There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 623: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 5

Chapter 623: Side Story 1. The Twilight Zone - 5

It didn’t end with the abrupt love-making in the kitchen, but it also didn’t end with just the bedroom.

Bassena was both excited and intrigued about this. Between the two of them, it had always been clear that he had a higher sexual drive. Zein might initiate things sometimes, but in the end, Bassena would take the reign in their bed.

That morning, however, Zein snatched it completely, before the both of them drowned in a pleasure so intense they just moved by instinct alone. The instinct to tangle with each other, to carve each other’s existence, to fill each other’s mind with nothing but them.

Honestly, Bassena lost his mind about halfway through, as if he were an animal in a rut. Was it because Zein led him by the collar made of alluring whispers and perverted requests? Perhaps. It felt crazier than their time on the cruise ship, maybe because the pleasure was increased by their bond.

The point was, they skipped meals and ate horny on their precious vacation.

When Bassena came to it, the sun had started going down again, and Zein let out a tired laugh when the esper frantically ordered many meal deliveries to feed them dinner.

Well, at least Zein looked happy. Understandably exhausted after their whirlwind of passionate exercise, but happy nonetheless.

Bassena couldn’t help but stare at the guide all the time while they were eating. His lips curled easily as Zein devoured the delivered food, and there was just something that made the guide look even prettier than before. What a pickle--Zein had already been very pretty before, but he was simply breathtaking now.

Was it because they were imprinted? Bassena had no idea, and he didn’t care. It was just...truly bad for his heart, because it became harder to concentrate on other things with Zein kept running around in his head looking all shining and pretty.

Ahh...to be suffering from such a beautiful dilemma--what a lucky bastard you are, Bassena Vaski.

Humming happily while taking up a mug of hot chocolate--with little marshmallows just like how Zein liked it--Bassena went to the balcony where he saw the guide looking at the winter sky with a solemn expression and suddenly, his heart clenched.

He had always been sensitive to Zein’s changing mood, and while the view of the guide watching the dimming sky was breathtakingly beautiful, it also pulled up some worries in Bassena’s mind.

Why was Zein suddenly looked serious? Was this some kind of after-sex clarity? Did he suddenly regret everything?

Even after getting imprinted and engaged, Bassena’s old insecurity kept on coming up.

"Zein?" Bassena asked carefully, placing the hot chocolate on the patio table. "Is something wrong?"

The guide blinked and turned toward him--the solemn expression shifted into confusion. "No? Why would there be?"

"You seemed..." Bassena paused to swallow his worry. "You looked like you have been thinking hard about something."

Zein tilted his head slightly, before turning toward the twilight sky again and hummed. A subtle smile played on his lips. "I was on the phone with Abel earlier."

Huh? Bassena blinked at a reply that did not answer his question. But Zein didn’t look like he finished talking, so Bassena sat on the floor, leaning onto Zein’s legs, and looked up in attention.

"Did you receive it? Reina texted me, saying we should have a double date dinner or something since it’s--what you call it? Valentine?"

"Ah..."

But what had that got to do with anything?

"So I remembered that it was Abel’s wedding anniversary and texted him congratulations," Zein raised the commlink in his left hand, before placing it back on the table. "He called me then and we talked a bit while you were down there."

"...you remember his wedding anniversary but not us?"

Bassena frowned, pursing his lips at the slight argument they had three months ago. It strangely felt like something that happened a long time ago though, and Zein laughed at the pouting esper.

"I remembered your birthday," he rubbed the esper’s jutting lower lip. "And...I don’t know; it just doesn’t feel like an ’anniversary’ to me."

Bassena felt like he had just been electrocuted. His back straightened and his eyes widened. "W-why?"

"It’s not like we had a grand confession or anything," Zein shrugged, curling his lips in amusement at the cute reaction of his boyfriend. Ah, no--fiance. "Well, you started calling me ’boyfriend’ then, but at that point, everyone already thought we were an item anyway."

"Ugh--well...that’s true, but..."

Zein watched the--almost--strongest esper awkwardly scratching his neck in a fluster, smiling in satisfaction at the thought that he was the only one who could see this Bassena.

So he threw a service.

