When The Stars Align | A Ben Pincus x Reader Fanfiction

43. Battle Lines (Pt. 1)

Choosing sides

[Ben POV]

Brooklyn stands in front of the door, her shoulders hunched up, and her face twisted with sadness and guilt.

Y/N, Darius, and I walk over to her.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Y/N mumbles softly to her.

She nods, taking a deep breath, and opens the door wide. We stride into it, and Kenji turns around.

I grasp Y/N's hand and pull her away. Darius follows for privacy.

"Kenji, I am so, so sorry, I..." Brooklyn starts to say.

"Stood me up?" Kenji finishes, the hurt clearly laced in his words.

Brooklyn sighs nervously. "I know it looks bad, and is bad, but I had a good reason. Darius, Ben, and I found out that... That your dad freed Kash.
He also has Mae working with him to perfect dino control. And they've done it!"

Kenji faces her, his body rigid with anger. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. Which is probably what your dad's big presentation today is all about."

"I'm not talking about my dad. I'm talking about you." Kenji snaps. "Instead of showing up to our first date, you decided to sneak around my back to prove that my dad is, what, some sort of supervillain?"

Y/N winces beside me. "We should probably go." she mutters lowly.

She tries to leave, but then I pull her back with a shake of my head. Y/N sighs, and nods, resigned.

"Right, we should hear this." She mumbles.

"It wasn't like that." I say, stepping forwards once. "Brooklyn tried to get back for the date, but there were obstacles."

"I don't care." Kenji says. "I'm not even mad about that. Why didn't you guys just talk to me about any of this?"

"You were getting so close to your dad, we didn't want to bring it up unless we were sure he was really up to something." Darius says.

"I wanted to believe him too, Kenj." Y/N pipes up. "But... too many clues led up to this, so I just had to set my priorities straight."

She meets her eyes, and I see Kenji's hard expression soften at his cousin. "Fine. I'll talk to him."

He leaves the room but not before saying, "But for the record, you guys were the ones obviously up to something."

Y/N sighs sadly, and her face looks almost as sad as Brooklyn's. "I've never seen Kenji this upset. I wish... I wish we could've been better."

I rub my thumb on her knuckles, and she smiles at me gratefully.

"We should've left earlier." Caleb mutters.

"Nothing's changed. We still need to help Mae and stop Mr. Kon." Darius says determinedly.

We all walk out the door, except for
Y/N and Brooklyn.

"We got this." she says, laying a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You don't need to mess things up any worse with Kenji. You can just stay here."

"Wait." Brooklyn stops her before she can walk to me by the door threshold. "I'm coming too. This is for Kenji. He... needs to know the truth."

•·•

Darius ducks behind the bushes, and the rest of us copy him.

"Few more tweaks, and it's showtime." Kash smirks at Mae. "I told you we'd make a great team."

Mae replies, disgruntled. "Right before you tried to have me killed."