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xxghost-zombie-jesus · 1 year

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A/N: I decided that I'll be doing prompt fills/writing requests in between my longer fics! If you have any prompts or requests you'd like to see, shoot me an ask with the prompt, character(s) and/or ship you'd like! They'll probably be between 3k-5k but with my track record, who knows.

Anyway, onto the fic!

Prompt: "What if Beej has a really bad nightmare (wake up in cold sweat, shaking, absolutely terrified kind of nightmare) and Lydia comforts him. Just some good old sibling hurt/comfort and fluff." Requester: attack_choppa01 on AO3 Warnings: nightmares, panic attacks, vomiting, the following within a nightmare: child abuse, child death, verbal abuse, emotional manipulation, Juno (she needs her own warning), violence Word Count: 7,563 Read on AO3

Friday nights were reserved for Lydia and Beetlejuice to hang out. Sure, they had the weekends where they went out and did stuff, and family movie night was Thursdays, and she sometimes snuck him into school, but Fridays were 'chill nights'. Nights where Lydia forewent doing her homework, and as soon as dinner was finished the two of them headed upstairs or claimed the living room for their own use until the wee hours of the night when one or both of them got too tired to continue.

This particular Friday they took the living room, a pile of snacks spread out across the coffee table. Charles and Delia had headed upstairs a few hours ago, the Maitlands before that, so the two of them basically had run of the house as long as they kept the noise to a dull roar. Currently Lydia was sprawled across the couch, Beetlejuice perched on the back like a cat, or perhaps a bird. Her Switch was plugged into the TV, and she was wiping the floor with Beej in Super Smash Bros.

"Come on, you're so bad at this," she heckled, hitting Beej's character off the map as he made a strangled noise of anger. He managed to double-jump back to safety only for her to hit him off again, this time he wasn't so lucky, and his character lost a life. "I thought demons were supposed to be good at everything. What happened, Mr. 'Ghost with the Most?' Lost your touch in your old age?"

"Shut up." She could feel his leg bouncing against the back of the couch, could hear him aggressively smashing buttons as he tried to no avail to gain the upperhand. Instead he dashed right off the edge and she hit him back when he tried to recover. "Goddamn it! If this was Mario Kart I'd be kicking your ass hardcore!" Lydia knew this was true, hence why they weren't currently playing it. He grit his teeth and leaned forward, nearly falling off his perch as he glared daggers at the screen.

And of course Lydia got her final smash and destroyed him. The match ended and he threw his hands in the air. "Fuck it, I'm done with this. Put a different game on." Lydia grinned meanly at him and started readying up another match, and he 'accidentally' dropped his controller onto her head. "Oops, my hands aren't working anymore," he deadpanned, holding out his arms which he spaghetti-fied, them hanging loosely in her face. "Can't play any more Smash, oh noooooo. Whatever shall we do?"

"Ew, get your noodle-ass arms out of my face, BJ," Lydia shoved them, and they swung limply. "Ugh, stop being a baby. Fine, what about Mario Party?" She hit the home button, blindly throwing the controller back at him. He hurriedly grabbed it out of the air to make sure it didn't fly across the room and ended up toppling backwards off the couch and landed on his head with a cartoonish bell noise. Lydia sat up to look at him, laughing so hard her face screwed up. "What the fuck happened to you, Beej?"

"Well," he grouched as he flopped over before sitting up. "You'd've ripped my balls off if I let the controller break." He said it matter-of-factly, giving her a dirty look and rubbing the top of his head despite the fall not hurting all that much, in reality. Lydia only continued to laugh at him. "I sacrificed myself to save you sixty bucks and you're laughing at me."

"You're so stupid. You could have just used your powers, or not fallen off the couch, or, and this is groundbreaking I know, not have dropped it on my head in the first place."

He mocked her, making a hand puppet and going "mleh mleh mleh mleh," in a high-pitched, whiny voice before he hopped over the back of the couch to sit properly. Lydia barely moved her legs out of the way before he sat on them, and she stretched back out and used him as a footrest. She just gave him a sweet smile when he turned a raised eyebrow in her direction, and he rolled his eyes and propped his own legs up on the table.

The two end up gaming for a few more hours, working their way through the snacks–Beetlejuice, mostly–before Lydia's ass starts to hurt from the couch. They had just finished the level they were fucking around in, neither really taking it seriously any longer, and she quit the game. "What? Why'd you close it?" Beetlejuice asked her, tilting his head as she held her hand out for the controller.

