Beetlejuice woke up in possibly one of the best ways possible; at leisure, to the smell of breakfast being cooked downstairs, with room to stretch out as much as he could, and the slow memory stirring of all the amazing sex he'd had yesterday. Man, that was fun. He yawned, enjoying the dry wheeze of his own morning breath, and scratched his back lazily as he stood, examining Lydia's room. So in six years, she hadn't changed her decor much. There were some new curtains, which were light and dark purple stripes, and her carpet seemed a little muddier than it had been previously kept, but he could live with that. He clicked himself into a pair of boxer shorts and a black and white bath robe, before slowly floating downstairs. This was a morning he could get used t-
A loud clashing and clattering from the kitchen caused him to crumple into the corridor.
"Crap-dammit!" He exclaimed, getting to his feet. "Alliteration... you know I..."
The cacophony continued, and Beetlejuice decided his powers would be better spent investigating than making witty, fourth-wall-breaking comments.
In the kitchen, the kettle boiled and turned itself off, the microwave beeped shrilly, and the toaster forcefully ejected its' load. But where was Lydia? Beetlejuice crossed to the back door, which was wide open, and saw Lydia, crouched in the middle of the garden on her hands and knees. The wet, dewy grass was leaving water and mud over her thin pyjamas, her bare feet (where not covered with mud) were raw pink from the chill morning air, and her hair stuck out at odd angles.
"Lydia!" Beej ran over to her, picking her up carefully. "What are you doing?"
She was gripping a frying pan in one hand, which was considerably dirtier and more dented than the ghost believed it was supposed to be.
"Beej! Oh, it was supposed to be a surprise..." She blushed, looking down at her feet. "I was trying to get some bugs for your breakfast. I was going to fry them up the way you liked..."
"Babes..." A slight chuckle escaped his lips, but his face was still contorted in a sort of incredulous worry. "You know I can just 'juice that, right? You don't need to go through all this just for me..."
"But I want to!" She nodded emphatically, gripping his arms. "I wanted to surprise you, because you can always 'juice anything, I wanted it to be special!" She bit her lip, cringing slightly, before pushing past him and going back into the house. "But that makes me sound stupid, doesn't it? I'm so stupid sometimes!"
"Babes... babes!" Beetlejuice zapped himself in front of her, before hugging her tightly and kissing her forehead. "Have you been sleeping alright lately? Look, you go upstairs and get the mud off you, I'll sort breakfast." She broke into a joyous grin, a dreamy gloss forming in her eyes as though he'd just promised her all the money she could ever want, an end to world suffering, and a puppy for every child.
"You're so sweet sometimes, Beej. I'm so lucky to get a ghoul like you!" She kissed him on the nose and left for the shower. Beej watched her go, feeling quite torn. Literally, in fact, as he split into two identical clones. They blinked at each other.
"Wow." Said Beej.
"Tell me about it." Beej replied.
"I'm not sure if she's all there."
"But it's been six years." Beej hopped up to sit on the kitchen island, examining the fruit bowl. "The apples are starting to rot. Want one?"
"Nah, thanks."
"Suit yourself." Beej spoke through a mouthful of rotten apple. "But yeah, six years. People can change. She's grown up."
"Yeah, and lost her sense of humour. She's a little bit... odd, know whut I mean?" He gestured to the dirty, dented frying pan that sat on the side. Beej shrugged.
"True, true. But... you honestly gonna complain about it?" Beej raised a quizzical eyebrow at Beej. Beej merely winked. "Come on. You don't get much action like that alive or dead."
"Tell me about it. I wouldn't mind letting her go..."
"As long as I got to watch!" Both Beejs grinned, leering and laughing.
"Smart, sweet..."
"And that thing she does with her hair..."
Both Beetlejuices lapsed into a moment's honorary silence, staring into the middle distance. They started guiltily, looking at each other again.
"She's off though, right? Not normal?"
"Out of sorts, maybe, Beej but... I wouldn't sweat it. It's probably nothing."
"Right." Beej hit his palm on the counter top, wrapping an arm around Beej. "I should pull myself together, make breakfast and quit worrying."
"Right." They both parroted, before pulling themselves together to create one, unified Beej. "Probably nothing." He shook his head, zapping the kitchen back to its Delia-standard norm, before making a start on breakfast.
The thunderstorms brewed overhead in that glorious way they only seem capable of towards the beginning of winter, where the sky is a tumult of grey and blue, and the air stirs like a dragon waking from slumber. The TV babbled to itself as Beetlejuice and Lydia finished the remnants of breakfast while pulling ridiculous faces at each other. Lydia giggled as Beetlejuice curled his tongue around a coffee mug three times and proceeded to constrict it until it was five inches taller and only a half an inch across. A flash of lightning made them both look up from their amusements, and the crack of thunder that followed it caused Lydia to run to the window.
"Wow..."
