(1-19-2025) Edits: just small grammatical edits and small edits to the revelation part.

Author's Note: I know I said I wouldn't continue with this fanfiction until I refined it, but I already had half of this written down so I thought to leave you all with this. I had almost forgotten how fun it was to write this story so I might reconsider scrapping what I have so far. Anyways, enjoy!

・・・

The inside of the house was dark and warm. It was a welcome respite from the heavy snow which was now starting to pile up outside.

Penelope and Edward stumbled in, the wind slamming the door behind them. Lurch appeared right at the door and silently took their wet coats.

"Thank you, Lurch. Could you please tell my parents I brought a friend over and that we'll be in the ballroom if they need us?"

Lurch replied with a long grunt which Penelope knew meant, "Of course, Miss Addams."

Edward watched Lurch curiously, his mind trying to figure out if he was human or not.

"Great. Come on, Edward," she ordered as she led him up the grand staircase and through the double doors of the ballroom.

All of a sudden, 2 large dogs bound towards them, tongues out and both howling lowly as if complaining about Penelope's absence. She bent down to give them their rightfully deserved belly rubs for having dared to leave the house. "Hello, my little pups!"

"You have dogs?" Edward asked, sounding genuinely surprised. In the time that he's been here, he never sensed that the family had dogs. What the hell is going on?

Penelope played it off, but his mind attacked hers by flooding it with his crippling anxiety about the mystery that seemed to surround her and her family. "Yes, they're Malamutes. Hades and Kerberos. Want to pet them?"

"Uh... no, thanks." She could hear what was going on in his mind. Animals are normally very wary in the presence of vampires, yet these dogs seemed to be just fine with him around. Sure, there could be exceptions, but was that due to these dogs' nature or due to the nature of this family?

After a minute or two of belly rubs, the dogs seemed to have enough, especially when they could smell the food Lurch was preparing for them. Penelope laughed as they ran off and then returned to her mission. She motioned Edward to follow along, hoping to distract him enough to get through the music indoctrination before he decided to interrogate her. 

Once in the ballroom, his eyes wandered over every little detail of the room, appreciating the style it was built in while Penelope went into a storeroom hidden behind the wall paneling.

"So... how come we're in your family's ballroom?" he finally asked.

Penelope pulled out two dark red armchairs and set them by another wall panel, which she opened to reveal a very large and extensive music collection and a sophisticated sound system. "Because it's got our best sound system."

She motioned for him to sit down. "Make yourself comfortable while I look for my indoctrination materials."

Edward was impressed at the collection the family had managed to curate. It was even more extensive than his. "I assume your family often has use for such a collection?"

She laughed derisively at his comment. "Not for parties. They prefer live music and it's usually classical. The other genres are ones I've brought in for when I dance on my own in here."

He watched as she sifted through the collection, "You dance?"

There were about 10 CDs in her arms now. "Of course. It's hard for me to be a music lover and not want to dance. Don't you feel the same way?"

He shrugged. "I haven't had much of a need for dancing."

Her jaw dropped again before she shut it and picked out more CDs. "I could not imagine my life without dancing. My parents dance together every day. I did ballet for most of my life, plus, my father taught me to dance when I was little. I even did the whole stepping-on-his-shoes bit for a while." 

That made Edward chuckle as he tried to imagine a younger Penelope dancing on her father's shoes. "Sounds like you had a nice childhood."

Her fingers stopped in front of a CD. Yes, she did have a very nice childhood here. An odd one, but a very nice one for an Addams. Gods, it felt a little eery for her to recall memories of this life with such ease, but she had been doing it for a while now.

Edward noticed that Penelope's eyes glazed over a bit and her heart rate was picking up. "Penelope?"

His voice seemed to snap her out of her panic and she shook herself out of her stupor. "Yeah? Sorry, I was just... trying to remember if I had any assignments to do tonight. Thankfully, I don't. But yes, I've had a pretty good childhood."

"Alright," he said softly, though internally he longed to know if she was telling the truth or not.

She took a deep breath and set her selected CDs on a little side table nearby. "Alright, I've pulled a very very small selection from the 60s and 70s. You are going to listen to them and you are going to love them. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," he sighed sarcastically.

Her eyes narrowed at his sarcastic tone. "And just for that, we'll start with the seventies."

"Don't tell me we're starting with ABBA," he complained just as she took her ABBA CD from the case.

Ignoring him, she popped the CD in and went straight to Dancing Queen.

