-THIRTY-
Juniper immediately went to Miss Thornhill's room, sighing softly and massaging her head, which had begun to pulse and throb. Her period didn't help either, and the cramps made matters worse.
"Aunt Marilyn," groaned the girl, entering the conservatory. "I am legitimately dying right now."
"I've got you, sweetie," the woman smiled gently and handed her the electric blue liquid, which had a slight darker shade to it from the pain-inducing concoction. Clearly she'd mixed the two, but the girl was already too intoxicated by the smell to notice.
Feeling it dull a little bit, she sighed in relief, downing the whole glass after having taken a single sip.
"Well done, June Bug," smiled the woman evilly. "Now, let's get to work."
Carefully, she took the girl to Crackstone's Crypt, where she knew her project was to be hosted. In order to make sure not to undo the mind control, Marilyn was silent the whole car ride, knowing that the effects weren't that strong yet.
The crypt smelt of death and mildew, along with the distinct aura of evil, which made the dryad scrunch her nose up in disgust as she walked into the building, wobbling on her feet a little drunkenly.
"Inside, June Bug," ordered the woman.
She led the stumbling girl to the central crypt, where she knew the dryad would be able to suitably commune with Hades and thin the protection over the place. Quietly, she pulled out a needle full of dark blue liquid, which she injected into the dryad's bloodstream.
The girl sobered up, but was still looking rather lost and dazed, giving the woman a cue that she was well-controlled.
"I need you to thin the protection over Joseph Crackstone's tomb," she said, smiling and putting an arm around her.
"Isn't that not allowed...?" The redhead asked, confused, her eyes drooping slightly as a frown came over her features.
"It is allowed, June Bug! It's probably not written in your book, cause it's written in mine," chuckled Miss Thornhill, tightening her hold around the girl.
"Okay..." sighed the girl, a little suspiciously. She stood right outside the circle of body parts, and began to mark runes on the ground with bewitched chalk that she conjured up.
She began to chant in Greek, calling on the power of Hades, making her bright green magic work away at the protection spells over the tomb, unravelling each thread of power over the dank prison unravel like fine yarn. Slowly her chanting got louder till the whispers of tortured souls from the past surrounded them and echoed around the crypt.
She knew the magic had worked, for when she stopped her wild chanting, there was a lighter air to the normally heavy-energy place. She felt less suffocated, yet had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her an unsettling, vengeful spirit was slowly being unleashed.
Her thoughts were silenced, as Thornhill clapped enthusiastically for her, "Well done, June Bug! When he rises, I'll be sure to put in a good word for you."
"Perhaps I can ask him to help me merge with Kelpie," admitted the redhead. "Maybe then my parents will give a damn."
"He'll help you in whichever way," smiled the woman, taking her hand tenderly and stroking the girl's red hair in a motherly gesture. "But that help will only come if you follow through the whole way."
Whining a little, the redhead said, "But I just thinned the protection charm! Isn't that enough?"
"June Bug, that was only the first part! You have to go through the whole nine yards," chuckled Thornhill. "You can't stop now."
"Fair," shrugged the dryad. "I think it's time to go back now. I desperately need some sleep."
"Of course, June Bug," smiled the other redhead, leading her to the car.
—Time Skip—
"I'm going to Mayor Walker's wake," said Enid, approaching Juniper the next morning. The dryad paused her breakfast and looked at her with a blank expression, wondering why the girl would randomly say such a thing.
"I don't like funerals," scowled the redhead, fixing her skirt. "I've mentioned countless times before, I'm a life-loving spirit. Not a death-embracing one."
"You could pay your respects?" Asked the girl, fiddling with her fingers.
"Pay my respects to a man who nearly got me imprisoned for an act of self-defence?" The girl chuckled coldly, "I would rather drink my weakness."
"Junie, after you and Wednesday broke up, you've kind of become...distant," admitted the blonde. "Hell, you've not talked to anyone all morning. Do you know how concerning that is?"
"Darling, don't expect me to be sunshine and rainbows after I've been so heavily betrayed," scoffed Juniper, as the werewolf sat next to her. "You know that I value trust more than anything. This breakup's gonna take time to get over."
"I'll meet you after the wake, then," sighed Enid. "But maybe it's time you started your healing journey as soon as possible. It'll hurt less and acceptance won't take as long."
The dryad folded her lips into her mouth as she nodded, "Maybe," her gaze landed on a lonely-looking Wednesday at the far end of the quad. "For all you know it could even take forever."
"Forever isn't as long as people say it is," said the blonde. "You decide how long your forever gets to be."
With those words, she stood up and walked over to Yoko and her crew, leaving Juniper alone with her rushing thoughts for a moment. However, the rushing voices in her head stilled when someone sat next to her.
"Conservatory later? Just like old times?" Asked Lyssa, quietly sipping on the tea she'd brought. "You know it calms you down. And we both hate anything death-related. More so me than you."
"Ha, ha," laughed the dryad sarcastically. "Very funny."
