Archive of Our Own

Shimazaki-senpai wasn’t talking to Arataka.

That was fine. That was normal. He was two years older than Arataka, and the only reason they had met was because Shimazaki-senpai had asked for some help with leaving the school after Salt middle school had let out for the day. Shimazaki-senpai didn’t owe Arataka anything. In fact, he might feel even worse because Arataka was keeping an eye on him and had a threat about Kageyama-san over his head.

It was fine for Shimazaki-senpai to not be nice with Arataka after that event at school. And it happened on a Friday too, so they didn’t see each other until Monday.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

School was lonely.

He had hoped it would get better with Shimazaki-senpai, that it would get better with a friend. Maybe someone that he could look up to as a fellow kid. They were both struggling through middle school and they were both espers. They could fight through the stupidity of middle school together, for as long as they could stay together.

Couldn’t even be a day really. Not even a full twenty-four hours that Arataka had known another esper around his age and he had blown it up in his face. And now Arataka couldn’t talk to Shimazaki-senpai at all. The other was ignoring his existence entirely.

Hell, the Kageyamas had forced him to take the Saturday off, simply because they wanted to make sure Mom didn’t kill them probably. So Arataka hadn’t been around his new friends, his new connections, all weekend. Not even the new spirit that was hanging around had come to check on him. Well, new-old? Since Dimple was the same Dimple that had tried to make Kageyama-san and Arataka join his cult. But that neon-green snot blob hadn’t come around to see Arataka.

No he wasn’t lonely over the weekend. It wasn’t like Mom worked extra hours on the weekends or anything and the house got loud with silence.

No, Reigen Arataka was one hundred percent okay. Not lonely at all. He was fine. Perfectly fine. And! He was going to work today! Maybe he should get a little embarrassed about being so happy about going to work, but who cares? He’s happy about the people that he’s going to be working with, so it’s not like it was the pay or anything. Sure the pay was the bonus, but he really just liked working with Kageyama-san and Kageyama-otouto.

So there was absolutely no reason for him to be down or lonely. He was skipping over the cracks as he went on his way to the offices. He couldn’t wait to see the brothers again, tease Kageyama-otouto and read their auras and maybe show Kageyama-san? Arataka had brought his colored pencils and some free sheets of paper. So if he could draw accurately enough, then maybe he could show Kageyama-otouto and Kageyama-san how their auras looked through his eyes.

He really would just need Kageyama-otouto and Kageyama-san to stay still while he was drawing. That would be the biggest thing.

Arataka nodded at the people who had set up a new shop along the way to the Kageyamas offices, waving and giving them a cheerful grin. He hadn’t seen them before the weekend, but it was nice to see more business around the way. Maybe they were a food place, and he and Kageyama-san could go buy something? Or or, maybe a bookstore? That way Kageyama-otouto would be slightly appeased.

Maybe Arataka would stop by sometime to the new shop along the way, sometime when Kageyama-otouto wasn’t so uptight about how he should always be on time.

The ten minute walk had never seemed so long– ah scratch that. It was totally longer when he was trying to get here on Friday because he was hurt and had had to pull himself up on the stairs using the handrail. But it was fine now! There was the building that housed the offices right in front of him, and he practically skipped up the steps. Well, didn’t skip. His legs and throat were still recovering.

Arataka checked himself over as he got to the top. Swiping at his gakuran to get rid of dust and running a hand through his hair to make sure that it was neat after he combed it. He wasn’t scared that they had kicked him out of the position he had landed himself somehow, no. He just wanted to make sure that he was. . . . . presentable. Yeah. That was it.

He reached out and took a hold of the doorknob, staring up at the sign on the door to make sure that he got the right one. Kageyama Brothers: Spiritual Consultants stared down at him, so he turned the doorknob in his hand and pushed the door open.

He was about to call out that he was here, but the auras in the room made him stop.

Arataka stared.

Not in awe, no. Mostly in sheer confusion.

What the hell was someone like Hanazawa Teruki doing at the Kageyama Brothers offices?

He stared at the man who he had only seen on television, who was currently staring at Kageyama-san with an intense stare. Kageyama-otouto looked so done with everything. Peering closer, Arataka stared at the auras filling the room. Maybe that would tell him why the other esper was here? Maybe everyone was friends? But no, the auras quickly dispelled that notion.

Kageyama-san’s was the same rotating, protective, blue-pink-purple. It had a few hints of deep-gray-confusion, but otherwise was completely normal. Dimple’s fart cloud form hovered around his shoulder, giving glances between Kageyama-san and Hanazawa Teruki. He was exuding a faint storm-cloud-gray-unease, but it wasn’t too much.

Kageyama-otouto’s aura was spikier than normal, probably trying to ward off Hanazawa Teruki’s aura. It was still the blue-purple it normally was at its base, but it was also incredibly streaked through with lemon-yellow exasperation and wheat-beige-disgust. He kept alternating from glaring daggers at his laptop and then at Hanazawa Teruki, who wasn’t looking at him.

And then there was the guy who was taking up pretty much all the attention in the room.

Hanazawa Teruki’s aura wasn’t something that could be seen over a screen, something that Arataka had lamented to his mother again and again. He had definitely seemed like the real deal, but with Arataka unable to talk himself into managing to scrounge up money for a ticket for one of his shows, he would never know if the guy was an actual esper. Sure Arataka hoped he was, but hope wasn’t something that Arataka had in spades.

Hanazawa Teruki’s base aura colors seemed to be yellow, teal, and orange. And his aura spiked around him like lightning, crackling like a live wire over his skin. At least, that’s what Arataka was hoping for.

He really hoped that Hanazawa Teruki’s base aura colors weren’t green-mildew-superiority, mahogany-annoyance, and red-hot-triumph.

So Kageyama-san was confused, Dimple was uneasy (not that Arataka cared a whole lot about that guy), Kageyama-otouto was exasperated and disgusted, and Hanazawa Teruki was annoyed, triumphant, and feeling superior to everyone in the room. Great. Just fantastic. This was exactly the type of room that Arataka wanted to come back to after a forced weekend vacation.

He took a deep breath in. Reaching in, he made sure that his aura dial was firmly on zero and then pressed as much yellow-sunshiney-happiness as he could stomach into the aura that was circling under his skin. And then he let the breath out and stepped fully into the room.

“I’m here!”

