Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Patricia had been keeping a close eye on Eddie after noticing that the Osirian’s powers were beginning to manifest. She knew that she was the one who had put an end to him, a decision that was probably the hardest of her life, but she couldn’t help but feel concerned and amazed by him. Their relationship had ended, but her love for him would never fade.

On the second night in the tunnels, Eddie had noticed a number in a book he saw for only five seconds. Patricia couldn’t resist mentioning it, but he didn’t even bother to respond, simply proceeding to show them what he had read.

The following days were far too busy for Sibuna; they had kidnapped Frobisher’s body and tried to perform the ritual, which had failed. Patricia had run into trouble with Miss Denby after that mission. Apparently, she would have detention for two weeks for trying to escape with Alfie through the back door. Denby had also accused her of triggering the fire alarm, and Patricia had no idea how Victor had managed to catch her with something.

"Where’s Patricia?" Eddie asked the rest when he realised his ex-girlfriend hadn’t attended the meeting in the boys’ room.

"Detention" Alfie was the one who answered, catching everyone’s attention.

"What did Yacker do now?" Eddie said in a mocking tone, trying to sound indifferent about why Patricia would have gotten detention. After all, he hadn’t seen her in trouble in a while. The last time she had been in detention, it was with him.

"Trixie’s going to have the longest detention in history, mate. Denby’s a savage" Alfie responded dramatically, scratching the back of his head. "Denby convinced Victor that Patricia triggered the fire alarm because she saw us trying to escape through the back door. Somehow, Victor found out she’d also entered his office that same night. He mentioned something about a hidden camera he had just installed."

Eddie and KT exchanged looks of surprise; Fabian didn’t seem as shocked. That sounded exactly like Patricia.

"Wait, but did she really do all that?" KT asked Alfie.

"Like you don’t know Trixie, guys. She’s a beast in Sibuna" Alfie rolled his eyes. "Of course she did."

Fabian sat on his bed to flick through the pages about the ritual again.

"Well, nothing she hasn’t done before" he said.

"Wait, what’s the riskiest thing she’s done?" KT asked now, sitting next to Fabian.

"Apart from being the first to risk falling off a cliff?" Fabian joked without looking up from his pages.

"Wait, what?!" Eddie finally reacted.

"Yeah, that was terrifying" Alfie agreed. Fabian pointed at him with his index finger.

"Dark times. Amber always said Patricia was the original member of Sibuna."

"Why would she say that?" KT asked.

Fabian began to speak.

"Originally it was Nina, Amber, and me. Amber was the one who named the group. Then, after Rufus kidnapped Patricia, we... "Eddie interrupted him.

"Wait, did you just say “kidnapped”? "

"You know, Rufus... didn’t Trixie tell you what he did to her?"

Eddie shook his head, seemingly unaware of many things Patricia hadn’t told him.

"After her kidnapping, she joined us. Then Alfie arrived, and even for a time, Jerome was here too... " Fabian grimaced at the memory. "But Patricia’s been here longer than all of us. Joy disappeared, and no one believed her; the teachers lied to her, we even thought she was a witch because of how she acted. She went to the police. She was... way too close to Mr. Wincler, an old teacher who betrayed her, and also very close to Rufus. You could say she was friends with both. Basically, she’s been fighting the ‘team evil’ long before any of us."

"And the night you were in the crypt, she was alone. I’m sorry to admit it, but I didn’t know what to do, and she tried everything " Alfie finished the story.

Eddie’s expression turned serious. After that, he didn’t hear anything more. His thoughts were on Patricia and all the things she had kept from him. He also felt guilty for thinking that night in the crypt she had abandoned them, or that she had left them there to annoy him when she was risking everything to rescue them.

He was so immersed in his thoughts when a memory came back to his mind.

"Wait, Rufus wasn’t the original Osirian?"

Fabian looked at him oddly, as if they had changed the subject a while ago.

"Uh, yeah. Sarah, Frobisher’s daughter, was his protégée. The original chosen one " he replied.

"And he was the one who kidnapped Yacker, just like he kidnapped Jerome."

None of the three understood where he was going with that.

"Well, Jerome was fine after that... "Fabian recalled.

Eddie furrowed his brow.

"She had nightmares after that. She’d wake up screaming in the middle of the night and run out of class because she couldn’t stop seeing his face. So no, it wasn’t like that" Fabian regretted saying.

