(BL) Hunting The Field Guide - Chapter 334

Chapter 334: Regret burning a hole in your chest, with the Captain Chapter 334: Regret burning a hole in your chest, with the Captain Rhys felt like a piece of shit.

As he chased after his childhood friend, Hill at his side, he could feel his heart tearing in two.  One half was reserved for Kellen, always would be, the other half…Gunther took up a large portion of that.  They had been friends for a long, long time.

Rhys would have had photos of them being together in kindergarten if a gate hadn’t opened above his family’s apartment.

They went back, over 20 years they had known each other, and yet Rhys had to stand in front of him and protect another man from him.  Rhys couldn’t get over the look in Gunther’s eyes as he realised that Rhys was standing against him, not with him.

He’d looked betrayed.

He’d looked hurt.

He’d looked…angry.

Because of his feelings, and what he’d said, Rhys had a pretty good idea of what Gunther was going to do next.

Especially when he didn’t go down, and instead had gone up the Guild Tower.

Rhys was pretty sure it was to prove a point, and he couldn’t exactly argue with him.

What point was he trying to make?

Rhys didn’t know.  There were a few that came to his mind.

That he had power in the Guild.

That he knew a lot of secrets.

Or the simple fact that he wanted to tell Rhys to go fuck himself.

All of these were valid reasons.  Gunther had taken the fastest and quickest way out of the building.

It was something that not many people knew of, and as one of the people who had seen the designs of the building before it was built, Gunther would know every little secret.  On the A Class gym floor, hidden behind the sparring arena there was a door tucked behind some boxes.

It intentionally was made to look like a supply closet that was overfull, with the boxes occasionally shifted by a few members of the cleaning staff so that regular people wouldn’t guess.

The cleaning staff had no idea why they shifted the boxes either, but since they did use the supplies in the boxes, they didn’t mind.  The door was never opened, and you had to have a lieutenant level key or higher to even be able to open it.

That was because it was a door to the outside.  About half way up the building.  It was only to be used in emergencies, and normally it looked just like a normal window from the outside.

No one ever used it, and it had probably only been used about two times prior to this.

All at the request of Rhys after he’d seen a particular vision that he wanted to prevent.

His ability to see the future was the reason that Rhys had gotten the door put in halfway up as well.  He had seen a vision that it would come in handy, and when he had shown it to Gunther, he had shrugged and told him to do whatever he wanted.

Now, Gunther was doing whatever he wanted, and Rhys could only sigh as he and Hill arrived at the A Class gym, several on-lookers watching them.

It was only a matter of time before rumours spread through the Guild.

He knew that, and several times in the past he had used that speed to his benefit.

Most recently when he had started trying to get Kellen to like him, or even look at him as more than an Esper he had good compatibility with.  Right now though, he wished that wasn’t the case.  Several of the boxes in front of the door were smashed into bits, the door flung open and a powerful wind was blowing in through the doorway.

It was clear to him that several of the Espers in the area were surprised to see that the door didn’t lead to a supply closet as advertised.  Rhys and Hill stopped, staring as Gunther was but a speck in the distance as he used his powers to escape.

Hill had kept pace with him, sighing as they both watched him get further and further away.

Rhys’ gut felt twisted as he saw how quickly he moved.

He was really, really angry, and Rhys felt like he was justified in his anger.

He just hated it.  “What do we do?” Hill asked, her tone grim.

Her face was flat, her brown eyes watching Gunther in the distance.

Rhys respected that she was taking this so seriously, but at the same time, it hurt him to see her flip this quickly.

The two of them had been working together for so long, yet Hill was practically treating Gunther like he was a villain, or a monster.  Rhys understood, but he was just…he wished that they could have had the conversation the way that Kellen wanted to have it.

He had a feeling that they wouldn’t be in this situation if the idiot had just…not been a damn Esper about it.

Rhys sighed, running a hand over his face..  “We have to follow him and trust that Kellen is going to be alright.” Rhys murmured.

Hill’s face twisted slightly.  “Are you sure he can handle it?

He hasn’t really stepped into any of our roles before.” She replied, and Rhys cast a glance at her.  While she was right, Kellen was a very capable man.

Rhys truly believed that if something happened and he, Hill, Gunther and Casper were put on bedrest, Kellen would be able to wrangle everything together and run the Guild without them.

