#courben

"Alright, who's next?"

"I think it's Tennyson!"

"Noooooooooo..."

"No whining, we've all gone. Truth or Dare?"

Ben groaned as he and his friends from the soccer team sat in a circle in J.T's room. The faint sound of the stereo still playing pop music downstairs played, the bass pounding in his ears.

"Still can't believe I let you drag me here, Courtney..." Ben quietly complained aside to his best friend, Courtney Lawrence.

The raven-haired girl let out a giggle. "No excuses. You've weaseled your way out of every single party we've ever been invited to and it gets boring without you here."

"You're not winning me over with flattery, Dingus! You know I hate parties!"

"Re-LAX, you're acting like I took you to a bar or strip club or some s**t! It's just a weekend party at J.T's! Big whoop,"

"May I remind you that J.T. is the school's most mischievous matchmaker? Cash and Clem are making out downstairs right now!"

"Oh, come on! You're not afraid of kissing someone, are you?"

"Hey, Tennyson!" J.T's call ended their private conversation. "Are you done flirting or are you gonna answer?"

Ben's cheeks burned pink at that statement, but he told himself that he could get through this as long as he stuck to his one rule: DON'T CHOOSE DARE.

"Truth," Ben said clearly, straightening up his back.

J.T. was in his element. "So, Ben...you all know we've outed ourselves about the people we've admired from afar, yeah?"

The others in the circle murmured agreement, as it was a common question. But, to Ben, this was the one he absolutely COULD NOT answer, especially when the person in question was in the room.

Instantly, he knew what J.T. was going to ask him, and he knew he only had a couple seconds to avoid it before it was too late. A tiny voice in the corner of his brain warned him not to, but he was too panicked to listen to it. Before he could second guess himself, the words were already out of his mouth.

"Ben, who is your cru-"

"DARE, DARE, DARE! I'm switching to dare!"

The circle went silent, all staring at Ben, face flushed and mind internally screaming at the scene he caused, but relieved he managed to dodge the question.

He should've known he was going out of the frying pan and into the fire. "Alright, dare it is!" J.T. sounded like he had been waiting for this. "I dare you to spend seven minutes in heaven with someone in the circle!"

Ben short-circuited at those words, numb to Courtney poking his arm. "Dude...DUDE! Are you okay?"

"What am I going to DO?" he whispered back at her through gritted teeth. "This is YOUR fault!"

"MY fault?! What the hell did I do?! YOU'RE the one who always complains about not getting enough excitement in life!"

"Yeah? And remember how THAT wish turned out?"

Their argument was cut off by J.T's voice again. He held up a pencil and twirled it around in his fingers. "So here's the deal: I'm going to spin this pencil, and whoever it points at will be the one to--OOPS."

Less-than-subtly, J.T. flatly dropped the pencil and it clattered gracefully to the ground...pointing right at Courtney. "Oh, look at that, must've slipped out of my fingers. That counts, by the way."

Now it was her turn to go red. "You did that on purpose!!" she snapped up at him.

"The pencil has spoken, Lawrence!" J.T. waved coyly at her as she and Ben were pushed into the closet. "Have fuuuuuuuun~!"

The doors shut and soon they were in total darkness. There was total silence in that enclosed space, except for the excited whispers and stupid laughter on the other side of the frame.

Ben shifted in the cramped space, fists clenched. "J.T. is SO dead when I get out of-"

His short-lived plot of revenge was cut off when he saw Courtney curled up on the other side of the closet, her face despondent and distant. "...Courtney? What's wrong?"

No reply.

Ben suddenly felt uncomfortable, knowing he had blamed her for their current situation mere moments ago. Part of him wanted to stay mad, but seeing her frowning face made his heart ache. "H-Hey, I'm not mad, if that's what you're worried about. I-I mean, I'm sure we'll look back on this and laugh after we've tied J.T. up in a soccer net-"

"Ben?"

Courtney's voice was uncharacteristically tiny and unsure, getting Ben's full attention. "...Yeah?"

"Did you...want to kiss someone tonight?"

The question blindsided Ben so hard, he wasn't sure how to reply. "...Huh?" he replied obtusely. "Where is THAT coming from?"

"I-It's just..." Courtney's head tilted awkwardly, face burning. "If there's someone you ever wanted to kiss, I...I kinda hoped it would be...me."

