By Wednesday after their guiding session, Noel is feeling almost completely normal, so that bodes well. At least he shouldn't be constantly exhausted and miserable until this arrangement is over.
"It's entirely possible that your body will adjust as you use your transference more and more," Dr. Summers suggests when he meets with her for a check-up. "You've never really used it before, have you?"
"Not for a long time," Noel hedges.
"So you're just not used to it, and your core isn't used to dealing with corruption like that. Now that you'll be doing it regularly, it'll get stronger, like building muscle." She purses her lips. "You still need to be careful, though. Your hard limit probably won't change."
Noel nods absently. "Jade seemed kind of freaked out at my reaction," he reports. "He's been…weird around me. At the apartment."
"Yes, he called me when you passed out," Dr. Summers says. "I think he assumed it wouldn't be as bad outside of a life or death situation. He was also worried about hurting you."
"Really?" Noel asks skeptically.
"Well, having a high corruption value makes it difficult for espers to control their abilities. He often uses too much force by mistake. He came to me on Monday to ask about inhibitors."
"Inhibitors?" Noel repeats in disbelief. "As in energy inhibitors?"
"Yeah." Dr. Summers sticks her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. "Mild ones, for your next session, or at least until his corruption is below a tolerable level and he's not worried about losing control."
Noel rubs at his forehead, his eyes cutting to his wrist. That idiot. What was the point of assuring Jade that the bruise wasn't his fault if he was just going to take the blame anyway? "Did you give them to him?"
Dr. Summers nods, eyeing him. "I don't think it's a bad idea."
"The side-effects—"
"Are negligible to someone like Jade."
Noel doesn't have any other good arguments, so he has no choice but to leave the lab feeling vaguely irritated with no firm reason as to why.
----------
Having spent several months on social media wrangling duties, Noel is pretty familiar with the names and faces of Halo's high class espers, so he recognizes the woman who stops him in the hall right away.
"If you're not doing something right now, could you help me out?" Hazel Tierney asks, balancing a teetering stack of binders and documents so tall Noel can barely make out the top of her spiky dyed hair.
"Sure," Noel agrees, quickly moving to transfer half of the pile to his own arms. He glances down at the topmost document and notes the name of Halo's vice director, Nomi Hollander. "Are you going to the training facility?"
"Yeah." Hazel smiles at him. She's an A-class esper, well-known within the agency and popular on social media for her friendly demeanor and alternative style. Today, she's wearing one of her signature punk outfits, complete with leather jacket and chunky boots. One leg of her jeans is cropped short to display the elegant fiberglass prosthetic attached just below her knee. "Thanks. Nomi is trying to do an audit and since I'm not on the training schedule today, she elected me to go get all of last year's reports from the business branch."
"It's no problem."
"Cool." Hazel starts walking again and Noel follows, balancing his cargo. "I'd just levitate them all there, but I'm not really that kind of esper. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Hazel Tierney."
"I know." Noel mentally smacks himself. "I mean, I've seen you before. I do social media stuff for the agency." Hazel is primarily a physical esper, capable of moving at extreme speeds, even after the loss of her leg, though she can also utilize energy bolts like Jade and Beckett, and Noel has seen many cellphone videos of her darting around Fray sites. "I'm Noel."
"I know." She grins at his baffled look. "Just kidding. But I've seen you around. You hang out in the experimental research department sometimes, right?"
Noel's nerves jolt him like a buzzer. "Yeah, I, uh—I'm friends with Dr. Summers."
She nods, leading him around a corner to an elevator. "Are you a guide?" she asks, juggling her stack in order to tap her watch against the sensor.
"Yeah, D-class." Noel guesses she probably didn't see his badge.
"How long you been working here, Noel?"
"About two years."
The elevator dings and they both climb aboard.
"Do you like it?"
"Yeah, for the most part." Privately, Noel congratulates himself for making normal workplace smalltalk with someone who doesn't seem to know who his brother is. "Do you?"
"For the most part," she laughs. "Cost me a leg, but otherwise, I can't complain."
Noel winces. "Right. Sorry."
"I'm just teasing. Halo is great! Best agency in the country, I think. Even with two S-class brats."
"They are kind of brats, huh," Noel agrees absently.
"They're not all bad," Hazel says begrudgingly. "But you're lucky you probably won't ever have to deal with them."
A manic giggle bubbles out of Noel's mouth and he clears his throat to cover it. "Uh—are you going to the party?" he asks, trying to keep the conversation from veering into troubled waters.
"Wouldn't miss it." The elevator glides to a stop and Hazel leads the way out into the training complex lobby. "It'll be my boyfriend's first year going, so we've gotta make the agency regret that open bar."
"Is your boyfriend a guide here?" Noel asks curiously. He thinks he remembers seeing that Hazel's dedicated guide is a woman, but maybe he was mistaken.
"No, he's a civilian," she replies.
Noel blinks. "He's…not your guide?"
"Is that weird?" Hazel flashes him a toothy smile, guiding him through several winding passageways. "Not dating my guide?"
Noel flushes. "Sorry."
