A/N: Okay, Chapter 10 - this chapter is a little bit of a filler chapter, with no real plot in it, but it still managed to be the longest so far :)

Thank you again to everyone who has reviewed :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.

"Are we there yet?" Jeff whined from his bunk on the ship.

"No, Jeff," Nick sighed, "You asked me that five minutes ago."

Jeff pouted, but didn't say anything; he just kept swinging the bunk aimlessly. In truth, it wasn't aimless; he was trying to stop himself from thinking too much. The last time that he'd been on a boat, he was being shipped off to an unknown city, where he was to be sold as a slave to a complete stranger. Granted, that complete stranger had turned out to be Nick, but it still hadn't begun as a pleasant experience.

Nick, meanwhile, was trying to stop himself from being sick. He'd never been good on boats, and because he'd wanted to stay with Jeff for the journey, he'd ended up on the most unstable ship he'd ever come across. Of course they would have reserved one for the slaves that appeared to be so close to falling apart, while the Emperor and the rest of the senators were travelling on one of the most luxurious boats Nick had ever seen.

"Nicky, are you okay?" Jeff's voice asked from across the cabin, "You're looking a little green."

"I'm fine," Nick shook his head and instantly regretted it, "I just don't like the way the boat's rocking, that's all."

"Basically, you're seasick," Jeff said, "If it's that bad, you should have gone on the other boat."

"I didn't want to go on the other boat," Nick replied, trying to stop his head from spinning, "Because then I wouldn't have been with you, and I couldn't leave you on your own."

"I'd have survived for a few hours without you," Jeff said, watching as Nick pouted. "No, wait, I didn't mean I didn't want you here," he corrected himself, "I just meant that if it had been better for you to go on the other boat, then I'd have coped."

Nick smiled.

"You're too kind to me, Jeffy," he said, rolling over in his bunk and closing his eyes.

Jeff looked over at his friend, who was now lying on his side, facing towards the other wall.

"It's because I love you, Nicky," he said softly.

Suddenly, he realised what he'd said, and he flew out of his bunk in a panic. Quickly, he crossed over to Nick's bunk, ready to profusely apologise and claim it was all just a friendship; only to find that Nick was already asleep. Jeff breathed a sigh of relief, and sat back down on his bunk.

Slowly, he collected his thoughts. Wait, did he just say he loved Nick? When did his feelings towards Nick become those of love?

Jeff couldn't deny it any longer, he was in love with his best friend, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it a secret.

They arrived outside their boarding house in the middle of the night. The rest of the Emperor's court had gone further into Naples, where they would spending the trip in probably a much nicer establishment than the one that stood before Nick and Jeff.

The building itself was situated at the end of the long road that led straight from the shore. There appeared to be no other buildings for miles around, but it was dark, and Nick could barely see two feet in front of him, let alone down an entire street.

Nick's father had kindly recommended him and Jeff as the two who would stay with the majority of the luggage at this lesser inn, while the rest of the party went and found some luxuries. In his own head, Nick wondered what he'd done to warrant this sort of punishment, but he couldn't think of anything that might have angered his parents. Well, not anything they knew about, because the whole secret society and overthrowing the Emperor aspect might not have pleased them very much.

After knocking loudly, there was eventually the sound of movement from inside.

"Who's calling at this time?" an irritated female voice yelled from inside, "If I have to come out there with a…" The door swung open. "Oh." A tall girl looked down at them condescendingly from the top step, and Nick suddenly felt very out of place.

"Hi," Nick said, trying to smile at the girl, but actually finding her very intimidating, "We're supposed to be staying here, I think?"

"Have you come from Rome?" the girl asked.

Nick nodded.

"Yeah," he said, "Can we come in, please?"

The girl's eyes narrowed instantly.

"We?" she asked, "How many of you are there?"

"Just the two of us," Nick said, slightly confused now as he started to pick up their luggage, "Jeff's just getting some more of the luggage from over there. Is that a problem?"

The girl pursed her lips together in thought, and then beckoned for them to follow her inside.

"Come in," she said, "I suppose it'll be easier for me to explain in here." Nick nodded, and helped Jeff haul the luggage up the steps and into the boarding house itself.

The main room was large and wide, with a few benches and tables scattered around for customers, although it was currently empty.

