Running an entire planet was not the easiest thing in the world. One had to plan things, talk with ambassadors, sign treaties, and other random shit that Eero did not even remotely care for. All work, no fun, but that was adulthood for you.

Still, he guessed that this stress was all ‘preparation’ for when his father died or resigned, preparation for when Eero would take over the planet and have no time for leisure whatsoever.

Still, he tried to find leisure in small things. It was mainly the letters from his brother that brought joy to his heart.

From his last letter, they were staying over at an ambassador's house in Munich, having gotten an invitation for a wedding. Lear had not stated any names, only that the bride was beautiful and that he nearly cried and that he might've caught the bouquet at the small reception.

Eero sighed. Lear was enjoying himself. There was no mention of him finding a bride for himself — though the bouquet catching was in hopes that he would. Perhaps he had already found someone but was too embarrassed to state who.

It didn't make Eero jealous in the least, especially at the prospect of his brother falling in love. He didn't really feel anything towards the romantic side of things and was beginning to suspect that he was a bit different in this way.

On his leisure time off, he began searching for that word again, the word that had escaped him for so long.

He went down to the library on the first floor, gathering his pride as he entered the dark references section at the back end of the room.

Eero spent the entire day there, just looking. When he pulled a large dictionary off the shelf, he dropped down into the middle of the aisle and began to read through it.

It was by pure chance that he stumbled upon the word. As he had gone to put the dictionary back, it had fallen with a loud thud, and lay there, open and face down. When he went to pick it up, he found that one word had caught his eye.

Romantic. The feeling of idealized love. Idealized love in itself. Feelings a person feels towards another without... other obvious relations.

Eero had never felt this feeling. He closed the book, only to open again at the very beginning.

'A-: a lack of something; without. In words such as atypical, amoral, or...'

"Aromantic." Eero shut the book, which gave a loud slam. Carefully, he set it back upon its place upon the shelf and dashed out of the library to find his mother.