Disclaimer is in chapter 1.
Toledo, Castilla La Mancha, Spain.
The Rolls Royce Silver Cloud rolled silently out of the fog bank, slowing to a crawl as Gomez looked fondly, and eagerly, out at the passing countryside.
"Welcome to my home." He said cheerfully, nodding ahead of them.
Xander turned in his seat, looking up the winding road to see a foreboding castle in the distance. It looked hard and dark, a gloom surrounding it even in the bright Spanish sunlight, and he had to admit that it was most certainly an Addams building.
"Castle Addams." Gomez said, almost sounding serene for a moment. "Oh the times we had here, such wonderful times."
"Gomez, darling, we should return more often."
"Right you are, Tish," Gomez sighed, "But we have our responsibilities at home."
"Of course," She said simply, "We are Addamses. Even so, if Wednesday is to be part of the magical world, perhaps we should extend our influences again."
"Maybe you're right, my love." Gomez said thoughtfully, then shook off the pensive nature of his thoughts and smiled again, "For now though, let us enjoy the holidays in true Addams style."
"But of course, mon coeur." Morticia responded.
"Tish! That's French!"
Castle Addams was a huge affair, in horrible disrepair from what Xander could see but the family seemed to love it as it was. As they approached the gates they were greeted by an ethereal blond woman whose hair seemed to flow against the wind with an eerie motion.
"Marietta!" Gomez crowed, spreading his arms wide as the woman grinned in return and stepped into the embrace. "It's been too long!"
"Hello Dear Gomez," Mariette said with a smile, "Welcome back to Castle Addams."
"Wednesday, you remember your aunt Marietta," Gomez said with a smile.
"Hello Aunt Marietta," Wednesday said with a calm look, subtly jabbing Xander in the side as he stared at the woman, in a daze.
He grunted in pain and blinked as the fog lifted from his mind, looking around in confusion.
"And who is this strapping young buck?" Marietta asked with a sly smile.
"This is Alexander Harris," Gomez said cheerfully, "A friend of Wednesday's from school. Alexander, Meet Marietta Addams."
"Nice to meet you, ma'am."
"Ma'am." She chuckled, "None of that here, young man. I am Marietta to you, all of you."
"Of course." Morticia said softly, smiling faintly as she and the others walked onto the ground.
Xander was shaking his head slightly, rubbing his temples, "What was that?"
"Marietta is a Xanas." Wednesday said softly, "distantly related to the Norwegian Veela, they have similar charms."
Xander frowned, remembering only a little about the Veela from somewhere.
"They can enthrall men," Wednesday explained as they began to walk after the family.
"Can they ever." Xander muttered, earning himself a dark look from his friend. "Hey, I'm just saying. That was plain creepy."
"Wasn't it though?" A hint of a smile played at Wednesday's lips, then she turned away from him and began to walk ahead.
Xander watched her for a moment, then groaned as he knew that he had failed some sort of test. "It's gonna be some holiday."
The initial rush of meeting the Castillo branch of the Family Addams faded away as the holidays moved on, though Xander had to admit that they were every bit as memorable as the American branch of the family.
Hernandez Addams, the Castillian Patriarch was frightening reflection of Gomez. Moody where Gomez was cheerful, the man seemed older than his looks suggested and moved like he had something sitting on his shoulders. Nevertheless he had greeted his guests with gusto, then almost instantly challenged Gomez to a fencing duel that raged across the entire castle while the rest of them settled down to dinner.
His wife, Marietta, was almost the antithesis of Addams. Light fairy hair that blew in the absence of wind, a cheerful pleasant personality that seemed to hold none of the darker aspects of the rest of the family, and a genuine earnest love of everyday things like the perfect rose blossoms that took up the center of the dining room table. The one thing that marked her as an Addams, in Xander's opinion, was that eerie charm she wielded without even thinking about it.
Xander had managed to acclimate himself a little to the food the Addamses ate, enough so that he was able to pick at the food without worrying about going hungry until he found a MacDonald's, or the local equivalent.
Marietta noticed, but only smiled slightly and pushed some of the more normally accepted foods in his direction as she leaned over to avoid the sweep of her husband's blade.
"Come back here, you laze-about!" Hernandez yelled, chasing Gomez around the table.
"Never!" Gomez grinned, planting a foot on the table and vaulting up to the chandelier, hooking his legs in it and hanging upside down as he fended off his cousin's attacks.
