[2023 Wattys Shortlist, 2023 Amby Awards winner, Featured 3 times in Wattpad Picks lists]
Kaleth has worked as an agent of Luxarx for years. What the average person might see as an exciting, dangerous job has become the routine, and the only thing...
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It had been an ordinary summer day, which Nira had spent flipping through the pages of her new astronomy textbook. Usually, she would read the whole thing within a single day, but summers in Enoria were difficult for her. The heat was currently making her head hurt enough that all she could do was look at the pictures of galaxies and black holes.
Looking at her boyfriend Nef, Nira felt kind of jealous that he didn't seem to be bothered by the temperature. He was lying on the couch, sleeping with an open book on his face so that all Nira could see was his dark hair. Even though the book seemed to have something to do with engineering, Nira doubted Nef had been reading it because doing anything related to school during the summer wasn't his style.
Nira supposed it made sense that the heat didn't bother Nef because he was from the south of Enoria, and the weather was even worse there, but it didn't explain how he could fall asleep so easily in the afternoon. Nira sighed and rubbed her eyes. They needed to move somewhere with air-conditioning or at least a ceiling fan as soon as they could.
There was a sudden knock on the door, startling Nira and for a moment distracting her from her woes. The person at the door had to be either Nef's brother or...well, Nira actually didn't know who else it could be. No one else visited them. Since Nef hadn't woken up at the knocking, with a shrug, Nira got up, walked over to the door, and opened it.
"Oh, hi, Nira," said Alor when he saw her and smiled. "I hope this isn't a bad time."
It was always interesting to her how Alor tended to speak more softly and say less compared to his brother, who often talked too much and didn't really care about being polite at all. When she had met Alor for the first time, it had surprised her how different the brothers were because physically they looked very similar—the same curly, dark hair, light brown eyes.... Even their fashion sense was pretty much the same. Nira couldn't remember a time she had seen Nef wear something other than a t-shirt, shorts or jeans, and sneakers. Not that Nira cared—she often put on the same things.
Actually, the most noticeable difference was that Alor was taller and had a bit too much muscle mass for an office worker. Nira had always found this rather strange because Alor didn't seem like a person who would want to work out just to work out.
"No, we're not really doing anything, come on in," Nira replied, returning the smile, and closed the door behind him. "What's up?"
"Nothing really," he said, looking at Nef with a rather odd expression. Nira couldn't place it, but before she could ask if something was wrong Alor smiled at her again. "I haven't seen you two in a while and got some time off from work, so I just thought I'd stop by."
Nira pushed her suspicions away. Maybe she'd just imagined it. She was a bit out of it from the heat, after all. "Right. Good. Well, we can watch a movie or something."
Nira walked over to the couch and lifted the book off Nef's face, which made him wake up with a start. He blinked rapidly, looking at Nira with mock annoyance. But then he noticed Alor and smiled at his older brother, his irritation forgotten.
