Harry smiled brightly at the big blackboard Aki had put up on the lounge wall. 'House Rules' was written at the top in Aki's perfectly flowing handwriting with a big list underneath.

Harry ran his fingers around the edge as if it was a precious thing. Which it was. The first personalised touch to their home. When he finally heard back from any of the dozens of jobs he’d applied to, he’d buy some fun bright cushions as his contribution to make the flat more theirs.

They were going to be here for three, maybe four, years, depending how their courses went. It was important that Aki saw Harry as a fellow alpha adult from the beginning, not someone who was trotting along behind him, taking all the benefits of being friends with a top alpha and giving nothing back.

His lips moved as he tried to work out his finances; could he afford to buy cushions now? Maybe. If he didn’t eat for a week and found some brilliant bargains at a charity shop. He’d gone way more than a week without food before and been all right. Mostly all right. Thinking of how pleased Aki would be to see more homely touches, Harry was seriously considering it. Then he remembered the pre-course material that had been sent out. Tons of it had been on nutrition and the importance of diet. He couldn’t risk failing before he started. Aki definitely wouldn’t respect him if he lost the scholarship. Why couldn’t he have been a brainy person instead of just a guy who could run fast and throw and catch stuff, then food wouldn’t matter and he could really surprise Aki and make him happy.

With a loud sigh, he tilted his head back. Gazing up at the ceiling was not a good idea. Though he did feel relief that Aki had yet to notice the accident he’d had two days ago from being a bit too exuberant in trying to toss his first pancake. Which had turned out to be not so much a pancake like parents made on telly, but an entirely new entity of splodge that stuck like superglue to ceilings and had a magic power that made it spread in the ugliest and stainiest the more Harry tried to clean it.

It was at that moment Aki came around the corner. Just like that. No sound of the front door opening and closing. No scuffle of shoes and coat being removed.

Harry was struck with guilt as if he’d been caught in the act of making a mess. He started whistling and leant a jaunty elbow against the board for added naturalness and a look of total innocence.

Aki looked at him with that look. People who didn’t know Aki might think he always walked around with the same snooty expression, like he was the only person in the whole world that wasn’t a stinking, oozing, pus-filled mess. Harry did know Aki though, had known him for a long time. So he saw the tiny twitches of eyebrows, the ever-so slight narrowing of eyes, the almost missable curl of a lip, and all the other miniscule signs that no one else ever noticed. And right now Aki was staring at him with that look. The one that in a single second could reach into the darkest depths of Harry’s soul, rip out all of his insecurities, and then dissect all their splodgy ugliness, inch by painful inch.

Harry wanted to lay down on the ground and beg forgiveness for breathing the same air as perfect Aki.

Instead, he grinned a chirpy Alpha with a capital ‘A’ grin, and said, ‘Alright? How ya doing?’

‘I am doing exactly the same as the other four times you’ve asked me that inane question today.’

Sometimes, (a lot of the time), Harry did not understand all the words Aki used. Fortunately, Aki’s tone of voice usually made it quite clear what they meant.

‘Inane’ clearly was closer to ‘stupid unwanted pest’ than ‘friendly wonderful roomie’.

Aki unpacked his shopping in silence. Harry remained where he was whistling a happy tune even as doubts roamed through his mind. The doubts had started whispering on just their second day of moving in together. They were getting louder every day. Harder to ignore.

The two of them were living together, but he saw Aki less than he had at the orphanage. Aki spent soooo much time in his room and whenever Harry knocked, Aki told him to go away and stop making so much noise. The one time out of pure frustration, (what was he supposed to do between workouts with no telly to watch or radio to listen to?), when he’d gone in without knocking, Aki had been surrounded by a mountain of books and papers which he’d remained focused on even as Harry poured out his heart about how nervous he was about starting university and whether he’d be good enough to match all the other normal alphas he’d be training with.

Maybe him and Aki weren’t going to be best friend Alphas living together, sharing all their best friend Alpha thoughts together, having lots of fun times being best friends Alphas who wanted always to be together.

Maybe it was like other kids at the orphanage had cruelly said: Aki had been forced to include Harry in this sweet free pass to uni deal, because sporty alphas were on telly all the time, alphas studying boring academic stuff were not.

No! That was not it at all. This was his new life. He definitely wasn’t going to let it be over-shadowed by what those bullies said. He never ever had to listen to them saying mean things again.

Aki did like him.

Aki slammed an industrial looking container of cleaner down on the kitchen counter. ‘When you make a hideous stain in our living space, clean it. Do not leave everything to me.’

Harry gave what he hoped was an innocent ‘who me’ kind of shrug.

Aki pointed up to the pancake splodge on the ceiling. ‘Do I need to add that to our house rules? I’d have thought it’d be obvious respectful behaviour. But nothing is obvious or respectful with you.’

‘I like your house rules board,’ Harry said with a big smile. ‘It’s really nice and…’

For someone who didn’t do a quarter of the workouts Harry forced himself through, Aki could move with surprising speed and had incredible strength. That was a top alpha for you. The brunette was across the room, pushing Harry out of the way and writing the new rule on the board before Harry could finish the genuine compliment and take the sourness out of Aki’s mood.

Harry watched as Aki also rewrote the ones that Harry had unknowingly smudged out just now when leaning against the board.

‘Sorry about that,’ Harry said. ‘I really do like that you’re making our home personal, and putting so much thought into how we can live happily together. As I kinda accidentally rubbed them out, you don’t have to redo three and eight as they’re the same as eleven anyway so maybe I could think of new ones for three and eight like…’

‘I will write it down in as many different ways as it takes to finally get through your impenetrable skull and reach your brain and allows you to comprehend that I do not want to start my day by seeing you walking around naked.’

‘Ohhh, so it’s just a morning thing? If I have an afternoon shower after a workout that’s okay then? Or I wake up in the middle of the night after a hot dream and…’

‘No. It is never okay. You should always be fully clothed in any of our shared living spaces.’

‘But on telly and in films and in comics, alphas are always naked around each other! It’s like a buddy buddy thing to show how comfortable they are with each other. And in the changing rooms alphas are always laughing and comparing…’

‘Wear clothes!’ Aki glared at Harry. Then stormed to his bedroom slamming his door behind him.

Harry chewed on his lip. Aki rarely raised his voice or visibly lost his temper. Things were not going well. Harry scratched his head. It was up to him to sort this out. 

Then truth struck him! 

The reason Aki was so hung up about the naked thing was because he still didn’t see Harry as a proper Alpha so wasn't as open and relaxed as he should be. Harry was going to have to work super hard to be accepted by Aki and the only way to do that was to be more of an Alpha than the most Alpharest Alpha ever!