Chapter Text
Warm light filters through the half-closed blinds, illuminating the sight of a floor scattered with wrapped presents. Predicable, high-pitched squeals fill the air as a pair of small feet dahs to the pile, wide grins with missing teeth splitting their young faces. The youngest takes to shaking a box to try and hear what’s inside, while the elder brushes through the piles, excitedly hoarding his own. 2 adults lower themselves to the couch behind them, watching fondly, while another distantly hovers behind it.
“Open them, sweetie.” The woman smiles, warm and welcoming, as she snuggles up to her husband to watch their little faces. Yet one of the boys- the elder, blond one, has a concern first.
“Hey, Mom? How come Santa never leaves anything for Todd?”
“We told you, baby, he’s too old.” She says, even as the spot on the couch next to her holds 2 packages with their names on them ‘from Santa’. This goes unspoken.
“Yeah, dummy!” The younger laughs, almost prompting a fight, before their father’s bellowing laughter cuts them off.
“Boys, boys! Not today,” His sheer volume takes them out of the moment and they squeal in joy as he lobs a candy bar from each of their stockings at them as a distraction. “It’s Christmas!”
“Speaking of- hey Sport, think you can grab the camera?” He asks (demands more honestly) distractedly over his shoulder with a shooing wave, eyes still pinned to the children. “Really splurged on one present in particular- I wanna save their reactions.”
“Yeah, sure.”
The camera bag is hung on the inside of the closet by the door. Never hard to find. He turns the thing on and places it down to check the film. As he hears excited noises in the background and a masked impatience in his step-father’s voice to hurry up, his hands ghost over a carefully wrapped box in his pyjama pocket. He takes it out, worrying at his lip as he remembers the amount he spent on the necklace inside. Maybe this year it’ll be worth it.
With a deep breath, he places it on the side table and turns around to boot up the camera.
In all the commotion, the little box marked ‘to Ma’ stays unnoticed there until the next day.
-
“So I’m there with the whole news team interviewing me for 2 hours about my election and then the paper comes out- and I had mustard on my tie the whole time!”
Scratch bursts out laughing, spraying the concrete underfoot with a gross mix of chocolate ice cream and spittle. Molly swats at him, annoyed. “It’s not funny, Scratch! I asked Libby like 20 times if I looked good before doing that interview and she didn’t say anything!!!”
“I rubbed off on her.” He states it as fact, swallowing his third scoop of eight like a snake. Molly grimaces away from the sight of him chewing with his mouth open- one thing she for sure hasn’t missed. “I’m proud of her. …Whaaat?” He whines when he sees her face. “That’s objectively funny!”
It is, but she can’t admit it else she ruin The Bit. Rolling her eyes, Molly takes a sprinkle-covered lick of her own ice cream.
The street has started to look uncomfortably familiar with the two of them noticing where their walk has taken them around the same time. Silence falls over the duo as they reach a corner and are met with a lonely bungalow across the street.
Molly’s chest squeezes with the memory. Scratch has stopped floating along with her and their breaths (Scratch is still in the habit apparently) are the only things that fill the air.
Slowly, Molly reaches her hand out and takes his limp one from his side. She gives the ectoplasm a little squeeze, making it squish under the force without any pushback.
“…Are you ok?”
“Are you?”
They glance at each other at the same time, still in sync after all these years. Brown eyes meet yellow in a look of silent worry.
“…You’re the one who lost a friend here.” Scratch nudges her arm in a weak attempt at a joke. She squeezes his hand tighter, staring at it.
“I didn’t lose you. That’s not how forever friends work.”
“Right.” His voice softens in understanding. “You know what I mean.”
“I’m fine. Are you ok? It was…a big decision.”
“I’m ok, Moll.” He says softly, in that confident, adult voice he only used when he needed to be there for her. She glances up and meets his eye again, with a small smile. There’s a pause, where they exchange all the words they need to silently. They can’t literally hear each other’s thoughts via the curse anymore, but they haven’t needed to in a long time.
Scratch is sure this is heading to a sappy hug and he’d be lying if he said he doesn’t want one. But the moment is interrupted before that closure by a loud shuffling sound.
Looking over in unison, the two spot an old, grey haired woman conspicuously putting out her trash while keeping a suspicious eye on them. Scratch just glares right back at her, momentarily forgetting that hes not visible to humans anymore. Molly is a little more polite about it.
