Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“MOM!” Esther screamed as she ran in from outside heading towards the front desk. A half resurrected zombie she had been practicing necromancy on following behind.

“Oh my god Esther! Are you alright? What happened?” Her mom asked, panic lacing her voice. As she looked towards her daughter's resurrected pursuer and rushed to help.

“Oh, the zombies aren't what I need help with.” Esther laughed as she reached behind the desk for a shovel she hid a few months ago.

Katherine sighed and went back behind the desk,“Okay then, first why is there a zombie following you? And second, what do you need then?”

“Oh Heather texted me, she wants to come over to hang out and work on school stuff. Plus I was hoping she could stay over. I was gonna just have her over without telling you, but she said that was ‘wrong’ and refused to come over without permission. Also her dad already said he'd drive her soooo?” Esther explained, ignoring the first question as she hit the zombie over the head

“Heather can come over of course but I'm not sure about a sleepover, especially with this being so last minute.”

“Come on mom!!! Please, it's a Saturday.” Esther said before pausing, looking down, then looking up with sad hopeful eyes, “Plus it will be the first normal social thing I've done since you made me move here.”

Katherine's expression softened “Fine, but put the corpse back wherever you found it, and please try to keep dark magic to a minimum while I'm responsible for another living child.”

“Yes ma'am!” Esther said, saluting enthusiastically as she began dragging the corpses back outside.

Once she made it to the hole she found the body in she laid it back down, banging it on the head one last time for good measure.

“What are you doing?” An oddly high monotone voice spoke behind her.

“I'm re-burrying one of the bodies I've practiced necromancy on.” She explained happily as she turned to Abaddon who was covered by scratches and splatters of blood. “What are you up to?”

“I was just exploring the property when I got in a fight with the mothman, I nearly won but he was able to overpower me again due to the restraints this form has on me. I was about to head inside to ask Katherine for the healing of my wounds and payment for my valiant efforts when I saw you.” Abaddon explained looking into the distance with the expression he always had while he talked about the so-called mothman.
“So you wanted bandages and sweets?”

“Percisely, this vessel requires sweets to function to its full potential and recover from the mothman’s attacks!” Abaddon declared

“Cool, wanna walk back together? I have to get stuff ready for when Heather comes over, we're having a sleepover tonight.” Esther said, smiling brightly at the last sentence.

Abbadon nodded in response and they walked back to the hotel talking and laughing the whole way. Once they made it to the hotel they separated, Abaddon going to get help with his injuries and Esther going to her room to gather supplies, then the library to set up a hangout area Heather and her beautiful brain would surely love.

She started with the classic sleepover set up, blankets staked on top of each other till they formed foe mattresses with pillows spread out around them at random. She then raided the kitchen for the candies she remembered Heather mentioning she liked, setting them down on a table next to their sleeping area. She grabbed some fairy lights from the basement and hung them from chairs around their setup before grabbing a few sheets and throwing them over the chairs. Creating a lit fort so they could do or read, or talk about whatever they wanted without distraction or questions. Finally she set a few of her favorite dark magic books under a blanket so she could dramatically reveal them to Heather.

With everything in the library set up perfectly she went to tell her mom she was gonna sleep down there, mainly cause she didn't want Heather upset that they were breaking the rules. She wanted tonight to go perfectly. Though she didn't know why, she'd had friends over before and never been so excited or careful, especially not to the point of asking permission for or informing her parents of stuff. It was odd but feeling so committed definitely wasn't a bad thing, so she really didn't need to know now, right now all she needed was to finish up with preparations for Heather.

“Mom, I'm gonna use the library for me and Heather's sleepover okay?” Esther said as she ran into the kitchen spotting Abaddon sitting on the table holding a sucker with a few Spider-Man bandaid covering his scratches.

Katherine looked a little shocked as she nodded “Yeah of course that's fine, we don't have guests tonight so it shouldn't cause any problems.”

“Ok great I'll tell Heather.” She replied as she pulled out her phone and walked back out the door.

A few seconds after she had texted Heather, getting a smiley face and thumbs up in response, she was suddenly pulled into one of the empty guest rooms. Inside stood Ben, Uncle Nathan, and a slightly out of breath Abaddon who must have rushed through the vents to make it here. Esther pushed away from her brother who had been the one to drag her in- based off the fact he was still holding her arm. “What the hell is going on!”

