Chapter Text
The house was empty again. The large group of needy teenagers had left but not without leaving behind a lot of their stuff and even more trash that they couldn’t be bothered to throw out themselves. However, for everyone but Jay it was loud as ever.
Trevor and Jay had added a new member to the team who insisted Trevor communicated all his puns to Jay. In the morning, instead of making breakfast for a group of teenagers the three of them hid in Sam and Jay’s bedroom, Jay and Trevor sat on the bed while Pete stood in front of them. Trevor tapped away on the iPad as Jay talked to Pete, unable to hear a single response but smiling giddily anyway.
Trevor decided that Sass had began to warm up to him after yesterday, so it was time to step up his game and the next he’d explore his own love language. Physical touch.
“You can’t just go up to him and touch him,” Jay argued, “That’s like… very weird.”
Pete matched Jay’s scrunched eyebrows on his own face. “It is pretty creepy,” Pete agreed
“You’re gonna take back any possible progress you’ve made,” Jay warned, not having heard anything Pete said. Pete nodded along enthusiastically. Trevor conceded that they might have a point.
Naturally, this turned into Pete pretending to be Sasappis so that Trevor could practice not being a creep. Which proved to be harder than expected. But Pete never missed an opportunity for improv. Don’t you act out flirting with someone who hates you with your friends?
Pete talked in a weird voice, trying to sound serious and stoic but it did not come off that way at all. Pete also got way too invested in his new role, recreating Sass’s eye rolls, side eyes, glares, and even started swatting away Trevor’s hands.
“Come on! Sass wouldn’t hit me for that!” Trevor refuted while rubbing his right hand with his other. He had simply rested his hand on Pete’s head, no big deal!
“Yes, he would,” Pete responded back in his normal happy voice.
Yeah, he probably would. Trevor wouldn’t even touch his head in the first place; he was just suddenly way too aware of his hands and different body parts which was not something he normally spent his time thinking about.
“This is just really weird! If I was actually next to Sass I wouldn’t be nearly as awkward as I am right now,” Trevor decided and went back to his iPad. Jay had been on his phone while the two ghosts ‘practiced’, at first, he was watching TikToks by teenage and young adult girls telling you how to get your crush to like you back, most of these weren’t really doable for two ghosts, and it didn’t help that Trevor got annoyed every time the word ‘crush’ was used. Scrolling through TikToks of stock videos with the same generic tips on them again and again, eventually turned into regular search bar videos and now Jay was captivated by satisfying videos. Then a notification popped up, a text from his own ipad.
「u 2 r getting in my head Im going to find sass」
Jay called out to Trevor, not knowing if he was even still in earshot and then immediately realised that it was a hopeless endeavour and went to find his wife, who could actually help him.
Pete did follow him. He had decided that maybe they were over thinking it, and Trevor would be fine, so instead of telling him off for straying from their planning he gave him tips as Trevor continuously tried to walk fast and faster to lose him. Eventually they ended up jogging over the entire house, still unable to find Sasappis.
Pete suggested going outside and there he was, on his bench, watching the branch. Trevor stumbled back inside, pushing Pete through the wall with him. Sass turned promptly at the sound and saw a tiny spec of what looked like a black shoe going through the door. Just as Sass had predicted, after a few seconds of silence Trevor walked back out of the same door, threading a hand through his stiff, gel covered hair.
Sass went back to watching the branch, maybe if it fell right now, he could use it to escape talking to Trevor.
“Watching the branch again?” Trevor asked and he sat on the edge of the bench. Sass shuffled over to make room for him.
“You never know if today will be the day,” Sass replied, still looking at the tree, his arms crossed like normal.
“When did you start watching it?” Trevor inquired, turning to face the branch as well. He had draped his right leg over his left, knowing that Sass hated it when he left his legs open and risked exposure.
“I don’t know, I just saw it looked kind of fragile a few years back,” he answered.
“And you never get bored?”
“When you’ve been around as long as Thor and me you learn how to be content with the simple things. For almost 500 years I’ve had no screens, nothing artificial, no large crowds of people everywhere I go, being in the mansion can be a lot sometimes,” he explained.
“Not me though, right? you’d never get sick of me,” Trevor joked, batting his eyelashes to Sass while framing his face with his hands.
