There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 242 - 235. Veteran Lessons

Chapter 242: Chapter 235. Veteran Lessons

"Really?!"

Abel almost stood up from his seat, eyes widened in surprise. He blinked repeatedly before leaning back in his seat. Of all the things they talked about that day, this was actually the most surprising thing for him.

"Knowing him, I thought he would already beg you to," the shorter guide muttered.

Honestly, Zein thought so too. They rarely spent their night apart nowadays--either Bassena would stay over in the dorm, or Zein would sleep in the esper’s apartment. Bassena was walking on a tightrope between maintaining professionalism and clinging to his lover.

Abel narrowed his eyes and frowned a little bit, stroking his chin and making a serious face--even more serious than the time he perused the application forms. "Is he being considerate? He knew how much you value your privacy," he tilted his head, even speaking in a low and serious tone like an investigator.

"Maybe," Zein nodded in agreement. That was what he thought too. Bassena was truly being careful around him, trying his best to avoid making Zein feel uncomfortable. Perhaps, the man thought he would make Zein feel trapped if he was to ask him first, despite looking so excited at the prospect of building a house together in the future.

And Zein...wondered what his reaction would be if Bassena did ask him.

"I don’t actually know if I would agree, to be honest," he voiced his conclusion in the end, staring at the dark, gloomy winter sky outside the window of their small meeting room. He sighed and glanced at the pile of applicant forms they still need to look at. "There are too many things to think about right now."

The entirety of the reclamation project itself, the unknown sponsor behind Golden Viper, the ’cult’ working together with the force of Deathzone...they just had too much on their mind, too many things to do. Zein had no idea if he could afford to spend time mulling over whether or not he was emotionally ready to live together with his lover.

"Well, we have different concerns, certainly," Abel smiled at the other guide’s conflicting expression. "But I understand the sentiment."

He couldn’t say he understood or knew everything that Zein had to face right now, but if it was about pending things because there was too much crammed in his head, he knew enough of it.

Zein leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, twirling a pen in his hand. "Was it fun living together?"

"Fun..." Abel tapped on the armrest. "Fun, huh? It’s not like we live together to have fun."

The man chuckled, and Zein looked at him with confusion. "We do it because we want to stay together all the time, and not just meet on vacation," Abel shrugged. "At least, that’s how it is for me."

Zein paused for a bit, before fixing his posture and leaning forward to the table, as if he was preparing himself to listen for some lesson. Abel laughed at the sharp, focused blue eyes.

"It’s different for each person, but it’s usually hard to adjust at first," he continued his view in depth. "We will see our partners, and be seen, in our rawest moment. We are bare when we lived together--and I don’t mean physically."

Zein almost laughed at that. "Yeah, I got it."

Even if a couple had a date every day, it would still be different from living together. Like it or not, people tended to put on a bit of a front during a date, putting on a cover as they tried to present the best version of themselves to their partner.

But living together would not only show one’s best version, but also one’s worst moment. Little bad habits and annoying quirks that might be hidden during the dates, or might be tolerable once they came back to their own home and could let out an annoyed sigh without the fear of aggravating their partner. It would mean sacrificing the time and space they usually had to reflect and calming their emotions during bad times, showing all of their vulnerability and weaknesses.

And not every person was ready to bare their soul like that to others.

"We might clash even when we have the same personality, and it’s even easier to have a conflict with different ones," Abel shrugged, giving Zein a realistic outlook. "We live together so it’s easier to see each other. But sometimes, when we come home and found the house empty, it felt even lonelier than before, and we might think--why are we doing this in the first place?"

It was easier coming home to an empty space when we knew there was no one there from the start. But sleeping alone while smelling a partner’s scent on the pillow and the blanket might be even harder than having a cold side on the bed.

"Sounds complicated," Zein, the relationship newbie, chewed the inside of his cheek.

Abel smiled deeply as he looked at Zein’s expression. The man truly seemed like he thought about this thing seriously, and that, in itself, was a sign of how invested Zein was already in his relationship with Bassena.

