Author's note:

First of all, right off the bat ^^O^^ (? literal bat...heh). Thank you to anyone reading this. I hope that you'll stick with this story and if you feel inclined to review, great! I encourage that you please review if you feel inclined and be honest (but kind) as it is tremendously motivating and helps me to know what I'm getting right and maybe what I got wrong.

To give everyone a small heads up, this story will EVENTUALLY deal with some Beetlejuice and Lydia romance later on but call me crazy, I'd like to actually take some time and develop that aspect before jumping right into it. I'm mostly going to be doing a lot of hinting at/flirting with it in the beginning and it won't really be a sure-fire thing until much later on. I plan to keep it subtle. I want to write an actual story, not just romance fluff, involving the characters that mean so much to me.

Expect some slight language here and there and some minor innuendo/pervy situations but nothing heavy or graphic. Anyway, enough yammering on. In the words of our favorite ghost with the most...

"It's showtime!"

The End of An Eternity

Chapter One – A Little Bit Old

"Keep spinnin' Babes!" Beetlejuice cried enthusiastically as he helped twirl the young female in front of him around in circles, careful to keep his arms on her shoulders to keep her steady. With his help, his long term pal Lydia Deetz was on the verge of becoming an otherworldly blur from his helpful spinning.

"Beetlejuice! I think I'm going to be sick! ENOUGH!" she screamed and with that, the poltergeist stopped her dead in her tracks, hands clamped securely on her shoulders as he snickered in ghoulish delight. He took note of Lydia's woozy movements as she wobbled from leg to leg, her head slightly rolling.

After a minute, he removed his hands from her shoulders and grinned a cheshire cat's grin. "Okaaaaaaay...GO!" he declared and floated back, giving her some space and allowing her to move of her own volition now.

It was a very special day to the pair. It was the fourth anniversary of when they had become best friends. Every year they played games or got into some kind of wacky misadventures that usually threatened their very existences but everything would seemingly always turn out all right in the end. It was great. To him, there was nothing better in the whole wide Neitherworld. What was even more great was having a best friend who enjoyed their mishap adventures and trouble making just as much as he did. He expected today to be no different.

"B-beej...I'm afraid to move. I think if I take one step, I'll hurl," Lydia said, dramatically putting a hand to her mouth as her cheeks puffed. She was currently wearing a dark, purple, velvet blindfold and was delicately holding in her other hand, between two fingers, a toy googly eye with a pin point on it's back.

"No problem if ya do! This place could use a feminine touch!" Beetlejuice cackled hysterically at his own joke. The thought made Lydia want to vomit all the more. "You REALLY aren't helping..." she groaned in protest then took a deep breath in to steady herself.

The pair was currently engaged in a riveting game of Pin the Eye on the Slime Pile. Not only did the person who was blindfolded have to attempt to pin the toy eye on a ball of slime but to make it even more difficult, the pile of slime would move at it's own whimsy. Lydia had eagerly volunteered to go after round one had ended with Beetlejuice being blindfolded and with him then wandering out of the road house and some how perfectly pinning the googly eye on the monster across the street's left, hairy rump cheek.

That had gone down as about as well as one would expect. In fact, had it not been for Lydia's sweet talk and profusely apologizing, explaining that it was their anniversary and everything was intended as good fun, the festivities would have ended early. Lydia surmised that Beetlejuice would have been well on his way to the Neitherworld hospital.

Lydia focused on the moment and strained her ears to listen for the gurgling sounds the slime made as it oozed about. Beetlejuice had moved the furniture to a great pile in the corner of the room to prepare for the game play and also so Lydia wouldn't fall and break her face, which she appreciated tremendously.

Lydia went deathly still as she heard...it. "Grrrgggg..." The slime was close judging by the sound. "Remember, NO CHEATING. You are to stay in one place! You agreed," Lydia warned. Beetlejuice was hovering nearby, sitting cross-legged in mid air and watching her, all grins. He waved his hand to and fro, dismissing her. "Yeah, yeah Babes now quit stalling and PIN!"

Lydia exhaled slowly and then began to move towards the sound. "Grrrggggghhh!" she heard, closer this time. Lydia shuffled forward cautiously and then felt her foot slightly slip and her knees slightly buckled as she almost lost her footing. She heard Beetlejuice snickering at her and she straightened up as best as she could, being mindful of the slime trail under foot.

"Quiet!" she hissed and Beetlejuice snorted then pointed at his lips. "I won't make a sound!" he vowed and there was a soft pop as his voice disappeared and he began laughing without audio.