"I know, I'm hilarious," chuckled the brunette. "But seriously, though. Consider this my...way of making amends. So...conservatory? Just you and me?"
Suspicious, but yet grateful for a companion who shared her dislike for funeral wakes as well as the effort to make things right. Juniper smiled, "I'd love that."
"Great," grinned the pixie. "See you then."
The pair then ate together in silence, basking in the soft feeling of a relationship being repaired.
—Time Skip—
Juniper stood in the conservatory, her hair tied back in her signature bandanna, with Kelpie napping on the table nearby. Her hands were stained with mud, and her eyes held some amount of tranquility within them, as the mass of emotions within her was curbed slightly, like a storm settling before it strikes again.
She turned around when the door opened with a soft squeak, smiling when she saw Lyssa looking as natural as ever, her ears pointing and wings spanning down her back. Clouds began to darken the sky outside, yet the last few rays of sunlight caught the transparent scales of the pixie's wings, making rainbows reflect through the entire room.
"Look at you," chuckled the dryad, "Embracing your inner gay by producing rainbows when you walk."
"Shut up," mumbled the pixie bashfully, allowing the wings to fold and retract into her back. "I just wanted to take a quick fly, just to check out what was going on at the wake."
"Wasn't it unnerving?" Frowned Juniper, handing the pixie a trowel. "Loosen the earth on those daisies, would you?"
"It was okay," shrugged Lyssa, carefully upturning and loosening the dark soil as instructed. "Too many sad faces, too much melancholy."
"What else would you expect at a funeral, Lys?" Chuckled the dryad, placing her hands on the soil of the massive ghost orchid before her, enriching the earth with nutrients.
"I don't know, why does it have to be so...depressing?" The pixie laughed lightly, "Like, play some Dua Lipa and dance! Don't be all weepy."
"You realise that mortals are different to nature spirits and they don't turn into trees after their death?" Juniper moved her hands away from the soil, before she turned over to her jacaranda tree. "I mean, we at least contribute well to the earth when we've died, while they're rotting away in a casket buried six feet underground. I'd say they have a right to be depressed."
"Useless creatures, mortals," scoffed the pixie, pulling a caterpillar from the daisy blossoms.
"Oh, you are so right," chuckled Juniper, taking a watering can from the shelves and filling it from the nearby tap.
Lyssa laughed softly, and leaned against the table where the plant pots stood, brown eyes fixed on the dryad. "I've missed this," she admitted with a smile. "Just two nature spirit besties tending to plants and talking about the most random shit."
"I admit, after I calmed down with you, I started to miss it too," replied the dryad, lovingly stroking the bark of the tree as she used magic to gently encourage it to grow. The blossoms on the thin branches multiplied, filling the already fragrant room with a sweet smell.
"I'm genuinely sorry for what I did to you, Pers," admitted the pixie, awkwardly playing with her fingers. "It was so wrong of me to use you and manipulate you like that. After I came to my not-drunken senses I realised how shitty I'd been towards you. I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, I swear."
"I'm glad you admit to your error," nodded the shorter girl, moving away from the tree and walking towards the pixie. "You don't have to spend the rest of your life trying to get me to forgive you, because I know how sincere you are with your apology."
Lyssa couldn't help but let tears well up in her eyes at the way Juniper looked straight into her eyes with an unflinching gaze. She hesitantly wrapped her arms around the dryad in a hug. A hug so sweet and warm that both girls simply stood there, arms around each other in a platonic yet love-filled gesture.
"Thanks, little girl," the pixie whispered into Juniper's red hair.
"You're welcome, Lys," mumbled the dryad, resting her forehead on Lyssa's chest.
However, neither of them knew of the prying black eyes which watched them from afar, with jealousy burning in her black heart.
As Juniper walked out of the conservatory, she was met by a very furious-looking Wednesday, who was glaring at her fiercely.
"You seem to have a pretty clear conscience," the goth rolled her eyes, glancing st where the two nature spirits had been hugging only moments ago. "You know, for a murderer."
"I physically cannot murder someone, goddamnit,"scoffed Juniper. "And accusing me of it even when I literally said nothing to you is rich, even for you, Addams."
It took everything in her not to flinch at the dryad's tone, but she was successful. "Honestly, I think you have a thing for people who don't know who you really are," she said, referring to how Lyssa was hugging the dryad.
"And I think you have a thing for pushing away people who've only ever had your best interests at heart," the dryad crossed her arms, the years of boxing training showing as her muscles flexed ever so slightly.
"You mean nothing to me," glared Wednesday.
"Yet here you are, simply burning with jealousy sen I've only hugged my ex," Juniper chuckled coldly. "Why're you here, anyway?"
"I need the keys to Eugene's beehives," scowled the goth. However, an angry blush tinted her ears pink, which the dryad noticed.
"I thought you had a spare set?" the dryad asked, brows furrowing.
"Mine got lost," the girl sighed in frustration. "In the woods."
