When August arrived in the library, his friends were already there. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, sitting down at the small table they’d claimed. It was tucked away among the rows of books, and it had taken August a moment to find them.

“I literally just got here,” Milly consoled him. She was still unfolding her comm to a more comfortable size.

“Are we all up on the reading?” Xanier asked. He’d arrived first, as usual, with everything he might need neatly arranged in front of him.

“Uh, almost. Was there anything important in the last few paragraphs?” August tried not to think about what had interrupted his reading.

“Not really; we went over it in class,” Milly said, “Xanier’s just being a teacher’s pet.”

Xanier put on a mock-aggrieved expression for a moment. “Hey now, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. Prof Jane said we’d be tested on all the texts.”

“You know that’s just to scare us, right?” Milly rolled her eyes.

“It’s different for August because of his illness, but I think we Betas ought to show our work ethic!”

Milly said nothing but huffed and rolled her eyes a second time in response.

August decided it was better to get them back on topic. “We have to have the review portion in by next week, right?” he asked. Fortunately, Xanier was more than happy to launch into the technicalities of the assignment. They stayed on-topic for over an hour, discussing what had been completed, and who should do what was left and when. After several rounds of negotiations, they had divvied up most of the work to everyone’s satisfaction, although Xanier still had to be reassured that the others would follow through on their portions.

Eventually, however, the conversation drifted. “By the way, did you guys see my latest video?” Milly asked, leaning back from the table.

August responded, “I haven’t, when did you post it?”

“It’s fine, I literally just posted it this morning,” Milly began, “It’s just that there’s been some crazy news about Former Crown Princess Galen. You know his sentence was already announced ages ago, but the other day, some legal clerk leaked the actual papers. And guys. You will never guess what they found!!”

August felt his stomach drop. It was a good thing Milly didn’t expect him to say anything.

She picked up the end of one of her braids and started painting the air with it, as if to illustrate her point, “There’s the sentencing, which looks normal, and, like, three pages long, but attached to it, there’s over 30 pages of completely redacted stuff. Like, literally all we know is that these pages are somehow about the Former Crown Princess’s capital punishment! And believe me, there are a million and one theories about what they could be, but none of them seem credible yet.”

August could guess what was in the redacted pages: his name, his medical history, his address…

“Are you sure it’s healthy to be thinking about that this much, though?” Xanier asked, distracting Milly, “It’s possible to drive yourself squirrelly obsessing over the nonsense that Alphas and Omegas get up to.” He had a look of mild concern on his face.

“Ugh, I’m not delicate,” Milly insisted, using the tip of her braid to poke in her friend’s direction, “it’s just that this is the biggest thing that’s happened in the news in ages. Someday I’m going to have to tell this story to my grandkids!”

When he heard the word ‘delicate’, Xanier turned his concern towards August. “What about you? I thought you didn’t like to hear about Princess stuff. This isn’t affecting your health, is it?” Xanier reached out and patted the back of August’s hand in a show of comfort.

“Well… uhhhh… I guess I think it’s, uhm…” August wheeled. His opinion on a particularly notorious princess had changed a lot recently. He had, in fact, been surreptitiously reading old interviews, trying to suss out ideas on what Galen liked to eat or spend time doing. But it was surprisingly hard to find anything reliable when so much coverage had been advertisements. As to the current news, he just hoped no one would find out the truth.

“It’s okay, you can tell me to shut up,” Milly interjected, finally putting down her hair. She had noticed by now that August was affected by the topic.

August smiled apologetically. There was a moment of silence at the table.

“Well, we might as well end the meeting here, then,” Xanier quickly proclaimed, lifting his hand and taking charge of eliminating the awkward atmosphere. “Don’t worry about a thing, August. I can finish up the little stuff later, but I think we’re in good shape.” To show his commitment, he started to gather up his things. August and Milly both whole-heartedly agreed, and they cleared the table and went their separate ways.

As he exited the library, August sent a message to Galen: Did you hear that the sentencing leaked?

Galen replied quickly: I saw. Don’t worry about it; there are always rumours, but they have nothing to latch onto.

In the days that followed, August did his best to put the online speculations out of his mind. Fortunately, the news in general had moved on from Galen’s trial, and the front page of the news app was safe to view again. Milly had noted his reaction in the library, too, and was no longer bringing it up with him. He would occasionally go to her channel anyways, though, to keep an eye on the situation. Mostly it was just wild speculations.

Around the house, August and Galen finally established a peaceable routine. Galen would wake up first, unless August had a morning class, and August stayed up later at night. August had started doing daily workouts in the basement gym, while Galen would spend over an hour in the pool a few times a week. Galen didn’t use the kitchen much, but he spent a fair bit of time on the living room couch, sprawled out in increasingly strange postures.

After his omelet plan was successful, August started cooking enough to feed Galen on a regular basis. At first, he came up with excuses. “Oh, I messed up the recipe and had to double it,” he had said casually, “but I don’t think I can eat it all before it goes bad.” The next time, it was, “I’m sick of chili, do you mind taking the rest of it off of my hands?” and after that it had been “Do you want curry? I made it for lunch, but I ate at the cafeteria instead.” The justifications continued until August noticed that Galen’s portions were going missing before he had even mentioned them.

By the time the painfully transparent excuses came to an end, Galen had gotten into the habit of eating at least one of August’s home-cooked meals every day, supplementing his store-bought diet. Though simple, his roommate’s food was definitely tastier than everything else he was eating. He still didn’t feel like doing anything in the kitchen himself, so this compromise was perfect for him.

