[FIN] Precautions

[BlackFireKitsune]

While he was a little baffled by what Zevran thought - or what he assumed was what Zevran thought - he at least looked a bit better, so Abel smiled and pressed an affectionate kiss to his forehead. "No, don't worry about parenting or anything yet. That wouldn't be for a long time, if at all. I'll talk to Mom and see if she can talk to Dad about it in the meantime. When we go visit them I want you to have a nice, pleasant trip, and not stress about him not being happy that we're dating or anything." Hopefully he wouldn't mind too much; if he did, well... They'd cross that bridge when they came to it.  

[TawnyAngel]

Forehead kisses, who had ever given him those before? Nobody within the span of his memory but maybe his mother before she had died? No offence to the unknown woman but if she had it didn't do him a lot of good. ¿Abel though, Abel did him all the good in the world and made him want to be good and to be worthy.

"Well, he likes guns and I like guns," Zevran said thoughtfully. "We can bond over this perhaps, shoot cans or bottles? Do you do that sort of thing here?" He was abruptly less assured of vague cultural understanding than he had been a short while ago; people cared if men dated one another here! It was real! How was that real? It really explained a lot though, perhaps he had been blind before... Blind and distracted, first by his own grief and turmoil and then by Abel. Abel was a very good distraction.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah, that's how dad taught us actually - or part of it - so that's definitely something you two could do together, he'd probably like that. He was a bit disappointed that Taavi didn't like guns, because I'm sure he would've suggested they do the very same thing otherwise," he said with a wry smile. For good measure he pressed one last kiss to Zevran's forehead before his hands slipped away to pick up the rifle box and return it to the larger box. "It's generally not something done everywhere, but out there, definitely. He'd set them up on top of one of the far fences and we'd try and hit them. He had to replace that part of the fence on more than one occasion because it ended up so full of holes," he added with a brief chuckle that soon trailed off as he peered down at the last box at the very bottom, his expression growing thoughtful.  

[TawnyAngel]

"I will not put more holes in it, I will hit the target," Zevran said with a smile just a cocky as the one he had no doubt had six years ago. Probably ten, or more years ago come to that.

A moment later however the self-confident and self-interested smirk faded to a gentle smile that focused entirely on Abel. "Ah, but what is it? You look a little troubled cariño."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I'd expect nothing less from you," Abel replied with a brief chuckle and a smile, though his gaze remained on the interior of the box. Should he...? Shouldn't he...? The desire to share more with the man who'd already shared so much of his own past struggled against the instinct to hide his secrets, to preserve them as long as humanly possible.

"Mmh? Oh, no, I'm not troubled," he said, shaking his head a bit and smiling softly at his favorite nickname, "just.. thinking, is all." After a few more moments of thought, along with a quiet, deep inhale, the taller blond pulled the final box from within the larger one and held it out to his boyfriend -- his love, the man he trusted more than anyone else. "I was just thinking that if you could pick this lock, I'll let you open the box and see what's inside." Similar to the previous box, this one was just as tall at a bit less than a foot, but a little less wide - an inch or two less than a foot - and quite a few inches shorter in length.  

[TawnyAngel]

Quite long, slim, the thing that lived in this kind of box had never been his weapon of choice - his niche was to become personal with the mark - but that didn't mean he didn't recognise the shape. Zevran took it carefully, holding Abel's gaze as he did so. "Thank you." A few weeks ago even he could not have imagined trusting Abel with the details he had now spilled from his heart and guts, yet he had done so and he knew the fear of it. What if he hates me, surely he must hate me?

He set the box on the bed and set to work with his picks, slow and careful for there was no rush today.

Perhaps a couple of minutes later the lock clicked free and Zevran placed his hands on the lid to lift it, but there he paused. "Mi amor, if you wish to change your mind now I will close the lid and we will speak no more of it. I want to know you, the things you hide, but I love and trust you more than I want that. If you need this to remain hidden I will accept that and love you no less... And I will love you no less for whatever is inside." He knew. Did Abel know he knew?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Zevran seemed to know the type of thing that the box contained even before taking it into his hands, and thus seemed to know the importance of sharing such a thing. He didn't even open it right away, he--

Mi amor.

Despite his almost non-existent grasp of Spanish, he'd at least heard enough from Zev to be able to guess what those words meant. They meant a lot, almost as much as the following words did. No, they meant more. So much more. Abel inhaled deeply again as he leaned forward to wrap his arms around his love's waist and settled his chin in the crook of his shoulder. "I... I love you. A lot. So much, I..." He licked his suddenly dry lips and went on, "I want to share things with you. You've shared so much with me and I want to share too, I've just... it's hard, you know? I've been hiding so many things for years - damn near ten years now, I think - so it's just... it's hard, it's hard as s**t to finally just.. actually share it with someone. When Patty showed up and knew everything, it felt like she just... ripped them away from me and dangled them over my head like some kind of carrot on a stick that she might let me keep them a while longer or she might just give them to the cops or my family or whoever she felt like, on whatever whim she had at the moment, so I just lived for two years never knowing what she would do, and now I... just... now I have a choice about it, about who knows."

