Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Grian is known under many names. His friends see him as human, as their friend, and a bit mischievous but otherwise just a nice guy. They see him as Grian, the guy who works at the town’s café, who studied architecture at the community college an hour drive from their town only to not do anything with it, the one who likes to pull pranks on them but would be by their side to help them at a moment’s notice. They also know him as the man who complains about their adventuring endeavours but still tags along.

His friends don’t know a lot about him. First of all, he is absolutely not human; that’s probably his biggest secret. They also don’t know about his activities in his free time, and they certainly don’t know why Grian complains about their outings to look around the relics near their hometown.

They don’t need to know.

Other people and beings call him differently, however. The new ghosts call him an angel. He is not one, and tells them as such. The old and experienced ones call him the Guide, though that is simply a name they’ve given him. Other beings call him what he is; a Watcher. They avoid saying his name. The Watchers call him Xelqua. He does not mind that name, but it’s not his chosen one. It’s more of a title to him. Lady Death calls him Her vessel. He is one of many. She uses all of his titles, however. Sometimes She calls him Grian, sometimes Xelqua, and sometimes simply Watcher.

Grian likes his life on Earth. It’s simple, yet so exciting at times. He also enjoys fulfilling his duty most of the time, even if it is tiring at times. He has to do all kinds of things; sometimes he has to resurrect someone who’s time hasn’t come yet, sometimes he has to guide lost ghosts, and sometimes he has to work with other beings. Watchers essentially just do everything that needs to be done on Earth.

Though he often tries to keep his two lives separate, sometimes they like to mix uncomfortably close. This is one of those times. Grian stares at Lizzie with an unimpressed look as she sits on the table, kicking her feet up and down happily while staring at Joel. Her fluffy white wings are draped behind her, and her halo is tilted a bit on her head. Her bubblegum-pink hair is tied into two high buns. He knows nobody can see her other than him right now, but that does not make this situation any better.

“Why are you here, Lizzie? We talked about this, you can’t just come here to crush on my friend,” he says when nobody’s paying attention to him.

“Oh, but it’s harmless! He’s cute.”

Grian glances at Joel, who’s currently cursing up a storm because he burned his hand on the coffee machine, before turning back to the angel with a raised eyebrow. “You sure?”

Lizzie huffs. “Don’t judge me.”

“Is there anything else you need here are are you visiting just to check out Joel?” he finally asks.

“Oh!” She lights up in recollection. “Yeah, I’m actually here to do my job for once. Here.” She hands him an envelope, which he takes with a nod.

“Thanks.” He turns to get back to work before pausing and looking back at her. “Lizzie?”

“Yeah?”

“Just how often do you come here without my knowledge for matters other than my job?”

The silence is quite telling. After a moment, Lizzie speaks up, “Do you think he’d like me if I met him in my disguised form?” Her voice has a daydreaming tone in it, and Grian knows he needs to kill that idea immediately.

“Lizzie, no,” he says firmly. “You know better than to mix up with mortals. That could go wrong in so many ways. What if he finds out what you are? Then it’ll be my problem to fix.”

“But you get to hang out with mortals all the time!” she complains.

“I’m a Watcher. I’m serious, Lizzie, that’s such a dangerous idea.”

“I’d be careful—“

“No.”

Lizzie huffs in annoyance, but drops the topic. When her gaze catches Joel again, she seems to forget all about the topic, smiling and continuing to admire him. Grian just goes back to his work.

When he turns back to where Lizzie had been sitting, he finds that she’s gone. He sighs. He’s not too sure whether she hasn’t just made herself invisible to him. Right now, though, he needs to get back to serving customers.

When Grian finishes his shift, he waves a small goodbye to Joel and Mumbo, who’s switching out with him. The moment he gets home and locks the front door, he pulls out the envelope Lizzie had given him. He opens it and pulls out the letter, reading it quickly. It’s a simple enough task; he just needs to guide some ghosts out of one of the ancient relic places. Something about the place being too ‘sacred’, or something. Well, it’s not Grian’s job to try and figure out why he has to do something.

