Benny Boi!!!!!!
In this one the reader is dressed as a man in camp to be closer to Ben. Warning Colonel Bradford is an arse. I did get lazy towards the end. I had more drama planed but it didn't work out, so I rushed it a bit. I still hope its good though.
ENJOY! :3
[y/f/n] = Your Full Name-------[y/F/n/] = Your False first Name----- [y/F/L/n]= your false last name, [y/F/F/n] your full false name.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the war began, the revolution, Ben and Caleb quickly went to join the continental army, and you so too wanted to do the same, they said no. Ben especially said no. But you found a way to join a few months later, here today you stand before three men. Dressed up as a man and gave a false name and age, made your age younger to explain the femaleness of your voice and facial features. You used soft make-up to fake a false four-o'clock shadow.
The captain looked you up and down, "Your a small scrawny fellow, but you can fight, read, and write..." he took a big sigh, "Welcome to the continental army, [y/F/F/n]." he gave you a small paper, it had your name and rank, private, and where to go, Valley Forge. "Be here tomorrow morning, we are all going to Valley Forge as soon as the sun begins to rise." the Captain grumbled.
You couldn't sleep all night, you just sat at the writing desk that sat at the window and looked out at the nights sky. You felt a slight rise of anxiety, you were now a soldier. A rebel. In a war. You saw the tip of the sun begin to show on the horizon and made your way down the stairs and outside to meet up with the others.
You road out with the others and after a few days arrived in camp. You were all greeted by a man, a Colonel. He introduced himself as Colonel Bradford. He met your eye and looked at you for a short while then looked away, you got scared that he figured out you were a woman. He then left as someone else came to escort you all to your tents and provide some form of a uniform. You figured he was just making normal eye contact and pushed it aside.
You wanted to find Ben but now liked where you were. You did your part, you fought hard and soon began getting promoted. Soon enough you became an Ensign at the side of General Horatio Gates. He called you to his tent to discuss battle formation, when you walked into the tent you came face to face with Ben and Caleb who recognized you right away. Bens stance shifted, you could tell he was bothered, Caleb looked more impressed if anything.
Once the planning was ended you quickly tried to leave the tent but Ben and Caleb rushed out the tent after you. You tried to casually speed walk away, be discreet. They didn't care, they quickly ran after you. Ben grabbed your shoulder and spun you around. "What are you doing?"
"I think she's trying to be a soldier." Caleb answered. "I am a soldier." you shot back, standing tall and proud, happy of your hard work. "You can be killed." Ben said, angerly pointing his finger to the ground at the word killed.
"I can be killed back home. If I am to die, it will not be in the crossfire of some battle at or near home, I want to die fighting for what I believe in. Like you...don't you?" There was a silence between the three of you, you shifted your stance and crossed your arms, you looked down at the ground and moved some of the dirt and mud under your feet. "I'm sorry." you looked back up to face Ben and Caleb. "But, I am staying here and I am going to fight. Good day you guys." You said solemnly, turning and walking away form them and towards your tent.
Caleb quickly adjusted to you being in the army, it took Ben a long while but eventually he came around. It was clear he was still uncomfortable and upset, but he would rather be next to you at all times than not at all. He tried recruiting you into his dragoons but instead you were put into your own group of platoons. Ben told you about Bradford and how they hadn't gotten along and that he wanted you away from him. That Bradford has a keen eye and would surely take you away form Ben to hurt him, that Bradford saw how often you hung out with Ben and Caleb. You told Ben not to worry, that everything would be fine.
One night Ben asked if he could come into your tent. You let him and the two of you had a long talk. Eventually you both came to realized how much you really liked each other, and much more than friends. For the past week and a half you and Ben were having a secret relationship, even shared a kiss after he almost got shot one day, made the both of you realize either one of you could die any day.
Ben was summoned to a meeting that you were excluded from. Ben said he would try to see you as soon as it was over. So you happily waited inside your tent, writing a letter for Caleb to bring back home to Anna next time he was to sail to Setauket.
You set your quill aside and took out your hair from its low hanging ponytail to let it hang loose for a short while, rest. You slouched back in your chair and looked up at the top of your tent and crossed your arms taking in a deep sigh and began to think. Wondering when the meeting would end. Wondering when Ben would walk in.
"Ensign [y/F/n]?" a voice said, you quickly sat up straight and looked at who the voice belong to, a man, "Colonel Bradford?"
