#also Im sorry but Lucy and Skull are so BFF/sibling coded to me

[redrobin-detective]

Guys I'm so emotional thinking of Skull throughout the years.

Skull, who refused to die peacefully and almost died a second time because he finally found something worth dying for. Only to come back and get the chance to live the life he never got.

Imagine Skull as a proper member of Lockwood and Co, out of his jar and free to help solve mysteries and take down dangerous visitors. It's exhilarating and he feels so powerful with his colleagues side by side with him. He never stop giving the team shit and being overall kind of a grouch but no human or ghost ever comes close to them when their overprotective type three is around.

Skull is powerful enough that he's able to stick around even when other Visitors are slipping back to the Other Side. He clings with everything he's got to this life he's building. As the Problem dies down, new challenges arise: dating and marriages and babies. He officiates the Locklyle wedding to the confusion of most of the guests. Grumbles but is also secretly relieved he's not invited on the honeymoon. Makes silly faces at newborn babies from a ghost touch safe distance. He watches the various children like a hawk and tells wild made up stories when the parents aren't listening. He swears up and down he just got some ectoplasm in his eye when a child shows off a school made family tree with good ole Uncle Skully tucked into the corner.

Lockwood's bad shoulder gives him trouble, George has high blood pressure and Lucy finds she can't read a damn thing without glasses. They're well into middle age, greying, wrinkled and Skull loves them just the same. He's forever stuck in his mid-teens but he's fought beside and grown up with this amazing, stupid little group. Lucy asks him once if he ever thought about moving on and Skull truthfully tells her that he can't imagine doing so without them. He finds hobbies: he takes up painting, learns to drive, even helps George write a book detailing Visitors and the Other Side. He gives baking a go but things tend to go wrong when you can't taste what you're making.

It does get harder as they age quicker and Skull realizes how limited time is. One by one they go, peaceful and easy and buried with the highest honors as a nation mourns its heroes. He waits to see if any of them will come back, maybe spend a few decades causing mischief with him but they don't. They led full, fulfilling lives, unlike him, they had no reason to stick around. Lucy is the last, even as her mind is going her ears are still sharp as ever. He whispers to her she needs to eat, to take her medicines. She looks around blearily, asking who's talking to her.

He couldn't bear to see her when she passes. He's kept her stupid, stubborn, reckless ass safe for years but he can't save her from this. Nor would she want him to. He waits on the Other Side for her, hoping for even just a glimpses. Skull catches sight of her walking into the distance, she looks back at him and beckons him forward. He wasn't ready 200 years ago but now that he's lived a life as an agent, a fun uncle, an artist, a scholar and Lucy Carlyle-Lockwood's best mate. For the first time ever, he's able to take her hand and walk towards whatever lies in store for them.

The kids bury their mum with the now empty skull knowing that, their souls are together.