The Great Book of One-Shots

Thunder (Part 1)

Disclaimer: I know little of European weather so just go with it :P

I know I said I'd make a one part one-shot so, I promise that the next one will be one part ^-^

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Ian and Ben were at home when the power went out.

"Ben!" Ian yelled to his friend upstairs in hopes of finding out if the power was out up there, too. After a few seconds, he yelled again. Still no response. Sighing, Ian got up from the spot that he had been watching TV in and headed upstairs. As per usual, all the doors were open. That is, all except one: Ben's office. Suspecting his friend to be in there, Ian opened the door - only to hear a whimper come from inside the room.

"Wha... What was that?" Ian quietly said to himself before scanning the room. Upon seeing nothing unusual, he figured he must just be hearing things. Suddenly, a bright flash filled the room and a crack of thunder sounded soon after. There was a louder whimper followed by what sounded like muffled...crying?

Even more confused, Ian looked around for what seemed like the hundredth time. This time, he noticed that there was something under Ben's desk. Cautiously, Ian approached it but fully relaxed when he realized it was a person. And there's was only one other person than Ian, himself, who lived in the house.

"Ben?" Very startled by the voice, said boy jumped and curled into a smaller ball. "Ben, what are you doing under there?"

"N-n-nothing..." His voice was impossibly small and fragile sounding.

"Then why are you under there?"

"..."

"Hmm?"

"..."

Ian sighed and moved Ben's chair out of the way before getting down onto his knees by the desk. "What's wrong?" Despite his best efforts to keep his voice gentle as possible, when he put his hand on Ben's shoulder he nearly jumped through the ceiling. Loud sobs came from the Danish boy and, almost instinctively, Ian pulled him into a protective embrace and began telling him "It's okay" and "It's just me" over and over again.

A few minutes later, Ben had nearly stopped crying and had ever so slightly relaxed in Ian's arms. The older boy looked down at the younger as he spoke, "You okay now?"

Ben sniffled and wiped at his tear stained cheeks, "A-a little..."

"What the heck happened to make you so scared in the first place?"

"..." Silence. Ben didn't want to answer. He didn't want Ian to know.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the room and thunder followed close behind. Ben made a rather high pitched sound and threw his arms around Ian as he buried his face into the other's chest.

"Wha... Wait, are you...afraid of...the storm?" Ian said his sentence slowly, as if he were trying to find the perfect words.

Ben's only response was a sniffle and slight nod.

"Oh..."

Ian shifted so that Ben was off his lap and stood up. The smaller boy whimpered and looked up just in time to see Ian bending down to pick him up. He clung tight as possible to Ian's chest as he was carried to the corner of the room. There, Ian sat down placing Ben in his lap as he did so.

"I'm surprised that your afraid of storms. Like, aren't there a lot of them in Europe? How have you not gotten used to them by now?"

"N-no... It j-just rains in Denmark... th-there's usually not th-thunder," Ben buried his face back into Ian's chest. Normally, doing something like this would cause Ben to blush madly, but, right now, it was just comforting.

Another flash of lightning filled the room, causing Ben to whimper and tighten his grip on Ian, trying desperately to get himself impossibly closer. The older boy bit his lip and, with a bit of hesitation, wrapped his arms around Ben. The Danish boy seemed to relax a bit.

They stayed like that for a while and, as time went on, Ben seemed to relax more and more. Then, more thunder sounded. Ben whimpered loudly and curled back up into a small ball on Ian's lap. Said boy sighed. He had finally started making progress and, now, it was all reversed.

"Ben?"

A shaky whimper was his only response.

"Ben, are you okay? That one seemed to freak you out more than the others did."

Ben took a moment to steady his breathing and calm down enough to talk. "I-I'm okay... It's j-just...that one caught me off g-guard..."

"Alright, if you say so." Ian wrapped his arms a bit tighter around Ben. Ben snuggled against his chest, trying to make himself more comfortable. "Ya comfy?" Ian's tone gave away his smirk.

"Hmmp..."

"I'll take that as a yes." Ian let out a small chuckle and moved one hand to ruffle Ben's hair. As he removed his hand from Ben's back, the smaller boy tensed up. Though, when his hand touched the other's hair, he relaxed more than he had before.

Ian tilted his head in confusion. Why did that...? Ohh. Was it because... Ian decided to test his theory and started playing with Ben's hair. He seemed to almost instantly relax much more. Ian smiled; he was right. Ben actually really enjoyed having his hair played with.

"You...like this, don't you?" Both boys blushed at the awkward wording of the question and there was a pause before it was answered.

"Y-yeah... I do."

"Then I guess I'm going to have to keep on doing this." Ian gave another little chuckle at the end.

Ben gave him a questioning look. The older responded with a soft smile as he cupped Ben's face in his hands and wiped some tears from his cheeks. Though, the curious look on the Danish boy's face quickly turned to terror as more thunder and lightning sounded. In response, Ian just kept holding him and wiped the new tears away.

"You're okay, Ben. It didn't hurt you. You're okay."

Ben sniffled and wiped his own tears before laying his head against Ian's chest.

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982 words! Both parts are, technically, under 1k words! (My personal 'rule' is not to post more than 1k words in one part... That's why there's so many two part one-shots)

Requests of any ship and any scenario are always open!!

~Angel ^-^