A month has passed and I'm officially sixteen. If you're wondering what I did on my birthday- which you're likely not, but I'm gonna tell you anyway- I'll give you a very simplified version of it.

Elliot- acting like he smoked five pounds of pure sugar- came over at the crack ass of dawn and jumped on my bed while screeching at me to "get my prickly ass up". His words, not mine. Then he yanked me out of the room before I could properly button my shirt up.

Of course, the prince bastard turned up later that day with a bag of who-knows-what that's been incinerated by now. Basically, I got dragged around and worn down by that crackpot of a friend.

I'd much rather have a relaxing birthday of reading and alone time, but I guess that's too much to ask from life. Can't have anything nice.

Now that I'm thinking about the past month, I haven't seen Hunter lately. I would wonder about what he's been up to if I cared, but I don't. At all. His absence has been a godsend in these chaotic and tiring times. I know that sounds cruel, but it's true. I didn't need to deal with the awkwardness Hunter has whenever he's around me. He obviously feels bad for his pushiness that one time he stayed over at my place even after I told him I had forgiven him.

Oh, and father has been acting strange around me as well. Tabius too. Because of this strange behavior, Tabius told me to meet him in the library at noon today. Which is in ten minutes. And I'm going to spend those ten minutes talking about everything else that has happened.

Bella is on an involuntary vacation for the next two weeks. Zachary is glued to the bastard prince's side. Tabius- aside from him wanting to talk today- still hates me. Elliot became my best- and only- friend. Just a friend, by the way. I'm serious. He's attractive and fun to be around, but I prefer him as a best friend.

Ezekiel comes more often to mess with Tabius- nothing romantic going on with them, by the way. Ezekiel has a fiancee who he will marry when he turns 18 and Tabius is in the process of choosing his own fiancee. Azul is as he always is, standing to the side and serving the bastard. Still, he's a whole buffet for my eyes to devour... respectfully.

Rakesha trains with me every week. I drop by her house whenever I have time and use her training stuff. She's become something like an aunt to me- a muscular aunt who loves to duel.

Oh, look at that. It's noon already. I should hurry if I want to have functional ears after this. Tabius nagged like a grouchy grandpa. Mike Myers would be proud. All jokes aside, I really should get going.

I jogged most of the way to the library, pausing to open the heavy doors. Tabius paced impatiently at the back of the library. His head snapped up when he heard the doors close. I gave him a grin and walked over to him. With a huff, Tabius sat down and I sat across from him.

"So, what did you want to talk about, brother dearest?" My grin widened at Tabius' annoyed glare.

"You know why. Do you know why father's acting strange?"

"Nope. Not in the slightest. If I'm being honest, I don't really care- though I am curious." I shrugged. Tabius sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm also curious as to why you're so fixated on it. You hardly care about anything that doesn't concern you. Besides, don't you need to focus on finding a fiancee?"

"That's why I'm concerned about father's behavior!" Tabius threw his hands up in an exasperated gesture, "his behavior is unsettling! When one of the girls came with her parents, they were uncomfortable because father's spaced-out and completely out of character!" He sighed again, "if this keeps on, people will think he's a complete quack."

"Which would make it harder for you to find a fiancee," I finished. Tabius nodded. "Hm... what do you mean by 'out of character'?"

"He's... I dunno... skittish and nervous, I suppose. He spaces out a lot with a weird dreamy look on his face and it's like he's hyper-aware of something. Don't know what it could be. Maybe he's worried about something?"

"That's unlikely. If he's worried about something he becomes irritated, not like what you described." I thought for a few moments. Spaced-out, nervous, hyper-aware...wait. Could it be what I think it is?

"What do you think it might be?" Tabius asked.

"It... kind of sounds like he has a crush or is in love," I said. Tabius stared at me for a few seconds before he jumped up and slammed his hands on the table.

"Why didn't I think of that?!"

"Maybe because he's almost 40 and never showed any interest in having another relationship. If anything, he shrank away from any potential relationships outside of business."

"True. But if he likes someone, who would it be? A servant here? A maid? A business partner? Someone he talked to at a social gathering?"

"No idea. Should we keep a close eye on his interactions and see if we can spot something?"

"Sounds like a good start, but how would we do that when we're at the academy? Most of his interactions happen when we're out of the house. Not to mention most of his business meetings are wither at the castle or a different estate."

"Good point. Do you think he'd take one of us if we showed interest in learning more about the family business?"

"Possibly. I'm not sure," Tabius paced back and forth in a small circle. "What would we do if we found out who it is anyway? Set them up?"

"You're getting a bit ahead, Tabius. We should focus on figuring out whether he is interested in someone or if it's something completely different."

"Right. What else could it be, though?"