The rain fell in slick, silvery sheets, dancing across the landscape the way grain dances across old film, light struggling to get through the clouds. Beetlejuice rested one hand against the glass, gripping Lydia with the other. The one thing he never got tired of was weather. A lot of ghosts felt the same way; you didn't get weather like that in the Neitherworld. It was a treasure designed for the living, which they would sadly never appreciate until they were dead.
"Do you ever look out at thunderstorms and... feel the electricity?" Lydia was staring out into the rain, the light from the window causing strange silhouettes to splash across her face. "It's like it's going all through the earth, and you can feel it... do you ever get that?"
"I used to." Beetlejuice nodded. "When I was alive. Now I'm dead... I'm pretty sure the power you feel is the same kind of stuff I use to 'juice things, but I don't know. It's great to look at though."
"Beautiful." She sighed and gripped his hand, absent-mindedly stroking her cheek with his finger. "Beej, you mustn't ever go away. Moments like this make me realise that I can't ever be without you." Beetlejuice looked down at her, caught slightly off guard by this statement. Because it wasn't a question or voicing a whimsical voicing of a thought. It was a statement of fact, said in the same manner someone would tell you the milk was off or you needed to get more eggs.
"Beej?"
"Yeah... well, you know me, babes. Just call me and I'm here." He smiled at her, and looked out over the roaring storm. "Hey, your camera's waterproof, right?"
Beetlejuice did not like bathing. The soap irritated him, the water always felt very claustrophobic, and he felt the entire process took too much time. A lot of people took this aversion to bathing as something linked to hydrophobia which was not necessarily true. Certainly, as they ran out into the yard, screaming with laughter as Lydia snapped pictures, experimenting with light levels and reflection, Beetlejuice felt invigorated, feeling the cold water pulsing against him, the electricity crackling through the air.
Beetlejuice saw Lydia lining up a shot of the house, bending at the waist and elongating one leg in an attempt to balance on the ever slickening mud. Grinning, he stood behind her with one leg either side of hers, and gripped her waist.
"Need a hand?" He smiled down at her, leaning over so that his face was inches from hers. She blinked at him with her big, doe eyes and his grip increased. "Wow... you know, those eyes of yours... they just make me weak at the knees." He instantly regretted is, as with a lot of his literal translation ticks, but before he could say anything to counteract it, his knees gave way and he slipped, pulling her down with him, and they both ended up skidding down the somewhat saturated hillside, resting on the riverbank at the bottom. "Uh... sorry..." Beetlejuice bit back a giggle as he saw Lydia was sufficiently more covered in mud than he was. "Literal translation gags. You know I ha.." he then made a noise that could best be described as a hurlk, as Lydia threw a fistful of mud at him and hit him squarely in the chest.
"You're horrible sometimes!" She pouted, but he could tell she was struggling against a smile.
"Well, if you want to duke it out here in the mud-pit, I wouldn't be against..."
"My camera!" She gasped, beginning to struggle back up the hill. "Where did it go?" Beej floated up into the air, lifting her up as well. The rain washed the mud away quite quickly, and floating a few inches off the ground eliminated any danger of tripping or falling, so by the time they found the camera and got back inside, they were clean (if soaked through). They dried her camera out and wrapped themselves up in towels, stoking a fire to sit by as they watched the rest of the storm play out from the safety of the couch. They lay next to each other, on their sides, Beetlejuice with his back against the couch cushions and one arm draped across Lydia's waist. His head resting against hers, nose buried between her hair and shoulder, he could feel himself starting to drift off to sleep.
"I love you, Beej." She whispered, fidgeting as she clumsily rolled over to face him. He closed his eyes, just to stop them from feeling so heavy. He couldn't help feeling relaxed, what with the fire and Lydia and the storm... he'd never admit it to anyone, but it was so cosy.
"Love you too, babes." He mumbled, wriggling deeper into the cushions.
"I want us to stay like this forever. Would you stay here forever, if you could?"
"Well I'm certainly very comfortable."
"Would you stay here, with me, forever?"
"You know me babes. The one thing I've got is time. And here seems the best place I could think of to spend it." He suddenly felt himself being pulled forward into a kiss, hungry and passionate. Well done, Beej, he thought, giving her the right answer, even when half asleep... He felt her hands caressing his face, her tongue caressing his lips, her body pressing up against him...
"Woah, hold on, Lyds... not now." He pulled away, dragging his eyes open long enough to grip her forearms, holding her still before stroking her cheek. He gave her a weary smile. "I'm beat, babes. Just... give me a little while to recharge, yeah?" His eyelids were drooping again, but he registered the petulant pout as she muttered an affirmative, before standing, awkwardly.
"I'll be in the dark room." She grabbed her camera from the table and left, giving Beej the odd impression he had done something to upset her, but at this point he was half asleep already. He would talk to her later. Once he'd recharged.