Chapter Text
The morning begins at sunrise at the house on the hill. Delia and Barbara do sunrise yoga together, and sometimes Beetlejuice pops in for meditation, more because he likes the irony of it and to annoy Barbara. He used to like Delia ironically as well but recently started to actually like her because she likes him. She was weird and didn't even know it. Her pseudo-intellectualism, toxic positivity, and phony profundity make him laugh. Delia was always very accepting of himself and his relationship with Lydia and tended to go easy on him, understanding his trauma. She barely batted an eye when nineteen-year-old Lydia announced that they were in a relationship, something between dating, engaged, and married. Of course, Charles and the Maitlands weren't happy that Beetlejuice was sticking around, but Lydia made him promise to 'kindergarten rules': keep your hands to yourself and be nice. Beetlejuice only listened to Lydia and occasionally listened to Delia because he liked her.
Not that he stayed away for long, quickly growing bored of his search for his father after about an hour. He and Lydia continued their friendship, much to the disapproval of Charles, Adam, and Barbara. Delia, however, was happy to give him a second chance, believing everyone deserved one. As Lydia got older, her feelings for the monster grew deeper until she realized it was love. They never looked back. Beetlejuice definitely fits the 'other' in 'significant other.'
Surprisingly, life felt totally normal. Everyone had their tasks. Charles worked, Barbara and Adam kept up the house, Delia did a little bit of both, and it was Lydia's job to ensure that Beetlejuice didn't do anything. Everyone pretty much got along.
It did take some getting used to, living with three dead people. The house was constantly cold, the electricity would flicker, and the family's devices would act up. Barbara and Adam didn't have much effect as they were younger spirits and less powerful. Beetlejuice, however, could cause havoc just by stepping over the threshold. Around him, the temperature would drop ten degrees, and the lights would brown out momentarily.
Beetlejuice and the Maitlands are entirely different entities. The Maitlands are dead humans. Beetlejuice is a demon who never walked the earth as a living human (aside from about a minute that one time) and was born dead in Hell. He's more robust and has different abilities than them such as teleportation, being able to affect dreams, and creating multiples of himself.
Delia will do daily affirmations with Beetlejuice, "I am seen. I am heard. I am valid. I am loved." Everyone but Delia thinks it's silly to be doing affirmations with a literal demon from Hell, even Beetlejuice, though he will never admit that does help him that he is in a generally safe space.
Adam will start breakfast when they're finished. Being a lifelong New Yorker, Charles never really learned how to cook with the abundance of takeout and restaurant options. Although, somehow, Adam's grill never made it on the Goodwill or Salvation Army trucks. Adam and Charles will spend hours together maintaining the grill, Charles learning from Adam the ways of the grill, talking about cuts of meat and how to properly prepare them (which Beetlejuice invariably turns into something lewd) and all possible marinades. However, the Ghost with the Most shuts up when he has a perfectly barbecued and marinaded rib in his mouth with all the fixings. Neither Adam nor Charles sees anything odd about getting up at the crack of dawn to smoke meat. During the winter, Adam will make hearty soups and chili, potato soup being Lydia's favorite.
After sunrise yoga, if he went, Beetlejuice slipped back in bed with Lydia, shucking off his clothes because he sleeps in the nude. She'll get up for breakfast and start her day if she has class. Lydia was almost done taking courses at a local community college. She was just about comfortable with what she had saved to move out and finish her degree at a university. She inherited her father's entrepreneurial tendencies and started as a freelance photographer and photo editor. However, Lydia can sleep well into the afternoon on weekends if nothing is planned.
Lydia burrows into his embrace, her arms around him, face buried in his neck. He caresses her skin, kissing her face to wake her up gently when she has to be somewhere. Sometimes, this becomes a make-out session and frequently a sensual lovemaking.
Beetlejuice wasn't exactly a biological, corporeal being. You look at him and think he'd reek like a bloated corpse or be cold to the touch. The moss and bruising came and went for effect. Though Lydia would say he stunk to get on his nerves, he didn't really. He was devoid of the things that made a human a person. He was room temperature. If it was hot, he was hot. He smelled of nothing and tasted like nothing, almost like he was a walking glamour spell. It was an eerie reminder that he wasn't from this plane of existence. He could change his smell or breath to enhance his harassment, such as kissing Adam or hovering near Charles.
Beetlejuice had a stocky, rectangular build, broad-shouldered but wide-hipped, rounded face and chubby-cheeked and noticeably shorter than her dad and Adam, which Lydia found endearing. Still, he was strong. He accidentally popped Adam's eyes out of their sockets when he got him in a playful headlock. Well, playful on Beetlejuice's end.
On the mornings and days that Lydia goes out, almost always with Beetlejuice in tow, whether seen or not, they have a little ritual together. Despite him being able to change his appearance at will, she will style his hair for him or paint his fingernails black. He often sports a bedhead mixed with a state-sanctioned electrocution style, but he likes it when Lydia gels it into a messy fauxhawk style that he's too lazy to glamour spell upon himself.
Sometimes, Beetlejuice comes with Lydia to class.
"Four!" "Six!" "Twelve!" He'll randomly shout out during a statistics class or disembody his voice to whisper, 'Fuck Brigadoon!' during a theater lecture.
His favorite is messing with the librarians, randomly moving books around, and infecting the computers with viruses. Despite being a newly built school, rumors have started that it's haunted…He usually goes with Lydia; otherwise, he'd just wait until she got home.
