"That is a completely reasonable approach." Smooch.

He is feeling so stressed out, and half of the reason why is a complete mystery to him, but he's got an insanely attractive man showing deep concern for him and he wants to hold onto this man forever.

That is far too strong a feeling for not even three weeks' acquaintance!!!!!

And also that man wants to kiss him!!!!!!!

This is insane. He'll, like, take it, and kiss back, and—do whatever Haru wants, honestly—but it's insane.

They don't have any dungeons scheduled for moving day and Haru can work on that big well of heinous backlash. He can do it invisible, since that helps.

Okay having sex with someone who is invisible is an extremely surreal experience. And extremely hot. He can absolutely want this, uncomplicatedly and wholly.

Acknowledging that this is really awkward timing for it since we just signed on, IMO Jaeha needs a vacation; combination of various factors which I'm not necessarily going to sue anyone over have left him in a very long term backlash hole and I'll be able to dig him out faster if he's not using his powers and also if I'm using mine a lot. I want to do a heavy sprint load of dungeons with guiding breaks in between for as long as he'll tolerate sitting at home bored, we've agreed on a week to start but I think it would probably take six to get him completely baselined. In case it doesn't go without saying it would certainly still be appropriate to grab him for e.g. Nightmare though, I'd just want to do the runs with him.

Argh.

"Yeah."

Send.

They receive a reply reasonably promptly: this is perfectly fine and acceptable, with the caveat that if Jaeha is not clearing dungeons on the regular he will be paid as if he were an esper on retainer rather than an active one. He can just pause scheduling on the app and resume whenever he feels up for it.

Once again: argh.

"You don't have secret gambling debts you took out six mortgages for or anything, right, this is fine?"

"...even before I was an esper I had a lot more money than I knew what to do with. The amount of stupidity it'd take for me to need money would sink a small country."

"Oh good." He sends back a checkmark emoji and puts the phone aside. Snuggles invisibly.

Jaeha is having a lot of trouble feeling happy about this. ...well, something that approximates that when backlashed, anyway.

The thing is, he doesn't really understand what's happening well enough to feel safe resting any weight on it, it feels like he might lose this at any moment. He doesn't understand what Haru is feeling and he doesn't know why Haru is feeling it and given how much of a production this is turning out to be he can't help but catastrophise about how much Haru is willing to take before he gets fed up.

"You okay?"

He can't even PRETEND WELL ENOUGH what is the POINT of him.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Do you want me to pretend I believe you, because I can do that."

Ugh ugh ugh ughhhhh.

"Can you make yourself visible so I can hide my face."

"I can actually see myself all the time so if you put your face on me I can't see your face, but sure." Visible.

Yeah well it still feels weird to hide his face in air even if the air is solid and shaped like Haru so he'd just rather hide his face in Haru's neck.

"It's just—difficult to—feel like a burden, I suppose."

Pet pet pet. "I'm still embarrassed about how I conducted myself at my own parents during my awakening, so, like, that's understandable, but - you'll be better able to take care of yourself if you're better taken care of, long run."

"Hmm, yeah." But parents have—should have—a duty of care towards their children that Haru does not have towards him.

Pet pet. "If it helps I have been underindulging my 'go be a kickass superhero' impulses due to slow guiding issues for years and you are improving the situation from that angle."

Oh.

Right. That's right. He is providing value. There is a thing that Haru is getting out of this. For a moment he'd just—forgot, somehow. Even if he's not doing dungeons, Haru isn't just doing a lot of stuff for him.

"That does help," he admits.

"Oh good." Haru kisses the top of his head.

Jaeha shouldn't feel safe, though. That isn't enough. If it's just the compatibility, Haru might find someone else more compatible. If it's just the money, he'll be making stupid esper money soon, too. Jaeha needs to figure out some other way to keep this man. Jaeha needs Haru to like him. He needs to be someone Haru will like. Which isn't news, it's not like that's not what he'd been doing, but—Haru's seen right through him, and Jaeha hasn't even told Haru everything about his backlash or powers—

(he needs to not think about that right now)

—so he needs to make sure Haru needs him. He needs to be perfect for Haru.

...he's not starting off on the best possible foot but he can figure it out. He has to.