Music to my Ears (Ben)

[~ ADMIN]

It had taken a while, but Anna was finally feeling better and more like herself. The whole incident with the nanovirus had thrown her off. She hadn't known that it was possible for her to lose control like that, and it had been frightening. But, at least it wasn't her own doing. The only thing was, she'd paid for it; that ferocious session with the punching bag had completely mauled her hands, and they were only just starting to heal. She had bandages on them pretty much permanently at the moment, making a couple of trips each day to the infirmary to have them changed. She hadn't particularly realised how vital her hands were until now.

Anna had been pretty much banned from the gym for the moment and all other training, so that was a big part of her work load diminished in one fell swoop. She could do work on the computer, but she was generally restricted to typing with two fingers, and that made the work even slower. So, she opted to get out of her office, and take a walk. Her legs were still functioning properly after all, and she hadn't been advised not to walk or move around.

Her wanderings took her near the sleeping quarters which were usually quiet around this time of the day. However, today, she could have sworn she heard some sort of music coming from there. Anna opened the door to the common room and slipped inside, listening to locate where the source of the music was coming from. Eventually, her eyes settled on a partially open door, and she smiled slightly - it was Ben's room. As she got closer, she could hear him strumming his fingers against his guitar strings, singing quietly. Standing in the doorway, she just listened, wondering how long it would take for him to notice her there.

[karen2]

It wasn't often that Ben got to take the day off, and so he never really had anything planned for those times when he did. Quite often he'd go in anyway, but he didn't particularly feel like it this time. After all, seeing as Anna couldn't do much at the moment with her hands swaddled in bandages, she spent little time in tactical herself, which meant that going meant he'd have little to to do besides actually work.

So instead he decided to take advantage of his day off and work on his composing. He hadn't really written anything since he'd left Earth, and felt it necessary to try and catch up. Whenever he wrote things back home, he'd usually go down to the beach to get inspiration from the beauty of nature. Here, his current source of inspiration was a certain red-headed woman.

Never having written a song that had anything to do with love before, Ben found that it was harder than he would have expected. After trying out his most recent lyrics, his fingers dancing studiously over the strings of his guitar, he laughed at himself and shook his head. "No, definitely not," he chortled, picking up his pen to scratch out the last line. He was about to try something else when he heard a movement in the hall.

Always touchy about people hearing him, Ben hastily shoved his notepad under his pillow and hung his guitar back on the wall before glancing over at his door to try and see out into the hall through the crack he'd left open--such occassions were the reason he did that, in fact. He spied a flash of red hair, and his eyebrows went up. "Anna? Is that you out there?"

[~ ADMIN]

Probably much to Ben's relief, Anna hadn't really been paying attention to the lyrics. She'd caught a few at the end, but she wouldn't even begin to think that they were about her. When she had made her way over to the door, she hadn't meant to make him stop. The general sounds on this ship were all to do with parts of it functioning, she rarely heard music on board. So, hearing Ben play had been a welcome change. Unfortunately, she'd alerted him to her presence, and now they were back to the low hum of the ship's engine.

"Yes," she admitted, pushing the door open sheepishly with her elbow, "guess your hearing is better than I give you credit for," she said, joking a little. He'd obviously moved quickly to put everything away once he had heard her, the guitar hanging inconspicuously on the wall. If she hadn't heard the music with her own ears, she wouldn't have been able to tell he'd been playing at all.

"I, um," she felt stupid now she'd been caught listening, "I heard music, and I just sort of... well, you caught me anyway." Things had got a lot better between them again since the nanovirus attack, after the awkward silence following the undercover mission. She'd never seen his room before though. It was like stepping inside someone's personal domain, somewhere where they could be themselves. "I'm beginning to feel like the cat that got curious and met a sticky end," she said, shifting awkwardly, feeling really self conscious with the bandages on her hands.

[karen2]

When Anna confirmed that she was the one in the hall, Ben relaxed a little. He may not like it when others heard him play, but for some reason it didn't bother him so much that she had. Just so long as she hadn't heard the lyrics. He snorted a little at her comment on his hearing, not entirely wanting to admit that training with music was part of the reason for that.

