Chapter Text
The next few days solidified something in Nina’s mind.
Being in one house with so many of her old housemates again rekindled her love for Anubis, even more than initially seeing them had done. The comfortable quiet and ever-present love in the air living with Gran she was used to, and she loved and missed that so much, but having eight friends living in the same space again was something she had forgotten how much she enjoyed. Nina was by no means the biggest extrovert, but she didn’t mind the constant buzz in the air, the regular conversation. It reminded her that she had people there for her.
She remembered when someone accompanied her to the door—every time, without fail—when one of Gran’s friends dropped by with more food and condolences and checked in. She remembered when she inadvertently introduced them as her family from boarding school, instead of her friends. (Amber was beside her then and nearly squeezed the life out of her at the declaration.)
She remembered when Mara continued to tidy up the place, even three days after their arrival. She remembered when Amber kept lightly suggesting (i.e. loudly coaxing) that her birthday present be opened. She remembered when no one had a concrete answer as to how long they were staying, letting the question dangle in the air, like if she allowed the silence to go on for long enough then she’d forget and they wouldn’t have to return home at all. She even remembered when Alfie volunteered to mow the lawn, and Jerome nudged him and offered to tag along, and Patricia full-out tackled them before they’d made it out the front door.
All of this combined to make a decision for her, one she had been putting off thinking about previously but now had a solid plan of action. A plan of action she actually liked, nonetheless.
“You’re selling the house?” Joy asked, her eyebrows pinched together from her perch on the couch. Jerome’s fingers stopped their drumming against her leg, joining the rest of the room in staring at Nina.
She spread her arms out. “I mean, it’s not like one person needs this many rooms to deal with, especially not at eighteen.”
Amber scoffed. “See, that’s how I know this is some sort of excuse.”
“No, Amber, even a mansion like yours houses more than a single body.”
She blinked. “Unless Daddy gives it to me. Or buys me one of my own.”
Patricia turned to her, an incredulous look bordering on disgust crossing her face. “Are you kidding? I get you’re all about ‘luxury’ and ‘the finer things’”—here she used air quotes—“but a whole other mansion all for yourself?”
Amber just blinked again. “I don’t see the problem.” Half the room groaned.
Fabian sidled up to Nina then, adopting a softer tone as the Amber discussion went on. “But, Nina… there are memories here, and all.” It was clear he worried how bringing it up might affect her, but it warmed her heart that the pull was strong enough anyway. He just wanted the best for her.
So she smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. “Yes, there are memories here. But my parents used to live here too. I’ve spent my entire life apart from Anubis in this house and now everyone’s dead.” She squeezed, letting him know it was okay. It was just a fact. “I want to make new memories somewhere else, not ghosts of ones.”
“And you see enough of those already,” Eddie murmured, and then Nina realized the rest of the room had tuned in to what she was saying.
Mara leaned forward from her spot on the coffee table to whisper, “That’s hardly something to say to a grieving person, Eddie!”
His face turned red. Nina got the distinct feeling that he was more frustrated over having to play it off for one person’s benefit rather than actually aggravated with Mara’s comment.
Nina took the pause to jump in and finish with, “It’s been so nice having you all around these past couple of days—and don’t think I haven’t noticed no one has a flight booked back home yet.”
Alfie laughed sheepishly. “Would you believe I let my last-minute tendencies spread?”
She pointedly glanced at Mara, and then back to Fabian. “No. No I would not.”
“Alright, so we came here without a set date to leave,” Jerome cut in, relaxing back into the couch. “You gonna kick us out?”
Patricia nudged him. “Maybe you should, but start with Jerome.”
Before their jabs could get too far, Nina shook her head. “That’s my point. I’ve missed having my friends around, and I’ve missed England. Sticking around here with all of Gran’s friends isn’t going to make me feel any better. I’d much rather be with my friends.” My family, she felt tugging deep in her core, but she didn’t say it. She didn’t need to. The look they were giving her indicated they felt the same anyway.
xxx
From there, Amber called her dad to fast-track the selling process (also using it as an excuse to opt out of the cleaning and prepping she otherwise would’ve been subjected to, but that was neither here nor there). Nina wasn’t quite sure exactly what Amber’s dad did beyond having an extensive amount of money; no one was sure, actually. Mara pondered about it at least three times during a single phone call Amber had with her father to no avail. Regardless, it didn’t really matter: the Martins’ home was close to being sold, and Nina almost had the go-ahead to leave the country.
