(BL) Hunting The Field Guide - Chapter 177

Chapter 177: 14 flights of stairs Chapter 177: 14 flights of stairs The second class went smoothly, and as 3 pm approached, Kellen felt exhaustion fill him.

Brent had left him to go do his round of guiding, after Kellen had shoved him full of shakes.

And after taking a few moments for himself, he set to work.  He only had two hours before he had to go meet up with Rhys for his guiding session with Taylor.

So he’d better put his head down and get to work.  Kellen had already reached out to all of the Guiding Centers in the morning, and by mid afternoon, he’d had varying responses.  Of course, Guiding Center B had responded back first, and quickly at that.

They were very straightforward in their willingness to help out.

Guiding Center A had sent a very lengthy response, full of fancy words, and several insults, but at the end had also agreed to help.  Guiding Center C had outright refused to help, and Guiding Center D and E hadn’t gotten back to Kellen yet.

Kellen didn’t know why Guiding Center C had refused to help.

As far as he knew, they had never had any issues with each other, but he’d have to wait to look into it more.  Honestly, Kellen was a little worried.

He hadn’t wanted to rely on the top two Guiding Centers, and had wanted to spread out the recruitment.

He didn’t think that any of the Guiding Centers were inferior to the other, well, except Guiding Center A, but that was just his personal feelings.  Well, it wasn’t a big deal.

Kellen was still going to go in person to all of the Guiding Centers since he always found that that left a better impression, and he liked to talk face to face.

The email was more of a testing of the waters.

It was unfortunate that Guiding Center C was hostile to him, but hopefully he would be able to convince them that he had no bad intentions.

After all, he had no idea why they didn’t like him.  Beyond worrying about the Guiding Centers responding back to him, he was also working on the rough drafts of the contracts he planned to present to Pamela for her to confirm.

He’d have to get quotes from her and Casper before he could head out tomorrow, and was hoping he’d be able to swing by the conference room before he headed home.  But Kellen got so distracted by making his contracts, he forgot about the time, until it was too late.  ~ Kellen rushed into the guiding room, panting heavily since he had sprinted down the hallway.

Taylor jerked, nearly jumping out of her seat as the door hit the wall.

While the Captain, who had been sitting with his shirt off, medical pads on, and legs crossed raised his head with a smile.

He was clearly on his phone working away, and that only made Kellen feel worse.  “Ah.

You’re late, Mr.

Woods.” His tone was lightly chastising, and Kellen took a second to catch his breath after he closed the door behind him.

He rested with his hands on his knees for a second.  “Sorry Captain.

Brent grabbed me last minute to discuss something related to the gate, and then the elevators were full.

I took the stairs to try to get here on time.

It won’t happen again.” Both Taylor and the Captain stared at Kellen.

Each had equal amounts of shock on their faces.  “You what?” Taylor demanded, and Kellen sighed, straightening up before heading towards Rhys.

pulling off his jacket as he did so.

Taylor was blinking at him like she’d never seen him before.  “I took the stairs.

Again, I’m sorry you two waited for me.” He told them both with a smile.

Rhys’ smile fell from his face and he sighed.

He ran his hand over his face, before turning his gaze towards Kellen.  “You don’t need to overexert yourself, Mr.

Woods.

You could have just sent a text.

It’s the end of the day, and neither one of us is going to be angry at you if you got caught up in the end of the day rush.” Taylor nodded along with the Captain’s words, while Kellen continued to undress.  “Well, you might feel that way, but I hate being late.

There weren’t that many stairs either.

It wasn’t like I ran here from the conference room level.

I was in the Guiding Division before this.” Taylor’s gaze when she looked at Kellen was blank, and he wasn’t sure what that meant.

The Captain sighed again.  “That’s still 14 floors above us, Mr.

Woods.

Please, if you care about my peace of mind, just text me and wait for the elevator.” Kellen frowned as he began to place the medical pads on his body.

Glancing over at Taylor to gauge her reaction, he noticed that she was staring at him with wide eyes, but the rest of her face was blank.