He twisted there for a while, casually parrying sweeps of Hernandez' blade, then abruptly curled up and somersaulted off the chandelier to land squarely in the center of the table, feet planted on either side of a bubbling gravy mix.
"Alexander, my boy! You're up!" Gomez said, dropping his sword in Xander's direction.
Xander's eyes bugged as he caught the sword on reflex. "What!?"
Gomez flipped off the table, landing in his chair, and began helping himself to a meal. "I'd duck if I were you, lad."
Xander ducked.
The Toledo Steel blade swept over his head, right about neck level, and Xander didn't stop. He rolled to the right as the blade reversed and swept down through the back of his chair.
"Footwork Lad!" Gomez called as Xander scrambled across the floor, "Footwork!"
"I..." Xander gasped, narrowly avoiding a slash.
"Have to..." He threw up his blade, deflecting a lunge over his head.
"Get to my..." He rolled, narrowly ducking a follow up strike.
"Feet first!" he finished, twisting his sword around and driving the point of Hernandez' blade into the floor between his knees. Xander immediately locked it in place with a twist of his blade, preventing the Castillian from moving his own blade.
"Good show lad!" Gomez smirked, "but uh... look down."
Xander frowned, blinking, then looked down to grimace as he found Hernandez' had his Main Gauche just fractions of an inch from Xander's groin. He shuddered and carefully stepped back, letting go of the blade.
"Good reflexes, but your form is atrocious." Hernandez said calmly as he took Xander's sword, then threw both of them casually aside one after another.
They were caught, in turn, by a disembodied hand and thrown back up on the wall where they had come from with an ease that spoke of practice.
"I don't get a lot of chance to practice..." Xander gasped out, resisting the urge to pat his crotch down to ensure everything was still there.
"We only began his lessons last Christmas," Gomez spoke up while he ate. "We'll be continuing them, of course."
Xander nodded dumbly.
"Good lad." Hernandez said seriously, taking his seat at the head of the table. "Bladework is the fundament of a strong and balanced life."
"I don't know that I'd go that far," Gomez said with a smirk. "But it certainly is a fun way to pass the time."
"You never take anything seriously." Hernandez scowled at his cousin.
"Of course not," Gomez returned, "What's the point of that? Sucks all the fun out of life."
Fester and Pugsley arrived at Castle Addams a couple days later, flushed from their excursion to Bosnia.
"Bosnia?" Xander just had to ask. "What were you doing there?"
"Sweeping mine fields." Fester grinned widely. "Great fun."
"Yeah, it was AWESOME." Pugsley affirmed. "Uncle Fester must have flown fifty meters when he set off that anti-tank mine!"
"Those suckers are hard to detonate," Fester said, shaking his head. "I must have jumped up and down on that for five minutes."
Xander sat down slowly, rubbing his temple.
Honestly, he was sorry he asked, but he was also really, really curious about the details.
The Holidays were pleasant, though, as the weather remained beautiful in the area, much to the Addams' frustration. Xander spent his time fencing with Gomez and Hernandez, reading his RPG books, and playing with Wednesday and Pugsley. Though the third one was by far the most dangerous activity he'd experienced yet, and he was including the Chamber of Secrets in that list.
He quickly learned to avoid certain games, like 'Innocent Sacrifice' and 'Condemned Man'. When games involving electrocution and decapitation came up, Xander begged off to read.
That, of course, attracted Wednesday's interest and she cornered him quickly to ask about his material.
"They're game books." He said, "Role Playing Games, basically stuff written by people who like to pretend they can use magic."
A twinkling hint of amusement showed in her expression, and Wednesday sat down beside him. "Are they helpful?"
"There are some interesting ideas," Xander admitted, "I'm reading about Technomancy right now."
"I haven't heard of that, but I can guess what it means." Wednesday frowned, "Does it exist?"
"Yeah, a little," Xander said, pulling out a reference book he'd bought in Three Angels. "It's kind of a matter of definition, though, I guess. People have been charming cars to run on magic for, well, as long as there have been cars."
"I know, our car works that way."
Xander nodded, unsurprised. "Right, anyway, that could be considered Technomancy I guess. It worked well right up until microchips started showing up in everything."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, magic makes them stop working." Xander said, frowning, "The newer ones anyway. Some of the older ones were charmed successfully. But even they weren't reliable."
"What's the difference?"
"I'm not sure." Xander had to admit. "Whatever it is, it's pretty clear though... anything electronic is REALLY hard, if not impossible, to charm."
"Curious."