"Morticia," Gomez said once she had stepped further into the house. He enjoyed the feel of her name as it rolled off his tongue. "It has such a dreary ring to it." At this, something flickered in her previously emotionless eyes, and her mouth curled up into a tiny smile.

"Why thank you," she said shyly, looking down at the floor. Gomez reached forward to take her hand, but Ophelia grabbed his hand instead and flipped him onto his back. He landed on the hard floor with a thud and stayed there for a moment, the wind knocked out of him. Morticia peered down at him curiously, and Gomez started to feel warmth creeping up his neck as she looked at him, her face once again empty of any emotion.

"I bet you didn't know I was a judo champ," Ophelia bragged.

"No," Gomez answered, snapped out of his daze. "But then again, I didn't know I had a slipped disc, either, oh," he ended with a groan.

"Not only is Ophelia a black belt, she was student body president, head of the glee club, and class caterer," Mrs. Frump told Mama proudly. "A real joiner." Gomez would have said he was sorry for Ophelia for having gotten dragged into all of those horrible activities, except she was smiling like her mother had flattered her. If Gomez had been able to see his mama's face, he would have seen that she didn't look too impressed, either.

"What about you, Morticia?" he asked. "Are you a joiner, too?" Morticia had been glaring at her mother since she started listing Ophelia's accomplishments, but when she glanced down at him again the anger left her eyes.

"When socializing with others, it's best not to put glass in their iced tea," she said matter-of-factly. Ophelia and Mrs. Frump rolled their eyes. "Cyanide is more effective." She leaned down and grabbed Gomez's arm to help him up, and didn't release him until he was secure on his feet. Gomez didn't want her to let go, her touch was sending bolts of electricity all through his body, and even through his sleeve he could feel that her hands were icy cold. Once he was standing she backed up, away from her mother and sister, but Gomez followed her without thinking and stood next to her.

"Good point," he said, sounding impressed at her knowledge of poison, and Morticia looked away bashfully.

"Now, Morticia," Mrs. Frump chastised as she bustled forward and grabbed Gomez's arm in a vice-like grip. "No one wants to hear about your anti-social tendencies. In fact," she said loudly. "Morticia refused even to go to school, I had to teach her everything she knows. Math, science, organic poisoning..." By this point, Gomez had stopped listening. He felt more than saw Morticia tense beside him, and he turned and studied what little of her face he could see. She was mostly facing away from him, but Gomez thought he could sense discomfort in her features. He got the feeling she didn't like being talked about, at least by her mother, but he was distracted when Mrs. Frump forced him to look at her again. "She aced her SATs," she said reassuringly, as if Gomez had doubts that Morticia could be smart enough to learn anything. "And her post-mortems."

Ophelia, frustrated over losing the spotlight, jumped in and said dismissively, "Blah, blah, blah." She grabbed Gomez's arm and tugged him away from her mother. "Come on, Gomer," she grumbled through her teeth.

"It's Gomez," he retorted heatedly as she pulled him towards the den, away from Morticia.

"Gomez," she answered mockingly. She then proceeded to the den and forced him to listen to her talk about several inane topics.

For two hours.

Two very long hours of Ophelia jabbering nonstop, in which Gomez's only moment of pleasure was when it ended, when Morticia stopped by to say good night. Ophelia waved her off without saying anything to her, but Gomez leaped to his feet.

"I'll show you to your room," he said eagerly, and scampered towards her. He was almost to the door when Ophelia called his attention back to herself.

"Ahem." Gomez froze, but he didn't turn back to her. She didn't notice. She was sitting very primly, facing away from him in false modesty, her back straight and her legs crossed at the ankles. She was smiling almost demurely, but there was a hint of smugness in her expression as well. "Gomez, this house is so big, I don't think I could find my room."

Gomez was staring at Morticia, who was looking shy again, though she didn't break eye contact. Her mouth twitched again, like it had earlier, into a small smile, and Gomez's entire face lit up when he saw it. He barely heard Ophelia, but he heard enough to reach past Morticia and pull on the rope hanging from the ceiling. Morticia and Ophelia both jumped at the resulting GONG which rang through the house, and Ophelia finally looked at Gomez, only to find he wasn't looking anywhere near her. She pouted as Lurch walked into the room in response to the bell.

"You rang?"

"Lurch, please escort Miss Ophelia to her room. I'll show Miss Morticia-" She had a beautiful name, he loved saying it "-to hers." Lurch groaned, but Gomez ignored him in favor of offering Morticia his arm. After a moment of hesitation, either from shyness or fear of her sister, she took it, and Gomez led her upstairs, leaving Lurch with a very irritated Ophelia.

Gomez had seen Lurch preparing two bedrooms for Mrs. Frump and Ophelia, but no one had known to expect Morticia, and at first Gomez wasn't completely sure which room Lurch would have left her things in. There was only one other guest bedroom close to those two, though, and Gomez guessed correctly that that was the room Lurch had chosen. When they got to the door of her room, Morticia let go of his arm, but she didn't go in. Her shyness had returned in full force, and she looked at the ground as Gomez struggled for words.

"So, uh, your mother said something earlier-" Morticia stiffened, and Gomez hurried to continue, hoping to ease her obvious discomfort. "-something about your birthday being next week?" Morticia's shoulders relaxed slightly, and she finally looked up at him. There was curiosity and no small amount of confusion in her eyes that he would have remembered that particular tidbit of information above the rest. She nodded.

"Yes, it's next Friday, the thirteenth." Gomez grinned, glad to have gotten a verbal response from her. She didn't seem the type to talk very much, but that only made him more curious. She intrigued him, in a way her sister didn't. He wanted to know everything about her.

"Friday the thirteenth? Sounds like you'll have a good birthday this year, on a lucky day like that." Morticia smiled again, and Gomez's heart did a funny sort of leap inside his chest. "Do you have any plans?" The smile slipped off her face, and Gomez wilted. He liked making her smile. She was so beautiful when she smiled. Then again, she was also beautiful when she wasn't smiling. She was always beautiful.

"Not really," she answered, and broke eye contact with him to look at the floor. "I'm turning twenty-two, it's not a very special birthday." Gomez frowned.

"Nonsense, any day celebrating you must be special." A very faint tinge of almost-pink crept into Morticia's cheeks. "And on Friday the thirteenth, too? Something important is bound to happen."

"Important, maybe," she answered in a voice that sounded sad, though Gomez couldn't imagine why. "But I doubt anything dreadful enough to look forward to." She glanced up, perhaps realizing that she had revealed a secret part of herself to a man who was barely more than a stranger, and hurried to change the subject, or at least alter it a little. "My birthday was on a Friday four years ago as well."

Gomez's face brightened. "Oh? Was it a good birthday?"

"Well, it certainly was very interesting..."

The next half hour was spent talking to Morticia, and it is safe to say that Gomez enjoyed this talk far more than he had the two hours with Ophelia. Eventually, Gomez glanced at his watch, widened his eyes at the lateness of the hour, and apologized for keeping her up so late.

"I'll let you go to bed now."

"Good night," she responded quietly. Before she went into her room, though, Gomez grabbed her hand and kissed it softly, staring up into her eyes.

"Good night," he said with a small smile, and he watched as she entered her room and closed the door.

A/N: I hope you liked it, please review!