The light streamed down through the dusty panes of the catacombs, its eerie silence making my breathing sound unnaturally loud in my ears, as did the slow exhale of my companion.

"Creepy." I remarked, sending a half smile at the pale form beside me.

"Awesome." A seventeen year old Wednesday Addams sent back, sending me a sharp glare, as she forged ahead, hefting her torch like some parody of Lady Liberty.

I sighed as I ran my hands through my short cropped hair, dyed a dark blue, almost black. My clothing mirrored my hair, eclectic and colorful, bright neons and vivid color. Wednesday, by comparison, was as different as night and day. Her pale skin was almost ethereal in the gloom of the tunnels, her black clothing making us a strange pair. However, no matter how different we were, we had a strange comradeship, a strange sort of affection that two outcasts can give each other.

"Yes of course, because if it's creepy, it's automatically categorized as 'awesome' in the Addams family logbook." I shot back, quickly following the brunette deeper into the Italian vaults, the walls encrusted with niter and water trickling down through the bones that lined the walls.

"Obviously."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'd rather be in Spain, seeing those Inquisition Chambers," I muttered, ignoring her acerbic comment. "Or maybe in France, researching Joan of Arc and the martyrs of the French Revolution."

"Might I remind you, Nathanial, that it was my father that funded this trip? And it was only by telling him I would be bringing an imaginary girl companion that he provided the extra funds by which you were able to tag along at all?" Wednesday quirked a dark eyebrow at me, her quiet amusement reminding me of the conditions of which I had been allowed to accompany her on this summer vacation to Europe.

I was not to touch, handle, interact, give it away, or to even think of the money budget at all. Wednesday was in charge of getting food, getting a decent hotel, getting the paltry few souvenirs she budgeted between the two of us, and airplane tickets.

I was not to even consider choosing where we would go. Wednesday was to direct, organize and make sure we got everywhere on time.

I just drove the rental car.

I sighed as I followed the black clad figure of Wednesday, able to, even in the gloom; appreciate her decision to stop wearing dresses when she turned fifteen. A black ribbed turtle neck stretched from her neck to her wrists, a pair of black slacks flowing to her black hiking boots that she was fond of wearing.

Simply put, she looked really good.

Wednesday had stopped by a pile of bones, and was staring at them with an intensity she showed everything that caught her attention, irritating or otherwise. Annoyed, at the interest she was showing a dead person (I mean, she told me she had a family cemetery in her back yard, how novel could a dead person be?) and ignoring me, I had to poke fun to save my slightly bruised, miniscule ego.

"Oh look," I said. "another pile of bones. The joy I feel is too great to be expressed in words."

"Your sarcasm sucks."

I rolled my eyes. My ego was now the size of a pinhead. Wednesday was good at keeping me humble.

"One of the Addams was entombed here." Wednesday said, almost conversationally as we fell in step with each other and traversed deeper into the cold catacombs. "Great-great grandfather Methuselah was walled in alive by an angry mob into the wall of one of these catacombs."

I yawned, bored with her story. "Wednesday, really, nearly all of your ancestors in the 1800s met some sort of gory end, I'm not exactly impressed if your great grandfather twice removed invented the rack-"

"Great-great-great grandfather." Wednesday corrected, smirking.

"Yes, yes." I waved her off "The point is, your family is so morbid that blood, gore, and other gruesome ends really don't faze me like they did when you'd scare me with tales about them when I was fifteen."

Wednesday snorted. "I don't need stories to scare anyone, especially you."

I wisely didn't challenge her on that statement.

"Can we leave now?" I whined, rubbing my arms against the chill of the vaults.

"Baby." Wednesday remarked, ignoring me.

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not an Addams." I grumbled. "Definition; A person capable of horrific deeds that transcend the stereotypical macabre tortures, generally impervious to the cold, dank, and damp."

"Stop whining, it makes me want to feed you to something nasty."

"Hmph."

"It's not like you couldn't be an Addams if you really wanted to." Wednesday said, rolling her eyes as she strolled through the catacombs.

"I've already asked you out multiple times." I said, taking her arm in mine. "But you are the one holding out on me."

"Maybe you just haven't asked me out the right way." Wednesday said, giving me a look out of the corner of her eye.

"Fine." I stopped suddenly, turning Wednesday around so she faced me. "Wednesday Friday Addams, this is the dankest, darkest, most foul place I've ever been in, so naturally you must think it's the perfect place for me to ask you out." I gave her a hard look. "Wednesday, will you finally let me take you out sometime?"

Wednesday cocked her head, her obsidian eyes staring through me, the barest hint of a smirk playing about her mouth.

"What was it about those Spanish Inquisitional chambers you were talking about?"