“We're interrogating you about your odd behavior.” Abaddon responded seriously

“It's really not an interrogation we're just curious-” Nathan started

“And kinda disturbed by you acting different, I mean I haven't seen you ask mom permission for something since I was like eight.” Ben continued

“So tell us your secrets!!!” Abaddon demanded to finish off the group's speech

“Well to be honest I'm not sure why I'm acting so weird, I mean I know it's because I wanna make my dorkus friend happy and comfortable. But it's more than I ever have with my usual friends! I've seriously considered studying for a stupid math test so I could join one of Heather's stupid honors classes to see her more!!! I hate studying math! It's all formulas and names but I was almost willing to for her! And now I'm asking people permission for stuff so she doesn't feel bad! It's so weird!” Esther said, punching at the blanket she had picked up to fidget with during her rant.

When she looked up she saw Nathan and Ben were smiling at her weirdly. Abaddon was seemingly just as confused as she was, “Perhaps you were cursed by some dark magics! And they forcefully linked you to her, maybe Heather's a evil sor-”

Nathan's voice gently interrupted Abaddon's theorizing “I don’t think that’s it bud, good guesses though. Esther I think you might like Heather,” he looked Esther over and clarified when he saw her expression, “in the romantic way. I think you have a crush on Heather”

“Like Katherine had on the man that smelled of paper and ink?” Abaddon clarified and Nathan nodded in response

Esther just stood there mouth agape as she processed. It made logical sense, and it felt right she did like-like Heather. But what was she supposed to do with that? Especially when Heather would be over in like thirty minutes. At least her family was weird enough that being gay wouldn't be an issue at all. Plus 3 out of four already knew now; so she could focus on her main issue. Liking Heather, who was gonna be here soon.

“What do I do?” She asked hoping someone would have an answer, Abaddon had mentioned a mother in law so maybe he would. Though taking love advice from a demon was maybe a bad idea.

“Don't do anything yet, just try to act normal, or how you always act around Heather.” Ben offered sounding smart for once so she nodded.

Chapter Text

Esther needed help. That much was incredibly clear to Abaddon, she clearly wanted to confess her care for Heather, but there was an anxiety there. Likely her mortal fear of rejection, something all those capable of death tended to have. Probably something to do with their lack of chances for success.

But as Abaddon’s friend Esther shouldn't be left to suffer like this. He needed to intervene and confirm or deny whether it was safe to encourage Esther's confection or whether it would lead to her disappointment and an overall sadness towards one of her only other friends. It would be a difficult task. But Esther was worth the effort.

They were currently sitting at the dinner table, Katherine had presented them with burgers and an assortment of leftover fruits and veggies. Abaddon personally didn't find any part of it to be spectacular. But the small piece of the child this vessel used to belong to did have quite a taste for anything sweet and fresh, the child demanded they eat as much fruit as possible. So they did. Esther and Heather were sitting across from each other as they did when he and Esther played connect four.

This left Heather next to him. Once he and the child consumed as much fruit as possible the child went back into rest, within the corner of Abaddon's- or their brain he kept. Abaddon took the opportunity to whisper to Heather. He asked her to meet with him to discuss her Connect Four strategies.

Once the meal was over she politely excused herself and finally followed Abaddon to his nest. “So what did you want to know about my strategies?” She asked seemingly a bit confused

“Well really I'd like to know anything that could help me win!” Abaddon said eagerly glad he'd come up with this cover especially since he genuinely wanted to know

“Well there's not really an exact strategy but I think for you it might help if we painted the pieces black and white or drew shapes on them so you'd be able to see the game clearly.” Heather responded gesturing around a bit as she explained

“I'll take note of that for me and Esther's future competitions. Thank you Heather.” Abaddon said genuinely before moving onto his brilliant scheme, “Heather, Esther describes you as quite intelligent, am I to assume this means you're literate?”

“Um yeah I can read, why?”

“Well I was never fully taught how to read and write in English so I could use help understanding some words I've seen. Would you help me?” Abaddon asked putting on his innocent child act to hook her while leaving her unsuspecting

“Yeah, sure I can help you.” She said in her usual monotone voice

“Great I've just copied down a list here of words I've seen on Katherine's computer that I didn't know.” He said pulling a list he'd had Ben scribble down for him out of his pocket.

