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Chapter Text

The Addams family curse guaranteed every Addams will find their true love in their lifetime; their tether to the physical plane if you will. Falling in love so hard and so deeply, it becomes all consuming. When unrequited they go insane, and if it doesn't kill them in the most excruciating way imaginable, they devote the last shreds of their very being to beg for death. Then, even in death, they never find peace, doomed to mourn the loss of their unrequited soulmate for eternity. The Addams family generated some of the best ghouls in history.

While that all sounded delightful, Wednesday had better things to do.

On the plane of the living, she had her books to write (Viper De La Muerte had cases to solve and adversaries to maim), and her oh so helpless brother to protect. Unfortunately, the longer she existed the closer she came to meeting… the one. She could only hope she would have the luck of her Uncle Fester, well aged and still alone. Truly a blissful existence.

She did not want to become a slave to another person, which is precisely what happened to her father. Staring at her mother and father on the car seat opposite to her – all doe-eyed and completely engrossed with the other – Wednesday thought the death promised by the other side of the curse sounded much more appealing. Of course, simply not succumbing to the curse in the first place was optimal. A curse triggered by physical contact with the soulmate in question, it became painfully obvious how Wednesday developed her aversion to touch.

“Nevermore is like no other boarding school. It’s a magical place. It’s where I met your mother, and we fell in love.” Her father crooned, still gazing lovingly at his wife. This is exactly what she dreaded.

“You guys are making me nauseous, and not in a good way.”

“Darling, we weren’t the ones who got you expelled.” Her mother said. They continued to discuss the piranha attack and the abysmal mark it could make on her otherwise perfect transcript as they pulled up to the gates of Nevermore. Wednesday had to admit, the institution had a grotesque beauty to it. The rain poured off the faces of the gargoyles which framed the towering stone walls, the muddied drops soaking the dirt 100 ft below. The ivy-covered walls were dreadfully browned from the recent onslaught of frigid weather. It was beautiful. It was almost enough to take the goth’s mind off her upcoming torment.

Almost.

The principle proved to be infuriatingly cheery with an air of uncompromising authority. It would make the escape all that more exhilarating. A ghost of a smile threatened the corner of the goth’s lip but of course, it never quite made it to her face. Now, all she had to do was meet her roommate and then she could begin plotting her escape.

As the group walked up the steps to Ophelia Hall, Wednesday’s stomach began to churn like a thousand bats were trying to escape her insides. Why, she didn’t know. She personally didn’t have firsthand experience with this feeling, but she had read about it. It was a common symptom of indigestion, fear, or excitement. She hadn’t eaten recently, so it was unlikely a physical symptom from her digestive tract and the feeling was more centrally located than to where she knew the precise location of her stomach to be. The raven couldn’t fathom being nervous or scared of meeting her new roommate. The only other case she heard about was when her father described the moments leading up to meeting … her mother.

Oh.

Oh no.

“Howdy roomie!”

The feeling had built up to a nauseating crescendo.

That would mean …

Oh no.

The small goth stood frozen. Maybe paralyzed was a better word. She felt like she was back in her mother’s greenhouse testing the strength of the boa constrictor snake vine before unleashing it on an unassuming Pugsley. However, this felt less predictable, and coupled with the nausea compounded from the bats in her stomach and the colourful explosion assaulting her eyes, was far less enjoyable.

“Are you feeling okay? You look a little… pale.”

She was the furthest thing from okay.

“Wednesday always looks half dead.” Her father said.

In fact, she probably has never felt so alive. It felt like a live current arched over her skin. If she didn’t have near perfect control over her bodily functions, her hair might’ve stood on end.

“Oh, well welcome to Ophelia Hall!” Her roommate (who seemed so enamoured with colour that even her blonde hair was speckled with blue and pink dye), opened her arms, and rushed forward to embrace Wednesday. Luckily, she still had enough functioning brain matter to take a step back.

“Not a hugger, got it.” She looked infuriatingly fine with that fact. Wednesday preferred if the girl shrivelled away in disgust and always kept a 50-foot radius from her.

“Please excuse Wednesday, she’s allergic to colour.” Morticia said soothingly.

“Oh wow, what happens to you?” The moment our skin touches I become dependent on your soul to tether me to this hell forsaken rock of a planet.  The girl thought.

“I break out into hives and then the flesh peels off my bones.” She said instead. The grimace painting the blonde’s face made something inside Wednesday both exceedingly satisfied and despairing at the same time.

After learning that her roommate – Enid she discovered her name was after some time and multiple repeats – was meant to take her for a tour around the campus, Wednesday spun on her heel. She briefly stared right into the faces of her parents. Yet another example of the cruelty of the universe, showing her exactly the fate that awaited her if she failed to keep her distance from ‘Enid’ even once. Even while dropping their daughter off, their faces were inches apart and their arms were entwined.

In that moment, Gomez saw a glint in the eyes of his little viper. It seemed so foreign in her eyes but felt somehow familiar.

Could it be?

He decided he must have imagined it.

You plopped yourself down at the picnic table in the quad next to Yoko and the other fangs, pulling out the notebook you had just grabbed from your room. It was turning into a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the petrichor freshly permeating the air after the morning storm. Despite the lack of sun, everyone around your table wore the same blackened circular sunglasses. They all looked like Ozzy Osborne superfans as far as you were concerned.

“Do you all go to the same store for these glasses? What’s with the Ozzy Osborne circle shape, no one likes sharp edges?” You asked, studying your own pair. You had begged Yoko to get you some last year when you went through a bit of an identity crisis. The black silicon-like material reflected your image perfectly back at you. While you were a lot more comfortable with yourself now, you still liked the glasses. Not enough to wear them on a cloudy day (even on a sunny day they were unbelievably dark to your non-vampiric eyes), but enough to carry them with you. You found the world almost black when you put them over your eyes like you did now.

“Oh yeah, Red River Reticles. It’s all the rage.” Yoko said sarcastically. You couldn’t see much more that a dark blob when you turned to face her.

“Who’s Ozzy Osborne?” Celeste said from across from you. You rolled your eyes but forgot she probably couldn’t see them past your glasses.

“Oh, come on! Heavy metal legend from the 1970s? Were you not listening to music then?” You groaned.

“Music peaked in the 1870s. Once music could be recorded it all went downhill and I’ve ignored it.” She waved her hand dismissively.

Yoko snorted, “Way to date yourself Celeste.” You slid the glasses down the bridge of your nose just in time to see Celeste stick her tongue out at your roommate and best friend.

“Oh look, the new girl is here.” A fang next to you said, making you perk your head up and gaze around the quad. The new girl was assigned to be Enid’s roommate. You and Yoko had stayed up most of the night with Enid in her room listening to her stress about her potential new bff. Finally, your eyes found the pink and blue highlighted blonde locks bouncing along the edge of the quad. A small black shadow trailed behind her. You strained to listen in, tuning out the continued chatter of the fangs.

“Fangs, furs, stoners, and scales. Those are the fangs, AKA vampires. Some of them have literally been here for decades.” Ah, so Enid was giving her new roommate the rundown on social cliques. You noticed the rest of the Fangs turn their heads to acknowledge the introduction, because of course they could hear the entire conversation perfectly even while talking to each other. You used the opportunity to study the Addams girl.

The first thing you noticed was how tiny she was, even shorter than Enid. Despite that, she had a certain confidence that emanated around her, and a sharp eye that flitted around as many students in the quad as possible, taking in the environment. Her long hair was tightly bound into two symmetrical braids, you supposed a physical manifestation of the girl’s own precise and perfectionist nature.

Enid was doomed

“Damn, little goth girl is hot.” Celeste whisper shouted at the table as soon as Enid and Wednesday moved on, snapping you out of your study. “She’ll fit right in here.” A sly smile was spread across her face, you could only imagine what other thoughts were running through the fang’s mind.

“I wonder what’s her blood type.” Another fang titillated.

“Okay ew, gross.” You covered your ears with a sheepish smile. You knew the fangs had some relationship with blood that was beyond a food source. It represented very life itself, and often was a key component of the more … risqué parts of their life. You frequently forgot you were at a table with a bunch of 100+ year olds and not 16-year-olds.

“Oh, come on, you’re not a little kid anymore. No one caught your eye yet?” Celeste teased. Your cheeks burned just thinking about it.

“No not yet.” You admitted. It was true, no one had caught your eye, you figured it would just be a college thing. Sure, you thought people were attractive, but never really thought of pursuing anyone romantically. You caught a glimpse of Enid shooing away Ajax from Wednesday, holding onto his arm slightly longer than necessary. It felt like something you should want, you just didn’t.

“Aww, you’re no fun.” She pouted.

“Yeah, shouldn’t you be all riled up with teenage hormones or something right about now?” Yoko joined in. By now you imagined your face was a tomato.

“It makes high school so deliciously dramatic. Truly the best reality TV show.”

“Guuuyyysss, stop it!” You whined, face planting onto the table and covering yourself with your arms as a shield from the verbal onslaught of the fangs. You felt a hand rest on yours reassuringly, coaxing you out of your hiding spot. You hesitantly raised your chin to peek your eye out through your elbow to face Yoko.

“It’ll only get worse from here babe, just you wait.”

Chapter Text

Yoko was right.

It was going to get so much worse.

Much, much worse.

It’s been a little over 24 hours since you first laid eyes on Wednesday, and so far from Enid’s gossip and your own observation, the goth’s personality could be summed up as:
a) Stubborn
b) Mean
c) Sadistic
d) Homicidal maniac??

So when you felt nervous sitting in the same room as her in your morning classes, you didn’t really think much of it. You honestly couldn’t imagine being Enid, having to sleep in the same room as the goth.

***

'How’s the new roommate?’ You had written on a piece of paper in your morning class, before sliding it over to the werewolf to read while the teacher lectured.

‘Rocky start, but I have hope.’ You raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure of what ‘rocky start’ meant with someone like Wednesday Addams.

‘You sure she won’t murder you?’ You slid the page back, tilting your head in the direction of the girl who was actively trying to burn a hole into the chalkboard with the intensity of her glare. It wasn’t hard to believe the rumour that she killed kids at her last school.

‘Just how she is. I saw her give the same glare to her brother.’

You furrowed your brow before looking at Enid’s new roommate again. As you studied her face, you felt your stomach do a somersault. You gulped and turned back to the page in front of you.

‘I’ve heard siblings sometimes like to kill each other.’

***

Now, you watched as Wednesday Addams walked into your fencing class. It seemed like you were placed in every single class with her. You were going to have to talk to Weems about this, or just take the liberty of changing the scheduling system yourself.

As she walked, training matches halted to let her through, parting like the red sea. You honestly couldn’t blame them. She was perfect. She wore all black, from her shoes to her fitted fencing jacket and even her mask. Even her dark braided hair complimented the look, blending into the outfit to perfectly frame her face and emphasize her sharp features. While her perfect posture had previously made you think she had a stick up her butt, it now emanated a sexy confidence.

Wait, did you just say sexy?

Before the thought could even finish, you felt your cheeks heat up. Honestly with how frequently you blushed you actively considered destroying all surface level blood vessels in your cheeks.

Because one cursory glance from Yoko between you and Wednesday and you knew everything was going to get much, much worse.

It wasn’t the fact that the first time you had a thought like that it just so happened to be directed at a girl. It wasn’t even the fact that there was a good chance that said girl was (potentially) a homicidal maniac who could very well make one of your best friends her next victim – though it certainly spoke volumes of “your type”.

Something to unpack later…

Your life was about to get so much worse because of Yoko-gods damned-Tanaka.

“Oooo like what you see little pup?”

Of course she noticed. Of course she made her voice just loud enough for Celeste to hear across the room. You saw the red-headed vampire whip her head from Wednesday, to you, and again back to Addams. A maniacal grin spread across her face, and you knew you were a goner. This was going to spread like wildfire in the fang gossip mill. Hopefully, with some well-placed threats you could prevent Yoko and Celeste from broadcasting whatever story they had running through their head to the rest of the school.

At least Enid’s werewolf ears were still underdeveloped and you wouldn’t have to deal with her yet. That or she was too distracted staring at the Addams’ entrance. Still, you were going to have to deliver some pretty nasty threats to the vamps before your every thought was somehow broadcast onto Enid’s blog.

That would inevitably lead to Wednesday seeing it and smothering you in your sleep. All from one errant thought.

'But would that really be the worst thing to happen?’

The blush crept to the tips of your ears as your brain was flooded with images of Wednesday approaching your bed as you slept, gently laying down next to you and bringing her lips to brush the back of your neck. She cupped your cheek to gently wake you and turn to over, leaning in and - 

'Oh no no no no!’

Okay, make that two errant thoughts.

Before your face could get any redder, you grabbed that image, pulled it back in, smashed it to a million pieces, set it on fire, and buried the ashes 12 ft underground.

How on Earth did one entrance from a tiny goth girl awaken this new, traitorous voice in your head? Was everyone else was like all the time; having stray horny thoughts anytime they saw someone attractive?

You were jolted from your panic by a gasp from Enid.

Could she hear your thoughts? Oh gods this was going to get embarrassing.

“Point Wednesday.” Coach Vlad’s voice brought you back to what was going on in front of you. Okay so Enid was just actually present of mind and not spiraling like you currently were. It seemed Wednesday had challenged Bianca and was currently … winning?

'Hot AND lethal’.

“Can you believe it?” Enid muttered to you. “I don’t think anyone’s ever gotten a point on Bianca.”

If you were honest, Bianca was being sloppier than usual and didn’t adjust properly for the smaller size of her opponent, leaving her lower body vulnerable to attack. You would’ve been able to get that point too. Probably. You couldn’t help but admire the elegance with which Wednesday lunged to the side, simultaneously dodging Bianca and swiping her sabre at her legs on the offensive.

“What’s the matter L/N? Certain black cat got your tongue?” Celeste nearly purred from behind you, making you jump. Never have you startled so easily – your reverie making you completely inattentive to the red-headed vampire who managed to cross the entire room to stand behind you. Whatever effect Wednesday Addams had on you had to stop.

You saw a glint in the vampire’s eyes as you turned to look at her, daring you to deny it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You tried to say as nonchalantly as possible, but your voice caught right as you watched Wednesday get struck in the chest with the tip of Bianca’s sabre.

“I would like to invoke a military challenge.” Wednesday said. You could see the surprise catching everyone’s faces; all but Wednesday herself and Coach Vlad seemed unperturbed. You hoped your face also looked as disinterested as the coach’s.

“Don’t forget to breath. I don’t think she’s the type to catch you if you swoon.”

'Just ignore them and it’ll go away.’ You told yourself.

It didn’t go away. Now after class you were walking with Celeste through the halls back to the dorm.

“Wednesday and Y/N sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-“

“Ha. Ha. Very funny Celeste.”

“-G, first comes love-“

“It’s a wonder that you’re actually over 100 years old.”

“-Second comes marriage-“

“I’m going to infuse your sheets and clothes with garlic oil if you keep this up.”

“An empty threat.” Celeste waved her hand dismissively, “You’ve lost your touch.”

Not true at all, you’ve just toned down the harmless pranks when you decided you’d rather avoid Larissa as much as possible rather than be called to her office every other day. Gone are the days you begged for motherly affection. Your new mantra was lay low and get out of school as fast as possible. You remembered the last time you were in her office. 

***

“A shark Y/N, really?” Your mother whisper shouted, leaning over her desk to try to appear sterner. It was the biggest reaction you could get out of her nowadays.

“The sirens get to go for a swim in the lake, I don’t see why I can’t.” You shrugged.

“Not as a shark!” She circled the desk to tower over you. You may not have inherited her height, standing well below her 6’3”, but having grown up around her it did nothing to intimidate you.

“No one was going to get hurt; I don’t even like fish!” You smiled, remembering the screams of terror as Divina and Kent leapt out of the lake so quickly that they landed with their tails still intact instead of their legs. They flopped around for a solid two minutes before transforming and running back to school. Your mother clearly did not think your joke was funny.

“Need I remind you for the umpteenth time that you must maintain discretion with your … transformations.” It was a rule among shifters to keep the number of people who knew your secret to a minimum. It was an ability that made you seen as highly untrustworthy even in the outcast community, and it was not uncommon for a shifter to be locked away once discovered. Especially in the current political world climate.

“Need I remind you that no one caught me.” You kept your voice disinterested while mimicking her tone, though you were secretly preening from the attention. Being able to transform into animals made it very easy for you to be nearly undetectable. Just a quick switch into a bird or a fish and you were out of there.

“This week alone, you set off a natural gas explosion in the woman’s washroom, chased Thornhill out of the greenhouse as a bird, and now traumatized two sirens in the lake as a shark.” The headache your mom had was palpable. “Why do you do this to me Y/N?” She let out a sigh, her shoulders sagging in defeat. “Why couldn’t you be –“

“Be what mom? What do you want me to be?” It was your turn to raise your voice. “You want me to be captain of the fencing team because you never could get past second seat? You want me to be top of my class and run a million extracurriculars and be the head of the Nightshades and what else?! Even if I did that it’d never be good enough.”

“I never said –“

“You never SAY anything, that’s the point! Has it dawned on you yet that this is the longest conversation we’ve had since the last ‘prank’ I pulled? Even last week at parent’s day you never came by my room, and when I came to this office you were ‘busy’ entertaining alumni.”

“Most of the school funding comes from our alumni.” This got a laugh out of you. Of course she tried to explain away her behaviour, as if her job took precedence over any time spent with you, her only child. “Besides, you know for both of our safety it is important that we don’t allow our relationship to be common knowledge.” You were speechless for a moment, and your mother looked almost satisfied with herself. You could’ve continued the fight – you certainly had a lot to say – but suddenly it felt pointless.

“Whatever, if you don’t want to be a mom then don’t be a mom. I’ll behave from now on ‘Principal Weems’, just… don’t talk to me.” With that you swiveled on your heel and stomped out of the room.

***

“You know who’d really love it if you rekindled your rebellious streak?” Celeste poked you out of your head. Right, you were talking about Wednesday. “She does seem to be the type to like troublemakers.”

“Very funny. You sure you’re not just trying to cover up how in love with her you are?”

“Ha! Redirection will not work on me!”

“Honestly Celeste, I don’t even know her.” It was true, you didn’t know Wednesday, and would never in a million years act on whatever thoughts ran through your head.

“Hasn’t stopped anyone before. Just look at Xavier, bragging that he carried her over to the medical wing with that dopey grin on his face. I bet he asks her to the Rave’n.”

“Xavier’s an idiot.” He looked too satisfied with himself for someone who carried an unconscious girl in his arms. Peak male chauvinism.

“Ooo Jealous?”

“Of course not.” You waved dismissively, “Either way, if Enid is right Wednesday plans to be gone by the end of the week. The point is moot.”

That’s when you turned the corner and saw the unmistakable silhouette of your mother. She wasn’t supposed to be there; you should know, you had her whole schedule tracked for the exact purpose of avoiding her. You watched as she opened the passenger car door for a smaller figure. What was your mom doing spending time with Wednesday Addams??

Chapter Text

The curse was … unexpected. The sensation of a thousand spiders crawling both over and under her skin was inconsistent, seemingly unrelated to the proximity of her she-wolf roommate. Even in the classes Enid wasn’t in, it followed her like a clingy wraith. At first Wednesday was convinced that she was doomed to feel the itch at the same high intensity for the rest of her days, but as she sat in the car actively putting distance between herself and Nevermore school grounds, she felt the itch dissipate to almost non-existence. The respite did not feel nearly as good as anticipated, but she would rather be drawn, quartered, and hung before she admitted she missed it.

Yet just as she was sliding down the pipes of Kinbott’s building – many miles away from Enid – the itch came back. The sudden intensity buzzing around her body that made her want to reach out for… something.

No. Not that

What it really made her want to do is keel over and join the corpses six feet under for sweet release.

But Wednesday Addams was no coward. She would live through this.

And something as trivial as a multi-generational curse would not stop her from enacting her predetermined plans.

She stole a moment for herself to recollect her bearings once her feet touched the ground, willing the feeling away. Perhaps she miscalculated and it was not the curse inflicting her but rather another disease. Enid wasn’t here. No one from Nevermore would be here except for Weems.

A cautious tap on her shoulder drew her out of her thoughts.

‘U OK?’ Thing tapped out.

She didn’t respond, instead straightening her posture even further before beginning to move. As previously planned, the next move was to interrogate the local coffee shop for a phone or a ride. Just as well, coffee always worked wonders at settling her stomach. Following the path she mentally noted on the drive into the town, she stalked across the block to the small establishment.

Side eyeing the back of the car containing Weems herself and ignoring the path in front of her, Wednesday bumped into a man. Her entire body spasmed, a live current cascading up her spine and activating all her muscles as her brain exploded with a scene that wasn’t where she was now. The ring of a cellphone echoed in her skull. A man reached down to answer. Screams. Apples falling. The exhilarating sound of vertebrate cracking at incorrect angles. Before Wednesday could process more, she snapped back to the present.

“Who let you out, you goddamn weirdo?” The angry man spat in her face.

She honestly didn’t have time for this. With a glance back at the Nevermore van, Wednesday continued to the coffeeshop. With the nausea plaguing her and the aftertaste of electrocution from her vision still fresh, she desperately needed a coffee to settle herself. Right. Now.

Inside, she was met with the sweet sound of steam escaping at high pressure, eager to boil the skin. It appeared to just narrowly miss the amateur tormenting the poor espresso machine. He looked to be attempting active maintenance with the safety plate off and the instrument still pressurized. While Wednesday admired the recklessness – it was how she preferred to complete such tasks herself – the normie was clearly an imbecile and had little hope of fixing the machine. If she did not step in soon, the boy would surely have his face and arms painted with third degree burns. As enjoyable as that sounded, she needed espresso now.

Gliding through the shop to face the boy, the machine let out a perfectly timed hiss of rage to mask her approach. Clearly the machine felt some malice towards its operator and was trying to weed out the weak. Just as the steam subsided, the boy looked up to face her. He jumped back in surprise, “Holy Crap! Do you make a habit of scaring the hell out of people?”

“It’s more of a hobby.” One of her favourite ones in fact. She wished he screamed more.

“You go to Nevermore. Didn’t realize they changed up the uniforms.”

She absolutely despised the small talk. She just needed to get what she came for and be on her way. “I need a quad over ice. It’s an emergency.” The normie looked down at the machine in front of him, eyebrows furrowed. “It’s four shots of espresso.” She prompted. Given his performance with the espresso machine just a moment before it wouldn’t surprise her if he didn’t know the basic terminology of his profession as well.

“Yeah, I… I know what a quad is,” He chuckled, “but, spoiler alert, the espresso machine’s having a seizure, so all we have is drip.” Ah, so everyone is to suffer for his incompetence. No, Wednesday would not have drip coffee. It was for people who loathe themselves and who knew their lives have no real purpose or meaning. Placing herself behind the counter, she lifted up the instruction manual to confirm it indeed used the same mechanism as her self-made steam-powered guillotine at home.

Glancing once between the state of the machine and the manual, she saw it was a quick 30-second fix. Really, she could tell it was a valve issue from the moment she entered. Rapidly depressurizing steam was a dead giveaway. “I need a tri-wing screwdriver and a four-millimeter Allen wrench.” She instructed the boy.

“Wait, that’s in Italian. You read Italian?” She let out a small huff. Clearly, she was going to have to spell out everything.

“Of course. It’s the native tongue of Machiavelli.” She answered matter-of-factly. It was a shame how little this generation explored their own interests outside of the cold grasp of technology. Clearly, he was no different. “Here’s the deal; I’m going to fix your espresso machine and then you’ll make my quad and call me a taxi.” At least she would be able to barter her skills to enact her plan more efficiently.

Unfortunately, her plans A, B, and C were all thwarted when he explained her only option for escape was a train station 30-minutes away by car. He could drive her in an hour, but would not leave sooner even with a $40 bribe on the table. One hour would not do, Wednesday had to leave now, before Weems and Kinbott could find her and take her back.

She could not go back.

Beyond meeting her destined tormenter – Enid – she was already offered a spot on the school’s fencing team. Once she was told she could dual Bianca for the captaincy, she knew there was no winning. Either she beat Bianca (which is inevitable really) and becomes captain (like her mother) or she refuses the challenge and stands against her fundamentally competitive and ruthless nature while Bianca boasts her elevated seat over Wednesday.

No, she definitely could not go back.

Deciding she would re-strategize over her espresso, the goth went over to a booth which gave her a good vantage point on the road Weems would need to take to apprehend her, giving her ample warning and time to escape should the need arise.

A sudden fluttering of black next to the window drew her eye away from the street corner. A large black crow sat directly on the windowsill next to Wednesday, its beady eyes staring directly at her. It cocked its head inquisitively at her in acknowledgement and lightly pecked at the window. Her stomach lurched at the sight. Not because of the bird, that would be absurd. The bird simply distracted her from her stakeout and caused her to remember the curse transpiring within her. Dratted bird. She darted her gaze back at the table. Where was her coffee? Perhaps she would go back there and pull the shots herself; they’d taste more dreadfully black that way.

The jingling of the coffeeshop’s front door made her look up. Instead of being Weems or Kinbott however, three boys dressed as religious zealots walked in. The sneers on their faces made it clear they considered themselves nothing more than playground bullies. She already knew they would offer no more than childishly rude remarks and mindless aggression – it was cretins like this who gave villains a bad name.

As if to prove her point, one boy called out, “What’s a Nevermore freak doing out in the wild?” One, ‘Nevermore freak’ was an extremely disappointing – not to mention juvenile – attempt at name-calling. Second, his usage of ‘out in the wild’ suggested her usual place at Nevermore was much more sophisticated and cultured than their current location, making them feral and untamed in comparison. He couldn’t even land an insult properly.

“This is our booth.” Top it off with mindless male belligerence and possessiveness. Oh, how she was going to obliterate these boys.

But from her years of public schooling, she had begrudgingly agreed with her father that she would not incite violence unless in self-defence. At her last school she simply acted as a liaison for her helpless brother who was physically assaulted. She decided to instead prod these bullies, “Why are you dressed like religious fanatics?”

“We’re pilgrims.” She frowned slightly; they clearly did not know their history. It was more embarrassing for them when they revealed they worked at a place called ‘Pilgrim World’ where they were supposedly depositing incorrect information into the public.

“Hey guys, back off.” So, the conversation seems to have escalated to require Tyler to intervene. Time to take her opportunity.

“Stay out of this Galpin.”

They took the words right out of her mouth, but might as well reiterate, “Yes, stay out of this.” Tyler’s brain needed all the help and reminders it could get. Facing the leader, they were back to exchanging verbal fisticuffs until he clearly was at a loss for words. This simply would not do. What was the saying that frequently invoked fear in this generation and caused them to lash out? Oh right:

“Boo.”

The leader stumbled back multiple steps. The glint in Wednesday’s eye faltered slightly as she realized he might run without a fight. Thankfully the lackey behind her felt some loyalty to his leader and grabbed her shoulder in clear assault.

Now, acting in self defense, she twisted his arm and kneed his crotch. He doubled over in pain, but still managed to make another poorly executed attempt at punching her face. She shifted on her feet just slightly enough to narrowly miss his fist and feel the exhilaration of a dodged punch. The punch shot passed her and struck the nose of the leader. Her disappointment at not inflicting the damage herself was short-lived when an arm placed itself perfectly in front of her so she could grab the wrist, twist and sprain the extensor carpi tendon in his wrist, and fling him onto his already downed leader.

She turned to roundhouse kick the third boy who she estimated would have been ready to engage in the fight by now, if he was better trained or more loyal to his group. Clearly not, as her kick landed through thin air. It seemed Wednesday couldn’t hope to have a single worthwhile adversary in this town.

Despite her kick not falling, screams filled the air. As Wednesday whirled around, she saw that very same bird she was cursing not five minutes ago had grabbed the boy’s nostril and was pulling him to the ground. How it didn’t pull his nostril off and managed to maintain the inertial force required to pull the boy down, Wednesday only hoped to find out.

“I had it handled.” She uttered to the bird, now perched on the coffee table, the fight over. It tilted its head, starring inquisitively at her after taking in the scene of three teenage boys writhing on the ground in pain. She knew crows were intelligent, but the expression on this one seemed beyond any she had seen on the birds in her mother’s aviary as a child. She could only hope to capture such a stare in one of her taxidermy projects.

“You have a pet bird?” Tyler had approached behind her slowly, breaking off her staring contest with the bird.

“No, just a menace.” The bird squawked and tapped its beak on the table angrily.

“Right…” He glanced at the bird before looking at Wednesday. Did he too find it different – more intelligent and infuriating – than other birds of its genus. She wanted to grab it, study its brain, unleash it on more pests and watch it ruthlessly take them down, know it’s daily routine and how it kept it’s feathers so much cleaner than its street-bound brethren. Perhaps it was as meticulous and merciless as her – it certainly showed in its discriminate takedown of the last bully.

“So, where’d you learn those kung fu moves?” Tyler asked. Right, Tyler was still here, and was looking at her. She drew her eyes from the bird to consider the objectively much less interesting boy next to her.

“My uncle taught me. He spent five years in a Tibetan Monastery.”

Their conversation was cut short by a uniformed man charging into the shop. “Tyler, the hell’s going on?” He demanded.

“Nothing, they were just harassing a customer and she put them in their place.”

“This little thing took down three boys?” He asked, incredulous. “Did you help her?” Wednesday couldn’t help but flit her eyes back to the bird, ready to accuse it (again) of incorrectly stepping in on the short-lived battle, right as it took off in flight. It beelined it for the door, which was still completely ajar after the sheriff’s entrance. That’s when Wednesday noticed Weems rushing through the door, only narrowly avoiding the bird on its way out. The principal shot the crow a rather impressive death glare – even the Addams had to give her kudos for its execution – before entering the shop and giving Wednesday a pointed look. She would’ve preferred the death glare.

“Apologies sheriff, this one slipped away from me. Come on Miss Addams time to go.” With that, her first attempt at escape was foiled.

While losing Jericho access privileges wrecked havoc on a number of Wednesday’s escape plans, it was by no means a deterrent. Still, a few hours after the coffee shop incident she decided to propose her case to Weems and request her access be reinstated for further excursions. Mingling with the locals was oh so important for her teenage development after all.

Just before she could put her hand on the door handle to enter her office, the booming voice of Principal Weems sounded through the thick door “You are not to be anywhere near Wednesday Addams!” Wednesday paused; clearly there was some information to be gained by eavesdropping.

A moment passed. Either Principal Weems was going insane and rambling to herself – wishful thinking – or the other party of the conversation spoke too lowly for Wednesday’s ears.

“I can see through your lies missy.” Again, it was the principal’s voice. Intrigued, the goth cupped her hands over her ear and pressed herself to the slit of the door. In the case she was talking to herself, the Addams did love to witness the drop into insanity. Her vacations with Uncle Fester to the asylums in Europe and the Middle East were by far some of her favourite after all.

Adjusting herself and focusing completely on the conversation, she managed to catch the tail end of the other party to the conversation. “-no proof. You can’t punish me.” It sounded like a female, young enough to be a student if Wednesday had to guess.

A pause.

“I will be watching you. One foot out of line and –“

“Yeah, yeah… I know.” The second voice cut off Weems dismissively, “Can I go now?”

Another pause. Wednesday waited for a few seconds until the sound of approaching footsteps told her to make a hasty retreat. She whisked herself soundlessly to an alcove which gave her a good view of the door without being seen herself.

The door opened and you stepped out. Wednesday knew you were one of Enid’s good friends and her desk mate in numerous classes – she saw you both passing notes earlier today. Was Enid going to get the same talk from Principal Weems? Why were you in her office getting lectured about her? As far as the goth could recall (and her recall was perfect), you two had not uttered a single word to each other. You hadn’t even been in the same vicinity lest it be for class with tens of other students milling about. Was Weems giving you preamble warning?

Why?

Chapter Text

“Girl where have you been?!” Yoko jumped from her bed and rushed towards you as you entered the room. Behind her, Enid sat on the bed staring forlornly – a drastic change from her normally bubbly demeanour. Upon reaching you, Yoko grabbed your backpack and gently helped you take it off.

Did somebody die? Not that Yoko wasn’t usually nice to you, save the occasional teasing, but taking your bag for you seemed excessively considerate. You raised an eyebrow at her, ignoring the question completely, until a sniffle from the corner of the room drew your gaze towards Enid.

“Do you… feel anything?” She asked in a barely audible whisper. Your head ricocheted between the two, trying to piece together what exactly was going on.

Were you dying?

You felt fine, but maybe Yoko’s vampire nose could smell disease in your blood? Maybe Enid’s werewolf powers were developing so her canine sense could –

Crap. It was a full moon tonight.

You mentally roundhouse kicked yourself in the head. It definitely didn’t look good that you, a supposed werewolf, would’ve completely forgotten that tonight was a full moon. Having just been lectured by your mother not 30 minutes prior about your lack of care towards maintaining your identity, you were glad she wasn’t there to cast a judgmental stare your way.

Before coming here under the guise of being a lycan, your mother had made you intensively study every fact you could so you could pass as one yourself. It was a stroke of luck that Enid was a late bloomer, so you could blend in as a ’pack’ of your own. It made keeping up with the lie so much easier. Every full moon, you were there to comfort each other. You made a home with each other when all the other furs scorned you both for not transforming. Together, you always had a pack.

But today you forgot because everything you did was a lie. You wished so badly that you could just tell them the truth. If only your mother hadn’t brought up the latest kidnapping and probable murder of yet another shifter… It had gotten to the point that besides your own mother and a cousin you’ve never met before in the United Kingdom, you actually didn’t know about any other shifters still freely roaming about anymore. If only inter-outcast relations between shifters and the other species improved as much as they did between the other groups. Heck, a vampire and werewolf standing in the same room together was unheard of just fifty years ago. Why did the fact that you were a shifter mean you have to hide?

You could wish as much as you wanted, but for now, you had to keep up the lie. You stuttered, letting your brain buffer, “No, not at all. I can’t really feel the moon all that much tonight at all.” You said sheepishly. You scratched the back of your head, trying to remember what exactly it was you read about werewolves who stopped feeling a connection to the moon.

“Wait that can happen?” Enid shrieked, her eyes widening to the size of golf balls, or maybe more aptly, mini moons. She clawed at her face and jumped out of the bed, beginning to pace. “But wouldn’t that mean… that would mean…” Enid paused mid-step and turned back to you. “What does that mean?”

Both the werewolf and vampire looked at you, one with utter panic and the other with mild astonishment. “I don’t know for sure. Maybe I’m just never going to transform?” You frowned, thinking inwardly to yourself. Normally it was only lone wolves well into their 40s who never transformed that could lose their connection with the moon. Even then, it was a very rare phenomenon. Luckily, it didn’t seem like either of your friends knew that, but the fact that they believed you so readily did not make you feel any better.

“OMG Y/N, I’m so sorry!” Enid pounced forward, wrapping you in a massive bearhug. Yoko followed suit, and soon you were enveloped in the love and support of friends you didn’t deserve. You really should’ve been with Yoko, comforting Enid for every single moon she couldn’t howl at in her natural form – absolutely no attention afforded to you. You felt like a thief, a scumbag, or in your mother’s own maternal words, a menace. Funny that even Wednesday Addams called you one earlier today.

You were a menace. You didn’t deserve any of this.

“Oh hun, it’s okay,” Yoko cooed while leaning back to look at your face, wiping a stray tear which you didn’t realize you had let fall, “We’ll figure something out.”

“Yeah! We’ll have a girl’s night, your choice of course.” Enid beamed; her own suffering momentarily forgotten with her new mission to alleviate your pain.

You didn’t deserve them.

“Here, I’ll call Celeste and –”

“No!” You yanked yourself out of their grip, falling back a few steps towards the back of the room towards the balcony. You felt suffocated, you felt raw. It was like they had a vice grip around you and every breath you took exposed you more, showing your true, rotten colours. Enid tried to reach out to you, to keep chasing you, but Yoko grabbed her arm and kept her back. Enid looked at her questioningly then back at you like a kicked puppy.

“I’m sorry guys, I can’t do this tonight.” You rasped out, “Just… leave me alone!”

You felt like a frog on a dissection table as Yoko scrutinized you, searching for something, deciding what to do. “C’mon E, let’s give her some space.” Yoko murmured gently after a moment, wrapping her arms around the young werewolf and guiding her out of the room. She gave you one last look over her shoulder as she closed the door, silencing the sniffles coming from Enid.

Echoes of the door closing resounded through the empty room and pounded in your head. Instantly, you felt alone in the world. You weren’t too heartbroken though, this is what you deserved.

Everyday you were careful. Careful to keep up appearances, pretend to be something you weren't and hide yourself from everyone, even your closest friends. You hadn’t shifted in weeks, extra cautious of the kidnappings and violent acts against shifters which only grew in frequency. Then a certain dark-haired goth showed up who seemed to get special attention from the one person who knew what you were just for being what? A transfer student? A potential murderer? That hardly seemed like a good enough reason for her to warrant a personal escort from Larissa Weems to a therapy appointment in Jericho. Clearly your mother was partial to Wednesday Addams.

Maybe she finally gave up on you. Maybe she decided to replace you.

You snorted, laughing at the puddle of pity you made and were currently trying to drown yourself in. That was definitely not your style. No, you had something else in mind.

Picking yourself up, you ran through the balcony door and jumped off the roof.

Thirty-seven bars into Bach’s Prelude & Fugue No. 2 in C Minor, Wednesday fell flat on a note by half a semi-tone, but she continued through the piece nonetheless. She looked at the sheet music in front of her, partially obstructed by her bangs, until her eye caught a slightly different shade of black on the midnight horizon. She stared at the familiar beak while she played the last eight bars, until she drew out the final note and rested the bow on her lap.

The crow took the cue to fly onto the top of her music stand and focused its overly intelligent eyes on the goth. “If you are waiting for a thank-you prepare to rot into the ground.” She began. The crow cocked its head again and squawked loudly, pecking angrily at the sheet music. “I had more than a handle on the situation.” Thing turned to look at the teenager talking to the bird but dared not sign a word. Her sourer than normal mood did not bode well for his desire to maintain his well-moisturized, five-digit appearance.

The bird, previously fixated on the goth, spotted the animated hand and flapped in surprise before settling its ruffled feathers. It seemed to consider something for a moment before edging itself closer to the appendage, this time cocking its head forward to get a closer look at Thing.

At this point, the nauseating pressure in the girl’s core had since reared its ugly head again, which could only mean one thing – Enid had returned. Wednesday audibly scowled, furrowing her brow, and glaring at the papers in front of her, willing it to caress her terrible mood as it had for so many nights before in her life. Since her dear scorpion Nero died and she traded the violin for the more sombre tone of the cello, she has used the instrument as a vice to work out any troubling situation she didn’t wish to simply stew in.

This school was one such situation; a major one at that. Enid was another. Both situations could be solved by leaving the school behind.

But Wednesday loved nothing if not a good mystery. Weems was hiding something, and Y/N was somehow involved. Was it intriguing enough to risk it all and stay a few more days?

Absolutely not.

It certainly did not help that Weems stood firmly in her administered punishment to ban Wednesday from her own excursions to town. The most she could get away with was attending school-sanctioned events, the first being over a week away at the Harvest festival.

Thing flipped through the music book he had personally annotated for the Addams for her twelfth birthday and landed on a welcome friend – an unnamed piece composed by Thing that would take even the most expert cellists two instruments to properly sound out. Luckily, she was better than that.

