Familiaris - (Mystery Skulls, M) - 2/2

[Garnet]

I've been doing some drabbles and RP and stuff with Spoo concerning these characters when they were still alive and happy (weepweep). I'm interested in the post-mortem dynamics too, though, so here's the skeleton sneezing that nobody asked for :|

There will be a second part with more actual sneezing, and I'm going to try to keep it reasonable to post here, but if it ends up on the Adult board, that is not my fault okay.

Familiaris - Part One

It was three in the morning, and Vivi was staring into the void. The void did not stare back.

More accurately, she was standing in the kitchen, before the refrigerator, whose cold incandescence washed out her features and threw her shadow into a long silhouette across the floor. Cold air swelled against her cheeks and bare legs, as she stood on one and scratched her calf idly with the other. What was she even doing here...

"Nothing you like?"

Her bare feet squeaked on the linoleum as she jumped, and turned at the weird distortion of a voice that was still strange to her ears. She offered Lewis a tremulous smile as he lingered politely in the doorway, floating half a foot off the ground.

"Sorry, am I wasting your electricity?"

"I don't pay electricity."

She closed the door of the fridge, casting the kitchen from its palette of cold greys and blues into the eerie pinks that came from his own natural luminescence. "It was a joke, silly."

"Oh."

She hadn't yet worked out all the details of what kept the house whole and functional, beyond some exceedingly strange manifestation of metaphysical energy. The floors felt solid under her feet, the food tasted like food and had so far kept her alive and healthy, the fireplaces crackled with warmth. But walls also shifted before her eyes, doorways changed shape or disappeared altogether, objects faded from existence as if they'd never been, if their master willed it so. Perhaps with some sensitivity to their transition, Lewis had been pretty good about keeping everything consistent and "normal".

For how little she understood the house, however, she knew even less about its once-sole occupant. She wasn't afraid of Lewis, exactly, not skittish and cagey in the same way that Arthur still was when he entered a room. A long, weird silence stretched between them all the same, marked only by the echoing tick of a grandfather clock in the hall beyond.

At last, he gave her a verbal nudge. "You can't sleep?"

"It's this stupid insomnia thing I've picked up. Don't worry about it. Hey, at least I've got someone else to bother when I'm up pacing the halls and raiding the fridge in the middle of the night," she teased, and mimed a punch to his arm that didn't connect.

What she didn't admit was that the sleepless, frustrating nights had started shortly after he'd gone out of their life, when a gaping chasm opened up in their bed. She'd lost count of how many times she stirred groggily awake and patted around for the familiar weight of Lewis's arm, or the reassuring brace of his broad chest, only to find too much space in their too large bed. She knew that Arthur had the same affliction from time to time. When she did manage to sleep more than a few hours at a time, she was often woken by him going through his own manic routine.

But there was no point in admitting that all now. She'd slowly grown used to both their missing piece and the insomnia. Both were like scar tissue, until they'd been so recently rent open again.

"I have about a million questions," Vivi confessed instead, after a beat. She'd been letting them out in slips and streams, here and there, but the curiosity of it all was starting to build up exponentially and burn a hole right through her.

"I don't know if I can answer them all, I'm not sure I fully understand half of it myself," Lewis offered apologetically.

"It's okay." She took a step towards him at last, and didn't miss the slight, relieved slope of his shoulders as she did so. He was as uncertain about all of this as she was. "I don't even know where to start, I just -- oh!"

She broke off in laughing surprise as a pair of the ubiquitous pink wisps that seemed to follow him everywhere suddenly sped through the kitchen. They appeared to be chasing each other with little squealing noises similar to Mystery being overenthusiastic with a squeaky toy.

"They're so cute," Vivi said. "What are they, like lesser spirits?"

"I guess that's one way to put it. Most of them are or... they were animals. Ones that got hit crossing the road out there, or that died in the woods."

Vivi was inexplicably charmed. Dead animals were never a happy thought, especially ones that lingered in the semi-material world and hadn't moved on to their equivalent of an afterlife, but at least they had some company. "So you're, what, a spectral Snow White now?"

Lewis's laugh echoed through layers of haunting recursion, but she was getting used to it, and grinned all the same. She held out a hand experimentally, and the tiny wisps swirled around it excitedly. One of them seemed to win their impromptu race and suddenly quadrupled in size for a moment, arms waving and its jagged mouth gaping. The other darted for safety on Lewis's shoulder.

She had another question waiting on her tongue, but before she could voice it, Lewis suddenly touched down with an audible click, and made a sound like a bellows drawing air. Vivi forgot the tiny, mischievous sprites, and focused all of her attention on him in bemusement as he turned from her and ratcheted slightly back at the waist. What in the...

"--HEH-SZSSSCHISH!"

Her hands shot to her mouth to muffle her squeak of surprise, as the constant ethereal flame that wreathed his skull erupted outward like a grease fire hitting its flashpoint. It subsided after a second, with no apparent harm to the surroundings except for a highly offended wisp. It squeaked at him disapprovingly and disappeared into thin air.

