Mal Meets the Rebel

Chapter 99: No One Likes a Villain

Just when I felt my strength being over powered by his and I thought for sure that it was beginning to lose in this battle of wills, suddenly fuzz of gray fur came flying out of nowhere and landed; that's right, landed as though it was being sucked into Mal's face by a magnet! The next thing I knew, Mal immediately let go of me and started staggering backwards and swore profoundly in his struggle to remove what I know come to realize was Ben, and he was hugging the crap out of Mal's face intensely. It could not tell if Ben was either really excited to see Mal or just trying to defend me because of Mal's very forward actions just now, though judging from the way he was being extra clingy and not biting nor clawing his face, and I can't believe I'm saying this...but looked happy?

"Get. Him. Off!" Mal growled angrily as he accented each word with emphasis at me as he continued and to be honest looked really comical trying to pluck Ben from his face.

Any other time I would have found a situation such as this funny, but right now was not the time for it. So out of panic and worry for Ben's sake that Mal might hurt him, I rushed forward and also tried to help him remove Ben, but I only did it out Ben's safety and no other reason whatsoever or so I told myself. As I placed a foot on Mal's chest and yanked as hard as I could to pull Ben away to end this bizarre display in front of my cell room, I was more than sure by now if anyone else could see us, they would probably be rolling on the ground in a fit of laughter, and I'm pretty positive that as soon as Mal recovered from this ordeal, he'd kill them for it. The more Mal struggled and continued to shifted from side to side on his feet which was making it even more difficult for me to help, the more Ben would cling even tighter to him. It was becoming ridiculous at this point.

Suddenly I remembered something. Ben's snacks!

I had a few in my pocket, as soon as I took a handful out, Ben lifted his head up and sniffed the air in blind search of their scent, and without warning swiftly bounced off of Mal's face and onto my shoulder. He scurried around my arm several times which tickled a lot until he reached his destinated stop which was my hand that was filled with his dried fruit in palm of it.

I looked up from Ben when I saw Mal giving me scowling and clearly not an amused look as he muttered in a low voice that was just barely audible for my ears while drawing closer to me all the same, "Stupid rat!"

I glared up at him and snapped back, "He's not stupid and besides-,"

"And besides what?" Mal popped back cutting me off with aggravation clearly heard in his tone as he loomed over me practically in my breathing space.

I huffed with impatience, but in a more gentle tone looking down at Ben, I remarked meekly, "I-I think he just m-missed you is all!"

"Uh-huh, sure. That's why he was trying to smother me to death just now. Just because he missed me." Mal deadpanned skeptically more as a comment than as a question.

Glancing back up to meet his skeptical face I nervously snapped back, "He was just scared and probably glad to see someone's face he knew! Okay!?"

Mal looked as though he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he tsked with dissatisfaction and strolled past me while unlocking my door and holding it open for me to go through so it did not slam shut and automatically lock itself back into place thanks to Chris's system shutdown at night. I was more than a little thankfully for Ben's rescue seeing as the kiss that Mal so clearly desired was now but forgotten as I dusted what little crumbles away that were left on my fingers from Ben's late night snack and carefully made my way around Mal inside my cell. How I did not fall flat on my butt in our little scuffle to remove Ben from Mal's face earlier with my throbbing foot, I'll never know. It was then as Ben took a dive and fly from shoulder and clambered down my bedpost and onto bed that I was starting to feel uneasy and fearful because of Scott's and his partner's intrusion from earlier, but I had to suck it up and deal with staying this cell alone. I could not let Mal see any of my fears or weaknesses because I knew he would take advantage of them in a heartbeat.