"Well, if it isn't the illustrious General Finn."
Both Ben and Val looked to the woman who stood before them. She was dressed to the nines, as were all of the guests, though she was one of the few who looked uncomfortable in her corset. Her dark skin lined around her eyes as she smiled, and she held out a hand to help Ben onto his feet. "Charged with babysitting, were you?" she asked, shooting a teasing look to Val, who rolled her eyes.
"It was voluntary," Ben laughed, taking her hand and hoisting himself onto his feet. He let go only to wrap his arms around her in a tight hug. "Page, love, it's been too long."
She gave him a pat on his back, stepping away a moment later to give him a pair of narrowed eyes. Her smile didn't stutter in the smallest bit as her attention shifted to the princess. "Voluntary, hm? Is old Ben regaling you with tales of his rise to fame, then?"
"Actually, I was –"
"He was telling me about my mother," Valerie interrupted with a smile of her own. "About her and... Uh." Her voice lowered to almost conspiratory levels. "Her and Sir Walter."
Page nodded, her lips pursed as she looked to Ben.
"What? She asked," Ben offered, lifting his palms to her in a gesture of innocence.
"I did not ask!"
Sighing, the soldier gave his pale eyes a roll. "Alright, so she told me I was boring." He looked at his old friend with an expression detailing his disbelief at how anyone could assume such a thing. Surely no one in the right frame of mind would consider him boring. "I had to prove her wrong."
Shifting on her feet, Page set her hands on her hips. "So you're telling her about her mother's... love life?" It took an otherworldly amount of inner strength to keep her from smashing her palm into her forehead. After many, many years of knowing Ben, she knew better than to expect any more of him, so to speak. She'd learned to take what she was given and do little more than hope that she could clean up whatever figurative mess he left behind.
"That's not all," Ben said, a bit defensively. "Sabrina accomplished a lot more than that. And, honestly, while love's nice and all, it's not exactly epic in scope. Not like the revolution."
Page shook her head. "If I didn't know you any better, Finn, I'd be offended." Turning towards Valerie, she gave her a small smile. "Don't let him fool you. He's a sucker for that sort of thing, and he'd gladly go on for days about romance if you let him."
"Hours," he corrected her, glancing toward Val as well. "At the most."
"No use to try and regain your dignity, Ben," Page chuckled, "The damage has been done. Let it rest."
Val grinned, delighted at the subtle bickering between the pair. She often wondered how two people who were at such odds most of the time could remain together for so many years, but she was sure they were together because of it, not in spite of it. They were the sorts of people to grin while chewing on their own sarcastic retorts. That's what she liked so much about them.
"Women. I swear." Huffing, Ben rested his hands on his hips. "Avo-blessed as they are, I can't begin to understand why we put up with them. So cruel."
"You put up with us because we're pretty," Val laughed, "And even those that aren't still have brea –"
A throat cleared just beside her, and her mouth snapped closed. "General Finn," Hobson greeted, bending his shiny head in a half-hearted bow. "Madam Page. If you would excuse me, it's long past the princess' bedtime. She has a very busy day tomorrow."
"But tomorrow's Sunday. I haven't anything to do on –"
"Very busy."
Val's eyes flicked to Ben. Her brows pinched upwards in silent pleading, and all he gave her was a little shrug. Sighing heavily, she lifted herself up off of the bench. "Will you be around tomorrow?" she asked. Her shoulders slouched a little, only adding more weight to the heavy, put upon lilt in her voice. "I'd really like to hear more."
"Ensnared by my tale, are you?" Ben asked, unable to keep the slightest hopeful air to creep into his words. Page had to bite down on her cheek to keep from pointing it out.
Glancing at Hobson, she saw him standing there, eyes focused on her and hands held behind his back.
"Of course... not." She cleared her throat, looking back to Ben. "I have a very busy day tomorrow, after all. I was only wondering in case I had a break. A really long break. A really, really, very long –"
"We get it, your Highness," Hobson murmured.
Ben nodded, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "I'll be here, princess."
After barely managing to give both Page and Ben a hug, Val was shuffled off up the stairs towards her room. Hobson was a silent guide, nudging her every once in a while when her steps slowed. For such a small man, he was both pushy and intimidating. Maybe it was the fact that he lorded over the treasury as if it was filled with millions of his small, shiny children, and it was by his hand that she was given her allowance. If she was petulant, he might stop the flow of gold altogether.
