Chapter Seven

He wasn't prepared for her temper and in truth neither was she. She never was one to lash out and take her mood out on others but for some reason now she was and she wasn't sure she liked it. Most of the time her emotions were kept bottled up deep inside her where no one could see but since this strange mysterious man had entered her life nothing was the same. This strange mysterious masked man who swore he was a monster. She had seen monsters, more than she cared to admit. War created monsters out of the best of men and maybe he had been at one time but now she wasn't so sure and that made her angry. Angry, sad, frustrated and everything else all at once. She couldn't control it any longer. It made her irritable and she took it out on him.

It had been two days since he had brought her to his underground lair for lack of a better word, something he had found rather amusing when she had slipped up calling it that once. He still won't let her go to the surface quite yet something about sensing a disturbance. He kept telling her it wasn't safe. For some reason she believed him but it still didn't ease her anxiety. Her droid was still on her ship as well as all of her equipment and her research which he had assured her was still locked up tight. This was what led up to her first outburst.

"Your droid and ship are fine." He answered her unspoken question in her head. "All though I must say I don't understand your attachment to it." She wasn't sure why she was suddenly upset. Maybe it was the stress of the moment, maybe because she wasn't getting the answers she wanted or maybe she was just pissed off about the whole situation. Whatever the case she felt anger, a rage unlike anything she had ever felt before completely take over her body. It was as if someone else was taking over her raring to get out. She had lunged at him with the sheer purpose of hurting him. She tried to scratch him and hit him, push him anything she could do. She just wanted to inflict pain and she didn't know why. It had caught him off guard at first so much so that he stumbled back slightly as he grabbed her hands to keep them from his face. She wanted to pull the damn mask from his face so that she could see who she was looking at. He never gave her the opportunity because when he recovered from the shock it was quick. He gripped her hands and twisting her around pulling her back tight against his chest. She fought against him for a moment before she completely broke down, sobbing uncontrollable. He knees buckled and her only suppost was him holding her in place.

"What is wrong with me?" She asked in-between gasps of breath. She felt his breath in her hair as he seemed to try an comfort her.

"Shhh...nothing is wrong with you princess. It's this place. It will pass, I promise." He whispered into her hair as she calmed down. She wasn't sure how long they were like that. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. All she knew was it seemed as if time had stopped and him holding her was the most calm and safe she had ever felt. That scared her even more. Finally, rather reluctantly she pulled away unable to meet his eyes but he wasn't about to let that happen. He wasn't letting her go either. In fact he was almost clinging to her as if she was him life line. She finally looked up at him. His eyes seemed to stare into her as if he could read her soul, she couldn't look away it was as if she was frozen. He finally seemed to shake himself out of it and reached up pushing some of her stray hair from her face.

"There is nothing wrong with you." He repeated is a soft voice. "Nothing."

"Then what is happening to me?" She sounded desperate. She needed to know something.

"You have spent your whole life locking away what you are and now that you know. Now your ability is making itself known. These emotions are emotions that you have suppressed all your life and it's as if they are making up for lost time."

"Great so you're telling me I'm basically a hormonal teenager with no control what so ever of what might pop out." His eyes crinkled as they looked down at her.

"Something like that."

"Right, great. And how long should I expect this to last?" He chuckled just then and moved to finally release her. She missed the contact almost immediately. Apparently he did to if his sudden startled look had anything to do about it. A look that was fleeting but she did see it.

"Once you get a handle on it with some training you will be able to control it. In the mean time we need to find more creative ways to curb that temper of yours." She sighed in annoyance.

"Yeah that's new too. Sorry about that." She looked down at her feet feeling ashamed at her previous reaction. It was uncalled for and without merit. She was surprised he hadn't thrown her ass back out onto the surface. It was no less than she deserved.

"So now we have moved on to feeling sorry for ourselves have we princess?" He was back in her head. She found he did this every once in a while even though he was talking to her more. It was as if it was a comfort of sorts. She rolled her eyes as she went to storm away again only to be back pulled around to face him.

"I would never through you out. Believe it or not I need you here just as much as you need my help. So stop sulking."

"I am not sulking thank you very much."

"You are sulking and raging which is something I have experience with so we are going to work on that."

"What the sulking or the raging?" She asked sarcastically as she attempted to pull away only for his grip to tighten slightly as he pulled her forward even more. He had a thing for taking up her personal space rather it was in her mind or just keeping her close. Maybe it was because he had lacked any kind of human interaction or maybe something more. She didn't know and it made her nervous, nervous because she found that she needed it too and nervous that she was straying into some very unknown and unexperienced territory. She was slowly pulled toward him leaving very little space between them. Her breath caught in her throat as he very slowly leaned down to her level and she was struck again at how ridiculously tall he was. Her palms were sweaty and her breath caught in her throat as he buried his nose into her hair right above her ear. She closed her eyes at the sensation. And then he spoke in that very deep, yet sooth voice.

"I am going to teach you many great things." Yikes! "First thing we are going to do …." He nuzzled her further which caused her to gasp. "….is meditate." Wait, what?! It was like a splash of cold water as he quickly stepped away leaving her cold among other things. She stood there in shock as she tried to rap her head around what had just happened. She couldn't move, she couldn't blink and she was suddenly overcome with the rage she had been trying to stomp down. Stomping sounded good to her at the moment. She wanted to stomp his head, she wanted to kick him. Damn him for whipping her into a frenzy only to leave her hanging. She knew she couldn't hurt him so she took a note from his play book and started calling him names in her head. Every name she could think of and then some. Words she didn't even know she knew, everything but his real name. A name she really wished she had. She turned around to comfort him only to hear him chuckle in her head and to find that she was once again alone.

"Very creative princess didn't know you had such a colorful vocabulary. Now come and find me." Oh he was infuriating.

"Fine Pita, we will do this your way then." She said out loud to the empty room and went in search of him.

"Oh and its Ben." Ben, he had finally given her his name. Ben it seemed to fit him. One barrier down, next she was going to work on getting that damn mask off his face. But for now she would play his little game. She gathered up her courage and went in search of "Ben"

A/N so I know that it's been a while and that real life sucks right now but I finally got something out. Ben being a teasing was more fun to write than I should probably admit. Let me know what you think. Stay safe, stay health and God Bless!