Lock smirked at her grin. Whatever she intended to do, he earned it, and looked more than pleased with himself, particularly when her legs trembled. She moved off of him. Lock frowned that she ruined his fun, but when she started to search their things, his smirk resurfaced. He tried to break his forearms free from her grip, but Lillith held firm. When she yanked him closer, he didn't fight.

At least, not until she pressed him forward and ensnared his wrists. She'd find the key still in one of the locks to place elsewhere at her leisure. They were thin like mortal cuffs so they could easily fit in a back pocket, but far more durable, which was necessary, given their brand of fun. Lock found himself pressed into the ground. Delight rippled down his spine as she nipped his ears.

"Certainly not drag me off to the cavern," Lock said coolly, "to do unspeakable horrors..."

Lillith used his pants to tie his ankles and his tail together, then stood and stepped daintily away from him. "Oh, I'm taking you to the cavern, but the unspeakable horrors will have to wait." She got dressed slowly, just far enough in his line of sight that he knew what she was doing, but not so much that he could enjoy the show.

"I have some errands I need to run first. I'll just drop you off and let you stew for a bit while I do that."

She tucked the rest of his clothing into the basket, hooked it under one arm, then hauled him over her shoulder and carried him off.

Lock kicked and struggled, but she had his tail wrapped around one leg and both ankles bound to keep all three limbs contained within a few moments. He pouted when she finished.

"Why?"

The pout became a frown as she shifted just within his vision and pulled her stockings back on.

"Errands? On our anniversary?"

More than likely just to frustrate him. Lock struggled again as she picked him up and tossed him over her shoulder.

"Lilliiiiiiith!"

Lillith pretended to ignore his protests as she made her way to the cavern. She kept an ear out for any passersby who might notice the little tied up imp being carried about in his boxers; it wasn't by any means likely that they would run into anyone, but it wasn't impossible, either. When they reached the cavern, she propped him up against the wall and patted his head.

"I'll be back shortly. Wait here like a good boy, and I'll bring you back a treat."

She ran a feather-light fingernail along his inner thigh, kissed him deeply, then gave him a little wave as she walked away with a smirk. Her "errands" wouldn't take long, and with her vampiric speed, she'd be done and back in less than ten minutes.

Not that he needed to know that.

If anyone noticed, there was no indication, not that he'd have much shame if he was seen. Lock tried to at least free his tail, as he wanted to touch her, but his ankles were bound too tightly to gain any leverage. He didn't stop struggling, even as she set him down.

"Define 'good'."

Lock winced at her careful touch, but gave into her kiss. He held it as long as she would let him. The second she left, though, he tried to free himself. Even in the darkness of the cave, the moon gave him just enough light to see the shape of his bindings. It took a few minutes, but he managed to free his ankles. When Lillith came back, he'd be standing with as much of an inviting pose as he could with his hands still bound behind his back, the pants hanging off his tail, and a smirk on his lips.

The rest of the night went by in blissful torment. By morning, they'd be curled up together, scratched and bruised and happily in pain. At some point, Lock let Lillith put in the new earring. A small sign that she marked him as hers, and the new weight on his ear was taken in with pride.

They both rinsed off the following evening before they headed back into town. Lock happily clutched her hand as they walked, and carried the basket under his other arm. At the cemetery, they kissed again before parting ways.

Lock stretched a bit as he walked. Lillith's torment left him delightfully stiff, but as soon as he got home, he needed a bath, and then he and his siblings had work to do.

Shock was down in the lair. After Oogie passed, Barrel took over the kitchen. The bedroom was used for whatever purpose the trio needed at the moment. There was one more room back there that had been redone. As a child, Shock trained scorpions for use in her trouble. Over the years, she'd become Halloween Town's expert on them, and bred them for the town. Shelves holding several small tanks and supplies lined most of the walls. A large table in the center held a bigger tank, venom extraction tools, and other necessary equipment. The remaining wall space had the framed remains of favorite pets long since passed, carefully pinned and marked with their names.

There were very few things Halloween Town could trust from them: trouble, double-crossing, and the best-bred scorpions they'd ever seen. Shock always kept the best ones for herself, but the witches since made a deal with her for their stock of scorpion claws, tails, and venom. Her wares were the only thing anyone in the town could trust came untainted from her or her brothers, and Shock herself set that standard, as it would only take one ruined potion to lose the business.