"Excuse me," he sighed, and passed a forefinger across his nasal cavity. It was this gesture that suddenly jumpstarted her memory, overlaying the sound he'd just made with one that was so fondly familiar that it put a little prickle behind her eyes.

"Did... did you just sneeze?"

"Yes, sorry. I think that one was a cat." His skull tilted in the direction the little spirit had vanished.

"How..." She paused, and flattened both palms over her eyes for a second as she worked out whether to be delighted or sad or just plain unsettled. "How does that even work? You don't have a nose. Or lungs."

It was hard to gauge emotion on his skeletal face, but she was starting to get a handle on it, and registered the duck of his head and set of his shoulders as something close to hurt. Guilt narrowed her throat.

"I have no idea, it just... it happens, sometimes. I don't do it on purpose," he offered, uncommonly meek for a powerful spirit that towered heads and shoulders above her tiny frame. It reminded her so abruptly of the Lewis that they'd lost that she stepped towards him instinctively and put an open hand on his arm.

Lewis's sneezing had once been a regular background noise of her life -- not with any particular frequency or sensitivity, but always with forceful purpose when one did come over him. More often when he had the odd cold, much to Arthur's horror, or invariably when they were around cats. He'd used to joke that he was deathly allergic to them, and she wasn't sure if that was more or less funny now, given present circumstances.

"Are you saying that you're a ghost allergic to ghost cats?" She prompted, unable to fight back her grin.

"It's probably psychosomatic, huh?" Lewis chuckled. He curved towards her slightly, framing in her small body with his larger one. She was too used to his stature being comforting, rather than intimidating, and leaned instinctively in to rest her forehead against his chest. His huge hand came to settle gently on the back of her neck.

"Maybe. Sort of like... with amputees getting phantom sensations in their limbs?" She suggested as she reached for his other hand and held it away from the cuff of his suit. Like his skull, it floated comfortably a few inches away from the fabric and the hollow darkness of his sleeve. If she tugged it far enough, she could feel the resistance drawing it back towards his body like the pull of a magnet. "Do you feel that?"

"Yes," he agreed as he flexed and relaxed his fingers slightly. "And I can definitely feel it tickling, right before I..." His grip slackened in hers and began to pull away. "Before I...!" As if by the power of suggestion alone, his strangely reverberating voice trembled as he made to take a step back from her. In fact he ended up a few inches off the floor altogether until Vivi reluctantly let his hand slide from her own. She watched with plain fascination as his chest expanded with the illusion or perhaps the ingrained habit of deeply hitching breaths, in and in and--...

"Hsz-SCHISSSH!"

She put a hand up instinctively to block the flash of light and crackle of flames, for all that they seemed to hold no heat of their own. When it subsided, she peeked at him over the edge of her elbow, marveling at the perfectly human way he shook his head and passed a hand self-consciously over the skeletal face.

"Excuse me."

"Gesundheit!" She bleated, and then added, "That is so weird."

"Is it?" Lewis no longer possessed a neck to linger a hand on uncomfortably, but the way his fingertips grazed his skull projected the same effect. "Sorry, I can't really hold them back like..." He made a demonstrative rubbing gesture with one finger at the empty air where a large Roman nose had once distinguished his profile.

"Not weird in a bad way," Vivi assured. She reached up to catch both his hands and hold them down at her sides as she peered at him. He looked alarmed. "I've just never seen that. Does it feel better afterwards?"

Lewis rotated his hands gently until they were holding hers, and looked down at them. "Much better. It's like scratching an itch."

Her brain concocted half a dozen theories for that. Maybe it was his spectral form's natural way to let off excess spiritual energy, when there was too much build-up, or maybe it really was some somatic memory that lasted even through death. Either way, the involuntary cause-and-effect reaction was the same, and this put a certain warmth in her chest. Her fingers curled shyly in her palms.

"I like it." It makes you seem more human, she thought, but with care for his feelings didn't say this part aloud. Any small bridge between this Lewis and the one she knew most intimately was a welcome one.

"You liked it before, too," he observed. Her cheeks went as pink as his ethereal flames. It was true, they'd spent more than one evening on a rented couch or bed, the back of the van, with her hips straddling him and a fingertip slowly teasing them both to an explosive finish. In very different senses of the word.

"I wasn't sure if you'd remember that."

"Vivian," he said gently but pointedly. "I remember everything."

Oh. Right. Her eyes turned down to the checkered linoleum underfoot. She was the one whose recollection was still swiss cheese.

"I missed that. I missed you," she admitted with a candidness that made her shoulders scrunch. They loosened by degrees as his hands touched either of her elbows and recalled her attention gently to him. She smiled, the threatening swell of emotion warded off by their present reality. Surreality.

"I'm here now," he reminded her, then uprolled the glowing points of his irises in a show of thought. "...and I don't know if I can do that anymore, but you could give it a shot."

