Title: "The Creepy Side"

Author: Veritas Found

Characters/Pairings: Juleka Couffaine, Luka Couffaine; Luka Couffaine & Juleka Couffaine

Rating: T / PG-13 / Teen

Summary: Juleka is eleven now, and the Captain has decided she's old enough to redecorate her side of the cabin. Her ideas aren't exactly what Luka would have chosen, but they make Juleka happy, and he likes it when Juleka's happy. Even if her side of their cabin is now the Creepy Side.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Notes/Warnings: Rating for ONE WORD (…maybe two). Pre-series Couffaine sibling bonding, anyone? A few years ago, I got these exterior wall clings that look like bats for Halloween. Two of them are still on our siding bc I'm too short to get them down and too lazy to pull the ladder out. xD But I loved 'em and wanted to get more for my room, bc bats, but could never find 'em again. So I finally got some foam sheets to make cutouts this year. I was making them when this plunny bit.

"The Creepy Side"

"Are ye certain, lass?" their ma asked, looking down at the rough sketch his sister had handed her. Juleka nodded emphatically, her face set with determination. Luka peeked over their ma's shoulder and frowned.

Well.

It was certainly…different.

But that was his little sister. For someone who actually jumped at other people's shadows, Juleka had always liked creepy things. Spiders, bats, ghosts, werewolves, Halloween…she was just like that. His friend Brielle said she was a 'baby goth', though Luka didn't see much difference between all the black Brielle wore and all the black his sister wore. It was just where Juleka had a poster of Gomez Addams on her wall, Bri had one of Ansel Adams. So Juleka's black was…creepier. And he didn't mind – of course he didn't! He may not get it – he may not like it himself – but if scary stuff made Jules happy, then it was all good in his book. He liked seeing his little sister happy – she was his favorite person in the world, after all. Even more than his best friends, though Dingo would quickly deny that (Brielle had known him longer and was used to it).

And Juleka was eleven now, and the Captain was letting her redecorate her side of their cabin. Technically she had been given the option when she was ten, but Juleka had been patient. She had taken over a year to decide what she actually wanted to do, as she wasn't planning on changing it for a good long while. When Luka had been given the same option himself a few years back, he had stuck with something simple. He liked the pale walls and checkerboard stripe, and the fake tatami (because "we live on a boat, b'y, on the water, you cannae have tatami on the floor!") was squishy under his feet. And when you share a cabin with someone whose anxiety was set off by almost everything, neutral seemed a better option.

Besides, when everywhere else on the boat was so…lived-in, he preferred the minimalist look where he actually slept. His brain tended to race enough without a lot of stuff hanging about to distract him.

Of course Juleka, when given the same choice, would go for something darker.

The Captain turned her head towards him, her eyebrows high above her red glasses.

"And ye, m'b'y?" she asked. "Are ye fine with this?"

"It's Juleka's bunk," he said, shrugging. If he could learn to sleep with that creepy poster of Dracula smirking at him, he could learn to sleep with…well. An entire cabin of creepy smirking at him, too. "I'm cool."

"All right, then," the Captain said. She handed Luka her wallet. "Take her t'get the decorations. Take yer time. I should have the walls done by then, if we still have the paint."

Juleka beamed and dove at their ma, hugging her tight. The grin on her face when she looked up at Luka was evil.

"C'mon," she said, grabbing his hand and tugging him towards the door. "I know just the place."

– V –

'Just the place' turned out to be the craft store. Because, apparently, Juleka wanted to make her decorations herself. He supposed it was better than the specialty store he'd been imagining, filled with skeletons and jars of eyeballs and whatever other creepy stuff a store like that would sell.

Luka couldn't remember the last time he had been in an actual craft store. The DIY scene wasn't usually his thing. He hadn't really thought it was Juleka's, either, but she walked in with an air of confidence he wasn't used to. It was a little disconcerting, if he was honest – until he saw the blonde head a few aisles over.

