Would Grace be disappointed in him for being kicked off the bus too? Would she stop being nice to him and giving him candy? Would his mom decide to switch back to the night shift to punish him? 

As worries started to drown him a soft hand patted his head. He looked up and saw a little girl with long black hair. She had her knuckles shoved in her mouth and tilted her head at him. Her expression was passive, no hint of anger OR pity. Dae hiccuped and she laughed. Her eyes sparkled and she clapped her slobbery hands together. 

Someone else stepped in and picked her up. Another girl, She was taller than Dae, by a lot. She looked just like the little girl, her hair was long and pulled into a ponytail. Both of the girls had bright red eyes. 

“You’re Espers too?” 

The older girl turned to Dae and hummed with a questioning lilt. Dae stared up at them and pointed between their eyes. The older girl turned to the younger one and locked eyes with her, “Oh, yeah, the eyes.” 

“Bye! Bye! Bye-Byies!” The younger girl echoed. 

“Not bye-bye, eyes. Eyes!” The older girl brought a hand up and pulled one of her eye lids down slightly to emphasise her point. The younger girl grabbed the older girl’s face and stretched it, emboldened by her sister’s reaction. 

The older sister squirmed only to give up almost instantly, simply letting her sister use her flesh like putty. She turned back to Dae, “I’m a guide.” 

Dae shuffled back. His eyes were wide with fear and his heart beat as fast as it could in his tiny chest. His gaze flitted towards the bar he’d dented then back to the guide. She screwed her face up like she was annoyed. By her sister or Dae, Dae couldn’t tell. 

She walked towards Dae, slow with the burden of her sister writhing in her arms. She tried to bend towards him but thought better of it as the bus started and she almost fell forward. She chewed on her lip absently then kicked her sandal off and kicked Dae in the arm. 

A shock of pleasant warmth traveled through Dae. It eased the aching cold from James’ guiding. 

The older girl’s eyes went wide and for a moment Dae was worried he’d hurt her too. Before he could apologize she beat him to the punch. 

“I’m so sorry!” 

Dae looked at where she was pointing and realized that her toenails must have cut him, he was bleeding. Before he could reassure her that she was fine an adult man swooped in and put his hands on her shoulder. 

“Oh Batty! You can’t guide strangers! I’m so sorry!” The man turned towards Dae and gave him a sympathetic smile. He looked exactly like the girls. Dae wondered if all girls looked like their fathers. Everyone told him he looked like his mother and he was a boy. So maybe all girls got told they looked like their father. 

A woman approached and pulled the little girl from the older girl’s arms. Dae scrapped his theory. Both of the girls also looked like their mom, even though their mom didn’t look like their dad. 

The only thing that was different were the eyes. The mother had green eyes and the father’s were brown. 

“Here kiddo,” The father reached out and helped Dae up from the ground. Dae silently complied as he was led back to his seat by the kind looking stranger, “We’re gonna go back to our seats now. Again I’m sorry about that.” 

Dae stayed silent. He watched the family retreat. The youngest girl lunged forward and tried to climb into the older’s lap. The mother held her back and was rewarded with the little girl pulling her hair in response. 

But all of them just laughed. They smiled at each other while the father gently untangled the little girl's hand from the mother’s hair. The older girl reached out and made grabby hands towards her little sister. The mother relented and let the little girl go to her sister. She wasn’t that much smaller than her sister so she nearly covered her as she turned forward and started sucking on her hand again. 

The family got off on the stop before Haleway and the rest of the drive felt so lonely.