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The moon seemed duller now.
It was still shining through the window, same as always, but despite everything else being "better" in this version of Crystal Cove, the moon didn't seem quite the same.
Maybe the sun's flames burned differently now that the Entity was gone. Maybe there was something smudged on the windowpane. Maybe the gang was too preoccupied to fully appreciate the moon's authentic beauty now.
Either way, it seemed duller. It all seemed duller when it should have been brighter and shinier.
They were all bunking in the same room lately. The house depended on the day. Tonight, it was Daphne's room.
She and Fred had taken her bed, and Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby were all sharing the luxury air mattress that her family apparently owned in this universe. Daphne had reservations about her friends using something as common as an air mattress, but Velma claimed it was comfier than her own bed, and the boys could sleep soundly just about anywhere.
They were positioned directly to the right of the bed, so everyone could easily be woken up if needed. The gang hadn't been able to sleep on their own since Nibiru; they felt like if they left each other's sight for more than a couple hours, one of them would disappear. It was easier just to have sleepovers every night until they were able to get an apartment of their own.
Fred and Daphne were both still awake. The other three were all asleep; they could tell from Shaggy's soft snoring, Scooby's tail laying still and his back foot twitching the way it did when he was dreaming, and Velma's phone being put away and her face bare of its glasses. She only did that when she was within minutes of passing out.
The couple usually ended up being the last ones asleep, talking in low voices and trying hard to hide rare moments of laughter in each other's shoulders. A new timeline meant new funny videos to catch up on to distract themselves with.
Tonight, they were mostly silent. It had been a little over a week since everything happened. When they witnessed the inconceivable.
Daphne was holding Fred, taking locks of his hair and twirling them around her fingers while he hugged her midsection and rested his head on her chest, nestled just under her chin. He was staring at some random point on her ceiling; her eyes were closed.
For the first few days, things were a little bit weird between them. It was a lot to process: getting engaged and breaking it off, finally working through their original relationship obstacles, defeating a cosmic demon, and then being pressured by their new, unfamiliar parents to tie the knot.
They weren't ready for that. They hadn't been ready the first time, and they certainly weren't ready now.
They had talked about it, and they agreed they both wanted to someday (and hearing that come out of Fred's mouth had made Daphne's already-tender heart soften even more). Just not now. There was so much they wanted to do first, and the primary bullet point on that list was "stop feeling disoriented". Possibly impossible, but definitely worth working towards.
Daphne smoothed Fred's hair down and brushed it with her fingers before messing with it again. The thought of having him like this forever made her feel a unique kind of happy that she was still getting used to. The feeling was like a cloud in her chest. A pink, fluffy cloud, made of cotton candy and glitter. She hadn't felt like that since... since before they stepped foot in that cave.
He made a small, contented noise, and that soft feeling only grew, with a dash of "I'm never going to let anyone hurt him ever again" sprinkled on top. She kissed the top of his head.
"Daph, you haven't cried yet."
"Huh?" The question caught her off guard, forcing her to stop what she was doing.
He repeated himself, quieter this time. "You haven't cried yet."
What a weird statement. Daphne felt a twinge of slight frustration that he had pulled her out of their moment, but it left as quickly as it came; his mind was probably wandering as much as hers was. Just in a different direction.
With each passing day, she was understanding the directions his mind went more and more, and the more she understood, the less frustrated she felt. All those magazines she had read were so wrong; trying to drop hints and treat her love life like a game of Clue was no good. Both of them deserved better than that.
She just had to dig a bit more to know what he was thinking about. "What do you mean?"
"I cried when we were going to sleep that first night. Brad and Judy were in the next room."
"I remember, I was there. You had good reason."
That reason being the photograph on the wall of a seven-year-old Fred sitting with Brad and Judy in the grass on a sunny day. That Fred was a child who loved and trusted his mother and father the way that Daphne's Fred never could.
Fred started playing with the back of her pajama shirt, his nails running along the tiny thread ridges in the fabric. "Yeah. And Velma cried at school when Marcie tried to kiss her hello."
"Mmhmm." That particular moment was hard to think about. It was damn near impossible to explain to Marcie why Velma had such a strong reaction to that; there was no way for her to know that it was the first time Velma had seen her since her previous self had been left as a bullet-ridden, bleeding corpse in a cave. Marcie ended up being the first outsider the gang tried to tell about Nibiru, mostly out of necessity. She was hardly an outsider at this point, anyway.
"And I helped Shaggy when he cried the other day. You're the only one of us that hasn't cried since we got here." He pulled away a little and looked up at her. "Are you handling everything okay?"
