Work Text:
When Enid had originally asked Wednesday if they could maybe, just like a little, perhaps, introduce more physical touch into their friendship, as a treat, she had not expected for Wednesday to readily agree. She certainly hadn’t expected that the agreement would come with so many demands - specifically a four hour long discussion on all the rules and regulations. By hour three Enid was starting to feel like she’d inadvertently signed on for an international summit on regulatory something or other that was way too far above her head. Hour three also happened to be when Wednesday had asked to borrow Enid’s phone to contact her family’s attorneys hoping they would overnight a formal contract. There may have been a bit of a cause and effect thing there. It took over half an hour for Enid to justify, or rather plead, why a contract was not in their best interest. Namely - Enid was human and, unlike Wednesday, not so touch averse that she could guarantee to never accidentally mess up one of the many caveats or time constraints buried under the growing list of notes Wednesday had drafted up. She’d rather avoid a lengthy legal battle.
Wednesday had, quite reluctantly, agreed. She’d also crossed out Enid’s hard fought win for their thrice semesterly extended (only greater than 15 seconds counted but anything over a minute was unacceptable) hugs. Enid watched the ink scratch through the line with horror, only calming slightly when ‘twice’ was scratched in above the lined through ‘thrice’. With only one more argument and some extensive proofreading, Wednesday deemed the agreement to be in order and signed her name at the bottom before passing the stack to Enid. Wednesday may have agreed to axe the legal team (hopefully not actually axe them - though always a possibility), but insisted they sign the agreement to hold them (read, Enid) accountable and for general record keeping.
The majority of the space was filled with details - what constituted “extended” for example, and conditional clauses - rain checks, vetos, school holidays, birthday exceptions, exchanges, etc. The actual list itself was only 13 items. A baker’s dozen, as Enid would say. Proper business etiquette, as Wednesday would say.
The below parties agree to the following terms regarding appropriate physical contact. No addendums, replacements, or eliminations hold without the express written consent of both parties. Failure to abide by the below will result in the following actions: upon first offense, a verbal warning will be issued; upon second offense, a written warning will be issued; upon third offense, the agreement in its entirety may be voided upon request.
1 - Standard hugs are permitted once per month. The requesting party must provide 24 hours notice of intent, unless permission is obtained from the second party to engage with shorter notice.
2 - Extended hugs are permitted thrice twice per semester. The requesting party must provide 48 hours notice of intent, unless permission is obtained from the second party to engage with shorter notice.
3 - High-fives are permitted in cases of achievement. There is no limit in overall quantity nor frequency, however either party reserves the right to veto the request in the event of an insufficient level of achievement.
4 - Party B (Enid Sinclair) may choose between either (a) one reciprocated manicure per semester, or (b) one hair brush and style of party A (Wednesday Addams) by party B per semester. One week’s written notice must be given and selection of requested event must be stated within the request. Both parties must agree to a date and time but must be within two weeks of the original notice of intent.
5 - Coincidental touch will not be penalized. Practical touch is permitted. (From supplemental section C: For the purpose of this agreement, practical touch is defined by any physical contact not initiated for affection and which seeks to serve a logical goal. Appropriate examples include but are not limited to: taps to one’s shoulder to gain necessary attention, stabilizing force upon loss or suspected impeding loss of balance, actions to assist in one’s passage of a physical obstacle such as pulling one from a viper pit by the hands, and assistance in dressing wounds.)
6 - Either party may engage in any of the following instances of physical contact at their discretion, but no more than once per day: hand-shake, shoulder bump, shoulder squeeze, or hand squeeze.
7 - In the event of sudden trauma or emotional defeat, physical comfort may be requested, with appropriate affection to be decided upon by the comfort giver, though the comfort receiver reserves the right to discard affectionate acts deemed unwanted.
8 - One “sleep over” per semester is permitted. (From supplemental section F: “Sleep over” is defined as any full night in which either party stays in the other’s bed during sleeping hours. Minimal contact during sleep should be maintained to the best of one’s ability.)
9 - Five hours of hand-holding per semester. This time may be divided in any manner of occasions and individual timeframes. No advance notice is required, however, either party may institute a rain check which shall be granted within 72 hours and must last for the requested duration provided it does not exceed one hour.
10 - Movie nights shall occur on the first Friday night of every month throughout the academic calendar. No intentional contact is permitted during standard months. On months of midterms or finals, minor contact shall be acceptable provided it is in the form of (a) the two parties sitting adjacent with minimal arm and leg contact, (b) head resting upon shoulder, and (c) hand-holding (reserved only for horror movies selected by party A that party B deems to be “too scary” - time shall not be deducted from the total five hour discretionary allotment).
