(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 397

Chapter 397: You can’t escape, Casper

It was only a little bit later that the first of the Guides started to arrive. Thankfully, Kellen had composed himself, but the Guides were surprised to see Rhys there.

Apparently, much to Kellen’s dismay, he had been in a rather important meeting with the other Captains and leaders of the city, but as soon as someone told him that Kellen was crying in the cafeteria he had dropped everything to run over. It was sweet, but that didn’t mean Kellen didn’t feel bad.

Rhys brushed off Kellen’s attempts to send him away. He wasn’t going to have it, until Kellen told him that he was actually okay. It took several minutes, and the rest of the second half of his class showing up before Kellen finally told Rhys that he was going to be okay.

Rhys then bent, kissing Kellen’s forehead, a soft smile on his face and in his yellow eyes before he left. Not without making Kellen feel like butterflies were in his stomach, and he knew his face was a little red.

He then went to get in line with the others to get food.

They chatted amongst each other, all of them excited to speak with Kellen about their issues, and their excitement, until Kellen caught sight of Casper coming into the cafeteria. He looked tired, with circles under his eyes, and he was alone.

Despite the feeling of isolation that he was getting from the other man, Kellen didn’t like seeing him alone. So, even if Casper was trying to avoid him, Kellen wasn’t going to let him this time. Plus, he knew that the other Guides would probably want to speak with him as well, and get advice from him.

So, Kellen called out to him, waving wildly so that Casper couldn’t ignore him. Casper, at first, seemed like he was going to try to avoid him, but it wasn’t going to work in his favour. Kellen wasn’t going to let him. As soon as the other Guides saw what Kellen was doing, they joined in, calling to Casper as well.

He was hooked, and Kellen could see it in his face that he knew it too. If Kellen had to turn away to hide his smile, it was no big deal. He just needed to gather his game face for a second. It was clear that as Casper approached that he didn’t want to join them. Kellen could see it in the stiff way he was walking, and the way his gaze darted to Kellen and away. He was nervous, and clearly didn’t want to see him.

Kellen didn’t really care. This was his form of care. Casper needed to eat, probably needed to socialise, and his Guides had just come back from the front lines. Casper couldn’t go around avoiding him, not for their professional relationship. It did sting that Kellen could feel the distance between them, but he wasn’t going to force Casper to be friends with him.

He was trying his best to understand that people didn’t have to be friends with him, and that if he felt another pulling away, he didn’t need to chase it. He was also learning about what that feeling was. Should he talk to Casper about it personally? Yes. Was he going to do it? Soon.

Kellen just needed to gather a bit more courage.

So, this felt like an easy step, an easy way to kill two birds with one stone. Test if Casper actually really didn’t like him anymore, while also making sure that he was getting needs met that he probably wasn’t even aware of. Kellen was, after all, a Guide still. He couldn’t fight who he was, even if someone didn’t like him.

He would take care of enemies. It was how he met Carlos after all. Kellen wasn’t about to change that part of himself. Rhys didn’t want him to.

So, Casper was roped into the line with them. All of the Guides spoke to him excitedly, including him in their conversations while Kellen spoke more closely with a few of the Guides he noticed were having a harder time. A few from this group had come back feeling...different. Kellen could tell. They weren’t as sure as the others about continuing on the front lines as Field Guides.

That was okay. Kellen wanted to hear out their concerns and make them feel heard. He understood that reality was much different than what was promised sometimes. It was why they were only doing week long stints instead of month long stints like the new recruit Espers were doing. Unlike the Guides, it wasn’t mandatory (though that was going to change soon).

Kellen could feel Casper’s gaze on him every once in a while, but when Kellen would look over at him he would jerk his gaze away. Kellen did wonder what that was about, but didn’t pay it too much attention as he focused on making sure that the Guides were eating enough to refuel after Taylor had lectured them.

His half written email to Brent was sitting on his phone, in his pocket. He’d decided that calling his Aunt was more important than work and he was glad that he had. Brent would understand. He might not have family that he spoke to often, as revealed to Kellen, but he did have family that he cared about. Hell, it was one of the reasons he was on the front lines right now.