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Tyler slowly cracked his eyes open and was welcomed into the blurry warmth of early morning deliria. Still trying to disconnect himself from the dream world, he decided to stare up at the ceiling. He didn’t have to look at the clock to know it was 7.00am, his alarm went off at 7.00 am everyday, except Sunday, so inevitably, even if he wanted to sleep in, his body still woke up at the same time. He closed his eyes and began to roll over so he could smush his face into his pillows and ignore the waiting day for a little longer, but before he could do that, he was stopped by the feeling of a cold, stiff body laying directly next to him.
Alarmed, he shot up, heart thumping loudly against his chest, his mind filling with horrible thoughts. He took in the person that was sleeping soundly next to him. Who, of course, happened to be none other than, Wednesday Addams.
He let out a shaky breath and his face immediately softened at the sight of his sleeping girlfriend. Her arms crossed over her chest, the rest of her body perfectly still, and her beautiful fair face completely devoid of emotion. She resembled a vampire in a coffin, a beautiful gothic vampire. Now relaxed that there was no intruder sleeping in his bed, (well he knew she broke in and was technically an intruder), so, now relaxed by the cute intruder sleeping in his bed, he snuggled back under the covers to lay with her.
She was yet to be awoken by all the commotion he had caused, and he began to wonder what time she got here. Wednesday was a willing early bird and always got up earlier than him, so why was she still asleep? Or why did she come here? Wednesday wasn’t very cuddly, and that remained evident in the way she slept still beside him, only their shoulders touching. But still. Climbing into your boyfriend's bed in the middle of the night wasn’t exactly a Wednesday thing. Sure, they had had sleepovers before and their sleeping arrangement had been very similar to this one, but all those time he had been aware of her presence.
When his mind filled with questions, he was unable to wait any longer, so Tyler propped himself up on his elbow and softly rubbed circles with his thumb on her upper arm. When she remained asleep, he improved his movements by heavily dragging his fingers up and down the entirety of her arm, occasionally poking her plush skin. And yet, he failed to rouse her from her slumber, maintaining the same sleeping picture as before.
Torn between amusement and jealousy over her ability to be so undisturbed in her deep sleep, Tyler gently wiggled his arm underneath her back and wrapped the other around her stomach so he could pull her close to him, chest to chest. He then rolled her body over his until she was tightly tucked into the left side of him, face to face, her legs slumped over his hips, what once were carefully placed arms, now a tangled mess over her chest. In the midst of this, she had started to stir, but was yet to wake up, just mumbling strange (cute) noises. God, how tired was she?
As a final resort before he just might throw her off the bed, he kissed her nose, then again, and again, and again. He kissed from her nose to the corner of her mouth, he peppered her with hasty kisses until he was sure he had covered the entirety of her face, the loud smacking of his lips echoing in the room.
When a low growl grew louder than the kisses, he knew he had done it. He had woken the beast.
Proud, Tyler angled his head back so he could properly look at her face, grinning stupidly. Wednesday was now awake and very much scowling, obviously unhappy to be woken by an over-enthusiastic golden retriever boyfriend.
“Cease with your nauseating display”, Wednesday glowered, she grimaced when she realised her voice was croaky with sleep, then turned away from his face to cough for a moment, yet didn’t waste a second to snap her face back to him and continue to glare. “I should have coughed on you”, she finished in her normal voice.
Tyler, enjoying the whole ordeal, threw his head back with laughter and held her closer, and he didn’t miss the way her little fingers gripped the front of his sleep shirt.
“Unhand me”.
His laughter slowed as he buried his face in her neck so tightly she could feel the smile on his lips. Through that grin he mumbled, “No, you came in my bed, therefore”, he lifted up to look her in the eye, “you’re mine now”, he finished with a carefully placed kiss on her lips.
“Don’t say that”, she said seriously.
Worried he had offended her, he sputtered and quickly replied, “No Wednesday, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry”, he mumbled in one go. “You don’t belong to anyone, I was only joking. I won’t say it again. Promise”. He raised a pinky, obviously expecting her to reciprocate and shake it with her pinky finger.
She pushed his hand away, refusing to indulge in his childlike notions, then stared at him for a moment, and he saw the ghost of a smirk on her lips, “You’re mine though”, she whispered close to his face.
“Mhm, so”, he pretended to think. “I’m yours, but you’re not mine?”.
“Yes I’m the breadwinner, what I say goes”, she held her head high.
He scoffed before he launched into more laughter. “You? The breadwinner? I’m the one with a job”.
“I don’t need a job, we are currently forced together by your irrationally small bed, I can assure you, if we were in my family home, my bed would be twice this size”, she said rather cockily for her shaky argument.
“So, your argument is”, he cleared his throat, “That I, your ultra amazing boyfriend who let you sleep here, have to work for all my money, while you, strange girl who broke in here last night, are just spoiled”. Tyler finished arrogantly.
