Archive of Our Own

Darius, Kenji, Ben, Yaz, Sammy and Brooklynn all sat there, minds racing. They had just crash landed onto what seemed to be another island after a surprise dinosaur attack happened while they were on the boat. Everything had happened all at once, and because of that reason alone, none of them were able to pull any coherent thoughts together, all of them silently aware that they were once again stuck on an island thousands of miles away from home with no way of getting help.

The silence stretched on for a few more minutes, until Kenji abruptly broke it by standing up, his expression uneasy, shoulders stiff.

“I’m gonna take a walk, see what we’re dealing with.” He managed, his voice sounding somewhat strained. The others looked at each other in worry before looking back to the taller teen, his expression and posture seemingly unchanged.

“Isn’t that dangerous? We don’t even know where we are Kenji” Darius said, his voice soft but also tense. Kenji’s shoulders stiffened even more as he shifted his expression over the deserted island and back to the group again, eyes hard.

“That’s why I want to look around and explore for a little bit.” He replied, not budging on the issue. Darius frowned slightly, quickly turning his attention to the others before standing up himself.

“Fine, just don’t go far.” He said, not being able to make eye contact with the older boy. “I guess we can all explore and see what we can find out about this place,” he added, walking off in his own direction, Brooklynn quickly following suit, concern laced in her features. Yaz and Sammy shrugged, deciding to explore together while Ben sat dumbfounded, watching Kenji turn to walk away before he quickly stood and started to follow him.

“Kenji..” he said, slow and careful as if his voice would break him if he dared take it an octave louder. Kenji stopped momentarily before looking over his shoulder, their eyes meeting before he turned again, shoulders somehow tensing even more than they were before. Ben frowned, his heart aching a little at the thought of him making Kenji uneasy, but still, he pressed on, desperate to let him know that he wasn’t alone.

“Listen… I know what just happened was scary and traumatizing, but it’s going to be okay,” he continued, “you don’t have to shut off and pretend like it didn’t bother you, y’know, we’re all in the same boat here.” He tried to keep his voice as soft as humanly possible. If there’s one thing he didn’t want, it was more tension between them.

Ever since Ben was reunited with the group, he’d be lying if he said that things hadn’t gotten tense with him and Kenji. For the past 7 months he’d been pretending to be someone he wasn’t, someone stronger and better than the Ben they all originally knew. Sure, some of the personality traits that he’d accustomed since his fall were genuinely a part of him now, but a lot of him was still that timid and uneasy boy that he’d always been, he just didn’t show that part of himself anymore. But it doesn’t mean it went away, he’s just better at covering it up now. Deep down he knows that he’s 50/50 between the Ben they all met that first week of camp and the Ben they all know now. But now that he’s figured himself out more, he’s set on letting every side of him show, even that scared, fractious boy he’d been in the beginning.

“Is it though? Is anything really okay?” Kenji replied, his voice going brittle. Ben sucked in a breath, exhaling softly before he spoke, trying to keep his own voice from wobbling.

“I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but it really will be okay. I know that this whole situation from the beginning has been less than ideal,” Kenji scoffed “but it really could be worse.” He finished, his voice almost betraying him and letting it show just how unstable he really felt. Kenji turned, a frown etched onto his brows, his eyes still hard and unable to read.

“Oh yeah? How do you know?” He practically snarled, Ben momentarily taken aback by the tone he was using with him, which caused him to give off a frown of his own. He sighed, still trying to remain calm, not wanting to add fuel to the fire but still wanting to at least settle Kenji’s mind a little.

“I don’t, I’d be lying if I said I knew. But I do mean it when I say that this could be worse. At least we’re all still alive and well—right now that’s all that matters.” He said, trying his best to get the other boy to see his point. Kenji just shrugged, sitting himself down underneath a palm tree.

Ben only hesitated for a second before joining him, looking out towards the ocean, closing his eyes and breathing in the salty sea air, the silence oddly calming.

“Do you think it’s gonna be okay?” Kenji asked, breaking the silence, his voice small, maybe even hesitant.

He sat there, unable to come up with a response at first. Did he think it was going to be okay? He hadn’t had much time to think about it—or rather, he chose not to because of the inevitable pain it would cause. He sighed, the air growing thick between them.

“Honestly? I’m not sure. Obviously I’d like to think it will be, I mean, we’ve been pretty lucky so far with the whole survival thing, which is what’s most important.”

“And not losing our minds.” Kenji added, making Ben chuckle.