"There's not going to be any others turning up later, are there?" the girl asked.

"No, just us," Nick said, motioning to himself and Jeff, "Is that okay?"

The girl was silent for a minute before speaking.

"Thing is," she began, "We've had a very large amount of travellers through these parts in the last few days, mostly because they're hoping to catch a glimpse of the Emperor tomorrow, and well, they've taken up most of the rooms. When they sent a messenger down here about you two, he mentioned that only one room would be necessary, and so we assumed that it would only be one guest. Turns out it's two and there's only one spare bed. I hope you two like sharing."

"Oh," Nick said quietly, wondering why they'd only asked for one room in the first place, "So, there's no other option?"

"I'm afraid not," the girl said, "Unless you prefer that stone step outside, you'll have to cosy up together for tonight."

Nick cast a glance at Jeff, who slowly nodded, and then looked down at his feet.

"Fine," Nick said eventually, "We'll take it."

"Good," the girl replied, "Right, what are your names?"

"Nick, and this is Jeff."

"Okay, well, I'm Santana, and I'll get Brittany to show you to your rooms." She crossed over to the door and began locking up. "Britt! Will you come and show these two boys to their room, please?" she called out as she worked.

Nick cast a glance at her as she called them boys; wasn't his father always going on about how he was a man now?

"Oh, please," Santana said, as though she knew what he was thinking, "I've seen twelve year olds who were more manly than you two."

Nick frowned but decided against arguing back, instead turning back to helping Jeff with their luggage.

"Are you the boys from Rome?" a new, softer voice asked, startling Nick slightly as he turned around.

"Er, yeah, we are," Nick said, answering the blonde girl in front of him, "Are you Brittany?"

"Yeah, that's me," the blonde replied happily, clapping her hands together, "Here, I'll show you to your room."

Nick and Jeff followed her up the stairs, listening to her talk happily to them.

"What's Rome like?" she asked excitedly, "I've always wanted to visit Rome, and San says that one day she'll take me there. Or we might go to Egypt. I like the idea of Egypt, apparently they worship cats over there; at least, that's what San told me. I've got a cat, maybe they'll worship him and I can live as a princess because he's my cat. Do you think it would be nice to be a princess?"

At that point, she looked back at Nick, and waited for an answer.

"Er…" Nick couldn't think of anything to say, he'd never been asked that question before, and he hadn't really been paying attention to what the girl had been saying.

"I'm sure it would be lovely," Jeff quickly cut in and answered for Nick, "You'd get to live in a huge palace and wear nice clothes, I suppose."

"Yay!" Brittany smiled happily, "I'd like that!"

She paused in front of a door, and began to find the right key. Nick cast a look back at Jeff and mouthed a thank you to him. Jeff grinned in return.

"Here we go," Brittany said, ushering them inside, "Will that be everything?"

"Er, yeah," Nick said, "Thank you."

The blonde girl waved at them, and then closed the door.

Nick and Jeff hauled the luggage over into one corner of the room, and then stood in the middle, looking at each other awkwardly.

"Sorry about the bed situation," Nick said.

Jeff waved away his apologies.

"It's not your fault," he said, "I don't mind sharing. Unless you have a problem with it, and then I'll sleep on the floor."

"Of course not, Jeff," Nick said, "You're not sleeping on the floor at all. Come on, it's really late and I'm tired." He yawned widely, and threw himself down onto the bed.

Just as Jeff was crossing over to the bed as well, there was a sharp knock on the door, and Santana's voice yelled through to them.

"Are you decent?"

Nick rolled his eyes.

"What does she want now?" he asked Jeff, who shrugged. "Yes, we are decent," he called back to Santana, "So you can come in."

"Good," Santana opened the door and dumped a bag in the corner, "You left it downstairs, so I thought I'd bring it up for you. Sleep tight, boys." She paused and then smirked. "The walls here are very thin, so no funny business during the night." She winked and left the room.

"Did she just suggest that…?" Nick trailed away, looking at Jeff, who was blushing furiously and attempting to hide under the blankets. "This is so embarrassing," he muttered, "She's worse than Sebastian. In fact, I think the two of them could be twins, maybe they'll meet tomorrow."

Slowly, Jeff grinned.

"It's more likely that they'll hate each other," he said, "But it'll be fun to watch anyway. Now, I want to sleep."