"Juleka!" Rose cried when Juleka ditched him by the fabric to greet her new friend. He'd only met Rose a handful of times, but she seemed pretty cool, and Juleka adored her. Juleka didn't adore anybody, so he had been glad when they met at some multi-school sports day thing. Rose hadn't been able to play for some reason, and Juleka just didn't want to (she didn't do 'sports'), so they had spent most of the afternoon sitting under a tree talking. Rose went to another local school, but they'd still been meeting up almost daily since that day.

"Hey," Juleka said, smiling as she tucked some hair behind her ear. Luka hung back, mindlessly thumbing through the fabric as they talked. The last thing he wanted was to crowd Juleka and her new friend and make them feel uncomfortable. He glanced back at them as he absently reached for a bolt of fabric, but then his fingers were brushing against other fingers instead of fabric and a startled squeak had him looking beside him. A short girl with dark hair in pigtails had her hand in a death grip on the fabric, just below his. She looked like she was his sister's age, maybe younger. He smiled, hoping to calm her.

"Sorry," he said, letting go of the fabric. "Were you looking at that?"

"Uh…I…um…y-yeah," she said, shuffling. "I'm working on a dress for summer, and I like flowers, so actually maybe I'm not getting it yet, but I was thinking about it? It looks pretty, and I like the pale tan color, and cherry blossoms are my favorite, and I…am so sorry. Yes. Yes, I was looking at that."

He chuckled and pulled the bolt out for her. She was kind of cute.

"Here," he said. "I'm not really looking for anything in particular, so if you have an idea for it, take it."

"I…um…thank you?" she stammered, but as she was reaching for the fabric Rose gave a shout.

"Marinette! There you are! Come here – this is the new friend I was telling you about!" Rose called, and the girl's head jerked up. Luka was a little struck by how blue her eyes were. A blinding smile lit her face, and she waved before running around him. He watched, the fabric forgotten in his arms, as she narrowly missed a glitter display and came to a stop by his sister and Rose.

As they talked, he looked back at the fabric and smiled. Cherry blossoms, huh? It was a pretty design, and the color behind the blossoms did match his walls…

He carried the fabric over to the cutting counter, giving Juleka space to hopefully make another new friend.

They were still talking when he came back ten minutes later, the bolt and his cut piece tucked under an arm. He hung back a little and pretended to look at the googly eyes near him. He was half-tempted to pick up a pack – Dingo had found something online about carrying some with you to stick on random things. He could just picture M. Damocles's face if googly eyes started popping up all over the school…

"…with my brother," he heard Juleka say, pulling him out of his thoughts, and he glanced back at them. "I'm redoing my room, and he's helping me pick some stuff up."

"Ooooh, Luka's here?" Rose asked, bouncing. She grinned at the girl from the fabric – Marinette, she'd called her? "You'd like him, too! He's really cool!"

"He's dumb," Juleka replied automatically. Marinette laughed.

"You're lucky!" she said. "I've always wanted a brother. I'm an only child."

"You can have one of mine," Rose giggled. Luka smiled, recalling Juleka telling him Rose came from a big family. He was pretty sure she'd said something about four older brothers. Juleka put on a long-suffering expression, but she was smiling.

"They're nothing special," she said, glancing around the store. When she caught him watching them, she pulled a face – one he was quick to return. "They're stupid and smelly and leave their underwear on the floor."

"So, brothers are boys, then?" Marinette asked with a giggle. "Sounds like my papa."

"Pretty much," Juleka said with a small laugh. Rose fished her phone out of her pocket and frowned. Juleka's smile vanished when she noticed.

"Shoot, I'm so sorry, Juleka," she said. She waved her phone in the air before tapping something out. "My parents want me home. I'll see you later though?"

"Yeah, definitely," Juleka said, her smile sort of returning. Rose sighed and pulled her into a hug.

"It'll be so much better when we're going to the same school next year!" the small girl whined. "Then we can hang out all the time! Oh, I hope we're all in the same class! We can sit next to each other and everything!"

Juleka mumbled something he couldn't hear, but her face was red as Rose grabbed Marinette's hand and they ran from the store. It was still red when she went over to him. Her eyebrows rose when she saw the fabric in his arms.

"…no," she said, shaking her head. "That won't match anything I'm planning."