He pulls out his phone, clicking onto the group chat.

The explorers

Grian: I found a good site for us to check out

Grian: [screenshot of maps]

Gem: Ooh, looks fun!

Mumbo: Do we really have to?

Joel: yes, absolutely

Timmy: good find!

Timmy: wait

Timmy: grian did you change my name??

Grian laughs, putting his phone away. He signs the letter and it dissolves into thin air, which he watches with awe. No matter how many times he does that, it still looks cool.

He goes to the kitchen, pouring some water into the kettle and turning it on, before preparing himself a cup with a teabag. Once the water is boiled, he finishes making the tea and takes it to the table, letting it cool off a bit while he heads over to the cabinet in his living room. He opens up a hidden compartment inside, one he’s greatly familiar with, and pulls out his journal. He doesn’t technically need to hide it, seeing as he lives alone, but it’s good to have that precaution. He carries the book back over to the table, sitting down.

The journal is an old thing, now. He’s had it for decades, and takes note of every place he goes to for a task, as well as anything else that can help him in the future. It’s leather-bound, the edges now worn and slightly discoloured. He loves it anyway. It’s coloured in a mix of grey and dark purple, with the Watcher logo of the front in a brighter purple that never seems to fade. It’s also kept closed using a simple black belt around it.

Grian flips through the pages to find a blank one, grabs a pen, and begins writing about all the information he’s learned in the past few weeks while sipping on the tea.

When he glances up, something catches his eye in the corner of the room. Upon seeing the shadowy figure—something that would most definitely freak a typical person out—he sighs without any malice.

“Hey, Pearl,” he says. “Do you have to do that? You know you won’t scare me.”

Said ghost steps into view, the features on her translucent skin finally being distinguishable and a cheeky smile on her face. “Absolutely. It’s funny.”

“It’s overused, is what it is.”

Pearl rolls her eyes. “You’re just no fun.” She floats up to the table, peering at the notes he jotted down in his journal. “Ooh, you’re going to Withering Arch? It’s a nice one, quite a complicated layout.”

Grian raises an eyebrow at her. “You know you’re not supposed to go there, right?” When the ghost just shrugs without care, he chuckles. “So, you know the place?”

“Of course!” She perks up. “I can come with and help you out, if you want.”

“As long as you don’t scare my friends.”

She smiles in that innocent way that he does not trust whatsoever. He crosses his arms, and they hold eye contact for a beat before she awkwardly looks away with a small sigh of annoyance. “Fine…”

When she glances at the rest of her room, however, something catches her eye. “Gri…”

His eyebrows furrow in confusion. “What?”

“You still haven’t cleaned that up?”

His eyes widen, and he lets out an awkward laugh. “Well…”

“Mate…” she begins.

He claps his hands together suddenly. “Anyway, I’ll find you at the usual place to tell you when we’ll be going to that site,” he says. “But I’m sure you’re a busy person and have lots to do, as do I.”

“Grian—”

“Nope, I’ll see you later, I don’t mind, I promise.”

Pearl shoots him a look that clearly says ‘this is not over’ and then floats out of the room. Grian breathes a sigh of relief. Look, he could just organise his things, but he just doesn’t feel like it, so he won’t do it. He turns back to his tea, only to realise with severe disappointment that Pearl being around it cooled it down. Now he has to make another one…

“Do we have everything?” Impulse asks while sifting through his bag. They’re gathered next to his van, which they always use for these explorations. It’s the only vehicle in the group that can fit them all without issue.

Gem nods. “I think so.”

Grian watches Pearl float up to them and wave at him. He’s about to return the gesture when Jimmy starts talking to him, and he decides against looking like he’s hallucinating and waving at thin air.

“So, is there any reason you chose this place, G?”

“Uh, not really,” he lies. “Just heard about it and thought it looked cool.”

“Ah. Well, either way, I agree, it does look cool,” Jimmy says.