The offer both surprised and delighted her, a tiny blue thrill shivering under her skin. Even if the logistics of it would take some time getting used to, her enthusiasm for her boyfriend hadn't been dampened by the fact that he was now kind of mostly very dead.

"Really?"

He paused. "If you'd want to, um. All things considered."

"Heck yes I do," she said, squeezing both of his hands between hers with a grin. It was an unconventional cure to her insomnia, maybe, but way better than cold sandwiches at 3 AM.

- To Be Continued -

Edited November 25, 2014 by Garnet

[SterlingSilver]

OH SHIT, OH SHIT~

GARNET FICTION~

I have some weird universal connection to your fics, Garnet, because I am literally always just sitting here when they pop up xDDD. I promise I am not fic-stalking you, intentionally anyway xDD. Or am I~? >w>

but if it ends up on the Adult board, that is not my fault okay.

Okay, yeah, first of all. Starting off a fic with THIS disclaimer is like, the best present ever QwQ xDDDD

She broke off in laughing surprise as a pair of the ubiquitous pink wisps that seemed to follow him everywhere suddenly sped through the kitchen. They appeared to be chasing each other with little squealing noises similar to Mystery being overenthusiastic with a squeaky toy.

Oh my GOD, that is CUTE. I was not expecting the cuteness of shapeless ghosts to be so cute. My soul-.. *clutches chest*

It was this gesture that suddenly jumpstarted her memory, overlaying the sound he'd just made with one that was so fondly familiar that it put a little prickle behind her eyes.

How is it that you managed to make sneezing suddenly so meaningful? That's amazing, Garnet. I was all like, "YAY SNEEZE" and then I read that part and was immediately sobered as I realized how much of a human thing it was for Vivi to witness her old lover doing. You brought me to amused giddiness and back down to a somber thoughtfulness in like, TWO sentences. You're incredible.

"I have no idea, it just... it happens, sometimes. I don't do it on purpose," he offered, uncommonly meek for a powerful spirit that towered heads and shoulders above her tiny frame. It reminded her so abruptly of the Lewis that they'd lost that she stepped towards him instinctively and put an open hand on his arm.

*me gross sobbing* LEWISSSSS I LOVE YOU IT'S OKAY DON'T BE SAD.

"Hsz-SCHISSSH!"

*pleasant shiver*

Ahhhhhhhhh~~~ Garnet, you're amazing as usual <33. Thank you so much for writing this masterpiece <333

[MissMercy]

This is so damn intriguing. I haven't seen the video yet but this makes me want to.

[SneezyHolmes]

So cute! I love Skele-Lewis better than normal Lewis..//guilty pleasure. Can't wait for part 2~

[March Hare]

Sneezing and ghosties and wee funny beasties and girls that go "FOOD...?" in the night...

And story and heartstrings and FEELS, oh my.

Now I know I HAVE to check it out. MRAH, Garnet, . . . you know it.

[Spoo]

First off, I'm seconding what BlackScatter said about the whole 'Adult board' thing, because that would be A-OKAY with me, sister. But I'll save that for later, because I owe you an essay and here it is:

1. Um. Whyyyy is Vivi standing in front of an open fridge at 3 in the morning THE PERFECT image for her?? Regardless if she can't sleep or not, she strikes me as always having the munchies. Heh.
   
2. B'aww! Lewis spooked her. Butbutbut, he's lingering POLITELY in the doorway - because he doesn't want to unnerve her any more than his appearance already does (sucks when your face is scary). That sweet skellybear. ;__;
   
3. "I don't pay electricity"--SERIOUSLY, LEWIS? Omg you're too cute gET OUTTT. We know your haunted mansion runs on Spirit Stuff and Feels. Psh.
   
4. And speaking of the mansion, I LOVE how you describe it: The creepy little knickknacks and oddities (disappearing doors, shifty walls), yet the seemingly "normal" things, too, like the food and how it's legitimately edible and life-sustaining.
   
5. No. No. The cause of her insomnia isn't fair and you know it! Reaching for him when he's not there…just spear me through the heart. It would be a lot quicker than this slow suffering you're putting me through, Garnet. >:C
   
6. How cute is Lewis being like: 'Okay I'll answer what I can but there's a good chance I won't have an answer too because I'm just as confused as you are'.
   
7. Oh nO CUTE WISPS PLAYING TAG.
   
8. We've discussed this before, but the whole 'animal spirits' theory is painfully perfect. They keep Lewis company, but they're also snuggly and adorable and ugh. Pink, wubbly babies.
   
9. Offended wisps are the most hilarious thing. Just being like "RUDE" and disappearing, because wtf I was trying to love you and you sneezed all over me and bYE.
   
10. I think you said it best in the thread where you posted Lewis art: No nose, no mouth, no problem. Still, I love how they discuss him sneezing in detail and exchange possible explanations, because WTF SKELLYMAN HOW DO.
    