"Yes, I have a question to ask you," He closed the tent flap behind him as he got closer but still a good distance away from yourself. "General Lee was wondering if you wanted to join in with us, Major Tallmadge and his Dragoons are going to be serving under my command and you are close to him, might help to have you there during the battle-"
You cut him off, you needed him to leave before he realized you were a female, your hair was down, clean face, thin shirt, you tried slouching to hide your boobs. "If Tallmadge is serving under you, I will too. You are excused from my tent."
His eyebrow raised. He looked you up and down and you realized that you didn't tie the string of your upper shirt and so looking at a downward angel he could see part of your chest. You began to panic, began to sweat, play it off, "You can leave my tent now."
He just stared at you, he looked at you with that look in his eye that you had seen before back home, the lustful look in a mans eye when he looked at you. "You. Can. Leave. My tent. Please." your voice was shaking.
"It appears I have discovered a little secret." he said confidently.
"Please keep it. No one can know." you said in a panic.
"Does Tallmadge know you are really a woman?" Bradford asked taking a step closer towards you. You had to lie, if you said yes Bradford might use you against Ben. "No. He doesn't."
"Hmph...Interesting."
You didn't like the way he said that word. He got closer to you and grabbed some of your hair and twirled it between his fingers. He let go of your hair and left your tent. You sighed aloud in relief, your legs got week and you remained in your chair. Would Bradford keep your secret? How would he act around you? Was he interested? The idea scared you, you got so scared he would come back to your tent.
Ben entered your tent and looked at you. "Was that Bradford?"
"Yes, it was. Asked if I would serve under him, because you were."
"What did you say?"
"Yes, only because you are, I know you don't like him, so...what are your thinking in that big college brain of yours?"
"Washington gave Lee half the army, and I am suspicious and worried about-"
"Say no more. I got your back, I will be close to you the entire time, I'll be watching." you say cutting Ben off. Ben sat next to you. "I tried to come as soon as I could."
"I know." you rest your head on his shoulder, you debated telling Ben, especially debated telling Caleb about what happened. You bit your finger nails thinking about it. Ben took notice of your nervous finger biting. "What's wrong?"
"Oh nothing. Just, the normal worries. About the battle. Winning..." you said, as it slowly began to go into a whisper. Ben turned his head to kiss the top of yours. "Everything will be okay. I have to go now."
"Okay." you whisper, giving Ben a quick kiss on the cheek before he left your tent. You couldn't sleep that night. The fact that Bradford now knew your secret bothered you to your core, especially that look he had in his eyes.
The following morning you met up with Ben to discuss where you were going to be in the fight. He assured you that you would be right next to him, just like always. His dragoons to his right, and your platoon to your left. He smiled at you and then walked away to talk to someone else who was asking for him. Bradford came up behind you and brushed his finger across your back as he walked past. You stood frozen, he turned back slightly to look at your reaction, he smiled and continued on his way. You were definitely scared, had a sort of sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Later on at a meeting to discuss the battle more Bradford made sure to be standing right next to you, Ben was across from you on the other side of the table, Bradford made sure to graze your hand, almost making sure Ben saw. Ben did indeed see this action. When he saw that, he shifted his standing, it was clear Ben was uncomfortable, angry, trying to control himself. Bradford was clearly testing the waters and seeing if you lied about Ben knowing if you were a woman or not. At the end Ben was the first one to leave, you tried to leave but Bradford grabbed your arm and pulled you close, no one else saw this as they began to leave the tent.
"Tallmadge, he knows your little secret."
"He must have figured that on his own then." You tried shaking your arm to remove his grip, his grip tightened. He then used his free hand to grab your other arm and turn you to face him. "I often wondered why you were always staring at me." you looked at him with anger and disgust, what could he have seen in your eyes other than that? Anger and disgust?
"Its just us, you don't have to have that longing look in your eyes." He loosened your hair, he grabbed some and began spinning some of it between his fingers once again. "I am here, you don't have to play pretend." You had enough. "Look. I never had THAT look in my eyes, I only stared because I don't like you now let go of m-" he lifted you up and placed you on the table, moving the map off. He ripped your cravat off from your neck and kissed your neck hard. You opened your mouth to scream but nothing came out. He kissed harder, giving you enough fear and anger to quickly pushed him off of you.
He just smiled. You quickly grabbed your cravat and fixed your hair as you left the tent and bumped into Ben, Ben said something but you couldn't hear him, you just kept walking away. You just wanted to get to your tent, maybe have some feeling of feeling safe.
You got to your tent and closed the tent flap behind you and sat on your bed. After sitting for a few minutes you gathered up enough courage to look in a mirror, you see he had left a bruise where he had assaulted your neck with his lips. "[y/n]?" It was Ben. "Can I come in?"
