---- Nox ----

Nox sat under the flickering fluorescent lights of the breakroom. Looking down at his styrofoam cup of hot water flavored with a cheap packet of tea and wondered if it would be worth it to slip out to the cafe across the street before his next guiding session. As he considered this, a woman plopped down next to him. She brought with her a blanket of rose scented perfume. 

He looked over at Airi, his closest friend at the office, and gave her a tired smile. Airi had a sunny disposition accented by the shades of pink constantly staining her hair. The dyed hair and assortment of bright lip glosses perfectly complimented her skin's pink undertones. 

She grimaced at him and held out a to-go cup filled with Nox’s regular order, a London fog. Her way of warning Nox that she needed to vent. Nox silently accepted the cup and turned his full focus to her. He took a sip of his drink. He let the sweetness of lavender syrup coat his tongue. The warmth of the drink spread out through his chest and he nodded to Airi, a cue for her to begin. 

She hissed through clenched teeth and started shaking her head, “That last Esper asked for an exclusive contract again.” 

Nox blinked at her in surprise and leaned in. It almost felt like he was following blocking for a play, practiced motions, repeated again and again. It spoke more to the cyclical nature of their conversation than his level of interest. When you worked in the same profession for long enough you ended up running into the same issues again and again. Especially in a job like this. 

Nox couldn’t remember the name of the Esper Airi was talking about. They might have been the one who jumped from guide to guide professing their love for each one before moving on in a few months, or the one that was too rough on the guides no matter how low their corruption was, it was even possible this was a new Esper that Airi had forgotten to mention. 

“He destroys my back then, while I’m still trying to recover, asks me to go exclusive again” Ahh, the overly violent one, “He just can’t figure out why no one wants to guide him long term even though he’s always recklessly using his abilities then taking it out on the guides.” 

Nox pursed his lips and shook his head as he took a sip of his drink. The warmth the tea created in Nox’s chest reminded him of an interview he’d seen with a famous Esper. An interview with Esper Daedalus Kane on guiding and other Esper experiences fed into all of Nox’s insecurities. But his curiosity got the best of him. 

Nox wasn’t conceited enough to assume that Kane would be complaining about their encounter. At the time it had been five years since their brief interaction at the center. Those five years had not dulled the pain of Nox’s biggest failure as a guide. That guilt was what drove Nox to open the article. 

Kane had been asked what guiding felt like. First he shared that it felt invasive to him. It stung a little to think of Kane describing Nox’s guiding as such. The next question had asked about compatibility levels and Kane had given a very textbook response to it. But his dispassionate air fell away at the next question. 

“We asked Esper Kane if it was difficult to find a compatible guide as an S-tier Esper and if he had ever found a match for himself. Esper Kane seemed to drift away from us. For the first time in the interview we could see tension leave his body. The ghost of a smile filled with longing graced his lips and he nodded. 

“Yeah, yeah I have.” Esper Kane said wistfully. We waited for him to elaborate and when he didn’t we decided to dig a little deeper. 

“What did that feel like?” 

Esper Kane answered us instantly. He sounded like he had thought about this answer for years. Clearly a story he was more than happy to share.

“It felt like smoke. Gentle woodsmoke filling my lungs and pushing out everything else. It caressed and cradled me. I felt completely safe for the first time in my life.” 

We laughed at that.

“What is making an S-class Esper feel unsafe?” 

Unfortunately this question seemed to make Esper Kane uncomfortable. Luckily for us he pushed through and answered candidly. 

“My own abilities make me feel unsafe. Corruption is terrifying. You can always feel it building up and the more you worry about it the worse it gets. Being more powerful just means you can hurt more people if you get out of control.” 

Two things about that interview stuck with Nox. First it inspired curiosity over how a soft and kind man like Esper Kane would treat the guide he’d spoken of. The other was his comment about being scared of his own powers. It held echoes of another Esper. One with red eyes just like Nox.