“The first word is spelled R-A-R-I-T-Y” Abaddon said starting off with a normal word to give her a sense of safety

“Oh that just means something is rare or doesn't happen often, though if you saw it online it could have been referring to the fictional horse, which is from a kid's TV series” Heather explained unsuspectingly

“Okay next word, G-A-Y” Abaddon said starting his main plan

“Oh, well that can either mean happy or when talking about people it can refer to people who sexually or romantically like the same gender. Though it often refers to just boys who like boys.” She explained still none the wiser to Abaddon's schemes

“How do you feel about gay people?” Abaddon questioned

Heather paused, likely contemplating her answer “I feel neutral about them in general.”

“And what about gay girls specifically?” Abaddon asked stepping into her personal space

“Uh.... they're great” Heather said slowly “Why do you ask?”

“I don't know, I've just been wondering if anyone around the hotel is a tad bit queer.” Abaddon said, crawling closer to Heather as she began heading for the exit of his nest.

Then she paused for a second, ”Wait you didn't know the word gay but you knew the word queer in this context?” Heather asked now sounding very skeptical. “Was this just a really convoluted way of asking me if I'm gay?”

“Um… yes to your last question,” Abaddon said, sacrificing secrecy for information, “But also my excuse was my lack of literacy, not lack of knowledge as far as verbal words go!” He huffed. “Anyways please answer the implied question!”

“Yes I like girls, why?” Heather replied easily

“I was simply curious, anyways I'd like to attempt your methods to beat Esther in Connect Four now.” He said strategically disengaging being it Heather would likely guess his reasons if he questioned her further.

Once they made it back to the kitchen Abaddon grabbed the game the evil grey chips resided in and loudly asked Heather to get some markers from upstairs, with hopes that the volume of the request would make her less inclined to deny his request. And it worked. Now that she had walked away Abaddon could encourage Esther to confess knowing she had a chance of success.

“Esther, I believe you should tell Heather of your feelings towards her.” He said moving next to Esther in order to whisper

“How would you know that?”

“Um… I'm technically married in hell, therefore I simply have a sense for these things.” Abaddon said, it wasn't a complete lie he was in a way married and he did have a sense for this situation-because he'd interrogated Heather- but the reason why was irrelevant.

“Then why doesn't my mom have one?” Esther asked skeptically, the amount of time they'd spent together having made her hard to lie to.

“She must have lost it in the divorce!” Abaddon shouted, before settling down and genuinely saying, “Just please trust me”

Esther looked at him for a minute before replying, “I do” with a determined nod. “Now how do you think I should tell her?”

“You could bring her the blood of her enemies or the heart of a deer!” Abaddon exclaimed loud enough that the rest of the kitchen turned to look at him, “What I'm simply giving suggestions?”

“Yeah, and they're good ideas but I don't think Heather has any enemies, she's too smart to make them. And I feel like she'd be concerned about contamination and all the stuff she's aware could go wrong with having a heart out in the open if I unexpectedly give her one. Maybe it could be an anniversary or birthday gift.” Esther explained

“Wait, you're already thinking about anniversaries? Didn't you just realize you like her?” Ben asked, with a clear missed understanding of his sisters emotions

“Yeah and?! She's awesome of course I wanna have anniversaries with her! Do you not understand love?” Esther exclaimed in her own defense

“I literally have a girlfriend.”

“That means nothing, Esther will soon have a girlfriend too and she clearly already knows more than you.” Abaddon stated

“Wait, who's gonna be Esther's girlfriend?!” Katherine asked tuning into the conversation late and confused

“Hopefully Heather.” Esther clarified for her mother with an unsure look on her face

“Oh thank God!” Katherine exclaimed, seeming incredibly relieved by her daughter's taste in girls, likely because Heather was alive. “Anyway hunny if you wanna ask Heather-”

“Whisper! If you say her name” Esther interrupted looking around as if Heather were about to pop out from the shadows

“Okay sorry,” Katherine said now whispering, “But if you wanna ask Heather out a more usual but special way I could go to the store in town and pick up flowers for you to give her.”