As she rambled through an apology for walking in on him, Ben noted that this was the first time she'd been in his room. He'd heard it said that you could tell a lot about a person by the state of their living-space, and that made him wonder for a moment how things looked to her. Unlike some, he wasn't comfortable with living in a sty, so mostly things were where they were supposed to be.

In fact, the only really un-organized area in his room was his desk, which--aside from his personal computer--was cluttered with pens, pencils, and papers covered with either bar-lines and attempts at writing music or the untidy scrawl of poems he'd given up on long ago. Ben cleared his throat a little awkwardly and reached up to rub the back of his neck.

"I--no, it's okay," he assured her, shrugging it off. Since she already knew that he'd been playing, he might as well explain why he'd panicked at hearing her. "I don't usually play in front of others. Caught me off-guard is all. But it's fine, really."

Ben was quiet for a second then, and glancing back at his guitar he frowned, considering. While he wasn't going to play the song he'd been writing in front of her--at least, not any time soon--there was no reason he couldn't play one of his completed pieces. Feeling a little foolish as he did so, he asked stiltedly, "Um... do you... want me to play something for you?"

[~ ADMIN]

Anna glanced around his room in the awkward silence, noting how much tidier is was than hers. It wasn't like she abandoned stuff everywhere and left it in a tip, then she'd never find anything, but, during the day, she tended to leave stuff strewn across the bed. Things generally moved between there and her desk, depending on what she intended to do; if she was working or whatever, it was on her bed, if she was sleeping however, it wasn't exactly comfortable dozing off next to a handheld computer and various other bits and bobs.

"Good," Anna said, letting out a breath. She hadn't wanted to risk making it awkward between them again. She'd been so frustrated by the situation between them the other week where he had been avoiding her, and she hadn't tried hard to track him down because she hadn't been sure of what to say. They were too good together to let something silly come between them like that, she didn't want it to happen again.

Ben looked like he was contemplating something, and that made Anna curious and hopeful at the same time, especially when he cast a glance back at his guitar. "If you don't mind," she said with a smile, still hovering in the doorway. "Um," she took a tentative step into the room, then when he didn't stop her, she walked over and sat on the bed, pulling her legs up underneath her.

"So, is this your first greatest skill?" she ventured, smirking slightly as she recalled the message conversation they'd had the other day. They'd never followed through on the closet thing. Oh well, there was always time.

[karen2]

Anna took Ben up on his offer and he gave her a small smile in response, turning back to lift his guitar off of the wall again. In his hurry to put it away, he'd bumped the tuning-pegs out of place and fiddled with them as she came over to join him on the bed. At her question he smirked, but said nothing until he'd finished re-tuning his guitar.

"Personally, I don't think so, no. But whenever I try to tell that to my sister Marie, she argues with me until one of us forfeits. So I guess you'll just have to judge for yourself." Normally one of them--or both of them, really--would be joking around by now, but Anna seemed to be curious enough that jesting didn't appeal, and he found that he didn't feel up to excessive banter right now. Working on his music tended to mellow him out quite a bit.

Letting it go, Ben then ran his thumb across the strings a couple of times to see if the sound was right before pulling his notebook back out and flipping through it. After a moment he settled on a song he'd written a couple of years ago. He couldn't even remember what had caused him to write it anymore, but it had a gentle melody that was pleasing to the ear.

Since the lyrics weren't all that important, instead of actually singing them he just hummed quietly, and before long--as per usual when he played--his mind seemed to just fall away. By the time he finished he'd almost forgotten that Anna was there. Shaking his head a little and chortling, he brought his blue eyes up to meet her green and grinned.

"And that's about as good as it gets. So, what do you think? Is it my 'number one greatest skill'?"

[~ ADMIN]

Wow. That was actually the first time Ben had mentioned anything about his family. He wasn't big on going into his past, she had noticed, but then, neither was she, really. She knew that his sister was younger than him, but that was about it. Judging by the way he had taken care of her after the virus, he assumed that he really was a 'big brother' in that he really took care of his younger sister. If only her brothers had been like that for her.

She chuckled lightly, "I guess so," she said, keeping it at that for now, making a point to ask more about his sister later. Anna watched his fingers move, tuning the guitar before feeling their way down the strings, testing the pitch. She'd never been much of a musician, if at all. She'd been in a choir when she was little, and had been known to do the whole singing into her hairbrush thing when she was alone in her room, but other than that...