11. no they're getting all cuddly no this is unacceptable she's not allowed to lean her forehead on him no and he better stop with the gentle back-of-neck touches or sO HELP ME
    
12. Everything seems to be trial and error with them, and it's both heartwarming and heartbreaking (heartwarming because they're getting to know each other again, and they're both being patient and slow | heartbreaking because Vivi knows this isn't the Lewis she knew and it's kinda like starting over but with a depressing aura set as a precursor to their new beginnings).
    
13. You really CAN'T hold sneezes back, can you, Lewis? That's the thing about not having a nose anymore (as sexy and yummy and UH-mazing as your nose was in your previous life).
    
14. They're holding hands. They're holding hands. I AM SO UPSET. (*ugly crying* omgwhenhelooksdownattheirconjoinedhands)
    
15. Vivi will take any sense of familiarity with him, won't she? *wibble*
    
16. "You liked it before, too"--LEWIS YOU BROUGHT UP "THE THING".
    
17. He called her Vivian. WHELP. I'm just gonna launch myself into orbit now. Tell my pets I loved them.
    
18. "I missed that. I missed you"---hahahahaha SCREW YOU, GARNET.
    
19. The way he touches her elbow, AGAIN SO GENTLY, so she can look back up at him. I can't handle that kind of tenderness. I really can't. Leave me here to die (I'll become a ghostie in the mansion).
    
20. …Lewis. You suggested "THE THING". Ughhhh Vivi is so excited because how fun and cool is this??? Even in death her boyfriend is the most selfless, indulgent person ghost in the world.
    

I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY. Giving me these crazy feelings over a skeleton man and his boo (but wait, isn't Lewis technically the 'boo'? HURRHURR). I can't wait for Part 2. You have no idea how freakin' excited I am for it. GIVE US MORE SPOOKY SNEEZES KTHX.

[A-Place-To-Be-Me]

Ughughugh I think I just died. Garnet, this... Asdfghjkl, I can't even find the words. Just perfection. I am sooooo excited for part 2, eep! The feels, the feeeeeels, and the cuteness and animal spirits and just... Well, it's all been said in the comments above and I couldn't agree more XD *happily fangirls off into the sunset*

[Garnet]

BlackScatter - Oh baby 8D I'd be totally okay if you weeere fic-stalking me, because cutest stalker ever. I MEAN. Thank yooou for your commentary! I always, always appreciate them, even for the threads I haven't constructed reply-replies to yet. Muchas gracias <3

MissMercy - It's definitely an interesting little video! It's

if you haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet.

SneezyHolmes - Thanks! I love both equally, but I can't resist the opportunity to play with weird supernatural sneezes. I also love the human-looking ghost Lewis that's popular on tumblr right now. I meant to include that here but couldn't find a good place to fit him in. Maybe in the next fic~

Maru-chan - Giiirl you know I always love your readership, regardless of fandom familiarity! Although this may be the easiest one to familiarize yourself with ever, since it all stems from a four and a half minute music video. The rest is pure headcanoning on mine and Spoo's parts, haha.

Spoo - A+++ ON YOUR ESSAY GIRL THANK YOU. I read it many times to perk myself up. I did not manage to go full porn with this one buuuut you know I send you that stuff on Skype anyway >:U HOHOHO.

I also apologize in advance for the feels in this piece. I tried to reign them in. I did. I failed.

A-Place-To-Be-Me - Ajkjhdg thank you! Feels, cuteness, and animal spirits are all my jams (well, those and monsters). I'm super glad you enjoyed!

Aaand now here's the second part. I had about a million ideas of directions to go with this and every single one headed me off at the turn, so I just gave up and wrote heartache and weird ghost sneezes. The spirit wants what the spirit wants.

Familiaris - Part Two

"This is still freaking you out, isn't it?"

They had moved out of the kitchen and into a small sitting room off the main hall that. Vivi was certain that it hadn't been there a day or two ago, but now it seemed as solid as the rest of the estate, even cozy in spite of its gothic decor. She hadn't yet figured out if that was all a specific design decision on Lewis's part, or some kind of image in overlay of all the old houses they used to explore. She hoped it was subconscious. The idea of him purposefully generating this place as a lonely homage to their glory days hurt a little too much to consider.

She supposed that if she were in his position, her creativity might have gone to weird and dark places as well.

"Nnnah, I wouldn't say freaked out," she tried to quickly dismiss. "I mean, sure I'm gettin' sweet on a skeleton, that's a first, it's more that you..." She weakened, wavered. Pull it together, girl. "That you..."

"...died," he finished for her, knowingly enough that it hardened the lump threatening in her throat.

"... yeah." She dropped her gaze to where their knees angled in against each other. His were as long and bony as ever, and one of her socks had half-slipped down. She reached to straighten it absent-mindedly as she confessed, "I'm just, like..." She bit her lip. "I'm afraid I'm going to close my eyes, open them again and this is all going to be a morphine dream because I fell through a floor or hit my head on something and Arthur had to take me to the hospital. You and this cool-ass house and those cute little ghosts are gonna be gone and they're gonna have to frickin' medicate me because I'm not gonna be able to deal."

