A/N: it's been a while since I last saw the show all the way through, so forgive me if I've gotten a few details wrong. I don't own House of Anubis or any of the other versions of that show.
When Eddie got back to Anubis House after the break, he was glad to see that neither Fabian nor Patricia were around. After eight hours on a plane and with the five-hour time difference, he did not have the energy necessary to deal with those two. His friends hadn't done anything wrong, but he just knew that if he saw them, he wouldn't be able to keep his composure.
'God,' he thought to himself, 'I can't wait until Nina gets here so we can deal with this together.'
Eddie and Patricia had broken up over the summer, and while it had been fairly amicable, considering the circumstances, it was still somewhat uncomfortable for him to see her, especially as he suspected she still had feelings for him.
"Hey, Eddie, mate, good to see you."
'Oh great,' Eddie thought, 'the second to last person I wanted to see.'
"Fabian, dude, how have you been?"
"Good, good." Fabian said and then trailed off. "Hey, so have you seen Nina yet?"
'Typical Fabian,' thought Eddie bitterly. 'Not only does he show up when I don't want to see him, but he also brings up the subject I want to talk about the absolute least.'
Eddie ran his hand through his hair and sighed. All he wanted was to escape the conversation and go to sleep so he could deal with this when he was less delirious.
"Nah, man, haven't seen her. She'll probably turn up sooner or later though."
Actually, Eddie knew that Nina's flight had been canceled and she wouldn't get to Anubis until the next day, but he knew Fabian would question why he knew that, and Eddie had a feeling Fabian would not like the answer.
"Anyways, I am super jet lagged, so I'm gonna hit the sack and get a bit of rest before dinner."
"Okay Eddie," Fabian laughed. "I'll try and keep clear of our room until Trudy says dinner is ready."
"Thanks bro," Eddie said, grumbling as he hauled his heavy luggage down the hall to their shared room.
Eddie barely had enough energy to kick off his shoes and toss his phone on the floor before he slipped into blissful unconsciousness.
Fabian chuckled as he watched Eddie trudge into their room. Eddie had never been much of a morning person, so the next few days as he readjusted to GMT would be difficult for the both of them. As it was wont to do when he thought about anything to do with American, Fabian's mind soon turned to the topic of his girlfriend, Nina.
While they had both changed a lot since they got together the first time, he still felt that something was different between them this time. After Sibuna had defeated Senkhara, Nina's gran had shown up, and the two of them had caught up well into the night, preventing Fabian from having the opportunity to talk to her. The next day they finally were able to have the conversation he had been waiting for, and while they did agree to give their relationship another go, something felt different about it. The first time they had gotten together had been so magical, Fabian almost felt like it was a dream. Eventually though, they both woke up and broke up. He hoped that since the start of their relationship this time had been more practical, it was a sign that Fabina would last.
He and Nina had spoken on and off throughout the summer, but they were both busy and transatlantic plane tickets were expensive. He just hoped that when they saw each other again, everything would be the way it had been before.
Fabian turned his head as he heard the creaking of the stairs behind him and saw that it was Patricia descending.
"Hey Fabian. Has anyone else shown up yet?" she asked as she came to a stop beside him, bumping his shoulders slightly in greeting.
"Well Eddie just got here, so that just leaves Nina and then everyone should be here," he replied bumping her shoulders in return. He was glad that he and Patricia had grown closer over the past few years. While she could be rude and abrasive to people she didn't trust, if she counted you as a friend, she would go to the ends of the earth for you.
"That's weird. I talked to Nina a week ago and she said that she had a red eye and would be at Anubis House by eleven AM." Patricia replied frowning slightly.
"It's quarter three now." Fabian responded after checking a clock. "She definitely should have been here by now. Do you think we should be worried?"
"Let's call her and see where she is. I bet she just got stuck in customs longer than expected and is on her way here now." Patricia said before pulling out her phone and dialing Nina's number.
"Huh." Said Patricia after a minute.
"What? What's going on? Why did you say 'huh'?" Fabian asked quickly, his panic starting to spiral out of control.
"It's just her phone is off. It sent me straight to voicemail"
"Nina never has her phone off. She promised me after I thought Senkhara pushed her in the pit that she would always be reachable to that nothing like that would happen again."
Fabian was really starting to worry at this point. Had something happened to Nina after they had last talked? He really didn't know what he would do with himself if something happened to her.
"I talked to Eddie earlier and he said he hadn't heard from her either." Fabian responded, making a conscious effort to keep himself from pacing. "Maybe we should go talk to him to see if there's anything he knows that we don't."
Patricia frowned to herself before nodding.
"Good idea Fabian. After all they were both in America together, he might know if anything happened to her."
Fabian didn't like the idea that Eddie might know more about his girlfriend than he did, but for Nina's sake, he was willing to give it a go.
As they walked into Fabian and Eddie room, Patricia tripped over Eddie's backpack, which had been left on the floor by the door.
"Wow, Slimeball isn't even here for five minutes and he's already making a mess."
As she went to right the fallen backpack, she noticed something had fallen out of a side pocket.
"Is that Nina's locket?" Fabian asked incredulously. He was willing to accept that Eddie might know more about Nina's travel plans just due to proximity, but he could not think of a single good reason for him to have her most treasured possession.
"Looks like Eddie might know more about Nina than he let on," Patricia said with a frown. She handed the necklace to Fabian, who put it in his pocket possessively, unwilling to let it go back into Eddie's possession even for a minute.
"Look, over there on the floor, it's his mobile. If he knows anything about Nina that he wouldn't want us to know, it would be on there."