"I'm not sure. Personally, I'd go and ask him what's wrong. Maybe he'd tell us what's going on."

"If we're lucky," Tabius snorted, "he isn't one to open up about his problems."

"I know. We both inherited that trait," I exhaled. "But we might as well try. On the off chance he does open up, it'd save us a lot of trouble. If he doesn't say anything, then we can try to figure it out ourselves."

"Alright. Should we do it now or wait?"

"No time like the present to interrogate your own father," I got up. "Also, let's make a truce."

"What truce?"

"A truce to be civil and bear with each other until we find out what's going on."

"Fine," Tabius agreed, "don't expect me to be all smiles and sunshine."

"Same here," I held my hand out. We shook hands and strolled out of the library to father's office. We discussed how we should approach father and what questions would get him to say something.

"Should we be direct and ask him from the get-go? Or should we start off with something else and ask about it in a roundabout way?"

"I think direct would be better. Father's always preferred to get straight to the point and not waste time."

"Direct approach it is then. Who's going to ask?"

"I can since it was my idea. Besides, it'd be less awkward. You don't ask father anything. Or anyone for that matter."

"I get it, alright? No need to criticize my interactions with people.

"I'm criticizing the lack of interactions."

"Yeah, yeah." We stood outside of father's office.

"You're going to knock and do whatever you need to do." Tabius rolled his eyes and knocked on the door.

"Come in," father said. Tabius and I glanced at each other one more time and nodded in silent agreement. Time to get down to business.

"Hope we're not disturbing anything important," I smiled.

"Not at all. This is the first time I've seen you two together." Father looked at us, confused. "What do you want?"

"We want to know what's going on. You've been... different lately."

"Nothing's going on," father made a dismissive gesture.

"That's bullshit and you know it. Come on, it can't be that bad. Is business not going well? Did someone cancel a contract? Embezzlement? Bad investment? Debt? Rivals? What is it?"

"Business is going well." Father flipped through a stack of papers on his desk.

"Okay, then is it something personal?"

"I already told you, nothing is wrong. You two are making something out of nothing."

"If we were the only ones who noticed, we wouldn't be here. Your peculiar behavior has unsettled other nobles- mainly the families of potential fiancees for Tabius." I focused on father's face, looking for any twitch or unusual movement.

"Also, it could affect business. People will take advantage of you and you probably won't notice because your head is in la la land!" Tabius added. "People will think you've gone insane!"

"That won't happen."

"Just tell us! We're your sons, for crying out loud! What is it? WHO is it? Has a woman caught your fancy? A man?"

"Are you two going to keep wasting my time?" Oh, I spy with my little eye an eyebrow twitch! I glanced at Tabius from the corner of my eye. His nod told me he noticed it too.

"The only one who's wasting time is you. Tell us who it is and we'll leave you alone." I plopped down in a chair to emphasize my point. Tabius sat in the other chair.

"There is no 'who' and I tend to keep it that way," father picked up the pen and busied himself with paperwork. Tabius and I got up, giving up the interrogation for now. The moment the office door closed behind us, we speculated about what we got.

"There's definitely a 'who'," Tabius nodded in agreement. "And I'm thinking it isn't a noble lady."

"Definitely. He wouldn't be so secretive or defensive if it was. Well, maybe he would since it's father, but it's safe to assume it's not a noble lady." Tabius hummed, deep in thought.

"Do you think it could be a man?" I asked.

"Maybe. Does he think we'll use that against him? How would we know if he's interested in men?"

"Hmmm..." I thought about it, "oh! I know!"

"What?"

"I remember finding gay books in his book collection when I was around six or seven." Tabius nearly choked on his spit in shock.

"Is that why you read those type of books?"

"Yep." Let's ignore the fact I found gay books because I was looking for them in the first place. I'll let Tabius draw his own conclusions.

"Huh, okay then. Let's assume it's a man for now... or men." Would you look at that. Tabius is more open-minded than I thought.

"You're taking this quite well."

"I'm not the one who may or may not be on the receiving end of another man's dick."

"Pbffffft!" It was my turn to choke on air. I laughed until tears formed at the corners of my eyes.

"What?"

"I never thought I'd hear you say something like that. Wow, even the one and only straight-laced Tabius Howell can say not-so-straight things." I managed to suppress my laughter after another minute of ab-crunching laughter.

"Shut it," Tabius grumbled, "don't make it any weirder than it has to be.'

"Alright, chill. What are we going to do now?"

"Think about any man, or men, who have contact with father and make a list."

"Sounds easy enough. When should we compare lists?"

"Tomorrow during lunch break."

"Got it," I gave Tabius a thumbs up and went back to the library where business records were stored. I grabbed a few books and carried them to my room. Time to do some research! It's not like I have better things to do... like schoolwork.

