(BL) Hunting The Field Guide - Chapter 220

Chapter 220: Side story – Where has all the time gone?

Chapter 220: Side story – Where has all the time gone?

Being home alone wasn’t something that Casper ever liked.  Yes, he lived further away from everyone, but that wasn’t something he had decided on his own.  He needed that separation for his and everyone else’s well being.

If he lived any closer, he might never leave the Tower.

And what happened yesterday would happen a lot more often.  Granted, he’d always gotten close, but no one had ever stopped him before.

Until now.  He’d been benched.

By Kellen, no less.

A man infamous for overworking himself.  Turns out, he was much better at doing it then Casper was.

It was embarrassing.

It was degrading, and honestly?

It was a slap to his pride too.

How long had he been working for the Guild?

As soon as it was founded?

And yet Kellen had come in, like a wild storm, and slotted in as the missing piece that everyone needed.

The Captain, Hill, Gunther, Green and everyone else.  Casper wasn’t the same.  He’d always known that he was…a little strange compared to the others.

He had high compatibility, which meant that there were lots of Espers, Guilds, Centers, countries, etc.

that wanted him.  But they didn’t want him.  They wanted his body.

Not what he’d worked away at for years, defining himself as a good leader and competent Guide, no, they just wanted the inherent abilities lying inside of his body.  Which was why he had fallen for Captain Thatcher’s sweet words, his temptations like the damn devil when he’d first recruited Casper.

He had said everything that Casper had wanted to hear.  A siren’s call, Captain Thatcher had wrapped around Casper like a snake, squeezing and injecting him with sweet, sweet poison until it was far too late for Casper to back out.  That…and Captain Thatcher had something else in his back pocket that Casper wouldn’t have been able to resist either.

It was an…unfortunate situation, but over time, Casper had gotten used to it.  Until he was alone, in his apartment, separated from everything that distracted him from his own problems.  He had to sit in the fact that he was alone.

A few people had reached out to check on him, and mildly threatened him, but that was it.  Not the person he wanted.  Loneliness was a close friend.

One he had become intimately familiar with.  It wasn’t a friend he had personally chosen.

Why would anyone willingly choose loneliness when there were other options?  But Casper, as he had always known, was stubborn.

And his heart had become set on another.

Someone just as stubborn as himself.  So he was lonely.

Afraid that he would always be this way.

Watching Kellen join the Guild and fill the spot that he himself thought that he would fill had really shaken him.  Not because he wanted to be with Captain Thatcher, Kellen could have the demon.

No, it was because he thought he was going to be part of the first pair in the Saturn Guild.

And that just didn’t happen.  In fact, he had a feeling he wasn’t even going to be part of the second, or third official pair in the Guild.

With the way his love life was going, he was going to remain single for the rest of his life.  Exhausted, from the stress from work, from his own racing thoughts, Casper collapsed on his couch.

He stared up at the ceiling of his apartment, the afternoon sky trickling in.  His apartment wasn’t anything to write home about.

It was a basic, two bedroom home.

It had a basic kitchen, with one bathroom.

One of the selling features was the giant, large tub that sat in front of the window in the bathroom.

A soaker tub, some called it.

Casper was a sucker for a good soak.

He loved water, and with how much he normally guided, it was a good way to calm his nerves after a long day.  He’d usually put on a cheesy tv show on his laptop and rest it near the tub so that he could watch it as he soaked his bones.

Very few knew that Casper liked ‘bad tv’.

And as time went on, it felt like the list kept dwindling.  He needed the second bedroom as an office, because even when he went home, he still worked on a couple tasks.

Things that he could do away from the Division.

It also helped out when one of the new Espers got into their minds that they were a perfect fit.  Because Casper was single, powerful, and looked like a pushover.  He wasn’t an idiot.

He knew who he was, and what he looked like.

He was scrawny, with hair that never listened to him, big, silver rimmed glasses, and his height only added to his scrawny image.

Even before he started guiding to the level that he was daily, he’d never been a big guy.  There was no way he could ever turn out the way Kellen was.

All…chiseled muscles and tight clothing.

No, Casper was big sweaters, long jackets, anything that would cover that he had no muscle mass and looked like a shivering, wet dog when naked.  Besides the tub, the view was what sold Casper on the apartment.

He was able to see the Tower from where he was, as well as all of the other Guiding Centers, Guilds, and the D.E.C.

It was perfect for someone like him, and filled his heart up.  He liked to be able to see everything, almost like he was able to see the bigger picture.

He liked feeling like he could look over everyone while he was at home.

It was comforting.

