Compass | Xavier & Wednesday

Chapter Seventeen - Memories

Snow fell as Christmas drew nearer.

Xavier had fit right in, Morticia claiming he was just like Gomez when he was young. Gomez simply still in shock someone had managed to warm his daughters heart.

Immediately they had invited him to spend the summer, claiming he was already part of the family. Xavier's smile at those words made her immediately certain of her decision.

Pugsly had become pretty much inseparable from Xavier, dragging him nearly everywhere with him. Wednesday had to threaten him with more torture if she wanted a minute with her boyfriend alone.

As for Wednesday? She found herself falling for Xavier more and more with every day. Her parents had allowed them to both stay in Wednesday room. 

As horrifying and painful as it was to admit, she wasn't prepared to go back to Nevermore and be forced to sleep without his arms around her.

With each passing day, Christmas drew nearer. Her mother had always made a huge deal of it but she'd never really cared for it. That was until Xavier told her he'd never had a proper Christmas let alone holiday season.

That day she dragged him out to go cut down a tree. She didn't even breathe a word of how much she despised the holidays or explain how ludicrous she found all the traditions.

Later that day, when she had seen his smile as he admired their decorated tree, her hatred of the holidays immediately disappeared. His eyes shone due to the christmas lights, his dimples as pronounced as always.

Wednesday felt her stomach do a backflip as she admired him. It would be stupid to ignore his beauty.

They stood there in silence for a while, Wednesday slowly feeling her annoyance at the holidays dissipate and Xavier standing in awe.

"This is the first time I've had a tree since my mom died." Xavier said quietly, his eyes fixated on the tree before him.

Wednesday froze. It was the first time he'd spoken of his mom and she was unsure how to respond. She wasn't good with emotions, let alone something like this.

"What else did she used to do?" Wednesday asked after a moment of silence. She scanned his face, trying to gage his reaction. Unsure if she said the wrong thing.

She knew grief was a tricky thing, hard to navigate when you haven't had experience with it. Even if you had it varies so much from person to person.

Xavier smiled, "she used to always make me watch christmas movies every week leading up to christmas. On christmas day she always would bring me on a walk in the snow and we'd build a snowman."

Wednesday took his hand, squeezing it softly. Letting him continue to talk about his mom. She could tell it had been a very long time since he'd gotten the opportunity to talk about this.

Xavier told her all about the small things his mom used to do, completely having strayed from just Christmas. He started talking about his birthdays and his day to day life.

She listened intently she liked hearing about his life. She wanted to learn every small detail there was to know about him, to study him as to perfect the art of understanding him.

After a while he stopped talking, silence consuming both of them and then added, "you know. My dad wasn't that bad before my mom died. I think her death just broke him, people don't realize how grief entirely changes a person."

Xavier paused for a second after that, seemingly  deeply thinking through what he was going to say next. "I understand it though. To an extent. I don't think I would ever recover after losing you." He rested his hand on her cheek, his thumb rubbing circles into her skin.

Wednesday considered his words. playing them over and over again in her head, she imagined if he were to have died that day with Crackstone, if she hadn't taken that arrow and her heart sunk. "I do believe I'd break if I were to lose you." She said slowly, her eyes never leaving his.  She meant every word.

He kissed her softly, she immediately pulled him back in for more. His touch was addicting. When he was close she only wanted more. It was like poison, the good kind.

It honestly made sense it was Xavier Thorpe who turned her soft, he'd always been her undoing. From the first day they met when she'd decided to save his life, the relief she'd felt when she'd seen he was okay was something she'd never felt before.

All along Wednesday Addams had cared, she just hadn't understood or wanted to admit she did. There was a reason she had always been drawn to him last year, and it wasn't suspicion.

After their talk just now Wednesday felt it was a necessity to find him the perfect gift. She'd simply be a failure of a girlfriend if she did not.

She'd never been strong at gift giving however. One year she'd given puglsy a dead bird to practice dissection on for Christmas and he didn't speak to her for a whole day.

As soon as he fell asleep that night she freed herself from his arms and quietly got to work. She was unsure how to encompass all he meant to her and all her newly realized feelings into something so small.

Ideas and thoughts were swirling through her head relentlessly and she struggled to sort them. Memories of her and Xavier were endless in her mind, she found it impossible to pick one.

When he saved her life for the first time? His smile when she asked him to the Rave'n? Him coming back to help her after she'd landed him in jail? The way he never gave up on her once?

It was only then that she realized Xavier had been in love with her all along. He'd just been waiting for her.

Everything clicked and she picked up a paint brush and got to work.

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sorry for the delay! had a lot happen in my personal life and had to sort it out. love u all and thank u endlessly for the support <3