Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Seriously!?” came the retort. Angry, upset, hurt, betrayed. All things Wednesday had heard dozens of times before. And like all the others, Wednesday’s only response was an irritated sigh as she put her hair up. A messy ponytail soon hung off the back of her head as she got out of her bed and strode across her room to her desk, where her typewriter sat waiting for her nightly visit.

“Please do not make me repeat myself. Clothe yourself and exit my apartment,” Wednesday said dismissively as she sat down, stretching her fingers and preparing some cloth and a small solution of isopropyl alcohol.

“But I thought…” the woman currently lying naked in Wednesday’s bed said, her voice full of confusion and dejection.

“I would recommend you cease doing so. Wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself,” Wednesday muttered. The woman scowled at her and immediately began pulling her clothes on. Wednesday ignored her and started carefully wiping each of her typewriter’s keys clean.

“Don’t call me. Bitch,” the woman hissed as she threw her jacket over her arms and stomped over to Wednesday’s front door. Wednesday sighed in relief at the sound of the door slamming before continuing her nightly ritual.

She groaned when she heard a gentle knocking on her door ten minutes later.

“Enter,” she said, knowing the person outside would eventually just walk inside anyway. The door cracked open and Wednesday was greeted with the sight of her roommate, Harry. He was tall, with dirty blonde hair and a thin scattering of scruff across his face. Currently he was only clad in a white tank top and blue boxers, with a pair of hot pink bunny slippers on his feet.

“Can you at least ask them not to slam the door when they leave?” he muttered, pushing the door the rest of the way open and setting a mug and a plate down on Wednesday’s desk. The mug was full of tea, and the plate had a blueberry muffin and a fried egg. “It scares Barney.”

Barney was his dog. Technically his name was Barnabus Bartholomew Baxter the Fourth, but Harry just called him Barney, which Wednesday found thoroughly confusing. Why give a dog such an elaborate name if he was going to simply never use it?

“Barnabus will survive,” Wednesday muttered as she finished cleaning her typewriter. She then started preparing it to write, making sure the paper was ready, the ink wasn’t dry, and that nothing was jammed or uncooperative. “Two teaspoons of sugar and no milk?”

“You don’t have to keep asking, I haven’t gotten it wrong since you threw the mug at me two years ago,” Harry mumbled with a sigh. “If I come in here in the morning and find the plate containing anything other than crumbs I’m glitter-bombing your bathroom.”

“Your insistence that I eat and your feeble attempts at displaying friendship are horrendous and I despise every moment you are in my presence. Were it not for the fact that I need your income to afford the monthly expenses of this apartment I would slit your throat in the night,” Wednesday retorted.

“Uh huh,” Harry muttered, straightening up and stretching with a large yawn. “Take Barney out before you go to sleep?”

“I always do,” Wednesday muttered.

“Thanks. G’night Wednesday,” Harry yawned before exiting her room.

Wednesday scoffed irritably and began writing. Her third novel was not going to write itself, and as her fingers began to clack on her typewriter’s keys, her mind wandered a little. Harry mentioning the last time he had gotten her tea wrong had her mind casting back to when she had first met him.

~~~~~

Two and a half years ago

-

Four and a half years since the Crackstone Incident

~~~~~

“Sup, you must be Wednesday right?” the man in the doorway asked, holding his hand out to shake. “Name’s Harry. You’re the one who called about the Craigslist posting right?”

“I don’t shake hands,” Wednesday informed him brusquely. He nodded and pulled his hand back. “I am Wednesday Addams, yes. Your posting said you were in need of a new roommate and you specified that you ‘do not care what their deal is as long as they can pay and they like dogs’ is this correct?”

“Yup. My buddy Carl moved in with his girlfriend two months ago and I can’t pay for the whole apartment on savings forever. You want a tour?” Harry asked, opening the door further. “Barney, down.”

A large golden retriever had bounded up to the doorway and made a boof sound at Wednesday. She glared at the dog and stared into his eyes. After a few moments the dog whined and turned his head away, showing his neck and Wednesday turned her nose up. Harry looked between the two of them with concern.

“I thought you said you were okay with dogs?”

“As long as he stays out of my room I am willing to co-exist with him and I will not make any fuss about any noise he makes or complain about any of the other realities that come with such an animal being present in the shared spaces,” Wednesday said. If the monotone nature of her voice put Harry off, he didn’t show it as he nodded in acceptance of her statement.

“Okay. I can work with that. Tour?”

“Indeed.”

Harry talked as he showed Wednesday around.

“That’s the kitchen. Fridge has three shelves, the way me and Carl used to do it is top shelf is mine, bottom shelf was his, middle shelf is communism.”

“Pardon?”

“Anything in the middle is up for grabs,” Harry explained. “We would put stuff like eggs there, common shit that we both use and we would just trade off whoever buys them whenever we ran out.”

“I see. Continue.”

“Don’t put the oven at anything above 375 or you’ll set the smoke alarm off. We’ve cleaned the oven six times and it still smokes up to shit every time we set it any higher so don’t otherwise the cranky bitch upstairs will come yell at us,” Harry said before they left the kitchen. “Sitting room here. TV’s the apartments, gaming consoles are mine. You’re welcome to play on them but you break it, you replace it.”

“I assure you that will not be a concern. I do not indulge in modern technology.”

“Aren’t you a novelist? That’s what you said in your email. Also how did you send an email if you don’t use modern technology?”

“I use a typewriter to write my novels. And when I find myself forced to interface with technology I use public libraries,” Wednesday huffed, clearly displeased with the fact that she had been forced to do so.

“...Cool. Okay,” Harry said, blinking a few times before continuing. “Tiny bathroom here. I don’t use it, both bedrooms have their own. My room is at the very end of the hall down this way, yours would be this one.”

Harry went to the first door on the left side of the hallway and opened it, gesturing for Wednesday to go through before pointing at the other door in the hallway, on the right side.

“That’s the utilities closet. Has the circuit breakers and it’s where I keep random shit like cleaning supplies. And this would be your room.”

The room wasn’t particularly large but nor was it small. The walls were an inoffensive beige and there was a rickety ceiling fan with at least two inches worth of dust collecting above the blades. There were no windows, only a single standing lamp in the corner that Harry quickly went and turned on.

“Bathroom’s through there. There’s technically a bathtub but it’s super small. Although you might fit in it just fine,” he said, looking Wednesday up and down. “Building shares hot water and there’s not that many heaters so get your hot showers in super early or super late or not at all.”

“Noted. How thick are the walls?”

“Put your headboard there, you’ll bother the neighbor instead of me with any nighttime escapades,” Harry laughed, pointing at a far wall. “And as long as nobody is shrieking for Jesus at one in the morning it should probably be fine. I’ll let you know if you’re being too loud.”

Wednesday just nodded.

“I would like to go over the expenses and the division of labor again. It was in your posting but I would like to confirm everything.”

“Totally. Let’s go sit down in the living room and hash it all out.”

Rent was $2400 a month with water and heating included. Tenants were responsible for electricity and their own internet service.

“Power bill is in my name, I’ll just forward you the email every month and we split it fifty-fifty,” Harry said.

“I do not have an email,” Wednesday stated bluntly. “You may show me the statement on your own computer or mobile device.”

“But I thought you...nevermind. I can do that. You can just give me cash, check, or just Venmo me.”

“What is ‘Venmo’?”

“So cash or check then. Got it. Any questions?”

Wednesday asked him a few questions, which he answered.

“I am interested,” Wednesday concluded. “Are there other potential roommates? When will I have an answer from you?”

“Nah there’s nobody else, and I really need a roommate. If you’re able to start paying your share right away we’ll get you on the lease as soon as possible,” Harry laughed.

“I can write you a check,” Wednesday said with a nod.

“Then welcome roomie. When do you need to be in by?”

“Don’t call me that,” Wednesday said hotly, unwanted memories burning the back of her eyes. She shot to her feet and turned around to start leaving. “I would like to move in two weeks from now. Is this amenable to you?”

“Definitely. Let’s swing by the office and get you the application to get on the lease, they’re usually pretty quick about these things.”

~~~~~

Harry was an outcast as well. Wednesday had vetted him thoroughly before even thinking of reaching out to him, of course. While the nature of his abnormality had not been immediately apparent, he had confessed to her what it was the first time she had a vision around him three months after she moved in.

His idiot friend, Carl, had reached out to try and pat Wednesday’s shoulder in congratulations of her latest book deal and had found Wednesday’s own fingers wrapped around his wrist tightly in a vice grip as her head jerked back in the throes of a vision.

“Ow! Jesus! What the fuck!?” Carl hissed as he scrambled to try and get out of Wednesday’s grip. Harry just sighed from the couch and shook his head.

“I told you man, she doesn’t like being touched. Don’t fucking touch her,” Harry said.

“Dude your roommate is totally having a seizure or something,” Carl said, panic in his voice.

“Oh. Oh shit,” Harry said, jumping up and helping pry Wednesday’s fingers away from Carl’s wrist before sitting her down on the couch. “It’s not a seizure though. I think. But we should still sit her down and then step away.”

When Wednesday came to she groaned and looked around in confusion, wondering how she got to the couch. She glared at the men. Harry shrugged awkwardly.

“We didn’t want you to pass out on the floor,” he said.

“Your concern is unnecessary,” Wednesday said flatly. She then looked at Carl. “Call your grandmother. She is going to pass away in three months. Make the most of your time with her.”

“What the fuck!?”

“Oh boy,” Harry muttered. “Carl just go home for now, I’ll...yeah.”

“You didn’t mention your new roommate was a crazy bitch,” Carl muttered as he eyed Wednesday with a little fear and a healthy amount of confusion before he left, the apartment door slamming behind him.

“He’s a normie,” Harry said with a shrug. “Sorry I didn’t give you a heads up. Didn’t think you had visions.”

“My mother,” Wednesday muttered darkly as she stood up.

“Yeah. I mean I figured you had something freaky going on under the hood, everybody knows about the Addams family, but you could’ve said someone touching you was the trigger for your visions,” Harry said.

“That would be foolish. Why would I disclose a personal weakness like that for no reason?” Wednesday asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Okay. Fair. Then since I know your deal, you can know mine,” Harry said. After a moment a large scorpion tail appeared over Harry’s shoulder, and Wednesday stared at it with something vaguely resembling admiration. “Manticore.”

“This explains your lack of fear at my threats of you, especially if you are aware of the Addams reputation,” Wednesday said with a satisfied nod. “There are not many of you left.”

“Three here in New York,” Harry said, holding up three fingers. “Two that I know of in London. One in Cairo. Four in Los Angeles. And I think there’s two in Tokyo.”

“I had a pet scorpion as a child. His name was Nero,” Wednesday said.

“Neat.”

And that was that.

Harry told Carl that Wednesday was just fucking with him because he touched her when he knew she didn’t like it. He bought it, until his grandmother actually did pass away. After that Carl didn’t come to the apartment as much, and whenever he did he would refuse to speak to Wednesday.

This was completely fine with her, of course. Her and Harry started to have some form of a rapport after that. She wouldn’t call them friends , of course, because Wednesday did not do friends , she would never do friends, never again, not after-

Wednesday grit her teeth and pulled her hands away from her typewriter before she gave in to the urge to smash her fists into the keys. Thinking about her was always a surefire way to induce moments of passionate anger that were unproductive for Wednesday’s mental state.

She checked the time on her watch. It had been a gift from her father on her twenty-first birthday, a silver analog watch with an engraving under it of a stylized ‘A’ similar to that of the Addams family insignia, and underneath it a phrase that Wednesday quite enjoyed.

And Hell follows with us.

Some couple-hundred-odd years ago, probably during a bout of witch trials, the Addams family had accusations of bringing Hell on earth levied at them and used as leverage to kill several Addams ancestors. Since then the family had adopted the phrase into their own collection of family mottoes and signatures, and it was Wednesday’s favorite. Hell did follow with her, thank you very much.

It was midnight.

She needed some air.

Wednesday threw on a coat and slipped out of her room. Barnabus, hearing her, quickly pushed Harry’s bedroom door open with his nose and ran up to Wednesday, panting at her and padding his front paws on the ground one after the other in excitement. She stared at him in his eyes until he sat down and sat still, and then she went to fetch his leash.

Attaching it to his collar she carefully opened the front door and led Barnabus out into the hallway before closing and locking the door behind her and taking Barnabus outside for a short walk. It was bitterly cold. Winter would soon be arriving to New York City, and Wednesday relished the biting chill on her nose, ears, and fingers.

Barnabus walked several feet in front of her, sniffing incessantly at everything that crossed his path as Wednesday made her way towards the local park where she took Barnabus every night. She started walking him at night after Harry learned she was mostly nocturnal and in exchange she only paid one-quarter of the power bill each month rather than half.

Plus, it gave her time to think in a new set of scenery. And think she did, as her mind continued to wander along the timeline of the last two and a half years. Most notably, she thought about the woman who had been in her bed earlier that evening. Her name slipped Wednesday’s mind.

The women started about a year after graduation.

~~~~~

Five years ago

Two years since the Crackstone Incident

~~~~~

Wednesday was in a club.

She came here for research. She needed to have some first-hand experience with the environment for some of the latest developments in her novel. It was almost finished, and she would soon be ready to start submitting the manuscript to various publishers.

But she needed a little more. Writer’s block had been demonizing her for the last month, and she needed both a break and some inspiration. The section she was stuck on involved a nightclub, so to a nightclub Wednesday went.

She had a fake ID, of course. An excellent one. She was let in with no problems, and didn’t even have to pay a cover charge because she was ‘hot’.

She stood awkwardly by the bar, stiff as a board, as she observed the dance floor. Several men had tried to talk to her, but she brushed them all off with a glare, sending them skittering away for easier, less terrifying conquests.

Then a woman came up to her.

She was wearing a silvery dress with black heels and had her hair done up in a bun. She was blonde, and taller than Wednesday. Wednesday found herself looking over the woman, her fingers twitching in the pockets of her coat. Maybe she could base a character off of her.

“Like what you see?” the woman asked. Wednesday’s first instinct was to shut her down, but then she wouldn’t have the material she needed for her novel. Instead she put herself in the shoes of her main character and tried to play out the scene in her head.

“So what if I do?” Wednesday said, sounding a lot more bold than she felt. Was this right? She had overheard plenty of ‘flirting’ so far tonight. This sounded right.

“Buy me a drink and find out,” the woman said with a wink.

So Wednesday did.

“One of whatever she’s having,” she told the bartender, jerking her head at the woman in the silver dress. A drink was slid across the table and Wednesday handed a few bills to the bartender, not wanting to build up a tab.

“I’m ---------,” the woman in the silver dress said. Wednesday was sure she introduced herself, but she couldn’t remember her name, now. Wednesday opened her mouth to give her own name, but paused.

“You can call me Viper,” she said instead. The woman laughed.

“That is not your name,” she said, taking a sip of her drink.

“No. It isn’t,” Wednesday said, leaning back against the bar, trying to relax. Viper would be relaxed. She needed something from the woman in the silver dress, it was paramount to the investigation. She needed to appear relaxed, easy to talk to, to confide in.

“Are you gonna tell me your real name?” the woman asked playfully, reaching a finger out and tracing it along the collar of Wednesday’s jacket.

Wednesday’s hand flew up and grabbed the woman’s wrist, hard. She sent a stony glare worthy of a Gorgon at the woman as she slowly pulled her arm down.

“No. Do not touch me,” Wednesday said.

“Me-ow,” the woman said with a giggle. “You’re stone then, that’s cool. I dig it.”

Wednesday did not know what ‘stone’ meant but if it meant the woman would cease touching her she would accept the description.

“So, Miss Dark and Mysterious, do you wanna flirt with me a little more or should we just go back to your place now?” the woman in the silver dress asked, finishing her drink with a flutter of her eyelashes at Wednesday.

Wednesday was many things. Among those things, she was self-aware, and in this she was more than aware that she lacked the ability many other people had when it came to social situations. She was often confused with how a conversation was supposed to go, and did not have a knack for picking up what others called ‘social cues’.

But even Wednesday knew what ‘go back to your place’ meant.

So did Viper.

Would Viper do that? Sleep with someone just to get information out of them?

“We can go back to mine, if you like,” Wednesday said, pulling away from the bar. She pulled another handful of bills out of her pocket and threw them on the counter, getting the barkeeps attention. “Is that enough to cover her tab?”

“Yup. Got twenty leftover,” he said after counting it.

“Keep it,” Wednesday said dismissively. The woman giggled and slid off her stool, sauntering up to Wednesday and standing close to her, but still not touching.

“So gallant, Viper,” she whispered in a sultry tone. Wednesday felt a rush of tingling go over her skin. Wednesday led her out of the club and down the street. “No car? You live near here?”

“I do,” Wednesday said with a nod.

“Cool,” the woman murmured, looking over Wednesday again. “I love your outfit by the way. Goth is so sexy.”

“Thank you,” Wednesday said stiffly. The woman giggled.

“Wow, you don’t do this often huh?” she asked, turning around and walking backwards a pace in front of Wednesday so she could look at her face.

“...No,” Wednesday stated.

“Aw, a baby lesbian?” the woman in the silver dress cooed. “Don’t worry cutie. I’ll tell you what to do,” she concluded with a wink. Wednesday felt that tingling again, and held her chin up.

“I’m a fast learner,” she declared, not wanting to be underestimated.

“Good,” the woman practically purred, and there was that tingle again. What was that?

They got to Wednesday’s apartment. It was small. Bare. Wednesday’s bed was up against the far wall, and the woman slinked over to it and sat on the edge, staring at Wednesday with a flirty smile and held up her hand, curling one finger in a ‘come hither’ motion.

Wednesday locked the door behind her and suddenly felt ice in her stomach as she crossed her apartment.

“Turn the lights off,” the woman said.

Wednesday turned the lights off.

“Sit with me.”

Wednesday sat with her.

“Would you like to kiss me?” she asked, her words low and sultry. Wednesday curled her lip.

“No.”

“That’s cool. Do you want to touch me?” she asked, the tone of her voice not changing.

“...Yes.”

Wednesday wasn’t lying. She wasn’t sure where the feeling was coming from, but she did want to touch this woman. She could barely see the smile in the darkness as the woman laid back on the bed and stretched in a seductive way, her arms going above her head and her legs curling in a way that hiked her dress up.

“Go ahead then, Viper.”

Wednesday shucked her coat and let it drop to the floor. She slowly reached a hand out and her eyes widened only slightly when her palm met the woman’s knee. She carefully slid her hand up the woman’s leg, marveling at just how soft she was.

Wednesday didn’t know people could get that soft.

The last time she felt someone like that was-

Wednesday hissed.

“Mmm,” the woman moaned, interpreting Wednesday’s hiss as a reaction of pleasure from touching her. “Your hand is cold, cutie.”

“Do not call me cute,” Wednesday muttered, moving in the bed. She had read some of her mothers novels as a curious teenager. She knew something of what was supposed to happen here. She straddled the woman’s legs and stared down at her.

“Yeah? You gonna make me stop?” the woman breathed, staring up at Wednesday.

Wednesday leaned over and slid her hands up the woman’s sides, over her dress. Another soft moan of pleasure was elicited as Wednesday’s thumbs traced the outer curvature of the woman’s breasts. Wednesday’s skin was practically burning as her fingertips left fabric and came to the woman’s collarbone and then her arms, sliding up until they found her wrists. Wednesday pinned the woman to the bed and stared down at her, her eyes dark and intense.

“What are you gonna do now, Viper?” the woman asked, saying the name as if she was teasing. Wednesday.

Well.

That just couldn’t do.

Wednesday lowered her head until her lips made contact with the woman’s neck, licking it experimentally and feeling a small thrill in her stomach when the woman shuddered in pleasure. She gave the skin a small nip and was rewarded with a moan.

She continued this treatment down to the woman’s collarbone.

“I think,” Wednesday murmured, “it is about time for this dress to be dispensed of.”

“I agree,” the woman giggled.

The rest of the night was a blur for Wednesday. She remembered feeling a lot of new emotions that night as she touched another woman intimately for the first time, awakening long-buried feelings and salient memories.

Sometimes Wednesday could still feel that slick on her fingers, the buzzing in her mind when she first placed her lips in a place she never thought they could go.

They spent several hours together. Wednesday was, indeed, a fast learner, and soon the woman no longer in a silver dress was coming undone under her fingers and tongue for the sixth time that night before confessing to Wednesday that she couldn’t handle any more.

She drank a glass of water. Found her things, her purse. Pulled out her phone and called a car.

Before she left, she asked Wednesday if she could kiss her cheek.

Wednesday agreed.

The moment the woman’s lips touched her skin, a tidal wave of revulsion crashed over Wednesday’s body. She froze in place and the woman gave her another flirty smile, a smile that was now tainted by disgust and hate and nausea and hate and hate and hate -

And then she was gone.

~~~~~

Wednesday never went back to that club. Never saw the woman in the silver dress again.

But after a month she started getting more irritable. Short-tempered. It was when she smashed a glass in anger and only realized what she’d done when she saw the blood dripping down her thumb trying to clean it up that she decided suppressing certain feelings was going to cause more harm than good in the long run.

So Wednesday started going to other clubs. Some of them normal, some of them specifically targeted towards outcasts, some of them targeted for LGBT people. There was some overlap, of course. It was New York. Wednesday knew of at least three nightclubs that catered specifically towards LGBT outcast clientele, by now.

She brought home more women.

At first it was only when her urges and desires were bottled up to the point of nearing an explosion, but soon Wednesday got a sense of her internal ‘clock’ and found a rhythm for herself. At least once a month, but sometimes twice.

And Wednesday got good.

It was like a mask she could put on when she walked in through the doors of a bar or a club. She could be friendly, charming even, and continued to use the name ‘Viper’ when she was out at night. And the Viper in her novels exhibited similar behavior, with some liberties taken and details changed around, of course.

It wasn’t just flirting she got good at either.

Wednesday got good at sex.

Extremely good.

Good to the point where she started to get a reputation.

She learned her lesson about seeing the same girl twice after the fourth girl. Seeing them once, they had a decently high chance of actually listening to Wednesday. But they would always get bold the second time and try to touch her. Try to kiss her. Slip their hands under her clothing.

It was one of the many differences between the Viper that lived in ink on a paper and the Viper that lived as a mask over Wednesday Addams. One allowed the touch to be reciprocated. The other did not.

Wednesday did not need to be touched to feel a release of the tension that would build up between encounters. Watching another person fall apart beneath her, watching them offer her their stomachs, their necks, their wrists, their arteries and vital organs with implicit trust, not knowing that Wednesday had thirty knives within arm’s reach and was more than capable of slicing them open...it gave Wednesday a powerful high.

But when she was touched, it all came crashing down.

There was the matter of her visions, of course. That wasn’t fun. So far Wednesday had seen the gruesome, bloody deaths of sixteen sexual partners. Ten of them from accidents involving motor vehicles, five of them from other accidents, and one of them at the hands of a stalker.

Wednesday tried not to think about that one.

She couldn’t warn them all, of course. Only the outcasts. The ones who understood.

For some reason, a vision never triggered when it was Wednesday’s hand on another. It was only when she was touched that the visions came to her. Her mother had some ideas, all of them ridiculous, and Wednesday was content to simply keep her no-touching rule anyway.

Because when she was touched, the high turned into disgust. Revulsion. Hatred.

Not towards the woman. Wednesday would love for that to be the case, but that would be a lie. And she was good at lying to herself but she could only keep up a lie for so long.

No, the hatred was directed at herself.

Most of the emotions that came up when she was touched probably were.

Because when she was touched, Wednesday compared it to her.

And when compared to her, absolutely nothing could match up.

But Wednesday hated thinking about her.

So she didn’t.

Barnabus made a boof sound at her when they reached the park and lifted his leg to piss on a tree. Wednesday rolled her eyes. He liked to announce to her when he was taking care of his business. Wednesday did not understand the need to do so.

“Relieve yourself quickly so I may go back inside,” Wednesday snapped.

Boof, Barnabus said.

“I’m not thinking about anything.”

Boof.

“Well you can keep that opinion to yourself.”

Boof!

“No. Harry already fed you tonight. I saw him do it.”

Boof.

“He gave you your normal amount of dinner.”

Boof.

“I will not.”

