⍟ Broken Strings {A Chaos Theory x Male Reader Story - Yasmina}

𝟻. 𝚄𝚙 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛

"Come on, Ben!"

"Let's go!"

His friends call out to him as Ben meanders around in the unfamiliar jungle doing who knows what.

"We need to get moving." Kenji complains, plopping down in the boat.

"I'll go get him. He couldn't have gone that far." Y/N sighs and heads into the trees.

He paces through the trees, following the clearing in hopes that Ben had done the same. He finds him quite easily, leaned up against the tree with the phone in his hand.

Upon closer observation Y/N notices that Ben's breathing heavy, like he's nervous, or he'd been running.

"Ben?" He calls, trying not to startle him.

Ben jumps at the sound of his name anyway, whirling around and shoving the phone into his pocket.

"Are you okay?" Y/N looks him up and down.

"I'm..." Ben pauses a moment, seemingly considering what he'll say next, "I'm..."

"Ben." Y/N sighs, "What's going on? You can tell me, honestly."

"Nothing, I'm just... I'm tired." Ben shrugs it off.

"Ben, I know a lot has changed since Nublar, but I still see you as my best fri--"

"No, no, me too! Totally!" Ben reassures him frantically.

"Then what aren't you telling me?" Y/N pushes.

Ben goes silent again, his face a mix of confused contemplation as he shakes his head, "It's really nothing. We should go back."

With that, he walks right past Y/N and back towards the boats. Y/N catches up with him and the two men return to their seats.

"Took you long enough." Kenji huffs.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

The boats glide across the water, apparently making good time according to Zayna. Even so, Kenji impatiently taps the side of the motor as they cruise along behind the others.

Suddenly, both boats lurch as they bump over something, everyone looks out into the water at what they could've hit.

"Woah, there's something there." Darius squints.

They begin to slow the boats down, everyone anxiously peering into the water below as something swims past them.

"Oh, come on!" Sammy groans, "We just got back in the water."

Nobody moves, the boats floating as they wait expectantly for whatever's bubbling below them to surface. After a couple seconds, a large head erupts from the murky green liquid.

Now fully in their view, a large hippopotamus stares at the campers with its wide, black eyes.

Kenji chuckles, "It's just a big old hippo!"

"Aw, it's kinda cute." Sammy grins.

Right on cue, the hippo growls at them, leaping out of the water and slamming into Zayna's boat. Everyone falls back as Zayna scrambles for the motor.

"What the heck!?" Kenji cries as the two boats go zipping off in terror as the large animal swims after them.

"Come on, come on!" Zayna urges, gripping onto the tiller with all her might.

"Can't these things go any faster!?" Ben presses.

The hippo ducks under the water, vanishing from sight and leaving everyone in suspense.