[FIN] Precautions

[TawnyAngel]

"Always?" For a moment there was uncertainty, it was clear in his voice and the way his amber eyes searched Abel's intently. He didn't want always. He did want always, he wanted it so very much. His heart felt as though it was going to jump out of his chest and he kissed Abel again, hot and hard and desperate. "I want you to be mine now." Death breathed in his ear but Abel's breath was against his skin, they were not done yet. "I love you." Whatever else was to come that truth remained.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Always," he answered readily in tones that aimed for suggestive but shot far, far past it, "now and forever. Anything you want. I love you too, Zevran."


Some time later Abel's fingers slipped through Zevran's, lacing them all together so he could pull his hand up to his lips and press a soft, fond kiss to his wrist. "D'you still want to teach me how to pick locks?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmmmmh, yes."

Zevran squeezed Abel's fingers to show his affection and then rolled away, off the bed and into a shoulder-stand with one leg stretched out high and the other drawn close, heel against his a**.

"You know," he swapped legs, "I am wondering something. It is... I think you will think it normal but I think it silly and strange. I wondered before but was loathe to ask but now, with the future as it is, I want to ask. So." Both knees came to Zevran's chest, he raised himself onto his hands, dipped, pushed, and flipped onto his feet.

"So," he grinned that happy, tired, worried grin he had shown Abel several times in the last twenty four hours. "May I ask?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Ohhh he'd never get tired of Zevran's stretches... but damn how did he have so much energy? Just watching him made him tired - or, well, more tired than he already felt - but he huffed out an amused breath and sat back up to watch him. He really did love him -- and at this point he was quite sure, almost positive that he loved him more than he'd ever loved another person before. "Of course sweetheart," he replied with a warm, weary but pleased smile, doing his best to keep any worry out of it. "You know you can ask me anything, anything at all."  

[TawnyAngel]

Sweetheart.

"Aha, well," Zevran laughed and wrapped his arms around himself as he continued to smile, worried and unsure at Abel. "I was wondering what you would consider to be our... our anniversary?... Should I have clothes on for this sort of conversation? I do not know how to- or at least how other people have a relationship but I want to do rightly by you, if I can live to do so." He would probably die but if he did not then the date mattered, it mattered a lot.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Despite his laugh and his smile he still looked like he felt terribly vulnerable, if his worried expression or posture were any indication, and Abel promptly pushed himself to his feet with a smile on his face - still weary but now bright, pleased, happy - and closed the distance between them so he could wrap his arms securely around his love. It still baffled him sometimes how adorable and precious and sweet Zevran was, because when they'd first met he didn't consider him any of those things. "Generally it's the date that someone asked the other person out, so in our case it's January sixth," he said in tones that were probably a little more pleased than necessary, and he leaned down a tad to press a soft, fond kiss to the top of his boyfriend's head. Tactfully passing over the clothes question he instead went on, "You will live," because he would make absolutely sure of it, "and you've already been doing right by me, you've been nothing short of amazing to me this whole time, I... You mean so much to me, d'you know that?"  

[TawnyAngel]

The embrace was welcome, more than welcome, and Zevran was quick to wrap his arms around Abel in return. "January sixth," he repeated, leaning his forehead against Abel's shoulder with a contented sigh. "I like January sixth, nearly as much as I like February sixth in fact!" Had he been amazing? He had tried to be but without much to compare to he was never exactly sure, he knew Abel was happy with him of course but it was still good to hear it put into words.

"I do know that and you do to me as well, more than anyone else I have ever known."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

For some reason the fact Zevran remembered his birthday made his heart flutter a bit and brought a silly grin to his face. It probably shouldn't have but it did; that and hearing how much he meant to Zev too. "I like it a lot too, but not quite as much as I like September eighteenth," he countered as he gave his boyfriend an affectionate squeeze and pressed another kiss to the top of his head. "I think I'd like to take you on a trip for your birthday this year, if you want to?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran looked up again and raised his hands to Abel's cheeks with a grin of his own. "Ah, I do like that expression." Big silly grins of true happiness weren't things he had appreciated before meeting Abel but that went for a great many things he now valued dearly. What a difference a few months could make!

"But, a trip?" Zevran paused for a moment, September was a long way away but he liked the idea of going away somewhere with Abel to celebrate his nominal birthday. "Yes," he decided aloud with a nod and a small smile, "I would enjoy that very much. Maybe when all of this is resolved we can decide where to go?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel's silly grin only broadened when Zev drew attention to it, and he promptly leaned forward to bury his face into his boyfriend's neck. "It's an expression that's only for you."

When he felt a bit better - rather, when he could get his doofy expression back under control - he lifted his head again and kissed his love's cheek affectionately. "A trip! And we could, though I'd planned to make the destination a surprise. If you want to help plan it though, you absolutely can."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oooh, a surprise?" Zevran slid his hands down to Abel's shoulders and gave him a fond squeeze. "I do like surprises, I think that's a very fine idea indeed... Ah, and I was going to demonstrate lock picking wasn't I? How did we get so very distracted?" This was said with complete innocence of tone, and a sly smirk.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"A surprise!" He echoed happily. "I know you like surprises just as much as I do, so I thought you'd enjoy it." Plus Zevran's eager, excited face was always endearing and a lovely sight to see; he wouldn't really get to see it much if he knew where they were going. Or, well, he probably would but not quite as much.

Ah, they did get rather distracted, didn't they? "It's because you're so terribly distracting," Abel answered with a dramatic, weary sigh, then grinned and planted a kiss on his boyfriend's cheek again before pulling away. After a moment or two of rummaging around in his dresser he pulled out a pair of sweatpants to don, though he didn't bother with a shirt for the time being. "Alright, demonstration time! You know how much I love your demonstrations," the taller blond said with a smirk of his own.  

[TawnyAngel]

"I am incorrigible, it is a terrible affliction," Zevran replied with a martyred sigh and a shake of his head; naturally he was still smirking too. "For now however I shall attempt to restrain myself in the interests of education." In the interests of being somewhat less distracting Zevran recovered his underwear and then stole a pair of Abel's sweatpants too, they were rather too long but they weren't going anywhere so it didn't matter.

Once suitably attired Zevran fetched the small leather case of tools from one of the inner pockets of his jacket and sat down on the edge of Abel's bed. "Now then, let's see... Do you have anything locked in here? And paper and a pen would be useful as well actually."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"You are," Abel agreed with a chuckle as he turned to fetch a small notepad and a pen from the same drawer he'd pulled the marker out of earlier. With those in hand he let out a brief, thoughtful hum before gesturing to his closet with both items, "We can use my box in the closet, that's locked." As he spoke he crossed the room to open the closet door. On top of the larger black box, a heavy padlock ensuring it stayed securely shut, sat a familiar box with a smaller lock sitting beside it -- familiar because it was the very same box from which Abel had fetched some of the handguns they'd cleaned earlier. ...was that okay? It was probably okay. Zevran knew the box existed - he'd have to be blind not to - but he hadn't ever seen inside before... but most things were inside smaller boxes inside of it so that was probably fine, right? Right.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Humm, let's see then," Zevran murmured as Abel brought the boxes over, they looked like decent locks which was perhaps not the best way to start teaching but perhaps they could acquire some simpler locks soon? "So, inside your padlock here you have a number of pins of different lengths. When you put in your key they slot into its grooves, and all turn at the same..." Zevran trailed off as he looked up at Abel and caught the somewhat distracted - worried? - expression on his face. "Amor?"