Barnabus smacked her with his wagging tail as he walked past her back towards home. Wednesday wrinkled her nose and reached down to ruffle his fur on his head as she walked with him. Now that he had already sniffed everything along the path, he stayed by Wednesday’s side as they walked home.

When they were back inside Wednesday knelt down and undid his leash, and Barnabus licked her face. She scowled and tapped his nose with her finger, and he started panting at her.

“Disgusting beast,” she muttered, reaching out to scratch behind his ears. “Why must you insist on slobbering all over me every night?”

Boof.

This one was quieter, now that they were inside. Barnabus understood that night-time meant quiet time if he was inside. Wednesday had trained him well.

“Your affection is unwanted and despised,” she deadpanned. “Now off with you. Get to bed. I have things to do.”

Boof.

Barnabus bumped his head and body into Wednesday’s leg and waist as she stood up before licking her hand again and trotting off towards Harry’s room. Wednesday grimaced and tore a few paper towels off to wipe her hand and face with.

She got in the shower and set the water hot, shivering as the scalding liquid seared her skin and ran in rivulets down her back. Her fingers ghosted over the ugly scar marring her stomach, the skin twisted and knotted where it hadn’t been allowed to heal properly. The cold always made it worse.

The hot water of the shower helped, somewhat. She found herself, not for the first time, regretting attempting to stitch it up herself. She had succeeded, mostly. It hadn’t gotten infected at any rate. And it did heal.

Wednesday went to bed.

She pulled on a black silk nightie and flicked the light off, crawling into bed. She saw the still-full mug of tea and a half-eaten blueberry muffin on her table and groaned.

“Thing, can you-”

She stopped.

Blinked.

Tonight’s thinking had been a mistake. She had allowed for too much nostalgia.

Thing was back home. With her parents. She hadn’t seen Thing since-

Wednesday leapt out of bed and grabbed the remains of the muffin and marched into the living room, wrenched the window open, and threw the muffin outside. Her breathing was erratic and heavy as she stared out the window, the night chill blowing over her skin and giving her goosebumps.

She closed the window.

Crawled back into bed.

Crossed her arms over her chest.

Ignored the dull ache in her stomach.

And went to sleep.

~~~~~

She needed a new conquest.

Last night wasn’t enough.

Harry made note of her irritability all day. She threw a knife at him. He snatched it out of the air with his tail and threw it back at her. She simply dodged, allowing it to embed itself into the wall. Harry sighed.

“You’re fixing the drywall,” he muttered before going back to his late lunch.

~~~

“I’m going out tonight,” Wednesday said, pulling her hair out of her face and tying it up with a band in another impromptu ponytail. “Don’t wait up for me this time.”

She was wearing black jeans and a slightly ripped black t-shirt that clung to her skin. Over that was a leather jacket. One of her favorites. Other women also seemed to like it, which was a bonus.

“Two in a row? Jesus,” Harry muttered.

“Last night was poor quality,” Wednesday snapped.

“Uh huh. Be safe and shit,” Harry muttered, returning his attention to the video game on the television.

“I am always safe. I am an Addams,” Wednesday said.

“Uh huh.”

And then she was out the door.

She was going to a new club this time. It had just opened up three months ago, and Viper had yet to prowl there. She used the subway to get close before walking the rest of the way, flashing her ID to the bouncer as she walked in through the doors.

Immediately she started tuning out the music. It was loud, thumping heavily in her ears and making her blood vibrate beneath her skin. She curled her lip as she made her way to the bar, sitting down on a stool and requesting a soda. She wouldn’t drink much of it, but it allowed her to survey the area with a drink in her hand.

“Damn. Didn’t think I’d see you again,” the bartender said as he spotted her. He filled a glass with Coke and slid it across the bar top, putting his elbows on it as he stared her down.

“Do I know you?” Wednesday asked, her voice acid as she looked the man up and down. He didn’t look familiar.

“The Bronze. Tended bar there eight months ago. Saw you go home with five different women in six weeks,” he chuckled. “On the prowl tonight?”

“Don’t talk to me,” Wednesday snapped, taking her drink. The bartender held his hands up and backed away, attending to other people’s orders. Wednesday kept looking.

Fifteen minutes later, she was approached.

“Oh, em, gee, I love that jacket,” a bubbly voice came from behind her. Wednesday didn’t acknowledge it at first, taking a sip from her drink as the woman came up and sat next to her, facing towards her and leaning her elbow on the counter. Out of the corner of her eye Wednesday could see blonde hair with a long pink streak in it.

“Thank you,” Wednesday said, slipping the mask of Viper over her face that allowed her demeanor to relax, her voice to not sound as stiff or sharp. “It’s one of my favorites.”

“I can see why. You look really good in it. What’s your name?” the woman asked, twirling one of her fingers through her hair.

“Viper,” Wednesday said easily. She waited, then, for one of two reactions. Either this person had heard of her and would, inevitably, comment on such, or would not have heard of her and would comment on the absurdity of the name.

What she wasn’t expecting, at all, was what the woman said next.

“Whoa. I didn’t know people actually had that name. I used to know someone who wrote novels, and that was the main character. I thought it was a bit wacky, like, nobody’s actually named that, but I guess that’s egg on my face!”

Wednesday froze.

She turned her face. Slightly. Carefully. Just enough to look at the face of the person sitting next to her.

Beaming at her, dressed in an abhorrent mish-mash of colors that would put the most over-the-top pride parade to shame, sitting right next to her, was none other than Enid Sinclair.

Shit.

“I have to go,” Wednesday said, standing up abruptly and fishing out a bill from her purse to pay for the soda. “Nice meeting you.”

“Oh? Is everything alright? That’s such a pity I was enjoying talking to you,” Enid giggled.

“We’ve exchanged a mere handful of sentences. I do not understand how you could enjoy that,” Wednesday snapped.

“Wow, someone’s cranky tonight,” Enid said easily. “Wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

“Suit yourself. Can I get your number at least?” Enid asked.

“...why?” Wednesday asked, kicking herself immediately. She needed to leave. Not exchange more words. Leave.

“You’re attractive and I’m shooting my shot,” Enid said with a shrug.

“...I don’t have a phone,” Wednesday muttered. “Goodbye.”

“God that’s so weird, how do you even live in the modern age without a phone?” Enid gasped, putting a hand to her chest. “Well, I come here pretty much every Friday and Saturday, soooo...come back if you wanna hit me up again? When you’re not so busy?”

“I will not. Goodbye Enid.”

“Oh, okay. Bye!”

Wednesday swept away, not realizing that Enid had immediately made a confused face and almost called out to her back, standing up and watching her leave.

When she arrived home Wednesday immediately went into her room and started stripping, slamming her bedroom door behind her. She turned the shower as hot as it would go and sunk to a sitting position, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them.

Her breathing heaved.

Her hands felt numb.

There was a knocking on the door.

“Wednesday? You good?” Harry asked, concerned.

Wednesday didn’t respond.

“Okay, well...let me know if you need anything. I’m here for you.”

“Fuck. Off,” Wednesday said as loud as she could.

“Love you too. Me and Barney will be in the living room if you need us,” Harry said, clearly relieved that Wednesday said something to him.

Wednesday gritted her teeth and curled further into herself.

She sat under the hot shower until the water turned cold, and she didn’t leave the shower until her teeth started to chatter from the cold. She toweled herself off and moved to her bed, not even bothering to put her night clothes on as she pulled the blanket over herself.

Her dreams were plagued that night by a cacophony of colors and unwanted memories.

~~~~~

Seven years ago

Five months after the Crackstone Incident

~~~~~

It was moving in day.

Wednesday was unpacking her things in the same room she had stayed in last semester.

Enid arrived only an hour later, squealing when she saw Wednesday and throwing herself at her, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and bumping her forehead gently against the back of Wednesday’s head.

“Bestie! I missed you so much!” she squealed.

“Enid,” Wednesday greeted stiffly. “I suggest you relinquish your hold on me if you wish to keep your arms.”

“Phooey you. You don’t mean that,” Enid muttered as she nuzzled the back of Wednesday’s head. “I know you missed me too.”

“I did not,” Wednesday protested. “It was a relief to finally escape from the colors and your incessant pop music.”

“You missed me sooooooooooooooo much,” Enid giggled. “Wanna know how I know?”

“Please enlighten me,” Wednesday drawled.

“Because you only texted Xavier to get my number. And then I was the oooonly person you texted alllllll summer!”

Wednesday scowled.

“You don’t know that for certain.”

“Totes do. I asked everyone else and you didn’t text anyone else. Not even Eugene!”

Wednesday stood and shoved Enid away from her, glaring at her. “This means nothing.”

But there was no heat to her words, no anger. Just indignation and embarrassment. Enid giggled.

“Sure Wends. Anyway, wanna help me decorate? Do you still want to split our room up two ways or do you want to maybe switch it up a little this year?”

Wednesday glared at her silently for a few minutes. Thing hopped up onto her shoulder and made some rapid signs, and Wednesday sighed.

“What...what do you propose?”

~~~

Two months later

~~~

“You’re so whipped Addams,” Yoko Tanaka laughed as Wednesday growled under her breath, walking through the quad. “Enid will be fine, okay? The Furs will take care of her, just like they did the last couple full moons.”

“I do not trust them. They did not accept her before she shifted, they do not deserve her now. Enid deserves better friends and compatriots,” Wednesday said haughtily, turning her nose up in the air.

“Like you?” Yoko teased.

“I am nobody’s friend,” Wednesday declared hotly.

“Uh huh. Whatever you say Addams,” Yoko said, rolling her eyes. “Everyone can see her clinging off you like a koala, you know that right? We do have eyeballs.”

“For now,” Wednesday said darkly.

“And you haven’t actually seriously threatened me once this semester,” Yoko pointed out. “I think you’re going soft.”

“Call me soft again and we’ll find out just how much garlic it takes to incapacitate you for the rest of the school year,” Wednesday threatened, turning and leveling Yoko with a mighty glare.

“See? Totally unserious. Because if you actually did that Enid would be super smad at you and you’d hate yourself for it, so you won’t. Plus I think you like me.”

“What is ‘smad’.”

“Sad mad. Smad,” Yoko said.

“That is an abhorrent butchering of the English language,” Wednesday said, offended. “As a novelist I insist you cease your unnecessary attacks on words.”

“Oh, Addams, if you think that’s bad wait until you see Twitter,” Yoko said sympathetically.

“Never.”

“What if Enid says pretty please with a cherry on top?”

“I will gut you.”

“Uh huh. Can I have your notes for last class by the way? I was distracted.”

~~~

Three months later

~~~

“I’m sorry,” Wednesday said desperately.

“Not good enough,” Enid spat. “And way, way too late.”

“Enid. Please,” Wednesday begged. “Just let me explain, let me - “

“No, Wednesday. Just...just go. I don’t want to hear the excuses, okay? Don’t text me. Just...go.”

~~~~~

“I’m sorry!” Wednesday blurted out, sitting up in bed, her lungs heaving. Her hair was a mess, and she felt sticky with cold sweat. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she swore she could taste bile in her throat.

She threw her legs over the side of her bed after a few minutes and took a few heaving breaths before stumbling into the bathroom and falling to her knees, gagging into the toilet. Eventually she threw up, spewing stomach acid into the toilet bowl.

After a few minutes Wednesday groaned and wiped her mouth, standing up and grabbing her bathroom cup and filling it up with water from the sink. She swished it around in her mouth before spitting it out and looking at herself in the mirror.

Her eyes were bloodshot. She looked haggard.

Her stomach hurt.

She pulled on some clothes and went out to the kitchen. She needed coffee.

“Mornin,” Harry said as she walked by the couch. Wednesday grunted in response. “Strike out last night?”

“Die.”

“Oof. Struck out bad huh?”

“Die a thousand times.”

Wednesday stayed in her room for two weeks.

She only came out for the occasional scrounging up of food, locking her bedroom door and drinking water from her bathroom sink. She still took Barnabus out for his nightly walk though.

And then she did something stupid.

She put on the same outfit she wore two weeks ago and went back to that club.

It was a Friday evening.

She sat at the bar and ordered a Coke. The bartender didn’t say anything this time.

She waited.

“Viper! You came back!” came a cheery, surprised voice. Enid Sinclair bounced up to her and sat on the stool next to her, grinning.

“Hello,” Wednesday said, her heart hammering in her chest. Could Enid hear it? She was a werewolf, with enhanced senses. Come to think of it, why didn’t she recognize Wednesday’s scent? She should have.

“So, weird question but I’ve been thinking about it like, non-stop, how did you know my name? I didn’t introduce myself or anything,” Enid said, looking curiously at Wednesday.

“...I’m fairly certain you did,” Wednesday bluffed.

“Really?” Enid asked skeptically. “Because like, I’ve been thinking about it, and you look like, suuuuper familiar. Totes familiar. Did you happen to go to like, this school in Vermont?”

She definitely knew something. If Wednesday lied about this it would be too much. She had to cop to this, at least.

“You got me,” Wednesday said, allowing the Viper mask to slip over her and keep her voice steady. “I was at Nevermore. I read your blog. We were in different circles though.”

“I knew it! You looked way too familiar for us to have not met before,” Enid said, snapping her fingers. “I don’t remember anyone named Viper though! I feel like I’d remember that name.”

“Like I said, different circles,” Wednesday said airily, hoping if she acted casually enough about it, Enid would drop it and accept the explanation.

“I guess so!” she said, grinning. “It’s super cool to meet a Nevermore alumni here though. I just moved to NYC from California so I’m like, super new to the scene here.”

“There’s more of us here than you’d expect,” Wednesday said with a nod.

Enid ordered a drink and started sucking it down, with Wednesday watching her curiously. Did Enid really not recognize her? Her scent, her face, anything?

She supposed she did dress a lot differently than she used to. And she didn’t wear her braids anymore.

“Is that why you left so fast two weeks ago? I’m so sorry if I like, kinda ambushed you,” Enid said apologetically. “I super didn’t expect to get like, recognized or anything.”

“It’s okay. I was just surprised,” Wednesday said, not needing any help from Viper to be truthful here. She certainly was surprised to see her, but she was going to omit the panic attack, nightmares, and vomiting.

“That’s super cool though! I’m so sad you don’t have a phone though, I’d love to catch up with a Nevermore buddy,” Enid sighed sadly.

“I have a mailbox,” Wednesday said, stirring her soda around with her little straw. “You could always write me a letter.”

“Ohmygod that’d be so cool,” Enid said, taking another large sip of her drink and finishing it off, quickly ordering another one. “We could be like, pen pals!”

“Sure,” Wednesday said, feeling a cold knot in her stomach. What was she doing?

Well, she knew what she was doing. Of course she knew.

Stupid curse.

Stupid Enid.

No, not stupid Enid. Stupid Wednesday.

“What’s your address?” Enid asked. Wednesday gave it to her and told her the apartment number as well, and Enid wrote it down in her phone.

“Sweet! I will, like, totally write you!” Enid said with a grin.

“Looking forward to it,” Wednesday said, taking a sip of her soda. Enid had already drained her second drink and was on her third, and Wednesday wondered if werewolves had a higher alcohol tolerance than humans.

“So like…..if you went to Nevermore, what are you? Cus, like, if you know me you know what I am so fair’s fair, share!” Enid said, giggling at her rhyme. “I’m a poet!”

“Uh...huh,” Wednesday said, ignoring the way her heart was skipping beats. The traitor.

No. She was the traitor.

She also couldn’t say she was a seer. That’d give it away immediately and then Enid would leave and Wednesday wasn’t ready for that. She couldn’t go through that a second time. Not yet. She had to think of something, she had to think fast.

“Fur,” she said without thinking. “But without the fur,” she added quickly. “Only half-fur. Dad’s side. He’s gone though. And it never, ah, happened. For me.”

Damn Enid Sinclair and the way she turned Wednesday’s tongue into knots.

“Ohhh shit,” Enid said, her face drooping. “I’m like, so sorry. That’s awful. I know how you feel, kinda. I was a super late bloomer but I can’t imagine it just like, never happening. That sucks.”

Wednesday shrugged, feeling the skin on her neck crawl.

“It’s...alright,” she said, her voice stiff again as the Viper mask started to slip away before Wednesday could jam it back on. “I’m over it.”

“I guess that explains why you don’t smell like wolf though. You smell more like dog, and….big cat?” Enid said, sniffing curiously. “What is that? That’s not a normal house cat.”

“My roommate has a dog,” Wednesday explained. “And he’s...the cat.”

“Huh. Werecat?” Enid giggled.

Wednesday shook her head. “Can’t tell you.”

“Oh now I really want to know,” Enid said, gasping and leaning in. “C’mon you can tell me. I won’t tell. Prommy.”

“Prommy?” Wednesday asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you a child?”

Enid just giggled as she finished her third drink. She was definitely getting a buzz, if not a little tipsy by now, Wednesday gathered.

“C’moooooon Viperrrrr please tell me,” Enid said, making very big puppy-dog eyes and Wednesday, who had to look away to prevent her heart from snapping in half.

“It’s a secret,” Wednesday said, fighting the corners of her lips as they threatened to turn upwards. “And it’s not mine to tell.”

“Ughhhh you’re no fun,” Enid grumbled. “I’ll figure it out someday. Maybe I’ll just like, show up and ask him and show him my claws and stuff. Do you wanna see my claws? I just painted my nails like, last week, so they’re so pretty right now.”

Enid was definitely a little tipsy.

“I would love to see your claws,” Wednesday said, rolling her eyes fondly even as her stomach did turns and her heart pounded.

Gods, what was she doing?

“Thennnn maybe you should come see ‘em,” Enid giggled. “In my bed.”

Wednesday barely avoided choking on her soda.

“Someone’s bold,” she rasped out after a moment, clearing her throat.

“Or your bed,” Enid continued. “Whichever you want, really. I already have your address anyways.”

“How did you get here?” Wednesday asked.

“Taxi! You?”

“Subway.”

“Ooooooh I wanna ride the subway! I love the subway. Let’s ride the subway!” Enid giggled.

Enid was definitely a little tipsy. And a lightweight. Somehow.

“Sure,” Wednesday said, wanting to strangle herself. What. Was. She. Doing?

Enid threw some money on the bar top and grabbed Wednesday by the wrist to start leading her out of the club. Wednesday waited for the vision, or for the revulsion, but neither one came.

Instead her wrist just felt warm.

Then she felt nauseous for another reason.

Enid led her to the street and Wednesday walked her back to her apartment. Enid babbled about everything and nothing all at once the entire way, but she slowly became more coherent as the walking worked some of the booze out of her system.

She was still a very touchy person, Wednesday realized. Enid had her hands practically all over her. There was an arm around Wednesday’s shoulders, and Enid kept bumping her head lightly against Wednesday’s.

Wednesday swallowed the bile in her throat and kept walking.

She prayed Harry would be in bed when they got home.

“Don’t wake my roommate,” she whispered as she unlocked the door. Enid nodded enthusiastically.

“I am...stealth-wolf,” Enid whispered, striking a ninja pose. “Wah!”

“….Uh huh,” Wednesday said, pushing the door open and letting herself in.

Boof!

Barnabus rushed up to Enid and started sniffing her legs. Enid immediately burst into giggles.

“Oh hello! Hello there! Well aren’t you so friendly? Hi baby! Hi puppy! Hello!” Enid said, her voice soft and quiet as she cooed over Barnabus, reaching down to scritch and pet him from head to tail. Barnabus panted and tapped his paws happily.

“I’ll take you out later Barnabus,” Wednesday muttered as she closed the door behind her.

“Oh em gee his name is Barnabus?” Enid giggled.

“His name is Barnabus Bartholomew Baxter the Fourth,” Wednesday said. “I call him Barnabus. Harry calls him Barney.”

“I love him. I would die for Barnabus Bartholy-Bart hall, uh,” Enid said, flubbing her words and blowing a raspberry. “I would die for him.”

“Please don’t,” Wednesday sighed.

“Oh? Like me that much already Viper?” Enid giggled, reaching up and poking Wednesday’s nose. “Boop!”

Wednesday felt sick.

“Sure,” she said, rolling her eyes. “My room is this way.”

“Mmmm,” Enid purred, standing up and pulling her coat off to hang on the coat rack. “Sounds good.”

Wednesday led Enid down the hall and into her room, closing the door behind her with a soft click. She locked it, just to be sure. She really did not want Harry interrupting...whatever this was.

Again, she wondered. What was she doing?

Was she seriously going to sleep with Enid Sinclair?

Was that actually happening right now?

No.

Definitely not.

She was probably dreaming. This was probably a dream, that would rapidly turn into a nightmare any moment now. So she might as well enjoy the dream while it lasted.

Wednesday shrugged her coat off and hugged Enid from behind as Enid inspected her room. She felt Enid’s hands cover hers and she suppressed a delighted shiver.

Gods.

She missed this.

“I see you like black,” Enid giggled.

“I do,” Wednesday said quietly.

“Even your bed is black.”

“It is. You’ll make a nice contrast to it,” Wednesday murmured, closing her eyes and allowing her dream-senses to be flooded with Enid. It had been too long. She never got to say-

Never got to do -

Wednesday tasted bile. She scrunched her face up and willed the thoughts away.

This was just a dream.

Dream-Enid turned around in her arms and took some steps back towards the bed, giggling.

Until the backs of her knees hit the bed.

She stumbled and sat down, her face level with Wednesday’s chest as she looked up at her through her eyelashes.

“Beautiful,” Wednesday couldn’t stop herself from murmuring, bringing a hand up to cup Enid’s cheek as she gazed into her eyes. Something shifted in Dream-Enid’s eyes just then as her mouth dropped open a little bit, and she shivered.

“Um...thanks,” Dream-Enid said, licking her lips. “Are you...hey, are you sure we never properly met?”

Wednesday’s stomach lurched. “Why do you ask?”

“I...I dunno. I thought I smelled something,” Dream-Enid muttered, leaning into Wednesday’s hand and closing her eyes.

Wednesday bit her lip.

This was just a dream, right?

Right?

“What’s that?” Dream-Enid asked. Her eyes were open now, and she was looking at Wednesday’s desk. “Is that a...that’s a typewriter?”

A crack across reality, like a broken mirror-glass. Wednesday stumbled backwards, ripping her hand away from Enid’s face. Her palm stung, her heart pounded, her throat burned with bile. Enid’s eyes snapped to her.

“I recognize that typewriter,” she whispered. She stood up and walked over to it, running her fingers across the keys in a manner almost reverent. Like it was a holy object. Enid saw one of the papers, crumpled up in the garbage bin. A discarded page.

Before Wednesday could stop her Enid was reaching in and yanking the paper out, unfolding it and reading it.

“Enid,” Wednesday whispered.

“Viper de la Muerte,” Enid whispered, her hands trembling.

“Enid, please,” Wednesday whispered again, hugging her arms to herself. She could feel her fingernails digging into her own skin.

Her stomach ached.

“Please tell me this is some kind of fucked up dream,” Enid said as she looked up to the ceiling, laughing humorlessly. “Oh, god, I cannot deal with this right now.”

Wednesday said nothing. She bit her lip. Her legs were shaking.

Enid looked at her.

She looked back.

“I’m gonna ask you one time,” Enid said, her voice steady, and deathly silent. “And so help me god if you lie to me, I will kill you.”

Wednesday shivered.

“You’re Wednesday. Aren’t you?”

Wednesday stared.

Enid stared back. She crumpled the paper in her fist.

“I already know it’s true,” Enid whispered. Wednesday could see the tears shimmering in her eyes. “I would recognize that typewriter anywhere. I stared at it enough times at Nevermore. Watching you write. But I need you to say it.”

Wednesday felt sick. If she opened her mouth she would throw up.

She fell to her knees.

Enid kept staring at her.

“Don’t follow me,” Enid whispered.

Wednesday heard her door open.

And then she heard her door shut.

And then, Wednesday Addams cried.

~~~~~

Harry found her the next morning, curled up on her floor, her face still tracked with tears. He went out to the local bakery and bought her a dozen blueberry muffins. He set one with a fried egg on her desk, along with a hot mug of tea with two teaspoons of sugar and no milk.

He sat on the floor and gently reached out to poke Wednesday’s shoulder. Once.

Twice.

Three times.

It took six until she stirred.

“Please tell me I’m dead,” she croaked.

“Fraid not buddy,” Harry said quietly. “But there is a fresh muffin on your desk.”

“I don’t deserve it,” Wednesday whispered.

“Don’t care. You’re gonna eat it,” Harry stated.

