Ignis sat down and stared awkwardly at the nearly empty glass of water in front of him. He was always a punctual person so he had shown up fifteen minutes earlier.

That had been an hour ago.

They had agreed on showing up at 7 pm in a restaurant to have dinner together. It was almost 8 and there was no sign of his boyfriend showing up anytime soon.

Ignis felt like a total fool.

Gladio had warned him that he had heard rumors that his boyfriend was just using him to get better grades and to be on the good side of teachers.

"A real jerk and coward," That's how Gladio described him. Ignis had thought that it was about the rivalry between them since they had taken the same classes during freshman year and a lot of the girls liked him. Ignis knew Gladio enjoyed the attention and that he saw everyone that didn't stand up for themselves against him as cowards. His boyfriend was mostly reserved and quiet, which made Ignis think that Gladio just didn't like him.

They had started to date four months ago. After he had insisted for a few weeks and Ignis hadn't thought much about it. He decided to give him a change and he behaved really polite and nice towards him that Ignis started to believe he had been serious.

And he had been misleading him this whole time.

Ignis griped the table until his fingers became white. He didn't even know what he was feeling, anger? Sadness? Disappointment? He was aware of all the pitiful stares he was receiving from the other people in the place. They had seen him waiting for someone since they had come in and realized, maybe faster that Ignis himself, that he had been stood up by whoever invited him there.

Ignis had expected the waitress to kick him out after he hadn't ordered anything for half an hour, but even the lady seemed to pity him and just acted like he wasn't there, occupying a table that could serve another client. She just came now and then and filled his cup with water again and again.

He had asked for more time at least four times because he thought his boyfriend was just late, but he didn't even pick up his phone or answered any message. Gladio had been right. Since the semester ended so did their relationship.

Ignis bit his lip and stared at his phone, hoping that a message would arrive explaining all of his questions and erase all of his doubts. But his screen remained black. Only his reflexion stared back at him, and he finally decided to face reality.

Ignis Scientia, the best student in the University of Insomnia was used like a puppet by a selfish manipulative bastard that didn't even had the courage to show his face, and he had trusted him!

He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and decided to just leave. He had already humiliated himself enough and hated how people were staring at him. He was about to stand up when a stranger came over and sat down in the chair in front of him while explaining really loudly, making a few people look their way.

"I apologize for being so late, the traffic at this time is ridiculous!"

Ignis stared at the really handsome stranger for a few seconds not knowing what to do. He was taller than Ignis, with long platinum hair and mismatched eyes, one purple and the other blue. Fair skin, and wearing a white jacket on top of a black button-up shirt and gray jeans.He took Ignis hand and kissed the back of his fingers making Ignis blush by the sudden action.

"My name is Ravus, just play along all right? Whoever didn't bother to show up is a complete imbecile," The man said in a quiet tone so only Ignis could hear him.

Ignis let a small smile appear on his lips and replied "Indeed," and pushed the menu card towards Ravus who thanked him and started to inspect the different kinds of foods that the establishment offered.

The people around them looked away, some of them even seemed relieved for him, and the waitress came over with a big smile on her face and asked them what would they have.

Ravus ended up ordering for both of them, which was fine by Ignis after hearing the perfect combination of food, drinks, and dessert that Ravus placed together. It appeared that he had some good tastes and cuisine knowledge to add to his already kind personality.

Not everyone would do something like this to help a stranger from embarrassing themselves in front of others.

"So what's the story?" Ravus asked him while waiting for their food to be brought to them.

"I'm an idiot who placed my feelings on someone who didn't deserve them," Ignis decided to tell the truth since Ravus had saved him from even more embarrassment. "He was just using me and since I'm not needed anymore I was discarded like garbage."

"Mmm," Ravus took a sip of his glass of wine and grinned. "I knew he was an idiot, to leave someone like you behind was a huge mistake on his part."

"I appreciate the sentiment but you don't even know anything about me," Ignis stated.

"I might not know everything but I know enough to see a diamond among the rest of the pebbles and gravel," Ravus laughed. "I don't know your first name but your last name is Scientia, the student who many consider a prodigy, am I wrong?"

Ignis raised an eyebrow, his head already coming up with ideas of how did this complete stranger knew his last name.

"I'm not a stalker if that's what you're thinking," Ravus raised one of his hands as if trying to stop Ignis thoughts. "I have a younger sister in the same University as you, she is one year older but it's part of the ones who plan out the ceremonies of graduation, you're graduating next month so she had to talk to you about your graduation speech."