That didn't mean there weren't ways around it for other trouble...like using a delivery to help distract some of her targets to acquire a broom. Or make an accident happen.

Shock gathered a few vials of venom and carefully packed them in a backpack with some jars of various scorpion parts and old rags between them to help cushion them. She then went to one of the tanks and opened the lid to retrieve the scorpion inside.

"Up for a little trouble, Loki?" she asked.

The scorpion hissed and crawled into her hand. Shock smirked and lifted her pet up to her left ear. Loki crawled up behind her ear and hooked his tail over it to hang from it. His tiny claws and pinchers gently nipped her earlobe to keep himself positioned like an earring. Some of his legs further tightened along the rim of her ear to keep himself stationary.

Shock reached up and lovingly ran a finger along his shell. Loki let out a strange, but contented sound as he settled in place. Shock then grabbed the backpack and headed to the dining room for breakfast.

Barrel was preparing a stack of wailing waffles for them. Shock came in and set her backpack down before taking her place at the table beside Carver.

"Is Lock back yet?" she asked.

"He's getting a bath," Barrel said, "but he'll be down soon."

"Good," Shock said.

She took one of the waffles, then broke off a tiny piece to give to Loki. Like a true spoiled pet, Loki happily devoured it, and especially enjoyed the little wail that emitted as he chewed. Shock ran the tip of her finger over his head. The insects that crawled around the lair and their tree house gave her more than enough to feed her stock, and for the most part, Shock only gave them the best insects, but once in a blood moon, she let her favorite pet of the moment share with her.

Carver had a vine tucked through the cage door into her chest cavity, rummaging around the various tools and trinkets inside. She reached with the tip of another to tickle Loki's chin. He hissed and snapped at her with a claw, defending his treat. Carver grinned and pulled her vine back, then turned her focus to Shock and Barrel.

"Can we run through the exact plan and backups one last time? If we fuck this part up even a little bit, nothing else works. I'd rather not have to improvise more than necessary. How are we going to get all three witches in the front of the shop at once, with their brooms?"

Shock ran a finger along the back of Loki's shell.

"You'll get her next time, precious," she cooed.

The scorpion settled back into place and went back to happily munching on the waffle piece.

Barrel brought the next round of wailing waffles to add to the stack.

"It actually won't be that hard," he said. "They keep their brooms behind the counter so they're always at the ready. If I can get Agatha and one of her aunts to focus on me, that'll give Shock time to grab them once the swamp smoke starts to spew."

"Preferably Aggie," Shock said. "It's harder for Agnes to see behind me without leaving her stool."

"And they won't be thinking about their brooms," Barrel said. "Just evacuating the shop."

"Right," Shock said.

She pet Loki again.

"And this little demon's going to knock the bottle over," she said. "Harder to blame any of us if we're nowhere near it."

"To add to the confusion!" Barrel said proudly.

"They won't know it was a trick until they see the brooms glued to the wall," Shock said with a grin.

The sound of footsteps echoing in the lair sounded. By their weight and tread, Lock finished his bath and was finally joining them. The little devil slid into the dining room.

"Oh, we're going over contingencies?" he asked with a grin to mirror Shock's. Lock grabbed a plate, having caught the tail end of the conversation. "Don't forget order of arrival."

"Right," Shock said. "Barrel was going to go in first."

"Give them a 'heads up' that you're on your way with a delivery, and try to distract with potions in the meantime," Barrel said with a nod.

"Maybe not even mention that," Lock suggested. "Just distract."

Barrel pondered, then nodded in agreement.

"There's a few extra jars of tails in the prep room," Shock told Carver. "Since you'll be 'assisting' me with the delivery."

"And I'll run in after with the venom vials you 'forgot'," Lock chimed in, "then look around while I'm there."

They knew better than to come in all at once. Nothing would get the witches' attention more.

"Swamp smoke is pretty thick," Barrel said. "It should only take a few seconds to fill the shop."

"And while Barrel's escorting Agatha and hopefully one of her aunts," Shock continued, "Carver will place the wedding broom on the ceiling while Lock and I get the witches' brooms. We're gonna have to be fast: grab, glue, and go."

