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Pugsley’s room was dark and cold, just like he usually liked, but this time, it just made him feel worse. He didn’t get the bad kind of nightmares often but when he did, it usually ruined the rest of his night unless someone helped him calm down again. Still, he tried to go back to sleep at first since it was still early in the night and the dream hadn’t been that bad. He gave up on going back to sleep a few hours later.
He wasn’t sure who he should talk to at first. Uncle Fester was off somewhere, probably in prison, Pubert was still far too young to be of any use as a distraction, and he had no interest in finding out what might be going on in his parents’ bedroom at night. Wednesday was right, they were already bad enough in public, whatever they did when they were alone must have been much more disturbing, in a bad way.
Then it hit him like a baseball bat to the face: Wednesday was home for the summer break and she always managed to make his fears seem silly with just a few sharp words. Sure, she usually did it by making him more afraid of her than of whatever his brain had come up with but it still worked and she always knew exactly how far she could go without just making things worse for him.
He tried to be quiet on his way through the house and somehow mostly managed not to tip over anything too loud. It didn’t take long to reach his sister’s room but when he did, he stopped, unsure of how to proceed. It had been a while since Wednesday had been home and even when she was, he could never decide if it would be better to knock at her door and wait to be let in or if he should just open it as quietly as he could so he wouldn’t startle her.
The choice was eventually taken from him when the door swung open just a crack. It was mostly dark inside, but not as dark as his room had been so it didn’t take long for him to make out the interior. It was strange, there was a mattress on the floor that had clearly been set up for Enid but it looked abandoned, there was no one and nothing on top of it, not even a pillow or blanket.
At first he thought Enid had left the room to stay in one of the guest rooms for whatever reason but then he looked closer. On the other side of the room, where his sister’s bed was, something looked off to him. He hadn’t seen his sister sleep in a while but he was pretty sure she had never looked like this before. Pugsley was incredibly confused, it almost looked like there were two people on the bed but that couldn’t be right. Wednesday wouldn’t even let him or Pubert into her bed, there was no way she would share it with someone as colourful as Enid.
“Stop lurking by the door and just come in already.”
Wednesday’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper, but it still carried through her almost empty room and reached Pugsley easily. Despite the clarity of her voice, he wasn’t sure if he understood her correctly. After all, the Wednesday he knew would have threatened him into leaving or at the very least just ignored him instead of inviting him in, even if it was in a very Wednesday way.
“Really?”
He just had to make sure. After all, he didn’t want to risk getting a knife thrown at him or worse. It wouldn’t have been the first time his sister did something like that to him, she was always trying to kill her brothers. It’s how they played and he usually enjoyed it just as much as her, just not in the middle of the night when his nightmare was still all too present in his mind, scary enough to make his voice come out even louder and squeakier than it normally was. So, he waited for her answer instead of coming inside immediately.
“Yes, but make sure to be quiet. Just don’t wake her.”
That was even more shocking. Since when did Wednesday care about if other people got enough sleep? But she had told him to come in so he did, walking slowly and making sure the door wouldn’t creak when he opened it despite its rusty hinges. It took a while but he eventually made his way inside without making too much noise. When he did, he looked around again, seeing even more of his sister’s bed than he had from the hallway.
There, right in front of him, was something he never thought he would see. His sister was there, of course, lying on her back like she always did, but she was clearly not alone. Right next to and even partly on top of her was another girl with bright clothes and brighter hair. The blankets only covered their legs so Pugsley could see that they were even hugging each other with an easy comfort that implied they did this a lot.
Enid was most likely asleep but it was hard to tell because her face was completely hidden in Wednesday’s shoulder. Wednesday, on the other hand, looked wide awake, her head lifted slightly and her eyes open and fixed on Pugsley. She somehow managed to glare at him while still looking soft in the way she always seemed to do when her roommate was nearby. He hadn’t noticed it before because there were always too many distractions around when Enid was awake but now it was impossible to miss.
The sight in front of him was so surprising that he didn’t pay attention to where he was going. His foot got caught on something about halfway through the room and he couldn’t regain his balance in time. He fell with a loud crash, landing painfully on his head and barely holding back a curse. It took a moment for his head to stop spinning so he could get back onto his feet without feeling like he would fall over again as soon as he did.
When he looked at the bed again, his blood ran cold. While Wednesday had been glaring at him before, she now looked outright murderous. He was suddenly very grateful for Enid being next to his sister because he was sure that otherwise, he would have already been dead. He thought he might still die from the stare alone, he had never seen his sister this angry, at least not at him.
“Willa? What’s going on?”
Enid’s voice was almost too quiet to hear but Wednesday reacted to it immediately. Her gaze shifted from Pugsley to Enid and immediately softened into an expression he had never seen before and hadn’t thought her capable of forming. Not just her face but also her entire body shifted at hearing Enid’s voice. She turned on her side slightly and tightened the arm she had placed around the blonde’s waist while the other moved to her head, gently running through her hair and scratching her scalp behind the ears. She seemed to have completely forgotten Pugsley was even there.
“It’s nothing to worry about, my brother just had a nightmare and doesn’t know how to walk without making noises. Go back to sleep, I’ll wake you if anything happens.”
Wednesday’s voice was even softer than her face and Pugsley could barely make out what she was saying because she was speaking directly into the other girl’s hair. Pugsley felt like he was witnessing something he shouldn’t, like he was watching a private moment between the girls that had nothing to do with him. It felt strangely like being around his parents when they were feeling particularly affectionate.