Joel nods in agreement. “Who knows, maybe we’ll even get some ghost activity.”

“Ooh!” Gem perks up. “True, we haven’t had that in a while.”

Pearl’s expression turns mischievous and Grian shoots her a warning glare. Now is really not the time for her to terrify his friends. He’s pretty sure Mumbo still has nightmares from last time, when she made his phone die and the radio all staticky at the same time. It didn’t help that it was in a dark area and his torch was already dimmer than usual. Pearl is very capable of scaring people when she wants to, that’s for sure.

Once they all gather their things, they head into the site. It’s pretty, Grian can admit. It may just be old stone buildings that have half-fallen apart, but there’s a certain kind of magical feeling to it. Especially the way vines and moss cover them, flowers blooming from the cracks.

The moment he has the chance, he separates from the others, turning to Pearl, who had been silently following him. “So, could you find where those ghosts are?”

She flashes him a grin. “Of course.” With a small mock-salute, she floats away.

Grian nods, beginning to look around for himself. He enters one of the more intact buildings, coughing when his steps stir the dust covering everything inside. He reaches into his backpack, pulling out a respirator and putting it on. He should’ve probably done that before, to be fair.

It’s dark inside, but fortunately for him, being a Watcher has its perks, like night vision. He finds a wooden table and two chairs, all looking like they’ve certainly seen better days. No ghosts, however, so he moves on.

Just as he joins onto one of the paths outside, Gem skips up to him. “Hey, Grian! I found a part underground, it’s really cool, you should come check it out.”

That’s perfect, actually. He’s basically guaranteed that the ghosts will be there. He follows Gem around the corner and down the old stone steps, where they switch on their flashlights and begin looking around.

The walls underground are surprisingly fully intact. They’re filled with intricate carvings of plants. The ground is slightly overtaken by moss and flowers, but that just adds to the atmosphere of the place.

But there’s one other important detail Grian notices; the place buzzes with magic. He can feel it thrumming inside him in a way he hasn’t in a while. He knows Gem can’t feel it, though, so he tries not to show too much of a reaction to it.

Well, it explains why he was asked to get the ghosts out. They shouldn’t be in a place so concentrated with magic, that could go south far too easily. He’ll ask Pearl to avoid this place from now on too.

Based on what this place looks like, and, well, the magic in it, it was probably a shrine of sorts. Which means that this whole site was a sanctuary once. That would explain a lot, actually.

Grian lets his fingers brush against the carvings in the stone walls, before remembering why he’s here. Right, the ghosts. He walks further into the room in the opposite direction of Gem.

He feels a cold draft and knows he’s on the right track. A ghost comes into view, tilting its head at him. Grian lets himself show his Watcher form to it, and it perks up.

“You’re… an angel?” it asks. Before Grian has a chance to answer, another voice pops up, equally echoey.

“No, he’s a Watcher,” the other ghost corrects as it floats to them.

The first ghost shrugs. “Same difference.”

Grian raises an eyebrow. “It’s absolutely not but let’s not get into that. I’m here to kick the two of you out, this place is a sanctuary.”

“So what?” Ghost 1 crosses their arms.

“It means,” he says. “That this place is sacred and ghosts that aren’t from here will just taint it, first of all. Second of all, the amount of magic in here will absolutely make you fade away if you stay in it for a longer duration of time.” The second part is absolutely not true but Grian needs to scare them off and he’s absolutely not going to be explaining the repercussions of getting addicted to magic.

The two ghosts share a look before sighing and floating out. That was surprisingly easy, to be honest. Usually, they put up more of a fight. Well, Grian won’t complain.

He walks back over to Gem. “There’s nothing here, let’s go back to the others,” he says, and she nods.

The two end up walking with Impulse and Mumbo. They enter one of the larger buildings, the inside dark.

“Remind me why we’re doing this?” Mumbo asks, fiddling with the edge of his jacket. “Because this does not seem worth it.”

“Oh please, it’s fun!” Gem says in a cheerful tone. She sets up a stronger light so that they can see, and they find the room mostly empty.

