(BL) Taming the Field Guide

Kellen fully agreed with the female S Class, and even if Rhys begrudgingly let go of Kellen, he still did. Kellen moved towards the woman, raising his good hand and she smiled.

"Are those injuries from the gate?" She asked, showing that she had kept up with the news. Kellen nodded.

"Yes. My hand and my eye injury are both from poison." Kellen told her and she widened her eyes in surprise.

"Still? Don’t you have a very good healer?" She asked, turning to glance at Rhys. Kellen stiffened.

"Taylor is a great healer, this has nothing to do with her. The poison of the gate is potent, and dangerous. The air itself is dangerous, and has stolen many people’s lives already. Anyone who has lived near or around the other poison gate that has shown up on our planet is aware of that." Kellen knew that he was coming out strong in Taylor’s defense, but she wasn’t here, and they hadn’t known how much she had given to try and save Kellen and the others. Rhys’ hand on Kellen’s shoulder gave a squeeze, bringing Kellen out of his rage.

"Love, she’s not questioning Taylor’s capabilities. They aren’t aware of the work we’ve been doing. Sergei, Sakura and I were planning to let everyone know during the meeting." Rhys told him and Kellen let out a slow, controlled breath. Damn his emotions snapping at anyone and anything.

"My apologies." Kellen said sincerely, and she watched, a slow, wide smile touching her lips.

"Oh, it’s fine, Guide Kellen. If you weren’t in more control of yourself, I should have expected to be attacked. It’s remarkable how collected you are. I apologise too. I should have worded that in a better way. I have no doubt that your healer is competent. After all, they’ve had to put up with Esper Thatcher for all this time." She joked, before turning back to Kellen. Kellen sighed.

"She is very good at her job. She’s always been competent, and yes, it’s less she had to put up with Rhys, and more she had to worry about me on the front lines for years." Kellen gave a tense smile. "The last gate really...took a lot out of her." Kellen admitted, then sighed as sympathy washed across the woman’s face. "Especially since my sister had also been sucked into the gate." Kellen didn’t want to talk about it more. He just wanted to get this done and over with.

He held out his hand again, Elder Ellis and the woman getting the hint as sympathy crossed both of their expressions and they took the hint. From context clues, they could understand that she was still alive, but they also understood that the tight-jawed, strong man in front of them did not want to continue this conversation.

The S Class took Kellen’s hand, and only a few seconds later, Kellen was beginning his second public guiding session.

She didn’t react the same way that the other man did, but it was clear, from the moment that Kellen began pouring his guiding into the woman. Rhys could tell that she was experiencing the same thing that the other Esper was feeling when Kellen guided him, and kept an eye on her.

However, when Kellen’s two minutes were up, she did let go of Kellen’s hand without protest. She did turn her gaze towards her hand, staring at it for a long, quiet moment before she looked towards Kellen again. Her gaze was serious, sharp and purple.

"I agree with Esper Brown. I can’t believe that our compatibility is less than 30%. That’s..." She trailed off, shaking her head. She then turned to Sergei. "Have you experienced his guiding?" She asked and Sergei nodded.

"Yes, but we aren’t as compatible. His partner, Brent Jameson, is a far better match for me." Kellen nearly rolled his eyes at his statement. That was a severe understatement. The little light behind his eyes also told Kellen that he knew he was being intentionally coy to throw the others off of Brent’s scent. Kellen didn’t think it had worked, especially given the question that the S Class Kellen was supposed to test with, asked.

"Does his partner have the same ability?" She asked, clearly curious. Sergei shook his head. Calm, collected, even if the temperature dropped in the room around him.

"No, not that I’m aware of. There are other Guides that are like you, aren’t there, Guide Kellen?" Sergei asked, the chill lifting as soon as the attention shifted back to Kellen. Kellen nodded, hiding his own smile at Sergei’s reaction.

"There are a few. We don’t speak of it, since that is something we keep to ourselves, but I’ve met a few who have been able to soothe Espers like I can, or have something similar to what I have. At least, at the lower Class levels. I didn’t get to talk much with Guides that were A Class or higher since they weren’t common on the front lines. Mostly C Class and B Class Guides. We did discuss the differences between our powers and abilities and often discussed the phenomenon where the feeling that you’re feeling is there, but the compatibility doesn’t match. It affects us too, but in completely different ways." Kellen explained. It had normally happened around campfires. Simple, painful discussions that only started because when they asked Kellen why he was on the front lines, he was honest.

That was how he’d found his connection to Isabella, the Guide who was Carlos’ lifeline, support, and probably, the love of his life. A friend of hers who worked on the front lines for the Peach Guild as a Guide, but mostly as a researcher, had disclosed she had a similar effect on Espers that Kellen did. That was how he was able to reach out to her, ask her for help with Carlos, and how everything had worked out so that the man wouldn’t die.

