There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 647: Side Story 2. Dance of Flame and Shadow - 6

Chapter 647: Side Story 2. Dance of Flame and Shadow - 6

As Agni expected, Ron got tired after a while--not to mention hungry--so he stopped and threw himself to the bed in annoyance. He turned his head toward the thermal bag the berserker left for him, staring dagger at its metallic surface as his brain tried to weigh his hunger against his pride.

The groaning sound from his stomach decided for him.

"I need energy if I want to face that damn giant," he grumbled while snatching the thermal bag.

The content was...not very desirable: bread, jerky, protein bars, canned...soup? But then again, it was the borderland, and it wasn’t very different from what he packed in his bag--fuck, where is his bag?!

Anyway, it seemed to be the Borderland Unit’s ration, so Ron ate it with the thought that he should get used to it if he wanted to stay around the Deathzone. Well, it wasn’t like he had been eating well the past few years, so the ration actually didn’t taste that bad--just needed something fresh to liven it up, but that was asking for the impossible in this kind of place.

Ron stared at the window while gulping the bottle of water the berserker had generously provided. Ah, fuck--it was hard to get mad at someone who fed you. Feeling annoyed, he kicked the box sitting below the table, sending it crashing against the wall.

But then, perhaps because he had enough food, drink, and sleep, his rationale was coming back. He got calm quickly and thought back about his actions, his tantrums, and he was hit with a sudden sense of embarrassment.

"Argh!" he crouched and buried his head between his knees. No matter how angry and annoyed he was, he shouldn’t have lost his cool and acted like a petulant child like that. "That’s not cool--fuck!"

He closed his eyes tightly in a moment of self-reflection and let out a long sigh. "Now that I think about it, that uncle also sighed a lot..."

Thinking back about the berserker, Ron was filled with a weird sense of regret. The man knew his father, probably the only one who did. He should have at least talked with the man before throwing a fit again.

He was still angry about that ban, but...

Ron raised his head and stared at the mess he had been making in the room. Clothes were thrown around, pillows ended up on top of the cupboard, a broken cup and a rolling coffee flask near the walls, cigarette boxes and what seemed to be weapon maintenance tools were scattered around the floor. Not to mention the box he had just kicked and spilled papers everywhere.

Damn...no wonder that uncle made such a tired expression.

Ron grimaced at his own childishness and stood up to tidy up the mess he had made. It was quite hard doing it while being shackled, but he reminded himself that they wouldn’t be on him if he had behaved calmer earlier. Well, he had nothing to do until that berserker came back anyway; he might as well use it for something productive. Otherwise, he would just overthink things and get easily irritable again.

"Phew...this is pretty good, right?"

He looked around and nodded, feeling satisfied at his neat work. Obviously, he couldn’t remember where those stuff originally were, but he tried his best to make the room tidy. The only thing left was the box and the paper, which seemed to be borderland documents.

Welp--that was the worst thing, tampering with someone’s work.

"Hmm...that uncle is the Captain, right?" he narrowed his eyes while crouching in front of the box. It had flipped, and the contents spilled everywhere. Ron exhaled heavily as he started to feel exhausted from the sudden chore, and pulled the box toward him--

And stiffened.

The box was rather heavy, even while empty. But that wasn’t why he suddenly froze. It was because of the label attached to the inside of the box, and the name written on that label.

Nolan Hertz.

It was his father’s name.

* * *

"Why are you napping here, Cap?"

"Ugh..."

Agni groggily opened his eyes as someone nudged him awake from his little slumber in the watchtower’s command room. On one side of the wall was a whole glass window overlooking the Deathzone, and another wall was occupied by screens showing black and white, slightly green images from the cameras mounted along the wall, connected to a bunch of controls on the table below it.

There were three chairs in front of the long control tables, and Agni was nodding off on one of them.

"Go back if you’re going to sleep," the esper said while poking the berserker’s forearm. "Unless you want to cover my shift."

