Chapter Text
Beebo stared into the mirror, fidgeting with his jacket.
Somehow, after several events he'd skipped out on (avoided by staying home), Angel had twisted his arm and convinced him to come to the most recent meetup at Mari and Nina's house. Somehow. The bribe of snacks, probably.
He looked into the mirror one more time, checking for out of place hairs and any excuse to further prolong walking out the door. Sure, he wanted to see them. They were great! They were fun, and nice, and having friends as an adult who really understood you had been great. But there was one big problem.
He couldn't predict how they'd react to all this.
Sure, people tended to follow a set of rules and behavioral patterns, and they'd already been told over text, but up until recently, he'd thought vampires were fiction, reduced to corny romance archetypes from their original fictional horror concept. He didn't have a blueprint for a real reaction someone in front of him would have, especially not when they already knew him.
(Most of the modern information they'd found on vampires was from people attacked late at night. Not even close to the same situation.)
"Hurry up, we're going to be late!" Angel called from the front door.
It was probably time to stop putting this off. Angel was right, he couldn't just hide forever.
He jogged over to the door, gave Mozilla some quick good luck kisses (as they'd only be gone a few hours, this was just a little test run so he wasn't going to be staying with the neighbors), and then nodded to Angel.
They walked out together, hand in hand. It was evening by now, so Beebo had little trouble walking along in the shade. The wide brim of his hat didn't hurt, either.
They both hopped in the car.
Angel had decided to lease out a small car for a few months, at least until he got a little more used to the dangers of the outside world. Who knew it'd come in handy beyond that- riding the bus sounded like the worst thing in the world right now, honestly.
The dark twilight countryside rolled past as Angel drove.
"Is everything okay?" Angel said, breaking the quiet.
"Yeah, I'm just a little caught up in my head."
"Just wondering. You haven't said a word since we walked out the door."
Huh? What? There's no way. He had to have said something. Maybe a comment about cute cows, surely.
As he rewound the events of the drive, he actually couldn't remember- most of the little "marker" memories he'd left were thoughts he was having, and being distracted by something nearby startling him, like a dark fencepost whizzing past.
Hm.
"Yep, I'm okay. Just thinking, I promise."
Angel gave him a concerned glance from the corner of his eye.
Sure, thinking about these things was never good and only led to horrible doom spirals (he'd seen that the first few weeks with Angel's separation anxiety) but it was justified this time. Yes, totally, absolutely.
Sure enough, they pulled up to the house just as the front porch light flicked on.
Nina was standing out front and she froze, watching as they got out of the car and walked through the garden, up the sidewalk.
She had this horrible wide eyed, sad expression until they stepped into the yellow orange glow. She smiled, but her brow was still furrowed in an expression of anxious concern.
He should have been used to that pitying expression by now. He'd seen it on the faces of the nurses when he woke up hyperventilating in the middle of the night after the gallery because of the way the light reflected down the hallway. He was now also used to seeing it from Angel, from when he was moping about how his life would never be the same because he was a vampire now.
Beebo was finding that he was coming to hate it. Not because he didn't like being pitied- both situations objectively sucked! It was reasonable for people to feel bad. The main issue lied in the fact he was making people upset and there was nothing he could do. That hurt to think about.
"I was wondering when you two would show up," Nina said, fidgeting.
"It just took us a bit to get out of the house."
"Everyone's inside already- well, Vivi's setting up games in the backyard. I think Owen's out there t-"
Beebo didn't wait to listen. He wanted to prove that he was still the best! Owen had said that him skipping out on events made him by default claim the title! And apparently Vivi was bringing new games for them to play!
He ran through the house, slowed to shout "hello" at Mari and Simon as he slid through the kitchen, and burst out the back door.
"You." Owen's eyes narrowed as they stared each other down.
"Me."
Beebo walked down the stairs slowly, staring Owen down.
"Hi Nadia and Vivi, by the way." Beebo nodded politely.
Nadia and Vivi nodded their hellos.
He sat down at the table, staring down his nemesis. Nearly every game night they were evenly matched until the end, wherein Beebo pulled out too far ahead to catch in most games. He wasn't going to let this winning streak simply vanish into smoke.
"Welcome everyone," Vivi said, folding her hands on the table, "I've brought quite a doozy today. But, I think it'd be better to wait until later to show it off. Just to show how serious I am..." Vivi trailed off ominously and pulled out of her bag...
