There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 197

Chapter 197: Chapter 191. Duty and Calling

Zein usually woke up with his biological alarm, unless he was physically drained or mentally distraught. Or both.

Today was none, and he woke up just after dawn just as usual. Only, instead of a ceiling, he woke up staring at a pair of warm amber eyes. "This feels familiar," he commented, lips curling upward reflexively.

"Like the time you woke up and kissed me out of nowhere?" the esper asked.

"Ah," Zein chuckled softly, recalling the day he visited the lab for the first time and touched the shard. He dreamt of something--he couldn’t remember what--but he recalled calling out for Bassena and when he opened his eyes, the esper was there. Zein didn’t think twice to kiss Bassena then, thinking it was still a dream.

Perhaps, he was already started to fall for the man even then, only that he was too afraid to admit it, too wrapped up in his worry that Bassena’s interest was nothing more than an esper attachment for a guide, a mere infatuation created from the good feeling during guiding.

But for the many months of their vague relationship after that, the most intimate guiding they ever did was through kisses, and that was only twice. Even after they finally made love, Bassena never asked for a guiding.

This time, as he stared at the warm ambers, Zein knew it wasn’t a dream, but he still reached out to grab the platinum strands and pulled the esper down for a kiss.

And this time, because it wasn’t a mistake of a half-sleep delirium, the kiss didn’t end shortly. It went further and further until Zein found himself straddling the esper’s hips, pulling off the esper’s shirt, and...well, it was safe to say he did his morning exercise in a different way.

"You didn’t sleep?" Zein asked as they basked in each other’s warmth beneath the comforter, while the sky getting brighter.

"How do you know?" Bassena raised his head from the guide’s chest.

"Because you were already up when I woke up," Zein smirked. There was only one instance when Bassena woke up earlier than him; when Zein slept in so late after having his outburst.

True to what Han Shin said, once Bassena fell asleep, it was hard to wake him up.

"Mm," Bassena just smiled in response and returned to lay his head on the guide’s chest. He liked it there, listening to the steady heartbeat, making sure that Zein was there. "I was afraid I might be dreaming."

Stroking the messy hair, Zein asked with a smile--he realized more and more how easy it was to do it in front of his esper. "Are you convinced now?"

"Mm," the mumbling sent vibration across his chest and Zein chuckled in response.

"You’re free to convince yourself whenever."

Bassena blinked, and slowly raised his head until he could stare at the blue eyes. "...yeah?"

"Yeah,"

"Can I convince myself now?"

This time, Zein laughed freely. He grasped the esper’s hair and pulled himself up, tilting his head for another kiss. "I’ll convince you in the shower."

"Wow, I don’t know it’s still my birthday..."

* * *

"Do you have the monthly assessment ready?"

The front desk twins looked up from their screens to stare at Zein, looking a bit stunned. It was because Zein finally spoke in a gentler tone, something they hadn’t heard for weeks. The last time they saw Zein this...relaxed, was right after the Serpent Lord finished his trial.

"So?"

"Ah!" they scrambled to pick up the folder they had just printed this morning before Zein came, and give it to the guide with more energy than usual. "I’m sorry for being late, Sir. We should have finished the report yesterday--"

"It’s fine, no one told you to work on the weekend," Zein waved his hand nonchalantly and took the folder.

Abel, who was buying something from the vending machine in the corner all this while, whistled. "People in love are indeed different."

Zein raised his gaze from the report and arched his brow, to which Abel responded with a smirk. "What? Do you think people wouldn’t know you’re ’official’ now?" Abel raised his fingers to make quotation marks.

"Oh, right," Abel rolled the warm canned soup between his palm while following Zein to the latter’s office. "The framework needs to be submitted by the fifteenth, right?" _{freёwebnovel.com}