"It’s because his bedroom suddenly became a prison," Esther replied for the man with a smirk.

The first esper, an arcane gunner, laughed. "The kid you brought back from the Deathzone?"

"You know what they say, Khan," a magician who also came for the new shift patted Agni’s shoulder. "You take care of what you pick up on the street."

An esper who was seated on the other chair blinked. "What? You have a new pet, Cap?"

"Careful there," Esther smiled sharply. "He’s Captain Hertz’s son."

There was a sudden silence for a few seconds until Agni finally stood up and let the gunner take the chair. They watched his back as he silently grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the filtering pipe.

"Damn," the esper grimaced. No one there was a rookie, so of course they had felt Nolan Hertz’s leadership before Agni took over. "Sorry about that."

"His son came?" another esper, a scout in charge of the command room’s tech, raised his brow.

"Not here, to the Deathzone."

A short iteration about what happened yesterday was told, spreading from the esper in outpost duty the day before. At the end of the story, they looked at each other and shrugged. "Hmm...can’t really blame him, can we?"

"I mean...I won’t do it myself, but I can understand," the other nodded.

The magician glanced at Agni. "But how are you going to deal with him, Khan?"

Silence filled the command room again as they all stared at the berserker, who was rubbing his neck as if he had been carrying the whole world on his shoulder for the past few hours.

Honestly, he looked like he had been doing just that for the past year.

"I don’t know," Agni sighed. "I better check on him."

"Just let him bite you once or twice," Esther, the only one who had witnessed the young esper’s feistiness, suggested with a laugh. "It’s not like a scout can hurt you."

"Not physically, at least," the gunner grinned and received a couple of smacks from the others while Agni walked out of the room with a bitter chuckle.

It wasn’t wrong, though, and rather than him getting hurt, the kid would most likely be the one who got hurt trying to hit him--even if he didn’t do anything in retaliation. But he had no idea how to face the kid fifteen years younger than him, who was rightfully angry at him and the world.

Would the kid really calm down and listen if Agni let him have a few hits? Well...he could try, right?

Taking a deep breath, Agni unlocked his bedroom, feeling more nervous than the time he experienced his first trial. He opened the door slowly and peeked his head first to check on the feisty squirrel.

"Huh..." he blinked and looked around in surprise. His room was...clean? No--it was actually cleaner and tidier than before. "Did you actually clean up--"

Agni froze as he found the kid sitting on the floor, in front of a familiar box, with documents and manuals on his lap while reading some files inside a folder with his father’s name on it.

Crap! Agni rushed over and, although knowing it was too late already, still grabbed the scout’s hand to stop him from reading. "Hey, this is--"

The kid turned to Agni and looked at him with slightly shaking eyes. "Is this true?"

"W-what?"

"There will be no...remains?"

Damn it! Agni held back the curse trying to come out of his mouth. "Hey, look--"

"Don’t lie to me!" the scout hissed and glared at Agni. After three seconds, however, he exhaled harshly and added in a considerably calmer tone "I’m a licensed esper--not a kid."

Looking at those eyes, which almost resembled his own with all the heaviness and the pain, at the edge of numbness, Agni clenched his jaw as his conscience was getting shredded. In the end, he let out a soft sigh and let go of the kid’s hand. "Let’s get off the floor first."

"I’m fine here."

"You’ll be fine on the chair too, come on," Agni took the box and placed it on top of the table, before pointing toward the chair with his chain. "I’ll make you some coffee."

Ron perked up in reflex at the offering, before clearing his throat to hide any sign of excitement. "...okay."

He stood up and sat on the chair--which he had also kicked before--while carrying the documents on his lap. The young scout continued to read the files, pretending not to care but occasionally glancing toward the berserker making coffee in the Captain-privilege coffee maker on the corner.

Agni raised his brow amusedly. Huh, the kid seemed normal after calming down. Still looked like a squirrel with that messy, spiky brown hair and dark eyes, but the cute kind rather than feisty, investing one.

Maybe they could really talk it out.