When they got to school, there was still no sign of Eddie, and Kira swore she could feel her blood pressure rising. There were only so many places he physically could be if he'd truly gone to check the school early like he claimed; if he wasn't in any of those, then there was no telling what kind of trouble he might be in.

"He's not here," Fabian said in frustration, staring at the empty classroom.

Kira rubbed her temples violently. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," she snarked.

Surprisingly, Jerome blustered into the room behind them, back in his regular school uniform. He jabbed a finger into Kira's face. "Hey, tell Eddie when you see him that that's called nepotism," he snapped, feathers awfully ruffled for no reason.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Kira asked gruffly. "I'm not in the mood, dickhead."

"Well, wait, have you seen him?" Fabian asked, tapping Kira in warning.

Jerome didn't answer the question, instead launching into a rant: "Sweet's given him the day off to organize the dodgeball tournament instead of me! It's so unfair! I've worked hard, haven't I?"

"Oh, yeah, you really worked hard this term. Dating two girls at once is rough work," KT drawled.

Alfie and Kira snicked while Jerome made a spluttering noise, started to retort, then clearly thought better of it. "Whatever," he mumbled in defeat, slumping down into his chair.

Fabian pursed his lips as he started toward his own chair. "Do you buy that?" he asked.

"Getting out of class? Sounds like Eddie," KT remarked with a quiet chuckle, plopping down into the seat beside Fabian.

"But—" Kira began, but was suddenly being dragged away by the arm to the back corner of the classroom. "Jesus, Mara! You scared me."

"Sorry, sorry, but we have to take every opportunity to discuss this mission if we want it to be a success," explained Mara a little manically, guiding Kira into the chair next to Willow, while she sat next to Joy.

The girl in question was staring dreamily at Alfie, and despite her fraying nerves, Kira couldn't help but crack a smile at that. They really were such a perfect match.

Suddenly, Mara's fingers were snapping inches from Willow's nose. "Focus!" she ordered, and Willow blinked rapidly.

"Sorry!" she squeaked, throwing Alfie one last flirtatious wave, before focusing her attention on the debrief.

"Well," began Mara, looking expectantly at Joy, "how's it going with winning Jerome over?"

Joy grimaced. "Not good," she reported. "So far, he's just wary of me. Look, it's not like me to be nice to him."

"Did you try the three-second stare?" Kira asked, hiding her laughter at the insanity with pursed lips.

Mara nodded vigorously. "Yeah, yeah, that's a good one!" she agreed. "You should try that."

Joy's expression twisted dully. "I did," she explained. "He just thought he had food on his face."

Sure enough, up at the front of the room, Jerome was picking intently at his teeth with his pinky finger. Kira rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to put her head down on the desk. She loved Mara with all her heart and soul, but Kira was a girl who had experience with this sort of thing; the best thing any of them could do was simply stop talking about Jerome Clarke entirely.

Patricia trudged into the classroom and fell heavily into her seat directly across from Joy. She looked tired, her blazer was wrinkled, and her hair was hardly curled at all. In short, she looked about as rough as Kira felt, but for different reasons.

Mara stared at her, face lighting up with a new idea. "How about the love/hate thing like Eddie and Patricia?" she suggested in a whisper. "It's perfect, you've already got the hate part down! All you have to do is—"

"Add the word love," Willow sighed dreamily, already gone back to gazing at Alfie like he'd hung the moon.

"No," Mara said slowly. "Suggest to Jerome it might mean something more."

Joy groaned, shooting Kira a look that clearly spelled out a cry for help. "Fine," she agreed.

Mara and Willow squealed and high-fived each other, while Kira merely patted Joy's hand consolingly.

It was definitely... weird having Joy actively go after Jerome, for a number of reasons. Certainly because it was overall a bad idea, but also— and she felt guilty for even thinking it— a selfish part of her didn't want Joy to be flirting with anyone else, even if it was fake.

