#benji fic

Title: s04e08: a beacon of hope

Summary: Kenji can be whatever Ben wants. So if Ben needs a hero - Kenji will be just that.

Word count: 6k words

Ship: Ben Pincus/Kenji Kon

Tags: Love Confessions, Fluff and Angst, Canon Divergence, A hyperloop scene: retelling

Ao3 Link

Goodbye Lullaby, by TheInverse Universe on Ao3

10.6k, oneshot

Being captured wasn’t new. In fact, it was almost routine to Alex Rider. Capture, threats, pain. Old hat. Even the mind numbing hours of isolation were bordering on routine.

But this was new. Alex doesn’t know how he’s going to take care of this kid, doesn’t know how he’ll keep a terrified six year old safe from their captor. But he knows he doesn’t have a choice.

This is the fic that made me feel famous! I wrote it as a chat box fic. And it got so out of hand that I had to make new rules to stop anyone (including me) from doing it again.

This is a fic about Alex being forced to take care of a young child when they’re both kidnapped by Yassen. It’s a concept that always enthralled me, the way people care for children in crisis, especially children other than theirs. This responsibility that outweighs everything else, because this is a child.

I love this fic and I love Benji. But not as much as @freesirius4life for life does. She made the first fan art I’ve ever received for this fic! And then dozens more since then.

There’s a sequel too! It’s just not published outside discord. I wrote it as a chat box fic over the span of about a week, taking multiple turns in the chatbox fic channel. It’s about Benji’s parents getting him back and their search to find the boy who protected their son.

And she said “absolutely not”.

But I sent it and I just took my pulse and it is literally 120 and I’m sitting perfectly still. I’m gonna dieeeeee (but that might be because I drank way too much coffee)

Thanks! I’ll give you two, since I know you read this first one when I was drafting.

This is from the Goodbye Lullaby sequel!

He was back. Thomas could hardly believe that he was *here*.

The small family held each other close, drinking in each other’s company.

The abductor’s car started again, and suddenly Benji wriggled away enough to look over Thomas’s shoulder.

He scanned the lot with a hopeful look that quickly turned into a frown. “Where’s Alex?” He asked.

“What?” Leah asked, wiping the tears of relief from her cheeks.

The car started to move and Benji pushed against his parents, trying to get out of Leah’s arms. “No! Where’s Alex!”

“Benji, who’s-“

“No!” Benji screeched as the car pulled away. “Yaya still has Alex!”

“Who’s Alex?” Leah asked again, wide eyed.

“Yaya snatched him too!” Benji screamed, straining against his mother’s hold. “Yaya’s gonna hurt him!”

“There’s another child in the car,” Leah realized. She turned to the Secret Service Agent. “There’s another child in the car!”

And here is an excerpt from my White Collar/Alex Rider crossover, where Alex learns his mother had a half sister- Elizabeth Burke.

“Hi,” Alex mumbled.

He didn’t look much like the school photo they’d been provided. Alex in that was a year younger, and looked like a happy, confident kid. The teenager in front of them looked guarded and world weary, and like the world had turned against him. And in the year since that photo was taken, it seemed like it had. His uncle and his guardian had died. And his guardian had died horribly.

“Well,” Elizabeth said, eager to bridge the awkwardness. “Let head home. The car’s not far.”

Alex nodded and followed without complaint. He brushed off attempts at conversation with tired, monosyllabic answers, so they walked in silence through baggage and to the car.

Hmmmm. Probably one of my OCs! I really really can’t pick! Dr. Drake, or Benji, or one of the Thornes?

I love Dr. Drake because he’s such a straight man. Just trying to do his job and deal with the weirdness thrown in front of him. And in the sequel I really should post, he’s such a good guy. Also the discord has christened him “Dr. Drake Drake” because I never gave him a first name lol.

Benji is just my dearest darling. I realized months after publishing that a lot of that fic was me working through being an unwilling teen parent to someone else’s kid in high school. (Long story. But fuck the Sacklers). He’s such a sweet heart and is so fun to bounce off of Alex.

And the Thornes! They’re from the discord exclusive (aka I need to edit and publish) Goodbye Lullaby sequel. Benji’s parents who go to bat for the kid who protected their son. They’re very fun because they’re idealized parents and take no shit.