poison ivy - the boys

thirty-four

Jane wore a smile.

She was turned on her side in bed as she faced Ben who had his arms wrapped around her, keeping her close. She had one arm lazily draped over the side of his ribcage and her fingers drew patterns into his back.

                He kept stealing short kisses from her as her radiant smile called to him. It was probably the most peaceful morning he ever had.

                 He wanted to continue what they started in the night but she said she was tired. So he laid there as she drew patterns on his skin as he stared at her, adoring her (he felt a warmth in his chest; the kind that settled in his heart and didn't leave).

                 She stared, too. She imagined possibilities and futures. She considered how he didn't age and she wondered if she'd be the same.

"Do you think I'll stay the same...like you?"

                 "Jane, you don't look a day over twenty," Ben answered. "I don't think that's in question."

She blushed slightly. She had never really thought about aging until she met Ben. She was thirty and yet every time she looked in the mirror for the past decade, she looked exactly the same. She'd never thought anything of it.

                 "Well, what's it like...not aging?" she asked. "Isn't it sad?"

             All of their friends would die off while they lived. They'd see the world change for better or worse.

                 "Not if it's with you, Jane," he said softly.

She smiled thoughtfully, "Like forever?"

If she could spend forever this happy, then it was a dream.

"You want to spend forever with me, angel?" he raised his eyebrows in disbelief. She was too good for him and he thought she'd figure that out eventually.

But he gained a soft smile as she promised quietly, "I'd like forever with you."

And she sealed it with a sweet, gentle kiss.

_____

After their failed attempt of taking down Homelander, she needed time to recover. So they went looking for Mindstorm, the next member of Payback on his revenge list (Ben seemed content to let the TNT twins go).

               Apparently, Mindstorm had all these shacks in the middle of nowhere. So they went and checked one out but they didn't find him there.

               Now, it was the evening. She was in the living room of the suite she paid for. It was massive and had multiple rooms so Hughie and Butcher were also staying.

                 She convinced Ben to watch a movie. The Breakfast Club that came out the year after he was captured and taken to Russia. And she had made popcorn.

                The bowl sat on her lap and she ate like a child, grabbing a fistful and shoving it in her mouth. He shook his head but he found it cute; he wondered if she just never learned how not to eat like a child because she grew up in a lab.

                 He didn't like to think about that though. The thought of her in a cold, sterile lab like he was made him sick to his stomach.

                 So he just plucked up the pieces of popcorn she dropped (and there were many) and popped them in his mouth. She didn't even notice as her eyes were glued to the TV screen.