Ben woke up suddenly when a blaring sound rang out around him. He sleepily curled in on himself as he smacked his hands over his ears. The sound rang out till the ground beneath him shifted and he found himself tumbling down before he hit a soft surface. He groaned as he forced himself to wake up while he quickly rubbed away the tiredness in his eyes to replace that with panic. When he opened his eyes at first he wasn't sure what he was looking at. It was what looked to be a sea of fabric surrounding him with a shadow overcast. He moved himself further into the cloth out of instinct as the thing above him shifted once more, letting the early morning light to blind him for a moment. Ben was about to jump to his feet and try to make a run for it, until he finally filled in the gaps of his memory. He allowed himself to examine the cloth he had hidden in a bit more, now realizing it wasn't just some cloth, it was a sheet. A bed sheet to be more specific. Ben couldn't tell if he was relieved by this information or not. On one hand he knew where he was now, still in Evans room, but on the other hand that meant he hadn't left last night. Ben had accidentally fallen asleep while he and Evan were hanging out the night before. His face grew hot as he buried himself deeper into the sheet.
Evan on the other hand hadn't noticed anything wrong until he'd pressed snooze on his alarm. He was about to lay back down to get a little extra sleep before he had to get up,until he remembered how his guest hadn't gone home last night. He remembered them watching the show after about 5 episodes before he'd asked Ben if he was hungry, only to notice that the little guy had fallen asleep. It was late and Evan knew he should've been in bed anyways since he had a class in the morning. He'd carefully moved Ben to a pillow so he could continue to rest while Evan got ready for bed, but once he returned and Ben was still asleep he just couldn't bring himself to wake him. Evan had ended up moving Ben so that he would be lying on his chest as Evans hands rested over him. Evan looked at his lap to see if Ben was still on the bed. His voice was a bit horse as he spoke, though it often was in the mornings. "Ben? Hey, you still here buddy?" Evan asked softly not to move more than he had to in case Ben was still on the bed somewhere. When he got no response he'd assumed that Ben had gone home sometime during the night like the first time he'd been there. Still Even waited a little before the snooze on his phone went off once more, letting him know that it was time to get up. So, reluctantly Evan forced himself to get out of bed so he could get ready for the day ahead.
When Ben had heard Evan he knew he should have responded, yet the embarrassment he felt got the better of him as he stayed still hoping Evan would just leave and he could pretend this never happened. As he carefully maneuvered himself further away from Evan he felt the bed shift as the human got up off the bead. He could feel the mattress shift underneath him as Evan got off and made his way out of the room. Ben wasn't sure when he'd be back, but he did know that he hadn't heard the door close shut. WIth a sigh he decided the best option was to just hide behind a pillow. The problem was when Evan got off the bed he'd also rearranged the blankets, now no matter where Ben looked he was trapped under what felt like an endless sea of blankets. It didn't seem like a big deal at first, but after a little he began to grow worried of falling off the edge of the bed, and not only that he began to hyperventilate. He kept pushing the blankets out of his face only for them to fall back into place.. It was dark besides the light slightly coming through the cloth. He continued trying to find a way out of the mess before he'd heard someone walk back into the room. He paused, unsure what to do. There was no way for him to know if it was Evan or the other human, but on the other hand he had no idea how he was supposed to get out of here without Evans help unless he wanted it to take forever. Turns out, he didn't have to make the decision at all before suddenly he was fiercely hauled backwards as the blankets over him were stripped away and he was forced to grab hold of the only thing around him. He held a white knuckle grip on the skeets. He willed himself not to scream as he bit the inside of his cheeks. He closed his eyes as he hugged himself tighter to the sheets. He continued holding on as the sheets were shaken this way until he finally his grip on the sheets slipped and he found himself plummeting down to the mattress below. He tumbled further for a few seconds before his body finally came to a stop. Ben quickly looked around frantically to see what had caused all the commotion for him. Ben saw an immense shadow behind him, Turning around he followed up the colossal form of Evan staring back at him with a face full of confusion, then shock, and funnily a look of worry as his mind processed what he was seeing. Once the two eyes locked Ben scrambled back. He could see how Evan's face changed when he did so, he just couldn't help it. Ben gulped as he stared back at Evan, anxiously waiting for something to happen.
