[FIN] Broken Bonds

[TawnyAngel]

"Uuuuh..." Okay, he was still concerned but now he was confused too, mostly confused because that noise Abel had just made didn't sound like one of extreme distress; it sounded... He had no idea what it sounded like. "Are you... okay?" Taavi asked uncertainly.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Okay... Okay. This was fine, everything was fine, he just... holy s**t he was just too cute. Ohhh no.

Inhaling deeply again, Abel dragged his hands down his face before they dropped into his lap with a heavy sigh. "No.. yes? I think yes. Probably. ..uh. Pancakes are more or less done I think, or maybe half done. I'm not really..." As he struggled to speak, he lifted his hands again and gestured with them helplessly, palms up, as if that would help get his inarticulate and nonsensical point across.

Giving up on that effort - and on holding his hands up - he straightened up a bit and looked at Taavi with a very serious expression on his face. "I need to show you something adorable." It wasn't just him, right? He couldn't be the only one to think that Zevran's reaction was adorable, was so cute that it made his heart skip a beat, made it hard to breathe... and made him want to wrap him in his arms and just hold him until he could form coherent sentences again. Or maybe longer, or...

Ohhh no..  

[TawnyAngel]

What? Something adorable? "Um, okay?" Taavi agreed a little uncertainly; obviously something had happened while he was showering. Not something bad though? "Er, so where is it?" he asked, looking around the room for something out of the ordinary as he spoke.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"In the kitchen," Abel clarified as he stood up and grabbed Taavi's wrist to pull him up too, though he didn't specify anymore than that as he returned his thumbs to his pockets and headed back into the kitchen.

Alright, okay... Zevran was adorable. Before he'd felt curious about his past but too considerate to even think about asking more than was reasonably necessary, worried when he was injured, fretted over his well-being, enjoyed his company - in every sense of the word - and had felt a desire to protect him when he seemed or was vulnerable. Apart from more inappropriate meanings, he'd felt the same about Taavi and his other friends before. Friends were an extension of his family and he cared for them. This, though... Zevran's reaction had fired an arrow straight through all of that and wedged it far deeper than anyone else had. This was different.

This was something he'd striven to avoid since he moved to Kodo.

Putting a smile back on his face as he entered the kitchen, he waited for Taavi to join him before he leaned against the counter again and looked over to see how Zev was doing. Hopefully well - and at a good stopping point - because he wondered if his next words would completely derail everything. Again. "Hey Zev, I almost forgot something else my mom said - besides that you sound cute and adorable," he began, waiting a moment or two before adding, "she said you also sound sweet."  

[TawnyAngel]

Taavi followed along with Abel, willing but extremely puzzled.

In the kitchen the worst of Zevran's blush had started to recede, and he had just slipped another finished pancake onto the waiting plate when Abel and Taavi entered together. Though still pink he had more or less recovered his wits and had been about to say something innocuous about it being time to eat when Abel spoke again and stopped him dead, once again with the pan still in his hand.

As the bright flush flowed back into his cheeks Zevran tried to respond but no words came out of his mouth as he opened and closed it, instead he only made a slight spluttering sound. "¿She- why does she say all of these things?" Zevran managed after several speechless moments.

...Yep, okay, that was cute. Taavi started to grin; it was weird seeing Zevran all flustered and blushing! Zev! Blushing! The guy who could and would make anything suggestive! "You were right," Taavi said to Abel, giving his friend a gentle nudge in the ribs. "Adorable."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel's breath caught in his throat again as he watched Zevran struggle to process this. Ohhh Arceus, he really was adorable... He hadn't expected the shorter man's vulnerable points, and he certainly hadn't expected him to blush so much over compliments - if at all. Actually no, he was pretty sure Zev was incapable of blushing.

Ohh how wrong he was.

"I think she said them because they're true," the taller blond pointed out without hesitation, and for the moment he didn't respond to Taavi's addition. Instead he positioned the final nail in the coffin. "She said one more thing, too. I think her exact wording was something like, 'he sounds like such a sweetheart.'"  

[TawnyAngel]

And Abel agreed? What was he supposed to say to that exactly? ¡What? "You- I'm not-" Zevran waved the pan around and then looked at it as though seeing it for the first time; he was still holding this? And why did Abel think he was all of those nice things? "Ah, look, pancakes!" Zevran said, hoping that perhaps this would deflect Abel's attention. A sweetheart. Nobody said things like that to him, and why would they? But Abel said that they were true. Was he teasing him? He didn't look or sound as though he was but surely he had to be, it made a lot more sense than him actually thinking that.

Taavi was still grinning. "It's really sweet of you to make us breakfast Zev," he said genuinely, and also because watching Zevran get flustered was amazing.

Zevran spluttered again.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel crossed one arm over his midsection to hold his elbow while his free hand lifted to rub at the lower half of his face as he watched Zevran splutter and blush away, still struggling to breathe and trying to quiet his heart. Ohhh, why did he have to be so cute? s**t... This was not what he needed, not with his life the way it was... "Yes, you are adorable, and it was sweet of you to make breakfast for us," he agreed, relishing the way Zevran's cheeks blushed so fiercely over such innocent compliments. The dirtiest things could be spoken or implied and the shorter blond hardly batted an eye, but sweeter words...

Unable to take it anymore, the taller blond stepped forward and reached up to try and wipe the smudge of flour off Zev's face. "Thank you for making breakfast," he said earnestly as he moved one hand to take the pan if he'd let him do so, while his other rose palm-up and hovered there, a silent offer of a hug if he wanted to hide for a bit. As much as he adored seeing him like this, he didn't want to break him too badly. If talk of pancakes was what he wanted - or at least not to talk about how sweet he was anymore - then talk of pancakes was what he would get. "I have to say I'm kinda stoked for pancakes, it's been ages since I've had them."  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran looked a little surprised as Abel moved towards him and reached up towards his face, why was he- Oh, he'd had something on his face? Abel's fingers were as gentle as his words, people didn't brush things off his face and tell him he was sweet. He let Abel take the pan without any resistance and then, after a moment of hesitation, he leant into the offered hug. With his face safely hidden Zevran gave a brief laugh. "You two are very strange men," he muttered. After a few breaths he felt a little bit less... a little bit less whatever he had been feeling before and pulled back again, still deeply flushed but now smiling a fairly typical smile again. "There are few breakfasts as fine as pancakes! I will take them through if you two will bring the plates and the syrup and so on."

Abel thought he was sweet.

Zevran picked up the plate of pancakes and hurried through into the living room.

Wow. "Well, that was definitely another thing I'd never thought I'd see," Taavi murmured quietly to Abel once Zevran had left the room, the way he'd hidden his face in Abel's shoulder was too much! "I'll get the plates and forks," he added a moment later, because he was hungry and pancakes were very much best when they were hot.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

There, that was better. Once he had the pan, Abel set it back down on the stove and shut the burner off, presuming that pancakes were done for now. Zevran didn't stay near him as long as he expected him to - because that's all it was, expectation, he hadn't been hoping he would linger there or anything, certainly - and soon he was speaking normally again, though the state of his face betrayed him. Arceus, his blush really was too cute...

...s**t.

And then he was off again with the pancakes, so the taller blond leaned against the counter and let out a long, slow sigh as he hooked his thumbs into his pockets. After a moment he offered Taavi a brighter smile and spoke in soft tones, "Right? I didn't really think he was capable of that, let alone expect that sort of reaction when I told him what Mom said. Ah, yeah, I'll get the other stuff," he added after a moment, and moved to pick the various items up before carrying them out into the living room after Zev, trusting Taavi to bring enough utensils and stuff for the three of them.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Adorable!" Taavi agreed in a hushed but emotive whisper. Once he'd gathered up everything else they needed he headed through into the living room and set it all down on the table, flashing a smile to Zevran as he did so.

"Ah! Here you both are!" Zevran said a little more brightly than was probably normal when you have literally just seen the people you are addressing. He was still blushing too. "And look! It is becoming a lovely morning outside," Zevran continued with an expansive gesture towards the window. "I can go shopping later, for food until Friday. I- you see I was thinking that maybe tonight I could do something a bit special? Shellfish, crab, maybe lobster?" Cute, sweet, adorable.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Here we are," Abel affirmed with a smile that brightened a bit more when he saw Zevran was still blushing. Mention of the morning outside prompted him to glance out the window - man, Zev really was trying to talk about literally anything else, wasn't he? - before he looked back at him, his eyebrows arching in surprise. "Really? That's..." Really sweet of you. "That sounds like a lot though, you don't have to do that," the blond said as he set the syrup and things down so his friends could use them if desired. His mouth was watering already for the pancakes, but a special dinner? He'd never made any of those things before, and assumed they would be more difficult than something simpler.. Zev didn't need to go through all that trouble, even if it would end in a delicious result that he'd appreciate the hell out of.

Not as much as he appreciated Zev though... Scenery? Yes, of course, the scenery; that's what he'd meant by that.  

[TawnyAngel]

When Abel trailed off briefly Zevran studied his face intently and wondered what he had been going to say, had he been going to call him a sweetheart again? Sweetheart. That was- that was just silly, and it was only because it was so odd an unexpected that his heart beat a little faster when he thought about it. "Oh, it is not as difficult as it sounds," Zevran replied with a small smile, which could have been called almost shy if it hadn't been him doing it but he was never shy so it couldn't be. "All of it can cook in the same pot - the very large one you have should do - it just goes in at different times. It's quite simple but the timing is very important, you do not want anything under or overcooked. If you prefer though I can do something else?" Fresh high quality seafood always came first to his mind for indulgent food, it was done often and done well back in Antiva.

Taavi resisted the urge to glance at Abel, instead he reached out to grab a pancake for himself.

"That sounds really nice," Taavi said with a smile and a nod once Zev had stopped talking; he had decided to pretend that Zev was acting totally normally. "Um, I'm good with whatever you want to do! It always comes out tasting really good."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Taavi taking a pancake reminded him that they were out here having breakfast, so Abel reached out to grab one as well, though his actions were a little mechanical, his thoughts elsewhere. "I guess that isn't too difficult," he ceded, though the thought remained.. Why though? The blond hummed thoughtfully for a moment or two, pondering on his friend's words. Zev had admitted he was used to being given choices of a few things but not having an entire store to pick from, and he'd gotten the impression that the shorter blond tended to defer to others for things -- picking clothes and asking about dinner were the more obvious ones, but the memory of an indisposed, out-of-sorts Zevran struggling to remain upright, that didn't recognize anything, merely sitting quietly and asking what he should do, what was expected of him, still haunted him and left him feeling uncomfortable. Maybe he was overthinking it - which was entirely possible - but he couldn't help but feeling like there was something there.

"That does sound like it'd be good," Abel admitted after a little more of a pause than he'd intended, and he set about pouring some syrup on his pancake before cutting into it with a fork, "but what I want you to make is whatever you want to make."  

[TawnyAngel]

Oh yes, he had made pancakes. Zevran took one and sprinkled some sugar over it but he paused in the action of reaching for a wedge of lemon as Abel presented him with a choice, and his brows knot slightly as he thought his way through it. What he wanted to make was whatever Abel wanted to eat but he knew that he wasn't going to get away with that so he would just have to decide for himself. Abel he hadn't sounded averse to the idea of seafood, perhaps just concerned for the effort he thought was involved?

Zevran picked up the lemon and squeezed some of the juice over his pancake before setting the wedge on the side of his plate, he'd offer it to Amigo a bit later. "Ah... Well the shellfish came to mind first and I haven't cooked that for you yet, so I think that is a good choice," he decided aloud, speaking quite slowly and with just the barest hint of uncertainty in his voice. Abruptly Zevran found that he really wished Taavi wasn't here, he liked him a lot but he didn't know him as well as he did Abel and he worried about how he might be sounding to him.

Taavi kept quiet and took a bite of pancake, it almost sounded like Zev hadn't really wanted to make a choice which was weird for somebody as confident as he was. Was he missing something here?