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It was long past midnight and Ophelia Hall had never felt so cold.
Enid lay in her mountain of stuffed animals, staring up at the ceiling and paying acute attention to the sound of the wind rustling the leaves miles away. She focused on the sounds of other students shuffling down the hall, the sound of floorboards creaking, the sound of Wednesday's breath as she slept like the dead in the bed across the room. Oh how she wished she could sleep as easily as she did. She'd been sitting here awake for hours now.
Falling asleep back home had been easy. With her brothers' constant screaming and howling, and her mother's berating, she had to force herself to sleep just to shut it all out. But now that she was back, with the space and quiet to think, it was agonising.
She didn't think returning home would've been that bad, especially after she'd finally wolfed out, but her mother always managed to find something to nag her about. And her brothers were relentless with their wilds and typical brotherly attacks. And that pain had only extended into the semester too, now corrupting her thoughts too. She'd barely been able to focus during her classes, only managing with the helpful distractions from her friends and from all the bustle that came naturally with the first day back.
The feeling of her own wet cheeks eventually drew her from her spiralling. She reached to touch her face and found that she was crying, and probably had been for a while now, with the quiet in the room only occasionally broken up by her sniffling. This realisation only caused her to cry more. How pathetic she was, sitting here crying about her stupid family, while they were probably living their best lives doing whatever it is normal werewolves do. She drew her blanket to her face to use it as a makeshift tissue, but nothing seemed to stop the tears from falling.
Wednesday jolted awake, and her head turned sharply to look at Enid.
"Sorry for waking you, Wens." She said between sobs.
Wednesday stood up and walked over to Enid's side of the room, "Are you okay?"
"I'm sorry, it's just... Stuff. I don't wanna bother you."
"I'm already awake."
Enid looked up at her, desperation plain in her eyes, "It's my parents. My mom and my brothers. They're just so... Ugh! I don't know." She buried her face in her palms.
Thing climbed onto the bed and onto Enid's knee. Wednesday observed her for a moment, then slowly took a seat at the edge of the bed, "What did they do?"
"I don't even... It's like, I thought after wolfing out they'd start to take me seriously or something, but they're just so... Horrible! This is stupid, I'm sorry."
Wednesday stared at the werewolf. This was uncharted territory for her, she'd never been the best comforter. She'd never had to be before. But somehow, for some reason, Enid had grown important to her. And even she understood you were supposed to be there for the people important to you, just like Enid had been for her during her showdown with Tyler.
She carefully reached out to put her hand on Enid's other knee, "It's not stupid. Your family's stupid."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Enid sniffed away the last of her tears then stared down at her hands, then slowly up at Wednesday, who was staring right back at her. There was warmth in her eyes. Enid had seen the look on Wednesday's face while she spoke of brutal torture methods or who her next victims would be, or the look when she was formulating a complicated scheme in her head, but this wasn't one of those looks. This was a look of sincerity and compassion. One she felt lucky to bear witness to.
Her breathing started to ease and her rapid heart rate started to slow, "Can you stay?"
When Wednesday didn't immediately reply, she scrambled to add, "I'm sorry, no, you don't have to. I know you don't-"
Wednesday swiftly pulled herself fully onto the bed and lay down under the blanket beside her, and she shuffled over to make room. Wednesday looked around at the bed, then at her, "Tell anyone about this and I'll end you, Sinclair."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
Once they were settled in, they turned to face each other. In a sudden rush of bravery, Wednesday reached out to swipe away a stray tear from Enid's cheek. Her hand hovered there for a moment more, but before she could pull back, Enid took her wrist then slid their hands together, held in between them. Wednesday felt she should leave. This wasn't who she was. This wasn't Wednesday Addams. But the wolf's pull on her was impossible to resist.
Both fell asleep soon after, and it was the most comfortable sleep either had had in what seemed like forever. And when Enid's arms eventually found themselves snaked around Wednesday's waist, neither seemed to care enough to stop them. Enid's bed was also significantly warmer than Wednesday's, but for the first time, she secretly liked the warmth a little more than the cold. Perhaps a lot more than the cold, but nobody would ever know that.
When morning came, Wednesday woke immediately, as she always did. She spared a second to be surprised at where she'd woken up, then quickly settled back into the comfort and newfound familiarity of Enid's bed. She knew she should get up, there was a lot she had to do today, but when she looked over at Enid, still sleeping soundly, she couldn't find it in herself to disturb her. So she didn't, instead opting to lie by her side, gently running her fingers through her dyed hair and finding peace in the sweet scent of whatever it was Enid's perfume was supposed to smell like.
At some point, Enid woke up too, but after realising that Wednesday hadn't noticed, she decided to continue to pretend. As she felt Wednesday's soft hands gingerly tug at her hair, it felt as if she was prying away all her weeks and weeks worth of pain, like she was brushing away all her insecurities one stroke at a time. It warmed her whole self to know this side of Wednesday had somehow become reserved just for her. Her tears of agony were quickly replaced by those of joy.
Maybe Enid would never be able to escape the pressures put on her by her family, and maybe Wednesday would never be able to leave the darkness that consumed her life, but somewhere in between was a space just for them. But when they were together, maybe they could be okay.