William MacAlistair opened his eyes slowly. His bleary vision revealed stars on the unfamiliar ceiling above him. It took him a moment to remember where he was. He sat up, and all of the events of the day before came flooding back to him. He remembered that he was sitting in the dusty bedroom that belonged to a boy who died. Despite having slept on the floor, he felt surprisingly well-rested. He assumed this was a result of cutting out Anabelle’s emotions last night. He felt much lighter now. Since he hadn’t been around people in so long, it had been a while since he had to cut. He hated having to do it, but he knew from previous experience that cutting was the only method that succeeded in releasing those stubborn emotions from his system.

It took Al a second to realize that Yui Genki was awake. He was laying back in bed, with his fluffy head propped up on pillows. His knees were bent, and his piano fingers tapped away at his smartphone. “Morning, Al,” he said chipperly. He took a quick glance over at Al before looking back at his phone. There was a pleasant smile on his face, which Al had begun to surmise was his default expression.

“Good morning,” Al grumbled. His voice was even more gravelly than usual. He cleared his throat. “Texting a friend?”

“Nah, just making some final adjustments on my website,” Yui said.

“Website?”

  “‘Course,” Yui replied, as Al got up and walked over to the side of the bed. “Gotta get myself out there somehow, right? Now that I'm here in Shining City, I’m bound to get more patients!”

“Patients,” Al repeated, incredulously, as he rolled his eyes. He laid a hand on the little bedside table and leaned over Yui’s shoulder. 

“Just a sec,” Yui said. “I’m almost done editing.” He leaned forward and sat up.

Al took notice of the back of Yui’s hairstyle for the first time. It was a rounded, slightly choppy bowl cut, with the underside buzzed. Al had a weakness for undercuts. He briefly imagined running his fingers upward along the short, soft fur and slipping them under the curtain of longer hair, letting the strands massage between his fingers. Oh shit, he quickly snapped himself back to reality. He couldn’t believe he was fantasizing about this kid. He noticed he had a slight erection. It’s just morning wood, he repeated to himself three times over.

“Alright, here it is,” Yui announced. He turned to Al, got really close, and held his phone in front of him.

Based on Al’s initial impression of Yui, he would have expected his website to greet visitors with a huge high-quality photograph of Yui gazing seductively at the camera, with an awkward slogan like “fuck your trauma away”, so Al was pleasantly surprised to see that the web page looked like that of a normal therapist, which is something Al had become all too familiar with over the years, due to his sister, Meredith, helping him find help online. “This actually looks really nice,” his voice softened as he sounded mildly impressed.

“Thanks,” Yui smiled. “This is how Anabelle found me.”

Al touched the screen and scrolled through the page as Yui held the phone in place. Seeing Yui’s thin, delicate fingers next to his own thick digits made him feel huge and awkward. It made him wish he wasn’t so hulking. He had a hard time pressing links on the touch-screen, since he was used to using a flip-phone. He felt embarrassed and a little ashamed of both his size and lack of dexterity. He certainly wasn’t tech-savvy either. 

Yui saw Al’s face scrunch up in frustration while he tried to click on the appointment form. “I got it,” he said, trying to suppress a giggle. He pressed the little link that led to forms for the patient to fill out. The first one was a typical depression scale chart, something that Al had gotten frighteningly high numbers on when he filled them out years ago. 

Al scrolled down to the second form, which looked the same, but had questions related to sexual activities. “Ah, so that’s how you do it.”

“Yeah, I have to make sure I know what kind of physical affection they like in advance,” he explained. “I have a little explanation in my bio about how I heal through sexual therapy.” Yui helped Al get to his biography page. It had a small, modest photo of Yui smiling, with a short description of what he does.

“Sexual therapy, huh...” Al thought about it. Somehow seeing it written out professionally like this made him feel like maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing after all. Al was against prostitution in general, but this was different. Yui was actually healing people through sex. Something about it almost seemed… beautiful. Was this young man’s body really the cure to the ailments of the soul? Al looked at him and took a deep breath. Come to think of it, he felt like he could breathe surprisingly clearly now.  

“Am I taking you home?” Yui asked.

“Huh?”

“I dragged you out here on a whim,” Yui elaborated. “Bet you wanna go back home, huh? This is probably rough for you, with your condition and all.” For some reason, Al was surprised to hear Yui express concern for his well-being. The day before, Yui blew Al around like a gust of wind, seemingly not paying any mind to Al’s wishes. He seemed more like a force of nature than a person with whom Al could communicate.