Now this was the statement that REALLY made Ben short-circuit. A flurry of emotions swirled in his chest: shock, relief, ecstasy, confusion...pretty much all of them.

What was he to say back? Sure, it was better her than some random girl, but this was the girl he'd known since he was four years old! But...at this moment, after a confession like that...what else did they have to lose?

He soon realized that he didn't need speaking to make his answer clear.

Scooting away from the wall until he was pressed right next to her, Ben smiled lightly, brushing his fingers lightly along Courtney’s fingertips. The raven-haired girl flushed and her fingers twitched toward Ben’s, ring fingers locking together.

“This is, uh...”

“A little weird?” Courtney finished softly, and Ben huffed a weak laugh.

“Yeah. That,"

“Doesn’t feel weird...”

“No...I guess it doesn’t.”

Courtney smiled and shifted her hand, properly linking their fingers together, and a shuddering breath escaped Ben. He swallowed thickly, and squeezed the hand he held, his brown wristwatch pressing lightly against her wrist.

“J.T's gonna kill us...” Courtney muttered. Ben mumbled a ‘he'll be perfectly happy’ back as their lips melded together.

His knees went weak and his free hand lifted to cup her face. In turn, Courtney's hand immediately shot up to grip Ben’s shoulder, eyes fluttering shut as she clutched to her childhood friend.

A thrill ran down his spine as he pressed closer, chests pressing together as he tilted his head to the side and parted his lips. Courtney eagerly took the invitation, tongue brushing along his lower lip, making Ben moan softly into the kiss.

Their lips parted for a second so Ben could gasp for air. “Courtney-" he wheezed breathlessly as she grinned back at him.

“Yes?”

Instead of answering, Ben dragged her back into a searing kiss, hands parting so they could clutch at each other. Ben’s hands rocketed into Courtney’s braided hair, impatiently pulling the band out and combing her hair with his fingers, sliding into her silky locks and tugging gently.

Courtney groaned softly into the kiss from the action. Her own hands clutched Ben’s hips, thumbs pressing firmly into the skin above his hipbones in a way that had Ben sliding a leg around her to hitch onto her hip.

In a moment of daring, his hands slid down and slipped into the ass pocket of Courtney’s jeans. She huffed a ragged breath through her nose and pressed herself closer still.

Both froze when the creak of the closet door sounded as it slid open and a throat was cleared a few feet away. Both heads turned so two sets of eyes could lock upon the entirety of the soccer team.

"Holy. S**T."

"HAH! They actually did it! You owe me 5 bucks!"

"DAMMIT, Tennyson, I was counting on your cowardice to get me through and you choose NOW to grow a pair?!"

"'Just friends' my ASS."

Ben’s face went red as he jumped away from Courtney, his mind slowly wrapping around what he just did. Seven minutes passed by quicker than he thought.

"And...that's a bad thing?" a tiny voice in his head questioned him.

J.T. arched a brow at his two friends. "My CLOSET, you guys. You were about to bang in my CLOSET."

Courtney's jaw worked soundlessly to explain that his theory wasn't the case, only to remember there was still a warm palm in the back pocket of her jeans.

*SMAK*

"OUCH!"

"Alright, fun's over! Hands off my tocus, Tennyson!"

*pinch*

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-OW!! Let go, that hurts!"

"Then don't fall asleep, Dingus! We're not even an hour in and that's the third time you've nodded off!"

"But alien culture is so boriiiiiiiiiing..."

"Well, tough beans, because you promised you'd let me help you study."

Courtney exhaled impatiently, blowing a strand of her hair out of her face. Her best friend, Ben, adjusted his oval-shaped glasses and flipped through a couple more pages of the alien logbook. It was a quarter to nine at night and the library was devoid of all people except them.

"The sacrifices I make for the people I care about..." Courtney thought in self-pity as Ben droned on about something to do with Petrosapiens. As her reluctance to learning alien history showed, she didn't really let Ben tutor her to help her get into the Plumber's Academy. She didn't need it, anyway, not with the Neotrix on her wrist. All she wanted was to get them both away from superheroing for a bit so they could hang out.

