"Hey... Aiden. Wake up!" Oliver rapidly shook the sleeping man.
A groan of refusal and exhaustion answered the voice's call. Aiden has just come back from an important supply trip to gather solar panels at a nearby, abandoned factory, which was a day away.
Due to the importance of the task, Aiden personally led his group of ten people, including his Oliver, all of whom were strong ability users, to get those solar panels.
They needed to be ready for anything and anyone, from the factory being already occupied by other survivors to being filled to the brim with zombies.
And as expected when they arrived, they were not the only visitors at the factory.
A hundred zombies resided within the premise. That was not a problem for this powerful team. Thus, they easily got the solar panels that many have failed to get.
The real problem was the return trip. None of them, not even Aiden, were prepared for the sudden and extremely bad weather.
A rainstorm swept through the area and flooded the land with at least a foot of water. They couldn't simply drive out of the factory nor did they want to stay any longer.
Thus, Aiden had Oliver take out the car they initially brought out of his space to manually row it to shore, or at worse, row it to the base.
Aiden was burdened with the task of using both his water and wind abilities to row the makeshift boat all the way to base.
He was mentally and physically exhausted from using his abilities to constantly move the car across the water for an entire two days until the group finally reached the base.
Currently, Aiden was laying in his bed with Oliver attempting to wake him up.
And why was Oliver trying to wake him up? Aiden doesn't know exactly. But, feeling Oliver's hands grasping his shoulders and unintentionally scratching his back, well it felt quite nice. This scene would truly be complete if Oliver was only underneath him and-
The blanket was abruptly yanked from his body, leaving Aiden exposed to the cold morning air.
"Get up! I got something for you and then you can sleep your ass off for the rest of the day!"
Aiden slowly sat up from the bed and glared at Oliver in false anger.
"Can't I sleep for 5 more minutes?" His face was still stone-cold and exuded seriousness, despite his somewhat childish words.
Oliver rolled his eyes, but when he saw the true exhaustion from Aiden, which came in the form of dark eye bags and somewhat pale complexion, he sighed.
Just when Oliver was about to assent to the tired man's request, his sympathetic eyes took in a certain view of Aiden's and he awkwardly coughed. Oliver threw the blanket over Aiden, "Take care of that and just hurry and come to the kitchen!"
All Aiden managed to see when he took the blanket off of his head was Oliver with red-tinted ears. How lovely.
But, what did he mean to "take care of that"?
A bad premonition overcame his heart and he looked down. Yup. It was a tent. He had a pretty good idea from when it came from.
Taking care of it wasn't a problem, but it was his image! Oliver is going to take him even less seriously in the future! He would be stuck in the friend zone for the rest of his life!
Just thinking of that possibility made him cool down quickly, so he just went to the kitchen to see what Oliver was up to.
And to his surprise, he saw Oliver holding a little red bag with his arms crossed.
"Took you long enough! Look what I got my hands on." Opening the bag up was chocolate. A luxurious item in the apocalypse when factories no longer produced candies or anything in that matter. He handed it over to Aiden and smirked with pride.
Aiden widened his eyes in surprise. Although he did not like the sweet treats, he had to admit, he did miss eating desserts.
"Thanks, but where did you get these?"
"Someone grew the cocoa plant and made the chocolates within the base. He's pretty well-hidden but I managed to dig him up. I even requested it to be mint flavored." Oliver wore a proud and cheeky grin, just asking to be thanked.
The receiver of the chocolates smiled warmly at the other. He really felt warm, this man really knew how to push the right buttons, intentionally or unintentionally.
"I can't believe you remember."
Oliver scratched his nose and his ears flushed unnoticeably to himself, yet did not escape the trained eye of Aiden, "Well, yea, it's the only thing you wanted when I asked you that time."
Aiden's usually sharped eyes narrowed in joy, "that time" was last year when Oliver took him into his country house and constantly asked random things about himself until Aiden gave in and spat out the name of his favorite flavor of ice cream.
Maybe, just maybe now was the right time.
"Oliver, I just wanted to say," Aiden tenderly grasped Oliver's hand and put it over his beating heart, "I lo-"
A series of rapid knocks invade the duo's eardrums and interrupting the previously good atmosphere they had.
"Aiden! It's Valentine's Day and I brought you some chocolate," a fawning and flirtatious voice came from the other side of the door.
Oliver took back his hands as if shocked by electricity, "You should probably get your chocolate from that lover."
Taking a deep breath to prevent himself from simply silencing that interrupter for good, Aiden once again lost his cool when he heard Oliver say that.
"I don't have any lovers! And I don't want any lovers from my so-called garden!" I only want you! Though he kept that last sentence in his heart, he lost the perfect opportunity again. With that thought, his face unintentionally flushed from imagining confessing his love to Oliver.
"Aww, you get embarrassed so easily. I was just teasing you." Oliver snickered at Aiden's embarrassing state.
Aiden slumped his shoulders, only after taking a bite from the mint chocolate that Oliver gave him did he feel a bit better.