Ben chose not to sing, and she didn't mind. The sound of the guitar, and his voice humming along caused her to drift a little, getting lost in the music and the thoughts in her head. She blinked when he spoke, coming back to reality. "I'd say it's pretty damn close," she said, returning his grin as she looked into his eyes. He looked like he really enjoyed himself when he was playing, it was like she was seeing a whole new side of him.

Anna played a little with a fold in the bed covers, poking it back and forth with her finger before looking back at him again. He seemed quite relaxed, and she wondered whether it would be okay to actually just talk for once. No harm in trying, she supposed. "You and your sister get on well then?" she asked, trying to start a conversation there. She wanted to know more about him than what she'd seen on paper, and that he was an insanely good kisser, of course.

[karen2]

Anna and Ben hadn't really talked simply about themselves much before, and even less-so after he'd found out about what her brothers had done to her. But at the moment he saw no problem whatsoever with sharing a little about himself with her. At her question about his relationship with his sister, he smiled a little--not his usual coy smile, but rather one that was genuine and almost affectionate.

"As good as siblings can, I suppose," he agreed, plucking absently at his guitar as he spoke. "I've been watching out for her for as long as I can remember, really, but I denied it at every turn. To cover up for myself, I picked on her and annoyed her whenever I got the chance. Of course, this meant we spent a good portion of our time together bickering like you wouldn't believe.

"Actually, she got surprisingly good at retaliating whenever I knocked her down, and after a while it turned into more of a competition than actual arguing." He laughed a little at the memories, leaning back against the wall. After a moment, though, the smile slid off of his face and he sighed.

"And then, about four years ago now, our parents died. After that, everything just... changed. No one would talk to us anymore, too afraid they'd say the wrong thing. Hell they'd barely even looked at us--" Breaking off, Ben sighed again set his guitar next to him, getting up and going over to paw through things on his desk.

"We got pretty close after that. I mean, she was sixteen at the time, and the government wanted to put her into foster-care until she was of age. I actually had to go through a trial to gain custody over her and that was just pure hell, let me tell you. But I guess the stress of everything just made us realize how important it was for us to stay together."

Finding what he was looking for, he carried it back with him over to the bed and handed it to Anna. It was a picture of a young woman with short brown hair and a man with a mess of dark blonde hair sitting side-by-side on the front steps of what looked to be a beautiful house.

"The pretty one there's Marie, and the goof sitting beside her is my best friend Joel. Turns out the two of them moved in together, which was a shock to me, since I didn't even know they were dating, but I can't really complain." After all, he'd asked Joel to take care of her while he was away, so he'd sort of brought it on himself.

"It was Marie's twentieth birthday last month, and since I couldn't be there she sent me this"--he tapped the picture once and then grinned--"along with a ten page email I have yet to finish."

[~ ADMIN]

It had actually been surprisingly easy to get Ben to open up about his past. Usually he was like a vault, completely locked down, but it looked like she'd found the right combination, because everything just came spilling out of him. Everything about his sister, and his family, and all that they had been through.

He was obviously very affectionate about and towards his sister, even if they teased the hell out of one another. It must have been nice to have just one close sibling, one that would stick with him and love him unconditionally like he did her. It was hard not to see how much he cared for her; his face lit up just thinking back to those memories of them together.

But then, there was tragedy. Anna had known that his parents weren't around any more, but not why. To have lost them both like that must have been so hard on the both of them, then to have to have gone through a whole court case just to claim custody over his own sister. It must have been a nightmare. But again, it showed just how close they were that they would fight for each other like that. "Wow," she said, watching him as he moved over to the desk, rummaging around while he still spoke.

Anna took a hold of the picture between her thumb and forefinger before balancing it on her knee so she could take a proper look at it. "Oh, she's gorgeous," Anna said, staring intently at the picture, taking in every detail. She chuckled when he said that his best friend had moved in with his sister and he hadn't even known. "Crafty," she smirked slightly, looking between the picture and Ben. She could see the resemblence between Ben and his sister, something about their faces, their eyes as well.

