Chapter 129: Truth always finds a way to come out

Kellen was letting Rhys tug him towards the conference room more than anything else. He had a feeling in his bones that if he protested this in the slightest, the man wouldn’t be able to move him, ever.

Even if he was an S Class, even if he was able to freeze time and pick him up and put him wherever he wanted, that just wasn’t going to happen. Kellen was steamed. There, he said it.

He was pissed that not only had two other men he’d never met before touched his man, they had also called him a nickname that Kellen had never heard of before, and Rhys hadn’t refused.

That was the part that was making Kellen the most upset. He wasn’t refusing the words, the names, the touches. He was allowing it. Kellen knew that he was over-emotional. They had told him in the nicest way possible, but knowing that, Rhys should also fucking know not to push him either.

Rhys’ grip was firm on Kellen’s wrist, but there was a tremor to it that Kellen couldn’t help but find amusing, and necessary. He should be scared, honestly. What the hell did he think was going to happen? Kellen would be cool with this behaviour?

Old Kellen might have, but this Kellen? He was not okay with this.

Rhys closed the door behind them carefully, like he thought that the simple, soft sound would set Kellen off, and honestly? Who was to say that it wouldn’t? Rhys tugged him into the room, bringing him over the large conference table and tugging two chairs free from underneath it. He gently pushed Kellen down into one, then sat down in the other one. The whole time he was holding onto Kellen’s hand, afraid to let go of the other man.

Kellen felt stiff, anxious and angry.

However, when Rhys forced him to look into his eyes, Rhys’ yellow gaze was full of worry and remorse.

“I’m sorry, Kellen. That was…I know that everything I am going to say right now is basically an excuse, that it’s going to sound like that to you, but I am sorry that I made you feel…jealous. Anxious. I never would have wanted that for you. At the very least, not like this.” Rhys told him, squeezing Kellen’s wrist. Kellen wanted to snarl.

“So you wanted me to feel this way?” Kellen asked and Rhys swallowed. His eyes fluttered closed for two seconds and then opened again.

“I don’t think it’s right to lie and say that I never want you to feel jealous, but I do not want you to feel jealous over these two. Never those two. They…well, let’s just say that Jules is the reason no one in the Guild freaked out when you started showing signs of having Guide and Esper powers.” Kellen felt his body jerk at that information.

“What?” Kellen asked, angry all over again. Rhys winced.

“I wasn’t trying to keep this from you. I promise I wasn’t. They were supposed to be home before the gate exploded, before the monster stampede. I called them home what feels like months ago and they delayed it over and over again. I can’t force them. They’re both S Classes. You know just as well as I do that no one can force S Classes to do what they don’t want to do.” Kellen begrudgingly agreed with Rhys.

You couldn’t force an S Class to do something they didn’t want to do. That included Guides as well as Espers. Kellen knew that Charlie just went along with what he and his family suggested because he was young and thought that they had the best intended for him. That and he’d been beaten down before this. Once he found his feet and knew that they would always have his back and that he’d have support?

Charlie was going to rebel.

Kellen knew this. He did, but that didn’t make Kellen feel better.

Kellen was the one who dropped his gaze, staring at the way that Rhys’ hand looked around Kellen’s wrist and he swallowed thickly.

“They called you Rhysie.” Kellen whispered carefully. “What the fuck is up with that?” Kellen wasn’t one for swearing. Didn’t really see the point in it in his normal day to day life. This didn’t feel like his normal day to day life, however. This felt hard. Painful. Ridiculous. He was owed a few swear words.

Rhys let out a soft exhale, his other hand coming up to cup Kellen’s cheek. Kellen couldn’t see it happen, his eye patch meaning he was unable to prepare himself, but even if he flinched, Rhys didn’t pull his hand back. Kellen leaned into the touch after the shock of it and Rhys sighed. It wasn’t soft, but a loud, long exhale.

“I’m sorry. Jules is the more stable of the two. Jax is…I met Jax at the D.E.C.” Kellen could feel Rhys hesitating and at first, since Kellen didn’t feel like himself, he thought it was because he didn’t want to tell Kellen about him. However, it was actually that he was having a hard time speaking of it. “Jax was…fucked up by the D.E.C. Not even by Tom, Kellen. Before Tom came into full power, full control of the D.E.C. Tom gave me Jax after I left, even after I left on the terms that I did. He needed…handling.” Kellen sat there with the words, letting them wash over him as he tried to process what he had just said to him.

Jax had been…fucked up by the D.E.C.? So much so that Uncle Tom had handed over an S Class Esper to Rhys? Rhys who had left, guns a-blazing from the D.E.C. to create his own Guild? Who had taken several important other members from the D.E.C. when he did so?

“What about Jules?” Kellen asked and Rhys sighed.

