Chapter 282 - 275. False Hope
When Bassena opened his eyes, he realized he was still laying his head on Zein’s chest, and still had his arms around the guide’s torso, while a hand had been gently caressing his hair.
He closed his eyes again, absorbing the blissful moment that felt like a dream. Zein had always been an active person in the morning, so it was rare to have the guide still in the bed with him when he was already awake, and Bassena wanted to appreciate every single second of it.
"You’re going to sleep again?"
But of course, Zein had enough experience to know if someone was really asleep or not. That being said, instead of opening his eyes and waking up, Bassena only tightened his hold around the guide’s upper body, which rewarded him a light flick on his temple, but also a crisp sound of a melodious laugh.
"Fine, I’ll just order some delivery then," Zein, who was already playing with his commlink, swept his fingers over the hovering screen.
This got Bassena to actually raise his upper body and, although still looking half asleep, said firmly. "No, I’ll cook," he said, before lowering his head and slumping on the guide’s shoulder. "Just...in a little bit..."
Zein chuckled and patted the esper who had to refill his energy after clearing a black gate, almost erupting, heavily injured, and still refusing to sleep for four days. It went beyond tenacious, honestly.
But Zein still took the man for a ride twice last night, so he wasn’t in any place to scold Bassena.
But he was also hungry, since the last meal he had was on the plane heading back yesterday. "Do you have an energy bar or something?"
Wordlessly, Bassena lifted his hand and poured a bunch of energy and protein bars on top of Zein’s stomach from his storage ring. He even added bottled mineral water as a bonus. Zein was sure there would be a lot of healing serums inside that storage ring too, truly a heaven of logistics.
"Did you move your pantry there?" Zein chuckled while taking a bar and tearing up the package.