"But," Abel smiled at the guide, "if we communicate well, trying to understand each other better, and compromise..." he glanced slightly at the engagement ring on his finger. "It’s rewarding."

Zein watched the other guide’s bright eyes and gentle smile. Even though all they talked about seemed to be the risk of living together, Abel’s face was positively blooming when he uttered that last sentence.

"Well...you definitely look happy," Zein smirked. "Despite that dark circle."

Abel groaned and covered his face with his palms, throwing his head back in frustration. "Agh...if only there’s a cleansing for gui--" he froze, before peeking toward Zein behind his fingers. "Oh..."

Zein chuckled and raised his hand, hooking his fingers to tell Abel to move. Similarly laughing, Abel stood up and circled the table to sit beside Zein, sighing contentedly as Zein put a hand on his forehead. A surge of soothing feeling flooded his system--it did nothing to his vessel or the leftover accumulated miasma from guiding, but the sensation offset the building mental stress. It was like dipping into a nice herbal hot spring, followed by a refreshing sauna, and ended with a warm coffee milk.

"I still had no idea how you do this," Abel closed his eyes, sinking deeper and deeper into the blissful sensation. "I don’t know if the Saintess even able to do this."

"I can’t do it to myself, though," Zein shrugged. If he could, he wouldn’t be jumping into the void.

His ability actually worked as an amplifier to guide’s natural self-cleansing trait. With Zein’s soothing trait, his ability worked like a relaxant, dissipating mental stress caused by guiding. In short, he was like a mental healer for guides.

It was just too bad that he couldn’t heal himself actively.

Abel opened an eye and glanced at him with a smirk. "You can ask the Serpent Lord for that."

"Heh," Zein chuckled.

Yeah--he could always look for Bassena to reduce his mental stress. Just feeling the esper’s presence, looking at that adorable face and warm ambers would put him at ease immediately. He’d feel even better with a little bit of cuddle. A kiss would put a smile on him, and a nice intimate session could easily put him in a good mood.

It was just that...they both had been so busy these days. If Zein and Abel had to screen a few dozen forms, the Esper Department had hundreds of them. Of course, Bassena had people working for him--from the leaders of each squad to the HR Department. But that didn’t mean the esper could just let them work on their own without making supervision and putting his input.

If Zein had to be honest, he was craving for Bassena even now, especially the moment they came back to perusing the application form. He had to read the long essay and self-description, and these people sometimes used fancy words that his low-educated ass couldn’t understand without the help from Abel or a dictionary--perhaps so they would look sophisticated and inviting?

"This is a lot more than I thought, do we have like...a cap or something?" Zein asked after they were done sorting through three categories. For some reason, this felt more exhausting than dungeon diving.

Abel twisted his lips as he counted the forms in each pile. "We’re not really lacking guides, so ideally, we just take an appropriate number for the Esper that got in,"

"Ah...since they’d get paired up later?"

"Usually, since the rest of the guides already have regular partners for cleansing," Abel nodded, writing down the numbers of each form in each pile inside his notebook. "Although...there’ll be a massive rescheduling once the project is officially ours and the draft is out."

"Mm..."

To this day, the Guildmaster still kept the final draft of people he’d sent to the Deathzone to himself. Not even Bassena knew who or how many. Seemed like it would be kept hidden until they officially bagged the project.

Abel looked at the pile of forms and smirked. "You know...a lot of these essays are definitely influenced by your speech," the smile widened when he saw Zein groan and covered his face with a piece of paper. "They come for you, Captain."

Zein threw a crumpled paper to his colleague, who was laughing merrily in his seat. "Haa..." Zein let out a long sigh. It was bad enough that he had a bunch of kids following him yelling ’Captain! Captain!’ like little chicks looking at their mother hen. He didn’t need more members in this club looking at him with glittering eyes.

"It didn’t sound bad, actually," Abel chuckled at the guide’s distressed face. "At least, it meant they knew common sense."

Well, if he put it that way...

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