Chapter Text
They get back together. It was Vivi’s doing, if it were up to him they would have never gone back there.
Coward. A voice says in his mind and it’s not the ghost. He knows that because the voice was there from the moment Vivi and Lewis got together, way before the cursed caves. Leaving the friend you killed alone. You coward.
She went back when Arthur and Mystery were sleeping, her memories somehow returned after months of blank faces, and suddenly Lewis was back. Well not back back, he was still a creepy skeleton ghost but he was driving the van, talking with Vivi in the passenger and petting Mystery during red lights; altogether ignoring Arthur in the back. Which was fine. More hospitable than Arthur imagined in his nightmares since that fateful day.
There are unspoken rules to Lewis’s return, little intricate things that are written in the flames that make up Lewis’s hair, the pink flame that could become a raging inferno. No being alone with Vivi is made pretty clear the first time he went to ask her about Mystery’s whereabouts. Lewis had phased through the floor behind the girl and glared until he left. From that moment on he makes sure to approach only with Lewis there and even then the chorus of pink ghosts glare behind the oblivious girl, their yellow eyes boring down in his skull.
Vivi catches on to the rule pretty fast though and she berates and pouts at Lewis for it. “We’re all friends,” she says. Which makes betrayal all the more bitter, Arthur knows. Lewis eases up on it but what Vivi doesn’t know is that Arthur is use to seeing pink ghosts everywhere. He doesn’t tell her either.
There are other rules, rules Vivi doesn’t know about. Arthur is to go first: walking on the street, in haunted buildings, in rooms, Arthur is always subtly pushed forward. It’s understandable, being pushed from behind to their death would make one weary so he walks forward with a mixture of fear and shame.
He’s no longer allowed to drive the van. He goes to sit in the driver’s seat because before it was always Lewis drives in the mornings and late nights, Arthur drives in the afternoon and early evenings. Now that Lewis doesn’t have a sleep schedule the only one he allows behind the wheel is Vivi and himself. Arthur’s also stuck at the back of the van, no more shotgun; his attempts at conversation shunned.
There are rules that Arthur doesn’t quite understand and Lewis doesn’t explain. He learns through trial and error. No sleeping up late. No more trying to repair the van. No trying to avoid the pink ghosts that have become his watchers. Basically no doing anything suspicious which is bad because Lewis has become paranoid in his ghostly state.
It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing, it’s exactly what he deserves. Sometimes he wonders if it would be best just to leave the gang sometimes. It’s funny, in a kind of ironic way, his greatest fear, the thing the spirit fed on as he possessed him was his fear of being left alone. That was the reasoning the spirit provided as his arm numbly shoved Lewis off the cliff. Get rid of Lewis and you’ll never be alone. Here they were a year later and he was going to end up alone anyway.
————-
One of the many unspoken rules was that Arthur was not to be threatening in any manner. An easy task since he’s, well, Arthur, but anytime he tried to initiate physical contact, raising his hand, going for a hug or even a handshake, Lewis’s hair would crackle, growing untamed, his usually peaceful ghosts growing fangs in warning. Mystery caught on with a pitying look. Vivi did not. Where once he clung to Lewis during their investigations, just going near his once-friend has his feet shaking, his heart racing, and not in a good way.
And he tries. He tries. It’s one of the unspoken rules. He can’t even rub his arms in that nervous gesture he always used to have before. Lewis thought it too threatening apparently. He puts his hands in his pockets, wears long sleeves in the heights of heat to hide his arms and the memories no doubt attached to them. Just one push and it’ll all be over. He even gets some pretty cool orange work gloves and people stop staring at his metal arm, asking, “How did you get that?” so it’s a win-win.
——-
They’re a few months into being back together. Vivi’s noticed the tension and keeps trying to get them to talk but it falls flat. She’s getting frustrated, they can all tell. Eventually she gives them an ultimatum. “Make up or else,” she says trying to trap them into a room together. It doesn’t really work seeing as how Lewis can phase through the walls which he does as soon as the door slams shut.
Arthur has already tried apologizing, to Lewis, to Vivi. Vivi accepted. Lewis just stared as Arthur pathetically cried and begged forgiveness. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me. I didn’t mean to.
Lewis’ only response was, “For Vivi, because she still likes you but don’t think this means you’re off the hook. Don’t think this means anything. You murdered me Arthur.” After which he left one of his henchmen behind to check on Arthur’s every move.
So this is how it’s gonna go huh?
Arthur lockpicks the door open and trudges to his hotel room.
(He remembers when him and Lewis use to share, staying up late and talking about whatever; he remembers impromptu pillow fights while Mystery growled at them to go to sleep - now Mystery is usually with Lewis, Vivi in her own room.)
