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The room was cold on the winter night, Wednesday sat at her desk reading a particularly interesting book when- there it was. The small thud- no, not a thud, more of a plop from a small color stuffed animal hitting the ground. She grit her teeth, cursing Enid Sinclair.
Wednesday did not turn. She would not fall to- just as another second passed by a second, and a third stuffed animal came flying across the room and reached much farther than the last.
An octopus, Wednesday notes. It was blue on one side with a smile, and black on the other side with a frown. She knew that one well as sometimes Enid would turn it to the frowning side and set it on the edge of her side.
The fourth stuffed animal was much bigger, and came rolling too on the ground, before it hit the wall right next to her desk. The gigantic unicorn was a hideous sight, and that’s where Wednesday drew the line.
“Enid?” Wednesday did not grit her teeth when she spoke, she was as calm as ever, even perhaps a little confused at what was going on.
She turned in her chair, nearly missing a small orange fish as it came flying past her head and falling near her typewriter.
“Enid,” Wednesday said louder.
The cotton candy haired girl jumped. She straightened her back and turned around from her pile of repulsive creatures. “Yes?” Enid asked, a little sheepish as her eyes found her stuffed animals on Wednesday's side.
Wednesday watched her carefully. The way Enid strained her hands in front of herself. The fidgeting, gnawing on her bottom lip as if it was her own personal chew toy. It was something the younger girl did till it bled sometimes, she noted awhile ago.
Enid was clearly in distress, but why, Wednesday had no idea. They had been in their room for a few hours now, it was past curfew, the moon was high in the sky and all the nightly creatures were awake.
It was perplexing, how something could have irritated Enid enough like this when they were alone. For a moment Wednesday looked at the girl's laptop, finding it shut on her own desk where it had been since the beginning of the night.
“Why are you throwing so many of your revolting creatures on my side?”
“Oh,” Enid squeaks. “Well-“ Enid tried to find the words but all that happened was her face flushing a deep red.
“Enid,” Wednesday pressed. “If you planned on giving me a painfully slow death, you should have done something less revealing then the color bombs you have thrown.”
“Oh Wednesday! I am so sorry!” Enid just like that rushed to her side. Wednesday watched as the werewolf tried to pick up every toy, fumbling when she picked up the biggest one.
Her eyebrows furrowed. Enid's arms were full as she came for the one sitting on Wednesday's desk. She tried balancing the animals in her arms, nearly dropping them.
Wednesday slid out of her chair at the right time, as Enid dropped them the second she had grasped the next one. “Shit,” Enid cursed. “I’m so sorry- just, just hold on.”
Wednesday almost sighed. Almost .
“Why don’t you put some of them back on your side and come back,” Wednesday tells her.
Enid's eyes shined like she hadn’t even thought of that and Wednesday just had to wonder how the werewolf even made it this far. Enid, with some of the animals, skips to the other side of her room dropping them on her bed before coming right back.
“I’m so sorry. I really wasn’t looking when throwing them. I guess my werewolf strength got the best of me.” Enid shook her head with a frown. She collected the last of the creatures before heading back, now with no skip in her step.
And to be clear, Wednesday did not care. But something was clearly troubling the girl and it really, truly, was putting a dent in Wednesday's nightlife.
“And what made you do this activity?”
“Well, one of my brothers got me this, like, weird stuffed animal and I can’t find it. I normally don’t care for it but right now I could really use it after-“ Enid stops with a head shake. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Something happened,” Wednesday stated. Enid always showed her tells like a small child who didn’t know the world yet.
“No.”
“You have tells when you lie. It is best to tell me the truth rather than hide it so we can both get on with our miserable night.”
“It’s just,” Enid sits on her bed, clutching a stuffed animal to her lap, “we got in a fight today. Me and them about how I haven’t wolfed out yet. Which, it’ll happen on its own time but they also get shit for it. And I know they are just stressed, that our parents stress them out and they are just dumb knuckleheads trying their best but-“
“They hurt your feelings,” Wednesday observed.
“Yes.” Enid looked down then, and if Wednesday didn’t know how this worked she wouldn’t have known that Enid was crying. But the telltale sniffle was a cannon in the quiet room.
Wednesday braced herself. She could stay on her side, go back to her book and ignore the colorful revolting and nauseating mess that was Enid's side.
Or, Wednesday could brace for the side that would kill her. Addams did not venture into the caverns of death for just anyone, and crossing that line to the sides of color that burned like a fresh poisonous venom that had you frothing at the mouth would show something Wednesday might not be ready for.
But there had been something growing ever since the first day Wednesday met Enid. At first it was murderous rage for awhile. But now there was this quiet beat inside of herself she could not place.
Or, she just didn’t need to place the feeling, because the feeling was right at home. Wednesday just did not know how to identify the ache in her chest, or the dizziness and spiders that crawled in her abdomen.
Or, she knew how to identify it all too well from growing up with stomach-turning parents, such as she did.
Wednesday was standing at a crossroads. Each choice would send her spiraling in vastly different directions. So what did she pick? Was it even her choice what side she went down? If she followed the wrong path, would vultures swoop down from the sky and pink her eyes out till she was nothing but a corpse and a bloody pile of bones?
She stared at her options. Gazed at Enid, who’s shoulders had been lightly shaking for the minutes it took Wednesday to decide what the next step was.
And then, like if her body chose it for her, Wednesday took precise strides to the other side. And when she stepped into that color, that burning she felt, the hotness that was untrue to her body, did not turn her into mush and dissolve her like acid.
