Chapter Text
“Let’s go for a walk!” Delia said eagerly. “I want to show you everything!”
“That sounds amazing,” Charles agreed. They walked off, hand in hand, Charles completely uncaring that he was still in his pajamas and slippers, and Delia uncaring about the ruined state of her own clothes and hair.
Beetlejuice put his arm around Lydia’s shoulders, watching them go. “Well, Scarecrow, that was an adventure.”
“Yeah it was.” She looked from the unicorn on the porch, then back to Beetlejuice. “BJ,” she said, voice hesitant, “do you want me to come with you to get those traps?”
He looked away immediately, his hair darkening. “I don’t know. I… I feel like it’s something I gotta do. I know what happened wasn’t my fault, but still, someone’s gotta clean up the mess. I’m probably the only one who can. That shit is cursed as fuck.”
“Yeah, I understand, but no one said you had to do it alone.” She turned and put her arms around him, giving him a hug. He stood still, then closed his eyes and leaned into the embrace, putting his arms around her as well.
“I think I gotta do this alone, just to clear it out of my system, but after… could we hang out? With cake? Oh, maybe we could get some explosives and blow them up! Pretty sure with some holy water poured on them first and enough C4, we could totally turn them to scrap metal. Explosives and cake!”
“That sounds badass.” Her grip on him tightened suddenly and she buried her face in his chest. “And this is going to sound cringe, but… you can always talk to me about stuff, okay? Like how I go to you when I’ve had a nightmare. If you ever have a nightmare, or a bad memory, then I want you to tell me, okay? Or, if you don’t want to talk, we can just hang out.”
She felt how he shuddered, his body twitching like static shocks, before going still. “Thanks, Lyds. I… I’ll take you up on that." He cleared his throat. "Now, enough of the lovey dovey stuff.” He pulled away and ruffled her hair.
“Hey! Jerkface!”
He laughed and stopped ruffling her hair, but there was a gleam in his eye she was immediately suspicious of. “I’m going to go take care of that. I’ll see you soon.” He floated over to the unicorn. “Let’s go, sparkles.”
The unicorn snorted at him, and they went inside together.
Lydia followed more slowly, feeling pleasantly tired. It had been a very stressful day, but it had ended well. “Adam, Barbara, want to make some cake? I have a feeling we’re all going to want some tonight. We can use the ingredients from the Neitherworld, so you guys can have some too.”
“That sounds lovely, Lydia!” Barbara said, then stopped and stared at her. “Oh my.”
“What?”
Adam covered his mouth with both hands, but couldn’t stop the laughter from bursting out of him. “I’m so sorry! I’m sorry! But Lydia… your hair!”
Barbara started giggling too. “I’m going to go get the cake ingredients together!” she said through her giggles, quickly floating away into the kitchen. Adam followed after, laughing fit to burst.
Lydia, now terribly suspicious, rushed into the bathroom. What she saw left her horrified. Her hair was no longer black. Instead, BJ’s threat from earlier that day had come to fruition. One side of her hair was a deep, vivid pink, the other side a glowing yellow-orange.
Razzmatazz and Tangerine.
“Beetlejuice!” she shrieked. “I’m going to kill you again! I’ll poison your cake! I’ll put razor blades in it! I’ll sprinkle holy water in the frosting! You really are a dead man walking! Just wait until I get my hands on you!”
Upstairs, Beetlejuice paused before diving through the mirror and grinned. There was no sweeter sound than a truly riled up Lydia. He’d pay for his prank later, but it was so worth it. “Told you people I just needed practice to get the colors right,” he said smugly, then stepped through to the Neitherworld.