'Hey, don't you think sage will effect Lewis?' Arthur asked as the four of them lounged around in the van, Arthur sat up the front as he watched Vivi pack things that they may need for the night into a backpack. Vivi paused as picked up a bungle, she then looked over at Mystery.
'Sage is used to calm a spirit or for its emotions to show, in rare cases, you all know that. Its holy water that we should be careful of.' Mystery said looking to each of there faces, Vivi's face lit up.
'We should try burning a little.' She said, pulling out a few leaves from the bundle.
'Hell no Vivi, we don't know what…' Arthur panicked from his spot.
'Yes we do.' Vivi butted in. 'Mystery just reminded us of that.' Vivi smiles. 'And besides we need to find out if we can still do our job like we want to.' She turned to Lewis who seemed to be thinking. 'So what do you think Lew?' She asked and Lewis blinked before looking at her.
'Sorry, I was thinking about things…' Lewis said giving Vivi an apologetic smile.
'She wants to test to see what would happen if we light some sage around you, how much it would take before you calm down.' Arthur explained as Lewis looked over at the leaves in Vivi's hand.
'I suppose that's alright, as long as its only a little bit.' Lewis answered, Arthur frowned from his spot as Vivi pulled out a lighter. She light them and blew out the flame, the leaves smoked as they where meant to and Arthur opened up the windows to let the air flow.
'So?' Vivi asked, waving the leaves around. Lewis watched the thin streams of smoke as they dissipated into the air.
'It stinks.' Arthur commented as Vivi frowned.
'I wasn't asking you and that wasn't the first time that you complained about that.' Vivi said looking at Arthur.
'Lewis?' Mystery asked as he stood up from his spot and walked over to where the purple figure sat against the van wall, before he could get close however Lewis' appearance flickered away and he was a well dressed skeleton from his mansion. 'Lewis if you can hear me…' Mystery started, but then Lewis' eye sockets darkened.
'I don't know why I am here.' Lewis whispered and Mystery jumped at the van's back doors and opened them.
'Vivi, throw it out and fan some fresh air in.' Mystery ordered as he returned to Lewis' side. Arthur quickly opened the van doors before joining Vivi with an old newspaper that sat on the vans floor. Vivi had straight after it was ordered thrown the sage at the ground outside and stomped on it to stop the smoking, right after she did that Vivi was fanning air in as Arthur tried to fan the smoke out.
'I told you. I had a bad feeling.' Arthur was ranting as he fanned.
'Shut it Arthur, nothing that bad is happening. He is not going to leave unless he wants to, plus I think that he is exhausted.' Mystery said to stop Arthur's ranting. Arthur stopped, but he also stopped fanning.
'What do you mean? He can't sleep, so how can he be tired?' Arthur asked turning to Mystery, Mystery sighed before answering him.
'Yes Arthur he may not be able to sleep like you or Vivi, but he still uses energy. I have noticed that at night that he does turn to this state and doesn't do anything for hours, that is how he sleeps.' Mystery explained before turning back to Lewis.
'Lewis.' He said quietly. 'You do have a reason to be here, you have Arthur, Vivi, and even me. We love us and we love you, and Arthur still needs you.' Arthur stayed quiet as Mystery spoke of him. 'You can still be around, it is your chose as to if you want to move on or not.' Lewis' eye sockets relight and the familiar purple glow returned.
'But I attacked Arthur, I made Vivi forget about me. I made more mistakes in death then when I was alive.' Lewis said sadly.
'Lewis.' Arthur said firmly before Mystery could respond to Lewis. 'You thought that the demon was still around, you feared that Vivi would have reacted badly to your death. You did what you thought was right, no one can get angry at you for it.' Arthur said more like how Mystery had been speaking to him, then he added in. 'And I do need you, the guilt would kill me if you left because you thought that you had done something wrong.' Arthur said before jumping out of the van, Lewis looked up from where he was and his living appearance came back. Vivi stopped fanning and frowning at Arthur taking out his cigarettes, she shook her head as she closed one of the doors and entered the van again.
'Maybe we don't try this in a small space again.' Mystery commented before returning to his little mattress that sat in the corner of the van for him, Vivi sat down next to Lewis and hugged his arm.
'I am sorry.' She whispered. 'I forgot that you where still dealing with that and now Arthur knows.'
'Not your fault, it shouldn't have been Mystery to tell me something as obvious as that.' Lewis said and frowned. 'I hope Arthur still doesn't blame himself.'
'He does, even if its a little bit.' Mystery said from where he laid, Vivi pulled away from Lewis and shook her head.
'He shouldn't be, its been a year.' She said.
'Yes, but I think you forgot that he had the demon speaking to him for a while.' Mystery reminded her.
'Was it that bad?' Lewis asked.
'Of course it was, it would show him that night repeatedly. There was a few times when he was at work and he had little break downs.'
'But Lance knew right, he was there to help him.'
'That is true, but even with me helping. He was still having problems, he is probably at his best around now. That cigarette that he has now, is his first one in a week and I don't know about you, but I see it as a small achievement.' Vivi looked at her phone to check the time, then she looked outside. It was getting dark and they were meant to start working soon, she jumped back at the backpack that she was packing and finished up as Lewis grabbed the sunglasses from next to him and put them on before exiting the van.
Lewis found Arthur on the other end of the street smoking away, Arthur noticed him and looked away.
'About what happened in there…' Lewis tried but Arthur held up a hand to stop him.
'You don't need to explain, don't we all have something that we are sad about or that we are ashamed of.' Arthur said as he took a final breath of his cigarette before crushing in in his left hand, Lewis watched it fall to the ground before looking back at Arthur.
'I think that was the wisest thing you have ever said.' Lewis said with a smile. Arthur smiled as well but tried to frown, but failed for it to become effective.
'I talk about robotics and mechanics all the time.' Arthur said.
'Sorry, correction. That was the wisest thing that you have said that I had understood.' Lewis said with a grin as Arthur started to frown for real.
'Hey, its the same if you start talking about cooking.' Arthur complained.
'Cooking is hardly the same as robotics.'
'And yet I still don't know how not to burn something.'
'Using a blowtorch to cook is asking for burns on everything.'
'I tried that once.'
'And that is why I never let you cook as long as I was around.' Lewis said crossing his arms, he then sighed. 'I am glad that you haven't changed the way you act around me.'
'Of course not, you haven't changed so why would I?' Arthur asked.
'I don't know, it was just a worry of mine.'
'Well, is there anything else that you are worrying about?'
'Nothing right now, if it comes up I will tell you.' Lewis assured.
'Hey you two, come on. We need to start the job, its around the time that they say the huntings begin.' Vivi yelled out to them from inside the van. Mystery had already jumped out of the van and sat down outside, Arthur sighed as he walked back to close the front doors. Lewis walked after him.