When evan had walked back into his room he hadn't been expecting to see Ben any time soon. He'd just been going about his morning like normal, he'd gone to wake up Andrew, whose door was locked this morning for some reason. He paid it no mind as he went back to his room, before doing anything else he went to straighten up his bed. The only problem with that was once he'd picked up his blankets to straighten them out something felt a bit off. He hadn't thought anything of it until he'd heard a small sound from his mattress. Once he took the time to look he almost dropped the blankets back onto him. Ben was sitting on his mattress staring up at him with fear on his face. It almost looked the same as when he first met him. His heart sank when he watched how Ben cowered away from him. He'd reach out a hand only for Ben to flinch back, keeping a trained eye on Evan's hands the whole time. Evan was quiet for a moment as he took in Ben's small form. He slowly knelt down on the ground, noticing how even then Ben's small body tensed in response to his movements. His eyes softened as he saw how Ben still was frightened, he could understand why of course, but still it was heart-wrenching to come to terms with. Evan knew he was the reason for Ben's fear, it was obvious. He just wanted to let him know he was safe. "Hey.." Evan said softly. He was going to reach out a hand to try to comfort his friend, but he decided against it. Now probably wouldn't be the best time for that.With an air of calmness around him he backed away from the bed to give Ben a little more space. "..It's ok" He said, his tone not more than a whisper. He waited to see if Ben would respond, though he didn't , he only continued to stare.It was worrying how the usually energetic and talkative little guy was not stunned and staring at him in silence and he couldn't help but feel awful for being the one to have caused it. "Ben please..."
Ben couldn't speak, he didn't know why he just couldn't. He was frozen and he didn't know why. He wanted to tell Evan he was fine, but his body betrayed him as it refused to let him. He could tell Evan was worried, Evan wasn't very good at hiding that in general anyways. So he just sat there, staring blankly only ever so often attempting to speak but with each attempt falling short whenever he tried to open his mouth.
"Please just say something. Are you hurt? What even happened?" He asked. He was sure that Ben had left during the night. Why else would he have not said anything when the alarm went off? But if that was the case then why had he been on his bed to begin with? Evan supposed he could have just stopped by to say good morning, but it was early and he hadn't actually seen him on the bed. Plus he'd left the door wide open. Knowing Ben was a 'risk taker' it wasn't hard for him to imagine him hiding somewhere even while the door was open, but that would've been on the desk. At least that's where Ben tended to pop up the most when he wanted to talk. "I'm sorry I-" before Evan could get the words out there was a sudden knock on his door. Evan acted on pure instinct when he heard the turning of a doorknob behind him. His hand shot out for Ben who had jumped up and begun to bolt. Evan felt guilty for having to grab Ben like that but there wasn't anything else he could think to doAndrew walked into the room. Evan had to quickly shove Ben under the blankets before Andrew could get through the door.
Andrew walked into the door to see Evan frantically shand up from kneeling down by the bed.. "Morning Andrew" Evan said as he made a quick few steps over to Andrew.
"Um...Hey Evan, watcha up too?" Andrew watched as he looked at Evan's bed. It was like he was hiding something. "You ok?" He asked.
Evan quickly nodded "Yep!" Evan said loudly. "I'm fine. Totally fine" He said as he tried to keep his eyes away from the bed to avoid any more suspicion than there already was. "So what do you need?" He asked quickly. "I was kinda trying to get to class early, I need to talk to someone" He said, trying to think up something on the spot so Andrew would leave him alone faster.
Andrew didn't say anything for a moment.; He looked to Evan, then the bed once more deciding it was better to just let it go. "Well I was just gonna ask what time you think you'll be home today, I wanna know If I should make dinner or if you wanted to pick something up"
Evan let out a sigh, "Oh, I don't really care either way."
Andrew nodded. "Ok, sounds good." He paused. "I'll get out of your hair then". He said before walking out of the room, turning to look at the bed one last time, then to Evan as if to say 'You want to tell me something?' only to retreat back to his room to get ready himself.
