(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 138

Chapter 138: All eyes on me

"So? Are you excited?" Gwen asked, more of Brent, then Kellen. She already knew that answer.

"I’m excited to see what happens." He responded, a slight smile on his lips, but his body was still a little stiff. Gwen smiled at her brother.

"They wanted to take sibling photos of us first before we did our individual shoots. Cool, huh?" Kellen gave her a nervous nod and she smacked his back, bouncing back with a grin as Kellen winced internally at the strength of her arm. "Oh, stop being such a worry wart! You’ve always been like this. You’ll do great." She grinned at her handsome brother, while he seemed more concerned with something else.

He was watching Brent, and how Brent was watching his sister. As far as he knew, Casper was in charge of Gwen’s guiding, even though Brent had taken on a bulk of the new recruits, both classes. It had been intentional. Brent had flat out refused to guide her behind closed doors, and Kellen didn’t know if that was out of fear of what he would do, what Kellen would do to him, or what Gwen would do. All were plausible excuses.

"You know I’m not good with flashing cameras." Kellen said. Gwen rolled her eyes at him.

"You’re a fucking liar. You just hate how you like them too much." His cheeks flushed as Gwen grinned at her older brother. She glanced at Brent. "Dad did a photo shoot with Kellen when he was a kid, and he was amazing. Dad sent the photos off to some magazine for kids and they got selected and put into the magazine. There was a time when Kellen almost became a model, but some kids bullied him about it at school and ever since he pretends he hates cameras. He gets all nervous, wipes his hands on his pants, and then fucking kills it. You could tell by the press conferences too. The man looooooooooves attention." Brent wrapped his arm around Kellen’s shoulder, pulling him close.

"Awe, don’t tease him too much. Our little Kellen will get all embarrassed and try to run and hide." Both of them made noises at Kellen reminiscent of a child sucking on a pacifier, trying to embarrass him. It worked, and Kellen felt his face heat in anger as well. He clenched his hand, shoving Brent’s arm off of himself. He was about to defend himself, when the photographer called out to them.

"Alright, Woods siblings, your turn!" The photographer waved at Gwen and Kellen, and Gwen pranced over without a glance back.

Taking a deep breath, Kellen glanced over at where Hill and the Captain were, and found both of them still engrossed in whatever they were working on. That familiar twinge acted up in his chest, and he cleared his throat. He made his way to where Gwen was, all giddy and big smiles. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and the others were also smiling just as wide.

"Alright, so the directions are simple. We’ll ask you to get into a couple of poses, but if you’re unsure what we mean, don’t be afraid to ask. Right now, you two are a big, happy family, so we’re going to get a couple close shots of you two. Alright?" Kellen and Gwen nodded, with differing levels of enthusiasm.

They then proceeded to boss the two of them around. They did shots with Kellen and Gwen having their arms around each other’s shoulders, standing back to back holding fake guns, sitting down with their jackets open, glaring at the camera, making silly faces at each other, winking at the camera, and several other poses.

Finally, after much chattering, they were done with the sibling photos. They then brought Brent in so that the two of them could do photos of the two new Guides. These photos were similar, but slightly different. Lots of interchangeable positions, like Kellen having his jacket off but holding it over his shoulder, and Brent doing it in the next set. Lots of similar poses, but there was a more tense expression. Kellen and Brent looked serious, instead of like siblings.

Except for one. It was an accidental photo, where Brent was supposed to be slightly taller then Kellen, but he tripped getting onto the box. Kellen caught him, and given the seriousness of the situation, it broke the tension and the two laughed, Kellen holding Brent in his arms. The photographer had snapped a photo of that, and said it turned out well.

"Kellen, you’re next." Pamela’s voice held a particular tone to it, and nervous, Kellen approached as they cleaned up. Brent patted his shoulder as he passed him, giving Kellen a thumbs up in encouragement. Kellen appreciated it, but he was no Brent.

They started with semi normal poses, but slowly he felt them devolving into the exact same poses Brent had been doing. They tried to get him to do the winking and smirking, but Kellen was too nervous to be able to get his face to move in the same way.

At one point, the photographer pulled Pamela aside to have a chat with her, and after about five minutes of what seemed to be a rather serious conversation, they pivoted.

They started doing more shots of his face in the shadows, hiding his expression. Focusing more on his abs and pecs, instead of his face. It made the shoot go easier for him. Finally, he was doing the exact same pose that Brent had done as his finisher, and Kellen was beginning to feel relief. Then, he heard Pamela raise her voice.

"Captain Thatcher, come over here." Stunned, Kellen looked up, his eyes easily finding the Captain even as the lights shone on his face. The Captain had been looking down at his phone, typing away a response to an email or text, when he jerked up, surprised.

"You want some photos with the both of us? It’s been quite some time since I’ve taken photos, Pamela." The Captain’s little smirk along with his words did something to his gut. Kellen clenched his hands tightly against the edge of the metal chair he was still sitting in, before releasing it. Thankful for the fact he wasn’t an Esper, otherwise the chair could have broken.

"Oh, don’t pretend you aren’t dying to get your hands all over Kellen with the excuse of taking photos with him. Get over here." Her voice was teasing, but firm. The Captain sighed as if greatly put upon, before smiling and making his way over. Kellen felt his whole body tremble. He hadn’t done anything besides holding his hand for over two weeks. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to handle this.