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softquietsteadylove · 1 month

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Would you continue the Addams Family au?

"Thena?" Gil whispered in his family's expansive home library. He didn't receive a reply, but he should have known he would lose her to his family collection.

He had shown her around the manor as soon as she and her father arrived. Their fathers went to talk business and he was entrusted with her. So, like normal, he had taken her hand and led her away from the business talk and to show her around their home.

The library was only the third stop on their tour, counting just looking out the windows of the grand hall, but she had laid her eyes on all the books they had and excitedly asked if they could explore it.

How could he say no to that?

She looked so cute and enthused and he rarely got to see that sparkle in her eye with both her parents breathing down her neck. He was happy to encourage her, even if it meant potentially never finding her again in the labyrinthine shelves.

"Thena," he whispered again, walking slowly in case she was crouched down behind a stack waiting to be re-shelved. "Are you still in here?"

"Gil?"

He poked his head around a corner and found several piles of books, all several tomes high but arranged very neatly in their respective stacks. He chuckled, "find some stuff you like."

Thena immediately turned contrite, and maybe a little flustered. She looked down at her piles from up on the ladder. "I-I'm sorry, perhaps I have let myself get carried away."

"Hey, don't let me stop you," Gil said gently as he came to the base of the ladder. He both held it steady and averted his eyes as she scurried down in her white dress. He chuckled down at the black and white floor tiles, "someone should read them--might as well be you."

Thena offered her thanks silently in her expression, which he was used to. But she looked down at the books she had pulled out for herself and even hugged the one she was holding to her chest. "I can't possibly take them with me. Even if you say so, Father would be mortified at the idea of me taking such liberties."

Gil made a face, rolling his eyes only while Thena wasn't looking at him. Her father was a real pain in the ass sometimes. "Hey."

"Hm," Thena blinked as he started picking up one of the stacks in his hands. "Gil?"

"Let's just make you a shelf of your own," he suggested, balancing the books in his hands as he walked somewhat blindly to where there were still a few empty shelves in the back corner. "Then you can save all the ones you want to read and borrow them a little at a time."

"Truly?" Thena inquired behind him. He heard a few covers thunking around and finally turned. Much to his relief, Thena had about a half a stack in her more delicate hands, hurrying to follow him.

"Yeah," he laughed at how baffled she was that he would let her borrow some books that were just collecting dust. "I don't spend much time in here, really. These shelves are actually mine. Ma thought it would encourage me or whatever."

Gil set the stack down on the floor first rather than try to angle and cram them all onto the shelf at once. For the most part, he wouldn't really care if they fell or got damaged, but if Thena wanted to take them home with her then he could at least treat them with a little respect.

"Thank you," she said quietly, keeping her eyes forward as she also shelved the books she had brought with her, even shuffling them around the ones he put up to alphabetize them in real time.

He smiled as the backs of their hands brushed, although Thena was quick to retreat from it. "Any time, Thena. You're welcome to anything and everything here."

"That is a generous," she laughed faintly, "and dare I say unrealistic invitation."

"Maybe," he sighed. As much as his wildest dreams could be of him gallantly suggesting they run away together from both their families' strict rules, it simply wasn't an option. "But so long as you're with me, I mean it."

"That's sweet."

With no more books in hand to shelf, Gil looked over at her. She clasped her hands in front of her again. It was natural for her to totally clam up, he was coming to learn the more time he spent with her. It was a shame, though--like a beautiful flower that could only bloom by itself.

Or something poetic like that.

"Father is excited to discuss their railway negotiations," she murmured, returning to the safer topic of their fathers' shared business interests. She returned to her piles, picking up a few more books for herself.

Gil sighed as he picked up another full stack. But he didn't expect her to suddenly be able to view her father in a new light after living directly under his thumb all her life. "Yeah, Pop is all giddy at the thought of your dad using it to ship his building stuff?"

"Indeed."

The two fell into silence again, only the sounds of the books on the shelves filling in the air between them. They hadn't struggled to speak much before now, but he was struggling to think of something just as much as she was.

He had tried flirting with her before. And while she hadn't gotten mad at him for it, he wasn't really sure if she wanted to go down that road again, either.

He looked over as Thena cleared her throat faintly. She was determinedly looking at each book spine as she arranged them. "Do you have a favourite?"

"Book?" he asked, and then immediately felt dumb with the weight of a particularly thick one right in his hand. He also looked at the shelf, feeling the back of his neck grow warm. "Uh, kind of. It's a little embarrassing, though."