It was like those two words had broken some sort of spell on the entire office that had been circulating with the air conditioning, because Kageyama-san looked up, the deep-gray-confusion fading out and peacock-contentedness fading in, almost matching with his usual blue. Kageyama-otouto’s lemon-yellow-exasperation and wheat-beige-disgust completely erased themselves, replaced with fuchsia-thankfulness. Dimple’s storm-cloud-gray-unease disappeared.

And Hanazawa Teruki’s green-mildew-superiority, mahogany-annoyance, and red-hot-triumph disappeared in a flash to be replaced with ice-cold-blue-shock, followed by deep-gray-confusion.

“Good to see you, Reigen-kun.” Kageyama-san greeted, a small smile, which was barely an upturning of the lips. But hey, Arataka was getting better at reading him beyond his aura! So that just meant that he was doing fantastic.

“You’re late. Again. You brat.” Kageyama-otouto glanced at the laptop before closing it.

“I’m injured.” Arataka defended himself, closing the door behind himself. “The stairs are cruel.”

Ocean-blue-concern bolted through Kageyama-san’s aura, and he opened his mouth, probably to ask if there was anything he could do to help.

But it seemed Hanazawa Teruki had had enough of being ignored. The mahogany-annoyance had taken precedence over his aura, the yellow-teal-orange sticking close to his skin, but he looked way to ready to unleash the electric-like aura on the office.

“Are you all just rude and tend to ignore clients?” Hanazawa Teruki asked. Loudly. Like, obnoxiously loud. Huh, that definitely wasn’t his television voice. Arataka would have to ask about that at another time. The lemon-yellow-exasperation and wheat-beige-disgust were back in Kageyama-otouto’s aura the second he spoke, so it was definitely Hanazawa Teruki’s fault for it. Huh, maybe that should put the guy on his shit list.

Arataka turned to look at the tv superstar. He had fairly long bright blond hair, that probably came down around the middle of his back, and most of it was gathered into a high ponytail, with some bangs framing his face. He wore a purple blazer (interesting color choice, in Arataka’s opinion) with a casual black shirt underneath and some cream dress pants. The look was finished off with a dark brown belt and dark brown shoes.

“Are you a client?” Arataka decided to ask point blank. It was funny to see the baby-blue-surprise pop up in the guy’s aura. “I wouldn’t think that the great Hanazawa Teruki would need our help.”

Baby-blue-surprise reigned over the entirety of Hanazawa Teruki’s aura, totally eclipsing the yellow-teal-orange for a split second, before the three colors came back, but with yellow-goldenrod-satisfaction and sunset-red-thoughtfulness curling on the edges. And the green-mildew-superiority was back. Great, just great.

“Well! At least one of you who works here knows about me! Although, of course it’s the non-esper one who does. Couldn’t be someone with more power, noooo. Couldn’t be someone important.”

Arataka completely ignored that last little comment that Hanazawa Teruki had made, he was hiding his aura for a reason, and instead looked at the Kageyama brothers. Dimple could be excused, he was a damn spirit. But those two didn’t know about the other esper loudly proclaiming that he was an esper to the world on television?

“What does he mean that neither of you know who he is?” He asked the two adults with his hands on his hips, watching with slight surprise as cinnamon-red-anger tint both of their auras. Why were they angry? Was it his question?

“Goldilocks, we don’t watch television. Unless it’s informative, or one of Nii-san’s old shows that he likes rewatching.” Kageyama-otouto’s nails were drumming a pattern on the top of his desk. His eyes were focused on the back of Hanazawa Teruki’s head, like he was trying to bore a hole through it with laser vision. Wait, was that an actual esper power? That would be so cool if it was and Kageyama-otouto actually had it.

Arataka sighed loudly. “Of course you’re the one who watches informative television, Kageyama-otouto.”

“Hey!”

“Reigen-kun, how does that bear any weight on Hanazawa-san being in our office?” Kageyama-san asked, going back to his laptop, although he was looking at Arataka over the top of it.

“That I don’t know! But Hanazawa Teruki is a television superstar, because he’s a psychic.” Arataka explained. “Which is why I was so surprised that he showed up here claiming to be a client. I need to get you both social media accounts, it could also extend our clientele reach too.”

Arataka would look into that later. After Hanazawa Teruki has left the office and today could continue to be a good day.

“He’s most certainly a psychic alright.” Kageyama-otouto muttered under his breath. Arataka decided to ignore this, and turned back to the superstar-shaped elephant in the room, who was still showing green-mildew-superiority and yellow-goldenrod-satisfaction.

“Why are you here? If you’re not a client. . . . . .” He trailed off meaningfully, watching as gray-stone-determination started to color the edges of the yellow-teal-orange aura.

“I’m here to challenge Kageyama Shigeo to a fight!”

Arataka could hear a pin drop in the offices. The lemon-yellow-exasperation and wheat-beige-disgust was back in Kageyama-otouto’s blue-purple aura, still tinged a little bit with cinnamon-red-anger on the very edges.

So that definitely was the reason for the all the emotions that Arataka had walked into.

“Never a dull day here, huh?” He asked hollowly.

“I swear it’s you Goldilocks. Nothing like this has ever happened beforehand.” Kageyama-otouto grumbled. Arataka rolled his eyes and looked at Hanazawa Teruki, who really looked like he wasn’t moving from the couch at all until he got his fight from Kageyama-san.

“Why do you want to fight the boss?” He asked, and ignored the spluttering from Kageyama-otouto. No matter whatever the hell that he said, they all knew, except for maybe Kageyama Shigeo himself, was the boss at the office.

“I heard he took down an entire cult.” Hanazawa Teruki leaned back into the cushions. “One that apparently had an extremely powerful spirit that was the leader. So, I really wanna show who is better. Even though I already know.” He tossed his hair that had fallen over his shoulder back over.

Arataka turned to look at Dimple, who was trying to go invisible.

“This is all your fucking fault.” He said simply, wishing he knew how to exorcize spirits. That would make everything so much easier.

“Language!” “Swear jar!”

“What!?” Arataka whipped his head to Kageyama-otouto, who looked far too gleeful for this development. “Since when did we get a swear jar!?”

“Over the weekend.” Kageyama-otouto was so smug. Raspberry-pink-smugness radiated from the aura now, eclipsing the lemon-yellow-exasperation and wheat-beige-disgust. “It’s in the kitchen.”

