#hiraeth-doux

36. “Because I fell for you, isn’t it obvious?” 

“Mel?” Bennett murmured into the peaceful silence of his room. 

She lay on top of him, half asleep from the gentle way he stroked her spine, as if he couldn’t quite stop himself from actively touching her in some way. It was incredibly endearing, she decided. 

“Hmm?” she hummed against the skin at the crook of his neck, too relaxed to even lift her head to meet his eyes. 

“What made you choose to rebel against Wilford?” he asked, and felt her go rigid. 

It was a question that had nagged at him for a while now, but there was never a good time to ask. A part of him felt guilty for asking; he hated making her uncomfortable. 

He was about to retract the question and apologize when Melanie relaxed minutely and whispered, “You.”

“Me?” he was slightly taken aback. 

“Yeah,” she nodded a little, still unable to face him, “You know, when I was pregnant with Alex, I did try to get out. But all it took from him was a single phone call to make sure that I’d never find work elsewhere. And aside from that he’d never done much else to try to truly control me… it was all insidious. Nothing I would’ve noticed until it was behind me.”

“Why me then?” his voice was soft, and his touch even gentler on her back. 

“Because I fell for you, isn’t it obvious?” she snorted, letting a moment pass for him to absorb the statement before continuing, “It’s not like it was the first time that he decided that someone was distracting me too much. But you were the first person to refuse to let him make that decision for me. And yeah, we were just friends who had sex sometimes… but you were my best friend, and you were willing to fight to stay in my life if you had to. I never thought that there’d be a way out for me after that failed attempt, but it just made me realize… that maybe I couldn’t on my own, but I could. With you.”

They were quiet after that. There wasn’t much else for them to say; as always, they understood each other without words. Bennett knew that Melanie needed the silence, that that much vulnerability had probably unmoored her, and that she needed the conversation dropped to feel safe again. 

But he could also safely assume that it was almost impossible for her not to feel at least comfortable with him. 

She sighed when he kissed the top of her head, and they left it at that. 

36. “Do you trust me?” “No.”

“Ben,” Melanie whined in frustration. 

“Mel,” he mocked. 

She huffed in annoyance, “Are you going to tell me what we’re doing, or are you just going to spend the night dragging me through the subtrain?”

“Do you trust me?” he asked. 

“No,” she replied, just to get a rise out of him. It worked, he stopped, turning to frown at her; but they both knew that she didn’t really mean it, and that she was just frustrated. 

“If you don’t like it, we can just leave,” his voice was gentle, “We don’t have to talk about it.”

“Ben,” she sighed, exasperated, “I’m sorry. It’s just been a long day.”

“Would you rather go back to my room?” he asked, no judgment in his tone. 

Melanie considered. Her day had been particularly aggravating, and even though he knew she hated surprises, he’d claimed to have staged an engineering emergency that could buy them a few hours. But he’d also refused to say where, and she had endless reports to sort through and though she’d never say it, she was completely burnt out. Usually she could humor him with his surprises, as they were so rare, and she knew that he enjoyed making them; but it’d been a rough day. She bit her lip, meeting Bennett’s eyes, and wavered. 

“I’ll try it,” she finally decided. 

His eyes lit up, “Thank you, Mel. If you don’t like it I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”

“You’d better,” she smirked playfully, and then grimaced slightly before admitting, “Though having a real bed to sleep in might be a start.”

“Always an option,” he chuckled softly, “Come on then.”

The fake engineering emergency was in a car designed to look like a tropical beach, she realized. There was a miniature ocean; it was all clearly fake, but there was a certain magic to it nevertheless. She’d only ever really passed through this car without considering it, but the expectancy on his face caused her breath to hitch in her throat. 

“Ben…” she breathed. 

“It’s no Tahiti,” he grinned, “But it’s the best I can do.”

She smiled softly, “I like your best.”

“Yeah?” he asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck, his hands finding her waist automatically. 

Their eyes locked and she nodded seriously, gaze flickering to his mouth as she whispered, “Yeah.”