Regency era wenclair (this is Long, bare with me).
the addams are a prestigious family. gomez is very good at putting his money where it's worth and morticia is even better in managing trading relations with other families.
their children are eccentric and usually outcast (by choice) out of society.
the youngest, pubert, is growing curious about the world outside of their home's enormous walls and his parents give in easily for him to explore. he charms the ladies with his toddling steps and the gentlemen smile at him and comment out loud about how strong he's growing.
he makes sure to help the animal's handlers and everyday goes out to feed the horses. it's his most important task.
the middle child, pugsley, is relatively quiet but with a mischievous streak.
not a lot of people have seen him around but they hear weird things coming from the employees of the family. one of them claims his eyes are always watching and he always knows just where to place his next prank. it would be terrifying if the image people have of them wasn't of a chubby and giggly child.
he's been trying to make more friends.
one of their cooks has a son and he's surprisingly amendable to coming around in order to help his mother carry their honey supply. they manage to have engaging conversations and the boy is coming around more and more each day.
in one of the many galas he attended he managed to befriend a coy redhead, daughter to one of the Addams neighboring partners. they never spend much time together where people can see, the girl knows her dad and he would certainly demand marriage when she grows old enough. but whenever she doesn't want to stay home she can always sneak to pugsley's room, he never forgets to leave a window open for her. she's too good at moving unnoticed and it's a big asset for his pranks.
and finally, the oldest and by far the most elusive.
only three people outside of the family have talked to wednesday addams in the flesh after she turned five and decided socializing really wasn't for her.
all three of them were suppliers and the only reason why they managed to strike conversations was because she had to be sure of their products' quality.
but blue eyes live on the mountain near the Addams family home and she knows the truth. wednesday is a curious person. calculated, quiet, and awfully intelligent, but curious nonetheless.
she's been watching ever since she was eight and deemed too wild and rough to live amongst her family. her mother put her to sleep in a walk in the forest and laid her down beneath a tree before running.
it was lucky that she was found by an old lady living in a nearby cabin and that the woman decided to take her in.
it happened just a few hours after her mother abandoned her. enid, as she named herself, unwilling to carry the name her maker gave her, woke up scared and confused. the sun was starting to go down and she knew it was dangerous to move, better to be in the same place so her father could find her. that was the getting lost rule. even if she didn't remember entering the forest in the first place.
in all honesty, she thought it was a dream.
her stomach growled and the moon was starting to rise, she knew of the predators and dangerous creatures, her mother told her about them. her eyes watered and her shoulders shook, but there was a voice in the distance, humming the most forlorn tune she had ever heard.
small feet moved on their own account and when enid noticed, she was hiding behind a tree, holding her breath not to make a sound. the figure in front of her didn't seem to be younger than her, but she sobs wrecking her body were stronger than anything enid had ever felt. she longed to show herself and comfort that girl, with twin braids and a black dress, but the fear of being discovered kept her in place.
she watched the girl dig up a hole and place something inside, then cover it up. a single rose left on top of it. enid was young, but she knew a grave when she saw one. her oldest brother was put in one just two days before. when the girl grew tired, enid worried, worried she would fall asleep and be stuck in that forest forever alongside her. but a tall woman, beautiful and fearsome, showed up just as the girl's sobs died down and gently, so gently that enid couldn't help but compare to her mother's indifferent embrace, lifted up and cradled the child as she walked gracefully.
her legs finally woke up and she tried to reach them but the woman's legs were too wide and her steps half hurried. enid didn't stand a chance, not when she moved carefully to not disturb the girl with noise.
she was far from the place where she was dropped off and the air was cold. at eight, enid was ready to sleep and not wake up but the old lady found her with a simple proposition.
