Chapter Text
The dresser tottered unsteadily as a kick was delivered to its innocent side. Danny’s suitcase lay on the oversized, overplush bed, still unopened. He had not wanted to leave the room, at least for as long as he could’ve gotten away with it, but the “No Service” message on his cellphone was taking precedence along with the messages he’d tried to send Tucker and Sam refused to deliver.
He considered hunting Vlad down to get the wifi password, but thought of a better idea. Jazz would definitely have it. He would need to wait a little while to make sure everyone had settled in and he didn’t wander into someone he didn’t want to see in the hallway, but it was better to wait a little than to run into Vlad. He figured an hour should be long enough, but what to do in the meantime?
His suitcase kept pestering him, so he pulled it off the bed and shoved it under the bed frame. There were a handful of boxes haphazardly filled with various essentials and summer schoolwork that threatened to pester his mind as well, so he gave his suitcase company. Satisfied with the foreign, emptiness of the room, he figured there was probably one more thing he should make certain of.
He breathed in deeply, bracing himself and pinching his brows together as he willed the white rings signaling his transformation to pass over him. He wasn’t entirely sure what was going to happen; he hadn’t had a chance to transform since the hospital. His arm tingled in its sling with anxious anticipation.
His anxiety was unfortunately proven to be correct as he assumed his alter ego. The sling, of course, did not transform as well, and boy, he didn’t realize how helpful that stupid thing had been up to this point. His whole left side groaned and protested the freedom, so he kept his arm rigid against his chest and tried his best not to move it too much. Then, setting himself to his task, he turned intangible.
With more meticulousness than he generally dedicated to anything, he began rotating around the room starting from the doorway, opening air vents, removing lamp shades and light bulbs, phasing his hand through each and every square inch of his pillows and comforter, and so forth until he had dissected every millimeter of the room.
He was almost irritated when he didn't find anything. It seemed Vlad was confident enough in his scheme that he didn’t feel it necessary to keep any kind of monitoring devices in Danny’s room. The only strange thing he was able to find was that all of the locks in the room--the bedroom door, the closet door, and the private bathroom door--all had only exterior locks. He put it out of his mind, deciding Vlad wouldn't get to keep him long enough for that to be worrisome.
The task didn’t take too long, but the anxiety was driving him crazy and he didn’t think he could sit around for fifteen minutes, so he decided enough time had passed to sneak a peek out into the hall. His invisible head popped out from the middle of his door and scanned up and down the hallway. He didn’t see or hear anyone, so he transformed into his human half, eased the door open, and tiptoed out, quietly making his way to the other side of the second story. At his destination, he pushed past his own hesitation and knocked on the door.
Jazz pulled the door open, eyes going just slightly bigger at seeing him.
“Danny, are you… is everything okay?” she asked hurriedly. “Did you lose your pain meds? Do you need help unpacking? I’m pretty much done, I can come-”
“I was just checking to see if you had the wifi password,” Danny interrupted her.
“Oh. Um, yes, I think I wrote it down. You want to come in?” she offered, moving away from the door as she began looking around for whatever she had written it on.
Danny stayed at the door, eager to return to the room he was staying in, but at the sound of another door creaking open, he quickly stepped inside and shut it behind him. Her room was partway disaster and partway organized masterpiece. She had clearly finished putting away all of her essentials (clothes hung up and organized by style, shoes lined up along the floor of the closet) and was now in the process of making the room her own. On her desk, which still seemed to be a work in progress, were some photos and knickknacks she had decided to bring along, and a few posters and meaningful quotes were pinned to the wall. Bearbert Einstein was tucked into the blankets on her bed, and nearby was her laptop and her diary, open and clearly being added to on and off. Jazz being Jazz, however, most of the mess involved paper. Danny was certain he saw a few that looked like applications of some kind.
“You know we’re only going to be here for the summer…” Danny commented, looking with particular dislike at the decorations.
Jazz blushed, although she seemed unsure about what she ought to feel about the comment. “I just thought it might make it feel more comfortable,” she replied as she opened up a drawer in her desk, pulling out a laminated piece of paper.
“You can hold onto it, if you want. I already logged in,” she said, passing it to him.
“Thanks,” he said, putting it in his pocket.
“Have you done any exercises today? For your shoulder, I mean,” Jazz said, stopping him before he could leave.
“No, I’ll do it later,” Danny replied. He gave her an awkward smile, turning to leave. “Well, thanks for–”
“It’s really important you do that,” she continued, like she couldn’t quite help herself. “The doctor said your shoulder will freeze up if you don’t.”
“Yeah, I was there,” he replied with a bit more bite than he meant. He let out a deep sigh, turning around despite himself. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound… I’m just tired.”
“It’s okay. Me, too,” she said nervously, although she smiled at the effort. “It was a long drive.”
“I’ll do the exercises,” he promised her.
“Good.”
He smiled, awkward as it was, and headed out to the hall again.
“Hey, Danny?”
He stopped before shutting her door, peering his head back in.
“My door’s always open. Day or night,” she said, looking at him hopefully.