In their time between speaking with the realtor and selling furniture and wiping down every surface known to man, they focused on catching up—both with life events and with the quickly diminishing fridge contents. Alfie and Eddie had really jumped on that duty.
Nina was pleasantly surprised to witness Joy and Jerome’s more comfortable moments, hands resting on backs and quiet murmurs amidst mundane tasks. Even Mara smiled at them a few times. Nina had meant it when she said she was happy for Joy; seeing it only confirmed it. She was more than ready to get to know Joy as a person and a friend, as well as head back to Liverpool once and for all.
“Okay, quick question,” Nina started on the fourth day of cleaning. Most of the furniture had been removed, so repainting the walls and touching up the molding was their current focus. Alfie looked up from fiddling with painter’s overalls he had somehow acquired and now wore. Fabian cautiously stepped down from the ladder he was on, eyeing Alfie warily. “Are there any other… romantic things I should be made aware of before heading back?”
Amber flicked a piece of hair out of eyes and blinked. She was giving the paint a very wide clearing. “What else would there be to know? Alfie and I broke up, he’s with Willow, there’s the whole Joy and Jerome unit—”
Jerome’s eyebrows crinkled. “Unit?”
“And you know how that came about,” Patricia offered quickly with a sidelong glance to Mara. Mara pretended not to know what the details entailed.
Eddie clapped a hand onto Fabian’s shoulder, startling him. “KT’s gay, so Fabian’s safe if that’s what you’re wondering.”
Fabian bristled, immediately flushing crimson. “I hardly think that’s her reason for asking,” he said awkwardly, shrugging his former roommate’s hand off.
Nina was equally as red. “Yeah, I was just thinking—you and I flirted before,” she explained, speaking to Eddie. “Obviously that didn’t go anywhere, I’m just wondering what other things like that I missed.”
It was only a weird question to ask if Anubis House’s history wasn’t considered. Joy listed her head to the side, not making eye contact with Fabian but asking, “You mean stuff like me flirting with Fabes junior year, right?”
The room seemed to still in anticipation, but Nina just nodded and snapped her fingers at Joy. “Yeah, like that. Any almosts?”
A long pause ensued. Nina was fully prepared to let the subject drop when Jerome groaned loudly and tossed his head back. “Well, Trixie asked me on a date.”
Patricia gasped and spun on him, abandoning her post cleaning the cobwebs in the corner. “You told me we were ‘meant to be together’!”
“Yeah, to freak you out.”
Amber looked at Patricia, frowning. “Wasn’t that just a ploy? KT told me you did that before you wanted Eddie back.”
Eddie started grinning at the same time Patricia continued her complaints, but Nina put out a hand. “Wait, you two broke up?” she asked, gaze switching between the other American and her first roommate.
“She did the same thing we did,” Eddie supplied, looking all too smug. “Except I chose someone prettier than Jerry.”
Jerome fake gasped, Joy slapped his arm, and Patricia pulled a face. “We get it, Nina’s pretty. But that was all to make us jealous and it better not happen again.” Her eyebrows rose impossibly high.
Nina figured she had to know that wasn’t a possibility, but then she thought back to junior year and cracked a smile. “I mean, it was kind of real,” she said, a single incredulous laugh escaping her.
Eddie started laughing himself, shoulders hunching inward. Alfie was kind of chuckling as well, but mainly it was just Eddie and Nina.
“Like we weren’t attracted to each other,” she clarified, putting her hands up. She was all too familiar with Patricia’s temper, especially where it concerned her closest people, “but that was real flirting.”
“Also really uncomfortable,” Fabian supplied, the blush still not quite gone.
Patricia dropped her duster where the coffee table used to be. “On that note, this is me really vomiting.”
xxx
Two nights before Nina—and the cavalry, as it were—moved out, she was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the empty living room floor. A notepad was in front of her, scrawled over and over with notes about pricing and placement and belongings she still needed to square away. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but the pink glitter pen from Amber was.
She was in the middle of writing out Where did Gran get those ugly drapes? Can I return them? when someone cleared their throat from the hallway. Lifting her head, her heart settled very distinctly in her chest. “Hey,” she said, a smile crossing her lips.