11 - In the event party A is the subject of a vision, party B may engage in whatever physical contact is necessary to prevent bodily injury or death to party A. Once party A is in a position of safety, party B must disengage with contact.
12 - In the event of any other immediate danger, necessary physical contact may be appropriate and shall be enacted to ensure minimal bodily harm or death. Upon danger transitioning from immediate to otherwise, contact should desist.
13 - Party B is permitted one additional act of physical affection of her choosing per semester and upon her birthday. One week’s written notice must be provided and the selected physical contact must be stated. Party A reserves the right to veto the requested date, time, and place but must make herself available within a time period no more than 72 hours prior to or after the requested date and time. Additionally, party A must provide a suitable alternative location in the event of veto. Finally, party A may veto the chosen physical affection and party B must provide an alternative. If the alternative is not preferable, party A may suggest her own alternative. If this is deemed insufficient by party B, one of the original two requests must be honored or a penalty shall be enacted (see supplemental section B).
Any physical contact outside the above is permitted with verbal permission and any deviation from such shall be considered a violation of the agreement and will be treated as an offense with the appropriate action following the earlier specifications.
With a cursory glance, Enid added her signature to the bottom and added the date for good measure.
In the month that followed, Enid did well to abide by the rules. In kind, Wednesday upheld her part and put up no resistance to their agreed contact. In fact, not a single mistake was made until five weeks in, and surprisingly, Enid wasn’t the one to make it.
Doom and gloom from the moment she woke up, Enid had been less than thrilled. Wednesday had almost smiled. Half way to her first class, she’d been splashed by mud, an extra annoyance given the slow nature of the school laundry. Lunch had been sloppy joes, or at least it should have been but instead it was some mystery slop that looked a lot more offensive than the already visually unappetizing but expected sloppy joe. It smelt even worse. Enid had managed two whole bites before pushing it as far from her person as possible. Wednesday had spooned hers into a metal thermos with the promise that she’d make use of it to poison Pugsley. Hungry, muddy, and stressed over a freshly assigned essay, she’d stormed back into their room after her last class, intent on slipping into the softest fit she could assemble and burying herself in ten layers of blankets to scroll through insta.
Wednesday followed in her stead three minutes later, just in time to watch Enid loose her shit at the mud she found caked into the back of her hair. The new purple she’d added in the back must have concealed it. At least no one knew that she’d wandered around all day like that.
“Why do you sound like someone just failed to carry out an anticipated murder?”
She turned to face Wednesday, standing in the doorway of their shared bathroom. “Huh?”
“You sound displeased.”
Well no shit. Displeased didn’t do justice to her billowing frustration. The whole day had been utter shit. “Eric splashed me with mud this morning and I just realized its in my hair. Gonna take me like a whole freakin’ hour to get it out now.”
Wednesday slipped further into the room until she was close enough to inspect said afflicted hair. She hummed in agreement. “Eric - is that the boy that looks like a disgruntled weasel, the one who smells like sour fruit and self-disgust?”
“Uh, sure.” Fuck if she knew. He looked “weasel-y” enough she guessed.
“I see.” Wednesday quickly turned and left the room. Enid busied herself trying to pick the dried mud from her locks, only to sigh in defeat when she realized she’d likely have to shower for the second time today to get it out. So much for her hair washing routine. The unmistakable sound of Wednesday’s weapons trunk scraping across the wood floor caught her attention. “Nope! Wednesday, no. Please don’t do whatever it is you’re about to do,” she shouted out into their room. Her comb got stuck and she had to stop herself from screaming out loud. “Just like, chill please. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Wednesday reappeared holding a mace in one hand and three daggers in the other, looking rather unimpressed. “Actions have consequences, Enid.”
“Put. The. Weapons. Away.”
She tugged one more time, only serving to further tangle the tines in her hair. “Fucking hell,” she muttered to herself, burying her face in her hands.
A hand pulled at her arm, turning and pushing her until she found herself sitting on the side of their tub, Wednesday staring down at her. A simple twist of a finger and Enid was obeying, turning until her feet sat in the tub, her back to Wednesday.
They didn’t talk. It could have been an awkward twenty minutes but instead Enid found it to be soothing. She’d had a stupid shit day, and all she wanted was to relax. This may not be how she envisioned it, but she’d certainly take it. Wednesday had been gentle, carefully combing through the little knots and tangles formed by hardened mud. She’d carefully cleaned the afflicted area with a moistened cloth. And then she just stood there, hands lightly pressed to the tops of Enid’s shoulders, for almost a minute, before finally giving her the all clear and helping her out of the tub.