Lock and Barrel nodded.

"I'll try to toss one of the brooms your way on the way out," Barrel said.

"And I'll try to 'escort' whichever witch I'm working with," Shock said.

She pondered.

"I can use Loki as an excuse to delay or run back in if I have to."

"So...I'm possibly doing double broom duty," Lock said.

"Unless Carver can handle two at once," Barrel suggested.

"Either way, I'll get Agnes' broom under her cargo pants," Shock said.

Lock glanced to Carver.

"Don't forget to be near something corrosive," he said. "So I can 'help' when you have trouble walking."

Carver nodded along as they laid out the plan. "I can pull out the rest of my daphnius potion before everything goes off. Be chatting about crafty uses for it when the smoke spreads. Pretend to trip on the way out, spill some on me. It'll make a lot more sense for why I'm visibly limping."

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "What if they decide to use the brooms to evacuate?"

They continued discussing details and contingency plans until they were sure they had all their bases covered. Once they were certain they could handle any unexpected difficulties, Barrel shoved the last two waffles into his throat, saluted, and made his way out of the lair. Carver and Shock gave him about a ten minute head start, then gathered up most of the scorpion products and made to follow.

As they walked, the pumpkin creature cocked a grin at her best friend. "So," she asked cheerfully, "which loverboy do you think is gonna have a harder time after all this goes down? The oblivious one who's completely unaware he's effectively betraying the girl who likes him, or the cheesy horny one who's gonna break all the rules his girlfriend upholds?"

"I've never seen Agatha be vengeful," Shock said, "and Lillith can get pretty clever when she's upset. So I'm sure Lock thinks her inevitable revenge is worth it."

~~~

The little bell to the witch's shop rang as Barrel entered, a wide grin on his face as usual. He carefully scoped out the shop. Agatha was behind the counter, as usual, Aggie was stocking, but he didn't see Agnes. Okay, he could work with this. Shock said she'd prefer working with the little witch anyway.

Agatha perked upon seeing him.

"Hi, Barrel!" she exclaimed. "What can we get for you?"

"Um..."

Barrel glanced over to Aggie.

"Actually, I...well..."

Come on, he told himself. You practiced this. The whole plan requires this.

"I was wondering if you could help me with...potions?"

As he thought, that got Aggie's attention. The tall witch turned her head to face him.

"Potions?" she asked.

"Y-yeah," Barrel said. "It's not too different from cooking, and I've been reading this spellbook..."

Carver shrugged. "Fair enough. Still, she might surprise us," she said, referring to Agatha. "People do weird things under unusual or unexpected circumstances, and she is definitely not expecting Barrel to use her for something like this. Or the thing that comes after."

Her two lower right eyes squinted upward as she smirked. "Wanna make bets on whether Lock changes his mind on that after he gets what's coming to him?"

Carver was rather glad that she didn't have anyone to answer to like that. The Doctor was horribly uncreative in his punishments and she was well prepared for them. Sally would be disappointed, but understanding. The Pumpkin King... might be problematic, but at least she didn't have any personal stakes in gaining his approval. She had accepted a long time ago that nothing she could do toward that end was worth doing; most of the people in Halloween Town has written her off, and Jack was no different.

---

Agatha lit up. "Oh, that's lovely! So many people buy potions without even considering learning anything about the process!"

Aggie reached over to pat Agatha's hand calmingly, but kept a calculating gaze on Barrel. "Reading a spellbook, eh? Not usually the best place to start... Books on herbs and ingredients are better. Need to understand what you're working with before you start trying to put things together."

Agatha nodded. "Some spellbooks will call for monkshood, others want wolfsbane, and some want aconite. It's all the same plant, but if you're not already familiar with the terminology, it's rather easy to get mixed up." She refrained from bouncing in front of her aunt. "But you cook so much, you probably already familiar with most of the names and basic interactions, anyway. I bet you'd be a great potion maker!"

The teen witch batted her eyes at him. "I could help, too, if you'd like..."

Shock shifted her backpack. Loki's tail and limbs loosened around her ear, with just enough grip to stay in place. If she stopped and listened, she'd hear a faint, rhythmic hiss, but she knew well enough that her scorpion had decided to take a quick nap. Shock smirked as she listened to Carver.

"It could be the end of our fun if Agatha gets mad enough for him to figure it out," Shock said, "but we'll just find a new source elsewhere."

She pondered the offer.

"Bet taken," she said, "since we've been planning this for months, and he just celebrated their anniversary last night, and still didn't get warm feet."

They cleared the hill that blocked the tree house from the town and were almost to the main gate.

