Just a short one this time. No real message, just please review :)
Danny hadn't said a word on the ride back to Bowerstone. She barely even responded to what they were saying or asking her. It seemed like she was mulling everything over in her mind, and she didn't want to be disturbed. It was frustrating too. He wondered how she could walk into the hollow, into the midst of those Balverines that were thrilled at her return, that accepted her and loved her and respected her enough not to kill him where he stood. The Balverines that welcomed them in, that acted like family, that took to him and even – in the case of her mother – admitted to liking him, and then she could leave and not want to stay there and live with them despite knowing the end was coming.
If he'd had the chance, he'd have lived out the rest of his days running around causing trouble with his brothers. He'd have taken that over a lifetime without them any day, even if it meant the days together were numbered.
Travelling through the market, he stopped the cart and jumped out, and motioned for Danny to do the same. She followed him, with a questioning look on her face, while he told the other soldiers to go back to the castle and rest up.
As the cart trundled up the road and out of sight, Danny turned to Ben.
"What's going on? Why aren't we going back to the castle?"
He took her hand, and started walking slowly in the direction of Industrial.
"You need some time away. All it's been is fighting, healing, then working," he said gently, pulling her closer and wrapping an arm around her waist. She didn't argue or fight against him, she just mirrored his actions and lay her head against his shoulder, and they walked, swaying through the quiet streets.
"Have you ever had a rooftop picnic?" he asked, then chuckled. "No, course not. Unless you're keeping secrets from me." She smiled slightly, and looked up at him through her long lashes.
"Why are you so nice to me?"
He stopped dead, confused, and looked down at her. He took a small step back, and cocked his head slightly.
"Can't I be nice to you?"
"You're always nice to me… not everyone is."
"You're my... friend," he said, chuckling slightly and trying to ignore the hesistation he made over the word 'friend'. He wanted to say something else, but he was thoroughly confused about what brought this on. "I'm meant to be nice to you."
She nodded slightly, and he watched as she bit her lip and looked away, still thinking.
"Why are you nice to me?" he asked after a moment of silence, turning the question back on her. She looked up, her mouth dropping into a small 'o' and her eyes widened, slightly, before she sucked in her bottom lip and bit it, thinking. Then she took a small breath and looked up into his pool blue eyes.
"I like you Ben," she said simply, then paused. "What's a rooftop picnic?"
"I like you Ben."
That's all he heard before his brain stopped for a second, and it didn't register that she'd continued to talk. His mind was racing. Did she mean she liked him as a friend, or actually liked him.
"Ben?"
He snapped his head up, looking at her.
"You like me?" he said, not realising what was spilling from his mouth. His voice also seemed an octave higher, it was like his balls had heard a woman liked him and then jumped back up inside him. This didn't normally happen.
"… Yes… do people… do you not tell people that?" she asked, looking a bit confused.
"Well, people do admit to it, but not as forwardly as that," he shrugged, trying to brush it off, but Danny stood there, looking confused.
"You don't tell each other that you like each other?" she asked, and Ben sighed in slight exasperation.
"I don't know Danny, I don't normally tell people I like them."
She leaned up against the brick wall behind her, crossing her arms.
"How do you let them know then?"
He turned to her, looking at her properly. She was still wearing those brown pants, but they'd somehow got torn and she'd cropped them up to her knees on both sides, something he'd only just noticed. His shirt was dirty too, not really white anymore, but a dusty colour, sleeves rolled up to the elbow and very baggy on her. The V shape in the neck came right down past her collar bone to the dip between her breasts, which were left unbound by any corset or brazier because they were too constricting for her.
Her legs were long and slender, marred only by a few long pink scars from all the fights and battles she'd been in over the past few months.
Her hair was a straggly mess, knotted and twisting about her head, and her left cheek was smudged with dirt. Her cheeks were flushed red, her eyes wide and beautiful, and her lips a perfect cupids bow. He took a small step towards her, putting his hands against the wall on either side of her waist and pressing himself gently against her. She'd unfolded her arms by that time, pressing her palms against his chest, but not pushing him away at all.
"I show people I like," he said, leaning down until their foreheads touched "and I mean people I really like, such as you, not Walter or anyone else," their noses touched, their lips almost touching "that I like them… like this."