“Good idea.” She complimented. The crow hopped onto the ledge of the music stand and peered at the piece. As if begging to be told the title, it pecked at the top of the page where five fingertips were inked onto the page as if on the incline of a hill. Previously, Wednesday had inquired about the meaning of the title to Thing, however the appendage didn’t provide any meaningful information. “Thing wrote it, so he marked the top.” She said to the bird, offering everything she knew.

She didn’t know why she felt coerced to say anything at all. She thrived in silence, and other than the melodious sound of her own hand working the cello, she wouldn’t have it any other way. She may make an exception for particularly euphonious sounds such as her brother’s screams, but never to hear her voice out loud. It must have been the werewolf’s proximity. The curse, there was no other explanation. She despised it.

With that final, bitter thought, she launched into the piece with expert precision. When the bow begged to conform to its typical mundane abilities, she forced it into an entirely new shape to achieve musical perfection. Thing was at the ready, flipping pages in case Wednesday needed the notes. It was ridiculous really, the girl had them memorized the day after receiving the piece almost four years ago. Yet as she found comfort in playing, Thing found comfort in helping the Addams clan in anyway he could. They were family after all.

The crow flew into the air to avoid the sudden page flying towards it, landing on the balcony ledge and watching curiously from a distance. The goth tracked its movements, glaring at it as she continued to play. She watched it relax into the notes, fluffing out it’s feathers and settling in its spot. Black beady eyes, once staring earnestly at the dark-eyed girl, slowly closed as it allowed itself to be lulled into a peaceful state. Somehow, she felt the peace settle over herself as well. She was rarely around live birds – mostly she preferred the dead kind – but perhaps they had some ability she was unaware of. She felt herself relax more, oddly enough not in the disgusting, nauseating way she didn’t enjoy, but in the… enjoyably soothing way she has rarely experienced.

It was simply unacceptable. That feeling in addition to the close proximity of the werewolf was a recipe for trouble, and not the good kind. She opted to glare into the darkness and completely ignore the traitorous bird, studying the tops of the trees instead. Much too soon, the final bar arrived, and she let out a huff. Both the bird and Thing gave her twin looks of concern, Thing even going so far as to sign out if she felt better.

“No, I don’t really feel better. There’s just something wrong with this place, and not just because it’s a school.” She replied. Again, she internally chastised herself for letting out too many words and over-explaining herself. Her eyes angrily moved over the bird, but just as she got ready to curse at it again, she heard the window open. Wednesday wanted to spontaneously combust.

“How the hell did you get that oversized violin out the window?” Enid asked. She sounded disgruntled, Wednesday thought, which was strange considering her usual permanently perky demeanor.

“I had an extra hand.” Thing waved at his mention.

“Whoa. Where’s the rest of him?” Compared to most, she seemed relatively unfazed. How unfortunate, Wednesday would have enjoyed watching the werewolf try to fight the appendage and lose.

“It’s one of the great Addams family mysteries.” She said instead.

Suddenly, howls filled the midnight air. Strange, was Enid not a werewolf? Why was she not with them? It seemed highly unlikely that she lied about being one, however the proof of her lack thereof was standing right in front of her. Even wolves as young as twelve who visited their estate all had the ability to transform. “Why aren’t you wolfing out?”

“Because I can’t.” The blonde shot razor sharp daggers for claws out of her fingertips, five perfectly honed killing tools –son magnificas. The werewolf seemed much less impressed with herself however, “It’s all I’ve got.”

Enid walked forward to lean on the balcony railing, staring out at the forest after sparing a cursory glance at the crow. It squawked and hopped closer to her arm. “My mom says some wolves are late bloomers, but I’ve been to the best Lycanologist. Had to fly to Milwaukie, would you believe it? Yeah, she says there’s a chance I may never … you know.” Wednesday watched as the crow moved closer, so much so that Enid looked down and stroked its feathers. Wednesday ground her teeth together, reining in the strange feeling creeping around her insides to accompany the regular feeling of the curse. Thing tapped at her knee, however she ignored it and instead put her cello down to walk closer to the duo.

“And then Y/N just said she stopped feeling any connection to the moon at all and I’m scared it’ll happen to me.” Interesting, so Y/N was also one of these so-called ‘late-blooming’ furs.

“What happens then?” Wednesday had never heard of a non-transforming werewolf.

“I become a lone wolf.”

“Sounds perfect.” The dark-haired girl wished her life could be given the same luxuries.

You felt awful. You came to harmlessly peck Wednesday’s eyes out, happy that you lucked out enough that she was already so easily targetable on the balcony, then you heard the music, and you don’t know how or why, but it put you in a trance. Nothing, not even a disembodied, living hand could knock you out of it. You thought it was ridiculous that the goth thought you were going to ask for a thank-you, she clearly wasn’t the type. However, when she began playing for the second time, it somehow felt like it was directed as you. Normally, you would’ve just flown away – too much attention was uncomfortable – but the embrace of the music was unlike anything you felt before.

It was only when the music ended that you felt alert again, because the window to the bedroom opened and Enid walked out. She should not be outside, any moment the moon would be at its highest point and the pack would harmonize together in a melodic howl which she could not yet join. You felt awful.

You watched helplessly as Enid and Wednesday exchanged a few words, willing the goth to usher her back in. You didn’t want to top Enid's night off with ‘bird attack’, which was currently your only method of getting her inside yourself.

Three.

Two.

One.

The howls began.

If you could cry in this form, you would. Enid’s face contorted tragically as she sniffed and looked at Mother Moon. She was clearly all out of tears already. You wanted to reach out and comfort her. You wished you didn’t come up with a stupid excuse about ‘not feeling the moon’ that just hurt her more. Otherwise, you’d be curled up together watching a movie while letting Yoko tease you just to get a smile out of Enid.

It didn’t help that Wednesday was almost laughably bad at making her feel better. You briefly reconsidered your original plan of poking her eyes out, but Enid unknowingly saved the goth when she started stroking your feathers in a self-comforting gesture. Glad you could somewhat help, you couldn’t help but wonder; would being softer help? You wished you became a cat for this whole exchange, you knew how much she loved them, no matter how ironic that a werewolf loving cats was. You were constantly shocked how Enid managed to get away with no teasing from the fangs yet you were constantly in it's onslaught.

You made soothing noises as she explained to Wednesday all the details of lone wolves. They were relatively basic facts that you thought everyone knew. Wednesday must've been all brawn and no brains then – figures.

“No offense, but I still think you’re weird as shit.” Enid said. That, you could wholeheartedly agree on. You looked up at her curiously when a giggle escaped her lips, “One second you are beating people up left, right, and centre, the next you are up in a tower attracting the local wildlife with song like a Disney princess or something.” You held in a laugh. You couldn’t believe Enid had the gall to say that to Wednesday-I’m going to murder you with my stare-Addams.

“Disney princess?” Was all the goth retorted, clearly perplexed.

“Yeah, like those ones from Shrek that beat everyone up and break into the castle, but also do all the typical princessy stuff like sing to animals.” You couldn't hold the laugh in anymore, so you squawked loudly, which was apparently all crows could do when they wanted to laugh.

“I am not a princess.” She was firm, clearly trying to end the conversation. Enid ignored her, hopping up to sit on the balcony railing and face her roommate. You took the opportunity to hop on Enid’s shoulder and appear as a team against Wednesday. You didn’t really want to think of her as a princess; because with a face like hers it really wasn’t hard to imagine her as a dark, gothic princess, but you wanted to help in anyway you could to keep Enid’s mind off of the moon tonight.

“You seem to have tamed this little guy. Or is he your pet?” Your feathers ruffled slightly, you were all up for Enid’s lifted mood, but you were not, under any circumstances, Wednesday’s pet. She reached up to continue stroking your feathers, smoothing them down while smiling.

“Not my pet, just an annoyance.” She clarified, much to your relief. The feeling was mutual. Wednesday turned away from both of you, crossing her arms so she looked, for the first time since you met her, non-confrontational.

“Aww, can we keep him?” Enid transformed her voice into that of a little girl begging her parents for a stray animal they found on the street. It was clearly soon time to make your exit before you were caged.

Wednesday completely ignored her, “How would you like your single room back? You just need to show me how to use your computer.” Enid’s frown returned, and she hopped off her makeshift seat. You managed to keep your balance on her shoulder but leapt off once she had settled on the ground to land back onto the railing. Wait, did Wednesday not know how to use a computer? That seemed entirely impossible for someone your age, not to mention that Wednesday had some things to say about Enid’s blog, something entirely online and requiring the use of a computer or phone.

Why would she bother lying about something like that?

“Sure, let’s head in.” Enid turned to look at you and stroke your wing one last time before heading to the open window.

Wednesday cast you yet another glare – did this girl seriously have no other expression? – and looked you up and down. She must have been trying to intimidate you, but that definitely was not going to happen. She muttered something under her breath, which you thought sounded suspiciously similar to “I am not a princess” before following her roommate back inside.

Chapter Text

“Let me get this straight,” Celeste was walking beside you on the way to your first period class alongside Yoko, trying to get her bearings on the events of yesterday since you last saw her, “you saw Weems leave campus and decided it was the perfect opportunity to start a fire in the botany lab?”

“Just a small one.” You replied nonchalantly. It had slipped out that you were called into Weem’s office when you spoke to Yoko later in the evening, and it was far better to say it was over a harmless prank than over you shifting and getting in a fight in the Weathervane. Of course, you needed to actually go back and enact the prank to fully cover your tracks – you were nothing if not thorough.

“Uh huh, love me some property destruction,” she said with slight concern lacing her voice, “So Weems called you into her office making you late for movie night with E and Yoks?” You nodded along, so far everything checked out. “And the adrenaline of being a pyromaniac made you completely forget about the full moon but it was really a false alarm?

“Mmhmm.” Indeed, shortly after leaving the balcony you had made your way back to the room to apologize to Enid. You couldn’t get the look of anguish from her face out of your mind and had to set it right. A false alarm was the best you could come up with. It helped that it lined up exceedingly well with the fire story.

“Then you went to Wednesday’s room -” You frowned, that didn’t sound entirely accurate.

“I went to Enid’s room” You corrected.

“You went to Wednesday and Enid’s room to hang out for a bit and didn’t come to get me or Yoks?”

You stuttered, unsure exactly where Celeste was taking this. “Yeah, I guess?” You said finally. Did Celeste know something she shouldn’t have? Did she see you transform? Or perhaps she investigated the fire and realized the timeline of the fire starting and being put out did not line up with your visit to Larissa’s office. You did do it after the fact after all.

“And you are absolutely adamant that you don’t have a crush on Wednesday Addams?”

“Yea-, wait,” You choked on air, feeling your head do a complete 180 spin. How did this girl’s brain work that that was the takeaway? “What!?” You spluttered out.

“Do you not recall our conversation yesterday? It’s just a little convenient that all this happened after I told you that Wednesday would love to see you rekindle your rebellious streak and cause trouble.”

“Yeah little pup, before that you were on the straight and narrow path to almost being a perfect student.” Yoko finally spoke up, supporting everything Celeste was saying – that traitor.

“Oh yeah,” you mused, “I remember that came up right after I threatened to spray garlic oil on all of your belongings.” You tried to sound as threatening as possible, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears as Celeste and Yoko both just laughed.

“C’mon girl, you wouldn’t do that, you looooove us.” Celeste slung a lazy arm around your shoulder and squeezed. You tried to shake it off but you were similarly grabbed from the other side by Yoko.

“Not as much as she looooves Wednesday.” You ground your teeth together and shut your eyes. It didn’t bother you because it wasn’t true. It simply wasn’t. If anything, you hated Wednesday Addams.

Then they let go and continued walking, “See you at lunch!” Yoko said, waving without looking back.

“Oh, and Y/N, don’t have too much fun this morning.” She said with a mischievous smirk, walking away with Yoko. You stood for a second in front of your class, wondering what just happened, before walking into the classroom.

“Hey Y/N!” Enid swivelled in her chair, sitting in her usual spot. That wasn’t right though, because next to her, in what was your usual spot, was Kent, a siren that you knew for a fact Enid didn’t really talk to. What was he doing in your spot?

“That’s my seat.” You said to him.

“Celeste said you might want to switch seats with him because, you know.” Enid grinned knowingly, flashing you a quick wink while eyeing Kent’s usual seat, or more aptly, Kent’s usual seat partner. You didn’t have to turn around to know she was referring to the dark cloud who sat there.

Your hand moved up to your forehead, trying to centre yourself. You were going to fucking kill Celeste. With everything that happened yesterday, you completely forgot to make sure the fangs didn’t say anything to Enid; you should have lit her hair on fire instead of the botany lab. Now, it was only a matter of time before the fake rumour mill churned and your ‘crush’ was the talk of the school. As if she could tell what you were thinking, Enid spoke up again, “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed, but you have to promise that I’ll be the first to know if anything does happen.” She squealed, her grin growing even wider. She practically wriggled in her seat like an overexcited puppy.

“Enid, I think there was a mistake, I was just telling Celeste how I thought it’d be cute if you and Wednesday sat next to each other. You know, you could totally be the classic black cat golden retriever power duo. Truly iconic.” You said, trying to turn things around on her. Enid tilted her head with confusion, really accentuating the golden retriever side of the analogy.

“Really?” She peered around you again to look to over where Wednesday sat. “I mean if you’re sure...” You almost felt bad for how eager Enid was to accept the spin you gave to the story, but you’d honestly rather sit next to Kent than Wednesday and dispel any clout that existed to this ridiculous rumour. Enid made way to get up but was stopped halfway through the motion by a resounding “No!”

You turned around to find Wednesday staring at the two of you. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say her eyes looked slightly wider with a hint of … panic behind them? “We should keep our original seating arrangements as they were assigned.” She stated forcefully.

“Our seats aren’t assigned.” You said plainly. She directed her glare at you now.

“Aw man, I just got all my stuff down.” Kent complained. He splayed his head and arms on the desk as if he was being physically bound to it. This would be so much easier if he just got up and moved. “Can’t we switch just today Y/N? Pleeeease?” He drew out the last word, and it was so dramatic and over the top, especially for Kent, that you knew he was playing a role. Celeste must have bribed him with something.

“Enid, we are swapping.” You repeated bluntly, putting your books down in front of her own and picking hers up to move them. You moved over to Kent’s usual seat to place them down, only to have the desk blocked by a black-clothed arm.

“I do not accept this trade.” Wednesday asserted. You glowered at each other, neither backing down. For a full 30 seconds, you stared at each other, neither blinking.

“Then we have reached an impasse.” You gritted out.

“It appears we have.” You wanted to wipe the miniscule smirk you could see lacing itself into her micro expression, clearly visible now that you were so close to her. Apparently, she did have more than one face to put on.

“Alright class, settle down and take your seats!” The teacher bellowed from the front of the room. You huffed and put Enid’s books back in front of her, grabbing your own. “Y/N, that includes you.” He let out again when you didn’t sit within five seconds. You looked around, but there was no seat other than the one right next to Wednesday. She was just going to have to deal with it.

Surprisingly, she put up no fight when you settled into your temporary seat, instead ignoring you completely. What was she so strongly against? Did she really want to avoid you and Enid that badly? She seemed indifferent in their room last night. You sat in silence while the teacher picked up a regular rhythm to his lecture, then you turned to her. “So, you want to sit next to Kent that badly huh?”

“No.” She uttered.

“You avoiding Enid?” You asked lazily, trying to feign disinterest.

“No.” She repeated again, this time with more conviction. Normally, you wouldn’t have noticed the difference, but sitting so close to her and studying her face, you saw the slightest twitch under her eye. Maybe you were imagining it, but just in case you weren’t, you decided to poke at the subject a little more.

“So in that case you wouldn’t say no to eating lunch with us, including Enid.” You drawled, a smirk slowly forming on your face as you intently studied hers. Oh yeah, you hit some sort of nerve there.

“I prefer my solitude.” She said. This time you thought you detected hints of defensiveness in her voice. Honestly, it was a fun kind of game – guess what Wednesday was thinking and feeling.

“You mean you’re avoiding Enid.” This time, Wednesday completely shifted in her seat to face you directly. Apparently, that was her favourite way of glaring at people. You just stared back unabashedly. Soon, you realized neither of you were blinking and it turned into a staring contest of sorts, similar to what had just transpired a moment before and you had backed down from. This one, you were not going to lose. Lucky for you, you had a genetic advantage which allowed you to transform for precisely these situations. Ever so slowly, so as to remain undetected under the other girl’s scrutinizing gaze, you formed an exceptionally thin nictitating membrane over your eye. There, now your eyes were moisturized eternally. You saw a slight twitch in Wednesday’s left eyelid, perhaps she had finally reached her limit, what felt like 25 minutes later. Was she even human?

Your contest ended in a forced draw (but really you won) when the teacher called on Wednesday to solve the problem on the board. Somehow, she answered it perfectly despite having not paid attention for the entire class. Damn her.

The rest of the class passed by uneventfully as you both went back to ignoring each other. Finally, the period bell rang, and you got up to collect your books. You felt Enid prance up behind you as you zipped up your bag. Momentarily relaxed because you thought Wednesday had already left, you jolted suddenly when you looked up and she was standing next to you, eyes flitting between Enid’s and your own and contemplating her next words.

“I will see you at lunch.” She said, before walking off.

The squeal in your ear by the colourful werewolf was loud enough to render you deaf. At this point, you wanted to be dead, Celeste and Yoko were going to have a field day. How could you be so stupid? “Oh. Em. Geee!”

Chapter Text

There were only four more days until the Harvest Festival and Wednesday was free from Nevermore. Unfortunately, with the trivial content taught in classes here, the majority of which she mastered herself months before, she was faced with one of her most dreaded adversaries – boredom. Normally, she would have cut class, though Weems threatened to revoke privileges to the Harvest Festival if she ‘set one foot out of line’.

So, Wednesday was reduced to observing the petty squabble of adolescent outcasts try to fit in with each other. Oh look, Divina and Bianca are gossiping about the two gorgons sitting next to them. Such riveting content. If Wednesday could be bothered to roll her eyes, she would.

“That’s my seat.” The goth indolently looked over at you leaning between Enid and Kent near the front row. You looked to be trying to push Kent out of his seat next to the blonde, but to no avail. It was almost comical. Unfortunate – a fight would have satisfied Wednesday’s boredom for a least the lecture. Perhaps even the entire day if blood was drawn.

Instead, Enid had a hand placed on your arm while leaning up to whisper something in your ear. That, coupled with a small glance towards Wednesday herself, had the goth’s insides churning more than her grandmother’s cauldron. Enid winked at you and Wednesday could swear there was a light blush on your cheeks. Interesting, was Enid already spoken for, or did Wednesday have competition for the wolf’s heart?

Not that Wednesday was competing, she was adamant about not entering the competition at all.

The dark-haired girl inched slightly forward in her seat, trying to catch what you were saying to her. Perhaps her cursed Addams soul could be appeased by knowing her destined’s heart was claimed and taken care of, and she could circumvent any of the… unfortunate side effects.

“- Wednesday sat next to each other. You know, you could totally be the classic black cat golden retriever power duo. Truly iconic.” With a small piece of the puzzle, Wednesday got to work trying to understand the meaning. Her name, a black cat, and a golden retriever. Did Enid want to get pets? What was it about sitting next to each other?

Enid peered around you to look at Wednesday and began to collect her books, “I mean if you’re sure…” Suddenly, it clicked together. The body language, the words… you were trying to pair Wednesday and Enid together.

Over her haunting ghoul’s soul! While Wednesday was exceedingly careful to maintain her personal space, Kent’s poor coordination and gangly limbs meant he brushed against Wednesday multiple times within a single class. She couldn’t risk doing the same with Enid and triggering the curse; not when she was so close to freedom.

“No!” She said, more forcefully that she intended.

Enid’s bright blue eyes widened, while you swivelled to look at the goth with a hint of surprise. Ah, of course, you didn’t realize she was eavesdropping. She should spell it out for you, make herself crystal clear. “We should keep our original seating arrangements as they were assigned.”

“Our seats aren’t assigned.” You said, matching Wednesday’s tone. She directed her glare at you, you were frustratingly unaffected.

“Aw man, and I just got all my stuff down too.” Kent lay himself on the table. Did he really have so little control over his limbs? “Can’t we switch just today Y/N? Pleeeease?” Ah, so you were coming to sit with Wednesday. That was acceptable. Wednesday almost let herself relax until you cut in again.

“Enid, we are swapping.” You repeated bluntly. The goth ground her teeth together. This would be so much easier if you just sat down, but of course you had to be a pain and grab Enid’s books and carry them to the seat next to Wednesday.

She was mystified how you enacted such deplorable deeds so readily, moving Enid’s books without explicit permission. Wednesday slide herself across the table to block where the books would go. Normally she wouldn’t partake in such childish behaviour, but she had to fight fire with fire. “I do not accept this trade.” Wednesday asserted. You glowered at each other. Wednesday willed you to back down. She was nearly impressed with how steadfast you were until you blinked and looked away.

“Then we have reached an impasse.” You gritted out.

“It appears we have.” Wednesday couldn’t help the smirk that fought its way to her expression. She wouldn’t call you a worthy adversary, but she could likely get through class without disintegrating due to boredom due to your childish fit over the seats.

“Alright class, settle down and take your seats! Y/N, that includes you.” The teacher called the class to order, and more importantly, called you to stand down and sit down. You looked around for a seat, looking like you’d rather flee the classroom than sit next to Wednesday. Given no other option, you begrudgingly sat next to the goth, quirking an eyebrow at her in silence.

Of course, sweet silence could only last for so long. It seemed that while Kent couldn’t control his limbs, you couldn’t control your mouth. “So, you want to sit next to Kent that badly huh?”

“No.” She wanted to avoid sitting next to Enid.

“You avoiding Enid?” You asked. Wednesday stiffened, disliking how close your words were to her thoughts. She hadn’t said that last bit out loud, had she?

“No.” She repeated. She wanted nothing more than for you to be quiet.

Instead, you did the opposite and did the one thing that could get Wednesday’s full attention; you issued a challenge. “So, in that case you wouldn’t say no to eating lunch with us, including Enid.”

“I prefer my solitude.” Despite her best efforts, the words felt forced. Wednesday simply didn’t turn away a challenge, she wasn’t afraid of anything.

However, she wasn’t stupid, and the curse was not to be trifled with. She forcefully pushed down the odd feeling creeping up her throat when she declined your offer to have lunch with Enid, as though she wished she didn’t decline the offer. 

“You mean you’re avoiding Enid.” You reiterated. How infuriating was your voice that the very sound of it made her want to resort to violence. Wednesday turned to face you head on. She clenched her jaw, biting back the words she wanted to say, the questions she wanted to ask.

Did you know something you shouldn’t have? You must have some knowledge of the curse to insist that the werewolf and the goth sit together in class and have lunch together. Perhaps the physical reaction she was feeling was simply surprise? With the little interaction you’ve have, you seem to have identified Wednesday’s fatal flaw. Perhaps she didn’t give you enough credit.

Somehow, you knew about the curse and Wednesday’s own shortcomings. You were protecting your friend and daring Wednesday to step up. What you lacked in intellect, you seemed to make up for in caring for your friends. The goth witnessed you comfort the late-blooming werewolf for most of the night until Ms. Thornhill heard the blonde’s laughs in the early hours of the morning and sent you packing. You made Enid happier; something you both knew Wednesday could never do for the wolf. But you challenged her anyways.

For the first time, Wednesday felt inadequate.

That’s when she decided, fatal flaw or no, Wednesday didn’t run away or hide. She was going to go to lunch with the one thing that could tear her down and prove it couldn’t.

At that moment, something in your eyes changed, as if acknowledging the mental battle she just went through and promising to hold her accountable. Her thoughts stuttered for a moment as she considered the chances of you being a mind-reader. Highly improbable, but not impossible. Claiming to be a later-blooming werewolf was an simple enough guise to avoid suspicion by the other student, but just to be safe, she stopped her train of thought and paid attention to the rest of the lecture.

“So much for an entertaining lunch.” Yoko said, voice flooding with disappointment. She looked down her glasses across the quad, causing Enid to follow her gaze. She saw you, sitting down with a group of fangs, at a table with no space for more people to join. She caught your eye, and you gave a wide smile while waggling your eyebrows. Yoko groaned, “AND she’s going to rub it in. Just great.”

“Yoko, maybe you’re taking this a bit too far, she can sit with who she wants.” Enid offered. Yoko pouted and pulled out her phone. The werewolf frowned, “Who’re you texting?” She questioned, suspicious of what the fang was up to.

“She was the one who invited Wednesday to sit with us, not the other way around. I’m just stopping her from being mean to the new kid.” Yoko said innocently, waving her phone that was on a text messaging screen. By the colours of the profile picture she could tell it was Celeste. Honestly, Enid couldn’t refute that logic, Yoko was right. Wednesday already had a hard enough time fitting in, especially with how much she disliked anything that even put her at risk for physical touch. Her agreeing to a social lunch was a massive step that they had to support. You were making it worse. Yoko started chuckling shortly after a ding sounded on her phone. “You in to do some meddling?” 

Enid didn't need anymore convincing, “Oh yeah.”

People confounded Wednesday. She often attributed it to their lack of brainpower and general forethought coupled with their lack of ambition. You seemed to fall into both categories. There she stood, at the edge of the pentagon where the students ate lunch, lunch tray in hand, staring between two tables. One contained Enid and Yoko, while the other contained you and a large group of fangs.

Didn’t you utilize the inclusive plural pronoun ‘us’ when describing this so-called lunch invitation. That would suggest both you and Enid were both included in this gathering. That is, unless you were illiterate. The goth wouldn’t be surprised. Now clearly, with your end of the challenge unsatisfied, Wednesday was relinquished from her side of the bargain. She didn’t have to eat lunch with either of you.

Why didn’t her feet move her away from the situation?

She should just go to Enid’s table, then her (non-existent) fear of coming close to Enid could never be refuted again. However, there wouldn’t be any value in that if you didn’t observe her proving her point. Looking at your table, you seemed completely engrossed in the conversation you were having. What made you laugh so hard that you almost fell off your seat? You were facing fangs opposite of Wednesday, so when you conversed with them your back was to her, and she couldn’t glare at you. Perhaps she should head over to you and drag you herself over to Enid’s table. That would certainly wipe that infuriating smile off your face.

“Hey Wednesday, I heard you’re sitting with us today!” Another fang you had a habit of associating with – Celeste – had come up behind the smaller girl. She turned to look at her, ready to refute this ridiculous endeavour and return to eating in solitude, until another figure bounded up to her from her other side. She was ambushed. The goth mentally cursed herself, having known the Northeast door would have allowed easier escape but opting for the Southeast door with the superior vantage. Clearly she made an error in her choice.

“I’m so glad you made it!” Enid smiled widely, boundless enthusiasm permeating every inch of her. Instinctually, Wednesday took a step away from the werewolf and nearly bumped into the vampire who proceeded to loop her arm with Wednesday’s.

Immediately, she recoiled. “Touch me again and I’ll stake you.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Celeste crooned, flashing her fangs. Despite her words, she gave the girl a healthy distance, careful not to touch her or invade her personal space. Too late, the goth observed a silent exchange between Enid and the vampire in the form of chin tilts and nods. Before she could intervene with whatever plan they were concocting, the werewolf had already bounded away in your direction.

“Come on Wends, let’s get to the table.”

“Don’t call me that.” Wednesday followed the vampire, eyeing Enid now leaning over you. She was certain now that she was walking directly into a trap.

“C’mon Y/N, you can’t just bail!” The werewolf grabbed onto your sandwich-eating arm, making you have to chase your hand with your mouth to take the bite you planned.

“Why not, life is short and I can eat with who I want.” You said with your mouth full, having just taken a massive chomp.

Enid giggled and pushed you away, “Ew, gross.” She looked around at the group, “guys, little help here.”

“What’s going on?” A fang sitting across from you asked. You very visibly kicked him from underneath the table, “Ouch! Hey, I was just asking.”

“That’s not what we discussed.” You hissed between your teeth. “Enid, I’ll see you in class after lunch.”

Another fang leaned over the table, showing her phone screen to someone else at the table and speaking at vampiric speeds so neither you nor Enid could follow. You didn’t need supernatural ears to know what it was about though. Your fears were confirmed when you glanced over to where Yoko sat, grinning massively with her phone in hand. She lowered her sunglasses to make her eyebrows more visible just to waggle them back at you like you had done just moments before. Karma was certainly a bitch.

The fang who just read the phone screen gaped at you, her mouth forming a perfect 'o' shape. “Y/N, you asked Wednes–“ 

You held your hand up to shush her, “Not. Another. Word.” You said, standing up and picking up your lunch tray to go with Enid like a prisoner on death row. You knew when you’d lost, and you'd go silently and with dignity. Enid jumped up and down on the spot, clapping her hands lightly with excitement.

But just because you had to go down, didn’t mean you couldn’t drag someone down with you. Turning to the lunch table one last time, you smiled slyly. “I’m off to supervise Enid on her date.”

“Yesss!” Enid squealed, before stopping mid-jump, “Wait what?”

Chapter Text

Wednesday always imagined she would enjoy her time in Hell. Picturing the inferno raging millions of acres that engulfed the billions of screaming souls fighting through the dark echoing chasm begging for escape brought a smile to her face; she would be running the place in a week. However, as she sat between Yoko and Celeste, watching Enid pull you over to the table she sat at, she realized she may have to readjust her definition of what Hell and torture meant for her.

“It’s so kind of you to join us Y/N.” Celeste flashed her fangs in an uncharacteristically wolfish grin for a fang, ushering the two actual wolves to take their seat across from the trio. Wednesday stiffened in preparation for whatever scheme you had contrived with the blonde and the two fangs to torment the goth about the curse.

She studied you closely as you were placed directly in front of her, pushed down into your seat by the other fur. If she wasn’t proxy to your plans, she would’ve noted that it looked like you were being placed against your will, however your feeble attempt at acting was not going to make her relinquish her guard. Once you were settled, the blonde took her place across from Yoko before turning to you and sternly ordering you to “play nice.”

Why were you being told to play nice when the Addams was at the table, when she could skin each of you alive and preserve your organs for her mother’s potions before the lunch bell sounded? Clearly Enid didn’t know who she had in her company. As if to further prove the goth’s point at how harmless you were, you pouted like a child, “Tell that to her.” You said, jutting your chin at the red-headed fang who was now sipping at an opaque juice box but still maintained her large smile.

The vampire just shrugged in reply, clearly unperturbed, “You make it too easy, I hardly had to lift a finger.” You narrowed your eyes but otherwise stayed silent. “But let’s rectify that, wanna play a little lunchtime game Wednesday?” She turned to the goth.

“No!” You slammed your hands on the table, eyes wide and frantic. Was this some sort of reverse psychology you were doing to make Wednesday want to play whatever ‘game’ Celeste and yourself had concocted up.

“Guys, why don’t we just have a normal lunchtime chat.” Enid whined.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s do that.” You said earnestly. Everyone turned to look at you, waiting for you to lead the conversation. After a moment, and some direction from Enid who kicked you (not so subtly) under the table, you began.

“So, Addams,” Ah, so you were going in to directly challenge the goth. This, she could easily handle. The cryptic language between yourself and the others at the table was difficult for her to follow and did not bode well for her own positioning in this attack. She ignored the feeling her surname on your lips gave her – like spiders crawling up her spine – attributing it up to her growing disdain for you.

“How’s it been rooming with Enid?” Wednesday’s hand briefly hesitated on its way to bringing one of the berries she was eating to her mouth. Most wouldn’t have noticed this hesitation, but you seemed to be exceptionally observant. A smile broke out on your face which looked wider than anything Wednesday had seen on you before. You were taunting her.

“Why would you like to know?” Wednesday raised an eyebrow, daring you to say it out loud – you were trying to get her to admit the curse was taking effect. However, once you told her everything you knew, you would lose the upper hand you had, and Wednesday could destroy you.

“Yeah Y/N, why would you like to know?” Celeste chimed in unexpectantly, “You wanna switch with Enid? Be roommates with Wednesday?”

Your face turned a blood red colour that made Wednesday glance at your neck to ensure someone hadn’t put a noose around it; that was a task reserved for Wednesday herself. There was nothing there, but oh how the shade suited you. You stuttered out some non-sensical words next. Were you choking? Having a stroke? Mentally incapable of forming more than ten words an hour? Wednesday glanced at the berries she was eating to ensure that each was accounted for, and you hadn’t somehow poisoned yourself with your inferior nightshade tolerance. Finally, something coherent came out of the mouth of yours. “I’m just making conversation!” You let out.

A beat passed.

“Well, that wasn’t suspicious at all.” Yoko noted, chortling behind her straw. Enid pounded on her chest, coughing out a piece of food she had choked on while laughing.

Interesting. Had Wednesday actually stepped in on the fangs and Enid interrogating you about something? It was becoming more and more evident that you were being antagonized by them, unless you were in fact an exceptionally good actor (which seemed highly unlikely). Perhaps playing into the hand of the red-headed vampire was Wednesday’s strongest move against you during this lunch after all.

“What game did you have in mind?” The goth asked Celeste.

“Hey, hey, hey, no changing the subject! What about my question!” You interjected.

Clearly Wednesday was on the right track with re-suggesting the game based on your feeble attempt at redirection. She gave a no-nonsense answer, “It has been tolerable. The colours make me itch and the music makes my ears bleed, however the sizable space provides ample room for storing each of my weapons and taxidermic projects.”

Yoko whistled under her breath, “Wow E, you weren’t kidding about her.” You frowned, clearly unsatisfied with the answer. Good.

“Okay game time!” Celeste clapped her hands together, harmonizing with the groan you let out. “The game is called fuck, marry, kill. The contestants in this round are Y/N, Enid, and Yoko. Wednesday, you start.”

“Wait why am I in this?” Yoko objected immediately.

“Fine, Y/N, Enid, and me.” The fang corrected.

“Wait why am I in this?” Enid complained.

“Too late cupcake, there’s no one else to swap with.” Celeste waved her comment away while the werewolf rolled her eyes, turning her attention to her lunch.

“You’re a real pain in the ass you know that right?” You said through clenched teeth. Celeste puckered her lips, exaggerating a kiss in your direction.

As much as Wednesday disliked this game, your negative reaction was well worth it. She was keen to exacerbate the discomfort you intended for her over ten-fold and redirect it back to you. Perhaps she could even bring back that red colour to your face and picture you choking to death again. “Easy, I would kill you all.” You visibly relaxed in your seat. A frown made it to Wednesday’s face; how disappointing.

Celeste tsked, waving her finger in the air at the goth. “Nice try, but you can only pick one option per person.”

“I think that’s a good end to the round actually, let’s move on.” You used the break to try to, once again, redirect the conversation.

“It doesn’t count if you can just say you’d do the same thing to everyone, it defeats the purpose.” Yoko argued.

“She does have a point.” Enid agreed between bites.

“So, Wednesday, care to enlighten us?” Celeste asked, leaving you sorely outvoted.

“I take it that you are using the colloquial term for coitus in this game, correct?” The goth clarified.

“Yeah.” Celeste confirmed. Wednesday gave herself a second to think. The answers which would make you squirm the most eluded her, but Celeste made it clear that there was a correct answer for Wednesday’s (and Celeste’s she supposed) desired effect.

“Enid is right though; we should just have a normal lunchtime discussion.” You tried again. Your voice seemed to land on deaf ears as no one took your suggestion.

Continuing on her train of thought – perhaps she could say she’d kill you and this time describe your death in minute detail? Or would claiming to have a desire to be bound to you for life in unholy matrimony do the trick? She was told she was barely tolerable to all normies and even most outcasts. Coitus was the wild card, her only experience being her parents’ passionate screams echoing in the house throughout her childhood – it sounded dreadful. It was unclear how you would interact with any of these answers, so she decided she might as well answer based on one thing that never failed her – logic.

She couldn’t actually kill Enid – the death of an Addams soulmate guaranteed their own immediate death. Coitus guaranteed physical touch but no commitment, similarly bringing her to an early grave. The choice with the blonde werewolf was obvious. Between you and Celeste, it was also quite clear. A mature fang would certainly put up more of an entertaining fight than a late-blooming werewolf (if that’s what you truly were), and deathmatches were the most exciting battle to be had.

“When did you learn to play the cello Wednesday?” How maddening were you to continue interrupting?

Enid seemed to bite your bait, replying with, “OMG Wednesday is really good! Maybe you can duet with her!” You smiled, seemingly happy that the conversation took a turn away from the game, or perhaps that you had a possible duet partner? Wednesday would reject this suggested partnership.

“I’m not that good, and you seem like you’re more of a solo artist aren’t you?” You continued to carry on the conversation, satisfied with the turn the lunchtime discussion took.

“I was six and I play alone.” She gave a curt answer, ending the conversation and dashing any hope you had of successfully delivering a counterattack when she turned to look at Celeste to begin the game. “I would kill you.” The way your face fell when Wednesday picked up the game again did a dreadful thing to the goth’s insides.

“Ouch.” Celeste said dryly before sipping her drink again, eyeing the two werewolves across the table and waiting for chaos to ensue. The smile never left her face.

“Marry Sinclair.” Enid’s blue eyes widened slightly, but otherwise looked similarly unaffected. Had Wednesday selected the wrong answers? There was no turning back now, lest she look weak.

She turned to looked directly at you.

“And fuck Y/N.”

Any doubt she previously felt instantly vanished. Your face turned that appealing red colour again, making it to the tips of your ears this time. You tried to hide by shrinking your head into your shoulders, but to no avail. Wednesday decided to experiment and take a page out of your book of social warfare; she noticeably smirked.

“I have to go!” You jumped out of your seat not unlike a startled cat and made a hasty retreat from Celeste's booming laughter. Wednesday had won. She felt exhilarated and satisfied.

She felt like she had just beaten her father in a fencing match.

She felt like she just hunted down her first grizzly bear.

She felt…

She felt…

She felt the itch of the curse ebb away just as you exited the pentagon.

“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!” You whisper shouted to yourself under your breath as you exited the quad. Once you were out of sight, you pressed your cheek against the cool stone of the building in an attempt to extinguish the fire that lit up inside you. “What the actual fuck?!” You continued talking to yourself, trying to descramble your thoughts and think clearly.

You kept replaying Wednesday’s words in your head. Those two words which you were positive would drive you into an early grave.

'Fuck Y/N.’

Not even thinking about how the swear word leaving the dark-haired girl’s mouth ignited something deep in your core, the way your name rolled of her tongue just felt viscerally right. You wanted to hear it again, and again, and then at least one more time after that.

Did the intensity of your reaction concern you? Definitely. Maybe you were just squeamish around anything romantic and intimate. Maybe it was the fact that the un-emoting Wednesday Addams was the source of it.

You opened one eye to see Bianca walk passed you. “Hey Bianca.” You rasped out, your voice sounding as exerted as your entire being felt. She turned to look at you, taking in your condition as a barely holding it together teen nearly passed out against the wall.

“Are you okay?” She asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

“Can you do me a favour and say ‘fuck Y/N’.” You panted out.

The siren was somehow unfazed by the strange request, instead regaining her typical air of superiority now that she knew you weren’t dying, you were just weird. She smirked, and said “Fuck Y/N,” very matter-of-factly, before turning around and walking away.

Damn it, it sounded like she was cussing you out rather than saying she would make love to you. Did Wednesday’s sound the opposite because she actually wanted to… or because you wanted her to? No, that was ridiculous; you were playing a game where the context was there. No underlying intentions or motivations at all.

Why was your reaction so intense then?