"Hobson," Val said finally as they mounted the top of the stairs. "Did you know Sir Walter?"
His flushed cheeks paled considerably, and she could almost hear his thoughts of, "oh gods." When he nodded and opened the door leading into a branching hallway, he paused to shut it. "I knew him for a year before his unfortunate end, ma'am." Hurrying to catch up, he fell into stride beside her. "Why do you ask? Is there something you wish to know?"
"Ben was telling me about him and my mother," she said, hands laced in front of her. "You know him. I know he wouldn't lie to me, but... is he overstating what really happened? Is he exaggerating?"
"About your mother and Sir Walter? Oh, no, ma'am. One needn't exaggerate when it comes to the Queen and Sir Walter. I dare say whatever the general has told you is entirely true." He paused a second time, turning to look towards her, though he got only her profile. "Has your mother never mentioned him to you?"
Val bit down on her bottom lip, twisting open the door leading into her room. "Only in passing. I remember her telling me a story or two when I was little. And I faintly remember him, though I was too young to really recall my first year in the castle." Her hands moved to her hair, fingers working at the pins that held it back as she moved towards her vanity. "He was kind to me. Mother assured me of this much later. All I remember is... pipe smoke and... caramel, oddly enough."
Her mother's aide chuckled, an odd, bubbling sound. "Ah, yes, Sir Walter had a bit of a sweet tooth, as I recall. During his time in the castle, the Queen made sure to keep him supplied with candies." Shaking his head, he grinned, a crater of a dimple forming in his cheek. "There was enough gold in the treasury to allow such a thing, and your mother always has been the doting sort."
As always, Hobson helped her into bed. Having known him since she was a baby, she was more than comfortable with him. Not that she had any reason whatsoever to worry about him. His heart was taken in a very big way, though she imagined Reaver would be none the wiser if asked.
Once she was settled, her pillow tucked carefully under her head, she patted the bed next to her. He sat on the very edge. "Is there something in particular you'd like to know?" he asked. "I am hardly as apt a storyteller as the general."
"Did he love her back?" Rubbing her cheek against her pillow, she looked up at him. He couldn't help but marvel how much she reminded him of Sabrina. Time and time again, the Queen had asked him questions about what she ought to do, and she always got that same, hopeful light in her eyes. "Ben's only in the beginning of the story, and... well, I don't really want to listen to such a long story if he never loves her back. I have enough of that to deal with now."
"Hmph, well, if you're speaking of what I think you're speaking of, you're better off. Daniel could hardly handle a princess, anyway. He's far too common."
Turning her face into her pillow, Val sighed, her shoulders rising and falling with the harsh puff of air. "Gods, not this again," she muttered, "As if I don't get this enough from everyone else. I know he's common. I know he works for the castle. You're the last person who should remind me of this. Now, will you tell me about my mother, or can I go to sleep?"
Hobson's mouth twitched downward. "He did love her, but I believe you should wait for Ben to tell you just how much." Standing, he plucked at the fabric of his jacket. "Goodnight, your Highness."
"G'nigh', Hobs'n," came a voice muffled by her pillow.
When she heard the door close behind him, she snuggled closer to her pillow, clutching it in her arms. She wasn't tired in the slightest, but she found herself drifting off the longer she lay there. Even as her eyelids grew heavy, she could feel her thoughts spinning in the back of her head. What would Ben tell her about the next day? Where would her mother and Sir Walter travel? What would befall them when they got there?
She was asleep before she knew it, and only once during the night did she wake, her body willing her asleep to force the hours to pass more quickly.
The hour was late when the door to her room opened again. This time, the footfalls were light, almost soundless, and she only stirred when she felt someone sit on the side of her bed. The dip in the mattress was followed by a small, warm hand on the center of her back. She kept her eyes closed, her breathing slow and comfortable, as she felt her mother's thumb brushing over her nightshirt.
For a long time, this was all that she could feel. The queen made not a noise, content in rubbing at her daughter's back. Only when Val shifted, pulling her cheek away from her pillow to look up at her, did she say something.
"I didn't mean to wake you up," Sabrina murmured, her fingers still brushing between Val's shoulders. Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to her brow. Even in the briefest of brushes, Val could feel her mother's damp cheek against hers. "Go back to sleep."
