Work Text:
Vlad knew he shouldn't leave the bed that morning. He just knew.
It started like any other day. He woke up early in the morning in his huge bed. For a moment he would consider sleeping in but time is money. He stood up in his almost naked glory. He, like the man he is, wore brieffs. Of course he had six-pack too, so Maddie has something to look at, when she will be finally at his side. He looked back at the bed, wanting to come back to his heaven. No matter, how the green and yellow silk quilt looks so inviting to him, he must continue making his dreams real.
What are his dreams, you ask? It's simple thing - making Maddie his wife, Daniel his son and owning Packers.
Using more will than normal he looked back and went to bathroom for relaxation before this trying day starts. He just knew it from experience. Days like this are rare, but have a lasting effect on him.
Looking back, Vlad knew his mind and instincts were telling him to stay. He regrets not listening to them. He really did.
The bathroom, made in mind to be relaxing, was spacious and elegant. The floor was lined with white tiles that have heating underneath. The walls were white too, but with real gold accents and a really big window on the left side with the beautiful view. He can see the rising sun making the sky a lovely pinkish color that lights up the tops of the trees.
The room is equipped with a jacuzzi that can hold up to 10 people in it. The shower and bathtub are right next to each other under the wall that is opposite to the door. Why have one when you can have all three? It's not like he can make more money later. Next to the window is sink and closet with towels, shampoo and emergency clothes. The right side of the room have an expensive green massage chair. Vlad is a millionaire, not a peasant so his bathroom, and the rest of his mansion, is reflecting that.
He went to jacuzzi and pressed gold button to start it up. Then he went to the closet, opened the ornamented doors and took a large green fluffy towel. His next is very important. He looked at shampoos and soaps.
"Pineapple - why do I have that? Pine - everyone have this, banana - too weird, strawberry - that's soo last week. Hmm, lemonade. Perfect." He took lemonade shampoo and walked over to the jacuzzi. He took off his brieffs and went in. "Ahhhh, yes." He murmured, closing his eyes and started relaxating. The water, as usual was perfect temperature and filled to the brim.
A small portal opened next to the buttons to the jacuzzi. It was creating really small amount of ectoplasm, so small that Vlad didn't even realized something is going on.
It was this moment that decided the events of the day.
After 5 minutes of nothing, tips of fingers started to show up. It slowly became a whole hand. It reached the button and pressed the red one. Then it quicker than before retreated into the portal and blinked out of existence.
Vlad didn't feel the difference until 15 minutes later.
"It's weird." He murmured, opening his eyes. "Water is never this cold and this jacuzzi, just replaced the previous one last month". Vlad looked around and saw the problem. "I don't remember pressing the red button. Must have slipped my mind." He stood up from the water and reached for the tower to wrap around his waist. Then he entered his bedroom and stood up in front of his closet.
He chose to wear his everyday clothes. Black suit, white undershirt, red bolo tie. Then he went to shoe shelf and took black pointy shoes. Next he went to vanity table and done his white hair into a ponytail.
Vlad was almost ready and the only thing that is missing to be the perfection he is, was red handkerchief that is always in his left breast pocket. He opened the drawer and reached out for it. He frowned and searched the drawer. He looked over to the other drawer. Vlad was confident that his handkerchief is in it's usual place. After minutes he still didn't find it. He finally looked under the bed, as a last resort but he knew that he won't find that small rectangle under here. Vlad didn't found it, as expected, and finally lost his composure.
"Servants!!!" He screamed. Immediately everyone in the house heard Vlad. That man have some powerful lungs to be heard in the entire mansion. A middle-aged man and young woman came to his room. Anyone working under Vlad knew, if he found something wrong, even a smallest thing, everyone prays for the poor soul he will focus on.
"Yes, sir?" They asked. "Something happened sir?" The woman continued. The man paled as he heard the younger woman say the words. She was new, so she doesn't know about the taboo words yet. He quickly prayed for every deity to protect her, seeing that Masters is visibly seetching. That was never a good sign.
"Something happened?!? Of course, something happened, you stupid woman!! I wouldn't call for you otherwise!!" Vlad screamed. He took a deep breathe through his nose to calm himself, or the next person will find themselves in the Ghostzone. "I can't find my handkerchief and the only people that come here, not including me, is my staff."
