There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 130

Chapter 130: Chapter 126. Overflowing Emotions

"Who..." Zein frowned as he yanked the door open in annoyance, but his words stopped in his mouth when he saw the blazing twin ambers below furrowed platinum brows. "Bas...?"

Wordlessly, Bassena gripped the surprised face tightly, and Zein stumbled back from the sudden movement, bringing the esper with him. "What the fuck?" the esper’s husky voice was hoarse and filled with agitation. "What the fuck, Zein?!"

Blinking in a daze, Zein stopped himself from moving backward, grabbing the esper back. He stared at the twin flames piercing at him and sighed. "What happened to your anger management?"

"Do you think I have time for that after I heard what happened?!" the low voice was getting higher now, and Zein felt thankful that the door was already shut.

Without averting the piercing ambers, Zein asked in return. "So what exactly happened? Tell me."

"You--!" Bassena started with a loud voice, only to stop and bit his lips at Zein’s emotionless face. The blue eyes, which were duller than usual, reflected his angry face, and it made him stiffen. When he opened his mouth again, his voice was quieter, weaker. "That you were...caught in a dungeon anomaly and...had a burnout..."

"Yes," Zein moved his hand to the messy platinum hair and gripped it. "Was any of that something I could control?"

The answer to that was no, but Bassena found his tongue lost its power and just parted his lips without managing to eke out any word. In the end, after staring at the stern blue eyes for a while, he slumped down, hands sliding over the guide’s arms as he ended up on his knees.

"...’m sorry," the esper said weekly, clutching into the guide’s hands and he stared hard at the floor. His spine, his nape, his eyes...all felt hot from anxiety. Even as he held into the guide’s hands and felt the man’s warmth, seeing Zein uninjured with his own eyes, his heart still thumping loudly.

Zein looked at the imposing esper that was sagging on the floor, clutching into his hands as if they were his lifeline, and sighed. Slowly, he lowered his body and crouched in front of Bassena. He pulled out one hand from the esper’s clutch and caressed the distressed head.

"You have to know that once we’re back to the Deathzone, something like this might happen more often than we anticipate," Zein said while stroking the platinum strands. He could feel the esper stiffen at his words, but he continued. "You can’t react like this every time I get in danger, Bas."

Bassena lifted his head then, and Zein felt his heart skip a bit. The amber eyes were staring at him with so much feeling there--worry, anxiety, affection, desperation--that he couldn’t help the thumping of his heart.

"Still," Zein took a breath to steady his heart again, brushing the messy fringe falling over the esper’s forehead, and said with a smile. "Thank you for getting worried..."

In the few seconds that passed after, Bassena was staring at the soft pair of blue and the smiling face without blinking, feeling like his emotion would overflow and take hold of his body.

And it did.

Before his mind could warn him to stop, he was already leaning forward, claiming the smiling lips with his own. Swift and with no warning, it made Zein fall back in surprise, and had to prop himself with an arm while the other gripped Bassena’s hair.

The blue eyes blinked at the fierce yet shaking amber orbs, at the lips parted in short breaths, at the face that felt like it would crumble in a second. It was so different from the face he saw this past month on television.

This was the face only he could see.

And just like that, Zein found himself pressing his lips on the esper’s, tilted his head and caressed the trembling jaw. As he accepted the hot, anxious tongue inside, Zein used both his hands to clutch into the esper’s head and back, prompting him to fall backward.

Before his head could touch the hard floor, the esper’s large hand already grabbed the back of his head and cushioned his fall, as they kissed against the floor.

Zein felt no lust from this kiss, however deep it went. Bassena was like a child chasing a comforting light, which consumed him like a pilgrim thirsting for water; a necessity, a salvation. Even after they parted, the esper still looked at Zein like a lost child.

Pressing his face on the crook between the guide’s neck and shoulder, Bassena embraced the older man tight as if Zein would suddenly get sucked into another dungeon anomaly. "Do you know...how scared I was...when the first thing I heard after stepping out of the tower was about your dungeon incident?"

Zein closed his eyes, feeling the esper’s heart drumming against his chest, and stroked the trembling back. He wondered...would it be like how he felt when he heard about the dungeon break invading the residential area five years ago.