“Oh,” Al froze for a second. He hadn’t even thought of going back home. “Actually, Yui,” this was the first time Al said his name out loud. It made him feel closer, somehow. Like this mysterious figure was finally real. “I think I’ll stay with you for a bit. …if that’s okay with you.” 

“Don’t you have work?” Yui asked, curiously.

“No,” Al swallowed nervously. “I’ve been unemployed for a while.”

“Oh, then by all means, stay with me!” Yui said. He seemed very pleased that Al didn’t have any occupations to keep him away. “The more the merrier!”

The men walked down the little staircase and saw Anabelle by the entrance. She was nicely dressed and was in the process of putting her jacket on. “Oh, good morning, boys,” she said airily.

“Good morning,” they said in unison. Al thought it was funny to be called a boy at his age. Especially by a woman so much younger than himself. Anabelle’s youth shined brightly now. She couldn’t have been much more than 30 years old. The dark circles under her eyes the night before were gone and her skin looked radiant. Al thought she must have had the best night’s sleep she’s had since her son’s passing. Al felt her contentment, and it put him in a good mood as well.

“I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself last night,” he said. “My name is Alistair. I’m Yui’s…” He paused. Frankly, he didn’t know what he was to Yui. Just some guy who tagged along. He was only an acquaintance. But he had a feeling a lady would be less accepting of her doctor bringing an acquaintance into her house than a good friend.

“He’s my friend,” Yui continued for him. Al looked at his feet and smiled shyly. He hasn’t had a friend besides his sister in a long time.

“It’s nice to meet you, Alistair,” she said, pleasantly. “I’m sorry I didn’t acknowledge you last night. I was... out of sorts.”

That was putting it mildly. “It’s alright,” Al said, “I understand. ...How are you feeling today?”

“Oh, I feel so good now that I can hardly remember what I was upset about,” she giggled girlishly.

“That’s good to hear,” Yui said with a triumphant smile.

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you want, Dr. Genki,” Anabelle offered, “and you as well, Alistair.”

“Wow, really?” Yui exclaimed. “Thanks a bunch! That okay with you, Al?”

Al thought about it. When he first entered the house, he hated it, because it was full of Anabelle’s suffering, but now… It was clear and tranquil. It might be impossible for them to find another place in this city as void of sorrow as this one. “Yeah, I’d like that,” he decided.

“Wonderful,” Anabelle smiled, “I’ll see you later, then.

After Anabelle left, Yui turned to Al and said “let’s go explore the city!”

“What?” Al sounded as though Yui suggested something incredibly dangerous.

“Come on,” Yui practically whined. “It’s my first time in Shining City! I gotta see the sights!”

Al rolled his eyes, but Yui’s bright, smiling green eyes were hard to say no to.

When Al stepped outside, the emotions of the many passersby on the sidewalks hit him like a blast of hail. He felt the anger of the drivers amidst the traffic on the streets. The crowds walking quickly to and fro carried silent stress with them, as they traveled to the next segment of their busy lives. Al’s heart started pounding in his chest, and he got a sudden splitting headache. The stress froze him on the spot, in the middle of the sidewalk. People bumped into Al’s muscular, six foot three figure as they tried to maneuver around him. 

   “Al?” Yui’s voice was soft as he laid a hand on his arm. “You okay?” The frozen man thawed a little at his touch. They moved out of the way of the foot-traffic.

“Yeah,” he said, in a strained voice. He grabbed his head.

“Got a headache?” Yui asked.

Al nodded.

“Is it from your… empathy?” Yui kept a hand on Al’s shoulder as they started walking down the sidewalk.

“Yeah.”

“But I thought it was only when emotions were high,” Yui raised an eyebrow and looked around. “Everyone seems normal to me. No one fighting or crying.”

“People don’t always show how they feel though,” Al explained. His brow was furrowed and tense. “And the emotions don’t have to be super strong to hit me if there are tons of people like this. The more people, the worse it is.”

“Ah, I get why you lived in the desert.”

“Yeah,” Al made a little grimace.

“Hey, I know!” Yui exclaimed, as if he just came up with an amazing discovery, “let’s go get some coffee!”

Al squinted at him, confused as to how that related to anything.

“I heard caffeine helps with headaches,” Yui said, “I wouldn’t really know though. My parents always told me to stay away from caffeine, since I’m already hyperactive.” He laughed.

“I’m usually a tea drinker,” Al told him.

“Well, that should help too, right?” Yui figured. “Let’s go find a place!”