There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 291 - 283. Stealing Thunder

Chapter 291: Chapter 283. Stealing Thunder

How could it be that they never talked about this before?

Bassena knew Zein awakened when the man was ten, but he had never thought, in his wildest imagination, that they awakened on the same day. It almost felt like a dream, like a...fate.

Parting his lips in a daze of amazement, Bassena stared unblinking at the guide, his guide, as if the man himself was a miracle.

"What? Wait..." Abel, who finally finished putting on his tie correctly, turned around to look at the esper and Zein. "Are you telling me...you’re awakened on the same day?"

"Seemed so," Zein said with a brand of tenderness that got Abel quite taken aback since he had never heard it before.

Because Zein did not wear his mask this time, Abel didn’t have to read the expression just from his eyes. So it was easier to see the way Zein’s cold countenance softened, glowing softly as if a nightlight was shining from within.

It was such a beautiful sight that made Able understand why the Bassena Vaski always looked so spellbound with his guide. Like now, when the mighty, newly-ranked-fifth-in-the-Federation Serpent Lord was so lovestruck he hadn’t been blinking for a whole minute, cheeks red and frozen.

"Oh, no," Abel shook his head. "No, no, no!" he turned to look back at Zein, whose face had been returning to his usual, nonchalant one. "Just to make it clear, today is my day, okay?"

Zein raised his brow at the usually tame guide who now had his hands on his hips, staring sternly at the couple as if they were about to crash his wedding or something. The wedding he had been preparing with all his patience and mental health for the past half a year.

"Pfft—" Zein chuckled and patted the skeptical groom. "I know, I know..."

But Abel shifted his gaze toward Bassena and pointed at the esper threateningly. "If you’re trying to propose or something today, I’m going to kill you."

Literally, Abel wouldn’t be able to do it, but he was the groom, he could demand anything today. Bassena finally woke up from his trance and cleared his throat, averting his flushed face.

"He won’t," Zein chuckled and patted the guide’s back again to reassure him. Wedding’s nerve is really something, huh? Zein looked at the man who was usually calm and collected in fascination.

Abel narrowed his eyes dubiously. "How do you know? He looks like he wants to kneel in front of you right now."

"Because he doesn’t think it needs to be done during a special day," Zein smirked, teasing what Bassena told him earlier. "And he’s the type to prepare everything well first."

Bassena laughed softly at how accurate it was. Of course, he wouldn’t just do something that important to the love of his life in an impromptu, impulsive urge. Just like how he came to the Deathzone with a whole plan to recruit Zein through expedition instead of instantly running over there once he found out where Zein was.

After all, he was Radia and Joon’s ’little brother’. He was taught by two people whose brains only consisted of planning things for the bigger picture.

In fact, Bassena already knew where and how he would do that, it was just a matter of when—because a relationship with Zein was all about timing.

"But I’m inclined to think that I always look like I want to kneel in front of him, though," Bassena shrugged, to which Abel scoffed in response.

But he seemed to believe them now and continued to get ready while Zein bid him goodbye to finally move to the venue.

"That’s...wow..." Bassena was the one who picked up the topic back first, because he was still in a daze even as they walked through the corridor following the direction that the staff gave them. "I mean...I knew you awakened when you were ten, but...I’ve never thought that far..."

Zein, meanwhile, had no idea about Bassena’s awakening. If the esper mentioned it before, then he simply forgot about it—perhaps because, at that time, Bassena wasn’t this special. When he heard it earlier, he only asked in curiosity, because they awakened in the same year. Certainly, he didn’t think it would happen on the exact same day.

"It’s kind of hard to think of it as coincidence," Zein muttered.

Bassena froze suddenly and stopped walking. He looked at Zein with a newfound anxiety. He had been too happy to think that it was a miracle, that it was fate, that it only proved how they were meant to be.

But he forgot one crucial thing; Zein hated that concept. Fate, things that had been predetermined, because it made him feel like a tool made by the whim of the Celestial Being. It was the same as how he hated the thought of imprinting, of an esper’s inherent attachment to their guide.

What...what if Zein thought their journey was only the ploy of the deities...?

