There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 546 - 539. Alone Together

Chapter 546: Chapter 539. Alone Together

"Are you upset?" Zein glanced at the quiet esper, who had been staring at the void with his binoculars for a long time.

"No," the answer was curt. After a few seconds of silence, a careful addition could be heard. "A bit..."

Zein pressed his lips to subdue the laughter crawling into his tongue. Ah...his boyfriend was persistently cute. It made him want to tease the man more.

"But why didn’t you bring it up at all last year?" Zein tilted his head. "Or the year before that?"

The answer was obviously because they were busy establishing the base, but he still wanted to heat Bassena’s response.

"Dunno," the esper’s lips started to twist as he lowered the binoculars and returned it to the scout. "Let’s go."

Ah...this was the face Zein had thought he would see when he came back from the Temple. As he followed the group with a smile, he wondered when it started; to think this reaction was cute instead of bratty...

Oh, well...did it matter? Snowball would keep snowballing without caring about the little rock and small twigs caught in its path. Besides, he knew he was kind of in the wrong this time. It wasn’t like recalling a day before his boyfriend’s birthday was a difficult thing. The problem was...he didn’t even remember Bassena’s birthday.

To be fair, he did not remember anyone’s birthday, not even his. He didn’t even know the year had changed if it wasn’t for the self-celebration these people made in the base. But that only inferred that Bassena, his boyfriend, was just like any other.

Certainly, a legit thing to be upset about.

Well...what can he do? It was his first and only romantic relationship.

I should remember it next year, Zein muttered inwardly with a smile. He should shed the habit of living alone without caring about anything or anyone already.

Yes. After all, he wasn’t alone anymore. And he had no intention to go back to being alone.

Zein hummed and smiled behind his mask as he continued to watch Bassena during their march. As they had decided earlier, the squad was just made for scouting, so aside from Zein and Bassena, there were only two scouts and Senan. Normally, if it was only scouting, they would just send a hunting squad or one of the reconnaissance groups. But this time, they would try to check a completely unknown area that was used by the enemies before, so Bassena didn’t want any mishap.

They took a vehicle to cross the desert until the edge of the fourth lane. But from that point, they had to go on foot. Because of the last battle, the fifth lane was completely messed up; the landscape turned upside down from the clone’s aggressive movement, Senia and the spirits’ magic, as well as the activated bombs. The previously empty desert became a canyon with deep craters and surfacing rocks scattered among boiling pits of liquid miasma.

This liquid miasma that looked like tar was the aftereffect of the burning clone’s body. Should they say it was a leftover? They had tried to place a purification device there, but the tar-like substance did not disappear, almost like a mudpool.

So the fifth lane became something like an open minefield. But they had to cross it to reach the edge of the desert, so there was nothing they could do. Bassena turned to the back of the formation and wordlessly carried the guide through the field.

Playing with the bright platinum hair as he was willingly being carried, Zein finally asked the esper. "What should I do so you’re not upset anymore?" he stared at the amber eyes from the side. "Should I beg?"

"...no need," Bassena answered a few seconds later after clearing his throat.

The apparent delay and the slight shaking of those eyes did not miss Zein’s observation, who put in a following tease. "Did you consider it?"

The reply came curtly with a slight hiss of self-restraint. "A wrong place to offer it."

Pfft--Zein pressed his face on the esper’s shoulder to muffle the laugh he could no longer hold even with the mask. After he recovered, Zein gave a concession. "Alright, then...should I give you a free ticket?"

Bassena landed on the ground and stayed there for a second longer than he should have before jumping again. Naturally, Zein also did not miss the tightening grip on his waist and the slightly stuttered breath.

So he added more for good measure. "You can ask me to do anything."

"...anything?" the question was accompanied by a swallowing sound.

"Anything at all," Zein repeated in a low, nonchalant tone that almost sounded like a whisper.

An alluring whisper.

Bassena blinked and Zein could see the gear in the esper’s head was turning crazily.

"What do you want?" the guide asked.

