#normie!reader

Larissa woke up the next morning with a wry neck from sleeping on the couch and a headache to match the ones Wednesday gave her. The early sunlight was coming through her office window and warming her lap. You weren’t around; in fact, you’d left yesterday quite unexpectedly, with a kiss on her cheek.

God damn it, she thought to herself, exhausted from more than bad sleep. She had scared you away. Maybe her fingers tracing patterns on your shoulder, or the way she couldn’t keep from pulling you close when you were getting comfortable on her chest made you uncomfortable. You were only trying to familiarize yourself with being near her and she couldn’t keep her pine to herself.

It was bittersweet; the way she plainly described how she came to realise her adoring feelings towards you, and you thought it was a well-developed lie. “Makes perfect sense.” Yes, of course, it did because it was true.

She knew the safe course of action was to keep you at a distance. Since your first interactions, she’d been intrigued by your character, easily coming to respect you and the seriousness with which you treated your work, but also the sweetness you showed to the students. She hadn’t felt anything like it in quite some time.

Letting out a grunt, Larissa got up; searing pain in her neck. She still had some matters to take care of and needed to pack for the trip. She couldn’t afford a single misstep; it was infuriatingly important to her that Morticia bit her own tongue. One day she might be able to let it go, to stop caring, but that day hadn’t come yet.

While preparing for a shower, she internally lectured herself on the importance of self-control and how much of a fool she had made herself the previous night. You probably regrated agreeing to such a juvenile endeavour, she thought, acting lovesick to help a grown woman incapable of finding someone who liked her enough to consider even asking her out.

With a sharp intake of breath, she opened the shower curtain, already steeling herself for the day ahead.

You were finally enjoying some extra hours of sleep. With nothing more to do than to anxiously await your next encounter with Larissa or berate yourself for being such a handsy drunk, you decided sleeping and pretending everything was fine worked best.

However, not everyone agreed to your plans, and a knock came from your door.

“Coming!” You put on a robe and went to see who was bothering you in the quaint hour of ten a.m. It was Enid.

“Good morning, professor.”

“Enid? What are you doing here? Weren’t you going with the Addams two days ago?” You stepped to the side so the girl could get in.

“I told Wednesday I would see my family first and then go there,” her voice sounded strained as she walked in and looked around, avoiding your gaze.

“And you didn’t go to see your family?” You came to her, sitting on your bed and tapping the space beside you for her to sit. She did.

“I’m…” she took a deep breath, looking straight ahead with her eyebrows knit as if talking herself into continuing.

“Enid…” when she didn’t continue, you decided to give her a hand, “Why are you here?” you said softly, but still nudging her to tell you.

“There’s no one else I can talk to here,” she admitted in a whisper.

“I’m sure there are counsellors and even the principal that could talk to you. Why are you here, really?” you pressed.

“Because I think you can understand. Since you and the principal are together.”

What? How did she come to that conclusion?

“What was that?” you turned to look at her more attentively.

She remained silent, slowly raising her gaze to you in what looked like not-so-well-concealed apprehension.

“I heard teacher Alfred discussing with the coach. I won’t tell anyone if that’s what you’re worried about. Hell, that’s what I’m worried about.”

“Razvan and Vlad shouldn’t be talking about this near students-“

“They weren’t! I was sneaking out to see the moon before it turns full” she interrupted you in a near panic.

“I’m not mad at you Enid, calm down.” You smiled and rubbed a hand on her back, she seemed very on edge. “Yes, I suppose now that you know I won’t deny it. Larissa and I are together, but we would like to keep it a secret for now.”

You felt bad for lying to her, but it was very convenient, and Enid would be at the party, so the small tingling in your chest had everything to do with your plan working and nothing at all with how good it felt to say the words.

“Are you here to discuss that? Because that wasn’t my impression. Are you worried someone will know?”

“Not about you, no. You’re a very cute couple, by the way! Congrats!” She smiled weakly at that. “What I’m worried about is that my parents will find out about me…”

You didn’t understand at first. Wednesday and Enid had been together for almost seven months, you thought, and before they were just so onto each other’s tails that it seemed even longer.

“Your parents don’t know? That’s why you didn’t go home?” you said gently, pulling her closer to your side.

“Yes. I promised Wednesday I would tell them, but my mother will throw me out, I know it! I already took too long to wolf out and now the prospect of not giving her grandchildren-“

“Woah there, slow down!” You interrupted, getting up to kneel in front of her. “You are too young to worry about this.”

“But my mom-“

“Your mom shouldn’t be worrying about this now either. You’re seventeen and that is so far away in the future.” You stood up to kneel at her feet, squeezing her shoulders in the hope that she’d understand. “It’s ok to feel scared. I was too when I was your age and look at me now. I left my home, studied, made friends to whom I owe my life, built a career and ended up at the most incredible school in the world, teaching the most amazing students I ever met. And you are one of the most astounding within them; I’m sure one way or another your mother knows that.”

You felt her crying before you saw it, her shoulders moving with a hiccup. You hugged her tightly and waited for the sobs to subside, crying was good; the tension slipped away with the tears and left everything a bit less heavy.

When she stilled, breathing softly on your damp robe, you separated and put some of her hair behind her ears, taking her face in your hands.

“I say you don’t worry. Wednesday won’t be disappointed in you, your mother won’t be able to negate your endless set of abilities and good qualities, and I’ll be here every time you need a shoulder or advice.” You stroked her cheek with your thumb, and she smiled, covering your hands with hers and uniting them between you as she stood.

