Chapter 46: Cleared for leave, not for play

Kellen was awoken with a gentle shake to the shoulder. Kellen groaned, blinking as he awoke and stared up at the white ceiling above him. At least, he would have, if Rhys’ sweet face wasn’t in the way.

“Good morning, darling. Did you have a good rest after you nearly gave me a heart attack?” Rhys asked sweetly and Kellen felt his lips curl up into a smile as he reached his uninjured hand up and clasped onto the back of Rhys’ head.

“I wasn’t trying to scare you.” Kellen rasped, his voice deep with slumber. Rhys’ yellow eyes scanned Kellen’s face and Kellen knew he was looking for any signs that something was going wrong.

Kellen let out a soft sigh, pulling him down closer so that he could press a smiling kiss to his forehead.

“You’re such a worrier.” Kellen told him affectionately as Rhys pulled back, his cheeks pink.

“Can you blame me? You’re a very active, very cute man who makes my heart race out of my chest. You like guns, Kellen.” Rhys confirmed and Kellen gave him a lazy smile.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t like that about me.” Kellen teased and Rhys’ eyes went wide, his face flushing more.

A loud throat-clearing had Kellen turning his gaze towards whoever had done it, and Kellen realised he’d been woken up for a reason.

Both Taylor and Carlos were there. Carlos had a disapproving look on his face, his arms crossed as he scowled at the couple on the hospital bed. Taylor was fighting her smile, hiding it behind her hand as she looked at the couple.

“Oh. You two are here.” Kellen said casually, and Taylor tilted her head back and laughed.

“You’re only shy when you want to be.” She commented, shaking her head with a smile as she approached the bed. Rhys slowly slipped off, standing on the other side of the bed so that Carlos and Taylor had easier access to him. “Alright, let’s get you checked out now, Kellen.” She said, her eyes bright green.

Kellen gave a nod, allowing Taylor and Rhys to help him up since it was easier with two people helping him than him attempting to do it with one hand. He’d always known that Brent was a badass, but he hadn’t realised how much of a badass the other man was for making all of this look easy.

He was going to have to tell him how hard everything had been, and how much respect he had for the man that he rarely complained about. Brent would be allowed to have his little moody days without question in the future. Not that he’d questioned him before. He just…understood it better now.

Everyone was so focused on the tests they were running him through. Kellen, however, was pretty relaxed.

Honestly, he actually felt…better. It was the first time he could say it, too. He hadn’t felt bad per se since he’d gotten out of the gate. Taylor and Carlos had done their best to take care of him, tend to him, heal him. However, his body had felt…heavy. Weighted, and for a while.

He was thinking that because they had been able to remove so much of the poison that had sunk into his blood and now that he had gone a full 24 hours with fresh, relatively clean blood, lots of what had been stuck inside of him was gone. Thus, weighing him down less.

He didn’t think he was fully better, oh no, but he knew he was better off then he had been before. He didn’t need all of the tests to tell him that, but he knew that everyone else needed all of the tests.

So, he patiently let them poke and prod him, accepting juice boxes as they came and went, and once the process was over, he waited while Carlos and Taylor went over the results. He even let Rhys leave his side to go join their little huddle so that he could hear what they were talking about better.

Kellen was okay. He knew what the answer would be when they came back. They had had one scare, but he’d come out on the other side of the process.

Now would come time for the discussion of who would be next after him.

Taylor, Carlos and Rhys turned to Kellen as a unit, all three coming over. Rhys’ expression broke Kellen’s heart the most. He looked so…so relieved. When he took Kellen’s hand in his, Kellen watched as the other man took a shuddering breath and squeezed Kellen’s good hand.

“You’re on the mend, Kellen. We can now start tackling the last remnants of poison in your system, but they are ones we have already formulated antidotes to attack. We’ll get you started tomorrow. For now, you are free to go home and rest.” Taylor told him, her smile wide. Kellen grinned in response.

“You did great, Doc Green.” He teased and that didn’t even seem to phase her.

“Oh shut up.” She responded and Kellen turned to Carlos. The man shifted nervously as he felt Kellen turn his attention to him fully.

“Thank you for all of your work, Carlos.” Kellen told him sincerely. “And thank Bella for me too. She’s probably been guiding you nonstop.” Kellen said with a soft smile. Carlos curled his lip up, but Kellen knew him well enough to know he was just uncomfortable with the praise and attention.

“I’ll let her know.” He said, not acknowledging anything else Kellen said. He gave a soft laugh.

“Rhys, I want to hug Taylor. Can you back up a bit?” Kellen asked and waited. Rhys didn’t budge and Kellen smiled warmly. “You can hug me all you want when we get up to the apartment, alright?” Kellen felt like he was negotiating with a child. Rhys slowly withdrew, stepping back but watching Kellen like a hawk. Kellen opened his arm for his friend and Taylor went, wrapping her arms around him and Kellen squeezing her back.