For the record, Zein never played when he said he’d let anything. He did not make excuses, so he said it with a prepared mind to do whatever Bassena requested, no matter how weird or embarrassing it would be. He was even down to do some bondage shit if the esper wanted to. And biting. Maybe just a bit.

But even after waiting for a long time, Zein did not hear any response. "Bas?"

He looked at the esper mid-jumping, thinking that Bassena was upset again for his provocation. But what Zein saw was the face of a man deep in thought; with furrowed brows and dilated pupils, with tensed jaw and sweaty temples. The amber eyes flickered as if the brain inside the pretty head was overloaded, and after they landed at the end of the pit field, Bassena stood still.

Zein was getting rather worried--and apologetic about the teasing--now. He held the esper’s hand, which was still gripping his waist. "Baby?"

"Uhh..." Bassena closed his eyes then, groaning. A defeated and slightly frustrated response followed. "If you ask me so abruptly like that, I wouldn’t be able to think of anything..."

"Oh? How rare," Zein arched his brow, but also sighed in relief. He patted the esper’s chest and smirked. "I thought you had some stocks of weird requests in there."

"Nggh--"

Bassena covered his upper face while letting out another groan. How could his mind blank out at this golden chance? It felt like he just studying for an exam for a whole year and then drawing a blank during the test!

At this palpable frustration, Zein bit his lips and patted the distressed cheek. "Cute," he said quietly, brushing his thumb on the corner of the esper’s mouth.

If they weren’t in the middle of an unpurified area, Zein would have taken off his mask and kissed the esper.

Bassena blinked thrice slowly, before a smile finally came back to his lips. "Oh, good," he grinned. "So I’m still your type."

"Yep," Zein nodded and kept patting the esper’s cheek. "You’re good."

Not far from the frolicking couple, the two scouts and a middle-aged man whispered among themselves.

"We must have gained an invisibility skill somewhat."

"I think so too."

"Youth..."

And they had to continue their suffering as invisible third-wheels until they reached the edge of the desert.

And that was because the area compelled the utmost attention from Bassena and Zein.

"This is..." Zein murmured as he stared at the thick black fog in front of him.

The edge of the desert always looked like a void to them, but they had thought it was only because of the distance. In the first place, the Deathzone had limited visibility, even with a high-definition dark-vision telescope.

But to think they really encountered a ’void’.

Well, it wasn’t really a void, but the thick darkness that looked like a black curtain draped at the border of the desert made it feel like a void. In reality, it was almost like a fog, or a gaseous version of the liquid miasma. It was a bit heavier and stickier than smoke, and they couldn’t see anything past the border except for a vague silhouette of trees.

Habitually, Zein tried to reach out to the fog, but Bassena stopped him. "We don’t know how it will affect your body, so don’t be reckless."

"That’s right, Young Master. Please let me check the area first."

Zein was wearing gloves, of course, but it was still a legitimate concern. Moreover, they did not bring a healer that day. So he nodded and let Senan step into the fog first.

They heard a coughing sound after three seconds, and the middle-aged man returned not long after.

"Ugh--it’s like going through a fire," Senan grumbled. "The visibility is bad, and the miasma is so thick I felt like inhaling smoke."

"Is it still possible to be entered?"

"It looks like a forest, but the trees are not to think--almost like the forest in the lakehouse," Senan explained further. "So it’s not impossible, but..." he looked at Zein with concern. "I’m not sure how long we could withstand it. More importantly, I’m not sure the guides could..."

They looked at Zein automatically, and Senan added quickly.

"Forgive me, Young Master. I don’t mean to underestimate you, but--"

"I understand," Zein nodded. "But I still need to experience it to know the limit, so..."

It was something they couldn’t refute. The expedition wouldn’t be able to move without the guides at this point, so they needed to know how much a guide could take.

"Alright, we’ll just try to step in," Bassena nodded while holding the guide’s hand in precaution. "Let’s not wander for now--just observe the place from where you stood later."

The two scouts nodded, pouring mana into their eyes so they could see as much as they could right after stepping in. The group faced the curtain-like fog, with Zein being flanked by Bassena and Senan. The guide took a deep breath through his filtering mask, and at Bassena’s count, he stepped inside the fog.

And choked right after.