KT felt bad hearing all that. She thought she understood now why Patricia had been so distrustful of her when she arrived. It must have been difficult for her to trust after everything.

She turned her gaze to Eddie, who seemed pretty shaken by the new information.

"I’m sorry, Eddie" KT said, moving closer to pat his shoulder.

Alfie gave him a sad look, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He left the room to find Patricia. He wasn’t sure what led him to the back of the house, but his instincts hadn’t failed. There she was, picking up trash with long tongs and putting it into a bag.

She hadn’t noticed his presence yet, so he allowed himself to watch her for a few seconds. She looked tired and angry, not even wearing the clothes she usually did. She had a huge hoodie that actually belonged to him, with trainers and tight exercise pants, and her hair in a high ponytail.

Finally, he cleared his throat. She didn’t jump, simply lifted her head, looked at him for a moment, and then went back to what she was doing, this time turning her back to him.

"Stalking me, weasel?"

He laughed.

"You know, it’s polite to inform your leader when you’re missing."

She turned to look at him with raised eyebrows.

"Wow, you’re really taking the role seriously."

He shrugged.

"I’m supposed to."

He could see the ghost of a smile appear on her face, but she quickly passed him by to continue her work.

"Well, leader, I was a little busy, as you can see."

He could hear the playful tone in her words, but he knew her better than that. She was exhausted.

"Why don’t you leave that and take a rest for a bit?" Eddie asked carefully. He heard her sigh and drop her things in frustration.

"If there’s something you want to say, say it now, Eddie. I’ve got work to do and I plan on finishing early." She walked towards him, crossing her arms.

Looking at her, he noticed she wasn’t wearing any makeup. Which made him smile.

"Do I look like a clown or why are you laughing, doofus?" she spat defensively.

"Is that my hoodie?" he asked, still smiling.

"You gave it to me in America, remember?"

Of course he did, he didn’t forget. How could he? He’d given it to her one morning when she couldn’t find her shirt and decided to wear Eddie’s hoodie. That was the first time he realised how much he loved seeing her in his clothes. But it was also the day she left, exactly wearing an outfit similar to what she had on now.

"I can give it back if you want, it’s useless to me now anyway." she spoke again.

"Wait, no. No, you can keep it. " He quickly clarified the misunderstanding. "Sorry, it’s just that... you look just like that day."

Patricia took a moment to understand what he meant, but eventually, she did. She nodded, losing all the confidence she had to speak.

Eddie noticed it, and the last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable, so he quickly changed the subject.

"Alfie told us why you’re in detention" he hurriedly said.

"And? Do you feel guilty? I’m the one who lost the damn key and couldn’t get you out of there. It was my mission, and I failed epically." She ran her hand over her forehead in frustration, frustration with herself. "I didn’t even have the guts to go get you myself."

"But you got the key back, you got us back and it was all thanks to you" he reminded her.

"I put you in danger in the first place" she objected.

"No, that was me. I was the one who took the first chance we had and locked us in there without knowing if the ritual would work. Not to mention, I left you outside with Alfie. Which means, I left you alone."

Patricia didn’t respond. They both looked each other in the eyes for a moment, unsure of exactly what to say. They both knew it wasn’t really either one of their faults. Things in Sibuna never went as planned, and that wasn’t anyone’s fault.

"Any reason you decided to come out here?" Patricia finally dared to ask, anxious. "Or did you just want to watch me humiliate myself in detention?"

"Victor’s got you on camera."

She nodded.

"Yeah, I must be doing something right with your father, because he convinced Victor not to expel me after accusing me of theft."

Eddie laughed.

"Mum must have done something right. She’s told Dad a lot about you."

Patricia’s face lit up with surprise.

"Really?"

"They’re both really impressed with you... neither of them understands why you broke up with me."

Patricia’s face fell, and she immediately turned her back to him to pick up her things from the ground and continue cleaning.

"Yeah, I can imagine" she murmured.

"Actually, I think none of the three of us know why you broke up with me. Especially, I don’t know why you ran away from America after we had the best night of my life."

She didn’t respond, avoiding eye contact as much as she could while putting a can of soda in the large trash bag she was holding.

"Is it because I’m the Osirian?" his voice was weak, and tears threatened to spill from his eyes. "Do I remind you of him?"

Patricia froze in place, stopping dead in her tracks at his mention. She swallowed hard, and things fell from her hands, causing her to jump.