Monopoly.
Last time they'd played Monopoly, Owen and Beebo had spent thirty minutes arguing about a very precise stipulation in the rules. And both of them had been wrong.
"Me and Vivi will be teaming up, too, since you two are absolutely impossible to beat alone." Nadia said.
Okay. Not really fair but also entirely fair.
"I understand the terms of this agreement," Beebo nodded.
They unboxed Monopoly, chatting happily about how things were going. Vivi was working again, starting with small, local articles about conservation and the sort instead of large exposés.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure that the mayor is using these conservation and community events to keep people from looking into his tax evasion but that's a problem for future me," Vivi said, placing down the community chest cards on the board.
"Really? How'd you figure that out?" Nadia asked.
"Well, you'll have to wait until I release the article," Vivi winked.
"Maybe you were looking at financial records for these events and saw some sketchy stuff?" Beebo wondered out loud.
"Hey. You've done this like, twice now. Stop using your detective skills to spoil what I'm working on!!" Vivi yelled, miming throwing one of the Monopoly figurines at his head.
"I didn't mean to say that out loud!!"
"Well, now that you've spoiled what I've been doing, you have to continue this conversation like a normal person and tell us what you've been up to."
Oh no. He'd been cornered in the small talk. Something normal to think and possible to have done to you.
Honestly, he hadn't been up to much. Moping, doing more testing about what he could and couldn't do and what changed after becoming a vampire. He'd opened up his website again to small cases, but since he'd been absent for a while, nothing had come in just yet.
"Uh. Nothing. Just spending time with Angel, I guess."
Just then, Simon ran out, carrying a plate of pastries over her head.
"Mom made some pastries!" he shouted.
Ah. Perfect. An interruption so he didn't have to talk about himself.
Also, pastries! Hooray, pastries!
Angel, Nina, and Mari followed soon after, happily chatting away. He caught something about baking and Angel making a joke about how he was an okay cook but terrible baker.
"Finally, you're all joining us!" Vivi said.
"Oh no, she's brought Monopoly," said Angel.
Mostly everyone laughed at that, and the night continued without a hitch!
---
Beebo stood alone in the kitchen, holding a glass of water.
Everything was going great. Awesome even. But it was loud, and he'd stopped being used to being in loud areas, and his hearing seemed to be sharper, so... it was overwhelming. And frankly, he needed a break.
He nearly didn't react when the door opened behind him but a little jolt of paranoid fear quickly rectified that.
Nina was standing there, with those wide, sad eyes.
...Nooo stop looking at him like that...
"Can we talk?" She said softly, almost like she was scared to break the silence.
NOOOOOOOOO.....
Had he done something wrong? Had he said something wrong? Had he taken too many pastries? Had he blacked out, started chewing on someone's neck, and they had instantly healed by the time he snapped out of it with no memory of the event and everyone else was either too scared or too polite to say anything?
"Just- I don't want to ruin your good mood or anything, but I feel like we should talk, after everything, you know?" She said, fidgeting.
...Ah. It was about the party.
Maybe he could do something about that sad expression.
Oh no he hadn't said anything in several seconds and it was starting to be awkward and he was probably making her nervous by just staring blankly.
"Y-yeah. Uhm- maybe out front?"
"I was actually thinking the same thing. I'll meet you out there in a second." Nina said, visibly relaxing.
Beebo put the glass down and walked out front, hearing Nina tell the others where they were going to be. He sat on the porch, staring up at the stars.
It was quiet out here.
Nina joined him with the sound of a door shutting and sat down next to him.
"I just thought I should say... sorry. For- for him, you know-"
She glanced back and forth between Beebo and the edge of the porch light's glow.
"You're a vampire now. And he did that to you. I mean, he always told me how difficult his life was because of it, and.."
She clenched her fists.
"Since he's not here to apologize, I feel like I should. He did that to you, and I hate him for it, but... I still love him. In a weird way. So someone should apologize on his behalf."
Beebo was silent for a long moment.
How was he even supposed to reply to that?
He started out slowly, trying to gather his thoughts.
"I've had a lot of time to think and mope around because of everything...."
The words he'd been thinking about for weeks formed, one word at a time.
