Note: Yes, I absolutely just need a place to put oneshots as they come to mind without necessarily creating a whole new oneshot fic each time. Also, "Rest, Nestling" is the precursor to this set of oneshots, though not required reading to understand these ones. Advance warning, I will probably loop in child!Dib from Invader Zim from time to time, but I'll try to present him in such a way that you don't have to be familiar with that fandom to enjoy. I just think the crossover works and is neat. For now, this is just a set-up chapter to cover where the group dynamics are. Cover Photo by Ice Tea on Unsplash.

"So… for sure, you've seen her, right, Mystery?"

Vivi stared out the window, her nose and hands smushed against the glass. The backyard and acreage of the property was the only real sweet part of the deal they'd gotten on this place. Sure, the house looked pretty swell at first glance, but it came with a lot of emphasis on "as is" that made her more nervous than it would have if Arthur was a handyman as well as a mechanic, which he was not. Still, there was a good deal of space around the house, and in the backyard grew a very old tree that Arthur swore up and down was alive. Well, more alive than one would normally consider a tree to be. Not that trees weren't alive, it's just that this one—

"Yes, I've seen her arm once. It was larger than all of us combined. She moved Arthur like a pup." Mystery stood at an angle to the window, where he could see but not be seen by what was outside. "She is most certainly a nymph of some sort. Likely a hamadryad."

Vivi kept her eyes glued to the tree. The light was dying, but full dark was still half an hour off. All she saw was what she'd seen most evenings; Arthur sitting with his back against the trunk. His mouth wasn't moving this time, he just leaned against the trunk with his eyes closed. Asleep, maybe? A single leaf lay in his lap.

"How come she doesn't show herself? It's been a month and I haven't seen her even once." Vivi grumped. "And why's Arthur monopolizing her? I went in on this house, too, so when is he gonna let me talk to the giant tree lady?"

Nobody answered her. She was whining and she knew it, but it was so unfair. Arthur had a supernatural buddy nobody had known about? It was like finding out he'd grown a second head, or opened a third eye, or… or that he'd been possessed, that her dog was really a powerful kitsune in disguise, and that her boyfriend had died and come back as a pissed off ghost. Finding out she had a boyfriend at all. She fogged up the pane with her sigh, then pulled away, leaving clear nose and handprints behind, and turned face-first into the broad chest of a funeral suit.

Speak of the devil.

Lewis hovered a few inches off the ground just behind her, also inspecting the view through the window.

"What about you? Can you see her?" She folded her arms, tilting her head back. Hopefully she came across more defiant than petulant.

The soft glowing irises slid down to meet her stare, then refocused back on the tree. His skull, floating about three inches over the empty neck of the funeral suit, shook itself.

"So that would be no."

Lewis paused, lifted one hand palm down, and swiveled it back and forth.

"Sort-of-maybe?" Vivi threw up her hands. "Specifics, would ya?"

Lewis drifted backward, putting a little space between them, and folded his hands behind his back. He ducked his head.

Mystery spoke up. "Might I assume, Lewis, that you can see a sort of dim green-gold glow that moves about the trunk, like a firefly trapped inside?"

Lewis nodded.

"I see that as well, but I don't think either of us class that as the same sort of 'seeing' that Vivi is asking about." Mystery looked at Vivi. "You want to know if either of us has spotted a giant tree-woman lumbering about. I think it's safe to say the answer to that is no."

Lewis nodded twice.

Vivi slipped a little notepad out of her pocket and a pen out from behind her ear. "Tree-lady looks like little firefly to ghosts and kitsunes," she mumbled, jotting it down. "Not useful info yet, but who knows what will and won't be." She tucked the notepad away and slid the pen behind her ear. "Well. It's getting dark. I'm gonna make sure he remembers that being inside when it's cold is a thing people do. I don't think Lady Tree over there will remind him."

She headed down the hall, aiming for the sliding glass door that opened onto the back deck. Behind, she heard Mystery murmuring to Lewis, saying words she didn't really want to hear.

"Give it time."

Lewis ducked his head. He didn't want to hear it. She didn't really see him anymore. Any look from her was like a warning shot or a lance through the chest. Old mannerisms had freshly sharpened edges in his presence. Was he imagining things, or did the back of that notepad have an exorcism script jotted on it?

Time might fix the hostility and it might not. Mystery meant well, but Lewis didn't want to hear his merely hopeful advice. If wishes were fishes… he waved a hand, opting out of further conversation, and drifted off to the office.

There were bills to pay. Bills from the hospital, utility bills, insurance bills, and now a mortgage. Arthur got steady pay from working at Kingsmen Mechanics and there were some promising leads on patenting his prosthetic technology. Vivi had a part-time job at Tome Tomb and stayed with her grandmother for a couple days a week, on the care-taker's days off. Pay from their investigation jobs varied, was unreliable, and more often than not it all went back into equipment or travel costs. Still, that was something they had agreed on; the Mystery Skulls were going to continue. So, it was Lewis' job to run the blog and get them interest. Attention. Gigs.

That used to be Vivi's job. She'd started the group, she led it, so she handled their public face online. But that was when Lewis had been alive. When he had a job as sous chef and waiter at his parents' restaurant. His skull drew in closer to the suit. He couldn't go back there like this. He couldn't go anywhere public like this, but especially not back there.