She turned around and looked at him, both of them with tears in their eyes.

"I’m not him! I won’t be like him!"

She nodded, and a tear began to trace down her cheek.

"I know."

"Then why did you leave me, Patricia? I loved you!" He stepped towards her, but she stepped back, making him freeze in place.

He loved her.

He had never told her that before.

"I had a nightmare that night with him... " she confessed. "I didn’t want to wake you, you didn’t know anything. I saw you asleep there, so peacefully that night, and I thought about how being the chosen one changed Nina, how it affected Joy when the teachers thought she was the real chosen one, seeing how Sarah was betrayed, completely alone in that old folks' home, and... I saw you have so many nightmares in America that it simply hurt... And yes, we had an amazing night "she smiled through her tears. "It was so amazing it scared me. I’m scared of the role you play in all this. It hurts seeing how your visions and nightmares get worse before they get better, and your powers are becoming more and more noticeable."

"I can’t control my powers."

"I know you can’t."

"Then what happened, Patricia? I still don’t understand!"

"The thing is, I love you" she hit him in the chest, making him step back. "And I can’t lose you."

He looked at her in confusion.

"But somehow it still feels like I lose you every day. I thought being away from you would make me feel less, but it’s too late. I can’t stop myself from loving you. That’s why I ran away. Because I’m brave enough to face spirits that want to curse me and psychotic adults who want to silence me, but I’m not brave enough to face my own feelings."

Chapter Text

He thought he had seen her vulnerable very few times since he had known her. He knew that at first, their arguments were funny, but when they became more serious, Patricia would become weak. And he knew that. He knew that their arguments were painful for both of them, but for her, they pressed buttons that shouldn’t be pressed. He knew she had trust issues because of her parents, and he had done everything he could to make sure she always felt safe by his side.

But this time, he didn’t know how to react. They had never said the words “I love you” before, and he definitely didn’t expect them to come up in that moment, let alone in the way they did.

Patricia had broken up with him out of fear, that’s what she had told him. And after her confession, she had left things scattered and fled to the house, leaving him with tears in his eyes and his heart in his hand, about to give it to her.

They had had a tough day, they had lost the bracelet and needed a way to get it back.

He returned to the house some time later. There were no signs of Patricia, and Fabian hadn’t seen her. Apparently, she hadn’t come down. So, he decided to go up to the girls' section of the house under the pretext of looking for KT, hoping to find her. And sure enough, there she was, with hundreds of things in the hallway and a large box coming out of her room.

"Yacker? What’s going on?" He didn’t care about breaking all the codes; he needed to know what was happening. She looked at him tiredly.

"I’ll carry this, Patricia," KT intervened. Patricia thanked her for the help and turned towards Eddie. KT took the box from Patricia’s arms and took it to the room that used to be Amber and Nina’s.

Willow appeared, hopping behind them, taking her own things from her room and putting them into the room that Patricia used to share with Joy.

"Are you going to tell me what’s going on?" Eddie spoke once they were completely alone in the hallway.

She sighed and took his hand, dragging him to the girls' bathroom.

"I had to swap rooms with Willow," she said.

He looked at her confused. "But you loved your room."

Of course, she loved it, it was bigger than Nina and Amber’s, and she only had to share it with Joy and KT, who weren’t at all bothersome and, in fact, were her friends. Not to mention all the posters on the walls and the paint she had paid to make her side black.

"Yes, but how do you think I got the key back after Victor confiscated it?"

"Wait, I thought you took it from Victor’s office."

She shook her head, stepped away from him, and leaned against the bathroom sink with her arms crossed.

"It wasn’t there. Victor had it in his pocket. I had to come up with a plan with Jerome."

Eddie gasped, unable to hide his shock. "Jerome?" She nodded. "Wait, he won’t say anything, right?"

"I’m a professional, weasel. Of course, he won’t say anything. Why do you think I’m changing rooms with Willow?" She frowned as she mentioned the latter. "For some strange reason, he doesn’t want Willow and Mara together. I suspect he’s cheating on Mara with her. I threatened to tell someone if he told Victor I had the key. Whatever, it’s not my business. But that’s how I got the key back."

Eddie looked at her with understanding. The more he found out about that night when Patricia and Alfie were left alone, the worse he felt, and the more he realised that being locked in the crypt didn’t seem so bad compared to everything she had faced outside.