"It's not for you, dummy," he said, lightly bopping his fist on the top of her head. She rolled her eyes as he turned back to the fabric section and dropped the bolt in the restock bin. "Marinette was looking at it. I was gonna give it back to her, but she had to leave."

"She seems cool," Juleka mumbled, still eyeing the cut fabric under his arm warily. Luka hummed and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"It's nice to see you making friends," he said. Juleka didn't answer, but she was smiling – despite the blush still painting her face. He looked around the store, considering. "So where to? Nothing in here screams spooky this time of year."

"Follow me, weirdo," she mumbled, turning to head down an aisle. He grinned and went after her, snatching up a pack of googly eyes on his way.

– V –

By the time they got home, the Captain was sitting in her favorite deck chair in paint-spattered overalls, a cold beer in her hand and her feet kicked up on a crate.

"I'd stay above deck for a bit yet, lads," she called, raising her can in cheers as they came aboard. "Opened the portholes, but the stink is still something awful."

Juleka shoved the bags in his arms and pointed to the sunroom.

"I wanna see," she said. "Go set up. I'll grab some water."

"You're lucky I love you," he sighed dramatically with a pained expression. He popped open an eye and grinned at her. "Slave-driver."

"Weirdo," she said, shoving him again. "Now go. I wanna hang 'em up tonight."

He didn't bother pointing out how she should probably leave the walls bare for at least a day. She'd learn.

When she found him in the sunroom a few minutes later, she was wearing the widest smile he'd seen on her face in years. Even if he had to keep looking at that stupid Dracula poster, he decided right then it would be worth it just for that smile. She plopped down on the deck on the other side of the table and started rummaging through their supplies.

"It looks sick," she said, passing some black foam sheets to him. "Like…the wall we share is blue. You'll like that. But my side? Sick. Ma stenciled those fancy floor things all over in gray. The ones on fancy invites? And the purple almost looks black. I love it."

"Fleur de lis?" he asked, and she nodded as she passed him a white pencil.

"Yeah, those," she said. She pulled out some white foam sheets and another pencil. "She took your dumb racing stripe off my side, too."

"Hey, the checkerboard's cool," he said. "You said it made you think of Alice in Wonderland."

"Doesn't mean I wanted it all over the boat, you dork," she said. She had started outlining skulls on her foam. She looked up at him and frowned when she realized he was still just sitting there. "Well? You said you'd help."

"You haven't told me what to do," he said. He picked up the pencil and twirled it between his fingers, like he'd seen Dingo do with his drumsticks. Juleka rolled her eyes.

"Bats," she said. "I want bats. Lots of 'em. In different sizes, so it looks like a swarm."

He tried not to shudder. He hated bats. They were creepy.

"Sure thing," he said blithely, but he paused as he looked at the sheet. "Er…"

"Like this, dummy," she said, sketching a rough outline on a spare sheet of paper an passing it to him. He had to admit, when it wasn't an actual bat (with the squished face and the beady eyes and…), it almost looked…cute. He didn't think he'd mind the foam bats.

"You're really good, you know?" he said, grinning at the sketch. She rolled her eyes and looked back at her own foam sheet, a light blush turning her face red. Juleka was so pale any blush made her look like a Christmas light.

"Just make my bats," she mumbled, but before she ducked her head and her hair fell in her face he saw she was smiling. He was halfway through his first bat when he glanced back at her.

"Sooo…Rose is going to Dupont next year?" he asked. She shrugged.

"That's what she said," she mumbled. She held up her foam for inspection, nodded, and grabbed another one to start on her next set of skulls.

"You must be excited," he said. Her pencil froze. He looked back at his foam and twisted the sheet to try and fit a smaller bat in the corner. "You two seem to be getting close."

"She's cool," Juleka mumbled, her voice even lower than before. He tried not to wince.

"Sorry," he said. He held up the sheet, where he had been able to fit three bats. "This good?"

Her expression brightened when she saw his work.

"I love it," she said. She snickered when she flicked his jagged pencil lines. "Your artwork is as awful as your handwriting."

