Empath

Chapter 13

They took a taxi to their destination. While in the car, Al's phone made a little ding. He took it out of his pocket and looked at it. He got a text from Meredith asking "are you okay???" with three question marks.

"Oh, shoot, I forgot to respond to her messages earlier. I got distracted." He sighed. "She should call me anyway. She knows I can't text," he grumbled.

"Well, no kiddin'," Yui said as he observed the phone. "Those keys are so small! I wouldn't be able to text on that thing!"

"You think so?"

Yui nodded. "Maybe you should think about investing in a smartphone," he suggested, "you can adjust the size of the keypad. Plus," his eyes lit up at his own brilliant idea, "you'll be able to play that chill music you like! And watch anime with subtitles! You can even read books on it!"

"...Does sound nice," Al ruminated. "But for a bum like me who doesn't have a job or money, it's a pipe dream."

Yui made an appalled frown, with his mouth open. "Yeesh, man, I need to teach you how to be an optimist!"

"Yeah, it's not really in my nature."

"Now that we're in the city, we'll find you a job in no time!" Yui predicted.

"Right," Al sarcastically agreed. "I'm calling Meredith back. Shouldn't be long."

Yui made a gesture of zipping his lips.

The phone rang twice. "Hey," Al said, casually.

"Hey? That's it?" Meredith sounded astounded. "I was really worried about you! You said you'd keep me updated!"

"Sorry, I've been busy," Al said, which was sort of a lie. "There hasn't been much to update you on."

"Are you doing okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, fine," Al said.

Yui looked at him with an expression that he interpreted as "how dare you lie to your own sister!"

Al sighed. "Actually, there's something I should tell you." His throat made a little click.

Meredith hesitated before asking "what is it?" in an obviously worried voice.

"I... relapsed," Al admitted. "After coming to the city, I started... doing that again." He couldn't bring himself to say it aloud. He looked down at his wrist in shame.

"Al," Meredith sighed. It sounded to Al like a sigh of disappointment.

"But it's okay!" Yui butted in. He leaned over and put his face close to the phone. "I've got it figured out!"

"Oh?" Meredith sounded taken aback at Yui's cheerfulness despite the topic at hand.

"We made a pact, y'see," Yui continued. "Whenever he gets overwhelmed by his powers, we decided on a trick to help him feel better!"

"A trick?" Al and Meredith said in unison. Meredith was curious. Al was moreso confused by the wording.

"Yeah, I just hold his hand!" Yui exclaimed. "And the pain goes away!"

"R-really?" Meredith asked. "I've tried holding his hand plenty of times when we were little, and he'd always push me away! He must really like you, Yui!"

Yui beamed with pride. Al made a little hrmph sound and turned to look out the window.

"I'll wait out here," Al said to Yui, as they stood outside the client's house. Al felt the emotions radiating from within.

"You sure?" Yui asked. "It's cold out here." He could see his breath.

"Yeah," Al said. "I can feel his emotions from out here. I feel like... I'd be safer out here. But if I sense that he might do something rash, I'll come in."