[FIN] Precautions

[TawnyAngel]

"Eh, I suppose I could try it. You know how I like to experiment!" Zevran's voice carried its usual cheeky, suggestive sparkle but the eyes that met Abel's looked more worried than flirtatious. "There are many possibilities," he added in case it made him feel any better. It didn't.

Taavi was a bit too tired to pick up on the slight off-ness in the mood just yet and he just made a noise of amused agreement as he alternated sipping water, coffee, and nibbling pretzel. "I think half the building knows you two like to experiment," he said once he'd swallowed his latest mouthful.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel opened his mouth to reply with a grin but the look in his boyfriend's eyes made both the reply and expression evaporate completely before either could really come to fruition. He was scared. He was scared but trying to act, to speak like he wasn't, like everything was just fine but the attempts didn't reach his eyes. Normally he wouldn't hesitate to smirk and respond in kind to suggestive jokes or teasing but now wasn't the time at all, so Taavi's claim went without comment. "There's always possibilities," he said instead, choosing his words with care because Taavi was right there, after all. The taller blond gave Zev a fond, reassuring squeeze and pressed a soft kiss to his shoulder. "Even if people only try to give you one or two possibilities, you can always make another yourself. I'll be right here with you to help you make another yourself, if you need me to."  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran chuckled and leant down a little to kiss Abel's cheek. "Ah, you are always so good to me! Well, we shall see what shall be shan't we?" Abel wouldn't abandon him, he knew that with more certainty than he did most things in life. Strange how this had come about; he didn't deserve this happiness or Abel's love and loyalty but there it was, deserved or not it was his.

That was... slightly weird? Or was he just tired? "Um, yeah, there's lots of stuff out there," Taavi said tentatively, unable to shake the feeling that there was more than one conversation going on all of a sudden.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

It felt odd, different to have their heights reversed, even if Zevran was only a little taller than him at the moment. Not that he was about to complain or anything, of course. "I try," he replied promptly, his lips curving into a warm smile as he gave his boyfriend another squeeze, "and we will."

After he took another bite of his pretzel and swallowed, he tuned a curious expression to Taavi. "You look pretty tired, man; d'you think you'll take a nap for a while, or did you have other plans for today?"  

[TawnyAngel]

They would try, and that was all anyone could ever do. What if Taliesen killed both of them? Would Taavi ever find out what had happened or would they just be... gone? Probably the latter.

"You do look tired," Zevran echoed with a smile and a shake of his head. "You are getting too old to stay out all night eh?"

Maybe it was nothing?... Maybe. On the other hand maybe it was something, something he wasn't being told. Maybe not a big something though, something unimportant? Probably.

"Hey," Taavi waved his pretzel at Zev, "I'm not even twenty two yet and you're older than I am! Um... but yeah I am pretty tired. We got in at about... four I think?" The time was drawn out by Taavi's uncertainty over it. "And then we didn't sleep for a bit so I've not slept a whole lot, a nap would probably be good... uhh... and... you guys did have a good night right?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel winced in sympathy; four was definitely incredibly late, especially if he was up for a while before that... and it wasn't that late in the morning. "Sounds like you definitely need a nap," he agreed without hesitation. "You can sleep in the blanket fort if you want, the pokemon seem to like it a lot... and I promise we didn't do anything inappropriate in it," he added, traces of a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. "Just actual sleeping -- though I make no promises about making out, there may've been some of that too. But we can just as easily take it down and move all the furniture back too." The taller blond - shorter at the moment - shrugged his shoulders easily. Blanket forts could always be rebuilt, after all.

Taavi's question gave him pause, and he hummed thoughtfully as he took another bite of his pretzel. His gut reaction was to say 'no, absolutely not' after what had happened, what they had learned... but he couldn't say that obviously. But was it really so terrible? They had enjoyed themselves before, and after they'd confessed their feelings for one another, had spent the rest of the night wrapped in warm, tender, loving thoughts and words and actions. "It had its ups and downs," he said at first with a light shrug, though his voice and expression took on a fonder tone as he turned to press a tender kiss to Zevran's shoulder. "I think it ended rather well though. What about you?" All in all it had ended pretty well; Zevran was uninjured, essentially, they were rid of her, they had expressed how much they cared for and loved one another, and had fallen asleep curled up comfortably in each other's arms. There really weren't many better ways for a day to end.

One such way would be if the Crows weren't after Zevran's head, but he didn't feel that needed mentioning, not at all. Hopefully Taavi would be happy with his response and not question further.  

[TawnyAngel]

"There were some ups, very nice ups in fact, but not the in blanket fort." Zevran winked and gave a sly smirk, after which which he suspected would put Taavi off too many more questions.

Indeed, Taavi raised his pretzel in protest. "I don't wanna know," he laughed, "but I'm glad it turned out well. Happy endings right! Uhhh, yeah though I think a blanket fort nap sounds about perfect right now. If I'm not in the way?" He'd kind of been in Abel's way for more than a year now, though Abel had never seemed to mind... He was going to miss him when he moved out.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While the pair spoke, Abel took the opportunity to pop the rest of his pretzel into his mouth. Ah, good, it seemed Taavi didn't care to ask any further. Perfect. After he'd swallowed and licked the stray bits of salt or pretzel off his fingers, he waved off his best friend. "Dude, you're never in the way, don't think that. Go on, enjoy the blanket fort, we'll spare you further details... Though I will say that the 'up' on the couch was my favorite," he couldn't help but add as he leaned his cheek on his boyfriend's shoulder. Sitting there on the couch, curled up warm in each other's embrace, confessing their feelings... Oh yes, that was definitely his favorite. That was his favorite by far.  

