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It was a little while after midnight and the moon was high in the sky. Wednesday was at her desk when her bedroom window opened from the outside and a figure with inhuman grace slipped in.
Embarrassingly Wednesday didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was. She could recognize Tyler Galpin anywhere.
“Sneaking in through my window? Careful Galpin, someone might get the wrong idea. Just think of what my family will say,” Wednesday dryly quipped not looking up from working on her personal spell book.
“You tried to become my master in a rotting church with all your friends and allies as witnesses,” Tyler brought up, smirking, pleased by his so far well received reception. “If anyone shouldn’t be throwing stones at glass houses here it’s you.”
Wednesday bristled at that and turned to glower at him. The idiot only smiled widely in response, waltzed over to her bed and flopped down dramatically as if he belonged there.
Tyler’s eyes fluttered and his nostrils flared as he was hit full force with an assault of her scent. Balming oil, dried roses, earthy soil, and a smidge of strawberry. He made a noise in the back of throat as he rubbed his cheek against her pillow where the scent was the strongest.
Her heart, the treacherous organ squeezed at the sight.
Wednesday watched in silence for a bit feeling a bit smug at the visible way he enjoyed her scent before she raised an eyebrow. “Finished acting like the mangy beast you are yet?”
“Not even close,” Tyler hummed as he put his hand behind his head and sighed contently.
Wednesday seeing as he wasn’t moving anytime soon and turned back to her book. She made a few more notes and just started sketching an illustration when the wayward Hyde that broke in spoke.
“Not gonna lie I was expecting more violence from you or even an interrogation," Tyler admitted, tilting his head to rest on one shoulder as he watched her work. “I did climb in through your window in the dead of night after all.”
“Dispointed I haven’t stabbed you yet?,” Wednesday deadpanned.
“I was fully prepared to dodge and everything,” Tyler pouted his eyes studying and devoting her every move to memory.
“The night is still young,” Wednesday mused. “I will have plenty of opportunities to make you bleed.”
“And why haven’t you stabbed me yet exactly?,” Tyler asked. “Not that I don’t appreciate it.”
Wednesday's hands stilled at the question and she quickly put her fountain pen to rest on its holder before ink fell from its metal tip and ruined her page making her start over.
She wasn’t going to admit that a Frump can’t harm their hearts chosen unless provoked. Not even his most charming barista small homebody grin will pry that fact out of her.
It will be a secret Wednesday will take to her grave.
“Why are you here?,” Wednesday instead asked right back. “Why come now? The whole Knight debacle ended over two months ago and last I checked you left town with a pack of makeshift furs.”
“You didn’t really think I’d stay away did you?,” Tyler chided, almost playfully but with a steel undertone as if daring her to say otherwise.
As a matter of fact Wednesday did think that.
In her defense they hardly parted ways on good terms. It didn’t help that he hadn't even looked her way when he left that wretched town with her heart in tow.
Wednesday’s back went ramrod straight caught off guard. “It’s been two months. I assumed you were busy frolicking in the fields with your new pack and new master.”
“New master? Cockroach I am my own master,” Tyler laughed darkly amused.
Wednesday's head whipped around and he only smiled wider showing off too many teeth to be anything but unsettling.
That is if you were a normal person.
Luckily Wednesday was anything but normal.
“I also don’t have a pack nor do I need one. I just had to shake that one off my trail before I could leave,” Tyler continued. “That's why it took me so long. So sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Keep me waiting?,” Wednesday echoed, tilting her head curiously. “I was unaware you were coming.”
“So you always keep your bedroom window unlocked?,” Tyler questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“Every window and door in this house is unlocked,” Wednesday answered honestly. “If anyone has the guts to try to break in, it will be their funeral. Literally.”
“Way to make a boy feel special,” Tyler huffed, running his hands over her blanket as if spreading his scent and marking his territory. “And here I thought you were eagerly waiting for me.”
“I don’t like repeating myself,” Wednesday warned as she stared him down. “Why are you here.”
“It’s because of the bond,” Tyler sighed, finally getting to the point of his visit.
“Bond? You just said I’m not your master,” Wednesday pointed out confused.
“And you’re not. Definitely not,” Tyler agreed. “But even you can’t deny that there’s something linking us together.”
Wednesday wanted to deny it but she couldn’t. There were too many examples to back up what he was saying.
Too many threads connecting them together even before they properly met.
Like how their parents knew one another and their mothers went to school together. The link of Thing being originated from his uncle and then becoming an Addams.
Then their first meeting where it felt like something clicked into place and the way when even apart it seemed like they would find their way back to one another.
Wednesday struggled for a minute before she slumped minutely. “I can’t,” she admitted. “There’s too much evidence to back it up.”
