Ness simply gazed into my eyes lovingly with questions flying through his mind. I longed to tell him what had happened but I daren't. what if I had told him what a figment of my own imagination had told me, he'd take it the wrong way for sure.

It would break Ness's heart to know that I planted that thought in my own mind… but, what if I was right… is it a sin to love someone who is the same gender?

"Lucas? What's the matter?" asked Ness worriedly.

"Um… it's nothing…" I mumbled as I got out of bed and left the room.

"I wonder what's bothering him…" Ness thought to himself.

I made my way quickly down the creaky stairs and to my surprise, everyone was still asleep. I grabbed my shoes and left out of the front door, soon after, Ness descended from the stairs and looked around for me.

"Err… Ness… wha?... what time is it?" asked Paula as she woke up.

"About six-ish…" responded Ness. "Has anyone seen Lucas?"

"… Lucas?... well I heard… the door open… maybe it was him…" mumbled Kumatora in between yawns.

"Where could you be?" Ness postulated to himself.

Ness then dashed back up the stairs and got dressed into his usual blue and yellow shirt and blue shorts. My whereabouts was on his mind the entire time…

A fairly short walk from the train station in the middle of the village led to the cemetery. That's where I was headed. I needed to visit my mother's grave to let off some steam.

"Hey Mom… it's been too long…" I thought.

I sat there staring at the inscription on the tomb stone for a while, reading the words "may Hinawa rest in peace" over and over again, all the while thinking about what my dad said in my dream. Even if it wasn't him, the dream was of my own making… those feelings came from me and no-one else. But I love Ness? How could love be a sin? It isn't! it doesn't matter if two boys or two girls or a boy and a girl love each other, love is still love. Love isn't gender biased or race biased… not even religion… love is just love.

I was raised as a Christian by my devout parents, while we rarely went to church, the teachings of Christianity were heavily followed in our house much to the dismay of me and my brother. Christianity teaches us that we should love our neighbours, but not love. Given that our neighbours are probably the same gender as us, we shouldn't love them like that… my dad was a firm believer in that, would he really be disappointed in me for being gay?

Claus is gay too; would that mean that our dad would be disappointed in us both?

As soon as Mom died, the Christian teachings in my household died too. My dad stopped going to church and stopped praying before dinner, as did I. Claus wasn't there to see what a heartless father our dad became after Mom's death. He grew so cold that he wouldn't even smile when he saw me, he wouldn't come home for multiple nights at a time, he'd either have fallen asleep at Mom's grave or in the mountains while he was looking for Claus. Eventually, he stopped coming home all together… he stopped being our dad and now, he isn't even here to see both his children alive and well… he doesn't even know that Claus is still alive, he clearly doesn't care enough to come home and find that out.

It finally became clear to me, whatever my dad had said in my dream didn't matter anymore. The moment he walked out that door and never came back was the moment he stopped being my dad. Even if he came back now, not a single word he said would matter to me in the slightest.

After my little epiphany, I stood up and began to walk away from my mother's grave where I then saw Ness waiting for me.

"Hey—" said Ness as I did nothing but wrap my arms around him and buried my head in his neck. I didn't know why but I started sobbing, I guess it was the relief of finally coming to terms with this internal struggle about my sexuality.

Ness wrapped his arms around me in response and we began to walk side by side…

"Where are we going?" I asked as I wiped the tears.

"We're gonna go relax in the hot springs, I think after last night, we both could use it…"

I nodded as an answer even though Ness didn't require an answer, after all, he didn't ask a question.

We finally arrived at the hot springs, Ness eagerly removed his clothes from his body and seeped into the hot bath, he then beckoned for me to hurry up and join him. I started by taking off my shirt and then my shoes. Judging by the fact that Ness's underwear was dropped over the rest of his clothes, I'd guess that Ness was naked underneath the steaming water, using this as a guide for how undress I should be, I followed suit and removed everything that I was wearing.

I covered my privates with my hands as I slowly sank into the bath and let the steamy water cover my entire body letting out a slight 'ahh' as I did so.

"This is nice…" said Ness as he sank a little deeper and let the water come up to his neck.

