Believing in Magic

Believing In Magic is a Blues Clues prequel fan fic by Aqua Lion.

The story follows Steve and Joe through their childhood. After school, the two of them go stay at a magical house, where everything is alive and joyful. Joe has no friends at school. None of the other kids understand him, least of all his brother. Joe doesn't care; he has friends at the Blue's Clues house.

At seven years old, Joe starts feeling lonely. He and mailbox have aged normally, but the rest of their friends have stayed young. Soon he's cut off from the magic house and those within it. Without a friend in the world, Joe wants to rely on Steve for support, but is jealous of the attention he gives Blue. Joe isolates himself, growing distant as the years pass.

This work provides examples of:

 * Adult Child: Steve grows to be one while living in the Blue's Clues house.
 * Age Appropriate Angst: Steve leaving home is the last straw for 11-year-old Joe,.
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: A lot of it, for both Steve and Joe. In-universe.
 * Backstory: For Steve and Joe, and more specifically, Joe's introduction arc.
 * Big Brother Instinct: When Joe is in second grade, Steve feels responsible to protect him from bullies.
 * Black Sheep: Joe
 * Coming of Age Story: For Joe
 * Dark and Troubled Past
 * Deconstruction: Of the Blues Clues arc that introduced Joe.
 * Reconstruction
 * Heartbreaking in Hindsight: In Joe's story, we see that Joe is horribly overreacting to Steve leaving home. In Steve's story, we see
 * In Joke: Joe's coach addresses him as "Burns". Steve's actor in the original Blues Clues was Steven Burns.
 * Security Blanket: Boris, Joe's toy duck from Blue's Clues is shown to have been this.
 * Switching POV: The first chapter follows major events in Joe's childhood, the second chapter Steve's. The third.
 * The Promise: Steve to Joe--
 * The Runaway: Joe, at 12 years old.
 * Watching the Sunset: Described as an "unfortunate ritual" for Joe.
 * What Happened to The Mouse: We never see Mailbox again after his first scene.