"I'm done, I got bored," she told him, shaking her hand for emphasis until Beej handed it over. She swung her legs off his lap and stood up, stretching and feeling her back crack. She attached the controllers back onto the Switch and grabbed it from where it was docked, before turning off the TV.

"Aw come on, going to bed already? The night's still young," Beetle whined, flopping onto his side dramatically. He stared at her from the darkness that fell over the room, eyes glowing from the couch. He'd look scary if not for the fact he was practically giving her puppy-dog eyes.

"I was going to go watch some true crime on my laptop, if you want to come. I'm gonna put on Nick Crowley," she offered, knowing he liked that particular Youtuber. He scrambled upwards and waved away their trash before falling in step–or, rather, started floating a step behind her. "Do you remember where we left off, BJ?"

"Uuuuh," Beetlejuice hummed, wracking his brain as he tried to remember. Oh, right! "Last one we watched was about the Dyatlov Pass."

He followed Lydia into her room. He leapt onto the bed as she headed to her desk and exchanged the Switch for her laptop, grinning at her as she turned and stared at him. She shoved him out of her spot and opened her laptop. He peered over her shoulder to see if she had any tabs she forgot to close he could tease her about, but it was all school-related except Twitter and Tumblr. Weirdo, but not teasing-worthy. Boo.

She pulled up Youtube and quickly navigated to the correct channel, scrolling through the videos until they found where they had left off. Clicking the next video, something about Smiley Face killings. Lydia got under the covers, handing Beej the laptop to prop up on his legs. He did so only after wrapping himself in her black fuzzy blanket, not needing the heat but liking how it felt. He had a matching one in his room but he couldn't be bothered getting up to get it, nor teleporting it either. She let him borrow it, only saying she'd send him back to the Netherworld if it stank.

They both fell quiet as he pressed play on the video, though they did pause it occasionally to talk about what was happening or crack a morbid, most definitely inappropriate joke. Three videos in, Beetlejuice felt the telltale tug of sleep trying to drag him under. He was comfy enough with the blanket around his shoulders and Lydia against his side that he didn't have the intense urge to fight it. He did half-heartedly attempt to stay awake, however. Lydia would fall asleep first, probably, and he could head onto the roof or his own room after that.

Except she was as awake as possible and put on the next video when it took Beetlejuice too long to do so. She glanced up at him and saw him bite back a yawn before focusing on the screen. Heh, she should make a joke about him being tired. It's not like he did anything all day. She at least had an excuse to be tired. By the time she came up with a suitable quip, which took less than a minute, and paused the video, he had his head slumped forward, eyes shut and mouth parted slightly.

She was lucky he didn't snore, or, thank Christ, drool. She elbowed him and he jerked awake, glaring at her. "Aww, is the baby tired? Is it beddy bye for the big bad demon?" She cooed at him, laying the baby-talk on thick.

"I'm awake," he grumbled, leaning back and crossing his arms. He stared pointedly at the video, before conjuring a third arm to flick her ear when she didn't unpause it. "C'mon I ain't getting any deadder here, Witchy."

"Are you sure you can stay awake? You look reeaal tired there, Beebleboose." He flicked her again and she snickered.

"I'm fine, put on the damn video before I eat your laptop," he threatened, and she slapped his arm before leaning forward to unpause it. He got through the rest of the video and lasted a whole 4 minutes of the next video before his head tipped backwards and he was out again, arms still crossed.

She'd finish the video and then kick him out, she supposed. Except she didn't make it through, either, eyes drooping before she, too, fell asleep. Her head hit his chest, the video droning on, unaware and forgotten, in the background.

- - - -

When he woke up, the room was dark, the laptop nowhere to be seen. Perhaps Lydia had grabbed it when he had fallen asleep to make sure it didn't fall to the ground? Yeah, that made sense. Beetlejuice blinked and rubbed his eyes, wondering why it was so dark, he could usually see pretty damn well in the dark, almost perfectly, in fact. Whatever, probably a side-effect of his half-awake state. He stood up and headed towards the door, intent on heading to his own room or something, but paused when he heard voices coming from downstairs.

Well, he couldn't ever pass up eavesdropping! He quietly made his way down the steps, avoiding the one that always creaked when stepped on, and hid just above the landing, peeking out to see who was talking. He didn't see anything, not at first, and he frowned. He could have sworn that there had been voices–

Lydia yelled from the kitchen and Beetlejuice didn't think before he was leaping down the stairs and charging towards where he had heard her yell. She yelled again, "No! Stop, why are you doing this, leave me alone!" He begged himself to go faster, why was he so slow right now, but something wrapped around his ankles and tripped him. He hit the ground, hard, and turned with a snarl.