“I won’t. Just let me wither away on the floor,” Wednesday whispered, curling into herself.

“No can do chief,” Harry said. “I made you tea too.”

“Pour it over my face and burn my eyes out.”

“That’s gonna be a hard no.”

“Suffocate me with the muffin, then.”

“Also no.”

“What good are you then?” Wednesday whispered, her voice hoarse and harsh. “Just let me die in peace. It’s what I deserve.”

“Wanna talk about it?” Harry asked.

“No. Die.”

“If it’s bad enough for you to wanna die over it, does it really matter if I know?” Harry said with a shrug.

Wednesday didn’t respond at first.

Then she started talking.

“I had a friend,” she whispered. Harry’s eyebrows raised, but he said nothing. “At first I was horrible to her. I had never wanted a friend. She irritated me. So I was nasty and mean to her like I was to everyone else in the hopes that she would leave me alone. But she didn’t. She was so...kind. So patient with me. She pushed me, irritated me, grated on my every last nerve.”

Wednesday swallowed.

“But she also respected me. She never tried to touch me, not really. She would sometimes reach out to hug me out of instinct, because she was a hugger with all her other friends, but she would always catch herself. Always. She never wanted to hurt me or make me uncomfortable, she...cared. And I hated her for it. I wanted her to stop. I wanted to be alone. I didn’t want friends, I didn’t want her, I didn’t want these...these feelings.”

Harry nodded. He could understand that, a little.

“And then something happened.”

Harry nodded again.

“The Crackstone Incident,” he supplied. Wednesday blinked in shock. He smiled a crooked smile. “C’mon. You’re Wednesday Addams. Every outcast who keeps in the know knows what happened at Nevermore seven years ago.”

“...yes. The Crackstone Incident. The Hyde. Joseph Crackstone back from the dead. She...she shifted. To save me. To save me.”

“Your friend was a Fur?”

“Yes. No. She was a late bloomer. She could only make claws,” Wednesday murmured, curling in on herself further. “The Furs didn’t accept her. She was a lone wolf. Her best friend was a vampire. But she shifted to save me. On a blood moon.”

“Damn. Wolves normally can’t change on a blood moon,” Harry murmured. “That girl must be really something.”

“She is,” Wednesday whispered. “She hugged me for the first time that night. I hugged her back. I couldn’t stop myself. She was hurt. Covered in blood. I was hurt. Badly. But all I could think about...all I could think about was ‘Please, god, let Enid be okay. Let her be alive. Please.’”

Harry nodded.

“We all went home after that. Over summer break I...got irritable. I would wake up in my bed and look across the room and be...disappointed at the lack of color. It was disgusting. Abhorrent. My mind and heart were becoming traitors.”

“You missed your friend,” Harry murmured.

“I missed her so much,” Wednesday whispered. “It hurt. I didn’t know that was possible. To crave someone’s presence so much it leaves aches in your chest. It hurt.”

“Yeah...yeah it does that,” Harry said.

“I had a phone. I got her number and texted her. I didn’t text anyone else with it, ever,” Wednesday muttered. “We spoke all through summer. About nothing. Everything. Her favorite color (blue, she just liked how pink looked on her better), her favorite film (Spirited Away even though it always made her cry), what she ate for breakfast every morning (Bacon. So much bacon. Paired with either pancakes or waffles, whichever she was in the mood for, with maple syrup and a squirt of whipped cream on top) and more.”

“Is that when it happened?” Harry asked.

Wednesday fell silent.

“...When you fell in love with her?” he continued, his voice quieter. Softer.

Wednesday let out a single, solitary sob.

“No,” she whispered. “I think that happened the first time I looked at her.”

“You said you hated her.”

“I thought I did. But I never could have. I was fooling myself. I was always fooling myself.”

“Love does that to people,” Harry murmured.

“Are you familiar with the Addams Curse, Harry?” Wednesday asked.

“Vaguely. Heard some things, here and there.”

“A long, long time ago, an Addams spurned the love of a witch,” Wednesday whispered, remembering the story like her father had just told it to her last night. “She was devastated. Distraught. He had loved her, doted on her, given her everything, and she had given him everything in return. But then he met another woman and left the witch behind with nothing but a broken heart. So, she cursed him. She cursed him so he would never love again, never love anyone except for her, and she cursed him so that love would devour him from the inside out until he died. But her love for him was so great, her scorn so powerful, that her curse unintentionally spread throughout his progeny. He had a son with his new wife, and that son bore the curse. And so did his children, and the children after them.”

Wednesday took a breath.

“It is still in our blood today. An Addams will love only once. And whether our love is returned, rejected, it matters not. We will only ever love once. And without our love, we will wither and slowly die.”

“Damn,” Harry murmured. “So Enid…?”

“Woke my curse,” Wednesday whispered. “The day she set eyes on me she woke up my blood, set it ablaze. That summer was only when I began accepting it. Slowly.”

“What happened next?” Harry asked.

“We returned to Nevermore for the next semester. She immediately hugged me upon seeing me and I allowed it. But I was embarrassed. Ashamed for falling victim to the curse, torn between wanting to throw myself into her arms and flay my living skin from my flesh for daring to have such a desire. I warred. I screamed. I cried. I battled. All the while she never knew.”

Harry grimaced. Wednesday kept talking.

“She had a boyfriend,” Wednesday whispered. “Ajax. I hated him. Not because of who he was, but because of the curse. He never did anything wrong but I hated him so much. I couldn’t stand the sight of them together, couldn’t stand the way he looked at her. She got angry with me. Asked me over and over why I couldn’t just support her, why I hated him so much, why I kept making her choose between her best friend and the boy she loved.”

“Oof. Unrequited love is a bitch,” Harry said sympathetically. Wednesday nodded.

“It is indeed a ‘bitch’,” she said. “...It all came to a head near the end of the semester. Enid was angry. So, so angry. She gave me a chance to come clean, she knew there was something deeper. She gave me a chance to tell her the truth, so we could figure it out together. Like we always did.”

“I’m...gonna guess you didn’t do that,” Harry said with a grimace.

“I did not. I lied through my teeth. I denied every last feeling I had for her. I made up some inane excuses about why I did not like Ajax and why I felt Enid was poorly matched with him. She interpreted it as me thinking she was dumb, and could not make decisions for herself. So she snapped. She told me that if I couldn’t support her and accept her choices, that I wasn’t fit to be her friend. I saw red that night, and I attacked Ajax with a knife. He lived, fortunately. Enid confronted me the next day and I realized...that I lost her. I tried to explain, I tried to confess everything, but she wouldn’t hear it. It was...too little, too late.”

“Jeez,” Harry muttered. “Remind me again to never seriously piss you off.”

Wednesday shrugged limply. “I am a defanged serpent. I would never hurt you. Losing Enid took all the pleasure away from violence.”

“So how does this connect to last night?” Harry asked.

“I found her two weeks ago. In a club,” Wednesday whispered. “She didn’t recognize me. I gave her my alias. When I realized it was her I left. I was distraught for two weeks, and so I...last night I went back.”

“Like an idiot,” Harry muttered.

“A massive idiot,” Wednesday concurred. “I just...I had to see her again. She still didn’t recognize me. Not right away. Not really. She said I was familiar but I simply said I was from Nevermore but we walked in different circles. She accepted it. She was drinking. Invited me back to her place, or invited herself over to mine. I took her here. She was...touching me. I knew that what I was doing was...wrong but I...Harry, I needed her.”

“...Did you sleep with her, Wends?” Harry asked, his tone dropping. Wednesday shook her head violently.

“I did not. I...I might have. But I like to think I would have stopped myself before she stopped it. I would not have taken advantage of her. I couldn’t have. I would have enjoyed her presence a little longer but I would have stopped,” Wednesday said firmly. Harry looked at her for a few moments before nodding.

“Alright. I’m cool with you hooking up with random chicks with your silly alias, but straight up lying to someone you used to know to get them in bed with you would’ve been a line too far. So I’m glad you didn’t ultimately do that, even if...you got close. And I can understand getting close, at least,” Harry said.

Wednesday just nodded.

“She saw the typewriter. Then it all fell into place. She recognized me, and gave me a chance to admit it,” Wednesday whispered.

“Did you?” Harry asked.

Wednesday didn’t respond.

“Shit,” Harry said after a few minutes.

They sat there together for a while longer.

“So what are we gonna do?” Harry asked.

“What do you mean?” Wednesday said, pulling herself up to a sitting position and leaning against her bed. She looked like an absolute wreck.

“Well, as your friend, you either need closure or some serious therapy. Or both,” Harry said thoughtfully. “So what are we gonna do here? What’s the plan?”

“Plan?” Wednesday asked, her face blank.

“Obviously you gotta tell her the truth. If this curse is as nutty as you say it is, if you come clean about everything maybe you guys can repair things enough to where you can at least be friends. That’s gotta be at least one way of fulfilling the contract right, so you don’t just waste away from the curse?”

Wednesday slowly nodded.

“Romantic feelings do not need to be reciprocal for the curse to be satisfied,” she mumbled. “The object of our affections must simply be in our life, we must have contact with them. Otherwise we will slowly be driven to insanity, and eventual death.”

“So you two fix your shit enough to be friends again, and bada bing bada boom. Curse satisfied, no dead Wednesday, and hopefully a much uh, happier Wednesday too,” Harry said.

“I’m never happy,” Wednesday muttered.

“Exactly. So let’s fix that,” Harry said.

Wednesday just stared at him.

“Why would you do this for me?” she asked.

“You’re my friend,” Harry said with a shrug.

“No I’m not.”

“You’re Barnabus’s friend.”

“….”

“Seriously, though. Whether your traumatized-ass brain wants to admit or not, we’re friends,” Harry continued. “You care about me, and I care about you. You’ve given me a lot of advice and shit over the past two years, you’ve helped me out a lot. You can threaten my life all you want Wednesday, but you clearly care about me. Let me help you out for once besides just making sure you eat at least once a day.”

“How would you...go about doing that?” Wednesday asked after a while.

“Simple. I’ll be your wingman!” Harry declared.

“...my what?”

“You know. I’ll gas you up to Enid, persuade her to give you a chance, and then all you gotta do is tell the truth,” Harry said. Like it was easy. Like it really was that simple.

“...and that’s it?” Wednesday asked, skeptical.

“Well. I mean, not really,” Harry said with a shrug. “It’ll be kinda up to you two after that. You’ll probably have to apologize and grovel. A lot. I mean, you straight-up assaulted her boyfriend. A blood curse gives you some leeway but like, damn girl. That’s kinda fucked up.”

“I can do that,” Wednesday said quietly.

She would do anything for Enid.

“And you’ll have to stop lying to her,” Harry continued. “Part of an apology is changing your behavior moving forward. So you have to start being honest with her. About everything.”

Wednesday gulped.

“I...can do that,” she whispered.

“Anything else is kinda up to her I guess,” Harry murmured. “I mean you can do all that and she’s still allowed to not forgive you or want you back. So I guess you gotta be prepared for that possibility.”

Wednesday shrugged.

“I’ve already lost her. If I can confess everything and she still does not want me, that at least finally gives me permission to die.”

“...okay so we do not have the time or the drugs to unpack that statement right now,” Harry said after a few moments. “And we’re definitely not saying that to Enid.”

“You said to be honest. About everything.”

“Not that.”

“Why?”

“Just...cus.”

“That is a terrible reason.”

“Suck it up buttercup.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“There’s Wednesday Addams,” Harry said with a chuckle as Wednesday sent a paltry death glare at him.

“Fine. I will omit that specific detail from my confession to Enid but if she is upset with me at any point in the future for the omission I am throwing you under the bus with no guilt whatsoever,” Wednesday declared.

“I am super okay with that actually,” Harry laughed. “Alright. Go get cleaned up. Do you know when she’s usually at this club?”

“Friday and Saturday,” Wednesday responded.

“Then tonight we ride, my man,” Harry said, standing up and offering Wednesday his hand.

“But...would it not be too soon?” Wednesday asked, her brow furrowed.

“Nah. Strike while the iron is hot and all that,” Harry said, shrugging. “Just trust me. Go clean up. Eat breakfast. Then we’ll talk strategy.”

Wednesday looked at his outstretched hand and slowly, tentatively, reached her own out. She waited for the revulsion. Waited for the nausea. The hatred.

It didn’t come.

She felt him gently grasp her hand and pull her to her feet before immediately letting her go. He didn’t comment on the fact that that was the first time Wednesday willingly made physical contact with him. He didn’t look at all fazed by it.

“Shower,” he insisted. “You reek.”

She scowled. He raised an eyebrow at her and she stomped into the bathroom.

~~~~~

“This was a horrible idea,” Wednesday said as they stood outside the club. “I cannot believe I let you talk me into this. How did I let you do that? I am going home.”

“No you’re not,” Harry said firmly. Wednesday scowled. “C’mon. We’re burning time.”

They walked in.

“Point her out to me,” Harry muttered.

Wednesday looked around. At first she didn’t see anything and was worried that Enid hadn’t come, that maybe Wednesday had ruined everything and Enid would never come back to this club and she’d never see Enid again and she’d never get a chance to -

“Blonde with the pink highlight sitting in the booth with – ugh. Uhm. Fuck,” Wednesday swore under her breath.

“With the Asian chick? I see her,” Harry said with a nod.

“Yoko Tanaka,” Wednesday said bitterly. “Enid’s best friend from Nevermore.”

“...Ah. So what you’re telling me is that this just got a lot harder,” Harry said.

Wednesday scowled.

“Don’t worry,” Harry said, looking at her face. “Just go sit at the bar. I got this.”

“Are you certain?” Wednesday asked. To anyone else, she looked like she was sending a look of pure hatred and poison at Harry. But Harry knew she was just scared, scared that he was going to screw things up, scared that she’d lose her chance.

He nodded.

“Trust,” he said, holding out his fist. Wednesday just stared at it. “Bump it. You know what a fist bump is, right?”

“I’m not stupid,” Wednesday hissed. “I am just debating on whether or not to further debase myself.”

“Just bump my damn fist Wednesday.”

Wednesday scowled and bumped his fist.

“Bar. Sit. Let me do my thing,” Harry said.

Wednesday went and sat at the bar. She could see Harry walk over to the booth and lean against a wooden support beam as he chatted up the two girls. Enid turned to look at him and Wednesday caught a look at her face for the first time that night.

She had been crying.

Wednesday felt her stomach roll.

Yoko was smiling at Harry, so that was hopefully a good sign. Harry was laughing.

Eventually Yoko slid over a little and Harry sat down in the booth. Enid eventually smiled at him, a small one, but it was still a smile.

Wednesday’s heart slammed against her ribcage.

“Watcha havin tonight?” the bartender asked. “Same shit as before?”

“Yes,” Wednesday said. She took a sip of her soda when she got it.

It took half an hour for Harry to leave the booth. Wednesday stood up from the bar and walked around to a corner where she waited for him, and he walked up to her after a few minutes.

“It’s going well,” he immediately reassured her. “We’re talking about Nevermore. I got her talking about you, actually.”

Wednesday’s heart was going to tear itself out of her chest.

“What...what did she say…?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“She was surprisingly...nostalgic?” Harry said, shrugging. “I think we have a good chance here, Wednesday. Just give me a little more time to drop the bomb and hopefully I don’t get a drink thrown in my face.”

Wednesday nodded. They separated and Wednesday took her seat at the bar again. Harry went back to the booth and smiled at the girls.

It took fifteen more minutes.

Wednesday knew it immediately when it happened.

Yoko’s face went dark. Angry. She started looking around the bar furiously. Her eyes went over Wednesday three times, but thankfully she didn’t recognize her.

Wednesday had never been more grateful that she had changed her appearance so much since leaving Nevermore.

Enid looked shocked. Then she looked angry. But then, she looked thoughtful. She said something to Harry, who nodded enthusiastically. He said something that had Yoko scowling and saying something, but she quickly went quiet when Enid glared at her.

Then Harry got up.

He was -

Oh.

He was walking right to Wednesday.

Yoko looked at her again.

This time she recognized her.

Wednesday felt her hands shake a little.

Harry came up and sat next to her.

“Is that what I look like?” she asked, frozen under Yoko’s glare. Harry looked over at her and grimaced.

“Uh. No? Not to me anyway. You uh, never look like you actually mean it.”

Wednesday chose not to examine the implications of that sentence. She was having enough trouble staying put as it was. She wasn’t afraid of Yoko Tanaka. She knew dozens of ways to kill a vampire.

But killing Enid’s best friend would be extremely counter-intuitive to her goals tonight. She was afraid that Yoko could bait her into an altercation that would further damn her in Enid’s eyes.

“She agreed,” Harry murmured.

“She did?” Wednesday whispered.

“Took some convincing. Yoko and I are going to be there to mediate, so you won’t get to do it privately. Enid said she needs witnesses. Just in case.”

Wednesday clenched her jaw and took a deep breath.

Anything for Enid.

“Where? When?” she asked tightly.

“Enid still has our address. She’ll swing by with Yoko later tonight,” Harry said quietly. “Right now we should go. Enid managed to stop Yoko from coming over here and beating the shit out of you right over the bar, but I have no idea how long that’ll last.”

“Yes. Killing her best friend would not exactly endear me to her,” Wednesday muttered. Harry looked at her with an exasperated expression and sighed.

“Let’s go home, Wends,” he said quietly.

Wednesday nodded.

~~~~~

Enid knocked on the door three hours later.

Wednesday was frozen in an armchair.

Harry got up to get the door as Barnabus raced over with him.

“Oh hi baby!”

Wednesday died a little inside.

“Oh who’s such a good boy? Who’s such a good boy? That’s right it’s Barnabus!” Enid cooed. Wednesday heard Barnabus snuffling and panting happily at her presence.

“She’s in the living room,” Harry said.

“She’s actually here? Damn. I thought she’d bolt by now,” Yoko snarked.

“Yoko,” Enid said firmly.

“Hey I said I wouldn’t beat her up. Not that I’d pretend to like her,” Yoko snapped.

Harry walked into the living room with the two girls behind him.

Enid had her fingers curled in Barnabus’s fur. She didn’t look at Wednesday. Yoko looked at Wednesday like she wanted to kill her right there in the living room.

Yoko marched up to the front of Wednesday’s armchair and crossed her arms, staring down at her.

“Alright, Addams. I’m gonna say this one time. You lie to Enid, once? I beat the shit out of you. You make a shitty excuse for yourself? I beat the shit out of you. You insult her or any of her friends once? I beat the shit out of you. You fucking breathe at her wrong, Addams, and I beat the shit out of you? We clear?”

Wednesday swallowed her pride. She grit her teeth and clenched her jaw. She dug her fingernails into her thigh.

She nodded.

Once.

“Crystal,” she ground out.

Yoko raised a single eyebrow at her before scoffing and backing up a few steps. Enid slowly sat down on the couch. Barnabus jumped up with her and laid across her lap, putting his head on her thighs and thumping his tail into the cushions.

Harry sat down in the other armchair and let out a long breath.

“Alright,” he said slowly. “Wednesday’s got some shit to say. I know you two have your grievances with her, but can you be chill and let her talk before you do any beating of the shit?”

“I make no promises,” Yoko spat.

“Yoko,” Enid murmured. She still wasn’t looking at Wednesday.

“...Fine. But my previous statement still stands. So as long as she doesn’t break the rules, I don’t break her,” Yoko grunted.

“Then the floor is yours, bud,” Harry said quietly.

Here it was.

Wednesday’s chance.

Enid was finally going to listen.

She could tell her everything.

…

So why wouldn’t her throat work? Her tongue? Even her brain was going blank.

“Well?” Yoko snarled.

Wednesday started to panic. She couldn’t talk! Why couldn’t she talk!? She needed to talk, she needed to tell Enid! She needed to tell Enid everything!

“She’s not gonna say shit,” Yoko muttered, turning to Enid and grabbing her shoulder. “Enid. Let’s go. This was a shit idea. I told you so.”

“I…” Enid whispered. She still wouldn’t. Look. At. Wednesday.

Talk.

Cursed tongue just move. Talk. Explain yourself. You’ve waited years for this just fucking talk.

“Enid,” Yoko repeated.

“...yeah. Okay,” Enid whispered. She slowly shifted Barnabus’s head off of her lap.

No.

No this wasn’t happening.

Wednesday couldn’t lose her again. She couldn’t lose her again. Not again. Not again. Please, God, not again.

She needed to say it. Say it. Say it with her fucking chest because Enid will never, ever give her another chance.

Enid was already standing when the words finally, finally broke free from Wednesday’s throat. Words that had been buried for seven years. Words that had thousands of tons of dirt and stones on top of the coffin they were buried in, words that had been clawing, desperately, for a way out.

Words Wednesday had nearly forgotten how to say.

“I love you,” Wednesday choked out, nearly swallowing her tongue. Enid froze. Yoko whirled around and glared.

“The fuck did you just say!?” Yoko thundered, pushing her sleeves up.

“Yoko,” Harry said, a warning in his voice.

“No! Fuck you, man! I’m not letting her fuck with my best friend like that! Who the fuck does she think she is!?” Yoko said, marching towards Wednesday with her fist clenched. She pulled her arm back. Wednesday held her chin up, ready to take the punch. Enid was still frozen.

Yoko’s fist flew.

And then it stopped right in front of Wednesday’s face.

Harry was standing.

His tail was out and wrapped around Yoko’s arm, the stinger right against her skin.

“Touch my friend, and you are gonna be in a world of hurt,” Harry said, his voice low. Dangerous. “Ever been stung by a manticore before? It won’t kill a vampire, but you won’t be able to walk in a straight line for a month.”

“Fucking shit,” Yoko whispered, her eyes bugged out.

“Oh,” Enid said eventually. “You’re the cat.”

Harry blinked.

“I smelled you. On her,” Enid said slowly. “Last night.”

“Huh,” Harry said.

“Can you please get that fucking thing away from my arm?” Yoko said, stress evident in her voice as she stared at the stinger.

“You gonna hit my friend?” Harry asked.

“No! Fucking! Jesus get it off!”

Harry slowly unfurled his tail from Yoko’s arm. As soon as she was free she stumbled back several steps, staring at Harry in a combination of fearful awe and begrudging respect.

“Figures Addams would shack it up with a goddamn manticore,” Yoko muttered.

“Surprise,” Harry drawled. “Now let my girl talk. Please.”

Yoko didn’t say anything else. She just crossed her arms and huffed.

Enid slowly sat back down. She still wasn’t looking at Wednesday, but she was paying more attention now. When Barnabus put his head back in her lap she resumed petting him, but it was more absentminded now. Her attention, if not her eyes, was focused entirely on Wednesday.

Now that the words were free, Wednesday found her tongue a lot looser.

She told her everything.

Everything she told Harry.

“Enid I have loved you from the moment I set eyes on you,” Wednesday continued, her heart pounding. Her lungs felt thick as if they were full of cotton, but she continued heaving her breaths as she spoke. She didn’t want to leave a single thing out, leave a solitary stone unturned. “It took me a long time to figure it out. And longer still to even begin to accept it. And by the time I realized that if I didn’t tell you...it was too late.”

Her voice was hoarse. Her entire body was shaking from a combination of not eating anything for practically three days straight and anxiety, fear. Nerves. But she kept pushing.

She told the story of the curse just as she told Harry. Leaving nothing out.

“The curse cannot be rejected. If we try, we...go insane,” Wednesday whispered. “Our love need not be reciprocated for the curse to be satiated. But because I refused to accept it, it drove me to...bouts of madness. Heightened negative emotions, such as anger. Rage….jealousy.”

Enid blinked. She shifted, and for the first time, looked at Wednesday. A small piece of understanding began dawning across her face.

“I hated that you were with Ajax not because I did not trust you to make your own decisions, or because I did not want to support you,” Wednesday whispered. “I did not even particularly dislike Ajax, specifically. It had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with me. My own stubbornness. My own foolish desire to not emulate my parents, to buck the trend of the Addams curse. It was stupid. Monumentally, completely, utterly stupid. I have no excuse. It was stubbornness born of teenage rebellion and a desire to prove myself different to my mother, a desire that was born of misplaced fear and undeserved anger towards a woman who had done nothing but support me my entire life.”