You were interrupted from your total breakdown by the sound of Enid’s voice, “Y/N are you okay?!” It sounded in concern, and soon you felt a comforting hand reach up to your shoulder. You gulped and turned to face her.

“Yeah, I think there was a bit of mold on that bread and I’m just feeling a bit sick.” You lied, but your head was still spinning so food poisoning wasn't too hard to pull off.

“You sure? Want me to take you up to your room?” She actually accepted your answer without any follow-up? Bless her soul. You nodded weakly and allowed her to usher you towards Ophelia Hall. Just as you rounded the corner, you nearly bumped into a massive mountain of a woman. Of course, you couldn’t catch a break.

“Ah Y/N, there you are.” Larissa Weems looked down at you, eyes shifting between Enid and yourself. Your mother looking for you and talking to you in broad daylight during school hours – somebody must have died. One thing you were grateful for though; there was nothing like your mother popping out of nowhere to lecture you to cool off whatever Wednesday Addams did to you. “I’d like you to come to my office, I’ve excused you from your next class.” You eyed her suspiciously; this definitely didn’t sound good.

“I was just taking her back to her room; she isn’t feeling well.” Enid explained when you stayed unmoving.

“We will stop by the nurse and pick up medicine.” She left little room for discussion, her tone suggesting there was nothing Enid could say that would excuse you. Your best friend looked at you with fear in her eyes. The principal never singled out a student, lest they were about to get expelled.

“I didn’t do anything though!” You whined.

She raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at you, “Care to tell that to Ms. Thornhill and her botany lab?” She warned with eerily cheerful smile painted on her face.

Shit, you had completely forgotten about that. The blood had completely drained from the face of the werewolf standing next to you, the thought of you being expelled clearly on the forefront of her mind.

Slouching your shoulders forward, you stepped away from Enid towards Larissa. “I’ll see you in fourth period.” Enid said, trying to put some cheer into her words when her face was void of anything but concern. You offered her a small smile for her efforts before turning to walk to the principal’s office.

“Look, it was just a little fire, and I cleaned it up pretty well all things considered.” You started defending yourself as soon as the door to Larissa’s office was closed. “I had to do something to explain why you’ve had me holed up here at weird hours.”

“Y/N,” she began; you already dreaded the tone of voice she took which made it seem like she was talking to a misbehaving toddler, “stepping into this room does not give you the right to terrorize the town and school.”

“Hey, I admitted to the fire but anything in Jericho wasn’t me.” You said, still denying the coffeeshop incident. She was much stricter with anything involving you shifting due to the risk it placed on both of you. Getting discovered was practically a death sentence.

You both continued walking forward towards her desk, you towards the ‘lecture chair’ and her towards the headmistress chair. You heavily plopped down in the seat, sinking into the chair with your arms crossed. Your eyes trailed your mother as she circled around her desk. You blew aggressively at a hair strand attacking your eye.

She gave you a pointed look before speaking, clearly not believing you, “Of course it wasn’t, but that isn’t why I called you in.”

You stared in shock. It was difficult to believe that you weren’t here for a lecture when you haven’t had any other type of exchange with your mother in over three years.

“There have been a number of murders in Jericho, primarily normies but a few outcasts have been included in the mix.” She had your full attention. Given that these murders weren’t the talk of the school, you assumed there was some degree of secrecy involved. Never before would your mother have informed you of any sort of semi-confidential information.

“Now normally I wouldn’t involve you, but I don’t trust the police chief to properly address this threat.” She explained. “He has rejected any resources I have offered him, claiming that we are prime suspects as outcasts. There appears to be a pattern, but again, we are denied access to any evidence and it makes us difficult to protect ourselves.”

“Wait, are you saying you want me to investigate?” You asked, completely flabbergasted.

She frowned but nodded. Clearly you were one of the last options. “Given your… unique abilities, you can investigate undetected and report back anything you find.” You sat with your mouth agape. Was Larissa ‘you are not allowed to ever shift under any circumstances’ Weems giving you the go ahead to shift around Jericho? She must have been incredibly desperate.

“So… I can shift?” You clarified.

She nodded, “yes, for this specific situation and while taking every precaution you absolutely can.” She added multiple contingencies, praying you would take heed. You didn’t need them though; you were nothing if not careful with your shifts.

“To limit chances of getting caught, I have taken the liberty of excusing you out of classes for the next week, so you do not have to risk shifting near any of your classmates. I would prefer to limit the risk as much as possible.” You continued to just stare at her, this was nowhere near how you thought today was going to go.

“I just leave? Where do I say I’m going?”

“Your father sent a note about a family emergency, so you are flying out to attend to those matters.” She said. You ground your teeth together at the mention of your father, stifling away any feelings that threatened to break the surface. “I have the documentation in my computer in case any of your… friends start snooping around.”

“Wednesday isn’t my friend.” You say instinctively, because Enid or the fangs certainly wouldn’t snoop.

“Nevertheless, everything is in order and I have checked you into your room under another identity. It’s on the fourth floor and the window is open. I trust you will have no difficulty getting in undetected.” She handed you a folder, which upon opening you found some hastily scrawled photocopied notes your mother must have written in her brief interactions with the police chief.

You read the notes dutifully, the sudden trust and responsibility your mother placed in you leaving you utterly speechless to say anything in response. You weren’t sure whether to be ecstatic, flattered, or terrified. She briefed you on your ‘mission’, giving you a long list of do’s and don’ts both verbally and in typeset, because of course that’s something your mother would do. You suppressed the urge to roll your eyes multiple times, fearful that any ‘adolescent act’ would get this opportunity taken away from you. When she finished, you watched her shred the documents she gave you. You couldn’t carry it while transformed and she left another copy in your hotel room for further review and safekeeping. As you walked to the doorway to ‘pack for your trip to England to see your dad’, you were left with one final instruction.

“Remember Y/N, under no circumstances must you be seen.”

Chapter Text

Could you be the cause of the curse? When you left the pentagon at lunch, the cursed itch dramatically reduced its intensity, and now, by the end of the day, it had all but disappeared. It was certainly intriguing that this coincided perfectly with your absence from class, but Wednesday was also not one to jump to conclusions.

You being the motif did not explain the nauseating introduction of the curse when Wednesday first arrived at the school when you were clearly in the pentagon, nor did it explain it’s creeping up on her in Jericho when she first visited the Weathervane. She had to broaden her net to include not only Enid, but also you and others in the vicinity when the curse was at its greatest intensity. Perhaps the normie boy Tyler? Or perhaps one of the fangs could have been visiting the town during that time? As many were decades, if not centuries old, they often had special access privileges to roam about as they saw fit. There was a total of nine fangs at this school. It didn’t help that you and Enid (her prime suspects) consistently hung out with two of them. Of the fangs, five lived in Ophelia Hall, so they were the most likely suspects.

Still, she couldn’t discount you. She wasn’t one to give into her feelings and superstitions during an investigation, but something about striking you off the list felt incorrect. Given the nature of the mystery, that seemed a valid enough reason to continue investigating you.

Of course, it didn’t help that you all but disappeared since lunchtime so she couldn’t prove or disprove her current working theories. However, the longer your absence coincided with the disappearance of the itch, the higher on the list you went. Wednesday could almost laugh at how ridiculous her parents sounded now; "the curse draws you to your one true soulmate, your tether to this Earth." Yet it only took one lunch with Wednesday to scare you, 'her [potential] soulmate', away. Thoroughly antagonized, you didn't even show up to any of their afternoon classes.

She should have been happy, its what she wanted after all. You couldn't activate the curse if you wanted nothing to do with her and fled. If her Uncle Fester was an accurate representation of (unintentional in his case) curse avoidance, she had another twenty or thirty years before death called her into its cool embrace. That was more than enough time to accomplish her aspirations, finish Viper’s story, and more. She just had to hope you weren't stupid enough to get yourself killed prematurely (another way to guarantee her death). Perhaps she would arrange a private bodyguard to ensure your safety.

She frowned at the thought. Could anybody be trusted with your life – her life – more than Wednesday herself? Perhaps it was in her best interest to do it herself...

No, of course that was the curse talking, trying to bring her closer to you. She shook herself out of that train of thought, attempting to purge thoughts of the Addams family love curse away, and got back to her task at hand.

It was twenty-three minutes into her writing time and a word has yet to be pressed onto the page. In front of her, the keys to her cherished typewriter remained untouched, the blank page mocking her. A nagging voice in her head kept interrupting her consistent internal clock with the fact that there was only 15 minutes to lights out. The same unhelpful voice reminded her that the itch had yet to return. She had yet to go to sleep without the curse reminding her of her impeding doom and identity as a half-dead Addams.

Had Wednesday scared you off so drastically that you fled campus?

She should have been pleased; she always prided herself on her disquieting presence. Making you, the one person with the power to destroy her, run away, was the ultimate victory.

Why wasn't she satisfied?

She glared at the page now, willing it to stop in its mockery of her.

"Thing, grab my cello." The hand startled, glancing first at the clock then at the young Addams, no doubt questioning her deviation from habit. She herself couldn't remember the last time she didn't have a full writing hour. When the hand didn’t move, she sharply bit out, “Need I remind you of the oath sworn to me not 24 hours ago?”

He shook before leaping down to push the cello out of where it was stored in the closet with no more questions asked. Wednesday ignored the silent question hanging in the air while she stood up and grabbed the handle while he moved to collect sheet music.

“That’s not needed today, get the window.” She directed him. “Please,” She added after brief consideration. It was unfortunate that the window didn’t hold itself open widely enough to get through unassisted, she would have to see about fixing that so Thing could attend to other matters while Wednesday practiced her cello.

She sat down on the stool that was left out last night and positioned the large instrument in the familiar nook between her legs. She took a deep breath, welcoming the chill which silenced the warring thoughts in her brain. Thing stood at attention on the banister, balancing expertly on the multi-story ledge.

‘U OK?’ He tapped out hesitantly. She returned nothing but a glare in response, before launching into her mother’s favourite piece. In the short span of overlapping time when she was adept at the instrument and her parents’ antics didn’t make her want to pop out her own eyeballs (and not in the fun way), she had composed this piece for one of their anniversaries. Closing her eyes, she could envision her parents getting up to dance with one another. Each night she played, they adorned the piece with different choreography, letting it evolve and invent itself with how they felt for the other in that moment. Wednesday would rather drink cyanide than say it was beautiful.

As if the ballad itself was a siren call for Addams love, a familiar sweet ache began to course through her body. It was invigorating. It was relieving. It was despicable and likely one of the worst feelings she ever experienced. She stopped mid note, her spine standing with straightedge exactness like a live current was shot through it. It felt blissfully similar. She could hardly believe that losing the itch of the curse for an afternoon would have such a dramatic impact on its intensity when it did return.

With startling speed, she leapt through the window opening and made her way to the room across the hall; to your room. Not bothering with knocking – none of Enid’s friends seemed to bother themselves with that for her room – she opened the door. Three pairs of eyes turned to stare at her. Notably, yours was not one of them.

“Is anyone else here?” The goth demanded. Wednesday’s eyes continued to scan the room while she waited. It wasn’t immediately obvious which side was yours, but she supposed for now it was a reasonable assumption that the group collected on Yoko’s side.

“Hello to you too.” Yoko said dryly, clearly unimpressed by the intrusion. Taking in your side of the room, it looked tidy and untouched. You weren’t there.

“Looking for a certain werewolf?” Celeste cooed with a smirk, relaxing back onto her hands from where she sat on Yoko’s bed, eyeing Wednesday in her own appraisal of the room. She had now moved on to look in the closets and ensuite washroom, venturing further into the room to ensure you weren’t hiding somewhere.

Enid leaned over to smack the vampire in the stomach, who feigned pain. “What did we literally just discuss Celeste?” She hissed angrily. The vampire made a zipping motion over her lips, handing the imaginary key to the werewolf for safekeeping.

“Lights out is in seven minutes.” Wednesday stated. She wanted to ask why you weren’t back yet – no club activities lasted this late, and as far as the goth knew, all your closest friends were gathered in this room – but the question died in her throat. She wished it would strangle her.

“Yeah, I’ll be heading back real soon, I changed before coming here.” Enid replied, gesturing to her pajamas in which she just pocketed the fake key. Wednesday supressed an eyeroll that threatened to make its way to her face at their adolescent miming. Instead, she just stared at them.

What had changed in the last two minutes that the itch came back? They had clearly been there for at least an hour, and unless you were walking up the stairs at this moment to come back to the room, you couldn’t be the cause.

“Y/N left to the United Kingdom this afternoon; she won’t be back for at least a week.” Yoko said after considering the permeating silence for a minute and extracting Wednesday’s unspoken question from her throat. Was breathing a bit easier or harder with this information? You were gone? Left the country?

“I can’t believe her dad needed her for ‘urgent pack business’ when he just dumped her here after she couldn’t transform.” Enid muttered. Yoko groaned as if they were returning to a worn-out discussion point.

“She’s still an heir to one of the top alphas in the continent and it’s pretty normal to send your kid to schools with other outcasts.” Your roommate reminded her.

“So why not send her to Seilleanach or another school in Europe? Why Vermont? Doesn’t it seem like he was trying to get rid of her?” The werewolf refuted. Clearly it was some sort of sticking point for her. No one gave an answer, whether it was because they didn’t have one or knew Enid was intransigent on the subject, Wednesday really didn’t care.

She was too busy plotting on the new information she just received – you had an alibi. One that could very easily be verified, settling once and for all if the goth could cross you off her list or once again put you firmly at the top.

Without another word to the trio, she spun on her heel and exited the room. Interestingly, as she returned to her own room, she could almost swear on her dear pet Nero’s soul that the itch became ever so slightly stronger. She stopped in her tracks and scanned the area, mentally chastising herself for not yet having honed her one method for tracking down the bane of her existence.

“Thing.” She called out, drawing his full attention, “see what you can dig up on Y/N’s flight to the United Kingdom. Be discreet.” The hand saluted and scurried through the open door to get to work immediately, diving out of the way to avoid Enid who was unabashedly trampling through the hallway into the room.

“Whoops, sorry Thing!” She screeched when she noticed that she was merely inches away from stomping on the appendage.

“He’s used to narrowly avoiding a good stomping, it’s exhilarating for him.” She said with a wicked gleam in her eyes. The hand made an agreeing motion before continuing his journey. Enid tracked his retreating form, staring at the place he disappeared off to for a moment before turning back to Wednesday.

“Do I want to know?”

“You can want all you desire, but that’s classified information.” She turned away from the wolf to perform her nightly routines, stopping short when the empty page once again drew attention to its inherent blankness. Was she really going to complete the day without a full writing hour?

Nonsense, the itch had since ebbed away, so there wasn’t anything to distract her –

She startled and turned to look over the colourful disaster that was her roommate, settling in her bed and very much present in the room next to Wednesday. But the itch had ebbed away had it not? She stifled the growing urge to simply cross the dividing line she made in the bedroom and make contact with the girl. If the curse didn’t take hold, she would brush up against everyone in this godsforsaken town until she knew who it was.

She reeled in her own head; was the curse already making her go insane?? Not only would she lose the satisfaction of solving the case with her own superior logic and reasoning skills, but she would then be emotionally and physically bound to this person for the rest of her days. She would require their life’s energy to sustain her own. She would be as far from independence as she could get.

“Hey, I’m gonna shut off the lights and head to bed now, ‘kay?” Her roommate’s voice saved her from her own rumination. Was this what ‘spiralling’ was? Perhaps she needed to take a step back, wait for more information and prevent herself from doing anything too rash…

You knew you were supposed to be careful, and you were. If anyone asked you what you learned this week, you'd say you discovered that you had a very bright future as a crime investigator.

Did you solve the murders? Not exactly. It’s only been a week and no murders happened since you’ve been put on the case. No one could’ve done it yet, so it wasn’t like you were bad.

But you were close. You read all the files related to all the murders that happened in and around Jericho in the past five years, linking at least eight of them to what your mother was immediately concerned about. All took place in the forest within a ten-mile radius from the town centre erring more on the side of the Nevermore campus, and the killer targeted out-of-town tourists who frequented Vermont for outdoor activities like hiking and hunting. You tracked their credit history and had your mother interview the shopkeepers to confirm their interactions, no one in town knew them on a personal level.

Most of the victims weren’t polarized as outcast bigots or sympathizers, with two deviating drastically along either end of the spectrum and one being a werewolf outcast who was killed while transformed under a full moon. Interestingly, he was not a Nevermore student but rather a lone wolf passing through the territory. Whatever got him was strong. No silver poisoning was involved at all; you confirmed it at the morgue.

Which brought you to another interesting fact; all bodies had at least one missing piece from it, sawed off perfectly with near surgical precision. Of course, the fact that body parts were missing was included in the police file, but the meticulousness and intentionality with which the parts were removed was notably missing.

Chief Galpin had to up his game, or he was intentionally hiding something. That had yet to be determined, but you were leaning towards him being clueless as to what he was truly dealing with (the dog said it not you).

His dog, Elvis, became your best friend for the week. Feigning as a stray (but very friendly) dog, you met him in the Galpin backyard frequently. ‘His heart is in the right place, he’s just scared.’ Elvis told you one day, chowing on a nice piece of marrow you brought him. You scratched an itch behind your ear – somehow the fur always tickled your skin a bit – but remained attentive. It didn’t help that the ants liked to crawl all over you when seated on the ground and you didn’t have hands to brush them off.

‘The boy’s been looking around too but is trying to hide it from his old man. He thinks coffee grounds will fool me, but I can smell him.’

‘You don’t point him out to the Chief?’ You asked. It wasn’t difficult to tell the father-son duo had a strained relationship; even the brief interaction at the Weathervane told you as such.  

‘Nah, the kid’s been through enough. Smells afraid and angry, I don’t wanna make it worse for him.’ If dogs could shrug, you’d swear Elvis just did. “Teenagers, y’know.”

‘You think he could be behind the murders?’ You had to ask. At all the crime scenes, hiding from the police chief, afraid and angry… sounded suspicious.

‘That kid? He couldn’t hurt a fly even if he wanted to.’ You nodded your thanks for the information. He was finishing up the meat of the bone you brought him and you weren’t in the mood for roughhousing play at the moment. It was time to make a tactical retreat.

He called out one last time before you left the yard, ‘If it helps, give him a whiff. He does smell strange. Like you but… different somehow. I remember it vaguely when I was just a pup when his mom picked me up but haven’t smelt it since.’ You had your first suspect.

So, like you said, you had a very bright future as a crime investigator. But the information you gathered on the murders was nothing compared to the monumental discoveries you made on Wednesday Addams.

You already knew she was touch adverse. You knew she didn’t like people. Heck, even her relationship with animals was questionable (Enid had told you about the taxidermic projects she unpacked on her first day).

But never would you have guessed she was fearful of cats.

In the last week you had visited your old dorm room eight times. It wasn’t your fault; years had passed since you last slept in a room alone. Before Yoko was your roommate, you stayed with your dad’s pack, and most wolves preferred to sleep in communal rooms. Not hearing the steady breathing of at least one other being was eerie and the motel room your mother arranged for you felt incredibly… empty.

So, you might have paid your friends a visit on more than one occasion, the first night as a crow (it was your favourite way of getting around), but after that you were quick to change into a cat. It wasn’t uncommon for you to become this particular cat to hang out with your friends when you didn’t want to socialize; it was nice to sometimes lay there and get a free massage in the form of pats and scritches. It certainly didn’t hurt that Enid loved cats and wanted to add you to her extensive collection of stuffed animals (in a non-Wednesday, morbid sense) already on her bed when she fell asleep.

“Do you really have to make this room a hospice for stray animals?’ Wednesday said from her seat at her typewriter. In the last four days, you’d seen her write maybe half a page. At this rate her book would be done when she was 85.

“C’mon Wends, she just needs a place to stay for the night.”

Wednesday got up and marched to the duct-taped line in the center of the room. “First, do not call me ‘Wends’, it’s childish and inaccurate.” She began. You were glad that your feline form allowed you to hide in the nook of Enid’s elbow. She patted you comfortingly. “Second, there is a local animal shelter that would be more than happy to take this… thing in for the night.”

At this, Enid held you tightly to her chest protectively and started cooing in your ear. “It’s okay, I won’t let the mean girl take you away.” Before directing her wrath at the goth while (unhelpfully) covering her ears, “You take that back! Mrs. Fuzzywhiskers deserves a good warm bed to sleep in tonight.”

You didn’t appreciate that particular nickname.

Suddenly, you were scooped in her arms and being carried through the room towards the duct tape border. Towards Wednesday.

“Just pet her and cuddle her a bit. I promise, instant love.” She gushed while offering you Simba-style to the other girl. When you were less than a meter away, you could swear you saw some version of fear flash through Wednesday’s eyes. Coupled with the backwards stumble in her step as Enid closed the distance between you it became abundantly clear, Wednesday was scared of cats.

For a girl seemingly ready to make everyone else’s life a living torment, this was a revelation. Oh, what fun you were going to have.

Chapter Text

Thing lived for missions. Needed a treasure out of a high security museum? Child’s play. What about a secret room designed and built for pain, torture, and all things horrific? Sign him up! No matter how big or small the task, he was always more than happy to oblige, even a task as small as confirming Wednesday’s classmate really went to the UK.

Why was she so interested? Well, he wasn’t one to ask too many questions. He knew as clever as the eldest Addams’ child was, she wasn’t exactly known for engaging in human interactions which didn’t involve maiming or tormenting. As such, he was more than happy to support her newfound interest in something as mundane as checking in on a dormmate. This very well could be the first steps to Wednesday getting her first friend!

First stop, the principal’s office. Here he could get your contact information, information which would surely have had a plane ticket sent to it, and maybe some other useful details.

As he waited for the computer to boot up, he shuffled through nearby papers and notebooks to look for a password. Finding nothing, but realizing the computer used a Windows operating system, he opened the command prompt and easily hacked into the account titled “Larissa Weems”. As the world modernized, he quickly realized he couldn’t do his jobs nearly as effectively without staying up to date on the latest technological advances. A few more clicks around and he navigated to the student’s filing system, finding your profile seconds later.

Name:   Y/N M/N L/N

Age: 16

Date of Birth: [your date of birth], 2006

Mother: N/A

Father: Callum Fraser L/N

Species: Werewolf (untransformed)

Hometown: Whitehaven, United Kingdom

Other than no information existing on your mother, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Thing recognized your father’s name as one of the leaders of the UK packs, so you heading there didn’t seem too outlandish. He continued scrolling down, skimming the information until he came across what he needed, your email and phone number.

He was about to go to the principal’s email when he noticed student alerts were tired directly to the account. At the very top was a 12-hour old notice from your father.

Date: September 27, 2022

To: Principal Weems

Message Body: An urgent matter has arisen which requires the in-person attendance of my daughter and heir, Y/N L/N. I have acquired a plane ticket out of the nearest airport for tonight, 6:25 pm, and would appreciate if you could assist in her transport to catch her flight. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions or need further verification.

Sincerely,
Callum L/N
Northern England Pack Alpha

Attached was the plane ticket, which was certainly very convenient for Thing in his reconnaissance.

Perhaps a bit too convenient…

Early the following morning, before the masses were expected at work, Thing unlatched the window to the police station and scurried through the offices until he found the office marked for the police chief. The few officers in the station were incredibly tired from their lackluster overnight shift and were of little concern.

The deputy, the administrator… Bingo! The chief! He grabbed onto the handle to the office door and it swung open.

The first thing he noticed was a large crow flap two feet into the air in surprise, then settle down and glare(?) at him. Was that the crow that attacked the boys in the coffeeshop with Wednesday, then visited her again while she played cello? It was certainly the most expressive crow he had met. Morticia would adore it. 

You watched the hand leap on the table, surprised at how incredibly agile it was. It’s weight to strength ratio was certainly impressive. Now on the table next to you, you both observed each other. Luckily, he arrived right before you turned back into yourself and started sifting through the desk files. From now on you’d have to opt to be a primate or something so no one (or nothing) could catch you, but you’d still have thumbs to look through the files.

After making no move to stop it, the hand opened the laptop and hacked into the computer without a second thought. You walked cautiously behind it to observe what it was doing. You knew he was with Wednesday, but you had no idea what they could possibly want from the police chief’s computer.

Open on the screen was a security app that seemed to let you track devices. The hand clicked through tabs until it found a tab labelled as ‘telecommunications devices’. It clicked ‘find by number’ and began pounding in 10 digits. As you watched, the itch in your brain that said something looks familiar was going off.

Wait was he typing in your number?!?

You let out a panicked squawk and leapt forward, hitting your beak on a digit key to mess up the number. Why in the world was he putting in your number? The hand looked at the mistake on the screen, then slowly turned to you. He tapped angrily on the desk before hitting backspace and correcting the number. You hit two more numbers at random, thankful that the keyboard was on ‘insert mode’ so it replaced the digits easily.

Where did you even leave your phone? You didn’t bring it to the motel room yet. Was it in yours and Yoko’s room? Maybe you left it in your mother’s office?

The hand was shaking with anger, lunging forward to swat you away. You flapped your wings to dodge the attack, rebutting by swiping your clawed foot at him. One claw lightly scratched his middle finger, leaving a tiny red mark near his knuckle.

You’re pretty sure it was in your room. Was that suspicious? A teenager leaving the country without their phone would be questionable to most people, but this hand was reporting back to Wednesday ‘I don’t own a phone’ Addams. How weird could it be that you didn’t bring your phone with you on an international trip?

The hand raised its middle finger at you; whether it was to intentionally flip you off or to show you the damage you had done, you weren’t sure. You weren’t about to let him disrespect you like that though. You stomped your foot on the power button, instantly shutting off the computer, and flying away.

Thing knew crows were smart, but this one seemed to be excessively so. After restarting the computer and finding Wednesday’s classmate’s phone number to track her phone by IMEI number, he discovered it was still in her room back at Nevermore. The natural next step was to retrieve it and deliver it to Wednesday, but later when he had returned and searched through the room, it was gone!

He returned to Wednesday’s room, deciding he would continue to investigate after he rested for a moment. He needed to be alert if the crow was aiming to be his nemesis and attack him on sight.

“What did you uncover?” Wednesday asked as soon as he appeared in the room. She had just finished getting ready for classes.

He began signing, ‘Checked tickets, they exist. She is in CCTV footage at the airport going through security. The ticket was scanned for boarding.’ Wednesday let out a frustrated huff. He briefly wondered why her classmate actually going to the UK was triggering such a dramatic emotional response from the Addams girl. Perhaps he would ask Morticia…

‘But,’ he continued, remembering that he didn’t mention the inconsistency with the phone. Perhaps she too would think it’s strange. ‘tracked her phone, should still be at school in her room. I looked but it’s missing.’ He left out his run in with the crow, knowing how Wednesday would be much less than impressed with him and his inability to quickly handle it. At least the scratch wouldn’t scar over, its location didn’t really fit his current look.

“Interesting, so she is less dependent on her phone than most. That’s… admirable.” She looked down in thought. Thing did a double take. Did Wednesday just compliment her classmate. He watched, dumbfounded as the eldest Addams child picked up her knapsack and left the room for class. Perhaps it was time to call Morticia sooner than planned and do some digging on you of his own.

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe you made in just in time!” Enid squealed. You looped your arm around hers and rested your head on her shoulder. It felt good to be with her in your human form. You just ‘arrived’ back in Jericho at lunchtime and only had the time to get changed and ‘unpack’ before you were on the busses to the festival.

“Of course! When else can we eat funnel cakes and climb up the top of the Ferris wheel?” You had been talking with Enid about going to the Harvest Festival since last year’s Harvest Festival. No way were you letting your mother make you miss this one for the investigation.

“You mean ride up the top.” She clarified through giggles. You rolled your eyes, only smiling in return. Climbing was definitely the much more fun way of getting to the top. “I gotta first say goodbye to Wednesday. She’s meeting up with Tyler to catch a ride out of here.” She frowned. You knew how badly Enid wanted a roommate, and even one as… unamicable as Wednesday Addams was still better than no roommate at all to her.

You? You couldn’t care less. Honestly you were glad to be rid of the incessant teasing from the fangs that they somehow got Enid to participate in as well. Was Wednesday incredibly attractive and ruthless? Sure, anybody and their dog could’ve seen that. It was an objective fact. She also happened to be good with her hands (not in the sexual way, ew, gross!), but when she fixed that espresso machine, a feat she could do after translating Italian instructions. You wondered if she could also speak Italian… Of course, you didn’t have an espresso machine for her to fix, and getting one was way out of your budget. Also (and you couldn’t fathom as to the reason why) Wednesday seemed to have a nose for lies and suspicious activities, which made your own snooping around much more difficult. You thought about the disembodied hand who you caught snooping around your files and location the minute you were gone. No, it was good Wednesday was leaving.

“Earth to Y/N. You there?” Enid snapped you out of your reverie. Oh gods what had happened to you? You shook your head to purge any last thought of that girl out of your head. Hopefully whatever parasite Wednesday had placed in your brain since she got here would also disappear with her.

Suddenly Celeste came up on your other side and draped her arm around your shoulder. “Probably using her last moments in the same town as Wednesday to dream about her. Why not shoot your shot Y/N. Ask her out, maybe she’ll say yes and cancel her grand escape.”

“Yeah I could swear she was looking for you when you were gone.” Yoko chimed in, “acted strange, barged into our room a lot. It was weird… even for her.”

“I don’t want to have to be that friend that drags your ass out of depression in your thirties because you realized your true love was the one that got away from high school, because I definitely will be if you let her go.”

“Ha. Ha.” You said as dryly as possible. “Honestly, it’ll be better for everyone when she leaves. Enid can get a better roommate, YOU,” you waggled a finger at Celeste, “Can stop nagging me at every turn, and I can finally get some peace and quiet again.”

“Awww, but you loooovvve it little pup.” She squeezed you closer and now you just rolled your eyes. Huh, maybe you were finally developing some type of immunity to the Wednesday teasing.

Enid was laughing along when she slid herself out of your arm, “Oh! Speak of the devil, I see her. I’m just gonna go say bye and then I’ll meet you guys by the funnel cakes!”

“See ya!” You waved, following her retreating figure through the crowd. Your eyes stopped on two figures talking to one another in the crowd; Tyler and the chief.

You thought back to your investigation. You found out a lot about the murders, but nothing around who or what could be doing them. Something about the Galpins felt off though. Tyler snooping around the murder sites, very intentionally carrying coffee grounds around to fool Elvis, didn’t sit right. It being the first time near them in your human form, and the fact that you had some time before funnel cakes, meant it was the perfect time to introduce yourself. What was the saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?

“Actually, I’ll catch you guys in a bit. There’s someone I need to talk to real quick.” You waved at the two fangs, leaving them staring dumbfounded at your retreating form as you very clearly headed to a boy now standing on his own. Though before you could get to him, he looked around and started walking briskly to the parking lot. You followed him, dodging around people to make sure you didn’t lose your line of sight.

This certainly wouldn’t do. You couldn’t be seen actively pursuing him. You ducked behind a concession stand, exiting out as a black cat. Now, it was much easier to dodge around people, using your newfound agility to make it through the crowds.

He stopped at the edge of the fairgrounds by the parking lot. You were about to reconfigure yourself back into your human form, when you saw three other figures lean over a truck and soon their mouths were moving in hushed conversation. You crept forward, lowering yourself close to the ground and tensing your haunches in case you had to bolt at a moment’s notice.

“– and don’t let us pass.” You heard Tyler finish saying.

“Might as well let us in a few hits.” A boy snarled out. He held a small cast wrapped around his arm.

“Yeah, return the favour for what she did.” His friend taunted. He had a bandage around his head, covering his eye and ear. Right, those were the boys who harassed Wednesday at the coffee shop, and you had the fortunate opportunity of almost ripping one of their ears off. Too bad you couldn’t fully get rid of it for him. Maybe you should get the job done now…

“Whoa guys, no need for that. You’ll have your chance later since she’ll be in town. Just… be here in like 10 minutes.” What were they planning? Tyler seemed to be arranging an… ambush. Ambush for what? Before you could figure it out properly, the group dispersed, and Tyler was already heading back into the fairgrounds.

You made the mistake of transfiguring yourself back into your human form, because just a few steps into your second pursuit of Tyler, Enid blocked your path.

“KK I’m tots ready, where’s the funnel cake?!?” She squealed excitedly. You glanced over her shoulder to see Tyler casually approach Wednesday at the balloon darts game next to Xavier. Damn those boys were vultures. You felt your stomach do a somersault as you watched their exchange, Xavier clearly jealous that Wednesday was dropping him for Tyler. You stifled an eye roll. As if Wednesday would care for the likes of either boy.

Wait, Tyler was meeting with Wednesday? That would mean… you looked behind you where the three high school thugs had just been a second ago. They were ambushing Wednesday in the parking lot! What was Tyler’s gameplan?

Enid had at this point grabbed your hand and was taking you over to the food cart. The delicious smell of fried dough assaulted your olfactory senses and momentarily disrupted your train of thought. How anything could have such a delicious smell, you had no idea. It really should've been illegal (but you were very glad it wasn't).

“Where’d you disappear off to?” Yoko asked as Enid started ordering the food. She was going to get the first one and later in the night you were going to get the second, just as you’d agreed.

Where had you just gone? What could be more important than funnel cakes? You raised your eyebrows questioningly at her.

“Such a shame she’s leaving. I really thought you found your one true love.” Celeste sighed sadly. She looked at Yoko to say, “Y'know I have a nose for perfect matches, they call me cupid back home,” who nodded back solemnly. You rolled your eyes, not bothering to argue now that tonight was the last night they could make jokes about you and Wednesday.

Wait, Wednesday! Wednesday was with Tyler, who was leading her straight into –

You whirled around, hopping up on the tips of your toes to try to get a better line of sight over people’s heads to the parking lot. You swore if any of those boys laid a finger on her they were going to have a lot more to worry about than a missing ear.

“C’mon, let’s eat these on the Ferris wheel!” Enid, now equipped with a funnel cake and two forks, nudged you over. You saw Tyler now, walking hands in his pocket towards his truck in the parking lot. Most importantly, he was alone. You let yourself be ushered to the ride, no point in looking suspicious in front of your friends and the Ferris wheel would give you a great vantage.

“Hey look, there’s no line right now!” Yoko said excitedly.

It took less than five minutes for your group of four to be at least 50 ft up in the air, with both Enid and you stuffing your faces with delicious funnel cake. “I think I might be in heaven.” You gushed with your mouth full of the glorious confection. You kept your eye on the ground below, thankful that Wednesday’s all black outfit made her incredibly easy to pick out in the crowd, but certainly didn’t let it stop you from enjoying yourself.

“This was so worth the wait!” Enid agreed with a similarly stuffed mouth. “I wish you guys could try this.” She said, looking with big pouting eyes at Yoko and Celeste who were laughing across from you.

“As much as we’d love to entertain you, human food tastes like sewage to us.”

“Yeah, and I’m sure you don’t wanna see us regurgitate it back at you when we’re stuck up here.”

Enid swallowed loudly, suddenly looking a little green. You laughed, using the opportunity to sneak an extra bite from the plate.

“Hey, we picked great timing, looks like the fireworks are starting!” Yoko shimmied over to the edge to look more closely at the sky, now exploding with bright colours and patterns. You stared at the show, letting yourself get momentarily transfixed by its beauty.

After a moment, you glanced down again at the festival grounds, only to see a flurry of black careening through the sea of people with the thugs from earlier close behind. They were actually chasing Wednesday with baseball bats.

“We have to get down!” You shouted, leaning far over the basket which started shaking from the sudden weight transfer.

“Hey! Be careful!” Enid yelped, nearly dropping the almost finished plate of funnel cake and sinking further into her seat to lower her center of gravity.

“Why? What happened?” Yoko asked, concerned.

“I… I might’ve slipped the guy a 20 to let us stay up here for a bit longer.” Celeste said sheepishly. “We might be stuck.”

You watched helplessly as Wednesday ran next to Tyler, before she brushed up against somebody and tripped over herself, falling to the ground. Thankfully Tyler caught her and prevented her from hitting her head. Maybe you wouldn't kill him immediately.

Oh gods, what should you do? You couldn’t exactly transform into a bird with your friends all sitting right there. Even climbing down the Ferris wheel would probably take too long, and again you risked falling and transforming to save yourself from a broken neck.

Celeste followed your gaze to Wednesday now running into the forest, chasing after a figure. Thankfully, the bullies had stopped following her and were heading back to the parking lot, likely to ditch their baseball bats. “If there’s anything I’ve learned about Wednesday these past weeks is that she is more than capable of handling herself.” She said, now putting her hand gently on your shoulder. “But we’ll go check it out once we’re down there.”

At that moment, the Ferris wheel began moving again, and you let yourself sit back in your seat. At least armed boys weren’t chasing and harassing her anymore, and you knew their faces so you would be more than happy to pay them a visit very soon.

Surely nothing worse could happen, right? Oh, how wrong you were. You cursed at yourself for even thinking those words.

Wednesday was certainly a magnet for trouble. Earlier in the night a group of boys were plotting an ambush, begging to beat her bloody. Now you found her passed out on the forest floor alone, covered in blood. Enid and Yoko had gone to grab principal Weems and you, Celeste, and Bianca (who had overhead you directing the others and insisted on joining) had run into the woods after Wednesday. Thankful that Celeste had a good nose, and her obsession with Wednesday meant she knew her scent well, you followed her until you found her.

“It’s not her blood, but I don’t recognize who’s it is.” Celeste said softly. You knelt beside her, hands hovering over her body. Somehow, the air felt charged when you brought yourself closer, so much so that you felt like now was definitely not a good time to touch her. For all you knew maybe she had charged skin and would shock you when you made contact. Maybe that’s why she was so touch adverse. No, that seemed highly unlikely. Wednesday would be touching and electrocuting everyone she could with a maniacal grin stuck to her face if that was the case.

You picked up the piece of paper next to her. On it was a drawing of a short girl with two braids (obviously a rendition of Wednesday herself), standing in the Nevermore courtyard with the building behind in flames. Was Wednesday an artist and fancy herself a pyromaniac? That wouldn’t particularly surprise you, but the page and the ink on top felt old and was ripped out of a notebook of some sort.

“Ladies, what’s going on here?” You heard your mother’s voice and jolted up, pocketing the drawing.

“We just found her like this, not sure what happened before.” Bianca said.

“Very well, I will take it from here. Bianca, Celeste, you may go ahead and alert the driver that we will be leaving earlier. Enid, Yoko, please let the other students know that they are to return to Nevermore as soon as possible.” With that, you were left alone with yourself, your mother, and an unconscious Wednesday who still lay by your feet. She moved to the girl and began tapping her cheek, trying to wake her up.

“Careful.” You said on reflex. Seeing Wednesday so vulnerable seemed unnatural, and you weren’t one to take advantage. You mother glared up at you through her eyelashes.

“I told you to stay away from Wednesday.” She said sternly.

“Hey, I just saw her be harassed by a group of Jericho kids, so much so that she ran into the woods. Sue me for trying to be a nice person.” You retorted defensively.

“So, you saw her before all of this, what was she doing?” Ah, so it was time to get interviewed.

“I don’t know, I just saw her run with the barista boy and then chase after someone else into the woods. I don’t know who it was, I was on top of the Ferris wheel at the time.” You explained. She raised an eyebrow at you, urging you to continue. “I couldn’t follow faster because I was with Enid and them.”

You looked down at Wednesday who was clearly unaffected by your mother’s attempts at recovering her consciousness. You reached down; maybe a good slap would wake her up. Right before you could make contact however, her eyes opened startingly wide and she scrambled backwards on her hands. Once she was a few feet away, she got up and brushed herself off before frantically looking at her surroundings.