"Hey!" he laughed, putting the sheet to the side and reaching for another. She only had four of the white sheets, but she had gotten ten of the black. He wasn't sure what she had wanted the dark purple ones for yet. "At least I'm trying. I could leave all the work for you, you brat."

She stuck her tongue out at him before looking back to her sheet. She was drawing little ghosts on the next one.

"So where are you gonna put these?" he asked. She hummed.

"Not sure yet," she said. "Maybe by my bed? I was thinking the ghosts could go by my desk. By the porthole?"

"That'll look cool," he said. "You could put some of the bats by Drac."

Her nose scrunched.

"Maybe," she said. "I was thinking of taking Drac down, actually."

"Oh, thank God," he sighed, slumping onto the table.

"Hey!" she said, frowning. "I liked that movie!"

"The poster is creepy, Jules," he said, lifting his head to pout at her. "And you put it right across from my bed. The guy stares at me every time I try to sleep."

Her grin let him know that been exactly what she'd been thinking when she put it there. His face scrunched.

"…I hate you," he said as she started laughing. "You can make your own bats."

He started to get up, but she grabbed for his wrist and tugged him back to the floor.

"No, no – please stay!" she laughed. "I'm sorry! I'll take him down!"

"Thank you," he huffed, trying not to smile as he picked his pencil back up. She was wiping tears from her eyes.

"I do like that Dracula movie, but you're right: the poster is really creepy. I don't like the poster," she confessed. His head shot up, his eyes wide. She was still grinning. "I was just waiting to see how long it would take you to say something."

"You are such an asshole," he said, dumbfounded. Her eyes widened, another wicked little grin stretching across her face, and he groaned.

"MA! LUKA SAID –!" she shouted, but he leaned over to clamp a hand against her mouth.

"That Dracula is stupid!" he called. When their ma didn't respond, Luka leaned closer to Juleka's side of the table to peer out the door. Her chair was empty, the beer can crushed on the deck. He wondered if she'd gone back below for more. He shot Juleka a dirty look. "I'm allowed to say that word. I'm a teenager."

"You're thirteen," she scoffed when he removed his hand. "Barely thirteen. Doesn't count."

"Still more teenager than you," he said, sticking his tongue out. She rolled her eyes and reached for another sheet. He reached for another, too. He wasn't even halfway through his stack. He didn't even want to think about cut… "…hey."

"What?" she grumped, but she looked up when he started rummaging through their bags.

"Did you remember scissors?" he asked. She rolled her eyes and pulled out two pairs: one with a glittery pink handle and the other a plain black. He sighed in relief and went back to drawing. "Thank God. I couldn't tell you where the old ones are if my life depended on it."

"You ever think maybe we should keep a pair in our cabin? Like at the desk or something?" she asked, putting the white foam to the side and reaching for the purple. When she started drawing roses on them, he smiled. "Every time we need to cut something we have to buy a new pair."

"That's why I was trying to keep the red ones in the kitchen," he said, "but you know Ma."

"…that's why we're keeping these ones in our cabin," she said, pursing her lips. The Couffaines tended to lose scissors like normal people lost socks (they lost a fair amount of those, too, thanks to the Captain's 'lived-in' philosophy). Luka nodded and reached for the black scissors. She frowned as he opened them and picked up one of the sheets he'd already finished. "What are you doing?"

"You have like a zillion sheets here, Jules," he said. "If I cut a few out now, I can just…stack them and cut a bunch out at once. It'll save a butt-load of time."

"You can't," she said, her face falling. "Then they'll all look the same. It defeats the purpose of making them yourself. If I wanted them to be the same I would've gotten cutouts or stickers or something."

"Jules…" he whined, thinking of his poor hand and all the cutting ahead of him. She looked back at her roses, still frowning.

"Besides, the foam's too thick," she huffed. "You'll only be able to do like two at a time anyway. Don't fuck up my bats just because you're lazy."

…he was shocked. A little speechless. Kind of proud, too.

But then Juleka seemed to realize what she'd said, and his face split with a grin. A shit-eating grin, he'd dare say.

"MA –!" he started to shout, but she was already throwing herself across the table to punch him, her face a violent red. He fell back into the loveseat, cackling. "It's only fair!"

