Chadwick!" He startled, scrambling out of his seat to turn and find Grandmama scowling at him.

"Whatever I did I didnt!" He insisted quickly.

"So you didn't leave your backpack in the front hall again for me to trip over?"

"Okay, maybe I did." He said sheepishly, only to press on. "Only because you made cookies and I got excited, though!"

"Mhm. Well, next time be sure to put it away properly. I caught Bruno chewing on the straps." She warned, handing him the bag.

"Danke, Grandmama." He said with a warm smile, kissing her cheek before heading up the stairs. She shook her head with a smile.

"Silly boy. A house full of children, thats what I have!" She muttered as she went to go check on Fester in the rack.

Bren chuckled from where they sat atop the two-headed turtle in the main room, Wednesday reading with April nearby while Pugsley sat on the floor surrounded by seemingly thousands of tiny pieces of primarily wood cuts.

"What are you even making, Pugsley?" Bren questioned.

"April ordered a bookshelf nook off the internet, not realizing she would need to assemble it. Since it was giving her trouble, I offered to do it. It is actually impressively detailed. Should be fun." Pugsley informed happily, studying the instructions. "April?"

"Hm?" She hummed, obviously still lost in her book.

"Did they have a set for a close infected with the Black Death? I feel that would be a nice set to build."

"Don't know. Had that Arthurian inspired set suggested on social media." She answered absently, southern twang thicker since she was distracted. "Could build your own, though. Seen others do'n it online." He nodded, happily getting back to work at organizing the pieces in some configuration that made sense to him.

Chad plopped down next to Pugsley after carefully navigating around the organized piles upon his return. "Can I help? Looks neat."

"Sure. Careful, some of the pieces are delicate. I'll give you a portion of the instructions in a moment. Once I've finished confirming the needed build order."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Chad readily agreed, just glad to be included. Once he received his section of the instructions, he got to work, extra careful to follow each step properly.

After a while, Fin joined the group, Kitty following close behind to settle on the couch with him for a cuddle. "Gomez wants to have a fencing session after dinner, by the way." He warned after enjoying the companionable silence underscored by some record that had been put on. "I overheard him mention needing a bit of fun this evening. Seems to be the trigger phrase from what I can tell."

Bren sighed, flopping backward to drape themself dramatically over the turtle in a faux-swoon. "Is the man not content with having me have to nearly wrestle Alligators every morning?" They bemoaned pitifully. "April, you'll defend my poor self if he launches a sword at me, yes?"

"Sorry, hun, already booked for the evening." April mused heartlessly. "Wednesday and I are painting nails and watching Sleepy Hollow with face masks after dinner."

They sat up quickly, gasping. "And you didn't invite me?!"

"If we wanted beasts involved we would invite Kitty and Aristotle." Wednesday teased, earning a gasp from Bren.

"How rude!"

"Can I join? Dr. Everett said my cuticles were criminal, whatever that means, during our piano lesson. He said it was a nail thing so sounds like it'd fall in line with painting them."

Wednesday perked up. "Can I paint them after we fix the cuticles?"

"Sure, why not? Just no yellow, please. My Oma says it washes me out." Chad agreed with a shrug. Quickly, he had his tongue slightly out as he concentrated on carefully gluing a tiny banner onto a tiny wooden pole. Immediately Wednesday's nose wrinkled in distaste.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"I would never paint your nails such an awfully sunny color."

"Do we have to get them painted to join? I actually rather like that movie." Fin asked, hands preoccupied with scratching through Kitty's mane.

"Hm...If you do the face mask I'll allow just a clear coat." Wednesday offered, to which Fin nodded his assent.

"Really?! Everyone but me gets invited?!" Bren huffed.

"If it makes you feel any better, I wasn't invited, either." Pugsley pointed out.

"Hah! Then Pugsley and I will have our own movie night!" Bren declared triumphantly, only to gawk as Pugsley shook his head.

"Can't. I promised to help Grandmama with a potion thats been giving her trouble after dinner. Ratios keep being off."

Bren pouted "No fair, everyone else gets to have self-care night."

April gave an indulgent smile as she finally looked up from her book. "Bren, would you like to join in on self-care night after dinner if you aren't chosen to be skewered by Gomez?"

"I'll check my schedule and get back with you." They replied cheekily, smiling as she chuckled before returning to her book.