Which was horrible. And wrong. Because Kira had a girlfriend. Who she liked, maybe even loved, very much. She didn't still like Joy, even a little bit. Well, she liked her as a friend, but not like a like-like. She didn't like-like Joy anymore. Ugh!

She caught KT's eye from across the room, and her girlfriend scrunched up her nose in a very cute way and stuck her tongue out. Kira felt a surge of affection for her, and the tension behind her eyes lessened. Her tiff with Mara the day before had just gotten in her head, that was all.

Kira took one more look at Joy, whose mouth was pursed in a little pout. She turned around to face the front quickly. Everything was fine. She was just tired and worried about the state of the world.

What was a slight lingering attraction compared to a healthy, official relationship? She'd pull KT into the girls' toilets after class for some bonding... and maybe finally suggest a real date to her. That would help quell any doubts, she was certain.

—

Eddie hadn't slept all night, which was becoming a new normal for him. What wasn't typical about his all-nighter were the accommodations. He'd given up shouting and banging on the doors almost eleven hours ago. It was only by the dim light filtering in through the skylight that he knew it was morning, and the sun only climbed higher in the sky.

His panic had subsided somewhat as the hours crept by with no sign of anyone around, his kidnappers or otherwise, but his worry had only grown. Why had Denby— because he was almost certain it was Denby, the bitch— needed him out of the way? Were she and Frobisher launching a full-scale attack on his friends while he was holed up in some musty tomb? What had happened to Patricia? Why hadn't she been at the crypt like she'd texted... unless she hadn't texted. What if someone had her phone and was pretending to be her? What if they'd kidnapped her too and had her locked up somewhere even worse than where he was?

He was driving himself bonkers thinking up horrible scenarios, and to keep himself occupied, took to pacing around the crypt. He'd been locked in the stupid place too many times at that point, and more than anything else he was bored. Eddie exhaled deeply, lips trilling, and he placed his hand on the rough stone sarcophagus in the center of the room, tracing his finger over one of the hieroglyphs etched into the sides. He wished he knew how to read them, like Fabian did. It should have been an Osirian perk, like the glowing hands and the visions. Like, hello, he'd read Percy Jackson, wasn't that part of the demigod gig? Was he technically a demigod? Probably not.

Despite it being daytime on the surface, the room was still dark, with only a murky illumination at best, and his eyes were dry and strained from the lack of visibility all night long. "What I wouldn't give for a little more light," he muttered, trailing his palm across the markings. No sooner had he spoken, his wish was granted in the form of being flash-banged by another one of his Osirian visions.

He gasped, blinking rapidly as the blinding light retreated to the edges of his vision. It took Eddie a moment to get his bearings, but once he did, he found himself in the tank room. It looked different than he'd last seen it: the tank, which for so long had stood proudly in the center of the room, was now pushed into an alcove just left of where Eddie stood; tall candelabras lined the perimeter of the room, unlit. A table now occupied the space the tank had, completely covered by thick, yellowing tomes, a desk lamp he thought he might have seen once in Denby's parlor, and a computer screen. More books were scattered on the floor around the makeshift desk and on the shelves that lined the walls. Eddie's stomach turned uncomfortably— the enemy was doing research. Most peculiar were the sarcophagi with the glass faces. Now, Eddie had never much liked them to begin with, but there was an energy surrounding them in his vision that made his skin crawl. The eeriest part, though, had to be Victor's blank, stony expression staring out of one of the faces. Last time Eddie'd checked, the faces were all clear.

He realized quickly that he wasn't alone, and he watched as Denby primly entered the room and stood beside a vacant sarcophagus. She was waiting for something.

He didn't have to wait long. Eddie had barely even processed that he was, in fact, standing in the tank room, before he heard the sounds of a struggle coming up the stares, and a chillingly familiar voice screaming in a tone he'd never heard from her.

