#I NEED a fabina endgame for my own damn sanity

[bywhatilove]

Chapter Four of The Friend Trap: Starring KT and Eddie

Things were not gonna do: remember that it’s been a year since i updated this

Nina didn’t want to be someone who ran away from her problems. And she wasn’t, truly. She had stayed after Sarah had sent her on a wild goose chase to find the cup of ankh. She had stayed after finding out she was the chosen one. She had stayed after Senkhara cursed her grandmother and sibuna- the only five people left she was sure she loved. She stayed and she fought.

Nina Martin wasn’t a quitter. She just wasn’t.

And no matter what Fabian or Eddie or anyone else at Anubis House thought of her, she certainly hadn’t quit on them. She had run from her former boarding school, but only to protect her friends. During that summer between junior and senior year, after almost being dragged down to the depths of hell to rule the underworld with Senkhara, the Egyptain Gods began to haunt her even worse than ever before. No longer did they choose to lurk around the dusty halls of Anubis House, but rather popping up during her daily life at home. She would be walking down her neighborhood street when, suddenly, Anubis would be walking next to her, taunting her with her worst nightmares. Like her grandmother dying, the one tether Nina had left to her parents. Or like Fabian or Amber or any of the Sibuna members being hunted down by death before they eventually succumbed. Osiris would plague her dreams, haunting her with images of her and those she loved being tortured in the underworld. Set would whisper tales of disaster running rampant on the earth killing mass numbers of innocent people, and that blood would be on Nina’s hands for not fulfilling her duties as the chosen one. Those were nightmares and curses Nina was determined to bear solely on her shoulders. And, god, it was a terrible year. Not having the rest of sibuna there to keep her morals up was something Nina never realized how much she had taken for granted. She missed Alfie inputting hilarious one liners and breaking up the tension of stress that so often hovered above the group. She missed Patricia, always offering a witty comment that often joked just how much danger they were truly in, while, at the same time, brought a smile to everyone’s face. She missed Amber being the group’s cheerleader who also encouraged everyone with a token of confidence and naive fortune. She missed Fabian being her right hand man and never doubting her, not even when she deserved it. All of that one top of her grandmother still struggling with her health was enough to send a girl right over the edge. And Nina refused to let Sibuna see her so broken and scared. She was supposed to be the strong one, the leader who kept preserving during tough times. But during that year, Nina was no leader. No one knew what the Gods had put her through that year. Not her gran. Not K.T. No one. And Nina was determined it stayed that way because, if anyone knew, then Nina wasn’t sure they would ever be able to look at her the same way.

That was why Nina had stormed out. Not because she was upset to see Fabian and Eddie. Not because she was mad K.T had been lying to her for their entire friendship or that her and Eddie had orchestrated this whole thing (if anything, she was secretly glad they had, but she would never let them know that). But because if anyone could see right through her and eventually get the truth out of her, it would be Fabian. He saw right through her. He always had. And he couldn’t find out what had happened to her that year. That was why Nina sat on a bench outside of the coffee store staring at the busty streets of New York City instead of inside with her friends. Not because she wanted to. She wanted nothing more than to reconnect with those she had left behind. But, she had to hide. She had to stay away from them. It was better for everyone (ok definitely not for her, but for them) even if they couldn’t see it.

Fabian had to be the one who came running after her. It had been that way since Patricia poured milk on her and he found her in the hallway claiming that her tears were due to her allergy to cats. He would always be the one who, no matter how hard she pushed and no matter how stubborn she was, would always come and find her. It may have taken him some time this go-around and it may have only happened due to a little snooping by his friends, but he had found his way back to her. He always would. That was why he had felt so betrayed by Nina when she didn’t return to Anubis House. He thought that the two of them had finally gotten their shit together. He had told her after all… that she was the one.

“Well, my chosen one”

Fabin knew that Nina was the one for him. After all that they had gone through together, truly, how could it be anyone else? Fabin had thought that Nina felt the same way. That was why he had felt so betrayed by her sudden departure. He would have understood if Nina needed to stay behind in the states to care for her gran. After the hell that Senkhara had put her through last year by using her gran’s health as a timepiece to push them to risk their lives, anyone would have understood that Nina needed to stay in the states to care for her gran. All it would have taken was one facetime and Fabian would have understood. Long distance would have been hard, but the two of them had already faced much, much worse. Facing off against a crazy man who was desperate to live forever? Completing life threatening tasks in a 100 year old tunnel created by a man who loved games in order to please an Egyptain ghost ruler? Having to save Nina from being dragged to the underworld by said ghost? The two had fought battles that were far outside the expected challenges of teenage couples. Sometimes it felt like they had led a life and more in their two years together. They had faced everything together, even when things got rough and Nina quit sibuna or when they broke up or when Nina fell down the hole in the senet game. No matter what, Fabin and Nina never gave up on one another. So why had Nina run away and refused to contact any of them?

Fabin saw her sitting on a bench right outside the coffee shop. And even though he hadn’t seen or spoke to her in two years or that he was rightfully pissed at her for falling off the face of the earth, he couldn’t help but still feel butterflies in his stomach at the sight of her. For years, he had dreamed of this very moment. But now that it was here, well he just didn’t know what to say or do.