Still groggy, Val could do little but nod and let her head fall back onto her pillow, jaw popping in a yawn before she drifted off to sleep again.
She woke just as she fell asleep – to thoughts of how Ben's story would continue. Margret swept into the room at the same obnoxiously early hour as always, throwing open the curtains to find that Val was already mostly awake. She was lying prone beneath the covers on purpose, content with staring up at the canopy of her bed and wishing she could dress without standing up.
"You'd do good to look at your vanity, miss," Margret said. She was always peppy, far more excited about the rest of the day than Val ever could be. "You have a gift."
At that, the princess pulled herself up into a seated position, palm half-buried into her eye. "What is it?" she asked, her vision still blurry from sleep. When she was finally able to blink it away, her eyes settled upon a slender vase poised on the very end of her vanity. Resting inside of it was a flower she recognized from the garden. The petals were mostly white, though the ends were tipped with a brush of red. Smiling to herself, she looked to Margret. "Are they from... you know who?"
"Daniel?" she asked without pause, the speed of her reply causing Val to cringe. "Oi, sorry. I... shouldn't have agreed to bring it to you."
"No, no," Val murmured before crawling out of bed and hurrying over to the vanity. "It's fine. Thank you for bringing it up." Picking up the vase, she lifted the bloom to her nose and breathed in. "Hm, can you pick out something pretty for today? Lightly colored. White, maybe? With a little red?"
Of course, Margret knew exactly the dress she was thinking of, and the princess was dressed and on her way down the stairwell in the direction of the kitchens in less than an hour. The servants and other various folk wandering around the castle nodded to her as she passed. She replied to each of them with a small smile, unable to keep the pep out of her step as her nose remembered the scent of the flower.
When she entered the kitchen, however, something went horribly wrong. She'd taken not two steps into the large room before she realized the figure standing at one of the flour-dusted tables wasn't Daniel. It was Ben. Daniel stood on the far side of the room, eagerly helping one of the cooks chop vegetables for that day's meal.
Both Ben and Daniel looked up when she entered. The latter lifted up a hand in a wave, but her line of sight was broken when the former stepped up to greet her. "Come to look for me, have you?" he asked, taking a hearty bite out of the apply in his hand.
"Uh... yes?" Her brows dipped inward with her own uncertainty. "Good morning?"
"Good morning indeed!" He turned toward the table, grabbing one of the remaining apples and tossing it at her. "Here, catch!"
Val's arms flailed helplessly before she just managed to catch the flying fruit. Once she was satisfied with the apple's safety, she began rubbing at its bright red skin with her sleeve. It began to shine up at her in no time. "Why are you so chipper?"
Ben grinned, moving over to wrap an arm around her shoulder. Before she could protest, she was being ushered out of the door. Casting a look over her shoulder towards Daniel, she could see him lift his red head from the vegetables to give her a small, almost shy smile. "I'm always chipper, your Highness," Ben replied, giving her shoulder an absent pat. "Now, where were we? Your mum had found the Sanctuary, right? Finally freed from the castle?"
"Yes," Val said, taking a tentative bite of apple. She chewed thoughtfully as they made their way towards the garden. Spotting the stone bench in front of the statue of Sir Walter, she pointed towards it, tilting her chin up to look Ben in the face. "Can we sit here? It seems fitting."
"That it does," he agreed, "That it does." Holding out his free hand, he let go of her and ushered her forward to sit on the bench. He plopped down beside her, the heels of his boots kicking at the dirt. "So your mother has just found the Sanctuary. Not much happened there. Jasper found a book left to him by Lionheart, telling him all the fancy bells and whistles that came with it. And then Sabrina and Sir Walter left for the Dweller camp, looking for those followers they so desperately needed for the revolution..."
A/N: Wow, guys, I really should apologize for the lax updating lately! I haven't been feeling too well, and I've been kind of falling behind in my daily word count. Fff, whose bright idea was it to write a fic for NaNoWriMo? Oh, right, that was me. True enough. That said, the next chapter should be up either tomorrow or the next day, depending on how much I'm able to write tonight and tomorrow. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this little nugget of Ben and Val. I'm so glad you guys like her, hahah. I was afraid she'd come off as obnoxious; I'm glad to see that isn't the case.
Again, thank you all for the constant encouragement! It means the world to me. I'll never be able to thank you enough. :)
