Lockwood & Co. AU

Pranking Quill Kipps Pt. 2

Lucy tried and failed miserably to keep herself hidden behind Holly as Quill turned around. He froze and his eyes widened as all eyes turned to watch his reaction. Shock was woven into his features as he didn't move. He stood there, confused at the death-glow that floated in the middle of the kitchen.

Lockwood slipped back into the kitchen, startling Quill as he hadn't noticed his absence. Lockwood handed him his goggles— the ones that let him see ghosts even as his Sight faded with age— and walked to the corner of the room.

"The hell's going on?" Quill asked, baffled as to why they were seemingly indifferent about a ghost in their home. In fact, they had seemed delighted about it.

Lockwood pushed the goggles forward, prompting Quill to take them. "Just put them on," Lockwood said. Quill stared at him like he had sprouted another head, but still pulled them up to his eyes. He adjusted them and fastened them at the back, looking down as he fixed the goggles to his eyes. When he looked up, he opened his eyes slowly and blinked a few times before glancing over to Holly.

The ghost peered from behind her and Quill nearly had a heart attack as he saw its face.
He stumbled backwards as his gaze met with Lucy's, and he almost tripped over a chair behind him as he saw her. George quietly snickered in the corner and Quill paused to glare at him momentarily.

So this was why they were so happy about it, he thought as a flurry of emotions surrounded him. He stood still in awe and partial denial. "So, it's really you?" he asked in disbelief. Lucy nodded with encouragement, but he could still see that she was somber about it and was trying to hide it. He tried to reach out to her as she floated closer, but pulled his hand away cautiously.

Lucy smiled sadly like she'd known that would happen. She slowly moved closer and started to talk while maintaining eye contact. Quill stared blankly at her with confusion and looked over to Flo.

She shrugged at him while Lockwood, George, and Holly seemed to be listening intently.

"Locky," Flo said hesitantly, "we can't hear her."

Lockwood jumped and looked over to Holly. She nodded and pulled out a small necklace. Lucy seemed to keep talking as Holly handed Flo the silver necklace. The moment the pendant hit Flo's hand, all sound momentarily turned to static, like there was cotton in her ears. Suddenly, she could hear Lucy's ranting and her hands flew to her mouth. Her eyes widened as Lucy turned to look at her, pausing in her speech.

"Heya, Flo." Lucy looked at her awkwardly. Flo's expression lit up, but her face fell shortly after. Lucy tilted her head at her reaction.

Flo glanced up from the ground and jumped at Lucy staring into her. "Ah, sorry! Just got really excited and then I realized I couldn't hug ya," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. Lucy's expression softened and her bottom lip trembled as she took a shuddering breath.

A single tear slipped down her face that only Flo could see.

It felt like an incredibly privilege: to see such a strong, powerful woman and be able to comfort her in her times of weakness. She didn't know why, but it made Flo grin in sudden elation at how she was really back. It hadn't struck her until now that Lucy had actually died, so the brief grieving was overcome by monumental relief that she was really back and with all of her friends.

Well, Flo thought, maybe Locky'll be more than friends sometime soon, she thought mischievously as she clutched the necklace. She glanced over to a confused Quill and tossed him the necklace suddenly, yelling "Catch!" as she threw it.

Quill snapped out of his trance and snatched the chain out of the air. He touched it, and the sounds around him dissolved into faint static as he heard Lucy shout, "Testing! One, two three," with a grin on her face.

George and Lockwood chuckled at the look of amusement and confusion on his face.

Holly spoke up. "Don't worry, we don't really understand how it works, either."

Quill sighed in relief that it wasn't just him and sat on the carpet. He took a deep breath and sighed out, "I need a moment to process this," as he crossed his legs and stared blankly at the wall.

Flo nodded slowly, still taking it in even after being told about it earlier. It was just so incredible that all the odds tilted in their favor. Lucy turned into a ghost after dying, which was insane-sounding in itself, but the fact that she became a Type Three of all things just sounded plain unbelievable. It was also crazy that everyone was able to hear her, especially since none of their ragtag company had very good Listening skills, especially not as good as Lucy's.

Something also told Flo that Lockwood, George, and Holly were still processing all of that. She also could see that they knew something could very easily go wrong with this, but they all wanted to bask in the glory of the present and choose not to worry about the future. She smiled at their antics as Lucy continued to rant and George chuckled at Quill's reaction.

She figured that everything would be fine for now. Lucy's always had pretty good control of any situation that came her way, so why would this be any different? Scratch that, Flo thought as Lucy floated through chairs in the kitchen and giggled, This is going to be very different.

There were too many possibilities that would come from this. Knowing her friends, none of them would let this go to waste.

((A/N: And there's the backstory! There are more things to come from this, so if you could drop a comment with any thoughts on this or ideas for future stories, that would be great! I'm going to need suggestions if I want to keep this thing going, so it would be super nice of you to give me requests! Thanks for reading!))