"What could possibly be embarrassing about it?" Thena asked, her curiosity beating whatever tentativeness she had.

"Well," he sighed, knowing that as soon as she asked, she was going to get the honest answer anyway. He looked upward, feeling the back of his shirt and suit jacket against the heat in his skin. "I was a kid."

"My aunt wasn't really the type to play with me much, but whenever she visited, she would read me whatever story I wanted. I had adventure books about pirates and knights and stuff. But one that was her favourite was about this lonely woman."

"Oh?" Thena leaned closer.

"She lives outside of town, all alone, and everyone thinks she's a witch or some sad, old widow or something. But then one day, a man stumbles to her door. She opens it up and he's been travelling, but he's collapsed, on the verge of starving. So she takes him in and gives him a meal."

"When he asks why she helped him she says 'I don't know'. She keeps trying to get him to leave, but he's like, 'oh, my shoes are in ruin', so she fixes his shoes. Then he's like, 'oh, I have no food for the journey to the next town', so she bakes him biscuits to take with him. Then he's like, 'yknow, it's getting cold, sure could use a coat'. And she says, 'ugh, here's your stupid coat'."

Thena laughed along as he went through the summary of the old story.

"Then, finally, this guy is ready to get back on the road. He says goodbye to this woman he's been staying with for weeks now, and he asks if she wants to go with him. She says she can't. But he asks why not--she's just shown him that she can prepare everything she needs to make the trip. So what's holding her back?"

"And basically the woman realises that she's only staying there for the sake of it--because she's afraid to leave her home. But the man tells her just to come with him to the next town, just to see what it will be like. If she doesn't like it, then he'll walk her back to her home and be on his way."

Thena's expression shifted in real time as he continued. She toyed with the end of the tight blonde braid wound over her shoulder. "What a sad conclusion."

"Lucky it's not over, then," Gil grinned, causing her to laugh again. "She goes with him to the next town. It's a short trip, only a few days. And they see the sights, and she gets to experience nature and stuff, and blah-blah-blah-"

Thena nudged his arm affectionately, "don't skip the best parts! You told me in such great detail her making biscuits and sewing a coat!"

He laughed, enjoying fussing with her as if they were kids. "You've gotta read it for yourself!"

Her eyes changed as she stopped poking his arm and folded in on herself again. "Will you not tell me the ending, then?"

He could decline to, and just tell her to read the book for herself. But she also seemed like she really wanted to know. He put his hand on her shoulder as he moved away from the shelf that was now hers to one of his. "It has a happy ending, if you're worried about that."

"So you won't tell me," she half joked and half lamented. But she watched as he searched through the other books.

"Ah!" he pulled it from the shelf, careful with its delicate but well kept spine. He grasped it with both hands as he held it out for her, "it's a love story."

Thena accepted the book from him, letting their fingers brush together again. Her eyes looked down at the cover as her pale skin took on a little colour, "oh?"

"Yeah," he pulled away, returning to being sheepish about it. "It's kinda cheesy, I guess. But it really is a good book. And I think maybe you'll like it."

She pulled the book closer to herself, smiling at him shyly as her eyes darted between him and the pages. "Thank you, Gil."

Heat rose in his cheeks as well and he looked towards the entrance of the library, just to occupy his eyes. "Yeah, I mean no problem, keep it for as long as y-"

A foreign object, soft and warm, collided with his cheek as he was looking to the side. He looked forward again, just catching Thena leaning away and off of her toes and back onto the slight heel of her shoes.

He wasn't sure if his heart was pounding like a hummingbird's wings or if it had stopped completely. But he just stared at her.

She arranged her braid around the book she was holding more preciously than Theseus. But her smile was almost like a little bit of a smirk, and it suited her. "I shall let you know when I've learned of this ending you're keeping so secret."

Gil immediately thought of the story events, and his aunt's favourite section. He could remember the tears in her eyes as she would read the part of the man desperately confessing his love and learning that the woman wanted to see the world with him instead of going back to her little home all alone. He could remember her voice cracking when she read how the man asked the lonely woman to marry him.

But that would be crazy to think about in relation to a girl he had only met a few months ago, he told himself (very firmly).

He grinned, drawn to her as she bounded back to her other piles of books, still waiting to be shelved in their little home here in his family house. "Hey, I can't spoil it. You have to experience it for yourself."

"I think you're just a tease," she stated with a faint purse in her lips.

Maybe he was, but he just couldn't resist when it came to her.