Bad News Button (Tag Ben)

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia wasn’t sure what she was doing here, and she probably should not be here alone. Difficult thoughts were swirling around her head, and emotions that she didn’t want to handle were bubbling in her stomach. She just wanted to let it go for the time being, but she didn’t have a way of doing that. Rhys’s face had been too much, thought it was definitely different from Evgeny’s it was also similar. It wasn’t the physical representation that he was that bothered her so much, but her own reaction. She had been foolish and she had lost it. Frankly, it had been embarrassing and it had made her ache for some parts of the old days. She just could not make sense of it.

Yulia sat down at the bar tentatively. It was fairly empty, maybe because it looked like a bit of a dive. The bartender leaned over and asked what she wanted. “A drink, something strong.” The man grinned and started to mix something up. Yulia was not a drinker, in fact she had never drank before in her life. It hadn’t been allowed in the military, and she just hadn’t needed it so far, now she did. The bartender put down the drink in front of her. Button picked it up, sniffing it tentatively first and not smelling anything. Then she downed it in a few chugs. It was strange, with a warm burn to it and a taste somewhat like medicine. Yulia put the glass down and pushed it towards the bartender. “Another one?” The bartender obliged.

~

It had hit her when she was half way through her third one. Yulia had started to feel woozy. Then it all his her at once as she finished that third drink. Soon enough her head was down on the bar and she was groaning. She tried to lift a hand and only half managed. It was an odd sensation, being out of control of her body. The Bartender was snickering as he looked down at her.

“Who can I call for you sweetheart?”

“Pocket…” The man moved around the bar and checked her jacket pocket, finding the card with her address and phone number in there. He dialed the number, and luckily someone answered.

“Hello, we’ve got..” He checked the card. “Yulia down here. She’s not in a good state right now so you might want to come pick her up.” This was followed by the name of the bar. Yulia herself didn’t move from her stool, precariously balanced between it and the bar that she was leaning heavily on. Her eyes rolled around aimlessly, feeling sick to her stomach already. She had no idea what was going to be hitting her in the morning.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Ben was in the middle of making ramen for supper when his phone buzzed from the living room.

Yulia had been MIA for the past few weeks and it was no surprise that Ben immediately jumped to the conclusion that Yulia had gotten into trouble when he heard the shrill cry of the phone.

Quickly switching off the stove, he went to pick up the phone. The gruff voice over the phone mentioned Yulia and Ben was already grabbing his coat from the hallway closet and scooping up his car keys. The address that was given was from a bar that Ben had only been to once and vowed to never come again. Mostly for the aesthetics.

"Lia...what did you do..." Ben said in a soft tone of voice. The girl had never drank, at least not on his watch so having a stranger call his phone from a bar didn't make things any less favourable in Ben's mind. He drove faster than he had ever driven in town, which isn't much to say of since he was pretty slow but he got to the bar in ten minutes flat.

Seeing Yulia hunched over the counter top with a man approaching her, Ben's hands curled into a fist. "If you know what's best for you, you will not step any closer." He warned the man who frowned and backed off. He shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around his housemate and helped her up to go to the car.

Depositing her in the back seat and making sure the seatbealt was on her, Ben laid her own coat over her lap and thanked God he put in that call card in her coat. Ben couldn't help his mother henning, not when it came to Yulia.

He was torn between yelling at her for drinking and doing it without him for the first time so he just kept quiet. She was probably having the worst night of her life right then. He couldn't very well scream at her.

Once they arrived home, Ben practically carried her to her room and settled her in her futon. He carefully divested his coat off her and went downstairs to get her a tall glass of water.

Placing it on her nightstand, Ben crouched next to her futon and pushed the bit of hair that had fallen into her face. "What happened, Lia?"

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia’s eyelids felt funny, but every time she closed them it just made her head spin more. As a result consciousness was necessary. She was not sure how to handle it exactly, and as it turned out the drinking hadn’t helped her. It had really just served to make her feel all the more alone, perhaps because she was alone and drunk. Now she wanted to just go home, but she had no way of getting there in case Ben came to got her. The Bar tender had called him after all, but would he come? She was sure he would, it was Ben after all. At the same time she didn’t want to be yelled or fussed at like this.

Then she heard Ben’s voice, though she wasn’t sure wasn’t sure what he was talking about right now. Was he talking to her? She tried to sit up, managing to lift her head an inch or two, but not all that much. She felt a layer a warmth drop over her, recognizing it as Ben’s coat more by smell than by scent. Soon enough he was helping her to the car, which was tricky. She could barely walk. Though soon enough they were rolling back into the driveway at home. She tried her best to get out of the car but she could barely even grip the door handle well. That was a lost cause.

