Rated T for swearing. Fabina One-shot-For Sibuna97's Challenge.

"Don't say you love me unless you really mean it, because I might do something crazy like believe it."
-Anonymous

"So any news about the cube?" Fabian asked, sitting in the leather arm chair that was adjacent to the couch where Nina sat with a magazine in her hands.

"Hmm?" Nina asked, flipping a page of her magazine and clearly ignoring him.

Fabian looked at the magazine's name, groaned and rolled his eyes. He snatched the magazine from her to hold it above his head as Nina gasped and grabbed for it.

"Really Nina? 'Winter Pony Grooming'?" he demanded.

"Just give it back to me, Fabian!" she retorted, grabbing his shoulder as she reached across his lap to grab it.

"One, I thought you threw this out last term after you rejoined Sibuna." Nina shot him a glare, but didn't reply as she continued to grapple with him for the magazine. "Two, you have got to come up with a better excuse to ignore me than reading a stupid pony magazine!"

"Why do you care?"

"I care because I care about you, Nina!" he argued, his voice softening at the last bit.

Saying that stopped Nina in her tracks, and she paused in mid-swipe for the magazine. She looked into his eyes, at the sparkling blue that she had loved ever since she had met him, and saw that he genuinely meant it. He really cared about her.

But she pressed her lips together in a fine line, swallowing the sudden lump in her throat, and tried to keep her face emotionless. If he really cared about her, why couldn't he just tell Joy that he was Nina's? Why did he and Nina break up and argue so much if they cared about each other so much? There had to be a better answer to those questions than: "I care about you." He really didn't care about her if he couldn't pluck up the courage to tell Joy no.

She voiced her thoughts: "If you cared about me, you would tell Joy that you love me. You wouldn't worry about pleasing both of us, you would just tell her no!"

"Well, maybe if you stopped worrying about your own feelings you would realize that Joy has feelings, too!"

"Did you just defend her?" Nina asked, stunned.

"Yeah, I did," Fabian replied, his eyes narrowed and his voice full of quiet anger. "And you're acting really stupid right now by blaming her for all of your problems."

"Why don't you go find Joy and study with her as she falls all over you like a desperate tramp?" Nina hissed in reply.

Immediately, she covered her mouth with her eyes wide and leaned away from him, back to her original position. She knew she had gone too far: partially because Fabian's face clouded over as he tossed the magazine to the ground, shaking his head, and stormed out of the room, and partially because when Nina looked up, she met Joy's angry brown eyes and saw the girl mouth: "you bitch" before walking away.

Nina picked up the magazine from the floor, tears in her eyes. She hated fighting with Fabian-for crying out loud she still loved him and hated that they had broken up. After every argument, it made her feel terrible inside; every time she fought with him was like a dagger to her heart and she felt more and more distant from him.

She stood up with the magazine and tossed it to the table in annoyance, marching up to her room and slamming the door shut. She pressed her face into the pillow, screaming as loud as she possible could-yet the noise barely echoed through the room.

Nina slumped onto the bed, the pillow still clutched in her arms with her face pressed into the soft fabric. She slowly dozed off, her eyelids falling over her teary hazel irises, as she dreamed of better days without love and the pain of seeing him love another girl.

. . .

Nina was in a field, wearing a simple white sundress that fluttered around her with every movement, and her long brown hair flew around her face. She couldn't stop grinning as she stared up at the crisp blue sky with it's fluffy white clouds similar to marshmallows sewn together. The sun was everywhere, illuminating green grass with wildflowers of every color scattered throughout the beautiful meadow.

She was laughing as she danced through the flowers, completely elated after being sad for such a long time. She fell into the grass, but it didn't hurt like she expected it to-it felt like she had just fallen into an array of soft, plush pillows. She was in perfect bliss; it was completely amazing to just relax and not have to worry about anything in her life at the moment: no mystery to worry about, no boy drama to be concerned over, no Joy trying to steal Fabian away-or maybe she already had stolen him away, Nina wasn't sure-and there was no anger at herself for being mean to Fabian.

