(BL) Hunting The Field Guide-Chapter 434: A gut feeling

Kellen and Rhys got home only a few minutes after each other. Kellen was in the middle of taking off his shoes and jacket and sleeping into his house slippers when he heard the door click behind him.

Turning, surprise on his own face, he was greeted with the slightly surprised look on Kellen’s face, before his expression melted and stepped into the apartment, closing the door behind him.

"I thought I was going to beat you home, but apparently my conversation with your parents held me back more than I thought." Rhys said, leaning in to kiss Kellen quickly before he began pulling off his own shoes. Kellen blinked, before he felt his shoulders relax.

"Oh? What were you talking about?" Kellen asked. "How does Dad look?" He shifted, moving towards the kitchen but Rhys reached out, grabbing him and pulling him back against his chest.

"Your Dad looked better. Waaay better than the last time we saw him. Tom being such a piece of shit was a great distraction I think, plus he has his wife, er, soon-to-be ex-wife to look after. With Charlie mostly healed and a healthy weight, he has less to fuss over. Now both him and Charlie are bonding while fussing over a fuming and grieving woman." Rhys chuckled as he pressed his lips against any skin available to him that Kellen offered him. "Your Mom was saying she’s been having a hard time. Between her own work, her reaching out to others at her Class or higher, and all the fuss with the E.A.G. she’s had her hands full. But, she has two wonderful Guides looking out for her." Kellen felt himself relax.

He hadn’t been able to keep up with them with how close of a deadline they had to get the next round of Guides, as well as Brent, back out on the front lines. They had been crunching hardcore, and any moment that wasn’t spent with his students was then spent with Brent hammering out the details of their plans.

Sometimes Kellen didn’t get home until late into the evening. Today was an exception, as Brent had a prior engagement that he couldn’t shake, nor did Kellen want him to.

There was also the fact that Gwen was going out to the front lines with this next batch as well. Kellen would normally have been excited for his sister. Over the moon. He had been up until this point. Now?

Whenever he thought about her going to the front line a thick, viscous feeling filled his gut. It wasn’t just dread, but something more than that. Kellen hadn’t told anyone about this feeling yet, mainly because he was concerned that it was just him overreacting. With everything going on the front lines right now, it would make perfect sense for Kellen to be worried about his younger sister going to the front lines. No matter how competent she was, she was still a baby in Kellen’s eyes.

He had seen how excited Gwen was though, and he had held his tongue about warning her. She had been briefed about how dangerous the front lines were right now especially. Everyone was, including his people. He was just...he was worried about whether this could be connected to his vision.

He thought he was ridiculous for even considering it, since they weren’t similar symptoms at all. If anything, this was closer to what he normally felt when he was about to go into a gate. If he had even an inkling of what he was feeling right now, he’d call off the whole trip. Everyone would have bitched and moaned, but they would have all shut up when they weren’t the ones leaving the gate in body bags after a sudden burst in monster aggression.

That was another reason he was trying to talk himself out of thinking it was anything. The other reason was that he’d quietly spoken to Hill and looked over the schedule for the Espers and Guides. Hill had walked him through what gates they were going to, where they would be, and Kellen from his previous time on the front lines could tell that everything was safe. He didn’t even have the same feeling when he thought about those gates in particular.

But still, the thought of Gwen going to the front lines made his guts churn.

He strangely didn’t get the same feeling when he thought about Brent going to the front lines, but did get some strange feelings about his Field Guides. It wasn’t as strong, or as concrete but every once in a while it was like a spear would jab him in the guts and he’d have to pretend like everything was okay.

Kellen knew that this wasn’t normal behaviour, but he’d also spoken to Rhys about how his powers worked. Long before Kellen started having reactions like this. Kellen wasn’t displaying any of the signs that Rhys normally did. His reaction prior, where his head started throbbing and he collapsed, was closer to what Rhys went through then what Kellen was going through right now.

Kellen was afraid to talk to Taylor about it because he knew that she would insist that he go get retested. Kellen already knew that they were in discussion with an international supplier to get their own machine. Probably machines if Kellen was honest with himself, but Kellen was trying really hard not to think about that. He was desperately holding out for when he had no other choice.

Should he talk to Rhys about it? About this new development? He should, but he was worried that it was going to send Rhys spiraling like it had the first time. This was a very important time right now, and he didn’t want to bother him with his problems. He felt like it wasn’t a big deal. He was just being an overprotective older brother and teacher. That was all it was.

"Hey. Your mind is elsewhere. Where is my sweet, syrupy sugar going, hmm?" Rhys was a sap, but listening to the concern in his voice had Kellen hesitating. He reached back, grabbing onto the hands that were holding onto him, squeezing his hands tightly. He struggled for a long moment, fighting himself about what he should do. Rhys didn’t interrupt.

