Vlad sighed 'Should have seen this coming.' He thought before answering "Well I was in space where Jack had left me, not that I blame him of course. And I was trying to look at the positive outcome of things when I saw the Disasteroid coming towards me," Danny winced; he hadn't known that Vlad had been on the other side of the Earth. "I remember thinking 'Well I deserve this'. I closed my eyes but the blow never came, when I opened my eyes I saw that I was in some sort of giant clock, like Big Ben or something of that sort, and a cloaked figure coming towards me," Danny's eyes widened, knowing what was coming next. "He introduced himself as Clockwork. I asked him why he had saved me and he said that 'all-"

"Will be revealed in time." Danny said at the same time as Vlad.

The older halfa let out a chuckle "I'm guessing you've met him"

"Yeah," Danny grinned "He's like a grandpa to me; sometimes I call him Grandfather clock. It drives him nuts"

Vlad smiled "Clockwork helped me. You see Daniel, my ghost half was...unstable. That's why the ecto-acne had come back. I was trying to get in control again but....I wasn't strong enough. And my ghost half was going," he took a deep breath frowning "Mentally insane. I don't know what Clockwork did. I remember he put me to sleep and when I woke up I was I in full control for the first time in twenty years. That moment was one of the few times I will admit that I broke down and cried like a little kid."

"What do you mean 'full control'? I thought you were in a weird form of overshadowness."

"I still had a faint amount of control, for example I never allowed him to kill you." Vlad said in a shrug/wince move of his shoulders.

"I...appreciate that." Danny replied sincerely.

They sat there for a few moments before Vlad let out a heavy sigh that almost sounded like a sob. "I'm not trying to make excuses for what I did, really I'm not, Daniel." he said, voice full of barely controlled emotion. It was definitely the most vulnerable Danny had ever seen the man. A few lone tears tracked down Vlad's face he quickly wiped them away, trying to pretend that he didn't notice. He cleared his throat and looked a Danny. "I'm so sorry, for all the pain I've caused everyone. I should have just been left out there in space, I should have just died, I wish-"

He was silenced by a pair of lips against his own. Vlad's eyes widened in shock as he saw Danny kissing him.

'Okay, guess I'm not hallucinating after all.' Danny thought far off in his mind, but the thought didn't register, the only thing that did was the positive fireworks he felt as his stomach did flip flops.

He pulled back right before Vlad was about to kiss him back. "Had to get you to shut you up somehow," he said, face jade green and refusing to look the other in the eye. "And I'm sorry too. For not noticing your pain, for hurting you, for not giving you another chance when I had the chance, for not helping you, for not telling you about how-"

This time Danny was the one who was silenced with a kiss. His eyelids fluttered shut as he kissed him back. Vlad kissed him back all the more, but gently. Danny tangled his hands in the neck of Vlad's jumpsuit pulling him closer, breathless. He didn't want to kiss him gently, half of him afraid that he would be torn from his grasp again; apparently the older halfa felt the same way in the matter. His hand settled on the smaller's hips pulling him closer still as he kissed him more intensely and passionately. Danny swung his leg over, practically sitting on him and pressed his whole body against his, just as Vlad's tongue traced his bottom lip, silently seeking permission. Danny eagerly opened his mouth, allowing him inside to further overwhelm his senses. Vlad's tongue slipped inside the younger's mouth, soft yet demanding, slow but unyielding. Danny let a not so little moan of pleasure which startled him and seemed to shock Vlad back to reality.

Vlad quickly got up which caused Danny to fall to the ground since he had been on top of him.

"Ah! I-I'm sorry! I shouldn't have- I didn't- Gah!" The man rambled before taking off.

This time Danny didn't fly after him. He stayed on the ground thinking about what had just happened. His mind lingered on how easily his body had melded to the other's. How perfectly Vlad's mouth had felt on his. He raised a finger to his mouth and gently touched his lips. Unexpected tears filled his eyes.

'Hell! What am I crying for!?" he internally yelled. 'Because he deserted you again?' his mind taunted back. Dry sobs wracked Danny's body as he struggled to get his breathing under control.

'Fuck it, enough already!' he told himself. 'I'm not going to sit here crying and falling apart. I stop people from falling apart every day. Every day I shield and protect people. But honestly, how can I shield people when I'm cracking. How can I stop people from breaking when I'm falling apart? When am I going to be allowed to fall apart?'

That did it for him. Tears flooded his vision and streamed down his face. But these tears were not a cause of some blinding powder or an electrical shock, these tears came from actually real pain.

After who knows how long the tears ebbed and he allowed the last of them to track down his face. Numb, Danny got off or the ground, his legs feeling like Jell-O as he stood. He took a few deep breaths to compose himself, as he wiped his eyes and nose trying to rid all evidence of his breakdown.

Danny gasped as a thought entered his mind, one that seemed from a million years ago.

'Aw shit! Dani, Sam and Tucker!'

Author's Notes:

The plot thickens!
I cannot write kiss scenes O////O
Sorry if this chapter seems short.