Meanwhile, Impulse fiddles with setting up their ghost box. “Let’s see if we get any activity.”

Static noise fills the room from the small device. Grian then spots Pearl floating into the room, and her eyes catching it. A grin grows on her face as she approaches it, ignoring Grian’s look, trying to tell her to not do it. She leans close to it, before whispering, “Boo.”

It registers in the device and Grian internally facepalms while Pearl giggles as Mumbo yelps in surprise. The sound comes through the ghost box too. Impulse takes a step back from it, while Gem looks at it with pure joy.

“It works!” she exclaims.

“Yeah, I’m not doing this,” Mumbo says, already turning around and beginning to walk out of the building. “I’m going to go find Jimmy, or something.”

Impulse seems to have calmed down again, stepping closer to the ghost box again. “Hello?”

Pearl seems to be content with what she’s already done, though, or maybe she’s just already lost interest, as she floats away top the other side of the room, looking around.

Gem’s shoulders slump in disappointment at the lack of response, while Impulse switches the device off. “I was hoping to get to talk to the ghost more,” she complains. Grian hums in understanding, feigning confusion.

Pearl glances back at Gem, her head tilting. “Wait, you wanted to talk to me?” She floats back to the box. “I can talk! I’m here—Wait, it’s off.”

She frowns, looking at Grian. “Tell them to turn it back on.”

Grian just slowly shakes his head at her. That’s what she gets for ignoring when he asked her not to do this. Like hell is he turning it back on.

Impulse backs the ghost box back into his bag, and Pearl sighs.

The group spending a bit longer looking around the entire site before deciding to call it a day, and heading back home.

When Grian arrives at his apartment, he drops onto his sofa, leaning his head back. Lizzie proceeds to pop up in his living room, because of course she does.

“Grian! I need to know your works schedule,” she says.

He raises an eyebrow. “Why, exactly?”

She huffs, crossing her arms like it’s obvious. “I… need to know when I can give you tasks. It’s hard to find out where you are sometimes.

He doesn’t trust that for a second, but Lizzie doesn’t back down, so he writes it down on a piece of paper and gives it to her. She smiles, before lighting up in recollection. “Oh! I have another task for you.”

She hands him his usual envelope. Grian sighs. “Already?”

Lizzie shrugs. “It starts in, like, two weeks, so you’ll be alright.”

He purses his lips while the angel disappears. She never says goodbye, does she? Despite knowing he has time before he needs to do it, he decides to look at the task now. When he pulls the letter out and reads it, though, he freezes. Oh, fuck.

Chapter Text

Demons are… complicated beings. They have a bad reputation among mortals, that’s for sure, but they’re not exactly bad. Morally grey? Absolutely, but they don’t necessarily do anything evil.

Just like angels and Watchers, they just serve Lady Death in their own way, and they’re damn good at what they do. While angels bless and protect mortals, and generally work on spreading good, and Watchers essentially do the side jobs on Earth, demons take care of the bad things. Most of the time, that means doing something in their own place off Earth—Grian doesn’t really know what—but sometimes, it also leads to them having to go among mortals to take care of some evil spirits or something of the sort.

Demons, however, are known to be inherently annoying. Whenever they get the chance, they cause trouble around them. And that’s where Watchers come in, being assigned to keep them on track so that they don’t mess things up more than they fix.

As Grian stares at the letter in his hand, the one with his upcoming task explained in it, he feels pure dread. He’s not one to ever doubt Lady Death’s decisions, but this just doesn’t seem wise. Like seriously, Grian of all people? He can hardly stop himself from causing trouble, let alone someone else!

And he has five days to prepare. Five damn days. Sure, okay, this go great. Also, Lizzie clearly has no idea how mortal time works if she thinks that’s two weeks. Which—that tracks, actually, seeing as she’s absolutely clueless to anything human.

He decides to sleep on it. Maybe he’ll feel better about this tomorrow.