"Lunafreya," Ignis remembered. "Nox Fleuret." They were one of the most wealthy and powerful families who had a lot of power over medicine, health care, education and many art institutions since their generous donations over the years. Many even said that they had power in the government system and influences on other countries as well.

And the heir of the household was sitting in front of him pretending to be his boyfriend. Ignis just wanted to disappear, to be wasting Ravus precious time so he could escape others pitiful stares was unforgiven. He was no one important, Ravus should not even know about him. He opened his mouth to apologize but Ravus lifted one of his fingers and silenced him.

"Please don't start with the sir and the etiquette, I'm having a wonderful dinner as Ravus only," The apparent shock in Ignis face made Ravus laugh. "My sister said that you were a 'wonderful gentleman' to her and that showed better manners than those that were born with a silver spoon on their mouths. I recognize you from the pictures she took of that day."

"I apologize but are you waiting for someone? I don't want to-"

"No, I'm not, I actually was trying to get away from everything for a few hours. Everywhere I go someone seems to recognize me and I hate the treatment and all the attention, so I come here because everyone is in such a hurry that they don't look at you twice."

"I see," Ignis said with a soft smile.

"And don't worry about being embarrassed when you come back to school next week or during graduation," Ravus smile turned sinister. "Lunafreya and I are going to have a small chat with whoever dares to use others in order to raise his own grades, so nothing comes out of his dirty mouth that would make you uncomfortable."

"You don't have to," Ignis said quickly. "I can handle it myself, it was my mistake so I'm going to face it."

"Most people would just stand back and pretend nothing happened," Ravus commented.

"I'm not most people," Ignis smiled.

"I can see that," Ravus smiled back.

The rest of the hour passes rapidly, both talked about what they were working on, and their hobbies. They had a lot in common, both enjoyed poetry and plays. Classic music was their favorite and both could play at least one instrument, their fascination with art and architecture as well as culinary was apparent in the way both expressed themselves while talking. It was the first time someone could keep up with his ideas and don't seemed to get bored, no, Ravus actually keep on asking him more and more and Ignis didn't want to miss anything either so he let himself ask as much as he desired.

Ignis didn't want to leave but it was getting late and Gladio, his roommate, was probably wondering what was taking him so long. Ravus understood and walked with him to the door after paying for the food, in which Ignis insisted on paying half since he was the one that made Ravus order food as part of their little scheme.

"Thank you for having dinner with me, I really appreciate it," Ignis smiled at Ravus when they were outside, the weather was warm and perfect like Ignis was feeling at that moment.

"No, thank you for letting me be your pretended boyfriend for an hour," Ravus laughed.

"Anytime," Ignis said playfully. "Have a good night," Ignis turned around to get to the parking lot, he took two steps before Ravus called him.

"Wait!"

"Yes?" Ignis asked and turned around.

"You never told me your name," Ravus explained.

"I thought you knew it already," Ignis stated.

"Your last name yes, but Luna never said your first name," Ravus responded looking away from Ignis. "I pretended to be your boyfriend even though I didn't even know your name."

"Well, let's start all over again, shall we?" Ignis offered his hand to Ravus and said, "My name is Ignis Scientia."

Ravus took his hand and brought to his lips and kissed his knuckles making Ignis blush even more than before. Ravus had no reason to do that anymore, they were done with the pretend game and there was no one around to fool any longer.

"A pleasure," Ravus whispered and raised his eyes to meet Ignis'.

Ignis was at lost for words so he mumbled a likewise while looking down at his feet. He dares not to look at Ravus because he felt like his heart was going to stop working for how fast it was beating.

"Would you give me the honor of joining me again next Friday, Ignis?" Ravus asked, not taking his eyes away from Ignis and still holding his hand.

Ignis wanted to melt right there. Was Ravus asking him for a real date? He must be dreaming or was he just playing around?

"Are you sure you rather spend your Friday night with me? I'm pretty sure they are better candidates at the social level such as yourself that would love to spend the night with you," Ignis managed to say.

"I will be the one who decides who is on my level, Scientia. And who I see as worthy of my time," Ravus smiled at him. He squeezed his hand and stared at his eyes and Ignis couldn't look away. He sounded so sincere and determined that Ignis found himself nodding.

"I would love to if you would have me," Ignis agreed. Still feeling light-headed from all the current emotions he was feeling.

"It's a date then," Ravus affirmed. And Ignis was, for the first time, grateful that his now ex-boyfriend didn't show up.