The harsh wind pushed against the boy’s dirty-blonde hair as he rode his motorcycle through the vast desert. Right when he began to wonder if he should turn back, since the desert seemed to be endless, he climbed a hill, and on the other side, he could see a small house in the distance. 

William MacAlistair was meditating on the floor of his living room. He jumped when he heard an unexpected knock at the door. Not having heard the sound of a visitor in a long time, it took him a second to recognize the source of the sound. “Strange,” he mumbled to himself. “I didn’t sense anyone coming.” He got up, hesitantly, and cautiously approached the door. “Who’s there?” His deep voice roared through the wooden door.

“I’m a traveler!” Yui’s comparatively high voice yelled in response, as he hoped to be heard above the wind. The fact that his throat was dry didn’t help. “I’ve been riding through the desert, and I need to take a pit-stop!”

Alistair was hesitant. He could hear Yui’s voice clear as day, but the problem was… he couldn’t sense him. Normally, he’d be able to sense a person’s presence from this distance by their emotions. Going by this stranger’s voice, and what he was saying, Alistair should be able to feel his stress from the urgency of his situation. No one could travel this many miles through this wasteland without feeling mental fatigue and stress… But Alistair couldn’t feel anything from this stranger. It felt like this person’s voice was just a figment of his imagination.

“Please, I’m dying of thirst!” Yui whined. He wasn’t lying. He ran out of water a while ago, and he felt very dehydrated. Even so, he seemed to have plenty of stamina left, because he was doing a little jig of impatience outside of the door. 

Alistair sighed. What could be the harm in opening the door? He was a large man who could protect himself. If he really was hallucinating for some reason and this guy was a figment of his imagination, that’s even less reason to think he might be dangerous, right? With that in mind, Alistair opened the door.

He was greeted by a beautiful boy with large, upturned mint-green eyes. The boy ran inside as if he'd die if he were out there for another second. Alistair shut the door behind him, without taking his eyes off the stranger.

Yui removed his sand-covered brown traveling cloak, and moved to put it on the chair by Alistair’s desk on the right side of the room. 

“Hey,” Alistair raised his gruff voice, and his slightly wrinkled face scrunched in irritation, “that doesn’t go there.” He roughly grabbed the cloak from the boy’s hand and put it on the coat rack by the door.

“Could I have some water, sir?” Yui asked, impatiently.

“Hold your horses, brat,” Alistair replied, irritably. “I’m getting there.” He walked to the kitchen, while looking back at the stranger. He didn’t like the idea of a stranger being alone in his living room. But that wasn’t the only reason he couldn’t take his eyes off him. The boy cut a striking figure. His slender physique was adorned with a shocking red leather jacket with a fur collar and matching red pants with black and red biker chaps and fur-cuffed boots. Alistair couldn’t help but wonder: Where on earth was this kid going dressed like that?

He got his unexpected visitor a large glass of water, which took longer than it should have, due to how frequently he kept looking back at him. The boy eagerly grabbed the drink from his hand as he had barely crossed the threshold from the kitchen to the living room. He chugged it in a heartbeat. “Phew!” He exclaimed. “I needed that!” And without further ado, he plopped down on the man’s beat-up black couch. “You’ve got a nice little pad here, in the middle of nowhere!” He looked around, ignoring the middle-aged man’s bewildered expression, and noticed the door to the left of the kitchen was ajar, through which he saw a toilet. “Oh, I gotta use your bathroom!” And as quickly as he sat down, he got back up, and practically leaped to the door.

Alistair pushed back his long, wavy black hair out of his worn face and sighed. He couldn’t bring himself to sit down and get comfortable though. He was never comfortable around people.

“So. What brings you all the way out here?” Alistair asked, as the stranger came out of the bathroom. The older man’s gruff voice made the boy jump, for some reason. He didn’t bother asking the kid’s name. No use getting attached.

“Business,” the younger one responded, as he plopped back down and stretched out across the couch, his arms reaching above his blonde head.

“What’s your job?”

“…I’m a therapist, of sorts,” the boy replied.