“Child, I can offer you shelter, knowledge and food. all I need in return is your strength for I am losing my own.”
and enid nodded and followed the woman, already carrying their hunted dinner in her thin arms.
two winters passed before she saw the girl again. at that point she knew the entire forest as she knew herself, coming and going was easy and she had been learning everything, from reading old books to cleaning prey.
when the sun rose she decided to explore some areas she had just passed through and catalogued and that was when she saw the girl again. same braids, different black dress. she was assembling something in the big house's backyard and enid was enchanted.
she watched the entire afternoon. watched as the girl finished her own bow and arrows, watched as she tested it out, as she read and as she wrote something with a quill on paper.
the old lady started to call an obsession by the eighth day in a row. enid told her she didn't knee that word, so it didn't matter.
after the third spring, enid started going into town disguised, she knew that should her mother see her it would bring trouble. so she cut her hair and dressed in pants the hag made for her. no one could even guess she wasn't a boy and the pelts they collected sold well enough for her to buy some art supplies.
it was then that she learned the girl's, her muse, name. morticia addams, as the townsfolk whispered, was taking a stroll and the woman from the makeshift stall near hers asked how wednesday was growing along. at first enid thought it was a weird question, as far she was aware it was friday but morticia smiled and shared that her daughter was wonderful.
and it clicked. she was the tall and fearsome lady. enid thought it was silly she had been scared of someone that gentle, someone who took a look at her and winked as she bought one of the pelts.
after that day, enid started writing wednesday's name on the corner of the papers she used to sketch. she drew wednesday reading under a tree in her home, wednesday bonding with her horse, wednesday sneering as a little boy – probably her brother – ran around, wednesday jumping in the small lake, wednesday fishing.
wednesday wednesday wednesday wednesday
not even the old lady could take it anymore.
enid watched her for seven more summers. she grew up in that time, kept dressing as a young lad, it was more comfortable to live and to move around doing so. it came the time to wrap her chest in bandages to keep the pretense but no one questioned much, her arms were burly and strong from carrying around wood, carcasses and whatever the hag decided she had to move around.
the notebooks piled up in that time, wednesday grew with her. sometimes she would frown and look around as if trying to find whoever was watching her but she never quite found enid. not when she turned out to be an athletic adult who climbed trees for fun.
enid decided she had to show herself soon after hearing the baker boy from down the town's hall boldly claiming he would court the addams girl.
she went home and grumbled about the whole thing as she stirred their dinner, well aware of the worn eyes staring amusedly at her. the response came in little time.
“child, you are infatuated.”
“w-what?!” enid felt herself blushing, spoon clattering against the pan but she refused to turn back. “I know I like to dress like a man but I am not one!”
the lady rolled her eyes. “And who said only men can desire for women? huh?”
“everyone!”
she yelped at feeling a slap on the back of her neck. the woman was old and still had some edge.
“you want the girl. the only person who can tell you to stop is wednesday, for that you have to ask her.”
she rubbed the sore spot and pouted but the words made sense. enid already mostly lived outside of society, why should she care about their rules?
“right...but for that to happen,” she hummed.
“you have to act soon. otherwise the boy might gain her heart.”
she clicked her tongue. “as if. he has nothing aside from average looks.”
“that's my girl.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀★
during spring the old lady passed.
she wasn't ill, just ancient and she had warned enid it would happen sooner rather than later. she was prepared and it hurt all the same.
there wasn't even a name to put on the grave enid improvised, that hag never once conceded when enid asked about it. but she made her way to that place, where all those years ago laid a pet, her mother figure's heavy body on her shoulders.
the decision to bury her at the place where she met wednesday was easy. she went there every full moon to clean it. what was that saying she heard? two birds one stone?
it took until another full moon for enid to go into town again. she felt alone and watching wednesday helped but she needed some interaction. she felt her heart beating as she saw the baker boy grumbling expletives about wednesday rejecting his advances, she could barely hold her smirk.
and hope burned when she heard the murmurs of people talking about wednesday allowing her family to throw a ball in honor of her 21st birthday. if wednesday was 21 she must've been 22, maybe. but she got to the cabin and sewed herself a suit with some fabric she might've stolen when a drunk drew the attention of the shop's owner.
it wasn't even crude. she knew she looked good because the old lady taught her everything she knew.
and that was how she found herself sneaking into a gala, not at all ready to talk to people much richer than her.
after relying on hunting for so much enid came into the ball room with so much stealth she knew no one saw her. the problem was, she didn't know how to dance.
there are things living with the wild don't teach.
and the worst of all, one person notices her fumbling her way around the very well played music. wednesday addams.
dark eyes lock on hers, there's a glint of maybe recognition there before it promptly goes away. enid dry swallows, her hands shake as wednesday glides towards her. enid barely remembers to deepen her voice.