In the end, Enid got her mindless social media PJ lazing, sans mud. She’d also gotten a stomach full of butterflies and the realization that Wednesday had been the first to break a rule. Even if it was to benefit her. Still - she hadn’t followed proper procedure and for Wednesday, that was… unexpected.
Two weeks later, Wednesday broke another rule. Movie night. One of the things Enid had been most excited to implement. Wednesday had let her pick - opting for romantic comedy she’d been meaning to see for ages. It had turned out to be kinda bland, but not completely unwatchable. Well, Wednesday might disagree. She’d complained for the first six straight minutes until Enid scolded her. She’d dutifully kept her mouth shut after that and watched the movie. All was well until just over an hour in when Enid felt a weight start to push into her. Wednesday’s eyes were closed, lips just barely parted. Her arms were still crossed firmly, but her posture had slipped and sagged until her sleeping form had slumped right up against Enid’s shoulder. It wasn’t midterms or finals so technically this was a no-contact movie night, but Enid wasn’t about to wake someone up for something she didn’t care about. So she let Wednesday sleep until the credits rolled. A foggy voice made some sort of sound within the range of human hearing, which Enid took as sign enough that she’d alerted her roommate, and slipped out from under the barely conscious body in favor of her own bed. She made a note to pick similar films for future movie nights and tried not to question why she wanted to watch something so underwhelming again.
Enid’s first rule break came only three days later. In a state of excitement - an unexpectedly high score on a pop quiz - she’d rushed back to their dorm room and nearly run Wednesday into the floor as she slammed into her friend attempting to leave their room. In an effort to prevent such an event, she’d grabbed Wednesday by the shoulders to right her. In and of itself, permitted physical contact, but her hands had betrayed her and held on, shaking gently at the shoulders in her grasp as she spit her news out with all the excitement of a golden retriever. Wednesday had merely eyed the hands clinging to her shoulders, but chose not to comment. Enid brushed it off as not meaningful, still too excited about the score to give too much thought to it.
The next violation once again came from Wednesday. What was that saying? Three is a pattern? Enid couldn’t remember exactly but it was curious. She’d opted for the mani this semester and with the spring equinox approaching, and thus the Ostara ball, it was the perfect time to get her claws looking fresh. They’d made it through the majority of their manicures without incident until it came time to paint their nails. Wednesday had of course chosen her signature black, steadfastly swerving straight past the glittered black Enid had gotten for Thing last semester and instead settling on a new matte-dry pick. She had done her best but her hair had kept slipping past her ears and into her face. After three such events causing mistakes, Wednesday had wordlessly reached up and tucked her hair back in place for her. Enid had stilled and looked up. Wednesday merely shrugged and spat out ‘it’s practical’ before looking away. Enid, now full of nervous energy, had returned to her task only for the hair to slip free once again and for Wednesday to repeat the action. After yet another instance, Wednesday had sighed loudly and with her yet unpolished nails, pulled a hair tie from the end of a braid, and with significant effort, managed to tie her hair back with just the one hand. Enid didn’t look up, not even sure she trusted herself to. Instead she dutifully finished her part and hastily shoved the bottle onto her side table the second she was done.
Wednesday had gotten up to let her nails dry before painting Enid’s, a reprieve Enid was especially grateful for. She needed a second to get her cheeks to stop burning and all that proximity and body heat was NOT helping.
Twenty minutes later, Wednesday returned to her spot at the edge of Enid’s bed and grabbed for a hand, placing it assertively on her knee. Enid tried not to think about how much she wished she could leave her hand there all night. The first hand went smoothly, but after Thing returned to the room unexpectedly and poked at her side, a long streak of bright pink paint had left a train from thumb to wrist thanks to the totally normal amount she’d jumped. Anyone would have startled like that. They totally would have screamed like she had too. For sure. Wednesday had merely huffed and snatched Enid’s hand back. A cotton ball moistened with nail polish remover had done most of the work, but a bit of paint lurked in the crease of her knuckle. Wednesday clearly found it to be unacceptable as she brought a thumb of her own to her mouth, wetting it with a bit of saliva and using it to scratch the rest of the polish free. Enid just sat there in shock as her hand was brought up for Wednesday to blow lightly at, drying the bit of remaining moisture. If Enid had a minor heart attack throughout the remaining of her manicure, no she didn’t.