When she only glared at him, he continued, “Just living off of daddy’s money, going shopping, you know”, he raised his voice and he pretended to think in an exaggerated manner. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say, you’re basically Elle Woods”.
“Oww!” Tyler whimpered immediately.
With her arms tied up on her chest she had been unable to move them, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t reach through and harshly pinch his nipple. When pain overflowed him he shook her upper half off and began rubbing at the sore spot.
He looked up to see her smiling contently, “Wednesday that hurt”, he pouted.
“You should have thought of that before you compared me to that blonde abomination”.
As the pain quickly subsided, he noticed how quiet the room had gone, how even Wednesday’s breathing had reduced to a rhythmic beat. He raised his head to see her eyes gracefully shut. She couldn’t have managed to fall asleep within a few seconds so she was merely resting, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel a pang of sympathy at how tired she must be.
Entering her space again, Tyler shuffled towards her and folded his face into her neck all over again, leaning on her body a bit more than he should, deeply breathing in her scent, gratitude of her presence overwhelming him. After a moment he asked:
“Why are you here baby?”.
Tyler moved his head slightly so she could clearly hear the question but remained tucked away. Wednesday wasn’t a fan of pet names and often kicked him for them, but sometimes she didn’t shut them down. Like in one of these moments, where Tyler had carefully used it to soften the question. When she remained silent he met her now open eyes again and hummed in further question.
“I love having you here, and I can’t tell you how happy I am but,” he paused, “But is there a particular reason you came all the way from Nevermore to my house on foot in the middle of the night?”.
Tyler was looking at her fondly, without judgment, with so much love in his eyes that it made her heart want to shatter into a million pieces. But when his question so plainly addressed how much effort she had put into getting here, she could feel a heat rise to her cheeks that had overridden any feelings of love and kindness there may have been.
“Enid was being a nuisance”, She muttered, her face hardening, returning to her usual scariness within seconds.
He stifled a chuckle and rolled his eyes, “Why? What’d she do?”.
“She had a sleepover in our dorm with some agitating girls, after I specifically told her not to”.
She gazed off in the distance, obviously remembering the previous night, and Tyler didn’t miss the way her eyes were laced with hurt.
“Is that all that happened?”, He warily pushed further.
Wednesday was really good at concealing her true emotions, but her and Tyler had been dating for about a year and a half now, he knew her quite a bit better than other people.
“We got in a fight before I left, there’s no need to make a fuss Tyler”. She was no longer making eye contact with him, and his eyebrows knitted together with concern.
“How bad was the fight?”, he whispered softly, tiptoeing towards the subject as softly as he could, not wanting to frighten her away from opening up. When she returned her gaze specifically to glare at him in a stop-asking-stupid-and-unnecessary-questions way, Tyler felt a bit stuck.
“Come on Wednesday '', he whined. “This doesn’t have to be heart to heart, just tell me what happened”. He definitely wanted a heart to heart.
She stared at him for a hard moment, “I told her not to bring other people to the dorm, she went against my request, and we got into a heated argument”. He was obviously waiting for her to continue, and rather than abiding by his wishes, she rolled her eyes and struggled out of his grasp. But he had tightly latched himself onto her before she attempted a get away.
“Wednesday…”, he murmured.
She was stronger than him, they both knew that, but with the pity in his voice, sleep pulling at her eyes, and just thinking about the effort of having to push Tyler off, she slumped in his arms without any resistance.
“Go back to sleep”, she closed her eyes. “You’re always complaining about your lack of sleep anyway”.
She could feel him staring. She could also feel him slowly tracing circles with his finger on her back. She tried to focus on that, tried to focus on anything other than Enid and that awful fight.
She understood that sometimes she wasn’t polite or a very great friend. Perhaps she should have been nicer to Enid rather than immediately getting angry with her. Enid had been humiliated by Wednesday's confrontation, all her friends within ear shot, she had watched as Enid's pale skin had slowly turned pink, with anger or embarrassment, she wasn’t sure.
The events that followed included loud shouting and cruel words nipped at each other. Most of the girls left in the sheer awkwardness of the situation. Enid and Wednesday often had small tiffs, but the last time they had a fight this big, was when Enid temporarily moved out, back in her first year. Only this time, they knew each other better, so the malicious words that were thrown cut deeper than before, eventually rendering Enid to tears, while Wednesday felt odd pangs of hurt and betrayal in her chest. Wednesday couldn’t say she felt bad, not until she had fled to the forest and realised what she had done.
Would Enid move out? The thought worried her. She would never admit it, but she liked Enid, she was an acceptable roommate, and made many allowances for Wednesday's mistakes in friendship, so Wednesday returned the same for Enid’s annoying habits. She knew she wasn't Enid’s first choice as a friend, but that didn't stop Enid from including her and telling her everything. Most of the time, Wednesday didn't want to hear about it, or be dragged to any of Enid's weird events, but all she could feel now was regret for all the times she had laced her words with cruelty or rejected her offers of ‘girl time’.