Seconds after Denby had assumed her post, Frobisher appeared at the top of the stairs, dragging Patricia up with him. He had her arms pinned at an awkward angle, and she scrabbled blindly at his face and eyes with her nails; she screamed again, a raw cry for help, and Frobisher leered over her, mocking her pleas, as he hauled her backwards roughly. She lost any footing she had, kicking wildly as her feet were wrenched from under her. Denby threw her head back and laughed, making a snide jab at Patricia's expense that Eddie couldn't hear over the blood pounding in his ears.

The feelings that flooded him at the sight of the cruelty were indescribable, and it honestly felt like his organs were shutting down. He'd seen Patricia angry, he'd seen her afraid, he'd seen her shout, and panic, and cry... but he'd never seen her desperate.

He tried to surge forward, his instinct to rip Robert Frobisher-Smythe a new asshole, or perhaps rip his head clean off— anything to get his hands off her. To his horror, he found his feet glued to the floor, unable to move or intervene; he tried to shout, but had no voice. His vision had forced him to be a mere bystander for the most heinous, evil thing he'd ever seen in his life, and Eddie had never felt so helpless.

He screamed silently, hot tears of terror and frustration pouring down his face as he struggled to shuffle even an inch in her direction, but even if he could have managed that, he'd have been too late.

Denby said some other devilish thing he couldn't quite make out, and opened up the sarcophagus door. A blinding, unnatural light poured out of it that Eddie was certain had never been there before, and Frobisher cackled hideously as he shoved Patricia, still squalling frantically, into the glow. Denby slammed the door behind her and the two horrible, horrible adults grinned wickedly at each other.

Eddie was hyperventilating, on the verge of the worst panic attack of his life. The vision ended so abruptly that it physically knocked him backwards, and he stumbled into the wall, knocking any air he had left in him completely out of his lungs. It felt like he was having an out of body experiencing, every nerve simultaneously numb and on fire. What he'd just witnessed was so violent and disturbing, he was struggling to process it.

Every single one of the fears he'd had about what he'd been kidnapped for had come to life, and through the petrified haze, he realized the more time he wasted here freaking out, the more danger Patricia was in. Eddie had to get out of the crypt. There was no other option. He just had to. The love of his goddamn life needed him, and she needed him now.

He grabbed the first object he zeroed in on, which happened to be one of the fancy spears Fabian had been rhapsodizing about weeks ago, and charged the door with a renewed sense of righteous fury. He slammed the blunt end of the spear against the wood with vigor, hollering at the top of his lungs.

"HELP! SOMEONE! ANYONE! LET ME OUT OF HERE! HELP!"

Eddie screamed until his throat was raw, but he couldn't stop the assault. Time was ticking, and who knew how far into the future that vision had been— if it was the future at all.

"IF I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, CAROLINE, I'LL KILL YOU!" he roared, hoping the bitch was out there to hear him. He wasn't even surprised to find that he meant it.

—

All of Kira's problems seemed a lot further away with her back pressed firmly against the bathroom stall door and her fingers tangled in KT's hair. Yes, kissing her beautiful, kind, lovely girlfriend senseless really did have that effect. Why did she ever think otherwise?

"We," gasped KT, pulling away for a moment, only to dive back in, putting her hands on Kira's waist and squeezing slightly. That made Kira squeak, and she giggled, cutting herself off by latching her mouth onto the corner of KT's jaw just under her ear. She gasped again, "We have to— Kira, we have to go."

Kira pulled away from where she'd begun kissing along KT's jaw with a whine. "We still have, like, ten minutes before free period ends," she complained breathlessly. "What's the rush?" She paused, then tittered to herself, a little punchy and kiss-drunk. "Rush."

KT rolled her eyes fondly. "Believe me, as much as I love this, we have to help Fabian figure out the symbols on the capsule, remember?"

"Fabian is a very smart boy," she reminded her, "he doesn't want our help."

"Yes, but he needs our help," KT laughed, gently disentangling herself from Kira and exiting the stall, forcing her disappointed girlfriend to trail after her. "Jesus, we look rough."