Penelope's body began to rock and sway to the song almost immediately. About half a minute into the song, she was doing the disco choreography she had created a while back and singing along to the lyrics. 

Edward couldn't decide between covering his eyes in shame or his ears. But as much as he wanted to hide it, he was actually enjoying this side of her. He wasn't used to putting himself in a situation where a human felt comfortable with him.

"Come on, up you go," she tugged at his sleeves, careful to not actually touch his skin and make him freak out.

"Absolutely not," he replied immediately.

"If you don't dance then I'll just loop it until you do," she threatened, her eyes challenging him to deny her while she continued to move to the music.

"Fine." He stood up and loosely mimicked the dance moves she was doing.

"More hips!" she called out over the music, pointing to her own as an example.

He rolled his eyes but did as he was told. "Why am I even doing this?!"

"For funsies," she smiled teasingly. The song ended shortly and was almost followed by another song before Edward stopped the CD player.

"Please, have mercy on me, and let's skip to the sixties," he pleaded.

Penelope rolled her eyes. "Ugh, weak," she grumbled. "But fine. We can move on if you wish."

She replaced the ABBA CD with a CD she had burned herself. It contained her favorite songs from the sixties- mostly the love songs.

The first one was Put Your Head On My Shoulder. However, the version she played was slower and the lyrics were slightly different.

Penelope sat down in the armchair next to Edward and leaned in close to the sound system, almost as if she were in a trance. The song was short and sweet, but still one that cemented its place in her heart.

"I don't think I've ever heard that version of that song," Edward said, his tone sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah, it was hard to find, but I prefer it to the more popular version."

The next song was Rain In My Heart by Frank Sinatra. Old blue eyes. She almost turned up the volume but decided against it since Edward's vampiric hearing was pretty sensitive.

"This one is one of- if not my all-time favorite. It just... it scratches the right itch in my soul." She was practically gushing, a soft smile on her lips as soon as Sinatra's voice filled the ballroom.

Gradually, Penelope's voice joined Sinatra's out of pure habit. She sang this song countless times as both Addams and Marlowe. This song was often played while she did homework or she'd put it on in a friend's car. Here, well, she'd listen on a little stereo in her room before going to sleep sometimes.

From Edward's point of view, he thought she was a fantastic singer. The way she seemed to perfectly mimic Sinatra's intonation was a sign to him that she deeply admired his art. Part of him was impressed she didn't mind singing in front of him, something which he was grateful for. He couldn't take his eyes off of her...

When the song came to an end, Penelope smiled shyly and sat back in her chair.

"Sorry. I'm supposed to let you listen to the music, not listen to my singing."

"No... I believe your goal was to get me to develop an appreciation for the music of this era. And I think you're succeeding..."

Penelope tilted her head a bit, her mind searching his for what he meant by that. It only took a second to find his reasoning since it was at the forefront of his mind. His growing appreciation for her favorite music was tied to his growing appreciation for... her. 

As far as she could tell, it wasn't anything romantic. Not yet, at least. Hopefully not. The next song wasn't helping either. It was the famous Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin.

"I'm glad to hear it," she smiled softly. There's no use in worrying about it. I'm not even Team Edward. 

They spent another hour just listening to Penelope's music from the sixties. But all she could think about was this possible problem: What if Edward fell for her? Ew, that cannot happen.

Objectively, Penelope was a beautiful girl whose mind was a mystery to him. Those were ingredients for disaster. And the love songs weren't helping her. But all Edward was thinking was how refreshing it was to get to know someone as if he were a normal human being.

・・・

When the CD stopped, she almost let out a sigh of relief.

"So... did my indoctrination work?" she grinned, hoping to keep things light.

He chuckled. "All I can say is I have some things to reconsider."

She narrowed her eyes again, "Hm... that sounds like a yes to me."

"Fine," he relented. "A yes on the sixties, but the seventies are still a no."

A triumphant smile spread on her lips, "A win is a win. Now, on to the next activity."

He raised a brow, his mind trying to predict what she might offer next. "What activity?"

"A house tour, of course."

・・・

For the next half hour, Penelope gave him a rather thorough tour of the Addams manor. Well, except for the underground river which led to the vault, but they could work their way up to that. Edward would occasionally throw out polite compliments about the style and the decor. Penelope snorted when she heard him think that the Addams house looked more like a vampire's dwelling than the Cullens, but she disguised it as a cough, not wanting to give away such important intel yet that she could read his mind.

