Milo was having a midday meal in the university dining hall with his two favorite people - Micheal and Reyna. He met Micheal when they were both children at school, when nobody wanted to play a board game with Micheal. He never realized he was a halfling until years later when Milo was suddenly almost twice his size. They still spent time playing games together when they could, enjoying coming up with new rules and strategies. 

He met Reyna at the university, where they quickly became close in their introductory natural science courses. They stayed friends for years, but recently, under the insistence of his family, he had asked her on an outing. He didn’t feel any closer to her afterwards, but he supposed that such feelings of romance showed up with time. She didn’t feel like his girlfriend and yet, on paper, she was. It was odd, but he did his best not to dwell on it, and kept treating her as a friend, only with extra hand holding in front of people ready to judge him. Yet after seven months, he was beginning to doubt either of them would ever have any feelings evolve.

Besides, he had always only had feelings for men.

Reyna watched as Milo and Micheal played a game of chess, carefully contemplating every move. The chess pieces were replaced by small chocolates, and capturing an opponent's piece meant eating the candy. Milo was winning, but only by a small margin. 

“How you stay so thin while eating so many sweets will always astound me, Milo,” Reyna bemused. “I eat one tart and my tunics no longer fit the same way.”

“His anxiety burns everything away,” Micheal teased “He needs the sweets to fuel it”.

Milo raised an eyebrow and tossed one of the candies to his friend, who promptly caught it and ate it. "You forfeited that pawn, Milo, it counts. Rules are-"

Suddenly a loud crack resonated in the dining area. The small group looked up, allowing Micheal to take the opportunity to sneak another one of Milos' chocolates off of the chess board. 

In the middle of the room, a student known for being quite dramatic had just slapped one of the few drow of the university. Milo had a hard time remembering either of their names, but they were certainly making a scene. 

“Reyna, isn’t that one of your cousins?” he questioned, adjusting his glasses.

Reyna swore and got up to calm her down, as she was yelling obscenities at the drow.

The girls’ yelling was muffled by the murmurs of the crowd, but it was easy to guess what it was about. That drow had a reputation for not being able to keep a relationship, and not exactly wanting to. The elf had probably gotten her hopes up, while there never was any to begin with.

“He deserved it,” Micheal muttered, mouth full. 

“Probably...” Milo reluctantly agreed. “One of his friends made sure my class heard they all thought we were shut-in hermits.”

Micheal laughed. “Not wrong.”

Milo rolled his eyes and looked down at the chess board, now devoid of any of his own pieces. 

“Micheal, really? Again?” 

His friend shrugged. “You, sir, gotta know how to take a golden opportunity when you see it”.

Milo laughed and took Micheal's pieces, snacking on them one by one, watching Reyna comfort her cousin. 

He noticed the drow walk out of the dining hall alone, holding his face. None of his friends seemed to follow to check if he was okay, in fact - Milo stretched to check - they seemed to be laughing?

"Some friends," Micheal commented, noticing it too. "But hey, popularity is all nonsense anyway - wait where are you going?"

"Just going to make sure he's okay," Milo called back. He had quickly packed and made his way in the same direction the drow had gone alone.

"Who cares?!" Micheal yelled.

That was the problem though - what if nobody did?

Milo quickly found the drow walking down the hallway towards the university's gardens. He accelerated to a slight jog, meeting him with ease.

"Hey-"

"What do you want?" The boy snapped, still holding his face, his light hair in front of his eyes. He refused to look up at Milo.

"I just- I saw you leave alone."

"Perceptive, are you? Want a prize?"

Milo exhaled. "None of that. I just... I know what it's like to be alone at a low point, and I wanted somebody to make sure you were okay. And- well, I guess I am that somebody? I mean... are you okay?"

The man in front of him let out a dark chuckle, still not looking at him. "I'll be fine. Stars know this isn't the first time this happens, probably won't be the last, but if they could make this cycle stop, I'll owe them one."

"Do you need help? I don't know much about heartbreak but-"

"No. It's not heartbreak,  just- who even are you? Leave me alone!"

The drow pushed past Milo, who watched him walk away. He sighed and made it back to his friends, busy comforting Reyna's cousin as well as they could.