obnoxious theater kid realm

This had gone on long enough. For the fifth, no sixth night in a row, Barbara had been awoken by Beetlejuice slipping quietly from the bed, disappearing to God-knows where until right before the sun rose, where he'd crawl back in and pretend to be asleep when her and Adam woke up for the day. She was glad that she was such a light sleeper, because this was ridiculous. She watched Beetlejuice as he silently stalked away from the bed. She shut her eyes as he looked back at them, before peeking through her eyelashes as he scratched at his arm.

He heaved a sigh and headed towards the roof, not even bothering using the door and just phasing through the wall. Once he was out of sight, she sat up as well. Adam was a heavy sleeper, it would take a bomb going off in the room to wake him, or a well-aimed kick to his shin, but she wanted to talk to Beetlejuice alone. Barbara slipped her robe over her nightgown, knowing that winter was well on its way and therefore the night air held a chilly bite to it.

"Again?" She asked the air as she shut the door behind her, stepping out onto the roof. Beetlejuice's head turned towards her from where he was leaning against the cresting that lined the edge of the roof. "How many nights is this? Six?"

He looked away again, out into the dark forest, and she approached. "Two, actually."

"Two days?" She scoffed in disbelief. If he thought he was going to lie to her, he was sorely wrong.

He shot her a wild grin. "Weeks."

Barbara stilled, slowly turning her head to glare at Beetlejuice who unapologetically smiled at her. "Excuse me? I think I misheard you."

"You didn't sweet-cheeks. Two weeks. I can go longer," he boasted, cracking his fingers before placing them behind his head and leaning backwards to stare up at the stars. "I don't need as much sleep as you breathers do."

Barbara shook her head, dumbfounded. "You still need sleep, though, Beetle. Are you kidding me? You think you're indestructible, but you're not."

He just shot her another grin. "Who knows. Maybe I am. Record was seven and a half, by the way. Not that you care."

"Seven weeks, Beetlejuice!" She watched him wince, and she really wasn't sorry about using his full name. "That's insane. What the hell is wrong with you?"

He tilted his head and sat up, glowering. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? Coming out here to yell at me. What I do at night is my own business."

"It's everyone else's business when you're hurting yourself!" He scoffed, as if he didn't believe her and she gestured towards him angrily. "Look at you! Your eye bags have eye bags. Your hands shake all the time. You're irritable, more so than normal. And reckless, again, more than usual."

"I always have eye bags, first of all," he argued, crossing his arms. "And my hands don't shake, your eyes are playin' tricks on you, Babs. And, I'm always reckless, it's in my nature. And don't you call me irritable, when you come out here and start berating me. I'm fine." Contrary to his words, his hair started to go a dull red at the tips, betraying his annoyance. It only grew when he physically bit back a yawn, jaw muscles straining.

"You're not fine, Beej. Please come to bed, this isn't healthy," she pleaded, holding her hand out to him.

He batted it away and glared venomously at her. "I'm not going to bed just so I can spend hours staring at the ceiling," he spat at her, turning his back to her and staring down the length of the roof. His words echoed in the night air and he froze as he realized what he said. He turned around, hands raised as he stumbled over his words, trying to rescind what he just said. "Wait, I-that wasn't what I- What I meant to say was-"

"What's keeping you awake, Junebug?" Barbara asked quietly, kneeling beside him. She placed a hand on his arm and frowned at the chill that seeped into her skin. He usually ran really warm, so it must've been colder out here than she realized. One of the benefits/curses of being a ghost was the fact a lot of temperatures were muted.

"Nothing is keeping me awake, I choose to stay awake. When else am I supposed to have time away from you breathers?" His argument was weak, and he didn't look at her, eyes darting back and forth between the forest's edge and the upper parts of the roof.

"Well, if nothing is keeping you awake, then you'll come back inside and back to bed then?" She tried, knowing exactly what he'd say.

"No! I mean… no." Yep, exactly what she thought.

She took one of his hands in both of hers and could feel it shaking, whether from the cold, or his lack of sleep, or something else though, she didn't know. "Beeble, come back to bed."

"Babs…" he sighed, but didn't pull his hand back. He didn't move, either, though, and just frowned at their hands. "I don't want to."

"Why not?" He ran his free hand aggressively through his hair, so much so she was afraid he'd rip out some of it. She released his hand with one of hers and grabbed his other hand, pulling both to her chest. "Tell me? Please?"

He rolled his eyes, but the hint of a smile curled at his lips. "Well, I guess since you asked so nicely…" he groaned and let his head drop backwards. "They're back." She didn't need to ask what 'they' were. She already knew.

His nightmares.

"Why didn't you tell me, or Adam?"

"Didn't wanna bother ya. 's bad enough I'm taking up space in your bed, I didn't wanna keep you up by playing baby-sitter with me every night. It's easier to not sleep than to risk waking one of you two up because of my bullshit."

"You wouldn't be bothering me or Adam because of your nightmares, Junebug. In fact, we'd rather you wake one of us than deal with them by yourself, or worse, doing this."

He barked out a laugh, though it lacked any amount of mirth. "I know, Babsy, that's the problem. You two are so willing to jump in and help me every time." He grinned coldly up at the sky, tilting his head disconcertingly to stare at her with two glowing eyes. "You shouldn't need to, I should be able to deal with it on my own. I'd been alone for hundreds of years, you'd think I'd have figured it out by now."

It was too late to be having this discussion, Barbara thought to herself. Unfortunately, they were having it now. She sighed tiredly. "Beej, you know Adam and I love you. We'd never begrudge you for needing help, just like you wouldn't begrudge us, or Lydia, or even Delia and Charles for needing help. Why is it so different for you?"

"Because…" that threw him for a loop and his grin faded. "Because it is. It has to be. You guys are, or were, human. I wasn't."

"What's that have to do with the price of tea in China?"

"What?" He snorted out a laugh and turned his head the right way around to give her a confused smile. "What the hell does that mean?"

"What does you not being a human have to do with anything?" She rephrased, rolling her eyes. He opened his mouth immediately but she cut him off. "And don't say because you're a demon, so it's different." His mouth snapped shut with an annoyed look.

He mulled over it for a moment. "We're not supposed to be soft, or have feelings, or be bothered by anything but our own wants and goals," he eventually shrugged, before wiggling his fingers. "Not about stupid shit like nightmares or our own thoughts or whatever."

She was too tired to deal with this. She knew she should assure him that it was perfectly okay for him to not be okay, for him to have hurts and fears, but her exhaustion was catching up to her and she wanted nothing more than the warmth of her bed. "Come back to bed, I'm done talking about this. We'll talk about it in the morning."

"Okay." He allowed her to pull him to his feet and lead him inside. She brought him over to the bed and allowed him to crawl into the middle. She watched him immediately press his cold feet against Adam's leg, and the sleeping man groaned in annoyance but didn't wake.

"And no escaping, or I'll be very mad at you," she warned, sliding under the covers beside him. "Wake one of us if you need to."

"Alright."

She snuggled up next to him, wrapping her arms around his chest and feeling him drape an arm over her waist. His thumb rubbed against her back. She closed her eyes and pillowed her head on his arm.

"Oh, and Lovebug? It's okay to need help, even for demons." She murmured quietly, letting sleep overtake her. She didn't hear his next words as she dropped off into sleep.