IDV - A Coin's Two Sides - Freddy x Norton

3- Beautiful Night

The next day, Freddy joined two people he may or may not consider friends. It was difficult to say, honestly.
Kurt Frank was a strange guy, yet somehow he and Freddy got along. Kurt never seemed to mind Freddy's behavior, so Freddy refrained from saying anything rude about Kurt's. Kurt would call Freddy his friend, but Freddy wasn't sure how to feel about it. Mostly he was concerned with his own reputation; he did like the explorer to his surprise.
Jose Baden was also a strange friend. While he didn't act as oddly as Kurt, he was still an unlikely acquaintance. Jose was very depressed and also suffered from anxiety. He and Freddy just sort of ended up talking together a lot (due to matches together, both getting alcohol at the same time, one of them saying something to nobody in particular and the other chiming in, etc) so they became somewhat of friends.
Freddy isn't really too close with anyone at the manor though. He just tolerates these two more than others, even liking them a bit.
"I sailed there too!" Kurt was saying as Freddy approached.
"Really? That's cool." Jose said.
"What are you two talking about?" Freddy asked when he was finally with the group.
"Adventures!" Kurt said at the same time Jose said "Nothing important."
"Hmm." Freddy looked at them. "I have a question for the both of you."
"Yeah? What is it?" Kurt asked.
"What do you know about... the prospector?" Freddy gestured vaguely at the man in question.
"Oh, Norton?" Kurt looked over at the prospector. "He's pretty mysterious huh?"
"His name is Norton?" Freddy asked. What a unique name.
"Yep! I like learning about the people here." Kurt frowned. "He's pretty quiet though. I really want to know where he got his scar! My guess is a fight with a fire breathing dragon."
"I'd guess something happened like, an explosion maybe." Jose said. "He's a miner I'm pretty sure. Maybe something went wrong." He shrugged. "Or he left the oven on."
"Huh..." Freddy stared at Norton, as his name supposedly was. "So does nobody know anything about him?"
"He doesn't really talk to anyone without being talked to first!" Kurt said. "Even when people approach him first, he avoids conversation as much as possible. Maybe he's shy?"
"He seems really sad," Jose looked at Norton as well. "Maybe he's too depressed to talk to anyone. That's a thing that happens."
"What would make him so depressed?" Kurt pondered.
"Maybe it has something to do with his scar..." Jose looked at his prosthetic arm. "I don't have the best memories after I got my scarring injuries either..."
"Hmm..." Freddy held his chin thoughtfully. "Does he do anything other than sit around by himself?"
"He does stuff with those magnets of his!" Kurt looked towards Norton to view his magnets. "Sometimes he cleans them, sometimes he stares at them, sometimes he plays with them... he really seems to like them."
"He goes outside at night," Jose said.
Freddy and Kurt turned to look at Jose. "Huh?"
Jose looked at them. "Oh. Well, there's a handful of people here that have troubles sleeping sometimes. I'm... one of them. Some people stay in their rooms awake, but others leave their rooms and go other places. Popular places are outside like the garden or the balcony. I've seen Norton standing outside at night many times."
"So he can't sleep then?" Kurt tilted his head.
Jose shrugged. "It's either that or he just really likes the stars. He's out pretty late though... yeah, that look in his eyes, he's probably troubled by something. I'd know."
Freddy looked back at Norton, who was staring at his magnets. "Huh. That's interesting..."
"I mean, I'm not surprised." Jose looked at Norton. "Always gloomy, has a scar, stays away from everyone... he has to have some sort of trauma." Jose looks down. "I would like to try to show him some sort of support maybe, but I don't even have hope for myself, I would just cry about my own life..."
Freddy gave Jose a rather careless pat on the shoulder.
"Aw, don't be sad Jose!" Kurt said.
"I wish it was that easy," Jose said, but didn't really seem to care. He looked at Freddy. "Why are you asking about Norton anyways?"
Freddy blinked. "Ah. I... was just curious." He looked away. "I participated in a match with him and started to get curious, since he's, you know, mysterious..."
"Yeah, I look at him and think, 'I wish I knew more secrets about you!'" Kurt said.
"I just sort of looked at him and went 'yeah same'..." Jose said.