"I’m sorry," he said, embarrassed. She frowned at him, looking at him disapprovingly.

"I thought we had made it clear that it wasn’t anyone’s fault," she tried to lighten the mood. She hated it when Eddie felt guilty or not good enough because of sibuna.

"So, are you going to share a room with Mara again?"

Patricia nodded, glancing at the door behind him.

"Yes, like the old times. I guess."

"Yeah…"

Each second, the silence grew more uncomfortable.

"About this afternoon…"

Patricia interrupted him. "There’s nothing to say about this afternoon."

He sighed in frustration.

"Do you think I can just forget that you confessed you loved me? In the present simple? And that you didn’t say it once, but emphasised it twice?"

"Eddie…" She got up from where she was leaning, moving closer to him, trying to move him to leave the bathroom, but he blocked the exit.

"I love you too," he confessed, searching her eyes for some kind of reaction. "I love you, and I’m tired of this, of this strange friendship, of pretending that I don’t seek your approval for everything I do because you have so much more experience in all of this than I do. I’m tired of pretending I know how to do things when I’m just waiting for your opinion to know if it’s the way it should be. I’m tired of pretending that I’m not waiting for you to react—"

She grabbed him by the neck and kissed him. Pressing her lips to his. Their tears joined in the kiss.

They pulled away, but not too far, resting their foreheads against each other. He lifted the hand that was resting on Patricia’s hip and moved it to her cheek to wipe away her tears.

"Are you okay?" he whispered softly, pulling back a little to look at her.

She nodded.

"I don’t think you’re like him. You’ll never be like him, and I don’t want you to ever think for a second that I believe you’ll be him," she said firmly. "Nightmares aren’t anything new, I’ve lived with them for three years. Finding out you were the Osirian triggered me. You were excited, happy to have an important role, you discovered that your dad always cared about you and if he was far away, it wasn’t because he didn’t love you, but quite the opposite. But for me… I’d been listening for two long years about what Rufus meant. He was the Osirian, he was a chosen one just like Sarah and Nina, and he went mad for eternal life. And I know you’re not like him and will never be like him, because I’ll make sure of that or I’ll kick you so hard you’ll come back to reality…" Eddie couldn’t help but laugh through his tears. Patricia mimicked her previous action and gently wiped the tears from his cheeks. "That turned on some things in my head that I thought had been turned off. And our jokes, absurd games, and our relationship were all I needed at that moment because they kept me away from reality. You were the only normal thing I had in my life, and it felt like they took that away from me."

"Nothing has changed, Yacker, I’m still me, I’m still here. We could talk about it, we could…"

She interrupted him. "I’ve never learned how to communicate... My whole life, I had to stay silent, that was the only way to survive. If I spoke, it gave importance. Secrets are everything in this house. Going out into the real world and being in America with you was weird, but it was weird because it was incredible. And I’m not used to that happiness, to that stability… It’s like I was…"

"Like you were used to being miserable," he completed.

"Yeah… you could say it like that," she lowered her head, embarrassed.

"I’m not going to leave you alone, Patricia. I know there are things you haven’t told me, and you have your reasons, but I wasn’t there when most of them happened. But I’m here, and as long as I am, nothing bad is going to happen to you."

Patricia was about to speak again when KT opened the door, eyes closed, making them jump.

"Hey guys, I hope I’m not interrupting anything. Patricia, Alfie’s looking for you like crazy."

Patricia approached KT and opened her eyes with her fingers.

"What did you think we were doing here, Miss Sunshine?" Patricia joked.

KT laughed nervously.

"Nothing! I swear."

Patricia and Eddie laughed, shaking their heads.

"We’ll talk later, if I’m not with Alfie during one of his crises. He’s starting to lose it," Patricia told Eddie before leaving.

Eddie offered to help KT with Patricia’s things. After a while, they went back downstairs to the rooms. They went to Eddie and Fabian’s room and started talking about their options with the eclipse and the ritual.

Eddie decided to sneak into his father’s office to find out what information they had about KT. But he discovered something worse when looking through Patricia’s files.

He ran back to the house with four files, informing KT and Fabian that Patricia, Alfie, Jerome, and Joy were the true descendants.

"They are the ones they need for the ceremony," KT said.

"We have to warn them," Eddie said.

"It’s too late. Your father came to pick up Patricia and Alfie, and they took them to the Gatehouse."

No, no, no.

Eddie had failed Patricia and the world once again.