ghost half may have already decided on him as a future companion."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"I'm not being ridiculous. This is something you won't be able to run from, Vladimir. I can practically guarantee it. The true test will be how you handle things once he's out from under your roof."
There's a distinct rumble of disapproval that emanates from the halfa. The concept as a whole... It's just absurd to him. He knows the yeti is thinking ahead. But Vlad still doesn't see it.
"When he finally becomes of age, which could be four years from now, or it could be seven, his vessel spell will manifest,'' the beast looks at him, ''I know you have yours, and I know that yours became after your death. And you are aware of how painful it was when it appeared.''
The halfa heaves a breath and closes his eyes. He spent a week with a fever, feeling like his brain was cooking in his skull while someone was beating it in with an anvil. He'd been bedridden the entire time, unable to sleep, eat or even move as it felt like his insides were being shredded and rearranged. Curled into a crying ball on his bad, wanting to scream and being in too much agony to do so. The process drained him so much that he slept for another week afterwards.
''I remember,'' he says softly, ''It was absolutely fucking miserable.''
Frostbite nods. ''For most of us, we are formed with the spell already in place. But there have been entities throughout time that died young. And their stories are very much the same; high fever, intense headaches, crippling agony and the preference to be torn down molecule by molecule rather than suffer through it. The boy is a bright thing, lots of energy. I would hate for him to endure the process alone.''
''You want someone there for him.''
''Didn't you?''
Vlad drifts back into his memories. It was a horrid week. One he never wants to go through again. He tore holes in his blankets and sheets trying to ground himself. He clawed at his stomach until he'd bled and kept digging. He narrowly avoided disembowling himself. And faintly, he remembers looking around in confusion, in between the tears and torture, looking for someone, anyone, to take the pain away.
''I...'' He'll never admit to it.
But he understands with unfortunate clarity just what the yeti is asking for. ''My circumstance was...unfavorable.''
Frostbite grunts in annoyance. ''It's nothing to be ashamed of, wanting help.''
Vlad's tongue moves before he can stop himself. ''I never had help. I learned withing days of my death that I wouldn't be getting any. I learned very quickly that I was set to suffer alone. I got through everything without any support. No one was going to be there to comfort me, so I had decided that I would never look for comfort. I wouldn't look for help. I wouldn't ask for help. And therefore, I didn't. It became beneath me.''
There's a pained expression on the yeti's face as he takes a good look at the half ghost. He studies him, studies the form he's taken as a ghost and realizes the meaning behind his acidic tongue.
''Whatever comes of this bond you have with that youngling, do not choke him with your misery.''
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- 21
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Kindred Spirits