There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 243 - 236. Impulse and Consideration

Chapter 243: Chapter 236. Impulse and Consideration

When Lex came out of Bassena’s office that evening, he was greeted by Zein walking down the hallway with a folder in hand.

"Is he inside?" the guide, as usual, always went straight to the point.

"Yeah,"

Lex replied while blinking. People usually just asked the person they wanted to meet in person through the commlink, especially when they were close enough. But Zein rarely did that, since he never had commlink before. He just came and went back if the person wasn’t available.

"Thanks," Zein said briefly before going inside, looking calm and nonchalant, but with a slightly more swiftness than usual.

Watching the guide disappear behind the closed door, Lex hummed as he continued walking toward the elevator. "Might as well have a coffee break," he muttered while looking at the time indicator on his commlink. "Maybe dinner?"

When the door to his office was opened and closed again, Bassena initially thought Lex was forgetting something, so he didn’t bother to look up from his screen. That was why Zein was being treated to a view of the esper leaning back crossed-legs in his seat, hand propping his temple, and amber eyes staring sharply at the rows of data inside the screen with focus.

For a while, Zein just stood there, leaning against the door and looking at Bassena wordlessly. The esper was putting on his Vice-guildmaster face right now, and there was a totally different vibe surrounding him behind that desk--definitely far from the man who kept nuzzling Zein’s neck for half an hour this morning and whining to have more cuddle time when Zein told him they needed to get up and go to work.

When time passes without any sounds, Bassena started to feel something was wrong, so he looked up and froze as he saw Zein was watching him from the door.

"Huh?"

Immediately, the sharp countenance broke into astonishment. The edge of the amber eyes softened, and the cold expression turned rosy and gentle as the hard lips stretched into an easy smile.

"When did you get here?" Bassena immediately shove his hovering screen aside and stood up with a bright face.

"Not too long ago," Zein finally moved from the door, raising his folder. "I come to match the number of guides we plan to accept."

"Ah--the plan had just been submitted by Lex," Bassena walked over instead of waiting for Zein to get closer. "Should I call him back?"

"No need," Zein pushed the esper back and threw the folder he brought to the desk. "It’s not urgent."

"It’s not?" Bassena raised his brow, eyes darted to the hand on his chest. He felt the edge of the desk hit his hips, and before he could lift his head, a pair of lips hit his own.

A soothing sensation flooded his system, an all-familiar feeling of being cleansed. Even though he wasn’t doing any dungeon diving these days, the feeling of receiving a guiding while he was clean was still good.

Ever since he did it on that night in New Year, Zein liked to guide Bassena in that way if they were alone--making it pleasurable. He didn’t know because he never did it before, but he himself actually felt pleasure from that. Perhaps that was why some guides were addicted in doing sexual guidance.

He always kept it moderate, though. He still preferred to reach his climax without enhancer. So he stopped the guiding when Bassena grabbed him tightly--but not the kiss. It continued until he used up the air in his lungs.

"What brought this?" Bassena blinked, still holding into the guide’s arm. It was still surprising to him when Zein became aggressive at home, but the man did not usually initiate things in their workplace.

"Just," the guide shrugged nonchalantly.

"Just?"

"Kind of missed you," Zein shrugged. "I’m bored staying in a room with Abel all day."

Bassena raised his brow, sliding his hands behind the guide’s waist. "Say that again,"

Zein smirked, and pulled the esper’s face closer. "What? I missed you?"

"You’re spoiling me more and more each day," Bassena chuckled. Even without the guiding, just spending stolen time with Zein after a day of work threw away any mental exhaustion he felt.

Still rubbing on the esper’s Nape, Zein looked at the bright amber eyes, thinking about the conversation he had with Abel earlier. Despite saying that he didn’t want to think about that matter, his mind kept on going back to that topic.

In the end, he asked himself if it was him who actually wanted to live together.

It was indeed hard, for someone who had been maintaining strict privacy for his whole life and putting distance with others to even think about sharing private space with other people. Aside of that, they also worked in the same place, so there would be practically no time for them to have alone time.

But baring their soul, seeing each other in their rawest moment, seeing the best and worst version of each other...they had already gone through all of that even before they were in official relationship. Their life right now was revolving around each other, so...