Evan let out a sigh of relief as he shut the door, locking it this time. He made his way to the bed slowly, mostly from shame and embarrassment. He'd scared Ben then accidentally almost got him seen by Andrew. It wasn't really his fault, and he was sure Andrew wouldn't hurt Ben, but that didn't matter. Ben was very clear about not wanting to be found by anyone else. He took a deep breath before lifting the blanket off the bed. He seet Ben looking up at him with shock for a moment, then relief. "Ben, I'm so sorry." He spoke quickly. "I swear I didn't know you were here. I-I never would have left the door unlocked if I knew you'd be out in the open. A-and I'm sorry I grabbed you, I just panicked and-"
"Hey, Hey.' Ben said with a small smile. "It's alright, dont worry about it." He said as he stood up. "It was my fault anyways..I was just.. well I don't really know what I was. I guess I just panicked." He admitted. "But it wasn't your fault!" He quickly added. "Just got spooked and I wasn't really fully awake yet... and I..." He paused, debating in his head whether or not too to admit the real reason he had been acting so strange. He worked up some nerve as he looked away to Evan and took a deep breath. "I was embarrassed to talk to you."
"Embarrassed?" Evan repeated. "Why were you embarrassed?"
Ben paused as he tried to think of a good way to put it. "Well.. when you woke up I kinda fell off you and well... I was embarrassed that I fell asleep on you last night and I was hoping I could just sneak away and act like I left in the middle of the night. Then you left and I... couldn't find my way off the bed cuz' then you came back and I wasn't expecting you to grab the blankets so when you did and they started to move I just grabbed onto them and then I fell and then you were right there and I was still embarrassed and I couldn't walk to you. I wanted to, I really did! I just couldn't get myself to talk to you." He rambled on quickly trying to explain as fast as possible.
Evan looked at Ben, not really knowing what to say for the moment. He was half expecting him to be mad and him, the other half was expecting him not to talk to him at all. "Why would you be embarrassed about staying the night?"
"Well.. It's just." Ben paused. Unsure if he should say what he was about to. "That means I fell asleep on you" He admitted as his face flushed a deep pink.
Eann laughed a bit. "You think that's something to be embarrassed about?"
Ben got a bit deflated as he nodded.
Evan stopped laughing as he looked to BEn who suddenly looked really embarrassed. "I didn't mean it like that!" He corrected quickly yet quietly. "oh I just meant I've done much worse stuff than just falling asleep on someone" He smiled. "If that's something you get this embarrassed about you're lucky, most people do like four cringe things a day, at least when they look back on it that is. It's actually pretty common, '' he said. Then he realized why Ben must have gotten so embarrassed in the first place. Ben didn't have much interaction with people in general, that meant he probably didn't know what would be considered rude or out of place besides what he managed to get from a limited time spent around humans from a distance."Plus its not like there was anything else for you to fall asleep on" He joked since Ben made a mount sto sit either against Evans forearm or by his shoulder since he was worried about Andrew walking in, even though he'd told him the door was locked he still had insisted it would be safer for him to do so.
Ben looked at him for a moment as his eyebrows raised a little curiously. He'd thought falling asleep on someone was considered to be something only for close friends or couples. At least that's what he'd seen from watching the human shows once in a while growing up. Then again Evan could have no way of knowing how Ben thought of him so he had no reason to think of it as anything more than a throwaway gesture.
When Ben didn't respond he got nervous that he was going back to the 'silent treatment'. "Really, Ben, It's a pretty usual thing to do." He tried to assure him.
Ben looked down at his feet as he tried to find something to say.
The short silence in the room was soon broken by Evan, "You want some breakfast?" He asked.
Ben shrugged. "I could eat, ut dont you normally eat on the way?" Ben asked.
Evan looked at him for a moment. "Well.. I mean yeah" He said with a small laugh. "How come you know that?"
"I have too. If I don't know when you leave I won't know when it's safe for me to get food, and since you always take your breakfast with you it's something for me to take note of."
Evan nodded. "I guess that makes sense, so, what do you want?" he asked.
Ben shrugged again. "I don't really mind one way or the other, whatever you were going to have is fine"
Evan looked to his door then back to Ben. "Well I kinda told Andrew that I was gonna leave early, so if I don't he might think somethin's up.'' He paused. "So I was thinking of just stopping somewhere on my way to class. But I can get you something from the kitchen before I go." He said as his hand found its way to the back of his neck with a flange back at Ben and right back to the door.
Ben was a bit dejected but didnt let it get him down before he got an idea. "Where were you thinking about going?" He asked, hoping to get a smooth transition into his newest idea.
"I don't know. Probably just some junk from Dunkin." He said as he waved off the question..
"Who's Duncan?" Ben asked as he looked at Evan in confusion. Could he be one of Evans' other friends? But then why would he ask for Duncan's food If he had food here already to take.
Evan laughed a bit. 'No not Duncan, Dunkin." He corrected "It's a doughnut place."