Since he knew he couldn’t do that in real life.  Depressed, Casper reached over and grabbed the shake he had placed near the couch, twisting the lid off and angling his head so that he could pour the liquid into his body.

He was surprised that at this point his body wasn’t rejecting these things.  He’d drank so many of them he swore he was made out of them.

And yet he gained no weight, nothing.

He was still a scrawny, stick man.

No wonder he was single.

Everyone who wanted to be with him was for his position only, not because of who he was.  It was one of two reasons he continued to run away from them.  The second?

Well, it was better not thought about.  A knock at the door had Casper immediately on edge.

Not many people knew where he lived, and he doubted that anyone from the Guild would be coming for any good reason.  Worried that it was someone here for some nefarious purpose, Casper wrapped his long sweater around his body and moved towards the peephole.

If it was an Esper, they would already have heard him in the home, but nothing distinct.

If it was a regular civilian, or a Guide of a lower Class, they wouldn’t have heard him at all.  When he checked the peephole, his cheeks flushed.  What on earth was he doing here?

And why?

Shouldn’t he be busy with…literally anything else?

Hesitantly, Casper reached for the doorknob, but halted himself from opening it.

It wasn’t a good idea.

They never did anything but hurt each other, but Casper could really do for some kind of comfort.  Another knock sounded while he was hesitating.  “Cas, come one.

Are you going to leave me out here?” For that response alone, he should.

The man should realise he had nothing over Casper, and he’d done that himself.

Casper had all but offered himself up on a silver platter, but he’d been the one to turn away.

Why was he the one talking as if Casper was the one who rejected him?

Swinging the door open after unlocking it, Casper steeled his expression as he looked over the damn gorgeous man before him.  Theodore Gunther was a man who had been haunting Casper’s dreams for the better part of a decade.

He’d been an on call Guide for the D.E.C.

when both Gunther and Captain Thatcher had worked there.

It was how the two of them had met, and how the two of them came to realise without a test that they were highly compatible.  Casper had been naive then.

A young, fresh faced A Class Guide who thought that getting a high compatibility rating meant that that was the end.

You were going to be a pair, and everything was going to work out.

But no, that wasn’t what happened.  Gunther had looked disgusted with him after their first guiding session.

Like Casper was shit on his shoe.

He’d fled shortly after, and only received guiding from him after that when no one else was available.  Including at the Guiding Centers.  It had been a serious blow to a young Guide’s pride.

And Casper didn’t remember how he got through it.  Maybe it was because he kept getting high matches with others, and they behaved normally.

But Gunther remained an anomaly.

Someone who hated him not because of who he was, but what he was.

He was the first person to express a sentiment like that to his face.  It was only a few months later, once Casper had gotten Captain Thatcher’s trust, that he explained why Gunther was the way that he was, and that he was thankful that Casper hadn’t fled outright.

Casper’s heart ached for the man, the same way it did now, but it didn’t make things better.  It especially didn’t help that over time, Gunther and Casper had grown closer.

As colleagues, and then eventually as friends.

Casper had known that they were compatible, but it was clear that their high test scores weren’t the only way that they were.  But Gunther kept denying it.

He kept pushing Casper away.  It was breaking his heart.

And Casper wasn’t sure how much longer he could handle it.

Especially after seeing how Captain Thatcher had changed after Kellen put his foot down.

They seemed…so happy.

Even if Kellen was ‘holding out’ on the Captain, it wasn’t in such a painful way that Gunther was doing to him.

They’d kissed once.

When both of them had been a little too drunk, and the idiot wouldn’t stop looking at his lips.

Casper had been the aggressor, but Gunther had been the one who had held Casper’s body like he held the whole world.

He’d kissed him like a man thirsty, needing water desperately.  It had changed something inside both of them, he was sure of it.

Because after that, Gunther had ignored him as hard as he did after that first guiding session.  Gripping onto the door frame as memories flooded back, Casper adjusted his glasses and stared up at the man.

His white hair was done up in braids that made him look too damn handsome, his dark, nearly black gaze roaming his body.

He was still in his uniform, and Casper hated how well he looked in it.

It was almost as if Captain Thatcher had made it just for him.

Black and white, like Gunther.  “What are you doing here?” Casper got out, his throat closing up from just looking at the man.

Gunther frowned.  “Well, I have news about the Guild, and I didn’t think you wanted to hear it from a third party, or over the group chat.

It’s…sensitive.

May I come in?” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS CalyB I hope you guys enjoy this side story.

I know a few of you were asking about Gunther and Casper, so I decided as a little breather we would explore it 🙂