She couldn't help but let out a laugh about the email. Girls. Always waffling on about stuff. "You could have taken the time off to visit her," she said, nudging him gently. "I'm not a complete tyrant. Even if you had given me some other excuse, I would have let you go." She looked at him properly now, giving him a smile. For some reason, and she wasn't even sure how it was possible, but he looked even better now she knew all that about him. It was like a level of understanding about his life just heightened her feelings for him. Which was difficult to believe anyway, because she'd already told herself that she loved him, even if she hadn't said it out loud yet.

With a small sigh, she placed the photo back in a safe spot on his desk before turning back to him, focusing in on his blue eyes. This felt like one of those moments where they were both relaxed and open that she should just tell him how she felt. At the risk of freaking him out, she began. "Ben," she said, "I know what's been going on between us has been pretty much a none stop rollercoaster of crazy since the beginning, and I know that certain issues," she swallowed, "certainly haven't helped. At all. But, I want you to know that I have never felt this way about anyone before. My heart beats like a jack hammer in my chest everytime you're near, and yet you make me feel good, and happy, and comfortable," she wanted to stress that last word particularly, because she had never been that way with men before - flirty yes, but really letting them in, no - "and I... well, I..."

Say it.

"I think I love you."

[karen2]

"Yeah, she is," Ben agreed when Anna commented on the picture, peering down at his sister's image affectionately. Just like another woman I know. He smirked a little at Anna's remark about not being a tyrant, but when she mentioned that he could have gotten off to see Marie, he shook his head.

"It's fine. I'm pretty sure she filled me in on every little detail in that email anyway. By the time I finish reading it, it'll be like I was there." Although it would have been nice to get away to see Marie and Joel again, and to check out their new house, he really hadn't minded being on the Venia that day. From what he'd read, and simply knowing his sister, it had probably been one wild party, which--while fun on occasion--wasn't really his scene.

Ben watched as Anna slid off the bed and went to put the picture back on his desk, then turned back to him to meet his eyes directly. She looked slightly nervous, and yet still just as beautiful as ever. Whatever he'd done right to deserve her, he was going to be forever grateful that he'd done it and do his damnedest not to screw this up.

The way she said his name instantly told him that whatever she was going to say was going to have some sort of impact. He shifted so that he was seated on the edge of his bed and listened to her curiously, his eyes never leaving hers. As Anna's words progressed, a smile slowly began to spread across his face, and by the time she'd finished he was full out beaming.

Getting to his feet, Ben went over and took her face in his hands, his fingers slipping back into her fiery red mane, and leaned in so that his face hovered over hers. Drinking in her now familiar scent, he let himself simply cherish the moment. After taking a second to revel in the sheer bliss her words delivered, he finally managed to murmur,"Only think?"

And then he kissed her, his lips unyielding as they crashed down on hers. It wasn't their first kiss, of course, but it was the one that, by far, carried the most meaning. She loved him. She actually loved him. And he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loved her, too.

[~ ADMIN]

All Anna had to do was wait. She'd said the words, but how was he going to react? As she was speaking, her eyes kept darting away so she couldn't see the smile spreading slowly across his face. By the time she looked back at him to gauge his reaction, he was grinning from ear to ear. Okay, she was definitely taking that as a good sign.

Seeing him grin, made her grin in return, and she looked hopeful. Her eyes followed him as he moved off the bed, drawing close, his hands in her hair. She could feel his breath across her lips as he whispered "Only think?" which made her smirk into his lips as they pressed themselves against hers.

Their lips moved in unison together as Anna reached up to wrap her arms around the back of his neck, kissing him so intensely now. It wasn't only think, it so very much wasn't only think. She only had eyes for him, her heart swelling as they kissed - although he hadn't said the words, she was determined to think that he loved her too.

Slowing a little, she managed another couple of small kisses before she pulled back, pure, unadulterated love in her eyes for the man before her. "Most definitely not only think," she whispered, a smile creeping across her lips.

[karen2]

After a couple of follow-up kisses, Anna answered Ben's slightly rhetoric question and he grinned again. "Glad to hear we're on the same page," he laughed quietly, twirling a strand of her hair around his index finger. He gave her a playful smirk before tugging it, and then he let it fall back into place.

He couldn't very well say he'd ever been in love before, really. Sure, he'd had a couple of girlfriends back in high-school, but they hadn't been serious and they'd only lasted for a couple of weeks, tops. But Anna was different--she could keep up with his crazy side, and had just proved that she approved of his gentler side, too. Not that he was going to let anyone else on the Venia see it.

