Eric was sprawled out across his couch, a bottle of whiskey just out of his reach and bag of chips sitting on his chest, when he heard the soft knock on his door. He quickly glanced at the clock, it was almost midnight, no one would bother him this late except for maybe Max.
He stood, brushing the chip crumbs off of his shirt, before crossing the room to answer the door. He was surprised to find Gabby leaning against his door frame, her blue eyes bloodshot and her hair disheveled.
"What's wrong?" He asked, quickly pulling her into the room and checking her over, trying to figure out what had driven her to show up on his doorstep when she should be asleep.
She chuckled before wrapping her arms around him, "Nothing, I just couldn't sleep because of the stupid fear sims."
He led her to the couch, pulling her into his lap, "I guess I should have expected that, although I thought that with your... condition it might not be bad for you."
She smirked; despite Eric's vehemently denying that he had a problem with her being divergent, he still talked about it like it was a disease and not a simple difference in how her brain worked. "Despite that fact," she replied, "The sims still dredge up all of your worst fears, rational or irrational, and knowing that it isn't real doesn't change the fact that it scares you. That's why they call it an IRRATIONAL fear."
Eric chuckled, pulling her into his arms more tightly, "Do you want to talk about it?"
She thought it over for a moment before nodding, "So, I was in this dark room, sitting on the floor when..." Gabby paused mid thought when she felt Eric tense up beneath her, "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Oh nothing," He mumbled unconvincingly as he tried to relax again, despite the fact that his eyes seemed to be glued to the black spot on the wall.
"So anyway," Gabby continued, "Suddenly there are straps around my wrists and ankles; they start pulling me down until I am lying on my back on the ground. Then out of every corner of the room I start seeing..."
"Spider," Eric mumbles.
"Yeah! Well, spiders; there was more than just one…" She replied, moments before the body she had been laying on sprung from the couch, effectively flinging her to the floor. "What the hell, Eric?" She screeched as she pushed herself to her feet.
"Sorry, continue," He replied nonchalantly as he helped her up from the floor. Once Gabby was on her feet again, she stared at the muscular, to most people intimidating, man before her.
Finally, she followed his gaze to the wall, where she noticed the gigantic black spider making its way down the wall and toward the couch where they had just been laying. She let out a screech and pushed Eric in front of her. "What the hell?! Are we breeding giant mutant spiders?"
Eric couldn't hide the smirk that filled his face, "Not that I'm aware of, I certainly would not have green-lit that project."
"Well," She said attempting to shove him forward toward the wall, "Kill it."
He laughed nervously, "What's it hurting? It can have its corner we can just move to the bedroom." He propped his foot up on the front of the couch to prevent her from pushing him forward.
"Oh my god, are you, the great Eric, afraid of spiders? The man that can make someone wet themselves just by glaring at them, is afraid of bugs?" Gabby teased softly, still attempting to shove him forward.
"Arachnid," He corrected absentmindedly before continuing defensively, "And no, I am not afraid of a stupid spider, Gidg."
"Okay," She said putting her hands up in surrender and ceasing pushing him forward, "If you're not afraid, then kill it. Before it gets away," She added with a shiver.
"Fine!" He shouted looking around for a weapon, "Give me one of your shoes."
"Why MY shoe?"
He turned, simply looking at her for a moment before she lifted her leg, rolling her eyes as she yanked her left shoe off. He took the shoe, slowly inching forward, feeling its eyes on him as he moved. He raised his weapon slowly so as not to scare it away, before swinging the shoe at the wall decisively.
He popped back quickly, glancing between the wall and the shoe to make sure it was really dead and not just angry, before turning and handing his girlfriend her shoe. "There."
She studied the shoe for a moment, holding it at arm's length, before smirked up at him. Finally, she stood on her tip toes, kissing him softly, "It's all right, your secret's safe with me, tough guy."
"I'm not afraid of spiders," He mumbled as she grabbed his hand and began pulling him toward his room.
"Absolutely," She replied sarcastically as they reached the bed. She yawned, "Can we discuss what you aren't afraid of later, I am exhausted." With that she kicked her other shoe off before crawling into his bed. Eric was close behind, wrapping his arms around her protectively as the pair fell asleep.