Lewis was silent for a long minute, and she was afraid that she'd offended him or dragged him into the same seesaw emotion she'd been riding the past few days. The concern evaporated as he suddenly blurted one of his echoing, ghostly laughs.

She pulled her best scowl at him. "Hey, dude, I'm baring my soul here!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Lewis laughed, even the cant of his skeletal eye sockets seeming less threatening as he reached for her arms. Vivi maintained her I'm pissed at you expression, but the ease with which she let him gather her up betrayed the underlying emotions. The desire to be okay with this, all of this. She angled into his side and accepted a rough, reassuring hug. He sure felt real.

"It's just, you should hear yourself. Arthur's really rubbing off on you."

"Yeah, well," she mumbled, and let the phrase dangle unfinished.

"If it makes you feel better, I think about the same thing," Lewis said, as he settled a hand into that same familiar position on the back of her neck. It was no longer warm and calloused, but the span of it felt natural. Vivi glanced up uncertainly.

"Really?"

"Sure, that you're going to get overwhelmed by all of this, and just high-tail it in the van."

"That's not gonna happen," Vivi said immediately, with a conviction that surprised even her. She straightened up, and reached to catch him by the severe edge of one cheekbone. It felt odd to the touch, dry and a little rough but humming with some kind of otherworldly power. She leaned up to press a kiss to the other side. "We won't leave you again."

Lewis tilted his head down slightly, until their brows could meet. She hadn't been entirely honest with him, earlier. Vivi was a heartfelt appreciator of all things spooky and surreal, but there was a measurable difference between appreciating the macabre and canoodling with it. She was maybe a little bit freaked out.

Freaked, and excited, and freaked because she was excited, probably. A thrill picked up her heartbeat as she familiarized herself with the skeletal dimensions of his face, cradled between the meat of her palms still very much flesh and blood. The willow-the-wisp points of light that subbed in for his eyes tracked her curiously as she thumbed the edges of their sockets. Pressing the tips of her fingers back across the curved bone brought them into the haze of pink flames.

She raked her hands through the flickering tongues of it, neither warm nor cold, tangible nor intangible. It spooled off her fingers like the tails of tiny comets before reforming into the vague shape of his hairstyle. The sensation reminded her of putting her hand in between two powerful magnets. Neat!

"You've got pretty good control of all this, huh?" She prompted, with reference to both his appearance and their surroundings.

"I didn't at first," Lewis admitted. His eyes flashed with pleasure as she inched herself closer still, then up into his lap. His hands spanned open gently on the thick curve of her thighs. Good. This still felt weirdly natural, even given the obvious physical differences. "I figured it out as I we--... heh..."

His voice broke with a sudden, delicate waver as she continued her exploration. A forefinger traced down the sutures of his nasal bone to stroke across the thin septum just inside. It must have been akin to directly stimulating his sinuses, because he immediately had to press a hand across the opening and lean back from her, fighting an obvious urge.

"Jeez, I guess that's sensitive."

"... hhh-heh!"

Aww. She could no longer tell if he was trying to prevent the sneeze or bring it about more quickly, but he seemed caught in an obvious hang time either way. It was as if his body was trying to figure out how to process the information without some of the necessary nerve and tissue to complete the circuit. She nudged the edge of his hand down gently, not that his expression had changed much apart from the backwards tilt of his skull and the narrowing of his ghostlight eyes.

"Poor Lew," she grinned, as he made a reverberating sound of dismay. Alright, that was maybe kind of a lot of fun. She missed the tell-tale twitch and slow widening of his nostrils, the tragic crumple of his brow and the tears that always welled to his waterline when he'd been suffering too long in the anticipation. The tremble and flame and bone was interesting in a different way, and she especially liked the reactivity of her fingertip gingerly scratching same narrow ridge of sinus.

"Heh-SZSCHISSSH!"

He doubled into her immediately, unable to reign it back. Not that he'd been very good at that in life, either. She jumped with a squeal of surprise, and grabbed for his shoulder to keep herself from toppling backwards off the edge of his knees. With good timing, too, as she felt him quake beneath her with the gathering storm for a second.

"--SZSCHISSH'OO!"

The eruption of flame was neither hot nor blinding, but she squinted nonetheless until the strange manifestation of his spiritual energy had subsided.

"Gesundheit!"

"Uh," Lewis sighed into the belated, prayerbook fold of his hands, clutched over the lower half of his skull as he looked at her mournfully overtop. "Excuse me. Didn't hurt you, did I?"

Vivi made a slight show of patting herself down. "Nope, still in one piece!"

Which was more than she could say for either of her best friends. The thought sobered her a little, and her smile fell.

"Vivian?"