“Miss Addams, care to explain what happened and why you are covered in blood?” Of course your mother sees a distressed student and instead of offering a shred of support or comfort, she immediately interrogates them. You were glad to see you weren’t the only one singled out for that type of special treatment. Unlike you however, Wednesday seemed to enjoy the lack of warmth and went straight to business. You’d offer to switch mothers, but you dreaded to know what sort of woman it took to raise Wednesday Addams. She looked your mother in the eye before uttering her next words.

“There is a monster in these woods, and it just murdered Rowan.”

Well shit.

Chapter Text

“It’s tiiimmmmeeeee!” You woke up to a loud screech and the roaring sound of the door nearly being torn off its hinges. Ah, Enid must be arriving for their weekly Poe Cup preparations. You grabbed your pillow and crushed it to your head to subdue the noise, letting out a groan to voice your displeasure in hopes she would at least attempt to keep the ruckus down. You felt like you had just finally managed to fall asleep, and with how late you were out last night investigating the ‘murder’ scene, that might not have been too far off from the truth.

“Jeez if I knew living with werewolves was this noisy, I’d have never agreed to it.” Yoko complained from her side of the room, though you could hear the fondness leeching into her tone.

“Hey! I’m not that noisy!” You whined through the pillow, the words no doubt coming out as a garbled mess. Yoko only chortled in response, and shortly after you could hear the rustling of her backpack from her side of the room as she packed her art supplies for canoe decoration. How they could go about their usual Saturday routine when a student was just murdered, you had no idea. Your friends were more sadistic than you gave them credit for.

“Y/N!” Enid called out, much closer to you than you expected. A second later she grabbed onto your shoulders over the blanket and proceeded to shake you to each syllable of ‘wake up sleepyhead.’ You responded with another groan and a barely coherent ‘I don’t wanna.’

“But it’s breakfast time! You looooove breakfast!” She taunted, attempting to entice you out of your pillow fort. You grabbed at your blanket, pulling it up over your head as another layer of protection. “Oh no you don’t.” You were suddenly met with an added 120 lbs toppled over top of you, wrestling the blanket away from your grip. Even as an untransformed werewolf with a fraction of the power of a full-grown wolf, she still far surpassed you in contests of strength. You squeezed your eyes shut to the onslaught of light that invaded your space when the blanket was ripped away, along with the pillow.

“Whoa.”

That definitely wasn’t the good kind of ‘whoa’.

“Did you get any sleep last night?” Enid asked, her face ridden with concern. She sat down at the foot of your bed after putting the blanket back over you gingerly, patting your ankle, and rubbing it in soothing circles through the blanket. Yoko peered over her shoulder.

“Y’know, come to think of it, I thought I heard the door last night.” She pondered aloud, “Did you sneak out?” She gasped. You grimaced. Apparently, no matter how careful you were at leaving in the middle of the night undetected (the feat even more impressive when you did it as a human; you couldn’t risk Yoko getting up and seeing you jump off the balcony as a bird), your sleep-deprivation was written all over your face. “Pretty ballsy going out when there’s a killer on the loose. Where did you go anyways?”

“Actually,” Enid interrupted before you could reply, “Elijah just texted me this morning that Rowan was seen” She paused, gauging both of your reactions during her dramatic pause, “AT. BREAKFAST.”

“Holy shit.”

“Holy shit.” You echoed, though your shock was present in equal proportion to your annoyance. All night, you had taken Wednesday’s word that the monster responsible for the murders was out there and had murdered Rowan. All night, you ran around on all fours, sniffing through the brush and teaming up with Elvis to cover more area while the trail was still fresh. All night and no sleep, and you still weren’t any closer to catching whatever was out there.

Enid pulled out her phone before pointing the screen at both you and Yoko, lighting up your faces like Rowan’s (apparently non-existent) phantom. Sure enough, there in the centre of the screen, was Rowan eating in the corner of the cafeteria. His shoulders were hunched and subdued in a very Rowan-esque way; perhaps even moreso given the swarms of other students clearly side-eyeing him in that photo.

“So… Wednesday was hallucinating?”

“Celeste and I saw the blood Yoks, were we hallucinating too?” You couldn’t believe you had anything to say in Wednesday’s defense, but you had seen it with your own eyes, albeit sans dead body. Perhaps this was all part of some sadistic prank Wednesday contrived to make you look foolish. Honestly, that wasn’t so hard to believe.

“Maybe she was performing some Satanic ritual? I don’t know what creepy goth girl gets up to in her spare time.” She grabbed your arm and gently started pulling you off the bed, “C’mon, breakfast’ll give you energy and if we hurry, maybe we can see Rowan in his fully resurrected form.”

You let yourself be rolled off the bed, only just barely catching yourself with your feet to stop your face from having an unplanned rendezvous with the floor. Enid grabbed onto your other arm to steady you. You smiled at her appreciatively before grabbing your purple Nevermore hoodie you had left on the floor and putting it on.

“Ready!” You said, kicking on your slippers and shuffling to the door.

“Wait you’re going out like that?” Yoko rushed beside you.

“What? I’m tired, it’s Saturday, and we’re just going down to breakfast.” With the massive bags that were under your eyes, the hoodie, sleeping shorts, and moccasin slippers must have been quite the look, but you were much too tired to care. Breakfast on a weekend wasn’t exactly Paris fashion week, you’d be fine.

At least you thought you were, until you opened your room door to see Wednesday across the hall from you, locking up her room door. Wednesday, who despite leaving early on a Saturday morning, was dressed in her school uniform that looked freshly pressed. Why did she have to look so put together when you felt like shit? Suddenly, you were a lot less confident in your look.

You backed up several steps, only to hit Yoko who was trailing closely behind you. You turned around to face her, no doubt a look of desperation in your eyes. Aside from the supposed murder – which anyone would agree was an extenuating circumstance – the last time you faced Wednesday was at lunch just under a week ago and you were definitely not prepared to face that again. You looked at Yoko, silently pleading for her to step aside so you could escape into the room.

“Hey Wednesday, we were just heading down to breakfast. Wanna join?” She called out, completely ignoring you. She sidestepped around you, only for Enid to block your reprieve back into the room. You pulled your hood up and hunched your shoulders forward, knowing for certain Wednesday would decline the invitation.

She would decline the invitation... right?

While Enid might not have realized you were trying to escape back into the room, she took your sudden facing her with your exhausted look as a cue that you wanted a hug. As far as Enid was concerned, every problem could be solved that way. When she engulfed her arms around you, you realized there might be some merit to that theory.

You let your head rest on her shoulder, taking a deep breath and reveling in the comfort of Enid’s arms, her shoulder, her smell; both of you were so deprived of motherly affection it wasn’t abnormal for you to fill in the gaps for each other. It would be easy to let yourself fall back asleep, not to mention you probably looked like a faceless purple blob to Wednesday and had an excuse to not face her.

“I intend to meet with the Sheriff about last night. I’m off to Jericho, so no.” You were thankful that some deity above seemed to be looking out for you this morning and granted you a Wednesday-less breakfast. You listened to her footsteps receding, and only looked up from your hiding place when the sound of floorboards transitioned to the sound of stairs, and you were certain she was out of sight.

“She still hasn’t seen Rowan I guess.” Yoko commented as soon as she was gone.

“I’m sure the sheriff will tell her, now come on, I’m starving!” Enid said. On cue, your stomach rumbled so loudly it didn’t take supernatural hearing to know you needed food ASAP.

“She’s alive!” Celeste announced as she saw your eyes widen with the characteristic vigour they did when any caffeine entered your bloodstream. “Next time I’ll carry an IV with that stuff around for you; we can’t have one of our favourite pups cosplaying as the undead. That’s our thing.”

You laughed, still powering up with your newfound energy, “No more than two cups or else I’ll never sleep again.” You shovelled a piece of waffle into your mouth, glad that the school took pity on your sugar-deprived souls on weekends. You poured on more maple syrup, making sure it soaked into everything on the plate.

“That is disgusting.” Yoko stared at your plate in wonder while sucking on her blood bag.

“You’re one to talk.” You retorted with a partially full mouth, motioning to her own meal. Just thinking of what she was having less than a foot away from you was almost enough to make you lose your appetite. Almost. You swallowed and took another big bite.

“Anyways, how’s the canoe coming along?” You asked, turning towards Enid. All three of them were involved in Poe Cup preparations, along with Celeste’s roommate. Notably, you were not participating. You made it a point to avoid any school sanctioned events, especially ones that let you avoid your mother for an entire day. It didn’t matter how big Enid’s puppy dog eyes grew, or how much Yoko and Celeste begged; you wouldn’t be caught dead on the team. Though, that didn’t mean you didn’t have a vested interest in their success. Winning meant bragging rights against all the other dorms and a day trip to Burlington to shop and hang out with your friends for the day.

Plus, watching sweet, innocent Enid attempt to have an arch-nemesis in Bianca Barclay was entertainment enough in itself.

“By tomorrow, it will be ready to destroy Bianca!” Enid declared authoritatively, fork swinging in the air and nearly flinging a piece of bacon on you that you narrowly avoided. “Oops! Sorry!” She apologized quickly as soon as she noticed.

“You sure you don’t want to come help us at the lake today?” She turned to you; eyes wide as she tried to convince you yet again. If being a werewolf didn’t work out, Enid certainly had a future as a siren.

“Yeah, we’re painting today, and I saw your drawing last night. You never said you were an artist. We could really use you.” You tilted your head in confusion at Yoko’s statement. You weren’t an artist. Heck, it was a miracle you could draw a semi-recognizable stick figure.

“You must have mistaken one of your pieces for mine Yoks, I can’t draw.”

“Maybe it’s an exclusive gift for when a certain goth is the subject matter then.” She smiled, and Celeste perked up, listening more attentively.

“What’s this about drawing?” Celeste asked.

“Guys, you promised…” Enid warned through gritted teeth.

Yoko leaned back, halting her train of thought, “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll let you draw what you want in peace.”

You should have just let it drop, but you were curious. “What drawing?” You asked. Yoko leveled her gaze at you, contemplating if you were trying to trap her in Enid’s bad graces or were just genuinely curious. She sighed and decided to take the safe route.

“Y’know, the drawing on your nightstand? The school on fire, a…” she cleared her throat, eyes flitting between Enid and you, “girl with two braids standing in the centre.”

Recognition flashed across your face. You didn’t draw that picture though, you simply… suddenly all blood drain from your face; you stole it from an unconscious Wednesday last night.

Oh gods she was going to murder you when she found out. She was going to cut off your hands and turn them into her henchmen to do her bidding. She was going to pluck your eyeballs out and feed them to the fishes. She was going to…

A planned popped into your head; she was never going to find out.

It was simple really, Enid was at the lake with Celeste and Yoko, and Wednesday was with the sheriff. All you had to do was grab the picture and put it in her room before anyone got back. No one got hurt, no one had to know.

As you were crossing the overcrowded atrium after breakfast in a rush to get back having parted ways with the others, you nearly bumped into Rowan. You did a double take, your mind switching tracks to remember you were entrusted with an investigation in which Rowan had become an integral part.

“Rowan!” You called out. He didn’t so much as turn, so you ran to catch up to him. He was beelining it outside, and it was then that you realized slippers were not the best running shoe out there, so you let them fall off your feet and ran barefoot after him to catch up. “Rowan!”

You reached out to grab him, but he whirled around before you could touch him. You startled, taking a step back to give him some space. Luckily you had moved outside where fewer people were loitering so you didn’t bump into anyone.

“What do you want?” He asked harshly, but his face looked nervous. You narrowed your eyes, your gaze drawn to the quirk of his upper left lip at the end of his question.

Everyone had a tell, and you figured your mother’s out a very young age so no matter what she looked like, you could pick her out of a crowd.

“So he did go missing last night!” You lowered your voice, but it still came out accusatorily. Good, because your mother was definitely looking suspicious right now. Why was she covering up a murder?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He ground out, his jaw tense. The way he pursed his lips and his nostrils went concave was definitely a Larissa Weems exclusive.

“Oh really? Then you wouldn’t mind helping me release spiders in the gym for poor old Weems to find later on.” You weren’t above goading her into telling the truth.

“Y/N really?” He sighed in that same tired way your mother always did. You raised your eyebrows in surprise, normally it wasn’t this easy. “There’s enough going on without your antics.”

“So it is you!” You hissed. He rolled his eyes and started walking away. “You better get rid of him fast if you’re going to be that obvious.” You continued, rushing to catch up with him. You didn't bother asking why your mother was masquerading as a missing student yet, you could save that for another day when she wasn’t recklessly flaunting your family secret around. Suddenly you understood some of her frustration directed at you.

“He’ll be gone by tomorrow.” He muttered as he walked into the boy’s dorm, a place you couldn’t go unless you snuck your way in. While you were tempted to follow him up there and question him some more, the entrance to the dorm had a rather large clock. A clock which told you that you didn’t have much time to execute plan ‘get drawing back to Wednesday’. Your mother would be here tomorrow.

“Shit.” You began running back to your dorm. You weren’t positive when Wednesday would be back, but it was well over two hours since she last left the dorm, and she was bound to come back at anytime. You wanted that picture returned before she started a manhunt for it. You took the stairs two at a time and, huffing and puffing, threw the door to your room open. You walked over to your nightstand and, just as Yoko had said, the drawing lay face up for the world to see. Thank the gods Wednesday didn’t go snooping through your room to find that before you set things right.

You picked up the drawing and folded it daintily along the pre-existing crease before hiding it in your pocket. That way, if you entered and Wednesday was already inside, you could pretend you were looking for Enid and back out gracefully.

You walked across the hall and put your hand on the doorknob. Why wasn’t it twisting? You tried again, but it was definitely jammed. Right, Wednesday had locked it before leaving this morning.

Luckily (or unluckily), these doors all had very easy to pick locks. You were back a moment later with one of Yoko’s bobby pins and after 5 seconds, swung the door open. You slid the pin in your hair and took in the surroundings. Your eyes went about their usual routine of scanning each side of the room, taking in the colourful and monochromatic twins existing side-by-side. It really was a perfect exemplification of the two roommates. Most importantly, the owners of each half were noticeably absent.

Without wasting a second more, you marched over to Wednesday’s side, looking for the best place to put the image. It couldn’t be too obvious, or else Wednesday would know somebody had brought it in. That meant the desk, her nightstand, the bed were all awful places. Your eyes trailed over to the closet.

Bingo!

Draped neatly over a laundry basket was the oversized black and white reversible hoodie she wore last night. She could have easily forgotten to take the picture out of her pocket! You started heading over to your target, eyes zeroed in on the article of clothing.

That was your first mistake.

Your one-track mind was so focused on the hoodie that you didn’t pay attention to where you put your feet. It was a flat wooden floor after all, you trusted your ability in walking in a straight line.

Your second mistake was forgetting this was Wednesday’s territory, and you should have known to expect the unexpected. You felt a slight pressure on your ankle while crossing the threshold to the closet much too late to stop your stride, but not too late to notice the three giant axes swinging down with the abject task of impaling you. You fell backwards to get out the way, twisting on the ground and rolling into the closet space. Before you could blink, you had made yourself into a mouse. If you made yourself as small as possible, you could hopefully stay out of the way of any other booby traps.

You backed towards the wall, until you felt your rump hit something that was stiff and furry. You whirled around to see a massive (relative in size to you) taxidermic squirrel with its fangs bared, hackles raised, and ready to attack. Shaken from your last near-death experience, you  squeaked and ran in the opposite direction, taking refuge in the open space which now had 3 axes swinging like a deadly pendulum at the closet entrance. No matter how much you just wanted to rush out of there and go back to bed – enough had happened today as is – you couldn’t leave without completing what you set out to do.

Edging towards the clothes rack, you transformed back while hunched over and grabbed the picture from your hoodie pocket and transferred it to Wednesday’s. You exhaled a breath of relief when her hoodie didn’t start attacking you, but at this point you wouldn’t have been surprised.

Just to be safe, you transformed back into a mouse to escape. Using your smaller size, it was easy to walk by the axes, which upon closer inspection were definitely freshly polished and sharpened. You were going to have to warn Enid to never, under any circumstance, go on Wednesday’s side of the room.

You were almost in the clear now. It was only a few more leaps to the end of the closet and then you could leave this room and never come back. Coming off of the adrenaline high from almost being killed, you felt the urge to let out a laugh of exhilaration. You wish you could see the look on Wednesday’s face when she came back to her trap being triggered but no dead body to show for it. Would she disappointed? No, you bet she’d be impressed. Hopefully she didn't become vengeful.

Suddenly, your nose bumped into a wall, sending you flying backwards… into another wall. You jolted up, looking around and cursing for getting too ahead of yourself. Clear glass surrounded you on all sides, with only very tiny holes on the topmost surface to allow air to get through. In your peripheries, you saw movement towards you from the wall separating the closet from the rest of the room. The disembodied hand that seemed committed to making your life as difficult as possible revealed itself. The hand that you got in a fight with at the police station when it was tracking your phone. The hand that was responsible for the bruise on your right arm. The hand that was apparently a lackey to Wednesday’s every whim and desire and was actually good at its job. You could see how proud it looked for having trapped you, the trigger to her carefully placed closet trap, because it was only a matter of time before Wednesday came home.

As if on cue, the room door swung open. "Thing, I have a mission for you." The unmistakable voice of the last person you wanted to see right now echoed throughout the room.

You stared at the hand, wishing it would look away for even a second so you could escape, but as a hand with no eyes, you couldn't tell if it was looking at you or at Wednesday. It could've been looking everywhere and nowhere and you wouldn't have been able to tell.

Gods you hated that Thing.

Chapter Text

Your eyes flitted side to side, up and down, looking for any option of escape. Sure, you could just become your human form and break just yourself out of the box, but your mother would kill you if anyone found out about you. Especially if that person was Wednesday Addams.

Maybe she would just let you go. Maybe you didn’t have to do anything drastic.

“What’s this?” You were snapped out of your panic to see Wednesday, who had stopped mid-stride to stare at you. One look at that glint in her eye and you knew you would not make it out of the room alive. You imagined she perfected that practised expression while staring at her reflection in the glassy eyes of the dead animal collection you just found in the closet.

Her lip twitched, and you could almost picture the maniacal grin her face would contort into if she wasn’t Wednesday Addams. Her face remained largely expressionless.

The hand began gesturing frantically. Even after all this time you had difficulty discerning what message he was trying to deliver, but you did see him point at you and the closet. You really hoped he didn’t see you transform, and if he did, that he’d keep that nugget of information to himself. Somehow, it felt like Wednesday would take even greater pleasure murdering you if she knew it was you. You waited with bated breath as he finished, Wednesday watching him with careful focus.

“This mouse triggered the trap?” He tapped his fingers in thought, before giving a thumbs up. You almost let yourself relax, until he started to rapidly sign again. What was he saying now? You felt helpless, trapped with your fate in the hands of Wednesday and an animated appendage. You had to take matter into your own hands (ahem, paws). Perhaps you could escape without implicating yourself. The holes in the ceiling of your cage looked promising, but the smallest thing you’d ever been was a rather large bug. Unfortunately the smaller you made yourself the more exhausting (and painful) it was. Even as a mouse, you felt the physical toll it took on you. It really didn’t help that you barely slept last night.

Her piercing eyes landed on you again, not even taking in the final gestures of the hand’s speech. “That’s… curious.” You absolutely did not like how she scrutinized you. Did he just tell her that he saw you? “No matter, I will deal with this.” Turning back to the hand, she waved at you dismissively. How she went from zero to one hundred in a fraction of a second made your head spin. What was going through her head?

What did ‘dealing with you’ mean? You shuddered as you thought of joining the taxidermic squirrel in the back of Wednesday’s closet, never to see the light of day again. Why did she even make them if she just hid them away?

“I have a mission for you, I need tabs kept on Rowan. He showed me a picture last night and I think it might explain everything that happened. It has since disappeared.”

When Thing didn’t immediately salute and scurry off, she frowned. You could tell she was about to have some choice words with him when he started gesturing over to the closet and scurried over to her hoodie. You pressed your face to the glass.

Not the drawing. Not the drawing. Please anything but the drawing.

Of course he reached into the pocket and pulled out the drawing. You groaned internally. That must mean that Thing saw you, the real human you, put it there. Did that mean he told Wednesday it was you?

“That’s exactly it, how did it get in my sweater? I could’ve sworn…” She walked towards the closet to retrieve the picture, turning her back on you. You took the chance, leaping into the air and transforming at the highest point into a fly. Your eyes which had previously been scrunched closed to handle the pain were forced open as your eyelids disappeared. You wished you could scream, or sweat, or literally do any stress response other than to just be rendered immobile and die. Your minuscule brain hurt as you tried to make out the mosaic of images in front of you to find a hole you could squeeze through.

Ouch, that was a wall. You were glad your wings just seemed to have a natural ‘on’ mode and you didn’t have to modulate them, otherwise you’d definitely fall down.

Finally, you found the exit. The instant you cleared it, you became a cat. You needed to be something bigger to recover, but nothing so incriminating as the real you. You splayed out on your belly, every muscle fiber on fire as though you’d just run a marathon. The weight of your new heftier form caused your old prison to tilt over, sending both you and it crashing to the side. You yowled in surprise, but thankfully now had the reflexes to land on your paws despite your exhaustion. You just had run to the door, it was so close. If only you could feel your feet.

By some miracle you managed to stay upright with only minimal wobbling. You glanced at the closet to see Wednesday, now holding the image, doing what you would best describe as her version of openly gaping at you. A beat passed of both of you sizing the other up before you remembered that you weren’t here to stick around for a chat.

A shot of adrenaline coursed through your veins, allowing you to pounce in the direction of the door left slightly ajar when Wednesday had come in. Barrelling towards your room with her rapid footsteps following not too far behind, you couldn’t believe she was chasing after you.

Once in the room, you looked between the balcony ledge, your bed, and your closet. The balcony would do you no good. You could barely run much less fly away as a crow. You didn’t have ‘faceplant on the pavement’ on your list of things to do today. The closet probably would have been the smarter choice to transform into your human self, but lying down on a comfy surface was too enticing.

You dove into your bed, finally changing back into your human form as soon as the duvet was over you and at least partially obscured your body. Your head hit the pillow a second before the door slammed shut. You tried to steady your heart rate as you listened to the heavy platform boots get closer. One footstep, one beat, one footstep, one beat. While you were happy her steps gave you a metric to calm down, they were also getting awfully close. Wasn’t she going to stop?

For the second time that day, the blanket was ripped off of you. You opened your eyes to see Wednesday giving that characteristic, hardened glare of hers. Her eyes zipped up and down the bed, searching. You reflexively reached to grab at the covers, feeling stripped bare, “Hey what gives?!?” You exclaimed. She hastily let go and took a step back with slightly widened eyes.

“Enid’s cat.” She explained, and you could’ve sworn you heard a falter in her voice. “It ran in here.”

“Not here.” You mumbled, the blanket now covering up to your nose, “Now go away, I’m sleeping.” Somehow the thought that cuddling up with Wednesday would be a nice way to sleep, which you quickly shoved away. 'Not the time.' You thought angrily at that inner voice before it could convince your body to reach out for her. How deranged were you to look at Wednesday and think she was the slightest bit ‘cuddlable’. She was literally about to kill you a second ago. 

“It’s 12:05." She replied, her voice retrieving its usual sharp bite.

“I’m jetlagged.” You tried to match her tone, but you felt the crack of exhaustion break you. At least it made your story sound more convincing.

“It’s 5:05 in the UK.” Damn her and her logic. Realizing she wasn’t just going to walk away and let you go to sleep, you groaned and sat up.

Given that she referred to the cat as ‘Enid’s cat’ and not as ‘you’, you figured you still had a chance at getting away with the entire debacle. Some clean-up work couldn’t hurt, so you decided to play dumb. “Why do you want Enid’s cat anyways?”

“It tampered with important evidence.”

“What kind of evidence?” She didn’t reply to that, instead crossing her arms over her chest and hardening her glare. She didn’t have to speak for you to hear the non-verbal ‘it’s classified’.

You took the blanket off and rolled out of bed, using the frame to support most of your weight. Your legs shook unsteadily underneath you, threatening to give way, but you forced yourself upright. “I’ll help you look for her.”

“That’s unnecessary, the beast will show it’s face again soon,” she swiveled on her heel and walked to the door, casting one last glance around the room and eventually landing her gaze on you, “I’ll be waiting for it when it does.”

The familiar prickling along her skin was for once a welcome one. Sure, it was one of the many symptoms she attributed to the curse, but this time it was accompanied by pure, unadulterated rage. Her blood was boiling. Simply put, Wednesday was seething, and she reveled in the feeling. She used it to invigorate her investigative prowess, to propel herself to a satisfying victory over all those who attempt to confound her.

To destroy you.

Why you, someone might be inclined to ask. It was obvious really; for every mystery that Wednesday encountered, you seem to be involved in some way, and then further aggravate it.

First, the object of the Wednesday’s own personal Hellscape – the Addams Family curse – seemed to be you. For an entire afternoon she was over 95% certain, until you left the country for a week and forced her to dismiss that theory. Then, when Wednesday was in your bedroom alone with you… she let out a huff, not granting that thought another second in her mind.

Next, Rowan reveals a plot to murder Wednesday, before being murdered himself by a monstrous beast who then proceeded to spare Wednesday. You are the first person she wakes up to after being knocked unconscious, and as she’s been told, the first one at the scene altogether. Given the circumstance of Rowan’s reappearance, that makes you a prime suspect in the case. Perhaps being a ‘late-blooming’ werewolf was a cover-up for your real species, one which murdered another to save Wednesday. That theory also leant itself to the very real possibility that you were the subject of the curse; perhaps you felt the ghost of relationship that will never be, or you had another reason altogether? It’d certainly fit that Wednesday was destined to be soulmates with a murderous monster.

Finally, there was the matter of the cat and mouse. A mouse, exceptional in its strength yet lacking wit, somehow triggered the simple tripwire mechanism she had installed in her closet. After trapped by Thing, it disappeared, a cat in its place. The only logical explanation was that the black feline made a meal of the mouse, but that was yet another mystery. So, of course when the cat began to run, Wednesday had to go after it to find out what exactly had transpired. After seeing it escape into your room, she could’ve sworn on her dear pet Nero’s resting soul that it ran onto your bed, but when she went to apprehend the beast, only you were there. No cat, no mouse, only you.

You, you, you, it was always you.

Perhaps she should just be rid of you altogether. She strode to her closet, having just returned from your room to retrieve her weapons box. Her eyes darted over her extensive collection of knives, maces, and flails, seeking solace but finding none, perpetuating her state of displeasure. Normally when selecting an instrument of death, she felt better. Why didn’t she feel better?

Pocketing her portable mace and a taser, Wednesday closed the case with a thud. She exited her room but stopped short of opening your door. Torturing and murdering you was the easy way out. She let out yet another huff before changing her course and stalking towards the library. There must’ve been a reason you seemed to be the connecting thread between every conundrum, and she was going to figure out why. She wanted her victory to be satisfying.

Crossing the courtyard, she caught a glimpse of Enid and the fangs down by the lake working on a boat. Perhaps they would have information useful to her mysteries. “If Bianca Barclay wins again this year I will literally scratch my own eyes out!” The werewolf screeched, leaning heavily over Yoko’s shoulder and fingers running down her cheeks. She looked nearly feral. Perhaps this was the version of her roommate the curse intended for her. That would certainly be less difficult for the goth to believe.

“I would pay money to see that.” She would, especially if she could help.

Enid whirled around and switched immediately to her usual preppy self. Wednesday very much preferred her competitive and aggressive self. “Howdy roomie! I’m so glad you decided to stay.” She beamed. Wednesday’s lip twitched downwards.

“I thought you wanted your single room back?” Her mother always said she felt a less extreme version of the curse even before her father and her… got together. Did Enid feel it and desire Wednesday’s company? You didn’t seem to; at least when you weren’t the potentially Rowan-murdering monster. Before in your room you certainly seemed eager for Wednesday to leave, and this morning before breakfast you didn’t even face her. You hugged Enid of all people for no other reason other than to taunt Wednesday.

“Full disclosure, I don’t like living solo and Thing gives a killer neck massage. It’s a win-win.” So it wasn’t because of Wednesday herself, or Enid was posturing? “So… why the change of heart?”

“I refuse to play to role of a pawn in someone else’s corrupt game.” The last 24 hours certainly felt like some power below was using her. Wednesday would much rather be the one who did the puppeteering.

“You mean Rowan?” Enid grimaced. That was just one of the many mysteries on Wednesday’s list, but she was not about to disclose the generational curse, especially not to Enid.

“I witnessed his murder, Enid.”

“It’s just, we all saw him this morning. Very much, like, not dead.”

She let her arms drop and her face visibly turn into a frown as she fully relieved the humiliation of Rowan walking into Weems’ office with her and the sheriff. In an instant she went from a prime witness to a lunatic. “I know, which leads me to believe I’ve been losing my mind. It’s not nearly as fun as I had anticipated.” She looked like a bumbling buffoon instead of a lethal maniac. Her error with you and the cat moments before certainly didn’t help convince her that she wasn’t going insane.

She leveled her gaze once again with Enid’s, pulling herself out of the uncharacteristic pity spiral she allowed herself to delve into. She needed information, and when it came to people’s secrets Enid was a treasure trove, “You’re Nevermore’s gossip queen. What’s Rowan’s story?”

“Other than being a weird loner… Uh… no offense.”

“None taken.” In fact, that was the first compliment Enid has ever given her.

“Xavier Thorpe’s his roommate. If you had a cell phone you could just text him and ask him.” She mimicked texting on a phone in thin air, as if it’d convince Wednesday to associate with people more than she was already forced to. Already this interaction was proving to be more cumbersome than fruitful.

When Wednesday didn’t immediately reply, Enid glanced behind her at the fangs and the canoe. Suddenly she transformed back into the horrifically angry werewolf that Wednesday met her as. “Yoko. Come on! Flare those whiskers. The Poe cup droops for no one.”

She asked what the Poe Cup was, because anything that could make Enid so much more tolerable was almost worth celebrating.

“Only my entire reason for living right now! Part canoe race, part foot chase, no rules. Each dorm has to pick an Edgar Allan Poe short story for inspiration.” She gestured to the canoe, which Wednesday now noticed was littered with depictions and epigraphs of and relating to a black cat, not unlike the one Enid slept with on occasion and Wednesday just found in her room. “I’d like to think we are doing Ms. Fuzzywhiskers justice.” She smiled fondly before turning back to Wednesday. “You could grab a brush. Ms. Thornhill’s just ordered pizza. Want to take a stab at being social?”

“I do like stabbing. The social part, not so much.” Especially when she had that very same cat to skin, but she knew voicing that would disincline Enid to giving her information in the future, so she provided an equally tolerable activity more amenable to Enid’s character, ”Besides, it’ll cut into my writing time.” Better that she could catch the cat unawares the next time it visited Enid.

“No worries. Just as long as you’re lakeside cheering us to victory on race day!” Wednesday hardened her glare, she did not cheer. Somehow that made Enid’s smile brighten. “Or you could just glare uncomfortably. Whatever works for you.” The werewolf winked, and Wednesday whirled around. Suddenly the library (or anywhere but the lake where Enid was) was calling to her.

How could, in the span of three hours, Wednesday’s life face such upheaval? The curse. It’s pull so weak by the lake with Enid and so strong with you, yet while you were away in the UK it reared its ugly head and Enid had an undeniable aura that pulled Wedn-. She stopped that thought. Was her ability to sense her soul’s Earthbound other half really that faulty, or was there perhaps another entity she couldn’t see following her around? Was her insanity breaching more than her mind but permeating her entire parasympathetic response? Was the curse real?

Rowan’s resurrection from the dead certainly meant some species of apparition did attend this school that were more than the room-locked ghouls which haunted the halls of the Addams family mansion. Now in the main library, her eyes scanned the spines of the books and she let her fingers brush along them. Here, in the seclusion between the bookshelves, she felt calm. Here, she could find answers.

Her eyes landed on a book, 'A Comprehensive Guide to Outcast Species: The Common, The Unconventional, and the Rare'. Pulling out the nearly 25 lbs book, she put it down on the nearest table, took a seat, and began to read.

Chapter Text

You startled awake to a loud smack of a hand slapping against wood, “I’m up, I’m up.” You mumbled rapidly, looking around after being jolted out of your nap. Post your near-death experience with Wednesday, you had passed out for a solid 40 hours and missed the entirety of Sunday, before waking up at 3am this morning and having not much else to do than worry about if the hand had seen you transform. You hadn’t seen the little nuisance since, and he was near impossible to track. The entire class ruptured into snickers and giggles, and you felt your face burn, until you realized they weren’t looking at you, but rather Wednesday in the front row.

“Ouch.” You heard Xavier mumble, scoffing and averting his gaze from where Wednesday had just retracted her hand. Fine charcoal dust floated in the air above their desk, and you guessed Xavier just performed one of his favourite party tricks and animated one of his drawings. No doubt he was trying to impress Wednesday. You sighed, not understanding what it was that made all the boys so enraptured with her; Xavier has been following her around like a lost puppy since fencing on her first day, Tyler connived to keep her in Jericho after seeing her once at the coffee shop; heck even Rowan seemed to be following her around before he died.

'Don’t be so judgmental, you like her too.’ You slapped your forehead as if that would smack some sense into the unwelcome voice in the back of your head, because you certainly did not like Wednesday Addams. Sure, when you first met her way back in the fencing room, you had a small lapse in judgement. Then you may have followed her around a bit, but that was only because your mother gave her special treatment. After that, you only kept tabs on her because she sent that hand after your personal information.

Where was that hand anyways?

“You okay?” Enid whispered from beside you, breaking your internal monologue and interrupting your paranoid gaze from snapping around the room. She paid no attention to Ms. Thornhill who had brought out a ghost orchid encased in glass to present to the class, no doubt prepared to quiz everyone on their knowledge of carnivorous flora. Enid placed a hand over your free hand and rubbed her thumb in soothing circles, concern permeating through her eyes. You felt instantly calmer.

You offered her a small smile and nodded, “Just a bit tired.” That wasn’t a lie, you did still feel exhausted.

She frowned, and (rather uncharacteristically) probed further, “Is it the hypersomnia?” Her voice was even lower than before, and she leaned in. You couldn’t exactly blame her for being concerned; your friends hadn’t seen you awake since breakfast on Saturday morning.

“Nah, just a one-time thing, I’ll be fine” You shrugged her off.

“Dendrophylax lindenii” Wednesday’s voice cut through the air, making Enid break her gaze and look at her.

“Otherwise known as the ghost orchid.” Bianca lowered her hand delicately, maintaining an air of superiority she carried in most classes. Beyond being deadly with a fencing foil, she also seemed to know everything in every single class you shared with her, so her confidence certainly wasn’t unwarranted.

Clearly, Wednesday didn’t agree, “First discovered on the Isle of Wight in 1854.”

“Very good Wednesday. Looks like you might have competition for first chair Bianca.” Ms. Thornhill commented, much to Bianca’s chagrin. Even she seemed to be trying to get on Wednesday’s side. Were you and Bianca the only ones in their right minds?

Even Enid was on Wednesday’s side. “She really does seem to be good at everything huh.” She mumbled to you.

“Except people.” You scoffed.

She giggled quietly at your near instant response, “She takes some getting used to sure, but I think I’m figuring her out.” You raised a single eyebrow at her, so Enid continued, “She just has her boundaries and doesn’t let anyone step close to them.” You didn’t say anything to that, because it was true. Wednesday took the saying ‘give them an inch, they’ll take a mile’ very seriously and refused to budge even a millimeter over the lines she drew for herself.

“Honestly I could learn a thing or two from her.” Enid mumbled after a moment.

“Maintaining boundaries and freely giving out death threats aren’t the same thing.”

As if on cue, you watched Wednesday stare dead into Bianca’s eyes and say, “-nothing a weed whacker couldn’t fix.” It was evident that their debate had devolved into a thinly veiled duel for superiority.

Bianca was unfazed, seeming to get a kick out of Wednesday’s harsh attitude, and using it to further fuel her disdain, “You can most certainly try.”

“Are we still talking about flowers?” Xavier asked dumbly to the class.

Whether he asked ironically or seriously, you weren’t sure. Either way, you rolled your eyes and turned back to Enid, “Case and point, even Xavier can pick up on them.”

“Hey, you weren’t much better when I met you.”

“I wasn’t as bad as her” you defended. Back then, you were suspicious of most people and had an actively antagonistic relationship with your mother, so you weren’t exactly the most approachable. Still, sulking in the corner and side-eyeing anyone who dared approach you could hardly be considered on the same level as – what emojis did Enid say Wednesday used to describe her? – oh right, “rope, shovel, hole”.

“Oh no, you were definitely worse,” She covered her hand over her mouth to quiet her noticeably more boisterous laugh this time. You frowned, certainly you weren’t that bad. “You didn’t say anything.”

That was true, but again, “That’s better than constant death threats, and I talked to the fangs sometimes,” you pointed out. Celeste became your friend on day one and inserted herself into your life as a big sister.

“But,” She enunciated, “You had this laugh – the only thing I heard from you in a whole year might I add – that you did anytime something bad happened.”

You crossed your arms defensively over your chest, “No I didn’t!”

“Y/N,” Ms. Thornhill called sternly, “something you’d care to share with the rest of the class?”

Most of the class turned back to look at you, some of them snickering lightly. Most of the class turned, but not Wednesday. You stared at the back of her head for a moment before looking at Ms. Thornhill. Her eyes traced the path yours just took, glancing at Wednesday then back at you, and you could’ve sworn her frown deepened. Despite your growing anger that it seemed that everyone was enamoured with the macabre new girl, you smiled lightly, “Nope, nothing to say here.”

“Then perhaps you could tell us what this flower is.” She walked over to another plant, gesturing over a pretty lilac-coloured flower shaped like a trumpet bell. You glanced at Wednesday again, half expecting her to take over again and answer the question for you. When a second passed in silence, you conceded to Ms. Thornhill’s request.

“Devil’s snare.” You watched Wednesday’s chin tilt slightly as though to look in your direction, but not quite making it. Was she surprised you knew that? You knew she considered herself smarter than everyone else, but somehow knowing she thought the same of you stung a bit.

Ms. Thornhill looked taken aback, as though a correct answer has never come out of your mouth before. If Wednesday was more emotive, perhaps she would look similarly. To be fair you were a solid D student, “And it’s binomial name?”

“Datura stramonium.” You tried to make it sound like it was a trivial piece of information, suddenly feeling the need to prove to Wednesday Ms. Thornhill that you weren’t stupid and you weren’t to be trifled with. Some people liked to keep axes in their closets, others had an intimate knowledge of nearly every poison out there. Get on your bad side, and you might just find a paralyzing toxin in your dessert.

“While not carnivorous itself,” You gave Ms. Thornhill a pointed look, because for a course on ‘carnivorous plants’ you weren’t learning much about them. “Each part of the plant is incredibly toxic. Touching it makes you numb and ingesting it in moderate quantities will give you anticholinergic poisoning. Lower concentrations have been known to be used for their hallucinogenic properties.”

“Whoa, so it’s like a psychedelic?” Ajax gasped allowed, suddenly eyeing the plant with a lot more interest.

“It kills more people than it gets high Ajax, I wouldn’t.” You chuckled.