“Okay,” he said, giving her another hopefully reassuring smile before pulling the door closed, sighing in relief as it clicked with finality.
He hurried back to his room, inputting the password into his phone as he went, but about halfway there, he stopped in his tracks. He tried inputting it again. Then again. And again. Once more, but no matter how certain he was of the accuracy, the wifi would not accept the password. He thought to ask Jazz again, but she’d said she was already logged in. He triple and quadruple checked that he had not accidentally put capitalization where it didn’t belong, or that he had not mistaken a number for a letter. That was clearly not the problem.
Breathing out of his nose harshly, he changed course, stomping down the nearest set of stairs. He checked the first room connected to the lobby, but it was empty, so moved on to the next, pulling open one of the double doors and groaning to himself at his luck.
Vlad looked up from his lavish desk, brow rising at his unexpected guest.
“Well, good evening, Daniel. I wasn’t expecting to see you up and about for a few hours yet. How are we feeling? How is the shoulder?”
Danny glared at him, subconsciously standing with his right side facing outward. He raised up the card for Vlad to see.
“What’s the wifi password? This one doesn’t work,” he said curtly, looking at everything but Vlad with a grimace.
“I assure you it does,” Vlad replied, not even glancing at it to confirm.
“No, it doesn’t. I tried it like a thousand times.”
“Troubling,” Vlad answered, although his focus remained fixed to the screen in front of him.
Danny huffed impatiently, glanced at Vlad’s laptop and without really thinking about it slapped it shut.
Vlad sighed, leaning forward and lacing his fingers together, elbows propped on the desk as he gave Danny his full attention.
“I’m in a good mood, and I understand you must be feeling frustrated, so I’m going to let that slide this time. But be warned, Daniel… you’re under my roof now. I will not tolerate that kind of disrespect in the future. Do you understand?”
Danny didn’t want to start a staring contest, but now that he was stuck in one, he wasn’t about to back down, especially since he didn’t have any kind of comeback.
Vlad seemed to take the silence as a victory, smiling as he broke eye contact and reopened his laptop.
“I decided it would be best to give you a break from the internet. You should be focusing on your recovery.”
“What?” Danny exclaimed. “You can’t do that!”
“If you’re worried about being bored, the astronomy tower is available to you 24/7. Not to mention the opportunity to catch up on your schoolwork,” Vlad reassured him, managing to do just the opposite. “I’m sure you noticed the bookshelf in your room?”
He had, but he’d been too preoccupied searching it for listening devices to pay attention to any of the titles.
“I’ve stocked it with all the literature necessary to improve your grades. C’s are hardly worthy of the son of a genius.”
“Okay, I know you’re a lonely bachelor in your sixties who doesn’t know any better, but I’m a teenager. Teenagers need cell service,” Danny pressed.
“Improve your grades, and I’ll consider it,” Vlad replied, though his tone was colder.
“Fine! I’ll just use mom or Jazz’s internet, then.”
Vlad chuckled. “I’d very much like to see how you plan to explain that to them.”
Danny winced to himself. He didn’t think Vlad would see through that bluff so easily.
“On the subject of your family, I don’t appreciate the attitude you’ve had around your mother. You embarrassed her today with your listless attitude. I want to see more of an effort from you to make this transition smooth.”
Danny’s eyes narrowed, fist clenching over the password in his hand and crumpling it as he tried to quell the more violent ideations he was having.
“You don’t think you’re getting ahead of yourself?” Danny asked. “You got us here for the summer, but you’re forgetting something pretty important.”
“And what’s that?”
“Mom isn’t interested in you.”
Vlad smirked.
“What?” Danny snapped.
“You’re still young,” Vlad replied casually, leaning back into his chair. “You have a lot to learn about relationships. The summer is all I need. However…”
He stood up and leaned over his desk to be just above eye level with the teen across from him.
“I will not have your attitude causing any undue strain. What you do in your own company is not my concern, but when it involves your mother, you will treat her, and you will treat me, with respect. If I’m dissatisfied with your behavior, there will be consequences.”
“Like what? Spending the summer with you?”
The response seemed to irk Vlad as he cast the boy a brief scowl, but it disappeared as quickly as it came as he added, “Don’t forget… your father is still alive because I choose for him to be. So stay on your best behavior."
Danny ground his teeth to keep from saying anything stupid, turning his head to glare at a corner.
Satisfied that his threat had sunk in, Vlad settled back into his chair, adding more pleasantly, "And try to relax, Little Badger. This can be a positive change, if you let it.”
Swallowing the expletives that rapidly fired through his mind, he sighed loudly and pointedly, turning on his heel and leaving in a huff.
As soon as he’d shut the door, he unwrinkled the password in his palm and started making his way from room to room, checking to make absolutely sure the wifi wouldn’t work elsewhere. After ten rooms yielded no results, he angrily shoved the little piece of paper into his pocket and retreated to the room he was staying in, careful to be quiet as he passed by his sister and mom’s rooms so as not to alert them to the fact that he was up and about.
Once he’d shut his door, he sharply tossed his phone onto the bed and threw the paper into the trash can.
He couldn’t repress the shout as he kicked the dresser again.