“That could work but I don't know her favorite flower, whenever we talk it's about more important things like my adventures or her interests.” Esther replied

“I could get that information out of her” Abaddon offered, prepared to help his best friend no matter the cost, luckily the cost this time was a single trip up the stairs and a quick conversation.

“That would work” Esther declared with a nod

With his best friend's confirmation Abaddon sprinted for the vents, both because he enjoyed crawling in them and because they were most efficient for speed. He popped out in the upper lounge where Heather had just come across a permanent marker. “Heather!”

“Yes?” Heather asked looking around till she spotted Abaddon

“What is your favorite type of flower! This is important!!!” Abaddon demanded making it clear she had to answer.

“I like violets” Heather replied

“Okay!” Abaddon shouted in acknowledgement as he dived back into the vents

“She likes violets” Abaddon told Katherine and Esther once he was back in the kitchen

“Alright I'll go get some from the store, you guys have fun and be safe while I'm gone” Katherine commanded

Abaddon nodded in acknowledgement of the matriarch’s words

“Okay everyone, act normal!” Esther instructed as she heard Heather's footsteps returning

Chapter Text

Today had been strange. Which wasn't all that surprising considering Heather was visiting Esther's house. Esther's family, loving and nice as they all were, did consist of a teenage boy, an overworked mother, a demon trapped in a small child's body, and a dead man. So there wasn't much potential for normal. 

Plus Esther herself was not exactly normal, in a good way. The girl literally taught herself necromancy just cause she could. It was one of the many things Heather admired about her. 

“Oh Miss Freeling your leaving?” Heather asked as she passed Esther's mom on the way back to the kitchen 

The woman looked at her with an expression Heather hadn't seen before as she replied, “Yeah, I'm just making a quick trip to town to refill some stuff for the hotel. I'll be back in like thirty minutes.” 

“Oh, okay then good luck.” Heather replied with a wave as she continued her walk to the kitchen 

Heather smiled as she re-entered the kitchen setting the markers on the table and sitting back down across from Esther. Abbadon lunged for the markers declaring “Now that I shall be able to see the evil chips I will destroy you all!” He gestured around the room wildly before sitting back down. 

They sat in silence for a few seconds till Esther broke it “So what exactly is Abbadon's plan?”

“Oh!” Heather exclaimed realizing Abbadon didn't explain the plan to anyone else while she was getting the markers. “Well me and Abbadon are planning on drawing symbols on the Connect Four pieces so he can see the difference.” Heather paused as she looked at Nathan and stammered out, “Is it a problem that we're drawing on your game? I don't want to disrespect you!” 

“Why? Is it cause I'm dead? Cause the whole don't disrespect the dead thing doesn't actually matter that much. Katherine offended one of the ghosts like twenty times a day when she first moved here! So there's really no big issue.” Nathan rambled a response to his assumed reasoning which happened to be wrong, though this was interesting new information.

“No, it's mainly because you're an adult and I prefer not to disrespect authority figures, like adults.” Heather clarified and Nathan seemed to brighten when she stated he was an authority figure.

“Well you're welcome to draw on the Connect Four pieces, don't worry about disrespecting me especially if it's to accommodate someone else. Okay?”

“Understood, thanks.” Heather replied with a smile before turning back to the others and discussing which symbols they should draw on. 

The conversation that followed was chaotic to say the least, Abbadon first suggested they write demonic sigils on the pieces but Ben quickly vetoed the idea. Abbadon argued that veto powers shouldn't be given to anyone but Ms. Freeling, who he referred to as the matriarch, being it that she was the main person of importance in the household. 

Heather kinda understood his point, but still didn't think it would be good to draw likely powerful sigils on Connect four pieces, so she interrupted, “I don't think your mom would be happy if we drew demonic sigils on her game.” Heather paused realizing that her audience Including Esther didn't tend to respect authority, but Esther did seem to like hanging out with her so maybe being honest about her main concern could help convince at least Esther, “Plus if something goes wrong my dad probably won't let me come over anymore, plus I bet your mom would be less willing to let me over after.” 

Esther considered this for a moment before nodding, “Heathers right Abbadon, we can draw demonic sigils on something else on a different night.” 