He remained silent, strong, holding Kellen up even though he wasn’t on the verge of collapsing. He was just...there for him, and Kellen loved that.

"I’m having some concerns." Kellen said quietly, unsure if this was the right thing to do. He didn’t want to panic him over nothing, and it felt like nothing to Kellen. It was only happening to him, and he also didn’t have anything concrete like he did last time.

"Alright. Do you want to sit on the couch and have this talk?" Rhys asked and Kellen nodded. Between one blink and the next Kellen found himself tucked into the corner. His back was still against Rhys’ chest until Rhys shuffled them around until they were face to face, lengthwise across the couch with Kellen tucked into the corner, his back against the cushions while Rhys had his arm wrapped around Kellen but his back was to the open air.

His yellow eyes were calm, patient. Almost as if he had anticipated this conversation. Kellen tried to chalk it up to him having time related powers, but there was also the possibility that he hadn’t been able to hide his concerns as well as he thought.

"Alright. You may begin." Rhys told him, bringing a smile to Kellen’s lips before he felt it drop off. He swallowed.

"I...I’m worried. About the next batch going to the front lines." Kellen began and Rhys didn’t brush off his concern. He didn’t even bring up Gwen right away.

"It’s dangerous there right now. Hill still hasn’t broken through the men and women who attacked us, travel there is also dangerous, and Tom is still at large. Yeah, I’m concerned as well." Rhys told him and Kellen nodded. Rhys’ gaze narrowed. "It’s more than that, isn’t it?" Kellen glanced away from his gaze for a moment before he nodded. He met Rhys’ gaze again.

"I think...gosh, it sounds so silly, but I think I might be borrowing your power again?" Kellen suggested and watched as Rhys stiffened slightly.

"Did you see something?" He asked and Kellen shook his head.

"No. That’s why I’m not confident. If I had seen something, I wouldn’t be as uneasy as I am right now because at least with the last one, I could see where. I don’t even have that right now." Kellen said before he exhaled slowly, trying to steady himself. "It’s the worst around Gwen." Kellen admitted, and saying it out loud made him feel even more ridiculous. While at the same time, it made it more real.

Rhys didn’t brush him off, staring at Kellen until he demanded an explanation. Kellen told him everything, and even begrudgingly told him about how Kellen had had feelings like this before, before he was with Rhys, but they had never been this intense, or this worrying. Kellen’s lips turned up into a self-deprecating smile.

"Taylor calls it my lucky rabbit’s foot." Kellen told the man who was holding him. Rhys seemed to mull over those words for a lot longer than Kellen anticipated he would. When he finally spoke, it was soft, measured, and far calmer than Kellen had been expecting.

"Hmm. I’m unsure, but I’m not going to dismiss your worries. Even if it’s just a ’feeling’ like you’re saying it is, it’s still powerful enough to cause you severe pain." Rhys said, reaching up and touching Kellen’s cheek. Kellen stared at him, a little shocked, but very relieved. He wasn’t sure why he had worried that Rhys would brush off his concerns, or that he would freak out about hearing the words from Kellen’s mouth, but it was nice to hear his reassurance instead. "I’m assuming your call with Hill going over the gates the new recruits were going to have something to do with this feeling?" Ah, that was where he had found out that Kellen was feeling a certain kind of way. Kellen nodded.

"I’m sorry. I know this is silly, I just-" Rhys bent, kissing Kellen’s lips to silence him.

"It’s not silly." Rhys told him, pulling away with a small smile. "Your worries aren’t silly. Especially when they’ve been right more times that I can count. If what you’re saying is true, I’ve relied on that gut feeling before, so I’m not going to dismiss it so easily. Is there anything I can do to help relieve it?" Rhys asked and Kellen blinked. He had this one thing, but he wasn’t sure if it was asking for too much. Rhys sensed his hesitation and chuckled. "Kellen." He warned and Kellen swallowed. novelbuddy.cσ๓

"I want to get them all the new suits that Carlos is working on. All of them. Espers, Guides, everyone. I just-I don’t know why, but that seems like the most-" Rhys kissed him again, silencing him. He rested his forehead against Kellen’s when he pulled back.

"You don’t need to justify yourself to me, Kellen. I believe you. I’ll reach out to Sakura, take on all the blame. It’s okay. I would rather fork this over and it be for nothing than not fork it over and kick myself for it forever." Kellen’s heart squeezed at his soft, but firm words. They were so soothing to the viscous feeling in his stomach.

"Thank you." Kellen told him and Rhys chuckled.

"Not a problem. Don’t ever feel bad asking for these kinds of things. I like you relying on me. Do it more. I made sure to put all of this money away so that I could spoil my Guide." Rhys teased and Kellen felt his face warm.

"You didn’t, and I also don’t think this is what you had in mind when you were thinking of spoiling them." Kellen protested and Rhys chuckled.

"Hmm, well, trust me when I say, this is better than some of the plans I had."