Since he wasn't exactly sure what to do now that they'd told one another how they felt, Ben resorted to the first thing he could think of. He led her back over to the bed and sat down, pulling her down to sit on his lap, and then brought his guitar around in front of them. "You want me to teach you how to play?" he asked, not really looking for an answer of giving her a choice.

Taking Anna's bandaged hands in his own, he directed her hands gently so that she was more-or-less holding the instrument properly. "All right, now if you press these three strings here"--he applied light pressure to her fingers over the right string--"you've got a C chord. Try it out."

[~ ADMIN]

Anna beamed when he said that they were on the same page, smiling further when he twisted the strand of her hair around his finger. "No fair," she pouted when he tugged it, "I can't do the same to you." That was when a devious smirk crossed her face, and she pulled her arms back, tickling his ribs through his shirt with her fingers. It had the potential to start a tickling war, but she did it anyway, looking at him with innocent wide eyes.

She tottered a little as he pulled her over into his lap, trying not to look surprised. "Well, seeing as you asked," she said, regaining a smile in place of her wide eyes. It wasn't like this was unwelcome, it was actually quite comfortable sitting in his lap with his arms around her. And he was going to teach her to play the guitar, bonus.

He manuevered her hands so that one hand was at the neck of the guitar, the other at the strings, then pressed down against three of her fingers that were at the appropriate frets. "Okay," she said, strumming a finger across the strings. They let out a pleasant sound and a smile immediately sprung onto her face. This was the furthest she'd got with any sort of instrument so far.

Memorising the position of her fingers on the strings, she said, "C chord, right," she'd remember that as they went along. Turning her head slightly, she glanced at him, "what next?"

[karen2]

"Exactly," Ben laughed, mussing Anna's hair teasingly. The smirk that crossed her face made him lift an eyebrow, and he choked back a yelp when her fingers found his ribs. Though he knew she was ticklish--he'd found out during their undercover mission together--he hadn't exactly shared with her that he was too. But he'd worry about revenge later.

At the present, he'd focus on this interesting little lesson of theirs. He'd never really tried teaching anyone guitar before, so it hadn't exactly occurred to him to teach her the string names or the parts of the guitar, but she didn't seem to care. It would appear as though she were just happy that she'd managed to make a sound with the instrument at all.

Anna was so beautiful, her eyes sparkling and a smile gracing her lips. And she loved him. It was impossible to fathom how, or why, but she did; somehow, she'd managed to accept who he was, flaws and all. Ben had never had that before, except from his sister--though that hardly counted.

At the red-headed woman's question, he smiled at her and gently moved her fingers again into a new positioning. "This here is a G chord," he explained, brushing her hair back from her face for her and pressing his lips to the hollow behind her ear. He wasn't trying to be forward or anything, he was just unusually happy to have her there in his arms.

[~ ADMIN]

Anna tried to duck out the way of him messing her hair, but failed, glaring at him as strands of hair began to tickle her nose. Though, she couldn't help but let out a small snort of laughter when he made a weird choking sound when she tickled his ribs; aha! So he was ticklish too. That would definitely be something to remember for later.

She was none the wiser to anything he'd forgotten to teach her, this was definitely not her area of expertise, but she was enjoying what she was learning. She was extremely happy that someone was taking the time to do this with her, giving her care and attention. It was hard not to love Ben when he was doting on her like this - it might not have felt like that to him, but it certainly felt like that to her.

He repositioned her fingers again before letting her strum a finger across the strings. Again, it was a wonderful sound. That was when he planted a tender kiss behind her ear, and she closed her eyes, smiling as her head tilted down a little. Managing to resist him for the moment, she opened her eyes again, putting her fingers in the C chord position, playing the note before switching to G, and playing that one. Two notes one after the other, it was a miracle.

Anna felt tears in the corners of her eyes and tried to reach up to wipe them away; it seemed so silly to be crying over the fact that she could play two notes on a guitar. Or maybe it was more that Ben had actually done something for her, he was careful with her, and he loved her. She hadn't believed that was possible, for someone to be that way with her.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly; she kept crying on him, it was terrible.