Too Much Fun - Ben Open Tags

[Benjamin Rhodes]

The weekend was finally here and Ben so ready to just go home and chill. It wasn't always that he had the luxury to do so, so he seized every opportunity he got. Unfortunately however, his friends somehow caught wind that he was free for the weekend and they too seized the opportunity to get him to have drinks with them for old time's sake. They had managed to only stay in contact through text messages on the phone and instant messages on the computer but one of them, Andrew Lancer, called on his phone, inviting him to hang at their favourite bar which coincidentally was owned by his family.

Ben was of all things a man's man and despite his friends knowing of his sexual preference, they treated him like any other guy because in truth, that was what he was. He appreciated that they thought so and always made it a point to have drinks with them whenever he could. So going home and chilling was out of the question, leaving Ben to go straight to the bar in his button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the first few buttons left unbuttoned.

Driving didn't go with a hitch and he arrived just in time to see another one of his friends, Jason Schumacher who was the rowdiest of the bunch when drunk. Killing the engine and without taking his keys, Ben joined him inside the bar to find two other friends of theirs, Harrison and Liam Bosworth, two brothers who were separated by a year in age and inseparable. Andrew came last as always and they bonded over pints of beer and shots of tequila.

By the end of the night, all four of the guys managed to go home with the women they had picked up at the bar, leaving Ben unaccompanied, a little tipsy and realising that he had just locked himself out of his car. It was fortunate that it hadn't been broken into and he thanked God for small miracles. His friends were already long gone and he had no one to ask for help. Not that anyone could help anyway. So there he was, stuck outside his car, freezing to death and just a little too drunk to be doing anything sane.

Patting his pockets for his phone, he found that he had left his phone in the car in the excitement of seeing an old friend. Sighing, he went back inside the bar and asked if he could use the establishments' phone and once he got permission, he realised that all his contacts were in his phone and he hadn't memorised any of the important numbers. Technology...it cripples you at the worst times.

"Such a dolt." Benny repeated over and over again, puncturing each syllable with a head palm. And somewhere in his slamming his forehead with the heel of his palm, he realised he had a very suitable option. His housemate was at home and he knew his house phone number! The sudden remembrance of this had Ben nursing his head a little while asking to use the phone again.

It took him about three tries but he finally dialled his phone number. After four rings, Yulia finally picked up her phone and with much gusto, Ben greeted her. "Button!" He yelled into the phone before laughing. "So, I'm at The Tap near the shop that sells those sewing things and it's right across from that restaurant I pointed out to you that my family owned you know that place? Yeah. I got locked out of my car. So..." his speech was slurred and wasn't in order but he did hope Yulia understood. At least half of it.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia had wondering how much she could get away with in the house while Ben was gone. She wasn’t ready to go out on the town yet. Not ready yet at all. She felt as if there was still so much she had to absorb, not just in regards to language, in fact it was mostly about culture and casual. Yulia, despite her first forced respite and then honorable discharge, was still in military mode. After all it had been years since she had lived outside of that world, or the world that was her training. It was stressful to even consider.

Yulia wanted t a smoke but she knew how Ben felt about it being on the house. She also knew that she didn’t feel like pulling on her boots and going outside right now. She took a bath first, just to relax. It helped to ease the muscles in her leg as well, an added bonus for Yulia.

Then she retired back to her room. She pulled out a cigarette and a lighter and opened up her window. Leaning half out of it she lit up the cigarette. Why hadn’t she done this before? She was too used to the unit, where they let her smoke whenever the urge hit her to do so. Still this was a good enough system and it wasn’t even too cold out. She was fine with it.

After she finished the cigarette she dropped it down into the snow, making sure that it landed there. She put down her futon and grabbed her blanket and pillow. She knew that it was still early, but Yulia loved getting a lot of sleep. Her leg felt better and her head felt clearer when she was able to do that. Perhaps she was making up for all the lost hours of sleep from the unit. She was out in an instant due to how relaxed she was.

The phone rang and Yulia groaned. She blinked a few times as it rang twice more. She sat up and grabbed it after the fourth ring. She could not possibly think of who could be calling at this hour. Yulia winced at Ben yelled to her over the phone. She could tell he had been drinking from that alone. “Mllyana I think you mean you got to drinking and locked yourself out of your car. I know, I will bring the spare key.”

Yulia pulled her boots and coat on over her PJs. She knew where to go, it was close enough so she wasn’t sure why he had bothered to drive. She walked there quickly enough, her leg was feeling alright. She started to jog once the bar was in sight. She saw his car quickly enough and tested the doors. It was locked up alright. She went into The Tap and looked for Ben, she found him quickly enough.