"Nina, are you awake?" a very familiar voice asked her dream-self. Nina opened her eyes a smidgeon in annoyance and didn't see any beautiful azure sky above her, but she did see blue.

Worried, cerulean blue irises that Nina recognized as Amber's hovered above her own, but she knew Amber hadn't asked the question. Nina closed her eyes again to go back to dreamland. But she didn't get to go back to her meadow because she heard Amber whisper something and a pair of lips were suddenly on her own.

Nina jolted up in surprise, knocking foreheads with someone in the process, and both shared a grunt of pain.

Her eyes flew open, seeing a wave of chocolate-brown hair falling in her face, along with dark blue, sparkling eyes behind them that she immediately recognized. And she knew exactly what had happened.

Fabian had kissed her awake. Kissed. Her.

"Nina?" he whispered.

"I told you it would work!" Amber squealed. And Nina realized that Amber had told Fabian to kiss her to wake her up. Amber, for crying out loud, she wasn't dead for one-hundred years! She was just taking a nap! She didn't need to be kissed awake!

"Why did you kiss me awake?" Nina asked warily.

"B-Because you are m-my sleeping beauty?" he said, ending it in a question. A romantic line that would have made her swoon and fall into his arms with a sigh like a Southern belle, but Nina didn't dare trust herself to love him with such ease.

"Really?" Nina raised an eyebrow.

"You told me that would work!" Fabian hissed to Amber.

Amber shrugged, a concerned look on her face. "I swear she would fall for that line," Nina heard Amber mutter.

"I'm still here," Nina pointed out. She sighed. "Could you just go back to Joy and leave me alone, please?" she asked him.

"Nina, no-" Fabian started.

She stood up, brushing her sleeve against her lips to metaphorically remove the taste of him off of her lips. "Please, just leave."

"No, I'm not leaving," he said firmly.

"Fine! Then I'm going!" Nina shouted at him, opening the door and slamming it shut. She heard Fabian and Amber in a hushed shouting contest behind the door, but didn't bother to wait and listen to hear what happened.

"Oh, Nina. Trouble with Fabes?" Joy tsked as her voice slithered into Nina's ears.

Nina closed her eyes, took in a deep breath through her nose, and turned to face her most notable enemy in the house. "Hello Joy. How's life with my ex?"

"Completely perfect, thank you for asking," Joy said with a wide smile.

"Lovely. Well, I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the kiss Fabian just gave me," Nina said with a saccharinely sweet tone.

"What did you just say?" Joy warned.

"Oh, you heard me. And if you don't believe me, ask your beau himself. I bet he would love to tell you."

"I bet he will," Joy replied, striding past Nina. "Oh, and Nina . . ."

Both girls turned to face each other, and Joy lifted a hand to strike Nina's face. The American girl caught the movement before the other's hand had even reached past her waist, and Nina grabbed the wrist of the hand before it reached her face. "Don't you dare." Her voice was a deadly warning, no hint of joking in it.

Nina tossed Joy's hand to the side and walked down the stairs. "Nina Martin, you will regret standing up to me!" Joy called after her angrily.

"Oh, I bet I will," Nina replied casually, not giving a care about Joy's empty threat.

. . .

"Nina! Nina Mar-tin!" Amber trilled as she pranced down the stairs.

"What?" Nina asked irritably. She looked up from her phone where she had been playing Tetris, which had ended in her losing after she had gotten frustrated that one piece didn't fit in the right place.

"Oooh, someone's a little grouchy, hmm?" the blonde asked.

"Yes, I am. What is it?" the other snapped.

"Okay, you know what? I don't need to tell you if you're going to be a bitch to me," Amber replied, her blonde eyebrows raising in surprise.

"No, Amber." She caught her best friend's arm and the blonde locked eyes with Nina. "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to get through the week without having to see Fabian with Joy. He's totally forgotten about me and in love with Joy and in his own fantasy land. It's hard to handle, and I'm taking it out on everybody else."

"Well, the Fabian and Joy thing is what I was going to tell you about!" Amber said. "She's gone, Nina." When seeing Nina's quizzical look, Amber added, "No, she's not dead. Fabian told her no for good, and that they would never be together. You guys can become Fabina again!"

