Empath

Chapter 23

Al's cell phone made a text alert noise while he was working. He didn't check it until he sat down for his break. The text read "Roger says he's happy." Al squinted at the screen. He wasn't sure how to digest this information. Was Yui saying it was a false alarm? That there's no reason for him to quit his prostitution job? Al didn't like having deep conversations through text, and he especially didn't want to do so while he was at work, so he simply replied with "okay, we'll talk about it later".

Later that night, when they both were home from work, they finally got the chance to talk about it. "So, your text..." Al began, over dinner. "You said Roger is happy. So he didn't lose his memory."

"No, he did," Yui corrected him, as he took a bite of food.

Al folded his arms and gave Yui a serious glare while waiting for his pseudo boyfriend to finish chewing and explain himself.

Yui swallowed and spoke. "The thing is, he lost his memory, but it didn't have any serious repercussions," he explained. "Actually, it seems to have benefitted him and his family. He actually talks to his dad now. They're getting along a lot better than before."

"Hm," Al replied in a pensive manner. He wasn't buying it. Could there possibly be no detriments to memory erasure? Could he really be wrong about this? Maybe he was putting too much of his personal experience into this.

"So maybe my powers aren't so bad, after all," Yui concluded.

"So, what?" Al glared at Yui, "does this mean you're going to continue sleeping around?"

"Sleeping around?" Yui echoed, in an offended manner. "Don't say it like that. You know I don't do this for fun. I just wanna help people."

"Yeah, but," Al felt like his throat was closing up a little, "what about us?" He scoffed and stood up, leaning over slightly, with his palms on the table. "I want to be with you, Yui. And I thought you wanted to be with me too. I'm not okay with you sleeping with other people when we're together. Especially not if you're doing... that. One of these days, someone is going to get hurt. Someone besides you, I should add, because apparently you don't care about hurting yourself. I don't want to see you hurting anymore."

"It's not like I wanna have sex with all these people, Al," Yui sighed, "but if I have the ability to help people, to save lives, I just can't abandon them, ya know?"

Al heaved an exasperated sigh. Was there even any use trying to argue with him anymore? It's futile. The man was too stubborn.

Yui was silent for a moment. He saw the sadness and frustration in Al's eyes. He'd grown to care deeply for this man... and here he was, trying to continue doing something that he knew caused him pain on multiple levels. Yui didn't want to hurt Al. He took out his phone and silently searched his contacts.

"What are you doing?" Al asked.

"Calling Rose," he replied. "Seeing how she's doing." He brought the phone up to his ear and waited for it to ring.

"Hello?" A soft voice answered the phone.

"Hi, Rose?" Yui addressed her. "It's Yui Genki. Do you remember me?"

"Yes, of course," she replied. There was a slight nervousness in her voice, although all Al could feel from her was that eerily unnatural contentment that all of Yui's patients possess.

"Do you have some time?" Yui asked. "I have some questions to ask you about your health. My treatment might have some... side effects."

"Um," she hesitated. "Now isn't really a good time."

Someone whispered quietly next to her, but neither of the men could tell what was being said. Al, however, could feel something from this third party. Something that made him sick to his stomach.