The middle schooler grumbled as he trekked to the kitchen, pulling out his wallet to toss a one-hundred-yen coin into the–

Arataka squinted at the already half-full jar and grinned brightly. He tossed his coin in and it landed on top of other currency with a satisfied clink. He pulled off his coat while he was in here, putting it on the coat hook in here and putting his schoolbag on it as well. He was sure Kageyama-otouto would want to deal with his homework later and look it over, but that could be a later thing. When they didn’t have Hanazawa Teruki in the office and demanding a fight from Kageyama-boss.

Walking back into the office space, he saw Kageyama-san’s aura full of heather-exhaustion as he was apparently trying to explain to Hanazawa Teruki about the fact that he wasn’t just going to fight him and show who was stronger.

Although, Arataka already knew who was stronger esper here, and there was no need for a fight to determine it.

Someone beating Kageyama-san just wasn’t in the question. Not with what he had witnessed with Dimple’s creepy cult and the takedown.

Arataka decided to tune in, leaning on the support for the entryway for the kitchen alcove, watching as his boss fended off the attempts of Hanazawa Teruki to cajole him into a fight. Maybe they should just have a milk-drinking contest? That way Boss would win and Hanazawa Teruki would leave and Arataka could continue to have a nice day.

“–and we could get you a total makeover too if you wanted!” Ah, he had moved onto bribery with material things. Too bad Boss wasn’t someone who really contributed to the consumerism of today. “We could totally get you looking less like a background character, a mob, and more like a main character, like me.”

Hanazawa Teruki flipped his hair again, striking a pose. Arataka only saw it out of the corner of his eye. There were more important things to deal with. Way more important things.

Like the blood-orange-self-deprecation that had started to seep into Boss’s aura the second that Hanazawa Teruki had described him as a “mob” and the burgundy-black-hatred that was starting to crawl into Kageyama-otouto’s aura the longer the man stayed in their office.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to let that stand or let that happen without intervention.

“Hey!” If Arataka was good for one thing, it was making noise. Hanazawa Teruki turned to look at him, a slight tinge of baby-blue-surprise on his yellow-teal-orange aura. He had likely forgotten about Arataka the moment he left his vision.

Well, no longer. No one insulted Arataka’s coworkers and older friends and got away with it. Not on his watch.

Stalking forward with all the power of a surging tidal wave, he placed himself between Hanazawa Teruki and Boss.

“That was rude. Apologize.”

Ice-cold-blue-shock radiated, before bubblegum-pink-amusement took its place and Hanazawa Teruki laughed in his face. Seriously, why was a middle schooler more educated on manners than most espers? Why was he having to teach them the golden rule? Ah well, it’s fine. He had a voice and he could use it well.

And he had something else too, a neat little party trick that always seemed to shock most espers whenever he encountered them.

He reached into himself, turning the aura dial up and up and up and up and up. Up until he could be really considered a threat by the guy in front of him. He needed the attention off of Kageyama-san and solely on him.

Rose gold, periwinkle, and sunset purple revealed itself while it was in mid-surge, violent and rolling as stormy sea waves. The colors and their intensity instantly irritated Arataka’s head, but it was worth it to see that face on Hanazawa Teruki’s face. He wished he could treasure it just a little longer, but Boss was probably still hurting from the slight to his appearance, so Arataka would have to wrap this up quickly.

“I said,” he whispered slowly as his aura surged outward again, eclipsing the sight of Kageyama-san behind him, “that was rude. Apologize to Boss.”

Deep brown eyes clashed with vibrant blue ones.

Hanazawa Teruki stood up, and now Arataka was the one forced to look upwards. He held his ground though, refusing to give even a centimeter to this bastard. What he had said to Arataka’s friend was rude, so Arataka would defend his friend. Even if that meant to his own detriment, he would do it. No one else cared if it was to his detriment before, so the Kageyama brothers probably wouldn’t either.

Hanazawa Teruki’s aura lashed out, clashing with his mid-surge. Arataka grit his teeth, the aura definitely felt like it looked. Electric. It felt like standing in the middle of a field and there was an incoming lightning storm. And it would hit Arataka, and it would hit hard. There was no avoiding it. But that was fine, because he was ready to weather the storm and fight everything off and take the hit that was coming. He would be okay, he knew he would, and–

A hand placed itself on Arataka’s shoulder, and revolving blue-pink-purple wrapped around him. Fuchsia-thankfulness colored the very edges of it, and the hand on his shoulder squeezed just ever-so-slightly. That was all that Arataka was able to feel before he was being lifted by blue-purple and pulled over to Kageyama-otouto’s desk. No wait, behind Kageyama-otouto’s desk. What the hell? Dimple was hovering nearby, and he was just giving Arataka a look.

Not to mention, steel-gray-protectiveness was woven into both of the Kageyama’s auras, like a lace spine.

Boss stood in front of Hanazawa Teruki, aura lifting his hair up as he stared at the man. They had a bit of a staring contest, before Hanazawa Teruki tilted his head, just a little bit. A tiny bit of acknowledgement laced across his face, and he took a step back and away from Kageyama-san.

“Fine, I’ll fight you.” Kageyama-san sighed.

Hanazawa Teruki’s aura perked up with red-hot-triumph and yellow-sunshiney-happiness at finally being given what he wanted.

“But, not today.”

Ice-cold-blue-shock and deep-gray-confusion replaced the red-hot-triumph and yellow-sunshiney-happiness. (And thank goodness for that, Arataka didn’t think he could stand to see it for that much longer. It reminded him too much of Dimple’s cult.)

“Why not today!?” Hanazawa Teruki cried out, practically wailed. He looked right about to throw himself at Kageyama-Boss, who wasn’t really happy right now. In fact, Boss’s aura looked really infused with purple-heather-regret and dusty-rose-trepidation. Like he was gonna try and teleport like Shimazaki-senpai to get away from Hanazawa Teruki, which Arataka could understand.

Hanazawa Teruki acted completely differently than he did on television.

“Are you serious?!” Kageyama-otouto asked sharply, his aura spiking out to garner attention onto him. “You burst into OUR offices, interrogate US, and then insist to fight US and don’t calm down until our secretary gets here about two hours later. You don’t get to choose the day that you two fight.”

“Besides, I wanna be there!” Arataka put his hand up high. He was completely ignored, but that was fine.

“Ugghh, fine.” Hanazawa Teruki sighed, like he was a kid being denied a toy to play with. “What day do you want to fight then, Kageyama Shigeo?”