“Yes well, very good Y/N.” Ms. Thornhill said finally, moving the plant into a wire cabinet and promptly locking it away from student hands. “Moving on.”

“Where did that come from?” Enid whisper shouted once the bell rang and you stood up to collect your books.

“Where did what come from?”

“Yeah, were you looking at your notes from potions or something little pup? I don’t remember ever hearing about antichogic or whatever properties.” Yoko asked, now standing by your desk and horribly botching the word anticholinergic. It was to be expected given most people learned about anticholinergic effects in advanced pre-med courses in college.

“Oh, that?” You rubbed the back of your head and smiled sheepishly. You might’ve fumbled a bit by divulging everything you knew about the plant. You silently cursed Wednesday, blaming her for your lapse in judgement. “I just like chemistry I guess?” As a shifter, your mother drilled into you the knowledge of nearly every poison, how to identify it, recognize it’s effects, and most importantly, how to counteract it. With devil’s snare, it was toxic to every animal, so all you could do was become as big as possible to enhance your liver’s detox abilities and sit out the hallucinogenic trip.

“More importantly, why am I tutoring you?” Celeste questioned.

“I knew one plant we were never tested on before. Sue me for liking Harry Potter.”

“Harry Potter?” Enid tilted her head like a confused puppy, her blonde locks bouncing on her shoulders.

“Y’know, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are trying to get the Philosopher’s Stone…” She looked at you blankly, “Have you never watched Harry Potter Enid?”

“I have, but like, it doesn’t look like that.” She defended, picturing the plant that was able to ensnare three teenagers in it’s grasp and unable to connect it to the petite flower that sat a few feet away.

“Somehow, I wouldn’t be surprised if you knew more than devil’s snare, but you limited your knowledge to just anything poisonous.” Celeste laughed.

You cackled, because she wasn’t wrong. “That laugh!” Enid poked your arm, “It’s the evil laugh I was talking about!”

“Huh?” You glanced at her questioningly, now walking down the hallway towards your next class with them following closely behind.

“The one you do when something destructive happens!” She accused.

Celeste chortled, “You mean her pyro laugh?”

“WHAT?” You whirled around to face them, stopping them in their tracks.

Celeste gave you a look, clearly unimpressed, “I’ve been at this school for the last eight years, and not once has there been a fire. Since you came, I’ve counted upwards of eleven small fires. You normally reserve that particular laugh whenever you hear about them.”

“But it’s more than just fires, like remember when there was a shark in the lake? Or that time a giant hornet wasp chased Weems around at lunchtime?” Enid prodded.

“That bug was the size of a baseball at least.” Yoko recounted, her face struck with the horror of reliving the memory of such a terrifying beast.

“So I don’t like the monotony of high school and get entertained when something else happens.” You fell back in step with them. Were you really that easy to read? You didn’t realize they noticed so much, and suddenly you were worried how easy it was to connect you with the pranks you pulled.

“Y’know, you could do things other than classes and whatever it is you do in your room.” Enid continued, “like, I don’t know, help with the Poe Cup boat?”

You groaned and rolled your eyes, “I love you Enid, but I don’t do school clubs.” You wanted to get as far away from school as possible.

She visibly deflated for a moment, before perking up again, “How about manis? I convinced Thing to let me give him a mani.”

Your head shot up faster than a dog its name called for a treat. Thing was going to be there? “Count me in.” You continued chatting with your friends, completely unaware of the shadow trailing not far behind.

Meeting Thing in your human form felt surreal. He was a lot smaller than you remembered, but you had to remind yourself that he was a lot more capable of destroying your life than he looked.

“Y/N, this is Thing. Thing, this is Y/N. She lives across the hall.” You both stared at each other for a moment, because while this was the first time you were formally introduced, you met him many times before. You just had to figure out if he knew you met before.

He gave you a wave, and you gave an uncertain smile and waved back. “It’s nice to meet you.” You said, and he began to sign.

“He says ‘it’s nice to meet you too.’” Enid said, and you stared at her.

“Wait, you can understand him?”

“Yeah, Darren was nonverbal for years when he was younger, and my family plays a lot of charades.” Enid explained sheepishly, smiling at the mention of her younger brother. She grabbed a box on the first shelf of her closet labelled “mani/pedis” and plopped it on the bed next to Thing.

“So… you go to school here Thing?” You asked conversationally.

He began to sign some more, and you studied the gestures closely in hopes of also understanding him. If Enid was translating right now, this gave you a chance to learn.

“No, I’m just here with Wednesday and helping her adjust.” Enid said in translation as she laid out all of the tools.

“She doesn’t seem like the type who would appreciate the help.” That comment unlocked something, because he started to frantically sign angrily.

Enid gasped loudly, “She didn’t.” You looked at her confused, silently pleading for a translation. “Oh yeah, he said that Wednesday said a lefty would be more useful than him.” She turned back to Thing, “What did you say back?”

You watched him signed, and assumed the negative meant that he said nothing in return.

“You deserve better than that.” He turned to look at you with surprise. “You do a lot for her, I bet.” You said, trying your best to make it sound like you didn’t understand the exact extent of what exactly he did. You’ve seen enough of him at work – imprisoning intruders (you) and hacking into file systems (again, yours) – to know just how much he worked for her.

’You know what, I really do.’ He signed. Surprisingly, you understood every word.

“You do,” Enid agreed, picking up the file and gently getting to work on smoothing out Thing’s fingernails. While she worked on his nails, you filed your own, albeit very clumsily, and all three of you chatted. You were surprised to find that Thing was actually quite likable. Enid fed into his passion for fashion and beauty, and you swore in another life he would be an A-lister designer. Given Enid’s obsession with celebrities and clothes, it wasn’t hard to see why they became quick friends. You didn’t have nearly as many opinions as them, but you joined in when you could.

“Okay Y/N, what colour do you want?” Enid held up a myriad of bright colours. Thing’s first coat, which consisted of a different colour on each finger, was drying in the meantime. You eyed each of them, not quite satisfied with your options. Your eyes drifted to the box until you found the perfect one.

“I want that one.” You pointed at the bottle.

“Holographic Black?” She asked, picking the nail polish up and examining it as if she’d never seen it before.

‘So many colours and you chose black, are you Wednesday?’ Thing signed. Over the last 20 minutes, you had become quite adept at understanding him, but already you were regretting it.

“I know right!” Enid affirmed while grabbing your hand and getting to work with your selected colour. She stuck her tongue out in concentration. “That’s what I keep saying.”

“I am not!” You were suddenly pulled back to the conversation you were having in class in which Enid claimed you were worse that Wednesday when it came to being unfriendly. You didn’t see her sitting here getting her nails painted. “I don’t think she’d be caught dead painting her nails.”

“You do realize her nails are always painted black.” Enid bantered, moving onto your next finger. Thing verified that Wednesday painted her nails at least once a week. “But it’s more than the colour.”

“Why am I being compared to someone who openly admits to wanting to murder everyone she meets?” You grumbled out. You turned to Thing, “has she ever actually murdered anyone?”

‘I’m not at liberty to say.’ Of course he wasn’t.

“Like I said before, you might’ve not said you wanted to kill someone, but you definitely looked like you could’ve. Need I remind you of the first time you ever talked to me?”

***

“Hi Y/N.” You looked up to the blonde girl – Enid as she repeatedly introduced herself as – who made a habit of sitting in your corner of the quad at lunch. She had a bright smile which could blind the sun with how lively it was, so you didn’t even try to match it. You looked at her in acknowledgement but otherwise went back to your food.

“P.E. was pretty wild today huh?” She began. At this point you knew she didn’t need an answer from you and would fill the silence herself, so you continued to chew. “I absolutely hate the fitness test. Suicides, pushups…. Bleh.” She took a bite of her food, and you sat in momentary silence until she picked back up again. Within minutes you knew the scores of her and nearly half your class, what her favourite and least favourite tests were, and extra details on a gorgon boy named Ajax who performed nearly as badly as you (which was impressive considering you refused to participate).

Suddenly, a boy nudged her with force from the back with clear intentionality. “Hey pipsqueak, didn’t you get the message? This school is for real outcasts only. Being an almost werewolf doesn’t qualify.” He taunted, laughing with his friend.

“Yeah, come back when you can get real werewolf stats.” Another joined in with an annoyingly jingoistic smirk.

“Excuse me?” You uttered, your voice cracking slightly due to it’s lack of use. The boys didn’t notice but Enid did, and her downtrodden face transformed into one of shock when she looked at you. “Are you suggesting that Enid isn’t a werewolf?” Your voice raised in volume so this time they looked at you, and you stood up to level the playing field.

Clearly very unimpressed with you, the leader raised and eyebrow and looked you up and down like you were a snack, “I’m not suggesting it, I’m telling her. What’s it to you?” He asked.

“I scored at the bottom, so am I also, not a werewolf?” You asked, dropping your voice low again so it nearly came out as a growl.

He rolled his eyes, “I guess not. Figures that the freaks hang out together.”

"Y/N... it's okay let's ignore them." You felt Enid gently place a hand on your arm. "C'mon let's go."

"Not without a little parting gift from this little non-werewolf pipsqueak." You smiled your trademark smile before extending your fingers into jaguar claws (your best approximation of werewolf claws) and slashing his face.

You had 3 months detention for that – your mother would rather lock you in a room with a teacher staring at you than give you unlimited free time with a suspension – but Enid was there every day before and after, chatting away happily as if you didn’t nearly blind a boy.

***

You never really questioned how unbothered she was by your act of violence until now. “So Enid, why do you want to be friends with people you think would happily murder somebody in cold blood?” Enid was blowing lightly on your fingernails before smiling innocently at you.

“Call me crazy but I’ve always liked the idea of people loving each other enough to kill for them.” She said simply, “Especially when said people seem to actually seem capable of it. It's kinda romantic” You stared dumbfounded at your colourful, overly cheerful werewolf friend as though she had three heads. Did Enid Sinclair just say that?

“Oh, that’s totally anyone from the Addams clan!” Thing signed excitedly.

“That’s why I’m on your good side.” Enid winked and giggled at him before grabbing his fingers to apply a second coat.

“Why do you like Ajax? He doesn’t seem the type to do that.” You finally asked, wringing your eyebrows together while blowing on your still wet nails. Since you thought of him in that flashback, he suddenly very much did not seem like her type.

Enid’s lips formed a tight line, “He’s innocent, and cute.” She said slowly, though every word sounded forced, “He doesn’t care if I can’t transform.”

“I don’t care if you can’t transform.” You interrupted.

A light blush formed on Enid’s cheeks, and she paused to stare at you with wide eyes, “but you’re a girl.” She bleated.

“So? Have you not noticed Celeste and Yoko, and you might I add, teasing me about-“ You stopped, your face burning as you realized Thing was right there. He already had way too much information on you, he did not need to know about your non-existent crush on Wednesday. Knowing him he’d join in on it, or gods-forbid, tell Wednesday. “The point is, I don’t think that particular fact should stop you.”

Your blush wasn’t lost on Enid, but in a fortunate turn of events, she was now blushing profusely too. Thing wrangled himself out of Enid’s grasp to sign, ‘What’s going on? Who’s Ajax? Are we murdering him?’ You ignored the fact that he looked way too excited to be talking about somebody’s murder. He certainly was an Addams.

“No! Nothing like that!” Enid choked out.

Maybe what you said next was a little bit mean, but you learned from Celeste and Yoko that you had to be proactive about these things or else you’d never hear the end of it.

“I think we’re discussing Enid’s crush on Wednesday.”

“What!?” Enid choked and began coughing. Thing moved to pat her on the back until she caught her breath again. “I’m not the one with a crush on Wednesday!” She insisted. Thing tapped his fingers lightly over Enid’s hand in comfort, still careful not to smudge his still wet nails. He tapped his fingers in thought, and you held your breath waiting for what would be said next.

“It sounded more like she has a crush on you.” Wait, was Thing suggesting that you had a crush on Enid? Why did everyone think you liked everyone else? Did you have a sign above your head unbeknownst to you saying 'This girl is gay?'. Or perhaps this was Thing's polite way of saying Wednesday didn't like girls that way.

Ignoring the pit in your stomach formed by that particular thought, your eyes widened as you contemplated what was worse; saying that yes, you were admitting to Enid you had a crush on her, or negating it and risk Enid pointing more fingers at you. It was an easy decision really.

“You caught me,” You said, raising your hands up in defeat, “I have a crush on you Enid.”

Enid, definitely more socially in tune than the average person, immediately heard the concocted admittance in your voice, and jammed her elbow hard into your ribs. You keeled over and gripped your chest because werewolf strength really was no joke. All the air evacuated your lungs, your eyes watered, and you coughed weakly.

“OMG Y/N are you okay, I’m so sorry!” She hovered her hands over you, but not quite touching.

“You’re getting stronger.” You wheezed out, a big grin on your face, “You’ll be a full wolf in no time." She beamed, but you frowned when you felt smudging around your fingertips, "but you made me ruin the paint so we have to redo them.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes fondly before grabbing your hand and starting all over again.

Chapter Text

You walked across the Nevermore school grounds hours later to see Enid tiptoeing on the edges of the forest. “Hey Enid, what are you doing?” She was supposed to still be down by the boat but she was now heading in the opposite direction of the lake. You jogged up to her, “Y’know sneaking really isn’t your strong suit.”

“Y/N!” She exclaimed, grabbing onto your arm, “Am I glad to see you, I need your help!” She started pulling you along, turning abruptly to head into the forest.

You chuckled nervously, “Uhhh Enid, are we burying a body or something?” She was mumbling under her breath something over and over again, eyes darting in the air every so often. Clearly something terrible was about to happen. You leaned in closer to try to hear, but when that didn’t help you just asked her to speak up.

“Bees Y/N! I’m going down to tend to the bees!”

“But you hate bees, why would you do that?”

“I told Wednesday I would if she would just apologize to Thing, but I didn’t think she would actually do it!” She fretted. You would’ve tripped over a branch if she didn’t have an iron grip around your arm which made your hand go numb. You could hear faint buzzing in the distance, how many bees did Eugene keep exactly? You pulled her to a stop before it got any louder and grabbed her by the shoulders, taking deep breaths for her to mimic so she could calm down.

“Why does Wednesday want you to cover for her? Can’t she just skip the club activity?” You skipped yours so much you were pretty sure you were kicked out of most of them. You never actually went back to check.

“Something about Weems watching her. She insisted she join a club to keep her from investigating the murder.”

You cursed; you were supposed to be investigating the murder. You completely forgot, but maybe you could redeem yourself. “I can cover for her for you.” You said, turning her body back towards the school.

She faced you with wide eyes, “You would do that? For me?” She squeaked.

You gave her a genuine smile, “Of course Enid, anything for you. Now let me handle the bees.” You rubbed her back and ushered her in the direction of the school.

“OMG thank you so much, I owe you one!” She squeezed you into a too tight hug (you really needed to have a chat with her about that werewolf strength) and whirled around as though you would change your mind. You headed off towards the bee shack.

“What are you doing here? Where’s Enid” Wednesday already had her arms crossed antagonistically over her chest before you closed the door to the shack. Never mind that you were here to do her a favour. You let her know as such, biting out your words. “Enid said she would do it.” She argued back.

“It gets the same job done, why does it matter?” You grumbled, taking the beekeepers suit from Eugene who was very intelligently staying out of the conversation. Wednesday watched you put your feet into the suit silently. “Also, I don’t know why you think Weems cares so much about where you are. Me and a bunch of other students just wander around during club time.” You pulled the suit up to your hips.

“Perhaps she understands you lack competence.” Okay, ouch. “Speaking of which, what was that performance in the botany lab?” You paused and looked at her, surprised that she thought of it enough to bring it up now. Something possessed you in class to pine for Wednesday’s attention and thought that ‘being smart’ might do the trick. Now that you knew it worked you immediately regretted it.

“I like Harry Potter.” You said nonchalantly, reusing the excuse and fully expecting her not to know that reference.

True to self, she immediately asked, “Who’s Harry Potter?” Her jaw clenched and you could almost see her mentally parsing through the entire student body list as if she had it memorized. You couldn’t help but wonder if she actually did.

“The movie, it’s a fictional story where the protagonists have to get past a lot of devil’s snare to continue on their quest.” A very incomplete description, but proper enough for Wednesday’s needs. “Anyways, I really don’t think you have to go through all this trouble just to fool Weems. Let me come with, I love a good murder investigation.” You smiled and stopped halfway through putting the suit’s sleeve on in hopes that Wednesday would agree. Maybe the two of you combined would make solving the case that much easier.

“I’d prefer to cover all my bases. You’ll stay here under Eugene’s watch.”

“Hang on, why am I being watched by Eugene?” You complained, “No offense.” You said as an afterthought to him.

“None taken.” He grinned, looking around for more pieces to the beekeeping uniform that would fit you.

“Because as the first one at the scene of the crime you are my primary suspect and I can’t have you further tamper with evidence.” She bit out, and Eugene dropped the gloves he was holding. His face paled considerably.

“You want me to be in here with a possible murderer?” He squeaked. His eyes darted between yours and Wednesday’s, and she let out a huff.

“Fine, you can come.” She glared daggers at you and marched out of the shed. You stared dumbly after her, then at Eugene.

“How did you do that?” You whispered urgently to him.

“Do what?”

“You just said you’d be slightly uncomfortable with something and she changed what she was doing to accommodate you.” You couldn’t believe it. Even hearing it out loud sounded like a fake, make-believe dream.

“That’s just Wednesday. She has a hard shell but she’s actually super nice!” He sounded so cheery for someone who claimed they were scared of you a second ago. He leaned in closer to you, “but if she comes back in not the exact same condition as she just left in, I’m putting the bees on you.”

You gaped at him, completely bewildered as to how he could switch his stance so abruptly all while looking like an innocent twelve-year-old. He leaned back and started putting away the pieces of clothes he had just retrieved. You hopped out of the costume, hung it on the clothes hook, and darted after Wednesday.

“If you slow me down, I will leave you behind.” She said without looking back at you.

“Sorry, was just getting the shovel talk from Eugene.” You said before realizing the implications of using the phrase ‘shovel talk’. Luckily Wednesday didn’t understand slang.

“Did he provide you a shovel?” She looked at you, before turning away with clear disappointment to your lack thereof.

“Nah, he was just reminding me that I shouldn’t kill you today.” You chuckled at the thought, as though you could kill Wednesday. Well, you easily could, but not in the way they were imaging.

“Hardly possible.” She scoffed. You walked in silence for a while, marching through the woods on unmarked paths in the general direction of the Jericho fairgrounds. You were slightly terrified of the confidence Wednesday had in her navigation skills, treading through the unfamiliar woods as though she laid out every tree herself. Occasionally you caught her glaring at an animal as if they were intruding in her space, not being perfectly where they should be.

“You’re pretty nice to Eugene.” You commented after a while, because you couldn’t stand the silence. Walking behind her with nothing but your thoughts, you caught yourself staring at her back. Soon enough your eyes would trail further down to watch your footing, only to be entranced halfway to their destination by something else that you really shouldn’t be looking at.

“Quiet. You’ll alert any suspects in the area.” You exhaled a loud breath of air before clamping your mouth shut. When you were within a few tens of meters from the original murder site, she began to scrutinize the area a lot more closely.

“So what are we looking for chief?” You whispered, careful to not be too loud for her liking. You glanced around, but knew there wasn’t much to find. You’d already spent hours with a bloodhound’s nose sniffing around the area. “Wanna split up? Cover more ground?”

“And let you sweep half of the scene clean? I don’t think so.”

Suddenly, Wednesday was pulled off to the side behind a tree, and you leapt forward to confront her assailant. You stopped short when you saw Tyler, cupping Wednesday mouth with one hand and motioning for you to be quiet with the other. He then pointed to something behind you before yanking at your sleeve to move you out of somebody’s field of view. You staggered forward, and you noticed Wednesday shift her body away from you.

Why did she avoid you so adamantly while letting Tyler press his entire body against her?

You watched their eyes track two figures, and you turned around to see Elvis and Chief Galpin striding through the woods. You caught Elvis’ eye, and he immediately veered the Chief in the opposite direction, picking up the pace as if he picked up a new scent.

When they were out of sight, Wednesday ripped herself away from Tyler’s hold and whirled around to face him with murder in her eyes.

Tyler at least was cognizant enough of Wednesday’s aptitude to realize he had about 2 seconds to explain himself before his insides became his outsides. Maybe it was for the best that Wednesday didn’t let you anywhere near touching her. “Sorry, I didn’t want Elvis to pick up on your scent.” He said awkwardly while shuffling his feet.

“Thanks.” Wednesday replied, looking him up and down, “How’d you throw them off?”

“Coffee grounds.” He said, pulling them out. You gritted your teeth together and held your tongue. Saying they did nothing to deter Elvis wouldn’t help, even though you’d be personally satisfied to see the look on Wednesday’s face if you told her exactly why Elvis and the chief left.

“Deer-hunting trick. Perks of being a barista.” He gave her a boyish grin, growing more confident with her continued attention. Ugh, boys. He continued to talk, asking her to recount the events of the night. She eyed you before explaining Rowan’s own attempted murder before the monster came out. Right, she thought you did it.

“So you saw the monster and it didn’t try to kill you?” Tyler’s eyes were two wide orbs, staring down at the 5-foot girl with wonder. A strange mixture of emotion filled his eyes, something between hope, desperation, and anguish.

“I came out here to prove Rowan’s been murdered and that I haven’t lost my mind.” Wednesday cast a pointed look in your direction, “Yet.”

When her gaze found the forest floor again, she stopped in her tracks. Slowly, she glided forward and crouched in front of a perfectly placed pair of glasses. “These are Rowan’s. I knew it was a cover-up.”

You scrambled to her side, peering over her shoulder to get a closer look. That was impossible, you had swept the whole area clean! If only you could become a bloodhound again to get the scent off of them and confirm, or maybe you should call Elvis back. "Those can’t be his."

“Why not?” She turned to look at you, and you stepped backwards. You did not mean to say that out loud. “Perhaps it’s because you cleaned up the scene of the crime?” You held your tongue, hoping your face didn’t give away how on the nose she was with her accusation, “To clean up your crime?” Now that she was once again on the wrong track, you rolled your eyes.

“Not my crime.” You said.

“Hang on, you think she did it?” Tyler grabbed her arm, and your eyes flitted to the contact. You frowned when she didn’t immediately shake him off.

“You were the first at the scene of the crime and you have an uncanny ability of making bodies disappear.”

“Wait what?” You were in disbelief, especially uncertain of where the last accusation came from.

“You got rid of the cat.” She said simply, finally leaving Tyler’s grip to take a step towards you, “It’s disappeared since it ran into your room.” She took another step forward, and you could almost feel her breath with how close she got to you. The air felt charged with electricity. “Enid was… distraught.”

“Don’t you want the cat for the explicit purpose of skinning it?” You whispered over the chokehold of the atmosphere.

“Besides the point, it disappeared in your room.”

“I’ve never seen the cat before.” Her eyebrows piqued up at that with curiosity. She took a moment to consider the information.

“Never?”

“Never.” You ascertained.

“What cat are we talking about?” Tyler interjected, moving to stand between the two of you. You both took a step back and you let out a breath.

“Doesn’t matter.” “Unimportant.” You each said simultaneously without looking at him.

She turned around towards the glasses and went to pick them up, but as soon as she made contact with it, her spine inverted and her head shot backwards. “Wednesday!” You sprang forward, arms outstretched, but before could make it to her she straightened up and brushed herself off.

“You okay?” Tyler was on her other side, but she already began walking in the direction of campus.

“I have to get back.”

“So that was a pretty intense vision. You okay?” You were walking maybe five paces behind her on the way back to the academy after having left Tyler behind. You’ve been around long enough to see your fair share of psychics, but never before were the physical symptoms of their visions that intense. You knew the price of future vision was often physical pain; most outcast powers caused pain in some way. In their case, more pain equals more intense visions. Whether that correlated to better accuracy was still a hot topic for debate.

“Oh, you’re still here.” She cast a sideways glance behind her shoulder but otherwise ignored you.

You followed her through the courtyard and into Ophelia Hall. Halfway up the stairs she turned, “The investigation is on pause for now, stop following me.” She fumed.

You let out a single laugh, “I’m just going back to my room. We’re neighbours, remember?” She worked her jaw but held back whatever she wanted to say, instead taking the stairs two at a time now. When you got to the top, you leapt in front of her, blocking her path with your arm. You had no idea what possessed you to do so, but you did know that you’d be sleeping with one eye open tonight. “I know you say you’re okay, and I’m sure you are. Just…” She was glaring at you so intensely; you felt like you were being buried to the core of the Earth and locked into the pits of Hell. You swallowed, willing the vice grip her stare had on your windpipe loosen so you could speak. “Just know you don’t have to do everything alone.”

“Noted, now let me pass.” She motioned at your arm, and you lowered it.

“Is that why you’re so scared of touch? Those visions look painful.” She looked you up and down and took a breath as if to say something, but nothing came out. You frowned and closed your eyes, wondering why you were so stupid and why you crossed over so many lines. Wednesday needed space and patience. Then again, why were you trying to be the friend of the girl who stored weapons in the same room as your best friend? You heard her footsteps retreat, and you waited for the door to her room to open and close.

“It’s triggered by touch, but not all objects cause a vision.” You opened your eyes again to see her standing by her door, hand on the handle. Her eyes were resting at no particular point on the floor while you stood there. “I will not be my parent’s daughter and be cursed.” She asserted before pushing into her room and leaving you standing alone in the hallway.

Psychic powers, like most powers, were passed onto their children. It wasn’t entirely uncommon for somebody, especially the more humanoid of the outcasts, to loath their parents for making them not quite as normal as they should be. Perhaps both of Wednesday’s parents were psychics and she was actively trying to deny her gift?

You sighed and walked towards your own door.

“Hey Y/N!” Celeste called out in greeting. Yoko and Enid followed suit. They were all lounging on Yoko’s side of the room either around or on her bed. A collection of snacks was laid out in front of Enid, most of which she was about halfway through.

You plopped on the bed beside her, reaching your hand into a chip bag, “Having a party without me?”

“Just getting it warmed up for your arrival.” Yoko smiled lazily, sipping at her blood bag.

You giggled, “What were you guys talking about? Any new gossip?” You looked over at Enid, and she immediately averted her gaze. You looked questioningly at Yoko, but she suddenly found her straw to be more interesting than anything else in the room.

“Just about Enid’s crush.” Celeste said. Immediately a pillow was thrown across the room at her from Enid’s direction, “What? She’s going to find out eventually.” She mumbled apologetically, though her smile dissolved any semblance of remorse in her tone.

“So we’re talking about Ajax? Nothing new about that. What’d he do?” You reached for more chips. Yoko coughed loudly; words hidden somewhere in there that sounded like ‘Not Ajax’. You looked curiously first at Yoko, then at Enid. “Not Ajax?” You repeated like a question.

You chewed slowly, looking between each of your three friends and waiting for them to say something.

“How was the bee hut?” Enid chirped, not so subtly trying to change the subject.

You prepared yourself to ask who was Enid’s new crush, when you decided that Enid would tell you when she wanted and you shouldn’t be so pushy. You knew how it felt when people (*cough cough* Celeste, *cough cough* Yoko) pushed for extra information. Or even you just moments before with Wednesday. 

Thinking of Wednesday, “Actually, I went back to the crime scene with Wednesday to investigate," you said.

“I thought I heard Addams out there.” Celeste gasped. “That sounds like the Addams version of a date.”

“No, no, I mean…” You rested your hands on your cheeks to hide the blush you felt forming, “I said Weems probably wouldn’t check on her, and having an extra pair of eyes on the scene could only help. That and Eugene didn’t want me in the shed alone with him. I think he was a little disappointed that Enid didn’t show up.” You blathered, then smiled at Enid; the younger boy’s crush on Enid was pretty common knowledge to your group. She ducked her head in embarrassment and grimaced.

“Then we ran into Tyler and found Rowan’s glasses.” You finished.

“Who’s Tyler?” Yoko asked.

“The barista.” You heard Enid mumble, though you couldn’t see her face because she was actively hiding behind her hair.

“Wait, you found Rowan’s glasses out there?” Celeste lowered her own glasses to stare at you, eye to eye. “But we saw him leave with his glasses on.” You pursed your lips and shrugged. You couldn’t exactly tell them they were fabricated by your mother who expelled him for the purposes of reducing the potentially catastrophic footprint of the murder.

“Wednesday must be pretty happy.” Yoko commented.

You shrugged again, “She ran back pretty fast, guess she had to add it to her murder board or wherever she keeps her notes to the case.”

“So,” Yoko dragged out that syllable for a few seconds, “it wasn’t a date?”

“Nope, definitely not.” You laughed nervously. “I told you I don’t even like Wednesday, much less like her in that way.” You repeated for what felt like the fiftieth time in the last week. You all sat in silence, and you looked around in confusion. The fangs were staring at Enid, who’s head was still bowed down with her hair in front of it. She was picking at her fingers.

You reached out to grab one of them. “Hey, what’s going on?” You gently intoned, mimicking Enid’s typical way of comforting you and rubbing your thumb in circles on the back of her hand. When she didn’t look up, you looked to Celeste and Yoko for help, pleading with your eyes.

Yoko huffed her way out of the bean bag chair and rested her head on the bed in front of Enid, peering up at her. “What’d ya wanna us to do hun?” Given Enid’s lack of response, you looked at Celeste.

‘What do I do?’ you silently mouthed. She smiled that typical demonic smile she liked to pull out when she had a plan underway, but surprisingly leaned back in the desk chair and made a motion of zipping her lips shut and locking them with an imaginary key. Not meddling was certainly not Celeste's style. Enid mumbled incoherently, making more of a mewling sound rather than an intelligible syllables. You squeezed her hand again and looked at Celeste again. ‘Pleeeaaasssee.’

She rolled her eyes, unzipped her lips, and mouthed back at you, ‘You both owe me big time.’ She stood up and cleared her throat. “How about we all go to the Weathervane and get some coffee.” You scrunched your eyebrows, wondering how going to the Weathervane would make Enid feel better.

‘Play along!’ Celeste mouthed at you, eyes making big sweeping motions between you and Enid.

“Hey Enid, want to go to the Weathervane and get coffee?” You said, more than a little confused. You squeezed her hand and shook it a little. “We can get a hazelnut latte with extra foam and see if the barista can make it look like a cat.” You cooed, trying your best to coax her out of her hiding spot. She peered up, her face red. You figured it was from keeping her head lowered for so long.

She took a deep breath, glanced at the fangs, then back at you. “Can we go, and I pay?” She whispered timidly. You frowned. You knew Enid’s family kept her on a very tight allowance. You would never let her pay even if it wasn't you trying to make her feel better. You drew in a breath to say exactly that, when Celeste butted in and drew her arms around your shoulders, lifting you both up from the bed and onto your feet.

“How about I pay for my two favourite girls?” She smiled proudly, “My treat.”

“Hey! I’m still here y’know.” Yoko complained.

“Not now Yoks!”

Wednesday sat over her desk, doing her best to remember the detailing of the book that starred in her vision and seemed to be the source of the image Rowan gave her. She glared at the hastily scribbled out lines she had drawn, finding that she no longer considered Xavier’s talent for drawing as useless as she previously believed. With the vision rapidly fading from memory – somehow they were fleeting in her otherwise perfect recall – she had to put on hold her investigation of you and focus. Even though she felt 78% certain on the exact reason you confounded her as many times as you have.

Suddenly, Enid burst through the door and walked briskly over to her side of the room. Wednesday looked over at her clearly distressed roommate as she charged into her closet and made her own personal hurricane of clothes. As much as she appreciated the testament to mother nature’s destructive capabilities, she preferred it far away from her own personal possessions.

“You’re making a mess Enid.” She said, eyeing the shirt that was draped over the line of duct tape that Wednesday drew a week ago. It didn’t quite cross the line, but it was close.

Thing scurried off of Enid’s bed – he claimed it was softer ever since he felt it this afternoon – and stood on her bedpost, signing frantically at her.

‘Did you do it?’ He was asking. Somehow, Thing and Enid were concocting plots behind Wednesday’s back. She would have to have a word with the hand later.

Enid popped her head out of the closet, huffing as she held up a cardigan. A massive smile was stuck to her face, it was horrendous. “Yes! Well kind of. We’re going to the Weathervane!” She beamed and Thing did a little jazz hand dance. Her eyes finally found the piece of clothing that was balancing on the line of duct tape, and she gasped. “OMG sorry Wednesday, I’ll be more careful.”

Enid looked positively flustered, “You’re going to the Weathervane?” She asked.

Enid straightened up, “Yeah, with Y/N.” Wednesday swiveled in her chair to face Enid more directly. “And the fangs, but I have a feeling they’ll leave.” She added after a moment. Wednesday just stared blankly at her, which somehow fueled Enid to divulge even more information. She would be a terrible interrogation suspect. 

“It’s not like a date,” A light blush appeared on her cheeks at the mention of this so-called ‘not-a-date’ and Wednesday furrowed her brow slightly. “But like, I don’t know, maybe it is. I’m gonna pay, but it’s more of a thank-you for covering for me. You know, for the bees and stuff. Sorry about that by the way, for flaking. I just really hate bees, and she offered!” While Wednesday enjoyed the way Enid’s visible distress made her squirm, she had a hard time ignoring the bottomless pit in her stomach at the thought of you and Enid being romantically involved. Though she suspected it for quite some time, knowing it was truly coming to fruition made it exponentially worse.

“I thought you liked Ajax.” her lip downturned as she found her tone carried way too much interest in it. This didn’t warrant her mental capacity. Why did she care?

'It’s the curse.'  A voice said in the back of her mind. At this point, she was 75% certain it was you and 25% sure it was Enid. She investigated the other fangs in Ophelia Hall and none of them… felt right, and any thought of it being Tyler was extinguished when he grabbed her in the woods over an hour ago. Feeling no release from the curse when he touched her gave her a feeling of sweet relief.

Enid chuckled nervously, “Ah ha, yeah… I thought I did too.” Interesting, so it was possible for regular people to change where their affections lay. “I think I knew all along that I didn’t…” She sat on the bed, and Thing tapped her knee comfortingly.

“And she likes you back?” Wednesday swirled back around to face her desk, closing her eyes and pressing her lips together. Never before in her life had she vomited, not even when she was improving her tolerance to food poisoning by ingesting various strains of mold, but in that moment she became uncertain if she would hold her pristine record.

“I don’t know if in that way, I mean for a bit I thought she might’ve liked you -” Wednesday opened her eyes and turned to see that Enid clamped her hands over her mouth, her bright blue eyes like saucers. Her stomach previously threatening to expunge its contents now dangerous tittered, worsening her nausea. She swallowed heavily.

Enid paused in her flurry as she stared at Wednesday. She’d never seen Wednesday look more than a little annoyed, and suddenly she looked downright nauseated. She never believed you when you said Wednesday didn't like you, but with such a viscerally negative reaction she realized you were telling the truth.

“Don’t worry, I think it was just Celeste and Yoko trying to tease her. Nothing actually serious.”

“I see.” Wednesday focused on one of the wood panels in the floor, centering herself and willing her body's return to normalcy.

"Do you need anything? I can hang back for a bit." She asked uncertainly. 

"No. I'm busy with the investigation." 

“Oh! Of course! I’ll just be going now, I’ll see you later!” Enid trampled out of the room with a similar intensity to how she arrived, her half of the room looking like the losing side of a warzone, the empty garments like the bodies of the dead soldiers.

Two steadying breaths later, and Wednesday was able to focus again on what was in front of her. Thing hopped onto her desk and crept forward. Her gaze shot sharply to him, pinning him in place. He froze and considered his next move carefully, tapping a singular finger. He didn't quite know what to make of Wednesday's uncharacteristically dramatic reaction, but he had an idea. Perhaps he would need to scry with Gomez or Morticia.

‘You want to go to the Weathervane too?’ He signed carefully. She looked away, picking up the drawing she had abandoned since Enid interrupted and focused all her attention on it. In this particular case, ignoring the problem was the best solution. She just had to keep reminding herself of this. Just the picture, nothing else mattered. 

Just the picture.

Looking at the picture, she couldn’t decide if there was anything worthwhile to add, that perhaps it was as accurate as it was going to get. Really, rather than try to sit and draw some more, she should search out the real thing in the library.

She placed the drawing in front of the hand so he could see the target, “Don’t be silly, we have work to do.”

Chapter Text

It took 20 minutes to walk to the Weathervane, 2 minutes to decide all your orders, then 5 minutes to figure out who was paying for who. That last part was only settled by Celeste who went behind everyone’s back to quietly slip the money to the barista (who was thankfully not Tyler). Now, you were halfway done your drink and you still didn’t know what (or who) was making Enid so skittish. Heck, she barely spoke a word that entire time, which must’ve been some sort of record for her.

You’ve given her enough space, and if you had any hope of salvaging this hangout, you had to strike now. Gulping down a sip of the hot chocolate in front of you, you decided you couldn’t wait a second longer.

“You know it’s okay if you like Wednesday.” You said, looking Enid directly in her eyes and imploring her to fess up. It wasn’t entirely okay – you still haven’t warned Enid about the weapons in her closet – but you needed to at least start talking to get there. You probably should’ve waited one second more for her to finish swallowing her own drink, because she began to choke on the hot liquid of the latte. Yoko patted her back, helping her clear her windpipe.

Once she was done, she placed a hand on her chest, “What?” she croaked.

“I mean, I’m pretty sure she likes you back, so it’d work out.” You continued, garnering twin looks of shock from Yoko and Celeste.

“What?” Enid repeated, her voice now stronger and more dumbfounded than before. All the shock made you second guess the assumption that you made where Wednesday was Enid’s new mystery crush. Who else could it be that Enid was rendered so nervous and tight-lipped around you? Though it’s true Enid never said she was into girls and seemed shocked that you’d even bring it up. What boy could possibly cause her to not be forthcoming?

Suddenly you had another idea, and as much as the very thought of it revolted you, you wanted to show Enid you were a supportive friend. You leaned in closer, “Is it Tyler?” you dared to ask. The only clue was that Celeste suggested you all go to the Weathervane, and Enid seemed shy when you mentioned him in the room earlier.

That got a laugh out of Enid, “What? Ew, no.” She replied. You hummed with thought, that is until you got a sharp kick to the shin.

“Ow!” You exclaimed, reaching your hands down to cradle it and glaring directly at Yoko; that was going to bruise tomorrow.

“Just leave it, Enid will tell us all when she’s ready.” You furrowed your eyebrows, because while Yoko seemed to say that neither she nor Celeste knew who this mystery person, they definitely knew more than you did. Who could be so bad and/or controversial that you didn’t have the same clearance as them?

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Celeste glance inquisitively at the two across the table, then turn to you, “Why do you say Wednesday likes Enid?”

“Celeste!” Yoko exclaimed, but Celeste raised a finger and Yoko fell quiet.

You glanced slowly between them, then looked again to Enid who was staring into her cup, and finally landed back on Celeste. ‘Trust me.’ She mouthed.

“Uhhh.” You sounded, not having the faintest clue as to what was going on and what Celeste was up to. “The… the lunch.” You stuttered. Celeste remained quiet, waiting for you to continue, so you did, “I asked Wednesday in class if she wanted to have lunch with Enid, because she seemed nervous to sit next to her in class. The whole lunch thing was for Wednesday to hang out with Enid more.”

Celeste hummed in thought, but at least Enid was now openly staring at you. That was the biggest (non-life threatening) reaction you got out of her all night.