The servants looked at him visibly confused. "Sir, nobody came here today, yet…" Said the middle-aged man. Vlad looked at him in disbelief. "In fact, I think it's on the mirror, sir…" The man gulped, stating that fact.
"What?" Vlad immediately turned around. "It's impossi-ble..."
And there it was. The red folded handkerchief was on his mirror. Vlad became speechless. 'But I searched there in the first place!' He through. Then, he became aware of the two sets of eyes that looked at him with worry. He turned to them and demanded with hard voice.
"Leave."
The servants quickly left the premises. They were quiet until the moment they thought Vlad wouldn't hear them speak. Unfortunately for them Masters range of hearing is much larger than normal human. The perks of being half-ghost.
"Mark? Was that normal for him?" She frowned. "What happened there?" The woman asked her companion. The newly named Mark shooked his head.
"No, Miranda. It was not… I'm afraid that sir is starting to loose his mind." He whispered. After that they have fallen silent and the only sound their could heard were their footsteps.
Vlad scoffed in his room. "I'm starting to loose my mind, he say. Well, guess who will lose their job tonight." He chuckled, taking the offending handkerchief that caused him problems from the mirror and put in his pocket. Then he left for breakfast.
Vlad sat down on his chair and was immediately served food. It looks like his staff got spooked, or someone started gossip, as they got his favourite flowers on the table. Canna looked beautiful in this particular shade of red. It was almost Maddie hair color.
His breakfast was made in English style. He got an omelet, beacons and a cup of coffee. It was on the perfect side of crispy and warm. Then he stood up from the table and went to get ready for work.
Vlad went to his study. The sun lightened up the room in golden colors. He took his suitcase, put in documends and his laptop. Of course he took the phone too. Then he went back to the parter and opened his front door. In front of the building was a parking area and a dark blue limo was waiting for him. He came closer and the same time his driver, a man with ginger hair came out and opened his door for him. Vlad sat down inside the car and the door closed. His driver then came back and started the car.
For the most time he spends inside the car the only thing he sees is the forest. No matter where he looks, he sees green everywhere. Not the Packers-green, or even Ghostzone green, but the ugly green. He should do something about it, he thinks. The landscape didn't change for some time, when his work phone started vibrating. He took it from his pocket and pressed connect.
"Masters here." He said. The best thing is to be direct. That way he won't spend time talking to other person more than necessary. The tone of his voice also terrifies all poor delivery boys from the neighborhood.
Damn you Daniel for that prank. I DO NOT need to have that nickname 'Jack-o-lantern' around here. It's unbecoming.
"Hello Mr Masters. This is your new secretary Amanda Rose. I was informed by Angelica to tell you your plan 30 minutes before you start working. Do you want to know what your plan for today is?" Woman's voice sounded from the device. He looked at it with a frown.
"Yes, of course. But may I know what happened to my old secretary?" Vlad asked.
"Angelica filled in a resignation form yesterday. Apparently she wanted more time to spend with her granddaughter."
Ah, yes, that. Well Mrs Black wasn't a good woman, but she was better worker than most. That hasn't changed the fact that she was 70 years. A shame, it's hard to find people like her.
Wait, Amanda is still talking.
"- after that meeting with the investor of the Axion Lab, you have an hour break. Then you have conference with-" Vlad let her voice to turn into the buzzing, knowing she will have to talk about it before each appointment. That is her job to remind him. "-for the day. Do you need me to change anything?"
"No, thank you, I'm sure you will talk about it again, when I'm there." He said and pressed the end button. Why people don't just take the orders? Or seemingly know that he isn't to be bothered?
"Finally." Vlad slumped in his chair. He clicked 1 in the intercom. "Somebody run to the cafeteria and bring me black coffee and donuts in 10 minutes or someone will become jobless tonight." He disconected and looked over the mountain of paperwork he have to sign before coming home. Better to have done that in work than home.
He would have finished this already, but somebody kept mixing the papers and all of them come to his office all the damn time. "Maybe Daniel was right about it being a never ending job..." He murmured.
Vlad heard footsteps before the person having his lunch knocked. "Come in."
"Hello, Mr Mayor. There's your black coffee and donuts." The man said before he put it on the desk and turned around to get to the door.
"You're Elliott, right?" Vlad asked him, smirk hidden behind his coffee as the man jumped in shock.
