"There must be a way to stop it."

Mum smiled warmly, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "It's being researched. But I will not partake in the benefits. It's still a long way."

Izuna leaned forwards, hiding his face in his hands. "It's my fault", he murmured.

"Izuna, no-", I begun, but my mother took over, being way more stern than I could ever be to the person I loved.

"Izuna, don't be selfish", she said. "You give me far less credit than I deserve. The divorce was long due."

I stood up, started going back and forth. "So that's why father's business trips have only ever lasted one week?"

"Yes. Alphas can't be without the person they've bonded with for more than that before becoming incredibly sick. This is due to powerful hormonal structures being cut. After three days, you begin to notice." I remember how ashen mum had been when she talked to us in the hospital. And now, two weeks later... "After one week, the deterioration truly begins. In the end, you die."

"But father isn't dead! You've just divorced!"

She looked at me with a crooked smile, saying to me without words that she knew I was smarter than that. As I knew as well. Of course, the effect would be the same. "You haven't noticed yet, but everything in society ensures you're never separated from the person you've bonded with for more than a week." I haven't considered it, but it was true. That's why alphas never got sent to prison; the alphas in power made sure of that not only because they thought alphas were superior, but also because a prison sentence would be the same as a death sentence.

"Can't you just see him once in a while?" Izuna asked desperately.

"No", mother said simply.

We didn't argue. Of course she wouldn't. She'd rather die. I just kept pacing back and forth, back and forth.

"Tobirama, please", Izuna said.

I sat down, dug my fingers into my hair.

"Now, go", she said. "We have a lot to do."

"Before I die", she didn't add.

"Tobirama! Son!" Izuna's father embraced me, and I embraced him back. He was so fatherly, as if he could father all of the men in the world who needed one better than their own.

"Thank you for having me", I said, stepping over their threshold.

"Thank you for coming", mother said, hugging me. Her embrace was small but incredibly warm. We were visiting Izuna's parents the weekend after the meeting. "I can't make you dinner, but I can make tea. You want some?"

Izuna came up behind me, holding a bunch of brown paper bags triumphantly. "Dinner is on us!"

We had a feast that evening that I suspected never had been seen in an omega city. We talked and laughed around their tiny kitchen table, eating Indian dishes with naan bread and yoghurt and mango lassi and even dessert. We'd gotten a beer for Izuna's dad and he loved it, as dads would.

It had been a great chock to step out of the train in Izuna's city. But it was nothing compared to the actual container area. They were everywhere, stacked on top of each other, sometimes only a few stories high, but some of them shot up in the sky, creating a silhouette of broken teeth. It was all so grey, even if some containers were cobalt blue or bright red or terracotta. It was as if this air wouldn't let colours breathe properly in this grey part of the world.

"I know it's not much", Izuna said. He seemed to be the only one in his family ashamed for his living conditions. Maybe, that's a trait of having both the alpha- and beta-equina? I squeezed his hand.

"Izuna, don't think about it. I'm rebelling with you against it. I need to see it with my own eyes."

I was surprised, however, by how much I enjoyed being at Izuna's home. What was lacking in material things, was made up and overshot by how warm and homely everything felt. It was a strange mix of feeling I wanted to save these people from their misery, and never wanting to take what they had from them. Because truth was, they didn't seem miserable at all. They seemed happy and content. Could you miss something you had never had to begin with? Yes, yes you could, I thought, thinking of my father, who I would never again see and, who I realised, was also dying as my mother.

But I noticed Izuna was miserable. He hid it extremely well, but as he was now a part of my soul, I noticed. I asked him for a walk after dinner, and I asked him about it. To my great surprise, he burst out into tears.

"Oh, gorgeous. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to distress you." I held him against me, his face in his hands and buried in my chest, our love a strong contrast to the endless grey that was the backdrop of our lives at that point. I stroke his head, kissing the top of it, smelling the familiarity that was him. "Tell me", I requested when he's calmed down.

"It's Henry", Izuna said. I felt a pang of jealousy. "You're my best friend now, besides being my partner. But it was nice, you know? Another friend..."