"Nah, I get it. It is kind of weird for an esper to date someone who isn't their guide, but that's just how it worked out."
"And your boyfriend doesn't mind?" Noel wonders. "That you have an exclusive guide?" At Hazel's power level, it's almost certain that she and her dedicated guide engage in coital guidance, and anyone who knows anything about espers and guides would recognize that.
Hazel sighs. "He doesn't love it, but that's the trade-off of dating a hot, powerful esper like me."
Noel frowns thoughtfully down at the documents in his arms. It's usually taken for granted that an esper with a dedicated guide would be in a relationship with them as well. Most espers are bisexual, an evolutionary advantage that allows them a wider pool of potential guides, and dating culture, especially in the higher classes, is primarily focused on finding a high sync guide to bond with. Locking in a compatible guide is considered the end goal, and with the uneven distribution of espers to guides, that objective supersedes all others.
Because an esper needs guidance to live. Their priorities are different than a normal human's, different even than a guide's.
While Noel is pondering, they reach their destination.
Halo's esper training facilities are split into multiple large sections, divided by class: low, middle, and high. Noel has heard mutterings of a whole new area being added solely to accommodate Halo's two S-class espers, who currently train in the same section as the As, because the disparity is just too big. The jump between A and S can be astronomical, and there are simply no official ranks between the most powerful A-class and the most powerful S-class. This time, Hazel has led him to section alpha, the upper level training facility.
It's busy, as usual. Halo has a lot of A-classes, and training is a daily occurrence for active duty espers. The facility is arranged around the main training arena, with multiple viewing levels where more boring business is conducted. There are rumors of some kind of ultra luxurious and exclusive viewing deck where Halo's major donors, shareholders, and lobbyists can go to watch the espers train, like ancient Roman nobles peering down at their gladiator slaves. But that's never been confirmed.
The vice director's office is located off of one of the general viewing areas, probably for convenience, and Noel follows Hazel past several other employees going about their business on the way to the door. There seems to be some kind of training actively in progress at the moment, and a few people are gathered by the windows, watching and chatting.
"Alright," Hazel announces, coming to a stop. "Just pile those on top; I'll take them all in."
Noel carefully places his stack on top of hers and opens the door for her.
"Thanks. Would you mind hanging out for a few minutes? I might need you to run something back downstairs."
"No problem."
She slips into the office with a smile and Noel wanders over to the viewing window, peeking down at the arena.
This floor is high enough up that he can't automatically make out individual people, but his eyes snap like magnets to one distant figure strolling leisurely around the field. He'd probably be able to recognize Jade from any distance just by the way he walks, that languid, predatory stalk.
He's not alone in the arena; five other figures are dashing around, engaged in what looks like a mock battle. Light flashes intermittently from various interactions, and the espers seem to be communicating amongst themselves, shouting and pointing with varying degrees of intensity. The other espers are all impressive on their own; Noel can't put a name to any of them, but they must be A-classes if they're allowed in the ring with Jade, and their strength is evident even to Noel's untrained eye.
But between them and Jade, there's no competition.
Noel watches as one of the espers presumably on the other team runs up to Jade, energy coalescing around her, and Jade effortlessly dodges the blast before catching her punch and sending her flying clear across the arena. He disappears and then reappears behind another esper, leveling him with a dazzling arc of lightning before he can even react.
In addition to the other combatants, there are robotic enemies patrolling the field, more as target practice than anything else, and Jade takes two of them out at once with a single kick, reducing them both to heaps of broken metal.
It's…humbling, to put it delicately. Terrifying, to put it bluntly. Noel finds himself rooted to the spot, gaze riveted on Jade's darting figure, remembering that he lives with that man. He always knew Jade was powerful, had even seen him in action several times, but that Jade always seemed separate from the Jade he saw dozing on the sofa with a book over his face, or inhaling three plates of food at once, or awkwardly patting Coppelia on the head when she meows at him for attention. Now that he's felt Jade's sculpted muscles beneath his hands and tasted Jade's insistent tongue in his mouth and felt that solid body moving between his legs, it's impossible to keep the two Jades separate.
Noel suppresses a shiver.
"—honestly kind of scary."
Noel's ears perk up at the sound of muttering nearby. A few people hum assent to the statement and the woman who spoke continues: "I don't even think he should be allowed to train with the other espers. What if he hurts one of them again?"
"He's been a lot better lately," someone argues, and it's obvious they're talking about Jade.
"And how long before he goes back to being an unpredictable time bomb?" a different woman pipes up. "Remember when he put that crater in the floor? It's like he doesn't even try to control himself."
Noel bristles instinctively. No control? Do these people even realize how hard Jade has to work all the time to avoid exploding the entire city? To avoid disintegrating doors when he opens them and breaking bones when he shakes someone's hand? Even when he was out of his mind, strapped to a table in the basement and seconds away from complete annihilation, he clawed his fingers bloody to keep himself from snapping the restraints. He pinned Noel to the floor and left no bruises, while Beckett merely grabbed Noel's wrist at the dinner table, and the mottled handprint has yet to fade completely. No control? These people wouldn't know self-control if it punched them in the face.