"Oh, can we not come if we're the one who he tosses a sword at?" Fin questioned.

"You can still come. You'll just miss a bit of the movie." April reassured.

By the time dinner ended and Pugsley went to help Grandmama, Gomez had, indeed, appeared with a sword in each hand. "En Garde!" Fin yelped as he scrambled to catch the sword tossed his way. Just barely managing to stumble into a defensive block before Gomez's blade came crashing down from where he had jumped up on the table to reach Fin.

"Rainbow!" Fin shouted, seeing Gomez freeze, as they had all agreed 'rainbow' would be the safe word if they needed to stop for some reason.

"What is it, son?" Fin lowered his sword, setting it aside as he pulled off his hoodie, setting it aside carefully before picking his sword back up to settle into a ready position.

"Didn't want to risk my favorite hoodie getting sliced like the one last week." He explained with a shrug before focusing, knowing he was going to be swiftly and soundly beaten...but not without a fight. "Allez!" Once given the all-clear, Gomez beamed almost maniacally as he began his attack once more. The others cleared the table around their footwork until Fin took an opportunity to run into another room with Gomez leaping after him with a laugh.

Soon enough, he sat, panting, against the bookshelves of the library as Gomez ruffled his hair. "You're improving rapidly, my boy! Beautiful flèche towards the end, there! We'll get you up to form in no time!"

Fin simply nodded, to out of breath to bother with a response. Once he managed to recover, he dragged himself into the sitting room to see the rest of the family aside from Grandmama and Pugsley gathered. Gomez followed close behind, confused at the sight of them all already in facemasks and in various stages of having their nails painted.

"Ah, there's the dashing swordsmen! Have you boys finished your little game?" Morticia hummed from where she was painting April's nails a forest green.

"Yes, Cara Mia. What's happening here?" Gomez mused.

Bren looked up from where they were attacking Fester's nails with a proper sanding block rather than a nail file. "Self care night! Facemasks and manicures while watching Sleepy Hollow."

"What a capitol idea!" Gomez crowed, giving Fin a parting squeeze on his shoulder before going to sit by Morticia. "Might I join, Querida?"

"Of course, Bubele." She crooned.

Fin trudged over to where Wednesday was putting a clear-coat on Chad, flopping down on the floor next to them. Soon, Wednesday was tearing open a packet and placing some cold, slimy sheet on his face. "Did Father win again?"

"When does he ever lose a fencing match?"

"Good point. He looks especially happy, though. You must be improving." She praised before tapping his arm. Once he lifted up his hand for her to take at the non-verbal signal, she hummed. "Not as bad as Chad's. Still not great, though. You shouldn't pick at the skin around your nails so much, you know."

He hummed his acknowledgement. "Yeah, I know. Bad habit. At least I stopped biting my nails." With that they lapsed into silence as everyone enjoyed the movie with the occasional quiet conversation occurring.

"Oh this is where it gets really interesting." April said happily as she paused in painting Thing's nails a nice deep plum tone, Morticia nodding her agreement before speaking softly.

"Its always nice to see such wholesome family entertainment."

Wednesday agreed as she tapped Chad's hand, receiving it without argument as she began applying a layer of blood-red glitter to the black nails. Fin's clear coat having finally been applied after she fixed his cuticles and let some nail oil set in.

"I knew that the step-mother had something to do with it!" Chad whisper-shouted. "Total evil queen vibes! Bren you liar!"

"Did you expect me to tell you that you were right when you asked as soon as she came on screen?" Bren pointed out as Fester focused intently on applying a very sloppy coat of royal blue to their nails. "That'd ruin the plot twist."

"That'd ruin the plot twist." Chad mimicked petulantly, though he quickly was captivated once more by the movie.

Morticia smiled as Gomez brought her hand up to kiss it while they sat curled up together on the settee. Reclining against him, she relaxed as they watched the children bonding, Pugsley and Grandmama having finally joined alongside Lurch a short while ago.

"Our wonderfully gloomy little family." Gomez mused quietly as she hummed her agreement. "We should do this more often, don't you think?"

"We certainly should, Mon Cherie." She agreed happily, only to smile softly as she heard him sigh.

"Oh, Tish, you know I can't help myself when you speak French." She chuckled as he began with kissing her palm.

"Just be careful not to smudge the nail polish, Querido. Its not quite dry, yet."