“Hey,” Fabian said back, voice quiet. “Mind if I bother you for a sec?”
She sighed exaggeratedly. “Well, I guess I can take a break from these crazy important, super engaging homeowner things.”
Fabian made his way over carefully, his socks stepping over a random paint spot on the floor they’d forgotten to clean up. Nina made a mental note of it as he came to a stop just a foot away from her. “Last-minute donations or something?”
Nina uncrossed her legs and stretched a moment before getting to her feet. “Yeah, just finalizing some things. Deciding which photos to keep framed and which to move into a scrapbook or something.” She wiped off the backs of her jeans. “I just don’t want everything to be a reminder, you know?”
He let out a tiny laugh, something crossing his face for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah, I get that.”
She watched him a little longer. “You okay?”
“It’s just…” He started out strong, then purposely tampered off, like he had to gather his thoughts in order to keep them tame. “When you left, I took everything as a reminder. You—Actually, ask Joy: I once went on about the night sky and how you were looking at it too.”
Her breathing stilled. She’d done that, too. Not every night, and not in a while admittedly—she’d been trying to stop—but she remembered doing it. She remembered missing her anticipated move-in date, the dread swirling in her stomach as she shut her computer off, her phone off, everything off to avoid contact outside of her Eddie-approved letter. Which was ridiculous, but she didn’t know a better way. She didn’t know how to confront the situation head-on.
So she didn’t. She let herself be a bumbling teenager, passing a note off to her new American friend, and she watched the stars instead. By the time she’d checked her email and seen Eddie freaking out and subsequently calming down about losing the letter, she’d stared at the night sky for a solid three hours. It was a routine that first week, first month even. It was easier than giving up Fabian immediately.
“Come to think of it… I cut her off when I said that too. I’m not sure what she was telling me…”
Now, Nina felt her admiration grow as she put a gentle end to Fabian’s rambling. “I looked at the sky, too.”
He blinked, seeming to come back to himself. “You did?”
“Mhm.” She nodded. “Like that one night in your room? My first year?”
He looked back at her, every emotion swimming in his eyes. “Yeah. Yeah, just like that.”
It was hard to process. Here he was after a whole year of no contact, standing in her living room in America just a foot away, maybe half a foot, telling her he missed her. That he thought of her a lot, and—with the look on his face—still did. That they’d been apart for so long and could still have such an honest connection. That Nina only needed to ask him how he felt if she wanted to know, and still she already knew. That it was that easy.
But in the same vein, it wasn’t hard to process at all. Why wouldn’t she still love him after all this time?
“I’m sorry about the letter,” she heard herself say, the words tumbling out without a real thought to voice them. “That wasn’t how I should’ve done it, I just didn’t know how—”
“I’m sorry for never coming to the States before,” Fabian interjected, matching her. It reminded her of her reconciliation with Joy, only so, so much different. “It wasn’t cold feet, not really, but I should’ve figured it out. I hope you know how much I wanted to figure it out.”
“Hey,” she said, letting their fingers tangle together. She swung their hands slightly. “You made it now, right? When I really needed you.”
Fabian’s gaze skittered all over her face before looking down. Not at their hands exactly, but the space still left between them. His thumb brushed over her knuckle once, a small enough movement that she could tell it wasn’t entirely a conscious choice. “You should know…” Of all the ways he could have ended that thought, of every possibility that crossed Nina’s mind, she would always be as emotional over him finishing with, “You’re still my chosen one.”
Nina blinked, her eyes filling with tears almost instantly as the words registered. It had more impact than the first time he told her that, and even then she was struck mute. There was something special, indescribable about being the Chosen One, about that reliance, the god-revered attitude surrounding her just because of when she was born. People followed her because of what she could do, of what power she held—but Fabian only ever followed her because it was her. Nina. His chosen one. In a world where those lusting over immortality blindly attached worth to her, Fabian saw all her faults and her flaws and spent an entire year without her, and he still wanted her.
She realized a moment too late that she’d been silent for a while, getting torn out of her thoughts as Fabian began tugging his hand away. She tightened her hold instead, blinking away some of the tears. “I am?” she asked, not quietly, not weakly, but with strength behind it. She wanted him to know how much this meant to her. How much he meant to her.