Of course, a study session wasn't her ideal choice, but she was so desperate to get away from the villains, paparazzi, and bloodthirsty news reporters, Courtney had taken it. Of course, Ben, being the nerd he was, was ecstatic about getting to teach her about alien culture, but as the "too cool for school" kind of girl she was, she had been looking a bit more forward to actually talking to her childhood bestie.

Courtney's thoughts were interrupted by a flick to the forehead. "Ow!"

"Courtney, are you listening?" Ben asked sternly. "Answer the question: What brought the Petrosapien race to the surface of their home planet?"

Courtney's mouth opened in an elongated "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...", desperate to come up with a made-up answer so elaborate, Ben wouldn't think to double-check. "...A giant squid?"

"WARFARE, you dingus," Ben shook his head. "Several centuries of warfare ripped a giant hole in the surface of Petropia, revealing a universe far beyond Petropia's heretofore self-contained existence."

Ben pressed his palm firmly to his temples in frustration, running his fingers up and through his messy brown hair. "God, you'll never get past the entrance exam at this pace."

Courtney tipped back lazily in her chair, swinging her foot left and right. "Entrance exam, schmentrance exam...do we even NEED to take one after all the hits we've been taking for HQ?"

"You're kidding me...do you realize I'm pulling an all-nighter for you?"

"Hey, YOU were the one who's been begging me to let you tutor me!"

"Yeah, because you're always turning off your binoba brain!"

"Hey! I know I'm not as by-the-book as you, but that doesn't mean you can call me stupid!"

"Then WHY are you acting like it?! You're always charging headfirst into things without thinking about them and wreaking havoc like a psycho!"

"Well this PSYCHO would rather be such instead of an obsessive nerd with a stick up his ass!"

"You-!"

"*ahem* Ex-CUSE me, you two. Inside voices, please."

Their argument was interrupted by the librarian, who was giving them a warning look before walking off to continue shelving books. "Oh, and please refrain from any PDA. This is a public space."

Courtney hadn't noticed it, but she and Ben were forehead-to-forehead amidst their spat. Drawing back quickly, she shook the building redness from her face and stood up. "Ugh! I need a break. I'm gonna get a drink..."

Not keen on yelling anymore either, Ben rested his cheek on his knuckles and waited. Minutes passed, but Courtney didn't return. Half an hour later, Ben stood up sharply from his chair, annoyed. "Alright, WHERE is she? I swear, if she bailed on-"

Ben stopped mid-sentence when he rounded the aisle and saw his best friend, head on the table, fast asleep. His nostrils flared as he let out a patient sigh, sitting next to her.

Unable to resist, Ben gently placed a hand on her head and ran his fingers through her black hair, brushing it out of her face. He hadn't meant to say all the things he did, really. It was just that he was worried Courtney's reckless nature was going to get her in real danger someday. It was part of the reason he studied about alien culture so hard: so that he'd be prepared for anything and be able to protect his loved ones.

"What am I going to do with you, you idiot...?" he said, almost to himself.

He was so lost in caressing her hair, Ben didn't notice Courtney had been awakened by the warmth of his hand. Not until she spoke faintly.

"...Do you remember what you said to me when we beat our first bad guy?"

"YEEK-!"

Ben drew back sharply, cheeks going pink as Courtney's eyes slitted open slightly, her sky-blue gaze fixed on him. Taken aback by the question, Ben couldn't, for the first time, give an accurate answer. "Not...really."

"I remember," Courtney sat up a little. "You told me I did a good job, and...you were proud to call me your partner."

Courtney put a hand on Ben's cheek, her fingers lightly brushing over the Band-Aid covering his most recent battle scar. "I feel like anyone else would've been more judgmental with how I handled things, but...you said that because I needed it. And it helped."

Ben took his glasses off and fiddled with them shyly. "Look, I'm only hard on you because I know what you're capable of, Courtney. You care too much about what everyone thinks except for me, even though I'm always right-"

Courtney bent a skeptical brow at him. "Ben..."

Ben awkwardly cleared his throat and readjusted his glasses, smiling back at her. "What I mean is, just keep doing a good job. Okay? You're brave, you're sly, you're loyal, and...well, all-around amazing."

With a small grin back, Courtney leaned on Ben's shoulder. "Deal. Now, we left off at Petrosapiens, I believe...?"