“They’re a package deal. Have been since I met them. Er, I guess, just as I was meeting them. There was about a 2 week period there where Jules and Jax hadn’t met, but Jax sniffed out Jules, destroyed the facility we were in, and forced the meeting between him and Jules. I had to repair it, of course. It was rather alarming to watch a water pillar come through my bedroom and continue on like I was just collateral if I was injured. Jax never apologised for it.” Rhys sounded a bit bitter about that, while Kellen sat there, staring at their hands, Rhys’ hand cupping his own cheek before he sighed.

He shook off Rhys’ grip on his wrist only to turn his hand around and interlock their fingers. Kellen could see how Rhys’ chest expanded slowly.

“So…they met at the D.E.C.? Then you took them to the Saturn Guild? What the hell do they even do here?” Kellen asked and Rhys gave a soft laugh.

“As far as the public knows? Monster control. They spend most of their time out in the middle of the damn forest, surrounded by monsters, exploded gates, whatever the hell they want. It’s a dangerous job, one that most normal people would think is too dangerous to do on their own. Especially with two Espers that, on paper, don’t have a Guide. Jules has never been retested and it’s a secret of the Guild that they even have two classifications.” Rhys let out a shaky breath. “I also…delayed them by asking them to pick up a couple of things from a city nearby. Things that…I had ordered before the gate exploded and then became very important after the gate exploded.” Kellen raised his head slowly.

He had a feeling that he needed to see what Rhys’ expression was. When he finally looked at him, at his face, Rhys’ eyes were swimming pools of yellow. They were the colour of daffodils, bright and so full of anxiety that Kellen swallowed thickly.

“What did you delay them for?” Kellen asked carefully and Rhys let out a low exhale. It looked like he had been anticipating this conversation for a long, long time, and that he didn’t want to have it.

“Testing machines. They were picking up the stuff that the Center exclusively has. The machines that…you hate, but are very important right now.” Rhys said carefully and Kellen froze. Rhys looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, but he continued speaking. “Did it…never cross your mind, Kellen, that the reason that you’re so emotional could be related to the fact that maybe…you jumped classes again?” Rhys’ words were a punch to Kellen’s gut.

Jumped classes again? Him?

He’d never consi-no. That wasn’t quite true. Maybe he had considered it before, but it had been so brief and quick in passing that he’d just discarded it again. Because honestly…why would he jump Classes again? He’d joked about it when it had first happened, but Rhys and Kellen hadn’t imprinted. They hadn’t bonded together like that.

They had only slept together once so far, and that couldn’t have been enough to jump that much, right? Right?

Kellen’s mouth was open, his jaw dropped as he tried to process what Rhys had said to him, what Rhys was implying.

“You…sound convinced of this.” Kellen said slowly, pointing out the obvious. Rhys winced, flinching like Kellen had actually hit him. Kellen’s gut squeezed, painfully. Rhys hung his head, refusing to meet Kellen’s gaze as his spoke, rapidly.

“I’m sorry. I’m so damn sorry. I kept this from you, and I forced the others to keep this from you. It wasn’t because I didn’t think you were smart enough or capable enough to handle the information. I just thought that I would be able to do this the way that I wanted, the best way, and then the world got fucked up even more and I-” Rhys bit his tongue, moaning as he slammed his mouth shut.

Kellen stared at the nervous, shaking man and wasn’t quite sure what to think.

“So…you’ve thought about this for a while?” Kellen asked slowly and watched Rhys as he nodded. “How long, Rhys?” Kellen asked, his voice feeling hollow, void of emotion. Rhys flinched.

“Before…Before you went into the gate.” Rhys whispered. “Just before we slept together. I felt something shift with your powers then and…the only thing I could think of at the time was that it would be better for you if you were an S Class going into something so dangerous. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t worry about anything until you came out and then…you were emotional and seeing visions more often.” Rhys let out a shaky breath. “I’m sorry Kellen. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you. I always trust you. I just also know…that you don’t like those machines. I was worried I would traumatize you if I brought it up.”

Kellen didn’t know what to feel. What to think. He sat there, letting the words wash over him as he tried to process them. Then failed.

Rhys…thought that he was an S Class Guide. Not only that, he thought that he had become an S Class Guide before they even slept together. He had thought this for a long, long time, and Kellen had been alone in thinking that this was just from the poison gate. That this was from the poison in his system.

Kellen swallowed.

“Why did you let me think that I was going crazy?” Kellen asked carefully and Rhys let out a slow exhale.

“I have no excuse. Nothing. The only thing I can say is that…I didn’t realise that the powers that you-you got from me would continue to grow.” Rhys sounded like he was choking on the words. “I…I never wanted you to get my powers.” Rhys sounded sincere in his words while Kellen remained silent.

It felt like for the first time in a while his mind was silent. He just hated that it was due to shock.

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