Always an observant Guide

"Kellen! I never thought you would attack me this way. That actually hurt." Her big brown eyes were wide, her bottom lip was wobbling, and Kellen felt the Captain shake with his laughter. Kellen shrugged. 

"Why are you so surprised? Do you know how many times I had to cover for you because you were up to no good? Because you were somewhere with someone you shouldn't be? I only did it at the time because covering for you was easier to deal with then the blowout, like when you and the Captain fought three years ago. it always put you and others out for longer then if I covered for you, so yes, I do get to call some pot shots, thank you." Hill's face slowly fell from her playful expression into one of dawning horror. The Captain's shoulders shook more. "Honestly, if I told you how many times I covered for you, you would be kissing my feet Hill." She looked like she had taken a serious blow. 

"I thought I was always careful." She said carefully and Kellen sighed. He subtly adjusted himself against the Captain without a thought. He'd had his hand on the Captain's chest, but changed his hand position, raising it and splaying his fingers until they basically cupped the Captain's pec. The Captain for his part, said nothing, and behaved as if this was completely normal behavior for Kellen. Casper and Gunther, however, shared a look. 

"Hill, you have to remember what my job is on the front lines. It is my job to keep an eyes out for things Espers wouldn't even think about. There was a reason I was in high demand, along with other good Field Guides. My partner, Brent, was the same way. I bet if you asked any Field Guide around you from the front lines they would be able to tell you the when, where, who, how and for how long." Her fingers shook as she covered her mouth, her eyes wide in horror. 

"You know that much about me? Wait, you've known that much about me for a long time?" She seemed even more horrified when Kellen nodded calmly. "You could have ruined me." She whispered and Kellen's lips turned up in a smirk. He shot her a finger gun with his free hand, winking at her. 

"Yeah, but I never did. You're lucky, it's too late now to collapse the Saturn Guild with any information I have. It wouldn't benefit me to do that anymore. All your stats and secrets are safe with me." Kellen sealed his lips and threw away a fake key, his blue eyes sparkling with mischief. Hill, for her part, nearly stumbled to the Captain's side, gripping onto his forearm, her eyes desperate. 

"Never, ever let him leave. Do not piss him off. I cannot choose any other side but his, Captain." Hill warned her Captain, who only seemed to laugh in response. He wrapped an arm loosely around the Guide next to him, chuckling. 

"I'll keep that in mind. Currently I have no plans to make my Guide truly angry at me." Surprise filled Kellen. He turned his gaze up towards the grinning Captain. 

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He demanded and the Captain chuckled. His grip on Kellen tightened slightly. 

"Well, I'm hoping any fights we do get into aren't huge, maybe something small that we can get over in an afternoon?" He told Kellen confidently, even as his grip on the Guide tightened. Stunned, Kellen turned so that he was fully facing him in his embrace, his hand still on his pec. He stared into the yellow gaze of the Captain, noticing the small shift around his eyes. He seemed to grow nervous the longer Kellen stared at him without saying anything. 

"That isn't something you can control Captain. You don't know that." The Captain reached up, cupping the Guide's face with his hand. 

"It is if I know I'm the one who is going to start them." Kellen made a face at the Captain's words. He sounded so sure he was going to be the problem in this pair, as if Kellen shat roses. That wasn't the case. Kellen already had caused problems with their pair, and the Captain was outright ignoring that. He did not like the implied imbalance in their pair already. 

"What if I start a fight, hmm? What if I'm the one always causing problems? Saying that I'm never going to say or do something stupid is unrealistic. I'm human too." He told him, but the Captain smiled down at him. His fingers gently stroked Kellen's skin where he held his face. The touch was slightly ticklish, and made Kellen frown. 

"Mr. Woods, it would not take much for me to forgive you. As long as whatever you said or did didn't endanger you. That's the one thing I will never forgive." He huffed, annoyed.

"What if...I bleached all of your clothes? Threw everything in your house in a fit of rage?" The Captain's eyes smiled at Kellen's examples. He was sure the younger man didn't realise that they were examples an angry romantic partner did, but he wasn't going to inform him right now. 