“Wednesday should be a good day. We don’t have anything going on that day, do we? Nothing strenuous?” Boss turned to look at Kageyama-otouto, but Arataka had pulled out a planner that he had bought and flipped to the week that they were in.

“Wednesday is the most free day you have, yeah.” Arataka nodded.

“The hell do you know that!?” Kageyama-otouto muttered, peering over his shoulder. “How did you manage to get everything written down already?”

“I’m a good secretary!” He chirped, closing the planner with a snap. “Plus, you guys don’t have any passwords on your emails and anyone could access your calendar.”

“I’m locking you outside the office, Goldilocks.” Kageyama-otouto threatened emptily.

“It’s warming up, so that’s fine! I can just work from out there.” Arataka snipped back, and Dimple rolled his eyes above them. That guy seriously needed to get a life. Er, new life? Scratch that, last time he tried it, Arataka and Boss got kidnapped for his cult. So no, Dimple could not get a new life, not yet. Not till he redeemed himself at least a little bit. Er, a lot bit.

“Enough, you two.” Boss sighed, before looking back at Hanazawa Teruki.

“We’ll meet on Wednesday, and have our fight then, understand?”

“Sure, fine!” Hanazawa Teruki threw his hands up in an over the top way. Purposefully theatrical, if Arataka had to guess. Which made sense, he was a television star, and wait, that made him think of something really really important– “Give me your phone number, and we’ll plan time and location too.”

“No production people!” Arataka yelled, slamming his hands down on Kageyama-otouto’s desk to lean over it to get a better look at Hanazawa Teruki. “Absolutely no production people! Only you guys. And us! But no one else.”

“What!? But c’mon, a fight between two psychics! That’s gonna be a dream for my production crew! They’d absolutely love it, and Kageyama, you’d get so much publicity for this dingy little office. Just one camera guy, please?” Hanazawa Teruki whined, his hands coming up to clasp one of Kageyama-boss’s in them.

Kageyama-boss, for his own part, had wheat-beige-disgust in his aura the second that a camera was mentioned.

“Absolutely not.” Kageyama-otouto said sharply. “I speak for the both of us. No cameras. You bring one, we walk. Got it?”

“Fiiiiiiiinneeee.” Hanazawa Teruki whined one last time, their numbers were exchanged, and the man was out the door.

Silence was ringing loudly in the office before Dimple decided to silence it with his words.

“So what the hell just happened?”

“Language.” Kageyama-boss said with a tired groan, going back to his desk and sitting in the seat behind it, dropping his head into his hands. “Don’t swear around Reigen-kun.”

“Swear jar.” Kageyama-otouto muttered, sitting down at his own desk, even though he hadn’t moved at all since dragging Arataka over here when he tried to make Hanazawa Teruki apologize.

“I don’t have money.” Dimple sneered. “And what the hell?” He asked, probably just to rub it in, “why are you gonna fight that guy when you hate fighting in general Shigeo? You had to be totally mad when fighting me.”

“Actually he was in rage mode!” Arataka piped up to give his own five yen, shifting on his feet when all eyes went to him. “I hope you don’t need to go to that extreme when fighting Hanazawa Teruki in a few days, Boss.”

Kageyama-otouto glared at him.

“So Nii-san gets ‘boss,’ but I get ‘little brother?’ I see what you’re doing kid.”

“You can’t tell me that Kageyama-san isn’t the boss here.” Arataka replied with. “Also, why did you guys get so upset when he called you a ‘mob?’ Can I ask that? Otherwise we can forget about it.”

“It’s fine.” Kageyama-san said, even though his aura was full of deep-blue-sadness. “It’s just a stupid nickname from childhood.”

Arataka turned to look at him fully, tilting his head this way and that to understand it. It couldn’t be that Boss was so unimportant that he was a background character, even though he looked like one. Boss just liked look nondescript is all. Normal, and that was perfectly fine, since Kageyama-otouto could stand out for the two of them.

His eyes caught on the nameplate for Kageyama-san, and it clicked.

“Oh!” He snapped his fingers. “It’s because of the kanji! I get it!”

Ice-cold-blue-shock radiated from the two of them.

“Although,” Arataka rubbed his chin in thought as he peered at Boss, “you kinda look more like a mob boss now.”

Baby-blue-surprise coursed through Kageyama-san’s aura, and bubblegum-pink-amusement radiated through Dimple’s, and he laughed. Sunset-yellow-playfulness crackled through Kageyama-otouto’s.

“A mob boss?” Kageyama-san asked slowly.

“Yeah! They’re totally in charge and in control of things! And have a lot of power backing themselves up! And completely nondescript so they can walk away from a scene of a crime! You’re a total mob boss, Boss!” Arataka’s hands were dancing around him like he was flicking drops of water on Boss playfully. “That’s your new nickname now! Mob-Boss!”

Dusty-rose-trepidation flickered through Kageyama-otouto’s aura as he flicked his eyes back and forth between the two.

Fuchsia-thankfulness, green-sea-wonder, and yellow-sunshiney-happiness radiated from Mob-Boss, and he gave a bigger smile than he normally did. It was a full mouth smile, his entire face lighting up as he smiled.

“Alright, Reigen-kun. I’m Mob-Boss now.”

Arataka grinned back, before clapping his hands.

“O-kay! I’m gonna go finish up that filing room! Yell if you need anything!”

~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday came around quicker than Ritsu liked.

Reigen was bouncing on his toes beside him, a nervous ball of energy that was trying to act cool in front of Nii-san and Hanazawa. The kid was distracting Nii-san from the fact that he was going to have to fight with psychic powers in a few minutes, so Ritsu wouldn’t comment much on his topic choices, like what the teachers were trying to get them to read at Salt middle school nowadays or if milk bread was better to cream bread.

Ritsu had a duffel bag full of medical equipment that he had managed to scrounge up in the few short hours that he wasn’t around his brother. It wasn’t that he expected Nii-san to walk out of this banged up and bruised, but Shige was always the type to defend, not attack. That’s not even mentioning his anemia. Shit, had he even been taking his iron pills? He had to have been, considering that Nii-san recently renewed his gym membership and bought some actual iron-rich vegetables.

It was always a surprise when Nii-san remembered his training with the Body Improvement Club and decided to do better for himself. Usually he got these lapses of not wanting to keep that training up and didn’t follow it. Now though, Ritsu could tell he was going to stick to it, he had that glint of determination in his eyes when he come in with the groceries yesterday.