“And not losing our minds—though, I very nearly did, didn’t I?” He joked, voice still humorous but with a hint of truthfulness to it.

Kenji’s shoulders drooped slightly at that, his almost carefree expression looking gloomy again.

“Yeah… about that,” he turned to look him in the eye again, catching the shorter boy by surprise. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t know how to respond to that. Was he? Maybe he could just be honest—if there’s anyone he trusts with his thoughts and feelings, it’s Kenji.

He took a deep breath. “I-I don’t know if I am,” he ran a hand through his hair, his heart starting to palpitate, pent up emotions he’d refused to let out coming to the surface at full force. “It’s all been a lot—since being reunited with you all a few months ago I’ve been stuck on what’s real and what’s not and mostly on who I am, y’know? When I was first reunited with you all I had a nagging thought in the back of my head that I wasn’t going to fit in because too much time had gone by,” he took another deep breath “When I fell that night we’d only known each other for a week, which basically meant that we were almost strangers—I even remember us saying on the monorail that we were never going to see each other again once we got off the island.. so I guess when I was back with you all again I was deeply aware of the fact that over the time I was gone, you had all gotten to know each other way better than you had when I was last around which made it even more apparent to me that the only person none of you really knew was me and, well—I didn’t know anything about any of you either. I felt like I was too far away to catch up, so I put on a front and tried to push myself away from you all as much as possible, which only ended up making me love you all even more.”

Kenji stayed silent for a moment, taking it all in before he glanced at Ben for just a moment before looking ahead of them, confusion mixed with understanding at the forefront of his emotions.

“But you know how happy we all were to have you back. It genuinely wasn’t the same without you—a lot of mornings I woke up and wondered if I could even do it without you there.” He said honestly, sincerely, which made the smaller boy’s face turn a deep shade of crimson, both from the butterflies daring to take off in his gut and confusion. Deciding not to accept just how flustered those small words made him, he tackled the confusion instead.

“But, why? I mean, we didn’t know each other for that long so surely it couldn’t have made a difference wether I was there or not.”

Kenji laughed, though it sounded melancholic, no humor behind it as he turned, brown eyes meeting blue, once again making Ben’s cheeks heat up.

“You have no idea how wrong you are.” He said, a sad smile playing on his lips. He took a deep breath, almost like he was preparing himself for what he was about to say next, which caused nerves to spark through Ben’s spine, fear and intrigue taking over him. “Losing you was undoubtedly one of the worst days of my life,” Ben squeaked in surprise, watching as the older boy’s face turned thoughtful. “At first I didn’t know what to do with myself—I was so lost, everything just felt out of place. Darius was trying to get us all to keep going, to keep our heads up and to focus on our own survival and while everyone else did that, I just couldn’t, no matter how hard I tried” he took in another breath, his lip trembling slightly. “I can only remember bits and pieces from what happened after you fell—it’s all like a big blurry blob that I can kind of make out but can’t at the same time. It all just felt wrong.” He stopped for a moment, closing his eyes, maybe fighting back tears? Ben didn’t know. All he knew is that he needed to comfort him—so he did.

He moved closer to the taller teen, looping their arms together and resting his head down on his shoulder, the way he always used to when he needed comfort back in the beginning, the way they always used to when they were sat around the camp fire being told scary stories by the others—the way that suited them best.

This form of comfort was enough to encourage Kenji to keep going, leaning his head down on top of Ben’s before taking another deep breath.

“That night changed me, and for a long time I genuinely hated the world. Before I was giving it the benefit of the doubt, even after the dinosaur attack, but losing you was a whole different story. I just couldn’t understand why—I thought about how afraid you must’ve been and what was going through your head, I thought about how you didn’t even want to go to Jurassic World in the first place and about all of the things I could’ve done differently so you didn’t fall.” He trembled in place, Ben lightly rubbing circles into his arm with his thumb to try and comfort him as best as he could.

“I was so mad at the world Ben, so freakin’ mad.” He said thickly, nuzzling their heads together for a moment before taking small shallow breaths, trying to collect himself. Ben just listened, letting him get all of his pent up emotions out in the open.

“Some days I woke up not knowing what I was going to do. Some days I missed you so badly that I didn’t even want to get out of bed because I knew I wasn’t going to see you. I especially missed having you at my side, wether it was sleepily clinging to me in the morning or clinging to me when you were scared—I missed it. I missed having the feel of you constantly there and boy did I miss your little remarks whenever I did something stupid. I missed watching you make cute little drawings in crayon and stuffing as many juice boxes and carob bars as you could into your fanny pack until you were told off,” he chuckled fondly, “I just missed you. All of you.”