"No, we can't," Nina said carefully.

"What? Why not?" Amber exclaimed.

"Because I can't trust myself to fall in love with him again," Nina said. "I don't want to love him again, only to have him be driven away after another girl captures his attention and I'm left with a broken heart."

"Nina, just go to him and talk. It's no use to just mope around like a sad, old cat lady. You can actually be with him again. Don't tell me you don't want that."

"I-I do," Nina confessed after a moment. "But I can't love him. I really can't."

"Remember: 'If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn't, then it was never meant to be,'" Amber quoted.

"Who's that by?" Nina asked with a smile.

"I really have no idea," Amber remarked. "Now go! Your Prince Charming awaits."

Nina gave her a half-hearted half-smile and went over to Fabian and Mick's room. She knocked on the door, dreading the meeting with every moment. He was probably so angry at her, so irked that she had the audacity to come and try to apologize. Maybe she should just leave and forget about this plan-

"Nina?" Fabian asked, confusion laced in his voice.

There was no time to back out now. "Uh, F-Fabian! Hi, um, I-I was going t-to-" Nina started.

"You were coming to apologize to me?" Fabian suggested.

Nina automatically went to the defensive when he assumed what she was thinking. "Maybe. Maybe not. Where is your girlfriend, Joy?" Nina asked angrily. She secretly wondered if Amber had lied to her just to get Fabina to talk it out and get back together, regardless of Joy's interference.

"We broke up," Fabian said bluntly.

"Wh- Really?" She tried to mask the excitement and joy in her voice, but it didn't really work. "I- I mean, I'm sorry-"

Fabian held up a hand. "No, I'm sorry. I wanted to apologize for being such a jerk to you earlier. And I'm sorry I kissed you; however, that was Amber's idea, so I can't take all of the blame," he said. At the end he added a wry smile that didn't reach his eyes, which were full of despair.

"I should be the one apologizing to you. I've been so awful to you, but . . ." Nina remembered a quote that her Gran had often used when talking about love: "'The hardest thing to do is watch the one you love, love someone else.' And I completely believe it. I wanted to just disappear right there after I saw you and Joy laughing with that camcorder. It hurt me so much because I knew that you and her had history and you two could easily fall back in love with each other. And I was afraid that you would forget me."

He took her hands in his and squeezed them. "Nina, I-I could never forget you. 'You-You're nothing short of my everything'."

"What's that quote from?"

"What about yours?"

"I have no idea," Nina said, shaking her head slightly.

"Me neither," Fabian replied with a slight smile.

Nina searched his eyes for any joking, some gotcha! moment where he would wrench his hands from hers and say it was all a joke, laughing in her face while pulling Joy out of nowhere and giving her a kiss that was meant for Nina. But that was more up Jerome's alley, and this was Fabian: a sweet guy who never wanted to hurt anyone no matter what it cost himself. He wouldn't do that, not even if he was in love with Joy. He wouldn't be so mean to Nina like that.

"You have no idea how much I missed you," Nina whispered, finally believing that her love really loved her back. She threw her arms around his shoulders in a tight embrace, one that she never wanted to break. She wanted to stay there, content and happy, in his arms forever.

Fabian held her tightly as they tried to regain what they once had; the love and the happiness that had once touched their lives had been gone for the winter, but now it was back to start something new and to be reborn into a new spring.

Nina pulled away to look into his dark blue eyes that were filling with happiness. And Nina knew her eyes looked the same, because her dreamworld had now become a reality and she was finally happy-especially when she pressed her lips to his for an amazing, blissful kiss.

Ahh, Fabina. I love this couple so much. (:

This should take place around...when Nina and Fabian discover the cube and are trying to figure out its uses. I wanted to add the fighting because I thought it would be good to see them forgive each other in the end instead of just having a happy fic with no real plot. I didn't want it to be fluff, I wanted it to be a one-shot that goes with the season so far.

Hope you enjoyed, and yes, I'm using a lot of quotes now. I found another author doing that with song lyrics, and I loved the idea, so I've kind of adopted it. I may use that technique in the next multi-chapter I do, but maybe not. We'll see!

Please review!

~Ary