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Wednesday sighed as she walked down one of Nevermore’s many forest paths. She’d decided to be a little ‘whimsical’ for once and enjoy the beautiful day.
The world around her flashed for a moment as a bolt of lightning cracked through the sky, glinting off of the fat drops of rain that fell in buckets from above.
She allowed one corner of her lip to rise; just a little.
Reminds me of home.
Her nostalgic musings were interrupted by a faint sound just loud enough to be heard over the rain splattering against the ground. Wednesday paused, considering the noise.
That sounded like a whimper. Could be an animal in distress.
Or it could be my stalker finally trying to lure me to my doom!
She crossed her fingers, hoping it was the latter, and strolled boldly off the path and between the trees.
Even with the trees helping to block the best of the rain it took her several minutes to narrow down the source of the whines; a decrepit fallen log concealing a hollowed space beneath it.
Wednesday knelt in the mud and detritus and peered into the shadowy hole, freezing when something within made a rustling sound.
Found you, she thought triumphantly, digging in her pocket for a small flashlight. She flicked it on, pointed it towards the opening–
–and was immediately disappointed in what she found.
Huddling in a tiny shivering lump at the back of the small space was a puppy. Some sort of labrador if Wednesday wasn’t mistaken.
“Well. This was a waste,” she drolled, looking into surprisingly big blue eyes. The surprises continued as the puppy yipped at her and made like it was going to move towards her but tumbled out instead, winding up wiggling on the ground outside of the log.
Wednesday raised a brow— such a clumsy little creature —before realizing what had made the small animal trip.
Twisted between its legs was a strip of cloth, tangled in such a way that the puppy would be incapable of walking on its own.
“Looks like you’re even more doomed than I thought,” she said, contemplating the still whimpering pile of fur. It looked like it could be big enough to be away from its mother— though not by much —but the odds of it surviving in the woods by itself were already low without the additional handicap.
Not to mention the full moon was only days away. She wondered if any of her classmates partook in tearing apart small animals while wolfed out. Enid was surprisingly vague about what occurred during her outings with the other werewolves.
She shook the musings out of her head and refocused on the situation at hand. The puppy was probably going to die, especially while partially tied up.
Really she should leave it be and let nature take its course.
Unbidden, Enid’s face popped into her mind. An annoying proximation of her voice trilled through her head, saying, ‘Oh come on, Wends! You can’t just leave the poor little guy like this! At least help him out so he has a better fighting chance!’
Wednesday growled. ... Damn that girl and her cheerfully insidious influence.
...
The goth looked around, double checking that no one else was around before flicking out her knife and deftly removed the strip of cloth from around the puppy’s legs.
“There. Your chance of living has increased by three percent. You’re welcome.” Waste of my time, she stood up grumbling, before eyeing the fabric in her hand curiously. No longer bunched up she realized it was a sock.
More shockingly, it was a sock she recognized.
Afterall, who else besides her insanely tacky roommate would dare to wear a pink sock dotted with avocados of all things?
“Now where did you get this?” she asked the pup, who had finally managed to roll up onto its feet with another yip, tail wagging slightly. Idiot beast.
Wednesday frowned, trying to recall the last time she had seen Enid wear this particular pair of socks. She was unreasonably fond of them, so surely the goth would have noticed if she had started lamenting that she’d lost them.
She swore she’d seen them on the blonde’s feet since the last full moon, so it's doubtful Enid lost it during her monthly outing. So then how...
“Arp!” The tiny animal yipped, almost jumping onto her shins. Wednesday scowled and took a step back.
“Be quiet,” she ordered, perplexed when the sound of her voice seemed to make the puppy’s tail wag even harder, its whole being now nearly vibrating. It almost reminded her of–
Wednesday froze.
She looked between the puppy and the sock again. She recalled how earlier in the week some upperclassmen had been loudly gushing that their hex class was going to teach them how to do a new type of spell.
Transformation spells.
No. Absolutely not. It’s highly improbable.
...
Then again so is my joining a school in time to be a blood moon sacrifice for a genocidal bitch and her little hyde.
... And Grandmama has bragged multiple times about when she once turned Uncle Fester into a newt...
Wednesday looked down at the pup again. ...She couldn’t believe she was contemplating this.
“...Enid?”
The puppy barked again, its tiny tongue lolling out between grinning white teeth.
“Hm.”
On the one hand, if this was Enid, then Wednesday couldn’t just leave her out here alone. Especially when it seemed whatever spell had been cast on her had affected her mind as well as her body.
On the other hand, if this turned out to be a normal mongrel then Wednesday would never live the humiliation down. Saving a puppy was bad enough; saving a puppy she mistakenly thought was her roommate? She might as well start dressing in pink as well for all that her reputation would be shot.
...On a third, Thing-looking hand; if Enid ever found out that she found a helpless puppy in the woods and then just left it there–
The puppy whined, trying to jump on her shin again until she grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and lifted it up to her eye level.
Ah. It’s a girl. ...Another point for the ‘possibly Enid’ column.
The rain-soaked pup looked at her pathetically and let out another small whine.
She stared at it.
It stared back.
“...”
“...Arr?”
“... This is why I don’t do whimsy.”
Getting the pup back to the school proved easy enough; her ‘fellow classmates’ had no appreciation for the weather it seemed. It also helped that the puppy seemed content to— she felt her face twitch with a sneer — snuggle into what little warmth existed in Wednesday's body as she held it in the crook of one arm while her other used her umbrella as a shield from possible prying eyes.