Enid’s eyes went to Wednesday’s face. They locked eyes. Enid looked angry. Confused. But also, clarity was slowly beginning to break through to her eyes. And with it came pity, sadness, more confusion, but what Wednesday clung onto the most was the slight downturn of Enid’s lips. It was a frown, but it was a frown Wednesday had seen so many times before, one she had memorized.

It meant Enid was listening. Truly, truly listening.

And that gave Wednesday hope.

“Suppressing those feelings was the second biggest mistake of my life,” Wednesday continued. “But the biggest mistake was lying to you. You gave me so many chances, and I squandered all of them out of nothing other than my own overinflated ego. And when you gave me one final chance to come clean, told me you would forgive all of it if I told you the truth so we could work on the problem together like we always should have...I lied. I lied through my teeth and ruined it all.”

Yoko scoffed, but Enid didn’t seem to pay her any mind. She just kept looking at Wednesday.

“The curse...took me, that night,” Wednesday whispered. “I was in a fit of blind rage. At...well, everything, but mostly myself. The curse fixated on Ajax, because he had your affections while I didn’t. You chose him over me. For good reason, but the curse does as it does. I could have fought it more. I could have just admitted the truth, accepted the feelings. But I did not. So I hurt him.”

Wednesday swallowed.

“You have no idea how grateful I am that he was alive the next morning,” Wednesday said, sinking into herself a little. “Before you, I used to take pleasure in violence. I would dream of it, relish in it. But in the clarity of the sunrise, when I thought of what I had done, I was...horrified. When I heard that Ajax was alive and would make a full recovery, I was relieved. And I knew I had to fix things. Had to stop this madness. So I went to find you and - “

“And I sent you away,” Enid whispered. Wednesday swallowed. “Oh, God, Willa, I sent you away.”

The nickname pulled tears from Wednesday’s eyes. She tried to blink them away, but that just made them roll down her cheeks for all to see. Yoko snorted derisively.

“When I saw you two weeks ago I thought I was hallucinating, at first,” Wednesday whispered. “I had to leave when I realized you were real. You didn’t recognize me. I thought it was a blessing in disguise. I could escape, and just pretend as if it never happened.”

“But you came back…” Enid murmured.

“I would like to blame the curse,” Wednesday said with a wet, self-deprecating laugh. “But it was not the curse. It was me. I couldn’t bear to stay away from you. I thought over half a decade away would change things. But it did not. It never did. As much as I tried to drown it out with other women, kill it with rigorous suppression of thoughts, the wound in my heart left by your absence never faded. I needed to see you again.”

“Yeah, you totally needed to lie to her and pretend you were someone else just to lure her back to your apartment, too,” Yoko sneered.

“Yoko,” Enid warned.

“No. She’s right,” Wednesday said. Yoko blinked in shock at that. “I lied to you. It was wrong. I should have told you who I was. I should have let you make your own decision, fully informed. But seeing you last night...I couldn’t. I was convinced you were a dream. But that was just more of me fooling myself. I just wanted to pretend, for a little while. I wanted to pretend I hadn’t royally fucked everything. I wanted to pretend that all those years ago when you asked me I told you what I should have, that I loved you. And I wanted to pretend...I wanted to pretend, just for a moment, that you loved me back.”

Wednesday said the last words so quietly she wondered if she even said them at all.

The room was quiet.

Wednesday put her feet on the armchair and brought her knees to her chest, dropping her forehead on them. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks in silent sobs as her shoulders violently shook, but she would not let a single sound come from her. Even if she couldn’t stop the tears.

She was so focused on staying quiet that she didn’t hear the harsh, whispered conversation that took place next to her as Enid stood up. She didn’t feel the change in the air as footsteps moved through the apartment. One set to the front door, out; away. One set to Harry’s room, the door clicking gently shut behind him.

And one to right in front of Wednesday’s armchair.

Someone knelt down in front of her, reached out, and placed a hesitant hand over Wednesday’s own.

Wednesday froze.

“If you told me,” Enid whispered softly. “You wouldn’t have had to pretend.”

And, with a heart thusly scattered into the emptiness beyond, the dam broke.

Hard, ugly sobs began to wrack Wednesday’s entire being. Pain shot through her from muscle spasms as her throat and lungs constricted, the sound of her cries echoing through the small apartment living room.

Years worth of sobs unearthed from their prison cages, set free by the only person in the world with the key.

Tears flooded from her eyes as her nose slowly clogged up with mucus, and still her sobbing did not stop until she was struggling to breathe and was wheezing hard with every inhale. Only then did she realize that someone had their arms around her, because suddenly they were gone.

Only to return a few moments later. Wednesday felt her body being shifted around and then a gentle hand coaxing Wednesday’s face out from her knees, the other hand offering her paper towels in a wad.

“I don’t know where you keep your tissues so I just got these,” Enid whispered. “Please blow your nose, I can tell you’re having trouble breathing.”

Wednesday took them and blew her nose.

It sounded horrible.

She slumped back in the armchair, but instead of being met with cool leather she was met with a bony torso.

Somehow, Enid had maneuvered herself so she was squished next to Wednesday, who was now halfway onto Enid’s lap, and had just flopped backwards into Enid’s torso. Wednesday prepared a flurry of apologies when Enid’s arms immediately wrapped around her, holding her tightly to her chest.

“Enid?” Wednesday asked, confusion littering her voice.

“Wednesday Friday Addams,” Enid murmured, her nose buried in Wednesday’s hair. “Do you have any goddamn idea how many times I dreamed of you saying those words to me?”

Wednesday blinked.

“Hundreds. No, thousands. I lost count, you ass. Do you even know why I was dating Ajax in the first place?” Enid asked.

Wednesday shook her head.

“Because I was trying to get over you,” Enid whispered. “I hoped things had changed after Crackstone. But you kept...god, in hindsight it makes so much sense now, but at the time you just kept rubber-banding between being weirdly clingy and possessive and then keeping me six feet away from you at all times. It sucked, Willa.”

“I’m sorry,” Wednesday whispered.

“Ajax was easy. He liked me, he was nice to me, he didn’t make me feel confused and weird, he wouldn’t randomly drive a stake into my emotions half the time we talked,” Enid continued. “But...he wasn’t you. And it was awful. I kept finding myself wishing he was you, wishing that you could like me the way I liked you. And you hating his guts made that so much harder, because in my mind, what right did you have to hate him? You didn’t want me, which hurt, so why did you get to judge the person who did want me?”

“I’m sorry,” Wednesday whispered. Again.

“I know,” Enid murmured. “I never got over that day either. I regretted telling you to go away instantly, you know. But I was so conflicted over what happened, my emotions were just going haywire and I just...couldn’t be around you. So I sent you away. I planned to just talk to you the next day, but...it was harder than I thought. So I said, okay, I’ll do it the next day. That turned into next week, which turned into next month, which turned into, well...never. I would get my phone out to text you or call you and then I would think of a reason not to.”

“I would have answered,” Wednesday said immediately.

“I know,” Enid said, her voice slightly choked up. “But I kept finding stupid reasons not to. I told myself it was too late. That I made my choice. Or that you probably threw your phone away, or changed your number, or that you probably hated me now, or any number of stupid things.”

“...Can I show you something?” Wednesday whispered.

“Sure.”

Wednesday slowly stood up. Her hand immediately reached out to find Enid’s wrist and she held on like a lifeline, but it was unnecessary. Enid stood up with her and wrapped an arm around Wednesday’s shoulders from behind, keeping her back pressed up against her as the two of them walked in an awkward, shambling way to Wednesday’s bedroom.

She opened up the top drawer of her writing desk and pulled out a wooden box with a latch. She set the box down on the desk and opened the latch, and pushed the box open.

Inside was a cell phone.

Enid sniffled.

“You kept it.”

“It’s still charged. I check it once a week and charge it to full before putting it back in the box,” Wednesday murmured, pressing her back into Enid. “I couldn’t let it die. Just in case. It was the only possible thing I could think of for maybe, maybe you would reach out someday. Maybe one day the phone would buzz in its little box and I would open it and there would be a text from Enid Sinclair. I blocked every other person from Nevermore. I never gave the phone number out to anything, so it doesn’t get those irritating spams that Harry complains about. If it rang, it had to be you.”

“All these years and I could’ve just texted you,” Enid whispered, her lip wobbling.

Wednesday took her watch off. She laid it next to the phone.

“My father gave me this for my twenty-first birthday,” Wednesday murmured. “It’s a tradition for an Addams to receive a watch on their twenty-first. A sword on our eighteenth, and a dagger on our sixteenth.”

“And Hell follows with us,” Enid murmured.

“Apt description, no?” Wednesday asked with a bitter laugh. “I don’t know if he realized just how truly I felt those words. I’ve worn it every day since, a reminder seared into my wrist that Hell follows with me and I am a cancer to all I come across.”

“Willa…” Enid whispered.

“Enid. Words will never be enough to describe the level of regret I have for everything I did to you,” Wednesday said, her voice a bit firmer now. “I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you, if you’ll let me. I will do anything. Say anything. Be anything, for you.”

Enid didn’t say anything at first. Wednesday closed her eyes and drank in the feeling of Enid’s body pressed up against her back, her arm around Wednesday’s collarbone. If Enid decided that in the end, this was too much, and she was better off without Wednesday, Wednesday wanted to remember this moment.

This one, beautiful moment, where Enid knew that Wednesday loved her and she still held her in her arms. Still held Wednesday in her arms. Not Viper. Not the Wednesday who denied her, denied her own love. But the Wednesday who loves her with all her being.

“Be anything, huh?” Enid asked after a few moments.

Wednesday nodded.

“Anything at all. Anything for you.”

“...Okay,” Enid said.

Wednesday blinked.

“Okay?”

“Okay,” Enid replied. “I know what I want you to be.”

“Tell me,” Wednesday pleaded.

“I want you to be...you,” Enid said, nuzzling the top of Wednesday’s head.

Well.

She wasn’t expecting that.

“Pardon?”

“I want you to be Wednesday Friday Addams,” Enid said softly, her lips brushing against Wednesday’s hair. “Whatever that looks like. Whoever that is now. But I want the honest version of Wednesday. The one who doesn’t lie to herself or me. But as long as she can do that, I just want Wednesday.”

Wednesday swallowed. Her body started shaking again.

“But I fucked everything up,” Wednesday whispered. “I ruined it. All of it. I hurt you. I hurt Ajax. I hurt Thing.”

“Thing?”

“He hasn’t spoken to me since you left,” Wednesday whimpered. “He was so angry with me. He said to not speak to him again until I was ready to stop hurting everyone around me, including myself, with my own stupidity. I told him I would chop all his fingers off.”

“Oh, Willa,” Enid murmured softly.

“...I hurt Yoko too,” Wednesday said.

“I wasn’t gonna say it,” Enid said. “But yeah. You did. She’d never admit it but Yoko was so fond of you, Willa. Especially after Crackstone, when you started to soften up a bit. Honestly I think she was even madder than I was when we uh, ‘broke up’.”

“I’m sorry,” Wednesday said.

“I know Willa. I know,” Enid murmured.

“Why would you want me? When I screwed it all up and hurt so many people?” Wednesday whispered.

“Because I love you too,” Enid said quietly. “Funny thing about werewolves? They mate for life. It’s not a fancy-schmancy blood curse like you Addamses, but it basically functions the same way. Ajax was a huge mistake because...like you, I was also in denial and lying to you about it. I was...kind of a massive hypocrite, to be honest.”

“...Enid are you...saying what I think you are saying?” Wednesday whispered. “Because if you are not, and you are merely getting my hopes up only to dash them against the rocks like the liver of Prometheus, I will slit my own wrists here and now.”

“No need for dramatics,” Enid chuckled. “I’m saying that you’re my mate, Willa. Wolves shouldn’t be able to shift on a blood moon, did you know that?”

Wednesday shook her head.

“It only happens in the most dire of circumstances, and even then, sometimes we can’t even shift to save our own lives. Another funny thing about werewolves...is that once we lose our mate, we can’t shift anymore. We can still do the claws, and the fangs, and we still can take a beating better than any human, but when our mate leaves, our wolf goes with them.”

“So you haven’t…”

“Not in years. Not since you left.”

“...Oh.”

“Mmmhm.”

“So what does this mean?” Wednesday asked.

Enid rested her chin on Wednesday’s head.

“I mean we still have a lot of baggage to work through. We are so going to need some hardcore couple’s therapy,” Enid laughed. Wednesday may have cracked a teeny, tiny little smile. “But I’m game if you are.”

“I told you Enid. The Addams curse is absolute,” Wednesday murmured, closing her eyes and turning her body so instead of Enid being behind her she was leaning into her from her side. Wednesday’s head fell against Enid’s chest and she could hear her heartbeat. It matched Wednesday’s, pounding erratically, frantically. Hard. “I was yours from the moment I set eyes on you. All I had to do was accept it.”

“And have you?” Enid asked, hugging Wednesday tightly to her and nuzzling the top of her head. “Accepted it?”

“With every last atom of my being,” Wednesday breathed.

“Good. Then I think I’ll be staking a long, long overdue claim on what’s mine,” Enid said gruffly, her voice rough from suppressing her own crying fits the whole evening.

Wednesday shivered.

“Forever yours,” Wednesday whispered.

“Ooh. My wolf really likes the sound of that,” Enid giggled. “Honestly I should’ve known it was you two weeks ago. I felt her wake up. She wasn’t really there, until last night, but I felt something. But I convinced myself I was imagining things. And last night I...I dunno, I think I knew. But I was able to ignore it until I saw the typewriter.”

Wednesday nodded.

“You should probably know werewolves are super territorial,” Enid said nonchalantly. “I’m gonna scent the crap out of everything you own, and you. So everyone knows you’re off-limits. Even normies will be kinda put off by you.”

“Everyone is put off by me,” Wednesday muttered.

“Not everyone,” Enid giggled. Wednesday smiled.

“True.”

“I don’t just mean me,” Enid said softly. “Eugene. Xavier. Yoko. Divina. Even Ajax. He’d probably forgive you now if you gave him a candy bar, to be honest.”

“You really think so?”

“He likes Reese’s.”

“….Noted.”

“And Harry seems cool,” Enid said. “Seriously, leave it to Wednesday Freakin Addams to end up roomies with a manticore. A goddamn manticore. Seriously?”

“Nuh,” Wednesday said, shaking her head. “He doesn’t get to call us roomies. That’s our thing.”

Enid doubled the force of her hug and Wednesday knew that, for once, she had said the right thing.

Wednesday slumped against her, feeling her body completely drained of energy now that things were starting to wind down. She felt every inch of her exhaustion and lack of proper sleep over the past month.

“Whoa, hey, you good?” Enid asked, holding Wednesday up.

“M’tired,” Wednesday mumbled.

“Ah. Wanna go to bed?” Enid asked.

“No,” Wednesday said petulantly. “If I sleep you’ll leave.”

“I won’t leave,” Enid said quietly.

“Promise?” Wednesday asked, her voice smaller and more vulnerable than Enid had ever heard.

“Promise.”

Wednesday allowed Enid to pick her up and put her in the bed. Enid crawled into the bed with her, laying on top of the covers, as Wednesday naturally gravitated towards her and put her arms around Enid’s torso.

Enid returned the embrace and put her fingers under Wednesday’s chin, tilting her face up so she could look in her eyes.

There were no more traces of anger in Enid’s eyes.

No more hurt. No more sorrow.

All Wednesday could see was an endless, infinite ocean of something new.

Something special.

Something uniquely for her.

Maybe it was love.

Maybe it was something else.

But either way, Wednesday wanted to look into her eyes forever.

“Can I kiss you?” Enid asked, her voice rough and soft at the same time.

“Always,” Wednesday whispered.

Softly, gently, their lips came together.

There were no fireworks.

No sparks.

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened at all, really.

But Wednesday was reminded of something Enid said to her many years ago.

That somehow, they just work.

The way Enid’s lips fit against Wednesday’s own reminded her of that. They slotted in perfectly, as if they were always meant to be there. Wednesday’s eyes fluttered closed and she let out a contented sigh as Enid brought her hand up to cup Wednesday’s cheek.

They kissed again.

And again.

And again.

Until Wednesday couldn’t stay awake any longer, and fell into the endless void of sleep. The last thing she remembered was Enid reaffirming her promise that she would be there when Wednesday woke up.

~~~~~

Enid kept her promise.

Wednesday kept all of hers.

They did end up going to couple’s therapy.

It took them five tries to find a therapist they were comfortable with.

Enid was right, and Ajax forgave Wednesday like nothing had even happened. Wednesday was actually a little suspicious that Ajax didn’t even remember what happened, and was only saying he did because Wednesday gave him a package of king-sized Reese’s cups.

Eugene, Xavier, and Divina all welcomed Wednesday back into the fold without so much as a blink. In their eyes, it was up to Enid and Ajax, and if they were cool with it, who were they to argue? Eugene was happy to have his bee-buddy back, Xavier had honestly missed having someone threaten him on a semi-regular basis, which Enid said he should probably see someone about, and Divina was happy to finally meet Wednesday properly and get to know her.

Wednesday started using the phone again. She was part of the Crackstone Gang group chat now, and had the contact information of all her old friends. She still didn’t enjoy using the confounded thing, but she accepted that it was a necessary compromise to maintain her friendships.

And every once in a while, some and/or all of them would come to New York to visit.

Wednesday, for her part, tried to be a bit less harsh with everyone. At first she tried to not make any threats of violence at all, for fear of upsetting Enid, but after two weeks of Wednesday forcing herself to be pleasant, all five of them unanimously declared it was ‘weird as fuck’ and demanded Wednesday go back to her prickly, death-threat-happy self.

She thought all of them were equally weird as fuck, but she acquiesced to their request. But she was, overall, a lot nicer to everyone.

Harry slotted into their friend group like he’d been with them all along. Ajax and Xavier were happy to have a new gaming buddy, and Eugene thought that being friends with a manticore was the coolest thing ever.

Thing accepted her back the moment she brought Enid home to meet her family. The hand had come scrambling through the manor the moment he heard Enid’s voice and practically threw himself onto her shoulder.

Wednesday apologized. Profusely. Thing flicked her forehead and told her that he didn’t want her to apologize, he just wanted her to do better. He wanted her to stop hurting herself.

She promised to never do it again.

Her family was overjoyed, of course. Enid was showered with all the love and adoration the Addams family could muster, which was quite a lot. Enid was rather overwhelmed by it all, but Wednesday held her hand throughout it all.

And then there was Yoko.

Yoko made her disapproval of Enid and Wednesday’s relationship very clear from the start. She would bait Wednesday constantly, and Wednesday was not proud to admit that she took the bait more often than not.

But after a long several months of couple’s therapy with Enid, Yoko’s baiting started to be less and less effective until eventually Enid just snapped at her that she was being a bitch, and that Wednesday was putting the work in to be a better person and that if they did have any relationship issues, they’d work through it between themselves and their therapist.

It was when Enid pointed out the similarities to what Yoko was doing now with what Wednesday did back at Nevermore that Yoko finally swallowed her venom and began to tolerate Wednesday again.

It took a long time.

But eventually, Wednesday locked herself and Yoko into a closet and forced them to have a conversation. Wednesday got Yoko to admit she had been more attached to and fond of Wednesday as a friend than she’d let on, and Wednesday apologized to Yoko for screwing it all up and wrecking their friendship.

When Wednesday admitted, without a single drop of hesitation, that Yoko had indeed been her friend, and a close friend at that, and that Wednesday felt the loss keenly and part of the reason that Yoko could still bait her into fights was because of that hurt, Yoko didn’t really have a good response to that.

Two weeks later Yoko gave her own apology, and the two started to mend the bridge again.

And if Wednesday’s newest novel had a hot-headed Asian character who was fiercely loyal to her friends and could dish out threats and violence on equal ground to Viper de la Muerte, Yoko decided she should probably take it as a compliment.

All in all, it wasn’t an easy road.

Wednesday had a lot of backslides. A lot of backslides. And a lot of unresolved trauma. And Enid was definitely not happy when Wednesday revealed just how pathological her ‘slut phase’ was. She also wasn’t happy when she found out about the scar on Wednesday’s stomach.

There was a lot of things Enid was unhappy to discover.

But they did it all together.

Like they both wish they had done from the start.

Chapter Text

Yoko Tanaka thought of herself as a good friend.

It was, probably, one of the most ironclad ways she would define herself. A pillar of her self-identity. If asked to describe herself in a short amount of words, some variation of ‘a damn good friend’ would find its way into that description.

And Enid Sinclair was Yoko’s best friend.

They had known each other for years. Enid was always fond of saying that they weren’t ‘Yoko and Enid’ they were ‘YokoandEnid’. Inseparable. The best of friends, walking in lockstep through life and supporting one another.

They told each other everything . Yoko was the first person Enid told that she thought she was bisexual, and Enid was the first person Yoko said the words ‘I’m gay’ to. When Yoko met Divina for the first time, Enid was the first person she called, telling her that she had met the prettiest girl that day.

Yoko was the first person Enid opened up to about her mother, and how Enid had never felt like she was good enough. Yoko, in turn, told Enid about her own mother and how she didn’t even know her name. Her father never talked about her, and Yoko would often wonder in the early hours of the morning why her mother never wanted her.

They understood each other better than anyone.

At least, until Wednesday Addams entered the picture.

Yoko didn’t like her.

Not at all.

Wednesday was pretentious and up her own ass, thought she was better than everyone at Nevermore, and treated people with such open hostility and callousness that Yoko found herself disliking her immediately.

And at first she was vindicated. Enid would complain about her new roommate and Yoko would egg her on, piling her own complaints about Wednesday on top of them. But then she’d say something a little harsher, insult Wednesday with words a bit too sharp, and Enid would pull back and chide her for doing it.

“Don’t be so hard on her Yoko, just because she’s different and hard to get along with doesn’t mean you get to say those things about her. Maybe she’s just having a hard time, she was forced to transfer here mid-semester and totally uproot her own life after all.”

Some variation of that was said every time Yoko crossed this invisible line, and it always made her skin crawl a little.

But that wasn’t all. It started getting worse .

Yoko could see it a mile away.

When Enid came to her dorm room crying one day and asking if she could sleep there for a few days, Yoko internally felt relief that Enid was finally realizing that Wednesday was bad news and that associating with her would only lead to bad things.

But that only lasted for so long. Enid went back to Wednesday almost as quickly as she had left, and Yoko wanted to tell her not to, wanted to remind her how cruel Wednesday could be, couldn’t understand Enid’s infatuation with her.

And when Enid came groaning one day into Yoko’s dorm room grumbling about ‘stupid, mean, adorable, attractive Wednesday Addams’, Yoko’s heart sank for her best friend. She wanted to believe she had been hearing it wrong, that there was no way her literal walking rainbow-puppy of a best friend had a crush on Little Miss Murder-Happy, right?

But Yoko had seen it. Seen it in Enid’s eyes and the way she looked at Wednesday across a room, saw how she hung on Wednesday’s every word when she did deign to speak in public. She’d heard it in Enid’s voice when she would defend Wednesday to Yoko and others, talking about Wednesday like she was some kind of feral cat, misunderstood and unfairly aggrieved.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me, right?” Yoko asked, eyebrow raised in ‘seriously Enid, there’s a limit to how far pretending to be insane is funny’. “Like, ha-ha, let’s give Yoko a stroke, that’ll be a hoot.”

“Yoko she’s so pretty though,” Enid whined from the floor, having collapsed onto it mere minutes beforehand and was currently burying her face in one of her own stuffed animals that had migrated to Yoko’s dorm during some girl’s night or other and never made the trek back to Enid’s. “She looked at me earlier and said my nails looked particularly garish today and I giggled .”

“Enid, sweetie, you know that ‘garish’ isn’t a compliment, right?” Yoko said, her voice dry as the Sahara. There was no way she was taking this seriously. She couldn’t . Wednesday Addams? Seriously? Enid was a catch, she could probably have her pick of any of the worthy dating partners in Nevermore, and she’s going to pick Wednesday Addams?

“Yeah but it’s Wednesday . It could go either way! And honestly I’m not sure if I care? It’s kinda hot when she’s mean,” Enid said, frowning.

Yoko rolled her eyes. Enid’s theory that half of Wednesday’s insults and death threats were actually some kind of compliment was one of her longer, more desperate reaches. Yoko sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“ Jesus please tell me this isn’t why you’ve been posting those stupid ‘me and the bad bitch I pulled by being scared of her’ memes on your Instagram,” Yoko groaned. It was a pointless statement though. She already knew that was why. She just really hoped she was wrong.

“No comment,” Enid said from the floor.

“Oh, honey, you’ve got it bad ,” Yoko sighed before laughing ruefully and shaking her head. Okay. She could fix this. She had put up with Enid’s weird insistence on trying to befriend Addams, but crushing on her was a step too close to insanity.

“It’s really bad,” Enid agreed woefully. “What am I supposed to do? There’s like, no way she would ever feel the same, right? Like, ever-ever.”

Yoko grimaced at the hopeful tone in Enid’s voice. But if she was already second-guessing things, it wouldn’t be too difficult to talk her out of it. She just had to be a bit delicate with it, make sure Enid thought it was her own idea.

She felt a little gross, almost like she was manipulating Enid, but it was for her own good. Wednesday Addams was a dangerous person, and even if she wasn’t as dangerous as she made everyone think, Yoko still held the firm opinion that she wasn’t a healthy person for Enid to be around so much. Being friends with her was one thing. Dating her was something Yoko was a whole lot less enthused about the sound of.

“How am I supposed to know?” Yoko asked. “You know my opinion on her. Why would you think I would know whether or not she’d reciprocate?”

Enid just pouted.

“I’ll just figure it out I guess,” Enid grumbled.

“Just be careful okay?” Yoko insisted. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I’ll be fine,” Enid said dismissively. “Wednesday wouldn’t hurt me.”

Yoko grimaced, but didn’t say anything. She just changed the subject to something else, and decided to start keeping a much closer eye on Wednesday Addams. If she was going to end up hurting Enid, Yoko would be around to stop it. Or at least prevent it from getting too bad.

