Chapter 171: An interrogation fueled by friendship
He knew it was going to come to this, so why was his heart racing so much?
Glancing at the two who had eyes that glinted in the sunlight coming in through the window, he sighed, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling before he relented.
"Well, a lot, actually." Kellen hesitated before he just started from the beginning. "I don’t know if you were aware of it, but the Captain and I...we hadn’t hung out or even touched each other outside of guiding for two weeks because we were both too busy." Hill gasped, legitimately horrified. She covered her mouth and everything.
"Oh my god. No! You’re joking!" She glanced between the two Guides and Brent shrugged.
"I didn’t see anything, so I trust him. Especially since Kellen was working like a bat outta hell. He was too focused, but I didn’t know what was wrong. Granted, this is Kellen’s first time being in a pair or anything similar, so I don’t have anything to gauge. Not like him, and if I haven’t had skin contact with another for a long period of time." Kellen nodded, and Brent smiled. "But now I know the signs." Hill seemed to be going white as she thought back, before she fumbled with her phone and began typing rapidly.
"Fuck fuck fuck. This is a huge error on our part. We haven’t had a pair in our upper levels, and didn’t even consider it. We just packed his schedule without leaving him any room since that was what we were used to. No fucking wonder he has been difficult. He wasn’t getting any Kellen time in." Kellen, the man they were speaking about, tilted his head to the side in confusion.
"Difficult?" He asked, and Hill froze. She chuckled, before glancing up at him and pushing her hair out of her face.
"Uh, do you remember what he was like in the conference room yesterday?" Kellen nodded, remembering how the room itself had felt chilled. "That’s what we consider ’very difficult’." She told him and Kellen felt his eyes widen. That had probably not been good for the others, since Kellen hadn’t gotten the full force of it.
In fact, Kellen remembered when Rhys had said he had been ’difficult’ to work with on the front lines after Kellen had teased him. He’d even said that he had gained a reputation for having a mean streak from being hard all time, and Kellen wondered if this ranking had come from then.
Hesitant, Kellen opened his mouth, closed it, before opening it again.
"Um, when did you develop this ranking for him?" He asked Hill softly and she paused in her typing, no doubt messaging the group chat that Kellen wasn’t involved with. He was a little bitter about that.