“have I ever seen you around?” wednesday silken voice almost makes her whimper.
“w-well...most likely not,” she awkwardly laughs. “i-i mean, i am invading this pa–” she cuts herself with a squeak.
wednesday's lips twitch, her eyes sparkle, looking oddly interested. enid is almost speechless, watching her from up close is so much better.
she doesn't raise a hand but she does a small courtesy. “wednesday, charmed.”
“enid! my um...name.”
god, she's usually so good with her words.
“what a queer name for a gentleman,” wednesday hums and enid's blood runs cold. she forgot. she wants to slap herself, how can she forget she has a male name for exactly this purpose? “although...I suppose I can't judge.”
enid hums and tries to stop herself from moving. wednesday looks at her, a raised eyebrow and maybe a pleased note in the way she tilts her head, at least it resembles the way she did so whenever she gets a good catch when fishing.
“enid from?”
enid didn't even try to come up with something, what wednesday knows can already land her in jail or a torture chamber. if the rumors are true.
“from nowhere. no family name,” she shrugs. “I hope you can forgive that.”
“if I've already forgiven you for invading my birthday ball, what's one more oddity?” wednesday's body barely moves towards her, her expression as neutral as always.
“thank you for your mercy,” enid whispers. the orchestra starts a different song.
“I'm no merciful being, enid,” wednesday flatly declares, tiny steps put her closer to enid. their bodies could touch with a single push.
enid's heart seized. maybe it's time she puts her romance novel knowledge to use.
“very well,” she fixed her posture, now looking down at wednesday, avoiding the instinct to kneel and pledge her alliance. “ask of me whatever it may take for your forgiveness. I will do it with no hesitation.”
she watched as wednesday expressed nothing but a shaky breath, from her advantage point she could see the very tips of her ears turning red.
“dance with me, how about that for now?”
enid feels herself exploding but still stops herself before any movement.
“I have never danced before,” enid shamefully admits.
“I can teach you,” wednesday whispers. “I feel like you are a quick study.”
enid feels wednesday's cold hand on hers, the lower temperature soothing her overtly warm one. the other hand leads enid to hold wednesday's waist, a little lower than where enid can see the other men touching, she fumbles the first steps.
wednesday doesn't mind and guides her efficiently until enid feels confident enough to lead. they fall in sync easily once enid knows the basics but don't move from their corner of the room.
Murdoc escaped again. That was what Matty told him when she called him in the middle of the night.
“You need to get to Phoenix,” she said.
“Now?”
“Yes, after you locked Murdoc up with Helman, I think it’s safe to say he’s going to come after you. Maybe not now, but just to be safe.”
“What about Riley and Bozer? And my father?”
“James is here and Riley and Bozer are on the way.”
Mac sighed in relief, “Okay, I’m coming too.”
Mac hung up, sliding out of bed. He quickly changed into some sweatpants and a tee-shirt. But when he walked into his living room, he felt like something was wrong. He froze, grabbing the nearest object that could be used as a weapon, which happened to be a coffee mug.
“Nice to see you haven’t loss your instincts. But that mug isn’t going to do anything.”
Murdoc.
Murdoc walked out, pointing a gun at him.
“What do you want?”
“I just wanted to warn you. You thought I was finished with you, didn’t you? Oh darling, the game hasn’t even started yet.”
Mac glared at him.
“Put that mug down, nice and slow.”
“How do you know I haven’t made it into a dead-man’s switch.”
Murdoc laughed, “Because I’ve been watching you. I’ve been waiting here even before Mathilda called you.”
Mac shivered.
Murdoc had been right there, he could have easily killed him, or kidnapped him and no one would have known.
“What do you want?” Mac managed to say.
“Like I said, I wanted to give you a warning.”
And suddenly there’s a searing pain in his shoulder. Mac cried out falling back. Murdoc kneeled next to him, grabbing him by his bad shoulder.
“Don’t ever lock me up with him ever again. Or else you’ll wish a bullet was the only thing I gave to you.”
Mac could only gasp, his shoulder hurt so much and Murdoc holding it so roughly was only making things worse.
“Do you understand?”
“Ye-yes,” Mac managed to choke out.
“Good.”
And then Murdoc was gone, leaving Mac behind on the ground clutching his shoulder.
