Chapter 50: Idea

As soon as the butler and the omega male left the room, Mar let out a sigh of relief.

"Shit, what was that?" Liam broke the silence.

"Yeah?" The black haired alpha put his brush down and ran his hands through his hair. "You saw it too? Damn, Arkham has a crush! Poor guy!"

"On Tian, too." The platinum blond alpha let out a laugh. "I don't blame him, honestly."

Tian is a beautiful omega male, desired by almost everyone because of his status as an omega male and his rare scent of winter. Pine is usually an alpha scent, but somehow, Tian hit the genetic jackpot of having it as an omega male. It's stubble and beautiful, but at the same time it's manly. Unlike his amazingly enticing scent, his personality deter most people away. Tian is as cold as his scent suggests, and his words are just as sharp. For some people, that only added to the appeal.

As far as Liam knew, Tian is still blissfully single and isn't actively looking for a mate yet. Mar's siblings saw Tian as a family friend, nothing more, nothing less. None of them tried to pursue him since none of them seem to have any romantic connection with him. When they were younger, a few of Mar's older brothers tried for Tian, but they all gave up at one point.

"Okay... Where were we?" The black haired alpha got back to painting his best friend.

Painting isn't a cover up for anything sinister. Mar really wanted to paint Liam for some reason, and the platinum blond alpha just let it happen.

The day passed quicker than they expected, and soon one painting turned into two, and two turned into three. Liam doesn't mind the boredom, his brain took him places he never thought he would think about.

There's nothing stopping Liam from following the black haired alpha until the end. And of course, he spaced out and designed his own house. A place like the Black Water Cliff, modern but homey.

An hour after sunset, there's a knock on their door again. Brunette hair followed by bright green eyes greeted them when Mar opened the door.

"Young Masters, time for dinner." Arkham called out to them.

"No, thanks. Tell my father we're not coming." The black haired alpha walked back to his work station at his bed.

"And get us anything! We're fine as long as it's food." Liam added, waving his hand at the butler.

They have discussed this earlier today. Mar doesn't want to interact with his siblings nor his father, and Liam was fine with it. His parents don't really care if he's holed up in his room because that's one of the rare free times he has all year.

Time passed quickly when Mar was occupied and Liam was lost in his head. All good things came to an end when Arkham returned to their room with dinner, and behind the new butler were a pair of omega females.

Escorts.

"No omegas allowed in here!" Mar made his opinion known as soon as one of them set foot inside. "Arkham, take the young ladies away. We're busy here."

"Yes, Young Master." The new butler seemed more than happy to give the young omega female a look of disappointment. "I'm sorry, Avery. This is what I meant this morning."

"Oh." The female omega didn't question them any further as she walked away.

Aaah... So, the escort omega bothered Arkham this morning, too? Poor guy getting bullied just because he's new. At some point, the escorts will get the hint that both Mar and Liam wanted no one, so they'll leave them alone.

Dinner was a bit bigger than lunch, with three appetizers and a main dish completed with two desserts. All came on a cart, and Arkham had to put everything down on the coffee table.

Just like lunch, the two alphas devoured the food in less than fifteen minutes before going back to their spaces. Mar at his work station and Liam at his posing station. The maids didn't question them as they gathered the dishes, and Arkham was dismissed for today.

As the stars started dotting the sky, Mar was done with his third painting. He left it on his bed to dry while he set up a new canvas for tomorrow. Meanwhile, Liam collapsed on his bed.

It didn't take long for the lights to go off, and his best friend crawled into bed with him. Mar also brought one of his laptops, the one with the flashdrive. Liam decided to call it the forbidden laptop.

It's not a secret that Mar is brilliant when it comes to technology, but he never truly pursues technology as a major like Blue did. Mar got into coding in high school, but just like everything else he tried, he's good at it but it just didn't really stick.

The black haired alpha was more like a jack of all trades, master of none kind of person. Except he's actually good at all of his trades. Painting? Mar does really good realistic painting, and three are drying on his bed right at this current moment. Gymnastics? He achieved lifetime physical flexibility and a fitness routine of a professional athlete, plus three gold medals to prove it. Baking and cooking? Mar swore to never let Ms. Lin down, and she's proud of him. Tech? There's a phase in second year high school where Mar sent Liam dozens of pictures of himself picking apart laptops and put them back together like he's playing with a toy train. Then, Mar got into coding games and websites. He did really well, but at one point he lost interest like he did with gymnastics and painting. Baking is probably the only one that sticks.

Now as Liam watched slender fingers hover over keyboards in the dark, he smiled and planted a kiss on fluffy black hair.

"Hey, you should major in technology. Computer science or software engineering." The platinum blond alpha put his suggestion out there. "It can be a cover up for... This. The forbidden laptop."

Mar let out a small laugh at the mention of his laptop, but it didn't crease his typing. "Yeah. Maybe I should. My father would sleep a little easier knowing that I have something to do with my life."

The youngest Aster child was reading and comparing two articles at once, and he's barely making a dent in all the stuff inside the flashdrive given to him by Rex. Liam fell asleep soon after, holding his companion in his arms and not knowing that he instilled a revolutionary idea inside Mar that night.