A distraught Nathan responds to his father's greeting,
"Why and how are you here?"
"Mhh, what do you mean? I just so happen to hear that this place serves the best pastries around."
"I'm not falling for it."
Eliana heard Nathan's voice among the chatter and came out of the kitchen.
"Oh, Nathan, you're back. Hello Noah, it's been ages since I've seen you."
"Good evening, Ms. Valen."
Nathan turned to Noah and said,
"I'll see you in my room. Let me work this out first."
"Oh- Okay."
Noah heads upstairs to Nathan's room, leaving the 'family' to deal with their affairs.
Nathan broke the awkward silence and asked his father, Lawrence,
"What are you doing here, because I know damn well you're not here for the evening specials."
His mother gasped in shock after hearing her son say such things.
"Nathan!? Who taught you how to speak like that?"
"Mom, can you leave us for a moment? I want to talk to him for a bit."
"No! If the two are going to talk, then I want to hear it."
"MOM!"
Lawrence stood up and said,
"It's fine, I can leave if I'm going to be a burden."
"No, sir, you don't have to leave."
"Mom, do you know who he is?"
"Yes, I know who he is; it was the first thing he told me."
Nathan paused, looked at them, gritted his teeth, and went upstairs.
"Are you sure I'm fine here?"
"It's fine, I'll talk to him later. Besides, your order's ready."
Nathan barged into his room in frustration and frightened Noah.
"Are you alright, Nate?"
Nathan took deep breaths to try to calm down.
"Yeah… I'm fine…"
"I take it it's not a good time to finish off what we were talking about, huh?"
"No, it's fine. Where was I again?"
"I asked you who that guy was in the room with you in the dungeon."
"Well, you've just seen him."
Noah dropped his chin to the floor, leaving his mouth open from the surprise and shock.
"Wait… so that's your dad?"
"Yes, that's him."
After some time and going through all the events leading up to now, they both sat down on the bed, Nathan bouncing a ball off the wall and Noah fiddling around with a toy Nathan had as a child.
"So, what now?"
"What do you mean?"
"The school is investigating a 'mole', Captain Ravencroft is probably onto you, King Augustus seems to have taken an interest in you, and now your dad just so happened to randomly show up out of nowhere in the middle of all this."
Nathan turned to face the moon, loudly groaned, and said,
"Wish I could skip to the ending already."
"I feel you. I have an idea."
"What is it?"
"Let's tell the rest everything that's happened."
"Why?"
"Because since there's an investigation going on, we'll know who did it."
"How does telling everyone help with this?"
"Because having two student council members, with one of them being part of a family that's the closest to King Augustus, one who lives with Captain Ravencroft, a friend who is Captain Regina's daughter, will give us a chance to get more information."
Nathan blankly stared at Noah and said,
"I think you should start attending school at night just to keep your marks up."
"(smug)Told you I'm not just a pretty face, I'm probably the smartest person you know."
"I smell one lie and a partial truth."
They both laughed, and after a few moments, Noah left and went home.
Nathan heads downstairs to check up on his mother and see if his father has left. He saw that nobody was in the kitchen and suggested checking her in her room. He goes back upstairs and sees her fast asleep and decides to do the same.
As he was walking back up to his room, he sensed a faint presence in the extra bedroom beside him.
He nervously knocked on the door, hoping that no one opens and that he's just feeling things. The door opened and in front of him was his father.
"Is everything fine?"
Nathan snapped out of it and asked,
"Why are you still here?"
"Your mom said that I can stay for the night."
"I see…"
"Are you bothered by something? Do you want to talk about it?"
"This just feels weird, that's all."
"I can tell. Don't worry, I'm just staying for the night, then I'll be off tomorrow morning, and you won't see me for a while."
After hearing this, Nathan looked down, closed his hand lightly, and asked,
"Do you think that it'd be natural for us to be around each other someday?"
"I don't know. I hope so, but I feel like it'll be wishful thinking."
"Okay… I'll be off."
"Goodnight."
Nathan pressed his face on his pillow and sighed from guilt.