“And you insist you don’t like Wednesday.” She affirmed, to which you gave a small nod. When Celeste got like this, it was best to be on your guard and make no sudden movements.

“And while to whom Wednesday’s true affections lie remain a mystery to the universe,” She said, though something in her tone suggested she didn’t agree and did in fact know something to that end, “she is… polarized by you. Do you agree?” You gulped, saying nothing, and just stared back. You didn’t realize Wednesday’s disdain for you was particularly noticeable over her contempt for the general population (though you certainly felt it), but Celeste has proved herself to be more observant than she let on.

You realized in the too long silence that Celeste was actually waiting for a reply. After another moment, Enid chipped in, “Now that you mention it, she did look different when I mentioned we were going to the Weathervane together.”

“Different how?” You immediately whirled on her, and Enid shrank back in her seat.

“Yeah, totally not into her.” Yoko murmured behind her mug, though for now you decided to ignore that comment.

“I don’t know she just seemed off, like unwell. Probably something to do with the investigation.” She added quickly after. You racked your brain, remembering that not too long ago she had a vision. Did they impact her more than she let on? Was it like when you overexerted yourself with your transformations, and you essentially passed out from the tax your power place on your body?

How could you have left her there all alone? How could you have taken Enid, her roommate who could easily keep an eye on her, miles away from campus? You made a move to get up, but two icy hands clasped yours.

“Hush little pup. If I’m right, and I’m rarely wrong about these things, everything will be fine.” You stared incredulously at her but planted yourself back down. As much of a pain Celeste could be to your backside, you did trust her. She did have centuries of experience after all.

“What do you mean?” You still felt like you were only privy to half of the conversation, the other half being some internal monologue Celeste was having with herself.

She clasped her hands together and a wicked glint shone in her eyes, “Because I have a plan.”

You gulped; gods help us.

“So… what’s the plan?” Enid said hesitantly, after shock waned off the table. It was now your turn to stare into your hot chocolate. Celeste was known to meddle every so often, but most of the time she was subtle in her involvement in school drama. Never before has she so blatantly announced her participation in these schemes.

“Before I begin, you have to promise to hear the entire plan out.” She said, looking at each participant pointedly and nudging you when she couldn’t make eye contact with you. Enid and Yoko agreed, and after a small nudged you mumbled something sounding like agreement. “Let’s say Enid likes Wednesday.” She began.

Enid tried to interject, but Celeste held up a hand. “No interrupting, remember?” When no more complaint came, she continued, “There is an age-old tactic to coax Wednesday out of her shell, because we all know her affections will not easily be declared.”

“I’m supposing talking to her isn’t what you had in mind?” You said sarcastically.

“Jealousy.” She stated simply, ignoring you. All eyebrows shot to their hairline.

“You want to make Wednesday… jealous?” Enid said in disbelief.

“Do you have a death wish?” You asked in a similar state.

Only Yoko seemed completely on board, “Cool! How’re we gonna do it?”

Celeste turned and began to waggle a finger between you and Enid, “You two,” Enid’s scrunched her eyes with confusion, but slowly you started to follow. She couldn’t actually be suggesting it though… right? “Are going to fake date.”

“What!?!” You both exclaimed.

“Its genius is it not?” She asked, a proud smile adorning her face. “You get to help Enid.” She pointed at you, “You get to… test the waters.” She winked at Enid, “And we all get to see if Wednesday takes the bait.” She sat back and took a tiny sip out of her tea mug, as if she didn’t just suggest the most absurd idea into existence.

“And if she doesn’t?” You asked.

“Wait you’re actually considering this?” Enid interjected before Celeste could say anything. You shrugged and gave a smile, “If you want, I meant what I said before the bee hut, anything for you Enid.”

“If she doesn’t, you can ‘break up’ and everything stays as it was.” Celeste clarified. Again, the table was rendered silent. You let Enid contemplate the plan, because if she wanted to try, you’d do it. This also allowed you to make sure Wednesday couldn’t use those death axes, or at least that Enid was adequately informed and prepared before getting involved. Celeste basked in the glory of her plan actually being considered. The only one who gave you pause was Yoko, who was trying (and failing) to stifle a smile by pretending to sip her cup which you knew was now empty. Clearly Celeste was up to something else, and you were playing right into whatever plan it was.

“And if it works and she decides to murder me?” You asked, realizing that was essentially the other side of the scenario. You’ve seen a mildly perturbed Wednesday administer death threats and challenges left right and center. A jealous Wednesday… you suppressed a shudder.

“Then you’ll do what gentleman do and duel for Enid’s heart.” She stated matter-of-factly. “I’ll even give you a cut of the bets.” She smiled sweetly, while you gaped at her. Enid’s face was similar, but she seemed to be waiting for your reaction.

Suddenly, noticing the time, you began to gather everyone’s cups. “We’ll think about it.” You declared, getting up to drop them off at the wash basin. This was the sort of thing you sleep on and don’t rush into. Besides, you all still had class tomorrow morning and curfew was coming up.

On the way back to Ophelia Hall, you had to give Celeste some credit. The silence that seemed to infect your group that evening had all but disappeared, and you exchanged your usual banter. By the time you parted ways with Celeste on the floor below, your trio was keeled over with laughter.

You looked up from the top step, wiping a stray tear from your eye, to see Wednesday leaning against the door to her and Enid’s room. “I see it was ... enjoyable.” The last word sounded foreign on her tongue as she strayed miles away from her usual lexicon. You tried to straighten yourself out, knowing less than an hour ago you were plotting with the others.

“Yeah, it was good.” Enid rattled, snapping out of her laughter more quickly than yourself and hurrying towards her roommate. Her roommate, who you couldn’t help but notice was actually out of her uniform and in an oversized t-shirt that went down to her knees, so you weren’t sure she was wearing any sort of pants. Your eyes strayed to her bare legs, noting how toned they were despite her petite size.

You snapped your eyes up when you realized they were lingering, and your imagination was starting to take the reins into unchaste territory. Weren’t you just telling Enid how you’d help set ‘her’ up with Wednesday?

Only now your eyes met Wednesday’s, who was staring right at you. She retained her usual deadpanned expression but included a slight downward tilt to her chin. Only Wednesday herself could tell you what she was thinking about in that second. What message (if any) she was trying to convey. Did she catch you staring? Was she challenging you? Did she send Thing to spy on your and was privy to all of your plans? Was it all in your head and you were making something up out of nothing?

Enid made it to Wednesday and started chattering about curfew coming up and how we all better head to our beds. She stepped aside to let Enid pass, and you could swear her gaze met yours for a fraction of a second longer and made your heart stutter in your chest before following Enid and closing the door.

While you didn’t know a lot of what went on that night, from Enid’s crush to Celeste’s hidden plans, all the way to Wednesday’s gaze and your cursed heart, you did know one thing for certain.

You were absolutely fucked.

Chapter Text

Once nothing more could come from investigating Rowan the night of your date, she had switched to the large tome of outcast species she’d been working through since she first retrieved in from the library almost a week ago. She had already parsed through the text four times, reading carefully through each outcast species, noting the images (which did not include the beast she’d seen in the forest), and studying the addendums and associated reference. The most promising lead, and the section that lay open now, was the chapter dedicated to shapeshifters. Of course, that was an exceptionally large category, which included werewolves, werecats, and every other were creature in existence. There was even mention of “late-blooming werewolves”, which was a surprisingly rare occurrence (estimated 1 in 5000) given the high prevalence of them at Nevermore (2 in 17). These wolves either never transformed or became exceptionally powerful beasts whose strength and speed far outperformed their kin.

Which one would you be? That is, assuming you were a werewolf. That, she was still not convinced, but she digressed. The purpose of this session was to find the monster, not fixate on you… again.

She hadn’t realized she landed on that particular section until Thing pointed it out.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m looking for descriptions of the beast in the woods.” She asserted when he suggested she was researching about Enid.

Thing tapped his fingers in thought, ‘The beast looked like a werewolf?’

“It wasn’t like anything I’ve seen so I’m thinking a shifter of some kind. Its features were exaggerated, like a caricature.” Unfortunately, he wasn’t familiar with any outcast matching that description and asked if it was really an outcast or just a mythical beast. “Definitely an outcast.” It was too intentional with its victim selection. When it looked at Wednesday, it’s eyes were far more intelligent than any animal she’s seen –

She paused, realizing that no, this beast wasn’t particularly more intelligent looking than other animals. At least not the ones in Nevermore.

“The cat.” She said, leaning towards the pages and flipping away from the section on lycanthropes to other shifters. Could the cat be an outcast? Could you be an outcast. She was suddenly taken to a moment in the woods when you were both out investigating; “I’ve never seen the cat before.” You had said.

How did you, Enid’s best friend, never meet that cat? Within 30 seconds of Wednesday seeing that cat in Enid’s arms, she had messaged everyone in Ophelia Hall to come say hello. You were in the UK at the time, but surely you had been in the same proximity at least once in the last few years.

The cat wasn’t the only animal with those eyes. She was brought back her first Weathervane visit on the second day. The crow had not only the extraordinarily intelligent eyes of the beast and the cat, but it also was vicious towards Wednesday’s assailants. It had tried to save Wednesday. Behaviour not unlike that which she’d seen with Rowan. Could you be the cat, and the crow, and the beast –

No, she was getting ahead of herself. As she flipped through the book, no outcast species could be described as one which could change into any animal at will. Werewolves and werecats required a celestial body at a certain phase to shift and were limited to one therianthropic form. On the other hand, anthropes (more commonly known as shifters) weren’t locked into one form but were limited to human transformations.

She had to get a better look at you and see if your eyes were a match. It was almost laughably simple really; when Enid returned home, you’d be in the hall and Wednesday could look at your eyes while mentally cross-referencing them with the animals and monster.

It was only a matter of time before the curse unwelcomed itself back into the pit of her stomach, which signaled her entrance into the hallway. She could already hear your laughter echoing through the stairwell, somehow louder than all the rest. When you were near the top steps you became visible, and your arm wrapped behind Enid’s back.

“Oh hey roomie!” Enid called out. She ducked away from your arm and pranced over to Wednesday, her smile frightening wide. It made Wednesday’s stomach drop.

“I take it was…” She struggled to find a word that accurately described the date which made you seemingly so happy, yet Wednesday so despairing. “…enjoyable.” She finally uttered. You were staring at her now, and she quashed the flutter that took flight in her chest. It was so obviously you the curse was pulling her towards, it was a disgrace that she even remotely considered any other option.

Right, your eyes. Just because you were the object of the curse, it did not mean you weren’t the killer. In fact, it tracked remarkably well that Wednesday would be tethered to a serial killer. She tried to catch your gaze again, but you were looking at the ground in front of Wednesday. When you did finally look back up, your eyes widened, and a light blush graced your cheeks. Not exactly the face of a quizzical, ruthless murderer, but Wednesday wasn’t one to give up so easily.

“Ah ha, yeah, I guess it was. I’ll see ya tomorrow Enid.” Wednesday quirked an eyebrow at your choice of words.

It turned out you used your words intentionally. The next three days, Wednesday was met with constant showcases of you and Enid ‘being a couple’ as Enid put it. You refused to meet Wednesday’s eyes, and when you did accidentally let your gaze fall on hers, you went in the opposite direction. The behaviour was suspicious, and above all else it was aggravating.

Perhaps Wednesday had to put herself in danger and mimic those other times she was saved. Or perhaps she had to take a page out of your own book of tricks.

“I’m sitting here today.” Both you and the hapless psychic who was currently occupying the space beside you looked up in surprise.

“He’s already sitting here.” You pointed out, as if Wednesday had faulty eyes.

“Move or be moved.” The spineless boy didn’t need any more convincing. He gathered up his books and bolted to the furthest available space.

Much to her chagrin, you didn’t even look up as Wednesday took her seat beside you. You even seemed to lean away. The lecturer was still setting up, having run in flustered and unable to find his lesson plan for the day.

“I’m surprised Celeste got you in on her little pranks.” You muttered much to Wednesday’s confusion. She didn’t know what to make of that comment, so she immediately dived into her real purpose.

“What’s a werewolf doing in a non-werewolf class?”

She could feel you stiffen beside her. Wednesday tried to guess what your response would be. Would you get defensive, confused, offended? She looked at you when instead of all those things, you laughed. “I took werewolf anatomy in middle school when I studied in the UK. Weems refuses to give me a spare period or an easy A though, so I take human anatomy.” You rolled your eyes at the memory and continued writing notes from what was on the board, “You're part human, it’s essential for your educational development.” You mimicked Weems’ voice near perfectly; even Wednesday had to admit the accuracy was eerie.

“How’s the investigation going?” You changed subjects when she stayed silent for a moment, “I’m guessing you got some sort of lead on Rowan?” You leaned in more closely, dropping into a low whisper so none of the other chattering students could hear. Your face got closer and she didn’t immediately recoil, her eyes instead searching yours. This is what she wanted, a better chance to study your face, your eyes. You looked earnest, for once not appearing guilty as you had this entire week. Were you genuinely interested in murder investigations? Originally, she had thought you arrived just to help Enid from the bees. Had you come for more than that? For the potential thrill of uncovering a dead body, or discovering something no one else had? Or had you come for Wednesday herself?

Her eyes trailed down to your lips. Enid hadn’t kissed them yet, at least not that Wednesday or Thing had seen. As far as she knew no one had kissed them. Would Wednesday be the first?

She tore her eyes away and glued them to her page. Her body committed the ultimate act of betrayal, and she could feel her ears burn despite her telling them to stop, suddenly glad her braids covered them enough to hide them from your sight. You peered at her face, and lowered yourself closer to the desk so you could get a better look at her face.

Wednesday didn’t blush. No, this wasn’t Wednesday.

This was the curse. In no iteration of the universe did Wednesday’s body and mind betray her so completely. You came to investigate because you were the murderer, because you were the trying to clean up the murder scene, because you also felt the same pull of the Addams family curse tethering you to Wednesday, because –

“You found something good didn’t you?” You asked, and Wednesday let her eyes look back at yours. Right, she was meant to be using this opportunity to gauge your similarities to the beast. You raised your eyebrows in expectation. “You don’t have to tell me, I guess I am still a suspect aren’t I?” You sighed loudly, as if it was the most ridiculous accusation in the world.

“Did you sit next to me to talk about Enid?”

“Why would I want to discuss my roommate?”

You shoulder lifted slightly in a shrug. “I don’t know, to tell me to back off, proclaim your undying love for her, and swoop her off her feet?” Your tone must have been mocking and Wednesday just couldn’t identify it, because the words coming out of your mouth certainly couldn’t be genuine. They didn't make any sense.

“The only 'swooping off your feet' I’ll be doing is with my blade through your head.”

You chuckled that infuriating chuckle of yours, “Are you challenging me to a fencing duel Wednesday? That’s very 18th century of you. But sure, I’ll duel you for Enid’s hand.” Wednesday whipped her head to where you sat, as if you didn’t just sign a death sentence for yourself. “But you have to promise me if you win, that you’ll be good to her. No swinging axes of death in the closet, no silver weapons, no funny business.”

As flustered as Wednesday was becoming, you had made a fatal error and in one fell swoop, she turned the tide of your little battle, “How did you know about the axes?”

“Doesn’t everyone have them? I was just in the process of dismantling mine since she and I started dating.” Wednesday narrowed her eyes. She had been in your closet just a week ago, and no such traps were laid out, but to refute it would look like she’d been snooping around.

“Settle down now everyone, time to get started.” With that, you were forced to stop your interaction and save it for the dueling ground. At least there was one thing Wednesday was sure of; she would destroy you.

What in your right mind were you thinking? The week was going so well; it was easier than you expected to play all “cute couple” with Enid in front of Wednesday, but you didn’t expect she’d confront you so soon. You didn’t know what to suspect, because she could’ve wanted to confront you for a multitude of reasons. Had she noticed you would check her out whenever you thought she wasn’t looking? Or worse, did Celeste notice and somehow tell her? You already felt awful, pining after the girl the very same girl as your best friend, going so far as to pretend to date said best friend to help her attract attention.

Wednesday’s reason for sitting next to you turned out to be so much worse. You could tell she suspected something about you that wasn’t nearly as trivial as a crush. Then she could just go ahead a murder you and your secret would still be safe. A secret that if found out would threaten not only you, but also your mother to a fate much worse than a simple execution. So what better way to stop her from figuring out your truth than to serve your death to her on a silver platter?

“So, I may have challenged Wednesday to a duel for the right to date you.” You said as you bit into your noodle bowl. Enid immediately started chocking on her drumstick and Celeste almost spat out her drink (though luckily nothing escaped).

“What?!?” Everyone said at the table simultaneously. You decided you’d rather take an extra moment with your noodles so you didn’t have to say anything, drawing some more into your mouth and beginning the lengthy chewing endeavour.

Celeste took a moment to clear her throat, “But… you don’t fence little pup.” It was true, you were an expert of ditching class, giving non-answer answers to teachers and peers, and in the case of fencing, being eliminated within 0.2 seconds of the match starting. You were much more of a ‘self-studier’.

“And like, she almost beat Bianca.” Enid fretted.

“Do you have a death wish?” Yoko added.

Everyone spoke on top of one another, until you finally swallowed your food and sighed, “I know, I know, I don’t know what I was thinking.” You did, but you couldn't tell them that.

“Was she dissing our girl or something?” Yoko asked.

“Did she start the challenge?” Celeste was definitely the most shocked.

Yoko looked between you and Celeste, “Are you sure the challenge is for… Enid?” Prompting a kick under the table from Celeste. You didn’t even want to know what those two were up to. 

“I’ll ask Bianca to train with you for a bit, maybe show you some moves.” Enid, the ever optimist, already had her phone pulled out and was texting furiously on it.

A tray landed beside Celeste, and the whole table startled, “Bianca won’t be of any use to you.” That all-too-familiar deadpanned voice made its grand appearance.

“Oh, hey Wednesday, we were just hearing about your upcoming duel.” Celeste smiled at the intruder. That traitor.

“Hey! No fornicating with the enemy!” You whined.

“Yes, it certainly is an exquisitely terrible day for an execution.” Enid’s face paled and you momentarily worried she might pass out.

“Hey, hey now.” You cut in, “There needs to be some preparation time, we need to get seconds…” You started listing off possible reason to postpone the match, using your very limited knowledge on duels that may or may not be based on that one time you listened to the Hamilton soundtrack, “Vie for the lady’s favour.” You motioned to Enid who immediately turned bright red.

Against all odds, Wednesday’s eyes sparkled, “Ah so we are following the code duello. Very well, I shall make the necessary preparations.” You gulped. It sounded like you may have just deepened the grave you’d been digging for yourself.

“Wait!” Enid finally spoke up. You prayed to whatever might be listening in above that she had some master plan, “Can we at least wait until after the Poe Cup? It’s tomorrow and I don’t want anyone in the infirmary when they should be lakeside cheering us to victory.”

Wednesday cast one look between you and her and gave a small nod. “That’s acceptable. My second will be in touch with yours shortly to set a time and place.” You gaped at her once she’d turned her back and wondered how that had gotten out of hand so quickly.

“So what kind of flowers would you like at your funeral?”

Chapter Text

You often wondered how vampires haven’t gone extinct by now. Sure, they were immortal; but you’d think it’d give them some sense to not ingest garlic on a semi-regular basis.

“Uggghhhh”

You rolled your eyes as you patted Yoko’s icy hand soothingly, watching her roll around like the drama queen she was in front of you. You’d only been roommates for three years and it’s her fourth time in this predicament; she must be going for the world record for garlic poisonings.

“It’s okay I’m here.” You cooed at the girl, rubbing the back of her hand. You had just given the fang a particularly potent diuretic prescribed by the nurse to flush the garlic out of her system. In less than 10 minutes, Yoko would claim your shared bathroom for the rest of the night, and maybe the morning after. You’d have to text Enid to see if you could steal a few moments in her washroom tomorrow morning since yours would be a warzone.

You’d just have to time it so you could avoid Wednesday.

“Uggghhhhh.” Yoko drew her hand away from yours to clutch her stomach, curling into fetal position.

A ping from your phone temporarily drew your attention from the suffering vampire. You used your newly freed hand to check the notification. Think of the devil.

’Wednesday said she'd join. U HAVE 2 NOW!’

“How bad is she freaking out?” Yoko seemed to wake from the dead (or undead) enough to muster some words out.

You leaned back in your chair in contemplation. The Black Cats were down two members since both Celeste and Yoko had come down with garlic poisoning from dinner, so beyond getting medicine and promising to hang with Enid later, there wasn’t much you could do. Even if you could, you still refused to a part of any type of school sanctioned event if you could help it. “Apparently she still thinks the Black Cats might be able to race tomorrow.”

Yoko’s eyes raised to her hairline and her face adopted a greenish tinge. You didn’t even know that was possible for a vampire. “I can’t, I’m out.” You reached your hand back to your roommate’s shoulder, moving your thumb in soothing circles.

“You won’t have to; Enid somehow drafted the Wednesday Addams onto the black cats.” You said, voice heavily laced with mocking disbelief. Yoko’s eyebrows shot even further up her forehead before she clenched her stomach in another wave of pain and she made a small gagging motion.

“That’s our cue!” You hopped up and grabbed the sickly vampire, hauling her up. “You can make it 10 steps, right?”

“Yeah.” She mumbled miserably.

You nodded before shoving her in front of you towards your ensuite bathroom before she blew her guts out. You were about to follow her in so you can hold her hair for her, but she shoved you back and closed the bathroom door. You blinked, but quickly sprang into action. You grabbed a water bottle, mixing in a special electrolyte made specially for dehydrated vampires, all while texting Enid that no, you wouldn’t join the Black Cats, but you would try to help find a fourth. School sanctioned event plus Wednesday Addams was a recipe for disaster. Checking the fridge for blood bags you counted only three. It should be good for tonight, but you’d need to get more tomorrow after the race. Satisfied, you placed the water bottle on the dresser next to the bathroom door along with one of Yoko’s fuzzier robes for after the shower she would inevitably take. You knocked on the bathroom door and told Yoko that everything she needed was outside the door and that you were heading over to check on Celeste. Maybe she was less brutalized by the garlic than Yoko and she could race tomorrow. It’d certainly save you a lot of trouble.

If there’s one thing you’d learned in the past few weeks since Wednesday got here, is that trouble would find you. You went into the hallway and were met with all 5 feet of her standing menacingly, laying in wait. She reminded you of a baby black panther waiting to pounce on its first kill, that kill being you.

“Oh, hey Wednesday.” You said as nonchalantly as possible, though the hair on your arm stood on end. Was she actually waiting for you, or did you just walk in on her plotting your murder?

“Enid said you would need to be convinced to race tomorrow. Why?”

“She sent you to... convince me?” That sounded highly unlike Enid to send Wednesday of all people.

“Hardly, I will destroy Bianca whether the race happens or not. It’s only Enid who will suffer. I would’ve expected you of all people to show up for her.” You frowned, because she had a point. There was no point in letting Enid be caught in the crossfire of the cold war between you and your mom.

“So, you’re doing all this to piss off Bianca? Not for Enid?”

“I want to crush Bianca so far into the ground she’ll think twice before helping you in the duel.” Wednesday spat out, taking a step forward with the intention to intimidate.

You smirked, “Why? Does the Wednesday Addams, actually think I stand a chance?” You matched her step forward. If there’s anything you knew about Wednesday, it was that she loved a challenge, but she hated to lose. It was a fine line she walked, but typically she did it well. Maybe she had some innate sense that you were better than you let on. “That I will beat you?”

Her eyes widened and her face paled considerably, “What do you –“ She stopped herself and swallowed. Was Wednesday… stuttering? “I wou –“ She took a deep breath, and you realized you were close enough to feel that breath, “Of course not.” She finally let out. There was intense, unbridled passion lurking just behind those deep brown eyes of hers, and you weren’t sure if she wanted to punch you or kiss you.

Probably punch you, but a girl could dream.

’But what about Enid?’ A small voice crept up in the back of your head, and no matter how much you wanted to squash it you couldn’t. Your friend liked Wednesday. You were supporting your friend. You would not even entertain the idea of kissing your best friend’s crush.

Before you actually did have a chance to fantasize though, she walked away, and you were left staring after her as she headed to the staircase. You inhaled deeply, trying to get more oxygen to your brain.

You looked down at your phone and shot off a quick text to Celeste before heading across the hall. “Hey Enid, you in here?” You called softly as you knocked on the door before tugging on the handle to let yourself in.

“OMG Y/N you’re here!” The werewolf pranced to your side from her colourful half of the room, wrapping you in one of her signature bear hugs. You couldn’t help scanning the bedroom’s monochromatic twin before refocusing your attention back to the blonde with a wide grin on your face. She had grabbed your arm at this point and had you halfway over to her bed which held four black costumes over the multipatterned rainbow quilt. “So, you’re totally racing tomorrow right?” You looked down at her bright blue eyes, still shining with leftover tears from when her Poe Cup dreams were dashed just minutes before.

Somehow it was Wednesday who had given her hope again, but you’d be damned if something as petty as your situation with the goth take that optimistic smile off of Enid’s face.

“Of course Enid, anything for you.” You smiled and she leapt into yet another hug, squealing happily.

“Good, because we have loads of work to do!” She started listing off tasks, mainly consisting of resizing Yoko and Celeste’s costumes to fit you and Wednesday. Luckily you were both smaller than each vampire.

“As good as can be expected. She just has to ride it out.” You shrugged. You were sure Yoko wouldn’t appreciate you giving a detailed play by play of what was happening right now. Enid, having been on garlic purge duty once before, grimaced. She did not like anything relating to bodily fluids, gore, or anything remotely relating to those categories (vampire vomit is a bit more gruesome than normal, given their diet). Let’s just say Enid quickly went from nurse to patient that night.

You both stayed silent for a moment as the blonde set up Yoko’s – now Wednesday’s you supposed – black cat costume on a makeshift mannequin. You had grabbed the collection of ears, the head bands, and sewing kit, and had them laid out.

“How much smaller do you think I should make it?” Enid asked you, studying the costume in front of her.

“How should I know? Aren’t you the one who lives with her?” You chuckled. Sure, you could probably guess a pretty accurate size based on how much you looked at her, but you weren’t about to tell Enid that. You had settled on her bed at this point and were poking a needle through one of the ears. You went very slowly, having only been taught basic sewing patterns by Enid three weeks ago.

“I didn’t take her measurements before she left!” The werewolf practically howled. Dramatic much? You rolled your eyes fondly.

“Just borrow some of her clothes and size based on that.” You gestured over to the closet on the other end of the room, already halfway through your first ear attachment. You inspected your work, proud how much better you were getting at needlework.

“I’m not going over there, she already threatened to kill me twice for less than that.” You rolled your eyes at Enid’s comment. You’d lost count how many times Wednesday threatened to kill you. Heck, you had a date with death courtesy of Wednesday herself next week. Surely she’d be no match for a werewolf when it really came down to it though, right? Even one not yet at full maturity like Enid.

“Why’d Wednesday leave anyways? She didn’t want to stay and model?” You giggled, but you quickly felt your cheeks burn at the thought of Wednesday actually standing and posing in the centre of the room, especially after whatever happened in the hall.

“Down by the canoe. She said she wanted to prepare it for whatever Bianca had planned for the race.”

“Sounds ominous.” Honestly, even with how impressive and capable Wednesday showed herself to be, you didn’t think one person would be able to accomplish much in a single night. It took Enid and the fangs three weeks to build that canoe. You just finished up one side of stitches on one of the ears before gently resting the headband back on Enid’s bed.

You realized it was good Enid didn’t decide to venture onto Wednesday’s side of the room, what with the death axes and all. “Is Thing with her?” You asked, and she hummed an affirmative absentmindedly. A chill seeped into your bones as you crossed the black tape on the floor, as if the lack of colour in the space directly translated into death. Last time you were here you were certainly very close to it.

Your eyes swept over the space, this time being sure to quickly and accurately identify any trap she laid out.

“Wait what are you doing?” A panicked squeak sounded behind you.

“Just grabbing some samples, I’ll be back in a second. ” You spotted the tripwire, freshly reset, at the entrance to the closet and leaned over to look at the ceiling. Sure enough, three axes lay in wait up there. You glanced at the floor, suddenly glad for the natural dustiness of Ophelia Hall. It let you see where exactly Wednesday put her feet. Just in case there were anymore traps, you followed the ghosts of her footsteps exactly, holding your breath and praying nothing triggered.

Finally, you were in the centre of the small room and could easily reach out for any clothing item. Avoiding the sweaters and jackets that clearly were oversized on her, you landed on a black and white striped top and some black pants. While inspecting the hangers to gauge if those could be booby-trapped as well, a glint of something metallic caught your eye. Glancing towards the source and leaning in, the base of a very sharp, very real, silver dagger came into view. You blinked a few times, willing it away, but the stubborn piece of metal stayed right where it was. Yes, that was very real. Flitting your eyes around, you caught at least four more places where four additional weapons were “hidden”. You supposed there were at least 10 times the number of hiding places and weapons to what you found, unless Wednesday was really that clumsy with her weapon placement or wanted them to be seen.

You frowned; it was definitely the latter option. A werewolf couldn’t so much as touch silver without getting a severe topical burn. If any trace of the metal entered their blood stream, they experienced a slow and agonizing death with no cure, no hope for reprieve.

You were going to have to do something about those daggers…

You decided to leave them for now and instead grab the clothes, leaving the closet with the exact path you took to face Enid. She stood staring at you, her face bug-eyed and completely drained of colour.

“What? You said she was out and I saw her leave. Probably for the majority of the night by the sounds of it.” You defended as you crossed back over the duct tape border. You felt your muscles relax as the chill left your body. Enid took the clothes gingerly as if they might set her on fire. “Really E, she’s the one who offered to help. It’s fine.”

“She actually offered as soon as I told her about Yoko! Can you believe it??”

You didn’t.

“She said it was to humiliate Bianca, but I think it’s her way of passing the olive branch.” A small smile had crept onto her face as she recounted the memory.

“After challenging me to certain death?”

“Didn’t you challenge her?” She chastised.

“Tomayto, tomahto.” You waved off, “Why does she want to humiliate Bianca so badly?” You inquired as you helped her match the sizing of the black cat costume to the samples you held. You’d heard Wednesday say something similar, but wanted to hear exactly what she told Enid. The werewolf dutifully stuck pins where you pointed after checking your approximations to the fit.

“Well beyond the fencing match on her first day, she mentioned she might have had something to do with Yoko’s poisoning.”

“What!?” You whirled around to face her, letting a small growl escape from your chest. You promptly covered it up with a cough. If Enid noticed, she didn’t say anything.

“She didn’t give any details; she was pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing.” Enid admitted. It wasn’t that surprising that Bianca would go to those extents to win a competition. Before you had met Wednesday, she was the most cutthroat person you knew. Despite it not being surprising, some not so pleasant nicknames ran through your head targeted at the siren.

“Well she’s the one cleaning our bathroom tomorrow.” You muttered before focusing back on the task at hand, earning a chuckle from the werewolf. With that, any tension related to your clothing thievery and Yoko’s poisoning seemed to dissolve. Immediately, Enid started talking about the duel, who was your second (Celeste), when was it (undecided), and where (Thing, Wednesday’s second, suggested it be out of sight from Weems but otherwise the location remained undecided).

“Definitely have at least Coach Vlad around. I heard he used to oversee student duels all the time like, a hundred years ago or something.” Enid said as she pinned the last section of fabric. “I think that should do it!” Enid chirped, bouncing up and down. You glanced over the costume; it seemed Enid had to pin it down at least four sizes to accommodate Wednesday.

You took the clothes you had stolen and strolled back over to the other side of the room, crossing the black tape threshold yet again. This time you were prepared for the chill. It wasn’t a temperature change, but something else in the air. You couldn’t quite put your finger on it. As you went back into the closet and put the clothes back exactly as you had found them, you couldn’t help but stare at the dagger and contemplate it.

While Wednesday’s threats were always shocking and bordering on disturbing, you never got the sense that she would actually make good on any of them. Even when you mentioned the duel in the hallway, there was a moment where she seemed to falter.

But the silver dagger called everything into question. It was like carrying a loaded gun with its safety off; it was easy for accidents to happen, even unintentionally. Deciding you couldn’t take the risk, you squeezed into some of her gloves and reached up to take the dagger.

Chapter Text

“This should be more than enough to bring the siren down. Good work Thing.” Wednesday inspected his handiwork – a net mechanism at the bottom of the canoe which auto-locked onto large moving objects. It wasn’t unheard of for sirens to control creatures of the deep, and she had heard rumours of a shark in those waters. He gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up as they moved on to test the six spikes that sprung out on either side of the boat installed by the Addams girl herself. The sharp slice of metal through the air made a satisfying zing that serenaded her bones. Not bad for a single night’s work. Thing tapped excitedly.

“Yes, it is quite glorious isn’t it.” She traced her finger along the spike’s tip, applying just enough pressure to feel the sting of the blade without drawing blood. It was a comforting sight, one that reminded her of the years she spent with her father meticulously learning how to craft, hone, and care for each weapon, from the bolts for her first ever crossbow to the blade of her family’s sabre. She let out a small sigh. It wasn’t unusual for her and her father to spend hours after school sharpening their weapons for an evening hunt. They’d bring game and foraged goods back for grandmama to cook, supplementing their meal with vegetables and herbs from her mother’s garden. The food at Nevermore was a far cry from the Addams Family spread.

Still, she had to admit (only silently of course) this school was indeed leaps and bounds more exciting than any normie school Wednesday had attended before. A no rules race for vicious gloating rights, a murderous lunatic on a killing spree who seemed to have a rapt interest in Wednesday, and a fencing partner who could keep her skills sharp made this place almost livable.

Almost.

You were proving to be rather cumbersome problem. While she knew it wouldn’t be easy to beat the multigenerational curse, she had almost let herself believe that she could avoid it. You would date Enid, and Enid would insist on maintaining a ‘friendship’ with Wednesday. That way Wednesday could keep a close eye on you and Enid could keep you distracted.

Of course, the curse refused to be ignored so easily. She internally shuddered at the thought of how just hours before, for the first time in her life, she couldn’t form a coherent, logical sentence when you rendered her brain powerless from just two words. Her mind had been grabbed by the curse and rubbed in the most unpleasant of ways from you just uttering her name.

She loved it. She dreaded it.

She couldn’t begin to imagine what her brain, what her body, would do once she touched you. Once she really felt you. Once she kis–

No, she’d rather plunge her sabre through your head and end both of your miserable existences than go that far. A blind person could see how after one kiss with her mother, her father was completely enraptured with her. She had heard stories from her Uncle Fester about how her parents were infinitely more obsessed with each other in their first years of meeting than they were now; like that was even possible.

Her Great-Aunt Calpurnia insisted it was the lightest dose of the curse reported in the family in recorded Addams Family history.

A sudden glint of the first sunrays of the morning reflecting off the blade into her eye drew her out of her lament. Today, she would focus on destroying Bianca. You were scheduled for next week.

“Reset the modifications and store the extra weapons. I’ll get the exact timing of the starter pistols firing from Enid and meet you back here.”

‘You’re doing an awful lot for your roommate.’ He signed while Wednesday stood upright. She glared at him.

“This is to put Bianca in her place. She knows destroying Enid will only make my room insufferable to go back to with her incessant whining.” She explained. Thing look unconvinced, tapping his fingers thoughtfully.

‘AND dueling for her?’

“It’s not my fault Y/N has a death sentence. She was the one to challenge me after all.” Wednesday crossed her arms over her chest and set her jaw. She knew it was only a matter of time before Thing began asking questions, but if she could only divert him…

‘So it’s not the Curse?’ He signed, and she barely managed to stop her nostrils from flaring. A reaction would only make him more suspicious and even more, tell her parents. As close as she was with them (barring the temporary dismemberment that particular relationship faced from her being sent to this school), it would inevitably lead to unwelcome meddling. The object of an Addams curse essentially was an Addams in the eyes of the family. Her father certainly wouldn’t be able to wait a moment before meeting his new child-in-law.

“Don’t be absurd, I’m merely entertaining Y/N’s puerile wish to duel me and demonstrating how easily a blade can slice through flesh.” Thing looked thoroughly unconvinced, but Wednesday knew it’d be difficult to fully convince him otherwise. With a slight roll of her eyes, she muttered, “You severely underestimate my apathy.” With that, she turned on her heel and began walking towards the school.

She was just about to head into Ophelia Hall when she realized breakfast was open, and more importantly, the espresso machine was readily accessible. It was a far cry from the La Marzocco Linea at the Weathervane, but it worked for what she needed; to stay awake after being up for nearly 26 hours. As soon as she found her target, she was met by the sight of an aggressively bright and colourful blonde.

Wednesday stalked forward, she knew for a fact Enid did not drink coffee unless it was at least 85% sugar. She eyed her roommate as she fumbled through the options of the machine with the grace of a one of her mother’s three-legged spiders. Clearly this was her first time using it.

Enid must have seen Wednesday’s dark reflection in the cool steel, because her head shot up and she whirled around to face the goth, a big smile on her face. “Howdy roomie!” She certainly didn’t look like she needed the caffeine, “Am I glad to see you! Do you know how to work this thing?”

“Do I know how to embalm?” She asked an equally absurd question in retort. Enid stared blankly at her, furrowing her brow with confusion. Wednesday let out a long sigh and moved towards the machine, “I was going to make myself a quad. You can watch.”

“Yay!” Enid squealed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Wednesday dreaded to see what caffeine would do to elevate her already exuberant nature. “Thanks a ton, I almost was going to give up and get a muffin.”

A muffin as a replacement for espresso? The world certainly had a way of mocking Wednesday

Quickly, she evaluated at what state Enid left the machine in. It looked to be relatively untouched, with a still empty portafilter resting on the base. Thankful no lasting damage had been done to the machine, she grabbed it and checked the bean setting before getting started with the grind. She allowed herself to relax, her mind relishing in the routine of measuring the exact weight of grounds and tamping the product before inserting it into the group head, when Enid spoke up.

“By the way, we’re all set!” She was still bouncing up and down with barely contained energy, inching closer towards Wednesday to get a better look at the espresso-making process. She was so close that Enid’s aura was palpable, almost reaching around Wednesday in embrace. If she leaned back, or turned her head, she would contact the wolf. For the first time, she didn’t move away. Not because she was particularly fond of the idea of contact, but because she was nearly certain the curse wouldn’t activate.

“Good, Thing’s in position.” She uttered, pressing the button to start extraction.

“Wanna tell me what you two were up to last night?” Her golden hair bounced into her field of view, as she leaned even further forward. Was this how she stole secrets from her classmates to post on her blog? Not that it would ever work on Wednesday.

“And spoil the surprise?” She diverted, unwilling to get into the details of the extensive modifications which turned the canoe into a lethal weapon.

The thought of a surprise only seemed to excite her more, as she leaned back and jumped onto the counter, sitting and facing Wednesday now, “Speaking of surprises, your costumes in our room.”

“Costume?” She glared at Enid just as the brew finished. She reached to take the espresso and immediately bring it to her lips, relishing in the burn on her tongue and highly acidic taste.

“You’ll just have to see it. Wouldn’t wanna spoil the surprise.” Touché.

Enid bounced over and took out the portafilter, staring at the freshly used coffee grounds. “Can I just reuse these? They’re still hot.”

“Absolutely not.” Wednesday ground her teeth together. While she did like the extra bitter flavour of beans that undergone a second extraction, it lost all it’s aroma, acidity, and bite. She explained as such, but Enid just blinked wide-eyed at her.