Whatever was around his ankles was invisible, but he could feel it sticking to him. He reached down to rip it off but it just tangled around his hands as well. No, fuck this! He conjured fire in his hands and felt whatever it was begin to burn away, leaving him free enough to spring to his feet and charge into the kitchen. It was empty.

He looked wildly around, growling under his breath before calling, "Lydia! I'm coming!" There was a commotion from the living room and he leapt over the island in the kitchen and into the living room. Lydia was holding onto the wall with both her hands, kicking out against whatever was trying to drag her through a door, green mist billowing out behind her. "Lydia!"

"Beetlejuice, help!" Lydia cried, kicking again. He ran forward, hand outstretched to grab her, but it suddenly felt like something physical slammed into him, filling his head with ice. He froze stock still as a gnarled hand appeared from behind Lydia, a long, clawed finger pointing at him. Lydia was put down, a matching grizzled hand on her shoulder to keep her in place as Juno's glare met Beetlejuice's stare.

"Not today, Lawrence, I can't have you messing everything up for once," She barked, waving her hand and making him slam backwards against the wall. He struggled against the possession, baring his teeth at the older demon, but a phantom sensation tightened against his throat and kept him pinned. "Do as you're told for once in your not-life and stay put."

He opened his mouth to make a retort, to tell her to get her wrinkled hands off Lydia, to fuck off, to go eat shit and jump into the void, something, but he choked instead, the pressure against his throat worsening. He managed to free one of his hands from her possession to claw at his throat, but all he did was seemingly rip away layer after layer of… spiderwebs? He shook his hand to try and rid the sticky webs from it, but they clung to his skin and wound around his fingers.

"You! I told you before, no one leaves the Netherworld. You're coming with me, I have a special place for you." Juno grabbed Lydia again, her fighting doing nothing against the surprisingly sturdy demon, who conjured up a lit cigarette in her mouth. She took a deep drag, the smoke escaping through the gash in her throat, and Lydia coughed as it plumed in her face. "Don't make this harder on yourself."

Beetlejuice struggled again, trying desperately to get off the wall and do something, to help Lydia instead of just watching, but he couldn't. Damn it, he was stronger than this, why couldn't he just break this!

"No! Beetlejuice, help me!" Lydia screamed, and his eyes snapped up to watch as she was dragged through the door, her grip slipping from the wall. Suddenly the pressure keeping him stuck to the wall faded and he stumbled forward.

"Lydia, wait!" He bolted forward as the door closed, trying to hook his claws in the gap between it and the wall but he wasn't quick enough. The door slammed shut in his face and he beat his fist against it, heart pounding in his chest. No. No! No! Shit! "Lydia!" He cried in anguish, banging on the wall again three times. Nothing happened and he howled wordlessly. No, no, he couldn't lose Lyds. He couldn't let her get stuck in Juno's clutches.

He yelled again, kicking the wall this time before pacing in front of it. No one came downstairs, which surprised him, but he cursed them in his head silently. Fine, fuck them, who needs them? He could get Lydia back all by himself. He conjured a piece of chalk and drew a haphazard door onto the wall, knocking three times in quick succession. When it didn't open he grabbed the edge and forced it to. He was a fucking demon, he could bend reality if he really wanted.

He stepped through before it could be closed and found himself in the offices where Newly-Deads ended up, and didn't even spare a glance around before shoving his way through the staff door, slamming it open with a frame-rattling bang. "Where is she?" He snarled, but no one was around to take his anger out on. Fine. No one could stop him, then. Good. He stalked out into the hall and glared around, daring anyone to come from the woodworks to stop him. No one did, and he headed down the never-ending hallway.

The twists and turns and spinning made him dizzy in a way it didn't usually, but he chalked it up to his fear for Lydia messing with his perception. What felt like fifteen years and also only twenty seconds passed and he found himself in front of Juno's office, the only thing announcing this being a tiny plaque on the wall that read uoJn hgtoShog.

He took a deep breath to try and force some of his anxiety away and instead replace it with anger. Teeth on full display, lips peeled back in a snarl, he opened the door. Lydia was cowering against Juno's desk, said demon standing over her with her hand raised. Beetlejuice moved before his mind could think and he darted forward to grab Lydia and push her behind him.

"I thought I told you to keep out of this," Juno sneered, staring impassively down at him. Beetlejuice couldn't make his mouth move, and she laughed at him. "What's the matter, Lawrence? Finally learn how to hold your tongue?" He grit his teeth and tried to glare at her. "Aw, look at you, so scary. What a big, scary demon, glaring down his own mother. You're pathetic, nothing but a mistake."