At last, they arrived at the library-- the place she had planned to be the setting for the grand reveal. 

Penelope motioned to the room with a sweeping gesture. "This is the Addams Family's private library. You can find pretty much anything in here with a special, Addams twist," she chuckled quietly to herself. She knew that, just as in the movies, some of the books came with their little surprises in accordance with their titles.

Edward hummed in appreciation, finding himself surprised to see that he didn't recognize some of the titles on the shelves. While she stood off to the side, he wandered among the shelves. He almost wanted to stay longer than necessary to look through them. When she saw that he was approaching a particular section that was dear to her and which was part of her plan, she went to stand by him.

"On this wall are all the personal diaries and journals of every Addams who has lived in this house. I enjoy reading them quite a bit. It's a way for me to know my family and, in some way, this is their path to immortality, if you will." Though it was still new for her to call these people her family, she knew in her heart that it was true. Penelope Addams held a deep appreciation for what her family had built and passed on to her.

Edward's body stilled for a very brief second at the mention of immortality, though she could have easily imagined it too. She could hear the next thought float through his mind: Better to be immortal through writing than to live a mundane existence forever.

Deciding to ignore it, Penelope plowed on. "I particularly enjoy reading the diary entries of my namesake, Lady Penelope Addams. She was a pirate in the 1600s and quite an explorer. Quite sassy too, which makes her pretty fun to read even through all the antiquated English."

Just as she had rehearsed in her mind, she took out a "random" volume from Lady Penelope's set of journals and handed it to him. She was rather calm about this despite knowing that the page she had "coincidentally" left off on was Lady Penelope's perfect description of a vampire, except she referred to them as revenants.

Edward took the book without much suspicion. The journal fell open on the page she had bookmarked. On she watched with a very high mix of nervousness and excitement as his eyes quickly read over the words. If he had a heartbeat, she was sure it would be beating out of his chest, though hers wasn't doing too bad of a job on that front. He didn't seem to express much on the outside, but his mind was racing a million miles per minute she could barely catch up with his thoughts. All she could catch was his anger, anxiety, and the written words of my ancestor racing and repeating through his thoughts.

"Revenants... unnaturally fast... immense strength... colder than ice... whiter than snow... shine in the sunlight just like the ocean... strange eyes... blood drinkers..."

Penelope had to keep from smiling and risk angering him. Truly, she had no idea how he would react, so when he closed the book and placed it back on the shelf, she couldn't be sure what his next move would be. Death seemed to be a great possibility.

The two stood there, silently staring at each other. He was shocked to be sure, but at the moment his mind was more focused on what this meant for his family.

Eventually, he spoke up. "You've known the whole time."

It wasn't a question. He knew she liked reading the journals of that particular family member and she just so happened to hand him the volume that described a vampire in perfect detail, down to the sparkling skin.

"The whole time," she confirmed, her mind searching his for what his next steps would be. Even Alice doesn't know what's going on here because her psychic powers can't seem to penetrate the Addams house or its inhabitants. He had absolutely no idea that this was coming and he hated being unprepared.

He definitely considered killing her and her family but that would be too suspicious. The Addams already drew enough unwanted attention on them due to how their family was perceived by the town, let alone their family history. This library only cemented how odd they were. Another factor was that the Cullens were the only ones who lived near them. If they fled after an "unfortunate accident" at the Addams manor, they would be suspects.

"Look, my parents don't suspect a thing and my aunt doesn't read that far back into the family histories. Lady Penelope only talks about the revenants on that page and nowhere else. If you look at the other stories in there, it clearly comes off as made up so please, don't... overreact."

Edward wasn't so sure. After all, he didn't have proof of his own that this family didn't know more than they let on. He couldn't read their minds and Alice couldn't even see their futures.

"I can't trust your word, Penelope. I'm sorry."

Her eyes widened in fear as his hand reached for her neck. Both of her lives flashed before her eyes in the second it took him to barely touch her skin. Before he could even make contact, her parents walked in.

"Penelope! Is this your new friend?" Gomez called out with Morticia on his arm as they strolled in casually. Edward pulled his hand away as if he wasn't just about to end her life.

Gomez saw this but he took it in a whole different light, as an Addams would. "I'm sorry, are we interrupting something?" His tone seemed to suggest that he just interrupted a romantic moment between the two of them.

Her own father thought that Edward was making a move on her yet Penelope was still trying to recover from seeing both of her lives flash before her eyes. "Um... no, father, you weren't. This is Edward... my friend."

・・・