Ben looked at him with a blank face for a moment. "I think I know what those are but I don't really know.
"It's basically cake for breakfast except people dont judge you for eating it." Evan let out a chuckle.
Ben nodded. "Well I haven't really had cake yet either, but you humans seem to like it."
Evan nodded. 'So do you need me to take you anywhere, I don't mean to be rude but I gotta get ready"
"No, no I'm fine." Ben paused. When Evan nodded and stood up to walk away he panicked and called out . "But I did have a question."
Evan looked at Ben before he turned around fully. "Yeah? What's up?"
Ben shifted as he grabbed his shirt, only now realizing he must have looked pretty shabby from sleeping in his clothes.. And also taking a tumble first thing in the morning. "I was wondering if it'd be ok if.." He stopped. 'God am I really gonna ask him?' he thought to himself. 'Was he really that desperate to hang out with Evan that he'd ask to go to the human 'classes' as Evan called them? But it wasn't like he had all the time in the world to spend with Evan. Ben knew that as soon as Kris got back home he'd have to stop seeing Evan. Pretend that the whole thing never happened and somehow get Evan to not search for him. He'd been working on what he'd tell evan..but he didn't really want to. He'd probably end up telling him that he had to move homes, though at the moment he couldn't think of a reason that Evan would believe. That wasn't for more than a few days though so he had time to think on it, "Can I go with you?" He finally asked.
Evan stared at Ben with a bit of shock, he had been expecting many things. For him to ask for food, or something along the lines of making sure to leave something out for him, not asking if he could come. "Look.." He said. "I don't want to be mean..but the college campus is a whole different rodeo than a store with barely any people in it." He sighed. "It's not really a place for someone like you to be and I'll be worrying about you all day. Plus, what if someone sees you? It'll be packed with people you know?" but that was the thing, Ben probably didn't know. He had to get the point across to make sure he knew just how dangerous that would be for him.
"I know that, but I promise to stay hidden!" He pleaded. "You won't even know I'm there." He assured.
"Yeah, but that's just the problem. There are gonna be so many people and it's not really anything to do with you, I know you're good at hiding and stuff but you don't know what could happen, and I can't just keep you on my shoulder all day, someone's bound to see since I'm practically sitting shoulder to shoulder to people in every class.."
Ben gulped. Evan was making this sound really bad, his nerves were beginning to get the best of him. He shook them away however, he was determined to get Evan to take him. "It couldn't hurt to just try, and I don't have to sit on your shoulder!" he insisted. "You carry that bag all the time, I could just sit in there, or if you're worried about not knowing where I am I I could sit in your pocket!"
"Ben.." Evan said as he stared out the window. "I get that going outside for the first time must have been fun, I mean hell you'd never even been outside before of course that would be exciting for you! It's just not safe. I don't want you getting hurt over something tupid." Evan admitted.
Ben looked back at Evan, taken aback with a look of shock on his face.
Evan stayed quiet as he looked at Ben. He carefully examined his face, seeing hurt in his eyes, but still not really fully understanding why.He wanted to say something, to tell him he meant nothing by it, at least not personally. He just wanted him to know that he was only telling him this to protect him. Though, he meant what he'd said.
Ben and Evan looked at each other for a little before Ben spoke. "It's not stupid to me" he spoke in a soft voice while he kept his eyes on his shoes, afraid to see Evans reaction.
Evan let out a sigh. "I didn't mean it like that.." He paused. "I just meant that its stupid for you to get hurt over something that could be avoiuded."
"But I won't get hurt. Evan, I know you're worried but I know how to keep hidden. I wouldn't have asked to go if I thought I'd get hurt." he said, looking back to meet Evan's eyes.
He cringed a bit as he met Ben's eyes. WHo was Evan oto keep him from seeing the world? But.. he really didn't want to be responsible for Ben getting hurt or god forbid lost at the college campus where it would be swarming with people. He debated in his head what the best course of action was. He knew the best decision logically was to just keep being here, but a logical answer wasn't always the best. STanding up abruptly Evan kept his eyes on Ben, seeing how he deflated a bit seeing that Evan didn't respond. He turned away towards the door before he spoke. "If you really want to go I'll take you. I'll be back in 20 so unless you change your mind weir for me behind the sketchbooks on the desk like last time" He only look a short glance over his shoulder, but when he saw how ben's face had lit up he knew he'd made the right decision. He walked out, closing the door behind him as he went to get ready for the day.