Walking through the door, the first thing he heard was the idiot’s braying laugh intermingled with someone else’s chuckles.

Akira gritted his teeth and slowly removed his shoes, neatly put them in place, and pulled on his slippers. The idiot’s sport bag was dropped in the middle of the floor, sweat-drenched contents spilling out, but his and the guest slippers were still lined up against the wall. As usual he had someone around and was doing his usual genial host act.

‘Oh no don’t worry if you tramp dirt all over the floor, only Aki bothers about things like that, I love a nice relaxed home as I have no concept of the time it takes to sort out other people’s mess, because I never bother to do any cleaning as I watched some show when I was eight where alphas never do any tidying.’

He silently cursed himself for not pushing harder for the idiot to accept one of the many offers he’d received to spend the summer holidaying with his rich alpha team mates. The idiot would have enjoyed stalking about on beaches ogling omegas with alpha buddies. Akira would’ve enjoyed the peace of having the flat to himself and got ahead on next semesters work.

But the idiot, like some self-sacrificing martyr, had insisted he wouldn’t leave Akira ‘alone to be all lonely’.

And if he was entirely honest with himself, Akira had an extremely annoying and niggling worry about the idiot being out in the alpha world, entirely reliant on his team friends for guidance. Despite all his noise and a whole university year away from the orphanage, there was something still childlike and ultimately vulnerable in Harry’s attitude to being an alpha.

The idiot’s friend spoke through his laughter. ‘Ye cannae tell me what this um means.’

It was a unique accent; his best guess was from one of the secluded Northern islets. Which meant the person was either incredibly rich or basically serfdom. Most likely the former as they were far from his home in a prestigious university town. But then the idiot and him were two penniless orphans a long way from where they started, so Akira tried not to make even the most obvious assumptions.He only hoped they were both fully dressed. 

Akira, leaned against the cool wall, took a long moment to compose himself before he had to face the idiot and this new friend.

In that moment the idiot and new friend made themselves laugh even more through the idiot’s inability to understand his new friend’s accent, which became thicker the more he laughed. Then they recovered enough to return to what presumably had been making them laugh before: Akira’s list of rules.

‘No, seriously, I do not wants to know what you did to get this rule.’

‘Okay,’ idiot replied.

‘Noooo. I means I wants you to tell me, I needs to know!’

‘But you said you didn’t want to know!’

More laughter. Then:

‘Explain yourself, Hairy. What’s this about then, do not touch anyone without permission!’

‘Argh, it’s just…wait…you don’t think, it’s like that, do you?’

‘Stop delaying, you got to tellll meeee before I start unpacking.’

Akira stood up alert, eyes widened at the ‘unpacking’. The idiot surely can’t have invited anyone to stay with them. He rubbed his forehead. Of course he could, that’s exactly the sort of thing the idiot would do.

‘Well, at the orphanage me and Aki we…’ the idiot began.

With a final deep exhalation, Akira turned the corner into the main room. ‘He has extreme difficulty understanding that the physical affection between pre-adolescent children will not automatically be repeated in grown men living together.’

‘Aki’s back!’ the idiot shouted out as if they hadn’t seen each other for years rather than a sparse few hours.

He went to launch into one of his bear hugs, but new friend stepped between them.

‘Hey, Hairy, you can’t be grabbing people if they write out rules telling you not to.’ His voice remained light and filled with laughter, but it was firm and he was making an effort to smooth out his accent.

The man gave him an apologetic smile, making him think of an owner asking forgiveness for a poorly trained puppy.

Seeing him rather than just hearing him, it was clear that this new friend was exceedingly rich. There was the expense of his outfit, the purposely dishevelled hair that was the fashionable haircut of aristocracy, the sunblock covering pale delicate skin, and the entire easy confidence of his bearing. However, the thing that struck him most, that he should have already been aware of but the idiot’s constant workout stench overwhelmed the whole flat, was that this person was a beta.

The next thing that surprised Akira was that the alpha-worshipping idiot obeyed the beta. He gave that irritating nervous gesture of his, rubbing the back of his head, and then apologised.

‘Sorry, Aki. I know I should be better by now. Can I give you a hello hug please?’