"Sorry. That was... that was nice," she refocused herself with plain honesty. Having her friends in pieces was better than not having them at all. She blinked back the betraying twinge of emotion. "Can I keep going? Maybe less direct stimulation this time, one of us is going to end up with whiplash and you don't have a neck," she tried a joke instead. It seemed to go over well enough as his shoulders shook with a laugh.

"Of course," he said, with a squeeze to her hands as she tucked them into his. He watched her unwind the scarf from her neck, both for creative purposes and because it had gotten quite a bit warmer in here, after the point blank explosion of his sneeze. Still as vigorous as ever.

She had always liked the spontaneity of his random sneezes, or the ones triggered by an innocuous source that even he couldn't help, for all of his size and strength. Watching her draft horse of a boyfriend succumb to too much dust or a little bit of cat hair was one of the very finest pleasures of life.

However, inducing held its own charm. He'd always been more than accommodating, and there was a completely visceral reaction to controlling exactly when and how he sneezed. Doing so when he was a formidable spirit with apparent control over the material and immaterial? Nnnyeah she needed to play with this.

Her fingertips plucked a bit of yarn from the fringe of her scarf, as she considered its frayed edges. "Think this will work?"

"One way to find out."

She made herself comfortable on his lap with a little one-two twist of her hips, assessing her approach. "Mmm, okay. Tell me how this is," she segued as she nudged the soft, feathered tip against the inside of his nasal cavity. She twisted it gently in place, watching him for any reaction. She never thought she would miss the enormous, equine flare of his nostrils so much.

"Anything?"

His huge shoulders lifted and fell gently, even apologetic. "Not really? Try a little dee--..." The consonant fled with a tremble as she obliged, and his concentration faltered. She was glad it was his voice that went, and not the sofa they were perched on.

"Right there?" She rocked the strand back and forth, deep enough that her fingernails nearly touched bone. A quiver seemed to go through his entire body in response, skull tilting back in mid-air as if it were still operating on the axis of a neck. His chest hitched against her with the impression of a huge breath, held at its peak the way he always had if he wasn't sure it was going to fuel a sudden, cataclysmic sneeze or not. She eased the flickering motions of the yarn, and it sighed back out with apparent relief. "Ohmygosh," Vivi laughed, half-elated and half-delirious with the novelty of it. "You're ticklish. You're a ghost and you're totally ticklish."

The brightness of his eyes had gone a little hazy, the edges of his vibrant irises undefined as he gazed back at her. "Is that so weihhh--..." He broke with heady irritation again as she flurried the yarn with admonishment, keeping him just at the brink.

"Uh, yes. I mean, I guess it's weird. It's not like I did this with any of the other ghosts we met." Vivi shifted her weight again and again, restless, ruffled. "How does it feel, compared to um... when you were alive?" She hoped that was okay to ask, and wouldn't take him right back out of the moment.

"Pretty..." His eyes flickered in and out of existence, deep voids of blackness in his skull that threatened to swallow them up as he struggled for either composure or relief. "Pretty similar. Feels like something's building up, swelling and sss-...sort of volatile. Like a sneeze but stronger."

Her stomach clenched with a fizzy cocktail of arousal, fear, and delight. "It looks like you're letting off energy or something when it happens," she observed in a throated hum, then licked her lips. "I uh... maybe shouldn't tease you too long, then, huh?" She wasn't entirely sure what would happen if he got too pent up.

"M-might not be a good idea--huh! H-huh! Viv, I'm gonna--...!" He cracked as she squirreled the yarn deeper, and with enough conviction that his chest expanded hugely beneath her. Through the gaps in the buttons of his shirt, she could see not an empty chasm or even a ribcage, but something incandescent and shapeless, like a nuclear core about to erupt. Oooh, maybe she ought to...

"--SZSHHISSSCHH!!"

For a splitsecond she felt like she was at the center of a dying star, everything was just light and confusion and dizzy euphoria. Only once the moment had passed did she realize that Lewis had briefly lost the grip on his corporeal form. She hadn't gone slipping through the sofa or, worse, the floor, but the demarcations of his body were blurry and vague for just a second, before he was whole and staring at her. She stared back, with the yarn still pinched aloft in her fingers, wilted into a limp curl.

"...whoa."

"Sorry," Lewis groaned, with a voice that held too many layers. He seemed to pare them off gradually as he continued. "Didn't meant to do that." Please please please don't run, his tone implied.

Fortunately, it took considerably more than some haywire ghost hoodoo to put Vivi off. She shook her head in surprise, and grinned at him with a pleasure that probably bordered on maniacal. "So, note to self. Don't make you hold back a sneeze. Bless you!"

He shook his head at her groggily, touching a wary hand to his nasal bone. "I can't believe you haven't bailed yet."

Vivi made a face at him. "Lew, I don't care if you came back as a ghost or a hamster. You're not getting rid of me, even if you sneeze me into the next plane of existence or something."

He bleated a weak, haunting laugh. "I'm pretty sure I can't do that."

