Because of the positive response and the overall plea of asking for another chapter! So, there is minor Fabina in here, but you'll have to read the entire thing to see if they get back together! Enjoy. (:
"Amber, you're first, okay? You go outside and trigger the security alarm," Nina instructs.
"Right, I'll be quick; I'm sly as a fox," Amber says, nodding.
Nina glances at Alfie. "What are you going to do, Alfie?"
He narrows his eyes and grins mischievously. "I'll think of something, don't worry."
"Okay, good. You two will distract him with Eddie's music, yeah?" Patricia says.
Nina swiftly glances at Fabian, who returns her look. She faces Amber and nods, thought butterflies begin to flutter in her stomach. "Yeah, we've got it."
"Patricia, create a diversion downstairs," Fabian says.
"Gotcha. I've got the perfect plan," Patricia says, smiling deviously. Nina and Amber exchange glances, but decide not to question their friend.
"Everyone ready?" Nina asks. Sibuna nods, putting their right* hand to their faces.
"Sibuna," each member says.
. . .
"Okay, let's just get in and get out," Nina whispers as she and Fabian stand in the hallway outside of his room.
"Right. I'll grab a set of speakers and the remote, you grab his iPod and the other set," Fabian says.
They quietly open the door, barely breathing, and see that the lights are off with the only thing lighting the room being the shaft of light that grows with each inch that they open the door.
Nina creeps over to the shelf by Eddie's bed, where she sees him with mussed blonde hair, a large gaping mouth with a snore that can be heard from only a few feet away. As Nina gathers the speaker set into her arms, she searches his shelf for his iPod, finding it nestling into a nook between a forgotten History textbook and a mess of wires leading to a set of earphones. She slips it into her pocket, and begins to tip-toe away, when she hears Eddie mutter something.
"Yeah, Yacker? Sure you will . . ." he mutters into his pillow. Nina's brow furrows, and being the curious person she is, she moves closer to verify her theory that he's talking about the person she thinks he's talking about.
"Mm-hm, Patricia? What do you want?" he slurs in his sleep.
Nina raises her eyebrows in surprise, but continues on, not bothered enough to wonder about Patricia and Eddie's developing relationship.
She is about to reopen the door that has been left open a crack, when a loud clatter echoes around the room. She swivels around to find Fabian bending to pick up the remote from the ground.
"Fabian!" she hisses.
He mouths an apology, but she continues to move her hands in a gesture meaning get up.
Fabian picks up the remote, and hurries out of the room, Nina following him. She puts down the things in her arms carefully, then moves to close the door. She grips the knob tightly in her hand, not wanting it to make any noise. As soon as it is enclosed within the frame, she lets go of the doorknob, picks up her things, and faces Fabian.
"Let's put the speaker sets around the area. Okay, one by the window and the other by the fireplace," Fabian instructs her.
"Gotcha." Nina heads to the window and sets the speakers down on the window's ledge. There is a flat red pillow sitting there and Nina uses it to cover half of the speaker set, to keep it hidden from view. She moves to the fireplace, placing the speakers on the table beside a huge white planter that contains a large green plant with overflowing leaves, completely hiding the speakers from any viewpoint. One look at the fireplace and Nina flashes back to the day when she and Fabian butted heads last term. They had been so close to kissing-so close. But then Amber interrupted the moment, and the opportunity was gone.
"Did you finish, Nina?" Fabian asks from the doorway where he is keeping watch.
"Oh, yeah. I did," Nina says sheepishly. She wants to treasure those few great memories that they had as Fabina, but she reminds herself that they are no longer a couple. No more Fabina means no more daydreaming about the past.
Fabian walks over to her and sets the iPod in its place, using his thumb to scan through the music lists to find the right song to play. Instead of keeping watch like she should be doing, she looks at Fabian.
His blue eyes flick up and down over the screen, wavering over one song but then skipping over it to find a better one, and Nina can't help but notice the cute little frown that she always notices when he concentrates.
Brown hair falls in front of those gorgeous blue eyes, and Nina's eyes fall to his lips. The ones she could have . . . should have kissed yesterday. By this time today. she could have been together, she could have been half of Fabina again . . .
Her thoughts screech to a halt as she realizes that she is thinking about Fabian in that way. She chastises herself, No more thinking about what could have been.
"Okay, everything is all set. Let's hide somewhere," Fabian suggests.
"Sure. Uh, where?" Nina asks.
Fabian's eyes turn to the kitchen, landing on the countertop and then the cupboard below. Nina gasps, "In there?"
"Well, it-it's convenient! We-We c-can see Victor w-without him seeing us, so . . . I mean, do you have any better ideas?" he says.
Nina groans, looking at the small, enclosed space. It is so small . . . would they even be able to fit in there? And they would be so close together, how would that affect her and Fabian's relationship?
"B-But . . . It's so small," Nina insists.
"I thought Alfie was the claustrophobic one?" Fabian's voice is tinged with confusion, but also that smallest bit of amusement. Irritation creeps over her skin at him thinking the situation is funny.
"I'm not claustrophobic," Nina grumbles. "Let's go."
They walk over to the cupboard, opening the doors to reveal mixing bowls and two cooking pans. They carefully lay those on the ground beside the cupboard, then eye the tiny space they both have to squeeze into.
"You first," Nina mumbles.
Fabian casts her a wary look, but crouches down and attempts to fit into the cramped space.
He is able to fit into the small space, his head bowed forward and his back arched, but the bottom line is that it looks uncomfortable. Fabian faces Nina and smiles, saying, "See? It's not too bad."
"Okay . . ." Nina replies uncertainly. She crouches down to be level with the cupboard's top, again glancing into the small space.
