She's a Rebel // Ben Finn x Princess

Chapter 9

"Jessica?" I asked the woman behind the counter. Her shop, "Box of Secrets" as aptly described on the sign, was full of strange items I didn't recognise, mostly due to the fact they were hidden inside of decorated boxes. I wondered how many people in such a sheltered community could actually find use for them. She was old, her long silver hair falling like a halo around her shoulders, and her brown eyes pools of wisdom. She smiled when she saw us and I was quick to tell her to not get up.

"I'm not so old I don't know how to greet royalty," she curtsied. "It's an honour to have you in my shop, your majesty. Can I tempt you with any exotic goods? It'll only set you back a pack of a tarot cards?"

"No, thank you," I laughed, inspecting the label on the box. "I, uh, we heard you're the one to ask about what exactly is going on here. We're kind of lost," I placed the item down carefully, and leaned against the counter, "I was called here on business, about an arranged marriage with the chieftain's son, but the chieftain himself told me my brother is here and honestly, I'm very confused."

"Ah," she replied, as casually as if I had just asked her if she could loan me a pen, "a long time ago, almost a lifetime for me, I came into contact with an irresistibly handsome Bloodstone pirate," I tried to hide my impatience - I really didn't want to hear some old woman's life story, "he saved my life, rescued me from the formidable Captain Dread who, uh, more than lived up to his name. This pirate, the handsome one, kissed me quick and told me that I owed him a favour and that he would collect on his debt. For years, I waited for him to show, expecting the unexpected, but he never did. Until about a month ago, just a few days after Prince Logan arrived in the village," the first time hearing my brother's name as anything less than King in a sentence felt like a stab in the neck from a knife coated in poison, "and he told me to make Lord Beckett fall in love with you anyway I could."

"Is this pirate named Reaver, by any chance?" Ben asked, his voice reduced to a stressed monotone. I glanced over at him, his expression impossible to read, but I was far more concerned with the old woman with a shop full of magical antiques who was instructed to make a man fall in love with me. She nodded in response. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! He isn't in love, per se, but he is extremely interested in marrying you. I told him how great it would be for business if we had an allegiance with the mainland again, and that you were extremely beautiful. He hasn't stopped talking about you since. But it was all a scheme to get you to the island to deal with your brother's... ah, unique situation. And for chaos, of course, as you know how Reaver lives for the drama," she chuckled and I couldn't help chuckling too, despite my overwhelming feeling of anxiety. "But I'm sure you can deal with Beckett once you get back from finding your brother. Just let him down gently, you know, and don't let him see your boyfriend here."

"Boyfriend?!" I spat, my heart leaping to a halt. "Him? Ben? We're... it's not... no," I forced a laugh, not looking in Ben's direction, "he's my general, well, no, not even that, I mean, no, it's complicated, or not, you know, we're just, no... we aren't together. I mean, romantically, we aren't, but we are here together, in this shop, I mean, obviously," I sighed, giving in, attempting to coax my breathing into a regular rhythm, "do you have any idea where we... I can find Logan?"

Upon receiving the information from Jessica, I walked straight out of the shop door, without a second thought or any goodbyes, hearing the short tinkle of the bell as the conclusion of our encounter. I silently begged my heartbeat to slow down, walking as quickly I could to the centre of the lake without attracting too much unwanted attention. I sat on the edge of the fountain, the water that splashed onto the back of my neck a cool relief from the heat that was still rising through my body. Before I could regain my sanity, however, I saw Ben sprinting towards me.

"Rose, what in the name of Hobbe are you doing?" He ran his hand through his unstyled blonde hair as he spoke. "What is going on with you?" He sat down beside me, bowing his head to look into my eyes. I turned the other way. "At least talk to me, we need to work together if you want to save your brother."

"You think it's that damn easy?" I asked, trying to sound angry but the words falling flat into the water in front of me. "There's so much going on and nothing I can do about it. Why do you even care? None of this has anything to do with you, you can just leave whenever you want but I have to go deal with some banshees to get to the Temple of Avo to talk to some monks to find out where my brother is to stop an actual madwoman from performing experiments on the darkness that's still living his soul because a blind seer lied to him and if I don't, Benjamin, if I fail or if I just don't do it, the man who is in charge of the Industry in my kingdom will literally murder him." I looked at him, then, blinking back tears as he stared at his shoes, distant, listening. "But you, Ben Finn, you can just leave right now and go travelling or join another mercenary gang and it's all cool. So don't even pretend to care, alright, because you have no idea. I don't even need you for this, I'll do it all on my own, like everything else."

"You can't go fight banshees on your own. It's suicide. You may think you're on your own with this but I'm literally right here. And I will be there, every step of the way to that Temple in the woods," his voice was low and soothing and it was getting increasingly difficult to hide my feelings from him when he was so close that I could feel his breath on my skin. I made a move to stand up and walk away, but he grabbed my hand, pulling me to sit back down. "I would love to pretend to care, Rosie, but it turns out, weirdly, I am the worst actor, so I'm going to have to just genuinely care, if that's alright with you, your majesty," I sighed, fighting back a smile. He moved closer to me, my hand still in his.

As I looked up, a stray tear fell down my cheek. He smiled, slightly, as he used his thumb to wipe it away. The look in his eyes was intoxicating, something akin to the alluring blue of the lake surrounding us, daring me to move closer until I was fully submerged in the cool water. The moment seemed to last a lifetime, all of the stress evaporated until all I could feel was his skin, calloused and rough against mine and all I could see was the man mere inches away from me, the one who almost killed me not yet a week ago and all I could think about was how a slight movement, even accidental, and our lips would be touching, just as our hands were. I wondered if he was thinking the same thing, if he wanted me to close the distance as badly as I did, if every bone in his body was pulling towards mine, like mine were to his, like magnets, inevitable, natural. I pulled back, impulsively, before the moment had ended the way I dreamed it would.

"We, ah, we'd better get some rest if we're travelling to the Temple of Avo tomorrow," I stated, as breezily as I could, my shaking voice betraying me. "It, uh, never hurts to be fully rested before a big fight." I stood up, feeling every excruciating second of my hand moving away from his, and began walking, concentrating on not falling over my own feet.

"Of course, your majesty." I heard Ben sigh, before following me back to the tavern.