"Did you know that, for after a week after I escaped my first house, I was thinking of quitting being a detective for good, and getting some boring office job? But when I got there for the interview, the hallways were brightly lit and had no windows in a way that made me just... sick to my stomach. So when the interviewer stopped at the room they were supposed to interview me in, I just... kept walking and calmly left out the back exit that I'd found while looking at the place on google maps to check if it wasn't "too weird"."
He laughed a bit at the memory. He'd avoided that street for months after from sheer embarrassment.
"You.. were in another house?" Her eyes were wide- somewhere between shocked, confused, and curious all at the same time.
Ah. Horrid. He hadn't told her about that. Quickly, pivot to what he had meant to say the whole time!
"Don't worry about it. All this to say.. a week before the first house, I thought I'd be a detective forever. And a week after, I thought I was going to quit forever. I guess... the path of your life is always changing, sometimes more violently and in more scary ways than other ways, but.. look at me, I'm pretty happy right now. I have you all, and Angel, and I'm going to do my best to not skip out on game nights from now on, which I always have fun at, by the way."
That wasn't... quite how he'd meant to word it. But considering the look on Nina's face, he'd explained pretty well. It was more.. an emotion he'd have sometimes. Certainty that he could make whatever choice was available to him now, and that he didn't have to dwell on what could have been.
"I'm going to worry about it. But... yeah, I guess you're right. I never thought I'd be married to Mari." She said, staring down at her hands with a little smile.
He'd been so nervous this whole time about everyone's reactions... just for them to either think it was interesting like they'd shown in the group chat, not really care either way, or have their own reasons for being worried- none of them were afraid, or angry.
To be fair, he wasn't really all that intimidating, even when he had sharp teeth.
It'd probably take a lot less bribery and nagging on Angel's part to get him out of the house now, haha.
"Should we head back to the others?" He said, looking at her.
"Yeah, Mari's probably wondering what we're up to.." Nina stood up, staring out again into the dark.
Beebo stood up as well.
"...So... I heard about Mozilla's escape attempt." Nina said, smiling a little.
"Oh no. Who told you?" Beebo said, burying his face in his hands, laughing a little bit.
"...Actually. Um. I nearly forgot to say.." Nina said, looking nervous again.
Uh oh. Did he say something wrong while trying to help Nina out. She'd responded positively, right? Did he miss something? Did-
"If you need to feed ever- uh. You know. Vampire. Mari and I have been talking- we're fine if you feed from us."
...What.
"I mean- it's fine, I can just eat other stuff to tide me over-"
"Nope! You're a guest and neither of us want guests going hungry."
...Okay, well, there were a lot of reasons he'd say no, at least right now, even if he was very hungry. He'd feel like he was overstepping, or worry about being scary. But the gesture was nice, at least.
"..I'll tell you, then."
"Good! As you should. Let's go, then!"
Okay, well, maybe his earlier assessment of Mari being generally indifferent was wrong. It didn't change her opinion of him, at least, but she did care.
...That was nice to know, too. That nobody thought lesser of him, but they did care, and were willing to help if needed.
He should probably start expecting that more. After... everything, they'd all offered to help each other in any way they could here and there.
It was honestly pretty hard to get through his skull that people wanted to help him, including with being a vampire. He'd just told Nina that it wasn't much different from any other unexpected change in his life, after all. It was just sometimes hard to actually put two and two together in his head.
Having people openly willing to help would help, though.
They both walked to the backyard and sat down.
Angel gave his hand a little squeeze. He'd probably gleaned what Nina had wanted to talk about.
"You're finally back! I've been waiting for you... so we can play the final game on our list." Vivi said, ominously.
She reached into her bag and pulled out...
Settlers of Catan.
It was as if Vivi had casually set a grenade on the table.
"At least Vivi and I already have an alliance set up. You two are on your own." Nadia nodded.
"Okay, but what if Owen and Beebo team up?" Vivi asked.
"We both know that's not going to happen."
"...Okay, fair point."
"Actually, I lost two friends in college because of this game," Beebo chimed in.
"Oh. I'm sorry. Uh-" Vivi glanced around.
"It was because I won so overwhelmingly, actually." He nodded.
"...Sorry rescinded, I'm terrified now." She replied.
That finally made the table burst out laughing.
This is where he belonged. Sitting next to the person he loved, surrounded by people who cared about him and were there for him, but most of all, had fun together.