“Oh, Jellie, this is going to be amazing!” Scar exclaims as he shoves another shirt into the bag. They clothes are fairly basic for his taste, but he apparently needs to fit in among the mortals, so he’ll have to manage.

He quickly pulls the bag closer to himself when he sees Jellie sniffing around it with her fire tail. “No, no, careful, these are all flammable. Can’t have you burning all my things before I even get to Earth.”

The mentioned cat just sits down, staring him down with an annoyed glare. Oh, she definitely didn’t appreciate that. Scar dodges a burst of fire breathed at him with a chuckle.

“Already packing?”

Scar jumps with a tiny squeak at the sound of the new voice behind him. He whirls around to find Cub standing in the doorway, arms crossed. He smiles at his friend. “Yup! I didn’t want to leave it to the last second.”

“Because you’d forget.”

“Exactly.” Scar doesn’t sound even slightly sheepish about the fact.

Cub sighs. “Be safe.”

“I will,” Scar says, easily.

“Don’t forget to take the pills regularly.” Oh yeah, those! He really should pack those, taking them is what’ll make him look like a normal mortal, so he’d say they’re quite vital.

“I won’t forget.”

Cub doesn’t look convinced but nods, before cracking a smile. “And cause trouble whenever you can.”

Scar laughs. “Always.”

Grian can confirm that he does not, in fact, feel better about his new task the next day. He can see some positives about it, though. At least it’ll be something new, something fun and exciting. Maybe it won’t be as bad as he thinks!

Okay, yeah, he’s definitely feeling a bit optimistic now. It might be the fact that he’s drank about seven shots of coffee in the last forty minutes. Speaking of which—his hands are shaking, like, so much. The last time he binged coffee like this he didn’t sleep for three days. Hell, if he were human, he’s probably be on the brink of death right now with how much caffeine he’s had.

…He needs more.

Once he finishes an order for the last customer in the line at the moment, he turns to make himself another espresso, only for Jimmy to stop him. “Dude, you’ve had, like, five of these in the last thirty minutes. Are you okay? Like, genuinely, I think that can kill you.”

Well, clearly he hasn’t been keeping track of all of them. Good. Grian rolls his eyes. “I’m fine, Tim,” he says dismissively, attempting to push past him to get to the machine.”

Jimmy stands his ground. “No.”

“But—coffee,” Grian whines, putting on his best puppy eyes that he can muster.

He sees the other falter for a moment, ready to give in, before shaking his head and crossing his arms. “I’ll tell Mumbo,” he threatens.

Now hold on—that makes Grian pause. His eyes narrow. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

It’s true, unfortunately. His friends are all little snitches. If only he knew that Grian’s tolerance for caffeine is much stronger than human’s. But alas, they do not, and cannot, know that he’s a Watcher, and so he resigns himself to no more coffee until either his shift ends or Jimmy isn’t looking for long enough.

Eventually, though, it does reach the end of his shift, and Mumbo comes in to take his place. Once Grian takes off his apron, he steps around the counter into the customer line. Once it reaches his turn, he smirks at Jimmy before turning to where Mumbo is manning the register.

“One triple-shot espresso, please,” he says cheerily.

“No!” Jimmy exclaims while Mumbo calmly takes his order with a smile, handing him his coffee. Grian takes it happily.

“Bye, Tim,” he says in a teasing tone as he leaves, listening to his friend’s exclamations behind him.

“Oh—you!”

Ten shots of espresso within two hours is probably bad even for him, but eh, who cares? It’s not like this’ll have any consequences.

“Okay, so, if I leave in five ticks, it’ll be eleven mortal hours when I arrive?” Lizzie asks, staring at the weird round thing humans apparently call a clock. It’s so confusing. If there’s twenty-four of those ‘hours’, why does it only show twelve?

“Yeah, more or less,” Skizz says. “Maybe a few minutes later than that.”

She tilts her head in confusion. “What are ‘minutes’?”