[TawnyAngel]

"You know, I'm not even going to ask," Taavi decided aloud; on the couch, really? Oh well, it was Abel's couch. Another bite saw off the end of his pretzel and after deciding he didn't really want the rest of his coffee, not now anyway, Taavi got up from the table and stretched. "Well, I'm going to sleep now. I don't have to work today luckily, but I don't want to totally screw my sleep schedule up so I'll get up again... Ehh... Lunctimeish?" Taavi laughed and shrugged. "We'll see right?"

"Sleep as much as you need," Zevran replied with a wave of his hand towards the fort. "Alcohol is exhausting, you will probably still sleep well tonight regardless." And the longer Taavi slept the longer he had to speak privately to Abel.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I wouldn't tell you even if you did!" He replied cheekily without hesitation, but a moment later he chuckled. "Nah, that's a lie; I might. But it wasn't anything bad, I promise." And it wasn't, not even close, and the fondness that tinged his tone in the last few words also tinged the slightly shy smile he aimed at the table as he recalled the night before. He loved Zevran and Zevran loved him; no, that was definitely his favorite from the night before. Despite everything that happened, he was quite sure the memory would go down as one of the most precious ones, locked away safe and warm in his heart.

Abel pressed another tender kiss to his boyfriend's shoulder and glanced up at him curiously, a similar tenderness in his expression. "Want to finish up cleaning these and head into my room to talk for a while?" He asked, unaware he was voicing what Zevran already thought. But they were nearly done anyway, they could only spend but so much time cleaning the small number of handguns they'd selected to keep prepared and ready for use.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Don't want to know!" Taavi replied laughingly as he curled himself up in the blanket fort where he was soon joined by Swift and Aurelia.

Zevran cackled but only briefly and now that Taavi was out of sight he allowed the smile to drop from his face. "Yes, that sounds good, give poor Taavi some peace to recover from his fun," he said cheerfully to Abel, and as he spoke he reached for his boyfriend's hand and squeezed tightly.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once Zevran's audience vanished into the depths of the blanket fort, his act similarly vanished and with both went any bits of happiness or good feelings Abel had been feeling. He hugged the shorter blond tighter, his fingers lacing themselves around Zevran's and squeezing back just as firmly. "I'm here," he murmured softly as he nuzzled his face into his boyfriend's neck. There was probably something better he could say, surely, but the abrupt end of their smiling banter and the return of anxiety and fear for Zevran's safety had caught him rather more off-guard than he wanted to admit. Or at least, it left him unable to think of anything more proper to say for a few moments. Anything related to Zevran tended to do that at times, leave him some degree of speechless for almost any kind of reason.  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran slid the fingers of his free hand up into Abel's hair and pressed his lips softly against his temple. "I know." It was still strange that he did know it, that he didn't doubt it, and he suspected that it always would be. He wanted to have a long time for that to be so. He couldn't think of any specifics of the future but he wanted it to be there with Abel in it, and maybe herbs growing on a little balcony. Was that so terribly much to ask? A little more time with someone who loved him; with a few pots of herbs releasing their scent into warm evening air as they sat out together and talked, and ate, and drank, and simply breathed?

After a few moments of stillness Zevran exhaled softly, slid out of Abel's lap and crossed to the other chair to finish off the task at hand.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

With Zevran's fingers in his hair and his lips on his skin, Abel sighed softly and held him a little tighter. But then the moment ended far too soon, and the taller blond was left feeling like she should do or say something, anything to make things better. But what could he do? What could he say? Nothing really, not unless he could somehow prevent any of the Crows from coming after Zevran forever. But he just... the hopelessness in the air felt so thick and heavy it was like a blanket, and what could he do about it? Nothing. They really did need to finish cleaning the guns still laid out on the table, but that suddenly seemed much less important in comparison. Probably because it was. Zevran's happiness took precedence over quite a lot of things.

When Zev left his lap to go sit down in the other chair again, Abel's hand darted out to catch his boyfriend's so he could pull it to his lips to press a number of soft, gentle kisses on it. Anywhere on it; his knuckles, his fingers, his palm -- anywhere. Realistically there wasn't a single thing he could do or say to change the situation, but he could at least do everything he could to make it better. Even if only marginally better. His colorful eyes lifted to Zevran's brilliant amber ones for a few moments before he offered in a soft murmur, "Te amo, cariño."  

[TawnyAngel]

Abel didn't speak Spanish, he had said this often but right now he was trying and he couldn't have picked a better three words. Zevran squeezed Abel's fingers and made no attempt to reclaim his hand; he didn't respond aloud but the soft smile that curved up his lips an the tender, if tired light in his eyes spoke volumes of its own. They would fight no matter how impossible the odds, it was the only thing left they could do.