His personal pink boo follows him as he packs. He doesn’t have much stuff, they all go very light in case, they need to run away last minute, and he’s done way packing too quickly.
He checks the bus schedule, next bus to the next town over comes in an hour. He sits on his bed and, as always in time of distress, orders room service. When he’s done the rooms a mess but then again it’s a hotel; someone will clean up. He looks at the watch, thirty minutes, then looks at the pink ghost, circular and floating. It has no legs and nothing to really discern it from its brethren so he can’t tell if the being is meant to be a person, some dead guy following Lewis around or something else. He doesn’t know if Lewis can hear him through the ghost, if his freaky abilities extend to possessing smaller ghosts or if the ghost has a mind of it’s own and reports what it thinks it’s suspicious.
It doesn’t matter.
“Tell Lewis I’m sorry alright?” He says but the ghost says nothing in return. Just staring. Maybe not so intelligent.
He gets up, his arm has been acting up recently and with Lewis staring him down all the time with that unspoken rule he hasn’t been able to take proper care of it. He gets out the oil, the toolbox with the dirty wrenches he never cleans, pulls back the long sleeve and removes his arm. He’s use to the sting of it but it still hurts and the stump has to be numbed beforehand or else it’ll really hurt - nerve endings and all. He hasn’t been able to restock on numbing fluids so it’s no surprise when he drops the arm in his pain and it rolls under his bed.
He has his head under the bed and his one arm reached out in searching when he hears Vivi and Lewis’s echo-y voice.
“You need to make up.” Vivi says and the door opens, her voice becoming clearer.
“Quite right.” Mystery says. “It’s honestly getting annoying.” Mystery must be really annoyed if he’s using his energy to communicate instead of playing charades.
Arthur tries to get out and he does but not without bumping his head on the bed frame, his metal arm still stuck under the bed. He rubs his hand and stands a little wobbly. The room’s a mess, red jelly, peanut butter and ketchup everywhere from where he ate most likely the biggest PB&J ever created and bread crumbs littering the floor as if he was an old man at lakeside. What could he say? He was a messy eater when stressed.
“What happened here-?” Lewis pauses and for some reason he suddenly projects himself as human. He’s wearing the ascot again and the sweater vest, his skin a little paler than it was in life. He doesn’t breathe as he should, ruining the illusion but besides that it was almost as if Lewis was alive again. If only he'd smile. He’s looking towards Arthur with a faint expression of shock and despair.
Arthur reviews the rules in his head. He was sure if he was doing something wrong the little pink ghost would’ve alerted Lewis much sooner. Was he not allowed to be messy anymore? Fuck.
He looks at Lewis and shrugs sheepishly, his left shirt sleeve flapping with the motion. He hopes Lewis wouldn’t be too mad but at the same time Vivi and Mystery are in the room so he won’t do anything too insane. He hopes. He still has nightmares about blue hearts and pink flames from time to time.
Lewis, while in his human form, still floats forward, just a few inches off the ground. Arthur backs up a little but when he hits the edge of the bed he just lets whatever happen happens. Vivi and Mystery do nothing to stop what’s going on, whatever that is.
“What happened to your arm Arthur?” For some reason Lewis’s voice is more echo-y than usual, his holo projection flickers and it’s scary but it is also Lewis so Arthur swallows down the scream crawling up his throat. He looks behind Arthur to see Vivi and Mystery just as bewildered as him.
“I lost it.” Arthur admits, his voice shaky.
Lewis, it’s almost like a gasp except it’s not a physical gasp. It’s in the way his form flickers and the room gets chillier, the lights going off for 1, 2, 3, seconds before coming back on. It’s in the way that Lewis’s orange heart beats faster, so fast that Arthur feels the vibrations in his own chest.
Lewis looks at the toolbox, at the mess of oil and the mess of condiments and other bits on his sheets and then turns to glare at his own henchman?
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He whirls at his own kin in its corner of the room. The little spirit crunching in on itself. “Why didn’t-?” Lewis sobs, an echo-y static and flickers back to skeletal. His back is turned to them and Arthur slowly slides behind Vivi for protection.
“I didn’t mean-” Lewis says, he turns. “I’m so sorry Arthur.” And that’s when they all spot Lewis’s heart turning orange to a pale blue.
They look at each other. First Vivi to Mystery then both of them to glare at Arthur. He puts his hand up in a gesture of, ‘I don’t know’. Was it some act for Vivi, a little, ‘I’m sorry’ so she’d stop harassing them to forgive each other? He was laying it on a little too thick though. Was he honestly sad about something? Arthur curses to himself and hides further behind the shorter girl.
Vivi looks around the room, for she’s a quick study, and asks, “Was that boo always watching you?”
