Lukas was exhausted at the end of the day. He had been working hard, a chemist at a laboratory that was on the cutting edge of science. It was rewarding work that he loved, but took all his focus, and focusing that hard all day was absolutely exhausting. He could feel his head drooping as time dragged onward.

He left later than some of his coworkers, late enough the other shift had already started. As said, though, he loved his job, so that wasn’t a problem. It just made driving home a pain, so he would hang out outside in the cold night air to let it wake him up before he did anything. He wanted to make sure he got home safely.

With his blue hair and weird white freckles, he looked like an anime character. Their parents were dead and gone. He didn’t need any other main-character-like things to happen with him like some stupid car crash.

His physical appearance seemed to be something others found attractive - partly the mystery of it, no doubt. He didn’t have a girlfriend, though. He didn’t really swing that way, and wouldn’t want one anyway.

The sad part was that he couldn’t get a boyfriend even if he tried.

Of the options locally… well… all of them sucked. He didn’t like any of them. Plus, Alaska wasn’t in the stone age or something like that, but they weren’t exactly the friendliest state to LGBT+ people. He looked “gay” as far as most people were concerned with his hair and odd fairy-like appearance. His darker latino skin didn’t help his case either for fitting in.

Basically, he was a weirdo, and he didn’t want to be forced to pick from such slim pickings.

The night air was refreshing, and before long he felt like his eyes could focus again and his mind wasn’t as fuzzy and tired. One of his coworkers, a sweet girl named Carol who was unfortunately into him for some unknown reason, was sitting beside him taking a smoke break. He didn’t like cigarettes, but he liked the company.

He was a quiet, shy person. He preferred to listen. Carol preferred to talk, so it was perfect. All Lukas had to do was smile and nod along. He didn’t mind listening to the tedium of other people’s lives. Even something boring like that was interesting to listen to if he gave it a chance. Everything had a tidbit in it he could relate to.

In this case, he knew it didn’t help with her attraction towards him. That wasn’t something he could fix, though. He wasn’t going to be mean just to get the point across. Everyone at work already knew he wasn’t interested in anybody. He didn’t need to reiterate it twenty thousand times.

Some people got annoyed by his tendencies, though. They thought he was a bit too nice sometimes. He had a habit of listening too long and being late because of it. He was that person that wasn’t sure when to stop holding the door open in a crowd.

This particular chat went on for a while before Carol had to head indoors, back to her shift. Lukas waved at her as she went in the door, and sat for a while longer to try to let the lingering smell of cigarettes dissipate. It was a disgusting habit. He hoped poor Carol would be rid of it one day. It’d be sad to see her lungs slowly suffocate her to death.

Dark thoughts aside, he finally stood up and stretched with a big yawn. Time to head home.

He still felt unfocused, but it wasn’t as bad. He could make the drive. Everything in Alaska was kinda far apart, and there was only really one major road in the area, route one. Kinda hard to get lost, at least. If wherever you were going was off of that road, then you’d get there eventually as long as you were going the right direction.

Lukas and his sister Aeva lived a bit out in the boonies, so it wasn’t a city like Anchorage, but they had good internet and even paid extra for the water line. He wasn’t a huge fan of well water and its upkeep. Their biggest worry out there was some animal getting into their yard.

He slid into his sedan and started the car, immediately turning up the heat. It was getting later and later out and the air was more than a little brisk. He could see the aurora in the sky despite the still setting sun, though, and that alone made the cold air worth it. Heck, even in the winter he loved this place, nevermind when it was actually livable like in the summer. A balmy forty to seventy five average temperature, the nature, the people, the sky…

Space was such a fascinating thing. If he hadn’t been a chemist, he thought, he’d probably be an astronomer. All it took were a few solar particles in the atmosphere at the right place and time to take his breath away, nevermind some of the true majesty of space.

Looking at the gas, he had enough to get back, but probably not enough for tomorrow. Mentally, he added the stop to the drive.

The stop, which happened a full fifteen minutes later - it was a long drive - was about as boring as one might imagine if they’ve ever gotten gas before.

Stop. Turn off the car. Pop gas lid. Step out of the car. Pay. Fill. Close. Turn back on the car. Done.

He only mixed it up a little by grabbing a couple of energy drinks while he was stopped. One for him, one for Aeva.

His little sister… He sighed thinking about her. He was almost more a father figure to her than a brother. Their parents, dead or not, weren’t really a picture of perfect parenting. Yeah yeah, speaking ill of the dead was a bad thing, he knew that. Just… they only cared enough to be there as long as they legally had to be. That didn’t mean their hearts were there, the bastards. They loved them, and he loved them, but… their lust for adventure always came first. Their parents ended up more like friends than parental guidance figures.

When he was a kid, he was a hellion. His parents didn’t care what he did, so he could get away with anything. He’d drink, long before he was legal. He’d go to chaotic parties. He’d have sex with some questionable guys. And when he came home, his parents were more amused with his little adventures than anything else.

It took him realizing that they weren’t going to tell him no, for him to stop. He realized that his behavior wasn’t getting him anywhere, and that his sister needed him so she wouldn’t do the same thing. He had safety concerns too, but he couldn't get pregnant. He took on a lot of the parenting duties, things his parents certainly didn’t mind giving up.

Before they even left, their parents became friends more than mom and dad.

He loved the heck out of them either way. Their death was devastating to the siblings. They may have been more friends than parents, but they were damn good ones.

Lukas sighed again, louder this time as he headed out onto the dark road to head home. Thoughts like that were so depressing.