If three was a pattern, then four was definitely… a bigger pattern? Whatever. It was Something. And Something couldn’t just keep happening. Right? Right. She had to say something. Especially after THIS.
They’d built a fort. Midterms had been hell and Enid had been stressssssed. Wednesday, despite her intelligence and intensity, had clearly not enjoyed the testing period either. Something about a history paper that had received a less than satisfactory response. According to her, ‘criticism was a necessity, but some people are too stupid for their own good and should refrain from remarking on subjects in which they carried inferior knowledge’. Induced by stress, movie night had turned into pillow fort movie night. Yay. (The yay was more for Enid’s very narrow success in convincing Wednesday their fort did not in fact need weaponry or land mines sourced by Pugsley.) In and of itself, a fun and cozy end to a long and exhausting week. Wednesday’s movie selection left much to be desired though. Far too gory, and certain to haunt Enid’s dreams for at least the next ten years. Dutiful as always, Wednesday had promptly offered up her hand for Enid to take the moment she first flinched away from the screen. She’d taken that proffered hand and nearly crushed it for the next hour and a half.
Eventually the movie ended and Wednesday had climbed free. Enid, however, felt a lot more safe in the admittedly penetrable fort than she did exposed out in the open of her bed. Wednesday moved to begin the task of dismantling the fort but Enid’s heart lept and she found herself spitting out “Wait”.
She didn’t respond, but her hands stilled, glancing inquisitively down at Enid.
“Sorry, it’s just… that movie kinda freaked me out. I think maybe I’ll just stay here tonight, if that’s okay. Do you need any of this for your bed?”
Wednesday nodded quickly, pulling her hands behind her back in a show that she would respect Enid’s wish and leave the fort in place. Instead of moving though, she just stood there, staring off to the side looking almost pained.
“Wednesday?”
“Would you prefer to hold our sleep over tonight?” Wednesday finally looked back down at her. “We could host it in here, if that would help?”
Her heart lept so far up her throat she thought she might choke on it. “Oh, um, if you wouldn’t mind? That would actually be really helpful.”
Wednesday simply nodded once before excusing herself to finish up her nightly routine.
As she returned, she switched off the lights until Enid found herself in darkness. Wednesday climbed back into the fort and retook her place at Enid’s side before promptly laying down and muttering ‘goodnight’, stilling instantly. Enid tried to get comfortable, and while physically speaking the fort was like floating in a cloud, she was still freaked the fuck out and Wednesday’s corpse-like sleeping position did not exactly lighten the vibe up. She rolled over, facing away from her friend and closing her eyes tight. Every little sound raised the hairs on her arms and sent her blood pressure soaring. She shuffled back a bit until her back was pressed into Wednesday’s arm. Minimal comfort but anything was better than nothing.
“Enid.”
She froze, shit, right. No touching. “Sorry.” She scooted forward again, just enough to where there was no direct contact but still the faint heat curling up her spine from Wednesday’s body.
Ten more minutes of swiveling around to source a sound, of staring out into the dark, of trying to refrain from asking Wednesday ‘what was that’ before the person in question got impatient and finally asked, “Enid, why must you move so much? Do you really expect me to sleep through this cacophony?”
“Sorry. Sorry. I’m just really unnerved after that movie. I’ll try to stop moving so much.”
She could almost hear the way Wednesday must have been rolling her eyes. But the frustration came and went and was just as quickly replaced with whatever it was that made her turn around and scoot up until she was pressed delicately against Enid’s back, legs curling up to slot in just behind hers, arm draping lightly around her middle, breath ghosting the back of her neck as she whispered, “will you shut up and go to sleep now?”
She had nodded yes. She even held her end of that bargain. Sleep came quick and instead of dreaming of monsters and death, she dreamt of her cheek resting against ink black hair, of soft breaths misting her arm, of firm fingers digging just barely into fabric of her sleep shirt. She’d awoken to find just that. Wednesday had awoken not much later and instead of making quick work detangling their limbs, she’d lifted her head enough to gaze grumpily at Enid, muttered out a raspy ‘go back to sleep’, and buried her face back in to Enid’s neck. Wednesday slept another hour and a half. Enid didn’t. Enid panicked instead.
“Hey, Wends?”
The clicking of the typewriter paused before resuming for six more seconds and coming to a stop again.
“What is it, Enid? It’s my writing time.”