Sure, he might have to call in some favours from his Mom, and maybe Brent, but he had no doubt that Kellen could do it.  It was a strange thing, to realise that he would so willingly hand over control of something that he had worked so hard to create so easily, but when he thought about who he was handing it over to, it made sense.

Kellen was just…Kellen.  “Kellen said he would, and I trust him.” He told her, and Hill made a face, but shut her lips.

She sighed, shaking her head before her eyes turned orange and she braced herself.

She took a step back, her leg tensing as Rhys felt the floor shift.

She was already exerting force and strength, getting ready to jump after the rogue Lieutenant.

Her heel was digging into the floor.  “I’ll go on ahead.

Keep your phone on you.

I’ll text you if I notice any changes.

You’re going to try and ‘see’ where he’s going, aren’t you?” Hill asked, her eyes focused on Gunther in the distance.

Her deduction abilities weren’t the only reason that she was a Lieutenant, but they had certainly played a part in her recruitment.

Rhys nodded.  “Same to you.

I’ll text you if I notice any changes.

I should be behind you shortly.” Hill nodded, taking her eyes off of Gunther to turn them towards Rhys.

Her gaze was serious, her expression tense, but when she scanned Rhys, something softened in her expression.

Her orange eyes dimmed slightly and she reached out, patting him on the shoulder.

Rhys appreciated the slight shift, before she turned her gaze back to Gunther and then pushed off, soaring into the sky.  The floor under her feet made a crunching noise as she leapt, and Rhys turned the time back on that part of the building as he watched her leave.

Otherwise, there would have been two foot shaped holes in the floor, and some structural stability concerns.

Now, all Rhys had to do was make sure that Gunther didn’t do anything stupid.

That included killing himself.

Rhys hated to admit it, but it wasn’t off the table.  Between the three of them, Gunther was the one more prone to it.

It wasn’t…uncommon for Espers to be particularly suicidal, especially if their powers were something that society had a hard time accepting.

Everyone had a stigma about something, but Gunther wasn’t shunned because of that, or he wasn’t even that shunned.  Sure, a few times he’d had to talk Hill down from a cliffside a few times, and they had to do the same for Rhys.

Gunther, however, was a bit more…extreme.

Had that been a sign?

Now that Rhys thought about it, had that been a sign that Gunther had some deeper issues he needed to deal with?

Rhys had tried to be there for him, but it had been hard.

They had both been unwell, even if Rhys thought that he was dealing with everyone better than Gunther was, Rhys would admit that he’d been busy.  Between the loss of his parents, having to get involved with the D.

E.

C.

because of his Esper powers awakening, and having to deal with all of the realities that came with that and not going insane, his plate had been a little full.  Rhys had caught Gunther attempting more than once before, and it was something he hadn’t wanted to bring up to anyone, a secret meant for just the two of them.

It was the same with Hill.

He hadn’t spoken about their cliffside talks either.

It was just a secret between the two of them, and Rhys was sure it was the same for when they had come to help him when he had been feeling similarly.  With that being said, Gunther’s attempts had been…far more intentional.  While Hill and Rhys had been considering it, Gunther had all the tools nearby to go through with it.

One of the times he’d already been bleeding and Rhys had to deal with his wound without letting Green know what had happened.  That had been a rough week and a bit.

It was why he didn’t want to bring it up, ever.  This was so incredibly hard for Rhys to deal with.

He cared about him a lot, but he felt like he didn’t know a huge part of him.

It was worrying, and scary.

What if…like people had suggested, Gunther was an irredeemable monster?

What would that mean for Rhys?

About Rhys?

That he hadn’t noticed, or that he’d let someone like that stay as a close friend?  Rhys wanted to believe in Gunther, and believe that he hadn’t treated anyone violently, but there was more than one way to be abusive.

Rhys knew it first hand.  He was just worried, and he didn’t think it would ever fade.

Not until he got to the bottom of these feelings he had, and spoke to Gunther now that the Band-Aid had been ripped off.

CREATORS’ THOUGHTS CalyB Sorry for the late posting.

Had a friend’s birthday party yesterday and tried to get some writing done ahead of time because I knew I was going to be hungover.

Severely underestimated how hungover I was going to be.

Things will be back to normal tomorrow.

Today, it is what it is.