A distraught Nathan responds to his father's greeting,
"Why and how are you here?"
"Mph, 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 hears Nathan's voice in the chatter and comes 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 turns to Noah and says,
"I'll see you in my room. Let me work this out first."
"Okay."
Noah heads upstairs to Nathan's room, leaving the 'family' to deal with their affairs.
Nathan breaks the awkward silence and asks his father, Lawrence,
"What are you doing here, because I know damn well you're not here for the evening specials."
His mother gasps 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 stands up and says,
"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. I get that you're angry, but hear him out, please."
Nathan pauses, looks at them, grits his teeth, and goes upstairs.
"Are you sure I'm fine here?"
"It's fine, I'll talk to him later. Besides, your order's ready."
Nathan barges into his room in frustration, frightening Noah.
"Are you alright, Nate?"
Nathan takes 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 drops his chin, 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 sit 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 Ravencrest is probably onto you, King Augustus seems to have taken an interest in you, and now your dad just so happened to randomly come out of nowhere in the middle of all this."
Nathan turns to face the moon, loudly groans, and says,
"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 Ravencrest, a friend whose niece is Captain Regina's niece, will give us a chance to get more information."
Nathan blankly stares at Noah and says,
"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 laugh, and after a few moments, Noah leaves and goes home.
Nathan heads downstairs to check up on his mother and see if his father left. He sees that nobody is in the kitchen and suggests 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 knocks 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 snaps out of it and asks,
"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."
After hearing this, Nathan looks down, clenches his fists lightly, and says,
"Okay… I'll be off."
"Goodnight (whispers to himself) I didn't want it to turn out like this."
Nathan face plants on his pillow and sighs from guilt and responds to himself about what his father said,
"Neither did I."