She crawls into the small space, resulting in the same position that Fabian was in: her head forward with her back curving awkwardly and her legs sticking out, almost hanging out of the cupboard.
"This is comfortable," Nina deadpans.
"Let's turn on the music and wait for Victor," Fabian suggests, ignoring Nina's last comment.
"Go for it," Nina replies.
Fabian raises his arm with the remote in hand and puts his hand above the countertop. The music begins, and Fabian retracts his arm, a half-smile on his face.
"And now we wait," he says.
"And now we wait," she echoes.
Loud, thundering footsteps are heard above them, signaling Victor is marching downstairs. He starts ranting about who is there and to knock off the music, but Nina and Fabian stay silent.
Fabian clicks the music off, and Victor comes closer, yelling about who it is. With a grin, he says, "Second verse, same as the first."
The music is turned on and blares throughout the house once more. Victor grumbles something as Nina holds up two fingers, whispering, "Point two, Sibuna."
They close the doors of the cupboard, just in case Victor continues to search for the culprit of the music. But, they hear Victor trudge back upstairs as the song reaches its end.
After a couple of minutes of silence, they clamber out of the tiny space. Nina sighs with relief as her legs are free of their tight confinement and her back is spared from the aches and pains of being at an odd angle.
Fabian follows Nina out of the cupboard, rubbing his sore neck and glancing worriedly at Nina.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
Nina looks up at him and smiles wearily. "Yeah, I'm fine. You?"
"I'm fine." He puts a hand to her face and uses his thumb to trace the dark circles under her eyes. "You haven't been sleeping well." Nina knew it wasn't a question.
She sighs, touching the hand on her face. She meets his eyes with her tired ones. "The spirit likes to keep me up. I'm constantly kept up by threats of 'sacrificing my life' and 'my friends paying the consequences.'" She shrugs nonchalantly, as if sleep-deprivation is no big deal.
"Nina, are you sure you're okay? I mean if you want, I'll stay up and wait for Victor to fall asleep and then I'll wake you up."
"No, I'm-I'm fine. Thanks," Nina says. She lets out a loud yawn and puts her head against the cupboard door, leaning against it. "Okay . . . Maybe I'll sleep for a minute or two."
Fabian shakes his head at seeing her uncomfortable sleeping position. He closes the other cupboard door and leans against it, right beside Nina.
"That can't be comfortable, Nina," he says.
"I'm fine," she argues.
"Come on." He offers his arm to her. "I'm a good pillow."
Nina smiles, taking his arm, and snuggles against him. She lays her head on his shoulder, sighing softly.
"Just a few minutes, okay?" she says.
"Sleep, Nina," Fabian commands.
She nods slowly, and her breathing begins to deepen, indicating that she fell asleep. He holds the remote in one hand, remembering that he still had to finish the job: to make sure Victor falls asleep so that Sibuna can grab the amulets. But the girl sleeping on his arm makes him think of a time of better days. Days when they were together, and happy.
. . .
Checking his watch, it's been about fifteen minutes since Nina fell asleep. Fabian has a strong feeling that if he lets her sleep any longer, he would have an angry, but well-rested Nina to deal with.
Before waking her up, he begins to ponder the last two days. Fabian is still a bit stunned at her actions tonight, wondering why she actually allowed him to touch her face and why she would actually get close to him, like sleeping on his arm. It is weird that she is acting so nice to him considering she was so distant yesterday. Was it the sleep-deprivation, or . . .
A noise comes from her and he looks down at her. She murmurs the words more distinctly and he gasps in surprise at what he hears.
She murmurs, "Fabian, I love you, but . . ." She frowns.
His mind whirls with possible thoughts and ideas of the two of them back together. Did she miss him like he missed her? Does he wish they were "Fabina" again? One extra thought slips into his mind: he wishes he can be in this position forever, with Nina on his arm and a bubble of happiness around them.
But in a way, that is taking advantage of Nina. She is sleeping after all, it is not really true, she's just sleeping and it could be about some other memory. Maybe she just said his name by accident or something.
He tries to deny the entire scene, it doesn't make sense why she would be so happy right now. It's like yesterday never even happened. But it did, and Nina isn't in her right mind right now.
"Nina. Nina, wake up," Fabian whispers softly in her ear.
"Mmm?" she mumbles. Her eyes open to reveal hazel irises with exhaustion glowing within.
"You awake?" he asks.
She exhales with a lazy grin on her face. "Yup, I'm up." She shakes her head, trying to knock off the feelings of sleep.
"Let's go back upstairs and wait until Victor falls asleep, yeah?" Fabian suggests.
"Yeah." She rubs her eyes with her fists, blinks a few times, and then smiles at him. "I'm good."
Fabian helps Nina pick up the speakers, putting them back in his and Eddie's room. Eddie is nowhere to be found, but the two of them ignore this fact and go upstairs.
As Fabian shuts the door behind them, he holds the door handle to avoid the lock giving off a loud click. He sees Nina awake and beaming, completely ecstatic that Sibuna's plans are working. He grins in reply, glad that his Nina is back and alert, ready to face the next part of the plan, but also sad and wishing that the sleeping Nina who still loved him was the actual one awake.
Note: This is from at least seven episodes ago, around when House of Isis/House of Curfews. Sorry about the confusion!
I'm not sure if they know Senkhara's name yet, so I called her "the spirit"... Also, the asterisk is because I have no idea what hand they use. For the first season, I swore they used their left hand for the Sibuna sign, but now they use their right hand.
To be honest, I really, really, really like this chapter. And I hope you do, too, so please review and give me feedback!
~Ary