Had Yulia had the cognitive function at the moment she might have been concerned about how Ben was not talking. Instead she let him bring her up the stairs to her room. She winced a little when she laid down on the futon. It felt like the alcohol was sloshing around in her stomach, and it made her want to throw up. Ben reappeared then, and she tried to watch him, but didn’t manage until he sat down next to her. She looked at him, managing to focus that much. She closed her eyes for a moment when his fingers ran over her forehead.

“Ben…” She tried to get her words together, taking it all as slowly as she needed. “I thought I saw him, Evgeny. I thought it was him, but it just looked like him….” Her encounter with Rhys had been a few days ago, but it had been on her mind off and on. Today’s date was her main focus. “It has been a year now. A year today.” She sniffed a few times, tears brimming up in her eyes. She blinked a few times as they started to overflow. “I am sorry… sorry…” She felt bad that he had to deal with her like this.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

It took Yulia about a minute and a half to even come up with his name. Ben changed his position on the floor to a kneel before sitting down with one leg propped up and the other lay on the floor. He listened intently as Yulia opened up to him a little. This wasn't the Yulia he was accustomed to but he wasn't sure he didn't like it.

There were a lot of things Ben didn't know about Yulia and her opening up now was a good thing. It's been more than half a year since she moved in and she hadn't blown anything up, so Ben was pretty glad she was opening up now. Even if it was under these circumstances. Her tears made Ben feel bad about the torrent of questions he was about to knock her down with.

Stretching to reach behind him for the box of tissue, he placed one in Yulia's hand. "You need to drink this. It won't make you feel better but it'll at least get rid of the urge to vomit." He pushed the glass of water towards her. "So you drank to forget?" Ben asked, a little frown on his face.

[Yulia Sokolov]

When all was said and done Yulia felt sick and empty more than anything. Mostly she wished she could just pull the covers up over her head so she would not have to see how angry Ben was probably going to get at her. She had a sense of that looming on the horizon. Still as much as she wanted to hide right now she didn’t want to be alone. In fact she could barely stand the thought of it in her own head. It only served to distress her.

She took the tissue that was given to her and she dabbed her eyes in order to dry them up. She was not a huge crier, not in the least. She had lost a good deal of comrades, though Evgeny had been by far the most important and the most upsetting. All the same she had been softening since she came to Vermont. She struggled to sit up a little and drink the glass of water. She managed to drink most of it, though some dribbled over her chin. She sloppily wiped her mouth and chin with a forearm. She wasn’t sure if she believed him about the vomiting, she still felt like she was going to throw up. Then came the deadly question, and she could see by Ben’s face that if the answer was yes then she was in trouble. She looked away from him.

“No, no, not to forget. I did not know how quickly it would work. I did not intend to get like this. I was upset though, and I just wanted to slow down my thoughts. Nothing else was working, neither did this. I feel worse.” Her words came very slowly. After she said it all she managed to gain the courage to look over at him again. “Are you very mad at me?”

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Yulia looking away meant many things to Ben but at the forefront of his mind, it just meant she wasn't being honest with him. Not entirely anyway.

But far from outing her right then, Ben let it go. Her timely asked question had him sigh softly before pulling the covers over her.

"I can't say I'm pleased with your decision." He said, looking at her pointedly. "You're lucky I'm obsessive when it comes to tagging." Giving her an amused grin, Ben stood up and clicked off the bedside lamp.

"Breakfast is still at eight. I'll have some painkillers in the morning for you." Ben bent down to push her hair back. "Don't do this again. At least not alone." He warned, slightly jokingly.

"Goodnight, Lia."

[OOC: Up to you if you wanna continue on to brekkie ^^]

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia was tempted to call to Ben and to ask him to come back. It would be too much though, too much to ask him to stay there with her. First of all he hated her futon, and second she had already put him out so much tonight. It was just that, at the moment, she was feeling terribly alone. What had she done? She had followed someone else’s dream, she had started it all for Evgeny. Now, after a year, it was clear that he wasn’t coming back, he wasn’t going to pick up what she started. So where did that leave her?

Clearly it left her drunk and miserable on a futon. It wasn’t like she had a huge plan for her life, but the fact of the matter was that it was her life. She had some re-claiming she would have to do, but that could wait for another time.

She lay restlessly for a few minutes, but then fell into a heavy sleep.

~

Yulia woke up, well sort of. Immediately her head was pounding and she felt a bit like she was going to throw up. Her body protested against any movement that she tried to make with it. She forced it though, moving her arms and legs first, before attempting to sit up. She tried it, and immediately had to lay back down given how much her head was spinning. She gave it a second attempt, aware now of what might happen.

She stood up then and managed to make it downstairs. It was a little past eight, but not much. She winced at the light that poured in.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

As usual, Ben was awake by seven thirty in the morning. Though he had no routine, his internal alarm never failed to wake him up at the same time. Force of habit mostly. He took a shower, went for a quick jog in the woods, came back for another shower before starting on breakfast. Toast, fried eggs and baked beans, nothing too overpowering in smell for Yulia when she woke up.