Sass stared back. “…sure,” he dead panned but Trevor could see the whisper of a smile.
Trevor laughed and lightly hit his fist on Sass’s shoulder. That was not slick at all, Lefkowitz.
They sat in a comfortable silence for a little while. Sass shifted how he sat and moved his arms so they rested on his knees.
“You still trying to win this bet?” Sasappis broke the silence.
“I think I’ve already won, I just gotta make you admit that you like me,” Trevor teased.
“Never gonna happen, T-Money,” he mocked.
“Oh my gosh!” He exclaimed excitedly, practically jumping up and down, he grabbed onto Sass’s shoulders, “You just called me T-Money!” he giggled like a schoolgirl. Sass rolled his eyes and fought a smile; he lost that fight.
“Alright, alright,” Sass chuckled and pulled Trevor’s hands off him. “I don’t think the branch is going to fall today, I’m going inside.” He stood up from the bench and turned back to look at Trevor. “Come on.”
He gestured for him to get up and follow him inside and Trevor happily did so. When they walked through the door, chatting amongst themselves, they followed the noise of their housemates talking.
Sam was talking to Nancy, Thor, and Pete in the living room. Thor and Pete standing while the women sat on the couch in the living room.
“Well speak of the devil,” Nancy jeered when they walked into the house.
They turned to look at her, both raising their eyebrows.
“Huh?” Sass asked.
“We were talking about Trevor,” Thor explained.
Sass eagerly walked into the room, always intrigued by gossip, Trevor followed behind him like a dog following his owner.
“What did he do this time?” He taunted Trevor, smiling while he looked back at him as the taller man caught up beside him.
Sam answered with her own question, “Trevor, are you actually dating multiple girls at once?” She asked, her words dripping with disgust. Face scrunched and eyes shooting repulsion.
Sass promptly spun to face Trevor. His eyes interrogated Trevor.
“Um, no?” Trevor responded anxiously, caught off guard from the accusation. He cleared his throat. “No definitely not, why would I do that?” He corrected himself.
“You’ve used the iPad to go on dating apps before! Why’d you do it that time?” Sam pointed out.
Trevor watched Sass’s expression change from shocked and confused to disappointed and appalled.
“That was the old me!” Trevor defended himself. He didn’t know what Sam was talking about, but he was sure the three weasels – one of the many nicknames Jay had come up with for Alberta, Hetty and Isaac – were behind it. And he could see the trust and friendship with Sasappis that he had worked so hard to maintain slipping from his grasp. Sass had finally looked at him with more than contempt or annoyance, he finally stopped hiding his laugh whenever Trevor made a joke, his gaze was softened when teasing Trevor. But now Sass’s eyes looked at him with betrayal.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Trevor continued.
“Come on you dog, everyone’s been talking about it,” Nancy said sluggishly.
“It’s just a rumour! Sass and Hetty start rumours all the time!” Pete excused, he was fidgeting and bouncing up and down in his spot.
“We can settle this easily, I’ll just check the iPad,” Sam settled. She started to walk to the kitchen to find the iPad when Trevor and Pete stopped her. she paused. “What?”
Trevor hemmed and hawed and looked to Pete for help, this was the time to use your improv skills!
“Uh, Jay has some private information on the iPad,” Pete offered, trying not to waver. He realised halfway through the sentence it probably wasn’t the best move.
This gained the attention of everyone.
“Oh, ho, ho, the man servant has a secret hey?” Nancy laughed
“What secrets, Pete?” Sam demanded.
“Just check the iPad, you’ll understand!” He responded, “Just off the property!” He added last minute.
“Is small man talk with women, not Trevor?” Thor asked.
Nancy covered her mouth with a fist. “oohh, this just got interesting!” Nancy jeered.
This was getting out of hand very quickly.
“I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation, Sam,” Sass reassured her.
“Yeah, he was crazy lucky for you to even agree to a second date,” Trevor tried to relive tension with another stupid joke. It didn’t work great.
Sam and Jay ended up leaving the property with as many electronics with them as possible. They were gone for an hour or two and, to most of the ghosts’ relief, came back smiling. Nancy was disappointed that there weren’t any fireworks. While they were gone Trevor was desperate to smooth things over with Sass, the less time Sass hated him, the better. But Pete had a different idea. Pete would talk with Sass, try to talk him up, while Trevor talked to the gossipers. Surely, they would back down after seeing how out of hand their rumour got, it could’ve caused long term damage to two innocent bystanders’ marriage!