He tightened his hold on Lydia and pushed her further behind him. Lydia glared hatefully at Juno and he begged her to keep her mouth shut, let her focus on him. "You're pathetic," she hissed, and Beetlejuice cursed in his brain, since he still couldn't make himself speak. "Nothing but a big bully."

Juno's eyes snapped to Lydia, and she took a step forward. Beetlejuice was rooted to the spot but he still squared his shoulders and stood protectively in front of Lydia. "Did you say something, pest? I don't remember inviting you to speak? What, are you Lawrence's protector or something?" She threw her head back and laughed, it grated against Beetlejuice's ears and he'd have winced if he could move. "He's really such a pathetic, fucked up excuse for a demon that he has to have a little human girl stand up for him."

Juno reached out and easily batted Beetlejuice away from Lydia, sending him crashing against her desk. She then grabbed Lydia by the arm and hefted her into the air, somehow larger than life itself as she glared at the girl. "Do you know what we demons do to weaklings here?"

Stop, put her down! Leave her alone, is what he wanted to yell. He tried to force himself to his feet, but he remained powerless and stuck in his spot as he watched Juno shake Lydia around like a rag-doll. He felt something crack in his own brain when Lydia spat, "You don't scare me," and got slapped across the face. He wanted to scream, he wanted to rip his mother from limb to limb, he wanted to grab Lydia and hug her and tell her not to backtalk to a demon older than magic itself. He wanted to do a lot and all he could do was watch in muted horror.

"How about we show her, Lawrence? You love putting on shows, don't you? For the attention it brings. What is your stupid little catchphrase again?" Juno put a hand to her chin in mocking thought, twirling Lydia around like she was nothing, ignoring his cries. Lydia was now held between two fingers, Juno the size of a building and the room growing to accommodate for her size. "Oh, right, how could I forget, it's so fucking stupid, just like you."

She stopped swinging Lydia and instead held her up at eye-level. Lydia clawed at Juno's fingers and kicked her feet in the open air. "It's showtime, isn't it, Lawrence?"

Something shattered behind him, he could feel it, but he couldn't bring himself to move. The room went pitch black, a spiderweb spreading across the floor and creeping up the walls, blood-red light shining from nowhere and everywhere at once. Beetlejuice found himself standing, now, at the end of a web-lined tunnel, Juno and Lydia at the far end. Clawed hands gripped his arms, his legs, his neck, his hair and forced him to his knees, ripping his head up to make sure he watched whatever was going to happen next. Terror bubbled in his veins, both cold as ice and burning him like flames, leaving him shaking and struggling desperately against the hands.

"I want you to watch, Lawrence, what happens when you mess with things you shouldn't have," his mother's voice echoed in his ear, in his brain, railroad spikes of fear and adrenaline that stabbed through his body. He managed to get his feet under him and started to stand when he froze again, eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

Lydia was now chained to the wall, gag shoved into her mouth. Black shapes emerged from the shadows. Spiders, or something close to that. They approached Lydia, chittering, their feet scraping against the floor oddly. Lydia stared at him, begging him to help her, stop this, do something, but the hands held fast, claws digging in painfully to keep him at a heel.

The first spider-like creature approached her, bobbing and weaving strangely, skittering around her feet. She flinched when it touched her, and it jerked backwards, spitting a glob of something at her. It hit her in the leg and instantly the scent of burning flesh filled the area. Lydia screamed behind the gag, the muscles in her leg jumping, and Beetlejuice couldn't let this go on. He couldn't let her get hurt. He lunged forward but the claws shoved him to the ground, bashing his head against the floor until he saw stars. Now, dizzy and woozy, they pulled him back upright, holding his head at an uncomfortable angle. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision, while also trying to focus on his powers which were refusing to work for him. Another one of the spider-things crawled up the wall and shivered next to Lydia's neck, glowing and crackling oddly. It stepped onto her arm and she jerked back against the wall, a scream tearing from her throat as she was electrocuted. Again, Beetlejuice tried to fight the claws holding him, and again they merely shoved him to the ground. This time they didn't pick him up, instead they just wrenched his head back until his neck snapped out of place.

The third and final creature bristled from the floor, swinging its two tails as it rattled threateningly. Lydia hung limply, tears pouring from her eyes as she caught Beetlejuice's stare again. And again she silently begged for him to stop it. He grit his teeth and slowly, slowly, shifted his legs. The spider-creature darted forward, one of its two tails stabbing forward. It missed Lydia by mere inches, imbedding into the wall and melting the surrounding area like it was butter in a microwave.