Ritsu had a sneaking suspicion it was because of one Goldilocks that he was trying to do better.

He looked down at Reigen, who was doing his hand motions again, probably trying to burn off some nervous energy, the motions flowing back and forth like waves lapping at a beach. Nii-san was looking down at him, his face in its seemingly normal blank expression, but Ritsu had had his whole life to read those microexpressions.

There was a softness in the eyebrows and the slightest tilt in the corner of Nii-san’s mouth. He looked so soft for the kid that it nearly made Ritsu sick.

Then again, he wasn’t really one to talk. He was growing alarmingly soft for the damn brat that was somehow worming his way into his and Nii-san’s lives, and refused to leave. The kid was like a bright ray of light that had decided to show itself on their gloomy little corner, and like a creature of the night, Ritsu wanted to protect and keep that light to just himself and his brother. It was doing them good anyways. Nii-san looked better than he had in a long time. And Ritsu wasn’t going unchanged either.

He still remembered the way that Reigen had stood in front of an undoubtedly powerful esper and demanded that he apologize to Shige, simply because he could read their emotions like a book. He remembered the lightning quick anger that had laced through him when Hanazawa had indirectly-mostly-directly insulted Reigen, saying that he wasn’t important or didn’t have a lot of power. He remembered the protectiveness that had wrapped around his emotions when Hanazawa had looked ready to fight a literal child, simply because he demanded that the adult had some fucking manners.

Ritsu had nearly seen red before Nii-san had basically teleported to be behind Reigen and Ritsu tugged the brat to be beside him. Hanazawa had looked ready to fight, and any sane adult knows that you don’t hit a kid. Even though Reigen was annoying and brash and fierce and loud, he was still a kid. Adults don’t hit children, that was the rule of society. Hanazawa had looked ready to though.

He looked like a bully before Nii-san stepped in.

Ritsu hated bullies.

Letting out a sigh, he stared ahead and waited for Hanazawa to show up, shifting and placing the duffel bag of medical supplies on the pavement. The two more powerful psychics had decided that their fight would go down in a parking lot of all places. If it was Ritsu, he would have made sure that his opponent didn’t have any telekinesis and would make the fight occur in a place with a lot of grabbable pieces. Whatever though, this fight was between Nii-san and Hanazawa.

A tug on his sleeve brought his gaze down to Reigen, who was by his side now. Shige wasn’t on his other side, and before he could panic, he took a quick look around and saw his brother stretching. A good idea, to get the blood pumping before the fight. Looking back down, he saw Reigen still looking up at him, bright eyes practically gleaming with questions. Had Ritsu been so exhausting as a kid? He hoped not, if he had, he needed to apologize to his parents.

“What’s up, Buttercup?”

Reigen’s nose wrinkled at the other nickname that Ritsu had given the kid, and gave a long out sigh at it. Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, he pointed at the duffel bag on the ground.

“What’s that, Kageyama-otouto?”

The nickname that had rankled him so much brought nearly a sense of fondness to his mind. He immediately chased off that fondness with irritation, but wasn’t able to entirely, judging by the grin that Reigen sent him. Whatever, he could care less if this ridiculous kid knew about his fondness. He was a kid, what was he going to do with that information?

“It’s medical supplies.” Ritsu explained, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. For some reason, Hanazawa was only available later in the day, so the sun was starting to set, and it was getting cold. Spring was taking its time coming in. “Someone is going to get hurt, so it’s better for me to be prepared for the consequences.”

Reigen hummed, shifting closer to him. Not exactly leaning on him, but just being closer. Probably seeking to leech some warmth from him, since the idiotic brat was only wearing his gakuran and a light coat. Ritsu would offer his coat, but this fight shouldn’t take long at all. They’d send the kid home soon.

“You know a lot about medical stuff, don’t you Kageyama-otouto?” Reigen asked, and Ritsu tried not to freeze on the spot. He tried to chase away the shock and sadness and bitterness before the kid could see it in his aura. “’Cause you knew the name of the marks on my neck, and you checked for something wrong with my head and instructed my mom on what to do when you guys walked me home on Friday night.”

Ritsu licked his lips, trying to think about how to explain it to a kid. How does one explain the weight of responsibility and the pain of letting go? The pain of not being able to fulfill a dream that you once had, because you had a duty. You were the only one that knew the danger, and you were the only one who could make sure that the danger didn’t explode in everyone’s faces down the line. Ritsu was a good younger brother. The best younger brother, and he had moulded himself to be that good younger brother.

“I wanted to be a doctor, when I was younger.” Ritsu finally settled on. He watched his brother finish his stretches and do some light warmups.

He didn’t know what Reigen saw, but he felt a small hand grip his arm and squeeze it once.

“Kageyama Ritsu would be a good doctor.” The brat muttered.

“Maybe in another life kid.” Ritsu shook his head, and watched as Hanazawa jogged up in a bright neon-cyan jumpsuit, nearly as loud as his voice as he called out that he was there at last.

“What do you mean? You could always become one now.” Reigen looked up at him, and it made Ritsu give him a soft, sad smile.

“I’m content where I am.”

“But are you happy?” Reigen returned, right as the yellow aura flickered brightly and Nii-san’s aura shimmered into existence.

He wasn’t able to answer that question as he watched the fight.

