(BL) Taming the Field Guide

The meeting that was called the next morning saw everyone there. Kellen and Rhys, Brent and Sergei, Kellen’s parents, along with most of the Lieutenants, Aunt Dina, and the S Class Espers that had stayed around at the request of Rhys, Sergei, and now Brent.

The mood outside was fittingly bleak. The rain blanketed the city, fogging everything out in heavy clouds. It felt like they were staring out into a gate and not an overly-populated safe city when Kellen stood near the window.

He was glad that they were tinted for Brent’s safety, but as everyone gathered into the conference room, Kellen could tell that everyone could feel how serious this conversation would be. While yesterday had been more about learning what was going on, today would be truly planning out who would do what, or, conversely, if Espers had spoken to their people and Guides and were told they shouldn’t participate, then backing out.

However, Kellen was surprised to find that none of the Espers who had decided to join them and listen in on what Brent had to say were backing out. He thought that some of them might have come with them just to hear the whole story because Espers were nosy. He was glad that wasn’t the case. While Kellen himself hadn’t had to deal with what Brent and the others had dealt with so far, he had a feeling that he would be able to know that shortly.

Kellen and Rhys had been lucky that they’d had as much freedom that they did when they got here. Hell, Kellen got to ask Rhys to be his fiancé and future husband while they were here. It was only a matter of time that the bad folks realised that Kellen and Rhys were here. And that they were going to wreck whatever they had put into place year after year.

"Miserable day, isn’t it?" Brent joked as he came to stand beside Kellen. Kellen glanced in his direction for a moment, chuckled, and then turned back to the window.

"I think it suits the day, don’t you?" Kellen asked. Brent chuckled as well, both Guides wearing light, casual clothing that would be easy to move in if something happened.

"Only you would think so." Brent replied, but his lips were pulled up in a smirk. He had his hand shoved into his pocket, his stance relaxed. Kellen had his arms crossed. "Nice hickies, by the way." Brent said dryly and Kellen slid his eye to Brent’s body. It wasn’t like he could say much.

"I saw what Sergei looked like. I feel you can’t say much." Kellen shot back. Brent snorted.

"And you’re being very subtle with having Rhys wear a turtleneck. What are you, an S Class?" Brent asked. There was a tense, heavy pause before they both snorted and started laughing. The others who had been in a small group chatting while they were waiting for the others to trickle in glanced over at the laughing Guides, but only smiled as they saw them devolve into laughter.

Someone should be laughing today, and if it was anyone, it should be them.

Shortly after their exchange, Aunt Dina called the meeting officially. That meant that both Brent and Kellen had to find their seats, near each other anyways, and the meeting began.

It was not a round circle meeting like the S Class meeting had been, and while Elder Ellis sat at the table with them, he made no comment about it. He had a more severe look on his face today, looking to be around the same age as his parents now compared to what he had looked like at the meeting. He’d looked older, but now being around older Espers? It was clear.

Aunt Dina was locked in. She was explaining the logistics, what they needed to do, who they were calling as the press for the meeting, where, everything. She even went over the positions that would need to be covered, the preferred Esper types that they would like there, everything. Aunt Dina was showing her capabilities today and Kellen felt a surge of pride.

It was silly, he knew that. She’d been a capable Captain for decades, but she’d be the first one to admit she’d been a little off recently. For very good reasons, of course, and he was just glad to see that she was recovering, even a little. It wasn’t as if he liked being the bad guy in her story, he just did it for her sake.

Rhys’ arm around Kellen’s shoulder never left throughout the meeting. Kellen would have thought he was marking his territory if he wasn’t so relaxed. Kellen even noticed how Sergei had his hand on Brent’s thigh the whole meeting as well. Kellen found that his eyes were wandering around the table during the meeting and picking up on the little ways that the other Espers were casually holding onto their own Guides, and how some of the Guides were the ’possessive’ ones.

That was one thing that was nice to see. Guides. Kellen hadn’t seen a lot of them, and it was Uncle Parker who had explained that it was going to be a good sign if they saw the other Esper’s Guides with them. Especially if they had traveled with them to the city. There was a high chance they were going to ask them to protect them while they helped them and to have them at the meeting was a good sign.

Unlike Kellen and Brent, Guides here for the past decade had been hidden and tucked away for their own safety. Hits had been called on all types of Guides, seemingly without much care. They were babied a lot more than Kellen or Brent were used to. Or, what Kellen was used to.

Brent hadn’t been babied because his family had wanted him dead. That and what Kellen went through weren’t the same thing.

Either way, Kellen was glad to see that there was some level of trust amongst the group and that things appeared to be going well. Espers volunteered for positions, asked questions, and because Aunt Dina and her team had been involved with this situation from the beginning, she took over the answering part.

