:October 2nd, XX46; Wednesday.

:NEW FRIENDS.

•~~~~•

"Back at it again, bitches!" Remy did a very dramatic spin as he walked down the sidewalk, one hand holding his husband's and the other holding a cup of coffee, since it was 7:45 AM and he did need coffee to function most mornings.

The two of them were up bright and early, obviously, headed over to Joe's school so they could follow him around and hopefully have a chance to let him in on a few things when he was walking home later that day. Remy wasn't going back on his promise, no way- especially if he got the amazing honor to be called his uncle verbally for the first time because of it. That had really made him happy yesterday night, whether he showed it or not.

"Don't pull me around too much while you're doing all that," Emile said with a giggle, gripping Remy's hand as they walked together.

"Right, right. Well- there's his school up ahead, and I think I have a good idea as to where this first class is."

"...Plot convenience?"

"Plot convenience."

The two of them entered the school grounds and Remy lead the way, going to a building labeled B building and up the stairs, where he quickly found Joe leaning against a wall outside a classroom with his two friends by his side. Joe looked up for a moment and spotted Remy, eyebrows raising for a second.

"-Yeah, yeah. Uh, I'm gonna go to the bathroom before class starts real quick since I probably won't be allowed to once it does," Joe excused himself.

"Good call," Sage nodded.

Joe walked off towards where Remy and Emile were, past them to a nearby bathroom. The two ghosts followed him in, and after they checked they were alone, Joe sighed.

"So... are you guys just gonna follow me around now, then?"

"What, do you mind?" Remy raised an eyebrow, causing Joe to put his hands up half-way in the air.

"What? No, no, just wondering. Ugh... I have Health and Fitness first period, though. I just wanna go home now."

"Well, health is very important, and so is fitness," Emile said.

"Not when you're dead- just skip class. That's what I always did. And I got mostly C's, it was fine. I mean, and then I got arrested, but I got good enough grades before."

Joe blinked a few times. "...No?"

"Don't listen to him, Joe, school is important."

"Eh..?" Remy commented.

"Remy, just because you didn't pay attention in school doesn't mean your nephew-"

"Our nephew, husband."

"-should follow in your footsteps."

"Ugh, fineee," Remy put his hands up for a moment. "Health and Fitness was the class I skipped most, though. Most of the time kids just take it because they have to if they wanna graduate."

"Yeah, my friends and I all waited until our junior year so we could get in it together, but it still isn't that fun," Joe frowned. He got out his phone for a moment to check the time. "Agh- 7:59, I'm gonna go to class."

"We'll keep following you around, and then we can talk about whatever the hell you want when you walk home tonight."

Joe perked up a bit and smiled. "Awesome."

•~~~~•

"Where even is this kid's house?"

The day had gone by slowly, but now Remy and Emile were treading behind Joe and Sage, the two ghosts swinging their hands between each other. They had only been walking for maybe seven minutes, but Remy wanted to talk to his nephew as soon as possible.

"Sage's house is probably close, just wait a bit longer, honey," Emile hummed. "And let Joe have time to talk to his friends."

"Well I'm sorry I had no friends in highschool so I can't really relate to his situation right now."

Emile sighed, squeezing his husband's hand. "If you keep talking like that I'm making you have another therapy session with me."

"It was a joke, Em. I don't need you to over-analyze me for an hour like you do."

"And humor isn't always a healthy coping mechanism."

"Goddamnit... you're right, but goddamnit."

Remy looked back at the two friends ahead of him and realized Sage was crossing the street to get to his house. Remy sub-consciously checked the streets to make sure no cars were coming as the kid walked, and once he was on the other side of the road, Remy pulled his husband up closer to their nephew so they could start talking.

"Alright, kid, we got time before you get to your house, so ask away."

Joe grinned at him. "Awh, yay! I have two big ones on my mind right now but since I just thought of this third thing now, uh, did I hear Uncle Emile mention some therapist office or something?"

Emile smiled. "Yes, I'm the therapist of a lot of the ghosts in this town, we have our own office on the first story of our house and we live up on the second story. Remy's my secretary."

"To living beings it just looks like an abandoned house, though," Remy explained. "But if you can see us, maybe we should bring you on by sometime. Just for an hour or two."

Joe nodded. "Yeah, wow, that sounds really cool. On the subject of you two, though, uh... okay, so in science class yesterday I feel like I heard you mention him getting... run over by a car?"

Remy smirked a tad bit, shaking his head. He reached up to his sunglasses, which were sitting in place as usual, and moved them instead to the top of his head. "Well, how about I just explain our entire love story, huh?"

"That works," Joe slowed down his walking just a bit so they would hopefully have more time to talk. Remy cleared his throat and squeezed his husband's hand.