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Call it her chosen one sense or whatever it may be, but Nina knew that someone was behind her and she had a pretty good guess of who it was. The raven haired boy who was her first love, her right hand man and her best friend, the first one she trusted with her secrets- Fabian.

“Hey, Fabian.” She muttered without even turning to face him to confirm that it was indeed him. “I figured you would be the one who ran after me.” She silently chuckled to herself.

“You always were,” she muttered just under her breath for only her to hear.

Fabian came around the bench and took the vacant stop next to her without replying. “Hey,” he finally said after a couple beats of silence.

An awkward silence of a mix of tension and words left unsaid hovered above the pair of estranged best friends. Neither knew where to even start. There was so much to unpack. So much to catch up on. So much to apologize for.

Nina was the first to break it. “I’m sorry,” she stated plainly, not even allowing herself to glance over to Fabian. Instead, she kept her gaze fixated on a stop light across the seat. Green. Yellow. Red.

How nice would it be to be on such a stable routine? She thought to herself. To never have to question which Egyptain god would terrorize you next?

“Don't be,” Fabian shrugged his shoulders. “I’m upset with tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum too for using us as pawns in their Parent Trap game.”

“Yeah…” Nina whispered. “But I am glad to see you again.” For the first time, she looked over at him and allowed a smile to creep over her face.

Fabian returned the smile and just for a fleeting moment everything was alright. It was like just for a moment, they were transported back to a moment when they were two lovesick teenagers hiding crushes on one another. But the magic of that moment was broken just as it had started with Fabian clearing his throat and asking the one question she knew he was bound to ask but she could never answer.

“So, then why did you do it?”

It was like the hustle and bustle of New York City fell silent. Like Victor had just given his award winning speech at 10 p.m every night just before he let his pin drop and silence cursed the halls of Anubis House. (Nina never realized she would miss that annoying speech so much, yet she found herself looking at the clock at 10 pm wishing she was hiding out in her room with Amber as they waited to sneak out). His voice was so calm and collective; yet, somehow, that was worse then if he was yelling.

Nina knew he wasn’t referring to her running off nor was he referring to her not returning to Anubis House. He was mad that she left without any contact but only a letter to explain her sudden departure. That she never heard him out. That she never gave a warning sign. That she left him in exile. That she became a myth, a ghost that haunted him everywhere he went. But she wasn’t ready to give him the true answer to that. She would die with that secret, buried six feet under.

“My gran was sick. You know that.” Nina started out with a simple statement. It wasn’t a lie.

Fabian ran his hand through his hair- his tale-tale sign that he was nervous or frustrated. “I know that, Nina.”

(Nina hated the way he barked out her name. Like it meant nothing more to him than four simple letters, two syllables.)

“But you didn’t have to fall off the face of the earth. You could have called or texted or facetimed. At the very least, you could have told us beforehand that you weren't coming back. You didn’t have to let Mr. Sweet ambush us with the news. Even if you never wanted to see us again, that was the very least you owed us.”

“I never wanted that to happen! You seriously think I wanted to cut off all contact? That I wanted to leave behind the one place that felt like home to me full of people that I loved? That I wanted to leave behind you?” Nina’s voice rose in volume, not with anger but rather with hurt. How could he think that she never wanted to see them again? “Like I said in the letter, seeing you all would have hurt me too much. Even just keeping in contact would have reminded me too much of what I had left behind. It would have changed my mind in an instant and I would have caught the first flight back to England. But I couldn’t do that. I just couldn’t come back.”

“Why not?” Fabian probed. “I know it wasn’t because of that crap you wrote in the letter about the osirian and the chosen one not being in the same place. I know that you can't lie to save your life, Nina, but you could have come up with a better lie than that.”

Nina broke her gaze away from Fabian, which had been glued to him since they began arguing. Lying to him hurt enough already, but she couldn’t look him dead in the eyes and do it. “I told you. My gran was sick. I needed to stay behind and care for her.”

Her words were barely above a whisper, but Fabian heard every word. He shook his head ever so slightly.

“No,” he said as if it were a simple fact. “There is more to it than that. You wouldn’t have put us, put me, through so much pain if it were just because your gran was sick. For whatever reason, there is something that you’re not telling me.”

He got up to leave and head back inside but, before he did, he delivered the words that were the final blow. Words that pierced Nina’s heart right open.

“I thought you trusted me more than that. That after everything we had been through together, that we could tell each other anything. I thought we were stronger than that. But I guess I just really didn’t you all that well after all.”

Nina felt a tear slip down her cheek before the dam broke and the rest followed quickly. Even after she left Anubis House, she never thought she would lose Fabian. Knowing that he was out there, no matter how hurt and mad he was at her, was enough for her. But now she felt like she had lost him for good and she didn’t know if she would ever gain his trust back. After everything, all the curses, all the haunting by egyptain gods, that was her worst fear. And it looked like it may have just come true.

#it’s been 10 years since this gosh darn show aired #I NEED a fabina endgame for my own damn sanity #it’s not even funny #how this show STILL has me in a chokehold #house of anubis #hoa #fabina #fabian rutter #nina martin #houseofanubis #sibuna #listen y’all #i love these dorks so much