~~~~~

The Crackstone Incident, as it came to be called, left a mark on everyone at Nevermore.

Yoko, for her part, became even more protective of her friends. More vocal, less willing to let Enid gallivant off into the woods in the middle of the night without some serious backup. Meaning Yoko herself, of course.

And it also started to subtly shift her views on Wednesday Addams.

Because she had been paying closer attention. Ever since Enid revealed her crush, Yoko had been watching closely, and what she had seen had unsettled her. Not because Addams was some secret serial killer, but for another reason, one that was starting to become clearer once term started again and Wednesday seemed a little...looser, now.

Yoko had slowly stopped paying attention to the threats of violence and raised hackles whenever anyone got within six feet of her, and instead had started to see the girl underneath it. There was a second, secret version of Wednesday Addams underneath the violent, holier-than-thou exterior, and Yoko wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to see it. She was much more comfortable just disliking Addams, thinking of her as a dangerous, unpredictable wild card that was more likely to stab the people around her than say hello to them in the morning.

It had been slow progress at first. But during and after the Crackstone Incident, Yoko was forced into a small reckoning of sorts as she was presented with a Wednesday that she couldn’t ignore anymore.

A Wednesday Addams who put her own life on the line during the Crackstone Incident.

It was not the Wednesday that Yoko knew.

It wasn’t the Wednesday that treated everyone who crossed her path like bugs beneath her feet, who constantly threatened or even enacted violence on those who breathed incorrectly in her presence. And it was not the Wednesday who hurt and infuriated Enid so much before that she came to bunk with Yoko for a bit.

The scariest part was that after the first few weeks of the new term, Yoko started to wonder if that version of Wednesday had ever really existed at all or if it had just been an elaborate facade, a mask akin to the markings on a butterflies wings; a trick to scare off potential harm. Except in Wednesday’s case Yoko wondered who the predators were that she was trying to scare off.

A cold chill had gone down her neck when Yoko had offhandedly wondered if it was Wednesday who was afraid of everyone at Nevermore, and not the other way around.

Yoko started to notice things.

For one thing, Wednesday was funny .

“Xavier was looking at you weird all day today,” she said to Wednesday as they walked to class together. She wasn’t sure why it started happening, it just did. This term they shared a class together and found themselves walking side by side in the hall one day. It was the first time Yoko had actually tried talking to Wednesday like a human, and for the first time, managed to get through an entire interaction with Wednesday without a single death threat being thrown her way.

Since then they had always walked to the same class together, every day, without fail. Yoko had been certain that it was just a coincidence until last week, when she had been running a little late and had been surprised to find Wednesday waiting for her in the halls at the point where their paths usually joined up.

Yoko didn’t say anything about it.

Neither did Wednesday.

All Yoko received was a brief nod of acknowledgment, and they walked to class together and chatted a little.

“Was he?” Wednesday drawled. “I suppose I’ll have to ready the hot pokers and the sulfuric acid if Xavier is intent on losing the privilege that is owning eyeballs.”

Yoko felt an unexpected laugh get yanked out of her stomach, and even Wednesday looked at her with the slightest tinge of surprise on her face.

“When did Wednesday Addams get funny ?” Yoko asked, snickering. It was a serious question. Had Wednesday always been this funny and she just never noticed? Wednesday just arched an eyebrow at her and scoffed.

“Please. I am not funny ,” Wednesday dismissed. “Clowns are funny. Do you think I am a clown, Tanaka?”

“I mean are we talking like, the clowns that make balloon animals for children at carnivals and spray water out of a flower on their lapel? Or the horror spooky clowns that chase after you with a cleaver and their dick hanging out?” Yoko asked, making herself chuckle all over again.

Wednesday rolled her eyes, and for a brief moment, Yoko almost convinced herself she saw a hint of fondness in the expression.

But that was silly.

Wednesday wasn’t fond of anyone . The spectrum with Wednesday started at ‘pure, undiluted hatred’ and ended at ‘the most bare-bones amount of tolerance’ and that was it.

“Please,” Wednesday scoffed. “I’m far more terrifying than any clown who moonlights as a sexual predator. I’m offended you’d put me on that level, Tanaka. I at least have standards for how I go about killing people.”

That got an actual, gut-busting laugh out of Yoko as they walked through the door of the classroom. Wednesday simply walked over to her desk with her chin in the air as if nothing was amiss, while Yoko was struggling to get a breath in through her laughter as she slightly stumbled towards her own seat. The utterly baffled looks she was receiving from half the class threatened to cause her laughter to boil over again, and the other half of the class staring with wary fear at Wednesday made her bite her own wrist in an attempt to stifle it.

“Please do not choke, Tanaka, I’d hate to watch you die knowing I wasn’t the cause,” Wednesday said airily from her seat, not even looking at Yoko.

“Aw, I’m not allowed to die unless you kill me? Wednesday I didn’t know you cared!” Yoko said with overly-exaggerated fondness, and a dagger hissed through the air to embed itself in the wood of Yoko’s desk. She didn’t even flinch. She just grinned.

“Next one goes in your throat if you keep insisting on spewing such falsehoods,” Wednesday snapped. Yoko just waggled her eyebrows, but remained silent for the rest of class. When it was over she took a little extra time gathering her things and pried the dagger out of the wood.

She found Wednesday waiting for her just outside the door, which surprised her.

“I’m keeping this by the way,” Yoko said, waving the dagger. “Look, it’s made of rubber!”

She waggled it between her fingers to make it look like it was wobbling. Wednesday didn’t look amused.

“I am using the free period today to check on the bees. It is my turn,” Wednesday said.

“...Kay,” Yoko said, not quite sure why Wednesday was telling her this. Wednesday just stared at her for a few moments. “And you’re telling me this becauuuuuse?”

“No reason,” Wednesday said roughly. “I am merely informing you that I will not be accompanying you to the quad to see Enid and the boys. I am going to the hives.”

Yoko nodded. Wednesday turned around and started walking, and Yoko walked with her. When Wednesday broke from their normal path to the quad to instead go to the beehives, Yoko decided to follow her. She had been curious about the hives ever since Eugene was inducted into their odd little friend group.

Wednesday’s only reaction to Yoko continuing to follow her was a brief flicker of her eyes as she took in Yoko’s presence, but other than that she remained silent. She unlocked the door to the hives and started to check on them one by one, with Yoko staring around a bit nervously as she waited by the door.

Watching Wednesday check on the hives was an interesting experience. She was thorough, and surprisingly gentle with the little creatures. Yoko cringed every time a bee flew past her, and when Wednesday saw her do it she just rolled her eyes. Again with that hint of fondness Yoko was pretty sure she was just deluding herself over.

“They will not sting you.”

“How do you know that?” Yoko muttered, staring suspiciously as a particularly fat honeybee hovered a bit too close to her face for a moment before buzzing off to crawl into a hive.

“Because you are with me,” Wednesday said with a scoff, as if Yoko should have known that. Yoko really wanted to ask what that was supposed to mean, but Wednesday was already busy checking on another set of hives.

“Hmm,” she muttered when she was nearing the end. “This does not appear to be a good sign.”

“Is something wrong?” Yoko asked, craning her neck to try and see what Wednesday was doing.

“Yes.”

“Uh...what’s up?” Yoko asked after a moment, hoping Wednesday would elaborate. Were the bees okay?

“This hive appears to have committed regicide and cannibalized it’s queen. Fascinating, but I believe I am unique in that observation and that a normal person would regard this as concerning. I must report this to Eugene,” Wednesday said, quickly walking up to the door.

Yoko didn’t miss the bitterness on the word ‘normal’.

But then she shook her head. She needed to stop looking for things that weren’t there.

“I can just text him?” Yoko called out as Wednesday started to walk back to the quad.

Wednesday stopped. She turned around and marched right up to Yoko, a serious expression on her face.

“You are in possession of Eugene’s contact information?” she asked sharply. Yoko nodded. “Hm. Please alert him that there is a slight issue with one of the hives and I require his presence and knowledge. Posthaste. Do not dally.”

“Wends...needs...help...something...weird...with hives,” Yoko muttered as she tapped out a text. Wednesday curled her lip at the nickname but said nothing as she stared at the text being sent. This was the closest, physically, that Wednesday had ever been to Yoko for more than a few seconds when passing her through a door or a hallway, and Yoko looked at her.

She had freckles.

The look in her eyes as she looked at the text, and the three dots in a bubble that indicated Eugene was typing a response, was serious and concerned. Wednesday was genuinely worried about the hives, and that struck a chord in Yoko’s chest.

If Wednesday Addams was capable of caring this much about the well-being of bees , well.

Maybe Enid wasn’t entirely insane for her feelings.

Maybe she had a point.

Yoko would probably eat glass before admitting it, though. She still wasn’t entirely sure about the whole thing.

“What does ‘k t-h-x b t-h-r a-s-a-p mean?” Wednesday asked, saying each letter individually and staring at Yoko’s phone for a moment before looking at Yoko with a quirked up eyebrow.

“It means ‘okay, thanks, be there as soon as possible,” Yoko said, making eye contact with Wednesday.

Wednesday was always a little intense, but meeting her eyes was...something else. Wednesday almost never made eye contact with people unless she was threatening them, and staring at her eyes without the backdrop of having her life threatened was making Yoko’s mouth a little dry.

The depth in her soft brown eyes was startling, and nerve-wracking. Yoko felt herself getting pulled in through their event horizon and her breath caught in her throat a little. Wednesday broke the contact after a few more moments with a nod, satisfied with Yoko’s explanation.

Yoko needed to take a deep breath after that. Wednesday didn’t notice, and was already walking back into the hives to continue checking them over.

“What the fuck,” Yoko whispered.

When Eugene arrived he told Wednesday that the bees were fine, that a hive would actually kill their own queen when she was getting too old and a new queen would take her place. Wednesday had frowned at this and asked Eugene why they would be so quick to kill one of their own if they weren’t a threat, if they were just getting old. She had asked why they didn’t simply wait for the queen to die of old age naturally. Eugene had shrugged and said that was just how bees were.

Wednesday stared at the hive for a little while after that, with an expression that Yoko couldn’t quite decipher on her face.

~~~~~

Okay.

After a week and a half’s worth of days of turning it over in her head and talking to herself in the mirror, Yoko had good news and bad news.

The good news was that Yoko was positive of at least one thing.

That thing being that she did not have a romantic crush on Wednesday Addams. Which was good. Mostly because she already had a girlfriend, which would have been awkward, and also because having a werewolf as her romantic competition sounded a little terrifying, actually.

So that was good.

The bad news was that she did have feelings for Wednesday Addams. Romantic in nature they were not, but they were still feelings . And Yoko wasn’t exactly great with those. She blamed it on being raised by a single father. She loved her dad, but he was a man, and men didn’t exactly have the best track record with feelings either.

So Yoko never really learned how to identify her own feelings, let alone talk about them. It was honestly a minor miracle that Yoko managed to be so sure that they weren’t romantic, because wow that would have been a really awkward conversation with Enid.

Not that she talked to Enid about it.

Not that she talked to anyone about it.

She especially didn’t talk to Wednesday about it. Which was fine. It was better that way, honestly. Wednesday couldn’t even admit that Enid was her friend, even though everyone could see that Enid was the only person allowed to touch her.

But whatever these feelings were, they kept noticing things about Wednesday.

Because now she was paying even closer attention, she noticed that Wednesday wasn’t just funny. She was really, really funny. If Yoko thought she had a dark sense of humor, Wednesday’s sense of humor was like Vantablack on steroids and three protein shakes a day.

And the best part was that Yoko was certain that Wednesday didn’t even try half the time. Sure, Yoko caught the occasional genuine attempts at humor Wednesday dropped. She even fooled herself into thinking Wednesday looked at her a couple times with something akin to admiration and maybe even a little respect when she laughed at them. But most of the time, Wednesday being funny was completely unintentional and completely hilarious .

Where Yoko once reacted with suspicion and hostility to Wednesday’s threats, now the over-the-top descriptions of violence just made her laugh at how absurd they actually were when you thought about them for more than ten seconds. Like, yes, sometimes she would make a completely banal threat about turning Barclay into sushi, but then she’d turn around and tell Xavier if he sent her one more artistically-animated flower she would string a dozen roses into a noose and garrote his manhood off with them.

Xavier had looked horrified.

Meanwhile Yoko had started guffawing so hard she nearly choked on her own spit, and Enid had to thump her back a few times. Flower stems were nowhere near thin enough nor did they possess nearly enough tensile strength to function as a garrote. The threat was completely empty, and only served to create amusing imagery.

Another bonus of starting to find Wednesday hilarious was the side effect of having Wednesday glare at her with expressions ranging from indignant, murderous rage to confused deflation whenever Yoko would laugh at her. It was unexpectedly endearing, and Yoko’s feelings would always swell in her chest whenever it happened.

Another product of paying closer attention to Wednesday was a slightly more sobering one, and called back to Yoko’s idle thoughts of wondering just how much of Wednesday’s outer shell was actually just self-defense.

Wednesday didn’t know how to hold a conversation.

Yoko kicked herself a little sometimes for never seeing it before. She had always assumed Wednesday’s silence and ignoring everyone around her was due to her ego, thinking she was better than everyone.

That was yet another assumption that got quite brutally murdered as she observed Wednesday more. Because as Wednesday started to soften up ever so slightly, she started to try . And Yoko saw her try, and she also saw exactly why it had taken her so long in the first place.

The first time was in the quad one day, during lunch. The group of them were all sitting in a circle in the grass, with Wednesday sitting next to Enid. Enid kept ‘accidentally’ bumping her knee into Wednesday’s. Yoko was on Wednesday’s other side, with a much healthier amount of distance between them, and then it was Barclay, Ajax, Xavier, and Eugene.

Yoko couldn’t even remember the topic of conversation. It was almost irrelevant. All she could remember was that at one point during it someone had made a joke about stabbing someone to death with a butter knife and Wednesday interjected saying that a butter knife would be a horribly inefficient way to stab someone to death and that it would be far more trouble than it was worth. She went on to say that almost any other kitchen knife would be better suited for the task, and if humiliation was the goal a butter knife was more likely to humiliate the would-be-killer than the victim.

Everyone had fallen silent then, and Wednesday eventually stopped talking. Her mouth had pressed into a thin line, and Yoko saw something flicker through her eyes before they hardened and Wednesday’s body language started to subtly shut down. After a few moments Ajax started talking about something completely different and the entire group moved on as if nothing happened.

Except Yoko. Yoko kept watching Wednesday.

Wednesday didn’t look at any of them for the rest of lunch. She didn’t say another word. She barely even moved. The only indication that something was off was Wednesday’s expression, a furrowed brow and a look that Yoko might have once interpreted as plotting all their deaths but now she wondered if Wednesday was just trying to figure them out in general.

It wasn’t like Wednesday talked a whole lot in their conversations before that point, but for a while after that her contributions were even less substantial and usually only limited to directly answering a question someone asked her. Even then she’d use short words and leave people guessing as to what exactly she meant by her answers, as she refused to elaborate or answer the same question twice.

Yoko really started to wonder just how much of Wednesday’s standoffish nature was about having a superiority complex and how much was about just having absolutely no idea how to talk to people. Similar incidents happened afterwards and established a pattern.

Wednesday would try to participate in conversations and would usually say something really weird or off-putting without realizing it. Even on the few occasions where she didn’t start with something weird, it was almost inevitable that it would happen.

Then the group would start treating her strangely, either by ignoring what she said entirely or treating her like she was a space alien or something, giving her wary looks like she wasn’t there and perfectly capable of observing their reactions that told Wednesday that she was strange, wrong, and unwelcome.

Then Wednesday would go quiet for a while until she tried again.

And the amount of time between attempts got longer and longer with each one.

Worse, sometimes they’d outright make fun of her for it. Yoko distinctly remembered the time Barclay had simply asked Wednesday if she’d been dropped on the head multiple times as a child and if that was why she was such a freak.

Wednesday had delivered a scathing retort in a voice cold as ice before getting to her feet and leaving. They didn’t see her for the rest of the day. Yoko and Enid exchanged a look, knowing something was wrong but neither of them knowing what to do about it.

The rest of the group had just gone on as if they didn’t care, completely indifferent to Wednesday’s obvious distress at the comment.

The only people who never shut Wednesday down were Yoko herself, Enid, and Eugene. They were the only ones who just rolled with it, with Yoko finding her funny more often than not and Enid making gross goo-goo eyes at her.

Eugene just seemed to treat her like a cool older sister, and Yoko had no idea how he still had all his fingers.

But it started making her feel a little sick inside for how she had initially treated Wednesday before the Crackstone Incident, and it made her feelings start crawling throughout her body.

Sometimes the other three would talk about Wednesday when she wasn’t around and continue to make fun of her. Comments that before Crackstone, Yoko wouldn’t have blinked over and might have even joined in on, but now it just made her a little nauseous. She didn’t even know what to do about it. When Enid tried to defend Wednesday they’d just start making fun of both Enid and Wednesday.

Besides, it wasn’t Yoko’s place to defend her. They weren’t actually anything, even if Yoko had weird feelings .

And if the comments Barclay, Ajax, and Xavier made caused slight nausea, the things Yoko heard from other students around the school made her fucking angry . Yeah, Wednesday could be a bit over-the-top with her threats sometimes, but didn’t everyone just experience how Wednesday practically saved all their asses? Couldn’t they see that Wednesday never actually acted on her threats unless someone was actually being a serious dick and kind of deserved a bit of comeuppance, and even then Wednesday was careful to never take it too far?

She wasn’t as much of a hugger as Enid, but sometimes she found herself with a powerful urge to yank Wednesday into her arms and tell her that Ajax, Xavier, and Barclay were fucking stupid and just because they had better social skills than she did didn’t give them the right to crap all over Wednesday for it and make her feel bad about it.

But she didn’t.

Because Wednesday didn’t actually like Yoko all that much still, not the way she liked Enid or Eugene. Yoko was pretty sure she was somewhere just below the ‘barely tolerable’ end of Wednesday’s scale that only Enid and Eugene had seemed to figure out how to surpass and slip through.

No matter how much Yoko noticed about Wednesday and no matter how much the things she noticed deepened those feelings she had, Wednesday wouldn’t ever acknowledge even a crumb of it. Why should she, anyway? Yoko had once been the exact type of person Wednesday was clearly wary of.

It was when she fully realized the depth of Wednesday’s care for those two that it really started to hurt.

Wednesday’s pure ferocity at defending Enid and Eugene was almost awe-inspiring in a way. She would bare her teeth like a dog at anyone who sneered at Eugene in her presence, and whenever the Furs would continue to make jokes about Enid being a late bloomer Wednesday would threaten them in all sorts of colorful ways in response.

It only took a handful of truly heinous pranks and assaults for people to start getting the message that Enid and Eugene were truly off-limits. A few Furs had their heads shaved in the middle of the night, and a group of boys that had been bullying Eugene for years suddenly started cowering in fear whenever Eugene merely passed by them in a hallway.

She did all of this while still verbally insisting that they were not friends and that Wednesday did not have friends and she had no idea who had shaved the Furs or who had made Eugene’s bullies so scared of him or why they nearly wet themselves when Wednesday bared her teeth at them.

It was almost torture, the way it plunged Yoko’s feelings ever-deeper, seeing such a blatant, pure shard of the truth of Wednesday’s depth of character and the way she showed her affections while simultaneously reaffirming that Yoko was not one of those people.

She did her best. She tried to shove the feelings down into her stomach and away from her traitorous heart. She was Yoko Tanaka and she did not need some damn goth chick’s friendship, for fucks sake.

But Yoko Tanaka was a good friend. And despite what she would tell anyone who asked, Wednesday Addams was her friend. Her heart wouldn’t let her think any thing else, even if her tongue let her lie. Because she saw Wednesday for who she really was underneath, and it wrenched her inside to watch the flashes of pain in Wednesday’s eyes when she would hear the hurtful words slung her way, when people called her freak , knowing there was nothing Wednesday would allow her to do to help soothe that pain.

Even Enid had trouble getting through to her, and everyone with eyes could see that Wednesday had a weakness for her best friend. Enid had gotten further than anyone, and she would still talk to Yoko about how she wished she could help Wednesday more, wished she could get Wednesday to open up a little, to let her help.

Yoko felt a pang of sympathy when she talked to Enid about it. She never told Enid about her own feelings , because it wasn’t important. Yoko’s own pain was unimportant, she at least didn’t have romantic feelings for Wednesday. And Yoko knew how things worked with werewolves.

Enid never said it out loud, but Yoko could see it in her eyes sometimes when she looked at Wednesday. So she shut her mouth and said nothing except soft words of support when her best friend was hurting, because she was a good friend and that was her job.

When Enid said Ajax asked her out and she was going to say yes, Yoko had reservations. She didn’t want to straight up ask if Wednesday was Enid’s mate, but she didn’t know how else to voice her concerns about Enid dating Ajax.

So she stayed quiet.

She kept walking with Wednesday to class, every day. They would talk and Yoko would smile and laugh and try to show Wednesday;

Look. I’m right here. I will walk with you. You are safe. I won’t judge you like they do, not anymore. You can talk to me, see? See how you can say the most absurd things and there is no judgment, no strange looks, no ‘freak’.

I’m right here, Wednesday.

It’s okay.

You’re safe.

She hoped that Wednesday could see it.

Even though to the outsider it would often look like they bickered endlessly and would have heated arguments, Yoko was sure she could see the light dancing in Wednesday’s eyes. Wednesday actually liked to argue, it turned out, especially when it was over something completely inconsequential. Yoko was more than happy to give it to her, especially when Wednesday would often say the funniest things or make highly entertaining facial expressions when Yoko would take some absurd position or intentionally spout misinformation just so Wednesday could aggressively tear her down and poke holes in her argument.

It was fun.

Wednesday enjoyed it, Yoko could tell. Yoko wondered sometimes if Wednesday knew that Yoko was being purposefully obtuse and silly, just to entertain her. To cheer her up. To connect .

But she never asked.

And Wednesday never said.

Whenever Yoko came across people talking shit about Wednesday behind her back, she’d bare her fangs and tell them to shut the fuck up if they knew what was good for them. She’d remind them what Wednesday did for them all with Crackstone, that she nearly died for them.

Enid preened happily whenever she did so, endlessly happy that her besties were getting along.

But then Enid and Ajax started getting a little more serious.

And Wednesday started getting weird .

~~~~~

Yoko noticed first, after Enid. Wednesday was more withdrawn. Irritable. She snapped easier, her temper was on a hair-trigger and she was extremely hot-and-cold with Enid. One moment she would possessively plant herself next to Enid during lunch while glaring daggers at Ajax, and the next she was refusing to speak to Enid all day.