"I would take to wearing white uniforms, and I would check to make sure your hands were okay first before I replaced everything inside." Kellen's face crinkled in annoyance at the Captain's calm attitude. 

"What if I behaved like a brat and threw a tantrum because I didn't get a contract? What if I destroyed something important to a mission? What if I jeopardized the whole mission? You are giving me too much leeway Captain." Kellen was clearly scolding the Captain while still in his embrace.

Hill, who had been worried about what Kellen would do to her, was stunned at the behaviour of the Captain. Yes, she had seen the Captain over the last few days and noticed the change in him, but this was the first time she'd seen what the new Captain was like. His edges, which had been sharp before had softened. Before the Captain of the Saturn Guild had been what everyone had wanted him to be. Stoic, quiet, a power whenever he walked into the room. Exactly like the man who had been on t.v. only a few days ago while declaring his picks from the Esper games. Now, Captain Rhys Thatcher was clearly just a man in love. A man in love with a man who had no idea, truly, how much power he held here. Hill knew some of the things the Captain had fought against in his time on the front lines, and none of them had to do with the gates. She wondered if there was ever going to be a time when she could tell Kellen those moments, if he'd ever be ready to hear them. Given the argument they were having right now, she decided that it was too soon, and went back to enjoying watching this unfold. 

"Mr. Woods, I'm hurt. You seem to underestimate how long I've had a crush on you." Flustered, Kellen went to open his mouth to respond, but closed it instead. He turned his face away from the teasing yellow gaze before him, looking out across the empty sparring arena. He broke the contact the Captain had on his cheek. He hadn't expected that response from him. 

"A-A crush?" He stuttered and the Captain wrapped his now free arm around Kellen, pulling him tighter against him. Casper and Gunther decided to leave the two flirting men alone, while Hill went to speak with the younger Espers, going over a quick review of the fight with the Captain. 

"I thought I made that very clear, Mr. Woods? I've had my eye on you for quite some time." Kellen turned his gaze back towards the Esper. 

"Captain, there is a huge difference between saying you have a crush on someone and saying you have your eye on them. Under normal circumstances, we are an Esper and Guide first. People are always scouting Guides. I assumed when you said you'd had an interest in me in the past that you were speaking in a scouting sense." Kellen had lowered his voice, not forgetting that he had others around him with large ears. The Captain smirked, bending his head forward to respond. His lips brushed Kellen's ears, distracting the Guide from understanding what he had spoken for a brief second. 

"That isn't the impression you gave last night, Mr. Woods." Hill's mouth fell open as Kellen could feel his ears turn red. His sister was here! Kellen pushed at the Captain's chest, forcing the grinning Captain to release him. 

"That and this are two different things!" Kellen knew he had raised his voice, giving the exact reaction the Captain probably wanted, but that was too much. Gunther and Hill were laughing now, while the other Espers had slightly red cheeks. Gwen however, was watching them with a thoughtful look on her face, no doubt planning what she would say to their parents. Casper was busy working away on his data pad with a frown on his face. 

"I feel like I missed out on something yesterday." He said quietly and Gunther placed his hand on the other lieutenant's shoulder. 

"I'll give you a debrief later, Cas." Gunther squeezed his shoulder and Casper nodded. Hill finished speaking to the other Espers and joined the other two. 

"You need to get going, right? I'll join you. I actually have a scheduled guiding session that I need to get to. It was the only reason I was willing to go against the Captain." The three said goodbye to each other, Gunther staying behind while the only pair in the upper power structure continued to have a stare off.

It was clear that something had happened yesterday between them, but only Gunther and Hill had seen the scratch marks that decorated the Captain's back. Given who Kellen was as a person, neither of them had said anything in the change room when they had seen it. Both having planned to rib the two about it later. From how the two were behaving now, in the open compared to yesterday, something juicy had happened. They also hadn't forgotten Kellen's behaviour as the night had continued yesterday either. Kellen, whether he was aware of it or not, was very hands on with the Captain. More so than the Captain was. While he had been drinking he had groped, prodded, and squeezed the Captain, but particularly his chest, arms, and thighs. The Captain had been beaming the whole night, even as his face had flushed and Kellen hadn't noticed. Honestly, it wasn't the lack of beers that had made Hill and Gunther want to leave, it was that they knew Kellen wouldn't have wanted them to witness him groping the man with witnesses. 