It lit her aflame, and it burned in a way that felt right . That did not need any thought, that did not need to be analyzed or over thought. It just was, and Wednesday quickly, without much need to stop, accepted it all at once in a blink.
She sat down next to Enid. Her presence was not expected, as the second she did Enid jumped a little. The colorful girl looked up with tear filled eyes and a furrow between her brows.
“What are you doing?” Enid sniffled.
“Sitting.”
“I- yeah?” Enid mumbled confused. “On my side?”
“Well, this certainly is not mine.”
Enid blinked once again. Wednesday did not know how to go down this road, she did not know what she was supposed to do. She didn’t have some muscle memory on this topic that could just take over for her.
No, she had to do it herself. And Wednesday always liked doing things on her own but these types of social situations always left her alone in a way that was unfamiliarly painful. She did not have the handbook for it, as much as she tried to find it.
She looked down, seeing that Enid's hands were still tight on the stuffed animal. If it was real, it would have been dead by now. Choked out by strong hands that made its eyes pop out of its skull with a satisfying crack.
Wednesday raised her hand from her lap, was this wrong, she wondered. If she did this what would it mean? Would it even help? She knew that Enid liked touch. She had asked for hugs about a million times and sometimes even grabbed onto Wednesday's arm without even thinking while in the halls.
Touch was not forgein to them, but at the same time it was not fully explored. Wednesday did not know the feeling, it was not home to her like it was to others. It was a land she did not understand but for her, Wednesday thinks with a sickening feeling, she might brace for that land as well.
Her hand settled on top of Enids. She felt for a moment the joints in Enid's hands, how they popped and gripped harder before relaxing and became nothing around the stuffed animal.
The feeling between them, the small space that was there hands connecting buzzed like the bees in Eugene’s shack. She could feel it from her fingertips up to her shoulders and down her spine.
It was a form of torture Wednesday never wanted to submit herself too. But here she was, with this feeling going all over her and buzzing in her skin. She hummed from it, it was not good, but it was not bad. It was simple, but she knew that if there was more right now the bees in her veins would turn to hornets.
“Wednesday?” Enid's voice was the smallest Wednesday had ever heard before. “What are you doing?”
“Holding your hand,” Wednesday says clearly. It was obvious what she was doing, they both could see their hands.
“Yes but- why?”
Why? Wednesday asked herself. She looked up into blue eyes and found that the answer was on the tip of her tongue but the words would both break themselves free from her lips.
“You like this when you are upset. Don’t you?”
“I mean,” Enid's cheeks were turning more pink by the second, the tear stains becoming more visible. “Yes. Thank… thank you.”
Wednesday hummed, nodding. She looked around Enid's side of the room, taking in how messy it was, like Enid had tore it apart. She thought of what Enid was looking for, some atrocity of an animal.
“Why do you want what your brothers gave you if they are the ones who upset you?”
“I guess… that exact reason. I know it’s better sometimes. I know it’s not always bad so I just need the reminder that they love me.”
Love, Wednesday thought with a dizziness. That is what it always came down to, wasn’t it. That feeling always popped up wherever you went and Wednesday always thought she could avoid it.
But the lights were there, every way you turned, and avoiding something like that did not come east. Especially to an Addams.
“Well,” Wednesday thought about the situation, “if they did not, love you that is, then they wouldn’t care, would they?”
Enid nodded her head ever so slowly. As if the words took an extra few seconds to fully digest themselves. “I guess. But sometimes it feels like they are just like my mom.”
“Why do they want you to turn?”
“Well, because my mom-“
“No,” Wednesday stops her. “Why do your brothers want you to turn?” Enid opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She frowns looking back down.
“I haven’t really thought of it like that. They- I think they want me to turn because they want my mom to stop. They want better for me, they don’t like seeing how she is with me.”
“Which shows?” Wednesday pushed.
“That,” Enid looked up at her, a new sparkle in those blue eyes, “they love me.”
“Right.” Wednesday nodded with satisfaction. “You don’t need that obnoxious toy, it seems”
Wednesday went to stand up, but Enid caught her arm faster pulling her back down. “Sorry,” Enid apologizes but does not let go. And for once, Wednesday could hear her heart in her ears, as if she was about to be murdered and adrenaline was finally kicking in like a sweet high. “It- just, thank you, Wednesday.”
“You don’t have to thank me. You are no longer throwing stuff onto my side.”
“Right.” Enid smiles, it was small but as she kept staring her smile grew till Wednesday could see her teeth. “It’s just,” Enid was hesitant, “you… caring means a lot.”
Even as small as Enid had said it, as if the words would scare Wednesday away, she heard them. And Wednesday was already far down the path she had picked. She knew there was no going back, she was not a coward like some people.
And Wednesday did not like liars. So she would not look into blue eyes and lie. “I do, care for you.”
Enid's eyes nearly popped out of her skull like her stuffed animal. “Oh! That’s uh- that’s good.” She grinned, biting her lip to try and tamper herself down. “I-I care too!” She yelled, cringing at herself. “About you,” she added.
“I know.”
“Well,” Enid chuckled nervously, “that’s great. That we, uh, both care. That is very great, good even, the best even.”
“Enid.” Wednesday raised an eyebrow.
“Right.” If Wednesday thought Enid was blushing before, she was not ready for how red she was now. Wednesday had to look away, as the sight was similar to the sun.
“Right,” Wednesday repeated. And while Enid did not look at her, and Wednesday was in her own world safely out of her gaze, the corner of her lip upturned. “Right,” she repeated in a single breath.