The other tail swung forward and Beetlejuice pulled against the hands, digging his feet into the ground and ripping himself from their grip. He hit the ground and scrambled onto his hands and knees, before stumbling to his feet with a scream. He dashed forward, but it felt like he was fighting molasses, the ground itself fighting every step and keeping him mostly in place.

He watched as the tail stabbed Lydia in the chest, and felt a third and final crack as her scream cut off into nothing, the room going 20 degrees colder as the feeling of death washed over him. "No!" He shrieked, falling forward and down into an inky abyss, drowning in the too-cold, too-hot darkness.

- - - - -

Lydia was almost thrown completely from the bed, waking up as her shoulders hit the floor. She blinked up at her ceiling for a moment, brain struggling to figure out what happened and why she was down there instead of in her bed. Her angle was too wrong to have simply rolled out of bed, so why was she…

She pulled herself up, legs hitting the floor too, and stood in one motion. Beej. He was thrashing where he was half-laying down, sweat beading against his brow and face screwed up in terror. Even his hair had gone white and orange, and she dodged a flailing hand as she crept closer. "Hey, Beej," she whispered, trying to wake him up without touching him. She wasn't sure if touching him would make things worse or help, but she didn't want to chance anything. That, and she was lowkey afraid he'd bite her, like a scared dog.

"Beej, wake up," she tried again, a little louder. She got a slightly closer, hands hovering over his shoulders. Should she… slap him like they did in the movies? No, that was stupid, he'd probably just think she was being mean on purpose and fucking leave. "BJ." Again, he just turned his head and kicked his legs, a choked noise warbling from his throat. She hated to do this, but she knew it would probably work. "Beetlejuice, wake up!" She hissed.

Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he shot upright, his forehead connecting against hers with a crack. She stumbled away and raised her hands to her face with a muffled curse, prodding at the area. It stung but it didn't seem to have broken the skin, or like it would really bruise. Jesus fuck. Lydia opened her eyes to see Beetlejuice shoving no less than half his fist into his mouth to unsuccessfully muffle a scream.

Oh, God, he was crying. To her horror, tears bubbled up from his eyes and dripped down his face as he bit down further on his fist, now just whimpering pathetically. Lydia moved back to his side and crouched down, hand hovering over his knee. "Beej, hello?" He didn't look at her, which was unexpected, and she hesitated before waving her hand in front of his face.

He flinched away from the movement but didn't seem to actually register her, and she wracked her brain for what to do. What did she do when she had a nightmare? Quick, Lydia, think. When she was younger she'd go wake up her parents to comfort her, but once she got old enough that she thought that was childish she'd stopped. Now she usually just waited out the panic until she got tired enough to sleep again, wrote it down in her dumb sleep-journal, or barring those, got Beej to come distract her.

She had no idea what to do. He obviously wasn't going to stop panicking any time soon on his own, and he was getting louder, risking waking the rest of the house. She doubted he had a dream journal. That left trying to distract him, but first she had to get him to focus on her.

"Hey, hey, B-man," she tried to get his attention, shaking his shoulder slightly. This time his eyes slid over to her, slowly, and met hers. She watched as his pupils widened, then shrunk to pinpricks, and could physically see the moment something clicked in his head.

"Lydia?" he whispered in a cracking voice, and she winced at how rough it sounded. Yikes. He reached out and grabbed the sides of her face, and she tried not to flinch away from them because one had just been crammed into his mouth and was now bleeding slightly. He squished her cheeks for a moment before one of his hands lowered to press against her throat.

He was checking her pulse, she realized, and tilted her head slightly to make it easier on him. "I promise you I am alive, you can't get rid of me that easily," she weakly joked, giving him a small smile which he didn't return. She could feel his hands shaking against her face and neck. "And even if I did die I'd haunt your ass."

After a moment he pulled his hands off of her and covered his face, mutterting, "Jesus fucking Christ shitting on a stick," in what she could only describe as a very strained voice. He didn't move after that, except to lean back against the headboard. She took this chance to crawl back into the bed beside him and sit facing him.

"Are you… no that's stupid, you're obviously not okay. Um, did you have a nightmare?" She scratched the back of her head, trying to figure out what her therapist would tell her to do in this situation. Maybe she'd ask next time she went. Beej didn't move, just grunted listlessly. She'd take that as a yes. "Do you… want to talk about it?"