Sass wanted to clear his mind. He didn’t know why he felt so rattled but he knew he needed a break from Trevor. He had spent the last few days constantly nearby and trying to win him over. He wanted to make sure Trevor didn’t follow him, so he escaped through the back of the mansion while he was distracted. However, he hadn’t considered another ghost following him and soon he was walking side by side with Pete Martino.
Pete loved the outdoors, as a pinecone troop leader he spent a lot of his time outdoors. He found it comforting and went outside when he needed to clear his mind too.
Sass was the same way, expect unlike Pete, when Sass was alive he didn’t have a choice. It was never an escape per say. But he did always find himself taking walks off the property when he was alive. He would sometimes go off with his friends to swim in a nearby lake as a teenager when they needed to blow off steam, or he’d travel to a new part of the land he hadn’t seen before when he needed to think. But now he was trapped in the confines of an invisible force field where he could never explore those parts again.
He hated it before the Woodstones built their mansion on the land. He was stuck in the same patch of land with annoying ghosts, watching them get sucked off while he was stuck there watching his friends and family grieve, die, fight, and soon he watched his people get thrown out of their rightful home with little to no one remembering them. He could see all the places he wanted to go to just over the earth’s curve, but he could never go there. It still sucked when the mansion was built but he grew much more grateful and appreciative of what little land he had left. And grateful for the few people he had with him.
They might not be his biological family, nor did he choose them to be his family. But they certainly were his family. He just wished they weren’t constantly there.
“Might If I join you buddy?” Pete asked, not caring about the answer and Sass didn’t bother to answer either. Pete was always going to be there.
Sass was weirdly close with Pete. They just sort of clicked, Pete was the sweet to his salty, but he would never admit that and definitely wouldn’t admit to using that phrasing. Their conversations always had an easy flow, despite Pete getting on his nerves sometimes. And when they became roommates, they became even closer, while at first Sass resisted and wanted to keep as little communication and contact as possible, he eventually gave in.
“Crazy what’s going on back in the house, hey? Glad to get away from all that drama for a little bit,” Pete chuckled. He breathed in the air around him.
“What secrets did Jay have on the iPad?” Sasappis asked. Pete had been the one to bring it up, he would know for sure what was on there. Would that mean he’d know if Trevor actually was using it to message girls? How long at Trevor been doing it and why didn’t he know, he’s supposed to know everything going on in the mansion.
Pete stumbled over his words before he finally decided to say, “I, uh, probably shouldn’t tell you until Jay gets back, I don’t know how important the secret is to him.”
Sass kept insisting, his love for gossip was never quenched. But Pete stayed ever loyal, he had a loyalty badge after all. And he’d protect Jay to the ends of the earth.
“Fine, don’t tell me,” Sass surrendered, “But, do you have any information on the Trevor rumour?” He asked, switching topics. The rumour was gnawing at his brain, his curiosity killing him.
“Oh, right, er…” Pete thought aloud, putting the puzzle together in his head. “I don’t think the source is very credible,” He laughed awkwardly, “It’s like a big game of telephone!”
“I mean, I guess I wouldn’t put it past him, he did do it to Bela,” Sass said
“It might be the optimist in me, but I think Trevor’s really changed,” Pete suggested.
Sass laughed under his breath. “What about this whole bet? He’s flirting with me to prove he’s the smoothest in the mansion,” Sass scoffed.
A silence fell over them. It was weird having Pete not talk.
Pete slowed his pace. “You know… I don’t think that’s what this bet is about,” He pondered. “I don’t know why he’s so determined to win but honestly I don’t know if this bet is about winning for him.”
“What do you mean?”
Trevor and Sass were constantly competing. Sass loved to mess with Trevor, he loved watching him get so competitive and taking every dare too seriously. Trevor was always determined to win, but his pride was defeated easily. It was a delicate balance that Sass had perfected.
“I don’t think he’s determined to win or to beat you, I think he more just wants you to like him,” Pete offered, “I mean, it’s no secret that he cares what others think about him.”
