I think Benga/Iris has to be one of the most adorable ships in the whole fandom! Seriously, they're just like two wild kids that happen to be really good at battling. I totally reckon they would have seen a lot of each other as kids too, considering Drayden being a mayor and gym leader and Benga being Alder's grandson.
ANYWAY, I was totally disappointed to find that there was one story on this site about Benga and it was in Spanish. So yeah, I wrote one. Kinda hard to know what he's like though since he had hardly any dialogue in the games, but enjoy.
I own nothing, as usual.
you couldn't do no wrong in my eyes
pt. 1
"Iris, I need you to be on your best behaviour, alright?" Drayden knocked on the door in front of them and then bent down so he was at the young girl's eye level. "That means no interrupting when I'm speaking to Alder unless it's really important."
She nodded and crossed her arms over her chest, reluctantly agreeing to his terms. She'd be dragged along to Alder's house with grandpa so he could talk to the other man about some boring work stuff and understandably, she didn't want to be here. It was going to be so boring just waiting around at some grown up's house and she'd much prefer to be back home playing with the dragon pokemon, at least they knew how to run around and have fun. Usually she got out of coming to these things but everyone in the gym had been busy with their own things and couldn't look after her for the day, so she'd been forced to come along.
Drayden ruffled her hair and she batted his hand away, letting him know how entirely displeased she was with the situation before turning to face the creaking door which was now opening. The noise surprised Drayden and he jumped back up to standing, clearing his throat. Alder was standing in the front door; grinning at the fact he'd caught the other man off guard and motioning them inside.
None of that was interesting though because Iris had just noticed something, something no one had told her about. Behind Alder's leg, there was another seven year old with bright orange hair and a dirty face peering at her curiously. He didn't look mean, but she took an immediate dislike to him anyway. He was a boy and that meant he would be loud and annoying and probably wasn't a fan of dragon pokemon. They didn't say anything to one another but instead just stared until Drayden ushered her inside and into the living room.
"Who's that?" She whispered crossly, the previous frustration of being forced to come was now forgotten and she was just annoyed she hadn't been told there was going to be another kid. Her grandpa just shrugged though; apparently he was as unenlightened as she was.
"This is Benga, Iris," Alder answered. Okay, maybe she hadn't been as quiet with the whispering as she'd thought. "He's my grandson. I think you two will get along well too, you're a lot like one anoth-."
"I'm not like a girl!" The boy suddenly exclaimed, cutting the end of the sentence off. Iris glared at him and he poked his tongue out before finishing, "That's gross."
His granddad just rolled his eyes and pushed Benga forward. "Come on, you two should go outside and play. We'll just be in here discussing work matters if you need us." And with that they were sent back outside, both protesting that they didn't want to play with the other but receiving no sympathy from their respective grandparents.
The door was left open so they could keep an eye on the youngsters, but it really didn't improve of the situation. Benga was looking at her with wide eyes and a frown on his face and she could tell that he liked her just about as much as she liked him. Eventually he got bored of watching her and realising she wasn't going to say anything, turned away and ran towards the trees opposite his grandfather's house. He placed his arms around the trunk of one of them and then like a massive bug, scrambled his way up to the closest branch.
Iris didn't even know this boy, but climbing trees was one of her favourite things to do and she couldn't stand to be outdone by him. So she ran towards the tree too and climbed up it, swinging her way to a higher branch. Benga was so surprised and looked on with his mouth hanging slightly open and she easily navigated her way up. He clamped it shut when she came to a stop and jumped from his spot, landing on the soft grass and then sprinting towards the next tree. She followed him again and again, slowly gaining ground and on the fifth time almost making it at the same time.
It was a race to the highest branch this time and in all their haste, Benga almost knocked her out the tree and she had to cling onto a lower branch so she didn't topple down and hurt herself.
"Hey, no fair!" She whined, steadying herself.
"Well, what're you doing followin' me then?"
"Dunno, I got nothing else to do," Once she was steady on the branch, she carefully stood up on her toes so she could look him squarely in the face. This was too close for comfort for the young boy and he pushed himself away, climbing lower down the tree and then jumping off the branch. She followed, landing about half a metre further than him. "And I'm just trying to make the time go faster till I can go home."
He nodded, seemingly understanding where she was coming from – either he wanted her to go too or he wanted to get home to his own place. It was pretty quiet after that and they just kind of looked at each other, expecting the other to come up with something to do to.
Eventually Benga seemed to stumble upon an idea and said, "We could have a battle," It was suggested after many long minutes of thought. "I don't have any pokemon, but I could probably borrow Gramps's," Before she had a chance to answer, he ran inside and emerged again thirty seconds later wearing a frown. "He said no, but that's probably a good thing for you because I'd totally win."
"Yeah right," She placed her hands on her hips. "But we could always just pretend, I play that at home all the time."
"Alright," He agreed. "You stand over there and I'll be on this side." He pointed to the far side of the yard for her and shifted slightly so he was already in his spot.
"Don't tell me where to go," She poked out her tongue but took her side on the makeshift battleground at the front of the house anyway. "I'm going to be a haxorus!"
"No way, they're too strong."
Sticking her nose up in the air, she replied with an indignant, "We never made any rules about that."
"Okay, fine," He drew out the end of the word and made a face. "If you get to be a haxorus, then I'm totally gonna be...Mewtwo!"
She gasped, "No way, isn't that that super powerful pokemon in that Kanto place?"
Her impressed reaction was clearly what Benga wanted and he nodded, pleased with himself for being so worldly (though in reality he didn't know a single thing about this Mewtwo, not even what type it was). "Yep, and I'm gonna kick your butt! Let's start!"
Ah, that sounded like a real challenge there, Benga. Iris never declined a challenge and with a rock solid determination, she sprinted forward towards him.
It was all very polite at first, kind of running around and dodging each other. But after about five minutes, Iris got frustrated with not getting anywhere and when he launched a flamethrower attack, used it as an opening to tackle him to the ground. He made an 'hey!' sound and kicked his legs around, surprised by the sudden attack. A brief struggle ensued, but the end resulted in Iris getting her hair pulled and then her biting down hard on his arm in retaliation. He let out a scream which she would tease him about for years to come and that alerted the grown ups to their predicament.
Except it wasn't a predicament at all. They immediately sat up, Iris terrified because maybe she'd gone too far and Benga grinning. The smile greatly reassured the young girl and she didn't suddenly didn't dislike him as much as she first had. In fact, it had actually been pretty fun and he really wasn't as annoying as she'd initially thought. Later on Benga told her that from his point of view they were friends from that point on because no one else had ever been willing to play rough with him.
"What's going on?" Alder's voice boomed as he announced himself in the yard. The front door banged shut behind him and the noise made Iris jump and her heart beat like a butterfree in her chest, she was going to get in so much trouble.
"Nothing, gramps," Benga replied, inconspicuously hiding the arm where her teeth marks were still visible behind his back. "Iris and I were running around and I tripped over, that's all." In hindsight, it was a really bad excuse but at the time she thought he pulled it off so smoothly. Whether or not Alder believed him though, he saw there was no trouble and let them be, returning inside while shaking his head slowly.
"Thanks." She mouthed, not sure whether or not the older man would hear and admittedly absolutely still terrified. He grinned and just like that, they weren't just friends, they were best friends. After all, as a kid there was no stronger bonding force than not ratting you out to an adult.
