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Touch Starved Beast

Summary:

Getting allowed back into the Deetz’ household was the easy part. Dealing with the everyday life living with two goths, a goth, a crystal freak, and a stuck-up breather was the hard part. Especially with all the stupid rules, Barbara had instead they implemented. No more killing or maiming or harming. Where was the fun in that? Things got a lot more complicated when Beetlejuice discovered that rules weren’t the only new thing he had to get used to. There was the casual touching too. It was strange and breathtaking and so goddamn overwhelming.

Chapter 1: Chapter One

Chapter Text

Despite being a demon straight from hell, Beetlejuice had experienced his fair share of pain, and not in the fun and sexy kind of way. No, he’d experienced real pain, like soul-crushing—if he had one—heart-breaking—if he had one—pain. And one would think, that being pierced through the chest while being alive had to be the worst, but it wasn’t. It really wasn’t.

The worst kind of pain was hearing everybody around you say they love you, have them touch you and care about, only to figure out it was all some grand scheme. It had hurt. A lot. Even more than being stabbed to death. That kind of shit left scars. That was the reason by even after saving them, he took off. They didn’t want him around. Except for maybe Delia. She had done some stuff. She was clearly into him, he could tell. But as for the rest of them. They didn’t want him there. Therefore, the second round of pain, shouldn’t have come as a surprise for him. But it still did. They all stood there, looking relieved that he decided to leave, probably glad that they didn’t have to go figure out a grand plan to get rid of him again. He looked at them one last time, before he turned around, ready to walk through the portal and leave in search of his dad, that would probably end in a disaster. He missed the way Lydia mouthed something to her father before she nudged first Adam, then Barbara.

“Beetlejuice.”

Beetlejuice stopped at the sound of his name. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, that he didn’t need. Being alive had really fucked him up. Beetlejuice could feel his stomach tie itself into tight knots. Having someone say his name, still felt amazing and overwhelming in a way, that had him bite his lower lip in anticipation.

“Yes,” he dragged out the sound, just like the time on the roof. He turned around, slowly, hiking his shoulders towards his ears. Lydia slowly walked towards him, the red dress sawing around her feet, made it seem like she was floating. Her eyes were hard and stern, but the corner of her lips was lifted into a wicked smirk.

“Beetlejuice.”

Beetlejuice snapped his head to the side when it was Adam, who called his name a second time. Unlike Lydia, Adam was actually smiling, and his gaze was soft and Jesus, Beetlejuice did not know how to react to that.

“Yes?” he filled with his hand in front of his chest, briefly looking around just to make sure no one was sneaking up on him to stab him.

Adam walked up beside Lydia, who briefly looked up at him. Her smirk transformed into a smile, that would have tugged at Beetlejuice’s none-exciting heartstrings if it hadn’t been for that fact that he had absolutely no idea what was going on. He glanced at Charles out of the corner of his eyes. He looked like something had crawled up his ass and died, but beside him, Delia was beaming, softly clapping her hands together.

“Beetlejuice,” it was Barbara who said the third time. She walked up to Lydia’s other side and put a hand on her shoulder, looking at the young girl with a warm smile, before she turned her attention to Beetlejuice.

All eyes were on him like he was one some big stage. His gaze flickered between the three of them, before finally settling on Lydia, who looked very proud of herself. She crossed her arms over her chest, and lifted her chin, grinning at Beetlejuice.

“You don’t have to have to look so smug. You can’t split it up like that. It has to be the same person that says it three times. You bunch of losers,” he huffed and shifted his weight from one foot to the other, gazing flickering.

Ignoring his remark, Lydia just smile and patted him on his arm, “It got your attention didn’t it?” she asked with a smile, hand not leaving Beetlejuice’s arm. It made him tense up, suddenly very aware of the pressure against his skin, of the warmth seeping through his clothes. It made his head spin, and the urge to seek out more washed over him. But since he’d just forced Lydia to be his underaged bride and then got stabbed for it, even he could tell, that it would probably be a very bad idea to pull her closer.

“Well, you got it. So what?” Beetlejuice asked through gritted teeth, forcing his attention away from the warm hand to Lydia’s face.

“So, we want to make you an offer,” Lydia said.

“An offer?” Beetlejuice repeated, “that’s sound exciting,” he drawled, but any lewd comments that would have been a great follow-up, was cut off by Lydia pressing her two fingers to his lips.

“Don’t,” she warned him and pulled back when Beetlejuice nodded, “we’ve decided, that you don’t have to leave. You can stay with us if you want to.”

Blinking several times in confusion, Beetlejuice stared at Lydia with wide eyes, unable to believe what he’d just heard.

“Me. Staying with you?” His smile grew when Lydia nodded, and his whole body buzzed with barely contained energy. “Yes!” he punched the air, making Adam flinch and Lydia roll her eyes.

“You’re not going to regret it. We’ll be the best BF-F-F-F’s forever,” he promised, already excited to the core. But it quickly ran cold.