Lydia stiffened her legs and readied herself. She could actually smell the little bugger and judging by the slime trail her foot had hit, she was almost certain that she was right over the little slime ball. Lydia readied her stance, legs bent slightly and then a moment later, she sprung, googly eyed pin held out in front of her as she dived at the green, gloopy pile.

She hit the ground with a soft, "Oof!"

Slime now had coated the front of her red, spider-threaded poncho and the pin hit hard ground in her fingers. "Eeew..." she grimaced as she sat up and wiped her free hand down her front. "GRRRGGGH!" the slime yelped, as much as slime could yelp. It was still close, she could tell that much. What she had not seen, due to the blindfold, was that the little slime pile had jumped well out of her way and was now clinging, desperately, to Beetlejuice's face. Beetlejuice screamed silent screams of protest as he clawed at the little blob on his face. "Grrghhh! Grrrrgggglllll!" the slime kept wailing as if vocalizing it's own protest.

Lydia pushed herself up and grinned darkly. "I hear you," she warned in a sweet, sing-songy voice, turning towards Beetlejuice who was still trying in vain to rip the sticky sludge off his face, his voice still mute. Lydia readied the pin and tried her best to focus in on the sounds.

"I..." she breathed, readying to pounce again, completely unaware of the situation at hand. "GOTCHA!" she cried and sprang at the exact moment that Beetlejuice managed to pull the slime from his face just in time to see Lydia spring at him, google eye pin forward, and follow it up with a scream of bloody murder.

There was a loud crash as the pair connected with each other and rolled and finally collided with the wall. Beetlejuice landed half propped against the wall, with his legs up against the wall and the rest of his body sprawled out on the floor, arms outstretched at his sides. Lydia was face down, strewn across his chest, her head spinning now yet again. Beetlejuice groaned and sat up dazedly. Being dead, he took falls, punches, kicks, slams, hits and tumbles much better than Lydia ever did and therefore could recover quite quickly. He raised his head, looking up at the ceiling and a gave a long groan. The toy googly eye was stuck square between his eyebrows. His eyes glanced up at it and he touched it with one finger, poking at it.

"Whoa. Talk about an eye sore," he grimaced before plucking it out of his skull with his fingernail then flicking it aside. He then turned his full attention to Lydia, who was still ontop of him, groaning in disorientation. He gently touched her shoulder, attempting to help her adjust her position and to help her sit up but as he moved her, something made his body jerk and stiffen like a corpse.

He felt her breast brush against his side and a flurry of thoughts suddenly bombarded his mind, some that were anything but G-rated.

"When in the hell did she get THOSE?!" his mind screamed in a panic.

In his head, red alarms were blaring and there were small versions of himself running every which way in panic, some slamming into the sides of his skull. He shook his head quickly in an effort to clear off any inappropriate thoughts, a first for him, then narrowed his eyes. Deep inside, he knew it was wrong, really, really wrong, to think anything even remotely of that nature about his best friend. He had met Lydia when she was about twelve, going on thirteen and though he had initially thought of her as just some wayward kid that he could easily manipulate to gain access to the living world. The truth was, that she had grown on him rather quickly and he had become, dare he admit, extremely fond of her.

It became so that from that point on, she had always just been his best friend in his mind, nothing more. He had certainly never thought of her in THAT sense. He also had never really thought of her in terms of age, admittedly. Hell, the concept of "age" had escaped him long, long ago and though some ghosts celebrated their Deathday (the opposite of a Birthday), he had never much bothered or even saw a point to it. As for Lydia, he had always considered her to be beyond her years in many ways. So many times she was so even keeled in her nature and so damn smart and clever that he had easily forgotten that she was, in fact, still just a kid.

He also wasn't stupid or naïve either, he knew how living humans worked. He had always known, in the very back of his knowledge, that Lydia, being that she was alive, would eventually age and grow up but it was not something that he had ever really lent too much thought to. So long as she continued to visit and spend time with him and indulge him in adventures and his pranks and scams, he was a happy ghoul. So what if she grew up? She'd still be Lydia, she'd always be the Lydia he knew and enjoyed. What more was there to think about?

"How about that she's grown a pretty nice pair of-" a voice in his head began to say in wicked glee before another small, mental version of himself smashed that thought with a mental sledgehammer.

It then occurred to him how protective he was of her, even in his own head from his own lecherous thoughts. Something that he could truthfully say that he had never found it necessary to do around any other attractive female.