If he's home without her, he'll marathon What We Do in The Shadows or The Chucky TV series and often quotes both when there's an opportunity. He's also developed a liking for the band Ghost and Green Day and will loudly play 'Ha Ha You're Dead' at the Maitland's.
The house itself had changed. While Delia's strange for the sake of strange postmodern style mixed with new age elements reigned supreme, Adam and Barabara's tastes were just as palpable with farmhouse aesthetics and cozy comfort. Charles was more utilitarian. He didn’t care how it looked as long as it worked. The Maitland's had stopped hiding in the attic long ago. However, with her father's blessing, Lydia has put up an altar for her late mother to honor the late Emily Deetz. The entryway hutch is lined with pictures of her, seasonal flowers, and candles. Lydia gets along better with Delia nowadays, realizing she does mean well, and calls the Maitlands her 'bonus parents.'
Barbara and Delia manage the housework together, thinking it's good to finally have a maid to help them. They alternated between making meals for the family; Delia would cook breakfast one morning and Barbara that night and switch the next day, even if she and Adam couldn't eat it.
Their cooking styles are just as different as their décor. Barbara cooks comforting, homemade meals, while Delia is always chasing the latest health food craze: keto, paleo, low inflammation, vegan, vegetarian.
"At least we get one good meal a day," Beetlejuice gripes. Being a demon, he can and does often eat.
The most significant change was that Charles was sure to spend time with Lydia each day. They'd go down to the ice cream shop after dinner, just the two of them, or he'd help her with her homework; any way they could. They both put in the effort.
Both Adam and Charles loved baseball. They would cause a raucous during the season and even had little rituals they had to abide by. If Charles doesn't buy doughnuts from the same shop and the same kind to bring home to the family that morning, if Adam doesn't reorganize his model paints from a week of use, and if they don't wear their team's jersey, they will lose. They are so loud that they scare Percy the cat, who hides in one of the bottom kitchen cabinets until nightfall.
"Get 'em, get 'em, come on now!" Adam cheers.
"What are you doing, ref? Who paid you off?!" Charles asks, gesturing wildly at the massive and expensive TV.
"This is horrible. This season is shot." Adam laments, falling back onto the sofa.
"No, no, no, they'll rebound. Just watch. Keep your hat on or they’ll strike out." Charles reassures as he secures his own.
Adam was handy and could fix almost anything wrong in the house. Charles's main household chore was to mow the front yard, though sometimes he pays the neighbor boy to do it. Charles likes the idea of homeownership and all the fancy equipment he can buy (fancy lawnmowers, top of the line tools, and luxurious amenities), but Adam, truly enjoys all aspects of it, happily maintaining the backyard where no one would see his ghostly activity.
It took a while and a lot of communication and work to get to that point to make sure no one's toes were being stepped on. They were a family and actively decided to be one for Lydia (a little trauma bonding also helped). They were a family (and Beetlejuice was their weird pet). Both sets of her parents actively cultivated a friendship, which became genuine. Charles saw and admired Adam as a Real Man, a man who could cook a damn good steak and fix the water heater. Besides, it wasn't his fault Cousin Jane lied about the home inspection and falsified the reports that the structure was sound. Adam was in awe of Charles's entrepreneurial and hardworking spirit, who thrived in the New York City real estate and property development market. Delia thought Barbara could do anything from mending and tailoring any article of clothing to always saying just the right thing. Barbara was astounded by Delia's ability just to be herself.
The house on the hill draws quiet at night.
All the inhabitants, living and otherwise, had gone to bed. Lydia lies in bed, curled at Beetlejuice's side as he snores peacefully, clinging to her as though his existence depended on her. She loves the feeling of his cool, smooth skin.
The night ended in a raucous board game for family time, which happily included the Maitland's and begrudgingly, Beetlejuice. There needed to be a designated watcher whenever he played because he would cheat. It was a night filled with laughter, playful banter, and inside jokes. While Charles and Adam were dead set (no pun intended) on beating each other and Barbara was distracted watching every move Beetlejuice made, just to be sure, Lydia swept in and won the game.
It was at night that Lydia usually pondered her strange family. Things had improved after the fiasco, but they were far from functional. Her father still didn't understand her, and she and Delia still disagreed. Adam and Barabra would get too protective, and Beetlejuice would overstep. Truthfully, Lydia wouldn't have it any other way because she knew five people in her corner loved her dearly.
She actually liked her family now. Her father went to Hell for her. Literally. Adam and Barbara were so loving and supportive, and Delia…well, Delia was still Delia, but Lydia grew to find her endearing in her own weird way, and she always meant well. She was an outsider looking for her people as well and, in the end, they all found each other. Lydia appreciated that Delia didn't try to take her mother's place, nor did Barbara. And Delia was right about a lot of things. Sometimes, you must decide to be happy; the world isn't horrible. Lydia just wished that she would stop listening to psychobabble and realize she was wiser and had a better head on her shoulders than her so-called gurus. It was her idea to form the family in such a way, the deciding, the communication; she was the one who put words into the needed actions.
As her eyes flutter closed, she holds on tight to the demon, burying herself in his embrace. He sighs and draws her closer, kissing the top of her head reverently. She had told each of her family members that she loved them, even Delia. Lydia knows as well as everyone else in the house on the hill that there is still work and bad days to get through, but she doesn't care. She has a weirdly wonderful family at her side.