“Wait. Where’s the catch?” He asked, clearly remembering the last time he’d thought things were going his way. Spoiler alert: it hadn’t.

“There’s no catch. Just a couple of rules,” Barbara pitched in, making Beetlejuice groan and roll his eyes. It would probably be enough to make the old Barbara shriek and jump back like she’d been burned. Barbara 2.0 frowned and continued speaking in a stern voice, that demanded to be heard.

“That’s right. There are rules. And you’re going to listen carefully, or else the offer’s off the table.” Beetlejuice swallowed around his throat and slowly looked up at Barbara. She smiled kindly when they made eye-contact, and Jesus if that made Beetlejuice’s usually cold and clotted blood run hot in his veins.

“That’s better,” Barbara praised. The sweet sound made his chest flutter. It was probably just the bugs he’d eaten earlier. At least that was what he told himself.

“Now, there’s will be a few rules, if this is going to work. No more killing, or maiming or harming,” Barbara added before Beetlejuice even had the chance to ask about the technicalities, “no wrecking the house, respect people’s privacy and boundaries, like don’t just kiss and grope us. And don’t even think about Lydia as your bride,”

“It was a green-card thing” Beetlejuice whined, but Barbara’s stern look told him she wasn’t in the mood for games.

“And no extortion, torturing, and lies,” she finished, japing Beetlejuice in the chest for each word, making Beetlejuice take a step back and put his hand up in defense.

“It doesn’t really sound like you want me there,” he pointed out. Barbara smiled at him again and instead of japing him in the chest, he patted her on his shoulder. The gentle gesture had him shiver and Barbara pulled her hand back.

“We do want you here, Beetlejuice. But we have all broken each other’s trust, that needs to be restored, and to do that probably we need some ground rules,” Adam explained, and it did actually made a lot of sense. He had been an ass with all the lying, the anger tantrums and the forcing someone to marry him, and nearly killing Barbara, and… yeah, he’d broken their trust. But they had too.

“So, if I stay with you, do I get to make rules too?” Beetlejuice asked tentatively, biting his lower lip when Lydia, Adam, and Barbara started whispering amongst themselves.

“Only if they make sense,” Lydia demanded and crossed her arms.

“I get to see Adam naked,” Beetlejuice blurted out with a grin.

“No,” the three of them rejected the purposely immediately, while Adam and Barbara cross their arms to. Fucking deadbeats.

“Then Barb?” Beetlejuice and winked at her.

“No,” all answered at once, making Beetlejuice snort and roll his eyes.

 “I get one hug a day. Without any stabbing or stealing my shit,” he then demanded, pushing out his chest a bit as he did so.

Lydia paused and wrinkled her nose, looking Beetlejuice up and down, “that’s a weird rule.”

“Take it or leave it, kid,” Beetlejuice crossed his arms, trying to give off his best I-don’t-give-a-shit vibe. It would probably have worked better if it wasn’t for the strains purple, that chased away the vivid green at the roots of his hair.  The color only spread Lydia, Adam and Barbara once again whispered amongst themselves.  He opened his mouth to tell them to hurry up, but before he could get any rude comments past his lips, Lydia spoke.

“We decided to agree to your rule,” Lydia announced, making Beetlejuice stare at her with wide eyes. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You do realize I just almost got you all killed?” He pointed out glancing between then three of them.

“Yes,” Lydia said in a tone, that made it sound like, it was the most obvious thing in the world. It had Beetlejuice swallow hard and shift his weight, while the purple color deepened.

“And you still want me to stay?”

“Yes,” the same tone, this time accompanied by a wicked smile.

“Yes, we do,” Adam joined in, and Beetlejuice’s gaze flickered between them, searching their features for any traces of lies. Some of the tension slowly left his shoulders, when he found none.

“You’re crazy,” he snorted and shook his head, still debating with himself whatever they could be trusted or not.

“I prefer strange and unusual, “Lydia took a step closer, and linked her arm with Beetlejuice’s, looking up at him from under her black lashes. ”What do you say?”

“I say, “Beetlejuice dragged out the word, and looked down at the young goth girl, “yes. And you can’t take your offer back now,” Beetlejuice pointed out, voice dropping a few octaves, “or else’s I kill you,” he said it as a joke, but part of him meant it. The same part that had been thrilled when they all admitted wanting him, the part that had been devastated when it all turned out to be a lie. He wouldn’t be able to go through that again, not without hunting down and killing every last one of them, if they even dared to give him this and then take it away.

Adam’s smiled dropped and his gaze softened, “don’t worry. We won’t,” he said in a soft voice, that would have Beetlejuice’s heart melt if he had one.

Holding his breath, Beetlejuice waited for the stab in the chest, the punchline to the whole damn thing. But it didn’t come. His lips stretched into a wide smile, flashing his sharp teeth and reaching all the way to his eyes.

“Great!”  Throwing his arms around Barbara and Adam—Lydia was too quick for him to catch in the embrace— he tugged them both close to his body, fulling enjoying the way they felt against him, “you won’t regret this! We’re going to have so much fun together!”