Yesterday had been weird. It was the first time Ben had felt anger towards his housemate. It hadn't just been the fact that she drank at all. It was also because she didn't think to tell him anything about it. He didn't want to think what could have happened if he hadn't come when he did. Sure, she had that blasty mind thingie but if she was unconscious, what good would that have done?

Ben shuddered at the possibility of Yulia ever getting hurt. ...No. He did not want to think about that.

He was almost finished with his breakfast when Yulia stumbled in. Ben said nothing as he slid the bottle of painkillers over to Yulia's side of the small kitchen table and poured her a glass of cool water. There were so many things he could start saying but he just looked at her with a small smile. There was no way she would be able to handle a screaming marathon from him. Yet.

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia stood still for a few moments. She wanted to throw up but she managed to make her stomach settle. She had put herself in this state and she would be the one to get herself out of it again. After all these symptoms were totally manageable if only she put the effort into it. She knew what she needed to do, as she had been there for one or two of Ben’s hangovers.

She looked over when she heard a slight noise from ben that was not the rhythmic tapping of silverware against a plate. She looked over, wary inside of her own head. She had some idea of what was going to be coming from him. As a result she didn’t go straight for the pain killers. She went to the cabinet first and grabbed a box of pretty plain cereal. Next came the bowl and the milk, then the spoon out of the drawer. She pushed that drawer shut as hard as she usually did and it slammed. She winced as the noise echoed in her head.

Yulia sat down and began to dig into her cereal as much as she could. She took a few bites and then went for the pain killers and water. It made her feel a little better already just to know that in about twenty minutes the advil would take the edge off.

Yulia glanced across the table then at Ben. As much as she didn’t want to start this discussion right now there was something she did have to say to him.

“Thank you for bringing me home last night. I didn’t mean to end up how I did. I drank too much too fast.” To be fair, before last night she didn’t know how fast it could possibly hit her, but now she knew. Such was life.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

The young woman wouldn't even meet his eyes when she came down but Ben had expected this. He wasn't the warm fuzzy big brother Ben last night and neither would he be today.

Her thanks was met with a short smile. "I wasn't going to let some random stranger bring you home. That was why the card was in your jacket pocket." He let out a small sigh before standing up to wash his plate. He took his time with it, trying to calm himself down enough to sound like a berating parent.

Sliding the plate on to the drying rack, Ben turned and leaned back against the kitchen counter. "Care to explain why you went out to drink in the first place?"

[Yulia Sokolov]

Yulia stared down at her bowl of cereal. She knew that she was in trouble, and she was going to try not to fight him on it. They were going to go through this whether she liked it or not. She chewed the flakes slowly, hoping to hold this off for just a little longer. She figured that Ben had started to mistake himself for her mother at this point, though Christina was back in Russia as far as she knew. This mothering was fine by her for the most part, but now it wasn’t. She was a grown woman after all, she could take care of herself. Granted, last night she might not have been able to do that as well as she usually could. The only question was, how angry was he? She guessed it depended on how she answered the question he posed now.

“I few days ago I was outside having a cigarette. It was the day I burned the soup, do you remember? Well, I was outside when I saw a man jogging. He looked like Evgeny, so much so that I jumped up and ran towards him. I yelled “Evgeny! Evgeny!” but when I got closer…” She paused for a moment, feeling a little overwhelmed between reliving that awful and embarrassing moment and taking a good drink of water. “It was not him. It was someone else. I was so convinced that it was Evgeny, and I realized that I still had not managed to let him go. I just could not get it all out of my head. Last night I was out for a walk and I saw that bar, and I went in. I thought that it would just be a nice break, something to take my mind off of what was going on. If I had known how fast it would hit me I would have drank it differently. It is my fault.”

And there it was, what she had done and why she had done it. Well she was paying for it all now, she felt awful. She dug back into her cereal, hoping to finish it before she was yelled at.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Ben gave out a silent laugh and a nod at the reminder of when she had burnt the soup she had attempted to cook for Ben when he was sick. Her story went on down to the part where Ben felt stupid for being so angry at his housemate. Because how many times had he drank after a rather trying time? He supposed it was hypocritical of him to even be angry right now.

But really, after months of establishing the relationship of big brother little sister with Yulia, it was hard to shake off the responsibility he felt over the younger woman. Had it been Andrew's sister, Ben would have reacted more or less the same anyway. He just felt a sense of responsibility over the womenfolk; even if they could just kill you literally with their mind.

Sighing, Ben got himself a cold drink from the fridge, sipping it slowly. "Why didn't you tell me all this earlier?" He asked, having lost steam to yell at her.