She still walked with Yoko to class. It seemed to be the only place where Wednesday was still Wednesday, and it gave Yoko a small amount of hope. Wednesday was clearly not handling her best friend having a boyfriend very well, and Yoko really hoped that this small piece of normality would help Wednesday realize she had other people besides Enid to lean on and she didn’t have to get so territorial.

Wednesday’s withdrawn and irritable attitude was still noticeable during their walks, but Yoko was actually surprised with how much restraint Wednesday showed in not taking it out on her. Her words sometimes had a little more heat behind them than was strictly necessary and there was a lot less light in her eyes, a lot less fun in their petty arguments and debates, but Yoko got the strange feeling that Wednesday was clinging onto their walks to class.

It was in the way Wednesday would look at her when they got to class, when they had to stop talking and separate to go to their desks. It was like a spell was ending, and Yoko, not for the first time, had to wonder whether or not she was just imagining things.

Maybe it was her clinging to the walks. Her own stupid feelings making things shitty and weird, the stupid voice in the corner of her mind telling her to push for more, for a closer connection, for a deeper friendship.

No.

Wednesday was still Wednesday, and Yoko was still Yoko. They just walked to class together. That was all. There was nothing more there and Yoko was just kidding herself and getting her hopes up.

She hoped it would pass in a week or two.

But Enid kept coming to her dorm every other evening or so to talk.

“She just won’t stop sniping at Ajax whenever I happen to bring him up or when we’re hanging out at the quad or walking in the halls together, or anything ,” Enid said, pacing irritably across the floor of Yoko’s dorm. “Like, is she jealous or something? She says she isn’t and she gets really offended when I ask but like, what the hell?”

“Wednesday is just like that. She still threatens to sneak garlic into my lunch at least once a week,” Yoko pointed out, knowing the words were flimsy even as they came out of her mouth. Wednesday’s threats towards her hadn’t had a single ounce of seriousness in them since term started. But the way she would talk about Ajax was full of anger, venom. It was different.

“This is different,” Enid insisted. “It’s like she’s saying I’m too stupid to decide who I can or can’t date. Like, what the hell? There’s no way she wants to date me herself so what is her deal? It’s not fair.”

“Do you want me to talk to her?” Yoko asked. For all the good it’ll do.

“If it was anyone other than Wednesday I’d say sure,” Enid groaned. “But, no offense, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who can ask her questions like this and not get my head bitten off. I’m pretty sure Wednesday would probably rather shred her own vocal chords than talk about her problems. I just hope she figures her shit out because this is seriously getting on my nerves.”

Yoko nodded sympathetically. She really hoped Wednesday got her shit together too. It was probably nothing, and just Wednesday getting tetchy over her best friend spending more time with her boyfriend and less time with Wednesday herself.

But it hurt seeing Wednesday get more and more withdrawn, slowly morphing back into the prickly, overly-defensive and self-isolating girl who had transferred into Nevermore a year ago.

It’d blow over, Yoko hoped.

~~~~~~

It’ll blow over.

Yoko kept telling herself that for weeks .

Weeks of watching Wednesday get increasingly irritable and less and less fun to be around. Yoko and her weren’t close and they’d never been close no matter what Yoko’s feelings told her, so she didn’t have ground to stand on, but Wednesday had been treating everyone around her like shit.

Even Eugene hadn’t been safe from her snappishness and her temper.

It soon got to the point where Wednesday and Ajax couldn’t even be in the same room together without Wednesday sniping at him with her words filled with venom every chance she could get, the poor boy looking increasingly more confused as to what he did to deserve it.

“You have got to lay off him,” Yoko said to Wednesday as they walked to class together.

Neither of them knew it, but it would be the last time they would do so.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Wednesday snapped.

“You’re gonna lose her, you know that?” Yoko snapped back.

Wednesday froze and curled her lip, her eyes narrowed in a silent, turbulent fury.

“I don’t know what your deal is but Enid won’t put up with your shit forever,” Yoko threatened. “Please, for her sake, get your shit together. Stop shitting on her boyfriend. Get the stick out of your ass, get over your shit, whatever you have to do because she’s about this close to telling you to pack your shit and not come back.”

I don’t want to lose you either , is what Yoko didn’t say.

I’m scared you’re going to make me choose between you and Enid , is what she didn’t acknowledge to herself.

Because if you make me choose, I’m choosing Enid. I have to choose Enid.

Please, Wednesday.

Please don’t make me choose.

There was more that Yoko didn’t say.

More that she couldn’t even admit to herself.

The feelings inside her cried as Wednesday fixed her with an icy glare, piercing deep into Yoko’s own. She thought about the beehives, and the way Wednesday had looked at her that day. There was so much softness in her brown eyes that day.

There had been wariness. Caution. Yoko had felt like she was holding her hand out to a feral cat, offering to be sniffed and examined and terrified that she would get scratched.

But there was also so much care. Wednesday was so worried about the bees, there was so much gentle softness in her eyes leftover from taking care of them and checking on them that had floored Yoko at the time and had woken these feelings up.

There was none of that softness now.

But there was fear.

Fear. Anger. Ice. Yoko felt as if she was being pinned by icy spears from Wednesday’s eyes, but she held her chin up and refused to cower under her gaze even as the feelings inside her wailed.

Wednesday shifted then. Her body turned subtly away from Yoko and something closed in her eyes. A door that Yoko didn’t even know was open was shut right in front of her, and she felt something inside her stomach choke. Wednesday turned and stalked away, leaving Yoko alone in the hallway.

Yoko didn’t see Wednesday in the hall the next day when she went to class.

She waited at the spot where they always met up.

A few minutes passed and she started getting antsy.

Five more minutes passed and her mouth was dry.

Ten minutes passed and she was late for class. So she ran and got into the door just before the teacher called attendance, saying she was late because she had to use the bathroom for girl reasons. That was always a good excuse.

When she saw Wednesday already sitting in her seat and avoiding even acknowledging Yoko’s presence, she bit back the burning in her eyes that threatened to turn into tears as she went to take her own seat.

A deep sense of loss began to permeate through Yoko’s entire body as she watched the back of Wednesday’s head. And with it came bitterness, and anger. She didn’t lose anything. She and Wednesday had never been friends. They weren’t close .

And so Yoko closed her own door, too.

If Wednesday wanted to treat her like shit, fine.

Fine.

Let her.

Yoko grit her teeth and shoved all her thoughts about Wednesday to the back of her head.

She could deal with her own shit. Clearly.

And Yoko was just going to let it happen. It wasn’t her business.

She didn’t care.

~~~~~

Ajax was rushed to the hospital.

Enid spent the night sobbing in Yoko’s dorm room.

Yoko felt her own heart break as she watched.

She was angry.

Wednesday just had to go and ruin everything .

The next morning she at the door to Yoko’s dorm, begging to talk to Enid. Yoko felt something in her stomach start wailing all over again, but she buried it beneath an avalanche of anger and bitterness. She thought about Enid’s distress, about what Wednesday did to Ajax, and just stared at Wednesday with a sneer and venom pouring from her eyes. She bared her fangs and Wednesday flinched .

Ice pooled in Yoko’s stomach, but she didn’t stop.

Enid came to the door and pulled Yoko away, asking Wednesday what she wanted.

Wednesday begged, tried to explain something, but Enid just cut her off and sent her away. She told Wednesday not to contact her, to leave her alone. Yoko wanted to cheer her own, but she settled for just sending a seething glare at Wednesday over Enid’s shoulder. She felt a hot wave of bitterness wash over her at Wednesday’s distraught face when Enid told her to leave.

Of course Wednesday only cared about Enid.

When Wednesday left campus, she didn’t say a single thing to anyone. She didn’t try to talk to Eugene, or Xavier.

Or Yoko.

She didn’t say a word. She just left .

Who was Yoko kidding, anyway.

Yoko had been so stupid , harboring some stupid hope that Wednesday would maybe try to explain things to her, too. Stupid for hoping that Wednesday would reach out, would demonstrate some vestigial acknowledgment that maybe, maybe Yoko hadn’t been imagining things. Maybe there had been something real there, something tangible.

Instead she just left.

Maybe there had never been anything there at all.

Maybe Yoko had the right idea from the start.

Maybe the Wednesday Addams who was funny didn’t exist.

Maybe the Wednesday Addams who protected Eugene from bullies and Enid from the derision she still faced for being a lone wolf was just an act.

Maybe the Wednesday Addams who seemed to, in some strange, ethereal, unspoken way, care about Yoko Tanaka never existed.

What right did Yoko have to feel betrayed? Wednesday didn’t betray her. Yoko had done that to herself, by getting her hopes up, by letting Enid’s crush color her opinion and let her delude herself into thinking maybe there was more to Wednesday after all.

Yoko Tanaka was a good friend.

And she’d never let a friend do what Wednesday did, no matter how impossible they were. Yoko would have done something if they were really friends, would have spoken up more, would have tried harder, pushed harder.

So they must have never been friends. Not really. Yoko buried the anger and bitterness she felt towards herself and nurtured it into a blooming flower of vitriol directed towards Wednesday Addams, a flower she would cultivate for years and years to come.

Even Enid started to move on, eventually. But Yoko kept the flower blooming, kept speaking of Wednesday with vitriol and hatred and anger every time her name came up in passing. Whenever Enid started to express doubts about what happened, would look like maybe she was wavering, Yoko would remind her of what Wednesday did, with fire in her throat.

Wednesday was toxic . She was corrosive . She was dangerous and not a good person and not worth it.

Enid always looked at Yoko with a healthy amount of shock whenever the brunt of Yoko’s anger towards Wednesday came out. Yoko would be left with heaving shoulders, a dangerous and wild glint in her eyes as she bared her fangs at the thought of Enid going crawling back.

Wednesday had been allowed to graduate in name only and was barred from attending the ceremony. Not that she probably would have even if she was allowed. She hadn’t left a single trace of her behind, hadn’t contacted a single person at the school. None of the Addams family had. They had seemingly vanished, retreated back into their eerie veil from whence they came.

Yoko felt a horrid twist in her gut that day, when she realized Wednesday was well and truly gone and was never coming back.

She told herself it was because she was angry she would never get the chance to beat the crap out of Wednesday.

There was nothing else there.

If she was hurt, she was hurt on Enid’s behalf.

If she was betrayed, it was because Enid was betrayed and Yoko was her sister in all but blood. Yoko would stand by her, no matter what.

And if she felt a small, Wednesday-shaped hole in the depths of her soul sometimes and a small voice in the very pit of her stomach buried underneath that horrid, toxic flower would sometimes whisper just loud enough for Yoko to hear ‘what if?’, Yoko just buried it under more dirt and ash and anger and would never let it out. Never, ever let it out.

Ever.

~~~~~

Six years later

~~~~~~

Enid and Yoko moved to New York City together.

Enid had always wanted to try living there, and she had finally gotten sick and tired of dealing with her mother and her incessant and constant put-downs. Enid hadn’t shifted again since their last year at Nevermore, and her mother had taken it as some sort of sick victory, a twisted vindication that she had been right and Enid was a disappointment.

Divina couldn’t come with her. It sucked.

But Yoko was committed to helping Enid start a new life away from her parents, and tried to make it work long-distance. They did okay with it. They would video-call once a week and text constantly, but it was hard.

They found a place. They got jobs. Yoko had gone into software development after graduation, it let her work from home and she didn’t have to constantly be out in the sun and worrying about people asking about her glasses. Enid didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life yet, having sat on an English degree and was currently working as a waitress.

Yoko and her dad paid most of the expenses for the apartment, which was fine. Vampires and their multiple-century lifespan tended to fall into generational wealth easier than most, so they had the money. Yoko only worked because she thought software dev was interesting, and Enid wanted to become self-sufficient at some point and not rely on Yoko for ‘handouts’ forever.

They found a nightclub that they liked and started going every Saturday to hang out and decompress. Enid started going on Fridays as well, she enjoyed meeting new people and said it helped her unwind from work.

She had broken up with Ajax a year ago now after coming to the realization that she was a lesbian. At least, that was what she said. Yoko always harbored a suspicion that it was something deeper, but she never asked. She didn’t want to know the answer.

When Enid came home with a frown on her face one day, Yoko immediately knew something was up. Enid’s eyes were scattered and unfocused, and she looked far more distracted than usual.

“Was there ever a Viper at Nevermore?” Enid asked. “Like, someone named Viper?”

Yoko tried to think about it, and eventually just shrugged. “I mean, I never knew someone with that name. But I didn’t know everyone. Why?”

“Someone recognized me at the bar today, I think,” Enid said, furrowing her brow. “It was this girl. Dark hair, she was really pretty, and I just felt...this urge to go up and say hi. And when I did, she started making excuses to leave as soon as she got a look at me. It was more than a little ego-bruising, I’ll be honest, but when she left she said ‘bye Enid’ and I’m pretty sure I didn’t tell her my name first.”

“Huh,” Yoko frowned. “I mean, your gossip blog was pretty popular. Maybe you wrote something about her that she didn’t appreciate?”

“Maybe…” Enid said, shaking her head slowly. “I’m thinking about it way too much, aren’t I?”

“Probably,” Yoko said with an easy laugh. Overthinking was practically Enid’s middle name. But it was nice that she had started to find other people attractive and was starting to shoot shots. It gave Yoko a little sliver of hope.

And for two weeks, that was that. They didn’t mention Viper again.

Then Enid came home sobbing.

It took her hours to calm down enough to tell Yoko what happened.

“I’m gonna kill her,” Yoko said, clenching her fists. “I’m gonna fucking kill her Enid.”

“No, don’t d-do anything stupid,” Enid protested weakly, sniffling. “She...you didn’t see her, Yoko. When I left I...I think I broke her heart a little, Yoko. And honestly, I...I kinda knew, I knew the whole night, and I think I’ve known for two weeks. This is as much my fault for letting it happen as it is hers for doing it in the first place.”

“I’m still gonna punch her. Really hard,” Yoko growled.

“Yoko…”

“Just once. You gotta give me one, Enid,” Yoko said.

“...fine. One. But only if she tries something again,” Enid insisted.

“She better not,” Yoko snarled.

She hadn’t thought about Wednesday in a couple years now. She had buried it deep, skewered the memories so harshly that they only showed up in warped, twisted dreams. But now it was all coming up again like bile, and Yoko felt her breathing get heavy and her head start to pound.

They went back to the bar the next night. Enid insisted it was just because she didn’t want to let Wednesday take away her favorite bar, and Yoko thought she was just insane. But they went.

Harry was nice. At first.

Then he told them he was actually here with Wednesday, he was her roommate and that Wednesday was really fucked up over last night and had told him everything that happened at Nevermore. And the way he put emphasis on the word everything had Enid pausing.

Yoko was just angry. She was going to kill her .

“Please don’t hurt her,” Harry said plainly, seeing the look on Yoko’s face. “She really is torn up about this something fierce, and I promise you, she just wants to apologize. You obviously don’t owe her anything, and if you want me to just fuck off and tell her no dice I’ll respect it, but she really wants to apologize and at least try patching things up.”

“And she said that to you?” Yoko sneered. “Fat fucking chance. Addams wouldn’t admit a fuck-up in a million years, let alone let someone help her through one. She’s a lost cause. A horrid bitch who can rot in hell for all I care, she’d deserve it. My advice? Get out while you can, dude, because she’s nothing but rot. She doesn’t care about anyone .”

Harry just looked at her for a few moments, a sad, distant look on his face. Yoko was pretty sure Enid was ready to tell Harry just that, no dice, but Yoko wanted to punch him in the throat because the next words he said had Enid reconsidering.

“If you really believe that,” Harry said softly. “then I don’t think you know Wednesday very well at all. If anything, I think Wednesday cares a little too much sometimes and...she just doesn’t have the tools to handle that.”

Yoko felt like a knife had just been sunk into her heart, and she snarled and leaned back, looking around again for Addams. She was here. She’d find her and just beat the shit out of her, and then she’d go back to the apartment. Fuck her.

“Yoko,” Enid asked, quietly. “Will you come with me?”

“What?” Yoko asked sharply.

“To Wednesday’s apartment. I need...witnesses. I want to go, if she really wants to talk I want to hear her out, but I don’t...I don’t want to do it alone. Without you,” Enid whispered.

Yoko froze for a moment, before slowly nodding.

“I’ll come with you but I want it on record that this is a stupid fucking idea and she’s probably not going to say shit, she probably just wants to screw with you some more,” Yoko said harshly.

“If she’s coming she can’t beat Wednesday up,” Harry said dryly.

“She won’t,” Enid insisted, staring at Yoko.

“No promises,” Yoko muttered.

“ Yoko . Please?” Enid asked, her voice cracking a little.

Yoko sighed.

“Fine. Whatever. I’ll leave the little freak intact,” she spat. Enid frowned, and Yoko just glared at her. She ignored the little voice in her stomach and pulled more from the flower, let the anger and the vitriol flow through her. Who cared if she called Wednesday a freak, she was one. She was a freak.

Who the fuck cared.

~~~~~

Okay.

Maybe, maybe Addams had taken her by surprise once or twice by confessing everything and even admitting her own fuck-ups.

But that didn’t mean the ball of bitterness and anger in Yoko’s chest hadn’t bled with every word she said, listening to Wednesday pour her heart out to Enid and not, for a single moment, even mention her. She barely even looked at Yoko except when Yoko threatened or insulted her, but she didn’t even give Yoko the satisfaction of rising to the bait.

“You’re seriously buying this?” Yoko whispered harshly after Wednesday was done, currently curled up and trembling in the armchair. Enid had asked Yoko to leave, and for Harry to give her and Wednesday some privacy.

“Yoko,” Enid murmured. “I love her, okay?”

Yoko froze, her mouth open in shock.

“Seriously!?” she sputtered. “You’re just going to go back to her? After everything she did? To you!?” To me!?

“I’m not just going to go back,” Enid said patiently. “I’m going to tell her that she needs to start being honest. That we’re going to need to go to a therapist, a couples therapist, to work things out. I won’t accept her apology, or forgive her. I can’t. Not yet. But I want to, Yoko. Maybe not now, but someday. I want to forgive her, I want her in my life.”

“You’re insane,” Yoko whispered, pushing a hand through her hair. “Fucking insane. You’re just throwing yourself back at her, after everything. I cannot believe you.”

“She’s my mate , Yoko,” Enid hissed.

Yoko shut her mouth.

Blinked a few times in shock.

“...For real?” she asked eventually, her voice dumb and distant.

“For realsies,” Enid nodded sadly. “And if all that stuff about the curse is true, which I think it is honestly, then...I have to give her a chance. I have to try .”

“...fine,” Yoko snapped. “But don’t come crying to me when she falls back into old habits and just torpedoes this all over again.”

Enid sighed and was going to say something else, but Yoko was already stomping out of the apartment. She drove back to her and Enid’s. Enid could get an Uber.

Yoko burst into her bedroom and started screaming. She fell to her knees and clutched at her hair, screaming and tugging at her hair as her eyes burned and tears began to stream down her face. She stayed on the floor for a long time, screaming her throat raw and sobbing until she fell asleep.

~~~~~

Two months later

~~~~~

“Just have lunch with us, please?” Enid asked. “You’re my best friend and you’re going to have to get used to her being around again. So just come to lunch. Please.”

“Ugh,” Yoko grunted, rolling her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll come if it’ll stop you from whinging about it to me.”

“Thank you bestie!!” Enid squealed, throwing herself at Yoko and hugging her tightly. Yoko hugged her back reluctantly.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Yoko muttered.

Enid led Yoko to a small cafe on the corner. Yoko was surprised to see Wednesday already there, waiting at a table in the corner.

She looked...good. Better than the last time Yoko saw her, that was for sure. She was wearing normal clothes, and even had a few colors other than black on her. Granted they were mostly grays and a single extremely dark navy blue, but hey, still.

When Wednesday saw them walk in, it was almost comical how her eyes lit up. She also honest-to-god smiled, which threw Yoko off completely, but she wasn’t done being surprised yet. Wednesday stood up and practically ran across the cafe, throwing her arms around Enid and burying her face in her shoulder.

“Hi Willa!” Enid giggled, hugging her tightly back and nuzzling the top of her head. “I missed you!”

“I missed you too,” Wednesday whispered, her eyes closed as she pressed herself into Enid.

Yoko felt sick in her stomach, her lip curling as she watched them. Enid sent her a quick look that clearly said be nice, and she just rolled her eyes. Eventually Wednesday decoupled from Enid and looked at Yoko.

It was the first time Wednesday had properly looked at her since that day in the hallway.

A small part of Yoko wanted to look her in the eyes again, wanted to see if they were any different. Wanted to erase the memory of the last time she looked into Wednesday’s eyes and pave it over with something new.

But she buried that small part under a sneer and a scoff, turning away and walking over to the front counter to stare at the menu instead. She heard a murmured conversation between Wednesday and Enid behind her, and studiously ignored it.

She ordered a coffee and a sandwich and went to go sit down at the other table next to the one Wednesday had chosen. When Enid and Wednesday came up with their orders, Wednesday just looked at Yoko with a small frown and furrow of her brow.

“Are you not going to sit with us?” Wednesday asked, her voice brusque and flat.

“Fuck off Addams,” Yoko said, flipping her the bird.

Wednesday bristled, and Enid put an arm around her shoulders, looking reproachfully at Yoko. Yoko glared back at Enid, who eventually just sighed and sat with Wednesday at the table she had already picked out.

They talked. Yoko tried not to listen. She listened anyway.

It was a surprising amount of small talk, with warmth clearly evident in Wednesday’s voice. It was jarring to hear. Wednesday told Enid about what she was doing with her latest book, and Enid told Wednesday stories from her job as a waitress.

Wednesday told a story about Barnabus, and Enid started giggling incessantly. Yoko just rolled her eyes.

“I never would’ve pegged you as a dog person Addams, but I guess you are a bitch so it makes sense,” Yoko said archly. She could see Wednesday’s shoulders hunch up a little, and grinned sharply as Wednesday looked at her over her shoulder.

“And I see you’ve learned absolutely nothing of manners or tact since Nevermore. I’m disappointed, Tanaka,” Wednesday hissed.

“Willa,” Enid murmured. “Don’t.”

“Yeah Willa,” Yoko mocked.

“Shut up Yoko,” Enid snapped. “Stop baiting her.”

“Whatever,” Yoko muttered. Wednesday curled her lip and turned back to Enid, and Yoko went back to nursing her coffee and ignoring her sandwich.

They continued making small talk, but it was subdued now. Wednesday’s voice was flatter, and she was curling into herself somewhat. Enid looked disappointed, and Yoko felt a pang in her gut. She ignored it.

Enid knew how she felt about this whole thing, and she invited her anyway. Enid should’ve known what was going to happen.

Eventually the lunch came to an end and Wednesday awkwardly asked Enid if she wanted to come back to her apartment. Yoko snorted and made a gagging sound, and Enid sighed irritably.

“Sorry, Willa, maybe another time?” Enid said, sending Yoko an annoyed glare.

Wednesday drooped a little and nodded. She didn’t acknowledge Yoko in the slightest, and she quickly left the cafe to make her own way home. Enid also didn’t speak to Yoko as they walked back to their apartment, until they were inside and the door was shut.

“I can’t believe you!” Enid snapped. “What the hell, Yoko?”

“Oh bite me,” Yoko grumbled, throwing herself onto the couch and grabbing her Xbox controller. She turned the TV on and was going to start playing her game when Enid stormed over and unplugged her Xbox. “Hey! What the fuck?”

“No you what the fuck Yoko!” Enid declared, turning around and putting her hands on her hips. “That was so not cool!”

“Hey you invited me on your stupid little lunch date,” Yoko said pointedly, rolling her eyes. “I never said I’d be nice.”

“I didn’t think I had to ask,” Enid spat.

“Well boo hoo for you, at least one of us is still being fucking reasonable about this whole thing,” Yoko snarked.

“You’re calling this reasonable?”

“Uh, duh? You do remember what she did right? Ajax still has the scar on his fucking shoulder,” Yoko snarled.

“Yeah. And Ajax forgave her,” Enid snapped. “Wanna know what he said? He said ‘Wednesday if I couldn’t handle some light stabbing, being your friend would be a really stupid idea.’.”

“Yeah, well Ajax is also being stupid,” Yoko muttered.

“Wednesday apologized. She literally handed him a knife and told him to stab her back wherever he wanted!” Enid said, pushing her hand through her hair. “She nearly broke down in tears when he tried to refuse, and eventually he just lightly poked her with it on her arm and said she never specified it had to be a good stab and she actually laughed a little. It was a really sweet moment, actually.”

“Wow. Amazing. Definitely not freak behavior whatsoever,” Yoko said dryly.

“Stop it. You know how she feels about that word,” Enid said.

“I mean, if the shoe fits…” Yoko said.

“Ugh! I am so mad at you right now,” Enid said, stomping her foot and marching off to her bedroom.

“Yeah well, you’re gonna need at least one person who isn’t fucking delusional when this whole thing blows up in your face!” Yoko yelled back at her. Enid just slammed her door in response.

“Ugh!” Yoko grunted, throwing her controller across the room and going to her own bedroom. She needed a shower.

