(BL) Taming the Field Guide

"What did you do?" Rhys demanded in a hushed tone once they were seated. Kellen just smiled, reaching for the snack bin.

"Nothing really." Kellen told him.

"I don’t believe you." Rhys hissed, his eyes bright once more. "Kellen, you’ve-"

"Shh, Rhys. People have big ears here." Kellen whispered, and Rhys growled in frustration.

"Alright, fine. People have big ears, but Kellen, you’ve withered away again. What the hell did you do?" Rhys asked and Kellen shrugged. He raised his blue eye towards Rhys, meeting his gaze head on.

"I guided you in a moment of tension. Don’t you remember, Rhys? We had the smallest amount of contact and I didn’t want you to feel weak or inferior when it came to that other Esper. That is exactly what happened." Kellen told him softly, quietly, and Rhys stared down at him. Neither of them blinked for a long, heavy moment before Rhys broke eye contact first.

His jaw was tight, his nostrils flared, and he ran a hand through his perfect hair. God he was so handsome. Kellen, not resisting the urge, moved to press a tender kiss against that tight jaw.

"I love you." Kellen told him, not playing fair in the slightest. Rhys glared at him, no heat behind it.

"You are a beast." He told him and Kellen gave him an unrepentant grin. Something that probably wouldn’t have come from Kellen before he knew Rhys.

"I’m your beast, Rhys." Kellen told him and Rhys flushed. He didn’t look as angry though, just resigned. It was clear that Kellen didn’t want to talk about it, and after Rhys had pushed and got nothing, even if he hadn’t pushed that hard, he knew he wasn’t going to get anything more. Not here, at least, and while that annoyed him, he understood.

Kellen was just protecting himself.

While they were having a cute moment, the rest of the room was rather somber. They were coming back after finding out horrible news. Not only was the group they were discussing full of murderers, they were worse than that. No one wanted to say it, but they all knew what guiding could entail.

Hell, Kellen had just prevented it downstairs.

There was a reason that all of the Guides around the group were so angry, and why the Espers that were selected to protect them were so powerful. No one liked what was going on, and it was clear now that the group was coming back for the third session of the meeting that the tides had finally begun to turn.

The E.A.G. wasn’t getting much sympathy after that revelation.

~

The next two portions of the meeting weren’t that bad. Now that everyone got a sense as to why Rhys had called the meeting, while also knowing there was probably more to the story that they weren’t saying, things progressed smoothly.

Plans were formulated to tackle the issue with low level and high level Espers going to the E.A.G. Research was going to be conducted, examined, and they were going to find out what they could do to help deal with the crisis that was at hand.

They also discussed how long they were allowed to hold an E.A.G. member, with or without torture, and with or without them disclosing information. That was when Sergei brought up the fact that they might be equipped with poison to kill themselves, or other devices to eliminate the chance of them talking, whether the members knew that or not.

That meant it was crucial that a Healer got to them first. Followed up by a neutralizer from the Peach Guild. Kellen was a bit surprised to hear that name being brought up, but when no one questioned Sergei’s words, Kellen felt a surge of pride for his strange friends.

Good. He was glad that both Sakura and Carlos had some kind of weird name recognition. They deserved it, even if people couldn’t know who Carlos was for his own safety. Plus, Sakura had been pouring her heart and soul into the Peach Guild since she had gotten it. She deserved a little victory like that.

There were a few people who asked if they had been able to pinpoint the issue with the poison, but Sergei remained the person who confirmed that everything was okay. After all, they had made the poison neutralizer that had dealt with the exploded Poison gate that had been harming all of the world since it had opened, and they had also helped deal with the new Poison gate that Kellen had dealt with, pretty much single-handedly.

At the reminder of what Kellen had done, the air in the room shifted. Kellen wasn’t sure what that meant, but he did notice that Rhys began hand-feeding him snacks instead of letting Kellen open up his own snacks. Kellen wasn’t a fool. He knew that it was a possessive action, but Kellen didn’t mind it.

If Rhys was hungry, Kellen would have done the same thing. He had noticed how a few of the Guides downstairs had looked at him when they thought Rhys wasn’t looking. Kellen had specifically made sure that his ring was showing each time. Kellen had made sure he was engaged for this specific fucking reason, and it was vindicating that it was necessary.