~

Like an idiot, I stayed up all night flipping through records and writing down every male name I saw- including the names of male servants here. Then I went through and crossed off names of those who I didn't recognize or weren't working with father anymore. Then I narrowed it down more by looking into each individual and crossing off the names of men who sounded like complete narcissistic assholes or damaging to the eyes. Seriously, one guy looked like a crinkle-cut fry with a face and clothes.

The final result was a list of fifteen names. Not bad for a nine-hour research session with limited resources.

"Young Master, you need to get up." A young maid knocked on the door. I'm so going to regret pulling an all-nighter on a school night. I stood up and cracked my back. My body clearly didn't like being in a chair for nine hours straight.

I threw on my uniform, washed my face, and brushed my teeth. My hair was messy, but I didn't have the energy to care.

"You look like shit," Tabius commented when I sat down for breakfast. He had dark circles that rivaled mine.

"I could say the same thing about you. Stayed up all night?"

"Yep. Father better hope we find out who it is soon or I might kill him in a sleep-deprived state of insanity." Tabius grumbled.

"I'll join you," I waved a maid over to the table, "could you get two strong cups of coffee?"

"Yes, Young Master." The maid hurried into the kitchen.

"Ugh, coffee."

"You'll need it. Trust me." I almost put ketchup on my toast. "I can't function without it."

"You can't function with it either." Tabius pushed the jam to me. "Try not to kill yourself just yet." I smeared some jam on the toast and stuffed it in my mouth. The maid came back with two cups of hot coffee.

"Thanks," I took a small sip. Wow, that's some strong coffee.

"Urgh, so bitter." Tabius cringed. He put in a couple spoons of sugar and some milk.

"Works wonders for sleep deprivation," I chuckled when he tried the coffee again and made a disgusted face. "It's an acquired taste."

"Yeah, if you like things that taste like ass," Tabius gulped down the coffee. "Blegh, I'll be tasting it all day."

"That's why I like it."

"Because you'll taste it all day?"

"No, the part before that."

"...Oh my- really, Randall? This early in the morning?"

"What? You set it up perfectly and I happen to be an opportunist." I got up and left Tabius at the table. Another maid handed me my schoolbag and off I went.

~

"Woah, what happened to you?" Elliot asked, "you're all... disheveled. Granted you wear it well."

"Stayed up all night. Need more coffee," I groaned.

"Um, you can have the rest of mine if you want," Elliot handed me a half-empty cup of coffee.

"Thanks," I gulped it down.

"Thank me after you get some sleep." Elliot laughed, "try not to kill anyone."

"Can't say I won't."

"Uh huh. Come on, we need to get to class."

~

"WAKE UP!!!!" Elliot screeched in my ear. "It's lunch break!"

"Crap, I gotta go." I scrambled up, grabbing my bag.

"Where?"

"Student council room."

"I'm coming with!" Elliot said with a smile. He almost skipped down the hallway to the student council room. As usual, I barged in without knocking.

"Can't you knock?" Tabius shook his head, looking wide awake and alive.

"How the hell are you functioning? What drugs are you taking? I need some."

"How did I know you were going to say that?" Tabius sighed, then handed me a big cup, "here. It's coffee. Extra strong and bitter."

"Who are you and what have you done with my brother?" I narrowed my eyes, "actually, nevermind. I prefer this Tabius."

"Since when have you two been so... buddy buddy?" Christopher looked at us, dumbfounded we weren't at each other's throats.

"We are not buddies," Tabius and I said at the same time. Christopher merely looked at us in disbelief.

"Riiiight. Sure."

"Oh leave them alone, will you? How about you focus on your work." Elliot snapped. He settled himself down on the couch closest to Jackie's desk. "You two do whatever it is you need to do."

"Come on, we've wasted enough time already," Tabius jerked his head in the direction of the side room. "We'll talk in the conference room."

"Why the secrecy?" Christopher grinned, "something you don't want us to hear... or see?"

"Fuck off," I flipped him off and trudged into the conference room.

"So, how many do you have?" Tabius asked, "I've narrowed it down to twenty three."

"I've got fifteen." We switched lists. Tabius had everyone on my list and five other male servants and three guys I crossed off because they were hideous.

"Ugh, I crossed these three off."

"Why?"

"Because they're fucking ugly!" I pointed to one of the names, "this guy looks like a sun baked crinkle cut french fry!"

"...Alright, cross those three off then." Tabius sighed heavily. "Alright, how about you look into these guys," he circled ten of the guys on my list, "and I'll do the other ten."

"Sounds good to me." I took the list back. "Let's not talk about this any further in case they're listening."