Ben’s cheeks flushed again as he squirmed a little, the butterflies in his stomach desperate to be set free.

“Some days the grief was so bad that it would just hit me out of nowhere. A lot of times I would tell the others to carry on ahead while I stayed back to look around a bit more but in reality, it was so that I could cry in private without them knowing about it—but deep down I think they knew. I don’t think I could’ve hidden it, not really.”

Ben squeezed his arm, snuggling impossibly closer as Kenji continued, fighting back tears once again.

“Sometimes I couldn’t have fun with the others because whenever I looked over at them and saw them all laughing and joking around, I always remembered that you weren’t there. I remember thinking ‘This isn’t fair, Ben should be here too, enjoying himself and having a laugh with us’—the thought never slipped from my mind whenever we’d have a moment like that, and it never failed to make me feel guilty, especially when I’d join in on the fun. Because you deserved to be there just like the rest of us—and that only made me more angry at the world for taking you away.”

Ben sucked in a breath, eyes brimming with tears before he closed them, leaning more heavily on Kenji.

“You know I would’ve wanted you all to have fun, heck even now if I was going through the worst situation on my own I’d still want you to have fun. Just because I was gone didn’t mean that you had to stop living. I understand that you felt guilty having fun while I didn’t get to, but that’s just life and in no way your fault. In this place I’m glad that there were moments where you could have fun, that’s pretty amazing actually.”

Kenji laughed a little, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. But it didn’t stop how much I missed you.” He said, his voice full with something Ben couldn’t quite make out, but it made his heart flutter nonetheless.

“I missed you too.” He replied softly, colour crawling up his neck and face, his heart beating wildly in his chest. “To be honest with you, on particular days when I was alone, you were the only thing that could get me through the day,” he admitted sheepishly, smiling slightly at the cute grunt of confusion from the other boy. “When I was having a really bad day and felt like I was going to have a literal breakdown, I used to think about the silly jokes you used to make and the things you used to do around camp and it would instantly lift my mood back up. Especially when I thought about your dumb jokes that I always secretly found funny but never let myself laugh at until you were out of earshot.” He said, giggling softly.

Kenji feigned a dramatic gasp.

“So you did find my jokes funny!” he replied, suppressing a laugh of his own.

“Maybe just a little…” he laughed.

“Well I am the joke master, it’d be a shock if you didn’t find them funny to be honest, everyone likes my jokes.”

“Mhm okay sure City Boy.” He smirked.

“Well, you like my jokes so I’m taking that as a win,” he replied matter of factly, making Ben laugh again. “But hey,” he continued, his tone taking a more serious approach than it’s lightheartedness just seconds before, lifting his head slightly so he could look down at the smaller boy, making Ben flush for the millionth time at their close proximity. “I’m really glad that I could help you somehow, it’s nice to know that even though I wasn’t there I could still make you feel better.”

Ben smiled and nuzzled into Kenji’s shoulder again, the other boy resting his head down atop his.

“You always make me feel better. That’s why I want to make you feel better for once.”

Kenji stiffened for a moment before relaxing again, burying his face in Ben’s hair for a moment before lifting his head back up, the reason he had stormed off in the first place coming to the forefront of his mind.

“It was nothing, really. I’m just a little stressed, y’know?” He said, trying to sound convincing. But if anyone knows when he’s lying, it’s Ben. He was screwed.

“It was not nothing Kenji.” He replied sternly, clearly not letting the situation slide. Kenji sighed.

“Okay, maybe it wasn’t nothing, I’m just—I’m just really scared Ben,” he admitted, his voice trembling slightly again.

“I know you are. We all are Kenj.”

Kenji shook his head, squeezing Ben a little tighter.

“No, you don’t get it. I’m not so much as scared of being eaten by a Dinosaur, not anymore…” he sucked in a breath, the tremor in his voice getting worse. “I’m scared of losing you and the others.”

Ben looked up at him at that. He was surprised but also not, given the way he described he was when he lost him—Ben—and how he was when they very nearly lost Sammy and even Brooklynn. Ben sighed sadly, rubbing on Kenji’s arm a little harder.

“I know it’s scary. I’m scared of losing all of you too, I mean—that’s partly one of the reasons I distanced myself when I came back to you all. And while the fear of losing all of you never went away, I tried to think about it as positively as I could, so I wouldn’t keep pushing you away—and that’s why I don’t want you to do the same, I can see you slowly detaching yourself from the group and the reason I see it is because I did the exact same thing, and trust me when I tell you it doesn’t do you any favors. You have a good support system in us, so please, instead of doing what I did, talk to one of us, me or anyone you want. We’re always here for you.”

