A Soft place to land

Originally, the space that Kellen now called his own had been built as an in-law suite for when his grandmother had still been alive. After she had passed away, Kellen and Gwen had used it as a 'secret' playroom away from their parents' prying eyes.

When Kellen had left for the first time, heading out for Guide training, Kellen had given up his bedroom in the main house thinking he wasn't going to have to come back. His old room was now his Father's craft room, and he had had no desire to take away that space from him. Gwen, like the baby she was, had kept her room even after she had to move out for Esper training. When he had moved away officially to go to the front lines, his parents had moved all of his remaining things to the in-law suite since Gwen had no use for it and they weren't going to rent it out.

When Kellen finally came back, roughly 7 years later, with no place to call his own since he'd been in temporary living the whole time, his parents had insisted that he use the suite to get back on his feet. Kellen had tried to refuse it, but it resulted in his Father bursting into tears, his Mother calling him an ungrateful child, and even Gwen guilt tripped him into moving into the inlaw suite. 

Needless to say, Kellen begrudgingly moved into the suite above the garage. 

Now that Kellen had been there for a few months, he finally felt like he had settled into the space. It wasn't a large space, being only one room with a small bathroom across the hall. The bathroom only had a shower so if Kellen wanted a bath he had to go into the main house, which was a rare occurrence. As soon as you opened the door, you were greeted with the small kitchenette, and after that was the small two seater table. To your right mounted on the wall was a t.v. his parents had gifted him, saying they had just had it laying around the house and weren't going to use it anymore. In front of it were a few shelves, and a small couch that backed onto the double bed he'd gotten as soon as he got back into civilization. Kellen used a folding screen as a way to divide the bedroom from the kitchen, which worked for him. He didn't need much, especially since coming back from the front lines. He'd lived out of what felt like two duffle bags for almost seven years, having even this one room felt like a blessing. 

He'd 'picked up' some nick knacks thanks to his Dad's habit of trying to spruce up the space, and Gwen coming over like a friendly crow and dropping off shiny rocks and things she found interesting. One of the small shelves below the t.v. was already full of several shiny pebbles, polished animal bones, and one strangely designed button. He had a few books he had picked up over time, with some being so worn that he needed to tape their bindings to keep them together. His Dad had also gifted him a brand new set of cooking books, along with the utensils and appliances to go along with them. Some of them were still downstairs in the garage since he didn't have the space for them in the kitchenette, but his father had been insistent. He had told his son that there had been a deal going on at the store he'd picked them up at, and he couldn't return them. Kellen didn't want to call his Dad a liar to his face, so Kellen just shook his head and accepted the gifts. Kellen was fairly certain that half of the reason he'd forced them upon him was because his daughter was incapable of cooking, and he wanted to share his passion with at least one of his children. Kellen liked cooking, and he never wanted to hurt his Dad, so he had accepted them willingly. The $400 000 car, however, had been returned. 

Kellen sighed, letting the heavy door close behind him as he took in the space before him. The scent of his Mom's incense still floated in the air, and he knew he'd be smelling it for days. It was always the case when the two of them came to visit. He didn't hate the scent, but it felt so distinctly like his Mom that he couldn't associate it with anything else. He had only ever burnt the supply his Mother had sent him on the front lines when he had truly missed home. The scent had sometimes clung to him as he headed inside of gates, and it was the closest he would get to feeling the hug of his parents while there. 

Kellen was in slight disbelief that as soon as he finally decided to settle down, build a stable base for himself and lay roots, that the rug was pulled out from under his feet. He also was having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that the one who was doing all of this was Captain Rhys Thatcher, a man, an Esper, that Kellen had been trying to avoid ever since he met him on the front lines over seven years ago. He'd only been a fresh faced Captain at the time, but it hadn't diminished any of his authority. He'd been powerful, compelling, and incredibly handsome. Kellen had worried that the Captain wouldn't have associated with such a low Class Guide, but instead, the Captain had treated everyone he interacted with as an equal. It had been refreshing, and in a way, Kellen felt like they had grown together. Kellen was fairly certain the Captain was several years older than him. Maybe five? And Kellen had met him when he'd just come out of the Guide Academy, fresh faced, a chip on his shoulder, and a desire to prove himself. Kellen knew he must have done or said stupid things in front of the older man, but thankfully he couldn't remember them in detail. He hoped he never remembered them. 

