Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis.

Patricia

When I walked in to my flat one night – my flat that was completely pitch black and freezing – I took a deep breath and flicked the light switch with my finger. I'd left it a bit of a mess in here; Ryan and I hadn't thought to clear up before we left that morning. He'd stayed overnight for the first time.

It took my eyes a moment or so to adjust to the bright lights, but eventually I moved forward in to the living room. I dropped my keys on the coffee table by the sofa and walked down the hall to my room, unraveling my scarf on my way.

Just as I was taking my leather jacket off, I kicked a box under my bed with my heel by accident. I didn't realise it was there, so I decided to take a look at what was in it.

It was a small cardboard box – an old shoebox, in fact – and the edges were scuffed, showing the inside of the cardboard. Frowning, I pulled it out and sat it on my lap as I knelt down. I couldn't remember for the life of me what it was.

But when I opened the lid and the things inside processed through my brain, it all came back to me. It all came back to me and hit me like a wall…
The photo frame, the prom ticket, the picture I'd had on my desk, the red hair flower, the single shoe, the Valentine's day card from when we were seventeen, the little key ring he'd given me for my nineteenth birthday…

I gasped silently and my hand came up to my mouth.

I remembered now.

I'd put this box together when I had taken down the picture of Eddie and me that was once on my desk at work. I'd decided to throw away all the memories from Eddie to try to erase him completely, but when I came to throw them in the bin, I couldn't do it. So instead, I'd come to my room and found the first box I came across, stuffed it full of all the silly, tiny little things and hidden it under my bed. For a while, I'd remembered it was there, but clearly it eventually faded from my memory. How could I have forgotten it?

I looked through each and every one of the items in there. Some made me sad, and some made me happy. The key ring reminded me of the time period when we broke up, but it said "Yacker" on it, and that's what made me happy. The red flower reminded me of when we'd tried to piece things back together. The Valentine's day card reminded me of Anubis House, and how simple things were between us back then.
And the photo of us – my favourite photo of us – reminded me of when we were happy. It was just pure happiness in one photo.

When I thought about it, Ryan and Eddie were complete opposites. Ryan was in a band with black hair, chinos and denim shirts, and he was kind, quiet, and funny.

But Eddie…Eddie was brown-haired, all biker boots and leather jackets and he was loud, tall and sometimes irritating. God, Eddie was irritating. He'd always been the irritating one, but when I thought about it, he was my irritating one.

Ryan was Ryan, and Eddie was Eddie. There was no way of choosing between the two of them by thinking about this. Thinking wasn't getting me anywhere.

Ryan was good, yeah.
But Eddie and I had history. We had all of these memories – all of these things – that I just couldn't erase no matter how hard I tried. There must have been a reason for that.

Before I knew it, I'd picked up my bag, turned the lights back out and gone down to my car.

Before I knew it, I was on his street.

It was a rough neighbourhood he was living in now. His flat was part of a scruffy-looking building, and I hadn't expected it to be quite like this even when he'd told me about it.

If anyone saw me now, they'd think I was crazy. I was crazy; I didn't even know why I'd come here. What did I expect to happen? That I'd tell him about Ryan and then leave again?
People would think I was a terrible person. Which, essentially, I was. This wasn't the right thing to do.

Hand shaking, I knocked on the door. There was no turning back now.

The door opened no more than a minute later. Eddie was just wearing sweatpants and his hair was wet; after all, it was 9pm and he'd probably just had a shower.

I didn't know how or why I'd ended up here. All I knew was that this was where I was, right then, in that moment.

"Hi…" he said softly.

I said nothing. I stared at him for a moment, my face falling slightly.

I just took a few steps forward in to his apartment, a helpless look on my face as if we both knew all along that I'd end up here, and my lips landed on his.

He let me kiss him right away and kissed back before kicking the door shut with his foot. Before I knew it, I'd thrown my coat on the floor and my hands were in his hair. His wet, perfectly tousled hair. He wrapped his arm around my waist and cupped my neck with his free hand, and kissed me like he meant it; like he'd thought of nothing more than being here, touching me like this, for days. Maybe even weeks.

"That thinking took you a long time…" Eddie said against my lips, slightly breathless.

I didn't answer right away. I kissed him again, my mouth already open, and he absolutely, completely willingly let me. "Thinking is overrated." I mumbled before our lips touched again.

We found our way over to the couch and he lay down, my weight suspended on top of him. He pulled away from my lips and rested his forehead on mine. When I opened my eyes for a moment, I saw his eyes were closed.

"Patricia," he said, "I love you."

"I love you too," I kissed him quickly, "Doofus."

I woke up in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar bed. I'd never been here before, and for a moment I felt panic run through me and my heart start to pound as I sat up quickly in bed, holding the sheets up around me.

But then my eyes came in to focus, the moonlight illuminating the room just perfectly, and I relaxed a little. I knew where I was. I knew who I was with.

I looked to my right, and smiled very slightly when I saw him. He was lying on his back, one hand behind his head, and his eyes were closed. He was fast asleep, half-frowning, with his lips pouting slightly.

And that's when I realised that this was home. This was where I should be; this was where I was happiest—with Eddie. Not at work, not in unfamiliar places, not even with Ryan. With Eddie. Even in a crappy apartment like this one, and even though things with him were always turbulent, I was happiest with him.

That was the moment I learned that home isn't always a place; sometimes it's a person. Eddie had always been where I was meant to be.

And as much as I hated how mushy that sounded, I didn't care. I didn't care, because I finally knew what I wanted; what I needed.

With Ryan, things were comfortable and easy.

But with Eddie…things were right. And there's nothing else to it.

Laying back down again, I moved right up close to him and he stirred a little but didn't open his eyes. I put my head on his bare, warm chest and he made a contented noise as he smiled. He put his arm around me, holding me close, and I kissed his chest.

That's when I knew that everything had changed. This time, I'd know him better and this time, we'd both try harder.

A/N: *hides under a rock* I'm SORRY it's taken me over a month to update this story! Things have been crazy, I've had writers block, and it's all been weird. So, I'm sorry! But I hope this chapter made up for it, even though it's rather short. I've missed this story!
Peddie prevails. But, don't think it all ends here;)
Thank you for reading! Please review and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

Who noticed the links to previous chapters in this chapter?;)

PS. I made a new Twitter account! My username is lovecamedown13 (link on my profile). Follow for story updates! (Also random life updates. And lots of fangirling.)

Love :* xxx