Nick nodded and slid under the blankets.

"Night, Jeff," he said.

"Night, Nick."

They both rolled over so that they were facing away from each other, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Nick woke up in the middle of the night suddenly, slightly jumping as he was startled out of his dream. He shifted himself, noticing the warmth he seemed to have found in the night. He blinked a few times to adjust his eyes to the dark, and discovered that he was mere inches away from Jeff's face. And that newfound warmth was Jeff himself.

"Nick what are you doing?" Jeff asked blearily, his eyes opening slowly as Nick's movement woke him up. "Oh, hi," he said awkwardly, realising that he was suddenly looking down at his friend, who was lying half on his chest.

"Sorry," Nick practically squeaked, "I don't know how I managed to end up on top of you. I'm so sorry." He continued to apologise, while mentally berating himself for putting Jeff in this position; the poor unsuspecting boy must have been mortified.

"Nick, it's alright," Jeff laughed.

"It is?" Nick suddenly stopped worrying and looked at his friend curiously.

"Yeah," Jeff grinned, holding out his arms to Nick, who shuffled further away, "Please come back, you were nice and warm."

Nick laughed, and curled up next to his blonde friend again; both of them drifting quickly back to sleep.

Early the next morning, Nick and Jeff found themselves downstairs at the boarding house, both eating homemade food that Brittany had made, and proudly placed before them. Jeff had quickly praised her culinary skills, and she'd hurried back to the kitchen to feed her cat. Or at least that was what Nick thought she was doing, because she'd hurriedly said something about giving up meat for a while, and Nick hadn't been able to work out whether that was her or the cat.

Suddenly, the door swung open, interrupting the calm and quiet of the boarding house. Both Nick and Jeff looked up to see who had just entered, and Nick groaned when he saw that it was Sebastian, with a rather satisfied smirk on his face.

"What do you want, Seb?" Nick asked, as his friend approached them and sat down.

"Don't I even get a 'hello' anymore, Nicky-boy?" Sebastian asked, looking mock-offended. "I just came by to see how you two were."

Nick rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm sure you came out of the good of your heart," he said. Beside him, Jeff snorted.

"He doesn't have a heart," he muttered.

"Not since he gave it to Hunter, anyway," Nick added, watching Sebastian blush violently in front of them.

"Shut up, Nicky," he hissed, "Or I'll tell Blondie all of your greatest secrets."

"I don't have any secrets," Nick scoffed, desperately hoping that Sebastian didn't know his one big secret.

"Do you want to test that theory?" Sebastian asked, smirking as Nick quickly shook his head; he couldn't risk Jeff finding out. "Thought not," he said, "Well, I also came here to inspect this establishment. You should see the place we're staying in, some merchant has loaned us his entire estate, and here you two are in a rundown shed."

"What did you just call this place?" an enraged female voice cut in.

"Huh?" Sebastian looked slightly startled as Santana glared down at him.

"I heard you," Santana said, "And I don't like your sort of people around here if you're only going to insult my place, so if you have nothing better to say, then I'd get the hell out of here if I were you!"

Slowly, Sebastian recovered and stood up to face her.

"Do you know who my father is?" he asked. "He's only one of the most powerful men in Rome, and right now, he's with the Emperor, so if you're just going to be rude, then I can always go over there and get him to come and close this place down."

Santana raised one eyebrow.

"You want to go and tell your father that you've been hanging around in a common boarding house?" she asked, "Because I'm sure he'll be thrilled with that piece of information. If you want, you can also tell him that sleeping upstairs are a number of prostitutes and a few dodgy sailors; that'll please him even more."

"Did we really just spend the night in the same building as those sorts of people?" Jeff whispered worriedly to Nick.

"I'm hoping she's exaggerating a bit," Nick replied.

Sebastian paled at the thought of his father finding out where he'd gone; he'd told him that he was going to take a walk along the coast.

"How about we forget everything I just said and move on?" he quickly amended, holding out his hand for Santana to shake. She looked down at it and then back up, before slapping him swiftly.

"What was that for?" Sebastian cried, clutching his face, "I thought we were going to move on."

"Oh, we have moved on," Santana shrugged, "But something about you just screamed 'smackable'; just like Blondie's hair screams unnatural."

"My hair is natural," Jeff murmured, but no one seemed to hear him.