“Aren’t you a bit young?”

“Well, I don’t have a degree,” he elaborated. “But I have a way with people.”

“Don’t tell me you wear that to your therapy sessions?” The older man gawked at the younger one’s outfit. His eyes hovered over his body, drinking him in from head to toe. He now noticed that he wore a black turtleneck with a choker under his jacket, bandages on his forearms, and belts on his thigh. Those gaudy chaps kept leading his eye back to the kid’s crotch.

“Yeah, actually.” He responded, breaking Alistair out of his trance. The man hoped the boy hadn’t noticed where he was staring. “This outfit helps my job, believe it or not. Makes it easier for my clients to open up to me.”

“Uh-huh,” Alistair mumbled in a disbelieving tone.

 “The name’s Yui Genki,” the boy introduced himself as he sat up. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a card. “Here’s my business card, if you ever need my services.” He leaned forward and reached it out toward Alistair, but as the older man hesitated, Yui noticed that the man was wearing a ring on his left hand. Right as Alistair started to move his hand, Yui retracted the card and put it back in his pocket. “But I don’t think you’ll need it,” he said with a small smile. He gave no further explanation, leaving Alistair confused and a little annoyed. “What’s your name?” He quickly asked, before Alistair could question him.

“Alistair,” the older man finally said. 

“Neat,” Yui said with a smile, before pouting his pink lips slightly, “but a little hard to remember. Can I call you Al?”

Alistair rolled his dark, weary eyes. “Whatever, kid.”

“I’m not a kid, y’know,” Yui replied with a smirk, as if this insinuated something more than the surface meaning. “I’m 20,” he explained.

“So?” Al didn’t see why it mattered. “You’re a kid to me.” He looked down at Yui’s dusty boots, which were getting dirt on his floor. He made a face of disgust.

“How old are you, Al?” Yui asked, in a voice that sounded much too casual for the older man’s liking.

“45,” he admitted. “Why?”

“Oh, no reason.” Yui smiled, while checking out the contours of Al’s chest and midsection through his black shirt, thinking to himself that the man looked good for 45. He looked up and said, “hey, mind if I use your shower?”

“Sure,” Al sighed, reluctantly, “do you need a bed, too?” He hoped Yui could pick up the sarcasm in his voice.

“Don’t worry,” the boy responded, as he got up off the couch, “I’m not hangin’ around. Just wanna clean myself up before I get going.”

Al felt a little rude, throwing this child back out into the wilderness. His kindness that he’d been trying so hard to keep hidden was peeking through. “I'm about to make dinner,” he said, “Why don’t you stay and eat before heading back on the road?”

“Wow, really?” Yui asked, excitedly. “I’d love to, thanks!” He beamed as he headed for the shower.

Al was on the phone with his younger sister while cooking in the kitchen. “I don’t feel anything from him, Meredith!” He tried to restrain the alarm in his voice, keeping it quiet enough that his guest couldn’t hear him from the next room. “This kid might as well be dead! I’ve never met anyone whose emotions I couldn’t feel!”

“This is good, Al!” Meredith replied cheerfully, “maybe your powers are fading!”

“I doubt it,” he said with a defeated sigh, “I can feel you through the telephone.”

“Is that so?” She pondered this new discovery, “Well, this sounds like a fun little mystery!” She said in a sing-song way. Al could tell she was really excited about this.

“There’s something else,” Al said, as he sautéed some vegetables. “This kid… Well, he says he’s got business and he’s dressed like some runway model! He claimed to be a therapist, but… I think he might be… selling his body.” The words seemed to be hard for Alistair to say.

“Oh, that’s not good,” she said. And Al could feel her concern. “And he’s just a kid? Like how old?”

“Well, I say kid,” Al paused and looked over toward the bathroom when he heard a sound, making sure Yui wasn’t out of the shower already. “But he claims to be twenty.”