Am I happy? He wondered to himself, before things went to shit.

~~~~~~~~~~

Arataka watched the fight, but his mind was focused on that conversation with Kageyama-otouto. He hoped the guy would listen to what he said, that he would think about choosing his happiness. Contentedness was nice and all, but everyone was always saying that they should explore their dreams before becoming content. It kinda sounded like that Kageyama-otouto hadn’t been allowed to explore his dreams, or allowed himself to explore his dreams.

The esper battle he was watching wasn’t particularly interesting, but that was only because he knew what Mob-boss could actually do when fighting. As he had actually been there when he fought Dimple. And had seen him levitate so many people with care.

So this fight wasn’t exactly special because it was basically Hanazawa Teruki trying to make Boss upset, and Boss just had his normal face on while he was deflecting everything. It was looking like this was turning into a battle of stamina. At least, that’s what it was looking like, but one thing that Hanazawa Teruki was infamous for was his inability to keep calm.

He was getting mad, Arataka could see it.

So he raced in and tried to punch Mob-boss straight to his face, his fist crackling with his electric yellow-teal-orange aura, and Mob-boss reacted like any esper would. With his own aura and holding his hand out to try and catch the fist that was going to hit him.

A bright clash of psychic energy, and Arataka had to cover his eyes from the blinding light. Rubbing at his eyes, he tried to force them to adjust quicker. When they did adjust, his jaw dropped, and his grip on Kageyama-otouto’s arm grew tighter.

“Oh no.” He whispered softly.

Mob-boss’s face drained of color.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry!” He quickly backed off and apologized.

Hanazawa Teruki didn’t seem to understand it. Not until he looked down.

The psychic energy clash had ripped the longer hair on the right side of his head clean off. Leaving bright blond strands to flutter to the ground.

Hanazawa Teruki stared down at hair on the ground, not processing it right away. Ice-cold-blue-shock rippled through his aura, followed by neon-yellow-panic, and then that was followed by purple-black-horror and biohazard-orange-rage.

“Uh oh.” Arataka whispered, and let go of Kageyama-otouto’s sleeve to run in and try to interfere. He needed to stop this before anything happened with those emotions powering the esper. He was held back by Kageyama-otouto a second later, pulled back to safety, and then there was a shimmering blue-pink-purple barrier making sure he wouldn’t be able to run in again, curtesy of Boss.

“No wait! You don’t understand! He’s gonna–!” Arataka tried to explain, but it was too late.

A wailing shriek was let loose from the depths of Hanazawa Teruki’s chest, and he threw himself at Boss, throwing punches with no coordination, and with no coordination comes no way of predicting those punches. And they apparently packed a punch too, since Boss was thrown back with each punch, until he finally hit the ground. His skull bounced with a sickening crack, and then hit the ground again.

Kageyama-otouto let go of his arm.

“Shige–”

The barrier fell.

Everyone was staying put. Hanazawa Teruki was breathing harshly, but staying still over Mob-boss. Kageyama-otouto was frozen still.

Arataka was looking for an aura. Everyone had auras, even when asleep. And Boss’s was going wild right now. Absolutely fritzing out.

And then Boss exploded.

Power exploded from him, and the sheer force from the air made Arataka go flying, hitting the side of a building. Since he wasn’t able to form a barrier around himself, he felt every brick that broke on impact and dug themselves into his body, and he groaned at feeling. He really didn’t like that. He hit the ground in front of him, and his knees would definitely be bruised tomorrow, or maybe even later tonight, but he still got up despite the sheer pressure that was still radiating from where Mob-boss was supposed to be.

Squinting his eyes, he saw the aura. It was a blinding white, so many emotions flickering in and out of existence and turning into each other and pushing into each other like ouroboros. And it was focusing completely on the yellow-teal-orange of Hanazawa Teruki. Who Boss had just been fighting. Shit, that wasn’t good.

Kageyama-otouto was frozen where he was standing, purple-black-horror and neon-yellow-panic and lime-green-fear rooting him in place. Did he recognize whatever was happening? Well it didn’t matter, because Mob-boss wasn’t going to stop, not until someone intervened.

Arataka may be a coward, but he cared deeply. And right now, Boss wasn’t himself, so that meant that Arataka needed to knock him out of whatever this state was.

He took off running, right past Kageyama-otouto who was still rooted where he had been standing, the duffel bag by his feet rattling with weight. Did that thing weigh more than Arataka? Rude.

He was halfway to Boss when it seemed Kageyama-otouto managed to realize what was happening.

“Wait– ARATAKA!” He screamed, and Arataka felt the blue-purple aura trying to settle around him, but he pushed his own aura outwards, letting the dial loose, and it shattered the weak hold that Kageyama-otouto tried to grab onto him. “ARATAKA! HE’S GOING TO HURT YOU!”

Arataka ignored him, pushing forward against the pressure, and finally was close enough to throw his arms around Boss’s waist. He dialed his aura back down, and just held on for dear life.

There was a slight change to the pressure in the air. He knew that Kageyama-san was looking at him. Maybe even recognized him. Could he recognize anyone in this state? He had to try. He didn’t have a barrier, which was usually a weakness in a fight, but right now it wasn’t a fight that he was involved in. So a barrier would actually work for a disadvantage to Arataka in a case like this, but since he couldn’t even generate one, it worked out that he could get to Boss like this. He could use his weak power to his advantage like this.

“You’ve got to calm down!” Arataka yelled, his face pressed against Kageyama-boss’s coat. “Please! You gotta calm down Boss! Otherwise you’re gonna actually hurt him!”

Arataka had to get through to Boss, because he knew that deep down, Kageyama Shigeo was a good guy. He was a genuinely good person and he would end up hating himself if he actually hurt Hanazawa Teruki, even if the idiotic man deserved it. He would destroy himself mentally, maybe break his mind to pieces, if he found out that he actually hurt someone with his powers.

The only reason Arataka wasn’t using his own powers right now and pushing butter-yellow-calm into his aura and trying to calm down Boss that way was because of two reasons. One, he himself wasn’t calm right now, so it would just be patchy feelings of calm with overriding feelings of anxiety. Two, Arataka didn’t know that if any emotions he pushed into that ouroboros wouldn't be gobbled up and added to that insane swirling infinite loop of emotions. Technically, Arataka could try to take the emotions away, take some away, but he didn't want to test that theory right now. Not in the middle of this, this craziness.

"Please calm down." He whispered, clinging tighter. "I know you're upset, but please don't kill him."

The unrelenting pressure around him held still for a slight second. Another second. Three seconds.

