"No, no!" Nate insisted.

"No, he didn't." he said.

"Heck, he didn't have the time to, even if he was planning to." he told her. "...well, if he was planning to do something right there and then..." he then went on, before shaking his head.

"Right, I'm rambling." he realised.

"Come on." he told her. "Let's get outside." he said further.

"And I'm fine." he then assured her.

"Guess I just... studied too hard earlier. Fried my brain."

Nate just laughed lightly.

"Yeah, I'll do that." he told her.

"Should be fine there, anyway." he reasoned, as the two of them made their way outside.

Once there, they saw Cain getting things ready, and Nate looked at the food that had been brought.

"Woah." he muttered.

"Looks like some serious quality stuff." he commented.

"Sure knows how to go all-out, doesn't he?" he then asked Lunet.

Cain just smirked when she kissed him.

"Heh, no worries." he replied.

"You know the list of things I wouldn't do for ya is pretty short." he chuckled.

"....." Nate was silent, before shaking his head again.

He continued to glance at Cain a few times, and Lunet swore she heard him muttering something here and there, but when questioned, he said it was nothing, or he wasn't saying anything.

After a bit, she slipped inside to get some ice, and while Cain was finishing up grilling, she came back out, and Nate was engrossed in his mutterings... and this time, she got close enough to hear them.

"...not possible... no life signals... no... no, the aura's there... is it...?... but... no life...?... how is he...?"

".......hm." Cain mumbled.

"Might explain it." he said.

"Explain WHAT?" Lunet asked.

"When he first saw me, he looked like he'd seen a ghost." Cain responded. "Which... makes sense, if he can see that I'm not alive." he went on.

"But... what now?" he asked her.

"What do you do with this suspicion and this evidence?"

"...you could always ask about his mutterings." Cain replied.

"Seems like the sort that spills the beans when a little pressure is applied." he shrugged.

"But it depends on how badly you want to potentially scare him." he continued.

"I can totally approach him and reveal myself, but... he sounds inexperienced in the ways of this world." he went on.

"So that might cause him to freeze up, or run, or whatever." he reasoned.

"But he knows you. Maybe, as a friend, you can coax it out of it."

Nate jumped slightly when she tapped his shoulder.

"Ah!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, uh, nothing, nothing." he insisted.

"Just... got a lot on my mind." he told her, forcing a light laugh.

"Various things, just.... need to organise them, is all." he went on, before pausing.

"Wait..." he mumbled.

"Was I muttering out loud again...?" he asked her.

Immediately she saw the panic in his eyes.

Immediately. It was there in a flash, but after about a few seconds, it was gone.

And he sighed. Heavily.

"I..." he stammered.

"I can see a person's... well... I guess... life force?" he said to her. "I mean, every person has a life. They have life. They live. And whether or not they're young, old, healthy, sick, I can see that. As... well... I guess... a weird aura around them." he tried to explain.

"It's like I can see when someone has something wrong with them... even if THEY don't know." he continued.

"That's why I went into medicine. I wanted to try and put this... whatever it is I have... to good use." he told her. "Maybe try and make my being a... well, for the longest time, I assumed I was a freak... anyway, put that to good use."

True to form, at first, Nate got hung up on her comment about her and Cain's private time. And his face turned a deep red for a brief moment, before he shook his head vigorously to calm himself down.

"...dead?" he asked, referring to Cain.

"I mean... well, that makes sense, and yet, it doesn't make sense at ALL." he told her. "It makes sense in that his lack of a life force... or life aura... or whatever it is I can see... is understandable now." he explained.

"But... but he's dead. Yet he's still walking around. That DOESN'T make sense." he continued.

"And you can't die and stay dead?" he asked, looking at her.

"I mean... well, your life force IS a tad different that the average person's." he admitted. "It seems... well... the best way I can describe it, is that it's like a fire around you... but it seems like one that just refuses to be snuffed out."

"Uh..." Nate stammered.

"No." he said. "No, I have not heard of that." he told her. "Well, not for a while, and not in any real-world sense." he then clarified.

"Last I recall hearing that term... applied to a person, anyway, was some old comic from decades and decades ago. Old and forgotten, found it in yard sale, too damaged to be worth anything, but still readable." he went on.

"And... yeah, the character in that comic could do that, too." he mumbled.

"That's... that's real?" he asked.

"Regenerators are... actually a thing???" he then asked further.

"I... I see." Nate responded, sounding a little on the overwhelmed side, to put it lightly.

"Wait..." he then mumbled.

"Perfect?" he then asked.

"Oh, because of what I'm school for?" he then asked her.

"Yeah. Yeah, I figured it could really help." he agreed.

"Just need to get through it first, and try and keep my ability under wraps in my job." he told her further.

"Can't imagine most folks would take kindly to hearing me say that. They'd probably think me insane." he lamented.