Was there any need to think about it any further?

"Why are you being quiet all of a sudden?" Bassena tilted his head. Having Zein looking at him intensely made him nervous--made him wondered if he had done something wrong.

"Bassena Vaski," Zein said in a serious tone, and Bassena went rigid. He though he was really in trouble and made a quick reflection on everything he had done for the past few days, trying to see if he unknowingly did something wrong.

But he would never guess what came out of the guide’s mouth next.

"Do you want to live together?"

* * *

"So, I heard the Serpent Lord had been in a daze these days," Abel glanced at the taller guide as they walked through the hallway leading to the conference room. "There’s no way it’s not because of you."

"Mm," Zein sipped on his coffee before replying casually. "I asked him if he’d like to live together."

Abel coughed on his own coffee and looked at Zein incredulously. "You end up asking him?"

"Yeah," Zein shrugged. "I kept thinking about it, so I thought I was actually wanted it to happen. Once I realized that, well..."

He could pend and waver about things for a long time if he wasn’t sure, but once he decided, there was no reason to postpone it.

"...and?"

"Hmm..." Zein took his time sipping on his coffee again while Abel impatiently waiting for the continuation. "It’s hard to do it now since we’re busy, so I was thinking of moving over after we’re done with this," he raised the folder containing the list of applicants in his other hand.

He had nothing but his simple backpack when he arrived in Althrea last summer, but now, he had a lot of things in his dorm room; all the plants Bassena arranged for him at the very start, all the clothes Reina gave him that almost made him running out of space in the wardrobe, and the huge fish tank with elaborate aquascape.

It would need ample time to pack all of that and moved it to Bassena’s place, and then setting them up once more there. Not to mention, Bassena had to free some space in his apartment first to accommodate Zein’s stuff. It definitely wasn’t viable with their current busy schedule, so they decided to postpone it until they could have at least two uninterrupted day-offs.

"Ah, so you’ll move to his place," Abel nodded, before shifting closer. "How did he react?"

Zein raised his brow at the blatant curiosity in Abel’s face. It reminded him of Dheera when the girl was trying to dig for some gossip. He looked up and recalled the evening he asked that question.

Bassena was...frozen. Petrified. The amber eyes were looking at him wide and unblinking for a long time, as if the esper had turned into stone. It looked like he had even stopped breathing. The only sign the man was still alive was the sound of loud beating heart that could even be heard by Zein.

--Baby

When Zein called him, Bassena was almost startled. He flinched, and blinked so fast with parted lips. He stuttered at first, and Zein waited patiently, holding the esper in return. But after the initial surprise, and after Bassena asked for confirmation for five times--as well slapping his own cheek--Zein found himself being tackled to the desk.

Let’s just say that Zein finally knew how it felt getting railed on an office desk like Radia.

"Well...you said he was in a daze these days, so...like that?" Zein shrugged.

Abel laughed. He heard the esper wasn’t just in a daze, but he would also suddenly smile or even laugh out of nowhere, giggling mirthfully. Those who witnessed it even said he looked like a teenage boy experiencing his first love.

Well...that wasn’t wrong too.

"Did you ask why he hadn’t been asking you for it?" Abel asked curiously.

"It’s just as you said," Zein replied with a smile. "He doesn’t want to impose the idea out of consideration."

"It actually weird hearing Bassena Vaski and ’considerate’ in one sentence,"

Zein scoffed, but he couldn’t exactly refute that. He understood perfectly that Bassena acted differently in front of him. "He thought I might feel it’s too fast."

"Too fast? You’ve been flirting back and forth for half a year already," Abel rolled his eyes. "But then, I can see why he would think that, since it’s you."

"Heh," Zein smirked--it was easy for him to see that train of thought too. "He worried I might feel trapped."

Abel raised his brow. "Hmm...that’s good. I can see he’ll make sure you won’t feel suffocated living with him."

"But now, I was suddenly thinking about commuting time..."

The shorter guide’s laughter reverberated in the hallway, right outside the small conference room where people with staff badges were waiting.

"Alright, let’s get this interview over with."