He shook his head slightly, hair shifting rapidly through a motley of colors, before it settled on the gross yellow-green she associated with him not feeling well, with a few streaks of white that made him look like he was going gray. Normally she'd tease him about it, lightly rib him and poke fun at him because it was the best way to distract him, but that made something churn in her gut at the moment, so she refrained.

You know, for someone who claimed to not need to breathe, he did it a lot. And right now it was picking up to a rather unhealthy speed. Cool, great, he was hyperventilating now. She needed to get him to stop thinking about it, at least until he wanted to talk about it, or he looked less like he was going to vomit all over her bed due to anxiety. Actually, her first step was to get her wastebasket from next to her desk because she wasn't exaggerating, he looked like he was going to be sick.

"Okay, okay, okay, okay," she chanted, scurrying off her bed and across the room. She snagged the small trash can and barely made it back to her bed before Beetlejuice jerked forward. "Here!" She shoved the waste basket into his hands just in time for him to wretch into it. "Gross," she muttered, curling her lip at the sound of her resident demon spilling his guts into a trash can.

Rather bravely despite her disgust, she climbed back onto the bed and patted his shoulder in sympathy. While she had never actually thrown up from her own panic attacks, she had gotten close once or twice, so the fact that the normally rather iron-stomached demon was currently crying and puking into her plastic trash can because of his? Fucked up in her opinion.

"Sorry," his voice wavered, muffled strangely from where his head was still in the trash can. He swallowed and breathed slowly from his mouth, trying to do the breathing thing that Lydia and Adam had taught him. It didn't quite work, he still felt like shit, and his breath kept getting caught in his throat and making him choke, but he didn't feel quite as sick as before. He chanced lifting his head and felt even better now that he wasn't breathing trash can air. Who'd've thought?

He felt dizzy, though, now, and his heart was still pounding against his ribs, and his brain kept replaying the scene over and over and over again, which only made his breathing pick up again despite his best efforts.

He vaguely heard Lydia ask if he was done, and assuming she meant vomiting like a kid after a roller coaster he nodded. She took the waste basket and he felt her leave the bed for a moment and open her door, dropping it outside to be dealt with later before shutting it again. "Suck on this," she told him, pressing something into his hand.

He opened his eyes and looked down, squinting at the yellow-wrapped candy. She probably knew what she was doing and he unwrapped it and put it in his mouth before wincing at the sourness made him flinch. "What the fuck," he mumbled around the piece of candy, a tiny part of his mind noting that she hadn't said to eat it, so he didn't immediately crush it between his teeth to stop the sourness. "I'm having a mental breakdown and you give me candy. What am I, five?"

"It worked, didn't it?" Lydia asked, for the umpteenth time that night getting back into her bed. "Lemons are good for when you're having a panic attack because the sourness forces your brain to focus on that instead of your panic. I don't have any whole lemons laying around but I did have some Warheads in my bag from school."

That made… no sense to Beetlejuice, but it worked apparently because it did shock his brain out of his panic. Now he just felt the dull lingering fight-or-flight vibrating in his bones, leaving him exhausted and shaky. "Weird…"

"I know, right? I learned that from Tiktok, believe it or not." He gave her a disbelieving look, and she pulled out her phone, typing something into it before shoving it under his nose. Yep, that was a bald dude in glasses saying a lot of words biting into a whole-ass lemon. She pulled her phone back when the video ended, smiling at him. "See, the app isn't all garbage."

"Whatever, I still think it's stupid," he grumbled around the candy in his mouth. It wasn't sour anymore, and so he bit it, chewing it quickly before swallowing. He ran his tongue over his teeth as he thought, before he sighed. "Sorry."

"Why? For what?" Lydia looked genuinely confused and his eyebrow twitched. Uh? For freaking out? For ruining their night? For throwing up in her dumb little trash can? For having a stupid fucking nightmare right where she could see him? For being stupid enough to fall asleep in the first place?

"For making you deal with my bullshit," he said wearily instead of yelling the rest of it. It was too late (early?) for yelling, the last thing he wanted was Chuck to come in and berate them for being too loud. He could have an ounce of self-control every once in a while, surprisingly.

Lydia squinted at him, before muttering, "we really need to get you to therapy."

"No thank you. I won't go see a shrink. My brain is an enigma that I don't even get to understand." He grinned at her but it fell short of his eyes, and it quickly dropped. He looked down at his hands which were clenched into fists on his lap, and he flexed them. He could still feel the phantom claws pinning him to the floor, could smell the burning flesh, could feel the sudden freezing cloud of death

"You look like you need a hug, come here," Lydia's only slightly awkward voice cut through his thoughts and he glanced up to see her holding her arms open. "I don't know what you dreamed about but you're okay. We're okay," she told him in a strange tone of voice that told him that she had totally noticed him check her pulse earlier.

