[Wow. W o w. That is a lot, and Lance is normally very fast to process what people are saying to him, but it's still a bit of an overload even for him.
What helps, though, is that this is completely relatable and he very much gets it.]
Okay, so like, the normal stuff then.
[He says it lightly, but not flippantly; he means it, especially the 'normal' part. As calm as Ian sounds, that is not the rambling of someone who's calm, and assuring him this sort of anxiety and these sorts of problems are a natural part of things seems important.]
I'm going to be honest here in that I'm the worst person to give advice on this subject, because everything you just said sounds like something I've thought about myself, but it might be best to just... Ask him. Not 'hey do you want to move in with me', but more like, 'I was thinking about building a secret apartment, do you want in on that?'
[Something casual, an idea more than a plan, something Nate can give input on without any real weight behind it. Then the number of rooms, the issue of moving to fast, all of that can come later with Nate's input.
He can't say anything about the risk of something going wrong and being stuck in an awkward situation, or about freaking out and wanting to bail but not being able to, because those are things that might happen. But they're always going to be there as possibilities, so the best thing to do is to try to prevent them, but not let them prevent trying.]
no subject
What helps, though, is that this is completely relatable and he very much gets it.]
Okay, so like, the normal stuff then.
[He says it lightly, but not flippantly; he means it, especially the 'normal' part. As calm as Ian sounds, that is not the rambling of someone who's calm, and assuring him this sort of anxiety and these sorts of problems are a natural part of things seems important.]
I'm going to be honest here in that I'm the worst person to give advice on this subject, because everything you just said sounds like something I've thought about myself, but it might be best to just... Ask him. Not 'hey do you want to move in with me', but more like, 'I was thinking about building a secret apartment, do you want in on that?'
[Something casual, an idea more than a plan, something Nate can give input on without any real weight behind it. Then the number of rooms, the issue of moving to fast, all of that can come later with Nate's input.
He can't say anything about the risk of something going wrong and being stuck in an awkward situation, or about freaking out and wanting to bail but not being able to, because those are things that might happen. But they're always going to be there as possibilities, so the best thing to do is to try to prevent them, but not let them prevent trying.]