They were in fact quite a sight, with their swollen lips, rumpled uniforms, and tousled hair. Kira's braid in particular was completely destroyed, pieces of loose hair floating statically in the air from being rubbed up against cheap plastic stall dividers. Yuck. Suddenly, it was a lot less romantic.

"At least your hair isn't wild," she remarked, tugging the elastic out and threading her fingers through the brunette knots. "Seriously, how is yours always perfect?"

KT smirked and wiggled her fingers. "Black girl magic," she replied mysteriously. "And Shea products."

She laughed at that. "Well, both do wonders for you."

"Thanks," she replied with a grin. "Now, come on, you look beautiful. Let's go before break ends."

"Lead the way, Captain KT," she said, saluting her in the mirror.

KT shook her head and linked her arm through Kira's, tugging her out of the bathroom toward the common room. "Hey, so I was thinking we should go on a real date," she said as they wove through the halls.

Kira perked up. "I was going to suggest that too," she said. "I mean, we've been a couple for a few weeks now, we should really start doing that sort of thing."

"To be fair to us, we have been a bit busy with the impending apocalypse," KT remarked.

"Oh, don't talk about that shit when we're planning a date," whined Kira, shoving down the pesky worry that had taken up a permanent residence in her brain the past few months. "My cortisol levels are high enough as it is."

"Sorry," KT laughed. "I was thinking this cute little Italian place not far from here."

"La Stanza Bianca?" she guessed amusedly; KT nodded. "No can do, sorry. I'm basically banned from there."

KT's jaw dropped open and she stopped dead in the hallway. "Banned?" she laughed incredulously. "You?"

Kira grinned while she laughed. "Mhm, me, Eddie, Patricia, and Joy. And also my dad and Patricia's sister, Piper. It's a long story."

"Well, you'll have to tell me sometime," she replied bemusedly.

"How about over a coffee and an antique store browsing date?" she suggested. "Maybe we can even see that horror movie that Alfie and Willow are going to."

"I thought you hated horror movies," mused KT as they entered the lounge.

"Yeah, well, I figure our real life is so scary now, that any horror movies we go see will just be funny," she teased.

"Then that sounds like a plan," KT replied, squeezing her hand, before turning to Fabian. "Wassup, Fabian?"

He startled and slammed his laptop, whipping around to look at them with wide eyes. When he saw it was only them, he relaxed. "Don't sneak up on me like that," he breathed, reopening his computer. "I thought you were Denby."

Kira raised an eyebrow. "You thought Denby would greet you with 'Wassup'?" she asked dryly.

Instead of getting annoyed, he played along. "You never know," he whispered conspiratorially. "She's pretty sneaky." They chuckled. "Any sign of Eddie?"

Kira sighed, while KT flopped down into the armchair next to Fabian. "No," she said, gnawing at her still swollen lip. Now that she wasn't properly distracted, the nagging worry for her twin was creeping back up her spine. "Any luck with the symbols?"

"Not exactly," Fabian answered, "but right now I'm just putting them in order."

KT cocked her head. "Don't you think that's a little premature when we don't even know what they mean?" she asked, digging a packet of potato chips out of her book bag.

"Oh, well, I'm shaking out the knot instead of pulling it," he explained.

"Huh?" the girls said.

"I'm hoping if I start with the answer," Fabian explained patiently, "I'll get the question." He gestured for them to look at his computer. "Look, there are fourteen symbols altogether, but only seven moving pieces on the cylinder, which leads me to believe the combination we need to open it lies in seven of these symbols. What are there seven of?"

"Days of the week," KT suggested brightly, "wonders of the world..."

"Seven deadly sins, seven continents, seven archangels, seven planets not including Earth..." listed Kira thoughtfully.