“No more putting yourself at risk like this again.” Taylor whispered. “I’m serious. I’ll strangle you myself.” Taylor warned and Kellen chuckled.

“I won’t lie to you or make any promises. You know that if you were sucked into that gate I wouldn’t have hesitated to go in, right?” Kellen asked and Taylor shuddered.

“Shut up. I don’t need to think of something so terrible.” Taylor replied and Kellen laughed. He pressed a soft kiss against her cheek, a thank you, as she pulled away as Taylor stared at him, dumbstruck.

Rhys’ face scrunched up, clearly displeased but it was washed away as Kellen held out an arm to Rhys.

“Help me up?” He asked, using his injured Guide body to his full advantage against three Espers.

Taylor chuckled, grabbing Carlos and pulling him out of the room as Rhys muttered complaints about Kellen’s behaviour while helping Kellen and the Healers left in the room unhook him from everything and then picked up the other man from the bed like he didn’t weigh a thing.

Kellen knew that wasn’t the case. He’d put on some weight since he’d been told to rest, but Rhys didn’t seem to mind or notice.

That might be one perk to being an S Class that Kellen didn’t think of often. The strength difference between A Class and S Class Espers.

Rhys didn’t need help opening the doors as he moved through the Medical Bay. His powers were enough to open any door before him. He did have to press the button for the elevator on his own though.

Apparently no one had pressed it in a while, or at least, that was what Kellen thought.

“What time is it, anyway?” Kellen asked, and Rhys shrugged.

“Not a time that I would worry about. You can go back to sleep once we get upstairs. I just get to snuggle with you while you do that.” Rhys told him firmly, and Kellen chuckled.

“I said that you could. You don’t need to tell me that like it’s a threat. It’s not.” Kellen told him and Rhys grumbled, but seemed pretty pleased by Kellen’s words.

Kellen just tucked himself against Rhys’ chest, nuzzling against the man. While he was sure his body needed rest after the medical hell it had just been put through, he wouldn’t deny that he was a little upset that he didn’t get to start treatment today. He really, really wanted to be able to just…be with Rhys soon. It wasn’t even the sex aspect of it that he cared about. It was the closeness he felt with the man when they were like that.

It was the intimacy. He just wanted to be able to kiss the man or suck his dick without being scolded. Was that so hard to ask?

The elevator came and Rhys stepped inside, scanned his card, pressed the button, and off they went. Kellen didn’t bother moving, staying tucked into Rhys.

“I’m glad that this is going to be over soon.” Kellen told him. “I’m glad that this next phase is going to start.” Kellen let out a soft sigh, before he blinked. “Rhys, you aren’t going to keep me out of the loop when it comes to the vision I saw, right?” Kellen asked and felt Rhys stiffen.

Kellen was suddenly glad that he had asked.

“Rhys…” Kellen said warningly and Rhys huffed.

“It wasn’t-I wasn’t doing it intentionally. Not really. Maybe.” Rhys was backtracking so quickly that Kellen wanted to bite him for being so foolish.

“Are you serious right now? Rhys Thatcher. I’m the one who had the vision. How would you feel if I hadn’t told you and went off acting on my own?” Kellen asked and Rhys stiffened further. “Exactly. So don’t do that. Don’t try to hide things from me, even if they are dangerous. I could just fucking…bleed on the bad people and that might have then down and out for the count. I’ve got poisoned blood, remember?” Kellen suggested, half joking-half serious.

Rhys let out a shuddering breath, as if he’d been holding it, before he sucked in.

“I apologise. I shouldn’t have even considered it, and I did feel guilty over it. In my defense, I had talked myself into speaking to you about it in the afternoon, after we had gotten home, you had rested more, and I felt more secure about our situation.” Rhys told him and Kellen stared at the man.

He wanted to believe him. He did. But…

“You would have delayed it if I didn’t ask.” Kellen said and Rhys looked supremely guilty. Kellen smacked his bicep. “You’re lucky that I’m not allowed to bite you without getting you poisoned, otherwise, I would be biting you in punishment right now.” Kellen threatened and Rhys shuddered.

“Fuck. Don’t talk dirty to me right now. I’m not allowed to touch you.” Rhys whispered and Kellen furrowed his brows.

“I am not-wait, you like that?” Kellen asked, before he wanted to smack himself. He should realise that pretty much anything he said would get Rhys hot and bothered from this point. He needed to keep his mouth shut for his own sanity.

He wasn’t allowed to touch the man either, and they were going somewhere unsupervised. Kellen didn’t want to end up back in the Medical Bay so soon.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep