[FIN] Precautions

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah, there; that was better. That was the smile he was hoping for. A similarly soft, gentle smile formed on his face and he finished off the round of hand kissing by lacing his fingers through Zev's again, giving them a soft squeeze, and pressed one last, lingering kiss to his knuckles. Their chances of success weren't too good realistically, especially when they were sorely outnumbered, but at the very least they had a few tricks up their sleeves and could ensure they were prepared beforehand. Zevran would live - he intended to fight tooth and nail to make sure of that - and with that thought in mind he gave his boyfriend's fingers another gentle squeeze before letting them slip away, then turned to pull another handgun over to disassemble and clean.


A little while later saw the various firearms cleaned and stashed away again, their hands washed and dried, and after sneaking silently past the blanket fort where Taavi was almost assuredly fast asleep, slipped into Abel's bedroom. Once he ascertained that all of his pokemon except Sonia had left the room, some requiring some quiet encouragement to do so, the taller blond quietly closed and locked the door to give them some privacy to talk. He wasn't entirely sure just what they'd discuss yet - strategy, possibilities, maybe a date to look forward to as a sort of light at the end of a dark, treacherous tunnel... Though he was beginning to get a couple ideas of things to ask.  

[TawnyAngel]

After what he had seen in the hotel Zev saw no point in shooing Amigo out and so the Butterfree remained, gripping his shoulder tightly and occasionally twitching his wings with pent up anxiety.

"So." Zevran sighed and gave Abel a tired smile. "What do we do now? Planning is..." He shrugged instead of finishing the sentence, he had said it many times. "Taliesen took care of that when we were small; he was elder, wiser. When we met Rinna she took over - her mind was sharper than a razor - and of course our ultimate instructions came from above any of us." Yet he could not shrug off responsibility for this, this was his mess. Zevran hiss between his teeth, expression sharpening and then said it aloud; "This is my mess. I know them. I can think of something." Think, plan, take action, take responsibility.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel returned the tired smile with a gentle one of his own, less tired and more empathetic. Oh yes, he knew quite well that Zevran wasn't exactly the best at planning and had said so numerous times. The taller man closed the distance between them with a few steps and gave Amigo a gentle pat first before he lifted his hands to gently, gently cup his boyfriend's cheeks. He couldn't really think of anything to say about when he was younger, but... "Heh... That's how I felt about my mess, so I know how you feel... but you can - I know you can - and I'll help any way I can. Two heads are better than one, or so the saying goes," he added with a shrug, even though he... really had no idea where to even begin with formulating a plan. Hopefully Zev did.  

[TawnyAngel]

Abel really did have the most beautiful eyes, and the most wonderful smile even though it was a weary one. Zevran smiled back and covered one of Abel's hands with his own. "They are indeed. Mmh. So... Questions? Do you have them? About... well about any of this." Maybe that was a good place to start?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah, questions? Abel's eyebrows lifted a bit as he settled his forehead against Zev's. "Questions?" Did he have questions? As his thoughts churned to try and find one he might have, he let out a breath in a long, thoughtful hum while his thumbs traced idle circles over his boyfriend's cheekbones. He knew enough about the Crows, he thought, as well as their numbers and he could assume their methods well enough if the previous night was any indication. No, he didn't really have any questions about them... So what questions could he have, or could he think of? Nothing that would really be helpful, and asking 'so what do we do about this crap' wasn't productive...

Well, he did have one question, at least, now that he'd thought about it a little more.

"Do you--ah," he paused to frown a little, his thumbs still running over Zev's cheeks, then started again, "D'you think you could maybe teach me how to pick locks? I.. don't know if it would be helpful in the end, but I thought... maybe, just in case? I don't think it'd hurt anyway," the blond added with a small shrug.  

[TawnyAngel]

That wasn't a question Zevran had expected; his brows lifted a little with surprise but he nodded in the same moment. "Well of course if you would like to learn, it is certainly a useful skill. It will take some time of course... but we will have time, yes?" They would. They had to have more time.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I'd like to, yeah. It isn't something I ever really thought about or considered before, honestly, but I thought it might be a good idea, just in case of..." He trailed off and shrugged again, unwilling to voice any of the possibilities that swam around his mind. "Something, I don't know. I want to help you however I can, and I thought maybe this might?" Ah, he sounded so uncertain of himself - he knew he did - and felt like he was repeating himself. No, he had to stay calm -- he had to. He would.

"Oh, yeah, any skill takes time to learn, but we have time," he added after a moment, his tones switching from uncertain to reassuring now that he spoke of something he was more confident in, and he even rubbed more gentle circles over his boyfriend's cheeks with a soft smile curving his lips. "We have plenty of time -- as much time as you want."  

[TawnyAngel]

"You never know when you may need to pick a lock even your own, it was a basic skill taught to us," Zevran replied with a wry smile. "We can start whenever you wish, though my tools are out in my jacket... I suspect Taavi is asleep by now though, he will not notice us coming in I think."

All of this though, everything that had happened since last night had made him think about many things but one particular thought that had bubbled under the surface now rose to the fore.

Zevran scowled suddenly and pulled off his shirt. "Do you have a black marker Abel?" he asked as he looked down at the tattoos on his left arm.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ah, that was more or less along the lines he'd been thinking, even if he didn't want to voice it. What if they got separated, and the only way to get back to him is through a locked door? Picking it would be much quicker, much easier he felt than trying to break through it or find an alternative route. In situations like these, time meant everything. "That's true... and I think I'd like to start now, if that's okay with you? I'm pretty sure he's asleep too, but if not I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you snuck out and grabbed something from your coat."

And... now... Zevran was taking off his shirt. Abel blinked rapidly a couple times, puzzled by his sudden actions and expression, but a quick glance at the tattoo on his arm solved the riddle for him. "Ah, somewhere," he said as he cast around for a moment with a light frown. Somewhere, somewhere... He had a myriad of pens and things in a drawer in his dresser, so he turned and padded over to it and began rummaging through it. A moment later he withdrew a black permanent marker and held it out to his boyfriend, a questioning expression on his face, "Will this do?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran inspected the pen for only a moment before he took it with a nod and uncapped it. "Yes, I think so." He had no real plan of what to do to the marks curving around his upper arm, only to change them and so he unfocused his mind a little and let his right hand work as it will. Extend this one, thicken that line, fill in that curve to make a thicker coil of blackness against his skin.

"This was house Arainai's mark," he explained as he worked, though maybe he had said it before. "I was given it when I was fourteen, I... I was very proud. It made me a true Crow, a person of worth. It was still two years before I was given any assignments of my own but I assisted with many before that. Whenever I felt weak, afraid, faltered at the idea of what we were about that night I touched these lines. I thought they gave me strength. I think they did... or at least they made my resolve to follow the mission through strong." And there might be kids that age out there right now looking up at Taliesen with wide awed eyes, he was on his way to being a Master and none could deny that! He would have looked up to him too.

"Ahh... Would you fetch my coat Abel? I would rather... I need to change this." He didn't look at his love as he spoke, he couldn't, too many things were tying up in his chest and making it hard to breathe.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel listened and looked on in silence, feeling his heart slowly sinking towards his shoes. It seemed to do that fairly consistently whenever Zevran talked about his life before leaving Antiva, before leaving the Crows. Once more he found himself wanting to hold him, to kiss him, to touch his face or hold his hand, anything to brush the sadness away -- but this was important. Just as important as anything else, if not moreso, and he had more than a sneaking suspicion it was a difficult thing for Zevran to do and not because of anything to do with creativity or anything of the sort. He was altering a piece of himself, changing and marking over something that had been so important to him, probably helped him feel like he meant something or belonged somewhere.

As much as he wanted to comfort his boyfriend when he dealt with something so important like this, he merely nodded and murmured, "Of course." No, the best thing he could do was go fetch his coat like he asked. Anything else would simply serve to distract him and that wasn't important right now. No, much as he liked being a distraction to Zevran, he wouldn't dare do so now. So he turned on his heel and walked out of his bedroom, stepping on silent feet as he padded through the living room, past the kitchen and to the closet by the front door to pull out Zevran's coat. Usually he enjoyed seeing both of their coats - or all of them, actually, since they both had more than one coat or jacket - all nestled up with each other in his closet, but at the moment it just made his heart ache a little, and he wasn't sure why. Was it because he wanted them to stay nestled up together like that forever? With the situation at hand there was a distinct possibility they wouldn't stay like that too much longer.

With Zevran's coat in hand, Abel quietly shut both the closet door as well as the door to those thoughts. Now wasn't the time for that.

He returned to the bedroom in just a moment or two, shutting and locking the door behind him as he neared the bed, unsure if Zevran would be finished and want to take his coat, or if he should simply set it down on the bed for now.  

[TawnyAngel]

He more or less noticed when Abel left, and definitely noticed when he returned.

"Hola cariño, what do you think?" he chirped with a tired, adoring smile as he held his arm out for inspection. "I suppose it is not so very different but it is not theirs," he explained, frowning as he spoke and making another tweak with the marker he held. "It is beautiful don't you think? How art erases scars, regrets, shadows of things passed? Just a few strokes and one thing is another, and you would never know the first had been there at all."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

This was a much different Zevran than the one he'd left just a scant couple minutes ago, and his heart fluttered up from his shoes back to where it belonged as he aimed a warm, happy smile at his boyfriend. His absolutely adorable, precious boyfriend. "It looks perfect," he replied promptly as he stepped closer, dropping Zev's coat on the bed for now so he could gingerly take the shorter blond's wrist in hand and peer more closely at the design he'd done. "Almost as perfect as you." His fingers moved as if to trace the new lines of ink there, but then realized the marker was probably still damp and so he refrained from doing so, lest he ruin the work of art Zevran just finished. "We can head to a tattoo parlor sometime and get it done a little more permanently than with a marker too, if you'd like."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yes." Zevran slid his fingers into Abel's hair, gripped firmly, and pulled him down for a passionate, almost vicious kiss. "When the job is done," he finished, growling the words hoarsely into Abel's ear. He was aware that his hands had started to tremble but he never trembled, faltered, shook, never, Crows did not.... And he was not one of them, lines of ownership and kinship bastardised to become his own marks. He was not a Crow, he; "I am your man. You know that?" He still needed to belong, and if not with and to Abel then where and to whom?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

How did he keep doing that? One minute he looked so serious and determined, the next adorable and so loving, and now--

Abel promptly dismissed any surprise he may've had for the abrupt, intense kiss and returned it in full immediately, his hands dropping to grip Zevran's waist and pull him so, so close. A shiver rolled down his spine and he wasn't sure if it was from his words, his tones, his actions or any combination of the above, but he wasn't about to complain. No, he definitely wasn't about to complain. "After it's done," he agreed in sultry tones, leaning in to press a firm kiss to the side of Zev's mouth, "I'll take you. I'll go with you, and I know. You're mine, all mine, only mine -- and I'm all yours. Only yours, always."