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

4- Crush

   In the morning, Freddy stayed in his room longer than usual. This was not due to him waking up later from staying up, rather it was because he was busy thinking.
   He even had a whiteboard set up.
   "So... Norton Campbell, the prospector..." Freddy thoughtfully stared at the blank board. "Somehow, he managed to interest me..."
   Freddy began to scribble on the whiteboard. "He seems to value money and other valuable things..." he scribbled on another part of the whiteboard. "He's also willing to leave others behind to ensure his safety."
   Freddy drew a line between the two scribbles and smirked. "He has his priorities straight, like me. Money and self."
   Nothing he was drawing actually held any meaning. Freddy just found it easier to think when writing or drawing something. He would never do this in front of others, however.
   "Yet somehow, despite both of our personalities..." Freddy started making a circle on the board. "He still offered to put himself at risk so we could both make it out. He trusted me to help him... and asked me to trust him."
   Freddy frowned at the circle. "Somehow, it worked out. He knew what I was like, and I could tell that he was the same, yet we both trusted each other. Why?"
   The lawyer started to create a new circle. "It's possible that Norton is a nicer person than I am, even if he mostly cares for himself. I wouldn't know. What I'm mostly confused about is why I did what he asked me to do without betraying him..." he sighed. "He even took on the dangerous part himself! It would have been so easy to betray him. Did I really just... feel like trusting him?"
   Freddy remembered Norton's words. Are all of those speeches you gave going to stay a lie? There's no way that guilted him into listening... Freddy doesn't care about others. Was it to keep up the trustworthy image? Maybe... ah, who is he kidding? If that was the reason, he would've known that already. It was something subconscious.
   "Could those words have... inspired me?" Freddy drew a swirl inside of the new circle. "Ridiculous... why would I want to become a better person? Lying is my currency. Of course I'm fine with my speeches staying lies."
   Freddy hummed as he drew a half circle. "Maybe I knew that we were the same level of trustworthiness, so if I ended up not being trustworthy, then he would be untrustworthy?" Freddy sighed. "The logic kind of makes sense but also doesn't. I guess I'll just have to settle with it for now, though."
   He paused before drawing a new scribble. "None of this explains why I went to see him last night. Honestly, that's much more concerning. What's up with that? It didn't benefit me..."
   Freddy remembered how nice it was to see Norton. Conversation was awkward, but it was such a nice setting. He would have totally pulled a "you know what else is beautiful?" on Norton as well...
   "Isn't that a bit much...?" Freddy mumbled to himself as he drew some misshapen stars. "That would have basically been flirting... why would I flirt with the prospector?"
   He stared at his stars. He slowly began to trace lines from them, back to his original scribbles. "...I can't deny that he is pretty. And he does have his priorities straight..." Freddy began to make a new scribble to connect to. "And he's strong. That's always a good trait. How often do you get strong and pretty mixed together?"
   Freddy started to connect all of his dots. "This isn't looking good for me." He sighed. He looked back at his board, and scribbled a big scribble. "I love Martha. But... she's gone. All I can do about it is exact vengeance. It... won't bring her back." He looked to the side with a grimace. "She wouldn't want to come back to me anyways. She made that clear before leaving this earth."
   Freddy scoffed as he looked back at the board. He realized what he was saying. "...Norton? Of all people..." he sighed. "I didn't expect to have to go through this again... it was embarrassing enough the first time."
   Freddy stepped back from his board and stared at it. "I don't think there's anything I can really do about it. No point in denying it either. I have a crush on Norton."
   "That's cool!" Said a new voice.
   Freddy jumped in surprise and turned to look at the intruder. "KURT?!"
   "Hi!" The explorer smiled and waved as if he were welcome.
   "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?!" Freddy's face began to turn red. "HOW LONG WERE YOU STANDING THERE?!"
   "Not super long," Kurt swung his arms down. "But long enough to hear the juicy bits!" Kurt brought his hands back up to his backpack handles, leaning forward and smiling.
   "...Don't. Tell anyone." Freddy glared.
   "Aww... why not?" Kurt tilted his head. "This is such an interesting development! You even said there's no point in denying it, so what's the problem?"
   Freddy let out a very annoyed sigh. "Fine, since you're my friend..." Freddy felt more like he was being blackmailed to be nice to Kurt at this point. "I won't get mad at you for overhearing this. But please, do NOT tell anyone."
   "Not a single person?" Kurt frowned. "But I like giving people fun facts about others!"
   "A crush isn't a fun fact-" Freddy facepalmed in frustration. "Okay, listen. I need to go about this carefully. If the word gets to Norton, then it's over. Alright? The less people who know, the less likely he is to find out."
   "Nobody talks to him. If I told everyone in the manor except for him, your secret would probably still be safe!" Kurt bounced happily.
   "THE SECRET WOULD NOT BE SAFE IF THE ENTIRE MANOR KNEW ABOUT IT!"
   "The entire manor... minus one person!" Kurt winked.
   Freddy growled. "I suppose you can share this with..." he frowned at the thought of practically anyone else knowing about it. "...Jose. I'll let you tell Jose."
   Kurt silently cheered. Then he frowned. "Would it be okay if I just told others that you had a crush... and didn't say who it was?"
   Freddy cringed. He didn't like the idea of people gossiping about him, especially not about him having a crush. "...Fine. But no hints to who it is either. And don't try to spread the information as much as possible please..."
   "Okay! Anyways, you wanna get breakfast?"
   "That's why you snuck in here?"
   "I was curious why you weren't there. I figured you were on some sort of secret mission."
   Freddy sighed. "Whatever. You can leave now, I'll get breakfast in a bit."
   "Got it! See you later!" Kurt turned to leave, then stopped and pointed to the whiteboard. "You drew that symbol in the corner wrong by the way." The explorer turned to leave once more. "Good luck summoning that ancient wizard!"
   Freddy blinked as he watched Kurt leave, and looked at the board. He really did not understand the things Kurt said sometimes. He sighed and began cleaning up everything so he could go to breakfast.