What the hell did that mean?

“It wasn’t that bad.

Honestly, I looked forward to it since my morning workout got interrupted today.” Rhys jerked, and Kellen swore his cheeks turned red before he coughed.  “How so?” He asked carefully and Kellen sighed, leaning back into his chair.

Glancing away from him, Kellen felt his own cheeks turn pink.  “Hill and Brent ambushed me.

They wanted to know what happened yesterday.” Rhys’ expression relaxed, and smiling, he took Kellen’s hand in his.  “And what did you tell them?” He asked, and Kellen swallowed.

He was worried he was going to put his foot in his mouth.  “Uh, just normal stuff.

I told them what Taylor and I talked about, and elaborated on things Brents and I had talked about yesterday as well.

Hill had been out of the loop, so she was very curious.” The Captain stared at Kellen, curious, and Kellen glanced away from his gaze to look at Taylor.

Taylor’s blank expression had morphed into something else.

She looked surprised, and maybe even a little…hurt?

“You had this discussion without me?” She voiced, and Kellen swallowed.

He was in big trouble.

Taylor never used that voice unless she was really upset.  “Well, it wasn’t as if I had a choice.

It was also early in the morning since they stole me from my work out.

You weren’t even at the office yet.” Kellen chuckled awkwardly.

“Hill basically kept hold of me the whole time, as if they were afraid I was going to escape.” He hoped that his words had smoothed it over, but she sighed, shaking her head.  “Whatever.

Let’s just get this over with.

I’ll talk with you about this after.

You and the Captain didn’t have a proper session yesterday.” At her words, Kellen nodded, and gave the Captain’s hand a squeeze.

Taylor counted them down, and Kellen stepped into the world inside of the Captain’s powers.  The Captain wasn’t in a better state compared to yesterday.

The ocean was still rough, still aggressive, but Kellen wasn’t dragged down by his ankles like yesterday.

Instead, he was able to do his guiding as normal, sprinkling his rocks into the water and watching them smash against the Captain’s rocks, creating rainbows.

It was still as beautiful as the first time he had seen it.

The spray from the crash glittered with rainbows, sparkling in the sunlight and Kellen sighed, relieved.

He was glad that today it was working.  Taylor didn’t need to prompt Kellen out of the guiding session today, as Kellen was able to pull himself out on his own.

They’d done guiding at this level for long enough that he was able to do that now, and it filled him with pride every time he was able to come out on his own.  Taylor remained silent as Rhys and Kellen dressed, with the Captain being the faster one today.

Rhys, having read the room, got to his feet and Kellen glanced up at him in surprise.

His eyes were a soft hazel, and his smile was kind.  “I’ll wait outside for you two to come out.

I’ll be on my phone, so I won’t be paying attention to you two.” He winked, and Kellen nodded, appreciating that he was going to give them some time to talk, and some privacy.  Once the door had closed behind him slowly, and Kellen had pulled on his shirt, Taylor came and sat down in the Captain’s seat.

She handed him his shakes instead of tossing them at him today.

She seemed upset, and Kellen had a feeling that it had to do with Brent and Hill.  Taking the shakes, he poured them into his body before he spoke.

He knew that she’d be extra upset if he didn’t take care of himself.  “Captain and I decided that we should do slightly higher levels of guiding since the reduction in the last two weeks hasn’t been enough.: Kellen started with that, and Taylor nodded.

She was playing with the end of her jacket, where a thread was coming loose.  “So, kissing I’m assuming?

Or higher contact?” Kellen tried to keep a straight face, since this was a serious conversation, but it was difficult for him.  “Just kissing.

I’m thinking of setting a timer for 15 minutes.

We haven’t officially guided above hand holding outside a few times, so I want to play it safe.” She nodded in agreement, both of them more comfortable talking about work at the moment.  “The timer is a good idea.

Make sure the Captain is the one monitoring it since there is a chance you won’t be present enough to notice.” Kellen nodded at her words, and then they fell into silence.

CREATORS’ THOUGHTS CalyB Kellen’s in trouble~