"She's still a kid for cryin' out loud! What are you doin' thinking those thoughts about a damn kid!" one mini mental Beetlejuice in his head argued loudly.

"But she won't be forever, 'specially if she already has...THOSE. They were so soft and already a nice size-" another small mental him quipped as it rubbed it's hands together in glee.

"WOULD YOU BOTH CUT IT OUT?!" a third mental him screamed at the other two.

Lydia shifted and her movement brought his attention back to the situation at present. She lifted her head slowly, one hand to her head as though she was in mild pain. It was then that the smell of Beetlejuice's body odor hit her full on and she yelped, sitting up straight like a nail. Beetlejuice grinned slyly, pleased that his odor was still so strong that it elicited that reaction from her. "Wakey, wakey Lyds! Pits and stinky!" he sang and then cackled at his own joke. Lydia pinched her nose and rolled her eyes as she slowly stood up, taking a step back. Beetlejuice sat up and took a long look at her, taking her appearance in.

She was now sixteen years old, going on seventeen, and sure enough, now that he was looking and paying closer attention, he could see the changes that had taken place in her. How in the hell had he not noticed it before? She was definitely taller, though still short in height overall and still pixie-ish in her overall frame and stature. Her hair was slightly longer, now reaching to just slightly above her waist. As for her figure, the red poncho that she always wore made it difficult to get a real good look at her body, not that he was trying to, but he noticed now that indeed, she was sporting a pair of modestly-sized, definitely noticeable, breasts.

"LYDS GOT BOOBS?!" a few mental mini hims screamed inside his head in unison and he immediately slapped a hand to his head in aggravation.

"SO WHAT?! GET OVER IT WOULD YA?! She's still Lyds. That doesn't change anything!" another mini him in his head screamed at the others and Beetlejuice felt himself fume internally. He briefly considered taking his head off and attempting to just shake the hell out of his head. That would show those pesky thoughts.

Why was he so bothered by this at all anyway? Why was he suddenly having all this internal dialogue just because his best friend had gotten what any normal chick had anyway? Was this really that big of a deal?

"Are you okay Beej?" Lydia asked, bringing him back to reality. Beetlejuice grinned nonchalantly and waved it off. "I'm fine Babes. It's going to take a lot more than some small tumble to bring down the ghost with the most," he said and floated up, standing and crossing his arms, still putting on a good show grin.

"Uh huh," Lydia said, eyeing him. "Well, what should we do now Beej? I think I've had enough Pin the Eye for one day," she confessed, still wiping slime off the front of her poncho. Beetlejuice considered the possibilities.

"Well, we could play some more games or go terrorize the neighbors orrrrrrr..." he trailed off, grinning slyly in her direction. "We could just skip all that and get to the best part," he said and produced a gift box from behind his back. The box was wrapped in purple paper with an orange bow. He had the store wrap it because he'd have likely had more luck making a sand worm roll over and play dead than he would wrapping any present by himself.

Lydia's face lit up and she happily took the gift in her hands. "Oh Beej, thank you!" she said, gazing at the gift fondly. "Well, don't thank me yet Lyds! Open it!" he said, his eyes fixed upon her and his thoughts having quieted, at least for now.

Lydia removed the top of the gift box and peered inside. Her expression fell just ever so slightly but she quickly smiled to recover.

"A...wig," she said, pulling the long, electric blue wig from the box and staring at it, feeling slightly perplexed but trying not to let it show.

"Yeah babes! You have mentioned before wanting to have a new hairstyle, haven't ya? Well, now you can without Delia gettin' on yer case! " Beetlejuice said, his enthusiasm growing.

Lydia smiled warmly. She had, in fact, mentioned that before and she was touched that he had remembered her saying so.

"Now, when you visit me, you can wear that new hairstyle any time you want!"

"That's really thoughtful of you Be-" she began but her cut off her off.

"AND think of all the scams you can help me get away with while being in disguise! I already have one in mind," he said, dollar signs orbiting around his head as if it were a planet. He snickered gleefully, "The saps won't see us comin' babes! It's BRILLIANT!" he went on, growing increasingly zealous over his own idea.

It was only that once a moment of ugly silence followed that statement did Beetlejuice realize that Lydia was not sharing his enthusiam. She had both arms crossed, still holding the wig in one hand and was tapping her foot slowly. Beetlejuice felt a wave of dread wash over him. This particular pose of hers never meant anything good. She always managed to be one of the only people, maybe actually the only person... period, who could inspire both fear, dread, shame and immediate regret with that one look alone. "W-why are you givin' me that look Babes?" Beetlejuice asked nervously, twiddling his fingers and trying to offer her an innocent smile.

