Godfather Vlad!
A Happy Badger Cereal departure from this AU idea by @pastrycurses.
It is as Pastry writes it: Vlad isn’t abandoned, the Original Trio kick ecto-butt and science together until the kids are born and they ask Vlad to tone it down to keep his ghost half a secret from them.
Only he still doesn’t.
And with his friends beside him, and godchildren who love him, he doesn’t begin to turn evil; his human half stabilizes him. So what you get looks like this:
Jazz and Danny love when their godfather visits (which is often). When three adults’ voices call out from the front door, they race each other down the stairs to claim prize territory first: Vlad’s warm, Packers sweater-covered arms where hugs, and if they mind their manners, treats always await them.
He cooks dinner when he’s over. No exceptions; Danny and Jazz beg him to, and he always makes extra for next-day-leftover-lunches. On those days, the children stride proudly through a sea of hungry, jealous stares as the heavenly scents from their lunchboxes waft clear across the cafeteria.
When he babysits, Jazz and Danny remember their promises, to keep ‘Super Secret Time’ sacred, and never, ever tell mommy or daddy.
“Uncle Vlad is a ghost, but he’s not scary,” they remember. “Uncle Vlad uses his powers for good, and we love him.”
He puts on light shows, and makes tiny, pink creatures chase around the children’s heads. Once, they go flying, and the trio snicker and grin behind their fingers when Maddie and Jack come home raving about a ghost having been nearby.
Jasmine, precocious thing, once asks him why his skin is blue, but he is always warm. Tenderly, he takes her tiny hand in his and puts it against his heart.
“You’re always in there, keeping me warm.”
“But Uncle Vlad, you can’t keep a person in your heart.”
“Oh, yes you can! Your brother, and mommy and daddy are there, too! It’s like a hot-air balloon, Jazzy. The more people are in it, the hotter the air inside gets, expanding and keeping it floating. That’s how I fly, too, see?”
“Ohhh.”
When Jack and Maddie build their portal, Vlad is there to help them. Jazz and Danny make careful trips to the basement stairs to watch them work in flurries of oft-confounding activity. In concert, they don’t need to talk, rather communicating in gestures and glances developed over two decades of friendship and study.
Vlad and Maddie give him looks when Jack installs a switch inside the thing, but he gives them one back, waving wildly at his head, and they know better than to try to stop him.
His parents have stepped out for coffee and Vlad is resting on the sofa when Danny puts on a hazmat suit and goes to look inside.
When he awakes, the first things he sees are his sister and godfather’s tear-tracked faces. The portal works. Jack and Maddie come home ecstatic, thinking nothing of the red around their friend’s eyes, as exhausted as they all are.
‘Super Secret Time’ becomes just ‘Super Secret,’ and Jazz, Vlad and Danny are very, very careful to always keep it sacred.
