What's Not to Love - a Beetlelands Soulmate AU

When Haunting Proves Effortless

Betelgeuse looked between Adam and Barbara before looking around the attic, besides them deciding to at least try a relationship with him, he knew that he would have to help them get a hang on their ghostly abilities and powers. But before he could say anything, he was bombarded by the Maitlands asking him if he wanted to cuddle or whatever. Half of him was saying yes and the other wanted him to focus on helping the Maitlands with their ghost powers.

So, he decided on the latter.

"Can we do that later? I want to help you learn to be ghosts first."

"We can." A puzzled look crossed Barbara's face. "But as long as it doesn't involve haunting Lydia's dad and stepmother. Or Lydia for that matter."

"I was going to help you get a grip on your ghost powers, but I could help you haunt the living instead. Thanks for the suggestion, B-town!" Betelgeuse smirked as he winked at the female ghost - who looked taken aback.

"I did not suggest we do that, I suggested we don't do that!" Barbara shouted back.

"Aw..." Betelgeuse pouted, his hair turning blue. "How about just the living adults?"

"No!" Adam and Barbara shouted at once, equally as annoyed.

In their minds, they were beginning to rethink this whole asking Betelgeuse if he wanted to be in a relationship with them thing. But they didn't want to tell Betelgeuse that, so they just kept quiet about it. However, he took notice rather quickly - looking between both ghosts with a confused look. Wondering what was going on. They turned away for a brief moment and didn't seem to immediately take much notice of Betelgeuse teleporting out of the attic and only happened to break out of their conversation when he teleported back in.

Barbara folded her arms, looking pointedly over towards Betelgeuse. "And just what were you doing at this moment?"

"Trying to scare the living adults out of the house," Betelgeuse replied, his hair turning a clear shade of blue. "It didn't work because they didn't as much see me like I thought they would. They didn't react to me. Just anything and everything I did to try. They just picked whatever I threw at the floor in order to get their attention up and put it back where it was originally."

"Well, do you want us to try?" Barbara asked, curiously tilting her head to the side. "I don't know if it'll work that way either but it's still worth a try, isn't it?"

"I guess that we could," Adam replied, putting an arm around his wife's shoulder. "But, then again, the only one who would know that it was you and I who did all of that stuff would be Lydia. Her dad and Delia would just automatically assume that it would just be like when Bj tried to scare them out of the house. It's just going to take an awful lot of time for Lydia to try to convince them of our presence here in the house."

"Well..." Barbara rested a hand under her chin, deep in thought for a brief moment. "You do make a point, Ad. Let's haunt. This. Bitch."

"Barbara!!!!" Adam uttered out, completely surprised at that.

After a while, she teleported out of the attic and he followed suit soon afterwards.

Downstairs, on the upstairs landing, the Maitlands peered down towards Lydia and her dad and Delia as they milled about. They could've both sworn that they saw Delia pick up on their energy, pick up on their presence as she looked side to side in a look of both confusion and curiosity mixed into one, but then proceed to shrug slightly as she pushed the feeling aside and continue on with what she was doing at the moment.

Both surprised and stunned into a complete silence, Adam turned to look at Barbara and noticed a similar look on her face. "Does she know we're here?"

"I think so, but I don't think she can see us. Maybe if we go down there and see if we can try to grab her or Lydia's dad's attention. Do anything that we can in order to do that," Barbara said, looking around what'd once been her and Adam's kitchen for anything they could use to grab the attention of the older Deetzes.

After a brief while of doing so she turned on her heel, making her way down the stairs and into the kitchen with Adam following suit. Lydia looked up from what she was doing at the kitchen island, turning her attention over towards the Maitlands and lowering her voice to a whisper so that her dad and Delia didn't hear her. And, from the look that was present on the teenager's face, they could tell that she was a little bit nervous.

"Guys, what're you-."

"Trying to haunt," Barbara whispered back to her. "Not you, just your dad and Delia."

Lydia just fell silent, nodding as she went back to what she had been doing. Letting the Maitlands do what they could in an attempt to scare Charles and Delia. Barbara focused all of her energy on making a coffee mug Delia had just set down on the kitchen counter move ever so slightly - causing the living woman to turn her head and look over in the direction of her now misplaced coffee mug...

... Only to turn again and ignore it as if nothing had happened. Adam and Barbara both grew equally as frustrated as the other was at that, Adam focusing his energy on and snapping his fingers to make some of the bowls that belonged to the Deetzes fly out of the cupboard and land unbroken all over the floor. Barbara did the same, before going back to moving random things around the kitchen.

And none of that seemed to work. Charles and Delia seemed to both be equally as unfazed by the Maitlands' attempts to haunt them (save for Lydia, who seemed to have been having a crack out of the whole thing). Maybe this was how Betelgeuse felt

Lydia just looked apologetically at her new friends, shrugging ever so slightly. She stood up from her spot at the kitchen island and slowly moved over towards the Maitlands as her dad and Delia picked up everything that the two ghosts had thrown at the floor and moved back everything they'd pushed around in an attempt to scare them.

"Guys," Lydia said apologetically, once again lowering her voice to a whisper so that her dad and Delia didn't hear her. "I'm sorry that none of that worked. Maybe try a little bit harder the next time you try to haunt and scare my dad and Delia."

"Like this?" Barbara grinned playfully at Lydia as she focused all of her energy on making Lydia, who was now laughing - albeit rather quietly in order to not be heard by her dad or by Delia - levitate and float in the air. But both of the living adults certainly noticed, looking up in unison and, at once, rushing over to the spot in which Lydia was being levitated in the air by an amused Barbara.

"Lydia!" her dad spoke up, a mix of worry and concern within his tone of voice. "What's going on! Why on earth are you..."

As Lydia levitated back down towards the ground, Charles and Delia watched in the utmost surprise and shock.

"Why were you levitating in midair?"

"I wasn't levitating in the air on my own, guys! It was the ghosts that did that to me," Lydia stated as a matter of fact. Though she knew that neither her dad nor Delia were even going to believe her.

Which they didn't.

"Ghosts? Lydia, there's no ghosts in this house as far as I'm aware," her dad stated, his tone of voice now sounding a little stern.

Lydia, on the other hand, wasn't having any of it. Stomping her foot in complete annoyance and groaning loudly as she clenched her hands into tight fists. "But dad, Delia! These were real ghosts! Real. Life. Ghosts that caused all of this stuff to happen!"