Page 120 of The Amber Sunburst

“Of course I’m listening!” he lies.

“Well, what should I do, then?” Zeno begs. “You’ve had so much more romantic experience than me, you should know how to fix this.”

“Okay, first of all, sleeping around is not ‘romantic experience.’ Second, none of the girls I’ve dated publicly were my best friend. And—” Zeno cuts him off.

“You’ve never dated a friend before?”

“Sort of, I guess. This girl, a noble. And then the son of the leader of Sango’s largest state. He’s the only hookup I’ve kept in touch with. We get together whenever there’s a diplomatic visit.”

“And by ‘get together,’ you mean…” Zeno trails off.

Alexander laughs at Zeno’s scrunched nose. “Oh, yeah, baby.”

“Ew. Fine, whatever. That doesn’t really count as romantic, I guess.”

“Nope,” Alexander says, popping the p. “Not that I’m not a generous lover, I’m very romantic in the moment. I can show you if you want⁠—”

“Ew, ew. Shut up, you weirdo.” Zeno shoves Alexander’s kissy face away with a laugh, and drags him by his hair to Bios’ office door.

Zeno barely knocks once and the door swings open, revealing Bios, hanging upside down from his couch.

“He says it makes him ‘think better,’” Zeno supplies preemptively.

“It does make me think better,” Bios yells as Zeno leads Alexander to sit on some floor pillows. The office is nice, with big windows and dark mahogany wood; it feels homey and open at the same time.

“I get that—all of the blood to your brain and everything,” Alexander agrees.

Bios smiles bright and for a moment, though they look nothing alike, Alexander could swear he’s been transported to the beach with his own father.

“I knew I liked you,” Bios says, pulling himself upright. “So, what can I help you with, boys?”

“We—”

“I was wondering⁠—”

Alexander nods at Zeno to continue. This is his dad, after all.

“Alexander and I are doing a project,” Zeno blurts, and Alexander just manages to hide his wince. That is the most basic play in the book.

“It’s about the Trials,” Zeno continues. Bios already looks suspicious. “We’re looking into how the Trials are guarded. Like, how secure they are. We figured you would know.”

“This is for a project,” Bios says, sounding entirely unconvinced.

“Yes.”

“For what class?”

“History of the Republic,” Zeno says a little bit too fast.

Bios narrows his eyes. “Right.”

And, okay, it’s time for Alexander to get involved. As fun as it is to watch Zeno flounder, the stakes are too high.

“Sir, look, we don’t want to be here any more than you want us here. I mean, you must’ve taken that class when you were an Auxiliary, you know what it’s like. We just claimed the first topic on the list that seemed cooler than farming in the early Republic.”

“Someone assigned you the security of the Trials as a research topic?”

If Bios decides to do some digging, he and Zeno are screwed, but at this point they might as well commit to it.