"And it wasn’t like I didn’t like you before then," Zein said nonchalantly, prompting the esper to freeze on site. Not even the amber eyes were blinking. "You must know it too," Zein laughed, tickling the esper’s chin to move the broken flustered doll in front of him. "I was already showing you so much affection--much more than I show anyone else. Hmm, no--if it comes to it, I never show affection to anyone else."

All Bassena could do was blink once, finally.

"I did not deny my feelings for you too, just..." Zein looked down, lightly touching his chest and brushing up on his necklace.

"Just that you didn’t want to act upon it because of your guilt?" Bassena finished the incomplete confession.

"Yeah..." Zein admitted with a lighthearted chuckle. "So it’s kind of went over my head that it was our anniversary or anything of the sort--well, not that I’m good with dates in the first place. It’s my first time after all."

Bassena twitched at the word ’first’, which had always been making him unreasonably sensitive.

"Falling in love and acting upon it, being in a relationship, making promises about the future..." Zein brushed the long fringe off Bassena’s forehead so he could see the dazzling pair of ambers clearly. "Everything is my first with you."

And as a bonus, he could also see the moment those bronze cheeks adorned with deep blush. Zein smiled softly and looked up, staring at the sky that had gotten even darker. The light shade of violet had turned deep purple, and soon everything would be swallowed by the dark night and city lights.

"Every time I see the sky during twilight, I recall a lot of things about us," Zein leaned back and closed his eyes; the soft smile still dancing on his lips. "How I was only able to see it because you pulled me to this place, how I thought I loved you after all after I was kidnapped, or how I thought I didn’t mind marrying you on that sea."

When Zein opened his eyes again, Bassena saw that same solemn expression he had seen earlier, and his heart finally felt more at ease.

"If we weren’t imprinted yet, we would probably do it under this kind of sky too, right?" Zein glanced at the stunned esper sitting on the floor. "After you proposed to me."

"...if you allowed it," Bassena replied quietly.

"I know I would."

Looking at that serene smile, a slight bitterness crept into Bassena’s heart instead. He scooted closer and held the guide’s leg, looking up cautiously. "Zein, you...really okay with this, right?"

The guide frowned. "Why are you asking that now?"

"Well...like the elder said...I also wish you could have it properly," Bassena replied while chewing the inside of his cheek. He plopped his cheek against the guide’s knee, sighing. "You deserve a proper way."

Zein raised his brow. "Is ’survival’ not a proper way?"

"But--" Bassena glanced up and bit his lips. "Your parents were also..."

"Ah..."

Right--if it came down to it, Alteroan and Lucia also did it for survival.

"I thought about that too," Zein nodded, taking a deep breath. "And I think it’s different."

Bassena blinked and stared at Zein dumbly.

"It happened to them when they were basically strangers--well, how much closer can you get after only a few days?" he chuckled.

Even if it was a few days filled with adrenaline, one was a stoic and principled man, while the other was a reclusive woman with an aversion to adult males.

"If I were her, I would probably ask myself countless times whether my feelings for the esper I was imprinted with grew up organically or just something forced by the bond," Zein exhaled slowly and his lips formed a wry smile. "I guessed, that was why I was very reluctant to do it at the start."

In the end, it was the same with his aversion to guide and esper’s attachment. How could he be sure that his feelings weren’t tainted by the pleasure derived from guiding? That was why Zein had never wanted to have any relationship with an esper.

It was why he put all kinds of brakes and continued to test Bassena even after he realized he was feeling something toward the esper.

He shifted his gaze from the darkening sky to the glowing ambers. The stiff smile turned softer; as soft as the glow on the blue eyes. "But that is also why I’m glad of what we have."

Bassena widened his eyes, hands stiffening on Zein’s knees.

"The circumstances of our bonding might not be ideal, but..." Zein took one of the esper’s stiffening hands. "I’m glad we did it after we were sure of our feelings for each other; after we made a lot of promises about staying together until the end."

With certainty and firmness in his eyes, Zein pulled Bassena’s hand and placed it against his chest, above his beating heart.

"At least, I will never question whether this heartbeat, which increased every time I looked at you, comes from my own feelings or the bond."

In that place, where he spoke his first word of devotion, Zein uttered it again.

"I’m glad that I know I love you even without the bond."

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