"Colors of the rainbow, Willow's cats," added KT with a snort. "Um—"

"Colors of the rainbow," Fabian repeated under his breath, eyes widening as some sort of an epiphany struck him. "Colors of the rainbow!" Without any more explanation, he shoved his laptop into his bag, grabbed his blazer, and took off just as the bell rang for their next class period.

"What?" KT called after him.

Kira shook her head in bewilderment. "Colors of the rainbow... I guess."

—

It must have been another hour since he'd had his vision, and he hadn't stopped fighting, still hammering the door with the spear. He'd even tried to hack it down. Nothing was working, though, and truthfully, Eddie was completely exhausted.

"Why—" BANG! "is no one—" Bang! "telling—" Bang. "me to shut up—" Thud. "for once?!" Clunk... "Fuck!"

He whimpered a little, trying desperately not to break down into tears, but failing miserably. In a fit, he through the spear down as hard as he could, reveling in the loud clatter it made. He tried to take a step back down the stairs, but he slipped slightly, falling onto his ass. That was the last straw, and Eddie could only cover his face with his hands and sob hopeless, angry tears.

What kind of an Osirian was he? All he'd ever done was put people in danger. His luck had ended when he banished Senkhara— now all Eddie was good for was screwing up.

Patricia could be dead, and Eddie was sitting in the crypt crying like a toddler. He wished it were Nina here in England instead of him; she'd know what to do, he just knew it.

He forced himself to calm down, hiccuping as he ripped his face roughly with the sleeve of his jacket. He couldn't give up yet, he couldn't. Eddie looked around the crypt for something he'd missed, once again wishing for a little more light to see—

He went rigid. A little more light. A little more light! "A little more light!" he exclaimed aloud, leaping to his feet and craning his neck to get a better look at the skylight. He remembered way back when the bats that had lived down in the crypt had flown out through the already broken skylight. It shouldn't be too hard to break it even more! There was just one problem with his escape route...

"All I need to do now is learn how to fly..."

—

"So the love/hate thing didn't work," Joy said by way of greeting as Mara came sprinting at them down the hall.

Kira was shoving her stuff in her locker, but was swept up in the whirlwind that was her best friend on a mission. "Whoa!" she exclaimed, barely getting a chance to shut her locker.

"Forget about that," dismissed Mara, much to both girls' surprise. "Well, don't forget about it, but listen to this: I have another way to make Jerome squirm."

"You're going to replace his hair gel with bird poop?" Joy guessed hopefully.

"Sign him up for the Jehovah's witness email list?" suggested Kira.

"No," laughed Mara. "Remember the family tree project, and mine was, like, way too complicated to focus on with my other assignments.?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I was still curious so I hired an online agency to do it for me, and I just found out that my second cousin thrice removed is the late Lord Fox," she explained.

"Oh," Joy cooed supportively, exchanging a quick look with Kira. "Who's that?"

"I don't know! But he's a lord," Mara said excitedly. "And he's late! It'll drive Jerome crazy! Wait till he finds out what he can't have."

"That's awesome, Mara!" Kira said, returning the slightly confused look Joy'd sent her. "What can't he have?"

"I'm second in line to Lord Fox's estate," she explained. "Second."

"So who's first?"

"Some old lady?" Mara shrugged.

"So wait," said Joy, "when she dies, that will make you..."

Mara bobbed her head and flipped her hair. "A lady," she confirmed.

Joy's expression was the picture of dread, and Kira couldn't help but laugh out loud at it. "Oh, boy..." she breathed, darting ahead to her next class.

"Well, I, for one, am happy for you," said Kira, taking Mara's hand and making a dramatic show of kissing her knuckles. "My liege," she added in a mock-posh accent that had Mara giggling.

"Oh, shut up," she said, swatting her away. "But thanks. I'm only second, though."

"Hey, old folks don't live forever," Kira reminded her with an elbow to the ribs. "But once you become royalty, don't forget me, 'kay?"

"Never," Mara promised, curtseying. "I'll give you a title too, and you can live in my manor."