Gunther clapped his hands. 

"Alright you wimps! You saw that fight, got a run down from Lieutenant Hill, and have had time to process. Now, it's time to get you to 0.05% of that! Come on, you know the drill, get to your stretches!" The Captain's eyes left Kellen's face to observe the young Espers moving around while Gunther got the days plan started. Thoughtlessly, he pushed his hair out of his face again, before glancing down at the Guide before him. Kellen still was flushed, his heart still racing, but even the Captain could tell he was calming down. The Captain stepped closer to him, creating a small, intimate bubble. 

"Are you going to be mad at me for my behaviour for a while, Mr. Woods?" He asked softly and Kellen gulped. He was covered in sweat, his t-shirt clung to his body like a second skin, outlining his muscles. His yellow eyes watched Kellen's face intently as the Guide scanned his body, and Kellen was kicking himself for only remembering the Captain's body in foggy memories from last night. 

Surprised that at that thought, Kellen ruminated on what that meant for a moment before deciding that he didn't care what the said about him. So what if he found the Captain attractive? He was an attractive man. Anyone would find a chiseled man, dripping wet with his own sweat attractive, especially if they looked at him the way the Captain did. He didn't care what finding the Captain attractive said about his feelings towards the Captain. They were going to get intimate at some point in the future, it wasn't a bad thing that he found his pair attractive. If anything, it was a bonus. It would make the time they spent together enjoyable and an easier job. 

"Mr. Woods?" Captain prompted, shaking Kellen out of his thoughts. Kellen cleared his throat, glancing away from him. 

"I'm not mad. I'm just confused about it." Kellen admitted and the Captain sighed. He stared down at this man in front of him, surprised. 

"You really have a hard tome understanding that I like you, don't you?" The Captain sounded stunned, while Kellen shuffled nervously. "What do I have to do to prove it to you?" He muttered, and Kellen didn't have an answer for him. He sighed. "Well, it will be a difficult task, but I guess I just have to shower you with enough affection that at some point I wear you down enough that it gets through that thick skull of yours." Stunned as the Captain raised a bright smile in Kellen's direction, Kellen felt his face heat. The Captain laughed at his expression before poking his nose. "You look shocked, Mr. Woods, but you should know better than anyone that I am tenacious. I always get what I want." His cocky Esper attitude was in full force and Kellen frowned at him, rubbing his nose. 

"Don't poke my nose, Captain. And I'm not a thing you can get." He nodded at his sharp words. 

"You're right. I have to earn you." 

"Well, it was nice talking to you Captain, but I do need to get back to work." Kellen kept his tone neutral, but his flaming cheeks gave him away. He adjusted the two bags on his shoulder and the Captain shook his head, smiling. 

"Ah, of course Mr. Woods. I have to attend a meeting short, so shall we push our guiding session to the afternoon?" He asked. Kellen paused in his rush to leave, before he turned and grabbed the Captain's hand. The Captain stared at him in surprise as Kellen checked the Captain's condition. Kellen wasn't able to see percentages like some Guides could, but he could get a general feeling of where an Esper's level was. He was surprised by how much power the Captain had used in comparison to where he was yesterday, but he should be okay until their session in the afternoon. Kellen nodded, letting go of the Captain's hand easily. 

"Alright, that sounds good. Right after lunch?" He asked and the Captain thought for a moment. 

"I can make that work. How about I come pick you up from your office instead of you going to the medical bay? Unless you want to hang out with Green, in which case, let me know." Kellen gave him a confused look. 

"I don't have your phone number. How will I let you know?" He grinned. 

"You should check your phone again, then." The Captain spun and headed for the direction of the personal training rooms. "I'll see you then. Mr. Woods." He called over his shoulder with a wave. Kellen turned and headed for the door, checking to see if he could catch a glimpse of his sister before he left. He couldn't see her, so he left without saying goodbye and headed for his office, the field office.