"Alright... so we start dating in, like, sixth grade, because we're kids and we're gay and we're idiots, but we were still in love, the whole package. So we're coming home from school one day the next year, some car comes along, runs him over, he dies, lots of dramatic backstory right there. I find out a few other things, turn to murder as my coping mechanism... yada yada yada, high school, jail, death, find out he's been following me around as a ghost the entire time I was alive when he wasn't, we get married because it you couldn't tell by now, ghosts pretty much have their own society and shit around here... go to college, get the therapy office and live our lives. Pretty much it."

"Oh, wow. And... huh. Wait, how do people not know you dated him before he died, then?"

"Uhm... I mean, I guess his family took care of the funeral shit and I was just left to mourn, but not many people knew we were ever dating and not many people found out after he died."

"Oh. Huh. Well..."

"You don't have to say you're sorry for me, kid."

Joe chuckled awkwardly. Remy smirked a bit.

"What was your other question, Joe?" Emile asked.

"Ah, right. So... hold on, I gotta show you something first for this."

Joe stopped walking and got out his phone, clicking around on it for a moment before he found something specific. He looked at Remy, back at his phone, and at Remy again.

"So... Sage was digging through his attic and he found this picture that was taken the day before you got arrested. And we learned in school that you dated someone who was related to my Uncle Janus in highschool, so, uh... here."

Joe showed the screen of the phone to Remy, and Remy's eyebrows immediately raised.

"...Huh. I forgot that picture was taken."

"It... it was my dad, right?"

Remy laughed a bit. "It sure was him. I mean, myself and your parents have a lot of fucking beef between us, but it all mostly stems from that. My main unhealthy coping mechanism wasn't doing me any good, I met Patton, thought he resembled Emile, starting yearning for what could have been... asked him out. We dated for, like, a week, then I got arrested and he testified against me in court, another whole thing."

"Hm... ah, no offense to you, but I just can't believe my dad ever dated a murderer..."

Remy was tempted to say he still is, kid, but he kept his mouth shut for once. "Not surprised. Do with that what you will, I guess."

"Why do you look so sad in that picture, though?"

Remy raised an eyebrow, looking at it again. The kid was right- he was smirking, but it was pretty obviously fake. And he wasn't wearing his leather jacket, for some reason, which just- oh, right.

He totally forgot that the night before he met up with Patton that Sunday, Logan had stolen his jacket to frame him for murdering some guy in their grade. Remy was gonna tell Patton that Logan was a murderer that very day... but then they saw Patton's friends, and that corrupted his plans completely. After the picture was taken, Remy just made an excuse to leave, because he knew he probably wasn't gonna have another chance to get his message across to his then-boyfriend, all because of the fact the world he lived him always worked against him. When that picture was taken, he knew he was about to lose the only thing that reminded him of his long-lost Emile.

...It felt he had lost Emile twice when that had happened.

Emile stared at Remy with sad eyes for a moment- he could probably tell what he was thinking, of course he could.

"...Well, let's just say I knew I was gonna be arrested the day after that was taken."

"Really? Wow," Joe nodded. He quickly shoved his phone back in his pocket.

The three of them kept walking after that.

"Anything else? We'll be here literally forever, kid, so if you're out of shit to ask now then just ask it later."

"Yeah, I don't know what else to ask. Wow... huh, that's all so weird, though. Kind of interesting."

"You could put it that way, mhm."

Soon enough, Joe had made it home and he bid his goodbyes to his ghost uncles, Remy making sure he knew not to mention any of this to his parents any time soon so they wouldn't freak out about it. After he was safely inside, the ghosts started on their walk home.

"...Are you gonna tell him what his parents have done, Rem?" Emile asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had come between them for a few moments.

"Nah. I don't think he needs to know that. I don't want him to be overly traumatized, I mean, I'm trying to protect the damn kid here."

Emile laughed quietly. "Yeah... well, I gotta say that we're lucky he didn't ask any questions that you couldn't answer without him knowing that stuff. You think it's plot convenience again?"

Remy blinked, raising his eyebrows. His hand reached to his pocket and he got out his phone. "Yep, that was a little odd. Guess we'll all just have to wait until he asks about that later."

"What are you doing, sweetie?" Emile laid his head on Remy's shoulder for a moment as he was writing something down in his phone.

"Uhm... well, I gotta come up with an excuse if he does say something, right?"

"So you wrote it down?"

"To remind myself, duh."

"Oh yeah," Emile giggled, beginning to swing their still intertwined hands as they continued their walk. "Duh."

•~~~~•
So i guess i don't know the definition of a hiatus lol

Jokes aside, i'm back!- But really. i was just a bit stressed yesterday but i got bored and ended up writing this chapter because i have a lot more free time on my hands than i thought i did. So updates will still be regular, at whatever pace they've been going, hopefully. All is going according to plan, i promise.

See ya in the next chapter!🤎
    ~Maxx(SanderShipper)