“Oh! Sorry! Sorry.” She holds up her hands, laughing sheepishly as she acknowledges the woman. “Didn’t mean to stare, it’s just…” She makes her way across the empty road so as to not have to raise her voice so much. “…An old friend of mine used to live here.” Her voice softens on the words, turning almost sad. The phrasing triggers a sense of deja vu in Scratch, but the memory is so old and, at the time, meaningless he can’t pin it down before her continued speaking chases it away. “I guess I was just caught up in nostalgia.” Molly chuckles, back to her regular cheery tone.
“Oh!” The woman’s face lights up for a moment. “You knew the old owner?”
“That’s right!” Scratch shakes his head with a pout, accepting that the memory isn’t going to come to him. Maybe it doesn’t matter. The past is overrated anyway.
Face changing back to a sour expression, the woman grabs Molly by the shoulder. “Wait here.”
“Um-?”
She then begins a slow toddle back towards her house on her cane. Molly’s offer to help her is rudely brushed off, making Scratch snip a flower from one of her carefully groomed hedges in retaliation. The two follow her to her door, curious, but only get a glimpse of what looks to be a horder situation before the woman jumpscares them at the door again. Molly stumbles back awkwardly, before quickly shoving her hands in her jean pockets and whistling in faux innocence.
“Here.” The woman says curtly, dropping a canvas sack into her arms. Either the woman is some kind of bodybuilder or Molly is made of twigs because the weight of what looked like a light bag nearly sends her to the floor. Scratch can’t decide between laughing or feeling embarrassed for his friend. He chooses to show her mercy by using his magic to help her hold the thing aloft.
“Um…thanks?” Molly says awkwardly, with a forced smile as she looks at her around the bag. “What’s uh…what’s all this?”
“His mail. Tell your friend to stop giving people this address!”The woman snaps, waving her cane in anger, before slamming the door shut. The two stare at it for a long moment in silence.
“…You know, if this is how your citizens talk to you, you might want my advice with some of your speeches.” Molly shoots him a deadpan look. “…What? So-rry I forgot to cancel some junk mail what, 30 years ago! I was kinda busy reinventing my life!”
With a series of grunts, Molly heaves the bag down the woman’s front path and dumps it on the pavement. It’s weird to see her being the one holding an aging back for once. “I mean,” He continues, trying not to get emotional about his little girl being all grown up- no! Stop it! “Who the hell keeps this much mail that ain’t even theirs?! How was I supposed to predict that?!”
“Well, she does seem like she needs a wellness check…” Molly mumbles, taking out her phone and making a note of the address. “I’ll get someone on that tomorrow. But for now:” Her lips curve up into that patented manic kitten look as she places her hands over the opening of the sack. “You know what this means?”
He doesn’t, but he knows her fun idea face when he sees one. Leaning in, his eyes widen to excited black orbs. “What? What does it mean?”
Molly grins and yanks the bag open, throwing the contents everywhere like confetti. “Mail time capsule!”
“HEY! NO LITTERING ON MY LAWN!”
“Oops!” Molly laughs sheepishly, hurrying to collect the envelopes. “S-SORRY!”
-
“Ok I will admit this is not as fun as I thought it’d be.” Molly deadpans, throwing away yet another flyer for a closed down business.
“Told ya.” Scratch says boredly from atop the bin. He whines, voice annoyingly high pitched, as he holds up a pizza flyer. “Maaaan! Look at these coupons! How often do you get a deal like that?!”
Molly squints at the fine print. “…20 years ago apparently.”
“I know! …Do you think they’re still valid?” He turns to her hopefully. Molly just shakes her head sadly and pats him on the shoulder. With a sad whimper, not unlike a puppy just denied a bite of the boiling water on the stove, he drops the coupons into the bin.
“How do you even have so much junk mail anyway?” Molly grumbles as she throws away yet another handful of flyers.
“Unsubscribing meant navigating a webpage or calling someone. Too much effort.” Scratch answers plainly. Molly frowns at the implications of what his life was like from that sentence. She tries not to dwell on it.
Scratch, for his part, hardly sees the point in looking through all this. He doesn’t know what Molly thinks she’s gonna find. It’s not like he ever got real mail. Afterall, with him and Adia together in person again, who would bother to message him?
Apparently just one.
He finds the letter within a boat catalogue Molly had carelessly thrown away. He just glanced down and, seemingly by luck, caught a glimpse of a gold envelope sticking out from between the pages. Curious, he extends a hand down to grab the thing and angles his body away from Molly as he opens it. She’s too busy commenting on his taste in tabloids to notice.