"yeah…" I responded.

"So Lucas… why did you run out on me this morning?"

"I think you'd be better off not knowing…" I answered.

"okay… if you say so…"

Me and Ness floated in this bath for quite a while, we allowed ourselves enough time to relax fully but not to pass out from the heat. We sat quite close together in the bath, my right shoulder was about an inch away from his left shoulder and our hands were intertwined beneath the cloudy water.

This almost lifeless feeling we had was rather delightful in all honesty, to lie there weightlessly, I wish I could have stayed there forever but of course I couldn't.

"Lucas?" asked Ness.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Are you worried about the future? Is that why you've been a little distant?"

"what do you mean?"

"Well… I'm from a distant world and after we beat Giegue, I'm gonna have to go back there…" explained Ness.

"Oh right… to be honest, that hasn't been on my mind recently." I told. "I've mostly been thinking about how you're my first boyfriend and how happy you make me…"

Ness started to blush at my last remark, I'd guess he wasn't so good with his feelings to begin with and this made it a little awkward.

"… You make me happy too…" mumbled Ness who's face was now as red as a tomato.

The pulse I felt in my hand was not my own, it was Ness's and it was beating a million times faster than it should have been… Ness seemed to be so cool and calm to begin with, but now that feelings are included in the mix, he's gone all shy?

These kind of moments with Ness are the ones I cherish the most, nothing overly special happens, we're just together, enjoying each other's company. Of course, I wasn't looking forward to saying goodbye forever but at least we could still make new memories together until then and then I could cherish those after he's gone… I shouldn't worry about that too much at the moment, after all, he is still here. I'll just enjoy these moments with him while I can.

Kumatora and Paula were standing in the kitchen chatting about inappropriate things as always, every couple of minutes or so, they'd look over to Claus and Fuel who were cuddling on the sofa. Then they would gush over it for a bit and return to their conversation and pretend that they weren't looking that way.

"Say? Where's Ness and Lucas?" asked Kumatora as she suddenly realised the two hadn't been seen since this morning.

"I don't know, they both went out this morning…" said Paula. "Hold on, lemme check…"

Paula closed her eyes and started to send out pulses of psychic energy so that she could locate the missing boys.

*Gasp*

"What is it? Does Giegue have em, I'LL KILL THE BASTARD!" cried Kumatora.

"No… it's worse…"

"What?"

"They're having a moment… WITHOUT US!" explained Paula as she tried to contain her tears.

"…"

"Kuma—"

"I'MA KILL EM!"

"Gurl! Calm down… we can still watch… they're at the hot spring in the forest…"

"Let's go gurl!"

The duo put their shoes on and eagerly dashed out of house causing the door to slam behind them. If there was going to be a Nesscas moment, they sure as hell weren't going to miss it.

Ness and I were still soaking in the hot spring when we heard something in the tree above us start to shake causing a few of the leaves to fall and float on the water's surface.

"What was that?... is there something up there?" I asked nervously to Ness.

"I don't know, I can't see anything…" replied Ness.

Soon after, the shaking of the tree stopped so Ness and I shrugged it off and continued our relaxing bath… all of the shaking should have been a cue for us to leave, of course, we thought nothing of it.

"Be quiet!" whispered Kumatora angrily. "They almost saw us!"

"I'm sorry… maybe if we knew they'd be here beforehand, we could have prepared better—" responded Paula.

"SSHHHHHH!" silenced Kumatora.

They both didn't let a single breath escape their lungs as their eyes remained widened and they waited… why did they stop? Because Ness was getting suspicious.

"Okay… there's definitely something up there!" exclaimed Ness loudly being sure to alert whatever was sitting in the tree.

"Oh Crap! They know we're here!" said Kumatora telepathically to Paula.

"Chill, they don't know it's us yet…" replied Paula.

They then both sat quietly as they began to hear a strange sound coming from the tree. It appears that because they chose to sit so close to the end of the branch, the branch was beginning to snap.

*CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK*

"OH SH*T!" yelled the duo as they began the quick descent into the pool of hot water beneath them.

