Oh they're guiding each other, she sees.

Jaeha flinches. Goddamnit he'd been doing so well—

—wait. That wasn't his power. That was reading body language. He is still doing so well.

Okay. Good. That would have been mortifying.

He comes back with a net that can screw onto a jar like a lid, nabs the firefly, screws it on, and rolls it out of the exit. "Let's go get another person."

"After you, Haru-ya."

It is COMPLETELY EXCUSABLE to kiss in a dungeon. For guiding. They'll be able to keep going longer if he kisses him. Then: onward.

Oh he must never forget. He must never, ever forget. This is what he's doing it all for. To be a person who deserves Haru. Jaeha will go to the ends of the Earth for this man.

The bugs continue to behave merely-cosmetically, and the dryads continue being as aggressive and as unable to pose a threat to them as they've been. The other psychic espers have more trouble with the necessary delicate touch to avoid hurting the victims, but to them this is, relatively, a walk in the park.

Jaeha doesn't forget or slip up even once. He starts feeling cold inside, feeling less, and Haru's talkativeness is difficult to engage with, without being able to use his powers at all so that he can say the things he wants to say the way he wants to say them. This is most keenly felt around the other esper, who is not very close to Jaeha and therefore whom Jaeha feels less comfortable being—broken—in front of. But he would feel even worse if he slipped up, especially in front of Haru. So he doesn't.

And eventually they've got the last victim. They're not especially specialized for finding the core and maybe should hang out and make out guide, responsibly, outside the dungeon, waiting around in case they need Jaeha to destroy the core, but they probably won't and as soon as somebody's killed the dungeon they can go home.

Make out? Outside the dungeon? In public? ...is Quasar okay with that????

Not that Jaeha cares. Not when ✨Haru✨ wants it. Fuck Quasar if they object and fuck the media taking pictures of them.

Are they even in Malaysia this time? Where in the world have they gone.

Austria but their image doesn't stop mattering just because they're out of the country! Or it didn't in Juno.

Austria can cope.

But can Quasar???????

No, he's not gonna freak out about this, if Quasar sends them a stern email they can deal with it later he's not his BOYFRIEND to make out with.

Quasar can get them a privacy tent if they want. They didn't complain about Malaysia at all!

That's... true... but still...

They aren't, in fact, needed to kill the dungeon, so they're allowed to go home.

Haru does feel private about some things enough to want to put them off till they get home.

The obvious, but also - "How was that, temptation-wise?"

"—can we talk about that once I'm at zero? I feel the temptation to—not think about it—and I want to be my whole self." He doesn't, actually, but he knows that's who he should be so he's gonna be him.

"All right." The obvious, then.

He really, really likes the obvious. He particularly likes that the obvious, with Haru, takes him to zero. He wants his motivational system fully online.

It's really nice to be sane! One should set aside time to be sane every day!

Yeah. And since he's sane now, he can work on the answer to Haru's question.

"So one of the problems I had was, when we were having conversations I felt tempted to use my illusion powers. The flavour of the temptation was that I didn't want to be my true self—or, perhaps, my unfiltered, backlashed self—in front of a stranger, and that I wanted to come off as a real unbroken human. I also had the explicit thought that I... was... failing to say the things I wanted to say how I wanted to say them because I didn't know how."

"Hm. Would it work to text me instead, when we need an escort or have a victim in earshot?"