“And you feel it,” Tyler’s eyes scanned her face searchingly. “You feel it too right?”
Wednesday swallowed as she picked at her black nail polish on one hand frustrated at having to verbally emote. “It’s like we’re magnets,” she eventually admitted. “We keep getting pulled back together.”
Tyler relaxed at hearing her admit in her own Wednesday way that it wasn’t just him. “Magnets,” Tyler repeated. “Didn’t peg you for a romantic Addams.”
“What do you know of romance Hyde,” Wednesday scoffed as she picked at her other hand more aggressively.
It didn’t matter that Wednesday was chipping her usual impeccable polish. She was due to redo her hands soon anyways.
“Well I did make you a custom made movie picnic in a crypt in your color scheme,” Tyler pointed out smirking.
“You were ordered by your master to distract me and keep me in town until the night of the blood moon,” Wednesday reminded them both, her face and body closing off.
“I also got you a bouquet of dead flowers and hand delivered you a death threat after putting you in a coma,” Tyler quickly said, not liking how he felt her retreating from him.
“So you did,” Wednesday conceded, turning away from him and facing her desk again.
“I know we haven’t talked about it and you don’t have to believe me but not all of it was because I was ordered to Wednesday,” Tyler rushed to explain himself. “Like with Rowan.”
Wednesday blinked in surprise and turned fully back around. “Rowan?”
“I wasn’t ordered to kill him,” Tyler told her. “But when I saw him trying to kill you I couldn’t let it slide. So he obviously had to die.”
Obviously he said.
Wednesday fought not to swoon as she forced herself to get a grip. “It was much appreciated,” she said once she felt less like a parody of her father. “It was his second murder attempt and it seemed to be much more successful then his first.”
Tyler’s eyes flashed amber. “His first?”
“He used his telekinesis to move a gargoyle to crush me to death,” Wednesday dryly explained. “I could have dodged but I was tackled out the way by someone trying to play hero.”
Tyler sneered knowing only one person would have the audacity to tackle Wednesday Addams. “I should have killed him when I had the chance.”
“He even gave me a phone,” Wednesday scornfully added, her eyes flashing. “To text him so he said and he proceeded to message me forty times in a row.”
Tyler let out an inhuman growl. “Does he even know you at all?”
“No he doesn’t. Still I had a wonderful Xavier free year even if he is sadly coming back this year,” Wednesday said.
“And the phone he gave you?”
“I dropped it in a boiling pot of water after it refused to shut up,” Wednesday shrugged.
“Of course you did,” Tyler laughed genuinely amused.
“It did take me a bit to do so since I was busy hunting down The Scalper but I thoroughly enjoyed that device's demise,” Wednesday smirked.
“The Scalper?,” Tyler parroted, looking almost like he didn’t want to know.
“The Kansas City Scalper,” Wednesday elaborated her eyes inappropriately bright considering their topic of conversation.
“The serial killer?,” Tyler paused as if unsure if they were talking about the same person.
Wednesday nodded. “I killed him if that wasn’t clear.”
“No I figured that out for myself,” Tyler looked at her warily. “Do I even want to know how?”
Wednesday thought of how she allowed herself to play damsel and get kidnapped only to quickly gain the upper hand. “Probably not. I would prefer not having a fully transformed Hyde in my room.”
Tyler’s eyes shut. “I’m not even going to ask.”
“How smart of you,” Wednesday noted. “I guess miracles do happen.”
Tyler opened his eyes and looked ready to say something probably along the lines of defending his intelligence when there was a knock on her door.
Wednesday's head and Tyler’s snapped to the door in unison. Wednesday quickly got up and paid no mind to Tyler’s glowing eyes and bared teeth at whatever threat he imagined outside.
Wednesday opened her door just enough to hide her bed from sight perfectly. “Hello Lurch,” she greeted.
Lurch groaned in greeting before thrusting a vial of shimmering purple at her and then made a series of grunts.
“I already told my parents I’ve been taking them, I don't need to be watched,” Wednesday argued as she eyed the vial with distaste.
Lurch groaned louder and shook his head as he continued to hold the vial at her not taking no for an answer.
“Yes I’m aware they’re worried but I haven’t had any sign of black tears since I’ve come home,” Wednesday huffed.
Lurch seemed pleased but he shook the vial at her. Knowing that he would wait as long as it took Wednesday sighed but took the vial and downed it before swiftly handing it back with a grimace.
“There. Happy?”
Lurch nodded in agreement before patting her head in a quick affectionate gesture which she allowed before groaning a good night.
“Terrible dreams to you too,” Wednesday said as Lurch walked away and she shut her door. Wednesday rested her head against the door already dreading what was going to happen next.
Sure enough Tyler was just full of questions she didn’t want to answer.
