(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 82

Chapter 82: Hey Bestie

As much as Kellen was stressed about what he had discovered, he was still excited to see what Taylor had ready for him. He was a little jittery while heading down to the medical bay. Getting out of the elevator full of other members of the Guild, Kellen headed for her office.

Knocking on her door, Taylor hollered for him to come in and Kellen found that she wasn’t alone. Miro was in the office again, hooked up the same machine he had been hooked up to last time. Taylor had her head down and was typing away at her keyboard. Miro was blinking, his head drooping as he sat in his chair, clearly fighting sleep. He gave Kellen a sleepy nod in greeting while Taylor grinned when she looked up.

"Oh hey Bestie. So glad to see you could join us." Kellen felt his cheeks heat.

"I was really hoping you weren’t going to bring that up." Her smile didn’t dim as she spun and grabbed a small folder she had set aside behind her. She handed it over, her blue eyes shifting to green to glance over Kellen’s body. Always working, always on the clock. That was Taylor.

"I absolutely will not. I am not going to drop it. I am never going to drop it. Since I found out the truth, you better be in for a love brigade from yours truly, Bestie." She winked, her eyes fading back to blue while Kellen groaned. It was a threat, and she wasn’t one to go back on her words. She chuckled. "Now, here’s the information. I made it into a nice little spreadsheet for ya. A reminder, I will want to continue our sessions for the next week, and maybe longer. You are a new case so it’s my job to keep an eye on you. Of course, you can say no if you’d like, but I’ll make sure that the Captain wants to continue." Taylor’s smile reached her eyes and Kellen shivered. He didn’t understand why she was being this way, until he opened the file.

Glancing over the numbers and words, his head swam for a moment before everything began to click together. His eyes went wide as he stared at the spreadsheet Taylor had made. Over the last week, Kellen’s guiding had been mostly consistent. He’d been able to maintain a solid average, right around his normal rate, if not a little lower. What surprised him the most was how much the guiding cost. The simple hand holding, the most basic level of guiding, cost about 3000 calories. More than the average intake of calories for a regular human male.

Kellen’s Father ate more than that a day, but he’d been doing that for years to maintain his wife. How much was Kellen going to have to eat to maintain the Captain?

He began flipping through the papers when Taylor spoke up.

"You and the Captain haven’t done any higher level guiding yet, have you?" Her tone was professional, and Kellen fought to keep a straight face.

"No, we haven’t. I had to explain to the Captain that we wouldn’t be able to for a while, and once he understood the reason why, he was agreeable." Taylor snorted.

"Oh, so what you’re not saying is that you’ve gone further, but without guiding. Good. You should enjoy yourself." Kellen glanced away from the papers to shoot her a glare, but the way his face heated took some of the bite away from it. Taylor grinned, spinning in her chair slightly.

Kellen couldn’t argue with her. Sure, the two of them hadn’t gone as far as he was pretty sure everyone assumed, but they had done...things. The weekend was a good example of some of them. But from Taylor’s expression, and from how others talked about him, it seemed like everyone thought that the Captain was a sex-crazed maniac. Kellen wasn’t sure if that was because he was an S Class Esper, and most S Classes had the ’crazy’ title, or if it was because he actually was a maniac, but was being gentle with Kellen. Kellen wasn’t sure what he wanted the truth to be.

"Taylor, I had side effects. There were going to be some things we couldn’t avoid." He sniffed, while Taylor chuckled at the colour he was turning. Kellen turned his attention back to the papers, once more looking over the results. She had estimated that he should be eating between 10 000-12 000 calories a day to maintain his body weight and build up stores for excess energy. The reason being that higher level guiding was going to cost....it was going to cost.... "Taylor, is this true?" He asked, surprised at the numbers before him. Taylor sighed. _{ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com}

"Well, it’s not like I was going to ask if I could monitor you two while you did higher level guiding. I’m not a pervert. So those numbers are just assumptions based on what I’ve found through the first week." She told him, and Kellen could feel the blood draining from his face. He gulped.

"Have you thought more about my suggestion of branching out the flavours of the shakes?" He asked, and she chuckled. Her eyes were kind when she looked over her best friend. He was taking it fairly well. Most people who were faced with that kind of number would have fainted.

"What flavours would you like, Kellen?" She teased, her eyes sparkling with mischief. Kellen sighed.

"Uh, maybe something fun? Like cream soda? Or orange? Chocolate, vanilla and cookie dough are getting a tad boring, and I’m going to have to use them to supplement my diet. Unless you come up with another genius invention." Taylor shrugged.

"Unfortunately, I’ve had to put all inventions to the side to help with the gate acquisition and planning. You’d be surprised how many meetings I’ve had to do as a Healer. And so much damn paperwork." She muttered, before glancing at Miro and getting to her feet. She squeezed past Kellen and began taking Miro off of the machine. "Seems like your session is over now Miro. I’ll see you again in two days." She unplugged everything from Miro who nodded sleepily. He took off his glasses to rub his eyes, blinked a few more times before he stood up, yawning. Taylor scanned him with her eyes before she nodded, and Miro headed for the door. He paused with his hand on the door handle and turned to Kellen.

"On Saturday I’m pretty sure the Captain took me out on a date." Taylor nodded. She would have been disappointed if the Captain hadn’t taken him out on a date this weekend. "And after...I invited the Captain in for some tea." Taylor blinked, silent for a second before she gasped, and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Kellen Woods! He didn’t invite himself in, you did?" Kellen froze.

"I thought I was being polite! I didn’t expect him to-" He cut off, clamping his lips closed as Taylor lost it, laughing. She was laughing so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes. While Kellen sat, his back was stiff as a board as she laughed at him.

"Oh, fuck. This is hilarious." She turned her gaze onto Kellen, her eyes sparkling once more. "I know you have no idea why what you did turned into whatever you’re going to tell me that you and the Captain did, so I’ll explain it to you. The Captain gave you a chance to end the date where it was. He was being kind, polite. When you ask someone to come over for tea, or anything, really, you are inviting them in for...other reasons. Tea is not actually what you are offering, do you understand?" Kellen blinked at her, and Taylor sighed. "Sex, Kellen. That’s usually what you’re asking the other person in for." Kellen flushed almost immediately as his mouth hung open.

"I just wanted to have tea with him!" He protested, and Taylor laughed.

"And did you end up having tea?" She teasingly asked, knowing damn well that they had not. Kellen’s facial expression alone told her that. He refused to make eye contact with her, which only made her laugh more. "Well? Did you, Kellen?" She watched as Kellen’s lips firmed into a thin line, and that only made her laugh harder.

"No. We did not." Kellen muttered, and she shook her head.

"Did you have fun then?" She asked and Kellen had to actually think back on it. Sure, he had been upset the next day, and had torn a strip off of the Captain about it. But in the moment, had he had fun?

Kellen’s cheeks slowly turned pink, followed by his ears and neck and Taylor had her answer.