So this is one of the last chapters unless I randomly come up with more ideas as I really can't think of anything else I want to write for this verse. Next chapter should be on the 18th of November.
Wednesday feels strange.
Stranger than normal- not that good kind of strange.
Nervous.
She looks back at the woman behind her, looking with curiosity at the rug currently writhing under her feet.
Her hair is up perfectly, not one strand out of place and in that black waistcoat and those fencing trousers she really does look just like an Addams. A little too alive looking perhaps- the amount of time she spends outdoors means she doesn't exactly look fresh from the grave- but the bright red of the lipstick and the sadistic smirk as she brings down a stiletto heel on the polar bear's head as it snaps at her are all Addams.
"Esther, stop fighting the rug." She commands, voice even as she stares at the inconceivably old woman.
"Or what?" The Mistress asks, grinding her heel in, hands on her hips, "Don't make threats you can't keep cousin." She taunts, that cruel smile still on her face.
Wednesday isn't really sure what to do which is an extremely new situation for her.
It had all started as a normal day but now Missy was profoundly not and somehow still herself.
The only testament to that is the pocketwatch inside the waistcoat's pocket, closed tight.
It's not like Wednesday thought that her family would reject Missy as this bizarre, too intelligent, mindlessly cruel, dangerous and mad human rather than all of that in a Time Lord- they'd love the drama and tragedy of the whole thing even if she didn't know they would be enamoured with the woman.
It's more that the Mistress has always been in control or at least scrambling for it. She might give Wednesday options but they were limited to things that she wanted anyway or would accept.
The Mistress as a human- Esther Addams now- she was too soft, too obliging despite the increased derangedness and vindictiveness she'd shown even coming up the garden path. She felt young in a way she never had before, shallower. Wednesday hadn't asked about the Mistress' past and she hadn't offered but Wednesday knew that Missy was a deeply tortured, troubled and tormented soul and mostly by herself.
Like this she was too fresh, too young. Her words didn't carry dark undertones and her eyes didn't burn with the masked horror that only the near immortal can learn.
Wednesday leaves her to her game with the rug and walks silently up the stairs, knowing her parents would likely be in the parlour room at this time of day.
She almost knocks on the door before disregarding the impulse and simply pushing the door open and striding in.
Her mother is the first to look up and the pause before her face lights up shows more than anything how much she's changed.
"Oh look, mon cher! Our little viper, all grown up! Isn't she heartbreakingly beautiful, Gomez?" Morticia croons, standing in a fluid movement which continues until she's holding Wednesday's face deceptively gently, claws resting against her skin.
Her dress drifts around her just as Wednesday remembers and for a moment she feels comforted by her mother's presence and unchanging nature.
Gomez inspects her too, puffing on his pipe and smiling widely as he lifts her hand and presses a kiss to her knuckles.
"Deathly so, my dear. You look like you've just been dug up." He says, pride clear in his tone as he addresses the first part to his wife and the second to his daughter.
The man chuckles, releasing her hand and taking up his wife's kissing hers too, eyes fixed on hers. The lowering of Morticia's eyelids and her small smirk are just as telling as any other woman's blush might be.
"So why are you back so early Wednesday. You don't look dead. Are you- are you perhaps-" Morticia grimaces a little but manages to push out the next word, "happy?" She asks, nose wrinkling slightly at the distasteful word.
"No. Never. I've been miserable." Wednesday says without inflection.
Morticia almost looks like she could cry.
"Oh, Gomez!" She sighs as Wednesday's dad grins proudly.
"This Mistress has done awfully." He comments, grin stretching from ear to ear.
"When are we going to see her again, by the way?" The man asks, stepping forwards and lifting his pipe from his lips again.
"In just a moment." Wednesday replies.
The surprise on her parents' faces is amusing enough that she smiles just a little.
"The Mistress has been found by some aliens who wish to use her body to give themselves immortality. She has repressed all her memories and believes she is human and so will be staying with us until the threat is gone." The young woman says.
There's a moment while her parents look at each other, silent. Gomez grins around his pipe as Morticia strokes her hand over his.
"Isn't that beautifully traumatic?" She asks, faint smirk on her lips.
Gomez smirks back.
"Quite. Quite."