An intrigued "Oooh!" brings Noel out of his brooding, and he looks over at where the group's attention has shifted. The espers are apparently finished, and the group is making its way toward the exits, but the interesting thing seemed to be the female figure approaching Jade. From this distance, Noel can't make out much detail other than long auburn hair, but the woman is clearly trying to talk to Jade. Jade doesn't engage, though, and just strides past her to the door, leaving the woman standing alone.
"Poor Genevieve," one woman remarks.
"He still hasn't called for her?" someone asks.
"Won't even talk to her, from the looks of it. The poor girl goes through all that trouble for him, and now that he's found someone else, he just tosses her aside. Espers, honestly."
"But they weren't together, were they?" another woman wonders.
"No, but her father was definitely trying to make something happen."
A memory sparks at the back of Noel's mind. Genevieve Quinn, an A-class guide and the middle daughter of Halo's CFO, Solomon Quinn. Currently, she's the strongest guide employed by Halo, and she was the one Dr. Summers initially called when Jade almost melted down in the basement. Even if their rate is low, she's powerful enough to at least have some effect on his corruption, so it makes sense that she's his default guide. Or was.
Noel's eyes linger on the small brunette shape.
"Watching the show?" Hazel's voice asks behind him just before she steps up to the window, hands in her pockets.
"Not much of a show if you don't know the characters," Noel responds, crossing his arms.
Hazel clicks her tongue. "I bet Gen is feeling like shit," she comments. "Just the other week, she was going around telling everyone she saved Jade from a massive meltdown, and now he barely even looks at her. They never got along great, but I wonder what happened."
Noel isn't sure what to say that won't sound weird or give him away, so he just stays quiet, watching Quinn hurry out of the arena in the same direction as Jade.
"I keep telling her she shouldn't take it personally," Hazel continues. "Ransom doesn't like any guides, after all. But I think she always assumed she was different."
"Because he used her the most?" Noel asks.
"Yup. Among other things. I don't really blame Ransom for being cold; I probably would be too with someone as…unsubtle as Gen, but still. It's not like she has much choice in this either." Before Noel can ask what she means, Hazel turns away from the window. "Anyway, I got the reports to her, but do you think you can do me one last big favor?"
Shaking off his thoughts, Noel follows Hazel into the office.
----------
With many thanks and apologies, Hazel asks him to ferry some documents back over to the business branch, and it's not like Noel is busy right now, so he assures her it's fine and starts making his way downstairs, balancing a completely new stack of documents.
The elevators are busy, so he elects for the stairwell instead, but after only two floors, he finds he has to sit down, head spinning slightly. Apparently he's not as recovered as he thought he was.
It's while he's catching his breath, papers in his lap, that he hears the sound of a door on the landing below him clattering open, followed by an unfamiliar female voice.
"—really am just worried about you—why do you always think I'm trying to trick you?"
The door closes loudly before another voice answers: "Because I know what you want."
Noel's blood runs cold. How did he manage to get himself into this situation again? Is the universe conspiring to make him eavesdrop on Jade Goddamn Ransom?
"Jade, I—"
"You made it really clear—"
"It's just my father! You know what he's like—"
"Gen, give it up." Jade's tone is hard, uncompromising, a far cry from even the harshest Noel has ever heard him. "I'm not doing this with you."
"Who is it?" Genevieve demands, voice pitching up and bouncing around the echoey space. "Even if you won't tell everyone else who your new guide is, I deserve to know!"
"No, you don't."
Noel spares a second to mentally gawk at this firm, calm-sounding Jade. His arguments with Noel are never this mature; even their minor tiffs around the apartment always carry some edge of petulance, and his anger comes off more childish than anything. Noel once likened him to a child throwing a tantrum, and that impression has held true so far. Who on earth is this cool-headed adult man?
Genevieve makes a disbelieving noise. "It wasn't easy for me, either, you know," she says sharply. "I did my best to guide you, even when it hurt. No one else would have put up with you like I did. I saved your life last month! You can't treat me this way!"
"And why did you put up with it?" Jade snaps. "Because you actually cared?"
"Of course I—"
"Or because you were hoping I'd finally fuck you?"
"How dare you!" Genevieve shouts.
"Oh, so if I offered to screw you right now, you'd say no?" That sounds a little more like the Jade Noel is used to: petty and rude.
Genevieve hesitates. Noel can almost hear her thinking. "I…I…yes," she settles on, unconvincingly.
"Well, too bad," Jade says. "You're just going to have to tell your daddy that you won't be having Jade Ransom's baby. And probably not Beckett Arden's either, by the looks of things."
Genevieve gasps. Then Noel hears what sounds like fabric rustling, followed instantly by a dull clapping noise.
"Uh-uh, Gen," Jade tuts. "I'm a dangerous out-of-control esper, remember? Do you really think it's a good idea to hit me?"
Noel hears Genevieve snarl in fury, and suddenly there are footsteps ringing through the stairwell, heading upward—toward him.