Kellen chuckled. Given how the Captain had behaved today, he had a feeling that when he went to sign his formal contract tomorrow that there would be a clause stating he had to move into the Saturn Guild tower. For safety, of course. Kellen, having only witnessed that kind of possessiveness from afar thus far, wasn't sure how he felt about it. He knew that he probably should be more concerned about that kind of behaviour than he was though. As much as he had built this space to be his safe haven, he hadn't been here for long. Even with Captain's pitiful excuse of safety, Kellen wasn't opposed to moving again. He assumed that if he didn't have to take his own bed and furniture it would be provided, and given the shoes and uniform that they had provided him already, he wondered what quality they would be. 

Speaking of the uniform, Kellen placed the bag containing the empty shoe box and folded uniform down on his small kitchen table before pulling off the Captain's jacket and hanging it on the set of hooks beside the door. Kellen hadn't even used them for his own clothes yet, and found it slightly humourous that the Captain's jacket was the first thing to hang there. He methodically took off the shoes, lining them up against the wall next to his other shoes. Then, he proceeded to remove his work clothes, or, former work clothes. He'd have to stop by Guiding Center B at some point to pick up the few belongings he'd left there, but it was mostly books so he wasn't terribly worried about it.

He shuffled towards the small cloth bag he used to store dirty clothes before opening the drawers underneath his bed where he stored his clean clothes. Pulling out a pair of black sweatpants and a black t shirt, he dressed himself before pulling on his house slippers. Once done, he pulled up a food ordering app to order in. The amount of food he was about to order for one person would probably surprise a normal person. But a Guide wouldn't bat an eye. 

Guides, like Espers, had a cost to their powers.

For Espers, it was their mental stability. If left for too long, the Esper could go crazy and harm others around them. The next step would be a power surge, and after that, if left to go into a full surge state, they would explode. Like a bomb. The higher the Class, the more devastating the destruction was.

Guides were the exact opposite. There wasn't a direct link between a Guides physical appearance and their powers, but at some point the two did cross. A Guide who was too skinny was at risk of hurting themselves, since guiding Espers consumed energy along with their powers. A Guide who was bigger, or had a lot of muscle, had more energy for guiding. Hypothetically, if a Guide was supplied with an endless amount of 'energy' or calories, they could guide continuously. That was only a hypothetical though. There was a punishment for if a Guide went past a certain threshold, and there was a reason there were strict rules in place when it came to the actual guiding process. The usual guiding session was 15 minutes, sometimes 20. In the rare cases where it was a very dangerous Esper, the most you would guide was 30 minutes. Any longer and the Guide would suffer whiplash. Kellen had the displeasure of experiencing it a few times before on the front lines and it was agonizing. Enough so that he did everything in his willpower to avoid it if he could. 

But that was also why it was dangerous if Guides didn't take care of themselves. If they didn't eat enough calories during a day to maintain their body, they could literally whittle themselves away. If a Guide used too much of their powers too quickly they could outright starve themselves to death. Any Guide who was active duty felt no hunger, but also never felt full either. It was a rather strange experience, since Kellen remembered what he felt like before he awakened as a Guide, but he didn't miss the feelings anymore. 

Finishing up his order, Kellen put the kettle on and went about relaxing as he was ordered to. He took out the new Guide uniform from the bag and straightened it out, making sure there weren't any creases and that there were no wrinkles. After the kettle popped, he made himself a cup of tea. Then, he sat down on his couch to relax for a few minutes while he waited for his food to arrive. He turned on the news to find out what had happened in the world while he had been at work. 

