Ignore note of last drabble! This is no longer AU – my muses came up with an idea to fit this in :D
WARNING: There may be some minor Elliot bashing. Please don't get mad!
x.x.x
Ben had forgotten how bloody miserable Bowerstone Industrial was.
Even the Riveter's Rest was a home for the miserable. While he understood that a pub was a place to drown sorrows, the sorrow was usually kept to one corner of the establishment.
Not so in Industrial. There wasn't even a corner for the merriment to linger.
Ben glanced out the murky window at the similarly murky sky. Night was falling across Albion – though it was difficult to tell the difference around here, the smog from the factories doing a suitable job of blocking out any kind of sunlight.
"Don't see many of your type round these parts," a barmaid remarked as she sauntered over the clean the table next to him.
"My type?" Ben inquired.
"You know. Soldiers. You got fam'ly round here or summat?" she said, standing with her hand on her hip.
Ben snorted and drained his glass, setting it on the table next to him. "Yeah, you could say that," he said.
The girl's eyes flashed in a brief second of recognition. "Huh," she said, leaning over the table to pick up his glass. "Well, don't be 'anging 'round 'ere for too long. Your babbies probably miss you enough when you're off soldiering without you drinking away your pay in 'ere."
The girl wiped away some of the scum off the table and in the same movement left a slip of paper in its wake. The move was so practiced, so subtle, had Ben not been expecting it he would have missed it entirely. He offered the girl a small smile and, in a similarly discreet movement, slipped a small bundle of coins into the pocket of her apron.
"Aye, I probably should get back. Keep safe," he added in passing, standing to leave, sliding the report into his pocket.
"And you love, and you."
Ben wandered down the darkening streets of Industrial watching the workers of Albion shuffle around him as the shifts changed for the night. Out of sight of the pub now, he slipped the report from his pocket to his inside pocket in his uniform. The Resistance had a large network across the city, with the juicier information being fed and filtered through the most obvious of places – pubs. Ben wondered for a moment how long the barmaid had been fighting the most important fight by listening for the news and filtering the useless from the useful.
The streets near the old quarter were near enough empty, the middle classes avoiding industrial like the plague and all the lower ones either in bed or on the main roads to work. Ben turned down the road past the orphanage when he heard voices echoing around the hollow buildings.
"Rose, wait! What are you doing?"
There was a frustrated sigh. "Please go home."
"No! Not until you tell me why you're giving this back. I... I gave it to you. I want you to keep it."
"Elliot, stop making this harder than this already is!"
"Harder? You're the one that's insisted on giving this back!"
Ben peered around one of the broken piles of wall in time to see Rose toss her head back in dry, bitter laughter. "Giving it back? I'd hardly call leaving it on your doorstep giving it back."
"I can't believe you're doing this. Do I really mean that little to you?"
"Heroes give me strength!" Rose said, throwing her hands up in dismay. "As if you're making this all about you! Again!"
"What, and you'd rather it was all about you?" Elliot threw back venomously. "As if it wasn't already, with you being a princess, a rebel and a Hero to boot."
Ben hesitated for a moment before walking towards the arguing pair. Part of him told him to walk away and leave them be – this was nothing Rose couldn't handle, and it was none of his business. But at the same time, he remembered her tears in the sewers and her perpetual and difficult to remove melancholy that followed them both to the Crown as they had a drink. He couldn't let her go through this alone and end up back at square one.
"No! I wanted it to be about us!" Rose ran her hands through her dishevelled hair and sighed. "But then... there is no us. Not anymore. I... Ben? What are you doing here?"
"Just passing through, Princess," he said casually, stepping beside her. He looked the young man over and resisted the urge to sneer a little. Ben was surprised he had managed to survive in Industrial dressed like that – it was no wonder Ferret and his gang kidnapped him since he looked like he had money.
"Who's this?" Elliot said snippily.
"He's a friend," Rose replied quickly with a small smile and grateful look at Ben. Elliot scowled.
"Friend, huh? Or something else?"
"What's it to you?" Ben said.
"An awful lot, if you must know. I don't want to see her hurt by the likes of you."
"But it's acceptable for her to be hurt by the likes of you?"
Elliot started towards Ben aggressively before stopping suddenly the colour draining from his face. Quick as a flash, Ben had his pistol in his hands and held it into Elliot's stomach.
