Kellen didn’t hesitate. Kellen didn’t need to. He dialed Brent’s new number into his phone, raising it to his ear and waited. It rang once, twice, a third time before someone picked up and the familiar voice washed over him. If Kellen had been tense, his shoulders would have relaxed.

"Hello?"

"Save this number. It’s me, Kellen." Kellen told him. Brent paused, before he let out a tense breath.

"Oh thank god. I wasn’t sure who was calling me at this time. You do know that we have a severe time difference, right?" Brent’s voice was rough with sleep, a tone that Kellen was used to after having to wake him up for years on the front lines. Kellen felt a smile tease his lips.

"As if you weren’t waiting for Sergei to call you. Sorry to not be him. He’s in a meeting with Rhys and Sakura right now, which was why I knew I could call you, but, I’m also sure you knew that too." Kellen told him. Brent grumbled.

"Yeah, well, shut up." Brent muttered, bashful. "Why’d you call? Anything bad to report?" He asked, clearly thinking that this wasn’t a personal call.

"Do you have access to a tablet or computer?" Kellen asked and heard Brent shuffle on the other side.

"Yeah, why?" Brent asked.

"I need your help with something. I feel like you have a better fashion sense than I do, and I don’t want to bother anyone else with this. I just want your help." Kellen told him. He could hear Brent pause on the other side of the line.

"What’s going on?" Brent asked, suspicious, and Kellen let out a light laugh.

"Nothing bad, I promise. Er, I think. My Dad doesn’t seem to think so, nor does Taylor. I just...I really wanted to get your opinion on this. Rhys can’t know, not yet at least." Kellen admitted.

"Hold on. Give me a sec to pull on a shirt. Sergei nearly had a fit when he found out I was going around topless around others over here." Brent muttered and Kellen had to bite his lip to hide his smile.

"And you listened to him?" Kellen asked, teasing.

"Shut up. You’d do the same if Rhys asked."

"Yeah, but Rhys wouldn’t." Kellen countered. Rhys knew Kellen, and while he was possessive, he wasn’t that bad. Brent snorted.

"Because Rhys knows how to manipulate you into getting the results he wants. Alright, I’m dressed. What do you want me to look up?" Brent asked and Kellen rolled his eye but read out the site that Kellen himself was on. He put Brent on speaker so that he could still scroll through the site.

Brent paused.

"Kellen, that’s a jeweler." Brent told him. Kellen nodded.

"I am aware." Kellen countered. Brent let out a shaky breath.

"Are you...hold on. I need coffee before I say anything else." Brent muttered and Kellen smiled. At least he wasn’t saying no to helping him. Listening to Brent on the other side of the phone move about, muttering to himself, the sound of water pouring, machines clicking and Brent living was...it was good.

It made it feel like they weren’t a world apart. It made his absence a bit easier to deal with.

Thankfully, Kellen still had his dinner to eat, so he did that while Brent moved about and the two of them didn’t speak of the website. Instead, Brent asked about how Kellen was doing and Kellen got excited.

"Well, I’ve been having some difficulty with the poison in my system and clearing it. It’s been causing Taylor and Carlos some hardships and stress, but we finally found a solution that worked for me and the others. In fact, today was the first day that we had a few of the members who were in the gate for a long time, wake up." Kellen told him happily. "And I’ve also been cleared for most activities. My injuries haven’t shifted too much, but I think it’s going to be a slower healing process no matter what." Kellen was vibrating, he was so excited to tell Brent about this.

"Holy shit. That’s great, Kellen! Who woke up?" He asked and Kellen rattled off the list, ending with Bree. Kellen could feel Brent’s excitement through the phone as they waited for his coffee to brew.

"Bree asked for me as soon as she woke up." Kellen told him. His excitement dulled for a second. "I think it’s going to be harder for them to understand that they’ve been out for a while after their first few days, the shock is still there. They were, after all, in hell when they fell unconscious. It takes a while to forget that." Kellen muttered and Brent let out a soft sigh. He grunted in agreement.

"Yeah. That shit ain’t easy." Brent muttered. "Fuck. I’m sorry I can’t be there with you while all of this is happening. I feel like such an asshole. I should be there with you, helping them get through this too." Brent muttered. It was clear he felt guilty, but Kellen shook his head.

"Brent, you can’t control what happened to you, and it also probably isn’t safe for you to attempt to leave, otherwise you would have done it, right?" There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long moment before Brent let out a heavy sigh. That was answer enough.