Then there was almost a ‘pop’ to the pressure, like someone was letting the pressure out of a balloon. It was there then gone all of the sudden, and it made Arataka a little nauseous, but he wasn’t going to think about that, because Boss’s aura was calming down.

Boss was also falling down, going to his knees, and Arataka tried to support him as much as he could.

“Ah! Kageyama-otouto! Please help!” He called, struggling to keep Boss’s head from hitting the ground as he slumped over Arataka. Boss was nearly squishing him to the pavement. Arataka tried to keep his head supported and safe, until blue-purple shimmered around Boss and lifted him off of Arataka and relieving him of the weight.

A sigh escaped as Kageyama-boss was placed on the pavement beside him, and he was quick to cradle Boss’s head, keeping it from the pavement.

“YOU!” Arataka immediately got cuffed around the head by Kageyama-otouto. He would have been more upset about it if he didn’t see the ocean-blue-concern, steel-gray-protectiveness, and crimson-red-franticness that was whirling through his aura and the tears that were trying to line his eyes. “Do you even realize how IDIOTIC that was!? Did you not feel the power? The explosion!? You could have died Arataka!”

“I–” Arataka tried to get a word in, but was spoken over with because Kageyama-otouto was on a roll and in no way going to listen to whisper-soft sea waves that Arataka’s voice was being.

“Shigeo’s power is enormous! He could level a city if he wanted to. He could have easily killed everyone here, squashed us like bugs under his feet, and have more than enough to spare!” Kageyama-otouto continued on.

“But he didn’t.” Arataka muttered. “He stopped. He listened to me.”

“You, you little– just running into danger without a single thought of your own life–”

“I’m sorry.” Arataka bowed his head.

“And– and– fuck kid.” Kageyama-otouto sat beside him, actually collapsing and holding his head in his hands. “You can’t just do shit like that. You’ll make me turn into a spirit before I’m forty.”

“Swear jar.” Arataka whispered, the humor falling flat. Kageyama-otouto groaned, his hands going behind him and propping himself up. “Ah, what about Hanazawa Teruki?”

Kageyama-otouto blinked at him, then reached a hand out and flicked his fingers, the unconscious blond and the duffel bag of medical supplies floating over. As he was on his way over, Hanazawa Teruki started to stir, and hissed at the pain that he was no doubt in. He did get crushed into the ground after all through telekinesis. Not something that Arataka wasn’t looking forward to explaining. He also wasn’t looking forward to seeing the blond’s reaction to his neon-cyan jumpsuit being absolutely frayed to the hems and made into practically shorts and a tank top.

“What the fuck happened?” The celebrity muttered as he was set down and Kageyama-otouto started rummaging through the duffel bag.

“Don’t swear around Reigen.” He sighed, pulling out a pen light. “And what happened, was you made my brother explode.”

Arataka looked up from where he was focusing on putting a braid in Boss’s hair. “Explode? You mean that other form?”

“Yeah.” Kageyama-otouto looked really tired as he shined a light into Hanazawa Teruki’s eyes. “Shige doesn’t, he hasn’t exploded in years. Not since we were kids. But when he goes unconscious in the middle of a fight, whether by his own hand or by someone else’s, everyone is about to be in deep trouble.”

He looked back down, making another braid and mulled over the new information. An explosion of power and emotions, that’s what it had felt like and looked like. The emotions that had swirled into each other and didn’t let anything out, that was dangerous. Is that why Mob-boss didn’t really allow his emotions to stay put? He often tried to lock them away, Arataka had noticed that. Maybe he should work on that with Boss. Emotions need to be felt and be processed in order to be taken care of properly.

Boss started to groan in his lap, turning to face the sky.

“Boss!” Arataka yelled, and the man squinted his eyes open to stare at him. “You’re awake, are you okay? Are you hurting? Do you need some water?”

He closed his eyes again. “Silence.”

Arataka mimed zipping his lips closed. The act was lost on Boss, since his eyes were closed, but Arataka was sure that the man understood him.

“Nii-san, are you hurting?” Kageyama-otouto abandoned Hanazawa Teruki to be by his brother’s side. “Do you need painkillers?”

“No. I’ll be fine.” Boss shook his head. “What happened?”

Kageyama-otouto was quiet. Hanazawa Teruki was, uncharacteristically, quiet. Boss opened his eyes to look at them, sitting up, and Arataka helped him up. Boss’s eyes fell on him, and Arataka mimed unzipping his lips before he told him, since he had zipped them close early.

“You apparently, exploded?” He chanced a glance at Kageyama-otouto, who was looking away.

Purple-black-horror, neon-yellow-panic, and blood-orange-self-deprecation filled Boss’s aura, and his dark eyes flicked from person to person.

“I– I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. I’m so so sorry, I should have more control. I hurt you all and–”

“You didn’t hurt me.” Arataka broke into the spiraling rant that the man was working himself into, watching the aura that had started to reach out and lift things retract. “I don’t know about Hanazawa Teruki, but I’m okay. And I know Kageyama-otouto is okay.”

“I’ll live, but my pride definitely won’t.” Hanazawa Teruki sighed, more like groaned, as he flopped onto his back. “Damn Kageyama, where are you hiding all of that?”

“Serves you right, you came to us to pick a fight.” Kageyama-otouto grumbled. “And to think you wanted to bring a camera crew.”

“I wouldn’t be releasing that footage!” Hanazawa Teruki shot back.

Boss and Arataka exchanged a glance, and they couldn’t help but laugh at the two idiots that were making fools of themselves arguing over whether the footage would be released to the public or not.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Ho? What’s that kid?”

“Hey! Mind your own beeswax you fart!”

Shigeo raised his eyes from his laptop, where he had been responding to emails that had come in quickly since the fight with Hanazawa-san (and Shigeo did think that Hanazawa-san was sending people their way now, which was nice but that also mean that they were busy), and looked at Reigen-kun and Dimple.

Reigen-kun now had his own desk and chair, that had been assembled with psychic powers because Shigeo and Ritsu really didn’t trust each other to make it otherwise. They would have made it backwards if they tried it the traditional way, and they both knew it.

Right now, Dimple was hovering over Reigen-kun, who was holding a sheet of paper to his chest and swatting at the spirit, who danced out of reach. Er, floated out of reach? It didn’t matter, what mattered was that Dimple was bothering Reigen-kun, who had seen Shigeo at his worst the other day.

He still felt shame for such a thing, losing control like he did. He should know better, have better control. He could be better, he would be better. He had already promised himself that he would be better for Reigen-kun, and losing control like that was inexcusable.

Shigeo would be better. He promised himself that he would be. For Reigen-kun, for Ritsu, for himself.

“What are you two doing?” He asked, standing up to walk over.

Uncharacteristically, Reigen-kun flushed a bright red and clutched the piece of paper tighter to his chest.

“It’s nothing! Dimple is just being nosy like usual!”