So. He entered the office, with its cluttered desk and wall-to-wall bookshelves groaning with crusty old tomes. The corkboard had a photo of their tree at the center, with various sticky notes surrounding it. The whiteboard had several sketchy designs of leafy women, or huge monster trees with legs. Someone had left Nice try, Vivi written in the middle.

Lewis leaned against the wall opposite the group laptop, summoning a Deadbeat. One of the tiny, pink spirits poked its head out from his hollow collar, chirping up at him. He nodded at the laptop, and it darted over, patting the mouse to wake the computer and bringing up the group blog. The Deadbeat called up a new post, then turned back to Lewis, blinking little golden eyes.

Lewis floated his skull back to the door, peeking out. Sounded like Vivi was in the kitchen. Arthur wasn't in sight. Returning his skull to the suit, he crossed his arms and stared at the ceiling. Nudged the door shut with his foot. Considered how to start. Vivi usually kept it light-hearted. Should he mimic that?

"Hey gang!" He paused, then shook his head. That wasn't right. "Hey-ho, fellow ghost hunters!" He scowled. "Howdy…. No." He pinched the bone bridge between his eyesockets.

With just those nine words, the lamp light had dimmed and acquired a reddish tinge while the desk groaned like a man being crushed, though nothing had shifted on it.

Everything was way too complicated, post mortem.

Mystery took himself out to the front of the house. Then around to the side. Circled around back. Up the other side. Back to the front. They'd only had this place for a month, so the track wasn't too noticeable, but he could see the grass thinning from where he'd placed his paws. It crossed his mind that perhaps he should pace a less direct path, make a pleasant, meandering track around the house. He dismissed this. If he was going to worry a path onto the grounds, it would be a simple track he could follow in his sleep.

Each time he passed around back, he glanced sideways without turning his head. Arthur hadn't gone inside, yet.

He shouldn't worry. Arthur knew this tree, and the tree seemed to have some attachment back, but nymphs were not to be trifled with. Even the silliest, giggling naiad might turn on you with a flash of silvery teeth should you slight her the right way.

Though, how many had he seen, lately? They all hid themselves. Or had most faded away?

His step slowed. He shouldn't think this way. There were plenty of others to be found, it's just… they had to be more cautious. This was no longer their world, and those that had once been prey was no longer so weak and defenseless.

Not your world anymore.

He rounded the corner to the side of the house and thumped his rump down, a little whine sticking in his throat. It wasn't his world in any sense of the word. Even his homeland was on the other side of the planet, and the creatures of legend around him were foreign and difficult to understand. And here he was, watching over a unit of humans. They who had once been prey and were now family. Except, these had already been preyed on, and he hadn't stopped it.

He stretched out his forelegs and lay his muzzle between them, allowing the whine to exit through his nose. Now he had the monumental task of piecing what was left of them back together. They had made a start, but their connections were still fragile as a new-spun spider's web.

The spectacles weighed heavily on his snout and his eyes ached. "You want me to see what you see?" he muttered into thin air. "Wonderful. I see it, but seeing does nothing. What am I meant to do about these injured kits?"

A dragonfly flitted past his nose. An ant clicked industriously nearby, scouting for food.

Abruptly, a pair of hands seized him. "There you are," Vivi declared. A moment later he was cradled in warm arms. "Thought you might be out here, moping. You mope too much. Come on, there's leftovers in the fridge from yesterday. Enough for you and me. Artie said he already ate. His loss."

Mystery's ears perked at that, his stomach grumbling, concerns shunted to the back of his mind. If Arthur was passing up his portion, Mystery was more than happy to take care of it for him.

Arthur didn't feel like coming inside yet. It wasn't as cold as Vivi yelled it was. Sure, there was a little chill, but it was more refreshing than biting. Besides, it was peaceful out here. Restful.

He hadn't seen her since the day after the tree trimmers removed the rotting branches, but he knew she was there. Yettle. The tree who had nursed him back to life twice. There hadn't been much to tell her today, so he'd just sat out there with her, watching the sky darken through her branches. There was a leaf in his lap again. One always seemed to make its way to his lap, or on top of his head.

He wondered if he'd ever see her again. Only three times in his life had she made an appearance to him, and each time had been some dire moment. It was probably a very human thing to want to see her again, in the sort of way where he could hear her as clearly as she always heard him. To give her a hug. To interact with her on his terms. But humans had not done well by her, so he wouldn't ask. Instead, he would try to learn stillness and simple being. Stopping his frenetic pace for a bit of each day to appreciate each breath. The playful breeze. The smell of cut grass. If he kept at it long enough, maybe he could learn to interact with Yettle on her terms. Right now, he'd settle for knowing what those terms even were.

He couldn't ask Vivi to hold off forever, though, and Vivi would want it on her terms. Even if Yettle chose not to respond, Vivi would be out here with probes and questions and cameras and a tent. He'd have to navigate that eventually, and hope they didn't offend Yettle. Could you offend a tree? Offense seemed more like a human thing, too, come to think of it. There were certain spirits and deities who got very offended, he was pretty sure there were stories about that. But a tree?

A question to file away for later, he decided.

A thought rose to the forefront. It came occasionally, and it always brought a thin, tired smile with it. "Lewis is back," he said under his breath. How many months spent searching? How many sleepless nights driving the van around? All of it worthwhile. Sure there had been a few bumps—his breath hitched and he hurried past those memories—but that was all over. They were together, just like before, and even better now that they had a house to call their own.

Everything was going to work out great.