Galen didn’t want to feel like he was taking advantage of August’s good will, though, so he did start buying more snacks and desserts and leaving them on the dining table in aesthetic arrangements. The first time August saw one of Galen’s platters, he couldn’t make up his mind over whether he wanted to eat it or just look at the geometric display. He eventually broke the stalemate by taking a picture with his comm before stealing a few crackers.

While August was at school, Galen sometimes struggled to find things to do, so he faffed about watching videos, playing games, and journaling about the minutiae of his daily life as if he were a blogger. Of course, he didn’t actually post anything; he’d always been guarded about his daily life, let alone under these circumstances. Still, it ate up a bit of his time and helped him get used to things… things like how August looked when he was still sleepy, or has just finished working out, or was focused on his homework.

Galen had also started talking to his parents again. They’d drifted apart after Alexander’s death, and he hadn’t been able to have a proper conversation with them since he’d killed Johannes. However, he’d been close to them for most of his life, and his father’s high position in the military meant that he knew about Galen’s arrangement. His parents avoided discussing anything serious and instead chatted about the gossip in elite circles, what the fashion houses were doing, and what the conditions on the frontier were, among other light topics.

During one of their conversations, Galen’s father asked, “So the… Alpha you’re living with, what’s he about, again?” inserting into conversation a topic Galen had been avoiding.

Galen was only just learning to get along with August and didn’t want to talk about him behind his back. “Papa, I already told you that he’s just a nice guy who’s studying at university. Everything’s already been vetted,” he replied, rolling his eyes for emphasis. He’d never known his father to be overprotective, but he’d only ever been with the Crown Prince previously. Was his father really this fussy?

Galen’s mother added to the pressure, “At university? So he’s younger, then.” She hadn’t seen the confidential documents, just heard about them from her husband. “Well, what’s he studying?”

“It hasn’t come up,” Galen admitted, “By the way, how’s my sister been?” This successfully threw his parents off the scent. His sister was a high-level bureaucrat who was always involved in something interesting. His parents loved to speculate on what she was up to, and he managed to end the conversation without August being brought up again.

A few days later, though, his mother’s question was still rattling around in Galen’s head. He couldn’t help but ask August about it.

“My major?” August turned away from the pot of pasta sauce to look at Galen, who was lying on the couch on his stomach, his arms dangling off the side. “I, uh, chose philosophy.”

“Philosophy?” Galen wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but somehow philosophy had never crossed his mind as an option. It wasn’t a very popular major.

“Yeah, if I weren’t so close to finishing it, I might have changed majors,” August said, turning back to stir the sauce.

“Oh? Can you tell me why?” Galen asked. He was starting to get nosy, but it felt nice to be able to have a casual conversation with the other man for once. He was very used to maintaining a distance between himself and others, but he missed having someone whom he could speak his mind with.

“Honestly, I like my major, but, well… I picked it because I didn’t expect to need a job afterwards,” August answered, his back still facing Galen. And just like that, the casual conversation was no longer casual.

Galen kicked himself for not thinking ahead, and rushed to gloss over it. “I suppose if there are really no jobs, you can just stay in school for longer.”

August said something in agreement, but the discussion ended after that. Galen couldn’t come up with a plausible reason to keep talking, and August had even less to say. He was keenly aware of how awkward it was to talk about his health. For half his live, every decision he’d made was impacted by his illness, but he’d never been good at explaining that to people without sounding extremely depressing.

Galen was toweling off in the bathroom one afternoon when the lights unexpectedly went out. He was immediately plunged into twilight, as the light from the window cast the room in a meagre blue tint. The sudden silence of the house was disorienting.

“Power’s out!” August shouted from his room.

“I noticed!” Galen shouted back, pulling some clothes on. He opened the door to his room, wanting to see how bright the library was. The big window let in more sun than the ones in his room, but it was still rather dim.

While Galen stood at the threshold to his room considering where he wanted to sit, August opened his door, an act which brightened the library considerably. “Hey,” he asked, a little unsure of himself, “do you want wait out the outage in my room? My side’s got all the natural daylight.”

Power outages in the capital city were small and rare. They were usually just a few blocks for an hour or two at a time, but as a result, people didn’t tend to prepare for them. The lack of power wasn’t a big deal to August, since his comm was fully powered and he was just studying anyways, but he wasn’t sure if Galen was in the same boat.

Galen compared the light streaming out of August’s room to his own shadowy side of the house and quickly made a decision. “Thanks,” he replied.

August felt a little embarrassed letting Galen into his room. He hadn’t done a lot to decorate it, and there were a few boxes he still hadn’t fully unpacked sitting in the corner with a sweater thrown over them. However, it was too late to take it back now, so Galen sailed in and immediately began taking stock of every piece of minutiae August had. He hadn’t expected it to be so spartan; the bits and bobs on the night stand, the clothes hanging in the closet, and the semi-made bed were the main signs of August’s presence.

August sat on the bed and watched with trepidation while Galen inspect his toiletries and textbooks with curiosity. Unfortunately, after a quick tour, the other inevitably rounded on the remaining boxes. “What’s in these?” he asked.

“Just stuff I don’t really use, so I haven’t gotten around to unpacking it yet,” August told him. He really should have shoved it all into the closet before inviting him in. August thought about going back to studying and letting Galen amuse himself once the other had seen everything, but then he heard an ominous laugh.

Note: This power outage scene is a direct result of me being without power for over a week at some point during the development of this story