Hell, Kellen felt like even some of the Espers were looking at Rhys like they wanted a piece, but Kellen would not let them. Rhys belonged to him, and he didn’t give a fuck if that meant he was ’more Esper’ or ’more Guide’ about his feelings. He was just Kellen as far as he was concerned, and damn anyone who kept trying to put him in a damn box.

They took another break between the third and fourth meeting so that everyone could eat, not just the Guides. It was mandatory, done by the Elders who were in charge of calling the meeting, and that meant that it was his people who helped prepare it. Kellen had no idea that they cooked a meal for everyone, but he was very grateful.

If he had known, he would have offered to help. He even let that be known to Elder Ellis, and he seemed surprised that Kellen would offer.

That gave Rhys a chance to brag about Kellen’s cooking, and even Sergei had praises to sing about Kellen’s food. That started a quiet argument between Rhys and Sergei that Kellen had to break up. It did not matter who got to try Kellen’s food first. If that was the battle they were having, they would lose every time against Kellen’s family, and Brent.

That put them both in their places, even if they were grumbling like children about it.

Kellen was actually quite impressed with how well the meeting had gone. Rhys explained to Kellen that this wasn’t the norm, either. Normally they were tackling far more abstract concepts so that tended to get everyone worked up. When it was a topic that was this cut and dry, there wasn’t a lot to bicker about once some of the more gruesome facts came to be known.

Did it bother Kellen a lot that some people didn’t view the mass murder that the E.A.G. were doing as a problem? Yeah, it did, but then again, maybe the Espers who weren’t as opposed were used to facing death and dying a lot? Maybe they didn’t hold life with the same kind of value as Kellen did?

After all, lots of Espers dealt with far more dangerous gates than what Kellen, Sergei and Rhys had on their front lines. Outside of the poison gate, it was a big deal that Sergei got possession of the stabilized gate that they did. It had made the news in their city, but lots of front lines had plenty of B Class and A Class gates. They were just on the smaller side, and had the looming threat of the surrounding area as well.

Kellen was trying to be understanding, trying to put himself in their shoes. He also used to work in the field of saving lives. Still did when he decided to move into town, but on a much lower scale. Kellen was the man that people called in to do the impossible. Very rarely had someone died on his watch, and if they did, it was because of something that he truly could not prevent.

Kellen wondered what it did to a person if they kept having to deal with those situations, over and over, and felt a deep pang of sympathy in his chest. Okay, so if the world felt helpless and terrible, no wonder you were going to not bat an eye when you found out that a group was killing people. Kellen might not be able to understand where they were coming from, but in this hypothetical, he did.

The world was a terrible place, and you needed someone to blame. So, you blamed Guides. An easy group to pick on because they are weaker than Espers, sometimes weaker than civilians, and usually look soft and well-loved. Even if that isn’t the case, an outsider might not know that.

So, you turned a blind eye. Let it happen because while you might not consider that it’s right, you feel that they are justified in their anger. Until you find out that the group you might have agreed with has been experimenting with children. You’re no saint, so you know what guiding could mean, and you grow sick to your stomach.

Your beliefs, your faith, shifts. You might not agree that Guides are the end all and be all, but you know one thing. Children aren’t supposed to be treated that way. Aren’t supposed to be abused.

If Kellen thought that way, or thought that was the way some of the Espers in the group here thought, he could potentially put himself in their shoes. He didn’t agree with them fully, feeling that they should have been angry from the get go, but hey, he wasn’t an Esper. Not really. He was just...Kellen, and he didn’t like when people were hurt.

He didn’t like when people were undervalued. He didn’t like when those who needed help were denied it for no good reason and if Kellen was honest, he also liked to show off how he was able to help others too.

So, Kellen didn’t hate that the others had taken a while to come around to his side. He wasn’t showing them everything, anyways, and while they were eating was when Kellen, Rhys and Sergei began asking around to see if anyone wanted to hang around a little longer to fuck up the E.A.G.’s plans.

Kellen left the approaching to Rhys and Sergei, knowing that they had a better connection with these people then he did, but that didn’t mean he did nothing. He offered a few minutes of guiding, happy to help if they needed to take an edge off. He also listened to them, smiled, did anything he could to help out.

It worked, and by the time that the fourth session was coming to an end, Kellen, Rhys and Sergei had several willing Espers who would gladly help them give a middle finger to the E.A.G. who had fucked up their cities.

Kellen was delighted with the outcome. He just hoped that Brent was too.