"Good evening. We come to you tonight live with the news of a new gate opening up on the front lines. Currently, the gate is measured as a B class gate, but with the power levels still fluctuating officials say it could end up being an A class gate by the end of tomorrow. Until an official scout party can go into the gate, we will not know if this is a fluctuating gate, or a stable gate until then. The top three guilds in the country are vying for the access rights to such a dangerous, but lucrative gate as we speak, with the Saturn Guild having the highest probability of gaining the rights. Currently, the three Captains of the Saturn Guild, Nemesis Guild, and Peach Guild are meeting behind closed doors with the D.E.C. to negotiate further. We will keep you up to date with any further knowledge as it breaks."

Surprised, Kellen found himself leaning forward in his seat. It had been ages since a new gate had opened on the front lines. The last one had only been a C Class gate. Kellen said only a C Class gate, but the resources they were able to pull from that gate were immeasurable. From precious metals to food supplies and lumber, whoever had the rights to any gate, fluctuating or stable, made a huge amount of money and also had more bargaining chips when it came to dealing with the government. He didn't know how the deals were cut, but he did know that about 40% of any given gate had to go to the respective government/country it was found in. The rest went to the guild. Almost every technological breakthrough came from the gates, so this was a big deal that a gate had been formed that could potentially be A Class. Especially on the front lines. But, A Class meant it came with A Class dangers. C Class monsters were still very dangerous, but things like dragons from myth could spawn in A Class gates. If you didn't have a wind or flying type Esper with you in those circumstances it could get very tricky to deal with them. 

The newscaster carried on.

"On the topic of the Saturn Guild, Captain Rhys Thatcher was spotted at The Center this morning which we assumed was to speak to the D.E.C. about the newfound gate, but shortly after entering the building, he was found carrying out an unconscious young man, appearing to be wearing the uniform of Guiding Center B. Currently, we have no more details about this situation, but this is the first time we've seen the Captain of the Saturn Guild around a Guide. This could be in relation to the incident that happened at Guiding Center B yesterday, but without more details, there is only speculation. We will keep you up to date on this situation." Kellen felt the blood leave his face at those words. The Captain had carried him out of the front fucking doors without covering Kellen's face? At least the news had the decency to blur his face, even if it was tucked against the Captain's chest. He was clearly advertising to others that he belonged to the Captain. It only made Kellen more angry that the man had put up such a fight as soon as Kellen brought up the match results. 

The doorbell for downstairs rang and Kellen paused the program to retrieve the food. He set the coffee table with the food before he continued the broadcast. 

The rest of the news was about the new recruitment of Espers. Twice a year the guilds and the D.E.C. put out recruitment games where the Espers got to show off their powers with hopes to get scouted. Gwen was currently participating in these games which was also why she had no idea what had happened over the last two days. Tomorrow was the wrap up day of the games, and it looked like Gwen was a major contender to get into the Saturn Guild. Kellen wasn't surprised in the slightest. She could have had her selection of any of the guilds around the world, but she really liked how the Saturn Guild treated fellow Espers. That, and he might have thought that she was jealous of how much time he'd spent on the front lines and how much praise he had gotten from his parents for it. With the invisibility powers she had inherited from their mother, Gwen knew she was a rare Esper. Kellen knew of only ten other Espers in the whole world who had the same powers, and only his mother and sister were A Class. Given the loop Kellen had been thrown today, he wondered briefly if Gwen had the potential to grow into an S Class, but shot that down. He didn't want to wish insanity on his baby sister. 

Food consumed, a wave of tiredness washed over the Guide. He checked his phone to see if he had any messages, and wasn't surprised when nothing showed up on the screen. Like a good older brother, he sent a good luck message for Gwen, knowing full well she had no access to the outside world until after the games wrapped up tomorrow. Kellen took off his slippers and crawled into the soft bed. He wasn't going to test himself, and he knew he was exhausted. He was certain that if he saw Taylor or Casper tomorrow and he didn't look even half as healthy that he'd get torn into. Plus, Kellen wanted to celebrate getting into the same Guild as his sister, not get torn a new one for misbehavior.