Akira was in enough shock that he found himself nodding. The idiot’s face lit up and he skipped forward, wrapped his arms around Akira and lifted him off the floor. Even when he dropped Aki back down, he kept an arm draped around his shoulder as if Akira had agreed to be forever entwined. Akira didn’t immediately shrug him off, he was too focused on the beta to acknowledge much else that was happening,

The beta gazed at the idiot with undisguised attraction. He gave long and appreciative glances to the idiot’s bare chest, his muscular legs, and the barely hidden parts of his body beneath the ridiculously tight, bright orange shorts the idiot loved wearing.

‘You’re cool with that, aren’t you, Aki? Bikey said we had to check with you first, before he could stay. But I told him you’d be cool. Who wants to spend the summer holed up in a hotel when you can hang with friends, right?’

The idiot had been yakking into his ear, but Akira only truly heard the last part.

New friend…(Bikey? had he heard that name correctly?)…gave him another apologetic smile.

‘Please, I don’t want to be an inconvenience to you. Hairy insisted I come here, and he’s impossible to say no to.’ Another far longer than necessary gaze at the idiot’s face and torso. ‘But it should be simple enough to reclaim the suite at the Randolph. And if it’s already gone, I’m sure there’ll be availability elsewhere.’

Akira had done some temp work at the Randolph, they actually paid their staff well and it enabled him to supplement the small living budget Lady Mercia provided and purchase the idiot the specialised sports gear he required without constantly needing to write her begging letters. It was a truly luxurious establishment. Their whole flat could fit into some of the rooms, let alone the suite.

‘You must stay here! I can really help with your training if we’re together all the time.’ The idiot squeezed Akira’s shoulders. ‘Like I said, Bikey’s main thing is sports psychology, but it’s so awesome that he’s going to be the first beta to be allowed to train…’

‘If I pass the test at the beginning of term.’ Bikey interrupted.

‘When you pass! I am so happy that I’ve been trusted to train Bikey! Isn’t this the best? New New Coach must like me as much as Coach did!’

‘Or you’re the only student left on campus.’

The words slipped out sounding too harsh. At least Akira stopped himself from expressing the view that Bikey’s money had got him this rare opportunity, but the fact his summer training was being pushed onto the first year who was scraping through at the bottom academically meant that there was no expectation or desire for a beta to be accepted into the alpha training team.

There was a seriousness in Bikey’s eyes that made Akira believe he was fully aware of this. But the beta kept smiling, speaking brightly whilst trying to suppress his accent. 

‘They told me you were their guaranteed star. I’m truly honoured that you’re willing to take the time to help me. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know you at once. I’ve seen you on telly in the university games.’

The idiot literally bounced up and down at this. ‘Really? Wow! We don’t have telly. I mean we have a telly. But it doesn’t work. Not to watch telly telly. We’ve got a few videos though we can watch.’ He ran over to get them.

‘You’re not putting omega porn on!’ Akira snapped.

Bikey smiled. ‘I noticed that rule and have to agree with it, Hairy.’

‘It’s all we’ve got! The only videos people have to lend me are omega porn. This one's kinda got a bit of a plot. These girls have their handbags stolen. All their heat medicine was in their handbags and they're really worried about what they can do. So they find this emergency pharmacist to try and get some. He doesn't have any suppressants left in stock, but luckily even though he's a beta he takes something that gives him alpha stamina and he's able to help them with their heat.’ He held up a case with a naked pair of female omegas on it.

'That's so unrealistic. Betas don't need to take drugs to keep up with an alpha's stamina.'

'They don't? My friends say...'

'Not if they're with the right lover,' new friend thankfully interrupted before idiot could spill out any of the great amounts of anti-beta things his alpha teammates said.

'Wow. That's cool to know. I'm going to learn so much being friends with you.'

Bikey slid across the room towards the idiot. ‘More importantly, if all you've got for entertainment is old omega porn, that's a truly bad situation to be in. I'm desperate to help you out. You need to start exploring alpha porn.'

The idiot laughed. ‘Alpha porn? What happens in that?’

‘What do you think happens in that?’

‘There’s only two beds,’ Akira quickly cut across the conversation. ‘It’s hardly going to help anyone’s athletic performance if they have to try and sleep on the sofa all summer.’

The idiot grinned. ‘That’s obviously not a problem. I have a massive bed. You might refuse to share with me anymore, but Bikey said it’d be perfect.’

Akira looked from one man to the other then walked to his room without another word.