She leaned in to wrap him up in a hug, somehow more at ease now than she had been from the start. Especially with the way his shoulders sagged into her, still too broad to get her arms around. "Good, because for the record, I'm way happier with you as a mega-cool ghost guy than a hamster."

It felt so good to hear his laugh again, deep and rich, she didn't even care that it came through an afterlife filter.

"You'd have to get me a little plastic ball," Lewis said, turning into the fine blue wisps of her hair.

"Yeah, and Mystery would get super jealous," she muffled into his jacket. "He's already claimed the position of goofy animal mascot."

"Okay, but the one for resident spirit is still open, right?"

"Totally."

Vivi gripped him that much tighter, as if to hold in all of their well-missed banter, and startled only when she felt him shift beneath her with the swell of another spectral inhale. It somehow still managed to stir the thin and fibrous strands of her hair.

"Hsz-SCHISSH!" This one was more pointed and neatly relieving, a quick jog that shook her against the wide frame of his chest. "--SZSSSCHOO!"

"Gesundheit! Aftershocks?"

"Whew," he sighed. "No, your hair's a menace to society," he explained, turning his head enough (and incidentally, at an angle beyond what a human neck would have allowed) to itch a forefinger against his nasal bone. She wondered if that was psychosomatic too, and if it actually made it feel better to be scratched.

"Look, not all of us can style with spooky ghost magic."

"Well, your loss," he chuckled. "Do you still want to...?"

She shook her head, without fully loosing her arms from around him. She shelved her chin on his shoulder instead. "I mean, yes, absolutely later. If you're okay with doing it again?" She paused to check his quick nod, then continued. "Good, because I just want to enjoy this. You."

The steady metronome of his telltale heart beat a little harder. She was pretty sure that wasn't her imagination. "Viv, I want us to be okay again. I don't care how long it takes. With Arthur, too."

"I am okay with you, Lew," she assured. "I'm... I'm adjusting and that's gonna take some time. It's gonna take about five times as long with Artie, even he knows that. But I mean, he hasn't taken off screaming into the woods yet. We're all in this, huh?"

"Til death do us part?" He quipped, and earned himself a solid thump to the chest. Wise-ass. That was a trait he'd definitely honed in the years apart.

"Yeah," Vivi sighed. Smiled. "And then some."

Edited November 25, 2014 by Garnet

[Spoo]

You should be ashamed of yourself. Honest-to-God ASHAMED of yourself. Like, how freakin' dare you?? WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT ANYWAY. Ughhhhhh. I am SO emotionally compromised right now it isn't funny. You're lucky that I love you, Garnet, or else I wouldn't bother scraping my sorry self off the floor to write you an essay:

xxxx

1. "The idea of him purposefully generating this place as a lonely homage to their glory days hurt a little too much to consider." -- YeahNO. Not cool, no bueno, and just plain NUH-UH. I can't handle this kind of heartache so soon in the fic. YOU DIDN'T EVEN EASE ME INTO IT.
   
2. Oh nO THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT HIM BEING DEAD. I imagine that this topic is never easy between them, regardless if they're happy going into it or not. :C And guhhh, Vivi's take on it. How she's like 'I'mma blink and everything will be gone and nothing will exist anymore, andandand'--LEWIS U JERK. HOW U GONNA LAUGH WHEN UR GF IS GETTING REAL WITH U.
   
3. Sh-she kissed his cheekbone. *wibble* I'm so glad she's getting more comfortable with him, man. PROGRESS. \ o /
   
4. Hnnnghn. I love your detailed descriptions. Especially things like the contours of his face, the pink flames, his eyes… And BUH, you even point out their size differences ajlsd;flasdf you know how I feel about that.
   
5. Heh. Hehehehehe. Skeletal nose porn. AW YISS.
   
6. "It was as if his body was trying to figure out how to process the information without some of the necessary nerve and tissue to complete the circuit." --Incredible. Just WOW. This is phenomenal writing (well, your writing in general is phenomenal but bits like this are just further proof that you are REALLYREALLY good with words).
   
7. "Poor Lew"--GIRL, YOU AIN'T EVEN SORRY.
   
8. Um. Can we discuss the tears that well to his waterline when he's suffering too long in anticipation?? Because I need more of that in my life. STAT.
   
9. Unf. Dat double, tho. A++
   
10. "Which was more than she could say for either of her best friends."--OH, YOU KNOW WHAT GARNET. JUST-- J-JUST-- *dissolves into gross sobbing*
    
11. Vivian. I always get fuzzies when he calls her that.
    
12. He is STILL so accommodating and sweet with her when it comes to indulgence, regardless if he's a skellyghost. Ububububu. ;___;
    
13. PFFFT. Yeah, Viv. I'm glad the sofa didn't disappear either, because then YOU would have been the thing going Bump in the night. Ouch.
    