Abbadon looked upset for a moment before seeming to realize something “You’re correct, tonight is too important for a group adventure. Not because Ben has veto power though!” 

Everyone but Ben nodded as they moved on “Maybe we should do hearts on the red ones? And I don't know about the blue ones, any ideas in that big brain of yours?” Esther asked 

“If we're using base symbols like hearts then maybe we could do stars on the blue ones? Because stars in the actual galaxy are often blue due to their intense heat. Plus stars can be associated with hell depending on culture, so it's as close to demonic sigil we can get without actually drawing them” Heather suggested happy to use some of her knowledge to help

Abbadon nodded, “This plan pleases me, but we should make the hearts anatomically correct.”

Heather's eyes widened in excitement at that idea “Yeah we should! But that kinda ruins the basic symbols theme right?”

“Nah, hearts are a basic organ so it's basically the same thing!” Esther exclaimed with a smile

“That makes no sense.” 

“It does if you stop thinking hard about it!” Esther replied with a smile, “Plus themes are not that important, you're clearly getting excited at the idea of drawing a bunch of anatomically correct hearts. So let's do it!” Esther shoved a red piece and marker into Heather's hand, likely to emphasize her encouraging words. And it worked, making Heather smile as she began working.

As they drew Esther and Heather talked, Esther ended up asking about the old torture methods Heather had mentioned researching as a side project last week. Everyone seemed interested which was exciting for Heather considering not many wanted to hear about her interests in history. So she spent the entire time ranting about everything she learned, she had been in the middle of explaining that the iron maiden was never actually used when Ms Freeling opened the front door and Esther ran off saying she wanted to help her mom. 

After a few minutes of sitting patiently, tapping connect four pieces to busy her hands, Heather decided to ask Abaddon what Esther was helping her mother with. 

“Oh! They're preparing offerings for a being within the home.” Abaddon answered vaguely, which to be fair was partially Heather's fault Abbadon had a tendency to speak in confusing and sometimes vague terms, if she had really wanted a clear answer she could have asked Ben or Nathan which were both still at the table. But Heather wasn't good with new people or people period so she'd just settle for being confused till Esther comes back. 

♡♡♡

When Esther had finally returned she didn't come empty handed nor did she stay long. She showed up holding a handmade card, which despite clearly having been rushed and made with an assortment of random craft supplies, was very nice looking with little doodles of books and pillows on its cover, inviting Heather to the library. Then she ran back out of the room. 

Heather of course after looking over and reading the card headed to the library, albeit rather slowly in order to give Esther the time she clearly needed considering the way she rushed out of the kitchen.

Once Heather stepped into the library she felt a genuine smile spread across her lips at the sight. In the center of the library there stood a well crafted fort which glowed from the outside where fairy lights had been carefully strung up. Along with the fairy lights inside the fort sat two foe beds made from mountains of blankets and pillows, each girl's favorite candy sitting on their mountain. And in the center sat Esther holding a small vase of violets, with a much more nervous smile than usual on her face as she spoke quietly, “Hey, Heather.”

“Hi Esther,” She greeted in response a quiet confused laugh escaping her lips as she crawled into the fort in front of Esther. “What's up?”

“Well, okay this is a lot and I know it's sudden but I realized something tonight that I want to tell you. And I really don't like to wait to make plans so um here I go,” Esther stuttered out far more unsure than usual a blush forming on her cheeks as she continued, “Heather, for awhile I've admired you and your stupid amazing big beautiful brain, and now like just recently today I realized that its not just admiration.” She paused for a moment holding the flowers further out, “I like you, like a lot and romantically! To be clear.” 

Heather just stared in shock for a moment as she processed that information, it was a lot. But after a few seconds of thought she realized what she felt for Esther might also not be platonic, especially some of the administration she felt, felt different than her past and other friendships. She took a deep breath as the realization fully settled then she nodded to reassure Esther she wasn't in distress till she managed to speak, her cheeks growing warm as she quietly replied, “I think I like you too.”

A beat of silence passed before Esther's face grew into a large grin and she nearly lunged to settle the vase in Heather's lap before asking “So wanna be girlfriends?” With an even deeper blush than before. 

Heather considered that for a moment before nodding, “Yeah lets be girlfriends.”