“This means that I get to drive home?” She figured that she could since they were so close to home.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Ben laughed at Yulia's nickname for him and what came after. "Button! You know me too well. Might need you to get brainwashed. Works with the kids." He chuckled before clearing his throat. "So yes. I'm a teensy wee tipsy and my keys are in the ignition. Come get me please." When he was reassured that his house mate was coming over with the spare car keys, Ben made a sound between a squeal and a shriek which on a forty year old man sounded way. Too. Weird.

With the call settled, Ben plopped back down on to the bar stool and continued feeling sorry for himself for drinking too much. Had he known everyone would go back with companions, he would have curbed his drinking and left early! But at least now he had a reason to bring his little button out in town! Albeit under odd circumstances but still. The girl needed to get out more if only to let her legs heal faster.

He was almost dozing off when he felt a tap on his shoulder and the sound of Yulia's seamless voice woke him up. Throwing a couple of dollar bills on the counter as a tip for the bartender, Ben waved to him and followed his little button out. "See, my car's locked." Ben said, pointing accusingly at his car.

Her question was asked quite directly but it held a child-like innocence to it that Ben couldn't say no to. But he had to. It was such a nice night out. They could walk and enjoy the sights. And he told Yulia as such even though she had his spare key. "Button should know better." He chided her, completely with finger wagging.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia could not help but cock an eyebrow. She suppressed a laugh over when he said to her about the car when she looked at him. “Yes, and you are as tipsy as that car is locked.” She attempted to tease but wasn’t all to successful at it. She still had the spare key in her hand, flipping it over and over in her fingers.

She looked at the car, wating to drive it. It would be simple enough to open it up and twist the key that was in the engine. She didn’t have a license here in America, or a license at all technically. Still that hadn’t mattered for the vehicles she used to drive. She missed driving, she missed those machines mostly. She was used to the noise of them, deafening but also a signal of how powerful they were. Maybe she shouldn’t be driving normal cars…

She let out a sigh of annoyance when he said that she could not drive. Naturally she didn’t shut her down directly but she knew dam well what it meant. Still she went over and opened up the car with the spare key. She snatched his keys out of the ignition and took his cell phone, which was lying on the passenger seat. She stuffed both into her coat pockets, incase he should drop them whilst stumbling home.

“Fine, we walk then. If my leg is bad tomorrow I will blame you.” She turned and started walking, expecting him to keep up with her. She looked at the houses nearby, they had their lights shining along the eaves. “I like the lights.” She was secretly charmed by all of the holiday decorations she saw on these houses. This was the first Christmas she would have in Vermont, and the first Christmas that might be celebrated with more than a pack of cigarettes with a bow on it in years.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

"I'm not tipsy." Ben tried to argue but gave up when Yulia looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Okay so maybe I am." He snorted and leaned against the wall as Yulia got his things out of the car. Ben even had the common sense to make sure the car was locked again before he followed his house mate from behind. "I'll get you a new leg." He mumbled when he heard Yulia talk about having a bad leg tomorrow.

As they walked back to their apartment, Ben was a little too busy trying to put his right foot in front of his left to actually hear or register Yulia's sentiment about the lights. He wasn't even registering that Yulia was there. Which was why when he looked up and saw Yulia, he beamed and throttled her. "You came!" He exclaimed before realising she had been looking up.

His brain put two and two together and thought to himself: //Does Button like lights? Maybe I should put some in the house for her...// "Pretty, right? You should see it when Christmas comes along." He made a big gesture with his hands as he illustrated, rather sloppily, how they would be decorating the town.

"You get to meet my family this Christmas too. You'd like that wouldn't you Button?" Ben leaned against Yulia as they walked. He was getting a tad sleepy and would most likely crash on the ground if Yulia wasn't there.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia was temped to laugh at Ben as he tried to convince her that he was not tipsy. That sure as heck wasn’t going to work, though he did test the car to make sure it was closed. She set off, sure that he was going to follow her. She could rest her leg as much as she wanted tomorrow, it was a weekend after all. She wrinkled her nose when he mentioned getting her a new leg. Of course that had almost happened when it had nearly been taken off a few months ago. She had no desire for a prosthetic, and also she didn’t want to chat about this with him while he was stumbling down the street.

She walked along, fairly even with him just in case. She didn’t want to bother him that much in case it caused him to fall over. It looked like he might do it anyways but on his own She was vigilant at his side incase he got dangerously off balance, but off of his focus seemed to be on walking. She was shocked when he turned and nearly tackled her. She nearly jumped and slipped but braced herself against Ben to keep them both from falling.