~~~

Barrel just kept his grin. Good, he had Aggie's attention. Now to keep it.

"Well, a lot of stuff I cook with anyway, I found in the spellbook," he said. "It didn't seem too much different."

He gave a quick glance to Agatha, and actually mentally thanked Shock for all the lessons. Barrel spoke with confidence as he told her:

"I actually knew that. Same thing with white baneberry and doll's eyes."

He smiled at Agatha.

"I'd like that--" Barrel shot a glance at Aggie. "--but I'd like an experienced teacher, too. If-if it's not too much trouble."

Carver chortled. "I'm sure I could find some way to spin it so he's still in the dark. But yeah," she shrugged, "we could find another source of entertainment if we really needed to. Kind of what we do, after all."

---

Barrel glanced sideways at Agatha shyly as he talked about white baneberry, and her shriveled little heart gave a flutter. This was it! He was going to ask her out! The youngest witch beamed, thinking about how much effort he'd probably gone to, trying to find a casual way to find a way to spend time with her.

Then her face fell when he turned back to Aggie and asked for, "a more experienced teacher."

...Oh.

So, he wasn't asking her for a personal tutoring session that might possibly turn into something else... He just wanted to study potions.

And he apparently didn't think she was good enough for the job.

Agatha was caught between being upset he brushed her off romantically, and being offended he brushed her off professionally. She settled on being offended. She could at least do something about that.

Aggie ran a gnarled hand across her chin thoughtfully. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, her niece interrupted her. Agatha crossed her arms and puffed out her chest. "Hey!" she piped up indignantly. "I'm plenty experienced!"

Barrel was taken aback. Did he do something wrong? Sure, Agatha was always watching him, but he didn't think she'd be upset about asking one of her aunts for help. He quickly racked his mind to salvage this. If anything, he at least had Agatha's attention.

...Maybe he could work with that.

Barrel held up his hands in defense.

"I-I never said you weren't!" he said. "I just...didn't think you'd...want to...umm...teach me?"

Aggie quickly stepped in.

"Perhaps we can both assist," she suggested. "True, you're skilled, Agatha, but you still have more to learn yourself. Besides..."

She gave a pointed look to Barrel.

"It wouldn't hurt to have a second set of eyes to keep him out of trouble."

"Trouble?" Barrel asked, innocently. "Who said anything about trouble?"

Aggie crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. Barrel stretched and put his hands behind his head.

"All right, you got me," he said. "But I really do want to learn!"

"Didn't think? I offered to--" Agatha was quickly cut off by Aggie, and backed down with a huff. Still, she muttered to herself quietly. After a moment, a thought slowly started to form, and she fell very quiet...

Aggie sighed and kept her focus on Barrel. She didn't even have to verbally respond to his claims of innocence; he may be the friendliest of the tricksters, but everyone knew he loved a good prank as much as anyone.

"Well, then, I suppose the first question would be... Do you want formal lessons, or just someone around to make sure you don't detonate something by accident?" She put a very slight stress on the words, by accident. Some kind of explosive would probably be one of his first five attempts, almost guaranteed. The trio hadn't used flash-bombs in a few decades, and she suspected it was because they had run out since Boogie stopped supplying them with... toys...

Why was he being the convincing one? Shock was much better at this, despite her reputation as the worst of the three of them. Still, don't panic. Just...keep their attention on him.

"Well, formal would prevent an explosion," Barrel said with a shrug, "if I knew what I was doing..."

Aggie eyed him silently for a long time, trying to come to a decision. Finally, she gave a short nod. "Fine, but you'll have to accept my teaching methods and actually put the work in. I won't have any lackadaisical pondering in my potion lab. It's an art form and a concrete science, and you will respect it or else regret it."