He leaned forward and pressed his face against her shoulder, and he felt her wrap her arms around him. He focused on the steady pounding of her heartbeat he could hear for a long couple of seconds before he wrapped his own arms around her and hugged back. He was bent a little awkwardly but… the hug was nice. It wasn't one of their usual quick, one-armed, sibling hugs, but something more grounding, more substantial. It melted some of the tension in his shoulders and he tightened his hold on her.

"I won't make you talk about it," she spoke into his hair, leaning her chin on top of his head. "But it might help. It always helped me, how many times have I dragged your ass in here to complain about whatever stupid dream woke me up?" She laughed slightly, and she felt him huff out an amused breath against her collarbone. "I doubt yours was about going to school with no pants on, though. God, that was a stupid nightmare, I don't even remember why it worked me up so much."

"Cause you care too much what people think, Night Terror. 'S a problem," He snorted, twisting his hand into her PJ top. He was avoiding the topic, not something she could really begrudge him for. "But you're right, this wasn't a 'oh no my teeth are falling out!' kind of nightmare, kid." Something about hearing him call her 'kid' while she hugged him made her have to fight a smile. This was serious, they were being serious, she couldn't actually laugh at him right now, otherwise he'd leave and then where would they be?

"Well, what happened, then?" The hug was getting a little much for Lydia, but she didn't let go because she could acutely tell that the touch was helping. She wasn't much for physical touch, but Beetlejuice tried to have contact with people as much as he possibly could. "If it wasn't your teeth falling out, then what? Were you falling forever until you finally hit the ground and bounced?"

"Haha, really funny, tease the fat guy," Beej snorted dryly, finally pulling back from the hug and giving her a flat stare. His lips shook in that particular way they did when he was trying as hard as he could to not smile. Good, it was better than him crying. "You're difficult, did you know that?"

"I try to be. Sooooo…"

He rubbed his face and brought his knees up to lay his head on top of, staring at her from the corner of his eyes. "I woke up and was gonna go back to my room to let you sleep, and I heard voices from downstairs, thinking it was Chuck and Delia, I went down to eavesdrop, as one does–" Lydia nodded because, yeah, obviously "–but there was no one there, and then I heard you yell from the kitchen. I ran in but again there was no one there, and I heard you again in the living room and that's when I saw that… she had you."

Lydia didn't need to ask who 'she' was, she could make a spot on guess based entirely off the way Beetlejuice had spat out the word like it burned him. Juno. So, Juno grabbed her, and then what? Lydia stared expectantly and Beetlejuice averted his eyes.

"I tried to stop her but I wasn't strong enough and she held me back and dragged you to the Netherworld. I couldn't get to the door before it closed and no one would wake up to come help so I drew my own door. It wouldn't open for me so I forced my way in, and got to Juno's office where she was standing over you as if she had hit you."

His voice grew detached, oddly stilted, as if he was reading an academic paper instead of regaling something that terrified him, and he stared blankly across the room. Lydia put her hand on his arm and felt him shiver.

"I was mad, really mad, how dare she lay a hand on you? So I stepped in front of you and she thought it was so funny. She berated me, which I mean, what's new? And then I couldn't move and she grabbed you. And she grew, or we became tiny I don't know, and she shook you around and then she said she was going to show you what demons did to weaklings and forced me to watch."

She shifted until she could lean her head against his arm and felt him shudder again, muscles in his jaw tensing. "You can stop if you want," she offered him an out, but he either didn't hear her or flat out ignored her. She was suspecting the former, though, by the way he stared forward.

"Something held me in place, hands, or claws, or something, and she chained you to the wall where these spider-things took turns hurting you. The… the first one burned you with some kind of acid. I tried to get over to you but I was pushed to the ground until I couldn't see straight. The second electrocuted you and again I was shoved to the ground but this time they snapped my neck to make me watch. The third…"

He finally turned his face towards her and looked so genuinely distraught that she felt her heart sink. "I got you killed, Lyds. Because I was too weak and slow to stop it." He finally moved for the first time since he started speaking, leaning back and violently running his hands through his hair. "If I can't even protect you in a dream, how-how the fuck am I supposed to–" His voice broke, face screwing up. He let out a frustrated growl and tightened his grip on his hair.