“Stay on your feet mllyana!” She couldn’t help but laugh. She nodded in agreement with him, though she didn’t really know. “I think that yes, that is what the town will look like.” She slipped herself under his arm so as to hold him up better.

“No,” was her simple reply to Christmas with his family. She thought that would be too strange for her to join in on. “Stay awake Ben, we will be home soon and I do not want to have to drag you there. You should have let me drive.”

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Yulia's surprise made Ben laugh before he steadied himself and his housemate. The cold air was helping Ben get that much sober anyway so the more they walked the less inebriated he felt. But the migrain he was sure was coming was already rearing its evil head. It helped when Yulia threw his arm around her shoulder to steady him.

Her answer to his question of meeting his family was met with a pout. "Why not?" He demanded, pushing himself off Yulia while attempting to throw a menacing expression her way; it just ended up looking like he just ate something bad. "I mean sure, my brothers might be a little weird but they're sane people to be around with...I'm sure you'll get along fine with them! I mean you get along with me fine and my family are basically kinda like me...come on button. Please?"

Her comment on having her drive was left unheard as he grumpily continued walking, not sure why the pretty Russian didn't want to spend Christmas with him and his family.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia could have predicted this. She knew that there was no way of turning him down for Christmas without hurting his feelings so she thought it best to just come out and tell it to him. It wasn’t about him after all, it was just about her. She sighed as she tried to think of how to explain this concept to him, to explain her issue with Christmas.

Her hands flew out when he pushed away from her. She looked up at him, ready to grab or catch him when he overbalanced. She looked at him, not phased by his expression in the least. She waited for him to finish up attempting to excuse his brothers. Of course she knew about him from what he had told her about them before. She let them lapse into silence after that, just walking back to the house. She watched Ben, he didn’t look happy in the least over her simple one word answer.

“Ben, it is not about you or your family. I do not want to be cruel to you, this is just time I would want alone. It is a difficult thing but there are many things you do not know about me. I have my reasons.” Then she added for good measure “and we will not discuss them while you are drunk.”

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Her answer to Ben, while he was inebriated, was obviously not enough. It was vague and didn't answer his initial question. But she did have a point. There was no way he was going to remember this conversation tomorrow morning when it actually mattered so he just kept quiet and followed her home.

As they walked up the steps, he held his hand out for the keys to which Yulia understandably gave up and he fumbled with the lock before giving up. He leaned against the door frame and hummed a slow song from the top of his head. He waited until Yulia unlocked the door before removing his coat and draping it over his couch, he shuffled over the longer couch and flopped face front on it. And fell asleep.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia made sure that Ben was coming with her as they headed back to the house. She didn’t want him to trip into some snow bank and freeze to death. Still she was annoyed with him at that. This was hardly her fault. Life happened and she made her choices accordingly, if she wanted her space on Christmas she would dam well have it. She watched him go to the couch and plop down. He would be fine, so she went upstairs.

The next morning she went down, having pulled her robe on over her PJs. She saw him where she had left him and immediately headed for the kitchen. She opened a cabinet and grabbed two Advil and a glass of water. She put them down on the coffee table for Ben. Then she somewhat gently shook his shoulder in order to wake him, not wanting to make noise as that might make his head ache even more than she was sure that it would, knowing him.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

His dream had been so weird. Something to do with elephants and a heffalump in his living room dancing with Sean Neville and a cat. THAT was the last time he was ever drinking a Hellraiser ever again. He was semi-conscious and was aware that he wasn't in his own bed as he rubbed his face against the slightly rough texture of his couch.

Ben wasn't ready to get up and good thing it was the weekend. So he let his mind wander until he fell back asleep only to be woken up by a rough [only rough because his body was so damn wrecked] shake. He groaned but didn't move. The shake came back, just a little rougher and it woke him up. He was careful not to move too much too fast as his eyes registered Yulia and the pills on the table.

Smiling sheepishly at his housemate, he grabbed the glass and took the pills before cradling his head in his hands. "Tell me I didn't do anything stupid last night." He mumbled, his head spinning a little.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia looked down at her housemate who had been so cranky just the night before. Well he would pay for that today with the hangover that he was about to have. She didn’t envy him, not that she had much comparison hangover-wise. She wasn’t going to rush him in waking up, she was going to sit back and watch him struggle. He needed the discipline to do it himself.

