Jeff just watched Nick quietly, the way the other man's eyes scanned the horizon and the coast in front of them. Nick had always loved the beach. He was a Florida boy, born and raised, despite his very European heritage. Jeff could remember so many times the two of them had visited Florida with Nick's family, both before and after they hooked up, and they'd just enjoyed the beach... There was even one time that they'd made love on the beach at the private portion that belonged to a friend of Nick's family. It had been Nick's idea, and there was some sand involved, but the blanket they'd used had kept the discomfort to a minimum, and it had ended up becoming one of their most special memories. They had so many good ones on the beach, from the romantic, to the exciting (when Nick had taught Jeff to surf, for example), to the most simple. The beach had held so many of their special moments, and now here they were... on another beach, in another place and time where Nick wasn't his at all, and Jeff was trying like hell to make sense of all of this. He didn't want to be that obnoxious little kid throwing a hissy because he wasn't getting his own way. It just still was taking him time to wrap his head around it. That there was actually a world, a world he was in now, where Nick wasn't his other half... Where Nick hadn't even seen him in ten years. That was a hard thing to swallow on many levels, especially the whole side of things where he had just come from a world where he and Nick lived together... shared their lives with each other every single day. This wasn't something that was going to be easy for Jeff by any means. But he was just going to have to learn to deal. "I can't even imagine coming here as a kid... spending part of your growing up years here without your folks. Did they have people that you could at least kind of... go to for guidance or something? Friends that were older or anything like that? I can't even imagine Kurt without Blaine, but I think I saw at least the beginnings of what you're talking about when I got here."

The touch from Nick, while well-intentioned, only hurt that much more. Jeff didn't want it to be that way. But how did you go from only a few days ago sharing your life with someone on every level -- sharing your home, your bed, your body, heart, and soul -- to a friendly hug with that same person, only he was with someone else and hadn't seen you in ten years. It was just a mindfuck that Jeff was going to need time to figure out. Even the hurt that came from Nick's hugging him like that couldn't stop Jeff's arm from snaking out and wrapping around the other man's waist, needing just for a moment to feel that connection to him, even if everything was different now than it had been then. "Nicky, I don't... I don't want you to feel guilty. It's not your fault, okay? I don't hold it against you or think you suck for not just... being who you were back home to me. That's not your fault." And then Nick was asking if they could be friends, and Jeff just stared at him for a moment, not really meaning to. Could they be friends? Just friends? After everything Jeff had experienced on his end of things? Part of Jeff wanted to say no. But there was a bigger part of him that needed the connection with Nick, no matter how it came. And how was it fair to deny Nick his best friend when he hadn't done anything wrong? So he nodded slowly. "Of course we can still be friends. You're... the best one I've ever had. I can't imagine if it was me here for ten years without you. I'd have lost it."