"Do you know what I think?" She smiled at him and he opened a single eye to stare at her quizzically. "Dreams aren't fair. They aren't supposed to be. They don't make sense, your brain just makes up exactly what'll hurt you most. I think if, and that's a big if, anything ever did happen you'd stop it. You wouldn't let me get hurt."

"But what if–" he started but she shook her head, cutting him off.

"No 'what ifs' here. I know you wouldn't let anything happen to any of us. I know you're a big ol' softy, but you are still a really powerful demon, and no one messes with a demon's stuff, right?" He gave her a calculating look, both eyes staring unblinkingly at her, and she just grinned at him. "Besides, we beat Juno once, we can do it again. Even if it's a super-buffed up, hacked, perfect IV dream version of her. Super Saiyan Juno."

He laughed at that, dropping his hands to push her shoulder. "Super Saiyan Juno," he quoted, shaking his head at the sheer stupidity of it. "I'd hate to see what she'd look like as a Super Saiyan."

"She'd look real scary with muscles," Lydia giggled. "All old and wrinkled but with wicked huge muscles. Like an old body-builder."

"Ugh, gross, don't make me think of that," Beetlejuice pushed her head lightly to the bed, where she laughed and kicked his leg. "Now it's in my head you freak, what's wrong with you? Do you hate me that much, Lyds?"

"Oh yeah, I just hate you soooo much that I have to resort to psychological warfare," She agreed with a shit-eating grin that Beej matched. She kicked his thigh again with both feet before sitting up. "Hey, where'd my laptop go?" She was wide awake now, and it wasn't worth going back to sleep.

Beetlejuice looked around, before peering over the side of the bed. It wasn't there. Lydia crawled to the foot of the bed and looked, but it wasn't there either. "Where the fuck," she heard Beej mumble, and the two of them spent the next 20 minutes looking for her stupid laptop.

Beej even fished around his pocket dimension and came up with nothing, the only laptops he had were one of the oldest clunkers she'd ever seen and then a hot-pink monstrosity with Barbie all over it.

"How do we lose an entire laptop?" She asked the room, checking under her bed again in case it mysteriously appeared there. "Are we both fucking stupid or?"

"I mean, we are," Beej grinned from across the room, "but this is beyond our usual idiocy. It's literally just gone, Scarecrow."

"There is no way it's just gone. Things don't just disappear, BJ. You didn't Thanos-snap it out of existence, did you?"

He gave her an offended look, hand on his chest. "Ow, my heart! You wound me! I'd know if I poofed it into oblivion. That isn't something that can just happen on accident."

"Sure, sure. Then where is it?"

It ended up being in the very last place either of them looked: the bed itself. Wrapped up in the back fuzzy blanket Beej had been using, it had gotten kicked to the bottom corner of the bed, only showing itself when Beetlejuice ripped the blanket off and it went sailing across the room. He froze it midair before it slammed into the wall and shared a look with Lydia before the two of them began to cackle, barely remembering to keep it down.

"We're so stupid, Beej," Lydia cried, flopping onto the bed and clutching her stomach as she laughed. "Why didn't we look there first?"

"We share one (1) braincell and neither of us had it in that moment," he wheezed, dropping heavily next to her and making her bounce. "It's almost as if the author forgot about the laptop until the last moment."

"What?"

"Nevermind, give it to me, we're going to watch something stupid," she made grabby hands for her laptop and he handed it over. She glanced down at the time, 4:37 AM, and groaned. Well, she definitely wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon, oh well. She'd just chug a bunch of coffee to make up for it. Sleep was for the weak anyway, she had plenty of time to sleep when she was dead. "You ever watch Smosh's TNTL?"

"Tee En Tee El? What?" He looked at her like she had just had a stroke, and she flipped him off.

"Try not to laugh, idiot. Have you?"

"No."

She clicked the most recent episode and handed him the laptop to hold. "Whoever laughs the most loses and has to do something the winner picks."

"Deal," Beetlejuice grinned, holding his hand out to shake. She grabbed his and sealed the deal, before starting the video, grinning because she knew she had this in the bag. She had already watched it, so she knew all the jokes. At one point, close to 7 AM her dad peaked in at them, surprised to hear them awake so early, and worried about the trash can outside her room, only to close the door when he heard, "I'm your mental illness! Okay, have a good bad day!"

Beetlejuice lost in the end, though surprisingly only by one laugh.

#beetlejuice #beetlejuice the musical #beetlejuice broadway #juno beetlejuice #lydia deetz #fanfic #fanfiction #veej's rambles

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