Chapter Text
It’s Valentine's day and Benjamin, the ever so charming hacker hero, is sick.
On one hand, it was a shame since he wouldn’t be able to receive any of the valentines gifts from his fans and fellow Heroes, on the other? He wouldn’t have to deal with the guilt of receiving gifts he can’t really enjoy anymore. Due to him being given great quantities of chocolate over the years, he wasn’t a big fan of it anymore, he got tired of the taste unfortunately.
Despite his dislike for chocolate, he would have preferred if he wasn’t sick and instead, hanging out with his fellow Heroes in the yearly valentines day gift exchange they would always do together. He felt left out and sorry for the person who was supposed to receive his gift, if he can even remember who it was through this pounding headache of his.
“Whatever, I’ll try to make it up to them after this is over” he thinks, before passing out on his bed, wishing that he’ll feel better once he wakes up.
He woke up to the sound of someone ringing his doorbell
Slowly, he got up, wondering who it was as he was not expecting anyone nor did he order any take out. As he got closer to the front door, he heard someone’s muffled voice.
“Maybe he’s sleeping?” He heard someone say, behind the door.
Benjamin looked at the intercom's screen and for a moment, he wondered if this person had gone to the wrong apartment. He doesn't seem to remember meeting a man with long brown hair before.
“Aw man, I should've let Obyn come with me..” The man says, looking around nervously. “This is really… heavy” he sees him struggling with a… pot? He seemed to be wearing kitchen gloves too, hang on, did he mention knowing someone named Obyn?
The man looks at the intercom for a moment and Benjamin notices his eyes, they're round and almost… sparkly. He swears he’s seen these eyes before.
…
…Oh
It was Quincy in his civilian wear, he remembers through his haze. Benjamin wanted to smack himself for forgetting.
He presses the intercom button “Hello…?” He says, his voice hoarse.
He sees Quincy's face light up and unbeknownst to him, he lets out a small smile.
“Ben! I didn't see you today so I came to check up on- whoa your voice is TERRIBLE”
“Hah.. no? I think it's quite fine-” he replies, a raspy chuckle escaping through his dry lips. He interrupts himself with several coughs, then he continues “I think you need to get your ears checked”
“I can hear you smirking ‘cause of that voice of yours” Quincy lets out a small chuckle before getting straight into business “Alright, now let me in so I can give you something, you moron”
“Alright, Alright” Benjamin opens his front door, letting Quincy see his disheveled and sick form.
He steps inside, struggling a bit due to the pot he was holding, then he looks at him with a raise brow.
“So you really are sick”
“What makes you say that?”
“THE Benjamin without his hair gel and tie? I almost thought I’ve been tricked”
Benjamin rolls his eyes, unknowingly smirking, as Quincy laughs at his own terrible joke. He soon leads him to his kitchen, so he could take a break in holding that heavy looking pot.
“What’s with the pot?” He asks
Quincy's reply was surprisingly simple “I brought you soup, I had too much”
“And you've brought it to me?” Benjamin asks with a raised brow, he leans onto one of the kitchen counters “How generous of you” he watches the other put the pot on a stove to heat it up.
“I heard you were sick, so why not?” Quincy turns to look at him, “Why? Believe you’ll get poisoned?” he laughs.
“You’re an archer, not a chef” Benjamin begins to form a sly smirk as he continues to watch the other, who was stirring the soup around with a ladle he’d found in one of the drawers.
“And are you a food critic, Mr Hacker?” He replied then sticks out his tongue in light annoyance
“Whoa, is that how you treat a sick patient?” his smirk only widens
“Ahh, you’ll survive” Quincy's focus was back on the pot, careful in not letting the soup burn.
Benjamin soon stopped bothering Quincy, who kept insisting that he should lie in bed to get some rest. He soon relented, so here he was, doomscrolling in bed as he waited for his hopefully not poisoned soup.
Soon, said soup arrived. The bowl, along with a spoon, was accompanied with a glass of water, all of them were placed in one of those mini tables for breakfast In bed.
Benjamin lets out a low whistle, impressed by the sight he caught of the tray with the food. He slowly sits up then Quincy carefully puts the table on his lap.
“Really impressed with what you've done” He says in an impressed tone as he grabs a spoon from the tray.
Quincy crosses his hands with a look of skepticism.
Benjamin puts his hands up, admitting to complimenting his work rival out of all people “No, really”
He stopped crossing his hands but he still looked suspicious. Instead of leaving, he stubbornly watched the other taste the soup he had prepared, wanting to prove a point.
Benjamin rolled his eyes then proceeded to actually taste said soup. “Hm?” He let out a surprised sound.
“Oh?”
At first, Benjamin lets out a hum of acknowledgement, then he turns to Quincy, who is prepared for a snarky remark about the taste of his cooking.
“Mmm, it's pretty good. Not bad” he says
“Huh?” Quincy raised a brow as his hands rested on his sides.
“What do you mean ‘Huh’, did you really think I would shit on your cooking?” He asked in disbelief, his eyes wide with his brow also raised.
Quincy stumbled on his words “I-I don’t know?? I just didn't know what to expect??”
After their usual banter, Quincy talked about what had happened at the Valentine's event as Benjamin ate his soup.
Maybe it was because he was ill but he couldn't focus nor listen on whatever Quincy was talking about, he seemed to be in a daze at times. Quincy didn't even seem to notice since he seemed so engrossed in talking about how fun the event was, mentioning how Obyn and Striker Jones seemed hesitant in exchanging their gifts or something.
Benjamin wasn't quite sure about what he meant by that, since he wasn't really listening. For now, his mind was just wandering.
He just looked at Quincy and how the warm light from his bedroom window shined on him and his long hair. Something about how he smiled, his eyes sparkling as he recalled something funny made Benjamin's heart flutter for a moment.
“Yeah.. I’m just..” He thinks, still staring at Quincy.
“I’m just tired, that's all…”
—-
Quincy soon noticed that the sun was setting and he realized how long his visit had been. He turned to a bleary eyed Benjamin, who was leaning on his bed's headboard.
“Ah” He wondered why he was so quiet all this time.
“Well” He starts, voice low. “I'm not going to bother your precious beauty sleep”
Before leaving, Quincy carefully and quietly takes the bed tray, making sure not to wake the sleepy Hacker up. Before leaving, he goes to the kitchen to wash the dishes and after that, he takes the pot of soup off the stove to put it in the fridge.
“Alright, my work here is done” is all he says to himself before leaving.
—
That morning, Benjamin wakes up alone, he glances at the window closest to his bed. The sun was still rising and he woke up before his alarm could ring.
The bed tray was gone and so was Quincy. A part of him is convinced that yesterday was all just a dream. Other than that, his mind was much clearer and that damn headache was gone.
It was a weekend, so he wasn't rushing to go anywhere. He could stay in bed all day to rest more or he could go to the kitchen and have breakfast.
He sat up, he chose the latter
He goes to the kitchen and finds a colorful sticky note on his fridge.
"The rest of the food I cooked for you is in the big pot. Get well soon, Benji. - Quincy”
Benjamin's face felt hot, and a part of him isn't sure if it was because of the fact that he was ill.