There were a couple of times where she hesitated, but Rhys would speak up then. He was the ’authority’ and while it killed Kellen to not be able to speak up as the other force who knew what would happen, he respected everyone’s wish to keep it a secret. It annoyed him, but he respected it.

~

Lunch came and passed, and thankfully it was only a short hour later that the meeting adjourned with most of the details having been hammered out. Certain Lieutenants were assigned to be in charge of certain parts, with Sergei being in charge of Brent, and Uncle Parker being assigned to Kellen.

That seemed to surprise a few of the Espers at the table, even Elder Ellis. They thought for sure that Kellen and his role would have been assigned to Rhys. However, Uncle Parker was a Darkness Esper, and Kellen would have thought it would be between Kellen’s Mom and Uncle Parker who would be in charge of his role.

Rhys, however, didn’t show any anger at the assignment. That meant that Aunt Dina had probably spoken to him about it. When? There were a couple of times when Kellen hadn’t been paying attention, like at the beginning of the meeting when they had been waiting for the others to arrive. She could have mentioned it then, and besides, Rhys had his own important role as well.

He was going to be the first one to speak and declare war on the E.A.G. before Brent even spoke. He was going to take on the blame, the confusion from a city he’d just stepped into with a smile. It was his job to look handsome and threatening at the same time, so who better than Rhys to do it?

It had been a while, but Kellen forgot that Rhys was scary to people. His eyes were traditionally the colour of someone who was going to surge, just without the blackness that usually accompanied the startling yellow colour. Kellen had gotten so used to it that he had been a little shocked when it had been brought up in the meeting, while everyone else had been nodding their heads in agreement.

Did it worry Kellen a little bit that Rhys would essentially be Brent’s opener to a press conference that they knew was going to be life-threatening? Yeah, but he also had faith in his Esper. Kellen had survived a few near-death experiences from these fuckers so far, he wouldn’t choose a partner who wouldn’t be able to do the same.

Was that cocky of him to think? Yeah, it was, but between the two of them, Kellen was going to be hidden in the shadows. If things took a turn before Brent even got onto the stage, Kellen would be there. He would also be locked in and ready to shoot at anyone who was going to hurt his people.

"Should we pretend that I’m a camera?" Kellen asked as the group was breaking up for lunch, and then coming back together into their smaller groups to go over the finer details. The people around Kellen paused while Brent burst into laughter.

"A camera?" Brent asked, muffling his laughter with his hand. "What the fuck are you saying?" Kellen frowned, not thinking that his words were that funny.

"Well, I’ll still have my eyepatch on, I’ll be covered in black paint, and I’ll need to have one eye open to see. I’ll look more like a reflective camera lens than a human I’m hoping." Kellen pointed out. "Plus, the human mind will see what they want to see. They probably aren’t going to think that a human is hiding in the darkness of the stage. Not so boldly, at least." Kellen said.

Uncle Parker let out a low sigh while Rhys bent, pressing a kiss against Kellen’s forehead.

"I love you." Rhys told him, all sparkling yellow eyes and a deep smile. Kellen didn’t think this was a smiling time. He was being quite sincere.

"We’ll bring it up at the meeting, Kellen. For now, let’s get everyone fed, but especially the Guides. Tension in the room will be better once they are fed." Aunt Dina said and everyone appeared to nod. Kellen wanted to joke about that or poke fun at the Espers, but he knew better.

Sure, was it wrong that the Espers were hyper-focused on their Guides? Always, but they weren’t dealing with normal Espers here. They were dealing with S Class Espers, and their Guides were being targeted and murdered.

They had some rights to be a little worried about them.

"Okay." Kellen agreed easily, following the rest of the group out and down the hall. Aunt Dina had set up a buffet in one of the rooms of this floor and then opened up the room just across the hall as a place to sit and eat. Lots of the Espers were escorting their Guides through the line first, which Kellen thought was a poor idea. Guides needed to eat about twice, if not three times the amount of food as the Espers did so it should be reversed, but instincts were instincts.

Speaking of, Rhys, the damn fool, was about to do the same to Kellen. Kellen put a stop to it, fast.

"No, darling, you go first. You know I have to eat more than you do. That way, we can let everyone else go first and then you can help me carry my plates back." Kellen was not quiet with his words, making himself clear. Rhys, for his part, didn’t even blink at Kellen’s words. He just smiled, tugging Kellen along but not forcing the issue. The other Espers watched them, curious. Even the Guides were curious and Kellen realised that none of the S Class Guides were here besides him.

Huh. Tragic, but not surprising in his opinion. He was just going to have to get close to the new Guides the old fashioned way.