When Trevor died and joined the cluster of ghosts at Woodstone manor, only one person knew the truth of how he died, Sasappis. He was so scared of his friends seeing him differently that he gave up his pants secretly and covered it with a lie. Even once he was dead and those jerks were long gone, he kept up the lie, because he still didn’t want to be seen as a traitor to his closest friends. His ego was so easily bruised, and he was constantly thinking of how everyone in the room viewed him. Sass knew that the other ghosts probably still saw him as the douche that doesn’t wear pants and flirts with everyone. But Sass had never seen him that way. Sure, he was a douche, and he didn’t wear pants, and he did flirt with everyone, but Sass never saw that as his identity, more of just a quirk. He was always trying to make the ghosts see him how Sass did, look beyond the no pants thing.
Looking at it now, he saw how obvious it was that Trevor was just seeking his approval. But that didn’t make the flirting any less annoying nor teasing him any less fun.
“Maybe, you’re right,” Sasappis admitted, “But if it is true then there’s no way he’ll win this bet,” he stated. Sasappis might understand his real motive now but if he really was dating two people while messing with him it would take a whole lot for him to look at him the same way.
Back in the house, while Pete began his PR campaign, Trevor was confronting those accountable.
Trevor and the three gossipers snuck to the library.
“Okay, obviously it wasn’t meant to get that out of hand,” Isaac stammered, short of breath.
“This was your plan to take me down?” Trevor demanded
“The rumour didn’t start that way, it just got out of hand,” Hetty reasoned.
“Sam and Jay are arguing right now!” Trevor expressed.
“Well Thor was the one who accused Jay,” Alberta excused.
“And it was Peter who even wrapped Jay into it at all!” Isaac piggy backed off her.
“What secrets are on there anyway? Does Jay actually have private stuff on there?” Alberta pried.
“What? no! that was a lie Pete came up with on the spot,” Trevor explained, brushing her off.
“Well, then why didn’t you two want people to see what was on the iPad?” Alberta pushed.
“I don’t know, I guess I just don’t want Sass to see how we’re plotting to win him over, it’s creepy!”
“He already knows you’re doing it, he knows about the bet,” Isaac interrupted.
Trevor felt jittery in his stomach, and he was desperate to get the conversation back on track. He hadn’t told Sass about the second bet, and he didn’t want him to know about it either.
“Look! Just, this went way too far, you three need to apologise to Sam and Jay, and you need to set things straight with Sass,” Trevor demanded.
The ghosts persisted that they did nothing wrong and Trevor kept debating with them, knowing they wouldn’t listen to a word he said but he never gave up on a challenge. He’d spent years arguing with Sass, he could handle these three. Why was he thinking about Sass?
Eventually they agreed to apologize to the livings, but they refused to talk to Sass which Trevor understood. Making Sass not like Trevor was the whole point of starting the rumour anyway.
Once Sam and Jay drove back onto the property, all of the ghosts had clumped back together and a few of them ran out and jogged along with the car as it drove back into it’s parking spot. They saw how the ghosts had gathered in the living room waiting to see what had happened and Nancy had gone to the basement to share what had happened upstairs. Sam made a mental note to go down there later and clear up whatever misconceptions she spread. Thorfinn, Flower and Sass were the only ones that didn’t know what was going on. All of the other upstairs ghosts knew the rumour was just a rumour and that Jay didn’t actually have anything secret on the iPad. The husband and wife announced to the ghosts that nothing was wrong, Jay was planning a surprise vacation for Sam as a gift and didn’t want the ghosts to ruin the surprise or begin to complain about being left alone. As for the Trevor rumour, neither of them could find any record of him conversing with anyone other than Sam and Jay.
Pete, Jay, and Sam met off the property where no other ghosts could hear them. Pete had a lot of questions; was Jay actually planning a trip? Trevor wasn’t messaging anyone, right? Does Sam know about the war of love? (a code term Jay and Pete had coined to discuss the bet, but Trevor refused to use it). Is Sam going to help?
Sam arranged to talk to those responsible for starting the rumour and reprimand them, but she also told Jay and Pete to stay out of it too. She had gotten involved in too many awkward situations in the past few years because of the ghosts and was finally starting to learn from it. Pete admitted that the whole situation was silly and that he didn’t know why he had gotten so invested in a bet. It wasn’t like him. Pete was an easy-going, doormat, with a love for improv and blood sports. He normally only got involved with the ghosts’ the bets, dares, and arguments in order to resolve and settle them.