‘I invite you, dearest brother-‘ As soon as he spots the fancy handwriting his eyes begin to roll. Of course. What did he expect. It’s just a generic wedding invitation from about a decade ago- things must not have worked out with Charles then. He’d say he predicted it, but he’d barely spoken to the guy at the last one enough to figure him out. Barely even spoke to the groom or best man. He didn’t want to ruin the wedding getting into a fight and it seemed they had the same idea.
‘Dearest brother’… Vom. Fake gagging to himself, Scratch goes to throw the letter away- only to encounter a problem. His ectoplasm sticks to the paper like glue and he attempts to shake it off with an annoyed grimace. No matter what he tries, the letter holds tight. Giving in to the uncomfortable whirling in his gut, he finally yanks it free from his uncooperative body. “Fine!” He spits, and forms a pocket to shove it in out of sight. He swears he sees plan B shoot him a thumbs up and glares.
“Did you say something, Scratch?” Molly asks, head deep in the nearly empty bag.
“Nothing!” He answers way too quickly. Molly raises an eyebrow at the speed of his response, but quickly becomes distracted in her search for the last dregs of mail. From the bottom of the sack her hand brushes something a little firmer than the rest, almost like card.
“Hmm?” Pulling it out reveals an aged postcard with a picture of Old Faithful. Scratch quickly gains interest and swoops up by her shoulder for a look as she turns it over. “‘Wish you were here, miss you lots, ya old geyser…’” She reads aloud. At the bottom, by Adia’s name, is a very square doodle of human Scratch as an old man. A glance to her side reveals him to be a perfect, scowling replica of the drawing.
“I don’t look like that. At least not then.” He pouts, crossing his arms. Molly just laughs; it’s such a cute message and response.
“When did she even send this?” Scratch snatches the postcard from her and looks over both sides of it. “Can’t have been long after I left…we only met up a month later…”
“Um…August 6th, 2022.” Molly reads aloud from the back of it. Scratch turns it around to see, brow raising in surprise.
“Jeez. No wonder I found her so quick if she was already in The States…”
“It’s so cool you two’ve seen all these places.” Molly comments, holding up a hand to the postcard, almost wistfully. “We went to Yellowstone once when we used to travel, but I was only 4 so I don’t really remember it. What’s it like?”
“What?” Scratch asks, distractedly. “No, I’ve never been there-“
“You WHAT?!”
Covering his ears and shooting her an annoyed look, Scratch scowls. “What?? It’s just a bunch of wilderness-“
“But it’s famous! I thought you’ve been, y’know, everywhere major.” Molly leans her arm against the bin and her cheek against her inner elbow, almost pouting in disappointment. Like a child watching their cartoon hero remove its mascot head.
“The world’s a big place.” Scratch just shrugs, casually. “Ya gotta prioretise some things over others.”
“You prioritised going to every themed Flavour Burger in the US over one of our national parks?”
“Oh, not the Flavour Burger rant again-“ Scratch groans.
Molly giggles. “It’s just funny to me, I guess. I always assumed you did everything… It’s kinda weird to me that there’s this whole adventure out there that you never had…”
Slightly offended, Scratch crosses his arms. “I mean, I wouldn’t describe it that way-“
A loud, helium like gasp cuts off whatever he was about to say next, and he stares down in alarm as Molly’s eyes widen into shiny black buttons. Ugh…he needs to get used to that inhuman enthusiasm again.
“Scratch.” Molly grins up at him with her manic scheming smile. It looks slightly more uncanny on her matured facial features, but maybe that’s just because he isn’t used to it yet. He nods silently, growing just a touch worried.
“If there’s an adventure you didn’t get to have…then that means we can have it TOGETHER!” Grinning, Molly jumps to her feet and presses their faces close in excitement. Before Scratch can respond, she’s pulled away and begun zipping around, setting up an invisible cork board that presumably only exists in her mind. “We can invite Mom and Dad and Darryl now that he’s in town-“ A gasp. “We can make it a family roadtrip! A family adventure!”
“A road trip?” Scratch asks, trying to hide his interest. “Hmm… seems kinda cramped.”
“That’s the fun of it!” Molly waves him off with a smile. “And, trust me, if anyone knows how to keep ourselves entertained on long drives, it’s us McGee’s.” Well, she does have a point there. “EEE! This’ll be so fun! Since we never actually got to go to Sunnyland, this’ll be our first real family vacation with you!”
He wants to tell her that he considers the staycation she planned perfectly real, but that’s a little too sappy, even for his new personality. “Well, I admit, I do see the appeal in hotsprings…” He trails off to tease her.
“EEEE!” With a tackle, she brings the two of them to the ground with a shared laugh.