Begrudgingly, Juniper handed the black-haired girl a set of keys, on which was a small bed-shaped keychain. "Accusing me of murder every time you set eyes on me, yet you continue to ask me for favours," she spat, making Wednesday flinch. "How desperate are you?"
"I'm not desperate," snapped Wednesday. "Just resourceful."
"Resourceful doesn't mean calling on the girl who's heart you shattered without a second glance, Addams," replied the witch, bumping her shoulder against the shorter girl's aggressively as she walked away, not wanting to hear another word.
—Time Skip—
"Me? Jealous?" Scoffed Wednesday, as Uncle Fester asked her about what he'd noticed when she instinctively had gone to the conservatory after the wake in an effort to hide him somewhere. "I would rather wear pink and dye my hair blonde than feel jealous of Juniper."
He shrugged as they stood hidden in the B bushes, watching as the dryad ambled around gracefully, checking on the bees in their hives. She occasionally knelt to the ground nearby to place her hands on the soil and growing patches of lavenders, sunflowers, as well as coneflowers, which were bee-attracting blooms.
"Is she a nature spirit?" Asked Fester, watching her closely.
"Yes," said his niece. "But she's also the second-in-command of a murderer."
"That's absolute codswallop," scoffed the bald man. "I've known many nature spirits in my entire life, and trust me when I say this, they would never hurt a fly."
"What bone-chilling experience made you come to that conclusion?" Asked the goth, glancing at him with a frown.
"Well, when I was in the New Jersey Mental Asylum, the nurses assigned there would make us interact with nature spirits every day for two hours," he narrated, watching as Juniper carefully removed weeds from around the beehives, growing flowers in their place instead.
"What did that activity do? Make you all go steadily more insane?" Asked Wednesday, feeling her hands burn upon seeing the ones which held hers so tenderly once upon a time.
She usually enjoyed that feeling, it felt like live volts were being sent through her skin, but now...the feeling was more uncomfortable than pleasant.
"Well, the dryad assigned to me explained that the people did this meeting in order to keep the patients grounded," he chortled at his own joke before continuing, "She told me that there were no nature spirits in that asylum because when they kill or help in any sort of violent activity, it hurts them physically. They literally begin dying if they spill any other's blood who's innocent."
"But Juniper attacked Santiago after she called her 'tree'. She nearly killed those boys who axed her," scowled Wednesday, not liking the loopholes that applied to these spirits.
"You see, Wednesday, when a nature spirit, like a dryad, spills the blood of someone guilty, their patroness Iris as well as their eternal mother Gaia, grant them a kind of leeway to give the perpetrator what they deserve," he pointed at a gaping Juniper, who was holding a few ladybugs in her hands. "But you see, they will never kill them. Grievously injure, maybe, but never kill."
"So...if Juniper had helped Xavier kill those people, she'd be dying right now, this very second," said the pigtailed girl.
"Well, judging by the number of deaths you've told me about, she'd have been dead already," replied Fester.
That was when it all hit her like a tide. Wednesday felt the out of her stomach burn, and her eyes begin to bore into the figure of the girl she accused to greatly. Her mind went back to the fleeting look of shock on Juniper's face when she'd accused her that night, which she'd misunderstood as a guilty shock.
How, how, how could her normally deductive mind have made such an earth-shattering blunder? A blunder so great, she could probably never fix it?
'Please stop, Wednesday,' the girl had said that night with such terror in her eyes, even the goth was shocked at herself. 'You're scaring me.'. Her face at that moment had so much fear in it, which the pigtailed girl had seen only when they had stepped into Xavier's art shed.
'But the picture,' her brain argued. 'The drawing which showed Juniper standing before a kneeling monster with you nearly dead behind her like it was nothing?'
'It wasn't a monster who was kneeling,' the goth realised in horror. 'It was a monster getting ready to strike.'
Yet another analysis was prepared to shock the life out of her. And she nearly fell to the ground in rage at herself when it hit.
'She was looking in the face of death, ready to give up her own life to protect me.'
——
DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN. *dramatic music*
<I am sick so this chapter may have grammatical errors->
I hope this chapter was up to mark <333
Fun fact: Juniper had made a flower crown for Wednesday the day before the broke up, and was going to give it to her as a 'thank you' for accepting Juniper as who she is.This was an off-plot, off-sight event-
*READ IT AND WEEP MY LITTLE ONES*
Question 1: Should Juniper forgive Wednesday the moment she admits to her mistake? Or do we want angst+fluff ending where it takes a lot of pleading from Wednesday's side to make amends? Comment on this paragraph to lmk!
Question 2: Thoughts on how Lyssa asked for forgiveness, and should Juniper have forgiven her? Comment here to lmk <3
60 comments, my loves!
BY THE WAY,
You look absolutely STUNNING! Whatever you're in right now, be it your sweats, your pjs, school uniform, dinner outfit, anything, you are pulling it off better than any model in existence! SLAY! Drink water, take care of yourself you beautiful human <333
Have a fabulous day/night!
With love and hugs,
Sage <3