"Yuh-yeah." you quickly tie the cravat back around your neck and fix your shirt, Ben enters your tent. "What happened?"
"What do you mean?" You made the choice to keep this to yourself for now, the upcoming battle was far to important, afterwards you could then tell Ben and fuck up Bradford. "Something happened in there, I called to you and you ran from me. Did I say or do something to upset you?"
"Oh, no, you didn't, you could never do or say anything to upset me. I have just been stressed recently."
"Well, if you need to talk, I am always here, you know that, right [y/n]?"
"Yeah, I know." you hug him, "Thank you, truly, Ben." you pull away from the hug. Ben then left your tent.
Ben walked back and forth, he knew you were hiding something, and that Bradford was the problem. He worried Bradford was or had figuring out who you really were. Testing his theory by caressing your hand. Seeing how he would react. Ben had to talk to Bradford.
"Bradford!" Ben called out, he approached the man and planned what to say. "Me and my dragoons are great fighters, do we really need [y/F/n]? I mean, they are a great soldier but my men and I are enough."
"While that is true Tallmadge, it wasn't my choice but General Lee's. If you have issue take it up with him." Bradford tried to walk away from Ben. Ben angerly curled his lip and cut in front of Bradford.
Ben could feel himself getting protective of you, sort of jealous. "Then, can [y/F/n] serve next to myself, in the meeting you said they would be next to you during the fight, I think they are better at my side. Sir." Ben said adding a splice of attitude and slight anger to Sir. "I am sorry Tallmadge, but she will be next to me at my side weather you like it or not." Bradford said as he passed Ben and rudely bumped Bens arm and shoulder. Ben scoffed. Ben was now worried about what happened, and was going to break Bradford's face once the fight was over.
You bit your finger nails and really wanted to tell Ben what Bradford did. The fight was tomorrow, once the fight was over you could tell Ben and be rid of that man forever.
You woke up and got ready, as you left your tent you met eyes with Bradford, he grinned evilly. "Here is your horse, you ride next to me." Ben was not far and heard, you could see Ben get angry. You never saw a look like that on Ben's face before. Does he know? "Thank you." you grumbled and got onto the horse, you all road off to battle, the battle of Monmouth.
You and Ben exchanged looks. You hated the fact you were on a horse next to Bradford and not next to Ben. It was soon clear it was a trap, that Ben and his men would fall. But Ben held out, Bradford and Lee began to call retreat, Ben refused. Bradford then led all the men away, Ben stood up and confronted Lee and Bradford. Bradford and Lee threatened to hang Ben as a deserter. You got scared, when, hope. Washington came with his men.
You road next to Ben. Killing men side by side, you got stabbed in you lower leg by a red coat on the ground. You grabbed your cravat and tied in around your leg injury. In the heat of battle you forgot about the bruise left on you neck that Ben was now able to see. You just kept charging on with your men. At the end of the victorious battle. You found Ben and began to walk up to him.
He hesitated grabbing you, to hug you. He just pointed to your neck. Your jaw sank and stomach rose, you forgot it was still there. "Ben..." was all you could say. Men were cheering loudly around you. "He just...attacked me..."
"You didn't tell me?"
"I was afraid you would be worried."
"What else happened?"
"Nothing else, I promise."
"He is a dead man." Ben said angerly as he rushed past you. Caleb came up to you. "What'uh? Why's he mad at yah? We won."
"He isn't mad at me. It's Bradford." you had to tell Caleb, and so you did. He popped his knuckles, he was ready to fight and charged off to find Ben and beat up that Bradford. Not to long later Ben and Caleb got a letter from Abe about a plot in camp to assonate General Washington. Ben and Caleb got Bradford and beat him up in front of you. After it was all said and done, they were able to find out that Bradford and Sergeant Thomas Hickey were the assassinators, and they were hung. Not for an assassination attempt but for mutiny, sedition, and treachery.
You were happy he was gone, that your secret went down with him. Ben kept you close at almost all times now. If he wasn't around you he tried to make sure Caleb was nearby. You questioned leaving the army. You didn't end up doing that. Ben apologized for being over protective for a while, you told him you understood why. Ben in his mind feared that Bradford did much more than kiss your neck, but you assured him it was just the kiss on the neck. Ben and you became a great team on the battle field. You both impressed Washington a lot.
You both made it to the battle of Yorktown. You were both happy to find you lived to the end of the war. You returned to Setauket and were quickly married. You later on both moved to Connecticut were you both lived out the rest of your days.
------------------------------------------------------
Again, sorry I rushed the ending a bit there. But I promise I will have much better chapters coming. I hope you all have a great day!