A huge splash erupted from the pool that drenched the heads of Ness and me. A little bit of hot water got into our eyes and we couldn't see anything much to the luck of Paula and Kumatora. Kumatora concentrated some of her PSI to her hands and propelled herself upwards and behind the trees, Paula was still left in the pool. As she desperately tried to make her getaway, her red ribbon got caught on a tree and was pulled out of her hair without her noticing.

Ness and I continued to rub our eyes until we could finally see again. The only trace of what had happened was the rather large tree branch that laid there right in front of us, partially submerged in steamy water.

"What was that?!" I asked loudly.

"I honestly have no idea…" responded Ness. "Wait!"

"What is it?"

"What's that red thing over there?" asked Ness, pointing to the red object that hung on a tree branch.

"Huh!" I said as I stared back at it.

"We should get dressed before we do anything…"

I looked down at my own body and realised that I almost climbed up there to investigate further, all the while butt-naked. "Yeah! Suppose you're right!"

Ness and I took no regard for whether we were dry and simply put on our clothes. I was a little upset that my fabulous quiff was flattened by the water but soon enough, it sprang back to life.

Ness walked over to the hill side. He stared at the steep wall of rock and mud and postulated how he would reach the red object on the tree.

"How are we going to get up there?" asked Ness while pulling a frowny face.

"What if we concentrate some PSI to our feet and then let it push us off the ground?" I told. Ness looked at me questioningly. "like this!"

I took in a deep breath and focused all of the PSI in my body to my feet, being sure not to concentrate too much as I didn't want to go flying. It charged for several seconds and then I released it allowing it to propel me all the way to the top of the hill.

"Now its your turn!" I yelled back to Ness as I turned around to look at him.

"okay!"

Ness then repeated the steps I had given him and launched off of the ground almost instantly… only he didn't charge it for long enough…

*SMAAAAAAAACK*

Ness had literally face planted the side of a hill. I was kind of amazed that that could happen. He then peeled off of it like a sticky spider and slid down the wall and landed on the ground, I couldn't help but let out a slight giggle.

"You okay?" I asked whilst trying to contain my laughter.

"… Yahuh!" replied Ness in a seemingly embarrassed tone.

"You didn't charge it for long enough!" I yelled back at him.

"I realise that!" he replied frustratedly.

Ness took the stance once again and focused a little harder and concentrated it for longer, finally, he tried again.

Ness was propelled significantly higher this time and almost stuck the landing… until he fell flat onto his face, at least this time, he had actually made it up the ledge.

We both converged around the red object that hung loosely around the tree branch and examined it closely.

"It looks like a ribbon!" observed Ness.

"Duster had a snake that looked like that once!" I added.

"Where did it come from…?"

"I don't know, but I'm getting a little cold, should we head back now?"

"yeah… that's probably a good idea, I'm a little chilly now that you mention it!"

Ness and I made our way back to my house, both of us hungry and cold. Not drying before we got dressed was a bad idea.

We finally arrived at my house and we slowly dragged ourselves up the stairs. It was shocking to realise that it was only 8:30 AM and it felt like we have had an entire days-worth of adventure in those two hours.

I felt ready to demolish an entire buffet of food, the only reason being that I had accidentally skipped out on breakfast much like Ness had done. Paula passed us by when we opened the door and stepped in.

"Hey Paula!" asked Ness.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"You not wearing your ribbon today?"

Paula then touched the top of her head and realised that her bright red ribbon was no longer tied in her hair.

"Oh!... I must have forgotten to put it in… hehehe!" cried Paula nervously.

"mkay… whatever…" replied Ness.

Ness and I shrugged it off as being suspicious, Paula seemed kind of like the absent-minded type, so this wasn't really out of the ordinary… however, I'd think it worth noting that she didn't ogle over the fact that me and Ness entered together… now that was out of the ordinary.

It seemed as though Claus and Fuel had finally fallen asleep at some point last night and were still in the room and were snoring rather loudly.

I took a seat on a stool in the kitchen and thought about what I would do with the rest of the day since it felt like nearly all of it should be gone by this point and yet there were still another 12 hours of daylight to come.