The angel is met with a disbelieving stare. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Lizzie nods. “Absolutely! Now, do you have some of those gold coins so that I can purchase something at that… café?”

“Lizzie, they haven’t used those in over a century.”

“Oh.”

After a long explanation of different human currencies, Lizzie heads off into the mortal realm wearing some human clothes, her halo and wings hidden away and five hundred dollars in her bag, hoping it’ll be enough to buy one of those drinks at the café.

As she arrives there at the little establishment, jumping slightly at the bell that rings when she walks through the door—she’s used to being non-corporeal when visiting this place—she realises one fatal mistake. She may have made sure to avoid Grian’s shift, yes, but that doesn’t mean Joel is working at this time. And it seems like he isn’t. Dammit, there goes her wonderful plan.

Standing there, though, she decides that she might as well buy something. After all, at least it’s practice for when she returns here and Joel actually is on his shift.

And so, she walks up to the counter, smiling brightly at the blond man in the café uniform. ‘Jimmy’, his name tag says. That’s a pretty name! “Hello!”

“Hi,” Jimmy returns with a friendly grin. They stand in silence for a moment, and the man’s expression turns a bit confused. “Are you… going to order?”

Oh, whoops. “Ah, yes! What kind of beverages do you sell in this establishment?”

The blonde looks at her with bewilderment. Did she say something wrong? Was that not polite enough? He points up at the board above them, listing out all the drinks. Oh. Was that there the last time she was here? Then again, she’s typically occupied with other things when she’s here. Like staring at Joel. And her job, but mainly staring at Joel.

Lizzie squints as she reads the menu. She doesn’t really understand what most of these are, but oh well. She decides a ‘strawberry latte’ sounds fun. She liked strawberries, didn’t she? Or was it a different berry that she had liked? She can’t remember.

“One strawberry latte, please!”

Jimmy nods, putting it into the register. “That’ll be 6.50.”

Oh, she has enough for that! She sifts through her bag, pulling out one that has ’50’ written on it. She hands it to the barista. “Will that be enough?”

The other blinks in surprise. “Uh—yeah, more than enough, actually.”

“Wonderful! That’ll be for the name Lizzie, thank you.”

With that, she happily walks off to one of the tables.

“Uh, miss, that’s too much—Miss—“

Lizzie blissfully ignores that as she sits down, pulling out her journal, thinking she might as well do some work while she’s here. The chairs are tall, she notices. Her feet don’t touch the floor when she’s sitting down. Or maybe she’s just short. She receives some curious looks from other customers at the thick tattered journal along with the ink and quill but doesn’t really mind. They’re the weird ones with their colourful flat brick things they keep staring at, in her opinion.

When her name is called, she happily walks up to the counter, picking up the pretty pink drink and taking a sip. It’s very sweet—exactly what she loves.

“Ooh! Now this is simply wonderful,” she says to the man who handed the latte to her. A quick glance at his name tag told her his name is Mumbo. “Thank you, you truly are talented in the art of beverage making.”

“Oh—uh, thank you?” The moustached man replies.

With a nod, she walks back to her table, sitting back down and continuing her work, her legs happily swinging back and forth.

After some time, Lizzie realises she’s feeling a bit jittery—she can’t seem to keep still. She glares at her drink in suspicion. What is in that thing?

With a small huff, she walks over to the counter, glass in hand.

“Why is this making me feel so weird?” she asks Jimmy, who’d been wiping the area down.

The blond pauses, looking at her with confusion. “Uh… rathere’s coffee in it. Have you never had coffee?”

Huh, interesting. Lizzie glances at her drink with curiosity. “Co-ffee.” Her head tilts slightly before looking back at the barista. “Can I get three more? I want to try all the flavours.”

She’ll have to tell Skizz about this. It’s so fascinating!

It seems like Grian is once again being met with the consequences of his actions. Turns out that having ten shots of espresso is not good for you, even when you’re not human. Now, he’d known this beforehand, but had chosen to ignore it at the time because coffee.

He is regretting that decision, now. Pearl seems to be awfully delighted, however.