There’s things he could do, he could be a great mechanic and singer, great bait, but he could not lie directly to Vivi.
“Yeah.”
Lewis says something to the boo and it disappears, it’s heart a sad blue and eyes downcast and then Lewis floats over his eyes oh so sad and his heart beating at a slow pace, like a beat to a funeral song.
“Arthur.” The ghost says, staring at the ketchup stained empty sleeve.
“Yeah?”
“Oh…Arthur!” Lewis says and he looks like he might burst into tears. By this point both Mystery and Vivi have deserted him for the sidelines, glancing between the two.
“I didn’t mean to. I just- I-" Lewis pauses and his heart turns to, not a brighter shade of blue but a deeper, darker shade.
“…Okay?”
“Your arm.” Lewis points out and he actually sniffs. His form flickers, this time staying human. His eyes are red rimmed, his expression so conflicted but mostly sorrowful.
“I lost it under the bed.” Arthur says plainly and a little freaked out, points shakily with his other arm. Mystery barks and goes under, fetching it and Lewis looks away almost as if he’d throw up. His breath, and he shouldn't have breath, shudders, his heart beating a little faster and his eyes wide. If he didn’t know better he’d diagnose Lewis as sick.
“What’s this all about Lewis?” Vivi asks as Arthur hurriedly thanks Mystery and reattaches his arm. He knew what this was about, he broke a rule of some kind. He covers his sleeve and puts back his glove, stuffing his hands in his pocket. There. That's better right? He looks to Lewis in silent askance.
“What do you mean-?” Lewis asks hysterically. “Arthur is-” Lewis looks back at him and he takes his left arm from the pocket, wiggles his fingers demonstratively before putting it back in.
If anything Lewis looks even more sick and pale.
“I-?Wha-” Lewis stutters.
Again, Vivi is the one to connect the dots.
“…You- You didn’t know about Arthur’s arm?”
The silence is thick. Arthur laughs because the mere suggestion- he was wearing a short sleeve tee when they visited Lewis’s crazy mansion but then Lewis shakes his head in bewilderment and Mystery whimpers, bringing his paw to his face and shaking his head and-
“What?” Arthur asks. Sure they never really talked about his new, shiny arm but he thought…
“What’s wrong with Arthur’s arm?” The pink specter asks, his pale blue heart beating fast. “He didn’t cut it off?”
Vivi groans something resembling, “Men.” She puts her hand on her hips which means she was either getting frustrated or feeling smug and says, “If you two would just talk like normal human beings. Didn’t you tell him about the cave Arthur? The possession?”
Which, no, now that he thought about it, he doesn’t think they’ve ever really talked about that day. They haven't really talked much since Lewis' return. He’d always assume…
“I thought you told him.” Arthur says meekly.
Vivi groans again and Mystery whimpers while Lewis looks between the three.
“What’s going on?”
————————-
They all settle down on the hotel bed. Vivi contemplates just letting the two of them talk it out by themselves but changes her mind at the possibility of them messing it up. Arthur ends up missing his bus ride. He stares subtly at his packed suitcase on the floor, the one that Mystery ends up sitting on as if to say, “No getting out of this one.” Vivi does most of the talking, Mystery providing his input when it comes to the ‘biting off Arthur’s arm’ bit. When Vivi gestures Arthur removes his glove.
Lewis gasps, “Why didn’t you tell me?” He asks as Arthur rolls up his sleeves, to the point where metal meets flesh.
Arthur shrugs, “I was wearing a tee back at the mansion. Thought you already noticed.”
Lewis, sheepishly says, “I was kind of preoccupied.”
“So was I.” With running away.
“So you were possessed.” Lewis says as if he’s processing the data. His heart, gradually, returns to its orange hue.
They all look at him, awaiting a reaction. Arthur goes to roll his sleeve down but Vivi smacks his hand away, glaring at him. Then finally Lewis laughs, it’s not menacing but still echo-y. Lewis’s form flicks back to skeletal, to normal, and even though they don’t have facial expression to really go by his strong orange heart makes it clear it's a good laugh.
“I’m relieved. I thought you had actually wanted me dead there.”
Arthur scrabbles, spluttering, “Of course not!”
Lewis’s eyes are so pink and so sincere, more than making up for a lack of smile. “I know that now.”
Vivi, between them, smiles and says, “Finally.” Mystery finally gets off his suitcase to nod and stretch.
Lewis stands and holds his arms in welcome. Arthur is confused for a few seconds, months of self-imposed rules telling him to duck his head and put his hands in his pockets, roll his sleeves down. Be as non-threatening as possible.
Instead he hugs Lewis like they use to and let a small smile creep on his face.
They were finally back together again.