"This is going to be a fun trip!" Nick remarked, "Especially if everyone else we meet is out to get Seb as well."

"Thanks for the support," Sebastian said sarcastically to Nick, who gave him a beaming smile in return.

"Oh, and if you do cause any more trouble," Santana turned her attention back to Sebastian, "I will not hesitate in going all Napoli on you."

"I got the message," Sebastian held his hands up in defence, "Don't mess with you or your boarding house."

At that point, Brittany re-emerged from the kitchen.

"Hey, Britt," Jeff said with a smile, "How's your cat?"

"He's very good," Brittany replied, clearly overjoyed that Jeff had taken an interest in her pet, "He's finally accepted that he can't eat meat until at least the end of the month. I've just got to stop him sneaking out in the middle of the night to meet his friends; you don't know how many times I've told him it's too dangerous."

Jeff smiled and nodded politely, wondering what she was actually talking about.

"Oh, San!" Brittany cried excitedly, suddenly clapping her hands together, "I like Jeff, can we keep him?"

"What?" Nick and Santana both exclaimed at the same time, while Sebastian laughed and Jeff looked shocked.

"Can we keep him, San?" Brittany repeated, not understanding what was wrong with her suggestion, "He's so cute, like my cat! They could be friends."

Nick pouted.

"But Jeff's my friend," he said, wrapping an arm around the blonde, "You can't keep him because he's mine." Sebastian laughed even harder at that.

"And you say Niff isn't happening," he said, "I wonder why no one believes you."

Nick childishly stuck his tongue out at his friend, and then tightened his grip on Jeff, who had yet to react to anything, but was instead just staring at his food.

"Mature, Nicky, mature," Sebastian said, now laughing even harder.

Meanwhile, Santana had crossed over to stand with Brittany, who was looking very disheartened.

"Why won't Nick let me keep Jeff?" Britt asked sadly, "I just want to be friends."

"Listen, Britt," Santana said, "You don't really want to keep Jeff, do you? Because he's a boy, and I don't really want a boy taking up our time." Slowly, Britt shook her head. "And you," she addressed Nick, "If you hurt my Britt's feelings like that again, I will not stop to think before throwing you off of the nearest cliff, and I will throw Sebastian down there with you to keep you company, which I'm sure you'd love; meanwhile, I'd rethink letting Britt have Jeff, and I don't think you want that, do you?"

Mutely, Nick shook his head, and looked apologetic.

"San," Britt suddenly spoke up again, "Are Nick and Jeff dolphins?"

"Dolphins?" Sebastian asked, "Oblivious idiots, maybe; but, dolphins? Where did that come from?"

"I don't know, Britt," Santana replied, pointedly ignoring Sebastian's comment, "Maybe. Actually, probably."

"Good," Brittany nodded happily, "Like us."

"Yes, like us," Santana grinned, leaning over to give the blonde girl a quick kiss.

Sebastian's mouth dropped open.

"Wait," he said, "You two are lesbians, and I thought you were flirting with me earlier."

Santana laughed.

"No, I ain't interested in you at all. Though I'm pretty sure that you're a dolphin too, so I guess you weren't interested me either."

Sebastian shook his head.

"I like men," he stated, and realisation dawned on his face, "And I guess I know what a dolphin is now." Nick and Jeff, however, still looked confused.

"What's a dolphin?" Jeff asked Brittany, who grinned wildly.

"Everyone knows that a dolphin is a gay shark!" she said happily, before dragging Santana away to the kitchen.

Nick and Jeff both looked at each other in confusion.

"Why do people keep mistaking us for a couple?" Nick asked; while both of them wished desperately for it to be true.

Sebastian, meanwhile, watched them as they gazed at each other, and he instantly knew what they were both thinking. It was so obvious.

"I wonder why," he muttered to himself with a smirk, "I wonder why."

A/N: Thank you for reading :) And also, thank you to Eraman for giving me some suggestions for some of the Santana/Sebastian interaction. Brittana will be back later in the story, I promise :)

Historical points:

1. This isn't even historical, it's actually just a point if I'm honest, but 'Napoli' means 'Naples' in Italian - and this is instead of Santana saying 'Lima Heights'.

Please leave a review and tell me what you thought. Or ask me any questions to do with the story or the history behind it.