“Ah, then I guess we can’t stop him from doing that if he wants to,” Meredith said, a little relieved. “Assuming he isn’t lying about his age, anyway. Well, I think you ought to consider going with him.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I mean,” this time, Meredith was the one who sighed. Al felt her mood dive. He could tell she was thinking about Al’s past and his problems. She worried about him a lot. “You’ve been down for a while, bro. I think it would do you some good to go out and… investigate this boy. It’ll be a fun little mystery for you, to get back on your feet again.”

“You could be right.” Al ruminated on this. He wasn’t looking forward to going back out into civilization, around so many people. But the boy did intrigue him.

Yui came out of the bathroom, fully dressed in the same gaudy outfit that he was wearing before, ruffling his fluffy hair with a towel. Al set the plates out on the little coffee table in the living room, since he didn’t bother owning a dining table when he never had guests. They sat down on the couch and started eating the stir-fry dish. 

“So where are you headed?” Al asked.

“The Shining City,” Yui responded in a dreamy tone, as if it was the best place on earth. “I’ve always wanted to go, and in a big city like that, I’m bound to find lots of work!”

Al’s small desire to go with him diminished at this statement. The Shining City was one of the most populated places in the world. Al looked down at his long-sleeved arm as he touched his food with a fork. He dreaded having to be around so many people. His sister said it would be good for him… but how could it be? His powers as an Empath only ever hurt him, in more ways than one. What good could it do to go back out there? He was safe here in his little shack in the desert. He was better off alone. He didn’t mind it this way.

Yui’s cell phone rang. “Sorry, I gotta take this,” he said, as he stood up and grabbed the phone out of his back pocket. The happy pop tune was quickly replaced by a woman sobbing. Al felt a horrible dread throughout his entire body. Even through the phone, this woman’s anguish was immeasurable. He felt ill before she even started speaking. Yui stepped toward the kitchen and leaned an arm against a wall. The woman was barely coherent amidst all of her sobs. Yui made small hums of understanding, letting her know he was listening without interrupting her. 

Al tried to remain steady from his spot on the couch. He’d been away from people so long, and this amount of anguish was almost unbearable. He could tell the woman on the phone wanted to die before he heard her say it.

“I’ll be right there, Anabelle,” Yui said, in a surprisingly placid tone. “Don’t do anything rash, okay? I’ll help you get through this.” He said this as sweet as can be, and it seemed to have an effect on her. Al could feel her calm down a little. Yui gave Anabelle an estimated time of arrival and some more words of comfort before hanging up. He grabbed his cloak from the coat rack and was about to head out the door, when Al said “Wait, let me go with you.” He didn’t know what came over him. He was terrified, but… after feeling that woman’s emotions, he couldn’t bring himself to simply hope for the best and never find out if she would be okay. 

“Sure!” Yui said with a smile. They walked outside, and Yui got on his motorcycle. “Hop on,” he said to Al. Al was nervous, but there was no time to waste. He straddled the bike, and for a moment, he wasn’t sure where to put his arms. Was it okay for him to touch someone?

“Wrap your arms around me,” Yui ordered, “I don’t want you falling off.” Al did as he was told. It felt strange. He hadn’t been so close to someone in a long time. He could feel warmth radiating off of the boy.

Yui gave Al his helmet, and they took off. After driving through the desert for a while, Al felt comfortable enough to speak. “Who was that on the phone?” he asked, over the roar of the engine and the wind.

“My patient,” Yui explained, “She’s the reason I was headed to the city in the first place. She needs me more than I realized. Hey, why do you live all the way out here? Seems awfully lonely.”

“I can’t stand being around people,” Al answered, which wasn’t a total lie.

“Aw, you got social anxiety?” Yui asked.

“Yeah,” he said. He didn’t want to elaborate.

“Stick with me, and you’ll break out of your shell in no time!” He grinned widely at the prospect.

Al was quiet as he pondered his new acquaintance’s occupation. So he really is a therapist? He seems like a suicide hotline, so maybe Al was totally wrong about him selling his body. He still didn’t understand the outfit though. The kid looked like he was wearing a kinky Santa Claus costume. All he could do now was wait and see what he was all about. He hadn’t been this curious about something in a while.