14. The trial and error aspect of the inducing is really cute, as is Vivi's excitement because oH MY GOD I AM INDUCING A GHOST AND IT'S WORKING??
    
15. Huge, gasping chest expansions. STAHP. (nodon'tstahpplz )
    
16. Whoa indeed. That was somethin' else. Eh, Viv? I really love how discombobulated the sneeze left him - how his voice was all out of sorts, and his form had to reassemble into something whole again. HOLD-BACKS, BRUH. Even more powerful in the afterlife.
    
17. He doesn't…doesn't want her to…t-to… RUUU-HUUU-HUNNN. Of COURSE he doesn't want her to run! He's so terrified of scaring her, but it's hard to be "normal" when you're dead and ghostly and sneezing out the spectral equivalent of dynamite. Weeeeh.
    
18. Hamster!Lewis. If you don't draw this for me, I will be veryvery sad.
    
19. "It felt so good to hear his laugh again, deep and rich, she didn't even care that it came through an afterlife filter."--Yep. This is where my eyes flooded. Because I'm a huge, sentimental weenie.
    
20. The cuddles. Ohhhh, the cuddles. I love the image of her "shelving" her chin on his shoulder, and with her arms already being around him? My feeeeeels.
    
21. OH LOOK, ANOTHER SURPRISE!DOUBLE. Yesgood.
    
22. Whelp. Here come the tears again. Because Lewis wants them to be OKAY. (See what I did there? I USED THEIR COLORS. ALL OF THEM. EVEN MYSTERY *more ugly creys*).
    
23. I believe a certain vengeful mummy in Egypt said it best: "DEATH IS ONLY THE BEGINNING." (Shut up, Imhotep, nobody likes you.)
    

SO AS YOU CAN SEE, you've compromised me. Unnecessarily. I don't know how I'll be able to sleep tonight with all of my howling going on, but I'll manage. YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND…keep writing these dorks? Please?

[•.*°•☆. Q .☆•°*.•]

G A R N ET. THIS IS AMAZING. OHHHHHH my gosh. Oh my gosh. I can't even begin. I'mma try. First of all, holla atcha spellings. Also I LOVEEEE the way you describe the manor and the way vivi is feeling and experiencing things, it is incredible. Also also the emotions in this piece are so moving and poignant!! And I love the excitement of the piece!!! Ahhhh goshgoshgosh this is just amazing Garnet hank yo uso much for gracing us with this fic omg it's so good than k you

[Garnet]

1. Hamster!Lewis. If you don't draw this for me, I will be veryvery sad.
   

(proper responses later, love you guys <3)

[Spoo]

1. Hamster!Lewis. If you don't draw this for me, I will be veryvery sad.
   

(proper responses later, love you guys <3)

you actually drew hamster!lewis i cannot

[A-Place-To-Be-Me]

Omigod why Garnet you are so amazingly talented and this is just flippin adorable and how can I even form words for this just asdfkcjgkvkogdkfjfhkghjkhckuggkjcyklgdjkgfbgjhgj good lord.

Um, what I mean to say is, it was really REALLY good, and adorable, and I love their playful banter, and the balance of feels vs fluff, and your sneeze spellings, and the "telltale heart" bit was really clever, and, um, you broke my brain, congrats.

Hamster!Lewis... This needs to be a thing. The picture is flippin adorable, and this has to be a thing now. I would totally shove them all in an AU where Lewis is a ghostly pink hamster and Vivi is a blue mouse with glasses and Arthur is a skinny yellow rat and just asdfghjkl cutecutecute. I have no idea what Mystery'd be, though XD

[bangbang]

This whole fandom still baffles me a little bit but I am SO INTO IT. And you know I am obsessed with your writing anyway so this is like, the perfect mixture of strange-but-awesome, and awesome-because-of-strangeness.

There's something so melancholy about it. The whole atmosphere of the ghostly manor is really, really well built and I love that Vivi's not just like, accepting things. She's questioning and a little disorientated and it is about as realistic as this crazy scenario could possibly ever be. And Lewis being confused about it too, because this isn't Beetlejuice, there's no Handbook For The Recently Deceased here, just some possibly-allergy-inducing little spirits. And the sneezes! I love love love the ghost element to them, like how you keep referencing the fact that it's not on a physical plane exactly, but it's a physical response? IT'S SO WELL THOUGHT OUT ARRGGHHH

And them both being worried that the other one's just going to disappear (whelp relationship insecurity is my favourite thing) is perfect. Because the trauma! The drama! Them adjusting to being there with each other, and how they've both changed, is so real. They're growing and adapting because even though they're different now, the way they feel is still fundamentally the same.

I love it to incoherence. (And that hamster is so frigging cute I cannot deal)

[SpookyScarySkeleton]

Aghhhhh I love this. I can't write you an essay but like like very good :3 agh this fandom is lovely and aw Hamster Lewww cx

[March Hare]

Oh my goodness. I mean, YOUR goodness. Your GREATNESS.

Too many feels, not enough words.