He took another deep breath and pressed a soft kiss to his love's shoulder. It was scary, it was frightening and made him so, so anxious, but he... "I want you to open it."

Zevran would find exactly what he expected; the box contained a similar black foamy material but custom fitted to both the box and the sniper rifle within, somewhat disassembled though it was, with the pieces as well as a small box of its ammunition fit snugly alongside the barrel.  

[TawnyAngel]

He didn't open the box right away, there were things to say and do first.

First, he brought a hand up to touch Abel's face tenderly and leaned down to kiss his forehead. Did that mean as much to Abel as it did to him? He didn't know, but he hoped so. "I have, and did, but I had nothing to lose but you; nobody but you I feared discovering what I had done. Trusting me with this... It means more to me than I can say, please only know that I love you. I love you, and you do not have to hide it alone anymore. Your pains and burdens are mine, we shall carry them together." There was no ******** chance he was dying now!

Zevran's gently guiding hand raised Abel's chin so that he could lean in and kiss his lips softly. "Te amo," he murmured, holding Abel's gaze intently for a few moments. "Always."

And then it needed to be done, to let out the poison Abel had said had he not? For another moment, just one more moment Zevran waited and though his eyes were on the case his attention was trained on Abel. "You know you give very good advice Abel, but you very seldom follow it."

And then it was done, he opened the case and he wasn't surprised by the neatly arranged parts. It was a beautiful thing, sleek even broken down as it was. He could almost feel how it would fit in the hands... But that wasn't important,

Zevran turned away from the opened box, back to Abel, and held his hands out to him.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

How did he get so lucky? How in the world did he ever get so lucky, lucky enough to find someone like Zevran, not only as his best friend but as his boyfriend? What had he ever done to deserve someone like him?

All of it, everything he said and did, absolutely everything meant more and more, from his reassuring, his loving words to his tender touches and soft kisses -- everything, all of it. All of him. He could scarcely convince his throat to loosen to allow him to speak, but even if it let him he didn't have anything to say; no words could come to mind, not after that. Part of it baffled him - he wasn't sure what advice Zevran meant, but that wasn't important just now - but most of it left him utterly speechless, incapable of forming words even if he were able to do so, but at the very least he didn't need to think about it to know what to do.

The instant Zevran's hands reached out Abel took them in his own and kissed them - kissed their knuckles, their palms, all of their lovely fingers - before they slipped away and lifted to cup his precious face in his hands again. He leaned in close to touch their foreheads together and look into those amazing amber eyes of his while his thumbs traced gentle lines over his cheeks. The box lying opened and forgotten on the bed may as well not have existed at all for how much attention Abel paid it. After a moment or two he drew in a deep breath, a somewhat uncertain breath, and finally found the words to speak.

"I love you."  

[TawnyAngel]

He had to admit he had been a little worried about what Abel would do next but this? This was good.

Zevran smiled warmly as Abel's lips and then his hands wandered, waited for his own hands to be released and then wrapped them around Abel's waist tightly. "And I you, more than I knew I could. I think you are wonderful, Abel Gray, and the contents of that box does not alter my opinion of you in the least."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

A furtive smile worked its way onto his face, faltered a bit, then widened into a bright, happy smile. With Zevran's lovely face in his hands he leaned close to brush their lips together in a fond kiss - so fond, deeply fond, how in the world had he gotten so lucky? - before he wrapped his arms around him in return. "It's the same for me, I didn't know I could love someone as much as I love you. Which is a lot," he clarified as he kissed his cheek, his smile only growing brighter, tinged with adoration, "more than I've ever loved anyone else, in fact, because you... you're amazing."

After a moment or two of basking in just how much he loved his boyfriend, how he was practically his whole world now - which left him feeling a little anxious and uncertain, but he banished those feelings for now - he hummed thoughtfully. "I think I'd like to share more with you sometime - just not.. here. So not now either, I guess. But for now," the smile turned a little hopeful, "d'you wanna just cuddle in bed for a while?"  

[TawnyAngel]

The kiss, the gentle touch, and Abel's words made him grin foolishly and wonder once again how he had ended up here with him. "Mmmh, I like the sound of that," he agreed, pressing a kiss to Abel's cheek and reaching around to close the lid of the box as he spoke. "I do not think either of us got much sleep last night, lying down with you sounds perfect... though - if we are to be honest - lying down with you usually sounds perfect regardless of how much sleep I have had."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Agreed on all counts!" He replied brightly, too pleased and lighthearted and happy to smirk or reply more salaciously, and he pressed a soft, light kiss on his love's nose before grabbing the closed box and moving to set it back in with the others inside the larger box, then shoved the larger box back into its place inside his closet. With that done, Abel forewent anything else that wasn't even remotely important at the moment and wrapped his arms around his love's waist before dragging him with him to flop over onto the bed. "You sound perfect, if we're being honest," he quipped happily as he wrapped his arms more securely around Zev's waist and buried his face into his shoulder.  

[TawnyAngel]

"It's true, I am absolutely perfect in every way," Zevran grinned. After a moment of apparent thought, in which he started rubbing gentle circles on Abel's back, he added; "Especially my fantastic a**." They could put off dealing with the outside world for a little longer, right now he just wanted to savour the moment.