All the ghosts agreed to Sam’s terms, the bet could continue as long as it didn’t impact her.
The whole debacle had taken most of the morning. Trevor decided to wait a few hours before bothering Sasappis again. The sun was beginning to set when they next crossed paths. The ghosts tended to all naturally gather together to watch TV and smell dinner towards the end of the day. But while watching TV Sass noticed one ghost missing from the group, none other than Mr playboy himself, Trevor Leftkowitz.
Sass got up while the rest of the group were discussing with Sam what to watch next and no one paid him any mind. He snuck out of the room and started wandering the halls looking for Trevor. He hadn’t bothered him in a while, it was odd. Eventually he found Trevor sitting on his own unofficially designated bench.
“Watcha doing out here?” Sass asked as he turned the corner and sat down next to Trevor. Trevor moved down on the seat to make room, but Sass noted how he could their shoulders pushed together and how they rose as Trevor took a deep breath. Weird that they still did that, there was no air in their lungs or blood in their veins, but they still breathed like everyone else. Was it just instinct from when they were alive? Or was it something more?
“You never know when today will be the day,” Trevor replied, still watching the tree. Sass saw the outline of a faint smile and a glint in his eye, or maybe that was just the sunset. Sass stopped fighting his smile for once.
“What are you doing out here?” Trevor asked and turned to meet Sass’s eyes, not realising how close their faces now were.
“Eh, just wanted to sit at my bench,” he said.
Trevor turned back to face the branch. Sass had been waiting for that branch to snap before Trevor even died and joined them, hell he might’ve been waiting before he was even born.
Trevor noticed Sass wanting to say something. He opened and closed his mouth, deciding not to say what was on his mind.
“What?” Trevor asked.
Sass looked up, confused.
“You clearly want to say something,” Trevor noted softly.
Sass paused. “Be honest with me, alright?”
“Alright.”
“Were you messaging girls on the iPad?” Sasappis asked.
“What? no! of course not!” Trevor responded
“Okay, okay, I believe you! I just needed to hear it from you,” Sass said, he bumped his elbow into Trevor playfully as he turned back to look at the branch as if to say that it was all behind them. It had been really bothering him, plaguing his mind but he didn’t know why. What did he expect from Trevor? But here, now, he remembered why it was so shocking. This peaceful, soft version of the lover boy, a side no one else got to see that often, he was so much more than the persona he put on. Sass thought about what he and Pete were talking about earlier.
“Trevor, you don’t have to pretend around me. I know this overly confident; douchebag character you portray isn’t all there is to you.”
Trevor looked as though he was in thought. Sass didn’t care, something about the glowing sea of pink and yellow light and soft breeze rustling the leaves made him feel more open. Or was it the soft yet tangy scent of Trevor’s cologne forever imprinted on his suit jacket.
“You’re always thinking about what everyone else is thinking about you. You were so fixated on how Ari and the other jerks saw you that even once they were long gone you kept the secret of breaking your bro code,” he said the last bit with a tinge of sarcasm, but the rest was genuine. “And now you’re so desperate for us to see you the opposite but refuse to let us see the real you. The insecure mess under the hair gel and ironed suit.”
Sass wondered if he had gone too far, bordering on rude.
“I feel like you’re the only one that sees that side of me,” Trevor confessed breathlessly. “I don’t know who the real me is.”
“The real you is goofy, sweet, determined, supportive, but also a bit obnoxious sometimes,” Sass responded earnestly, chuckling to himself at the end. “You care about your loved ones and would do anything for them when it comes down to it. You always make me laugh without fail. You stand with your beliefs but surprisingly you manage to not be ignorant. You’re also annoying, overly flirty, I barely understand the words you use half the time, but somehow, despite you being everything I hate, I don’t hate you,” he confessed. They looked into each other’s eyes, swimming in the warmth. “But most importantly, you’re not the best charmer in the house,” Sass teased coyly before standing up from the bench.
Trevor scoffed, more impressed than insulted.
“One day, Sasappis, one day I’ll get you!” Trevor called out as he watched Sass slyly walk back into the mansion, stifling his giggles with a smirk. Trevor’s stomach tightened into a knot.