“I thought you’d learned your lesson after last time,” she says while floating around him.

Grian raises his head from where he’d been resting it on the table, leveling her with a glare. “We don’t talk about that.”

“Clearly we have to, seeing as you’re now moping about a headache after doing the exact same thing for the third time!” She crosses her arms, finally sitting down in the chair opposite him.

He rolls his eyes, laying his head back down. “Yeah, yeah…” he grumbles.

“I think you’re addicted to coffee, Gri.”

“Probably.”

Pearl hums. “I wish I could have coffee. I miss it.”

Grian just groans as another wave of pain thrums through his head.

There’s a small flash of light before Lizzie appears in the middle of the room. Her wings are fluffed up and eyes are wide. “Hey, guys, so did you know humans have a thing called coffee, and it’s this magic thing that gives you loads of energy, andit’ssogoodIneedmore—“

Pearl stares at her in disbelief while Grian just groans again.

“Yeah, we’ve all heard of it, we’re all suffering because of it,” he says.

Lizzie tilts her head. “Suffering? Why?”

“He had ten shots of it,” Pearl helpfully supplies, which makes the angel frown.

“But I had about twenty and I feel fine. Or wait—was it twenty-one? I don’t know. Did you know you can get coffee in so many yummy flavours? And having five-hundred of those ‘dollars’ can buy you, like, so many! And they’re so good!” Lizzie says even faster than she usually speaks.

Pearl’s eyebrows furrow. “Mate, are you okay?”

“Wait.” Grian finally looks up at the pinkette, eyes narrowing. “Where did you get coffee? I know for a fact that you can only get it in the mortal realm, and I know for a fact that I told you you can’t go here all visible.”

The angel freezes at that. Her silence is quite telling.

“Lizzie…”

In a split-second, she disappears.

“I will murder her with my bare hands.”

Pearl just raises her eyebrows, staring at the spot where she’d just been. “Seems like she’s having fun.”

Chapter Text

“Okay.” Scar sighs, swallowing down the black pill with a grimace. He watches Cub feed Jellie the paste to make her… well, not breathe fire. He frowns. “Are you sure this isn’t going to be cruel to her?”

“Yes, Scar, she can survive being more like a human cat for a bit just fine,” Cub says. “But my offer to have her stay with me still stands.”

“Oh, of course not!” Scar exclaims. “My precious little girl will be staying by my side. Also, I need her for my work.”

Cub hums, readjusting his glasses. “When did they say you should be summoned?”

“Anytime within the next two hours, hopefully. I think.”

“I’ll wait with you, then.”

Scar blinks, and then smiles. “Aw, you’re the best.”

“I know.”

“Okay, then another little line here…” Pearl says, and Grian carefully draws a line out of the chalk and grimaces when it makes a squeaky sound.

“Now just the candle in… that corner, and we’ll be done.”

He nods, lighting the candle and carefully placing it down. Nothing happens. They stare at it in disbelief. He glances back at the ghost. “Are you sure we did it correctly?”

“Of course we—“ Pearl cuts herself off, pursing her lips and chuckling awkwardly as she slowly flips the book around. “…Oops, it was upside down.”

Grian groans, dropping back onto the floor in defeat. “We spent half an hour on this, and you’re telling me, we have to redo the entire thing?!”

“Yup.”

“Pearl!”

She throws her hands up in exasperation. “You know I’m not good at these things!”

Pearl puts on some glasses as she begins telling Grian instructions on how to make the summoning circle (the right side up, this time).

“Why do you have glasses on? You’re a ghost,” Grian comments while drawing a line.

“To read the thing, mate. Obviously.”

“I—“ Grian sighs. “Okay, sure.”

“Candle on the corner there. What’s the name of that friend of yours, again?” Pearl asks un a casual tone.

“Which one? I have multiple.”

“The one with that curly ginger hair.”

“Oh, Gem?” He glances up at her. “Why do you want to know, anyway?”

She shrugs. “Just curious. Line right there to connect those two corners.”