"I don't know Patricia," Fabian responded worriedly, "that's a pretty big invasion of privacy. If we're wrong and Eddie finds out, he will never forgive us."
"What's worth more to you: Nina's safety or Eddie's friendship? Besides, Eddie is Nina's Osirian, he understands wanting her safe just as much as you do?"
Fabian did not like the comparison between his feelings for Nina and Eddie's but he conceded the point and grabbed the mobile, gesturing for Patricia to follow him as he went back into the hallway. "Eddie is a deep sleeper, but not that deep. We don't want him to wake up in the middle of us riffling through his phone."
"Fair enough," responded Patricia. "So? What does it say?"
"Well Eddie put a password on his mobile, so I can't get in, but there is an unread text from Nina on his lock screen."
"And?" asked Patricia impatiently.
Fabian handed her the mobile with a scowl and stomped away, glaring daggers at the room in which Eddie was currently sleeping. On the screen there was a text from Nina Martin.
"Trust me on this, it's for the best. We need to keep this to ourselves. Not even Fabian and Patricia can know, it will only make things worse." Patricia read the text aloud, growing angrier with every word. Sure, she had been the one to break up with Eddie, but it hurt that he had moved on so fast, and with one of her best friends no less.
"How could he?" Fabian fumed. "He is supposed to be my best friend and then he goes and makes a move on my girlfriend! I can't believe this!"
Before he could wake Eddie up and confront him, however, the rest of Anubis House started to trickle in through the hallway and into the common room.
"Amber's party, I completely forgot about that." Patricia was hurt that her friend and her ex-boyfriend would betray her like that, but she cared about them enough to give them a chance to explain themselves. Fabian on the other hand, seemed ready to punch Eddie out then and there. "We should go in and catch up with our friends and we can finish talking about this later. I'll go put Eddie's mobile back and wake him up for the party. If you go in there, I'm worried that would will lose it."
"Fine." Fabian said stiffly. "Whatever." He shot one last murderous look at the bedroom door before turning on his heel and joining the others for the party.
'I hope you know what you're doing Nina,' Patricia thought to herself and she headed back into Eddie's room, 'because if you are doing what Fabian thinks you're doing, nothing is ever going to be the same.'
Fabian knew that he be trying harder to interact with his housemates, but he couldn't stop thinking about what he'd read. Nina would never cheat on him, would she? Things were just finally working out for them; would she really throw that away for Eddie? The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and by the time Eddie entered the room with Patricia on his heels, he could barely contain his temper. The last straw was when he overheard Amber ask Trudy where Nina was, and Eddie, who was right next to her, pretended like he had no idea. It was all Fabian could do not to shove Eddie too hard as he pushed him out of the room into the hallway, Amber's party be damned.
"Why do you keep telling people you don't know where Nina is? I know that you know, why won't you just admit it?" Fabian knew that he was starting to shout, but he could hardly bring himself to care.
"Fabian, buddy, I have no idea what you're talking about," Eddie replied nervously.
"Don't lie to me!" Fabian was practically shaking with rage. He shoved his hand into his pocket and tore the locket out. "I know all about your 'summer romance.'" He could barely keep the sneer off his face at the thought of it. "I saw the texts, I know what you two have been up to. Why don't you just admit it?"
"Listen, Fabian, I don't know what you think you know, but I promise you you're wrong." Eddie could barely get the words out before Fabian leapt at him, intent on pummeling his face into the ground.
Alfie, who had heard the raised voices and had been watching from the doorway, caught Fabian and pulled him back before he could make contact with Eddie's face.
"How could you do this?" Fabian spat, his face turning red. "I thought we were friends."
"Okay, okay, you're right. I do know more than I said, but it isn't for the reason you think. Nina should be here soon and she deserves to tell you herself, but I will explain some of it if you just calm down. This isn't something the entire house needs to know about, but they will if you don't stop shouting."
Fabian looked at Alfie, who nodded, and turned back to Eddie with a sigh.
"Fine. I'll listen. I'm not sure I believe you, but I'm willing to wait for Nina to explain herself."
Alfie released Fabian, and Eddie sighed and followed Fabian into their room.
One day. All Eddie had wanted was one day before this came out so that he and Nina could back each other up. Of course, Fabian just had to find the stupid locket and jump to conclusions. Had he mentioned something about texts? Did Fabian go through his phone? Eddie sighed and pushed that to the back of his mind to deal with later. He clearly had bigger problems. 'Jeez Nina, of all the times to be late.'
"Okay Fabian, what exactly do you think is happening?"
Fabian scowled before rolling his shoulders and turning to face Eddie.
"I think," he said sarcastically, "that you and Nina have been dating over the summer and were planning on lying to us about it."
"Wow okay, you must have a really poor opinion of me if you think I would do that to you, let alone Nina. You know how much she cares about you. Yes, we have been keeping in contact over the summer, but not for the reason you think."
Fabian still looked skeptical. "Then why would you need to lie about it?"
Eddie ran his hand through his hair, frustrated at how stubborn Fabian was being. Honestly the things he put up with for Nina.
"We've been doing Paragon-Osirian things. After the whole showdown with Senkhara, I reached out to Nina to see if she could help me control my powers. I'll let her explain the other parts because, really, she deserves to be the one to tell you, but rest assured, we have kept it strictly platonic."
Eddie felt a little bit had about lying to Fabian, but it wasn't really a lie per say, so much as it was just leaving stuff out, and really, Fabian deserved it after going through his phone like that.
"You promise that's all that's happened?" Fabian seemed desperate for what he was saying to be true, but still couldn't quite believe it.
"Promise," Eddie replied, mentally crossing his fingers.