Forever Mine[BL]

Chapter 15: Check For Bites!/Arc 2.6

Two more years passed and the team of researchers were nearing success. To the inhabitants of the base, it was a nerve-wracking wait. Over the years, the S base expanded slowly, taking in more people and forming relations with other bases. Humans quickly got the hang of their abilities and deepened their understanding of them.

The remaining population were slowly adapting to their now mutated environment but were still a long way away from adapting completely as animals and plants had mutated beyond recognition, and had almost become inedible.

Finding leftover food from prior to the apocalypse was no longer an option as most were already discovered and used by humans. This forced survivors to evolve a bit to eat these mutated beasts but only ability users were able to achieve this to a certain degree.

As a result, scientists had to research and create many mixtures and pills that could somehow make eating the mutated creatures possible for everyone. The same had to be done for the infected water sources and earth to allow drinking water to be available and the ground usable for growing crops.

__________

It was a bright and early morning as rays of sunshine blessed the earth with its radiance. The cold breeze flew between the trees, softly brushing the leaves as it rushed by. Inside S base, Wang Tao stood in the kitchen, mixing a bowl of cake batter.

He wore a white apron smudged by chocolate, as he concentrated on his task. The Celestial lifted the bowl and poured out the mixture into a round tin pan which he'd greased a few minutes ago. Placing it in the oven, he set the timer before cleaning up a bit. Taking off his apron, he sat on a stool and rested his head on the counter.

Today was Zhou Jian's birthday and Wang Tao had decided to make him a chocolate cake. Ever since the incident in the last world, he never gave his general a gift. After the two became closer, he figured that a cake wouldn't hurt, it wasn't a gift anyways.

Wang Tao had thought of this a few years ago but with the apocalypse starting, he had been very busy. At first, the base had sent their team out regularly to collect food and supplies and they continued to even after things died down a bit. After all, there were still millions of zombies out there that needed to be killed.

Wang Tao also didn't know how to bake as with his status he never needed to. He actually hadn't eaten cake very often even though he quite liked it. Because he was new at this, he assumed that he'd need to gather ingredients to make about six or seven cakes from scratch.

However, Wang Tao couldn't take these ingredients from the base's food stock so he had to personally gather them when he went out on missions secretly to avoid Zhou Jian finding out. It had taken a while but he finally had everything he needed and had started baking since last night. Just as he'd assumed, he failed about four times so far.

Wang Tao was a bit unsure if Zhou Jian would like the surprise but decided it was too late to regret. As he waited for the chocolate cake to bake, he closed his eyes and a happy memory from a year ago resurfaced.

- - - - -

Wang Tao stood before a bookcase as he chose one of the many books lined up in front of him. On the couch nearby was Zhou Jian who had folded his arms and furrowed his brows. The man once again seemed to be in deep thought and was exuding a dark aura.

Wang Tao glanced at the man and sighed. He knew that the man was thinking of his lover. Chen Xiang no longer seemed as distant to the man as before but he also did not show much improvement when it came to actually loving his boyfriend, in Wang Tao's eyes at least.

Chen Xiang was becoming harder to read and his acting skills were improving. Zhou Jian was becoming a bit depressed as time went by. Despite all this, he loved the boy dearly and his mood always improved whenever he was faced with his lover's bright smiles.

Wang Tao couldn't take it anymore and lightly tapped the man's shoulder to bring him out of his thoughts. Wang Tao proposed that they do something to distract Zhou Jian from the frustrating situation.

After he agreed, the two came up with a few ideas before choosing to play a game. It was a game Wang Tao had read about in the previous world. He'd been planning to bring it up but then the whole accident with Chen Xiang's death occurred.

Wang Tao gave a brief explanation to his friend. One of them would state two relation things and the other would choose the one they'd prefer, after five questions they would switch. It was fairly simple and so Zhou Jian approved. He decided that Wang Tao should go first since he discovered the game. Wang Tao pondered for a bit before starting,

"Cats or dogs?"

"Dogs"

"Run or swim?"

"Swim"

"Purple or blue?"

"Purple"

"..."

"..."

Wang Tao's eye twitched as he glared at the grinning man.

[ Him and that color. ]

Hearing the answer, he was now absolutely sure that it was Zhou Jian's favorite.

[ His eyes were purple, his flames were purple and even his lightning was purple.]

The younger man had never known someone to be so obsessed with a color before. What made it worse was that he could tell that Zhou Jian was purposely playing with him about the topic. Sighing, the male helplessly shook his head, the silver strands swaying, as he continued,

"Chocolate or vanilla?"

"Chocolate"

"Night or day?'

"Night"

Now it was Zhou Jian's turn. The man's mood had obviously lifted and he had thrown his previous thoughts to the back of his head, giving the room a lighter feeling. His lips turned upwards as he looked at his friend and questioned,

"Spicy or sweet?"

"Sweet"

"Train or sleep?"

"Train"

"Land or sea?"

"Sea"

"Hamburger or pizza?"

"Pizza"

"Dark or Light?"

"Dark magic"

The two spent their afternoon playing this game till they ran out of options. Zhou Jian enjoyed it, having missed the times when they were so close. Ever since meeting Chen Xiang again, he had been pretty occupied with him and his work in the base. He promised in his heart to increase the time the hang out together.

"Wang Tao."

Silver eyes turned towards him as his lieutenant waited patiently. The older man stayed silent for a moment before his expression softened, the purple eyes twinkling.

"Thank you."

Delight flowed inside Wang Tao hearing this and the frost in his eyes melted noticibly. A small smile was etched into his face.

"As your friend, it's my job to cheer you up."

Hearing this, Zhou Jian couldn't help but match Wang Tao's smile.

- - - - -

The silver haired male chuckled lightly recalling this. Hearing an alarm, Wang Tao sat up and checked on the cake. After ensuring that it was a success, he covered it in white frosting and decorated the cake a bit before using some chocolate to write the words 'Happy Birthday Zhou Jian" on the top. Covering the cake, he returned to his room to wash up.

Later that day, he returned to get the cake once he decided it was time to give it to Zhou Jian. Entering the kitchen, he lifted the cover and his eyes widened in shock.

The cake was missing.

NB:

It's a bit of a long chapter but I wanted to show more interaction between MC and ML. I also wanted you readers to learn more about them and give the two a bit more personality.