“Gotch’ya.” She affirmed, though everything in her posturing indicated the exact opposite.

She let out a long sigh and narrowed her eyes, “What are you making?” She finally let out, normally she wouldn’t concede so easily, but clearly, she had a soft spot for espresso. She grabbed the portafilter and repeated the process to brew a double this time.

“Uhh… coffee? I don’t know I’ve seen Y/N at this machine before and wanted to surprise her.”

“You’re making this for Y/N?” Her usual monotone gave nothing away, though it certainly wasn’t lost on her that technically speaking she was now making you a coffee.

“Yeah, caffeine doesn’t really affect me,” Thank Satan, Wednesday internally thought, “but lately she’s been pretty dead on her feet without it. Plus, we were up late last night, ‘cuz y’know.” Wednesday just stared at her. No, she did not know. You and Enid were up together last night. Did that mean…? She felt a bubbling heat in her chest. While she wouldn’t normally try to sequester any anger she felt, there was no reasonable trigger to make her feel angry. Not a worthwhile one at least. She clenched her fists and let out a long exhale as the grinder finished. This did not bother her. It didn’t make sense that it would. Just because you and Enid … spent the night– 

She pushed that thought away, tamping the espresso and inserting it back into the group head.

It took a lot more effort than she ever dared admit to say “If you need the room to yourselves more often you only have to ask.” She stared intently at the shot perfectly pooling into the shot glass below as she said it, the words nearly making her retch.

“What!? OMG no we were just resizing the costumes!” Enid’s voice rose an octave, and Wednesday exhaled in relief this time, “but thanks for offering.” She added quickly, as if it might happen in the future. Indents from her nails were forming deeper groves into her palms as she clenched further.

What was happening to her? The curse was only supposed to activate through touch, and Wednesday was sure she hadn’t touched you. Perhaps it was time to dig into the Addams Family Archives.

Finally, it was done, “The shot needs to be drank quickly, it loses it’s potency over time.” Enid made to hug Wednesday, who took an instinctive step back.

“Right, not a hugger.” She reached around Wednesday to grab the espresso and picked up a muffin and banana that was on the counter nearby, “Wanna come up? Everything’s in the room waiting still.”

Wednesday followed Enid up to their shared room. Opening the door, she was met with a catastrophic mess of fabric and snack wrappers on Enid’s side. Wednesday’s side looked untouched, except for a piece of black fabric which nearly blended perfectly into her black bedding. She marched over, grabbing the cloth and flitting her gaze around, trying to find anything else out of place. “You went on my side of the room.” She muttered.

“It was Y/N, but only to drop the costume off I swear! We started eating some late-night snacks and I nearly ruined hers.” Wednesday made way to her closet and inhaled, “She didn’t go in there!” Enid said quickly, but even if it wasn’t for her inability to lie or Wednesday’s ability to sniff out a lie from a mile away, it was her superior olfactory sense which told her that not only was somebody in her closet, but that somebody had been in her closet before.

How very curious.

“Did your cat finally pay you a visit last night?” She asked aloud as she scanned the small room. Not even a speck of dust was out of place.

“Ugh I wish, she’s still missing since last week. Maybe she’ll come back when she hears we won in her honour!”

“Maybe she got hit by a truck.” Enid audibly gasped, “A shame Y/N never had the pleasure of meeting our feline friend.”

“What do you mean?” Wednesday turned around and stepped towards the duct tape line, “Of course she’s met her.” Enid sat down and looked at a lump on her bed, attempting to smooth it with her hand. It seemed incorrigible.

“How certain are you that she’s a werewolf?”

“Wednesday, don’t you dare go there.” Enid growled, the sound of flesh being pierced through sang in her ears. Enid’s claws fully extended.

Suddenly, the lump behind Enid started grumbling discontentedly. What were you doing in Enid’s bed?

“Why is everyone up so early?” You blearily sat up, trying (and failing) to rub the sleep from your eyes.

“It’s 7 in the morning.” She didn’t dare let any quaver in her voice betray how she wanted to respond to this new development. Enid had said nothing happened, hadn’t she?

“It was really late, and we were so tired.”

“So she couldn’t even take the five steps necessary to cross the hallway. That certainly bodes well for our chances at winning the race.” She stepped towards the duct tape line, arms crossed and a singular eyebrow raised at where your face just turned, daring you to look at her. You peeked an eye open just barely, until your brain caught up with your visual perception and both eyes widened. You shot upright, and perhaps Wednesday was jumping to conclusions, but the shock looked incredibly familiar to a certain feline who had just been caught with the mouse. It didn’t matter that you somehow had Enid completely fooled, ultimately Wednesday would serve as jury, judge, and executioner.

“Wednesday!” You startled, “What time is it?” You asked Enid immediately after, turning to her. Wednesday frowned, dissatisfied how short lived your reaction was.

“Don’t worry we have time. I brought you coffee and breakfast!” Enid pranced over to your side, setting the food and espresso down next to you.

When you looked inside the cup your eyes shot up to your hairline and Wednesday’s gaze followed yours briefly to look at the cup. Had she not made it to your liking? It must’ve been cold by now. “You made espresso?” Oh, you were only concerned about the skill of barista. Your incredulous expression told Wednesday you’d seen Enid try to navigate the espresso machine herself. You sniffed it cautiously.

Enid chuckled nervously, “Well, I tried. Wednesday did most of the work though.” She sheepishly grabbed the back of her neck, tilting her chin towards Wednesday but her eyes never leaving you; how could they?

Your eyes furrowed now, and you sniffed it again before looking at Wednesday, “It’s not poisoned is it?” You dipped a finger and stuck it in your mouth. She couldn’t help stare at your lips. Could you tell a poison just from the taste? In a drink as strong as coffee, even Wednesday herself would be hard-pressed to identify anything (which is why she built her tolerance so high). Seeming satisfied, you took a sip.

“As if I’d let you off with a simple poisoning.” She tore her eyes away and made off to grab her costume. Once she defeated Bianca, she’d come for you, and she certainly won't let you off that easily.

Chapter Text

Ever since Wednesday showed her face in that fencing room, you always thought Yoko and Celeste would be the death of you. Never in your wildest dreams did you think you’d have to go up against Wednesday in a skintight black cat costume, complete with a cat ear headband. The way it hugged her figure and seemed to accentuate the grace with which she moved. You couldn’t help but imagine how she would look while fencing in it.

You couldn’t help but stare, mouth agape, as she walked along the dock with the canoes and knelt beside your team’s boat. A small flurry of hand movements in the vessel indicated she was chatting with Thing, likely about whatever modifications they made.

“I am so glad I mustered up the strength to come down here.” The hoarse, yet unmistakable, chuckle of Celeste came up from your right.

“Celeste! You’re here!” You exclaimed. “Wait, did you want to race?” You barely had to change the costume size for her costume, so a quick change and you could be relieved from having to go through with this. You don’t think you could get any closer to Wednesday.

“Definitely not.” She croaked. She had even larger sunglasses on than usual, hiding what must’ve been bloodshot eyes and massive bags. Still leaps and bounds better than how Yoko must’ve been feeling, who was considerably younger than Celeste. Unlike humans, fangs just became more powerful and healthier as they aged.

No one would suspect her age with how she acted sometimes though, “I just came to support, and to see that.” She motioned towards Wednesday, “or more accurately, you reacting to that.” She chuckled, but immediately started coughing.

Groaning loudly, you planted your face in your palms. You couldn’t even deny it, but you sure as hell weren’t going to confirm it either. While Celeste normally wouldn’t need either to keep going to tease you, she really must’ve been sick, because she just patted you on the shoulder and said, “Good luck with that one. I’ll see you on the other side.”

She waddled forward, and you barely held in the laugh as you took in her massive sunhat and the large blanket draped over her shoulders, looking not unlike a granny going to a Florida beach. In one hand she carried a massive thermos and the other an empty bucket. Truly a trooper.

You let out a long breathe, steeled yourself, and headed to the dock.

The creak of the old wood of the dock alerted Wednesday, and she immediately turned to look you up and down as you approached. The sudden urge to cover yourself and hide away from her gaze made you want to turn around and find a jacket, because certainly you couldn’t compare to her in your matching suits. You stood tall however, because you weren’t going to step down so quickly. She crossed her arms over her chest, and you couldn’t help admiring the way it accentuated her shoulders and chest. Even with her petite frame, the obvious curves made a subtle hourglass shape. Her waist seemed the perfect place for you to touch, to pull her in, to –

Stupid brain, now was very clearly not the time.

“The spitting image of Ms. Fuzzywhiskers, don’t you think?”

You stopped in your tracks. What did she just say? You both looked down at Thing, her looking for a response and you trying to figure out if he said anything. You mentally smacked yourself; you never did find out how much he saw of you in the closet all those days ago.

He stood erect and rapidly looked between the two of you, clearly taking in the two icy glares being shot his way. You dared him to agree with her, then you might just have to replace all his nail polish with super glue. As if reading both your challenge and whatever threat Wednesday was mentally sending his way (you shuddered at the thought of what she planned), he dropped onto his palm and flopped of the seat like a pancake, disappearing from sight.

That coward.

“What do you mean Wednesday?” You asked hesitantly, not for sure certain where she was going with this.

“I mean that I know.” It felt like sand filled your mouth with how dry it became, but you willed yourself to remain calm. Being so confident yet so vague was a common interrogation tactic to get people to divulge all their secrets. Wednesday could be accusing you of any number of things.

“And what do you know? That I crossed onto your side of the room? What gave it away, the costume on your bed?” You tried to sound disinterested with a hint of condescension. You had to direct the conversation and give some of the truth; maybe that’d appease her. You reached down for one of the paddles that lay on the dock absentmindedly. It crossed your mind that if things went south, maybe you could knock her over the head with it. ’Because that wouldn’t be suspicious at all.’

She stepped forward and glared so intensely at you, you thought you might disintegrate. You hated even more that you could feel a blush creep up, because no matter the content of her words Wednesday focusing all her attention on you like you were the only two on the planet made your heart thump wildly. You weren’t sure which emotional cause would be worse; lust or fear.

“I know you’re the cat.” And just like that, your world turned upside down. Your face must have paled considerably, because a smirk found it’s way to Wednesday’s face. That gods-damn smirk that in any other circumstance, would almost make you swoon.

“That’s absurd, I’m a werewolf Wednesday.” You loosened the invisible vice grip latched around your throat enough to whisper out, “I turn into a wolf, if I’ll ever even transform, not a cat.” Outcasts that could turn into common animals at will weren’t well-documented, heck you didn’t even know if anyone else could do it. Your mother always guessed it was some weird anomaly of having a shifter for a mother and a werewolf for a father.

“So if you touch silver, you’d drop dead?”

You did a double take at her bluntness. Was she actually openly threatening your murder? On the dock in front of the entire school right before the race? “Why are you even joking about that? Of course I would.” You argued back, “And now is not the time for whatever accusations you have. We have a race to win.”

She ignored you, “You know it’s funny, when I went to change into my costume in my closet, there was a notable absence of some of my prized possessions.”

Your jaw hardened, because you knew exactly what she was talking about. You took silver blades, but you were careful to wear gloves just in case she had installed cameras anywhere. “Silver is banned at Nevermore.” Anger flooded into your voice, “You have a werewolf roommate.”

“You admit to taking it?”

“I wore gloves.” Your nostrils flared, and you tried to swallow down your anger, “The fact that you have something so deadly so close to where she sleeps.”

“You speak like I don’t face the very same threat everyday.” You furrowed your eyebrows; what could she mean by that?

“Alright girls, race is going to start in five minutes. Let’s huddle up!” Oh, thank the gods, Enid was there to save the day. She materialized on the dock behind you along with Sera (your team’s fourth), grabbing your arm and pulling you to the group. She wrapped her arm around your waist and faced you towards your teammates.

Wednesday never stopped her glare, but now it darted between you and Enid. You would have to deal with her after the race.

“Sera, you take the bow, Y/N, you’re at the stern, just like we discussed.”

“I placed the levers in the third seat. I will be there.” Wednesday told us. ’Levers? What levers?’ Enid just nodded.

“Right, and I will be in the second seat. Whatever we do, we will beat Bianca!” She practically roared. Just as she said that the queen bee herself pulled up on the adjacent dock to get into her boat, flashing your team an arrogant smile.

“In your dreams.” She said snidely, earning her a full-on growl from Enid.

Your team broke apart to settle yourselves in position. You found yourself staring at Wednesday’s back. Luckily the threat of mortal danger kept you from being too enraptured with the full view of her back in the cat costume. So your brain had some common sense. Perhaps you could use this unique opportunity to silence her for good if she was going to try to reveal your secret, because even if people didn’t believe her but there was just a rumour that you were a shifter, you’d be in massive trouble.

Wednesday’s head turned, and you almost thought she heard your thoughts and decided murder you before you could her. Instead, her gaze landed on Ajax of all people, who was giving an embarrassed smile at Enid, you realized Wednesday had followed Enid’s gaze. Wednesday shifted in her seat slightly, somehow straightening her spine even more. You forgot how obvious she was with her crush on Enid. Maybe you owed it to Enid to give her a heads up before murdering her crush.

“Focus.” She said to the blonde.

That drew the Bianca’s attention back to them, who was now sitting less the six feet away in her team’s canoe.

“What do we have here? The runt of the litter.” She snarked, clearly trying to antagonize the goth.

“For the record, I don’t believe I’m better than everyone else. Just that I’m better than you.” She replied icily. You bore holes into the back of Wednesday’s head. From the look Bianca was giving her, it was clear she was replying to some conversation Bianca had without Wednesday present. How many people did she spy on, and more importantly, had she ever heard you with your mother.

Further contemplation was halted when the familiar voice of your mother sounded over the speaker system, explaining the history and rules of the Poe Cup. Finally, “on your mark, get set, go!” With the shot of a blank from the gun, you were off.

You rowed like your life depended on it, using the burn of your muscles to forget the exchange you just had. You kept a close eye on your teammates, making the adjustments to your course to direct you to the boat landing which would lead you to Crackstone’s Crypt. When Yoko and Celeste on the team, everyone on board had some semblance of supernatural strength. Now only 50% of you did.

You opted to be the sternswoman, because you focused on boat direction rather than speed. You had hoped Wednesday might have rigged the boat to go faster, so it would make up for the natural disadvantage of the team. If not, her constant fencing would somehow translate into increased arm strength and therefore some additional power over what you could provide. All hope you had of winning came crashing down when Wednesday stopped rowing, put her paddle down, and pulled out a monocle.

A fucking monocle.

“Faster!” Enid shouted, no doubt feeling the loss in speed.

“Keep rowing Addams.” You said through gritted teeth. No matter how much you wanted to murder her, right now you were on the same team and fighting for Enid. Even though one of your competitor’s boats had been dragged down by who knows what, there were still two other teams to beat. You could feel the burn in your muscles and lungs as you tried to row harder to compensate. What the heck was she doing?!

“Thing.” Wednesday commanded. You heard the click of a lever, then a small jolt to the boat. Was something just launched from it? Holy shit!! Were you now an accessory to a murder Wednesday committed?? Who did she just target?

Whatever happened, Wednesday picked her paddle back up and continued paddling. Hallelujah. Your shoulder was killing you. At least you were about to hit land and give it a break.

Sera was first out of the boat, using her vampiric strength to pull it and the three of you onto land. Wednesday leapt out in front of Enid, telling her to stay back to guard the boat against any sabotage. You were a bit shocked when Enid sat back down. In your original briefing Enid was always adamant that she would grab the flag.

As troubling as that was, you were much more worried about what would happen to the other students if you left Wednesday alone with no rules and a thirst for blood and victory. As Enid sat back down and turned to watch Bianca’s boat arrive to shore, you leapt out and followed the path Wednesday took, ignoring Enid’s shouts behind you.

As you ran, you couldn’t help but think; perhaps this was the perfect time to silence Wednesday. Everyone would probably assume Bianca had something to do with it. Or maybe Wednesday could have an unfortunate encounter with a bear…

You shook that thought out of your head. Clearly Wednesday was rubbing off on you too much. You didn’t have to stoop to her level to solve your problems. Maybe you could still convince her that you were a werewolf.

Less than 200 meters later, Crackstone’s crypt came into sight. You were met with the image of Wednesday laying face down on the ground, unmoving. Blood pounded in your ears and suddenly the world felt like it was spinning. Wednesday couldn’t be dead, could she? No, she wouldn’t let herself go that easily.

“Wednesday?!?” You ran over to her side, sliding onto your knees and bending your head out to listen for her breathing. You cursed yourself, blaming what thoughts you had moments ago somehow manifested this. You were going to get whoever did this to her and make sure they suffered a pain worse than death. Then you saw the rise and fall of her chest, and before you knew it, tears of relief ran down your cheeks.

She must be mid-vision perhaps. Unless she tripped and knocked her head on a rock. You reached forward to brush her head and start assessing for injuries, but before you could touch her something rustled the bushes and was approaching fast. Maybe that monster from the woods that murdered Rowan was back. You stood up, readying yourself to transform into whatever would be best suited to kill it.

Instead of a beast, two girls ran into the clearing, and you sighed in relief. “Bianca! Divina! Something happened! You have to help me carry her back.” The sirens looked down curiously at the two of you.

“And help you beat us? No way!” Bianca said.

“Come on, it’s the least you could do after you poisoned Yoko and Celeste.” You shouted back.

“Wait you poisoned Yoko?” Divina took a step back from Bianca, staring at her with obvious betrayal watering her eyes.

“Just a bit of spiked garlic, she’ll be fine in a day or two.” She replied casually. Divina furrowed her eyebrows and turned her face away from her captain in clear contempt. “Oh look, she’s waking up.” Bianca pointed at Wednesday, nudging her boot lighting. You looked down to see two dark eyes starring up at you. “Taking a catnap?” Bianca asked before running away with her flag and a laugh. Divina at least had the decency to look apologetically over her shoulder as she followed her leader.

Wednesday moved her head, glancing back at Crackstone’s crypt with a sort of wide-eyed bewilderment. She seemed lost in her surroundings, and you realized she must have projected herself into another time and place in her vision. Just how powerful were her visions?

You reached down to grab her arm, but she wriggled just out of reach and leapt to her feet, instantly creating six feet of space between you, “Hey Wednesday, you okay?” Giving one last look around and seemingly ignoring you, she began sprinting in the direction of the boat with the flag in hand. You gladly followed.

Back on the water, you saw the jokers had given up, their canoe halfway submerged in the water like a mini Titanic. Clearly Enid had something to do with it. “I just ask myself, WWWD, What Would Wednesday Do?” She chortled, self-congratulatorily. You laughed along at her silly acronym, though you couldn’t help feeling nervous at the violent streak she seemed to inspire in all of you. You couldn’t deny the results though, since now that there was only one team remaining, you felt you had a pretty good chance at winning the race.

Four sirens vs a werewolf, a vampire, a shifter, and a psychic, meant that your boat quickly caught up to Bianca’s team since they had the strength of humans when above water. Just as you thought this was going to be a quick and smooth win over the Golden Bugs, you saw Wednesday lean down and pull another lever. Suddenly, six spikes shot out of the left side of the boat.

“Holy shit!” You jumped backwards, your paddle coming out of the water.

“Keep rowing.” Wednesday grunted back at you.

You did as she said, glancing at the spikes to take a closer look at them. Their tips were incredibly sharp, the hardness and quality of the steel resembling 1065 carbon steel, incredibly hard and durable and perfect for breaking into wood… and bones. Possibly the biggest fact you noticed is six of the tips were pointed directly at four of your classmates. You stared at Wednesday in horror, bracing yourself for impact. You couldn’t believe this morning you woke up believing all her murderous intent was all just talk.

Suddenly, your boat experienced a harsh jolt. You opened your eyes expecting to be meeting four fresh, bloody corpses, only to see the Golden Bugs completely untouched, and your boat moving impossibly fast perpendicular to the natural direction of the boat away from your opponents. You panicked, trying to steer the boat to turn it around. The boat didn’t budge though and the buoy you were being pulled towards was closing in fast. It didn’t help that the spikes were in the path of your oar.

You knew getting soaked in the lake was a very real possibility today, you were prepared for that. What you were not prepared for was Thing hopping onto Wednesday’s seat and doing a nosedive (fingerdive?) into the lake. How? Why? Honestly with how this race was going you were learning to not question it too much right now. Shortly after the hand jumped off, your boat stopped moving and seemed to be back in your control.

Sure, that’s normal.

A second later, your team began rowing with a vengeance. It was time to win this thing.

It was only when your foot hit land – the Golden Bugs sinking 100 feet from the shore – that you processed you had won. You caught Wednesday’s eye as you crossed the finish line, victory gleaning over her eyes and an obvious self-satisfied smile on her lips.

Enid jumped on your back and engulfed you in a massive bearhug, whooping and hollering “WE WON‼” You spun around, momentarily forgetting Wednesday and the inevitability of your demise this coming week. Not only was she going to kill you in the duel, but she was also going to reveal your secret and you were going to become a fugitive. But that was future you’s problem. For now, you could celebrate.

Enid slid off your back and you turned around to hug her, “You did it Enid! You were a great captain.” She squealed and jumped up and down, and Sera high fived both of you.

“I couldn’t have done without my team! This is the greatest day of my life.” She pulled you and Sera into a group hug, and you both noticed Wednesday take a step back while eyeing you as though you were an ambush of tigers ready to direct their aggression at you. She’d probably prefer that over 3 squealing girls surrounded by a school in joyous uproar at least. “Right, not hugging is kinda our thing.” She giggled. "But you have to admit, you did sort of get into the whole school spirit thing."

The mixture of pride and cool, calculating adulation of a scheme well-executed in her eyes reminded you that you were going to have to do some scheming of your own if you hoped to stay at this school. You followed her gaze to see Bianca pulling herself out of the water with absolute and indisputable rage being thrown between Wednesday and Enid. "You didn't tell me it was a dark and vengeful spirit." The vindictive joy she evidently felt leeched into her tone, it was perhaps the most emotional you saw her. 

Enid, having done her best to hold back her excitement so as not to overwhelm Wednesday (bless her heart), turned back to you. You spread your arms out, because if you were about to be ousted you were going to enjoy today. “If there’s an unclaimed hug laying around, I’ll gladly collect another.” You picked her up and twirled her around another time, and she threw her head back and laughed so freely that it was almost impossible to have another care in the world.

Almost.

In the back of your mind, you couldn’t help but wonder how she’d react when she found out you were deceiving her for all these years. You’d like to think she would understand and forgive you, but part of you knew she’d feel betrayed. She’d never be able to trust you again.

In an instant, all stray thoughts of betrayal and secrets, and even the Poe Cup, were cast out of your brain, shoved out by unexpected feeling of lips pressed against yours. Your head spun as you tried to process what was going on. Was Enid… kissing you?

It ended as quickly as it began, and now you were left staring wide-eyed at the colourful werewolf. She cupped her hands over her mouth and her face was beet red, contrasting against the bright blue of her eyes frenzied in a panic. You could see a million thoughts swimming through those eyes, but you felt frozen in place, mind blank and time at a standstill. You couldn’t help the voice in the back of your head that was no longer concerned with secrets, with your identity as a shifter, with Wednesday's scheme to tear you down, with your Poe Cup Victory, or even this fake dating scheme Celeste suggested. It only seemed to care about a sudden space where there used to be a certain dark-haired goth, but was suddenly empty. When you tore your eyes away from Enid’s, you couldn’t find her.

Where was Wednesday?

Chapter Text

The air felt heavier, thicker. Wednesday was used to battling the air in her lungs, whether she was taking turns with Puglsey in the strangulation chamber or competing against her father in underwater contests in the lake by their family home to see who could hold their breath the longest, but never has she felt anything like this. The usual feelings of adrenaline and pure exhilaration were replaced by nausea and uneasiness. Instead of a rare guest, air became an enemy to her lungs. It must have been all the people at which Wednesday found herself to be in the center of, cheering like a gaggle of orangutangs. People were actually smiling at her. It was unnatural. It was nauseating in the worst possible way and completely overwhelming.

That had to be why she felt unwell.

Because it certainly couldn’t be because of you. You and… Enid.

But perhaps it could – not because of the curse, and the... the kiss you shared - that would be absurd – but because you and Enid were smiling the brightest of all, irradiating a blindingly cheeriness that seared her eyes. So, once Weems handed the trophy to your team, Wednesday seized her opportunity because standing here seemed beyond any torture she inflicted routinely on herself. She could hardly recall why she put herself in this predicament in the first place.

Her eyes scanned the crowd, but nothing caught, and the world remained tilted on an oblique axis. Finally, one point of disdain stuck out of the crowd and was a breath of stormy, midnight air. The icy cool gaze of Bianca Barclay pierced right through Wednesday’s skull, finally providing some release to this strange feeling of suffocation, self-pity, and nausea she was drowning in. Wednesday was meant to be relishing in her victory and the feeling of satisfaction that came from utterly destroying a person’s self-image, not struggling to breath.

Enid held the trophy and turned to you and your other teammate; now was the perfect opportunity. She lurched forward directly towards a dark alcove adjacent to the celebration which did a satisfactory job at drowning out the noise. Finally alone, she plopped on the cool stone, closed her eyes, and slammed the back of her head on the shin of the statue of Edgar Allan Poe.

The damp air with the faint smell of old stone and decade old moss; she could almost imagine she was laying in her family’s graveyard. It was peaceful. It was serene.

After a moment she opened her eyes and stared at the sanctimonious stature of Edgar Allan himself. Now this was the sort of person she was familiar with. With his penchant for the macabre and skill with the written word, it was a wonder she associated with the likes of you at all. Even in statue form, he carried a book to pass the time. She craned her neck to get a better look at which book the sculpture eternalized with the great poet, perhaps the namesake of this institution. Instead of a nap though, she was met with a strange, circular emblem on the book’s cover page. It looked familiar, but just as she was sitting up to get a closer look she was rudely interrupted.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

“We can debrief later.” She didn’t spare Thing a glance as she continued studying the symbol.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

She sighed and looked down to where he sat on the ledge, tapping her knee to get her attention. She lowered herself back down to sit next to him.

’Good work with the race.’

She really wasn’t in the mood to exchange unpleasantries, “Skip the small talk, why are you really here?”

He didn’t waste another second, ’You can’t say anything about Y/N.’

It was like a live wire shot up her spine. She sat upright, eyes wide, and, in a rare showcase of expression, her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “So she is the cat, and you knew?” A wicked glint shone in her eye as the dagger of truth struck between them.

He vigorously shook his entire self in negation, ’No, but the consequences of even a rumour would –‘

“Howdy roomie!” Enid skipped up to the dark duo, shattering their dismal atmosphere and cutting Thing off. Wednesday turned away from him to watch the werewolf approach and he made his tactical retreat. She couldn’t help but wonder why Enid came and not you. “What are you doing down here?”

“Hiding.” She responded truthfully. “People out there keep smiling at me. It’s unsettling.” Especially you, smiling so much at Enid.

“It’s called having your moment.” Enid answered very matter-of-factly, and Wednesday had to repress a scoff. “You took down Bianca Barclay, try to enjoy it.” Except sitting in a damp, musty tomb-like environment alone was how Wednesday enjoyed herself, but somehow the little wolf was already guiding her back to the pentagon. “The girls were wondering if you wanted to hang out…” She trailed off. By ‘girls’ did she mean you? Wednesday bore holes into Enid’s skull, hopeful that the information could be telepathically transmitted to herself. To her credit, Enid neither let up nor cringe away from the stare; how disappointing.

“You know it wouldn’t kill you to be social.” She cajoled, but the growing emetic tingle along her skin meant they were about to be interrupted.

“Hey Enid.” You said as you approached. “Wednesday.” You acknowledged a moment later. You nodded curtly, your gaze hardening even more than it already was.

“Hey.” Enid’s voice grew soft and timid, the opposite of what Wednesday has grow accustomed to.

“I’m going to head up to check on Yoko.” After a moment you quickly added, “but definitely go ahead with the celebration.”

“You’ll join later?” She reached out to grab both your hands in her own, and you gave a small squeeze before letting go.

You gave a tight-lipped smile, “Yeah, maybe.”

As you walked away, both girls stared after you, only letting their eyes drop once you had rounded the corner.

“Uggghhh. I think I might’ve royally effed up.” Enid ran an aggravated hand through her hair before glancing at Wednesday, “How do you stay so unbothered by everyone and stay so… ugh?!?”

Clearly it was a rhetorical question as Enid started heading to the picnic table. It was a relief, because when it came to you, Wednesday didn’t have an answer to her question.

After so much overstimulation, Wednesday finally could return to her room. On the top floor where she was about to enter her room, she paused and glanced at your room door. Perhaps there was some evidence she could acquire to implicate you as the cat, and the crow, and thereby also the monster. Currently her accusation was based on a strong hunch, and the vague similarity she observed when she analyzed your eyes just before the race. Of course the colour was different, but the essence was there. If she was going to prove it was you, she needed more than a hunch to go off of. 

You and Thing were both rather suspicious when she accused you; perhaps a recording of that would be sufficient. While she absolutely despised technology she had a modicum of basic tools at her disposal for when she deemed it absolutely necessary.

So she would get her tape recorder then go to your room to further interrogate you and get proof. Or perhaps she would grab another one of her silver daggers and at the very least prove your weren't a werewolf.

"Good, Thing you're here." She greeted the hand as she entered her room and marched to her desk. Perhaps he could redeem himself for his inexcusable behaviour earlier. As soon as she got closer, he let a massive tomb drop down. She glanced at the book title; The Addams Family Archive.

“I’ve already read it. Fourteen times.” She ascertained. She’s read it nearly every year since she could read, looking for loopholes to a certain curse. It was no surprise that she wasn’t the first desperate to escape its clingy hold on her, but no one had come close. “Besides, weren’t you keen on discussing my discovery related to a certain cumbersome feline? I could use you in a plan I have to prove what she is.” Wednesday was certainly eager to know exactly how Thing of all beings knew while Wednesday didn’t.

'Your lashing out at her because of Enid and this’ He pointed at the book. Wednesday stared blankly at the page he opened up to; the curse. Did… did Thing believe Enid was the cause of the curse? Wednesday could’ve almost laughed, if he wasn’t stepping so sorely out of line.

“I didn’t realize you were so desperate to be rid of two of your digits.” She took a menacing step forward as he rapidly began signing again.

'This is the most up to date edition, from the Fester’s personal inventory.’ She gave a pause. Had she been reading one not fully up to date? Despite her better judgements, she sat down and glanced at the page. Sure enough, the latest entry in Recorded Instances of the Curse was Itt and Margaret Addams, a union which only occurred four and a half years ago. The last entry in the version she had read was of her parents over a decade earlier.

Quite out of the ordinary, was a space at the bottom. 'It’s making space.’ Thing tapped out. 'For another entry.’

For her entry, the thought dangling between them like an axe teetering on a tightrope above her head. “Perhaps Uncle Fester finally met his match.” She said instead. A less than soothing pat on the shoulder did nothing to comfort her. Instead, she delved into the one thing that could give her comfort. Answers. She flipped to the beginning of the section on the curse.

The origin of the curse is said to originate in the 4th century BCE, when Demis Addams made an enigmatic pact with Hecate, and Aphrodite to circumvent Hades’ deadly curse. Wednesday let out a huff. There was no new information here; she knew it all. She skipped past the history towards the mechanics of the curse. The Addams Family love curse is an arcane enchantment triggered by physical touch of the soul with which theirs is bound to, forever binding two hearts in a dance of eternal consequence. As the soulmates' hands intertwine, a palpable energy emanates upon the union. The power of life and love, now shared between two hearts, irrevocably entwine the destinies of the touched couple and shield them from Hade’s wrath.

Nothing explained how a book that seemed to magically sense the occurrence of the curse could know she was simply near a soulmate. She was always told that if she avoided contact, she was safe from the effects. If she learned anything in the last few weeks with you, it was that seemed to be anything but the case. According to the passage above, it’d be impossible for you to have triggered the curse in full without some ‘palpable energy’ being felt.

She skipped to the next passage.

Proximity to one’s destined will alert the Addams dynasty to their beloved’s presence. This she knew, but the next line had her sitting back in her chair. Prolonged proximity may result in spirits securing themselves together, as the Addams cannot live without their beloved and their beloved doesn’t want to live without theirs. Their souls reach out for one another until their spirits touch and the curse activates.

Unless she left Nevermore right now, her soul was certainly doomed.

“I don’t know guys; do you think I ruined everything?” Enid lamented from her side of the room to Yoko and Celeste the following evening. Wednesday had since combed over the entire book twice and had returned it to Thing to discreetly return to Uncle Fester – no point in alerting him to her interest in the subject or risk anyone at the academy finding it, especially your tendency for snooping and stealing. “She’s been avoiding me since the… you know.”

“I haven’t seen her all day either.” Yoko agreed, prompting a sharp thud that must have been Celeste targeting her shin. Wednesday grieved that she could envision their mannerisms with her back turned, no doubt another effect you had on her. That was true though, Wednesday hadn’t heard you come into their room at all since the Poe Cup. Come to think of it, she hadn’t even felt much of the curse’s pull since this morning.

“I think she’s been training with Bianca.” Celeste whispered, though it was clear she intended for Wednesday to hear.

“She agreed even after the Poe Cup?” Enid gasped, to which Celeste hummed in acknowledgement.

“Hey Wednesday,” She didn’t let her fingers miss a beat on her typewriter, but slightly tilted her head to indicate she was listening, “Where’s Thing at? We have to set a place and stuff, right?”

“Urgent family matters, he’ll be available tomorrow.”

“Cool, maybe we can get it settled then.” The voice was suddenly a lot closer than before. Wednesday halted her typing and whirled around, but Celeste was faster.

“Hey Yoks, didn’t you say our pup had a drawing of Wednesday in front of a burning school?” Wednesday swiveled back around her chair to grab at the drawing of Rowan’s mother’s prophecy of her.

“Yeah, why?”

“Go back to Enid’s side.” Wednesday growled, taken aback by her brash invasion of space. Soundlessly she glided back, witnessing firsthand how silent and quick fangs could be.

“Wednesday has a matching one.” She noted.

“Awww cute.” She smiled, but Wednesday couldn’t comprehend what she was hearing. You had the same picture? Did Rowan also warn you about Wednesday, or perhaps…

“Have you seen it recently?” Wednesday asked, “I’d love to compare.” She professed and tried to act coy, fully understanding it wasn’t her strong suit, but it didn’t seem to matter.

“Nope, only saw it the night after the festival. I asked her about it, and she must’ve gotten really good at hiding them. Not that I’ve looked.” She added quickly. “She never showed me her art before, thought we might have that hobby in common.”

Was it just a coincidence that the morning you were seen with a similar drawing was the morning Wednesday had lost it. Then she had found it in her hoodie in the closet that was just infiltrated by a mouse, which was eaten…

No, not eaten, shapeshifted, into a cat to escape.

It worked out rather well, because that cat went straight into your bed but only you were there in your human form. It worked out well, except for the fact that wasn’t possible. She’d been through every reference on outcast species in all the Nevermore libraries in an attempt to find a way to prove you were all the animals, but that kind of outcast didn’t exist.

She walked over to her bed, having long checked out of Enid, Celeste, and Yoko’s conversation, and studied the picture she held. She paced, walking towards her desk, until suddenly the light caught in just the right angle. There, faded in the top right corner, was the exact emblem that she saw on the Poe Statue. It was what she had seen in her vision.

She clearly hadn’t checked every library. It seemed absurd to waste another second when discovery was just a few flights of stairs away.

Before she could begin preparations to head downstairs, as if the recent conversation invoked the devil herself, the door slammed open. “Hey peeps, look who I found!” Wednesday spun from where she stood at her desk to see you walk in, holding the familiar black cat in your arms on proud display for the room to see.

“OH EM GEE!! MS. FUZZYWHISKERS!!” Enid leapt off the bed to rush over to you and the cat.

The cat, who was very evidently not you. Her allegations relied on the fact that you two were never seen together. Wednesday fell back in her chair and her lips parted as she processed this new information. If you weren’t the cat, then you couldn’t possibly be the subject of the curse. It certainly threw a wrench into her theories surrounding you being the monster in the woods as well. 

“Are you sure it’s the same cat?” She got up and sauntered over to the taped line separating hers and Enid’s side.

Enid looked up curiously but continued to cradle the cat like a child, “Yeah of course, I’d recognize Mrs. Fuzzywhiskers anywhere.” Wednesday crossed her arms, wondering aloud how she could be sure given there must have been so many black cats in Jericho. “Oh…” Enid uttered, “Well, she has this cool white patch on her tailbone. That’s pretty unique.” She pointed at a white circular patch that even Wednesday had to admit was incredibly distinctive. “Plus, her eyes just look so smart, don’t they?” Enid held up the cat for Wednesday to get a closer look. The eyes that were way too intelligent for any animal to have. The eyes that were mocking her.

“Smells like her too.” Celeste pondered aloud. When Enid stared at her, she defended, “What? Vamp nose remember? Once yours fully develops you’ll get it.”

“We love her too E.” Yoko cooed, “Though I wish you let us stick with Salem as a name.”

“We probably shouldn’t keep her for long. Principal Weems doesn’t allow pets in the dorms.” You interrupted, your voice sounding much more subdued than usual. Wednesday looked at you and took a step closer. You stood at the door, somehow appearing both out of place and liked you owned the place at the same time.

“Awww, can we have ten minutes at least? She’s so cuuteee.”

You shifted your weight and glanced at Wednesday, unsure. The upper corner of your left lip quirked up in a nervous tick that somehow Wednesday never noticed before. “That sounds… reasonable.” You finally said, a tight-lipped smile on your face.

“And while Enid gets her…. Cuddles,” Wednesday glanced at the cat with narrowed eyes, “Perhaps you could show Yoko and I your hidden art collection, unless you would like to explain why you were breaking and entering into my room?” Her gaze now turned to you.

“Whoa.” Yoko whispered, and Celeste whistled under her breath.

You furrowed your eyebrows, and the cat let out a loud yowl. You gave it a sharp look, “Not sure what you mean Wednesday, I’ve never been much of an artist. You know me and my teen rebellion against clubs.” Celeste snorted and the cat yowled some more.

“I’ve never heard her so vocal.” Enid muttered, shoving her face into the scruff of her neck and rubbing the fur across her cheek.

Wednesday raised the picture she held in her hand and you walked forward, squinting your eyes for a better look while reaching for it. Just as you met Wednesday at the duct taped line, the feline’s struggle was met with fruition as it’s liquid-like spine let it slip out of Enid’s grasp and race away, directly towards Wednesday.

Or more aptly, the drawing; Wednesday could see where it’s gaze was focused. Wednesday, recalling the very same cat who made that mouse disappear, was not about to lose yet another piece of valuable evidence to this feline. She pulled out the dagger hidden in her jacket and began to stride towards it with the full intention of skinning it alive. “Come to tango I see.”

If the cat wasn’t you and you weren’t causing the curse, she had no qualms about adding it to her taxidermic collection. This was going to be fun.

“Oh no you don’t.”

Three things happened all at the same time, each more catastrophic than the last (and not in a good way).

First, Enid screamed out for ‘Ms. Fuzzywhiskers’ and crossed the taped line onto Wednesday’s side of the room. Second, the cat managed to maneuver the drawing out of Wednesday’s hand because, third, Wednesday was actively blocked and restrained from getting any closer to gut the beast, because two arms had looped around her own to stop her.

