||Devil's Advocate||Betelgeuse x Adam x Barbara

(𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝗼𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧) Shadow of a Doubt

With his attention focused on the clear blue day sky above him, Betelgeuse now lay on his back on the roof with his hands resting behind his head. And he was deep in thought at the moment. So the Maitlands and the Deetzes did decide to leave him alone. Ignore him like he thought they would. Then he sat up and turned his head, glancing over towards the window that led into the attic. Of course it was still closed. Why wouldn't it be.

He turned his attention back towards the sky and was just about to lay back down on the roof and continue to relax for who knew how long when he felt his head turn towards the window as a certain thought popped into his head. Maybe he should go back inside to make sure the Maitland-Deetzes had in fact forgotten about him. Standing up and again looking at the still closed attic window, Betelgeuse closed his eyes and made himself appear invisible - yet he would still be able to be seen by the five Maitland-Deetzes - and wanting to hide within the shadows for now.

Satisfied, he snapped his fingers and teleported inside and a quick look around the entirety of the attic space let him know that the Maitlands were not there right now.

'If I had to guess, they would probably be downstairs right about now,' he thought quietly to himself, snapping his fingers once again to teleport himself downstairs. 'Why wouldn't they be downstairs?'

Once downstairs, Betelgeuse hid over in the corner and looked out into the living room. Lydia and the Maitlands were stood in the center. And there appeared to be shouting going on at the moment. Betelgeuse imagined the current shouting between all three of them as being an argument about him and him alone (even though he knew that it wasn't).

He saw Lydia storm off in a huff and stomp her way upstairs - the loud sound of her bedroom door slamming closed and locking reverberating around the house - and Delia and Charles comforting the two now sad ghosts and assuring them that the teenager was going to come around, that she didn't mean everything that she said to them - as they floated over towards the couch and slumped down onto it looking absolutely miserable. They turned their attention over towards the same wall where Betelgeuse had been standing by and the next word that came out of their mouths surprised him,

"Betelgeuse?"

'Shit!' he thought to himself, making himself visible again and floating over to where all four adults now sat and stood and were staring at him - their eyes following him.

He sat himself down in between the Maitlands and, without as much thinking, slung his arms around their shoulders much to the surprise of both of the ghosts. As he looked from Adam to Barbara and back again, Betelgeuse took note of the expressions on their faces and the color of his hair almost immediately changed to pink as he removed his arms from around their shoulders - making them both look at one another and then at him with confused looks on their faces.

"Betelgeuse, are you okay?"

"Uh... I-," was all he managed to say.

No matter how much he tried to get his hair color to go right back to being its usual shade of green, it stayed pink. And eventually he just gave up and grabbed at his hair. Barbara looked at Adam as the older Deetzes left the room and headed upstairs for now, before both of the still confused ghosts looked back at Betelgeuse. There was now a hint of green in his hair color but the majority of it was still pink. Not to mention the fact that he was looking away from them in a particular way. Almost as though there was something on his mind that he did not want either ghost to know.

"Bj?" Barbara repeated not too long afterwards in an attempt to get the demon to look over in her and Adam's direction. But he kept his gaze focused away from them. His hair was once again completely pink and he now appeared to be shaking.

The moment Barbara rested a hand on Betelgeuse's back, the demon's attention flicked to her before he looked away again. Barbara tilted her head in confusion at that.

"Betelgeuse, do you-?" Barbara stopped, unsure of what to say next.

"If you're asking me if I think that you hate me, then the answer is yes."

Barbara was taken aback as she glanced worriedly over towards Adam, who gave her a matching look. "That's not the question I was meaning to ask you at all."

"Well, do you?" Betelgeuse continued, ignoring that.

"I-... well... we-..." Once again, Barbara paused mid-sentence and looked off to the side as she searched for the right words to say. Eventually, she turned back to face Betelgeuse and smiled softly at him as she assured him, "we don't hate you. You know that. We've told you this over a dozen times. Why would you think that? What made you think of that?"

"I-..." he tried to say before stopping. Barbara urged him to continue. "Well, I was out on the roof earlier and not one of you came out to make sure I was okay. Which I took as a sign that you all were fine without me there."

"Oh, no, no..." Barbara said, a look of surprise appearing on her face as her attention flicked to Betelgeuse. "We didn't mean to make it seem like that. We were going to at first but then Adam and I got into a bit of a disagreement with Lydia... and her dad and Delia needed to help us out with it."

He didn't seem to hear any or much of that though, his hair turning a shade of light blue as he prepared to teleport himself right back up to the roof and sulk some more.

Well, he would have done had Barbara not even acted fast enough by calmly resting a hand on his back in order to prevent him from doing so.

He opened his mouth to speak again then closed it as he, Adam, and Barbara all turned their attention over towards the kitchen at the slightest sound of Lydia's footsteps sounding down the stairs and into said room. She opened the fridge and reached in to grab herself a little snack. Adam and Barbara stood up at once, and entered the kitchen area as well. And, at that exact same moment, Lydia closed the fridge and turned just as Adam and Barbara came to a stop a few feet away from her. Her gaze focused on the Maitlands and she turned her head as she rolled her eyes.

"Lydia-..." Barbara tried to say, but the teenager walked past her and gave her and Adam a side glance as she rounded a corner and made her way back upstairs.

At that, Barbara turned to look at her husband with a worried look on her face. One that was mirrored on his face. She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again when she couldn't think of anything to say. Adam wrapped an arm around her and held her close to him as he combed a hand through her hair.

"Let's just give her a little more time to herself," Adam spoke softly to and in a calm sounding tone of voice to her, with Barbara nodding sadly in response. "She'll get over it eventually and forgive the both of us for what happened earlier.... soon... I hope..."