"Gentlemen, please!" Rose said beseechingly. "Elliot, stop being a fool, Ben doesn't need a pistol to knock you into the next aeon. Ben, put the gun away please," she added, putting a calming hand on the captain's arm and squeezing gently. She turned back to Elliot, her hand still on Ben's arm as he holstered his gun. "Look, Elliot, I don't want to part on terms like this. Just take the ring back and I'll be on my way."
Elliot looked at the ring in his hand and clutched it tightly. "But why?"
Rose shook her head. "I cannot believe you are asking that question, and I cannot believe we are having this discussion. Just take it back already and leave me be. There's too much at stake for me to be dwelling on things I cannot change. Especially girlish fancies of a life that has long ended."
"Girlish fancies? Is that all I was to you?"
"I loved you!" Rose said, starting with a shout and then tempering it to a stage whisper. "For months I've been wandering what feels like all corners of Albion, wondering when I could get home, tell my brother he's an ass and then come back to you, but it doesn't work like that. I need to fight, and I need to devote my life to making these people believe again... to do that I can't devote my life to you. Sell the ring, use the proceeds for the orphanage and forget me. It's for the best."
Elliot opened his mouth as if he was going to argue further, but Ben gave him a dangerous look. "Let it go, boy."
Elliot scowled at Ben but said nothing. He slipped the ring back into the pouch Rose had found for it and tucked it into his pocket. "Very well. Thank you for the donation to the orphanage, your highness," Elliot said mechanically. "I wish you well with your future endeavours."
Ben felt Rose's hand tense on his arm but she remained quite still until Elliot had turned to walk away and gone back into the shelter. When the door shut behind him, Ben felt Rose sag and he quickly turned to her.
"Well that was..." she said weakly, running a hand over her face. "Trying?"
Ben reached out and grasped Rose's other hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
They left the orphanage garden hand-in-hand, walking in relative silence towards the Market.
"I'm sorry for interfering," Ben said after a while,
"No," she said, "you've nothing to apologise for. We were arguing in the street like children. Thank you for rescuing me – I don't know what would have been said had you not arrived when you did."
Ben squeezed her hand again, then moved her and arm to loop it through his crooked elbow. Rose leant against him gratefully and sighed.
"Why did you go back there?"
"Because I'm a glutton for punishment?" she said with a snort. "I wanted to return the ring he gave to me. I thought about selling it myself, but then I thought they would make better use of the money at the shelter than I would. I wrapped it up in a leather pouch and left it on the doorstep, but Elliot saw me in the garden and came outside. The rest... well, you saw the rest."
"If you don't mind me saying so, the boy could do with learning some manners."
Rose laughed, and inwardly Ben celebrated a small victory. "Maybe not manners, but certainly he could do with a reality check. Hopefully some more time in Industrial will open his eyes a bit."
"His eyes should have opened already, working where he does."
"Elliot is an idealist," she said with another sigh. "Linda, what little I've spoken to her, comes across as a realist. Hopefully she will be a suitable balance for him."
They rounded the corner into the square, still arm in arm. The lights from the Cock in the Crown spilled onto the cobbles at their feet as they approached the pub. "Well, it would appear that Walter and Swiftie beat me here," Ben said with a sigh. "That's another handful of gold I'll need to hand over. Would you care to join us, Princess? Or do you have some Hero-ing to do?"
Rose put her free hand on her hip and regarded Ben seriously. "Only if you drop the Princess business. I've had enough of formalities for a good while."
Ben unlooped their arms and caught Rose's hand in his own. With a quick glance through the window to make sure Walter wasn't looking, he bowed and brought her hand to his lips. "Formalities?" he queried. "Have you ever thought that it might just be because I want to call you princess?" he said, kissing her knuckles gently and holding eye contact.
Rose flushed and quickly withdrew her hand. "We mustn't keep the Major waiting," she said quickly, retreating through the pub door. Smiling to himself, Ben followed her and went up to the bar to order, while in a dark corner of his mind he thought of various accidents and humiliating situations for the fool in Industrial.
x.x.x
In one of my playthroughs I did marry Elliot, and it is kind of sweet chatting to him and hearing stories of earlier days – but seriously, why does my morality drop when I make the choice? It wasn't me that was playing away! Also, he's so whiny during that arc "Oh woe is me, I love two women, I don't know what to do... I know, I'll absolve myself of any guilt and have you make the choice" because that'll work Idiot.
Anyway. Elliot bashing over. Think I'm going to go with drunk!Princess next XD
Reviews make me happy! :D :D :D