Too Much Fun - Ben Open Tags

[Yulia Sokolov]

After all was said and done she was unsure if she should have said anything at all. She didn’t want to talk about that time in her life too much. She wasn’t the sort to chat idly, especially when so much of her life involved operations and information that was extremely confidential. She still had some loyalties to her home country and former state. Still she was glad to be in a place where she could have an actual life of her own, and not one forever in the service.

Still she listened to him and his idea about her still spending Christmas with him and his family. She knew on some level that he was right, but she had the novel opportunity, for her, to sulk and to just mourn Evgeny the way that he deserved, and the way that no one else probably would. After al how long had it been since his family had even seen him? And he had been in her life everyday for the past years.

“Fine, I’ll come.” He was right after all, it seemed like Ben always was. Then again there were the occasions when he got drunk and either his stuff ended up lost or he did, at least she had those to balance the scale. She got up and trudged into the kitchen after him. She re-knotted her robe and followed him into the kitchen. Did she even have to say yes to homemade waffles. It was stuff like that which she had missed out on that amazed her.

Yulia sat herself down at the table, because if she tried to help they would end up tasting like sawdust. She was pensive for a moment as she sat there. “You know millyana, it has been half a year and still I would give anything for him to be still in my life.”

[Benjamin Rhodes]

The waffle maker was switched on as Ben busied himself with cracking eggs for the batter. It had to have been a lonely life for Yulia, being in the military. She hadn't mentioned family so Ben had assumed they were MIA or she never got to see them too much. Either way, it would have disappointed Ben greatly if he had to live that life. He was a ten minute drive away from his childhood home and regularly visited his parents and his cousin Andrew who had been boarding at the house for a few years now that his parents had gone off to California and Vegas. His sister and brother had long gone away from their childhood homes, both pursuing education and their own family.

It struck him suddenly that Andrew had mentioned something about returning to Hammel to be a trainer. Would he have met Yulia? He was about to ask but then he got distracted by Yulia's agreement to be at the Christmas dinner. He stopped mixing the batter to turn to Yulia with a grin. "You will?" he asked before nodding. "Good, good. I'll inform my mother." Ben turned back to his mixing.

The timer to the waffle waker buzzed and he opened it to grease it with butter before pouring a bit of the mix, which sizzled and spread across the rounded surface. The smell rose as he closed the lid and turned it around so the batter would be covered on both sides. Yulia's ruminations made Ben sigh inaudibly. He sympathised with Yulia. He had never felt that way about someone so he didn't know what to say to comfort his housemate.

"Hey, you never know. Life might throw you a bone sometimes." Ben gave her an unconvincing grin. The buzzer on the waffle maker sounded once more and Ben took out the finished piece, put it on a plate and slid it on to the table for Yulia. Pressing his lips on the top of Yulia's head, he squeezed her shoulder lightly. "You'll be all right."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia wondered if she should have flown to Russia for Christmas. She might have tried to see her family, but they had seemed decently freaked out when they found out little Yulia was a meta-human. Of course they had figured it out before hand to a point. After all why did they always get headaches when she was angry? Why had that dog who bit her suddenly dropped dead? How did the boy who pushed her on the playground just as suddenly fall over, unconscious? They had feared her, and there was no way of taking that back, no matter how many years had passed. Yulia didn’t feel bad about what had happened with her family. After all she had a good life in her opinion, despite the road bumps. She knew Ben had the opposite situation, his parents were here in Vermont though she hadn’t met them yet.

Ben was like family to her now, despite the fact that she hadn’t known him for too long. He was just an excellent person all around. She knew that Christmas with him and his family should be pretty low key. She didn’t want a huge ordeal, but now she was going to have to figure out Christmas presents for everybody.

She was about to ask when he spoke. She wasn’t sure what that meant, and why she needed bones from life. It sounded kind of morbid to her. She was distracted again when he put down the waffle. Her stomach rumbled when she smelled it. When he told her she’d be alight she scoffed a little. “I am alright millyana. I have caused the same pain to others as has been caused to me.” That was generally her excuse not to mourn every moment that she was awake.

“What should I get them for Christmas? I do not know what they enjoy.” She certainly could not contribute by cooking for them, not unless they were on a diet. Her cooking was currently bad enough to make someone want to starve themselves, but she was learning.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

The cynicism in her reply quite simply shocked the child psychologist. It always baffled Ben whenever young people show such great disdain towards their lives or in life in general. Then again, he knew, not everyone could afford the luxury of having a safe haven at home like he did. He surely was lucky and to some extent so was Andrew.

Still, the optimist in Ben knew that there was always, always a silver lining in everyone's life. The 'bone' life threw people sometimes was worth all the bullshit they had to go through. He got complete acceptance from his friends about his orientation when he didn't get it from his family [save Andrew, though he was simply just a generally accepting guy]. His practice flourished despite the parents of his patients getting full disclosure on his orientation. He had a lot to be thankful for.