The sense of duty Guides held to their Espers was a heavy burden. It made it impossible for Nox to fully heal the wound left by failing Dae. It made Nox sure Airi would accept the violent Esper’s request the next time it came through. 

“Do you still have those lidocaine patches?” Airi derailed her tirade against the Esper and winced. 

“I have some at my desk? Menthol or unscented?” Airi’s face flushed and she averted her gaze. 

“Unscented please, my next appointment has a sensitive nose.” 

Nox smiled flatly at Airi, “All Esper’s have sensitive noses.” 

Airi nodded prudently and sipped her drink, still refusing to make eye contact with Nox. 

This was another conversation Nox was intimately familiar with. Though it was relatively new with Airi, it was a common ailment Guides suffered. 

Subtle favoritism, clearly smitten, eager to nab a specific Esper’s requests, all symptoms indicating a guide considering an exclusive contract. To outsiders it might feel like hypocrisy. Nox knew better.

While he had never experienced it himself it had been described to him often enough. The connection other guides talked about was foreign to Nox. Being universally compatible, Nox’s sessions all looked the same. There was no special connection that stuck out above the rest. 

Well, there might have been one…

At first, Nox hypothesized that high compatibility created an illusion of genuine connection. But when he made the mistake of voicing this opinion to one of his coworkers he had been subjected to a lecture on ‘human nature’ and ‘chemistry.’ The lecture only clicked when Nox saw another universal guide showing the tell-tale symptoms. So Nox was forced to admit the connection was more than compatibility. 

The Esper Airi was smitten with seemed kind enough. She was a regeneration esper named Lily a year and a half younger than Airi. Lily was tall and wiry. Her hair was thick, dark, and always tied back out of her face. Airi had been on the night shift when Lily had been brought in in very unstable condition. 

Airi was the most experienced on staff that night so she was set up stabilizing Lily while they ran compatibility with all the other guides on site. As luck would have it, Airi had actually been the best match for Lily. Nox remembered Lily coming in the next day with flowers, anxiously looking for Airi. 

Lily had come back every day that week requesting more sessions with Airi. Nox had been put off by this at first. Until he asked Airi about Lily. The flush that crept up her neck reassured Nox more than words ever could. 

Airi was the only other A-class guide at their center. So Nox had been pretending not to notice the growing affection between her and Lily. Airi, for her credit, was also tactfully avoiding mentioning it to Nox. Which explained her using her coffee as an excuse to stay completely silent despite the desire to continue visibly buzzing under her skin. 

Nox graciously stepped away to his desk and grabbed a lidocaine patch from his desk drawer. With eight years of experience under his belt Nox was confident that Airi would be taking up an exclusive contract within the next month. 

He would miss her. She was the only coworker who actively sought him out and made efforts to talk to him. She was also the only person who had ever bought him a drink without being asked to. It was a level of companionship Nox cherished. 

I’ll miss her. Nox thought to himself.

His resolve hardened. He decided not to waste whatever time they had left. When he returned to her side he motioned for her to stand up and turn around. 

“Low back right?” 

“Yeah, thank you Nox, you’re the best! You always take such good care of me.” Nox smiled to himself. A pang of sadness prevented it from reaching his eyes. 

“You take good care of me, and you’re one of the best guide’s we have.” Nox did a smoothing motion over the patch to ensure it was in place then stepped back and turned Airi to face him again, “We were really lucky to have you.” 

Airi looked down bashfully but Nox could see the warmth in her smile and the color in her cheeks, “You say that like I’m leaving.” 

Nox’s shoulders dropped and he let out a wistful sigh. 

“I know, you still have plenty of working years ahead of you. Any Esper you work with is lucky to have you.” 

It was the closest Nox had gotten to acknowledging Airi’s imminent departure. Her eyes welled up with tears and she pulled Nox into a bone crushing hug. Her whispered thank you was shaky. Nox just nodded into her shoulder and held her as tightly as he could.