Daphne blinked at him. She didn't think of a response immediately, but she knew what he was asking now: You're not bottling things up, are you? After a moment, she replied, "Well, that's not true. You're assuming things."
"Hmm?"
She felt a bit sheepish all of a sudden. "I cried yesterday. After I got home from school, before you picked me up and we went to Velma's."
"You did?" He frowned.
"Yeah. I was packing some clothes, and I went to get my favorite shirt. I spent ten minutes looking for it before I realized it wasn't there anymore."
"Oh."
"My entire wardrobe is different now." Daphne shrugged and bit her lip. "It's still my style, but it's all different. And apparently, this version of me never bought that shirt." Tears briefly began to pool up at the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them back. "It was the straw that broke the camel's back, I guess. I knew everything was different, but it hadn't sunk in for me until then."
Fred tucked her loose hair behind her ears: a comforting gesture. His brow was doing that cute wrinkling thing it did when he was serious about something. "Not everything's different. Our family's the same. You're the same Daphne. I'm the same Fred."
By 'family', he meant the gang. He didn't mean their biological families. Shaggy had let that word slip in relation to the gang the night Fred cried about his parents, and it was the only thing that made him smile that evening.
"Of course. I know I'll always have the gang, and you, Freddie. But you know what I mean."
"Yeah, I do. I'm sorry, Daph. It sucks. I wish I had been there for you."
She pulled him closer again, nudging his forehead with hers. "It's alright. I'm with you now, so I feel better than I did."
He kissed her, sweet and slow, and she welcomed it. Her hand reached up to touch his face like he'd vanish any second. His lips still tasted like mint toothpaste.
Fred kissed the corner of her mouth. "Daphne?"
She pecked him back. "Freddie."
"I've got another question."
"Yes?."
"I've been thinking, and whenever we get married, can I have your last name?"
Daphne stopped her attempt to get their lips back in contact. She leaned back and made eye contact with him. "Huh?"
"I want your last name." He looked even more grave than before. "I can't legally be Jones anymore. If I can't be Jones, I want to be Blake."
Her initial reaction was to smile, but the shock kept her from emoting for more than a second. "What happened to changing your name? We're all eighteen now. You can be Fred Jones again if you want."
He shrugged. "What's the point of changing it now if I'm just gonna change it again later?"
"Wait, is this something you wanted before, too?"
It was Fred's turn to look sheepish. "Well... kinda. I thought about it. I know for a fact that I don't wanna be Fred Chiles, but knowing Mayor Dad was the Freak has me rethinking Jones, too. I still love him, but... I dunno." He frowned. "It's complicated."
"I..." She bit her lip. "Yeah, I guess I understand."
Daphne still thought Mayor Jones was a scumbag. She would probably always think that. He had hurt Fred too much for her to ever fully accept him again. But Fred himself had made his peace with his father, and that had to be enough; she had to direct her energy towards Brad and Judy now.
She continued, her face flushed: "But jeepers, you'd really take the Blake name? Even knowing my parents?"
"I'm not taking it from your parents, Daph. I'd be sharing it with you. You're who I think of when I hear Blake, not them."
"I've never thought of it that way. And, well, you're who I think of when I hear Jones, for what it's worth."
He smiled. "I'm glad. I wanna be Fred Blake, though. Eventually. If that's alright with you."
Hearing him say his name with hers sent butterflies through Daphne's stomach that she wasn't expecting. She had never been attached to 'Daphne Jones', anyway. "Of course, if that's what you want. Fred Blake."
Evidently, it had the same effect on Fred hearing it come from her. "It sounds good, doesn't it?"
She was intentionally trying to make his dopey grin bigger now. "Frederick Herman Blake."
Fred was the one to kiss Daphne this time. The feeling of his lips on hers, the soft, happy noise he made in response, his sturdy, strong hands tangling in her hair; it was enough to momentarily make her forget everything bad. Knowing that he loved her as much as she loved him was enough. Knowing that the rest of her friends -- her family -- were sleeping safely and soundly in the same room (and they would be playfully teasing her and Fred if they were awake) was enough.
The five of them were crumbs left in the Entity's teeth. Tough bits of the universe that the monster couldn't digest and had to spit out. They were too strong. It was the kind of love Daphne felt right now that killed it to begin with.
This contentedness wasn't forever. Daphne knew at least one of them would probably have a panic attack tomorrow (or maybe even that night). She knew she would have to fake her way through countless conversations from now on and pretend to be this universe's unflappable Daphne Blake. She knew that the gang would be dealing with Nibiru for years to come.
But finding moments to be happy, to share bliss with the ones she loved?
It wasn't forever, but it was enough.