That the E.A.G., who he had worked for and had tried to kill him for betraying his orders, couldn’t get to him again. Tucked safely away, his strange, new power being used to the best of its ability by the Peach Guild. With Carlos’ approval, of course. The man wouldn’t do something if he didn’t want to do it.

"But I thought all Guides had a network of information that they shared?" Someone asked. They sounded rather confused, and Kellen nodded. They were right. They did have a network that they used to share information. However, some were either deemed too important to put down in words so that others couldn’t find it and put the Guides in jeopardy, or no one would find it interesting.

The information that Kellen had felt like the latter, even if it was becoming apparent it might be the former.

"Yeah, but we can keep things to our specific regions, cities, or even our Guilds and Guiding Centers. We don’t always like everyone knowing our business, even if it is for the greater good. Until recently, it didn’t even cross my mind that I had an ability that others wanted. I just thought it was a carry-over from my father. He was also partial to higher scores with Espers like my Mom." Kellen explained and heard the sound of fabric shifting, rubbing. The creaking of couches as Esper’s shifted, interested. Elder Ellis seemed to be particularly intrigued by Kellen’s words, his white eyes bright as he stared at Kellen. He was using his powers too, but Kellen didn’t find it too eerie. Maybe it was because he was used to staring lovingly into eyes that normally sparked fear in others.

"So you think you have different abilities due to your parents? Or that you inherited some of them from them?" He asked and Kellen glanced at Rhys. He was the one who had been thinking about this, or avoiding this the longest. Rhys’ jaw was hard, his hands fisted. However, he seemed more resigned than angry. He had known that he would have to discuss this at some point, even if he didn’t like talking about Kellen and what made him tick. He didn’t like giving them any kind of information that would put him in danger.

"It’s...not off the table, but it would make sense. Lots of the Espers and Guides that have been working on the front lines and keeping our people safe haven’t had the ability to raise children. Most have, tragically, died before that could happen. Or left children behind and they have gotten lost in the shuffling and moving. It wasn’t until recently that the peace we have achieved made cities feel safe enough to settle down properly. Add in the rights that Guides have been getting, the governments have been able to keep track of everyone. Children aren’t supposed to be slipping through the cracks as much as they were before." Rhys was hinting at something that made Kellen’s spine stiffen, but the words that left his mouth after made Kellen harden even his muscles. "We can’t forget that there is a disparity between who are Guides and who are Espers. Kellen and his father are not the norm when it comes to who are Guides." Rhys reminded the room quietly, and Kellen’s jaw clenched.

Right. Women were the more common gender when it came to who awoke as Guides, whether he liked that fact or not. It was becoming more of a 50/50 statistic in recent years, but that was not the case for Espers. They were still mostly men, and Kellen shouldn’t forget about that even if he found he was surrounded by diversity.

Their city wasn’t the norm, it was the anomaly.

"I agree, Esper Thatcher. With the peace that has been given to us on the backs of those who have suffered in our place, and our own backs, people, Espers, Guides, and otherwise, have been able to build lives without much fear. I think that this is also what has led to our situation at hand. We haven’t fully considered what mixing blood, mixing powers, would do to those down the line." Elder Ellis said. Kellen felt his words in the pit of his stomach.

It wasn’t something he had considered, but he should have. As someone who worked on the front lines and had encountered the stranger things out there, he should have asked more questions. But, in Kellen’s defense, not many people were.

In fact, it was considered relatively normal that Guides and Espers of opposite sexes should get married, imprint, and then have children if they could. Kellen, for his part, didn’t really consider any of those things, but it was apparent that these were the kinds of conversations that the S Classes normally had. They delved into deeper topics, and it wasn’t for no reason.

They asked the bigger questions, and tried to see the why and the how. They weren’t just thinking about themselves, but for the good of humanity. That was why they were being broad in their conversations about the E.A.G. Asking about how mixing powers between Guides and Espers might produce strange children wasn’t even something on Kellen’s list, or even in the same room when Kellen was asking questions about what was wrong with him.

Kellen had just tried to get his life together, keep things moving, and survive. Would his opinions change as he grew more into this new Class shift? It was a question to consider, but again, one that Kellen wouldn’t have considered before without Rhys and the others being so...interesting.

"We’ll save the rest of that conversation for later, as we are supposed to be discussing other things. Guide Kellen, should we get back to the task at hand? I am rather curious if you’ll have an effect on me, as well." Elder Ellis said with a chuckle, and Kellen wondered as well.

Would Elder Ellis, a man quite a bit older than him, have a similar reaction? Only time could tell.