“It’s okay to feel sad about it”. Tyler’s voice broke her from her thoughts. “Whatever it is that happened. It means your friendship is strong”.
Her eyes still closed, not interested in conversation, “Enid’s not my friend”. She wanted to get ahead of it before it was confirmed, before she would inevitably come back to a half empty room, “I’m simply forced to be in her presence. That is all”.
“Don’t say that”, he whispered. “You know that’s not true”.
She opened her eyes. Looking straight at him, she got a good look at his face. His concern pressed into his furrowed eyebrows, and his eyes swirling with sympathy. He was smiling softly at her, his attempt to comfort her.
“It is now”.
“Wednesday, it’s not”.
“It is, Tyler”, her voice cracked.
As quickly as it happened, she could see the way his face struck with panic. She needed to rectify her image as quickly as possible.
She cleared her voice, “We have not had an argument this bad since she moved out”, it pleased her when her voice was completely devoid of emotion. “I don’t expect to see her still living with me when I return”.
“Oh, baby”, he murmured soothingly.
“Don’t do that”.
There it was again. The loss of control in her voice. She knew Tyler could hear how she felt. How humiliating.
He moved his hand to brush the hair by her face, “Sorry cockroach”. Tyler heaved a heavy sigh.
“Listen. Enid’s like, your first ‘best friend’ that’s not a creature, or your brother”, He started.
“Correct”.
“Right, so Enid”, he paused for a moment to emphasize. “Enid has probably had wayyyy more best friends than you in her life”.
She was looking at him dumbly, she didn’t understand how this was supposed to make her feel better, unless he was just agreeing with her, as he should. Though that seemed out of character for Tyler, he liked to look at everything at a ‘positive angle’ as he called it. Sickening.
“So, Enid has all this experience with fake friends and unloyal friends and you know, most teenage girls aren't all that nice”. She nodded along. “One of the good things about you and your kookiness:”. As she waited for him to continue, she watched as Tyler risked a finger booping her on the nose. He was rewarded by having his hand slapped away.
“Is that you are very honest, and very loyal, and a very rare factor in teenage girls, is you don’t gossip”. He looked proud of himself.
“It is a waste of time”, she dispassionately responded.
“Right”, he nodded in agreement. “Wednesday, you need to understand that literally every other girl your age in the world is like that. Enid won the lottery of friends, and because she has all the experience with other fake best friends, she realises this too. That’s why she gives you so many chances”.
“I’m not a good friend Tyler. You know this. I take care of myself over everyone else, despite not gossiping”, Wednesday disagreed.
“Yeah, see, I don’t think that’s as bad as you think it is. Would you rather be friends with someone like Enid and put all your trust in her, then months or years later find out that she’s actually fake and unloyal? Or someone who tells you straight up that your expectations shouldn’t be held high, then watch them slowly adapt and become more friend material?”.
He was waiting for her to answer. She knew he was intending on saying she was the second option, but she was sure she had not improved or adapted or become better friend material. So she told him just that.
“You don’t think that mistakes is learning?”, he questioned.
“No, I always do everything correct the first time”.
He chuckled, “Yeah, but you’ve admitted that you’re not good at friendship right?”. He took her deadpanned staring as agreement. “And the way us normal people deal with not being naturally good at things, is by making mistakes, and learning from them”.
“Enid knows friendship is the least of your talents, that’s why she gives you so much room for mistakes”. He let out a shaky sigh when he saw her face soften with understanding. “Plus, it’s Enid, she’s like physically incapable of being mad at people”.
Silence.
“Perhaps”.
Tyler couldn’t help but be filled with excitement knowing he had swayed the mind of Wednesday Addams. Making his girlfriend feel better also greatly added to that excitement.
“So maybe if you apologize first this time, it’ll show Enid you’ve learnt something, that you really are sorry. Cause I can tell Wendy, I know you’re upset, I know you’re sorry”, Tyler said softly.
She supposed Enid was a rather forgiving person, she knew she could not take back to awful things she had said to her, and Wednesday couldn’t deny that the things Enid had said struck a chord as well, but maybe they could work on their friendship. Like her and Tyler had with their romantic relationship.
Wednesday and Tyler used to regularly fight at the beginning of their relationship, often resulting in Wednesday assuming they had broken up, and then he would have to reassure her they were still together, and then the whole cycle would repeat. Maybe she had just done the same thing with Enid. After nearly losing her relationship with Tyler, she came to the conclusion that Tyler was not a friend, he was a boyfriend, therefore there were different rules in ‘Wednesday lore’, she didn't have to upkeep the image of not being friend material, she could be good girlfriend material. She put more effort into them, she obviously still made mistakes, but Tyler also happened to be a forgiving person, and him seeing her put in effort seemed to make a world of change.
Maybe, just maybe, she could make an exception for Enid. She would be a good friend for Enid.