“Ok, night Wednesday, night Pugsley.”
Enid only looked over to Pugsley for a second while she said his name, giving him a tired smile, then she turned back to Wednesday to look up at her in a way that he would describe as sickeningly in love. Then, she dropped her head against his sister’s shoulder again, burying her face there and wiggling around to get into a more comfortable position that was somehow even closer to Wednesday than she had been before. As soon as she stopped moving, her breathing evened out and she went back to sleep.
“Sweet dreams, Enid.”
Wednesday’s voice had somehow gotten even softer. Pugsley really felt like he shouldn’t be watching this but, at the same time, he couldn’t look away. It was fascinating how much a few months at Nevermore had changed his sister, although he something about the way the girls were clinging to each other told him that it wasn’t the school itself that had changed the Wednesday Addams.
He got lost in his thoughts for a moment, not noticing that he was staring or that his sister was staring right back at him, her previous intensity mostly back in her gaze. They both stayed silent for a moment, just looking at each other over Enid’s sleeping form. Neither of them moved and it almost felt like time was standing still. Pugsley was barely even breathing because he didn’t want to break the moment and anger his sister, he already felt bad enough for already waking up her friend.
Then, Enid mumbled something in her sleep and the weird tension between the siblings disappeared. Wednesday broke their staring match by looking down at Enid again with yet another small smile, which confused Pugsley even more. He hadn’t even known that his sister could smile in a way that wasn’t threatening or terrifying.
Wednesday eventually looked at him after spending what felt like way too much time watching her sleeping friend. When she did, she finally recognized the clear confusion on her brother’s face that he didn’t even try to hide. She stayed silent for another moment, just daring Pugsley to say something. When he didn’t but also didn’t make a move to leave the room, she sighed quietly and finally answered at least one of his unspoken questions.
“She gets nightmares. Being close to me helps.”
She sounded a bit defensive but he chose not to point that out. Instead, he just nodded, accepting her explanation. When he did, she let her head fall back onto her pillow, clearly considering the conversation to be over and dismissing her brother back to his own room but he wouldn’t let this extremely strange situation go quite this quickly. Since Wednesday seemingly wasn’t willing to answer his most pressing question unprompted, Pugsley fought to regain his voice so he could just ask.
“Is she like your girlfriend now?”
It came out blunter than he had meant it to and made Wednesday freeze up for a moment but he didn’t regret asking and she eventually blinked the shock away. She slowly lifted her head and tried to glare at her brother again but this time, her signature expression fell short when Enid moved again in her sleep to grab Wednesday’s hand which she somehow found on her first try with barely any help.
Pugsley wasn’t sure if Wednesday blushed because of the handholding or because of his question but the sudden appearance of colour on her usually deadly pale face was noteworthy either way. Just as noteworthy was that she stayed silent for a long time before uttering just a single word while staring up at a spider web on her ceiling. She also sounded strangely nervous and small in a way he had never heard from her, like she actually feared his reaction to her answer.
“Yes.”
A beat passed. Then another. Pugsley had pretty much already guessed that Wednesday and Enid weren’t just friends but hearing his sister admit it still felt surreal. The tone of her voice was even stranger than the fact that she so openly admitted to having done the one thing she had promised time and time again she would never do: falling in love. And she must have really been in love if she didn’t even try to deny her relationship. What she said next just confirmed that suspicion.
“Please refrain from telling our parents, I could do without the gloating and they’re already smug enough as is.”
To most people, she would have sounded disinterested again, the way she always did, but Pugsley could tell that she was still nervous about his reaction. She wouldn’t have been if she had stopped staring at the ceiling and just looked at her brother, who was grinning like a madman, instead. Since she didn’t and he wasn’t feeling like torturing her like this – he had always preferred physical over psychological torture – he decided to soothe her worries.
“Good, I like her. And sure, I know how they can be…”
Unlike his sister, Pugsley had never been particularly good at hiding his emotions so his excitement was clear when he spoke. Maybe too clear since he spoke much louder than he had intended again, which earned him an annoyed noise Enid let out in her sleep but went otherwise unmentioned. Luckily for Pugsley, she didn’t actually wake up so he would get to survive another day. Still, Wednesday had to do something about his carelessness.
“Now, did you want to talk about something or can we all go back to sleep? If we must, we can talk about this more tomorrow.”
She sounded annoyed, a tone Pugsley was all too familiar with. Because he knew it so well, he could also tell that it sounded slightly forced and that his sister was holding back something that might have been a smile in most other people but tended to appear as a small twitch of the lips at most on Wednesday’s face. Either way, it meant that she probably wouldn’t throw a knife at his head if he turned around and left her room. He turned around one last time when he reached the door, just to get the last word in, and actually remembered to whisper this time.
“I did but it’s fine now. See you guys tomorrow…”
He thought he saw Wednesday gently kiss her girlfriend’s forehead as he left but he was pretty sure that was just his imagination playing a trick on him. He knew his sister well enough to know that she would never do something that soft, even now. And even if she did, he reasoned, it might actually be a good thing, she had seemed much happier ever since she had returned from Nevermore. In the end, it was really none of his business either way, he was happy as long as his sister was happy and besides, he liked Enid, she was funny and nice and had given him candy and showed him her claws and she made his sister smile, something he had thought impossible until he had witnessed it with his own eyes.