Lockwood & Co. AU

Questions

After Flo and Quill left for their own reasons, George turned to look at Lucy eagerly.

"I have SO MANY QUESTIONS!" he shouted excitedly. Lucy rolled her eyes and floated towards him.

As the crossed the room she muttered, "Now I know how the skull felt." She looked at him expectantly and he fumbled for a good question to start.

"Do you sleep as a ghost?" he asked eagerly. Lucy crossed her arms, looking down towards the ground as she thought. She didn't sleep much when she was alive, so maybe she did and she didn't notice? It was a possibility, especially considering her previously existing poor sleep schedule. Then again, she didn't feel tired at all, which meant that she didn't necessarily need to sleep if she didn't need sustenance to go about her day.

She shrugged, "Well, I don't know if I need to sleep, but I think I physically could if I wanted to."

Her answer wasn't anything major, but George's face still lit up at her reply. "Next question!" he yelled, making everyone in the room jump at his outburst. "This is something I've wondered for a long time, but I couldn't test it on the skull," he said. "Does stimuli to the direct Source affect your body?"

Lucy tilted her head and pursed her lips as she processed what he said. "You mean like if you put the necklace under a fire, then it'd make me warm?" she clarified.

George nodded and looked expectantly at her. She hummed in consideration as she thought about what she was asked.

She'd never had someone to test this kind of stuff with, and neither did George. This was sating both of their curiosities at this point, so Lucy went along with it.

She grinned and shouted suddenly, "Let's find out!"

Lockwood looked on with amusement as they rushed to the fireplace eagerly. He chuckled as he saw George practically shaking with excitement as she plucked the necklace from Holly's hand.

As Lockwood realized what they were about to do, he walked over and cautioned them. "Hey, if you're going to do that, don't damage the necklace," he said and everyone in the room nodded. "We don't know what could happen with this stuff, so we have to be careful."

He made it seem like it was just natural caution, but he was just really concerned with how fragile Lucy was in this state. One small slip-up and Lucy could disappear forever, and Lockwood would never let that happen if he had any say in the matter. He had failed to protect her once, and he was determined to leave it at one failure alone.

He zoned back in, not even noticing he had gotten caught in his own mind. When he looked up, Holly was walking over to George, who was holding the pendant high over the flame in the fireplace.

George turned to look at her, and his sleeve burst into flames. Him and Holly both shrieked as he flailed around wildly and continued screaming. "Holy shit!" Lucy shouted, but didn't move as she couldn't do anything anyways.

Lockwood ran over, grabbing a rag that was draped on a chair on the way over. "Why can none of us make good decisions?" he thought exasperatedly as he stepped into the room. He stopped when he saw George, frozen in shock with a charred sleeve. His and Holly's stares were trained on Lucy, who was watching her hands intently.

"What happened?" Lockwood asked warily. Lucy's wide eyes flicked up to him as he asked. She looked paralyzed in either fear or surprise, both of which were concerning to him.

Holly looked the most composed, but still momentarily hesitating before replying. "I... I think Lucy put out the fire somehow," she said slowly.

For a moment, nobody spoke. Lucy said distantly, "I just held a hand out and... it blew out immediately."

George shouted suddenly after his period of silence. "Oh my God, Lucy has powers?!"

Lockwood rolled his eyes and held out a hand to haul George up. He pulled him up and sighed.  This was getting insane with how much they didn't know. It was good that Lucy was learning with them, but it was also bad that nobody knew what was going to happen most of the time.

Lucy's gaze wandered back to her hands. She looked scared, possibly more scared than anyone else in the company. "I have to be more careful," she whispered quietly enough for only Lockwood to hear.

"What was that, Lucy?" Holly asked.

Lucy plastered on a smile and laughed, "Oh, it's nothing, sorry!"

Lockwood frowned. Even as a ghost, he still could clearly recognize that she was hiding how she felt. He saw her empty smiles and shallow laughs, her stiffened posture, the way she draped one her arm across her chest and the other held straight at her side— he could see that she thought something was wrong.

No matter how much her discomfort was getting to him, he held his tongue. Lockwood of all people knew that she didn't like to be called out in front of others, but he noted that he should talk to her about it later.

After various questioning and some testing from George, everyone started to get tired. Holly said her goodbyes and left with her roommate who had come to pick her up. George swayed and stumbled up the stairs after grumbling "goodnight fuckers" and leaving his glasses on the table.

Lucy floated up the stairs, not hovering very high above the steps. She glanced at the small clock on the wall in the hallway. Almost 3:00 in the morning, she thought exhaustedly as she rolled her eyes. It certainly wasn't the first time her friends had kept her up early, and it definitely wouldn't be the last time knowing them.

She hovered through the hallway and stretched her arms tiredly. She'd have to remember to let George know that she still got tired as a ghost.

Lockwood trailed behind her with the necklace, holding it close enough that Lucy could move freely. As he passed her room, he saw Lucy materialize through the door. He smiled to himself, eternally grateful to have her back. He slid the necklace under the door, pushing it through gently.

He chuckled as he heard Lucy mumble, "Thanks," and yawn. This wouldn't be easy for Lucy— or anyone else— but he would make sure that Lucy was okay through all of this.

((A/N: Hey everyone! I'm kind of running low on ideas for new chapters, so you can message me prompts or comment them. I also wanted to know if you guys want this to be a collection of oneshots and scenarios or a full story. If you could let me know what you want, that would be great!))