~~~

Four months later

~~~

“Damn Addams you look glum today. Did your latest victim get away from you?” Yoko snarked. Wednesday had come over to Yoko and Enid’s place to spend time with Enid.

They were supposed to be in Enid’s room, but Wednesday had come to get a glass of water while Yoko was playing video games.

Enid said after the third time Yoko spent the entire time Wednesday was around trying to start fights that she was giving up on her getting along with Wednesday, but for some reason Yoko kept finding Wednesday at the apartment or herself tagging along to an outing where Wednesday was included.

Four months of exposure hadn’t made things any smoother.

Wednesday curled her lip but didn’t say anything as she got a glass from the cabinet and started to fill it up. Yoko felt a twist in her gut.

Fucking look at me dammit.

“What’s the matter Addams? Cat got your tongue? Or, wolf rather?” Yoko asked.

Wednesday still didn’t respond.

“Actually I’ve been curious about that, does she like, mount you and shit? You know, since you’re clearly the bitch in the relationship,” Yoko sneered.

“What the fuck is your problem?” Wednesday snapped, slamming her hands on the counter and staring at the sink with a set jaw.

“You, dumbass,” Yoko spat. “You’re bad news. And you’re just going to wind up hurting Enid again, and I’m going to have to pick up the fucking pieces. Again.”

Wednesday bristled.

“I have apologized to Enid numerous times. We are in therapy. We are working through our issues in a healthy, adult manner,” Wednesday said stiffly, putting emphasis on the word ‘adult’. Yoko rolled her eyes at the snipe.

“Yeah that means about jack and shit to me,” Yoko sneered. “You’re toxic, Addams. I know it. And deep fucking down, you know it too. Look me in the fucking eye and tell me you don’t.”

Just fucking look at me at all.

Wednesday did not. Instead she closed her eyes and took a deep inhale through her nose, exhaling through her mouth.

“Insecurity doesn’t look good on you Tanaka,” Wednesday said smoothly, her voice back to that distant deadpan Yoko recognized from Nevermore. “You should probably get used to me being around, though. Because I’m going to be here, like it or not. And we wouldn’t want your inability to grow up to endanger your friendship with Enid now would we?”

“Why you fucking bitch!” Yoko screeched, but Wednesday was already closing Enid’s bedroom door behind her halfway through the retort. Yoko stood up and marched over, intent on pounding on the door and dragging Wednesday by the hair back out to finish what she started if she had to, but then she heard voices.

“I’m sorry about her,” Enid said.

“Do not be,” Wednesday said, her voice stiff and...cracking. “I deserve it.”

Yoko blinked.

“You don’t. I’ve forgiven you, Ajax has forgiven you, it’s a done deal,” Enid said, angry. “I’m so over her being mad for me. It’s pissing me off.”

“I know,” Wednesday said. “But I’m grateful you’ve continued to not interfere.”

Wednesday made Enid stop trying to get Yoko to play nice?

“I’m bringing up this self-punishment with Priss next week,” Enid said.

“Priss already knows,” Wednesday said offhandedly. “I talked about it in my solo session. We’re...working on it. But it’s still my burden to bear. And I know it’s hard for you to watch, and I’m thankful for your strength. It won’t be forever.”

“It better not be,” Enid muttered.

Yoko didn’t hear any more.

She just walked back to her room, closed the door, and sat on the bed.

The flower inside her wilted, just a little bit.

~~~~~

“God can you be any more self-absorbed?” Yoko laughed, snorting derisively. “Not everything is about you, Addams. This is about Enid.”

“Stop using her as an excuse,” Wednesday snapped. “Whatever your issue is with me, take it out on me, but stop dragging her into it. We are in a good place. I have been working with our therapist tirelessly. This is not about my relationship with Enid and if you continue to insist on putting her in between us I’m going to gut you and hang you like a pig.”

“Oh, yeah, clearly your therapy is going so well,” Yoko mocked. “You still can’t resist threatening me every damn time we talk. If you’re doing so much better, why even do this with me? Go on Wednesday, be the bigger woman, maybe prove it that you’re better now.”

“I threaten you and fight with you because it’s the only fucking time we talk!” Wednesday thundered.

Yoko took a step back.

Wednesday was breathing heavily. She huffed and tossed her hair, shouldering past Yoko and walking over to Enid’s bedroom. She shut the door behind her and left Yoko there, blinking.

They didn’t bring up what Wednesday said again.

Yoko kept picking fights, but it was with slightly less frequency and venom now.

And the flower wilted a little more.

~~~~~

Six months later

One year since Wednesday’s return to Yoko’s life

~~~~~

“You need to stop,” Enid said to Yoko one evening. “Or I’m going to move out.”

“...what?” Yoko asked, her eyes widening in shock.

“You heard me,” Enid said, sighing. And Yoko realized just how tired Enid was, and how much effort it was taking her to be in this conversation. To say what she did. “God, Yoko, you’re just like Wednesday was at Nevermore except worse. It’s like you think I’m a fucking child who can’t think for herself. No matter where we are, no matter what we’re doing, you can’t help yourself and you have to take at least one shot at her.”

Yoko felt like ice water had just been dumped all over her.

“...fine,” she whispered. “I can’t...I won’t promise to like her, or whatever. Don’t expect us to start holding hands singing kumbaya and shit. But I’ll stop baiting her and shit. Just...don’t go, Enid.”

Enid nodded numbly. She got up and went to her room, and that was that.

Yoko let out a long breath.

~~~~~

She tried.

It was hard.

She had to bite her tongue a lot whenever Wednesday was over.

Watching Wednesday interact with the rest of Yoko’s friends was hardest of all.

The holidays were coming and the old Nevermore gang had come and were shacking up across the two apartments between Enid and Wednesday. Ajax and Bianca were crashing at Enid and Yoko’s place, with Xavier and Eugene bunking up at Wednesday’s.

They were all in the same room for the first time in a long time, playing cards and catching up. Yoko was talking with Bianca when she watched Wednesday finally arrive, having been busy most of the day with book things. Her next novel was finally out, and she had spent the day doing signings at the book store.

The whole group had gone to see her, of course, and get signed copies of her new book.

Except Yoko.

She stayed home with a lame excuse that she was going to do some tidying up. Which, she did do. She didn’t lie. But everyone knew she just didn’t want to see Wednesday.

The first thing Wednesday did was go up and hug Enid. Yoko had gotten used to that, by now. It was still a little weird but she didn’t really react to it anymore, and besides, Enid had always been a weird exception.

It was when Eugene came up and hugged Wednesday that Yoko stopped mid-sentence and just stared. Her eyes widened even further when Wednesday hugged Eugene back. It was shorter and less full-bodied than her hug with Enid, but it still happened. Bianca looked for what Yoko was staring at and snorted.

Xavier and Ajax came up and both of them did some weird...handshake thing with Wednesday. Her brow was furrowed in concentration as she went through several steps. The only contact she had with the two boys was with her hand, but it was still touching. They each had a unique handshake with her, and when she finished each one correctly she had a small, proud smile on her face when Ajax and Xavier told her she nailed it, and that it was good to see her.

Then Bianca got up to greet Wednesday, with a firm handshake and a friendly smile.

What the fuck.

Wednesday didn’t acknowledge Yoko, which was normal. Harry arrived about ten minutes after Wednesday, saying it was impossible to find parking this late as he went around greeting everyone with either a hug or a fist-bump.

Yoko just got a nod. She and Harry didn’t really get along. He was, still, fiercely protective of Wednesday. Even moreso than Enid, weirdly enough. He hadn’t flashed his stinger again since that night, except to show Eugene and to let Eugene take some of the venom to study. But he was always putting himself physically between Yoko and Wednesday whenever he was in the same room as them, subtly, but noticeably.

The boys got a game of very low-stakes poker going. Enid and Wednesday were talking in the kitchen about her book, and Bianca had disappeared off to the bathroom. Yoko went to her room and found Bianca there. They had been sharing, with Bianca taking a futon on the floor.

“What are you doing in here?” Bianca asked. “Not enjoying the party?”

“Could ask you the same thing,” Yoko chuckled.

“I’m just getting my copy of Wendy’s book out. I wanted to ask her a few things about it,” Bianca said, waving the book in her hand.

“Wendy?” Yoko asked, rolling her eyes. Bianca huffed.

“Yeah. I call her Wendy. So does Eugene, and Ajax. Xavier still calls her Wednesday but he just likes how her full name sounds, I think. But otherwise all of us have a nickname for her at this point. I think Harry just calls her Wends.”

“I cannot believe she lets you do that,” Yoko muttered. “How has she not threatened to take your tongues out a hundred times by now?”

Bianca shrugged.

“She still does, sometimes,” she said. “But it’s all a joke at this point. She says she lost all the fun in violence when she lost Enid, and getting her back made her not want to use threats to push people away anymore. At this point she just says those things out of habit. If anything we make her say them, because it’s really weird not to hear them.”

“Uh huh, and I saw a flying pig the other day!” Yoko said, snorting derisively. “Seriously. How does she have all of you eating out of her hand like this? You remember what she was like.”

“No offense Yoko, but that was fucking high school. So she was a bit trigger-happy with violent threats and she stabbed Ajax a little bit, big deal. I’m pretty sure the Furs did worse to each other during their play fighting, and you know full well some of the vamps were sneaking little snacks on some students when they pissed them off. And I’m pretty sure we had like, over a dozen stoning incidents in one month alone not long after she left. We’re outcasts. Violence is just kind of part of our life sometimes, and she had that whole blood curse crap going on. We’re all grown up now, none of us care about that shit. Well. Except you.”

Yoko curled her lip and crossed her arms.

Bianca sighed.

“Divina would be really disappointed in you,” she said quietly. “It sucks that she’s in Europe for the holidays, but honestly I’m kind of glad she doesn’t have to see this version of you. I hope you figure your shit out before she gets back and sees it because frankly, I’m not confident in your relationship surviving if she sees what you’ve become.”

“Don’t fucking talk about her,” Yoko snarled, taking a step forward and baring her fangs. Bianca just stared at her blandly. Long-distance had been hard on Yoko, especially when Divina got a job in Europe. She had gotten an Art History degree, of all things, and had gotten an offer to work in an art gallery in Paris over the winter. Divina had been over the moon, and Yoko had just been bitter that they had to cancel her plans to visit.

“Didn’t you see her earlier? With the boys?” Bianca asked quietly, completely disregarding Yoko’s implied threat. Being around Wednesday Addams, even a much more muted version, tended to immunize someone to empty threats. “She’s different now, Yoko. If you can’t accept that and stop being mad for Enid’s sake over something that happened eight fucking years ago, you are a lost cause.”

“Fuck you,” Yoko whispered. “Just fuck you, Bianca.”

“At least I tried,” Bianca sighed. “I’m gonna go back out there. Have fun being miserable, I guess.”

And then she was gone.

And then Yoko was alone.

For all of ten minutes.

Then she burst out into the apartment and stomped right up to Wednesday.

“You,” she snarled. Wednesday blinked. The rest of the apartment went silent. Harry stood up, but Wednesday shot him a look and he sat back down. “You’ve done something to everyone. Done some freak Addams bullshit or something, I dunno, but I’m not having it.”

“Oh my god Yoko,” Enid muttered, putting her face in her hands.

“No, seriously, I’m so sick of you,” Yoko hissed, poking Wednesday hard on the shoulder. Wednesday didn’t budge. “You do some seriously sick shit to Enid, then you probably did some bullshit in your apartment after I left that night to get her to come crawling back to you, and then you do the same shit to the rest of my friends, to just make them forget who you are? What you’re capable of?”

“Yoko…” Bianca said slowly.

“Shut up Bianca,” Yoko said, her voice starting to get shrill. Bianca backed up a few steps, holding her hands up. “Fess up, Addams. What the fuck have you done with my friends.”

Wednesday just stared at her.

“I’m so done,” Enid muttered. “I’m so done.”

“Talk,” Yoko hissed. She shoved Wednesday this time, hard. “Talk, you fucking bitch!”

“That’s enough, Yoko!” Harry said firmly. He stood up again, but Wednesday again stopped him, holding out her hand. She was still looking at Yoko. Yoko still refused to meet her eyes.

“Mm,” Wednesday murmured. “You want me to confess?”

“Yeah,” Yoko said, feeling her heart in her throat. Was this it? Was she right the whole time?

“Alright,” Wednesday said quietly. “But you have to see something first.”

“What?” Enid asked.

“What?” Yoko echoed.

“It’s in Enid’s room. It’s how I’ve done it,” Wednesday said seriously. “Come with me.”

“Willa what the fuck are you doing,” Enid muttered. Wednesday didn’t look at her at all though, she only looked at Yoko. Yoko licked her lips, nerves on fire.

“Show me,” Yoko hissed.

“Follow me,” Wednesday said, her voice distant. Flat. Her body language shifted, and for a moment the image of Wednesday from eight years ago was superimposed over her in Yoko’s vision. She could see the braids, the black Nevermore outfit, the look of superiority.

She followed Wednesday into Enid’s room.

“Here,” Wednesday said, opening Enid’s closet. “I keep it here. It works better if it’s in close proximity.”

“What is it?” Yoko asked, stepping into the closet. Then she felt Wednesday step into the closet behind her and close the door, and she heard a loud crash. She whirled around as Wednesday pulled the chain on the light in the closet, crossing her arms and staring at Yoko. “What the fuck!?”

A rush of footsteps came into Enid’s bedroom.

“What the hell!?” Xavier yelped. “Are you guys in the closet? There’s...why is there a bunch of shit in front of the door? Are those weights?”

Yoko tried to push on the closet door, but it wouldn’t open.

“Enid,” Wednesday said loudly. “I know you’re out there. Please lock your closet door and have everyone leave the premises for a while. Come back in four hours.”

“Uh. Willa? Wanna tell me what the fuck you’re doing?” Enid asked, sounding panicked.

“I have snacks and water in here. I hid them last week,” Wednesday said conversationally, grabbing a few pillows Yoko was just now noticing and setting them on the floor so she could sit comfortably. “We will both be alive when you return, but I’m not letting Yoko run away. Please lock the door.”

“...you sure about this, baby?” Enid asked.

“Positive,” Wednesday said. She was staring at Yoko again, and Yoko still wouldn’t look back at her. She was in shock.

She heard the click of the closet door and a few more words she didn’t process before there was a ton of footsteps, and then it was quiet.

“Please sit down,” Wednesday said quietly.

“Let me the fuck out,” Yoko said.

“Unfortunately even if I wanted to, which I do not, the door only locks from the outside,” Wednesday said. “I fitted the closet with a new deadbolt two weeks ago.”

“You planned this?” Yoko asked, incredulous.

“Of course I did,” Wednesday scoffed. “Now sit. Please.”

“Fuck you.”

Wednesday sighed.

“I’m not letting you leave until you tell me what this is really about,” Wednesday said. “This isn’t about Enid. It has been a year. She has well past forgiven me at this point, and if this was really about Enid, you would be busy being happy for her. She is happy, with her mate.”

“Fuck you twice.”

“Tanaka.”

“I’m not talking about shit with you,” Yoko hissed.

“Then we’ll be stuck in here for quite a while,” Wednesday sighed. “I have supplies for two weeks. Water bottles and various non-perishable foods. It’s fortunate Enid has such a large closet, and does not look in certain boxes very often.”

Yoko gaped for a few moments. When Wednesday stood up and pulled out a package of snacks from a box on a shelf, she realized she was serious. Wednesday was going to lock them in here for over a week.

She felt something in her stomach stir, and she clenched her teeth and shut it down.

“The floor is yours, whenever you’d like it,” Wednesday said politely. “You must have things you want to say to me that don’t involve insults or threats. Otherwise you wouldn’t be holding onto your anger for this long.”

“Oh, god, fuck you so much,” Yoko whispered.

Wednesday nodded.

“Yes, yes, fuck me, you’ve said it so many times I hear it in my sleep,” Wednesday muttered. “But you need to say more than that if you want to leave the closet.”

“What the fuck do you want from me!?” Yoko yelled. “I’ve told you. You’re bad for Enid and I’m the only one who’s got their fucking head on straight about it.”

“No.”

Wednesday said it simply, like it was such an immutable truth that she didn’t even have to think about it. Her face didn’t give away anything, if Yoko’s words had affected her at all she didn’t show it in the slightest.

“The fuck do you mean no?”

“I mean you’re wrong. Entirely so. I’m actually very good for Enid,” Wednesday said, clasping her hands behind her back. “I make her happy. I love her with all my heart. I support her endeavors. She wants to go into fashion, did you know? I’ve been modeling for her.”

Yoko blinked.

She didn’t know that, actually.

“Seriously?” she asked, forgetting to be hostile for a moment. Wednesday nodded eagerly.

“She’s actually rather brilliant,” Wednesday continued, the admiration bleeding from her words. “The color she chooses are still absolutely abhorrent, mind you, but I put up with it for her. We’ve agreed that my taste in clothing is simply completely alien to her, and vice versa, but it does not change the fact that I can understand she is very good at what she does and I’m happy to support her doing it, even if it means wearing pink,” she finished, wrinkling her nose in distaste a little.

“She never told me,” Yoko murmured. She felt...empty. How did she not know what Enid had been up to recently? She looked around the closet, properly, and saw tons of fabric and various dummy models for tailoring clothes.

“She hasn’t been telling you a lot recently,” Wednesday said sympathetically. “I’ve told her not to do that but she says if you’re too much of a brat to see past your own nose it’s not her problem.”

Yoko swallowed.

“So I’m going to ask you again,” Wednesday said, calmly. “This is clearly not about Enid. I want to know what your problem is, and I am not saying that in a confrontational way. I’m asking genuinely. Please. Tell me.”

Yoko swayed slightly on her feet, and Wednesday was standing right in front of her. She didn’t touch her, but she looked ready to if Yoko fell.

Yoko looked down.

She finally met Wednesday’s eyes, and her breath hitched in her throat.

Looking up at her was a pair of soft brown eyes, infinitely swimming with so many different emotions Yoko didn’t even know where to start looking for them. The door that had closed right in front of Yoko’s face so many years ago had clearly been flung wide open, and there was so much there.

So much softness, and depth, and nuance, and care. Wednesday didn’t look like she wanted to hurt Yoko or threaten her, there was no more ice in her eyes. It was the same softness Yoko had seen that day at the hives, but turned up to eleven and joined by so much more.

“Please talk to me,” Wednesday whispered.

“...Did it ever mean anything?” Yoko whispered back. Wednesday blinked. “Us?”

“Us?” Wednesday asked quietly.

“We walked to class. Every day,” Yoko said, her voice choking. The flower was wilting, wilting, wilting. The seed she had long buried was dead, and in it’s place was something new and old at the same time. A strange echo of feelings from long ago, threatening to bloom into something new. “I thought...god, I wanted...there to be something there. Anything. You...anything.”

Wednesday blinked, long and slow.

“You were so funny,” Yoko whispered, the words falling from her lips before she could stop them. She was too far gone now. She couldn’t stop it. “I loved your humor. You made me laugh in a way nobody else could, we...I got you. When nobody else understood you were making a joke, I laughed. You were so funny, Wednesday.”

Wednesday still didn’t say anything, so Yoko kept talking.

“But you were hurting,” Yoko gasped out, feeling her lungs constrict. Her eyes burned. “You...I thought you hated everyone, that you thought you were better than everyone. But you didn’t. Not really. You fought so hard for Enid and Eugene, and you wanted to fit in with us, you were...hurt...when people couldn’t see it, when they just thought you were weird or strange and were put off by it.”

Something flashed in Wednesday’s eyes. An echo of that old pain, and Yoko knew she hadn’t been imagining it.

“I wanted to help,” Yoko whispered. “At first I didn’t like you and thought...well, the same thing as the rest of the school I guess. But then I saw you and I just couldn’t stop seeing you. I saw someone who was so brave for the people she cared about, someone who would do anything for them. I saw someone who didn’t know how to reach out to the world and showed their care in different, smaller ways. The way you would care for the bees with Eugene or listen to Enid when she would go off about some random gossip nobody actually cared about.”

“I saw you,” Yoko hiccuped. “And I wanted...I wanted to be there with you. I wanted to be your friend. Fuck, Wednesday, I wanted to be your friend so badly. And f-for a while there I thought...maybe...maybe there was something. Maybe we could be something, we could b-be real friends. Sometimes, when we would walk to class together, or when I would laugh at one of your jokes, or you would sit with me at lunch when Enid wasn’t around, I thought...I thought I saw something there. Sometimes I thought maybe you could care about me like you cared about Enid and Eugene. Like I cared about you. But I just thought...that I was imagining things. That there was no way we had anything real. I was just getting my hopes up. But then you left.”

Wednesday’s eyes shimmered slightly, and she worked her jaw. Yoko hiccuped again and wiped her eyes.

“You fucking left, Wednesday. You left Enid. Eugene. You left...me. And you didn’t seem to care. You didn’t seem to care who you left behind, you acted like you could just throw me away. I wanted to show you that you had people in your court, that you had people you could lean on and that it wasn’t just Enid and you didn’t have to go so fucking insane and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t help you. I didn’t do a good enough job and then everything all went to shit and you left and there was a massive fucking hole with you gone that nobody wanted to talk about and I felt like it was my fault.”

Yoko’s lungs were heaving now, and she couldn’t stop the tears. They fell freely from her face, dropping onto the closet floor.

“But I was so mad at you for leaving I convinced myself you just never cared about me. About any of us,” Yoko whispered. “And when you...fucking showed up again, at first I was mad for Enid. I was mad for me too but I was mostly mad for Enid, because what you did was fucked up. But then you apologized to her...and then the others...but not me. It was just...another reminder that I really was nothing to you at Nevermore, I guess.”

That was it.

Her innermost feelings spilled out onto the floor for everyone to see, guts and all.

It took her a few moments to realize that Wednesday’s arms were around her. She blinked the tears in her eyes away and looked down in shock and was met with the sight of the top of Wednesday’s head and the feeling of her arms wrapped tightly around Yoko’s torso.

“Yoko,” Wednesday whispered, and Yoko’s heart shattered. It was the first time Wednesday had said her first name in years. And even at Nevermore she mostly called her Tanaka, still. Almost never Yoko. “It was real. You didn’t imagine any of it. It was real.”

Yoko’s arms snaked around Wednesday and clung tightly to her. The feelings she had so long ago exploded in her chest and she could finally, finally put a name to them.

It was love.

Of course it was love.

It was always love.

That’s why it hurt so much.

That’s why it always hurt.

It may not have been romantic love, or the type of love Yoko felt for her dad, but it was still love all the same. Yoko saw a girl that the world didn’t understand and didn’t seem to want very much, a girl who took all of that and still kept going, held her chin high despite it all, and saw all the good beneath the defensive shell she had built for herself.

She saw a girl who was deeply funny in a dark way that Yoko understood, because she had a morbid sense of humor too.

She saw a girl who hurt inside because the world didn’t seem to want her, and Yoko wanted to tell her it’s okay. I’ll want you. If the world doesn’t want you, I’ll do it.

She saw a girl who, despite all that hurt, despite the fact that the world said you are not welcome here, put her very life on the line to save the same people who despised her.

What else could it have been, but love?

“I didn’t know...anything, about people, really,” Wednesday continued, her voice muffled. Yoko clung to her voice like a lifeline as she held onto her, feeling like she was drowning in a hurricane of unstable emotions and Wednesday was a rock poking above the surface of the ocean. “I still don’t. I know so much less than everyone else does, but I’m learning. But back then I knew...nothing.”

“I was still struggling with the very idea that I could care about someone outside my family,” Wednesday whispered. “Enid was my love, my curse. Some part of me always knew it would happen eventually, and I could eventually come to accept that, even if I fought it the whole way. And Eugene reminded me of my little brother, which made it easier. But nothing, nobody could have prepared me for you.”

Yoko gasped.

“You aren’t ensnared by an ancient curse on my bloodline. You don’t remind me of any of my family. You were as much of a stranger as anybody, and I have always distrusted and kept strangers at a distance. I had absolutely no outside reason to...notice you, at all,” Wednesday continued, hugging Yoko tighter. “And at first, I thought you were just another stranger who hated me, and just like everyone else, it was easier to make you hate me because I was a bad person than for you to hate me because of things I didn’t understand.”

Yoko had been right.

Wednesday’s attitude was a defense mechanism.

If people were going to hate her anyway, Wednesday would become that person. It was easier to cope, easier to handle mentally if Wednesday could frame it as people hating her because she was purposefully a hateable person.

“ But then you started paying closer attention to me and it was terrifying ,” Wednesday whispered. “I felt your eyes on me, picking me apart, pulling me away layer by layer until you would inevitably find...me. And that scared me. That scared me so much. I tried to run away from it, but I couldn’t. When we started walking to class together, for some reason, I didn’t want to stop. It was utterly terrifying but I couldn’t stop. I... wanted to see you every day. I wanted to see you. To talk to you. Walk with you. It was...impossible, I thought. It couldn’t last. When you started to see past what I put on outside, you would hate me just like all the others but this time it would be because I am me and that is something I had no control over.”

“No,” Yoko choked out. “No, Wednesday, no no no.”

“I know,” Wednesday said, and Yoko heard the suppressed sobs in her own voice. “I know that now. But then I didn’t. I couldn’t.”

“I wanted to keep you safe,” Yoko whispered. “And now I’m probably the person who’s hurt you the most.”

Wednesday nodded and Yoko whimpered.

“You are. I cannot and will not lie,” Wednesday whispered. “Because...I did feel safe with you. Those walks to class every day felt sacred. It felt like no matter what happened to me, no matter what was going on, I could trust that you would be there every day and we would walk to class and you would do your best to cheer me up with your stupid arguments and silly jokes and the way you would undermine my threats with ease.”

Yoko let out another whimper and a sob, clutching Wednesday tighter to her.

“And then you brought the outside world into them,” Wednesday whispered. “What you said wasn’t wrong. But you made me confront a truth I wanted to avoid, you made me face my shortcomings in an environment where I felt safe, you...violated the sacred nature of the walks. And then it felt like I could truly have nothing, that no matter where I went, nothing could work for me. Everyone would turn against me eventually. That I was better off alone.”

“ I’m so sorry,” Yoko whispered.

“That was what I was going to say,” Wednesday muttered, and Yoko let out a wet laugh. “You have stolen my thunder. It should be me apologizing to you, Yoko. I should have let you in more. I should have done more to show you that…”

Wednesday took a deep breath.

“Apologies. I have not said this to anyone other than Enid. But I have spoken at length with Priss, myself and Enid’s therapist, and she tells me that it is important for me to verbalize it to you. So give me a moment.”

Yoko nodded.

It took nearly ten minutes for Wednesday to put herself together enough to keep talking.

“I should have...done more. To show you that...I...loved you,” Wednesday pushed the words out, and Yoko felt her whole body start to tremble with emotions. “I didn’t understand the concept of love back then. I...loved my family, of course, but expressing it to them felt awkward. Strange. But they were able to understand me in the ways only my family was capable of, and so I never had to practice expressing myself in any other way.”

Wednesday let out a long, shaking breath before continuing.

“It took me many months with Priss to realize that I did, in fact, love you, Yoko Tanaka,” Wednesday whispered. Yoko shuddered harder, her stomach churning and her heart pounding in her ears. “I loved you, as a close, dear friend, and you made me feel safe. Safer than anyone outside my family ever had, even Enid. Enid was always uncertain, because of the curse and my unwillingness to accept it, but you were stability. Safety. I could always look and see you there, even when I struggled with Enid. You would always laugh at my jokes, or when I did something unintentionally humorous. But even then you would not laugh at me, in a mocking way, you simply...enjoyed me. I didn’t know what that felt like until you and Enid.”

“When I left, I thought a clean break would be best. I did not want to further harm Enid, and I made the assumption that none of you would want to speak to me anyway,” Wednesday continued. “But I know in the process I hurt you. I tried to convince myself that whatever we had was already broken and I couldn’t salvage it, but I always wondered. If I had come to you, alone, would you have listened to me? Could I have explained it to you eight years ago, and fixed everything so much sooner?”

Yoko didn’t know how to answer that. She didn’t even know for sure herself. On the one hand, she wanted nothing more than to say yes, she would have listened. She would have wanted to help. She would have helped.

But on the other hand, she only had to look at the past year to see that maybe that wouldn’t have been true. Whether or not the past year of behavior was due to the toxicity of holding onto seven years of anger and she would have been far more amiable without that, or if she was always capable of that without needing to nurse a grudge for over half a decade was a question that would never be answered.

Wednesday nodded. She seemed to understand, without Yoko saying anything.

“You were the loss I felt most keenly after Enid,” Wednesday whispered. “I think Harry and I got along so well because he reminds me of you. He makes me feel safe the way you used to. I know that he won’t ever judge me for my strangeness and my odd nature, and he will have my back to catch me when I fall.”

Yoko nodded and clung harder. She didn’t know what to say. What to do.

“The reason you could still bait me into fights all year is because I missed you, Yoko,” Wednesday murmured, nuzzling Yoko gently. “I missed you so much. And even though you would hurt me, you would sling words at me like daggers, you still spoke to me and it was like drops of water and I was parched. I...I hoped that if I let you unload all your anger onto me that you would forgive me after I had served my punishment, and we could...try again. But it never happened. You just kept holding onto your anger, so I tried to fight you. I tried to make you give it up. But you wouldn’t.”

Fuck.

God, Yoko had been such a bitch .

“This was my last resort,” Wednesday admitted. “If I couldn’t fix things here...I resolved to myself to finally move on from you. For good. To put that small, delicate thing we once had in the past for good. But I had to try one last time. For us.”

For us.

Wednesday didn’t say it like it was already a done deal.

Somewhere, Wednesday still considered that an us worth saving still existed.

Somehow, Wednesday still had enough faith in Yoko, enough us to reach out to her one last time after a year of punishment, a year of hate, a year of insults, a year of fighting, a year of pure venom. Through it all Wednesday still held fast to those walks in the school hallways eight years ago.

Yoko couldn’t hold herself up anymore.

Wednesday helped her, lowered her carefully to the floor.

Yoko curled up. Wednesday tucked a pillow under hear head and gently tucked her hair out of her face.

“Once more,” Wednesday murmured. “I loved you, Yoko. You were a dear friend to me, and I hope that one day, you can be again. I did not wish to lose you then and I do not wish to lose you a second time.”

Yoko couldn’t speak.

Wednesday waited a few more moments for her to say something before disengaging. She walked slightly deeper into the closet and fished something out of a box. A few moments later Enid heard her talking.

“Enid? I hid my phone in your closet. Yes, I lied about losing it. I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to get suspicious. If Yoko got a hint of my plan it might not have worked. I’m sorry. I think we worked things out, as best as we can anyway. You can come home and release us from the closet.”

She was quiet for another few moments before Yoko heard a harrumph sound.

“I have already apologized! I had to keep it a secret, Enid. I needed this to have the best chance of working. Um. I think so? I’m not sure. I said everything I wanted to. I told her the truth. About what I’ve recently uncovered with Priss. I’ll tell you everything later, right now she’s curled up on the floor and she’s catatonic and I’m rather worried.”

Wednesday was worried about her.

“Alright. See you soon. I love you.”

Wednesday came back over to Yoko and sat down with her back gently pressing against Yoko’s back. They sat like that until Enid came and let them out of the closet. Yoko didn’t say a word and simply went straight to her room, crawled under her covers, and went to sleep.