“Who was that?,” Tyler questioned sharply, his eyes piercing.
“That was Lurch,” Wednesday answered, sighing. “He’s our butler and before you ask, yes he’s technically dead but he has the heart of an Addams so he’s stuck around.”
“What did you just take?,” Tyler demanded. “And what the hell are black tears?”
Wednesday went completely still, not even breathing. She didn’t want to talk about this. She didn’t want to talk about her weakness with anyone; it was bad enough her family knew.
Even as time passed they still hovered. It made her skin crawl at times the way they watched as if they were waiting for her to fall apart.
It got even worse when it was confirmed she fell victim to the Frump curse.
Maybe that was the reason why she was so easy going over the fact that Tyler broke in. Any distraction was welcome.
“Cockroach?,” Tyler said softer this time bringing her back to reality with his nickname for her.
“Black tears is what happens when a psychic pushes their abilities to the breaking point and psychically exhausts themselves,” Wednesday quietly explained, not moving from her position of leaning against the door.
“It gets more dangerous the longer the psychic overreaches and abuses their ability. The more psychical the symptoms get and the body starts to react more violently and weaken.”
“What happens if the psychic doesn’t stop pushing?,” Tyler quietly asked.
“They risk shattering their mind, losing their ability, going insane and dying,” Wednesday answered just as quietly.
“And you- you had this?,” Tyler sounded genuinely concerned. “Black tears?”
“I did,” Wednesday admitted tensely. “I already know what you’re going to say and I stopped forcing my ability since I managed to divert the vision that I was trying to stop.”
“The vial I took,” she continued. “It's a potion my mother made specially to help me recover faster. I had some bad reactions to it at first but my symptoms quickly stopped the longer I rested my ability.”
Tyler was eerily silent when she finished and though she was dreading she turned around. He was staring daggers into her with eyes that belonged to a predator. His jaw was clenched so tightly it looked like it hurt.
“You’re not allowed to push your ability anymore,” Tyler said matter of factly in a way that made her hackles raise. He said it like a lightly disguised order.
“And who do you think you are to direct what I do with my ability,” Wednesday narrowed her eyes at him.
“Considering we never officially broke up, I'm still technically your boyfriend,” Tyler shot back. “And even if I wasn’t and we weren’t connected by some sort of mythic mystery bond, I'm allowed to be concerned about you.”
Tyler sat up and scrubbed his face. “Jesus Wednesday so many people were out for your blood this past year and you were apparently already weak from black tears. Anything could have happened to you.”
Wednesday's shoulders slumped a bit at hearing that and walked over to her bed before settling in next to him. “We survived,” she reminded both of them.
“Barely,” Tyler grumbled as he intertwined their fingers together which she let him do. “Every year something always seems to want to kill you. I can’t imagine what will happen this following year.”
Wednesday tellingly tensed thinking of her last vision she had on the way to get Enid right before she started to rest her ability.
Tyler feeling her tense up let out a long sigh. “Let me guess. You saw someone that wants to kill you.”
When Wednesday merely offered a short nod in response he groaned.
“Okay give me a second.” Tyler let go of her hand and draped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. He rested his head on top of hers and breathed in happily at their combined scents.
Wednesday graciously allowed the sudden manhandling and was content to let him hold her to decompress. Plus admittedly it wasn’t truly awful to be stuck in his grasp.
Not that she’d ever admit that outloud.
“Have I said yet how beautiful you are with your hair down?,” Tyler nonsensically said with no warning.
“No. You haven’t,” Wednesday murmured her cheeks lightly flushing not expecting the abrupt compliment.
“You’re so pretty it's unfair,” Tyler sighed. “I’d kill anyone if they saw you like this.”
“Well lucky for you only my family has seen me with my hair down,” Wednesday dryly reassured.
Tyler preened at hearing that causing her to roll her eyes.
“Honestly,” Wednesday sighed, causing him to chuckle.
Tyler let out a long breath after a few seconds of peaceful silence. “Okay hit me with it.”
“I saw my Aunt Ophelia who has been missing for years. My mother has tried every ritual and summons in the book and knew she was somewhere alive but didn’t know where,” Wednesday began.
“Okay not a bad start,” Tyler mused.
Only her begrudging affection for him kept her from being sick at his optimism.
“Everything I learned about black tears I learned mainly from my aunt's journal but also from my mothers lectures,” Wednesday told him.
“At least you weren’t going in completely blind,” Tyler said mostly to himself.
Wednesday uncharacterically hesitated before deciding to rip the metaphorical bandaid off.
“I also saw that wherever my aunt was had writing on the wall that said “Wednesday must die” in blood multiple times,” Wednesday quickly said. “I also saw her beginning to have a vision in my vision before it cut off."