He looked back up at her then, noting the tears and her tone and everything in between. He blinked once, then twice, eyes shifting down to her lips for a fraction of a second. But it was enough. The second he leaned in she matched him, attaching their lips and cupping his face with her free hand. He did the same, and the way she was being held—gingerly, like she deserved to be handled with care… she knew this was it. There would be no more breaking up for them, no more separation. Only Nina and Fabian together, as they were always meant to be.
xxx
The final puzzle piece in the life of graduated Nina Martin would’ve been to head to college, but she hadn’t had time to apply in the past year. Too much uncertainty surrounded Gran, and even if Nina hadn’t admitted it at the time, going to school in Illinois for four more years didn’t suit her anymore. She’d experienced Anubis and that would always leave her wanting it back.
Despite this, Mara and Jerome, surprisingly enough, were the ones to needle her about post-high school plans. She explained the circumstances to them patiently, and they understood it on a fundamental level: it went Gran, high school grades, and now the aftermath. She had her priorities straight, to be clear, but it did leave her in a bit of a limbo state now.
“You knowwwwwww,” Amber began when she swished into the kitchen, daintily side-stepping Eddie and Alfie lifting a chair higher above their heads than necessary, “I could ask Daddy to at least get you an interview in Liverpool.”
“That hardly seems fair,” Mara said in a ‘But I won’t tell’ kind of tone. The room’s eyes swung to her, standing with her hands clasped professionally against her pencil skirt. Jerome sent her an appraising look.
“At least an interview, Neens, you’ll let me do that?” Amber continued pleading, fluttering her eyelashes.
“Amber, it’s July,” Nina said, tilting her head. “They can’t just let me in a month before classes start.”
“Then you’ll join for winter term,” Jerome suggested. “Fast-track a few courses and catch up a bit before the spring.”
“Aye Nina, you can join the same time as me!” Alfie called out, followed by “Alfie, no!” and a loud THUMP.
Silence, and then, from around the corner and out the door, “Everything’s fine!” Patricia called out, “No damage to anything other than Alfie’s last remaining brain cell!” It suddenly made more sense why Alfie was taking a semester off.
Fabian entered from the hallway, rolling up the cuffs of his sleeves. “I didn’t know it was his turn for the brain cell today. I could’ve sworn it was yours, Jerome, what will all this university talk.” Jerome made a face at him.
Nina laughed, giving in. “Fine. Fine, I’ll accept an interview if that’s not pulling too many strings. But I won’t accept anything before winter classes.”
“Nina,” Joy asked from the hallway, appearing similarly to Fabian. “Birthday present where?”
Before she could respond, Amber stamped her heel and pointed to the famous birthday present in Joy’s hands. “Neens.”
Nina fought a smile. “Amber, I’ve told you how many times—”
“Just a peakkkkkk—”
“No, I can’t.”
“Neeeeeeens—”
“No, Amber, I want to wait until we get to Liverpool,” she said decidedly but nonchalantly, a casual air to the statement.
Jerome raised an eyebrow. “You know that’ll be fun in Customs.”
Nina shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t want to open it now. I want to wait ‘til everyone’s here, Willow and KT too. I want to be surrounded by everyone I love, okay?”
It took a moment for the declaration to sink in, but when it did, anyone in the immediate vicinity moved to pull her into a hug. When Alfie, Eddie, and Patricia found their way back inside, they joined the huddle. It was a mass of limbs and awkward angles, giggling and groaning, and it sent Nina forward. She could see everything exactly as it would happen.
The plane ride will be uncomfortable because even Amber won’t be able to get them all in first class, leaving Nina sandwiched between Alfie and Fabian and Jerome’s long legs to stick underneath her seat. Mara’s overhead light will refuse to turn off, suiting her and her mystery novel just fine. (Her comment, “Wouldn’t a real-life mystery be so interesting?” will turn a few heads and encourage a couple nervous laughs.) The cab ride to Amber’s will be surreal, the scenery familiar but not at the same time, the company much more memorable than ever before. Alfie’s door will open halfway through, scaring everyone and angering the driver. Patricia will inform them that their cab watched it play out in front of them, unable to do much other than laugh. And then, once Willow and KT make it over, Nina will meet the new girls important in her friend group.
But she won’t mind. Two more people to add to her family seems pretty good to her.
In fact, it feels like coming home.