"I'm honored," said Kira, curtseying back. "Your generosity knows no bounds."

Her text tone dinged a few times, and she pulled her phone out of her pocket, smiling when she saw it was from KT.

KT ☀️💕 : Okay, so apparently I might be a synesthete?

KT ☀️💕 : Idek how to spell it omfg

KT ☀️💕 : Anyway I might be the only one who can crack the code so Fabian and I are ditching to try to figure it out. He mentioned a sensory deprivation tank? Does he have one of those? Babe, I'm scared 😟

KT ☀️💕 : If you wanna join us, leave now before Denby's class bc otherwise you'll never get away.

Kira looked up sheepishly at Mara who was already staring at her knowingly. "Let me guess, either you're running off with the weird kids clique and ditching me, or you're going off to snog with KT again," she said flatly.

"Sorry... but she's a really good kisser," Kira lied, stomping down the familiar guilt. "Tongue and everything."

"Okay, ew! I don't need the details in school, Kira," she exclaimed, but at least she didn't seem too upset. "Save the gossip for at home. Just go be a delinquent elsewhere. I guess I'll cover for you two with Ms. Denby."

"My literal hero, I love you so much," she thanked Mara, blowing her French air kisses, before taking off down the corridor toward the school exit. "Au revoir!" As she ran, she fired off a reply to KT:

Kira: Fabian is def a fed in his free time

Kira: dude has EVERYTHING

KT ☀️💕 : It's a bath tub. He's filling up a bath tub and giving me ear plugs. HELP 💀

Kira: I'm omw 🏃‍♀️🛁

—

Eddie stood on top of the stone sarcophagus, spear in hand. It was a precarious position he was in, and if he wasn't careful, he was one slip away from knowing himself out on the floor or getting glass in his eyes. He took a deep, shuddering breath, still reeling from his vision, but more determined than ever to make it out; then, he jammed the spear into the skylight, smashing it to smithereens. Eddie winced as the glass rained down on him, but he shook it off and kept going until the way was clear enough for him to crawl through. The late morning breeze was cold but welcome in his lungs after a whole night of musty dead-people air, and he could nearly taste freedom.

He dropped the spear and reached up toward the lip of the skylight, feeling around for any sharp pieces of glass he still needed to avoid. He'd just about gotten a good, safe grip and was about to pull himself up, when he heard the crypt door rattle— someone was coming in. For a moment, he wondered if perhaps help had come after all, but something in his gut warned him to climb and never look back. He heaved himself up, grunting with the effort of deadlifting his own weight through a small triangle opening, but he was able to find purchase with some dead underbrush once he'd wriggled further out. His feet just cleared the skylight when he heard the door fully open and the sound of menacing footfalls in the tomb below.

Eddie rolled to his feet, happy to find himself on solid ground once more. The skylight merely looked like a glass-covered hole in the ground from where he now stood, but he didn't take too long to examine where he'd crawled out of. He was on a serious time-crunch, after all.

He sprinted toward the school, not giving a shit about the fact he was still in his regular clothes from the night before or the fact he was covered in grim and cobwebs, lungs burning in the cold air as he ran. Eddie burst through the front door of the school and tore through the halls, skidding to a halt in the common room where Alfie and Willow were having what looked like a flirty conversation.

"Alfie!" Eddie called, zooming up to them. "Alf—"

Alfie whirled around and shot him in the face with a water gun, the concentrated stream of liquid catching him right in the eye. Not the reception he'd been hoping for, but at least it somewhat cleaned him up.

"Oh, hey, Eddie!" Alfie said sheepishly, while Willow giggled behind her hand. "You finally turned up! Sorry about the water."

He rubbed his face and blinked rapidly. "It's fine, dude. Long story, but have you seen Patricia? Is she safe? Where is she?"

"Oh, man," whistled Alfie. "Now you're looking for her? Dude, she's pissed."