No, the difficulties truly began once she made it to Ophelia Hall. Several students were lounging around and so Wednesday was forced to tuck the urchin under her coat and hope for the best.
They almost got caught— twice —but fortunately Wednesday’s glare was enough to make people turn and carry on with some suddenly very important business elsewhere.
She was so relieved to close her dorm door behind her that Wednesday actually sighed out loud. The puppy wiggled and popped its— her —head out of the goth’s jacket with a curious yip. She could feel a tail smacking into her ribs lightly.
She had so many regrets.
The snapping of fingers called her attention to her desk, finding Thing twitching his fingers at her.
“No, Thing, I did not have a good walk,” Wednesday glowered lightly as she dug the tiny creature out of her jacket and plopped it onto the floor unceremoniously. “Have you seen Enid?” Please say yes.
She frowned when he signed a definite ‘no’; there went instant proof that the small shivering mound of fur currently looking up at her with its big eyes was not, in fact, her roommate in a form that better equaled her personality.
Thing gestured to the pup.
“Apparently I have spent too long in bad company; it’s making me–” her face twitched, “– soft. ”
More gesturing; how a hand could manage to convey an emotion like disbelief was sadly one of the few things beyond Wednesday’s comprehension.
“ No, I am not going to kill it. ...Not yet anyway.” Especially since there is a non-zero probability that this was Enid.
The duo’s attention snapped back to the puppy as it let out a little sneeze before shaking itself, splattering tiny drops of water and mud in a small radius around it.
“...I do suppose I will have to give the little vermin a bath; if only to relieve us of its stench.”
One bath, a wardrobe change, and a non-consensual game of tug of war with one of her socks later, and the thrice damn beast had finally curled up for a nap on one of Enid’s horrific blankets. She could hear its quiet sleepy snuffles from under her desk while Wednesday sat above it and scoured through a ‘borrowed’ textbook, trying to determine how long it took for spells like this to wear off.
The door opened and Wednesday called out without looking, “Did you manage to find any kibble?”
However instead of the patter of fingers on floorboards she was expected, her ears were greeted with–
“I don’t eat kibble, Wends, ” Enid’s voice snarked, making the goth’s head snap up. Sure enough, her very much human-shaped roommate was closing the door behind her, shopping bags in hand as she moved further into the room.
Well; that a waste of an afternoon writer session, Wednesday pouted, closing the book with a snap and a slight ‘hmph’.
“Where have you been?” she asked, annoyed at what her life had become; a comedy.
“Shopping with Yoko?” Enid called as she began extracting a plethora of colorful clothes from her bags. “I texted you earlier, didn’t you get it?”
Wednesday’s eye wandered to the black rectangle that had unfortunately taken up residence by her bed. Her brow twitched as she realized that not only had she left it behind earlier, but it hadn’t even occurred to her to just call Enid and see if she answered or not.
“I did not,” she ground out.
Her brooding and the blonde’s shuffling was interrupted by a small ‘arp’.
“What was that?” Enid asked, twisting around towards Wednesday’s side.
“What was what?” the goth shot back even as she heard tiny claws clacking against the floor.
Oh no...
Three.
Two.
On–
“ EEee! Is that a puppy?! ” the wolf squealed, very loudly.
“No, it’s clearly a black caiman,” Wednesday deadpanned as the two blonde puppies met each other in the middle of the room, both apparently very eager to meet the other.
“Hewwo, sweetheart~!”
“Oh dear Lucifer, take me now, ” she grumbled, eyes squeezed shut in pain.
“You can’t complain if you’re the one who brought– ... her in here!” Enid grinned, already cuddling with the tiny beast. “You did bring her here, right?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you even find her– aw, are you giving me kisses?! ”
“She ruined a perfectly good walk in the woods earlier,” Wednesday explained, arms crossed as she watched the two play on the floor. “Her odds of survival were barely north of zero, so–”
“–So you saved her?! Oh, Wends, I’m so proud of you!”
“I’m hoping she’ll turn out to have rabies, actually. Things have been too quiet around here lately. If not, well; Kemmler could always use a new ‘friend’.” She gestured to the taxidermied squirrel she had posed in a model electric chair. Enid gasped and dragged the puppy even closer to her chest.
“Wednesday Friday Addams, you will do no such thing!”
“... How do you know– ”
“So what’s her name?”
“Her na– we are not keeping that thing!”
“Why not?! ” Enid whined, already pouting and trying to make her eyes look big and watery. The damn puppy tried to copy her.
“Pets are not allowed in Ophelia Hall.”
“Tch, since when have you ever cared about rules?”
Damn. “I am not taking care of that creature!”
“Smells like you already did?” the blonde grinned, making a show of sniffing the puppy’s head. “Wait– did you use my shampoo?”
“If it’s good enough for a wolf–”
“– And! You thought I was Thing earlier, didn’t you!” she pointed a finger at Wednesday accusingly. “ You sent him to find ‘kibble’ for her! Admit it!”
Double-no, triple damn.
“ Enid– ”
“ Wednes~day! ”
“...”
“...”
“...We are not naming her some frou-frou nonsense.”
“But we are naming her, right?” Enid grinned.
“Hrm.”
“Yay! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” the wolf squealed again, leaping up and into Wednesday’s personal space faster than she could blink. She pressed a kiss to the top of the goth’s head before bouncing back to her colored side of the room, puppy yipping happily all the while.
Wednesday blinked, turned to face her desk and allowed her head to fall against it with a ‘thunk’.
What is my life coming to?!