~~~~~

Two weeks later

~~~~~

Wednesday was in the kitchen.

Yoko could hear her.

She was humming something and cooking.

Enid wasn’t there, or they would be talking.

Yoko slowly stood up and pulled on some clothes. She cracked her bedroom door open to confirm Enid wasn’t there, and she carefully exited. She walked to the kitchen, slowly. Step by step. Wednesday’s humming got a little louder as Yoko approached.

Either Wednesday didn’t hear her coming or she was simply allowing Yoko to make the first move. Her back was turned as she looked at something on the stove, and Yoko could smell bacon. Her mouth watered a little bit.

After a few false starts with no sound as she opened and closed her mouth, she eventually managed to speak.

“Hey,” she croaked.

Wednesday didn’t stop cooking as her cheeks crinkled slightly in a small smile.

“Hello Yoko,” Wednesday said softly, stopping her humming.

“Smells good,” Yoko said, her voice hoarse.

“Thank you! I’ve been attempting to increase my culinary skills lately,” Wednesday said conversationally. “I have so far only burned the food in half of my attempts!”

Yoko couldn’t help it.

She cracked a smile at the pride in Wednesday’s voice.

“That’s great, Wednesday.”

Wednesday paused and turned around, a look of cautious optimism on her face as she looked at Yoko.

“You called me Wednesday,” she said. “Not Addams.”

“Mhm,” Yoko murmured. “I also called you that two weeks ago.”

“You were in severe emotional distress. It doesn’t count,” Wednesday said, her small smile widening a little. “This one does.”

“I can go back to calling you Addams if you want,” Yoko started.

“No,” Wednesday said. “I do not want that.”

“Mmk.”

Wednesday slowly turned around and went back to the bacon.

Yoko entered the kitchen properly and walked right up to Wednesday, leaning against the counter next to the sink and looking up at the ceiling, letting out a long, slow breath.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Mm?” Wednesday asked. “For what, in particular?” Her voice wasn’t teasing, or mocking. She just wanted to know.

“Everything,” Yoko said with a shrug. “Just. Everything.”

“Mm. I forgive you,” Wednesday said, flipping over the bacon.

Yoko blinked.

“Just like that?” she asked.

“Just like that,” Wednesday hummed.

“But I was a massive bitch,” Yoko said dumbly.

“You were,” Wednesday agreed.

“I called you awful names.”

“You did.”

“I accused you of manipulating our friends.”

“You did.”

“I was awful.”

“You were.”

“And you’re just forgiving me?”

“I’m just forgiving you,” Wednesday said, nodding seriously.

“….why?” Yoko asked, gaping.

“Excellent question. As you know, I am an Addams, and we are fantastic at holding grudges,” Wednesday said, poking the bacon with her spatula. “Do you think this is done?”

“Wha?”

“The bacon, Yoko. Do you think it’s done? I have a hard time telling.”

Yoko looked at it and shrugged. It looked fine to her.

“It’s probably fine. I’d take it off the pan,” she advised. Wednesday nodded and slid it off the pan onto a plate before adding a few more slices into the pan. They sizzled immediately.

“Anyway. I debated holding a grudge and giving you a taste of your own medicine,” Wednesday continued breezily. Yoko nodded. She could understand that. She probably deserved it. “But I talked about it with Priss and I told her that after thinking about it, I actually did not want to do that and in fact I would much rather just resume our friendship as if nothing had happened. I asked her if she thought I was wrong to do so, if I should make you work for forgiveness despite wishing to immediately grant it should you seek it, and Priss told me that it was ultimately my decision but she did want to hear my justification. Would you like to hear what I told her?”

Yoko nodded. Wednesday smiled.

“I told her that now that I understood what love was, and how good it feels to love and be loved, that I did not want to ever deny it to myself again. If I could I would go back in time to seventeen-year-old Wednesday Addams and smack her upside the head, and tell her to go give Yoko Tanaka the biggest hug in the world and tell her that she was her best friend, but alas. So instead I must settle for the second best thing.”

“What’s that?” Yoko asked, blinking.

“Smacking twenty-five year old Yoko Tanaka upside the head and then give her the biggest hug in the world, tell her she was my best friend, and that I’d very much like for her to take that post up again, if she would be so willing. Bacon?”

Wednesday offered her a slice of cooled bacon.

Yoko took it numbly and stuck it in her mouth, silently chewing on it as she turned everything over in her head and watching Wednesday continue cooking, frowning every time the bacon spat at her. Yoko felt her stomach do a funny little turn every time Wednesday did that frown.

She had come out of her room expecting to be yelled at.

Instead she was being told the words she’d wanted to hear for so long. That Wednesday Addams wanted to be her friend.

Sure, Wednesday basically said as much two weeks ago, but to be fair Yoko didn’t really remember that. She would start crying again if she tried to remember specific things, so having a memory of Wednesday saying that that didn’t make Yoko want to cry was really nice, actually.

“Which one do you want to do first?” Yoko asked after she finished the bacon.

“Pardon?”

“The smack or the hug?” Yoko asked.

Wednesday blinked.

“Yoko, the smack was metaphorical,” she slowly explained. “That happened two weeks ago. So did the hug, actually.”

“I don’t remember it very well,” Yoko said with a shrug. “I was a bit all over the place. And a metaphorical smack doesn’t count, and neither does a hug I barely remember. So which one do you want to do first?”

Wednesday frowned.

“I’m not going to smack you, Yoko.”

“Wednesday. Hit me.”

“No.”

“Stab me?”

“No!”

“Force feed me garlic until I pass out?”

Wednesday actually looked a little horrified at the thought, and Yoko smiled.

“Yoko!”

“What?”

“I’m not going to hurt you!”

“Wednesday,” Yoko said patiently. “Remember when you made Ajax stab you?”

Wednesday pouted. “That was different. You never physically assaulted me.”

“Tough shit cupcake, now hit me.”

“Don’t call me that, you impetuous bloodsucker,” Wednesday snipped.

“Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it, cupcake?” Yoko taunted, grinning.

“I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work,” Wednesday said, pointing the spatula at her. “I’m not going to hit you.”

“Then I guess I’m gonna keep calling you cupcake,” Yoko shrugged, reaching over to tousle Wednesday’s hair. She tried to make it casual, but her arm was practically burning from the electricity in her nerves as she reached over to do it. But Wednesday didn’t smack her hand away, or grab a knife and threaten to make Yoko’s insides her outsides. She just scowled as Yoko ruffled her hair.

“Stop that.”

“Hit me then.”

“I will not.”

“Coward. Wednesday the Cowardly Cupcake. I’m totally gonna tweet about that unless you hit me.”

“Ugh!” Wednesday stomped her foot. “You are impossible. If I smack you will you stop being so infuriating?”

“Maybe,” Yoko snickered, waggling an eyebrow.

This was so...easy.

It was so easy to just act like the past eight years never happened, that Yoko and Wednesday were just two friends walking through a school hallway, bickering about something completely inconsequential again.

Except this time, there was no uncertainty. There was no torturous internal debate over whether or not Wednesday maybe actually kinda liked Yoko, or if Yoko was just delusional.

It was just Wednesday and Yoko.

Friends.

Then Wednesday raised her hand up and gave Yoko’s cheek a light tap.

“There.”

“Oh come on that was such a baby slap,” Yoko whined. “Put some oomph into it, Wednesday.”

“If Ajax is allowed to barely poke me in the arm without even so much as piercing the fabric and call it a ‘stab’ I’m allowed to call that a smack,” Wednesday sniffed. “Now, I believe I also owe you a hug.”

Yoko rolled her eyes playfully and held her arms out. Wednesday happily walked into them and wrapped her arms around Yoko, making a strange little happy noise as she burrowed her face into Yoko’s shoulder. Yoko let her own arms drape around Wednesday.

“This is so fucking weird. I can’t believe you’re actually a secret hug slut after all that bluster about hating being touched at Nevermore,” Yoko muttered.

“Surprise,” Wednesday murmured. “I had severe deep-seated trust issues that manifested in an overpowering desire for personal space and even friendly touches being interpreted as something violent to be mistrusted and treated with suspicions. The visions also did not help but since accepting my love for Enid I have been able to gain completely control over them. And it turns out after twenty years of depriving myself of physical touch I am quite ‘touch-starved’ as Priss and Enid like to put it. But I still only allow those I trust to touch me, and even then only Enid and Eugene have been allowed to hug me. Xavier and Ajax get special ‘bro handshakes’ they call them, and Bianca just gets a normal handshake.”

Yoko blinked.

“Well okay then,” she said. “Glad you uh, figured all that out.”

Wednesday shrugged.

“Therapy. It helps. You should go.”

She said it earnestly. Yoko’s instinct was to take it as a barb, but the warmth in Wednesday’s tone couldn’t be mistaken.

“I might do that actually,” Yoko murmured. “So where do I stand?”

“Hm?”

“Do I get a bro handshake?”

“Yoko, I’m hugging you right now. Is that not a good enough demonstration of where you stand?”

“Okay but I want a bro handshake.”

“You want a bro handshake instead of hugs?”

“No, I want a bro handshake and hugs,” Yoko said petulantly.

“Mmm. One condition,” Wednesday said.

“Oh yeah?”

“I think only my best friend gets to have a bro handshake and hugs. So if you’re willing to take up the post, I think I can arrange for you to have both options.”

Yoko smiled and dipped her head down, bumping her nose lightly into the top of Wednesday’s head and squeezing her a little.

“You’ll have to share with Enid. She got best friend status first,” Yoko whispered.

“Enid and I are going to be engaged in approximately two months so we will share everything anyway. I see no reason why we cannot also share a best friend,” Wednesday said casually. Yoko’s eyes went wide and she pushed Wednesday away to hold her by her shoulders, looking at her face.

“I’m sorry what?”

Wednesday blinked.

“Me and Enid will share?”

“No, no, the other thing. The engaged thing.”

“Oh. I’m going to propose in two months,” Wednesday said, tilting her head to the side. “Enid will say yes.”

“And you know this...how?” Yoko asked. “I mean, that’s great that you’re confident, but usually people would be more nervous about proposing even if it’s irrational.”

Wednesday shrugged.

“I am her mate, she is my curse. Neither of us will ever love another the same way. The proposal is mostly a formality, to be honest. I was simply waiting for the matter of you and I to be decided one way or the other. Enid was about ready to move out anyway, and we were going to get a place just the two of us if you continued to insist on holding onto a grudge.”

Yoko winced.

“And...now?” she asked, hesitantly.

“Enid has grown rather used to living with you,” Wednesday hummed softly. “And, forgive me if I am overstepping, but if you are to accept the post as my best friend I believe you and I have seven years worth of lost friendship to make up for and one year of uncertain friendship neither of us could fully acknowledge to do justice.”

“Okay…” Yoko said slowly.

“Enid and I found a house,” Wednesday said simply, looking up at Yoko with big, brown eyes. “It’s technically a two-family house but they’re not that separated. It’s more like a house-and-a-half, where the kitchen connects to something like a condo that has it’s own bedroom and full bathroom.”

Yoko blinked.

Wednesday blinked back.

“I was going to give your room to Thing if you didn’t accept,” Wednesday shrugged.

And Yoko laughed.

She pulled Wednesday back into her arms and put a hand on the back of her head, swaying from side to side in the hug as she laughed and laughed, and she could feel Wednesday smiling against her as they swayed.

Enid finally got back to the apartment by that point. Yoko heard her open and close the door, and then she paused.

“Willa? Why do I smell something burning?” she called out, walking towards the kitchen. When she saw the two of them in the kitchen, her grin was so bright it could probably power New York for a month. She squealed and immediately ran over to join the hug, making a Wednesday sandwich.

“Why are we hugging! I want to know! Spill!” Enid demanded, leaning down and kissing the top of Wednesday’s head several times.

“I think your girl here just asked me to move in with you guys,” Yoko laughed.

“I was getting to it,” Wednesday said. “But Yoko appears to have guessed my intentions.”

“Oh em gee! So you guys are all good? You kissed and made up?” Enid demanded, looking at Yoko’s face with a deadly serious expression. Yoko blanched a little but she nodded.

“Do you think I would be hugging her if we had not made up?” Wednesday asked sarcastically. “We did not kiss though. That is a privilege only you will retain.”

“It’s just a phrase baby,” Enid said, kissing Wednesday’s head again.

“Oh. Then yes, we ‘kissed and made up’.”

“Yay! Ohmygod I’m so happy! That’s so good! I’m gonna go call Jackie!” Enid giggled, racing over to where she dropped her purse and fishing her phone out.

“Jackie?” Yoko asked.

“Our real estate agent,” Wednesday clarified, finally pulling away from the hug and picking up the pan. The bacon had burned to a crisp, and she sighed. “At least I got most of it cooked properly.”

“You did great,” Yoko said with a smile. “I distracted you. My fault. You didn’t burn that one, that’s on me.”

“Hm. Acceptable,” Wednesday said with a nod.

Enid was chattering away happily to the real estate agent, saying they wanted to go through with buying the house. Wednesday started telling Yoko about the various things she had learned how to cook, and Yoko just smiled and listened to them.

Then her phone buzzed in her pocket.

“Oh, shit, this is Divina. I gotta take this,” she said, picking up the phone and walking to her room with Wednesday shooing her away. “Babe! Hi! What’s up?”

“Hiiii!” Divina greeted over the phone. “I just missed you. And I’m excited to come back home soon. What’s up? Enid said you’ve been kinda going through it for the past couple weeks.”

“Oof, uh, yeah,” Yoko laughed. “I’ll tell you all about it when you get home but long story short, I think I’m moving into a house with Enid and Wednesday?”

“Oooooh, she’s Wednesday again? Not just Addams? And you’re willingly moving in with her?” Divina asked. Yoko hadn’t exactly kept it a secret how much she didn’t like Wednesday in the past year, Divina had just thankfully been spared actually watching how much of a bitch Yoko had been, and for some reason Wednesday never told any of their friends how bad it had actually gotten.

“Like I said it’s a long story,” Yoko smiled.

“I bet! Is there room for one more?” Divina asked.

Yoko froze.

“W-huh?”

“I’m coming home in a month,” Divina giggled. “Aaaand I don’t exactly have anywhere to live. I was gonna originally move back in with my parents buuuuut...I miss you. And if you’re moving anyway….”

“I’ll ask them right now!” Yoko blustered. Divina burst out laughing. Yoko immediately ran back into the kitchen. Enid and Wednesday turned to her with curious expressions on their faces. “Can Divina move in with us?” Yoko blurted out.

Enid somehow grinned even wider, and Wednesday nodded agreeably.

“I enjoy Divina’s company. She is the most tolerable of our friends outside of Harry,” Wednesday hummed.

“They said yes,” Yoko said to Divina, who was still laughing.

“I heard,” Divina got out through her giggles. “I’m excited to see it. Do they have pictures of the house they can send me?”

“Divina wants pictures,” Yoko said.

“Already on it,” Enid said, her thumbs flying across her phone. Wednesday rolled her eyes at them and pulled herself up to sit on the counter.

Yoko felt like her heart was going to burst.

Her girlfriend was coming home in a month, and they weren’t going to be long distance anymore, they were going to live together and she was going to live with her best friend and her girlfriend and -

Yoko grinned. Divina was chattering in her ear about her time so far in Paris, Enid was texting pictures and talking to Wednesday about the house, and Wednesday was just looking back and forth between Enid and Yoko with the biggest smile Yoko had ever seen on Wednesday’s face. It still wasn’t even close to the size of an average Enid smile, but for Wednesday it might as well have been the full force of the sun.

She was going to live with her girlfriend, her best friend, and her Wednesday.

That sounded pretty fucking cool to her.

Yoko laughed at a joke Divina made and walked over to Wednesday, putting an arm casually around her waist and resting her head on her shoulder as she talked to Divina. Wednesday put her own arm around Yoko’s shoulders and hooked Enid in with her legs, keeping her legs lightly around Enid as she closed her eyes and basked.

Yoko felt it too.

For the first time in a very, very long time, Yoko felt like maybe, just maybe, everything could be alright. She could be happy. She was happy.

And as she looked at the girl to her right, listened to the girl talking in her left ear, and looked at the girl in front of her who was still looking at her with a million-watt smile on her face, as if today was the best damn day of her life, Yoko decided she wouldn’t be anywhere else.

They were all in this together. And they were gonna keep doing this together.

Maybe she was a bit overdue, but she was here now. And she was gonna put every ounce of herself possible into making it all work, because the three girls around her were worth it.

Worth every last bit.