The vast room is opulent, just like every other room in the building he's in. Nathan wakes up with a jolt, surprised at the unfamiliarity of his surroundings.

Where in Bahamut's name am I?

"Ohhhhhhh," he realizes, yawning as he falls back onto the comfortable bed.

He gazes out the window, the magnificent Baia di Celluna stretching out for as far as the eye can see. Maybe I can lie down here for a few more minutes...

He wakes up much later, his nap interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing.

"Hello?"

"Did you just wake up?" a familiar voice asks.

Nathan rubs his eyes unconsciously, "Ugh... who's this?"

The voice on the other end laughs, "You did just wake up! This is probably the latest you've ever woken up, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah... what time is it anyways?"

"Oh, it's nothing... it's almost noon, no biggie."

"WHAT?! Oh holy Astrals, I gotta get going, what am I gonna do? Domani will kill me, I'm totally going to die... Oh holy Bahamut have mercy on me, I'm totally dead, please hel-"

Loud laughter interrupts his panic, "Chilllllll! Today's a free day for you, do whatever you want."

"Wha- what?"

"I'm going to arrive back at the hotel in a bit, wanna grab lunch?"

"Ugh... who are you again?"

The voice chuckles, "Very funny, Nathan. Get dressed, I'll see you in ten."

The person hangs up the call, leaving Nathan visibly disoriented. Ugh... do I have to move?

----------------------------

"Nathan! There you are," the voice from the phone shouts from across the restaurant's patio.

Finally out of his stupor, Nathan identifies the face behind the voice, "Jordan... I should've known it was you."

Jordan smiles, launching Nathan into a brief spell of nervousness. He quickly regains his composure as he sits across from him.

Jordan gives him one of his signature smirks as Nathan gets settled in his chair, "Sitting across from me, huh? Bold choice."

Nathan blushes and coughs, "Wh- what do you mean?"

"Don't pretend you don't know Nathan... you know what I mean."

"I... I..."

Jordan laughs as he observes Nathan's increasingly nervous behavior, "I'm just messin' with you. Don't take it too seriously, alright?"

Nathan looks away before giving a soft "Okay."

A few moments pass in awkward silence as Nathan tries to calm himself while Jordan aimlessly peruses the menu.

"C- can you be honest with me Jordan?"

Jordan looks up from the menu, "Hm? What do you mean?"

"I- I don't really like your uh... teasing. It makes me think that..."

"...I like you?" Jordan finishes, his hazel eyes boring into Nathan's charcoal ones.

Nathan breaks contact, "Y- yes... that's one way to put it."

How can he be so... casual about this?

"Listen..." Jordan tentatively places his right hand on Nathan's, "I'm sorry. I'm just... confused."

Nathan withdraws his hand, moving it on top of the menu, "Oh, so you just decide it's a good idea to tease your 'frie-' someone you barely know when you're confused? Am I just someone to test out your questioning sexuality?"

"N- no! I..."

"I- I can't do this, Jordan. I'm gonna go to- somewhere else. Bye."

He watches as Nathan leaves the hotel restaurant's spacious patio, walking up to a gondolier.

Looking away from the figure he had grown familiar with, he glances around the restaurant, noticing that no else is there. Silently, he thanks the Astrals for preventing him from having to deal with what was definitely an embarrassing scene.

Sighing, he gets out of his chair and begins walking back into the Leville. That was definitely not how I imagined things would go.

----------------------------

I think I have feelings for Nathan.

It's not something that I really wanted to admit. At least not until now.

Remember when I was trying to tell him about why I ignored him in tenth grade? Well, I didn't get to tell him because of that asshole 'Safay Roth' appearing out of nowhere. I guess I'll tell you guys then, huh?

I mean, if you have any common sense at all (which Nathan doesn't have, sorry), you'd know I was trying to er... confess my feelings for him?

Wait, that doesn't sound right...

I guess I was trying to tell him that I wasn't ignoring him because I didn't like him. In fact, I guess you could say it was sort of the opposite? I guess I sort of fell for him towards the end of ninth grade. But I wasn't going to admit that to him then. I was even more confused than I am now so I thought that ignoring my feelings for one year would make them stop.

Obviously, I was even more naїve back then. Purposely deciding to not acknowledge him for an entire year actually heightened my feelings towards him for a while. Thankfully, that was the year I joined the varsity golf team at IIHL.

Because I was so busy with golf (along with school, of course), it was easy to ignore any thoughts of him. I shared one class with him but it wasn't that hard to ignore him as well; it wasn't like I was sitting right next to him. I had other friends to talk to and other things to be focused on... he was just a mere speck in the sea of faces.

Eleventh and twelfth grade went by with no Nathan-related issues. I didn't share any classes with him and I don't even remember seeing him anywhere at school. I think there was one time when I saw him at the tea shop near school. He was hanging out with his friends and it looked like he was having fun. But I didn't think much of it so I ordered my drink and immediately left.

Fast forward to my arrival at Primalupo. When I first stepped foot on the University of Accordo, I thought that I could leave my old life and start a completely new one. Free from my overcontrolling parents and their stupid dreams of me becoming some sort of soldier. Violence has never really been my thing and I sure as hell wasn't changing my opinion on it because of my dumb parents.

To be honest, I didn't recognize Nathan when I first saw him. I first caught a glimpse of him when he entered the lecture hall for an Advanced Mathematics course. He didn't look anything like he did in Insomnia so I just brushed him off as some random student. I saw him briefly glancing at me as well but there wasn't a flash of recognition or anything. We pretty much ignored each other after that.

He dropped out of the course a few weeks after. It wasn't until I got a good look of him at the Axium before I finally figured out that he was the same Nathan from IIHL. I really shouldn't have been that oblivious. Like seriously, who else in Eos has "Ashwolf" as their last name? Of course I pretended like it was my first time meeting him when I asked if I had seen him somewhere. His response gave me all that I wanted to know: he didn't know I was "Florian" from IIHL.

It was pretty obvious he had a crush on me though. I found it a little ironic that he still had a crush on the same guy from high school (even if he didn't realize it was the same guy). I played it off like I was clueless and I'm pretty sure he didn't notice anything. We had an... eventful class after that but when he left in a rush, I thought that would be the last time I saw him.

Oh boy was I wrong. I wanted to make sure he was okay for some reason even though I barely knew him. When he told me his true feelings at the end of our... er... dinner... I just didn't know what to do. I basically went into panic mode and got away as fast as I could.

Then I launched into a period of confusion again (just like I did in tenth grade) but this time, I came to a conclusion that's probably correct.

I'm definitely not straight.