Quietly he said a prayer for his button, before ruffling her hair and proceeding to make his own waffle. As it baked, Ben rummaged through the fridge for the maple syrup and butter for Yulia to spread over the waffle. "I can't see why you have to look at life that way even with your powers. What is it, anyway?" He knew Yulia had a powerful weapon in her, almost every meta did even though to them it was useless, but Ben didn't know what it was exactly.

"Oh," he hadn't thought about what Yulia could give his family members because he had already gift wrapped his. An empty cookbook for his mother [who was always writing her recipes in scattered pieces of paper and never compiling them], another stylised pen for his father ["You can never have too many pens. Especially ones with your name engraved in them." His father always said], a fishing kit for Artie [who always complained about his reels always snagging and breaking], a briefcase for Casey [he had a collection of leather briefcases that he showcases at his home], a whistle as a gag present for Haden [they had a running joke between them that Haden was going to be a football coach if he didn't his bar] and for Liam, a box set collection of various action movies that Ben knew he would like.

Andrew had been a difficult one to shop for but Ben finally settled for silver cufflinks in the shape of the Watchmen comics' Dr Manhattan's symbol custom made. And for Yulia, Ben had bought a blanket for her futon. She may have lived in Norlisk and may not have needed it but decided it was time her futon had a certain flair to it.

"You could always share the presents with me. I doubt you'd have time to go shopping now. It's going to be crazy out there." The waffle maker sounded and Ben sat down with his own waffles. "If you need some more, just ask." Ben cut a small piece and chewed. Looking up at Yulia, Ben smiled. "Thanks for coming for me last night."

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia’s reply was what one might call unintended cynicism. She didn’t have a disregard for her life, or the life of others. However defense mechanisms, mechanisms to separate herself from all that had happened. She had to pretend not to care. For the most part she was able to do this, she wasn’t haunted by the ghosts that might exists her past, save Evgeny. Then again Evgeny had not been her fault, not in the least.

Truth be told she was not above revenge, and she had taken it in accordance with the death of some of her unit members. Still it was like nothing. In a way her hand were clean, it was a matter of simply using her mind. She was the ultimate weapon in that respect. No autopsy would show her effects, no left over hints. Still these were not things that Ben needed to know, in fact she didn’t want to risk getting herself kicked out. She was fairly sure he would not be comfortable with what she could do.

Still she was starting to get a normal life here. She was slowly fading out of military habits because of living here with Ben. She was no longer up at five in the morning every day, she no longer army showered, she conditioned now. It was a whole new world of little comfortable things and not ripping the knots out of her hair. She was no less of a smoker though, and her reaction time was still as sharp as ever, though her responding movements were much more gentle.

His question threw her for a moment as she knew it was an unavoidable one. “I was of the hopes that this would never come up, but this is unrealistic. I have something and it is called Psionic Blast. This means that I can… um… overwhelm another person’s brain or mind to a point where it causes pain of many degrees, unconsciousness, a vegetative state or coma, and even death.” She stabbed at her waffle a little with her fork. “Simply put Ben, I have killed people, and now I have had someone dear taken from me. I believe they call this karma?”

Yulia thought for a minute about what to do. “I think that if you let me borrow the car I could go out and get gift cards at the least? I think that would be nice. Or I could walk, I could do that instead.” She already got her present for Ben and she was glad that she did, as she knew now hat it was going to come in handy for him.

“It was nothing millyana, I was just sleeping. It gave me a chance to have a smoke on the way over.” She laughed and took another bite of the waffle. He made the best waffles.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Psionic Blast. It even sounded painful and Yulia's description of it would have made any man nervous. To be perfectly honest, Ben was one of those men. For about two minutes. Then he reasoned with himself that this was Yulia he was talking to. His own Button. The one who called him milyana after only half a year of knowing each other. There was no way she would or could hurt him.

Well, so long as he kept her happy with waffles and let her have her cigarettes anyway.

Again, the young woman's darkness was something Ben had to get used to. Karma was a bitch but Yulia hardly seemed like someone who actually deserved it. Ben was so sure of Yulia having not had any will power when it came to the killings she might have done in the past. She wasn't a killer now, he had faith in that.

Ben gave his housemate a grin when she asked for the car. "You really need to get a license first." He chided her gently. "And yes I know you were from Russia but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you walk in that weather."

The psychologist stabbed his last piece of waffle and rolled his eyes at Yulia's little hobby. It was her only vice he wasn't too keen on letting go but given the circumstances, he tried to let it slide.

"I'll drive you into town tomorrow maybe so you can pick out the gift cards?" Ben offered, getting up to wash his plate.