“Thank you, professor l/n, I knew you’d understand.” She hugged you with more strength than you thought she possessed. “I’m really happy for you and principal Weems.” And with that, she skipped out of the room.

“I’m really happy for you and principal Weems” suddenly the tingling wasn’t there anymore, and that only hurt.

That night, Larissa opened the door before you could knock. Eyebrows set harshly atop steely eyes, creating a powerful picture of cold-controlled rage.

“How does Enid know?” she hastened you inside with a hand on your elbow. You didn’t really understand what was happening, but you were equally fearful and excited by her firm grip on you.

“What happened? Did she say something?” Larissa closed the door forcefully and let go of your arm, marching into the office and leaning against her desk; one hand massaging her forehead and another steading her on the flat surface.

“She came this afternoon to say ‘congratulations.’” She tilted her head to the side, prompting an explanation.

“I didn’t tell her. She visited this morning to ask my opinion on something and told me Vlad and Razvan were talking about it.” You approached slowly, her eyes accompanying you all the way until you sat at the chair in front of her. Her angered gaze reminded you of the very few times in the past when she had been pushed to the limit by students. If you had a principal looking at you like that as a teen, you’d have been to detention many more times than you did. “She promised not to tell anyone. And we had a serious conversation, so I don’t think she was just saying it to appease me,” your voice was soft, and you could tell Larissa believed you from the way her anger melted into resignation.

“I think it’s a good sign we’re not on her Instagram page yet,” she conceded, “I was just worried this could be blown out of proportion by all students thinking it was true.”

The thought made you smile. If Enid had written about your “secret relationship”, maybe you would have had to pretend for a little longer than a weekend.

“No, she’s safe. And she’ll be at the party, so that’s a bonus on our cover.”

“Is she?” Larissa relaxed a bit and dropped her other hand to casually rest beside her body. You wished you had a camera or any drawing skills to capture her figure at the moment, leaning in a very soft angle backwards, wondering expression and slightly unkept hair from recent stress. If you didn’t have the context you could almost imagine other ways she would have messed up her perfectly styled waves.

“Yes.” You got up, suddenly unable to keep still, and walked directly to her front, pondering on whether to put or not your hand on hers and deciding not yet. “But I think we have other things that actually need our attention right now.”

Her face lighted up with amusement and a mischievous quirk of her eyebrow forced you to look away, biting your cheek, “Oh my, I didn’t know we were like that already.”

You hid your face in your hands and groaned, walking away a few steps.

“I’m just messing with you, don’t worry,” her soft chuckle sounded nearer than before, and you turned to see her right behind you with two glasses and a bourbon in hand. She gestured to the sofa. “Shall we begin?”

You talked more about how you started, when you did, how things went at the beginning and why you still hadn’t gone public. The drink was stronger than the other night and burnt while going down. You didn’t need more than a pour and a half for your inhibition to fly throw the window, but Larissa seemed just fine. You could bet she liked stronger things. You liked it as well, but she was made for it.

“Alright, enough of imaginary dates and made-up happenings. I want to know you,” you said after almost an hour of just that, “If I dated you for the past five months I’m bound to know things about you that most people don’t,” you were far too comfortable being blunt to be sober.

“Okay, what would you like to know?” her voice was soft. She put her glass away and leant on her forearm, elbow resting atop the backrest.

“What’s your favourite food?”

She laughed. Not the belly laugh you adored so much, but a gentler one, quieter, and you could almost say you loved it if that wouldn’t make things harder.

“I don’t think I have a favourite food. I like pasta, cheese, hamburger-“

“Ok, what? How do you go from fancy to ‘I like hamburger’?” you snorted ungracefully. She seemed amused.

“Pasta is not fancy, it’s pasta, and cheese is an ingredient, so what are you talking about?”

“Oh, don’t gimme that!” You pointed at her, smiling way too much.

“I didn’t know there was a rule against liking hamburgers-“

“No, there’s just a rule saying that stunning, posh, scotch-drinking, British women can’t like the food we mortals do.”

“I drink more hot chocolate than scotch, I’ll have you know!

“Shut up! You can’t be normal, you’re too good for that!’

She was laughing and you were feigning indignation and it all felt so good you thought your heart would explode in happiness.

When she calmed down, her eyes glimmered softly, and she was smiling almost as if fond of you. You knew it was your alcohol-addled brain, but you wanted so desperately to get closer.

You didn’t sit as the other night; she was at the end of the sofa and you were in the middle, there were maybe six inches between you but it felt like miles.

“…Do you think we should be closer?” you almost whispered. Damn if you weren’t the most horrible drunk on earth. You knew you would regret it the second you asked.

She didn’t respond, just looked at you quizzically, like you were a puzzle she couldn’t figure out. You thought you were quite obvious, but maybe she was more inebriated than she appeared.

“Would you be comfortable with that?” did she still doubt it?

“I mean… we’ll have to, once we get there. If not now when we can consent, imagine then.” You would always consent, of course, but the look of hurt on Larissa’s face and her dry swallow made it clear the feeling wasn’t mutual.

Suddenly you could not take it anymore. You felt tears forming in your eyes and your chest tightened. You had to leave. You quickly got up, surprising her and yourself; your legs weren’t also expecting it and you almost stumbled over before scurrying to the door.

“Y/n?” you heard her get up before opening the door.

“I think that’s good enough for now, we can continue on the way there.” You rushed to say and left the room, walking the faster you could to your quarters with a hand on your mouth to stifle your sobs.