Kenji hummed, quietly saying “…Okay”

“You promise?” He asked, looking up at him.

“I promise, Ben.” He replied, smiling warmly, Ben returning it before he continued,

“And I know that you being afraid of losing us is also why things are pretty tense between you and Darius right now,” Kenji stiffened again, before his shoulders dropped a little, probably feeling sad at the mere mention of his and Darius’ newfound strained relationship. “I know you’re upset about him giving Brooklynn up to Wu and leaving her behind, but you’ve got to see things from his point of view as well y’know,” Kenji frowned “In the moment Darius was probably terrified and only had seconds to make a decision,”

“Yeah, the wrong one.” Kenji huffed, making Ben frown a little.

“No, see, that’s not trying to look at things from his perspective.” He replied, unimpressed. Kenji just stayed silent—Ben sighed.

“Think about this, and I really mean it when I say think about it—Do you really, genuinely think that Darius would just leave Brooklynn behind without having a back up plan and a way to save her? Do you really think he would’ve just happily given her up and not even tried to get her back? Is that really the type of person Darius is?” He said sincerely, trying to get Kenji to see things in another light.

He hesitated for a moment, before sighing and replying, “No. Of course that’s not the type of person he is—but, what if the plan he’d came up with backfired?”

“I see what you’re saying but Kenji, you’re thinking too deeply into this. It didn’t backfire. We got Brooklynn back, she’s alive and well and so are the rest of us. I get that you’re upset about how quick and rash Darius’ decision was, heck at the time I was too—but can you really blame him? I can’t imagine being put in a situation like that and I’m almost three years older than him! He’s only twelve and the immense amount of pressure he’s been put under this entire time has been downright unacceptable and the pressure he was under in that moment must’ve been insurmountable,”

Kenji shifted, humming quietly in agreement.

“You’ve got to understand that he was scared and wanted to save everyone, which yes seemed impossible but we did it didn’t we? The Dinosaurs are still alive and so is Brooklynn. It all ended up okay and right now, that’s good, that’s all that matters. We can’t think about what’s gonna happen next or what decisions we could possibly make that’ll be wrong and we especially can’t be thinking about decisions that were made in the past where the situation is already solved and dwelling on it. By thinking that way, you’re only going to make yourself more stressed and scared—I know it’s hard not to think that way but trust me when I tell you it’s doing you no good. What matters and what we should be focusing on is right now—we can figure the rest out later when it’s actually happening.”

Kenji sighed, shoulders relaxing a little as he looked down at Ben, making the shorter boy look up to return his gaze.

He sighed. “You’re right… I know you’re right. I’m just really scared of losing you guys. And after losing you and knowing what that pain feels like, I never wanted it to happen again—so when it almost did with Sammy and Brooklynn not even 24 hours apart I just had a meltdown. You all mean too much to me to lose and that’s why I got upset when Darius made that decision, because to us, Brooklynn is more important than the Dinosaurs… but I guess that’s more of a reason why I should’ve had faith in his plan. Because he cares about Brookylnn just as much as us and would never let her go, not without a fight anyway. You’re definitely right in saying that he wanted everyone to be okay, and they were. I just let my fears get the better of me.”

“And that’s okay,” he replied softly, squeezing his arm. “Don’t we all at the best of times? We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t,” he said lightheartedly.

Kenji chuckled. “Yeah, I guess not.”

“I really do get it y’know—And as great as this is and that you’re starting to see it the way we’re all looking at it, it’d probably be best if you talked it out with him, get things out in the open and discuss it properly, because it’s wearing you both down.”

Kenji nodded, definitely looking more lively than he did at the start of their conversation, determination settling into his features.

But before he went to go and talk to Darius, Ben just wanted to say one more little thing.

“Hey.. before you go,” he said, looking up at the taller boy, cheeks flushing.

“Yeah?” He replied, smiling a little.

He felt jittery and nervous, but continued to talk, determined to say what he needed to say.

“I just wanted to say thank you for looking after my fanny pack. I know I already said it a while back but it didn’t seem like enough, given how much it means to me and how much I know you hated it.” He finally got out, giggling at the end of his sentence.

Kenji smiled, settling back into him again before giving out a laugh of his own.