"What’s wrong?" Zein turned and halted his step when he realized Bassena was standing still. Not only that, the esper also looked...scared? Zein tilted his head and reached out to stroke the anxious cheek. "Baby?"

Oh...Bassena blinked when he heard that melodious pet name Zein used only for him. Oh, Zein still called him that—Bassena breathed in relief. "I thought...I thought you might hate it..."

Zein raised his brow, looking up to ponder about which part implied he hated the thought of awakening on the same day with Bassena.

"Because...it sounds like...fate, or something. Like there’s a power that wants us to be connected that way..."

"Hmm..." Zein nodded, finally understanding the esper’s sudden anxiety. "You’re right, I do hate that kind of thing,"

Bassena instantly tensed, even while having Zein’s hand on his cheek. But the guide stroked his skin again, smiling just as tender as he did inside the groom’s suite. "But I don’t hate you," he chuckled. "And even if it’s not a coincidence, I don’t think it has much influence on our story. Isn’t this why I took such a long time to decide what I feel about you?"

The amber eyes widened, and Zein continued to stroke the esper’s cheek, this time with both hands. Yeah, this was the reason why he stubbornly held on from breaking his wall, from stepping out of his cage, from climbing up the cliff. Because he didn’t want this kind of doubt to cloud his feelings in the future.

But thanks to him being so cautious, he was no longer questioning whether or not it was his own feeling or something that was controlled by their nature as an esper and a guide. He was over that hurdle now.

"Even if it wasn’t a coincidence, even if there’s a power out there who wants us to meet and end up together, it doesn’t matter," he said, softly, but firmly, making sure that each word resonated inside the esper’s heart. "I know I’m the one who made this decision to be with you, so it’s alright. I know it’s me, and not some cosmic power that willed us to be together."

Abel was right. Right now, in a building where a wedding would be held, on a day where lovers were said to be blessed, Bassena wanted to kneel down and ask Zein for his hand. He wanted to kneel and beg the man to never leave him, to be with him until the end of time and beyond.

But they had promised the groom that they wouldn’t steal his thunder, and he did not bring the important stuff with him, so Bassena swallowed the words he really wanted to utter, and asked for something else. "Can I kiss you?"

Smiling fondly at the younger man, Zein brought the esper’s face closer and pressed their lips together. Ah, he didn’t know what love was, but if he used Radia’s words, this might be it. Because Zein didn’t think he could be with anyone else but Bassena.

At least, at that moment, there were only the two of them in his world, in his future; the future he had started to picture again. A future of a house on a cliff, under the blue sky, overlooking the turquoise sea.

There was only one thing separating them from that future, and Zein thought that perhaps, they met the way they met so they could tackle that obstacle. In that case, he didn’t mind this one ’fate’, this one ploy, if it truly was the case.

"I’ve told you," Zein whispered against the smiling lips. "There’s a lot of ways we might meet even if the scenario is different," he pulled back a little, just so he could see the esper’s face better, and stroked the neck whose veins were pulsing strongly. "But there’s no guarantee we will feel the same way, so...I’m still glad we met the way we did."

Would they still be drawn to each other if Zein was born in the Northern Alliance? Would they still be together if the Golden Viper managed to find Lucia and turn Zein into a tool? They wouldn’t know, but it also did not matter. What mattered was that they met in this scenario, through pain and misery, through fate and coincidence, through doubt and suspicion. What mattered was, that even after everything, they managed to find solace in each other.

And Zein felt it was enough.

He looked at the warm ambers that looked at him with all affection and worship, feeling the pulsing vein beneath his thumb, and warm hands on his waist. "How long it is until the ceremony?" he asked, in an airy voice that only Bassena could hear, and a dash of heavy breathing.

Bassena blinked slowly, mind whirring wildly. "...it should be fine if we’re there in twenty minutes," he replied, almost holding his breath as he spoke.

The blue eyes stared at him deeply, long lashes fluttered just a little bit. "Do you—"

"There’s a restroom in the hallway before that corner,"

Zein raised his brow at the swift reply, chuckling in adoration. He pulled back and took the esper’s hand, smiling deeply as he whispered. "Let’s hurry, then. Can’t be late for Abel’s wedding."

Well, twenty minutes should be enough for at least once, right?