There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 546

Chapter 546: Chapter 539. Alone Together

"Are you upset?" Zein glanced at the quiet esper, who had been staring at the void with his binoculars for a long time.

"No," the answer was curt. After a few seconds of silence, a careful addition could be heard. "A bit..."

Zein pressed his lips to subdue the laughter crawling into his tongue. Ah...his boyfriend was persistently cute. It made him want to tease the man more.

"But why didn’t you bring it up at all last year?" Zein tilted his head. "Or the year before that?"

The answer was obviously because they were busy establishing the base, but he still wanted to heat Bassena’s response.

"Dunno," the esper’s lips started to twist as he lowered the binoculars and returned it to the scout. "Let’s go."

Ah...this was the face Zein had thought he would see when he came back from the Temple. As he followed the group with a smile, he wondered when it started; to think this reaction was cute instead of bratty...

Oh, well...did it matter? Snowball would keep snowballing without caring about the little rock and small twigs caught in its path. Besides, he knew he was kind of in the wrong this time. It wasn’t like recalling a day before his boyfriend’s birthday was a difficult thing. The problem was...he didn’t even remember Bassena’s birthday.

To be fair, he did not remember anyone’s birthday, not even his. He didn’t even know the year had changed if it wasn’t for the self-celebration these people made in the base. But that only inferred that Bassena, his boyfriend, was just like any other.

Certainly, a legit thing to be upset about.

Well...what can he do? It was his first and only romantic relationship.

I should remember it next year, Zein muttered inwardly with a smile. He should shed the habit of living alone without caring about anything or anyone already.

Yes. After all, he wasn’t alone anymore. And he had no intention to go back to being alone.

Zein hummed and smiled behind his mask as he continued to watch Bassena during their march. As they had decided earlier, the squad was just made for scouting, so aside from Zein and Bassena, there were only two scouts and Senan. Normally, if it was only scouting, they would just send a hunting squad or one of the reconnaissance groups. But this time, they would try to check a completely unknown area that was used by the enemies before, so Bassena didn’t want any mishap.

They took a vehicle to cross the desert until the edge of the fourth lane. But from that point, they had to go on foot. Because of the last battle, the fifth lane was completely messed up; the landscape turned upside down from the clone’s aggressive movement, Senia and the spirits’ magic, as well as the activated bombs. The previously empty desert became a canyon with deep craters and surfacing rocks scattered among boiling pits of liquid miasma.

This liquid miasma that looked like tar was the aftereffect of the burning clone’s body. Should they say it was a leftover? They had tried to place a purification device there, but the tar-like substance did not disappear, almost like a mudpool.

So the fifth lane became something like an open minefield. But they had to cross it to reach the edge of the desert, so there was nothing they could do. Bassena turned to the back of the formation and wordlessly carried the guide through the field.

Playing with the bright platinum hair as he was willingly being carried, Zein finally asked the esper. "What should I do so you’re not upset anymore?" he stared at the amber eyes from the side. "Should I beg?"

"...no need," Bassena answered a few seconds later after clearing his throat.

The apparent delay and the slight shaking of those eyes did not miss Zein’s observation, who put in a following tease. "Did you consider it?"

The reply came curtly with a slight hiss of self-restraint. "A wrong place to offer it."

Pfft--Zein pressed his face on the esper’s shoulder to muffle the laugh he could no longer hold even with the mask. After he recovered, Zein gave a concession. "Alright, then...should I give you a free ticket?"

Bassena landed on the ground and stayed there for a second longer than he should have before jumping again. Naturally, Zein also did not miss the tightening grip on his waist and the slightly stuttered breath.

So he added more for good measure. "You can ask me to do anything."

"...anything?" the question was accompanied by a swallowing sound.

"Anything at all," Zein repeated in a low, nonchalant tone that almost sounded like a whisper.

An alluring whisper.

Bassena blinked and Zein could see the gear in the esper’s head was turning crazily.

"What do you want?" the guide asked.

For the record, Zein never played when he said he’d let anything. He did not make excuses, so he said it with a prepared mind to do whatever Bassena requested, no matter how weird or embarrassing it would be. He was even down to do some bondage shit if the esper wanted to. And biting. Maybe just a bit.

But even after waiting for a long time, Zein did not hear any response. "Bas?"

He looked at the esper mid-jumping, thinking that Bassena was upset again for his provocation. But what Zein saw was the face of a man deep in thought; with furrowed brows and dilated pupils, with tensed jaw and sweaty temples. The amber eyes flickered as if the brain inside the pretty head was overloaded, and after they landed at the end of the pit field, Bassena stood still.