Barrel gave her a small salute.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, before turning to Agatha. He did have to try to keep her distracted too, after all. Barrel gave her a little smile. "Besides. It's always more fun when you're learning with someone."

The bell rang again as someone else entered. Aggie turned to see who entered.

"Witches' shop, the best bargain in--"

Barrel knew by how Aggie deflated who had arrived.

"Oh," the taller witch said. "Hello, Shock. Hello, Carver."

Aggie turned to Barrel with that stern look. He held up his hands in defense again.

"I-I didn't know she was coming in, I swear!"

Shock glanced at the shelves to try to find the swamp smoke, then ran a hand through her hair to subtly pawn Loki from her ear.

"Relax," she said. She pulled off her backpack and held it up. "I'm just here to make a delivery, then I'm off."

Aggie gave her a suspicious nod, then called to the back. There was no way she could keep an eye on the three of them by herself.

"Agnes!" she called. "Scorpion delivery!"

In the few seconds Aggie turned away to call for the smaller witch, Shock set Loki on the shelf while Barrel blocked Agatha's view. Agnes quickly came from whatever she was doing from the back to crawl up to the counter. By this point, Shock held a bottle and read the label - one away from the swamp smoke - then put it back in a calculated ploy in case one of the witches saw her reaching for the shelf.

Just a customer looking at the merchandise, even if an unpleasant customer. Carver would have to signal to Loki which bottle to push, but she could do that easily.

Shock walked up to the counter with the backpack and carefully set it on the counter. She didn't need to say another word as she started pulling jars and bottles from it, while Agnes took inventory of what she had and calculated payment. Both of them were so used to this routine that they didn't bother with small talk. Barrel tried to keep Aggie and Agatha focused on him.

"So, uh, about what we discussed," he said. He tried to play it off as keeping this on the down low with his older sister right there. "You're sure beetle's eyes aren't a good substitute for spider eyes? They seemed similar enough, but I don't want to ruin the recipe..."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, before turning to Agatha. Barrel gave her a little smile. "Besides. It's always more fun when you're learning with someone."

Agatha slowly broke into a smile again. Ah, yes, of course! He'd simply been too shy to ask her outright, and had backpedaled to seem as if he weren't pushing. And to ask Aggie to be there as a chaperone, why, he truly was a gentleman at heart!

Carver ignored all the witches as she started putting her cargo on the counter. Once her "hand" vines were clear, she opened her cage and started pulling out a few more. With practiced skill, she "accidentally" dropped her bottle of daphnius potion out of the cage as she rummaged around for the rest of Shock's goods. She visibly caught the bottle with a spare vine before it hit the ground and set it on the counter to be "out of the way" as she finished unloading. A few other miscellaneous items similarly fell and were placed about for temporary safekeeping. The pumpkin creature muttered quietly to herself about just making Shock borrow Behemoth's wheelbarrow next time, just for good measure.

Aggie kept an eye on the two newcomers until Agnes arrived, then focused back on Barrel.

"So, uh, about what we discussed... You're sure beetle's eyes aren't a good substitute for spider eyes? They seemed similar enough, but I don't want to ruin the recipe..."

Ah. There it was. Aggie immediately re-assessed the situation. The tallest trickster didn't merely wanted to learn about potions; he wanted to learn about potions he could use against his siblings. She harrumphed, but nodded and played along. "Of course I'm sure. The two may be the same on a basic level, but beetle eyes have a completely different texture and consistency. If it doesn't ruin the flavor, you'll still feel like you're crunching through sand."

Her eyes twinkled. "Now you'll pay the full price for proper, quality spider's eyes, or you can leave my shop and eat some more of that popcorn you like so much."

Meanwhile, Agatha was giddy with the belief that Barrel was so shy, he hadn't even admitted to his siblings he liked her yet. No wonder Carver had told her to be subtle! He would be so terribly embarrassed to know that she already knew of their attraction!

Shock didn't look up as she gave Agnes the new merchandise, let the little witch write down the inventory, and trade out for the empty jars and bottles stored under the counter that Halloween Town citizens brought back in for re-use once their contents were diminished. The witches did it solely to avoid having to turn their backs on Shock. They trusted her wares. Her, not so much. Shock carefully packed the empty jars in her bag.