Lydia was trying her best to retain her calm but the last few years had seen a pattern emerging and growing with each year that she did not much care for. It had begun on their second anniversary with the Droolex watch. How it had been her gift but suspiciously Beetlejuice was the one who seemed to have gotten the most immediate enjoyment from it. Even when it had sprouted wings and taken off with him at the wrist, he had considered giving up catching it and just letting it go until she had reminded him that it was in fact her gift after all. She had dismissed it easily enough seeing as how the day over all with him had been one of the most amazing and crazy that they'd ever had but the following anniversaries had seen similar situations rear their ugly head.

Last year he had gotten her a prized pet jumbo beetle and when Lydia told him that there was no way that her parents would allow her to keep such a pet however greatful she was for it, he had spoken about being sure that he could give it a good "home."

"Home" in his words meaning "lunch", of course.

"Beetlejuice," she said sternly, fighting to keep her voice calm but the irritation was creeping in despite her best efforts. "Did you get this gift with me in mind or were you really thinking more of yourself?" she said bluntly and took note of the look of false shock that Beetlejuice promptly wrapped his face in.

"Baaaabes! How could you think that of me?" he said, putting a hand to his chest in false indignation but a smirk danced across his lips. She knew him so well. Lydia's expression remained unchanged and her eyes remained glued to him.

"So, you honestly weren't imagining all the great scams that I would be helping YOU pull while wearing THIS, when you picked this gift out? Be TRUTHFUL," she pressed on.

Beetlejuice gagged. There were some words that he just didn't do and those same words always made his skin crawl. The big "T" word was one that always made him want to seal his ears closed forever. Worse yet was when Lydia asked it of him because try as he may, there was almost no way that he could deny her the truth without feeling tremendously guilty for it. She asked for so very little from him in their time together that on the few occasions that she actually did, he felt that much more inclined to give her what she wanted since she had given him so much to begin with just by accepting him for who he was day in and day out and being his friend.

"I..." he winced and jerked slightly, as if the truth was an animal that was viciously, painfully clawing it's way out of him.

"The truth Beetlejuice!" she waited, still giving him the stink eye.

"FINE! YEEEEEES! But only a little, I sweeeear!" he admited, wailing, slumping down onto his knees. He looked up at her, his eyes pleading, "Babes! That wasn't my ONLY thought when I bought it! You gotta believe me!"

Lydia picked up the giftbox and set the wig back inside and replaced the box top...calmly. She then tossed the gift box at him and he caught it in both hands, surprised only for a moment at the force in which she had thrown it. She then walked up to him and he winced in expectation of what was to come. He expected fire and brimstone, scolding and her moral wrath but instead, she placed a tiny giftbox ontop of the bigger giftbox that he was now stuck with holding.

"This... was for you," she said and the biting cold in her voice made him flinch.

His eyes settled on the small giftbox and his shoulders slumped. Lydia was at the opposite side of the room now, arms crossed, her back to him, silent.

He quietly set the giftbox containing her wig down and hesitantly picked up the smaller giftbox from his friend. With two fingers, he lifted the lid off of the small box and was immediately greeted with a note. He removed it, unfolded it and read it out loud.

"To my favorite ghost with the most. I know you and I know it but now everyone else will too! Happy Anniversary B.J. ! Your best friend, Lydia" he read aloud and he felt as though he were in a deep grave and the dirt was piling in on him. Except that it wasn't dirt, it was hard, heavy guilt. Something he hated almost as much as he hated being honest.

He glanced inside the small box again and inside was a single ring. It was a darker color of metal not silver but similar. He picked it up and held it in front of his face curiously. On the front, it had a small skull portruding, nothing too big and too flashy but it was damn cool looking. In the skull's eyes were two very tiny green stones.

"Read it," Lydia said softly. "The inside band, read what is says."

Beetlejuice furrowed his brow and tilted the ring towards the light in the room. Inscribed on the inside of the band were small words that he also read out loud.

"The ghost...with...the most. Friends always," he read the words slowly and dejectedly, feeling like complete and utter pond scum. The gift was beyond thoughtful and it was packed with specialness. His whole body slumped and he clutched the ring in his hand against his chest.

