Chapter Text
Ben pounds on the door. “Let us back in!” he shouts.
“It is freezing out here,” Beatrice complains, hopping from one foot to the other.
“We kissed! We sent you a picture,” Ben says.
“That doesn’t count,” Pedro shouts back.
“A kiss on the cheek?” Meg says, hoisting the window up to glare at them. “Get some tongue in there, people. Inspect some tonsils, let some hands wander.”
“You’re disgusting!” Beatrice shouts back at her. “You said we had to kiss, we kissed. Dare over, let us back in.”
Claudio appears in the window now, adopting a superior expression. “It did not meet the requirements for this assignment, please try again and come back later.” He closes the window, and the curtains are drawn shut.
“Hero!” Beatrice shouts, trying to play on her cousin’s sympathy.
“Hero is unavailable for comment,” Meg shouts back.
“Ursula!” Ben shouts.
Ursula pulls the window back open to speak to them. “Sorry, guys,” she shrugs, and that’s all the explanation they get.
“Balthazar?” Ben tries, one last desperate ploy.
Balthazar appears, back lit by the warm light of the house. He grins and shuts the window again.
“My toes are going to fall off,” Beatrice says. “I wish Meg hadn’t thought of taking our car keys.”
Ben leans against the door and sighs.
“Come on, let’s suck it up and french a little,” Beatrice practically growls.
“Really? That’s how you’re going to phrase it, ‘suck it up and french a little?’” Ben asks.
“What?”
“Oh, my God.” Ben comes and stands in front of her. “Okay, fine let’s do this. Let’s kiss.”
He puts his hands on her shoulders.
“Are you a tonguer?” he asks.
“Am I a tonguer?” she repeats.
“I don’t want to put my tongue in your mouth if you don’t like it!” Ben says.
“Just kiss me, Ben!”
“Okay, fine, three, two- you know what, I’m not going to do a countdown. I’m just going to kiss you,” Ben says.
“Oh, my God,” Beatrice rips out of his hands and pounds on the door again. “Let me out of this Hell! I’m freezing and Ben is being a dick!”
Instead of the door magically opening and her being let into the warm house her dick friends start chanting. “Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!”
“Just kiss me Hobbes!” Beatrice says, whirling around on him.
“No, I’m not going to kiss you,” Ben says.
“Just kiss me!” Bea says, and she steps forward, clearly intent on putting an end to this and kissing him.
Ben backs away, “No! Not like this!”
“Not like this?” Beatrice asks. The chant has faded into the background for both of them.
“No, nothing. I didn’t mean- It’s not- do you know what I mean? It’s like-” He babbles, and then he waves his hands in the air and stalks off to the side of the house.
Bea goes back to the front door and pounds on it. “Let me in! Ben left, he went around the side of the house. I’m freezing.”
There’s silence on the other side of the door. They probably don’t even believe her, Beatrice thinks.
But then there’s a flurry of voices and the door opens to Hero’s beautiful, lovely face. Beatrice has never been so happy to see her.
Ben is standing in the middle of the living room.
“He came in through the bathroom window,” Hero says.
“Look at that,” Pedro says. “He’d rather climb through a window than kiss you.”
“I think I’m going to head home,” Hero says, trying to lighten the mood.
“I’ll drive you,” Claudio says quickly. Hero smiles at him, and they gather their shoes.
“Yeah,” Pedro says. “I’ve got to get home too, we’ve got that game tomorrow.”
And then everyone is leaving, saying their excuse.
Meg lets everyone out, Ben and Bea reclaim their car keys, determinedly not looking at each other.
Outside, everyone disperses quickly. Bea and Urusla chat for a second, setting up a time for Urusla to show her a few editing tricks.
Ben is leaning against his car, waiting for the conversation to end.
Ursula says goodbye, and climbs into her car.
Beatrice starts walking towards her own car.
“Bea,” Ben jogs after her.
She ignores him.
“Bea,” he says again.
She turns. “What, Ben?” She hopes she sounds exasperated enough.
He waits while Ursula drives down the street. As her headlights disappear around the corner, Beatrice gets fed up with waiting. She turns to open her door.
Ben catches her elbow and spins her body into his. His hands are warm on her back as he walks forward until her back hits her car, and then he is kissing her. His hands move to her waist, sliding down to her hips and then up into her hair.
She curls her fingers into his shirt, thinking about pushing him away, but it feels so good. It’s been so long since she’s been kissed with any kind of passion.
His hands won’t stop moving, touching her face, her neck, her arms.
She parts her lips for him, and yes, holy shit yes, she is a tonguer.
He keeps pressing into her, and why is it that the feel of his hip bones pressing against her body feels so damn sexy?
He pulls back, his chest heaving for breath like he’s a drowning man, and then, before she can do or say anything, he is kissing her again.
Her arms slide up around his neck. One hand is buried in his hair, which he must like because he kisses her harder when she runs her fingers through it. His arms slide around her waist, pulling her totally and completely against him, there would not be room between them for one atom.
They stumble, but luckily the car is there to lean on again, and they take advantage of it.
He pulls back again, breathing heavily. He comes back for one and then two short pecks on her lips, like he needs just a little bit more, like he didn’t get quite enough.
Ben steps away, his hair is completely mussed, and Beatrice feels like her lips are bright red, showing the world to see what they’ve just been doing.
“I meant something like that,” he says in a deep voice. He turns around and walks back to his car, hands in his pockets.
Beatrice stares after him. She regathers her thoughts and slides into her car. She drives home in a daze. She feels like she can still feel his hands on her.
She has a text message when she gets home.
From Meg
Hell of a show ;)
Bea lets her head fall against the steering wheel.