She shifted uncomfortably. She hadn’t intended to interrupt but her anxiety had finally reared back and slammed into her with as much force as Wednesday’s fencing strikes. “Sorry, I know. Um, I just…” Wednesday turned around in her chair until she was staring unimpressed right at Enid. When her sentence hung in the air around them so long it drifted into the ether, Wednesday gave her a pointed look. “Why do you keep breaking the rules?” It came out a lot harsher than she intended.
“My apologies, Enid. I will refrain from such deviations from her on out.” Wednesday blinked. “If you wish to issue a formal complaint or penalty, that is your right.”
“What? No. That’s not it. I don’t have a problem with it, just…” Just it was starting to kill her and she was emotionally unprepared for just how much she was starting to count on these occurrences. It was getting dangerous. “I just don’t understand why.”
“I see.” Wednesday took her time, clearly considering her words carefully. “I’ve found that the boundaries I had insisted upon are no longer necessary. At least not in its strictest form. Despite my intention to dispel of such limiting emotional weaknesses, I’ve come to realize that my feelings for you extend past platonic.”
‘Past platonic’, so like what exactly? A crush? Is that what she was saying? If it was dangerous before, then this was outright lethal. This sort of hope? A miscommunication at this level would be fatal. “Wednesday, what do you mean, exactly?”
Wednesday blinked again. “I have developed a romantic attraction to you. While I no longer wish to remain in a singularly platonic relationship, I, of course, will do so if you do not wish to engage in a courtship with me.”
Enid’s brain blue screened. Was it a catastrophic fan failure? Did something short out? Was the RAM fucked? She didn’t know but something was obviously broken because she couldn’t think. “What?” When she only got back a frustrated stare, she realized that, holy shit, she was serious and she better reply before Wednesday changed her mind. “Wait, sorry. I just. I’m surprised is all. Like really surprised.” She rubbed at her face to give herself a minute. “You want to court me?”
“Yes. If that is agreeable to you. I can have the family attorney send over the documents I drafted up last week in the event that a courtship began. You of course should send it along to your lawyer and make any revisions you feel is necessary.”
Putting aside the way the butterflies in her stomach were having a full blown rave, Enid was simply confused. What was this? A business deal? Was this some real estate venture? “Can we maybe not do all that? We don’t need a contract, Wends. If you want to write down your boundaries for me then that is fine, but I don’t really thing that is all necessary. I mean, we did fine with this, didn’t we?”
“No.” No? What? She was getting more confused now. It was her turn to send an exasperated look. “Don’t give me that look. The whole reason we are even having this discussion is because the rules were broken.”
Enid couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Yeah, by you, silly. And frankly, I don’t care. Those rules were mostly for your benefit, Wednesday. I know you are more touch averse than I am, and you know that as well. And that is okay. But I trust that when I set my own boundaries you will take care not to cross them, and if you do I trust that it won’t be intentional and you will listen when I tell you I’m not comfortable with something.” She smiled gently at her. “I can only promise you the same. I might mess up sometimes, but it will never be intentional and I would never push for you to do anything you don’t want. Why don’t we talk through this all first and see. If you feel you’d still like something written up then we can discuss that then. But no contracts. If we are going to date, or court, or whatever, then I don’t want to feel like it’s some sort of business deal.”
Wednesday sat for a moment before rising from her chair and walking over to Enid’s bed. She held both hands out towards her and Enid took them, letting herself be pulled upright. Small arms wrapped around her, Wednesday’s head burying into her neck. “That sounds logical. Does this mean you will let me court you?”
She pulled Wednesday further into the hug, closing her eyes to saver the moment. “At this point I’d let you do anything you wanted with me.”
Wednesday pulled back and held her at arm’s length, staring her directly in the eyes. Enid flushed, realizing how what had been intended as something rather innocent, sounded so… not. “Hmm, enticing. Perhaps I’ll take you up on that at a later time.” And then Wednesday did the unthinkable. She winked.
Enid stood affixed to the spot as Wednesday turned as she walked back over to her desk.
“Does this mean I get to hug you more now?”
Wednesday sat down in her chair and replied. “Yes. I think it’s only appropriate and desirable that we remove any restriction on hugging. Now, if you don’t mind, it’s still my writing time so shhh.”
Enid flopped back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling, half stunned, half elated, half nervous ball of energy. If that didn’t quite add up, well, she had never been very good at math but who cared? She was dating Wednesday Addams and nothing could ruin that.
“Thing, please add cockroaches to my shopping list, special occasions and all,” Wednesday asked as she swapped in a new sheet of paper.
Well, maybe something could ruin it. But honestly, not really. Let her have her cockroaches. They could come on their first date for all she cared.