Virals Valentines
Written for the Virals Valentines Exchange using the stuck in an elevator prompt! This one is for our benevolent organiser herself, @themorrisislandpack! I hope you enjoy it <3
“Okay,” Tory says, after pressing every button on the elevator multiple times. “So. This is bad.”
Ben looks over at her, says nothing. His hands fly over the keyboard of his phone, probably texting Hi and Shelton begging for rescue from an awkward situation.
“You have service?” Tory asks, in lieu of anything better to say because they’ve been silent around each other the last few days.
“Mm.” Ben, chatty as ever.
Tory slides down the wall and sits on the floor opposite him, legs crossed. She can see her own reflection in the mirror, a shock of red hair and sharp, pale limbs. His is visible too, just the curve of his jaw and nose, slightly distorted by the glass.
The next few moments are painfully silent without the hum of the elevator in the background. Tory thinks she shouldn’t even be surprised that they’re stuck in an elevator on Valentine’s Day two days after an explosive fight. They have wolf DNA, this should be a walk in the park. Go figure.
“Just so you know,” she says dryly. “If you keep up the silent treatment, you’re actually second to last on the list of people I would want to share an elevator with.”
“Last is Chance?” Ben asks without looking up.
“Whitney,” she answers. Then, after a moment of thought, “Actually, you’re right. Fuck Chance.”
Ben cracks a smile for the first time in a few days, then snorts and ducks his head in the way she’s always thought is unfairly adorable. It makes her insides melt. Gross.
She can’t help but laugh too despite everything. Ben Blue is a massive dork, even when they’re fighting.
There’s another long pause, but it’s warmer than before. She can feel him enjoying her company.
“No reply from Hi and Shelton?”
“Nope.” Ben taps a few buttons. “God knows where they’ve run off to. For all we know, this is a scheme.”
Tory’s heart sinks, because oh no, they absolutely would do this. Sometimes being friends with Hi and Shelton is like being parents to unnaturally intelligent toddlers who are upset that mommy and daddy are fighting, and okay it’s time to steer away from that thought experiment, because it’s getting a little scary.
Ben, luckily, has not read her thoughts this time. It’s recently established Virals Policy that they all keep out of each other’s brains without express permission (or in an emergency, she has added, fully prepared to distort the definition of an emergency beyond recognition) before they completely ruin their relationships.
She thinks she and Ben might be on their way to that anyway. They’ve been avoiding each other for days over something stupid as all hell, and she’s not sure how much longer she can grit her teeth through it.
But he still laughs at her jokes, and that has to count for something.
“They’re probably sending someone to rescue us now,” she says. Then, after thinking it through for approximately three seconds, “You’re still my best friend.”
Ben’s head flies up to look at her, and his expression softens into the one she likes best. He looks so fond again, and just a little bit amused, like he’s been waiting for her to cave. Maybe he has. She knows she’s stubborn as a mule when she wants to be, and they can read each other like a book even without the added bonus of literal mind reading.
“You’re mine too,” he says eventually. “And Hi and Shelton.”
Tory knows he’s only saying that to blunt the edges of the emotion, but he means it, and her heart melts.
“I don’t want to lose you,” she admits. “I really, really don’t.”
“Did you think we were going to break up?” Ben’s brow furrows. “Tory, I didn’t mean for it to turn into a thing.”
“No, you just mooned around sadly for three days until Shelton had to call me and ask what was up your ass!”
“That’s true,” Ben concedes, only sulking a little. “Poor Shelton. Hi just thought it was funny.”
“It was a little bit funny.”
“A little bit.” Ben is trying to hide a smile now, but she can feel it in her own head, a burst of warmth that spreads through her like a hot bath. “Okay, looking at if from your perspective-”
“I was totally right and you were being a clown?”
She’s just teasing him now, and he knows that. It’s part of the unspoken game they play with each other every time they fight and make up, poking fun at old wounds until they warm up to each other again and everything is just like it was before. It’s a ritual Tory sincerely enjoys once they’re done with the stupid fighting part.
“Alright, alright.” Ben rolls his eyes and stretches his legs out so that the tips of his scuffed shoes touch hers. “If we’re done with the fighting like petty teenagers, I hate to be the one to point it out, but we are still stuck in an elevator.”
Tory kicks the wall, and Ben laughs at her as it clangs and she swears.
“This is exactly like when we got stuck in those caves,” she says, fake morosely. “Enclosed space, no one around, smells bad.”
“At least there’s no rising water?”
“We’ll always have that,” she says dryly. “You know I love you, right?”
“I know,” Ben says gently. “I love you too. Stop talking like we’re going to die in a mall elevator though. Please.”
Tory doesn’t even have to consider this plea before the lights in the elevator suddenly flick back on, and then they’re moving downwards with a groaning sound that’s only marginally alarming after everything they’ve been through.
“Hey, look at that,” she says, turning to grin at him. “We live to see another day.”
Ben says nothing, but gives her a quick kiss on the cheek. Just so they know where they stand.
When the doors creak open, they’re greeted by a small crowd of maintenance guys looking mildly bored, and Hi and Shelton looking like they’ve just won the lottery.
“Heyyyyy guys!” Hi drawls as soon as the doors have fully opened. Then, to the maintenance men: “Thank you guys so much. They owe you their lives.”
“Shut it, dumbass,” Ben tells him, and he darts behind Shelton, still grinning.
After they’ve thanked the crew themselves, not at all trusting whatever Hi and Shelton have said to them, they converge on them, both grinning.
“You look cheery,” Shelton says. “When you went in there, we thought you might kill each other and the doors would just open on your bodies.”
“Imagine our concern when they didn’t open at all!” Hi takes a very loud sip through the straw of his smoothie cup. “I said we should call in Ella’s FBI contacts.”
“When did you get a smoothie?” Ben frowns. “Did you not get all my texts asking for help?”
“Of course we did,” Shelton says smoothly. “Actually, Hi can tell the next part, I don’t want to be the messenger for that.”
“Throw me under the bus like that.” Hi shakes his head. “Together five years and he throws it all away. Check this guy out.”
“I’m fine with being a widower,” Shelton says.
“You’re the worst. Ben and Tory, Bory if you will-”
“I will not,” Ben says.
“Whatever, I like it. We may have given it a few minutes before going to find help. We kind of, sort of, maybe thought if you were left in there a little longer you would stop fighting and killing our vibe?”
“Hiram.” Tory folds her arms.
“Goodbye, Shelton,” Hi says. “Don’t inform my mother of this until they’ve left the country.”
“It worked,” she admits, and then punches him in the arm for good measure.
“Thank god,” Shelton says, looking openly thrilled with himself. “That was excruciating. And on Valentine’s Day of all days!”
“We hate Valentine’s Day,” she says, at the same time as Ben rolls his eyes. “Couldn’t care less.”
“Don’t care, you fixed it, we can talk about something else whilst we’re watching Friends now.”
Ben lunges after Hi, who ducks away, shrieking about security cameras, and behind both of their backs, Tory mouths a thank you to Shelton.