"Look, I don't care!" Eddie snapped, patience wearing thin. He could still hear her screams echoing in his mind... "Do you know where she is?"

Willow raised her hand eagerly. "I think I saw her at the lockers!" she chirped helpfully.

He didn't even acknowledge it, just turned around and raced off in the direction of her locker. Eddie nearly slipped as he rounded the corner, stumbling slightly as he regained his balance, but when he saw her, he nearly fell again, legs almost giving out on him. She was standing there, unharmed. She was safe.

"Yacker! Yacker!" he called, running up to her. She ignored him, putting the last of her books into her locker. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

That got her to look at him, grey eyes raking him up and down cooly. "Look who finally decided to show up," she said sharply. "What's Sweet got you doing now, cleaning chimneys?"

Huh? Eddie glanced down at himself and for the first time noticed just how gross he truly looked. Yikes. "No, you don't understand!" he exclaimed, then dropped his voice to a hushed whisper. "I had another vision, and you were—"

"You stood me up!" she interjected fiercely, slamming her locker with a loud bang and turning around to face him fully.

Eddie was taken aback by her anger directed his way. "Stood you up? You stood me up! I was waiting in the crypt, and you never showed! I thought you were—"

"The crypt?" she asked skeptically. "What the hell are you talking about, I never told you to meet me in the crypt? What am I, a psycho? I told you to meet me in the living room." Eddie stared at her open mouthed, and she rolled her eyes harshly. "Living room!" she shouted, slowing it down for him like he was stupid.

"W-Wait a minute, this is not my fault," Eddie stammered, the pieces of the puzzle starting to fit together. Someone had definitely texted him masquerading as Patricia, and he'd definitely fallen for it. And she had no idea.

Patricia huffed, but she was clearly trying to keep her cool. "Well, when I didn't show up, why didn't you come looking for me? Why did you say you were doing some solo Sibuna mission bullshit instead? Do you really just not care at all?"

"I didn't text that!" he protested, temper spiking. "Funny story, actually, but I was kidnapped and they took my phone."

She scoffed in his face, but Eddie could see hurt in her expression. "Really? Really, that's your excuse? Because it's not funny, weasel! That shit's not a game!"

"I'm telling the truth, I swear!" he insisted. She could be so stubborn sometimes, it drove him insane!

Patricia was looking slightly manic, shaking her head like she couldn't quite believe he was standing in front of her at all. "Why can't boys just be honest?" she asked, almost more to herself. "Why does no one ever just say what they're really thinking?! I'd rather you just say, 'I'm not that into you, Patricia!' or—"

"Yacker—"

"Or 'You're not actually my type!'"

She wasn't talking about their failed meeting anymore, and Eddie knew it. This was, he realized, almost exactly what their last fight— the last fight— had been like.

"Yacker, will you just—"

"Or even just 'I want to see other people!' I'm tired of excuses, I'm tired of being lied to," she ranted. "I'm sick and tired of it Eddie, so just say what you really mean right here and right n—"

So Eddie did exactly what he should have done back in August when Patricia had gotten too far into her own head: he grabbed her face, and pulled her into the most searing kiss of his life, trying to say everything he could without saying anything at all. Patricia went rigid in his grip for a moment, then melted into him, kissing back eagerly.

They stood like that for a few moments, making out in the hallway like their lives depended on it, and when he pulled away, he felt a surge of complete adoration at the sight of her wide-eyed, stunned expression at having just been kissed. She'd never looked more lovely.

"I'm sorry I stood you up," he whispered, rubbing his thumb gently over her cheekbone. She was solid under his hands, safe and sound, and he intended to keep it that way. Whatever it took.

She blinked slowly at him, then cracked a small smile. "That's okay," she whispered back. "I'm sorry... for everything. I didn't want... I don't know why I..." She exhaled sharply through her nose, and instead of trying to articulate whatever regrets she seemed to have, pulled him back in for another round.

And, well, Eddie certainly wasn't going to say no to that.