"I still wear the ring you gave me. I wear it as a promise ring, a promise to always be your best friend," she spoke softly, her back still to him so that her expression was completely unreadable. Beetlejuice winced at those words, remembering the circumstance under which he had given her that ring.

"Lyds..." Beetlejuice began but in all seriousness, he wasn't even sure where to begin.

"It's special to me because it reminds me that I always have you no matter how bad things get, no matter how upset I get, no matter what goes wrong in my life. I can always look at this ring on my hand and remember that I have someone who will always be there for me. Someone who thinks the best of me and cares about me," and it was at this point in her speech that her voice broke and Beetlejuice was stunned and confused and bewildered. "At least that's what I had thought. I just thought, hoped I guess, that maybe I meant to you what you meant to me," she spoke sadly and turned around to confirm his suspicions.

She was crying.

"Babes!" Beetlejuice began and tried to run to her. He hated seeing her turn on the water works. It killed him every...single...time inside and every time, he wanted nothing more than to cheer her up somehow. It was so rare that he ever saw Lydia cry and seeing it now, well, he would have rathered that someone were exorcising him because the pain from that would have surely been less than the guilt and pain from knowing that he had managed to make his best friend cry. The only person that he truly, deeply cared about in this world and the living, was crying because of him on what was supposed to be a special day, a happy day. To his shock and dismay, Lydia stepped back from him as he approached her.

"Don't," she said, wiping at her leaking eyes. "This day was special to me and I thought it was to you too. I thought that it meant more to you too than just another day to plan another prank or another scam but I guess I was wrong," Lydia said, her words full of hurt and turmoil.

"It IS special to me babes!" Beetlejuice cried in desperation, fidgeting as he struggled to quickly think of the right words to fix the mess that he had created. He had never been any good at professing his deepest, honest feelings.

Never.

He suspected that he had not liked doing it when he was alive and he sure as hell did not enjoy it any more now that he was dead. But like or dislike aside, he was just damn awful at it and though he wanted to tell Lydia how much she meant to him, the words just failed to come together and form coherent sentences. Panic began to bubble up within him.

"Babes pleeeeeease don't hate me! I don't know what I would do if you hated me! I messed up big time babes, I know! But I-" he wailed in further desperation.

"Really big time," she agreed sullenly, cutting him off, still crying a little bit, silent tears slipping down her pale cheeks as she wiped at them in a futile effort to dry her face.

"I don't hate you Beetlejuice but it's just that... this? This whole, turning everything, most of all the special days,into a scam or the next greatest prank and just expecting me to join in with excitement without even asking me? It's..." she paused and hesitated briefly and hung her head as finished her words.

"It's just getting a little old Beej," she confessed and in that moment, Beetlejuice felt as though lightning had struck him through to his core and if he had not already been dead, he'd have died twice over. What exactly was she trying to say here?! He couldn't help but feel somewhat deeply wounded, confused and overwhelmed, all unwelcome emotions to him. A long silence ensued between the two, for the first time in their presence of each other and neither knew what to say to each other at that moment. After a minute had passed in complete silence, Lydia was the one to break the silence first.

"Beetlejuice."

The guilty ghost glanced up at the call of his name, looking to her wearily, feeling as though he'd had all the juice sucked clean from him.

"Beetlejuice," she said a second time and Beetlejuice's eyes widened a little as he realized what she was doing and he went to stop her but then paused as she uttered the final word that would send her back home.

"Beetlejuice."

And then she was gone and the ghost with the most was left feeling like the ghost with the least.

Author's note:

As mentioned in the summary, I'm mostly basing this story in the cartoon universe but I am going to have it connect to the movie universe as well so it will be a mix of the two somewhat. Overall though, the film won't be playing too big of a role in this story.

Also, I had read somewhere that Lydia and B.J wear promise rings to signify their friendship but I don't recall that ever being specifically stated in the cartoon. I also don't recall seeing him ever wear one in the cartoon. I know Lydia has a ring that she wears and I'm not denying it to be true but just that I don't remember her specifically calling it a promise ring. I'm sure it's just my crappy memory but someone, anyone feel free to remind me what episode that was that it was touched upon if it's canon cause actually I'm genuinely curious to watch it. In any case, I'm going to pretend that he didn't own a ring and she gave him one as a token of their bond/friendship. I'll touch more on Lydia's ring in the next chapter.

In short? Some things may not be EXACTLY as portrayed in the show (and creative liberties may be taken for the sake of story telling). I apologize in advance.