"I hate that you’re right." Brent muttered. "Yeah, I would probably get shot out of the air or stolen from the airplane before we even really took off. That’s how bad the situation is here." Brent clearly hated telling Kellen any of that, but Kellen smiled. He was just happy to be able to talk to him like this.

"Well, you won’t be alone for much longer. With everything moving in the right direction right now, we’re on a good path. Rhys seems to think so, and so do I. While we are down Casper for now, we are up a Gunther and we now have-"

"What do you mean you’re down a Casper?" Brent asked and Kellen paused.

"Oh. You don’t know what happened with Casper, do you?" Kellen asked, more to himself then to Brent.

"What happened to him? Is he alright?" Brent asked, clearly worried for the other Guide. "Did something happen with another Esper?" There was a hint of anger in his voice and Kellen felt himself smile.

"No. Nothing like that. Casper is just...similar to all of us, he’s been repressing a lot of things and it began to affect the Guild. We caught it and he’s benched right now so that he doesn’t do more harm to the others. Hopefully himself too, but...I’m going to leave him in the other’s trusting hands and hope that he’ll be okay while I’m gone. It’s harsh but...Casper also doesn’t really like me that much anyways." Kellen said with a shrug.

"What? How is that possible? You two got along great while I was there." Brent argued and Kellen felt a bitter smile touch his lips. Yeah, that might have been the case when others were around, but when that wasn’t the case and it was mostly just Casper and Kellen, that wasn’t true.

They’d had to have a heart to heart, and now Kellen wasn’t sure if they had gotten it all out then. That was okay. Unlike everyone else that Kellen had thought was his friend and they had not actually been, Casper was being more obvious than the others.

"I don’t have to be friends with everyone." Kellen told Brent. "I just need to be able to work with everyone." Kellen let out a shaky breath. "It’s fine. I caught on early. I’m not hurt about it too much. I can also still care for him without him liking me, and I think I’m okay with that." Brent was quiet on the other side for a long moment.

"I think Casper is an over-thinker." Brent said carefully and Kellen gave a snort.

"You think?" He joked, but Kellen pulled back his joking tone a bit. It was a little unfair for him to say that when the man couldn’t defend himself right now.

"Yeah, I do. Which is why I think he has a hard time dealing with you." Brent continued, his voice still gentle. "You two overthink in completely different ways. He’s more...I don’t mean this in a bad way against either of you, but he’s more of an emotional over-thinker while you overthink in a more physical way. Does that make sense?" Brent asked at the end and Kellen paused.

In a funny way, yeah, it did. Kellen could see it.

"It does, and I’m not offended." Kellen clarified. "I can’t speak for Casper though, obviously." Kellen reminded him and Brent snorted.

"Yeah, I got that. I don’t think we’d be having this conversation if he was there with you." Kellen shrugged. Maybe they would. He didn’t think he was saying anything bad about Casper right now. "Oh, there’s my coffee. At least the first bit. It’ll take the edge off." Brent muttered, turning and Kellen could tell from the echo that he’d walked away from the phone.

"When did you become such a coffee drinker, anyway?" Kellen asked. Brent had liked coffee before this, but not like this.

"When there wasn’t a lot for me to do in the mornings. I started getting into coffee so that I had something to do, and so that I could pester your aunt and try to find out more information. I used the fact that the coffee machine in this room sucks to go try to get information from them while they were defenseless in the morning. It didn’t really work, and now I have a crippling coffee addiction." Brent lamented over the phone, sounding a bit bitter and Kellen chuckled.

"At least that’s not a bad substance to get addicted to." Kellen said warmly, and Brent groaned.

"I don’t agree. I wasn’t lying when I said the coffee machine here sucks. She didn’t even replace it either after I complained." Brent muttered mutinously. Kellen laughed.

"Probably because she liked that you came up to bother her. She’s not going to replace it until after we leave." Kellen told him, and meant it. Brent grumbled.

"How Esper-like of her." He muttered and Kellen laughed again. His Aunt was anything if not an Esper. That was why she’d gotten an earful from Kellen in the first place.

"She means well, even if she is very overbearing. She just..."

"I know, which is why I haven’t been an asshole. Mostly. I have been devious, because some things need to be stopped." Brent said and Kellen softened. Of course Brent was being kind about it. A loss was a loss, and it was a hard reality to go from a City Guide to a Field Guide.

Kellen listened to the sound of him preparing his coffee, the normal act making Brent feel closer once more.

"Alright. I’ve got my computer, I’ve got my coffee, tell me what the fuck is going on for you calling me so early to ask about a jewelry store?"