"I'm not using the wheelbarrow to haul glass, Carver," she said upon hearing the pumpkin creature's muttering. "If I wanted to risk breaking something, I could always haul them in the bathtub."

She went back to her quiet exchange with Agnes while keeping an ear out for Barrel and the other witches. So far, so good, but...weren't they supposed to be discussing potions?

Whatever. So long as he held their attention. As soon as Lock got here, they could proceed as planned.

Barrel let out a small sigh of relief that Aggie took the hint. He made sure to give the older witch his sweetest smile as he listened to her "advice". His smile started to deflate when Aggie asked for payment on the spider eyes.

"Um...hold on."

He quickly checked his pockets, but he didn't have much to exchange with.

Bones. He wasn't expecting to actually buy something! Thinking quickly, Barrel turned to his older sister.

"Um, Shock? Could you...?"

Shock quickly shot a glare at her little brother. Barrel gave her an uneasy smile.

"Seriously?" Shock said, with immense irritation.

This was neither part of the plan, nor her problem.

"I-I'll pay you back!" Barrel said quickly. "Please?"

Shock moved a hand to her forehead so she could rub her temples. She should have counted on Barrel screwing something up, and took a moment to mentally talk herself down from strangling him then and there.

Think of the plan. Think of the plan. Think of the plan...

"Yeah, you will," Shock muttered under her breath. She turned back to Agnes. "Can we trade you one of the jars of scorpion claws?"

Agnes pondered it over, knowing as well as Aggie that they had an opportunity to bargain.

"Hmm..." she said with air of an experienced haggler. "Those are the high-quality spider eyes...harder to harvest and come by. And they require far more spiders to fill it up. You understand."

Shock glared, but if this kept Agatha and Aggie out of her hair long enough for this to work, it'd be worth it.

"Fine. You get one of the small vials of black scorpion venom in addition," Shock said. She matched her tone and expertise with Agnes', with a bit more bite to show this was the final offer. "They don't give a lot of venom, and I can't extract them every day. It's not good for their health. You understand."

Agnes knew not to push her luck. The oldest trickster was being generous, and her patience had already been tested. If it were Lock or Barrel, she might be able to bargain for a little more, but Shock was the vengeful one, as well as the one who did most of the work. As a fellow entrepreneur, Agnes was willing to level with her on the implied time and energy it took to produce her wares. She set a jar of claws aside, and looked for a small bottle.

"...I don't see any of the small bottles," Agnes said.

"What?"

Shock looked at the collection of jars and bottles on the counter, more for show. Of course the one item she needed had to be the small bottles Lock would "notice" she left behind. She looked at Carver, knowing to keep up the ruse until Lock got here. If anything, if they played their cards right, they'd alleviate more suspicion, and that was all the incentive Shock needed. She grabbed Carver's arm, but only squeezed a vine with her thumb in a secret code to play along.

"I thought I told you to grab them!"

Barrel awkwardly hung back, as he couldn't yet tell if this was part of the plan or not.

Carver scoffed. "As if there isn't enough straw in this town of perpetual autumn to pack them safely? I don't let the Doctor use me as his personal ego prop; what makes you think I'm gonna let you use me as a free portable container?" She wished she had carved in lips so she could sneer at Shock. Instead, she slammed her cage door shut with the last few scorpion products still inside. "How about I just take these as payment for carrying all this crap all the way down here?"

Carver didn't throw an actual tantrum, but bickering was such a normal state for the tricksters that the witches would definitely get suspicious if they got along perfectly the whole time they were there. When Barrel cornered himself into buying something he wasn't prepared to pay for, she shook her head and opened her cage back up. Let him be the target of Shock's -- real or pretend -- wrath for a few minutes.

A couple minutes later, and Shock was accusing her of forgetting the bottles they all knew where with Lock. Okay, back to bickering.

"Corpse rot, you did! I grabbed the whole pile you told me to!"

Aggie and Agnes watched all this with an air of annoyance and resignation. They both knew to expect some amount of trouble from the tricksters, and at least this sort of trouble wasn't as bad as whatever usually resulted from them getting along. Still... Agnes curled a lip on one side of her long, beak-like mouth. She was tempted to tell them to settle up and clear out.