Chapter 11: I would like to know more about you, Nate!

Lars POV:

For some reason, I found the silence comfortable. Nate and I sat on a bench in the park, held hands, and just kept silent. He was leaning on me, his chin gently resting on my shoulder. The moment was tender, but the butterflies in my stomach brought me to the idea, that I really should pick the food I ate more carefully.

Of course, I had to break the moment. Heaven forbids that I sat silent and still by someone, who liked me.

"Hey, do you want to come over to my place later?" More than one child had friends come over during my school carrier. No one wanted to be my guest, of course. Not because the children were mean, no.

I was a rich kid in a school full of people who were happy with one meal per day. The children just didn't want to be confronted with that. No offers of playtime with my new toys, or even a couple of hours with my books, could make a child feel less uneasy, when he thought I will look down on him.

Still, I kept trying. All the cool kids had friends over, so, I wanted that for myself. Not only that, but I kept bringing baked goods to school. Those were a hit, since I could bake cheese bread like no one else. True smiles were the currency I wanted for those muffin-like salty treats.

Little joys were something I lived for.

"Sure!" Before I could open my mouth, and insist that he came over, that word registered to my ears.

"Are you sure?" Because I was not. Nate blinked a couple of times, then tilted his head to the side.

"Why, do you have a giant spider at home? Is that why you asked me if, I was sure?" His smile was like the sun. Maybe if I had known him for longer, I would have been able to believe in his goodwill. But as the things stood...

"No, no! I was just thinking about making some cheese bread," when in doubt, bribe.

"May I help with that? I have never baked in my life," which I could understand. Or I thought I understood. My brain made the connection between the title Prince and Nate, and came out with the conclusion that Nate was still well taken cared of.

"Sure!" a silence followed. I was not sure if Mike and Jean were going to come back anytime soon, but I had no means to contact them. The most people had a notebook with runes on it. The idea was, that one person could write in the notebook, and then the text would show up in the connected notebook.

Those cost a lot, and I had no way to explain from where I had the money, so I never bought one. At that moment, I regretted that.

"Ok, where do you live? I live nearby," he pointed at a bridge a little bit to the side. The thing was, that around the bridge there were no houses to be seen. There was this small and shabby shop, but it had no apartment buildings over it.

"How far after one cross the bridge?" I was a small idiot. No one could convince me otherwise.

"Under the bridge," he was still smiling, seeing nothing wrong with that. "I have a blanket there, and the other people who live there give me food from time to time. They have nothing to spare, but I am young, and some of them take pity on me."

"Ah," my intelligence could surprise even me sometimes. Negatively. "You can't live there, Nate!"

"Why?" He was still smiling, even as my brain came up with a thousand and one contra arguments. "It is summer now, so it is warm. During the winter it is not pleasant, no. But the people are nice."

He was good and pure. Of course, I had to show how naive I was.

"You can live with me! I have a house, which I inherited from my parents," which was the truth. Before Arkano made it so, that almost all of the potion's ingredients in Lergo were outlawed, just so they could sell their crap at prices, which could make even an experienced layer shake his head in exasperation, my parents were well-off.

Agricultural specialist always had it easy in Lergo. Our land didn't have many mineral deposits, but our fields were rich and plentiful. The fact that we were all starving now, was a crime. 

Arkano, Boran and Naschestan had a lot to answer for.

"I... can?" His eyes were wide, his nose twitched a little. Back then I thought he would sneeze, so I took a napkin out of my front pocket, and gave it to him. 

"Here, please. And of course, you can move in with me. I have the space. I think we can invite Mike and Jean to move in as well. Since I have like six free rooms," I had only good intentions, but I still broke Nate's heart.

He looked at his feet, his lower lip between his teeth. I just smiled, thinking he was just shy.

"Jean and Mike... do you think they are good-looking? No, I mean, what I meant to say is, do you think they are nice?" He said it so quietly, that I completely missed the first part. He gave me these small hints, but I was obvious to them all. 

"Sure, they are nice! It will be fun for us all to live together!", and kept breaking his tender heart. A heart he tried to gift to me time and again. I was not mature for my age. For the better part of my life, I had enough money to afford to stay a clueless pumpkin head.

Nate had no way of knowing that. 

"Yes, it would be nice. But... can I please move into the room next to yours?" His last attempt to show me he wanted more than my friendship. The only thing that went through my mind was that someone wanted to be close to me.

Back then, I thought that he might have night terrors. The solution presented itself in my brain, and I gave him his wings back.

"I have a bunk bed in my room. Why don't you move in there?" I scratched myself behind the head, as the butterflies started making themselves known once more. But how could they not? Nate hugged me, soft and gentle. A more profound meaning in the way he inhaled my scent.

And I, like the teenager I was, just swore to avoid the curry restaurant across the street from my house like the plague...