Eventually, Kellen’s Mother did exit the room looking thoroughly chastised, and relatively calm. Kellen wondered what his Dad had said, but at the same time, preferred to never know. Some things were better left in the dark.
She closed the door behind her, her eyes closed for a long moment before she sighed, opened them, and looked around at the people waiting there for her.
"I won’t do anything rash." She finally said, and Kellen felt his whole body relax.
"Really? You mean it?" He asked, insistent and she chuckled.
"Wow. I’ve really damaged my reputation if this is how my son is behaving. Yes, Kellen, I’m not going to charge in. At least not until we have all the information, and I’m not hurting what you are planning to do. Your Dad was quite upset with me that I wasn’t being considerate of you children. I hope you’ll forgive me for my behaviour." She said, bowing her head slightly. Kellen went to move, but Gwen beat him, hugging her Mom tightly in her arms.
"Oh shut up." Gwen muttered. "I get it, I do, and I’m sure Kellen does too. We were just worried you’d do something stupid. I’m still a baby in the grand scheme of things and trying to track down someone like you would take all of my brain power." Gwen told her and their Mom laughed.
"Right. Of course. They would have to send you out to find me, wouldn’t they?" She said, a bit of a smile in her voice as she looked over her daughter. "Ugh. I can’t believe I forgot that. I can’t be putting both of you in trouble." She muttered worriedly and Kellen chuckled, his grip on his cane tight.
"Then think about your actions some more, would you? Dad’s awake now, and like those fuckers said, they aren’t going to stop. You’ll need to be around him 24/7 until we clear them out of town." Kellen’s Mom smiled at her son, her eyes still purple.
"You sound so sure that you’re going to clear them out Kellen. You need to remember, they’re in every city across the world pretty much. What do you think makes us so different?" She asked and Kellen smirked.
"Well, we’re a smaller city with more S Class Espers here then others, and I’m the most recent Class jumper. A C Class with an inclination to violence, as the public sees it. I doubt the other Guides they’ve targeted are like me, and I’m very certain of that. I’ve worked with most of the Espers who have gone to the front lines, well, as many as I could, and I have a reputation among the Guiding Centers. Plus, we have the Captain who is internationally respected and revered. We aren’t going to take their attack sitting down, we’ve just been biding our time." Kellen told her, determined. "I am not going to have some idiot with silver hair ruin my city." Casper snorted, before he bent in half and laughed.
"Don’t tell Gunther that." He choked out in between laughter and Kellen frowned, but shook his head.
"Oh hush. There was no single way that was Gunther. His hair wasn’t white enough." Kellen said, and Casper’s shoulders shook.
"Why do you know what colour Gunther’s hair is?" Rhys asked and Kellen glanced over his shoulder at him.
"Why wouldn’t I? It isn’t as if he’s the first person to come out with silver hair. Most Water Espers have a similar shade. Especially if they get higher up in Class. I have no idea why it’s a phenomenon that affects mostly Water Espers, but it’s been noted in several Guide observation journals." Kellen told him, and then he sighed. "Plus, it was clearly dyed. That wasn’t that fuckers natural shade." Kellen told him and Casper let out another snort.
"Oh, you could tell, huh?" Casper said, unable to control his laughter. Kellen didn’t know why he found it so funny, but he let the man laugh. It wouldn’t hurt him to laugh like this. It was probably a little therapeutic.
"You have wonderful observation skills, Kellen." Rhys told him, but it felt a little condescending coming from the Captain. He narrowed his eyes, turning his gaze towards him and found that his yellow gaze was dancing.
"Oh yeah?" Kellen replied tartly and Gwen and his Mom chuckled.
"Our Kellen has always been a little on the observant side. I’m glad that they aren’t someone we know." Kellen’s Mom said and Kellen came to the realisation that some of them thought it was Gunther. He was shocked.
"You can’t be serious." Kellen said, stunned and Taylor smiled at him.
"Well, Kellen, you know how Gunther behaves most times, right? He doesn’t get guiding from any of the Guides in the Guild and goes to Guiding Centers. Some would have viewed that as suspicious." Taylor told him and Kellen felt his jaw drop.
"What? You cannot be serious right now. Rhys, you didn’t believe that, right?" When Kellen met his gaze, he nodded.
"Hey, Dad was injured, and it isn’t like we haven’t seen this go a completely different way before. Don’t beat yourself up, alright? We were worried of course, but we also knew that you would come back to use eventually. So just...don’t run off, alright? I know you can do it, even if we put guards on every door, so just...let us know, okay?" Gwen’s voice was soft, quiet, and it broke a part of Kellen that she was begging her Mom not to just run off to her death without saying anything.
Clearly, it affected her Mom as well and her eyes watered. Finally, the purple faded from her eyes and she yanked her daughter in for a hug.
"Ah fuck." She muttered, squeezing her. "I won’t do that, my baby. I don’t want to leave you three behind." She told her daughter and Gwen sniffed.
"Good. Because Kellen and I will come after you if you do." She warned and Kellen shifted closer before he got yanked into the hug by his Mom.
"Gwen’s right. We’ll do it. I can at least attempt to know your patterns, and my guiding isn’t completely ineffective because I’m related to you and Dad." Kellen warned and she gave a wet laugh.
"Did you read about that in one of your Guide journals?" His Mom teased and Kellen huffed.
"Yes I did, and I also added to said journal." He said stiffly and she gave her kids a squeeze.
"God, I am so glad we had the both of you." She said, pulling away with a sparkle in her eyes. "Now, go say goodnight to your Father. He’s exhausted, but fighting to stay awake because he feels like he needs to. I’ll ask Taylor to give him some sleepy drugs after and I’ll deal with his anger about it after. You lot have more important things to do then make sure I don’t get myself killed." She told them, and Kellen wasn’t sure if he did.
Maybe making sure Rhys didn’t kill himself, but it was a three way tie between his Mom, his sister, and his pair. His Dad wouldn’t do something so foolish, so he was tied in second place with Taylor. But, he wasn’t going to say that he didn’t have other things he needed to do.
So, he leaned in, kissing his Mom on the cheek before pulling back and heading for the door. She was shocked, along with everyone else, but Kellen didn’t notice. He just pushed forward, going to say goodnight to his tired Father before he had to take care of more bullshit thrust into his lap. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: (BL) Hunting The Field Guide