You were grabbing her, her full back pressed against you as you held her in a (rather impressive) disarming hold. Normally, she would have tried to escape. Normally, she might have been invigorated by the prospect of a peer so skilled in hand-to-hand combat, more so that she was set to duel with that peer later in the week. But this wasn’t a normal situation, because that peer holding her back was you.

You, who managed to infect her brain like a parasite and make you come up in every mental process she’s had since the first time you spoke in class just a couple of weeks ago. You, who just by leaning in could make Wednesday think about kissing you. You, who made no sense to be the object of the curse, yet it also made no sense for the curse to center around anyone else.

But you were touching her, and she didn’t feel a thing.

It wasn’t you.

Chapter Text

“You told me she knew!” You cringed at the high-pitched screech. It may have looked a bit odd – a freshman from Mount Mansfield Union High School shouting at a Nevermore kid in the middle of the normie school yard – but your mother insisted on a wide open space to prevent any eavesdroppers. It felt like a pointless precaution if she was going to scream so loudly, but you didn’t say anything. Instead, you kicked dirt as you lazily hung from a swing.

“I told you she strongly suspected.” You clarified.

“Strongly suspected? Strongly suspected! That does not warrant me doing what I had done. The risks alone -!”

“The risks.” You cut her off, “Yeah, yeah, I know. I mean it worked though, didn’t it? She hasn’t brought it up again.”

“I have half a mind to take you out of Nevermore after that little stunt.” You frowned but stayed silent, “but of course we’ve already exhausted everywhere else we could put you.” She let out a deep sigh that gave away her minds over thirty years of experience despite being in the body of a 15-year-old. Her head dipped into her hands and she rubbed deep circles over her eyes, “You’re probably better off under close watch anyways. Can’t say I’m thrilled to have seen you’ve been keeping things from the investigation from me.”

You grimaced, thinking of the picture Wednesday showed directly to your mother. “That doesn’t necessarily relate to the murders.”

“And how exactly did that picture come to be in Wednesday’s possession?”

Oh. “From Rowan… the night he was murdered.”

“Mmmhmm.” She raised an eyebrow at you, crossing her arms condescendingly. You glowered. “From what little I saw; it would’ve taken her to the Nightshades Library. Such a shame you refused membership.”

“I was never offered membership.” You reminded her.

“I’ve seen you with Bianca. Use your connections!” Pursing your lips, you couldn’t help but cringe at the thought of asking Bianca for yet another favour. When you ran into her after the race, you used the opportunity to threaten her for poisoning Celeste and Yoko, to which she begrudgingly agreed to get them blood bags whenever they needed for two weeks straight. She even heard about the fencing duel between you and Wednesday and offered to coach you without any further hustling from Enid. Something about wiping that sanctimonious smirk off her face once and for all.

All that being said, “I wouldn’t exactly call them connections, and why can’t you just masquerade as Rowan again and sneak in there yourself? He has enough probable cause if he ripped the page out in the first place.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Wednesday already has the book, given that she had the picture two days ago.” She gave you another accusatory look. The meeting you were having now wasn’t exactly easy to arrange, so Wednesday was likely another three steps ahead in the investigation from where you last left her. In the meantime, you had done your best to act like nothing out of the ordinary happened. It was Wednesday herself who seemed to be avoiding you after everything. “I’d rather you continue keeping your distance from her, especially given what just happened. See what Bianca knows.”

You let out a long sigh, “I’ll see what I can do.”

So, for the next week, you took Bianca up on those fencing lessons. Of course, you should’ve realized you’d get more than just fencing lessons.

“You really suck.” The ringing of a thin foil hitting the ground echoed in the club room as you were disarmed for the millionth time.

“At least I’m not a bitch.” You muttered under your breath, but from Bianca’s scoff the insult successfully landed. Yoko chuckled from the sidelines. You knelt down, your thighs on fire from having maintained en garde position for multiple hours, practicing advances, sidesteps, and retreats, before sparring to finish off the session. It was certainly a far cry from the flips you saw Wednesday doing in her duel with Bianca.

“I at least have the brains to not challenge someone at something I’m no good at.” Apparently, your soreness made you slower than you thought, because she beat you to you foil and in a strange show of compassion picked it up for you. “Especially if that someone is Wednesday Addams.” She offered you the hilt, casting a stern look which looked more severe with the crystal-clear blue of her siren eyes.

To be perfectly honest, you thought you were better than you were. In elementary and middle school, you trained almost everyday with your mother, father, or pack mate. It was only when you came to Nevermore and your mom insisted on you getting on the team and eventually shooting for captain (a title she never could get) that you stopped. You didn’t realize how rusty you had become, or far ahead of you your peers pulled, and it took a while for the muscle memory to come back.

“But I’m getting better right?”

She let out a single loud laugh, “Not at the scale you need to beat Addams, so back in position.” She used her foil to whip at your ankle and took up position. Yet another bruise you were going to have tomorrow.

You stayed exactly how you were and groaned, “Can’t we stop for today, it’s been like three hours.”

“It’s actually only been 45 minutes.” Yoko chimed in (rather unhelpfully) from the side.

“We might as well, even if we practiced non-stop all week you wouldn’t stand a chance.” Bianca upbraided, her upper lip curling in disgust as she once again scrutinized your form.

Yoko spoke up before you could retort, “Didn’t think you were one to give up so easily at a chance to get back at Wednesday.”

Unfortunately, the fish didn’t bite the bait. “I know a lost cause when I see one.” She gave you a pointed look before turning towards her gym bag on the side. “Wednesday’s just going to barrel through you like she does everything else, with no regard for any person, place, or thing.”

“Like how she just broke into and stole from the Nightshades library?” It might have been rash, but you had to say something if she was just going to leave like that. You hadn’t forgotten why you actually attended the practice in the first place. After a single match you knew it’d take a miracle to beat Wednesday in the duel.

Bianca whirled around, her eyes like blue fire when she glared first at you then at Yoko. Yoko shrugged nonchalantly. “I didn’t say anything.”

“How do you know about that?” She demanded, and you really didn’t like that way she marched towards you with her foil in hand. You were determined to not let your hesitation show.

“I know pretty much everything that goes on at this school.” You said with a sly smile, trying to twirl your foil around. You looked her dead in the eye and mustered up as much confidence as you could, which was no easy feat given the beating you just took, “No secret is safe from me.” A flash of uncertainty crossed her eyes and her step faltered.

Before she could respond, the door swung opened, “Hey Y/N, Enid was wondering if -” Celeste began, but stopped and lowered her glasses to look at each of you, her hardened eyes landing finally on Bianca, “everything okay here?” That’s when you realized Bianca was just a few inches away, foil raised just below your breast plate. You leapt backwards, unable to suppress the squeak that escaped when you did so. So much for acting confident.

Bianca never dropped her gaze from Celeste’s, the unspoken challenge in the air. It was rare you saw Celeste put on a serious expression, one that gave any inkling to the fact that she was incredibly powerful and multiple centuries old. It was even more rare when you saw someone match it.

A beat passed Yoko sprung to her feet with vampiric speeds then ambled over to Celeste without a care in the world, “Yep, just our little pup wrecking havoc everywhere she goes, as usual.” Celeste looked at Yoko and relaxed, her usual playful expression reappearing. She began to laugh as though she wasn’t glaring at Bianca a moment ago.

You heard a loud exhale from beside you. You were sure if you just didn’t notice the sweat on her forehead from the practice earlier, or if Celeste actually did take a toll on her.

“Well, it’s dinnertime and Enid’s waiting.” Celeste declared. Now that she mentioned it, your stomach rumbled loudly.

Bianca snaked her arm through yours, forming an unbreakable shackle tethering you to her, “You know, I think Y/N is actually going to join me and Div for dinner today.” She said, though her voice was less haughty than usual.

You made a series of confused sounds, unsure of why Bianca would be so insistent of you not going with Celeste. Was it because you knew about the Nightshades, or was she trying to assert her superiority over Celeste?
Celeste raised a singular eyebrow and looked at you, trying to scrutinize whether you were being taken against your will. Honestly, you weren’t sure if this was something you should go along with. It certainly was a valuable opportunity to wrench more information about of not just one siren, but two of them. That being said, you were also planning on enjoying the little life you had left before Wednesday tore you to pieces next week.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your little wolf pup back in one piece.” She cooed, though the mockery was dripping through her tone. It seems it didn’t take much for her to recover and restore herself to her default self-importance like the queen bee she was.

You gave Celeste a small nod, and with distaste written all over her face, she relented, “Alright, you kids have fun.”

So that’s how you ended up in a room alone with Bianca, scrutinizing you so intently that you might as well have dug your own grave and lay in it. Welp, at least you were armed.

“Who told you?”

“No one in the Nightshades if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“So, Wednesday did.” She stated matter-of-factly.

“No one told me.”

“So how do you know about the Nightshades, and more precisely, our rather unfortunate encounter with Addams?” You blinked in surprise. You thought Wednesday would’ve managed the job without getting caught. You said as much.

Bianca grunted and turned away to face her bag, taking off her suit and breastplate to reveal a tank top and an impressive amount of shoulder muscle. You began to follow suit. “Yoko caught her snooping around and texted us. Yoko is never one to brag, but something about Addams’ seems to bring out the competitiveness in everyone around her.” Was she suggesting that Yoko bragged to you about somehow managing to restrain Wednesday?

“I told you, Yoko didn’t tell me.” You repeated. She had her bag zipped up and on her shoulder now. She examined you, trying to parse out the lie. This was going to get you nowhere rather quickly. Clearly, you were going to have to give some information before you received any in return, “I make a habit out of hacking into the school’s file system to change my schedule and attendance. When I was changing it in the clubs I saw the Nightshades and snooped. It was the oldest club that wasn’t something obvious like choir or archery.” You zipped up your bag, shrugging as though it was no big deal. That wasn’t how you found out about the Nightshades, but the rest of it was the truth.

She scoffed, and when you looked up she was eyeing you even more carefully, “You’ve been in the school’s filing system?” She clarified, and you nodded. She considered you for a moment longer before following up, “But how did you know about Wednesday?”

You were at the door at this point, exiting the gym and going directly into a smaller side courtyard. “The Nightshades logo. She was carrying a page around the other day. I figured you wouldn’t have invited her to join the club and theft was a more likely explanation.”

Bianca laughed at that, the sound carrying the trademark chime of a siren that made you want to listen more. You eyed the amulet around her neck that subdued her powers and shuddered to think about the power she’d have over you if she took it off. Then again, that’s how most people pictured shifters. They just haven’t come out with a suppression technology for you yet.

“Well, we both better get changed, I’ll meet you at the base of Ophelia Hall in 10.” She said before turning and walking away.

“Wait, we’re actually having dinner?” You stared dumbfounded after her. As she just waved her hand in the air, presumably at you. Did you just have a semi-normal conversation with the Bianca Barclay?

You managed to make it to Ophelia Hall without bumping into anyone. You decided you had time for a quick shower to wash off the layer of sweat that fencing generated. Unlike Bianca you actually had to work really hard for the last hour (you still couldn’t quite believe that all that was less than an hour). With one last glance in the mirror, you rushed out your room’s door.

On the other side of the hall, a dark shadow you hadn’t seen in too long was coming out of her own room. You both paused to regard each other, before locking your respective doors and heading to the stairs.

You personally hadn’t spoken to her since the race, which was over four days ago now. Before it seemed like a result of happenstance; your schedules never lined up and you didn’t have a reason to speak in class, but with the awkward tension hanging in the air, you realized it was perhaps more than just a coincidence. You didn’t dare break the silence.

“Enid left 20 minutes ago for dinner.” You heard the voice behind you. She never liked walking side by side on these steps.

“Yeah, I know.” You left it at that, but regretted not nurturing a conversation that could go longer. You didn’t realize that you actually started to miss her voice, and, despite your mother’s warnings, you wanted to talk to Wednesday about the investigation.

“Find anything about the drawing?” You asked, turning your head to the side so you were facing her a bit more. These stairs really weren’t conducive to a conversation.

“Nothing particularly illuminative.” Another pause. You hated how awkward it was between you. You hated she wasn’t saying anything about the investigation that was more than the vague, trivial nonsense she gave. You hopped down the last few steps and turned to face her, hands on your hips. She stopped short, still keeping a healthy distance between you.

“You and I both know that’s not true. Which book was it ripped out of? Was there more to the picture?” It’d be better if she just showed it to you, but the chances of that happening were slim. She glared at you, but you were getting good at weathering Wednesday’s glares.

“I found the book, but nothing in there was useful or led me to anymore leads.” She grumbled.

“Maybe we should have a look together.” You offered, “You could get a different perspective and all that.”

She considered you for a moment, before squeezing past you. “It’d be better if we steered clear of each other. Indefinitely.” You stared after her as she walked through the lobby, mouth completely agape. Did your mother give her the same warning to stay away from you?

“Hey Y/N, you in there?” Divina, Bianca’s best friend, stuck her head in the door just as Wednesday approached it, “Oh, hey Wednesday.” She smiled warmly.

“Out of my way.” Divina gladly obliged, but the door opened to reveal Bianca waiting a few paces behind. “Barclay, what are you doing here?”

“Just taking Y/N out to dinner.” She smiled sweetly, showing her sharp siren teeth. You reddened. Why did she have to word it like that? You scurried forward to the sirens, trying to shoo them along. When you reached Bianca to try to push her forward, Divina wrapped an arm around your shoulder and started pulling you along so you couldn’t witness anymore of the exchange between the two fencing rivals. Shortly after, Bianca’s arm looped through yours, not unlike the way she did previously in the training room. A not-so-subtle shackle keeping you attached to the siren, whether you liked it or not.

“We’ll have her back before curfew, don’t you worry Addams.”

You gulped, suddenly more nervous than you were a moment ago.

“So, Y/N, let’s have a little chat.”

Chapter Text

Were you getting lessons from the sirens to brainwash Wednesday? Not even the deadliest of poisons or the most pungent of substances make Wednesday so much as gag, yet seeing the siren’s arm around you so casually made her want to expel the contents of her stomach. No, what she actually wanted to do was turn her entire insides out. She brought one hand to her face, and seriously contemplated gripping her eyeball and yanking it out of her skull so at the very least she wouldn’t have to witness what she just saw again.

But it wasn’t you.

It was unfathomable that it could be anyone else. Her traitorous thoughts couldn’t possibly get anymore aggressively obsessive.

But she touched you, and it wasn’t you.

Her full back was pressed up against you, and it felt wrong.

It wasn’t you.

But it felt so right in the stairwell. It took everything she had not to let herself even so much as bump into you, especially when you stopped in front of her. No, she couldn’t let herself get attached if the curse was just going to activate on someone else and she’d break your heart.

She hadn’t even realized she had made her way to the dinner tables until Enid spoke up, “Hey Wednesday, are you okay? You look a little… green.” The fact that she had any colour at all was simply unacceptable. She stopped and regarded the table where her roommate sat with the two fangs. You were noticeably absent, eating with Bianca’s group across the hall.

Perhaps the best way to beat whatever temptation she felt was to just get it over with and activate the curse herself. Enid was the only other possible option at this point.

“Mind if I sit here?”

“Uhhh sure…” Enid stammered.

She had to think about her approach. Wednesday wasn’t one to just grab a hold of somebody, though her faltering patience certainly made it seem like a reasonable way to get this done. Finally, she decided to slide on the bench next to Enid, travelling just a fraction too far so her shoulder nudged against hers. Wednesday caught your gaze as she moved, your eyes finding each other across the dinner hall. In a moment, she won’t wonder what you were thinking about, whether you wished you were sitting at the same table as much as Wednesday wished it. She would get sweet relief.

An inch more, and she felt the unmistakable pressure of contact on her shoulder. Her momentum kept going, and the pressure was getting greater. Any moment now. Your eyes were now shifting between her and Enid’s, seeming to take in the situation. Of Wednesday unthinkably close to her roommate.

“Oops! Sorry Wednesday, let me give you more space.” Within the first second, Enid shimmied away from Wednesday, giving her ample space.

Why didn’t the curse activate?

Perhaps it needed a longer contact period to fully take effect? Without thinking, Wednesday reached her hand out and grabbed Enid’s. A moment later, and still nothing.

Maybe it was Yoko or Celeste?

Wednesday leaned across the table and grabbed each of their forearms, glaring at the point of contact. Willing something to happen. Because if it didn’t, she’d look up to see you.

And it wasn’t you.

“Uhhh… you okay Wednesday?” Enid asked, eyeing her uncertainly

“You aren’t like putting a curse on us or something? I need at least a few weeks to recover after the Poe Cup.” Yoko whined.

Celeste looked curiously at Wednesday, noting her intense focus on her arm and waiting for whatever it was that Wednesday seemed to be waiting for. After a few more seconds, she leaned forward so she was right up next to Wednesday’s face. “So what’s supposed to happen?”

For the first time, Wednesday was visibly disgruntled and the trio looked on with unease, but all Wednesday could do was look back at you. You look at her curiously, but soon Bianca drew your attention away and it was like Wednesday didn’t exist.

Normally, she liked it when she existed out of everyone’s orbit, but when it came to you, she wanted to be your moon.

But it wasn’t you.

Why wasn’t it you?

She got up and stormed back to her room without having a bite to eat.

An hour later, while Wednesday was at her typewriter, a knock on the door sounded. “Enid’s not here.” She called out, but the door slowly swung open anyways.

“I’m actually looking for you.” She tensed at your voice, however low and timid it was, was unmistakable. “I brought you some food.” You continued, “A peace offering of sorts I guess.”

She swivelled around in her chair to face you. True to what you said, you carried a dinner tray with a to-go container. You shuffled your feet at the edge of the duct tape line, for once having some regard for Wednesday’s rules. It seemed absurd that you would abide by them now, when all Wednesday wanted you to do was to break them now. Maybe you didn’t follow the typical rules of the curse, and she needed to establish physical contact once again. Maybe you had to kiss, and only then it’d activate. It certainly couldn’t hurt to try.

There she was, lying to herself again. Because the pain she felt when she realized you weren’t the subject of the curse felt worse than any torture chamber, she put herself in. It felt even worse than when her first homemade guillotine only partially beheaded her doll. It was a mixture of pain, defeat, and utter disappointment; a feeling she’d be hard-pressed to wish upon her worst enemy.

She couldn’t even think about being that intimate with you, much less touch you again. Maybe when she found the subject of the curse she might hold your hand, but until then.

“Where should I put this?” You ushered to the tray.

Wednesday wheeled herself away from the desk and motioned towards it. You gingerly took a step across the line, then walked over, setting the tray down carefully.

“I got a bit of everything, but they didn’t have the berries I know you like.” You started, “then I realized they were never included in the buffet and you actually picked them from outside the gate.” That wasn’t entirely true, Wednesday just had brought a large amount of preserved fruit from her mother’s garden. “Are you… are you actually just eating devil’s cherries for funsies, or am I about to be an attempted murderer?”

Wednesday plucked one of the black berries from the bowl, which looked identical to one of the ones she ate at lunch with you all those weeks ago. Did you actually pay that close attention? It indeed was a nightshade berry. She popped it into her mouth and relished the sweet taste that followed.

“You certainly know your poisons.” Wednesday complimented. It wasn’t lost on her that you were staring at her lips were the berry just disappeared. She sucked some of the stray juice that squeezed out onto her thumb and was satisfied when you swallowed heavily, your pupils dilated visibly. Clearly Wednesday wasn’t the only one affected by whatever this was between you.

You cleared your throat, “Speaking of which, I swiped a Calabar bean from the greenhouse.” You put a hand in your pocket and pulled out one small black bean, “I really don’t know why the class is called ‘carnivorous plants’ when it’s just full of poisons.” You chuckled, placing it on the tray next to the bowl of nightshade. Wednesday’s heart thudded in her chest, like a hammer trying to break through her ribcage, “But I wouldn’t eat more than half of that one, it packs a bigger punch than nightshade, though I’m sure you know all about it.”

Wednesday did indeed. Interestingly, it was a bean often given to women accused of witchcraft, so it was a legume of which her family had intimate familiarity. She supposed you gave it to her for it’s supposed countereffects against Nightshade. As if Wednesday would actually use an antidote.

“Thank you.” She said, realizing how much thought you put into this meal. How much thought you put into Wednesday.

You smiled warmly, “Anytime, though I have to know; are you immune or are you an insomniac that enjoys being delirious?”

“I’ve been building immunity to nightshade as well as a plethora of other poisons since I could talk.”

“So, poisoning you is impossible, noted.” You sounded impressed, and Wednesday couldn’t help but preen on the inside.

She gave you a gleaming smile, “You can most certainly try.”

You reached forward, grabbing a berry out of the bowl and narrowly missing Wednesday’s own hand. Oh, sweet temptation. You popped it into your mouth and smiled, showing your teeth now stained with the red juice, “ditto.”

It wasn’t you. It wasn’t you. It wasn’t you.

Wednesday had to repeat it to herself as she watched you swallow the poison and raised your eyebrows expectantly.

“So, I have to admit, I did also come here with an ulterior motive, and the dinner may have been a bribe.” You began. Wednesday didn’t really care; you could’ve asked her to burn down the town and she would without hesitation. “But also, what happened at dinner that made you leave so quickly?”

Wednesday’s face fell back into its familiar mask. She did not want to discuss the momentary lapse in judgement you pushed her into having. How desperate she was to activate the curse to purge thoughts of you out of her head. When it was obvious you weren’t going to get a response, you continued in a hushed tone, “I figured you were trying to activate a vision or something. That there was something from the book you found that made you think they’d be directly involved.”

That certainly was a much saner explanation than any Wednesday could offer up, and despite her usual predisposition to insanity, in this particular instance she preferred it. She didn’t reply though, instead opening her drawer to reveal the purple tome. She moved the tray to the side closer to her, so it had space on the desk. Opening it to the saved page, she aligned the torn-out picture to the one of the man that Wednesday seemed to be facing.

“Rowan said this was a picture his mother drew of me over 20 years ago.”

You whistled under your breath, putting on hand on the desk and the other on the back of Wednesday’s chair, leaning over her to get a closer look. You were so close, mere inches away. She could feel the warmth of your body, how easy it would be to shift her weight and lean into you and let herself fall into bliss, curse be damned. “So, the school’s gonna go up in flame any day now huh? And you’re going to try to stop it?” Wednesday hummed her agreement but didn’t want to break the spell. As much as she loathed to admit it, it's the most sure she's felt in days since she touched you.

“The guy looks like a pilgrim, doesn’t he?” You used your hand on the desk to point at the man, your head tilting so now your breath tickled the side of her cheek. Perhaps you did come here to murder her, but once you discovered the berries wouldn’t work you decided to use whatever spell you cast on her. Perhaps you were able to absorb powers from other outcasts because Wednesday certainly felt like a sailor lost at sea only to find her one point of salvation, her doom.

She gazed at where your finger pointed, and waited with bated breath for what you would say next. She could feel you right next to her. She knew if she turned her head, you were so close that your noses would touch, and all would be lost. If she touched you, the trance would be over, and, for at least the time being, Wednesday wanted to feel it. To feel the inklings of life tickling her dead Addams soul.

All too quickly, you straightened up, “It’s probably a good idea to start at Pilgrim World then. Maybe we can find a match with one of the actors there.” Wednesday finally let herself turn around to face you. She noted how flushed your cheeks were. Just two weeks ago she would’ve thought you were choking on something, but perhaps you did feel the curse as well. Maybe she should try again.

She popped another berry into her mouth, then mentally shook her head. No, it must’ve been just the Nightshade getting to you. You were less intolerant than you suggested.

“Unless you were planning on trying to trigger a vision with everyone at this school.” You laughed, but it died in your throat when Wednesday deepened her glare. You cleared your throat, then offered a slightly less intolerable option, “Outreach Day is coming up. I can probably pull some strings to get us both stationed at Pilgrim World.” You smiled easily, as if you didn’t just spend the last minute turning Wednesday’s world upside down.

“I don’t believe in mandatory volunteer hours.” She replied dryly.

“It’s just to get us through the door, otherwise Weems would probably banish both of us from Jericho if we were just found snooping around.”

It was a fair point, but spending an entire day with you was unthinkable. In the last five minutes alone, Wednesday counted at least ten lapses in judgement from herself. She was about to say that they shouldn’t be paired together when the room door swung open, and Enid walked in.

“Hey Wednesday.” She called out from habit, because she stopped herself on her way to her half of the room once she processed there were two people on Wednesday’s side. “OMG Y/N you’re here!”

Just like that, you turned away from Wednesday and started walking over to the other side, leaving Wednesday behind. It was lucky Enid couldn’t yet turn into a wolf; she could certainly do with a new rug.

“Hey Enid, sorry it’s been so long.” You crossed the taped line and officially left Wednesday’s side. She should be relieved.

“It’s okay, I figured you needed space after, y’know.” She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Had something happened between you and Enid? Wednesday figured you avoided their room to avoid her, not the werewolf. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that Enid may have been the reason. She pursed her lips, realizing just how much she placed herself in what she anticipated your thoughts to be.

Of course, you didn’t think about her as much as she thought about you. Without the curse affecting you, it’d be impossible, and it wasn’t you.

Thing hopped onto the desk and began to tap his fingers expectantly. “Not. One. Word.” She hissed out. He pointed at the tray, then at you across the room. “Yes, she brought me dinner.” He began to sign some more, and it was obvious he witnessed what just happened between them. “It was nothing, now do you have a hearing deficit, or do I have to carve out ear canals for you?” He froze, then scurried off to the relative safety of Enid’s side.

“Yeah, I get it.” Enid was saying, her voice quavering with some emotion Wednesday couldn’t identify.

“I’m sorry.” You were both on the bed, and you leaned forward to hug her. She gripped onto you tightly as if you were her only tether to this hell forsaken rock. Perhaps you just had that affect on everybody you met and were a new breed of outcast not yet documented. Even Bianca and Divina were befallen to it at dinnertime.

“No don’t apologize, I should’ve tots asked.” She sniffled loudly and let out a laugh. Wednesday rolled her eyes and turned back to her typewriter. She just had to remember to keep her distance, but she couldn’t help the smile that came to her face as she popped another berry into her mouth.

Chapter Text

You stretched in front of your locker in the changeroom as you got ready for fencing class, letting out a big yawn. Your nose twitched, the residual instincts still leeching out of your system after spending 8 hours as a rabbit to wait out the poisonous effects of the berries you ate last night. You didn’t know what possessed you to eat the berries you gave Wednesday; heck, you didn’t know what possessed you to pick those berries for her in the first place.

Wednesday was going to be the death of you.

Think of the devil, “You weren’t in your room last night.” You closed the locker to face a very serious looking Wednesday.

“Were you looking for me?” An involuntary smile appeared on your lips.

“Just testing out a theory.” She said simply. What theory could she possibly be testing? “You weren’t anywhere in the school. Perhaps you went on a midnight stroll in the woods?”

You gulped. How could she possibly know that? Did she follow you after you left the room? Did she see you become a rabbit? Your mother was going to actually kill you this time if you needed a repeat of the stunt you pulled last week with the cat. You struggled to keep your composure

“One dinner date later and you’re already stalking me?” You smirked, but started screaming internally. How could you say that to Wednesday? You pushed yourself off of the wall to walk towards the gym, betraying none of the panic you felt but in actually creating a safe distance between you in case she decided to stab you.

“Wha-“ Wednesday’s eyes widened, and that’s when you discovered Wednesday’s blush only appeared in the tips of her ears. She quickly adjusted her braid, so the slight twinge of pink was covered by a curtain of jet black. “Don’t be absurd, I’m simply interested in when our local serial killer decides it’s time to go on another killing spree.”

“Oh we’re back here again, you thinking I’m the murderer?”

“I never stopped.”

You scoffed, rolling your eyes as she walked past you into the gym.

“You know, that explains so much.” Yoko pipped from the corner of the locker room. Shit, you didn’t realize she was in here. You felt your face heat up at the realization that Yoko heard your entire conversation. “Though I’m a bit offended I wasn’t invited on your killing spree.” She flashed her fangs and let out a small chuckle.

“Oh! Hey Yoko, didn’t see you there.” Your muscles were tense as she picked up her fencing helmet and walked around the bench she was sitting on.

“Don’t blame you, a tornado could have passed through here and I doubt either of you would’ve noticed. You guys are... intense.” She stopped in front of you, considering your shocked and sheepish expression for a moment, like a child caught in the middle of breaking a rule. “Though I didn’t realize Wednesday thought you were the killer. Explains why you two are always so... like how you are around each other.” She walked past, and paused by the door, “Though I’d love to hear all the juicy details about this dinner date.”

Your face paled as you stared after her cackling form. You were thankful Celeste was away doing whatever it was ancient vampires had to do, otherwise you'd never hear the end of it. You gave yourself 3 deep breaths to compose yourself, then grabbed your helmet and braced for what waited for you in the next room.

After basic instruction from Coach Vlad, you broke off into partners to begin practice matches, rotating every 5 minutes so you’d get a new partner.

Enid paired off with Divina, claiming she had something she wanted to talk with her about, leaving you with Yoko. As you got in position, she began talking.

“So, I’m glad Bianca didn’t murder you yesterday, but where were you last night? Like actually?” You sidestepped back, leaning away from a stab of her foil.

“Just taking a walk in the woods, it helps me think.” You lunged and she parried, testing the footwork the coach just demonstrated.

“All night? Did you sleep out there, ‘cuz otherwise you’re going on 27 hours of no sleep.” Her voice was ridden with concern. It was true, your feet felt incredibly sluggish, but the hours you were putting in with Bianca had made you rather adept at the art of the lunge. You lunged again, feinting around her foil and landing your tip on her breastplate. She looked down, surprised. “Touché. Who knew practice actually makes perfect.”

You smiled while you reset for the next point, “Don’t worry, Bianca barely even threatened me. Honestly, given her reputation I was a bit disappointed.”

“So, you just ate dinner with her last night for fun?” She queried, lunging again.

“That one was against my will, but we ended up realizing we had a lot more in common than I originally thought." 

She lowered her foil right before you lunged, giving you an easy point. She lifted up her helmet to look at you more frankly, so you raised yours in return. “Just be careful, she’s not someone you can become friends with just like that. Even if you think you are, she won’t hesitate to stab you in the back.” You couldn't blame her for her distrust in the siren, what with the recent garlic incident looming over them. 

“I never said we were friends, just that there was an understanding. I had some of my own issues to deal with last night, nothing to do with her.”

She gave you one last look a concern before putting her helmet back down. “Okay…” She started hesitantly, “but just know that me and Celeste and Enid are all here if you need help with these… issues. You don’t have to disappear like that. Even if you are the killer on the loose.”

Before your face could emote, you slid your helmet back on. Would she still say the same thing if she knew you were a shifter? You didn’t actually know the specific viewpoints your friends had on shifters, but if past experience and society as a whole was anything to go by, you’d lose them in an instant. You weren't exactly the most trustworthy of outcast species out there.

At that moment, the whistle indicating a partner switch blew. You lowered your foil and let your next partner take position – Xavier. Luckily this meant relatively little talking and an easy win, or so you thought.

“So, what’s the deal with you and Wednesday?” You almost tripped over your own feet at that question.

“What do you mean?” You voice came out high pitched, “Nothing's going on.” You tried to add with a more certain voice.

“Are you friends with her?” Honestly, you didn’t even know how to answer that question. When you were silent, he probed some more, “I know you guys are dueling or whatever, but it doesn’t seem the same as when she challenged Bianca. Is it a weird Addams Family friendship test or whatever?”

You guessed it made sense that Celeste didn’t exactly advertise the reason behind the duel, only the fact that it was happening for her bets. You didn’t even know when the duel was supposed to take place. If it was going to take place.

“I don’t think Wednesday does friendships.” You were starting to believe more and more that everyone just existed on a spectrum of how much she wanted to kill them, and you didn’t like your chances on that line.

“What do you mean? She and I are friends.” You let out a laugh, just as the whistle blew again. The next two competitors went by seamlessly, and so far you were undefeated. You felt pretty good about yourself. That is until Bianca took her place across from you.

“Ready to show me what you got?” She took her stance, which you mimicked. To your surprise, she spent the match trying to help you, pointing out your weak spots and helping you correct them. It almost made you suspicious, until you saw who was next.

Wednesday glided into position like a wraith waiting to deal the devil's blow.

“How would you like to change the terms of our duel?”

You stared flabbergasted at the small girl in front of you, “uhhh… how so?” You stammered out. “Wait is it happening right now??” You looked around for Coach Vlad, but he was in the middle of talking to Yoko, his back turned. You briefly remembered Enid said to bring him as a ref to prevent your death. 

“We’ll merely have a practice round now.” She bent her knees and poised herself into a perfect starting stance, and your heart thumped wildly in your chest. “En garde.”

You tried to match her positioning, but when observing her lithe form poised to strike, time seemed to slow. Before you knew it, there was a light pressure on your chest. You regained focus to see she had moved positions to strike a point. When did that happen?

You were absolutely fucked.

Her frown was evident even through the mask. “I do hope this wasn’t how you were originally planning on fighting for Enid.”

You cleared your throat and took up position again. “Sorry, wasn’t ready.” You mumbled, face beet red.

This time, she lunged forward and you parried, though it was obvious she was taking it easy on you. Testing you. You lunged forward, perhaps a bit too aggressively. She sidestepped with ease but didn’t take the obvious counter that would get her the point. You regained your balance and tried a series of attacks, each effortlessly parried away.

You tried a beat attack, trying to get a reaction out of her. You follow it with a feint and lunge. This time, she hopped backwards to dodge, and while it no longer looked like she was fighting against a toddler, she didn't try to counter. “Why aren’t you fighting back?” You asked through gritted teeth, the strain that came with exhaustion evident in your voice.

“I’d rather fight you in your full form, though I’m beginning to think it won’t make much of a difference.”

“Okay, so what do you want if you win in this... renegotiated match?”

“Answers.”

“You never asked me any questions.” This time you parried and immediately riposted. Her blade kept coming after the parry though, and in the remise struck your breastplate again. You scowled at her request, and the lost point.

She readied herself again, “Where did you go last night?”

You tried to match the pacing of her step, “You guessed right, the forest.” You said simply, “Though if we’re going to do this, we have to put some rules on these questions.”

“Why?” She spun, using the added momentum and speed to swing at your arm. The thin piece of metal left a sting you’d feel for days afterwards. You tried to remember why you goaded her into attacking before. That really hurt. “Have something to hide?”

“Nope, just have boundaries.” You rubbed at your arm briefly, then readied again. You were determined to get a point on her, no matter what. “I bet you wouldn’t like me asking about your relationship with your mother.”

She hesitated briefly, and you used the opening to feint high then lunge low. She hopped over your blade and seemed to dance out of the way. “My mother is a wilting flower whose presence clings to me like an overbearing shadow, trying to make me in her image while molding away my own sharp edges.” You stumbled back a few steps to avoid her blade and take a moment to reset, because you certainly weren’t expecting her to get that real with her and be so damn... poetic about it. “What were you doing in the forest?” She growled out as she sauntered forward in pursuit. The mere mention of her mother seemed to ignite a fire in her.

“Eating grass and staring at the moon.” You yelped at you ducked away from her sword, then tried to use what little height you had over her to push her blade down and create more space.

“Mind your space ladies.” You heard Vlad call out from across the room. Wednesday relaxed and took a few steps back to the starting line, never relenting her glare from you. While you did tell the truth, you could tell she was hard-pressed to believe you.

“Why?”

“It helped me recover from the berries, I had more than were comfortable to handle.” Her aggressiveness seemed to lessen at that statement, but she was still ramping up to her full abilities. “So I think we should put a limit on the number of questions you can ask, and I have the right to skip any of them.”

“Because you placed a ‘boundary’ on confessing to Rowan’s murder?”

“Hey, we all have our quirks.” You were really getting out of breath from having a whole conversation while trying not to get slashed again. She seemed to be evolving into her full fighting form as the battle went on, and you were only getting more exhausted. She got you again, this time a stab in the shoulder. She somehow managed to target the fleshy part in between the muscle, digging straight to the nerve, “Ow!” You shouted out of reflex.

“Wednesday, tone it down.” Vlad warned. Ever since she joined this class, he had to hold her back from nearly decapitating any student she went up against, so the warning wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary and everyone continued their matches without so much as a glance in your direction.

“I’m okay,” You said, taking a deep breath and getting back into en garde. You just had to get one point.

“Do you know who your mother is?” She asked as you began again.

“Yes.” You huffed out, looking for an opening. Your mind was too focused to wonder why she even asked.

“Why doesn’t the school?”

“They do.” You were close with that swing, or at least Wednesday seemed to put some effort into avoiding the attack.

“Not according to the records.” Of course, your mother was prepared for Wednesday to break into those and removed any mention of her. You didn’t realize it just had zero information. But you hadn’t lied yet and you weren’t going to, because you wanted Wednesday to afford you the same honesty when you asked your question.

“You gotta ask Weems about that.” Let her deal with that little problem. You’d love to be a fly on the wall for that interaction. “Since there aren’t any boundaries to this line of questioning, what’s up with your aversion to touch, or more aptly, me?” You lunged forward, and she was instinctively prepared to parry. Her brain must have stuttered though, because she didn’t read the feint, and you snaked your blade around hers to land the tip directly over the left side of her chest. 

The whistled blew twice, signaling the end of the matches for this class. You took off your helmet, wiping the sweat off your brow. Perhaps it wasn’t in the best taste, but you got your point, and you were proud. Instinctually you held your hand out to your opponent, ready to shake. Wednesday took off her own helmet and glanced at your outstretched hand.

After a second, you remembered who it was and lowered it, letting yourself smile and brushing away the hurt. Even though you expected the rejection, it still somehow stung. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to answer that. It is a boundary of yours after all.” Satisfied with your point proven, you walked past her to finally get some water and dry the Sahara of your throat. While everyone else went to the change room or their dorms, you went to the water fountain to fill up on even more water.

“I avoid you because I find you despicably infuriating.” Wednesday seethed from behind you suddenly, and you shot up to turn and face her. In your haste you spilt water on the front of your shirt, and you thanked whatever deity was watching out for you that you wore a black shirt today.

You contemplated what she said for a moment, “Thank you?” You finally replied, daring your lips to upturn into a small smile. That was a Wednesday version of a compliment… right?

She glared at you, and you could swear you saw her own lips twitch as they fought to match your smile. Your stomach did a backflip and you swallowed heavily. “It will be horrifically satisfying to watch you impaled by my blade in our actual duel.” There it was – the nearly invisible smile finally cracked through her defense. It only made your own smile widen.

“So what, you get five questions if you win?”

“When I win, I get ten, and no skipping any question. I’ll have you hooked up to a lie detector and if you lie you’ll drop into a lake of piranhas.” You almost chuckled, because to you that was hardly a threat.

“And if I win?” She audibly scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“I’ll throw away all my supernaturally deadly weapons and sing k-pop with Enid.” You raised your eyebrows in shock. Even the visual of that was enough to short circuit your brain. “It’d be certainly less humiliating than the loss itself.”

“And,” you added, holding a finger up, “you tell me exactly how you knew about Enid’s blog when you supposedly don’t know how to work a computer.” Her incredulous expression had you full-on grinning.

“Deal, and in the spirit of no... skipping - ” You looked down to where her hand was outstretched for a handshake.

You tried to calm your erratic heart. It was just a handshake, but or some reason it felt like she was offering you the world. You mentally beat down your thoughts, chiding whatever hormonal cocktail flooding your brain was making you get overexcited. It was just a handshake.

Keeping your face composed, you echoed her “deal”, and reached out to shake on it.