Chapter Text
Gordon doesn’t leave the living room again except to grab some food, planting himself on the floor so he can keep an eye on Benrey. He keeps the knife with him too.
It occurs to him that he hasn’t checked the date yet. He’d been in Black Mesa for what, a week? But the date on his phone is the same as when he’d first started playing.
Everything just keeps getting weirder, but on the plus side it means no one’s gonna be freaking out about him being missing. He hasn’t missed his week with Joshua. Shit, he should call Mari, see if she can keep him a little longer. He needs to make sure Benrey isn’t gonna do anything stupid before he lets them anywhere near Joshua.
It’s a few hours later when Benrey finally wakes up, yellow eyes blinking open slowly. He seems almost completely healed now, ignoring the weird shit about him that’s always there.
“You’re awake,” Gordon says, leaning over Benrey to make sure they know he’s here.
“Bbb,” Benrey says.
“I did some thinking while you were asleep. You’re staying here.”
Benrey’s eyes widen, then fall again as a grin spreads across his face. “Yeah? We gonna be roommates? Buddies? Free - uh, Friendlyman?”
“We’re not friends,” Gordon says, glancing at the knife next to him. Benrey’s gaze follows his own, and their grin slips. “You’re staying here so I can keep an eye on you.”
“You don’t trust your good pal Benrey?” He pouts at Gordon, tilting his head slightly. Gordon waves his prosthetic in front of them.
“Give me a single reason I should trust you.”
Benrey’s silent. Good. “Okay, so, some ground rules. No killing people. No hurting people. Honestly, I think it’d be best if you just don’t leave the apartment, but if you need to then you don’t go out alone. Don’t touch my stuff. Don’t -”
“Don’t do anything, yeah, I get it.” Benrey hunches their shoulders up. “Do I get to make rules?”
“Depends on what they are.”
“Uhhhhhh.” Benrey taps their chin. “No killing me again,” they say, finally, and then fall back into silence.
“Is - is that it?”
They nod.
“As long as you don’t try to kill me, I don’t have any reason to try and kill you. So, yeah, that’s - that’s fine.” Kind of a weird thing to make a rule about, but. Benrey’s a weird dude. “You get the gist of my rules?”
“Don’t do anything ever,” Benrey says, rolling their eyes.
Gordon bites the inside of his cheek to keep himself from yelling at them. “Basically, yeah.”
Benrey huffs. “Can I get up?”
“Are you not stuck on the couch anymore?”
Benrey raises their arm, poking Gordon’s nose. He reels back, and they take the opportunity to push themself up to a seated position. “Yeah. It’s, everythings all cool now.” He looks down at himself, tugging on the bottom of his shirt and accidentally tearing a piece off. “Aw. That’s sucks.”
Gordon really does not want to give Benrey his clothing, but he looks like he’s thinking about taking off his shirt and that’s a thousand times worse. “Stay there,” he says, going to his bedroom to grab him some clothing. He finds an old NASA shirt ( a little worn but still in good shape), some black sweatpants, and even grabs him an old gray beanie. Gordon may not like Benrey, but he can still be nice, and the dude looks weird without a hat of some kind.
Benrey’s still sitting there when Gordon gets back. “Catch,” he says, tossing them the clothing, which they don’t catch and instead allow to hit them. The hat lands on the floor. “Dude. It’s clothing. For you.”
“Oh, poggers,” Benrey says, and then he takes off his shirt.
Gordon means to look away, but instead ends up staring. Benrey’s got some kind of scar in the middle of his chest, a line from his collarbone down his sternum, with smaller lines branching out of it like lightning. They catch him staring, giving him a grin as they pull their new shirt down.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Benrey asks, leaning forward, arms resting on their knees and head in their hands.
“Nothing,” Gordon says quickly. “Just - uh -”
“‘S from the whole, uh, getting killed thing.” Benrey says, still smiling. “You gonna keep staring?”
Gordon turns around and walks back into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. His face feels warm.
This...is going to be weird.
He waits a few minutes before poking his head into the living room again, right as Benrey pulls the hat over his head. His hair isn’t long, exactly, but it’s thick and fluffy, the kind that really shouldn’t be able to fit into a hat. Then again, the helmet must’ve been even worse, and he never seemed to have any issue with that.
Benrey doesn’t let go of the hat even once it’s on, continuing to pull until it covers his face and then letting his hands just hang there.
What a fucking weirdo.
Gordon doesn’t bother trying to be quiet when he walks into the living room, wanting to alert Benrey this time. He peels the beanie back a bit, looking up at Gordon.
“Yo,” he says, giving him a sharp-toothed grin. And then, so quiet Gordon thinks he might be imagining it, they add: “Thanks.”
“Uh, no problem, dude. We should probably get you some clothes of your own though, at some point.”
Benrey tilts his head. “I got this sweet nasa shirt now though.” He says it like naysa , and the worst part is Gordon can’t tell if he’s doing it on purpose.
“Dude, you can’t just have one shirt. Look, we’ll…” He’d literally just said how ideally he wouldn’t have Benrey leaving the house, but, well. He’ll make an exception this once. “We’ll go to Target or something tomorrow.” Man, this would’ve been easier if Benrey had appeared in Black Mesa like everyone else. But no! He has to be difficult. And now Gordon has to go shopping, again.
“Cool,” Benrey says, swinging their legs back and forth. “So, Feetman, buddy -”
“I am not your buddy and that is not my name.”
“Goooordonnn,” Benrey says, drawing it out obnoxiously. “You got PS3?”
“I’m more of a PC gamer,” Gordon admits. Benrey’s eyes narrow.
“Booo,” he mutters, flopping sideways back onto the couch. “This is big sucks, man. I wanna go back to sleep.”
Gordon glances at his phone, wincing when he sees the time. It’s past midnight, getting close to 1:00 AM, and while he can be a night owl, it’s a habit he’s trying to break.
“Knock yourself out, dude. I’m gonna go to sleep.” He turns to go back into his room, then stops. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m sleeping. Don’t break anything, or set anything on fire, or -”
“Mmmuh bluh muuh,” Benrey says, rolling over so their face is against the couch cushions. Gordon rubs his face with his hands.
Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to not kill Benrey again.