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Barney opens his eyes slowly, blinking. There's a pair of slitted eyes staring back and Barney yelps.
"Intruder!" Pugsley leaps out of his coffin barking. "Intruder! Intruder! Back off, I will bite you. I will bite every inch of you. I will lick you so hard your limbs will fall off! Intruder!"
"Oh. Hi Courtney." Barney says, realizing it's Courtney crouching on the side of his coffin and leaning over him.
"Hi Barney." Courtney says.
"Uh, what…what're you doing?"
"Nothing! I'm not doing anything!"
"Really? Then why are you creepily leaning over me?" Barney asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Aww, you think I'm creepy! Thanks, I try." Courtney bows while staying crouched.
"Uh…you're welcome? But can you be creepy not over my head?"
"Ugh, fine. Spoilsport." Courtney poofs away, leaving Barney and Pugsley alone.
"Barney! Barney, give me good boy scratches, did you see me bark loudly at the intruder and scare them?" Pugsley runs up to Barney.
"It was just Courtney." Barney chuckles. Pugsley gives him sad eyes. "But good job, buddy. A real intruder would have been terrified."
Barney plops down his bowl of popcorn, ignoring the voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Norma lecturing him about proper breakfast foods. He ignores Courtney peering around the corner. They'd been doing that more and more often, and trying to call them on it just led to either denials, yelling, or they would just poof away.
She follows him around that day, never really talking to him. Barney doesn't mind too much, it means she's not summoning someone else for them to fight, although he can't quite figure out why she's following him around. Norma would just ask her, and Pugsley thinks he should too, but Barney doesn't want to push.
Barney lays down in his coffin bed, thinking about actually getting a real bed with back support. Courtney had disappeared awhile ago and while he's curious, he's way too tired from customers to actually care at the moment and he sighs. His eyes slip closed as he says goodnight to Pugsley.
Barney sighs as he leans into the calming motion of fingers running through his hair. He'd missed this, and as he starts to slip back to sleep he thinks about how his mom must've broken into the house to…wait a second. He shoots up, swinging his arm behind him, barely missing Courtney as she poofs away.
"Hey, what was that for?!" She shouts from the safety of the chandelier.
"What was that?" Barney yells back.
"I didn't think you minded touch." Courtney says from next to him.
"When I have a warning. That was over the line, Courtney, don't do it again." Barney frowns at her. "Why were you doing it?"
Courtney shrugs, looking everywhere except at Barney. She glances at Pugsley, then to Barney, then poofs away and Barney sighs. He reaches down and scratches Pugsley behind the ear, as he looks from the coffin to where Courtney had been standing.
"Hey, Norma." Barney greets her, waving at her from over his breakfast of hot dogs, ignoring her eye roll. "Courtney is being creepy."
"She's always creepy." Norma says, dropping a box of pancake batter onto the table. "Hot dogs aren't breakfast foods."
"No." Barney agrees. "But better than popcorn, yeah? Anyway, I mean creepier than usual."
"Talking about me?" Courtney asks, poofing onto the table. "I am pretty awesome." She reaches for the box.
"Courtney, no. That's for tomorrow morning." Norma scolds, moving it out of her reach. Courtney groans in return.
"I was about to tell Norma about this morning." Barney says.
"Oh, when you almost punched me? Most exciting thing that's happened for awhile." Courtney says.
"You punched her?!"
"Almost! I didn't actually make contact. Besides, that's missing, like, a lot of context there."
"Would the context make you punching her understandable?" Norma asks. Courtney burps. "Or. More understandable than usual?"
"You guys are missing the important part of I didn't actually make contact with her!" Barney says, waving a hand. "But…uh. I guess? I mean, I would have reacted the same way if a human had done it too."
"How come your furs are different?" Courtney asks, eyes jumping from Norma to Barney to Pugsley and back.
"We don't have fur." Norma frowns.
"Well, it's definitely not scales or flesh, so fur, right." Courtney says, shrinking under their gazes before standing back up.
"Not scales or flesh…oh, our hair?" Norma asks, reaching up to touch her hair.
"Is that what it's called?" Courtney tilts her head.
"Wait, is that why you were touching my hair this morning?" Barney asks.
"I was curious." Courtney mumbles.
"Courtney. I would have let you touch my hair if you had asked, you didn't have to be creepy about it." Barney sighs.
"I like being creepy!" Courtney protests. "Anyway, I just wanted to see how it feels. And wondered if different colors meant it feels different. Or if it's all Pugsleys' fur."
"My fur isn't anything like their hair." Pugsley yawns.
"Well…I know that now!" Courtney yells, crossing their arms. Their eyes flicker towards Norma, then towards Barney again. "Is your offer valid?"
"My offer?" Barney blinks. "Oh, yeah. If you ask nicely."
"Mmmm." Courtney groans, rocking back and forth. "Lemme touch your hair."
"You should have specified the type of niceness you wanted." Norma remarks.
"I don't do nice, I'm a demon, hello." Courtney rolls her eyes.
"Eh. That was Courtney nice, so it'll count. Sure, Courtney. You can touch my hair." Barney shrugs.
Courtney reaches out slowly, unable to hide her shaking hands, but s chance to feel won over: Courtney was greedy, after all. Fingers make contact and Courtney smiles. Barneys' hair is stiff, stiffer than she thought from the quick touch this morning, and coarse and her hands get tangled in it for a second before she pulls away.
Courtney glances at Norma, then sits down to pet Pugsley. His fur is coarse too, but not nearly as stiff, fingers gliding through easily. She looks up as Norma sits down beside her.
"You're not going to ask?" Norma asks.
"You don't like touch. I'm a demon, I'm not mean." Courtney answers.
"You can. One run through. That's it." Norma offers.
Courtney smiles, reaching her hand out as Pugsley moves towards Norma. Her fingers slide through silky hair, not once getting tangled. Norma shifts and Courtney brings her hand back.
"My hair is blue because I dyed it." Barney says.
"You can kill hair? That's so cool!" Courtney exclaims.
"Not d-i-e die, d-y-e. It means I colored it. And that spray I use in the morning is how it stays so good looking." Barney explains.
"I don't do anything besides brush my hair. Can't deal with much product." Norma offers from the end of the table.
"Huh. Cool." Courtney says. Her eyes bounce around the humans. "I'm…gonna go now. Thanks, I guess."