Yulia simply smirked for a moment. “You got very drunk and I had to come get you. You also locked the keys inside of your car.” She laughed at that. “Your friends must have left with… uhh… the special friends?” She was guessing but she was fairly sure that she was accurate in this. “Then you got mad at me because I am not coming here for Christmas, well I will be here but I am not involving in Christmas.”

It was early yet so her English was a little fuzzy in her head. Languages had never been her strongest suit, others were better than her. “I tried to tell you that I have my reasons, pointless thing to do when you are drunk.” She laughed and picked up the glass of water, holding it out to him.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

As Yulia explained his inebriated idiocy, Ben groaned and took slow sips of his water. "Remind me never to go out with Andrew. That man is ridiculous." Ben was teasing of course but he did regret drinking too much which only happens when he's around his college buddies. He was a social drinker and by no measures a drunk which was why he vowed to leave a marginal space between now and the next time he agreed to go out with his friends.

Holding the cool glass of water Yulia had handed to him against his forehead, Ben sighed as she repeated what he thought had been a dream about her not involving herself in Christmas. "I'm sorry, Lia." He gave her a sideways sheepish grin before placing one hand over hers, squeezing it lightly. He was sorry to hear it too. This would be their first Christmas together and he wanted her to meet his family.

Sure Ben didn't know how his family would take having a strange Russian woman, who wasn't sleeping with Ben but living in his house, at their family Christmas dinner but still, she was already much part of his own little family in the house he'd bought with his first big paycheck. He wanted her around.

"Wanna tell me your reasons now?"

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia simply half smiled. She wasn’t going to stop him from going out with Andrew, it was healthy for him. Ben certainly knew enough people here to go out much more than he did. She knew that she did not help that matter, as much of a homebody as she was. She would rather stay at the house on her futon, which anyone else would have found thin and bumpy. It was her kind of style though, simple. She would have gotten lost in anything bigger or more complex.

Yulia patted Ben’s hand lightly. Naturally she didn’t blame him for his drunken state and his displeasure at her unplaced honesty last night. She should have left it until morning so at the least he might of let her drag him upstairs. He seemed willing to listen now though, and these were things he had to know about her.

“You know I am a Meta-human. I went to a school in Russia because of it, special school like Hammel. Only the school in my country is run by the military. After I graduate at 18 I was put into a special unit. I was in it for seven years. We did not really celebrate Christmas there, it was not a big deal. About half a year ago things went wrong…” Yulia fell silent for a moment, unsure if she was ready to tell this story. She braced herself and then continued.

“I had the same partner for seven years. His name was Evgeny. We were sent on a mission to check out possible base of a… I guess a terrorist group. We made it inside but then there was disaster. There was an explosion, and in this explosion my leg was nearly severed, that is why it is bad.” She added that for good measure and then had to brace herself once more for this part. She blinked a few times. “Evgeny… he did not make it. They told me he was incinerated in the blast. He died, I could do nothing.” She was silent for a long moment again.

“I was discharged from the military and came here. This year has be very difficult for me. I miss Evgeny, I loved him deeply, I still do. I just want to be alone for Christmas.”

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Yulia began to talk about her past which Ben thought was sweet. The girl was a bit on the mysterious side and while Ben didn't like to pry, he always figured he ought to know at least a little bit about her besides her being a meta and Russian. So when she spoke, Ben concentrated on what might be the last time she ever confessed about herself.

He didn't really know how to respond to Yulia's history as it sounded way more complicated than he ever imagined. It was clear from her tone and how hesitant she was to speak about it that this Evgeny guy was a pretty important guy in her life. Dare he say it, Evgeny might have even been the only important guy in Yulia's life.

And now he was dead. Or presumed dead, if what Yulia was saying was anything to go by. He wasn't one to indulge in conspiracy theories but a government that had control over meta humans had to have them somehow and the hero wannabe in Ben felt like there was more to the story than even Yulia knew.

Placing the glass on the coffee table in front of him, Ben slowly turned on the couch so he could face Yulia. "I sympathise...I truly do. There's nothing worse than spending a supposedly joyous occasion missing someone you love. But I don't want you to have a choice of spending it around people who may love you but choosing to spend it alone."

Like a father, or at least a young uncle, Ben patted the side of Yulia's head and smiled. "Your call...but at least eat dinner...I'm known for my Christmas roast. It won't kill you." He then patted her shoulder and tried to get up. At least the room wasn't spinning anymore. That was a good sign. His back ached from having slept on his front the whole night on the couch. Stretching and twisting his body here and there, he shuffled into the kitchen. "Waffles?" He called out over his shoulder as he got out the waffle maker and the ingredients.