[Mature content for most of the chapter. Nothing graphic or explicit.]

The leader of Nuest had a room the same size as everybody elses but it showed the signs of being inhabited for much longer. It was a home more than a dorm. The boy was orderly enough for a young man but not truly neat. There was that one chair every person seems to have on their home. The one covered with clothes that weren’t worn enough to wash yet.

Stars stuck to the ceiling. Little five pointed glow-in-the-dark stickers. Ren wasn’t sure but their arrangement seemed to be modeled after actual constellations. He wondered which one’s they represented. And which one was the leader’s fa-

“The sun,” Junior said.

“Huh?”

“Sorry. Got a bit eager," the boy clarified. "That’s what you were going to ask. Which one my favorite star is? It’s the sun.”

“How so?”

“Well, it gives us warmth and life and-“

“That’s ridiculous,” Ren said. “It’s the closest. That’s an unfair advantage. Your selection process is unscientific. You should correct for your bias rather than indulge it.”

“I don’t think being close to the sun is something I’d like to correct. Rather cold further out there.”

Ren used his murder glare but it didn’t make Junior smile less, only raise an eyebrow.

As the silence settled the boy with the crush looked up to the ceiling as if he was stargazing. Ren figured he truly didn’t know how dorky an impression that made. There was a shelf full of teenage boy stuff like anime figurines and a dusty – and kind of gross – bug collection, but mostly games. Some of the things belonged in a child’s room.

“Junior, how long have you been with the organization?”

“It… it was kind of built around me.”

“What?”

Looking off to the side, Junior signed. “It all began many years ago when-“ He trailed off. His emotions shifted towards the negative end of the spectrum as he sorted through confusion and insecurity. 

This was not how Ren had intended to make the boy feel, so he interrupted. “Exposition. How boring. I’d rather play your stupid video games.”

Ren slapped the boy in the chest with the back of his hand. Junior flinched appropriately even though he had certainly foreseen the event. Why had Junior not moved out of the way of the playful attack? Ren's empathy sensed something interesting enough to test it.

He shot forward and pinched Junior’s through his button up.

“Hey, stop it!”

Junior reacted the way he was supposed to, protecting his tormented and no doubt sensitive spot. But the emotion that rose in him betrayed his actions – fiercely burning lust.

It was hard to say if the boy would be more or less annoying if they were to…

Ren had to admit it had been a while. And for all his faults this Junior guy was terribly cute plus the idea of sensing exactly what a person felt during was a massively fascinating prospect.

There was a look somewhere between panic and ecstasy flickering across Junior’s face as he clearly read the change in his future.

“Well,” Ren said, “I suppose you just realized what could happen. Now that I’ve made my… decision.”

“There’s a… very high chance that-“ Junior swallowed hard.

“And you know you can’t do anything about it. Even if you know it’s coming.”

“Don’t intend to.”

Their lips met too fast. The kiss was clumsy and sloppy and rough. Ren didn’t have all that much practice but he briefly wondered if Junior had ever kissed anyone. The boy had been locked away in the organization for years after all. That was a lot of pent up he sensed.

There was no good spot to put their hands. Both boys kept grabbing and holding onto whatever they could – spine, shoulder blades, hips, neck, hair, face. They tumbled towards the bed incurring minor hickeys and small scratches as their lips and fingers met skin.

Ren let his hands wander along the slender sides and down onto the perky hips of the other boy. Once all the way down he grabbed a handful of crotch, causing Junior to make something between a squeal and a grunt.

Just as Junior was chewing on his ear, Ren hit the bed frame with his knee and froze. The pain was considerable but all that did was make his moan louder than intended.

They tore each other’s shirts off before dropping onto the mattress. Ren’s shirt lost a button.

Junior’s impressively lithe, evenly tanned body made Ren forget all remaining reservations.

“You know what’s coming next, don’t you?” Ren asked.

“Yes,” Junior said with a huge grin.

Delicate Conmotes materialized from the very essence of lust, dimly pink and weightless. The two faceless beings enwrapped Junior’s wrists and restrained him to the bedframe.

Ren was sitting on top of Junior, with the leader looking up, to Ren and the faux sky.

“You know what?” Junior said and there was a fondness welling up inside him Ren could sense as clear as day.

“Huh? What?”

“I found a new favorite star. One closer to me than the sun.”

Their eyes didn’t break contact for a moment. Their heavy breaths synchronized. Very slowly, Ren leaded down.

Junior continued. “I can’t see that far into the future, but I know for sure we’ll be the greatest power couple. We’re going to make everybody jealous. We’re going to be- under attack!”

There was a deafening explosion outside and the building trembled from the impact.

***

Ren held both their shirts as they rushed along the corridor since Junior was busy with the phone. Minhyun was forcibly linking with everybody he could reach and declaring state of emergency, which meant somebody had told him to do that which meant emergency protocols had been enacted which meant this attack was real and huge and everything was terrible.

They rushed through a corridor with windows and the precog looked out to where no threat was visible in the present.

“Forty men.” Junior yelled into the phone. “I see that many coming. But their movements are absurdly hard to predict. They have automatic weapons and heavy artillery and there’s a ninety percent chance they’d use it if you engage. So don’t. I repeat, don’t engage. Evacuate and they won’t go further in. Sixty percent. No, fifty. No, six- Argh. This has never been so hard.”

They arrived at the elevator and Junior struggled into his torn shirt. He turned to Ren to make sure he was listening while he kept speaking into the phone. “I think they found a way around my ability. That’s why I didn’t foresee it. And why I can’t pin them down any better. I’m no help. We’re screwed.”

A second explosion shook the foundations of the building and gave Ren a headache and the elevator stopped between floors and the lights went out and they were plunged into darkness and everything was even more terrible than before.