"I hate you!" she snapped, but he was relieved to see she was smiling. "You're such a butt!"

"You love me," he snickered, wiping at his eyes. He picked the scissors back up and started snipping away at the bat. He frowned when he realized she'd been right about how thick the foam was. "Ok. Maybe you have a point. I was really hoping this would work."

"Told you so," she said, sounding entirely too pleased with herself. She glanced up from her roses and grinned. "Butthead."

He kicked at her shins, but they were both grinning at each other as they got back to work. When the Captain came to find them an hour later, he had almost made his way through the entire stack of black foam. Drawing bats on them, at least. He refused to think about the cutting until he absolutely had to.

"Having fun, lads?" she asked, her hands on her hips.

"Luka sucks at drawing," Juleka said before he could respond. His mouth dropped open in mock horror, pretending to be deeply offended by her comment.

"Juleka is a cruel and relentless taskmaster," he said. He held up the stack of black foam sheets for their ma to see, then nodded toward her significantly smaller stack of white and purple. Actually, by that point, she'd already cut out her skulls, ghosts, and roses and had even started outlining the roses in a dark pink glitter glue (magenta, he was pretty sure the color was called magenta). "She does not need this many bats, Ma. My hands are gonna cramp. I have a music exam Monday I have to practice for."

"You said you have a science test," Juleka grumbled. Luka finished drawing his last bat.

"I'm in collège," he said. "I have both."

"Peace, b'y," the Captain said, patting his head. "Ye'll be fine."

"You're gonna bomb anyway," Juleka deadpanned. He kicked at her shins again, a bit harder that time, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"All right, all right," the Captain laughed. She looked between them and rolled her eyes. "Now. Below still reeks t' high heaven, so I made some calls. Juleka, how'd ye like to spend the night at yer new friend's? Rose said there was a lass named Marinette already there? Her parents are fine with it if ye want to go."

Juleka looked back at her decorations and frowned. She had wanted to finish them so she could decorate tomorrow, but she liked the idea of staying with Rose. Marinette had seemed pretty cool, too…

"Lass?" the Captain prodded gently, and after another moment of indecision Juleka slowly nodded. With one last hesitant look to her decorations, she pushed herself up and ran below deck to pack a bag. Their ma turned to Luka. "I also called the Kings. O' course ye're welcome there for the night, if ye'd like. Dingo wanted t' come here, but the b'y's off enough without paint fumes making it worse."

Luka tried and failed to hide his grin. He shook his head with a snicker.

"I'm good," he said. "I can sleep on the deck. Besides, I have to finish these bats."

The Captain smiled and bent to kiss his forehead. He felt his face warm and kept his eyes on his work.

"Ye're a good lad, b'y," she said. As she left the sunroom, she added, "Dingo can survive a night in the elements. Sure it's not the first. I'll ring them back, aye? Maybe call in a pizza."

She walked off, whistling, and Luka grinned. He wasn't sure if he'd trust Dingo with scissors, but it would certainly make the project go faster.

– V –

Juleka didn't come home until late the next afternoon. She'd been having a great time with her new friends, and when the next day had rolled around Rose's mom had offered to take the girls to a movie. Luka was fine with this: it gave him extra time to finish his project.

Together, he and Dingo had finished cutting out and decorating the rest of Juleka's spooky foam shapes. Dingo had cackled when Luka had handed him some black puff balls, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and string. Dingo had set about assembling some spiders while Luka hauled Juleka's old wooden vanity mirror above deck and started sanding it down. It was around that time the Captain returned with their dinner and a few cans of purple and pink spray paint. It had been a long night, but by morning most everything was ready. They just had to assemble it.

He was tired, achy, and felt like he'd just done a Trading Spaces speed run, but it was worth it when Juleka finally got home.

"Luka!" she hollered, and he grinned at Dingo as he sipped his juice in the galley. A moment later, his sister came running down the stairs. She looked furious. "Where are my roses? My skulls and ghosts? The rest of the supplies? My bats?"

