Cat in Hell's Chance (a Beetlelands fanfic)

One Step Too Far

Betelgeuse's hair was a blush pink in color, an obvious result of a still curious Adam feeling at the former's mossy beard. Half of the demon (secretly, but not really) wanted the male ghost to feel elsewhere, but his other half was far more adamant on letting him know that Adam (and Barbara, by extension) probably wouldn't like that.MYet still... Betelgeuse, being Betelgeuse, grabbed a hold of Adam's hand (the same one that the latter was using to feel at the former's beard), and moved it lower down.

Until Adam's hand was hovering directly over Betelgeuse's ass. And Adam? Adam was quick to react. In a weirded out way.

Quickly and immediately, Adam retracted his hand and gave Betelgeuse what appeared to be a very annoyed look. "Betelgeuse, please no. Just no. You know that I'm not going to go that far."

Betelgeuse pouted, his hair color becoming purple. "You were the one intent on teasing me."

"No. I asked if you wanted me to tease you!" Adam shot back, standing up and throwing his hands out. "Your hair turned pink and you insisted on me feeling you."

Betelgeuse pointed towards his ass. "When I asked you to feel me, I meant down here."

"You could've just said! That way I knew not to feel you!" Adam retorted, becoming even more angered than he was before.

"I know you like it," Betelgeuse teased, a splash of yellow mixing in with the pink of his hair.

"Maybe when Barb does it. But, you? Not so much."

Betelgeuse looked over towards Barbara, then refocused his attention. "Would you be into it if Barbara was into it? Cause I'm much more comfortable with letting that happen if both of you are into it."

Adam stilled, turning his head and looking over towards Barbara. Barbara couldn't make it out, but it sounded like Adam was mouthing out, "step in. Help me out here".

And step in Barbara did. Looking worried as she crossed the room and stood next to Adam.

"Woah, woah. Neither one of us is doing that, Betelgeuse. If you're wanting a relationship with us, then we're not quite there yet. It's going to take quite a while. And why don't you let Adam and I get used to having you around first, before you take things a little too far."

"You know how I am, though," Betelgeuse said, a blue overtaking the pink and yellow that his hair previously was. "I'm much more willing to get right into things instead of having to wait until it's time."

"And that's exactly what we don't want!" the Maitlands snapped.

"C'mon, you guys. Just once?" Betelgeuse pleaded, once again pointing towards his ass.

"Betelgeuse, that's still taking things one step too far!" Barbara said out of anger, her voice low and furious.

A splash of purple mixed in with the blue of Betelgeuse's hair, and a sad look crossed his face. And that made Adam and Barbara feel equally as concerned for him, the latter of the two ghosts reaching her hand out. But that did nothing to calm the situation. Betelgeuse teleported out onto the roof, a very clear sign that the Maitlands probably should just leave him alone. But they knew they weren't going to.

Nodding firmly over at one another the Maitlands teleported themselves out onto the roof as well, looking around for any signs of the now upset demon and eventually finding him by the edge of the roof with one of his closed fisted hands resting on the railing and under his chin and looking down towards the ground. A third arm popped out from his suit jacket, it wiping away a few apparent ghostly tears that had formed at the edges of his eyes.

Adam and Barbara, knowing they had to do something, looked at one another. Then Barbara made the first move.

"Betelgeuse?"

He looked up, but didn't maintain eye contact with either ghost. "Please just leave me alone."

"Betelgeuse, we're not going to leave you alone." Barbara moved to lean against the railing to Betelgeuse's left and Adam to the demon's right. "We're worried about you."

"What? Worried you're going to yell at me again?"

"No, no." Barbara turned towards Betelgeuse, resting a hand on the demon's shoulder. "It's not that. We just wanted to apologize for that."

Betelgeuse's hair went green for a split second, before reverting back to purple.

"No, you're not."

"Well then," Barbara said in response as she and Adam turned and went to head back inside the attic. "I guess we're just going to leave you out here. You can come back inside if you're willing enough to let us apologize to you for yelling."

Betelgeuse shot up with a start, whipping around to face the Maitlands just as they started to head back inside the attic.

"No, wait!"