“I never hated it you dink,” Ben’s eyes widened in surprise. “Yeah I call it a dork pouch but I’ve never said it in a mean way, it’s just my humor,” he laughed “I’ve always thought you suited it to be honest. No one can rock it better than you Ben Pincus, not even me, I’ll give you that.”

Ben flushed, but laughed. “Why thank you good sir, and although I only saw you in it for a couple minutes, you too looked very dashing.” He joked… maybe.

They both looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting out laughing, the weight and tension they’d both been experiencing around each other slowly dissipating.

“But seriously… thank you” he said, the blush returning, briefly avoiding the other boy’s gaze, afraid he might pass out from embarrassment if he did.

“Don’t mention it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” he smiled warmly, before his eyes widened. “Not that I’d want to do it again because—well we all know what that would mean but you get what I’m trying to say right..? Right?”

Ben smiled in amusement, resting his head back down on Kenji’s shoulder, his smile never faltering.

“Yeah, I get what you mean.” He felt Kenji sigh in relief, relaxing again as he rested his head down on Ben’s.

“It’s kinda funny imagining you wearing my fanny pack. Or did you not wear it and just kept it safe?”

“No I definitely wore it. In fact, I wouldn’t take it off.” He mused.

“What do you mean? You had to have taken it off at some point.”

“Well yeah to shower but that’s literally the only times I ever took it off. I even contemplated not showering because I didn’t want it going out of my sight. The only way the others were able to convince me to shower was if one of them would sit outside the bathroom and occasionally lift the fanny pack up so I could see it to settle my mind.”

Ben broke out into laughter. “There’s no way you did that.”

Kenji lifted his head up to look at him. “Yeah huh! You can even ask the others. I was so paranoid about losing it that I kinda went crazy.” He laughed.

Ben hummed. “You were really like that just because of my fanny pack?”

“Of course I was. Because it wasn’t just any dork pouch—it was yours…” he said fondly, affectionately, looking down at him and meeting Ben’s eyes once again, both of them flushing this time.

Kenji cleared his throat, looking away for a second to catch his breath, Ben doing much the same before they turned to look at each other again.

“I also tried to keep Bumpy with me.” He said, lamenting slightly. Ben nearly choked on air, the surprise of Kenji’s words even making him jump.

“Wait what? You never told me that.” He replied in disbelief.

“Yeah… I didn’t know if it was worth telling you or not.” He said, sending Ben into even more disbelief, his eyes widening more by the second.

“Of course it was worth telling me! When I woke up to Bumpy in my face I came up with two theories on how she could’ve been there, the first one being that you guys made it to the docks but they wouldn’t let her on the ferry because, well, she’s a literal Dinosaur, the reason people were evacuating in the first place and the second, more heartbreaking one was that I thought you guys just left her behind because the last I knew, you all felt like she was holding you back and weren’t happy she was there in the first place, and because I was gone, I thought maybe you guys didn’t see a reason to keep her with you anymore, so when I saw you guys again and realized that you never got off the island, I always just assumed that it was the second option. So to hear that you actually did try and keep her with you makes me—I just, I need an explanation.” He said, shaking his head in confusion.

“Well…” he sighed, his facial expression growing glum again. “After you fell, we only really had seconds to think about what we were going to do next. Because we’d switched tracks we were heading back to where we started which was obviously pointless so we had to get off the monorail and fast. I don’t remember much except for Brooklynn saying that there was a dip in the track and that we could jump.”

His eyes widened, “Hold on, jump?”

Kenji nodded, “I knew at the time how crazy that sounded but at the same time I was so heartbroken about losing you literal minutes before that I didn’t care. So just as we were about to jump, I put your fanny pack on and got a tight hold on Bumpy. I didn’t want to leave her behind, I knew how much she meant to you and that she was one of the only things I had left of you. I knew that you would’ve wanted us to keep her safe, and in my head I’d made a promise to you that I was going to do that, I was going to look after her and make sure she was going to be okay.”

Ben’s eyes brimmed with tears again and he quickly wiped them, trying not to fall apart.

Kenji hesitated, his face contorting before his own eyes started to fill with tears, once again surprising the smaller boy.