"I moved them," he said. Dingo was trying, with minimal success, to keep a straight face beside him. He dropped his elbow onto Dingo's head and shoved his face into the galley counter. Juleka didn't find this odd at all: it was Dingo, after all, and he probably deserved it. (Her brother's new friend was weird, ok?) "They're in your cabin. They were such a pain to make I didn't want you losing any."

She looked suspicious, but she ran to their cabin without any more questions. He shared a grin with Dingo when she reached their door and paused.

"…we have a wall?" she asked, looking back over her shoulder at him. He couldn't hide his grin anymore.

"We have a wall," he said, nodding. At her surprised look, he answered in a perfect imitation of the Captain. "Ye're thirteen now, b'y, and she'll be there soon enough. It's about time ye got some privacy. She installed it this morning."

"That is so cool," Juleka said. There was already a moving partition that could separate their bunks from the hall that cut through their cabin, but they had never had one that actually divided their individual rooms before. Luka had left it drawn after their Ma had put it in, hoping it would block Juleka's side of the cabin from view like…permanent gift-wrap. Or something. She looked back over her shoulder, that too-big smile he loved seeing back on her face. "I don't have to wake up to your stupid face every morning!"

Dingo choked beside him. He slam…tapped his elbow onto his head again.

"Love you, too, sis," he called as Juleka ran into the cabin. He looked back at Dingo, who was still snickering. "Shut the hell up."

Inside their cabin, Juleka had come around the partition and stopped dead in her tracks.

She didn't even recognize her bunk.

True, she had seen the paint the day before, but that was just paint. A dark purple on the walls, spotted with painstakingly stenciled fleur de lis in a smoky lavender-gray. The golden ring around the portholes that matched it perfectly. Even the stupid, neutral blue the Captain had painted on the connecting wall didn't look bad, and most of the blue was on Luka's side, anyway. But the rest of it!

Her bed was covered with a rich purple duvet that almost looked like velvet, and on either side of the blacked-out porthole above it were two gothic-style sconces, with fake candles flickering in them and everything. The cubby above her bed was also purple, though a lighter shade than the walls. The bats had been taped to the wall, flying up from the porthole to swirl around a sconce and fan out around the cubby. Spiders were hanging from the cubby. There were skulls on either side of the other sconce, and more by her desk – as if they were sitting on top of it. Her desk had even been painted a dark, smoky gray color, and her mirror was now purple, and her chair…it was pink. Everything had been a dull, boring brown before, and now…

She clapped her hands over her mouth, overwhelmed, and noticed the rug. Bright purple with bats.

She loved it.

She screamed when hands came down to rest on her shoulder, jumping and spinning to find Luka smiling behind her.

"Like it?" he asked. She nodded wordlessly. Dingo was sitting on Luka's bed, grinning. She noticed, absently, that the flowery fabric he'd purchased had been tacked up above his bed like a poster. If she thought it was weird, she was too overwhelmed by the changes in her own room to comment.

"We were up half the night finishing everything," Dingo said. Her eyebrows rose as she looked back at Luka.

"Not half the night, Ding," he said, shooting his friend a Look, "but…yeah. Definitely sleeping tonight."

"I love it, you jerk," she said, throwing her arms around his middle and hugging him tight. "You didn't have to do all this. I could've done it myself."

"What are big brothers for?" he asked, and she snorted as she pressed her face against his chest.

"Being stupid and annoying and embarrassing and –" she started, and he laughed as he patted her back.

"Hey, come on!" he said. "I just did something nice for you – go easy on me."

"Thanks, Lu," she said, squeezing him. "I love it."

"Thank Ma, too," he said, chuckling. "She did the hard part. I was just finishing touches."

"Still love it," she said, and then she was letting him go to run over to her bed and flop on it. She gasped when she saw her ghosts swirling around the ceiling directly above her bed, interspersed with a few more bats. She grabbed her stuffed bat and hugged it to her chest, squealing as she kicked her feet. It was a little weird, because Luka couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Juleka act like…such a girl. But then she lowered the bat, and he saw the blinding smile splitting her face, and he thought maybe it wasn't that weird after all. "I love it!"

He kind of did, too.

Even if it was creepy.