"Y-Yes, sir." He stuttered.
Vlad smiled openly and let his cup lay on the desk. He knew that right now he looked like the devil himself. "You're fired." Best to get to the point.
Elliott stared openly at his employer. "Wh-What? Why! I have done everything on time!" He cried out.
"That's the thing Elliott," Vlad said pityingly. "You done it on time, but at what cost? Your efficiency has dropped in meanwhile."
"I'm sorry sir, I will get better!"
"No, you won't," The older man spoke, his voice slowly becoming more annoyed. "because I won't give you the second chance."
Elliott looked very close to tears. "N-No sir please, how I will feed my family?!? My dept is near the end!" He begged to stay. One week is all he needs.
But Vlad is really a sadistic person, even if he only let that loose near Daniel. Little Badger has his way with nerves. "It's really simple." He spoke, staring at the eyes of his clearly nervous employee.
"You won't." He decided and clicked 5 in the intercom. "Security, there is an unknown person in my office, get rid of him."
Immediately, armed guard walked through the door. They grabbed Elliott and dragged him back to the entrance of the building. Vlad has taken great pleasure in his ex-employee struggle and words of denial.
It was early evening when things started to take turn for the worst.
Vlad was stressed over a deal with a contract of the foreign country and the events of the day. His cups of coffee never got to him but were close enough for him to smell them. The papers still weren't put in order. Somebody broke down the microwave and his dinner has to be taken from the outside. He won't eat the food from the building. It's disgusting when cold.
And he can't, for his after-live, to find the one who keeps making that mess. Because all of it, he didn't felt the ectoplasm coming from his window. That skill needed the person using it to be relaxed and Vlad was anything but that.
From the portal a black and white creature came forward. It looked almost like a human, with it's tanned skin. It wears a black hazmat suit with white boots, hands and collar. It's hair is snow-white and, if you squirt, you can see it lighty glowing. The most otherworldly thing about the creature were the eyes. The glowing toxic-green self aware eyes. With all of it put together, anyone could guess it's gender.
The boy, for it was a boy, wasn't attracting attention from anyone. He was invisible and the one who could sense him, wasn't focused enough.
'Perfect.' He though and quickly flew inside. He kept to the wall that was behind the older man back. Vlad didn't sense him right now but that doesn't mean he couldn't activate the skill in the next second, if he started feeling that something is wrong.
When he was directly behind him, he started the Plan. He leaned in, never creating even a smallest of a breeze. He was very close to the man's left ear. In the exact moment Vlad looked up from his laptop, the boy screamed with his best cheery voice.
"HEY, VLADDIE-BOY!!!"
"AHHH FUDGE BUCKETS!!!" The older man screamed, jumping in his chair and looked around to find the one who dated to make his eardrum bleed. "DANIEL! Just WHAT do you think your doing!" He yelled, standing up from his chair. His right hand started to glow a dark pink.
Daniel, or know by his friend Danny, laughed as he floated backwards. No matter what Sam and Tucker say, he do have some self-preservation instincts. And they say to STAY BACK. "Plasmius, I came here today to let you see something you will regred. Do you consent your right to suffer?"
"What are babbling about?" Vlad looked at him, confusion visible in his face as his hand has lost some of the glow.
"If you say yes, I will tell you a secret too, for free. Do we have a deal?" The older man narrowed his eyes at the mischievous smile that Danny had when speaking to him.
"Yes…"
Danny couldn't stop the smirk forming even if he wanted to. He flew over to the middle of the room.
"You had a terrible day, haven't you? Well I have an answer for that. It's was me! And that was a hard secret to keep with you ability." Not even waiting another second for answer he created a portal from thin air and flown through it. It closed immediately, barely missing a fireball from Vlad. He huffed as he didn't saw what was on the other side.
A few second later, smaller portal pop in and Danny let his head out. "As you see Clockwork taught me how to make portals! Aren't you happy for me?" Smirking he showed his head back, with the portal closing behind him.
Vlad sat down on the chair, letting the sheer disbelief to steer him. He let his head lay down in his hands. 'Little Badger know THE Clockwork!? And he taught him THAT one power, one that is so rare?!?' He prayed to whatever god he didn't bother to believe that his peace could live a little longer.
Even as a Millionaire, he doesn't always get what he want.