“Hmm? Sounds like you’re trying to hide something from us brat.” Ritsu said, probably looking for an excuse from paperwork, and snatched the paper from Reigen-kun’s hands with a flick of his fingers and with his aura. “That’s no good, we’re not supposed to have secrets around here.” He continued to tease.

“Wha– hey! Kageyama-otouto, give that back!” Reigen-kun got up from his seat to chase the piece of paper, vaulting over the couch only to faceplant onto the floor thanks to one of his feet not clearing it.

“Nope, don’t think I will.”

“You’re such a bully!” Reigen-kun cried, hand to his forehead, where he hit himself, and Shigeo decided that was more important than a piece of paper, and went fuss over the kid.

“You okay?” He asked, deciding to be at least a little daring and push the bangs up so he could see if there was a bruise. He wasn’t so scared of Reigen Yoshiko-san now, but now more of the fact that Reigen-kun could be trying to hide his hurt from them. No bruise, thankfully.

“I’m fine!” Reigen-kun whined, pulling away and brushing himself off.

Ritsu was being oddly quiet, so Shigeo chanced a glance over at him. His brother was staring at the piece of paper, his eyes oddly misty-looking and the tips of his ears were pink. Shigeo knew that look, he didn’t have to be an empath to read his brother’s emotions, Ritsu was embarrassed and flattered about something.

Walking over and peering over Ritsu’s shoulder, Shigeo blinked at the sketch on the page.

It was an accurate sketch of Ritsu in pencil while he was doing paperwork, from his hand being buried into his hair and his brow furrowed in concentration to the stubborn jut of his jaw and the spikes of his bangs. What Shigeo wasn’t used to were the colors surrounding his brother. The blue and purple spikes he understood, as Ritsu’s psychic aura, but there were some other colors in there too. Heather and mahogany were weaved into the aura, what looked like purposefully.

“Is that what he looks like to you?” Shigeo turned to ask the youngest in the room, who had gone quiet too. He looked meek, almost like he was scared that they might not like his work. Reigen-kun nodded, his hands gripping the edges of his gakuran shirt as he watched the two of them, relaxing as they didn’t do anything.

Did he think they would rip it up like Emi-san’s bullies had done? Why would they do something like that, it was a wonderful drawing. Reigen-kun had incredible skill.

“Do you have one of me?” Shigeo couldn’t help but ask. He wanted to know how Reigen-kun saw him.

Reigen-kun reached into his bag, hesitatingly, and pulled out a piece of paper, the blank side turned to Shigeo, and held it out to him. It was odd that he was so quiet, but maybe he was just unsure of his own talent? That wouldn’t be any good. Maybe Shigeo should get him a proper notebook? That was something artist’s use, right?

Shigeo took the piece of paper, flipping it over.

His own profile sketch looked back at him, done in pencil again, and he had a mug of tea in his hand and his other hand on his laptop. The laptop was less defined than Shigeo himself, as he was the focal point of piece. That made his cheeks flush with color as well, as it did with Ritsu. Reigen-kun had drawn him with his turtleneck on and his coat thrown over the back of his chair, the steam rising out of the mug since the tea was hot. His face was relaxed from its usual monotonous mask, a slight smile on his face that he usually had on when he was drinking tea and dealing with emails.

His own aura was shown in blue-pink-purple’s, rotating in multiple circles that were no less intricate than the spikes that Reigen-kun had drawn for Ritsu. Throughout his aura were colors that reminded Shigeo of a zoo visit and seeing exotic peacocks and yellow like the sun.

Looking at his sketch, and then comparing it to the one he saw of Ritsu’s, he realized that the two were mirroring each other, like their desks in the office.

Reaching out, he nabbed the sketch of Ritsu from his brother’s fingers, ignoring the incensed “Hey!” from his brother and walked over to the corkboard that the brothers had put up in the early days of the office. They had thought that maybe they would place adverts there, maybe a photo or two there. But the corkboard had been embarrassingly bare for the entirety of time it had been up.

Grabbing two pins with his aura, he placed the sketches in the center, and with a flick of his fingers, the pins were sunk into the cork through the paper. He made sure that they were both straight before he stepped back.

“There we go.” He nodded to himself in satisfaction, glad that the pieces were showcased. “Much better, don’t you think Ritsu?”

Ritsu looked at the places on the corkboard, and from how he ducked his head to hide his smile, he agreed. But he wouldn’t show it, because he was a huge softy who refused to show that. What was that term again? Ah, it didn’t matter. Shigeo turned to Reigen-kun, who was watching them both, eyes bouncing back and forth between the two like a wave that came in and out rapidly on the ocean beach.

“You. . . . you both like them?” He asked, oh so softly. Like he was going to get in trouble for asking such a question.

“I certainly like mine.” Shigeo nodded. “And I know that Ritsu wouldn’t have let me take it and put it up if he didn’t like his.”

“Oi!”

Shigeo ignored his brother, who was just trying to save face. He instead focused on the kid, who was still gripping at the edge of his gakuran, and then slowly smoothed it out so it didn’t wrinkle too much. A deep breath in, and was Reigen-kun trying to calm himself down? Why was he upset? Maybe they should have asked before displaying them–

“I’m glad.” Reigen-kun said quietly, his head still bowed. His hands were still clenched in fists, but they weren’t shaking anymore. “I’m glad you both like them.”

He lifted his head up, a bright smile on his face, eyes scrunched closed by the force of the smile. “I’m really glad you like them!”

They were all quiet in the office for a few minutes.

“Kageyama-otouto should buy dinner tonight.”

“Brat! I’ll make it come out of your paycheck!”

Shigeo smiled at the ensuing smile and fake chase around the office, already going through the list of places that they could go for dinner tonight. The feeling inside the office was easy and calm, happy.

Shigeo realized he had actually smiled as he reached a hand up to his face.

Huh. He was actually really happy. The world had gotten a whole lot brighter since Reigen-kun burst into his life by gripping onto his sleeve and tugging himself closer. Who knew that being kidnapped by a cult would end up with such a ray of sunshine into his and Ritsu’s life? Ritsu had definitely felt better since Reigen-kun entered their lives, relaxing more and allowing his younger-sibling-tendencies to come out. Meanwhile, Shigeo himself was growing stronger and was determined to be better for the kid that had somehow waltzed his way into their lives and forced their doors open and kicked their walls down.

The future looked bright.

He could get used to this.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Huh. Interesting.”

The figure that was watching the antics in the office tilted their head, resting their cheek on the knuckles of their right hand.

Their eyes were fastened on the kid in the room, who was now bouncing by the desk of the man with the bowl cut hair. He seemed like such a happy kid, despite everything that was happening at his school.

“How very interesting.”

A nasty grin split lips, cracking the dry skin.

“I wonder how long it will take you to awaken.”