beautiful

chapter 1: the beginning

"Did you just call me beautiful?" I had to be positively beaming at this point. It wasn't enough that Fabian had asked me to be his date, and we were elected Prom King and Queen by Amber; oh, no. He just called me beautiful.

"Yeah," Fabian replied bashfully, smiling back at me. I softly giggled.

"So why did you go back down into the cellar?" He asked me, curiosity filling his gaze.

"All that can wait," I whispered, "This can't." I leaned in, and pressed my lips to Fabian's. Soon, our lips were moving in unison.

I guess it didn't really help that we were interrupted by cheers and whistles from the crowd.

It also didn't help that my dream was now being interrupted by Amber.

"Nines," she whispered, gently shaking me, "Ninaaaa, wake up!"

"Amber," I whined, "I was having a good dream!"

"Lemme guess," she replied, placing her hands on her hips, "Fabian?"

I blushed. "Maybe."

"Oh, I knew it!" she gushed, racing to my bedside, "Tell me all about it! I wanna know absolutely everything!"

"After breakfast," I insisted, pushing my covers off and gently making my way past Amber.

"Aww, Nines," she whimpered.

"Come on," I said, taking her by the arm, "Let's see what Trudy made for breakfast."

When we stepped into the dining room, we saw Jerome, Mara, Mick, Alfie, Joy, and Patricia already at the table.

"What's for breakfast?" I asked, taking my seat. Trudy brought out a platter of pancakes, and said, "Hotcakes, love! I hear you all had a good time at the dance last night."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and when I looked at Trudy, she winked at me. I turned back to my plate, smiling as I dug in to the pancakes. I was absolutely famished.

"Good morning, Fabian," Amber greeted as Fabian walked in. I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him.

"Good morning, everyone," he said in general. Once he sat to my right, he said, "Good morning, Nina."

"Morning," I smiled again, and knew I was blushing, so I continued eating. Meanwhile, I could practically feel Amber's gaze penetrating me.

The next time I looked up from my plate, I saw everyone's eyes going back and forth between Fabian and myself, only letting up to exchange knowing looks with each other.

I could tell this was going to be a long day.

"Nines, come look at this!" Amber peeked over her laptop. We were all sitting in the common room, and I had been helping Trudy clean up from breakfast.

"Yes, Amber?" I replied, sitting next to her. I saw pictures of all of us in Anubis House on the screen.

"It's a new game I found on my profile!" Amber explained, and I tried to seem interested. But, I saw from the corner of my eye that Fabian was looking at me, and I blushed slightly.

"See," she continued, trying to actually grasp my attention, "You just put a picture of one person over here…" She clicked and dragged a picture of me to an empty square on the left.

"…And drag another picture here!" Amber picked up a picture of Fabian and dragged it to the other square.

"Then, when you press enter, you can see what it would look like if those two people had a baby! Isn't that adorable?" Amber was positively beaming as my face turned beat red. Sure enough, on the screen there was a picture of a brown haired, hazel eyed baby, smiling a toothless, baby grin. Mara came over and awww-ed, calling Patricia over as well. Patricia laughed and drew the attention of Jerome.

"It looks like a mini Fabian!" Patricia announced, and when Fabian heard his name, he perked up.

"With Nina's eyes, of course!" Amber added, just waiting for our reactions. If it was possible, my face would have gotten redder. My eyes locked with Fabian's, and I could see that he was blushing as well.

I noticed in my peripheral vision that an annoyed-looking Joy was glaring at us.

"Nina," she spoke up, and we all turned our heads, "May I speak with you?"

"Uh," I replied nervously, "Sure!"

I followed her hesitantly into the kitchen. She leaned against the counter, and I stood by the oven.

"Soo…" she began awkwardly, and I looked at her questioningly. She cocked her head to the side before continuing.

"You and Fabian, huh?" Joy finally spoke, and I felt my face getting hot all over again.

"Oh," I was a little taken aback by her sudden approach to it, but I had sort of seen it coming.

"I mean," I started, not quite sure how to explain it, "I like him, and he did ask me to the prom last night…and, we did kiss…"

"Oh…" Joy's mouth formed a small O, and her eyes looked more downcast.

"I'm sorry," I immediately apologized, although I wasn't sure what for. She looked back up at me, and smiled softly.

"Nina, it's okay," she comforted, "I mean, I really only liked him a little, and I certainly didn't act on it. I knew he didn't like me that way, so I guess it doesn't really matter."

"I'm sorry," I repeated, "I just don't want you to feel like I've replaced you. I have a feeling that's what everyone thought when I first showed up…"

"Nina," Joy stepped closer to me, breaking me out of my ramble, "You haven't replaced me. I'm sure we can be great friends."

"Okay," I sighed, relieved. But, as we walked out of the kitchen, I had a feeling that something still wasn't right.

A/N: So, here we go! My first attempt at a House of Anubis multi-chapter fanfic. I want to work extra hard on this one, so updates will be fewer and farther between, but hopefully you'll all be patient with me! So, enjoy! R&R :)