Alexy laid on his bed and looked up at his ceiling. White. Blank, void, empty white. He'd have to change that. He was a bright, colorful person. His naked white walls had long been decorated with shiny stickers and pop-out posters to remedy an unappealing lack of color. But he hadn't quite gotten to decorating the ceiling yet.

"You missed school again today," Kentin murmured. Alexy hadn't seen him walk in or sit down on the bed, but when the blue-haired teen lifted his head, Kentin was there. "Yeah," he replied sheepishly. "I guess I just didn't feel like going." He forced a chipper smile and sat up. The brunette chuckled and reached out to ruffle his hair. "You're lucky you can get away with it. My dad would kill me if I skipped five days in a row."

"Hey, stop," With a laugh, Alexy playfully ducked out of Kentin's grasp and pointed to a slim package on his nightstand. "By the way," he said, changing the subject, "I bought you some of those cookies you like so much." The brunette peered around and eagerly plucked the package up. "Thanks, Alexy." He ripped it open and happily popped one into his mouth.

They carried on with idle chitchat about anything from lemonade to roller coasters. It was funny, really. When Alexy wasn't teasing Kentin they could talk about nothing and everything at the same time. It was nice to be able to have someone like that you could talk to, even if it why that was nice might not make sense.

"So can I have a cookie? After all, I did buy them."

"No. You bought them for me," Kentin corrected with a snicker and crinkled the wrapper in his hands. "Besides, I just ate the last one."

"That's just bad manners," Alexy pouted. "I thought they would have taught you better at military school."

The brunette rolled his eyes. "You and your puppy dog face."

Alexy stuck his tongue out. "You love it."

But a knock on the bedroom door interrupted their playful banter and the blue-haired male slid off the bed to answer it. He twisted the knob and found himself face to face with Armin. He fluttered a blink. "What's up?"

Armin shrugged his shoulders up and down, sapphire eyes dulled with wariness. "Oh, just…Wanted to see how you're doing." Alexy gripped the doorknob just a bit tighter. "Fine."

"It's okay, you know. If you're not fine." His brother looked at him with that careful, sympathetic look he was so plain sick of getting.

"I am," he said curtly. He held the doorknob tightly enough to turn his knuckles white. That disgusting color white he hated so much.

"The memorial service is tomorrow," Armin continued softly, "You're going to come, aren't you? He was your boyfriend."

Was. Was. Was.

Right now, Alexy despised that awful word from the depths his soul. Despised it even more than he despised his ugly white ceiling, which reminded him so much of those morbidly white hospital walls. He slammed the door in his twin's face and turned back to Kentin. Only now there was no Kentin. There was just an unmade bed and the package of the cookies his boyfriend ate all by himself, sitting full and sealed on the nightstand.