“I didn’t even realize she wasn’t still in my arms until after we hit the ground. I just remember opening my eyes and looking down to check if she was okay and realizing that she was gone. I can’t tell you how much I panicked, Ben. I ran around screaming for her and trying to get her to come back. I was frantic. I’m sure Brooklynn even tried to get me to shut up because of the other Dinosaurs that were lurking around but I just didn’t care. I kept shouting for her, hoping that she hadn’t gone too far away but she never came back. I wanted to cry, I wanted to cry so bad. I’d just lost you and with the weight of that still heavy on my shoulders it made it all the worse losing her too. Not even 5 minutes after making the promise to you that I was going to look after her and keep her safe I lost her. I’d lost one of the only things I had left of you. I just—I felt like I’d failed you.” He said, voice sounding heavy and pained, the first tear of many rolling down his face.

Ben’s heart ached at the sight.

He moved forward, changing positions and wrapping his arms firmly around the taller boy’s neck, pulling them flush together, startling the other boy only briefly before he returned the hug, burying his face deep into his shoulder, finally letting himself break.

“Listen to me—listen to me,” Ben said softly, holding him tighter, moving one of his hands to Kenji’s back and rubbing up and down comfortingly, feeling the way the older boy trembled as he cried, trying and failing to suppress his own tears. “One thing we need to clear up right now is that you have never failed me, not once,” he took a shaky breath “the second thing is that you tried to keep her with you, it’s not your fault that you accidentally dropped her so stop blaming yourself for that, at least you tried to keep her with you, that’s all that matters. Thirdly, if you hadn’t dropped her then she never would’ve found her way to me and woke me up. It’s actually thanks to her that I’m still alive, which in turn means that you also saved my life, which is another thing I’ll forever be grateful for,” he felt Kenji hiccup, still rubbing his back and feeling his breathing become more even as he comforted him. He pulled back slightly, just to look him in the eyes. “You… have nothing to feel guilty for. So let’s squash that right here, right now, yeah?” He said in a soft, almost whisper, bringing his hand up to wipe at the stray tears rolling down Kenji’s face.

He slowly nodded, stuffing his face back into Ben’s shoulder, needing just that little bit more comfort, which Ben gladly gave him.

A few minutes passed until both boys separated, going back to their previous position—Ben with his head on Kenji’s shoulder, Kenji with his head on top of Ben’s and their arms looped together tightly in comfortable silence. Just like old times.

“That drawing of you and Bumpy is really cute.” Kenji said out of nowhere, seemingly breaking the silence.

“Huh?” He replied, his eyes popping open, slightly dazed from having them closed for so long.

“That drawing you made in crayon a while back. Every day when you were gone and I had time to myself, I would look through your dork pouch and that drawing was always the one thing that made me break down in tears. Mainly because I remember watching you draw it and how happy and proud you were when you’d finished it. And I also thought about the nasty remark I made to you about drawing in crayon which I’m really sorry for by the way, I didn’t mean it.” He said, looking down at him.

Ben smiled tenderly, laughing a little. “I know you didn’t. It was a pretty empty insult.”

Kenji fake gasped, putting his free hand over his heart.

“How dare you, that insult was one for the books if you ask me, could make a person die of complete and utter upset it was that horrible!” He replied, pouting in a way that was too funny to ignore.

Ben burst into full laughter, pulling Kenji along with him until they were both incoherent, giggly messes.

“Uh-huh, it truly was,” he said, still giggling a little. “And thank you, about the drawing thing. That’s sweet of you.”

“What that I cried over it every day?”

“Pfft no you dork, for saying it’s cute.”

“Oh,” he snickered “right. You’re welcome.”

“But I guess it is also kinda sweet that you cried, I just don’t like how much it upset you.”

“It wasn’t that it upset me, it just made me reminisce and miss you more.”

Ben flushed warm, smiling a little before humming in understanding.

“You should better go talk to Darius, I think it’s about time that you two talk it out and let bygones be bygones.”

“Yeah you’re right. What if he doesn’t wanna talk?”

“I doubt that he won’t want to. He’s just as upset about your falling out as you are Kenj, I’m sure he’s desperate to talk and resolve it. And if he isn’t ready to talk about it, then wait until he is, respect that, okay?” He said gently.

“Yeah, okay.” He replied, sounding more confident.

“Thanks Ben.” He said softly, his face and voice full of affection.

“You’re welco-“ he started to say, before he felt the other boy lean over and press a soft kiss to his forehead, making the butterflies that he’d so desperately tried to squash down into the pit of his stomach fly all the way up through his entire body, igniting his face and neck, turning them a deep shade of crimson, his heart-rate going way too fast to be healthy.

“You’re welcome…” He whispered, near close to passing out as he watched the other boy bound off with a spring in his step, a vibrant smile plastered onto his face, both of them feeling a new kind of happy.