The Whole Being Alive Thing

Rules and Readjustments

"Wait!" Lydia suddenly called out before Adam and/or Barbara could do as much as hurt Betelgeuse, the Maitlands straightening their postures in response to this and looking over towards her as equal looks of confusion formed on both of their faces. As was everyone else in the house actually. "He's not here to cause any trouble! Much less do what he did the last time!"

"Lydia," Adam was incidentally the one who chose to speak up, breaking a brief moment of silence between the six of them, sternness and anger both present within the tone of his voice. "What are you talking about! He's dangerous! You know that! He did nothing but lie and betray and even almost kill all of us the last time he was here! He needs to leave the house now!"

"But when we found him earlier, he was like that!" Lydia argued back, again pointing a hand out towards Betelgeuse. The anger that the Maitlands felt towards Betelgeuse transitioned to a look of confusion as their attention drifted from him to Lydia.

"What do you mean?" spoke up Barbara sternly, now crossing her arms. "Like what?"

"He's a human," Lydia managed to sputter out, causing the Maitlands to look at one another confusedly before turning their attention back to her. "He's alive now... a breather just like my dad, Delia, and I. Can he please stay here with us? Please?"

"That depends on what your dad and Delia said on the matter," Adam spoke up, turning his attention to the aforementioned living couple.

"We said that it was fine as long as he didn't cause any sort of trouble and followed the house rules we have," Charles affirmed a few minutes later with a simple nod and Adam nodded as well before he turned his attention back to Lydia, letting out a sigh.

"Well then, I guess it's okay," Adam spoke up, with Barbara nodding a few times in response and adding,

"He can stay in the guest room then, I guess. Adam and I will sort through it and set it up for the remainder of the afternoon and whilst you guys have your dinner and it should be done hopefully just before the nighttime." Barbara turned her attention towards Betelgeuse, who nodded in response.

"But first," Charles said in a stern tone of voice as he and the rest of the adults turned to look over towards Betelgeuse, who still looked as nervous as he was earlier. "We need to go over our house rules."

Oh right. Betelgeuse had completely forgot about that. His mind and his thoughts had been focused solely on the Maitlands ever since he'd stepped foot in the house for the first time since - he couldn't really remember how long ago it was and had been since the last time he was there. In fact, he'd ended up drowning out most, if not all of the house rules and only just remembered when Charles coughed loudly to grab his attention and Barbara, with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised, sternly spoke out,

"Betelgeuse, did you even hear a thing we said?"

"H-huh..." he spoke up, or rather mumbled out, dazed, looking around the room at the now entirely unamused Maitland-Deetz family. "No... sorry 'bout that. I wasn't listening. What you guys were talking about, could you repeat it?"

Barbara glanced at the rest of the adults with a look that said 'do we really have to go over our house rules with him again'? The others all nodded in unison and response, and Barbara sighed dramatically to herself on the inside as they all turned and focused their attention back over towards Betelgeuse, whose eyes were now focused on something other than the Maitlands or the Deetzes.

"Ahem, Betelgeuse!" Barbara reminded him in a stern and unamused voice, causing him to look over towards her and the others with an apologetic but amused look on his face. Not one of the other five seemed to be pleased with the fact that they had to go over the house rules a second time - but hey, Betelgeuse wasn't listening the first time so...