The few hours that Kellen spent at the counter working away on the files he now had in his possession felt like they passed in minutes.
Part of the reason was the smiling, happy man beside him. Ever since he had sat down and got ready to work, the Captain had been extremely helpful and attentive. He got Kellen water, tea, honestly anything he needed.
As soon as food arrived, the Captain fed him so that Kellen could continue to work uninterrupted. When Kellen asked him why, he told him it was because he felt guilty for the fact that he was doing work outside of what he was hired to do.
Kellen was pretty sure that was only part of the reason. The other? The man didn’t keep his hands to himself. All the time he was helping Kellen he kept a firm, but constant touch on him. He had to make sure some part of him was touching Kellen, always making skin contact of some kind.
A part of Kellen felt like this was some kind of training, and he wouldn’t be surprised if it was. The Captain had muttered about it before. The problem for Kellen? He was growing flustered because he was pretty sure the training was working. He craved the Captain’s touch.
The work itself wasn’t difficult, just time consuming. It was mostly stuff that Kellen had done when he had worked on the front lines. At least, in the sense that it involved a lot of Guide speak, and the work wasn’t meant for a small group of Guides, and instead a whole Guild.
Looking and working through what Casper had ’given’ over, Kellen was surprised by how much work he was actually doing. It made Kellen regret not contacting his Father to look after Casper.
The damn idiot was working himself into an early grave. The worst part? The people who cared about him probably had no idea either. Casper struck Kellen as the kind of guy who kept everything close to his chest. And there was also the way the others had spoken about him when Kellen had first joined the Guild. They talked about him like he was a flaky kind of guy.
That just wasn’t possible with how much work he was doing.
"Everything okay Sweetheart?" Kellen jerked, the soft sound of the Captain’s sweet voice near his ears causing his heart to race. Kellen turned to meet the warm, yellow gaze of the man who had been carrying for him for several hours. Melting, he sighed, and shook his head.
"It’s nothing. I’m just realising Casper is a very important part of the Guild, and saying I could take over for him was pretty bold of me." Shifting on the stool he had pulled up so that he could be right beside Kellen, the Captain chuckled. He wrapped his arm around Kellen’s waist and leaned in to kiss his neck. Kellen shivered but leaned into his touch. That seemed to surprise him as he froze for a second, before relaxing into Kellen and sighing.
"Well, it might have been bold, and sexy, but I’m sure you can handle it. Are you still able to do what you wanted to do tomorrow?" He asked, curious. Kellen groaned, leaning into his touch further for comfort and the Captain relaxed further.
Clearly, he had been waiting this whole time to get permission to touch touch Kellen, and now that Kellen was leaning into his touch, he had given him the green light.
"Mostly? I originally wanted to get all of them done in one day, but now I’m going to have to break it up over two days. It’s disappointing, but not anything I can’t work around. It would be faster if I had a car, but since I-"
"What do you mean you don’t have a car? Use one of mine." Rhys interjected and Kellen blinked. He turned his gaze to the Captain, stunned.
"I-I couldn’t. You have such-" Rhys gripped Kellen’s jaw, forcing him to shut up and meet his yellow gaze at the same time. His face had fallen into another stern expression. Kellen felt he was getting that a lot recently.
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