Tyler said nothing, just tightened his grip and pulled her more securely into him tucking her head under his chin. Wednesday went willingly and took comfort in his too fast beating heart.
“This year is going to be hell,” Tyler roughly said after a beat. “I just know that we’ll be put through the paces.”
“At least we’ll most likely figure out what the bond we have is,” Wednesday pointed out, eager to find out what it was.
“At the cost of you being in danger?,” Tyler glared at nothing over head. “I can’t wait.”
“We’re always in danger,” Wednesday said, unimpressed by his sarcasm. “Honestly that’s nothing new.”
“At least this time we’ll be fighting together,” Tyler said as if reminding them both. “No masters to get in the way.”
“Together,” Wednesday repeated in agreement, hearing the unspoken question he wanted to ask.
“They won’t know what hit them,” Tyler muttered darkly. “The psychic and her Hyde.”
“My Hyde?,” Wednesday asked not because she doubted him but because she wanted to make sure he meant what he was saying.
Her Frump heart was already his and as much as she hated being a teenage girl stereotype she needed to hear him say it.
“You tried to have a shotgun wedding with me Wednesday,” Tyler deadpanned.
“Will you ever let me live that down?,” Wednesday grumbled. “You went along with it! You would have let me tie you to me if we weren’t interrupted.”
“I would have,” Tyler agreed. “You also cut me free and saved me instead of killing me in front of witnesses. Your family even. Face it you’re never getting rid of me,” Tyler smugly stated.
Clearly meaning it as both a threat and a promise.
Wednesday gave a quick rare smile flashing her dimples at him before it faded. “I suppose that is satisfactory.”
Tyler pulled back to stare at her awestruck. “If you smiled like that all the time there would be casualties. I don’t know if my heart can take it.”
“You’ll adjust,” Wednesday said. “Or you’ll die trying. Simple as that.”
“What a way to go,” Tyler dramatically said, meaning it with his whole chest causing her to judgmentally stare at him.
Tyler even sounded a bit dreamy at the prospect of dying that way which only made her eye him more intensely.
He was starting to sound like her father which didn’t bode well for her especially if this behavior continued. She would put up with it of course but still his heartfelt sentiment took her aback.
“I think you’re delirious,” Wednesday squinted. “When was the last time you slept?”
“I haven’t slept more than six hours at a time since we separated,” Tyler confessed, making her look at him in surprise.
“My potions have been knocking me out but I wonder if I would have struggled to sleep during our separation without them ," Wednesday considered.
“Guess we’ll never know considering we won’t be separating anytime soon and you’ll continue to take your potions,” Tyler dismissed as he pulled them into a laying position under her blankets.
“True,” Wednesday hummed in agreement. “It would've been a bit hard to figure out what was going on, especially from a distance.”
Wednesday mercifully let him position her with her draped over his body with his arms caging her against his body instead of laying next to him in her typical resting position. Her ears though traitorously flushed at the close proximity.
“Your family won’t be mad when they find out I’m here?,” Tyler asked her drowsily as if it had just occurred to him.
What kind of person travels who knows how long, tracks down where she lives, figures out what room is hers and then scales her building and climbs into her window with no plan?
He was so stupid and Wednesday wanted to crawl inside his rib cage so they could be together permanently.
Watching as Tyler started to get progressively more tired was fascinating, especially when seeing how quickly her presence had settled him. She would have to test it at a later time as she regretfully started to feel tired.
“My mother probably knew you were coming given the infuriating knowing smiles she’s been shooting my way,” Wednesday grumbled. “Besides Pugsley's your biggest fan and my father will be delighted to have a rare monster in the house.”
Tyler sighed his breath ruffling her loose hair. “That’s good I’d hate to have to fight your family to be able to stay by your side.”
Wednesday’s cheeks tinted pink at the mental image. She rested her head against his now steady heart and just breathed.
“I appreciate it il mio mostro but that’s not necessary,” the endearment slipped out as easy as breathing. How genuinely horrifying.
Unfortunately she couldn’t get rid of the boy making her act this way. He had his grey monstrous claws wrapped around her heart.
How unfortunate.
“Sleep cockroach,” Tyler nuzzled the top of her head in another canine-esq gesture which she will be noting down when they eventually wake up later.
Wednesday didn’t follow orders but she gladly followed this one. Tucked in her monster's secure embrace made her feel the safest she’s felt in months.
In the morning they’ll have to face her mothers open sickening joy, Pugsley's irritating squealing, and her fathers excitement at having another sparring partner.
But Wednesday will also have the boy she’s been yearning for against her will by her side which does make up for it all.
Still Wednesday will definitely make him pay.
Tyler will even enjoy it.
Eventually.