Chapter 1

Julian wasn't sure what woke him.

It could have been everything, from the sound of someone buzzing around in his room, to the sunlight streaming in through his window or that familiar scent of sweet tangerines and cinnamon.

Burying his face in his pillow with a sound trapped somewhere between a whine and the growl of an irritated grizzly bear, Julian did his best to cling to the last, vanishing cobwebs of sleep.

His brain still felt fuzzy with exhaustion and even in that muddled state between sleep and awareness, the alpha's body knew that it didn't want to be awake.

That it

shouldn't

be awake.

It was his day to sleep in and being woken up like this definitely hadn't been on the agenda.

Judging by the sounds drifting over to Julian's bed, his intruder was busy rummaging through his stuff and he didn't have to open his eyes to know who was responsible for his early awakening.

"Theo," he breathed out on another long-drawn whine, definitely more pitiful than irritated this time, "what the hell?"

There was a momentary cease of sounds, as if Theodore was throwing a quick glance over his shoulder, before the shuffling resumed again.

"Sorry, but I have class in twenty minutes and I need another one of your sweaters.

Your scent's mostly gone from the last one I borrowed and I don't have the time to deal with anyone hitting on me today."

Rolling over with great reluctance, Julian blinked open one eye and watched his best friend pluck the sweater he had worn the day before off the floor to give it a verifying sniff.

Theodore seemed satisfied, as he yanked the shirt he was currently wearing over his head and wriggled into Julian's instead.

Then, not bothering with a warning, Theodore dove onto the bed next to Julian and had the younger man bouncing lightly.

The frame of his bed gave a protesting groan and Julian might have been worried if he'd had any energy to spare.

As it was the young alpha dutifully raised his blanket and let Theodore shimmy close until they were pressed up against each other from their shoulders all the way down to their toes.

He was quite familiar with the drill after all.

At last he shifted until he was lying half on top of Theodore to nuzzle into the curve of his best friend's neck and breathed out another quiet, but content sigh as he felt Theodore's fingers curling into his sleep-tousled hair.

Theodore wasn't quite as comfortable as Julian would have liked, his leanly muscled body making for a rather hard resting place for Julian, but the alpha still preferred him to his regular pillow.

Theodore was warm, smelling sweetly of omega and letting out all those little sighs of contentment.

And then, with a silly, high-pitched tone that was the polar opposite to the usual, deep rumble of his voice, Theodore stage whispered, "Do me, oh big bad alpha."

Julian just couldn't help it, he really tried to hold back the giggle at Theodore's antics.

But judging by the gleeful sound of his best friend's happy belly-laugh he wasn't doing a very good job.

Rubbing his cheek and nose against the omega's skin to transfer as much of his scent as possible, he slowly felt his limbs growing heavy again.

There was something infinitely soothing about the mix of his and Theodore's scents, about the repetitive motion of his friend's gentle strokes over his nape.

He was on the brink of falling back asleep, when Theodore started wriggling under his weight.

"You're half asleep again, aren't you?"

The alpha didn't bother with an answer, settling for a quiet huff instead, and the next second he felt an insistent finger poking him in the ribs.

Rolling away with a squawk of protest, he glared up at Theodore in a way that would have been way more effective without the outrageous bed hair and pillow crease on his cheek.

The older man ignored him completely to crawl out of bed again, straightening the collar of Julian's sweater in the process.

"Gotta go or I'll be late for class.

But I'll swing by again with dinner tonight.

I want to watch the new Haikyuu episode."

"Make sure to bring back some of my clothes as well.

You've poached so much of my stuff, I have almost no sweaters and shirts left.

I'll have to show up shirtless to class soon."

"Please, you have enough white shirts in that closet of yours to last you a lifetime." Theodore was laughing at him again.

Julian had no problem making out the poorly disguised laughter in his voice, before a calculating glint replaced some of the amusement in his eyes.

"But you know, that's actually not a bad idea.

I bet there'd be a lot of people willing to pay me a shit-ton of money to let all your shirts disappear.

You'd have to leave your apartment with those delicious abs out in the open for everyone to see and I'd be a rich man."

"I'd rather wear a trash bag to class than give you the satisfaction, punk."

Theodore's mock gasp of outrage was thoroughly ruined by the glint of laughter in his way too expressive eyes.

"I'm a broke college student and you're my best friend!

Are you telling me you wouldn't be willing to make that small of a sacrifice?"

"You're not that broke and I'm currently rethinking that whole 'best friend' part," Julian grumbled into his pillow.

If he burrowed a bit deeper to let the remaining traces of Theodore's comforting scent in the fabric relax every last muscle in his body, no one was the wiser.

Except for his best friend who was looking at him knowingly, but it wasn't as if he had any right to judge.

Especially if you considered the fact that he was currently wearing Julian's sweater for the sole purpose of smelling like him.

"Ah, Jules.

Don't be like that," Theodore cooed, his deep voice lowered to that soothing pitch he knew Julian couldn't resist.

"You know I wouldn't actually do that.

No way I'm sharing you with that many people.

No one's allowed to thirst for my favorite alpha in the whole wide world."

Julian might have acted all huffy and grumpy, but they both knew the look on his face was smug, rather than annoyed like he pretended to be.

The early afternoon air was a lot warmer than Julian would have liked, when he stepped through the doors of the air-conditioned building and out into the sun.

The lawn in front of the econ department was littered with way too many students who obviously preferred to spend their lunch break outside and Julian actually felt the relaxed expression on his face fall with disappointment.

He'd never been a friend of crowds and some part of him had hoped that for once he'd be able to escape the lunch rush.

He'd almost been excited after receiving Cy's text message about meeting in the quad instead of the dining hall.

The deep voice to his left pulled him out of his forlorn musings.

"So you're saying we don't have to hand this essay in until the end of the month?" Morgan's voice was laced with more than just a little disbelief.

"What the hell?

Why did no one bother to tell me?"

Julian just barely resisted mentioning the fact that their professor had reminded them of their deadline at least twice during their last few classes.

But Morgan was gathering steam for his rant and the alpha knew better than to try to reason with him in that state.

"I can't believe this.

Are you telling me I've been slaving over this damned essay for nothing?

I've passed up Jasper's party last night because I thought I'd need to finish it until today."

The look on the beta's face could only be described as pure heartbreak and Julian couldn't help but feel a little cheered up at the sight.

"And did you?

Finish it, I mean?"

"No, I fell asleep halfway through the cursed thing and spent my entire morning class trying to come up with an excuse our professor would actually buy."

"Yeah right.

I'd pay a lot of money to see that happen," Julian scoffed, derision heavy in his voice.

He knew from first-hand experience that their professor had the bullshit-detecting abilities of a seasoned cop.

He had his first term grade to prove it.

Letting his gaze sweep over the group of people sprawled out on the gigantic patch of grass and trying not to scowl at that unwelcome reminder, he decided his friend obviously hadn't arrived yet, when he caught the flash of Owen's pink hair towards the back of the quad.

His mood improved considerably when he realized that his friends had somehow managed to snatch a spot in the shade of one of the large trees.

To avoid Morgan talking himself into any more theatrics, he cut the other man off in the middle of bemoaning the fact that he'd missed out on what must have been an insane party.

"At least you have two more weeks to finish your essay.

Stop whining."

"Harsh," Morgan replied, dramatically clutching his chest in mock-offense, before he followed Julian's gaze and realized his whining time was officially over.

"Well then, I'll see you later for the class that shall not be named?"

Julian allowed himself the tiny amused snort and gave the beta a salute of agreement, before he hitched up the slipping strap of his backpack and started off across the quad.