Grian squints at her in suspicion before turning his attention back to drawing.

Lizzie makes sure her hair is nice and neat before entering the café, jumping at the way the little bell dings. She frowns when she sees that Joel isn’t there. Again. With a defeated sigh, she walks up to the counter, putting on a polite smile.

There’s a lady behind the counter this time, one she recognises from her frequent invisible visits to give Grian tasks. Gem, she thinks her name is. The name tag on her apron confirms it. She also sees Jimmy making some coffee at the machine further back.

“Hi!” she says brightly to Gem. “Could I get a, uh…” She squints at the menu board. “Strawberry iced tea, please?”

She liked the strawberry coffee last time, she’s sure she’ll like this too.

Gem nods with a small smile, pressing something on the machine-thingy (—she’s sure Skizz taught her the correct word but she can’t  for the life of her remember it—). “That’ll be 5.50.”

Lizzie hands her a paper that has 20 on it. “It’s for Lizzie. Thank you!” she says, and walks off to find a table. Gem blinks, mouths something to herself, and puts it away.

“Oh, that’s the lady I was telling you about. The weird one,” Jimmy says as he glances over at the pink-haired woman. Lizzie, right? Gosh, Gem really needs to get better at remembering the names on orders.

“She didn’t seem that weird to me. Very cheerful, and she gives crazy tips, but I wouldn’t call her weird,” Gem argues as she begins making the tea she’d ordered.

The blond levels her with a deadpan look. “Gem. Last time, she spoke to me and Mumbo in weirdly formal English, gave me a fifty-dollar bill for a latte, wasn’t sure whether it was enough, didn’t know what coffee was, and when she’d found out, she drank, like, fifteen cups of it.”

Gem’s eyebrows furrow. “Was she… okay?”

“Seemed like it.”

“Huh. Oh well.” She shrugs.

Jimmy gives her a look if disbelief. “‘Oh well’?! Gem, what if she’s a ghost? Or some eldritch being?”

“Jimmy, you’ve been watching too many movies.”

“I—“ His shoulders slump with a sigh. “You’re probably right.”

“Get back to work.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

By the time they finish the summoning circle, another half hour has passed. Grian’s hands and pants are covered in chalk, and Pearl looks extremely bored of the entire thing. Once he lights the final candle, the room goes dark before a figure appears in the middle and everything goes back to normal.

In the middle of the circle, there’s a brunet man holding a grey-and-white cat. Pearl lights up, floating closer.

Grian purses his lips, extending his hand to the man. “Grian. I’m the Watcher.”

The man smirks, shaking it. “Oh, don’t worry, I can tell. I’m Scar, and this little princess is Jellie.”

“And I’m Pearl, the resident ghost! Nice to meet ya,” Pearl says, before turning her attention to Jellie. She extends a hand to her, and freezes when it touches the soft fur. “Oh. I can… touch her?”

“Not a normal cat,” Grian reminds her. “Of course you can.”

Scar looks between his cat and Pearl, who seems to be just about to cry, and wordlessly hands her Jellie. The ghost coos at the cat, floating a few steps away and focusing all her attention on her.

“So, were you told anything about this, or…?” Scar asks.

Grian shakes his head. “Nothing. Where do you need me to take you? I can take a few days off work.”

“Oh, no need! Not yet, at least. I’ll have to wait for now. When the souls I need to take care of pop up—which can be any time now, actually—then yeah, we’ll be going somewhere, but for now I’m a sitting duck.”

“Ah.”

It’s awkward silence for a moment before Grian clears his throat. “Well, you might as well unpack your things for now. Pearl, come on.”

Pearl looks up. “But—“

“You can borrow Jellie for a bit,” Scar says. “No problem!”

She lights up, happily carrying the cat out of the room. Grian follows after her, closing the door behind him.

“He seems nice,” she comments.

“We’ll see,” Grian says. “I have a feeling we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

“You do. I don’t have to do nada.”

He rolls his eyes.