it's true i had forgotten about cole completely - except as like 'oh hey child actor turned archaeology student, neat' but darn he is adorable these days
ooh, cool, okay, bastien was raised in boston until he was 12, then family drama happened and they moved away for roughly a decade, and he came back a liiiittle over two years ago for an internship and eventual job. so they may have shown up in town around the same time! and they're both proudly lgbt+ and close-ish in age, so they could've run across each other as new residents who probably run in similar circles and wound up getting along? (lmfao if he could tolerate this energetic nerd, that is)