DISCLAIMER: I don't own House of Anubis.

The food was flying- marinara sauce from the hoagies getting streaked across each other's' faces, the spaghetti getting tossed about. Eventually, Eddie moved to his kitchen and grabbed some more ammunition, cracking an egg on her head while laughing, fully caught up in the food fight. Patricia gasped before going in for retaliation, grabbing a pitcher of water and soaking him with it. She laughed freely and it was a certain kind of contagious, and Eddie beamed before flinging some jelly at her so that the red of the marinara sauce and the purple of the jelly mixed on her face. Patricia did some quick thinking and squirted ketchup at him, staining his soaked white shirt. He advanced on her, grinning- it'd been a while since he had a good food fight, a good way to release it all. Patricia looked for an escape but there was a counter to her left and a stove to her right and the wall behind her, and Eddie was blocking the only other option as he cornered her, an almost manic look in his eye.

"Got you," he laughed, cracking a final egg over her head and watching her close her eyes in defeat. Eddie laughed- when he had initially invited Patricia over, he had no clue it would be this fun. He hadn't even expected her to retaliate in the first place.

She retaliated.

That had to mean something- was she lowering her force field?

Meanwhile, Patricia laughed too, and both of them just stared at each other, smiling. It was a good feeling, being this close to Eddie-

Oh no.

Why was she this close to Eddie?

Patricia bowed her head and he raised an eyebrow- was something wrong? He thought they were having fun, thought he was lowering her force field. What had made her get all shy again? Eddie looked down at her curiously and he realized just how close they actually were.

Oh.

If he moved one tinier step closer, they'd be touching. And then if he bent his head down just a little bit, they'd be kissing.

Eddie shook his head and stepped back- why was he thinking about kissing Patricia? He backed away even more and Patricia let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She scratched the back of her neck and Eddie bit his lip, "We, uh, kind of, um, need to clean this up." Patricia nodded, too embarrassed to speak, and looked down, already wiping up some sauce that had landed on the counter. She couldn't bring herself to look at Eddie for two reasons- one, she had been so close to him and that made her uncomfortable. Two, Eddie's white shirt was soaked with water, and it was just now that she had realized…he had abs.

It made her blush furiously, but Eddie didn't seem to see the problem. Maybe he didn't notice? Or maybe he did but didn't think she would mind?

"Sorry about the eggs," Eddie muttered, cleaning up some dropped eggshells. Patricia shook her head- they were having a food fight, that's what you were supposed to do. "I went a little overboard."

"It's fine," she said quietly, combing an eggshell out of her hair. "Sorry about the water."

"It's fine," Eddie mimicked. "And besides, I can change into other clothes. You can't…you could…um, you know, wear one of my shirts because of, you know," he motioned to her top, which was now splattered with egg yolk. Her pants were clean, but Patricia gulped. The idea of wearing Eddie's shirt wasn't something that appealed to her- wearing a guy's shirt meant something intimate and she couldn't even think of that without feeling even more uncomfortable.

"No, I'm fine," Patricia insisted, intent on not looking at him. Eddie opened his mouth to speak.

"Patricia," he sighed. "C'mon. It's the least I could do." He was trying really hard to be a gentleman, because he did feel like he was at fault somewhat. But she wasn't responding to his attempts and it made him frustrated. He shook his head and wiped up some jelly. Soon enough, the two had everything cleaned up but themselves, and Eddie ran a hand through his hair.

"Seriously," he started again. "Just wear one of my shirts." He honestly did feel bad, and it wasn't making it better that Patricia wasn't even looking at him anymore. And right when he thought they were getting on the right track.

"I can just go home, honestly."

"Uh-huh," Eddie crossed his arms. "And what are you going to say to your mom when she asks why you have eggs all over you?" Patricia sighed, knowing Eddie was right. Her mum definitely wasn't going to take it well that her daughter was covered in eggs and marinara sauce.

Eddie must've taken her silence as a confirmation, and he grinned. "Great, let me go get a t-shirt for you." And before she could object, he was already going up the stairs. Patricia sighed, burying her face in her hands. Somehow, whenever she was around Eddie, something always screwed it up. She did want to be friends with him, because he did seem pretty cool and he was probably the only guy she could talk Sick Puppies with, but whenever they were together, something always happened that changed their whole dynamic once more.

"It's going to be big on you," Eddie muttered, throwing her the t-shirt a while later, now dried off and changed into different clothes. "You know where the bathroom is, right?" Patricia nodded wordlessly before hurrying off in the right direction and shutting the door behind her.

It was a Tri-Polar t-shirt- she had one similar to this. But hers was tighter and obviously smaller…but still, maybe Piper and her mum wouldn't even realize she wasn't wearing her own clothes? She could tuck it in or something and there wouldn't even be a problem.

She peeled her t-shirt off and placed his on herself, feeling weird. She was wearing Eddie Miller's shirt. Patricia shuddered slightly, his t-shirt was soft and worn in and it even smelled like him (she had gotten too many strong whiffs of his cologne from the times they had stood too close) and she didn't want that. It felt awkward and odd to have his shirt on, but she just shook her head and balled up her own shirt before stepping outside. This didn't mean anything.

"I can put that in our laundry and I'll get it back to you," Eddie promised, grabbing her stained shirt from her hands and throwing it in a bin. He turned around to face her again, "I...don't want things to be weird between us."

Weren't they already? Patricia thought, but she just nodded. "It's not…we're friends, yeah?"

But they weren't 'friends.' Not really. They weren't casual acquaintances. They were people, two people who had made the mistake of meeting each other. Two people who were finding similarities where there were once differences. Two people who were now trying to class themselves but failing miserably.

Honestly, Patricia and Eddie didn't know what they were. They weren't enemies and they weren't acquaintances and they weren't really friends. And the only option left…

But they weren't a couple either- as if that would ever happen.

"Yeah," Eddie agreed, looking her over slightly. Maybe it was because she was wearing his shirt, but Patricia had some kind of appeal suddenly. He shook the feeling away- it had to be because she was wearing his shirt, that had to be it.

His shirt. He had never loaned a girl his shirt like this…not even Amber (mostly because she thought his shirts were ugly.) But Patricia looked so small and vulnerable and so unlike herself that he almost…softened? Yes, he softened. Eddie gave her a small smile and changed the topic, "So, first hoagie?" He lightly nudged her and wiggled his eyebrows playfully, trying to lighten the mood. "What'd you think?"

Patricia grinned, grateful for the change of topic, "It was…good."

"That's it?" Eddie frowned. "Just good?"

"Fine, it was great," Patricia shrugged, and Eddie laughed, checking his watch. His mom would be home soon and Patricia seemed to realize that too.

"I should be going," she jerked a thumb to the door and headed towards it, Eddie following and watching her step outside.

"This…" Eddie started, not sure where he was going. He decided to go with the truth, "…was fun." And it was true- up until the moment they realized they were standing too close, he was actually enjoying himself. Food fights were always great.

"Yeah," Patricia said after a moment, looking wistful. "It was." She backed away, muttering a 'bye' before stuffing her hands in her pockets. Eddie gave one last wave before closing the door and letting out a long breath.

He wasn't even sure what to think anymore.