I thought back on my own friends in university, whom I would see on Monday again. I couldn't really imagine life without them.

"What happened between you? I never asked."

"I told him about being in love with you. He said he can't forbid me from being with you. But he..." Izuna snivelled. I gave him some more time. "He said I should have more self-respect! I felt so humiliated!"

I had never before heard Izuna express distaste towards someone else before. Which made me realise just how deeply he'd been hurt. And which made my next words really hard to say.

"Izuna, I understand him." He looked up at me in surprise, his eyes glittering of tears. He stiffened up ever so slightly. "Not the self-respect part. I've never met someone with so much of it as yourself. Except maybe your mother." He blinked. "But you've fallen for the person who almost killed him. I think Henry deserves an explanation. He needs to know you've bonded with me. Then he might understand."

"I want him to know. I just don't want to tell him. I wouldn't know where to begin!"

He cried and cried, being incredibly miserable. We walked between the containers as he calmed himself down. As we went back to the train station late in the evening to take the night train back to university, I made a decision.

"You're a difficult man to get hold of."

"Oh good. I like the air of mystery around me." He smiled as he said this, sitting down with his elbows on the table. His hair was still ruffled, no longer in its neat side-part, and he was wearing a light blue shirt with grey trousers that went splendidly with his thick-rimmed glasses. He looked very... Mathematics.

I smirked. "I see why Izuna likes you."

"I can't see why he likes you", Henry said coldly.

I sighed. I took a little uplifting look around me. I was back in the oriental cafe where I'd met my mum and fallen in love with baklava. I ordered one for us each with vanilla ice cream, and paid. I remembered thinking I wanted to take someone on a date here, and swore to take Izuna next weekend. Izuna had no idea I was here with his best friend. Or next best friend. I felt slightly guilty about that, but not very. I trusted Izuna, he trusted me and I trusted myself.

"Are you here to make me take him back as my best friend?"

I snorted. "God, no", I said, a bit too quickly. "I respect him too much for that."

"What, you're a couple now? Fast work." The hostility in his words did not go past me.

"Look", I said, leaning forwards, elbows on the table, clasping my hands together and leaning my chin on them. "I am not doing you a service by meeting you up here. You're not doing me a service. I'm doing this because I personally believe it's the right thing to do. I don't expect you to bow down to me just because you're an omega and I'm alpha. But you decided to come. I didn't force you. You decided to meet me up. So I expect you to act accordingly. I've been through a lot of shit lately. My mother is dying." Henry had the decency to look ashamed. "My father almost killed Izuna." At this, Henry's eyes widened, and I could see how much he still loved Izuna. "I don't want your sympathy. But I really, really don't want an argument with you. I just don't have the mental headspace for that. If you bite, I won't be able to bite back. So please. Try to hold a normal conversation with me."

Henry had the audacity to look away. I could see he was trying to find something to retort with, but in the end, his shoulders slumped, and he just gave in. "I'm sorry", he said, taking a bite of baklava with ice cream. "This is really good."

I smiled a little. "Thank you. I came here for two things. First, to apologise. I am so sorry for what I did. I know it's worth nothing, but it won't happen again. Not with any omega. Or beta or alpha. Second. I want to tell you me and Izuna have bonded." Henry dropped his spoon. He was in such a state of chock, he didn't react to try and pick it up.

"That's impossible."

"Turns out there's a very, very logical explanation. It's up to Izuna to tell you or not. But that's how it is. And if you'll be friends with Izuna again, there's a big chance - or risk, depending on how you see it - that you'll have to stand me as well."

Henry looked down. He finally realised he'd dropped his spoon, bent down and picked it up.

"Well... Maybe there'll be some benefits, being friends with you", he said tentatively.

"I do own a helicopter", I said.

"I hate helicopters."

"Oh, go fuck yourself."

"As opposed to you..." He took a bit of baklava with his dirty spoon and put it in his mouth. "I don't have to."

I snorted.

Henry thanked me for the meeting as we were parting, and told me he'd meet up with Izuna. I felt nervous, but also happy. I turned to leave.

"Oh, Tobirama!" Henry called after me. I turned round. "What's a helicopter?"